I'm very new to this (only purchased one property so far) but so far organizational skills have been the most important. Real estate binder and ways to systematize stuff are essential. It's amazing how disorganized most people are! Most of the nuts and bolts of real estate are fairly easy to grasp: cash flow calculations, cap rate calculations, TDS/GDS scores, under or overvaluation of an area, economic prospects of an area, etc. But if you don't have the organizational system to keep track of the data, your own financial information, your tenant information, etc., you'll be completely lost.
Examples of this:
- the bank wanted to verify some large deposits into my account during the mortgage application process. I had a $38k deposit here, a $90k deposit there, etc. Some of these transactions went back 2 years. I had a response for them in 2 seconds thanks to being organized. If I were to ask anyone else in my family about a specific bank transaction 2 years and ago and demanded the accompanying proof they'd be totally lost, lol.
- bank wanted a net worth statement. I can produce a net worth statement that has up to the second information since it's tied to stock quotes and my bank account. I also have recent appraisals for my residential properties with accompanying appraisal docs.
- created a spreadsheet that spits out cap rate, cash flow, ROIC, ROI, principal paydown, etc. to quickly analyze opportunities that come up. All you have to do is enter the mortgage amount, mortgage rate, rent, taxes, utilities, etc. Many real estate brokers don't even have this sort of system in place--even ones that claim to work with investors! I was working with one agent on a potential property and she's like "well you'll want to give this rental information to someone to calculate the investment return, I sure don't know how to do it." I'm thinking you're an agent! you don't even know how to calculate basic numbers! how is this possible! After 1 minute I had the basic investment numbers nailed down and she thought I was some sort of wizard, lol.
There are so many smart people with money out there. But they just can't get organized or put the proper systems in place to really take their wealth to the next level. It's not rocket science. It's just small things but they set everything in motion.