What you missed December 2007 Meeting
by Robert Davis
Jack Miller was our key speaker tonight. He is a long time real estate investor and guru. He keeps abreast of the real estate market trends and talked about what is happening and what to do about it. He posed the question, is it a good time to get into the real estate business? The answer is yes. It is a better time now than a couple years ago. The reason is because prices are down so much that a lot of former competition has left the business. They have either gotten disgruntled or have gone bankrupt. Also, with the market down so much, he said we have less to lose! Sellers won’t find buyers with cash so they will be more willing to negotiate to make a sale.
He said cash is king right now and if we have the cash we can make killer deals. We need to learn how to offer maybe 50 cents on the dollar with terms, and smile. If we look in the yellow pages at all the businesses there, most of them deal in lesser values than we do. Our deals involve bigger chunks of money than most businesses. We need to treat our efforts as a real business, not just a sideline or hobby. We need to become good property managers of our own properties. There are people who have been foreclosed on because they couldn’t make their payments, but they will make good tenants as they downsize to better match their income.
In order to learn more about negotiating, Jack said go to 100 houses in an area and ask people if they want to sell their house. We should do this with no intention to buy anything – just to practice dealing with people. Make ridiculous offers to find out what they will take. Jack said every skill we learn today will serve us for the rest of our lives.
Brokers can be a good source of houses as well. When sales drop, so does their income. They may have deals they cannot do but may offer to you cheap. We should also look for a builder who can’t sell a house or houses but is still paying on the construction loan.
Another interesting thing Jack said is people now are willing to pay us to get them out of trouble. For example if you save their credit, a fair payment might be half of any profit made. He gave us a couple negotiating points to consider, like where will you live when you lose the house and you have to move? What about your children? What new friends will they have, like dopers, gangs, etc? The most productive form of financing is seller financing. In today’s market sellers are more willing to accept terms that are favorable for us.
He commented about skills again. Jack said luck works sometimes, but in the long run we need to learn how to get things done correctly to avoid making major mistakes. He said the market is now moving from money to paper. We need to learn all we can about dealing in paper. Creative paper, he said, can make any house cash flow. Lastly, he said to ask yourself what will you change to improve your situation? What will keep you from changing? Then work on removing our barriers to making the changes that will improve our life style.
Jack has a wealth of knowledge about every kind of real estate as well as asset protection methods. He does several seminars each year as well as seminar cruises. To learn more about what Jack can offer, go to our web site, Sreia.com, then select ‘Helpful Links’ and select his website.
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