Real Estate Advice

Many people who call themselves real estate investors aren’t successful. Just because you own a business, doesn’t mean it is doing well. The truth is, successful real estate investors know how to be productive. You cannot succeed in the real estate investing business without possessing this trait. Luckily, if you don’t know how to be productive, old dogs can, in fact, learn new tricks. All of these are going to seem very simple, and they are. You’ve got to be sure to apply them to your life day after day. They will help you to not only make more money, but to be able to balance your personal life as well.

Value your own time

Time is actually the most valuable thing that you own. You can’t ever get it back; too many people waste time on frivolous things. This is worse than spending money on frivolous things. Money you can (to some degree) get back, but never time. It is the most important thing that you have.

Know how to plan the day 

Successful people don’t just plan their days, they stick to their plan for the day. Don’t let minor issues that come along steal your whole day. This can even include a friend calling to complain to you. Don’t waste your time listening, when you have work to do. Don’t let any distractions come between you and the day that you have planned. Don’t focus on tasks that aren’t important.

Create and stick to a schedule

You can’t just wake up and have an idea or desire of what you want to do that day. You need to have a concrete schedule. For example, many people will say “I am going to wake up at 8 am.” That’s great. But that doesn’t mean you’ll do anything productive that day. You must decide what you are going to dedicate your day to and stick to it.

Remember to recharge

You can’t work 24/7 without burning yourself out. You need at least one day of the week to rest. Many people feel guilty if they don’t work on a specific day. However, it’s more detrimental to work without any kind of break. You can take a break on whatever day of the week you want to, it doesn’t have to be on Sunday.

At all costs, avoid distractions

No matter what business you are in, giving into distractions is going to hold you back—big time. Set specific times of the day where you will take a break. You’ll get a lot more done throughout the day if you set the times you will take your breaks. Giving into distractions for a few minutes throughout the entire day is going to cut your work time in half, maybe even more. So you may think you worked seven hours, when you really might have only worked four when it’s all said and done.

Learn how to prioritize appropriately

Prioritizing is extremely important. When you go to sleep at night, you want to write your list for tomorrow. Write your goals for the next day. But, put them in order of importance. Otherwise, you run the risk of choosing the easiest ones the next day. Do the hard ones first. Just because you get to cross out 10 things on your list doesn’t mean you were productive. They may have been unimportant things.

Write everything down

Too many people try to rely on their memory for notes and important things. Everything must be written down. There are better ways to record these things besides a notebook, but in the end, as long as it’s written somewhere. The best thing you can do is record it on the computer, or iPad, or something that you’re able to access at any time. What happens if you lose your notebook? Also, if you don’t write things down, you’ll have too much clouding your head at any given time that you won’t be able to enact the creativity that you need to in order to be successful in the business. Write things down!

Surround yourself with neat people 

Surround yourself with winners. Don’t spend time on people who waste your time. Spend your time with the ones who know what they are doing, and are successful. “Birds of a feather flock together.” When you choose your team of real estate agents, mortgage brokers, closing companies, and the like…make sure that you are working with people who are solution-driven rather than problem-driven.

Be cautious when selecting deals

Be very wary when choosing deals. This doesn’t mean finding what will turn the most profit. If you hate being a landlord, don’t invest in rental properties. Even if you’re profiting, in the long-run, you’ll hate it and quit. Maybe you prefer short sales; perhaps you only like the listing aspect. Whatever side of the business you prefer, stick to that. You don’t want to be miserable. If you’re just starting out, you might want to do a few different types of deals to learn what you like. Think of medical residencies; the residents work in every aspect of the field at any given time; this is how they choose their specialty.

Put your priorities in order 

It isn’t about how much time you’ve got, it’s how you use it. Once your priorities are straight, and you learn to prioritize your time, you’ll be shocked at how much more successful you will be.