The Best Real Estate Advice

Sometimes it’s hard to find investors who will give you the kind of advice that you really need. So what do you do?

A question that I’m often asked and which has been bothering me also for a while now is where can investors go to get the advice that they really need - the kind of advice that they can trust? It’s easy for me to ask them to mail their questions to editor@realtortoday.com. I won’t deny that lots of people do write to me, but there have been times when I’ve seen plenty of “sources” of information that are tainted and skewed away from what is best for investors and that really bothers me. So as I write today, it got me thinking about the question all over again.

I think one of the best places for investors to get solid and usually unfiltered information on a good investment opportunity, company or even professional is from investors who have experience. That seems so simple, doesn’t it?  But believe me, sometimes it’s hard to find investors who will give you the kind of advice that you really need. Too often an investor will have been investing for a short period of time, or have been investing practically blind by not really paying attention to a passive investment and his advice may be no better than wildly picking an investment property out of the paper ads.  So how do you know if you are getting good advice? For me, one of the first signs that gives me a feeling of comfort is an investor who asks more questions of me before answering. I love it when I ask for advice and the answer is a question. That means the person is inquisitive and looking for what fits my needs before they answer. If only everyone used that concept before giving advice! So that always makes me feel comfortable with the person I’m talking with. Then I look for how others answer the question. I figure I can always throw out the best and the worst comment. There is always a story behind a bad comment and usually an equally good story behind the best comment as well. I prefer instead to pay attention to the aggregate of comments.  What do most people say about the investment strategy, or investment firm, or even the investment professional. And not just their clients, but what does the investment community think of them. I would also like to test the honesty of whomsoever is giving me advice, or a recommendation. As journalists we’ve been told to be cynical to get to the root of the story, so for me, I think the easiest way to know if someone is being honest is to ask them to share with you the reasons not to do an investment. There will not always be an easy answer, but there are almost always risks associated with anything and if someone is willing to share those risks and make sure you understand the concerns, that makes me feel much more comfortable. If they cannot give me any negatives, then I look for if they struggle with the answer? Do they have empathy for my question and want to be truthful but cannot come up with a good, logical reason for me not to follow through with an investment? These things are very important to me when I ask for a recommendation in anything.  A real estate investment or real estate company, a good investment outside of real estate, a good programme for my kid and even a recommendation for pet stay for my Labrador Retriever. I must know that whomever I am talking to wants to keep my best interest and needs in mind and then wants to give me a fair and honest assessment. Another source for good advice could be real estate communities and forums, especially super-active, online communities are great source of real estate advice. You just have to exercise a few muscles along the way to getting advice at these communities and you can get a clear picture of just about any opportunity or company. Get online and get plugged in today. Take advantage of asking questions, answering questions and by all means, tell someone when you respect their answer or their opinion. If you put the time in the give back, then that site will give back plenty to you as a real estate professional. And that is what this article is all about, right? Again, how do I know when I am getting good advice? The great thing about some of these forums is that they allow people to interact in an honest way that sometimes is not possible when face-to-face. It lets people explore and think about questions that others are asking and then give thoughtful and honest answers. The advice on a site like this comes from so many different directions and it is unfiltered. These forums give us the opportunity to filter the information we get, compare it to similar questions and answers and then dig in on a personal level with others that really impress us with their answers and contributions. The power of these sites is not the technology or the platform or the layout. It is the people and that advice from an anonymous investor who you only know from an avatar and brief clip of their story, is usually some of the trusted and most straight-forward advice you can get. How about you?  What has been your experience when it comes to getting advice?