Your career adviser told you that you would get into the property market. He may have been right. You’ve seen the TV shows, you’ve read the magazines, and you’ve gazed at the houses and random stretches of land. Eventually you say to yourself, ‘I can do this. How hard can it be?’You poor, naive thing.
Being a property investor entails much more than just slapping down money for an initial asset and doing stuff all with it while hoping to earn lots of money in return. People will be using the property you’ve acquired, sure, but that’s just the beginning. Here are some tips for being a successful, long-term property investor:
1. Set clear financial goals. Again, it’s not enough to do this sort of thing on a whim. You need to plan, you need to have objectives, you need to realise just what sort of commitment is needed. The financial side is probably the most crucial. How much money do you plan to initially lay down? What sort of consistent returns are you expecting and how do you plan to get them? How long will you give yourself to get those returns? If you can’t get it done, how will you be able to get the most of your investment so that you can safely bail? Think long and hard because it’s potentially your entire financial future that’s at stake.
2. Consider the land and its inhabitants. Along with the immediate property itself, think about the people living in and around. That means evaluating the suburb, town or city, its people, its own assets and the type of individuals you’ll want to attract to your property. A town rich with tourist attractions and interest will have need for properties which allow temporary housing. That’s a prime example of the sort of property worth investing in.
3. Get help. The worst thing you can do, is basically do everything on your own. There are few occupations in the world where a newbie can walk straight in and excel unless they’re a genius. Don’t let yourself assume that you are, especially not in the field of property investment. You have ample sources of education and advice to fall back on, whether it be your friends and family or established professionals. Use them.4. Take it seriously. If you’re a first-time investor, don’t treat this like a hobby. It’s a serious lifetime choice. It has the potential to be a serious lifetime financial gamble. You need to know that you want this. Therefore, treat property investment as if you can’t live without it. Discover that overwhelming desire to succeed within you because that may be your greatest asset.
There’s more to being a property investor but those are what are considered the basics. Now go find your perfect property and see if you can’t make it grow.