LEARNING AND GAINING KNOWLEDGE

HOW TO APPLY THIS TO YOUR PROFESSION, JOB AND INVESTMENTS

Your whole life has been all about gathering knowledge and information. Especially when it comes to your job or profession.

The same is necessary when it comes to investing or business building.

The most important part of my journey in real estate and business was learning and gaining knowledge. This will become the most valuable part of your journey. It is necessary to have underpinning knowledge in your area of expertise or business or investing.

Underpinning knowledge is essential for you to make informed decisions. I find that it’s easier to invest in a program where you have a mentor or coach that can help you with this process. Coaches that have already travelled the journey can guide you in the direction to gather the most valuable knowledge.

My investment and business journey has been filled with specialist coaches providing me with knowledge around investing, real estate, business or mindset. Gaining knowledge and learning from coaches and mentors is supremely beneficial to successful investment.

When it comes to real estate it is important to gather the information from people that are already successfully doing what you want to do. For example, when I invest in an area in the United States I want to make sure that I am receiving knowledge from people in the area that I want to invest in.

Finding The Best Advice 

Therefore my team members are people on the ground in neighbourhood and the State and the County that I want to invest in.

Once you are established in a particular area you can seek advice and information from the local real estate investor groups. Every city in every state have these types of real estate investor groups. When travelling and visiting the state you are investing in you can be a guest at these forums and you will meet property managers, realtors, investors, contractors, insurance agents, material suppliers and anyone else connected to real estate.

When I travel to the United States, which is every year, last year it was for 5 months and this year was for 2 months I visit my local real estate investor group and the people, network and contacts you make are invaluable. They also provide fantastic educational seminars you can go to also. The thing you have to be careful of are the realtors there wanting to push and sell you a deal, it can be any deal, they just want to move it. They see you, an investor from another country and they think ‘aha’ and move on in to show you all their stock. They all look fantastic on paper, however, you have to do a whole lot more research than taking the word of the realtor.

In the areas I invest I have sourced a valid source of business information. They are a local business group and they produce a small video each day, which can be emailed to you, and they provide a 10-minute update on all the local business information. Another great way of gathering knowledge about the area you want to invest in.

Your local American accountant, CPA can provide local business contacts and networking groups as they are generally involved in and go to their events also. My CPA is connected with all the large and small banks in the area, which can be very handy as you the investor are always seeking ways to get finance. They also go to all the networking events also.

Finding The Right Information

Another great way of sourcing information is the internet. Again, being careful about the information you are gathering. When I have received property alerts from my team I can go ahead and just type in the address into google and bucket loads of information will be revealed about that particular property. The last time it sold and for how much and it can be from years ago. Also, photos of the property and plenty of them.

There are websites like Zillow and Tulia that will give you estimates of market value and also provide you with sales history and data. What I like about these sites is they give you the surrounding house data. Whether they are for sale, been sold or just simply a valuation. They also provide an opportunity to view the house through street view, Google Maps. You can imagine how much I use this application when I am sitting in Australia viewing a property in a neighborhood thousands of miles away from me.

A great source of factual information and data are the County Council websites. You can search by property address or property owner and receive all the data including past sales history, current tax information, any outstanding taxes due, auditor valuations and any additions. I use this site frequently when it comes to running the numbers on the property as I gather the correct property tax information and also determine if there are any exemptions. It is really valuable to know who the owner of the property is as you can determine if it is in pre or post-foreclosure. Your strategy of buying will be different in each case.

Finally, one of the most important sources of information is the Multiple Listing Service known as MLS by most American realtors. Your realtor you are dealing with has access to this data and information. Data you do not have access to. It would be a great idea for you to ask for the listing on a particular property through your realtor.

So there you have it… this is how I gather valuable knowledge, information and data. I have given you some ways to access property information and most of it is for free!