Time Management For Real Estate Investors

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.

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