5 Tips to Kickoff 2025 Successfully

[Julio Gonzalez]

It’s a new year! Have you taken the time to sit down and reflect on last year and how you did compared to the goals you set for yourself in 2024? Have you set new goals for 2025? Each year, I like to take time to reflect on the prior year and where I’m headed in the current year. Here are my top 5 tips for starting the new year off right!

1. Review your prior year income statement.
   1. How did your year go? Were revenues as high as you expected them to be? Did you under or over estimate vacancies? Did you have unexpected expenses? Do you need to increase rents in the next year to cover your costs? Did you have taxable income that could’ve been reduced utilizing tax strategies? Review what happened and determine why each item was above or below your expectations so that you can properly plan for next year.
2. Review your prior year goals.
   1. Did you buy all of the properties you set out to purchase? Did you attend educational courses to enhance your real estate knowledge? Did you save enough money for a new purchase? Did you complete the renovations on a property? Did you change strategies on one of your properties? Be sure to celebrate the goals that you achieved!! If you didn’t hit some of your goals, analyze what caused you to not achieve them to ensure you don’t make the same mistakes again the following year. Maybe you had some unexpected expenses come up. Maybe you planned for interest rates to drop and they didn’t. Maybe the goal was unrealistic. Maybe you didn’t dedicate enough time to the goal. There could be a million reasons as to why you didn’t achieve that goal, but course correct and get it next year!
3. Create your 2025 budget.
   1. Are your property taxes going up? Ensure you increase the budget. Do certain properties need upgrades in order to maximize rent potential? Don’t forget that budgeting for vacancies can make or break your portfolio. Look for ways to increase profits but without cutting corners.
4. Establish your 2025 goals.
   1. What goals do you plan to accomplish in 2025? Maybe you want to try your hand in the STR space. Or maybe you finally want to purchase a multi-family complex / self-storage facility / car wash, etc. Maybe the current strategy on your property isn't working and you need to try out a new one. Have you been needing to renovate a property? Maybe this is the year. Maybe you want to attend real estate conferences or join more real estate groups to expand your network. Whatever it may be, WRITE IT DOWN!!! And then decide what it will take every quarter, month, week, and day to be able to achieve those goals. If it's not written down, when you get to the end of the year, you won't be able to determine if your year exceeded expectations or not.
5. Schedule a meeting with your CPA to discuss your goals and tax planning.
   1. After all of your budgeting and goal planning, there’s another very important step. This is one often forgotten before it's too late. Schedule a meeting with your CPA and tell them all about your goals for the year. They can help you with tax planning at the beginning of the year to help ensure you are taking advantage of as many tax benefits / incentives that you can. Maybe you are needing a new vehicle for your real estate business - they can help ensure this vehicle is on the list that qualifies. If you’re doing updates to a property, they can provide you with a list of qualifications to help your property be more energy efficient maximizing tax deductions. If you’re placing a new property into service, you can discuss cost segregation studies. There are endless ways to save on taxes, so just ensure you are having these discussions with your CPA for the most tax advantageous year!

What other tips do you have for investors to kick off their 2025 the right way?