The Fastest Ticket to Real Estate Wealth in a Down Market
Issue #2156
- WEALTHY: What type of real estate gives you the biggest bang for your buck? (Dave Lindahl)
- HEALTHY: Getting rid of the "dimples of doom" (Yarixa Ferrao)
- WISE: Ben Franklin on wealth
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Making the case for cost cutting (Michael Masterson)
- Make sure your e-mail gets read (Bob Bly)
- It’s Fun to Know… about the new 7 wonders of the world
- Add "ratiocination" to your vocabulary
The Ideal Vehicle For Getting Wealthy In The 21st Century?
Today you have a rare and exciting opportunity to take advantage of one of the largest industries on earth. And it is - most experts agree - the one that has the greatest growth potential.
I am referring to the Information Publishing industry.
Now don’t be intimidated by that phrase. You won’t need a printing press, typesetting equipment or even employees.
Information Publishing is simply about marketing products based on ideas (e-letters, teleconferences, special reports, etc) instead of hard goods (flowers, jewelry, computers, etc). And now, with the explosion of the Internet, it has the lowest production costs of any industry in today’s world.
Because of that low cost-of-entry and growth potential, it is the ideal vehicle for getting wealthy in the 21st century. Whether you intend to make your fortune on your own (as an entrepreneur) or within the context of a corporate environment (as an intrapreneur), taking advantage of these forces is the best and easiest way to achieve fast success and acquire great wealth.
Come to ETR’s October Bootcamp and we’ll show you how to build your own Information Publishing company that could make from $1 million to $100 million a year.
- Patrick Coffey
"Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it."
Benjamin Franklin
The Fastest Ticket to Real Estate Wealth in a Down Market … or ANY Market
Real estate investing is still, hands down, one of the best methods for real wealth creation, and just about anyone can do it. But it is a huge topic. There are so many choices, so many types of real estate to invest in. Mobile homes, single-family homes, apartment buildings, warehouses, office buildings, strip malls…
How do you know what to pick? Should you specialize? Is it better to have diversity in your investment portfolio? Or should you stick to one kind of real estate?
Let’s say you find a property that you think might be a good deal. Can you be certain you’ll make a profit if you buy it?
Worst of all, if you’ve heard about the exploding foreclosure market in single-family homes, you may be a little scared to get into real estate investing. With mortgage lenders going under and hedge funds closing, is real estate the right move right now?
With the proper education, you can learn the right methods, the right kind of real estate to invest in, and the right way to structure your deals.
And there really isn’t any need to worry about the foreclosure market or the sub-prime mortgage meltdown. After all, lots of millionaires got their start in down markets. Even in the Great Depression, some people became very, very wealthy. You’ve heard the expression "buy low, sell high" applied to the stock market. Real estate investing works the same way. And a down market means prices will be down. Armed with the right information, you’ll know when to get in and when to get out.
Now, to address the question of what kind of real estate to buy. Answer: There is no wrong kind. If you purchase real estate at the right price, in the right way, and either hold on to it or sell it to someone for a higher price, you’ll make money. This is a very simple formula.
However, depending on how you apply it, this formula can play out in one of three ways: (1) You could end up buying yourself a job, (2) you could build yourself a small well-run portfolio, or (3) you could immediately acquire a large, professionally managed portfolio of apartment houses.
Buying yourself a "job" isn’t something I’d recommend. That’s what happens when you buy lots of little pieces of real estate, either mobile homes or single-family houses, and find yourself constantly running around cutting grass, collecting rents, and fixing leaking sinks. If you end up doing all the work yourself, you won’t want to have many properties - because there won’t be enough hours in a day for you to handle them. That’s not real estate investing, that’s turning yourself into a handyman/landlord.
If you want to build a small real estate portfolio, it’s best to do the basic investing yourself - and hire people to do the maintenance and management With just half a dozen properties or so, you could end up very well off. Good investors in this category buy low. They sell high (if they sell at all). And their deals are structured properly, so their properties have positive cash flow. They have a small portfolio of single-family homes, maybe a duplex or two, and maybe they retire a little early when the mortgages are paid off. Not bad.
But the third option is clearly the best: acquiring apartment houses. This is how real estate investors build dynasties.
The wealthiest and most successful real estate investors are buying multi-family properties because they understand the concept of unit pricing,
You know how unit pricing works in the grocery store, right? If you buy more units (ounces, pounds, packages) per dollar, you get more value. Well, real estate is also measured in units - i.e., the number of living configurations. You can buy one unit for, say, $100,000 (let’s leave the financing out of this to keep it really simple), or you can buy 10 units for $100,000. If those 10 units are all in one building, you’ve hit the jackpot. Because of unit pricing, you’ve gotten more value for your dollar.
There’s another thing the really successful real estate investors do: They buy in the right markets at the right time. If real estate is doing very poorly in one city, you can bet there’s another city that’s doing well. An industrial city in the north will have a different sort of economy than a tech-based city in the west. When one is up, the other may be down. Owning and controlling real estate in different markets at different times can generate some real wealth … fast.
For example, I started out buying small multi-unit properties where I live in Brockton, MA. As that market neared the top of its market cycle, I took my profits and used a 1031 Like-Kind Exchange to defer my taxes and buy bigger properties in markets that were at the beginning of an upswing in their market cycles.
I used the six-figure profits from duplexes, triplexes, and four-unit properties in my "hot" market as down payments for much bigger properties - with much bigger cash flow - in value markets.
Using this strategy, I went on to build a diversified portfolio of apartment houses, including 146 units in Texarkana, AR, 350 units in Jackson, MS, 396 units in Huntsville, AL - just to name a few. And my monthly passive income quickly climbed to more than I used to make in an entire year!
This is also a strategy that you can employ once you understand how money really works.
Money is like water. It’s healthy and alive when it’s moving, like a stream. When it’s stagnant, when it’s still, when nothing’s coming in or out, it’s dead. Real estate investing that models healthy bodies of water, water that moves and flows, is healthy and vibrant and, thus, creates wealth.
People like Donald Trump, Harry Helmsley, and many others all figured out that successful real estate investing means buying multi-unit properties in the right markets at the right points of their market cycles. Use the principles outlined here - along with the right systems to buy, hold, and sell - and you can make your fortune too!
[Ed. Note: Dave Lindahl went from an $800 net worth to a passive income of hundreds of thousands of dollars and a multimillion-dollar net worth in less than five years. He did it by becoming the "Apartment House King." Today, his portfolio has over 3,100 units. Dave will be having an exclusive one-day training event this fall to teach exactly how he did it, how he continues to grow his portfolio by more than 100 units a month (!), and how you can follow the same path in today’s market. To learn more about this extraordinary event before it sells out, click here.]
We’re Locking the “Apartment House King” in a Private Room… and Won’t Let Him Out Until He Reveals All His Secrets for Making $20,000-Plus Per Month in Totally Passive Income!
If you’ve ever dreamed of living a life free from worries about money… a life where you simply sit back and let a steady monthly income flow into your pocket… then prepare to make that dream come true.
On November 16, 2007, we’re going to bring Dave Lindahl to one of Florida’s most luxurious resorts. There, in a private, closed-door meeting, he’ll spend the entire day revealing the secrets that made him a millionaire many times over in just eight years.
Click here to learn how you can get a VIP pass to this intensive training session — FREE…
How to Tackle the Tough Job of Reducing Expenses
In private business, as much as in the public sector, nobody really wants to cut expenses. Cutting costs means short-term pain - and if there is one thing people are generally very good at, it is avoiding immediate pain.
To achieve substantial cost reduction, you have to make big, tough decisions. You have to gather the basic facts, avoiding getting wrapped up in politics, and then make a decision. Don’t think you can achieve large-scale reductions with small-scale efforts. The natural momentum of any business is always to grow fatter.
Come up with a strategy. Then enlist the support of the key people you need to make it happen. Be sure to have a strong and positive explanation for the cut and make that argument over and over, even in the face of the cynical derision it is likely to encounter.
If the cost-cutting idea makes sense, people will eventually come to appreciate it - even if they hate it at first.
[Ed. Note: Get Michael Masterson’s insights into becoming successful in your business and personal life, achieving financial independence, and accomplishing all your goals on his brand-new website. You’ll find updates on all of Michael’s books, news on upcoming ETR events, Michael’s blog, and room to send in your comments and questions. Check it out today.]
What’s the Best Day to Send E-Mail?
Sometimes high-powered executives don’t seem to have a second to read the e-mails you send them. You could always pick up the phone instead… or you could send them an e-mail at the exact moment they’re scrolling through their inbox.
According to a survey by e-marketing agency eROI Inc., high-level executives read most of their e-mail messages on Mondays and Tuesdays. Best time to send messages on those days: during lunch hour.
(Source: What’s Working in Sales Management)
[Ed. Note: Master copywriter and best-selling author Bob Bly is the editor of ETR’s Direct Marketing Masters Edition a program to help you start your own successful direct-mail business. Sign up for Bob’s free monthly e-zine, The Direct Response Letter, and get more than $100 in free bonuses.]
A Surefire Way to Blast Cellulite Forever
Cellulite - or "cottage cheese," as I like to call it - isn’t the most appealing thing to look at. Fortunately, it CAN be defeated.
According to dermatologist Howard Murad, author of The Cellulite Solution, cellulite is really a skin problem, not a fat problem. However, the more fat you have, the more it pushes in between your fibrous skin tissue. And, according to the European Journal of Dermatology, if you wear tight jeans, high-heeled shoes, smoke, drink alcohol, and don’t exercise, you’re more susceptible to getting these "dimples of doom" on your thighs, belly, or butt.
But there’s no reason to live with cellulite forever. Start by eating right and exercising.
Avoid consuming too many fatty foods. I recommend getting two-thirds of your fat calories from polyunsaturated fats like raw nuts, flaxseeds, and olive and canola oils. Also, eat more lean proteins (as 40 percent of your total calories), . And stick to low-glycemic carbohydrates (as 30 percent of your total calories), such as berries, sweet potatoes, and brown rice. Finally, don’t forget about veggies. Eat as much of the green ones as you want… and you don’t have to count them as part of your carbohydrate intake.
As far as exercise goes, the quickest way to put on some lean muscle and decrease fat is by doing intense interval weight training at least three times a week for 30 minutes to an hour. In the intervening days, I suggest doing 20 minutes of interval cardio, alternating two minutes at 75 to 85 percent of maximum heart rate and two minutes at 55 to 65 percent of maximum heart rate at a lower intensity.
Put these healthy habits into action - and lay off the smoking and drinking - and you’ll start seeing that cellulite melt away.
[Ed. Note: Yarixa Ferrao is the certified personal trainer and founder of Get Fit in 6 who has recently been whipping some Early to Rise staffers into shape. In Coach Yari’s new e-book, Getting Rid of the "Dimples of Doom," she reveals her unique methods for eliminating almost all signs of cellulite by using a combination of exercise, nutrition, and the most effective therapies and creams. Click here to learn more about Coach Yari’s programs.]
It’s Fun to Know: The New Seven Wonders of the World
Following a global poll organized by Swiss filmmaker Bernard Weber, a new list of the top seven man-made marvels was recently published. Weber’s aim was to help protect these examples of human achievement, but he drew criticism from the United Nations’ cultural organization, UNESCO, which claims the list is nothing but hype and doesn’t help preservation efforts.
The Great Pyramid of Giza - the only structure on the original Seven Wonders list that is still in existence - was not included on Weber’s list. The other six on the original list were the Colossus of Rhodes in Greece, the Lighthouse of Alexandra in Egypt, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia in Greece, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon in Iraq, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus in Turkey, and the Temple of Artemis in Turkey.
Below is Weber’s new list:
- Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil
- The Great Wall of China
- The Colosseum in Rome
- Petra in Jordan
- Machu Picchu in Peru
- Chichen Itza in Mexico
- The Taj Mahal in India
(Source: National Geographic)
How I Went from Working in the Sub- Sub-Basement of a Bank in Minneapolis… to Living on a Small Island in Maine in the House of My Dreams!
Money in the bank, the house you’ve always wanted, and the freedom to enjoy it all.
That is the “American Dream”!
Can you still achieve it?
Absolutely… The best way left for you to achieve that dream is by starting your own business.
But how do you get started? What do you do?
We hear questions like these daily. So here is what we did. We’ve done all the hard work for you.
We’ve researched hundreds of the best businesses out there and we report on only the best. The ones that make real money and are the easiest to start.
We’ve done all the hard work. All you have to do is connect the dots. Ask yourself what you like to do and how much money you want to make.
It couldn’t be any easier. Click here to read on…
- Patrick Coffey
Word to the Wise: Ratiocination
"Ratiocination" (rash-ee-ah-suh-NAY-shun) - from the Latin for "calculate" - is the process of reasoning.
Example (as used in Time magazine): "For all their vaunted powers of ratiocination, grand masters of chess tend to be a skittery lot."
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker … build your self-confidence and intellect … increase your attractiveness to others … just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR’s new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2007