“The tree that never had to fight
\n<\/i>For sun and sky and air and light,
\n<\/i>But stood out in the open plain
\n<\/i>And always got its share of rain,
\n<\/i>Never became a forest king
\n<\/i>But lived and died a scrubby thing.”<\/i><\/p>\n
-Douglas Malloch<\/p>\n
Many years ago, researchers in Illinois planted a number of small trees inside a greenhouse, dividing the trees into three groups.<\/p>\n
After several months, the researchers looked at the three groups of trees and saw the inevitable: the trees in the first group that were staked were tall\u00a0but weak. The trees in the second group were of medium height, but also fairly weak. The third group, which has been shaken daily, had developed strong roots and a thick trunk that would help it grow up tall and strong, though perhaps slower than the other two groups.<\/p>\n
The analogy should not be lost on you: strength comes from adversity. No doubt you have seen this in other areas of your life. Problems will arise, and it\u2019s how you deal with them that will define your future. But how do you handle problems without being frustrated, stressed, irritated and unhappy?<\/p>\n
On a recent project, I think I discovered the surprisingly simple answer.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m a big believer in running your real estate business as<\/i> a business, which means having processes, checklists and ways of doing things that are repeatable and explainable.<\/p>\n Systems and processes make business easy and fun. A good system allows you to work less and enjoy life more.<\/p>\n Related:<\/strong> The Ultimate Guide to Adding Systems & Outsourcing to Work Less in Real Estate<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Now, of course, not everything you encounter can be planned for ahead of time.\u00a0For example, I recently had a tenant call and tell me, \u201cHey Brandon, I just saw another tenant in the apartment complex sitting in his bedroom window, pointing a shotgun out the window<\/em>.\u201d Now, I don\u2019t have a specific process or checklist for that, so it was a problem I had to deal with. <\/span><\/p>\n Problems cause stress, stress causes chaos, and chaos causes unhappiness. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I don\u2019t want to be unhappy, and I\u2019m sure you don\u2019t either. So I want to explain something that is going to revolutionize your life:<\/span><\/p>\n Here’s the point, summed up in eight simple words:<\/p>\n If you are stressed, your system is broken. <\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n In other words, if something in your business is causing you stress, it\u2019s likely you either don\u2019t have a system for that or you are not following your system.<\/p>\n Either way, it\u2019s broken.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t get stressed out anymore when tenants pay rent late\u00a0because I have a system. However,\u00a0a system that I know has been broken for years recently caused me a lot of stress: dealing with contractors.<\/p>\n I was recently rehabbing a home that I plan to rent out, using the BRRR strategy<\/a> (buy, rehab, rent, refinance, repeat).<\/p>\n Although I\u2019ve been using several different contractors on the project, as the property neared completion, my contractors stopped showing up. The tenant has already paid the first month\u2019s rent and was ready to move in and\u2026 the house was not done!<\/p>\n I called every contractor I could to get them over there, but no one would show up. I ended up picking up my tools, heading to the house, and my wife and I finished the job. The whole time I was stressed and irritated, thinking, \u201cI should be working on my book right now,\u201d or \u201cI should be finding other great rental property deals right now.\u201d Instead, I was doing hard physical labor that I didn\u2019t really want to do (some of it in my socks, after stepping on the wax-ring of an old toilet that destroyed my shoes).<\/p>\n That\u2019s when the simple truth was made 100% clear to me: my system was broken.<\/em> Instead of being mad, I changed my attitude to that of, \u201cOk, how do I fix this system so next time it doesn\u2019t happen this way? How do I make this easier and more reliable next time?\u201d I’ve had numerous conversations with successful house flippers who describe the entire house flipping<\/a> process as fairly “boring” because they have such strong, repeatable systems. I clearly do not have that… yet.<\/p>\n\n
The Surprisingly Simple\u00a0Way to Live (Mostly) Stress-Free<\/h2>\n
An Example of My Broken System<\/h2>\n