Monthly Archives: January 2015

When Should You Sell Your Rental Property?

Posted by neil on January 30, 2015
General / No Comments

Hi There,

If you are new to real estate investing, I think that you should read this…
Buying your first rental property is a great way to create wealth.
Holding your rental property for the long term is the best way to generate this wealth.
However, as we all know… sometimes things don’t always go as planned.
Some real estate investors who buy a rental property need to sell the property down the road…
I am not an advocate of selling your property just because it is hard work to manage it.
Owning and managing real estate is hard work and you should not give up when the going gets tough…
However, there are a couple of reasons (or situations) in which it makes sense to sell your rental property.
To find out what these 2 scenarios are, you can listen to my PODCAST called:
Happy Investing!
Neil Uttamsingh
ps: please share this post with your friends, family or co-workers who are interested in buying their first rental property.
pps: If you are serious about buying your first rental property, you can read the most popular article on this blog called, How To Buy Your First Rental Property

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How Much Money Can A Property Manager Save You?

Posted by neil on January 29, 2015
General / No Comments

Hi There,

Recently, I have been speaking a lot about the benefit of using property managers to manage your rental property.  In this post, I will continue with the same.  In my new PODCAST I talk about how a Property Manager can specifically save you both:

TIME

and…

MONEY

Listen to this PODCAST if you are interested in saving time and money and you want to buy your first rental property.  The PODCAST is called:

How Much Money Can A Property Manager Save You?    < —–  (click on the link to listen)

Happy Investing!

-Neil Uttamsingh

ps: please share this post with any friends, family or co-workers who you think will benefit from this information.  Thank you!

pps: If you are serious about buying your first rental property, read the most popular article on the blog called: How To Buy Your First Rental Property

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What Is The Best Property Type To Buy?

Posted by neil on January 24, 2015
General / 1 Comment

Hi There,

Many new real estate investors get confused on what type of property they should buy.  When I first started as a real estate investor, it took me one full year to determine what type of property I was going to buy.

When I look back, I see that as wasted time.  If I was able to buy my first rental property faster, I would have made more cash flow and benefited from more LONG term appreciation.

If you are a new real estate investor and you are struggling with what property type you should buy, you need to listen to my new PODCAST.

In my PODCAST I talk about what the different property types are and which property type is the best one for the new real estate investor.

Listen by clicking the link below:

What Is The Best Property Type To Buy?

Happy Investing!

Neil Uttamsingh

ps: Please share this post with any family, friends or co-workers who you think will benefit from this information.

pps: If you are serious about buying your first rental property, read the most popular article on this blog called,  How To Buy Your First Rental Property

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Is Property Management Necessary?

Posted by neil on January 23, 2015
General / No Comments

Hi There,

I recently recorded another PODCAST on Property Management.  I will admit, this new PODCAST is better than my previous one.

My previous PODCAST on Property Management can be listened to here:

Property Management PODCAST

My “NEW” and “BETTER” PODCAST on property management can be listened to here:

The Importance of Property Management

In the PODCAST, I address the question:

Is Property Management Necessary

If you are new to real estate investing and you are looking to buy your first rental property, I highly recommend that you listen to this PODCAST.

Happy Investing!

Neil Uttamsingh

ps: please share this post with any friends, co-workers, or family that you think would benefit from this information!

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Property Management Podcast

Posted by neil on January 21, 2015
General / No Comments

Hi There,

I recently wrote an article on the pros and cons of property management.

The article was called:

Property Management Versus Self Management of Rental Property

New real estate investors always struggle with whether they should hire a property manager or self manage their first rental property.

You can now listen to this entire article in a PODCAST.

To listen to the PODCAST, click on the link below:

Property Management Versus Self Management of Rental Property

If you are new to real estate investing, I highly recommend that you listen to the PODCAST.

Happy Investing!

Neil Uttamsingh

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How To Buy Your First Rental Property Audio Podcast Part 2

Posted by neil on January 21, 2015
General / No Comments

Hello Everyone,

A long time ago, I wrote an article series called:

How To Buy Your First Rental Property

It quickly became the most popular article series on my blog.

The entire article series is now available in a PODCAST.

By clicking the link below, you can listen to Part 2 of the podcast called:

How To Buy A Rental Property Audio PODCAST Step Two

If you are new to real estate investing and are interested in buying a rental property, I highly recommend that you listen to the PODCAST.

Happy Investing!

Best Regards,

Neil Uttamsingh.

 

 

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How To Buy Your First Rental Property Audio Podcast Part 1

Posted by neil on January 15, 2015
General / No Comments

Hi There,

One of the most popular posts on First Rental Property  was a post in which I outlined step by step How To Buy Your First Rental Property.

This post was called:

How To Buy Your First Rental Property

Now, this entire post can be heard in a PODCAST.

The name of this PODCAST is:

How To Buy Your First Rental Property Step One

If you are new to real estate investing, I highly recommend that you listen to this PODCAST.

Happy Investing!

Neil Uttamsingh

 

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How to Earn A Passive Income From Real Estate

Posted by neil on January 10, 2015
General / No Comments

Hi There,

A lot of people want to make BIG money from investing in real estate.

I recently received a question from a young, aspiring real estate investor.  In his email, the young man asked me for advice on how to get started as a new real estate investor.

I am going to share the email that he sent me along with my response to his email.  The answer that I provide to his email will be very helpful to those of you who are interested in buying your first rental property.

Here is the email that he sent me:

Neil,

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your articles on How to Buy your First Rental Property.  It really gave me great insight in simple English.  
I am 24 years old and want to own real estate to make some income on the side while still working at my current 9-5 job.  I have zero debt and a lot of motivation and time.  I really want to get my feet wet in real estate rental property, but how big should I go?  I don’t want to bite off too much I can’t chew.  Can you provide some advice on what a good starting point is for a beginner just looking to get into this and make some income on the side?  Should I start small or go massive?
Thanks!  Cheers!
KW
KW’s first question in his email was…
“I really want to get my feet wet in real estate rental property, but how big should I go? “
This question reminds me of advice that I received one day from an extremely successful, veteran real estate investor.  He told me that real estate investing was similar to baseball.  In that, when you are up to bat, your objective as a new real estate investor is to not make any mistakes and to bat 1.000. (A “1.000” batting average in baseball is a “perfect record”)
In the game of baseball, when a batter comes up to bat, his offensive production at the plate is measured primarily by his batting average.   All things being equal, a player with a higher batting average, is getting more hits, and making fewer ‘mistakes’, by recording fewer ‘outs’.
His advice to me on investing in real estate was simply, “Don’t make any mistakes at the beginning.  Make sure that you are always batting 1.000.
My advice to KW would be the same here.  KW, don’t go “too big”, and don’t bite off more than you can chew.  Stay “small”, so that you can manage properly the rental property that you purchase.
KW’s second question was:
“Can you provide some advice on what a good starting point is for a beginner just looking to get into this and make some income on the side?”
My advice to KW would be to start by buying a small single family home.  It can be a detached home, condominium, or semi-detached home.  Any one of those property types would work.  The key thing here is that there has to be only “one” family or “one” tenant living in the property.
The reason I recommend this is because I want KW to gain some experience in managing the rental property first himself.  I want him to learn the ins and outs of managing a tenant, before, he has multiple tenants.
I want him to become a good landlord first before he takes on more than he can handle.
For information on whether a new investor should manage their first rental property themselves or whether they should hire a property manager, please read my article, Property Management Vs. Self Management of Rental Property
KW’s third question is:
“Should I start small or go massive?”
My advice to KW is to “start small”.
When I mean “start small”, I mean….”Learn what you are doing”.
By starting small, you could buy one rental property in your first year as a landlord, and then perhaps another property in your second year, and then a third property in your third year, and so on…
What I would advise KW not to do is to buy several properties at once and begin managing them right away.
KW and any new real estate investor buying their first or buying their second rental property need to learn the basics of owing a rental property first and learn the basics of how to be a landlord first.
If KW or any other new real estate investor buys too many properties at once, then could quickly become overwhelmed with the new job of being a landlord, and potentially loose money in the process.
So there you have it.
My advice for KW and for the new real estate investors just starting out is to:
  • Start small first
  • Don’t take on more than you can handle
  • Learn to become a good landlord first
When you are comfortable with what you are doing, move on and buy your second rental property.
Happy Investing!
-Neil

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Property Management Vs. Self Management of Rental Property

Posted by neil on January 09, 2015
General / 4 Comments
Hi There,

 

I hope you are doing well.

One of the big questions new real estate investors always ask me is this:

“Should I manage my rental property myself or should I hire a property manager?”

My answer to this question used to always be…

“You should manage the property yourself”

After 10 years of buying rental properties, my answer to this question has changed, my answer is now…

“You should do both”

This is what I mean by, “You should do both”.

As a real estate investor, you are a landlord. As such, you need to learn how to be a good landlord. The only way you can effectively learn how to do something properly (in my opinion), is by doing it yourself.

I speak to many new real estate investors who want to buy a rental property and then outsource the management to a property manager without first managing  the property themselves. I used to think this was a terrible idea. Now I don’t think this is that bad of an idea. Here is why:

A lot of people SUCK as landlords.

To be a landlord you have to wear many hats.

You have to be a:

  • Relationship Manager
  • Collections Specialist
  • Book Keeper
  • Business minded individual
  • An extremely tactful person

…just to name a few.

Not everybody is good at everything. If you naturally do not have the proper skill set of being a good landlord, you should not be one.

If you are a bad landlord, you rental property will suffer.  It may suffer in the following ways:

  • You are not good at building relationships with your tenants
  • You are not effectively collecting the rent rolex datejust 116244bkmdo herren 36mm perlmutt that it owed to you, and the tenant is falling behind in payments more and more…
  • You do not keep track of your expenses properly and you do not keep track of the partial payments of rent that your tenants are paying you, as they are behind and are trying to get paid back up
  • You don’t have the vision of knowing what improvements to make to your property in order to attract a better tenant profile
  • You are moderately offensive and rub your tenants the wrong way, which reduces the amount of respect your tenants have for you and in turn reduces the amount of respect that they have for your rental property.

If you know that you will not be a good landlord, don’t become one. Hire a professional property manager who is an expert in dealing with all facets of property management.

If you are a new real estate investor and you are choosing to not manage your rental property because you are lazy or you are too afraid of doing it yourself, that is not the right decision.  If you have the skill set, and if you live close enough to loewe 4455 fashionable unisex pants your property to manage it, at the beginning, you should manage it.

You should manage it so that you learn the ins and outs of management.  One day if you become too tired of managing your properties or if your skill set changes and you become deficient in some areas, you should hire a professional property manager.

Investing in real estate is not easy.  It is a long term game that you have to stick with.  If you would like to receive tips from experienced real estate investors for free, sign up for the First Rental Property Newsletter.

Happy Investing!

-Neil

 

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