Goal Accountability: Are you still on track for 2017?

[Shiloh Lundahl]

When it comes to being a real estate investor, we often make our own goals and don't have people  who watch over us to make sure we are reaching the benchmarks that lead to accomplishing our goals.  I don't remember if it was in a podcasts or an audio book that I have listened to recently, but I remember hearing it said that we should share our goals with people so that it motivates us to reach them.  

It is one thing to set a goal and keep it in your mind.  It is even better to write it down so that you can review it.  But, in my opinion, when we share our goals with others, even when they are lofty goals, we now have people to answer to as to whether or not we are reaching those goals which can create accountability and added pressure to achieve what we say we are going to achieve.

So to practice what I am preaching, I set out this year to flip 20 houses and to buy 10 buy and hold properties.  So far we have purchased 6 buy and hold properties that we have leases on and we have completed 3 flips and have 1 more under contract for sale.  We are currently under construction with 3 more flips and 4 more properties that we are deciding if we want to keep them as flips or buy and holds.  We also will be closing on 2 more properties a the end of the month that we will keep as buy and holds.

So all together that is 19 out of 30 properties at the half way mark.  We are keeping on track.

How are you doing with your goals for 2017?  Have you shared them with others?  How do you keep yourself accountable?

[Austin Fruechting]

Goals... pfffft.

;)

I love/hate goals.  I have never had goals of acquiring X number of units in a certain year or adding X cash flow in a certain year.  Instead, I had one major/overarching goal of achieving financial freedom as quickly as possible.  

How that played out: I would capitalize on the great opportunities when they were there.  If a great deal wasn't there, I would wait patiently... I had periods where nothing happened for a year+ because the deals and returns I wanted weren't there.  Although that was somewhat discouraging during that period, and I felt like I wasn't making any progress, I knew what I was waiting for.  If I had I held myself to some arbitrary annual goal I would have invested into just half way ok/decent deals. Instead (because of my focus on the overarching goal) I waited patiently and was ready to capitalize as soon as the great deals came along. 

I've closed on 34 rental units this year.  That doesn't matter.  What matters is they were great deals and the right units to buy.  

Set your goal on the long term play/goal. Realize how every decision you make to buy, or pass, fits into your ultimate goal.  This is a chess game, not checkers.