2018 Goal Planning Tips for NEWBIE Real Estate Investors

• 1.PLAN BY THE QUARTER… NOT THE YEAR! As you are getting started in your REI business, you are going to modify so many things as you go along. You might change your marketing tactics or the market you target as you find what works for you. So do yourself a favor… DON’T set your goals for a whole year! I find that people bite off more than they can chew. Start out slow.. just plan your goals for the quarter. This way you can adjust as the year goes on and not become paralyzed by an overwhelming amount of things to achieve. Just take it one… quarter…. At a time. This helps to chunk out tasks to avoid that ugly things known as analysis paralysis or overwhelm that completely stop us dead in our tracks. I am a FIRM believer that quarterly goal planning sets you up for success!
• 2.BREAK IT DOWN TO THE SMALLEST OF TASKS: Lots of newbies will say: “I want to flip 3 houses this year and buy one rental!” That’s awesome, but your goal setting can’t stop there. You need to decide WHERE you want to find those houses and HOW you are going to find them. For example, say you want to use direct mail to find off market deals. So you should start with:

I have X amount of dollars to put a week towards direct mail marketing

That will get me X amount of letters

I am going to focus those letters on X area and X mailing list

Every __________ (fill in the day of the week) I’m going to send X letters

Then, track your results as the quarter goes on J So you can ADJUST for the following quarter.

As you plan these quarterly goals as a newbie, the 1st quarter might JUST be spent LEARNING. Learning your market, learning to analyze deals, getting your marketing machine ready. And then the 2nd quarter of the year might be where you start putting in offers. This is OK!! Don’t RUSH IT!!! You want to set up a good foundation for your business so once those marketing machines are up and running they can keep going.

• 3.WRITE THAT SH** DOWN! OR.. Put It in Your Iphone or some kind of app that reminds you. When you know what tasks you have to do for that quarter, write them down and stick to them. Use a platform to remind you of your tasks, like an app on your iphone or a wall calendar. I am very much the type of person that has to have something GLARING at me in the face in order for me to do it. I have HUGE pieces of paper hanging on my office walls with my quarterly goals on them and I have a HUGE wall calendar where I write all my marketing tasks in green (green because marketing is what makes us money as real estate investors). I was having coffee with one of my students the other day that was a little “stuck” and had fallen out of his marketing routine so his deal flow dried up. He told me that he has to put reminders in his iphone. He cannot use a wall calendar. This is great! He knows what works for HIM! Don’t use something just because it works for someone else. People laugh at me all the time because I’m “old school”, a pen & paper kinda gal – but its what works for me. Its what MAKES me do the marketing tasks I need to do every day to keep business going.
• Writing down your tasks or putting them in an app also includes scheduling your quarterly goal planning. 4 weeks before the quarter is over, take a day off, away from your every day life, and plan the next quarter’s goals. Go to a coffee shop. Go to a hotel. Go on a day trip. Just GO AWAY so you can be without distractions and think about what worked and what didn’t in the previous quarter and what you need to do for the upcoming quarter.
• 4.SURROUND YOURSELF WITH THOSE TO THAT KEEP YOU MOTIVATED! Getting into real estate investing and keeping the business going is NOT easy. It is A LOT of work. Your family will probably think you are crazy, your friends will wonder if all that work you are putting in will be worth it, you will get frustrated, you will want to give up, you will struggle. Anyone that tells you otherwise is full of hot air. You will NEED people to keep you motivated and going. My students share their struggles and motivate each other every day in our group on facebook. You can join free groups on Facebook, like our Coffee Talk with Lazy Girl REI group. You can join your local REI groups by finding them on meetup.com. These are great ways to connect with other flippers and landlords. Openly share your hurdles and your goals with them so you can receive support and stay motivated, encouraged, and focused on your goals!