From hustle to business.

[Nicholas Tarver]

Me and my wife got into real estate a few years back and haven't done much lately. An investor we dealt with a few times asked me to help him convert his hustle of buying and flipping into a business. I told him he needs to have systems in place so he can work on the business and not in his business as he does the rehabs with contractors that he just hires when needed.

What questions should I ask him and how should I go about getting him some operational procedures in place. He is a perfect example of the E myth.

Any assistance would be helpful ty.

[Ben Sears]

We had this discussion on systems in another thread. I'm at the point in my business where we are beginning to develop systems for managing our rentals and flips. What I can tell you is that it's incredibly hard to put systems in place if you don't have several investments under your belt. You really do need the experience of working through a few flips to know what systems are required. For us, we quickly realized that we didn't want to chase tenants for rent every month or drive to the bank with checks so we signed up for a third party collection company. We did this after driving to the bank for a year with paper checks and understanding what a waste of time it was. 

I use the above example to demonstrate a task that we found redundant and wasteful. If I was in your shoes, I would ask your friend to make a list of all of the tasks that he completes during a regular flip. Sticky notes on a wall are a great way to do this. After he's done, take all of the sticky notes and separate them into "do yourself" and "develop a system/sub-contract". This will give you a place to start instead of blindly attempting to develop systems that you may not even need.