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Men in Black:Stephan Piscano,

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by Linda Pliagas publisher, agent, investor

linda’s note

I truly enjoy the ART of Real Estate.


Thank you for spending some time with us, I hope you enjoy our new issue. We are excited to show off our largest print edition to date. When we started the

publication in 2007, it was a modest 16 pages and printed on newsprint, now we own multiple publications, numerous real estate websites, and we are producing expos around the coun-try. We’ve really grown tremendously, and I’d like to thank our loyal readers and our advertisers for their support. Now it’s our time to give back, which is why we are devoting the entire 2014 to traveling across the country to host complimentary expos and mixers to connect with as many in-vestors and industry professionals as possible. From New York City to San Francisco and Indianapolis to McAllen, Texas, we want to learn the nuances about a variety of markets so we can better educate our readers.

Over the years, investors from around the nation have relied on our magazine to make informed decisions on where to invest, what type of properties to focus on, or whom to train with to further their real estate education. I take my position as publisher very seriously, and I’m proud that I have been in the industry over 11 years as a licensed real estate agent in California. Besides assisting many with their real estate transactions by referring them to brokers around the country, I have also personally purchased, managed and sold millions of dollars worth of real estate in five states. Real estate is such an

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exciting industry and, to me, finding solid rental properties is exhilarating. I truly enjoy the art of real estate. In fact, my husband and I recently closed escrow last month on two phenomenal rental proper-ties in Santa Barbara County. Both were purchased for half of what the market was just a few years ago and appreciation, in this particular area, is already starting to set in! Folks, if we can locate two value-priced properties in one of the most expensive areas of california, i know you can find some solid deals in your market too. i have full confidence in your ability.

If being a landlord is not your style, then perhaps you’re better suited to be a private money lender, or a note buyer, per-haps you should purchase some tax liens, maybe even a hotel? The beauty of real estate is that the opportunities for investing are diverse, a lot of avenues for prosperity exist. It’s up to each of us to learn which type of real estate niche can best suit our personality, needs and goals.

I wish you the best in your endeavors, and until next time,

PS: Be sure to keep up to date with our travel schedule by visiting www.Realty411guide.com/events for our calendar.

Linda Pliagas

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contents

BIRMINGHAM, AL


11 Publisher’s Note13 Memphis Invest Expands18 Safety in Numbers21 Analyze Marck de Lautour’s Deal22 Finance Goes Back to Basics24 Due Diligence with Kathy Fetke27 Learn About ListedBy.com30 Perfect Credit with Dr. Grayson34 Mobile Home Park Investing with Mike Conlon38 Tips from Sensei Gilliland40 Flipping Houses with Duncan & Anthony Patrick42 Jason Hartman Talks Real Estate44 A Bus Tour with Lori Greymont CEO of Summit Assets Group45 Manifest Real Estate Miracles46 Non-Recourse is Back!47 Zero in on Vacant Homes48 Private Money 41151 FirstKey Lending Unleashes Big Capital for Smaller Investors52 Discover MOR Financial54 Five Steps to Raising Capital55 No Fluff with Leonard Rosen56 Financial Market Intelligence60 A Successful Private Lending Practice65 The Launch of LA South REIA66 Multifamily vs. Single Family68 Retire Wealthy with an IRA69 Turn-Key and Renter Ready71 Land Trusts vs. LLCs73 Crowdfuding Investing75 Flip or Flop with Tarek & Christina El Moussa 78 Williams & Williams Update80 10 Rules for RE Success81 Taking Title Properly82 Larry Goins Discusses Deals83 Discover B2R Finance 84 Let’s Analyze a Hotel88 Learn Probate Investing90 Legal Aide for Investors93 News from Lady Landlords94 Relationship-Building Tips

Successful investors realize how important diversification is to risk management in their portfolios. MemphisInvest.com,

the largest turnkey investment company in Tennessee is responding to the needs of their nearly 900 clients by expanding their operation to what they believe is another top market: dallas. although it’s over 400 miles away from their Cordova-based company, the Clothier family, principals of MemphisInvest, are quite at home in the Texas market as they had lived in dallas for many years as proprietors of a grocery business. So comfortable in fact that they quickly expanded into the market by purchasing 400 homes, which were rehabbed and sold as turnkey investments to their loyal clients, many of them already own multiple properties in Memphis. All the properties were sold without any direct advertising or marketing. now that a secondary office has been set up to handle their growing list of properties under management, they are well on target to expand to nearly 800 doors. Recently, we had the pleasure of interviewing Chris Clothier, co-owner of MemphisInvest.com to discuss their explosive expansion into the Texas market.

Question: Why did Memphis Invest choose Dallas as their next rental market?Answer: There were a couple of rea-sons, but mostly our familiarity with the market. We still have family and busi-ness ties to the dallas/Ft. Worth area and luckily the market was a fantastic investing opportunity. We had been looking for which market to expand into and dallas kept presenting the best opportunity for our success and more importantly, our clients success.

Q: I’m sure your team and clients had wonderful reaction to the expansion, but were there any concerns about adding a second city?A: The biggest concern was consisten-cy. We had developed a very stable and reliable model in Memphis with a fantastic team and that is very difficult to duplicate. We were very method-ical about who we hired and how we trained them. Our culture of customer service first and being transparent in our communica-tion, both good and bad, was very important to us. So our biggest concern was how do we keep the high quality of work, communica-tion, service and the reliable model while moving into another city. Q: When did Memphis Invest de-cide to expand to Dallas and how long did it take from the initial idea to actually selling properties and overseeing rentals in that market?A: We decided in the 4th quarter of 2011 that we were going to open an office in dallas. We were actually buying our first properties there in February of 2012, but we were not advertising the new city at that time. We were having private con-versations with individual investors about the opportunities there and taking orders for properties. at first, we outsourced the property management, but learned very quickly that no one was going to show the same attention to detail and care like we were, so we opened our property man-agement division in October of 2012. We held our first sneek peek event in the Fall of 2012 and hosted 140 investors to the city. Today we are managing just under 250 properties in the dFW metroplex and average completing between 17 and 20 deals a month over the last couple of months. Our goal for 2014 is to complete

between 250 and 300 transactions in the dallas market. Q: How did you put your team together in a far away city and what tips do you have for other companies and inves-tors trying to manage a long-distance portfolio or staff?

A: Without the ability to have a Clothier or a high-level team member in the city each day, I am not sure we would have undertaken a remote location. Our rep-utation, our commitment to excellence and our integrity are too important to us. so , without the easy commute to dal-las, I am not sure we would have chosen the city. We could leave early morning and be in our offices by noon. there are also daily flight back and forth for the hour long flight. so we chose a city with three attributes for us: a. we were very familiar with the layout of the city. b. we had great connections in the city and were able to locate high qual-ity personnel quickly. c. it was close enough for a Clothier or one of our top leaders to be in the city almost daily.

texas expansion with MemphisInvest.com


contents

>

“Just like in Memphis, we are trying to buy in areas that we are very familiar with. We have an understanding of the dynamics in the area and the economic factors that make it a good rent-al part of town. Our biggest concerns are always going to be access to jobs, access to transportation and schools.”

Without these benefits, I think it would have been much more difficult.

We kept great notes, had meetings on the progress and issues with the second city constantly and have essentially devel-oped a roadmap for going into additional cities.

Question: How many clients now own in Dallas? How many homes are cur-rently under your management?A: We have just under 250 properties un-der management in dallas and there are right at 80 clients who own properties in the metroplex.

Question: Are you inclined to stay with-in certain areas of the city? How were those areas chosen?A: Just like in Mem-phis, we are trying to buy in areas that we are very familiar with. We have an understanding of the dynamics in the area and the economic factors that make it a good rental part of town. Our biggest concerns are always going to be access to jobs, access to transportation and schools. So right now we are buying in spot areas of town and are only managing in maybe 10% of the entire metroplex. There is plenty of room to grow and expand into other areas of the city, but right now we are concentrating on doing it right, not so much doing it quickly.

Q: How does the Dallas rental market compare with Memphis, as far as ROI, vacancies, taxes, etc.?A: The two markets are remarkably similar as far as returns are concerned, but dallas certainly presents more challenges with insurance and tax rates. they are a little more fluid than they are in Memphis and are more prone to change. So we keep a very close eye on those two costs, which are major factors in an investors Roi. as far as vacan-cies are concerned, we were told early on that we would have high turnover

and would be lucky to get 1-year leases in dallas. We scoffed at that belief and brought the exact same property manage-ment and renovation style to dallas from Memphis. We believed that a home that has been renovated to a higher standard and a management company with great communication and service could easily command a 2-year lease. Today, we rent 80% of our properties in the dFW market on 2-year leases.

Q: Are you still hosting property bus tours in both cities? Where can we find out more information about them?A: We do not do bus tours of the cities any more. We have investors visiting our offices weekly to see properties and the operation. The events that we host now, one in each city each year, are geared toward showcasing our team and our op-eration as we all the attributes of the cities

themselves. We try to include charities and big companies in the cities as well as inviting political leaders to address the groups. Our events now are much less about selling properties and more about helping investors get a good feel for the market and the company and then make a decision if the market and the partner are the right fit for them. of course, there is always time on our weekends for investors to get out and see properties and we en-courage it, but we wanted to take the focus off of the “bus tour” or “buying tour” mentality and put it back on the long-term relationship aspect of investing in buy & hold real estate.

Q: Your company has accomplished so much in such a small amount of time, what do you attribute your success to?A: This is not new to my family. My father has been an entrepreneur for over 30 years and he followed in the footsteps of my grandfather who was an entrepre-

neur in Memphis for 25 plus years. My older brother kent clothier, Jr. more than double the size of a private company in Florida at the age of 28 growing sales for that company to over $2 billion a year. kent may not be a part of the day-to-day business operations for our companies, but he is a great example of our family being driven to excel. Our families’ success is due to the fact that we have failed and been able to grow and learn from those failures. What you see today is a compa-ny where the culture is so important. We have 44 employees and they are all strive to excel and be the best. That is very similar to the culture we have developed in every company we have built.

Q: Can you give us a sneak peak to what the future holds for the Clothier team and family?a: We are already in a third city, Houston,

tx., exploring and looking for office lo-cation as well as properties. There is a lot of good opportunity coming for our exist-ing and future clients and three cities will certainly help us to fill all of the demand. It has been a process of development over the last 10 years and these next few years certainly look to be very promising for our company and for our clients. With three cities we believe we will be able to fill the demand from smart real estate investors as they look to develop portfolios of consis-tent and stable returns on solid assets.

Q: Is there anything you would like to add about the Dallas market and your involvement in that city?a: We are really excited about the dallas/Ft. Worth market and even about the possibilities in the near future for Hous-ton. This is going to be a fun year and we are focused on positive growth and building some great friendships with our new clients.


WeÊmakeÊrealÊestateÊtaxÊlienÊinvestmentsÊsimple and attainable.Find out why these ultra-safe assets should be a part of your portfolio. Call or visit us on the web for free information.

Safety. Security. Double-Digit Returns.

(310)Ê295.1121ÊÊÊÊÊ[email protected]ÊÊÊÊÊwww.mmginvestors.com

Every day, all across the country, real estate taxes go unpaid.

It’s no secret that real estate taxes generally represent the majority of a county’s revenue; and they need that revenue to provide services like firefighters, police officers, roads and bridges. in more than half of the u.s., counties are required by law to collect unpaid taxes through the sale of tax liens to investors — counties sell a certificate that grants the right to collect those taxes, plus interest and penalties, to investors for the amount of the outstanding tax alone. This allows the county to balance their budget and operate without a revenue deficit — it’s great for the county, and investors like the opportunity, too.

But while the sale of real estate tax liens to investors is a process that dates back to the early 1900s, it’s not the unexplored territory it used to be, according to Chris gleason, Managing director at MMg Capital.

“The tax lien industry isn’t a secret any more,” said Gleason. “Anyone can register, walk into an auction, and bid. There are thousands and thousands of tax lien investors across the country, and that makes the market competitive.”

It’s become so popular because it’s

Discover how Chris Gleason and MMG Capital lower the risk on what’s already one of the most secure investments in the industry. By Robb Magley

an exceptionally low-risk investment in general, according to Gleason, who noted the overwhelming majority of tax liens investments eventually get paid back to the investor — plus interest and fees.

“That’s because no one’s interested in losing their house over a tax lien that represents 1-3% of the property’s value,” said Gleason. “Over 95% of property owners redeem their unpaid taxes within their state’s statutory period. For the ones that don’t, the certificate holder has the opportunity to do what’s called ‘filing for deed’ — the equivalent of foreclosing for a tax lien.”

Filing for deed starts the process, and the property owner is forced to “redeem” (e.g., pay up), or the property will go up for sale.

“At that point, if you’ve done your due diligence and you have a piece of property that has value, someone’s going to come along at that foreclosure sale and pay for the property,” said Gleason. “And that essentially gets you redeemed, too. Over 99% of the time you get your money back, plus interest and fees.”

And that’s the goal. Gleason points out the biggest misunderstanding about the tax lien industry is that people think everyone’s in it to acquire real property. “No one

should be going into it because they want to buy property for $500,” said Gleason. “Realistically, you’re not going to acquire property this way — unless you’re buying tax liens on worthless property nobody wants. Then you might end up with it — and you’re going to be mad that you did.”

While the concept of investing in tax liens is very attractive, and in many ways very simple, the reality of doing it in a competitive market is complicated once you’re on the ground, according to Gleason; between the ins-and-outs of varying state laws, timing, and bid structures, to say nothing of traveling to auctions and servicing the liens once you buy them, the real rate of return for a small investor shrinks quickly. Gleason and MMG Capital structure the purchase of tax liens as a pooled fund opportunity — at once spreading out an investor’s risk and increasing yield.

“The rates that you can achieve by yourself, with not a lot of money, are not very high,” said Gleason. “First of all, you’re competing with people like us; we come into these auctions with millions of dollars. Second, if there’s a larger parcel out there, say an apartment building, that’s

NumbeRsSafety in

Continued on pg. 86Realty411Guide.com PAGE 18 • 2014 reWEALTHmag.com

WeÊmakeÊrealÊestateÊtaxÊlienÊinvestmentsÊsimple and attainable.Find out why these ultra-safe assets should be a part of your portfolio. Call or visit us on the web for free information.

Safety. Security. Double-Digit Returns.

(310)Ê295.1121ÊÊÊÊÊ[email protected]ÊÊÊÊÊwww.mmginvestors.com

For the past 10 years, Marck de Lautour, owner of SBD Hous-

ing Solutions has been fo-cusing on the metro Kansas City area for investment properties. His Rolodex of investors includes clients in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and California. Now with the success of hundreds of deals in the Mid West, SBD Housing Solutions is now expanding oper-ations to Florida, specifically Tampa. Recently we interviewed de Lautour to get an inside glimpse of how this savvy in-vestor is able to scoop up quality deals with built-in equity before anyone else does.

SBD HouSing Expands to FloriDa

ReseaRCh PhaseQuestion: How did you land your latest re-hab deal? a: it was an Mls opportunity, the owner occupant needed to sell.

Q: What are some tips you have to research a property or area? A: You have to have someone local on the ground that is firmly entrenched in the market, able to jump on deals when they come up. We were very patient. Our com-

pany (sBd) started researching in tampa bay area back in Jan 2012 and didn’t get our first buy until June 2013! not fast, but we had to learn the market and we went through 3-4 different cities before settling in on the Bradenton / sarasota area.

aCquisition PhaseQ: What were the terms of the sale? A: Cash, closing fast. Got them down from list price of $295, down to $264k. Then got it sold for $369,900 in under 70 days. But it was undervalued at that price even.Q: How did this deal compare to other deals you’ve done? A: We typically buy on the courthouse steps so having to wait 30 days to close on the purchase was a bit different! But we could get our contractors inside the home ahead

of time so it certainly helped in getting the property turned quickly & efficiently.

Rehab/MaintenanCeQ: Was the property rehabbed or was it a light cosmetic fixer? a: it was a cosmetic fixer upper, but there was an upstairs loft that converted eas-ily with one wall built, into a 4th bed-room. probably increasing the value by $10k-$15k with that addition alone. the rest was dolling up the bathrooms and kitchen with granite and travertine, and the whole house with some phenomenal dark hardwoods floors!Q: How does this rehab compare versus the properties in the past? A: Of all the homes we have completed in Florida this was the easiest. Extensive cos-metic makeover would describe it best…..approx $25,000 of capital invested in the remodel.

managemenTQ: How long was the property held? What tips do you have for managing an asset? A: Just 68 days prior to contract accep-tance, then 25 days to close. Work with people you trust – simple as that. Have fun – laugh and learn from mistakes, and

Continued on pg. 86


By Lori Peebles

The SBD Housing Solutions Team

By Robb Magley

Steve Bighaus has been in the mortgage industry long enough

to see a lot that looks familiar about today’s market.

“I tell people, as far as qualifying, we’re back to lending as it was 20 years ago,” said Bighaus, senior loan officer for securitynational Mortgage Company. “I mean obviously we have a few tools we didn’t have back then -- credit reports are instantaneous, we’ve got the automated underwriting system, and so on. But as far as documentation type, we’re back to that full-doc loan.”

After July’s bump in interest rates, things are settling back into a more comfortable area that Bighaus says a lot of his investors still find attractive. “i still see a lot of people who want to get into investment properties obtaining financing, because it’s a great time right now to do it,” said Bighaus. “Terms are still great, you know -- 30-year money, getting high 4’s and low 5’s, that’s still pretty cheap money when you’re looking at investment properties.”

As more people enter the market, Bighaus said he’s seeing investors follow the lenders’ lead as far as trending toward more traditional investment models -- 20-25% down payments, for example, and buy-and-hold investments outnumbering fix-and-flip plans.

“I’ve only seen a handful of people in the last couple of years who have bought their properties and turned around and sold them right away,” said Bighaus. “Everything I see with my clients right now is portfolio building, because they’re all thinking about retirement.”

One of the results of that is the increased popularity among investors of 15-year mortgages, especially for loan amounts associated with smaller properties; Bighaus said savvy borrowers are looking at the small difference in payments and seeing big advantages to

shorter terms. “Where I really see it is in those loan amounts below

$50,000,” said Bighaus. “When you look at the difference between 30-year and 15-year terms on a loan of that size, for $50 or $100 difference in the payment every month, you’ve got a better rate, you’ve got more money being applied to principal every month, and you’ve cut your term in half. They’re thinking long term; if they can get it paid off in 15 years, then they’re that much farther ahead of the game.”

And the game is growing; Bighaus’ company continues to expand its footprint, operating today in a dozen states with more being added by the end of this year and still more planned for 2014. That can mean a lot of traveling, but Bighaus sees it as part of what differentiates his service from the competition. “Wherever investors are buying property, that’s where we’re focusing our business,” he said. “I like to visit the markets that I loan in, because I like to actually see the inventory and meet the people.” Bighaus is seeing a lot of his customers come back with

Mortgage Industry Goes Back To Basics–But With A Few New Tricks

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Continued on pg. 85


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Steve Bighaus has over 24 years experience in the mortgage industry. He maintains a focus on servicing the real-estate investor by offering aggressive financing options and resources for buyers interested in purchasing or refinancing their investment property. By concentrating on investment properties and the financing that comes with them, Steve is recognized nationally as an industry expert. The knowledge that he has enables him to find financing for people even when they have had difficulty elsewhere.

This is not a commitment to make a loan. Loans are subject to borrower qualifications, including income, property evaluation, sufficient equity in the home to meet Loan-to-Value requirements, and final credit approval. Approvals are subject to underwriting guidelines, interest rates, and program guidelines and are subject to change without notice based on applicant’s eligibility and market conditions. Refinancing an existing loan may result in total finance charges being higher over the life of a loan. Reduction in payments may reflect a longer loan term. Terms of any loan may be subject to payment of points and fees by the applicant. Security National Mortgage Co. is an Equal Opportunity Lender.

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Real estate, like any investment, can attract lots of scammers. How do you really know who you’re dealing with? You see ads everywhere for “turn-key” rental properties, but what does this really

mean, and how do you know who to trust? The owners of the Bay Area Equity Group, a turn-key property provider located in Campbell, California, were recently arrested on suspicion of fraud. I saw these guys at a real estate expo I attended last year and they seemed like nice enough people. What happened?

Real Wealth network has over 14,000 members now, so it’s pretty easy for us to get information. It turns out that one of our members purchased property through the Bay Area Equity Group. I asked him about it and here’s what he told me he thinks happened:

In the Beginning...

- They started out with good intentions

- They made guarantees of 15% returns on rental properties in detroit, Mi

- They offered to cover repair costs in many cases

due

dilig

ence

- They wanted to offer the best deal in town

Testimonials on their website raved about what a great deal it was. “No worrying about property management! No vacancies! No repairs!” Who wouldn’t want that? In reality, that type of situation can exist, but usually only in a triple net lease situation where the tenant agrees to pay all expenses and repairs. It cannot work in a situation where the seller takes on such enormous responsibility for thousands of clients

Here’s what our member thinks happened next: Half-way in:

- Operating costs ended up being higher than ex-pected

- They started to get behind on making owner distributions

- They realized they couldn’t meet the guarantees

- They didn’t want to let their investors down

How Ponzi Schemes Begin...

Often times operators need to rely on new money to feed the old promises. In this case, our member suspects this is what happened:

- Allegedly the owners started to buy distressed property, perform a minimal rehab, and then resell far above market prices

- proceeds from the sales allegedly went to pay for the for-mer guarantees

- It still wasn’t enough

- desperation kicked in. allegedly they started to sell the same property twice to different people, but only record one sale.

How to Vet Out Turn-Key PrOPerTy PrOViders (and Avoid Getting Scammed)

Kathy Fettke gives insight on a recent fraud investigation

Continued on pg. 37


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q: stephan, you created the website Listedby.com to meet the needs that you personally had experienced and ob-served in the online sector as a real estate investor. Can you give us a brief rundown of what Listedby.com is and how it helps investors meet their needs?

a: thanks Roger, i am excited and thankful to discuss this here on Realty411. as many who follow listedBy know, i created the site after liquidating several real estate assets online through sites such as eBay and others. At the time it became clear to me after searching literally for years that there was no website out there that allowed me to have the marketplace functionality I needed to properly market my listings, and do it in a setting that promoted trust and openness.

With that in mind we went live with listedBy.com to harness the marketplace functionality of a site such as eBay, but tailor it to real estate, and we added the key piece of the social net-work which we modeled after linkedin to give the buyers the ability to not only research the property that they were buying, but also research the person they are buying it from. This cre-ates more direct communication between the parties and since we never play middleman as our competition does, we create a setting where transactions are much more likely to take place. This functionality allows an investor to not only research real estate online, but actually make a BuYing action through the site and be in diRect contact with a person that can actu-ally accept that action all online and all at no cost.

q. that seems comprehensive. so it sounds like the key aspect of the site is transparency?

A: Yes you could say that. It is really all about cutting out the

middle man and allowing the buyer to be in direct contact with either the property owner, or the actual list agent. Many websites try to either limit the communication between the parties so they don’t get cut out, or they route traffic to their own buyers’ agents so the buyer ends up dealing with an agent that knows nothing about them, and nothing about the property itself. that can be beneficial to first time buyers who need their hand held a bit more, but to an investor it sim-ply slows everything down and wastes time. listedBy.com dramatically speeds up the process for the buyer and creates targeted exceptional exposure for the owner/agent.

q: Well that sounds great but i’m assuming that brokers and agents are not too happy about being cut out of the loop.

A: Oh No I’m happy you asked about that because that is actually one of the biggest misconceptions that people have about the site when they hear about the model. While it is true that of course an owner could use our site directly with a buyer, the reality of it is that the majority of transactions happening on our site take place with agents, and we have actually found that believe it or not the agent benefits from our site more than anyone else.

By removing the middle man and routing the diRect buyer traffic straight to the list agent, it gives the listing agent the opportunity to double-end the transaction and effectively put twice as much revenue in their pocket. In addition to that we have actually heard from several agents that by building out their social network profile on the site with photos, bio, and client recommendations, they have actually gotten new

The real estate market continues its aggressive ascend back from the ash-es of 2008 and is showing no signs or desire to slow down any time soon. With interest rates at all time lows, the landscape for investors seems just right even for the less aggressive types. ListedBy founder and chief exec-utive officer, and real estate investment veteran Stephan Piscano has been one of the most successful – and daring – investors to take advantage of the recent market drop. While he spends time building online auction site ListedBy.com, his investor acumen continues to spot opportunities along the way. If you heard or read Stephan’s predictions for the real estate market a year ago, and you followed his advice, you would know he was spot on. Today we’re happy to join Stephan to get insight into some of his investing strategies and plans for the future, and how real estate investors and real estate professionals can benefit from using ListedBy.com.

>Realty411Guide.com PAGE 27 • 2014 reWEALTHmag.com

buy, no commission, no percentage, no membership fee - notHing. listedBy really is free. Our main revenue model currently is from corporate advertisers, and we have been fortunate to have 3 separate fortune 500 companies enter long term advertising partnerships with us since we went live. When we de-signed the site model I looked at all the most successful sites such as Facebook, Google and others and we realized that these sites really don’t charge their userbase anything. We want to give our

users something that they want and need, and give them a reason to come to the site everyday which creates targeted traffic that is extremely valuable for our advertisers putting their brand in front of consumers that they knoW need the service, at the moment that they need it the most.

q: so what type of advertising opportu-nities are available on Listedby.com?

A: We have several ways that we can drive traffic to our advertis-ing partners. From our massive reach on social media with our linkedin groups, to our more than 200,000 opt-in users. We find that all of our top advertisers extend their

campaigns and dramatically lower their cost per lead working with us. I always say that when we went live with the site and tried to figure out how to drive traffic ourselves, i made all the mistakes already with my own money so you don’t have to. We know as a group that we have developed what we believe to be the most effective and powerful mar-keting platform in the real estate sector, and we are thankful that excelling in this way allows us to help drive profits for our advertisers, and more importantly keep the website free to our loyal and active users.

a: Yes actually we added Mls syndi-cation in October 2012 so currently you can search about 600,000 Mls listings in a separate section of the site. We also recently partnered with Foreclosure.com to feed nearly two million foreclosure listings to the site. This combination gives our users the opportunity to search auction listings, Mls listings, and foreclosure listings all in one spot. If that was not enough, we also have a service providers directory where users can search property managers, contractors, escrow compa-

nies and more all on the site. I would get sleepy thinking about it if it wasn’t so darn exciting! Basically we are like 5 websites in one, and we are designed to give the in-vestor, the agent and the real estate service provider everything that they need all in one spot! So I’m hearing a lot of use of the word “FRee”. a lot of users may be wondering what is the catch and how listedBy generates its revenue. Ha! Yes we get that a lot. In fact, recently we have been debating if we should start charging a small fee because people simply don’t believe that it ReallY is FRee. But right now there is no fee to list, no fee to

business and new clients from being on the site! A lot of times a user might come to the site looking to buy, but they don’t see a property that particular day they like, but if perhaps they see an agent profile that catches their eye and excitement now that agent has a new and hot lead directly to their site! Given that we designed the social network to drive traffic back to the agent’s own site, it becomes an exceptional benefit in itself.

q: so in essence, in ad-dition to buying and sell-ing, an agent can use the social networking part of the site to grow their brand?

A: Yes, we built out the functionality with every-thing that a real estate professional needs to connect with investors and partners from around the world, and it is alWaYs FRee. agents can see stats on who came to their profile page and who viewed their listings. It is some unreal technology that can put Real casH in their pocket.

q: Do users on Listedby have other listing options or just auction?

A: Good question, the site is set up to allow users to list as a live bidding re-serve, or no reserve auctions. However, most of our listings are actually what we call an “Own-It-Now” Best Offer listing. this is where the listing is set at a fixed “own-it-now” price but users can actually submit offers through the site which can be countered, accepted or rejected all through the site. It is actually that rapidly paced direct offer submission functionality that really seems to excite our users the most.

q: so are there any other features be-sides the marketplace and the social network?

“By removing the middle man and routing the DIRECT buyer traffic straight to the list agent, it gives the listing agent the opportunity to double-end the trans-action and effectively put twice as much revenue in their pocket.”


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q: You actually were on the cover of Realty 411’s alternate cover, Real estate Wealth, when the site went live back in 2012. how has the site grown since then and what are you looking forward to in the coming year?

A: Yes it actually is a bit sentimental to me being in this issue because the very first piece of media/advertising we did when we went live was with linda’s other magazine, Real estate Wealth. Since then while we have had some ups and downs I am so thankful to say we have grown at one of the fastest paces in the real estate sector, had literally thou-sands of transactions take place as a re-sult of the site, and I am really thankful to have gotten to meet some of my heros and icons in real estate and tech. Also I am really thankful to great members that have joined the team in the last year and provided such amazing talent and have been such a huge part of our success. In the coming year I am excited about

hot market has created a consistent rise in the market as we had

projected. I think the market should continue to rise the next 2-3 years, how-

ever I do believe that at some point when

interest rates start to go up that we could see another

small crash in the market. To me it is simply a race between rapid inflation and the interest rates, to see which of the two catalysts stands to impact the market the hardest. You could see the prices continue to rise not because homes are worth more but because the dollar is worth less. That would mean the more leverage that you buy with, the better you can capitalize by paying off your loan balance with cheap dollars in the long term. Either way, whatever you do you better do it on listedBy.com, and we hope to see you there soon!

where we are going be-cause i feel like the first year we built our brand, built our base, and learned what we are and how to execute. I feel that we are now ready to put it all in place. In 2014 we are going live with the 2.0 main version of the site, which is going to have some simply unReal features that the world has never seen before. This will help us as we also transition more to focusing on having a major presence in the auction and the real estate sector and focusing on high level transactions and allowing users to truly buy real estate in a better and more effective set up.

q: any other thoughts you’d like to share with a fellow property investor?

A: I think that this is an exciting time to be a real estate investor, and perhaps even more so to be an agent. The lack of inven-tory, combined with low interest rates and the basic sense that this is an exceptional

long after everyone else has taken off for the weekend, dr. Michael c. Grayson enthusiastically discusses the ins and outs of credit from his empty new York office. dr. grayson’s finance and credit service, the 990 Club, was inspired by a rather lofty goal; to help his clients achieve

the perfect 990 credit score. 990? He knows it may surprise you to learn that 990 is

Give Him Some CreditONE MAN’S QUEST FOR PERFECTION.

now the perfect credit score (not 850), and that’s what he wants; he wants to get you thinking differently about credit. The ambitious CEO of Grayson Financial Services and The 990 Club believes that a credit score of 990 is a goal well worth setting (and achiev-ing). dr. grayson is a man on a mission and his mission is to empower Amer-icans to acquire financial literacy and excellent credit. In this economy, his message of hope is both a rarity and a beacon of light. “do you know what Fico stands for?” dr. grayson asks. that most peo-ple can’t answer this question, he says, is indicative of a problem. dr. grayson believes that as a country, we need to acquire a richer understanding of how the current credit scoring system works and what we can do to improve or perfect our scores. He is eager to point out that in the year 2000, a new credit regime quietly took over and rewrote the age-old model….too quietly, he im-plies. In previous years, he begins, “As long as you paid your bills on time, you could expect to have good credit...but in 2000, that changed.”

Americans, and their credit scores, now fall under the FICO-based system; FICO, or the Fair Isaac

Corporation, scores are calculated based upon the length of credit history, amount of money owed, types of credit and newly opened credit while the payment history is a mere 35% of the score. What this means, dr. grayson concludes, is that a millionaire many times over who always pays her bills


companies,” he says, “is that they only address the negative items on a consumer’s payment history”. As payment history accounts for a just portion of the total score, the switch to the more comprehensive FICO system in 2000 actually made pay-ment-history focused credit repair somewhat obsolete and the result, Grayson says, is that his competitors’ take far longer to

do far less.

Credit repair companies today must address all aspects of credit

scores, dr. grayson puts forth, and GFS does just that. Most credit repair companies are equipped with dispute form letters; GFS is armed with the “Grayson Formula” (the result of dr. grayson’s reverse engineering of FICO algo-rithms). Rapid Restructuring is Grayson’s secret ingredient; the Formula, he says with con-fidence, can give anyone good

credit in approximately 30-45 days using his strategic credit restoration and development approach. Anyone? “Anyone,” Grayson reiterates; further, his formula can take good credit scores and make them great. Great credit scores can become perfect (or close to) and Grayson is proud of his success, “The 990 Club has more members whose credit scores are in the 900’s range than any other service club.”

on time may end up with a less than desirable score. He has seen how credit scores can make or break a real estate deal. He recounts a cau-tionary tale of how he once worked with a real estate developer and millionaire whose fund-ing for a project got held up due to her score. The developer, who always paid her bills on time, had assumed her credit was excellent. Her Fico score, which landed somewhere in the 500’s, was a rude awakening. If a multi-millionaire isn’t credit-wor-thy, then who is? according to dr. grayson, everyone can be. The 990 Club and GFS were founded as a response to the financing problems dr. grayson, while working as a financial advisor, saw investors encounter as a result of lackluster credit. The teams at GFS and The 990 Club function like something of a credit and financing think tank; through offering intellectual capital to those seeking capital and credit, dr. grayson’s company provides an innovative, and popular, service in a downturned economy. Grayson offers unique FICO-compliant strategies that elevate investors, home buyers, corporations, small businesses and nonprofits to the credit level at which they want to be. dr. grayson has cracked FICO’s algo-rithms and, he says, he has a formula that gets his clients results. does his formula work? For dr. grayson, the proof is in the pudding. One of his clients was able to achieve the highest cred-it score in the world, a perfect 990. He is eager to spread the message that long-term financial growth and excellent credit go hand in hand. Simply stated; dr. grayson wants to change the world, one credit score at a time. though many companies offer credit repair services, dr. grayson isn’t flustered by the competition. the one-size-fits-all approach that most credit repair companies use doesn’t really repair anything: “The problem with the other leading Dr. Grayson is a Man on a Mission...>


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dr. grayson wants to bring his message of financial literacy and good credit beyond his work with investors and individuals. He believes good credit is the key to obtaining loans, closing contracts, obtaining grants and even getting a job these days; GFS is commit-ted to community outreach and empowering the disenfranchised. dr. Grayson regularly works with government organizations, politi-cians, churches and nonprofits to discuss opportunities for financing, credit and financial growth; in 2012, grayson presented before new York Governor Cuomo’s forum on small business. Currently, he is undergoing a series of meetings with New York City’s high school principals to develop a pilot program: The 700 Club. Grayson’s goal for the project is to give every graduating senior the gift of good credit (a 700 score) and the skills to maintain it; a large task, no doubt, but one in which dr. grayson believes fully. For individuals looking to improve their credit scores, dr. Grayson advises they learn what FICO stands for and what, exactly, is scored. Though a perfect credit score may seem impossible for most of us to achieve in the current economic climate, he disagrees. Where we see 500’s and 600’s, this determined CEO sees 800’s and 900’s. is he a magician? no; dr. Michael grayson is a scientist who believes in the transformational power of great credit.


Dr. Grayson photographed by Mike Morgan

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group, llc (acg), based in Cary, NC, specializes in purchasing distressed mobile home communities at distressed sales prices, rehabbing the properties over 9-15 months and then either obtaining a refinance from a financial institution or flipping the property for significant gain. We have done 16 full cycle deals (buy, sell, re-hab) for sales proceeds exceeding $65 million over the last 9 years. We also currently own over 3,000 mobile home spaces amongst 12 parks throughout the southeast and Midwestern u.s. for cash flow purposes.

We have just recently finished a 12-month rehab project amongst two parks in the northern Cincinnati market that we run as one combined park (they are 10 minutes apart. We use one manager to cover both parks). We purchased the deal on October 26th of

2012. Both parks were Reo (bank owned) parks that we bought via a broker. This was an off-market deal that was not listed on any public websites. In my business, knowing the brokers and establishing a track record with them is very important.

We like the greater cincinnati – dayton market because of its large population (over 3 million combined) and strong base of employment. The multi-family business, whether apartments or mobile home parks, is all about having strong employment near the property. lot rents are solid in this market as well , ranging from $325 - $375.

We purchased the two parks for $1,150,00 all cash. One park had 306 spaces with 55 resident-occupied homes and 120 empty homes. The other park had 84 spaces with 34 resident-occupied homes and 3 empty homes. Both parks had been in steady decline for 5 years. In fact, we had to tear down 101 homes at the large property because they were in such

bad shape (a goal in any purchase is to save as many homes as possible).

the first move me made was to “zone-down” the properties to create immediate higher occupancy. We zoned the larger park down to 132 spaces by creating one lot from two spaces. We did the same with the smaller park going form 84 spaces to 60. Existing residents loved the larger lots, but our goal was to get it pre-pared for financing, which means we need a minimum of 65% physical occupancy (actual homes on lots) at both parks. The “zoning-down” process took us approx-imately 4 months to accomplish with a total cost less than $20,000. less density is almost always well received by local municipalities.

Many investors ask me why I would “zone-down” a park instead of simply filling it up with a repo home. although we added 5 repo homes to each park, this process is time consuming an expensive. A typical repo home will cost you $15,000 - $20,000 to purchase, move, set-up, and rehab. “Zoning-down” parks is a much cheaper way to get occupancy up imme-diately.

Once we zoned the park down, we exe-cuted our “rehab playbook” to perfection with the following steps:

1. Repaved the roads – cost $79,0002. trimmed many trees – cost $21,0003. Rehabbed 22 existing homes and sold them to residents – net cost $88,500 4. added 5 repo homes at each park – cost $180,500

The additional cost in this project was the tear-down of 101 homes, which cost $111,625. A little bonus at the larger park is that 8 owners of nice Rv’s are leasing lots form us in the back of the park.

Total rehab costs for this deal were right under $500,000. I was fortunate to use a bank line of credit for half of the rehab. Our total cost into the two parks is

The New Main$treet Millionaires

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Mike has the unique ability to provide Americans with a realistic, no B.S. view of the financial world today – one that comes from his years of street-wise investment success in three different businesses – financial planning, mid-sized apartment complexes, and mobile home communities that have made him a true Main $treet Millionaire.

He has bought, rehabbed, and sold over $50 million worth of commercial multi-family (affordable apartment complexes and mobile home parks) involving 15 projects over the last ten years. He was a leader in the financial planning business in the 1990’s and early 2000’s as he grew a financial planning broker-dealer from $1.2 million in gross revenues to $40 million in six years and then sold it to a large national insurance company; he also managed over $100 million of client money in his own financial planning practice before becoming completely disillusioned with Wall Street money machine. He is a 1990 graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School.

Mike’s basic investing premise has brought him success over the last decade and he foresees even more opportunities over the next 10 years. Unconventional Wealth gives readers insight into the skillz they need to become Main $treet Millionaires.

UNCONVENTIONAL WEALTH:The New Main $treet MillionairesIn this book, Mike Conlon will show you an unconventional path to prosperity in this very difficult economy by providing quality, ethical, and affordable services to America’s largest and fastest growing consumer group. In order to prosper on this path, you don’t need a college degree, only the willingness to work hard and learn.

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Invest in MobIle HoMes Investor & author mIke conlon teaches how to

>Realty411Guide.com PAGE 34 • 2014 reWEALTHmag.com

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Why Should You Invest In A Mobile Home Community?

Log on to any websites below to get more information

on investing in Mobile Home Communities and to

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Unconventional WealthCreating the New

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AFFORDABLE COMMUNITIES GROUP

3 Thedemandforaffordablehousingisskyrocketing

3 Verylittle,ifany,affordablehousinghasbeenbuiltintheU.S.sincethemid-1990’s

3 Muchhighercashflowsthanapartmentcom-plexesastheyarelessmaintenanceintensive,havemuchlessresidentturnover,andmuchlowerongoingcapitalexpenses

3 Higherbarrierstoentryasthecoststobuildanewparkarehighandavailablelandnearlargermetroareasisscarceandexpensive

3 Mucheasiertomanagewhenthemajorityofresidentsarejust“leasingthedirt”

Why affordable communities group?3 10+yearsexperienceinbuying,rehabbingand

sellingover3,000units3 Havecompleted15fullcycledeals(buy,rehab,

sell)resultinginover$50millionproceeds3 Expertsinthepropertymanagementbusiness

asweself-manageallourproperties-very“hands-on”

3 Keepatightgeographicfocus-diversified,butnottoospreadout

3 Weputourowncapitalintoeverydeal

Mike Conlon, President/CEOMIkeConlon,akaMainStreetMillionaire,hastheuniqueabil-itytoprovidearealistic,nob.s.viewoftheinvestmentworldtodayasheishighlyeducatedbutalsohas15years+ofstreet-wiseinvestmentsuccessthathasmadehimamulti-millionaire.Miketailorshisbusinessstrategyaroundprovidingoutstandingcustomerserviceandquality,affordableproductstothefastestgrowingconsumersegmentintheU.S.,totheworkingpoor.

mainstreetmillionaire.com

affordablecommunitiesgroup.com

carolinaturnkeyproperties.com

$1,650,000. We now have 126 residents combined from both parks (up from 89 a year ago when we took over). We will add 6-10 more repo’s in the Spring to get to 70% occupan-cy. We just had the parks appraised and the valuation was $3,225,500. We will get all of our original capital and rehab funds back upon a refinance this spring. More important, the parks have been positive cash flow from day one (i can’t stress the fact enough that you never buy a negative cash flow property) and the monthly net cash flow (after all expenses and mortgage payments) now exceeds $15,000/month. You can see a positive article about our project written by the local newspaper on our website, just go to: www.acgmhc.com

Mike Conlon is the founder and majority owner of Affordable Communities Group, LLC based in Cary, NC. He is also the author of Unconventional Wealth: The New Mainstreet Millionaires that is available through Amazon.


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Our member told me, “Earlier this year, I had spoken with the guy current-ly behind bars and explained how reneging on commitments (guar-antees, payments) made during the property purchase would undermine confidence in the company. He believed, probably rightly so, that if the company didn’t make such across the board adjustments, the whole company would go under. According to the lawsuit, it was his partner who relied on the above more desperate title fraud approaches to raise cash and keep the company going.” Whatever the reason, no one wants to get stuck in a situation like this, and they don’t have to. There are so many ways to protect yourself when buying real estate. I asked our member what advice he’d give. Here’s what he said:

10 Ways to Protect Yourself

1. do not invest all your capital or

entire retirement in one geo-graphic area, especially a

distressed location.

2. It’s best to avoid highly distressed regions

if you are a first-time investor.

3. use a reputable title company or attorney to make sure the property is properly recorded at purchase.

4. Always purchase title insurance to ensure clear title.

5. Be leery of turnkey deals that isolate the owner too much from rental property operations and financials.

6. prior to purchase, insist on hiring your own property inspector.

7. determine how the appraiser was selected. I suspect that Bay Area Equity group was trying to influence the apprais-al process.

8. visit the property (or at least visit the area initially so you understand what

Vet Out Turn-Key Property Providers, pg. 24

you’re buying.

9. look up public records so you know who currently owns it, how much it sold for before and if it has iRs tax liens or other liens.

10. Ask for a scope of work done prior to purchase, and verify it with an inde-pendent inspector.

Real Wealth network has been vetting out property sellers since 2003. These are just a few of the items on our check-list. If you’d like to receive the full due diligence checklist or receive a list of companies that passed our scrutiny, simply visit www.RealWealthnetwork.com or call 888.RWnetwork

About the Author: Kathy Fettke is the CEO and Co-Founder of Real Wealth Network. She specializes in helping people build multi-million dollar real estate portfolios through creative finance and planning. Kathy is also host of The Real Wealth Show and is a frequent guest on CNBC, FOX Business News, CNN and CBS MarketWatch.

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tHe senseI sPeaksOn What, Where & How To Invest In 2014

Sensei Gilliland, of the extremely successful 12 Rounds real estate investors club, and Black Belt investors just gave Realty 411 the scoop on Remote Rehabssm, and where to find big spreads like it was

2010 again…the u.s. housing market may be even hotter than the club

house fireplace at this time of year, but many new and veteran real estate investors alike are finding themselves battling heavy competition, rapidly rising prices and the logistical challenges of out of area investing.

sensei gilliland’s simple “Find it. Fix it. profit.” Mantra hasn’t just helped him come through some of the toughest years the u.s. housing market has ever experienced unscathed. it has evolved into the formidable weapon many rapidly growing investors, portfolios and investment businesses are crediting with using to get the edge – Black Belt Investors.

In the past four years Black Belt Investors has been respon-sible for an incredible number of transactions. A big part of this certainly has to do with the focus on investing in the individual success of other investors. Rather than simply trying to pitch investors or consumers on a product, or overpriced inventory which needs to be shed, Black Belt Investors offers a full suite of assistance from education to investment opportunities to coaching and hard money lending in order to help all investors grow from the ground up to achieving their personal goals.

Sensei explains this unique approach has helped many with their own breakthroughs, and just making what they were already doing better. This variety of strategies has helped others to reduce risk and hone in on what they really want more of. To date Sensei Gilliland’s students have used these strategies to generate cash via flipping houses, lease options and owner financing.

Still, when asked which was his favorite real estate in-vestment strategy for 2014, Sensei says he is still bullish on “Remote Rehabssm”.

Remote Rehabssm enable global investors to benefit from ac-cessing discounted properties, adding value and either flipping them for sizable, fast profits or holding them for ongoing cash flow and passive wealth building.

Satisfying the demand for strong returns and below aver-age acquisition costs, with the perk of having multiple exit strategies to choose from, Remote Rehabssm enable investors to engage in the most profitable markets, at the right times and leverage expert teams to maximize their returns.

Obviously the biggest question most have today is where to engage in remote rehabbing?

Black Belt Investors continues to see primary markets such as las vegas, phoenix and southern california as the territory of wealth builders with an extremely long outlook, or who are okay with modest yields in exchange for enhanced safe-ty. These markets continue to attract plenty of domestic and foreign interest, yet to a certain extent have suffered due to this popularity. Rental property investments in these areas can be great for long term hold and wealth preservation, but lack the advantage of rapid price appreciation today.

Secondary is the new primary according to real estate experts and analysts across all industry sectors. Sensei Gilliland points

to secondary markets such as kansas city, Mo and indianapo-lis, IN as offering a superior solution for those seeking a blend of appreciation and cash flow.

However, for those looking for rapid wealth building sensei’s top pick for Q1 2014 is cleveland, oH.

as he puts it “cleveland, oH is now like southern california in 2010”,”It’s ripe with pent up equity, offering tremendous benefit to cash flow and value seeking investors”. put simply Sensei sums up the current opportunities as being able to “pick up a beautiful home, in a good suburban neighborhood, with a strong cap rate”, but warns “the window of opportunity is short”.

Right now sensei paints a good example of this opportunity as being able to scoop up one of these homes which previous sold for around $100k, for just $45k. He also points out some of the benefits of this market right now include:

1. getting ahead of hedge funds (and profiting from the rise they will provide later)

2. Affordable homes3. Cleveland is pumping millions into revitalization4. A city committed to avoiding developing a reputation

like detroit, and determined to maintain and lift local property values

5. A county invested in the success and protection of real estate investors through ‘point of sale’ check, home inspection reports, monitoring contractors and ensuring investors are not overcharged on rehabs

This is backed up even further in recent news headlines:• Q3 2013 figures from ohio banks show $2B in Reos and $35B in non-performing residential loans on their books• on oct. 17th, 2013 it was revealed starwood Hotels & Resorts le Meridien brand was joining the cleveland rebirth with a new luxury hotel• Nov. 4th, 2013, Crain’s declared “Cleveland is in the vanguard of urban revitalization strategies”• Forbes says more than $3.5B is currently being invested in redeveloping the Cleveland area

Most real estate investors are probably familiar with the con-cept of turnkey and remote investing. So what really separates Black Belt investors from the rest and has fueled the firm’s success?

Sensei says the real differentiating factor in working with BBi is that unlike other investment firms and the endless line up of gurus out there which all appear to be punting their own inventory, much of which is being sold at, or even above market rates is “built in value, and being able to make acquisitions at wholesale rates”.

Rather than picking from an old menu of stale listings which have been turned down by other investors, those investing through the Remote Rehabssm program are helped to find hot and fresh opportunities which meet their individual criteria and investment objectives.

Find out more about Sensei Gilliland, Remote RehabsSM, and request your free copy of Black Belt Investors’ Cash and Wealth Report online at www.BlackBeltInvestors.com.


Joint ventures are common in the real estate industry. Many people in the industry team up to do deals or for business ventures, usually they reside near the other, but these two investors are so experienced they’re able to make it work while living in opposite sides of the nation. Anthony Patrick and Duncan

Wierman are so experienced in their craft that distance in not an issue for them. Each bring a different skill set to the table and combine their talents in order to lead others into the prof-itable yet often risky world of real estate investing. I recently had the opportunity to meet up with Duncan and Anthony and learn first-hand about their latest venture! Learn how this duo land deals in one of the most competitive markets in the world: Southern California.

Linda: Well, fellas, it’s such a pleasure to catch up with you. Please tell us about your Flipping Houses Bus Tours. Anthony: We demonstrate our methods and reasons why we do things the way we do so you can be assured of success. We reveal everything! You will actually participate in the process and we will be by your side to correct you as you go. (you will not make mistakes with us advising you) We take pride in teaching you how to succeed. We are confident that when you leave us at the end of the workshop that you can duplicate what we taught you to do, so You can create Financial success in your life.

duncan: the workshop is an exclusive opportunity for those in-vestors who are tired of reading the books, listening to the same cd’s over and over and who are ready to finally take action and learn “hands on” from people who do this every day.

Q: Why did both of you decide to partner up for the Flipping Houses Bus Tours and what are your strengths that you bring to the table?anthony: Between the both of us, duncan and i have over 25 years of experience in the art of investing. From marketing, deal evaluation, rehabbing and most of all getting the most out of our students investment.

duncan: Yes, and we both have mentored our students one on one in all aspects of real estate. Because of our success in this business, we have decided to join forces to teach people hands on instead of theory.

Q: Where are some of the areas you focus on for investing and why did you choose those markets?Anthony: We look for below market homes on the Mls because if we don’t, we could miss out on a gem, homes with opportu-nities to create their highest and best use. Most investors aren’t doing this simple search! Also we target for sale by owners (FS-BOs) and out of state owners because when vacancies and repairs

Flipping Houses with Duncan Wierman & Anthony Patrick

A Question & Answer with Linda Pliagas

happen, this type of owner is likely motivated to sell. probate is also our niche. Q: Are the properties your team is visiting foreclosures, short sales or auctions?Anthony: they are Reos, short sales, FsBos, deals on the Mls and also internet leads

Q: Tell us what students can expect to walk away from once they take your training pro-gram?

Duncan: this is a true “Hands on and step-by-step” experience. There is no better way to learn than having us and our power team there to “hold your hand” every step of the way. In our workshop we will be previewing and introducing you to various deals and projects that we have already run the numbers on. We also teach our students how to find lots of “hidden deals” on the web and train them on how to find the most motivated seller leads using internet market-ing methodologies.

Q: Can you take us on a typical day of the tour, how is the event organized?

Anthony: On our tour you can expect to learn how to set up your team, how to find and work with a Realtor. You will discover how to find a deal, how to find comparable proper-ties. We will explain the aRv (after Repair value) and figure out if a property is a fix and flip or a buy and hold. We will talk about wholesaling as an exit strategy for the deals you pass on. the whole class also visits a local Home depot store and we go over materials needed for a typical rehab. It’s a

jam-packed tour because we also visit numerous houses: one under construc-tion, one in the middle of construction, and a finished home in escrow. We also see a couple of deals that we have yet to see ourselves and go over them with our students. We teach them what to look for and whether an offer should be made or not. lastly, we wrap it all up from start to finish and go over how we can get deals accepted.

Q: How much is the tour and what does it cover?Duncan: The investment is very reasonable, we wanted to make this an affordable price point for everyone. It is only $197.00 for a three-day tour. Yes, that includes Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Two full days in the classroom and one action-filled day in the field.

Q: The property trips sound fantas-tic! How often do you have the Flip Buying Tours?

Duncan: We host them only three times a year and we do limit the number of people who can participate because we want to really give personal attention. We always sell out too so be sure to book your spot early. q: Will students be ready to do their own rehabs after taking part in your tour? Anthony: Absolutely! We never hold back in providing all the in-formation and knowledge needed to get started making money in your market. This is a step by step event with a simple road map for each person who wants to learn not just rehabs but everything in real estate.

Q: Do you share your crew and contacts with your students? Anthony: Yes, we want our coaching students to use our power team so they can get a deal done fast. Our track record is phe-nomenal, nearly 80% of students have a deal in their first 60 to 90 days! Duncan: We give our students access to great people, individuals who are the best in their fields, such as Realtors, escrow and title

companies, contrac-tors, electricians, home inspectors, hard money lenders and we even let them work with our mar-keting team.

Linda: Well thanks for your time, An-thony and duncan, continued success with your phenome-nal property tours.


Photographs - Opposite page: The Flipping Houses Bus Tour provides in-depth live education. This page, Anthony Patrick, Duncan and their team rehab seven or more properties a month in Southern California.

from Jason Hartman’s Financial Freedom Report

From corporate CEOs and entrepreneurs to

sports icons and political figures, very wealthy indi-viduals invest for success.

While your investing career may not have quite the scope of those multimillionaires, you can share in some of the investing strategies that they and their financial managers use to keep those mega- bucks coming.

theY invest nationaLLYvery wealthy investors cast a wide

net, putting money into solid invest-ments in places far beyond their local area. They keep an eye on trends in emerging markets, often putting money into lesser known markets and enterprises under the radar of conven-tional investing wisdom. Investors in income property can use this strategy too, by taking Jason Hartman’s advice to diversify, looking beyond local markets for potential good deals. Investing in another city – or anoth-er country – creates a hedge against downturns in any one market.

theY invest in soLiD assetsThe ultra-rich are pretty conservative

when it comes to investing. They sink their money into tangibles like property, precious metals and even art. Stocks and securities make up a surprisingly small part of their portfolios. The take-away for real estate investors: as Jason Hartman says, real estate is a vehicle for building long term wealth – a tangi-ble commodity that will be in demand as long as people need places to live.

theY Don’t sPeCuLatevery wealthy investors stick with

known quantities and stay away from hot new deals promising quick money. Although they have money to risk, they listen to smart financial advisors and keep their wealth in proven assets with a long track record of success, such as property, solid businesses and physical commodities.

For income property investors, the same is true. House flipping and real estate schemes promising fast money don’t deliver for the long term. Creating an income stream that lasts calls for patience and perseverance backed by good financial advice and an investing strategy with clear goals.

theY Get GooD aDviCeRich investors have a plan and they

look for good financial advice to help them implement it. Although they’re in charge of their investing decisions, they

recognize the need for qualified money managers to execute those decisions. That’s good advice for the independent property investor – and one of Jason Hartman’s investing commandments too. You don’t have to be a multimil-lionaire investor to learn about invest-ing and locate the best advice you can afford.

theY invest in theMseLvesWhether they’re the face of a

corporation or a face on a billboard, ultra-wealthy investors invest in them-selves. They recognize that their image and their brand plays a role in their investing success and they put money toward developing and protecting that brand. And you don’t have to have that high a profile to recognize the impor-tance of seeing your investing career as a business, with a story and a personal brand all its own. That means investing in the right tools for managing your enterprise, from courses to computer software. And it also means creating and presenting a professional image when you’re conducting investing business, such as interviewing tenants.

It’ often said that the rich are just like you and me. And while that’s not necessarily true in all ways, even the smallest income property investor can make good use of the investing “se-crets” of the ultra-wealthy.

of the Rich!Investing secrets


House flipping and real estate schemes promising fast money don’t deliver for the long term.

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For many people, the first foray into creating income from real estate comes from renting out a home they already

own. life changes and economic conditions can quickly turn home-owners into landlords. But making that shift successfully requires re-thinking your role and your rela-tionship to the property.

ChanGe YouR insuRanCeIf you decide to rent out a home that once was your primary resi-dence, an important first step is to switch from a standard homeown-er’s policy to rental home insur-ance. This covers the property itself and provides liability protection, but it doesn’t cover possessions, furnishings and the like. That be-comes the responsibility of tenants, who can get renter’s insurance to protect any possessions they bring onto the property.

of the Rich!

Jason Hartman has been involved in several thousand real estate transactions and has owned income properties in 11 states and 17 cities. His company, Platinum Properties Investor Network, Inc. helps people achieve The Ameri-can Dream of financial freedom by purchasing income property in prudent markets nationwide.

Jason’s Complete Solution for Real Estate In-vestors™ is a comprehensive system providing real estate investors with education, research, resources and technology to deal with all areas of their income property investment needs. Contact Jason at www.JasonHartman.com or 714-820-4200.


CLose out utiLitYCoMPanY aCCounts

Although some landlords choose to cov-er certain utilities, that usually happens with a multi-unit property. Before rent-ing out a house, though, it’s important to ensure that you’ve closed out any utility accounts held in your name. Tenants will need to start their own utility ser-vices so that the new landlord isn’t held responsible for missed bills.

PRePaRe to DeaL With tenants

One of the most daunting tasks facing new landlords is actually renting out the property. It may be simple to advertise the house for rent, but then come steps like screening tenants and finalizing the lease agreement. Inexperienced landlords may fail to screen tenants carefully, or leave important clauses out of the lease or rental agreement. Getting the help of a real estate professional or

even a lawyer to create a good rental agreement can help forestall issues down the line.

plan for Tax TimeAs a rental property owner, you’ll be reporting rental income on your taxes. But you’ll also be reporting a variety of deductible expenses. Although tax laws are subject to change, the long list of deductibles begins with your

mortgage interest and includes such expenditures as real estate taxes, costs of advertising the house for rent, travel, accounting and depreciation on the house. Repairs and renovations can also be deducted under certain cir-cumstances. And you can also deduct expenses related to your home office, which brings us to the last point:

ThinK liKe a professionalIf you’ve made the shift from home-owner to landlord, you now have a business, so it’s important to see your income property in that light. Even if you choose to outsource aspects of managing the property to a manage-ment company, you’re still the one in charge. Maintaining a home office, keeping goof records and establiosh-ing a businesslike relationship with tenants builds credibility and estab-lishes authority. Renting out your residence may be a response to unexpected circumstanc-es, or the first step toward an investing career that involves multiple proper-ties, as Jason Hartman recommends. With careful planning, though, learn-ing to think like a landlord can save headaches and open doors to building long term wealth.

Summit Assets Group, a leading provider of turnkey passive income properties for real es-tate investors, hosted a buying property tour in Birmingham,

al on saturday, october 19th. after many successful tours in Atlanta the company has expanded into the Birmingham market because of its strong economy, growth projections, and ability to generate dependable cash-flow for real estate investors.

the bus was filled with local, national and international investors, as well as a film crew from the largest Japanese television network. The company showed off some of the as-sets that make Birmingham a leading investor city in the u.s. in addition to a small sample of property opportunities.

The tour started off Saturday morning when investors had

an opportunity to learn from Summit Assets Group’s CEO and radio host, lori greymont. education was one of the main focuses of the weekend as investors heard about the economic impact of recent developments in Birmingham and how local government and civic organizations bringing in long term job growth. Greymont shared that real estate has historically increased faster than wages and inflation and now is the time to take action while prices are still well below the cost to rebuild.

after the education from lori, investors loaded up the bus and the tour began. the first stop was lunch at a local haunt

called Miss Myra’s BBQ pit for a taste of southern hospital-ity and flavor. With full stomachs, the investors then toured the downtown area, university of alabama at Birmingham, and other key development areas. A local attorney turned tour guide entertained the investors with critical economic facts interlaced with humor. In addition to learning about the different economic growth factors that create the right investment environment in Birmingham, investors were able to walk through properties and see neighborhoods first hand.

The viewed properties were in different states of the rehab pro-cess, and the investors were able to meet and mingle with some of the contractors on-site!

On Sunday, the Summit team and investors took full advan-tage of the entertainment factor with nascaR at the talladega Super Speedway. The race was amazing (even if they didn’t finish the final lap!!)

Watch the video at http://youtu.be/FLYrY3qiqsg.

summit assets group prepares For New Buying Tour

Summit assets group and ceo lori Greymont continue the “Make a difference” mantra. But this mantra is actually a way of life. They make getting to know their clients on a

personal level a pivotal business component and hosting the buying tours is just one way to meet and connect with their valued clients. “It’s all about helping the investors secure a financial future with successful real estate investing- and having an ally to assist in the process. Our combined 65 years of experience bring peace of mind to our investors” - Grey-mont said. Summit is working on the next tour and dates will soon be available. Whether you are a veteran investor, just getting started, or

even thinking about investing in your future, join Summit on their next tour for both the real estate education and the oppor-tunity to buy investment properties that generate dependable passive income. Summit Assets Group invites real estate investors to download their *FRee* market checklist for identifying the best markets for dependable cash flow at http://www.summitassets-group.com/ideal-market or call them at 888-298-0652 to learn more about available turnkey properties.

Take Care,Lori Greymont

Birmingham Bus TourSummit Assets Group Shares an Undiscovered Investor’s Dream

mar

kets Manifest Miracles


Lori Greymont

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By Sam Sadat

You’ll be happy to know that, last I checked, the laws governing miracles have not been repealed. Moreover, manifesting miracles is not exclusive to a lucky few. They’re available to all who

refuse to believe in the concept of “impossible”. After all, couldn’t “impossible” be simply read as “I’m possible?”

Although the mechanics of creating miracles in one’s life remain mysterious, many of us, consciously or unconscious-ly, have already made them happen in our own lives - or at least we know people who have. let’s be clear; we’re not talking about parting the Red sea or bringing the dead back to life. The word miracle simply means any marvel-ous, wonderful, or amazing occurrence.

Being the cause of such an occur-rence is ability innate to all of hu-manity and, though dormant in most of us, this ability can suddenly emerge un-der the right circumstances. No one really knows the precise mechanics of how miracles are manufactured, but I’ve been researching this phenomenon for years and I think I’ve been able to compile some pieces of the puzzle.

Below are just a few principles to experiment with. I hope you will begin to see that you too can make miracles happen in your own life.

Believe that miracles are real and can happen to anyone. After all, whatever you want is already here in the world. Where else would it be? All you need to do is make them appear in your life. Believe it and you’ll see it. It’s not the other way around.

Examine what you believe to be “impossible” and then change your beliefs. This is done by changing your thoughts. For this, self talk is crucial. Talk to yourself in a positive empowering way every day to replace those limit-

In YourLIFE

ing thoughts you were programmed with since childhood.don’t expect a miracle. Be a miracle. this is achieved through

knowing who you are, separate from your reputation, labels and possessions. Who are you really? A clump of matter suspended in time and space or a magnificent source of love, energy and po-tentiality? Find a quiet place, close your eyes and try to perceive your greater self. You’ll soon realize you’re not a human being having a spiritual experience; you’re a spiritual being having a human experience.

You often hear me talk about how we’re all energy. This is not new age chatter but Quantum physics talking. energy in

different frequency or vibration becomes matter in all its varied shapes and forms, us included. Miracles don’t happen when you’re hard and closed up. They happen when you’re soft and receptive. You can do this by getting connected with and reso-nating with the rhythm of life. The more you can harmonize your thoughts, words, and actions the more life responds to you. And this response can sometimes take the form of the miracles you so desperately seek.

Meditate often, walk in nature, and look up toward the skies rather than down toward the ground. That’s one big difference between humans and animals. We can hold our heads high and look at the skies while animals are gazing down. Miracles are up above not down below.Now go out there and be a miracle!

Manifest Miracles


Photos by John DeCindis

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By Robb Magley

In an increasingly crowded real estate investment company market, Hanover equity group’s founders

recognized they needed a way to make their company’s offerings truly stand out from the competition — to differ-entiate themselves in a way that didn’t just bring new clients, but would keep

existing ones coming back again and again. For senior partners Brett t. immel and preston despenas, the key was looking at the element of real estate deals that seemed to cause the most problems for self-directed retirement account investors: getting the necessary non-recourse financing.

“The self-directed retirement account investor would go in and find the property that they wanted to purchase, and go to contract,” said despenas. “When they then went to find their own non-recourse financing, they found out that there wasn’t much available; there are really only a couple of nationwide banks that provide non-recourse financing, and they’re very small institutions.”

With relatively little money to lend, despenas added, those institutions naturally became more selective when evaluating new deals, and many investors’ applications were declined. Seeing the opportunity to bring value to their clients by lever-aging their own existing relationships with private lenders, banks and other institutions, despenas and immel decided to offer their clients a package deal that’s become the cornerstone of their business model — a genuinely “turn-key” real estate investment that comes with all the trappings that traditionally entails, bundled with non-recourse financing that’s already in place.

“When you’re walking into an investment with Hanover Equity Group, the properties have already been rehabbed -- or they’re new construction,” said Immel. “The management team is in place, and there’s a paying tenant in the unit. But you’re also getting financing that’s completely lined up, from day one, with no qualifications for the individual,”

“It’s something no one else in the country offers,” said despenas. “pre-qualified, pre-approved, non-recourse financ-ing available on every single one of our assets.”

and remarkably, according to despenas, that non-recourse financing they offer sits just south of 5% — a market-leading position that’s part of the attractiveness of the package. It’s not magic, just simple due diligence bringing its own reward; because Hanover equity group’s process for vetting properties is so thorough, their lenders feel comfortable enough loaning on the asset at highly competitive rates.

“We’re doing all the necessary front-end diligence,” said despenas. “We’re professional real estate investors ourselves, we do this 14 hours a day, 7 days a week. After a property

passes our acquisition criteria, we take that over to our third-par-ty banks and private lenders; they put those assets through their vetting process, and they come back to us with the pre-approval.”

Eliminating that big hurdle in the buying process is one of several steps Hanover equity group takes to make investors feel more comfortable, according to Immel; there’s a certain amount of fear felt when tinkering with one’s retirement funds, and any-thing that makes the process more familiar helps.

“A lot of investors have become so used to people making decisions for them,” said Immel. “For example with their stocks, bonds or mutual funds, all they’ve had to do is open up an envelope, look at their accounts once a quarter, and see how it’s doing.”

But, he added, they also know they could be doing better if their money was in cash-flowing real estate. “deep down they know that there’s a better opportunity for their investment and their retirement, and they’re sick of people making the wrong decisions for them. When you go into self-direction, the investor is really able to write their own story.”

“We’ve got a lot of people out there looking at fix and flips, or rehabs on property, a lot of them are out there using hard money,” said despenas. “But when you’re paying for hard money, that’s eating into your return. You have to ask, are you better off doing a longer term buy-and-hold with 5% on a non-recourse mortgage, or paying 15-20% interest on hard money to rehab a property, before you even get it rented?”

thanks to its network of lenders, Hanover equity group can follow the deals wherever they go, without being locked into a specific market; it’s a flexibility that immel said lets their clients do better, more often.

Their clientele remain loyal and purchase multiple deals. “When we have investors that come back to us month after month, year after year, re-investing with us and purchasing real estate with us, it’s because they know we’re not just selling them a piece of real estate and washing our hands of them. This is about building a relationship with each and every one of our investors.”

“The price points that we have are very introductory, where your mom and pop, novice investor can get in and really change their future,” said Immel. “Whether you’re working class, a small business owner, a successful doctor or lawyer, or just anyone who knows they can do better than they’re doing with their retire-ment.”

For more information about Hanover Equity Group, visit the website: http://hanoverequitygroup.com/

The Package DealMatching Non-Recourse Financing with Investment Properties Puts Hanover Equity Group On The Map


Preston Despenas

Brett T. Immel

REAL ESTATE INVESTING PROFITS

Click a Mouse...Buy a House!

FINDMotivated SellersNOWwww.FreeVideoFromKent.com

New Webinar Training...You Will Be Amazed At What You Now Have At Your Fingertips!

GO WATCH NOW!Kent Clothier Chris Richter

Discover PROVEN TECHNOLOGY that SYSTEMATICALLY

SEARCHES your area and Finds Motivated Sellers, Vacant Properties & Smokin’ Hot Deals!

By Linda Pliagas

Every profession has tools of the trade, products which help us get ahead in our industry. Thanks to innovative technologies, investors

now also have a fantastic tool to zero in on neglected properties. Find Motivated Sellers is a new product, which can help investors locate vacant homes around the country or right in their own backyard.

Created by entrepreneurial investor chris Richter, who partnered with veteran industry leader kent clothier, the software is helping many sophisticated buyers find their deals. In fact a loyal reader in San Francisco, Jimmy Tu, a master wholesal-er and rehabber, was able to land three vacant property deals in less than three months utilizing the Find Motivated Sell-ers system.

I recently had the pleasure of interview-ing chris and kent so they could explain this exciting new technology and how it can benefit more of our readers.

Linda: Tell us a bit about the Find Mo-tivated Sellers Now system. How did it come about?kent: Find Motivated sellers now is the product of necessity and data insight. In 2008, co–founder and creator chris Rich-ter embarked on a three month research mission to uncover insights in the property data that would act as an early indicator that a property had a high likelihood of being sold at discount. One glaring indi-cator associated with many of the deeply discounted sales, as well as those that sold quickly, was that they were vacant. Linda: What are some of the benefits to using Find Motivated Sellers Now?chris: the benefits are time and money. The platform is designed to allow any user, regardless of experience, to log in and quickly and easily create and distrib-ute marketing to a highly targeted list. It’s quick and easy, with just a few clicks of a button. due to the list being targeted to an audience with a far higher likelihood of turning into a seller, the Roi is increased dramatically. Linda: Tell us about the partnership you formed for this new marketing tool.chris: i reached out to kent clothier in November of last year and demonstrated how i was using this method to find highly motivated sellers, off market. despite being in a market with one of the tightest inventories in the country, I was able to effortlessly locate phenomenal deals. Linda: I like that a mailing campaign can be executed directly from the system, which makes marketing easy to do. Can

you please discuss that further?kent: the system is designed to be drop- dead simple to use, even for folks who are not tech savvy. users can simply log in, click their state, county, or city, then run a search based on their criteria. Investors can zero in on vacant homes, vacant com-mercial, high-equity properties, etc. From there, users can export to excel or simply mail directly from within the system to their list. It is the built in sim-plicity and functionality that really makes it such a powerful tool. Linda: Why are vacant property owners a great audience to zero in on?chris: vacancy is what we call a leading indicator of distress. What the numbers tell us is that although not all vacant properties have distressed owners, most distressed home sales are vacant. What makes it the most profitable among lists for direct mail is the fact that the property is generally vacant before it is an Reo, before it is probate, before it is listed, before you see a lien, etc. The vacancy is typically the first warning sign that some-one may need to sell soon. previously this list wasn’t publicly available. Linda: Why do good homes end up being neglected and abandoned?kent: Homes become vacant for many reasons, not all of these reasons would

make someone want to sell. Some common themes we see in vacant homes where people do want to sell include: pre–probate, family member moved to nursing home, eviction, seller moved out of area, rental vacancy, death with no probate, and even an occasional jail sentence. Linda: What other insight can you add that investors can learn from?kent: don’t be afraid to mail more and do extra marketing, it will make your phone ring. Linda: Does your system have sample letters that can be used? Does it also provide phone numbers?Chris: Yes, the system includes letters for both investors and brokers that have been tested repeatedly and proven to work well. Again, this is a push-button system, we have done all the heavy lifting for you. Once a user has set up their account, they are literally a couple minutes, and a few clicks away, from having proven copy in the mail and out the door. We do not provide phone numbers, we want them to call us. Linda: How can we learn more?chris: Readers can see our demonstra-tion on www.FreevideoFromkent.com Thanks and let us know how it goes.

toolsvaCant properties = Motivated sellers!


P R I VAT E 411

Meet the Leaders of Real Estate Finance

411

Meet the Leaders of Real Estate Finance

© 2013 FirstKey Lending, LLC. All rights reserved.

FirstKey Lending

CONTACT FIRSTKEY LENDING TODAY Call us at 1-855-299-1944 or email [email protected]

America’s premier financing resource for

1- to 4-family rental housing portfolios — provides

loans from $1 million to $100 million. Whether

you own 5 rental properties or 5,000, FirstKey

Lending can provide you with the financing

you want and the service you expect.

www.firstkeylending.com


FirstKey Lending










FirstKey Lending









Since it’s inception Firstkey lending has been spe-cializing in the finance of single family portfolios in the $5 to $100 million range. Several months ago the media was abuzz with news of private equity giant

Cerberus Capital Management lending its billions to owners of 1 to 4 unit rental portfolios. Now, New York-based First-key lending has further expanded this initiative with the un-veiling of its lending express program, designed specifically to accommodate owners of 1 to 4 single family portfolios who are looking for financing in the $1 to $5 million range.

cash is now flowing to an expanded group of investors through Firstkey’s new program, creating new opportunities for smaller rental portfolio investors to tap into.

FiRstKeY’s RanDY ReiFF leaKs the 411 on exPRess LenDinG

Firstkey is known for their $1 to $100 million loans and boasts an impressive executive team of some of the top minds, money managers and mortgage experts in the indus-try. Randy Reiff is the firm’s chief executive officer, whose resume is a lineup of notable positions, including heading up the global commercial Mortgage Business for both J.p. Morgan and Bear Stearns.

in an exclusive interview with Reiff, he broke down the advantages of the new Express program for Realty411 readers…

It’s no secret that it has historically been challenging for real estate investors looking for funding under $10 million. Reiff explains that it was this void and need in the market, as well as a unique advantage in efficiency and infrastructure, which were behind the decision to launch Firstkey’s new small balanced lending program.

specifically the ceo says: “Firstkey’s infrastructure and expertise have enabled us to role out this exciting new prod-uct, which caters to customers borrowing $5 million or less. the Firstkey lending express program offers a streamlined documentation and closing process tailored specifically to this customer base.”

WhY You Want this Loanthe Firstkey lending express product provides swift

funding for deals in the $1 million to $5 million range. Reiff explains it has been “specifically designed for smaller port-

folios of 1 to 4 family rental homes. The company employs a team of individuals who are intricately familiar with the nuances of financing these portfolios effectively.” in other words you are not just dealing with an out-of-touch lender that doesn’t un-derstand the title, documentation and performance history hurdles that can come with acquiring or refinancing a pool of cash flowing proper-ties. Other factors to love about this mortgage program include the po-tential to borrow under an llc or commercial entity with non-recourse loans, very com-petitive rates, up to 30 year amortization, and the speed of getting to the closing table.

Borrowers can take advantage of 5, 7 and 10 year loan terms, across the u.s. with ltvs as high as 75%, to enable portfolio growth and/or continually optimize investor perfor-mance.

according to Reiff, current turn times are “generally around 4 to 6 weeks,” depending on portfolio size, which is pretty impressive in this arena. Given the granularity of a port-folio, third party reports and title work are the biggest lead-time items and are generally tackled immediately, to expedite the approval process.

Reiff welcomes investors to “bring us your portfolio and let us evaluate your options.” For fast loan assistance, real estate investors can either call 855-299-1944 or visit FirstKeyLending.com.

FirstKey Lending express Program Features:loan amounts:$1,000,000 to $5,000,000Rate type: Fixedloan terms: 5 and 10 yearproperty type: 1 to 4Single residential familyloan-to-value: up to 75%Amortization: 20 to 30 yearinterest Rate: competitive pricing

FirstKey Lending Unleashes BiG CapiTal For Smaller Investors

Borrowers can take advantage of 5, 7 and 10 year loan terms, across the U.S. with LTVs as high as 75%, to enable portfolio growth and/or continually optimize investor performance.


FirstKey Lending










FirstKey Lending










By Tim Houghten

Randy Reiff

An Interview with Managing Partners of MOR Financial Services, Inc., Sean Morsi & Ajay Mehra

In the words of the great Bob dylan: the times they are a-changin, for Sean Morsi and Ajay Mehra -- CEO and cFo of MoR Financial, respectively -- the notion of shaking things up has been woven into their company’s

genetic code. It may come as a surprise to hear that an as-set-based lender, known for utilizing cutting-edge marketing and high-tech analytics, assert for a traditional approach in customer service and building lifelong client partnerships.

With an average yield returning 10.5% for their lenders, Morsi and Mehra have compiled more than $70 million in committed capital from their investors, with roughly $35 million in their active in-house servicing portfolio. Built in a relatively short period of time with a focus in Southern Cali-

fornia, where both were raised, the two have also set their sites on penetrating the Florida, Nevada and Arizona markets.

ajay came on board as a partner in MoR Financial in 2009, with both partners coming from established lending backgrounds before re-shifting focus after the market crash. “Since then, we’ve grown into a premier private lender here in southern california, specifically around los angeles county,” notes Morsi.

As the new kids on the block, the business moguls captured a very large percentage of the market in a very short span of time. A large percentage of their competition has been in the private money lending sector for 20 years or more.

Meet the Future of Private Money


By Tim Houghten

as the realm of the hard-luck borrower. Mehra suspects “Maybe 20 years ago, that was the case, but a lot has changed. Banking guidelines being as stringent as they are have really opened things up for private money lending. Where else are people sup-

posed to go to get the access to leverage?”

Morsi adds, “Today’s investors are strong and hungry.” since MoR comes from the customary lending side, the company strives to maintain and deliver on customer service. And deliver they did. MoR Financial has set themselves apart by taking the insight of due diligence and recalibrating it in a way to center on becoming trusted advocates for their borrowers.

“We always try to play the devil’s advocate for their benefit,” said Mehra. “not to kill the deal, but to make sure our affiliates aren’t walking into a black hole.

As the company’s directors, Sean and Ajay look at every deal as though it was their own so they can provide bona fide feedback to their clien-tele.

With repeat borrowers, MoR has rapport in the in-dustry. The company aims to educate everyone from their able borrowers to individuals just breaking in -- and they work with a lot of beginners.”

Mehra added that the industry had always been something of an “intuitive-based” one, which both men felt kept it from growing like it could. “We wanted to deliver structure,” said Mehra. “We wanted to shift the industry from the whimsicality it had.”

The demographic for private money investors today, ac-cording to the execu-tives includes much of the younger mindset than was seen 10 or 15 years ago. The change in development is spawned mainly from disappointed and lack of confidence with the stock market and the desire for more tangible investments.

“Thanks to the stock market crash, several sav-vy financiers have a sour taste in their mouths, yet are still hungry for yield,” said Mehra. “We are seeing people who would otherwise have invest-ment portfolios centered around Wall Street now deviating into real estate.” Today, instead of owning Microsoft as a growth stock, youthful investors would rather invest in assets they can hedge. The emerging generation with access to capital doesn’t have faith in the stock’s paper and would rather place funds into something concrete. At the end of the day, a hard asset like real property is never worth zero. They can hang their hat on that!

Another way the indus-try looks different today is the high-creditworthi-ness of the borrowers. For the most part, the “flip-pers” and other borrowers

MoR Financial scopes have great credit. In the past, hard money lending was often seen

“tips for successful Flips”Listen to Your head. view every house you buy as a business transaction; don’t let your heart get in the way. “You’ll get carried away,” said Mehra. “You’ll get wrapped up in making things the way you would want them if you were going to live in there -- and that’s not necessarily attractive for an end buyer. that’s how you end up overspending.”• haVe a plan. take the time to map out an imple-mentation plan and do your homework on the industry -- in particular, the area where you’re buying. “often our buyers have great ideas, they’ve got a lot of knowl-edge they’ve accumulated from clubs and seminars, but they’ve got no idea what to do with it,” said Mehra. “they want to implement, but they don’t know how. our next MoRsYneRGY event in February is going to be focused solely on implementation.” • haVe a Team. the best deal can be derailed without having a team together to back it up -- specifically, con-tractors. “You’ve got to have a really fantastic contractor in place before you even start writing offers,” said Meh-ra. “Get references for your contractors, and call the ref-erences -- that contractor can be the ‘make or break’ of your deal.” Morsi agreed: “that’s typically what destroys a flip,” he said. MoR Financial provides an approved list of contractors who are reliable and experienced. • taKe aCtion. “nothing beats getting out there and doing your first deal,” said Morsi. “once you have your system and team in place, then you can go out there and really hit it hard.” Continued on pg. 62


Jillian Ivey Sidoti, Esq.

Many people assume that in order to raise capital, all they have to do is go out and find potential investors to whom they may pitch their idea. However, the laws regulating the sale of any security are such that operat-ing in such a matter would be illegal.

Too often, people learn fact and decide that their aspirations are out of their reach… or worse, raise the capital illegally, putting themselves at risk to suffer very serious consequences should the SEC catch on to what they are up to. Truth is, with the appropriate planning and effort, anyone can raise the capital necessary to execute their business plan.

at a very abstract level, there are five steps to raising private capital, and they are as follows:

1. Develop Your Business Plan: One cannot very well start a company without a plan! At the very least, you want to put together bullet points of the “who,” “what,” when,” “where,” “why,” and “how” you will put your company to work and start generating income. From there, you can flesh out the details.

2. Set Up Your Company: Your next step is to decide what type of entity is appropriate for your business plan, and in which state. A corporation, lim-ited liability company, and limited partnership each have their respective positives and negatives. The particulars of your situation will dictate what best fits your company.

3. Decide What To Offer Investors: If people are going to invest money in your company, one of the most important questions they will have is “what do I get out of this?” First and foremost, you have to analyze your business plan to determine your baseline of what you can afford to offer investors in addition to what the market dictates in your particular industry. You must then determine what you are comfortable offering investors and land somewhere between those points. This could be a percentage return on their capital investment, simply just a share of profits the company earns, or a combination thereof.

4. Put Your Offering Documents Together: Not only may you be required by law to present offering documents (called a “private placement Memo-randum”) to your prospective investors before taking their money in order to ensure you have made all the appropriate disclosures, but such docu-ments will provide all the information they need to decide to make the investment. The private placement memorandum encompasses the three “d’s” – disclaimers, disclosures, and details.

5. Find Investors: For many entrepreneurs, finding investors is the most intimidating step in the process. However, if you organize and execute

your capital raising efforts in the correct manner, then you will be well on your way to meeting your capital goals.

Yes, this is a very boiled down step-by-step. Yes, you will need the advice of a professional to help you along the way. However, you need to realize that if you do give all the above steps the appropri-ate amount of attention, there is no reason that you cannot raise the capital you need.

Jillian Ivey Sidoti is a partner in Trowbridge, Tay-lor & Sidoti, a boutique securities law firm with locations in California and Florida. Jillian may be reached for consultation at 323-799-1342 or at: [email protected]

Five Steps to Raising Private Capital


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“Hard money” lending gets its name from the practice of basing loans strictly on the hard equity and hard asset -- “no fluff,” said Rosen, no long stories about a borrower’s 20-year plan for a particular property. “The only questions are, one, what is the property’s value, and two, how much equity does the borrower have in it?” said Rosen. “the loan is based on the amount of equity they have in the real property -- that’s it.” These loans have been a part of the marketplace for half a century, according to Rosen, but since 2008 and the real estate “implosion,” private money lending has grown to fill the gap left by traditional lenders. “(The banks) have extremely tight lending criteria now, from a credit-worthiness standpoint and a regulatory standpoint,” said Rosen. “they are not taking the normal business risks they were over the past 10 years; unless you have stellar credit, and a piece of real estate that you have significant equity in, the chances of getting any kind of real estate financing from them is very slim.” Enter the “hard money” investors. The loans are primarily used in commercial real estate, investor fix-and-flips, or any short-term project where borrowing is used to solve a problem or bridge a situation until the implementation of an exit plan -- for example, to refinance or sell a property within a year or so. “Sometimes investors will buy property on the courthouse steps, or Reos from the bank, and they’ll get them at wholesale prices,” said Rosen. “imagine a property’s worth $100,000, and an investor has $35,000 into it. In comes the hard money

nO FluFF! The Godfather of HArD

Money on Private Money Lending in Today’s Market

By Robb Magley

Leonard Rosen is known alternately as “the Godfather of hard money” (he’s been in the business for 35 years) and “the pitbull.” unsurprisingly,

the second nickname has a good story behind it. “Back in 1982 was my debut as a six o’clock anchor on the national cable network Financial News Network,” said Rosen. “My very first night going on I was nervous. We had put all of what I was going to say on a teleprompter -- 13 minutes of me speaking. As I was getting ready, and the director was counting me down, he said ‘6 ... 5 ... 4 ... 3 ... Leonard, I’m sorry, we lost everything on the teleprompter ... 2 ... 1 ... you’re live.’” He laughed. “and i do this,” he said. “i went 14 minutes, live, first time on national television. The guy walked up to me after and said, ‘Only a pitbull could make that happen.’ And it just kind of stuck.” it’s hard to find a more fervent booster for the industry, whether you call it “hard money” or just “private money lending”; Rosen’s “pitbull Conference,” which teaches the ins-and-outs of these loans for real estate, has produced 31 national conferences, with the next one set for February 20th in Ft. lauderdale. and he doesn’t see enthusiasm for the product dying down any time soon. “I think it’s one of the best investments in today’s marketplace,” said Rosen. “i think being a hard money lender is a great opportunity, and I think being an investor who invests with a hard money lender is a great opportunity.”

lender with the remaining $65,000; the investor improves the property, puts it on the market, sells it, pays the hard money lender back, makes a profit -- everybody wins.” And, if the borrower doesn’t pay, the hard money lender is in first position to take the property. Rosen points out that most lenders have no interest in being in the real estate business. “They want to be in the lending business,” he said. “But if they have to take it, they can.” One of the big keys to making the investment more secure for the hard money lender, according to Rosen, is to underwrite the asset correctly; loaning too much for a property can spell disaster should the need to liquidate arise. “Every asset, and this includes real estate, has a retail value and a wholesale value,” said Rosen. “a retail value is what a property is worth given a 12-month marketing time to liquidate the property; the wholesale value is whatever the property is worth in a ‘fire sale’. if i had to sell this property in 30 days, what is it worth? Those are going to be different numbers.” A hard money lender has to lend based on that lower value, so they have comfortable “cushion” built-in -- just in case they suddenly find themselves in the real estate business. Rosen’s conferences put a lot of focus on a trend he’s watched become increasingly important in his industry: the creation of real estate funds, where a lender deploys not only his own capital but also that of a group of small investors under him.

Continued on pg. 61Realty411Guide.com PAGE 55 • 2014 reWEALTHmag.com

it didn’t make sense from a cash flow perspective,” said Fragoso. “during the downturn in 2008, We had a positive -- albeit slightly positive -- year because we were able to read the writing on the wall and prepare and guide our clients through the murky waters.”

Today, Fragoso pointed out, inventory is lower even than it was in 2005; the challenge, however, is that in addition to low inventory and low interest rates, the market is facing low buyer demand.

“Nationally, 58% of all sales are cash

sales,” said Fragoso. “That means cash sales have surpassed not just the first-time homebuyer, but every homebuyer.”

that means the fix-and-flip investor needs to re-think their rehabs to match the market -- and the all-cash investor isn’t necessarily looking for the same things the first-time homebuyer was.

“especially the guys who fix and flip in high volume, they tend to have a cook-ie-cutter approach -- where they do the same thing to every house every time,” said Fragoso. “The problem with doing that is you miss out on opportunity when changes occur. If you look at the all-cash investor, they’re looking for value add and additional opportunities. Gearing your rehabs toward those people might mean, for example, not completely 100% remod-eling the house -- the opposite of what a first-time homebuyer would want. analy-

And while the acquisitions arm is significant -- in 2011, anchor loans itself flipped around 500 properties in l.a. County -- the lending is still the compa-ny’s “backbone.” Fragoso said Anchor loans is, in important ways, more of a private equity firm than a traditional “hard money” lender.

“We don’t have a set matrix,” said Fragoso. “It’s very easy for us to adapt and tailor make a loan program required to meet any needs.”

And when new information comes

along, Fragoso and anchor loans tell their investors to adapt, too. Two years ago, according to Fragoso, a lot of people were having difficulty finding deals for fix-and-flips in the cash-flow-attractive lower-priced properties. Because the company had carefully studied the goals and buying parameters of the large hedge funds investing in the area, Fragoso and Anchor were offering what might’ve seemed like counterintuitive advice: spend more per deal.

“We told our clients, look, you realize all these hedge funds are coming in to buy these properties, and it’s like trying to fight an 800-pound gorilla,” said Fragoso. “They don’t care about the price, and they have a billion dollars to put out there.”

So their guidance was to step out of that price point and look at higher-priced opportunities. “The big guys couldn’t buy properties at $400,000 and above, because

by Robb Magley

Market statistics roll off the tongue of anchor loans’ Robert Fragoso with the

practiced ease of a true industry wonk; he’s got a real interest, not only in what makes things tick, but in knowing about it before the next guy does -- and in making sure his inves-tors can act on that information.

Having the best information means the difference between having a great year and living through a financial disaster; according to Fragoso, anchor loans’ diverse organizational interests is part of what gives them their “edge” over the competition. In addition to offering private financing for investors who fix and flip proper-ties, Anchor has an escrow company, a construction company, a software development division and an acquisi-tions arm -- each offering ground-lev-el market intelligence to one another that can prove invaluable.

“Most lenders look at loans strictly from a lending standpoint,” said Fragoso. “But because we’re actually in the market ourselves, we can adjust more quickly than others might. We’re able to see construction costs the day they change. And every time there’s a shift in the market, we can see the effect in our own listings.”

Market Intelligencewith Robert Fragoso

anchor Loans

“It’s very easy for us to adapt and tailor make a loan program

required to meet any needs.”


Continued on pg. 58

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sis in every region is more important today.” According to Fragoso, income levels today are about a third lower than they were in the previous real estate cycle, and home prices are off only by about 20%; the result is an unset-tling disconnect, an insecurity that’s contributed to weak demand every bit as much as the higher bar conventional lending has set.

“When homebuyers find it more difficult to qualify for conventional loans, you’re going to see a buildup of inventory and a lack of demand,” said Fragoso. “Fore-casting for 2014, I think it’ll seem like a sluggish year but still positive due to low inventory. But there are niches in this market that are going to identify themselves that will make some people a lot of money if they can capitalize on them.”

When a market trends downward, according to Fra-goso, a lot of investors worry themselves into inaction, thinking they can’t buy anything. But the beauty of fix and flips, he added, is that you’re not in the market that long.

“You’re in and out relatively quickly,” said Fragoso. “As long as you don’t have a depreciation factor of 2% or more per month, you can adjust your percentage of profit and you can still make money.”

And while it might not be as much as you might’ve made in a different market, you’re still in there.

“It’s easy to forget, but people made money in 2009, 2010, and 2011,” said Fragoso. “You can’t be afraid of a down market. You just have to be able to identify where it’s headed.”

For more information about Anchor Loans, visit the web-site: www.AnchorLoans.com

Market Intelligence with Robert Fragoso, pg. 56


6 Tips for a SuccESSFul Private lending Practice

almost every day. When a call comes in for a loan that’s outside of our area, expertise or capacity, we will refer that caller to one or more brokers from our database of rep-utable private loan originators. Brokering, in most cases, is a waste of your focus and time. Especially if the lead is coming from another broker. You do not want to be in the middle of a daisy chain. Daisy chain deals mostly fail because the borrower does not get well served. The reason they fail is that there is no way for every agent to get paid without over-charging the bor-rower. The universe will reward you if you selflessly refer to other brokers those leads which don’t fit your niche. Because of the literally hundreds of leads we have referred to other lenders over the past several years, the goodwill it created has resulted in referrals coming back to us daily from people to whom we selflessly referred business months or even years ago.

coacHing, MEnToring & conSulTing.

The best investments you can make are in yourself and your business. Success and leadership coaching are an important part of my life. The books you read, the semi-nars you attend and the videos you watch will help you to master the disciplines you need in order to succeed in a world full of distractions and naysayers. Attend industry conferences and seek out those who have achieved success in this business and follow their advice. Hire an industry professional to review your practices and help you achieve compliance with state and federal regulations. Conduct this business properly, and soon you will have a steady stream of new leads as you grow your local reputation for performance and thoroughness.

For more information about Mark Hanf, please visit: www.pacificprivatemoney.com

5 - $50,000 loans than 1 - $500,000 loan or even 1 - $1 million loan! You can charge more points on smaller loans,

plus the fees. They close quicker and easier. Larger loans fail to close at a much higher rate than smaller loans.

FocuS. Be specific in your advertising and market-ing. Don’t say that you are “nationwide” and you fund “all loan types” and loan amounts. I guarantee you that brokers who market themselves as such do not have a thriving business.

STrivE For ToTal TranSParEncy.

If you check out our website you will notice that we don’t have pictures of sky-scrapers or smiling people in suits shaking hands. We have pictures of actual deals we have funded. We have our names, addresses, pictures and email addresses for all the world to see. We use our direct phone number with area code so people know our business is located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Google us and you will find our detailed LinkedIn profiles.

We’ve never pretended to be something we weren’t. Your authenticity and transparency will attract customers to you in a big way.

rEFEr, Don’T BrokEr.

We originate loans. We rarely broker loans to other brokers. But we refer deals

By Mark Hanf, CEO of Pacific Private Money

Tremendous opportunities exist today for private money loan brokers. We found the following disciplines helped tremendously in growing a thriving private lending brokerage.

STay local. The private lending business model is most successful when you focus locally. Most of your loans should be within 100 miles of your office. Most of your private lenders will be local to your community. You will succeed in funding loans because you are a local expert and you understand your local marketplace. Remember that a reputable private lender is really in the investment business first, and the lending business second. Invest in what you know and where you know. For example, we are Northern California-based, and we don’t spend time on most Southern California loan applications.

FinD your SwEET SPoT. If the funding capacity of the majority your investors ranges from, say, $50,000 to $250,000, then market this range as your niche. Be honest with your referral network as to your sweet spot. Besides, a guy that needs a $50K loan will not be well served by a broker who regularly funds million dollar loans. Build your book of business by starting out small, creating volume, then working your way up to larger loans. You can earn more in fees by doing Realty411Guide.com PAGE 60 • 2014 reWEALTHmag.com

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IRA Services Trust Company · PO Box 7080, San Carlos, CA 94070 · 1-800-248-8447 · www.IRAServices.com

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“that’s where the market is going,” said Rosen, “and that’s what I specialize in, helping investors create real estate funds.” Rosen said he’s seeing more and more investors deploy capital utilizing different types of retirement accounts, such as self-directed iRas, and start (or join) these funds to enjoy better returns and increased security; there’s little not to like. “At the end of the day, the borrower gets to borrow money,” said Rosen. “the investors in the fund get a good dividend yield, secured by a good position on prime real estate. The hard money lender gets the origination points, the arbitrage spread -- the difference between what you pay your investors and what you charge your borrowers -- and fees for management and servicing of the fund. In a perfect world, everybody walks away happy.” and Rosen will continue to spread the message: shifting at least some of your investments away from the equities market and into the real estate market by becoming a hard money lender can increase returns and, done correctly, make your investment more secure. And it’s just the right time for it, he said. “I’m a big advocate for the private lending sector in this economy,” said Rosen. “i think it produces jobs, it produces commerce, it puts people to work. It does a lot of good things.”

For more information about Rosen and hard money lending opportunities, visit the website: www.pitbullconference.com

The Godfather of Hard Money, pg. 55


“We’ve always felt that the most durable rela-tionships are built through education,” mentioned Mehra. since MoR has considerable professional relationships with their borrowers, it brings perhaps an unexpected benefit: fewer defaults.

Mehra and Morsi both feel strongly to not be viewed as a corporation, but as apart of a business network working conjunctively to meet each other’s needs.

Out of 360-plus transactions that they’ve written, only two notices of default have occurred.

one of MoR Financial’s core principals centers on the belief of education and the conventional techniques of equity partner-ship arrangement, mainly structured for borrowers who are just starting out.

“You can literally walk into a deal with no cash out of your pocket,” said Morsi. “We’ll provide the investors willing to bring capital to close and supply the rehab funds. All you need to have is a great asset and an ability to manage a property; the financing side we’ll take care of.”

the program has allowed many of MoR Financial’s clients to evolve. With their eminent skill and market presence, they’ve won over the masses. Clients effortlessly transform from wholesaling a deal to doing

their first flip with MoR. it’s giving those be-ginners an opportunity that cannot be captured elsewhere. One client is on her third loan with the firm.

For more information about MOR Financial and their upcoming MORSYENRGY event in February, visit the website: wwwMORFinancial.com

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THE REI EXPO has quickly grown to become America’s new premier real estate networking and educational gathering. With incredible success and an over-whelming demand for more, the REI Expo has now gone national, from coast to coast. We

closed out the year in Anaheim with record numbers of investors and look to build upon that success in 2014.

On January 25th & 26th, 2014 we are making our way back to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex for our 4th Annual REI Expo. Join over 1,000 investors from around the nation to hear from industry experts and leaders. Choose from over 50 classes, then

network and build your business in the largest Real Estate Investor tradeshow in the nation.

Dallas-Fort Worth January 25-26th at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center

“The event was awesome. Well planned. The speakers were well informed, very educational. I highly advise people to come next year.”

– Patty L.

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“It was great. Not a lot of hard sales; with the books & stuff like that. We are fairly seasoned investors & got a lot of ideas we will put them into use.” – Emily

“There was a lot of great people here, it’s a fantastic opportunity to network, meet investors, find deals, a myriad of vendors...& just awesome resources.”

– Shane E.

Having recently returned to Southern California this summer, lisa Hoegler is still pinching herself every day. After 15 years in the Southeast, her excitement at

being back home again is still palpable. Yet the real reason this accomplished woman is grinning from ear-to-ear is because, at 43, she has recently retired from a career as a corporate finance executive and is now a full-time real estate investor and serving as executive director of the newly-launched la south Real estate investors association (Reia). according to Ms. Hoegler, she is finally living her dream. Hoegler’s escape from corporate america did not happen overnight. If fact, it was not even what she set out to do when she began volunteering nights and weekends with a local Habitat for Humanity affiliate in 2000. new to atlanta at the time, Ms. Hoegler says she got involved as a way of meeting people outside of her day job. Yet nearly four years and 4,000 volunteer hours later, including a term as affiliate president, she had learned the nuts and bolts of real estate development and received a crash course in running a small business. Hoegler had been bitten by the entrepreneurial bug. When a job transfer relocated her to charlotte, nc, Ms. Hoegler transitioned her real estate career from non-profit to for-profit. the rest is history. Though she continued to scale the corporate ladder of Fortune 500 companies over the next 10 years, Hoegler never stopped moonlighting as an active real estate investor. Now, nearly 150 residential transactions later, there is no doubt why this hard-working woman has been a success. Just as some fans will gush about baseball, Hoegler spiritedly discusses her work as an investor. It’s clear that for her, real estate is more than just work: it’s an absolute passion. She sums it up by saying, “Even my worst day in

real estate was better than my best day in Corporate America.”. and she means it. For all of her successes, Ms. Hoegler has not forgotten how it all started. though she credits finding her love for real estate during her Habitat experience, she undoubtedly credits Metrolina Reia in charlotte for making her, as she calls it, “a player in the sport of investing”. By networking with other investors and vendors at the Metrolina Reia, Hoegler was able to quickly get the right education, learn the rules of the game, and start hitting home runs with her fledgling rehab business.

“Whether you invest by yourself or not, smart investors know this is a team sport. Your main goal is to build your team with the best players (tradespeople, bankers, fellow investors, etc)

and coaches you can find. Your team is often the difference between a deal turning into a Win or a loss.”, Hoegler proclaims. But networking with other investors means more than just doing deals to Hoegler. For her, it is about being part of a community where like-minded people come together to support and encourage each other during the highs and the lows. “For me, the last 10 years have felt like an investing rollercoaster at times.” Hoegler explains, “When i got started in this business, i underestimated how difficult that can be emotionally.” As a single person, with family and friends

that didn’t fully embrace her same enthusiasm for real estate, Hoegler attributes her perseverance in this sport to the camaraderie and sound business advice she received from fellow Reia members, or “fans” as she calls them. Originally from Orange County, Ms. Hoegler has dreamed of returning to Southern California since leaving to pursue her MBa at the university of north carolina in 1998. Hoegler’s retirement from Corporate America offered perfect timing to turn that dream into reality. This past July she settled in the los angeles area and, according to Hoegler, “i’ve been smiling ever since.”. When asked what she loves about being back home, Hoegler enthusiastically responds, “everything…even the traffic!”. Her excitement is about more than low

Builds Her California Dream TeamLisa Hoegler

Continued on pg. 70


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PROS• Lower Risk• More Liquid• Simpler & More Predictable• Higher Appreciation• Simpler, Cheaper Loans

CONS• Lower Cash Flow• More Difficult to Manage• Restricted to 10 Loans

PROS• Potential Higher Cash Flow• Avoids Current 4-10 Loan Restriction

CONS• Higher Risk• More Due Diligence• More Employees & Supervision• More Eggs in One Address

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By Tom K. Wilson

One of the most common questions I get is, which are better investments, multifam-ily properties (apartments) or

single-family homes? My answer is, both, but not multifamily without experienced or qualified and experienced partners.

a multifamily property is defined as 5 units or greater, and single-family homes, duplexes, triplexes, and four-plexes are referred to as “1-4s”. For someone with a goal of building a medium to large real estate portfolio, I generally recommend considering the inclusion of a commercial or multifamily property with one caveat: don’t start by yourself and don’t put all of your real estate working capital into one large investment.

After purchasing and selling over 2,000 units and 12 multifamily properties over 37 years, my experience is that the best investment property I ever owned was a multifamily property and the worst investment property I ever owned was a multifamily property. These properties have ranged from 10 units for $400k to 176 units for $10M.

Multifamily properties offer higher po-tential reward along with higher risks. On the surface, an apartment building seems to be nothing more than many units, like single-family detached homes, but in one address, however, their proper man-agement is a specialty. There are many more variables and expenses than in 1-4s including utilities, landscaping, contract maintenance, on site maintenance, office management, tenant profile, advertising, lender & government inspections and requirements, and more.

So why are the largest investors attracted to them? For one factor, the rent ratios are usually higher and, therefore, the potential Net Operating Income (NOI) and the cash-on-cash return can be higher. In the multifamily world, rent ratios are represented as the gRM (gross rent mul-tiplier): the property price divided by the annual gross income, the lower the better.

there is also generally an efficiency of scale for maintenance and other expenses, and with good management, expenses are easier and more efficient to control. the advantage of scale best manifests itself when the monthly income is great enough to afford full-time, on-site management and maintenance. For non-high end metro areas this is usually about a $2.5M property or higher. With a typical 60-70% loan this is a

stiff barrier to entry that may best be solved by partnering with other experienced investors.

And then there is the issue of the loan. In these post crash years, getting a govern-ment-backed loan such as from Fannie Mae is virtually impossible in today’s tight money market without current or signif-icant past multifamily ownership experi-ence. Regional banks and private lenders may sometimes provide loans at the cost of higher rates, shorter terms and amorti-

zation, and lower ltvs. For investors who are “tapped out” at 10 loans for 1-4 residential properties and can’t get more loans because of Fannie Mae loan quan-tity restrictions, a multifamily purchase has the advantage of not being forbidden just because you have 10 or more loans on 1-4s.

For an investor who would like to own a multifamily product, but who does not

have the experience or local residency that the lender wants, one can work with a syndicator who can connect you with an investor or investors who can qualify for the loan, reduce your risk and exposure, provide the expertise needed to evaluate a deal, and to manage the property for maximum return on investment. Many investors are drawn to small multifamily “Tweeners” (5-50 units) be-cause it is a lower entry price. However, the problems include:

MuLtiFaMiLY PRoPeRties: Should It Be in Your Future?


•Loans are generally more difficult to obtain•Loan terms are not as good•Price per unit is higher•Banks prefer local borrowers•Properties are generally older•The economics cannot justify full time on site management and maintenance

and, it is usually difficult to manage effectively. Stories of offsite management showing up after a week or two at small multifams only to discover that drug deal-ers have run off decent tenants are common stories. Also, a single vacancy in a small mulitfam has a greater percentage impact on cash flow than in a larger investment. Again, one valuable way to mitigate these factors is to purchase a larger product with partners through syndication. due diligence is much more critical than with single-family rentals but there are also more resources available to get a lot of the general information because there are a lot of marketing firms that support the Reit and institutional investors who mostly purchase large multifamily and commercial properties.

A multifamily seller’s proforma (projec-tions of the potential income and expenses in a perfect world) should for the most part be disregarded. True expenses are seldom less than 50-60% of gross income, otherwise be suspect. And study local de-

mographics carefully. visit the prospective property unannounced, walk it, and then sit in your vehicle to observe who is living on and visiting the property. Take note of the time of day and night. Yes, evening observations are the most enlightening. Go to the local schools, parks, and retail stores and see whom your prospective tenants and demographics are.

do you feel at risk parked so near your potential property, or would you feel com-fortable joining the tenants for a barbeque? please do not rely on website data about the neighborhood. There are a lot of variances in a one-mile radius. lastly, my post data analysis is always punctuated with the satellite view question, would I be comfort-able with my daughter living here? In addition to syndications an alternate way to have many of the benefits of a mul-tifam with less money down, an achievable loan, and much less risk is with a portfolio of single-family properties. Throughout my investment career, I have always also owned many 1-4s.

This approach spreads your risks by building a “mutual fund” of properties in various locations. In addition to having a variation of rent, price appreciations, and occupancies that tend to converge on the averages for a region, single-family homes are more liquid, have less expenses, are less complex to manage, and tend to appreciate

more because they are based on owner occupant demand rather than on income. In the next decade, most economists project a higher upward trend in occupancies and rent for single-family homes and for multifams.

The most important ingredient is to se-lect that right team of professional resourc-es. How much experience and knowledge do they have in the region and product of interest? Are they invested in the products themselves? If you are considering partner-ing to own multifamily properties, do they have experience with syndications and ac-cess to experienced and qualified investors, lenders and property management?

When you invest in real estate, don’t start with the “deal.” An honest assessment of the amount you have available to invest, your risk tolerance, your experience, and your long term goals, along with the right professional team, will lead you to the right deal, or deals: a multifamily investment or a portfolio of cash-flowing single-family properties. I choose both.Tom Wilson is a 37-year real estate veteran who has executed over $100M and 2000 units of real estate investments. Wilson is also a weekly host of the Real Estate 360 Radio program on KDOW 1220 am every Wednesday at 2 pm. Listen to his podcasts on iTunes or his website: www.tomwilson-properties.com


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Discover the lowest-risk, highest-quality residential investment properties in the country. Using sophisticated methodology, the best investment properties are

carefully selected by an experienced investor and rehabbed beautifully to secure the best tenants. With competent property management, and instant cash flow, your investment pays worry-free dividends from day one.

PROFILE OF YOUR FUTURE PORTFOLIO• Highest Cash Flow• Lowest Risk Properties & Cities• Immediate Equity• Quality Newer Brick Homes and Stable Neighborhoods• Turnkey – Clear Title, Rehabbed, Leased, Managed• Home Warranty

“Contact me for a free cash flow analysis.”

Mention REI Voice Magazine and receive one-year of freeproperty management with your first purchase.

TOM WILSON, [email protected] TomWilsonProperties.com

Price: $110,000, fully renovated, built 2005Currently Rented for $1,195

iRa doing the investing, Hall adds.“So that’s confusing because they get into

trouble by maybe signing a purchase contract (in their own name),” she says. “Your iRa can’t buy an asset that you own.”

Consequently, people should wait until they actually open an account with a qualified custodian before funding it and making transactions, Hall says. Generally, a custodian rather than the actual investor should sign purchase contracts relevant to self-directed iRas.

While representatives of companies such as udirect iRa do not give actual investment advice due to potential legal liability, they can help people follow ever-changing iRs guidelines.

Hall, a former mortgage broker whose work history includes Bank of American and Indymac Bank, has educated tens of thousands of investors into deciding whether self-directed iRas are right for them. She and her associates have directly worked with thousands of clients.

To learn more about self-directed IRAs, call 866-447-6598 or visit www.udirectira.com

One of the first questions you will be asked to answer is do you have an IRA or 401(k)?

If the answer is yes, then the next question is, so who decides where your money gets invested?

The answer should be you. Many do not realize that there is a way to have control over your own retirement funds.

It has been available for years, but very few people know about them or under-stand them. We know you’re not one of those individuals, or at least in the next 10 minutes will not be fully in the dark on this interesting subject.

IRA owners after reading this article will find value in the knowledge and resources to empower them with a wealth-building tool.

In today’s financial environment, the knowledge can be worth thousands to mil-lions of dollars for a normal household family. It is a new found business skill for thousands, or at least a topic worth discuss-ing with a professional in the future.

Many business owners and real estate investors have created profitable busi-nesses, especially in today’s market. After researching the information, we will show you how to get started in a matter of min-utes.

So here are the basics: You must open or have an IRA account

(Individual Retirement Account) There are 2 main ones choose from “Tra-

ditional” and “Roth”. Traditional you take the tax deduction when you put money in, and pay taxes when you pull money out. The Roth is opposite, taxes are taken when money is contributed, but is tax free when pulling the money out. The Roth IRA is a very powerful account to have because you can use for example $100 to invest and if those funds create a large profit you pay no taxes on it.

Individuals can transition current IRA accounts to a self-directed IRA custodian. A new account can also be opened. Kaaren

Hall is the president and founder of uDirect IRA Services LLC. She is an expert in the field and has a high priority on education. This is a good aspect for a custodian to have, as being able to communicate and ed-ucate a client on how to use their accounts is the most important part of having a self directed IRA. A person has to understand the rules and having an educated custodian to hand hold you through the process. This is not only necessary, but it is a must.

Then you research and find assets, proj-ects, and/or companies to invest in to grow the funds. Many people purchase real es-tate, give private mortgages, buy precious metals, buy companies, etc. as some of the investment projects.

Kaaren Hall states, “Remember you are the one making all the decisions, you’re the advisor, and it’s not on someone else’s shoulders. The Securities Exchange Com-mission (SEC) promotes public awareness on letting the public know to be careful, and what type of recourse is available. So in our welcome packages we supply help-ful information, and also educational links on our website.”

Final step, when you decide on where to place your funds, review your intentions with your custodian to ensure it qualifies and all rules are being followed. This is the most important step, and it’s wise to have a set of expert eyes looking over your intended investment. These companies are in place to answer questions and to guide you along for proper uses to keep your self-directed IRA in compliance.

“Anyone can visit www.IRS.gov pub 590, which talks about IRA guidelines and goes over the rules,” according to Hall.

After reviewing, www.uDirectIRA.com, any individual can go to this resource loca-tion for free information. There are many advantages for the public to convert their existing IRA accounts to self-directed, and many people already have.

“Because a self-directed IRA lets you in-vest in anything (except life insurance and collectibles), there are hundreds of possi-bilities,” states Hall.

With a background of over 16-years of

real estate experience, Kaaren Hall has as-sisted her nationwide base of clients for many years.

She is also president and founder of uDi-rect IRA Services LLC, and speaks at many real estate club meetings and events to edu-cate the public on how to use self-directed IRA accounts. She is a sought after expert in the field and has assisted national real estate experts with their own deal structur-ing and accounts. The service and fees are the aspects to consider when choosing a custodian. Having access to the experience and knowledge is the added value with this company.

After many years of Hall being a busy mother of two and traveling throughout the state of California, life has gotten much easier now that her children are older. This allots for more time and expansion on edu-cating the public on harnessing the control of their own retirement futures.

There are many employees who are no longer at their original job locations and are looking to rollover their 401(k). Some individuals are looking to rollover from their employer plans, and self-directed IRA’s are an option for people to become educated on in order to better their lives and their family.

The old saying that knowledge is power is obviously visible now to many, due to Hall’s hard work and sharing of her years of experience with every day people who can benefit from it the most.

Hall confirms, “I am here to enlighten readers about the self direction process in an effort to inspire them to be more proac-tive about their own retirement.”

Visit www.uDirectIRA.com for more in-formation or to get started.


by Bonnie Laslo

I CAN Control my Retirement Account?

stra

tegy rETirE wEalTHy

with ira investingBy Stephanie B. Mojica

Self-directed individual retirement accounts or iRas are rapidly growing in popularity, but experts warn that it is

important to only get into such an investment with proper education and professional guidance.

kaaren Hall, owner of udirect iRa services in orange

County, Calif., says even after more than two decades in the financial industry and four years of running her company she too must continually stay on top of her investment education particularly regarding internal Revenue service guidelines for retirement accounts.

self-directed iRas allow people to invest their retirement funds into a variety of options outside of the traditional stock market, including real estate, land, and private notes.

“Financial literacy is not taught in schools, but our future depends on understanding it,” Hall says. “only

about 4 percent of u.s. investors have a self-directed iRa. Why? Because most investors and many advisors simply aren’t aware of it.”

But even those who are aware of the potential financial power of self-directed iRas often do not fully comprehend is the iRs guidelines of “prohibited transactions,” according to Hall.

“You’re not allowed to have any personal benefit from your iRa prior to retirement,” Hall says.

A common misconception among investors is that they can use the self-directed iRa funds to purchase real estate or other property from themselves or close relatives such as a spouse, a child, a grandchild, a parent, a grandparent and any spouses of such relatives. These transactions are not permitted under self-directed iRas, according to Hall. However, an investor could purchase property from a more distant relative such as a sibling, a cousin, a niece, or an uncle.

“Make sure you know what you’re doing,” Hall says. “We’re here to help people so they understand the twists and turns as much as possible.”

The term self-directed in itself misleads some people because it is the


& ReadyBy Hanna Ash

simply works; no extensive rehabbing of interiors, dealing with unreliable prop-erty managers or trying to rent in a poor market. It’s ready to do what you want it to: bring in instant cash flow. like Jobs, Gifford believes in producing streamlined, quality products, or rather, properties that gives buyers the returns they want without hassle. Many of his properties even come with a one-year bumper-to-bumper war-ranty. First 100 Homes is able to provide investors good returns with little to no repairs because of how they do business. Taking advantage of the current market, Gifford states, “...never before have there been so many Reo rent-ready properties

TuRn-kEy

Continued on pg. 55

The town of Bethel is one of those sleepy, quintessentially New En-gland villages nestled into the green

mountains of vermont; a state known as much for its fine craftsmanship as its sprawling ski resorts. John Gifford chats with me from his family’s 200-year old Bethel farm; it is still in operation to this day. “We’ve got over 150 animals here,” he tells me, “and a covered bridge.” It’s clear; John Gifford is a man who is proud of the care he puts into his work, from his family’s ancestral estate to his numerous investment properties available around the country. at his company First 100 Homes, Gifford focuses on acquiring and repairing desirable, turnkey properties in high-per-forming American markets. Gifford is passionate about creating opportunities for long-term wealth and worry-free returns for investors. What makes First100Homes.

com, and Gifford, unique in the turnkey provider market? First 100 Homes offers investors a complete product, right down to lists of preferred property managers. Before Steve Jobs hijacked the consumer computer market, if you wanted to buy a computer, you had to buy all the different components. You had to get the monitor, the keyboard, the hard drive, the case and of course, the software. Then you had to install it. Buying a computer was a complicated process. Jobs had a different vision; buying a personal computer should be as easy as buying a refrigerator. No tinkering needed, no need to buy sev-eral components, no repairs. First 100 Homes offers their buyers a complete package. For example, when you buy a refrigerator, it works. When you buy an Apple computer, it works. When you buy a First 100 Homes property, it


available.” By buying condos and homes en masse, the First 100 Homes team instantly gentrifies a neighborhood or development; other investors, Gifford says, soon follow suit. “We love waterfront property,” Gifford tells me, “because they’re not making any more.” He’s got a good point and i laugh. First 100 Homes has a keen eye for where to buy and when. What are some of the metrics that Gifford considers before zeroing in on a market? “location. demand. transportation,” gifford lists out. He says the company focuses on buying and selling properties that have the features buyers and renters want. Though they have many properties in the las vegas market, gifford is not a betting man when it comes to real estate. they’ve zeroed in on the las vegas for many reasons. there are many upscale housing units available on the cheap and further, the city is rich in students and gainfully employed hospitality professionals who always usual-ly want to rent, not buy.While First 100 Homes has taken over las vegas, they are now focusing on Florida and north caro-lina. Wilmington, North Carolina, for example, is an appealing market for First 100 Homes as it has it all; hospitals, universities, waterfront property and a transient population. “Half-backs”, as Gifford calls them, “are a big part of the population there”. Half-backs are defined as renters who winter in Florida and come ‘half-back’ to summer in North Carolina. sustainability matters to the First100Homes.com team. gifford selects his properties like a seasoned military general who knows his soldiers and his battlegrounds well. First 100 Homes has an airtight strategy that works. through purchasing Hoa liens, the properties Gifford selects are the kinds of properties renters want to rent and buyers want to buy. Most of the properties they deal with were built after 1990 and have very little wear and tear; they

often come fully applianced right down to the washer and dryer. “Our properties are largely in gated communities”, Gifford explains. Gated communities are inherently attractive to the kinds of renters investors want and, for investors, gated prop-erties are generally less of a hassle, “property owners in gated communities don’t have to deal with nuisances such as graffiti and vandalism, for one.” The opportunity to buy properties in such good condition, Gifford says, is the unique result of the 2008 real estate crisis, “it never happened in the Reo business before. “now is the time to buy property,” gifford declares. He continues, “Warren Buffet has named single family homes as the best new asset class for investors.” as First 100 Homes plans to buy and sell thousands of homes in the next year, investors may be interested in buying a few from them. Whether an investor wants to flip or hold, First 100 Homes makes things easy. For new investors, a First 100 Homes property is an opportunity to get into investment quickly and painlessly; for seasoned in-vestors, high returns and a discount as much as 25% over other properties in a given market are a big draw. For investors interested in learning more about First 100 Homes, their website has everything from profit calculators to current listings. The team typically gives one monthly-guided tour of their available properties in las vegas; it is not uncom-mon for an investor to see as many as 12 properties in one day. First 100 Homes forges long-lasting relationships with their cli-ents, Gifford tells me, “a typical client buys four properties with us a year.” like Jobs did with apple computer, gifford has, in many ways, simplified and streamlined real estate investment. as do all vermont craftsmen, gifford takes pride in his work. His investment deals are well crafted.

humidity and an ocean view, though. These days, in addition to investing, this multi-faceted business woman has just launched the newest chapter of the national Real estate investors association right here in the south Bay, called the la south Reia. after years of experience in this business, like any good coach, Ms. Hoegler is eager to share what she’s learned to help others be successful too. “I can’t think of a better way to show appreciation to all of the supporters, mentors, colleagues, and friends who have helped me get where I am today, than to pay it forward.” She seems to be on her way.

When asked what key advice she offers to the members of la south Reia (or “all-stars” as she calls them), Ms. Hoegler recommends that investors think of themselves

as athletes, and as with any sport, they should dedicate hours to train for success. She stresses that long-term wealth building through real estate or any other type of investing should not be perceived as a get-rich-quick scheme and reminds her group that “no one makes it to the pros overnight”. Beyond that, she says the rest comes down to education and networking, which coincidentally, is the mission of the la south Reia. though Hoegler is the first to acknowledge that quality real estate education is both more available and accessible than it was when she began, she believes that education at the Reia goes beyond the nuts-and-bolts of a singular strategy to connecting-the-dots needed for a turnkey business. In her experience, this is the biggest hurdle that investors fail to overcome. While her goal is still to feature speakers sharing

the timely and relevant real estate topics, Hoegler hopes that meeting features like “app-of-the-month” or the la south tech Squad, a sub-group dedicated to staying current on new real estate-related software and technologies, will complement the traditional Reia education. a life-long learner herself, Hoegler admits that education will only get you so far. Relating again to sports she says, “Book learning is the equivalent of running drills, hitting the gym, and memorizing the plays. It’s the foundation of your skills, but not much more.” according to Hoegler, investors need the support of great coaches, trainers, teammates, and cheerleaders to get in the game and score some points. Whether it’s an extra set of eyes to glance at a contract, walk a property, or fund a deal, the resources are there to help - if you know who they are. Building your own investing “dream team” can begin by networking at groups like la south Reia. it has been a mere 3 months since Hoegler launched the la south Reia, but Ms. Hoegler is already focused on 2014. Though she has successfully rolled out exclusive national Reia member discounts including a 2% rebate at the Home depot and a substantial discount program through sherwin-Williams, Hoegler is most excited about announcing her upcoming involvement in advocating for investor rights and supporting pro-investor legislation in California; a role this experienced coach should shine at. And she is only getting started…Lisa Hoegler invites new and veteran investors to join her the second Tuesday of each month in Torrance at the LA South REIA Main Event meeting. You can find out more information by emailing [email protected] or by visiting www.LASouthREI.com. Guests are welcome.

Lisa Hoegler Builds Her California Dream Team, pg. 65


Learn from THE National Expert on how to use Land Trusts for Pri-

vacy, Profits & Asset Protection

FREE Land Trust Webinar at:wwwLandTrustWebinar.com

orFor more information, call Randy Hughes at:

866-696-7347For Information, Visit Online:

Randy Hughes Mr. Land Trust

40 Years Experience

LandTrustsmadesimple.com

• can have an llc, corporation or personal property trust as its beneficiary

Experienced real estate investors under-stand that putting all of your properties into any one entity (be it an llc, corporation or a land trust) is a nexus for a lawsuit. Re-member grandma’s advice to not put all your eggs in one basket? It makes logical sense to put each property into its own separate land trust and then make the beneficiary of the trust your llc or corporation. This yields the best of both worlds from a privacy and asset protection standpoint. since the land trust agreement is not re-corded anywhere no one can find out who the true owner of the trust is without a full blown lawsuit…which is expensive for your adversary. Furthermore, if the property is in one state, the land trust is formed in another state, and the llc beneficiary is registered in a third state you get a dy-no-mite structure that is not only difficult to unravel but legally expensive to pursue. Most contingency fee lawyers would give up and start looking for another sucker to pursue. Real estate investors are more suscepti-ble to a lawsuit than most other Americans.

Land Trusts vs. Limited Liability Companies

The general public’s perception of a real estate investor is that they do not have any debt on their property, have lots of cash in the bank and tons of positive cash flow. So, even if the investor is upside down on their property debt and suffers month-ly negative cash flow they are still at the mercy of the contingency fee lawyer and his/her dead beat client. keeping proper-ty isolated in separate land trusts makes logical practical sense to those of us in the trenches every day. a huge benefit to holding title to each property in a sepa-rate trust is the ability to finance without affecting the other properties. You can also sell property on an install-ment contract basis without affecting other properties. If you title multiple properties in one llc the lender will want to tie up all the assets of the llc as collateral for the loan on just one property. Take your advice from a streetwise investor with de-cades of real life experience. use a land Trust to hold title to your investment real estate…you will be glad you did!

To receive a FREE copy of my booklet “50 Reasons to Use a Land Trust” send me an email at: [email protected]

By Randy Hughes aka Mr. Land Trust

Recently I read an article by an attorney telling his readers not to use a land trust. He recom-

mended titling your investment prop-erty in a limited liability company. His reasoning was that land trusts are only a “deterrent” to a lawsuit and they do not provide “true” asset pro-tection. The attorney went on explain-ing how any lawyer “worth his salt” would find out you are the beneficia-ry of a land trust as the result of a judgment debtor’s exam (which is a hearing in a court room…sometimes called a citation to discover assets). The attorney writing this article con-cluded that you have “zero” privacy with a land trust and if you want pri-vacy you should “save the expense” of a land trust and title your investment real estate directly into an llc (ne-vada or delaware). After over 40 years in the real es-tate investment business, I can spot an attorney who understands the law but does not have practical real world ex-perience. i agree that llc’s have bet-ter asset protection than a land trust, but land trusts have far better privacy elements than llc’s. i use llc’s in my business but NOT to hold title to investment property. let’s review the benefits of using a land trust.

LanD tRusts:

• Are NOT registered anywhere on the planet

• do not require a registered agent

• pay no franchise taxes

• Cost nothing to form (you can form them yourself)

• File no tax returns

• Require no tax id number

• Can be formed in a state other than where the property is located (for terrific privacy and asset protection)

• Can easily hold each property sep-arately from other properties to keep all investments insulated


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Tailored to Your Financial GoalsWhether you are interested in appreciation, cashflow, or a combination of the two, HomeUnion has properties suited to your specific needs.

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By Stephanie B. Mojica

The ceo of southern california-based Homeunion hopes to turn the business into the Amazon.com of real estate investing.

don ganguly, an entrepreneur and chief executive with an impressive record of building successful businesses in the technology and financial services markets, stepped into his role as the chief executive behind Homeunion this october. Ganguly, who earned a MBA in at the prestigious Wharton school of the university of pennsylvania, serves as a mentor for current Wharton students. Homeunion was developed alongside three other partners, Ravi, cp and nani, all of whom have worked together in two previous successful startups. All four entrepreneurs are engineers with graduate degrees. What also unites them is their belief that the current experience of investing in real estate can be dramatically improved.

Ganguly’s business eyes are tuned in to providing the real estate investor a hands- free experience where Homeunion eases all the pain points of investing in real estate. Homeunion will provide flexible investment options. inves-

tors can buy the whole asset or a fractional interest via crowd-funding. “Crowdfunding allows accredited investors to invest in ready made diversified portfolios.,” ganguly explained.

Homeunion will allow people to invest according to their preferences in a secure and trusted manner.. Investors will finally be able to buy the best investment property remotely regardless of location. Investors can use cash, qualify for an investment loan or use funds from their iRas.

Ganguly and others running the company only work with properties that they ‘certify’ , located in known “cash flow zones” nationwide. cash flow zones have excellent rental

income potential when compared to the price of a single-fami-ly home mortgage, a stable job market, and an excellent rental culture., according to Ganguly.

Some of the properties which people can add to their gen-eral investment or retirement portfolio are located in Chicago, atlanta, Houston, Jacksonville, cleveland, indianapolis, Austin, and San Antonio.

“We are making single-family real estate investment an institutional play where investors can buy this as they would any other stock market instrument. Our platform brings fully vetted investments. This is different from companies that sell opportunistic deals of the month and merely connect people with sellers and collect their money. ” Ganguly said.

Though there are of course never any guarantees of absolute success, representatives with the Homeunion firm utilize proprietary methods of selecting the best investment locations. Additionally, company associates work closely with clients to ensure they understand the ins and outs of the cur-rent investment and rental markets. Full management service, including collection of rents and upkeep of homes and help with tax documents is offered to all clients. Homeunion is the only company providing a fully managed investment experi-ence in more than 10 investment locations in the u.s.

“I recently invested in real estate using a self-directed iRa,” said p.k. neelu. “ i had no idea how to go about this, but thanks to Homeunion, i was able to navigate the various steps with ease. They are building the real state investment platform of the future.”

To learn more about investing in single-family homes through crowdfunding or other types of means, call HomeUnion at 866-732-3220 or visit http://www.homeunionservices.com

An Irvine-Based Real Estate Company Offers Insight to


Don Ganguly

FLip or FLop?

Meet Reality TV’s favorite Real Estate Couple, Tarek & ChristinaEl Moussaby Stephanie B. Mojica

The hit reality show “Flip or Flop” has not only changed Tarek El Moussa’s life, it literally saved it. “2013 was a life-changing

year,” El Moussa said. He and his wife Christina are prolific

real estate “flippers” and host a related reality show on HGTV. One of his view-ers — a registered nurse— noticed a lump on El Moussa’s neck, which turned out to be thyroid cancer. Fortunately it did not spread beyond his neck and he considers himself to be well on the road to recovery.

“The worst part was the radioactive iodine treatment where I was confined away from my family,” El Moussa said. “Today I feel better, my energy is lower, but I won’t let that slow me down. I will keep chasing my dreams.”

At age 32, El Moussa never expected to host a popular television show and battle cancer. In fact, their once fruit-ful financial yields from their investing endeavors began drying up with the eco-nomic downturn, which began in 2008. The couple was forced to significantly downscale their lifestyle, trading in a $6,000 a month mortgage for a $700 a month apartment.

“Being on TV is the last thing we ever imagined doing in our lives,” he said. “I always tried new ways to grow our >


“i study real estate and pricing all day every day and in order to become successful at flipping you must commit to learning every

aspect of the business and understand failure is the path to success.”

business and one night I said ‘Honey, I am going to get us a TV show,’ kind of as a joke. She laughed and told me to go to bed. I looked online and randomly found a casting and here we are three and a half years later. It was the biggest long shot in history and somehow it worked out.”

Those brief but still vivid days of scrimping and saving are over, as the El Moussa family has moved into a luxuri-ous Orange County home due to their business of flipping houses along with their television show.

“The best thing that has come from this experience is our family creating something that years from now we can go back and watch. It is so exciting to watch our baby girl on TV and see how much she grows and changes throughout the season. Basically it is watching our family and business grow and develop and we are able to go back and watch the progression. It is also amazing to spend so much time with my wonderful wife.”

El Moussa wants newcomers to the art of flipping houses to understand what exactly they are getting into before they start purchasing properties in hopes of making a hefty profit.

“It is not as easy as it looks. Learn and study a lot of real estate before jumping in,” he said. “You make your money when you buy, not when you sell.”

The biggest piece of advice El Moussa offers to people at all levels of real estate investment is to never give up.

“The truth is everyone will fail and fail and fail until it happens and you get that win,” he said. “Once you get

that one win, you can do it over and over again.”With or without the television cameras rolling, flipping

houses is sort of like a legal “high” for El Moussa. “I enjoy the chase of the properties, the rush you get when you find them,

the design and transformation, and the profit at the end,” he said. “There are many stressful steps in between with a lot of gambling but this is the best way I can simplify it. I study real estate and pricing all day every day and in order to become successful at flipping you must commit to learning every aspect of the business and understand failure is the path to success.”

There’s a saying that behind every successful man there’s a strong woman, and that definitely applies to El Moussa’s life. “We are pretty much together 24/7,” Christina El Moussa said. “We have been together for over 7 years and we are still best friends. He keeps me on my toes and there is never a dull moment with him. It is fun and rewarding to start a business and a TV show together and watch it grow. We both have a lot at stake and we provide a strong support system for each other. Plus, we both know our own strengths and weaknesses and they play well together.”


Tarek and Christina El Moussa

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JOIN THE EXPERTS INREAL ESTATE INVESTING!

By Pam McKissick

Small and mid-tier investors are not only an import-ant part of the real estate marketplace, but they’re the backbone of the free-en-

terprise system. They’re sourcing, buying, renovating, managing, renting, and selling the assets they purchase on a daily basis. Their emphasis on speed, and their streamlined approach to management, facilitates rapid change in cities and towns. their fixer-uppers may end up as a young couple’s starter home or older couple’s retirement con-do. Their commercial assets become coffeehouses and dance studios, lofts and bistros, bringing back deserted downtowns and revitalizing neighbor-hoods.

The mid-level investor has a turn-of-the-century work ethic that should be applauded and, more importantly, encouraged. A late-night-oil entrepre-neur, he does most of the work him-self—searching dozens of websites to evaluate hundreds of homes in a single evening, running the numbers, creating his own analytic models, evaluating past-performance of similar assets. For the most part, it’s entirely his money, or his family’s money, at risk. No won-der he’s adamant about low purchase prices, quick turns, and big Roi.

In talking to many small investors with portfolios ranging from ten to a hun-dred assets, I’ve asked them how they staff to keep so many projects going at one time. Almost to the man (yes, it’s mostly men) they laugh and confide that their wives and kids have resigned from their work force, refusing to go

stra

tegy

into one more boarded-up building to trash out, air out, and fix up. plumbing and elec-trical, paint and carpet, once interesting and challenging, became a grind. “After awhile my wife and kids got tired of it. It’s hard work!”

With mutiny as close as their living room, why are these investors at their desks at three a.m. roaming through websites looking for more properties to buy and sell? Their mantra, “I’m gonna retire rich at fifty.” But when i rang a few investors who’d reached age fifty, they weren’t retiring at all! They were moving up to bigger buildings or a new strategy. Invest-ing was in their blood. They got excited just talking about it. They were going to retire but not just yet! They were addict-ed…“mainlining” multi-family, high on high-rise.

Cutting the deal, making the place “shine on a dime,” and realizing a big profit is a heady experience when it all hinges on their own vision and tenacity. When I asked what would make their lives better, what could a company like ours do for them, they said, give us a first look—give us somebody to talk to who doesn’t waste our time, give us a chance to make an offer before it goes to market—and if a deal falls out, call us first. their requests became the genesis of our Investor Market desk.

The Investor Market Desk revolves around a simple three-step process:

1) investors call our market desk and ask to be placed on our proprietary investor list. We don’t have a phone bank full of people, just a couple of smart market makers who will very quickly know them by name.

2) We determine what they’re looking for: commercial, residential, multi-family, and in what value range—three hundred thou-sand, three million, thirty million—and whether they’re a national, regional, or lo-cal player…or maybe just buying within a fifty-mile radius of where they live.

3) Our market rep will give them advance notice of investment properties heading for auction; and after the auction, if for some reason the property didn’t close, the investors will get a call saying a particular asset is available.

WilliAms & WilliAms


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Williams & Williams Auction lists inventory daily, markets immediately, sells at auction every thirty days, and closes in another thirty. We see a lot of real estate, and we know a lot of small and mid-sized investors. We are effective at pinpointing which deals are going to sell traditionally, which will hit reserve at auction, and which will go to investor after-market.

While we pride ourselves on strong high bids at auction and a stellar closing rate, not every deal can receive seller confirmation. those assets are immediately transferred to our Inves-tor Market desk, where we’re heads up and hands-on, contacting investors with the right opportunity. Whether an investor is buying a fifty-mil-lion-dollar commercial portfolio or a two-hundred-thousand-dollar duplex, our investor Market rep finds out what they need or helps them sell what they have, to free up cash for their next deal.

At the end of the day, I think the small and mid-sized investors know that we know them. We understand who they are and what they want. Every day, on every deal, we have them in mind. In today’s real estate world everyone has to move fast, be smart, and never pass up an opportunity. And why not help these mid-tier investors who in turn help brighten the landscape…cleaning up neighborhoods and revitalizing towns.

Pam McKissick is co-owner and CEO of Williams & Williams, online at: www.williamsauction.com Williams and Williams is one of the largest, most cutting edge and diverse auction firms in the United States. WWM is the parent company to Wil-liams & Williams® Worldwide Real Estate Auction, Auction Network® and Williams Worldwide Real Estate Brokerage. A seasoned business executive, author and radio show host, McKissick is known for her charismatic personality and uncan-ny ability to transform traditional thinking and chart new paths toward personal and professional growth.


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By Marco Santerrelli, CEO of Norada Real Estate Investments

I came up with the following rules of successful real estate investing over my many years of successes and failures. These are the same rules I follow today and share with our clients at norada Real Estate Investments.

1. eDuCate YouRseLF knowledge is the new currency. Without it you are doomed to follow other people’s advice without knowing if it’s good or bad. knowledge will also help take you from being a “good” investor to becoming a great investor, and that knowledge will help provide a passive stream of income for you or your family.

2. set investMent GoaLs A goal is different from a wish; you may wish to be rich, but that doesn’t mean you’ve ever taken steps to make your wish come true.

setting clear and specific investment goals becomes your road map and action plan to becoming financially independent. You are statistically far more likely to achieve financial independence by writing down specific and detailed goals than not doing anything at all. Your goals can include the number of properties you need to acquire each year, the annual cash-flow they generate, the type of property, and the location of each. You may also want to set parameters on the rates of return required.

3. neveR sPeCuLate Always invest with a long-term perspective in mind. Never speculate on quick short-term gains in appreciation, even in a heated market experiencing double-digit gains.

You never know when a market will peak

rules of suCCessFul real estate Investing

and it’s usually 6 to 9 months after the fact when you find out. don’t chase after appreciation. Only invest in prudent value plays where the numbers make sense from the beginning.

4. invest FoR Cash-FLoW With few rare exceptions, always buy investment property with a positive cash-flow. the higher, the better. Your cash-on-cash return is directly related to the before-tax cash-flow from your property.

cash-flow is the “glue” that keeps your investment together. Your equity will grow over time (through appreciation and loan amortization), while the cash-flow covers the operating expenses and debt service on your property.

5. be MaRKet aGnostiC The united states is a very large country made up of hundreds of local real estate markets. Each market moves up and down independently of one another due to many local factors. As such, you should recognize that there are times when it makes sense to invest in a particular

market, and times when it does not.

Only invest in markets when it makes sense to do so, not because you live there or you bought property there before. There’s an element of timing and you don’t want to buck the trend.

6. taKe a toP-DoWn aPPRoaCh Always start by selecting the best markets that align with your investment goals. Most investors start by analyzing properties with little to no regard of its location. This can be a big mistake if you don’t consider the investment in light of the market and neighborhood it’s in. The best approach is to first choose your city or town based on the health of its housing market and local economy (unemployment, job

growth, population growth, etc.). From there you would narrow things down to the best neighborhoods (amenities, schools, crime, renter demand, etc.). Finally, you would look for the best deals within those neighborhoods.

7. DiveRsiFY aCRoss MaRKets Focus on one market at a time, accumulating from 3 to 5 income properties per market. Once you’ve added those 3 to 5 properties to your portfolio, you would diversify into another prudent market that is geographically different than the previous one. Typically that means focusing on another state.

One of the underlying reasons for diversification within the same asset class (real estate), is to have your assets spread across different economic centers. Every real estate market is “local” and each housing market moves independently from one another.

10

Continued on pg. 91


Taking Title by Garrett Sutton, Esq.

Title to real estate sounds grand. As you think of ti-tles let your mind wander back again to medieval England when titles

such as Baron and duke meant you were part of the nobility and peerage system. And not coinciden-tally, if you had such a title you also owned land. As our legal systems evolved, real estate title–the means by which you owned valuable property rights –remained ever so import-ant. Because title conveyed power (and with power came corruption and fraud), a system to accurately record the chain of title de-veloped. Over time you had to defend your title with the proper paperwork. The ‘checking system’ that evolved means that there are two steps for the transfer of title.the first step is the granting of a deed whereby the grantor transfers the prop-erty to the grantee. An investigation of the sequence of deeds to establish an accurate chain of title is then performed. If the grantor actually has clear title,

according to the public records, a policy of title insurance may be issued and the prop-erty transferred. (please note that property can be transferred without title insurance

but that most banks won’t take the risk in making a loan without it.)A noticeable break in the chain of title means that the buyer–even though they be-lieve they are the rightful owner–can be subject to the possible claims of others contest-ing the title. It can also mean that the property is now very difficult to sell, because future potential

purchasers don’t want any doubts about clear title. Accordingly, title insurance is import-ant. Before insuring you against the risk of future claimants, a title company is going to check the public records to see if there are any troubling gaps in the chain of title. If gaps exist they won’t issue a title insurance policy. If they won’t issue

a policy you won’t buy the property. It is that simple. Follow their lead. Transferring TitleThe specter of title insurance affects the way you will transfer title to property.

There are two ways to transfer title:

1. a Grant Deed. this deed (or ‘War-ranty Deed’) implies or warrants that: a. The Grantor (the person granting the property) has not transferred the property before, and that absolute ownership (‘free and clear’ title) is conveyed. b. unless the grantee (the person receiv-ing the property) agrees otherwise, the property is free from any liens or encum-brances against it. c. Any after-acquired title (ownership that goes to a Grantor later) is also conveyed to the Grantee.

2. a quit Claim. this much weaker deed only: a. Transfers whatever present right, title or interest the transferor may have. (If the transferor doesn’t have any rights, neither do you.) b. No warranties are made as to any liens or encumbrances. (So if there are undis-closed mortgages against the property it’s not the transferor’s problem–as it is in a grant deed. Instead, it is now your problem.) c. No after acquired title is transferred.While often advocated by promoters as the easiest means for transfer, the quit claim deed is not your best choice. First, know that in many bank involved Reo (real estate owned) transactions the Reo lender selling a foreclosed property will only use a Quit Claim deed. Why is this?It is because the lender has no idea what happened on the property prior to foreclo-sure. during the boom documents were not properly kept or transferred, the bank-ing industry’s MeRs electronic recording system failed to keep up with it all, and many documents were just plain lost. This is no way to maintain a good chain of title on the nation’s real estate. It was so bad in

Continued on pg. 86


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3RF.

com

By Hannah Ash

larry Goins doesn’t know it all. “When it comes to real estate, the learning never stops,” he tell

me. When one of the country’s leading investors pauses for a moment of self-reflection, it’s worth a listen.

“You can learn something from everybody you meet,” he tells me. It’s one of the secrets to his success in real estate; he’s always on the hunt for a way to do it better. “Just this week, I

attended two webinars,” he casually re-marks. I must admit: I’m taken aback.

For someone who has been engaged in all aspects of real estate since the 1980’s, larry goins isn’t full of the slam-dunk advice one might expect; instead, his advice is to ask questions and keep an open mind. That’s what he does, he says. He wants to know how he can do better and wants to meet people who can teach him how; he is full of stories of things he’s learned this week and this month.

For a man who once served as president of the Metrolina Reia and is a mortgage lender, real estate broker, agent and licensed general contractor, one would think he might just want to rest. Mr. Goins, however, is one of those rare breeds who love what they do so much, it doesn’t feel like he’s working a job. Goins’s work is stacking up success after success and helping others find their own successes along the way.

Mr. goins has a motto, “people and principles before profits.” When he’s not working, he’s with his family. I ask if they share his interest for real estate. His 17 year old daughter loves equestrianism, he says, “and she regu-larly takes to the ring, riding in shows”. Goins also has a son and wife. “My 9 year old son is already a hard money lender,” he laughs. When it comes to

his wife, it’s not much different, “pam is a hard money lender too. She also gives of her time generously by leading her church’s food pantry organization.” Both altruistic and driven to succeed, it should come as no surprise that he’s found a way to marry his two loves together; family and success.

Following in suit, Goins has seamlessly merged his love of successful real estate investing and his love of educating into a dream job. He works with a large team of professionals who are all as excited about

real estate as he is. Based in his scenic hometown of lake Wylie, south carolina, The Goins Group focuses on education while his investors Rehab is all about actively buying and selling a lot of real estate.

a published author, his first book, Real estate day trading, is available in book-stores everywhere. Hud Homes Half off, his newest release, is available on Amazon and through his website. In his free time, Goins regularly hosts seminars, webinars and gives interviews as a way to motivate other investors to get serious about their money. Goins’ real estate blog is full of well-crafted tips for new and seasoned investors.

An apprenticeship in real estate invest-ment is the best way to describe what Goins and his team offer students. You can’t get a college degree in real estate investing, but, Goins says, “you can latch onto someone experienced whom you trust to start learning.” He and his team, in many ways, operate like a trade school. There are books to read, active mentors, seminars and real-world investing experi-ence through investors Rehab.

For investors looking to get started or looking for a new edge, The Goins Group aims to serve. Each week, the business advisors larry trusts to work alongside him in his office, check in with students to touch base, answer questions and provide some motivation. Goins says he too gets

An Industry Leader Discusses His Deals

From South Carolina, LArry GoIns impacts

investors around the nation with his

real estate wisdom.

The properties Goins buys and sells aren’t “turn-key,” he says, they are what he has dubbed, “learn-key.”

on the phone and talks to his students whenever necessary.

The skills his investors learn, Goins says, can change lives. “Real estate is what you make of it”, Goins explains, and his programs work for everyone; his clients come from all walks of life. One of his students, Alon, a pediatrician currently living in New York City, is working with larry to diversify his in-vestments and bring in some extra cash flow. another client is a former prisoner who was able to change the direction of his life forever. “do your techniques work?”, I ask. The proof is in the pudding: the hundreds and hundreds of letters and video testimonials that Goins and his team proudly receive each year say it all. As an active real estate investor, Goins has a simple approach to buying real estate; his philosophy is one that most investors can rally behind, “I buy houses. I don’t get sold houses.” Goins says people often say to him, “Wow! That’s a great deal. Where’d you find it?” goins explains, “i tell them: it wasn’t a good deal when I found it. We created the deal.” investors Rehab, the investing arm of his business, attracts all types of investors. Whether it’s an

Continued on pg. 84


Blackstone UnleashesIn our exclusive

January 2014 interview John was quick to point out that while B2R Finance is a completely separate entity to Invi-tation Homes, it puts all of that experience, billions in liquidity and understanding of the challenges investors face in this arena into backing the smaller rental property landlord.

in fact, B2R is one of the only players in this segment of the market. specifically it is unique in offering tailor made loan products for financing single family rental property portfolios with loan amounts between $500,000 to $50,000,000.

Mr. Beacham points out that not only are approximately 98% of the na-tion’s estimated 14 million sin-gle family rental homes actually owned by small-er investors (not large institutional players), but “75% of those properties have been purchased with no debt”. John goes on to highlight “that’s over 10 million properties in the u.s. with no financing on them, much of which has been picked up by entrepreneurs buying for their own personal portfolios”.

B2R’s president comments that this pool which represents around 1 in 10 of all homes in America doesn’t remain unlev-eraged due to a choice, but rather a gap in the market which has left investors sorely underserved.

Besides the strict credit requirements banks have set, investors in this segment of the market have been buffeted by quirks in underwriting requiring extensive paperwork and limits put on the number of properties able to be financed. Hard money lenders have tried to move back in, but high fees, double digit rates and occasional

R eal estate investors looking for funding in 2014 could find this new

lending source and its president one of their best allies… On November 15th, 2013 investment giant Blackstone made a major announce-ment that changes the game for rental property investors, and is likely to create ripples which have the potential to pro-vide a huge boost to the u.s. economy at every level. Former joint head of single family rental finance at deutsche Bank ag, John Beacham recently joined Blackstone tactical opportunities’ new B2R Finance lending arm as president. “B2R” has now unleashed several stunning new mortgage finance programs specifically designed to aid small to mid-sized buy and hold real estate investors with loans of $500k to $50M.

The Major Pivot Real Estate Entrepreneurs Have Been Begging For

In recent years some rental property investors have felt significant pressure from mega funds like Blackstone, which according to Bloomberg has spent over $7B in acquiring tens of thousands of u.s. residential rental homes. at the same time, access to credit for those desiring to capitalize on appetizing investment opportunities in the market has been incredibly restrictive, even for well-quali-fied borrowers.

the B2R Finance pivot completely changes these dynamics. The new buy to rent financing source puts all of the best of Blackstone behind the smaller real estate entrepreneur to fuel their goals for the new year, and long term passive income generation and wealth building.

With access to considerable deal flow, the capital to execute on it and a lending partner that really understands their needs the next 12 months promise to be an exciting time for expanding portfolios.

in an interview with B2R president, John Beacham, Realty411 got the inside scoop on the firm’s new loan programs…Making Buy to Rent Finance a Breeze

So what’s so notable about this new col-lection of loan products, and lender, and how easy is it to get funded?

loan program hiGhLiGhts:

• easy 3 step Loan Process• 30 Year amortization• 5 & 10 Year terms• non-Recourse options• Min. DsCR 1.25• Low Cost• Loans from $500k to $50MB

By Tim Houghten

Financing Options

John Beacham

nightmare scenarios in which they have run out of funds have proven them to not always be the most attractive option for buy and hold investors.

Blackstone’s B2R flips this all on its head, and specifically provides critically needed liquidity for those with 5 or more rental homes, who are seeking loans from $500k and up.

This enables investors to re-capitalize, achieve leverage for expanding portfolios and is providing a massive cash injection with wide reaching benefits which should make life a little better for everyone.

3 Steps to Success…When asked about the advantages of working with B2R Finance, John Bea-cham explained the B2R management

team has funded significantly more rental homes loans than other institutions, pointing out the benefits of the expertise and focus as “This is all we do.”

Of course what everyone wants to know is how easy it is to get one of these loans…

John told Realty411 that decision making on these loans is primarily based upon the asset

and cash flow, the company offers non-re-course options; providing fast funding and a straightforward process.

Beacham was clearly very bullish on the outlook for rising asset values, which investors should take as a great sign, and indicator of an aggressive lending partner which really wants to make loans, and a lot of them. According to the head of the unit the borrowing process is really a simple 3 step process:1. Call toll free on 800-227-8107 or apply online at http://www.b2rfinance.com/apply-now2. Return the signed term sheet and ‘expense deposit’ for due diligence3. Close your loanInvestors who are serious about improving and growing their portfolios for 2014, need to learn more about B2R Finance and the opportunities they offer.

I’ve done many deals over the years and one of my favorite deals hap-pened to be a 107 unit hotel that I partnered on with a student and

closed Jan 1st, 2013! Talk about a heck of a start to the new year.

The deal was brought to my attention by a broker that we’ve closed other deals with in mid 2012. After going to the ho-tel and spending a couple of days there, we quickly observed that it didn’t have as many flaws as previously thought. as a matter of fact it was already on it’s way to grossing around 900k in revenue for the year. We did notice that there was a good number of rooms that were down, roof that had leaks, pool that needed

repairs and poor sign-age. Most people when going into a property think that the more problems that a property has the less upside. It’s actually the complete oppo-site, I love problems! The more problems, the more opportunity..for both upside and revenues. i look past the minor flaws with a property and I go straight to the bones, and then location. if those things check out..i move to the next phase. This prop-erty had all the components that we look for in our model, good bones, good loca-tion, and a motivated seller!

When it was all said and done, we were able to pick up this property originally priced at 2.6M for only 1.9M. This was a Quality Inn that only had about 4 Months

left on it’s contract. So we were able to structure the deal on the front end with a lease option and then exercise the option with owner financing for 5 years. We were able to get into the deal with none of our money and not only that, but the cash flow from the property was able to pay for all of the repairs that were needed. In just one year, we were able to increase the revenue from 900k to over 1.3M. That’s 400k in additional cash flow in just one year! We even enjoyed cash flow of over 50k in a single month a couple of times throughout the year.

The repairs that were needed were not too intensive. We had to replace and patch a number of places of the roof over the lobby along with fixing the pool and get-ting about a dozen rooms up and running. it was nice to have the cash flow from the property be able to cover the repairs of the hotel.

I’ve done many hotels with much more repairs needed so this deal was a bit of a cosmetic turn around for us. One of the great things I love about hotels is that if you pick the right one and you buy it right, you can make many repairs and do most of the turn around from the profits of the hotel without having to go borrow more money. It’s one of the main reasons that we don’t do too many closed down hotels, you ac-tually have to have a capital reserve while your making your repairs with no revenue

coming in to help you out. I like the simple fact that I’m making money day one that I take over and all I’m doing is making im-provements and putting heads in beds.

We’ve had this property for exactly one year now and we’ve loved every minute of it. not only did the cash flow pay for the re-pairs, but it also paid for the down payment that we needed as well. Another reason I love hotels so much is that I have managers at each of our hotels taking care of the day to day activities while I’m out looking for my next deal. Making sure that you have a good strong manager with experience is a big plus. It will only make your life easier.

We have a great team in place right now and we’re looking to get the revenues up to 1.4-1.5M for 2014 at this particular ho-tel. With the amount of additional revenues that we created over 2013, we also created almost 2 million in equity. I’m ok with eq-uity, but i really love what actually pays the bills..casH FloW. Jason Schubert

President, Rich in Five

Let’s Analyze a Deal!

Larry Goins Discusses His Deals, pg. 82


investor looking for a great deal or someone he’s mentored, investors Rehab has no shortage of buyers.

To create such good deals, Goins and his devoted team are always on the hunt for property to buy. He estimates they make a jaw-dropping 2,000 to 3,000 offers a week; they pur-chase 10-15 properties a month through their office. once an offer has been accepted, his dedicated team gets three repair estimates and conducts a comparative market analysis. The properties Goins buys and sells aren’t “turn-key,” he says, they are what he has dubbed, “learn-key.”

learn key? “that’s right,” goins tells me, “learn-key means you learn as you earn.” Investors buy properties for great prices that need a bit of work, and thanks to the research the Goins team does beforehand, they know about how much work will be needed before a property is rent-al-ready or can be flipped. the legwork goins’ team does takes away some of the risk for new investors and is a great help to seasoned investors. “learn-key properties come with instant equity while turn-key properties come with instant

cash flow”, goins explains. He wants investors to get the most equity they can out of a deal. Simply stated, learn key teaches investors to fish whereas turn key gives investors the fish.

larry goins, and his career in real estate, stand apart from the rest. His continuous drive to perfect his craft, learn better ways of doing things and new challenges to win is both inspi-rational and rare. Though his son and wife have an obvious in-terest in real estate, perhaps his daughter’s interest in horseback riding indicates that she too hasn’t fallen far from the Goins tree either; in both real estate and riding, there are always dif-ferent horses to tame, new challenges to tackle and techniques that can be improved upon.

“keep learning. take action.” goins says. Just as in horse-back riding, in real estate you can’t go far unless you saddle up and start riding. Since this is an article about a man driven to help others, it should come as no surprise that he’s decided to offer our readers his book about buying Hud Homes Half Off free of charge to our readers. Think of it as a nudge to take action from larry himself. To receive your copy, simply visit Amazon or get your free copy via this website: http://freehudbook.com/

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Register for our next Investment Strategies Workshop hosted by Tweed Financial Services, Inc.Call 800-526-1599 ext. 106 or enroll online: www.TweedFinancial.comMeal included, provided by our sponsors. Seating limited to experienced investors. Reservations required.

As with any real estate investment there are various risks, including but not limited to: illiquidity, limited transferability, and variation in occupancy which may negatively impact cash flow, and even cause a loss of principal. Real Estate values may fluctuate based on economic and environmental factors and are generally illiquid. This does not constitute as an offer to buy or sell any real estate, securities or insurance. Such offers are only made by prospectus which should be read thoroughly and understood before investing. Prospectuses will be available at the workshop. CA Insurance License #OB13052. We do not provide tax or legal advice. Securities products offered through Concorde Investment Services, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory services offered through Tweed Financial Services, Inc., a registered investment advisor. Tweed Financial Services, Inc. is independent of Concorde Investment Services, LLC.

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new investments they want to finance, partly due to rates, but also due to a relatively new program put in place by Fannie Mae. Bighaus estimates fully one quarter of his business right now is driven by the so-called “delayed financing exception.”

“I get a lot of customers who pay cash for their properties,” said Bighaus. “They’ll buy a property with cash, and then they’ll want to get that money back so they can keep utilizing it.”

Just a few years ago, refinancing with a cash-out option (so you could re-invest with that cash) through Fannie Mae wasn’t available to investors with more than four financed properties; the new program targets small investors who hold five or more, and has other attractive benefits as well.

“It allows an investor to pay cash for a property, immediately turn around and re-finance it, and get their original purchase price back -- plus they can roll in the closing costs,” said Bighaus. And, he added, lenders can utilize the appraised value to drive the loan-to-value ratio. “That obviously maximizes things for the borrower, because when they’re out there looking at property with cash in hand, they’re going to get a little better deal in a lot of cases.”

By being able to utilize the appraised value, if there’s a little equity in the property -- if they buy it, say, for $50,000 and it’s worth $80,000 -- Bighaus said they can capitalize on that and minimize what they personally have invested in the property.

“Theoretically they can continue to keep turning their money,” said Bighaus.

part of the industry’s “new traditionalism” means going back to lending fundamentals; that’s an arena where seasoned mortgage professionals like Bighaus truly help

their customers invest, playing to their own strengths.

“In today’s climate, people need to show they have money, they have income, and they have credit,” said Bighaus. “I tell new customers, before you commit to anything let’s gather your documentation. let’s make sure you’ve got income to support your existing debt; you’ve got cash reserves to support down payment and closing costs; and that the credit score is there, because that’s going to affect your rate.”

Having that work done in advance helps investors know exactly where they stand before getting too deep into an investment that’s not quite right for them -- and since Bighaus stores everything electronically, when investors return for another loan for another property they want to purchase, they don’t have to send a lot of the same information over and over.

And, Bighaus says, investors return again and again.

“I was just back in Memphis last week, one of the first markets where I expanded after the Northwest, and I was talking to one of my clients,” said Bighaus. “Between him, his wife, and another family member, over the past three years I’ve done 26 loans for these folks.” He laughed. “they must be pretty happy with me.”

Steve Bighaus has over 24 years experience in the mortgage industry. He maintains a focus on servicing the real-estate investor by offering aggressive financing options and resources for buyers interested in purchasing or refinancing their investment property. By concentrating on investment properties and the financing that comes with them, Steve is recognized nationally as an industry expert. The knowledge that he has enables him to find financing for people even when they have had difficulty elsewhere.

This is not a commitment to make a loan. Loans are subject to borrower qualifications, including income, property evaluation, sufficient equity in the home to meet Loan-to-Value requirements, and final credit approval. Approvals are subject to underwriting guidelines, interest rates, and program guidelines and are subject to change without notice based on applicant’s eligibility and market conditions. Refinancing an existing loan may result in total finance charges being higher over the life of a loan. Reduction in payments may reflect a longer loan term. Terms of any loan may be subject to payment of points and fees by the applicant. Security National Mortgage Co. is an Equal Opportunity Lender.

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valued at more than you have with a lien on it that’s larger than the amount of money that you have to invest — you’re just not a player for that a parcel that size, where rates of return can be much higher.”

unless you’re coming into the tax lien industry with substantial resources, Gleason says most of the time you’re going to get squeezed out — and you certainly won’t be able to achieve any of the economies of scale fund-based buying allows.

“An investor who tries to walk into one of these auctions by themselves with $50,000 may be able to buy 50 certificates at $1,000 each,” said Gleason. “But working with a group of investors, we can pool our resources and buy 1,000 certificates — further diversifying the risk.”

And in the unlikely (but possible) event one of those properties goes “bad,” so to speak, it’s going to appear pretty insignificant in comparison to the overall pool of liens. It’s a model that’s made a historically safe investment even safer — and more profitable.

“What we do is we make it a passive investment, and we’re able to enhance the rate of return for investors because of the economies of scale,” said Gleason. “We’ve been able to produce great returns in very safe, reliable investments — that’s very attractive in an uncertain market.”

Gleason says he continues to think safety and security are the right watchwords for investing right now more than ever before — and that MMG’s group of investors are like-minded.

“You can’t find a more favorable risk vs. return scenario in real estate,” said gleason. “pooled investing in tax liens is an extremely safe and reliable investment that’s also very profitable — when you know what you’re doing.”

Gleason laughed. “We’ve challenged some very sophisticated people to find us a more favorable risk/reward investment out there, and so far, no one’s been able to do it.”For more information on tax liens and MMG Capital’s investment fund, visit the website: www.MMGInvestors.com

2009 that a large national title company announced it would no longer issue title policies to two large national banks. These lenders’ records were just not trustworthy, and the title company was not going to take the risk. know that for years to come there are going to be title issues arising from the real estate collapse in 2008.

It is for this reason that sellers (mainly banks) of foreclo-sure properties are using quit claim deeds. They don’t know what happened and they aren’t about to warrant or guarantee that they have a clean title to convey to you. The quit claim deed they use instead says, “We don’t know what we’ve got but whatever we’ve got we’re giving to you.”

What is offensive is the lengths that some of these lenders will go to get you to bite on a quit claim deed. They will tell you that it grants you full rights to the property. It doesn’t, because neither you nor the bank really knows what those rights are.

To further get themselves off the hook after taking your money for the property these banks will bury the fact that they don’t warrant good title in an Addendum at the end of a sixty page contract. They want you to waive any rights you may have in the matter. They may or may not know that the title is so defective that the property will be severely devalued. But they want you to release them from any future problems and sign off that everything is okay. There have been reported cases where the Addendum is intentionally withheld and only provided to you at the closing. (You know, at that last meeting at the title office where you are expected to sign 47 documents without reading them.) Accordingly, please be very careful and have your own attorney review such transactions.

The second reason a quit claim deed is not preferred is because the quit claim deed severs an express or implied war-ranty of title. (Remember, you are just granting whatever you may own which may be something, or nothing.) As such, the title insurance doesn’t follow. While this may not seem like a big deal, let’s consider an example.

You buy a property in your name. part of your closing costs includes a policy of title insurance. Several years later you want to transfer title to an llc for asset protection. Your friend says a quit claim deed is the easiest and quickest way to go. You file the quit claim deed and now the property is titled in the name of your llc. later, you learn that the boundaries weren’t properly surveyed. You seek recourse from the title company since they insured the boundaries were correct. But you now learn that by quit claiming the property into your llc you have unwittingly cancelled your title insurance policy. The boundary issue is no longer insured.

The way to avoid this problem is to use a grant deed or a warranty deed. A title insurance policy isn’t extinguished in such a transfer. As well, a grant deed is just as easy to prepare as is a quit claim deed. But in either case, remember that easy isn’t always best. If you are not an expert at title transfers, I would have a lawyer or title company handle them.

For more information on this and other title matters, please read my book Loopholes of Real Estate or visit:www.CorporateDirect.com

celebrate your successes!exit stRateGY

please tell us specifics of the exit strategy. This was a true flip. We listed it and got a con-tract on it on day 5. We priced it aggressively to get a fast sale, but hit it right on the head. We poured over the numbers to make sure that we weren’t going to be asking too much. Every day a home sits is a time and money wasted!Q: What insight did you learn from this deal? a: staging a home is Huge factor in differentiating us from the competition in Flor-ida. The cash offer actually asked us in their offer, “can

Safety in Numbers, pg. 18 Taking Title by Garrett Sutton, Esq., pg. 81

SBD Housing Solutions Expands to Florida, pg. 21


the Seller vacate the home in 14 days if possible for a quick closing”…..which is hilarious as they thought we occupied it! It is obviously a vacant invest-ment home. But testament to our wonderful stager!

Moreover, I believe that there are simply some homes that will neveR sell retail. Whether it is just dirty or total-ly run-down, with all the stuff on market right now, a home that is not good looking just won’t sell. Herein lies the op-portunity for us to come in and do our value add.To learn more about SBD Housing Solutions, visit: www.SBDHousing.com

PROBATE INVESTING2014—Invest in Your Future

by Leon McKenzie, US Probate LeadsThere have been countless books published about how to profit from real estate investing. In every case, the objective is to buy low and sell high. That’s how you make money: you find a bar-

gain and you resell it at market value or higher.

Whether you are new to Real Estate investing or you are a seasoned investor currently making a number of new Residential Real estate investments each month – you owe it to yourself to look into the Resi-dential Real Estate Market Niche known as Probate Investing.

Understanding Probate is Not Difficult

Many ResidentialProperties willBe Sold Soon

If the Executor is going to sell Residential property in the estate, ~65% of the Estate will sell within 4-8 months

Most Executors are “Out of County”

~85% of the Executors do not live in the county where the probated property is situated

Residential Properties in Most

70-75% of probate cases have some type of real estate opportunity

Personal Property is Available

99.9% of probate cases have some type of personal property opportunity

Leads AlwaysAvailable

Over 2 million new probate cases open each and every year

Untold Number of Leads

~ 6 million unset-tled probates every minute of every day in the united states, Estimated value of $600 Billion.

How do you go about finding below market properties? there are so many people looking for properties how do you find ones that you can buy and sell so that you can make the type of money that you need to secure your future? investing in properties found in probate can be your key to Success!

probated property is anything that is owned by person when that person passes away and his or her estate is settled. You might think that every-thing a decedent owned including their home or other real estate property is always willed to their heirs, who then do with it what they please or as they are instructed by the person’s will. To the casual observer the process of probate might seem very straightforward.

You might imagine that when a widow passes away at the ripe old age of 101, her children or relatives automatically inherit her house. They may continue to live there, however the house may eventually be sold on the open market to whoever makes the highest offer. The disposition of a decedent’s property may seem like a private, closed process, but it often isn’t. Many factors can influence the way an estate is disposed of:

• sometimes the decedent has no heirs and has not left a will. • the property may be in danger of being foreclosed because mortgage payments can’t be met. • Possibly, the heirs simply can’t agree on what to do. • Maybe, the estate does not have the cash to pay property taxes.• and, possibly, the executor lives out of state and in order to manage the sale of the property must fly in to meet with prospec tive buyers. Who pays these travel costs?


PRObATe INVesTINGDo you want to find new residential properties that very few of your peers know about? There is a market niche where Equity..... is usually high. Competition..... is minimal. Sellers..... are very motivated. And there are literally thou-sands of these available in most major metropolitan areas each year. In fact there are more than $600 BILLION worth of residen-tial real estate properties in the US probate system at any given time.

Change Your Life, Nowif you want to develop financial security while pursuing something that you love, there’s no better way than to make smart investments that will bring a high return. In today’s economy you have nearly limitless invest-ment choices. You could buy stocks and bonds; you could invest in fine art or gold; or you could provide venture capital to emerging companies.

one of the most rewarding ways to earn your financial freedom is to invest in real estate. people always need housing, and the amount of land available is finite. a home depreciates over time, but with quality repairs the value can soar. Real estate comes in all shapes and sizes, in all loca-tions. To see a house, all you need to do is hop into your car and drive to the address.

Once you know how to get the leads to probate properties in your area you will be “off and running”. Once you understand this process you will be way ahead of your competition in identifying new opportunities to work with motivated sellers who own properties they are oft times willing to sell at significantly below market values.

astute investors have long known about this market niche and have profited by being the one to help the executor sell his property when he needed it sold and often times making a tidy profit while doing so.

Contact Us for More Information on Probates: At US Probate Leads, we offer a range of lead generation and commu-nications tools specifically designed for probate entrepreneurs, including software that can help you to design, track and automate your own commu-nications campaign. For more information on our

products and services, or to learn how we can help you to build wealth through probates, visit online at:www.usprobateleads.com or contact us: (877) 470-9751.


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Practical Legal Aide for InvestorsChristy-Ann Olivares explains

how legal shield can benefitinvestors & entrepreneurs.

In the real estate industry, certainly there are times when an investor requires in-depth legal counsel on a specific

legal issue such as incorporating and legally protecting your business, signing a con-tract or document you hadn’t fully read or understood, the risk of being sued from a joint partner deal, a dispute with a tenant or property manager, collecting money from a tenant, property manager, or joint partnership, just to name a few. Even at a cost of $200 or more per hour, the outcome may make that expenditure worth-while. But not many of us like to call an attorney for advise or help of any sort, as we know upfront, the charges we incur can be of an amount extremely large. this puts many of us in a difficult situation of whether we should spend the money for attorney fees or take the risk of not having council, by doing without the cost or expense and unfortunately without the professional assistance that we might need or require. prepaid legal plans have been around for

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many years, but it has taken a few years for legal service plans to achieve some degree of market penetration and use. Not surprisingly, the “great recession” has been a catalyst for growth for prepaid legal plans. Real estate investors continue to pinch pennies tighter and tighter, squeezing out legal service as a viable option. There are a variety of plans and providers in the market, and there is some degree of specialization among these providers. In one example, real estate investors pay a designated monthly fee, and receive

a package of legal services to protect your family and your business.Real estate investors have more things to do than there are hours in a day. There are projects to run, schedules to keep, marketing campaigns, and rent to collect. Many of these activities have legal implications, such as real estate questions, taxation, interpretations of laws and usury rates. But how likely are real estate investors to pick up the telephone for legal advice and assistance when every minute the “legal meter” is adding fees? legal shield allows real estate investors to pick up the telephone for profession-

al, person-to-person legal advice and assis-tance as part of their “prepaid” legal service plan. Over time, many real estate investors find new ways to use their legal service plan and often these applications go directly to the bottom line. “the Home Based Business Rider” is at-tached to the “expanded Family plan” and in combination enables the investor to protect

their family and business with significant benefits. To become eligible for membership, you must meet the following qualifications. since the Home-Based Business legal service Rider is an add-on to the expanded Family plan, you must have an expanded plan membership. Your home and business address must be the same. Your business entity must have 3 or fewer employees. And your business must be for-profit and cannot be publicly traded.

For information, call 415-902-8772 or visit www.ChristyAnnOlivares.LegalShield.com to learn more about how you can save your family money and grief.


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diversifying across multiple states helps reduce your “risk” should one market decline for any reason (increased unemployment, increased taxes, etc.).

8. use PRoFessionaL PRoPeRtY managemenT Never manage your own properties unless you run your own management company. property management is a thankless job that requires a solid understanding of tenant-landlord laws, good marketing skills, and strong people skills to deal with tenant complaints and excuses. Your time is valuable and should be spent on your family, your career, and looking for more property.

9. Maintain ContRoL Be a direct investor in real estate. Never own real estate through funds, partnerships, or other paper-based investments where you own shares or other securities of an entity you don’t control. You always want to be in control of your real estate investments. don’t leave it up to corporations or fund managers.

10. LeveRaGe YouR investMent CaPitaL Real estate is the only investment where you can borrow other people’s money (opM) to purchase and control income-producing property. This allows you to leverage your investment capital into more property than purchasing using “all cash”. leverage magnifies your overall rate-of-return and accelerates your wealth creation. As long as you have positive cash-flow and your tenants are paying off your mortgage for you, it would be foolish not to borrow as much as possible to buy more income property.

For more information, visit: www.NoradaRealEstate.com

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10 Rules of Successful Investing, pg. 80


Back for a progress report, lady landlords of san diego owners Jasmine Willois and Jason

kennedy were originally interviewed in the October 2012 Issue of Realty 411, we are excited to find out what they have been up to since.

With the clubs main focus on buying and holding rental properties, they find themselves preaching a more conservative message then most investment clubs in the same industry.

llosd, is located in sunny san diego, ca and was founded in 2010 by Jasmine Willois to create a platform and arena where ladies and gentlemen of the craft (turnkey investing), could share experiences, networks, and partner to acquire real estate for long-term cash flow. a process that the club owners themselves take part in, as their overlying message is that true wealth is built by holding assets long-term. The club has been well received by all, currently over 55% of their members are men, and 65% of their online community is from outside of the state of California.

Realty411 caught up with Jason and Jasmine, their real estate investment club, which caters to women and cash flow investments had just opened it’s doors two years ago and they were determined to carve a spot out for the club and its members in this competitive world. And that they have done!

In a years time the club has secured a relationship with the Christian based aM radio station kpRZ and works closely with art valenzuela the host of the entrepreneurial show, “tHe staRt up”. You can catch Jason kennedy discussing the clubs strategies events, local and out-of-state real estate investing triumphs, by simply turning the radio dial to AM 1210 on Saturday evenings from 7pm – 11pm. kpRZ

also has an app you can download and listen to them anywhere on your mobile device.

In response to the large amount of inquires about how to successfully invest out of state, llosd now offers an inexpensive 3-day out-of-state mentoring program to it’s members and fan base. This program trains investors of all levels to get a rock solid investing business up and running in 3-days, “anywhere, usa”. since inception these two have mentored investors in Chattanooga, TN; Indianapolis, IN; Hoboken, new Jersey and almost everywhere in between!

Jasmine points out that, “not everyone can afford to pay 45,000 for an education in real estate investing, and for those we have a platform that is equivalent if not superior to those who do their proper due diligence and may not need to purchase another set of dvds and instructional booklets. We are proud to offer hands-on; in the trenches educational package that delivers the results many have been looking for, for years!”

Jason reflects on how the times have changed by pointing out, “the flipping frenzy has calmed down a bit, and we are beginning to stand out as a club that has its head in the right place.”

The clubs growth has been steady and loyal, Jason explains that, “many of the clubs members travel well over 60 miles” to get their fix of this tag team in action, so the real estate investment club is expanding to Orange County CA and will be called llooc! the first meeting will be November 19th 2013 and will be held at the doubletree, dohney Beach in San Clemente. The clubs theme in addition to being about conservative real estate investing, will for fun be called tHe Real lady landlords of orange County, as a play off of the canceled realty tv show. these two love what they do, and it shows!! Meeting the third Tuesday of every month, the club boasts local and national educational speakers, complimentary refreshments, networking sessions, role-playing games,

a haves and wants section, and a sea of femininity.

Residents of southern california, Jason and Jasmine have been investing out of state for over 23 combined years. The two of them and have successfully held rental properties in Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, Mississippi, Florida, Chicago, North Carolina, Georgia, New Jersey, California, and now hold most of their assets in Indianapolis, IN through their real estate investment firm Wealth By Real estate Management, llc.

Jason kennedy, a real estate investing mentor by trade, was the perfect fit for the club, Ms. Willois states, as she describes Jason as a “true gentleman” who loves to promote and encourage women’s involvement in all that he does. “Some men are intimated by the presence of women, and some are very open to the idea of working with them. This is a place for the latter man.”

Jasmine Willois is an investor analyst by trade and contributes her Wall Street experience to the club world by bringing what she calls her “bond-like” strategies to the real estate investment world. Jason describes Jasmine as “a feisty woman with direction and focus,” who loves to earn her keep. He laughs at how she is a perfect partner for the east coast business dealings they often find themselves involved with.

“Our mission is to create an environment in which our members can build camaraderie, share tested investment techniques, and promote responsible investing through networking, and referral-based partnerships,” Jasmine says. The price of admission to their live club events is $25, however investors can begin saving money by pre-registering at meetup.com or on their website and receive a $5 discount.

the lady landlords of san diego and Orange County also educate their members via seminars, webinars, workshops and live presentations.

It’s 2014, step into the pink domain of llosd and llooc.

Lady Landlords of SDNews Alert from


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By Janice Bell

Richard Edrosolan is the CEO of Whiterock Capi-tal, whose investment firm focuses primarily on markets

in Southern California and Arizona. He is well known as an advocate for developing relationships in real estate. These relationships, combined with the right marketing mix and a flexible business model, will enable real estate investors to grow their volume in 2014. Many people talk about relationships in business today, but Edrosolan lives it. He has earned a reputation for what some might call “intense” loyalty and while simultaneously enjoying rapid business growth by remaining flexible, and investing in others.

Real Relationship building for Real estate investors

Authentic relationship building takes more than just talk in the real estate industry today. less experienced inves-tors need to realize this, and develop loyalty with others not only to survive, but to thrive. despite fast talking “gurus” and the hype in various books and programs, newer investors must avoid being led astray. The “experts” who are solely concerned with squeezing every last cent out of each and every transaction are often doing themselves a serious disservice. In fact, they are ruining the opportunity to establish meaning-ful relationships. Edrosolan says that building relationships is one of the most important priorities for real estate investors who want to ensure their long term success and profitability. among the most essential professional partners he cites realtors, lenders, and contrac-tors. Richard says “everyone wants to be treated fairly, and to be respected”, and more than “just buying family dinners for connections, it’s really about loyalty.” Such loyalty cannot be

Whiterock Capital CEO Discusses WHITE ROCK

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cultivated by being an expert nor through slick marketing. Whiterock Capital’s success is based upon demonstrating and practicing this loyalty first. during the interview edrosolan specifically pointed to three current examples of how Whit-erock is investing in the success of others. These include taking care of agents, giving hard money lenders the business oppor-tunity to make some mon-ey when their use wasn’t completely necessary, and the creation of a true win-win situation for a seller who was previously stuck with a burned out home. Although these situations may have cost Whiterock some money in the short term, these are the types of activities that create long-term loyalty. Things often move in this industry at lighting speed, but those individuals with great relationships will most likely make it, and continue to grow their business. Such entrepreneurs will deliver out-standing products and services thanks to business partners who are willing to go the extra mile to assist them. In order to cultivate loyalty, one must reward the loy-alty shown by others, remembering that it is not all about price, but about generosity and delivery on one’s promises.

on Real estate Marketing for success in 2014

Whiterock Captial has been candid about its love of direct mail in its marketing to reach sellers and to uncover yet more deals. However, the firm’s ceo is also quick to point out the vital importance of maintaining a well-rounded marketing mix, thereby staying ahead of the curve. Nothing stays the same in real estate investing forever. As soon as the media reports on a hot niche, that trend has

already began to fade for the serious investor looking for real value. A solid mix of direct mail, online, print marketing and referrals avoids the reliance on one method, and the risk of being put out of business with the next inevitable market change. The same is true for the types of properties and sources that inves-tors seek. Trustee sales, Hud auctions, probate properties, the Mls, and dealing directly

with distressed borrowers are all good, but the best performer of these sources at any particular time is in constant flux. Edrosolan also places great emphasis on “building on your real estate education, understanding of how markets work, and how knowledge of trends in jobs and the economy can be used to keep investors ahead of the herd.”

Whiterock Capital’s tips forCrushing it in the Year ahead

In our exclusive interview with the found-er of Whiterock Capital, the CEO said he believed that contrary to media hype, that there were still “plenty of deals out there.” In fact, he says “even if you won the lottery you still couldn’t soak up all of the inventory out there.” In addition to the above, Edrosolan’s top tips for success ahead include:

1) Monitoring the competition and look-ing for ways to do it better;

2) Be lightning fast when making offers (as in making offers on the spot);

3) Value consisten volume over “elephant hunting”;

4) Be ready to adapt to a changing mar-ket.

For more information about Richard Edrosolan, please visit his website: www.whiterockrei.com

Relationship Building

Photograph of Richard Edrosolan by John DeCindis

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