Goal Setting and Time Management for Real Estate Investors

Mastering goal setting and time management are two of the most important factors for real estate investors and real estate investing business owners to master. So how can you get better at mastering time, and effective goal setting?

Effective goal setting is critical for real estate entrepreneurs. Goals are the foundation of planning; and without great goal setting and a plan you are planning to fail, and have no effective compass to get you where you want to go. If you aren’t on the right track to what you want, you are on course to somewhere else. Even though real estate investing is popular for giving individuals more time freedom, far too many get caught up in simply creating bigger jobs for themselves. Jobs with more hours and time demands than their previous 9 to 5 jobs. So what tactics and tools can you put into play to boost your performance in these areas?

Goal Setting That Works

This is the key to everything you do. Your end results from real estate will all rely on your goal setting. Don’t underestimate this. So carve out all the time you need to really find clarity here. Take a day, or take a dedicated week to focus on clarifying and writing down your biggest goals and life vision. If you have to take off and book yourself into a hotel, or take a tent and camp in the desert until you are done.

Then reverse engineer your action list. Work backwards from your big vision to individual goals and objectives, metrics, and the steps required to get there. If you are just starting out in real estate this might look something like this…

• I want to create an investment portfolio or system that enables me to be financially free and never have to work again, so I can spend more time with family, go after my passion or pursue charitable work.

• To accomplish this I need to generate $1M per year in income from real estate

• That means I need to flip 10 houses per year for an average of $100k in profit

• So I need to close an average of one flip per month

• I’ll need to make 5x that many offers each month to get there

• And make 10x that many contacts each month

• I need to spend 1 day per week on marketing to make those contacts

To do this effectively I need to learn more about online and offline real estate marketing, setting up a website, and print business cards.

Then create a timeline/roadmap for all the milestones involved. Then break this all down to daily action steps that are easily achievable. Making one offer per day will put you on track to those goals, and is a lot more effective than just waiting for $1M a year to fall into your lap, or waiting a decade in hope of winning the lottery. But keep it simple. Now leading entrepreneurs and investors are increasingly trending toward very short daily to-do lists. I myself for the last 8 years have a short daily list that I jot down in my day planner that I purchased from Staples.

Review your big goals, upcoming action steps, and daily list each day.

4 Tactics for Better Managing Your Time

1. Creating a Daily Routine/Schedule

It’s important to schedule your activities for when you’ll be most productive at them. But the biggest blunder most real estate investors make is not scheduling time for all the things they really need to do. Then they are always short on time. Make sure you have scheduled time for:

Time for focusing on money making activities
Time for additional planning
Time for real estate education
Days off to recharge

2. Time Management Tools

Consider blocking tools to reduce wasted time on social media, checking email inboxes, and surfing the web. Use outsourcing apps like Upwork and Toggl to delegate and track down your tasks. Track, measure, and improve how you use your time on a regular basis.

3. Get Accountability Partners

I recommend getting accountability partners that share your goals that will keep you on track, and stop you from making excuses, or shirking your goals.

4. Reward Yourself

All of the above isn’t easy to stick to. So reinforce your positive momentum by rewarding yourself. When you do well treat yourself with a favorite activity or gift. When you mess up contribute to a jar that will pay for those times you do good. Then perform better to unlock that cash.

I”ll See you at the closing table,

Marcel Umphery the “R.E.I. Successmaker”