At Donley Carver, we lease, manage, and maintain investment properties in Kansas City, Liberty, Parkville, and Gladstone. We also work with new investors who aren’t sure how to start the process of acquiring and managing rental real estate.
If you’re thinking about a single-family home as an investment, you’re making a good choice. Your property will likely earn higher rents, attract stable tenants, and appreciate quickly in value. While the real estate market throughout the Northland is strong and thriving, you have to be prepared for things like vacancy loss, tenant risk, and the local and federal rental laws.
Smart investors know that when you buy and hold real estate, you have remarkable opportunities to earn consistent cash flow and build a steady and impressive strategy for long-term ROI. You can also encounter some liability if you’re not careful.
Here’s how to do it right.
You Need Detailed Investment Goals
It’s important to spend some time exploring how, when, and why you want to become a real estate investor. If you’re ready to begin buying properties, you need to have an established set of real estate goals. Understanding what you’re hoping to accomplish, what your timeline is, and even how you plan to exit from various investments will help you buy the right rental homes. A lot of new investors make the mistake of diving right in without a plan. That’s not a great way to succeed.
Decide what you’re hoping to achieve and prioritize your goals when you have more than one. This well-mapped plan will set you up for success and keep you from making impulsive decisions that don’t serve your needs.
Get to Know the Kansas City Rental Market
Research both the sales market and the rental market in the area that you’ve targeted for potential investment properties. National trends and figures will not help you as much as hyper-local data will. Rental properties have their own nuances. You’ll find several sub-markets within the Kansas City market.
New investors are sometimes surprises that the rental value of one home can be quite different than that of another home that’s so similar – even in the same city. If you understand the nuances and trends of the neighborhood in which you want to buy a property, you’ll have a better chance at succeeding with your investment.
Local market knowledge helps with pricing your property, marketing the home to potential tenants, and making the upgrades and improvements that good tenants demand when they’re looking for a home.
Think about your ideal tenant and how to attract that tenant. All of this information will help you buy the right investment and prepare for how you’re going to rent it out.
Invest in Professional Kansas City Property Management
Don’t wait until after you buy your investment property to consult with professional Northland property managers.
Leasing, managing, and maintaining a rental home is time-consuming. It requires a lot of knowledge and experience. Going it alone leads to easy and expensive mistakes.
A property management company will protect your investment, ensure you’re compliant with all state, federal, and local laws, and save you money on vacancy, turnover, and maintenance costs. You won’t have to worry about responding to tenants in the middle of the night or trying to decide how to manage a security deposit.
We can help you get started. Contact us at Donley Carver Investment Properties, and we’ll tell you more about what you need to know.