Is It Worth Planning A Trip To Visit The Area

#EntrepreneurOfTheWeek #Post 4

4. Is It Worth Planning an On-Site Visit?

I had an agreement with one of our team members on the ground that once we reached a certain number of properties, I would come for an on-site visit. I’ll admit that when we set this goal in our annual plan, it felt a bit overly ambitious—but we decided to go for it anyway.

To my great joy, before the end of the year he reminded me that we had hit the target and that I should start looking for plane tickets. Suddenly, I found myself having to stand by my word and actually plan the trip.

It was important to me to strike a balance between advance planning—scheduling meetings with the team—and leaving room for spontaneity and new connections. On one hand, I wanted to make the most of every moment and deepen relationships that had previously existed only online. On the other hand, I had no idea what opportunities I might encounter on the ground, and I wanted to leave myself the flexibility to say yes. In hindsight, leaving free space in the schedule and not filling every minute turned out to be one of the best decisions of the trip.

On the planned side, seeing our properties in person, walking through neighborhoods physically (not just on Google Maps), and meeting local people was an amazing experience. We visited several renovation projects with our contractor, and the walkthrough helped deepen our understanding of renovation materials and what renovations actually look like at different stages—not just in photos or videos.

Beyond the plan, there were also some truly interesting opportunities. An invitation to a local investor meetup with unlimited coffee led to several exciting new connections: we met local lenders we’ll be working with very soon, heard about intriguing projects from investors in the area, and met some wonderful people. We also met with a wholesaler who invited us to view two off-market properties (one of which we ended up closing), as well as additional service providers to expand our team.

We wrapped up the visit feeling great—we managed to accomplish what mattered most to us and still left wanting more. We got to know the people we work with much better, met new people, and came back with a lot of energy to keep moving forward.