How to systemize my real estate business?

[Joshua D.]

So me and my wife started our real estate business about 3 years ago. We have 14 properties (18 units.) My wife does the bookkeeping and pays bills (switching utilities and does the paperwork with moving people into properties.) We have own property management sytem with our own website we use and have implemented for tenant maintenane requests, applications, etc. I handle the construction side of things and aqusitions of properties & some of the marketing side. So, we are about to have our first child in December and I wanna keep growing and maybe hire people to do some of our jobs, and maybe focus on me just finding the good deals. Or whats the best way to structure our business to grow huge and make better systems and what not?

[JD Martin]

The best way I've found to systematize:

1. Electronic everything if possible. That means lease, payments, requests, everything. 

2. Have good reliable: HVAC, plumber, electrician, pest control. Good reliable jack of all trades guy is a bonus, for the odd broken window or busted door lock.

3. Batch your showings. My wife will batch them in 10-15 minute increments. We used to do open houses exclusively but found that also tends to attract tire kickers. These days she batches the appointments  in two or three days. Not only does this keep you from running everywhere, it creates a sense of urgency when 2 or 3 couples are walking through close to each other. Human nature is to want what you're about to not be able to have.

4. Keep everything the same as possible. Use the same paint and paint colors across houses. Use the same types of door locks. Use the same faucets. ETC. 

5. Pick one day a week to do business housekeeping and batch your tasks. All my contractors know that I write checks on Monday (those that don't get paid electronically). If you do work for me on Tuesday, you're getting paid Monday. If you do work on Sunday, you're getting paid Monday. If you do work on Monday, you're getting paid next Monday. No exceptions. I don't drop what I'm doing to get payments out. I do the same thing with accounting, filing, etc. Do it in big batches so you minimize your ramp up and ramp down times.

It doesn't sound like you have enough properties to warrant having anyone on a staff. Utilize contract personnel.