Description
John Wiley Successful Real Estate Investing How To Avoid The 75 Most Costly Mistakes Every Investor Makes by Robert Shemin
This book walks the reader, step by step, through an understanding of all the common mistakes novice real estate investors make and the specific, real-life strategies they can use to avoid them. Readers will learn to avoid mistakes like: failing to screen potential tenants, not receiving adequate cash flow, missing out on special loans programs, overlooking bad houses, not having the proper insurance, and owning a rehab or rental house that won't sell or rent. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS; INTRODUCTION ; PART I: 75 REAL MISTAKES TO AVOID IN REAL ESTATE; MISTAKE No. 1 Not Getting Started in Real Estate Investing Early Enough; MISTAKE No. 2 Not Paying Attention to the Cycles of Real Estate: Prices, Price Increases, and Price Decreases; MISTAKE No. 3 Not Becoming Active in Your Local Real Estate Investors Association; MISTAKE No. 4 Thinking about Short-Term Results Instead of Long-Term Results When Starting Your Real Estate Investment Business; MISTAKE No. 5 Not Having a Written Plan for Your Investment Business; MISTAKE No. 6 Expecting to Have Equal Partnerships in Your Real Estate Investment Deals; MISTAKE No. 7 Being Frightened to Do Large Deals; MISTAKE No. 8 Being Unclear Whether You Want to Sell or Rent a Property; MISTAKE No. 9 Letting Your Business Get Out of Your Control and Run You; MISTAKE No. 10 Not Budgeting for Your Real Estate Education; MISTAKE No. 11 Failing to Review Your Finances, Progress, and Overall Activity at Least Once a Week; MISTAKE NO. 12 Thinking That Real Estat e Is Risky; MISTAKE NO. 13 Not Creating an Exit Strategy for Your Real Estate Business; MISTAKE NO. 14 Wasting Time on Activities That Don't Make You Any Money and Simply Aren't Any Fun; MISTAKE NO. 15 Not Having the Right Insurance to Properly Cover Your Investments; MISTAKE NO. 16 Being Underinsured on Your Auto Insurance Coverage; MISTAKE NO. 17 Not Taking Advantage of Affordable Legal Services; MISTAKE NO. 18 Not Developing a Long-Term Plan to Protect Your Real Estate Assets; MISTAKE NO. 19 Setting Up an Asset Protection Plan Improperly; MISTAKE NO. 20 Missing Out on Special Loan Programs; MISTAKE NO. 21 Running Out of Cash and the Bills Keep Coming; MISTAKE NO. 22 Not Having the Proper Team in Place; MISTAKE NO. 23 Not Establishing Good Relationships with Those in the Investment Business and Service Providers; MISTAKE NO. 24 Getting Stuck with a Rehab House That Won't Sell or a Rental House That Won't Rent; MISTAKE NO. 25 Failing to Include a Contingency Clause When Putting Together a Contract; MISTAKE NO. 26 Not Negotiating with the Decision Maker Who Can Really Help You; MISTAKE NO. 27 Lamenting That Your Property Isn't Selling Fast Enough; MISTAKE NO. 28 Making the Contract Process More Complicated Than It Has to Be; MISTAKE NO. 29 Negotiating a Good Cash Offer on an Attractive Piece of Property, but Leaving Money on the Table; MISTAKE NO. 30 Not Verifying Everything with a Third Party; MISTAKE NO. 31 Making Only One Offer on a Property Instead of Three; MISTAKE NO. 32 Spending Too Much Money on a House That You Bought to Fix Up and Sell; MISTAKE NO. 33 Analyzing Properties Too Much and Too Long; MISTAKE NO. 34 Overlooking Bad Houses and Bad Neighborhoods; MISTAKE NO. 35 Not Making Sure Buyers Are Preapproved for a Mortgage; MISTAKE NO. 36 Using Only Short-Term Financing; MISTAKE NO. 37 Not Having Multiple Sources of Financing so You Can Transact More Deals; MISTAKE NO. 38 Spending Too Much Time Talking to Tenants, Worrying about Repairs, Doing Paperwork, and Making Very Little Money; MISTAKE NO. 39 Not Having a Systematic Way to Run Your Rental Business; MISTAKE NO. 40 Not Setting Up Minimum Standards in Writing When Selecting Tenants; MISTAKE NO. 41 Not Charging Tenants for Damages to Your Property; MISTAKE NO. 42 Not Screening Tenants Well Enough; MISTAKE NO. 43 Not Doing a Credit and Criminal Background Check on Everyone Who Receives a Key to Your Property; MISTAKE NO. 44 Not Having a High Enough Cash Flow from Your Rental Properties; MISTAKE NO. 45 Penalizing Bad Tenants but Not Rewarding Good Ones; MISTAKE NO. 46 Not Learning about Government Programs for Low-Income Tenants; MISTAKE NO. 47 Not Inspecting Properties Regularly; MISTAKE NO. 48 Attempting to Perform Your Own Evictions and Collections, and Getting Sued; MISTAKE NO. 49 Not Using Licensed, Bonded, and Referred Contractors and Repair People; MISTAKE NO. 50 Paying Too Much for Repairs and Not Getting Written Bids; MISTAKE NO. 51 Paying for a Repair or Construction Job before It's 100 Percent Completed; MISTAKE NO. 52 Not Having a per-Day Penalty for Contract Work That's Not Finished When Promised; MISTAKE NO. 53 Assuming That the Way You Think and Do Business Is the Way Other People Think and Do Business; MISTAKE NO. 54 Selling Your Property Instead of Holding It; MISTAKE NO. 55 Relying on What People Tell You, Not on What They Do; MISTAKE NO. 56 Letting Fear and Hesitation Keep You from Getting the Deal; MISTAKE NO. 57 Not Choosing and Working with Partners Wisely; MISTAKE NO. 58 Not Understanding How to Deal with Real Estate Agents as an Investor; MISTAKE NO. 59 Not Understanding the Difference between Being a Real Estate Investor and a Real Estate Speculator; MISTAKE NO. 60 Not Having Enough Rent Coming in to Cover All of Your Real Expenses; MISTAKE NO. 61 Not Setting Up Separate Bank Accounts and Accounting for Each of Your Real Estate Activities; MISTAKE NO. 62 Not Knowing Why You Are Really in Real Estate or What You Will Do with the Money You Make; MISTAKE NO. 63 Working Only on Making Big Deals When the Little Ones Pay the Bills; MISTAKE NO. 64 Thinking and Worrying Too Much, Then Losing the Deal; MISTAKE NO. 65 Not Understanding That Real Estate Investing Is a People Business; MISTAKE NO. 66 Not Making a Real Commitment to Being a Successful Real Estate Investor; MISTAKE NO. 67 Not Having a Mentor or Coach; MISTAKE NO. 68 Missing Out on Lots of Deals and Thousands of Dollars Because You Stopped Following a Deal; MISTAKE NO. 69 Not Making Additional Income from Deals That You're Doing Anyway; MISTAKE NO. 70 Not Focusing on the Activities That Will Make Money for You Today; MISTAKE NO. 71 Letting Your Emotions Rule Your Choice of Rehab Projects Instead of Analyzing the Numbers; MISTAKE NO. 72 Overrehabbing a Property; MISTAKE NO. 73 Not Finding out the Underlying Reasons Why People Are Selling Their Properties; MISTAKE NO. 74 Getting Too Greedy When Flipping to Other Investors; MISTAKE NO. 75 Not Being Generous with Your Partners and Coinvestors; PART II: THREE BONUS MISTAKES; MISTAKE NO. 76 Not Knowing to Ask for Owner's Terms; MISTAKE NO. 77 Failing to Aggressively Market Properties You Have for Sale; MISTAKE NO. 78 Not Giving People More Than They Expect; APPENDIX A Almost Every Possible Way to Find Great Deals; APPENDIX B The Top-10 Real Estate Mistakes We Make Every Day; APPENDIX C Robert's Six Basic Rules of Negotiation; APPENDIX D Lease Optioning as a Money-Making Strategy; APPENDIX E When Your Investment Business Needs Help: How to Build the Perfect Team; INDEX.