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How To Write A Real Estate Business Plan
What is a real estate business plan?
8 must-haves in a business plan
How to write a business plan
Real estate business plan tips
Success in the real estate investing industry won’t happen overnight, and it definitely won’t happen without proper planning or implementation. For entrepreneurs, a real estate development business plan can serve as a road map to all of your business operations. Simply put, a real estate business plan will serve an essential role in forming your investing career.
Investors will need to strategize several key elements to create a successful business plan. These include future goals, company values, financing strategies, and more. Once complete, a business plan can create the foundation for smooth operations and outline a future with unlimited potential for your investing career. Keep reading to learn how to create a real estate investment business plan today.
What Is A Real Estate Investing Business Plan?
A real estate business plan is a living document that provides the framework for business operations and goals. A business plan will include future goals for the company and organized steps to get there. While business plans can vary from investor to investor, they will typically include planning for one to five years at a time.
Drafting a business plan for real estate investing purposes is, without a doubt, one of the single most important steps a new investor can take. An REI business plan will help you avoid potential obstacles while simultaneously placing you in a position to succeed. It is a blueprint to follow when things are going according to plan and even when they veer off course. If for nothing else, a real estate company’s business plan will ensure that investors know which steps to follow to achieve their goals. In many ways, nothing is more valuable to today’s investors. It is the plan, after all, to follow the most direct path to success.
8 Must-Haves In A Real Estate Business Plan
As a whole, a real estate business plan should address a company’s short and long-term goals. To accurately portray a company’s vision, the right business plan will require more information than a future vision. A strong real estate investing business plan will provide a detailed look at its ins and outs. This can include the organizational structure, financial information, marketing outline, and more. When done right, it will serve as a comprehensive overview for anyone who interacts with your business, whether internally or externally.
That said, creating an REI business plan will require a persistent attention to detail. For new investors drafting a real estate company business plan may seem like a daunting task, and quite honestly it is. The secret is knowing which ingredients must be added (and when). Below are seven must-haves for a well executed business plan:
Outline the company values and mission statement.
Break down future goals into short and long term.
Strategize the strengths and weaknesses of the company.
Formulate the best investment strategy for each property and your respective goals.
Include potential marketing and branding efforts.
State how the company will be financed (and by whom).
Explain who is working for the business.
Answer any “what ifs” with backup plans and exit strategies.
These components matter the most, and a quality real estate business plan will delve into each category to ensure maximum optimization.
A company vision statement is essentially your mission statement and values. While these may not be the first step in planning your company, a vision will be crucial to the success of your business. Company values will guide you through investment decisions and inspire others to work with your business time and time again. They should align potential employees, lenders, and possible tenants with the motivations behind your company.
Before writing your company vision, think through examples you like both in and out of the real estate industry. Is there a company whose values you identify with? Or, are there mission statements you dislike? Use other companies as a starting point when creating your own set of values. Feel free to reach out to your mentor or other network connections for feedback as you plan. Most importantly, think about the qualities you value and how they can fit into your business plan.
Goals are one of the most important elements in a successful business plan. This is because not only do goals provide an end goal for your company, but they also outline the steps required to get there. It can be helpful to think about goals in two categories: short-term and long-term. Long-term goals will typically outline your plans for the company. These can include ideal investment types, profit numbers, and company size. Short-term goals are the smaller, actionable steps required to get there.
For example, one long-term business goal could be to land four wholesale deals by the end of the year. Short-term goals will make this more achievable by breaking it into smaller steps. A few short-term goals that might help you land those four wholesale deals could be to create a direct mail campaign for your market area, establish a buyers list with 50 contacts, and secure your first property under contract. Breaking down long-term goals is a great way to hold yourself accountable, create deadlines and accomplish what you set out to.
3. SWOT Analysis
SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. A SWOT analysis involves thinking through each of these areas as you evaluate your company and potential competitors. This framework allows business owners to better understand what is working for the company and identify potential areas for improvement. SWOT analyses are used across industries as a way to create more actionable solutions to potential issues.
To think through a SWOT analysis for your real estate business plan, first, identify your company’s potential strengths and weaknesses. Do you have high-quality tenants? Are you struggling to raise capital? Be honest with yourself as you write out each category. Then, take a step back and look at your market area and competitors to identify threats and opportunities. A potential threat could be whether or not your rental prices are in line with comparable properties. On the other hand, a potential opportunity could boost your property’s amenities to be more competitive in the area.
4. Investment Strategy
Any good real estate investment business plan requires the ability to implement a sound investment strategy. If for nothing else, there are several exit strategies a business may execute to secure profits: rehabbing, wholesaling, and renting — to name a few. Investors will want to analyze their market and determine which strategy will best suit their goals. Those with long-term retirement goals may want to consider leaning heavily into rental properties. However, those without the funds to build a rental portfolio may want to consider getting started by wholesaling. Whatever the case may be, now is the time to figure out what you want to do with each property you come across. It is important to note, however, that this strategy will change from property to property. Therefore, investors need to determine their exit strategy based on the asset and their current goals. This section needs to be added to a real estate investment business plan because it will come in handy once a prospective deal is found.
5. Marketing Plan
While marketing may seem like the cherry on top of a sound business plan, marketing efforts will actually play an integral role in your business’s foundation. A marketing plan should include your business logo, website, social media outlets, and advertising efforts. Together these elements can build a solid brand for your business, which will help you build a strong business reputation and ultimately build trust with investors, clients, and more.
First, to plan your marketing, think about how your brand can illustrate the company values and mission statement you have created. Consider the ways you can incorporate your vision into your logo or website. Remember, in addition to attracting new clients, marketing efforts can also help maintain relationships with existing connections. For a step by step guide to drafting a real estate marketing plan , be sure to read this guide.
6. Financing Plan
Writing the financial portion of a business plan can be tricky, especially if you are starting your business. As a general rule, a financial plan will include the income statement, cash flow, and balance sheet for a business. A financial plan should also include short and long-term goals regarding the profits and losses of a company. Together, this information will help make business decisions, raise capital, and report on business performance.
Perhaps the most important factor when creating a financial plan is accuracy. While many investors want to report on high profits or low losses, manipulating data will not boost your business performance in any way. Come up with a system of organization that works for you and always ensure your financial statements are authentic. As a whole, a financial plan should help you identify what is and isn’t working for your business.
7. Teams & Small Business Systems
No successful business plan is complete without an outline of the operations and management. Think: how your business is being run and by whom. This information will include the organizational structure, office management (if any), and an outline of any ongoing projects or properties. Investors can even include future goals for team growth and operational changes when planning this information.
Even if you are just starting or have yet to launch your business, it is still necessary to plan your business structure. Start by planning what tasks you will be responsible for, and look for areas you will need help with. If you have a business partner, think through your strengths and weaknesses and look for areas you can best complement each other. For additional guidance, set up a meeting with your real estate mentor. They can provide valuable insights into their own business structure, which can serve as a jumping-off point for your planning.
8. Exit Strategies & Back Up Plans
Believe it or not, every successful company out there has a backup plan. Businesses fail every day, but investors can position themselves to survive even the worst-case scenario by creating a backup plan. That’s why it’s crucial to strategize alternative exit strategies and backup plans for your investment business. These will help you create a plan of action if something goes wrong and help you address any potential problems before they happen.
This section of a business plan should answer all of the “what if” questions a potential lender, employee, or client might have. What if a property remains on the market for longer than expected? What if a seller backs out before closing? What if a property has a higher than average vacancy rate? These questions (and many more) are worth thinking through as you create your business plan.
How To Write A Real Estate Investment Business Plan: Template
The impact of a truly great real estate investment business plan can last for the duration of your entire career, whereas a poor plan can get in the way of your future goals. The truth is: a real estate business plan is of the utmost importance, and as a new investor it deserves your undivided attention. Again, writing a business plan for real estate investing is no simple task, but it can be done correctly. Follow our real estate investment business plan template to ensure you get it right the first time around:
Write an executive summary that provides a birds eye view of the company.
Include a description of company goals and how you plan to achieve them.
Demonstrate your expertise with a thorough market analysis.
Specify who is working at your company and their qualifications.
Summarize what products and services your business has to offer.
Outline the intended marketing strategy for each aspect of your business.
1. Executive Summary
The first step is to define your mission and vision. In a nutshell, your executive summary is a snapshot of your business as a whole, and it will generally include a mission statement, company description, growth data, products and services, financial strategy, and future aspirations. This is the “why” of your business plan, and it should be clearly defined.
2. Company Description
The next step is to examine your business and provide a high-level review of the various elements, including goals and how you intend to achieve them. Investors should describe the nature of their business, as well as their targeted marketplace. Explain how services or products will meet said needs, address specific customers, organizations, or businesses the company will serve, and explain the competitive advantage the business offers.
3. Market Analysis
This section will identify and illustrate your knowledge of the industry. It will generally consist of information about your target market, including distinguishing characteristics, size, market shares, and pricing and gross margin targets. A thorough market outline will also include your SWOT analysis.
4. Organization & Management
This is where you explain who does what in your business. This section should include your company’s organizational structure, details of the ownership, profiles on the management team, and qualifications. While this may seem unnecessary as a real estate investor, the people reading your business plan may want to know who’s in charge. Make sure you leave no stone unturned.
5. Services Or Products
What are you selling? How will it benefit your customers? This is the part of your real estate business plan where you provide information on your product or service, including its benefits over competitors. In essence, it will offer a description of your product/service, details on its life cycle, information on intellectual property, as well as research and development activities, which could include future R&D activities and efforts. Since real estate investment is more of a service, beginner investors must identify why their service is better than others in the industry. It could include experience.
6. Marketing Strategy
A marketing strategy will generally encompass how a business owner intends to market or sell their product and service. This includes a market penetration strategy, a plan for future growth, distribution channels, and a comprehensive communication strategy. When creating a marketing strategy for a real estate business plan, investors should think about how they plan to identify and contact new leads. They should then think about the various communication options: social media, direct mail, a company website, etc. Your business plan’s marketing portion should essentially cover the practical steps of operating and growing your business.
Additional Real Estate Business Plan Tips
A successful business plan is no impossible to create; however, it will take time to get it right. Here are a few extra tips to keep in mind as you develop a plan for your real estate investing business:
Tailor Your Executive Summary To Different Audiences: An executive summary will open your business plan and introduce the company. Though the bulk of your business plan will remain consistent, the executive summary should be tailored to the specific audience at hand. A business plan is not only for you but potential investors, lenders, and clients. Keep your intended audience in mind when drafting the executive summary and answer any potential questions they may have.
Articulate What You Want: Too often, investors working on their business plan will hide what they are looking for, whether it be funding or a joint venture. Do not bury the lede when trying to get your point across. Be clear about your goals up front in a business plan, and get your point across early.
Prove You Know The Market: When you write the company description, it is crucial to include information about your market area. This could include average sale prices, median income, vacancy rates, and more. If you intend to acquire rental properties, you may even want to go a step further and answer questions about new developments and housing trends. Show that you have your finger on the pulse of a market, and your business plan will be much more compelling for those who read it.
Do Homework On The Competition: Many real estate business plans fail to fully analyze the competition. This may be partly because it can be difficult to see what your competitors are doing, unlike a business with tangible products. While you won’t get a tour of a competitor’s company, you can play prospect and see what they offer. Subscribe to their newsletter, check out their website, or visit their open house. Getting a first-hand look at what others are doing in your market can greatly help create a business plan.
Be Realistic With Your Operations & Management: It can be easy to overestimate your projections when creating a business plan, specifically when it comes to the organization and management section. Some investors will claim they do everything themselves, while others predict hiring a much larger team than they do. It is important to really think through how your business will operate regularly. When writing your business plan, be realistic about what needs to be done and who will be doing it.
Create Example Deals: At this point, investors will want to find a way to illustrate their plans moving forward. Literally or figuratively, illustrate the steps involved in future deals: purchases, cash flow, appreciation, sales, trades, 1031 exchanges, cash-on-cash return, and more. Doing so should give investors a good idea of what their deals will look like in the future. While it’s not guaranteed to happen, envisioning things has a way of making them easier in the future.
Schedule Business Update Sessions: Your real estate business plan is not an ironclad document that you complete and then never look at again. It’s an evolving outline that should continually be reviewed and tweaked. One good technique is to schedule regular review sessions to go over your business plan. Look for ways to improve and streamline your business plan so it’s as clear and persuasive as you want it to be.
Reevauating Your Real Estate Business Plan
A business plan will serve as a guide for every decision you make in your company, which is exactly why it should be reevaluated regularly. It is recommended to reassess your business plan each year to account for growth and changes. This will allow you to update your business goals, accounting books, and organizational structures. While you want to avoid changing things like your logo or branding too frequently, it can be helpful to update department budgets or business procedures each year.
The size of your business is crucial to keep in mind as you reevaluate annually. Not only in terms of employees and management structures but also in terms of marketing plans and business activities. Always incorporate new expenses and income into your business plan to help ensure you make the most of your resources. This will help your business stay on an upward trajectory over time and allow you to stay focused on your end goals.
Above all else, a real estate development business plan will be inspiring and informative. It should reveal why your business is more than just a dream and include actionable steps to make your vision a reality. No matter where you are with your investing career, a detailed business plan can guide your future in more ways than one. After all, a thorough plan will anticipate the best path to success. Follow the template above as you plan your real estate business, and make sure it’s a good one.
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Real Estate Investment Business Plan Template
Written by Dave Lavinsky
Real Estate Investment Business Plan
Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 5,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their real estate investment businesses. On this page, we will first give you some background information with regards to the importance of business planning. We will then go through a real estate investment business plan template step-by-step so you can create your plan today.
Download our Real Estate Business Plan Template here
What Is a Business Plan?
A business plan provides a snapshot of your real estate investing business as it stands today, and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your business goals and your strategy for reaching them. It also includes market research to support your plans.
Why You Need a Business Plan
Source of Funding for Real Estate Investment Companies
With regards to funding, the main sources of funding for a real estate investment business are personal savings, credit cards, bank loans and angel investors. With regards to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to confirm that your financials are reasonable. But they will want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business.
The second most common form of funding for a real estate investment business is angel investors. Angel investors are wealthy individuals who will write you a check. They will either take equity in return for their funding, or, like a bank, they will give you a loan.
How to Write a Business Plan for a Real Estate Investment Company
Your business plan should include 10 sections as follows:
Executive Summary
The goal of your Executive Summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of real estate investing business you are operating and the status; for example, are you a startup, do you have a business that you would like to grow, or are you operating a chain of real estate investment companies.
Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan. For example, give a brief overview of the real estate investment industry. Discuss the type of real estate investment business you are operating. Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target customers. Provide a snapshot of your marketing plan. Identify the key members of your team. And offer an overview of your financial plan.
Company Analysis
In your company analysis, you will detail the type of real estate investment business you are operating.
For example, you might operate one of the following types: Real estate investment companies do two basic things: invest in real estate and trade in real estate.
- Real estate investment is a long-term investment wherein you purchase real estate with the intent of keeping properties to rent out.
- Real estate trading is a short-term investment, wherein you buy a property that needs fixing up and flip it for a higher price soon after.
In addition to explaining the type of real estate investment company you operate, the Company Analysis section of your business plan needs to provide background on the business.
Include answers to question such as:
- When and why did you start the business?
- What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include sales goals you’ve reached, new store openings, etc.
- Your legal structure. Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your legal structure here.
Industry Analysis
While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.
First, researching the real estate investment industry educates you. It helps you understand the market in which you are operating.
Secondly, market research can improve your strategy particularly if your research identifies market trends. For example, if there was a trend towards increasing foreclosures in a particular city, it would be helpful to ensure your plan calls for an increased focus in this market.
The third reason for market research is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.
The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section of your real estate investing business plan:
- How big is the real estate investment industry (in dollars)?
- Is the market declining or increasing?
- Who are the key competitors in the market?
- Who are the key suppliers in the market?
- What trends are affecting the industry?
- What is the industry’s growth forecast over the next 5 – 10 years?
- What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential market for your real estate investment business. You can extrapolate such a figure by assessing the size of the market in the entire country and then applying that figure to your local population.
Customer Analysis
The customer analysis section of your real estate investing business plan must detail the customers you serve and/or expect to serve.
The following are examples of customer segments: mortgage holders, home buyers, renters, etc.
As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of real estate investment business you operate. Clearly first-time home buyers would want different pricing and product options, and would respond to different marketing promotions than banks.
Try to break out your target customers in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, include a discussion of the ages, genders, locations and income levels of the customers you seek to serve. Because most real estate investment businesses primarily serve customers living in their same city or town, such demographic information is easy to find on government websites.
Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target customers. The more you can understand and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your customers.
Competitive Analysis
Direct competitors are other real estate investment businesses.
Indirect competitors are other options that customers have to purchase from that aren’t direct competitors. This includes property management companies, realtors, and DIY home fixer-uppers. You need to mention such competition to show you understand that not everyone who purchases or leases real estate uses a real estate investment business to do so.
With regards to direct competition, you want to detail the other real estate investment businesses with which you compete. Most likely, your direct competitors will be real estate investment businesses located very close to your location.
For each such competitor, provide an overview of their businesses and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as:
- What types of customers do they serve?
- What products do they offer?
- What is their pricing (premium, low, etc.)?
- What are they good at?
- What are their weaknesses?
With regards to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective. And don’t be afraid to ask your competitors’ customers what they like most and least about them.
The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:
- Will you specialize in a particular real estate type or market?
- Will you provide services that your competitors don’t offer?
- Will you make it easier or faster for customers to acquire your real estate?
- Will you provide better customer service?
- Will you offer better pricing?
Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.
Marketing Plan
Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a real estate investment business plan, your marketing plan should include the following:
Product : in the product section you should reiterate the type of real estate investment company that you documented in your Company Analysis. Then, detail the specific products you will be offering. For example, will you offer residential properties, or commercial properties?
Price : Document the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price sub-sections of your marketing plan, you are presenting the types of real estate you offer and the current price ranges.
Place : Place refers to the location of your business. Document your location and mention how the location will impact your success. For example, is your real estate investment business located in a market with a high foreclosure rate, or with a low inventory of office space. Discuss how your location might provide a steady stream of customers.
Promotions : the final part of your real estate investing marketing plan is the promotions section. Here you will document how you will drive customers to your location(s). The following are some promotional methods you might consider:
- Advertising in local papers and magazines
- Reaching out to local bloggers and websites
- Social media advertising
- Local radio advertising
- Banner ads at local venues
Operations Plan
Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your real estate investment business such as finding properties to acquire, marketing completed properties, overseeing renovations, etc.
Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to flip your 25th house, or when you hope to reach $X in sales. It could also be when you expect to hire your Xth employee or launch in a new market.
Management Team
To demonstrate your real estate investment business’s ability to succeed as a business, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company.
Ideally you and/or your team members have direct experience in real estate. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.
If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act like mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in real estate investment businesses and/or successfully running small businesses.
Financial Plan
Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statements.
Income Statement
An income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenues and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.
In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will sales grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.
Balance Sheets
While balance sheets include much information, to simplify them to the key items you need to know about, balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. For instance, if you spend $100,000 on building out your real estate investment business, that will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a bank writes you a check for $100.000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.
Cash Flow Statement
Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business, and make sure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit but run out of money and go bankrupt. For example, let’s say you signed a commercial tenant that needs an extensive build out, that would cost you $50,000 to complete. Well, in most cases, you would have to pay that $50,000 now for materials, equipment rentals, employee salaries, etc. But rent will not cover build-out costs for 180 days. During that 180 day period, you could run out of money.
In developing your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing a real estate investment business:
- Location build-out including design fees, construction, etc.
- Cost of developing or refurbishing real estate assets
- Cost of depreciation
- Payroll or salaries paid to staff
- Business insurance
- Taxes and permits
- Legal expenses
Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include your store design blueprint or location lease.
Real Estate Investment Business Plan Summary
Putting together a business plan for your real estate investment company is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will really understand the real estate investment market, your competition and your customers. You will have developed a marketing plan and will really understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful real estate investment business.
How to Finish Your Real Estate Investment Business Plan in 1 Day!
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Real Estate Investment FAQs
What is the easiest way to complete my real estate investment business plan.
Growthink's Ultimate Real Estate Business Plan Template allows you to quickly and easily complete your Real Estate Investment Business Plan.
What is the Goal of a Business Plan's Executive Summary?
The goal of your Executive Summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of real estate investment business you are operating and the status; for example, are you a startup, do you have a real estate investment business that you would like to grow, or are you operating a chain of real estate investment businesses.
Other Helpful Business Plan Articles & Templates
Real Estate | Ultimate Guide
How to Write a Real Estate Investment Business Plan (+ Free Template)
REVIEWED BY: Gina Baker
Gina is a licensed real estate salesperson, experienced trainer, and former high school educator of 1,000+ learners. She writes for Fit Small Business with a focus on real estate content.
WRITTEN BY: Aloun Khountham
Published September 22, 2022
Aloun Khountham is a contributor to Fit Small Business. Her real estate experience stems from over five years as a New York City real estate operations executive focused on implementing processes, procedures, and new technology solutions designed to help agents succeed.
Free Real Estate Investment Business Plan Template
- 1 Write Your Mission & Vision Statement
- 2 Conduct a SWOT Analysis
- 3 Choose a Real Estate Business Investing Model
- 4 Set Specific & Measurable Goals
- 5 Write a Company Summary
- 6 Determine Your Financial Plan
- 7 Perform a Rental Market Analysis & Create a Marketing Plan
- 8 Build a Team & Implement Systems
- 9 Have an Exit Strategy
- 10 Bottom Line
A real estate investment business plan is a guide with actionable steps for determining how you’ll operate your real estate investing business. It outlines your mission and vision statement and lets you conduct a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis. The business plan should indicate how you’ll measure your business’ success. It’s similar to a business plan for any business, but the objectives are geared toward how you will grow your investment, manage the business, and secure funding.
We’ve created a real estate business plan template for you to download and use as a guide as you read through the article and learn how to make a business plan for real estate investing:
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💡 Quick tip:
In addition to the template, investing in property management software like TenantCloud will set you up for success. The free plan from TenantCloud will help you list apartments, collect rent payments, and screen applicants to maximize profits and minimize vacancies.
Let’s dive into the nine essential steps to creating your real estate investment business plan:
1. Write Your Mission & Vision Statement
Every real estate investment business plan should begin with a concrete mission statement and vision. A mission statement is a declaration of actions and strategies the organization will use to serve as its North Star to achieve its business or investment objectives. A strong mission statement provides a real estate business with direction, keeps teams accountable, inspires customers, and helps you measure success.
Mission statement from Oak Tree Capital
The example above provides the mission statement of Oak Tree Capital. As a real estate investment business, it’s clear what its ultimate business objective is and how it will approach investing with integrity to maximize profit. Essentially, the investment company will drive monetary results—while maintaining its moral principles.
Vision statement from Sila Realty Trust
Vision statements differ slightly from mission statements. They’re a bit more inspirational and provide some direction for future planning and execution of business investment strategies. Vision statements also touch on a company’s desires and purpose beyond day-to-day operational activity.
A vision statement outlines what the business desires to be once its mission statement is achieved. In the example above from Sila Realty Trust, it hopes to be the best investment option for its vendors and partners, specifically in healthcare property investments.
2. Conduct a SWOT Analysis
The section following the mission and vision statements in our real estate investment business plan template is the SWOT analysis. A SWOT analysis helps identify a business’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This tool helps real estate investors identify internal areas of improvement within their business through their strengths and weaknesses.
The opportunities and threats can assist with motivating a team to take actions that keep them ahead of an ever-changing real estate landscape. For a real estate business investor, the SWOT analysis is aimed at helping grow and protect investments over time.
Example real estate investing SWOT (Source: Denver Investment Real Estate )
Strengths & Weaknesses
Specifically for real estate investing, strengths and weaknesses correlate with the investment properties’ success and touch on items that will help drive investment growth. In the SWOT example above, the strengths and weaknesses are a property’s location, condition, available amenities, and decreased vacancy. All of these items contribute to the success of a property.
The weaknesses can be small unit size, low rents, low cap rates, etc. These weaknesses indicate less money is being collected and a lower overall return on investment. The weaknesses are all factors that limit cash flow into the business and are internal factors that an investor has the ability to change. They can raise the rent or renovate the units to accommodate more tenants.
Opportunities & Threats
Opportunities and threats are external factors that can affect an investment business. You don’t have control over these items, but you can maneuver your business to take advantage of the opportunities or mitigate any long-term effects of external threats. Opportunities relating to investment properties can be receiving certification with a city as a preferred development or having excess equity (like in the SWOT example above).
However, threats to an investment property do not need to be particularly connected to the property itself. They can be factors that affect your overall business. For example, interest rates may be high, which cuts your profits if you’re obtaining a mortgage during that time frame.
After creating your analysis, an investor can use these factors to develop business goals to support your strengths and opportunities while implementing change to combat the weaknesses and threats you anticipate. It also helps investors prioritize what items need to be addressed to succeed. These factors in a SWOT can change as the business grows, so don’t forget to revisit this portion and continuously reevaluate your SWOT.
3. Choose a Real Estate Business Investing Model
The core of real estate investing is to purchase and sell properties for a profit. How to make that profit is a factor in identifying your investment model. Different investing models are beneficial to an investor at different times.
For example, when interest rates are low, you may consider selling your property altogether. However, when interest rates are high, and it’s harder for people to obtain a mortgage, you will want to rent out your properties. Sometimes you have to try a few models to see what works best for your business given your area of expertise.
We’ve identified some investment business models to consider:
- Holding on to an investment: This strategy mostly involves renting out the property and earning regular rental income. This is also considered the BRRRR method : buy, rehab, rent, refinance, and repeat until you have increased your portfolio.
- Flipping properties : Flipping a property entails purchasing a property, adding value, and selling it higher than the investment costs. Many investors have a set profitability number they would like to hit, but should consider market fluctuations on what they’re realistically able to receive during the sale.
- Owner-occupied: Investors can live in the property while renting out extra units to not only reduce their housing costs but have rental income coming in at the same time. This model is best if you own multifamily units, especially duplexes, triplexes, or fourplexes . It’s also a great way to understand the complexities of being a landlord. When you want to move, you can transition your unit to another renter.
- Wholesaling: This method involves finding good deals on properties and quickly selling them for a small markup to another buyer. The process isn’t as laborious as renovating the property, and you can find and close multiple deals in a short period of time.
Investors don’t have to stick to one model, and they can have a few of these investment models within their portfolio, depending on the amount of effort they would like to put into each property. Before choosing an investment model, consider which will help you meet your investing goals most efficiently.
Roofstock property marketplace (Source: Roofstock )
To support your chosen investment model, Roofstock offers a platform that makes investing accessible for new and experienced investors. Its marketplace lists individual properties, short-term rentals, or you can pick from curated portfolios that all list cap rates, gross yield percentages, and a neighborhood rating for each property. The site also assists with offloading your properties or finding new buyers if you’re not looking to hold on to the investment.
Visit Roofstock
4. Set Specific & Measurable Goals
The next step to completing a real estate investment business plan for real estate investing is to set SMART goals. SMART is an acronym that stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Creating goals that contain all of the criteria of SMART goals results in extremely specific goals, provides focus, and sets an investor up for achieving the goals. The process of creating these goals takes some experience and continued practice.
An investor’s goals can consist of small short-term goals and more monumental long-term goals. Whether goals are big or small, ideal goals will propel your business forward. For example, your end goal could be having a specific number of properties in your portfolio or setting a specific return on investment (ROI) you want to achieve annually.
Keep in mind that the SMART goals you set forth don’t always have to be property-related just because you’re an investor. They can be goals that help you improve your networking or public speaking skills that can also add to a growing business.
Example of improving goals with SMART in mind:
Begin creating SMART goals with an initial goal. Then, you take that initial goal and break it down into the different SMART components. SMART goals leave no room for error or confusion. The specific, measurable, and time-bound criteria identify the exact components for success. However, the relevant and achievable parts of the goal require a little extra work to identify. The relevancy should align with your company’s mission, and extra research must be performed to ensure the goal is attainable.
Initial goal: Receive a 5% return on investment from the property
Smart goal:
- Specific: I want to achieve a 5% return on the 99 Park Place property.
- Measurable: The goal is to sell it for greater than or equal to $499,000.
- Achievable: The current market value for a two-bedroom in Chicago is currently selling for $500,000 and growing 1% each year.
- Relevant: I’m aiming to meet my overall portfolio returns by 20%, annually.
- Time-bound: I want to offload this property in the next three years.
5. Write a Company Summary
The company summary section of a business plan for investors is a high-level overview, giving insight into your business, its services, goals and mission, and how you differentiate yourself from your competition. Other items that can be included in this overview are business legal structure, business location, and business goals. The company summary is particularly helpful if you’re looking to involve outside investors or partners in your business.
Example company profile from Choueri Real Estate
A company summary is customizable to your target audience. If you’re using this section to recruit high-level executives to your team, center it around business operations and corporate culture. However, if you’re looking to target funding and develop investor relationships for a new project, then you may want to include investor-specific topics relating to profitability, investment strategy, and company business structure.
Partners and outside investors will want to take into account the specific legal business structure of your company to know what types of liabilities are at hand. Legal business structure determines how taxes are charged and paid along with what legal entity owns the assets. This information helps determine how the liabilities are separated from personal assets. For example, if a tenant wants to seek legal damages against the landlord and the property is owned by an LLC, personal assets like your personal home will not be at risk.
6. Determine Your Financial Plan
The most important part of creating a real estate investing business is the financial aspect, since much of the business involves purchasing, managing, and eventually, the sale of real estate. To initially purchase real estate, you’ll have to determine where funding will be coming from. Funding can come from your own personal assets, obtaining a line of credit, or involving external investors that can provide funding.
When obtaining a loan to purchase properties, a few options are available to real estate investors. Some of these lending options are a better fit than others based on your investing model. For example, if you’re wholesaling, it might not be worth obtaining a mortgage to just quickly sell to another investor or end-buyer.
The lending options available to most real estate investors include the following:
- Mortgage: This is one of the most common means of obtaining financing. A financial institution will provide money based on a borrower’s credit score and ability to pay the loan back.
- Federal Housing Authority (FHA) loans : This loan is secured by the FHA to assist with getting you a low down payment or lower closing costs, and sometimes easily obtain credit. There are some restrictions to qualifying for this loan—but it could be good for newer investors who want to begin investing starting with their primary home.
- Home equity line of credit (HELOC) : If you currently have property, obtain a HELOC by using your current property to secure the line of credit and borrow against the equity in your property. As you pay back the loan, your available balance on the line of credit gets replenished.
- Private lenders : These are lenders who are not financial institutions. These individual lenders typically have fewer restrictions than a traditional lender and will lend money to individuals who are able to grow their investment.
- Hard-money loans : This loan requires a hard asset to be leveraged for money. For example, you can put up the home you are looking to purchase as the asset for money upfront, and the hard-money loan will be paid back once the home is sold or other funding is secured. This is great for short-term deals due to its quick approval with little money upfront.
After funding is obtained to purchase property, financial projections help investors understand their financial standing. These projections can tell you potential income, profits, and when you may need additional funding in the future. Similar to lending options, these calculations are specific to your investing model. If you’re not planning to rent out the property, then calculations like gross rent multiplier are not applicable.
For more information on what is needed to obtain financing, read our article Investment Property Financing & Requirements .
Additional Investment Calculations
In a rental property business plan, it’s important to use a rental property calculator to find out a property’s potential return on investment. The calculator takes into account various factors, such as purchase price, operating expenses, monthly income, or vacancy rates, to determine whether a property is a good investment.
Additional calculations all investors should be aware of when purchasing and managing rental properties :
- Gross operating income (GOI): The GOI calculates the amount of rent and income received from a property minus any vacancy. It doesn’t take into account other expenses. It tells an investor how much income they’ll make after some assumed losses with vacancy.
GOI = Total rent + Other income – Vacancy losses
- Capitalization (cap) rate : Calculates the return on investment (ROI) of a property. This equation is used to compare the return of one building to another. The higher the cap rate, the better, since the purchase price is low.
Cap Rate = Net operating income / Purchase price
- Gross rent multiplier (GRM) : This is a factor that helps determine a property’s potential profitability. Can be used to compare perspective buildings to determine which one is the better deal.
GRM = Property price / Gross annual income
- Vacancy rate : Calculate the vacancy percentage of all your investment properties during a specific time period. Percentage helps an investor determine how their property performs given current market conditions. If you have a high vacancy rate, you must determine the cause. Perhaps your asking rents are too high for the current housing market.
Vacancy Rate Formula = # of Vacant Units x 100 / Total # of Units
- Cash flow: Cash flow is the movement of money in and out of your business, also known as net operating income. In an ideal scenario, investors will bring in more income than expenses, thus showing profit and a positive cash flow. Positive cash flow allows investors to make decisions on how they would like to use that profit. They can invest it in growing their portfolio or increasing their cash reserves for unexpected expenses.
Cash Flow = Gross rental income – Total expenses
Investors can use their current cash flow to forecast future cash flows, which will give you an idea of how much profit you will see over a specific period of time. A scenario where you’ll want to estimate future cash flows is if you want to have enough cash reserves for a down payment on a new property.
First, use past cash flow information to determine if there are any trends. For example, perhaps during the summer months, your water expenses increase, or possibly every few months, you see an increase in property repairs. Consider these trends when estimating future cash flows. Forecasting cash flow is just an estimate. If you do project your future cash flow, compare that to actual numbers to determine if your forecasting is accurate.
Use the template below to forecast future cash flow for six months and determine how much cash flow reserves you will have:
Cash Flow Template
7. Perform a Rental Market Analysis & Create a Marketing Plan
While determining what properties to purchase, investors should perform a rental market analysis (RMA) to gauge the investment potential of a rental property. The rental market analysis consists of running comparables against current units on the market and collecting data that may affect your rental rate to understand if the rental property in question is a solid long-term investment. The analysis helps determine the average rental rate and future rent if you want to make any property upgrades.
Fit Small Business’ rental market analysis
Using our RMA template and example above, we identify the subject property and compare it to five to seven nearby rental properties on the market. Investors can use resources like Zillow to pull comparable property information to gather information on unit layout, building amenities, rental concessions offered, or listing price.
Once the information is gathered, the spreadsheet itemizes the average, median, highest, and lowest rent. When such information is available, it also provides an average price per square foot compared to the subject property. With this information, investors can decide whether the subject property is worth the investment.
Once you determine which property to invest in, investors should identify a marketing plan to list the vacant units. Some investors offload the marketing and advertising to real estate agents and brokerages, which will also collect a fee for renting out the property. It’s not entirely impossible to market the units yourself. However, it will take additional time and effort. You can refer to some of the best real estate marketing materials to help you get started.
Although you can market the properties yourself through your own website and direct mailers, listing available units on third-party lead generation sites like Zillow can assist with reducing your vacancy rate. Zillow is one of the largest real estate search engines, with millions of visitors each month to help provide exposure to your available listings. Once leads are received, investors should have a thorough tenant screening process to place quality tenants in their units to protect their investments.
Visit Zillow
8. Build a Team & Implement Systems
If you’re starting out as a new investor, you may need to wear multiple hats to manage the day-to-day of your business. In the beginning, you may not be able to hire a full team of employees to help perform research, assist with running analysis, property management , accounting duties, etc. Hence, you can implement systems that relieve you of manually performing daily duties to keep your investments profitable.
Regardless if you’re new or experienced in investing, it is best practice to have a list of vendors you will need to rely on to assist with purchasing, rehabilitating, and buying or selling your investment properties. You’ll need real estate attorneys and agents to assist with the buying and selling process, while also having contractors , plumbers, property managers, and accountants to help with the renovations and daily management of tenants.
Find vendors you trust, so you can free yourself from having to micromanage them, and know they have your best interest and the interest of your investments in mind. In addition, many platforms on the market can help with different aspects of your business and can even help manage your maintenance vendors:
9. Have an Exit Strategy
Since an investor’s money is tied up in the properties they own until they choose to sell, deciding when to sell or liquidate to get access to your money is part of the overall exit strategy of an investor. The exit strategy for a real estate investment business simply is a plan for when an investor would like to remove themself from a deal or the business altogether. It helps weigh the different scenarios to minimize business risks and continue to maximize the total return on investments.
The factors that an investor should consider when devising an exit strategy are minimizing financial loss, recouping as much of their original investment, and avoiding any unseen fees that will cut into profits like tax consequences. An investor’s plan should always be to grow their original investment, but unforeseen circumstances may occur that will require you to plan on when to cut your losses as well.
Here are examples of the most common exit plans for investors:
- Sell the property: Involves putting the property up for sale for a higher price than you purchased it for. The property is often sold or assigned to another owner before you even finalize your purchase. This provides for quick profits in an extremely short period of time.
- Passing along the investment to heirs: This involves creating trusts and wills to ensure the property gets into the right hands after your death. Since one of the benefits of investing in real estate is its appreciation over time, many investors choose to purchase real estate with the hopes that it will increase in value by the time their family inherits the asset.
- Bringing in another investor: To minimize their risk, investors can cash out on a portion of their investment by selling a portion of their share to another investor.
Choosing the right exit plan will reduce your risk and increase your profits, but not all exit strategies are alike. Each property should have its own individual exit strategy. The strategy also comes with experience as an investor. Newer investors should take their time doing research and selecting the right plan for them. The exit strategy should be set before your initial investment, so you set yourself up for success and not go into the investment blindly.
Bottom Line
Before launching a successful real estate investment business, you must have an efficient business plan to align your strategies with your business objectives. Our real estate investment business plan template can help get you started. These plans act as a roadmap to help you focus on the steps required to grow your business. Business plans also evolve over time, so continuously revisit and improve your strategies. There is no right or wrong way to write a real estate investment business plan as long as it is used to achieve your goals.
About the Author
Find Aloun On LinkedIn
Aloun Khountham
Aloun Khountham is a freelance real estate contributor to Fit Small Business. Her real estate experience stems from over five years as a New York City real estate operations executive for a growing brokerage. Much of her time in real estate was focused on implementing processes and procedures as well as introducing new technology solutions to help agents succeed. She is currently an operations director in the wholesale sector.
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Real Estate Investment Business Plan
Are you thinking of starting a real estate investment business We have prepared a solid real estate investment business plan sample that guides you on every stage of your business plan writing
Real estate investment is a great source of primary as well as a secondary income. It is also a good way to ensure that your money grows and its value stays in line with inflation.
And as the real estate market is growing at a fast pace due to high demand and less space, real estate investment is likely to bring you good returns.
All you need is a little bit of research and knowledge about the industry and a real estate investment business plan. A business plan will help you recognize opportunities and deal with challenges in an effective way. It’ll also help you devise an investment strategy that brings you maximum returns.
Industry Overview
The real estate investment market increased from 9.6 trillion dollars in 2019 to 10.5 trillion dollars in 2020. Although it may take time, investment in the housing market can help your money grow.
As it takes some amount of time for your money to grow, real estate investments are usually made keeping the long-term requirements in mind. Ensure that you have the right resources that you can put in for a sufficient amount of time.
Apart from that, you must look at the potential of the property before investing.
Things to Consider Before Writing a Real Estate Investment Business Plan
Select the right property location, know the purpose of your investment, do your research, know all of your options, how can a real estate investment business plan help you.
You may want to start investing as soon as possible, after all, investments take time to grow, right? But just like a stitch in time saves nine, a real estate investment business plan can help your investment business prosper in the future even if it seems time-consuming at the moment.
It can help you design a proper business model and formulate a great business growth strategy. Moreover, it can also help you track your progress along the way.
All in all, it can make your investments way smoother than going about without a business plan.
Chalking out Your Business Plan
The real estate sector is one of the most profitable sectors to invest in. Many investors swear by it as a bankable source of secondary income.
Not just that, the real estate investment market increased from 9.6 trillion dollars in 2019 to 10.5 trillion dollars in 2020 . Although it may take time, investment in the housing market can help your money grow.
And though the above information invests in the real estate sector a rosy prospect, it can go horribly wrong without a proper business plan and investment strategy.
Read on to find out what a business plan can do for your investment business.
Real estate investment business plan outline
This is the standard real estate investment business plan outline which will cover all important sections that you should include in your business plan.
- Purpose of the Plan
- Introduction
- The Problem
- The Solution
- A fundamental change in the US housing market
- All three legs of the apartment investment stool are in place
- Weak Housing Market
- Competitive Advantage
- Business Model
- Growth Opportunity
- Corporate Structure Overview
- Source and Use of Funds
- Return on Investment
- Mission Statement
- Business Objectives
- Legal Structure
- Company Ownership
- Location and Premises
- Intellectual Property
- CREI Business Model
- Revenue Projections
- The Amount of Investment Funds Requested
- Business Benefits
- Investment Repayments
- Good Investment Trends in Apartment Rentals
- Rent Spikes Coming For a Good Investment in Apartment Buildings
- Apartments Continue as Good Investment Through 2012 and Beyond
- Apartment Buildings Going From Good Investment to Great
- Filling Basic Needs Makes for a Good Investment
- More Americans renting by choice
- The Apartment Building Investment Triple Opportunity Is Right Now
- Internet Growth Allows Renters to Locate Good Apartments
- Industry Participants
- Competitive Advantages
- Strategic Initiatives?
- Brand Strategy
- Provide Individuals, Families, and Businesses Quality Rental Properties at an Affordable Price.
- Positioning Statement
- Pricing Strategy
- Sales Strategy
- Sales Forecast
- Sales Programs
- Strategic Alliances
- Social networking websites
- Email campaigns
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization) PPC
- Banner advertisements
- Search Engine Optimization
- Organizational Structure
- SWOT Analysis
- Key Assumptions
- Key Financial Indicators
- Explanation of Break-even Analysis
- Business Ratios
- Long-term Plan and Financial Highlights
- Projected Income Statement
- Projected Cash Flow
- Projected Balance Sheet
How to Write a Real Estate Investment Business Plan?
A real estate investment business plan consists of several key areas that must be included in it and add things that would be unique to you and your business.
Also, there are several ways in which you can write a business plan including online business plan software and pre-designed templates. You can choose the method that works best for your individual needs.
What to Include in a Real Estate Investment Business Plan?
Although a business plan should be customized as per the needs of an individual and market situation, there are certain areas that every real estate investment business plan must include. They are as follows:
1. Executive Summary
The executive summary section is the first and the foremost section of your business plan. It consists of what your entire business stands for. It focuses on everything ranging from opportunities and threats, competitive advantages your business has , the structure of the current market as well as the financial needs of the business.
Most importantly for a real estate investment business plan, it would also consist of the prospective return of investment one can expect from the business as well as the expected duration of time for that growth to happen.
2. Business Concept and Revenue Model
This section would include the type of investment concept and revenue model you plan on following with your business. So, before writing this section it is a good practice to analyze the current trends in the market as well as your own finances, to find the concept that fits the best for you in the current market situation.
In this section, you can also include methods of tracking the progress of your investments.
3. Market Analysis
Whenever one starts a new business it is mandatory to carry out market analysis to flourish in it. It not only helps you in understanding the market, but it also helps you in choosing the right strategy for your own business.
For example, in the US rent spikes and increasing demand for rental accommodations make the rent department an extremely profitable segment in the real estate market. A thorough analysis of the market can thus help you choose the most favorable market segment as well as the best locality to invest in.
4. Growth Strategy
In this section, you should include the milestones you plan on having for your investment business. It helps you set well-defined tasks to achieve those milestones and keeps you motivated while doing the same. Also, with the help of milestones, you can always pinpoint when and where you are going wrong and need a shift in direction.
5. Web Plan
Having a web presence can be immensely helpful in building your network and reaching out to potential partners and organizations that can help you grow.
For building an online presence you can use various tools like social media, email marketing, optimized web pages, etc.
6. Management Summary
This segment includes information regarding the roles and responsibilities of the people in your business. The people in your business are a major aspect that decides its success or downfall, therefore a thorough detail of their work and progress is an essential part of your business plan.
7. SWOT Analysis
Carrying out a SWOT analysis before writing your business plan can make the process faster, easier, and way more well-defined. Hence, including it in your business plan is always a good idea.
8. Financial analysis
Even though financial analysis is crucial for any business, it is especially important for investment business. In this section, you can include the time required to reach the break-even point, the projected growth of your business, long-term finances as well as strategies to deal with potential changes in the market.
Real Estate Investment Business Plan Summary
In conclusion, a real estate investment plan can make your investment business hassle-free and less chaotic, as writing a plan gives a clear-cut idea of what you are getting yourself into.
After getting started with Upmetrics , you can copy this sample real estate investment business plan into your business plan and modify the required information and download your real estate investment business plan pdf or doc file.
It’s the fastest and easiest way to start writing your business plan. So, what are you waiting for, craft your business plan and get going?
Business Planning Resources
We have plenty of free business planning resources available to help you with your planning. You can download our resources to learn all about business planning.
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- Business Plans Handbook
- Business Plans - Volume 06
- Real Estate Investment Company Business Plan Business Plan
Real Estate Investment Company BUSINESS PLAN
WOLFE PARTNERS
45001 Washington Blvd. Jefferson City, MO 65101
This business plan emphasizes the entrepreneur's experience, knowledge, and savvy, as well as the symbiotic philosophy of the business. The requirements for successful real estate investing are clearly explored and a concise response to each concern gives the plan its authority. Notice how the cautious short-term goals are tempered with the ambi tious outlook.
BUSINESS GOALS
- DEVELOPING KNOWLEDGE OF MARKETPLACE
BUSINESS OPERATIONS
Wolfe Partners has been a family-owned business for more than 10 years. Its principle, Ron Wolfe, is a licensed builder in the state of Missouri and has been working in the construction industry for more than 25 years. Wolfe Partners, L.L.C. is now being established to make the business a full-time venture and to include real property investing, primarily single-family homes, into our strategy. Mr. Wolfe also has over 20 years experience in corporate operations, ranging from a Mechanical Engineer, upon college graduation, to his most recent position as an executive in a Fortune 100 information technology company, managing a $13 million business unit with 120 employees.
Our mission is to create investment income through the purchasing and reselling of distressed homes. A targeted 100% profitability will be generated by performing cosmetic or functional improvements to single-family homes. These renovations will significantly increase the value of the property and make it available for sale to a focused customer marketplace.
Short-Term Goals
The first year of Wolfe Partners will be spent expanding our building opportunities. The company will strive to create and maintain an image and reputation in the industry as an honest, cooperative, and creative enterprise, characterized by ethics, fair play, and win-win results. Our operations will be noted for our high technology processes that will utilize state-of-theart information and management systems. In order to ensure success, Wolfe Partners will focus on the development of strong partnerships with key real property professionals, i.e., sales brokers/agents, financial institutions, law firms, building trade contractors, real estate service firms, and others.
During this period we will purchase, renovate, and sell approximately one home per month for a total of nine units in 1999. Also during this period one home will be selected, based on its financial performance quality, as a rental unit to be held. This will be the beginning of our long-term investment strategy around rental income properties, and the developing of our expertise in property management.
Long-Term Goals
During the year 2000, Wolfe Partners will become a full-time enterprise. During 2000 and each year thereafter, 2 homes per month will be purchased and renovated. This will allow for one house per month to be kept in the rental income property portfolio, while the second unit is sold to continue the cash income stream. Holding to this strategy over a seven-year period will yield a portfolio of 85 investment units each returning an average $2,000 positive cashflow per year for a total annual income of $170,000, and annual asset appreciation of 5%. Also during this seven-year period, more than 80 homes would have been sold for an average $15,000 profit each for a total of more than $1.3 million cash income. At an average investment of $10,000 per unit, a 100% to 150% profit margin is expected.
Ownership & Employees
Wolfe Partners, L.L.C. is intended to be a highly leveraged organization with only one employee, that being the principle and sole owner, Ron Wolfe. All tasks to be performed on behalf of the enterprise, that cannot be done by the employee, will be hired contract services.
DEVELOPING KNOWLEDGE OF THE MARKETPLACE
Target neighborhoods.
Wolfe Partners will operate in the southeast corridor of Mixci County. This area will include the communities of Birmingham, Jones, Royal, and Rickston. This area was chosen because of its significant population of homes in our target price range of $80,000 to $100,000 and because of the recent popularity of this area by our target customer base of young, first-time, or first-upgrade homebuyers. Also, we have significant familiarity with those neighborhoods after living in the area for more than 16 years.
Selecting Properties
Wolfe Partners has developed a strategy around the purchase of homes in the $80,000 to $100,000 price range. This price represents homes on the lower end of home values in the targeted neighborhoods. A price differential of at least $30,000 between our purchase price and typical sales prices is necessary for each purchase. This will allow us to absorb a renovation and acquisition expense of approximately $10,000 to $15,000 and still net $15,000 to $20,000 profit from each deal.
In order to appeal to the widest audience of homebuyers, these homes will be at least 3 bedrooms, located on side streets close to schools, and inclusive of certain amenities which are desired by young, professional families.
Locating Flexible/Desperate Sellers
The target neighborhoods are also well populated with sellers that are significantly motivated to be creative in the sale of their property. This "distressed" seller situation can be created for several reasons. The owner may be having trouble selling the property, or may be forced to move quickly to satisfy some pressing personal issue. We will attempt to locate sellers that fit one or more of the following profiles: divorce, estate sales, unemployment, property in disrepair, job transfer, property management problems, absentee ownership, investor washout, tenant problems, retirement, or any other emotional dissatisfaction with the property. It is anticipated that these homeowners will be willing to negotiate on price, terms, or possibly both.
Working with Real Estate Professionals
To be successful in real estate investing, a strong partnership must be built with many service providers that have an intimate knowledge of the neighborhoods we have selected. This list of business contacts includes but is not limited to real estate brokers/agents, chamber of commerce, local investment clubs, financial institutions, utility company repair personnel, title insurance companies, local government personnel, and others.
Target Customer
According to recent demographic studies, more than 30% of the U.S. population will be in the age group of 25-44 by the year 2000. In addition, work force studies indicate that the number of trained professionals for most industry categories is inadequate to meet business growth demands and attrition rates. Therefore not only is there a large population of homebuyers in this age bracket, but their long-term employability, and thus their ability to make house payments, is quite favorable. With these trends in mind, our target customer is a young, professional, dual-income family. These buyers will have good credit and income potential, but may not have significant cash reserves. Our approach to these buyers, therefore, will be to get them into our houses with creative solutions to their cash shortage problems.
Establishing a Buyer Profile
Several strategies will be employed to publicize the name of Wolfe Partners and its attempt to be a frequent buyer of distressed real estate. A professional public relations firm was hired to develop a corporate image and identity system which will be incorporated into every correspondence for the business, including business cards, stationery, flyers, postcards, signage, and all other advertising. Once a reputation has been built for the business, it is anticipated that much of the purchase volume will be a result of word-of-mouth advertising. It will be important to these types of transactions to have cash on hand to move quickly when opportunities present themselves.
To endear the business to the real estate broker community, a commitment was made to work with specific firms to conduct all transactions for their areas. In exchange for that commitment, a real estate investor account has been established and preferential commission rates negotiated with these firms.
Communication Plan
To announce the newly established operations of Wolfe Partners, and to further our penetration into the real estate investment process, we will advertise our approach through several media. This includes newspaper advertisements for buying and selling homes, personal contact with real estate agents and building trade contractors, flyers placed on vehicles in parking lots and in mailboxes of homes needing improvement, and by driving through neighborhoods to talk to residents. We will also begin networking with people at businesses and functions involved in real estate investing, for example, county courthouses, bank real estate foreclosure offices, investment clubs, neighborhood association meetings, etc. The following communication plan outlines how Wolfe Partners will begin to inform the community of our business process.
Buying Properties
Working with home sellers.
A significant amount of time and vehicle mileage can be spent in the pursuit of good home deals. In order to minimize this expense, a rigorous process has been developed to qualify properties for their investment potential, and sellers for their flexibility and compatibility. The process includes two components: a telephone screening script and a property analysis form.
It will be imperative during this process that we establish a rapport with the seller to create comfort with one another, a win-win environment, and an opportunity to drive to closure on the business transaction. The property analysis form is used throughout the process by first recording any information that is contained in the advertisement, so as not to waste the seller's time, except to clarify understanding. During the following phone screening, the form is used to record additional data that is pertinent to our investment strategy. Then, in the event a visit to the property is warranted, the form would be completed during the property inspection.
The telephone screening script was developed to provide a consistent way to build this rapport, in a nonoffensive manner, to obtain the information needed to make our buying decisions. The phone screening is intended to be very conversational and informal. The conversation includes questions about the following topics:
- May I ask your name? Could you please tell me about your home?
- What is size, square footage, lot size, garage?
- How many rooms, what configuration, bathroom layouts?
- What special features or amenities, appliances?
- What is existing financing, mortgage type, terms, interest, payments, assumability?
- Are you current on all payments to banks, contractors, taxes (liens)?
- Are you willing to assist in the financing?
- How much cash is needed at close? Can the down payment be spread out?
- What is the asking price? How long on the market?
- How long have you been there? Why are you selling?
- What do you like most/least about the property?
- Are there any renters in the neighborhood and what are they paying for rent?
It is anticipated that in order to find a home that meets our investment criterion, we will have to call on approximately 25 advertised listings. Of these, only approximately 5 will justify a property visit, yielding 2 or 3 offers, and 1 purchase.
Performing Appraisals
A database is currently under construction to capture and report the sale price of all homes in our targeted neighborhoods for the past 12 months. The data for this appraisal tool is available from 3 sources and is being used to build a profile of potential market value and budget for renovation investments. The data sources include: property sold listing books available through real estate brokers that subscribe to the MLS (Multi Listing Service). This listing is created monthly and is only available to licensed real estate professionals (or people they choose to share it with). The second source is available on the Internet, online at the Detroit News web site of Sunday's "Real Estate Sold in Your Area" section of the newspaper. The listing from each Sunday paper is downloaded and scanned into our computer into the appropriate city section of our database. The third source of homes sold in the area is the county courthouse and/or Mixci County Legal News paper, under "property ownership transfers." This database is a critical tool in our efforts to properly estimate the value of a home and determine the up side and down side potential of our transactions.
Financial Analysis
Each property to be purchased will go through an extensive financial analysis in a spreadsheet that has been created for this purpose. This analysis will provide the decisionmaking data to determine the appraisal value, appropriate purchase price, detailed estimates of potential renovation, acquisition costs, and potential sale price as well as anticipated profitability.
Creative Financing Techniques
One of the most difficult and critical components of our purchase strategy is the elimination or minimizing of the down payment required to obtain the property. Quite often, the down payment represents a significant portion of the out-of-pocket investment, which is used to calculate the overall rate of return of the transaction. That is, the less money invested to turn the property, the higher the rate of return on the purchase. Several strategies will be employed to take advantage of money that is available from traditional, as well as slightly more obscure sources of funding.
The following sources represent opportunities to purchase property with lower initial costs:
- The seller—quite often a seller will finance some portion if not all of the purchase transactions, especially if the interest rate is attractive and the term is short
- Equity in other homes or vacant land can be used as down payments or collateral for future payments
- Land contracts or private mortgages on other properties can be discounted and sold for cash; Wolfe Partners professional skills and services could be used as "sweat equity"
- Real estate brokers will sometimes take their commissions on a note or as an account receivable
- Investors could be used when larger amounts or quick cash is needed
- Tenants of rental properties could be enticed to convert their lease to a lease with option and apply some money down at the time of lease creation
- Existing loans on the property can sometimes be cashed out or leveraged
- Conventional institutional lenders
Banks and savings and loan institutions will typically be considered as a last resort. This is due to their high closing costs and long delays in processing mortgages. When a seller is not in a hurry to close, and the property will carry the added costs, conventional mortgages might be an option, especially in the current low interest market.
Renovation Process
The investment strategy for Wolfe Partners includes a renovation for every property purchased. Obviously, homes that can be purchased well below market value with very little repair required are optimum investments, but difficult to find. It is anticipated that every home will require at least cosmetic improvements to bring the home up to maximum value and allow it to be sold quickly.
To perform these renovations, Wolfe Partners will enlist the help of building trade contractors to perform each of the tasks needed. Wolfe Partners will act as the general contractor and manage each rehab according to rigorous project management and timeline processes. Once we reach our goal of two houses per month, the volume of work should keep a consistent crew of quality contractors busy nearly full-time. Each project is expected to be completed over a 4-6 week period, depending on the complexity of the renovation.
During the last several years, extensive research into home resale value and consumer buying habits has yielded six specific cosmetic home improvements that significantly increase the desirability of a home. These tasks can become more difficult and costly in homes of severe disrepair, but the costs are usually more than accounted for in a lower purchase price. The six tasks and corresponding estimated costs for a typical 1,200-1,400 square-foot home are:
Again, each house will be evaluated on its own merits but the renovation costs are expected to range from $8,500-$12,000. Any property purchased at $25,000-$30,000 below the market value of the neighborhood, will provide sufficient differential to achieve our 100% return on investment in a 2-3 month period.
The Wolfe Partners renovation process model assumes that the above 6 tasks represent the entire work to be done on the property. This assumption will be validated prior to purchase, due to a thorough inspection of the home to ensure mechanical and structural integrity. On occasion, however, a home will be available that represents a larger purchase—resale differential opportunity, but requires structural or other major remodeling expenses. These could be homes that are in terrible disrepair, natural disaster damage, or simply a small ranch home that is surrounded by larger colonial style homes in an affluent neighborhood. These cases do not meet our typical investment strategy, but could be considered, depending on the money needed and the longer time that the money will be tied up during the completion of the project.
Selling Properties
Once the homes have been renovated, they will be placed back on the market through the traditional real estate sales process, with our chosen broker partner. The terms that will be offered to prospective buyers, however, will be equally as creative as our purchase techniques. Since our target market is young professionals that have good earning potential but probably not much of a down payment, we expect to offer assistance with portions of their closing costs, and/or down payment, in order to make it easier for them to get into the home. The actual sale price of the home could be negotiated up as well if the buyer wanted to add some amenity to the home to suit their lifestyle, for example, central air, garage, appliances, furniture, or any other capital expenditure that they wanted to roll into the loan. The sales contract itself could be structured any way that works best for the buyer, as long as we can obtain our initial cash investment back out of the property at close.
It is expected that with the current low interest rates, most buyers will choose conventional bank financing to purchase the home. This works out well for all parties and provides us the money to immediately reinvest in another property.
Wrap Around Financing
In the event we were able to obtain favorable financing at the time the property was purchased, and the buyer has enough down payment to return our initial cash investment, a wrap around financing plan may be possible. In this scenario, Wolfe Partners would have assumed an FHA, VA, private mortgage, or contract for deed (land contract) for the majority of the original purchase price. We could then write a private mortgage or contract for deed for the new equity basis above the old loan, for the buyer. The buyer makes payments to Wolfe Partners for a mortgage on the full market price (minus down payment), and we in turn make payments on the underlying loan. The underlying financing amortizes faster than the wrap around financing, creating an increasing equity position with each payment. When the underlying loan is paid in full, the entire monthly payment from the wrap financing is profit on the equity.
Lease with Option
If a buyer is a good credit risk, but just does not have enough cash or the desire to buy, we could sell the property to them on a lease with option contract. In this arrangement, we and the buyer would agree upon a sale price, usually 10%-15% higher than current market, at a date 2-3 years in the future. The buyer would put some money down as earnest money to ensure the contract will be met. They will also get a credit of some portion of the monthly rent, which is accumulated with the earnest money to be used as the purchase down payment at the end of the contract period. This situation also works out well for the seller if we don't have much cash invested in the property or don't need it right away. We will usually get a much higher quality renter that will take better care of the property, invest their own money in improvements, be more diligent in their monthly payments to avoid forfeit of the contract, as well as gain the tax benefits of rental properties during the option period.
Rental Properties
As previously mentioned, careful attention will be made during the purchase process to locate properties that could be entered into our long-term investment portfolio of rental homes. To meet our standards for inclusion in the rental portfolio the property must pass three performance measures. First, we must be able to buy and prepare the home with very little cash outlay. Second, the home must be located in a desirable area that will ensure better than average appreciation, which we define as twice the inflation rate. Thirdly, and most importantly, the loan structure, maintenance costs, operational expenses and income stream must be favorable to net a positive cash flow of at least $2,000 per year. Since our intention is to hold these houses in our portfolio for 7-8 years, the combination of appreciation and cash flow will yield an estimated 20% return on our investment over this period. In addition, all properties in the portfolio will be managed by a professional property management firm, which is included in the operational expense.
Building Speculation Homes
During the course of normal property buy/fixup/sell processes, it is expected that Wolfe Partners will occasionally obtain ownership of vacant land that is traded as part of a transaction or split off from a larger parcel. As a secondary source of income, and an opportunity to add diversity to our enterprise, we will use our expertise as a licensed builder to develop a piece of property from the ground up. Since these ventures are very capital intensive and time consuming, it is anticipated that we would only build approximately one house per year. Since the property will probably be held free and clear, and the construction crews would be the same contract labor companies that provide us with good rates on renovations, it is expected that a $150,000 property could be completed for under $100,000 and net a $50,000 profit on each deal.
Managing the Business
As a hybrid home construction and real estate investing firm with a high technology flair, Wolfe Partners will be managed much differently than traditional construction or small investment companies. Utilizing our significant expertise in information systems, financial controls, and project management, Wolfe Partners will be a very tightly managed enterprise. In addition to the individual property financial analysis process mentioned earlier, a corporate financial control and reporting system has been developed for the business as a whole. Meticulous recordkeeping and continuous transaction monitoring will be accompanied each month by a profit and loss statement that would be used to track the performance of the company for all parties involved.
Quarterly revenue and expense outlooks will be performed and, each month, actual results will be compared to the outlooks to monitor performance and make adjustments as necessary in daily operations to achieve the desired corporate profit attainment. A sample of the profit and loss statement is contained on the following page.
Wolfe Partners, L.L.C. was officially formed on March 5, 1999. The month of March has been, and will continue to be, a period of organization and preparation with our first "official" home purchase expected in April. Following the timeline identified throughout this document, we would expect to purchase another home in May and turn the first home during the later half of May or early June. Another home would be purchased in June and one each month thereafter through the end of 1999, at which time we will ramp up to our fully operational level of 2 houses per month.
FINANCIAL INFORMATION
Wolfe Partners, L.L.C. - Financial Information Monthly Profit & Loss Statement U.S. Dollars
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Business Plan Template
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Real Estate Investing Business Plan Template (PowerPoint). Includes slide templates for Executive Summary, Business Overview, Business Description, Market Analysis, Property Analysis, Operating Plan, Marketing and Sales Plan, Financial Plan and an appendix. All information and data is provided in good faith, with no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the calculations and features in the file. Additionally, use of this template is not a substitute for your own due diligence in real estate investing.
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Guide to Creating a Real Estate Investing Business Plan
June 20, 2022 by Chad Ruppert
Table of Contents
Creating a business plan for real estate investing in today's market might seem exciting, but it can also be a little intimidating for those new to the game who haven't yet experienced the ups and downs of such a volatile industry.
But don't let that stop you — people invest in real estate every day, and those looking to make a career out of their wise investment strategy have to start somewhere.
By developing your real estate investment business plan now, you'll be expertly positioned to take advantage of what this year (and the next) has in store.
Why Should You Invest in Real Estate in Today's Climate?
Real estate in the U.S. is hot — really hot.
As we progress through the '20s and beyond, more experts are predicting that the rising interest rates will price many buyers (especially Millennials, who make up the largest share of the current buyer pool) out of the market, which will give the housing supply a chance to breathe with less demand.
As a leading real estate marketplace, Zillow also forecasts that prices will cool off as 2022 sees just a projected 11 percent price increase by the end of the year, down from the 20 percent year-over-year increase that we saw in 2021.
What this means is that despite current conditions, experts predict that more properties will become available with fewer buyers ready to snatch them up. This softens the market for savvy investors who can then leverage their investments to acquire additional properties.
What Is a Real Estate Investment Business Plan and Why Do I Need One?
To get started on your real estate investment journey, you'll need a real estate investment business plan that details all of the components of your business and helps you to strategize for success.
This is because having a business plan for real estate investing is like having a detailed roadmap that tells you how to get to your desired destination. By enabling you to clearly organize your investment goals, your plan can help you define the methods you'll use to achieve them and you'll be viewed as a more legitimate real estate business , as well.
How Do I Assemble a Real Estate Investment Plan?
A solid investment plan has nine steps that will enable you to outline your roadmap and begin your new business on the right path. Each of these steps is equally important — remember, the more detail you include, the more robust your plan will be and the more likely you are to avoid distractions en route towards success.
1. Establish Your Vision
Every company needs to have a statement that describes its overall mission, purpose and values. Above all else, this is what will drive your real estate business forward and keep it on course through the thick and thin, the ups and downs, the good times and bad. Your vision establishes the basis from which your company can grow, take on employees and motivate your team to achieve common goals.
A good place to start is by researching the vision of other real estate investment firms that you identify with and might want to emulate. From there, you can tailor your own vision to reflect the personal and business achievements that provoked you to start developing a real estate investing business plan in the first place.
2. Outline Your Short-Term Goals
Consider what you want your business to achieve in the next 1-2 years. Setting short-term goals that are reasonable and realistic — even if they're small — will help you stay motivated and on track towards smashing those long-term goals.
Achievable milestones such as saving for a downpayment, securing your first investment purchase and planning for expenses are good starting points and will help you focus on, and get used to, the concept of checking items off of your list.
3. Record Your Long-Term Goals
Long-term goals are an essential part of a real estate investment business plan and enable you to study the correct metrics to measure your success along the way. These are the sort of goals that are likely to require years of planning and determination, but they're still attainable.
Your long-term goals may be more personal, such as saving for family purchases or expenses (college tuition, for one), or they may be strictly business-related and comprise a large portfolio of investment properties.
4. Identify Your Strengths and Weaknesses (SWOT Analysis)
Understanding where you excel and where you could use improvement is essential for growth. By conducting a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis, you can establish a framework that enables you to evaluate your real estate business and identify ways to increase productivity, performance and efficiency.
Taking an honest approach to this step will uncover any issues or threats with your business which you can then solve or delegate to either your team or third-party service providers. It might also provide some insight into whether starting a real estate business is the right move for you.
5. Take Inventory of Your Current Finances
Are you starting out with a little or a lot? Will your current credit score and debt-to-income ratio be sufficient for achieving your short-term goals? In order to sufficiently assess your financial position, you'll need to take everything into account.
Starting a business with low capital is possible, but there may be challenges that you'll have to face in order to get it off the ground. Investing in real estate brings with it a number of costs — from closing fees, taxes and utilities to property management, repairs and maintenance. Once you fully understand your position, you can create a financing plan that outlines how you'll meet the requirements for each investment.
6. Conduct Market Research
Savvy investors are always watching the market to stay up-to-date on current trends, interest rates, vacancy rates, property prices and more — as well as which geographical areas are hot or cold.
Conducting market research enables you to stay on top of your business and anticipate changes based on outside factors. This will help you make better and more educated decisions with regard to your investments and grow your real estate investing business with more stability.
7. Develop Your Investment Strategy
Maybe you prefer the low-risk, slow-roll strategy of maintaining long-term investments. Or, perhaps you're interested in the fast world of house flipping to cash in on quick profits. You might even feel that investing in multi-family apartment buildings offers your business more than investing in single-family dwellings or commercial properties.
There's no right or wrong way to plan your investment strategy so long as you've done your research and remain committed to serving your short and long-term goals.
8. Draft Your Marketing Plan
Many business owners view marketing as a "nice-to-have" rather than a necessity, but the truth is that marketing can help you build the foundation for your business right from the start.
By investing in your business with strong branding elements, a social media presence and even a basic advertising outline you can increase trust in your business while spreading the word about the services you provide.
Remember, your brand is more than just a logo, and you can use it to determine who your target audience is, how you speak and relate to them and how you build strong relationships that will help you achieve your goals.
9. Compile an Exit Strategy or Backup Plan
A lot of businesses can be simple, but that doesn't mean they'll be easy to manage and grow. Developing a backup plan might seem like preparing for failure, but it's quite the opposite.
Investors have the ability to withstand harsh market conditions, recessions, housing bubbles and more by drafting either a backup plan or exit strategy that will enable them to pivot and reposition themselves if things don't go as planned.
What will you do if a listed property just isn't selling? What if you lose a sale at the last minute, or a seller backs out of a deal? It isn't about the "when" but the "what if" scenarios that you'll want to be prepared for in order to keep your business afloat through tough times.
Writing Your Real Estate Investing Business Plan and Bringing It to Fruition
Keeping up with reputable publications such as Zillow will help you stay on top of market trends as you progress through your business, which can lead to smarter, more educated decisions. But it can also help you create a robust business plan right now.
Once you've considered each of the nine steps above and gathered the appropriate information, it's time to construct your business plan for real estate investing and get to work.
Writing your business plan is an essential process that will boost your legitimacy and help you access any funding required to purchase properties, and there are seven key elements that you'll want to include.
You can also find business plan templates to provide some of the basic structure.
Compose an Executive Summary
Your executive summary provides a "10,000-foot view" of your company and includes your mission statement, any products or services, your goals and your financial and growth strategies.
Consider the executive summary as a place to explore and define the "why" of your business, and be sure to make it clear and concise.
Provide a Description of Your Company
A strong real estate investing business plan will include a company description that outlines which market you operate in, how your services meet the needs of your clients, the nature of those services and the advantages your business has over your competitors.
Essentially, this section should inform others about your business and give them a good snapshot of what you do and how you do it.
Detail Your Organizational Hierarchy and Management Plan
Here, you'll provide details with regards to how your business is structured and organized. If you're a solopreneur, how will you manage and stay on top of everything without sacrificing quality service? If you're building a team, who is responsible for what?
Put yourself in the position of anyone who might read your real estate investment business plan and consider that knowing who is in charge and what their responsibilities entail is a top priority.
Include Your Market Analysis
Compile information that you've gathered for the market in which you plan to operate and invest in and add it to your real estate investing business plan. This will demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of your target market and provide lenders or future business partners with a higher degree of certainty and justification for working with you.
Data that includes market size, shares, pricing and other attributes are important to include here, along with the details of your SWOT analysis.
Summarize Your Financial Projections
It may be impossible to know the future, but researching and compiling data surrounding your market, interest rates, investment capital and more can help you forecast and project revenue and other figures. These numbers are especially important to lenders and others who you plan to work with, as they'll want to know how you'll maintain commitments and achieve your financial goals.
These projections should include annual revenue, cash flow, equity and other calculations that represent attainable goals — shooting for the moon is great, but documenting your projections realistically will help you put actionable plans in motion to achieve them.
Share the Strategies You'll Use to Evaluate Deals
This is the place to showcase your business acumen. Putting in place a method for evaluating deals shows others that you understand what makes a good deal and what should be avoided (and why).
This section should also cover how you plan to find deals in the first place to feed your business right from the get-go. You can learn a lot from other investors who have been around the block and leverage their knowledge and experience to exact success in your own investing business.
Discuss Plans for Managing Multiple Properties
A large part of real estate investing is managing the properties that you acquire. Every investor should include a section describing their management principles and strategies in their real estate investment business plan along with who will take on specific responsibilities. I
f you plan to use a property management company, who are they, and how do they operate? If you plan to hire your own manager instead, how will they keep track of multiple properties as you grow?
These are questions to ask now as opposed to later when you're trying to juggle both sustainable growth and daily activities.
Tips for Success: How to Create a Strong Business Plan for Real Estate Investing
Your real estate investing business plan won't ever be perfect, but that's beside the point. Your goal should be to draft a plan that accurately reflects the passion you've put into your business.
That said, there are a few tips that can help you shape your plan so that it's as thorough and robust as possible.
Be Clear on What You Want to Achieve
- Include details on funding or desired partnerships
- Don't "fake it 'til you make it"
- Be open about the help you need
Prove That You Have a Firm Understanding of Your Market
- Include local market data and statistics
- List average income of tenants and residents in the area
- Point out vacancy rates and final sale prices
Research Your Competition
- Subscribe to their email list to keep tabs on their movements
- Purchase any real estate products they have for sale
- Visit their open houses to get a feel for how they operate
Simulate Deals to Nail Down Your Process
- Practice with example deals to navigate potential obstacles
- Record the process of overcoming roadblocks (method and resources used)
- Show lenders and partners that you're well prepared for whatever comes your way
Launch Your New Business with Incfile
As you work through the creation of your business plan for real estate investing, keep in mind that one day soon you'll want to incorporate in order to take advantage of various business incentives and tax write-offs. Your plan might just tell you which type of structure or business entity is right for the type of business you wish to form, but it isn't always that simple.
To help you choose the best structure that will provide you with correct protection and ease of operation, check out our Business Entity Comparison Guide. We'll help you determine which route to take to establish the real estate investing business that best matches your goals.
Chad Ruppert
Chad is a freelance writer and former project manager focused on presenting information on SaaS, technology and business formation.
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How To Make A Real Estate Investment Business Plan, And Why It’s Important
Dan Miller 4-Minute Read August 12, 2021
A real estate investment business plan is an important step if you're looking to get started in the industry. A real estate development business plan can help you decide what form of real estate you're looking to invest in. Real estate has a wide array of opportunities, so it's important to narrow your focus. It's very difficult to be successful in several different areas of real estate at the same time. A business plan can help you decide what it is specifically that you’re doing.
What Is A Real Estate Investment Business Plan?
Put simply, a real estate investment business plan is a document that lays out how a real estate investor intends to run their business. The plan should illustrate the investor’s goals for investing in real estate as well as business strategies and timelines they intend to implement to achieve those goals.
There’s not a specific format you have to follow to create a real estate investment business plan. Instead, you can pick and choose sections that are important to you. A business plan is primarily a document that can help you decide what your business is going to focus on, whether that's rental properties, investment properties or flipping houses. You can also use a real estate investment business plan to help secure funding from investors or business partners.
Why Do You Need A Real Estate Investment Business Plan?
Having a plan is important because it can act as a blueprint or road map when starting a new business . It can also give it a sense of legitimacy when talking about your business with others. This is especially crucial when trying to attract business partners and investors or getting a small-business loan .
Personal Loans Any Time, Any Place.
11 essentials for a real estate investment business plan.
As we mentioned earlier, there isn't a specific format you must follow when creating a real estate investment business plan. Plans can be as unique as each company they outline. Here are a few sections that you might consider including in a real estate investment business plan.
1. Executive Summary
An executive summary should illustrate things like the company’s mission and vision statement. Depending on how long your real estate investment business plan is, most people are not going to read the entire thing. So, an executive summary should sum up the investment company as a whole and provide a snapshot of the company's financial plan, marketing plan and other key factors.
2. Company Description
A business plan should include a description and history of the company as well as the target market. This lets people who read the plan know basic information about the company as well as its principal members. The company description section is a great place to give biographical information about each member of the company's leadership team.
3. SWOT Analysis
A SWOT analysis looks at a company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Analyzing each of these categories is important to include in a business plan. This will help you make sure you've adequately considered each of these categories, and these are things that potential partners will definitely ask about before investing in your company.
4. Investment Strategy
Detailing a company’s intentions with investment properties is another important part of a real estate investment business plan. Real estate is a broad term that covers a wide variety of different activities. Each of these real estate activities is different and will take a different strategy to be successful. This section will stipulate if you intend to invest in rental properties, flip houses , etc.
5. Market Analysis
You'll also want to include a market analysis in your business plan. This shows potential investors that you know the real estate market. The three most important words in any real estate plan are "location, location, location," and including a market analysis will show what conditions are like in the areas where you're looking to invest. Investing in a high-priced area like New York or San Francisco is much different than investing in a rural area with much lower market prices.
6. Marketing Strategy
Most business plans will also include a marketing strategy. The marketing strategy will show how and where you plan on marketing and attracting new clients. The specific area of real estate you're focusing on will drive how much you focus on marketing. Someone looking to become a real estate property manager will need to do more marketing than someone who’s buying rental real estate to hold.
7. Financial Plan
Your financing strategy and financial plan might illustrate income and cash flow statements. This could include historical records like bank statements or profit and loss projections. You might also include a balance sheet showing the company's assets and liabilities. The financial plan section is intended to give potential partners or investors a snapshot of the company's overall financial health.
8. Organization And Management Structure
A business plan should also include a company’s organizational structure, management team and ownership details. These items are mentioned in the initial executive summary; in this section you can go into more detail about each member of the management team. One thing that is good to include here is a listing of the various qualifications, licenses and/or certifications that each member of the team holds.
9. Real Estate Acquisition Strategy
A business plan should include a strategy for acquiring investment properties , if that’s something that the company plans on doing. There are many different ways to buy real estate, so you'll want to detail which strategy or strategies you plan on using in your real estate investment business plan. Some strategies may include going through a real estate agent or broker, as well as wholesaling and target marketing.
10. Goals And Timelines
A business plan should clearly state a real estate investor’s goals for their company. One way to show this is to make a 1-year, 3-year or 5-year plan. Detail your plans for the business over a variety of different timelines. You'll also want to include some strategies and details for how you plan on meeting them.
11. Exit Strategy
Having an exit strategy is important for a business plan. This can include items such as knowing if and when to sell an investment property.
The Bottom Line
Having a real estate investment business plan is an important part of owning a business. Creating a written business plan when you're starting a business will make your business feel more real. It can also be important if you are trying to attract partners, investors or lenders. For more information on this and other ways to lead a successful financial life, read more personal finance tips from Rocket HQ℠.
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Dan Miller is a freelance writer and founder of PointsWithACrew.com, a site that helps families to travel for free/cheap. His home base is in Cincinnati, but he tries to travel the world as much as possible with his wife and 6 kids.
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Sample Real Estate Investing Business Plan
If you’ve been scouring the web trying to find a sample business plan so you can get your real estate investing business off the ground, look no further.
On this page, I will provide you a real, sample real estate investing business plan.
I will also give you step-by-step instructions to help you create your own business plan so you can stop sitting around and start investing in real estate.
Need a Business Plan Before Investing in Real Estate?
Real estate financial projections, real estate is predictable, and your numbers should be too, business financial plan, wrapping up your real estate investment business plan, how to write a real estate investing business plan..
I put together this infographic which will help break down the elements of planning (and backward planning), then we’ll pick it up on the other side with more information about crafting your sample business plan.
There are a lot of paths to go down in our quest to achieve financial independence and create a long-term residual income. With a business plan, you are: ** Nearly 2x more likely to succeed than those without a plan ** **49% more likely to grow than those without a plan** ** 2x as likely to get investment capital ** ** 30% more growth potential than those without a plan **
Writing Your Business Plan
Before you even start typing, you need to know your goals and write them down. The infographic above has an example of how to backward plan and fill in the blanks.
Alright, now that you have a general idea of where you are going and how you will get there, you are ready to start writing your business plan.
What You Need Before Starting Your Investing Business Plan
Before you get started writing your business plan, you need to put together a few pieces of information:
- Business plan writing software (I use LivePlan )
- Your target market
- Your analysis criteria
- How you will find real estate deals
- How you plan to finance your properties
- How you plan to rent/sell your properties (exit strategy).
1) Start Writing the Pitch
The first thing I like to do is write the pitch. Imagine yourself on a 30-second elevator ride to the 10th floor of some building, and you happen to be riding along with the CEO, or finance manager of some investing firm. What could you say to that person in 30 seconds to make them want to sit down and hear more?
That’s your pitch.
*Introducing*
5-Step Investing System
We have spent years developing this process that has literally generated millions of dollars in value and a stable yearly revenue for investors.
Click on the image to see an example of a “pitch” (it’s just a fictitious company I made up for this example).
The business plan writing software that I use puts this all together for me and even hosts it on a unique webpage so I can email the pitch if I want. Obviously, you don’t have to get that fancy – you could even put something together in PowerPoint if you want.
Writing this pitch is going to help you start working on a few important details:
The Real Estate Problem You are Solving (and Your Solution)
This is how you will position yourself and be better than everybody else…and fully expect it to change over time.
- When we first started investing, we focused on student rentals. More specifically, we realized that foreign students had a hard time finding good apartments and trusting their rent and security deposit wouldn’t be stolen before they arrived in the United States.
- Though that was our focus, we also bought other buildings if the numbers made sense…and our mission changed to acquiring under-valued properties and using my expertise to renovate them cheaply.
- Finally, as we grew, we have incorporated those other things into our target investments but now we are focused on building systems that other smaller landlords couldn’t have in place.
The great thing about real estate, when compared to other startup businesses, is the financials are already out there for you. You can easily look at any property and get the current owner’s proforma rent (rent and expenses on paper under ideal circumstances).
In other industries, you may be stuck guessing what your retail demand will be, what your advertising, marketing, and other overhead might be.
In real estate, it’s easy to find and easy to estimate in the absence of actual numbers. My point is, there is no reason why your financials section shouldn’t be amazing . It should be spot on so you can impress whoever your lender will be.
Since the financial section should be easy to figure out, it’s what I like to work on second.
2) Create an Amazing Financial Forecast
The financial forecast should be pretty boring and not hard for you to determine.
There is nothing terribly exciting about the financial section of a business plan. There is even less excitement with real estate financials. If you aren’t actively buying more property, then your revenue and expenses should literally never change.
And in this example, you can see how I plan for absolutely no change throughout most of 2016 for this made-up company.
But then something happens – I plan to buy more property!
But then it flatlines again.
Your banker, financier, or private lender will know real estate inside and out. They will know how much people spend on maintenance, collections, etc.
So, if the numbers in your plan are out of line, they will see it.
If you’re lucky, they will assume it’s a simple mistake, let you amend the numbers and move on… or they may think you’re a novice and it could jeopardize your financing. So spend more time on this section than any other
Honestly, I probably spend 3 or 4 hours just making up numbers for this example. It would take me a few days to get everything perfect if I were using this for funding.
3) The Rest of the Business Plan
Maybe it seems weird that I just throw it all together at the end, but in real estate, it’s pretty true. If you’ve created a solid plan utilizing the backward planning method, then created a pitch and did a solid job on your financials, the rest of the plan will fill itself in.
Sure, there may be a few areas that you haven’t put thought into yet, but that’s the purpose of the business plan.
The great thing is, the pitch uses these categories as well, so it gives you a great starting place.
Here is a quick breakdown of the real estate business plan categories
Executive Summary
The Executive Summary is a brief outline of the company’s purpose and goals and should include:
- A brief description of products and services. For real estate, this could mean single family vs multi-family, self-storage, commercial, etc.
- A summary of objectives.
- A solid description of the market. How is your niche growing and what does the future look like in your particular market?
- Financial justification. What your profit margins look like and how you plan to make money. Include growth potential
- An overview of funding requirements.
Find your Business Opportunity
Every business finds an Opportunity to exploit. Essentially, opportunities are created by problems which you will solve. There may be a lack of low-income housing, or on the opposite side, a lack of luxury apartments. Other problems may be poor management, high eviction rates, or a lack/excess of a particular type of real estate.
It may be helpful to answer these four questions to help you define your opportunity:
- Where do you make your money? – What niche of the market will you operate in?
- How do you spend your time? – Will you focus on management, maintenance, finding investments, etc.
- Who do you sell? – Are your target tenants businesses, low-income, high-income, students, or something else.
- What do you sell them? – Are you selling tiny (green) homes to high-income individuals or large homes to middle-income people with families?
Execution of your Business Plan
Writing the execution part of your business plan isn’t always easy because it includes some big sections. In the execution section, you will have Operations, Marketing & Sales, Milestones, Metrics, and anything else that will affect your investments on a day-to-day basis.
Operations – This includes technology you may use (property management software), locations, management plan, and anything else that affects the day-to-day operations of your business and investments.
Marketing & Sales – This may include how you plan to stage and rent properties or to sell your real estate. From online listings all the way down to your concept for showings.
Milestones – How fast do you want to grow, when will you raise rents, when do you want to hire your first employee… anything can be a milestone and it’s unique to your particular investing strategy.
Metrics – It’s important to determine how you measure success. There are many ways to measure this, but in real estate, it could be the number of units, yearly income, or net worth among other things.
Company Profile
The company profile section is where you “sell” the management team and history of the company. If you have a lot of experience in real estate, then really highlight it in this section.
If you don’t have a strong real estate background (a lot of new investors have very little experience) then focus on talking about your “team” such as your real estate agent, accountant, attorney, contractors, and other professionals
Remember all the numbers you worked on before? Well, this is the where they go.
Try not to create pages and pages of useless graphs, charts, or spreadsheets. Try to put the important information up front, and tuck supporting spreadsheets in the back as a reference.
Another note – profit is really important in business, but cash-flow is more important. In real estate, it’s quite possible that a company can be profitable but cash-flow negative. It’s also possible to exhaust cash reserves and fail to meet debt obligations, even if you planned on earning a fortune in just a few months.
Your financial section should show your solid cash-flow management plan.
Don’t forget to download your free sample real estate investing business plan
The design is an important last step. People are more likely to read through your business plan and judge it’s content if it has a beautiful and easy to read design. Spend plenty of time making it colorful, make the headings pop, and work hard to draw attention to the areas you want to highlight.
With that last piece of advice, I hope I’ve been able to give you some specific advice about real estate investing and your business plan.
Check out LivePlan and give it a shot. It’s an amazing product!
And if you haven’t already yet, get a copy of the free business plan for real estate investors
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The system that 25,000+ investors are using to start and scale their portfolios WITHOUT needing to grind every day, being privately wealthy , or knowing everything about real estate.
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5-Steps to 6-Figures in Real Estate
How I went from 60,000 in Debt to Retired in the Tropics with Real Estate All Without
- Giving Up Your Job
- Spending a Fortune
- Cold Calling, Wasting Time, or Cleaning Toilets.
Don't bother with copy and paste.
Get this complete sample business plan as a free text document.
Start-Up Real Estate Business Plan
Start your own start-up real estate business plan
Golden Valley Real Estate LLC
Executive summary executive summary is a brief introduction to your business plan. it describes your business, the problem that it solves, your target market, and financial highlights.">, opportunity.
With the advances of modern medicine, people are living longer. Once they raise children and retire from work they have a new stage of their life where they find themselves enjoying their spouse and free from other responsibilities. They get a second try at being a carefree youth. They need to find a place within their budget that helps them with that.
GVRE will provide real estate services in the newly established Golden Valley Retirement Community, located to the Northwest of scenic Tucson, Arizona. GVRE is a full-service real estate, mortgage, and title company.
The retirement industry has been steadily growing over the past twenty years. The percentage of the U.S. population over the age of 55 is at an all time high of 21% and is growing at an average rate of 3% each year. In certain parts of the country like the American Southwest, which has a high concentration of retirement communities, the growth rate is about 8%. This percentage is also expected to grow as the first of the "baby boomer" generation begins to reach retirement age in the next decade. It is estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau that the retirement industry, that includes homes, medical facilities, specialty equipment, retirement entertainment services, etc., accounts for 4.8 billion dollars each year.
Competition
The real estate industry is highly fragmented, with a large number of potential rivals. Our most serious competitors are Bowditch Realty and RE/MAX. Bowditch is an established company that has been in operation for the past ten years, with a fine track record of quality service. It currently employees twelve agents and has long-term contracts with various home building companies. This company is slightly larger than GVRE in size and market capitalization.
RE/MAX is one of the largest and best known real estate firms in the country. It has hundreds of agents and very deep pockets that can be used to counter any sort of competitive move.
GVRE believes that the greatest threat at the moment is in new entrants to the market who will want to capitalize on this high growth industry. The most likely entrants will be new, small real estate companies with fewer than ten employees. However, the one major advantage GVRE has is its exclusive rights to act as the agent for Golden Valley Retirement Community. However, due to the high number of competitors and the overall low profitability of each firm, competition is quite intense.
The power of potential clients is very great in this industry because most clients are very concentrated in our geographical area. Furthermore, clients tend to "shop around" for the best package of services and cost.
Expectations
The company expects to reach profitability in the first year and does not anticipate any serious cash flow problems. We conservatively believe that during the first three years, average profitability per month per segment will be adequate. We expect that about one sale per month will guarantee a break-even point.
Financial Highlights by Year
Financing needed.
We will be getting $20,000:
Mrs Susan Egan $10,000
Mr. Daniel Egan $10,000
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VIDEO
COMMENTS
A real estate business plan is a living document that provides the framework for business operations and goals. A business plan will include future goals for
Discuss the type of real estate investment business you are operating. Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target customers. Provide a
How to Write a Real Estate Investment Business Plan (+ Free Template) · 1. Write Your Mission & Vision Statement · 2. Conduct a SWOT Analysis · 3.
Things to Consider Before Writing a Real Estate Investment Business Plan · Select the right property location · Know the purpose of your investment · Do your
Target Customer · Establishing a Buyer Profile · Communication Plan · Buying Properties · Performing Appraisals · Financial Analysis · Creative Financing Techniques.
Real Estate Investing Business Plan Template (PowerPoint). Includes slide templates for Executive Summary, Business Overview, Business Description, Ma.
How Do I Assemble a Real Estate Investment Plan? · 1. Establish Your Vision · 2. Outline Your Short-Term Goals · 3. Record Your Long-Term Goals · 4. Identify Your
Put simply, a real estate investment business plan is a document that lays out how a real estate investor intends to run their business. The
Sample Real Estate Investing Business Plan · 1) Start Writing the Pitch. The Real Estate Problem You are Solving (and Your Solution); Real Estate Financial
GVRE is a full-service real estate, mortgage, and title company. Market. The retirement industry has been steadily growing over the past twenty years. The