prorealestateinvestor.com

I am a fortunate guy. You could say truly blessed. I have my health, a loving wife, grown kids who have turned out well and contribute to society. Package all of that along with my incredible good looks and my huge amount of modesty and life is pretty good. My English professor used to write BS on all my papers. He said it stood for “be specific”. I wonder what he meant by that?  Oh well.  Another cool thing is, I run across extraordinary people on a daily basis. Everyone has unique qualities and abilities, the challenge is having them see in themselves that great quality. We humans are funny. It’s much easier to see greatness in others than it is in ourselves. Often times you can see tremendous qualities in someone during their most trying times.  Here is an appropriate phrase; ”there is no testimony without a test”.
I see budding real estate entrepreneurs struggling with different situations. Sometimes things can be overwhelming for them. Some go berserk, some shut down, others plod through and still others find a mentor. All these options work but only one accelerates the learning curve. Can you guess which one? You are so smart!  Real Investment Mentorship & Coaching  Even Tiger Woods has a coach.

Here are some cogent thoughts from a somewhat newbie real estate investor who got kicked around a little while learning how to do deals.  (I’ve been doing this for 12 years, sometimes I dance with the gorilla and sometimes it dances with me.)

The author is Mr Rob Velasquez.  He offers this sage advice:

1. Consistent action beats inconsistency every time.  Be a “Con Man”, Con-sistent, Con-gruent, Con-fident.

2. Plan out every week and every day ahead of time on paper.  Plan your work and work your plan.

3. Focus doesn’t just mean bringing attention to something; it also means removing attention from everything else.  Become a master of your trade.  Get rich in your niche.  Be the “go to” person in your field.  General knowledge is only good on game shows.

4. Whenever you think about a situation you’re in and it makes your gut hurt….just do it (Nike would be proud).  Whatever that “thing” is, it is NEVER as bad as you make it out to be.  Action is the great fear killer.

5. I now know what it feels like to have your nose bloodied.  I don’t like it, but I’m not afraid of it anymore either.  In order to have your nose bloodied, you must engage and take action.  No one ever got hurt while sitting in the stands, nor did they feel the glory of victory while in those same stands.

6. Most of my mistakes are due to not doing what I knew I should have been doing in the first place.  Why do we resist the very thing we know needs to be done?  Old habits and fear don’t go away easily.

7. When things are wobbly, step back to regroup, refocus and make changes necessary to strengthen your foundation.  Weak foundation, weak resolve.

8. If you don’t address a particular characteristic about yourself you will ultimately face that challenge again and again until you learn the lesson and make the change.  Nothing changes until you do.

9. Don’t skip any of the steps……shortcuts are hazardous paths back to the beginning.

I thought his words were insightful and inspirational.  Hope you did too.  As always, please leave comments.

What kind of dumb question is that?  Of course I would.  Okay, what if there was a chance you could lose?  Would you still do it?  That depends.  What are my odds?  Let’s say 50/50.  Would you take the chance?  I’m still not sure.  All of us are faced with 50/50 situations on a daily basis.  Typically, we don’t think of them as costing us money but in a way, they do.  Where you are right now in life, is a culmination of all your previous decisions.  Looking back you think perhaps I would have done some things differently.  I often ask the following question.  As you look back on your life what causes you more angst (that means grief).  The things you did or the things you wished you had done?   Without exception, it’s always things I should have done or wished I’d done.

Seize the day today (Carpe somethin or nother).  Take the plunge, that leap of faith, trust your instincts.  With that being said, you wouldn’t jump into a NASCAR race car or perhaps jump out of a plane without first getting some training and guidance.  Otherwise you will probably end up seriously dead.  Then why would you think you can jump into stock market trading or real estate investing without training?  By all means seize the day, but let that be your launching platform for getting some training and mentorship.  A mentor will save you time and money.  Seize the day, get excited, get energized and seek professional guidance to help you excel at your new excited passion.  All true successes trained and studied in their particular trade or craft.  The person who scaled Mt Everest didn’t just walk up there by himself without training or a team.  I believe the phrase is; “if you think education is expensive, try stupidity”.  I know how to change the oil and filter on my van (I personally don’t do it because I loose money doing little stuff instead of concentrating on doing house deals that make me much more money than a $24.95 oil change).  If I have a bigger mechanical problem I refer to someone who has specific training to do the job.  The same goes for real estate.  Spend some money on basic training and then get guidance or mentorship on how to do other types of deals.  You will also begin building that “team” to help you scale the taller mountains.  Have you noticed I mix metaphors back and forth and tend too wander in my thoughts?  To which I reply.  So?

Back to the original premise.  Would you invest in real estate if you knew you wouldn’t loose?  Make the odds swing HEAVILY in your favor.  Nothing is a lock.  That’s why it’s called investing.  The bigger the risk the greater the reward.  Improve your chances, your “odds” through training.  Check out Real Investment Mentorship & Coaching.  This stuff is rock solid and very affordable.  The more you know and TAKE ACTION on, the closer you will be to that “sure thing”.  Check out the site and give me some feed back.

With today’s economic climate bouncing around it’s time to take some drastic action.  I’m not an overly violent person, but I’ve had enough.  The time has come for all to do this deadly deed.  We have all been overwhelmed by two particular culprits.  You see them everywhere now days and you can’t get away from them.  I’m here to tell you right now, get rid of both of them.  Do what must be done for yourself and the good of the country.  Neither one of them can be allowed any kind of power or you will surely be doomed.  That’s right, eliminate both of them.                Mr. Indecision and Mr. Procrastination will absolutely destroy you.  What?  Who did you think I was talking about? 

In his famous book, “Think and Grow Rich”, Napoleon Hill professed killing off this pair before they hog-tie you to the treadmill of failure.  Life can be a struggle or a walk in the park.  I have days that have both elements in them and you know what?  Often times it depends on whether I’m acting or reacting to something.  Many of us go through life as failures because we are waiting for the “time to be right” to do something worthwhile.  “Someday” is not a day of the week and you will not find it in your day planner.  Don’t wait, because the time will never be right.  I’ve said it before; “use your backbone more than your wishbone and your life will go much more smoothly”.  Start where you are, take that first step and the next step will be revealed.

In today’s turbulent economic times it’s easy to be overwhelmed and become fearful.  Be bold, be a pioneer, be an entrepreneur.  If you wait, you will get what is left over.  Don’t run out all will nilly either.  Get some training, talk to successful people and find out what they are thinking.  Approach a successful person and offer to buy them lunch and be in the presence of success.  It will rub off on you.  Invest in training and learn a skill.  It doesn’t matter whether it’s a physical skill or a mental skill.  The way to improve that skill is to go out and DO SOMETHING.  Think back to the first time you rode a bicycle or drove a stick shift car.  My guess is, you did poorly but you kept practicing until today, you can do either with great ease.  Doing a deal on a house is kind of like that.  You are very nervous and apprehensive at first, but you stick with it and you get better.  Get someone to be your coach or your personal “set of training wheels”.  Here’s something I highly recommend as far as training and coaching.  Real Investment Mentorship & Coaching  If you want the best training for the money, this is hands down the best.  Check out the programs and levels of mentorship.  It’s all good.

Here’s another tip.  Don’t watch TV for 30 days or at least don’t watch the news.  No one needs that much negative reenforcement.  I don’t care which station you watch regarding how it’s slanted, conservative or liberal, it’s all depressing.  Stay away from the rabbit hole, keep your head on straight.

This week has been an eventful week.  A $700 billion bailout was proposed and then voted down as being too expensive, too wasteful and a drain on the American taxpayer.  I know!  Let’s make it $850 billion.  Yea that’s the ticket.  I thought Congress was being prudent in rejecting the $700 billion.  Silly me.  It was rejected because it wasn’t big enough.

I’m still “iffy” on a solution.  My philosophy has been, if I don’t have a clear alternative to the problem, I don’t offer an opinion.  Anyone can complain about a situation and often times others pile on without the first glimpse of a viable solution.  I won’t get into politics on this website, however Barack Obama (he’s not my guy) gave a good analogy of the situation.  He said and I paraphrase:  If your neighbor’s house is on fire, you don’t wait to find out why before you start to put the fire out.  If you wait too long, it could move to your house.  You can’t say: “well you know he did smoke in bed so it serves him right”.  I don’t know if I did it justice but I liked it.  With that being said, I don’t have a warm fuzzy feeling on this bailout but I don’t have a happy easy answer other than I am very leery of the government being in charge of that much of “my money”.  I don’t want to get into a repeat of last weeks comments (even if they were poignant and on target).

Back to this half full, half empty question.  My thoughts are…………..1/2 FULL.  I have been accused of being an optimist to the nth degree.  I must admit, if you put me in a room full of manure, I’m going to be digging around looking for a pony.  My neighbor, who lives in a big house on the lake and has done quite well financially, told me yesterday that my glass was always 1/2 full.  I took it as a complement.  My neighbor is a real nice guy, but he said he sees things half empty.  Neither one of us is better than the other, however I can’t look negatively at things or I will spiral downward quickly.  If you look for the good in people and situations, that’s exactly what you will find.  Conversely, if you look for negative stuff you sure will find it in abundance.  HAPPINESS IS AN INSIDE JOB!

As this economy bounces around, find a way to adapt to situations.  That’s why I dig real estate so much, there are an infinite number of ways to put deals together so everybody wins.  Does that mean I have never had a deal go bad or lost money on a transaction?  Of course not!  Anyone who tells you they’ve never come up short on a deal either hasn’t done a deal or they are blowing smoke in your face.  The best way to avoid getting yourself in the “trick bag” is to get educated.  I marvel at people who go to all the free introduction seminars on real estate and never invest any money to learn a subject at depth.  You don’t need to fling $40,000 dollars into your training initially either.  You may choose to spend that as time goes by.  Think of it as a doctor who graduates after ”investing” a lot of money on his training.  As he “practices” he decides to specialize in a particular field.  He invests more money to get advanced training and skill.  Spend a little (little is relative) money for some real estate training and as you develop skills, spend some more to learn a niche at depth.  Here’s my pitch on a particular “brand” of training.  Check out www.ETRRF.networthusa.com.  This material is rock solid, no fluff and there is mentoring that goes along with it.  Hand holding till the check is in your hand.

With your glass 1/2 full you have the positive outlook to persevere regardless of what life (or the government) throws at you.  Get training so you don’t go out and commit “stupid”.  You don’t know what you don’t know.  Improve your life, your family’s life and all those around you.  You do that by beginning with you.  Read a book (perhaps a fabulous blog), get trained, ask questions, plug into real estate investing groups.  Here in the Kansas City metro area, join the MO-KAN REIN group.  That stands for Missouri- Kansas Real Estate Investors Network.  Build your power-team.  Maybe I’ll address the power-team concept next time.  Keep this site on your favorites.  Oh yea, did I mention to go to www.ETRRF.networthusa.com?

Did you happen to count how many zeros are in $700 Billion?  Eleven not including the cents portion.  Maybe I should elude to it all not making any sense.  Truth is I’m not sure what does make sense.  I am very leery of the government “bailing out” the financial markets.  I’m a free market guy.  My belief is less government is better government.

What if there were no bail out and companies failed and people lost money, homes were lost, credit went away (like it hasn’t already), jobs were lost and the economy turned to crap?  Do I want it to happen?  NO WAY!  I’m struggling to hold on right now.  I’m used to free flowing credit and have set my business up to use that cheap money.  Now it’s gone and I’m having to re-group and adjust.  Okay.  I’ll adjust and figure out which way to go.  I’m very hesitant to give the government that much money to “play” with and expect them to be prudent in their oversight.  I know.  They can’t do any worse than the private sector has done!  I believe they can and will because they never have been wise stewards of our money; did you get that, our money.  While the financial markets have run amuck, they have done so using the guidelines set out by the government.  This didn’t just happen in the past few weeks.

What is the answer?  I’m not sure, but I do believe we have to have some sort of bailout.  Not one where the CEO’s of the failed companies leave with sack fulls of money.  I’m not advocating criminal charges or hangings either.  These CEO’s ”probably” did not do anything illegal.  Unethical, look the other way, wink wink practices to be sure.  I put most of the politicians in that same category.  If the politicians on both sides of the aisle didn’t know what was going on long before now, they are either illiterate or incompetent and I don’t like either one of those options.

I have attended 2 meetings in the past 24 hours where knowledgeable economists were the guest speakers.  Both gentlemen were surprisingly entertaining (I mean, come on, they’re economists).  The future looks a bit glum (understatement).  However, it looks glummer (is that a word?) without a bailout of some sort.  Both guys eluded to Japan 20 years ago and their real estate and financial collapse.  Japan did nothing and their economy was in a recession for 10 years while it adjusted.  I don’t like that prospect nor do I like the thought of “nationalized financial sectors”.  Remember, I’m a less government guy.  I guess that’s why I’m neither a politician nor a Wall Street guy.  Somewhere the tax consequence has be addressed and this is partly where I get nervous.  It has been said that as profitable assets are sold off by the government the proceeds would go back into the coffers to pay back the deficit.  I just believe that as these profits are put back, the politicians will say it’s “found money” that has already been spent so now we can use it for some other give away or bailout.  I am I being just too cynical?  Art Linkletter (remember his old TV show) said he was proud to be an American and to pay his taxes.  He could be just as proud an American for 1/2 the taxes.   Amen.

So now that you’re all bummed out, let’s talk real estate.  Or I could continue on the bummage side and discuss the Kansas City Royals Baseball Team or the Kansas City Chiefs Football Team but no one should have to endure that much bummage.

My training for lo these many years has lead me to believe this is a great time to be in the real estate market.  Remember, have a strategy ready for any financial climate.  Get training so you don’t go out and commit “Stupid” and buy the wrong way.  Different times require different tactics.  None of which include taking advantage of people.  Make as much money as you possibly can, but not at the expense of the homeowner.  Treat them with respect, treat them fairly and help them with their situation.  If you do these things you are entitled to a large profit.  Remember, I don’t want the government stepping in and telling me I can only make “X” profit.  If you don’t want to commit “Stupid” then check this site out.  www.ETRRF.networthusa.com.   Get some good training, learn the proper way of doing real estate and have fun during these uncertain times.  These times do offer phenomenal opportunity, if you know what to do. 

    

Unless you’ve been stranded on a deserted island with Tom Hanks and “Wilson”, you have seen and heard a tumultuous uproar about the stock market.  Oh my, what a ride.  As this post is being put together, the market is up 448 points at noon.  That’s above the 400 plus increase on Thursday, which was preceded by an over 500 point DROP  on Wednesday.  Disney couldn’t come up with a ride that has more ups and downs as the stock market has seen as of late.  I’m not personally invested in the stock market.  If I were and that was my only retirement vehicle, I might start looking at tall buildings a little differently.  Before you go out and do something regrettable, sit down, take a long deep breath and repeat after me:  This too shall pass and I will survive and thrive another day.

Me personally, I’m a real estate investor.  In case you haven’t noticed, real estate has been a little scary also.  However, houses and dirt never go to ZERO.  How many stocks do you know of, that if times get tough, you can personally move into them and wait for things to turn around.  Good times, bad times, people still need a roof over their head. 

My thinking is: if the stock market is treating you badly, maybe you ought to look at some real estate investments to “hedge” against a ZERO situation.  You may be thinking (or not), prices are way down on real state.  Exactly!  Use your money before it goes to ZERO and buy some real estate at bargain prices.  You can flip that property (not the best time right now) or hold on to it and let it appreciate over time.  While it appreciates, rent it out, lease it, or do owner financing to cover your costs and create some cash flow.  Can you rent or lease out stocks while you are waiting for them to come back?

Yeah but, if I sell my stock now, I’ll loose a fortune and if I don’t sell, I won’t have any cash available to invest in real estate?  Well have I got good news for you.  Learn how to acquire real estate or the rights to real estate, without any cash, or credit or even a job.  There are so many strategies available to acquire properties without cash and without “hoo doing” people.  Create a Recession Proof 6 Figure Income in ANY Market!  The possibilities are AWESOME!  Pull your head out of the sand.  Ignoring something won’t make it go away.  NOW is the time to take action.  Be Proactive not Reactive in your financial decisions.  Click the link above and change your life TODAY.

Today’s real estate market is tough and scary.  A couple of years ago, if a buyer could “fog up a mirror” they could be approved for a loan.  Credit scores didn’t really matter.  Someone always had a program that would put almost anybody into a home loan.  If you didn’t have any verifiable income, no big deal, we’ll use a stated income product.  These loans became known as “liar loans” because you could “state” that you made “X” number of dollars and no one would check to see if it was remotely true.  The mortgage broker made his processing fee, you made a tidy profit on the sale of the house and everybody was fat, dumb and happy.

That was then.  This is now.  With all the mortgage problems going on i.e. massive foreclosures, huge bail outs of formally rock solid financial institutions, questionable loan practices being exposed, etc, things have tightened up immensely on existing homes.  New home construction of spec homes has dropped 75 to 80 percent.  Builders built 6, 8, 10 or more spec homes in a subdivision and bought extra lots to build on in the near future.  As the lending practices tightened those spec homes just sat.  Each month they sat the interest payment would become due.  Multiply by 6 or 10 each month and money begins to run short.  Ultimately, many builders have gone under due to over speculation and easy lending practices.

The pendulum of easy credit had swung way over on the easy side.  Now as a correction, the pendulum has swung and is continuing to swing to the strict side.  I have mixed emotions about this swing.  From one side I prefer the easy credit, both for me getting loans to buy properties and especially for me to sell properties.  The quicker and easier my buyer can get financing, the quicker and easier I get a big fat payday when they cash me out.  Easy credit does put people who maybe shouldn’t qualify for a loan into a house.  This ends up putting them into a foreclosure situation which just wrecks their lives.  The bank takes back the property, oftentimes in bad condition, and then takes a big “hit” and sells the property at a discount to get it off their books as a non-performing asset.  The “REO” (real estate owned) dept of the mortgage company has many properties on which they have foreclosed.  They sell the properties off cheaply which drives the overall housing prices down.  Homeowners who were financed on an adjustable rate mortgage and betting on their house appreciating in value so they would have more equity and thereby qualify for a better fixed rate mortgage have had a rude awakening.  Their home has dropped in value and now they can’t refinance and the adjustable rate mortgage adjusts up and now they can’t afford the new higher payment.  They fall behind and they are the second wave of foreclosure “victims”.  I use the term victim loosely because they were betting on a particular scenario and it didn’t come to fruition and they lost. 

Back to the original question.  Where have all the buyers gone?  Many are now looking for a lease to own arrangement because they either have damaged credit or they just don’t qualify under today’s stringent guidelines.   If you have properties that you can offer a lease to own arrangement, you can do very well in today’s market.  What do you mean, “you don’t have any money to buy houses in this tight economy”.  Do you have an IRA?  Did you know you can use your IRA or even a friend’s IRA or a relative’s IRA to buy investment real estate?  What about the strategy of buying “subject to” as discussed in the previous posting?  Did you go to www.etrrf.networthusa.com and check out the programs available to show you how to do this stuff?  What are you waiting for?  Take action!  Use your backbone, not your wishbone!

This house was given to me complete with financing and the owner paid the next 3 payments.

 You hear about people buying houses “subject to” with no money out of pocket and financing already in place.  My initial thought was disbelief and I poo pooed it as being much like the Loch Ness Monster.  I keep hearing about it but I’ve never seen it.  Well here’s a picture of “ole Nessy”.  Subject to really does exist and it works beautifully.  This is my all time favorite way to acquire property.  I could acquire one or more of these a week if I so desired.

Here are more real life examples.  Does it work?  To quote Austin Powers, “Yeah Baby”!  Go to www.ETRRF.networthusa.com and find out how this stuff works.  If you don’t hurry, I’m gonna get all the good ones.  (Not really, they are everywhere)  Get Paid to buy Pretty homes in your area now!

Did you ever think about investing in real estate?  Sure you did.  Everyone thinks about it.  Everyone watches those FLIP THIS HOUSE episodes and thinks, “I could do that”.  Or I wish I could do that.  Okay!  Stop wishing and get to doing.  The biggest thing stopping people from doing instead of wishing is fear.  Here’s a news flash!!  Action is a fear killer.

Take the word ACTION and make an acronym out of it. 

A, Always. C, Consistantly.  T,Take. I, It. O, On. N, Now.  Always consistantly take it on now!  Here’s  another goofy way to remember this acronym.  Remember Dorothy from the “Wizrd of Oz” when she was walking through the forest and started talking about lions and tigers and bears, oh my?  Use that same “jingle” to quote the phrase: always consistantly take it on now.

Alrighty then.  We’ve decided to take action.  Great, where do I start?  Check out this website to begin your introduction into real estate investing education.  It rocks!  www.etrrf.networthusa.com.  Check out the products.  I’ve been investing for over 12 years and I’ve seen tons of infomercial stuff.  I’ve bought tons of infomercial stuff.  These products are solid and amazingly affordable.  Oh yeah.  Did I mention hand holding training and mentoring until the check is in your hand?  See for yourself.  I’m legit and the training’s legit.

Hi out there all you budding real estate entrepreneurs.  This site will, in time, allow you to find all kinds of real estate investing techniques, strategies, and just plain cool stuff.  You don’t know what you don’t know.  It sounds goofy but, it’s true.  There are soooooo many different ways to acquire and more importantly “control” property than you ever thought of.

We deal in rock solid strategies, not mindless hope it’s gonna work stuff.  This stuff is used day in and day out throughout the United States and the world.  That’s right, the world!

Make sure your seats are in their full upright position and the trays are securely locked in place.  Let’s get ready to discover a whole new world.