REI Marketing Tips

After a very fun weekend up in Vancouver, I was catching up on some emails last night before I had to get up early to head to the airport this morning.

I was sent an email about a Freddie Mac update on their website that apparently has put a lot of people into a panic. Naturally, I did some more research online, and found that my good friend Ron Ballard had taken the time to eloquently summarize the many problems he found with the Freddie Mac website page.

Incidentally, as Ron notes in his blog post, the Freddie Mac update actually occurred on April 12th.

So why all of the panic all of sudden?

I think that the best advice I can give anyone is to take a deep breath.  I have seen a number of “emergency webinars” scheduled for this week, and if you can attend them, by all means, do so.

I’m going to wait a few days and then let the dust settle.  I actually spoke to Ron on the phone a few hours ago and he and I will be chatting later this week.  We’ll do a summary for you so that you can get the key, salient points of the what is going on without committing to an entire webinar.

As for me, it’s business as usual.  In fact, we have already picked up 2 new files this week, and we have 2 big meetings with other well known San Diego attorneys this week to discuss strategic partnerships.

As soon as I have more concrete information about what is going on, I’ll be sure to pass it along to you.  For now, take a deep breath, relax, and go out and find some more deals.

Oh yes, and be sure to attend my Debt Settlement webinar on Wednesday evening, April 21st, at 6pm PST/9pm EST.  You’ll be amazed at how you can quickly and easily build a new revenue stream from debt settlement, and it doesn’t involve buying a single property.

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Thanks to everyone for their patience, as I FINALLY had time to get the free short sale training from California’s #1 Short Sale Lawyer posted to my blog. I will warn you in advance, Ron and I went for nearly THREE hours of non-stop hard-hitting short sale information.

Set aside some time this week to watch this training. There’s no cost, and after you watch it, please post a comment below and I’ll make sure that either Ron or myself answer it.

Happy Investing!

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I constantly get asked by students and members of our community what is the best way to “convince” realtors to work with them.  Some of the more common feedback I hear are things like:

“The realtor told me what I’m doing is illegal”

“I can’t list the property because I’m not on title”

“No realtors will work with me because the say you can’t do that in our city/county/state”

Well how about if I gave you a link to an article in Commonwealth Magazine, a publication that is “A journal for real estate professionals published by the Virginia Association of REALTORS®”

And what about if that article was written by Lem Marshall, VAR (Virginia Association of Realtors) Special Counsel and it basically says (and I’m paraphrasing here) “Who cares if an investor has an option contract, and who cares how much profit they make, and who cares if the end (C) buyer is taking title from someone they didn’t expect”?

Would an article written by an attorney endorsed by a state’s (Virginia’s) Association of Realtors help validate the way you want to structure your transactions?

I bet it would!  (By the way, if you invest in the state of Virginia you should absolutely be drooling right now…)

I want to personally thank my main negotiator Ed for sending me the link to this article.  I am sharing it here in a format where you can share it with your realtor prospects.  This is a GREAT thing to share with any agent who has a short sale listing that is still active, with no offers.  Just think, by using this tool you could have 5-10 new short sale deals in your pipeline by the end of the week!

To get access to the ENTIRE September/October 2009 edition of Commonwealth Magazine, “A journal for real estate professionals published by the Virginia Association of REALTORS®”, you can check it out here.  (The main article is on page 12 of the publication, which is page 14 of the PDF).

However, if you prefer a quick 2 page PDF document extracted from the magazine covering this very specific topic, you can download it here.

After you access and read this document, please post a comment below!  Let me know if this helped you gaining the confidence with realtors, and if you got any new deals under contract because of it.  We love hearing your success stories.

Oh, and one more thing…take a look at the blog post below, and make sure that you check out the video about guaranteed funding.  You’ll be glad that you did…

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Have you ever received a lead for your preforeclosure investing business from the Better Business Bureau?  We have!  In fact, we’ve experienced an uptick in leads from them recently, and a new lead as fresh as this morning led me to write a blog post about it.

Unfortunately for those of us in the foreclosure prevention industry, there’s been more than a few bad apples who have spoiled the bunch.  Foreclosure scams have made things difficult for many honest, legitimate investors who run their business with nothing but integrity.

One of the things that I suggest to new investors is to immediately get their business approved with the Better Business Bureau.  It does cost money ($515 last time I checked) and does take time to get approved (1 year for online accreditation) but it is WELL worth it.

If you’re a new investor but you can tell a homeowner that you have a “Perfect Track Record” with the Better Business Bureau that is just HUGE for your business!

Not set up with the Better Business Bureau yet?  No problem!  Did you realize that when you subscribe to The Foreclosure Marketing Machine you instantly become part of the SaveMeFromForeclosure.com “family” and can now tell homeowners that SaveMeFromForeclosure.com has a perfect track record with the Better Business Bureau and an “A” rating? It’s HUGE helping you close deals!

Want to INSTANTLY get a foreclosure prevention website, a perfect track record with the BBB, outsourced loan mod and short sale partners, use of a new professional video, “done for you” press releases, exclusive access to leads, new free reports, advertorials, door knocker scripts plus a whole lot more?  Check out www.TheForeclosureMarketingMachine.com right now and you’ll be amazed the program that we’ve put together for you!  In fact, not only will the BBB exposure help generate more leads for you, but you’ll get EXCLUSIVE access to all of the leads in your county, PLUS we’ll even give you 100 FREE leads every month of homeowners who are either 30, 60 or 90 days past due on their mortgages (your choice).

There has never been a better time to set up your business for success in 2010, and reserving your very own SaveMeFromForeclosure.com territory is one of them.  You can check out everything right now, including a very special “case study” video right now at www.TheForeclosureMarketingMachine.com.

No matter what, your business, especially in the world of preforeclosures, needs an independent 3rd party to verify its validity to prospective clients.  What are you doing to address this?  You can build it yourself (you should), or you can have it done instantly for you (you should do this as well).

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Wednesday I had the pleasure of having lunch with California’s top short sale attorney.

He was kind enough to let me pick his brain on certain nuances that come up in California.  More importantly though, he gave me some great insight on what is going on around the country, not just in California.

I took a few pages of written notes, and even more mental notes, but here are a couple of big take-aways that I wanted to share with you:

1.  Deals you find by yourself are best, but better if you take care of agent out of the goodness of your heart.
We discussed at length doing deals where the property is already listed, and we both agree that trying to convince many agents that our “creative” way of doing short sales can often be a frustrating experience, and a waste of time.  That’s not to say that it can’t be done, but we both agreed that if you have good marketing, and can get to the seller directly, you’re in a much better position.  One idea he shared with me was to allow a realtor (one that you have a good relationship with, or one that you’ve been trying to court into getting all of his listings and buying them) is to let them represent you on the transaction.  The banks are used to paying a commission anyway, so why not throw someone a “bone” and put some money in there pocket.  This idea was taken a step further by even suggesting to the homeowner that they might want representation, and providing them with an agent (referred by you of course) to put a smile on the face of a couple of agents…which could lead to a lot more deals for you!

2.  Keep your paperwork consistent
We had a standard practice in our business of using one contract for deals where the property was NOT listed, and another one for listed properties to keep the agents happy (by seeing a familiar contract).  He pointed out to me that I’m making things more confusing for our acquisition specialists by making them have and complete 2 different sets of contracts.  “Standardize” he said, and make the contracts work for all transactions, realtors involved or not.  Made sense, and we made that change in our business today.  (NOTE: some of you might be thinking “you sure are a bonehead Justin” and while that might be true, I’m far from perfect, and learn new things in this business every day.  I have no problem admitting if I’ve made a mistake or not doing something the best/smartest way possible).

3.  Pay your “A” listing realtor well
If you’re going after listed properties, pay the “A” realtor well.  They’re getting paid on the discounted price, so why not pay them 4% instead of the “standard” 3%.  This will show the “A” listing agent that you’re serious about putting money in their pocket, and make them more motivated to work with you in the future.  If you pay 4% realtors will be excited about working with you, and the “word” will get out that you’re a serious investor who takes care of agents

Those 3 ideas were just the TIP OF THE ICEBERG…

We discussed a TON of other things, and we finished lunch with a LOT more to discuss.  Fortunately for you, I’ve arranged for a special training with this attorney.  It’s not until March 31st, but go ahead and block out that time in your calendar NOW.  We’ll be covering lots of great information, and of course I’ll remind you closer to the date.  For now, put Wednesday, March 31st at 6pm PST/9pm EST in your calendar.

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Ever heard of “Ning”. It’s social networking site.

The difference however? It can be VERY niche specific.

And that’s what I’ve done with it (or at least hope to do with it).

You see, I get asked ALL of the time, from investors, “Justin, where can I find an agent who is investor friendly? One who “gets” short sales, and back-to-back closings?”

Well, since we have a pretty decent sized community here at REIMarketingTips I’m guessing that I have a bunch of people who are both realtors AND investors, and who “get” the way we do short sales. I set up a Ning so that whether you’re an investor, or an agent, you can set up a profile, and hopefully find someone in your geographic area to work with.

I also figured that the Ning could be PARTICULARLY effective for those of you who get out of state deals, and need a local realtor to help you get a property re-listed and sold.

Anyway, if you’re an investor looking for more realtors to help you with your deals, or you’re an investor-friendly realtor looking to get more listings, head on over and create a profile, and may we all network and profit together.

If you’re a realtor, head over, create a profile (takes 3-4 minutes) and then let people know what areas you can pull comps for and set up listings for.

If you’re an investor, post what areas you’re investing in, and where you’re looking for realtors to help you with your listings.

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Last month I said that I would be writing updates as to how exactly I was rebuilding my preforeclosure business for scratch in a brand new market, San Diego, CA.

Well I have been more on the “taking action” side of things rather than writing blog posts with updates (sorry).

But this Thursday night, I’m going to reveal exactly what I’ve been working on since I arrived here 1 month ago, and show you exactly how you can put the very same things into your business.

I’m hosting  a very special webinar training (with NO outside guests) revealing exactly what I’ve been doing in my business over the past 30 days, and how it’s already generating leads for me.  This special training will take place this Thursday evening, February 11th, at 5pm PST/8pm EST, and you’ll need to register for it right here.

Here are just a FEW of things that I’ll be covering on this very special training:

- The new Free Report that we just wrote that pre-sells your prospects for you (you actually overcome all of their objections by getting this free report in their hands)
- The “advertorial” style ad we use to get homeowners to download this free report in droves
- The simple 1 page website that we use to get the homeowners to download the free report (you can rip mine off, please!)
- How we use the telephone to screen out the tire kickers and lookie-lous (to get only the most qualified leads calling)
- The secret “door knocker” leave behind I’m using to get more eyeballs on this ad
- The press release template that we use in our local market to get more eyeballs on this ad and simple 1 page website

- The new sales letter I wrote for homeowners who are facing foreclosure (and why it’s my “best yet”)
- The two golden bonuses I am using to help me close the deal
- The secret way that I am delivering this letter (without paying for postage)

- The fax cover page I am using to blast realtors and get them to send me their short sale deals
- The “Guarantee” I put in this fax to skyrocket the response rates (and weed out the “you can’t do that” realtors)

Register right now for this training at 5pm PST/8pm EST this Thursday night, February 11th:

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/354124146

On this special training on Thursday night at 5pm PST/8pm EST I’ll also reveal:

- The new integrated web submission form and telemarketing script I created for my telemarketer (all online)
- The phone number retrieval AND “Do Not Call” tool I’m using to get phone numbers for prospects in a matter of minutes
- The place where I found an EXPERIENCED telemarketer for only $3/hr

- The door knocking script I’ve given my door knocker (chock full of the most common objections and how to overcome them)
- The best place to find your door knockers (so you don’t have to do it yourself)
- The one thing that your door knockers simply MUST do each time they go out for you (to maximize efficiency)

All of these tools have ALREADY helped drop short sale deals into my pipeline, and I’ve only been living in San Diego for 4 weeks now

Join me as I reveal all of the juicy information LIVE this Thursday night at 5pm PST/8pm EST on a very special training
call.  I invite you to join me and rip off, copy and steal all of my best stuff on this special training!

I’ll “see” you on call this Thursday night!

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Just a quick reminder that I’m hosting a FREE training teleseminar tonight with a national Title, Closing & Escrow Expert to discuss the latest updates with what’s going on with short sale flips.  All of the details can be found right here, including dial-in and webcast information:

To listen live by phone you can dial 813-262-0467 and use conference ID 686172 or you can listen for free, online at http://www.attendthisevent.com/Classic/?eventid=10876476

This is a free training call, and NOTHING will be sold.  On this teleseminar tonight here’s just a few of the things that we’ll be covering:

1.    Are Option Contracts Dead?
-What’s the best paperwork for me?
(Option Contract Vs. Purchase Agreement)
-How to use Addendums that work (to get your files to be
seen as “legitimate” in the eyes of your lender
-Disclosure! (Why not having the proper disclosures in
place could land you in a very bad place…)

2.     Are Back-to-Back Closings A Thing of the Past?
-How to structure them for success (and what lenders won’t
even consider them)
-Secrets of Transactional funding requirements (how to
ensure that the funds show up, your deal closes, and you
get paid)
-The single biggest secret to becoming the “Owner of Record”
(Hint: if you mess this up, you won’t be able to sell the
property to your end buyer)
-The surprising truth about what other options are
developing (get the information to remain on the cutting
edge of doing short sale flips)

3.     30-Day Closing Restrictions Are Being Enforced!
-WARNING: We are starting to see a Return of Funds
-The shocking truth about what happens if you are subject
to a “Return of Funds”, and what it means to your deal)

4.     Understanding and Correctly Using Business Entities.
-The secrets to closing as an LLC that the other big-time
investors don’t want you to know
-The simple trick to keeping your entity valid and up to date
-The one thing you must never do when closing a deal
(hint: we’ll be explaining why you can’t use your DBA)

5.     FHA Waived the 90-Day Rule!
-How to understand what it means in short sale flips
-What we learned when we took a closer look at the waiver
(And What are the new restrictions, if any)
-The single biggest impact on the “C” Lenders
-The surprising truth about Predatory Practices (and whether
or not you should be concerned)
-How does the FHA define ‘Flipping’ (and whether or not they
consider it illegal)
-How to “get around” the 20% guideline in the waiver (it’s not
as difficult as you think)
-Understanding “The seller holds title to the property” (and
knowing how to get around this clause for your back-to-back
closings)

Excited?

You should be.  Remember, this training is ALL-CONTENT.
NOTHING IS FOR SALE (however you can feel free to send in
thank you emails when we’re done)

Remember, get the call details and ask your questions here:

http://www.attendthisevent.com/Classic/?eventid=10876476

Remember you can ask questions as well, in advanc, and during the call.

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Great news for all short sale investors: FHA just announced that they are NO LONGER requiring 90 day seasoning for people to purchase properties.

So what does this mean for you?  Let’s break it down into the most simple terms.

Many people who were using the technique of using short sales for “back-to-back” closings had difficulty in finding “end buyers” who could be approved for financing, because FHA wouldn’t allow them to buy these homes.

In other words, investors were finding it increasinly difficult to find an “end buyer” for their “back-to-back” closings because that end buyer was NOT allowed to use FHA financing (per FHA guidelines).

Well come February 1st 2010 the FHA has decided to WAIVE that for a 1 year period.

You can read the entire waiver directly on HUD’s website right here.

Here are some hilights:

• 90 day seasoning rule waived for 1 year beginning February 1st 2010
• No pattern of previous flipping activity exists for the subject property (ie no multiple flips within the past 12 months)
• The property was marketed “openly and fairly” by MLS, auction, FSBO, etc
• If the increase in price is over 20% of the seller’s acquisition cost, a 2nd appraisal may be required
• All transactions must be arms-length, with no identity of interest between the buyer and seller or other parties participating in the sales transaction

More directly from the HUD website:

The policy change will permit buyers to use FHA-insured financing to purchase HUD-owned properties, bank-owned properties, or properties resold through private sales. This will allow homes to resell as quickly as possible, helping to stabilize real estate prices and to revitalize neighborhoods and communities.

Note the last sentence in the paragraph above: “This will allow homes to resell as quickly as possible, helping to stabilize real estate prices and to revitalize neighborhoods and communities.”

That tells me that HUD and other lending institutions are finally starting the see the value that short sale and preforeclosure investors are bringing when it comes to rebuilding America’s housing market.

This is GREAT news for you, because now your end buyers are allowed to use FHA financing!

To give you a better understanding of this, and the ever changing landscape of short sale investing and flipping, please join me for a free, content-packed, special training teleseminar this Wednesday evening, January 20th at 6pm PST/9pm EST.

On this call I will be join by one of the nation’s leading title company experts, who is currently closing deals in all 50 states!  My special guest and I are nto only going to be discussing this groundbreaking announcement from the FHA, but also discussing short sale flips, closings, HUD1′s, title companies and insurance, back-to-back closings, working with realtors, plus MUCH much more.

Please note that this content only teleseminar will be ALL audio.  It will NOT be a webinar.  Also please note that there is no registration.  You’ll be able to either dial-in OR listen via the Internet.  Also, you can ask questions about ANY do to with short sale investing.  There is a question box on the teleseminar page.

I am looking forward to having one of America’s leading short sale closing and title experts on the line with me this Wednesday evening, January 20th at 6pm PST/7pm MST/8pm CST/9pm EST.  Get your questions ready, and I’ll “see” you on the call!

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I just realized earlier today that I am basically rebuilding my preforeclosure investing business from scratch, because I’ve moved from Vancouver, BC to Encinitas, CA. (For those of you unfamiliar with Southern California geography, Encinitas is about 25 miles north of San Diego, up the I5).

I arrived here on Tuesday, January 5th, and we met our new landlord at our rental place at 4pm. Needless to say, that day was pretty much shot just moving in our stuff into our new place. We actually didn’t have that much stuff to move in, as we are renting a furnished home until we figure out where we want to live exactly.

The rest of the week was spent getting settled. Getting things like a phone line, internet, and directv set up, buying groceries, learning the neighborhood, finding a new crossfit gym, etc.

One interesting thing that happened was that I was contacted by local investor who had seen a bunch of my videos on YouTube. He wants to “learn the business” from me, so it’s an opportunity for me to find someone to help me increase my lead flow quickly. I’m willing to teach him all that I know about marketing and finding deals, in exchange for him doing the actual work. I have no problem paying him (well) for bringing me deals.

Two important lessons here:

1. Don’t underestimate the power of video marketing. Do you know that YouTube is the 2nd biggest search engine in the world (after Google)? That’s right, YouTube gets more searches on a daily basis than either Yahoo or MSN. Amazing, isn’t it? If you need what I feel to be the best primer on YouTube and video marketing, check out YouTubeSecretWeapon. It’s where I learned pretty much all of my video marketing strategies.

2. Pay referrals well. I actually learned this from watching a video from my friend Preston Ely. In this video, he outlines his entire business model. One thing that he said that really resonated with me when I watched it (yes, I watch the videos that I email you about, before I tell you to watch them), is, (and I’m paraphrasing here), “don’t be a chump and offer weak referrals like $500 or $1,000, man up and pay 25% of the profit of each deal”. Now I haven’t met this new person yet (we have a meeting tomorrow for the first time, we’ve only spoken on the phone) but whenever I enter into a partnership, I have a standard speech that I pretty much give everyone: “Both sides need to be EXCITED and MOTIVATED about the partnership. If you ever get to the point where 1 side feels like they’re being screwed (like doing all of the work, or not getting enough of the profits), then the partnership will NEVER work.”

So that was the end of the week.  Nothing crazy, I was mostly focused on enjoying my new home, learning the neighborhood, and spending time with Dreama (my wife) and our children Stella (30 months old) and Sebastian (8 months old) by going for walks, taking them to the beach and the playground.  And of course, being the football junkie that I am, it was wildcard weekend.  Thanks to my DVR I can watch an NFL game much faster and don’t have to dedicate myself to setting aside 3.5 hours to watch a game.  (Side note, if you like to watch TV, and sports, like me, and you don’t have a DVR or a TIVO, you are literally wasting hours of your life each and every week.  Get one now.  Of course, if you don’t watch TV, you can ingnore this advice).

To start out this week I had a a meeting with my realtor.  This was a meeting that got me REALLY excited.  I “met” Brian online (via Craigslist) when I was shopping around for REOs and Short Sales in San Diego back in August, right after Dreama and I got a contract to sell our home.  Brian showed us a bunch of places back in September, including one short sale that we really like, but were outbid on it (someone submitted a higher offer than ours, literally the day before we wrote our offer).

Nonetheless, we kept in touch with Brian, and had our first meeting yesterday.  I was absolutely thrilled when Brian told me that right after we met, he started working with another investor doing “back to back” closings with short sales.  Brian was a realtor who completely “got it”.  I didn’t have to educate him on anything, but rather go an understanding of exactly how his process worked, vs what I had been used to doing in WA (for example, when was he listing the property?  Right away, or after the BPO was completed- if I have just confused you, don’t worry, more on that later).

Brian told me that his biggest challenge is finding more homeowners facing foreclosure, can you believe it!  My specialty.  We’re still working on the fine points of our arrangement, but suffice it to say that I’m working on lead generation and Brian is going to be going out, meeting with the homeowners, getting paperworked signed, listing the properties, meeting with BPO agents, and doing all of the rest of the work!

Yesterday afternoon I added a SaveMeFromForeclosure.com listing in Google local.  If you haven’ seen my free training yet on Google local, head over there right now.  It’s a fast, free and an easy way to quickly get listed on page 1 of Google!  My listing won’t appear yet, because I’ll have to verify it by mail rather than phone, but that task is now done.

Last night, I had a coaching call for our “Foreclosure Masters” coaching club.  (If you want to attend the next one for free, you can sign up here).  Anyway, the topic of “how did you find an investor friendly realtor” come up.  I must admit, it was pretty good luck that Brian really “gets” what we’re doing with back-to-back closings.  So the person asked me where to start looking.  If you’re looking for an investor friendly realtor, I would suggest starting out at your local REIA meeting.  Any agents who are there are going to either be investors themselves, or at least “investor friendly”.

So that’s what I’ve been up to since I have arrived.  I’ve got a lot more stuff planned for this week, and I’ll be sharing and blogging that information as the week progresses, so please check back here often.  As usual, if you have quesitons or comments, please leave them below!

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