As a real estate investor, your time is incredibly valuable. Nonetheless, your business needs to run efficiently. However, if your time is better spent on some things more than others, what should you be delegating to your team? What aspects of your business would be better off in the hands of others?
While outsourcing has gone from being the domain of the elite and most forward thinking real estate entrepreneurs to an average tool, many independent real estate professionals fail to delegate a fraction of what they should be. So what are some of the tasks you may still be doing that you shouldn’t be?
Property Management
Whether real estate agent, income property investor, or CEO, managing rentals should absolutely be delegated to a third party company. Accordingly, managing a rental property is time intensive work, with a relatively low ROI on the hour. Rentals are great, and property management can be profitable, but you must be demanding the maximum return on every waking hour. Think about it: instead of fixing a toilet, you could be generating more leads. Never underestimate how valuable your time is.
Job Postings
Job postings have become far more important than they used to be. They are now one of your brand representatives. They can make all the difference in the capital and investors you attract, as well as landing the best talent. The job market has almost come full circle over the last decade, and what works now is far different than it used to be. Online job ads could stay up on the web for a very long time, so make sure they are not only effective, but are brilliant marketing pieces.
Personal ‘Junk’
So much of a real estate CEO or independent professional’s time can be devoured by daily errands that it is crazy not to outsource as much of them as possible. Thank you cards, travel arrangements, booking accommodations, sending flowers, arranging for the car to be detailed, and more should all be delegated to a personal assistant. Again, your time is valuable. Make sure you are doing the thing that is best for your company. When it comes down to it, generating leads is much more important than stocking up on office supplies.
Research
Thorough research is critical for real estate investors. It’s critical when launching new marketing collateral, redesigning branding, and entering new markets. It is also extremely time consuming, with very little of what is discovered being relevant or important. Outsource any research you may need done. Have it boiled down to what is really needed, and then review the most critical information.
Writing
The content demands on today’s real estate companies, agents, and investors have never been so high, and they are only growing. While there can be times when there is something really important you want to relay yourself, 99% of the time it is more effective and efficient to have a dedicated professional writer handle it. Perhaps even more importantly, an experienced writer will make your company look competent and more professional on the front end.
Bookkeeping
Even those real estate business owners and independent contractors that love accounting should consider hiring a bookkeeper. Have someone else do the busy work. Subsequently, review what is really important to identify errors, potential savings, and areas to improve upon. This is busy work, not money making, growth work.
Payroll
No real estate professional should probably be handling their own payroll and invoicing. Invoices will be missed or procrastinated on, and relationships and critical business partnerships will be ruined if something goes wrong. While this may not be the highest priority on your list, it is the highest priority on your team’s list. Put someone in charge of it that can make it their top priority, so that you keep your team strong. Automate it as much as possible.
Social Media
Social media can be critical to growth and income for real estate companies. It can also seem hard to measure the ROI of all that a third party or employee does on a social platform. However, there are countless professionals and brands whose reputations have been destroyed with just a single Tweet. It can sometimes be hard not to be emotional or impulsive when it comes to social media. It needs to be organized in order to be effective. This is exactly why it needs to be someone’s job that can be 100% objective, and on top of it all the time. Whether this is one of your top lead generation channels or not, it is one that directly determines your reputation and income every day.
Website Design
DIY real estate website and blog design has become very easy and affordable. In some cases, adopting proven templates and simply customizing them with ‘drag and drop’ style tools can be the best game plan. But building a site from scratch or from a non-real estate designed theme can be far more hard work, hours, and frustration than most are cut out to handle. If you need a site built completely from scratch, let someone else do it from the beginning.
PPC Advertising
Pay-per-click online advertising continues to grow in popularity. However, while it can appear to be very basic on the surface, getting real results, and generating online real estate leads in volume can be far more time consuming and complex than most realize. Analysis of top firms out there shows that the serious run thousands of keywords and hundreds of ads. Adding just a handful is unlikely to give you all the lead volume you desire, nor the best ROI.
