Ask Questions 
Share Tips 
List Your Business 
Coffee Talk with Experts 
Biz Planning | Sample Plans 
Idea 
Name 
$ 
Do It! 
Promotional Merchandise
Managing | Operations
Work @ Home 
Yoga @ Your Desk 
|
|
Expert Answers to Biz Questions
Listen in! Pick up some expert advice to a reader's question that we selected from CyberSchmooz.
What Successful Real Estate Entrepreneurs Do Differently
The path to becoming a successful real estate investor is paved with challenges. When these challenges are embraced, they’re revealed as learning opportunities that all successful investors had to face early in their career.
To follow in their footsteps, you need to embrace continual growth. Not everyone is willing to do what it takes to grow because growth requires experiencing loss. Successful real estate entrepreneurs aren’t focused on winning at any cost.
Here’s what they do differently:
They take calculated risks
Having experience in your industry provides the confidence needed to take calculated risks. If you don’t have much experience, your risks will be less calculated, but you should still take them.
Taking small risks without experience is a learning opportunity that will teach you how to refine your risk-taking strategy. You can’t learn everything from books. You need to get in the game.
They know which resources to trust
Internet resources on real estate investing are abundant. Anyone can build a website and sell real estate eBooks, downloads, courses, and advice. Experienced real estate entrepreneurs know how to discern useful resources from the bad.
In addition to the MLS database, successful real estate entrepreneurs use trusted listing sources like Taylor Morrison and avoid sites that syndicate content from other sources, like Zillow and Trulia.
Syndication isn’t bad, but it’s a slow and inaccurate way of getting information. In real estate, timing is everything, and successful entrepreneurs rely on sources that provide timely information.
Syndication isn’t instant
Inexperienced real estate entrepreneurs are tempted to rely on real estate listing syndication websites because they’re unaware of how they work.
Bigger Pockets reported that brokerage companies have been withdrawing their listings from the nationwide real estate portals due to grossly inaccurate information. MLS listings are accessible directly within fifteen minutes. It takes up to 9 days for those MLS listings to show up on syndication websites, by which time, the property might already be sold.
Why wait nine days for a listing to show up on a syndicated website when you can go directly to the source and get your information immediately?
Syndicated information isn’t 100% accurate
Another factor that works against syndication websites like Zillow is the inaccurate home values. Zillow’s “Zestimates” are the machine-calculated value assessments that make the site unique. They don’t reveal much about how their algorithm values homes, but they do admit to a median error rate of 8%. This margin of error is down from 13.6% when the company first launched in 2006. Since then, they’ve updated their algorithm three times.
The 8% error rate is a median figure. Each city has its own error rate, but due to disclosure laws, not all error rates can be published.
Automated home value algorithms can’t determine the actual value of a home because only a human can assess whether a home is in disrepair, or has been recently remodeled. The algorithms base home value on the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, but again, an accurate assessment can only be performed by a human. Despite square footage, some homes have tiny bedrooms, poorly constructed bathrooms, and inconvenient floor plans.
Another critical reason successful real estate entrepreneurs avoid automatically generated values is because it doesn’t account for unpermitted structures. Buying a home with structures that the former owner never obtained permits to build will cost the investor. If the structure is found to be out of code, it will need to be torn down at the investor’s expense.
They know what legal paperwork to ask for
Successful real estate entrepreneurs ask for proof that all permits have been obtained for structures that aren’t accounted for by the assessor’s office or other local agencies. They have the experience to know what to ask for, and how to spot inconsistencies.
Perhaps the most important skill they possess is the ability to communicate and negotiate with those they do business with. If you’re starting out in real estate investing, use every opportunity to work on your communication and negotiation skills. You’ll lose a few deals, but you’ll gain the experience necessary to refine your strategy and do better next time.
|
|
Small Business Tax Center • Idea Cafe Home • Sign Up • Biz Grant Center • CyberSchmooz •Coffee Talk with Experts • People in Biz Profiles • Starting Your Biz • Biz Planning • Running Your Biz • FREE Trade Publications • Marketing • Financing Your Biz • Human Resources • Legal & Biz Forms • Managing Your Biz • eCommerce • You and Your Biz • Gen X • Work@Home • The Fridge • De-Stress • Send an Award • Send an eGreeting • Yoga @ Your Desk • Web Guide • Idea Cafe in the News • About Idea Cafe • Advertise on Idea Cafe • Contact Us • Privacy Policy • Site Map • Small Biz News
Copyright 1995-2023, Idea Cafe Inc. Downloads are for personal use only, not for resale to others, and may not be reprinted in any form without written permission from Idea Cafe Inc.
DISCLAIMER: We hope whatever you find on this site is helpful, but be cautioned that it may not apply to your own situation, or be totally current at any given time. Idea Cafe Inc. and all of its current and past experts, sponsors, advertisers, agents, contractors and advisors disclaim all warranties with regard to anything found anywhere on this family of websites, quoted from, or sent from Idea Cafe. and its related sites, publications and companies. We also take no responsibility for comments published by others on these pages. TRADEMARKS: The following are Registered Trademarks or Servicemarks of DevStart, Inc.: Idea Cafe®, Online Coffee Break®, The Small Business Gathering Place®, Take out Info®, Biz Bar & Grill®, Complaint-O-Meter®, A Fun Approach to Serious Business™, CyberSchmooz™, and BizCafe™.
|
|
|
|