Introduction
Any successful and thriving real estate investor will not be found without a well picked team assisting them in making transactions. Discover who your core team members should be and what they bring to the table.
The purpose of having an investment team is that they bring experience to the table. Various members of the team will bring their specialized knowledge which will boost the chances of you making a great investment at the right time.
Some of the team members should be a Licensed Realtor, an Attorney, a Broker, a Property Inspector, a Photographer, a Rental Agent, a Property Manager, and Contractors.
The presence of every team member is necessary to assist the investor in various parts of the real estate transaction process.
Benefits Of Having a Licensed Realtor
An experienced and knowledgeable licensed Real Estate agent can give you advice which is priceless. They can guide you in ways that help you make lots of money.
The initial benefit of having a licensed agent is that they will know of deals which are often unheard of. The undervalued single-family residence which can be worth millions of dollars or the condominium being sold by the owners who want to quickly sell and are willing to lessen the price.
When a sale nears closing, all kinds of pitfalls can kill the deal in the final hours. A real estate agent knows to watch for trouble before it’s too late. Real estate agents are used to dealing with these types of issues and can work through almost any challenge that arises. Hence, they deal with avoiding any kind of problems at the closing stage.
Another benefit of having a licensed real estate agent is their experience. Most real estate agents can set a price on a home the minute they walk through the door. If they have a lot of experience in the market, they know how well a neighborhood holds its value, too. This skill only that comes from with experience and not by books.
They can take care of the paperwork. The amount of paperwork involved in a real estate sale and purchase can be tiring for some people. The documents like the written offer, the written and signed counteroffer, the little details (like specific repairs) and what exactly was and was not included in the sale everything can be handled by them. This is when a good real estate agent can save the day. The odds of missing something, not initialing a margin or not checking a box, can drop substantially when you’re working with someone who knows the paperwork inside and out.
Aside from the technical aspects of a sale and the mistakes people can make on the paperwork, real estate agents know neighborhoods and houses inside and out. an agent will be aware of features that don’t show as well on the Internet. If a buyer is looking for a house with a space that could be used as an office, an attached mother-in-law unit or a room that’s perfect for showing off a prized grandfather clock, a human agent is more likely to find a match than a real estate website.
The best way to make a deal is to look for the positive part of every offer and counteroffer, and never let the other party see you make a sour face. Often, the most effective way to do that is to present the face that’s doing business — not your own. The agent can handle every part of the transaction calmly. So, it is advised that you let the agent take the initiative in difficult negotiations.
Benefits Of Having an Attorney
Real estate attorneys specialize in facilitating property transactions, taking a certain amount of risk out of them, and helping new buyers understand the associated legalities. One receives legal protection when they hire an attorney to assist them with their purchase.
An attorney first and foremost helps their clients with understanding the contract professionally by reviewing the contract. General contracts that may not always be appropriate for every transaction or be 100% in the investor’s best interests. A real estate attorney ensures that their client understands all the terms of the sales contract, warns them if anything is potentially detrimental, as well as negotiates amendments on their client’s behalf as well.
An attorney will review the important documents such as the Legal Property Descriptions, Mortgage Records, explain them, and guide you through the transaction. If something doesn’t seem right or any paperwork is missing, they will inquire on your behalf.
Investors can rely on their attorneys to review the title search. In doing this, they will be able to discover any legal complication such as the Liens against the property or any boundary issues beforehand. Some of these potential issues can be resolved efficiently. But other complications can make the purchase more trouble than it’s worth.
Your attorney can handle all the paperwork and ensure that it is filed correctly. This is the most crucial step in the whole transaction. So, hiring an attorney gives one the peace of mind and assurance that all the paperwork will be handled smoothly and efficiently.
Benefits Of Having a Broker
When working with a real estate broker to invest in a home, you benefit from the broker’s considerable network of collaboration, which can consist of thousands of other real estate brokers and their buyers. This means that buyers are working with resources that would have otherwise been impossible to acquire if they dealt with the transaction themselves. Ultimately, this translates to a significantly increased chance of having the home sold quickly and for a fair price.
Real estate brokers also offer their clients protection throughout the entire transaction. When working with an experienced real estate broker, clients are effectively joining forces with a competent expert who is governed by the code of ethics implicit in his or her trade. Essentially, this means that a real estate broker is obliged to honor strict collaboration rules and laws that were put in place to protect the position of the buyer or seller. Again, when dealing with a professional real estate broker, prospective clients are giving themselves peace of mind that they simply won’t get if they choose to take the transaction in their own hands.
Benefits of a Property Manager
Property owners have way too much on their plates, disregarding their own profession. It’s simply impossible to juggle everything. With a Property Manager, all the hectic work is taken away and handed over to professionals. A good property manager not only gives the assurance of your property being taken care of, but they also provide a range of benefits.
A good property manager first and foremost starts with advertising the property. Property managers are well-trained at rental marketing and know how to write exceptional ads and take snapshots that may make your area look stunning. They’re able to help with everything from marketing to placing the proper price and locating a first-rate tenant, so that you save time and money.
Property Managers with their connections, can navigate through the documentations and get the paperwork’s for the property on time, and even protect you from unnecessary lawsuits. They can find good candidates to rent the property, saving you from having detrimental financial and legal issues.
Tenants can be troublesome in more ways than the property owner can imagine; collecting the security deposit, monthly rent, as well as eviction of tenants, a quality property manager can breeze through these problems like having breakfast. Tenants are not the only issue, even the property itself needs proper supervising in terms of repairs and maintenance. After all, a building won’t fix itself.
A good property manager has the resources to get the right kind of audience if you wish to sell your property. It needs to be out in the market before the money can roll in. A property manager has the time to take care of vacancies and the correct pricing of your property for a consistent occupancy level of the said property.
They also have a dedicated bookkeeping and accounting staff and deliver your financial package and owner cash distributions on the same day, every month.
In addition, your property management firm should have a 24/7 online portal where you can log in and see your general ledger, payables, receivables, and tenant service issues.
Benefits Of Having a Photographer
A professional photographer will help you out in capturing good-quality photos of your amazing property. With the advent of digitalization, digital marketing emerged, making selling real estate properties online a new necessity. As evident from the success of Zillow, the most successful online real estate marketplace, the shift from offline real estate to online is inevitable.
Good product photographs make the online user experience smooth and compel the buyers to purchase the product. It gets you qualified and quality buyers and helps you get a high price for your property.
Pictures clicked by a Professional Real Estate Photography Company sells for at least $1,000 and as much as $18,000 more than traditional homes photographed by an amateur and generates over 60 percent more online views. Property photographed by a professional photographer is more likely to sell faster than the one shot by a normal phone.
Eventually, the best listing agents know when to present tasks that are better addressed by professional real estate photographers – and it’s those listing agents who usually move up to the next level. Listing agents who have a magnificent portfolio of previous listing photos may be viewed as more professional, resulting in additional listings in the future. So, make sure to hire one for your next property on sale!
Benefits Of Having a Rental Manager
A good rental property manager will be able to sort out who is a worthy candidate for renting a property and who is not. Having quality tenants by screening them can help avoid some limits such as delays in rent payment, damage to the property, or even legal problems. Property managers are equipped to find reliable renters, who will stay in the residence long term, look after the property, and pay their rents on time.
With a higher quality tenant and competitive pricing, you will see much higher tenant retention rates for your property than others. Keeping quality tenants in their rentals is always a challenge, so being able to do this consistently will go a long way in protecting your investment.
They also keep a record of the billing history, additional payments as well as submit service issues.
Benefits of having a Contractor
As a property owner, maintenance is unavoidable- enter the contractor. However, at this point you need to pause, take a breath, and decide what kind of contractor you require. Even if your requirements are clear, there is a flood of contractors waiting for work to flow in their way. You can’t simply hire the first contractor that comes into your sight.
A smart choice would be to contact multiple contractors and provide a clear description of your projects. In this way you can get a clear idea of the cost and the time it would take to complete the project. Letting the contractors bid on your project even helps you lower the price a bit!
Now, getting a good price is important, but you also need to make sure that your contractors are listed. If the contractor you chose wants you to acquire the permits and/or ask you for payments up-front, understand that is a risky deal. When you deal with contractors, they come with their references, it doesn’t hurt to call up a few and do your own investigation.
Repair and maintenance are a repetitive process. As you interview them, they too want to know their employee. These skilled laborers are on a lookout for more business to grow and earn and rental property is an ensured repeat business in terms of client-vendor relationship. So, if you find a good contractor, add them to your contacts and invest in a profitable deal.
Daniel Borrero, Jr.
USALandVentures.com
Real Estate Investor since 1989