Your computer, your life and your business all need a restart every so often. Unload everything, wind down, unplug, go have a cup of coffee, and then fire things back up one at a time.
I just came back from one of REIN’s ACRE weekends, which is really Real Estate Investing 101 and 102. For me, it’s a great time to reset and re-focus what I’m doing to drive my business forwards so I can have more freedom and time with my family in the future.
These are seven steps to reset your own business.
Revisit your Personal Belize – This is your raison d’être for investing in real estate. I’m doing it because I want to be a stay-at-home dad, or at least be able to devote as much time to my wife and future children as possible.
Do a Financial 360 – Figure out your assets, debts and available credit. Examine the loan-to-value ratio on all your properties, the financing you have in place, including making note of when your mortgage renewals are. Check the current rents, market rents and when the next possible opportunity to raise the rents are.
Pull your credit report – I use Credit Alert which sends me regular updates and notifications. You can pull your bureau for $23.95. Take the time to repair any problems with old collections, check for entries which don’t belong to you and make sure your addresses are up to date.
Call your mortgage broker – See what financing you can get, see where rates and terms are heading and start a discussion on your goals. As Peter Kinch is fond of saying, you need a portfolio approach, not just a transactional approach. Talk about how you’ll be able to buy your next 10 properties, not just your next one.
Go have coffee with your Realtor and Property Manager – Find out where the market is, what opportunities are out there and what’s happening with rents. Help your property manager out by sending them a copy of the rental site ranking report.
Call some FSBO’s – The for sale by owner properties are often your best opportunities to find motivated vendors. They’re great to buy, and they’re also a great way to find out how the market is doing.
Write some offers – It’s the critical success event in real estate investing. You can find all the money, management or tenants you want, but without writing offers and buying properties, nothing will happen. I went and looked at three last week and I’m checking out three more this week. I’ll write 2-3 offers between this week and the weekend. All else will follow.
Photo Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/arenamontanus/ / CC BY 2.0
