What is the biggest mistake you've ever made related to investing and your properties?
Category: General Advice
5 replies
Original post
Okay, going to be gold and share something rather embarrassing here, but I feel like we all learn from the mistakes as much as the triumphs. When I first started investing, my first tenant mentioned an odor in a downstairs closet. I sent out a maintenance guy, they found a bit of moisture, sealed it up for $300. I thought everything was golden haha.One year later, I had a new tenant, same building. They mentioned a water stain on the ceiling below that closet. I bet you can see where this is going... The original fix didn't fix the actual root of the issue: A gradual leak from a pipe behind the wall. By that time, it had been leaking into the subfloor for a while. $7k later and it was actually fixed.
I know this isn't exactly a unique situation where something you thought was a small problem turns into something much larger. My key takeaway is ask more questions than you think necessary and try to check things on your own, even if it seems silly at the time. I wish I would've kept a closer eye on that after the first tenant reported it and the first "fix" occurred. Probably could've saved myself a few grand.
Tell me your big mistakes. Let's learn from each other.
Reply by Josh Winders
Thankfully we haven't had the opportunity to make too many "BIG" mistakes. But I would have to say the biggest mistake I've made so far is not asking for a deposit. It was out first time renting and our tenants were referred to us by some very close friends and are very responsible. That being said, I will not do that ever again moving forward, nothing has happened, but I will just feel much better knowing that there is a security deposit.Reply by Amanda T.
@[cmrxt2g0v0011z50j7m48mew1](Jaxon Patterson)That’s a good lesson especially with water issues. I feel like it’s easy to assume something is fixed once a contractor has looked at it but sometimes the underlying problem is still there.
We haven't had anything quite that expensive happen yet but I've definitely had a few situations where I wished I had asked more questions upfront instead of assuming everything was handled. Definitely makes you think twice about the "small" issues.
Reply by Daniel M.
I can definitely see how that one would stick with you. Water issues are one of those things where a small problem can turn into a huge one pretty quickly.
I’ve learned that it’s worth asking the contractor exactly what they found and what they didn’t find especially when the fix seems almost too easy. Sometimes getting a second look early is a lot cheaper than dealing with the aftermath later..