How Did You Do This Year?

By Jordan Taylor

It's a time of year when we get nostalgic, looking back at holiday celebrations of years gone by and remembering the joy, the humor, the missteps, and even the times of sadness. It's also a time when we are hopeful. The New Year is coming, and with it a chance to start fresh.

It's all warm and fuzzy and feel-good-and it won't help you reach your financial goals. If you are truly committed to achieving wealth and success through real estate investing, now is the time to take a clear and objective look at your business performance. How did you do? How close did you come to reaching your goals? Were you ahead, behind, or right on target? And what have you done to get to this point?

To analyze your real estate investing results, answer the questions below. Be brutally honest, even if it makes you uncomfortable. Write your answers down so there's no fudging. If you haven't reached your goals, you need to figure out why and what you can do to get where you want to be. If you have reached your short-term goals, you need to understand what you're doing right so you can do more of it and keep going to long-term success.

Your Real Estate Investing Performance Evaluation

How many offers did you make? ________________

How many of your offers were accepted? ________________

How many properties did you buy? ________________

How many income-generating units did you buy? (Remember, one property could include multiple units) ________________

How many contracts did you assign to another investor? ________________

How many properties did you sell? ________________

How many properties did you place under a lease option contract? ________________

How many ads did you place? ________________

How many "I buy real estate" signs did you put out? ________________

How many hours a week did you spend watching television? ________________

How many hours a week did you spend learning about real estate investing? __________

How much has your cash flow increased (or decreased)? ________________

How much has your net worth increased (or decreased)? ________________

Now start thinking about how you're going to answer these same questions at this time next year. In our next issue, we'll talk about how to set goals and develop a plan to meet them.