I get to talk with a lot of people who are new to investing. As a rule, they’re amazing and frequently very successful, particularly among the REIN crew.

Most of us know that one person who just won’t shut up. Since I’ve been one, and I’ve been exposed to quite a few lately, I’m going to have a little rant about the six attributes that piss me off the most I find most annoying.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/themadlolscientist/ / CC BY 2.0

1. You’re just about the money

If your profile picture on any social networking site includes you and your dream car/boat/trip or something else related to money, you’re doing it wrong. People might invest for just monetary reasons, but the best investors you can cultivate will care about you more than the money. They’re highly unlikely to look like the rich bitch you seem to be interested in becoming. Real estate investing is a long term game, so build relationships. Don’t waste your time trying to attract the wrong sort of people.

2. Cash-flow? Amortization? ROI? What the hell are you talking about?

Real estate investors have their own language. We’re almost as bad as stock brokers, lawyers and teh computer game g33kzors. Remember, every time you write something that other people are going to see, try this exercise. Keep a copy of a real estate glossary beside you, and try not to use any of the words in it. Or you can just wait till you’re done and just go through and delete them. Take a minute and flip through some of the ‘investor wannabe’ posts on myREINspace. Try to speak their language.

3. You don’t seem to think about other stuff

Please, stop spamming your Facebook/Twitter/email/LinkedIn with endless links to your own articles. Stop talking real estate at least once a month. I do that with my Song of the Week. For sites like Facebook, topics such as real estate or economics should make up no more than 1 update in 5, especially if you’re on there often. LinkedIn is a more professionally focused site, so you can be a little more frequent. Either way, never forget that people invest in you, so your online presence should reflect that.

4. You don’t add value or give back

I don’t care if you’re just starting out, you have an ability or knowledge which will support the group (whatever your group happens to be). Asking for tips, help and analysis is fine; doing it without giving back isn’t. Find one thing you can share/do/learn/work on, and give it back for free.

5. You don’t thank the people who help you

Here’s one idea: send everyone who helps you personally a handwritten card. Give it back to your investors, friends, team members and the other investors you know. Here’s another idea. Say thank you. Get used to doing it often.

6. You get distracted

If you’ve got a history of running from one money making scheme to another, or worse, from one Real Estate Investment group to another, you’re screwed. I hereby diagnose you with Bright Shiny Object Syndrome (B-SOS). Personally, a someone who had B-SOS, I knew I was on to something when my wife said, “You’ve been really focused on the REIN real estate stuff, and it looks like it’s really starting to work.” If you can’t be relied upon to stay the course, you can’t be trusted with $150,000 worth of investment capital.

Now if this list struck a chord with you, good. You might think I’m wrong, and have $50k in profits to show for it. My point is without playing it my way, for the long term, you’re not likely to make $500k. If you do manage it, it’s going to be lonely at the top.

If you’re doing ok, keep this one handy. We can all improve.

Focus on relationships. Focus on being consistent. Focus on building a stable business. All else will come.

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In Canada you don’t have to accept cash, or any method of payment you don’t want to. For me, being a landlord, this is handy.

About every two years we get a new wave of creative counterfeiting coming through. We also had a caretaker start stealing from us. (I’ll post the story of how we caught them another day….what an idiot!) When you think about it, having a caretaker with as much as $40,000 cash in their suite can be a huge liability for us and a personal risk for them. How’d we solve the problem?

We don’t accept cash for rent payments!

We’re also really strict about it. No cash, period. And we have refused cash, served an eviction notice, gone to the Residential Tenancies Dispute Resolution Service, and had them uphold our right to go make the tenant go get a money order. (Costs about a buck at Safeway) That said, we do have an interac terminal in the office, which is 100% awesome.

What does the law say about it?

Perhaps a lawyer out there can find the exact line for me, but this one is directly from the Bank of Canada’s Legal Facts box.

Payment methods must be mutually acceptable to both parties (e.g. credit or debit card, cheque). Therefore, retailers do not break the law if they refuse bills.

So, to take that one step farther, we don’t accept cheques (or checks if you’re American) after a tenant has had one returned as NSF (non-sufficient funds). The same goes for pre-authorized withdrawls (PAW).

And finally, for the love of all things Holy, don’t accept credit card payments! That’s a great way to screw your tenants over by exploiting their weaknesses.

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