The first real estate investment seminar that is only ONE minute long:

Little things done every day can add up to BIG results in no time. I always have problems in doing too much in all directions for the last 2 years till I finally realized that it was not working out and some kind of change was needed.

My solution was to write 4-5 big things that I wanted to do and do something about each one of them every single day - 5 days / week. On the weekends I would block 30 minutes reviewing what I had done each week and plan the next week. The results have been astounding. Requires a little discipline on my part to block 30 minutes every day to do what I need to do but once you start doing this for couple of days, it starts to run flawlessly.

For example, if you are just starting out:

1. Can you call one realtor every day out of the list you have identified to be one of the top REO realtor?
2. Can you grab the Sundays newspaper and call five ads every day for 20 minutes? I am looking at Detroit News Sundays edition - Real Estate Miscellaneous and Financing Section and there are 15 ads that I would call on right away - other investors / dealpers - just exercising healthy curiosity to find out what these guys are up to?
3. Can you make a list of at least 50 people that you know and call 5 people every day to find out if any one of them know a good smart loan officer?
4. Can you make a list of 5 hard money lenders in your city and 5 hard money lenders that operate on nationwide scale (for e.g.., brookviewfinancial.com) and call one hard money lender / day for the next 10 days.
5. Ask around your own circle on who is interested in investing in real estate - make the ones who are interested as future deal partners?
6. From above list, the ones who have shown interest in investing in real estate - ask them if they have read any books, attended any seminars, workshops, bought any courses - get feedback, lessons learned, experiences gained?
7. Do you know what is your target area? If my goal was to buy and sell foreclosures in Dearborn Heights, MI - I would like to know what is the average selling price of a 3 bedroom house was in Dearborn Heights? What kind of standard features people expect in houses in Dearborn Heights? What is the average selling time for a house to stay on the market? Who are the big realtors in Dearborn Heights?
All easy research that could be found in front of a computer and going to www.realtor.com, forsalebyowner.com, owners.com .

Discipline is required but does not have to boring. I do this but I like the challenge. Finding a good deal is like playing a sport to me. It is fun becuase I have made it fun. You can do it too. It is not rocket science compared to some other avenues of making money.

Point is that instead of feeling frustrated and buying yet another course that will sit on your shelf and collect dust - do something - do something today - do something right now.

The game is for us to lose, if we don't do anything. Spend five minutes before sleep with a writing pad and write down what you did for your real estate business today! If every day you cannot come with at least 2 lines - then you know you are in trouble.

On the other hand, if you can write at least 3 things that you are doing every day then I wait anxiously for a happy email from you when you get your first big fat check. :-)

Posted by Mark Ijlal at 11:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For those interested in dealing in Preforeclosures and executing profitable Shortsales in 2005:

More and more banks are demanding a personal financial statement on the homeowner losing their house in preforeclosure and presumed to be working with a real estate investor like yours truly and attempting to execute a short sale.

The list of demands have gone from a line item description of all living expenses such as house payment, groceries, insurance, car payments etc. to the truly bizarre requests of the last two years of tax returns, W-2’s, pay stubs for the last six months for both the primary and secondary borrowers (for example husband and wife) who are on the mortgage and title.

I was at a dinner last night with Gold Plus members Nekter Lianakis and Nick Mackris at Mc Cormick & Schmick's in Troy, (their claim to fame is no refrigerator on premises - all seafood is fresh - delivered and cooked everyday - the rest is tossed away; very good seafood, definitely worth checking out) and the topic of preforeclosures and short sale came up. These 2 guys are the best I have ever seen when it comes to doing preforeclosures on the fly. I am trying to convince them to take a day off their insane schedule and come and teach everybody in my Inner Circle about how to execute Short Sales like clockwork.

Tentative date is somewhere in April - will keep you posted. But overall we both agreed that to play the game of short sales right now at a high profit margin level it is becoming more and more necessary to :

1. Get the homeowner completely and utterly on your side - it is no longer enough just to get the borrowers authorization in place like it used to be. We are talking stacks of documents - pay stubs, tax returns, living expenses - the whole gauntlet coming from the homeowners.

2. The wait to get an answer from the Loss Mitigation folks is getting longer and longer. Nothing devious on their ends just too many houses going into foreclosure right now.

3. Average time to execute a short sale has gone from 30 days to 90 days with 60 days just to get an appraisal ordered and completed from Loss Mitigation folks.

4. Good strategy is to keep the homeowner expectations on the realistic side especially if they are expecting some kind of payoff to hand over the deed to you. If that includes educating on the process of short sales well so be it.

But the payoffs are still huge - done properly short sales on preforeclosures can create an enormous amount of equity in a matter of weeks when there was none to be found when you started.

PS: Is wireless networking WIFI cool or what? I am sitting in Saige’s bedroom on the floor with my iBook, typing away with her lying next to me gurgling happily! This is the best $100 you can spend on a computer accessory this year.

Posted by Mark Ijlal at 12:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nothing to do with real estate but awe inspiring and moving. Our troops rock!

Posted by Mark Ijlal at 07:47 PM | Permalink

Important story in todays Detroit News and important news for all - especially real estate investors.

"Michigan consumers are getting two new weapons to track their credit history and ward off the growing threat of identity theft.

Starting today, consumers in Michigan and 11 other Midwestern states can go to AnnualCreditReport.com to receive free copies of their credit reports from the nation's three major credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, formerly TRW. The reports typically cost $9.50 each.

Meanwhile, a series of new state laws updating Michigan's criminal statutes for identity theft also take effect today.

The package of 11 laws includes legislation that makes identity theft a felony, prohibits sales receipts from showing more than the last four digits of a credit card account number and eliminates the practice of asking a consumer to provide a Social Security number to establish an account."

Posted by Mark Ijlal at 09:42 PM | Permalink