Positioning Your Real Estate Investing Business For Profits

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As real estate investors and business owners one of our biggest jobs is to make sure that we are executing the right strategies and adjusting those strategies to anticipate where the market is headed to maximize our profits.

The problem with figuring out if you are doing the right thing is that the information is becoming very negative and almost apocalyptic in nature.

Consider this recent article in Business Insiders:

Just the title “15 Signs that the US Housing Market is Headed for Complete and Total Collapse ” will scare most people and in many ways work towards it own self-fulfilling prophecy.

Yet if you look at each of the 15 signs individually, things like prices are still too high, unemployment is too high, people aren’t inclined to buy, the Homebuyers Tax Credit inflated the market or banks aren’t lending.  These are all things that every BP member should know about and be comfortable with… they shouldn’t be surprises!

Why?

Because they get discussed everyday either in the many forums or in articles like this one.

One recent example of how the market is shifting and what items you need to consider changing in your business can be gleaned from a recent post by Will Barnard. The major point of Wills’ post was to identify that he noticed his market was changing; that his margins were being degraded by concessions and other factors, and that he was going to make adjustments within his business to compensate for the tighter margins.  

The clear message here is that Will has seen the shifts in his market, has shared them with everyone, and is implementing the needed adjustments to position his business to continue in a profitable manner.

Another example of positioning your business in front of the market is the article I wrote last week: Are You Taking Advantage of the Current Real Estate Market Conditions? To be brief, this article discusses the growing profitability available by owning rental properties.  Just a few years ago it was next to impossible for investors to find good cash-flowing properties… and today many investors have more opportunities available to them than cash to buy.

So, let me ask, do you read articles like the one in Business Insiders, feel a tightening in your chest, get dry mouth and break into a sweat wondering “Oh My Gosh, what am I doing in real estate at this time?” Do you then continue to wonder why you are constantly struggling trying to KEEP up with an ever changing market, only to find you are constantly playing catchup and seldom making profits?

Or do you implement constant changes and adjustments to your business so that you are positioned in front of the market, taking advantage of every opportunity available to you? 

I hope your response is more in line the second question.  But if it isn’t here are a few tidbits that may help you to see the oncoming opportunities:

1. Whenever you determine a trend in your market is starting to develop, especially if it is negative trend, ask yourself, “how can I make adjustments to my business to prosper in this new environment?”  Once you have the adjustments identified, don’t wait. Implement them and move on.
2. Remember the old media adage, “if it bleeds… it leads”  The media today is almost compelled to present every story in the most negative light.  Don’t fall for it.  Find what can work as discussed in item one above and implement.
3. Don’t go it alone!  You can test every change whether it is strategic or tactical in nature or just in your thinking by actively participating on sites like BiggerPockets, just like Will did.  So don’t sit there wringing your hands. Participate!

Trust me when I tell you that it is much more fun to be in front of a market with a high degree of confidence in what it is going to do, then to just be standing there and getting run over buy it!

Wouldn’t you agree?

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.