Marco Kozlowski

Marco Kozlowski

When I initially got involved with real estate I was a
desperate struggling musician with four children. I was
overworked and underpaid, constantly under pressure to make
ends meet. At only 27 years old I was stressed beyond belief
and virtually bankrupt. Saving money seemed nearly impossible
being as how the money was spent weeks before it came in.
Looking back I now joke about the only difference between me,
as a musician, and a large pepperoni pizza is that the pizza
can actually feed a family of four. I was miserable and knew I
not only deserved more, but that my family did as well. I
needed to do something about my unfortunate situation…but
what?

It was 1999, I was watching TV one very late night, too
stressed about money problems to get any sleep, when I froze
while channel surfing and begin watching in astonishment as an
infomercial aired and began promising me an abundance of wealth
in the real estate industry even without having money or credit
currently. Considering that I actually did have no money and my
credit score was close to my shoe size I really wanted what
they promised, more money, less work and complete financial
freedom. All that I was required to do was get involved in real
estate, but it was 350 dollars alone just to get the
information. Although, I knew if I wanted to make any kind of a
significant change in my life that I HAD to do something
radically different. So, I took a deep breath and purchased the
product with the last bit of money that we had set aside to get
through the rest of the month. I knew what I was potentially
risking, but in my mind the risk was well worth the reward.

After a few days, I received the package and ravaged through
it like a kid on Christmas. I began by reading every book,
flyer, and workbook. I also wore out the CD’s and DVD’s that
the package contained to make absolute sure that I had expended
all of my possible resources. I wanted to be sure that I knew
the proper steps I needed to follow in order to be successful.
These real estate techniques HAD to work, and they did -
eventually.

The decision that I made to pursue this venture changed my
life, the life of my family and the lives of their families for
generations to come. It also changed the lives of my tens of
thousands of students who I am able to constructively benefit
on a day to day basis. That one conflicting decision has made
me millions of dollars and spawned countless numbers of others
who have achieved financial success using systems which I have
created over the years.

Most of the concepts taught in that infomercial course were
difficult for me to comprehend. I was clueless and could barely
spell real estate, let alone grasp the entire industry and its
inner workings. So, I decided to stick with one central area of
focus at a time and within thirty days I made my first $7,000
from real estate using none of my own money or credit. I then
abandoned the music business and decided to take on real estate
as a full time responsibility and new passion. For years I'd
been looking for something more for myself than simply being an
inundated musician but I never knew what I was seeking. When I
got my hands on that first check it became crystal clear that
real estate was my future.

I first learned how to find good deals and started buying
middle income houses in nice neighborhoods. On some, I used
borrowed money from private investors and on others I took over
overextended sellers' payments. I acquired over one hundred
houses and a tenant to go in each.

Let me ask you this, do you have any tenants? And if so, did
your tenants go to the same school as my tenants? The “Jerry
Springer” school of tenantry? Well, if this is the case then
maybe you came to the same conclusion as me. I soon realized
that I went from a dead broke musician to a “rich on paper” and
still dead broke landlord. Many of my renters paid late, if at
all, making my bills impossible to pay. My financial world
began to crumble. I'd spent two years buying the wrong
properties, the wrong way, in the wrong areas, for the wrong
reasons. I built my empire on a house of cards, not a solid
foundation. I had gone about it all wrong.

You see, I really didn't understand the real estate
business. I just bought properties because I had the ability to
do so without money or credit. I bought all the rubbish savvy
investors wouldn't touch. They'd already been to the school I
was about to graduate from… The School of Very Hard Knocks. All
of my properties inhabited by inconsiderate tenants were
draining my resources financially and mentally. My days were
spent solving their petty problems and listening to all of the
embellished excuses for why they were unable to pay rent.

I had created a huge cash flow problem. I couldn't pay my
bills and the collectors really started haunting me. The worst
of them was my car company who called and badgered me until I
warned them that if they called to hassle me again that they
would not have a place saved for them in the HAT. They paused,
asked what that was exactly, and I explained that at this point
in my life, at the beginning of each month I take all of my
bills and I put them in a big hat, and then, this is
corresponded with a drawing! I made them aware that I take out
two bills each month and those are the ones that I choose to
pay. I then said to them, “If you do attempt to call me again,
guess who's not going in the hat?” I got a chuckle from the
gentleman on the other end of the phone, but unfortunately, two
days later my car was gone. It's quite an endeavor trying to
purchase a house when you're on a bicycle!

I was depressed, my entire family was mad at me and nothing
I did seemed to work in my favor. At that moment, I wanted
nothing more to do with real estate. Until the phone rang and
it was a man named Bill who had seen one of my signs on the
side of the road that promised that I was able to take over his
payments, but when considering my current situation I thought
that was a hilarious guarantee!

I spoke to Bill for a full 45 minutes before we even got to
talking about real estate. I wanted to build a rapport with him
by talking about my kids, about sports or fishing, essentially
ANYTHING but real estate. All I did was dodge his real estate
related questions for as long as I possibly could. Finally, I
asked Bill what he did for a living - he was a divorce
attorney. I asked him why he was selling his house -he was
going through a divorce! I then asked him why that was a
problem considering he was a divorce attorney. He explained
that his wife was also a divorce attorney and he worked for her
law firm. He was getting the house in the divorce settlement
and he could not afford to make the $22,000 a month mortgage
payments once the divorce was settled. Bill wanted me to make
his payments. Unfortunately for Bill, all that was running
through my mind was “yeah right!”

I told Bill there was no way that I would agree to make his
payment. He naturally in return asked me why. Being as how I
sure didn't want to tell him that I was utterly broke, I
explained to him that after looking at my roster of houses, I
had too many $22,000 monthly payments to make as it was! He
chuckled, and then proceeded to ask me again. I managed to
stand my ground and refused him a second time. I did however
offer to try and sell his house for him, but all Bill did was
go into a rehearsed rant about how every top real estate agent
in the city has tried to sell it with no luck. He couldn't
wait, he needed relief immediately. He hung up the phone.

I had completely forgotten about Bill until he called me
back a few months later. I asked him how things were going and
what had compelled him to call me back. He told me that he had
gone to four different real estate investors who had all
promised to make his payment and not one of them had followed
through. He was now months behind on payments, facing
foreclosure and his credit was ruined. He explained that I was
the only one who took the time to get to know him on the phone
before we talked business. He felt he could trust me
considering that I was up front with him from the very
beginning. (This was completely by accident as incidentally I
had been feeling sorry for myself during our previous phone
call and had purposely dodged his real estate questions.)

I then attempted to sell Bill's house for him. The first
thing I tried to do was rent it out to tenants. Now, do you
think that it's feasible to rent a multi-million dollar house
that's behind on $22,000 payments and make a cash flow? No way!
(Ask me why I know that!?)

The next strategy I used to sell Bill's house was a lease
option. A lease option is when you find someone with poor
credit, to put a large deposit down and service the monthly
loan. Imagine placing an ad in your local paper to advertise
this option that reads “$100,000 down, easy $35,000 month
payments, any credit... okay!” Why do you think I know why THAT
doesn't work?

I tried nearly everything that I could to get rid of this
property and nothing seemed to work. After weeks of trying and
almost giving up, I picked up a newspaper and saw the single
word that would change my life forever - Auction.

A house in the exact same neighborhood as Bill's was being
auctioned off that weekend. I knew that if a smaller luxury
home could be sold at an auction, then I could use the same
procedure to sell Bill's house. I sat in the back of that
auction in sheer amazement as I witnessed hundreds of wealthy
people fight over a house that they all wanted. The entire
process was over in a total of eight minutes. The house sold
for more than I had even thought it was worth and my A-D-H-D
then kicked in resulting in my bouncing off the walls at this
new opportunity that I had stumbled across. I now knew that I
had the secret answer to selling luxury homes at a lightning
fast speed.

I spoke to the auctioneer after the dust settled and I
decided to tell him about Bill's house which he in return
inspected that evening. He told me that it would be $50,000 to
market the house through his auction company. Shocked, I asked
why so much? He explained that it costs a great deal of money
to aggressively market luxury homes in the outlets that he
utilized. Such as The Wall Street Journal, The Robb Report, The
LA Times and any other major publication that was needed to
attract the right buyers with deep pockets. I didn't have the
money at the time and asked if we could partner on the deal
meaning he would front the marketing cost and we would then
split the profits. We negotiated a deal that was much too
favorable for the auctioneer but the house sold in four weeks
to a cash buyer. The auctioneer made a high six figure paycheck
and I walked away with $81,000. I was excited because I hadn't
used a nickel out of my own pocket. I knew at that time that if
I could concentrate on luxury homes and find better auctioneers
with better terms that I would have the ability to crack the
code to making millions of dollars without risking a penny.

That was over seven years ago and all that I've done since
is focus on ways of finding, controlling and selling luxury
property with no money at risk. I have created and perfected a
system that allows anyone, who's willing to learn, to do the
exact same thing.

Marco Kozlowski