Real Estate And The Pandemic: Preparing For The Unknown

The market can seem a little intimidating right now.

So what should you be doing while you’re waiting for things to settle or become available at a favorable price?

When there are so many unknowns, the name of the game is preparation.

Gather Information

Patience and preparation will be invaluable to you when the right property finally becomes available at the right price. Gather information and details on your dream properties as well as comparable properties.

My team and I create a database so we can track the properties that we have identified that we want. In some cases, properties we identified years ago are just now becoming available, or the owners are now open to conversations about selling that they wouldn’t have been open to before.

Over the years we have taken the time to get the current financials and updated performance data. We are knowledgeable about the existing service contracts and conditions of the building. You may be looking at one specific building, but if its next-door neighbor goes on the market, you can investigate the neighboring property’s financial information. This helps you bracket and understand the valuations of the surrounding properties.

Baseline Knowledge

If you can get a baseline of these intrinsic and baseline valuations, you will be more informed when the opportunities finally present themselves for your ideal properties.

Speaking from personal experience, there are 3-4 deals that I’ve made this year that I’ve been fostering and chasing for years. Now all of a sudden, people are calling me up and wondering if I’m still interested in the deal. The distress finally got to a place where the owner decided it was the right time to exit and let somebody else takeover.

This is why I’m keeping my eyes peeled for the deals that go on around me and tracking what I find.

Real Estate FOMO

I’ve seen other people have FOMO. They see people doing deals and they want to jump in right away. What they don’t know is some of these other investors have been nurturing these deals for years. If you’re a newer investor, don’t get discouraged by comparing your chapter three to someone else’s chapter eight.

You don’t have to be where someone else is right now. Instead, take this opportunity to do your due diligence and find out:

What your investment niche actually is
What your specific interests are
What homework you can do ahead of time

Sometimes the opportunities only present themselves in a small window of time. The more prepared you are, the more quickly you’ll be able to move on that deal. Your preparedness could be the deciding factor that gets you that property.

After all, unlike the stock market or other investments, when there’s a building on the market, there’s only one of those buildings. That scarcity exists and the property will only sell to one person. The more people there are competing for a property, the more likely it is to drive the price up considerably.

By doing your research, you may be able to make your move before too many others get involved, resulting in a more favorable price.

At the end of the day it comes down to this: