Do You Want To Be a Successful Property Investor? The Vital Knowledge You Need To Start Investing

Have you been thinking about getting into property investing? You may feel excited, confident and ready to jump in, however  there is fundamental groundwork and education that needs to be done before venturing out into the tricky world of property investing.

Owner of property advisory firm, Property Mavens and author of Property Prosperity, Miriam Sandkuhler, shares some of the biggest costly mistakes people make when starting out in property investing and how you can avoid doing the same thing.

1. Know your risk profile, its essential!

Understand your personal circumstances first and have a really good understanding of your personal and investment risk profiles. Regardless of what properties are available, you need to know what you are comfortable investing in. 

Otherwise, you won’t be able to sleep at night or you will never feel at ease for the long haul. If investing with another person, make sure you invest respecting the person with the lowest risk profile.

Property investing isn’t an overnight payoff; you need to be comfortable over the medium to long term to generate the best possible outcome.

2. Go to an  accountant and mortgage broker: Arm yourself with the correct lending and investing structure.

Your lending and investing (tax) structure are the minimum things you need to get right, before you get the ball rolling for property investing.

From the very beginning, you need to have the right tax and structuring advice from an accountant. Don’t start to build a substantial portfolio without having it set up properly, or you will pay for it in higher taxes down the track.

Hold off on  engaging a buyer’s agent  or looking at properties until you have laid the groundwork. Aside from knowing your risk profile and tax structure know what position you are in to finance a property.

Lending rules change rapidly, so you need to know how much you can borrow and spend before taking the next steps towards building your portfolio.

3. You can’t be an expert in everything. Hire experts to help you succeed.

Let’s face it, no one individual can be an expert in every area. Having a great team around you helps to maximise your returns, mitigate risk and ensure the best possible outcome. People who go off on their own without professional advice often take one step forward and two steps back.

For example, it’s a classic mistake for people to end up paying extra taxes or ruin their credit rating or borrowing capacity, had they sought  the right professional advice. Some good property professionals to have around are mortgage brokers, financial planners, accountants, conveyancers, and buyer’s agents.

Do you have Investment Knowledge Gaps?

While it’s great to be ready and willing to invest, remember to do your groundwork first. Miriam warns, “Investors don’t make mistakes based on what they know, they make mistakes based on what they don’t know. The catch is that most people ‘don’t know’ what they don’t know.”

If you want to get a clear idea of where your investment knowledge gaps are then Miriam offers this free ‘property guru’ quiz. Once you know where your strengths and weaknesses are you can source the right team to help you to get you started and succeed on your lucrative investment journey. 

About Miriam Sandkuhler, Property Investment Advisor