The Renegade Real Estate Investing Newsletter
"Cutting Through the Real Estate Investing B.S."
This FREE Real Estate Investing Tips newsletter is your window into the world of real estate investing. You will never get closer to the real action than learning straight from two Canadian brothers, Tom & Nick Karadza, who are actually implementing the strategies they talk about! In this weekly publication you will get access to our real world guides, trends, tips, strategies and "how to" information that is being implemented "on the streets" with real people, right here in Canada.
To access the full list of articles visit: www.TheRealEstateRenegades.com or check out their new blog: Blog.TheRealEstateRenegades.com
It is published every Thursday, if you have been forwarded
this email and would like your own copy click here to
sign up.
Thursday July 10th, 2008
In this Issue:
- Renegade Commentary: No Time? Come On.
- Featured Article: "Professional Investors vs. The Amateurs"
Income For Life Updates...
This month two Income for Life members are getting set to have their investment properties purchased from them. Each of these Income for Life investors is set to help someone achieve their dream of home ownership and make tens of thousands of dollars in profit in the process. Not bad eh?
And today we're about to release the identity of our guest speaker, "Mr. X", at our next Income For Life "Members Only" Event to our Members....and we have a couple of other surprises in store for our members. It should be a real blast.
On July 24th, 2008 we have our next Quarterly Income For Life Member's Only Event. This is where we get actual Canadian investors who live right here in the Greater Toronto Area to stand up and share the details of how they do what they do. We call it the HOT SEAT and its become the most anticipated part of our events. We know this sounds crazy but we actually *do* what we talk about with local investors right here in the Toronto area.
This event is for Income For Life Members Only. Not a member yet?
Click here to apply, we'll call you within 48 business hours to see if you qualify!
No Time? Come On.
Recently we had someone email us about wanting learn how to properly invest in Canadian real estate. We responded that he was in luck...we happen to be doing a training class on July 22nd, 2008 in our Burlington offices. We also touted our own horn and mentioned that we've done more lease/option real estate investing than anyone we know in Canada. So he was in good hands.
He responded that he didn't have enough time to sit in the 90-minute class.
Huh?
Here's someone who wanted to learn about real estate investing but wouldn't make the time to learn the information necessary to succeed from people actually doing it. He just want all the information "right now".
Wow.
Let's play a little game with this. What do you think he'll be doing during that Tuesday evening in July?
Maybe mowing the lawn?
Watching TV while sitting on the couch?
Reading the local newspaper full of articles that misrepresent many important facts and stories?
Talking with the neighbors and complaining about something?
Playing with his kids? (ok, we'll excuse him for this one but one night out of his summer isn't going to hurt them especially if it makes their future brighter).
Complaining about his job/the economy/the neighborhood/the weather?
Look. The difference between people who make money in real estate and those who don't is knowledge. They know how to apply strategies to a piece of property that the majority of Canadians don't. You must spend the time to acquire this knowledge and then apply it. There's no other way.
If you don't have the time to learn the proper way to invest then investing in real estate isn't very high on your priority list. If it was this gentleman would have found the time.
Too many people lack the basic financial knowledge necessary to change their lives. You must take personal responsibility for teaching yourself. Many people look at successful investors and believe they were "lucky" or "in the right place at the right time". Hogwash. Successful investors take the time to learn the information that will make them money.
Make sure you are doing the same.
If you're not an Income For Life member and want to meet us at our next Investing Class email Samantha in our office and she'll give you all the details (sam@myincomeforlifeteam.com)
Until next time...be a Renegade!
Tom & Nick Karadza
"The Real Estate Renegades"
Real Estate Investing Step-by-Step:
To learn more about our investing approach and the system we use
with our members you can request a copy of our FREE Report to be
mailed to you. In it you will learn:
- How you can turn 3 Single-Family homes into 24 homes without investing any additional money by having homes buy homes. EASY WEALTH!
- How you can create Income for Life in just ONE hour of spare time
a day! This means NO FIXING UP DISTRESSED HOMES!
To request your own complimentary copy of our investing in "Nice Homes
in Nice Areas" report go to www.LeaveWorkOneDay.com and fill out the form
at the bottom of the page.
Featured Article: "Professional Investors vs. The Amateurs
"
Look, it's 100% possible to make some real wealth, even get rich in real estate investing. Whatever your definition of "get rich" may be, you can accomplish it with real estate.
There's opportunity to earn both monthly passive income and large chunks of cash months after closing on a property.
But, you need to know what you're doing and we constantly see beginners make mistakes because they don't follow the basics of getting some education, then finding a mentor and then following a system.
To cover all the mistakes we see would take weeks and we'll keep adding articles to address various examples of things to watch out for. For this article we'll focus on one of the most important aspects of real estate investing...advertising and filling your property with a tenant. After all, having someone pay you money every month is kind of the idea. That's one of the important ingredients if you are going to get rich in real estate investing.
Here's something that we've noticed over the last couple of years...
Anyone can take a project to 90% completion. It's a real pro that finishes the job. And it's that same pro who gets to reap the rewards of a finished project.
Getting a tenant into a rental property is obviously worth a good sum of money to a real estate investor. And depending on the rental program used there may be an immediate windfall on the line. For example, if you are renting out a singly family home using a lease option, the successful placement of a tenant is worth thousands of dollars to you on day one and possibly tens of thousands of dollars to you after a couple of years.
There are four important differences between an amateur real estate investor and a real professional.
And these four can mean the difference between selling a property at a loss to rid yourself of it and making very healthy returns.
Amazingly you don't have to be a marketing genius to fill a property with a good tenant but you do need to do these things:
- Constant Presence.
Let's say you advertise your property for a week in the local paper. Towards the very end of the week you line up a tenant for your property and set a date two days later to sign the lease and pick up some cash as a deposit to hold the property.
You are excited and to save a couple of hundred dollars you stop advertising in the classifieds for the next week.
The meeting day rolls around and of course - it happens. One of you has a kid that is sick, or a dog that needs surgery, or a car that isn't behaving and you need to reschedule. Then for no reason whatsoever when you try to meet up on the agreed upon rescheduled day the possible tenant vanishes. Calls aren't returned, their voice mail box is full and their girlfriend, who you called because you were smart enough to get a back up contact number, has no idea who you are.
Frustration settles in.
You begin to wonder if you can ever get rich in real estate investing.
You have no more tenant leads because you stopped your advertising. To save a few hundred bucks you pulled your advertising and all the momentum you were building is lost. The other possible tenants have vanished and you need to start all over again.
You then resort to questioning human nature. A popular question asked at this time by beginners is "Why do these tenants lie? They said they wanted the house, why don't people do what they say they'll do? What's wrong with people these days?"
Nothing is wrong with people. People have behaved this way for hundreds of years and will continue to do so.
The problem is you, not them.
It's your lack of sales experience and knowledge that is the problem (a huge topic for another time).
You focus on the negative and it's a downward spiral from there. We've seen this happen to amateurs over and over. And it ends up being so scary at this point some people just break down and decide they can't get rich in real estate investing and leave the game all together. Bad idea, but to each their own.
Now the professional does the opposite.
The professional investor keeps advertising until the lease is signed and there is cash in their pocket. And not just on free websites like www.Kijiji.ca or www.CraigsList.org. They'll actually spend the money to keep a well written classified ad in the papers and on that paper's website.
A signed lease can represent tens of thousands in revenue. You get rich in real estate investing by getting things like leases actually signed.
Why would anyone jeopardize that to save a few hundred bucks on advertising?
Small thinking produces small results and by cutting off advertising before you have a signed lease agreement you are thinking small.
The professional investor learns about human nature and realizes that people may not follow-up on commitments.
But the pros don't not focus on that. Instead they focus on having 3 or more possible backup tenants in the wings.
They continue to show the property to other possible tenants until the lease is signed. They attempt to sign the lease on the very same day that someone shows interest. If that person doesn't have the full deposit on hand they accept whatever it is they have in their pocket.
They know that when someone coughs up even a partial deposit they are emotionally tied to the property.
They leverage their other possible tenants to create a competitive situation.
The professional understands momentum is key and works hard to create and maintain it. To get rich in real estate investing you must never stop advertising until everything is signed, sealed and delivered. Never.
- A Good Yard Sign right on the, surprise, front lawn.
Now one may seem obvious but we've seen amateurs screw this up. It's amazing to me that someone will buy a property for a few hundred thousand dollars and then invest zero or next to zero on a good yard sign.
Or buy one but let it sit in the trunk of their car (I can only assume there is a pool of possible tenants in their trunk and that's why it's there).
If you are going to get rich in real estate investing you must put in a yard sign. We have found that a HUGE percentage of tenants for student rentals, regular single family home rentals and lease option rentals come from the immediate surrounding area.
It's either by a friend walking by the house that sees the sign and passes on the information, or a family member who lives in the area and is looking for a place for their extended family or someone out on a drive just scouting the area for a good home.
And those little 8" by 9" black and red "For Rent" signs don't count.
You need a big professional sign. The type a realtor would use. You want this thing to stand right in the middle of the lawn using a solid frame to hold it up.
Home made signs fall down, blow over, deteriorate to mulch in the rain and just don't get the job done.
Invest is a solid sign. You're looking at approximately $100. If you really want to get rich in real estate investing you won't let $100 stand in your way.
Without it people have to be mind readers to figure out your house is available for rent or for sale. Possible I think, but not common.
I'll leave this point with a story. We were working with one investor who really wanted to get rich in real estate investing.
He spent thousands of dollars on training courses before they began working with us, he then took time to find a property, he ran all the numbers, lined up financing, set up a partnership with a family member and bought the house.
They ran some ads in the paper but didn't put up a yard sign...didn't think it was necessary.
Well, after a few weeks of not placing anyone in their rental proeprty they got nervous. After chatting with them and learning they hadn't done the obvious thing and let people in the area know their house was availabe we yelled at them. Again and again.
They went and put up a yard sign.
The very same week a couple signed up to lease the home. And they made a comment that went something like this - "We were on this street last week looking for a place and didn't ever realize this home was available." Ouch.
The professional real estate investor knows that to get rich in real estate investing you have to take this business seriously.
And advertising your property with a basic yard sign may sound simple, but it's a key ingredient that beginners often ignore.
-
Massive Action - this is a biggie.
So many people of been handed things to them their entire lives that when something doesn't go according to plan they break down.
They freeze.
Deer in the head lights syndrome.
Here's what I mean. If an amateur investor doesn't get their property rented out quickly they will start blaming the people that came through the house. They'll blame the possible tenants for not "seeing" the value in the home, or for not following up, or for not having enough money to put together first and last month's rent.
The amateur blames everyone but himself. You will never get rich in real estate investing like this.
If a professional investor doesn't get a home rented out within a reasonable time he/she goes into action, MASSIVE ACTION.
They do not just do one thing to try and fix the situation. For example, if their yard sign was small they don't just go get a bigger one.
The pro will get rich in real estate investing because they'll go off and do 10 things all at once. A new sign, flyers to the area, improve the street appeal, work on their sales skills, seek advice from a mentor, change their ad, introduce a voice mail system instead of answering calls live so they aren't fumbling the phone in the car trying to answer calls, put up directional "For Rent" signs on street corners...
All too often the amateur investor will do one thing and think they've done enough. Nothing could be further from the truth. When the going gets a bit tough you need massive action to create momentum. Massive action is what will allow you to get rich in real estate investing. Action, lots of it.
Beginners move so slowly at improving their strategy that I think they actually bore themselves into losing interest. They had a dream to get rich in real estate investing and then let it fade.
They have no committment.
It's nuts. Move quickly, it's really the only way to get things done. And it leads us to the final point...
- Taking responsibility for the results.
Professional investors ask questions about all situations. And then adjust their approach immediately. Amateurs piont fingers.
Professionals take responsibility.
The amateur investor focuses on everything but themselves. The pro will always be asking themselves questions:
Am I getting the proper number of leads from my advertising in the paper?
Can I word my ads better?
Is my yard sign visible?
Can I improve the street appeal?
What is the feedback from the tenants who have been through the house?
Am I pushing people away with a hard pitch to rent out the home?
Are my price points set properly? Am I doing a good enough job explain the price and the value?
Where are people coming from to view the property? Can I advertise more in that area specifically?
And they will take these answers and turn them into the massive action required to complete the job.
Remember, anyone can do anything up to 90%. It's the pro who takes it all the way.
To get rich in real estate investing you have to become a pro.
Will you?
About The Real Estate Renegades
Tom Karadza & Nick Karadza are authors of the book "Income For Life for Canadians", available on Amazon.com by clicking here (not Amazon.ca just yet!),
and work with a select group of real estate investors throughout the Greater Toronto Area.
They actually do what they talk about it.
They have been called 'Real Estate Renegades' because they are implementing
real estate investing strategies that were once thought to be impossible by
many 'industry professionals'. They are part of several mastermind groups in Canada and in the USA and publish a monthly 12-page real estate investing newsletter and audio series exclusively for their clients.
They also offer real estate investing classes, reports, coaching
and mentoring, and other resources to help both beginner and experienced real estate investors achieve ultimate success. Learn more now at:
www.TheRealEstateRenegades.com.
OR
You can meet them in person at their next FREE Real Estate Investing Class, "How to Invest in Nice Homes in Nice Areas" by signing up here: www.CanadianRealEstateTraining.com
Enjoying this newsletter?
Feel free to email this to friends and family who are interested
in real estate investing. They can sign receive their very own
FREE subscrition by clicking here.
Copyright 2008 Karadza Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.
|