Category: DC Real Estate Investing

Banks are becoming more and more bold…..

Now that the robo-signing scandle is behind us, and the banks are beginning to pay their fines, you can expect to see more and more properties hit the market in the coming months.

Oct. 1st marks the beginning of the 4th quarter for many businesses here in the United States. Many of the banks are looking to unload properties they are holding, either through auctions or short sale agreements with the current deed owners.  A precious few owners are actually making it through to the other side of a trial modification period arriving safely at a permanent loan modification.

Here in the DC area we recently set aside one of the largest property auctions to ever hit our area.   We notified our WREIA members of the minimal 100k needed to enter a bid for the estimated 23 Million Dollar McLean property.

If you are interested in learning more about what to expect through the end of the year and into next spring, join us on Oct. 15th at Washington REIA Network

In this clip from a meeting just a few minutes ago – listen in as our guest speaker on Monday night shows how he is using a $10 ad budget to get THREE TIMES as many people to connect with the media campaign his client was already doing.

It’s happening everywhere this year – businesses are getting to the 99 yard line, and giving up.

Watch this clip as one of our members learns a simple lesson, and gets a preview of a slide you will all get to see on Monday night at our Monthly WREIA meeting.

Be sure to sign up for the monthly WREIA meeting on Monday night. You can register at http://wreia-sept2012-wreia.eventbrite.com

You have been reading about this….

Some of you have heard stories about people who are growing their business.

Some small businesses are expanding, and hiring new people, and at the very least retaining the employees they do have.

These results posted above are from a survey of over 40,000 small businesses.  Of those that responded over 40% said it caused them to increase sales, and 34% also increased their margins – because of this one thing.

Now, I am all for increasing your sales & increasing your margins. But when you start to hire new staff because your business is growing – you must be doing something incredible, right?

You would be surprised how simple this is to do and how few people actually do it.  Quite frankly, I am thinking of making it a requirement for people I do business with in the future.

And – the cost?  Zero.

My advice to you is to find out what this one thing is, and take advantage of it. 

You can guess what this one thing is over on our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ProfitableProperty

If you want to learn how to start growing your business again, you need to join us on Sept. 17th at our next WREIA meeting Monday night.

In 2012 we have been focused on introducing you to local professionals who have been working our business.  Monday night we continue  – and I share some insight into my own business results.

I am going to share a guest speaker with a powerful info-packed presentation.  The presentation will include updates on :

• Email Marketing
• Direct Mail Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• Mobile Marketing
• Reputation Management

He will also be sharing some insight into topics I don’t completely understand, but he loves to work with every day including:

• Search Engine Optimization,
• Search Engine Marketing,
• Mobile Ads,
• Marketing Test Results (One slide has results from 19 recent tests.)

When we talked last week, he wanted my permission to share some results from some of my recent campaigns.  I approved all of them.

Most of you are going to be shocked by the results a few campaigns where the total ad budget was just a hair under $10.

That’s not a typo – you will see ad campaigns with a budget of less than $10.

Don’t forget – At our meeting, I want you to bring in your Smartphones, fire up Twitter, Facebook, and make sure you have a LinkedIn account.

When you leave Monday night, you will have all the information you need to completely duplicate my business – and stamp your own personality on it.  It may surprise you, but it doesn’t make me the slightest bit nervous.  In fact – I want you to take the information and get started making improvements to your business on Tuesday!

If you are willing to hustle, work hard – and learn how to help a LOT of people in the next 2  years – join me on Sept. 17th at WREIA.

John Peterson

***

It’s late on Thursday night, but I thought I would share this article before I head off into an incredibly busy weekend.

Would you sell your home this year if it meant you would save $440,000 in taxes?

Some wealthy people would.

Last April, at our Washington REIA meeting we told you about the top end of the market, and especially with second homes, the mortgage holders were strategically defaulting at a rate more than twice the average across the country.

Wealthy people are still choosing to walk away from homes that are underwater.  This spring we introduced you to the attorneys that are helping them through the process.  (Banks have a habit of negotiating better deals for the homeowner when attorneys are involved.)

Well, what if that same group of wealthy people hold a property without a mortgage?  If they face a capital gain when they sell their property, some members have decided that now is the time to sell.  This article does a great job of explaining why.

You can also find the article at  http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/08/07/an-end-to-bush-era-tax-cuts-could-push-high-end-properties-onto/
Saving $400,000 is a pretty good incentive to sell this year, vs. next year.  You see, in 2013 capital gains will jump from 15% to 23.8% once you include the new 3.8% healthcare tax.

Please remember – I am just delivering you the news here.

I see it every year – people make crazy decisions.  Especially when it comes to taxes. For some reason, the word just seems to make some people irrational.

Take advantage of that.

If you don’t know how to connect with this crowd of high end motivated sellers – or any group of motivated sellers, you need to join us on Sept. 17th at our next WREIA meeting.

I am going to share a guest speaker that Monday night.  He just gave me a list of the topics we are going to cover at our meeting.  It includes updates on :

• Email Marketing
• Direct Mail Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• Mobile Marketing
• Reputation Management

He will also be sharing some insight into topics I don’t completely understand, but he loves to work with every day including:

• Search Engine Optimization,
• Search Engine Marketing,
• Mobile Ads,
• Test Results

When we talked today, he wanted my permission to share some results from some of our recent campaigns.  I approved all of them.

I know most of you are going to be shocked by the results of a few campaigns where the total ad budget was just a hair under $10.

 That’s not a typo – you will see ad campaigns with a budget of less than $10.   

 Don’t forget – At our meeting, I want you to bring in your Smartphones, fire up Twitter, Facebook, and make sure you have a LinkedIn account.

You may not believe in these sites. You may not believe that as a professional they can help bring you more leads than you know what do with.  That’s fine.  I used to think the same thing.   

If you are willing to hustle, work hard – and learn how to help a LOT of people in the next 2  years – join me on Sept. 17th at WREIA.

John Peterson

***

Will you take 90 seconds and complete the survey we originally posted on our Facebook Channel at http://www.facebook.com/ProfitableProperty ?

It is only 10 questions, completely anonymous and doesn’t require logging in or signing up for anything.  We real estate entrepreneurs think a little differently about our marketing, and it will help us understand your opinion on how we use social media.

We will be sharing the results of this survey and a few other real world marketing campaigns at the next WREIA meeting on Sept. 17th.

Click here to take the survey.

Enjoy the last few days of summer and we will see you soon!

Everyone agrees that Conrad Hilton built a successful hotel brand. He owned more than 188 hotels across the country, and the Hilton line of hotels have set the standard for high end hotels around the world.

But did you know early in his career, Conrad lost his best hotels, and was pushed to the edge of bankruptcy?  Through the process, he was actually re-hired to manage his own hotels, and eventually went on to purchase them – again.

Sound familiar?  Have some business owners struggled over the last few years?

A businessman who survived and thrived during a challenging economic time can teach us a few things about our own business in 2012.

• Don’t ever quit. Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit. -Conrad Hilton

***

The spring bounce numbers are finally rolling in.  Articles about the strength of the housing this time of year always amuse me.

Reporters can usually make a case for a strong market, a weak market, or whatever market they believe is happening.  They compare the housing starts, the number of 30, 60 or 90 day lates, or whatever other metric they like, and then compare them to a year ago, or even 5 years ago.

The problem is, we have had so many issues over the last few years, robo-signing, massive bank settlements, historic foreclosure rates, choppy jobs reports, and the list goes on.  If they compare any report from any period of time, many reporters (and most politicians) will make a case for whatever they believe is happening in the market.

I just read a confusing article on Bloomberg.  It’s posted at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-12/housing-rebound-signaled-as-banks-resume-foreclosures-mortgages.html

The title to the article notes a “housing rebound signaled”, however the article made me wonder “What rebound signals are they talking about?”

Let me explain –

“Rebound” Point #1 – Foreclosures up
The article states that repossession of homes are down, but in some states they are up dramatically. “Foreclosure starts — notices of default or scheduled auctions — increased in 31 states in the second quarter from a year earlier.”

“Rebound” Point #2 – Process taking longer
In the next paragraph, we see that the process is also taking longer. “The foreclosure process in the U.S. increased to an average of 378 days in the second quarter, the highest in records dating back to 2007.”

“Rebound” Point #3 – Down, then Up
But here is where I got confused for yet another moment. Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics Inc., predicts that home prices will decline 1 percent in 2012 and then increase by 1 percent in 2013.

So let me get this straight – default notices are up in 31 states, and the process is taking over a year to complete – on average.  That means that a year from now that house may finally hit the market.  On average.  Mr. Zandi, why will prices go up when these houses finally hit the market?

Since last year, we have been telling you in our emails and at our WREIA meetings, that we still have 3-5 years of this housing quagmire.  I think we still have 2-4 years of this choppy sideways action in the housing markets.  Do you begin to agree when you dig a little deeper than the headlines?

The point I am trying to make is – Market confusion will create opportunity.  And my forecast for the next few years is red hot with opportunity.

Even today, we still have record low interest rates, but very few people have been able to qualify.  For many people, after 5 years of falling prices they are now underwater on their homes!  They want to move up, move down, or move to a new location where they may find a better job – but they can’t.

That is why you need to join us next Monday at WREIA.

You should know more about Wholesale Lease Options. 

That is the topic at WREIA Network in July.  We will be talking about a match-making service that some property owners would like to know more about – because it will help them solve their problems.

Our speaker, Joe McCall knows how to solve these specific problems, and is really good at what he does.  Joe finds people that want to move, but for a variety of reasons, they choose to lease their property instead of sell.  Other people want to move into that same property, but can’t qualify, yet. So, he puts these two parties together, and Shazam!, problem solved.   By the way, Joe makes a nice profit for providing the service – with very little risk.

There it was – A giant billboard on the side of I-95.  But this message was different, and it made me laugh.

On April 6th, 2009 Tom Feltenstein posted a 50 foot billboard near Palm Beach Airport reading “Have Maid, Have Money, Would Love a Honey.”

The sign was effective and by December of 2009, Tom was married.  Tom describes himself as a “lead marketing strategist” so I found something interesting about their story. Tom and his new wife Cindy met while they were both walking their dogs.  She never saw the billboard.

Their story was captured on an Orlando news channel is posted on YouTube here:

There is an important business lesson for us in this story.  When you start to market yourself, your confidence will improve and new opportunities will start to appear from out of nowhere. If you get creative in the process, there is an even better chance that your message will be noticed by your market.

Some people were upset when they saw Tom’s sign. He was called a variety of names (many of which I cannot print here) – but that isn’t what Tom focused on.  Within a few days, he received over 100 letters from women who wanted to meet with him.

The same things happen in our business.  People get upset that we send them letters, or give them a call about selling their property.  I even have people who get upset when I call them back – AFTER THEY CALL ME!

Some of our WREIA members are getting their phone to ring by offering services that home sellers want.  It’s that simple.  You should offer a service to someone and if they want to know more, they should be able to reach you easily and quickly.

That is the topic we are going to be discussing this month at WREIA Network.  We will be talking about a service that some property owners would like to know more about – because it helps them solve their problems.

Our speaker, Joe McCall will be talking about “Wholesale Lease Options”.

Joe McCall has been investing in real estate for over 7 years.  But like a lot of us here in the DC area, he started his career in another field.  His background and education is in Civil Engineering.  Before he started working on his real estate investing business full-time about 5 years ago, he had worked for several large engineering & construction companies all around the country.

Joe admits that he has tried tons of different investing strategies and has made almost every mistake there is to make.  But his favorite two strategies have always been Lease Options & Wholesaling.  A few years ago when he got tired of spending a fortune marketing every month for his traditional wholesaling business, and throwing away many leads from unmotivated sellers, he knew there had to be a better way!

That’s when he discovered the special niche he calls “Wholesaling Lease Options”.  As soon as he started implementing his simple, unique system, within 3 months his part-time income surpassed his full-time income.  Needless to say, he quickly left his cubicle job and has never looked back.

And get this – he’s still working part-time!  Joe has a system where he literally outsources 80% of his business and spends very little money in marketing.  Joe and his team of Virtual Assistants wholesale 2-4 lease options a month, while Joe profits an average of $5,000 on each deal – all while working 10-15 hours a week!

Join us this month at WREIA as Joe covers a variety of topics, including:

• Understanding how Lease Options really are supposed to work.
• How to make money with seller leads that have no equity & are not financially distressed.
• How to “Flip” lease option contracts & make a quick $3,000 – $5,000 each time.
• Why this is probably one of the BEST strategies for this market right now.
• Learn  the  BEST  marketing  practices  working  in  TODAY’s  market  for  finding  Sellers  and Tenant-Buyers.
• Give a seller exactly what they want. Never negotiate with another seller again.
• How  to  truly  “Virtually”  Wholesale  Lease  Options  anywhere  in  the  country  from  your  lap-­top and cell phone.
• How to effectively use Virtual Assistants to run your business.

At WREIA, twice a year we introduce you to a guest speaker from outside our local area.  This is going to be your chance to learn about a simple process – that if you implement properly – can have an enormous impact on your supply of leads.

So, if you need some advice on marrying a millionaire, Tom Feltenstein put up a billboard and literally wrote the book on it.

But if you need a fresh supply of leads, register early for next Monday at WREIA.

Let me know how I can help you,

John Peterson

Why should you join us tonight at WREIA?

“Networking is the energy that turns the wheel of commerce.”  You will hear that tonight at Washington Real Estate Investors Association Network.

Commerce means that transactions are taking place.  People are doing business, and creating a profit.  And in my opinion, profit is good.  I buy, renovate and sell homes across the DC area.  I also help other people learn the same process.  When our homes are renovated, the buyers move into a safe place to live, the neighborhood has improved, and the professionals who performed the renovation work can make a good living too.  Everyone involved received something of value.

Before a profit was made, there was a “sale.”  A transaction took place, right?  But what happened before the sale?  Maybe you discovered the product or service from a referral from a friend, or an ad in a newspaper, or a commercial on TV.  So, before the sale, marketing or advertising took place.

But today, Fortune 500 companies are nervous because of the lack of response they are getting on their big budget TV, radio and print advertising.   These big companies are searching for ways to connect with their customers.

Networking is marketing.  Marketing creates the “sale”. So you have a chance like never before to get ahead of the big companies and capture the “sale”.  But this process is only successful if you know what you are doing, and can meet new people efficiently and effectively.

To be an effective networker today, you have to know how to target and attend the right events, but you should also realize the just living life can be the right event.

Remember – success happens when preparation meets opportunity.  If you are not prepared to meet new people and grow your business, it is unlikely to happen.

Join us tonight and let me know how I can help you,

John Peterson

***Register now for the June WREIA meeting online, save $5, and skip the registration line!

We have a renovation going on right now in College Park, not too far from the University of Maryland campus. You may have seen the unfinished basement in one of our last videos posted here.

In the background, you can see the property is literally how it looked the morning we began the demo and renovation process.  There were many items to be taken out of the house.

Just a few weeks later, that same property is almost finished.  In the updated video below, we are again shooting the video from the basement, because upstairs there is a flurry of activity.  A few of the professional painters actually make a background appearance in the video.

I am showing you the video for two reasons.  One, I want you to see that we really do find, fix, and flip properties for a living.  Two, this is the busy season for renovators, and I want you help you be busy too.

This doesn’t make sense to most new investors.  Why would I want to have you start “competing” with me to find properties?  The reality is, here in the DC area, there is way too much for any one team to do alone.

Many of my deals over the years have involved “partners” of one sort or another.  Sometimes, I buy a property from a wholesaler.  Occasionally I team up and joint venture on a property.  And the rest of the projects we do, we find in house, from our own marketing efforts.

All of these property types  have one thing in common.  Network.

After 18 years, I have a broad network of contacts, and many people I can reach out to when I need help.

I hope you join us this coming Monday at our June WREIA Network meeting.  Our topic will be “Power Networking for the Real Estate Investor.”

This is an overlooked part of the business for most investors.  Over the past few years, if things have slowed down for you,  you have had an opportunity to sharpen your skills.  Networking, in my opinion, should be at the top of your list of items to focus on – every day.

If you work on developing a strong network of contacts who trust you, like you, and want to do business with you, it guarantees one thing.

Success.

Join us at WREIA this month.

You can register at http://wreia-june2012-wreia.eventbrite.com

Once you are finished Monday night, we showed you 8 opportunites to implement what you learn at the WREIA meeting.  Than Merrill and the Fortune Builders team is in the DC area over the next few weeks.  These free preview classes provide a great chance for you to meet and mingle with other people who have a similar interest in real estate investing.   We posted the dates and times for these classes at http://www.dcprivateinvestor.com/2012/06/12/merrills-fortune-builders-washington-dc-area/

Join us Monday Night at WREIA, and start networking your way to Success!