The Perfect Real Estate Investors Tool

As a real estate investor we all know that our network is our net worth. For any real estate transaction the is a buyer, a seller, and a lander. The Real Estate Connect Center helps you make those very connections.

This amazing tool is available by subscription. There is a one time fee of $1997 then $39.99 per month. However, I am able to offer you this amazing tool at the great discount of $19.99 per month with no one time fee, and you will also get the first month free to try it out. I'm not sure how long this great offer will last so be sure to register TODAY. Click here to get this great offer.

Action Plan

I am proud that my sister is following in my foot steps and has acquired her own real estate investment education package. She been taking her courses and putting it into practice. Recently she came to me and asked "Melanie, how are you making it work? What are you doing?".

The strategy that works best for me to have success in my real estate business is my Action Plan that was at first put together for me by my mentor. So to help her move forward with her business I put together a presentation explaining how to put together a strong action plan.

I would like to help you in your real estate business as well so I am making this presentation available to you as well.

All you need to do is click here and fill out the access form. There is no fees, and I will not be sharing your email with anyone else.

Smart Phone In My Business

I have to chance to interact with a lot of other investors with my work with Rich Dad Education, with my work with the Investor Cashflow Club, and with my day to day networking for my own real estate investment business. We discussed investment strategies, on going deals, and how we run our businesses. Time and time again I am asked how I manage my business on road and how I purchase properties from afar. It's simple, I have a Smart Phone, and I use it to it's capacity.

So today I've put together a presentation on how I use my smart phone in my real estate business; and the different apps that make running my business easier.

These are the apps I've come across and started using to better my business. I find new one all the time. If you use an app that is helping you run your business, please take a moment to comment about it on this blog.

Information Wednesday

On November 19th 2014, I was the guest speaker for the information series "All About It Wednesday" that the Didsbury Municipal Library is organizing. I talked about Lease Option (Rent To Own) it's benefits and how it works.

As promised to those who attended, I made a video of the presentation to review the information covered. Since the video file is too large to email I have posted it here on my blog and will be sending the link.

I you have missed the event or would like to attend again; I will be presenting at the Olds Municipal Library on March 25th 2015. The presentation will be made available to other libraries by video conference. In the meantime, here is a video recording of the presentation.

To get a copy of our brochure detailing our Lease Option Program in more detail or to find out more please contact us by email.

Q&A Network Event

My oh my what fun we had last night!!!

I love attending and hosting network event. Real estate talks are a plenty and the topic is so fascinating. Believe it or not, most people around me don't want to talk real estate and investment. I know, shocking right!

Well last night I was surrounded be willing chatters. More then that, we arrange for a Q&A during the event. Everyone who attended were given the chance to write down real estate investing questions and we answered and discussed each one. What an amazing learning opportunity that was. Also each questions entered them for a door prize. Congrats to Sarah who was our winner last night.

That's right, we wrote our questions on "$1000 dollar bills".

Here are some of the questions we discussed last night.

Q:  Is Kijiji really a good tool for real estate investor? How would you use it?

A:  Yes! Kijiji is a great tool, if you are a real estate investor you should use it. The most important aspect of a real estate investor's business in the connection we make with others. Real estate is a team sport. You will need renters, sellers, and buyers. Kijiji is a great way of finding them. Place an add, "Handyman Special" to look for flip buyers. "Stop Renting" to locate tenant-buyers.


Q:  Should I renew my existing Kijiji add or create a new one?

A: Create a new one. Let there be a few adds for a few different offers. In fact you should have an ongoing presence on Kijiji. I try to place adds weekly. Let them scroll through and find a few from you. It will make you look like an active investor, not a tire kicker.


Q:  Which are the best group of people to sell your properties to? Investors or non-investors?

A: Well if you have a multi-unit you will need to approach investors. These will not appeal to first time home-buyers. But if you are working on wholesale or rehabs, basically for a single family house. You can easily sell these to either an investor or a non-investor. However, educated investors knows that having a property under contract is still not a completed deal. Due diligence will indicate if it will be a go or not for example. However, when a homeowner puts pen to paper for a purchase contract; that is a done deal in their mind and will most likely close on the property.


Q:  What exit strategy do you use?

A:  Your first level of exit is the exit clause in your purchase contract. These are a must. Never EVER sign a purchase contract without exit clauses. EVER!!
Wholesale is the universal exit strategy. No matter with property or which strategy you are concentrating on, always be ready to wholesale. When in doubt, wholesale it out!
For a rent-to-own, if the tenant-buyer can not close at the end of the term, there are a few exit option. Extend the term if they are still a good candidate. If they leave the deal, then you can find a new tenant-buyer, sell, wholesale, or rent.
For a flip (rehab) you could always turn it into a rent-to-own, wholesale, or offer a VTB (Vendor Take Back) in hopes to attract more buyers.


Q:  What is your favourite tool that you have used for real estate investing?

A:  With this questions we took turns describing out favourite tools so here are a few ones that was discussed. DocuSign. I have talked about that app in a previous post. In fact you can view it here. DocuSign give you the ability to sign PDF files directly on your phone or tablet and email the signed copy. So when I am on the road, if I have a realtor send me a purchase contract I can sign and send it back from my phone and not delaying giving the chance for other investors to put in offers in before me.
Team Viewer. This program give you the ability to access the desktop on your computer at home from anywhere. This gives you easy access to all your files and programs no matter where you may be. "Let me call you back when I get back to my office" will no longer be a viable excuse. OneDrive is a similar program available. Of course there are so hacking concerns, be aware.
You can do business from anywhere. You can fill your day with which ever activity you which and maintain your business as needs arise from wherever.


Q:  What should I know about purchasing a house for a bank for a wholesale deal?

A:  Don't. The wholesale strategy is purchasing a property with equity. By law, in Canada, a foreclosed property must be listed and sold by a realtor at or as close to fair market value as possible. So basically that means there will be no equity in this deal. Not only that, foreclosure have a reputation to be a great deal (even if they are not). Therefore many buyers look for foreclosed property and then they offer top dollars to secure the properties causing for these properties to sell for sometime more then fair market price. So to recap, you could find a good deal in a foreclosure, but the fact that it is a foreclosure does not guarantee for it to be a deal.


Q:  How do you get a money partner to pull the trigger on a deal?

A:  This question triggered a great group discussion and a few key points where brought up. It is harder to deal with new investors. If this is going to be their first "deal" that they will be involved with, they will be more nervous and they will be easily get cold feet. The best strategy to use here, in my opinion, is to keep the process of investing with you simple. Keep them out of the minutia as much as possible. Also do not drag on the process. Here is an example: "To invest with me, it is a simple three step process. One - qualify you with a mortgage broker. Two - information review (in a nicely compiled rapport, all at one time not bombarding them with tiny details every few days.) Three - Sign contract. Get a signed commitment of some sort before removing condition on the deal. Ideally get the money prior to that (in trust with the real estate lawyer). But having them put pen to paper, even if it's just on a letter of intent requires a level of commitment. If they hesitate at that stage, they will not likely close.
Our door prize was also the ideal answer for this issue. Pitch Anything is about how to present and close on deals. I have posted on the topic of that book in the past. You can view it here.

There will be more network events and there will be more Q&A. If you would like to submit questions even if you can not attend, email your questions to me here and get in the learning. Every questions submitted will be entered in a draw for a digital gift.

Education And Continuing Education

If you know me or have followed my blog at all, you know that I have invested a lot of time and money towards my education. My investing education that is. My husband and I started our investing career by taking extensive courses on the stock markets as well as real estate investing.

Success can be achieved without a formal education. You can learn to invest through experience. In fact even if you start with a more formal education, you still need experience to succeed. Its a necessary step. I have come across many successful investors that obtain their level of success on experience alone. They would come across and complete one deal. Then they would repeat the process. They would learn new things along the way that they can apply to their investment strategies. Slowly they build a portfolio of investments and are doing quite well.

So why didn't we do it the experience way? Well for one, I lacked the motivation to start and the knowledge to even know it was possible. My education first opened my eyes to the possibilities. I had a preconceive notion that investing in stock and real estate was out of my league. So I never attempted to invest. I concentrated more on getting a job and saving, which I now know wouldn't have gotten me very far. Mostly if you take in consideration the crippling injury my husband would sustain along the way.

Also, the time frame to reach success without formal training is much, much longer then through education. You only learn the lessons when you come across them. You only learn what not to do after you've done it. And if the mistake wasn't too costly, you can keep on going. I have paid a lot for my education, but the truth is that those who have learned by trial and error have paid more then me.

Remember, my education also comes from trial and error; but they come from someone else doing the trial and error and I learn from their experience. I can avoid pitfalls and costly mistake. I also get a vast source of information right from the get go. Experience and action are still required to reach success, but the path as been paved ahead of me making the process that much easier.

A good thing about formal education, is that you can acquire it at any time and at any stage of your investment career. The more experience you have the more habits you will have formed and you may need to change a few of them. Your ego may be your biggest obstacle. However, isn't it comforting to know that it is never too late.

I am of the belief that we are never done learning. The minute you quit learning is also the time you will quit growing. Rules are forever changing and there is always room for improvement. So it is important to dedicate a certain amount to education all throughout your investing career. It is true that a larger portion should be dedicated to education in the beginning when your knowledge is more limited, but as your expertise grow, you should still dedicate to learning.

There will be a time, when you have acquired a good foundation to your investing knowledge that you should start branching out into other topics not as directly related to investing. Such as business, accounting, sales, and so on.

In fact, now that I have taken almost every course available to me on the topic of real estate investing and stock investing; I have started branching out in educating myself in other aspect of my business.

I have started a course on branding and marketing. Now that I have the skills to invest in real estate, I need to concentrate on finding investors and joint venture partners. I need to learn how to find them, how to make them see the value in my investment opportunities. I am really enjoying this course and see tremendous value in it. I am also glad that I didn't try to add in on sooner. It was important to first develop my skills and then grow my brand.

I am also taking a course on sales and negotiation. Some people are natural sales people, like my sister for example. But I lack her skills in that department. Sales and negotiation doesn't have to be a skill you were born with, it can be learned. This courses is a big eye opener for me. I have a very nurturing personality so pushing for a sale is very hard for me. In fact I would have trouble getting to the topic of sale at all. I had a wrong perspective on this. I saw a sale as me winning, when in fact it is to my investors/partners advantage to get involve in the deal. I just also happen to benefit as well. I was of a thinking that if someone was a winner the other was the looser.

I have also added trainer's courses. This class teaches me to train and present. At this time, my speaking engagement are not the main focus of my business, but training always was. I am not teaching investment to the masses at this time. I do however need to educate my realtors on the strategies I am using. I need to educate sellers on the benefit of a VTB (vendor take back). I need my mortgage broker to understand the process of a Lease Option (rent-to-own) and how to do it properly to protect all the parties involved.

I have learned that the way I perceived the information I am presenting can be very different from the way it is received. You want to present the information in such a way that the receiver is always with an open mind. If you trigger a concern, your message is no longer going through. For example, if someone approaches me and says "How would you like to make more money?" my brain screams MLM SCAM and I quit listening. There is a technique and path to follow to get the message through without triggering a gut reaction that way.

My new education is fascinating. It is not investing related per se but it is very valuable to my business. I do have a lot on my plate with these courses and it unfortunately have kept me away from blogging. Think however of all the more information I will have to share with you, so that you too may benefit from my knowledge and help grow your business.