One of the things you want to consider is how much time it is taking you to put together your transactions. In the beginning, while you are still learning and developing your contacts, it will take longer. As you become more experienced and established as a foreclosure investor, you should be able to structure deals faster.

Some deals will fall in place quickly, while others will take much more of your time. It's just the nature of the foreclosure investing business.

Many times you cannot control the time problems you will experience. You have to wait for people to get back in touch with you. You leave messages, they leave messages, and the cycle continues. Every bit of information you need never comes easy. You wait for faxes, phone calls, and letters. Other times you can put together a deal in a few hours.

Rather than look at what you are earning per hour, it might be better to look at what you are making per week or per month.

If your goal is to make $60,000 per year, then you need to bring in $5,000 per month. (Actually, you will need to receive more than this amount to cover your expenses.) If you are making $25,000 per foreclosure deal, you only need to do three a year. Of course, you make adjustments based on your income goals, your expenses, and the amount you make per deal.

Keep track of your time in two ways. Record how much total time you spend on your real-estate investing activities. The best way might be to use an appointment book. As a deal develops and you start a file folder, create a simple time sheet so you can determine later how much total time you spent on the actual transaction.

After a while you will find valuable information in your time-keeping records. You will know what is working and what is not. You can identify time wasters and redirect your time to more profitable endeavors. For example, you might discover you are spending ten hours a week to do paperwork. By hiring an assistant and paying $125 per week, you have an extra forty hours a month to make two more deals because you are taking about twenty hours to put together a transaction. As you can see, this type of careful watch over your time can produce more income for you.