Email from Brian Kurtz, my Inner Circle member / Realtor out of Downriver area in Western Wayne county:

“ I am continually amazed at the excuses "investors" come up with to NOT do deals. Here's my new favorite. GREAT house that needs almost ZERO repairs. Bank drops the price down $50k below market. Deal should be a no-brainer. So what doe they come up with? "I wonder what is WRONG with this house. The numbers are SOOO good it feels like there must be something wrong we can't see. Why hasn't it sold yet if it's such a good deal?" So if the repairs are too high they say there are too much repairs, or the price is too high. If there are NO repairs, they say there is something wrong with the deal, but they don't know what, so they won't do it. Weird.”

Somebody told me long time ago that you can make money or you can make excuses – impossible to do both at the same time.

It is not uncommon for me to get at least 10-15 emails / faxes every week where real estate investors are complaining about the “trouble” they are having finding money to fund the foreclosure deals – Junkers / pretty homes.

But when I ask them where exactly they have looked so far or what they have done so far to find the money – the answer in almost 98% cases is silence. The 2% who reply back – I will tell them where to go and get the money. There is no shortage of money – hard / mortgage / private – what is always in short supply is real estate investors in Michigan who know where to go and get it.

Same thing with finding deals. Same thing with finding good contractors.

A friend of mine work as Realtor for a big name franchise real estate operation. He is in the office with another 209 realtors. He has been doing it for 14 months now. Majority of his office mates have been at it much much longer.

He has asked the owner several times to be excused from the weekly Tuesday meetings where typically 180-200 realtors show up with weekly progress reports. He told the owner that he is so depressed by their combined tales of woe and despair that it takes him almost a day to get back to track.

He on the other hand in four months of becoming the Realtor is in the Top 5 consistently – taking home anywhere from $10,000 - $15,000 per month in commissions.

But the owner wont let him go home because he wants him to come and tell these other people in the room what he is doing hoping against hope that they might also copy him.

He on the other hand is as open as he could be so he gets up ever week, dutifully and tells them exactly what he is doing. Lead sources / ads / what he is saying / what he is not saying etc. And in all due fairness – it is no big deal on “what” he is doing.

The secret to his success is that he is doing something.

The other 200 Realtors are doing absolutely nothing.

Find hard to believe?

Grownups showing up to “work” and not doing anything and having the cojones to complain next week about how hard it is to make money???

Better believe it.

I have seen it; lived it; managed it; and lived to tell the sordid story.

Majority is not interested in not doing anything. Period.

Oh sure everybody says that they want to make money.

The same way everybody writes the three goals on December 31 midnight every year – quit smoking, lose weight, make more money.

All you have to do is look around and you will understand immediately that particular strategy is not working out.

Cigarette companies are making tons of money. We are the fattest nation on the planet and we are spending $113 dollars for every $100 coming in. Credit card debt is at all time high since the time credit cards were introduced.

Clear your head out of all the garbage. Make a list of Things To Do ASAP and get all of them done. Then you have a right to complain. But not before.

By the way, Brian is not alone in this – all REO Realtors who have truck load of good listings have similar tales – they don’t understand why investors are so much interested in talking and looking but not buying anything. Good deals – REO’s / Short Sale / Motivated Sellers – all around you and me.

Question is what have you done today to find one?