1.       Buy the bread and butter!  Nothing moves like a 3/2 house.  We used to think "if someone can afford to rent a 3/2 house, they can afford to buy one".  WRONG!  They're by FAR the easiest to rent.

2.       The squeaky owner gets the rent!  If you have a property management company, FOLLOW-UP WITH THEM.  I pore over our monthly financial statements and drill down every month on at least something.  I actively follow-up with their marketing campaigns.  I have a one-hour recurring monthly meeting with my property manager.  I check-in regularly to see if tenants are paying late and if so to verify that the pre-evictions process is moving along.  Owners that don't do this get moved lower down among the priority lists and have higher economic vacancies as the result.  My total time "managing the managers" is less than 10 hours per month but reaps huge rewards.  It's some of the best time I spend.

3.       Target!  We have a target area with 27,000 people (we were told correctly that you should have 25,000 to 30,000 people in yours to ensure that there are enough properties to stay interesting but not so many as to be overwhelmed).  Watch that area like a hawk and you WILL know more than any other realtor, mortgage broker, title company or consultant.  From that place of expertise, you will be able to spot and get great deals.  We can drive every single one of our properties in 15 minutes because of their close proximity.  Few things are worse than driving an hour each way only to be stood up by a prospective tenant.

4.       Fail Faster! This is basically another way of saying "Dare to be Dumb".  Do the things you don't know how to do and you will learn how to do them.  Be sure to learn from your mistakes though, if you fail a lot and don't learn from them, you will soon be ending your real estate investment career and begin the next phase of your professional development by asking, "Would you like fries with that?". 

5.       Train, don't be the trained!  Regarding tenants, especially in the first couple of months of the relationship and even more so if it's a lower quality tenant, either you or the tenant WILL BE TRAINED.  If you accept excuses about the rent being late, YOU are being trained.  If, however, you post 3-day pay-or-quit notices at 6am the morning that they're officially late, you'll be training THEM to pay rent on time.  A couple of sharp signals early on make for fantastic tenants down the road.

6.       Be Transparent!  Every time I sign a lease, I sit down with the new tenant and explain to them in plain English what every single thing means in plain (non-legalese) language.  It allows them to really understand the rules, it confirms that you take things seriously and  that there is a good reason for everything in their lease.  Lastly, there's the benefit of demonstrating that you have at least a little working knowledge of contracts and therefore sets the bar that if things end up going poorly, you are willing to go to the realm of the legal to resolve conflict.

7.       Give your leg to avoid an ARM!  I bought my first property before I really understood what could happen with Adjustable Rate Mortgages.  Fortunately, it's worked out well for me, but there are obviously countless people for whom it didn't.

8.       Deals of a Lifetime Occur Weekly!  Every single week there is at least one Deal-of-a-Lifetime in a given target area.  It *will* be snapped up by *someone*.  Successful investors watch the market every day so that when said deals appear, they can be the ones to jump on them.

9.       Pull the trigger!  All the education in the world will make you 5% ready to be a real estate investor.  Doing one deal poorly will make you 80% of an investor!  Experience tests you in ways that hypothetical learning never could.

10.  Hard then smart!  Early on in your business, it's vital to work your butt off.  Once you have momentum, then start systematizing based upon what you've learned.  If you try to systematize too much, too early, you'll kill yourself with overwhelm and spend time perfecting unnecessary systems.  Late in your business, if you don't systematize, you've just created another workaholic type job that doesn't give you the freedom and lifestyle that real estate can (and does, if you wait long enough) bring.

11. Don't think you have to be a friend to your tenants.
I naively believed that people would be grateful and good tenants if I treated them like a friend. That applied to the neighbors of the property I purchased also. I gave them all my phone number and told them to call day or night if I could every help with anything. The result was that I found myself in the middle of a cat fight between my tenants and all the neighbors. It is impossible to become the tough guy to your tenant once you have presented yourself as the push over. I learned (and am still trying) to be strictly business.

12. Watch the cash flow.
I was told the key to real estate investing was to understand that profits come long term. Partly correct, but there is no easy recovery from buying a home where the numbers don't work from day one.

13. Shop your financing.
I believed all mortgages were the same when I applied for my first loan. There are a lot of programs and a lot of good rates to be found. Check out as many as you can until you find one that is just right.

14. It will always cost more than you think.
Just like everything else in life, the cost to repair, clean, and find renters, etc. will always be more than you think. Plan accordingly.

15. I should have done it sooner.
I am 55 now and just purchased my first investment property last year. I wish I knew ten years ago what I know now. Time is the great wealth multiplier.

16. Don't remodel it like you are going to live in it.
Sometimes when fixing up a property to rent we want it to be perfect and the kind of quality we would want for ourselves. It is better to go a little low scale than throw money away in improvements that will not be appreciated or kept up.

17. Dot all your "i"s and cross all your "t"s.
Have a good lease and review it with your tenant thoroughly. It will be the tool you will use to defend yourself one day.

18. Check out your tenant carefully.
Don't be so anxious to get a tenant in that you side-step the process of checking backgrounds. Extra effort on the front end will save a lot of grief later on.