First Rental Property

Yes, that’s right.  67 reasons.

Are you ready for them?

Here they are…

67.  Traffic to the blog is growing which means that people are interested in the content.

66. The blog is followed by numerous other influential real estate bloggers. Some of my favourites include Julie Broad and Dave Peniuk, Shae Bynes, Don R. Campbell and Josh Dorkin.

65.  I get constant requests from other bloggers to guest post on First Rental Property.  People want to be a part of this awesome blog.  More importantly, they want to get in front of you, the valuable readers.

64. The First Rental Property Newsletter provides highlights of some of the most important content posted to the blog.  If you haven’t signed up for it yet, you can do so by entering your name and e-mail address on the RIGHT hand side of the blog.

63. The writing on the blog has improved over the past year.  I will admit, some of my earlier posts like, Are You The Victim of a Real Estate Bully? are not as polished as some of my most recent posts like, The Dark Side of Real Estate Investing.

62.  Other real estate bloggers copy content ideas from First Rental Property.  I am glad this is happening because this proves to me that I am putting out good content.

61.  Authors of other blogs are linking back to First Rental Property, which means that they like what is being said on the blog and they want to share the content with their readers.

60.  The content on the the blog is easy to follow.

59.  The blog has had over 500 comments in one year, which means great participation from all of the readers!

58.  It is a positive community.

57.  Aspiring real estate investors have contacted me to tell me how much they appreciate the content.

56.  I will be including more video content to the blog in the coming year.

55.  The content on the blog has been shared on Twitter by The Real Estate Investment Network, Canada’s premier real estate network.

54.  Content on the blog is also being shared on Twitter by real estate bloggers.

53.  The number of people who ‘Like’ The First Rental Property Fan Page is growing.  (I couldn’t for the life of me find out how to link to the Facebook Fanpage…I was having some issues with the url from the Fangage)  If you haven’t already, show your love for First Rental Property by clicking the ‘Like’ button on the right hand side of the blog.  You can do this before reading point number 52.  Please and thank you!

52.5. Thank you for clicking the like button!  🙂

52.  REI Newswatch distributes the content on First Rental Property to their readers every time I put out a new article.  This means that the content on this blog is of top quality.  If you have not already, check out REI Newswatch after you finished reading this list.  Here is the link for REI Newswatch.  Remember…after you read the list.  :).

51.  Blog posts can also be read at my blog at the premier real estate social networking site, BiggerPockets.

50.  I am a real estate investor sharing real life experience.

49.  The blog generally has very good article headlines, which draw in the reader and make them want to read the actual article.

48.  The blog also generally has very good opening sentences and or opening paragraphs.  A catchy opening, helps to keep the readers’ attention.

47.  Aspiring real estate investors come to the blog and read it whenever they need a shot of confidence.  This I have been told.

46.  The blog is truly educating people as to what steps they need to take to buy their first rental property.

45.  The blog gets a LOT of spam comments which you don’t see, because I filter and delete them.   This means that the traffic to the blog is very good and as a result Spammers want to capitalize on the traffic coming to the blog.

44.  I share my Business Life Story on the blog so that you can read about how I got started as a real estate investor.

43.  I am learning from some of the best bloggers in the world as to how to make this blog better.  Some of the best blogs that I read and learn from are Brian Clark‘s Copyblogger and Yaro Starak‘s Entrepreneurs Journey.

42.  I have PODCASTS available for you to listen to.

41.  More podcasts will be added in the coming year.  In the podcasts you will be able to hear real estate investors speak about their experiences and how they bought their first rental property.

40.  This is a professional blog.  The author and/or the readers don’t get involved in attacking other readers for their comments or suggestions.

39.  Regular content is produced to this blog.

38.  All the the content is original.  None of this content is copied off of other blogs.

37.  Ideas and concepts are taken from other successful real estate blogs, which helps to make this blog a successful one.

36.  Readers come from all over the world.

35. The majority of the readers are from North America.  So if you have a question regarding the Canadian or US real estate markets, you will have no trouble in finding an answer.

34.  This blog does not teach the get rich quick method of buying real estate.

33.  Readers are encouraged to adopt a slow and steady mentality to investing in real estate.

32. I am committed to this blog and to helping others.

31.  In the coming year I will be sharing with the readers certain products that I believe new and aspiring real estate investors can benefit from.

30.  I am honest and I don’t like to B.S. people.  I will only recommend products to you that I believe you will benefit from.

29.  In addition to products, I will also be sharing with you ebooks that I think are worthwhile reading and that you can learn a lot from.  More on this in 2011.

28.  When I first created this blog, one of the main objectives was to monetize the blog and collect income from the blog.  As time went on, my main objective changed to simply providing value to the readers and not monetizing it.  I found that by doing this, I was able to provide much better content to the readers.  In the future, the blog will be monetized, but I will not compromise the value provided to readers in an effort to monetize the blog.

27.  I will be writing a lot of guest posts for other real estate bloggers in 2011.  As a result, the traffic is going to increase on this blog.  You the reader will benefit from more detailed discussions and questions posted in the comments section.  Read the comments section with the intent of looking to learn from other real estate investors that post there.  In fact, leave a comment at the end of this article and tell me what you thought of this post.

26.  I share “Cool Links” in the First Rental Property Weekly Wrap.  Most of these links are related to real estate, however some of them are not.  Take an opportunity to read the “Cool Links” that are not related to real estate.  You can learn a great deal by doing this.

25.  In the not so distant future, I will be putting out a survey asking readers what they want to see on the blog.  By gathering this feedback, I will be able to make some adjustments to the blog so that I am providing the readers with exactly what they want.  I have to give a shout out to Shae Bynes for this, as I got the idea from her.

24.  I am funny.  It may not seem that way because of my writing style, as I tend take on a little bit more of a serious tone in my blog posts.  Such is not the case for some of my comments on other blogs.

23.  If my blog were a professional basketball player…my blog would be Micheal Jordan.  (1 out 10 readers probably got this joke…)  Don’t worry if you did not get it…it wasn’t much of a joke!  🙂

22.  I am taking a course that is teaching me how to become a better blogger.  As a result, both the content and the physical layout of the blog are going to continue to improve.  I am constantly going to implement changes in order to make this blog better and better.

21.  I am well liked in the Canadian real estate investing community.  This allows me to have good conversations with very successful real estate investors.  By speaking with them, I learn from them some of their secrets to success.  I always share these insights on the blog.

20.  I am creative.  This means that I do not present content to you in a boring manner.  Rather, I add a flare of creativity to my posts which are demonstrated in posts like, Top 3 Reasons Not To Become A REIN Member and Real Estate Investing For Dummies.

19.  I am going to be using iMovie to edit the new video content coming to the blog in 2011. So far, I am pretty awful at using iMovie, however, I hope to up my game in the coming weeks.  Videos edited via iMovie are cool to watch.

18.  I participate in online forum discussions with bloggers from all over the world.  All of these bloggers are working hard to develop their blogs by producing regular content and by increasing traffic to their blog.  I am constantly learning by reading all of the discussions in the forums.  This helps me to improve First Rental Property and make it a better blog for you the readers.

17.  I bring an interesting perspective to the real estate investing space.  I am an entrepreneur by night and a banker by day.  Working for one of Canada’s largest banks, I learn quite a bit about entrepreneurship which I am skilled enough to be able to share in an indirect manner via this blog.  Mainly via life lessons and through describing general concepts.    After all, you can’t be sharing confidential bank information via a personal blog, duh!

16.  This community is full of like minded people.  This is a space where you should hang out and learn.  Check out my video that I recoded a while back regarding the importance of surrounding yourself with like minded people.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR2tsl97vzw[/youtube]

15.    First Rental Property has a clear vision.  The vision is to provide knowledge and confidence to new and aspiring real estate investors so that they can buy their first rental property.  If you have not bought your first rental property yet, hang out here, subscribe to the blog and learn.

14.  I have assembled a strong real estate team.  As a new real estate investor, you need to do this as well.  I can share with you my experience in assembling my team, and I can give you advice on the best practices you need to take when assembling your team.

13.  I was voted as the ‘Nicest Person’ by my high school graduating class.  It is cool to be nice.  However, don’t get ‘being nice’ in the way of your real estate business.  There is a time to be nice, and a time to law down the law.  As a real estate investor, you need to know when you have to law down the law and take control of your real estate business.  You running a business after all, even if you own one rental property.

12.  I would argue that the act of investing in real estate is 90% mental and 10% technical.  As a result, you have to consciously work towards developing the right frame of thought in order to survive as a real estate investor.  There is no better place to gain positive reinforcement and guidance than though this blog.

11.  You can also gain positive reinforcement and guidance that will help you to survive as a real estate investor from a select number of blogs that I regularly share with readers.

10.  Believe it or not, most successful real estate investors have all reached a point in their real estate investing careers where they almost gave up investing for good.  I have been there and so have so many others that I know.  If I did not have a strong network of people supporting me, I would have given up some time ago.  First Rental Property is your network.  You are supported here.  Never give up.  Collectively we will make sure that you don’t.

9.  You have to embrace the life lesson of ‘learning from other people’s mistakes’.  In a lot of the posts, I talk about fears and obstacles that new investors have and face.  You can avoid making mistakes and learn how to avoid fear and get around obstacles by reading the content on the blog.

8.  The blog has been going strong for over a year with no signs of slowing down.

7.  After reading this blog on a regular basis, you should be able to detect very easily insincere advice and insincere real estate education on the available in various forms on the Internet.  Steer clear of that, as there is a lot of garbage out there!

6.  Do you know how to analyze the performance of a business?  By examining financial statements, can you tell if a business is performing well, or if the business is performing poorly?  Learn the basics of how to analyze a business by looking at the financial statements of the company.  You will be surprised how much this helps you in understanding how your own real estate business works.

5.  I have readers from all of the Continents.

4.  If you are nervous about buying your first rental property, you have all the information you need in this blog in order to help you move forward.

3.  I answer all real estate questions posted to the blog.  If you have a question, post it and I will answer it.

2. I encourage you all to speak to experienced real estate investor in person and learn directly from them.  This is how I learned a lot about real estate investing.  Some of my greatest lessons have come from my face to face meetings with experienced investors.  Network on this blog, and though the other blogs that I talk about and find real estate investors close by to where you live.  Form real estate support groups.  This is some advice from me to you.

1.  I don’t pretend that I know everything about real estate investing.  I am constantly learning just like you.

Subscribe to First Rental Property by entering your name and e-mail address on the LEFT hand side of the blog.  After you have subscribed to the blog, also subscribe to The First Rental Property Newsletter by entering your name and e-mail address on the RIGHT hand side of the blog.  In the newsletter, you will hear from experienced real estate investors on how they bought their first rental property.  They will also share with you some tips and tricks to help you buy your first rental property.

Best Regards,

Neil Uttamsingh