Common Investor Mistakes

They don't know how much to spend or what to buy. They don't know if they want to purchase a condo, home, four-plex or a strip mall. A lifetime could be spent looking for opportunities in Vegas. Smart investors read my site and chat with me weeks before arriving. Driving around in the Las Vegas heat looking at real estate without a plan is a massive waste of time.

30% of these properties are not available to purchase. They either have a contract pending, are in the middle of a short sale or require the buyer to be qualified by the bank that owns it. Successful investors provide me their list the day before we meet so I can explain to them why certain properties are a waste of time. As a member of the Great Realtor Conspiracy, I know for a fact that non-agents only see a fraction of the critical information.

They want to spend $100k so they can live in Vegas for a month. After they have driven around in the heat for a couple hours they realize that it's foolish to spend $100k for a 2 bedroom condo when they cold have purchased a rental home and had their tenants subsidize their vacation for a month at the Bellagio. Net income on a 3 bedroom $100k suburban home is $12k/year. Net income on a 2 bedroom condo that sits empty for 11 months = $0. Wealth lesson? Priceless.

The days of easy credit are over and nearly 3 out of 4 investors are shocked to find out that they no longer qualify for a loan on an investment property. They thought that since they had awesome credit and few thousand dollars under the mattress, they could play Donald Trump. They spend all day looking at investments they can't have. Driving around in the heat without an approval letter is a massive waste of your time. Paying cash? Prove it. Banks won't look at your offer without proof of funds or an approval letter.

Many investors don't know that some banks won't look at an offer unless they are approved by the bank that owns the house. An investor could have a billion dollar line of credit from Bank of America and Country Wide won't even look at the offer. Every week, some investor storms off after learning this little bitty tiny fact. This is similar to finishing a meal in a nice restaurant with a black American Express card and discover Master Card is the only card accepted. Smart investors ask first before they sit down.

I spend 20 hours a week combing through properties and posting the cream on my site. During the week, 20% of the properties that I combed through will get purchased. When I go out in the field, I'm showing an investor "the cream of the cream." Of the 40 properties I actually tour each week, 10 of them get purchased. Many investors are stunned to discover that their favorite property was purchased by the time they got back home.

My investors NEVER get the house they wanted. They spend days & weeks kicking and smelling a property only to discover someone else bought it. Despite the "sky is falling" mantra pitched by the media, thousands of properties are purchased for cash in Las Vegas in any given week. I work with investors who purchase several at a whack.

They try to picture themselves living in the property and rule out all the "low income" properties. They purchase a property they could live in and discover later that the cash flow is terrible. Successful investors think in terms of cash flow, risk and return - not the color of the carpet.

After weeks of research, hand wringing and analysis they decide to pull the trigger 4 days after they went inside and fell in love with a property. Yep. Someone else beats them to it EVERY SINGLE TIME. Successful investors do their homework and pull the trigger the moment they found what they are looking for. Unsuccessful investors are so worried about making the wrong decision that they don't make one at all.

This happens with the "husband and wife" teams. The wife wants oranges while the husband wants apples. Successful teams choose one person to make the purchasing decision after they have decided which type of property to get. I know first hand experience that this works having been married for more than 20 years. I work with "husband and wife" teams all the time and I have discovered that successful teams have a plan before looking.

Real estate involves risk. Period. There is no holy grail of real estate that guarantees appreciation and/or income. A property can depreciate or sit empty for a long time. Investors who don't have the stomach for real estate need to purchase a Certificate of Deposit from a local bank. Some investors just can't wrap their mind around risk and waste their time needlessly looking for a holy grail. My job is to minimize the risk of losing money by providing over 20 years of property management and real estate experience.

Investors who don't read my content ALWAYS waste their first "hunting trip." Investors from out of town end up flying back out here again and start over. If they really had a plane ticket and all day to waste driving around in the heat, then I'm certain they had 20 minutes to read in a comfortable chair with a cup of coffee. My information is free, easy and fun to read.

No matter how much I preach about this subject, nearly every investor puts too much money into their property. Perhaps it's an "ownership pride" issue they have been brainwashed with. Tenants will destroy all that beautiful carpet, paint and upgrades the investor so thoughtfully put in. Then the investor gets pissed because they can't imagine someone living like a typical renter. All those upgrades are never recovered by the meager increase in rent.

They are so mentally exhausted after their purchase they go take a 3 week nap. They wait to put a crew together and then take another 3 weeks to bring it way above rent able standards. They get so focused on grinding vendors down on price that they piss away $2k in rental income. Successful investors get the property ready a after it closes and think in terms of "good enough" for rental standards.

I will never call an investor to chit chat about the weather. I don't have time to call the 300 or so investors about killer deals. If I call and investor it's because I'm following up on an inquiry they made or about a deal in progress that requires immediate attention. Investors who don't return calls or emails are placed at the bottom of the pile. Years of experience has taught me investors at the bottom of the pile are the biggest headache.

I am guilty of being a time freak. There are only 24 hours in a day and I guard mine with religious zeal. An investor who doesn't show up on time is a key indicator that we will not get along. Some investors feel insulted when I reschedule them or defer them to another agent. My apologies in advance - I just don't have time for people who are not on time.