How to Set Real Estate Investing Goals That Actually Work

Want to buy 500 rental properties? Run a successful house flipping business? Build serious wealth through real estate?

Most people set big goals and never get close. The problem isn’t your ambition. It’s how you’re thinking about your goals.

Evan Unger, founder of Tuck Capital and holder of two Guinness World Records, has cracked the code on goal setting. His method works for anything – fitness, business, or building a real estate portfolio from scratch.

Here’s how to apply his strategy to your real estate investing.

Start With Your “Why” (The Real One)

Money isn’t your real goal. Neither is owning 50 properties or hitting a certain net worth.

Your brain needs something deeper to latch onto. Something emotional. Something that gets you out of bed when things get hard.

Maybe you want to retire your parents. Spend more time with your kids. Have the freedom to travel. These are the reasons that actually matter when you’re dealing with difficult tenants or market downturns.

Without this emotional anchor, you’ll quit when obstacles show up. And trust me – in real estate, obstacles always show up.

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Make Your Goals Stupidly Specific

“I want to be rich” is garbage. Your brain can’t work with that.

Try this instead: “I want to make $1,000,000 by February 16th by flipping homes.”

See the difference? You have a number, a date, and a method. Now your brain has something concrete to work toward.

For real estate investors, this might look like:

• Buy 10 rental properties in Hamilton within 24 months
• Generate $5,000 monthly passive income by December
• Flip 3 houses in St. Catharines this year with $50,000 profit each

The more specific, the better.

The “Chunking Down” Method

This is where the magic happens. You take your massive goal and break it into daily tasks.

Let’s say you want 500 rental properties in 5 years. Sounds impossible, right?

Here’s how you chunk it down:

• 500 properties in 5 years = 100 properties per year
• 100 per year = 8.3 properties per month
• 8.3 per month = roughly 2 properties per week

Now you’re looking at a weekly target instead of an overwhelming five-year mountain.

But keep going. Work backwards from those 2 weekly properties:

• How many properties do you need to analyze to find 2 worth buying? Maybe 30.
• How many offers do you need to make to get 2 accepted? Maybe 17.
• How many calls do you need to make to generate those opportunities?

Suddenly, your impossible goal becomes a daily routine. Make X calls. Analyze X properties. Submit X offers.

You know exactly what to do when you sit down at your desk each morning.

Keep Goals In Front Of Your Face

Goals fade into the background fast. Life gets busy. You get reactive instead of proactive.

You need physical reminders that force you to think about your goals daily:

• Carry a goal card in your front pocket (every time you reach for your keys, you touch it)
• Wear a bracelet that represents your goal
• Put sticky notes on your bathroom mirror
• Set phone reminders throughout the day

This isn’t woo-woo stuff. When your goal stays front of mind, you notice opportunities you’d otherwise miss.

Evan needed a concrete contractor for a property. After making it a priority in his mind, he spotted someone at the gym wearing a shirt that said “I pour concrete.” He struck up a conversation and got a quote 18% cheaper than his other estimates.

That only happened because the goal was front of mind.

Review And Adjust Regularly

Your goals need to evolve as your life changes.

Set up a reflection schedule:

• Weekly: Quick brain dump on how the week went
• Monthly: Bigger reflection on progress
• Quarterly: Major evaluation of direction
• Yearly: Complete replan of annual goals

What matters to you at 25 won’t be the same at 35. Having kids changes things. So does experience. Your goals should reflect where you actually are, not where you thought you’d be.

Real Strategy: Luxury Student Rentals

Here’s a practical example of goal setting leading to a successful strategy.

Tuck Capital pivoted multiple times on the same properties:

1. Started as planned flips
2. Converted to high-end Airbnbs when flip margins were thin
3. Switched to luxury student rentals when inner-city Airbnb demand dropped

The luxury student rental model works like this:

Furnish properties to high-end Airbnb standards. We’re talking quality mattresses, matching kitchen sets, decorative elements, the works. Then rent to students near universities like McMaster.

Regular student housing in Hamilton rents for around $500-600 per room. Luxury student rentals get $1,000 for single occupancy, $1,250 for double occupancy in larger rooms.

Why do students pay double? You’re targeting kids from affluent families in Toronto or Oakville. Their parents can afford it and want their kids in nice, safe places.

The benefits:

• Higher rents mean better cash flow
• Regular turnover (students leave after graduation) lets you raise rents to market rates
• Tenants typically have family financial backing
• Less risk of long-term payment issues

The downsides:

• More frequent marketing needed
• Higher potential for damage
• Multiple tenants means multiple points of communication
• More intensive management

But if your goal is maximizing cash flow on properties near universities, this strategy delivers.

Focus On Health First

This might seem off-topic, but it’s critical.

Every successful real estate investor will tell you the same thing: your health is the foundation. Try building a portfolio when you’re sick or burned out. It doesn’t work.

Physical fitness improves discipline, mental clarity, and decision-making. It triggers positive chemical reactions that make everything work better.

Put health goals at the top of your list, even above money goals. You need the energy and mental sharpness to execute your real estate strategy.

Build Your A-Team

You can’t do this alone. Not in Ontario, where landlord-tenant laws make things complicated.

Your team needs to include:

• Paralegals for legal challenges
• Accountants for tax strategy
• Contractors for renovations and maintenance
• Property managers for day-to-day operations
• Mortgage brokers who specialize in investment properties

These need to be people you trust completely. Your A-team. People you’d go to war with.

Many investors try to do everything themselves to save money. Bad idea. You’ll get overwhelmed fast, make expensive mistakes, and burn out.

The “who, not how” philosophy means finding the right people instead of figuring out how to do everything yourself. It’s faster and usually cheaper in the long run.

Ontario Is Tough But Worth It

Let’s be honest – Ontario is challenging for landlords. The Landlord and Tenant Board heavily favors tenants. Processing times are slow. Rules are complex.

But Ontario offers something most markets don’t: consistent appreciation. Properties here gain value at rates that beat most Canadian markets.

The key to succeeding? Education and team building.

Most investor pain comes from surprises. A tenant stops paying and you don’t know what to do. You take illegal action out of panic. Everything gets worse.

Education removes surprises. When you know what could go wrong, you plan for it. You have systems in place. You don’t panic.

Combined with a strong team, you can handle whatever comes up without losing sleep.

Review Your Properties Constantly

Don’t let properties run on autopilot. Look for optimization opportunities regularly.

Questions to ask:

• Why did utility bills spike?
• Can we add laundry facilities?
• Is there room to convert to multi-unit?
• Could we implement paid parking?
• Are rents at current market rates?

One real example: students held a five-day beer pong tournament in an unheated garage using space heaters. The heating bill was astronomical.

The lesson? Implement utility caps in leases where utilities aren’t directly paid by tenants. Learn from every experience and adjust your systems.

Take Action Today

Goal setting isn’t about writing wishes on paper. It’s about creating a system that forces you to take daily action toward your targets.

Start with one specific goal. Find your deep emotional why. Chunk it down into daily tasks. Keep it front of mind with physical reminders.

Then actually do the work. Make the calls. Analyze the properties. Submit the offers.

That’s how you go from zero to a real estate portfolio. Not by hoping or wishing. By taking consistent daily action guided by clear, specific goals.

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Frequently Asked Questions

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