Before You Start Get These Five Important Team Members in Place
By Paul Esajian on April 16, 2018
You are only as good as the people around you. Even if you come from a real estate background it is important to surround yourself with the best possible team. What you will find is that you will lean on your team to help answer questions, give advice and provide invaluable service. This is magnified if you are just starting out. You may have a vision for your business in mind, but your team will help turn that into reality. Without a good team you will scramble around, waste time and miss out on deals that should have been yours. There can be a dozen or more team members you will build as you grow your business. When you are just starting out focus on five and go from there. Here are the five core team members every new investor should have in place.
- Reliable mentor/partner. Investing in real estate isn’t easy. Very rarely, if ever, will you be presented with a straightforward, slam dunk deal. Almost every deal or property has something that should make you take a step back and think for a minute. Without bouncing your ideas of someone you can trust you may get into situations that are difficult to get out of. On the flip side, if you have a mentor on your side you can talk the deal through before getting too far. All it takes is one negative deal to set you and your business back. As the cliché goes sometimes the best deals are the ones you aren’t a part of. Passing on a suspect deal will open the door to other, better ones down the road.
- Attorney. It would be nice if you could make an offer and close without issue a few weeks later. Anyone in real estate will tell you this is far from the case. With the increase in competition there are several investors fighting for the same deals. You need to be protected legally at all times. Changing something on the contract may seem like a good idea, but if it isn’t legally binding you can get yourself in trouble. It is especially important for a new investor to work with a reliable attorney they can trust. They will act as not only legal council but an extra set of eyes on every contract you present. On accepted offers they will expedite the process, clear up any lingering issues and push to get the deal closed asap. If there is an issue with the title they will alert you what must be done and how long it could take to remedy. There is no question that a good attorney can help save at least a deal or two every year. At a minimum, they will act as a shepherd of sorts and help steer you clear of negative deals or situations.
- Contractor. You cannot understate just how important a reliable contractor is. Regardless if you plan on focusing on rentals or rehabs you will utilize a contractor. With buy and hold rental properties they will fix any lingering issues and stand on call for any future maintenance issues in the future. Instead of spending half the day trying to get someone to the house, they will either do the work or have someone that can be available. Where they really prove their worth is with rehab properties. Not only will they help construct work estimates, but they will give you the heads up for any red flag issues with the property. Once you take ownership they will put everything together and tackle all the work on your list. A good contractor will have people coming in and out of the property so there is no wasted time. It always takes a handful of projects until you know how things work. During this time your contractor will take control and run the project.
- Real estate agent. Every real estate investor has a different vision for their business. Regardless of where you plan on finding deals it is a good idea to find a reliable real estate agent you can trust. A good agent does more than simply find deals on the MLS and present offers. They can help provide advice on certain markets and if you are selling get your property offer the market as quickly as possible. On the offers you make they will know how to structure them to give you the highest chance of acceptance. They will protect you at every turn and help council you on which markets to entertain and which to stay away from.
- Lender. It is not an exaggeration to say that everything in your business starts with financing. Whether you use traditional lender or hard money financing drives everything you do in the process. It is a good idea to have as many different lending options as possible. The lender you would use for a rehab is not the same as one you would use for a buy and hold. You may only use hard money on one deal a year, but it will help maximize your bottom line for that purchase. Even if your credit is sterling and you can document income you should reach out to a local mortgage broker. A mortgage broker has access to dozens of loan programs for every scenario. The more lending options you have the easier it will be for your business to operate.
These are the five core team members you will utilize throughout the course of your business. Other members will enter your circle over time, but as you are just starting out find people in these five areas you can trust.