Flipping Homes: 9 Steps To Your First Flip

October 18, 2011 16:52 by andrey

Flipping homes can be confusing when you are just starting out. Especially if you are new to the real estate industry. For you newcomers, here are some quick start steps:

1. Prepare yourself mentally. Determine your motivation for wanting to flip homes. Ideally, it should be emotional. For example, “I want to provide for my mom’s retirement”. This may seem silly, but your strong motivation is what will get you through the rough patches and will help you overcome your fears. Always remember your motivation during times of doubt or stress. Sharpen your mental attitude and energy. Believe that you can be successful flipping homes. Have faith that if someone else can do it, you can too. Another seemingly silly step, but if you don’t have this, you will give up when fear raises its ugly head, or when there is real work to be done. You have to believe you can be successful at flipping homes.

2. Begin your education. But, don’t go crazy. Read books focusing on the particular area of flipping you want to focus on. Read articles. The internet is a Catch22. It has an amazing wealth of information, but there is so much; you’ll need to be careful not to get overwhelmed. Read enough so that you are familiar with the process, but realize there are experts that will help you along the way. You don’t need to be the expert, at least not yet. That will come with experience. Just understand and accept that you will need to start before you are 100% comfortable. (This is tough for type-A personalities.)

3. Determine your investing niche. Decide which section of the home flipping market you want to begin with. Pre-foreclosures, bank-owned, HUD? Determine how much money you would need for each type, compared to what you have available or can get. Focus all of your energies on that one type of property. You can branch out later.

4. Find a foreclosure investment firm to represent you as buyer. Select one that focuses on the types of properties you want to flip. Speak with several. You will want one that not only understands the needs of investors, but one whose personality that meshes with yours. Be sure they understand your goals. You’ll likely be asking them to make offers that traditional agents may be comfortable with (creative financing, etc.), so this is why you want someone who invests themselves or who routinely works with investors.

5. Get your financial ducks in a row. Check your credit. Do what you can to improve it. Determine the capital you have to invest. Determine potential partners. Determine your funding source. Research potential lenders. Don’t forget Hard Money Lenders. Get pre-qualified from three of these lenders. These steps are biggies, but don’t let them overwhelm you. Take them one at a time and remember your motivation. Don’t forget to set goals.

6. Join a local Real Estate Investors Club.Attend meetings. Being around like-minded people will keep you motivated, not to mention networking opportunities.

7. Attend seminars. These could be real estate seminars, or self-help seminars. They will both build your confidence. Unless you have lots of money to spend on products that are thousands of dollars, go with the intention of being around like-minded people, and learning big picture ideas. Big picture ideas include, “Hmmm, I think I will invest in apartment buildings and I have an idea of where I should start”. Or, “I want to get an idea on how to protect future assets”. Going with the sole intent of benefiting from general knowledge will keep you from spending far too much money and will keep you from getting depressed at not being able to afford these sure thing products.

8. Find your property/ies. Yes, do your due diligence. That means, research area comparables. Visit the property. Have an inspection completed. Determine how much money you’ll need to invest in the property to flip it quickly. Understand the local market so you have a realistic turnaround time. Decide if the property is a good candidate or not.

9. Close on your property, rehab and flip. Start out flipping one property at a time. With more experience, you’ll be ready to handle multiple properties.

To your success flipping homes!

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Kirkland Foreclosure Properties: Amazing Opportunities for First Time Buyers in Premium Neighborhoods

September 20, 2011 17:29 by andrey

Prices are at an All Time Low

One of the biggest barriers for first time buyers to buy in a premium neighborhood is simply a price that is out of range. One of those markets that has been historically hard for first time buyers to enter is Kirkland, WA. Now the price barrier has been considerably lowered and many deals can be found by searching through foreclosure properties in Kirkland.

With many foreclosure properties available for $0.90 to $0.60 on the dollar, the ability to buy in Kirkland is now feasible for first time buyers. Prices, in both the retail market and the bank auctions, have been showing strong support throughout the summer.

Many buyers are sensing that now is the time to take advantage of low pricing before the trend starts to rise and a coming fresh demand will only serve to bolster prices and values.

Find an Amazing Deal in Days and Have Little to No Competition

If you happen to be working with the right real estate broker… one who is experienced with bank auctions, then finding a foreclosure property to buy in Kirkland will not be hard. Working with a team like Vestus will put all the data on foreclosures at your fingertips and you will be able to sift through every opportunity in a matter of hours.

Once you have established which few properties going to auction best fit your criteria, a little deeper digging into the details will show you which will be the best picks, and the next step is to go to an auction.

So few buyers and investors ever take this step that compared to the normal real estate market where properties are listed on the MLS, you will experience very little competition. Many fantastic properties come to auction and are simply not purchased because there wasn’t a buyer available.

Mortgage Rates Are At Rock Bottom

Rates are the lowest that many mortgage brokers have ever seen. Just pick up the phone and call any three mortgage brokers and ask them. All three will tell you the exact same thing.

Low rates spell opportunity for buyers. Saving tens of thousands of dollars over the lifetime of a mortgage is creating demand amongst buyers which is starting to bolster markets. Coupling low mortgage rates with the savings found in foreclosure properties right now is creating perfect “deals of the decade” every single week for small numbers of buyers who are simply in the know.

You owe it to yourself to explore the opportunity and see what you can qualify for with a mortgage rate and also how you might be able to purchase a bank owned property at the auction.

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6 COMMON COST ESTIMATING MISTAKES THAT CAN SINK YOUR INVESTMENT

September 8, 2011 02:08 by andrey

Estimating accurately is vital to ensuring you are successful in your foreclosure investment ventures. Not only you should you be be able to estimate accurately but you want to be working with a team of professionals who understand how to provide accurate estimates for their phase of work that you can rely on. It is a combination of this information that you will be basing your decisions on. Six common mistakes new and even some experienced investors make in estimating costs start are...

NOT UNDERSTANDING WHAT IS INVOLVED TO COMPLETE AN ITEM OF WORK

If you don’t know what it takes to get something done and then how can you hope to accurately estimate the time and cost for completing it? If you are not absolutely sure about an estimate for a phase of work, then get an estimate from someone who has worked on this type of task many times over.

STARTING WITH AN AMOUNT OF MONEY AND MAKING THE PROJECT COST FIT IT

This is something seen all too often amongst new investors who can become so focused on wanting every deal they look at to be the “next big deal” instead of using discipline to wait for the opportunity that fits well for them.

Do not use deductive logic here... starting with a picture in mind and looking for supporting date. Using inductive logic will serve in this area... gathering all the data and letting it paint the picture. Don’t try to fit a square peg through a round hole; accept that it is a square peg and let it go.

FAILING TO PLAN CONTINGENCIES

You need to factor in a budget and schedule buffer for potential contingencies you may need to use “in case X happens”. Walking a tightrope of a budget and schedule will simply guarantee that you go over both. Know what the risks are that you cannot control from happening, know what your plan would be for dealing with their occurrence, and factor this into your project estimate.

FAILING TO ADJUST AN ESTIMATE IN ACCORDANCE WITH SCOPE CHANGES

If you came up with what seemed like a well research estimate for a project and then discovered a few seemingly “minor” changes that would need to take place upon closer inspection of the property, you must adjust your estimate accordingly.

There is no such thing as something be so minor or negligible that you shouldn’t accurately reflect it in an estimate. What is a real estate project anways but a bunch of small things stacked up to make a ‘project’? Address all details thoroughly.

CREATING ESTIMATES UNDER PRESSURE OR IN A HURRY

Never be rushed into anything involving your money. Investment decisions need to be made in a calm environment. Also, the data gathered for the decision making ought to not be tainted by pressure or bias but be as neutral and true as possible. Everyone knows that as humans we tend to make mistakes when we try to hurry. Don’t hurry in your estimating process.

USE “SINGLE-DATA-POINTS” INSTEAD OF “RANGE ESTIMATES”

An estimate is a projection or in other words a prediction. Single data points, such as an estimate of 3 hours or $70.00 dollars are completely reliable only in historical context. After the fact. In estimating, it is wiser to use a range for a projection: It could take 2-4 hours and $50 to $100 to accomplish.

What you don’t want is too many estimates of exactly 2 hrs and $50 (because you are such an optimist) and it ends up being 4 hours and $100. Use ranges and base decisions based upon the higher value.

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10 REAL ESTATE PROJECT MANAGEMENT QUESTIONS THAT EVEN A CAVEMAN COULD ASK (Part 2 of 2)

September 7, 2011 05:07 by andrey

Taking what may seem to be an overwhelming process of questions and planning, especially to a first time real estate investor, and making light of it is what this list of questions is all about. Hey if a caveman could it....

SO, EXACTLY WHAT IS THE WORK THAT NEEDS TO BE DONE?

Figure out what the scope of work will be. Be as thorough as possible here because having entire chunks of unexpected work pop up later in the investment project will certainly create delays which will in turn create higher holding costs and shrink profit margins.

AHH, WHEN DOES EACH AREA OF WORK START AND FINISH?

Don’t just plan out when you want to start and finish the entire project. Establish milestones or mini-results along the way for each area of work and define when those will each start and finish. This is a good way to manage the scheduling element of your project. If you find that a mini-result or milestone isn’t on track then the whole project isn’t on track.

OKAY, WHO EXACTLY IS DOING THE ACTUAL WORK?

After you have figured out what kind of professionals you will be needing to help you complete your investment project, you will need to then make final picks on which individuals you will be using and who will be doing what. We suggest that you make sure they can all contact one another so that communication and progress flow well.

COUGH! IS THERE ANYTHING I MIGHT HAVE MISSED?

Technically you don’t know what you don’t know, right? So how could you know what you missed... wouldn’t technically by knowing what you missed, it wouldn’t be missed? Good and valid points for sure... that’s why you ask a couple other successful investors to review your plan and see what they think.

UMM, WHAT MIGHT GO WRONG?

This is where you figure out what your risks are and how you plan on dealing with them should need arise. Every real estate project will have some inherent risk with it... this shouldn’t make you shy away but simply motivate you to create contingency plans so that you are thoroughly prepared.

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Bellevue Bank Owned Properties: 3 Good Reasons to Be Buying Today

September 2, 2011 02:45 by andrey

Prices Have Nearly Hit Bottom

Bellevue bank owned properties are providing a big opportunity to buyers and investors because alike as prices start to nearly hit bottom. While there is a supply of inventory coming from the banks, there is also rapidly growing buyer demand.

The Bellevue area is historically one of the strongest markets in the Washington state for maintaining property values with a vibrant downtown community, great school districts, homes that still actually have yards, and you would find yourself only 10 minutes away from either a bustling downtown Bellevue or the serenity of nature trail for a hike.

The current low of home prices in Bellevue are now meeting strong support from buyers who are attracted to the above mentioned qualities and have maintained price support throughout the summer. The best priced opportunities are to be found in looking for bank owned properties which are usually selling for $0.80 to $0.65 on the dollar and will create the most equity for a buyer.

Mortgage Rates Won’t Go Any Lower

One of the most important factors in trying to purchase a property, whether you are buying a home or an investment, is factoring in the cost of your mortgage. With mortgage rates at an all time low, they are likely to meet strong support and start rising again.

The market has started to see fresh support with new demand from buyers who are sensing opportunity and want to take advantage of it before rates rise.

Locking in a mortgage rate at current lows will save tens of thousands of dollars over the lifetime of the loan. Being able to couple those savings along with the financial opportunity in buying bank owned properties creates a strong win for any buyer.

It’s a Buyer’s Market

Going off of the last point, right now is one of the strongest buyers markets that we have seen yet. Many of the properties on the market have been listed for long periods of time which has created pools of motivated sellers.

For many sellers, who bought at the height of the market, the ability to cover the cost of living isn’t a reality anymore and they are extremely motivated to work with any serious offer… if not in some cases desperate and would even split costs at closing.

Stronger yet are the opportunities in looking through bank owned properties which are already past a lengthy and complicated short sale process. Working with an experienced bank auction broker, like us at Vestus, is the key to picking the right property and developing a smart financial strategy.

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10 REAL ESTATE PROJECT MANAGEMENT QUESTIONS THAT EVEN A CAVEMAN COULD ASK (Part 1 of 2)

September 1, 2011 04:34 by andrey

Taking what may seem to be an overwhelming process of questions and planning, especially to a first time real estate investor, and making light of it is what this list of questions is all about. Hey if a caveman could it....

UM, WHAT ARE THE GOALS OF MY PROJECT?

What are you trying to accomplish? When are you trying to accomplish it? Where do you want to accomplish these things? Why are you bothering even answering these questions? Understanding the goals of your project is important for at the very least your decision making process in which properties you would want to buy.

OKAY, WHO ALL IS GOING TO BE REQUIRED?

Figure out who you are going to be needing in terms of industry professionals to work with you on completing your real estate investment project. These people range from carpenters, landscapers, electricians, to listing agents, plumbers, and debris removers. List them all out and then ask active investors for recommendations to people within each category.

SO, WHAT WILL THE RESULTS BE?

If done right, what will the results be upon the completion of the investment project? You are looking to define the end result so that you can think things through from finish to start (reverse engineering) that way it’s easier for you to identify scope of work.

HMM, WHERE AM I WEAK?

What are the constraints of the investment project you are about to begin? Is that you are a poor organizer and manager? Then get a good project manager or general contractor. The point of figuring out where you are weak and what your constraints are is so that you can eliminate them by coming up with a solution.

AHH, WHAT KIND OF ASSUMPTIONS AM I MAKING?

This one may be a little difficult to figure out but do still try. What are you simply thinking “is so” without having actually seen proof or had verified by a credible person? Making assumptions is dangerous and quick way to end up facing challenges on your project that could have been easily avoided with proper research.

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5 SIMPLE STEPS FOR MANAGING A FORECLOSURE INVESTMENT PROJECT PROFITABLY

August 31, 2011 02:47 by andrey

The scope of work is defined as “the goals, objectives, activities, and timelines...” of a project. Having a simple, step by step process in place to manage the scope of work you will be dealing with as an investor will help to make sure you are able to maximize profitability. Your five simple (and simplified for the sake of time) steps are...

COLLECT PROJECT REQUIREMENTS

Be sure you understand everything that will be required on the project so that you are creating plans and developing schedules with a complete scope of information. Think the project through carefully from start to finish, and then from finish to start, with attention to all the details so that you can define what the requirements will be.

DEFINE SCOPE

Now that you have figured out what all the requirements of your foreclosure investment project will be, lay them out categorically to begin defining the scope of your project at hand. When you have laid everything out you may find a requirement or two that you missed... simply evaluate where that fits into the scope and insert.

CREATE A WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE

Figure out what the exact work required will be for completing your project on budget and on schedule. Creating what is a called a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) can be helpful in this process of carefully identifying all the work to be done within each phase of your foreclosure project.

VERIFY SCOPE, GET FEEDBACK

Share the rough draft of your scope of work with all your team members to get their feedback on whether you have put together something realistic or not. Also, when a fresh pair of eyes take a look they may simply find a few things you missed but otherwise your proposed scope of work will be accurate. Use the experience of a seasoned team of professionals to make sure that you are a creating a thorough scope of work for your investment project.

MONITOR PROGRESS

Keep track of how things are coming along in your defined scope of work in comparison to progress being made. Make sure all the work is being addressed thoroughly in each phase of the project.

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9 PROJECT MANAGEMENT METHODS FOR MAXIMIZING YOUR AUCTION INVESTMENT (Part 2 of 2)

August 29, 2011 02:15 by andrey

If you haven’t done so already, you should read Part 1 first as it gives context to where these methods come from.

Having specific best practices methods in place for managing your foreclosure investment project will ensure that your planning and management are thorough and consistent. Having a system is in place that you can use over and over again with predictable results is key having a stress free and profitable investment experience.

In continuing with our nine management methods, we pick up with number five.

5. PICK THE RIGHT PERSON FOR THE ROLE OF PROJECT MANAGER

The project manager may not be you. It probably shouldn’t be you if you are extremely busy with a job and perhaps other responsibilities. Good project management is something that requires daily attention and care.

If you are not the project manager then the one you pick should definitely be by recommendation only. Work with someone who is experienced in managing projects with a strong track record of driving projects to rapid completion with good communication throughout the process.

A key point to remember about delegating the project management role is to be sure and let the person you choose do just that... manage the project. Micro managing your project manager will make them ineffective and ruin the whole point of having the project manager role delegated.

Simply check things periodically to ensure that all is on track and on budget. Unless intervention is required, let the manager do their job.

6. FOCUS ON DELIVERABLES RATHER THAN RESOURCES

The overall focus of your management methodology must be on reaching the project milestones. Achieving your deliverables is what will bring about a successful execution of your exit strategy and subsequently a successful project.

Another way of saying this is to focus on results on busyness or activities. Don’t focus on what you are doing and spending to much time on it but focus on creating a result with what you are doing that is geared towards moving on to the next milestone.

7. FOCUS ON IDENTIFYING AND SOLVING PROBLEMS EARLY, QUICKLY, AND COST EFFECTIVELY

There will always be unexpected surprises on every project... whether those are found in the property, created by a player on your team, or a change in your circumstance to just name a few. Simply know this, accept this, and have a plan for dealing with it effectively and efficiently.

In previous points it was mentioned to have a focus on results and to also have a strong communication plan. These to best practices used consistently will go a long way in helping an investor identify and solve problems early, quickly, and cost effectively.

Always focusing on progresses forces issues to come up because you cannot mark a “check” on achieving a milestone until you are truly there. Having a strong communication plan means that any surprises will be dealt with rapidly and properly.

Another point to consider is to empower your team with a level authority in solving problems within their area of work. Set a budget limit of say $100.00 and any issue that arises which can be solved for less than $100.00 then the team member has the permission to automatically go ahead and take care of it on the spot.

This will prevent and bottlenecking that could be caused by you or other members of the team on something trivial and easy to solve when initially discovered. Delaying a small fix and quickly become a large problem if it delays other work.

8. MEASURE PROGRESS PERIODICALLY

Periodically means daily if you are the project manager and once every 2-3 days if you aren’t. If you have been working with the same project manager for a while and they have completed many projects for you successfully then once a week could be okay.

At the end of the day though you must remember that the buck stops with you. You will ultimately own all failures and successes. It is your right and duty to double check on things. Don’t micro manage, this will only impeded good people from doing their good work, simply be sure to keep a pulse on the project.

As the wise saying goes: people respect what you inspect. Inspect that everything is being accomplished according to plan and on schedule.

9. USE PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE AS A TOOL AND NOT AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR GOOD PLANNING

This is important to always remember. Tools and technologies are there to enhance yourself and your teams abilities but they do not replace fundamentals. Fundamentals such as good interpersonal skills, good decision making based upon earned value management (EVM), improvising along the way when surprises are delivered to you.

Always put priority on the human element and relationships while using technology to simply improve things such as time management, scope management, deliverables, and so on. Humans are what make projects successful... not just tools

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9 PROJECT MANAGEMENT METHODS FOR MAXIMIZING YOUR AUCTION INVESTMENT (Part 1 of 2)

August 24, 2011 12:57 by andrey

Developing a method or formula for how to best manage your investment projects based off of other successful investors mistakes and experiences can save you a lot of time and money. As the saying goes... Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.

The following 9 project management methods described in this two part series is based upon the work of Dr. Kerzner and the 9+ years experience Vestus has through over 5,000 auction purchases.

1. ADOPT A PROJECT MANAGEMENT METHOD AND USE IT CONSISTENTLY

A benefit of using a project management method consistently is that you can improve it’s effectiveness with use. You can isolate different best practices and test them to observe for any improvement.

Over time you will have ideally developed a management method that consistently delivers strong results for you. There are plenty of books to pick from on project management methods and you will find plenty of experienced investors who will share their lessons learned and best practices.

Also, using the same method consistently will make you more comfortable with the entire foreclosure investing process. Why? Because you will by default begin to create an operational framework of thinking and analysis which will help you to evaluate potential opportunities much quicker and more accurately.

When Warren Buffet was once asked what he found to be one of the best abilities in his long time business partner Charlie Munger, he referenced to Charlie’s frameworks of thought and how he could see the way a potential deal would play out within hearing the first five minutes.

Success is built on principles... and successful project management is no different. If it works for Charlie Munger and Warren Buffet then one would think that it would work for any investor, new and experienced alike.

2. USE A METHOD THAT DRIVES THE PROJECT TO COMPLETION AND COMMUNICATES TO EVERYONE

Make sure that whatever management method you end up choosing has a strong focus on driving the project to completion by focusing on deliverables and that it has a strong communication plan built in.

Unlike some projects, a real estate project is sensitive down to a day. For example payment on bridge financing if you need to extend into an additional month will take a chunk out of your profit margin. Focusing on getting things done has to be a priority with your methodology instead of constant review and improvement.

The second must have for your method is a communication plan that keeps all parties looped in. Don’t... repeat, do not... be a bottleneck for all communication. Make sure that relevant parties are able to communicate directly with each other while looping you in. The faster the communication flow is, the sooner a project will reach completion.

Make sure that it is clear to yourself and everyone involved with the project what the priorities are and therefore how decision making needs to be governed. Decision making should not be arbitrarily up to the style or methods of each individual for their part of the project. All decision must be based off a central set of priorities and values.

You establish those priorities and values; making it clear that all decisions must drive towards project completion and thorough communication. If communication is rapid and clear then you can nip a poor decision in the bud quickly and keep making progress.

Reward progress. Reward communication.

3. COMMIT TO DEVELOPING EFFECTIVE PLANS AT THE BEGINNING OF EACH PROJECT

Think through a project as carefully and thoroughly as possible during the Planning stage. Voice assumptions and thoughts to your team to get feedback. Once you start working on the Scheduling, again think it through as clearly as possible. And yet again, float the preliminary plan to your team for feedback so that realistic expectations are set from the beginning.

Analyze your plan with other successful investors and advisors to see what you may have overlooked. If this isn’t your first investment, what did you learn on your last investment that you can you incorporate into the management of the current one?

Make sure that you very clearly analyze your exit strategy and reverse engineer everything step by step, phase by phase to the start of the project. You want to enter a project with every process having been though through and milestones established to deliver the exit strategy.

4. RECOGNIZE THAT COST AND SCHEDULE MANAGEMENT ARE INSEPARABLE

Time is money. Repeat... Time is Money. One of the biggest mistakes that novice investors make is not accurately estimating holding costs on their investment and basing revenue off of gross profit instead of net profit.

Your holding costs include everything from what you are paying to professionals for their services to the points and percentages you are paying on the bridge financing. The faster you can go from bridge financing to take out financing, the better. The faster you are complete on applying basic fixups and making the property presentable, the faster you can list it for sale.

Do not be penny wise but dollar foolish.

There is a program called “Cash for Keys” which is designed to help get tenants or previous home owners out of a foreclosure you just purchased. You offer a cash payment to the tenant / previous owner to move out.

One might say that legally they are required to move out so you shouldn’t have to pay anything... and this may be true. Think of it this way though, you could A) end up fighting with them for a month before you can involved the sheriff’s office to evict which would increase your bridge financing costs, and so on, or B) just write a $1,000.00 check to motivate a speedy move out and you would really end up saving money because work would start work on your property 3 weeks sooner.

Time is money, down to the day. Cost and Schedule management are hand in glove. Again, don’t be penny wise but dollar foolish.

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THE 5 GOLDEN PILLARS OF MANAGING YOUR FORECLOSURE INVESTMENT PROJECT SUCCESSFULLY (Part 5 of 5)

August 19, 2011 04:12 by andrey

Being able to take a large or complicated project and breaking it down into more manageable chunks or phases is a habit and skill used by successful people in all walks of life. In the 5 Golden Pillars series, we are taking the management of a real estate investment project and breaking it down for the investor into five distinct phases. The fifth pillar is...

TAKING YOUR FORECLOSURE TO THE NEXT LEVEL

So you tracked progress well, kept good lines of communication flowing, and brought the ship home successfully. Now it’s time to take things to the next level so that you not only duplicate your success but improve upon it as well. We can break the fifth pillar down further with the following key learning points...

WORKING ON MULTIPLE PROJECTS

The nature of experiencing success is that we want more of it and any investor is an investor to actually grow their money so of course wanting more isn’t just an emotional desire, it is part of the vision and plan.

As you engineer the growth of your investments from your first successful investment, you will eventually come to a point where you are able to make more than one investment at a time. By this point you should have a good grasp of all the important elements of filtering out the rotten apples from the good deals and subsequently managing the deals into profitable ventures.

Simply take the process that you have used for individual projects and now apply it to all investment projects across the board as one large investment. Take each individual project through the process and then take your entire portfolio through the same process.

Rinse. Repeat.

USING TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE YOUR EFFECTIVENESS

Technology and different tools are a wonderful thing that enable investors and entrepreneurs to accomplish more in less time. Just make sure that you do not lose sight of the important fundamentals of human relationship and human decision making.

Data on a spreadsheet is only that... data on a spreadsheet. What a human does or doesn’t do with it is where we find success or failure.

Technology does not replace; technology enhances.

Another important principle to remember is to not avoid testing your technology against other technologies and discovering the tools that work best. Improvement is always a constant process... it is our nature as humans to seek better and better.

Don’t get attached to your tools and technologies. Test them. They are there to enhance you and your team.

TRACK PERFORMANCE, KNOW WHAT EARNED VALUE MANAGEMENT IS

Record the things you learn on every project and implement the insights from those insights into actionable strategies and methods on your next project. Always be improving. Not only should you be tracking the performance of every project but track the performance of improving your performance.

Don’t lessons you have learned go waste and fall in between the cracks. Life is a game of inches and when you add up an inch here and there, you eventually end up with a gain of yards.

Know what earned value management (EVM) is. Understanding the principles behind this method help you to track your projects better, improve your process, see where you are maximizing your investment and where you have room for improvement.

Just conduct a search on the Internet or Amazon to find plenty of resources on getting you started. Happy successful investing.

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