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Are
You Ready for a Thrilling, Positive Change In Your Life?
This
may be the life-changing opportunity you've been waiting for.
If you continue doing everything the same way, you're going
to get the same results. You must make a change TODAY to see
a change in 2007.
I'd
like to show
you how to dramatically increase the chances
of making all your dreams – whatever they may be - come
true in 2007.
-
Charlie Byrne
"Lessons
are not given, they are taken."
-
Cesare Pavese
ETR
Insider Report: 3 Lessons From the Hard-Knocks School of
Real Estate
By
Kam Weiler
In
a short time, the real estate holdings I've acquired in my "side
business" have easily surpassed all other investments
I've ever made. I went from a negative net worth to six figures,
with relatively little effort. Today, I have ownership in 11
rental units valued at over a million dollars, and enjoy the
benefits of cash flow every month.
But
the truth is ... I could have done better. I missed out on
hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit. One reason is because
I'm a fairly lazy investor, when it comes down to it. Real
estate is truly a part-time endeavor for me.
The
other reason is more heartbreaking. Because for all of my good
intentions ... the fact is, I still managed to make some pretty
major mistakes along the way. And those mistakes could have
been avoided.
Suffering
my way through the Hard-Knocks School of Real Estate, there
were three pivotal lessons that helped me "trim the fat" from
my efforts and start seeing real, tangible results.
Now,
these aren't your typical lessons about how to figure out cash
flow or where to look for motivated sellers. That information
is all available from a variety of sources. The lessons I'm
talking about were often contrary to what I'd read from "experts."
Hard
Lesson #1: You Don't Have to Be "Trapped" in a
Bubble Market.
In
my opinion, this is the most important "un-taught" lesson
in real estate.
When
I began reading real estate books, they all started out by
telling me to invest in or near my own town. They reasoned
that I would be familiar with the different neighborhoods,
and it would be easier for me to manage the properties. Sounds
like pretty good advice ... in theory.
Let
me tell you, I wasted a lot of time, energy, and enthusiasm
trying to make things work for me in Southern California.
I
had no cash to invest, so I needed positive cash flow in low-risk
properties. I needed to buy with no money down. Period. Since
I was a beginner, I didn't realize that trying to find cash
flow real estate in Southern California with no money down
was like trying to capture a unicorn.
I'd
missed a step. I had begun by focusing on individual properties.
I'd run the numbers, one by one - a very time-consuming task.
What I should have done first was run the numbers
to analyze the local real estate market as a whole.
Undertaking
specific research about the area would have CLEARLY revealed
that Southern California just wasn't the right market for my
investment goals.
The
following are criteria I should have looked for. They
will help you determine if your local market is, in fact, the
ideal place for you to invest.
- Check
the average price of homes in the city. How do prices compare
to other cities?
- Compare
the average price of homes to the average rent. This is a
critical ratio for investors interested in cash flow. If
homes are selling at 15 or more times annual rent ... it's
going to be difficult to see cash flow.
- Look
into the affordability of homes. In an affordable market,
the average home price is no more than four times the average
household's income.
- How
is the economy? Job and population growth are essential to
continued home appreciation.
Every
local real estate market in the world is different (and constantly
changing). Understanding which market is realistic for your
goals will relieve you of frustration, and you'll find profits
are easier to come by.
When
I came to central Texas, I found the perfect market for my
goals. It was suddenly much easier to buy cash-flow property,
and I wished I'd discovered this secret much sooner. Which
is why I'm excited about Justin Ford's Investor's
Guide to America's Best Value Real Estate Markets.
With specific profiles of over 100 U.S. markets, it is the
first and only such tool I know of - a quick reference to nearly
any real estate market you're interested in.
Hard
Lesson #2: Don't Just Know the Numbers, Know the Numbers
COLD!
This
lesson may sound elementary ... but more than any other technique,
it quickly made me an expert in my chosen target area.
You
need a complete and updated list of every property for sale
and recently sold in your target area - and you need to create
that list with an Excel spreadsheet.
I
discovered this secret by accident. My real estate agent in
Texas e-mailed every available duplex, triplex, and fourplex
to me in a spreadsheet. The details included rents, size, neighborhood,
and price. You can easily create this on your own.
I
combined this newfound treasure with Justin's "Matrix" technique
for tracking properties and comparing price per square foot
and other vital stats for spotting a good potential deal. When
I do this, it helps me feel absolutely confident about every
offer I make. Which brings me to Hard Lesson #3 ...
Hard
Lesson #3: Strike While the Iron's Hot.
The
moment you see a property that you think might fit your criteria
is the moment to submit your offer. Don't pause. Don't over-think
it. Simply make the offer.
Your
standard offer should include an "out clause" if
the deal turns out not to be right for you. But there are two
good reasons you should never wait to make an offer:
1. It's
important to get in the habit of making offers based on strict
value criteria ... lots and lots of offers.
2. You
don't want miss out on deals just because you're sitting
around thinking about making offers.
This
point becomes more and more "obvious" to me as time
goes by. For instance, I was interested in a $225,000 duplex
last year. The area was good and improving. Rents were on the
rise, and the property would have cash flowed. Yet, for one
reason or another, I didn't make it happen. Two months ago,
that same property went back on the market and sold
within days for $285,000. That's an easy $60,000 that could,
nay should, have been mine.
Unfortunately,
I have many stories like that one. I've definitely learned
this lesson the hard way, and it's cost me hundreds of thousands
in profits.
Now,
don't get me wrong. Losing potential deals is a lot better
than losing money. And because I've insisted on adhering to
the under-value, cash-flow principles found in ETR's
real estate success programs, I've made money
in all my real estate investments. And as I continue to apply
the three lessons learned above, I intend to do a lot more
of these profitable deals.
[Ed.
Note: Kam Weiler is contributing editor for ETR's Main
Street Millionaire program, a licensed
real estate agent, and a deep-value real estate investor based
in central Texas.]
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is obvious, thus this is where I see my future. I have been
following Early to Rise since July, and within the last four
months, I have started to implement the ETR principles MM explains
in Confessions
of a Self-Made Millionaire.
"I
am, and have been, a very goal-driven and well-balanced person.
Wow, but did MM totally challenge me to optimize my time-management
and daylight hours even more. I did just that, and now will
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more:
"I
wake up just after 5:00 a.m. and get to work 30 minutes before
everyone else to plan my day and read my ETR newsletter. After
two weeks, I was promoted, increasing my salary by 50 percent.
"Even
more incredible is the leap-of-faith gutsy real estate deal
I pulled off. I received inside information on a 3.2 hectare
beachfront property, which the municipality of my hometown
wanted to put on auction. Seeing as I'm 1,600 kilometers from
there, I decided to sell this deal to a developer I met through
the network which my website community is generating.
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Secunda, Mpumalanga, South Africa
Public
Speaking as a Self-Marketing Tool, Part 2
By
Peter Fogel
Yesterday,
I gave you two reasons to make public speaking a major part
of your self-marketing plans. Here are two more...
1.
It Gets You Out of Your Comfort Zone... and Into a Sizeable
Profit Zone.
Public
speaking gets you to interact with an entire universe of prospects.
This is a great way to learn not only what individual prospective
clients want and need, but also to learn what your entire target
market wants and needs.
And
nothing is more exciting than to give a good program and have
eager clients coming up afterward to exchange business cards
with you or ask for an appointment to discuss a project.
2.
It's the Quickest Way to Build Your Opt-In List for Future
Contacts and Communication.
I
spoke at a seminar that had about 80 attendees. Every one of
them signed up for my e-zine. At the beginning of my presentation,
I gave each person a sheet to fill out with their contact information.
Then I had "a call to action" during the seminar
to remind them to do it. It worked... handily.
The
cost to get their contact information? Zero dollars. The ability
to follow up with them whenever I want to? Priceless.
Chambers
of Commerce and Rotary Clubs are good places to start. Just
make sure you provide your audience with content that THEY
are interested in hearing.
Keep
in mind that you will be approached by lower-end clients (who
can't pay as much) as well as higher-end ones. Working with
lower-end clients is a perfect way to build your business in
the beginning. Higher-end clients will more than make up for
them down the road.
[Ed.
Note: Peter Fogel is a copywriter, speaker, author, and the
creator of "Peter 'The Humorator' Fogel's Guide to Effective
Public Speaking." Get more information - and get Peter's
FREE 7 Days to Effective Public Speaking e-course - on his website.]
Notes
From Michael Masterson's Blog: Why I Don't Like Southwest
Airlines' "Culture"
Colleen
Barrett, the president of Southwest Airlines, knows something
important about rewarding employees: that it pays to pay attention
to small accomplishments as well as big ones. That was something
her mentor, Herb Kelleher, taught her.
But
how she implements that good idea is downright silly.
[Ed.
Note: Read the rest of this article on Michael
Masterson's blog.]
-
Michael Masterson
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A
Tale of Two Cities: Bubbleville vs. Bargaintown
It
was the best of times to buy real estate. It was the
worst of times.
Just
as there are Bubble Markets in places like San Diego and Boston,
there are also excellent
Bargain Markets hidden in a handful of U.S. cities today.
In
fact, thousands of homeowners and investors are fleeing the
Bubble Markets and heading to the Bargain Markets ... and they’re
helping create the Next Great Real Estate Bull Markets in the
process.
Get
in on the new bull markets now, while
the time is right to make fortunes.
Justin
Ford
Word
to the Wise: Cynosure
"Cynosure" (SY-nuh-shoor)
- from the Greek for "dog's tail" - is the constellation
Ursa Minor, which contains the North Star. We use the word
to refer to anything to which attention is strongly turned.
Example
(as used by John Simon in a review of the movie Stealing
Beauty): "Lucy is very pretty and
becomes the cynosure not only of the aforementioned characters,
but also of several faceless and epicene young men who also
loiter about."
