5 Steps to Get Your Real Estate Hustle Started

5 Steps to Get Your Real Estate Hustle Started

Whether you just got your license to become an agent or you’re looking to take action on your investment plans, the exciting nature that real estate provides makes you eager to get started. It’s easy to think about the unlimited income potential, flexibility with your schedule, and ability to immediately start earning passive income — I mean, that’s what honestly got me intrigued. That just gets your attention and your motivation. The real work comes after. So how do you take your motivation and desires into action? With these 5 simple steps, you’ll get yourself into action right away – and with action, comes results.

 

I feel a lot of individuals, including myself in the beginning, get stuck in the career of being a “professional learner.” Individuals who soak up as much as possible when reading articles, listening to podcasts, and watching youtube videos without taking any action. What they’re REALLY looking for is the confidence to go out and make things happen without messing up. We want confidence in order to eliminate fear. At one point I was working harder on my business plan than my actual day to day operations. I had the perfect business plan from top to bottom and the moment it came time for me to take action….. I reviewed my business plan even more.  Don’t get me wrong, consistent education and planning is key to success, but even if you watch, read, and learn tons of information on how to do open heart surgery, you still won’t be administered into any emergency room any time soon – at least not for my operation. The key is action and if I could go back to when I first started, I would tell myself to follow these steps in order to get my business off the ground. Notice how I mentioned off the ground. This is not a 5 step guide to instant wealth and passive income. This is a 5 step guide to get you into action to create the forward momentum you’ll need to succeed.

 

 

Education

 

Gain as much information as you can and soak it all in – just don’t get stuck on this step forever. Education is a lifelong process so don’t feel like you have to learn everything under the sun at the beginning. This step is important because a lot of individuals stay on this step way too long. You’re smart enough to learn new information, digest it, and then develop your own thesis about what you could see yourself doing and most importantly, enjoying.  At that point, you have everything you need, move on, and you will quickly realize that you will learn more by taking action over anything else. Whatever you wish to do in your business, you can absorb as much education-related content for you to at least take the next step. All you need is education on the very next step you need to take. You’ll be wasting time if you’re looking for the entire route to success.

 

 

Business Plan & Goals

 

For the sake of your successes, PLEASE, I beg you, PLEASE, do not forget about this step. I know you’re more than competent enough to know what you want to do in your real estate hustle, but the psychological impact of writing your business plan and goals down on paper is unparalleled. This step is also important because this is when you literally create your future on paper. Where do you want to be at the end of this month, year, or 3 years?

 

You goals are the actions and situations that need to happen in order to make your plan come together which, in turn, will give you the future you desired. Simplicity is key and a book I recommend is “The ONE Thing” by Gary Keller, co-founder of Keller Williams. I know, I know, I have a slight bias considering they’re my broker, but in all honestly, it is an EXCELLENT book when Business planning and Goal Setting which is why it is highly recommended by business professionals in all fields.

 

Finally, make your business plan SIMPLE. The mind likes simplicity and you are more likely to encounter the things you need to make things happen when your plan is simple. Please don’t confuse simple with mundane or ordinary. Make your goals big, just simple to comprehend. Use S.M.A.R.T goals when goal setting. Make them Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-Based:

 

Specific – This is where simplicity is so powerful. Tell yourself exactly what you want.

 

Measurable – How will you know if you obtained it?  The goal can’t be “I want to make a lot of money flipping a lot of homes.” Success if found in numbers so attach a numeric value to your goal – “I want to flip 5 homes profiting $45k each” is more measurable.

 

Achievable – Is your goal achievable? Or, are you asking to bend the universe and the laws that govern it?

 

Realistic – This one is important because it gets confusing with setting big goals. It is the right mindset to set huge goals but you may find yourself getting disappointed when trying to hit extremely big goals out the gate. It’s harder to make $100k when you’ve never made $80k.  It’s harder to buy 10 multifamily’s when you haven’t purchased 5. Have big goals to stretch you, but don’t immediately put unnecessary pressure on yourself by trying to hit home run after home run – 4 base hits equal the same thing and as the momentum builds up, it will be a lot easier to hit those home runs.

 

Time-Based – When do you want to accomplish this goal?   By the end of when?

 

Use business planning and goal setting ONLY as the GPS. You, yourself, still have to DRIVE THE CAR!

 

 

Pick your marketing strategy(s) and take massive action

 

Through your early research and education you’ll begin to learn how you can begin finding real estate deals. Like with any business, marketing is the most important spoke of your business. This gets you into action, the most important step. This is also the most important step because this step is also the main root for inaction. This step causes analysis paralysis and as a result, just spinning your wheels. Just focus on the very next step that needs to be accomplished. Review your business plan often and do whatever needs to be done in order for your goals to be realized. Pick a marketing strategy or strategies that fit your personality and make you happy.

 

For a quick list of marketing and lead generation strategies, you can check out 30 ways to find amazing real estate investment deals. You can also search online for various lead generation strategies. You won’t be able to do them all, just pick a few that make sense to you and take action right away. This will bring you closer to your goals. The key to successfully generating leads is discipline and consistency. Whichever marketing strategy you choose to implement, be consistent with it. Don’t try it once, not see the results you want, and then give up.  Lead generation and marketing is all about momentum so you’ll have to build on your marketing momentum to see the results you want. After all, you are starting a business and the success doesn’t happen overnight.

 

 

Tracking & Analyzing

 

After a few months have gone by, you’ll get a sense for what’s working and not working to successfully generate leads. Take some time to track how your lead generation strategies are doing and if some strategies aren’t working so well, cut them from your business plan and work on the strategies that are producing results. When you cut out a strategy, then it might be wise for you to implement another that you have not used before to see if that will work as a spoke in your business. You never know what works for you, your business, or your personality until you try it for a few months to see the results.

 

I’ll share a perfect example. When I first started in the business, I had chosen some lead generating  strategies such as  cold calling expired listings, working with my own network, and door knocking.  Expired listings are listings that were once on the market and were not sold by the time the contract expired. These individuals can be motivated sellers. I spent a significant amount of time and energy working these strategies only to realize that after a couple of months, 75% of my business came from my own sphere of influence! I ditched the other two strategies immediately started focusing on building relationships with my sphere of influence. I also branched out and implemented strategies such as direct mail and driving for dollars. I will continue to track and adjust as time goes on but I never would have implemented strategies that work for me if I didn’t realize what wasn’t. Be sure to always track, analyze, and adjust as time goes on.

 

 

Repeat

 

Repetition is the mother of learning and progress, isn’t it? This definitely counts as the 5^th step. This is how you keep your business going. Like with anything, the hardest part is gaining momentum in the very beginning. This is the same when it comes to traveling by airplane or even beginning a new workout regime. When traveling by plane, the hardest part is always take off – that’s when the plane uses the most amount of fuel and engine power. Once in the air, it glides effortless. Same with a new workout regime. It burns in the beginning, and then, your muscles adapt. Treat your business the same way and pretty soon, you’ll be riding off the momentum. Use the previous four steps whenever you ask yourself, “What should I do now?” or “How can I take my business to the next level?”

 

It will always start with education, planning your work, then working your plan, analyzing your results, X-ing out anything that isn’t working, doubling down on the things that are, and then repeating the process over. If you do this, with discipline and consistency, your business will grow.

 

Action is the single most important step! It’s also the step that can be avoided with fear, doubt, and lack of self-confidence. Don’t let this be you! Take action and begin building your real estate hustle!

 

Here’s the catch: What’s easy to do is also easy not to do! Be a do-er!