December 2010 Archives

To help you write your goals for your Michigan real estate investing business for 2011, here are 10 to get you started:

1. Meet more new people in your Michigan County. On a regular basis every month. Try to mix it up from both real estate investing world and from non-real estate groups.

2. Read E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gruber and 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris so you don't fall into the trap of doing everything yourself in your real estate investing business.

3. Promise yourself to never rely on solely phone calls, emails and Facebook friends. They are good ice breakers and they have their place in this world but real estate investing was and always will be a handshake-to-handshake business. If you are not shaking hands out in the real world; you are not giving your business an opportunity to send you checks.

4. Join a mastermind in Michigan. Drag your head, heart and body into a room where like minded ambitious entrepreneurs hangout and talk business, deals are happening and business is being done. We are not going to come to your home. You have to come to us.

5. Make a list of holes in your knowledge and then find books, seminars, home study courses to plug these holes. Do it methodically. One the hole is plugged; move in to the next one.

6. Don't let 10 days end without having a cup of coffee with a 'right person' in your Michigan County. No, you don't need to master Dale Carnegie before you do it. Just be yourself and focus on having a good time. Business will just come out it automatically.

7. Obsess about getting an army of good people in your business life: good buying agents, good REO agents, good mortgage brokers, good contractors, good property inspectors.... This is pursuit that few ever think about. It is mostly left to chance. When you are out at seminars and networking events, ask around who is using who and how it is working out.

8. Start a Facebook business Page for your Michigan real estate investing LLC. And keep it alive. It is the easiest and free way of keeping in touch with everybody you come in contact with.

9. Stop doing business with contractors without a written agreement in place. For that matter stop doing business with 'anybody' without a written agreement in place.

10. When you get big checks from your deals; take the people who made it all possible out to lunch: your contractors, the staff at your agent's office, your agents, the loan officer for the buyer and if you had a private investor, invite them over too. Have a good time.

Happy New Year!

Here is a small gift: a PDF of my one month, one page action plan for January 2011.

I made this for my own use recently. The filled one stays on my desk and one copy goes in my car. It is one of the many ways I chase the days to make sure that months don't finish without moving my business forward.

A month, a full one month is too important for me to be left on chance. I procrastinate as much as the next person. I just realized how screwed up I am a while ago and hence all the bear traps in my life to catch laziness and get things moving.

Here is the link to download the PDF

Not every minute that you spend inside your business brings you money back.

One of the biggest 'time suck' things that you will be doing in the next 12 months are the endless trips to Home Depot and Lowes to get materials for your contractors.

You cannot avoid it all together and I have lots of friends who actually enjoy doing it. I have said it only half jokingly that given the choice between having sex and going to Home Depot, most Michigan real estate investor will always pick a trip to Home Depot.

But a time comes, once you have flipped three houses that hopefully you will be realizing that there are a lot of things in your flipping business that once learned, you don't need to be doing over and over again; making endless trips to these two stores being one of them.

If you have not realized that then may be you don't consider your time precious or you are just having too much fun checking out the new tools that these stores keep piling up.

Stop it and spend those minutes some place else.

Here are three ways to start cutting down on these trips:

1. If you want tasty apples, plant an apple tree and not a poison ivy plant. Start with good contractors that are 'mature' business owners and want repeat business from you and are looking for good Michigan real estate investors to work with.

Ask for references. Check those references. Go to networking events in your Michigan County and ask other experienced investors about the people who work for them. These contractors value their times as much as they will value yours so they are going to more organized and are not going to be interested in making 37 trips to Home Depot to fix one house.

2. Start with a good list of 'everything' that you are going to need to fix this house. When you are going through the house and making a list to buy; use paper or a digital voice recorder.

Either way don't rely on your memory alone. Remember the last time when your better half yelled at you for forgetting the milk and eggs for kids the last time you went to Meijer?

3. It is not; repeat not a good idea to start writing big checks for material purchases to contractors EVER or to give them cash for smaller stuff.

Instead buy gift cards from Home Depot and Lowes for small stuff that you can give your contractor and they can give you weekly receipts on purchases they made. A $100 gift card for Home Depot will save you 2-3 trips that week.

Tell your contractor to keep a small box in their glove compartment in their truck and put your receipts immediately into it. They are notorious about losing receipts so pointing this easy method of keeping better records will help you.

What is the best gift we can give to our children in 2011? Offer them a partnership in our Michigan real estate investing business.

All the things that might be frustrating you right now: putting up a website, Craig's List, Vflyer, Postlets, Facebook, online advertising, cropping pictures that you took from your camera etc and you are wasting valuable time in 'fighting' to learn; they already know how to do them or can figure out faster than you and me.

Offer them a partnership in your business. The keyword is 'partnership'. Help them understand the joy of being an entrepreneur and learning how their actions can actually bring money to your business and your home ("Hey remember the Craig's List ad you helped me make with vFlyer for 'our' house? Well it just sold the house and once the closing happens... 'our' LLC will write you check for $250.")

If you are buying and flipping homes in Michigan or want to do it in the coming 12 months: Why not involve them, make it fun for them and get your stuff done quickly all at the same time?

People often complain about the lack of support they get from friends or family members when they are starting out in this business yet they are the ones who are missing out on one of the best and brightest mind sitting right next to them on dinner table every night.

Don't ask them. Don't tell them. Make them a partner. You are not losing $250 when the house flips; you are going to get a check for $19,750 because of them.

Doing nothing but feeling happy about food, family and the blessings of the day and hoping that you are doing the same today.

A bird shit on my t-shirt seconds before I was about to turn the camera on and shot the video. I just walked to the ocean and washed it off and sat back down. The sound is not that good on the video as the ocean was much louder than I thought it would be ( so put the volume UP before you hit PLAY) but it is a lot more fun doing a video with your feet buried in sand then anything else. The direct link to the video is here.

Old school advice for all Michigan real estate investors in Michigan: forget mastering Facebook, Twitter or the next website that promises to change everything YET again and instead just keep your word because when you do THAT, enough people who are probably already on Facebook and Twitter and whatever else is out there will tell their friends and family members and their Facebook Friends who are looking for somebody just like you to become your deal partner, send you short sale referrals or FSBO deals.

So:

1. When you promise a check to a private investor / deal partner on a particular date; do whatever it takes to deliver that check and not a story on why it is not there. I like stories. So do my kids. Private investors like checks better.

2. When you tell a REO broker that you are going to close the deal on the 17th; that date should only change if there is a massive flood and the entire world is destroyed. Take any REO agent or broker out to lunch and ask them what is their biggest frustration in life and they will tell you that is Michigan real estate investors who somehow cannot close on dates that they had a 30 day notice for.

3. When you are selling a house and the FHA inspector needs 2-3 minor things fixed up to give you a passing grade; the buyer of your home is not interested in you and your partner wasting 3 weeks arguing whose fault these minor repairs are and whose profit share these $300 charge should come out of. The loan officer and the title company along with the buyer will remember these delays very well.

Will you fail sometimes? Sure. Failure is part of business and life as much as success is.

But people are only forgiving when you have not failed them the ten other times when you did everything you could and then some to deliver on the promise you made.

Keep you word. Be nice to people. The people you do business with already will send a whole lot of new business gladly.

I did a seminar on Saturday, December 11. 105 Michigan real estate investors came to help me bring some smiles to Metro Detroit kids. You can download the audios from that day here but forget about it for a second. Let me me show you what we did with your contributions yesterday. The direct link to this video is here just in case if you are having problems watching this video.

Without a doubt, yesterday was one of the best days of my life. See for yourself.... and thank you to all of you who came and supported me in this. This was all made possible because of your kindness. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

There are two people in your Michigan City who have first hand knowledge of what is going down right now: the REO broker who is handling bulk of the REO listings in your Michigan County of choice and the residential realtor who is outselling and outsmarting every other realtor in your County.

Call both of them up today, introduce yourself and ask them if they would let you talk them out to lunch? Nobody says NO to that offer. No matter how busy they are, they got to eat. If a Realtor is moving 100 homes in Oakland County, year after year, she knows what is moving and what the new home buyers are looking for. Why make guesses about something so important?

On a different note, ask the REO broker or agent who dominates your local area on what his repeat clients are buying and where they are buying? Just tell them honestly that you like the idea of following the path of successful investors.

Two meetings, two hours later, you are going to be a whole lot more knowledgeable about what is going on in your targeted Michigan City than you were yesterday. Don't think about it too much. Make it happen.

I had a great time yesterday. Full house with 105 Michigan real estate investors in attendance. Learning, great food and amazing networking. We did had some issues with AV with a result of presentations from Mike Simmons, Ken Yamamoto and myself were not recorded. We did got Doug Benson's talk on how is running his growing (44 units and counting) apartment business in Lansing and the OPEN Q&A (any question goes) with all the presenters. (Also let me me show you what we did with your contributions yesterday. Here is the video)

Download Doug Benson's presentation on buying and managing apartments. (Right click and choose SAVE AS).

Download the Open Q&A session with Mark Ijlal and Ken Yamamoto, Ken Gordon, Doug Benson, Mike Simmons and Ray Nemeckay. (Right click and choose SAVE AS).

You are sitting with your brother-in-law working very hard to convince him that he should invest in a deal with you. He has no idea about real estate investing, actually he has never even thought about buying foreclosures. He looks like he is about to throw up out of nervousness but he says, WHAT THE HELL... I will do a deal with you.

This is a bad check and you don't need it. If he is so nervous and shaky now when he is just talking to you; imagine how he is going to drive you nuts once you have bought the house and are fixing it. `

You need to be partnering up with people who are excited to buy a home with you in Michigan; have thought about buying and flipping foreclosures for a long time in Michigan but didn't because life and lack of time / skills got in their ways. There is no shortage of people like this in the Michigan City you live in right now. Plan on getting those partners in your life not the ones who are vomiting on your shoes on the day of the closing.

Lastly, be in the real estate investing business, not in the 'convincing' business. That is a tough business to be in. When somebody is telling me on how sick and tired they are of trying to convince dad to do investing with them; I always think to myself, what a waste of perfectly good 30 minutes. You are much better talking to somebody who is already half there and need to know more about you before making the jump along with you instead of wasting precious minutes talking to somebody who is never going to do deals with you.

You can skip this post if you are not 50 yet or have a job that you can never be fired from

Growing up I spent a lots of hours with both of my grandfathers. They told fascinating stories of growing up in a different era, living through World War II and taught me the fine art of going to farmers market on weekends and picking up the good stuff.

My dad was away most of the time working in far away lands and when he was home, like many men of his generation, he practiced the art of being silent, strong and not talking that much. But the older guys made up for him ten times over.

May be that is why I had always enjoyed the company of older entrepreneurs. I never look at them and think, "old school; don't know what I know; out of touch." Instead all I see is hard earned wisdom that I can learn from and trust me; I have to great profit for myself.

Corporate America takes a dim view of age however. It used to be that the word 'experienced' used to be a good thing on your resume. Now being 55 and recently fired from a job after 2 decades is not that of a good thing. Your age is going to negate a lot of opportunities for you.

Corporations want young blood. They are cheap, willing to work for less and longer hours. A 34 year old can knock out 60 hours - tough to do when you are 62.

If you are over 50... think of adding skills to your life that will help you do other things on the side. Real estate investing could be one of them for you. You are less than zero to the company you work for as your experience adds up.  I say it with utmost love for you. Not to put you down but to help you get up.

I don't want to talk to you when you are 58 and out of work and stressed out. I want to talk to you now when you are approaching 50 or in your 50's and have a job that is paying the bills so you can start doing something on the side.

Forget thinking about it. Forget asking about easy or hard. Forget everything. The clocks are ticking (one in Michigan, two in India and China). The stuff I see in terms of outsourcing (I have the benefit of living outside your work-home-weekend bubble) is making my blood run cold when I think of my many middle level corporate friends and what the future holds for them. 

You might think that sacrificing your TV or some hours on weekend to go look at houses or figure out how to add apartments to your life is too much to ask but it is nothing compared to being told three weeks before Christmas that your services are no longer required, and yes thanks for all those years and your wonderful service, this security dude will escort you out to your car.

Last thing - may be you are in your mid-50's or in your 60's and once in a while you are listening to some conference call with some young hotshot and think to yourself..."Man I wonder if I am too old for this real estate investment thing."

In USA the game is only over when they close the casket and throwing roses and mud on it. Till that day we can do whatever we want, reboot our lives, start businesses, buy houses, flip houses and go and get checks with our name on it.

There is no age limit on getting ahead in my world. Corporate America might want to send you home at 55. I believe that they are fools. Your 'life experience' is worth its weight in gold. Combine it with real estate investing skills - you will be unstoppable.

Flipping a house is not hard. Keeping a job, keeping a marriage, raising a family, teaching your kids values, living an honest life, taking care of your parents.... you already did the hard things. This will be nothing for you. Know that.

It is the most wonderful time of the year....

1. To tell everybody you touch (work, Facebook, email list, relatives, friends, people you are meeting everywhere) about what your business goals are in 2011. Watch FiredUP Episode 13 for a great 15 second speech by Dennis Fassett and Mike Simmons to learn how to spark a conversation toward your real estate investing business. 

Rick Snyder pointed out that people in Michigan love to blame the mainstream media about painting a negative picture but when somebody who is not from around here asks "So how are things in Michigan?", we go into a frenzy to make sure that they know that all things suck everywhere in Michigan, everything is rotten and you wish that you could just get out of this State before the next sunset. 

No wonder, he said, that everybody outside Michigan is convinced that we are a lost cause. If we cannot say one nice thing about the place we call HOME... how can we expect others to do so? 

Same principle applies to your business too. When everybody is down and depressed, a little bit of sunshine from your side of the room looks like a supernova.

2. To keep the switch ON in your mind about your business. We are 24 days away from Christmas and if you pay close attention, you can actually hear the click of the off-switch in people around you. 

But these coming three weeks are also the time where people are thinking about the New Year, everything seems possible and they are more willing to listen to new ideas then they were lets say in August. 

So bringing up self directed IRA's, the opportunity in investing in real estate, partnering up, starting a business are topics that you have a ready made audience for the next 4 weeks. So talk about them in abandon and see what the cat drags in back.

3. To think about what you are really passionate about. Not a whole list but 1 or 2 big things. Read the excellent Jim Collins essay about New Year Resolutions. It will blow you away.

Clarity is a gift and an asset for an entrepreneur who is building a business.

4. To make a list of people whom you know for a fact can help you get things done in your business BUT for some reason you are ignoring them right now and commit yourself to go and meet them before the New Year clicks in. There are at least 5 people you have met in the last six months (either in person at a networking meeting / seminar or online on Facebook etc)  who can help you tremendously. 

You know who they are. You know what you need done. You have not found time to connect these two dots. 

The next 24 days are good and you have commit yourself to start and build new friendships with these members. Not just hi-hello and "Yeah we need to talk one of these days" but "Listen I would love to have a cup of coffee with you. I am really serious about building my business in 2011 and want to see if we can help each other get things done faster and make money together in 2011." 

Nobody, I repeat, no sane Michigan real estate investor will refuse that offer.

5. To sit down somewhere quite, close the door, and make a list of all your accomplishments no matter how small or big that you were able to do in 2010, in the middle of a recession where almost everybody has thrown in the towel, you stood up and stayed standing and kept working on your business, kept investing in yourself, kept on with your education, met new people, did new crazy things like building a Facebook Page, kept making the moves while the rest of Michigan was simply paralyzed with fear for most of 2010. 

So close the door, make the list, smile ear to ear, put your hand over your shoulder and pat your own back because you deserve it and nobody understands what you got done in the middle of this storm but you.

And then open the door and go back to building your business.