Yes, you will need a business plan if you want to be a succesful real estate investor, even if you don’t plan to do it full time. With a plan you not only stay on track, but you can always go back and see what is working and what isn’t. Changing your plan accordingly will help you stay on top of the market, since markets are always changing.

Planning to run a business can seem very daunting, but we are going to keep this super simple, to the point and most importantly doable.

Do you ever have day dreams about new business’s to start? You probably do, sometimes you might even start a plan and act on your ideas… Who knows you might have just thought of the next big website, or clothing design. You start to work on the idea, but as every hour goes by it fades more and more. Not because it wasn’t a good idea, it’s because you probably didn’t define your steps, roles and goals. As the idea faded away you didn’t hold yourself accountable to continue with the idea. Accountability is very important when doing anything. When you tell yourself to do something, do it, you’ll be amazed that things actually get done.

Did you know that success is 1,600 times more likely for a business of owning rental properties, then any other type of business? It’s true, combine the shear number of business that are started each day, and how many make it past 5 years. The failure rate is pretty gloomy.

How to set up a simple investing plan to achieve profits now and for the long term

1. Keep your plan simple - Not all real estate is valuable. In fact, for investing purposes you will be elimiated 99.9% of all homes that are available. Set your criteria accordingly so you can spend more time on the real deals and less time searching. How to set your real estate investing criteria.
2. Stay on familiar ground – when you are just starting out, it’s not a good idea to spread yourself thin. There are many expert systems that deal with quick flips, creative financing, and speculations. you NEED to get a few good, reliable deals under your belt before you start these types of programs. Search for homes in areas you know and you can get good information about rents, neighborhood growth, crime rates, etc…
3. Do what you know – If you have no idea how to change a light bulb, do not buy a property that needs $50,000 in rehab… I don’t care how good that deal is. If you found the property yourself, pass it on, you can make money finding properties for other investors.
4. Review your plan and stick to it – when you do the same thing over and over, you will soon find out what works and what doesn’t. Stick to your plan, even if it doesn’t work. If the plan is not working then change accordingly and then stick to that new plan for at least a few weeks. Do not try something for one day and then change it… that’s called not having a plan.
5. Take action – When you set your plan and a real property that fits your criteria is found, act on it! This might be the single hardest thing to do because as soon as you buy your first rental property, your life will change… You are now an investor. It is a known fact that humans like things to stay the same. We like to wake up, go to work, eat, and go to bed… everyday for 75 years… Once you start to play the real estate investing game, your not in a normal routine anymore… and it’s wonderful!