Thursday, June 24
Hello All!
For those of you who have left encouraging comments, I truly thank you and apologize for having been absent recently.
This blogging thing has not come naturally to me, being a bit introverted, but I find that it is surely in keeping with some of the traits necessary to become a succesful Real Estate investor.
The ability to communicate clearly and concisely is paramount in this business!
Finding properties for sale is easy. Negotiating purchases and resales is not!
However, just like with this blog, I find that taking the time to formulate exactly what one wants to say, is the key to success.
What I would like to share today is an update of our activity in the last six months.
Since the time of my first entry, we have purchased and sold three homes and are under contract to purchase two more!
This may not seem like much to seasoned investors but to us it represents a real start to our business.
We have managed to consistently double our money and the two new purchases are going to do even better for us!
For those of you that are just starting out, I cannot emphasize enough the value and importance of getting out and using those communication skills mentioned earlier to find yourselves a deal!
I know that there are people who want to sell you these “automated” systems that supposedly will have you rolling in deals, and that enable you to make money without ever having seen the properties involved, etc.
That may or may not be so, but what I have found, in my rookie season, is that being in front of a seller can mean thousands off a potential purchase and getting to know a buyer can mean many more deals to come down the line.
I’ve heard it said many many times that this is a “numbers” business.
Well, I like to think of it as a “people” business.
We have brought gift baskets to all of the people who have bought from us, and that simple gesture of thanks has engendered a real sense of belonging for us, in this community. It has also provided us with some of the best poissible advertising that money can’t buy………..
Word of mouth!
We already have several buyers lining up for the two new properties that we are closing on!
And did I mention that the last property we sold, which will close on July 2, had no less than four buyers with competing bids, trying to purchase it! That’s not counting the many others who came to see it.
We eventually sold it to a man that lives two houses down the block from it.
His wasn’t the highest bid but after having sat with him and gotten to know a bit about him, we learned that he and his siblings were trying to find a home for their father that would be close to one of the children.
We met the father as well and after some thought we decided to sell to them for a bit less money.
Crazy? Stupid? I don’t think so!
The good will generated by this act is going to prove far more valuable than any discounted amount of money not made on the sale!
And dammit, it just FELT GOOD!
Our advertising consists of free ad in the Iwanna which is the local penny saver!
But the people that we have sold to have generated far more exposure for us because we have helped them get into homes and become home owners during a time when the banks are just not lending.
TK Homes may never be the biggest real estate investor in America. We may never become multi-millionaires doing this business but I truly believe that we will be successful for years to come because we want to serve the community and the people in it.
If that’s naive then I say………… ignorance is bliss!
In closing let me just say that this is a highly individualized business.
Yes. We can learn lots from each other but in the end, what works for one, may not work for another.
We all have to find our own niche.
But the ability to communicate, through e-mail, face to face, or on the phone, is what makes this a people business.
I encourage you all to hone these skills.
Consider the impact that you may have on someone’s life. Consider the way that you may help to change the life of a family in a positive way.
Learn to articulate what it is that you hope to accomplish for yourself and your business, and you will begin to make those oh so necessary connections.
Good hunting!
Sunday, April 18
Well.........
I am happy to announce that TK homes has officially closed on its first home acquisition! And we are under contract to purchase two more!
I wanted to pass on a couple of things that I have learned that have allowed my company to close on these deals.
First off is to find a deal and there are many schools of thought on this. Many of the "gurus" suggest that building an internet presence is the best way to get lots of deals quickly. Splash pages, calls to action, teasers, all designed to create interest in your website.
Others stress the need for list building, creating a list of buyers whose needs you would then try to fulfill.
Still others put their emphasis on networking on the social pages and creating blogs for people to follow thereby creating a following of potential contacts and customers.
Certainly, all of these things are necessaruy to build a lasting and succesful real estate investing business, and at TK Homes, we are actively involved in all of them but for me personally, there is nothing more exciting than running down a lead from scratch.
Actually going out and finding a potential deal, doing the legwork, the research, creating a plan of action and an eventual exit strategy and then putting those things in motion by making yourself and your intentions known to the property owner, is, in my mind, the best part of this business (except for maybe depositing checks!).
There are some in this business whom I have heard say that they don't ever meet the owners, in many cases never even see the properties. For them it is just an automated process which is as impersonal as can be, and truth to tell, they are very successful in working that way.
I actually enjoy the personal contact and I truly believe that some of the most lucrative deals cannot be found without a bit of face to face time.
This approach has allowed us to purchase three homes on nice sized lots.....................for $28000.00 dollars! Three houses!!
And our exit strategies are designed to allow us the maximum downpayment, enough to recoup the initial outlay, and then to have significant cash flow for years to come before a nice balloon payoff!
What have I learned? (and we have all probably heard this before, which is why it is a prime candidate for inclusion into "TK's list of obvious instances")
Real estate investment gurus are not Moses, brandishing the ten commandments! No system is absolute!
Learn from the "experts" and then learn to do it your way!
Until next time..............good hunting everyone!
Thursday, March 18
Have you ever been driving through your neighborhood or whatever general area that you have chosen to work in and caught a whiff of a deal in the air?
It's like....you're driving along with your head on a swivel, trying to see everything at once so you dont miss that one special FSBO sign that you've been dreaming of, and all of a sudden, its there, like the smell of roses in summertime, like the fresh scent in the air after a spring rain..........
oh wait.......! It's not roses, or a spring breeze, it's the stench of the garbage that is overflowing out of the front door of the "hot lead" that you've just pulled up in front of.
It's the rotting fragrance of a home that has been abandoned for years that just happens to sit on a still solid foundation, with all walls and roof intact.
In short, it's the smell of a steal.........the smell of a DEAL!
We at TKHomes are very fortunate to be operating in a town that has just such properties in abundance. These are properties that have been deeded to heirs over the course of many years and in some cases have been completely forgotten and totally abandoned.
The best part is that they are located in areas where there is still plenty of viable housing, both rental and single family residences.
The problem, of course, is tracking the owners down. In some cases they are deceased without heirs, in which case the intrepid investor is in for a special ride called "dealing with the state", a true nightmare of paperwork and more paperwork which could easily result in a loss of the property to someone else.
After all of your hard work!
In other instances, there are multiple heirs involved and after our steadfast investor has gotten everyone else to sign off on the deal, cousin Fleebus comes out of the woodwork and announces his opinion that the property is worth "a damn site more than that"! And so negotiation must begin all over again.
These deals are relatively small in terms of profit margins, and many people wouldnt even consider doing them, but I figure, if it makes more than ten grand, I'll do it, despite the beating that it sometimes requires.
Of course, you might ask me about it a few years from now, and I might have a different opinion! The Lord willing......I sure hope so!
Thursday, March 11
Wow!
It’s been like a month since I posted my last rant! Mea culpa! It’s hard to believe how quickly time passes when one is trying to run in too many directions at once.
I envy and marvel at all of the people who have so smoothly suggested that this is an easy business to be involved in!
Sure! If I had all of the money that I needed at my disposal then I could just purchase what I want and hold it, flip it, develop it or live in it at my liesure.
But these “no money down” or “none of your own money” concepts, which, by the very nature of my financial situation, are necessary strategies for me, are far more elusive than I am presently comfortable with.
I have been doing the things that I have been instructed to do, the locating of properties, the diligence, the offer letters, the tracing of tax delinquent owners, the researching of abandoned properties, (I’m still extracting thorns from my ass which I picked up when looking at a piece of abandoned property yesterday!) just trying to find something that will allow me to get a few points up on the board.
And I feel confident that something will be coming back to me soon! But in this society, we all want instant gratification, and it is sometimes difficult to be patient.
I will say this though….after just a short period of time, I am totally HOOKed on this business. I havent made a dime yet but I believe that I am going to.
I live in an area where the possibilities are as seemingly endless as are the properties for sale. And I can see those possibilities! It is taking time to put all of the tools together to be able to take advantage though. And I have already lost some deals through inexperience! I dont mind paying my dues but I also need to pay my bills!
I commend all of us, the very successful ones and the ones, like myself, who are just starting out, on our courage and resourcefulness, working within an industry that has been crippled by greed and a total lack of vision toward the future.
If these rants can be of assistance or comfort to those like me, or a source of humor to those who have already been through the trials, then it will have been time well spent. For me it’s THERAPY!
I leave you with a wise acronym from the movie “Glen Gary, Glen Ross”……….ABC….. ALWAYS BE CLOSING!
Rant at cha later!
Monday, February 08
It has definitely been one of those daze (at least, yesterday was).
The computer crashed, seemingly beyond repair, and so I had to go and buy one. Youch! Not an easily absorbed expense right now but can anyone out there imagine trying to run a business like ours without a working computer?
Sooooo...........
let me tell y'all a little story about........a boy and his dog............... actually, this story is about a lady and her little monkey.
Eeeyup! Thats right!
The very first deal to leave its furry little hand prints all across our desk concerned a woman who is living in a townhome with a pet monkey!
It is a Marmiset which stands all of about ten inches in height and its face ia about as big as my thumbnail.
The HOA where she lives, had allowed her to move into the townhome two years ago, with monkey in tow, but apparently they have received too many recent complaints about the monkey running loose in the common areas.
So.......they want her and the monkey out!
We interviewed the woman, determined her needs, were in turn interviewed by the monkey, and after he gave her the okay, we came up with a good offer which would allow all parties to get what they wanted.
It was a good deal, and one that would have netted us over ten thousand dollars however.........
The day before we were to go to settlement, her brother died.
We expressed relief that it wasnt the monkey. After all, that would have queered an already strange deal!
Of course, somewhere between her brother's passing, and the next time that I actually saw her, she had been talked into signing with a realtor.
Goodbye deal, goodbye monkey.
It's been a month since then.
I spoke to her two days ago. She said that she wished that she had just signed with us as she is now locked into a six month contract and the realtors' supposed "buyer" has yet to materialize.
She now has some seriously legal problems because her deadline for leaving has come and gone.
Anybody know a good way to get someone out of a real estate agent contract?
So, in honor of the first "its a jungle out there" contract to fall into one hand, and jump out of the other, here's the first entry
into..............."TK's list of Obvious Instances"
(the "rules of acquisition" having already been taken)
1) A contract is worthless when it remains unsigned...........and that's no monkey business!
Saturday, February 06
…….Okay…….
Let’s try this again!
I had originally posted my first blog yesterday and it was all about being excited about creating a new real estate investing business from scratch and how overwhelming the wealth of information was, not to mention the learning curve associated with the activities and peripherals needed to get everything up and running.
And then ……..BLAM! I ran headlong into the blog wall! I did say there was a curve right. Guess I forgot to lean into it……
The next thing I know, whatever it was that I wrote was gone. Whisked off into cyberspace, never to be seen again…..at least, not bt me!
So, once again……………
Welcome to TK’s REI Rant!
TKHomes is a family owned, family run business. It is a joint venture between the Kmosko and Tucker families.
Bob Kmosko and Troy Tucker (that’s me) are its owners and creators, with Tracey Tucker Kmosko as chief communications officer and Leah Kmosko as head research associate (she’s all of 14 and determined to won her first property before the year is out!)
Bob and I come from different professional fields.
He was a home building contractor with a specialty in tilework and custom bathrooms and I have been a field electronics and security technician working with systems as diverse as photo-imaging and laser technologies.
Bob has already been active in the real estate investing arena and has several rental properties under his belt, but we realize that this is just the beginning and that if we truly want to be successful at this business (and we do!) education is going to be as big a factor as anything else.
Having said that, I would like to invite you all to be involved in the journey that we are embarking on.
If you have any relevant comments, suggestions, opinions (or deals!), concerning anything you read on this site, your input will be great ly appreciated and received in the spirit with which is was given.
I will also do my best to offer good information concerning the industry, its trends and changes, and anything else that I feel would be of interest to an investor.
Additionally, there will be posts from other family members, giving their perspectives and observations as we all take in the passing scenery on this trip of discovery.
So buckle up all and again, Welcome to TK’s REI Rant
