How To Make The Right Rental Property Investment

Choosing the right rental property is very important. It is a decision that will make an investment worthwhile. Rental property investment starts with finding the best deals. To do this, you can increase your odds by finding more deals. Who's more likely to get a cheap apartment building, an investor that looks through the MLS listings and calls it a day, or the one that uses ten resources? Here are those ten:

1. Look in old papers to find "For Rent" ads. Call if they are a few weeks old. The landlord may be ready to sell, especially if he hasn't yet rented the units out.

2. Look up old FSBO ads. Call on two-month-old "For sale By Owner" ads, and if they haven't sold, they may be ready to deal. Owners often give up the effort, but still would love to sell. Help them out!

3. Drive around looking for "For Sale By Owner" signs. Owners often don't want to pay to keep the ad in the paper every week, so you won't see all properties there.

4. Find abandoned properties. That's a pretty clear sign that the owner doesn't want to deal with the property. He might sell cheap.

5. Talk. Let people know you are looking and sometimes the properties will come to you. There are a lot of owners out there who want to sell, but haven't yet listed their property.

6. Talk to bankers. You might get a foreclosed rental property cheaper if you buy it before they list it with a real estate agent.

7. Offer someone a finder's fee. There are people that always seem to hear about the good deals. Have such people coming to you.

8. Eviction notices. If your local papers publish eviction notices, or if you can get the information at the courthouse, it can be useful. A landlord who just went through the procees of evicting tenants is a likely seller.

9. Use the internet. Go to a search engine and enter the type of real estate you are looking for, along with the city you want to invest in. You never know what you might find.

10. Put an ad in the paper. "Looking for rental properties to buy," might be sufficient to generate a few calls.

Other issues to note

1. Depreciation

Depreciation is a fancy business way of saying something is decreasing in value. Investment properties may experience depreciation, because typically as a building ages the value of the physical building depreciates. It is important to note the actual depreciation realized is related specifically to the value of the physical building. Historically, real estate prices seem to follow a positive trend. How can this be if old buildings have experienced severe depreciation and thus are worth less today than 20 years ago? We must look at the whole equation. The value of the land is integrated into the equation as well, and traditionally land increases in value. Thus, when we look at investment properties, we normally see an increase in value thanks to the seemingly continuous appreciation of the land the building was built on.

2. Land Contract

A land contract is fairly simple. When you are looking to invest in some property, you will negotiate a price for the land. The written manifestation of these verbal negotiations is a land contract. The land contract for the investment property outlines the terms of the agreements, such as the monthly payments, interest rate, and maturation date of the loan.

3. Land Auction

You might have heard other real estate investors talk of a land auction. A land auction is one way of buying an investment property. In a land auction, land is auctioned off to the highest bidder. Often times one can score a real deal on property auctioned off in such events. Upon winning an auction, you can then sign a land contract for the property and hope your investment property experiences appreciation, rather than depreciation, so that you can cash in on your increased equity a few years down the road.

There is a lot more to learn to do it right, but finding good properties is a good place to start for rental property investment.