Minnesota Real Estate Investors Association, Inc.

Obviously it is, but how is it changing and what direction are we headed is the question most people are asking themselves these days. Some of the old school investors/realtors will relate to this article, but for most of you, this will seem like a radical new approach to real estate. You see, the changes I am going to be talking about or nothing more that real estate cycles coming back around full swing.

Over the last ten years or so, all you needed was a pulse and a few months to build appreciation in order to make money in real estate. That has changed drastically, today not only do you need a pulse, you also need a creative thinking brain. However, just having a pulse will not get you a mortgage anymore. In fact, I think the only way to get a mortgage today is to prove that you absolutely don’t need it, and then you have at least a fighting chance to get past underwriting.

Over the past two years, the real estate market has been going through a market correction, because of the over inflation of housing prices. Most of these properties have been either short sales or foreclosed upon by the banks and put back on the market at reduced prices. In many areas, prices have begun to stabilize and the new market values have been established. The first time home buyers tax credit helped boast these sales and stabilize prices. However, access to financing is getting harder and interest rates are expected to increase over the next few years. This will help to bring down prices of the surrounding properties over the next few years. 
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When it comes to all the technology and options that we all now hold at our finger tips, whether we know it or not, it’s important to recognize that because tools exist it’s not a reason to use them! There is a lot of buzz going, especially in a relatively new internet environment, that suggests that your business NEEDS to implement these tools. This message has its pro’s and con’s because it exposes people to new tools, but sends a message that they must be used. Such a message can really overwhelm and confuse investors who are just trying to get a grasp of the tools available. The confusion stems from one undeniable truth.

“Tools are meant to serve a purpose, not the other way around!”

We’ve been working hard to get the message out that it is incredibly essential to get a website (preferably one of ours because they are specifically made for investors with years of experience behind them), but when we pull you into the internet age we are bringing you into a whole Home Depot of tools.
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This blog post is a little bit of a spring cleaning exercise that is meant to cover some of the professional matters of real estate investing. Together we are going to be covering some points that you will want to keep in mind as you absorb 1,000s of facebook updates, in addition to the average number of marketing contacts that you encounter on a daily basis. There are 3 things that I want to make as clear as day for you that I see mucking up YOUR path to becoming a successful real estate investor:

1. The dream of getting rich quick
2. The hype that takes advantage of that dream
3. Your very own view of your business

The dream of becoming wealthy and successful is something that we can all relate to, but where do we draw the line in the sand between that dream and reality? If you’re not quite sure what I’m talking about stick with me here… There is no shortage of people online and on facebook right now selling dreams, using big numbers of what students have made, and checks they’ve cashed. However, keep in mind that their success does not translate directly to your success, as many a disclaimer will tell you. This is very important to note because anybody these days can create a system and the fact of the matter is that many of these “gurus” hire freelancers to write their materials and do their marketing.

In my opinion the only value these “gurus” provide is how to hype and sell a dream. 
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On our Monday night Training Webinar, I was asked a question from one of our students about driving traffic to their free website that everyone receives with their free account at Real Estate Promo. I gave them a suggestion to find another investor who has a property for sale right now and get their permission to market that property(s) on their websites. Then start creating ads on craigslist, kijiji, backpage and other online / offline marketing medias. This sparked a lot of interest and questions, so I decided to post a blog about the idea for everyone.

One of the struggles new investors have is activity. They spend all their time learning how to invest in real estate, but they don’t take a lot of action right away. This is probably due to fear and their misconception that they need to learn everything before they take any action. I am sure a lot of you seasoned investors can relate to this feeling of a newbie. Our Free Weekly Webinar Training is designed to not only to educate the new investors, but also to encourage them to take action, even if it is just small little baby steps to get started.

One of the struggles for seasoned investors is selling/renting their inventory. Personally from my own experience, my biggest struggles is when I have a property for sale, I spend all my time trying to fill the property that I stop doing what I am good at, which is locating and negotiating good deals. After I have that property filled, I then get back to finding more deals. All that time I have been marketing and driving traffic to my website. But if I don’t have any properties for sale on my website for a month or two, I am wasting good traffic from buyers, so I occasionally will market properties from fellow investors, just so that I have activity on my website. 
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While working with one of my students this week on the FREE Weekly Training Webinar, I received an email with a discouraging attitude about using craigslist. You see, I gave everyone the assignment of creating and digital flyer and posting it on craigslist. The assignment wasn’t meant to generate an immediate lead, while that is what we all want from our craigslist ads, the assignment however was to get them doing something to start the marking process.

Here is her email to me:

Hi Mike, I posted this ad on Craigslist, I put a code where it made the picture fill up the whole page. I got a big fat 0 number of responses. I went with a gloomy appeal. Please let me know if it sucks, as a newbie, I need all the help I can receive.

Here is my response to her: 
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I do a live weekly webinar training for real estate investors from all over the country. The weekly training is designed to help you either get started or get back on track. We have a vast verity of investors on the weekly training call from beginners to seasoned investors and one thing that I have been trying to emphasis on the training calls is that there is no one magical technique for success.

There are common traits and behaviors of successful investors, but they all have their own (sometimes unique) business models and they stick to it. However, in today’s rapidly changing market and economy, even those seasoned investors have been forced to change their strategies recently, myself included. That is why we have been seeing so many seasoned investors looking for answers.

I have been working with everyone to help them understand that one key fundamental to long term success in real estate, or any other business for that matter is the ability to change with the market. The market has changed and so must we.

So I am reaching out to all my fellow investors, new and old to find out what is working for you in your market? In the comments section below, tell us what is working for you, or what you have been doing lately. Then join us on the weekly training calls to continue this discussion on a weekly basis.
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While the government wants us to believe that the recession is over and the economy is heading back in the right direction, all the indicators show something completely different. Housing prices in particular are heading back down in many areas, as I have predicted several times in the past on our weekly training calls.

CNBC even talked about it the other day on their Power Lunch news show.

Jobs are the biggest reason in my opinion. While the Unemployment rate has dropped below 10%, the number of people unemployed is still growing, currently over 17%. The unemployment rate only counts the number of people currently collecting unemployment benefits. It does not count the number of people whose benefits have expired and are still unemployed.
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Approaching your advertising can be a bit of a daunting task, but fortunately there is an old school approach that holds just as true now as it did 100 years ago. The formula for advertising success can be summed up into four little letters AICA (Attention, Interest, Conviction, and Action). It’s not just the 4 elements that are important, but also the order in which they lay.

• Before anything will peak someone’s interest it must first get attention.
• Before anything will convince someone it must be of interest to them first.
• Before anything will cause someone to take action, they must be convinced to do so.

The main point being that when you’re advertising you have 4 steps to walk your prospects through and between those 4 steps there are 3 bridges you must get them to cross once you have their attention.

There’s real beauty in the simplicity of this formula that gives you a great framework to analyze your current marketing as well as formulate new marketing:
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I’m sure by now that every real estate investor surfing the internet for information is well aware that the big 3 (Craigslist, Kijiji, and BackPage) are an essential tool in generating leads online. However, there is a disconnect between knowing and doing and what often stops people is ‘Where do I start?’ Well just starting and only having the idea in your head that you have to post doesn’t really leave much conviction for the poster if they don’t really understand the ‘why?’

Today we’re going to be covering the nuts and bolts of ‘The Big 3’ and laying out a game plan that answers the question ‘Why?’ Keep in mind this is to generate seller leads or to build your buyers list, if you’re posting properties then the recursion trick at the end isn’t going to be a factor since listing a property is time sensitive, as where lead generation is constant throughout your time as a business.
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Ok, ok, I know, flipping has never been illegal, but with recent changes in the mortgage industry, the lenders are coming back around and asking for our help again. Wells Fargo was actually the first major lender to change its stance on seasoning, but because FHA is a government program, this is huge. First, let me give you a little back ground so you understand what the hoopla is all about over FHA temporarily suspending its 90 day title seasoning rule.

Several years ago, when all was right with the world, some investors were taking advantage of a unique situation in the mortgage industry. The federal government wanted everyone to be able to take advantage of the America dream. So they lowered interest rates and loosened up the required mortgage qualification guidelines for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac backed mortgages, including down payments. This actually made it cheaper and easier for people who normally would never have been able to qualify for a mortgage, get one with little or no money down.

These changes actually made it cheaper for a tenant to get a mortgage than it was to rent a property, because they could finance the entire purchase price, including their closing costs. If they were to rent a property, they would at least need the first month’s rent and a security deposit. But if they bought a house, they didn’t need any of their own money up front and their first payment wasn’t due until after they had lived in the property for one month. Plus, with a mortgage, the lender only pulled their credit report, and since most of these tenants never established credit, they didn’t have bad credit. Note that a credit report doesn’t show eviction notices or criminal history, which is where many of these tenants had records.
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