While many people may call themselves real estate investors, very few are 100% fully committed to the business. We are a team that is dedicated to working the real estate investing business every day.
If you've not already heard the recording, you soon will. The media is jumping all over this as another reason why the big bad banks are so bad. A recording of the conversationbetween a lender representative and a Realtor who is trying to work out a Short Sale for her client is raising flags in many groups.
How is making a payment to the lender that you owe money a "side deal" or fraud?
What if the lender said, "Make 2 or 3 payment on the loan, since you haven't made a payment on in the last 6 months, and we'll release the lien."
The 1st is protecting their net by stating they will only allow so much to the second. For all they care, the 2nd could require the the lien be paid in full, but the 2nd can get no more than a certain amount at the closing. If anything on the HUD shows more money going to the 2nd, the first will not release the lien and require the money be given to them.
The 2nd lender doesn't care where the money comes from, they just don't want to get screwed anymore than they already are. If they can double what they get, by getting $2,000 or $6,000, everyone wins. (Even though the lien may be $50,000). Seller gets to short sell their house, the agent gets paid and a buyer is in their new home.
The 2nd will get nothing if it forecloses, but nobody gets anything at that point except the 1st who gets a house they never wanted in the first place. Realtor loses, seller loses, buyer loses, economy loses.
Is it fraud to make a payment on your loan? Isn't that what buyers agreed to do in the first place?
I've heard many Realtors lately saying that they understand the value in hiring a negotiator to deal with the lenders. The best, most experienced negotiators can be found at ManageMyShortSale. Their goal is to get everyone paid as much as possible.
This problem is no one's problem until it happens to you. And you don't want it to happen to you!
Redundancy - when you have a file saved in multiple places is a good thing! The 1 TB Western Digital Hard Drive I use to store all my photos and videos doesn't know where any of my files are! It says the space is still used, but my folders appear to be empty. It is like the files slowly disappeared one day. One minute I could see them, 20 minutes later they are gone.
I have gotten a "Windows delayed write failed. Windows was unable to save all the data for the file K:\$Mft."
When I check the properties of the drive it shows the drive is used - 391 GB, with 450 GB free. The blue lights on the front go round and round - they don't stop. I hear the fan running - it doesn't shut off.
So began the quest to recover my files. I called the Western Digital recommended place and it was a minimum of $700, but could be $2,700! No Way! I don't want to dish that out. So I searched for recovery software. I found some for $70, and some for $140. All have a free trial to scan the drive to see what can be recovered.
Soft Ambulance - the website was down last night, so they didn't get my business $140
Easeus.com - Didn't find any files $70
Recover My Files - found 10,000 files i didn't' need and no preview. $70
HDD Recovery Pro - found over 100,000 files that I'm recovering now. $140
I don't know for sure if HDD Recovery Pro found everything since it is still copying files, but it did find more. It cost 2 times more than RecoverMyFiles, but well worth it to me.
My problem was not a simple "opps, I deleted a file" or "I shouldn't have formatted the disk." Still don't know what the problem is, not sure if I'll ever know.
I turned my drive off for a few days to stop any more deterioration that might be happening. It's been running 24 hours now to scan & recover data and so far, so good. I was hoping the files would magically show up again on the drive, but no such luck. In fact at times I can't even see the folders!
Moral of my story: Back up files. Not just in one place, in at least 2 places. Cloud computing is a good place for redundancy, too!
I just wrapped up reading Donald Trump's Think Big & Kick Ass!
While this book has very little that is new information, it does provide the contents in an easy to read, straight forward, no nonsense manner that everyone can enjoy and learn from. If you have already learned these, are you implementing them? Daily? Weekly? Once a Year?
I found the most important topic that Mr. Trump discusses is focus. It takes just a little more effort than an ordinary person gives to make yourself extra-ordinary. How do you do that? Maintaining focus on your goals and tasks will lead you to success.
According to Donald Trump, comedian Tim Allen's 3 lists to maintain focus,includes:
Lifetime Goals
Annual Tasks to Reach Lifetime Goals
Daily Tasks to Reach Lifetime Goals
So how do you maintain discipline to stay focused to reach those goals? The daily tasks that you have should be motivating you to get up in the morning and achieve some progress in your quest to reach the goals.
Many times our goals are big, and when looked at as one big goal, can seem impossible. Or it may seem possible, but takes so long that you lose focus and therefore quit before you complete your goal. The trick is to break down your goal into easily achievable tasks that give you daily or weekly success, thereby motivating you to continue on your quest.
Next time: How to break down your goal into easily achievable tasks.
Ever wonder why some people always seem to have luck and others don't? They get the promotions, the girls (or guys), the good projects, best tables at restaurants, free tickets, etc.
One reason could be the way they present themselves. Take stock of what you are doing:
How do you stand?
How do you project your voice?
How do you walk?
How do you dress?
How do you shake hands?
Do you ask for what you want?
Do you have the confidence to stand, walk and talk for success? Your posture and voice should say, "I get what I want because you want to give it to me."
Having a purpose and something to believe in help build the confidence. What ever it is that you are doing today for a job is your job because it is what you chose to do. If you are not happy, choose a way to enjoy what you are doing. If you are not getting the promotions, maybe it is because you are not doing your job with enough passion to make your supervisors think you could do a more important job well enough. You have to show that you are successful at whatever you do. People like to be around other successful people. Be successful at your current job, feel the purpose and be happy in the moment.
I love going to Chick Fil-A because the young people working there are trained to be so polite. It seems like they love their job. If I had a job opening, I would want to look for the person there that seems to love their job most because they appear to love their work. They are trainable and like working and that is what I would need in an employee.
We moved back to CA in September. My husband is an agent and wanted to find other agents to work with him. He had meetings with several agents who were all BROKE. In a tough sitation. Not making any money and needing a paycheck. My husband is a hard worker and knows the basics of sales. He suggested going back to basics and door knocking. He offered going with them to help.
We've not heard back from those agents. Those agents are looking for a 9-5 job and accepting government assistance but they were not willing to go knock on a few doors. Not even to try it for a week.
I guess the easy times have spoiled the agents who got in at the height of good times. They never had to shake the bushes to get a paycheck, and a big check at that.
I love hearing stories of seasoned professionals going back to basics. It's like the stories we have heard successful business people say: "If I lost all my money I'd have it back fast, because of the knowledge I have and work ethic I live by." And you can bring that to the level of The Secret as well. The mentality of successful business people are at a level that can bounce them back, bigger and stronger if they choose.
"I believe life is constantly testing us for our level of commitment, and life’s greatest rewards are reserved for those who demonstrate a never-ending commitment to act until they achieve.” -Anthony Robbins
I just finished Trumps' "Think Big and Kick Ass" and while I've heard it all before, read it all before and been to those pump you up seminars before, you have to keep reading it and hearing it to keep it at the forefront of your thinking. How do you stay committed when life pulls you in so many directions every day?
Planning
Routine
Habits
Time Delegation
Accountability
Deadlines
Every day is a new chance to get back on track, to see what has been accomplished and assess what needs to be done to continue on the planned task. For me it is easier if I end the day with an organized, visual account of:
Completed items
Uncompleted items
Next days tasks
Questions that arose during the day
Roadblocks to progress
Solutions to the roadblocks
This list at the end of the day also helps motivate me to get up in the morning - I know what I need to get done to be successful, and success each day is what motivates me and keeps my attitude positive. The successes don't have to be large, which is why the planning is so important. Each part of your plan that you execute and complete is a success. It takes the small accomplishments to reach the large end result. Overnight successes never really happen overnight.
I think I've learned enough about myself now to know where it is that I need to focus to accomplish those things that are most important and that generate income. While we can all listen to what the trainers and coaches say, they are just providing tools that we can use to get us where we want to go. It is up to each of us to implement what we learn and use the tools in ways that help us in our businesses and personal lives.
Answering question #1 from yesterday - I Need Help Figuring Out What and How to Do That!
Here are the tasks:
Upload
Label
Invite people to view your videos!
Embed your video onto your blogs and websites
Create links on classified sites and in your emails to go see your video
Step #1. Depending on the type of video camera you have, this can be easy or you will have to read your manual. If you have a "Flip" you only have to plug in the camera to a USB port on your computer, the software automatically starts up and you select the scene you want to upload. You can create a movie before you put it onto YouTube and add music, a title and closing credits. Once you have a movie, you click on Upload movie to Internet. You will be prompted to log in to your account and then the video will upload.
If you have another type of camera, you will need to save the files or scenes onto your computer and then go to YouTube to upload the files. Log in to your account - or create one if you don't have one. Then on the top right of the screen is a yellow button that says "Upload." Then click on the button that says "Upload Video." It will give you the option of choosing a file on your computer.
Step #2. Putting the right label on your video is key. The next step is to give your video a title, description, and label or tag it. Choose a TITLE that describes your video. What ever you are trying to brand - your name or company or phrase - use in the title of your video. Next DESCRIBE your video. In the description of your video, be specific. If it is a video of a specific neighborhood, or street, or event, put that in the description. When someone does a search for what is in your video, you need to make it easy for the search programs to find it. The more local and targeted you are, the more likely you will find the target market. Search engines search for words, so your title, description and tags are important. TAG your video - put in words that people might type into a search engine to find your video. Be location specific on these as well. Only use tags that are relevant and not too many. If you can only think of 3 tags, that is ok.
Step #3. INVITING people to view your video is easy. Click on your account name at the top right of the screen and you have the option of seeing "My Videos." You will then see a list of your videos. Click on the one you want to invite people to see. Right below the video is a link to "Share" the video. You can send an email directly through YouTube, or you can copy and paste the link YouTube provides you. You can even send a message and send the invitation to multiple people. Ask them to "Favorite" the video, it helps the ranking of your videos.
Step #4. EMBEDDING videos means putting your video on other websites. Have you seen those websites that have a video on them? Maybe they are simple sites with a simple video message. They capture your attention.
You can do the same thing - just embed it into your site. If you use Microsoft Expressions to make your website, you can put a video on your site. If you know just a little bit about how to make a website, you can put a video on it. If you have a blog, like Blogger or Word Press, you can embed a video on your blog. IMPORTANT: When embedding, be sure you click on the little sprocket on the right side of the EMBED code - it will then give you the option of including or NOT INCLUDING related videos. If you DO NOT want competitors' videos on your website, you need to "UNCHECK" that.
Step #5. Putting LINKS in your emails and into a classified ad is easy. Go to step #3 and get the link that YouTube provides you. Copy the link and paste it into an email and there you go - your email has a link. Go to Craigslist and paste the link into the ad you write up. As long and the link you paste has the http:// before the www., it will make it a clickable link in Craigslist.
For more how-to help on on-line marketing you can visit my site http://www.bestretools.com/. You will find a few videos on how to use some of the other products I use for my business and reviews and comments.
111 days before a house goes to auction in California, a Notice of Default is recorded at the recorders office.
The public is notified of a pending foreclosure sale in a public location like the court house and published in the local newspaper. This is public information that anyone can and will see. People who buy foreclosures know that a homeowner is behind on their payments. People who read the newspaper can see all the houses that are in foreclosure.
Some homeowners know this is public information; however, some do not and are very shocked and surprised to get letters and phone calls from people wanting to “help” them. They begin to get bombarded with offers to buy their house, or offers for financing, or any variety of other products.
As investors and purchasers of foreclosures, or pre-foreclosures, it is vital that you differentiate yourself from all the “junk mail” they get. How do you get someone to read what you send them and open their minds to what you have to say? How do you earn their trust? Rule #1 – Don’t Bullshi* them! You are not the only game in town, you don’t have to be cutesy, or clever or be a salesperson. Be up front and honest. Don't waste their time - as time ticks away their options are dwindling.
You need to:
1. Be honest
2. Be Knowledgeable
3. Do everything you say you will: build trust and do not break it
It is all over the news how people are being taken advantage of while going through foreclosure or a short sale or a loan modification. In every type of economic climate there are people who will take advantage of the hysteria and do illegal things. In good time and bad, you will find this. And throughout all those times, there are also people doing things the right way; helping people, following the law and solving problems that others are unable to do. Help build the reputation of the investors – do things the right way and do it a lot! Now Get to Work!
How do you become successful? How do you find the deals? How do you learn how to get homeowners to trust you? How do you find people to buy your houses? You have to work this business. Not just one day a month, not just one day a week. Every time you talk to someone is a time to talk about your business. If you have ever been to a multi-level marketing opportunity meeting, or joined an MLM, they probably taught you a lot about committing. They want you to commit your time, your money and tell everyone you know what you are doing. Word of mouth marketing is the cheapest and usually best way of getting business. Word of mouth comes from trusted friends, family and colleagues.
You need to learn how to talk the talk. You get that from talking with people in the industry, going to seminars, attending webinars, reading books, listening to tapes, watching videos of experts, talking with a mentor.
You have to walk the walk. Get in there and do a deal! Don’t think you have to know everything about everything to buy a house or rehab a house. Find someone to help you along the way. Find a mentor! Partner with someone who’s done it before and learn from them. Find a good contractor (you may need help doing this). Find a good lender, find a good insurance team. Find a great realtor! Get a team together to help you along the way. You shouldn’t do this alone!
When you jump out of an airplane, the hardest part is letting go. The rational side of you starts telling the spontaneous side of you that you are CRAZY! What if!?!? Once you do jump, you are committed, 100% to pull that cord. You know what will happen if you don’t. So, you continue with the steps you need to complete your missions. After you land successfully, you know you have accomplished something that not everyone would try or even consider. When you are scared to do something, the hardest part is taking that first leap of faith that everything is going to work out fine. Once you get going, keep moving forward, and commit to keep the momentum everyday.
As a borrower, you want conventional financing - for the low interest rates. Or FHA, for the low down payments. For houses you plan on keeping for rentals or living in, yes, that is true. However, for flipping houses, you are in a different game. Understanding how financing works will help you understand why conventional financing is not the preferred way to finance houses for flipping.
When you get a loan from a lender for a house, that bank sells the loan to the secondary market who then sells it again. If you pay off that loan in less than 2 years the originator of the loan may be on the hook to pay back any refunds or discounts they had received for selling that loan - thereby reducing their profit to nothing. Banks are in business to make money and if you consistently pay off your loans, the originators will stop lending to you.
If you have a line of credit, that is a different story. You can use and pay off that debt as much and as often as you like. It is designed to allow you to do that.
If you have a private money source, it is in the best interest of the lender for you to pay off and buy another property. Every time you borrow money and pay them back, you are proving you are effective in your business. They get paid and you get paid. Then, they are ready to lend once more to earn again. As long as you keep paying them back, they will be willing to lend you money.
As a Realtor, we are charged with getting leads for our business. Even if we are in a big company like Keller Williams or C21 or any other large company, getting your own leads is key to beating out the competition. I wanted to share this FREE report that should change the way you do marketing. The SIMS program helps you effectively generate leads. The report will open your eyes regarding how to capture leads that you generate.
Again, it's a free report, so if you do nothing more, at least read the report.
I spent the last 2 months learning about internet marketing and how to effectively generate leads. I have done a lot of direct marketing and get average results. 10 years ago when the internet started gain popularity, I knew that the internet would be the way to generate more leads. Well, today, if you've not already started to effectively use the internet, it is worth your time to figure out how.
One thing I learned is that my company website is not great. I spent a lot of money to have someone build it and it has generated maybe 10 leads in a year. Just one of my squeeze pages that I got from the SIMS program generates about 5 good leads a day for me! That's a huge difference! With just one tip from the SIMS program, I earned $900 in a couple weeks - and I didn't even have to work the lead to make a sale, I handed it off to another agent and split the commission! No driving around, no paperwork. Just a check in the mail. And the great thing is that the leads keep coming in and it takes minutes to do. Now, if I did everything that Greg taught me, it would take longer. But if I need more leads, I know I just have to implement more of his techniques.
The great thing about internet marketing is that you see results quickly. I can market in one place (for FREE) and get leads within minutes, or at least by the end of the day. Yellow pages, radio, tv, newspapers can't offer you that - the production time alone takes days or months.
So, you can see I'm passionate about this program. It's been a great tool for me and my business. I'm hoping it will help some of you increase your business as well. I believe the better we all do our business, it helps everyone in our industry.
Please, click here for the free report "Website Suck Squeeze Pages Rule" and see how you can help your business grow. Even if you don't sign up for SIMS, this report is a great FREE-BE! Click Here
Well, the Property Launch was a total success. Sold the house that weekend! Didn't have a huge flood of people, but the buyers - people that mattered - did show up.
I had staged the house minimally - a few floor plants so the rooms weren't completely empty, bought the plug-ins for nice smells, baked cookies and had jelly beans for the kids. I also put out a flyer about the $8,000 tax credit and everyone took one of those. Don't forget to tell people that you just have to NOT have owned a home for the LAST 3 YEARS to qualify.
We got a full price offer on this beautiful little remodel. As the owner, I offered $2,000 BTSA, 50" plasma TV, home warranty and $2,000 towards closing costs. For a little $120K house, they were good incentives. The price compensated for the incentives. For a change, we weren't the best price, but we certainly were the best product.
Try to get your sellers to offer incentives, while keeping within $5,000 of the "right" price for the house. With the right marketing you'll get it sold fast - even if it's not a foreclosure!
We are preparing for our first open house in Deer Park, Texas. This house was completely remodeled by Rent Ready, a contractor we found in Lifestyles Unlimited, Inc.
We have a couple fronts we are working on to get ready for this. 1. The kitchen is not complete yet and the beautiful vent hood we ordered that we were expecting Wednesday will not be arriving until Thursday. 2. We are spreading the word about the open house using techniques from the SIMS training I took with Greg Clement.
The first issue we have is that in the kitchen, the space for the vent hood is smaller than usual, so we had to get a special vent hood. Not the same old under the cabinet will work...no cabinet. To add some sizzle to the house, we splurged and ordered from Euro-Kitchen a lovely high end vent hood. According to the website, it should take 4 business days to get here, so we were expecting in on Wednesday. Now that it is in route, it will arrive Thursday - in the northwest of Houston - far from the house. Now I need to work out with Rent Ready to get it installed 8 AM on Friday or Thursday evening. Why? Because we have an agent open house on Friday at noon! I have no idea today how long it will take to install a vent hood, I'm hoping 1 hour or less.
The second front we are working on is marketing. I love marketing!
- Email
- Postcards
- Press Releases
- Talking House
- Videos
We have sent out an email to the top producers in the Houston area to give them a heads up on the open house. I also have prepared a press release that I am sending out to TV, Radio and Newspapers. Why do they care? Because we are giving up to $500 to a local school right down the street from the house. For every family that shows up, we will donate $1! I'm not sure which media venues will announce this, but even just a couple will help. I also spoke to the principal of the school and she is spreading the word to her staff, who will hopefully spread the word to everyone they know.
I am creating videos to show the house, putting the house on the MLS today, putting together a before and after portfolio for the agent open house, creating a flyer about the $8,000 tax credit to have at the open house, finding a few items to dress up the counters and bathrooms, and making a flyer for the house which shows comps for the area.
I am not using a Realeflow website for this promotion, which may be a mistake since Greg is having a fun contest for high traffic. But I need to see the traffic that my marketing is generating and at this point, I can't do that with Realeflow websites. I believe they will have that available in the future, but I'm living this today.
Working on implementing all the SIMS system is a time consuming challenge. In between doing everything else that a real estate investment company needs, now I need to implement more tasks.
After 6 modules and nearly 40 hours of trainings, (which I still need to catch up on) I am working on the task of how to most easily and quickly implement all the great tools Greg Clements of SIMS has provided.
Upside is that once these internet tools are implemented, it will increase our lead generation, improve our internet presence every day, and require less and less time and the power of compounding marketing takes place.
For example, 2 months ago our website was in the bottom 20% as far as website rankings. It is now in the top 40%! While we may not be exactly where we want to be today, we are steering in the right direction to get to the top.
One of the great tools that we are being able to use now with Realeflow is auto responding to emails and drip campaigns. Auto responders are when someone signs up at your website and your website sends them an email as soon as they hit "submit." Drip emails are the emails that automatically follow up after the first email. You can determine the frequency of the emails that get sent, the content of the emails and the quantity. With Realeflow, they have already created a number of auto responders for you to use. You just need to personalize it for your business information.
If you are a serious investor, you need to check out RealeFlow.
Please be sure to subscribe to this BLOG so you will be notified of all new postings and information for the competition.
For this weeks meeting you need to be signed up with Acrobat.com. We will have our first on-line meeting on Wednesday.
This video shows you in 5 minutes how to sign up and a few of the features of acrobat.com.
If you have not yet uploaded your video, that is ok, you have time, some of the tips I have can work in days and don't take months to work. But, the sooner your video is up on YouTube, the more time people will have to find you.
30 minutes - you can get your video done and uploaded in 30 minutes!
Check out mktcompetition on YouTube for videos that show you how to make a video for free and without a video camera, and how to sign up with YouTube and Google. In fact, there are 2 videos that show you 2 different places you can create a video for free!
Once you have your video ready, you need to upload it to YouTube and send me a link to your video.
As we get more videos for our members, I will share them with everyone.
Later today I will have a video set up to show you how to get set up with acrobat.com. You need to do this so we can have our first on-line meeting this Wednesday. Click on the word "acrobat" to get to the site to get started with acrobat.
The first of the free places to create videos -without a video camera that I want to share with you is Animoto. Below is a 5 minute tutorial on how to use Animoto and get it onto YouTube. I used their stock photos and the music they provide. You can upload your own images, use images from the web and use your own music as well.
Something that is important when you put your videos onto YouTube is the title, description and tags or key words you use. Make sure the title is named something that your video is about. For people to find your video, the title needs to be something that they would type into a search browser. The internet is all about giving people what they want - and if you have what people want, make it easy for them to find you...you do that with the right words.
To find me on YouTube, use mktcompetition to search - I should be the first video that pops up.
The RICH WIRE marketing competition begins tomorrow for all RICH members who are women.
To get started for this competition, you need to have an account with YouTube and a BLOG. To make this easy, just sign up for a Gmail account and you will have easy access to both a free BLOG and YouTube. Here is a link to a video on how to easily set up a Gmail account and YouTube Account.
Tip of the Week Beware of Scams on Craigslist. Just because there is a listing on Craigslist doesn’t mean it’s legitimate. NEVER wire money to someone who claims they will send you a QuickClaim Deed for a property. No Matter How Good the Deal Is! Legitimate sellers will do Warranty Deeds and allow you to use an escrow company.
A QuickClaim Deed creates a cloud on title that can remain up to 25 years. So if you ever plan on selling that property, you will have a long road ahead of you holding the property or tracking down the seller to get a Warranty Deed. ALWAYS go through an escrow company unless you plan on doing all the due diligence yourself, which includes verifying the seller is really the owner and has legal capacity to sell the property and the title is clear of encumbrances.
Greg Clement has a contest now for his clients, asking them to put together a video using Animoto. I did not sign up for the extended version of Animoto, so I was limited to 30 seconds. I do believe that a commercial should be limited to 30-45 seconds. We need to capture people's attention quickly otherwise we lose them to the next video or website. Here is the video I put together in minutes. The hardest part for me was finding my old pictures of past rehabs and then figuring out how to post a comment in Greg's blog to submit my video! Uploading the pictures was easy and it tells you when you have too many pictures for the length of time you have. The text you place within the video clip takes up some image time, but necessary to get your message across. There are many songs to choose from or you can upload your own. It is that easy! Then you can embed it into your blogs, send an email with a link to it, upload it to Youtube or other sites. Great product!
My goal is to provide thoughts and questions regarding the materials we read each day, websites that we find useful, tools we use for our business and the actions we take for our investments. It is our hope to not repeat mistakes and learn from others achievements as well as our own.
We are Residential Renovation specialists. In other words, we market, buy, sell, repair, and rent houses. We also provide mentoring services to other investors wanting guidance from active, experienced investors.
If you've not already heard the recording, you soon will. The media is jumping all over this as another reason why the big bad banks are so bad. A recording of the conversation between a lender representative and a Realtor who is trying to work out a Short Sale for her client is raising flags in many groups.
. Easy to back up my files, which I did for my c drive immediately. My recovered files are being put onto that new drive, too.
I just wrapped up reading Donald Trump's 
Well, the Property Launch was a total success. Sold the house that weekend! Didn't have a huge flood of people, but the buyers - people that mattered - did show up.
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