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What Are You Thankful For?

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It’s easy to get caught up in the “stuff” of day to day life. It’s easy to get overwhelmed, fed up, frustrated and scared from time to time. But every now and then, it’s great to stop yourself and think about what you are thankful for in life.

I remember – it must have been 10 years ago now – I got a journal-type book from Barnes and Noble and began to use Oprah’s idea of “The Gratitude Journal” and every single day, I would force myself to come up with 5 things that I was thankful for. It sounds easy enough, but after about day 5, you run out of the obvious. You start REALLY digging deep for things that you are thankful for.

But beyond that, something happened internally! I began to really BE thankful for everything and I stopped taking things for granted. I started looking at all the people that were important in my life and rather than going from generic statements like, “I’m thankful for my mother,” I started getting specific. “I am thankful for the encouragement my mother gave me to get started in real estate”. That’s when I really began to appreciate everything on a deeper level.

So… in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I encourage you to post your comments to this post and write 5 things that you are thankful for in your life. Then… share them with the people that you are thankful for when you’re sitting around the table with family and friends! Continue reading →

Capturing Your Web Visitors

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By now you know that you need a website, blog or some sort of web presence, I hope!

But, it’s simply not enough to have a website if you’re not getting visitors and/or not getting visitors to leave their information so that you can follow up with them. So… how do you capture their info?

Nowadays, it’s easier said than done. You see, several years ago, you could pop a page on the web, tell someone they couldn’t go anywhere until they gave you their information and that was it. But now, people are tired of spam and junk mail and don’t want to give out their email address if they don’t “know” what’s on the other side. Not to mention, just about everybody I know has an entirely separate email account for forced opt ins

So… how do you get your visitor to give you their PRIMARY name and email?
You’ve got to give them something SO irresistible or so unique, that they’d be stupid to say no to your offer.

Here are a couple of unique ideas for things you can offer to your niche market: Continue reading →

Real Estate Investing: The Three Levels of Success

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If you’ve been investing in real estate for any length of time (or even if you’re just getting started), then you have undoubtedly faced frustration, hit some highs and then crashed into some lows! Ultimately, your goal as a real estate investor is most likely to generate immediate cash flow and long term wealth and increased net worth.

True financial success is achieved by combining these two elements – cash flow and wealth creation, or net worth. Cash flow is considered as the monetary profit that is earned every month to support your lifestyle. This can also be used to invest in assets that may later appreciate in value.

Three levels of real estate investors are as follows:

Level one Real Estate Investors – In this level, the investors learn the basic tricks of the real estate investment business, and they use it to make real estate investment a profitable venture. They learn this by making their initial deals profitable. Thus, Level One investors ensure that real estate is the path to economic success. They are aware that there is much to learn from this vast field, and they try to understand it.Real estate investors at this stage should spend time learning the business, evaluating the details of the deals, and make sound decisions. Often
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Landlording: What Would You Do?

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For more tips and tricks like those mentioned on this blog, register for your trial subscription of the Real Estate Rant: http://www.RealEstateRant.net. Each month, you’ll receive tips, tricks, tactics and real world challenges (and how to overcome them) that investors face each and every day!

The following article comes from a situation that recently occurred with one of our own tenants. How would you have handled it? And really think about it as if you were in our shoes because it’s easy to say “Evict ’em” when you’re on the outside looking in, but put yourself in our shoes and think about how you’d handle it and how you could prevent the situation from recurring in the future!

Here’s the Scenario:

08/01/2007 – Rent is due

08/06/2007 – Rent is officially late. When you finally reach the tenant, you get the sob story: “I had surgery. My mom went to the hospital. My dad panicked. My son’s trying to get me the money and I’m out of work. I promise to have the rent to you by Wednesday… Thursday at the latest”

08/09/2007 –

Guess what? No rent check. The tenant’s willing to drive it up, but the funds aren’t in the bank anyways! Tenant promises AGAIN to call you right after ‘therapy’ tomorrow morning and get it straightened out. VERY, VERY SORRY! Continue reading →

Why Bankruptcy?

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by Mark Klee & Caryn McKinney

Answer #1: Niche Marketing = Less Competition and Greater Profits. As a real estate investor, perhaps you’ve figured out how easy it is to be unfocused in the real estate investment business. That being the case, my partner, Mark Klee, and I want to help you understand the incredible profits available to you by doing business in a NICHE market – particularly one that MOST investors are afraid to go after – bankruptcies. It’s not brain surgery to realize that any market with less competition will also offer you greater opportunities for amazing profits!

You should also realize that if you’re NOT in a niche market, you’re fighting all the other investors for the same FSBOs, MLS listings, and wholesale deals from whatever resources you have. So why not at least check out this bankruptcy niche that most investors are, indeed, afraid to tackle?

Answer #2: Market conditions are ideal Check out the following basic facts on our current market conditions and you’ll start to see how ideally the stage is set to work with quality bankruptcy leads.

  • In many areas of the country, investors are finding greater competition for fewer deals.
    Continue reading →

Real Estate Going Green?

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When we were putting together the latest issue of the Real Estate Rant (www.RealEstateRant.net), Brandon recommended an article on “Going Green”!

I didn’t pay much attention to it because I didn’t realize just how much momentum the topic had gained! (So, with my tail between my legs, I must concede that he was on to something…) And because of that, I decided to write a little something on the topic with the Live Earth concert on 7-7-07.

Last night, I was watching the Live Earth concert and I was blown away by the magnitude of the event.

Plus, I learned lots of little tips that allow me to contribute my own small part towards helping the environment. These tidbits piqued my interest so I started to doing some research just to get a grasp on how big the “green” movement is.

Just go to Google.com and type in “green real estate”. There are 81,700,000 results at the time I’m typing this email… WOW!

So, why the sudden interest? Perhaps it was fueled by Al Gore’s inconvenient truth. Or maybe the rising costs of energy. Or possibly… that residents of planet earth realize that our resources are limited. Continue reading →

History of the 4th of July

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I grew up in a small town in New England. I had no choice other than to be patriotic and proud! We took field trips down the path of Paul Revere and visited the cemeteries of our forefathers. We walked on battleships that served in wars and stood in the same buildings that history was made.

Yet now… more than 230 years later, it’s as if we’ve forgotten. We’re so busy fighting wars in foreign lands, closing down our borders and trying to save the world from famine, we’ve lost what it means to be American.

To be an American means so much more than just to be born here, it means freedom: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of choice. America means capitalism, competition, a free market and democracy. To be an American means to have a dream, a goal, a desire, the American Dream.

So, if you are going to pursue the American Dream, then do it passionately and be proud that you are an American. Know that because of where you live, you have opportunities that others don’t. Define your dream and go after it with the same passion that our Founding Fathers had when laying the foundation for our country. Know that in achieving your dreams, you will have sacrifice and you will have loss along the way. Stick with it when it seems like you’re losing ground. Remember… wars are won battle by battle! And wars are lost one battle at a time!

My advice to you is to get in and stay in. The rewards will be worth it in the end and the financial freedom will be yours to enjoy and pass on to your children and your children’s children.

 

And … no matter what your opinion is on the war(s), take a moment to honor those that have fought for this country and those that have made the ultimate sacrifice so that you can be an American and enjoy our freedom. Happy 4th of July! Take a moment to post your comments about what you’re doing to create your own American Dream!

And now for you history buffs… A friend of mine forwarded this to me and I thought I’d share it with you! Continue reading →

How to Use "Language" to Influence People

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My name is Bill Twyford. I’ve been in the business for little over eight years, and I’ve done almost 850 transactions. I’m very, very assertive. My specialty is communication–talking to homeowners and talking to banks.

So let’s start with some embedded commands. Embedded commands are patterns of language that bypass conscious reasoning and speak directly to the subconscious mind. Embedded commands influence people at the subconscious level. This allows you to direct people to take specific actions.

They will also have specific thoughts and will generally do whatever it is you want them to do. The subconscious is in a constant search for patterns. One command is not a pattern. You have to bombard your customer with command after command after command.

Your brain is always analyzing what’s going on around you. It’s trying to find similar things from your past and trying to line them up. The subconscious mind has stored millions and millions of conversations with other human beings. These conversations have become so routine, that the mind has virtually fallen asleep. Continue reading →

Assumptive Language Patterns

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By Bill Twyford

Having a firm grasp on language patterns will help you close more deals. In addition to using embedded commands, which are word groups that order you to do something, you must incorporate assumptive language patterns into your vocabulary. Assumptive language patterns assume the outcome of what you are asking.

When doing short sales you can ask the bank the same question, two different ways. Read both sentences and see which one you believe to be more assumptive:

  • Hi, my name is Bob and I was wondering, do you do short sales?
  • Hi, my name is Bob. I am working on a short sale for the property located at 123 Elm St. The loan number is #34777. Where do I need to fax my short sale package so that you can go ahead and get this deal approved?”

    • We are assuming the bank is going to say yes to our short sale, instead of wondering if they short sale at all.Let’s look at another example of assumptive language patterns you can use when speaking to homeowners: Continue reading →

    Flipping Homes, House Flipping: What’s The Deal?

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    Flipping Homes… Flipping Houses… What is everyone flipping over?

    In the past five years, you’ve obviously heard the buzz surrounding flipping homes. There’s a new TV show popping up weekly, it seems. And it’s hardly even possible to keep track of them all these days.

    But, what’s the real scoop behind all the “flipping houses” buzz? And is it right for you?

    In this article, we’re going to dispel some of the myths surrounding flipping homes and also give you the steps in case you want to jump in. First off… the term “flipping houses” often refers to two different things:

    1. Wholesaling, also known as “assigning the contract,” is when you simply put a property under contract and “sell” the contract to someone else, usually another investor.
    2. Retailing, or “rehabbing” is when you actually buy the house you are going to flip, do the repairs, and then sell the house, usually to an end buyer, or homeowner.

    On TV, they’re showing the latter: buy-fix-sell.

    There is a lot of money to be made flipping houses, but if you don’t do it right, you can also LOSE a lot of money. What you don’t see on the television show is how they find their properties, how much it costs to acquire the properties and, in most cases, the profit. It’s funny how these programs very rarely tell you HOW MUCH the person REALLY made from the deal (not the gross profits, but what they put in the bank after all is said and done). Continue reading →