Day 2 - Continued - Engaging new markets

We talked about 2 parts of our membership and I think you might be interested.

Our usually older and more experienced investors want to see more advanced topics.  One that was brought up was the 1031 Exchange and it was suggested to start an Exchange club.  I would love to hear from our more experienced investors as to what they would like to see at our meetings that would benefit them besides how to wholesale a house, how to rehab a house, etc.

Then we had 2 successful 20 something investors tell us how they think - and if you are a baby boomer it will help you understand your kids and or your grand kids
1)  The facebook and twitter thing is because they want to feel a part of a conected community, be a part of something bigger.

2)  They want to be a good member of that community - honest, integrity, green all very important to them.  One spoke of doing green rehabs, that he does, costs him more.  But he is also able to pull in a better quality tenant who will pay more because they are being better members of the community by being green.

3)  They like instant gratification, they don't want to work at a job 30 years to finally end up well of and in a good position, they want to be in that good position next year and many are very entreprenurial and turning down good jobs because it will not get them where they want to be fast enough.

That's it for notes for today.  I hope you  now understand how we as REIA group leaders think and have a new insight into your kids, grandkids, employess and Gen Y tenants and home buyers.

See you at the meeting in July -

Day 2 - after lunch - legislation & speakers

We moved on through out the day to talk about Legislation

and guy's if you are not staying up to date with the Calls to action that we send out, we need you to react on each one.  Our law makers don't know that this paragraph here or those 50 pages there are important to us unless we tell them.  So when we send out a call to action, please take the time to take action or we may get walked all over and not be able to offer lease options, owner financing, or maybe even short sales the way some things are going.

And the best part each year of mid - year seems to be the Good the Bad and The Ugly.  We kick all the speakers in attendance out of the room and talk about who does a good job and who does a bad job.  And I got page of good speakers to bring back and a small list of people to avoid. 

Day 2 - continued

Next we got to hear from Alan Langston with AZREIA in the Arizona markets.  Please take a look at his site and see what they have going on. 

He was sharing with us some new models for the local REIA like MAREI to work with our national Business Partners like Home Depot and Sherwin Williams and still support National REIA and the efforts that they do for us every year.

You don't know it, but the REIA groups like MAREI need money to keep going and bringing you great services, but we also want to offer your more services, education, benefits, and fund a way to track and react to legislaion at the local city and state level as well as at the Nationl Level.  So we all have to play nice to create the revenue so we can offer service -

So think about it, last week we had many people who had issue with something Kansas City Missouri did.  Now we all wanted to be a part of a committee that would follow up, take our concerns back to the city council and then get it changed.  And to do that we can form a committee and do something and we should.  But if we had the funding, we might be able to hire a watch dog whose job it is to tell us about things before the happen instead of us reacting and trying to change something once it's already a done deal.

So Alan's plan would allow us to parnter better with large National Vendors like the Home Depots and Sherwin Williams stores that would bring in more national companies with large discounts for you as members, bring in additional members that benefis us all as well as their membership dollars to fund more services, which would in turn give us buying power as a whole to negotiate larger local and national discounts and influence our lawmakers more effectively.

This probably does not make any sense, as I am still on the first cup of coffee after a late night trying to figure out how the craps tables work.  I will stick to real estate or see if I can find a YouTube video instruction, cause I still don't get it.

Day 2 - continued

Then we got to hear from another REIA leader who has turned around a declining group and got it growing again.  Tom Zeeb from the Capital Area REIA in Washington DC  He had a lot of ideas for us on how to attract new members and we plan to implement many of his ideas so we have new faces at our meetings for you to network with or share your service.  And the bigger the community, the more clout we have when issues come up  that are bad for investors, like billing the landlord for the water if the tenant does not pay.

And many of these ideas will translate over into your business.

1.  You have to have Video on your site, so figure out how to record Video and drop it into your site.  So do short 30 second to 2 minute videos and put them all over your site.

2.  Use your face, and as an investor I can't figure out what investors barely put their name on the site, let along their photo - realtors personalize their marketing well - so why don't we as investors, let the people know who they are working with.

3.  Take some time to reduce costs, - renegotiate contracts on your rent, your phone service, anything you pay money for on a regular basis, if you have not put services out to bid this year, do it, you might cut $100s off your expenses.

4.  His group has gone to a full time quarterly membership that auto bills the member's card once a quater.  They are paying a bit more through out the year, but in smaller increments - I need feedback from the members on this. 

5.  Their group also put together their own Lead Generating web site for motivated sellers than feeds into a call center that shares calls with the members who pay for the service in a round robin type of thing.  I think all the Home Vestors Franchises had this at one time in Kansas City and they pooled their money for all the bill board ads to get the calls to go to the main web site or an 800 number and the call service had a round robin feed to each of the home vestors owners - I need to know more about this because we need to do it - bill boards and massive web sites can be cost prohibitive, but with 10 investors pooling funds, it can be more effective.

6.  He talked about sub groups - their group has a womens only group ( we heard this yesterday) and they have a night owls group that meets once a week except for the week of the main meeting.  They meet from 10 to midnight and it is very well attended. - I want to do subgroups more at MAREI, but I need sub group leaders. 

7.  He also suggested we include on our name tags what our specialty is, so that we all know exactly what the person we are talking to at the meeting does.  We are going to try to implement this, so does anyone know where I can buy specialty stickers?

From National REIA Mid - Year Day 2 - Rentals.com

We started out the day with Breakfast with our Industry Partners.  I was able to eat with the women from http://www.rentals.com/ and learned a lot about their services.  We know that we can all get a 20% discount from them on their regular pricing (discount code in the Member Library), but other than that they were a place to market our rentals, I did't know much more - so here goes:  They rank usually either #1 or # 2 in google when people search for "house for rent"  that means your people looking for a house to rent, start there.

Then they got technical - they have all the demographic data on who rents from them, how many clicks that get from an area, what they are looking for and other statistical data.  They know that the tent to have a little better tenant looking on their site which converts into a better tenant in your houses.  And they have other services to track leads who contact you via email or phone.  So if you are offering any type of rental, you should give http://www.rentals.com/ a test.  It's like hiring a part time employee to do a lot of your marketing work for you with out the payroll issues or giving them a desk to work at.  And there were quite a few Rentals.com users or group leaders with users at the table, and they all loved the service.

National REIA Mid-Year Conference - Day 1

Ideas to bring back to Kansas City from National REIA Mid Year conference - day 1.

Members, please give me feedback

• I Pad - saw these on the plane on the way here - way cool.  Don DeRosa is integrating them in his training program.  Get an Ipad with all of his training and all of his tools preloaded with instruction.  This is too cool.
• Recording meetings like we already do, but then making CD's to sell them rather than downloads from the web site.  If you want to make CD's or DVD's for your own markeitng we talked about a sesrvice - KUNAKI??  have not looked it up yet.
• Women In Real Estate - sub group for the ladies only.  Maybe in Kansas City we could combine efforts with the local WIRE chapter.
• For a meeting idea - have an "As a Dumb Question Night" with a panel who answers any audience question.
• Have our more experienced members create and teach a class.  Great for the business associates to share their expertise and gain new clients.
• Weekly Breakfast Sub Group at Ihop for the more experienced investors 
• Market Update once a quarter at the meetings 
• 15 mintes of I have this to share or I need this at the beginnig of each meeting
• Take real live actual deals from the audience and have 3 different investor analyze it for their way of inesting.
• And I have been talking with Edwin Kelly from Equity Trust about an all day Self Directed IRA training and networking meeting to get us all working together and utilizing self directed IRA's and private lending among the group more.

That's all for today, let me know your thoughts on these ideas and share some of your own.

Will have more after today I hope.

Getting more customers as a Real Estate Investor

As a real estate investor in Kansas City or anywhere in the country for that matter, it all comes down to really two things:  finding the money and finding the deals.

 

To find either one, you are going to have to put on a good face and put out some good marketing.

 

I am going to assume for a minute that you have taken the time to set up a good an effective web site, but the next step is to get people to go to it and to get the search engines to find it and tell people about it on the first page of Google.com for example when a search is performed.

 

From what I have been reading and hearing, one good way is to write relevant articles that are key word rich and get them out there on the internet.  I have been working to some extent to use article marketing for both my real estate investment businesses and the real estate investment association.

 

There are quite  a few keys to using article marketing.

 

For example as using key words with in the article and in the title, words that you think your customer might search for on the internet.  Another key might be writing an interesting and informative article, not just rehashing the same old thing over and over.  Or maybe having a good about the author section to entice them back to your web site for more information.

 

After you write the article, with several different titles and slightly different content in the article, then you need to post it online somewhere.

 

Maybe on your blog, or on an article submission site.

 

One site I have been using of late is http://www.articlesbase.com/ and since I have registered for my free account with them, I have been receiving a short email about once or twice a week with a quick article about how to improve my articles, make them more effective, and get people clicking on them back to my web site.

 

If you have been thinking about driving traffic and search engines to your web site using articles, I highly recommend checking out this site and their how to information.

And this concept will work for anyone:

• Investor site trying to drive buyers or sellers
• Investor looking for private money
• Contractor looking for houses to rehab
• Title company wanting to do more closings
• Mortgage people wanting more loans
• Insurance company wanting to insure more people
• Anyone. 

Learn more than fluff at your Real Estate Investment Club

I think in the past few articles we have covered finding the right real estate investment association and how to meet people, now let’s look at learning.




You fill find that most associations have a speaker for 60 to 90 minutes. By far not enough time to learn everything there is to know about the topic. But it is ample time to give you the highlights and the tools to go get more.



When you arrive at a meeting, don’t go sit down, you can’t network very well sitting down. Do go mark your seat to save it. And you want to sit as close to the front or an aisle seat as you can. Why? Speakers will notice you more and you might get a give away item in those locations better and more importantly if you have to ask a question, it is easier for you to get to the microphone to ask or for the microphone to get to you.



After marking a good seat you are going to go network, and this is a great time to learn. During networking you want to learn from the people in attendance.



• What is it that they do?

• How can I find out more information about that?

• Do you offer a newsletter or a web site?



During networking your objective is to meet new people and get new concepts, but you don’t have time to dive deep into the topic, save that for follow up later.



Then comes the speaker presentation. Take your seat promptly and pay attention. Take notes.



Now when I say take notes, don’t write down everything the speaker says and if they have a power point and the probably will, don’t write down everything it says. What you want to write down is



1. Key concepts.

2. Web site addresses for follow up

3. Emails and phone numbers for follow up.



If the speaker has a hand out great, if they don’t be sure to get their brochure or business card or write down their contact information and web site.



As you have questions, write them down, don’t break into the presentation as the speaker has a planned outline and your question will probably be answered later and if it is not, it is probably a little beyond the scope of what the speaker wants to share. Save the questions for the Q & A portion that most speakers have or follow up with the speaker later. Often you can take those questions to the association message board and the speaker just might be answering those questions there.



So why don’t we want to ask questions as the speaker makes the presentation. Well first of all, it interrupts the speaker and his planned flow of information. It may make him or her forget where they were or lose their train of thought. Professional speakers can handle this, but many of the speakers at the association are not professional speakers, but fellow investors or service providers. Secondly when you interrupt with a question, that takes up valuable time and make cause the speaker to have to cut out very valuable information that you needed to know. So please save your questions till the end or for follow up later.



The last concept about learning at the real estate investor association meetings is the fact that all speakers are there doing presentation for one reason – to sell you something. Yes, it’s true, 95 % of all presentations at the REIA meetings are not out of the goodness of the speakers heart but to drum up sales of something.



This gives us 4 different types of speakers:



1. Professional Trainers who are there to share with you their knowledge to a point, but if you want to know everything they know, they will be offering a training package or event at the end of the meeting. Many times this will be a Saturday event for the association that is free or less than $50 – go to these trainings you will learn a lot. Other times it will be to sell you a training program or bootcamp. If you know there will be a professional trainer at the meetings, do a little research on them in advance so you know if you may want to buy their training materials before you go. Usually any training they offer is either at a major discount from what they usually offer it or it comes with a lot of extra bonuses.

2. Service Providers who are there to share what their product or service does. For example a property management company might make a presentation on screening tenants. They will teach how you can do that one piece of their business yourself, but also how you could use their service to free up your time to do other things.

3. Fellow Members who want to be professional trainers. The professional trainers have to start somewhere and that is usually at their local real estate investment association. They will usually speak several times and offer training classes through the local REIA as a way to create their materials and perfect their methods. Then when they take the show on the road and go other places, then they will start selling a training package. The local REIA’s usually get the benefit of being the testing ground without too much selling.

4. Fellow Members just sharing knowledge. This does not happen very often because creating a presentation is work and takes time. Successful, full time real estate investors just don’t have time to create presentation. But it does happen from time to time and they are usually packed with information and many times they will help you if you call with a question. What you see most of the time is a fellow member serving on a panel for a question and answer session.



This article is a part of a series of articles to help new people and experienced people figure out how to utilize their REIA group and build their investing team. Please watch for our previous or upcoming articles:

1. Where to find a real estate investment club.

2. What to look for in a real estate investment club.

3. What to take with you to a real estate investment club meeting.

4. Get the most out of the vendors at the real estate investment club meeting.

5. Networking at the real estate investment club meeting.

6. Learning at the real estate investment club meeting.

7. Follow up after the real estate investment club meeting.

8. Beyond the real estate investment club meeting.

About the author: Kim Tucker is an active real estate investor in the Kansas City Metro area as well as the director of Mid-America Association of Real Estate Investors or MAREI. MAREI works exclusively with real estate investors who want to learn and success at real estate investing. Get more information at http://www.kansascityreia.com/ or http://www.mareinet.com/.

So how eactly do I network at the real estate investment club?

You have found a realestate investment association to attend. You have your business cards and flyers all lined up. You have been to a few meetings and know the vendors and what it is that they do. You have also have meet the movers and shakers at the meeting, now what?




Now it’s time to get into the true networking and using the vendors to your advantage. Now’s the time to start approaching everyone else in the room. Look for the new people that look at little lost or that you have never met at the meetings before. Approach them with a sort of a meeting ambassador approach.



You might say “Hi, I’m Bob, is this your first time to a meeting?” . . . . “So are you new to real estate investing?” . . . or “What do you hope to accomplish by attending these meetings?” You are trying to find a little bit about them, find out what they do, and get their business card for follow up. We will talk about follow up in a future article.



Now you have a new friend, you have to find a way to brush them off kindly and go on to the next person. You are networking and want to meet a lot of people and find out a bit about them, so you need to pass your new friend on to someone else. It’s time introduce them to one or two of the Vendors or one of the movers and shakers.



So why do all of this, what is the objective.



First and foremost, you want everyone you meet to remember you. As you approached them, you asked them questions so they talked about themselves. People like it when they get to talk about themselves. Then you introduced them to new people at the meeting. This accomplishes your second objective of letting them know you are in the know. That you just might be a go to person when they need help. But they don’t know what it is that you do, so they will start asking about you to the other people at the meeting. With these two things, everyone you meet witll have a much better chance of remembering you rather than the other guy who just said “Hi, my name is Bob and I am a real estate investor.” . . . then digressed to talk about the weather and the price of tea in China.



I saw this over and over again a few years ago with one of our vendors. He always reserved a vendor table and put his flyers on it. But was he ever at his table? No, he would look for the person standing in the corner all by themselves and go up and start asking them questions. Once he had a little bit of info as to what the person did, and what they were trying to accomplish at the meeting, he would ask them for a card and introduce them to someone else at the meeting. He never said who he was or what he did. Then when the person was handed off via introduction to someone else, they would ask the someone else “Who was that? What does he do?” The response was always, “that’s the guy you need to talk to if you need a loan to buy a house, you need to get his card.” Needless to say he made a 3 or 4 loans immediately after his first meeting and was the most called upon guy in the group for loans.



So remember



1. Find the people you don’t know.

2. Ask them questions and take note of the answers

3. Get their business card and put a few notes on it for follow up later.

4. Introduce them on to someone else.



This article is a part of a series of articles to help new people and experienced people figure out how to utilize their REIA group and build their investing team. Please watch for our previous or upcoming articles:

1. Where to find a real estate investment club.

2. What to look for in a real estate investment club.

3. What to take with you to a real estate investment club meeting.

4. Get the most out of the vendors at the real estate investment club meeting.

5. Networking at the real estate investment club meeting.

6. Learning at the real estate investment club meeting.

7. Follow up after the real estate investment club meeting.

8. Beyond the real estate investment club meeting.

About the author: Kim Tucker is an active real estate investor in the Kansas City Metro area as well as the director of Mid-America Association of Real Estate Investors or MAREI. MAREI works exclusively with real estate investors who want to learn and success at real estate investing. Get more information at http://www.kansascityreia.com/ or http://www.mareinet.com/.

June Investment News is Posted

Investment News - June 2010 from MAREI

Publish at Calaméo or browse others.

Get the most out of the vendors at the real estate investment club meeting.

So you have found the real estate investment association to attend, you know where to go and you know what to take with you. Now let look at getting the most out of the vendors.




If the real estate investment association you attend has a time and place for vendors to set up booths, you will find there are typically only 5 to 10 booths and they will tend to be the same 5 or 10 booths at every meeting. So you need to know how to work with these vendors to your advantage.



At your first meeting when you don’t know anyone, you are going to be a little shy and not know what to do, I have seen the new attendees and know this to be true. So turn to the vendors to get the lay of the land. Ask them how the meetings progress, ask them who you should meet, ask them who the movers and shakers at the meeting are. The vendors do business with the people at the association and they will be know who are the active investors you want to meet and talk to.



So how do you approach the vendors. Well since they probably paid for a table at the meeting, they are ready, willing, and hopefully able to answer all your questions about their business. So I would be ready with your note pad and pen and ask them a few questions:

1. What is your company and what does it do?

2. As a (new) investor, why do I need your company or when would I use your company?

3. If their services are totally new to you, ask them to briefly explain what it is they do and why and ask for a web site so you can go get further information.

4. Be sure to get a business card from them for follow up.

5. Leave your business card, they may have a newsletter they send out with more relevant information or they may be offering a giveaway for the evening.

6. Lastly, is your “I’m new here, if there were only 3 people here I could talk to tonight, who would you suggest?”



This article is a part of a series of articles to help new people and experienced people figure out how to utilize their REIA group and build their investing team. Please watch for our previous or upcoming articles:

1. Where to find a real estate investment club.

2. What to look for in a real estate investment club.

3. What to take with you to a real estate investment club meeting.

4. Get the most out of the vendors at the real estate investment club meeting.

5. Networking at the real estate investment club meeting.

6. Learning at the real estate investment club meeting.

7. Follow up after the real estate investment club meeting.

8. Beyond the real estate investment club meeting.

About the author: Kim Tucker is an active real estate investor in the Kansas City Metro area as well as the director of Mid-America Association of Real Estate Investors or MAREI. MAREI works exclusively with real estate investors who want to learn and success at real estate investing. Get more information at www.KansasCityREIA.com or www.MAREInet.com.

Networking at realestate investment clubs, it’s all in the preparation.

When you finally find the real estate investment association or clubs you want to check out, you are ready for the next step: preparing to attend.




Read the web site or call and find out where they meeting, what time to arrive, do they have pre or post meeting networking. For example some groups might meet for a meal before the event or go out for drinks after the meeting for extra networking, you may want to plan to attend if you have time.



During the networking, do they have vendors with tables or a table where people can place flyers? If so what are the rules regarding the tables or placing flyers? How many people typically attend? If there is a snow storm and the meeting is canceled, how do they get the word out? Is there a way you can attend your first meeting for free or a discount? How much does it cost to join?



No matter what the rules and regulations, you will definitely want to have business cards to take with you. If you are a service provider that offers services that the average person may want, those business cards would probably be great. You can drum up extra business at the meeting while you learn your way around.



But if you don’t currently have a need for a business card, you will want to get your first real estate investor business card. For your first one, if you don’t already know what you want to do in real estate investing, you may want to go with a cheap business card with basic contact information.



You can study up on what you want on a business card as you learn more about real estate investing and buy new ones as your needs change.



You may want to create a few flyers If you have already got your feet wet and have something to offer:

• An investment property for sale

• A private lending message

• A real estate investing service you offer

• Etc



Be sure to put your name and contact information on your flyer. I tell you this because many new investors bring flyers of properties to our meetings and while the deal looks great, there is no contact information on it anywhere. And usually it is a rule to have a name and contact info, not just a web site.



You will also want to get something to take notes. You will want something small that does not take up a lot of room and a working pen to write with. You will need this to take notes or write down info from people who don’t bring business cards.



Lastly, you may find you want to bring a friend. It is always easier to approach new people in a group setting if there are two of you. So if you have an interested friend attend together. You may even find you can join as a team and save money.



This article is a part of a series of articles to help new people and experienced people figure out how to utilize their REIA group and build their investing team. Please watch for our previous or upcoming articles:

1. Where to find a real estate investment club.

2. What to look for in a real estate investment club.

3. What to take with you to a real estate investment club meeting.

4. Get the most out of the vendors at the real estate investment club meeting.

5. Networking at the real estate investment club meeting.

6. Learning at the real estate investment club meeting.

7. Follow up after the real estate investment club meeting.

8. Beyond the real estate investment club meeting.

About the author: Kim Tucker is an active real estate investor in the Kansas City Metro area as well as the director of Mid-America Association of Real Estate Investors or MAREI. MAREI works exclusively with real estate investors who want to learn and success at real estate investing. Get more information at http://www.KansasCityREIA.com or http://www.MAREInet.com.

Does your real estate investment club do it for you?

First let’s decide if we are looking for a real estate investment club, group, or association.


In many cities, you may just have to take what you can get. But if you have a choice you may find there might be a difference and you probably need to check out each group in your city that offers the most. But given the choice would you want to go to an Attorney that was a member of the “Lawyers Club” or would want one that was a member of the “Missouri Bar Association.”

The word club tends to come across as people who share a hobby and do you want to invest in real estate as a hobby or invest in realestate as a business. Then when you look at group, it seems to give you a feel of a loosely associated bunch of people, so if you want to foster change in legislation for example, would loosely associated people be able to do that. Association on the other hand means a group of organized people, who share a full time goal, and work together for the betterment of all involved.

So what should you look for in a group:

1. Look for a real estate investment association that meets at least monthly if not more. This gives you a time to attend, meet people, have people meet you, ask questions, learn, network. If you have a choice this is the ideal situation. Now if the group only meets online or virtually, you might try to work with this group and see if you can’t find a way to get the people at the virtual meeting to attend a live networking events in town – be sure to work with the leader of the virtual group.

2. Look for a realestate investment association that has meetings that offer both networking time and speaker time. You want a chance to learn from the speaker as well as time to talk to other people at the event. You also want a group that actually networks, this means that people are going around the room and talking to a lot of different people, not just breaking up into their own little cliques for the duration.

3. Also look for a realestate association that has an active online presence that offers extra stuff like:

a. Webinars for bonus training opportunities. This allows you to squeeze in one or two extra training events – usually on your time as they are recorded and you can listed to whenever you want to if you can’t make the live version of it.

b. Online networking opportunities through an active message board. This means you have a place to go and ask a question to the group and get multiple responses in between meeting times.

c. Recording of the speakers at meetings. So while I know you are going to attend every meeting, you might miss something and having the ability to go back and replay a part or all of a meeting is very beneficial.

4. Look for a real estate investing association that stays up to date with what is happening with local and national regulations. You want to find an association that brings you information about rules and regulations, local trends, and market data.

Again, you have to take what you can get. So if you can’t find an association in your area that offers all of these things, you might get involved with the only one you have and help them offer these things. It may just be that they want to offer these things but don’t have the willing and able bodies to provide these things. And if you have to start your own group National REIA (http://www.nationalreia.com/) will help you provide all of these things.

This article is a part of a series of articles to help new people and experienced people figure out how to utilize their REIA group and build their investing team. Please watch for our previous or upcoming articles:

1. Where to find a real estate investment club.

2. What to look for in a real estate investment club.

3. What to take with you to a real estate investment club meeting.

4. Get the most out of the vendors at the real estate investment club meeting.

5. Networking at the real estate investment club meeting.

6. Learning at the real estate investment club meeting.

7. Follow up after the real estate investment club meeting.

8. Beyond the real estate investment club meeting.

About the author: Kim Tucker is an active real estate investor in the Kansas City Metro area as well as the director of Mid-America Association of Real Estate Investors or MAREI. MAREI works exclusively with real estate investors who want to learn and success at real estate investing. Get more information at http://www.kansascityreia.com/ or http://www.mareinet.com./

Finding a RealEstateInvestment Club

You need to find a group that physically meets in the area where you want to invest so you can go to meetings, talk to people, and put faces to names. Here in the Kansas City Metro I would suggested our local Kansas City REIA (Mid-America Association of Real Estate Investors).


If you are not in Kansas City, there are a few places where you will find lists of associations.

The best is the National Real Estate Investors Association found online at http://www.nationalreia.com/. This is a trade association of local REIA groups across the country that band together to present a united front when dealing with changing or influencing legislation, asking for discounts with national vendors that real estate investors use, and organizing members to present a uniform and professional way of doing business.

If you just can’t find a group in your area that is a member of National REIA, you will find other web sites that have been created to sell training material that have a networking piece as well as a list of groups across the country. Two such sites are http://www.creonline.com/ (probably the oldest) and http://www.reiclub.com/. You do need to be careful with these two sites however as it is absolutely free to post your group on their site, no membership fees, no code of ethics, nothing. So the groups there might just be a front for a single trainer person, a realtor trying to sell their investment properties, or a scammer just trying to make a buck off of you. Not to scare you off as most of the member’s of national REIA, like our group here in Kansas City are also listed on these two sites. But I want to make you aware.

Now what if there just is not a group in the area you want to be. The only way you are going to attend a live group is by driving 2 or 3 hours. That’s when you may want to take a different approach. First join the local chamber of commerce and use the networking techniques will talk about in the next few articles and find people and businesses that work in the real estate investment arena or offer services for small businesses. This will give you live face to face people to meet with, then working with these like minded people, form your own Real Estate Investor Association and become a part of National REIA.

This article is a part of a series of articles to help new people and experienced people figure out how to utilize their REIA group and build their investing team. Please watch for our previous or upcoming articles:

1. Where to find a real estate investment club.

2. What to look for in a real estate investment club.

3. What to take with you to a real estate investment club meeting.

4. Get the most out of the vendors at the real estate investment club meeting.

5. Networking at the real estate investment club meeting.

6. Learning at the real estate investment club meeting.

7. Follow up after the real estate investment club meeting.

8. Beyond the real estate investment club meeting.

About the author: Kim Tucker is an active real estate investor in the Kansas City Metro area as well as the director of Mid-America Association of Real Estate Investors or MAREI. MAREI works exclusively with real estate investors who want to learn and success at real estate investing. Get more information at http://www.kansascityreia.com/ or http://www.mareinet.com/.

RealEstate Investing - Getting Started

I see many new realestate investors come into MAREI to learn more about real estate investing. They have attended the free intro seminar from some guru, saw a late night TV infomercial, and maybe forked over their life savings for some training program that is going to make them rich.


Now they are ready to get their hands dirty and get started. Then they turn to us.

One of the first things a new realestate investor needs to do is build their real estate investing team. Every guru and mentor out there will tell you this and they are right. I am telling you this for free. Even if you fork over Tens of $1,000s to get training, this is where you need to start. Why, because your team will actually help you find the training, the funding, the deals, and help you put it together.

The real estate investing gurus tell you to go find your local real estate investing association (REIA), join and meet the people there. Beyond that you don’t get much as they want to get into the meat and potatoes of what they are trying to teach you: rehabbing, short sales, marketing. That’s their expertise, not building your team. I guess they figure everyone out there can talk to people and network automatically. But from watching new people come to our meetings I find that that could be further from the truth.

So I have decided to put together a series of articles to help our new people and even our experienced people figure out how to utilize their REIA group and build their investing team.

Please watch for our upcoming articles:

1. Where to find a real estate investment club.

2. What to look for in a real estate investment club.

3. What to take with you to a real estate investment club meeting.

4. Get the most out of the vendors at the real estate investment club meeting.

5. Networking at the real estate investment club meeting.

6. Learning at the real estate investment club meeting.

7. Follow up after the real estate investment club meeting.

8. Beyond the real estate investment club meeting.

About the author: Kim Tucker is an active real estate investor in the Kansas City Metro area as well as the director of Mid-America Association of Real Estate Investors or MAREI. MAREI works exclusively with real estate investors who want to learn and success at real estate investing. Get more information at http://www.kansascityreia.com/ or http://www.mareinet.com./

Holiday Action Saves a Sour Shopping Season

"The Money Is In The List"

Name:

Email:

AWeber proves it to thousands of businesses every day.


Learn how email marketing software
can get you more sales, too.

Posted by Tom Kulzer (AWeber CEO)

Usually, U.S. retailers earn 20-80% of their entire yearly gross during the holiday season. But this year, things are different. The sluggish US economy has prompted Deloitte Research’s Carl Steidtmann to fear “the worst Christmas ever” in the retail sector.

Short of going door to door in a Santa suit, how can businesses increase profits and prevent a blue Christmas? Despite economic gloom, industry leaders have found that an e-mail follow up strategy can increase sales by a cheery 35%! To weather the ailing economy, use a follow up autoresponder during your holiday campaigns.

What Does It Do?

Follow up autoresponders follow up with your leads for you. You create a series of messages, and decide when they should be sent, (daily, weekly, etc.). Your autoresponder will send the messages to each new lead automatically. With no further intervention from you, your leads will remember you throughout the winter chill. And this regular reminding will mean more sales during the all-important holiday shopping season.
Give yourself the gift of a higher conversion rate! Follow up automatically using these simple steps:

• Offer Useful Information
• Personalize Your Messages
• Track Your Leads
• Broadcast Tailor-Made Offers

Offer Useful Information

Write your follow up messages for your leads – not for yourself. You want to talk about your great service, but your leads just want to know what they’ll get out of it!

At some point, you must have purchased something like your product. What were you looking for then? Was it information about pricing, styles, or holiday gift wrapping? Maybe just a clearer explanation of the product? Figure that out, and put the answer in your follow up messages. That’s what your leads want to know.

Personalize Your Messages

You don’t open postal mail addressed to “Current Resident”, and your leads aren’t going to read e-mail addressed to “Dear Internet Friend.” People are simply more likely to read messages that address them by name.

Autoresponders let you use variables to personalize your messages. This way, you write just one message, but Lenny Lead reads “Happy Holidays, Lenny!” while Kate Customer reads “Happy Holidays, Kate!”
Names are only the beginning of the personalization features available, though. In addition to full, first, and last names, some autoresponders let you add e-mail addresses, dates, or an ad category. The best even correct the capitalization in your leads’ names, giving your messages a much more professional look.

Track Your Leads

Get even better results from your snowballing list of leads by experimenting with follow up content and timing. Your experimentation will be much more successful if you have access to proper statistics.

Only use a follow up autoresponder that offers detailed lead statistics. Look for live, graphical stats that show your incoming leads broken down by day / week / month, all of your active leads, and leads who have requested removal from your list.

Broadcast Tailor-Made Offers

To get more bang for your holiday buck, look for an autoresponder that also lets you broadcast extra e-mails to all of your leads. Some even allow you to send tailor-made offers only to leads who meet certain criteria.

For instance, send everyone who’s been on your list for a month a special discount. Or, notify all leads interested in a certain product when a new shipment comes in.

Follow up messages keep leads warm. Use periodic broadcasts to convert them to sales!

Prevent a Crummy Christmas

Businesses of all sizes have seen their sales grow by leaps and bounds because of automated follow up. Implement your follow up strategy now to make the best use of holiday leads! Then, enjoy the season – your autoresponder is following up for you!

--------------
Now I know you are asking what does this have to do with real estate??  Hmm, lets see -

What if you have a list of Realtors that you market to and let them know you buy houses, maybe you might have several follow up emails in December that you are a cash buyer and can close fast, do they have any REOs that their asset managers are really wanting to get rid of - (best deals here are the last week of the year closings - honest)

Or you are marketing your wholesale houses, did you know that a lot of investors made a big profit this year and want to spend some of that profit on houses before the end of the year - instant tax deduction.

Think about what you do, maybe you just want to offer a holiday party or holiday greeting, with some great freebies for your subscribers, but don't wait till the last minute.  With an email marketing service, you can plan and write those holiday marketing emails in July, set them up in August, and turn them on in September and have them automatically send in November & December with no action on your part what so ever.

Realtor.org ADs

Are you a realtor and wanting to boost your online presence.

Go to Realtor.org and download their new video and audio ads then post them on your blog, your web site, your facebook page, etc.  You get the idea.

Will need your nrds # to access

click here to download realtor ads

Do Your Potential Customers Forget About You?

Now You Can Multiply Profits AND Automate Your Business

AWeber's email marketing software makes it easy.


Learn how they can do it for you, too.


Take A Free Test Drive Today!

Posted by Tom Kulzer (AWeber CEO)
Your web business probably gets product inquiries from potential customers around the globe. Inquiries come via e-mail and your web site, and you try to send information to each hot prospect as quickly as you can. You know that you can drastically increase the likelihood of making a sale by satisfying each person’s need for information quickly!

But, after you’ve delivered that first bit of information to your prospect, do you send him any further information?

If you are like most Internet marketers, you don’t.

When you don’t follow that initial message with additional information later on, you let a valuable prospect slip from your grasp! This is a potential customer who may have been very interested in your products, but who lost your contact information, or was too busy to make a purchase when your first message reached him.

Often, a prospect will purposely put off making a purchase, to see if you find him important enough to follow up with later. When he doesn’t receive a follow up message from you, he will take his business elsewhere.

Are you losing profits due to inconsistent and ineffective follow up?

Following up with leads is more than just a process – it’s an art. In order to be effective, you need to design a follow up system, and stick to it, EVERY DAY! If you don’t follow up with your prospects consistently, INDIVIDUALLY, and in a timely fashion, then you might as well forget the whole follow up process.

Consistent follow up gets results!

When I first started marketing and following up with prospects, I used a follow up method that I now call the “List Technique.” I had a large database containing the names and e-mail addresses of people who had specifically requested information about my products and services. These prospects had already received my first letter by the time they requested more information, so I used the company’s latest news as a follow up piece.

I would write follow up newsletters every now and then, and send them, in one mass mailing, to everyone who had previously requested information from me. While this probably did help me win a few additional orders, it wasn’t a very good follow up method. Why isn’t the “List Technique” very effective?

• The List Technique isn’t consistent. Proponents of the List Technique tend to only send out follow up messages when their companies have “big news”.
• List Technique messages don’t give the potential customer any additional information about the product or service in question. He can’t make a more informed buying decision after receiving a newsletter! If someone is wondering whether your company sells the best knick-knacks, what does he care that you’ve just moved your headquarters?
• List Technique messages convey a “big list” mentality to your potential customers. When I used to write follow up messages using the List Technique, I was writing news bulletins to everyone I knew! I should have been sending a personal message to each individual who wanted to know more about my products.

What follow up method really works?

Following up with each lead individually, multiple times, but at set intervals, and with pre-written messages, will dramatically increase sales! Others who use this same technique confirm that they have all at least doubled the sales of various products! In order to set this system up, though, you need to do some planning.

First, you’ll need to develop your follow up messages. If you’ve been marketing on the Internet for any length of time, then you should already have a first informative letter. Your second letter marks the beginning of the follow up process, and should go into more detail than the first letter. Fill this letter with details that you didn’t have the space to add to the first letter. Stress the BENEFITS of your products or services!

Your next 2-3 follow up messages should be rather short. Include lists of the benefits and potential uses of your products and services. Write each letter so that your prospects can skim the contents, and still see the full force of your message.

The next couple of follow up messages should create a sense of urgency in your prospect’s mind. Make a special offer, giving him a reason to order NOW instead of waiting any longer. After reading these follow up messages, your prospect should want to order immediately!

Phrase each of your final 1 or 2 follow up messages in the form of a question. Ask your prospect why he hasn’t yet placed an order? Try to get him to actually respond. Ask if the price is to high, the product isn’t the right color or doesn’t have the right features, or if he is looking for something else entirely. (By this time, it’s unlikely that this person will order from you. However, his feedback can help you modify your follow up letters or products, so that other prospects will order from you.)

The timing of your follow up letters is just as important as their content. You don’t want one prospect to receive a follow up the day after he gets your initial informative letter, while another prospect waits weeks for a follow up!

Always send an initial, informative letter as soon as it is requested, and send the first follow up 24 hours afterwards. You want your hot prospects to have information quickly, so that they can make informed buying decisions!

Send the next 2-3 follow up messages between 1 and 3 days apart. Your prospect is still hot, and is probably still shopping around! Tell him about the benefits of your products and services, as opposed to your competitors’. You will make the sale!

Send the final follow up messages later on. You certainly don’t want to annoy your prospect! Make sure that these last letters are at least 4 days apart.

Following up effectively seems complicated, but it doesn’t have to be! So many potential customers are lost because of poor follow up – don’t you want to be one of the few to get it right?

---------------
All right, we have one more post in this series.  It will be posted on May 24th, and sorry to get you all worked up, but it has to do with email marketing at holiday time, particularly the Christmas Holiday.  Plan your November & December Marketing Campaigns now, set them and forget them and let them run by themselves.

How to work with Social Media

We are always trying to find ways to share tips on using social media with our readers (viewers?) what ever you are.

We recently came across an article in the Realtor Magazine "Making Social Media Pay" that has some great tips on how to use Twitter, Facebook, Linked in and other tools to help grow a Commercial Real Estate business.  But everything in the article would work for a Realtor, a Real Estate Investor, a mortgage lender, or anyone wanting to grow their business online.

Take a few minutes and check it out.

Open Houses sell

In a recent article "Open Houses that Work" in the Realtor magazine, author Marcie Geffner outlines how many Realtors still use to great effectiveness the Open House.

Her article outlines some of the best practices for holding a house open from the Realtor perspective and that is (1) to sell the house being held open and (2) get more seller and buyer customers.

So all the marketing of the open house beforehand online and through signage that she talks about is a big plus in getting folks in the house so that either they would buy it or tell a friend who might buy it.

On the other hand they talk about packets of info that they create before hand to give to the people walking through.  If you are an investor holding your house open are you really looking to get more potential buyers and sellers like a Realtor, probably not, but your packets are just as important.

For example lets say you renovate in a particular market.  Having a packet that includes buying information and area information as well as other houses in the area for sale are great.  The attendees may not care for the particular house you have, but they like what you have done with it.  Then when they go look at all the other houses you have provided them and they find them lacking, they might come back to you wanting to see what else you might have now or comming up in a month or so.

You could also collect all those potential leads and share them with a local realtor who might in turn provide you with comps or refer the junker houses back to you.  It can all be a trade off.

But wether you are a Realtor or and Investor, you need to check out the article as it has some great informtion. 

Click to read

200 House Auction this week end

I was reading in the Kansas City Star this am that Hudson and Marshall will be auctioning off 200 homes in the KC metro on Saturday & Sunday.  Although according to the Hudson & Marsall Web site that will be Friday and Saturday 

These are almost 100 % urban core Kansas City Missouri homes, mostly vacant, a few rented and a few slated for demo with a few other area's thrown in.  Mayor Funkhouser is urging local area investors to come out in droves to buy these homes at mostly absolute auctions  (meaning they sell no matter what price offered) so that the out of state investors don't get a chance to buy them.

Does he not get that local area investors for the most part are purchasing these cheap houses, getting them as fixed as they have to to get a warm body in the house so they can sell it as a cash flowing rental to the out of state investor.  Everyone I have talked to that is planning on buying has this plan in mind.

If you are going to the auction, please take a drive by these houses today to find out what they look like.  ON the mailer I received many said "absolute auction" slated for demolition.  So if I buy a house for $50 and the city subsequently tears it down a week after I close on it, then they will attach the demo bill to the property, so when I go to sell I have to pay the demolition bill that may be around $8000 or so.  And what am I going to do with a vacant lot that I now owe $8,000. 

I bet a few people have ideas.

But please remember if you have a few $100 to spend at the auction on Friday and Saturday, to check out the property today before you go bid.

Click here to find out more about the properties and the sale

New National Property Database.

There is a new national property database in the works through Realtor.org.  It is supposed to be the latest and greatest for Realtors.  And I supposed it is for those who want property data in an area other than where they work.

The database, from what I can tell will be populated with data from the local MLS.  So if you are only focusing local, the local realtors MLS will have the data.  But say I wanted data at the Lake of the Ozarks and am only tied into the Kansas City Regional Assocition of Realtors MLS, then the system would help me out.

To find out more read the recent artcile in the Realtor Magazine "A Mountain of Data in One Click"  or go to the blog http://blog.narrpr.com/  and no we don't have it yet in Kansas City I dont think.

Meat and Potatoes for Your Affiliate Diet

Can You Have More Sales, Too?

Helping over 75,000 businesses like yours raise profits and build customer relationships using AWeber's opt-in email marketing software for over 10 years.

Take a Free Test Drive today!

Posted by Tom Kulzer (AWeber CEO)
Think of banner ads as the spice in your affiliate diet. Sprinkle them around, but for a heartier helping of sales, you’ll need something more solid! Learn to give your visitors longer, more descriptive pre-sales text. Revamp your affiliate advertising using these simple steps:

1. Pull the Reader in
2. Introduce the Product
3. Explain the Product’s Significance
4. Tell the Reader to Make a Purchase

Pull the Reader in

To convince your audience that your text is worth reading, make your first sentence or two very interesting. Make a bold statement, say something seemingly ridiculous, or appeal to your prospect’s emotional side. Then, tie this grabber in with the rest of your copy.

Introduce the Product

What is the product you’re advertising? What does it do? Directly after your grabber, give a compact explanation of your product. Keep this explanation short, while still being very clear. This should still be a very short section of your text.

Explain the Product’s Significance

What will it do for me?
By writing your own copy, you can directly target your unique audience. Make the most of this opportunity! Clearly explain how your readers will benefit from this product.
No one knows your audience like you do. Suggest a variety of product uses just for them, and give examples. This is the time for details – make this section long and rich.

Tell the Reader to Make a Purchase

You’ve come so far – you’ve laid out exactly what the product is and how it will help your unique audience. Now, seal the deal – tell your readers to purchase the product! Include your affiliate link in this section.
This step may sound strange, but it’s necessary. Often, people hear about a product and are genuinely interested, but fail to actually make a purchase. A clear call to a simple action cuts down on buyer ambivalence. Don’t be pushy – just change your verb tenses to the imperative. Instead of:
“If you think that you fit this profile, you might want to think about buying this product.”
Say: “Click here to order an account today.”
Drive Sales – Use Long Copy



If you don’t feel ready to write long copy yourself, ask your affiliate program manager for help! Many companies release well-written articles by respected authors that you can reprint free of charge.
The novelty of the Web is wearing off. People online now are busy. Surfers won’t make a purchase unless you make a great case for what they’ll get out of it. And you’re not going to do that with just a banner ad.

Don't miss our next post - be sure to subscribe to our blog, next post is due out May 17th:

Do Your Potential Customers Forget About You? by Tom Kulzer



So many potential customers are lost because of poor follow up - don't you want to be one of the few to get it right?

MAY MAREI Meeting

 Don't forget our May meeting is Tomorrow, Tuesday May 11th at Sylvester Powell Jr Community Center in Mission KS.  6 pm is networking and our vendors will have tables set up.  Talk to Sherwin Williams about Paint Discounts, Renovators Insurance about Vacant and other types of insurance, Accurate Title about Title Insurance and Mayo Auctions.  Then we will have a presentation on Auctions at 7:30.
If you have not yet read our May Newsletter  Click to read.
New in the MAREI Member Library.  How to find all the money you need to buy houses.  A 84 page Ebook from Alan Cowgill on Private Lending.  Log into the member area, click on library, and look in the financing section.  Just one of about 30 packed ebooks on various real estate investing topics.

 

MAREI May 11th General Meeting

10 Myths of Real Estate Auctions
Kansas City's own Robert Mayo is going to dispell the myths we have about real estate auctions.  Find out how real estate actions can help you find good deals and sell quickly. We have networking from 6pm to 7:15, announcements at 7:15, and Presentation at 7:30. 
To register: visit our events page

Planned Vendors for this meeting:

• Renovators Insurance
• Robert Mayo with Mayo Auction & Realty
• Sherwin Williams
• Accurate Title
• Still room for 2 more vendors, click here to reserve

June 2010 Meeting: Vendor Night

“Hello, I need a . . . .

 

• Realtor who works with Investors 
• Lender for a Rehab 
• Contractor to Rehab a House 
• Property Manager 
• Flooring Provider 
• Home Inspector 
• Vacant Insurance Provider 
• Houses to Invest In 
• Real Estate Attorney 
• Accountant  
• Title Company  
• Appraiser 
• Roofer 
• Electrician 
• Mentor 
• Fill in the Blank” 

We get this call several times a week. We direct them to our Vendor Page online.

 

Do any of these needed service providers describe you? Then you need to be a vendor at MAREI’s Vendor Night on Tuesday June 8th from 6 pm to 9 pm at Sylvester Powell Jr Community Center at 6200 Martway in Mission, KS.

 

We are offering this evening for FREE for all members and their guests. Non Members can attend for just $25 for the evening, or preregister to attend for $15 through the web site.

 

All members and vendors to receive a FREE guest registration to invite their friend. Not yet a MAREI member, don’t know any members? Still want to attend for FREE . . .Join our Fan Page on Facebook “Kansas City Real Estate Investors” and request a FREE Guest Pass.

 

Other Plans for the Evening

 

• Mini Speed Networking 
• Door Prizes to Be Awarded at 8:30 
• Drinks and Munchies

 We will see you there, bring your business cards and a friend!

 

BECOME A VENDOR

Looking for a way to reach a room full of targeted customers? Attendees at MAREI meetings are made up of people who work in the real estate industry and from beginners to old pros. If your product or service is something a real estate professional or a small business owner would need, then this is the place to be!



MAREI members can reserve a Vendor Table for $50 for the evening (1/2 Table $25)


Non Members Pay a bit more.


Full table to present your company, product or service to our room full of targeted customers who are looking for you!


Business Card ad in the June Newsletter


30 Day Listing on our Vendor Page


Register through our Calendar of Events or request registration via email at info@MAREInet.com.

Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program

HAFA

In 2009, the Treasury Department introduced the HAFA program to provide a viable option for homeowners who are unable to keep their homes through the existing Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). The program took effect on April 5th.

• Complements HAMP by providing a viable alternative for borrowers (the current homeowners) who are HAMP eligible but nevertheless unable to keep their home.
• Uses borrower financial and hardship information already collected in connection with consideration of a loan modification.
• Allows borrowers to receive pre-approved short sales terms before listing the property (including the minimum acceptable net proceeds).
• Requires borrowers to be fully released from future liability for the first mortgage debt (no cash contribution, promissory note, or deficiency judgment is allowed).
• Uses standard processes, documents, and timeframes/deadlines.
• Provides the following financial incentives:
• $3,000 for borrower relocation assistance;
• $1,500 for servicers to cover administrative and processing costs;
• Up to $2,000 for investors who allow a total of up to $6,000 in short sale proceeds to be distributed to subordinate lien holders, on a one-for-three matching basis.
• Requires all servicers participating in HAMP to implement HAFA in accordance with their own written policy, consistent with investor guidelines. The policy may include factors such as the severity of the potential loss, local markets, timing of pending foreclosure actions, and borrower motivation and cooperation.

Online Resources:


http://www.onlinereiexpo.com/: we have had several webinars on HAFA and short sales in the past week. Be sure to check it out.

From Realtor.org: http://www.realtor.org/government_affairs/short_sales_hafa

From the Government: http://makinghomeaffordable.gov/resources.html

Working With Contractors

Some thoughts on how to use a contractor and keep him on your side.

As an investor it would be nice to have all your numbers in place before we make an offer. An inspection by a contractor to give an estimate of repairs or to give an assessment of the condition of the property is helpful when making your decision to purchase. But how do we find the contractor who is willing to inspect properties for us. When you call and ask for a break down of needed repairs and a detailed repair bid on the house, most don’t even call you back. I get calls from new investors asking why they can’t find a contractor to do these bids, after all “I told him I would use him in the future.”

Has this happened to you?

Lets first talk about working with a contractor.

Investors tell me their contractor is a bum, or that he left the job site without finishing the job, or took all my money. The list goes on and on. Nine times out of ten, the investor who hired the contractor is at fault. I know I’m not popular with that statement, but lets review some of the problems.

Were there written instructions on the scope of work to be completed?

Did you specify an allowance amount for items, such as: lighting, carpet, appliances, etc.

Was there an agreement on price for services before he started, verbal or written?

Was there an agreement on when the contractor would be paid?

A bid contract from a contractor should have a schedule of payments along with his bid price.

Have you asked for an inspection, without paying for his services?

Have you ask for his advice without paying for his services?

I have found that a rehab goes smoother when walking through the house with the contractor and spelling everything out you want, and reviewing the contract bid thoroughly before signing. Expect the fact that you still might have a

change order, although under $500.00 would be reasonable. Sometimes you cannot anticipate what you cannot see behind walls.

You pay your Attorney, Doctor, and Accountant when you ask for advice or services, your contractor should be treated the same way. Assuming Contractors work for free is where the problem starts. Promising the contractor future work, is an old trick that doesn’t work. Once you have used a contractor successfully on a job, it gets easier to ask for a bid or advise, because why wouldn’t you use him again.

The best way to establish a good working relationship with a contractor where both sides win is to have an agreement up front that spells out his prices for services, and allowances. I hope everyone understands, that a good contractor will help you make money.

Initial Inspections

If you are buying properties and making bids and you have a question about the condition of the house, having a contractor you can call on puts you in a better position to buy the house right. I know it’s unheard of, but pay the contractor to inspect the house and use his services when you get the bid. On the first few houses, go with him on the walk through inspection. Let him show you the house and have him point out his concerns and problems with future repairs. It may be that after the first few, you can make your own rough estimates to make offers, and then hire the contractor to do a hard bid during your inspection period.

Think about it . . . If you look at 4 or 5 houses for someone in the hopes of getting the contract to do the rehab. You don’t get paid for any inspections up front and the investor keeps loosing the bid. Then finally, on the 5th house the investor has the highest bid and gets the house. Since the contractor did not get paid for the repair bids and may not get paid for future bids, you may find that his bids on each house get a little bit higher because he adds those “free” bids into his repair costs. So would you not be better off to pay up front for a rehab bid and have it agreed upon before the contractor makes the bid rather than having him pad his actual rehab bid on the job he does get to cover all his time spent on the bids on the houses he did not get.

Don’t always promise future work; pay him today for the work he has performed, and deal with the future when it arrives. Inspecting the house takes time and is work; it has taken him away from what he was doing to look at this house that you may never buy. We know it’s a numbers game when buying properties. You are going to be looking at a lot of houses you don’t ever buy.

Home inspectors charge $300.00 to $500.00 to inspect a house, and if you hire them they expect to be paid. This price is too high if your looking at 2 to 3 houses per week. Keep in mind these prices usually include a full write up and possibly photos, you may find that hiring a contractor who does not have to do all the write up may offer the same service for much less. (Note that many inspectors have a much lower fee if there is not write up and they get paid at the time of inspection)

When you buy the house you have been searching for, if the contractor did the inspection, they are all set to give you a hard repair bid for your rehab or for you to use when you wholesale the property. By agreeing up front what you will pay for a repair bid or inspection, paying at the time of inspection and the contractor not having to hope to get the rehab to get paid, you will have established a decent working relationship with your contractor. You will now have a contractor in place and ready to do your rehab once you close, just be sure to outline the scope of work (what you expect to be done and the quality of materials) and the payment plan in place before the project begins.


Another mistake I have seen new investors make (even the ones on the TV shows) is waiting until the day of closing to start looking for a contractor. This will cost you valuable time and holding costs and could cut into your profits eat all your profits.

Payment Plans

Keep in mind that a contractor is always skeptical when starting a rehab with a new investor. They have the same questions in their mind about you as you do about them. That’s why many will ask for 50% up front when starting the rehab. They want to make sure that they get paid enough to start the job and getting paid 50% up front is not that out of order when starting a rehab as the majority of the money needed in the rehab is spent in the first two weeks of the project: roof, furnace, air, electrical, plumbing, windows, etc are all usually done if the first two weeks and eat up a majority of the cost of the repairs.

Don’t put him on a 30-day payment plan; he won’t be around in 30 days. A good contractor has people working for him that expect to get paid every Friday and the materials that go into your rehab are not free, they need to be paid to cover these items. Expect the contractor to be able to carry a little bit of the costs, but if your contractor can afford to carry all of these costs, he is probably charging you a lot more than the competition.

Working Relationships

After you have a working relationship with a contractor, the bidding process will go smoother knowing your numbers up front before you buy. When he knows he will get paid like you promised, that you will in fact give him work, and you will hold true to your word, the contractor will get to your job faster than other people he works with and may just throw in a free inspection now and then.

Because our contractors and subs know that when they do a job for us that they will get paid in a very timely manner, our jobs may be bid cheaper and be acted upon more quickly than other jobs. When we have a small question of how something should be fixed, they will often stop by and look at it for free and give us advice, they will probably get the repair if it is warranted. And they even bring us deals because they know what we look for in a house and that when we buy it for rehab, that they will get the job.

In conclusion, approach the rehab with the knowledge that the buyer will hire a home inspector, and his job is to dig for any problems. This list that he comes up with can cost hundreds more if you have not inspected your house as thoroughly as a home inspector. If you know something is not right, fix it now before the inspection, while the contractor is set up in the house. These steps alone can save money and stress at the time of the sale of the house.

Try out some of these ideas and let me know how they work for you.



About the author: Donald Tucker has been investing in real estate since 2000 and has been in the construction and building trades working with contractors and sub contractors for the past 30 years. Currently his company Tucker One Properties (www.TuckerOneProperties.com) is wholesaling homes in the Kansas City metro area and his real estate brokerage Realty Resource (www.RealtyResourceKC.com) is helping investor buyers and sellers in the metro.

Real Estate Auctions

The popularity of auction sales of real estate is increasing day by day despite the dominance of the traditional process of real estate selling. Earlier these auctions were labeled as dishonor sales done by the distressed sellers when there was no other way to liquidate a property. But this view has changed as the number of real estate auctions are increasing day by day because sellers of residential as well as commercial properties are opting to auction their property directly or turning to real estate broker houses to get top price as per market rates from the auctions.


Auction opportunity arises when a seller's mind is auction oriented with a hope that the property will fetch a fair market price. To get a fair price, his equity position in the auctioned property should be strong. With a strong equity position in the property, he will save the cost of paying a sales commission. The time of auctioning should be perfect, when the market is soaring high. The auctioneer should also try to avoid bearing high carrying costs associated with the property.

A profitable auction opportunity is created when there is limited supply of a particular type of property whose demand in the real estate market is relatively high or the market is declining with limited buyer's interest in this traditional sales process.

When a property is offered for auctioned, a sense of urgency arises to bring the interested parties together on a particular day and the sales process creates a sales price through competitive bidding among the participating parties.

In early days of real estate auctions only the properties in bad conditions or subjected to foreclosure were auctioned. But now sellers are shifting to real estate auctions to sell their homes. This transformation has occurred because the earlier believe that a seller will not take the risk of auctioning his property at a lesser price than its market value has changed. Real estate auctioneers are at a liberty to set a minimum price which is more than its market value that he will receive in any case. In addition by setting a minimum price, he will no longer have to bear the risk of buying back the property if it does not reach that price and will also save the cost of paying the required sales commission to the auction house.

Many real estate owners prefer to go for a direct auction instead of going to a auction houses to avoid payment of sales commission to real estate brokers which is about 8-10 percent of the property's value. Also the property owners have absolute control on the auction sales process. This is essential when a real estate takes lot of time to sell and the owner is represented by a real estate agent or broker. Many times, it is wise for a real estate owner to auction a property not in use to cut down maintenance expenses. Real estate auction is an exciting event both for the auctioneer and the bidding parties therefore they are always well attended.

Since auction is the best way to get true market value for the real estate, the magic of an exciting real estate auction works for the marketing of these properties for sale. Onus rests on the auctioneer to create demand or an urge to make a bid in the buyers/bidders mind and to attract the attention of the potential buyers/bidders. The potential buyers of the property are then registered after it is ensured that they are financially qualified. It is to be ensured that a considerable sum is paid by the buyer as a down payment which is non refundable and both parties are willing to close the deal as soon as possible. It is necessary to make sure before the auction that the buyer is financially secure so that the seller will not have to wait for receiving the entire payment. Many times it has been found that real estate auctions remain incomplete because the buyer or successful bidder is turned down for mortgages.

The following factors should be kept in mind before a real estate is auctioned by the property owner-

He should consult experienced and professional auction consultant who have specialized in real estate auctioning.

It should be ensured that the marketing campaign of the auction event focused properly to have a high impact.

Importance should be given on direct mail marketing to targeted bidders/buyers.

The auction event should be advertised in print and audio visual media to have a greater impact. If possible the consignment should be assigned to a reputed advertising agency to make the ad campaign more attractive.

The auction event should also be advertised through internet and email.

After the promotion or advertisement campaign is launched, the auction event takes place within a few weeks on completion of official formalities. Sellers are informed about the auction date before hand after the auctioneer is ensured that the sellers/bidders are able to meet the preset terms and conditions laid down by him.

Following are the advantages of real estate auctions for the seller-

The property owner is able to make a quick liquidation of their property.

The auction is successful in creating a healthy competition among the bidders.

Their property is exposed to a wide range of prospects.

Closing is accelerated.

The sellers are well aware about the date and time when the property will be sold.

Auctions are successful in considerably bringing down the amount of time a property is on the market for sale.

Auction gets rid of number of out of the blue events related to property sales.

Auction reduces the burden of negotiation process from the sellers mind. He is able to sell the property according to the terms and conditions set by him.

In contrast to conventional sales processes where it is mandatory for the property owner to make necessary improvements and renovations to get a fair price, these properties are auctioned on as-is-where-is basis. Potential buyers receive enough time to make a decision on whether to make a bid or not after having a good look at the property to be auctioned. Therefore it is sold with no emergency and the seller gains from it.

The buyer also enjoys innumerable advantages from real estate auctions, they are-

He can set his own purchase price.

He purchases the property at a fair market price.

He does not have to make long negotiations or bargains to finalize a deal.

Auction reduces the time to purchase a property.

He will not have to worry about emergencies because purchasing and closing dates are known to him beforehand.

Buyers are well aware that sellers are predetermined to sell.

For FREE Report and more on Profiting from Real Estate Investing go to

http://www.wealthyideas.net/

Article Source:

http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Frank_Berry