The 5 Key Skills of a
Property Investor
Starting out as a property investor, it is likely that you will spend some time in the early days finding your bearings and trying to understand where to begin. Should you look at investment areas? Should you research rental demand? Or should you see if you can get a mortgage? Like a rabbit in the headlights, you may not know which way to turn. If you want those headlights to illuminate a clear path forwards, keep reading as we share the key skills of a property investor.
The Five Key Skills of a Property Investor
There many skills that you will acquire along your path to being a successful investor. Some you will be taught, some you will discover and others you will develop without even realising it. From changing your mindset to learning to negotiate to doing calculations, each one will have its place. However, the following five skills are ones that have been tried and tested in the field, and have been shown to work. Implementing these will give you a distinct advantage over an amateur investor.
1) Create the right plan
Ask yourself this: do I even have a plan? Many people will enter into something like property investing without the right plan, or even having not considered a plan at all other than – let’s earn some money! Having the right plan from the start will give you a huge boost because your decisions in property investing will be determined by what it is you want to do and what it is you want to achieve.
Do you want to earn monthly income, and if so how much and on what timescale? Do you want to plan for your retirement and how does this look in your mind? Do you simply want some money to fund your own home, car or holiday? Whatever your reasons the plan must be one that aligns with your desired outcomes. What happens if you climb the ladder of success, only to discover at the top, that it is leaning against the wrong wall?
2) Finding the opportunities that others miss
This is a skill that sets highly successful property investors apart from amateur investors. Achieving success in property will be dependent on learning how to not only find deals, but also how to create property deals. Relying on estate agents and online searches will only yield mediocre results, especially at times when property demand outstrips supply.
It will be necessary to get out into the world and create deals and opportunities with your knowledge and skills. This is where creative thinking comes into play along with a persistent and consistent approach to implementing your strategies.
3) Raising the money
There is no getting away from the fact that buying property will require raising funds. Funds will need to cover not just the purchase price but also all of the costs of your Power Team such as your letting agent, solicitor, mortgage broker and trades people. However, there are many ways and opportunities for raising the money required to finance your property deals. Ways that are not obvious but are utilised by the most successful property investors in the business.
4) Organising people who have the know-how
Your key tasks as a property investor will be to find deals, raise the finance and organise the people in your team. It will not be necessary to know everything about mortgages, building regulations and tenancy agreements, for example. But you will need people who do have the expert knowledge and you will need to learn how to manage them to leverage their skill sets. People you can trust and rely on. This is called your Power Team and is something that you will need to build and manage.
5) Managing and protecting the cashflow from your portfolio.
A skill that is often overlooked is how to manage your property portfolio and maintain strong cashflows from each property within it. Areas change, economies change and demographics change. What was once a profitable rental property may become a poor performing one or even become a money-losing liability over time. Having the skills to manage the performance of your portfolio, to keep it working for your, will be invaluable for your future success.
Implementation
Implementing these five skills into your property investing strategy will give you an edge over the competition. They provide a basic system from which to start and grow. If you are not yet familiar with Asset Academy and want to learn more, you may enjoy a FREE one hour Discovery webinar to get you started or take a look through our Advanced Courses to see the variety of training programmes we have on offer.