Naked Lady Real Estate, The Bare Truth About Real Estate Investing

Rocking in So. L.A.

We have a lot of deals starting to POP in L.A. If you been to my real estate club meetings - you know this is where I was going to focus on and lay my mark.   Well - I started to put my nose to the grindstone  and things are hopping now!  No more messing around people!

I hooked up with my good friend  & real estate investor Dave Berens to do some LA deals because he had this "secret" connection in LA that he just had met.  These guys are brokers and contractors in LA.   Dave allowed me to meet them because I promised I would not make friends with them and I would only deal with them through him!  I have the real estate investor connections and he had these guys.  One kick ass team in the making I would say.  

That was a month ago.   To date:   We just closed our first rehab together (and I just got paid my aquistion fee!  Whee!), we wholesaled another property a week ago that is closing next week and we have another deal that we are wholesaling right now.   Not bad ey?

THe moral of the story:  Get off your ass and make it happen Rosie!  Oh yeah - and have those secret treasured connections that can actually get you these REO deals.  One thing I know for sure - is that if you don't have that broker in your pocket who is going to get you the deals - you will not get the deals.   Hhhmmm that reminds me - we need to take them to a steak dinner this week at Flemings! 

Check out our current wholesale deal:

1638 W. 51st. Place, Los Angeles, 90062
Single Family Home, 1054 sf.   R2
Title says 2 beds/ 1 bath, but it's 3 beds/ 1.5 baths. Lot size 5200
 
Zoned R2, and there is PLENTY of room to add on and make this a nice duplex. We have the contractor and architect available if needed.
 
As a single-family home, you can spend from $40,000-$60,000 for repairs, depending on what you want to do.
To build a duplex you need to add around 400-500 sf, and that (with remodel costs for the existing house) will cost $100,000 max.
 
ARV as a SFR is $285,000
ARV as a duplex with 3/1 each unit is $375,000-385,000
 
We are selling this property for $155,000.
 
It is important to go see it as soon as possible if you are interested. We expect to sell this quickly.

In the immediate pipeline - call me re these deals:

Duplex on 43rd street - $170K -all in (includes $15K of remodel)   ARV:  $245K

Triplex on 56th - $165 purchase, $90K rehab - ARV $410K

Coming soon:  Antelope Valley Properties! Coming soon:  Antelope Valley Properties!

Contact me right away for information on all these properties and to be added to my Buyers List :

Rosie@nakedladyrealestate.com   310-425-2695

Deal In South L.A. available now 9/16/09

HOT OF THE PRESSES DEAL! - I just looked at this Yesterday and Dave has in under contract Now>

Amazing deal that we want to start remodeling tomorrow! 

SO. L.A.  - Currently a duplex (1 beds ea) W. 61st. St.

ARV $410,000-425,000 with new addition in back
Purchase price $170,000   Repairs $110,000
Carrying and Escrow: $4,500
Total Amount to Borrow: $280,000 - TODAY NEED the first  $170K to purchase
Terms:  Call for details
Your Loan is secured by real estate trust deed.

Bank owned (ZONED R-2) We're going to rehab the main house & turn into a 4 Bed which is in ok shape already. Then we will build a brand new 3 bed in the back  (approx 1200 sf).

Please contact me immediately - for further details as well as additional pictures, and information on the investors we are buying this from and who will be our general contractors on the rehab and new construction for he addition.  They have rehabbed deals like this over a dozen times in So. LA.  They are brokers and general contractors.

Contact me immediately at  rosie@nakedladyrealestate.com    Office  310-280-9418 
Cell 310-425-2695

I'm writting for Biggerpockets.com!!!

Wow - I am so excited to announce that I am now a weekly featured columnist for the blog Biggerpockets.com.  This is very exciting for me!  I am not sure if you all know about biggerpockets yet - and it you don't, you should. 

www.biggerpockets.com is a national website/blog for real estate investors.  It was started by Joshua Dorkin in order to create a real estate investors site that was a pitch free zone.  It is a great site that I have been going to for about a year now, however just recently started to participate on the forums. 

Enjoy the site and I hope you enjoy my article!!

To read it click here!

Is the tide is turning a bit?

For me it seems that many sellers are still in denial or they have just given up on wanting to be helped.  Case in point:  I had a seller that I was working with about 6 months ago.  He had a property located in Inglewood and was behind 3 months in payments.  At the time there was about $150-180k in "equity" (we all know that it's only equity if you actually get cashed out of the mofo.)  At that time, he wanted $60K cash and he would walk away.

Not a bad deal because I was going to stick in the Land Trust and hold if for many years.  The deal looked really good on paper - as many of them do (!).  He had an adjustable - but he would refinance it for me-check!  He was willing to hold the loan for 7-10 years-check!  I was going to give him the $60k once he refinanced-check!  Seems like a good deal if it all worked out.  But (there's always a but) he would not sign the Proposal Agreement!  I let him know that I would not move forward in the deal unless he signed, he simply refused to sign it  "right now".  He wanted to wait until I found my buyer/tenant to move into the house and then "we would do all the paperwork at once".   Of course the deal fell by the wayside and I moved on.  No ticky - No washy.

Now... 6 months later I just received an email from this fine fella and he is offering me the same deal - but now he only needs 30K to walk away for good.  It seems he has managed to hold on this long.  Wow.  So I guess he is one of the "lucky ones".  That is; he is still in his house and it hasn't gone back to the bank yet. 

We'll see what happens here. There are more deals that are not happening rather than happening and I am developing a "we'll see" attitude for now. Is it me or are there not enough deals popping here in L.A?  The only successful deals I am hearing about are Out of Area/State.  What about you?

Rents will go down? Huh?

Very very interesting.  I learned something new yesterday!  Yahooo!! Of course this information came from none other than Mr. Bruce Norris. 

He said we are going to see more rental homes come on the market and that rents will go down.  Come again?  I have been walking around thinking that rents are going up since so many people are leaving their homes that are in foreclosure and they'll need somewhere to live.  BUT, that doesn't seem to be the case.  Bruce's position is that it is true that more people will be in the rental market- and it is also true that the many people who are trying to sell their houses - and are not behind in their payments will give up trying to sell and just rent their homes out.  Therefore creating more rental inventory! Simple supply and demand here.  More rentals available, lower rents. Hhhmm.

Now that we hear it, it sounds so logical- like- duh...  But until I heard this yesterday - not once did I even consider it.  This is really very interesting.  So for those of us who are buying properties using the Land Trust this is great.  When we get a home using the land trust, our tenant buyer gets to have tax benefits since they are now a beneficiary of our trust.  Now instead of the "renter" only paying $1000 rent, he can now pay $1300-1500 a month for our home because of his tax breaks.   

Pete and I have gone into great detail about this on our radio show The Naked Investors for the past couple of weeks.  As a matter of fact, Pete is so good at explaining this that over the past couple of weeks I have really learned this concept - and on my own show!

You can listen to all the previous weeks since they are all down loadable. Click on TheNakedinvestors.com Radio show in the right column on this blog for more information! 

REO Auction Feb 10, 2008

Today was a very interesting day at the Hudson and Marshall REO Auction.  I went with my friend Jason and we ended up seeing many people that I knew.  We ran into Iris Veneracion and Bobi Simanton who own the Invest Club for Women in Irvine.  Additionally, I saw about another 7-8 investors that I have gotten to know through REIC of LA and other events, including a investor that I met through REIC named Gary Kopp.   

Out of everyone I saw only the wonderful Iris was successful in buying a house!  All the others went well beyond the Maximum bids.   Oh well - good times will soon be here - we're not worried!  I wasn't bidding on houses today, I was just obseving like many many others.  The place had about 800 - 900 people, and from what I could tell most were not bidding. 

Although there were homes sold below the current comps, they were still only about 90 - 70% of MV. But - it was very disturbing to see so many houses go for way over the comps!  What a ridiculous scene. 

Below are a couple of videos from the day.  One is Iris' final bidding and the other is just the auction in action.   

Celebratory Drink with Iris, Bobbi, Gary, Jason and Iris' broker on her and Bobbi's winning bid today!  She got it below her maximum bid!

We all discussed the ins and outs of being investors and the interesting thing I learned yesterday was that all these investors, including Gary who has been a heavy investor for at least 10 years, still feel like they are "Newbies".  I was telling them that even though I have about 10 houses under my belt, I'm still a newbie.  They all agreed that even they still feel like newbies because they are always educating themselves, they still make mistakes and every deal brings a new learning experience.  This really shruck me, because a lot of us - beat ourselves up for making mistakes - or worse - we don't do a deal because we think "we don't know enough yet".  So - I would like to say to all of us - Make your move, do deals, and get over it! If we don't know something - go learn it fast or ask someone who does know, if we make a mistake - then pick yourself up by your bootstaps and get back in the game. Keep moving forward.

Boy - there are so many amazing people in our investor world and it's wonderful how much I learn about myself and how motivated I get just in talking to them. There is a lot of money to be made in the next couple of years - let's not let negative self talk stop us from making it big.

5 day auction no bueno

We didn’t get any calls at all.  Do you think it is because it’s Taft?  Or is it just the Market?  Or is the Holidays?  Combo of all three?

I don’t know what it is, but I’m done trying to sell this little cute house right now.  We have decided to refinance it and stick some folks in there using a Land Trust and offer “No Bank Qualifying.” Perhaps when we our resident beneficiary finally cash us out the house will have gone up in value and we make way more later than we would have today!  From my lips to Gods ears!  I’m not too worried about it.  That’s the beauty with buying a home for 100K and not 600K… it’s not a huge burden if I have to end up sticking someone in it until the market gets better.

I have a friend (who is also my hard money lender) that has 3-4 homes in

Phoenix

that she has been trying to sell for months and months with no bites.  She informed me this week that she is sticking tenants in them and not going to stress about selling them for now.  She can’t bare the anxiety anymore – nor can I…  I am not going to buying any flippers right now that I would have to get a hard money loan on. That’s sounds paranoid, but I would rather be way conservative than worried about how fast I can sell the mofo. For me, buying Subject To is the way to go for now…  this of course applies to L.A. Out of state is a different story… I just talked to an investor who bought a house for 11K that has an ARV of 55K with just a few thousand in repairs.  She bought it on her credit card!  That whole deal costs less than a car!

5 day auction this weekend!

Well let's see.  It's Friday and no one has even called regarding the house yet.  By Friday we should have received at least 8-10 calls.   But sigh...  no calls yet.  But I remain positive that we will receive numerous calls tomorrow!

I'm coming up with my plan B incase the house does not sell this weekend.  I spoke to some folks last night that know some people who will buy the note for 20% below the ARV, which right now is somewhere between 143-150.  But as I always say - the ARV is whatever the house sells at! 

Plan C is to refinance the mofo and keep it for a year or two and stick someone in and sell it to them under the Land Trust.

I've always sold my homes fast and boy - this is a tough one.  This damn market.  I will not be buying anymore homes with hard money for a while that's for sure...

5 day Auction? From my lips to Gods ears...

I am going to do a 5 day Auction on the house in Taft this weekend.  I have a gal named Rikki Valle putting it together for since she has already done one before.  It's a very interesting process.  In a nutshell:

1. The week prior, Advertise your home in as many newspapers as possible.  Send out flyers to agents, drop flyers to all your neighbors.   I will go to Taft tomorrow on Wednesday and do the flyer thing.  I also created a webpage for it so that people can get a little more information.  www.tafthomeauction.com

2.  HOld open house on Saturday and Sunday - take bids.

3.  Sunday night have round robin with bidders over the phone. 

4.  Sell house to highest bidder!

5.  Sold!

They say you should start the bidding at 50% less than the house is worth and in theory you will have people outbid each other to at least 20% below market - if you're lucky.  Of course this works only if you are willing to sell below market- which anybody in their right mind, if they want their house to sell - better be willing to do!

I am ready willing and able to sell that puppy below market.  It's been a lovely journey but I'm ready to get off this boat!  Sell, mofo, sell!

I will let you know how it goes.  God speed little house!

wow - buying houses can be a lot of work...

The house that I am dealing with in Inglewood is becoming quite an experience.  To be exact; the seller of the home does not want to sign a Non Exclusive Option, because he wants to do the whole transaction at once.  This is very interesting indeed.

Additionally, I had a potential buyer call me tonight.  He was very interested in seeing the house and we made an appointment to go there on Monday morning because he said he could not make it at all on Sunday.  The next thing I know is that my seller is calling me to let me know he just showed the house to that very same "buyer".  Apparently he drove by and saw the lights on and KNOCKED ON THE DOOR!

More to follow.

Land Trust Deal... in the works

I have a deal in Inglewood that the seller is anxious to get rid of.  He needs 60K to move into his new home that he is trying to close on.  He is running behind 5 months payments and has had his home in escrow 4 times.  All 4 buyers fell through because the buyers could not get Qualified!  This is such a huge problem.  We all know this. 

The good news is that he does have plenty of equity and I will be able to pull out the 60K to give to him.  What a great opportunity to work with this fella.  He has had a messy divorce and is just looking for a way to get out from under the house and start a new life.

I know the first rule is to not get emotionally involved in these deals but I am going to work my butt off to get this deal completed and money in his pocket to move.

I will be able to take the house subject to the existing loan and then we will put it into a Land Trust.  We will then be able to sell the home with no bank qualifying and get someone in there right away to buy the house through the Trust.  This is great news!

It's such a nice home.  Over 2400 sq ft in a great area of Inglewood!  I think I will look for a private money investor to loan the 60K at 10% to be paid within 3-6 months.  Additionally I might allow them to be a partner in the deal.  I'll see how it goes in the next couple of days.  I'm going to give Mr. Bill Gatten a call and ask him to help me structure this deal...!

Putting a house under contract tonight!

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am meeting with a seller tonight to put his house under contract using the PACTrust.  The house is Inglewood and he is running behind almost 3 payments.  He had it listed (just expired) for only about 2 months.  He got 4 offers on the house and all 4 fell apart because no one could qualify for the financing!

I plan to take the house subject to, and stick it in a Land Trust then go talk to those folks who didn't qualify for the loan and find out who might have 10% down and is still interested in buying the house! (Thanks Pete for this great coaching!)

The owner has already agreed to get the house refinanced so that we can lower the monthly payment.  He is buying another house in Riverside and needs 60K to close his deal.  The house in Inglewood is appraising for 640K (30 day old appraisal) and he owes 500K once we refinance. 

Wish me luck tonight!  I will write an update tonight!

This week in Real Estate!

Well it has been a very busy week in Real Estate Investor world - or more like it - real estate networking world.  It is truly amazing how many people you can meet - when you actually get out there and talk to people!  Imagine that...

There are people out there with deals and people with money just waiting to get in on deals.  Right now - what is very fascinating - DEPENDING on who you talk to, is Detroit... What the heck is this place all about?  One side says wow - great opportunity to get houses for cheap, that you can; 1) rehab and flip relatively fast(3-6mos), or 2) buy, repair and hold for a couple of years.  If I would buy and hold, then the only way to go would be to put in Land Trust and "sell" with "no bank qualifying" for the duration of the hold.

But back to the flip... I have been talking to a gal who has done a couple of flips in Detroit and she has a deal for me that looks good on paper... however when I talk to the experienced real estate investors such as Phyllis Rockower - the owner of REIC, she says stay away from Detroit!  She doesn't care what kind of "deals" are there - the headaches will out way any reward in the long run....  She let me know that early in her career of being an investor - she did many, many homes in neighborhoods like these and she did them all "rent to own", which in theory, would alleviate many of the headaches that come with being a landlord.  And even though she made a lot of money of these deals, they are not worth getting involved in again.  Actually now that I think of it - she was saying SHE wasn't interested in going down that road again, and that she is way beyond this in her career...  but I'm surely not!  Hhhhhmmm.

Let's think about this... do I have the stamina in my "old age", to put up with these types of "headaches" so early in my career as an investor - just like she did when she started?  I don't know... Additionally - I have been talking to someone who has bulk REO's in Detroit that is selling them for .23 on the dollar.  You can buy as little as 5 houses...  would these be candidates to buy and hold for a couple of years? Yes - she says - OF COURSE!  The scariest bit, being why the heck would I want to deal in property so far away from me?

What do you think?

Networking and more networking

Jeez I am tired.  Last night I went to a huge networking event given by a company called Property Shark for real estate people and services.  There must have been 500-600 people there!  It was at a really cool place called Social Hollywood and while it was a perfect venue for a social gathering - it thought they were a bit extreme in their prices... I mean common' $25 for two glasses of wine?  Next time - bring a flask!  So anywho.... all in all a great time had by all.  Networking is so important in our business - it's amazing what you learn when you get off your arse and go out and meet people.... (you know who you are...)

I met so many people  - investors, agents, appraisers and of course lenders! The most important thing I talked about last night was Detroit... now that is something interesting... I've been talking to someone abot Detroit for a couple of weeks now.  I'll let you know more about this area as it comes in but I must say - it's been eye opening to hear about...  looks like rehabbing a house two hours away from me didn't scare me quite enough because now it looks like I am going to Detroit!  What the hell am I thinking?  Well... I'm a good person and I do a lot of nice things for people... so please God - watch my back...

Tonight another networking event for the PACRAT's Group.  A group of us who get together to mastermind about doing deals with Land Trusts!  Sounds boring to all of you out of the know...but let me just say this - this is an absolute MUST for investors to learn and do in this market.   Click here for more information on how it works....  LAND TRUST

No Toilet? Can't sell a House Like This

Well - I am experiencing what seems to be a "normal" situation for rehabbers.  About 1 1/2 weeks ago my sub disappeared - right after I paid him $1000 cash.  He's been there on the job for a month straight, yes perhaps he works a little slow, nonetheless, he was dependable, and seemed to be loyal.  Now with only 5% of the job left to do - he walks....  what in the...?  Now my house sits "almost done", I need the new toilet and sink to be installed in the bathroom, along with base boards.  Door knobs through out the house, face plates, knobs on the kitchen counters, blinds on the windows and finally the subs junk needs to be gone out of the house!  That's all - perhaps a 1-2 days work!  As for the outside - we still need sprinklers and grass.  But only for an area of about 500 sf. 

I think I might be going up there myself this weekend to finish the work - does anyone want to come and help?

The Subs Ladders and junk!

No toliet and sink...can't sell a house like this...

How can I be learning the hard way?

I wonder how it is possible that someone in my "position" can be learning how to flip a house the hard way?  We are down to the wire on my first flip and it is killing me.  A couple of my lessons are:

#1  No money, no credit buying.  This means none of your own money or credit.  It doesn't mean you will not need any money silly.  (Note to both Diane and Rosie:) If you don't have your own money then for christ sake make sure whoever you bring in to partner with you has plenty of it.  Or that you have a nice list of Private money folks who are just waiting to shower you with money to fund your deals. 

#2  Please oh please, remodel the front of your house FIRST!!!  This is not brain surgery here.  If you want to market your home from the get go - it better look good...OhKay?  A picture of a junky 'ol house in the paper isn't going to generate leads dodo head.

#3  Don't paint your house popcicle green and then "improve it" by painting it snikers brown.  Well - at least everyone says they like it....

#4  In this market 60-55% below market minus repairs.....  no more than that if you want to sleep at night.

But all in all - it's been a great learning experience.  I know that the "best" lessons learned are the hard ones.... blah blah blah.

Now we have to get rid of this puppy fast; My exit strategy is to flip it, but we decided that plan B back up exit is to refinanc it and stick it into a PAC Trust for a year with a "rent to own" type situation.  NO Bank Qualifying, etc....

Can't swing a dead cat around....

Without hitting another "deal"....  We're starting to get flooded...

Boy that is the word from the some of investors I've been talking to - including myself.  As you see from my last post, there are many deals to be had.  Now the trick is evaluating them and making sure they ARE deals. 

I was talking to Phyllis (for those who don't know her, she is my boss and the owner of the Real Estate Investors Club of LA that I manage), and we were going over all the various ways to potentially get rid of these properties.  It's funny because even the "deals" are not seeming to be so once you consider our ideal exit strategy - which is to sell it.  Because it boils down to "who the heck can buy it".  Even A paper is finding it tough.  For no other reason than who is interested in paying those rates?  Everyone is at a stand still.  Or as we call it "the Mexican stand off".   And even if you could sell it to a qualified buyer - how long will it take to find that buyer? 6 months?  Yeah right.  9 months?  Hold on I think we're into 12-14 months in many areas....  Yikes ola.  I don't think I want to carry those costs - especially if there is any hard money attached.  Forget it buddy.

OK so now - I have been learning about putting properties into a Title-Holding Land Trust, from Bill Gatten’s NARS, Inc. His way of “doing the deals that no one wants” is to take the properties over "subject to" and do a triple net lease (rent to own on steroids) with a new tenant and simply hold the property for 5-7 years.  This is it in a nut shell.  Believe me - it's a nut shell because so much more is involved and the benefits are extraordinary for all parties.  Sellers get to get out of their over encumbered houses or no equity homes.  How are they going to sell in this market and with no equity? 

Now we can do something with these properties that many investors are not willing to touch - unless they can do a short sale.  What if the property is not in Default (yet), but the owner just wants to get rid of it before he goes into NOD or Foreclosure but has no equity or is over encumbered.  Then what?  We tell that poor bastard to call us when he is behind in payments AND THEN we’ll help.   Phooey on that.

Take the property over in a Title Holding Trust, and then “rent” to future buyer.  Give them 5-7 years to cash out (once the market goes back up and they fix their credit). It truly is like “rent to own” or “lease option”, but on Steroids!!

It’s a no brainer!!  Piece of cake.  Done deal…  

Well not a No Brainer… you have to have some brains or this would just be too hard to learn…..  or if you’re like me – I say : Thank God we have Bret over there at NARS who will walk us through, step by step, on our first 10 or 50 deals J 

Ummmm..... What the Hell is this?

I'll tell you what it is.  It's a horrible ridiculous mistake that only a newbie investor can make.  Let me tell you something.... and please listen loud and clear: When your painter tells you not to choose the color of the swatch that you are holding in your hand - LISTEN TO HIM!  Another thing - if you have no idea what colors sell a house - then just watch any episode of Flip that house for goodness sake.

Now I know my sweet wonderful partner is reading this post and I am not trying to hurt your feelings.... I love ya honey - you know I do...  but.... you're killing me over here.

For all you others, let me take a moment to point the finger at myself.  First of all, against some very wise advise from my mentor & coach Michael Quarles, I bought this house for 95K.  He told me it was too much money for this house - but I didnt listen to him.  HELLO?  Who in tarnations do I think I am?... anyways - I paid too much for house and I paid too much for the assignment fee.  Got it.   Now - I have to stick to a strict budget in order to cover all the repairs, holding costs and closing costs and make a decent profit when we sell this house.  But that is not that bad part.... the unsettling part is that yesterday I found out that I might need fix something on the house that I wasn't made aware of and that if it's so -it will cost $2000-3000.   

Now you might say - well Rosie, since you didnt know about it, isnt the person who sold you the house responsible for not advising you of this problem.....   ahhh haaaa... very interesting question......   

Stay turned my friends....

oh yeah - I raced to the paint store yesterday and we purchased 15 gallons of a nice neutral camel color to REPAINT the house immediately so that the neighbors (and the whole town of Taft for that matter) wouldn't hate me!

Well, well, well....look who came up for air....

I could go on and on about why I let my blog fall by the way side, but the bottom line is, is that I have been burning the candle at both ends getting my real estate investor career off the ground.  It's been all day working at my "job" and all night working getting my business going. 

Additionally I have been to a least a half a dozen trainings and bootcamps to help me get a better grip on my what I am doing.  Boy it is never ending - however I really feel GREAT about my career. 

Most importantly - I have bought a house a month and a half ago in Taft, CA. for 95K to flip.  YES - I said 95K!  We have put almost 8 grand into it and it looks like it will be ready to go on market this week.   I wish I wish I wish I would have been writing posts all the while, becuase I have been on one big learning adventure. 

I have made a few mistakes - and let me say - they are amature mistakes.  Can't believe it.  I will post them in the coming posts, so that I can catch you up. 

For now - here are a few shots of beginning and middle of the work.  I am going to Taft tomorrow morning to look at the almost end results and to wrap this puppy up.  We are going to a Chamber of Commerce breakfast in the AM and will meet the town folk so that I can get my name out the there - which in a small town like Taft, is very important indeed.

Role Playing, Schmo Playing....piece of cake

First let me say that I am burning the candles at both ends....  my oh my.  Not only am I trying to get my real estate career off the ground, I am also very busy managing our real estate investors club and boy - it's quite a world. 

Last night I went to another workshop for one of the new up & coming real estate "gurus" who has an amazing online system and he taught us about "the presentation to the seller".  I am learning all about NLP and embedded commands from him.... it's really cool how you can get people to say yes just by shaking your head yes when you ask them a question.

I really love his approach with sellers too.  It works for me.  I'm not the kind of person who feels comfortable saying "if I can give you all cash now, what's the least you can take"...  nope that has never worked for me.  I've never been comfortable with that.  Mikes approach is to sit with the seller and show them on paper item by item, all the costs for taking over their home and then arriving at his number of what he will pay for the house.  I love it and this is what approach I will use from now on.  Now I just need to study hard and learn this approach immediately.  Thank god he is mentoring me!

Also, right before I went to his work shop I met with some of my NAR's buddies (people using Bill Gatten's Land Trust) so that we could practice role playing talking to sellers.  WOW - I realized that even though I feel like I am scared to death to make cold calls to sellers on the phone - once I started talking I realized how much I know and I actually felt pretty confident.  Well that is, until I didn't.  Meaning once the seller started giving me more complex answers - I didn't know how to respond.  But it's all good baby, because that's what practicing is for.  I must get good at talking to sellers immediately since we have to move and I plan on buying a house using the NAR's land trust system (in the next 30 days!!).  YIKES -OLA!!  Oy the pressures I put on myself...

Mastermind Group - TESTING 1,2,3,

I had a great day on Saturday.  It was the first time I put together a "mastermind" group for us investors to get together and learn from each other.  Wow - it was really a fun time.  I invited Michael Quarles who is a new upcoming real estate "guru" and boy did he work us!  I didn't intend for him to work that much with us, but he was on a roll!  The interesting thing for me was realizing how hard it is for me to "talk to sellers" and feel confident in knowing what I am doing as an investor.  I am still not sure how to best present my deal to the seller and to go over contracts.  I have a lond way to go - it seems.  But that is the point.  That is why I am starting these mastermind get togethers.  But since I am also a very FUN person, I couldnt stand the idea of having this boring "study session" on a beautful summer day without having a little fun thrown in.  So I made sure that everyone brought their swimsuits and we had some fun in the pool, some damn good food and yummy summer cocktails....

Michael Quarles from MyRealtyData.com and his beautiful Wife Barbara.

   

Jim Crothers - investor from Apple Valley

 

Dana Klaft -Wholesaler - who I lovingly refer to as Harley Man -