Where can I find a good mailing list to find motivated sellers? How can I create my own list to find highly motivated sellers? These are the big questions that I get a lot from Real Estate Investors! The true secret to success for a Real Estate Investor is finding sellers who really need to sell. I use different direct mail campaigns to locate different types of motivated sellers: out of state owners, properties quit-claimed from one person to another, expired listings, burned out landlords, vacant properties, military transfers, and pre-foreclosures, just to name a few.

The best part is that you can customize your direct mail piece and your list to reach exactly the kinds of motivated sellers you want to deal with in order to create the kinds of deals you want for your real estate investing business. This is best done by locating mailing lists and refining them to meet your individual criteria, then mailing to these potential sellers again and again, thus creating a multitude of profitable deals.

Investors often neglect to market to sellers using direct mail because they think the list is too difficult to get, or they only send the mailings once and quit. They don’t take the time to create the machine that will bring them deal after deal. Read More→

For almost two decades, I’ve been teaching folks that it’s better to be wealthy than rich.  And to be wealthy, you must own capital assets that provide you with mailbox money.  Mailbox money is money you make while you sleep.

In my opinion, the best capital asset for the average American to own is rental property.  After all, what other investment vehicle can be purchased for 40-cents-on-the-dollar, provide incredible tax breaks, be financed with a long-term note, generate monthly mailbox money, and as a bonus, be paid for by someone else (your tenants)?

Well folks, last week, after talking with David Tilney, I learned that there was a fundamental flaw in my thinking!

David Tilney has owned and managed rental property since 1978.  He’s one of the best, most knowledgeable and creative landlords in the country.  David has been one of my primary real estate investing teachers since 2004. Read More→

Thinking Like A Successful Investor

An investor of real estate understands that general knowledge is not what it takes to create wealth. If general knowledge was what it took to create wealth, college professors would be the wealthiest people in this country and we all know that is not the case. Successful real estate investors know that it takes specific knowledge to create wealth. That is why real estate investors buy hard assets, (such as the seller’s house) at a price or with terms conducive to making a profit. If an investor can’t make a profit, they usually have no reason to buy a property unless they plan to live in the house. An investor who is a true capitalist knows they must always offer a seller something the seller likes and values more than what they are giving up or a deal will never happen.

Most sellers are looking for a large sum of cash, a monthly income stream, debt relief or any of a myriad of ways to receive that thing the seller likes more than what they are giving up.

Now that we have established this fact, as an investor it is your job to figure out what you can offer the seller that will be liked enough that the seller is willing to exchange their house for whatever you offered them. If both parties aren’t happy with the deal, it will never happen. Read More→

A fraud has been perpetrated upon the American people all in the name of greed.  Fraud is defined as deception in the execution of an agreement where some parties to the transaction are deceived as to the real nature of what is being agreed to.  When some parties to an agreement are not clear, or some parties enter into the contract deceptively, then the agreement is null and void.  A securitized loan is just such a fraudulent agreement.

A securitized loan is one where private investors, pension funds, insurance companies and others have purchased the cashflows from a group of mortgages that have been gathered into a trust in the form of a security assigned a particular risk value. Each mortgage-backed cashflow grouping is called a “tranche” and there are generally several tranches within a mortgage-backed trust.  The cashflows are often sold multiple times to multiple investors.  Securitization is a way that institutional lenders are able to leverage capital to support additional lending.  When the economy is expanding securitization helps to grow the housing industry.  When the economy is shrinking the flaw in the system reveals itself as investors begin to lose cashflow as a result of defaulted loans. Read More→