228: Barriers to Entry – Excuse #2 – “I Don’t Have the Time!”

August 3, 2018bmanasseroUncategorizedNo comments

SHOW NOTES FOR EPISODE 126: BARRIERS TO ENTRY – EXCUSE #2 – “I DON’T HAVE THE TIME”

All too often the biggest thing keeping us from success is ourselves. In this Fun Fact Friday episode, Bill continues his podcast series on the most common reasons why many people never get started in real estate. The series is called “Barriers to Entry,” where Bill explores and responds to people’s most common excuses. This episode addresses excuse number two – “I don’t have the time.”

Now this is a big one and it can be legitimate

You want to invest in real estate but…

You’re working a full-time job, that may even surpass 40-60 hours a week
Or maybe you are already retired and real estate investing looks too much like a full-time job and you don’t want another full-time job

In either case, I get it. What you have to ask yourself is, “Is it worth it to invest a small block of time each week so I can have a worry free retirement where money is never an issue. Where I can do the things I love, whether it be spending more time with family, traveling, working on my favorite hobby, learning a new language or other skill, supporting my favorite charities, or blessing family members in need. Or, just having the peace of mind knowing I have the funds to cover major medical expenses or assisted living or even hospice care in the final season of my life, without being a burden on my family.”

What I want to just explore here with you is how you can carve out extra time in your schedule and what you would do with that time.

The first thing I would recommend is to…

Do a time audit

Track your hours for one week (include weekends) in one hour blocks (including your sleep) to see exactly how to use your time. Be as detailed as possible.
At the end of the week, take a look at your schedule and see if you have obvious blocks of time that you can set aside for real estate investing efforts
Rules:
- Don’t cut into sacred family time (with wife – date nights – and or kids – sports and school events, helping with homework) or time with God, church, synagogue, etc.
- Don’t cut into your exercise time, health-related things that keep you going strong
All you need is an hour here and an hour there. See if you can carve out at least 10 hours of time a week, or 20 ideally
You’ll need different types of time: Time for research, study and planning (that can be any hour of the day or night) and you’ll also need time to call or meet with people (when they are available – usually the working hours of the day) as well

Let’s look at some of the obvious available blocks of time

Are you an early riser? If not can you become one? This is my personal favorite. Since I had my own businesses, my body is just trained to wake up at 4am every morning (I know that can be a drag on weekends when you WANT to sleep in) but it has also been invaluable because you are almost guaranteed UNINTERRUPTED TIME ALONE! It’s also good for me as an out-of-state investor because I can also call property managers, brokers and others I deal with, who are on east coast time, catch them at the beginning of their days and get business done before the “official” work day begins for me on the west coast.
Or, maybe you might prefer to work late at night, after everyone’s asleep? I know guys who have completed online degree programs, even MBAs, by working in their own time at night
Review your time audit and carve out the hours you can commit to your real estate activities
When you’re done assessing, count up your hours
Could you only get 5 hours a week, or did you make 10 or 20?

I’ve carved out the hours, now what do I do with the hours?

If you’ve heard one of my first podcasts, I have an episode #006, entitled, How to Get Started in Real Estate Investing. In that episode, I outline 4 main steps:

Education
Mentorship
Planning
Taking Action

These are the areas you will plug into your newly carved out time blocks.

First Step – Education

This is an easy one because you can do these activities in evenings, early mornings, weekends, most any time.

Before you can start investing, you need to get educated. The more you know, the less likely you will make drastic mistakes.

In the beginning, this is where you will spend nearly 100% of your available time. But don’t get lost here. You could spend 5 years getting educated (remember, don’t join the growing ranks of well-meaning people who get caught up on “analysis paralysis” and never get started because they “haven’t learned enough”). The key here is to set your first phase of education goals, establish a timeline to reach those goals and once you achieve those goals, you on to the next thing. You will always be learning, so education, should be ongoing, but, in the beginning, you want to learn the fundamentals – just enough to get your first property.

For example, your first phase education goals could be, I want to learn:

How to to find and identify emerging markets
How to analyze properties
How to understand REI tax basics
How to understand basic legal issues (asset protection, laws for my state that I’m investing in, landlord-tenant laws, sales contracts, etc.)
Everything about funding, loans bank-related issues

What encompasses education?

Reading – Take a look at our Top 20 Real Estate Investing Books for starters (a link will be provided)
Podcasts – Listen to Old Dawg podcast episode, also BiggerPockets or some other great podcasts out there
Websites – Old Dawg’s Blog articles, podcasts, free resources – Hang out at BiggerPockets Forum (started asking questions and making new contacts), tons of articles, free downloadable books, Analyzers and more
Watching webinars
Or Watching YouTube trainings
Attending Meetups, REI Meetings

So what does a sample schedule look like, at this point, if a person only has 10 hours a week:

If you have a commute – you’re lucky!

Monday-Friday 7-8am Driving/Train to Work

Listen to audio books and or podcasts

Monday-Friday 5-6pm

Listen to audio books and or podcasts

Boom! In week one, you’ve got 10 hours of real estate investing training!

But, maybe you can carve out more time. Let’s say, you get up an hour earlier…

Monday-Friday you get up a little earlier – 5-6am:

Internet research
Setting up your business
Writing your strategic plan
Vising websites like BiggerPockets forums, networking
Listening to podcasts
Watching webinars or YouTube trainings
Maybe making calls to different time zones

Wow! Now you’re up to 15 hours a week

Maybe you can pull a little week-end time before everyone gets up..

Saturday 6-10am

Researching markets
Analyzing Properties
Working on website
Sending networking emails

Now you’re up to 19 hours a week!

But, you will also need some networking time…

Maybe you can meet people for coffee before work or meet or call people at lunch time

Let’s say to do two nights during the month, (2-3 hours each or 4-6 hours total) attending meetings

REI Meeting
Another meetup or mastermind group
Maybe even form your own group

With that sample schedule, you are getting close to 20 hours a week or 80 hours a month. The hours will add up. Don’t they say if you spend 10,000 hours at something, you are an expert.

The other activities you will want to plug in

Step Two – Find a Mentor

I have a number of episode on this (links will be provided)

Seek out a mentor
REI Meetings
BiggerPockets contacts
Contact and maybe even set up a phone call or meeting with some of my podcast guests
Offer to work for them for free
Research your area for top investors or someone who is doing what you want to do
Pay for a mentor

Step Three – Setting up the Structure of Your Business

The biggest time-taker is the set-up.

Set-up your entity
- Corporation
- LLC
- Etc
Create a website
Virtual Office (not UPS)
Letterhead, envelopes, business cards

Step Four – Create a Plan

Research and understand your “Why”
Write your mission and vision
This is your KEY document
This outlines how you will allocate your time to achieve your goals
You start off with an annual goal, for example, I will buy a small multifamily property this year, or if it is your first year, your main goal may be, “I will know all the basics of finding and buying a good rental property”
Then you work backwards to break down what it will take to get to that goal
- I will call and meet one new broker a week until I have 10 solid brokers
- I will follow-up by phone/email with brokers every three weeks
- I will mail 300 direct mail pieces every month to three pre-selected emerging markets
You break your strategies into little pieces that fit in your pre-determined time blocks

Step Five – Build Your Team

Hire RE Attorney
Hire Bookkeeper
Hire Real Estate CPA
Hire Agent or broker
- Could go turnkey but wouldn’t recommend
- They can get you title people, local attorneys,
Hire Property Manager

Step Six – Take Action

You see, it’s not all that difficult to find the time you need. But you have to be serious, deliberate and stay committed to your minimum blocks of time. You can always add more time beyond your established blocks (sitting in a doctors office waiting room, DMV line, etc. listening to podcasts on your headphones or watching YouTube trainings, reading a book during your lunch time and more.)

The key thing is that you just do it! Stay committed and work toward that first goal of buying your first rental property! After that first purchase, a new phase of education will take place! And after that, it get easier to get the next and the next property after that!

228: Barriers to Entry – Excuse #2 – “I Don’t Have the Time!”

SHOW NOTES FOR EPISODE 126: BARRIERS TO ENTRY – EXCUSE #2 – “I DON’T HAVE THE TIME”

Do a time audit

I’ve carved out the hours, now what do I do with the hours?

First Step – Education

Step Two – Find a Mentor

Step Three – Setting up the Structure of Your Business

Step Four – Create a Plan

Step Five – Build Your Team

Step Six – Take Action

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