Time Management - 7 Great Tips and Tricks for Real Estate Investors
Whether you’re juggling real estate investing on top of a career or you’ve been lucky enough to make investing your primary source of income, having great time management strategies is the key to your success.
Like any job, real estate investment requires you to stay on top of multiple deadlines. This can be a balancing act, especially if you have invested in multiple properties. Time management can help you maximize the time you spend working so that you’re not constantly bogged down by commitments, paperwork and endless streams of emails. It’s a combination of organization and boundary-setting—and the payoff is worth it.
Now before we dive into some essential time management tips, let us help you save time on your mortgage with our easy done-for-you, hands-off process. To get started today all you need to do is click the link below for a free strategy card with our expert mortgage team.
Stay focused
When you’re starting out in real estate investment, you might want to take on multiple types of properties all across the nation. While it’s exciting to learn new aspects of the business, it’s wise to stay focused on one type of property or location at first. This is especially key for new investors since you likely will not have the same resources a national investor does. Force yourself to pick one type of property or area, such as rental properties near Toronto. As your experience grows, you can expand to other types of locations. This time management trick will help you stay focused and on-task.
Use time management tools
There are plenty of time management tools and apps available, often for free. Here are some that you should check out:
Calendar apps
Google Calendars is one of the best and most widely used calendar and scheduling apps available. Use it to set appointments, mark important deadlines, block off chunks of time for yourself and share calendars with your colleagues.
Note-taking
Tools like Evernote or Google Keep allow you to take and sync notes across your devices. They offer rich features, such as image insertion, sharing and more.
Cloud-based storage
Keep your important documents in cloud-based storage, such as Google Drive, Dropbox and other similar programs. These will allow you to back up and share your documents, not to mention accessing them on the go.
Audiobook apps
Audible, Overdrive and other audiobook apps are a great way to keep up with your reading while you’re “off the clock.” If you’re driving to the office or working out, listen to real estate investing audiobooks to keep up with the news of the day. You can do the same thing with real estate podcasts.
Social media scheduling
Tools like Hootsuite are great for scheduling your social media posts. Block out an hour per week to put together your social media for the coming week. Naturally you may need to post some things in the moment buy by using your time management to plan ahead, you will save time in the long run.
Keep your expectations realistic
A lot of investment strategy relies on trial and error. The more you learn about the process and the market, the more you’ll understand what to expect. However, you must keep your expectations of yourself realistic, too. You might believe that you can do it all on your own—and maybe you can—but make sure that the cost doesn’t outweigh the benefits. Let your real estate agent, mortgage broker and investor network guide you in setting achievable goals. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself wondering where you went wrong or prematurely burned out.
Know your limits
Many new investors make the mistake of jumping on every opportunity they see. In theory, it’s good to stay open to new ideas and opportunities, but you can quickly find yourself overextended. “No” is one of the most powerful words you can use, whether you’re saying it to yourself or others.
Setting boundaries with clients is a challenge many investors struggle with. After all, they’re making you money, so it’s easy to let those “urgent” requests or drop-ins slide. However, this can seriously impact how much you’re able to get done in a day. Learning to say “let’s make an appointment” or “I’m sorry, I can’t take on another project right now” will save your time and your sanity.
A huge part of time management is admitting when you do not have time. Do not overbook yourself.
Create daily plans
Knowing what you want to accomplish is half the battle—deciding when to do it is the rest. Along with the help of your calendar app, make sure that you set tasks for yourself at least the day before. Not only are you less likely to miss important deadlines or fall behind in your work, but this can also keep your mind from racing at night, trying to remember everything you’ve got to do the next day. Taking 15 minutes for this task makes a world of difference.
Delegate, delegate, delegate
No investor is an island. Along with real estate professionals like attorneys, agents and brokers, consider hiring support staff. Even a virtual assistant can take a load off your shoulders, like answering phone calls, scheduling appointments and helping you keep track of deadlines. Virtual assistants tend to be less expensive than hiring a full-time staff member, so you should be able to delegate some work at a reasonable cost. Be sure to set aside some money for this from your investment income.
Passing tasks off to the people who already know how to do them is a great time management and leadership tactic.
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Carve out time for exercise
Finally, it might sound strange, but exercise is a great time management tool. Not only can you use the opportunity to listen to audiobooks on real estate investment, but it’s a good way to keep your body and mind healthy. Real estate investment can be quite stressful, even when things are going well. Taking the time to exercise helps clear your mind, keeps you focused and may even lead to your next brilliant idea. Even a 20-minute walk at lunchtime will do you a world of good.
There are plenty more time management strategies you can try if these tips don’t work for you. The key is to experiment until you find what works for you. Everyone is different, so don’t worry if not all of these tools are a good fit. However, once you find a system that works, you’ll find that you’re happier, more productive and will be better able to enjoy your time off.
Now that you have learned some of the best time management tricks for real estate investors, let us help you save time on your mortgage. Get started today by clicking the link below to book a free strategy call and let us take things from there.