All Forum Posts by: Aaron Mazzrillo

That's tough. Knowing what I know now, I'd buy 1,000 bandit signs and pick 50 target locations. I'd keep replacing them every week until I ran out of signs. 

BUT, if you only have $1,000 that tells me you probably don't know much. Possibly about anything. I'd definitely hold off on investing that money and instead focus on some education while you saved up some more loot. Do I mean pay for education. No. You can get all you want here for free. Used book stores are awesome. I've stocked my library with $1 real estate related books. To the average Joe, there's no value in them so they always end up on the discount shelf. 

Stalk this site, get in the habit of turning off the TV and opening up books. Figure out what you'd like to be doing in real estate before you squander your cash hoping for a profit. You'll get there. At one time I was thinking I might get up in the morning and go to Home Depot to apply for a job I was struggling so bad. Now I can hear and smell the ocean from my living room. 

What? No turn-key parasites on this one? Probably sending you dozens of private messages. LOL

Sorry, but I just think it is hilarious, and it probably has nothing to do with your investing, but a person who is so pro out of state investing complaining about getting stuck out of town. Too funny.

 Maybe start with meetup.com and look for real estate clubs. That is where I started. Those big, generic monthly clubs typically have a few people doing their own smaller versions that are less formal without a speaker and an agenda. You just have to get out there and talk to people. I can't tell you where the gold is and dig it up for you too.

So it sounds like you want to write letters to multifamily property owners. If so, then you need to learn to write letters or what is known as direct response marketing. It's an old business and there are books close to 100 years old on the topic. Direct response marketing was THE only marketing until the radio and then the TV came along. Maybe you've heard of the "Sear's Catalog." Maybe not, but I'm sure your grandma bought lots of stuff out of it. Lots of great books direct response marketing. I've read most of the old ones. I don't think any one book was a leader of the pack. I found lots of good info in each book. So, read one book and maybe you pick up one idea... or maybe not. But, if you read 20 books, you're sure to learn several great ideas to accomplish your goal.

One of my favorites is The Letter Book by Robert Collier (80 years old!). It's as thick as a phone book, but I found lots of great ideas to incorporate into my direct response marketing methods. Search it on Amazon, then scroll down to the "Customers who bought this also bought" section and be ready to unload some money because there lots of great books in there to read.

I'd probably avoid all the Dan Kennedy stuff. He just seems really good at selling you more of his own stuff. Every other page of any of his books refers to some other book he wrote. 

Your real options are; become a better buyer (investor) or risk losing all your money buying overpriced dog crap properties in some far away place you wouldn't ever imaging wanting to visit with the exception of passing through on your way to someplace better. For example, I drove through St. Louis to get to Maine where I bought 20 fresh from the ocean lobsters. Had it not been for those delicious lobsters, I wouldn't of ever had the displeasure of having to drive through St. Louis.

So far this year, I bought 5 properties in SoCal that I kept as rentals. In the process, I captured more than $500K in equity. Just because a property is worth X, doesn't mean you pay X. Regardless of what business you are in, you won't ever making any money paying retail for inventory. 

Again, learn to be a better buyer.

That 1% rule is a dumb metric someone on this site made up and it has been flowing around like the rule of rental properties. What if your only source of funds is 12%? Guess you'll be losing money every month! 

Do Wing Stops use stand alone sites or are they always in strip malls? You know McDonald's isn't in the hamburger business. The are in the prime corner lot in the city business. Maybe instead of buying dumpy houses you continue with your commercial development endeavors. Seems like you're well versed in that area. Just a thought.

My buddy owns a general contracting company and his company has a contract with a big franchise restaurant to handle all their new construction, redevelopment and maintenance. He owns a very big house and a collection of cars that most people just fantasize about. Building other franchisee's businesses can be potentially very lucrative for you.

I hadn't met Stephen before he asked me to speak at his club. At least I don't think I had. That was a fun night. His partner asked me to do his radio show, but I live by the beach now so I'm only out in Riverside dealing with work issues and that is just once every other week. I try not to do things I can pay other people way less an hour than I can make sitting home making offers so my involvement in my rental houses is about 1-5% at this point.

 Well, I would also consider the seller a potential private lender. So in that regards 0 to 6%. Closed a 4 unit deal (2 houses and a duplex) at 0%, $1,000 a month payments until paid, just a few months ago. 

I am mainly working with 4 lenders now; 

7% no points, due in 5 years - I invested all his money he was willing to lend at these terms so he's kind of out of the game at the moment. 

10% no points due whenever I want to pay it back, but the notes are written for 1 year. I currently owe that guy $995K. 

12%, 2 points and minimum 3 month's interest guarantee, due in 1 year, but the lender doesn't want his money back at 12%. I don't borrow his money often, and currently only owe him $100K which I fully intend to pay off once I sell one of my retail listings. 

The last lender I owe quite a bit to and he's at 7% and 3 points due in 3 years, but his pockets drag on the ground behind him tripping people so I can keep taking his money and I'll run out of deals before he says he has no cash left.

 I've been told there is a monthly luncheon the 2nd Wed of every month somewhere across the street from the Wholefoods on Beach Blvd in Huntington Beach. I've never been because I go to another lunch that is scheduled the same day. I also know Karren Hall of Udirect does wine & cheese socials. I think Bruce Norris and his company put on a breakfast every quarter. 

A good person to reach out to would be @Aaron Norris (tag isn't working, but he's on the site).