Assuming you purchased your real estate at favorable terms, its location doesn’t matter when it comes down to keeping your properties profitable.  Thoroughly analyzing your real estate investment, maintaining a sharp and motivated investment team, as well as keeping both a short and long-term focus will result in a strong portfolio of real estate holdings.

Analyze

Most importantly is to analyze your current holdings.

• What properties are in the green/red?  Do they have strong residential lease agreements?
• Are any properties slowly leaking money?
• What is the best solution to solve the problem?

Make sure you know the hard, bottom-line numbers for your property, and make sure your residential lease agreements are written to help maintain those figures.  Not knowing them could jeopardize your investment.  Once you know where you stand, you’ll be in a better position to protect your properties from the volatile economic climate.  Since your primary concern is your tenants, create incentives to keep them content and decrease turnover rates. You could possible,

• Pay for the water bill
• Provide residential lease agreement incentives for early rent payments

Avenues to increase revenue include adding additional rental units to your properties, or potentially renting garage/parking spaces to tenants.  Also, with the low interest rates currently available, look into refinancing with long amortization periods.  Lastly, increase rents where possible.

 Utilize Your Team

• How is your property management group performing?
• Are you getting a property management discount for a larger portfolio?
• Are they helping you to grow your portfolio?
• Do they keep your properties in good condition?  Do they provide competitive rates?

Maintain a lean and efficient team.  Utilize the best talent at your disposal, and take as much free expert advice as possible to protect and improve your investments.  Accountants, lawyer’s, bookkeepers and property managers are all very useful especially as your portfolio grows and your time becomes more valuable.

Be aware

Lastly, you’ll want to keep an eye-out for longer term economic trends and shifts.  The market is cyclical and while your strategic long-term investment strategy will not change, it’s important to shape your tactical near-term strategy (i.e. residential lease agreements) to best fit the current economic conditions.  Make sure you review your business plans on a regular basis to understand where you are in the execution of your strategy, as well as where you’re going.  Don’t make hasty decisions based on changing market conditions, and always have an exit strategy in place.