Today I will focus on commercial real estate as this is my area of interest. I started my real estate investment in 2006, when I bought a piece of land in an industrial area in Norton. This land was serviced, but title deeds were not available then. It was local authority land; hence, I bought it through cessation. The money I used to buy the land was from savings I had put aside in order to buy a better car than the one I was driving then. So when the opportunity came knocking on my door, I had to quickly grab it. This was my first foray into real estate development and investment.

From my salary savings I managed to build five mini shops and one large shop on the land. I leased all the shops and income started flowing in every month. This was sweet income and I used the same to start saving for another piece of land in the same locality.

In 2008, I managed to buy a large piece of land which was three times bigger than my first property. Again, this was bought through salary savings and income from the first building. As I write this article, construction for 12 shops and three offices is now complete and awaiting final touches and official opening. Why I am saying all this? Is it to brag? Of course not. I am trying to clearly explain that it is possible to invest in real estate with minimal cash.

Self financing is so sweet because you will not have sleepless nights thinking about mortgage. You have the leeway to plan your investment portfolio without any hassles or pressure from financiers. You can choose deals that are in line with your resources. The trick in commercial real estate is in the art of the start. Again when some people hear the term ‘Commercial real estate’, they think of skyscraper buildings and other massive shopping malls and office blocks. This is far from the truth. As I have demonstrated above, you can easily start by buying land in commercial areas in High density suburbs, where the land is usually sold by local authorities hence, affordable prices.

Like any other investment vehicle, you need to read broadly in order to get enough knowledge about various real estate investment options available in the market. There are several websites that give very useful information on property investments. Invest in specialized knowledge; I can assure you it will yield a hundred-fold.

One thing you need to be mindful of is the processes involved in construction as a first time developer. A bit of knowledge on construction is vital. My own construction knowledge was from building my own house. When you are a first time property developer, you go through a cycle of mistakes. This entails over estimation and under estimation of building materials by builders. However, depending on funds you can hire a qualified quantity surveyor to give you rough estimates of all the materials that will be required to complete the building.

Watch out for my closing article on how best you can achieve success in real estate development.

To your success!!!!!