In this blog, I’m going to share with you how you can avoid one of the common property investing mistakes that most property investors make. This is not just new property investors. I meet many experienced property investors who are still making this mistake. I don’t want that for you.
The Landlord Trap
When I first started investing in property, I was managing my own properties for a number of reasons. First of all, it didn’t take much time to manage the properties. Secondly, I didn’t want to lose 10% of my rental income to a letting agent for handling the property management for me. I also thought I could probably do a better job than the letting agents. The final reason was I thought, “wouldn’t it be great to get to know and meet my tenants?” Now let me tell you, the novelty of that soon wears off.
So I was doing my own property management. At first, this was easy and did not take up too much time, but I noticed that as I bought more and more properties, it took more and more time to do the property management. I fell into what I call ‘The Landlord Trap’. This is a very common property investing mistake and that’s what I want to help you with.
You see, if you do the property management for all of your properties, it will start to take a lot of time. I found that the amount of time I had to go and buy properties diminished. This was because I was so busy with the property management. As I say, one or two properties isn’t hard. Yet as you get more properties, you spend more time managing and less time buying. I’m sure you would agree, that you make money when you buy the property rather doing the property management. This is one of the most common property investing mistakes made by most property investors.
“I found that the amount of time I had to go and buy properties diminished, because I was so busy with the property management.”
Word of Mouth
The best way to find a good letting agent is to ask for recommendation from other property investors. Word of mouth is always the best way to get recommendations. By attending your local property investors network meeting, you could get a recommendation from other property investors who are using letting agents in that area. The sooner you get to the point where you someone else is looking after the property management, you have your time back.
Most of the people I meet, who want to become property investors, want to get that cash flow from property so they don’t have to work. This means you can do what you want to do with your time. I’m sure when people start investing in property, the plan isn’t to be doing the property management full-time. So get someone else to do it for you, and avoid falling into ‘The Landlord Trap’.
“So go to your local property investors network meeting. You could get a recommendation there.”
So I really hope you don’t make one of the top property investment mistakes and avoid the ‘Landlord Trap’. As soon as you possibly can, get other people managing your properties for you. As always, I encourage you to invest with knowledge, invest with skill.
As always, I encourage you to invest with knowledge, invest with skill.
