Regardless of which stage of the real estate business you are in, there will be times when you feel overwhelmed. Most successful investors will have a good mix of new leads coming in with deals headed to closing. You may also have a rehab you are currently working on, as well as a few rental properties that can eat up some of your day. As much as it would be nice to be everywhere at once, you can’t replicate yourself and be in multiple places. The only thing you can do is to become a more productive real estate entrepreneur. If you maximize every minute you are working, you will find that you may just have all the time you need.
The most successful people in real estate don’t just wake up in the morning and deal with issues as they come. This isn’t to say that there won’t be curveballs thrown at them throughout the day, but they start the day with a plan. This means taking a few minutes before they go to bed to write down what needs to be done the next day. A good list will give you something to revert back to when things get hectic. It will give you a battle plan of sorts: what needs to be done, when and who is going to do it. The more detailed you are with your list, the more efficient you will be. Simply jotting down five things that you sort of want to get accomplished is not enough.
You should allocate time to when you are going to accomplish these tasks. Some people will only return emails or texts a few hours in the morning, and then again in the afternoon. Some will deal with sellers after dinner while others will visit their rehabs after lunch. How you arrange your day isn’t important. Sticking with your schedule is. There will always be days that you will have to deal with an unexpected emergency, but for every other day, you need to stay focused on your schedule. This will help you finish the task you are working on before you move on to the next one. Multitasking is great, but stopping and starting five different things at once isn’t multitasking. Do one thing to completion and then move on to the next.
It is great to accomplish tasks off your list, but you should prioritize them with what is most important to your business. This may not necessarily mean working on deals closest to closing, but what is the most important task you want to accomplish for that day. Every list you make should revolve around getting it done. It is human nature to relax a bit when you accomplish something, but that should not be the highlight of your day. Once you handle one thing, you need to quickly move on to the next and keep things going. One of the mistakes investors make is thinking they need to work 100 hours a week to be successful. This is a recipe for disaster. You can work yourself into the ground in this business. Working 30 productive hours is far better than working 60 that you split looking on your phone or thinking about what you are going to do next. When you work during your day, make sure you are really working.
Real estate investors, by nature, are control freaks and like to do everything themselves. There is a fine line between saving money on a do it yourself project and wasting time that is better spent elsewhere. Regardless of who you are, there will be times when you need to lean on your team or allocate tasks to others, even if it costs you money. Instead of focusing on how much it would cost to hire someone, think about how much you can gain by not having to spend the time to do this. Your realtor, attorney, mortgage broker and accountant all work with you towards the same goal. Everyone wants to close deals. If you have a question, you should feel comfortable enough to call or send an email and have a response back by the end of the day. If you can’t lean on your team when you need them, you should reconsider your relationship and think about finding someone else.
Social media and technology are great, but they can also be a distraction if you are not careful. If you complain about not having enough time in a day, you can probably gain two to three hours just by waking up earlier, going to bed later, eliminating an hour of TV or cutting down on your technology use. If you want to get the most out of your day, you will have to make some sacrifices along the way. How you work is always more important than how long you work for. There is not much that separates an average investor from one that is very successful. Getting one or two more tasks accomplished or working on one extra deal every day can get you over that hump. There are only has 24 hours in a day. The best investors are the ones that know how to use them.
