Ho Ho Hummmm???

It’s December, a time for Holiday cheer, good will towards men, eggnog, and presents. But if you’re a real estate investor, it can also be the slowest and most boring time of the year for your business.

Often I may get a couple good weeks out of the beginning of December to wrap up some things, but after the middle of the month, you may as well forget it until the first of the new year. After the 15th or 20th, many of your sellers, and investors don’t want to do anything except get ready for the Holidays. When it comes to Attorney’s and Title Companies? You might as well forget them too. Most will be taking off for the entire Holidays, often being out until the beginning week in January. So the Holiday season can pretty much bring your real estate investing business to a complete stand still.

After the first of the year, things tend to really kick into gear. Everyone is back from the Holiday vacations, rested and re-energized. Many people’s New Year’s Resolution is to make more money, so investors are anxious to get back into things and get their money working for them.

So if you are already an investor, or looking to get into things, keep in mind that December can be one of your slowest months of the year, but come January, get ready to rock and roll back into things, and start creating another fortune for the New Year.

Happy Investing!

Todd

First Podcast up and running!

Well, after a lot of learning on my part, the first in the series of “The Millionaire Coaching Podcast” is up and running on iTunes. It was a long time coming, as when I started this I knew absolutely nothing about podcasting. I picked up countless books, talked to many people at length, attended workshops, researched and selected the right equipment. It was a lot of learning in a short period of time. Finally, here we are.

Now, granted, it is not perfect - especially since I can be such a perfectionist sometimes ;-) So I hope you will all bear with me as I learn and get better with this new media.

In the upcoming episodes in this series, I will be sharing tips and ideas to help the beginning investor get started, as well as information that will greatly benefit those that are already in this business to take their careers to the next level. I do hope you find it useful, and please feel free to provide feedback about things you would like to know, and see addressed in upcoming episodes.

Here’s to a long journey.

Happy Investing!

Todd

Where do you find Money Investors?

That is the question most often asked me by new real estate investors - where do you find the money?

One of the most challenging aspects of being a real estate investor, is finding the money to fund your deals. But finding the money people is not as difficult as you might think.

Many people get into real estate investing, and they have the image of a money investor being some highly educated, fancy schmancy, suit wearing dictator that is put on this earth solely for the purpose of making you feel lower than dirt, and destroying your dreams of becoming a real estate investor by laughing at you as they are rejecting you for a loan. But you don’t have to look to formal lenders in order to find the money for your deals. In fact, most money investors, are where you would least expect to find them. Like for me, today!

I had this new guy come to my house to do some “handyman” type repairs. Well, he’s here, doing a great job, and I tell him that I buy and fix up houses and may want to have him do some work for me in the future. He said “great!”, and then proceeded to tell me that what he really wants to do, is what I do, and buy a house and fix it up. He says, “I could make more on one house than I do at this job.” Now, I am not saying much (you learn more by shutting up and just listening sometimes), and he then says, “Yeah, I want to do a house this year yet - I just got approved for a $100,000 equity line of credit on my house, and want to use the money to fix something up. But I am so busy, I don’t have much time to work on anything.”

Are you thinking what I’m thinking?????

To make a long story short, I always have a need for more investor capital, so we are going to be doing some deals together and splitting the profits. Cha-ching!!!

Now here was this guy, just came to my house to do some work ... typical handyman type, dirty from working, rough callused hands ... and the guy has a hundred grand investment capital to work with. Who’d a thunk it?

I start the day just needing some work done around the house, and I end it with picking up another $100,000 investor. Not bad for a day’s work.

Just goes to show, you can never tell where your money people are going to turn up from. Most, are just average every day people wanting to make more money. That’s why you need to talk it up, and tell everyone you know that you are a real estate investor when you get started in this business.

Happy Investing!

Todd

Changes in the U.S. Real Estate Market.

Last year in the U.S. Real Estate Market, it was all about rising prices in a booming market. Fortunes were made, and many thought the party would never end.

Now, of course, everyone is singing a different tune. With the bottom of the real estate market falling out, people are running for cover, getting out of investments in real estate, and some are praying their houses will sell. All you hear about in the media is how bad the real estate market is.

Mistakenly, many people take that as a sign to stay out of the market, but nothing could be farther from the truth. You have to understand, when you hear in the media that the real estate market is “bad”, what that means is, that if you are a homeowner and you want to sell your house and get top dollar for it, then the market is “bad”! What many people don’t realize, is that when the market is bad, that means that typical houses in a typical market are difficult to sell and it becomes a “buyer’s market”.

So, we, as investors, are “buyer’s”. Therefore, this is “our” market. Anytime the market is “bad” according to the media, then it is “good” for us. It’s not that homes will not sell in a bad market, it’s that they won’t sell to the regular pool of buyers for top dollar. This is the market where we can go out and pick up deals at a very reduced price, sometimes simply for loan value owed, just to relieve the seller of the debt. And since we are buying so much below value, we can sell the house below value and still sell it quickly and make a nice profit.

It’s like in the stock market, buy low, sell high. What better time to buy low, than in a “bad” market. Now is the time to get into real estate investing, not when prices are sky high and houses are selling quickly for top dollar.

There are more millionaires made during the so-called “bad times” in real estate investing, then in all the good times combined.

Happy Investing!

Todd

Closings! Closings! Closings!

They say real estate investing is all about Location! Location! Location!, but the bottom line is, and what gets you paid, is, Closings! Closing! Closings!

I had another closing last week, on a small house with a nice profit. Even with the market in Arizona having slowed to a snails crawl, I still take care of business. I’m not limited to just my city, I work in other states as well. That is where my closing last week came from.

Deals aren’t just in your own backyard. Diversify! Think different!

Happy Investing!

Todd

Introduction: "Blogs?"

Blogs? Ok, what’s this all about?

Alright, I’m new to blogging and learning what I can about it. So please bear with me as I learn to implement this new format. When I first heard about blogging, I thought, “huh? put a journal online for all to read? Why would anyone be interested in that?” Especially to me, since I’m a fairly private person. But the more I looked into it, the more I saw the popularity of it, and the more I came to like it. In my case, I can remember when I started out as a real estate investor, I was always interested in what the life of an investor was like. What did these people do day after day, how did they live, etc. Unfortunately, “back in the day” (1990), the internet was still in it’s infancy, and blogging and podcasting and the likes were not around as yet.

We’ve come a long way since then. We now have all this wonderful information and technology available via the internet. So ...... here I am!

I do hope you find these blogs, podcast, and information in this site useful. Again, please bear with me as I get used to this new format, and understand that I have a very busy schedule, so I will do my best to put up the blogs and podcast every week or so, as I am able to get to them.

I’m not here to please everyone, and make no attempts to. What I write about, and what I do is real, it’s my life. If you find it useful, and it helps you in some way to learn more, and move closer to your goals, then I am pleased and would love to hear how it has helped you. If you don’t like what I have here and how I live my life, then there is that little browser bar at the top of your screen ...... use it! ☺

Thanks for stopping by.

Enjoy!!!

Happy Investing!

Todd