1. Create a plan. You don’t have to have a detailed business plan with every little detail included to be successful, but you do need a plan. Knowing what strategies you’re going to take, what criteria you’re looking for, what your exit strategies are, what your financing possibilities are, and other key details will help you to be more successful. Putting pen to paper and mapping out your first deal(s) will also help mitigate the paralysis by analysis that most new investors experience. – Joshua Dorkin
2. Learn Your Markets Numbers: Know how much properties are actually worth and how much you can pay. The ones that are the best at picking up off-market deals are those that know exactly how much they can pay. That knowledge produces confidence; confidence + accurate numbers = a strong offer; strong offers + repetition = deal flow and more confidence. – Jerry Puckett
3. Know Your Limitations – As much as I hate to admit it, my design skills SUCK. I can barely match my clothes right. I have no business picking out decorative items, so I have other people to help with that. My favorite place to find design products is in new builder properties, because they are very skilled at knowing what sells right now. My wife is also very skilled at this and has helped me many times with design choices and staging ideas. Embrace your limitations! – Andrew Fortune
4. Become a Master of Influence. – Claude Diamond
5. Don’t overbuild for the neighborhood. Look at what other investors and homeowners have done, and don’t do anything more than that because these upgrades likely reflect what buyers expect in the neighborhood. – Ryan Lundquist
6. You don’t have to leap off a cliff – take baby steps. You don’t need to know from A-Z, every conceivable way to deal with a real estate situation. Start with what comes first: get a look at the big picture and start marketing for leads. You don’t have to have money lined up to be able to buy the house. If you can find a super deal, you can find a buyer and assign the contract to them for a hefty assignment fee. You don’t need headlights on your car that illuminate the entire route from San Antonio, Texas to Chicago, Illinois to get there at night. You need to only focus on what is immediately ahead. – Danny Johnson
7. Follow the plan and give it your all. Persevere through the tough times, and celebrate the highs. – Steve Cook
8. Create a good relationship and a good reputation with the brokerage community. Negotiating commissions during or after a deal is done or delaying the payment of commission will only serve to create distrust towards you. Word of this kind of behavior gets around quickly and will cost dearly over time. – Elias Nathaniel
9. Trust is established over time, not over one email, phone call, or meeting. Finding and working with individuals that are happy to spend “that” time in building your trust is a key factor to maintaining and growing a solid business relationship. Unless such trust is established, it will be very difficult to preserve the relationship and successfully obtain your desired goals/benefits. – Engelo Rumora
10.Nothing verbal is valid. Even if it’s your favorite uncle or brother-in-law with which you’re going to have as your investment partner – everything needs to be in writing and within a secure “legally bound” contract. This is business – and it has to be handled that way!!! –Connor T. MacIVOR