In April, I wrote the first part of this three part article about how I would go about starting my Real Estate business today on a budget.  In part 1, I covered the basics of creating a business plan, setting up an LLC, and setting up a business bank account.  After you have set up your basic business, it’s now time to create the professional image that will jump your business ahead of the competition (for a newbie Real Estate Investor, the average life expectancy of their business is only 7 months!  Often these drop outs are folks who haven’t taken the time to establish their new business as a true business and treat it more along the lines of a hobby)

To give your business the professional edge over your competition, you need to have the modern equivalent to an office or store front and everything that goes along those lines.  Essentially creating a virtual office space that gives the impression of a real world business location.  So how do you go about doing that without spending Read the rest of this entry

“What would you do if you were to get started in Real Estate today?…with a limited budget?”  This is a question I hear a LOT, and with the current state of the economy I’m not totally surprised.  This is often followed up with questions about where should I advertise, is Facebook advertising effective in Real Estate, and how do I find leads?

Well, I decided to put together an article that should help the newest investors launch their businesses on a limited budget.  I won’t focus on the questions concerning advertising and getting leads in this article, but may come back to address that issue.

So the answer to the great question of how to get your business started is simple:  treat it like a business.  Read the rest of this entry

Ok, I apologize for my lack of attention to writing my thoughts of late, but as they say…”I’ve been really really REALLY busy and well time flew by!”

So here is a quick update as to what I’ve been working on:

Websites for partners and clients

I have been working feverishly to get several websites launched.  Some are partnerships, some are just friends, and others are just clients.  Be sure to check out some (read some as all of them) and let me know what you think.

Real Estate Sites:

www.WholesalingGenius.com

This is a site that I am working feverishly on with my good friend Capt. Pete Gauthier.  He has created an incredible system (one that me and my partners use in our real estate business) to get you started in wholesaling real estate.  The site is not only a storefront for his products but also a link for anyone who wants to hear him speak and keep tabs on where Pete is hiding out.  To go with it, we have also created the Wholesaling Made Simple Online Training intro package as a sort of intro to Pete and his methodology in wholesaling.

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Want to know what upsets me.  Well, a lot of things really, but seriously it’s when people get taken advantage of.  When predatory “experts” prey upon people’s hopes.  Honestly I am not talking about any specific guru out there in this instance, yet I continuously hear the horror stories of people putting their trust in “Gurus” who have the solution for a price making every promise they can under the sun to make the sale…then coming up short (often way WAY short).

Now I used to be one of those types who might have followed the P.T. Barnum approach to business (“A sucker born every day…”) but not anymore.  There are a LOT of people going through rough times right now.  Rough times often equates to people in search of hope, willing to spend their last dollars or even worse sacrifice paying their bills in hope that they might get rich as the “Guru” promises.

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Today I had the pleasure, no the honor, to meet a gentleman whose home I was looking to purchase.  This gentleman has lived in the home for 20+ years and has a size-able amount of equity in the home with mortgage payments under $500.  Living there has given him a content life.  A decent life with a solid job (one which he had for 27 years!) that payed him well enough to enjoy the comforts he needed while supporting his daughter.

Then real life happened to this real person.  All it took was for that comfortable job to go away to spin his life out of control.  He reached out to one of my companies (Simply Sold Home Buyers) looking to see if he could perhaps start over and be free of his debt by selling us his home.  You see even though his payments were low, when you have zero income coming in…your reserves can go away very quickly.  With mounting late payments, potential foreclosure looming, and his life starting to spin out of control, he turned to us just to explore the idea of a new beginning.  Needless to say nothing looked very positive in his life at this very point.

You see when things go dark in ones life, it is easy to get consumed by that darkness.  Hope becomes a distant memory.  Optimism turns to pessimism.  Joy turns to misery.  And doubt rules your life.  You begin to doubt your abilities, Read the rest of this entry