What is the best way to automate my business?

[Christopher Hunter]

I would like information on the best way to automate my new Real Estate Business?

[J Scott]

What type of business is it (flipping, landlording, wholesaling, notes, etc)?

Assuming you've been doing this business for a while, I would suggest sitting down and making a list of all the tasks that you regularly do, and that would be benefited by automation. Then determine what you think the best form of automation would be:

- Software/Technology

- Third-Party Contractor/VA

- Employee

If the solution is software/technology, do a search to see if what you want/need exists. If it does, you're set. If it doesn't, you need to determine if the cost to develop it outweighs the cost of doing it yourself or finding another way to automate.

If the solution is a contractor/VA/employee, then you should document the process in as much detail as possible and then find the least expensive (but still adequate) means of delegating it. VAs will typically be the least expensive, but for many hands-on tasks, you may need a contractor or employee.

Also, you should figure out which tasks you're doing that don't need to be done at all -- this tends to be the biggest way to free up time.

[Darrell Shepherd]

You want to automate your NEW Real Estate business? It's a pretty hands on game in the beginning. Lots of ways to cut your time involved as you get your knowledge (and money) up, as mentioned above, and you can look at building it with good systems from the get go, but I think what you're asking is kinda crazy.
Glad to help, and lord knows I'm pretty good at paying other people to do anything I can get away with, but there are certain things I wouldn't want to automate, like buying. Plus, about the time you train anyone up to do what you do in this biz, they realize they dont really need you anymore.
What are you trying to accomplish? As J. Scott asked, a lot will depend on what part of the business you are trying to do.

[Christopher Hunter]

@J Scott Thank you for your input. I am a beginning Buy & Hold Investor. I want to outsource all my marketing, lead generation, and raising private capital in one software program. I have been looking at Freedom and testing that system out. I have been in contact with Elance on finding a VA. I have been learning how to analyze multifamily property and I do not want to outsource that until I can understand it myself.

[Annunciata R.]

@Christopher Hunter I have had some talk with some property friends and they seem to swear by Evernote application. I have promised to take a look at this for scanning my receipts.

In the meantime I use an offline software that set me back by about $750 and which took me a while to learn. I prefer this over cloud based programs as I don't feel comfortable with all that data being held about my income assets in the cloud.

The software I use enables me to manage all my properties as well as tenants. The best bit for me is the document management facility. Now I am able to scan each document and upload it against a tenant or against a property.

Without my software. I would not be able to tell you or give you an update on any of my properties within 5mins. The next stage of my automation will be remote access to my desktop holding my application and all scanned documents . There are various free applications offering this service including Team Viewer and Google Remote Desktop.

Hope this gives you some ideas to work with.

[Christopher Hunter]

@Darrell Shepherd Thank you.

[Christopher Hunter]

@Annunciata R. Thank you. I will review this Evernote and see if this is similiar to Freedomsoft.

[J Scott]

Originally posted by @Christopher Hunter:
@J Scott Thank you for your input. I am a beginning Buy & Hold Investor.

If you're just starting out, I recommend you do everything yourself until you understand the process. If you outsource something and don't know how it's supposed to be done, how will you determine if you're getting your money's worth for the outsourcing?

[Christopher Hunter]

@J Scott I get that I need to be very hands on in the beginning. I wanted to outsource some of the time consuming projects like marketing, lead generation, sending offers, screening the leads that do come and mailings.

[Annunciata R.]

In this case I think you are more looking for a Virtual Assistant, you may need to search around the forums to find out who people are recommending. Here is one link http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/61/topics/122414-virtual-assistance