Why Consistency is One of the Most Important, Yet Underrated Traits in Business

Real estate investors are going to find it challenging to survive in this industry long-term unless they can master consistency.

Consistency is so important in business, in life, and especially in real estate. Yet it is often one of the most under-appreciated qualities by businesses — and one of the most neglected by entrepreneurs and independent real estate investors. This is because it can often seem to take second place to short-term goals. But we all know what happens when you only focus on the short-term. Just look at 2008.

As a real estate investor or business owner, you have got to be consistent in order to keep the pipeline and cash flow flowing, as well as to maintain trust and protect your reputation.

It’s Hard to Bounce Back

If you aren’t consistent in your product, service, and presence, you’ll soon be forgotten, avoided, and even stack up those negative reviews. Often, all it takes is one case of neglect and you can burn a customer, burn a channel of deals, and burn your reputation. If you are able to bounce back, it can get really expensive. Brands like Nike have had to drop billions of dollars to fix their brands after mistakes like this. Most of us don’t have that extra capital lying around to spend on branding this quarter.

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In real estate, the obvious examples may be a home builder building a new community on top of an old ammunitions dump or using poisonous Chinese drywall. But it can also simply be a terrible customer service experience.

There’s Value in Consistency

Look at McDonald’s. It isn’t worth what it is because the food is awesome. But it is consistent. You trust that your Big Mac is going to taste like a Big Mac. It may not come on a silver platter or with a silver spoon, but you know what to expect. I do not eat their food by any means, but I appreciate seeing the way their systems are set up.

So if you wouldn’t dream of putting that mystery meat and those carbs in your body either, then smuggle in your favorite gluten-free, organic, non-GMO snack and watch how they work for a little while. Or get yourself a job there for a couple of weeks. How in-depth they go with systems will blow your mind. It will also give you a ton of motivation to push forward in real estate so that you never have to do that type of work again.

McDonald’s has been a top brand for around 80 years because it mastered consistency. And it achieved that with systems. As a real estate investor, you can achieve consistency with systems, too. You build systems and consistency in your own personal performance by practicing good habits.

Create Systems Surrounding Success

Remember what good habits created your successes, and commit to keeping them up. Create systems around the actions that have created success in your business. If that means scaling a little slower than you want, that’s OK. It’s worth it. It’s better to stay in business than to burn out.

How do you ensure consistency in your real estate business?

Let me know with a comment!

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