Develop Your Real Estate Investor Mindset With These 5 Helpful Habits
As a real estate investor, you are your own boss. This creates a strong sense of freedom and independence, but it also creates room for you to develop bad habits that can harm both your personal and professional life.
So, it is important as an investor that you take the time to develop your real estate investor mindset early on. That way you can dedicate more of your time to growing your portfolio and living your life freely. Of course, healthy habits and strategies do not form overnight, they take time and effort in order to truly grow and make an impact.
So here are five tips you can use in order to develop healthier habits as a real estate investor.
Why Is It Important to Develop Your Real Estate Investor Mindset?
One thing that all of the most successful real estate investors will tell you is that in order to learn how to be successful in real estate investing, you need a strong real estate investor mindset.
In fact, your real estate investor mindset is going to be one of your primary tools when you are learning how to become a real estate investor. This is because at the end of the day when you are learning how to be a real estate investor pdfs, video guides, and articles will never be enough to help you succeed if your mind is in the wrong place.
What is the Real Estate Investor Mindset?
When investors throw out terms such as 'real estate investor mindset' it can be confusing at first to wrap your mind around it. After all, how much do you really need to change in order to be successful?
Sometimes, you are fortunate enough that you do not need to change much, but in other cases there is some serious mental work that needs to be done if you are going to see the best returns on your investments.
The real estate investor mindset requires you to be organized, aware and constantly willing to work because the market is never going to stop and wait for you to be ready.
Taking the First Step
Before we take the time to dive into the five major habits you should form when developing your investor mindset, let's take a look at what is going to be a major first-step for most investors when pursuing a new investment opportunity - talking to your mortgage broker.
Regardless of whether you are looking to buy residential properties and need a pre-approval, or if you need a commercial development loan for a strip mall you intend to build, sitting down and talking to a mortgage expert can go a long way to ensuring you get the financing you need.
That is why at LendCity, we want to offer you a free strategy call in order to help you unlock the wealth you deserve from each of your investments through smart-financing and the real estate investor mindset. All you need to do is click the link below in order to get started today.
1 - Set Goals for Your Investments
Whenever you are about to make a new investment or put time and effort into a previous investment property, you need to set goals for yourself. This way you can clearly see when you have succeeded and accurately identify areas you can improve upon in the future.
When setting goals for yourself it is important to consider both the short-term and long-term accomplishments you wish to achieve. This way you know what you need to do immediately and in the future to remain on track.
For example, you may decide that in the next 5 years you want to increase your portfolio from 10 doors to 50 doors. At the same time, in the next 90 days you want to convert a property you own into a legal duplex to increase the cash flow potential of that property.
Keep Your Goals Flexible
Do not allow yourself to get stuck trying to work within your previous goals if those goals no longer make sense. If you achieve a goal earlier than you planned, or circumstances have changed and a goal cannot be met in the initial timeframe, let yourself remain flexible to change your goals. Having goals to strive towards is always a good thing, but do not let those goals hold you back from achieving new growth.
Understand That Sometimes You Won't Meet Your Goals
Even if you had a goal in mind that sounded like it was going to be doable and great for you as an investor, you need to understand that sometimes things will happen that can get in the way of your goals.
This is not a sign of failure, it is simply a sign that the time was not right, or you need to continue trying. After all, the real estate investor mindset is about moving forward and growing, not checking plans and ideas off of a never-ending checklist.
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2 - Remain Consistent
One of the largest areas improvement most people need to focus on while building their real estate investor mindset is consistency. Life is always moving, and it can be difficult keeping consistent schedules, strategies, and expectations. So, try taking things one step at a time and analyse different areas where you can improve on your consistency.
Scheduling
What does a typical day look like for you? Do you have a nine-to-five job and manage your investments during your off-hours? Are you a full-time investor who keeps a very loose schedule? Regardless, try to set consistent recurring events in your schedule so that you can remain on top of your investments.
For example, you can book monthly meetings with your team to address any concerns regarding property management. As well, you can develop a set schedule for when you plan to come and have your investment properties inspected that way you can stay ahead of any major maintenance concerns.
Include Your Tenants In Your Scheduling Plans
One of the best ways to keep your schedule organized is to include your tenants in your scheduling system.
Have your property managers ask tenants to inform you of when they plan on going out of town, taking a trip, or bringing important guests over. That way you can schedule things in a way that does not disrupt their life.
Some tenants are not going to want to take part in this and would rather keep their lives private. If that is the case, do not pressure them, but let them know you are asking for their benefit as well as your own. If they continue to refuse, just move on.
Professional Expectations
Are you and your team on the same page about your expectations? Is there a clear standard set for how each member of your team should approach their job and the productivity that is expected from them? If so, that is fantastic. Otherwise you may want to take some time to sit down with your team and lay out your expectations for them.
Setting Regular Team Meetings
If your investment portfolio is growing to the point that you have a hard time keeping everyone on the same page, try to take the time to book a quarterly meeting with key members of your team to discuss goals, expectations and strategies.
This can offer an opportunity for everyone to stay on the same page.
Marketing and Communications
When you are looking for new tenants to occupy your properties, do you have a plan on how to market each property? If you rely on direct mail to help generate leads, how often do you send out cards and letters?
Your marketing and communications should have a consistent voice and feel, that way you can build your recognition and reputation in the community as a serious investor.
3 - Don’t Compare Yourself to Others
One of the worst things you can do is get caught up comparing yourself to others. Every investor and investment strategy is different.
It does not matter if you see an investor who recently added 10 new properties to their portfolio, and you only added three. What matters is that you dedicate your time to continuing to grow and adjusting your strategies according to what helps you succeed.
Sometimes, some investors prioritize completing a high volume of low-profit deals, while others would rather complete fewer high-profit deals. Neither strategy is wrong, they are simply different.
Remain Open to Inspiration and Advice
While comparing yourself to other investors is one of the worst habits to form as part of your real estate investor mindset, that does not mean you need to close yourself off to the influence of others.
Other real estate investors may have key pieces of advice and ideas that you can take inspiration from. So, you need to be willing to use that. Just make sure you do not get caught up comparing yourself to them while you do so.
4 - Establish Reasonable Boundaries
Due to the free-flowing nature of real estate investing, it can be very easy to get carried away and fall into the ‘on-call 24/7’ lifestyle. However, this can quickly become incredibly exhausting and unmanageable if you let it go on for too long. At the end of the day, you need to create a healthy work-life balance.
Start by setting specific hours that you cannot be reached. These “quiet hours” can help you find time to relax knowing that unless there is an emergency, you will not have to rush off to work. You can then use this time to enjoy moments with your loved ones or get some much-needed rest. However, it is still important that you make yourself available for you investments and investing partners in order to succeed, so try not to become unavailable.
Emergencies are an Exception
Naturally, while having your own 'quiet hours' is important, you need to have a method of being reached when things are urgent. So, take the time to find a method of communication you prefer for emergencies and find a way to keep that available and online.
One method to do this is to select an app on your phone that is exclusively for emergency communications and set that app to ignore features such as do not disturb. This way even if you turn off your notifications for some quiet time, your phone will still ring if it absolutely needs to.
5 - Trust Your Network
Finally, one of the most important habits that investors often need to break is not trusting their networks. When you are networking and building a team, you should always be looking for the most qualified and organized people you can in order to get the job done. So once you have that network in place, trust their advice. You chose them for a reason.
Continue Growing as an Investor
Once you have built your real estate investor mindset it is time to continue growing as an investor. That means applying these skills, learning new investment strategies and buying new properties.
If you would like to continue building strong habits as a real estate investor, or you would like to dive further into the world of investments, let us help you. Give us a call at LendCity today and a member of our team will gladly get you started. To contact us you can call 519-960-0370 or visit us online at LendCity.ca
Alternatively, if you would like to book a free strategy call to go over financing options and the next steps in developing your real estate investor mindset, you can click the link below.