To stacks odds in your favour, you need to educate yourself by doing research on anything and everything property.
You’ll need to research and educate yourself on everything from building and construction to property and finance to applications, approvals, certifications and legalities.
Conduct all your research with an end goal, an exit strategy in mind.
For example, if the market is hot, you might sell, but if the market is in a slump, will rental repayments cover what you’ve invested into the property to help you weather any future storms?
Again, consider all your options and all the possible options.
In other words, hope for the best and plan for the worst.
More good news is that there’s never been a time that’s easier than now.
There’s a wealth of knowledge online that’s easily available at your fingertips.
All you have to do is search for it.
Websites like Google and YouTube are good places to start as they will most likely answer the questions you have or direct you to somewhere or someone that can.
Social media websites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn can also answer a bulk of questions to help you on your way.
You may even connect with people that can help you tremendously.
You might ask yourself – “What do I even search to get started?”
Here’s just a few suggestions to get the ball rolling;
How do I build a house?
What’s involved in a house renovation?
What different types of mortgages are available?
What will the banks ask me when I apply for a loan?
What are the usual problems that come up with property development?
Almost any question you have has been asked before you and has answers available online.
Tip – If you don’t like researching and educating yourself, you more than likely won’t want to do anything involved with a development either.
Worse yet, if you don’t research and educate yourself you can be in for a whole lot of lost time, effort, energy and money.
Or better yet, if you do research and educate yourself, you’ll find easier, quicker and cheaper or more cost effective ways to do things to boost the efficiency, speed and overall profitability of the project.
Your choice.
Research and education is a win / win.
Tip – Check the taxes payable on the type of development or project you will undertake once completed and sold before getting too invested. Also, check how much potential rent you will achieve in its current and finished state so if the market has shifted by the time you have finished the project, you will have a better idea for your options.
Tip – While paying money for good information may cost upfront, what you gain through it will pay itself back easily, whether you know it or not. So while it will cost you money upfront, the knowledge and wisdom you gained will stay with you forever – that’s money well spent.
Even if you don’t plan on developing for a number of years, this is even better.
This just means you’ll have more time to research what you should do, what you have to do and what you need to know.
Also talk with people in property.
Talk to lenders, agents, tradespeople, property developers big and small, anyone that knows anything about property can help in one way or another.
Tip – The best way to learn is through practical experience that either doesn’t cost you or better yet, pays you to learn.
If you know any builders or if there’s a renovation going on near or around you, have a chat with them and see if they’re happy to answer questions.
Better yet, offer your value by way of how you can help them in exchange for their help.
You might have something they want or you can offer to help them with the project they’re doing.
Tip – Don’t just talk with the successes, talk with people that it didn’t work out for, find out why and work out how you can avoid their mistakes.
While it will take a lot of time and effort up front, you’ll be saving more time and effort down the track by doing so.
As you can see, it’s so important to research and educate yourself.
But what if you can’t be bothered with all that effort and research?
Okay, let’s put things into perspective.
Let’s say you were given a test that you had to complete that was compiled into a lot of different questions.
If you just passed you were given nothing – you broke even.
If you didn’t pass, you were charged money for failing the test.
Worse yet, depending on your final score, you were charged tens or hundreds of thousands, millions even, for every point you got wrong.
This wouldn’t put you in a very good position.
But what if you were told what to roughly expect in the test so you could study for it and take the test whenever you feel like.
Better yet, if you do more then pass, you’ll be paid, tens or hundreds of thousands, millions even for every point you got right?
You would be in a much better position wouldn’t you?
The same applies to property development.
Do the research and educate yourself and you have a much better chance of not only passing the test, but being handsomely rewarded for it.
Tip – While you will learn a lot through research, unfortunately some things will usually have to be learnt practically and through trial and error. The trick again is to start small so if you do make mistakes, it doesn’t cost as much time, effort, energy and money to rectify. Learning through the research you’ve done will help you work more efficiently to manage risk, mitigate your loses and let you know, hopefully ahead of time, the better, easier and more profitable way of doing things.
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This information is of a general nature only and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. We are not financial, legal or tax advisers. You should seek appropriate professional advice specific to you before acting on this information.
