Improving Your Productivity: 4 Great Ways to Clone Yourself While Real Estate Investing

Congratulations! You are pursuing a career in the lucrative world of real estate investing. The sky’s the limit. Isn’t it? We are all bound by the same 24 hours in each day. Our current unique lifestyle is a result how each one of us has used this precious time.

Here are a few tactics, out of many, that will help you to multiply your efforts every day.

1. Don’t sweat the small stuff: A properly worded agreement which rewards your renters for not calling you throughout the month can free up hours per week. Close your eyes and imagine your tenants fixing their own clogged toilets, leaky sinks, burnt light bulbs, cracked windows and other small mishaps that are destined to occur. Offer a discount of a few dollars for each month the tenant doesn’t call you to fix minor maintenance issues. This gives your tenants a reason NOT to call you over the minor issues that may arise.

2. Meet your neighbors: Whenever you get a new property, whether you plan on fast-turning or holding it, meet your new neighbors. There are three main reasons to do this. The first is to see if they know anyone that may want to move in or buy your property. The second is to see if they know of anyone else in the area that may be interested in selling or if they know of any vacant properties nearby. The third critical reason is to ask them to call you immediately if they notice anything suspicious on or around your property.

3. Use Technology. It is your friend: Before I got myself an automated voicemail system I can’t tell you how many hours I wasted every week talking to wannabe buyers/sellers. Describing the property, price, terms, directions, etc. can be done automatically by a recorded message you provide. Get yourself a free or cheap voice mail system that can screen out the time wasters before you talk to them. A perfectly worded message can drive more buyers to a property than you ever could alone.

4. Add me as a friend: Before Facebook and Linkedin we actually had to network with people in real life. Looking for leads does not and should not be done solely by you. Multiply your efforts looking for potential slam-dunk deals; let everyone know the type/price/condition/area of properties you are currently seeking. Remember to excite the new bird-dog’s greed gland by telling him/her how much they will make if they send you information that leads to an executed deal. Bird-dogs should collect as much information off a FSBO sign as possible, take pictures if needed, or grab the address if property looks abandoned. People to tell: tenants, sellers, buyers, friends, family, mail men and women, city workers, fedex drivers, trash men, everyone and everyone.

*Important note: Depending on your area it may be illegal to give a commission or cutback to someone other than a licensed Realtor. So be aware of legal loopholes around this obstacle.

Remember don’t just stay busy; use your time effectively. As human beings it is so easy to get tied up doing mundane tasks that distract can you from your real money making agenda. It’s amazing that making just a few tweaks to your routine/system can free up so much time and attract tons more qualified leads.

– J. Fed

Photo: adactio

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