There are three primary points to consider before changing things up:

1. As an investor, ensuring excellent customer service for your tenants is key to growing a positive reputation.  You will never make 100% of the tenants or even applicants happy 100% of the time.  However, put the effort in to hit that mark.  It will make it a lot easier to ignore the few who decide a nasty online post is their best route....whether it is truthful or not!

2. Many renters live paycheck-to-paycheck and value flexibility in paying rent.  This is a new reality and landlords as well as property management companies need to creatively figure out flexible payments.

3. Grace periods, though helpful to tenants, can promote bad habits.  Bad habits are the last thing you want to promote in a tenant!

With these in mind, consider: how can you innovate in how tenants pay their rent and improve customer service without extending too-lenient grace periods?

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There’s a certain unique energy to investors when they’re starting out for the first time. One of my favorite parts of working with so many investors or participating on real estate investing forums like BiggerPockets.com is getting to interact with new investors.  The potential for positive cash flow and passive income are sweet, sweet images to consider. It’s easy to real estate investors to be excited about their opportunities in the beginning. It’s hard work, but it’s new, challenging and exciting.

There’s an irreplaceable je ne sais quoi to it all.

Investing in real estate has always been a different beast in comparison to other kinds of investments. After all, real estate is tangible. Real. You can own it, walk through it, see it. It’s not theoretical, it’s concrete.

That, among other reasons, is why so many people have chosen real estate as their source for passive income throughout the years. But is it still true? Through recessions, housing bubbles and market crashes, does real estate still hold up?

Well, it looks like it does.

Where real estate investment is involved, the options are virtually endless. After all, there are markets all over the country (and the world) in which to strategically build up passive income. Some investors favor big, glamorous markets while others are content with single-family homes in less lauded areas.

We often hear these markets described purely in terms of their city. Houston. New York. Los Angeles. Boca Raton. But as we all know, cities and markets are not uniform. There are variations in neighborhoods and communities that we need to pay mind to when looking to purchase an investment property. A safe neighborhood, after all, is absolutely key to your success. If you tenants feel unsafe in the area, chances are you won’t be keeping them for long. Safety isn’t the only criteria in a good investment property, however.

Before you buy, there are  many factors to consider about your neighborhood of choice: namely, local amenities and attractions that can make you property prime real estate.

For most people, saying “renter” will bring up a particular image. Twenty-somethings, singles, young families — people who, essentially, can’t afford to buy their own home yet. While they, along with college students, make up a significant portion of renters, they are far from the only ones.

In fact, there’s quite the number of Baby Boomers turning to renting in their sunset years. Enough that real estate investors would do well to investigate. Marketing with Baby Boomers in mind in the right places may just give your investments a boost.

Investing in real estate may be something you’ve been considering for awhile now. It’s something you think you’d really like to do, but you still haven’t quite committed to jumping into real estate investment.  Maybe you are still in the learning phase and realize there are a lot of questions you need to be asking before moving forward.

Part of that still, perhaps, is that you aren’t asking yourself enough questions (or the right questions). 

If investing in real estate is just a theoretical idea of saving retirement money or building reliable passive income, take that dream to the next level. Instead of daydreaming about all the benefits of real estate investment, it’s time to knuckle down and make your decision.  

Your security later in life - the security of your investments - relies on your getting answers to serious questions now and surrounding yourself with a great TEAM before moving forward.  What better way to vet a great team than to get the answer you need and make sure you are pointed in the right direction as a real estate investor.

Only three things happen naturally when investing in real estate. Confusion, under-performance and apathy.  The rest requires leadership!  If part of your real estate investing goals includes moving away from Turnkey investing for part of your portfolio and into an active role, you are going to have to provide leadership to the team you choose! I hope you enjoy this article.

I try to make this blog a valuable resource for our customers and other people interested in real estate investing. From general real estate information to more specific advice regarding real estate investing, from the latest news in what's going on with Memphis Invest to up-to-date information about the Memphis area, I want you to walk away feeling more intelligent and/or more informed after every post you read on here.