All Forum Posts by: Thierry Van Roy

Thanks @Chris_Winterhalter (mentions still not working here, sorry)

It is an independent hotel, but not on a budget. Might become a redevelopment depending on the location. Scouts are doing their scouting in various scoutable hotspots, so it hasn't been decided yet. Locations vary from the French coast to Eastern Europe. (I know what you're thinking, because I think the same thing ;-) )

The investment side and whatnot is not none of my concern, or at least I don't have any access to the data for now anyway. It will be focusing on luxury, but they want to get more 'meta' than that. I am employed for the marketing, including developing the 'boutique' concept and finding the location (and especially copywriting it all in a convincing manner).

My problem is that I have very little sources on marketing a hotel launch and developing a boutique hotel concept. It feels as if I'm reinventing the wheel.

Will be on a business trip to get more to work with later this week, but it comes down to this: I would like to get comfortable with the concept of (1) tourism location scouting, (2) boutique hotels, (3) luxury hotel launches.

And please don't say Donald Trump ;-)

@Bill Gulley I am "out of town" a bit, but an ARV means it's not worth that right now. If the repairs to get that ARV are 10,000 to 20,000, it's only worth 10,000 to 20,000 in appraisal value right now. Which means the guy's making up to 8% return a month or nearly 100% a year. Would it be wrong for me to assume he would either have some serious monthly expenses then to justify such returns or call it outrageous? Or is the value largely due to the crashed market comps?

Wait... So your mother is paying 9,300 a year for a house with an ARV of 30,000? Are you sure about that? Seems kind of outrageous, unless there are a lot of incentives for that kind of rent, unless the location in Detroit has something to do with the value estimate at this time.

You could try getting a rent-to-own from the owner if she really likes her place, but I agree with the others: you'll always get a better deal finding your own distressed seller and moving there.

Or just go talk to the owner and see if he wants to work with you if you are starting in REI yourself anyway :)

So in my regular job I'm a freelancer. Right now, I have been contracted to help in launching a boutique hotel somewhere in Europe. I work under one of the partners as a copy writer, junior marketing expert, web expert and so on.

The hotel is still in the location scouting phase, but things are set to move quickly.

At the moment, I'm writing a marketing proposal, which includes pretty much every real estate & marketing aspect except for the hotel management part (fortunately, because I know nothing about that).

Do you guys have any resources on launching hotels? Specifically Boutique Hotels? I have found a few websites, but the information is very sparse and I'm totally unfamiliar with the sector.

There actually is a special "Rich Dad Poor Dad for Teenagers", Kiyosaki recommends that one for teens, RDPD for adults and that they play the Cashflow 101 game together. As good a starting point as any.

But I remember having had serious trouble reading non-fiction books at that age (and I was a pre-Millennial nerd). Helping him set up an RSS feed (try feedly) with some 'cool' websites on marketing will help spoon in the information without TLDR (Too Long, Didn't Read) kicking in. Also, podcasts.

Kiyosaki's company has recently launched a smartphone and tablet app that's supposedly geared towards teaching in a 'Millennial' way.

My biggest tip from experience: immerse him through different media, or else he'll only have interest peaking periodically.

Nevertheless, easy & entertaining reads on marketing would be Guy Kawasaki, Gary Vaynerchuck, Tim Ferriss and Seth Godin. Avoid textbook authors like Philip Kotler.

One more thing perhaps: Kim Kiyosaki once told the story of how a 12 year old got her first apartment with 'no money down' (actually, a loan from the parents). It was 'only' 12,000 and gave her a cash flow of 100-200 a month instead of her allowance. That's an inspirational story if I ever heard of one.

William, I'm not a Homevestor franchisee, so take that into account however you like.

But even though I appreciate and encourage any DIY-starter, Homevestors is a Franchise (with a capital F) for a reason. Read The E-Myth Revisited, it's even recommended by the BP podcast so they shouldn't have any qualms with the Homevestors business model, even if their own style is more independent most of the time.

It's not a bad model, unless you're someone who restricts himself to the mom-and-pop grocery store as opposed to Wallmart by principle?

Check your metatags and title tags (note: I'm not talking keywords!). All I see is "We Buy Homes" and "Mann Clann Enterprises".

Unless the latter is infamous, the former won't show up anywhere. What keywords would you use on pay-per-click ads? Because looking at the front page, I haven't got a clue where you're located. I have a few opportunities for you, they're in the Netherlands, is that okay with you? ;-) Long story short: Show Your Niche.

Other than that, the style is nice and modern, but I agree with @Philip_Dwyer (why aren't Mentions working anymore?), try something else than the stock photo slide on the fold (what you see without scrolling). By the way, I'm watching this with a 15'' 900px laptop and I barely get the entire slide without scrolling. Don't know if this template is responsive, though.

Well, that's another thing. Economics (I too have a degree in applied economics) are a "dismal science", as the book "What's the use of economics" explains. I guess the brick & mortar side of investing trumps the paper assets in the sense of scepticism. Just look at the amount of credibility people like Warner Buffet still hold.

His investing "philosophy" (if you can call it that) is more fuzzy than the current market, but his forecasts on the short term are of value. That said, he's brought nothing new to the table as far as the current housing market goes. Stating the obvious by not lying outright, like government and banks tend to do, well bravo.

As for the idea of houses improving, that's based on the economy improving more than the actual technological advance. So his story is contradictory even.

So on the matter of taking somewhat professional photos of your houses... I just came across this website:

terriblerealestateagentphotos.com

I almost fell off my chair laughing, but these are all real.

Since we are approaching Halloween, is this a thing you guys come across a lot? Do the quality of photos tell anything about the realtor/agent/wholesaler/... in your experience?

I tend to see varying degrees of quality (and quantity is another factor as well), but I wonder what that really tells me.