It is no secret that real estate agents, as a profession, have had a tough time of it over the last several years. The recent real estate bubble created a feast or famine situation and many agents have not survived the famine. Meanwhile, over the last 5 years, I have sold over 500 single family homes, condos, or lots to my clients…including closing on 30 deals last month alone. This volume places me in the top 5% of all Realtors in the country (in both transactions and commissions.) I am not telling you this in order to boast or brag about my sales (as I know other realtors who have done far more business than I have) but merely to propose that my success has not been due to luck but rather due to a particular mindset that has worked very well for me over the last several years.
The Realtor’s Success Mindset
This mindset has entailed thinking as an investor instead of as a Realtor. I have never really considered myself a Realtor, in fact, but rather an investor who helps other investors. It doesn’t hurt that I own 20 investment properties of my own and have a lot of experience in searching for and closing my own purchases. But this is not a prerequisite to thinking like an investor. In order to position yourself as an investor Realtor you don’t have to own a lot of properties yourself, but you do have to develop a reputation with your clients for being more interested in their bottom line than you are in your commission. I have been able to do this, and in so doing grow a large investor database by using the following strategies that I would like to share with you:
When choosing the area you’re going to invest in a lot of people don’t create a large enough radius around where they live. For example, one of the best ways to be successful in this business is to mail a lot of letters and postcards to highly targeted lists. And sometimes when an investor tries to order a list around their home town they might only come up with 300 names. When that happens, you need to enlarge your radius because mailing 300 names will never make you wealthy.
When it comes to finding great real estate deals, I am a firm believer that you can find deals in any market and any time. But what is the probability that you can cherry pick from many home run deals have little competition and multiple exit strategies?
Today I want to talk to you real estate investors about Google and how you can use it to find that house seller that will come to your site and actually want you to sign a contract with them. I’m talking about prospects that actually want you to do a deal with them, and buy their house.
Is it finally here? The light at the end of the you know what?
was finally “somebody” because his name was in the phonebook. Well, today I received the latest edition of the Dex yellow pages directory for Las Vegas. Without even opening it, I saw a snapshot of the local economy.
There seems to be a lot of curiosity, myth, and maybe even ignorance when it comes to private lenders. So, hoping to shed some light on the subject, I had a candid conversation with a private lender with whom I’ve worked with, and respect. She did not want to have all of her information listed because she doesn’t want to get bombarded with phone calls. So, I will just refer to her as Patty. Patty does want to hear from good investors, however, and I’ll tell you how to get in touch with her later.
Rising utility costs are one of the many challenges we multifamily landlords have been facing in this “perfect storm” economic climate. Landlords who traditionally paid for utilities are searching for ways to transfer those costs to tenants.
This post may sound like heresy to the died-in-the-wool debit card user. However, if you put the same overview on debit cards you do to other investments, you may agree with me. After all, it is YOUR money at risk.
The real estate business, like all other businesses, is about relationships. To succeed, one must be able to forge and foster relationships. Social networks are great places to meet new people to accomplish that end.
What’s worse than not getting any deals and struggling to buy houses? The answer is buying the wrong house. You see, many investors take an early exit from this business because they overpay for a property or because they don’t understand the correct formulas to use when evaluating a deal.
An eye opening account in the 
In December, CIT Group received a $2.33 billion lifeline from the 
Joshua Dorkin
An Investment Alternative To Consider
by Tom Koziol | July 31, 2009Today I have put on my insurance agent hat and will talk about what I believe to be a good place to invest not only your retirement but spare cash. You can even be retired and get one heck of a deal with this product.
I am talking about the good ole annuity that has had its reputation tarnished but is on its way back to being the star it should be. Because annuities come in a variety of flavors, ie, fixed, single premium immediate income, variable, etc, I’ll stick only to the virtues of fixed and single premium annuities.