I hate articles on New Year’s resolutions. This is NOT an article on resolutions. Although if it was, you can be assured I would try to give you something constructive and not fluffy. Instead, I want to give you something actionable that you can use today, or tonight, as you sit down and have some time to think about what you want to do with your business as a rental property owner this year.

REAL ESTATE GOALS VISUAL CHART

First, I want you to take a blank piece of paper and draw a circle in the middle of it. In the middle of the circle write “REAL ESTATE GOALS”

Next, think of what some of your goals are this year. Do you want to buy one or two more properties? Do you want to become better at collecting rents? Would you like to complete a specific project and increase your cash flow (for example: do you currently pay oil heat in a multi-unit building and could instead convert the property to separately metered gas units, now having the tenants paying their own utilities?) In other words, think about what goals you could realistically accomplish to make your business BETTER and STRONGER this year.

As you think of one of these goals, draw a line coming straight out from the circle. Next to it write the name of the goal. Continue to do this with your other goals, just leave some room between the lines. By the time you are done, you should have a circle (REAL ESTATE GOALS) in the middle of the page, with several lines going off in different directions around it, each labeled with one of your goals… looking kind of like a wheel with spokes.

I know you might be thinking, why not just make a list? I do this because your goals are usually not linear, like lines on a page. Converting from oil to gas, or collecting rents on time are not necessarily dependent on each other. In fact, many of your real estate goals may be independent of each other, so you should think of them as “spokes on a wheel” rather than Goal A, Goal B, Goal C, etc. Of course, they all point back to your real estate business, but by writing them this way on the page you have a way to not only visualize them all at once, but also to have room to later write things under and around each goal. Valuable writing space that you may not have had if you simply created a list. And, lists tend to be inefficient if they take up more than one page because now you no longer have all your goals in front of you at one time. Visualization is the key to keeping you motivated and helping you succeed at reaching your goals.

Next, under or next to each goal, give more detail and/or ideas on how you plan to accomplish it.

For example, using the goal of “getting more properties”, under this goal you might write…

• 2 more properties this year
• duplexes if possible
• look on real estate websites
• do mailings to absentee owners
• get list from county
• mail 100 letters per week
  etc…

Another goal might be to “collect rents better.” So under this goal, your initial ideas may be:

• send out bills on the 20th of each month to tenants
• send out late notices on the fifth of each month, after the mail comes
• follow-up call to tenant on the 1oth of each month and mail notice that you will file for eviction
• search internet to see how rents can be collected by direct debit or credit cards
  etc.

For oil to gas conversion, it might look like:

• Call three contractors to get estimates,
• Call gas company to see if there are incentives (rebates, financing, etc)
• Aim to get done and inspected by mid-summer before cold weather
  etc.

Keep this REAL ESTATE GOALS VISUAL CHART with you and look at it daily. The idea is that this chart is a “living chart” that can help you in several ways. First, to inspire you to create goals throughout the year. Second, as you look at the chart daily, you will come up with ideas as to how to accomplish those goals and can write them down as you think of them. Third, it is an actionable chart. You are creating steps and ideas under each goal. By listing them all, visually, on one page you might find links or ways to accomplish multiple goals using the same resources. Fourth, you can now cross things off as you do them, or modify them easily as you lean new information, come across better ideas, figure out additional steps, etc. Fifth, a one page visualization chart like this one, in my opinion, is an excellent way to monitor your progress and keep you motivated and on track.

So, get to it. Take ten or fifteen minutes and try it. Hopefully, you find that it gets the creative juices flowing and helps you visualize more concretely the things you want to accomplish in your landlording business this year!

Steven Boorstein
Author/Landlord
Landlord Business Insider
http://www.managerentalpropery.com/
http://www.howtobuyrentalproperty.com/