Real Estate Investment Business Plan Pt 2: What is Most Important TODAY?

I know you just want to get out there and “buy” – and that’s why your real estate investment business plan is so important.

My question is: What is Most Important?

Real Estate Investment Business Plan Exercise:

Let’s have some fun; place these in order of importance:

• Cash Flow
• Location (area you buy)
• Tenant Profile
• Appreciation

When I started challenging my coaching clients with this, they were shocked at how it changed the way they approached their real estate business…

Why?

Because this little exercise forces you to think about THE most important thing to you today.

Looking back at that list, you’d probably argue they’re ALL important.

And you’re right.

But I wouldn’t be doing my job as a real estate business coach if I didn’t ask you to look at this from a different perspective.

I believe I need to challenge everything; put some care and effort into helping you succeed and live life the way YOU want.

I’m against giving you false hope, selling you dreams and just taking a monthly “coaching” payment  if I’m treating you like a number.

But that’s just me.

Let’s break down this challenge:

If your real estate business depended on just ONE thing, what would it be for you? Right now?

For this example, let’s pretend you said “cash flow.”

If that’s truly the most important thing to you, where will you get the BEST cash flow possible?

Before you answer that, here’s another question.

WHAT kind of cash flow are you talking about?

Are you satisfied with just a cash flowing property? ( even if it’s just a dollar)

Or do you NEED $100’s of dollars per property to get out of your job as quickly as possible?

How many $100s?

Maybe you need to make 50k or 100k in 6 months to pay off back taxes…or some student loan.

You can see where I’m going with this.

Whatever your current situation is, you MUST be clear about the component of real estate investing that is important to you TODAY.

Which brings me to my next question…

How Do All The Other Components Fit?

Keeping with the example of cash flow being the most important, where do the other components fit?

Let’s pretend I needed to make at least $500 a door.

Wouldn’t it make sense to look at an area or investment model that would ONLY give me that?

In Canada where I live, I could probably get that in Alberta. A few hours by plane from where I am.

A second option would be a  Rent-To-Own strategy.

A third option would be investing in multiplexes.

You can see how the “opportunities” start to pile on.

That is…IF cash flow is truly important to me.

This is Where The Magic Happens

Doing a self-assessment, I admit I don’t really enjoy flying.

So buying something that is a plane ride away from me doesn’t thrill me. So that’s out.

And yes, I know I could hire managers and teams in the place I buy (which I do) but I like to macro manage them – and not just by phone.

I also want the choice to visit /drive by my properties.

This is why I’m not crazy about flying out to do it.

Making sense so far?

If I looked at Rent-To-Own, there’s a whole other level of finding the right tenants and so on that puts a lot of stress/work into my life that I’m not willing to do.

Again, this is just me.

Don’t think I’m saying these strategies are not good. I’m just making a point at how I’ve looked at my current lifestyle, what I really want and have made choices based on that.

I know MANY people in those areas and many more who are crushing it.

But the point for this post, is to put IN ORDER what I believe is most important to me so I can follow through on buying the right properties for my lifestyle and comfort.

And that’s what it’s all about isn’t it?

Rather than wondering “which opportunity” is best, I FIRST look at my life, how much I’ve got going on, what I TRULY NEED at this point and then go out to find which real estate model FITS!!!

This is where I find so many real estate investors messing up.

They chase everything.

And forget about their lives – friends and family.

Do you want lots of money?

Great – “let’s go buy a 100 unit apartment building.”

Oh, you don’t have the resources for that? Don’t want to deal with the operations of it?

Great, then let’s cross that off the list for now >>>> that saves you from attending any seminars or buying any courses that has to do with that (for now)

Are you with me?

[feature_box style=”8″ only_advanced=”There%20are%20no%20title%20options%20for%20the%20choosen%20style” alignment=”center”]

Here’s an exercise from my Joint Venture Presentation Formula you can download right now that helps with this click here.

[/feature_box]

How I’ve Put These In Order (Today)

For the record, just in case you’re wondering…here’s how I’ve put this list in order of importance to me at this time of writing:

1. Location
2. Tenant Profile
3. Appreciation
4. Cash Flow

There’s reasons I’ve done this that I won’t get into now – but as you can imagine, those reasons are my own and not anyone else’s.

It doesn’t mean it won’t change. But for now, this is what is most important to me because it fits my lifestyle.

How Does Your Real Estate Fit Into Your Lifestyle?

The importance of this exercise is to fit your real estate investing INTO your current lifestyle…NOT the lifestyle you want later on.

The idea is to IMPROVE your lifestyle, not WAIT for your lifestyle.

BTW, you can find part one in this series here

So what do you think? Let’s get a discussion going in the comments section!!