Well I wouldn't say changing, but rather adding some elements.  Last night I saw one of our local real estate investors speak on wholesaling deals, since that is one of her specialties.  Her name is Ginger Marcias and she was terrific.  It's really nice to listen to presenters who have are down to earth with no ego involved in their information.  What a breath of fresh air!

Anyway - the point is that she was very inspiring for investors to know that they can do it!  She even inspired an 'ol gal like me - and let me tell you... it takes a lot to impress me, let alone inspire me.  Frankly, after the last couple of months - I was worried that I was dead inside insofar as been inspired by any outside speakers (that is, other than my own partners and good friends).  But what I realized last night that I just happen to get caught up in listening to a little too much bloviating and not enough substance. 

 Boy I am sure digressing a lot.... it must be all the built up pissocity. I am free at last, free at last!

Anyway....like I was saying.  Ginger inspired me to start my marketing campaign to homeowners again.  I have completely stopped doing this for various reasons and listening to her speak about her deals really made me miss being a full time real estate investor.  Because no matter how much I think that I am right now- I am not!  I am too busy "working" for a living running my real estate club business and now my new Meeting & Event Center (which business is booming thank God!).  But no matter - being a full time real estate investor is where my true love is and dang nambit - I am not going to miss out!

So thank thank you sweet, adorable and genuine Ginger;  I am going to throw myself back into the game full-time as of today.  Waiting for deals to come to me is boring.  It is so much more fun and profitable to market and to get my own deals working! 

One thing I have realized in the last several months more than anything is that is partnering with people in your own company is a bad bad bad idea. And I am talking about "sweat equity partners".  For christ sakes, how many times must I learn the lesson of not taking on partners in my businesses!  Should I partner with people on specific real estate deals - sure!  You betcha!  But no more sweat equity partners.  Show me the money or show me the deal.  Now, should I partner in a real estate investing company and do all my deals with a partner.... hell no!  What a schmo..  Lord have mercy, I’m the one who has the real estate club, who has worked my butt off, scrimping, scraping, and working my fingers to the bone to build it.  Why oh why, do I think I need to take on a partner to do all my deals with? 

Well for one - I keep thinking I do not have the time to take it all on myself.  I am busy with the Club and now my new LA Meeting & Event Center and just felt like having a partner to carry half the work load - would be a great help to me.  But “half the work load” seems to be a complex, twisted, perception to most people.   I have only one way of defining work load.  Are you physically doing half the work – yes or no?  Are you doing the marketing? Are you bringing in the deals?  Are you bringing in the capital?  Are you managing the job?  Yes or no?  It’s very simple.   If I am going to do all the heavy lifting – then what do I need you for?

Listen people, I have learned the hard way to not be eager to take on partners in real estate investing or any other business for that matter.  And if you do – then for goodness sakes, please please please identify from the very beginning what is expected of each person and put it in writing!  Never make deals on a handshake, good faith, or because someone has a good reputation.   All the above is good to start – but always define it and then put it in writing!  Ask me how I know this.  I am the poster child for trusting people & doing deals on a handshake.  Sometimes I’ve come out fine and sometimes I haven’t.  The times I haven’t are the ones that hurt and they hurt bad.  Sweat Equity Partners = Pain-in-the-Assness.

I have gotten some real good advice from my friend Dave Berens lately on partnerships.   He is very clear with me;  I do not need a partner in my real estate business.  But what is OK is for me to partner up with people on specific individual deals as I see fit.  Nothing more.   So let this be a lesson to myself.  Stop the madness of taking on partners in business!  And if you do – then define it,  tweek it, hammer it out, then get it all in writing! But above all – for real estate deals – just take on a partner – per deal. Learn from me – please.  Don’t do it baby!

HOT OF THE PRESSES DEAL! - I just looked at this Yesterday and Dave has in under contract Now>

Join us for our Monhtly Meeting!  Networking, Education and Deal Making!

September 10th, Thursday (2nd Thurs of each month)

6:30pm - Networking Begins 
7:15pm - Deals, Wants & Needs 
8:00pm - Speaker Begins

Come early and sign up to Announce your own Wants & Needs at the beginning of each meeting!  

TOPIC:  Make Me An Investor  

Speakers:  William Barnard and Michael Gier of Nationwide Property Investments  

Location:
Naked Real Estate Investors Center
(located in Los Angeles Meeting & Event Center building)
10601 Washington Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90232
Corner of Washington Blvd & Overland
310-280-9196

CLICK HERE FOR FURTHER INFORMATION on the Meeting

See you there!

Foreign Investors Not Yet Returning To US Real Estate Market

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We have a lot of deals starting to POP in L.A. If you been to my real estate club meetings - you know this is where I was going to focus on and lay my mark.   Well - I started to put my nose to the grindstone  and things are hopping now!  No more messing around people!

I hooked up with my good friend  & real estate investor Dave Berens to do some LA deals because he had this "secret" connection in LA that he just had met.  These guys are brokers and contractors in LA.   Dave allowed me to meet them because I promised I would not make friends with them and I would only deal with them through him!  I have the real estate investor connections and he had these guys.  One kick ass team in the making I would say.  

That was a month ago.   To date:   We just closed our first rehab together (and I just got paid my aquistion fee!  Whee!), we wholesaled another property a week ago that is closing next week and we have another deal that we are wholesaling right now.   Not bad ey?

THe moral of the story:  Get off your ass and make it happen Rosie!  Oh yeah - and have those secret treasured connections that can actually get you these REO deals.  One thing I know for sure - is that if you don't have that broker in your pocket who is going to get you the deals - you will not get the deals.   Hhhmmm that reminds me - we need to take them to a steak dinner this week at Flemings! 

Check out our current wholesale deal:

1638 W. 51st. Place, Los Angeles, 90062
Single Family Home, 1054 sf.   R2
Title says 2 beds/ 1 bath, but it's 3 beds/ 1.5 baths. Lot size 5200
 
Zoned R2, and there is PLENTY of room to add on and make this a nice duplex. We have the contractor and architect available if needed.
 
As a single-family home, you can spend from $40,000-$60,000 for repairs, depending on what you want to do.
To build a duplex you need to add around 400-500 sf, and that (with remodel costs for the existing house) will cost $100,000 max.
 
ARV as a SFR is $285,000
ARV as a duplex with 3/1 each unit is $375,000-385,000
 
We are selling this property for $155,000.
 
It is important to go see it as soon as possible if you are interested. We expect to sell this quickly.

Duplex on 43rd street - $170K -all in (includes $15K of remodel)   ARV:  $245K

Triplex on 56th - $165 purchase, $90K rehab - ARV $410K

Coming soon:  Antelope Valley Properties! Coming soon:  Antelope Valley Properties!

 Join the Naked Real Estate Investors Community!

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 Click Here To JOIN NOW 

What I mean by this is that if you're a newbie investor it is expected that you may not know what you are doing in any given situation in doing deals. You are expected to need advice or guidance from more experienced investors and to possibly (absolutely) make some mistakes. For the most part as long as you are humble in your learning, are taking advice and in general are being an earnest student of real estate investing - you will be all right amongst your peers and in your investor community.  

Now...Being an armature is much different in my opinion. It doesn't matter if you are a newbie or more experienced investor.Being an amateur means that you do shit wrong, follow the wrong protocol and in general do not respect the unwritten guidelines and rules of working with your fellow real estate investor.  Bottom line is you act irresponsible, greedy or worse - like you know what your doing, but are really just wasting peoples time. 

Don't be an amateur!  Or you will get a reputation as a pain in the ass and likely shunned by other investors.  If your not totally shunned then you will at least be dealt with at an arms length and you won't be given the same favors as other investors.

First of all an amateur investor will call me and tell me how many deals they have done and how much money they have to invest within the first 3 minutes of conversation.  This is someone who is trying to "buy their way in" with nothing but talk and bloviating.  It has been my experience that the big talkers never perform.  It's the quite ones that you need to be looking for.  They are the ones that have all the money.  They don't have a lot of prove.  They know what they can offer and they don't care who they impress.   

Amateurs don't follow protocol.  What does this mean?  For example.  If you call an investor who is wholesaling a property (me!) and say that you want to buy the property - then by god - you had better done your due diligence by then.  If you say your sending the deposit - then send the deposit!  Don't mess around for 3-4 days with every excuse in the book.   If you call to say you are finally sure you want the deal and are going to wire money today then do it!  Don't call an hour later to say that you just talked to your partner and he decided after all he doesn't want the property!  You just wasted my whole morning asshole!   NEVER call a wholesaler and say you want a property unless you know you want that property! NEVER call a wholesaler and say you are sending a wire only to back out of the deal an hour later!  And never ever act as if dicking around with me for a week on this property and wasting my time and energy was not such a big deal.  You are an amateur and a putz. 

Lastly - don't be a greedy mofo.  My friend and wholesaler Ginger Macias was telling me how one of her newbie students was trying to make a $30K wholesale fee off a property!  Or maybe it was $50K.  And then I think that fee was putting the house at 80% or something like that.  Ridiculous!  What a pig.  Don't gouge.  Take your small wholesale fee and give a good deal to the person who buys the property from you.  Now that "investors" name is written in mud.  She has been blacklisted by at least a few wholesalers now - including me.  All by word of mouth. 

All us investors talk to each other.  It's a small world the investor community. This business is tough enough without having to deal with bozos.  I won't do it I tell ya.

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

I am so bummed that I am not rolling in the deals.  My goal for this year is to get at least 4 deals a month - wholesale 2-3 of them and keep 1-2 of them to flip myself. Just late last year we were getting a lot of REO properties - but this year - dang.....its been tough.  I should be a lot more grateful I suppose.  We did get  3 properties in Jan and we wholesaled 2 and kept one for fix and flip.  We just got another under contract - but we are still evaluating it.  So - yes - I am grateful for what we have gotten.... but I want more! LOL!

Another thing... these properties in So. L.A. are getting pretty difficult to evaluate.  There are slim pickings out there and the prices are escalating at record speed.  I don't like this at all.  We are to the point that we are turning down more properties that we are getting - or rather making offers on.    We've been getting a lot of "good properties" presented to us by our broker - but after painstakingly evaluating them - the numbers just don't add up and we pass.   DARN IT!  Why are the numbers not adding up?  Two reasons:  Prices are too  high therefore the margin is too narrow for comfort and not enough comps to justify the rise in prices for these hunks of junks.  We are at a crossroad here.  There are a lot of Active properties with the comps that would justfy these REO prices - but they are not SOLDS yet.  We all know we can't base our ARV on active properties.  This sucks!  I keep knowing that in 2, 4, 6 months from now we are going to have some mack daddy comps (potentially), but until then - we must - simply must be cautious.  It seems like we are pioneering in this particular area.  I don't mind being a cautious pioneer.  But what I dont want - is to be a cowboy.   It is the wild wild west out there in certain areas and it's crazy. 

The ironic thing is that once those comps start popping - the prices are going to be even higher to buy these properties and we will be waiting for a new set up comps to start popping up.... LOL.   Oh the joy of being real estate investors in this market.  Or at least in our high profile areas in Greater LA.

I now have another additional broker finding us properties in my target area and he is one hell of a hustler.  He's this close to landing us a couple of properties.  We've put in several offers with him in the past couple of weeks - so fingers crossed.  Between him and our other broker and some of my friends who are buying at trust deed sales - I hope to get another 4-5 properties in the next month!  From my lips to Gods ears.  

Let's rock and roll!

In an effort to end the foreclosure crisis, the Obama administration has been trying to keep defaulting owners in their homes. Now it will take a new approach: paying some of them to leave.

This latest program which will allow owners they owe and will give them a little cash to speed them on their way, is one of the administration's most aggressive attempts to grapple with a problem that has defied solutions.

More than five million households are behind on their mortgages and risk foreclosure. The government's $75 billion mortgage modification plan has helped only a small slice of them. Consumer advocates, economists and even some banking industry representatives say much more needs to be done.

For the administration, there is also the concern that millions of foreclosures could delay or even reverse the economy's tentative recovery -- the last thing it wants in an election year.

Taking effect on April 5, the program could encourage hundreds of thousands of delinquent borrowers who have not been rescued by the loan modification program to shed their houses through a process known as a short sale, in which property is sold for less than the balance of the mortgage. Lenders will be compelled to accept that arrangement, forgiving the difference between the market price of the property and what they are owed.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE

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Monthly Meeting - Thursday, March 11th   6:30pm - 9:30pm 

6:30pm - Networking Begins 
7:15pm - Deals, Wants & Needs 
8:00pm - Speaker Begins

Come early and sign up to Announce your own Wants & Needs at the beginning of each meeting!  

Location:
Naked Real Estate Investors Center
10601 Washington Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90232
Corner of Washington Blvd & Overland