The New Masters of Real Estate

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INSIDE YOU WILL FIND

VALUABLE LESSONS FROM

THESE BUSINESS LEADERS:

Ron LeGrand

Caitie Yue

Donna and John MacNeil

Eddie Miller

Robert and Elizabeth Lisk

Dr. Grant Kilpatrick

Jay Conner

Jim Zaspel

Stephanie and Jon Iannotti

Lisa Donner

Matt and Richard McLean

Nathan Witt

Philip Blackett

Brian T. Evans Jr.

Brian Snyder

Christine Brown, CPA

Rick Donner, CPA

Ricky Strain

Tom Burtness

Troy Singer

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

The New Masters of

The New Masters

™

The New Masters of Real Estate is a collective

MasterMind eﬀort of America’s leading real estate

experts teaching their best strategies on how to

proﬁt from real estate in the new economy.

From how to ﬁnd the right properties and tie them

up with no money down, all the way to marketing

and selling properties to “cash in” on current

opportunities, this book will teach you the secrets

you need to know (including pitfalls to avoid)!

The New Masters of Real Estate taps the minds of

24 leading experts who have ﬁgured out how to

proﬁt from real estate in the new economy. Better

than that, they’ve all agreed to share their secrets

with you in a clear and concise fashion, so you

can avoid the mistakes and take advantage of the

opportunities.

Your newfound knowledge gained from this book

will allow you to intelligently shift your money

to your most eﬀective investing options, discard

wasted strategies that don’t produce, and show you

how to increase your proﬁts on the real estate you

invest in.

So, what are you waiting for…?

The New Masters

The Authors in this book have donated

all royalties to Marketers for Good.

For more information, please visit www.MarketersForGood.org

FEATURING JAY CONNER

Jay Conner is a proven real estate investment leader. He locates, buys, and sells mul-

tiple real estate deals, even in the new economy. Jay is a recognized investment genius,

having graduated as a Master in Real Estate Investing; and he accepted Ron LeGrand’s

invitation into the prestigious Platinum Inner Circle.

Without using his own money or credit, Jay maximizes creative methods to move prop-

erties for substantial profits with little to no risk. “Jay is a real estate magician,” noted a

business networking associate. “He works seemingly magical deals for buyers and sellers alike.”

Beyond his own success, Jay’s passion in real estate is to enlighten and inspire other investors. To that

end, Jay mentors fellow investors across the United States and Canada. His consulting goes far beyond el-

ementary “how to” techniques. Jay teaches an entrepreneur to transform a Real Estate Investing Business

into an “Automatic Transaction Machine,” thus allowing his students to achieve their life goals: Financial

Independence and the Freedom to enjoy what’s really important to them.

Hand-in-hand with his one-on-one mentoring, Jay shares his insights at seminars as a leading expert on

private lending, marketing, business development and ethical business practices.

Jay pours his talents and energies into numerous activities. He is President of Conner Properties and

EZ Mortgages, plus a former CEO of Leader Homes. He is also co-developing The Coves at Newport,

a community of condominiums along the Atlantic Coast. In 1997 Jay formed Encore Music, a private

record label, where he records original piano compositions and produces other artists. He also founded

and directs The Carolina Chords, an a capella chorus in great demand. Jay and his wife, Carol, currently

reside in Newport, NC.

Ready to jump start your real estate investing career? Contact Jay Conner, Real Estate Master and Mentor,

at 252.725.3360 or

connermentor@yahoo.com.

Getting Deals

DONE in the

New Economy

FEATURING

Jay Conner with Ron LeGrand

The New Masters

in any manner whatsoever without prior written consent of the authors,

except as provided by the United States of America copyright law.

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Getting Deals DONE in the New Economy

The New Masters

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

CHAPTER 1

THE WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY & HOW OF REAL

ESTATE INVESTING

by Brian T. Evans Jr. ...................................................................13

CHAPTER 2

THE TREADMILL: GOOD FOR RUNNING NOWHERE

by Caitie Yue ..............................................................................25

CHAPTER 3

THE YELLOW LETTER

by Donna and John MacNeil ......................................................33

CHAPTER 4

SEVEN ESSENTIALS TO MAKING MILLIONS WITH REOS

by Eddie Miller ............................................................................41

CHAPTER 5

SHORT SALE DEAL: THE LONG TERM BENEFITS OF GOING

SHORT WITH A SHORT SALE – LESSON LEARNED

by Robert and Elizabeth Lisk ......................................................57

CHAPTER 6

EXUBERANT INNOCENCE TO ETHICAL MATURITY - MORAL

TRANSITIONS IN INVESTING

by Dr. Grant Kilpatrick ................................................................63

CHAPTER 7

THE MOST EFFECTIVE SOCIAL MEDIA SALES TOOL OF ALL

by Jay Conner ............................................................................71

CHAPTER 8

NO MONEY REAL ESTATE INVESTING

by Jim Zaspel .............................................................................81

CHAPTER 9

THE 7 KEY INGREDIENTS THAT WILL ALLOW YOU TO NOT

PARTICIPATE IN THE RECESSION

by Stephanie and Jon Iannotti ....................................................91

CHAPTER 10

MASTERING THE NEW MARKET: HOW TO GET YOUR PIECE

OF THE BAILOUT.

by Lisa Donner .........................................................................101

CHAPTER 11

MAKING MONEY ON A SHOESTRING BUDGET IN ANY

MARKET, USA – A NON-TRADITIONAL APPROACH TO REOS

by Matt and Rich McLean ........................................................109

CHAPTER 12

SECRETS TO PROFITING FROM REAL ESTATE IN

ANY ECONOMY

by Nathan Witt .........................................................................119

CHAPTER 13

THE GIFTS YOU NEVER KNEW YOU (ALREADY) HAD

by Philip Blackett ......................................................................127

CHAPTER 14

MARKETING HOUSES AT NO RISK

by Brian Snyder ........................................................................143

CHAPTER 15

YOUR PERSONAL GUIDE TO FREEDOM – REASONS TO

SETUP & AUTOMATE YOUR REAL ESTATE BUSINESS

by Christine Brown, CPA ..........................................................151

CHAPTER 16

GOBS OF TAX-FREE MONEY AVAILABLE FOR

REAL ESTATE INVESTING

by Rick Donner, CPA ................................................................161

CHAPTER 17

THE 11 CRUCIAL STEPS THEY WON’T TELL YOU ON TV THAT

YOU REALLY NEED …TO GET STARTED IN REAL ESTATE

by Ricky Strain .........................................................................169

CHAPTER 18

CATCHING THE GIANT WAVE!

by Tom Burtness ......................................................................177

CHAPTER 19

SEEING THE FORTUNE THROUGH THE WEEDS!

by Troy Singer ..........................................................................187

FOREWORD

In my 30 years of buying and selling houses and 25 years teaching oth-

ers how to do it correctly, I’ve seen a lot of folks enter our world of low

risk real estate investing. Among them, a certain percentage quickly

rise to the top and excel. They ‘stand out from the herd’ because they

make more money than most, in less time and with less work.

There are very good reasons for this, the most important being a dogged

determination to succeed no matter what. However, there’s another trait

they all have in common…the willingness to follow instructions and

hitch their wagon to qualiﬁed advice from those who’ve ‘been there

and done that’, not just give it ‘lip service.’

Everyone in this book is in this group. They are all leaders who proved

their worth, got good at what they do and most importantly, are willing

to share it with you. All of them came from ordinary jobs and profes-

sions, discovered real estate, got the proper training and then ‘put the

pedal to the metal.’

This book is full of leaders who’ve been there, done that and come out

on top - despite all the ‘dream stealers’ trying to pull them down.

They are survivors, many overcoming large obstacles, both physical

and ﬁnancial, and a few mental roadblocks as well.

You’ve never seen a book like this. It’s not ﬁction or entertainment. For

many it will be the beginning of a new lifestyle.

The lessons in this book would take years to learn, possibly a life-

time or maybe never. Reading it is like sitting in the middle of a

table in a brainstorming meeting – attended by some of the best

minds in real estate.

THE WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY, & HOW OF REAL ESTATE INVESTING

I’d consider you lucky to have discovered this book. Sit down in a quiet

place and get to know your authors, and when you see them in ‘live train-

ings’ let them know how much you appreciate their contribution.

To your Quantum Leap,

THE WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY, & HOW OF REAL ESTATE INVESTING

CHAPTER 1

THE WHO, WHAT, WHERE,

WHEN, WHY & HOW OF

REAL ESTATE INVESTING

by Brian T. Evans Jr.

o you ever feel like you are working too hard for your living, and

not getting ahead fast enough? Perhaps everything you are doing

feels like you are moving one step forward and two steps back.

Do you ever feel like you’re missing something and that something

must be slipping through the cracks and keeping you from reaching

your full potential? Whatever your particular situation, there are mil-

lionaire secrets and tricks of the trade that I will share with you, to

help you move faster along that proverbial learning curve and to reach

greater levels of success.

If you would love to ﬁnd a single, all-under-one-roof, one-stop-shop

source of legitimate, tested, proven, yet original, innovative, even radi-

cal strategies for making huge money, growing massive wealth, and

rapidly launching your real estate investing career, then this cutting

edge information is for you.

If you’re reading this book today then you are probably someone who

has an interest in becoming a real estate investor or growing your already

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY, & HOW OF REAL ESTATE INVESTING

existing real estate investing business, and for that I congratulate you.

If you’ve been a past victim of “buy my course and you’ll make mil-

lions overnight” then don’t blame yourself because it isn’t your fault. The

truth is real estate investing isn’t for everyone, and that’s ok. It’s taken

me years to become a success and as a result I’ve discovered, and now I

teach, “real estate investing isn’t a get-rich-quick business, but it is a get-

rich-quicker-than-other-businesses business, when done right.”

I want you to know that a committed and self-made millionaire investor

has written this chapter for you - in an attempt to open your eyes and in-

spire you about the real income potential of this business. In fact, I would

wager that you and I are not all that different. I was once a at-broke coun-

try boy from Kentucky who took the bus to work everyday, struggled to

pay my bills, had growing credit card debt, and no money in the bank.

I recall one year in my past-life when things couldn’t look any worse.

I read a book (similar to this one) about the power and potential of

real estate investing. It completely transformed my mind and gave me

enough motivation to want to learn more. As a result, I’ve never looked

back since. I am now a millionaire real estate investor, author, speaker

and mentor, and this was all achieved by the age of 28. I am the founder

of an elite network of real estate entrepreneurs called Ultimate Real

Estate Investors:

www.UltimateRealEstateInvestors.com

I still invest in real estate full time, doing around 2-6 houses per month,

with over 25 deals working at any given time, and a complete resume

of deals totaling in the hundreds. My wife and I now live in a gorgeous

25 acre million dollar estate in Lexington, which backs up to the Ken-

tucky River.

I share this little bit of personal history with you to give you hope and

to prove to you that if a ‘broke’ country boy from Kentucky can start

at the bottom and ﬁnd a way to the top, then so can you. You just have

to want it bad enough! So, if you would love to gain millionaire status

as a real estate investor by increasing your income and decreasing your

stress, then keep reading. I’ve segmented this chapter into six very sim-

ple sections in an attempt to prove to you that you can make millions,

grow wealth, and retire young with real estate.

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY, & HOW OF REAL ESTATE INVESTING

WHO IS REAL ESTATE INVESTING FOR?

Real estate investing is for:

1. The small business owner who is “working too hard to make a

living” or always worrying about where the next customers are

coming from.

2. Owners, Presidents, executives of mid-sized companies

frustrated with slow growth, tough and “cheap price”

competition, wondering where your next big business

breakthrough might come from.

3. Men and women stuck in unfulﬁlling jobs, eager to own their

own businesses, to ﬁnd new opportunities, to go from “9 To 5”

to “MY OWN BOSS,” to do something interesting and exciting.

4. Sales professionals struggling to gain ground… weary of

“cold” prospecting, tired of ﬁghting just to get an opportunity

to sell, thinking there must be a better way.

5. E-Commerce and Internet savvy people with the ambition to

use their knowledge for proﬁt.

6. Even authors, speakers, coaches and consultants will be

“blown away” by the opportunities and strategies - by the

whole world they didn’t know existed, its doors thrown open

wide with real estate.

7. And ANYONE who simply wants to get more done, to

make more money, grow massive wealth, to act with greater

conﬁdence, to think more creatively; even to be healthier and

more in control of their life and future.

WHAT IS REAL ESTATE INVESTING?

Before I tell you what real estate investing is, I ﬁrst want to tell you

what it is not. Good news, it’s not rocket science, or a business that

requires a 6

sense. Nor does it require money, credit, or previous ex-

perience to achieve millionaire success.

Instead, this business is nothing more than simple math and a simple

system. I don’t care whether you are a seasoned investor or a ‘just off

the boat’ investor, you CAN make serious money in this business if you

apply yourself.

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY, & HOW OF REAL ESTATE INVESTING

Here’s the simple math part of the business. Think about it like this, if

you buy a widget for $10.00 and you sell it for $15.00 then you made

ﬁve bucks. The only difference with real estate is that you add a few

more zeros. Therefore, if you buy a house for $100,000 and sell it for

$150,000 then you made $50,000! Ok, I know that number is difﬁcult

for some people to comprehend so lets just say that you sell the same

house for $115,000 and you make $15,000. How many of those deals

do you need to do in a month to surpass your current income?

Here’s the simple system part of the business. There are 5 steps to suc-

cess as a real estate investor and if you sway from any of these ﬁve

steps you will NOT succeed. However if you follow these 5 steps that

I am about to share with you, no matter what type of deal you pursue

then you WILL succeed, it is only a matter of time.

The 5 Steps to Ultimate Success when BUYING HOUSES:

Step #1: Locate Sellers

Step #2: Prescreen Sellers

Step #3: Construct and Present Offers to Sellers

Step #4: Follow up and Get a Commitment from Sellers

Step #5: Close Quickly and Repeat

The 5 Steps to Ultimate Success when SELLING HOUSES:

Step #1: Locate Buyers

Step #2: Prescreen Buyers

Step #3: Construct and Present Offers to Buyers

Step #4: Follow up and Get a Commitment from Buyers

Step #5: Close Quickly and Repeat

Notice any similarities between the steps to follow when buying houses

and selling houses? That’s right, the process is exactly the same on the

front end as on the back end.

In my ofﬁce we follow these same 5 steps EVERYDAY when buy-

ing and selling properties and we have over 25 deals happening at any

given time. Yes, there are some nuances within each of these ﬁve steps,

but what I’m giving you now is ‘The Big Picture.’

Every successful business in the world has systems and steps that are

followed day-in and day-out. A business can’t run without a system and

step-by-step processes. Correction, a PROFITABLE business can’t run

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY, & HOW OF REAL ESTATE INVESTING

without a system and step-by-step processes.

If something doesn’t seem to be working properly within your business

then take a step back, look at ‘The Big Picture’, review these ﬁve steps

and ﬁnd out where within these steps the problem is occurring. I guar-

antee it will fall within one of them.

So whatever you do, don’t complicate this business or try to invalidate

what I say because I do it everyday and these are the facts. Just remem-

ber, when you follow the system and you sell a house for more than

what you bought it for, you make money! The better you get at buying,

the easier it will be for you to sell and the more money you’ll make.

WHERE DOES REAL ESTATE INVESTING WORK?

Real estate investing works wherever there are houses and wherever

there are people. That’s right, it works everywhere. I believe it is best

to invest in an area you are familiar with such as your local market. The

more familiar you are with your local market the more successful you’ll

be and the more conﬁdent you’ll be in the investment decisions that

you make. This doesn’t mean that you have to be an expert and know

every little detail about your area, but it does mean that you should

have a strong understanding of it. With a strong general knowledge

you’ll be able to best determine whether you want to hold a property

or ip a property based on the various area conditions in your market.

I would recommend devoting a few hours out of your day once this week

toward developing a strong understanding of the market you are invest-

ing in. Some of the statistics I would recommend you look for are:

• Population

• Area’s growth rate

• Area’s median income

• Areas education level

• What are the primary industries?

• Is the market growing or shrinking?

• Where are the high-end properties?

• Where are the low-end properties?

• Where are the jobs located?

• Where are the best shopping and entertainment centers?

• Which areas are suffering from high turnover?

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY, & HOW OF REAL ESTATE INVESTING

• Are new transportation corridors in the ofﬁng?

• What are the absorption rates for commercial and

residential areas?

• Where is the overall national economy on its

gravitational cycle?

• What effect is the current global market having on jobs,

land and the overall economy?

• How does the area compare, statistically, to other areas

of similar size?

Market info is available from the US census bureau, chambers of com-

merce, real estate professionals, banks and lenders, tax rolls, industry

publications, online websites, etc.

WHEN IS THE BEST TIME TO INVEST IN REAL ESTATE?

It seems like you can’t open a newspaper these days without reading

something about the ﬁnancial problems people are having with real

estate, unemployment, the economy, foreclosures, bankruptcy, etc. The

good news is that it truly doesn’t matter what the economy is doing.

When you invest the right way, and set yourself and your business up

to be a transaction engineer then you can make money and grow wealth

when times are both good or bad, and this really is the only way you

should approach this business.

A better question for you to consider is this. When would NOW be a

good time to start making your millions investing in real estate?

WHY SHOULD YOU INVEST IN REAL ESTATE?

I came up with a phrase years ago that I repeat to myself many times

during a given day or week. That phrase is… “Do Your Best and Let

God Do The Rest.” This little saying is extremely powerful and re-

assuring to me. When I say it to myself it gives me conﬁdence and

strength during times when I feel stressed and weak. You see, we all

face difﬁcult decisions, and go through challenging times on a regular

basis. It doesn’t matter if you are black, white, red, or yellow. It doesn’t

matter if you have $100 in your bank account or $1,000,000. We all put

our pants on one leg at a time, we all enjoy a good dinner and a movie,

we all go to bed at night and wake up to the same sun the next day. We

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY, & HOW OF REAL ESTATE INVESTING

are all basically the same.

What makes me different and keeps me going personally in business

and life, during times when 99.99% of others would “give up,” is my

inner drive to do my best and reach for the stars every single day. You

see, I believe that as long as I do my best and everything in my power

to do my best, be positive and a good person, and work hard to grow

my business ﬁnancially, then God will do the rest!

You may be thinking to yourself …why should you consider taking the

time to be a real estate investor when you already have so many other

things going on in your life. It’s a fair question, and I have a fair answer

for you. The reason is because you deserve to ﬁnally reap the ﬁnancial

rewards of your daily efforts, and this won’t happen if you are stuck

in a dead-end job, working 9 to 5, and living month-to-month off your

current paycheck.

No matter how much you wish for change, things will always stay the

same unless you take action and make an effort to try something new

and exciting, like real estate investing.

HOW DO YOU INVEST AND MAKE MONEY IN

REAL ESTATE?

Ultimately if you want to be a millionaire real estate investor then you

need to become a transaction engineer. That means you need to know

and apply MULTIPLE ways to buy and sell properties. The more ways

that you know how to buy and sell real estate, the more deals you can

do, the more money you’ll make, the more conﬁdent you’ll be, the

more control you’ll have, the more freedom you’ll have, and the more

secure your life will be.

Below are the primary ways to get rich in real estate, however each

bullet below can literally be seen as an individual business model all

by itself. In fact, I could create dozens of different buying and selling

scenarios with each model.

Buying Houses:

• Buy for cash at a discount - Your cash/credit, partner’s cash/

credit, private lender, hard money lender

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY, & HOW OF REAL ESTATE INVESTING

• Take over debt - Otherwise referred to as buying “subject

to.” Subject to the existing mortgage(s) on the property. The

ownership transfers to you, but the mortgage stays in the

seller’s name.

• Buy with seller ﬁnancing - Get ownership of a property and

ask the seller to agree to a ‘carry-back’ note and mortgage on

the home.

• Buy on a Short Sale - Working with a seller who is behind

in mortgage payments and negotiating with the lender in an

attempt to create a discounted mortgage payoff.

• Buy wholesale from other investors - Your cash/credit,

partner’s cash/credit, private lender, hard money lender

• Buy or create real estate paper assets - Often times the paper

on the real estate can be more valuable to you as the investor if

you know how to control or discount it.

• Buy on a Lease Option - Instead of actually buying a home

you could potentially lease the home from a seller with the

right to buy it.

• Buy using your Self-Directed Roth IRA – and get tax-free

proﬁts for life!

Selling Houses:

• Retail the property - Fixing up a home and selling to an end

user/owner occupant buyer who will cash you out.

• Wholesale a property - Selling a property that you have under

contract to another investor who’s intent is to rehab and retail

the property.

• Assign a contract - Alternative to wholesaling, you can simply

assign a contract to purchase to another investor buyer and

avoid closing on a property altogether.

• Lease Option/Rent To Own - Collect a non-refundable option

deposit from a tenant buyer and give them the right to buy the

home and cash you out at a future date.

• Monthly cash ow from the monthly payment of your tenant

buyer.

• Cash out money when/if your tenant buyer exercises the

option to buy.

• Sell with seller ﬁnancing - Sell to a new buyer and you ‘carry

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY, & HOW OF REAL ESTATE INVESTING

back’ a note and mortgage on a home. May also be referred

to as selling on a Land Contract or Contract for Deed, or All

Inclusive Trust Deed.

• Sell doing a ‘Round Robin’ Auction - Intent is to market a

property very heavily and in a short period of time to quickly

ﬁnd a ‘cash-out’ buyer over the period of one weekend.

• Sell your seller carry back note - If you sell using seller

ﬁnancing you can sell the note at a discount to a note buyer

and ‘cash-out.’

Other Income Streams:

• Sell Leads – Did you know that the buyer and seller leads that

you generate with your marketing can be worth something to

other people? The key is ﬁnding people willing to pay you for

your information.

• Down Payment Assistant Program - Collect additional down

payment money from your tenant buyers over and above their

lease payment each month and apply it to their down payment.

This money is also non-refundable.

• Discount ‘carry back’ notes prior to ‘cash-outs’ - If you buy

on seller ﬁnancing, you could always request a discount on the

note if you pay off early.

• Seller pays you to buy their home - Sound crazy? Perhaps, but

you’d be surprised. Some sellers desperate enough will offer

to pay you to buy their house.

• Find Deals and Bring to a Partner to Complete - Perhaps you

are timid or are still unsure how to do some deals. Simply

bring them to someone who knows how to do them and ask to

do a proﬁt split. I do this frequently with some students and

everyone wins.

It is impossible for me to teach you everything you need to know about

“how-to” invest in real estate in one chapter of a book. However, as I

bring this lesson to a close, your choices now are simple.

Option #1: Do nothing today and continue along the same path of one

step forward and two steps back. This is obviously the easiest choice

because it’s the path of least resistance, but it’s by far the most costly to

your current and future ﬁnancial success.

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY, & HOW OF REAL ESTATE INVESTING

Option #2: quit letting thousands of dollars slip away and make a com-

mitment to yourself that you will learn how to get rich with real estate

by going to: www.UltimateRealEstateInvestors.com.

It has been a pleasure bringing this important information to you and I

wish you the very best of success. You are well on your way to becom-

ing a millionaire real estate investor.

To Your Ultimate Success,

Brian Evans

www.UltimateRealEstateInvestors.com

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY, & HOW OF REAL ESTATE INVESTING

ABOUT BRIAN

Brian Evans was once a flat-broke country boy from Kentucky,

turned Wall Street employee drop out, turned failed retail coffee

shop owner, turned real estate investor, turned Millionaire real

estate expert, Author, Speaker and Mentor by the age of 28. He

still invests in real estate full time doing anywhere from 2-6 houses per month, with

over 25 deals working at any given time, and a complete resume of deals totaling in

the hundreds. He is now married with kids on the way, lives in a gorgeous 25 acre

Million Dollar Estate in Lexington, which backs up to the Kentucky River.

He is the founder of a national real estate investing group called Ultimate Real Estate

Investors, whose motto is: Make Money, Live Wealthy, No Excuses. This is the place

where leading investors from all over the country come together to achieve excep-

tional goals, develop lasting relationships, make real money, master the business of

real estate investing once and for all, and turn dreams into reality!

Brian teaches and personally invests in all types of real estate from single family

homes to multifamily and commercial using creative techniques such as short sale,

seller financing, subject to, option, lease option, wholesaling, retailing, round

robin, self directed Roth IRA, private mortgage loans, etc. He can honestly say

that he’s started at the bottom and invested his way to the top. “I’m not an exceptional

individual,” says Brian, “just an individual that chooses to be exceptional.”

To learn more about Brian Evans and his real life insider secrets for making huge

money, growing massive wealth, and rapidly launching a real estate investing career,

go to: www.UltimateRealEstateInvestors.com

For a limited time only, he is giving away: The Most Incredible Free Real Estate Money

Making Gift on the Planet, Guaranteed! (Value = $1,620.94). This package (may be

subject to change) includes:

Gift #1: 30 Minute 1-on-1 Make Money In Real Estate Jumpstart Conference Call with

Brian Evans. (Value = Priceless)

Gift #2: Manual and CD’s: “77 Biggest Mistakes Real Estate Investors Make.”

($997 Value).

Gift #3: CD-ROM of Brian’s 50 Most Commonly Used Real Estate Forms ($387 Value).

Gift #4: Free Membership to “Foreclosure Gold Rush Live” website ($39.95 Value).

Gift #5: Everything you need to Attract Private Lenders ($147 Value).

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

Gift #6: One-month access to Ultimate Real Estate Investors membership

($49.97 Value).

Includes mailed monthly newsletter and how-to CD of the month. Weekly Q&A confer-

ence calls. Deal structuring support, Resources and more! ($49.97 Value).

Gift #7: Six Month Access to “What Would Evans Do” Fax Hotline. (Value = Priceless).

PLUS more surprise money-making goodies that he’ll share with you after you take

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You may now consider Brian a part of your support network, and he can be contacted

any of the following ways:-

Phone: 1-800-282-4653 Fax: 1-859-201-1441

Email: info@UltimateRealEstateInvestors.com

Website: www.UltimateRealEstateInvestors.com

Address: 3070 Lakecrest Circle 400-260 Lexington, KY 40513

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE TREADMILL: GOOD FOR RUNNING NOWHERE

CHAPTER 2

THE TREADMILL: GOOD FOR

RUNNING NOWHERE

by Caitie Yue

always wanted to be an entrepreneur. I didn’t have a newspaper route

or a lemonade stand, but from a fairly early age, I knew I was differ-

ent: I wanted to be the master of my own destiny. I dreamed of being

an owner of a small business, but never imagined I’d be a real estate

entrepreneur with a $15 million dollar portfolio at the age of 27.

My parents, refugees and immigrants, came to Canada with nothing

more than the clothes on their backs. Their dreams and lives were

uprooted by circumstances beyond their control, but they never com-

plained. They worked hard—really hard—for very little. Life wasn’t

easy, but they built a good home and I had a happy childhood.

They had no illusions of achieving the great Canadian dream though;

all they wanted was for their children to take advantage of the opportu-

nities they never had. Education was very important in our family and

we were all expected to attend and graduate from university.

I started running on the treadmill called work at the tender age of 14.

While my parents did a good job of hiding our true ﬁnancial picture

from us, I still knew there was no secret education account to fund the

future tuition fees and I wanted to come up with the funds myself. By

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

chance, I saw a part-time cashier position posted in the window of the

local drugstore and decided to apply. I had never interviewed for a job

before and didn’t even have a social insurance number, but managed

to land the job. I worked at that drugstore for almost a decade, through

high school, university and two full-time jobs. To this day I am grate-

ful to the manager who took a chance on the kid who didn’t know any

better and wore overalls to her interview. Because of her, I managed to

graduate from university with no debt.

I thought I was ahead. No debt! University graduate! Bright future

ahead! I was earning more money than my parents and able to take

vacations and go out for dinners. But reality soon set in and I realized I

was just running on a treadmill, going nowhere. So I did what I thought

made sense: I found another job. I worked for a start-up as a graphics

designer. I was excited; my co-workers were young and hungry and I

felt like I was a part of a real team. It was a different world than my

previous job in publishing. We all worked long hours, but we felt like

we were contributing to something big. My dreams of being a small

business owner were put on the backburner. Seduced by beneﬁts and

stock options, the bi-weekly paycheck was the kind of stability that

made my parents proud.

My parents believed that you made money by putting money in the

bank. They may have been risk takers with their personal lives, but

they were not risk takers when it came to ﬁnances. They believed suc-

cess in life depended on how much money you could save and viewed

debt as a bad thing, whether it was mortgage or credit card debt. Their

motto was “Go to work, work hard, and the money will come.” Even

though I knew there was something missing from this way of thinking,

I couldn’t ﬁgure out how to escape the rat race.

My life changed in 2003 when I met my now-husband, Jason. He is

everything I’m not: logical, calm and analytical. We discovered our

mutual love of learning and he encouraged me to dream even bigger

dreams. He nurtured my love of business and taught me more about

ﬁnance and investing. We attended ﬁnancial seminars and investing

expos, read ‘tons’ of books and ‘hatched’ business plans. We contem-

plated franchising, Internet businesses and even reselling popular items

on eBay. But none of these ideas spelled real ﬁnancial freedom, so we

kept learning and reading. Then we noticed a trend among many of the

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE TREADMILL: GOOD FOR RUNNING NOWHERE

authors whose books we were reading: they had made their fortunes in

real estate.

After many months of debate, discussion and research, we ﬁnally de-

cided to take the plunge and invest in real estate. We interviewed real-

tors and ﬁnally found one who understood our criteria and our goals.

We had strict criteria and wanted healthy cash ow – the rent had to

cover the mortgage, insurance, taxes, management fees and then some.

Our strategy was to buy properties for long-term holding and we didn’t

want to depend solely on capital appreciation for gains. It was disheart-

ening at times. We viewed dozens and dozens of properties until ﬁnally,

in 2006, we purchased our ﬁrst investment property in a small town

north of Toronto. It was a lovely detached home in a good neighbor-

hood that we planned to convert to a home with a legal basement suite.

We were terriﬁed. Neither one of us knew anything about renovations

but tackled the challenge head-on, making mistakes as we went along

but learning every step of the way.

The project look much longer than expected and I was constantly on

the phone with angry neighbors, the town council, contractors, inspec-

tors and prospective tenants. We had read books and joined an invest-

ment network but nothing prepared us for the real thing. It was scary

and thrilling at the same time.

By the end of that ﬁrst year, we had purchased a total of ﬁve properties

and were hungry for more. Our initial plan was to purchase a few in-

vestment properties to diversify our investment portfolio, but the more

I immersed myself in the world of real estate, the more I loved it. I was

working 18-hour days between my day job and real estate, not going

to bed until after midnight every night. Every spare moment I had was

spent searching for deals, looking at properties, analyzing properties,

or screening new tenants. Even though it was time-consuming and left

little time for much else, we both loved it and couldn’t get enough.

In December 2006, Jason tried to convince me to quit my job and be-

come a full-time real estate entrepreneur. I didn’t want to give up the

security blanket I had and resisted. I’m not kidding you - my list of

fears and excuses was two pages long. My “what ifs” list was even

longer. I didn’t want to let down my team at my job, I was worried

about money and I was afraid of failing. For weeks, I debated the pros

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

and cons and had many sleepless nights. I let my fears take control and

almost decided not to quit until Jason helped me realize that I was look-

ing at it the wrong way. I wasn’t letting anyone down except myself

if I didn’t at least try. So we mapped out a plan of acquiring another

15 properties that year and researched other cities in other provinces

and started making calls to the different contacts we had networked

with throughout our year of investing. It took me a month to mentally

prepare myself to even write my letter of resignation but when I ﬁnally

did, I knew I had made the right decision.

In April 2007, I quit. I think almost everyone I knew thought I was cra-

zy, especially my parents. I had a good job at a great company where I

had plenty of room to grow; I had regular paychecks and my bi-annual

visits to the dentist were covered; even I was convinced I had ‘lost my

marbles.’ But I was determined to succeed, and failure was not an op-

tion I allowed myself to think of.

Two days after my last ofﬁcial work day, we headed west to Alberta,

the land of oil and opportunity. The real estate market was hot but the

fundamentals were there. Jobs, growth, and great government support

were just a few signs that it wasn’t just smoke and mirrors. We did our

homework and researched different cities and areas until ﬁnally settling

on a smaller city in central Alberta. Then we started buying… and buy-

ing and buying and buying. We even bought while we were on vacation

in Eastern Europe, using ancient fax machines with thermal paper in

remote towns of the Czech Republic.

The next ﬁve months were a blur. We were raising investment capi-

tal from family and friends and buying properties across the country

that ﬁt our criteria. We had meetings with bankers and brokers, agents

and investors, lawyers and accountants, property managers and ten-

ants. Life was crazy and hectic but we were having a blast. By August

2007, we had acquired an additional 30 properties, twice our goal in

just a few short months. The next year we added another ﬁve proper-

ties, bringing our total to just over 40 properties.

We still own all those properties except one, the very ﬁrst property we

bought. We sold it in 2008 after one too many tenant headaches. It was

a very difﬁcult decision. Our strategy was long-term buy and hold, not

ipping or short sales. When it was fully rented, the cash ow was over

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE TREADMILL: GOOD FOR RUNNING NOWHERE

$500 a month — what were we, crazy? But it was difﬁcult to manage

and I was tired of hearing about squabbling tenants, so we put it on the

market and sold it. After commissions and taxes, penalties and renova-

tion costs, our proﬁt came out to zero dollars over the two years we

owned it. I’d be lying if I told you I was happy about making no proﬁt,

but it was the best zero dollars I’ve ever made. What we learned dur-

ing the process was invaluable and we couldn’t have paid to learn the

lessons we did.

Fast-forward to 2010: Life is still hectic and busy, but I am still loving

every minute of it. I know we have planned well for the long-term and

have set ourselves up to be ﬁnancially free in the future with our real

estate portfolio. We still continue to look for more investing opportuni-

ties, mainly in commercial real estate and building/development but

we are taking our time and learning as much as we can. Real estate has

changed my life, but it’s not just about the money. Real estate has given

me a kind of freedom I never thought possible.

KEYS TO SUCCESS:

1. Educate yourself.

Read books, magazines, newspapers and anything else you can to learn

as much as you can about real estate.

2. Do your homework.

Before investing in a property, do your homework. Check newspapers

for actual rental rates in your area. Crunch the numbers. Don’t forget

that real estate is not global, national or even city-focused. Real estate

statistics are good guidelines but you must do further research to iden-

tify anomalies. Contact local town or city council to get a feel for how

they view investors and ask for economic data.

3. Build a great team.

From your realtor to your tenant, building a great team is crucial to suc-

cess. We are eternally grateful to our team for helping us get this far.

Our team consists of lawyers, accountants, realtors, property managers,

mortgage brokers, bankers and inspectors, as well as an assistant and

bookkeeper. They all understand our goals and work with us to achieve

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

them. Don’t forget your tenants! Many people think the property is the

asset: wrong! Tenants are your assets. Think about it: they essentially

pay your mortgage, taxes, insurance, management fees and more, take

care of your property, and when they leave, it’s still yours.

4. Treat it like a real business.

Whether you are investing in your ﬁrst property or planning to pursue it

full-time one day, run it like a small business. Even if you plan to man-

age the property yourself, or complete your own renovations, you must

account for these expenses in your numbers. I know many investors

who’ve been burned because they didn’t treat it like a real business.

5. Make no excuses.

No matter who you are or where you’ve come from, there is no bet-

ter time to get started. There is no such thing as perfect timing, and it

doesn’t matter what your age, sex or level of experience is.

6. Word hard.

There will be days you feel like you’re just spinning your wheels, and

there will be long, frustrating days where you feel like you want to quit.

Keep at it and do that extra 10% others aren’t willing to do.

7. Systemize.

Systems are extremely important. From your buying system to your ten-

ant management system, systemizing will help make things easier. If this

is not your strength, ﬁnd someone who is good at it for your team.

8. Surround yourself with the right people.

Ignore the nay-sayers (because there will be many) and surround yourself

with like-minded people. Network and ﬁnd a mentor. The right people

will support you, cheer you on, and offer invaluable advice when you

need it. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from others — you’ll be pleasantly

surprised at how willing people are to help out fellow investors.

9. Focus on a niche.

You will get distracted by lots of “shiny” things. Try to focus on a spe-

ciﬁc neighborhood or area, type of home and even type of investing.

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE TREADMILL: GOOD FOR RUNNING NOWHERE

10. Cash ow is king.

Every single property we own has a healthy monthly cash ow. When

we purchased the properties, we made sure that the monthly rent could

cover all of our expenses and were unwilling to accept long-term capi-

tal appreciation as the only upside in our investments. This has been

crucial to our success at weathering the global economic crisis.

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

ABOUT CAITIE

Caitie Yue is a Canadian real estate entrepreneur and investor

who has invested in residential real estate across Canada. She

has helped investors diversify their portfolios through real estate

investments with a strong emphasis on long-term growth and

cash flow and is the managing director and partner of a portfolio of properties valued

at fifteen million dollars.

Caitie is also the co-founder and CEO of Blueprint EQ Developments and Blueprint

EQ Capital. She is responsible for building relationships with developers, builders

and lenders with a mission to identify and provide exceptional investment opportuni-

ties for partners.

Caitie left her job as a graphics designer at a ‘hot’ start-up company in 2007 to pursue

her entrepreneurship dreams and hasn’t looked back. She is passionate about pro-

moting financial literacy and entrepreneurship among children and young adults and

hopes to inspire a new generation of entrepreneurs.

Caitie lives in Toronto with her husband and continues to learn, explore and invest in

high-growth and long-term investment opportunities.

Follow Caitie on Twitter: c8itie

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE YELLOW LETTER

CHAPTER 3

THE YELLOW LETTER

by Donna and John MacNeil

hat an honor to be included in the Guru’s new book. Thank you

Ron!

Real Estate Investing is a great business. Rewarding to all the

people involved: you, the seller, the buyer, the contractor, the neighbor-

hood, the private money lenders, the closing attorney, and all the way

to the tax rolls.

Investing can have it’s ups and downs, but the ups are much much

higher than the downs.

Ron once told me if you’re not buying and selling enough houses, ﬁx

the problem. First you have to ﬁnd the problem. No, it’s not on the

computer, not on the CD’s or courses.

How to nd the problem: “Look in the mirror.”

How to the x the problem: “Get to Work!”

We can only tell you from our own experience that ‘getting to work’

means getting your marketing up and running. So, we started to mail

The Yellow Letter! It’s a numbers game; the more Yellow Letters

mailed out… the more the responses, the more incoming calls, the

more appointments, the more deals you get, and the more “Money”

you make.

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

Direct mail can be an extremely effective way to ﬁnd motivated sellers

and buy houses and become wealthy, if you know how to do it. As you

probably know, most people open their mail over the wastebasket. No

message, no matter how effective, is going to generate a response un-

less your letter gets opened!

Then you have to have a message that will inspire the recipient to take

action and call you. With that many potential sellers calling you, you

can take your pick of the best deals. The homes with the most equity,

best proﬁt, and the quickest cash out. You won’t have to waste your

time with non-motivated sellers, tire-kickers or time wasters just be-

cause you have no one better to work with.

Donna & John’s Yellow Letter real estate investor marketing system is

so simple, an average high school student could do it. You don’t have

to be a direct mail guru.

What are you waiting for? You town is ﬁlled with people waiting to

sell you their house. They just need to hear from you. This system will

show you how to ﬁnd motivated sellers in your market! Don’t waste

your time with marketing that drains your budget and doesn’t bring

you deals on a regular basis. Try John and Donna MacNeil’s real estate

marketing letter today! Let me tell you how our Real Estate Investing

Business began. After Donna starting working for Ron, she got very

interested in the business, meeting with some of Ron’s students who

became trainers and speakers.

In the mean time my J.O.B. was just ﬁne, good money, pay bonuses,

company car, golf outings, etc. Well, deep down I knew the energy in-

dustry was headed into trouble with “Enron” and “BP.”

As I drove on my daily business, I listened to Sport Talk Shows, until

one day an announcer didn’t know that Ted Williams the greatest hitter

of all time, served with the Marines as a pilot in two wars. I’m a diehard

Yankee fan and even I knew that about Ted Williams.

So off went the car radio. In the mean time, Ron had given Donna some

old tape, odds and ends of courses, and seminars which she passed onto

me. After listening to a few of these tapes I told Donna, “I think we can

do this business. Donna set up an appointment with Ron and he spent

some time with us. Ron laid out a schedule of events and seminars,

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE YELLOW LETTER

much like today’s Master Program, and yes, we paid full price. If we

had waited 1 year we could have paid 50% less and if we waited two

years we wouldn’t have to pay at all.

Notice I didn’t say save money, because ‘waiting’ to become successful

and rich doesn’t work.

SUMMARY

The cost of our training: Priceless.

The return on our training investment: Incalculable!

I started out calling ‘For Sale By Owners’ in the paper and became an

‘ant’ for Ron. I’m not a math genius, but a few dollars as an ant is a lot

less than wholesaling or retailing a house. So our business began.

Why did I create the Yellow Letter? Nothing else worked to our sat-

isfaction. Form letters got a very low response rate. Letters that give

sellers false hope, such as “I can save your credit,” “I’ll stop your fore-

closure,” and “I’ll protect you from bankruptcy”… Bull! Bull! Bull!

Does anyone read a form letter at all? I used postcards but you need a

ton of them to get one response. No wonder people try to sell tracking

systems to track tons of postcards. Why not use a scale. Postcards are

the most expensive way to mail. One card is cheap, but you need tons

and tons of them… and the cost adds up.

One national trainer told me he only uses postcards to ﬁnd empty houses.

Signs, I love signs. Until one day Donna and I spent the morning put-

ting out signs. I jumped in and out of our van as she drove. Three hours

later we ﬁnished and went to lunch, proud of all our work. After lunch

we drove back over the same route where we had placed our signs.

Where did they go? We only found three left. The sign police had won.

Thank goodness we didn’t get any ﬁnes.

Well back to the drawing board to start a New Marketing System that

would work. I thought back to the home heating oil business I was in. I

took a letter and copied a note I had used back in the day, and then turned

it into My Yellow Letter. We keep revamping the note until we were

getting a 35% to 45% response rate on regular basis. It took us about 9

months, but that’s what it takes sometimes… and IT WORKED!!!

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

Since the mortgage and housing change began in 2007, many mail ful-

ﬁllment companies have failed due to unsound and unstable business

practices. Some mail fulﬁllment companies are just bad apples.

We are Yellow Letter.com, you can have conﬁdence in us and here’s why.

We’re the Original, the ﬁrst! We created the Yellow Letter, and we

invented the system that works. We didn’t take the idea from someone

else or steal their ideas and dreams. We didn’t copycat, we didn’t need

to, we started it!!! When you run your company with integrity and take

care of your customers you stay #1.

And we thank you very much.

We’re also rated #1 – 5 stars by the country’s leading mail analysts,

national and international speakers, and Guru’s. All have rated us ex-

cellent based on our performance and customer satisfaction. Our ratio

of 30% response rate still stands. You won’t ﬁnd our name on any com-

plaint lists! We just won’t fail you like other mail houses.

Foreclosure rates are at an all time national high and other mailing

houses are struggling with lead lists that just aren’t working. Yellow

Letter.com’s exclusive Mail List performs ‘way above’ the national

average. While other mail houses have little regard for their customers,

Yellow Letter.com works closely with our customers to insure the best

results possible.

You can be conﬁdent that our goal is to keep our customers happy.

We’re a small company by choice. Since 2002 our company has main-

tained our focus on our customers, not the demands of others. Our ap-

proach to marketing has seen our company grow as we continue to

guide our customers and watch their success.

We retain 99% of the customers and friends we make. We don’t send

our customer’s names and email addresses to other companies. Also we

never sell a customer list to anyone else. Your list is exclusive.

We help our customers manage their lists and mailings and maintain

their relationship for the long term. Why does retaining our customer

base matter? Our customers always know who to call when they have

questions about their lists and mail campaigns, or when it’s time to re-

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE YELLOW LETTER

order their Yellow Letters and lists. We are a company that appreciates

working with Real Estate Investors.

While other Mail Houses have shut down or scaled back their opera-

tions, Yellow Letter.com’s customer base is up 78% in 2009. Why?

The answer is our incredibly talented and well trained customer friend-

ly staff, headed up by Donna and Susan.

By following our consistent business model, investors have ocked to

Yellow Letter.com’s sound, stable, accurate and fast service. Many in-

vestors sought out our company after hearing about us through word-

of-mouth, a company they could count on. We never lost faith in the

American Dream of Home Ownership, the American Dream of Owning

your own business. We’re proud to service more investors every day that

are buying houses across The United States of America and Canada.

THE BOTTOM LINE

We’re going strong mailing yellow letters for ten’s of thousands of

Americans.

How can we Help You?

The current economy has given Real Estate Investors a true advantage,

buying and selling houses. This is one of the best times to be in the

business of Real Estate Investing, mortgage interest rates are at historic

lows. It’s a Buyers market; there are plenty of incentives that make

Investing more affordable than ever.

Yellow Letter.com will put you in front of all the sellers and buyers

you need.

Rethink your current marketing. If your response rate is low and your

return rate is High, you should consider a ﬁx. It’s time to turn that Mar-

keting around. It might be beneﬁcial to contact Yellow Letter.com or

Email: susang@yellowletter.com or just call Susan at 904-396-0205.

The choice is yours. Consolidate your marketing into a system that pro-

duces results and is proven to work. There is no obligation, no fees, and

no contracts, unlike some other direct mail programs. We won’t charge

you hundreds of dollars just to apply.

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

Marketing is the key to your Real Estate Investing Engine. So start

your engine now. The Yellow Letter has been voted the #1 Best

Marketing Tool in North America, used both in the United States

and Canada.

Yellow Letter.com comes in ﬁrst every time. While copycats and pho-

nies fall by the wayside, John’s Original Yellow Letter still out pro-

duces all the others 10 to 1. Yellowletter.com is not afﬁliated with any

of the copycat companies, nor do we endorse any of the phony yellow

letter companies. We know that to get the best results with your mail

marketing, you must go to: www.yellowletter.com or email: donna@

yellowletter.com or: susang@yellowletter.com

Better yet, just call Susan at 904-396-0205. Susan is our expert on

mailing yellow letters and lists. Susan and her husband Donald help

us help you. Donald and Susan have been our dear friends for over 30

years. We know you’ll like them too.

I’ve tried to end this chapter three times. I keep coming up with things

I love about this business, our life style and income.

It all started when Donna was the Senior Person in charge of marketing

and advertising, working under the Vice President of sales for a local

and well known home improvement company. After a failed coup by

the Vice President, the owner closed the division. (By the way, that

company is no longer in business.)

Donna went to the classiﬁed ads in our local paper, a small ad caught

her eye “Executive Assistant Wanted.” After an interview with Ron

Who? “We never heard of this guy.” I asked Donna what does he do?

“He says he makes people rich” she replied.

Well, he does and we’re proud of that today (ten years later). Ron and

Bev are some of our closest friends and Ron is still my mentor.

Ron once told me he didn’t make me rich, I did. But Ron you sure

helped. We couldn’t have done it without his advice, training, events,

seminars and mentoring.

My Mother thanks you, my wife thanks you, my kids and grandkids

thank you and most of all, I Thank You!

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE YELLOW LETTER

Ron never stops making peoples dreams come true. Donna and I know

this is true every day as we look over the White River, with our Bald

Eagle nest by the river in our Dream Home.

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

ABOUT DONNA AND JOHN

Donna’s professional background in the real estate industry in-

cludes being a Realtor for 10 years in New Jersey and also do-

ing appraising for the State in 13 counties. John also dabbled in

real estate as an agent, and since partnering with Donna and

then starting Family Home Solutions, John has been in the Real Estate Investment

trenches… buying and selling houses every day.

John’s development of the phenomenal marketing tool, “The Yellow Letter,” has added

to the list of what investors need - to get their businesses up and running as quickly as

possible - with phenomenal marketing.

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

SEVEN ESSENTIALS TO MAKING MILLIONS WITH REOS

CHAPTER 4

SEVEN ESSENTIALS TO

MAKING MILLIONS WITH

REOS

by Eddie Miller

n the fall of 2008 when the US economy shifted, so did my entire

life. I was a project manager for one of the largest commercial interi-

or construction companies in Miami. Almost instantly, construction

came to a standstill, and I was left without a job.

Late one night a few months later there was an infomercial for investing

in real estate, which led me to researching the top real estate gurus on the

internet. The only way to decipher between them all was to pick the one

who had the most positive and least negative comments about them, and

who had a proven track record. Within two weeks my partner, Alekxey

Sabido, and I were sitting in one of Ron LeGrand’s training seminars. We

left that seminar with a determination to make this business work. How-

ever, investing in real estate can be somewhat overwhelming, and one of

our ﬁrst challenges was determining where to start.

From previous experience I knew that if we were going to succeed we

had to focus our intention by determining what of Ron’s training we

should really hone in on ﬁrst, and focus on our intended goals. Once

we were clear on our intentions, we had to take action. With Florida

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

being one of the top foreclosure states, we realized our primary focus

needed to be on foreclosed REOs—Real Estate Owned by the bank. As

a result, we learned to select ideal properties, build a powerhouse team,

raise over a million dollars in private funds, and produce great rehabs

that sold within days of putting them on the market. In our ﬁrst year,

we made more money than ever before, and became one of the fastest

growing private real estate investors in Miami.

1. We’ve discovered that the rst critical component to our business

was to “Focus Our Intention and Take Action” by making offers,

talking with potential private lenders, and selling the properties. In

this chapter, I’ll share exactly how we focused our intention as well

as the methods and systems we’ve created, to ‘make a killing’ in

the REO market.

2. The second essential component was selecting our properties.

SELECTING PROPERTIES

THAT MAKE MASSIVE PROFITS

As Ron puts it, “ﬁnd your bread and butter neighborhoods.” You want

to identify the neighborhoods in your community that are desirable and

where properties are selling—with clean streets and nicely maintained

homes. You will ﬁnd that the prices of the properties will vary depend-

ing on where you live.

When selecting your properties, always, always, always follow the

MAO formula (Maximum Allowable Offer). It’s simple, here is how

you do it… take the ARV (After Repair Value that the house will sell

for in 30-60 days) x 70% - Repairs = MAO.

So, if in 30-60 days the house will sell for $100,000, you multiply it by

70% (equaling $70,000), minus repairs, and in this case say they total

$20,000, then you know the Maximum Allowable Offer you can make

is $50,000. Ideally, we like to use 65% and if possible pay less, but we

will never go over 70%. It is critical to remember if the numbers don’t

work, walk away; there is always another deal out there for you.

It is also important to note that there may be neighborhoods in your cho-

sen area that the banks may be listing the REOs at or near the ARV. First

of all, make sure your ARV is correct. If it is, then just put your focused

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

SEVEN ESSENTIALS TO MAKING MILLIONS WITH REOS

intention on other neighborhoods in your area and periodically keep an

eye on the original neighborhood to see if the listing prices change.

In addition, avoid homes that don’t have curb appeal, those with odd

or unusual interior layouts, and those that are too small. We always ask

ourselves “could we live here?” Not that we would, but rather does the

house have charm, character, curb appeal, a nice layout, something that

will help resell it fast.

It typically takes us 8 to 10 offers on average to get a house under con-

tract. So if you want to move fast, have your realtor help you scout out

properties from the MLS (Realtors’ Multiple Listing Service), search

auction websites, and also scout out REO wholesalers—investors who

have purchased REOs and resell them with a slight markup.

These wholesalers can typically be found at your local REIA (Real

Estate Investment Association) meetings. When you become good at it,

you will beat them at their own game and get the properties ﬁrst, but if

you’re just starting out this is another good place to begin. We’ve also

purchased several properties from auctions; just make sure to preview

the properties prior to the auction day to know your MAO. The internet

is a great source to ﬁnd the auctions in your area. However, when it

comes to REO’s, we’ve found the best place is through the MLS, (not

REO and foreclosure websites as we found it to be too time consum-

ing); your realtor can automatically set you up for minute-by-minute

emails with the latest properties on the market.

Again, the most important thing to remember when selecting proper-

ties is the deal has to work with the MAO formula or you walk away.

If the numbers don’t work right now, check the property in a month or

two; you might ﬁnd the bank is more than happy to accept your offer at

MAO or well below.

BUILDING YOUR POWERHOUSE TEAM

To ‘make a killing’ in the REO business you need to build a power-

house team. One of the ﬁrst important members is your realtor. Once

you identify the neighborhoods where you are going to focus, then the

next step is ﬁnding a realtor that:

1. You enjoy working with

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

2. Really knows the area

3. Understands market trends and investing

4. Is great at pulling comparables, and

5. Is committed to working with only one investor, at least in your

targeted area, so he/she is sending all of the deals your way.

We were extremely fortunate as our realtor, Alice Kellogg, was an

amazing goldmine of information and she really helped us learn the

ropes. Alice immediately got the MAO formula we used to evaluate

properties and continues to always have our best interests in mind.

Based on this relationship, we are very loyal to her and only buy and

sell properties in her market through her.

Miami is a large city, so as we’ve expanded to areas outside of Alice’s

market, we needed to add an additional realtor for each of the areas we’ve

expanded, but each time we expanded we used the same criteria above.

An REO agent is a great type of a realtor to seek out. They usually work

with several banks and are alerted ﬁrst of new properties coming on the

market. In addition, identify contacts at small banks and credit unions

in your areas as they could easily provide you ﬁrst crack at the proper-

ties they are getting ready to liquidate.

You will also want to get to know members of your local REIA group. It

only takes one person to open amazing doors. Usually, they are happy to

refer contractors, real estate attorneys, title companies, other investors,

etc. in your area to help you build your business. Go to the meetings and

ﬁnd out what’s happening and even the great deals in your community.

Your real estate attorney, title company, and accountant are also essen-

tial, but don’t think you have to have them or any of the team members

in place beforehand. I’m suggesting you do your ﬁrst deal ﬁrst. Start

making offers and the right people will fall into place. Once your busi-

ness starts rocking, you’ll soon discover you can’t do it all, and as soon as

your budget allows, you will need to bring on some help. Today we have

a virtual assistant, acquisitionist, and rehab manager. [For a list of their

job descriptions visit http://www.NewMastersOfRealEstate.com]

Before I go any further… I want to say it again, know you can do your

ﬁrst handful of deals on your own—we did, but eventually you will

need support, unless you are only going to buy and sell a few properties

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

SEVEN ESSENTIALS TO MAKING MILLIONS WITH REOS

a year. The ﬁrst person I’d add is a virtual assistant who can handle a

variety of tasks remotely; jobs like internet research, tracking auctions,

uploading properties on your website, placing internet ads, overseeing

your social media sites, and answering all phone calls from buyers and

realtors to provide showing instructions — the list is endless of what

they can do.

In addition, it’s great to have an acquisitionist to preview all of the

properties. A key to the REO business is acting fast, so as you grow

your business you’ll ﬁnd you can’t be everywhere at once. Each day,

from various sources, you’ll get updates of new properties on the mar-

ket from the MLS and upcoming auctions. It could be 1, 3, or more.

First, have the acquisitionist pull the sold comparable properties (pref-

erably from the last 30-60 days) to determine what price range houses

in the neighborhood are selling. If it appears that this is a possible deal,

then the acquisitionist will: (a) contact the realtor to preview the prop-

erty, (b) estimate repair costs using our Rehab Budget & Checklist, (c)

take photos of the house — especially of major repairs, (d) run by the

comparable properties if necessary, (e) check for code violations and

liens with the city/county, and (f) report back.

All of the legwork is done, and all you need to preview are the proper-

ties for which you want to make offers. Your job is to make offers, make

offers, and make offers!

Now it really depends on how you would like to structure your busi-

ness. If you want to primarily wholesale your REOs, then your acqui-

sitionist and virtual assistant will likely be sufﬁcient. Wholesaling is

when you have a property under contract and sell it to another investor

with a goal to simultaneously buy and sell the property with a proﬁt of

$5,000, $10,000, or possibly $20,000. If you don’t sell it by your con-

tract closing date, you will need to pay for the property, and continue

marketing in order to sell it after purchasing. Or, walk away and lose

your escrow deposit. That’s the wholesale business.

However, if you are interested in rehabbing, then eventually you

could add a rehab manager, although initially our general contractor

was a great help until our business grew to the point that we needed

someone full-time.

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

Here is an overview of the rehab manager’s responsibilities once the

property is under contract:

1. Inspection Period – orders the inspection and appraisal, double

check liens and code violations, and that contractors provide

rehab budgets… all to conﬁrm this is a property to purchase.

2. Contract Period – take ‘before’ photos, prep for permits, contact

your attorney and title company, and order vacant house and li-

ability insurances to begin the day you close.

3. Rehab Period – pull permits, transfer utilities, monitor con-

tractors and the budget, order ﬁnal inspections, ensure all ﬁnal

punch list items are complete, and take ‘after’ photos.

4. Selling Period – list property with realtor and on the internet,

create a yer, monitor maintenance, and manage the showing

and closing process.

An important lesson we’ve learned is that if the person you’ve hired for

any position is not the right ﬁt, then you need to move on and ﬁnd one

who is. It may not be easy at the moment, but if you don’t, your busi-

ness will suffer in the long run.

A little later, I will discuss your team of contractors; however, I want

to mention the importance of building a solid relationship with each of

them. Treat them with respect and appreciate their work, they’ll take

more pride in your projects and when you really need them to come

through for you, they will.

The key to building a powerhouse team and successful business is that

you are the one who keeps an eye on the pulse of ‘what’s going on’ and

‘where you are going.’

RAISING PRIVATE FUNDSTHE EASY WAY!

So you may be asking yourself, “What am I supposed to be doing?”

You are the engine, the visionary. Your job is to replace yourself as

quickly as possible, manage those you hire to replace you, continue

to focus on the new trends in the real estate market, and raise private

funds. Raising private funds is vital to the REO business and in this

section I’m going to share how easy it is to do.

In the beginning I was like most, afraid to talk with people about in-

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

SEVEN ESSENTIALS TO MAKING MILLIONS WITH REOS

vesting in real estate. I had no credibility—I was the guy without a

job. Then at one of Ron’s training sessions, he was reviewing the com-

ponents of working with private lenders. Well, I took great notes and

went back home to create what I now call the Investment Opportunity

One-Sheet. This document reviews how individuals can get a higher

return compared to what they are getting with CDs, annuities, stocks,

and other investments; and how they could even invest using a self-

directed IRA to get a 100% tax-free return. [Get a free copy at: http://

www.NewMastersOfRealEstate.com].

It also explains exactly how the process works, we don’t borrow more

than 70% of the current after repair market value of the property, and

that their investment is secured with a mortgage on the property. Plus,

we provide a copy of the appraisal, title insurance, and ﬁre/wind insur-

ance policies to insure the security of their investment. Furthermore,

we explain the entire transaction, including drawing up the paperwork,

the escrow of their investment, and both closings (buying and selling)

are handled by an attorney.

Then, in the next part of the process, Alekxey and I each made a list of

people we knew that might be interested or might know someone who

would be interested in investing. I stress might because you never know

what money people have access to, or who they know. I promise you,

if you make a list of 40 to 90 people from all over the world (including

your family, friends, business contacts, and those you remotely know),

these individuals will easily lead you to $250,000 in three months, and

will likely lead you to $1 million or more. I promise! We raised over

$1 million in our ﬁrst year of business, and we had private lenders

from the US, Mexico, and Europe. We started with family members

and friends; then, as our conﬁdence grew, we began talking with others.

We are ALWAYS adding new contacts to our prospect list from events

that we attend—like parties and Chamber of Commerce meetings. And

we are ALWAYS sharing with others about our real estate business,

how we work with private lenders, and how we provide a higher return

safely, securely, and ethically. The key is simply talking with people

on a daily basis. Whether in person or on the phone, we simply walk-

through the key points on our ‘one-sheet’, answer their questions, give

or e-mail them the one-sheet, and follow-up with them to see if they

are interested. If not, we ask for a referral. They might not be ready to

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

invest right now, but they likely know someone who is. It really is as

simple as that.

Most times as you’re talking with people, the conversation will just

ow naturally and you’re able to share what you are doing. They get

interested and you take it to the next step. You can also use what Ron

suggests to initiate a conversation, “Do you have an IRA or any other

investments not producing a high return safely?”

It is also critical to follow-up. Here is an example. We were having

lunch with a good friend. Not expecting she had any money to invest,

I simply mentioned that we were looking for a private lender for a

new property we were buying and asked if she knew someone. She

said she had a friend that might be interested. I sent an e-mail with the

one-sheet for her to forward to her friend. When we followed up, her

friend wasn’t interested, but she herself had $30,000 to invest. The ex-

act amount we needed for one of our rehab projects. She is now on her

second investment with us.

So, how do you face the fear of raising private money?

In the process of writing my latest book — Living Inside-Out: The

Go-To Guide for the Overwhelmed, Overworked & Overcommitted, I

discovered that behind ‘what we fear the most’ is enormous power for

us, if we are only willing to ‘lean into our fear.’ When your focused

intention is to raise private funds, and your fear stops you right in your

tracks, then lean into it with these simple steps:

1. Download the Investment Opportunity One-Sheet and personal-

ize it with your name and contact information

2. Create a list of 40-90 people from all over the world, whoever

comes to mind write their name down… don’t prejudge. Keep

the list handy and always continue to add to it.

3. Start ﬁrst with family and friends to build your conﬁdence; you

will likely be surprised as to who says ‘yes.’

4. Take action; play a game with yourself that you won’t go to bed

without contacting one new person each day.

5. Create a “First to Know—Private Lender” e-mail list and as

you buy and sell new properties send them an update. I even

send before and after photos. Some lenders will join you 4-6

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

SEVEN ESSENTIALS TO MAKING MILLIONS WITH REOS

months after the initial contact.

6. Follow-up, make sure to follow-up within a week of the initial

contact. If they say no, ask for a referral. Then add them to your

“First to Know” list and periodically continue to follow-up. You

are now ‘on their radar.’

By taking action you automatically ‘lean into your fear.’ As a real es-

tate investor, money equals freedom and power. You are free to make

tons of offers on great deals, and you have the power to ‘make a kill-

ing’ in the REO market. Once you learn how easy it is to raise private

funds, you will discover other money-making opportunities will open

for you—like providing lease options. This way, when the economy

shifts, you are in control as there are more options you can provide that

others can’t.

Here is what Matt and Rich said after I challenged them with these

six steps…

“We were frustrated with our business and stuck in the crippling mind-

set that we were inadequate to acquire our own private lenders and

expand our business. Eddie challenged us to overcome our reluctance

and remove the pretense that we had little to offer our investors. We

accepted the time sensitive challenge and got to work quickly. Most of

the potential lenders we talked with were not turned off to the idea as

we expected. On the contrary, we quickly acquired needed funds and

were able to put them to work immediately. Because of Eddie’s leader-

ship and encouragement, we have been able to secure over $200,000 of

private money without working very hard for it. We are truly grateful.”

-Matt and Rich McLean, Knoxville, TN

EFFECTIVE WHOLESALING AND REHABBING

When it comes to selling your REO properties you really have two op-

tions; wholesaling and rehabbing. As I mentioned above, wholesaling

is when you have a property under contract and your goal is to sell it

by the time you close the purchase process to another investor—with

a proﬁt of $5,000 to $20,000 depending on the property and the deal.

The key to wholesaling is to develop an effective list of other inves-

tors. This can be done by getting business cards from those at REIA

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

meetings and auctions, constantly networking, as well as placing ads

online and in your local papers, or even signs you can place around

your neighborhood that read “Handyman Special, Cheap, Cash (with

your phone number). All the calls go to our virtual assistant, she adds

these names to an e-mail list, and then forwards to them all of your new

properties. In addition, you personally call key investors.

The other option is rehabbing, which we’ve found to be very lucrative.

Because we follow the MAO formula, we only purchase properties that

produce a proﬁt of $25,000 or more after the purchasing, rehabbing,

holding, and investor expenses are deducted. Our spread is typically

$30,000 to $45,000.

The key to rehabbing is selecting the right crew, and my background as

a construction project manager has deﬁnitely proved valuable to create

our rehab system. Typically, you’re going to need a general contractor

(GC), plus electrical, plumbing, air conditioning and heating, painting,

kitchen cabinet, rooﬁng, and landscaping contractors. (All need to be

licensed except the landscaper.)

If it is your ﬁrst rehab, I would recommend staying under $25,000 in

repairs to get your feet wet. Ask realtors, REIA members, Chamber

of Commerce members, etc. about contractors they recommend. Espe-

cially in the beginning, I suggest identifying three contractors for each

trade and have them bid the project as well as provide references. This

way you can compare organic oranges to organic oranges. You will be

amazed by the difference in pricing.

Your GC will likely do the majority of the work and needs to be some-

one you trust. During the inspection period before we buy the house, I

always have the GC go to the property with our rehab manger and me

to review the inspectors report, conﬁrm the work that needs to be done,

and double check the estimate our acquisitionist prepared. [For a copy

of our Rehab Estimate & Checklist visit: http://www.NewMastersOf-

RealEsate.com]

Stephanie Iannotti, a fellow investor and friend, has said “We produce

the nicest rehabs she has ever seen.” Our focused intention when pur-

chasing the next home is how we can make this one the nicest home in

the neighborhood… of course at a rock bottom price!

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

SEVEN ESSENTIALS TO MAKING MILLIONS WITH REOS

Another goldmine in our business is we use the same materials to re-

hab each project. We typically buy everything from Home Depot and

Brands Mart; our cabinet makers use one of two styles we’ve selected,

and we buy our tile from one company. We use the same interior paint,

appliances, lighting, ceiling fans, bathroom accessories, etc.; this way

we know exactly what our costs are going to be.

When calculating the expenses of the rehab project, keep in mind the

square footage of the house. When the house is bigger or in a better

location, it will cost more and may require nicer quality ﬁnishes. Es-

pecially in the beginning, shop around and Google for the best prices.

Keep yourself informed on how much a typical bathroom, a kitchen, or

square footage of tile costs. Don’t stress, as you will learn naturally. To

create a little cushion, we always add an extra 20% for miscellaneous

expenses. Also, become friends with your contractors and vendors; I

found it useful more than once.

Communication is critical with the GC, each contractor, and your rehab

manager if you have one. They cannot read your mind and many times

have their own opinion as to how the task at hand should be done. This

is why walking through the rehab checklist is so important to conﬁrm

they are clear on what you want done.

Our goal is to have a rehab project ﬁnished within four to six weeks;

therefore, we’ve learned from experience to stay away from proper-

ties that have extensive code violations. We refer to code violations

such as adding a bathroom without a permit, converting a garage into

a bedroom, building an addition that is too close to the property line,

city ﬁnes for property maintenance, etc. These violations are usually

registered with the city/county, so make sure to check them out during

the inspection period to know what you are getting into. Usually these

repairs can be made easily, but the bureaucracy of the city/county can

take months and eat up valuable proﬁts—it’s not worth it.

Most contractors require 50% payment to start the job and 50% when

completed. Make sure their proposal details the work you’ve agreed

to. In addition, we don’t pay the entire balance due until we verify

the work has been completed the way instructed. We walk through the

project to produce a ﬁnal punch list to make sure the property is ready

to go back on the market.

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

SELLING YOUR PROPERTY FAST!

Most of our properties go under contract within weeks, if not days,

because before we buy, we know what the houses in the neighborhood

are selling for and set our ARV at the price that will sell in 30-60 days.

So, the day our house goes on the market, it is one of the nicest, lowest

priced properties available. We stage our homes with simple pieces of

furniture and wall hangings as well as towels and a few accessories in

the kitchen and bathrooms.

We list our homes with our realtor on the MLS; however, we place our

own “For Sale by Owner” sign in the yard and all of the calls go to our

virtual assistant. We’ve arranged with our realtors a reduced selling

commission since we handle all of the calls and hold the open houses.

When potential buyers and their realtors call, our virtual assistant gives

them the details of the property and lockbox combination.

This way we aren’t wasting our time showing the house to people just

getting decorating tips; however, we always ask for them to give us a

call after they’ve previewed the house—to make sure it’s locked up and

we get a sense of their impressions. We are also constantly building our

“First to Know—Buyers” list and when we have additional homes in

the area, we can call and e-mail those same potential buyers. In addi-

tion, we list our homes on our website and various internet sites.

At the property we have a promo sheet of the house, a list of compara-

ble homes that have sold in the area to afﬁrm our price, a sign-in sheet,

promo sheet of our other houses on the market, and a loan application if

we are providing a lease option or some type of ﬁnancing on a particu-

lar property. When an offer is presented we require a pre-approval letter

from the buyer’s mortgage company, and once we accept the offer, a

letter verifying the escrow deposit has been made is required.

We also change the lockbox combination to ensure we or our rehab

manager is at the buyer’s inspection and appraisal. This way we can

help smooth out any issues that might develop.

Two points to deﬁnitely keep in mind:

1. We don’t show the buyer’s inspector our initial inspection that

we order when purchasing the house. Our inspector is really

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

SEVEN ESSENTIALS TO MAKING MILLIONS WITH REOS

good and we don’t want to give the buyer’s inspector any ideas.

2. When meeting the appraiser we always provide the before and

after photos with details of the improvements we’ve made,

comparable sales, and the original “As Is” and “After Repair”

appraisal that we ordered when purchasing the house. (Make

sure your appraiser uses comps that will verify the value of

the property 60-90 days after his/her initial appraisal has been

conducted.) Although technically we are not supposed to give

this information to the buyer’s appraisers, they usually take it as

it makes their job easier.

As I mentioned, curb appeal is critical; therefore we always make sure

the house shines on the ﬁrst impression. Inside, we use great quality

materials at the most competitive prices. As a result we typically have

our houses under contract in days with a hefty proﬁt to follow.

ATTITUDE IS THE MILLION DOLLAR TICKET

Soon you will ﬁnd, like we did, that investing in real estate is one of

the most rewarding businesses; however… it does present challenges

from time to time. I can’t tell you how many sleepless nights I’ve had

thinking about all of the possible ways we can transform the next house

to make tons of cash. And, we’ve faced the challenge of being in a new

business and having to ﬁgure out in the middle of a transaction what

the right next step should be. Most of the time we’ve made the right

decision and a few times we haven’t. Not knowing what to do next can

destroy momentum. That’s why in our ﬁrst year we invested in Ron’s

“Mastermind Mentoring Program.” Today, I’m one of his US and Ca-

nadian mentors. There is no reason to do this on your own. Ron’s de-

veloped a system to teach each step of the way.

Know that as you build your business, what you will ﬁnd is your atti-

tude is literally a magnet. If you focus on all of the negative, crazy stuff

that is happening to you, I guarantee more of the same will soon follow.

However, if you learn to live with the “It Is What It Is” factor, you will

create a resilience that only focuses on the possibilities. You will ﬁnd

amazing solutions to every challenge you confront.

Keep your focused intention on what it is that you want to accom-

plish. By doing so, you will be lead to the next right decision. There

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

are literally millions of dollars that you can make with REOs… You

simply have to clarify your focused intention and take action.

SO, LET’S GET STARTED!

From the beginning I’ve shared that taking action is the critical fac-

tor to your success. Literally, you can develop a multi-million dollar a

year business just on REOs. However, regardless of the strategy from

these chapers on which you decide to focus your intent, taking action

is what it is all about.

I’ve attempted to provide an overview of the key components that

continue to ‘make us a killing’ in the REO market; however, it is im-

possible to share it all. That’s why I’ve provided downloads and other

helpful resources at: http://www.NewMastersOfRealEstate.com.

In addition, if you would like to learn more of how to incorporate my

“focused intention” technique in the physical, mental, emotional, rela-

tional, ﬁnancial, and spiritual aspects of your life, check out my new

book - Living Inside-Out: The Go-To Guide for the Overwhelmed,

Overworked & Overcommitted, where I weave the words of wisdom

of sixteen national health and wellness, life-balance, and peak potential

experts with what I’ve learn from my own personal journey. Just go to:

http://www.EddieMiller.com.

The REOs are the primary money producer of our business and we’ve

created a great additional income from short sales, subject to’s, and

options. That’s why I suggest identifying what in Ron’s programs re-

ally work in your areas and give it your primary focus. Then, once you

perfect it, you can continue to expand your business.

“Investing in real estate is a Win-Win Sport… we can all make tons

of money!”

I say this all the time because I want you to get that regardless of where

you are now, you can make tons of money by investing in real estate.

Ron, the other mentors, and I, are here to help you make it happen.

So, when one of your fears shows up, know that the same fear has

likely shown up for several of the contributing experts in this book, we

simply leaned into it and took action.

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

SEVEN ESSENTIALS TO MAKING MILLIONS WITH REOS

If you are willing to ‘lean in and take action’ you can make millions

with REOs!

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

SHORT SALE DEAL: THE LONG TERM BENEFITS OF GOING SHORT WITH A SHORT SALE

ABOUT EDDIE

Eddie Miller and his partner, Alekxey Sabido, are the owners of

Miami Property Solutions LLC—one of the fast growing private

real estate investor groups in South Florida.

Eddie and Alekxey are Private Investors, not realtors, and use

Private Lenders, not banks, to fund their real estate purchases. They look for “Win-

Win-Win” opportunities where the seller, the lender, and the eventual homeowner can

all “Win.”

They have assembled an impressive team of professionals and together find creative

solutions to various real estate challenges. The company specializes in identifying

properties that are distressed—in ‘short-sale’ status or have been foreclosed on and

are now owned by the bank.

Miami Property Solutions, LLC is a member of the Dade and Broward Real Estate

Investors Associations, the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, the Miami Beach

Chamber of Commerce and the US–Mexican Chamber of Commerce, as well as has

filed Form D under Reg. 506 with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Eddie is author of the book Living Inside-Out: The Go-To Guide for the Overwhelmed,

Overworked & Overcommitted and co-author of The New Masters of Real Estate: Get-

ting Deals Done in the New Economy, a consultant, a motivational speaker, and host

of the popular Answers Are Within teleseminar series.

Alekxey is an acclaimed international visual artist from Mexico and was recently se-

lected as one of the “100 Top Latins in Miami.” For the past two seasons his paintings

have been featured on the hit show Keeping Up with the Kardashians on E!

“Investing in Real Estate is a WIN-WIN SPORT… we can all make tons of money!”

-Eddie Miller

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

SHORT SALE DEAL: THE LONG TERM BENEFITS OF GOING SHORT WITH A SHORT SALE

CHAPTER 5

SHORT SALE DEAL: THE

LONG TERM BENEFITS OF

GOING SHORT WITH A

SHORT SALE

LESSON LEARNED

by Robert and Elizabeth Lisk

“The Sky is Falling”…

t least that is what most people think right now in our current mar-

ket of 2010. House prices are dropping to lows we haven’t seen

since year 2000, banks are closing up left and right, the banks still

in business are not making many loans, and most people would cringe

to be an investor in this turbulent time in Real Estate. What I see is op-

portunity! Great fortunes are to be made in times like these, if you can

see through all the perceived chaos - and focus on what the problems

are and how you can ﬁx them. A Short Sale is a perfect example of one

way to create equity in a property - where under normal circumstances,

the numbers would not work for an investor to get involved.

Five years ago most people did not even know what a Short Sale is…

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

SHORT SALE DEAL: THE LONG TERM BENEFITS OF GOING SHORT WITH A SHORT SALE

Today, it is a common term in the Real Estate business. For those of

you that have not come across this term, a Short Sale is when the lender

agrees to accept less than the amount owed to pay off the loan as an

alternative to a foreclosure. Simply speaking, the bank is accepting a

“Short” amount for the total loan amount due. In the current market,

with house prices continuing to plummet, a Short Sale can be a great

option for someone facing foreclosure. It will give them the opportu-

nity to walk away from their house and debt if the lender will accept

a Short Sale offer. As an investor we can create equity in a deal. As a

homeowner, you have a chance at having tens of thousands or hundreds

of thousands of dollars potentially wiped off from your loan, keeping

you out of foreclosure - which will harm your credit.

In my business, I believe I am helping to stabilize the market by pre-

venting a foreclosure and reselling the home to someone at a great price

that is still below current market value.

One of my past Short Sale homeowners called me the week before

Christmas in a panic about her current situation… She was a single

mother with two children and one on the way, recently divorced, and

left with the house and a mortgage she could not pay on her current sal-

ary. I met her on a very snowy day in Chicago where it redeemed it’s

nickname, “The Windy City.” It deﬁnitely was a day that if you didn’t

really need to go out of your house … you wouldn’t.

Nonetheless, we got together and we signed the agreements for a Short

Sale, as she was very motivated to get her problems resolved. I assured

her that I would do my best to stop the foreclosure on her home, how-

ever I did not make any promises. In the next two months my Short

Sale Packet was received by the mitigator at the bank and I requested

the BPO to be ordered - which is an interior appraisal completed by a

Real Estate Agent of the bank’s choice. Within a few weeks it was or-

dered, and I met the agent at the house to give her a packet showing (1)

my offer to the bank, (2) the homeowner’s hardship letter, and (3) the

current ‘comps’ of the homes in the surrounding area. This is the most

important part of the entire short sale process, because the bank will

base their entire decision of whether or not a discount will be given,

and how much of a discount will be given to the property, almost solely

upon the BPO. If the BPO comes in too high… then you will probably

not be able to make enough of a spread to have the numbers work for

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

SHORT SALE DEAL: THE LONG TERM BENEFITS OF GOING SHORT WITH A SHORT SALE

you. If you are able to get it in low enough, you will be able to create a

spread between what the bank will take and what an end buyer will pay

when you ip the property to them. the BPO agent looked at my pack-

age and understood that someone was going to go into foreclosure if I

was not able to make this offer work with the bank. The point of this is

getting them to help with the numbers to support your offer to the bank.

It is important to understand that we, as investors, are not asking them

to do anything illegal, but rather to work within their guidelines to get

the number as low as possible - so that I can help this single mother

from an unfortunate situation that she is in… she is losing her house

and facing a foreclosure, which is not good either for her or the bank.

The BPO was completed and within two weeks I was speaking with

the mitigator about my cash offer and working towards getting an ac-

ceptance letter to move to closing. In the meantime, the house was

listed with one of my realtors to secure an end buyer. Within a few

short weeks, an end buyer was in place with closing on the horizon. In

touching base with the homeowner on how the process was going, she

casually mentioned to me about a personal loan from a friend of $6,600

that might be attached to the house. I wondered why my preliminary

title search didn’t show it, but it didn’t. Knowing that title has to be

cleared so that the closing can take place, I ordered a full title search on

the property. In doing so, the personal loan did show up on title of the

house. These can be simple to remove and get a discount.. … or some-

times not so much, depending on the disposition of the person with

whom they have the promissory note. There can be personal grudge

and they do not want to discount but rather want the full amount or

cause the homeowner to face foreclosure.

Having me pay the full promissory amount would put me out of my

buying criteria and would kill the deal. I started looking for this person

through the attorney that created the note… no luck. After three weeks

of going back and forth with the attorney, I asked the homeowner if

they knew where he was. She knew a friend of a friend that might

know where he was. So I contacted him, and remarkably, within an

hour he called me back. Amazing when you share with someone that

you have money to give them how quickly they will call you back. We

negotiated back and forth over another two weeks to arrive at a payoff

of $3,000.00 for him to release his note with the homeowner. He was

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

SHORT SALE DEAL: THE LONG TERM BENEFITS OF GOING SHORT WITH A SHORT SALE

marginally happy with the amount, and so was I, but we were both able

to agree and that allowed me to move forward to closing.

For those of you new to the business, here is a huge lesson to learn

when it comes to personal promissory notes. Of course this gentleman

wanted to meet me later that day to receive his money for the pay off.

Under NO circumstances do you give him money BEFORE you close.

You meet with them to get a Release signed stating your agreement that

you will pay him $3000.00 AT CLOSING for his release of the note,

and have it satisfy his debt with the homeowner. If you pay them ahead

of time, you run the risk of being out that money if by chance you don’t

close on the property. We met the next day and signed the agreement.

At this point, I am only days away from getting my approval from the

bank, and ﬁnalizing last minute details before closing.

Next, make sure when your homeowner is vacating the house, that a

few things happen:

1. They leave the house in ‘move-in’ condition. *

2. No appliances are to be taken out of the property. They need to

be reminded of this right before they are moving out. * Ask me

how I know this!

3. Garbage and items they do not want are to be removed by them,

not left in the house. *Ask me how I know this!!

*All of these points should be a part of your Short Sale paper-

work that they agree to and sign in the beginning with you. If

you do this, you will save thousands of dollars - preventing you

from having to hire someone to remove garbage and furniture

and anything else they leave in the house! If they decide to take

an appliance or two, again you will be responsible for getting

something back in place, because at this point you have a end

buyer and have signed an agreement with them – stating that

those items are in fact part of your purchase and sale agreement

with them.

So now my homeowner has found a place to stay and I am ready to

close. The day arrives and I have not seen the homeowner for months.

She greets me with a hug letting me know how happy she is to move

on from the house and the debt. I negotiated $128,111.00 off of her and

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

SHORT SALE DEAL: THE LONG TERM BENEFITS OF GOING SHORT WITH A SHORT SALE

her ex-husband’s name with a Full Satisfaction. Do Short Sales Work?

Absolutely… Did I do a good thing for a couple that hit upon hard

times? Yes.

We signed all the documents at my attorney’s ofﬁce and within an hour

I was re-selling it to a ﬁrst time homebuyer who was thrilled to get her

ﬁrst home at a great price.

I’d say we all came out winners. I stopped foreclosure on one couple,

and got the bank to write the debt off, then resold it to another person

for a great deal…. And oh yes.., the best part… I made some money in

the middle. It was a good day…

Robert and Elizabeth Lisk

Home Solutions Investments LLC

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

EXUBERANT INNOCENCE TO ETHICAL MATURITY - MORAL TRANSITIONS IN INVESTING

ABOUT ROBERT AND ELIZABETH

Robert and Elizabeth Lisk of Home Solutions have been buying

and selling houses since the early 80’s.. Their expertise has been

with short sales, rehabbing to flip, buying bank owned properties,

and building custom residential homes.

Robert has bought, sold, rehabbed, remodeled and built custom homes for hundreds

of customers. . We solve people’s problems, and in the process buy their house. We

take what is causing them to worry and find a solution, creating pleasure over their

pain. Robert received his Civil Engineering degree from USC, and his MBA from Lake

Forest Graduate School of Management.

Elizabeth has been in real estate since early 1990’s. She loves being able to help

customers of hers out of a difficult situation. She also loves taking an ugly house and

turning into something spectacular. Elizabeth received her Bachelor’s degree from

Western Illinois University.

Robert and Elizabeth live in Lake Forest, IL, and have two exceptionally happy and

beautiful daughters.

www.chicagolandwebuyhouses.com

www.shortsaleforeclosureil.com

www.myshortsalesmadeeasy.com

www.homesolutions-buy.com

www.homesolutions-sell.com

Home Solutions

825 S Waukegan Rd. A8 Suite 152

Lake Forest, IL 60045

Office: 847-510-6676

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

EXUBERANT INNOCENCE TO ETHICAL MATURITY - MORAL TRANSITIONS IN INVESTING

CHAPTER 6

EXUBERANT INNOCENCE TO

ETHICAL MATURITY - MORAL

TRANSITIONS IN INVESTING

by Dr. Grant Kilpatrick

I. BASIC REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT CONCEPTS

What motivates the ‘normal’ person to invest in real estate? I use the

word ‘normal’ since in my 50 years of investing (I like to think that I

started my training playing Monopoly at about 10 years of age!) I have

seen very few people that have invested successfully in real estate rela-

tive to the rest of the population. So the successful investor is ‘out of

the ordinary’ or is not in the range of ‘normal experience’ for a person

seeking out a career in real estate investing.

Success in real estate requires a certain skill set, some of which are

inherent in a person’s personality. These would be self-motivation, ana-

lytical skills, ability to control the fear of potentially massive ﬁnancial

loss, ability to take decisive action, a contrarian attitude of investing

relative to the population, and a desire to act outside of one’s normal

comfort zone.

Then there is the learned skill set required of managers—the ability

to collect information and sort it into relevant and irrelevant, simple

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

EXUBERANT INNOCENCE TO ETHICAL MATURITY - MORAL TRANSITIONS IN INVESTING

mathematical skills, and people management skills.

Matching these inherent and acquired skills with a generous dose of

what I call a healthy FQ (Financial Quotient), we have the makings of

a person who can ‘weather any storms’ the market can churn up.

But what is it that pushes such people to ‘step off the cliff’, to see if

they can y or ‘chance being dashed to ﬁnancial ruin on the rocks be-

low’, if they fall?

II. THE PUSH

The push into real estate investing can be as varied as each person’s

situation demands. For me, it was the fact that I needed a ‘pension

plan.’ Although I made a good living in my professional career, I found

it difﬁcult to set money aside for my long-term future needs. Plus, the

thrill of the “game” to be played beckoned me. I was ultra-successful

at monopoly as a child and adolescent—no one could beat me if I kept

the game going long enough. But as an adult, the game that invited me

was one of real buildings, real money, real debt and the potential of real

loss. This risk factor and the adrenalin surge that comes with it - caused

me to thrive.

For others the push can be the loss of ﬁnancial stability through di-

vorce, loss of a job (…Just Over Broke!), or low points in the market

cycles. These low points (early 70’s, early 80’s, early 90’s, 2008-09)

cause uncertainty and wreak havoc with people’s ﬁnancial plans. I

had lunch with a friend recently that had to suspend his retirement

plans because of the 40 per cent drop in the market. He then withdrew

his remaining capital from the market, missing the 2009-10 market

gain, however slow. He was seeking a solution and was wondering

about the potential of real estate as an investment vehicle to regain

his ﬁnancial stability.

III. THE OPPORTUNITY

As a young professional, I was succeeding quickly and had set aside a

small down payment for a house. I had already purchased my own ofﬁce

building after stumbling across a vacant building with a motivated seller.

(Principle #1: Own, don’t rent).

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

EXUBERANT INNOCENCE TO ETHICAL MATURITY - MORAL TRANSITIONS IN INVESTING

I had already formed a vague notion of purchasing an apartment build-

ing so that at sometime in the future the renters would have paid the

mortgage and I would live on the income generated from it. In fact, I

mentioned that idea to my father when we parked next to an apartment

building one Sunday.

(Principle #2: Speak out your goals aloud to someone else, thereby

committing your subconscious to the goal.)

It was a year later that I drove by that same apartment building, which

now was sporting a “Power of Sale” sign. The mortgage holder was

foreclosing. I called and asked how many units were in the building.

The answer intimidated me—”Twelve.” Remember, I did not have

a house yet, and the only money I had was a small down payment.

However, I gathered the information, analyzed my capabilities and the

strengths and weaknesses of both the building and myself. (What’s the

worst that can happen? How would I deal with it?)

The fact that the mortgage holder intended to force the sale that week

caused an additional ‘push.’ I saw the sign Tuesday, analyzed data

Wednesday, viewed the building Thursday, and hired a lawyer friend

of mine to come to my home on Friday night after work to write up an

offer. (The Offer: My $5000 down payment, and seller ﬁnancing for the

balance.) The offer was submitted Saturday at 9:00 a.m. By 10:00 a.m.

I was the new owner of a 12-unit downtown apartment building.

So, I purchased my ﬁrst investment property with virtually no knowl-

edge and no courses on investing or seller ﬁnancing. I just collected

and analyzed the information. But because of the time frame set by the

seller, I was forced to take action.

I call this period in an investor’s life “exuberant innocence.” I was very

excited and too innocent about what could happen. The decisive step

was taking action. The result was that I acquired a several hundred

thousand dollar property for $5000 and about ﬁve hours of my time. I

accepted the risk and learned the rest.

(Principle #3: If one dwells on all the things that can go wrong, the op-

portunity will go away.)

During the next year, I purchased four acres of lakefront lot property,

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

EXUBERANT INNOCENCE TO ETHICAL MATURITY - MORAL TRANSITIONS IN INVESTING

then found another waterfront property a lot closer to my ofﬁce with a

home already on it. My exuberant innocence was at work.

IV. COINCIDENCE OR DIVINE INTERVENTION?

My professional practice was growing, and I really enjoyed helping

people. But I was paying mortgages on three properties. I was musing

about concentrating on my practice and getting out of real estate in-

vestment while on a plane to Chicago for a professional seminar. I had

just about decided on that path when a real estate investor presented

during the seminar. I think he was invited to speak for an hour midway

through the conference to break up the intensity of the conference and

because he was very entertaining. His topic? “Buying Properties With

No Money Down.”

As a result of his presentation, I saw greater opportunity with no real

downside. I purchased his book and tapes and reset my path—I would

learn more, and do real estate as a hobby!

Within a short time I had found and purchased a multi-residential/

commercial property. But in working up the offer, with my newfound

knowledge of how to do a no-money-down deal, I was working on

a further angle. If no-money-down offers were possible, how about

deals that generated cash on closing? One evening with this thought in

mind, in a few minutes I worked out the wording of a new offer which

would end up generating about 10% of the purchase price in cash in

my pocket on closing. Again, ﬁnding a motivated seller was the key. I

consulted with my lawyer and accountant asking if there was anything

illegal or immoral in this. They said no, as long as I wasn’t going to

walk away from the mortgage. So I closed that deal and ew to Hawaii

for a vacation.

(Principle #4: Reward yourself for success).

However, I really wondered if this cash-generating close was a uke

of nature or of the business or not. So I found another multi-residential

building and formulated another offer to generate 15% of the purchase

price in cash in my pocket on closing. That was a successful buy. My

conclusion: No uke. I can make cash ow by purchasing real estate!

At that point, my family was growing, cash ow was great, and I dou-

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

EXUBERANT INNOCENCE TO ETHICAL MATURITY - MORAL TRANSITIONS IN INVESTING

bled my professional practice through the severe recession of the early

80’s. Life was good. I decided to take my young family on a 15-month

world trip. I was all set to go. One month before I left, I received a

telephone call ‘out of the blue’ asking me to purchase another 16-unit

building. I almost declined, but, realizing the seller was really moti-

vated, I decided to proceed. This time I had no ready cash, the seller

needed 10 % down for his taxes, and since there was no time before I

left the country to secure institutional ﬁnancing, I needed other sources

of capital. I quickly found three other investors to put up the down pay-

ment and the seller ﬁnanced the 90 per cent balance.

I left the country in September and the deal closed in November while

I was on an island somewhere in the South Paciﬁc. When I returned

to Canada over a year later, one investor wanted her money out, so I

purchased her share which gave me 50% ownership. By the way, that

building has not required any more of the investors’ money to run it

since the day we purchased it.

(Principle #5: When opportunity knocks, nd the way to open the door!)

V. THE NEXT STEPCHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

As you might imagine, at this point as a young professional with my

net worth growing rapidly, I was quite pleased with myself. Life was

good. One day while reading about “craftiness” not being a good char-

acter trait, I agreed that I did not desire this trait for myself. I paused

reading to meditate on that for a few moments pondering to myself

whether I had ever been “crafty.” Immediately, the real estate deals

described above where I had closed the deals and put substantial cash

in my pocket on closing with no output of my own cash came to mind.

I had not disclosed the intricacies of those deals to the sellers. I realized

that by not disclosing this, a deal was placed in the realm of ‘craftiness.’

I did not want this crafty practice as a legacy on my character. There-

fore, I decided that I would not use this strategy in the future without

full disclosure to the seller.

(Principle #6: Always make full disclosure to the seller.)

Hence, only as time proceeded, and after some introspection on the ef-

fects of my behavior on myself and on the community around me, did

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

EXUBERANT INNOCENCE TO ETHICAL MATURITY - MORAL TRANSITIONS IN INVESTING

I come to a measure of what I call “ethical maturity.”

Over the years, my experience with real estate investment has brought me

much success, but it also brought me this lesson: As a real estate investor

I must be careful to be fair, ethical and open with buyers and sellers if I

want to live in harmony and peace with the community in which I live.

To do otherwise is to risk my own peace, joy and contentment—which,

in the game of real estate investment, is the ultimate reward.

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

EXUBERANT INNOCENCE TO ETHICAL MATURITY - MORAL TRANSITIONS IN INVESTING

ABOUT GRANT

Dr. Grant A. Kilpatrick

• Raised as a farm boy in South Western Ontario, Canada. Graduated with a B.Sc.

(Chemistry Major) from University of Western Ontario - where a business course

was a high point of his studies.

• Went on to get his doctor of chiropractic in Toronto.

• Married to Joanne his wife of 33 years and has three grown children- two daugh-

ters and one son. One daughter is a teacher and ESL specialist, and one is com-

munications and media director with the foremost environmental NGO, Canada.

His son is in commercial aviation management studies while managing a student

housing business.

• Grant has purchased and managed several multi-residential and/or commercial

properties since 1978 while running a busy health practice.

• He has also taken time to travel the world on an 18 month sabbatical with his

family. He has studied at a masters-level counselling program in Switzerland and

Hawaii and all this was done while operating his real estate business through the

strength of delegation.

• After retiring from his health practice in 2008, because of structural complications

two years after a compression back fracture in 2006, he has obtained further

real estate knowledge from his mentor Ron LeGrand while renovating his home

property on one of the most beautiful waterways in the world in the District of

Muskoka in Central Ontario, Canada where celebrities, wealthy industrialists and

entrepreneurs go to play, rest and relax.

• He is a charter member of the Federation of Rental Housing Providers Ontario

(FRPO) and keeps informed of legal changes and information pertinent to the

businesses from several publications.

THE MOST EFFECTIVE SOCIAL MEDIA SALES TOOL OF ALL

CHAPTER 7

THE MOST EFFECTIVE

SOCIAL MEDIA SALES TOOL

OF ALL*

(*and one of the oldest! How the 24-hour pre-recorded

message can build trust, sell real estate, and make your

life a whole lot easier! )

by Jay Conner

very marketer is selling the virtues of social media. Twitter, Face-

book…they’re big online resources that are being used ‘to the

max’ by everyone with a business. Real estate, of course, is no

exception.

But I want to talk about using what I consider a form of social media

that predates Facebook. It even predates MySpace. As a matter of fact,

it even predates personal computers and websites.

It’s the 24-hour pre-recorded phone message.

“Hold on, Jay,” you’re saying. “How is that social media? Where’s the ‘so-

cial’ part of this? You can’t tweet, you can’t post on a wall, nor can you

update your status with a pre-recorded message. You can’t even look up that

weird guy I went to Junior High School with to see if he’s out of prison yet.”

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

Well, ﬁrst of all, I really don’t even want to deal with that weird guy in

prison. Second of all, the pre-recorded 24-hour message is social media

to me. It’s been one of the most effective, automatic sales tools I’ve

ever used. As a matter of fact, I credit a lot of my success in real estate

in North Carolina to it.

But how is it social media?

Think about how people use Facebook. You can ﬁnd out about peo-

ple before you decide you’re going to accept them as a “friend.” And

you’re not going to take that step unless you have some degree of trust

in who the person is.

That’s exactly how I’ve used the pre-recorded message over the years.

People can listen to the information I or one of my associates provide

in a totally non-threatening way. They can hang up at any time. They

have control over the situation. So they’re more comfortable seeking

out the information.

In other words, even though the conversation is decidedly one-sided,

it’s still the beginning of a relationship. I give them the freedom to

choose if they want to talk to a live person about the property in ques-

tion or not. That freedom in turn empowers more potential buyers to

make the call, knowing no one’s going to personally hard sell them. It

ends up as a win-win for both my real estate company and the customer.

It didn’t start out that way. No, I ﬁrst began to use the pre-recorded

message as a necessity.

LISTEN FOR THE TONE…

When I began my career as a real estate investor, I had a huge problem.

I was only doing it part-time. I still had a “real” job.

So, when I put my classiﬁed real estate ads in the newspaper, with my

cell phone number listed for contact information, I wasn’t able to an-

swer most of the calls. I just wasn’t available because of my job, and

I couldn’t afford, at that point, to abandon my steady 9-5 income. And

many people simply wouldn’t leave a message. I was losing a lot of

leads – and probably a lot of business.

Then in 2004, I happened across master marketer Dan Kennedy’s “No

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE MOST EFFECTIVE SOCIAL MEDIA SALES TOOL OF ALL

B.S. – Business Success” book - in it was the idea of using a 24-hour

pre-recorded message. Meaning that, at any time, day or night, a po-

tential buyer or seller could ﬁnd out more detailed information about

the property as well as ﬁnancing options, in a tightly scripted message,

without me having to worry about missing the call.

And also, to be honest, without me having to say the same thing over

and over to whoever called.

Sometimes, ‘necessity is the mother not only of invention, but of suc-

cess.’ What I immediately discovered, to my surprise, was that once

I replaced my cell phone number in the ad with the words, “Call our

free 24 hour recorded message,” I suddenly was getting three times the

response of my previous classiﬁed ads!

That’s what you call a nice surprise!

After some thought and some research, I found there were two reasons

for the sudden increased ROI of my classiﬁeds.

The #1 reason was that it’s actually been proven that a publicly ac-

cessed phone message is more credible than talking to a live salesper-

son. People must ﬁgure a salesperson will say anything to get business,

while a recorded message is “on the record” and has to stick to the facts.

The #2 reason is what I talked about earlier – the caller feels like they’re

under no obligation; they can bail out of the message at any time and

don’t have to worry about a live hard sell. They are able to ﬁnd out the

facts without dealing with a salesperson.

To me, the 24 hour recorded message is the best kept marketing secret

of the last 20 years. There are very few real estate and other business

entrepreneurs using it anymore – as I said, everyone’s moved on to

Facebook, Twitter, texting and other newer methods. If you look in the

real estate classiﬁeds in my area, you’ll quickly see that I’m the only

person using the words “24 hour recorded message” in their ads. Which

is ﬁne by me!

There are 10 very good reasons I’m going to continue to use this old

school “social media” to build my real estate business. With apologies

to David Letterman…

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE TOP TEN REASONS THE PRERECORDED MESSAGE

WORKS FOR ME:

1. As I noted, I get three times the response by using the message

as my response device in my classiﬁeds. It also allows me to

be four times as productive, since, again, my staff and I don’t

have to keep giving out the same information over and over to

different people.

2. The ROI is amazing. It’s VERY low cost to use.

3. It’s easy to use. My marketing is basically on autopilot.

4. It’s very effective in measuring the results of my advertising.

All of my marketing is measured and tracked, so I know what’s

worth spending money on and what’s not.

5. It saves me and my staff a tremendous amount of time and mon-

ey. Just by generating a short two-to-three line classiﬁed ad, and

then recording a more detailed phone message about speciﬁc

properties, I can educate and give out a lot of information with-

out having to print it in the paper or in a direct mail piece.

6. This is a good one. With the hotline system I use, I can capture

the phone numbers of the people calling the pre-recorded mes-

sage - whether they leave a number or not! That holds true even

if they’re using Caller ID block. It’s legal because, by deciding

they wanted to call me, I now have the right to talk to them about

my business. This means that every response equals a true lead.

7. By using different extensions on the main phone number for

different recorded messages, I can tell which particular ad is

generating the most response. Again, this helps tremendously

with marketing decisions down the road.

8. I’m only capturing quality leads – people who are interested

in making a real estate deal. They’re good to market to with

follow-up calls.

9. Callers can access a real live person at any time during the

pre-recorded message. That means, if they like what they hear,

they merely push the button they’re instructed to and they’ll be

switched to a live salesperson who will be able to give more in-

formation and even schedule an appointment to see the property

in question.

10. No busy signals – we never, ever have to worry about missing

a call. Again – NO LEAD IS LOST! And, obviously, it doesn’t

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE MOST EFFECTIVE SOCIAL MEDIA SALES TOOL OF ALL

matter if your actual ofﬁce is open or closed. Your system is

working around the clock for you. And it’s a good thing, as we

get as many calls after 10 pm as we do at any other time.

MAKING THE MESSAGE WORK FOR YOU

The best way to begin using the pre-recorded message is with a very

short teaser-type classiﬁed ad that will spark a prospect to call.

Here’s an example of an ad I’d use to interest people who want to sell

their property:

I buy houses. Cash offer in 90 minutes guaranteed. Any condition. You

choose the closing date! Call 24 hour free recorded message – 1 xxx-

xxx-xxxx

Here’s another example of an ad used to generate buyers’ interest:

Owner-nancing! Or lease/option. Or rent-to-own. No banks needed!

4 nice homes to choose from. Morehead City, Beaufort and Newport

areas. 24 hour free recorded list and directions. 1-xxx-xxxx-xxxx

In that last ad, you’ll notice I talked about a recorded list and directions,

rather than just a recorded message. That’s to play on people’s curios-

ity factor – they’ll want to know where are these houses? I know that

this works, because when I’ve used the word “directions” in an ad, the

response rate went up. It’s the kind of information usually withheld to

get the person to talk to the real estate agent “live.”

Once you’ve begun to use the pre-recorded message, there are a lot

more tricks and great techniques on how to maximize its advantages

to capture and convert leads that I’ve learned over the years – and I’m

happy to share in this chapter.

10 INSIDERS’ SECRETS

FOR USING THIS MAGICAL TOOL

1. “The more you tell – the more you sell.”

There’s a myth that shorter messages work better – that’s simply NOT

TRUE. Most of my scripts for the pre-recorded messages are about a

minute long. And I always put the messages through my TMI process

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

– I Test them, Measure their response and Improve them. I check how

many people hang up half way through, how many people opt to talk

to a live person during the call, and how many willingly leave their

contact info. The biggest sin here is to be boring – but providing useful

information builds trust and creates more interest.

2. Do not ask for the caller’s phone number in your message.

Ask for just their name, address and email. It’s been proven that, when

you don’t ask for their phone number, they feel like they have more

control and are more willing to leave their other contact info. And be-

sides, you’re capturing their phone number anyway!

3. Allow immediate access to a live representative.

I give callers the option and the instructions on how to talk with me

or my reps at any time during the message, and I will give that option

several times during the call. If they’re that anxious to ﬁnd out more

about what you have to offer, you should ‘strike while the iron is hot.’

4. Put the pre-recorded message number on the back of your

business card.

If they want to ﬁnd out more about what you have to offer, again, its

a non-threatening way to do it - and you’ll increase the number of re-

sponses you’ll get from your card.

5. Immediately call back all callers whether they leave a mes-

sage or not.

I have two virtual assistants - one to talk to sellers, one to talk to poten-

tial buyers. If the prospect who called for the recorded message doesn’t

choose to talk to someone or leave their info, the appropriate assistant

gets an instant text or email message to call the person’s phone number.

This actually impresses most callers – they see us as being on top of their

business. And the other thing we do during the callback is be very soft-

sell, low pressure and nice. They might say something like, “Hi, this is

Glenda with Jay Conner and I was just notiﬁed that you called about so-

and-so. I just wanted to let you know that I’m here to answer any ques-

tions you might have.” This helps build trust and the relationship.

6. Measure the ROI of each ad.

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE MOST EFFECTIVE SOCIAL MEDIA SALES TOOL OF ALL

Would you buy stock in a company and never check the stock price

again to see how it’s doing? Well, what’s the point in paying for market-

ing if you don’t know how well it’s working? That’s why I put different

extension numbers on each classiﬁed ad - to measure their effective-

ness. That way I can run a report on exactly what my cost per response

per ad is, and my cost per sale on marketing. This is important, because

you can never be sure what works. I recently ran a test on an ad about

a home I had for sale – I listed a great many beneﬁts and it cost me

more than most of my other ads. But I was completely wrong, because

it brought in the least amount of results! Knowing that will save me a

lot of money down the line.

7. Use your generated leads from the message system to build a

buyers’ list.

Use the contact information you gather from your recorded messages

for follow-up marketing – it’s a waste to gather quality leads without

building a marketing database from them.

8. Put these exact words in your ad – “24 hour free recorded message.”

Each one of those words is important – I know, because I’ve tested them

thoroughly. If you don’t tell them plainly and clearly it works around

the clock and it’s recorded, they don’t know. Those are the words that

create a high response. Use them!

9. Don’t let the sound of your own voice stop you!

You might not like your own speaking voice, so you may avoid using

this system. Don’t! All services offer the option of having someone else

with a more professional voice record your outgoing message for you,

so feel free to use it. Keep in mind, however, you may connect more

by using your own non-professional voice, as you’ll be more “real” to

them. Have objective honest people evaluate how you really sound, not

how you think you sound.

10. Use a local number instead of a national toll-free number

if possible.

Some services now offer the choice of using a number with a local

area code, rather than an 800 or 877 national number. If yours does, go

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

for the local one. Again, it feels more personal and less threatening to

prospective callers. Oh, and speaking of services, I use two great ones

- Automated Marketing Solutions (check them out at AutomatedMar-

ketingSolutions.com) and PATLive (at PATLive.com).

You still might feel that using a pre-recorded message as a lynchpin

for your marketing is just too old-fashioned and won’t work in today’s

online-dominated world. Well, I recently hired a Craigslist specialist to

insert an ad into that popular internet classiﬁeds website that offered

an option for contacting me – email or my 24 hour recorded message.

Well, 27% still went with the 24 hour message for the ﬁrst contact.

And that’s why I always make sure to put that message phone number

in all of my media – print ads, websites, online web promotions, yel-

low page ads, postcards…everything. It’s still the ﬁrst choice for many

responding people.

Direct mail is no exception. I currently have an eight letter sequence I

send out to people in pre-foreclosure. After the ﬁrst two letters, which

are designed to look like some one just drove by the house and wanted

to buy it, I introduce the 24 hour recorded message with the third letter.

Now, by the time I do the ﬁfth letter, I’ve given them many other ways

to contact me as well – but the 24 hour number is always one of them.

That’s because I always make sure to put that 24 hour recorded mes-

sage into the mix of whatever marketing I’m doing. I’ll be honest – it’s

not the entire answer to any marketing program. But in my world, it

almost always is.

And I’ll prove it – if you’re interested in seeing some of my pre-record-

ed scripts or ﬁnding out more about my proprietary foreclosure mailing

system I just mentioned…well, then you should just call my 24 hour

recorded message at 1-877-288-8753, ext.2665

You see – I practice what I preach!

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE MOST EFFECTIVE SOCIAL MEDIA SALES TOOL OF ALL

ABOUT JAY

Jay Conner is a proven real estate investment leader. He locates,

buys, and sells multiple real estate deals, even in the new econ-

omy. Jay is a recognized investment genius, having graduated

as a Master in Real Estate Investing; and he accepted Ron Le-

Grand’s invitation into the prestigious Platinum Inner Circle.

Without using his own money or credit, Jay maximizes creative methods to move

properties for substantial profits with little to no risk. “Jay is a real estate magician,”

noted a business networking associate. “He works seemingly magical deals for buy-

ers and sellers alike.”

Beyond his own success, Jay’s passion in real estate is to enlighten and inspire other

investors. To that end, Jay mentors fellow investors across the United States and

Canada. His consulting goes far beyond elementary “how to” techniques. Jay teaches

an entrepreneur to transform a Real Estate Investing Business into an “Automatic

Transaction Machine,” thus allowing his students to achieve their life goals: Financial

Independence and the Freedom to enjoy what’s really important to them.

Hand-in-hand with his one-on-one mentoring, Jay shares his insights at seminars as

a leading expert on private lending, marketing, business development and ethical

business practices.

Jay pours his talents and energies into numerous activities. He is President of Conner

Properties and EZ Mortgages, plus a former CEO of Leader Homes. He is also co-

developing The Coves at Newport, a community of condominiums along the Atlantic

Coast. In 1997 Jay formed Encore Music, a private record label, where he records

original piano compositions and produces other artists. He also founded and directs

The Carolina Chords, an a capella chorus in great demand. Jay and his wife, Carol,

currently reside in Newport, NC.

Ready to jump start your real estate investing career? Contact Jay Conner, Real Es-

tate Master and Mentor, at 252.725.3360 or

connermentor@yahoo.com.

NO MONEY REAL ESTATE INVESTING

CHAPTER 8

NO MONEY REAL ESTATE

INVESTING

by Jim Zaspel

ang on a second here! Isn’t that an oxymoron? By the deﬁnition

of the word, doesn’t someone have to have money to “invest”

in something? Ok, you do have to have a little money. You must

have ten dollars for the deposit.

The concept I just described to you has made hundreds of thousands

and even millions of dollars for many people. Contrary to popular opin-

ion, no matter what kind of residential real estate deal you do, you

should get paid for what you know, not for how much you spend or the

amount of debt you guarantee from a bank.

Now if you are going to earn an income based on what you know about

real estate, then doesn’t it make sense to learn as much as possible?

This is where many people fail. People fail to invest in themselves, so

they fall into the trap that has gotten thousands of investors into ﬁnan-

cial ruin – namely leveraging their wallets and personal credit instead

of their brains and continuing to work hard instead of smart.

What I want to do here is give a brief overview of the four basic ways

to invest in real estate without using your own money or personally

guaranteeing any debt. Then I am going to focus on how to actually

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

ﬁnd the motivated sellers and buyers with none of your own money, on

marketing. Does that sound good to you? Well then, let’s get started.

HERE ARE THE FOUR BASIC WAYS TO BUY AND SELL REAL

ESTATE THE “NO-MONEY” WAY:

1. Wholesale

To wholesale a property you get a property “under contract” at a dis-

counted price - with just a ten or perhaps a hundred dollar deposit. Usu-

ally the reason a house is discounted so steeply is because the property

is in dire need of repair, but sometimes the property is in ﬁne condition

and the seller is just really motivated to sell the house quickly and is

willing to sell it at a discounted price in order to do so. Once you have

it under contract, ﬁnd someone who is willing to pay more for the prop-

erty than your contracted price. At closing, you will get paid an Assign-

ment Fee for assigning your contract to buy that piece of real estate to

your buyer. In this scenario, your buyer buys it directly from your seller

so that you never have to bring the funds to closing — you simply make

the ‘middle man’ cut. The key to successfully wholesaling a property is

to get it under contract at a big enough discount so that there is plenty

of proﬁt left in the deal for the person buying from you. I’ll never forget

cashing the check from my ﬁrst wholesale deal, I made $13,800 on my

ﬁrst wholesale deal!

2. Option

This is more or less the same as Wholesaling, except that a different

agreement is used, and it is generally used on ‘pretty’ (no repairs need-

ed) houses. When optioning a property, you most often will be ﬁnding

an owner-occupant buyer — that is, someone who wants to purchase

the property to live in it.

3. Subject To

This has made me the most money of any of the strategies. This tech-

nique is generally used when buying a ‘pretty’ house and selling it

to an owner occupant. Buying a property “subject to” the underlying

loan is to have the existing loan stay in the name of the seller, but the

deed transfers to the buyer’s name. You can then sell this property on

a Lease-Purchase or Owner-Financing program. What’s so powerful

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

NO MONEY REAL ESTATE INVESTING

about this method is that it not only enables you to buy houses without

cash or credit, but it also enables you to sell properties at lightening

speed because your buyers don’t need to qualify for a loan from a bank.

4. Rehab

Here you purchase run-down property with private money. Private

money is money that is borrowed from a private individual. When bor-

rowing private money to buy a ‘ﬁxer-upper’, be sure to borrow enough

to cover the purchase price, repair costs, and a small slush fund.

That is all the detail I am going to go into regarding the actual trans-

actions. For the rest of this chapter, I am going to assume that you

know the fundamentals of these four basic methods of buying and

selling real estate.

For any investor, especially someone just starting out, the biggest costs

of doing business are marketing costs — marketing to ﬁnd motivated

sellers and motivated buyers. There are many great marketing methods

promoted that have a signiﬁcant cost to them, and I have used many of

them. They are effective, but like I said, they cost money.

Here is what you need to do right now: get rid of any notion that you

have to pay out of pocket for your marketing. It’s simply not necessary.

Of course in some instances I pay for my deals, but it is in the form of

a referral or ﬁnder’s fee, and any such fee is paid only if/when I have

been paid on that speciﬁc deal. The point of all this is to reduce your

monthly outgo, yet have a constant ow of sellers and buyers coming

to you, wanting to do business.

Next, I am going to list several ways to ﬁnd or locate motivated sellers

and several more ways to do the same with ﬁnding motivated buyers

of real estate - all of which will require none or very little of your own

money. But this I assure you, that every one of them if done properly

will produce phenomenal results! Some of these methods are over-lap-

ping, but ﬁrst let’s talk about getting sellers to come to you.

1. Marketing Partners

These are simply other investors that are spending money to get leads

(prospects) contacting them via a website, phone, or email. If you do

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

what I talked about at the beginning of this chapter and educate your-

self in real estate investing so that you know how to handle any deal

that comes at you, then you will put yourself above the crowd, and once

people at your local REIA meetings discover all the different types of

transactions you are doing, you won’t be able to handle all the many

leads that come to you.

2. REIA (Real Estate Investor Association) Meetings

You must attend every single investors meeting that you possibly can!

Not only is this going to be your best source of marketing partners, but

you will ﬁnd qualiﬁed buyers, people that want to lend private money,

and people that currently own properties that they want you to buy.

3. Referrals

There is an unlimited number of ways to get people referring business

to you, but I am going to share with you what my mentor, Jon, told me

when I was starting out. He said, “Jim, you’ve got to let people know

what you do. Put the lettering on your vehicle, wear the clothes with

your company name on them, go to every REIA meeting you can, make

sure all your friends and family know that you buy and sell houses.”

Then he said, “What you want to do is make such a name for yourself

so that when anyone who has come in contact with you wants to buy

or sell a house, you are the ﬁrst person they think of.” These simple yet

fundamental words have had a larger impact on my business than any-

thing else Jon EVER told me, and as a result of following his advice,

people are constantly referring their friends and family members to me.

Of course I only just listed a few out of many ways to accomplish this,

but like Jon said, you must “brand” yourself.

4. Online

This is the most simple, yet one of the most powerful methods of

ﬁnding deals for free. When you look up FSBO (For Sale By Owner)

ads online, be sure to look for key words in the ad headings. Words

or phrases to keep an eye out for are foreclosure, must sell now, mo-

tivated seller, burnt-out landlord wants to retire, estate, relocation,

divorce, jobloss, immediate occupancy available, owner will nance,

and lease-purchase. There are many good websites out there on which

to ﬁnd FSBO’s, but ones such as Craigslist.com, kijiji.com, postlets.

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

NO MONEY REAL ESTATE INVESTING

com, fsbo.com, forsalebyowner.com, and ownerwillcarry.com are

some of the most productive websites to call ads from if you are go-

ing to call FSBO’s.

5. Newspapers and Other Oine Periodicals

I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking that newspapers cost

money. If you want to get it early in the morning, I’m sure it does,

but people leave newspapers sitting around all the time. If you want

to get a hold of used newspapers, just take a stroll through any public

transportation station, restaurant, or coffee shop and I’m sure you’ll

ﬁnd plenty of them. You can also work something out with a conve-

nience store manager to get some of their old newspapers. I know –

this sounds weird. But if you are determined to make money in real

estate without using your own money, then you must be willing to

think outside the box.

6. Realtors

When you work with properties listed in the MLS, most of the time

you are going to be dealing with properties that need repairs and that

require cash. If you line up your private money lender and can put up

a $1,000 deposit on a house (don’t worry, you’ll get it back at closing),

then the MLS is a great source for ﬁnding deals. The trick is that you

must be able to close on the deals that you sign contracts on.

Let’s recap. First we established that it does not take money to make

money in real estate. Then we learned a few basic methods of buying

and selling houses, and ﬁnally we learned how to ﬁnd the deals that

are worth doing by ﬁnding motivated sellers. Whatever you do, do not

forget the second point, namely, that you must ﬁrst learn how to do

creative real estate transactions before you can do them. Of course you

don’t need to know much in order to wholesale a property, but if you

want to do all the various types of deals that I have mentioned, you

should invest (yes, with your own money) in real estate education.

SO, WHAT ARE WE MISSING? WHAT COMPONENT OF THE

BUSINESS HAVE I LEFT OUT?

We still need to discuss how to sell all these houses that you are get-

ting! You will notice that some of the best methods of ﬁnding buyers

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

for your properties that cost little or no money are going to overlap with

the methods I have shown you for ﬁnding sellers. This is the great part

of networking — you never know what each new relationship you cre-

ate will turn into. The possibilities are endless!

1. Online

Use all of the websites I gave you for ﬁnding sellers to list your proper-

ties. The best ones are free. I have also successfully used Ebay to sell

houses, but it does have its own challenges, so make sure that you know

their rules and regulations before you spend money listing a property

for sale on their website.

2. Loan Ocers

When you buy a property subject to the underlying loan by simply tak-

ing over the seller’s debt, typically the best way to sell that house is on a

lease-option or with owner ﬁnancing. In either case, your target market

is the part of society that can afford a home, but that does not have good

enough credit to go get a traditional loan for the house. In a down market,

the vast majority of applications that loan ofﬁcers get are denied for a

loan. That’s where investors like me come in. I simply tell the loan ofﬁcer

that if he puts me in touch with his rejected applicants that have a sig-

niﬁcant (ﬁve percent or greater) deposit, I will sell houses to those indi-

viduals on lease-purchase programs. In such a scenario, the tenant-buyer

would put up a signiﬁcant deposit and begin making lease payments to

me. During the lease period I will work with an agency to restore their

credit, so that within six to eighteen months, that tenant-buyer will have

the credit to get the loan that they originally applied for and were reject-

ed. Of course I then will direct that person to get the loan for the home

from the loan ofﬁcer that originally referred them to me. The point here

is that I show the loan ofﬁcer how to turn the leads or prospects that he

is currently throwing away into a real and signiﬁcant source of income at

no added cost to him! It’s a win-win for everyone.

3. Social Media

If you have a large following on networks such as Facebook, Twitter,

Myspace, and YouTube, and you know how to properly use those net-

works, there are very few things that you can do that will increase your

brand image more than this as the go-to person for all real estate solu-

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

NO MONEY REAL ESTATE INVESTING

tions. The point of it is to let people know what you do and make them

want to hear everything you have to say, without being a constant sales-

person. A great thing to do is to post videos and articles that educate the

general population on what is going on in the current real estate market.

To do it right, you must let people in on what is going on in your life.

Be the kind of person online that people want to be around ofine. Let

them feel like they know you so that when you do post something about

your current property listings, people notice and pay attention. And as I

learned from my good friend and mentor, Ray Higdon, always provide

something of value to your followers. When done right, this is an ex-

tremely powerful tool that is free!

4. Signs and Banners

Putting signs and banners on your houses and in their front yards are a

powerful and effective ways to get people calling about the house. I sell

almost all my houses on lease-purchase programs, so when I post a sign

or banner at my house, you can bet it is going to say, “Lease-Purchase!

No-Bank Qualifying!” then of course I provide my phone number and

website on the sign too.

5. Flyers

When I’m selling a house, I have my assistant ﬁnd as many laundro-

mats, pizza shops, grocery stores, or any place of business within a

short distance of the house that will let us post yers for that speciﬁc

house. On that yer, I have the little tabs at the bottom with my phone

number on them so that people can take my information with them. It

is also critical to have yers available at your house, both inside and

outside. I love to put an info box on or next to my yard signs. The yers

in those boxes have all the specs on that speciﬁc house, the terms on

which it is available for purchase (price, lease purchase, owner ﬁnanc-

ing, or whatever), and most importantly, I offer a buyer-referral fee of

$500. The reason that is so critical is because people that live in any

given neighborhood may want their friends and family to live nearby

(well, in most cases that is true), but aren’t willing to call the number

on the sign or go inside and pick up in the info. That is why it is great

to make it available so that people can just pull their car over, hop out,

grab the sheet and be gone. We have all done this at least a few times,

haven’t we?

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

6. Realtors

There are several ways to use Realtors. You could list it with an agent,

offer to pay 3% to any agent that brings you a buyer, or pay a at-fee

listing price. The price for a at-fee listing is usually between $275

and $400, but why pay money upfront and risk not having it pay off?

So, I have developed a relationship with a local agent where I pay him

$600 to put the property in the MLS, but he only gets paid if and when

the property gets sold. By the way, realtors have the same problem that

loan ofﬁcers do: they have people come to them that want to own a

home but are not able to get one through traditional means. I will offer

any agent that sends such a buyer to me anything from a $1,000 referral

fee to a regular 3% commission. But I only pay the agent when I get

paid, which in the case of a lease-option tenant-buyer, that means the

realtor will get some money when they move into the house. But the

majority of the commissions will be paid out if and when the tenant-

buyer ends up purchasing the house.

7. Marketing Partners

Use the same strategies I listed in using marketing partners to ﬁnd sell-

ers… to ﬁnd buyers. What you offer someone for sending you a buyer

will vary greatly depending on what their expectations are and what

their costs are, in ﬁnding the buyers, but regardless of the amount you

pay for this, there is never any need for you to pay out any money for a

lead (prospect) until you have made money from that prospect.

Wow! I just read through all the different ideas I gave you for market-

ing. That’s a lot! Do you believe that it works? You should, because

there isn’t one strategy that I have given you that I and other investors

all across the world have not personally implemented successfully.

There is one more question I have for you, and that is now that you

have this information, what are you going to do with it? It is sad how

many people I see go through the exact same real estate education that

I have gone through, yet one or two years later, they still have not done

their ﬁrst deal. Does that sound familiar? Do you want to know the dif-

ference between the two people that sit side by side in the same seminar

yet only one of them becomes a successful real estate investor? Is it

the amount of time or money one has compared to the other? Does it

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

NO MONEY REAL ESTATE INVESTING

have to do with background? Intelligence? I can assure you that it has

nothing to do with any of them. Here is what it comes down to: imple-

mentation and determination. Of course there are other factors, but it all

boils down to those two things. If you don’t believe me, go ask another

successful investor.

Friend, if you choose to become or already are a real estate investor,

I sincerely want you to be successful. Now go out there and make it

happen. You have plenty of tools readily available to you. If I, a twenty-

three year old (former) landscaper can do it, surely anyone can!

Here’s to your success!

Jim Zaspel

www.JimZaspel.com

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE 7 KEY INGREDIENTS THAT WILL ALLOW YOU TO NOT PARTICIPATE IN THE RECESSION

ABOUT JIM

At the age of 23, Jim Zaspel has been in the real estate business

for 18 months. One of Jim’s passions is real estate – of course

this most likely has to do with the fact that he made over $91,000

on just his second real estate deal!

Jim’s entrepreneurial ventures did not begin with real estate; they began at the age

of 12 when he started mowing neighbors’ lawns with his dad’s lawn mower. By the

time he was 13 he had acquired 28 lawn accounts. This was more than he could do

himself, so at the age of 13 he hired someone that was old enough to drive a pickup

truck. After his family moved when he was 15, he sold the lawn care business. Over

the next 7 years, he built up and sold 3 separate lawncare and landscaping compa-

nies, but he always knew that there was a better and more satisfying way to satisfy his

entrepreneurial spirit. He found his answer in real estate at the age of 22.

After successfully investing in real estate for only one year, he was asked by Ron Le-

Grand to become a mentor for his (Ron’s) company to mentor new real estate inves-

tors and help them become successful as well. In addition to mentoring, Jim speaks at

REIA (Real Estate Investor Association) meetings throughout the Philadelphia area,

and is a member of Ron LeGrand’s Mastermind group.

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE 7 KEY INGREDIENTS THAT WILL ALLOW YOU TO NOT PARTICIPATE IN THE RECESSION

CHAPTER 9

THE 7 KEY INGREDIENTS

THAT WILL ALLOW YOU TO

NOT PARTICIPATE IN THE

RECESSION

by Stephanie and Jon Iannotti

hinking back to the time when Jon started as a Policeman in 1976,

and more recently worked for the past 24 years in a Steel Mill

in Butler, PA, and I worked 24 years as a Certiﬁed Orthopedic

Technician and Personal Assistant to a Surgeon in Pittsburgh, little did

we know that Real Estate Investing would provide us with the vehicle

to leave our jobs, and make possible the lifestyle that we have today.

Many of you probably have heard what a JOB is, right? (Just Over

Broke!) Fortunately, the last 10 years of our lives have been in Real

Estate Investing. It’s not really about the Money…it’s about the Free-

dom. Our story will tell you that we refuse to participate in the current

Economic Recession and if we can do it….YOU CAN TOO!

Fortunes are created from chaos and we deﬁnitely subscribe to that

theory! When everyone is running and hiding or sticking their heads in

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE 7 KEY INGREDIENTS THAT WILL ALLOW YOU TO NOT PARTICIPATE IN THE RECESSION

the sand, we are doing more and more business than ever! Why? And

how?… you may ask.

Well, here are the “7 Key Ingredients”:-

The First Ingredient: “PRIVATE MONEY.” Real Estate Investing is

so much fun when you have the CA$H to work with. Once we mastered

the art of getting Private Money Mortgages, the doors were unlocked.

Helping people in this recession to make money with their Savings,

IRA’s and 401k’s is mutually rewarding. It is amazing once you show

them how to make money, they then also tell their friends and your

private money sources continue to grow.

TIP: Here is the biggest tip we can give you to help you in your quest

to obtain private money. Ask your potential investor this simple ques-

tion…”Do you currently have an IRA or other investment capital that is

not making you a good rate of return?” When they say yes…you know

you have a very good potential private money candidate. If they say no,

take it one step further, ask them if they know of anyone that may have

an IRA or other investment capital that is not giving them a good rate

of return. Always try to get a referral if they themselves don’t have the

money to invest.

Also, one more bonus tip, don’t ever assume people have or don’t have

money to invest. Ask everyone you know if they would be interested in

earning a good rate of return on their money, secured by Real Estate.

Believe us when we tell you that you will be surprised by the fact that

people you think have the money don’t, and people you think don’t

have the money, do.

Private money is a very vital, important part of our Business!

The Second Ingredient: “YOUR POWER TEAM.” This is a major key

to our success. It starts with your Attorney. You need a Real Estate Attor-

ney that actually “gets it” when it comes to Creative Real Estate Investing.

TIP: Go to your local REIA (Real Estate Investment Association) and

ﬁnd out which Attorney most of the big Investors are using and that

more than likely will be your Power Team Attorney! Many times these

Attorneys are very active in the REIA and may also give discounts to

the members that use their services.

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE 7 KEY INGREDIENTS THAT WILL ALLOW YOU TO NOT PARTICIPATE IN THE RECESSION

You need a Real Estate Attorney who understands the creative ways of

how we do business, and preferably one that is doing deals themselves,

as this keeps their skills sharp.

You will also need a Realtor who really understands Real Estate Invest-

ing; again, one that is doing business themselves is usually your best

bet. They have to be able to think like you do, so that they can present

the right offers for you and prescreen the properties for you. Realtors

are a great source for your CMA’s (Comparative Market Analysis) that

you will need for all prospects and properties. You will also need the

Realtor to place offers on any properties listed on the MLS, and to

place multiple offers on the Bank-owned properties, most commonly

called REO’s (Real Estate Owned).

TIP: Interview your Realtor….ask them questions about Real Estate In-

vesting and let them know that you are a CA$H BUYER….! Again,

many times you will ﬁnd your best Realtors at the local REIA, as they

are on top of Investor’s needs and are many times Investors themselves.

Next on the team is a great “LOAN BROKER”….You will want a Bro-

ker that has a visible track record of getting buyers ﬁnanced. Your bro-

ker needs to have access to many different loan products, such as FHA,

VA, USDA, and Conventional Loans.

TIP: Ask your Loan Broker how many loans they process per month

and how many closings they have. This will allow you to be able to tell

if they are really doing the business and if their loan products suit the

majority of buyers today.

Next is your “Personal Assistant”…This has to be someone very pro-

ﬁcient, someone that you can delegate to, and also be able to ‘take the

ball and run with it.’ Someone that is a ‘quick study’, is able to help you

follow thru’ on your plans, someone that will think like you, and is able

to make good decisions.

TIP: When you interview a “Personal Assistant,” look for the one that

asks you what they can do to help you move your business to the next

level….not what you are going to do for them! If they are more con-

cerned about helping you achieve your goals, they obviously get the

fact that if you accomplish your goals, and they are a vital part in that

achievement, then they will be rewarded well. A bit of advice is to

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE 7 KEY INGREDIENTS THAT WILL ALLOW YOU TO NOT PARTICIPATE IN THE RECESSION

make sure that you make it worth their while to be such an important

part of your team!

One of the biggest changes we underwent in our business about 14

months ago was to hire two VA’s (Virtual Assistants). We can honestly

say that this changed our business for the better. Our Virtual Assistants

again gave us the ability to work from another state and continue to do

business across the country. This also allows us not to have the costs

of a physical ofﬁce - for everyone works from home. One of our VA’s

lives in Florida and one in Texas and anyone calling into our virtual of-

ﬁce would never know that they are not sitting in our ofﬁce!

Our VA’s do our website updates, answering of phones, email blasts,

voice mail blasts, giving out lock box codes to potential buyers, spread-

sheets, buyers lists, property information sheets, updating property y-

ers and many, many other duties. They are an invaluable part of our

business, as they are the ones to whom many of the duties are delegated.

TIP: Make sure you go through a reputable company to hire your VA as

it will save you time and money.

Another very important part of our team is our “Acquisitionist.” This

is an important part of our business as this person talks to the prospec-

tive seller, they get the numbers together for the deal, take pictures,

video and then presents the property to us. Once a decision is made to

purchase the property, they do the contracts, meet the seller, and get the

seller to closing. Once closed, the Acquisitionist may also help with the

management of the rehab project if the property needs some renova-

tion. We can tell you that our Acquisitionist has had some ‘pretty fun’

experiences and has seen some ‘pretty amazing’ things when it comes

to Sellers and Houses. She has been chased by bats, stepped in many

a ‘pile of poop’, and handled many sellers that just didn’t know which

way to go.

TIP: Finding a good Acquisitionist is vital, as they will be the one that

will be communicating with the sellers. They must be able to efﬁciently

present offers and must really have a very well-rounded Real Estate

Investing knowledge. This is the person that will be your physical rep-

resentative, so make sure they look, act and present well.

Another very important part of our team is our Loan Coordinator.

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE 7 KEY INGREDIENTS THAT WILL ALLOW YOU TO NOT PARTICIPATE IN THE RECESSION

This person plays a critical part in keeping your buyers’ loans running

smoothly. The loan coordinator takes the original application, and gets

it to the Broker. Then they work closely with the Broker to keep the

buyers moving smoothly and swiftly to closing. Our loan coordinator

is also the one who coordinates the closing and attends the closing, thus

making sure that everything is in place, and is there to assist the Broker,

the Attorney and the Buyer, ensuring a smooth closing.

TIP: Our Loan Coordinator is also the one that signs for us at the closing

- via a corporate resolution that allows her to act as a corporate ofﬁcer.

She then makes copies of the closing check and deposits the funds into

our bank, thus allowing us never to have to attend closings.

We certainly can’t forget the Bookkeeper and CPA. These are usually

two separate people but not always. In our Team we have both a Book-

keeper and a CPA. Both are very vital to the team, as they are the ones

that keep our ﬁnances in place. They are responsible for keeping every-

thing straight for our business partner…. “Uncle Sam.”

TIP: Your bookkeeper should provide you with monthly reports to show

where you are in your business. Your CPA should provide you with

advice to keep your taxes minimized and your earnings maximized! An

added bonus would be a CPA that is also a Real Estate Investor. They

are more inclined to keep up with all the changes and deductions in the

business. Again, your REIA is a great place to ﬁnd this crucial part of

your team!

The Third Ingredient: In today’s economy we have found that auto-

mation and systematization are not only ‘key’ to doing our deals, but to

free us up to do other things in our business that generate more income

streams… such as Bulk REO’s, Mentoring locally and Internationally,

and an MLM or two for additional passive income.

By putting our businesses in Pennsylvania on “Cruise Control” with

our systems and automation, we are able to now live in SW Florida.

We continue to do business in PA and across the country by leveraging

systems and other people. We like to say that 98% of our business can

be done by Phone, Fax, FedEx, and e-mail.

The Fourth Ingredient: We enjoy Partnering and Joint Venturing, of-

ten called JV, with other investors across the country as this allows

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE 7 KEY INGREDIENTS THAT WILL ALLOW YOU TO NOT PARTICIPATE IN THE RECESSION

us to again leverage our time and efforts. If the numbers make sense,

and someone is looking for guidance on a deal, we partner on it and

everyone WINS. These are our favorite kinds of deals…when we can

help someone that doesn’t really know how to structure the deal, and

we all win by working together and accomplishing the common goal.

Mentoring is in our hearts and we truly love to give back to others, as

knowledge is a major part of the success in Real Estate Investing.

The Fifth Ingredient: Another very important part of our business in

today’s economy is Online Marketing and Social Media. This is becom-

ing a huge part of our business not only to sell properties but in many

other aspects as well. The networking connections have become price-

less to our business! We have connections for Funding, Bulk REO’s,

Platforms, Sellers, Buyers, Joint Venture Partners, and for many other

business leaders across the country. This method of connecting is be-

coming a major focus for our business.

TIP: If you are not involved in Social Networking and Online Marketing,

you are missing out on a big part of your potential business and success!

The Sixth Ingredient: Creative Financing. You know, when the mass-

es are going in one direction, the ones making the most money are the

ones going in the opposite direction. Ron LeGrand always told us, “The

Money is in the Paper.” Banks are selling off their notes and mortgages.

They are all doing it! Mortgages are harder and harder to obtain in to-

day’s economy…so, we decided… “Let’s go the opposite direction.”

Let’s create mortgages and notes and sell our properties with Seller

Financing. We have now become the bank! After all why not make the

interest on these homes instead of the Banks! In fact, think about it, the

Banks had all the big beautiful buildings, even before we gave them

billions in tax money.

So on a typical deal we would normally make $25,000. The lender

would ﬁnance the buyer for us, and make over $144,000 on a typical 30

year loan of say $125,000 at 6% interest. So we switched to Owner Fi-

nancing for our Buyers on some of our properties, and now we are the

Bank and making all the interest on the loan, not the banks…because

we are now the Bank!

The Seventh Ingredient: Last but certainly not least, do everything

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE 7 KEY INGREDIENTS THAT WILL ALLOW YOU TO NOT PARTICIPATE IN THE RECESSION

with Integrity, Gratitude and Compassion. Remember…. “Do Unto

Others as You Would Have Them Do Unto You.” We are all in this

world to help each other. If you always keep this motto in your heart and

in your business, it will help you achieve all of your goals. Just remem-

ber that someone’s loss will sometimes be someone’s gain, as that’s

how the world works, unfortunately. Always remember that you should

never take advantage of someone that can be helped. In other words….

do the right thing! If someone can be helped to keep their home…Help

them. If you can provide a service that most people charge for and you

are in a position not to charge…take that opportunity to help others. It

will come back to you tenfold and sometimes more. Be grateful for all

that you have, and show compassion to others, as not everyone is as

fortunate as we are. Light a warm ame in all the people’s hearts that

you touch. We can’t tell you how many people have told us that they

sincerely appreciate us for helping them either buy a home or help them

out of a bad situation with a current home. This is what it’s all about,

and yes, along the way we do make money. After all, it is a business,

but it is a people business ﬁrst and foremost!

TIP: Remember, your company is only as good as the people that are

running it! One thing we learned that could help you in your business is

HIRE SLOW and FIRE FAST. When you own and operate a business

from another state, you have to be able to trust and rely on the people

that are working for you…so take your time and ﬁnd the right people.

To sum up the Seven Keys to Our Success that has kept us from partici-

pating in the current recession. They are:

1. Private Money eliminates the banks and gives us a huge pool of

funds to use for deals, thus allowing us to be CA$H BUYERS

and close quickly. Remember CA$H IS ALWAYS KING in the

Real Estate Investing Arena.

2. Our power team assists us in all the processes of the business.

3. Our systems and automation streamline the business to allow us

to focus on the other income streams.

4. The Internet has opened up the world to us to do deals ANY-

WHERE. It allows us to partner and JV as needed.

5. Networking connections through online Marketing and Social

Media have become vital to our success.

6. Creative ﬁnancing not only gives us the EXIT strategy of choice

THE NEW MASTERS OF REAL ESTATE

THE 7 KEY INGREDIENTS THAT WILL ALLOW YOU TO NOT PARTICIPATE IN THE RECESSION

to sell properties, but also the Cash Stream that the banks have

enjoyed for years!

and ﬁnally,

7. Integrity, Gratitude and Compassion will be the fuel that will

keep your business ﬁre lit for many, many years if you always

keep them at the top of your Business Motto.

One Final TIP: If you are thinking that now is a BAD time to get into

Real Estate Investing…think again! There will be more millionaires

made in Real Estate Investing in the next couple years than there prob-

ably have been in the last 20 years combined…! You may ask how….?

Leverage, Timing, Banking Chaos, Mortgage Chaos, all equal Huge

Success if you know what to do with all the Chaos. Our biggest piece of

advice if you are really interested in becoming very wealthy using Real

Estate as your vehicle….get a good Mentor that is actively involved in

the business. Let them guide you, as it will sharply diminish your learn-

ing curve and will allow you to cut the time to your success dramati-

cally. Think about it…who do you know that is really, really successful

that does not have a Mentor? The cost of a good Mentor might seem

high…but we can guarantee you that the cost of NO Mentor would be

much higher!

To Your Abundance and Success!!

Stephanie and Jon Iannotti

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