SMARTERLANDLORDING

ADVICE FROM EXPERIENCE

Newbie Fails

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Remember how I spoke about feeling like a newbie? 

Well, it didn’t end there. In fact, I’m constantly reminding myself that I’m an amateur. In an effort to encourage those of us who are completely green to real estate investing, I’ve shared a few of my most humbling mistakes below. Hopefully, you will be able to avoid some of these same pitfalls. Please share some of your novice blunders too!

 

  1. I learned pretty early that easy work can be made hard if you don’t have the proper tools. When we started building our RE toolbox, we thought it would be easy and cost effective to buy a Mr. Seven Hands  instead of multiple screwdrivers. Boy, were we wrong. This thing is a mess. It’s easy to keep handy, but it’s hard to use in tight places. It tries to fold when you are using it, which is annoying! To be honest, I’m just plain embarrassed at even owning the thing. Can I still call myself a serious investor?
  2. During our first phase of renovations, we felt like complete idiots when we realized how much trim needed to be painted. Our 1920’s triplex is filled with beautiful crown molding, floor molding and tons of detail. After we got a good dose of the time-consuming nature of any paint job, we stopped and looked at our trim work and almost wept. Newbies just don’t know! Paint Lesson #1
  3. Is it a beautiful rainy day outside? If so, do not paint a room with windows or doors open. Paint will bubble when introduced to moisture and humidity. We spent more time scraping and sanding than we did painting on this one. Paint Lesson #2
  4. If you are like me, you aim to get the job done regardless of the circumstances. I get tunnel vision towards the end of a project. So, it’s no surprise that I stubbornly continued painting the exterior of my house, even though temperatures were dropping. Paint Lesson #3, paint peels when it dries during low temperatures. Scrape, sand, and paint again.
  5. I had the electrician over one day to fix a fan, which had apparently given out. So, I ran to Home Depot and picked up a new one. Being the frugal gal that I am, I bought one of the cheapest ones available. Looking back, I’m surprised that the electrician didn’t laugh and walk off the job. Instead, he politely said, “This is for a bathroom. You’ll need to go back and buy one with a fan blade of at least 52 inches…” Duh.
  6. How many of you can install your own appliances? Well, I’m learning. I had to order an extra-long dryer cord not long ago. I wanted to make sure the length was long enough before installing it to the dryer. So, what did I do? I plugged it in the outlet—ungrounded. It tripped all of the breakers in the house and blew a hole straight through the shirt I was wearing, charring my undershirt. Sheesh! I should have known better. I’m turning red just thinking about it. Electrical Lesson #1
  7. I hate popcorn ceilings. So, here I am in the bathroom spritzing the ceiling with water when all of a sudden the exposed light bulbs explode sending shards of glass everywhere! It nearly scared me off of my step stool. Every idiot knows that cool water and hot glass don’t mix, but sometimes I’m brainless. Electrical Lesson #2
  8. Our most recent building purchase has fuses instead of breakers. This is new for us. So, we are tinkering with the fuse box trying to figure out why some of these Edison fuses don’t fit. Then, it hits us. Part of an old fuse is stuck in there! So, my partner goes to work trying to pry that old fuse out… only to realize that we are buffoons. That particular spot required a small-base fuse, not an Edison. So, we had to call the electrician out to fix the mess we made. Electrical Lesson #3
  9. We went from being renters in June to owning 7 units in January. That means that we have 7 house keys, a cellar door key, a storm door key, and a rent box key. Throw in the fact that we have 2-4 copies of each key, and you can see that we are confused! Can you imagine how embarrassing it is to bring a contractor over and then fumble with key after key? It is one thing to feel like an amateur and it’s something completely different to feel like an amateur in front of a professional.

You can bet that we’ve learned from these blunders and made appropriate adjustments. Please tell me I’m not alone. If you are a know-it-all, expert real estate investor, I encourage you to pull from your past. Enlighten us with your former fumbles. It can be humbling for you—and encouraging to us all.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Good stuff here! Thanks for being vulnerable and sharing this stuff!!! I will know what to look out for now!

  2. My first investment, i did 90% of the work. Not only did it take 3 weeks longer than it should have, it made me realize that I wad the long pole im the tent. After that, i always put contractors costs into the equation. I still do the stuff i like (woodwork/kitchens) and let the contractors do the rest!

    • I made a lot of these mistakes and more (don’t ask me about the paint sprayer debacle of 2004) when I first got started. The keys are to learn from these mistake and like John C says to start hiring this stuff out to professionals. Ask yourself what is a more valuable use of your time, painting or finding the next real estate deal?

      Thanks for the great post!

      Kevin

    • You and Kevin are both right. That’s definitely the way to do it. Now that we have more tenants than vacancies, we are looking to hire work out. I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy this learning process though! Thanks for reading!

  3. Key Trick: I manage an office building with many different keys. Our Janitor uses these most of the time, but from time to time I need to get into a suite to fix something or show it to a potential tenant, etc. SO, I printed out all the suite numbers onto a piece of paper (10-12 point font) and cut them out and used clear packaging tape to stick them to the keys themselves. (I have printed them onto sticky paper before, but oils from your hand tend to destroy the print after a while. I also tried a sharpie on the key itself, but this rubs off very quickly). The clear packaging tape keeps the sticker ON the key as well as keeps the letters from rubbing off. I also put them in order (suite number order) so that I could find the correct key quickly or even as I walked. (NOTE: the clear packaging tape is cut very close to the size of the tiny bit of paper you are using for the key-note. You don’t want the tape hanging off the edges of the key. If you are a dude with big hands, you may want a little girl to do this for you.)

    Those of you who own multiple houses may come up with a code, or simply use the house number, or an abbreviation of the street name + apt number to put on the key to make finding the correct key easy.

    • Hey, thats a good idea, especially putting then in order. We ended up buying an engraver, which has helped us tremendously. Thanks for offering advice!

    • Quick tip: write on the key with a marker and then give it a layer of transparent nail polish! It work as a charm! 🙂

  4. Here is what I do with my keys..
    http://www.nononsenselandlord.com/2014/03/avoiding-lockouts-and-keeping-track-of-keys/

    Popcorn ceilings are the easiest to fix. Have a small compressor, and a small hopper.

    I do most of my own maintenance with my 24 renters. A 7 way screw driver, the kind electricians use, is very handy. It is a nut driver for many common sizes too.

    Painting with good Purdy brushes is the way to go. A 3″ fat brush fro trim. Get discounts on paint an S/W. I have some of the best prices, about 50% off.