How Long Beach Real Estate Rental Investors Can Build their Property Portfolios

When you’re investing in Long Beach real estate, you need to think about your long term and your short term investment goals. If you don’t have written goals and a strategy for achieving those goals, you’re not going to know how to look for the right opportunities and where you should buy your next rental home.

We have been helping investors manage their assets in the Long Beach rental market for a long time, and we have found that there are a few common things that make investors successful. Today, we’re sharing some tips on how to build your portfolio of investment properties.

Buy Early and Buy Often

Investors often ask us when they should buy. The truth is, it’s always a good time to invest in real estate. You should buy whenever you have the opportunity and when you find a property that meets all of your investment criteria. Don’t wait for weeks and months while your competition moves quickly and grabs a prospective property from right under your feet. When you find an investment home that meets your criteria and gets you closer to your goals, buy it.

Leverage your buying power to acquire as many properties as you can.

Make Business Decisions, not Emotional Decisions

You have to buy the right properties.

One mistake that a lot of new investors typically make is to look for a home that they might want to live in themselves. You’re not looking for a home that you’re going to occupy; you’re looking for an investment. This will be someone else’s home. Think from a business mindset, not an emotional mindset. You might insist on stainless appliances and ceramic tile floors in your own home. But, Long Beach tenants aren’t necessarily demanding that. They want an attractive, well-maintained home in a good neighborhood. Don’t invest in a high-priced home that won’t deliver a return on your investment.

Consider a 1031 Exchange When Growing Your Portfolio

A great way to leverage the investment properties you already have is with a 1031 exchange. Under this program, you can sell one property and then defer the capital gains taxes on it by investing the proceeds into another property (or several properties) that are similar. The word similar in this case only means that it has to be another income producing property. This is a great way to unload an investment that may not be performing the way you want it to. Or, you can increase the size and strength of your portfolio by selling one single-family home, for example, and buying a couple of duplexes. There are a lot of options.

Buy and Hold or Rent and Repeat

The best strategy for earning as much as you can on your Long Beach real estate investments is to hold onto them for as long as possible. There’s not a lot of money to be made in buying and flipping houses anymore. We recommend you settle in for the long game. Buy some great, high-quality properties with excellent earning potential and hold onto them. You’ll earn more cash flow and you’ll increase the returns you earn in the long term. Do this as often as you can.

We love talking about Long Beach real estate and property management. If you’d like to discuss your specific and unique plans and investment goals, please contact us at CMC Realty.