10 Ways To Boost Your Creative Problem Solving Skills

How can real estate investors, agents, and CEOs boost their problem solving skills and creative thinking abilities?

Creative problem solving is a crucial asset in the field of real estate. It’s needed every day, hour by hour. There are always mental challenges waiting to be solved. How do you find profit in this deal? How do you finance this deal? How can you hold it together when a seller or Realtor is being difficult? How do you overcome competition or rehabbing challenges? The best problem solving minds in real estate will always come out on top. They’ll do more deals, and make more money. So how do you get the edge?

Try these ten activities to up your mental game:

1. Run Competitions: One of the best ways to come up with more ideas, to challenge your own creative thinking skills, and to hone your edge is to compete. This can be a sizable competition online via social media, or it can be an internal company competition. On the other hand, it can simply be a game when you go out dining with business partners. Remember, “iron sharpens iron.”

2. Try Out Organic Gardening: Organic gardening may not be a regular hands on hobby for most real estate CEOs, Realtors, and investors, but it is a great tool for boosting inspiration, creative thinking, and problem solving skills. Brain building relies on trying out new activities. So this may be the perfect mission. Plus, you’ll get outdoors and get some extra vitamins from the sun. You may even come home with some great organic brain building produce. You’ll also learn that it is possible to garden and farm just about anywhere.

3. Go Camping: Camping under the stars probably isn’t on the top of the to-do list of too many real estate CEOs. However, it can be a spectacular lesson in real estate and problem solving. First, you’ve got the problem of finding and booking a camping spot. At the very least, you will need to become comfortable making fire and cooking outdoors. I is sure to give you a new appreciation for even the most basic home, if not luxury ones. It also provides great insight into what many consumers are looking for in property, and how to monetize property in creative ways.

4. Build a Home: We take building properties for granted. It’s easy to make criticisms or demand something different. However, when was the last time you tried building a home? Try planning to design your dream home with a custom builder, or participate in building a home for the community with Habitat for Humanity. You’ll hone your problem solving skills, better understand the challenges of building, and be better able to serve clients.

5. Visit Some Ruins: Not all real estate ruins are as impressive as today’s architectural feats, but they offer a lot of lessons. They can teach you a lot about building and designing properties that last, as well as what may not be smart. Travel to Rome, St. Augustine, old churches, the Mayan Ruins, or the Ten Thousand Islands in Southwest Florida.

6. Visit Trade Shows: Visit real estate industry and related trade shows and events. See how others are solving the problems of today and tomorrow. Consider technology events, building, interior design, investment, and sustainability trade shows and conferences. Look for ways to incorporate these solutions, to create better ones, or recruit the best minds.

7. Run: Running is one of the best tools to boost your brain and health. If you are just starting out, you’ll also learn about how to progress. If you are already a regular runner, consider competing in endurance and obstacle races.

8. Blog: How about forcing yourself to blog for 30 days straight? It will force you to come up with new ideas everyday – not to mention good ideas. It’s not always as easy as you think, but it can be rewarding.

9. Go On A Speaking Engagement: Challenge yourself to go on a speaking engagement. Book yourself as a speaker, and you’ll be forced to come up with a great script, and master something new.

10. Follow Up with the Hardest Real Estate Leads First: All too often, real estate pros simply ditch the tough leads and try to work the easy closes. That means throwing away a lot of money, dampening your profit margins and competitive edge, and getting lazy. If you can tackle the tough leads first, you’ll definitely be forced to solve problems later.