Jason Hartman maintains that investing in income properties is not a difficult process. Where too many people go wrong is messing up the simple stuff. Today we’d like to point out a few common ways investors accidentally lay waste to their property portfolio and how it could be avoided.

1. Make a Plan: Just because you stumble across a great deal doesn’t mean you should pull the trigger immediately. The time to decide exactly how this new property fits into your larger investment scheme is BEFORE you buy it. Not after. Keep this bit of Hartman wisdom in mind: “A property must make financial sense the day you buy it.” Not some undefined number of years down the road.

2. Forget Get Rich Quick: The idea of getting rich quick is for gamblers, not investors. If you’re a gambler, head for Vegas. True real estate investors follow a methodical, conservative strategy that plays out over years, not months or days. That’s how you get rich. If you can’t wait 5 to 7 years for that first big refi, you’re in the wrong business.

3. Performing Your Own Brain Surgery: No surgeon (hopefully) would dive into such a delicate procedure without years of studying and training. It’s no different with real estate investing. If you think you can walk in with no previous experience and mop the floor with seasoned professionals, you might be in for a rude awakening. A great place to get up to speed on the most effective income property investing techniques is JasonHartman.com. With more than 300 episodes of The Creating Wealth Show podcast posted and almost 2000 blogs, there’s enough real estate knowledge available to make yourself a legitimate expert.

4. Unrealistic Cash Flow Expectations: If you plan to hold your properties and rent them out (a strategy we highly recommend), you’ve got to learn how to predict how much cash flow you’re going to need to cover maintenance expenses. Think of it like this. What if your new income property sits on the market for 3 or 4 months before you can rent it out? During that time you’ll be paying the mortgage, taxes, insurance, advertising costs, and possibly HOA fees. Unless you’re prepared for that negative initial cash flow, an asset can quickly become a liability.

These are just a few areas where the newbie investor can shoot himself or herself in the foot, and all are easily avoided. Perhaps the best advice we can offer is to not get in a hurry. Take your time because there’s always another great deal lurking just around the corner.