Low risk investments do not exist on their own. All real estate investments can be associated with a high level of risk if they lack a comprehensive, well-developed strategy, or if the investor is not aware of his/her goals and their importance to the investment.
So, what are the major aspects that any investor should focus on in order to achieve low risk investments?
Low Risk Investments: Do Your Research
In order to achieve low risk investments, you first need to understand the risks that are associated with real estate investing. One of the major risks that could compromise your real estate investment is the lack of tax knowledge. There are many real estate investors who fail in terms of taxes only because they couldn’t maintain their tax knowledge and keep it up to date.
Tax laws and regulations are constantly changing on multiple levels, especially in the US. If you’re not relying on a real estate agent or a property management company to keep you up to date with all laws and regulations related to your real estate investment, then you better make sure to keep yourself up to date and conduct enough research to protect yourself and your real estate investment against any changes or dynamics that might apply to your case.
Related: 4 Steps Towards Having a Safe Investment Property
Low Risk Investments: Define Your Goal
Defining low risk investments can be a tricky thing. This is because the amount of acceptable risk on a real estate investment relies heavily on the investor and his/her goals. The risk of a real estate investment is tied to the chances of it not meeting the goals that the individual investor would like it to achieve. And each individual investor has different goals for his/her real estate investment; some investors set up goals that are associated with higher risks but higher returns, while other investors set up goals that attempt to decrease the level of risk associated with their real estate investment in exchange for a more guaranteed long-term profit or value appreciation.
As an investor, having a fully defined goal for your real estate investment is key to success, and it will allow you to determine the level of risk that you’re willing to take on your real estate investment, which will help you determine the other aspects of your real estate investment in order to reach your goal.
Low Risk Investments: Know Your Finances
One of the determining factors of low risk investments revolves around your real estate investment’s finances. Before getting started on your real estate investment venture, you first need to understand your options when it comes to financing this real estate investment. Having sufficient knowledge of your financing options allows you to understand the risks associated with each option, and make a decision based on your criteria and the level of risk that you want for your real estate investment.
Related: Become an Expert in Financial Planning for Real Estate Investments
Knowing your finances is also crucial for the planning phase, as the method of financing for your real estate investment will be a major aspect of your real estate investment strategy, and it will certainly affect the way you calculate or predict profits and expenses related to your real estate investment.
Low Risk Investments: Weave Your Strategy
This is the step that lets you go in-depth when it comes to pinpointing the exact metrics and aspects of low risk investments. In order to lower the risk on your real estate investment to a point that meets your goals, you will have to cover all possible angles of your real estate investment and do the necessary adjustments to each aspect in order to come up with a solid real estate investment strategy.
One of the first questions that investors should ask themselves, for example, is how quickly they want to make money. The answer to that question will determine whether you should go with a rental property investment strategy or perhaps a real estate property flip strategy for a quick profit.
Related: 5 Risks That Come with a Rental Property and How to Mitigate Them
Knowing this about your real estate investment strategy allows you as an investor to achieve low risk investments based on an identified plan, which can guarantee that your low risk investments remain as low risk investments for the duration of the real estate investment.
Low Risk Investments: Choose Your Property
While knowing your goal and setting your investment strategy helps you determine the type of properties that can be considered low risk investments for you, the real estate investment property itself also has great impact over the level of risk associated with the real estate investment.
For example, and depending on the area you’re investing in, a condo could be associated with a higher risk than a multi-family home, which would either mean that you will have to invest in a different area or in a different type of property in the same area.
Based on your calculations and risk assessment, even different properties within the same category will be associated with different levels of risk. An old single-family home might be associated with a higher risk of maintenance expenses, but it could also mean that it’s undervalued due to its age, while a more modern single-family home might allow you to ask for a higher rent and might need less maintenance, but it might also have stronger competition in the market, leading to it becoming overvalued in the market.
Low Risk Investments: Conclusion
These are all considerations that are important for any investor looking for low risk investments in the real estate market. Once you’ve realized that the concept of low risk investments relies on the individual investor and his/her real estate investment choices, you will have also realized that any real estate investment can be considered a low risk investment if done right; meaning that if you do your research well and you manage to define your goals and come up with an investment strategy to achieve them, then the risk of your real estate investment will be exactly what you’re expecting it to be, and what you want it to be is the lowest level of risk that is acceptable to you as the individual investor.
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