Last night I had to run to the grocery store to get a loaf of bread, milk, eggs, and a few other things. I find it to be highly odd and rather unbelievable that people who are in the business of doing a menial simple task (that would take 5 minutes worth of training TOTAL) can actually screw something up so badly.
Long story short, the milk ended up on the top of the bread in the bag, smashing it into something that resembled a wet pita. Not even the birds would have any use in bread that's smashed and doughy (because of the sweat from the milk). And a few of my eggs broke, as the lame-oid who bagged my groceries apparently decided that throwing them into the bag sideways was the way to go.
Again, we're talking about a job that requires MAYBE 5 minutes in training for the entire life of the position. Ten minutes in training for those who are especially dense and slow. And even then, my experience with grocery baggers these days are somewhat in the range of around 1/3 of them who can actually bag the items correctly.
I shutter at the prospect that any of these people may inadvertently slip into a position such as being a brain surgeon or air traffic controller.
So we always circle back to the question: Where did all the common sense go? I think by the time you're in kindergarten, you'd have an idea that it's not a particularly smart idea to put a bowling ball on top of a sack of potato chips so...what happens to that common sense afterwards?
I have a theory. Of course, this is ONLY a theory. But I'm noticing that this lacking of common sense tends to pull more toward the Millennial crowd. Gen X seems to have been the last reliable and innovative generation and then it rapidly went downhill from that point on.
During one of my recent business trips, I started watching this movie called Idiocracy (2006) with Luke Wilson. It's basically about a Pentagon experiment that had gone wrong and left this "average intelligence" guy shoved into the future via a time machine. There (500 years from now) he discovers that he is, in fact, highly intelligent since the average intelligence of the average American had slipped well below even where most mentally challenged people are now on the IQ scale. While this was a comedy, I couldn't help but to see the truth in how this future could be our possibility...but in much less than 500 years.
Try about 50 years.
I'm not one to place a myriad of blame on any specific source of why I think people are mentally going down the tubes like this. I figure there has to be many factors involved including these possibilities:
1) The EASY button mentality. Kids these days seem to think that anything and everything is merely a click away. Any physical exertion beyond the point of a computer mouse, video game controller, or swipe of an iPad means that they simply have no interest in doing it. Plus...what's the worst that can happen when you "die"? I think you just hit "respawn" or "restart" and everything starts from scratch. There are no consequences to any actions with the EASY and RESTART buttons involved. There is also no need to get off their asses at all since everything is at their fingertips. I believe that all this iPad/video game/computer activity numbs the brain more than we think.
2) Skewed and media hype coupled with being barraged with Internet disinformation. Did you know that nobody in Europe even knows who the hell the Kardashians are? Yet Yahoo! "News" jumps on every little thing those useless people do. And this whole deal with Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner? What the f***? (Need I say more??) Isn't there anything ELSE in the news to talk about? By the way, most of these blog online news stories are churned out as fast as possible by "writers" who barely graduated college, have absolutely no life experience, and base their "research" on the rest of the bogus blogger crap they find online, thus giving out even more misinformation with each "news article" that they write. Add this to just adding fuel to the fire by purposely omitting essential details to a story and adding a writer's "opinion" and this is where things can get dangerous for malleable minds reading any given article. Unfortunately, our kids (and many others, believe it or not) who don't have the basic common sense mechanism in their brains needed to sniff out bullshit versus reality will believe anything and everything they read. Sad really. It's almost better to know nothing at all than have a load of baseless useless nonsense wasting valuable space within your brain cells.
3) A global attack on our personal health. This can include all the clouds of gas that the U.S. Airforce is generously spraying in the sky on a daily basis along with the chemicals they put in the water because it's "good" for us (including the use of fluoride which is actually NOT good for us ATALL). And if you're a meat eater (including consuming dead cows, pigs, and birds), you're getting it even worse with the vast collection of hormones and pesticides that come in your meat, all complimentary of course. This is why girls are developing at a much earlier age. This is why cancer is becoming rampant and uncontrollable, happening in larger numbers than ever before. Did you ever think that maybe it's from all the crap in the air, all the hormones from our food...and now from GMOs?? All of this, of course, affects our brain function and whether we can think clearly...or at all. And if you have ANY of the disadvantages I've outlined in #1 and/or #2 then you're definitely going to see an impact on your thinking process. In fact, if you are guilty of #1 and #2 then I'm fairly certain that you didn't even read down this far, as I would have lost you in the first sentence of this email.
You can't fix stupid but you can at least TRY to do something about it. First, start with your health. Cut your meat consumption. Drastically, if possible. Clean up your diet as much as you can. Eat organic fruits and veggies. Get on a regular exercise program. Clean out your colon with a cleanse. Do what YOU can.
No, you can't change everything but this is NOT an "all or nothing" type of deal. You can't breathe different air unless you plan on carrying an oxygen tank on your back at all hours of the day and night. You're not going to avoid every hormone or pesticide in your food. But you CAN cut some of the damage down by a significant percentage and this alone will make a big impact.
Then you'll start to THINK CLEARER. Once you think clearer, you can start rising above the rest of the dummies that grace this planet and realize success like you've never imagined.
I have another theory and that is this: Do only 7% better and you'll be happier, healthier, and wealthier than you've ever dreamed of!
And doing 7% better only means doing better than what you are doing now. It really has nothing to do with what everybody else is doing out there because, well...who really cares what everyone else is doing? Right?
This means getting healthier, educating yourself, create meaningful goals for yourself in all areas of your life, generate a doable action plan to achieve those goals and, most importantly, get off your ass and start working the plan. Don't let the noise and chatter of what everyone else is doing, thinking, and talking about become a distraction because, as we've established, they're mostly dopes anyway.
And by the way, stop watching the news. Stop reading stupid Yahoo! News articles. Focus on yourself and what you need to do to reach your goals. That's all you have to do.
And, finally, realize that there isn't an EASY button. Be willing to roll up your sleeves and do what it takes to achieve whatever you want in life. If you're willing to do that then...the world is your oyster.
Back to the grind, as of today. But I've been going through my emails and apparently while I've been gone (all last week), my investor partners have been busy getting deals together with my students and there were a total of 4 deals put under contract last week. This adds up to be a total of $6.2 million in deals when adding together these 4 deals.
So, I guess it pays for me to relax a little while just letting things be. Truth be told, I've been getting very stressed out in these past few months and I really needed to get away before I ruptured a nerve or collapsed from a stroke.
Yes, my life is that stressful. I'm already wound like a stretched-to-the-max rubber band. Add any type of fuel to the fire and I'm equivalent to an atomic bomb with that ticking time clock thing attached...with only 29 seconds left until detonation.
With the good, though, there's always the bad that comes along with it. There have been a slew of deals that were rejected by my investor partners for several reasons. And, unfortunately, these reasons were completely avoidable if these students would have simply followed my very basic short list of instructions.
Here are some of the big reasons for the rejections:
1) A couple of students decided not to do a mini business plan (as required) and, instead, chose to use the Offering Memorandum (OM) provided by the listing agent and/or brokerage firm. While I did my best to weed these out before sending them off, it was getting really intense at the very end and I found myself forwarding pre-approved deals (off the CFE) to the investor it was designated for. As long as there was a PDF (for the biz plan) and an Excel file (for the CFE), it got forwarded.
Here's the problem with sending the listing agents OM: it has the listing agent and brokerage firm's contact information ALL OVER the OM. Furthermore, it can't possibly include details about the exit strategy including the deal being a buy-and-hold property for 3 to 5 years...or any information about the proposed equity splity (67/33) and how much the investor partner would stand to make in both equity and cash flow over the life of the deal.
So...ALL of those deals that included the OM were rejected right off the bat. This is what happens when my students get lazy. They choose to lazily use the hard work of the listing agent and end up getting nothing in the end because they didn't at least want to take the time to print off then retype the OM in a NEW document while implementing the student's unique information NEEDED to execute the deal.
Oh well...can't retrain stupid.
2) It became clear in some of the deals that the student (but more so probably the seller or listing agent) were lying about the numbers of the property. While I do a damn good job weeding through CFEs and pretty much know whether the expense ratio is way off BEFORE submitting anything to my investor partner, sometimes I can't catch everything before it weasels its way through the crack.
Here's what I mean: you can't realistically have a 40-unit apartment building located in Chicago that has an expense ratio of 25%. Not possible. A building of that size located in a cold climate is going to cost about 55% (minimum) to operate. That's 55% of the Gross Operating Income (GOI). So, if the GOI (annually) is $100,000, it'll cost $55,000 of that $100,000 to operate that property. Yet I kept getting CFEs showing some super low Gross Operating Expense (GOE) number and I'd laugh like..."As if this property can operate at a MUCH LOWER cost than every other property of that size in the SAME area!"
A lot of deals did get rejected based on this.
Listen, it's NOT CHEAP to do due diligence. Furthermore, when you're dealing with people like me and my investor partners, we know what it costs to operate a multifamily property whether it's an apartment building or mobile home park and whether it's in Georgia or Missouri. So...trying to slide a deal in at a much lowerGOE than what's realistically possible or probable to operate that property isn't going to fly. You're not getting anywhere by trying to cheat the system because we already know what the rules are in this business. It's like telling a pilot of an aircraft who has been flying for decades that his Boeing 747 can fly 900 miles an hour. He'll freaking laugh in your face. Not possible.
So, when you or the listing agent (or even the seller) is blatantly lying about how much it costs (itemized) to operate a property and we look at it knowing that it's not possible, you're expecting us to then participate in the costly endeavor of doing due diligence. This is when the lies are uncovered. After we've spent thousands of dollars doing forensic accounting on the docs given up by the seller, we suddenly realize (GASP!) that we were right all along! In the initial income/expense sheet seller "forgot" to including the sewage bill and "forgot" to include additional marketing costs and "forgot" to include the phone bill...on and on and on.
When you're the one willing to throw good money away like that, you realize that it's better to be smart on the front-end and simply KNOW (based on experience) what each type/size building costs to operate in various parts of the country. Again, this is based on vast experience developed over several years and not something we are simply trying to invent to reject your deal. (Trust me; these investors WANTyour deals if they're as profitable as you say they are!)
3) CAP rate was too low on a lot of rejected deals. Some students tried to slip in deals that were at a 7% or 8% CAP when the instructions CLEARLY STATED that the CAP had to be at or above 9%. No exceptions.
So, it went back to chiseling expenses off, hoping no one would notice, to get the CAP rate up there (in some cases) while other deals were just sent in at a CAP below the 9%.
Again, this goes back to the expense ratio. If the expense ratio was pushed down to 25% to push the CAP rate over 9% then...that's a really easy scam for us to ferret out. Others did a much more complicated job in boosting the CAP including eliminating all management costs or removing required expenses such as snow removal (in colder climates) or landscaping. I guess we were supposed to believe that the student was going to perform these services in lieu of a professional service.
While I'm all for saving money, it has to be realistic. We investors have to be able to know that if we need to sell the property one day, we can show these numbers (including management, landscaping, snow removal, etc.) to another investor who may not want to provide these services on his or her own.
Additionally, some lenders want to see a minimum of a 7% allocation off the GOI for management costs to ensure that a management service is affordable. A lender also wants to see replacement costs (which is a mandatory 2.5% of the GOI) to ensure that you'll have enough money when things break down and go wrong with the property. Many students removed these essential costs as well, hoping we wouldn't notice.
Here's the bottom line:
I'm assuming that most of you are in this real estate game to eventually acquire passive income properties for yourself so that you can enjoy a lifetime of financial freedom. If you don't know certain things because you're new at this -- such as how much it costs (GOE) of your gross annual rental receipts from tenants (GOE) in your particular city/state area that you are choosing to invest -- LEARN this information. There's no excuse as to why you can't take a weekend and simply LEARN the business because it's not that hard, folks. It really isn't!
So...back to what I was talking about earlier. The $6.2 million in deals. Remember, we had $7 million in down payment money to work with which leverages us around $25,000,000 to $30,000,000 depending on down payment size. Most residential-commercial buildings require a 20% down payment while MHPs require 30% to 35%.
And we're nowhere near $25,000,000 to $30,000,000 in property deals.
Based on the reports I've received from my investors on the deals that have been submitted, we're not going to hit our mark as we had hoped.
Looks like I'll have to make an offering at my next Detroit event to fill in the gaps on these deals. This is NOT what I wanted to do. The same deal will apply, however. Those who attend the event can participate. Everyone else...no can do.
Many of you know that I'm a feng shui believer. And for those of you who have NO CLUE about feng shui, I'll give you the one-second explanation: it's an Asian technique to "refocus" energy in your house and work space to make significant changes in your life.
I know...sounds a little "hokey pokey." At least that's what I thought before I became a huge believer by seeing the things feng shui have done for my life.
I've told the story in a couple of my seminar events in years past. About 15 years ago I had a lawsuit that tore my entire personal and professional life apart...down to losing absolutely everything I had.
Me and my 2nd husband (at the time) ended up moving into a rental house that was (and still is) owned by his mother. She allowed us to move in without paying her any rent until we got our sh** together.
Now I'll admit. All I focused on was my prosperity corner. I didn't care about anything else at that time. I followed the suggestions by first cleaning up the space. That corner happened to be the master bedroom closet which was a disorganized disaster. I thoroughly cleaned out and organized the space then added purple (construction paper) in that corner. (Purple is a very powerful prosperity color next to red and gold.)
I went to Michael's and bought a wooden treasure chest that I painted purple then glued a ton of jewels inside; the book suggests putting things in the prosperity corner that represent wealth and a treasure chest came to mind. (I still have that same treasure chest in my prosperity corner as we speak. It's now 15 years old...cute little thing.)
Next, I bought something called Abundance Oilby Young Living. (Available at Amazon.com.) I put this on a small Buddha that I put in my corner.
And that was it.
I didn't even put in a desk fountain (which I should have done to magnify the results much quicker) at this point.
During that time, my future was pretty bleak and hopeless.
Fast forward one year from that date...I had a successful multi-million-dollar company and was building a custom home with a pool from the ground up.
It happened so fast but yet "naturally gradual," if that makes sense. It wasn't like I bought a lotto ticket and was an overnight millionaire but the opportunities came and came and came some more! Before I knew it, I was back on top!
Now, here's what feng shui WON'T do for you. It won't make the money for you. It won't take any action for you. But it WILL allow opportunities to come through. It will give you ideas that you never had before. It'll send magic your way. It's up to you on how you follow through. It's up to you to put some type of action plan into place because it'll do nothing for you if you won't unglue your ass from the couch.
So...a couple of weeks ago I was starting to feel stuck with a couple of career/business decisions. Plus business seemed a little too slow for my liking. So, I amped up my prosperity corners.
At the office, I have a fountain that runs 24/7 in my prosperity corner. I put loads of the Abundance Oil in the fountain over the course of a couple days.
At home, I have my master bathroom in my prosperity corner (upstairs). And this sucks. The worst thing you could ever have in your property corner is a toilet. I don't exactly have a toilet but I have a bathtub. When I moved into my house, I painted the tub plug red and I keep it plugged all the time when the tub is not in use. This has helped keep the energy from being sucked down the tubes. Literally.
But I have 2 sinks that are next to the tub and I keep those open. This apparently was presenting a problem in my prosperity. Not only was business slow but my expenses were increasing for some reason.
So...I bought these rocks. That's right. Medium-sized pebble rocks of 2 colors: white/clear and purple. I put these rocks in each sink, sitting on the stopper in each one. And I added a feng shui mirror to sit on the side of the bathtub to push the energy to the ceiling instead of letting it fall to the bottom of the tub.
That's all I did.
Within 2 weeks my business has quadrupled with NO additional effort on my part.
So, when I tell you this stuff works...it means THIS STUFF WORKS even if it sounds "hokey pokey" or weird.
Trust me. When I first started with this, I felt weird. I felt stupid putting purple construction paper in my cleaned-out closet. I felt lame painting a treasure chest purple and gluing jewels all over it. But I gave it a chance. And it worked.
I recommend that you at least put a small fountain in your prosperity corner in your home and in your office. That corner is located to the far back left of where your front door is. So when standing at your front door, imagine where the far back left corner of your house is. That's your prosperity corner. And if you have 2 stories, you have 2 prosperity corners to contend with.
When I've recommended that students use this technique, they've been shocked at how magical that it works.
But there's another part to this. You can't just sit on your ass and do nothing. You have to implement some type of plan or strategy so that the magic can happen for you.
If you must know, I'm playing hooky for a week so I'm not in the office. I'm actually in the Caribbean right now. But I can't help but to check my emails every day that I'm gone. And I just got an email from my investor partner stating that they just closed on a $4.85 million deal with one of my students.
Yaaahhhhh!!
So...congrats to my students (it was a husband/wife team) and my investor for making this amazing deal happen. It was a beautiful deal...a once-in-a-lifetime pocket listing that was found by my students who put the time and effort into doing a mailing campaign to find it. This deal will net my students' $8,560 per month in their pockets for their partnership percentage. Not bad!
Between some of the overflow from last year's Detroit event and the deals that came in from this year's Vegas event, in this round we now have 6 deals under contract, 1 that just closed, and there will be another 22 to 25 that will go under contract in the next 30 days to come. Out of 254 deals that came in, 121 were sent over to my investors with complete CFEs and mini biz plans. So...we'll see how things play out in the weeks to come. I'll keep you posted.
I have to admit, I'm exhausted. (Hence the vacation I'm on right now...and my LAST get-away until mid-December. Poor me.) Doing partnership deals...well, sucks. Really and truly. I hate it just because of the amount of work it entails.
Truth be told, I have something that's been on the table with one of my investor partners for a short while that could make a few of my students very wealthy. But I'm being selfish. I don't want to do the work. I'm burned out.
This is part of the reason for my vacation right now. I'm doing some well-needed soul-searching to find out if I want to continue dealing with the frustrating and sometimes disturbing elements of working with my students...or not.
In the meantime, I am committing to at least one more event. This 2-day seminar is coming up in Detroit on October 23rd & 24th and it's ALL ABOUT Aggressive Income!
Powerful stuff. Stuff that can make you very wealthy in a very short period of time.
And stuff I've never presented on before!
My early-bird rate is ending soon. I'm offering an opportunity for you to be able to lock in that early-bird registration rate with a small $100 hold deposit.
But, even better, I'm giving up a mind-blowing bonus that is worth $197 by itself. And you'll get it shipped to you without paying a dime for it once you put down your $100 hold deposit for the upcoming Detroit event!
What is this bonus?
It'll give you a glimpse into the last 2 real estate investing opportunities left that happen to be about Aggressive Real Estate Investing Strategies. This set includes a heavy-duty mind-blowing report, a video, and a complete audio seminar that only a handful of my students have been able to listen to. And it tells you all about the real estate investing trends in 2015 and in the years to come including what to expect and, most importantly, how to profit hand over fist.
I'm in a bad mood. I'll just come right out and say it. No need to candy-coat anything.
Over the past week I've been getting emails from a whiny, bitchy, complaining GUY in one of my mentorship groups. I seem to be attracting the bottom of the barrel when it comes to the male species lately and I think it's time I take cover in a cave for awhile 'til this madness passes.
Not that these stupid idiots will disappear or anything (unfortunately) but at least it'll give me time to collect some mental, physical and psychological artillery to continue with this never-ending battle.
It seems that this one thorn-in-my-side mentorship group student who will remain nameless not only is a complete dummy but seriously wants to create his own obstacles in life...out of nothing. In fact, the majority of the time when people bring "problems" or "challenges" to me, it's nothing more than something they created out of thin air as a complete figment of their imagination.
Such as this dope in my mentorship group...
First of all, in addition to complaining about every single assignment, finding some type of fault in it (when the "fault" is his laziness and lack of desire to complete such assignments), and creating reasons as to why he can't or shouldn't do his assignments (because apparently he's PMS-ing and needs a tampon stuffed up his ass)...it seems that he is insistent on inventing phantom reasons as to why life needs to be difficult.
For example, he keeps telling me that a "double-close" is illegal. Hmmmm...I've indicated SEVERAL TIMES that a "double-close" is simply SLANG for something that's REALLY CALLED a "back-to-back" close. This means that you buy the property then resell it to someone else within a day or so. Nothing illegal about buying and reselling a property unless you're in a state like Texas that requires you to hang onto your newly purchased property for a year before reselling it. Otherwise, there is NO LAW AGAINST buying and then reselling your property to someone else.
It would seem that he's too busy doing all this "online research" finding all the "facts" through online bloggers (who know pretty much nothing about nothing anyway) instead of being proactive in the business of investing as he SHOULD be.
Next, he's claiming that doing letter campaigns by U.S. Mail is considered SPAM and that's illegal too!
Holy shit! Now the guy is claiming that mailing letters to people is SPAM. Hate to break it to you, pal, but ANTI-CAN SPAM laws apply to EMAILONLY, dummy. Has nothing to do with buying mailing lists and mailing a letter to a property owner. If this was the case, every catalog company sending catalogs to people from a mailing list would be cited by the FTC for violating SPAM laws and every mail order business would be bankrupt by now.
Again, spending a lot of time chasing his tail doing hours and hours of meaningless and baseless online "research" (INSTEAD of doing his mentorship group assignments) just to fall into the throes of a blogger website which, again, is written by a know-nothing "writer" who makes money entrapping people into his/her site just to make money on Google Adsense. So, they essentially write about ANYTHING just to attract traffic and many of these blog sites have very inaccurate information. And for those who think they're doing "studious smart research" by doing "online research," I'm telling you now that at least 75% of the stuff you'll read online is wrong, wrong, WRONG!
So, stop doing it! Stop getting your "facts" online because they aren'tfacts!!
This is PROOF that people simply create their own obstacles...obstacles that simply AREN'TTHERE TO BEGIN WITH.
Here are a few more examples of people who I've recently dealt with in the past couple of weeks who simply want to create obstacles that were never there, clearly designating their "path to failure" completely by their own doing and unnecessarily at that!!
1) I was trying to put in an ALL CASH offer on a property deal. I had the offer in hand, legit proof of funds by showing my bank statements, and I wanted to offer 95% of what the asking price was and...well, the listing agent simply said that she'd "prefer not to deal with an out of state investor" and stopped returning my phone calls. Huh? Who gives a shit if I'm from Mars? It was an EASY COMMISSION for her, she'd get the entire commission without a split with a buyer's agent because she was just dealing with me direct, and all she had to do was take my email (with POF and LOI attached) and forward it to the seller without getting off her lazy ass! And she refused to do it. Again, creating obstacles that simply aren't there. She lost about $40,000 on that deal because of creating "issues" that only existed in her pea-brain mind.
2) I'm in the process of booking a special professional for an event I want to do in the first quarter of 2016. It's a very unique event that I've never done before so I took the time out to put my feelers out for an additional professional on top of the one I already have secured just to have a "back up" in case I need it. I let her know that it was a corporate event that that she'd stand to make thousands of dollars off it. When she found out that I'd have at least 25 Platinum VIPs (that she'd have to consult with), she decidedly told me that she was booked. Mind you, I never told herwhen the event was but that it would be 10 months out. Instead of taking advantage of the opportunity to make a minimum of $5,000 on the event, she decided that she was "busy" instead. Easy money that came to her...yet she created a reason as to why she didn't want it. I guess she's happy making $50 here and $100 there, struggling her ass off with each one of these "hits" when they come instead of getting the motherload dropped in her lap. Hey, some people just can't stand getting an easy opportunity like that so they have to create invisible obstacles.
3) I have a handyman who bitches and complains about his boss who is a general contractor. So, I give him side jobs here and there just to help bolster his side business. I gave him a very simple job that's right in his wheelhouse: landscaping. Easy job. Just dig some holes and drop some bushes in here and there. He quoted me almost $2,000. Fine. I didn't argue. I'll pay it. Seems kind of high but I'm trying to help the guy out. So...what did he do? He fell off the face of the earth. Week after week after week -- for 6 freaking weeks now -- I've been waiting for him to plant the bushes. No call no show. (And no, I didn't pay him.) Next time he wants to bitch about his boss, I'll tell him he's lucky he's got a job and he clearly needs the structure of an asshole telling him what to do all day because it's evident that he doesn't have the self-starter ability to get things done on his own. Again, creating his own obstacles to success.
Are you blocking your own success in some way by inventing reasons for failure??
I hope to hell that you're not. Opportunity is everywhere now. The economy is taking off like gang-busters and, like Woody Allen says, "Eighty percent of success is showing up!"
It's amazing because every once in awhile a student actually listens to me.
I did this presentation at my Vegas event in May where I was talking about creating new opportunities in 2015 and beyond because...well, a lot of opportunities to get properties that are 95% or 100% occupied are gone. No inventory left. Competing with a lot of investors, many of which have cash of 20% to 25% down. Many have management resumes longer than your arm with a portfolio of properties to go with it. Many have personal credit FICOs of 800 or above with stellar business credit to boot.
The challenge list gets longer and longer as one who "dreams" about becoming a real estate investor still stays glued to the couch continuing to dream...
Although lately I can't complain. In the past 2 years, I've had more student success stories than the prior 10 years before, combined. So I must be doing something right.
But I have to point out this one student who sent me this email yesterday about a deal he did based on a rather short (and definitely not comprehensive) presentation I did on "second-hand" foreclosure investing this past May:
"OK, I did what you said to do in Vegas when you were talking about 2nd hand REOs. I found a wholesaler in Ohio with a list like the one that you let us download off your website and I was about to buy a 4-unit vacant building that needed a lot of work but it was listed for only $19,900. I offered $9,000 and they took it, like right away! I don't think my offer was in for more than 2 hours before they got back to me. I have business credit that I've been building since 2013 so I basically bought the property with a credit card convenience check. I know. you tell us not to do that because of the fees but they wanted to close in a week and I didn't want to waste any time. i wrote the check and put it right into escrow, pretty easy. Closing took a week and then the building was mine so I found some guys through a handyman ad on Craigslist who helped me rehab each unit one by one, the total rehab cost was approx. $8,000 a unit, all on biz credit cards. After everything including a few misc. costs, I spend a total of $44,340 on the project including 'marketing' for the units. (I put a big yellow banner up in front of the place that said FIRST MONTHS RENT ONLY $1, the banner cost $120). I put the banner up while we were still working on the place so I was getting phone calls to my cell when we weren't even rent ready yet. By the time the place was ready, all 4 units were leased up inside 11 days then I put the property back up for sale with an agent for $119,900 as a 'turn key' investment like you said to do. An out of state investor (from California) ended up offering $109,000 and I took it. It just closed escrow on Monday and I got a check from escrow for $58,731.82 after all the fees and commissions. Total turn around time for the deal was 6 1/2 weeks. So I can testify to anyone that this stuff works. It really works. Anyone who says it doesn't is just lazy is all." ~A.J.
And this is from a student who didn't even attend the Vegas event. He bought the videos, watched them, took notes, and most importantly, kicked himself into action and did something with the knowledge he had just learned.
I try not to be hard on my students because I do realize that there is one huge obstacle to overcome, perhaps the most challenging obstacle of all and that is FEAR! Plain old fear and lack of confidence that you can pull this off.
This is why I give my students all the tools you could possibly need so that you can quickly see the fear melt away as you realize that I've made the playing fields even for everyone, even against those "experienced wealthy investors" who have cash down, credit up the yin-yang, and a portfolio of properties to use as both collateral (if needed) or to show experience with property.
In fact, I will go so far as to say this:
Many of my students who (a) have been following me for years, and (most importantly) (b) have actually read, listened to, and watched my presentations on everything including fixing/rebuilding personal credit (if needed), building business credit, and understanding my methodologies on real estate investing actually have more knowledge about this entire business and how it works than many of the investors (and commercial real estate agents) that you'll run into out there.
Case in point, I had a student of mine who went to [Nameless Real Estate Guru]'s seminar, ended up popping $35,000 for some "exclusive investment group," purchased a property, then came crying to me because the property was losing money. This student was incredibly smart (he's a doctor), has tons of money (is liquid about $2 million buck-er-oos), has a ton of collateral in other properties (including the medical building he owns) and was freaking DUPED by a so-called real estate investing "expert" (AKA "used-car-salesman-now-real-estate-"guru"). So he came to me last year to figure out what to do with the property.
My response: You have to sell it and start over. This time...use a CFE (Cash Flow Evaluator) BEFORE considering any property. "CFE...what's that?" was his response.
All of this could have been avoided by understanding some basics and NOT by throwing $35,000 into the lap of some wanna-be real estate "guru" who herded this doctor (and probably hundreds of others) into losing deals because this "guru" simply doesn't give a shit about you or anyone else he is "teaching." He only cares about the money he can extract from your credit cards.
Once this doctor learned how to use the CFE, he was kicking himself on how a small spreadsheet tool could have saved him such a huge loss. I told him that you can't cry over spilled milk. The best remedy to loss is to quickly pick yourself up and start over on another property or project while chalking the past off as a learning experience.
You, my friend, know a lot more than you think. You have enough knowledge to be able to have success as a real estate investor.
But maybe you're missing a few things. Here they are:
1) The cash.
2) The latest ground-breaking strategy for real estate investing in 2015.
3) The ability to show sellers that you HAVE the cash for the deals.
Most of you know that, in order to get a deal looked at by a real estate agent, you need something called a VOD (verification of deposit) or POF (proof of funds) letter.
On top of that, real estate agents will even want to see a bank preapproval letter to ensure that you have qualified for a mortgage which, if you've been in the commercial real estate game even for 5 minutes, you'd know that no commercial-lending bank will give anyone a "blanket" preapproval letter that can be applied to ANY property. It will be designated for THAT property only...and how are you supposed to get a preapproval without getting the actual profit/loss or income/expenses, which most listing agents won't give to you without a preapproval?
Classic Catch-22 situation.
The good news is that by having a VOD to show that you are putting in an all-cash offer (which doesn't need a mortgage because it's...well, ALLCASH), you not only will have your offer looked at by the seller's agent but it'll be streamlined on the top of the pile over any and all other offers that may be on the table.
Okay, so say you put in your offer with a VOD. How will you get the ACTUAL CASH needed to close the deal?
It will depend on the type of deal you're dealing with. If the deal is a traditional sale, meaning that the occupancy level is above 85% and can qualify for conventional mortgage terms, then you can put a little tiny disclosure in your offer stating that if you change your mind and would like to get a loan instead of paying all cash, you have that option.
Otherwise, if the property is a rehab job and needs you to cure occupancy issues because the tenancy is low, you will have to offer all cash and pay all cash for the property.
The types of deals left to do this will be your multifamily properties between 2 and 4 units (and up to 6 units if you are brazen).
This allows you to buy these properties for $100,000 or less in many cash flowing areas of the country AND you can even fund your rehab AND you can knock out your rehab and lease-up within just a couple of months.
So...we've established that you'll be getting smaller properties and show proof of funds that you have the cash to close.
But...again, where do you get all that cash?
I have a new source that will give my students up to $100,000 in unsecured cash without having to have an established business. Yes, this is for "start-up" businesses. Even if you have had some credit problems, this company can still offer this cash.
So, that's where you get the cash from.
But will that be enough?
Yes, it'll be enough. Again, you're going for SMALLER PROPERTIES that you can effectively turn around VERY QUICKLY. You'll have enough for both acquisition of the property AND rehab of the property.
Then what?
You turn around and sell it for a profit, pay your loan back, and start over.
Because...
ALL INVESTORS ARE LOOKING FOR TURN-KEY DEALS NOW!
What is a "turn-key" deal?
It's a deal that's already rehabbed, leased up, and making a cash flow. They don't want to mess around with rehab or finding tenants. They just want to swoop right in, buy it, and put a property manager on the job.
And they'll pay TOP DOLLAR to acquire a property like this.
So, you put in $100,000 on a property TOTAL (between acquisition and rehab) and you can realistically turn around and sell it anywhere from $250,000 to $350,000...depending on WHERE the property is located!
But you need these tools to make it work:
1) VOD letter
2) $100,000 in unsecured cash
3) Tutorial on HOW to do it!
Remember, real estate investing is fairly easy but you need some basic tools and know-how to start. Just think, within only an hour of your life, you can become a multi-million-dollar investor by getting these tools.
Yesterday I stopped at my local donut shop at the bottom of the hill from where I live to get a 1/2 dozen donuts and iced coffee with the secret Asian ingredients they put in there to make me feel like I'm on speed all day.
As I come out of the donut shop juggling my coffee, box of donuts and 2 Power Bars, I noticed that this big piece of shit 30-year-old beat up Chevy Suburban is parked so ridiculously close to my BMW that I couldn't realistically get myself and the armful of stuff into the car using the driver's side.
When the driver got out of his shit box, I said, "Could you have spared me just a little more room?"
He flew off the handle, saying..."What about saying 'good morning' or 'how ya doin'?" Then..."I'm right on my line." Then..."Hit me, take your best shot." All within seconds.
I said, "Have a nice day, sir." And I proceeded to start ignoring him.
He instantly went into a rant about how I'm a loser and a c*** and a bitch and anything else he could think of. None of that bothers me. What bothers me (about myself mostly) is that I had no real fear and I didn't care. Having been in verbally (and even physically) abusive relationships, nothing anyone says to me as a real effect which is probably not a good thing.
But here's what I saw in this guy.
He's clearly over the hill in age, clearly an overweight dumpy white guy wearing a holey Dodger sweatshirt and a dirty baseball cap, driving a total shit box of a car that hadn't seen a car wash in several years, and...clearly purposely parked his shit box so close to me that he was aiming for a confrontation with anybody so that he could take his unconscious anger out on some unsuspecting sucker.
I think he was hoping for a man to confront him. Probably a high-power exec in a suit driving the BMW so he could pick a fight by purposely giving me 2 inches on the driver's side to get in. I think he was somewhat disappointed that it was a chick (me) that owned the car.
He was still hoping for a fight which even further clearly identifies him as the loser that he is.
But the fight wasn't about me. It was about him the whole time, even before he knew who he was subconsciously picking the fight with. Especially when he saw how old I was.
Here he was feeling like the complete washed up failure that he is and wanting to take it out on someone.
Since it wasn't a man that he could start swinging at (and would probably lie saying that the "other guy" swung first), he probably figured he could still bait me into a fight as a second-best option.
Except that I'm not going to stand there swinging at a fat ass guy in a parking lot over a parking space or anything else for that matter.
Because of this, he felt justified in wanting to keep calling me names. I could see that he was getting agitated to the point of breaking out into a messy and gross sweat while he was shaking like a leaf, adrenaline pumping heavily through his veins.
I made it clear that he was just a fat, over-the-hill dumpy jealous loser driving a big piece of shit who needed a new wardrobe and to take a hike. (Hey, there's only so much verbal abuse I was willing to take.)
But just as any losing fight -- verbal or otherwise -- gets old...
There's only so much "F*** you!"
"No, f*** you!"
"No, f*** you!"
...that you can do back and forth before, well...it becomes a total waste of time.
Then he had to call me a fat ass, as I was getting into my car. Hmmm...the sliver of space he gave me between my car door and his POS tank he was driving wouldn't allow anyone other than Twiggy (only those of you 40 and over will know who that is) or someone else just as thin to get in. So, I guess I can't be that much of a fat ass.
What he didn't realize was that he was a fraction of an instant away from getting seriously hurt or dying. As he got closer and closer to my window after I got into my car, even attempting to reach in the driver's side, he didn't know what I was grabbing for...if you know what I mean. Any further of a reach in where I would have felt my life in danger, it would have been over. Not for me, but for him. (No waste of life as I can tell.)
And it would have been completely justifiable. A 6-foot 300 lb.+ guy coming at me through my window in a parking lot...and I'm barely 5'8" and around 160 lbs. trying to get away from the situation by backing out.
Case in point, you never knowwho has what as far as weapons go so...neverassumeanything; never assume that the upper scale housewife-looking chick driving in a nice car in a nice neighborhood is just a dumb blonde who will back down when in danger. She just may have an AK-47 in the backseat, waiting to blow someone's head off.
The real point here is this: I've found that losers will easily get agitated and just plain pissed off at the success of others, as if it's some type of "stroke of luck" that we got to where we are...and they just missed the boat by a stroke of "bad" luck. They don't realize that people like us work our asses off to get what we have and there is no "luck" to speak of. When dealing with loose cannons like this, it's evident that they don't know (unfortunately) that THEYTHEMSELVES are to blame for their shitty circumstances in life and it has NOTHING to do with anyone else around them.
Of course, they'd never admit to something so mind-blowing because (GASP!) they'd have to actually take personal responsibility for being the grotesque pitiful losers that, again, THEY THEMSELVES createdfor themselves.
It's just easier to blame the government, rich people, their parents, reality TV, rap music or anything else that makes just as little sense to blame for their lack of success and wealth.
Many of these less-than-savory characters carry anger and hatred for (starting with) themselves and then it parlays into interactions with everyone they meet. They have a chip on their shoulder, lash out whenever they can as only one means of perceived "control," and never take ANY responsibility for anything in their lives. It's much easier to claim that it's someone else's fault that to do anything about their lives.
Who the hell wants to live like that?
Yes, it's a crappy reality check to look around you and realize that you created everything in your life from your house, your car(s), your relationships, etc.
But it doesn't have to be a "crappy" reality check. It can be an "exciting" reality check instead.
Since you created THIS...what about simply creating something completely DIFFERENT then??
Good news: You can "wake up" out of your undesirable circumstances or situation(s) any time you want and create something different. And there's no limit on what you can create for yourself once you open your mind and have the willingness to take action to get your dream life.
I've talked about my friend Ruth before. She has breast cancer. Come to find out, it's spreading rapidly through her lungs. She only has a few months left to live, if that.
The last time I saw Ruth was about a month ago. It was the second to the last week of school and I was waiting for my daughter to come out of school. Ruth was there waiting for her son who is in my daughter's same grade. She was winded, could barely breathe, and finally had to sit down because she looked like she was about to pass out.
The first thing I thought of was my cat Scrappy.
Scrappy had this small tumor on her belly. It looked like a swollen nipple. The dummy of a vet I took her to decided to squeeze the reddish-purple pimple looking thing, making my poor cat scream and squirm until I told the idiot to stop it.
Apparently it burst the tumor that was inside of her because within mere days, Scrappy couldn't breathe anymore. She was winded and miserable.
I put her to sleep the week after and never took another animal to that moron of a vet ever again.
Ruth reminded me of Scrappy which I probably shouldn't admit to because I know it sounds bad. But that's the first thing I thought of...the cancer was spreading. And fast.
Then Ruth's husband emailed me and told me that Ruth was in the hospital but he still wanted to bring his 2 kids to my daughter's recent birthday party. He had told me that the cancer was spreading throughout her lungs.
Unfortunately...I already knew that.
I asked to see her in the hospital which would be a grueling 3-hour round trip but I didn't care. However, before I knew it, she was home and I'm patiently waiting for a day when the chemo doesn't knock her so hard on her ass that I can visit with her for even a few minutes.
Ruth is barely a couple of years older than I am and she's quickly dying. From what I've learned, breast cancer is much more aggressive in younger patients. And that sucks. She has a 7-year-old and a 5-year-old.
Sometimes life just f****** sucks!
I knew the moment that Ruth started dying. She was trying to get into a clinical trial earlier this year...since about February or March. It was to take place in Phoenix. She even drove all the way out there in May, just for the doctors to tell her that she didn't qualify for the trial because her cancer had already metastasized...not once but twice.
When she told me, I could see that the last bit of hope she hung onto had left. And I knew how dangerous that was because I remember when it happened to my mom and when they told her the cancer in her brain had doubled in size only 6 weeks after they tried to remove it. My mom went from functioning and full of hope to dead only 2 months later.
I saw that same look in Ruth. And it was only a few weeks after that when I noticed that she couldn't breathe anymore.
When you lose hope, it's over. Hope is sometimes the only thing that can hold you together.
I started to think about something. What if it were me? What if I had only a few months left to live? What would I be doing? What would I be thinking about?
Weirdly enough, I thought about my books. I order A LOT of books every month, mostly on business, marketing, and investing. For some reason I thought, "I guess I'd stop ordering and reading those business types of books because...I guess I wouldn't need to know anything else about business or investing."
I'd close down my office immediately and I would completely stop working in my final months. Why bust my ass in a salt mine when the final days of my life are ticking away?
I'd certainly get my affairs in order to make sure my daughter would get everything. I'd dump much more into her six-figure college education fund to ensure that she wouldn't piss any money away without at least giving herself a reasonable chance in life. After all, her dad would probably convince her to blow most of the money because of the pathetic loser that he is.
I'd type my ass off and write a memoir to the best of my collection but it would be different. It would mostly be a manual to be successful mixed with my own personal stories and experiences. I'd do this for my daughter mostly and, if I had time, I'd have it mainstream published for others to benefit from.
I think I'd meditate more and get a massage daily until I die. Maybe I'd take my daughter for a 2-month trip throughout Europe even though I hate traveling. I'd want to give her the best final memories possible.
And that's it. That literally would be it for me. There would be nothing more to do, right?
Shouldn't we all be living like we're dying right now? Have you created the life for yourself to enable yourself to live like you want to? To give yourself more options? To make you happy while you're here, alive and kicking?
Because if not, you need to sit your ass down and seriously start thinking about what you can do to live a better life.
If you're not happy with your work, fix it. You have options.
If you're not happy with money, fix it. There are tons of opportunities to make more money.
If you're not happy with your relationships, fix it. Kick people to the curb, be a nicer person, whatever you need to do. Stop settling.
It's very simple, folks. If you don't like something, fix it. Change it. Do something different. It's no harder than that.
Now, I can't help you with relationships, as everyone knows that this is my weak point.
It never ceases to amaze me on how stupid some of the emails I receive from some of my students.
So...after I sent my email out about how I'm abandoning the Detroit area for good (in reference to property/real estate deals), I get a bullsh** email from one of my students who started following me back in 2001/2002...a long freaking time!
And what does he say exactly?
Something that makes very little sense to those of us with actual brain cells in our heads...
He says, in a nutshell, that I basically deserved taking a loss by being in Detroit because I must be "greedy" by having been there in the first place.
Huh??
First of all, I didn't take ANY kind of loss. In fact, I made a ton of money in that market.
Second of all, like everyone else who wanted to see one of America's greatest cities come back to life, so did I. Detroit was one of our nation's great cities and, believe it or not, was actually one of the most affluent cities in our country at one time. If you've ever been to Detroit, even recently, you'd see the most amazing architecture in all of America since it is the largest surviving collection of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century architecture.
In fact, it's the last city in America left with such an incredible and large array of Neo-Classical, Neo-Renaissance, Neo-Gothic, Art Deco, and Italian Renaissance (among many other types) of architecture left standing.
Having been in real estate as long as I have, one of my weaknesses is seeing a decrepit building and wanting to return it to its former glory, especially a building that is so beautifully designed and built. After all, what a waste it is to see these buildings fall apart and remain standing -- barely -- without any hope of every being restored?! It's like letting all of the hard work of our long-gone ancestors be pissed away in vein.
It should be a crime, really. This is history. Our history. American history. And it's almost like letting items in a museum be exposed to the elements, ripped apart by local citizens, burned down by bored and unproductive idiots...what a shame! A crying shame really.
So, that's what I saw in Detroit. I saw its former glory and I wanted to do my part to help restore it. This is no different than taking a broken down, oxidized Model T Ford and wanting to restore it. It's about preserving the past and, at the same time, trying to pave a way to a better future.
But I guess that makes me greedy. Well, that's according to ONE Numb Skull anyway.
Forget about the fact that I took on a HUGE risk, even brazenly and blatantly ignoring one of my base cardinal real estate investing rules (of never investing in a city of population decline) so that I could make an attempt to make a difference in some small way. I, like the other millionaires and billionaires investing in Detroit, fantasized about helping to bring a city considered beyond the point of return back onto its feet and even into a state of thriving as it once was back in its heyday.
But, according to Numb Skull, I guess I'm just greedy because I was trying to help make this city a better place for its citizens and for our nation as a whole.
Oh, and by the way, this highly judgmental Numb Skull Dinosaur (who is just too mentally outdated to understand that maybe some people want to do something to help better society) hasn't done a freaking thing himself to (a) create nice yet affordable housing for lower class citizens, (b) done anything to help anyone at all, including himself it seems, and (c) hasn't even purchased a tiny bit of real estate since he's been a student of mine...for fourteen f****** years now!!
Please! Tell me now...who is being greedy? If you're not helping, you're hurting. If you're not contributing to society then you're wasting the resources simply by breathing and drinking all the water.
To top it all off, I get an email from another equally as mentally challenged student who calls me a "drug dealer" because I have a company that sells supplements.
Hmmm...
If I really was a drug dealer, I wouldn't have an "open" email inbox to receive his bullsh** emails to begin with. I'd be running Pfizer instead, making $10 million a year not including annual multi-million-dollar bonuses and stock options. And I wouldn't be dealing with the likes of him on any level. My secretary's assistant's secretary wouldn't even be dealing with him.
Strangely enough, I stopped at the store on my way home from the office yesterday to find that, not one but TWO greasy unsightly loser-types in total shit-box cars that were circling my Lincoln Navigator...probably looking for their crack dealer in the grocery store parking lot. After a few double-takes, I think they quickly realized that I wasn't holding any dope between reading my really lame vanity plate and/or seeing my daughter in her booster seat.
Maybe it's time I move. Seems like the upper-class neighborhoods are getting just as dicey as some seedy areas of Detroit.
Love the irony, don't you? ;-)
Speaking of irony, I have my last event for the year taking place in October...in Detroit. It's an Underground Secret Event and it's all about Aggressive Income Strategies. Day One is about non-real estate related money-making strategies. Day Two is about real estate related strategies.
And this will be my last real estate event for at least one year...if not longer because, well people, I'm freaking sick of talking about real estate AND because there's nothing else after October that I'll be able to talk about. You're either in...or it'll be too late. Very simple.
