Real Estate Investing without Tenants, Toilets, Repairs and Property Management!

We’ve never really considered land for our real estate investments. We always thought land investing was a waiting game. We thought it was essentially buying a piece of land and then waiting for it to appreciate or for the time when rezoning or redeveloping the land makes financial sense. In the meantime you have taxes and mortgage costs to pay down. And, I still think that is often how people do it. I know that is how many residential developers and home builders do it.

For us, investing in land has been a matter of buying pieces of property with little houses on them.

We didn’t buy the properties because we loved the houses or because we were going to make good money from the cash flow they generate – we bought them because there’s enormous redevelopment potential for that street and the little homes on the land will pay the land holding costs while we wait to buy other properties around those two lots and the time is right to redevelop.

We’re not putting cash in our pockets from these properties but we bought them for nearly no money down and they aren’t costing us anything to hold while the mortgages are getting paid down.

But, there is a lot of appeal to buying land.

There are no tenants, toilets, property repairs or management issues to deal with. There also is a lot of flexibility in what the land can become – if you buy the right piece of land.

So… when I heard about Jack Bosch and his land expertise I started to look into what he’s been doing. I’ve been going through his course called the Land Profit Generator and I shot this little video to tell you about some of the free information you can get from Jack. If you’re like us, and you’ve always thought land was a tough way to make money as a real estate investor then this is definitely worth checking out.

I will try and shoot another video later this week that is about his program … but for now, just check out the free Land Profits report and the videos Jack is sharing with everyone.

And… just for fun… here’s a few pictures from the Chris Evert Pro-Celebrity Tennis Event we attended in Delray Beach this weekend. Celebrities like Elisabeth Shue, Gavin Rossdale and Martina Navratilova were playing tennis for charity yesterday. And, Jon Lovitz was on hand to provide a ton of entertainment (and actually, Martina Navratilova was pretty witty herself!).

Martina Navratilova serving

Elisabeth Shue with Monica Seles vs. Chris Evert with Gavin Rossdale

Take Action

This is a guest post by fellow Canadian Marc-Andre Terriault

A lot of people don’t realize how taking action is part of their daily lives. It’s basically found in everything you do… When you get up in the morning, you’re taking action. When you walk over to the bathroom, you’re also taking action. When you brush your teeth, you guessed it, you’re taking action. And these actions that you take can go on and on for the whole day. The reason we don’t realize this is because we have formed a habit of doing them.

And I can guarantee that these actions you have taken for so many years are not doing anything for you. Why? You have unconsciously programmed yourself to constantly do those actions.

What you need to do in order to find success in your life is to start by taking precise action to achieve the goals that you set out for yourself.

Now, let’s look at an example: if your goal is to run a marathon, then the actions that you need to take have to be specifically related to that goal. Some of the actions that you may take include: Running three times a week for 30 mins, stretching, weight training etc. But these actions cannot be done automatically; you must make a CONSCIOUS effort. That is what makes the difference.

Another example would be investing in real estate. Here’s a quick list of some of the actions that you would take to find success: searching for viable investment locations, considering which properties would be best for your system, making an offer, closing the offer with a lawyer, finding a tenant, etc.

You see, success is directly related to the action you take toward a specific goal that you have.

But the most important thing about taking action is taking action on taking action. I hope I didn’t confuse you. But allow me to explain. When you decide to take action you’ve accomplished the very first step which is very good but in reality this is the second most critical part. The most critical part is actually doing what you said you were going to do.

Now when it comes to “the most critical part”, a lot of people have the same excuses. Right from the start they give themselves a reason why they can’t be successful. And I hear the same ones time and time again. The two most popular excuses are: I don’t have time or I don’t have any money!

That’s when I ask them specific questions related to the goal that they may have. Questions like: “so why don’t you wake up 30 mins earlier in the morning to go and run?” or “Why don’t you look for some investors to help you purchase a property?”

When I listen to their answers, I always hear more excuses. And that tells me that these people are not ready to find success. Even though they say they want to accomplish a particular goal, deep down they don’t want to take action to actually find success.

Things in life don’t just happen; the great physicist Sir Isaac Newton once said: “for each action there is an equal re-action”. This rule also applies in the opposite direction. Tell yourself: “When I do nothing, nothing happens” (action = doing nothing, re-action = nothing happens).

After reading this I hope that you can really understand the meaning of “Actions speaks louder then words”.

So the next time you feel that you are not finding success in your life, ask yourself “what specific action am I taking towards accomplishing my goals?”

CHEERS TO THE GOOD LIFE!

If you like what you just read then you’ll love the information that Marc-Andre provides in his e-book title “It Starts Here: Discover How You Can Find Success in Your Life“

If You’re a Real Estate Investor You’re In Marketing

I emphasized this point when I told you the Top 3 Real Estate Investing Books every new investor should read, and I’ve definitely talked about this before:

If you are a real estate investor – you must understand marketing!

In fact, the better you get at marketing, the easier it will get to make money with less effort as a real estate investor.

So… what are some of the fundamental marketing principles you need to understand? Well, that is what I cover in my latest article that you’ll find in the November 2009 Edition of Healthy Wealthy N Wise!

Check out my article called: Why You Must Master Direct Marketing for Real Estate Investing Success

AND – Today is a day of celebration for me!! It’s my one year “freedom” anniversary! This time last year I left my job to pursue our online business and our real estate investing adventures full time. In many ways it really feels like I just left my job … and I will be honest in saying that I haven’t replaced the cushy salary that I was making … yet! But I have not had a single moment where I regret the decision and I owe that to the fabulous readers of Rev N You and my fabulous support team of friends and family (especially Dave!).

We have so much to celebrate at Rev N You this week, so we’re going to do a couple of extra special things for our readers in the next 10 days. If you’re not already a Rev N You with real estate newsletter subscriber you might want to sign up now so you don’t miss a thing!! It’s free …

Plus – we have 5 copies of the Private Money Blueprint to give away from our Battle of the REI Blogs 2009 victory so watch for the winners here!

 

Battle of the REI Blogs 2009 Champion

We won! We won! We won!

You can check out all of the comments and results over at Must Know Investing

For now, I just want to give a big shout out to the other 4 bloggers that made up the Top 5 in this contest:

In second place, Ron Mead kept us hopping over here all week. I have a feeling he didn’t have to try that hard to get the strong showing that he had, so we’re going to have to train hard to hold onto this title in 2010. He’s now threatening to get involved with Social Media so that he can really drum up votes next year. <Gulp!>

In third place, my new friend Steph Davis came on strong with a loyal following that really rallied behind her in the last day to put her in the top 3. And her dog Jim and our dog Bram have become fast friends. It’s too bad we’re so far apart being on totally opposite ends of North America from each other or the two dogs would probably really be best friends. I know Bram and I will be checking out her blog on a very regular basis and I think you should too – you’ll love it.

In fourth place, the formidable JP Moses held third for most of the contest until Steph pushed him out on the last day. Judging by the awesome comments he received in the votes, I think his blog is worth paying attention to. I know we’ll be visiting it on a regular basis.

Finally, in fifth place, my new dancing partner Susan Lassiter-Lyons put in a strong showing, and also brought in some incredibly strong comments from her audience. Judging by some of the comments from her readers I think you should definitely jump on any teleseminars or webinars that she hosts.

And, of course, a special mention to Patrick Riddle for putting so much time and effort into this contest. It’s been such a fantastic week and we’ve really enjoyed meeting so many new people… both the bloggers and the new readers!

Thank you to everyone who voted for Rev N You in this contest!!!

And now for the really exciting news… 5 of the people who voted for us will be awarded a copy of the Private Money Blueprint!!

So, we have to go through the voters and select the winners. If you have ideas or suggestions about how we should choose, or you just want to tell us why one of the five copies should be yours please let me know!! We want to sort that out in the next day or so!!

And if you’re new here, we invite you to subscribe to our free real estate investing newsletter as we don’t always publish all our stories and articles to our blog and website. Sometimes we just share certain things with our readers… and we’d love to have you as part of our Rev N You family.

Battle of the Real Estate Investing Blogs is Heating Up

First of all, thank you to everyone that has taken the time to vote in the Battle of the REI Blogs 2009! I have been absolutely overwhelmed at the incredible support and positive comments you have made about Rev N You and our content! And, you’ve inspired us to  provide even better content and resources to help you as a real estate investor! Thank you!

But – the battle is not over!! The competitors are proving to be very creative and they are coming to battle with very strong followings. While I am holding on to a very slim lead at the moment, there’s a full day left in the battle so I NEED YOU!!

And in case the first 5 reasons to vote for me weren’t enough, I’ve decided to give you a 6th reason to vote for me and help me win this battle:

So please head on over to MustKnowInvesting.com and place your vote in the 2009 Battle of the REI Blogs.

All you have to do is place a comment at the very bottom of the page saying that you vote for Julie Broad. There is no opt in required. It’s very simple and it will only take you about 20 seconds… although I do encourage you to check out the other bloggers after you vote. The other people in this contest deliver fantastic content in their space and are very worthy competitors in the battle!

Thank you for your support!

When I win the Battle of the REI Blogs I will donate $500 to a BC animal shelter

It’s an all out real estate investing blog war

My friend Patrick Riddle is hosting a battle of the real estate investing blogs competition over at his blog and I need your help!! Please place your vote for my blog! All you have to do is type who your favourite blogger is in the Comment section at the bottom of the MustKnowInvesting.com page!

5 Reasons Why You Should Vote For My Real Estate Investing Blog

And… in case supporting me and our blogging efforts, and the 5 reasons I gave you above aren’t enough, the winning blogger gets to award 5 of their voters (could be YOU) a FREE Private Money Blueprint Home Study System (Valued at $697 a piece)!

Sooooo, I need your help! I’m up against the cream of the crop, the A- List of real estate investing bloggers and need your vote …

Click Here to Cast Your Vote

And after you’ve placed your vote please do check out the other bloggers participating. The overall premise of the contest is to “get to know” the best of the best real estate investing bloggers and connect with them through social media.

When you head over to the main contest page, you’ll see that each blogger participating has a profile that includes a link to their blog and links to their social media profile pages.

And for all you Twitterers out there, there’s a “Tweet About Your Fav Blogger” link too … sooooo it’s easy to get the word out to all your followers about your favorite blogger (hopefully that’s yours truly) and the contest!

Now, get on over to cast your vote in the “Battle of the REI Blogs” (just type who your favourite blogger is at the bottom of that page – I hope it’s ME!!)

Thanks for your support!

Ron LeGrand’s Quick Turn Real Estate

I found myself sitting among 450 real estate investors in a cold, large conference room in Edmonton, Alberta. What was I doing here? Why were so many others doing the same thing as me…..waiting…..wondering….anticipating?  What was the “big” deal about listening to Ron LeGrand – the Grand Poppa of short term, “risk-free” real estate investing?

Well, to take you back a few weeks prior to the event, I found myself getting “told” that I would be attending this event with my Father-In-Law. You see, my wife, Julie (who usually maintains this blog and our website http://www.revnyou.com ) registered me while I was out on a commercial halibut fishing trip with my Dad. I was not advised, nor was I even asked if I wanted to go. Julie, as you are probably already aware, is a take-charge kind of gal. When she gets focused on an idea, strategy, objective, she goes for it!

And when the possibility of attending Ron LeGrand’s first Canadian seminar in 6 years came up, she jumped at it.

Of course, she didn’t jump into going to snowy, chilly, Edmonton, herself…..noooooo, she sent her Father and myself. Why didn’t she just go, I asked when she told me I get to ride a plane to Edmonton in mid-October? “Because you need to get creative again!” she replied. “You need to think outside the box like you did when we first started investing in real estate over 8 years ago”.

And, this coupled with the fact that we almost exclusivelybuy using the Buy And Hold strategy and conventional financing, pushed her to get me going on different strategies. So, I agreed to go (not that I had a choice! ) and Rick (Julie’s Father) came along with me.

Rick and Ruth-Anne also are Buy N Hold peeps, they just buy commercial property whereas we buy residential. But all of us wanted to learn how to buy real estate with little to no money of our own, not have to use our credit, not have to personally guarantee a loan or mortgage, and furthermore, how to make $5k, $10k, $50k, and up in a relatively short period of time!

Sounds to good to be true, don’t it? Well, after 4 days of learning everything from finding “junkers” (low cost housing in need of some repair) to “pretty houses”, to finding motivated sellers to motivated buyers – we are very confident we can apply his Quick Turn strategies to help increase our cashflow and become even more well rounded real estate investors.

I will write more in a future blog about his strategies but for now, I thought it worth mentioning that we hope you, our readers, will hold us accountable.

Why do I ask this of you? Well, it’s like anything in life, when you set a Goal for yourself, it’s always better to let people know that you have set this Goal and that you intend to reach it. With a good support network, they will keep you on track – asking you how it’s going, have you reached your goal, what have been the obstacles along the way? This is very important because we often need a push or a hand to keep us going, keep the momentum rolling.

And with that, I ask that you keep an eye on us by checking in on our little blog here to see how our new Quick Turn business is coming along. Julie and myself will update you with our progress, give you tips and ideas of how the strategies work (or don’t work), and we encourage you to ask us questions and give your own feedback if you are applying the same strategies. We hope to make this a beneficial journey as we commence a new, and exciting real estate venture.

Until next time!

Real Estate Investing Question of the Month

Here's my Father In Law sporting our Rev N You T-Shirt!! And he's holding up one of our course modules! Thanks Rick!

Each month we select one of our Rev N You with Real Estate newsletter reader’s questions to feature as our QUESTION OF THE MONTH. We respond to everyone that sends in a question but the published question writer received a Rev N You with Real Estate T-Shirt! Here’s September’s Question of the Month Winner!

Hi Dave & Julie,

I found your website a while back and have become a frequent visitor
and now receive your weekly newsletter, which I enjoy very
much….keep up the good work!  I am deciding on your 12 month
course…looks like I could use it.  When it comes to real estate
investing I am a beginner….no properties yet, but I have looked at
few.  I have read a few books and read the Canadian Real Estate
magazine monthly.

I have a property I am interested in and would like to get an expert
opinion before proceeding.

Property price: $259,000
3 units
Rental Income: $2,615 utilities included

Heat – $300
Light & hot water- 150
Cable – $60
Prop. tax – $200
Prop. Ins. – $57
Prop. Mgmt – buyer
Prop. Main. (5%) – 130

Total Cash Out – $897

If purchase price at $250,000

Down pymt. 20%

Mortgage – 1100
Cash Flow – 618.00

I read your 1% rule and if you subtract the cash out ($897) from the
mthly income ($2615) we get approx. 6.6%, but the cash flow looks
good….am I missing something.

Hopefully you have time to respond to this email.

Harold

DAVE’s RESPONSE:

Hi Harold,

Thanks for your kind words and we are happy to hear you enjoy our newsletter!

It sounds like you have a decent property/deal that you are investigating. Questions to ask yourself:

1 – What are your real estate investing goals? That is, what are you trying to accomplish with real estate?  The reason I ask, and this is a VERY important piece of being a great real estate investor, is that you need to know where you are going before you take a step. We try to walk all of our Real Estate Millionaire students down the Setting your Goals path before they get going on, possibly, the wrong path. For example, is your goal to earn $X per month within the next 5 years?  Is it trying to fix and flip properties to replace your hourly income? You don’t need to have a 50 page business plan before investing, but you really should consider what you are trying to accomplish with real estate. If you have a plan, and you stick to it, you are much more likely to succeed.

2 – Have you considered whether you want to answer telephone calls, possibly late at night, from your tenants in order to learn how to be a landlord and save some cash (rather than paying a professional property manager)? Again, this will link back to your goals. I am not trying to dissuade you from being a property manager, but do keep in mind that being a property manager can be quite time consuming. And if you intend to invest in many properties, you will soon find it very challenging to invest wisely and run your real estate investing business while also managing your tenants and properties. Even if you are going to manage this property yourself we STRONGLY advise you speak with a couple of reputable property managers in your area about your prospective property BEFORE you buy it.  What do they think of the area?  The rental income (is it reasonable and repeatable)?
Would they take on a property like this?  Check out this article we wrote: http://revnyou.com/Hire_Property_Management.html

3 – A few other quick things to consider.  As for the 1% rule, you actually apply it to the Gross Monthly Rental Amount, not the NOI (Net Operating Income) which you have done.  That is, your $2,615 divided by $250,000 = 1.05% which is fantastic! The most important thing to consider besides the 1% rule is the area that the property is located in. Is it a nice area?  An area you would live in?  Is it an “up and coming” area that’s in transition?  Or is it in a shadier part of town that isn’t very desirable? Often the 1% Rule can lead people to buying in areas that aren’t great because they focus solely on the numbers. Remember to thoroughly research the area of the property. Is it convenient for your tenants to get to school, shopping, and work? Is the area full of rentals or are there some nice single family homes there too?  Again, they type of area is important to research in advance of buying a property.  Remember, you can change your property (paint it, add to it, remodel it, etc.) but it’s next to impossible to change (or control) your neighbourhood where it’s located.

Harold, I could go on and on about the things you may want to consider before buying any property, but the key point is to always do your research and due diligence before you buy. Based on the numbers alone, this particular property sounds good.  But, it’s important to remember it’s not all about the numbers!  Check out this article: 5 Ways to Know You’ve Found a Great Investment Property.

Thanks for stopping by Harold and good luck with your real estate investing!

Regards,

Dave

p.s. Harold, and everyone else, we invite you to join our 12 Months to $1 Million club where you’ll receive unlimited email coaching, group coaching calls, additional reports and resources and special members only teleseminars. Your first 60 days are free …

http://www.revnyou.com/freecd.html

I guess we could call this the shy Rev N You T-Shirt Model!

We’d love to have you join us!

Congratulations to Harold of St. John’s, Newfoundland who is the winner of September’s Question of the Month. As a thank you for his question, we will be sending Harold a Rev N You with Real Estate T-Shirt.

To be entered to win a T-Shirt in October all you need to do is send us any email with a comment or your biggest real estate investing question. Not only do we promise to respond … you just might win a T-Shirt!

Top 3 Books Every New Real Estate Investor Should Read

Some girls have shoe fetishes. Others obsess about purses. Some girls love to buy nice tops or fabulous outfits.

Not me. I actually dislike shopping … enormously.

Unless it’s for books.

I LOVE books.

I’ve always been an avid reader … but now that I’m not an employee I find there are so many more ways I can apply what I have read. As an employee, even when I was Vice President and ran a division of the company I worked for, I could never just learn something new and use it. Somebody else had to think it was a good idea and approve it.

Now, I can take what I’ve read and apply it instantly to my real estate investing or online business.

And because I can take what I read, hear or observe and apply it immediately I feel absolutely starved to learn more. And I do … and our real estate investing newsletter readers notice. I often quote from books or review something I’ve read and that leads to a lot of emails asking me about the books I recommend for a new real estate investor … so I tried to answer that question in this video.

In this video I share:

The Top 3 Books Every New Real Estate Investor Should Read

I also share the books I read in September and in the first half of October to give you a sense of WHAT I read …

What books do you think are a must read for every real estate investor?

I’d love to know!! Not that I really need more books to read… the second video shows you the books that are waiting for me to read them. Yes, Amazon loves me. And I love Amazon. My husband Dave on the other hand is not always so pleased to see the brown Amazon box arrive in our house …

Oh … and here are the books that I am going to read next:

Free real estate investing newsletter

Your Decisions Equal Your Destiny Not Your Circumstances

The Secret to Living is Giving – Anthony Robbins

I’ve never heard Anthony Robbins speak before.

Sure, I know who he is. Who hasn’t heard of Tony Robbins?

And because so many of the successful people I’ve studied have learned from him, I am familiar with many of the concepts he teaches. But last night I listened to Jay Abraham interview Anthony Robbins and I began to really appreciate his teaching.

As a real estate investor, understanding how to influence other people is important.

Being an excellent communicator and negotiator is critical to success. And these are subjects that were covered in detail in this interview. Tony covered the 6 needs that every human being has, the 2 main things that will impact whether you can influence somebody or not and the one thing that separates successful people from everyone else.

It’s an exceptional interview, and since it’s free I highly recommend you download your own version right here:

The League of Extraordinary Minds

But if you aren’t interested in listening to the 2 hour interview, I thought I would share a few of the key things I learned from the call:

• To influence someone you need to know what influences them already. But your ability to influence them will depend on the emotional state they are in and their personal blueprint. So, sometimes you need to be able to change the emotional state they are in otherwise you won’t be able to influence them at all.
• Focus on what you can control, not on what you can’t control. There are so many powerful examples of how this applies to real estate investing … for example, you can’t control the market and you can’t control the psychology of the people in the market, but you can control how you utilize the conditions to your advantage. You can control the strategies you use in different conditions and the places you choose to invest in.
• To be successful you have to be specific and clear and you have to focus on what you want. But, positive thinking and focus are not enough for success. You have to make sure your goal is compelling and exciting. It’s what I said last week after Engage Today – you have to find the bigger WHY behind what your are doing. THAT will ensure you’re successful. When what you are after is exciting and compelling … that will get you up at 6am 7 days a week. I know … when once I used to hit snooze until 8am I now have  no problems waking up … even on a Sunday. In fact, sometimes I go to bed already excited to wake up the next morning!!

If you haven’t achieved the success you want in your life, ask yourself: Who has a piece of the puzzle I am missing?

Then go out and learn from them!

And if you’re interested in learning from some of the greatest minds in the world… starting with Anthony Robbins … and getting it for free then you definitely should check out Rich Schefren and Jay Abraham’s League of Extraordinary Minds.

And – a special thank you to Rich Schefren and Jay Abraham for making this incredible interview … and many more to come … available for free to anyone and everyone. It really is an incredible gift and a remarkable contribution they are making to everyone’s success and future.