Pete Fortunato
What you missed November 2007 Meeting
by Robert Davis
We had Pete Fortunato speak this evening. He is a real veteran of the real estate business starting out in the early 60’s with his first real estate purchase. The market has changed drastically and he said we have to change or die! A multitude of people are in very uncomfortable positions. He gave several examples of uncomfortable situations. Some people just are unwanted real estate owners; others have houses too far away (maybe a new job in another state), some have houses that are too large or too small, too much in repairs needed, unable to manage as a rental, etc. These are the people we need to deal with. Pete avoids institutional financing, claiming it is dangerous. Pete likes to trade into a property by giving the people something they need. For example, he told about a man trading a house for a tractor-trailer. The man was a truck driver and wanted his own rig so he could make more money. The house was of little value to him since he would be on the road most of the time. Another man traded a vacant lot for a computer. He then wrote a book he always wanted to do and made a moderate income from it. The vacant lot just cost him taxes each year and was of no use to him.
What Pete was emphasizing was that we need to find out “what’s in it for them”. We need to talk to people face to face when negotiating a deal so we can see how they react to things. It allows us to change our deal to suit the seller rather than FAX something to them and wait for a response. Another point he made is that value is subjective. Often the dollar values of a deal are out of kilter, but each party gets what they want. Pete used a T-bar graph to demonstrate comparing a person’s present situation to a Potential situation. He uses this instead of a value T-bar where only the dollar values are compared. For example the man that traded the vacant land for a computer gave up more dollar value than he received. His present situation was shelling out cash each year on taxes, mowing, etc. The potential situation was having a computer he could write his book with and not having to spend anything on vacant land taxes and upkeep.
Pete gave several other examples of using the present situation vs. potential situation to show how to avoid strictly talking about dollar values in a deal. He ended by saying people need us now and we should get out there, find out what people need, and make deals. Pete does some excellent seminars and for details go to Pete’s website. You can find Pete’s web address by going to sreia.com and then go to Helpful Links.
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