If you’re looking for an investment, you should know that the real estate business is a good way to start. It is a long-term plan to make, and you can be your whole life into it if you do it well enough. But, just like any business, there’s a lot to learn before becoming an expert. Our intentions today are to help you learn
How to use online real estate platform so you can get started as an investor?
Choose wisely and take your time
There are lots of platforms online, and if you want to start the right way, you better study each portfolio so you know what’s best for you. If you can’t see their portfolio (in some cases it happens), then try to find out in what projects that platform was involved. If you are new in this subject, you need to start with a platform that isn’t, so you can get good advices, good opportunities and a guarantee that the platform is not going to disappear from one day to the other.
Take advices from real estate agents or people involved in this business
You may be thinking, “that’s an obvious one”, but there are some tricks that don’t exist in the stock investing business for example, and vice versa. If you want to learn how to use online real estate platform, then let the real estate platform (or professionals) help you. It’s just a small push at the beginning, and then you can go on your own. The other private markets may seem similar to real estate, but there are so many and so different variables that you need to hear your advices from someone who already knows them.
Let the plans take you
As you imagine, if there’s an online platform, there’s a way to make everything look easier, and that’s what they’re doing. There’s a concept called “investment planning”, and that is where you want to start once you are sure about this business and the platform you chose. Most platforms have investment plans, where they show you the different ways and a few comparisons among them, for example, the time that happens from the moment you invest your money to the moment you get to see dividends, or when you’re going to get your total return (if that’s the case), or how much you’re going to appreciate it. The key here is to know what you’re looking for.
Long term vs. short term
This is what you want to have in mind at the moment you start investing. How long do you want to wait before seeing any money in return? The trick here is that the longest you wait, the more you get in return, as the project may be bigger, or with bigger chances, but it may take longer as it needs more investors and it’s waiting for them. In the short-term way, you get dividends quite soon, but not for a long time. It is a way of acting faster, putting your money from project to project, and in this case, you totally depend on the availability of projects to invest in, as there aren’t always as many available assets for this kind of investment as an investor would actually like or need. See why you need a first push from a professional at the beginning? It’s a tricky business, but with a high chance of total return in the end of the line.
Balanced investing
After learning that last piece, you may ask yourself if there’s a middle point. There is. It is called balanced investing, and it’s a way to stay in the middle of both short and long-term investments. It doesn’t literally mean that it’s somewhere in the middle, but it means that this plan may accommodate to your needs if you can’t decide which to go of the last two. In this one you can acquire assets that can generate a constant cash flow in a predictable way, so it means less risks than the long-term and more money than the short term.
Growth strategies vs. income strategies
This is one of the first decisions you’re going to make. What do you want? If you want what is called a “growth strategy”, your investment will go to a property, and your returns are back-ended. That means you will only see your money back once the property is sold. Here you can see more money than an income strategy, but you may have to wait longer. In an income strategy, you won’t get to see as much money as a growth strategy, but you’ll see it more often. Here, your money comes back in the shape of interests or rent. Either way, you are slowly getting small returns and feeling like a business is being made. In both cases you can make money, but the strategies change the way you get it, and the risks you’re taking.
Start easy, and let yourself go
Now that you have what it needs to give yourself a confident start, and that you know how to use online real estate platform, my last advice is to go easy. Start investing isn’t always easy, so go for the minimum amount the platform lets you if you are still not sure. You’ll see results soon, and once it happens, you’ll know if you like it or not. Once you’re in, you’ll learn a lot about acquiring assets empty or full, the different scenarios, making decisions, rent, dividends, interests, and so on.
