The other day I was talking to a good friend of mine about the changing market and what strategies he found worked best. 

We were sharing the various tweaks we had made to our own marketing plans and how successful they were or were not. It’s a conversation we often have.

But what struck me this time, and I am not sure why it hasn’t struck me before, was that the one strategy we always put in the success column is Follow Up. Consistently following up with a lead always works!

If One is Good, More is Better

I have always been a person who thinks in terms of if one is good, more must be better.

I figure that if I send one letter, 10 would be better.  If I make 1 phone call, 6 would be better. If I sent 1 email, 100 would be better! Okay, that may be pushing it, but you get the gist. Sending just one piece of marketing is good but more is better! I think that is why the idea of Follow Up has been something I have always used.

When I explain this strategies benefits to my coaching students, I always use the example of shopping in a store at the mall.  If you are like me, you walk into the store with a single purpose…to get the item you are looking for as quickly as possible and get the heck out of there! But if you are also like me, the store
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Do you remember 1969? Probably not. But I remember the year 1969 very well. It was the year in which I purchased my first rental house. I was still in college and realized that I needed to break the cycle of poverty in my family.  

First, I decided to get more education than anyone else in my family. So, I went to college and majored in business. While studying in college, I realized that most people in America who became wealthy did it through investment in real estate. My initial interest was in apartment buildings, but since they took large amounts of down payment money (the “nothing down” concept had not been invented yet) I defaulted to the single-family home as my IDEAL investment vehicle. 

By the time I graduated from college I had acquired three rental houses and one small office building. After graduation, I continued acquiring rental houses and titling them in my name personally. One sunny morning I woke up and realized the potential risk I was creating by owning all these properties in my own name. These were the days before you could access the county recorder’s office online. But you could go down to the courthouse and walk into the recorder’s office to look up each owner of every property in town. Wow, was I stupid! 

I began to research different ways of holding a title to real estate. When I di
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Investing in real estate can be a profitable way to grow your wealth, but it isn’t without its challenges. The guide below from South Jersey Real Estate Investors Association will answer your questions about investing in real estate as a beginner.

The Perfect Investment Property
Investing in real estate can be a great way to earn passive income; however, not all properties are created equal. Ideally, you’ll want to look for properties that generate positive cash flow — so you can cover your mortgage payments with your rental income alone.

F
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The type of policy available to property owners varies based on the type of building, the building occupancy type, and the frequency of the building being occupied.

There are six categories for insuring investment properties, but we will look at only DF1 and DF3.  

The DF1 policy is a base policy with limited coverage for the building.  It can be used for vacant (rehab/flip), rental or owner-occupied properties, but the coverages are generally very limited, usually to:

1. Fire and lightning
2. Explosion
3. Windstorm
4. Hail
5. Riots
6. Smoke damage
    

The risk to any insurance policy is the exclusions. This list is usually rather lengthy and is “required” reading.  It explains in detail the various conditions for which the policies offer no coverage,  Some of the common EXCLUSIONS include:   

1. Flood and water damage
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A Guide to Moving and Starting a Business

Moving into your new home and starting your own business can be very stressful, but there are ways to make the transition easier for you and everyone around you. Whether you’re moving across town or across the country, it’s crucial to get all the logistics of your move taken care of before you start a business in your new home office. Here are some helpful tips to make this transition as smooth as possible.

South Jersey Real Estate Investors Association offers real estate professionals and investors webinars and events to build their knowledge. Become a member!

Launching a Home-Based Business

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          It seems like every new Wholesale School student immediately stumbles upon a landlord who wants to sell ALL of his properties, then wants to know how to tackle a package of 4, or 9, or 37 single family homes all at once. And they're already rented, and the don't need any work, and the new wholesaler is excited because this looks like a deal that could make tens of thousands of dollars all in one fell swoop.

          These deals are problematic for a number of reasons:

1. I rarely see one where the landlord isn't asking more-than-market for the properties. He's willing to sell, but isn't really anxious to sell
2. It's basically never the case that the houses don't need work. Yes, I KNOW there's someone living in them. That doesn't mean that the roofs aren't 22 years old, or that the furnaces work consistently, or that they won't need a $5,000 turnover when that tenant inevitably moves out.
3. Each property has to be evaluated separately, which is a LOT of evaluation for a deal that's unlikely to come together.
4. Coordinating a single buyer to buy a whole package of non-turnkey properties, especially if they're in different parts of t
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        It seems like every new Wholesale School student immediately stumbles upon a landlord who wants to sell ALL of his properties, then wants to know how to tackle a package of 4, or 9, or 37 single family homes all at once. And they're already rented, and the don't need any work, and the new wholesaler is excited because this looks like a deal that could make tens of thousands of dollars all in one fell swoop.

        These deals are problematic for a number of reasons:

1. I rarely see one where the landlord isn't asking more-than-market for the properties. He's willing to sell, but isn't really anxious to sell
2. It's basically never the case that the houses don't need work. Yes, I KNOW there's someone living in them. That doesn't mean that the roofs aren't 22 years old, or that the furnaces work consistently, or that they won't need a $5,000 turnover when that tenant inevitably moves out.
3. Each property has to be evaluated separately, which is a LOT of evaluation for a deal that's unlikely to come together.
4. Coordinating a single buyer to buy a whole package of non-turnkey properties, especially if they're in different parts of the city, isn't
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            Go to any real estate association anywhere in the country, and you’ll meet endless excited folks who are sure that their futures—and fortunes—lie in wholesaling houses. Go back 6 months later, and you’ll find that 90% of those folks have never successfully closed a deal. In most cases, this isn’t due to “inactivity” or “fear” or any of the usual excuses. Many of these folks have actually tried and failed, to make a go of it. In my experience, there are 3 main reasons for this:

1. They don’t understand WHY wholesalers make money. They understand, at least in a basic sense, HOW it happens: you put a deal under contract, and you find someone who wants to pay more than you did, and that “more” is your profit.

But they don’t understand something very basic: that buyers don’t just write a check because the deal is available, or cheap, or even because it’s cheaper than other properties that might be for sale in the same area.

Buyers for wholesale deals are real estate investors, right? So, in order to be interested in a deal, the deal can’t just “make money”; it has to make ENOUGH money to p
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The concept of “branding” is an elusive topic.

Many are of an opinion of what a brand is, however, few know the true definition. More important, even fewer know how to properly leverage their personal brand for greater results in business and life.

Your brand is more than a logo. It’s who you are, your reputation in the market, how you are perceived. Your personal brand stands for something. It’s a positive, negative, or natural feeling in your prospects or colleagues minds.

A properly designed and delivered brand opens the doors to greater opportunities, earning a higher income, producing more sales, or positioning you as an expert in your field.

We all have a brand whether we know it or not. In fact, not having a brand – is a brand. Think, how are you being seen in the market. Are you being intentional with your brand, or is it a byproduct of how other perceive you?

Here are 3 specific advance personal branding strategies you can employ starting today to grow your business.

1. Getting Your Brand Known. You are in control of your brand. Give it a name, a look, a feel. Start with your reputation. Then make your colleagues, business associates, clients, customers, employers know your brand. In today’s market social media plays a big role. Are you being conscious of your presence in social media – remember, your market is watching.

1. What you say DOESN’T c
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 When you first think of the consequences of rising interest rates, you could naturally conclude that would drive real estate prices down.  Over the long haul, you would be right.  However, when you look at what is going on now as rates are rising, you might be shocked to see that both rates and prices are rising together.

Mortgage rates have been increasing steadily since the begging of the year 2022.  At the beginning of the year, mortgage rates were right around 3.2%.  As of the end of April 2022, mortgage rates have risen to around 5.2%. Some resources are show as high as 6.1% as of this writing.

The interesting thing is that the median sales price for real estate is also increasing. The median home values of Minnesota, my home state is currently $326k, the twin cities metro area is a little higher at $340k. 

So why are prices still increasing at the same time interest rates are also increasing.  To explain that you need to have a little understanding of economics.  In the simplest form, when supply is high and demand is low, rates tend to drop lower to encourage borrowing.  This is one of the tools that the federal reserve uses to spur growt
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