How do you keep everything organized?

Question

I bought my first Mother-Daughter set to close in January and I’m looking at other properties. There are about 5 different ways I want to source leads, that means there’s likely 50 leads/week. Keeping that organized is one thing, but adding in tracking finances, teams & people, projects, etc.

I now have like a dozen spreadsheets!

If you were to go back and start from day 1, how would you stay organized? What would you incorporate early on to help? What things do you wish you’d have thought of to keep in mind?

Jerryll Noorden · Answer

We use infusion soft for lead management. The best lead management system is not something you get out-of-a-box, and start applying. We wrote automations and designed an automation for every possible scenario a lead could be in and the entire thing is extremely custom and personal to a lead. All leads write emails back as a reply to an automated message, thanking me in full appreciation what was said in the automated message, thinking I was actually writing them in person. "Oh Wow , thank you for such a great response... bla bla bla..

This significantly improves conversions.

This is one of 6 automated lead nurturing campaigns we have in place.

For the projects we do (6 flips at a time), we use a Gantt chart syste,. Gantt charts are very popular with engineers and scientists (I am both) to manage serious projects that includes people,m money costs, deadlines, systems, resources, timelines and  such. Here is a partial Gantt chart for one of the flips we got going on now.

The way I choose my system software is simply first check the features. Try hard not to be blinded with "the most awesome features" any software supplies... and try to focus on simplicity and reliability and "can this thing do what I NEED it to do".

Here I keep track on deadlines, planning scheduling, cost, and organizing the workflow to get as much done in as little time possible. It is a bit of a project setting this up for each flip, but 1) it will save you a lot of time, and thus money, and it will save you a lot of money (and thus time and a lot of cursing). And 2). I make a master file with all the itemized work on it and use that as a template. Every flip I do I tweak the master file as needed to make the next flip a whole lot easier and automated. Let me give you an example why a Gantt chart is awesome. In order to finish our flips in record time, assuming it was a gut to the studs flip (most of our flips are), I have my contractors focus on the kitchen and bathroom first with highest priority. They put insulation first in the kitchen and bathroom, then sheetrock those. Then they tape and mud, before they even look at the rest of the house. Once the taping and mudding is applied, it needs time to dry, as that dries they move on to the rest of the house putting in insulation and sheetrock, and the second the bathroom and/or kitchen is dry, they stop what they are doing and start sanding and painting the kitchen and bathroom. As that dries, they go back tot he rest of the house.

The reason is, the electrical and plumbing can then proceed doing finishes, cabinet install, backsplash install, vanity install, bathroom lighting install ... as the rest of the crew then tapes, muds, paints the rest of the house. The more work that can be done in parallel, the better. This can get insanely 4 dimensional and trying to plan this all in your head is impossible, unless your initials are JN Boy Genius. So With eh G-chart, you put down all the tasks, all their dependencies and it is all connected.

If the sheetrocker misses a day all you do is note that change in the G-chart and all the dependent tasks will automatically be shifted accordingly. You can send all your contractors a a schedule with the exact dates 3 months in advance what day inspection is which days they need to be on site and what work they are doing that day. That way you have the highest chance they will actually be there that day as it was known to them months in advance and they can schedule other work from other clients around your schedule. These are just a FEW benefits of all this. You will start seeing a ton more when you master it and start using and applying it.I am currently filming how we do our flips in super SUPER detail, so that if you follow what we do and what is on that video, you will be doing flips like a master... well like us anyways.

I will post the videos here on BP if you all want me to at least.

To make sure we do not make mistakes during the flip, we also use a 3D floorplan designer to visualize the actual end result of the flip. Believe me when I say  that a lot of mistakes happen because of lack of visualization what the flip looks like.

This solves that. Also if I need to buy flooring, or paint, or ... I simply click on a button the the system tells me how much square area I need for paint, and floors and..

It is awesome to have this and be able to access this on your phone so when you suddenly unexpectedly need some data  it is all right there by just going online. Something we had to do often!

Now finally...

You have to realize, and this is what a LOT of investors do wrong...

The best biggest most successful companies... have TEAMS. HIRE PEOPLE, People!!

You cannot do it on your own. All these systems we have in place... there is no way one system does it all for you.. and I am not sure you really want to, even if everyone boats that is the best thing.

Although I manage all these high level complicated systems, because I am paranoid, you ARE supposed to hire people and put them in charge of each system you run.

Hope that helps.

Like I said if there is enough interest in a live demo how we run our company I will put the videos here. I already put the videos on the biggerpockets facebook group!

Enjoy!

Nick C. · Answer

Find a good CRM.