10 Most Common Real Estate Investing Mistakes

A lot of real estate investors fail in their real estate investing business because of common mistakes they can easily avoid.



We cover the most common real estate investing mistakes in this article.



1) Adopting too many business models

This is commonly done after attending seminars and boot camps. As much as it is important to learn various real estate investing strategies, you cannot adopt them all at the same time.



You will end up losing focus and closing few or no deals. Stick with one or two business models such as wholesaling or lease options and stick with it.



When you increase your capacity, you can handle more business models.



If you are a newbie real estate investor, you must take one business model at a time, polish it, then adopt another if necessary.



One big disadvantage of having too many business models is that your advertising cannot be targeted for better results. You are likely to reach nobody with blind marketing when you try to reach everybody.



When the leads start responding, you are likely to lose most of them in the resulting chaos.



2) Having no exit strategy

Before you buy any property, you must know how it will make you money. Unless you do this, you are likely to lose money.



The exit strategy determines how you structure the deal for maximum profit. You are likely to adopt the wrong strategy and lose money if you have no exit strategy in place before you buy.



3) Paralysis of analysis

As much as we need to be careful, you can never be 100% careful. Most real estate investors have little time for anything else because they spend too much time agonizing about little details.



not all deals can work no matter how many strategies you know.



4) Not telling it like it is

This will land you in trouble real quick. You must let the seller or buyer know exactly what to expect.



This is especially important when you wholesale properties or take them subject to the existing mortgage.



5) Doing it all yourself

Even though you need to save money, let professionals do their job. Treat real estate investing as a business. You cannot be the closing agent, attorney, contractor, etc.



Concentrate on building your business and let professionals do what they do best.



6) Doing sloppy work

This happens when you try to save money or do it all yourself. A shoddy repair job is unlikely to attract buyers; instead you will be stuck with a property you cannot sell.



7) Being personally attached

It's your first deal, and the house is too beautiful, you love it - so what? As soon as you get personally attached you end up spending too much money on it and make a loss.



Each deal should be treated as just a number - a dollar figure.



8) Not networking with other investors

I have met lots of real estate investors with properties under water, but they still think they know it all. Their attitude is, if they are teaching it, shouldn't they be out making money instead of teaching?



Once you network with other real estate investors, you learn what they do and how they do it. These are the guys on the ground doing what you do. There is a lot to learn from them.



9) Not having a dream team

Build a team of people who deliver the services you need - title company, attorney, contractors, roofers, plumbers, real estate agents, mortgage brokers, etc. When you need them they are just a phone call away.



10) Not assessing yourself

For every deal that I do, I like to go back and check what I could have done better. This way you can improve with every next deal that you do.

When you avoid past mistakes, your real estate investing business will continue to grow.



In order to run a success real estate investing business, it is necessary to automate most aspects of your business, increase efficiency so you spend less time, money and effort while closing more deals. A lot of real estate investors have achieved this with database driven real estate investing web sites that also automate most tasks of real estate investing.