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You Deserve Answers...And Now You're Going to Get Them
If you haven't gained the wealth you crave, you need to do something differently.
Why? Because all change, all progress begins with a single decision, a single action.
Are you ready to seize the final piece of the puzzle? The missing ingredient to coast you all the way to financial freedom? You deserve answers and now you're going to get them.
In just 30 days from today your life could be in an entirely different place. Don't delay.
- Charlie Byrne
The $40,000 Hands-Free Technique for Investing in Real Estate Foreclosures
By Ted Thomas
Yesterday, we took a look at the alarming rate at which foreclosures are rising in America. (Up 45 percent from the same time last year.) We discussed the fundamental market conditions causing this rise in foreclosures, including the lack of equity, decreasing affordability, and the looming ARM (adjustable rate mortgage) meltdown that is leading us to a foreclosure bloodbath. Today, I would like to talk briefly about the investment opportunities these foreclosures are going to provide - including my favorite technique for making as much as $40,000 in a single month ... without ever having to do a single rehab.
In case you are interested in taking advantage of the rising number of foreclosure opportunities, I'm also going to share with you what I've found to be one of the most important lessons I've learned through all of my years of real estate investing ...
I call it "Ted's Wal-Mart approach."
What does Wal-Mart do? They buy low and sell low. So how about buying real estate before the auction on the courthouse steps at a wholesale price? Let's say 70 percent of value - a $150,000 value for only $105,000.
Stop! This is the big lesson! Many people will say you should paint, clean, landscape, carpet, blah, blah, and sell the property for big bucks. But I say, "Fast bucks not the last bucks."
I'd wholesale the house to a guy with a pick-up truck and Levi's, strong hands and paint on his shirt ... and make a quick $10,000. The new buyer would own this house at $105,000 plus $10,000 ($115,000) - and he has a profit potential of $35,000. I don't know about you, but $10,000 pays a lot of bills around my house.
Using this formula, I haven't fixed a property in 20 years. Sure, I like making big money on deals - but I learned it's easier to buy low and sell low. I also have done as many as four deals in a month and made $10,000 and much more on each one.
I hope you're getting the idea: The foreclosure real estate market is a great business. In the last 20 years, I've watched the count of real estate foreclosures grow from 200,000 annually to over 400,000. You only need a deal once in a while. I have students who have made $150,000 on one deal. In Denver, Colorado, one savvy investor purchased 90 units and paid to rehab/renovate. He sold for a $1,000,000 profit. That's probably not you this year - but certainly you could do a deal where you make an extra $10,000 to $15,000 and buy your wife new furniture or take the family to Disney and show them the time of their lives.
(Ed. Note: Best-selling author Ted Thomas is a Florida-based investor, publisher, and real estate foreclosure and tax lien authority. He has written 27 home-study courses and writes for legal newspapers and national magazines.
Ted will be giving an exclusive talk on the foreclosure real estate market for Early To Rise readers in early April. Click here if you're interested in being included in his teleconference presentation.)
"Fear makes strangers of people who would be friends."
- Shirley MacLaine
Talking to Strangers
By Ilise Benun
Tom could have remained silent. He could have given a polite nod or busied himself with reviewing the work he'd brought with him. But he didn't. And now, he's got a brand-new client that brings him $40,000 a year in extra revenue.
You see, Tom is a Web designer. He attended a seminar last fall and ended up sitting next to an art director from one of the largest Web design agencies in the country. When he sat down next to the man, Tom didn't know who he was. In fact, Tom assumed he was a "starving artist" because of the way he was dressed.
What Tom did know is that it's important to break the ice with strangers - because you never know who could offer you the next big break in your career.
So instead of quietly sitting in his own seat, Tom turned to the man, held out his hand, and said a friendly "hello." Just doing that - offering a simple greeting - let the art director know that Tom was open to talking. And that little "hello" turned into a lengthy conversation.
Tom exchanged contact info with his new acquaintance and the two kept in touch after the seminar. They exchanged e-mails ... Tom sent samples of his work ... and now the art director's agency is Tom's biggest client.
Of course, it's not always easy to open up the pathways of communication. Take my friend, Jack, for example. He often eats lunch out - and when he does, he sits at the counter instead of a table in the hopes of striking up a conversation. And he's noticed something fascinating about the first few seconds with a stranger: If Jack doesn't say something right away, it's nearly impossible to initiate a conversation later on.
"If you sit down in silence and miss that tiny window of opportunity," Jack told me, "the whole thing seems to get 50 times harder, because then you have to break a pre-existing silence with some kind of opening line. And that triggers a whole useless monologue in my head ('He doesn't want to talk to me. He's got things on his mind.') instead of a conversation with this other person. Even worse, it feeds into the voice that says, 'I'm so bad at this,' and puts the focus on something that is totally unimportant."
I love Tom's and Jack's stories, because they demonstrate a very small networking action that every one of us has the potential to use.
You see, the first moment with a stranger - at a party, on an airplane, at a networking event - is a very important one. Will you ignore each other? Or will you talk?
We all know that a first impression takes hold in those first few seconds. And that's also when the stage is set for initiating a conversation. A conversation that could lead to a new project ... a new job ... a new friend ... a new idea ... a new relationship or partnership. Indeed, this conversation could go anywhere. But not if you stay silent.
The window of opportunity closes quickly. And if you miss it, you can't get it back. But that doesn't have to mean the opportunity is gone. You can still initiate a conversation; it's just more difficult. Jack says it's like first-strike battle tactics. If you don't hit hard right at the beginning, it will be a longer slog later.
So from now on, be ready to seize that first moment with a stranger by saying something to break the ice.
Don't use the excuse that you "just don't know what to say." The truth is that almost anything qualifies as an icebreaker. You can:
... simply say, "How are you today?"
... comment on something you observe. If they're reading, ask about the reading material. If they're eating, ask about the food.
... offer to share something you have, whether it's food (I always carry good dark chocolate just for this purpose) or a newspaper.
If the thought of initiating a conversation still makes you uncomfortable, keep these two things in mind:
1. The content of your opening line is irrelevant. It simply serves the purpose of saying "I am available to talk if you are." A simple acknowledgment and "hello" can do the trick. It's like sticking a wedge in the door so it won't close.
2. The other person may be self-conscious too. So be sensitive to his openness and proceed accordingly. He may appreciate your effort or may not be in the mood to talk. If the response you get is a perfunctory one, don't push. But you should absolutely not take it as a personal rejection. It has nothing to do with you.
Talking to other people is one of the best ways to learn things you don't know and set down the foundation for a relationship that could go anywhere. You don't need to know right away where it's going or what is possible. People's needs are constantly changing, so even if you can't envision any potential in that first conversation, you should still exchange contact information and stay in touch.
Plenty of amazing contacts can arise out of meeting a stranger. Take me, for example. Last year, while waiting for a client in a hotel lobby, I struck up conversation with a man who worked for a major accounting firm. It turned out he was in the market for someone to teach a networking workshop at his company's upcoming training conference.
I also know a copywriter who attended last fall's AWAI Fast Track to Success Bootcamp. She approached a complete stranger - who turned out to be the publisher of a financial service. Three months later, that publishing company offered her a project - her very first paying job as a copywriter!
Just think - a chance meeting like one of these could have a profound effect on your future success. It could mean a new mentor, an extra $40,000 a year, or a brand-new job.
(Ed Note: Ilise Benun is a frequent contributor to ETR. Check out her new program, "Effective Networking: The Fastest Way to Win Clients and Grow Your Business".)
Today's Action Plan
The more people you talk to, the higher the odds that something wonderful and unexpected will come out of a conversation. The more people you talk to ... the more irons go into the fire ... and the more opportunities you'll have to grow your business and improve your life.
Just hold out your hand and initiate a conversation with a friendly "hello."
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What Wall Street Doesn’t Want To See In Your IRA
It’s the strongest, safest investment vehicle in America, and Wall Street is desperately hoping you won’t find out how much money it could be making you…without them. Read on
to find out more about this “forbidden” IRA strategy.
A Common Sense Approach to Preventing Allergies
By Jon Herring
For decades, prevailing medical opinion has held that children should NOT be exposed to potential allergens during their first few years - presumably to protect them from developing allergies. I'm not sure how this idea came about, as it defies what is known about basic immunology. But let's see how it has worked in the real world.
Peanut allergies in the U.S. and UK have doubled in the past 10 years ... at the same time as doctors have been advising pregnant mothers to avoid eating peanuts and warning them against feeding their young children anything made with peanuts. (And, by the way, according to a cover story in USA Today, peanut allergies are 10 times higher in these two countries than in Africa and Asia, where young children are routinely exposed to peanuts.)
And consider a study performed by researchers at the Medical College of Georgia, which found that children who were exposed to dogs or cats in their first year were 45 percent less likely to test positive for pet allergies than kids who had no contact with these animals.
So the research is proving what common sense already tells us. Early exposure to potential allergens helps the developing immune system identify what is (and what is not) a threat. And it certainly makes sense that if the immune system develops over a period of years without exposure to a substance, the first time it is exposed it is more likely to identify that substance as harmful and cause an allergic reaction.
You should still be careful with peanuts, of courses, as they are a choking hazard for small children. But let them play with cats and dogs and roll in the grass. There's a good chance they will be healthier adults as a result.
Notes From Michael Masterson's Journal: Sex, Surveys, and You
It sometimes seems that the more bizarre the information is, the more likely it is to be repeated and remembered. Which bring me to a new, seemingly immensely important discovery about sex: According to a survey of 1,200 men reported by CompuServe News Service, men in their fifties enjoy better and more satisfying sex than do men in their thirties or forties. They rated themselves a 2.77 out of 4.0 on the good-sex meter, compared to thirty-year-olds at 2.55 or seventy-year-olds at 2.14.
I suppose that's good news. Or is it?
We know that 50-year-old men have lots of problems when it comes to rising to the occasion. (There is a multi-billion-dollar industry based on this.) So if they rate themselves so highly, it must be because they've become wiser and more confident in love. But if wisdom trumped potency, why didn't the 60- and 70-year-olds rate themselves higher?
What's going on there? One possibility: It's another weird effect of the baby boomer phenomenon.
In other words, 50-year-old men rate their sex lives as more satisfying because they are having more and better sex. Haunted by what seems like an increasingly precipitous decline into old age, they are taking advantage of every opportunity they have, including extramarital affairs and Viagra.
Fifty-year olds, keep in mind, are baby boomers. And we baby boomers will do almost anything to maintain our long-held view that we are, indeed, the reason the world was created.
But while it's interesting to speculate on the reason why men in their fifties rated themselves so highly, there's a more important question - and this is as relevant for women as it is for men: Are you willing to have a sex life that rates only 2.77 or even 2.79 on a four-point scale?
I'm not. I'm shooting for the big four point zero. And why shouldn't I? And why shouldn't you? So long as we're healthy and fully functional (with or without supplementation), why can't we hope to enjoy a phenomenal sex life?
I won't pretend to have all the answers, but - as you might already have guessed - I do have a few thoughts.
First, don't worry about how sex is for most people most of the time. Focus on yourself. What can you do to have better sex?
And don't think in terms of "from now on." Focus on the very near term - on making your next sexual experience a 4.0.
You are perfectly capable of loving your lover with the passion and infatuation of youth plus the wisdom and consideration that comes with age. So forget about the surveys. The sex you have, the sex you give, the happiness and passion and fulfillment you can create in life have nothing to do with what other people are doing.
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The Way Markets Really Work
Nineteen months ago, he said the S&P 500 would top out at 1300……..5 months ago, he said to go long at 1175 for a "quick move to 1280 - 1300", and grabbed over 100 points in 20 trading days………right before that, he nailed a 50 point drop in only 7 trading days……..
In the Fractal Market Report by David Nichols, you'll learn about the structure and order in financial markets, and how the new science of fractals and chaos theory can finally unlock the mystery of the markets……Learn more
Word to the Wise: Perfunctory
"Perfunctory" (per-FUNGK-tuh-ree) means lacking interest or enthusiasm. It is derived from the Latin "perfungi" ("to perform fully").
Example (as used by Ilise Benun today): "[The person you're trying to initiate a conversation with] may appreciate your effort or may not be in the mood to talk. If the response you get is a perfunctory one, don't push.
