Minnesota Real Estate Investors Association, Inc.

I remember the first phone call I got back in March, 2020 from a reia leader (Real Estate Investors Association) on a Saturday asking me what we were going to do now that they shut down the world and we couldn’t have live events anymore.  At that time I had no idea how to answer that question for 2 reasons.  First reason I wasn’t aware of that because I don’t watch the news and I spend as little time as possible on facebook and other social media platforms because everyone has become so negative.   And the second reason is that we were hosting a live event at that very moment so I told them that we would talk on Monday.

I just assumed that they were talking about their state and that it was not going to affect most of the country.  But by the time I turned a TV on Sunday night, almost the whole country was on lockdown.  That week Vena Jones-Cox from Cincinnati reia was doing their first Online Main Meeting and there was over 600 people in attendance at that event including myself.  Everyone heard about the Cincinnati reia and their topic was how to deal with tenant and real estate with all the new rules and restrictions that had been trust upon us in less than a week or 2 weeks for a lot of the country. 

At first it was fun for me and everyone working with new technologies and working through the challenges to adjust to the (don’t yell at me…)
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We live in uncertain times.  After the mortgage meltdown and the almost collapse of the financial industry, the real estate market has been going through several ups and downs.  The median sales price in my area went from its peak of $238,000 in June 2006 to a low of $138,500 in February 2012, back up to $210,000 in June of 2013 and we are on our way back down, currently sitting at $179,850 for January 2014.

There have been some wild swings in the past few years and the people that understand that and have kept a close eye on the trends, and have not been afraid of the market have made a lot of money the past few years.  However, I have seen most people sitting on the fence and haven’t done anything.  I can understand the feeling of uncertainty and being afraid to make a mistake, but let’s face it, if you’re afraid to make a mistake, you will never make it big.

You’re probably thinking right now “That’s easy for you to say Mike; you’ve been at this for a long time and have more experience than I do”.  While for many of you, that may be true, however, for your info, I have probably made more mistakes than most of you ever will, and I am still making mistakes.  But that is not holding me back.

That is one of the most common traits I see from those who are successful, even in this wild and uncertain market.  They are not afraid to make a mistake, and often do, but they don’t let that hold them back.

Everyone wants to minimize their risk of making a mistake and losing money or damaging their credit, myself included.  However, I see way to many people with paralysis of analysis and never do anything.  So what’s holding you back? 
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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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In the first two installments of this series we covered how the internet can help supplement your core real estate tasks. However, for real estate investors the internet provides two incredibly helpful roles that every investor should take part in… networking and education! These are essentially two things that the inspired investor can’t ever get enough of.

If you’ve found your way to this blog post you probably have an idea of what the internet can provide as far as education goes, but for those of you who aren’t, this part is for you!

Now one of the most abundant sources of real estate education can be had at your local reia’s home page which may feature audio of past meetings, replays of past webinars, and archived newsletters with articles galore. This is the information that you want to access first because not only will it be information geared towards real estate, but it’s also geared towards your market as every market is different. This will also expose you to the rest of the resources that are made available by your local reia (always a good practice).
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I was just talking with a close friend Robyn Thompson (The Queen of Rehabs) on a conference call last night with a bunch of students. And we got to talking about what kind of properties not to buy in today’s market and something she said made a lot of sense. She said she will not buy a small house right now.

While that makes sense, I had not put a lot of thought into it until last night. I have noticed a few things from buyers that told me that I should only be dealing with larger homes, but I hadn’t spent much time thinking about it. So I probed Robyn a little more about her philosophy towards buying larger homes and here is what we talked about.

First of all, because a lot of people are losing their jobs, they are starting small business and they are usually converting one of their bedrooms into a home office. And then I mention one other trend that I have been noticing. A lot of younger people that are losing their smaller homes to foreclosure and are being forced to move in with their parents or other relatives. And it doesn’t look like this is going to be a short term trend. I have talked to a lot of buyers recently that said that they are looking for a larger home because their sons, daughters and their spouses are moving in with them.

Also with the cost of elderly care and nursing homes, more and more people want to have their elderly parents live with them. There is yet another trend that Robyn Mentioned that I also agreed w
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In this era of opportunity for the real estate investors it is important that you develop a healthy understanding of your local reia (real estate investor association), fellow investors, and your business.

There is no better place to find such a large number of real estate investor in which to network and construct deals with than at the meetings and events of your local reia. Business without a reia would make it more difficult for investors to develop because these reias provide the links necessary for fledgling investors to start off wholesaling, for seasoned investors to rehab and lease option, and for those with properties to run them by other investors who have a buyer’s list. Another benefit of the reias are their vendors, they support the club and offer services such as legal, accounting, consulting but the real gem here is that these vendors are at the very least familiar with our line of business!

There are a lot of good lawyers out there, but even the best lawyers don’t know everything, the lawyers that show up at your local reias are the lawyers you are looking for because they have an understanding of what you are trying to do, what your business really is! Without this source you would end up spending and wasting a lot of tim
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