Lately I’ve been reading voraciously. I read Freakonomics in 2 days, right now I’m  re-reading the gentrification bible The Death and Life of Great American cities and on the weekend I just finished reading Ted Rogers autobiography. Ted Rogers was a real action taker and I found some principles that we could apply as real estate investors

1. Perseverance: Rogers came close to losing everything numerous times. Very easily he could have fallen over the edge, if it wasn’t for his drive to regain the family name, his faith and belief we would have never have heard of him.
2. Build: Combine vision with passion. Constantly strive to take action (i.e. write offers). Getting things done is essential. Take your time to plan, and do your due diligence, but once a decision has been made get it done GET it done GET IT DONE.
3. Listen: Ted Rogers used to say, “Nobody is as smart as all of us. Real estate investors must try to foster a culture where ideas are exchanged and explored.
4. Partners: Look for integrity, intelligence, and ambition. You cannot do everything alone…but have one person in charge.
5. Customer: For your tenants improve service constantly, for your investors find ways to make the ROI better and their lives easier.  For example, in my company, we do all the books for all our JV properties, but their other investment properties as well.

Ted Rogers: Relentless

Having a vision (or BELIZE) that you constantly go back to, being passionate and always taking action seem to be universal laws of success, whether your in Communications or Real Estate. What is your vision and what actions will you take this minute to achieve your vision?

Brian Persaud from Real Experts Inc has been a REIN member since 2005 and currently buying property in specific neighborhoods in Edmonton.

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…is to be a real estate investment group. Period.

That’s really all there is to it. Your group need to be about that one topic and everything you do needs to be aligned to that objective.

REIN’s tagline on the homepage of www.realestateinvestingincanada.com is:

Discover How, When And Where To Buy
Canadian Positive Cash Flow Real Estate

And that’s it. I can’t really phrase it better than that. I suspect that REIN’s internal mantra is

Educate investors about real estate investing to help them achieve their personal goals.

Where the other real estate investing groups go off the tracks is when they start deviating from reason everyone’s there. We go to workshops to learn about investing in real estate. Not to buy dumbass investments, or to buy a $25,000 mentorship program. We’re there to learn more, and improve ourselves. Anything outside of that is a distraction and not worthy of your time. 

Consider the difference between Google’s homepage and Yahoo’s hompage. You already know which one is more successful. 

One complex. One simple. 

I hope that Don, Russell and the rest of the REIN team take note. You’re doing an awesome job. Keep focused on the goal.

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Hi, I’m Chris. I buy three-bedroom townhouses in Millwoods.

That’s my niche. You may have met my Dad, Brent. He’s the King 82nd Street. (That’s over here)

If you’re going to do anything, you need to define your niche. Where, what, how, why, where, and what makes you different than your competition.

To that end, Peyman Aleagha wrote a great piece for the Geek Estate Blog about developing and working a niche online.

I’m not talking about online competition or SEO, but more generally about your real estate investing business.

Just as an example, you might say you invest in residential real estate. If you’re like me, you can refine that to say you invest in positive cashflow, long term investment residential real estate. But there’s still a bunch of possibilities.

• Single family homes
• Townhomes
• Condominiums
• Foreclosures
• Neighborhoods, subdivisions or areas
• New homes for sale
• Downtown condominiums
• Suburbs
• Acreages

Define a niche, and become an absolute expert in it. Know the neighbourhood and everything about it. That dosen’t prevent you from investing in other areas or types of properties, but it’s only by focusing and learing that you’re going to succede.

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[Ed Note: Today's Guest Post comes for Garth Chapman, a Diamond REIN member and the co-founder of REMA, a Real Estate Management and Analysis software. (Not so shameless plug: I use it!)]

This has been our approach to making sure our estate business prospers going forward. We’re always trying to answer the question: What are you doing to adjust your business to our brave new world? Our first major actions began in the summer of 2007:

1. Stay focused and view things from the 10,000 foot level (get out of the forest and above the trees). Don’t be pulled back and forth by the daily news that bombards us. Pay attention to the longer term trends and stats – they will keep you balanced and help you to make better decisions. Pay attention to both the positive and the negative things that are happening around you. Look past the headlines. Be realistic as you evaluate of what is going on. Be positive but don’t be mistaken for Pollyanna. A positive mindset is a powerful ally in getting things done, but must be accompanied by a realistic view on things to allow you to focus on that which is achievable.
2. Analyze your business. What are you doing well, and what not so well. What can you improve on? What must you improve on? Review your financial performance versus budget (your financial expectations). Measure what is significant so you will know what areas to put your time, effort and money into. Know your true numbers (for each property and your whole portfolio) – if you don’t you are not really managing your business, and that means you have put it at risk. Always know your cash position at present and your cashflows going forward – if you don’t you risk running out of cash. Maintain sizeable cash reserves, and/or credit facilities. Cash is King. Long live the King.
3. Review your business plan (the short term and the long term) and adjust it as prudent investors should when the world you operate in changes big time. Be proactive. Don’t be buffeted by the changing seas. Don’t allow yourself to drift. Chart your course.
4. Involve your team and other experts in this process. They are on your team for a reason. Get their input. Ask for their advice. Involve people you respect for their knowledge and experience. Most of your best ideas will come out of those discussions – both your ideas and theirs. And you will awake with eureka moments, both small and big, in the wee hours of the night. That’s a good thing. It means you have engaged your subconscious mind, a very powerful tool.
5. Take a break. Get away and relax. Read some books, go sailing, walking, running, diving, flying, driving – whatever works for you. If you take the right amount of time, all that you have done so far in this process will distill in your mind and you will find clarity.
6. Now act – recession-protect your business. A few examples – refinance your mortgages with longer amortizations, look for ways to increase revenues and decrease vacancies (provide cable TV, internet, other services), add rental units to your properties (suites, garages, parking spaces, coin-op laundry facilities, etc).
7. Do the same for your family/personal life. Your family’s business also needs your attention. Treat your personal finances much like your business finances.
8. Review and repeat. Review what you did to determine how to do it better next time. Do it all again at least once a year. In these times maybe twice is more prudent.
9. Share what you have learned. This will help to make others’ businesses better as was yours. Much more will come back to you than you put out there.

What are you doing to ensure the health of your business?

Originally posted on myREINspace.

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