Tag Archives: real estate

Getting Started in Real Estate: Finding Focus

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 Before we get into the nuts and bolts of your real estate investing business, it’s important to start with some basic goal setting! Yes, I know that it’s no fun but it will help with your mindset and will get you focused on the right track.

Let me guess, you’ve read a book, bought a home study course (or 2, or 3 or even more!), or just got back from a 3 day “bootcamp”. Your mind is spinning with ideas and you want to do everything and you want to do it right away. I can relate. I left my first training years ago and wanted to:

I got home and tried to do all of these things all at once. I sent letters to people in foreclosure. I bought a subscription to a data service to market to private mortgage holders. I drove through neighborhoods looking for abandoned homes. I worked morning, noon and night and ran from house to house chasing anything and everything. I desperately wanted this to work and I desperately needed a real estate deal ASAP! Continue reading →

Real Estate Investing Tips: 5 Key Components

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Real Estate Investing is simple, but not necessarily easy!

This past weekend, I attended one of the biggest Internet Marketing seminars in the world. I could go on and on and on with ideas that I had that apply to real estate… like how to use video on your real estate sites, processes that can streamline the lead generation, and on and on and on… (I’ll be sharing some of these new ideas with you over the next few weeks)

But, I want to share with you a conversation that I had with a friend, mentor and a brilliant marketer who happened to be teaching how to use audio and video on your websites… I told him that I recommended his program to several people because he makes it SO easy… Then, he said something interesting to me that made me think.

He said, “Heather… it really is simple. You see, people can complicate anything! It’s like telling someone how to drive a car. It’s not complicated at all. Just open the door. Sit down. Turn the car on and put it into drive. But, people always make things harder than they need to be… They start asking thinks like ‘which door should I open – the left or the right?’ or ‘Do I unlock it with a key or click the button’ and on and on we go. Twenty minutes later, we’ve still not even been able to get into the car.

I liked that analogy because it applies to real estate. There are really 5 things you need to know – or steps – when it comes to real estate.

Here are the 5 Real Estate Investing Tips you need to know! Continue reading →

No Money Down Real Estate – Apartment Investing

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There are a lot of late night TV infomercials out there saying you can buy real estate using none of your own money or “other people’s money” but what they don’t tell you is that its up to you to go out and find someone who has money and convince them to lend their money to you… and if you don’t have any experience investing in commercial real estate, it’s highly unlikely you’ll be able to find someone willing to lend you their money for you to learn.

95% of Real Estate investors fail because they aren’t able to get enough private lenders. Most new investors are never even able to get their first private lender. Continue reading →

Short Sales: If Not Now, Then When?

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If you’ve resisted the foreclosure market in the past because there was a lot of competition or because banks weren’t so willing to work with you on the short sales, it’s time to move past it! You see, even though people are still trying to break in to the foreclosure market, the “speculators” who called themselves investors over the past few years are gone! So… that leaves room for the cream of the crop to really rise.

On top of that, many serious investors have been tapped out, holding on to properties they acquired when the market was at it’s peak, and now cannot unload. There are more investors going into foreclosure because they bought the “wrong kind of deal” than ever in the past. So… this is prime time for new investors or investors that were not able to really get going because of the competitive market. Investors that are still in the game now are really working together and building their teams of investors. They’re back to specialieing and referring out the deals that don’t fit their own models. The feast or famine mentality is going away – FAST! and investors are once again working together!

Add all of to the fact that banks can no longer afford to NOT short sale. Lender after lender is going belly up, taking back properties that have no chance at all to sell for the mortgaged amount. They are left with two choices: 1. Take back the property after the foreclosure sale and try to (1) Sell it with a Realtor; or (2) Short sale now and get out.

Naturally, the question is: Why would a bank take a huge discount when they can take the property back and then sell it themselves? Continue reading →

Building Your Real Estate Team

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We’re often inclined to think that we can handle it all in our real estate businesses, especially in the early phases of the business. There are 7 key people that you need to have on your team… I realize it’s a balancing act because you’re often faced with balancing the financial aspects of a new business with finding the right people. However, the cost of NOT getting the right advice can be crippling.

My very first partnership was with a long time friend. We’d attended some workshops and trainings, asked an accountant and attorney we knew what we should set up for the business entity, and ultimately set up a basic corporation with an s-election. We weren’t real clear on what we needed it for and were primarily looking at the tax beneifts. Well, from a tax perspective, we did alright, I suppose. But, what we didn’t factor in was what was going to happen when we inevitably wanted to go in different directions.

We were warned by a good friend and mentor early on. He said, “Partnerships will only survive as long as both people need each other. Once either one is able to stand on his/her own, the partnership no longer works.” And we, of course, said, “Yeah, but we’re different.” Continue reading →

Perspective

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This is a little more of a personal post than a real estate lesson… but hopefully, it will remind you why you’re doing what you’re doing and to put things into perspective from time to time. I woke up today and was just hit with one annoyance after another… Nothing major, just one of those days where every little thing adds up and by the end of the day, you’re just plain annoyed. Nothing you do can shake you out of the mood. Have you ever had one of those days? Well, after attending our HOA meeting for one of our townhomes, we decided to grab a quick bite to eat a local restaurant. We just had a couple of quick appetizers and a beer and then decided to stop by the ice cream shop on the way out.

The ice cream store was just across the street, so we headed on over. As we walked out the door and crossed the street, we noticed this little girl walking on the sidewalk, kind of wandering up and down the street as if her parents were sitting outside at one of the little cafes maybe having a drink or some dinner. But, the little girl didn’t have a shirt on and her shoes were on the wrong feet, so it caused us to pay a little extra attention.

We smiled at the little girl thinking that someone from the first table we walked by would claim her. Then, a small group of people at another table further down – maybe 20 steps – asked if she was ours. Nobody was claiming this little girl, who couldn’t have been more than 2 1/2 years old.
Continue reading →

Website and Internet Traffic Tactics

 

Finally! You Too Can Have a Website That Generates
Loads of Real Estate Buyer and Seller Leads and Turns Prospects into Profits…

Here’s What You Will Learn With the Website & Internet Traffic System When You Claim Your Access Right Now…

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Free Real Estate Marketing Ideas…

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Recently, Brandon and I were elected to chair the marketing committee at Keller Williams. The company model doesn’t include a marketing “budget” for the office. Marketing is the sole responsibility of the agents within the office to orchestrate and execute.

Despite that, agents all agree when they sign on to have $50 taken out of every closing to pay for office marketing. A decent model when listings are selling. However… when the market comes to a screeching halt and sales dip, the marketing budget dips too! We were running an ad that cost nearly $5000/month largely paid for by individual agents that wanted their listings showcased in color in the Sunday classified section once/month.So… here’s what happened! We got “elected” to the committee at the end of January. The first meeting we were able to pull together was the first week of March. In the interim, prior to having our first meeting and even recruiting our committee, we immediately slashed the ad! The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results! This is absolutely true when it comes to marketing! Continue reading →

Home sales forecast brighter in '07

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Check out the article I got today from the Realtor association… Keep your eye out for some articles on the effects of the press on the real estate market!

WASHINGTON – March 12, 2007 – Anyone selling a home in the past year has likely suffered through some pretty stormy markets, but economists say a break in the clouds may be on the way.

That’s because since the highly anticipated “real estate bubble” began deflating in mid-2005, has been losing air for the past year and a half and may finally be out of air. And while some markets suffered through some deep slumps, forecasters are now predicting the worst may be over.

“It appears we are getting very close to bottom,” says David Lereah, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors.

Lereah is one of several economists who agree that sales data show the national existing home sales market is on the verge of regaining ground.
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