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.
And guess what?
I have ALL of those tools for you right now. No more excuses. Here's how you can get them today: http://www.monicamain.com/reo_deal
See you at the top!
Your mentor,
Monica Main
www.MonicaMain.com
