I’m reading this book right now called “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits” by Verne Harnish.  He points out the three habits John D. Rockefeller felt were critical to his success in business. 

I’ll talk about how I feel the first of those habits – Priorities – comes into play for real estate investors in this blog post. 

Harnish talks about finding the top five priorities, and then isolating the very top priority from your top five priorities.  According to Harnish, you need to start with what he calls a “BHAG” (Big Hairy Audacious Goal).  This is your vision for 15 to 20 years down the road for your business. 

I have to admit I’ve got a fairly clear goal for 3 years into the future, but I didn’t really have a vision for 15 years into the future.  After I read the article, I realized I needed a BHAG to direct my short-term decision making. 

So I sat down with pen and paper.  I did an exercise I learned from Brian Tracy in which I imagined it was 15 years into the future.  I imagined that everything had gone right in my business.  I have to say the vision I came up with for my company was quite compelling. 

The interesting thing is that once you have a clear vision of your company, the priorities to create that vision start to be apparent. 

So I sat down with pen and paper again.  I put together a list of the top priorities for my company to create the conditions for my vision to become reality.  From that, it wasn’t hard to come up with the top five top priorities for my company.

My company does mostly buy and hold, and my plan is to focus on that business.  Here are the top five priorities I came up with for my business. 

1)      Having access to a reliable source of financing, both from commercial banks and from private lenders. 

2)      Having access to properties I can buy at $0.50 to $0.60 on the dollar.

3)      Having management systems in place to result in less than 10% vacancy. 

4)      Having systems and operating procedures that allow the business to operate smoothly.

5)      Having a skilled rehab and maintenance crews that operate under minimal supervision. 

I believe if I have these bases covered, my business will grow organically over the years into my vision.