Buying and selling real estate is one of the oldest forms of investment that there is, so it’s as safe a place as any to start your investing venture. Before you do begin, however, you have to know what you’re letting yourself in for, as well as what you need to do to build your portfolio in the earliest stages of its inception which, then, in turn, creates a strong foundation for it to grow from going forward.
Here are a few things you can do to start investing in real estate in all the right ways:
Treat your venture as a business
The only way you are going to get anywhere in the world of real estate investment is if you treat it like it’s your job. You need to spend hours researching the market (more on that later), and you need to take time to head out to certain estates to see for yourself, in person, if they are worth the money you want to invest into them.
Align yourself with experienced traders
Working alongside somebody who knows more than you do about real estate investment, be them a professional in it or not, will help you to spot all the bulls and the bears in the market that you enter. As a novice, it would be easy for you to pour your money into a certain estate, especially when you are being egged on to do so by the seller, without realizing how much extra work is going to have to be done on it to get it anywhere near what you value it to be. With knowledgeable assistance at your side, you’d never have to worry about doing that.
Study your market
Your market involves a number of different variables. It involves the geographical location of your estate, the size of it and the type of tenant it is suited to. Whatever market you dive into, make sure you study it. This could mean seeing what your competitors are doing in regards to what it offers potential buyers or renters, or this could mean educating yourself on all the things that could draw potential buyers in, such as public transport improvements in the area.
Choose your platform
Once you feel ready and comfortable to give real estate investment ago, it’s time to choose the platform on which to do it. One such online platform that makes private market real estate investing accessible to the general public is Fundrise, and the Fundrise average returns should be as good as reason as any for you to be turning to them — you can get 11.44% (net of fees) returned to you upon a minimum investment of $500.
Taking the advice above will help you to lay the bedrock of your real estate investment venture, but the hard work doesn’t stop there. You need to build on these foundations, and you need to continue to grow your portfolio going forward. If you do, you stand yourself in good stead to turn real estate investment from a side hustle into your career!
