It's amazing because every once in awhile a student actually listens to me.
I did this presentation at my Vegas event in May where I was talking about creating new opportunities in 2015 and beyond because...well, a lot of opportunities to get properties that are 95% or 100% occupied are gone. No inventory left. Competing with a lot of investors, many of which have cash of 20% to 25% down. Many have management resumes longer than your arm with a portfolio of properties to go with it. Many have personal credit FICOs of 800 or above with stellar business credit to boot.
The challenge list gets longer and longer as one who "dreams" about becoming a real estate investor still stays glued to the couch continuing to dream...
Although lately I can't complain. In the past 2 years, I've had more student success stories than the prior 10 years before, combined. So I must be doing something right.
But I have to point out this one student who sent me this email yesterday about a deal he did based on a rather short (and definitely not comprehensive) presentation I did on "second-hand" foreclosure investing this past May:
"OK, I did what you said to do in Vegas when you were talking about 2nd hand REOs. I found a wholesaler in Ohio with a list like the one that you let us download off your website and I was about to buy a 4-unit vacant building that needed a lot of work but it was listed for only $19,900. I offered $9,000 and they took it, like right away! I don't think my offer was in for more than 2 hours before they got back to me. I have business credit that I've been building since 2013 so I basically bought the property with a credit card convenience check. I know. you tell us not to do that because of the fees but they wanted to close in a week and I didn't want to waste any time. i wrote the check and put it right into escrow, pretty easy. Closing took a week and then the building was mine so I found some guys through a handyman ad on Craigslist who helped me rehab each unit one by one, the total rehab cost was approx. $8,000 a unit, all on biz credit cards. After everything including a few misc. costs, I spend a total of $44,340 on the project including 'marketing' for the units. (I put a big yellow banner up in front of the place that said FIRST MONTHS RENT ONLY $1, the banner cost $120). I put the banner up while we were still working on the place so I was getting phone calls to my cell when we weren't even rent ready yet. By the time the place was ready, all 4 units were leased up inside 11 days then I put the property back up for sale with an agent for $119,900 as a 'turn key' investment like you said to do. An out of state investor (from California) ended up offering $109,000 and I took it. It just closed escrow on Monday and I got a check from escrow for $58,731.82 after all the fees and commissions. Total turn around time for the deal was 6 1/2 weeks. So I can testify to anyone that this stuff works. It really works. Anyone who says it doesn't is just lazy is all." ~A.J.
And this is from a student who didn't even attend the Vegas event. He bought the videos, watched them, took notes, and most importantly, kicked himself into action and did something with the knowledge he had just learned.
I try not to be hard on my students because I do realize that there is one huge obstacle to overcome, perhaps the most challenging obstacle of all and that is FEAR! Plain old fear and lack of confidence that you can pull this off.
This is why I give my students all the tools you could possibly need so that you can quickly see the fear melt away as you realize that I've made the playing fields even for everyone, even against those "experienced wealthy investors" who have cash down, credit up the yin-yang, and a portfolio of properties to use as both collateral (if needed) or to show experience with property.
In fact, I will go so far as to say this:
Many of my students who (a) have been following me for years, and (most importantly) (b) have actually read, listened to, and watched my presentations on everything including fixing/rebuilding personal credit (if needed), building business credit, and understanding my methodologies on real estate investing actually have more knowledge about this entire business and how it works than many of the investors (and commercial real estate agents) that you'll run into out there.
Case in point, I had a student of mine who went to [Nameless Real Estate Guru]'s seminar, ended up popping $35,000 for some "exclusive investment group," purchased a property, then came crying to me because the property was losing money. This student was incredibly smart (he's a doctor), has tons of money (is liquid about $2 million buck-er-oos), has a ton of collateral in other properties (including the medical building he owns) and was freaking DUPED by a so-called real estate investing "expert" (AKA "used-car-salesman-now-real-estate-"guru"). So he came to me last year to figure out what to do with the property.
My response: You have to sell it and start over. This time...use a CFE (Cash Flow Evaluator) BEFORE considering any property. "CFE...what's that?" was his response.
All of this could have been avoided by understanding some basics and NOT by throwing $35,000 into the lap of some wanna-be real estate "guru" who herded this doctor (and probably hundreds of others) into losing deals because this "guru" simply doesn't give a shit about you or anyone else he is "teaching." He only cares about the money he can extract from your credit cards.
Once this doctor learned how to use the CFE, he was kicking himself on how a small spreadsheet tool could have saved him such a huge loss. I told him that you can't cry over spilled milk. The best remedy to loss is to quickly pick yourself up and start over on another property or project while chalking the past off as a learning experience.
You, my friend, know a lot more than you think. You have enough knowledge to be able to have success as a real estate investor.
But maybe you're missing a few things. Here they are:
1) The cash.
2) The latest ground-breaking strategy for real estate investing in 2015.
3) The ability to show sellers that you HAVE the cash for the deals.
Most of you know that, in order to get a deal looked at by a real estate agent, you need something called a VOD (verification of deposit) or POF (proof of funds) letter.
On top of that, real estate agents will even want to see a bank preapproval letter to ensure that you have qualified for a mortgage which, if you've been in the commercial real estate game even for 5 minutes, you'd know that no commercial-lending bank will give anyone a "blanket" preapproval letter that can be applied to ANY property. It will be designated for THAT property only...and how are you supposed to get a preapproval without getting the actual profit/loss or income/expenses, which most listing agents won't give to you without a preapproval?
Classic Catch-22 situation.
The good news is that by having a VOD to show that you are putting in an all-cash offer (which doesn't need a mortgage because it's...well, ALLCASH), you not only will have your offer looked at by the seller's agent but it'll be streamlined on the top of the pile over any and all other offers that may be on the table.
Okay, so say you put in your offer with a VOD. How will you get the ACTUAL CASH needed to close the deal?
It will depend on the type of deal you're dealing with. If the deal is a traditional sale, meaning that the occupancy level is above 85% and can qualify for conventional mortgage terms, then you can put a little tiny disclosure in your offer stating that if you change your mind and would like to get a loan instead of paying all cash, you have that option.
Otherwise, if the property is a rehab job and needs you to cure occupancy issues because the tenancy is low, you will have to offer all cash and pay all cash for the property.
The types of deals left to do this will be your multifamily properties between 2 and 4 units (and up to 6 units if you are brazen).
This allows you to buy these properties for $100,000 or less in many cash flowing areas of the country AND you can even fund your rehab AND you can knock out your rehab and lease-up within just a couple of months.
So...we've established that you'll be getting smaller properties and show proof of funds that you have the cash to close.
But...again, where do you get all that cash?
I have a new source that will give my students up to $100,000 in unsecured cash without having to have an established business. Yes, this is for "start-up" businesses. Even if you have had some credit problems, this company can still offer this cash.
So, that's where you get the cash from.
But will that be enough?
Yes, it'll be enough. Again, you're going for SMALLER PROPERTIES that you can effectively turn around VERY QUICKLY. You'll have enough for both acquisition of the property AND rehab of the property.
Then what?
You turn around and sell it for a profit, pay your loan back, and start over.
Because...
ALL INVESTORS ARE LOOKING FOR TURN-KEY DEALS NOW!
What is a "turn-key" deal?
It's a deal that's already rehabbed, leased up, and making a cash flow. They don't want to mess around with rehab or finding tenants. They just want to swoop right in, buy it, and put a property manager on the job.
And they'll pay TOP DOLLAR to acquire a property like this.
So, you put in $100,000 on a property TOTAL (between acquisition and rehab) and you can realistically turn around and sell it anywhere from $250,000 to $350,000...depending on WHERE the property is located!
But you need these tools to make it work:
1) VOD letter
2) $100,000 in unsecured cash
3) Tutorial on HOW to do it!
Remember, real estate investing is fairly easy but you need some basic tools and know-how to start. Just think, within only an hour of your life, you can become a multi-million-dollar investor by getting these tools.
Yesterday I stopped at my local donut shop at the bottom of the hill from where I live to get a 1/2 dozen donuts and iced coffee with the secret Asian ingredients they put in there to make me feel like I'm on speed all day.
As I come out of the donut shop juggling my coffee, box of donuts and 2 Power Bars, I noticed that this big piece of shit 30-year-old beat up Chevy Suburban is parked so ridiculously close to my BMW that I couldn't realistically get myself and the armful of stuff into the car using the driver's side.
When the driver got out of his shit box, I said, "Could you have spared me just a little more room?"
He flew off the handle, saying..."What about saying 'good morning' or 'how ya doin'?" Then..."I'm right on my line." Then..."Hit me, take your best shot." All within seconds.
I said, "Have a nice day, sir." And I proceeded to start ignoring him.
He instantly went into a rant about how I'm a loser and a c*** and a bitch and anything else he could think of. None of that bothers me. What bothers me (about myself mostly) is that I had no real fear and I didn't care. Having been in verbally (and even physically) abusive relationships, nothing anyone says to me as a real effect which is probably not a good thing.
But here's what I saw in this guy.
He's clearly over the hill in age, clearly an overweight dumpy white guy wearing a holey Dodger sweatshirt and a dirty baseball cap, driving a total shit box of a car that hadn't seen a car wash in several years, and...clearly purposely parked his shit box so close to me that he was aiming for a confrontation with anybody so that he could take his unconscious anger out on some unsuspecting sucker.
I think he was hoping for a man to confront him. Probably a high-power exec in a suit driving the BMW so he could pick a fight by purposely giving me 2 inches on the driver's side to get in. I think he was somewhat disappointed that it was a chick (me) that owned the car.
He was still hoping for a fight which even further clearly identifies him as the loser that he is.
But the fight wasn't about me. It was about him the whole time, even before he knew who he was subconsciously picking the fight with. Especially when he saw how old I was.
Here he was feeling like the complete washed up failure that he is and wanting to take it out on someone.
Since it wasn't a man that he could start swinging at (and would probably lie saying that the "other guy" swung first), he probably figured he could still bait me into a fight as a second-best option.
Except that I'm not going to stand there swinging at a fat ass guy in a parking lot over a parking space or anything else for that matter.
Because of this, he felt justified in wanting to keep calling me names. I could see that he was getting agitated to the point of breaking out into a messy and gross sweat while he was shaking like a leaf, adrenaline pumping heavily through his veins.
I made it clear that he was just a fat, over-the-hill dumpy jealous loser driving a big piece of shit who needed a new wardrobe and to take a hike. (Hey, there's only so much verbal abuse I was willing to take.)
But just as any losing fight -- verbal or otherwise -- gets old...
There's only so much "F*** you!"
"No, f*** you!"
"No, f*** you!"
...that you can do back and forth before, well...it becomes a total waste of time.
Then he had to call me a fat ass, as I was getting into my car. Hmmm...the sliver of space he gave me between my car door and his POS tank he was driving wouldn't allow anyone other than Twiggy (only those of you 40 and over will know who that is) or someone else just as thin to get in. So, I guess I can't be that much of a fat ass.
What he didn't realize was that he was a fraction of an instant away from getting seriously hurt or dying. As he got closer and closer to my window after I got into my car, even attempting to reach in the driver's side, he didn't know what I was grabbing for...if you know what I mean. Any further of a reach in where I would have felt my life in danger, it would have been over. Not for me, but for him. (No waste of life as I can tell.)
And it would have been completely justifiable. A 6-foot 300 lb.+ guy coming at me through my window in a parking lot...and I'm barely 5'8" and around 160 lbs. trying to get away from the situation by backing out.
Case in point, you never knowwho has what as far as weapons go so...neverassumeanything; never assume that the upper scale housewife-looking chick driving in a nice car in a nice neighborhood is just a dumb blonde who will back down when in danger. She just may have an AK-47 in the backseat, waiting to blow someone's head off.
The real point here is this: I've found that losers will easily get agitated and just plain pissed off at the success of others, as if it's some type of "stroke of luck" that we got to where we are...and they just missed the boat by a stroke of "bad" luck. They don't realize that people like us work our asses off to get what we have and there is no "luck" to speak of. When dealing with loose cannons like this, it's evident that they don't know (unfortunately) that THEYTHEMSELVES are to blame for their shitty circumstances in life and it has NOTHING to do with anyone else around them.
Of course, they'd never admit to something so mind-blowing because (GASP!) they'd have to actually take personal responsibility for being the grotesque pitiful losers that, again, THEY THEMSELVES createdfor themselves.
It's just easier to blame the government, rich people, their parents, reality TV, rap music or anything else that makes just as little sense to blame for their lack of success and wealth.
Many of these less-than-savory characters carry anger and hatred for (starting with) themselves and then it parlays into interactions with everyone they meet. They have a chip on their shoulder, lash out whenever they can as only one means of perceived "control," and never take ANY responsibility for anything in their lives. It's much easier to claim that it's someone else's fault that to do anything about their lives.
Who the hell wants to live like that?
Yes, it's a crappy reality check to look around you and realize that you created everything in your life from your house, your car(s), your relationships, etc.
But it doesn't have to be a "crappy" reality check. It can be an "exciting" reality check instead.
Since you created THIS...what about simply creating something completely DIFFERENT then??
Good news: You can "wake up" out of your undesirable circumstances or situation(s) any time you want and create something different. And there's no limit on what you can create for yourself once you open your mind and have the willingness to take action to get your dream life.
I've talked about my friend Ruth before. She has breast cancer. Come to find out, it's spreading rapidly through her lungs. She only has a few months left to live, if that.
The last time I saw Ruth was about a month ago. It was the second to the last week of school and I was waiting for my daughter to come out of school. Ruth was there waiting for her son who is in my daughter's same grade. She was winded, could barely breathe, and finally had to sit down because she looked like she was about to pass out.
The first thing I thought of was my cat Scrappy.
Scrappy had this small tumor on her belly. It looked like a swollen nipple. The dummy of a vet I took her to decided to squeeze the reddish-purple pimple looking thing, making my poor cat scream and squirm until I told the idiot to stop it.
Apparently it burst the tumor that was inside of her because within mere days, Scrappy couldn't breathe anymore. She was winded and miserable.
I put her to sleep the week after and never took another animal to that moron of a vet ever again.
Ruth reminded me of Scrappy which I probably shouldn't admit to because I know it sounds bad. But that's the first thing I thought of...the cancer was spreading. And fast.
Then Ruth's husband emailed me and told me that Ruth was in the hospital but he still wanted to bring his 2 kids to my daughter's recent birthday party. He had told me that the cancer was spreading throughout her lungs.
Unfortunately...I already knew that.
I asked to see her in the hospital which would be a grueling 3-hour round trip but I didn't care. However, before I knew it, she was home and I'm patiently waiting for a day when the chemo doesn't knock her so hard on her ass that I can visit with her for even a few minutes.
Ruth is barely a couple of years older than I am and she's quickly dying. From what I've learned, breast cancer is much more aggressive in younger patients. And that sucks. She has a 7-year-old and a 5-year-old.
Sometimes life just f****** sucks!
I knew the moment that Ruth started dying. She was trying to get into a clinical trial earlier this year...since about February or March. It was to take place in Phoenix. She even drove all the way out there in May, just for the doctors to tell her that she didn't qualify for the trial because her cancer had already metastasized...not once but twice.
When she told me, I could see that the last bit of hope she hung onto had left. And I knew how dangerous that was because I remember when it happened to my mom and when they told her the cancer in her brain had doubled in size only 6 weeks after they tried to remove it. My mom went from functioning and full of hope to dead only 2 months later.
I saw that same look in Ruth. And it was only a few weeks after that when I noticed that she couldn't breathe anymore.
When you lose hope, it's over. Hope is sometimes the only thing that can hold you together.
I started to think about something. What if it were me? What if I had only a few months left to live? What would I be doing? What would I be thinking about?
Weirdly enough, I thought about my books. I order A LOT of books every month, mostly on business, marketing, and investing. For some reason I thought, "I guess I'd stop ordering and reading those business types of books because...I guess I wouldn't need to know anything else about business or investing."
I'd close down my office immediately and I would completely stop working in my final months. Why bust my ass in a salt mine when the final days of my life are ticking away?
I'd certainly get my affairs in order to make sure my daughter would get everything. I'd dump much more into her six-figure college education fund to ensure that she wouldn't piss any money away without at least giving herself a reasonable chance in life. After all, her dad would probably convince her to blow most of the money because of the pathetic loser that he is.
I'd type my ass off and write a memoir to the best of my collection but it would be different. It would mostly be a manual to be successful mixed with my own personal stories and experiences. I'd do this for my daughter mostly and, if I had time, I'd have it mainstream published for others to benefit from.
I think I'd meditate more and get a massage daily until I die. Maybe I'd take my daughter for a 2-month trip throughout Europe even though I hate traveling. I'd want to give her the best final memories possible.
And that's it. That literally would be it for me. There would be nothing more to do, right?
Shouldn't we all be living like we're dying right now? Have you created the life for yourself to enable yourself to live like you want to? To give yourself more options? To make you happy while you're here, alive and kicking?
Because if not, you need to sit your ass down and seriously start thinking about what you can do to live a better life.
If you're not happy with your work, fix it. You have options.
If you're not happy with money, fix it. There are tons of opportunities to make more money.
If you're not happy with your relationships, fix it. Kick people to the curb, be a nicer person, whatever you need to do. Stop settling.
It's very simple, folks. If you don't like something, fix it. Change it. Do something different. It's no harder than that.
Now, I can't help you with relationships, as everyone knows that this is my weak point.
It never ceases to amaze me on how stupid some of the emails I receive from some of my students.
So...after I sent my email out about how I'm abandoning the Detroit area for good (in reference to property/real estate deals), I get a bullsh** email from one of my students who started following me back in 2001/2002...a long freaking time!
And what does he say exactly?
Something that makes very little sense to those of us with actual brain cells in our heads...
He says, in a nutshell, that I basically deserved taking a loss by being in Detroit because I must be "greedy" by having been there in the first place.
Huh??
First of all, I didn't take ANY kind of loss. In fact, I made a ton of money in that market.
Second of all, like everyone else who wanted to see one of America's greatest cities come back to life, so did I. Detroit was one of our nation's great cities and, believe it or not, was actually one of the most affluent cities in our country at one time. If you've ever been to Detroit, even recently, you'd see the most amazing architecture in all of America since it is the largest surviving collection of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century architecture.
In fact, it's the last city in America left with such an incredible and large array of Neo-Classical, Neo-Renaissance, Neo-Gothic, Art Deco, and Italian Renaissance (among many other types) of architecture left standing.
Having been in real estate as long as I have, one of my weaknesses is seeing a decrepit building and wanting to return it to its former glory, especially a building that is so beautifully designed and built. After all, what a waste it is to see these buildings fall apart and remain standing -- barely -- without any hope of every being restored?! It's like letting all of the hard work of our long-gone ancestors be pissed away in vein.
It should be a crime, really. This is history. Our history. American history. And it's almost like letting items in a museum be exposed to the elements, ripped apart by local citizens, burned down by bored and unproductive idiots...what a shame! A crying shame really.
So, that's what I saw in Detroit. I saw its former glory and I wanted to do my part to help restore it. This is no different than taking a broken down, oxidized Model T Ford and wanting to restore it. It's about preserving the past and, at the same time, trying to pave a way to a better future.
But I guess that makes me greedy. Well, that's according to ONE Numb Skull anyway.
Forget about the fact that I took on a HUGE risk, even brazenly and blatantly ignoring one of my base cardinal real estate investing rules (of never investing in a city of population decline) so that I could make an attempt to make a difference in some small way. I, like the other millionaires and billionaires investing in Detroit, fantasized about helping to bring a city considered beyond the point of return back onto its feet and even into a state of thriving as it once was back in its heyday.
But, according to Numb Skull, I guess I'm just greedy because I was trying to help make this city a better place for its citizens and for our nation as a whole.
Oh, and by the way, this highly judgmental Numb Skull Dinosaur (who is just too mentally outdated to understand that maybe some people want to do something to help better society) hasn't done a freaking thing himself to (a) create nice yet affordable housing for lower class citizens, (b) done anything to help anyone at all, including himself it seems, and (c) hasn't even purchased a tiny bit of real estate since he's been a student of mine...for fourteen f****** years now!!
Please! Tell me now...who is being greedy? If you're not helping, you're hurting. If you're not contributing to society then you're wasting the resources simply by breathing and drinking all the water.
To top it all off, I get an email from another equally as mentally challenged student who calls me a "drug dealer" because I have a company that sells supplements.
Hmmm...
If I really was a drug dealer, I wouldn't have an "open" email inbox to receive his bullsh** emails to begin with. I'd be running Pfizer instead, making $10 million a year not including annual multi-million-dollar bonuses and stock options. And I wouldn't be dealing with the likes of him on any level. My secretary's assistant's secretary wouldn't even be dealing with him.
Strangely enough, I stopped at the store on my way home from the office yesterday to find that, not one but TWO greasy unsightly loser-types in total shit-box cars that were circling my Lincoln Navigator...probably looking for their crack dealer in the grocery store parking lot. After a few double-takes, I think they quickly realized that I wasn't holding any dope between reading my really lame vanity plate and/or seeing my daughter in her booster seat.
Maybe it's time I move. Seems like the upper-class neighborhoods are getting just as dicey as some seedy areas of Detroit.
Love the irony, don't you? ;-)
Speaking of irony, I have my last event for the year taking place in October...in Detroit. It's an Underground Secret Event and it's all about Aggressive Income Strategies. Day One is about non-real estate related money-making strategies. Day Two is about real estate related strategies.
And this will be my last real estate event for at least one year...if not longer because, well people, I'm freaking sick of talking about real estate AND because there's nothing else after October that I'll be able to talk about. You're either in...or it'll be too late. Very simple.
I hope you survived the long holiday weekend. If not, I suppose you wouldn't be reading this right now.
Yesterday I found myself checking emails, probably out of sheer boredom. There's only so much "having fun" one can do before a Type A-er like myself must feel a little more productive than...relaxing. Or, in other words, doing nothing productive, which I find to be a waste of time.
I know, I know. It's critical to "do nothing" once in awhile but it's very difficult for me to make the correlation between relaxation for the purpose of healing the body/mind when I really feel that relaxation means being an idle, rusting body/mind instead.
So, while I was checking emails, I found a few excuse-makers that -- as you know by now -- is one of my worst pet peeves. But, there's always one that sets me over the edge...
This one was from my Internet Cash Flow Mentorship Group where a student of mine is hell-bent on finding a company to do product fulfillment or drop-shipping for his product so he can basically do "nothing" while letting loads of cash roll effortlessly into his bank account.
And within this same time frame, I answer another email from a different student in this same mentorship group who thought that the group would be about me doing all the work FOR him including setting up his website, finding products and naming them for him, and even operating his business while he, like the other fool, can do nothing while letting all the money pile up in his bank account.
So, by this stage of email-answering, I'm already pissed and my sugar-coated answer to that bunch of gibberish was to tell him: "I already do everything you're claiming including setting up websites, finding and naming products, and even operating the business...except that I'm doing it FOR myself and I'm the one making all the money because Iearnedit. There isn't going to be a single individual on this entire planet who will do all the work for you while you lazily reap the rewards for something you didn't earn and I don't recall anywhere in any of my online promotions for this mentorship that stated I'd do all the work for you while you sit around with your thumb up your ass."
Like I said, that was the candy-coated version.
Part of my plans for 2016 is to shed myself of those who are lazy do-nothings who lack the basic brain capacity for even the lowest threshold of required common sense needed for daily functioning. I can no longer stand dealing with the cross-section of students who how, I often wonder, are able to bumble their way through life by finding food for themselves, making a phone call, or even wiping their own asses when it's pretty clear that their moms didn't just drop them on their heads but rather violently threw them up against a brick wall on a daily basis, from ages 0 through 10.
And I'm done dealing with people like that so I have a very succinct and precise strategy in weeding these people out and it's happening soon.
In the meantime, I'm offering one last "free-for-all," if that's what you want to call it. This is the last time the barrier of entry will be the lowest it'll EVER be again for anyone who wants to discover my most cutting-edge and highly profitable strategies in both non-real estate and real estate Aggressive Income Strategies.
I'm also planning on taking a break from not only doing real estate events for at least a year but I really don't want to be doing Detroit events anymore. Even though statistically I've been able to "pack 'em in" on all my Detroit events, I've fallen out of favoring the city that I only recently thought had hope and promise...and now believe that it doesn't anymore.
It's kind of hard to keep showing up to a place that's crumbling at the seams during every moment of every day even though I still have strong personal and business connections with the joint.
This event is called the Underground Secret Event for good reason: I'll be talking about some very cutting-edge Aggressive Income Strategies that you can quickly use to gain massive amounts of prosperity in the shortest amount of time during a now-booming economy with much higher levels of competition than only a few short years ago.
And you can't compete or even hope to make money during a time when it becomes too competitive UNLESS you understand and implement the money-making strategies that even your competitors don't even know about!
I have a killer kick-ass pricing deal that will never be repeated, even for future events. This is the lowest pricing you'll ever see for any of my events ever again and it's ending very soon.
I'm trying to be excited about today, but I'm not. I just got 20 lbs. of potato and macaroni salad so...what's not to be excited about, right?
Except something has been bothering me lately and I can't quite put my finger on it.
My personal life seems to be okay. So, nothing is wrong there.
I think what's bothering me are some of the things that have been going on in our country recently. We're supposed to be the land of the brave, home of the free...yet we have gun-toting psychos blowing people away in schools and churches while there are so many "questionable" police shootings that it's hard to keep up with them day to day.
Is this what our founding fathers intended when they set this joint up for us? Is this what the Constitution was supposed to promote and encourage American people to do?
All of this "stuff" going on in our country is making me sad, especially since it's avoidable. It's making us look like a nation of mentally unstable psychopaths who believe we have no other outlet than causing harm to our fellow man in some way, shape or form.
On top of all that, I was reading in Bloomberg Businessweek about our crumbling infrastructures ranging from our bridges to our waterways crumbling apart by the day...with no money to fix any of it. Yet our defense budget remains a steadfast 55% of the gross revenues (through taxes) that the government bleeds from the American public. Many of these infrastructures are original, dating back 70+ years when everyone knew they'd only last a maximum of a half-century before needing a major overhaul.
I was sitting outside last weekend in the hot tub and noticed this very new, very unusual military plane flying by. It looked like a black boomerang. Never seen anything like it before.
I wonder how much that cost us American taxpayers?
Meanwhile, the state of California is in a major drought, we claim we have no water, and almost monthly we have a water main break that creates an instant loss of millions of gallons of water because, well...we're still using freaking pipes built beneath our cities over 100 years ago. So...what the f*** do they expect? The pipes to last forever??
I wish our government would do better for us as a population but also...
We need to do better as a country and as an American people. And it starts with everyone of us. I know, it doesn't seem like each individual person can do anything. But maybe it's a simple as recycling or cleaning up your yard around your house...or hell, being nice to people when you're out in public. Is it so hard to ask the cashier at Walmart how her day is going? Is it so difficult to NOT want to shoot and kill someone just because you don't like the color of their skin, who they are marrying, or what religion they practice??
We are the laughing stock of the world as a country because of our ridiculous behavior as a people. We are killing each other in the most sordid ways each day. We have political leaders who refuse to believe in global warming and...Donald Trump running for president. Need I say more on why we're being laughed at?
But you...YOU, my dear friend. You have more control and more power than you think. Because if each and every one of us decided to be a better American and a better person for the benefit of making this a better country for ALL of us to be a part of then, you'll have done a lot for America.
Many of you know that I've been working in the Detroit real estate market for the past few years. I even gave up working in Atlanta in favor of the Detroit market. I, like many other investors, got caught up in the hoopla surrounding the possibilities of a once-great city that had since turned to rubble. I was sucked into the idea that we could turn this city back into something great.
Except...there was one big problem that I knew about but refused to acknowledge until just last week.
Without people, you can't possibly have a real estate market no matter which way you slice it.
Could I be the ONLY one out of the many millionaires and billionaires haphazardly throwing money into Detroit real estate to understand this basic concept?
My biggest complaint and offer of a solution (which I had hoped would have manifested by now) was that there needed to be a giant of a company that would come in and employ at least 200,000 people. This could have been (in my imagination, apparently) a huge Walmart distribution hub, an Amazon shipping distribution center, Boeing, or a combo of two or more of these sizable types of companies.
After all, a CEO of any large company seeking to expand into an area where they could get cheap real estate and endless amounts of willing workers could (or should) clearly see that Detroit is a kick-ass option. They could pick up a warehouse that would take up 4 city blocks for pennies on the dollar. They would be centrally located in the USA for perfect distribution placement.
So...what the f*** happened?? Where are these conglomerate companies and why didn't the set up shop in Detroit?
Well, I'm still hoping but I've since given up on the possibility due to some recent things I've come to understand and discover.
Detroit is a big union town, still remnant of the days of Jimmy Hoffa. And nobody setting up shop wants to deal with union rules and regulations. In fact, there have been a slew of companies who have picked up and left Detroit because they no longer could afford to pay $48 an hour to someone smoking cigarettes on the clock when they could go elsewhere and pay minimum wage for the same job title.
Don't believe me?
In 1950 there were just under 300,000 manufacturing jobs. Right now there is less than 27,000 manufacturing jobs. Between 2000 and 2010, just under 50% of the manufacturing jobs were lost in Michigan. Of course, Asia has taken over manufacturing because it's much more affordable to make things where there isn't the hardcore and stringent rules to have to follow to keep a company running...including paying someone a high hourly wage due to union requirements.
Union or not, Detroit isn't a palatable place to set up a business anyway. Even though in the 1960s Detroit used to have the highest income per capita in the entirenation (yes, that's a fact!), the state of their economy has fallen apart so far and so fast that it would take a huge insurmountable effort to get it back on track.
Crime is out of control and it's never going to get better considering that about half of Detroit's residents are functionally illiterate (and doesn't make for a good work force). (You kind of have to know how to read and write to be able to work somewhere.) This forces people into "extracurricular" activities to pay the rent and feed themselves (i.e. crime). Between this and the police force being cut by 40%, it's impossible to get a grip on the crime without the right amount of Detroit's finest being in place.
And I don't know about you but hanging out in a city that has 11 times the murder rate -- over that of New York City -- doesn't hold high on my list of places to go anymore.
Then they went bankrupt. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse.
But can all these millionaires and billionaires be wrong? After all, billionaire Sir Richard Branson is now investing in Detroit after recently pulling in Virgin Airlines at DTW (Detroit Wayne Metro International Airport).
Yes, I think they're all wrong now. And here's why...
I was in Michigan last week looking in on some deals (new and old) and it just hit me between the eyes (metaphorically). The disintegrating destruction that was once reasonably contained within the city of Detroit and in its immediate circumference of the city is now seeping into the suburbs.
Slowly but surely yet steady as an ox.
Last week, I noticed boarded up buildings that didn't exist before. Abandoned buildings. Broken windows. Things that didn't exist before in the Detroit suburbs where I'm used to frequenting.
Things that didn't even exist only last year when I was there in the summer.
This is when I knew quite suddenly and with great disappointment...things aren't getting better in the Detroit area as I once wanted to believe. They are getting worse. And faster than I thought.
Now...I should mention one thing: the city of Detroit does look like there are improvements. It's busy during the work week. Buildings are looking rehabbed and improved.
It looks like a replay of the city of Chicago. Chicago, once downtrodden, got a make-over. The criminal element was forced out...to the suburbs. Chicago looks fantastic now. It's reasonably safe and it's been given new life. But the suburbs took a beating for it.
Why can't Detroit be the same as Chicago?
Because there aren't any new people coming in. The population continues to decrease. It's not increasing.
Sorry millionaires and billionaires who are foolishly throwing money away into Detroit but unless you can somehow suck in a huge influx of a new population, you're not going to be able to do anything with all that real estate you own. People have to exist to rent apartments to. People have to exist to start a business to rent office space or a retail storefront.
You kind of have to have people in an area to keep all levels of the localized economy going. Without this one element that everyone seems to be overlooking, there is no freaking way in hell that Detroit (or any other city) can work. Period.
Now I may be dead wrong or that Hail Mary may come through at the last minute. Maybe these movers and shakers really do have something up their sleeves. Maybe they do have those super large conglomerate companies lined up to move into Detroit to employ hundreds of thousands of people to save the Detroit economy.
But somehow I doubt it otherwise these companies would have moved in already!
Sometimes you roll the dice and you lose. That's just a fact in life.
The good news is that I haven't lost anything because everything I've done was calculated in such a way that I'm smarter in the way I position myself these days. But now that I've decided to get out of the greater Detroit area, it's time to find greener pastures elsewhere. (And I've already decided where I'm going next!)
So...a rule of thumb that will now become a "Monica Main Blanket Real Estate Rule That Will ALWAYS Apply At All Times" and that is...if the population size is shrinking, don't invest there because you need people to make real estate investing work. No people = nobody to rent units to.
I did mention that you'd be bird-dogging for my investor partners who are actively looking for new deals as we speak, right? Oh wait! Maybe I forgot to mention that part.
I know I mentioned that I have a secret strategy that I use to make a lot more money off bird-dog deals that merely getting a 3% to 5% referral fee of the total purchase price of the property.
And that was from exactly 64 days worth of "work," if that's what you want to call it.
By the way, the entire deal was financed 100% including the rehab so...no money out of pocket.
Nice deal, don't you think?
Imagine doing only 1 per year? How about 2 or 3 per year?
How much would that change your current financial circumstances? I'll be it would change it a lot!
That's the good news. The bad news is that you'd be on the hook for paying a lot of taxes because we both know how greedy Uncle Sam is with their ridiculously high tax bracket for anyone making over $413,200. That puts you in the 39.6% tax bracket if you're single.
But, what if I told you that if you use a special "loophole," you wouldn't have to pay any taxes on it at all? And yes, it's completely 100% legal!!
If you haven't listened to this audio seminar, it's time to check it out. Today is the last day to act on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, especially if you're a dad. Dad's get an extra deal. Here's the link: http://www.monicamain.com/bird_dog_bonanza
Questions? Call my office between 9am and 5pm Pacific Time at 661-295-5050.
See you at the top!
Your mentor,
Monica Main
P.S. My super rare Monica Bucks offer is still going on between now and July 1st. Here's the link to claim yours: http://www.monicamain.com/monica_bucks
Okay, so I don't mean all dads, obviously. I just mean some...or a lot.
Some dad's aren't what they're all cracked up to be. However, some are kick-ass awesome!!
Many of you know that I don't have the best relationship with my own dad. I barely ever see the guy. In fact, the last time I saw him was a year ago. I see him about once a year. Perhaps part of it is my fault being that I'm a single parent while running 2 wildly successful businesses. I don't exactly have the time to drop everything to drive 2 hours south of me for a 1 hour luncheon with my pops.
I think many of us can name 1,000 things we swear should have been different in our childhoods that would make us a better person today. But recently I've been learning and practicing a concept called "one dharma." "Dharma" is basically cosmic order and it's been explained to me by many wise people that we are exactly where we're supposed to be in our lives and have experienced exactly what we were supposed to from Day One through right now. There are no mistakes in the universe.
Of course, this isn't always an easy pill to swallow when dealing with so many trials and tribulations as we move through our own pathways through life.
This has made me think of why I would have had to go through a relatively disconnected or non-existent life with family (or rather the lack thereof) only to realize that this was necessary in order for me to understand and come to know full self-reliance. And, since I have learned this hard and seemingly empty lesson, maybe it's time I got some peeps in my life that I can call friends and family? :-)
One most valuable lesson I learned from my dad (and he will always get full credit for this one) is my desire to be an entrepreneur and business owner for as long as I can remember. Unlike most parents who may immediately start brainwashing their children by making them believe that they'll be on the dire employment track for life (starting with school then going to college then getting that corporate job), I was never brainwashed in this way at all. My dad always instilled within me the importance of being your own boss because it affords one endless freedom, not only physically and mentally but financially as well.
Long, long before everyone (recently) discovered the Big Lie (as I call it) whereas you go to college, get a job, and retire with a pension and gold watch, my dad indicated on not so many levels that this type of structure could never last within our economy. I think he had a way of studying and fully comprehending the woes of economic cycles, particularly those of other countries that had much longer economic histories. Somehow he knew that this Big Lie wouldn't hold up forever as he constantly pressed the necessity of writing your own checks in life by having your own business.
And then, holy sh**, the Big Lie had been revealed and only the strongest of entrepreneurs and investors were left standing after the gigantic economic destruction quickly swept through not only the United States but the entire world. Nobody saw it coming but I was left standing.
My dad liked to give me these little tests for as long as I can remember. One such test was to read this:
OPPORTUNITYISNOWHERE
I, like most others, read "opportunity is nowhere" but he explained that you could (and should) read it as "opportunity is now here."
And that's how I read life from that point forward. Not only is opportunity now here but opportunity is ALWAYS here in many shapes and forms but ONLY if you know where and how to look for it.
So, I get to thank my most awesome dad for giving me the most important gift anyone could have ever given their kid: an endless mind to see and realize endless possibilities. From the moment I started reading, he would always say, "If you know how to read, there isn't anything you can't learn." And now that my daughter has started reading this past year, I now tell her the same thing.
I recently had a very lengthy conversation with one of my investor partners and we were talking about W. Clement Stone and how my investor partner became massively successful based on the teachings of the book The Success System That Never Fails. (If you didn't read this book, you should. It's less than $7 on Amazon right now!)
Two things that W. Clement Stone teaches that are life-changing:
1) Use OPM or other people's money to make yourself wealthy in business and investments.
2) Use successful people's knowledge by learning it and, most importantly, using it to get wealthy beyond your wildest dreams.
And the easiest way to learn successful people's knowledge is by reading and studying about what they do. So, Dad was right. There isn't anything you can't learn by simply knowing how to read.
For any of you who want to be wealthy, choose something that interests you (business, investing, etc.) then learn everything you can about it. Then, most importantly, actually fire some action into what you learn and keep at it until you get the results you're looking for.
Happy Father's Day to my own dad and to all you awesome dads out there! You are changing the future...one child at a time.
See you at the top!
Your mentor,
Monica Main
P.S. I have a Father's Day Blow Out where Dads get an extra discount on the new 2015 Bird Dogging Opportunity Cash Flow System. Click here now: http://www.monicamain.com/bird_dog_bonanza
