In 1975 a young man from Cincinnati, Ohio worked hard to keep his latest project afloat. He was over budget and late, despite the fact that the new film would set the domestic record for box office gross sales of over $470,000,000 and win three Academy Awards. The movie was Jaws and the director was Steven Spielberg, one of America’s youngest multimillionaires.
Jaws, a 25-foot great white shark reminds me of some investors in this business. But not for the reasons you might think. Most people would think of the word shark as someone who is ruthless and crooked. That’s not what I’m talking about.
For a shark to survive, it must continue to swim. If it stops swimming, it dies. And that’s what happens to most investors in real estate. What would happen if you stopped? What would happen if you decided not to work for a year? Most investors are like sharks, their business would die.
That’s why apartment buildings make more sense. You can buy and sell multifamily properties without spending an extraordinary amount of time doing it. And, if you stop, your investment continues to flourish-if you know what to do.
That doesn’t mean you don’t need to go fishing first. You won’t do yourself any favors if you stop swimming before you’ve caught a fish. To that end, what are the biggest mistakes investors make when finding and analyzing properties? How do successful investors “fish” for the right opportunities? They start by avoiding these common mistakes: