Philadelphia, PA · Member since 2014 · 4 posts · 0 votes
Hello, I have a hard time figuring out what forum I should be posting in so hopefully this is the right one. Despite being an experienced carpenter I'm very new to this, I'm reading Brandon's book and listening to lots of the podcasts. One question that keeps popping into my head is, "What does a real estate investor do all day?" I know this isn't going to be the same for everyone, and I know some days are different than others. But, if you'd care to, please walk me through an average day.
Get up about 5 AM, have coffee, read BP, post on BP, use the phone, post on BP, eat breakfast, read BP, play with the dog, use the phone, post on BP, use the phone, go out for lunch, read BP and post, talk to humans, tell them I'm busy on BP, use the phone, talk to other humans, post on BP, go home, post on BP, leave the house, meet humans, stop by the club or watering hole, (2 beers a day keeps my proctologist away) have dinner, speak to more humans, go home, read BP and post, sometimes entertain humans, watch the news or a movie while reading BP, may use the phone, might have a snack, go to bed about 10PM, go to sleep and post on BP.
Now, that's not every day, sometimes I speak to more humans, review business affairs and run errands, that time can be substituted above for the time consumed by speaking with humans. :)
It just depends. I have a 9-5ish job working from home so I have about three hours in the mornings to check BP, craigslist, my RE Agent's Listings portal, etc to look for deals and get the lay of the local rental and sales market. Maybe run and check something close out. I can also check things during the day when I have a long running job going on the mainframe or such. After work I can check on things or tend to issues at the rentals. Go to Lowes and get stuff to work on a refurb or something. Over all not too cluttered.
Then there are the days after getting a property and needing to get things going. This can be described in my post from earlier this Summer.
As a part time investor; my daily activities vary but on most days the following tasks are involved:
- Read 2-3 real estate blogs and feeds
- Review Google alerts for real estate keywords in our market
- Review Redfin and MLS alerts (active and sold) for the zip codes of interest
- Speak with my partner on our to do lists and marketing campaigns
- Review and update our pipeline of interesting potential deals in Podio (and plan next steps)
- Try to network and make connection with at-least 1 or 2 real estate professional either online or preferably face to face (agents, investor, wholeseller, GC's, etc)
- Think (and sometimes write) of interesting blog posts that I can publish on our website for SEO ranking purposes.
- Update and post to our Facebook and Twitter feeds
The key is to stay consistent on whatever you do and not abort mission if things don't go your way the first few times.
Wake up, walk dog, make calls/answer emails. One of which is calling my secretary..asking her for updates/todays itinerary. Then i babysit some contractors, , mail/pickup some letters. Maybe attend an auction/look at house for sale/make update some offers/etc. Watch reality tv, eat a bunch of times mixed in, go to sleep
- Day to Day I am a mortgage lender/broker so I am working on my files early morning around 5-6am doing all my daily emails and sandwich the investor activities in between.
- Look for deals on redfin/mls alerts/ or new leads sent to me by agents, wholesalers, and marketing to stay on top of the deal flow
- Check in with the property manager to make sure appointments are set for new prospective tenants to lease up the units and to ensure they are on top of it and review their marketing plan to obtain to lease up the units and how they plan to keep them leased up long term
- check in via email and call on GC's to see where the rehabs are going, scopes of work updates, SOW on new prospective properties and to compare/compile ARV's to make sure its a good buy or deal
- put out fires on loans and issues from underwriting, obtain conditions from borrowers, clear to close, and order docs usually daily
- call up borrowers to update transactions and answer questions or take new apps and meet for appointments at the local starbucks or teleconference via viber/skype/google hangouts.
- call processor and assistants to make sure the file progress is on track to meet close of escrow dates and if not what we need to make it
- call up referral partner RE agents, accountants, financial planners to ensure they have all they need on their end and if they have an issues I could help with
The above tasks could take an entire day or as little as 2-3 hours a day depending on the tasks I've scheduled for that particular day or if emails/voicemails start to pile up.