Is inflation about to broadside your real estate investing company?
If so, are you prepared to survive it, if not, what can you do without and what can you not afford to skimp on?
Inflation fears are hammering the economy, even though growth remains stagnant. In fact the Financial Forecast Center predicts inflation jumping 50% from its current rate by October 2012. This has many rushing to real estate investing for protection. However, investors also need to realize that while property prices and rents may track along above inflation costs of services and products required for doing business could keep on rising.
If so, what are the must haves that can’t be skimped on, Red Bull & writers?
Prices of Red Bull energy drinks have rocketed by 25% in many places in the last couple of weeks alone. With the surging importance of copywriters for winning at real estate investing marketing the best no longer come cheap, but certainly make all the difference in taking the lead and maximizing ROI.
Some things can be shifted to being paid for on delivery instead of upfront, including SEO or having phone agents work on a pay-per-appointment basis versus hourly.
Other rising expenses can be offset by gradually increasing profit margins, or by monetizing social and web assets further. This needs to be done very carefully today in order not to jeopardize SEO and search engine rankings, nor turn off prospects but could be the easiest way to stay ahead of the pack while potentially raising revenues even further than before.
The bottom line here and key to your real estate education is recognizing the need to build rising expenses into your business plan and budget every year in order to stay in the black. This applies to everything from office rent to payroll to taxes and paper products.
