Yesterday, we talked about this home that we picked up in December.  You can get a little better view of the home in the video here….

However, in today’s post, you will immediately notice a difference in the two homes. One is considerably younger, and most people would consider the area a little on the pricey side as well.

Do you want to hear about how we found these two properties and why we got them under contract before anyone else? Would you like to know how we did it without competing against dozens of other home buyers from around the DC area? (Come find out at WREIA Monday night.)

My goal for you on Monday night is to understand that you may be missing unique opportunities that only you or a small number of people know about. These opportunities are all around you – every day. They are chances to help some of your friends or neighbors. But you may be missing them because your “work boots” are on and you are only looking for “ugly houses”.

We talked about work boots in our email yesterday. Different weather requires different shoes. And in our business, different situations requires different conversation skills. Will you let me help you expand your conversation skills at WREIA Monday night?

Next Monday at WREIA I’m going to talk about some unusual places some of our WREIA members have found leads. You won’t hear about these sources from today’s online gurus. In fact, at least one of them is unique to our DC area. You simply won’t get the same experience in Florida for example, because this “secret DC area fishing hole” doesn’t exist in Tampa.

Remember: The first WREIA meeting of 2015 is this Monday – Jan. 26th. It’s going to be a great skill building night – with no high pressure sale and nothing to buy at the end of the evening.

I hope you join us Monday evening and kick off 2015 the right way.

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Reserve your seat for the Jan. WREIA meeting Here.

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That’s all for now.

I hope I see you on Monday at WREIA.

John Peterson

301-881-5541
Washington REIA Network, President
Profitable Property, Founder

P.S. The answer is YES, in Jan. 2015 we are definitely doing partner deals with our students and WREIA members. Maybe you need some help with financing or could use a valuable construction partner with years of experience? Or do you need us to help speed up the process for you, and help drive your business to the next level? We are here to help. Just send us a few quick details at http://dchardmoneylender.com/quick-property-submit/ and we will get back to you ASAP.

You need the right tools for the job.  You also need the right shoes.

We all know that seasons change, and with changing seasons you need to wear different shoes.  Most people don’t need to wear snow boots to the beach in the middle of summer, or flip flops to shovel their driveway after a blizzard.

But for many people in our business, they know just one way to market their business.   They don’t change with the seasons, or with different situations.

Knowing how to swap out kitchen cabinets is the easy part of our business.  Knowing how to find a home that someone desperately needs to sell is another skill altogether.

People in different situations need different conversations to help them understand it’s time to sell their home.  The person that just lost their parent or loved one and is handling their estate is very different than someone who is going through a divorce, or just lost their job.

But for some investors, all they know how to do is talk about how much work a house needs, and they can’t take off their “work boots”.  These new investors, and even some seasoned investors, only have one perspective – how much work a house needs.

The video I just posted is of a house we purchased just a few weeks ago in December of 2014.  It needs some work.

The video I will share with you tomorrow is of a home that we will close on in just a few days.  The home doesn’t need a lot of work, but the homeowner needs some help.

These homes –  and situations –  are very different and took a very different conversation to come to a sale agreement.  For the investor that only knows how to talk about how much work a house needs, they likely would have been unable to buy either of these homes.  Because it wasn’t about the house – it was about what the sellers needed.

Conversations with sellers can be very difficult sometimes.  I get it.  Sometimes people are ready to sell, and other times they aren’t.

My goal for you on Monday night is to understand you may be missing unique opportunities. These opportunities are all around you.  They are chances to help some of your friends or neighbors.  But you may be missing them because your work boots are on and you are only looking for “ugly houses”.

Different weather requires different shoes.  Different situations requires different conversation skills. Will you let me help you expand your conversation skills at WREIA Monday night?

Next Monday at WREIA I’m going to talk about some unusual places some of our WREIA members have found leads.  You won’t hear about these sources from today’s online gurus. In fact, at least one of them is unique to our DC area.  You simply won’t get the same experience in Florida for example, because this “secret DC area fishing hole” doesn’t exist in Tampa.

Remember:  The first WREIA meeting of 2015 is Jan. 26th. It’s going to be a great skill building night – with no high pressure sale at and nothing to buy at the end of the evening.

I hope you join us Monday evening and kick off 2015 the right way.

That’s all for now – but keep an eye out for the video we are going to post tomorrow. You will immediately see a difference in the two homes.

I hope I see you on Monday at WREIA.

John Peterson

It’s finally on the calendar!  Save the evening of Monday, Jan. 26th and start your investing year off right at Washington REIA Network.

Our topic this month is going to be

“Unusual Lead Sources – Keeping Your Pipeline Full”

Doors will open at 6:30 for registration, networking and light refreshments.

Get your 2015 momentum going by networking with some of the DC areas best real estate investors, landlords, mortgage brokers attorneys and agents.

See you Monday Jan. 26th at Washington REIA!

*Reserve your tickets hereto skip the registration line and save a few dollars.

*(Sorry, discounts are online only and not available at the door.)

The email went something like this:

“John, what do you think about this article?

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/08/23/fixing-and-flipping-houses-is-harder-to-pull-off-t.aspx

It makes it sound like flipping houses is really hard and risky.  What do you think?“

My reply was “If I was grading the article, I would give it an F.  Obviously whoever wrote the article has never flipped a home and is pasting together a few snippets from the internet to create this article.”

The article gets off on the wrong foot by saying you need cash.  Totally wrong.  I went on to give a recent example of people who didn’t use any of their own money to flip a house.  Not a dime.  If you were with us at our WREIA meeting in Sept. you heard Justin talk about a recent project – using none of his own money.

Articles like this on the internet are dangerous.  They have just enough stuff in them to sound good, but obviously the authors have no practical experience.

At the time, the writer of this article had written dozens of articles on the fool.com site.  It’s pretty obvious the he knows very little about real estate investing, but maybe has some experience trading stocks.  (And he thinks my business is risky?)

Risky is reading these “expert” opinions from people who have no experience.  In my humble opinion – you need experience before you can be called an expert.

Is this business risky – absolutely.  But so is driving on the DC Beltway.  That doesn’t mean you don’t leave your house!  If the Beltway is too scary for you, choose another road!  You need to get to work, or get to the store, and you need to find a way.

If renovating houses sounds scary to you, it’s because you don’t know enough people that are doing it.  Or, maybe you don’t have all the tools to successfully complete a project.  We can certainly help. It’s why I started WREIA well over a decade ago – to help people find the missing pieces they need to be successful.

Every month at WREIA you have an opportunity to meet people who are making money in real estate.  Some are making a fortune, some are barely getting by, but some are making a nice extra income “on the side” only working part time.

That last group, part timers,  is who we are going to talk about this month at WREIA.  You part-timers are an encouragement (and sometimes role models) to people who are just starting.  Some of you are semi-retired, but some of you are working full time jobs and flipping homes or renting homes part-time.

This month at WREIA I want to show you a few ways to make 75K part time in our business – in 2015.  To do it, you need to start in this last quarter of 2014.  Trust me, the next few months will go fast.  I hope you are getting ready for 2015….. it starts now.

Have a great weekend,

John Peterson

In a recent email we talked about getting advice.
Let me share with you a question I had about my own business and the answer was “No Question.  You Want Pinterest.”

Successful Real Estate Marketing

First off, let me just say :  I am not endorsing Pinterest for 99% of investors, especially if you are just getting started in this business. After my extended conversation a few days ago, it’s easy to see how people are getting caught up in a ton of hype, and simply wasting time on Pinterest.

That said – I totally get it.  I understand how people get addicted to “pinning”. And, I can also see why and how business people easily cross the line into spamming on Pinterest.

It’s so easy.

On Monday night we are going to be talking about marketing for your business, but specifically about the crossroads of two things that are crucial to your business today :

CREATIVITY and RELATIONSHIPS.

That said, doesn’t it seem that these two topics collide every second when you are using Pinterest?  Say “Yes.”  Of course they do.

However, most people are not actually “creating” anything of value on their Pinterest boards.  Think about it.  When was the last time you saw one of your friends post one of their own pieces of original work – something that they created?  Sure it happens, but rarely.  Cousin Suzie knits a sweater, posts a photo of it and pins it seconds later.  But this is probably about 1% of the time – or less.

For those of you who have never used Pinterest – It’s a nice little site that lets you quickly link and share interesting videos, photos, and graphics that you find on while you are surfing the web.  You can “Pin” the stuff you find interesting on your own boards and then share your boards with other people.  It’s all very viral, and very fun to see what other people find “Pinteresting.”

If you like homemade soup recipes, there is a board for that.  In fact, the largest boards are posting photos of food and recipes.  There are also lots of boards for cars, boats, planes, houses, architecture, clothes, jewelry and your favorite quotes.

Most of what you see on Pinterest is people posting other bits of creativity from other people.  Their boards are not really their original art or content at all – it’s free advertising for other people.   THE KEYWORD HERE IS F-R-E-E.

Now, what if you learned how some people are effectively using a combination of just two sites – Pinterest and Facebook and creating real businesses.  Business that make 5-7k or more every month.   Do you think you could learn something to help you in your business?  Say “Yes.”

Remember – two main points we are going to be talking about Monday night at WREIA.

CREATIVITY and RELATIONSHIPS.

Let me say this again –

If you don’t put this combination together in the right way – you are going to be lost and alone in the business world for the next 25 years.

You are going to learn a lot more about Pinterest on Monday night.  You are going to learn who is already there, and who you can find to help market your own business.  Females will especially want to hear how they can attract more business – easily.

But we have plenty for the guys too….. plenty.

If you like marketing, but have been more than a little disappointed in your results lately, this is the night for you.

In the first 10 minutes we are going to talk about Nikki Minaj, Shakira and even…. well you will just have to see.

I hope to see you on Monday for the rest of the story on Pinterest and we will tell you what the final decision we made for my business.

Join us at WREIA Monday night September 15th, and let me know if there is anything I can do to help you and your business.

John Peterson

Julie Chen has been the host of the TV show Big Brother since back in 2000 when it started.  Quite frankly, it’s a show I don’t really understand, but none-the-less.  It’s a job for Julie and apparently helps pay the bills.

Julie and her husband, the Chairman and CEO of CBS Les Moonves,  sold their beach house in California back in July for about 14% less than they originally listed it for – discounting their home by about 1.8 Million.

They originally listed their home for 12.995 million before they dropped the price to $11.995.  Ultimately, the sales price was $11.125 million.

The home was sold to someone who must really like the look and feel of teak wood.  You can find more details and photos of the property at http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/hot-property/la-fi-hotprop-les-moonves-20140909-story.html

They originally bought the home in 2008 for $10 million.  We all know they had some closing expenses and paid a sizable commission – so they probably walked away at about break-even.

Let’s not feel bad for Julie and Les though.  A little earlier this summer they bought another beach house up the road from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen for $28.8 Million.

We talk about it at WREIA all the time.  Everyone has their motives when they decide to sell a property, but it makes me wonder if Paul saw the property before he bought it.  It is another Malibu oceanfront property, making it a little hard to get away from the sound of the crashing surf.

Paul Allen reportedly didn’t spend much time there.  A source says “He hated the sound of the ocean.”

Join us at WREIA Monday night September 15th, and let me know if there is anything I can do to help you and your business.

John Peterson

I just finished reading an article about a few faculty members at Harvard Business School who completed a study on people who ask questions.

Let me sum up this 31 page by simply saying:

“People who ask more questions appear more competent – in some instances.”

What was interesting about the report was this:  WHO you asked questions to was just as important as WHEN you asked questions. If the task is hard and complicated and you ask an expert, you actually appear more credible to the people you work with, AND the person you asked the question to begin with.  Interesting isn’t it?

However, the opposite is also true – If the task is pretty simple, and you ask a non-expert for advice – well, it actually works against you.  People begin to think that you don’t have the skills necessary to complete the task and you lose credibility.  Paraphrased – You will appear incompetent and people will actually form a bad impression of you.

Now, that doesn’t mean you need to spend all your time caring about what other people think about you. Ask questions if you are having trouble.  But what it does mean is that you need to spend your time talking with the right people, and asking the right questions.

Which brings me to two of the main points we are going to be talking about next Monday night at WREIA.

CREATIVITY and RELATIONSHIPS.

If you don’t put this combination together in the right way – you are going to be lost and alone in the business world for the next 25 years.

You have to agree – Lost and alone is not where you want to be.

Some of you are taking free advice about the world of real estate investing from “investors” who position themselves as “experts” because they flipped two little condos in a rising market.  Trust me, experience matters and to rise to the expert level takes years of practice and in my opinion you need to survive at least one economic downturn before you can rise to the level of “expert.”

Professional investors are entrepreneurs – and they follow a similar career path as professional doctors.  When doctors are getting started, they go through a training period by getting advice and learning from mentors.  Doctors learn on the job by “interning” for a few years, then many go off on their own and open their own office. They work in big cities and small towns.

How many of you would consider having open heart surgery from a “doctor” who just started in 2013 and had performed two surgeries so far?  Not me……  I want the doctor who is two decades into his career and has performed hundreds, if not, thousands of the same procedures.

Just as dangerous is the doctor who sits alone in his office and never improves.  We have all seen or heard about that type of doctor haven’t we?  The 83 year old doctor who can’t let go of his career, and starts making dangerous mistakes, perhaps makes a bad diagnosis and causes further unnecessary harm to his patient.

Wherever you are in your career, the questions you ask matter.  And those questions need to be asked to the right people.  It matters to other people when they are forming their impression of you, and for that reason it should matter to you.

If you are still spending time online in “beginner” areas of our industry like “Bigger Pockets” or other forums where “newbies” hang out, are you still growing?

Next Monday at WREIA we will have content for beginners, certainly.  But it will packed with higher level information for the more advanced real estate entrepreneurs too.  Especially if you are struggling finding new projects – you will want to be with us on Monday night.

Stay tuned… the next email is going to be a question I asked about my business, and the answer was – Pinterest.

Join us at WREIA Monday night September 15th, and let me know if there is anything I can do to help you and your business.

John Peterson

When I first started my Self Directed IRA the IRS said the most I could contribute to my IRA was just $2,000.   So I got started with $2,000 – and I am glad I did.

As my account grew, it didn’t take long for someone to point out the benefits of the ROTH IRA. The Roth IRA is different from a regular IRA in that when I decide to make withdrawals, the proceeds will be TAX FREE!

Join us at WREIA Monday night July 21st, and let me know if there is anything I can do to help you and your business.

John Peterson

Next WREIA Meeting
Mon. July 21st –  Doors Open @ 6:30PM

Topic: Self Directed IRA’s w/ Jack Kiley
Updates: What You Need To Know In 2014

Warren Buffet said he would buy up “a couple hundred thousand” single family homes if it were practical to do so.

Mr. Buffet made these comments back in 2012 – and I’m sure he still believes it.  “If held for a long period of time and purchased at low rates, Buffett says houses are even better than stocks. He advises buyers to take out a 30-year mortgage and refinance if rates go down.” You can still find the article posted at  http://www.cnbc.com/id/46538421

Join us at WREIA Monday night July 21st, and let me know if there is anything I can do to help you and your business.

John Peterson

John filmed a short video invitation to the upcoming WREIA meeting on June 16th in Bethesda.

You can reserve your seat at http://bit.ly/June2014WREIA

Come on out and join us on Monday evening!