How does the media view the Foreclosure Crisis?

I was interviewed by a Seattle Times columnist last night and was interested by the questions she asked!

I have to tell you that I was impressed by the quality of questions that the reported asked regarding the Real Estate Market in Seattle and investors in general. Usually I am quite concerned by the tone of most media coverage that we see in the papers and on the TV. Reporters typically have a bias one way or another and want to make Real Estate Investors out to be the bad guy.

Foreclosures are at an all time high, blame the greedy real estate investor for causing it. People are losing their homes, blame the investors. Houses are not renovated properly, blame the investor.

Okay, sometimes I feel picked on and abused. What the general masses don’t realize is that ethical investors are really there doing a service to the community.

We stop foreclosures by buying the house and then either making the payments or pay off the loan making the banks whole again. We take ugly properties and make them livable, turning them into rentals or selling them to owner occupants.

Recently here in Washington there has been a push by the attorney general to stop what is called “Foreclosure Rescue Scams”, basically a lease back purchase arrangement with an investor who then skims the equity and sets the home owner up for failure. Later evicting the former home owner for failure to pay.

I personally stay so far away from anything like this that I support stopping this type of transaction. Not only to protect consumers but also to prevent bad press for investors. Lease options are a great strategy but not with people who have proved that they can’t afford the property already.

I will probably hear from some of you telling me that this is a legitimate strategy and while you are right it works and done properly is legal, does not mean that you should do it. Publicity on this can be a nightmare. This can ruin your investing business.

Most people I talk to who use this strategy like it because they have a ready made buyer for the house. Personally I find it easier to sell the house once the previous owners are out of there.

Here is an invitation to our Customer Appreciation Celebration

Are you ready to put 2008 into high gear? Many of the investors that I have met in the last couple of weeks fall into one of two camps.

First – the Doom and Gloom-ers. They believe that everything in the world has gone to heck in a hand basket. They avidly watch the TV news and listen to radio and hear that everything is awful. That the economy is in a mess and that the housing market is in a slump. People can’t sell houses and the prices have gone down dramatically. So they are just pulling the covers over their heads and getting comfortable in the rat race.

Second – the Raring to Go, No holds barred, never been better to be alive types. They pshaw the pundits and the ne’er do wells who are always looking at the glass as half empty.

Which type are you? Really now? Are you sure? You could really just hang it up and go back to your day job and live your life the same old way you have in the past. The rat race isn’t that bad is it? You make enough to pay your bills each month, right? You get to take a vacation once a decade. Who could ask for more?

That’s right. You can! You can do anything you set your mind to. You really can buy 6 to 12 houses this year. You can wholesale them or rehab and retail. You can choose not to be apart of the general thinking. You can be different. You really can do anything you set your mind to.

When I have been asked if I am a glass is half empty or half full guy I always answer the same thing. “It depends on if you are drinking or pouring!” If you are drinking, the glass is half empty, if your pouring, it is half full. When my glass gets to a certain point I just switch to the other option. I have an unlimited pitcher sitting right next to me. I can fill my glass up at any point I want to.

It is up to you to do the same. Don’t rely on anyone else to provide your motivation and reasons for success. It is all you.

Dedicated to Multiplying Your Successes!

Paul

It’s a Buyers Market Stupid!

That is what I heard a frustrated buyer say to his real estate agent after his offer was rejected. I can understand his frustration. Sellers in the Seattle area are just experiencing this affect that the rest of the country has been going through so they still don’t understand it.

Sellers need to be a little more flexible. It is more give than take. That is why it is important to be dealing with motivated sellers. Most investors don’t have the patience, or their marketing setup, to find the motivated sellers. In the mean time they are dealing with a lot of sellers who just want to sell and are thus wasting their time.

Some of the investors are getting frustrated because they are not doing more deals while others are frustrated because they have not done their first deal yet. I can understand their pain.

Shh, I will let you in on a little secret. Promise not to tell? Well some of the national speakers teach everything from calling FSBOs, Yellow letter and a few other techniques because it makes their students seem busy and gets the phone to ring.

Now first off, I admit that I have bought a property from a yellow letter campaign. I know of others that have done the same. What it does do is creates a fury of activity and a bunch of phone calls that you will have to capture and evaluate individually.

To be honest, I have not been able to systemize this to my liking. Most of you know that I like to drive people to 24 hour information lines or my website for them to find out more information before I talk to them. I use this as a hurdle that they have to jump over thereby weeding out some of the “Want to Sell” callers. I then have them leave information that I evaluate before I return their calls. If they don’t leave the information, like mortgage balance or monthly payment information I use that as an indicator of motivation level.

Personally, this is the way I choose to run my company. It is how I want to work. I would rather pass on a marginal deal than chase someone down who is a just looking for an easy full market sell. I know that some of you are thinking that you would love to pick up all the deals that I pass by without looking at them. Frankly I would love you to pick them up as well. Better you make money than no one does.

You may think I am crazy to do this. Personally I call it systemization. I would rather do one or two slam dunk deals than work on 10 to get 1 or 2. I choose to have my systems do the sifting and sorting so I don’t have to waste my time on them. I bet when all was said and done I would only miss a couple over a years time but in the mean time I can use my time to make money in other ways. Interesting topic isn’t it.

Dedicated to Multiplying Your Successes!

Paul

P.S. This month I am doing double duty. On Saturday the 19th I am holding Two (2) half day workshops. The first is “Beginners Guide to Real Estate Investing – REI 101” and the second is “How to Fund the Deal Using Private Money.” I am constantly asked about these topics and you can find out more about them by visiting www.rei-success.com/workshop.

I recommend signing up early. There is construction where we hold our meetings and we are relegated to smaller room than is usually the case. I found out that it will only hold 40 people and we have over 22 people signed up and paid already.

Private Lending is really the key to my success. Being able to fund my deals quickly without waiting on mortgage brokers has helped me do deals that my competitors were unable to do. I was talking to one of my mentoring students over the holiday and was telling her that because of private lenders I was able to leave my J.O.B. a full 12 months before I expected to. I will be going into how to find them as well as how to jump through the hoops so you don’t cross paths with the SEC or Washington state regulators.

It’s over! Let’s get down to business!

That is right. The holidays are over! I don’t know about you but I am glad they are. No matter how fun they are they are still a lot of work and distraction from real life. I know, I know. You are going to email me saying that real life is a holiday and that the rest of the year just leads up to them.

I am not Scrooge or the Grinch. I like Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years as much as the next guy! But come on, you have to admit that it makes it harder to be productive and get things done. You make the phone calls to the sellers and they are busy and can’t talk right now. Or they will call back after the holidays. You are working on a closing and the buyer’s mortgage broker is on vacation.

I am so ready for these next few months. We are doing some interesting stuff. I am right now in negotiations with a couple of multi-family sellers as well as looking at and for the right commercial properties. House sellers are creeping out of the woodwork and I will tell you that thank GOD that I have investing criteria because if I didn’t I would be wasting a whole lot of time on leads that I shouldn’t be.

If you are not getting deals right now you really need to work a little harder on that. Last month I held a half day workshop on finding motivated sellers. I am using just a fraction of those techniques and am getting some good leads crossing my desk, especially on the Commercial and Multi-Family side of the house.

I heard some great feedback on this workshop. Matt from Portland drove up just for the workshop. He mentioned to me that just one tip that he heard in the entire presentation was worth the cost and time. Thanks Matt.

This month I am doing double duty. On Saturday the 19th I am holding Two (2) half day workshops. The first is “Beginners Guide to Real Estate Investing – REI 101” and the second is “How to Fund the Deal Using Private Money.” I am constantly asked about these topics you can find out more about them by visiting www.rei-success.com/workshop

I recommend signing up early. There is construction where we hold our meetings and we are relegated to smaller room than is usually the case. I don’t know how many it will hold.

Private Lending is really the key to my success. Being able to fund my deals quickly without waiting on mortgage brokers has helped me do deals that my competitors were unable to do. I was talking to one of my mentoring students over the holiday and was telling her that because of private lenders I was able to leave my J.O.B. a full 12 months before I expected to. I will be going into how to find them as well as how to jump through the hoops so you don’t cross paths with the SEC or Washington state regulators.

I hope you had a great holiday but now is the time to get things done. Put your action plan to work for you right away. Don’t procrastinate or let things slip through the cracks.

Dedicated to Multiplying Your Successes!

Paul

P.S. By the way, as some of you know I don’t go out for coffee or lunch with people. I would like to but my time is very valuable to me and I am so busy that it just doesn’t make sense. But, because I have been asked so many times in the last couple of weeks that I decided to host a small group of people next Tuesday January 8th from 11:00 – 1:00pm in Issaquah. I will even buy the coffee.

This will give who ever shows up a couple of hours to ask any question they would like. This is an informal setting and will allow a few of you to pick my brain like you had asked. Just reply to the email letting me know you would like to attend and you will get the address and directions. I don’t know if I will ever do this again so if you need to take an hour off of work to be there then do it. I know that is how I got started by picking the brain of a local investor and had them point me in the right direction.