These are the five most important to-do items that should be on every real estate professional and investor’s list before the new year arrives…

No matter how busy you think you are, or the ‘urgent’ things that try to distract you and steal your time, the below will make or break how you end this year, and how the entire next year will go for you.

Review The Past Year

Take a day to review the past year. What worked well and didn’t? Why?

Evaluate any gap in your goals versus achievements. Did you surpass your goals, or fall short? What caused that?

Ask what has changed in the real estate market and economy, and your business, and life over the past year, as well as your personal development?

Then take the next day to celebrate all the progress. Even if you didn’t hit all your goals.

Set New Goals For The New Year

Make them specific, BIG, and achievable.

Anchor these to your underlying why. Make them visible on a daily basis. Not just for yourself, but for your entire team.

Begin setting up the framework to be able to achieve these goals over the next 12 months. If you don’t have a template for this yet, even just start a spreadsheet with the categories of items that you need to accomplish them. Including the team and roles you need to till, the connections you need to make, the infrastructure that needs to be put in place, and the budget and funds required.

Evaluate The Outlook For The New Year

Consider what is likely to change or stay the same over the next year?

Such as new regulations, demand and supply, the cost of doing business, and more.

Ask what are the unknowns or wild cards that could be played? How can you be prepared to weather it and capitalize on these changes, so that your business is unshakeable when things happen?

Take Time Out To Reset

Recognize that this is some of the most important and profitable time you will invest in yourself and your business all year.

Whether it is a weekend or a week, the ROI on this time outside of your business will return many times that of the hours you are busy in your business the rest of the year. It will boost every other minute you spend doing things over the next 12 months.

Getaway somewhere new. Ideally you can unplug from everything for at least 48 hours.

Decompress, get inspired, gain new insights, recharge, reenergize, and regain your focus, and perspective on the big picture.

This is the most important thing we all MUST do before the new year.

Set The Table

Then take the remainder of the year to have conversations about everything you’ve contemplated, learned, and set to do for the next year.

This season is ideal for sharing many meals with important people in your life, and new people. This sets the table for the entire next year.

Spend quality time with those you love and care about, time bonding with your team, and connecting with new prospects, and potential partners. Eat together, get feedback, solicit ideas to streamline your achievements, and set up plans to take next steps with them in the new year.

You are in real estate to make money, right?

Yet, the irony is that today so many businesses are making it increasingly harder for potential customers to give them money.

The slower money comes in, the higher the risk you will run into cash flow shortfalls, and miss out on the best buying opportunities.

The harder it is for buyers, renters, and investors to give you money, the lower the value of your product and service to them, and the higher the likelihood that they will just go fuel your competition with their capital instead. Today, convenience is even more important than price. Otherwise we wouldn’t have companies like Uber Eats, Doordash, and Instacart, all valued at over $20B.

Critical Mistakes Not To Copy For RE Pros & Businesses

One of the biggest problems in this industry is that so many otherwise highly intelligent real estate professionals and business owners think they ought to copy the competition, who they view as being successful.

Odds are that you don’t really know what’s working internally for others, or how broke they really are, and where they are bleeding money and customers.

Today, what is even more important than how many people are buying from you and giving you money, is how many are not, and who are going to feed your competition with more money to use against you.

Payment Options

Are you providing the payment options that work for your customers and are giving them the flexibility they need to pay you fast and consistently?

That may include Paypal, personal checks, bank wires, Cashapp, Bitcoin transfers, cash, or incorporating Buy Now Pay Later. Whatever your business model, incorporate as many as possible.

There should never be an excuse for them not to give you money.

Messy Websites & Detours

Some website operators appear to think that if one popup ad doesn’t work, it will work better if they throw up 5 or 10. More often than not, this is just going to turn off prospects instead.

You want to remove all roadblocks and streamline them purchasing from you, not add more hurdles.

Make sure your buy now button is big and obvious, and the process is simple.

Many sites now force people to sign up or register, which just sends qualified and serious prospects to the next competitor.

While list building can be useful, data is also becoming a bigger risk for businesses to collect as well.

Customer Service

Forget wasting money on expensive automated phone systems or chat bots that just drive customers crazy until they quit trying.

Whether you are renting or flipping real estate, investing $15, $33, or even $60 an hour for an on demand live phone rep to provide human service can more than pay for themselves. Especially when you consider the alternative is missing out on a $1,000 rent check, or $40,000 plus profit on a wholesale deal.

 

Who will be the biggest winners in the real estate market this year?

These five factors will be among the most significant differentiators between the winners and leaders versus the rest in real estate for this year and beyond…

Follow Up

This is still the number one make or break factor for real estate professionals. Fortunately, it is still probably the easiest way to get the edge. The vast majority of Realtors, wholesalers, builders and sellers seem to be doing terrible at this. In fact, their follow up is mostly non-existent. Most deals are lost and leads burned because of a simple lack of follow up. Just one more email, text or call could have converted those leads. Those buyers and sellers are all going to buy or sell. Just normally with the professional who keeps following up after the others drop the ball. Make sure that’s you.

Staying Healthy

You don’t need six pack abs or the best squat game in town to win in real estate, but if you’re out sick you aren’t making money. If your supply line dries up, your users are going to the next wholesaler in line to fill their deal flow needs. It will be far harder and more expensive to win them back. So, take time to stay healthy and avoid burnout.

Anticipating & Overcoming Objections in Advance

Most sellers, agents and buyers won’t take the time to layout all their real objections. They’ll just pawn off the easiest excuse on you. The most successful are those who invest the time to foresee and overcome objections in advance. It’s basic sales 101. What questions or concerns could hold sellers and buyers back from taking your offers? What can you do to champion that ahead of time?

Marketing

Fear will cause some to pull back on their marketing this year. That will be another nail in their coffins. Others are doubling up on their content marketing. Make sure you are consistent, are looking for voids to fill, and are focusing on quality marketing that makes you stand out.  That may be online, in mailboxes, through networking, or sheer hustle and asking for the business. Most important as the market changes will be the ability to create product and demand.

Eye on the Big and Long Game

 

The focus should probably no longer be on what you earn this year. That should be the result of the seeds you planted last year. Most of what you are doing this year should be setting up your success and revenue for the next 2+ years. This mindset helps avoid dangerous short term thinking while ensuring long term survival and growing profit margins.

Mother’s Day 2017 is coming up fast. It’s an important day, that deserves real estate professionals giving some extra thought to. What can we do to really shine this year?

1. Don’t Forget Your Mothers

Don’t forget the mothers in your personal life. Your mom, grandmother, your sisters that are mothers, your children that are mothers, and all those other mother figures. Being a mother is real work. Like real estate professionals, mothers rarely get a fraction of the praise and thanks they should. Take a day out to spend some time with them, and spoil them.

2. Recognize the Mothers in Your Real Estate Business

Whether you are a solo Realtor or real estate wholesaler using a team of remote workers, or you are a CEO with thousands of square feet of physical office space and in-house employees, there are many mothers who are involved in your success, and the success of your clients. Maybe they directly work for you. Maybe they work at your favorite title company, real estate attorney’s office, or bank. There are so many hard-working mothers involved in our success. Make sure you show your appreciation. It could be an office brunch, flowers, gift certificates for a local spa, a day off to spend with family, or an all-expenses paid trip to Disney with their kids.

3. Remind Others

Use email, direct mail, and social to remind others about May 14^th. You’ll save a few people from forgetting about Mother’s Day. Happy mom – happy home. Happy homes mean your workers are more efficient and productive, tenants are more likely to pay the rent on time, and families are enjoying more upward mobility.

4. Help Struggling Homeowners

There are still thousands of mothers out there who are struggling to hold onto their homes, or to find somewhere to go. These are hard decisions when you have kids at home, or have worked a lifetime to build something to pass on. It’s not always easy connecting with and helping struggling homeowners. They been burned by so many others, so many times already. Just ask “how would I like my mother to be helped in this situation?” You wouldn’t want a good investor to give up on trying to help. You would want someone to make the effort, and help them achieve a good move.

5. Help Homebuyers

There are also millions of mothers struggling to put a good roof over their kids’ heads. In some cases, they just need a roof. But all deserve to be given a safer and healthier place to live, on terms that are actually sustainable. Others are looking for opportunities to invest to get ahead, so that they can actually spend time with their families, and give their kids great head starts. This Mother’s Day is a great time to help them. Send out the information they need, host Mother’s Day themed open houses, and provide unique experiences which really deliver value.

 

Authored by Best Transaction Funding BestTransactionFunding.com is the leading source of transactional funding for real estate wholesalers in the US, where 100% financing, and saying “Yes” is what we love doing all day long.