Setting Goals for Real Estate Success

The power of goal setting has been well documented and communicated so before you skip over this point because you've heard it all before I'd like you to consider how well you are doing it. I'm a firm believer that you don't truly understand something until you are doing it.

If you are an avid goal setter you will want to read this to learn some specifics associated with real estate investing. If you are not a frequent goal setter please read on and consider that setting goals really is a powerful tool, does have some magic about it, and is critical to your investing success.

Consider the following example. In 1953, researchers interviewed the graduating class of Harvard University about their career goals for the future. It was found that only 3% had written goals and specific plans for achieving them. Twenty years later the researchers re-interviewed the class of '53. They discovered that while all students had shared the best education money can buy, the 3% with written plans for the future were worth more, in financial terms, than the other 97% combined. Whilst this only examined financial or career goals I think it illustrates the true power of written goals.

I'm tempted to offer some goal setting basics here but for the sake of brevity, all I'll say is that your goals should be: specific, measurable, realistic, in writing and have a deadline. Know also that they will evolve over time so you don't need to worry about getting them perfect; just start with something!

With respect to real estate, you need to first figure out what your primary investing objective is:

i) quick cash / equity

ii) cash flow

iii) capital growth

Note: There is a discussion regarding the role of these different objectives in the handbook Investing Secrets of the Property Masters Revealed.

Let's say, for the sake of an example, that you want to focus on cash flow properties. Consider the difference in the following goal statements:

I want to invest in some real estate that will supplement my income and help me retire faster.

or

I will acquire sufficient property in the next 12 months to produce an average of $4,000 per year of additional income.

That's much better because it is getting specific, is certainly measurable and has a deadline. It is also realistic and in writing. But when you go to see a realtor or other people who will help you acquire that property they will ask things like, "in what area?" and "what type of property?" so as you learn more you need to add those details.

This is another very important point about setting goals for your real estate investing. Once you have these clear goals, people such as realtors will suddenly treat you much more seriously. Even if you don't have all the answers; imagine walking into a realtor's office and hitting them with those two goal statements. Which one will get you further? Even if you don't know which area or what type of property they won't treat you like a tire kicker. They will ask those important questions of you and you can learn from them and go away and make your goal even clearer before getting back in touch with them. And the next realtor you visit won't even know that you hadn't thought about that. They'll just see someone who knows exactly what they want and will be able and willing to help out.

The final point I want to make about goals is more to do with the measurement part than with setting them. I know that sounds tedious but it can be really exciting. The most successful companies in the world track their progress against their goals because it is effective to do so. Imagine putting a simple graph on your wall that has the months along the bottom axis and the cash flow you've developed on the vertical axis. You can draw a red line across the graph representing your target of $4,000 per year and then you can draw an angled line that adds another $333 to the cash flow each month. This gives you some very good feedback as to how you are progressing and motivation while there is still time to do something about it. That's obviously much better than just seeing how you went 12 months later and finding that you only acquired property that produces $1,000 per year. It's a very simple and powerful tool.

If you are really disciplined you can take this one step further and use the same approach for the activities that produce the outcomes that we are measuring on the other graph. This really helps ensure the result. For example, if you know you need to evaluate 100 properties and make offers on 10 to acquire that amount of property then you could graph those drivers as well.

To your success,

Scott Roemermann is president of Investing-Secrets.com; a website dedicated to helping consumers in their search for sound investing advice from honest and experienced professionals rather than self-proclaimed 'real estate gurus'.

Scott does not claim to be a guru or advisor himself, he says he's 'just an average guy' who has also experienced the bewilderment and uncertainty of trying to get started in real estate investing when there are so many alleged experts claiming to hold the secrets of the rich. To solve this problem Scott has authored a guide in which he compiles and reviews 17 of the leading strategies being promoted by the true gurus that he has come to respect after many years of research.

That guide is available at http://www.investing-secrets.com/

The talk show host pays $12 million for the 4,088-square-foot house with four bedrooms and four bathrooms. The ocean-view home sits on 1.26 bluff-top acres with beach access.

In one of the more talked-about transactions in town, actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have sold their Malibu beach house to daytime host and comedian Ellen De Generes for $12 million.

The four-bedroom, five-bathroom house built in 1920 for industrialist James Wigmore lists for $2,875,000.

A decorative cast stone entrance opens to this restored Spanish Colonial Revival-style house in Pasadena's South Orange Grove area. Built in 1920 for industrialist James Wigmore, the house retains such original details as coffered wood ceilings and arched doorways.

They don't believe they can sell their property for what it's worth, so they're spending money on making their homes more comfortable.

Do you fit any of these descriptions?

A biennial research report by the National Assn. of Realtors indicates that a handful of real estate agents and brokers and their clients either don't know the law or don't care to follow it.

When it comes to lawsuits, real estate agents and brokers tangle mostly among themselves.

The president aims to help about 3.5 million people with good credit who are unable to refinance at historically low rates because their homes are worth less than their mortgages.

 

The White House hopes to help millions of homeowners lower their monthly mortgage bill with a $5 billion to $10 billion plan to set up a streamlined refinancing program for people who are current on their payments.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index of 20 large U.S. cities fell 1.3% in November from October as foreclosures continue to drag down the housing market.

Three straight months of home-price declines in the biggest U.S. cities showed that foreclosures remain a significant drag on a housing market that is entering its fifth year of deterioration.

L.A. Clipper Chris Paul may be quick down the court, but he moves pretty fast when it comes to buying multimillion-dollar real estate too.

Karen Mena managed to get a foreclosure on her San Bernardino home rescinded. But she continues to negotiate with Bank of America over loan terms and could still lose the house.

Foreclosure commonly represents the end of a struggle. A borrower can't pay a mortgage, loses a home and moves on.

A.F. Leicht designed quirky Spanish Revival houses in Los Angeles as well as evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson's landmark Angelus Temple. His interiors often had irregular-shaped or curved walls, rooms or hallways. This Los Feliz villa, with rounded rooms, fancifully shaped living room French doors and elliptical master bathroom, captures his signature style.