Investors Are Only As Strong As Their Team
By JD Esajian on October 11, 2013
Being a real estate investor is very similar to being the quarterback of a football team. Accordingly, you are only as good as the people around you. You can have the best quarterback in the world, but if their receivers don’t catch the ball or the linemen don’t block, nobody will get anywhere. As with the investor, their success is usually obtained through members of their team. If the attorney, realtor or contractor drop the ball at any point in the process, the deal doesn’t close and the investor is the one left wondering what went wrong. Investors are only as good as the team they surround themselves with.
As with any business, you constantly need to evaluate what is successful and who is making it possible. In real estate, your success could come directly from any one of the members on your team. You are in control of who you work with and how the work is done. At the end of the day, nobody benefits or profits unless deals are getting closed. It is your job to work with people who share a like vision and will work in the manner that you expect. If you are not comfortable with anyone on your team, there is nothing wrong with making a change.
Start with your realtor. You need to be on the same page. Make sure they understand which properties you are interested in and how you are going to present offers. Some realtors may get frustrated showing you properties that you will most likely offer below the asking price on. If you make this known up front, they should have no problem. The same goes for focusing on short sales and foreclosures. These offers take more effort to put together and follow up on. Are you comfortable that your realtor is working them to the best of their capability?
Your attorney is in control of your contract and ultimately the closing. You need to know that they are pulling title when needed, sending documents over in a timely fashion or negotiating with your best interests in mind. You should never feel uncomfortable calling your attorney or feel like you are bothering them. If you do, it may be time to make a change.
Your realtor should find you deals and your attorney should push the closing along, but your contractor will hold the key to your profits. You need to feel confident that your contractor is providing you with fair, honest estimates. Do they do what they say they will when they say it? If you have to wait around for your contractor, or you don’t feel that they are putting any priority on your properties, you can fairly easily find someone that will. Your profit on every property relies on you getting in and out as quickly as possible. Your contractor can make this happen and you should have a plan in place, even before you close on the property.
Your realtor, attorney and contractor are the key members of your investing team, but there are many more. Your mortgage broker, investing partner and accountant also can affect how successful you are. Constantly stay on top of your team and look at what benefit each of them provides. If you can get everyone on the same page, your job will be much easier.