7 Things You Should Know About A Successful REI Business

Over this past year, we’ve taken note of the changes that have seemed to happen to even the best plans made by business owners. However, we cannot use those changes as an excuse to avoid preparing and planning for your business.

Some of the steps within the investing process include a solid business plan, finding funds, or even co-wholesaling. It’s important to remember to revamp your plan as you see fit with the changes happening around you.

   1. Create a Hard Copy Business Plan

When you make a plan, don’t just create it in your head. Write down your plan on paper or on a white board so you have a way to see it everyday. You should make sure to include long-term and short-term goals so you can start envisioning for your future plan.

When setting up your short-term plan, try to focus on staying within a year's timeline. For example, if you want to wholesale on a consistent basis for 2 deals a month within the next year, your next steps would be to bullet point your plan of action to accomplish the goal.

You’ll need to take note of what marketing tools you’ll need to help generate a good list of leads. As well as, generating a solid list of buyers that can purchase from you on a consistent basis if possible. Having a sense of predictability in your business will help give you a more consistent list of leads.

Once you’ve gotten these things in place, reverse engineer your plan so that way you understand all the working parts and can take advantage of keeping your business up for success. With our Real Estate Investing Women’s online training and coursework, we can walk you through the processes we use so you don’t have to navigate the tedious process alone.

   2. Conduct Market Research

Keep in mind, with the different markets there are, you'll have to keep an open mind and may end up having to utilize different strategies. Understanding the differences in each market you invest in will help you maximize your profits. If you’re normally interested in purchasing homes for rentals or long term use you may want to look for markets that have a need for rentals or even airbnbs for tourists. In this case, wholesaling or fix and flipping may not be the best option for maximum profit.

It is up to you to look at the supply and demand for each market you’re interested in. Being prepared means doing all the research on local market reports and staying up to date on what the experts predict. It may seem intimidating, but the time and effort placed into the research will end up paying off by helping reduce the risk and keeping your interests safe.

It is quite risky to want to invest without having done the said research first. One source that is bound to help with sorting through a reliable database would be the National Association of Realtors.

   3. Act with Transparency to Build Trust

Due to the bad apples that have acted on their greedy habits and lack of integrity, investing has developed a bad reputation over the years. However, many true investors know and understand that this is not how to get to a path of success and longevity. Your success and wealth is based on how honest and transparent you act within your business.

With investing, you have to keep in mind you are joining a relationship business. Meaning, that when you act with integrity you give yourself an upper hand in a competitive world. Having the Golden Rule as a part of your strategy is not a must but it definitely goes a long way when it comes to doing the right thing.

   4. Learn from Others & Ask for Help

One of the great things about real estate investing is that you don’t necessarily have to go and reinvent the wheel! Meaning, many women have started years ago to help lay down a solid foundation to help new investors avoid their same mistakes made through trial and error. You have the ability to pick up where they left off and learn from their experiences, failures and accomplishments, too.

This is actually one of the reasons we established REIW. We had a hard time locating the resources we needed, so instead we took the time to create and test them for other women investors to utilize. We wanted to share our legacy of accomplishments and help you avoid any costly mistakes. We even offer coaching, mentoring, events, training and online resources to help you gain the traction needed to kickstart your own real estate investing business.

   5. Find Your Unique Niche

What’s a special quality you have that sets you apart from other investors? Once you’ve done the research, learned the processes, and created a plan for your business, consider how to make yourself stand out from the competition out there. When you’re thinking about your special quality, take into account your strengths, interests and even the market demands of your selected area.

The beauty of choosing this field is that the market is constantly changing. Whether it be changes in the strategies, niches, seller and buyer perceptions, there are always new things coming about. When you stay on top of your research and doing homework you can be better prepared and act on opportunities others may not see.

So, what’s your niche?

Part of REIW’s past includes working closely with the wholesaling strategy. Quite frankly, Laura didn’t really choose the strategy starting off. She actually stumbled upon it by chance when it wasn’t even a strategy yet. As a new investor at the time, Laura was specializing in doing options and lease options. Someone that was selling contracts without the closing on the properties came along. Instead they were using a double closing and thus introduced Laura to the idea of Wholesaling. Later becoming Laura’s top strategy used to help build capital.

Our advice is to find out what works best for not only you but your newfound business as well. Having the right tools to market yourself and your properties will help build your unique brand identity and expand your reach to potential leads.

   6. Building Relationships & Networking

Thanks to today’s technological advancements, there are many online tools that help with the automation process for a lot of real estate investors. These systems allow investors to streamline and expand their reach further than just the local options. However, relying too much on the automation process may take away from one of the most important factors of the business - human interaction!

This field is one that thrives on relationships. Being able to showcase your personality, brand, vision and niche are extremely vital to how long and successful your business will be. Yes, automating your business helps give you more time on your hands but the automation does not represent you and your personality.

Try not to skip out on the personal connection you can make with your leads. Building rapport and relationships will help you as an investor with solidifying a strong network. If you do skip out, you run the risk of someone like you with similar goals will surpass you. It’s important to grow slowly with a solid foundation while making sure you don’t lose sight of your mission or yourself.

    7. Invest in Continuous Education

This field happens to be very dynamic and is always changing. So with that in mind, in order to be successful and stay relevant you have to plan ahead. Being in the know with what is happening in the market is something that will help you predict the future trends. If something doesn’t work then you may have to scrap it and take yourself back to the drawing board.

Stay proactive, invest in further training, attend events, speak with coaches, do whatever you need to do to make sure your knowledge is up to date. Keep in mind that adjustments to your business plan may happen over time due to these changes and it’s important you keep track of it to adapt at the right time.