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Investing Secrets of the Rich!

June 8, 2018 by Realty411 Team Leave a Comment

from Jason Hartman’s Financial Freedom Report

From corporate CEOs and entrepreneurs to sports icons and political figures, very wealthy individuals 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 NATIONALLY

Very wealthy investors cast a wide net, putting money into solid investments 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 conventional 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 another country – creates a hedge against downturns in any one market.

THEY INVEST IN SOLID ASSETS

The 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 takeaway for real estate investors: as Jason Hartman says, real estate is a vehicle for building long term wealth – a tangible commodity that will be in demand as long as people need places to live.

THEY DON’T SPECULATE

Very 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 ADVICE

Rich 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. You don’t have to be a multimillionaire investor to learn about investing and locate the best advice you can afford.

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

THEY INVEST IN THEMSELVES

Whether they’re the face of a corporation or a face on a billboard, ultra-wealthy investors invest in themselves. 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 importance 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’s 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 “secrets” of the ultra-wealthy.

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 homeowners into landlords. But making that shift successfully requires re-thinking your role and your relationship to the property.

Making the Shift From

Homeowner to Landlord

CHANGE YOUR INSURANCE

If you decide to rent out a home that once was your primary residence, an important first step is to switch from a standard homeowner’s policy to rental home insurance. This covers the property itself and provides liability protection, but it doesn’t cover possessions, furnishings, and the like. That becomes the responsibility of tenants, who can get renter’s insurance to protect any possessions they bring onto the property.

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 TIME

As 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 circumstances. And you can also deduct expenses related to your home office, which brings us to the last point:

THINK LIKE A PROFESSIONAL

If you’ve made the shift from homeowner 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 management company, you’re still the one in charge. Maintaining a home office, keeping goof records, and establishing a businesslike relationship with tenants builds credibility and establishes authority.

Renting out your residence may be a response to unexpected circumstances, or the first step toward an investing career that involves multiple properties, as Jason Hartman recommends. With careful planning, though, learning to think like a landlord can save headaches and open doors to building long term wealth.

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 American Dream of financial freedom by purchasing income property in prudent markets nationwide.

Jason’s Complete Solution for Real Estate Investors™ 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.

Give Him Some Credit – ONE MAN’S QUEST FOR PERFECTION.

June 6, 2018 by Realty411 Team Leave a Comment

By Hannah Ash

Long after everyone else has taken off for the weekend, Dr. Michael C. Grayson enthusiastically discusses the ins and outs of credits 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 990credit score. 990? He knows it may surprise you to learn that 990 is 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 achieving). Dr. Grayson is a man on a mission and his mission is to empower Americans 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 people 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 implies. 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 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 cautionary tale of how he once worked with a real estate developer and millionaire whose funding 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-worthy, 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 algorithms 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 credit 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 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 payment- 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 algorithms). Rapid Restructuring is Grayson’s secret ingredient; the Formula, he says with confidence, 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.”

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 committed to community outreach and empowering the disenfranchised. Dr. Grayson regularly works with government organizations, politicians, 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.

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

June 4, 2018 by Realty411 Team Leave a Comment

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 last 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. 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 withnew 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.”

How to Vet Out Turn-Key Property Providers (and Avoid Getting Scammed)

June 1, 2018 by Realty411 Team Leave a Comment

By Kathy Fettke

Kathy Fettke gives insight on a recent fraud investigation

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 “turnkey” 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.

– 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 expected.

– 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 former 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.

Our member told me, “Earlier this year, I had spoken with the guy currently behind bars and explained how reneging on commitments (guarantees, 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 geographic 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 appraisal process.

8. Visit the property (or at least visit the area initially so you understand what 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 an IRS tax lien or other liens.

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

Real Wealth Network has been vetting out property sellers since 2003. These are just a few of the items on our checklist. If you’d like to receive the full duediligence 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.

Be a MAVERICK Do It DIFFERENT

May 29, 2018 by Realty411 Team Leave a Comment

By Paul Finck, The Maverick Millionaire

Double Your Income!

“Same old, same old” WILL get you the SAME results you have been getting for the last month, quarter, year, decade, and for some of you, your whole life!

You must Do It Different™ to get different results in your life. It doesn’t matter if you are talking about your personal life or your business life; your real estate investing or your dating style.

WHEN you take different ACTIONS, you will get different RESULTS. WHEN you take MASSIVELY different action… you will get MASSIVELY different results!

From my more than 30 years as an entrepreneur, 15 years as a real estate investor, and over 10 years as a successful business consultant and coach to entrepreneurs all over the country, let me share with you the keys to creating your abundant future. Here are the top six keys to abundant success via the Maverick Difference (www.TheMaverickDifference.com) and how to double your income.

1 – CHALLENGE YOUR LIMITING BELIEFS – We all have that comfort zone we live in, and within. Some of us have larger ones than others.

I remember when I graduated from college, my ultimate vision — way beyond where I thought I could achieve — was to make $100,000. That was my vision of what success looked like.

So for years, that is what I earned. My thermostat was SET at $100,000. When I was on track to earn $80K, I would work a bit harder.

When I was on track to earn $120K, I would relax a bit — always to land around $100K, year after year. Then I hired a coach, and he helped me change my thermostat. He helped me change my BELIEF. I began to think of myself as a million dollar producer!

That one change internally, changed my external results overnight. It does something to your psyche. I began to believe it was possible — then I began to act as if — then others saw my confidence and started to believe also. New opportunities came my way. New partnerships emerged. And my income grew. You want to change your income… Change your thermostat!

2 – STEP AWAY FROM YOUR ROUTINE – Change up what you have been doing — the more the better. That’s right — I am telling you to be a MAVERICK, and mix it up a bit.

Reach out to someone daily you have not spoken to in six months or more. If you are in constant activity mode, slow it down and do meditation and journaling.

Eat lunch at a new place every day for the next month. Take a new way to work every day for the next month.

These activities will get you seeing things in a new way; thinking about things in a new way. Your creativity will increase. You will end up stretching your problem-solving abilities and ﬁnd new solutions to current challenges where you never would have thought otherwise.

3 – DON’T THINK – DO! – Take action long before you believe you are ready. When you hear about “Hero’s” who step in front of a car to save someone’s life, risk being hit by a train to pull someone free of the tracks, run into a burning building because they heard a voice crying for help… do you believe they stopped and considered all the possible outcomes of their actions?

Do you believe they weighed out if it was a good idea or not? NO! They jumped in and took action! No thinking. No due diligence time. When interviewed about regret, people absolutely regret things that they have done in the last week or month.

However, the overwhelming majority regret things they have NOT DONE when reﬂected over a life time. The challenge is you do not see the real opportunities in life when you are faced with the choice to say, “YES”. You “feel” the risk, and your instinct is to ﬂee to protect yourself.

True Maverick’s have learned to ignore the fear, and do it anyway! You want to be a HERO in your life, take more action.

4 – FAIL OFTEN – MAKE SURE OF IT! – This is the obvious follow-up to number three. When you take massive action, chances are you will not always be right. You will fail! Be okay with that. Better yet, embrace failure. It is the FEAR of failure that keeps most people stopped and stuck in life. It is what holds you back from living life to its fullest. Every success story includes failure and most often massive failure. You most likely will not receive the abundance you are looking for without it. AND the avoidance of failure will always leave you with less than. Go ahead and fail yourself to massive success.

5 – LASTLY, BE WILLING TO BE WRONG! – Paul, wait, you promised me six lessons. Yes, I know and I made a mistake to stress the importance of lesson number five.

Be willing to be wrong and then step up and admit it.

I have observed through my own experiences and coaching thousands of entrepreneurs around the world, everyone makes mistakes, everyone does something wrong every so often. Doing the wrong thing is NOT what causes the majority of the challenges in our life. It is the covering up and the avoidance of stepping up to admit the wrong that causes most of the heartache.

Be willing to be wrong. Admit you’re wrong. Move on with living life to its fullest.

As an international speaker, trainer, business consultant, and coach to entrepreneurs and real estate investors all over the world, it is these KEYS that have made the real difference in my life. These Keys are just some of the pieces to living life the Maverick Way to create The Maverick Difference in your life.

When you like this and are looking for more, please go to www.TheMaverickDifference.com for a free book of additional keys to ensure your journey is a successful one.

Written by Paul Finck, The Maverick Millionaire ®. Paul coaches real estate investors on how to double their results. Get connected to Paul at: paul@paulﬁnck.com

#TheConnector

May 28, 2018 by Realty411 Team Leave a Comment

By Brandon Richards

April 4th, 2017. I closed on my first rehab.

Awesome, right? Well, let’s rewind time a bit. December 19th, 2015, I drove to Dallas with my two beautiful daughters, a trailer full of personal belongings, $0 in the bank, and a vision.

I came to Texas, got my real estate license and went to work. I had high hopes, just as any new real estate agent does. I was going to just step into an industry in a city I’ve never done business in, and crush it! Wrong. In fact, I didn’t close much of anything for quite some time. I was doing everything right. I had the website, the CRM, office time, cold-calling figured out, and I was sending out postcards!

Reality quickly set in: Being a REALTOR® isn’t easy! While I tried to make a footprint as a REALTOR®, I got more and more interested in rehabbing and flipping houses. Around that time, I heard about a strategy called wholesaling. The “get-rich-quick” in real estate method, right? The “no experience, no money” method to getting rich! I was hooked. I bought all the right books, I listened to countless hours of podcasts, and I just about googled everything related to Wholesaling. Alright, so I understand the concept now. But, I was asking myself these questions: “How do I set it up?” “How do I find the leads?” “Where do I find the investors to buy it from me?”

The simplest answers to all of these questions fell within my network of people I had stitched together over time. By this time, it was June 2016. I was going to every single real estate networking meetup and weekend guru event I could find that was free.

I listened and took notes, a lot of notes. I was on a mission.

At one of the events I attended, the speaker (who had provided an incredible amount of content up until that point) said to the audience, “Nine out of 10 of you won’t take ACTION.”

This was fuel to my fire and all the motivation I needed to continue on my mission. I was dead set on not being one of those nine. I went home, bought a domain, paid the extra $15 for the website builder, put in a lead capture form, and went to work.

Now I was official. I added my website link to all of my mailers to pre-foreclosures and probates, as well as in my Facebook posts. Facebook? Yes, Facebook works. In fact, my first and largest wholesale came from a Facebook post!

So, now I have the know-how, the website, and I have letters going out. For a few months, I JV’d on a couple wholesales until I landed my first direct to seller lead. I owe a lot of my fine-tuning and knowledge to “The Corey’s” in my office at the time. They walked me through my first couple and answered all of my (many) questions.

Fast forward to January 2017 when I got a lead off of Facebook (yep, Facebook again) from a seller who is behind on payments. She paid cash for her house when it was new back in 2006. I ended up contracting the house the same day that the phone call came in.

Principle balance was $38K and ink’d it at $63K so that the owner could walk away with a sizeable check to put her life back together. After a couple of phone calls, I had an investor out the next day to take a look and he wanted the property at $105K.

>>>> #CantStopWontStop

My investor buyer gave me the assignment agreement he wanted to use and went on to complete title and close. I had just seen the biggest payday I had ever had and I was able to get a seller out a bad situation by preventing her foreclosure. I was ecstatic! I needed to do it again. I needed to dedicate my time to stopping foreclosures. I found a local company named Propelio providing leads to investors and I began to mail to all their lists; Foreclosures, Probates, Affidavits of Heirship and NOD’s. I send postcards to my Foreclosures and NOD’s, while I send letters to the others. I hired my go-getter daughters to fold, label, stuff and stamp my letters for me.

Now, I’ve got Facebook posts and roughly 100 mailers going out daily. I felt the pieces coming together, and I was more thrilled than ever!

Roughly three weeks later, I stopped another and wholesaled it to a Subject-To investor. Another two to three weeks later and I have a VA loan on my hands. I was scared; this guy worked his tail off for this and I was one of four other investors making offers. I knew the payoff, I knew this family needed money, I knew the other investors’ strategies, and I had to do something differently. This family was in trouble, no money, losing their house, and had bad credit. So, I offered $2,500 cash after payoff and paid for six months of credit repair for them. Ink’d it, closed it, and found hard money within my network of people to fund it. They chose me out of the four investors because I built a relationship with them. I talked to them…about life, about money, and about how I wanted to help them.

Now, I’m two weeks into my first rehab and I’m on track to finish in under six weeks and nearly $10K under budget. I’m not where I ultimately want to be, but I’m on the right path.

I came to Texas with a vision, a mission really, to provide for my family and help as many people as I can along the way. I came, I learned, and I took action. Don’t forget: If you aren’t making offers, you will never make a deal! Cheat on your fears, break up with your doubt, and never stop pursuing your dreams with a relentless passion.