With New Year’s resolutions on everyone’s mind, most investors are likely setting goals of buying more properties, entering new markets or introducing a new investment strategy. It's been well documented that now's a difficult investment environment to make new acquisitions.  Perhaps it's best to consider leaning toward a different resolution: becoming a more disciplined and proactive operator of real estate already owned.

That means taking a hard look at existing operations and identifying property inefficiencies, defects, and potential liability exposure before they turn into claims or disputes. It means tightening up contract management reducing unnecessary payment or performance conflicts with vendors. It also means addressing the recurring issues that create friction with tenants, so those relationships are strengthened. None of this is particularly exciting and all of it requires time and upfront cost, but the downstream cost of ignoring these issues is almost always far greater and the ROI is always understated.

Those who are proactive rather than reactionary in the way they run their real estate business reduce liability exposure, secure the best and most affordable insurance coverage, obtain the most competitive banking terms, have lower vacancy rates and become the preferred client for top contractors and service providers in their market. Equally as important, I've found investors who prioritize operational discipline free up more time and mental bandwidth to focus on tasks that generate new business.

So instead of forcing acquisitions because an internet or social media personality is telling you you're falling behind consider investing into the business you already have. That's far more scalable over time.