If you’ve been in business for any length of time, you’ll find that there are more things to do then can be done in any given day, so you absolutely must prioritize to become a successful real estate investor.
The 80/20 rule, also called Pareto’s Principle, tells us that a large percentage of our success is dependent on the significant few things. The general idea of the rule is that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your actions. While the actual percentages can vary, the idea is absolutely true… you can track a disproportionately large percentage of your results to a small group of very, very important things. For real estate investors, you should learn that you need to stop everything else and make sure that you do those significant few things first each day.
In the Daily Checklist (link for Real Estate Investor Bronze Members) that I use in my own real estate investing business and that I recommend all investors adopt and modify to their own businesses, you will notice that I order the checklist so that the significant few get done everyday by putting them first.
Stephen Covey, author of the classic “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, discusses putting the first things first and also focusing on what he calls quadrant II activities… activities that are important, but not yet urgent that will have a huge positive impact. He discusses moving away from living re-actively dealing with urgent but trivial issues and to focus instead of getting the important things done.
So, for real estate investors what are the significant few that you should focus on? In my opinion, they are, in this order: knowing where you are going by quickly reviewing your goals and then immediately focusing on marketing to make sure you are talking to motivated sellers, buyers and building your dream team. In my opinion, if you focus on marketing to get the phone ringing with the right types of calls, you will naturally, after focusing on the significant few, gravitate toward the next best activities: dealing with sellers, buyers and your dream team (in that order). Those of your familiar with our Daily Checklist will see a similar pattern.
Until my next post,
James
P.S. Want to get full access to our systems, checklists, forms, over 100 real estate courses, live training and consulting sessions for real estate investors? Upgrade to Real Estate Investor Bronze Membership today.
If you’re just getting started investing in real estate you might get overwhelmed with all of the things you think you should be doing. Take a deep breath, relax and let me share my experience with you as someone who has been there already and who has helped others get started down the path of becoming a successful real estate investor and continues to do so with our Real Estate Investor Bronze Membership which includes on-going training and consulting.
With just about any business endeavor, there are always more things to do than you can get done in a single day, so you will need to learn to prioritize your tasks. Knowing how to prioritize comes from experience. Over time, you will see that certain things are more important than others are. If you have not already learned about the 80/20 principle, also known as the Pareto Principle, I suggest taking 5 to 10 minutes to familiarize yourself with it. Basically, it states that a large portion of your results – 80% of them come from a small number of things you actually do from just 20% of your work.
This tells us that focusing on the most important things will make the biggest difference. You should eliminate any time-sucking, yet unproductive tasks from your day because they have very little impact on your business. Avoid busy work that eats up your time without improving your results.
Here are some guidelines based on what I have found to be the most important things to prioritize for real estate investors.
First, collect money and service your existing clients. If you have a house that you need to fill with a tenant or sell to a buyer, rent to collect, or motivated sellers to call back from marketing you’ve put out, do that first.
The next most important thing to do is marketing to bring in new business. In fact, I am tempted to place this above my previous group of things to do because without marketing, businesses fail. It is that important.
So, what does marketing include? In my mind, it is finding more motivated sellers if you are buying. If you are looking for tenants or selling, it is getting ads up and signs out. If you need partners or private money, it is getting ads out and talking to people.
What remains of the time in your day you can then afford to spend on the other 80%. Some of these things are important but won’t give you the biggest return on your investment of time. For example, learning and continuing your education is important, but let’s be frank with each other, it’s not going to immediately make you money in your business that day. The other two things I mentioned: collecting money/servicing clients and marketing will.
So, if you are feeling some anxiety over all the things you think you should be doing for your real estate investing business, take 5 minutes. Write down all the things you could do and then prioritize them. I’d put things that bring money in today at the top and then marketing second. I’d focus on the most important one thing at a time until that was done and then move on to the next. Look at the big picture and focus on things that bring you tangible results.
Until my next post,
James
P.S. We use a highly refined Daily Checklist for operating our real estate investor business and to teach new and experienced investors how to run their businesses for our Real Estate Investor Bronze Membership. Sign up today to get instant access to our entire documented system, training materials and on-going training and consulting.
