So...let's just say that I came across some interesting information over the past couple of weeks that I can't tell you about until next week.
(Don't you just love when I keep you in suspense?)
I feel like I'm in a Hollywood movie where I'm some kind of whistleblower for some highly secretive operation that I just uncovered.
Except it's not that serious. Close...but not quite as 007-ish as I'd like it to be.
(It actually may turn out to be extremely bad for the people I found some "interesting" things about but more what I uncovered next week.)
One thing I do want to mention is that I'm getting really excited about March. Like all my events, it's going to be a full-blown party. So expect the usual hard-core education with plenty of fun sprinkled in.
Some of you have been asking for more information about how to flip an apartment building since I mentioned it in my last email to you. A house is easy. It's small, quick to rehab, and quick to resell.
But an apartment building? Flipping it? Seems intense, doesn't it? Seems overwhelming.
There's a phenomenon tearing through this country right now. It's called investors pulling the trigger on every profitable cash flowing deal that makes sense.
Read the sentence above a few more times before reading on. Go ahead. Read it. Again.
Now, there's a "hole" in this market.
Let me explain:
There are a couple of things these investors do not have the luxury of doing and that is...
1) Buying a vacant or near-vacant building that's not performing at all and/or that needs major rehab.
2) Buying a building that's underperforming with low occupancy and/or management problems.
The "hole" in the market is that these investors do not have the ability to take advantage of these incredibly lucrative opportunities in rehab and underperforming property deals because they don't have the time or won't get approval from their money partners.
That's where you come in. Here's how you can cash in on this short-lived opportunity:
1) Find an underperforming property or a complete gut-to-the-studs rehab job. This property is preferably 20 to 50 units.
2) Whip together a simple mini-business plan (and I have a special template for you). This can include a PowerPoint presentation converted into a PDF file (in additional to the mini-business plan) and a snapshot of your profits on the Cash Flow Evaluator (laid into your biz plan).
And then present your plan to investors that you find online.
Something weird happened to me last week that really made me believe I was in the Twilight Zone.
If you recall, I mentioned that I ditched out my gas-guzzling Lincoln Navigator for a more environmental friendly vehicle and I settled on a mid-size Lexus.
Except...long story short: Lexus is gone and the Lincoln is parked outside of my office as I write this.
What the hell happened?
You know, quite honestly, I still don't know; I will tell you that dealing with Lexus this last time was the worst car buying transaction I've ever had to date and I will never, under any circumstances, purchase a Toyota or Lexus product for the remainder of my lifetime. Great cars; extremely poor customer service across the board. (And this has happened on a number of occasions within their organization.)
From what I gather transpired in this moment of my life that I wish never happened, they wrote the Lexus lease wrong giving me an incredibly ridiculously low lease payment, realized their mishap after I drove off with the vehicle, and did what they could to reverse the damage they'd done over the course of 4 days to get their vehicle back.
And they did.
They refused to finance the Lexus even though my mid FICO is 757 and I'm considered a Tier 1 to any dealership across America. Their reason? They claimed I had a repo with Toyota in the late 90s and that, 15 years later, they refuse to finance me...even with my current impeccable credit history.
Strangely enough, I've had 2 Lexus' since this "repo" they claim I had 15 years ago that I financed under my own name in 1999 and in 2005.
But...since they made an error and didn't want to admit to it, their only recourse would be to refuse to finance the lease, which is their choice, of course. (Bad business but their choice nonetheless.)
One thing about credit that I wanted to mention to all of you who are rebuilding your personal credit score, finance a vehicle. (Not a Toyota or Lexus, of course.) Financing a vehicle will bolster your credit score quickly provided that you make all your payments on time. You'll be surprised at how fast you can add 75 to 100 FICO points to your personal credit score after paying for a new (or used) vehicle for a solid 6 months.
I've found that Ford Credit will finance most anyone, even if you've included them in a bankruptcy or had a repo with them in the past.
This is why I realize that Ford will continue to hoard the 2nd place majority market share when it comes to U.S. auto sales in the country. (First place is GM and 3rd place is Crysler. Go Detroit!) Between the 3 auto giants with cutting-edge auto designs, progressive financing incentives and programs, and their ability to forgive the past (for those with credit problems and even if you screwed them over on a repo), how could they possibly lose?
In the meantime, you have Toyota who is struggling to keep their market share between a major hit to their reputation due to braking problems, killing innocent people in the process to save a few cents in manufacturing costs while refusing to finance people with perfect credit due to mistakes in sales contracts, credit problems from decades ago, and other such nonsense.
I don't care what market analysts say about what the hopes and dreams are for any company or what they "believe" the numbers will show in, say, 2015 or some other futuristic time frame. When you, the consumer, can see how things are "at the bottom," then you will ultimately see how any company will perform in the New Economy.
And Toyota/Lexus/Scion isn't going to fare well. (I'd like to see Honda/Acura and Nissan/Infiniti bump them out of the game altogether.)
I see Detroit growing and growing in the years to come. Again, this comes down to what I see on a consumer level and nothing else. And no, I am not an economist or do any type of economic analysis. However, I'm usually right 9 times out of 10 just because I pay attention to reality and not news stories or what I'd "like" to see happening in the world.
Many of you know I have a connection with Detroit because Ronnie lives there. During my last visit, I did an inspection on a building that I'm putting an offer in on just because Michigan is the #12 state in the U.S. that has a business user-friendly environment as well as kick-ass tax incentives. (This beats out California which is one of the worst states to do business!)
But I see other things going on there too.
I do see major progress with the auto manufacturers.
And there are the little things...
How cool is it to be looking at a building that has train tracks behind it and to see a pile of brand new chassis' slowly going down the tracks, on the verge of arriving at some auto manufacturing plant to make into cars? It's cool as hell.
Maybe it was going to the Toyota plant to build a Lexus. (In which case, I should have derailed the train.) Yes, Toyota/Lexus also has a manufacturing plant in the outskirts of Detroit. So do other "foreign" manufacturers. Surprising? (It's the "foreign" manufacturers best kept secret: they manufacture in Detroit and in other U.S. states, mostly in the Midwest.)
It's the "little things" that are showing me what's going on with our New Economy. When you have the most dismal war-zone third-world-country-ish area of the United States starting to boom, buckle your seat belts. We're on the verge of seeing a replay of the Roaring 20s...except better.
I see it. I can feel it. And I'm preparing for it.
Most of you probably remember the email I sent out a little while back telling you about a guy named Victor I ran into while shopping in Michigan. And he recognized me, which doesn't happen very often.
Since I didn't have the foresight to give Victor my business card and since he says he reads all my emails, I wanted to give Victor a special prize when he called into my office.
Except he never called! WTH, Victor? Where are you?
I also mentioned something about "synchronicity" of the universe. And that if you run into the right people on your path at the right time, it's meant for you to take an opportunity to move forward.
I was trying to help Victor do that by offering him something special...except he didn't call.
What's interesting is that Victor claimed he was just on my website before meeting me that day a few odd weeks back. Victor is ready for a change in his life...or so I thought, because he never called me to take me up on this special gift I email blasted everyone about.
Could I have sent out the one email that Victor happened to not read? (Now, what are the chances of that? I put his name in the subject line. Kind of hard to miss, you think?)
Think about it, folks: what are the chances? I live in California. I happened to be out shopping in a busy mall in Michigan. (This is something of a pet peeve of mine, shopping in crowded places because my basic motto is "Get it on Amazon.com or Don't Get It at All!")
Since Victor happened to be there at the right time...or maybe it was the other way around...I'm tried giving him an opportunity to further the opportunity in his life if he chooses to take it. This is an opportunity that most of you, my dear students, would kill for.
Except, Victor never called.
The universe opened a door for him...but is Victor too afraid to answer it?
It got me thinking about my students and how many of them have been sitting around thinking about changing certain aspects of their lives, yet they don't for one reason or another. Yet I have a slew of other students who have decided to make the changes and they've become successful as a result of it, mostly by having a Take-No-Prisoners attitude.
This is the point you need to get in order to have the right follow-through.
The start of a New Year is always a good momentum starting point. This is when many of us are gung-ho, clutching to a list of "resolutions" that we swear we'll follow through with this time. Because this year will be different.
This year will be different but only if you want it to be.
By the way, many of you are wondering what I was going to give Victor as a gift.
But he never called...sooooo...so much for seeing Victor at the gift.
And this really bothered me because I really felt that there was a one in a zillion chance that he would have gotten this kind of gift given to him just because of the highly odd set of circumstances that allowed us to meet that maybe he was ready to chance his life.
Well, Victor isn't ready. That doesn't mean you're not ready. In fact, by now you should bemore than ready. This is the year to stop stalling and start kicking your own ass into gear.
When I first got started in investing eons ago, like many other investors I got started flipping fixer-upper single-family homes. Later on I adopted the methodology of buying SFRs to rent them out. Then, of course, the economy greatly shifted, I moved onto the more lucrative apartment building investing, and I long left SFR acquisitions and flipping in the dust.
About 18 months ago I started flipping SFRs again, only because the economy came around, making flipping an incredibly lucrative enterprise. This generally happens when the economy shifts from a recessive flatline to a slow progressive improvement. Flipping is awesome during these times and...we're now officially in "these times" to make fixer-upper flipping work.
And I can show you how to make quick, easy piles of money doing this.
Plus, you can meet my investor partners who are ready and willing to invest in flip deals, apartment buildings, MHPs, commercial-commercial buildings and even business ventures such as software start-ups, restaurants, and other lucrative business enterprises.
If you're interested in acquiring even more cash for your passive income real estate (i.e. apartment building investing), it's best that you inject your own cash into those types of deals which you can now easily raise through SFR flipping.
But this opportunity won't last forever.
Just as the window of opportunity has closed for no-cash-no-credit deals with 100% owner financing, you can now get your own cash and credit together to do your own deals and increase your net worth 1,000 fold in the shortest amount of time possible.
Listen, 2013 can be your year...but not if you plan on sitting on your ass and doing nothing. Every successful person out there -- smart or stupid, with or without resources -- all did onething and one thing only: they created a simple plan and executed the plan. That's it. Nothing more!
No, you don't have to win the lottery or "get lucky" to make things happen for your life. (Victor kind of got lucky but never followed through.) You just have to have a simple set of instructions and play out the instructions laid out. Just like every other successful person has and does.
And for Victor, if you're reading this, you can still call my office. Tell me what happened to you and why you never responded. Maybe, just maybe, I'll cut you a break. (Depends on what type of mood I'm in when you call.)
One of the things I generally do is that I let my students know some "things" about the year ahead including some personal things about what's going to be transpiring with me for the duration of the year.
Before I go into anything, I wanted to bring up a gripe...just because I'm in that type of mood right now.
So...a couple of days ago I got rid of my Lincoln Navigator for a few reasons:
1) I started to feel something strange. I'm not sure if it was guilt or...something. But I felt like I was committing a crime against the environment for driving around this massive beast just for myself and my little 4 1/2 year old daughter 99% of the time. It no longer made any type of sense whatsoever. And it was quite sudden, too.
2) I'm sick of this "status" nonsense and trying to "fit in" with society. It makes me want to puke just thinking about it lately. I'm tired of everyone on my neighborhood block having new cars, trying to top one over the other. It's so...sad, sickening, nauseating, and so far from any kind of spirituality on any level. And I'm no longer choosing to drive something I really don't care for just to be a "cool dude" in the eyes of someone else.
3) I originally bought the Lincoln Navigator to "show up" my ex-husband right after we split up because he took the other Navigator that was under his name (that I drove all the time). And what a useless endeavor that was. (Talk about a spiritually bankrupt decision on my part!) This was over 2 years ago. And I needed to change that energy.
What did I end up doing?
I've always been a fan of Toyota/Lexus products and I haven't had one in a good 5+ years.
And it was time to get rid of my Made-in-Detroit gas guzzler that is only beat out by the Hummer beating out my former 11-miles-to-the-gallon beast by 2 miles per gallon.
But, honestly, it was time for an energy change all around. I figured that we are up on 2013, I can get my last tax write-off, and...what the hell?
A few days before I traded in the Navigator, my neighbor across the street got a mid-size SUV made by Infiniti. I was going to get the same model because it has a 3rd row seat which comes in handy when Ronnie and the kids come out in the summer. But...I didn't want them to think I was copying them and I'm not really big on Infiniti so...I went with a small Lexus SUV instead.
All of a sudden, my neighbors across the way started giving me the cold shoulder since I parked my new vehicle in the driveway. Hmmmm. My imagination? Maybe.
Except what happened next sort of surprised me.
Today my neighbor came up to my door and hands me a gift card. She says, "Here's the gift card back that you gave us for Christmas. It was unnecessary." And walks off.
WTF?? What planet am I on? (And you thought living in a "well off" area was some how better? Pullleeeezzzeee! These people are weirdos across the board!)
Who gives back a gift?
I'm thinking about it now and it's...laughable actually. What can you do when you live on a block that's full of nothing but circus characters trying to one-up each other every day? Who lives like that?
And my neighbors wonder why I don't bother talking to them.
Very quickly, I want to go over two (2) things; what to expect for 2013 and what to expect from me:
What to Expect for 2013:
Apartment and MHP investing are already heating up. Mid- to large-size investors are picking up everything they can get their hands on starting this past summer of 2012. Commercial-commercial is starting to heat up, although not as much. Investors are looking for stabilized properties that are rehabbed and leased up.
This means your Opportunity Opening is with rehab and/or leasing up underperforming properties, namely apartment buildings and MHPs. Serious investors don't have the time or interest in rehabbing or stabilizing a property in any fashion whatsoever and that can be your niche...and a very profitable one at that.
SFRs (both flipping and buy-and-hold) have been hot from the very beginning of 2012 and continue to do so. Investors are picking up SFRs by the handfuls each with their own different strategies in mind. Some rehab and flip. Others are just hanging onto them until the economy gets better with the intention on flipping them later. Some are buying and leasing them out. You can get into this game as well because there are too many properties (especially foreclosures) and not enough investors to swoop them all up. You have all of this year and a good part of next year to make big money with SFRs.
Banks are making commercial loans/mortgages much easier to get if you fix your freakin' credit already. Even residential loans are getting much easier to get. The government is kicking up FHA loans (for residential) and SBA loans (for commercial) programs, making it extremely easy to get these types of loans. Just clean up your credit. And you can do this inside of 6 months if you are consistent with the process.
The stock market will struggle this year with its typical emotional roller coaster ups and downs but...who cares? You shouldn't be putting your assets into the stock market anyway. Real estate is where it's at, baby!
And yes, you can make 2013 the year of your financial independence...but only if you actuallydo something about it. That means 2013 has to be your year of action! And this is pretty much your last year where you can get a solid shot at becoming financially independent starting from nothing or near nothing.
What to Expect from Me in 2013:
I've been undergoing some massive spiritual and emotional changes over the past 6 months. I think many of you have noticed.
I think the hardest part for the past couple of years is the distance between me and my hubby, Ronnie.
Strangely, this past fall, after going through the 5 Stages of Grief and Loss, I finally came toAcceptance. And it was a long, hard road for me.
It was during this time when I decided that my days of training would be coming to an end soon just because it's time for me to focus on different things just to keep my soul and heart expanding.
Somehow I always feel some personal responsibility when a student gets my course in the mail and stuffs it under his bed without ever removing the shrink-wrap. Even though I've helped thousands of people become successful just in the past few short years, I still focus on those I wish I could help more but couldn't. And that's the part that bothers me the most.
The other part is that I don't ever want to be one of those people who has 20 years of teaching experience when, in reality, I felt like I had 1 year of teaching experience times 20 years.
I've sacraficed doing some larger deals, important once-in-a-lifetime projects, and other special endeavors I really wanted to participate in just to keep heading up my Apprenticeship and Mentorship Groups.
With that said, I already started limiting my hours of working on training students starting this past summer. Many of my students began panicking earlier last year when they first learned I'd be shortening my schedule but, rest assured, I didn't disappear nor do I plan on completely disappearing for awhile.
In fact, I've committed to all of 2013 to train, guide, and instruct my students. Just on a more limited schedule.
As one of my other businesses is exploding beyond my wildest imagination, I'm taking more time to focus on new types of marketing and product development that is out of my realm of expertise. And this is exciting for me. It keeps me passionate about life.
I'm also focusing on some new types of real estate investing that I never considered before. I'm also considering moving one of my companies out of California to a location in the greater Detroit area just because doing business in California sucks ass.
Regardless, I'm going to be available for my students all throughout 2013.
P.S. And after thinking I ditched out my Made-in-Detroit Navigator, I read the paperwork on the Lexus SUV I bought and it was...Made in Detroit at the Toyota plant.
Yes, I think I do live in the Twilight Zone because nothing makes any sense anymore.
A lot has changed in the world of real estate in the past couple of years. Let me give you the good, bad, and ugly of it all as we prepare to enter 2013.
Let's get The Ugly out of the way first:
The Ugly:
Real estate agents and brokers are still losers, even more now than ever because of their lengthy time in starvation mode. It's like letting a caged dog out of a hot box after starving him for a couple of weeks. Not a pretty sight. And yes, he will attack you, probably eating you in the process. And no, none of them got any smarter, more professional, or kinder in the last few years. I have to say that it's probably the meanest and angriest group of "professionals" since the lynch mob in the 1800s.
There are still some very creepy unscrupulous characters out in the world of lending. Although they can't get away with the former lending practices that got us into all that financial trouble a handful of years back because of so many newly implemented federal regulations, they are a little more brazen with their front-end scams such as "money-up-front" loans, ridiculously high loan application fees, equity partnership scams, due diligence legal fee scams, and a wide variety of other illegal behavior that's pretty obvious unless you're emotionally desperate to do your deal, then you may actually fall for the scam at hand. There are still Uncle Guido loan shark types out there with super high loan points and borderline illegal interest rates that make investing in any type of property not only incredibly risky but just plain stupid.
The Bad:
Many sellers still think they are selling at the peak of the market, even after watching their property rot on Loopnet with no activity for years and years. They also think that their property is the hottest thing since the Gold Rush in California and won't budge on their price, probably even thinking their building was built out of 24K gold bricks; this is how deluded many of them still are. Yet on the flip side, because the market heating up so fast in the commercial real estate realm, many of them can actually hang on for a little longer and get what they're asking for. Maybe more.
Competition pretty much took over the commercial real estate investing market virtually overnight, especially with apartment building investing. This happened because everyone realized (at the precise same time) that the market wasn't getting any lower on pricing, interest rates weren't going to get any lower and commercial banks started lending with much less strict mortgage criteria. This "perfect storm" happened over the summer, probably while you were at the beach. Tighter competition means that the days of 100% owner financing are officially over. So is expecting a lot of seller carry.
The Good:
Investors are picking up properties so fast (expecting that they'll start going up soon) that they are limited to choosing stabilized properties in order to manage their cash flows and/or appease their investor partners. Most of them are notin the position to rehab or lease-up an underperforming property. This leaves the REO and underperforming property market pretty much wide open for you.
Investors are leaving smaller properties alone. This includes 4-plexes ("quads"), SFRs (single-family residences), smaller MHP properties (up to 20 pads), and smaller apartment buildings (5 - 16 units). The good news about this is that smaller properties are much cheaper to function. Your operating expenses usually never exceed 35% on these properties and can be as low as 20%. (Bigger properties have operating expenses as much as 65% or higher in some cases!) Having a bunch of smaller properties is the way to go because the cost to operate them is much less, thus putting more cash into your pocket.
Becoming part of an equity partnership deal is super easy now. Every investor and wannabe investor with money wants in on real estate right now. Long gone are the days of twisting an investor's arm to get him or her to invest in a deal or convincing them how awesome apartment building investing is. Their pens are poised to write checks. Now! You just have to find these people through a variety of specific methods that I've taught over the years. (Now is time to use these methods; get my point?)
Commercial mortgages are actually much easier to get than you think. If you have good personal credit, you're in. Even if you have no built business credit yet, you can still buy a building under a newly formed LLC and use yourself as a personal guarantee since all loans under $1,000,000 are recourse loans (requiring a personal guarantee) anyway.
Gaining access to unsecured lines of business credit has never been easier because of a newly implemented government program encouraging commercial banks to lend more money to businesses to get the economy rolling again. Banks get special incentives for lending money to businesses. Of course, this requires that you take some time to build some business credit which takes anywhere from 3 - 6 months. Good business credit can put you in an unsecured line of business credit in the low- to mid-six figures which can, in turn, be used for down payments on properties. Since you're going to be focusing on smaller properties from now on (priced $100,000 to $1,000,000), having unsecured cash will easily give you the 20% required for the down payment on these deals.
Like I said, I've been warning everyone for a couple of years now that the window of opportunity is closing for getting your foot in the door on apartment building investing with little or no money down, owner financing, and by using creative financing methods.
And I also mentioned that the window of opportunity has just officially closed.
Instead of letting it depress you, instead you need to look at what's left on the table for you to make a killing with.
1) Smaller properties like small apartment buildings, MHP properties, and even SFRs.
2) REO apartment buildings and unstable properties requiring a revamp on management.
But...if you're going to get these properties, you're going to have to put some "skin" in the game. This means putting money down. And you can get this money by changing the face of your personal credit and building business credit.
My students with good credit get anywhere from $300,000 to $500,000 in unsecured lines of business credit.
Students with marginal personal credit but with built business credit get anywhere from $50,000 to $150,000 in unsecured lines of business credit.
Whichever category above you'll end up in by this coming summer will still get you in the investing game because you'll be able to raise the money for your EMDs, due diligence, and down payments to play the investment game.
Yesterday I met a nice young man by the name of Victor while shopping. Right now I'm in Michigan spending time with my husband's family and looking at property for acquisitions.
And a rare occurrence took place. I was recognized in public.
It happens here and there but not often.
I didn't have the foresight to give Victor my business card and since he says he reads all my emails, I'm going to give Victor a special prize when he calls into my office.
So, Victor, if you're reading this, call my office and ask for Lea. She's in the office from 9am to 5pm PST...that's 3 hours behind you. I already instructed her on what your special prize will be if you can tell her which store we met in and where it's located.
This is what I call synchronicity of the universe.
And it will now be up to Victor on how he chooses to use it.
What's interesting is that Victor said he was just on my website before meeting me. Victor is ready for a change in his life. He happened to bump into me. Think about it: what are the chances? I live in California. I happened to be out shopping in a busy mall in Michigan. (This is something of a pet peeve of mine, shopping in crowded places because my basic motto is "Get it on Amazon.com or Don't Get It at All!")
Since Victor happened to be there at the right time...or maybe it was the other way around...I'm going to give him an opportunity to further the opportunity in his life if he chooses to take it.
This is the universe opening doors for him...because Victor is ready.
Are you ready?
It got me thinking about my students and how many of them have been sitting around thinking about changing certain aspects of their lives, yet they don't for one reason or another. Yet I have a slew of other students who have decided to make the changes and they've become successful as a result of it, mostly by having a Take-No-Prisoners attitude.
This is the point you need to get in order to have the right follow-through.
The start of a New Year is always a good momentum starting point. This is when many of us are gung-ho, clutching to a list of "resolutions" that we swear we'll follow through with this time. Because this year will be different.
This coming year will be different but only if you want it to be.
Unless you believe the end of the world is tomorrow...in which case there won't be a 2013 at all. (Somehow I have a feeling we'll all still be here.)
I've found a single success formula that will always work...but only if you do it.
It's actually compacted into a single word: Action!
Sometimes your plan may be out of whack and that's okay. As long as you're pushing through with some kind of action, sometimes other opportunities or directions are presented to you. Sometimes you alter or tweet the plan and that makes it work. Sometimes you realize the plan isn't what you wanted after all, in which case you devise another plan and go for that instead.
But none of this can occur until you proceed with action in some direction that best matches your desires right now.
Many of my students ask me where to start. Of course, the answer changes every 6 - 12 months depending on what is happening with the real estate market and economy.
Right now, my recommendations for the upcoming year is the following provided that you're someone who likes to do things yourself (like I am):
1) Get your personal and business credit in functioning order. This will allow you to tap into unsecured lines of credit to purchase apartment buildings, single-family homes, access cash for a business start-up or whatever you want to do. You can't make a living working for someone else unless you're a CEO or other high falutin figure. You have to make money as an investor, business owner, or both.
Fixing/rebuilding your personal credit while getting your business credit up and running will not only help you acquire investments and business cash but it'll allow you to "roll" your money-making leverage up in the fastest possible increments. And you can do this all yourself without sharing any of your investment or business proceeds with an investor partner.
2) Starting with SFRs. When I first got started in investing eons ago, like many other investors I got started flipping fixer-upper single-family homes. Later on I adopted the methodology of buying SFRs to rent them out. Then, of course, the economy greatly shifted, I moved onto the more lucrative apartment building investing, and I long left SFR acquisitions and flipping in the dust.
Then last year I started flipping SFRs again, only because the economy came around, making flipping an incredibly lucrative enterprise. This generally happens when the economy shifts from a recessive flatline to a slow progressive improvement. Flipping is awesome during these times and...we're now officially in "these times" to make fixer-upper flipping work.
If you're interested in acquiring even more cash for your passive income real estate (i.e. apartment building investing), it's best that you inject your own cash into those types of deals which you can now easily raise through SFR flipping. But this opportunity won't last forever. Just as the window of opportunity has closed for no-cash-no-credit deals with 100% owner financing, you can now get your own cash and credit together to do your own deals and increase your net worth 1,000 fold in the shortest amount of time possible.
At my Detroit event in March 2013, I'll be talking at great length about the SFR flipping opportunity as well as the Total Wealth Building System and you'll even be able to access a million-dollar line of business credit during the event. For more information on this, go tohttp://www.monicamain.com/flipping_frenzy.
This coming year of 2013 can be your year...but not if you plan on sitting on your ass and doing nothing. Every successful person out there -- smart or stupid, with or without resources -- all did one thing and one thing only: they created a simple plan and executed the plan. That's it. Nothing more!
No, you don't have to win the lottery or "get lucky" to make things happen for your life. You just have to have a simple set of instructions and play out the instructions laid out. Just like every other successful person has and does.
And I just laid out the instructions in #1 and #2 above. Now you just need to execute them.
If you have any questions, call my office at (661) 295-5050.
As for Victor in Michigan, Lea is waiting to hear from you after 9am PST.
Before I left the office last night, Lea told me that a lot of my students who were calling in about the raising capital website building that we are now doing were wondering about one thing...
Are we going to be doing everything for the website?
Funny that she mentioned this because I was also bombarded by quite a few emails asking me the same thing.
Are we going to be doing everything for the website?
Well, let's define all of the elements that are needed for a super successful raising capital website that will be so awesome, it'll get investor partners writing checks for the down payments on your real estate deals.
1) You'll need a website with multiple pages, including the page in which your hot deal will be located. Yes, we will be doing this for you.
2) You'll need a means of capturing prospective investors' contact information including their email addresses. Yes, we will be setting this up for you including a short "auto drip" campaign and a "bait" report (which you'll also get from us).
3) You'll need fresh copy on your site that will instantly draw in the interest of your prospective investor. Yes, we will be including that on your site.
4) You'll need a hot deal. No, we will not be providing that for you. You will have to get a deal that you want funding for and we can do the rest for you.
One of the other things my students seem to be concerned about is their level of experience and if investor partners will be interested in working with them.
The answer: yes, they want to work with you. If you are presenting an awesome money-making opportunity for them with a basic plan on how you're going to pull it off, they want in. Period!
The basic "rule" though is that the property (or opportunity) will have to be local to some degree. You can't realistically dream of capturing the interest of a prospective investor if you say, "Here's my Loopnet deal, I want 50% of it, and we are going to acquire this as partners yet I'll hire a management company."
No, no, no! This isn't how it works.
Instead, you're essentially saying, "Here's my deal, I want 30% of it for overseeing minor cosmetic rehab and lease-up, we are going to acquire this as partners, and since I'm fairly local to the property, I'll handle every aspect of this deal while you wildly profit!"
The other thing that my students don't seem to understand is that there is this huge wave of interested investor partners coming out of the "mass wealthy" pool. These people are doctors, dentists, lawyers (yuck!), engineers, and other professionals who have lots of liquid assets but no clue on what to do with this money.
Yet they are all in the same boat.
Time is running out for them. It's as simple as that.
These people can only continue working 40 to 70 hours per week for so long before they will realistically drop dead from exhaustion (or blowing their brains out to escape the rat race), they're all getting up there in age, and they are desperate for a real plan on maintaining their lavish lifestyle while cutting back (or eliminating) their work schedule!
And you're their plan.
I've had more "mass wealthy" invest in my deals just in the past 2 years than I've ever had in my investing career.
I had no "mass wealthy" invest with me 10 years ago. I had 1 invest with me about 5 years ago. Now 95% of the investor partners who invest with me on deals are part of this "mass wealthy" pool.
Interesting how quickly things change.
What's awesome about these people is that you don't need to twist their arm on the opportunity. You don't need to convince them of having a high level of experience. Just going through a course on real estate investing makes you much more qualified on the subject than they'll ever be!
This is quite the opposite, by the way, if you're trying to deal with professional investors (which has become very difficult to do these days because they micro-manage everything).
Remember, I've been warning everyone for a couple of years now that the window of opportunity is closing for getting your foot in the door on apartment building investing with little or no money down, owner financing, and by using creative financing methods.
Okay, so you know you have to set up a website to start drawing in these investor partners.
But it takes more than just having a website out there.
A website is like an island. It can be there in the middle of the ocean. Unless people know about it, the island is useless, bare, and lonely.
So, you won't be getting just a website from us. You'll be in full understanding of exactly what you'll need to do to market this website with a cutting-edge, bona-fide step-by-step plan on what to do to drive boatloads of qualified investor partner traffic to your site so that you can get your deal(s) funded virtually instantly!
This is a far cry from what I had to use to get investor partnership money only a handful of years ago.
I had to use investor mailing lists. I had to create a kick-ass mailing piece, talking about specific deals I was working on. I was limited to mailing to Southern California investors and I had to meet with them one-on-one to "sell" them the deal.
This was costly, time-consuming, nerve-wracking, and a miserable process And I hated every minute of it. But I was able to acquire tens of millions of dollars in property from 2003 through 2012 without sinking a penny of my own into a single piece of investment real estate.
I only wish I had access to the type of technology and the online raising capital "system" I know about now back in 2003 because I would be into the hundreds of millions of dollars in property by now.
However, reality is, most people cannot do what I did to raise capital because it takes a certain type of personality and very thick skin.
Now you don't have to anymore.
For a very limited time, I'm offering you an opportunity to have your own Operation Money Magnet website developed and up and running so that you can ring in the New Year with getting your hot new deal funded and launched.
I already had quite a few students sign up by the time I left yesterday. I'm putting a limit on this since I don't want to overwhelm myself or Rafael nor do I want any of my students waiting to get a complete website.
You can also use me to write your mini-business plan, PowerPoint, and to do your YouTube online video presentation for your site. All you do is supply the deal.
You decide whether gaining access to hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars in investor partner down payments for your deals is important...or not.
Okay, you remember that over the past week and a half I've been sharing different details about how you can change your life by the end of this year, making 2013 your "magical" year...including giving you a 21-page Magic Report (for those of you who requested it)?
After putting together the report and mulling over it for a few days, I realized that there is one element that trumps over everything else when it comes to being successful in everything that I do.
Now, this doesn't work unless you have both an action plan and the motivation (and enthusiasm) to do the plan.
Plus...you have to be doing the plan.
As I mentioned (about 5 emails ago), you have to be working a plan. Once you start working a plan, the Universe will start making ways for you and altering your plan into something that is better for you. The point, though, is that you have to be working a plan into a productive direction in order for the Universe to start helping you. If you plan something but sit on your ass watching Judge Judy, the Universe will do nothing for you.
With that said, I can now get down to business with "my secret."
Once you get rolling with the implementation of your action plan, you can't care about the outcome. That's the rule.
Part of the reason my life works so well is because I don't give a damn day to day what the outcome is (or isn't). I have learned to trust that things will work out.
Bottom line: I set forth a solid and strong plan in motion and I then let go, not giving a damn what happens from that point forward.
Seriously...I don't give a damn. I completely let go and understand that whatever happens, happens.
Now, in order for this to work well you have to obviously have a solid action plan and be implementing that plan. You have to be doing the very best you can do with the resources that you have. You can't beat yourself up if you don't have enough in resources including knowledge, experience, money, etc. Again, do the best you can with what you have and you'll be surprised at what will open up for you.
After a time when you start to realize that the Universe will begin "helping" you along the way with knowledge, people, and other resources, you'll start to trust that you'll be taken care of with whatever endeavor you decide to go forth with.
And with trust you'll get more results from the Universe. With more results, you'll have more trust. With trust, the flood gates will fully open.
And you'll never have to worry again about what to do in any situation or circumstance. You'll always be taken care of. Automatically.
To be clear, the secret is to give it your all and not give a damn about what happens. When you can truly let go, you'll realize just how miraculous things will start to happen in your life.
Over the past week I've been giving you a thorough breakdown of how to quickly and easily start changing your life.
Now, as you know, while you're doing the spirital stuff, you have to also play the game of economics. As I briefly mentioned, you can't sit under a fig tree, meditate, think positive thoughts, and suddenly a check for a million dollars is miraculously mailed to you from the clouds.
That's not how the rules were set up on this earthly plane.
And if you're going to make it (and big) you have to create an action plan that works well in giving you piles of money into your bank account as quickly as possible.
There has never been a better time to get quick money from real estate. And it's actually a surprising strategy to use to get it.
One of my newer students who got started with the Real Estate Cash Flow System last month has already flipped 2 houses and made a total of $17,200 in the process. All in only 5 1/2 weeks.
I have another student who flipped her first house in the last 3 weeks and she's made $6,750 on the deal. Not bad. (She was disappointed because she thought it would have been more but the deal she's working on now will be double that.)
Flipping properties is now back "in" style just because it's do-able in our current economic conditions. This is how I started in real estate 18 years ago. (Damn, am I that old already?)
Of course, as our real estate market got crazy out of control, flipping got harder and harder to do since everyone and their mom was doing it. Plus, it got harder to find fixer-upper deals out there since everyone was snatching everything up at viper speed.
That ended the days of flipping.
Everyone knows what happened next. The real estate bubble burst. And we're still trying to sort out the foreclosure mess (which will take another 5+ years at this rate).
We're at the bottom. You may have been dubious when I told you this earlier this year but now I don't have to convince you that it's true. Real estate prices aren't getting any lower. Interest rates aren't dropping anymore.
And, believe it or not, not everyone got caught up in the foreclosure windfall. There had been a big chunk of the population (that they never talk about about on the news) that didn't lose their homes, didn't even own a home, and didn't damage their credit in the past 7 years with the real estate foreclosure calamity.
Even better, these people are buying property now.
Plus, the FHA program has come back in full force, making it affordable for people to get into a house without a huge down payment (since banks have gotten so strict on so many purchasing elements to get a conventional home mortgage). The FHA program had just about died not so many years ago. Now it's becoming more popular than ever.
It was in the month of May when I realized that banks were back in the business of lending. Yes, May. Of this year (2012). For awhile they were in "watch-and-wait" mode but I think they, like everyone else, got sick of nothing (good or bad) happening and that life moved on.
Plus, there is a way through transactional funding (deferred) that you can buy, fix up, and flip a house without using your own money. This has never existed before a year ago this month let alone 18 years ago when I first got started in the business.
I introduced this successful strategy of flipping for profit to my students in a double-whammy at both my 3-Day Vegas Boot Camp Seminar and in my Real Estate Cash Flow System, both introduced at the same time. It's the first time I've ever revealed to my students how to get that cash needed for down payments, earnest money deposits, due diligence, closing and other costs to purchase larger cash flowing passive income properties.
Within a short time (much shorter than I expected), I have students who not only absorbed the materials but they are using it for success. Quick success!
This shocked me. I'm used to hearing the success stories begin to trickle in about 3 or 4 months after I introduce a success secret to my students. I didn't expect to hear on people's successes so quickly!
You stuck with me through the journey so far. Congrats to that!
(Toast!)
Now, we have a final part of this journey for me to reveal to you.
(By the way, if you missed any piece of the journey or want all of it in once simple report, go to www.monicamain.com/magic_report and get all of it in one simple easy-to-read PDF document.)
Let's go back to the very beginning when I spoke about moving energy. If you want to begin changing things, moving energy comes in many forms. We talked about cleaning and organizing, which is the first you should do.
When setting up your work environment, use a lot of light. Have music. Use fragrances. Have a fountain or fish tank. This moves all the energy while you're working on your action plan.
In the morning and at night when you are doing your gratitude exercises, you'll need to add something to it now. Once you have your action plan and you start moving on the track of the plan, begin adding this into your gratitude exercise. Pretend as if you have already achieved your goal or you know you are about to. Be grateful for what has come (as if it's already happened) or be grateful for what's about to come (if you can't pretend it's happened already). Feel excited about it.
If you start to experience doubt, let go and quickly shift gears into thinking about other things you are grateful for even if it's your child's beautiful smile or a joke someone told you the other day.
This can also become more powerful if, while feeling grateful and getting that "warm and fuzzy happy feeling" that you let it become a visualization fantasy and allow yourself some visual pictures of the things and situations to come with your goal or action plan. Visualization is not for everyone. If you have a hard time visualizing or find that you become negative and doubtful in these types of sessions then don't add this into your daily ritual.
Whenever you are talking to people in your journey to reach your goal, thank them for their time and their efforts in helping you. Be very genuine in how you speak to them when you express this gratefulness to them.
When you are given something small, really feel the thankfulness and express it openly.
Make gratitude a moment-to-moment thing you embrace in your life and you'll notice all kinds of doors opening for you instantly. The waters of life will quickly begin parting for you.
Now...I cheated because I do have one more piece of the puzzle but this is only for those of you who are serious about all this I've been teaching you for the past several days. And no, this isn't some course or anything to buy from me. There really is one more thing I want to tell those of you who are serious and it's in my magic report that you can get without paying me a cent for it. You just have to tell me you want it by going to www.monicamain.com/magic_report and you can get this report instantly via email.
This is one final thing you can use to implement into all of these secrets I've been sharing to put you over the top with everything.
