If you are a broker or agent attempting to service rental property without the aid of real estate analysis software than you are most definitely shooting yourself in the proverbial foot.
Foremost, you are ignoring the quickest, easiest, and most concise way to arrive at rental property cash flows, rates of return, and profitably (i.e., the bottom line). Not to mention missing out on chance opportunities to impress and win-over investors, partners and colleagues with professional-quality analysis reports created by the better real estate investment software solutions.
Here’s why.
It is numbers that sell rental income property. Unlike residential property where amenities such as curb appeal, kitchen size and school district commonly play a major role in a buyer’s decision process, real estate investors buy cash flow and consider only what affect those types of amenities might have upon the property’s ability to generate cash flow.
As such, it makes perfect sense you greatly increase your chances to sell investment property to a potential buyer when you are adequately prepared to create and present the numbers inside reports that clearly define cash flows, rates of return, and profitability. It is also true that you are disadvantaged when you do less.
Cost should not be the issue. For consider this: the investment you make in a good real estate analysis software solution will be a drop-in-the-bucket when compared to the potential business it could generate for you. Think about it. By spending less than three hundred dollars you multiply opportunities to sell rental properties with the power to earn you thousands of dollars in commissions (not to mention referral business).
This is not merely make-believe. Consider any commercial real estate agent successfully selling income property and you will find in his or her arsenal of tools a real estate investment software solution. It sounds like an over-simplification because arguably there are other contributing factors for their success, but it doesn’t discount the fact that they understand the importance of using real estate analysis software and continually rely upon it to support their business.
Of course, not every solution available on the market might work for you specifically. So you want to be careful that you identify your business objective and budget first and then make sure that the software you purchase best meets your objective.
If you plan to remain actively engaged in real estate investing and want to make it a significant portion of your business, for instance, then you should look for a program that provides both analysis and marketing features along with full consideration for the elements of tax shelter and time value of money. This will insure that you can make cash flow and rate of return analysis presentations to investors with computations for both before and after taxes as well as marketing presentations to colleagues and potential buyers.
If you plan to be less engaged with real estate investing but don’t want to lose out on chance opportunities to work with rental property sellers and buyers, than you should look for a program that includes analysis and marketing features but without the computations for the elements of tax shelter. This will insure that you get the rock-solid essentials to make sound before tax cash flow analysis and marketing presentations at a somewhat lower cost.
Either way, actively engaged with income property or less engaged, you would be smart to invest in good real estate analysis software. It will provide you with all the essential numbers and professional-quality presentations you need to adequately start, build, and grow your investment property business.
