Video: How to Buy & Sell a Home in 7 Days

This is a video from The Best MI Homes (TBM Homes) from Ron Ristovski. He explains

1. The type of home he and his partner purchase.
2. Why it sells so quickly.



This home is in Warren, Michigan.

It took this group seven (7) days to buy and sell this home.

I've posted material from this group, already, but they provide such good material, that I would be cheating you not to show this here.

For more information, their website is www.TheBestMIHomes.com

Title Searches: What are They?

This is geared more toward beginning investors, but here is a video that seems to do a decent job explaining what title searches are...and are not...(Yeah, this guy is in Texas, but it seems to give a good overview in less than 3 minutes.)



For more detail-oriented people, this link highlights 50 different things that a title search covers:

http://www.titlesearch.com/30pt.html

My personal favorite...Bail Bond Liens...Would you EVER have thought of THAT one?

For a few other items on this list, it offers a link that will show EXAMPLES. I think this is very cool!

FHA Loans - Reasons Home Buyers Love FHA Loans

Check out this article:

http://homebuying.about.com/od/financingadvice/qt/FHALoansAreBack.htm

This article does a great job outlining the benefits of targeting people with FHA loans. It also lists a couple of its limitations.

Working Toward Your Goal: Do Something EVERY Day

My title suggests the story. If you want to achieve something badly enough, figure a plan. Make sure that plan outlines your steps clearly. Make sure to have a little progress every day, even if it is just a little tiny spurt.

It is easier to keep momentum moving than to start (or restart) it.

It keeps your mind focused on your goal. Subconsciously, you will think about it constantly.

People will know where to find you. As in most things, real estate investing is largely about networking. You can find people, but it's great when they find you. Make it easy for them by making your presence predictable.

A marathon isn't done in the first minute--not even by those amazing Kenyan runners. Just keep working toward that finish line.

Cool Website: BiggerPockets.com

I don't have much to say, but I am suggesting that beginning and advanced real estate investors check out www.BiggerPockets.com website.

A friend of mine who invests in the Flint, MI Area (a smaller city about 60-90 minutes from Detroit) suggested this site to me.

What do I like about it?

1. It has a lot of articles. It contains articles for beginners and advanced real estate people. There was even an article about REITs in there.

2. It lists properties, but this is probably nothing all that special. It's just a nice touch while you're in there.

3. My FAVORITE part is the forums section. There are several forums, and many are probably very good. However, the one that makes me return to this site is the forum that ANALYZES DEALS. This site contains conversations of people putting out a deal (often with the key numbers attached), and other people comment why it is or is not a good deal. They also mention when they need more information, often citing what info is missing.

Overall, this is a good site.

If someone reads this and knows another similar site, let me know. Please!

Tip: Form or Join Support Groups

A good idea for anyone but especially beginning real estate investors, join a support group of people who want to invest in real estate. While usually any support group is better than not having one at all, there are some guidelines I would like to suggest:

1. Attitude: Try to bring a good attitude yourself. This is most important, as it will rub onto others. Also, it's the one thing that you can always control. Control it. Additionally, try to surround yourself with people who feel energized. You often become like the people in your crowd. Surround yourself with people that make you want to keep going. Plus, be patient when things don't go quite the way you planned.

2. Aptitude: It helps to have someone in the group that knows a lot. Sometimes, you are fortunate enough to get two (2) or three (3) people who can guide the rest. It is nice to bring someone else who is not as far as you, too. You learn a lot by teaching (see previous post), but it also is a checkpoint. If the person behind you starts to catch you, you know that you need to pick up your pace. Learn how easily each person learns, as this will affect some planning. Not everyone learns at the same pace.

3. Ambition: First of all, you NEED to feel this. Without this, you will be scared. Real estate is somewhat complicated (so I'm told), and you will hit some rough patches. If you have a burning desire, you will see this as progress and one step closer to success. It helps if, at least, one other person in the group has a similar ambition level. When blended correctly, you will lift each other and maybe other people as well.

4. Availability: Who cares whether you have a great group if you can never get together? Try to establish this quickly. If it's too hard to please everyone, maybe split into smaller groups. The smaller groups can always exchange notes.

5. Skill Set: Understand YOUR skill set. Even if you're a beginner, you know something that someone else does not. Plus, try to learn what other people bring to the table. Remember that every person can bring something. I won't guarantee that everyone will be willing to share it, but many are. You might find a partner, a teacher, or just simply an idea of something you want to improve.

6. Peer Pressure: It's a good idea to include or find some members within the group who make you want to do better--people around whom you feel too foolish to let down for not doing your share of what you promised.

Most of the time, support groups are great, but if you take these things into consideration, you will be well-positioned to get the most you can from the group.

Offer to Teach Something

Teaching does a lot of things for you.

• Force Learning: When you are obligated to teach people something, you MAKE yourself learn it. If you didn't know it, you're less likely to put off teaching yourself if you know other people are depending upon you to teach it to them. If you know it already, you will further cement your understanding about your topic.
• Gain Perspective: Often, people will ask you questions that you never considered. This will make you understand your topic even better. Plus, it prepares you for objections that you need to overcome when you are trying to sell something later. You will better understand people's insecurities tied to a topic, and teaching will give you that exposure to them, and you will be better prepared to handle those.
• Build Contacts: Everyone in that classroom will get to know YOU better than any of their classmates, at least during the class session. Each person gets a glimpse of your ability to communicate and display your professionalism. Most of all, you don't have to "trick" them into giving you their information. They are coming to you willingly providing their info.
• Increase Status: As a teacher, you become a momentary "expert." This will be many people's first impression of you, and you look the part of a knowledgable leader. Many people will refer other people to you.

The first two (2) reasons improve my marketability. The last two (2) reasons increase my marketing and advertising efforts: free contacts and referrals.

What can I teach? I'm new. Anything I know, you know, already.

Okay. So you might appreciate the benefits of teaching, but what can I possibly teach?

You'd be surprised, but even if it is true that people know it already, many people know something but feel validated when they hear another "expert" telling this to them. It amazes me to see how many people do not have confidence to recognize that they "know" something, even when they really do.

Plus, it's important to realize that we all have different experience and knowledge bases. Someone reading my posts, for instance, might have 25 years of real estate investing experience to my NONE, but chances are pretty good that somewhere in here, I'm presenting an idea he or she has not previously considered. Don't take your knowledge for granted; appreciate and embrace it. Let other people decide that they don't have a use for it.

What do you teach? Consider the following approaches:

• Recent Lessons: Simplest way to put it...Ask yourself, "Do I know more today than I did a year ago?" Most likely, the answer is a resounding, "YES!" What did you learn? At the very least, you can teach THAT to whoever has not had the benefit of your past year.
• Prior Experience: Another angle for potential topics is to consider your experience prior to you becomming an investor. What did you do in your life beforehand? What made you think that you might be able to do this? I bet you did something before you studied real estate that has helped you. Other people might not have that benefit. You can share THAT with them.
• Hot Topics: The beauty of the Internet is that you can research nearly anything. After attending a few meeting sessions or listening to a few conversations, you start hearing a pattern of what interests peoples: concerns, opportunities, and frustrations. Research one of these, and give a talk about it. If enough people mention the topic, enough people will be interested in what you have to say.

I can't get a teaching job anywhere. I don't have a degree, a teaching certificate, or whatever.

While I have taught in four different colleges (doesn't that make ME special), this is only a neat fact to deliver. I have taught in

• Libraries
• Panera or McDonald's
• People's Homes

You can teach anywhere you can meet with someone who wants to learn.

Have too many people to teach at Panera? Most libraries have special study or conference rooms. If you're big-time enough, you can rent space at a hotel, but for us beginners, I suggest that you use the free resources.

I haven't tried these, but while I was writing this post, I realized that I've never (but should have)

• gone to the city government to ask if there is any space I can use to teach people for free.
• approached local charities or Rotary-like clubs
• asked colleges if they have space available (outside of the standard classroom)

If anyone decides to use any of these ideas or likes them, let me know. I'm pretty passionate about sharing knowledge, as you might be able to tell. In fact, you don't have to be a real estate investor to apply these.

Give Testimonials

That's right! Give testimonials freely.

Why?

Besides helping out someone else (which is usually a good thing to do), they

• provide free advertising (give name and company; maybe slip in your benefits, too)
• showcase your communication skills or accessibility
• demonstrate that you acknowledge other people's good work (making them more likely to want to work with you)
• help separate you; not everyone is willing to take time to do this

Idea: Testimonial Source

This will be a quick one today, but someone gave me an idea worth mentioning.

Every business has different phases to it--including real estate. You can get a testimonial from people different phases.

For instance, you could get a testimonial from your

• Real Estate Agent
• Contractor
• Lawyer
• Mortgage Officer
• Hard Money Lender

Any of these people can vouch for your professionalism, your ability to pay them on time, your willingness to make things easy for them, etc.

Renting or Selling? Know how you want them to get there.

Whether you're trying to sell your property or find a tenant to rent it from you, it's really important to know more than one way (if possible) to get there.

Why?

You want a person to see your "good side" when you first meet them. It's no different for a property. Let them see the good, picturesque side of town. You know. The one with the nicer looking homes and better kept lawns. You don't want to route them through all sorts of boarded up homes. You really don't want to take them through rough neighborhoods. Remember, you are trying to make a good first impression.

So when someone asks you for directions, don't tell them to use Mapquest or some other similar direction-giving website. Know which way will let them see the best your property's neighborhood has to offer.