I am really exHiring an assistantcited to have a guest post for you today from my buddy Justin Williams from “House Flipping HQ”.  I have been in awe of Justin and this “hands off” business model he has managed to create since the first time I met him.  Justin has managed to do this by creating systems and by hiring the right people.  This is the first part of a 3 part article coming your way.

You probably remember the podcast we did a while back, but if you missed it, you can listen to that here.  

If your dream is to be able to have passive income without venturing into “landlord hell”, then this series of posts has been written just for you.

You can find Part 1 below.

 

Justin's Story

3 years ago I set out to create a house flipping business that could operate without my involvement.  I was told that if I wanted passive income I would have to be a landlord, but I believed I could create a house flipping business that worked for me rather than me just work for it.

I am happy to say that 3 years later we are flipping close to 100 houses a year with very little involvement from myself.  How was I able to accomplish this?

 

With 2 things…

 Systems and

My Assistant!

I created the systems and hired someone to manage (and help improve) those systems for me.

In this 3 part post I will go into detail on how to hire and train an assistant that can really help you accomplish much more in much less time and eventually even run your house flipping or real estate investing business for you like mine does for me!

 

Things to Consider

First off when considering hiring someone to help you in your house flipping or Real Estate Investing business you need to first determine what it is that you want that person to do for you.  This is important so you can focus in on what qualifications to look for when hiring your new happy helper!

1) Are you looking to hire someone just to help you with the small day to day items such as turning on utilities, setting up insurance, filing and paperwork, running errands, stuffing envelopes for your direct mail campaigns, and helping input listings?

 2) Are you looking for more of an acquisitions coordinator/manager?  Someone who will focus strictly on trying to help you purchase more houses?

3) Are you looking for a project manager or someone to help you manage your current projects?

 Now I’m not saying you necessarily have to have them just focus on one of these items, but it is important that you determine where your strongest need lies, and try to focus in on those items as you look for someone to help you in your business, and the last thing you want to do is throw all of these things at them all at once or you are asking for disaster!

 

Vanessa’s Evolving Role

In fact my current assistant Vanessa is more of a General Manager and actually helps oversee all of these items, but it didn’t start out that way.  I had no idea she would eventually manage my projects so that wasn’t really a focus at all when I was looking.

I knew it would be easy to find someone to help with the day to day administrative items. (after all who can't stuff an envelope right?) so I focused on trying to find someone who had some of the skills I would need to help me acquire more properties.

Now I knew I didn’t necessarily want to hire someone who already had investor experience (or had tried to become an investor for that matter) because I wasn’t looking to train someone to do the business on their own. Yet, like I mentioned, I didn’t necessarily want someone who didn’t have any RE experience at all either.

So I decided to find someone who had experience comping and evaluating homes on the MLS, knew how to use all the MLS forms and paperwork (including disclosures etc.), could make offers, understood the lingo, knew how agents work, could input listings, coordinate transactions, and all of other things most agents knew how to do. So, what did I do?

I focused on finding an agent who had experience in these areas but wasn’t currently doing the volume of business they needed to stay busy full time.

 

Necessary Skills

Now of course I wanted someone who could type, had good communication, was motivated etc., but I figured finding someone who could do the basic clerical type things wouldn’t be too hard and most agents could do those things anyway. I needed more than just someone who was “hard working”. So, in regards to the job description, I chose to focus on someone who had all the skills of an agent. From there I could ask questions and interview them to determine if they had the the other essential requirements, such as communication skills, work ethic, motivation etc.

Again this was based my current needs at the time.  If you are looking for someone to only help with clerical items and you don’t plan on them helping with acquisitions then you won’t need to worry about this. Or if you are looking for a project manager you probably want to find someone who has some construction management skills.

But I knew how long it would take to train someone to learn how to use the MLS, analyze properties and do all of these other things so I really wanted to find someone who already had those basic yet hard to teach skills that would be so relevant to my goals.

 

The Objective

Just to reiterate, your first objective when considering hiring an assistant is to get a good idea of your current needs, and focus on hiring someone with those qualities.

So your homework for this week is to figure out those needs so you are ready for the next two posts when we really dive into the nitty gritty!

In next week's post I will focus on the details of how to go about hiring your new assistant, and things to consider regarding compensation, schedule etc.

If you have anything specifically that you would like me to cover feel free to mention it in the comments section below and I will be sure to cover those items in my next two posts.

Hiring your new dream assistant could be a lot closer than you think! 😉

 

House Flipping HQ

Be sure to stop by Justin's site “House Flipping HQ” where you will find articles, podcast's and more to help you grow your REI business.   Just Click Here to check it out …..

 

 

Justin Williams House Flipping HQAbout Justin Williams

Justin Williams is a professional real estate investor and house flipper who, for the past 7 years has built his systems and business to around 100 deals per year, all with minimal involvement from himself.  Currently Justin is helping educate others and share his knowledge through his website and podcast, available at www.HouseFlippingHQ.com

 

 

If you haven't already subscribed to the “Inner Circle”, be sure to do that today so you don’t miss any of the business building tips I have coming your way. I want this year to be your best year ever!  And if you enjoyed this article, please share it.

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