Avoid Top 10 Mistakes Made By Real Estate Investors

From real estate investment is perhaps one of the most lucrative forms of investment today. But it is equally risk especially when one is not well with the trends and nuances of the real estate market. So if you are contemplating on investing in real estate, it is better to avoid costly mistakes in property investment especially when you invest your hard-earned money in it. Knowing the most common errors committed by investors allows a property to avoid such mistakes in the future and ensure a good return on investment.

Here are the top ten mistakes made by property investors, according to bankrate.com. Bankrate brought together ten errors after speaking to establish full-time real estate investors and other professionals involved in real estate such as investment bankers. Read more to know them and avoid them.

1. Not planning ahead. The absence of an actual plan is the biggest mistake made by new investors. Find a house after a good investment strategy is the right way instead of looking for a house to adapt the plan. Many make the mistake of buying a house, because it seems to be a good business and trying to see how they can adapt to their plan. Instead of buying a house and think a plan may in due course, investors should instead focus on the number and try to make offers on multiple properties. This will ensure good property that not only is their model of investment, but also works well with the figures they had planned.

2. To believe that you can make money quickly. The second major mistake that real estate investors make is to think it is very easy to get rich in real estate. This is only a myth and the reality is that investment in real estate is a long-term project.

3. Doing it alone. To become a successful real estate investor needs to build a team of professionals who assist an investor in its deals. This would ideally include a real estate agent, an appraiser, a home inspector, a lawyer closing and a lender.

4. To overpayment. Another reason that investors in real estate Goof in their investment by paying too much for goods they purchase. Paying too and locking of all funds in dealing with property erred you leave no money to buy you.

5. Leaving aside the ground. Do not do your homework could be a costly mistake if you were a real estate investor. Each area needs amount of homework to do, and real estate investment is no exception. Learn the basic principles and then to invest in properties.

6. Lancer caution to the winds. Investors have to exercise a degree of caution and take seriously the efforts while making an offer. New investors often fail in this regard and sign an agreement without making the necessary research on the property.

7. Miscalculating cash flow. Investors whose strategy is to acquire, hold and rental properties need to ensure sufficient cash flow for maintenance. Property Managers could be costly and the owner must incur more expenses such as mortgage, taxes, insurance, advertising costs and so investors should allocate their budget so that all these costs are covered, or end up having their assets become a liability.

8. Reducing the volume. A greater volume of transactions or transactions helps to increase profits by reducing the impacts of marginal trafficking.

9. Staying stuck in your own business. Having more number of options at hand for the good that you purchase is a wise strategy. This allows one to be based on fluctuations in the property market. Plans to rent the house could go awry when the rental market collapses. Having alternative plans helps reduce losses and to fight against unexpected situations.

10. Estimates of erroneous decisions. People who plan to rehabilitate their homes need to check whether they will still reap the benefits twice the time they had planned. This ensures that they are not miscalculate and lose money on the transaction.

Real estate appraisal – is that the real one?

Real estate appraisal or property valuation is the process of determining the value of the property on the basis of the highest and the best use of real property (which basically translates into determining the fair market value of the property). The person who performs this real estate appraisal exercise is called the real estate appraiser or property valuation surveyor. The value as determined by real estate appraisal is the fair market value. The real estate appraisal is done using various methods and the real estate appraisal values the property as different for difference purposes e.g. the real estate appraisal might assign 2 different values to the same property (Improved value and vacant value) and again the same/similar property might be assigned different values in a residential zone and a commercial zone.

However, the value assigned as a result of real estate appraisal might not be the value that a real estate investor would consider when evaluating the property for investment. In fact, a real estate investor might completely ignore the value that comes out of real estate appraisal process.

A good real estate investor would evaluate the property on the basis of the developments going on in the region. So real estate appraisal as done by a real estate investor would come up with the value that the real estate investor can get out of the property by buying it at a low price and selling it at a much higher price (as in the present). Similarly, real estate investor could do his own real estate appraisal for the expected value of the property in, say 2 years time or in 5 years time. Again, a real estate investor might conduct his real estate appraisal based on what value he/she can create by investing some amount of money in the property i.e. a real estate investor might decide on buying a dirty/scary kind of property (which no one likes) and get some minor repairs, painting etc done in order to increase the value of the property (the value that the real estate investor would get by selling it in the market). So, here the meaning of real estate appraisal changes completely (and can be very different from the value that real estate appraiser would come out with if the real estate appraiser conducted a real estate appraisal exercise on the property).

A real estate investor will generally base his investment decision on this real estate appraisal that he does by himself (or gets done through someone). So, can we then term real estate appraisal as a really real ‘real estate appraisal’?