Real Estate 101: Are you an Undercover Real Estate Investor?

Do you call yourself a real estate investor? Do you own residential properties as well as commercial spaces in multitudes? Are you still not getting calls from interested sellers or managing to move your properties? Then it is quite a possibility that you are an undercover real estate investor! There is no point calling yourself a real estate investor in the true sense of the term if you aren’t really investing in properties as well as you should or aren’t making use of the investment properties in question. There’s little point sitting on a goldmine of land or residential and commercial space when it is not leading to fruition in some way, for example owning prime commercial properties in bkc and other such bustling high demand areas and not knowing what to do with it.

The difference between a successful real estate investor and unsuccessful one, is unfortunately a costly line to not be on the right side of. Some things to consider –

• Firstly if you are just beginning to dabble in the market and want to make a go of it, learn about the different kinds of options for you. A savvy investor knows the kinds of real estate he wants to deal in, how to go about it and whether it is a long or short term investment. One popular option is to purchase rental properties, wherein a person buys a residential or commercial space and then rents it out to tenant for a stipulated amount of time.

• You as the owner will have to take care of maintenance costs, your loan or mortgage, taxes on the property and the like. Some investors simply purchase properties in order to sell them again. When they do so for just a short amount of time like a few months and then quickly re-sell it for a profit, it is known as flipping the property. A lot of the real estate investors fall in the category of those choosing to rent their property for a long period of time and then eventually selling.  Whatever path you head on your basic goal should be to sell for more than what you bought the property for, adding in the other extra maintenance, repair and renovation costs.

• If you do own residential or commercial real estate and have been wanting to sell for a while, it may be time to re-examine your communication strategy. Any successful investor knows that you have to be out there spreading the word through appropriate channels in order to get more interested parties looking to buy. One such way is advertising. You have to keep taking out classified ads in different avenues like online real estate websites, periodicals, local papers and the like. You have to be seen to be considered. Another would be to print business cards that give your contact information so that people interested in doing a little real estate investing of their own can contact you.

• If you have a little expertise, try to do as much as you can yourself, without using agents and middlemen. Agent fees, lawyer fees and and more, can add up to a pretty packet and eat into your profit. But if you are starting out without leads and need the help remember paying an agent’s commission may be better than paying a loan for an extended period of time or even a double mortgage if you are living elsewhere.

• Market research goes a long way. Before buying find out what the trends are and have been for a property of that sort in the area and what the general rental rates are. Talk to different banks about the varying loan options and repayment interest rates. When selling price your property in accordance with the surrounding price trend so as to not scare away potential buyers.

Bio – Joel D’Souza is a real estate investor in Mumbai. He has flipped many residential properties in the various Mumbai suburbs, in the past decade of his career and has worked with commercial properties in bkc as well. When not at work you will often find him at real estate fairs scoping out the market.

 

Tags: investing in property, investment real estate, property investing, real estate business, real estate investors

Category: Real Estate