The Power of Atomic Habits for Investors

Fundamental Principle

If you’re overwhelmed by the wide-open field that is real estate investing, try building tiny, compounding habits along the path in 2021!

Diane’s Story

About six months into our marriage, Nick and I had navigated a cement-clogged kitchen sink, a series of unplanned waterfalls throughout our home (including the one through our roof), and hazmat-worthy rat and bat carcasses in our attic. Our very first home was slowly trying to kill us.

Naturally, this was the moment Nick decided we should start investing in real estate. For the first few months, I asked him to share as little as possible about it (not my best teammate moment) - as I could barely keep up with our primary residence. That said - when a few months later he casually mentioned a stabbing in the property and significant rehab costs - I decided I should try to stay informed.

While Nick jumped headfirst into building our business, I've dipped my toes in and out of the water since 2017. For me, it started with listening to podcasts, moving to books, and eventually taking ownership of our taxes and insurance (and this website & blog). Before the pandemic, we split responsibilities by function alongside our demanding W-2 jobs. Nick took ownership of building for the future (real estate, stock portfolio, etc.), while I maintained our present state (groceries, cooking, laundry, gifts for friends & family, etc.) It sounds a little 1950's, but I'm plenty empowered, and that system played to our strengths. Since we're now working from home full-time, Nick has assumed many household responsibilities - and I (with some trepidation) have taken on deal sourcing for our business.

I share my experience on the off-chance yours is similar, especially if you have a gung-ho partner!

Maybe you've listened to tons of podcasts, and you've heard about LLC's and Cash-for-Keys and Quitclaim Deeds (fun fact: it’s not Quick Claim) - and you're overwhelmed.

Maybe you worry you're not smart enough, can't figure it out, or will be a failure.

Maybe you look at other investors and can't imagine living up to that example.

Maybe, just maybe, it feels safer to have a big bag of cash under your mattress that loses 2% every year (hopefully you have a partner, like mine, who won't let you).

Maybe that's why you're here?

Navigating a wide-open field has never been my strength, and when you're just getting started, that's what lies ahead. You can take so many paths in real estate, and there's so much information available (of varying quality). If you're the type to become quickly overwhelmed - getting started can feel impossible.

But maybe you could get 1% better today? Perhaps you could take the next, right step?

Introducing Atomic Habits for Real Estate

Atomic Habits, if you're not familiar, is an incredible book of strategies for building small habits that compound over time for outsized returns. My stomach plummets when faced with "huge transformation," so the concept of "tiny tweaks" lands far better. With my stated intent to become more involved in our real estate business this year, I wanted to explore some of the small habits that enable the best to make it look easy.

So far, you've only heard from Nick and me on this blog - and we thought it was high-time we brought in some of the voices we most admire from our network. We hope you enjoy hearing some fresh thinking in 2021!

✨ Our Expert Investor Panel ✨

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The First Law: Make It Obvious

Implementation Intentions

If you've not heard Sunitha Rao speak, feel free to stop reading - listen to one of her many exceptional podcasts - and come on back. Sunitha is a powerhouse in the Indianapolis real estate community - but she also works a demanding W-2 role in finance (in fact, she's just started a new job as of this week 🎉). The trick to making it happen?

"The question became, how do I fit real estate into my schedule alongside the many demands for my time? There will be times when my W2 and real estate work bleed together - but I need to isolate time for real estate.

I learned to set aside time before work at a minimum. I get up at 5/6 am and manage the urgent, tactical items such as sending emails to Airbnb guests or reaching out to my cleaner. Then, in the evening, I sometimes come back to real estate for an hour or two."

This practice was echoed by (arguably) the most personable Indy investor we know, Naweed Moalikyar. Naweed works a demanding sales job with a variable schedule, and if anyone could claim they "don't have time for real estate," - it's Naweed.

"I make four windows every day to focus on Real Estate: Before 9 am, during the lunch hour, between 5-7 pm, and between 10 pm-midnight. I continuously add to my to-do list and add evening reminders using Siri throughout the day. I make sure to knock everything out before I wrap up the day.

I try to get to everything urgent (as it arises) in the first two first time windows, but my catch-all is most evenings before my girlfriend wraps up work or after she goes to sleep."

The Atomic Habit: Sunitha & Naweed set an . They have pre-established blocks each day, with particular activities to achieve in that time.

Your Two-Minute Task: Determine how much time you want to dedicate to real estate each week, and set the time blocks on your calendar now. Make them recurring, so you already know when you'll have time for real estate each week.

The Second Law: Make It Attractive

Join the Culture

No matter their strategy or focus, every investor we know recommends getting involved in the broader real estate community. If the term "networking" puts you off - think of it as making friends, sharing knowledge, and learning from others.

"The team finds a way to extend itself naturally," said Naweed (he's a master relationship builder, so expect to work to build that skill if you're not there yet 😉). "I am constantly in touch with groups of wholesalers, friends, inspectors, lenders, etc. - and I find new relationships and service providers very naturally through new acquisitions."

Referencing the lively "Indiana Out of State Investor" Facebook Group, he shared, "Of course, the extended team on the OOOs Investor group is also tremendously helpful. It's been incredible to build those relationships and leverage them when questions come up."

The Atomic Habit: Naweed has joined and built an excellent reputation within his desired culture. He budgets time to build relationships, learn from, and support other investors and real estate service providers.

Your Two-Minute Task: Find a community where your desired habits and goals are the norms, and join it! Reach out to people you've heard on a podcast, search for your local REIA, look for a meetup - options are endless!

The Third Law: Make It Easy

Automate your Habit

As you begin to break it down, you'll see that investing in real estate involves a series of repetitive tasks. Whether you're flipping or holding, there will be chunks of work you'll need to complete with each deal.

When you find yourself completing a task for the third time, it's worth pausing and asking, "Is this something I could automate?" or "Is this something I could outsource" or, at the very least, "Is this something I could systematize?"

As the primary investor in our house, Nick has developed some reliable, automated tools to keep our business on track. These include:

1) A Kanban Board full of templates (We use Notion, you could also use Trello) we copy and paste for rehab projects/fips/acquisitions. The board lays out the steps we need to take and the responsible party, giving us an at-a-glance view of how we're doing with a particular project and what tasks remain.

2) Automated Reminders Set Up in Omni-Focus to ensure he's keeping in touch with our service providers and investor network, even if we don't have a project underway.

3) A Deal-Tracker with pre-established formulas for evaluating rehabs & ARV. We built out a google form for the inputs, and everything flows automagically 🧚🏻‍♂️ into a Google Sheet where we analyze, track, and follow-up on wholesale/MLS deals.

The Atomic Habit: Find yourself with a repetitive task? Consider how you might automate it.

Your Two-Minute Task: Make a list of the habits and tasks you need to regularly complete to reach your goals. Commit to automating, or at least systematizing them, in the real estate-related time blocks you've now established.

Prime the Environment

Sunitha is a voracious learner who finds herself jumping from topic to topic, and she needed a way to keep herself organized. Over time - she came up with a system to ensure she'd never start from zero when considering a new investment strategy.

"As I'm reading and learning, I start a new Google Drive folder based on the subject. For example, I'm listening to a bunch of podcasts about mobile home parks. I'll dump all of my notes and learnings into that folder - and even if I'm not ready to take action, is there when I'm ready to pick it up again. The key learnings - things I need to remember - will all be there, organized for me. That way, I'm never starting from zero."

The Atomic Habit: Begin to prime your environment, and set your space (physical or digital) up to simplify and kickstart the work to be done!

Your Two-Minute Task: Consider the work you need to do to build your business. Maybe you need to establish a database to track your properties in one manageable place. Perhaps you need a separate working space that enables you to focus on real estate tasks. Whatever it is - consider how you might prime the environment to ease the journey ahead!

Reduce Friction (for you & your tenants)

We admire just about everything when it comes to Lindsey Meringer & Amanda Schneider. Lindsey (Soon-to-be a retired Green Beret) and his incredible wife Amanda (Realtor, Combat Veteran) are investors based in the Colorado Springs market - and the work ethic between the two is inexhaustible.

Amanda and Lindsey self-manage their properties in Colorado Springs - and they're obsessive about keeping their properties well maintained for tenants. "Tenants think that they're inconveniencing landlords with a small problem. But we have a very different idea of what a "small problem" is. When we place a tenant, we set up a text chain with Amanda and me and all of the tenants so that they can reach us easily. We also make it very clear that they're never bothering us with anything that comes up.

Right now, we're working on getting a quarterly filter maintenance plan set up so that I have an automatic schedule to get into the homes every few months. This gives me an easy path to get into the home and make sure everything is well maintained."

The Atomic Habit: Clear the path ahead for the work to be done! This work goes hand-in-hand with priming your environment.

Your Two-Minute Task: What are the small blockers and inconveniences you face in working on your real estate business? Maybe you find that you're working with your team across four different communication platforms, and it's time to have one central hub for communicating with them. Maybe you need to set up some podcast and blog subscriptions that bring education to you directly. What are the tiny hills you can flatten on your climb to building your business?

The Fourth Law: Make It Satisfying

Reward Yourself!

We're big on celebrating in the Giulioni House. Since Covid, it's often in the form of takeout (usually from our new Indy favorite, Peterson's) - but we also enjoy celebrating with our team! We've managed to sneak in a few socially-distanced gatherings and are big believers in bringing the team along to celebrate when we close a deal.

Depending on your strategy, you may not be closing on new deals all that frequently - so we recommend setting milestone goals and celebrating them in a way that's meaningful to you. Whether it's finding a new member of your team, putting out your first offer (even if it's not accepted), or moving on from a challenging tenant - there are plenty of reasons to pause and celebrate in building your business!

While you're building a new habit, find a small, celebratory ritual that's meaningful to you! As I'm strengthening my deal sourcing muscle, it's sharing the learnings from the day with Nick or a friend. That's a win-win - as I'm also participating in the culture. 🌟

The Atomic Habit: Use reinforcement! When you complete a habit or milestone goal, pause and celebrate in a meaningful, goal-aligned fashion.

Your Two-Minute Task: What habits do you want to build, and how can you recognize and reward yourself when you complete one? Can you set some milestone goals that merit a more significant celebration? Real estate has plenty of downs - make sure you recognize every high point along the way!

What Now?

These are just a few tactics to consider - the goal in sharing them is that perhaps one works for you. More importantly, you have a framework as you think about taking small steps each day and each week to build your business and a few life hacks to keep you committed.

Got those calendar blocks in place, but not sure how to make the most of them? Look out for our next post on what you need to know (and, more importantly, what you don't) before purchasing your first deal!

And, if you're interested in helping the author make this work satisfying - drop a comment and let me know what you took from this blog! 😉