About a month ago my Board of Realtors was kind enough to send me a letter informing me that “they” would be changing our lockbox and key system again.

For those keeping score at home this would be the second time in three years.  Myself and 4500 other realtors pay dues to our board and they in turn make stupid decisions that only benefit themselves.  It’s like paying your employees to keep their jobs only to have your employees kick you in the nuts every morning before you get to your desk.

In an era of financial woes, mortgage crisis and real estate market implosions; you’d think that the association that I prop up every month financially with of my dues payment would take better care of me.

That’s a thought for rational thinkers like you.  My board of realtors is not a rational thinking organization.  They are grossly arrogant creatures who waste my time and steal my money.

I am very comfortable fighting buyers and sellers, bankers, lawyers and title companies but I’m not comfortable fighting my own board of realtors.

These are mostly salaried people who have never spent a day grinding out cold calls or spent their last dime on an ad hoping to get that listing sold.  They’ve never thrown on the coveralls and pulled an all nighter painting an entire house.  They sit in cubicles and stare off into megapixel computer monitors hoping that 5:00 PM get here soon so they can waddle outside and climb into the car that I provide them and head home to their warm meals and LCD televisions.

At night when they’re alone with themselves and they close their eyes and the demons come, their pea shaped brain dreams of new ways to screw me out of more money.

The next time you buying with me and I get you 160K of instant equity take the time to rejoice, acknowledge my work, praise my name and let me enjoy my commission. The next time you sell with me and I get you market price for your crappy ass house with rotten wood, stupid floor plan, small lot, broken windows, terrible curb appeal and over grown landscaping, don’t nickel and dime me on my fees. Why?  Because most of what I earned goes to my board of Realtors.

I guess I wrote this Jerry Maguire esq.

Have you ever had a moment when you realized “that was a stupid thing to do?”  This was one of those moments.  For fun I Googled Real Estate Guru; the number was huge.  I saw the name of a guy that I knew who claimed to be a “Guru” but when I met him he had only bought his own home.

My introduction to the GURU world started when I bought a Discounted Note Course in the fall of 1993.  I later found out that my mentor was giving me advice from a book and not from his personal experience.  I paid $15,000 for a guy to “coach me from a book,” how friggin disappointing is that. I eventually learned the real estate business from books, tapes, trial and error but I got it.  Nothing is perfect; even now some of my deals are shit but that’s part of the game.

I was asked by a friend of mine to help build the Carleton Sheets coaching company in 1995.  Why would a guy who is so successful in Real Estate want to get into the coaching and mentoring business?  MONEY.  The speech is always that they want to give back but the bottom line is money.

I started teaching seminars for three (3) reasons and none of them centered on giving back.  I taught seminars for 1- money 2- network and 3- deals.  It is my opinion that anyone who “claims” to teach real estate investing to give back isn’t honest with himself / herself and here is the reason why.

If I buy a POS (that’s Piece Of S#&*) house and I tear it down to the frame and then rehab it back to inhabitable; that process can take some where between 60 and 180 days.  The profit on that is $12,000 to $24,000.  That’s a pretty good part time job if you can hit that mark every time.  2008 and 2009 has been a tough year for anyone in real estate.  The Guru looks around for an income stabilizer.  “If I can put 30 people in a hotel conference room and charge them $2,995 a head for three days of teaching and then sell them software and mentoring for another $2,995 to $25,000 as additional tools you will need to be successful.”  Not only did I make a lot of money for the “GURU and myself but I became the son of Satan in the process, why?  I knew that less than 5 percent of the “COACHES / MENTORS” knew what they were talking about or have invested in real estate.  Now if you ask some of my speaking colleges they will tell you “these people are seminar junkies who get their high from attending trainings.”  I think these are well-trained seminar attendees who have been taught that they will never be successful until they buy all of the guru’s courses and tapes.  They’re chasing a rainbow they’ll never catch because the guru will come up with something new time and time again.

Lets be honest you can only wholesale a deal some many ways.  You can only buy tax deeds some many ways or apartments or single-family homes.  If there are 1,420,000 guru listings on Google are there really that many ways to invest in real estate? Yet most of these knuckleheads couldn’t put a deal together to save their life.  They couldn’t tell you what a subordination agreement was or how to hypothecate an asset.  Even fewer can figure out the net present value of a future cash flow.  Most Gurus can’t even use a financial calculator.

“I don’t have the time for an HP10B, 12C, 17B or 19BII; I just use the “software that you should invest in and you’ll own it for $2,995 and $49.00 a month.

The guru has done their math and knows that if an ebook sells for $97.00 and they get 300,000 people to buy it, that’s a lot of money.  Why would they ever want to buy another building?

No, I’m not a GURU, A Guru is an innovator, a pioneer, someone who develops something new.  I’m a COACH.  I can take the information that you want to learn and I Coach you.  I help you learn the content then you get to go out and apply the content (information), I hold you accountable and I keep you motivated.  Coaching is about doing.  It’s not about buying the next course, seminar, bootcamp or book and tape series.

You can go to the library and learn how to invest in real estate.  The grandfather of most things in creative real estate is Ad Kessler.  Most everything else is a hash and re-hash of his techniques.

Am I doing this to sell my own stuff?  No, most of my stuff isn’t for sale anymore.  I have 20 years of real estate investing experience, I’ve made some great deals and some not so great deals, I’ve over leveraged myself and I’ve paid cash for properties.  I have all this stuff in my head and I don’t know what I want to do with it from a teaching perspective.  What I do know is that the mentor you paid $25,000 for, they probably have as much experience as that mouse next to your screen.

Share your real estate seminar experience or just share your though in the form below.

Click on the “Share This” link and forward this to all of your followers, friends and family and please subscribe to my RSS Channel.

Now go out there and start talking about me.

Let me start off with an apology. I Michael Acord would like to apologize if have offended you.  I apologize for trying to motivate you.  I apologize for showing you how you can make money in real estate.  I apologize for creating systems and tools to make you an efficient investor.  I apologize for offering you my newsletter “Fear Estate Investing – taking the fear our of investing.”  I apologize for asking you to make a business decision.

I’m sure you’ve heard that a confused mind will always so no.  Even if the opportunity is so huge and so profitable you’ll turn it down because you’re confused.

If you’re asking your self  “what the hell has Michael been smoking?” the answer is nothing.   What I found was clarity, please allow me to share.

Let me share with you today’s headlines from the real estate section of one of the largest new outlets in the world.

•    Pending Home Sales Jump 3.2%
•    Foreclosure How Bad Is Your State?
•    Foreclosure filings in record jump
•    Mortgage applications fall
•    Home prices down, but rate of loss eases
•    Housing: ‘Better’ doesn’t mean ‘good’
•    New home sales show signs of revival
•    Hope seen, despite home sales downturn

Do you see good news or bad?  Do you see opportunity or mayhem?  How can sales be up but foreclosure filings are so high?  How can new home sales show revival when mortgage applications fall?  Confused?

The real estate market is down.  That is a fact but I believe this is one of the greatest buying opportunities ever.  I saw, and bought some of the RTC deals and thought “you will never see this kind of opportunity again.”  Guess what?  Here we are in a giant buyers market again.

I can’t do this one for you, only you can.  You have to find the opportunities.  No just in Real Estate but in life as well.  Let me give you one of my favorite sayings “I cannot convince an unconvincible!”   Yesterday I showed you how to invest $1,000.00 but I can’t convince you of that opportunity only you can.  If you don’t or can’t or won’t find the opportunities, others will, and they will succeed and you’ll blame someone else and this real estate cycle of confusion will continue.

Please share your thoughts in the comments below and please subscribe to my RSS channel.

Retweet The Real Estate Cycle of Confusion To Your followers

I answer a lot of real estate questions on different real estate forums.  The other day some one posted this question, “What would you do if you had $1,000 to invest?”

I was amazed at the response from the readers. They ranged from “do nothing”, to “put it in a savings account and save more money”.

Although the question originated in a real estate forum and was answered by “real estate people,” it’s a good reminder to constantly ask yourself, “Who am I getting my investment advice from.
In my Financially Fine in 2009 podcast (you can find them on iTunes) I remind the listener that anyone can invest in real estate no matter what their current economics are.

So let me answer the question based upon what I know.  If I had $1,000 to invest, I would buy myself an older wobbly box.  A wobble box is a mobile home.

Investing in mobile homes isn’t sexy but it is very profitable.  Back in 2001 a partner and I were buying reposed vacant mobile homes for $500.00.  We would then turn around and sell them for $2,000.  We took a down payment of $500.00 and financed the $1,500.00 balance over 18 months at 15%.

The Purchase numbers
Mobile home     $500.00
Title work         $  75.00
Total Investment    $575.00

The Selling Numbers
Mobile Home     $2,000.00
Title work        $     75.00
Total Selling Price     $2,075.00

Investment out = $575.00
Investment In    =$575.00 in cash
Note for 18 months = $93.58

Return on investment =  ?

Tell me what you think in the comments below and please subscribe to my RSS channel

ReTweet To Your Followers

I got a question from one of my students who said he got this question from a perspective tenant.  “Is there any way you could work with me on the Security Deposit?”  Which is code for I’m a little short.

He went on to say that not to many people are kicking his door in wanting to rent the place and thought that he should at least listen to the perspective tenants proposal.  He finished up his email by saying that he was asking $850.00 a month in rent and the security deposit was $1,000.00.

“What would you do Real Estate Maestro?”

Well let me talk about the “old days” where no means no.”  Traditional real estate educators are not flexible on the security deposit at all.  I say its a new day and you really have to step out of the box if you want to maximize your opportunities.

Lets see if we can make this work

1. Does the perspective tenant have an asset that is at least two times the value of the deposit?  Can you collateralize your deposit with the asset?  I have gotten a lot of cool stuff by using this technique.
2. What if you turned the unit into a daily rental and charge him by the day.  This is also a neat little trick that works around eviction laws.  Since its a daily rental, different laws apply.  You could charge the perspective tenant the daily rate with an additional rate for the deposit.  What your really doing is financing the deposit by allowing him to rent it daily.  If he defaults you don’t have to evict and when you’ve collected enough deposit money, convert it into a long term lease.     ***(Check your local laws first)***
3. Could the perspective tenant provide a co-lessee?  What if you got mom or dad to cosign on the lease or anyone else that had the financial backing you’re looking for?
4. Going back to the collateral, you could create a note between you and the lessee and then sell the note or part of it to satisfy your cash requirement.

Instead of saying no, get creative and try some of these techniques or email me and let me see if I can help you out. Share your comments below and please subscribe to my RSS Channel

Retweet This To Your Followers

This was the lead from a Major Business Magazine

“Few people these days have confidence in the real estate market. Sellers are anxious, buyers are cautious, and prices across the nation are tumbling, month after month. But for a careful investor, fear and uncertainty can set the stage for opportunity.”

Finally someone in the media has the stones to tell the world that there is opportunity and not just doom in the real estate business.  If your a careful and calculated investor there has never been a better time to invest.

If your a speculator looking at appreciation, your probably broke and out of the real estate game.

Get The Most Rental Income
Marcus & Millichap came up with a ranking of the markets where apartments provide the most rental income for the least amount of investment. These are metro areas that, for the most part, are affordable for folks who don’t have millions to invest. Single-family homes and condos in some of these markets can sell for less than $100,000 and a 20-unit apartment building can be purchased for less than $700,000.

Topping the list was Dallas-Fort Worth, where apartment buildings sell for an average of $30,000 a unit and every $3.76 of investment (in terms of the sales price) produces $1 of rental income. By comparison, investors need to spend about $8.19 on average nationwide for $1 of rental income.

Other low-priced markets that ranked high were Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, Houston, and Kansas City. Many of these metros—like high-dividend stocks—come with the risk that both the income and the value of the property could fall off. Dallas’ job market is weakening, and many new apartments are under construction, which will create more competition for landlords. Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Orlando, and Tampa, which also made the list, have plenty of bargains, but you’d be competing for tenants with condo owners who are renting homes they cannot sell. And the manufacturing-heavy Midwest is in serious economic decline.

To read the rest of the article click here

Retweet This To Your Followers

Gordon White was my guidance counsel in Junior High and he hated me.  That was perfectly fine with me because I hated him just as much.

He was noted for tirades and tantrums like the one below.

If you grew up in the 80’s then you know what the answer is.

To all the Mr. Whites of the world, guess what?  I’m on iTunes.  Not as a singer but as a podcaster.

Now you can access some of my training teleseminars and audios on iTunes as a podcast.  No more fumbling with the downloads and uploads, iTunes will do all of that for you.  You can download the audio right to your iphone or ipod and listen at your leisure.

To access the podcasts, open up your iTunes software, click on podcasts in the iTunes store, click on power search, enter Real Estate Maestro as the author and you should see the podcasts.  At the time of this post, one of the podcasts is available to download and the others are under review.

Or Subscribe Here

Go to iTunes now!   Then come back and  share a comment.

Retweet To Your Followers

The other day I went off on the Donald for his comments (Click Here) on CNN.  He said that you should only be doing real estate deals that involve “seller financing”.

I have gotten emails and phone calls from people who were very upset that I “had the nerve to attach the Donald”.   From this public out cry I discovered;
1.    The Donald is loved and cherish by a lot of people.
2.    Seller financing means different things to different people.

My definition of seller financing is.
1.    The seller agrees to receive monthly payments with interest over time
2.    The borrower can be either a person or an entity
3.    The qualifying consists of a financial statement and a credit report
4.    I have the first right of refusal if the seller decided to sell the note.
5.    I can substitute other collateral
6.    I have full and complete exculpation

It is true that you can go into your multiple listing services and find banks that “claim they will finance you.  If you have to qualify under their normal requirements its not seller financing its just a bank loan.

I would love to hear you comment and please subscribe to my feed.

Retweet To Your Followers

Comment on Couple Living in Camper After Foreclosure – Is it the … – [...] a great post over at Generation X Finance about a story that ran on CNN. This is an older post but as a real estate investor, coach and mentor this questions comes up all the time.  I have my opinion but I want you to leave me your opinion.  Read this post and then bounce back here and leave me your comment.  The story was about a couple who lost their home to [...]

Retweet To Your Followers

A couple of months ago at one of my seminars, a guy came up to me at the break and said, “Why do I need your coaching?  I can go to any library or buy a book from Barnes and Noble.”

I smiled and said “ok”.   He asked me what the grin was about and I started to chuckle.

I asked him to sit with me briefly.  I told him if your looking for stuff out of a book you wouldn’t be in my seminar.  Most everything about real estate investing can be found in some book, somewhere.  Remember I said most everything. I continued with “why would spend three days in my class if everything you need can be found in a book”?

The world is full of information.  Topics written about include real estate investing, 4X trading, options, home based businesses, buying franchises etc.  So here is my question to you.  If all of the answers to “making money” can be found in a book, why is the “training / seminar business” is a billion dollar industry and climbing?

I’ll bet we could walk down to Barnes and Noble, go to the real estate section and find at least 15 books on buying foreclosures and REO properties.  If everything you need to know about buying foreclosures and REO’s can be found in 15 books, why did I teach 32 “buying foreclosures and REO” seminars, (3 days each) with an average of 28.3 students in 2007?

I received this last night from my student

The answer is Application!  You read it but you don’t know how to apply it to your life.  You start asking yourself how can I apply this information? I have bad credit, a spouse who doesn’t support me, I don’t speak the language very well, I have no money etc.

Since you can figure out how to apply the information, you start chasing the next book, seminar or Reality TV Star looking for that “magic technique”.

What’s the solution?  Find someone you like, who has the experience,  who can show you how to apply the information to your life, give you assignments, keep you motivated, hold you accountable, over time, you will achieve results.

This formula can’t be found in any book, it can only be found with a coach.

Tell me your thoughts in the comments and please subscribe to this feed

Tweet To Your Followers