diff --git a/lnwire/lnwire.go b/lnwire/lnwire.go
index 2bc79c26..05d6ac15 100644
--- a/lnwire/lnwire.go
+++ b/lnwire/lnwire.go
@@ -619,13 +619,15 @@ func readElement(r io.Reader, element interface{}) error {
 		}
 
 	case *[]net.Addr:
-		var addresses []net.Addr
-		var numAddrs [2]byte
-		if _, err = io.ReadFull(r, numAddrs[:]); err != nil {
+		var numAddrsBytes [2]byte
+		if _, err = io.ReadFull(r, numAddrsBytes[:]); err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
 
-		for i := 0; i < int(binary.BigEndian.Uint16(numAddrs[:])); i++ {
+		numAddrs := binary.BigEndian.Uint16(numAddrsBytes[:])
+		addresses := make([]net.Addr, 0, numAddrs)
+
+		for i := 0; i < int(numAddrs); i++ {
 			var descriptor [1]byte
 			if _, err = io.ReadFull(r, descriptor[:]); err != nil {
 				return err
diff --git a/server.go b/server.go
index a5c49e87..c892535f 100644
--- a/server.go
+++ b/server.go
@@ -156,7 +156,7 @@ func newServer(listenAddrs []string, notifier chainntnfs.ChainNotifier,
 
 	// If external IP addresses have been specified, add those to the list
 	// of this server's addresses.
-	selfAddrs := make([]net.Addr, 0)
+	selfAddrs := make([]net.Addr, 0, len(cfg.ExternalIPs))
 	for _, ip := range cfg.ExternalIPs {
 		addr, err := net.ResolveTCPAddr("tcp", ip)
 		if err != nil {