Although most employees are putting in hours just to get by, a real estate investor creates a portfolio that could pay off big over the long term. But then what does this take to become a real estate investor? Let’s look at what rental real estate investors do day-to-day.
Crunch the Numbers
One of the main things a rental real estate investor must know is how to accurately assess a potential property and calculate the probable returns on the investment. For example, not only will you probably look for properties that are below market rate but those that also have an After Repair Value (ARV) and an anticipated rental rate that will yield positive cash flows month to month. If you offer or pay too much, forget to include all of your expenses, or otherwise estimate incorrectly, you could end up with a property that will cost you far more than your time and trouble are worth.
Negotiate Deals
Another important part of being a rental real estate investor is negotiating deals each time you buy a property. Investing in rental properties means spending money, and if you don’t have enough cash on hand to purchase the property outright, you’ll need financing. Few sellers will be interested in negotiating with any buyer, among them the investors, who don’t have their financing already lined up.
You’ll need to have good contacts with traditional and alternative lenders since many conventional lenders hesitate to make loans on multiple investment properties. You’ll also need a great real estate agent on your team who can help you determine how to offer an attractive deal to the seller. Once you find that bargain property, you’ll need to move fast and have everything ready to go to close the deal.
Source Leads
Obviously, finding great deals is a lot harder than it sounds at first. This is why a big part of a real estate investor’s job description is developing leads. Building wealth depends on buying and owning rental properties that bring positive cash flows and healthy appreciation. And much of this depends on first finding below-market deals on new properties. You’ll need to know where to get in touch with motivated sellers or you know people who can help you with that, including local real estate agents and Yorktown property managers. You also need a strong public presence, marketing, and a website to get the word out that you buy investment properties so that eventually, homeowners in distress or who need to sell quickly could start coming to you instead of the other way around.
Renovate and Lease
In the end, buying a rental property is just the beginning of what a rental real estate investor does. After the sale closes, it’s time to renovate and repair the property and get it ready for tenants. While you may be able to find a virtually turn-key property, in most cases, any investment property you buy will need at least a good cleaning and a fast spruce-up, or at worst, some serious renovation work and repairs.
One way or another, you’ll need to have a good contractor and contacts with other home service vendors ready to get started or the time and skills to do the work yourself. Take some time to list out which renovations will provide the best return on investment. After that, you will market your property, evaluate prospective tenants, prepare lease documents, and decide on a property management process.
If all of this sounds like a lot of work, it is! But the difference between putting in work on an investment property versus putting in work as someone else’s employee is that as an investor, you reap all of the rewards of your time and effort. Of course, there are ways to ease the workload and streamline many aspects of the job of a rental real estate investor.
One of the best of these is to hire a quality property management company like Real Property Management VA Peninsula. Not only do we provide comprehensive property management services, convenient online rent payment, and proactive property maintenance, we also help assess potential properties and help investors find off-market deals. Contact us online today to learn more.