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Today, I’m going to show you the 5 tools I use nearly every day when working on real
estate projects. These tools are critical to your success and have made a massive difference
in my workflow. Sharper tools make sharper investors.
If you’re able to analyze opportunities quickly and correctly, your chances for success
in commercial real estate will increase significantly. Not to mention that you’ll find better deals
and beat out your competition. So, here are the 5 real estate tools you need
to have in your arsenal if you want to be a successful real estate professional and
I’ll be sure to link all of these items in the description below.
Up first, a laser measure. ________________
The laser measure might be one of the simplest and most underrated tools on this list.
They bring an immense amount of convenience since they give you the ability to quickly
measure ceiling heights, long distances, and room dimensions.
You can pretty much say goodbye to tape measures, though they will come in handy occasionally,
as well. This Tacklife Laser Measure is the one I picked
up from Amazon and it’s always by my side. It’s super easy to use - you simply press
the on button, place it against a wall or on the floor, and press the button again for
a measurement. It also has a built in program to calculate
square footage and volume, which I use whenever I’m putting together floorplans or trying
to get an idea of how large a room, suite, or building is.
Next, we have the HP 10bII+ Financial Calculator ________________
If you’re looking to have a quick “back of napkin” formula to analyze any opportunities
that come your way, you need a good financial calculator.
10bII+ calculators can process far more complicated equations, but for our purposes they allow
you to enter your estimated loan value, interest rate, and loan term to quickly determine your
monthly payments (or, as long as you have 3 of those 4 numbers, you can solve for the
missing 4th). So, if you have an interest rate, loan term,
and monthly payment tolerance, you can calculate your total loan value. That can be important
when trying to determine what your threshold for returns will be. If, for example, you
know you can get $5,000 per month in rent, you could back into your desired monthly payments
to figure out how much of a loan you could sustain.
I like the HP 10bII+ app on my iPhone but you can also keep a physical copy on-hand,
as well.
Our third tool is a sophisticated spreadsheet or Underwriting Software
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When you underwrite your investments, you need to account for everything you possibly
can - projected renovation costs, loan origination fees, potential rent and any increases, vacancies,
and so much more. If you don’t, you could find yourself pretty
far off from your projections. And let’s be real - the majority of us simply
can’t keep track of all of those items in our heads.
The right underwriting program will relieve you from the overwhelming task of remembering
each and every item that you need to account for and will also run quick calculations and
show you projected outcomes. I use one that my partner originally put together
for multifamily investments that I modified for commercial real estate.
With this spreadsheet, I can input my projected purchase price, renovation costs, loan to
value, rents and expenses, and it’ll show me what my returns and my investors’ returns
could look like. Send me an email if you’d like to buy this
spreadsheet template but if you’d like to put your own together, most investors will
create a spreadsheet using Excel or Google Sheets.
Now for one of my favorite tools, a drone ________________
I use my DJI Mavic 2 Pro just about every week - sometimes more.
And it’s not just a useful tool for taking photos and videos of properties for marketing
materials. We’ve actually used it to inspect the roof
of a property while we were on tour, which allowed my clients to make an offer onsite,
so we beat our competition to the punch. Drones are certainly the most advanced tool
on this list, but they will often have the highest return on investment.
They give you a birds-eye view that you wouldn’t otherwise have and truly unlock your analytical
abilities when surveying a property. The DJI Mavic 2 Pro is a solid middle of the
road drone - it’s sophisticated enough to take outstanding photos and videos, but not
so outrageous and expensive that it eliminates the hobby user.
One other nice feature of this drone, which some other types have, as well, are pre-programmed
flight paths that help make your shots look professional.
We use these videos for marketing materials on both property listings and investment offerings.
Our final tool is a mirrorless camera ________________
If you’re looking to step up your marketing game, you’ve gotta stop taking photos with
your phone - I see that far too often in commercial real estate listings.
It’s worth investing in a professional camera - it truly does make a massive difference
in the quality of your marketing. And similar to your drone, cameras aren’t
just for taking marketing photos. I utilize my Canon EOS M50 to document the
renovation progress and any changes we’ve made on our investments - it’s actually
the same camera I use to shoot these videos every week.
They also come in handy for before and after photos of tenant-occupied suites.
We store all of the shots we take in a Google Drive folder, which gives me and my team ready
access to those photos wherever we are. You never know when something might pop up while
you’re under contract or several years down the road and you’re trying to remember what
a particular room onsite looked like.
So that’s it for the 5 real estate tools that every investor should have in their arsenal.
I’ve left links for you below in the description so you can see the exact products that we
use on my team. Don’t forget to subscribe to the channel for more real estate investing
strategies, leasing & management tips, market updates and more.