Investing
Common Traits of Successful Real Estate Investors
The most successful real estate investors all share five common traits that others can emulate. These include treating the investments as a business and being extremely knowledgeable about the industry. A successful real estate investor must also be an entrepreneur at heart, be people orientated and be ethical. So if an investor wants to be successful, they might do well to study these traits and try to imitate them in their own lives and businesses.
Treat the Investments as a Business
First and most importantly, a successful investor treats their investments as a business. Successful investors set goals and devise business plans to reach those goals. They do not rely on emotion but only invest after carefully reviewing the facts surrounding the property. In addition, they are dedicated and must use time management skills in order to spend the time necessary to make their business a success.
Knowledgeable about the Industry
A real estate investor must also have significant and in-depth knowledge of the industry. Investors must do their research so that they know their markets. The better they know the markets the better they are able to predict trends. In addition, successful investors tend to specialize in a niche which increases their knowledge base. Plus, they are constantly studying and learning because they know that the market is dynamic.
Entrepreneurs at Heart
At heart, a successful real estate investor must be an entrepreneur. This means that these investors have a vision and look for opportunities to make their vision a reality. They understand that it takes money to make money and are willing to take calculated risks to reach their goals. In addition, they possess an independent nature and want to make their own decisions; they want to be their own boss and are willing to take the blame and the credit for their decisions.
People Orientated
People are a major part of any successful real estate investor’s life. These investors tend to have strong family connections that support their business. They also have a huge networking system. In fact, the larger the network of partners, the more successful the investors tend to be. Plus, they have excellent communication skills and are able to read people; something which helps tremendously when it comes to negotiations.
A Strong Ethical Sense
Finally, a successful real estate investor must possess a code of ethics or they are not likely to remain successful. That’s because much of an investor’s business is based on reputation. People want to deal with those who are honest and trustworthy. As a result, a good reputation will open doors to business deals whereas a poor reputation will close them. Plus, treating people ethically will result in repeat business.
Looking For A Successful Investment? – Start Searching For A Dairy Farm For Sale In New Zealand
New Zealand is one of the world’s most efficient dairy farming economies. It has a big reputation for producing comprehensive international research, practices and products.
In New Zealand there are over 13,000 dairy farmers, who between them produce 1.25 billion kilograms of milk solids annually from around 3.5 million dairy cows. These statistics gives you some idea as to why buying a dairy farm in New Zealand offers such great investment appeal.
Every year there are literally thousands of people looking for a dairy farm for sale in New Zealand. The main farming communities of this type are the Waikato/Bay of Plenty region, which makes up 43% of the country’s dairy farms. Other regions include the Lower North Island (24%), Canterbury (12%), Southland (11%) and Northland (9%).
The Waikato and Bay of Plenty region’s soils are very favourable to this type of farming. These parts of the country also offer an excellent all year round climate and are conveniently located in the centre of the North Island.
Just over a year ago I purchased a dairy farm in Morrinsville, which is one of the three most prosperous farming communities in New Zealand and one of the most intensely farmed areas in the world. I had been looking for a dairy farm for sale in New Zealand for around 6 months and through significant research, it dawned on me that Morrinsville was the ideal location to buy.
Owning a farm in New Zealand offers an appealing working lifestyle. As long as you’ve got a couple of part-time farm hands, you can enjoy the flexibility and relaxed pace that this type of farming offers. For me, moving away from the noise of people and cars and dirty air was a dream. Owning a pet in the city was also near impossible. I love dogs and there is no better place for a dog to be than on a farm where they can get all the unsupervised exercise they need.
Are You Connecting the Real Estate Investor Dots?
Let’s face it, if your investment business is not overloaded with leads, your business and your wallet suffers.
When I first started investing in real estate in 2003, most of the lead generation was from direct mail campaigns. Although expensive (as much as $4,000+ per month), using direct mail was a fairly straightforward process: Mail campaigns went out, and leads came in.
Today, however, if you’re an active real estate investor, you need a much more elaborate lead generation system to be up to date in your real estate business, and to be competitive. To even be in the “game,” one must employ the vast opportunity that is the Internet.
The good news with using the Internet:
1) The Internet is a fantastic place to search for and extract real estate leads because of the massive amount of users online.
2) The Internet tends to break down geographic borders, thereby allowing one to conduct business outside of their “own backyard.”
3) With the proper setup, any investor can advertise their services as well as their personalities for small amounts of money to a vast amount of people. This can be a huge cost savings (over traditional marketing costs) and one of the main reasons to ramp up your online presence.
The bad news with using the Internet:
1) The first challenge is the requirement of having potentially many different websites from which to advertise your services and properties. Each Website should be designed with a single purpose.
2) Avoid constructing and using “brochure sites.” A brochure site is a Website that does not collect any information about who is visiting the website. The Internet is loaded with websites that only provide information and yet, gather no information about the visitors–it’s like a fancy business card.
3) Driving traffic to your Websites can be a real pain. After you have your websites completed, there is virtually no mechanism in which visitors are directed to your websites. So now you’re stuck with many websites and no visitors. The result is zero leads and ultimately zero dollars.
4) In order to gather visitor information, one normally has to rely on software programs. These software programs can be somewhat complicated to effectively use for the Internet challenged (wink, wink).
Should You Invest For Cash Flow Or Capital Gain?
Like most Australian investors, you probably use the old tried and true buy and hold model, and purchase properties that are usually negatively geared. This means that you might be losing money each month. This might not be an issue for you; like most buy and hold investors, you probably invested for capital gain. Your exit strategy will be something like ‘sell the properties in a few years and retire’. Sound familiar?
You may have noticed however, that negative gearing is not the magic bullet it used to be, and the costs around property investing make it less attractive. As growth in the property market has slowed significantly since the Global Financial Crisis hit in 2008, capital gain is looking less like a savvy investment strategy and more like a gamble. If you look into what your current properties are worth, you may find that you have not seen the increase in property values that you were expecting – and this is something a lot of those investing in property have been facing in recent months.
If you find this is the case, you may want to look at changing your investment strategy. Now might be the time to invest in property for cash flow instead of capital gain; that is, you will now be looking at properties that actually, actively make you money. It is certainly possible to turn some of your negatively geared properties into cash flow generating assets. Installment contracts are just one way you can achieve this – and you still get to lock in your capital gain for later down the track.
Depending on the investment strategies you use, you can still minimise any tax implications while maximising your cash flow – this is something to speak to your financial advisors about but it can definitely be done.
Probate Real Estate Opportunities
Of all the strategies for accumulating wealth, investing in Real Estate is probably the one that has been used the most frequently. More fortunes have been made in this arena than in any other field. While many others have become wealthy investing in the past, it’s exciting to know that you can still do it in today’s real estate market!
There are many avenues available to you. We have all heard about the flood of foreclosures on the market today. There are also For Sale by Owners, Pre-Foreclosure/Short Sales and REO’s.
Another lesser known opportunity is in Probate Real Estate.
There are 6 million unsettled Probate cases that remain open every day in the United States, with an estimated value of $600 Billion dollars. Over two million new Probate cases open each and every year. As the Baby Boomers age, this number will start to increase dramatically. 60-65% of Probate cases contain some type of real estate opportunity.
Within 4-6 months of filing a Probate case, more than 40% of the properties in Probate estates will be sold. Most will use conventional methods for selling because they are not aware of any other options.
More than 20% of the Executors or Personal Representatives or Administrators (whatever that person is called in your part of the country) live out of county and many would use local assistance if they knew it was available.
These people are more than just “willing sellers.” They have inherited a property they do not want or need, they do not need another “project” to add to their busy lives, they do not want to spend the time or money to fix up the property if needed, but they do want the money. This is free money for them. They have not had to work hard all their lives for it.