Washington REIA Network, President
Profitable Property, Founder
Join us tonight at our Monthly WREIA meeting.
Join us for the food, the network, the learning and expand your belief that other people are out here in the DC area making money in Real Estate.
Yesterday I tried to get a little golf in before we have a few more days of rain here in the DC area. But first, I stopped by a recent property we purchased at auction and posted a video with a little more information on our WREIA meeting this Monday night.
Join us Monday night June 20th at our Monthly WREIA meeting.
Join us for the food, the network, the learning and expand your belief that other people are out here in the DC area making money in Real Estate.
I see it every month. People are making money, good money, at auctions again. But you have to have patience and play smart.
The auction atmosphere is exciting – but it is only the beginning of a larger process. There are a lot of things that happen at an auction that will give you clues as to what to do next if you are interested in the property. I have bought some great properties from banks and lenders after I lost the bid at the auction.
Come on out this Monday and discover a few things about auctions and REO’s it took me years to learn. In the last few decades I have attended hundreds of auctions that resulted in the purchase of many dozens of properties. I am happy to share the lessons I’ve learned with you on Monday.
Join me on June 20th, we will be talking about the entire process that goes on behind the scenes between the Auction and a listed REO property. It’s a fun topic that I am going to break down into easy steps. If you implement just a few of these steps you may see a giant leap forward in your 2016 results.
June 20th is a great opportunity for you to ask a few questions like:
Save a few dollars and reserve your seat early. Then, come join us at WREIA on June 20th. It will be a great way to start the summer season, get you motivated, and get some momentum for the rest of 2016.
*********
Reserve your seat for the sixth 2016 WREIA meeting here.
*********
Make this year a great year for your business!
John Peterson
301-881-5541
Washington REIA Network, President
Profitable Property, Founder
P.S. Rehab Immersion Course – Summer 2016 Class – Starts just after the 4th of July!
The Rehab Immersion Course – Summer 2016 is starting at the end of June and is limited to 12 students or partners. If you are looking for an intimate and hands-on setting to learn the details of the renovation process here in the DC area – this is perfect for you. Don’t miss this chance to get some real-world experience. The summer class is starting to fill up. If you are interested in joining us, simply call the office at 301-881-5541 and let us know to reserve you a remaining spot.
Our Spring Rehab Immersion Class is already wrapping up and was a wild success for the students who attended. If you regret missing the spring class join us for the summer project!
Re: Auction Tip – Thurs. 10:30 AM
There are a few questions I always get when we bring up the topic of Auctions.
At the top of the list – “Where do I find the best auctions?”
First – let me tell you my definition of the “best” auction.
It’s quite simply – An auction with the fewest interested bidders.
Many new investors show up at a courthouse auction and are intimidated by the number of people. What you quickly realize though – not many of these rather “colorful” people are bidding on the properties.
In fact, very few people are there to bid on every property. Most of us show up and and have an interest in just one property. We may have to stand around while the auctioneer goes through 3-5 other properties before they get to ours. At that point I pay close attention and hope the person standing next to me isn’t interested.
There are a few tips I learned from other auction pro’s through the years. The best tip I ever got was this: Go to the auctions that are advertised in smaller newspapers.
If you only attend the auctions that are advertised by the big auctions houses you are missing the best deals. Those big auction companies work with the big banks. They do massive volume with big advertising budgets, and by my rough estimate 1 out of 100 listed properties work out in the end to be a good deal for us as investors.
On the flip side you have small companies or single party auctioneers that handle much smaller volume and often work with smaller lenders. Often, they don’t advertise in the larger papers and many people skip right past them.
One of the investors I have “partnered” with on many properties finds terrific deals at auctions I don’t even hear about. Many times through the year this investor is the only person attending the auction. One of his tips he told me to pass on to you was “Get a subscription to all the smaller papers in your area. It will pay off.”
I think he just wants someone to talk to at those lonely auctions.
Join me on June 20th, we will be talking about the entire process that goes on behind the scenes between the Auction and a listed REO property. It’s a fun topic that I am going to break down into easy steps. If you implement just a few of these steps you may see a giant leap forward in your 2016 results.
June 20th is a great opportunity for you to ask a few questions like:
Save a few dollars and reserve your seat early. Then, come join us at WREIA on June 20th. It will be a great way to start the summer season, get you motivated, and get some momentum for the rest of 2016.
*********
Reserve your seat for the sixth 2016 WREIA meeting here.
*********
Make this year a great year for your business!
John Peterson
301-881-5541
Washington REIA Network, President
Profitable Property, Founder
P.S. Rehab Immersion Course – Summer 2016 Class – Starting soon!
The Rehab Immersion Course – Summer 2016 is starting at the end of June and is limited to 12 students or partners. If you are looking for an intimate and hands-on setting to learn the details of the renovation process here in the DC area – this is perfect for you. Don’t miss this chance to get some real-world experience. The summer class is starting to fill up. If you are interested in joining us, simply call the office at 301-881-5541 and let us know to reserve you a remaining spot.
Our Spring Rehab Immersion Class is already wrapping up and was a wild success for the students who attended. If you regret missing the spring class join us for the summer project!
You need to learn to go behind the walls and counter-tops and exercise the creative side of your mind to get those deals done.
These days, anyone can put together a budget to rehab a house.
You need more than that skill to be successful in 2016.
Tomorrow night at our May WREIA meeting, myself and a few guests are going to walk through a few CREATIVE deals that never would have happened if we hadn’t gone “out of the box” with our process.
Like any skill – Creativity is something that can be learned. It comes easier to some people, and for others it may take some practice.
Let me tell you – once you let the Creativity genie out of the bottle – you might really start to light the world on fire.
You might be trying to write contracts like it’s 2003, before everyone had access to the all the information we have today.
Today is very different from 15 or 20 years ago. You need more than just one trick up your sleeve to get deals done. People don’t respond to gimmicks and slick sales processes.
Buyers and Sellers today are very, very skeptical. They have seen so much and been ripped off one too many times to let you “trick” them too. You need options to turn to when they start to tune you out and move on to the next solution.
Tomorrow night, May 16th, we will be talking about how to put together Creative Deals. It’s a fun topic that I am going to break down into easy steps. If you implement just a few of these changes you may see a giant leap forward in your 2016 results.
I hear this a lot these days:
“I can’t seem to find any deals.”
For many of you it means that you are not opening your mind and using the creative side of your brain to put deals together. Maybe you only know one or two ways to buy a property. There are dozens of ways to structure a purchase. The odds are one of them is good fit IF you are targeting the right people.
If you knew more – the odds are pretty good you could do more and get more done.
I just posted a video on Youtube with some more details about the WREIA meeting this Monday night. It has a few more details about the topic of Creativity in Real Estate.
As I mention in the video, our meeting on Monday will go a lot further than just how to structure a purchase.
You might even be surprised at how much you are leaving on the table each and every month.
One last thing – Have you done any creative deals lately? Would you like to share your creativity with our members?
In fact – let’s open this up a bit and get the juices flowing…..
It doesn’t even have to be lately. If you are experienced and want to share one of the things you did earlier in your career that might help someone today – LET’S HEAR ABOUT IT!
Did you get stuck on a deal and find a creative way to break through and get it accomplished?
Did you need more money, or time to finish a project and come up with a creative idea on how to fund it or speed up the process?
If you would like to share your creative side with our members on Monday – Just let me know.
Let’s talk about it before Monday night by phone or email? You can reach me at profitableproperty@gmail.com or 301-881-5541
We try to make this a big part of our meetings. In fact – Sharing resources and Networking are two of the pillars of our WREIA group.
Come on out and join us.
Hitting with the hammer………..$5
My advice for anyone getting into any new business is to focus on a target market.
Your market is NEVER everyone.
In our business of real estate investing, here are two examples of the first few months for many first time “investors”.
Let’s call our first guy Burned Out Barry. He is happily married and makes a good income. He works a sales job that gives him a crazy travel schedule every month. He realizes he needs to find another source of income or he will have to work until “he is 90 years old”. Since he has a flexible schedule he will “give real estate a try”.
Month 1. I’m going to be an investor like these people on TV. It’s easy!
Month 2. I need a better agent to help me find deals.
Month 3. This is hard. I need to take a class. Online. While I’m traveling.
Month 4. Wholesaling! Quick money sounds great! I need cashflow. That’s the ticket!
Month 5. People hate me. I’m a bottom feeder with no friends. Even my third agent won’t call me back.
Until Barry burns out. He never really does anything and eventually moves on because houses were too expensive and that stuff on TV “doesn’t work in my city.”
ON THE FLIP SIDE – let’s take a look at Successful Sally.
Month 1. Sally decides she wants to help other women who are going through a divorce. She is going to make offers to buy their homes, but as a backup plan, will also offer to list their homes if they want to go the retail route.
Month 2. Sally completes her Realtor class and is hired by a local company that is “investor friendly” to their agents.
Month 3. Sally buys a list of local people whose name appears in the local courthouse for divorce. She starts her first mailing.
Months 4-12 Sally buys updated lists and continues her mailing. Each month her pitch to potential clients gets better.
The first six months, Sally doesn’t make a dime.
BUT SHE IS HAPPY.
Sally gets to talk to other women are going through the same process she went through a few years earlier. In an odd way, it’s a little therapeutic for her to be helping these new friends.
Sally isn’t making money, but she is helping people.
Suddenly, in month 9 she gets a listing.
In Month 10 – another listing. And A single mom with a big alimony check pops up as a referral from what she thought was a “failed” listing presentation.
Month 11 her offer to purchase a property is accepted. Rental income for her retirement!
By the end of the first year Successful Sally has made a little over 20k in commissions, and now owns a rental property that cashflows $300 each month after all her expenses.
Why was Barry burned out and Sally so successful?
Focus is the obvious answer.
The not so obvious answer is a little more complex.
But let’s break it down to just 2 parts.
Sally set herself up to succeed because she was uniquely qualified to serve her target market.
And….
Sally focused on a market that was – in certain situations – very motivated to sell property. As we mentioned in our last post, divorce sometimes creates a situation where people are motivated to sell their property for a variety of reasons.
If I talked with both of these “investors” at the end of the year, Sally would be happier and feel more fulfilled with her choice to be a real estate investor. Barry on the other hand would tell me he has a long list of people he has “offended”, wasted their time, or who just flat out rejected his offers to “help”.
One final thought::
Barry focused on making more money for himself.
Sally focused on serving her target market.
And that change in focus made all the difference.
P.S. The Rehab Immersion Course – Spring 2016 Class we announced at WREIA is off to a blazing start. We found our subject property, did a deep-dive property tour, two days at my office pouring through details and a second tour back at the property halfway through the renovation. And it’s not over yet.
Most people will never know what it’s like to go through a divorce of that magnitude or on a very public stage like Mr. Hamm did. However, most people do want some privacy when they go through the process.
It works the same way with our business as well. I see it all the time. Around this time of year people have either had early success and start to relax a little too much, or they are getting frustrated because they “can’t find a deal”.
To the people that found early in the year success, may I suggest that it’s time to stretch your goals a bit and try to do more this year?
The frustrated people on the other hand usually have unknown factors, like the rainy day cab drivers, that they don’t fully understand.
One of the biggest factors that most people don’t include in their formulas is MOTIVATION.
There is a huge difference in talking with people who would like to sell their house and talking with someone who is MOTIVATED to sell their house.
Most houses in the MLS are listed by people (in some cases banks) who would like to sell their house for X price.
No motivation there – unless it’s November and the first snow is in the 5 day forecast.
On the other hand is the real life example of someone I made an offer to a few months ago.
He did not want to rent his house because he had a “bad experience” with renters and just wanted to sell. He was getting a huge hiring bonus as soon as he set foot overseas and – within reason – just wanted a fair price, all things considered.
I made an offer.
And then I KILLED THE DEAL by following it up with some advice.
Why not sell this house retail? “Just use an agent and go through the MLS” I said. It was a well kept home. I strongly suggested that would be the better way to go.
He was concerned about all the paperwork. He would be overseas and thought it would be a big hassle.
I asked if he had any family nearby that he could trust and that would also be easy to work with. His ex-brother-in-law lived not too far away. As it turns out, he was an early investor in his ex-brother-in-laws company and they had a great working relationship.
I suggested he hire a local agent that specialized in his neighborhood and sign off on a Specific Power of Attorney. Let his brother-in-law help him sign all the transaction paperwork and sell the property for a higher price.
That’s exactly what he did.
Was that bad for my business? Not at all.
Two people now know me as someone who is fair, says what I am going to do, and does it.
I showed up, on time, and suggested an alternative to my home-buying service that didn’t help me in the least, but put a few extra 10’s of thousands of dollars in his pocket.
I made a couple of new friends – and that is never bad for business.
My point is this – don’t stand around in the rain wondering where the cabs are. Look for motivated cab drivers.
This business if much easier if you are talking to people who are MOTIVATED sellers. Once you find motivated sellers, if you treat them fairly and make reasonable offers that all parties can agree to, this business can be both life-changing and profitable for everyone involved.
The gentleman I just talked about was motivated, but I was not the right solution for him because he still had other options. They were just options he did not know about, or hadn’t thought of, mainly because he had a lot of other things to think about.
If you are out for yourself first, and want to make a deal that only works for you, I guarantee you are going to struggle. If you spend your time helping MOTIVATED sellers your business life will be much, much easier.
At our April 18th WREIA meeting we will be talking about how to find motivated sellers. It’s a great topic that I am going to break down into easy steps. If you implement just a few of these changes you may see a giant leap forward in your 2016 results.
P.S. The Rehab Immersion Course – Spring 2016 Class we announced at WREIA is off to a blazing start. We found our subject property, did a deep-dive property tour and have already spent two days at my office pouring through details. And that’s just the beginning.
Announcing – Rehab Immersion Course – Summer 2016 Class is limited to 12 students. If you are looking for an intimate and hands-on setting to learn the details of the renovation process here in the DC area – this is perfect for you. Don’t miss this chance to get some real-world experience. The summer class is starting to fill up. If you are interested in joining us, simply call the office and let us know to reserve you a remaining spot.