How to get MORE VIEWS on YouTube videos.. REALLY!

I now have over 75 MILLION views and 175000 SUBSCRIBERS and here’s how I did it! It’s not as hard as you’d think : ) My saying “subscribers are like car batteries” means, subscribers are like the power of a car battery, the more power your battery has, the bigger the motor the battery can start. In reality it means, your subscribers are the ones who put you on the most disscussed / most viewed lists… the more your viewers interact with you, the more new unique viewers you’ll recieve once you reach the lists. My guess is, only about 30% of youtube’s viewers have accounts which means, many of these unique viewers don’t even subscribe. If you can inspire these people to get youtube accounts, then you’re golden. I hope this video helped : ) Here is the video I was mentioning that bradofarrell made… it’s a good video for new Mac users: www.youtube.com -Cory “Mr. Safety” Williams

Working@Youtube

Get an inside look at what it is like to work at Youtube.com. www.google.com

Social Media, Facebook., Youtube, Misuniversity

The Facebook Planet / La Planete Facebook “fair use” So Facebook, What is it? Why is this a revolution? How to explain this success? Should we be afraid of Facebook? ————————- Alors facebook, c’est quoi? Pourquoi est-ce une révolution? Comment s’explique se succés? Faut-il avoir peur de facebook? Extract from report by Jeremie Drieu and Matthieu Birden Facebook users demography : demographer.sociabliz.com

Twitter on Nightline

Evan Williams (@ev), Biz Stone (@biz) and Dominic Sagolla (@dom) on Wednesday night’s Nightline. John Donvan NL (@johndonvannl) Reporting. This segment of Nightline discusses Twitter, what it is, how it works and the people behind it with a short interview with @dom

Security Tips for Social networking

5 Security Tips for Social Networking!

Governor Bill Richardson: The YouTube Interview

Democratic presidential primary candidate and Governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson talks with Ben Smith of youtube’s political team. Richardson talks about his “Job Interview” youtube video, answers users questions, and delivers a message to North Korean Leader Kim Jong-il. To see Governor Richardson’s youtube channel, go to youtube.com To see Governor Richardson’s “Job Interview” youtube video, go to: www.youtube.com

www.bizgrowthnews.com Ronan Lyons(ronanlyons.com) and Krishna De (krishnade.com) talk about the use of social media including Twitter, linkedin and business blogs by economists as a way to connect to thought leaders, build visibility and add value to your community. This interview was recorded at the Future Focus conference that took place in Dublin in June 2009. You can connect to Krishna De on Twitter @krishnade and to Ronan Lyons @ronanlyons For more tips and resources about using social media to build your visibility and reputation to support your professional goals or as part of your marketing and communications programme visit www.bizgrowthnews.com or http

David Crowder*Band Rockumentary 4: Twitter Will Kill You

Mark warns David that Twitter will only lead to certain death. David and Jack lose their lives to the Twitter craze. David Crowder*Band Rockumentary Episode 4: “Twitter Will Kill You.” Created by Jordan Bellamy, Key Grip and 2nd DP- Kelly mctavish, Frisbee Provider- Seth Hale,

Part 18 — Internet Marketing With, SEO, youtube, Myspace, Facebook, RSS Feeds and More.

www.undergroundtraininglab.com In early 2008 I spoke at the Secret Society of Traffic and Conversion Seminar for my friends Buck Rizvi and Brock Felt. The attendees paid thousands to be there but I’m sharing my 3 hour presentation from the seminar with you for free. I outlined the social networking and web 2.0 strategies that I personally use to drive tons of traffic to build my list and make more sales. I covered dozens of topics including, but not limited to, internet marketing, creating a sales funnel, search engine optimization (seo), myspace, youtube, squidoo, email marketing, wordpress, rss feeds, openx ad server, affiliate marketing, blogs, getting more traffic to your sites, social profile pages, social networking, social media, and more! Consumer Notice This video may contain a paid affiliate link.

Facebook Mass Friend Invite

Former Facebook Hater Uncovers Secret To MASS FRIEND INVITE all of your Facebook Friends to your event with the PUSH of a BUTTON!
Check out the video and get the simple script that does it all, plus get a couple of Free books along the way.

http://www.misuniversity.com/facebook

$$$ The Youtube Marketing Course (Youtube Marketing) $$$

In early 2008 I spoke at the Secret Society of Traffic and Conversion Seminar for my friends Buck Rizvi and Brock Felt. The attendees paid thousands to be there but I’m sharing my 3 hour presentation from the seminar with you for free. I outlined the social networking and web 2.0 strategies that I personally use to drive tons of traffic to build my list and make more sales. I covered dozens of topics including, but not limited to, internet marketing, creating a sales funnel, search engine optimization (seo), myspace, youtube, squidoo, email marketing, wordpress, rss feeds, openx ad server, affiliate marketing, blogs, getting more traffic to your sites, social profile pages, social networking, social media, and more! The Youtube Marketing Course www.easywebautomation.com Youtube marketing course will teach you everything you need to know about setting up your channel to make money online. Backed by a 100% money back guarantee why not give it a try? click the link for more info about what Im doing Click Here For More Info… www.easywebautomation.com

Principal Writedowns on Loan Modifications from Diana Olick

Olick points out that the decline in home sales was expected – “home sales were spiked by several shots of government stimulus in the second half of 2009, and as that stimulus starts to wear off, sales activity has nowhere to go but down.”  With the homebuyer’s credit expiring just as the 2010 season gets rolling in April, and Bernanke making noise about raising interest rates, she suggests that home buyers are likely to think twice before leaping into the market.

But Olick is most concerned about the potential for principle writedown:  “Most agree that the government’s mortgage bailout program (Home Affordable Modification Program or HAMP) is at best unsuccessful and at worst detrimental. So now I’m beginning to hear more chatter about principal writedown, and more specifically, government-funded principal writedown.  The idea is to give folks equity back in their homes so they don’t walk away from their mortgage commitments. It would also help borrowers who don’t qualify for modifications because they are so far “underwater” on their mortgages.

The arguments are plain and simple: Bite the bullet to save the greater housing market or don’t because the moral hazard is far too untenable. Anyone who’s ever read this blog before knows where I stand. I would honestly rather see my home’s value go down than see the guy next door (figurative: my neighbors are lovely and fiscally responsible) who made a poor/negligent financial decision get a mulligan at my expense.”

Please comment and give us your opinion.

Dealing With the Fear Monster

by Alan Cowgill

Let’s face it, the reason most investors don’t have any private lenders is fear. It’s as basic as that. It’s a fear of the unknown. How do I know that? I’ve been there too. I was comfortable doing things the way I had always done them. I went to the bank, I jumped through their hoops of proving I was qualified for their loan, they gave me the money, and I paid them back the way they said. It was a familiar routine in my business of buying and selling homes.

However, when I became a full-time investor and wanted tons of quickly accessible cash, the bank’s painstakingly slow process was no longer acceptable.

Even when I knew for certain what I wanted, I procrastinated. I was not able to do nearly as many deals as I wanted because I waited so long to take action. The thing is if there is something you are afraid to do, you can always find a reason to not do it.

Sometimes we won’t even admit to ourselves that we are afraid. We just can’t get to it because we are too busy, too tired, or focused on other “more important” issues.

But then, that didn’t solve the whole problem. I was still too shy to approach people who I knew would benefit from my program.

I remember sitting in my doctor’s office and being too uncertain of myself to tell him about my program. I didn’t have the nerve to ask for the money. That day, we both lost. I wanted money to run my business and he missed out on earning a tremendous interest rate.

Once I recognized what was holding me back, I became educated in learning how to get what I wanted and how to handle private funds once I got them. That gave me the foundation of knowledge.

I am so grateful today that I got a solid real estate education so I can now confidently let potential private lenders know that I have a great opportunity for both of us

Read Full Article Here: http://www.reiclub.com/articles/dealing-with-fear-monster

Credibility Building

by Alan Cowgill

I named my company “Integrity Home Buyers” because the word Integrity has meaning for me. It is the way I run my business and my life. The people around me know this. When I decided to take my business to the next level, I was in a situation where people didn’t know me. My challenge with “Credibility Building” was to convey my philosophy to those people. What I was asking those people to do was give me large sums of money and trust me to do what I said I would.

My credibility building strategy consisted of using these tools: 

a.) Newspaper article

b.) Credibility kit

c.) Better Business Bureau

Let’s look at each of these in more detail.

Newspaper article

About a year ago the Springfield Sun interviewed me. They did a long article with lots of great information about what my company has done and it also had some information about our lender program. Recently the reporter came back and did an article focusing on the lender program. Talk about credibility! The whole city saw the article. That is powerful!

At my lender luncheons I always made sure my prospective lenders had a copy of the first article. Now I am adding the second article to my packets as well.

To grow your business, you want your name out there. You want the prospective lender to say, “Hey, I’ve heard of you.” or ” I’ve seen the t-shirts on the Little League team you sponsored “or” you’re the ‘I Buy Houses’ guy. That familiarity makes an impact. And, this recognition conveys credibility.

Credibility Kit

My Credibility Kit is a 30 page, spiral bound book. It has a nice cover with colored pictures of over a dozen houses that I have bought and rehabbed. Right from the start before they even open the book they see the before-and-after pictures that show I have a seasoned real estate business. This is evidence of my work that they can go drive by.

Inside the book they see an introduction that tells them about me, the company philosophy, pages of testimonials, certificates from training I have completed and special reports.

They see page after page of information that sends the strong message that I know my business.

Better Business Bureau

Since this is a serious, responsible business, I joined the Better Business Bureau. I am authorized to use their logo on my material, which further conveys my credibility.

People frequently check with the BBB before making a major decision. To be a member of the BBB you have to agree to “follow the highest principles of business ethics and voluntary self-regulation” and “have a proven record of marketplace honesty and integrity.”

When finding private lenders I believe one of the main keys to success is to build credibility.

Read Full Articles Here: http://www.reiclub.com/articles/credibility-building

Fractionalizing a Foreclosure – Part 1 of 2

Great news.

I finished the first video on fractionalizing a foreclosure, short sale or subject-to. I have to warn you in advance that the video is a little long (12 minutes), but I cover some pretty cool stuff.

Its amazing that you can now get control of a high end vacation home that you could not normally buy and never risk your credit or put up any money into the deal.

I will cover the remaining parts in a future video.  So stay tuned.

Please let me know what you think or if you are interested in doing one of these yourself.  Just click the comment button.

3 Different Techniques For Using Private Money

by Alan Cowgill

Say you have some issues with your credit. You might think there is no hope to ever buy an investment property. Well I come around and tell you that it can happen when using private money or maybe your own IRA money. Either way it’s like Christmas in July! Say I buy a $100,000 home and sell it for $150,000 after repairs. Using seller financing, I charge eight percent interest. I put a thirty year amortized loan on this thing.

If I buy with private money, I’ll put a short term balloon on the deal so I can get the private lender paid back. But if it’s my own IRA money, I don’t want a balloon because I want the monthly payments to go on for 30 years. Wealth is built slowly over time. I am spending $100,000 of my IRA money and if you do the match on a thirty year amortized loan, you will see that I am making some good money.

Say my buyer is making the $1,000 payments on this $150,000 home in monthly mortgage. I get that money and often I set it up so it goes right into my IRA. Now if I go the IRA route, it will take time to get the money back on my $100,000 investment. But IRAs are retirement plans. So, by the time I retire, I have had this money pumped into my account. I can live on a beach somewhere.

This is also the type of idea that you can share with potential private lenders. This is a very cool investment. They might want to see some sort of visual aid. So be it, if you’ve taken them out to lunch, use the napkin and a pen. They use their IRA to purchase one of your properties. You make some quick cash and they get a long term investment.

Now there is a fear with this for the private lender. It is a healthy fear. They wonder about what happens if the homeowner stops paying. Well, that just means the property is foreclosed and you can start all over again. i.e. you make more money!

So there you have it. Three basic options to make you money.

Option 1: Buy with a private lender, and sell with owner financing with a short term balloon.

Option 2: Buy in your IRA, then sell but you are the bank and the monthly payments go to your IRA for 30 years.

Option 3: Find a private lender that wants to be a real estate investor and use their IRA to buy your property and you make a couple bucks.

To Your Wealth,

Alan

Read Full Article Here: http://www.reiclub.com/articles/3-techniques-using-private-money

Buying Defaulted Notes From The Bank

Profiting with Defaulted Paper –

Buy The Note From The Bank

Advanced Technique:  Buy The Note from The Bank
This technique is for advanced user only. Did you know that you can buy the note from the bank at a discount even when the bank will not do a short sale?  Amazing, I know, but true.  Even when a bank refuses to do a short sale a lot of banks have guidelines where they will sell you the note at a discount rather than the bank taking the risk of going through foreclosure.  When the bank sells the note to you as a n investor at a discount the bank sell s the note at a loss and can write off (for tax purposes) the difference from what they were owed versus what you paid.

Once you own the note you can work out your own forbearance agreement with Jack.  You can give Jack the time he needs to sell the property or Jack can give you a Deed-in-Lieu of foreclosure.  He will just sign the deed to the house over to you (you are now acting as the bank).  You can then sell the property on the open market at full retail or sell to a local investor.

Either way you make money by combining a couple of techniques together.

When you are evaluating a note for purchase and you are working with the bank you still want to pull the homeowner’s credit report just so you understand all of their debts and the likelihood of any potential IRS problems attaching to the property before you complete your purchase.

For information on pulling credit reports without the homeowner’s permission please refer to our coaching tip on credit reports.

When you purchase a note from a bank that is foreclosing it is considered purchasing a “Defaulted Note”.  This just means a note that is not paying.

As you will soon discover, there is a lot of defaulted paper out in the marketplace but no one knows what to do with it.  You see, everyone only wants the good paper.  Paper that is receiving a monthly payment every month without any problems.  Where the payor (debtor) has perfect credit, a great job and lots of assets.  All of the other investors are competing for the same deals.  Well guess what, defaulted paper has very little competition.  We (that’s you) only want “bad” paper.  We can pick and choose the very best of the bad paper to invest in.  We can find properties where there is a ton of equity, yet because the homeowner is not making any payments on the mortgage, investors are not willing to buy the note from the note holder.  Most every single bank that you find treats defaulted paper as food poisoning.  They don’t want it in their system and want to get rid of it as fast as possible.  None of the banks, mortgage companies, and investors want defaulted paper.  Where does it go?  To you and me.  Banks want to get rid of it because too much defaulted paper on a banks book can force the bank to close down so they must get rid of the bad paper.  Finance companies and mortgages are only looking for the good paper to make a small rate of return.  Investors who own a mortgage where the debtor (homeowner) stopped making his payments do not know what to do with the defaulted mortgage.  All the investor knows is that he is not getting his monthly payments.  This leaves a huge viable opportunity for you and me to make a lot of money together.

Buy Real Estate at Huge Discounts

I guarantee that you will be able to purchase real estate at prices that make buying properties at foreclosure look like you are paying retail.  For anyone that buys foreclosures, buying at 50 – 60 cents on the dollar is fairly commonplace. I am not arguing with this at all.  I am simply saying that when you work on the defaulted paper side of the equation you are able to purchase property for literally pennies on the dollar.

You have a virtually endless supply of paper that you can purchase.  There is even more of an opportunity when dealing with defaulted paper simply because most investors do not know what to do with the paper or how to profit from the defaulted paper.

What this means is that since so few people know how to purchase defaulted paper, you are able to get the very best discount on the paper you locate or buy.  This equates to a very large return on our investment.

DEFAULTED PAPER = HUGE RETURNS

Tax Free

I’ll never forget the day I found out that you could get returns on your investments tax-free.  Yes that’s right, tax-free.  The benefits to you and your family are huge.  Imagine making your high double-digit returns without having to pay taxes on the gain.  I already mentioned that rates of return are in the big double-digit numbers, but imagine making an additional 20% or more on your investments each year.  I will explain how you do this, and it will take some explaining on exactly how you do this.

This is a great opportunity if you are looking to make money quickly for retirement or looking to grow your portfolio to outrageous sums over the long term. This is not a questionable loophole but a time tested IRS approved technique that allows you to quantum grow your investments. I will cover more about tax-free investing in a later article.

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Like this lesson? Want to learn all about this business?  Then join our next FREE webinar on “Making Money From Bad Bank Notes”

Cries of Fraud: An Ounce of Prevention is Worth 60 Megatons of Cure

The good old days of doing business on a handshake have gone so far away that the Hubble telescope couldn’t find them. Even at my tender age, I have witnessed enough legal action resulting from deals gone awry, sellers-turned-psycho, and downright skullduggery to make even the most hardened investor’s blood curdle. And the heat of the battle takes place, unfortunately, in one of the best arenas to make an honest living in: real estate—pre-foreclosure investing.

Who is to blame? Sometimes the seller, sometimes the investor. If I had to make a guess as to who causes the most problems, it would be sellers. Over the years, I have only heard of a handful of unscrupulous investors who tricked homeowners who thought they were getting a loan into signing a deed, forged documents, took over a loan and pocketed the rent payments, or something equally evil. Of course, these are the only incidents you hear about on the news. My guess is because “Fair and Honest Investor Buys House, Makes Profit” isn’t a very sexy headline.

The real concern, and the focus of this article, is sellers in default who either:

A) Lie about their property, its condition, their hardship story, etc, in a deliberate attempt to defraud an investor, or

B) Experience seller’s remorse after their problem is solved, and use false accusations that they actually believe in an attempt to undo what they agreed to.

Which do you think is the more common scenario? I don’t believe it’s A. Although the old expression “buyers are liars and sellers are worse” has some truth to it, I think that most sellers in default are honestly seeking a way to solve their problem through ethical means. And any untruths they do tell can be uncovered with the proper due diligence prior to purchase.

Therefore, I think that B is the more common scenario in which fraud is committed. And by “committed,” I mean “frantically slung as a weapon by the seller in a misguided attempt to undo a transaction that is perfectly legal by making you the scapegoat for their own selfishness, irrationality, and/or situational ethics.” This doesn’t make headlines, but it does make a frequent topic of conversation at local REIA meetings, where I have heard similar stories told ad nauseum.

Scenario B is far too common, but even more so when a pre-foreclosure investor does things that make them more likely to be accused of fraud. I have listed three unsafe scenarios below. I will preface them with a golden nugget of wisdom that I have gleaned from years of networking, news-watching, and personal experience, and then voice my opinion on the subject with more passion than Basic Instinct, Don Juan Demarco, and The Notebook combined.

“No matter how many times you explain how the deal will take place, how slowly you go over it, how many times they tell you they understand, or sign and initial a document that spells everything out in excruciating detail in 4th-grade English using size 16 font, sellers in pre-foreclosure will immediately create and believe their own memories of what they agreed to the very second that their payments are caught up.”

If you are not familiar with the concept of implanted memories, just remember the movie Total Recall and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about (but with a little less violence). The unavoidable fact above must always be remembered, dealt with head-on, and used to guide your decisions when working with sellers who are behind in payments. And now for those three unsafe pre-foreclosure scenarios:

1) Asking them to sign blank documents – I think the wild, wild, western days of showing up at the seller’s house with a mobile notary and getting them to sign a deed and blank documents for any and every conceivable type of transaction (short sale,cash offer,subject-to, note, deed of trust, etc.) on their kitchen table are over. This shoot-first-ask-questions-later style of getting a deal done has “Six o’clock evening news scandal” written all over it.

While it may certainly be more convenient for the investor to get everything signed in advance and then figure out what kind of deal is possible later, and though the investor may truly have the seller’s best interests at heart, think of how it will appear to a judge when the seller says later in court, “He had me sign all these blank documents, and told me he’d take care of everything, and I didn’t know what I was doing…”

I don’t think we can afford to be so cavalier in our dealings — at least until pre-foreclosure investors cease to be perceived as vultures, guilty until proven innocent, which I calculate will happen approximately three times the length of time from now that hell will take to freeze over.

2) Letting the seller stay in the house – I cannot think of any kind of transaction so generous, so humane, so… hazardous. For starters, leasing the house back to the seller is a risky gamble (since, in my experience, 9 out of 10 of them will miss at least 2-3 rent payments per year, which, unless you have a money bin as bounteous and deep as Scrooge McDuck, will cause considerable damage to your cash flow).

If you give them an option to buy it back, you’re walking on thin ice. Because, if for some reason they are not able to buy it back again (missed payments, worsened credit, stricter lending environment, decreased property values, etc.), you will become the bad guy for daring to ask them to move out so you can finally recoup your investment, free up your funds, and thus avoid becoming broke, busted, and disgusted.

And if you lease back to a seller whose house you bought subject-to, put on your headgear and get ready to rumble. You might as well drive to the nearest courtroom and have a seat, because you’re going to go there soon anyway — ask me how I know this. It’s just too easy for a seller to wish they hadn’t sold their house so badly that they actually believe they still own it, or should own it. And, because so few attorneys know anything about subject-to deals, it won’t be hard for them to find one to put you in the hot seat.

3) Advancing funds prior to closing – Imagine meeting the kindest, sweetest, most innocent seller you’ve ever met. They’re in foreclosure through no fault of their own (illness, tragic accident, etc.) and have tried everything to fix their situation, with no success. You finally get in touch with them a day or two before the auction, and agree to save them from their pending disaster. But there is one problem — you won’t be able to close on time.

Maybe the title company can’t get the title search done fast enough, schedule you soon enough, your private lender is on vacation, or something. If you could just delay the auction one more day, you could conduct the closing and be the hero. But, of course, the only thing that will buy you the time to close is to reinstate the loan now, before the closing. The helpless seller’s credit, dignity, and financial future is in your hands. Do you do it?

Although it goes against every altruistic bone in my body, I would not advance any funds before closing even if it means they lose their house and I lose a deal. I promise you that if you do, you will, in all likelihood, witness a formerly sweet, rational, and grateful seller transform before your eyes faster than you can say Bilbo Baggins. Your funds will be tied up with no legal recourse other than to enforce your contract to buy, which will take more money and several months, in which time they may fall behind again and lose the house (and your money) to foreclosure.

Or, you could be sued after all you’ve done and be accused of taking advantage of the seller, even though your funds are being held hostage at their mercy. And even if you have them sign a note and deed of trust as security before reinstating their loan, you may be going into dangerous territory by breaking lending, licensing, and possibly usury laws. The potential downside makes it not worth the risk.

So the moral of the story is this — given the current legal climate, the fallen nature of sellers once their problems are solved, and the inherent financial risks, it is wise to avoid the three types of pre-foreclosure investment methods mentioned above. It’s not enough to be honest and do what you promise. It’s also not enough to have excellent documentation and CYA agreements. They can certainly help your case in a lawsuit, but don’t think for a minute they will actually prevent suits from arising to begin with. Instead, you have to avoid the very appearance of fraud, even if it means losing a few deals (which is infinitesimally better than losing a few lawsuits — or even winning them, for that matter).

Nothing is worse than a lawsuit, even when you win. It will cost you a teacher’s salary in legal fees (not to mention the legal fees of your private lender, if you used one and they are named in the suit) as well as tying up your invested funds and hostage profit for 1-2 years. That’s a 1-2-3 combination of knockout blows to your cash flow, and could put you out of business. And in bad economic times, litigation only increases because everybody needs money. Therefore, when it comes to protecting yourself from false accusation while investing in pre-foreclosures, an ounce of prevention is worth 60 megatons of cure.

Read Full Article Here: http://www.reiclub.com/articles/cries-of-fraud

What’s the Best Way to Get Started?

by Barry Grimes

That’s probably one of the most common questions asked by people wanting to begin real estate investing. Another common question is, “How do I find a mentor to work with?” Of course there is no one perfect answer for everyone. It depends on a number of factors including; money available, goals and current skill level. But, for my money the answer to both questions is bird dogging or as I call it Real Estate Jobbing.

A Real Estate Jobber is a person who finds qualified leads for professional Investors, through a variety of sources using a systematic process.

Why Real Estate Jobbing?

• You can start in your spare time.
• There is absolutely zero financial risk.
• There is practically no start up costs.
• You don’t need money or credit.
• You can gain hands on experience without risk.
• You can find out if real estate investing is really for you, before spending hundreds or thousands on books, courses and other learning aids.

Your job is simply to supply quality leads and it’s the Investor’s job to handle the rest of the process.

You Earn While You Learn
For each lead that an Investor is able to close on, you will be paid a referral fee. There are several types of referral fee arrangements that can be made including:

• A flat rate.
• A percent of the purchase price rate.
• A net profit rate.

• Rates that combine more than one method.

Build Mentor Relationships
There is no doubt that mentoring is the most efficient way to learn, but it can be difficult to find a mentor to work with. Do you really think seasoned Investors have time to mentor everyone that asks? Separate yourself, and bring something of value to the table. By supplying good, quality and qualified leads you are saving your Investors time and helping them to make money. Now an Investor will be more willing to help.

Start in Your Spare Time
You can easily start out as a Jobber in your spare time. You don’t have to quit your job; in fact I would not recommend that. You work from home, and you may be able to do much of the lead finding research on-line. Anyone can become a Jobber. There are no special qualifications, education requirements or specialized experience required. Your age, gender, race, background, geography or current occupation does not matter.

The skills you develop will carry over. As you gain experience you will work closer and closer with your Investors, and learn the business first hand. When you are ready to take the next step, you will know how to find profitable leads. As an Investor you must be able to find motivated sellers, that’s one thing that will never change.

What Makes a Successful Jobber?
You must know your Investor’s needs. Know what types of properties, what price ranges and what locations they are looking for, and prefer to deal with. The Investor is your customer, and you must give him or her what they want. The successful Jobber is like a real estate detective. The client is the Investor, the case is to find motivated sellers, the reward is the referral fee and leads represent clues. A good detective will investigate as many clues as necessary to solve the case. Likewise a good Jobber will generate and investigate as many leads as necessary to find the truly motivated sellers. You must provide complete information to your investors. It takes much more than an address and phone number for an Investor to make a decision. The Jobber goes the extra mile and uses the public records and other sources to provide as much information as possible for Investors.

You must be (or learn to be) organized. Jobbers use a systematic approach for generating and qualifying leads. If you are disorganized it will be very difficult to stay on top of your business. Anyone can learn to be organized. It all boils down to providing good, quality information, which saves the Investor time and helps them to make money, that’s the goal of a Real Estate Jobber. If you achieve this goal, then your Investors will be more than happy to help you learn the business, and pay you very well for your efforts.

It’s Not Easy
Real Estate Jobbing is a great, risk free way to start your Real Estate Investing career. You earn money while learning the business first hand. But, it’s not an easy get rich quick program. You will have to put forth some effort to be successful. You will need to generate hundreds of leads, which takes some time and commitment. You will need to look up the property information for each lead and present the leads regularly to your Investors. You must be able to motivate yourself to keep finding leads, even when it seems like none of them are panning out.

Real Estate Investing is not for everyone. Jobbing is an inexpensive way to find out if it’s for you, before you spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on courses, books and other materials. Find out what’s involved first hand, experience the challenges as well as the rewards. You get paid to find motivated sellers while saving Real Estate Investors time and money, all while learning the business; it sure sounds like a win-win situation to me.

Read Full Articles Here: http://www.reiclub.com/articles/best-way-get-started

A Marketing Plan – The Thing That Makes Deals Happen!

by Ben Innes-Ker

You’re a Real Estate Entrepreneur or Investor, and you’re out there in the market place looking for deals. I have a question for you.

Are you doing a bit of advertising and just hoping that a deal will fall in your lap, or are you operating in a way that makes certain it will happen. If you don’t have a process for making sure deals happen, you don’t yet understand the importance of having a marketing plan.

The sad fact is that even after all their training, less than one percent of all real estate entrepreneurs and investors actually have a marketing plan. Even though it’s very simple, don’t underestimate its power.

The Most Important Thing About Marketing is to Have a Marketing Plan!

1) It’s a concrete result you put out for your mind to seize on and strive to achieve.

2) It allows you to clarify exactly what you want to achieve in the coming 30 days.

3) It allows you map out the activities needed to achieve that plan.

4) It allows you to plan in advance to delegate off the lower paying activities, so you don’t end up doing them.

5) It allows you set time deadlines, to hold others accountable so everything gets DONE!

6) It results in you being free to concentrate on your highest payoff activity: Making Offers on Great Deals!

7) You have a business that operates consciously, not by accident.

More people fail in real estate because they simply do not have a plan or goals. You should have a detailed marketing plan of what you want to accomplish and how you are going to accomplish it.

And, don’t be vague, either. Things like, I want to make more money than I can ever spend, and I want to be rich, and I want to make $10,000 a month, are not plans. They are too vague, and they won’t help you get there. Be as specific as you can possibly be.

In planning for monthly revenue, try to put your money goals in cash income, not gross revenue. I know gross revenue is what you’re used to thinking in, but cash is obviously more important. It’s what you take to the bank, and it’s what pays bills.

First, examine your current numbers. More than 80 percent of all real estate entrepreneurs know how many houses they are buying each month, but they don’t know where those houses came from and how many leads they had to process to develop them into the single deal. And, this is a deadly sin.

You Simply Must Know How You Are Currently Doing

You should know:

1) The total leads that call each month (each week is more manageable),

2) Where those leads come from,

3) How many “qualified” seller prospects (i.e. those that you are willing to invest follow-up in if they don’t sell now; they have motivation, you are interested in the house.) you get each

month,

4) The ratio of total to qualified,

5) The number of deals you close,

6) The ratio of closed deals to qualified leads – for each lead source

7) How much you make from each seller,

 How much it cost you to acquire a new seller.

With this information you can look at your current resources, look ahead, and then plan out what you want to have happen. The number of deals you want to do, the amount of money you want to make.

For example, let’s say you are bringing in around $10,000 a month and your average deal gives you $5,000. Yes, I know that’s low, but for the sake of example. That’s two deals a month. These are cash proceeds and after expenses you net 50 percent of your gross or $5,000 a month. And let’s say that you want to double your net income next month.

You will have to get twice as many deals to double your business. Goal? Four deals a month, or one a week.

Let’s say you currently get one deal a month from a classified ad, and one deal a month for mailing expired listings. But, you get ten qualified calls a month from his classified ad and 10 qualified prospects calling a month as a result of mailing expired listings. So, you currently close ten percent of your prospects.

First, you can improve on this situation by improving that twenty percent closing ratio. By improving your closing ratio by things like more precise targeting, the present lead-flow would stay the same, you’ll get your same twenty real prospects and achieve your goal of doing four deals next month.

But assuming that’s not something you have control over right now, the other way to double your income in the next month is to double the number of qualified prospects you talk to and make offers to. So instead of getting 20 qualified leads to call, you would need 40.

Your plan to get forty qualified prospects would need 10 to come from expired listing mailings, 16 to come from flyers in target neighborhoods, 4 from business cards handed out everywhere, 6 to come from signs placed in the ground at high traffic count intersections, 10 to com from classified ads that drive people to the website. Total: 46 prospects. Cool! That’s six to spare.

With this number of leads coming in you have what is needed closed four deals and reach your goal of doubling your net income. Actually, it’s more than doubling because your fixed expenses don’t increase with the income.

You should have a monthly plan. Schedule thirty or forty minutes out of one day to make up your monthly plan and see how you did last month. Schedule this time and keep to it. Don’t do any work or take any calls during this time. Keep it strictly for planning. If you do this and you allow yourself to get into the whole spirit of planning, and making things happen on purpose, you will easily double your income in twelve months.

Your Monthly Plan Should Include The Following

1) A goal for total net income.

2) A goal for number of deals signed up

3) A goal for number of appointments made.

4) A goal for number of qualified, interested sellers.

5) A goal for total number of leads.

6) Average net income from each deal.

7) The number of prospects you have to generate to reach your goal.

A detailed plan to generate the number of prospects you need. Your plan doesn’t have to be typed out or put into a computer. It can be handwritten on paper. It doesn’t have to be pretty.

Scratch pad plans are good enough. The important part is that you do a plan every single week and keep on top of things.

This is a simple thing to do, but it is just as easy to not do. Blowing it off is the equivalent of you absolving yourself of responsibility for your business. On the other hand, taking the time to think through your goals each month, both for income, and marketing activity, then committing them to paper will make things start happening by plan and put you in control of your business.

Read Full Articles: http://www.reiclub.com/articles/makes-deals-happen

Why No Real Estate Investor Can Live Without an Assistant

by Alan Brymer

Having an assistant is one of the best investments you’ll make as a real estate entrepreneur. Like all parts of your business (and yes, buying, leasing, and selling houses is a business), they require an investment of your money and also your time. You’ll need to invest a little money in order to hire, train, and compensate them for their services. And, you’ll need to invest some time to help them get the job done right — more in the beginning and much less as time goes on.

In exchange for your investment in them, a good assistant will help you to generate much more money than you are paying (bringing you a rate of return that would make any investor jealous). And, they will save you countless hours for every extra hour you spend developing them.

Although many investors are hell-bent on trying to do it all themselves, or think they can’t afford one, here is a partial list of reasons why you absolutely can’t live without an assistant:

You will do more deals. Marketing is probably the best thing to hire an assistant to do. They will help you to execute advertising campaigns that you just would not have gotten around to doing on your own. They can compile lists, print letters, make calls, stuff envelopes, buy supplies, shop around for pricing, and do plenty of other things that generate leads for you that you would not have had the time or inclination to do otherwise.

You will look more professional. When people receive a call from your assistant, they will know that you are a real player. It makes you look successful, organized, and trustworthy. Your credibility with sellers will increase, which will put them at ease and help you to get more offers accepted. Private lender prospects will acknowledge you as a legitimate business and will feel safer sending money to you knowing that you are not a fly-by-night operation.

You will have less stress in your life. No one likes drowning in work. One of the worst feelings on earth is to have more work due than you can possibly hope to accomplish in the time available. Having an assistant will take a huge burden off of your back, especially when they do tasks that you don’t like doing or are not good at.

You will be able to build a team. Having an assistant will help you to practice your skills at hiring, training, and managing team members. They are the ideal “starter employee” because they are not difficult to find and can immediately begin doing simple tasks for you. And, there is almost always an immediate use for their help. They will help prepare you to hire other team members when the time comes, if you so desire, such as a salesperson, renovations supervisor, or a purchasing representative.

You will have a better lifestyle. Isn’t this one of the reasons why you got into real estate to begin with? When I started my real estate investment company, I had visions of lying around on the beach somewhere, living the good life while the rent money poured in. Then, I found out there’s actually a lot of work involved. A good assistant will give you your life back so you can spend it with your family, working on hobbies, or working on your business (which is always more fun than working in it).

I have hired, trained, and managed personal assistants for years. I would never have experienced all of the benefits above if I had been stuck trying to do it all myself (and failing). A good personal assistant will not only help you to grow your business — they will give you your life back.

Full Article Here: http://www.reiclub.com/articles/real-estate-investor-assistant

Mortgage Principal Writedown Endorsed By Government

Diana Olick’s latest column puts “principal writedown” in perspective: “The government is officially giving borrowers back home equity.

Yep, somewhere between $35 and $50 billion worth. Of course we’ve all lost over $5 trillion, but who’s counting? Lenders still aren’t required to do it, but they’re going to get an awful lot of taxpayer-funded incentives to do it€¦Let’s face it, the underwater issue (that is borrowers owing more on their loans than their homes are worth) is now far bigger than the subprime issue and the unemployment issue. Yes, it’s concentrated heavily in five states, but it still manages to plague home prices nationwide. People are walking away in greater numbers than ever before, and people who want to stay are unable to get into modification programs because of their overwhelming negative equity. Yesterday, before the House Oversight Committee, Treasury Secretary Herb Allison said his concern with principal write down was

1) expense,

2) fairness, and

3) moral hazard.

I asked him this morning what had changed overnight? ‘The moral hazard aspects are mitigated by the structure of the programs.’ I’m not entirely sure what that means, although I’m sure many smart people behind closed White House doors came up with that exact phrase. I guess it means that because borrowers and servicers have to earn the write down incentives over three years that it’s fair. Or maybe because it helps keeps borrowers out of foreclosure, thereby stabilizing home prices around them, that it’s fair. Or maybe because the servicers and investors have to bear some cost, that it’s fair. Maybe it’s just that there is simply no other way to get ourselves out from under this mess than to forget all the bad choices some lenders and borrowers made and give them a fresh start. And for those of us who acted responsibly? No pain no gain. As I tell my kids every day, life isn’t fair.”

What do you think? Will this help the economy or only a few people who are under water? What does this do for us as investors?

Self Storage Development & Investing

Self storage has seen some dramatic changes over the last few decades it has been in existence, especially in the last 15 years. In 1993, there were approximately 21,300 self storage facilities in the United States. Today, that number has more than doubled, with industry experts reporting roughly 60,000 facilities. Those facilities comprise more than 1.7 billion rentable square feet of storage space.

Along with this substantial growth has been a positive and progressive change in the industry’s image. What was once considered the stepchild of the real estate world has become the darling amongst other non-performing real estate sectors. In addition, Wall Street has now been keeping tabs on self storage with the addition of some major investment firms and several new REIT’s being formed over the past five years. Moreover, the self storage industry has become a more mature and sophisticated business than what its earliest pioneers probably ever predicted.

In the early days, self storage was a means to add income to a piece of property until it was developed at a later date into something more profitable. Today, it has become that “something” more profitable and is quickly becoming a more sought after end use for certain parcels of vacant land. Self storage facilities are moving from the warehouse districts and industrial parks to more desirable main street locations with high visibility and traffic counts. Many facilities are now being developed in upscale retail areas or close to high end residential neighborhoods. They are no longer run by mom and pop couples in their retirement job, but rather by professionals who are serious about their business.

These professionals are knowledgeable about every aspect of their business from marketing, to leasing and creating ancillary forms of income. These managers strive to excel in the areas of customer service and work to maximize the efficiency of all aspects of their facility.

As a result, it is becoming increasingly important for developers and investors to carefully consider each new self storage project. It has become essential for developers to painstakingly consider all factors when searching for a self storage site which includes, but is not limited to market and feasibility studies and the competition. Today’s developer needs to spend more time meeting with others in their local market, especially the zoning and economic development offices. One can gain valuable insight into the trends and nuances of a particular area, and what the competition may be planning.

Market Share
While the REITs are no doubt the biggest players in the industry, it is important to note that self storage as an industry is still dominated by smaller investors and developers. This is due to the fact that the top 10 companies in the industry hold only 12% of the market share in terms of the number of facilities, and roughly 16% when considering total rentable square footage. In addition, the top 50 companies represent a 15% market share in terms of the number of facilities and 23% in total rentable square footage. No matter how you slice it, the majority of self storage owners are most definitely smaller owner/operators.

Among this larger segment of owner/operators are many who are new to the business of self storage. Many of these investors are from other real estate sectors that have transferred their skill set to this industry. They have channeled their efforts into self storage due in part to its more positive return on investment as compared to other property types. These investors have realized that unlike other commercial and retail sectors that self storage success is not dependent upon having anchor tenants, providing a more stable income for the potential investor. In addition, many of the newer investors to the industry have deeper pockets and institutional partners that are bringing more dollars to the table.

All this means that a developer needs to be more responsible when launching into a new project. This includes a more thorough approach to due diligence when picking a site, and taking the necessary steps to educate one’s self about the industry as a whole. It also requires attention to detail in all aspects of the operation of the facility which includes marketing, maintenance, and developing ancillary income streams.

Getting Started
Developing a facility means gathering and utilizing all the tools available in order to have a complete understanding of the dynamics of the self storage industry and the market in which you are going to build.

Never have the issues of site selection and project feasibility been more critical to the self storage developer than right now. Today’s self storage industry is vastly different from 15 years ago when the “if you build it, they will come” attitude was the most prevalent view. What we now face all across the country is a competitive marketplace that in many areas is over built. That being said, there are still thousands of parcels that can be successfully developed for self storage.

The question now becomes whether a developer has the discipline and persistence in his or her research to find the right one. The keys are to be sure to ask the right questions and then to be realistic in your search and expectations. And above all else, don’t compromise your research and force a site to work if it goes against your findings and the targets you have set.

Of course, the first question you need to ask yourself is why do you want to develop a self storage facility? I have seen many newcomers to the industry believe that just because the person at their local facility told them that they were full meant that there must be a huge demand in their market. Or another simplistic reason to get into this business in the past has been due to the fact that an investor “already owned the land, so it’ll be cheap to develop”.
The investor who develops a facility based solely on the basis of one or even both of those premises may quickly become a “don’t wanter” in the near future.

Greater care must be taken to find out how many facilities are in your target market and to find out what the average rental rates are. One must also become adept at determining land values and what zoning classification allows for self storage development in your community, and ultimately, who will manage the business once construction is completed. I’m also amazed at how many people have never attended an industry trade show, or don’t subscribe to the multiple industry trade publications when entering the industry. Some planning should also take place with regard to an exit strategy should you decide to sell or retire from the business.

In summary, doing your homework is essential before jumping into the self storage business, and is absolutely critical when it comes to site selection and project feasibility.

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