What’s YOUR biggest property investing problem?

Must admit I am surprised how many investors I come across are so unprepared or ill advised when it comes to property investing generally.

I guess it is the reason why I started the TFS buyers agency division headed up by JacM who is a long standing forum contributor and property investing expert.

Cheers

Yours in Finance

Not many people learn to ride a bike on their first go.

Property investing can be similar. Your first deal will never be your best deal, so just accept that. Envisage to make a profit or buy in a good area, try to buy the right property. But when you buy your 10th or 100th property, the knowledge you gained along the way will help you to make better choices.

But if you never start you will never get there. So be prepared to make mistakes as a lot of people are afraid to make mistakes. Don't make a huge mistake though that your sent broke and be sensible about slowly increasing the size and scope of your investing to match your level of expertise.

When you ask a property investor about their most valuable lesson that they would of learnt, Invariable it would of been a lesson that cost them some money. But those are the lessons that you remember and wont make again.

Colin, are you saying that you previously sold for the gain and now are of the buy and hold persuasion? I'm still struggling with the idea of being able to realise as much gain in the same period of time (short term) with a simple buy and hold strategy. See the below post.

https://www.propertyinvesting.com/forums/general-property/4349149

Invest in the area I know versus the unknown  (diversify or keep all the 'eggs in one basket'). That's a big one.

Persistence, especially when the market is strong and there are many others in the game, who bid the prices up to ridiculous prices! When the market is strong, I need more hours to go through more deals!

My biggest problem is to remain profitable in property developing is that I have to put in non complying development applications in to council and then have to spend thousands more hiring consultants just to prove the council wrong when they should just make it a lot easier and acknowledge that overall in Australia dwelling size and private backyards have decreased in size since the standard 1/4 acre block was around.  

And I'd say the biggest problem that general investors are facing today is that as a whole (due to media, the Internet, renovating shows on tv, a near unlimited supply of resources on any topic you can think of) I believe the investing population is generally become more intelligent which means more competition thus higher prices on good properties and less margin. 

Take the fact that now days EVERYone knows that if you can get a property that pays for itself/ pays you a net return, even if it has debt, it is good debt. Otherwise known as positive cashflow. 

20 years ago. That was less well known then today. Technology is increasing the efficiency of every bodies investing. Real estate.com search is a prime example. 20 years ago. Could you search low to high of properties in your area. Could you compare as well these days having access to RP data and other websites that record sold prices. You can now look on apple maps, google maps. Measure distances of backyards of block sizes from you iphone or tablet, you don't have to visit a site a hour away to see if you could subdivide it. 

Council development plans are all freely available on the Internet. 

To stay ahead of the general investing pack you have to now be able to do the maths on a property asap as next week if you leave it it'll be under contract. 

20 years ago. That wasn't possible. 

I think part of the problem is that people on the whole believe that property is much easier than it is. Because of that people do not do due diligence on what they buy. It is my experience that most people spend more time on what blueray player they are going to buy compared to property. Now you may think thats strange however I sit down with clients every day and am amazed at some of the silly things that they have done. Like buying over priced properties through marketing companies. However we live in an age where it is easy to look on line to see what properties are selling for.

To me its simple do not take anyones word do your own due diligence. I tell people that I work with that you should question what I tell you because at the end of the day its your money not mine.

Wilko I agree with you about development, its difficult to find projects that stack up. Once someone has a permit they think they are sitting on gold. However there still has to be profit left in the project. So I think you need to look at bigger projects where there is less competition especially as funding is still difficult.

Now that's a decision I never hesitate to make! I like to have at least two o/s trips planned each year. No point in working hard if you can't enjoy holidays

Cheers

Jamie

Don't discount the benefit of seeking independent financial advice. Have a licensed financial adviser prepare you a statement of advice based on your goals. 

No one would buy a house without a pest and building inspection, but it amazes me how many people invest without seeking licensed financial advice.  – and its about the same price.