5 Tips on Starting a Career as a Property Investor

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The real estate industry is almost always a lucrative option for aspiring investors, yes, even during times of economic distress and market volatility. This is because real estate is a stable and tangible investment, no matter if you’re just looking to sell your home, or if you’re really considering building a career as a property investor. Whether you are thinking of short-term monetary gain by flipping a house for profit, or long-term financial stability by investing in a series of rental properties (both in the residential and commercial sector), the real estate industry will always give you an opportunity to monetize your investments.

Now, even though this is one of the safest investment sectors you could venture into, that doesn’t mean that success is a guarantee. Quite the contrary, you have to make all of the right moves, especially with your first investment property in order to ensure a positive ROI, and move on to bigger and better prospects quickly. Here are the five tips that will help you kick-start your career.

1. Define Your Goals

Every successful career started with clear and meticulous goal-setting. Even if you’re feeling a bit lost and confused, and even if you’re just now learning about the real estate industry, there’s no obstacle you won’t be able to overcome if you set and prioritize your goals. To start, you can define your short-term and long-term objectives. For novice investors, this is a simple question of whether you want short-term financial gain, or if you want financial stability over the long term.

Naturally, your ultimate goal with property investing is to accumulate wealth and build a portfolio of successful investments, but right now, you have to decide if you’re going to flip a property for a quick sale, or if you’re going for that safe rental income. There is no right or wrong here, but there is such a thing as making the right decision at the right time, and you need to know if the current market trends are suited for selling or renting.

2. Research the Market

At the core of every successful investment, career is, of course, market research. Quite simply, the more you know about the market and the trends that prevail, and the more you know about your customers and competitors, the better you’ll be equipped to make all the right decisions on your way to success. If you simply splurge on the first prospect that you come across, you might just waste all of your capital on a property with little to no resale value. That’s why you need to gather the necessary information first.

Take a look at several prominent neighborhoods. Analyze the local demographic and market trends. What’s the average age group? Are the locals predominantly buying or renting? Is the neighborhood becoming a business hub or a residential haven? What are the market gaps and pain-points you could fill with your investment? These questions coupled with meticulous property research will yield the best results.

3. Build a Long-Term Strategy

Of course, you have to have an investment strategy in place that will allow you to approach every prospect already knowing how to monetize it over the long term. A good investor will have great tactics up their sleeve, but the best investors will build numerous real estate investment strategies for every scenario, market trend, and real estate sector so that they can always find a lucrative opportunity. The foundation of every strategy will be market research, but you also need to have partners and industry experts at your side, as well as a solid exit strategy.

4. Learn the Ins and Outs of the Industry

Again, the more you know, the better you’ll do – simple as that. However, it’s not just about researching the local and foreign markets, it’s also about gathering valuable information from experts in your industry, and picking the brains of some of the most experienced property investors around you.

You can do this easily by joining online forums and groups where industry professionals share insights and tips, but you can also start networking in person. There’s nothing quite like developing personal relationships with potential partners and colleagues to draw attention to your business, and needless to say, you might just be one networking event away from a deal of a lifetime.

5. Diversify Your Investments

And finally, always remember that good portfolios are built on geographical and asset diversification. In other terms, you want to spread your wealth across a number of residential and commercial properties scattered across the globe. While foreign investment might be a couple of years away, you can start by investing in local residential and commercial properties, and use some of them for rental income, while selling others for a quick influx of cash.

To become a property investor means to set the stage for true financial independence, and even affluence down the road. To be successful, though, be sure to start implementing these tips into your business plan to make all the right decisions during the first few months and years after launch.

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Derek Lotts

Derek Lotts is a Sydney based writer and researcher, a regular contributor at Smooth Decoratorblog. He writes about décor, gardening, recycling, ecology and business. He thinks all of these topics fall under the self-improvement category. He believes in the power of sharing ideas and communicating via the internet to achieve betterment.

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