Success Coaching

I bought my first investment property in 1996 by taking out a loan on a boat that I owned and using that money as the down payment on the property. The seller held a note for the balance of the sales price. I did some minor cosmetic work on the property and sold it a few months later for a tidy profit. From there I went on to visit the closing table over 1000 times as a Realtor, Mortgage Broker and Hard Money Lender. I learned all of those facets of real estate by reading as much as I could on the field, seeking the advice of people who were already successful, and trial and error -- a LOT of trial and error.

There were real estate mentoring programs available when I started out, but I didn't participate in any of them. Most involved traveling to Florida or some other out of state location to take part in a 3 day boot camp. What really turned me off about the majority of mentoring programs was that the Get-Rich-Quick-Gurus were selling their particular programs in snippets -- a little bit here, a little there -- constantly nibbling at your pocket until it was empty. They were always going back to the well and continually coming out with "new" and "better" products. I felt they were more interested in helping themselves than they were in helping me. So I went it alone.

This was both good and bad. I had to be creative and resourceful in order to survive, let alone become successful. But I also made a lot of mistakes along the way that cost me a lot of time and money. If only I had been under the tutelage of a Success Coach who was interested solely in my success! I bet my progression from novice to expert investor would have happened exponentially faster!

And that's why I put the Profit Safely Success Coaching Program together, to help both active and novice Real Estate Investors and Hard Money Lenders attain profits and success in real estate with a minimum of risk. Am I doing this solely out of the goodness of my heart? Heck no! I charge a fee for my time. I spent years learning the arts of Real Estate Investing and Hard Money Lending, and that knowledge is worth a lot of money.

If I'm considering buying an Investment Property for quick resale, I won't leave my house to look at it if I don't think there's a good shot of me making at least $20,000 in profit on the deal without spending a dime of my own money. If I'm buying a property to hold it long term, the cash outlay on my part must be minimal -- preferably $0, the financing attractive, the appreciation good, the positive cash-flow considerable, and the maintenance negligible. Sound like I'm asking a lot? Not really. Those deals are out there to be found, especially in this market. You just need to know how to find them and put them together.

In the case of Hard Money Lending, if I'm lending out my own money, I'm charging a minimum of 15% interest. If I'm arranging a loan between a Real Estate Investor and another Hard Money Lender, I'm charging the borrower a procurement fee of 10% of the loan amount. On a $60,000 loan, that's $6000 for doing nothing more than bringing the borrower and lender together. From that point on I have nothing more to do with the loan. Managing it is the lender's responsibility. Considering I have an average of 2 - 3 hours invested per loan -- which includes driving to the attorney's office to pick up my check -- that's a pretty good hourly rate! If you're skeptical about borrowers paying that kind of interest and fees, don't be. I had them lining up during the real estate boom of just a few years ago when Investment Financing was plentiful. Now that banks have tightened their lending requirements for Real Estate Investors, the services of Hard Money Lenders are in higher demand than ever.

But just as there is money to be made in a Bear Real Estate market like the one we're currently experiencing, there is also a LOT of money to be lost! People say that your profit is made when they buy a property. This is correct -- partly. While it's true that if you pay too much for a property you'll never make money on it, or at least your chances of making money are vastly more difficult -- it's also true that if you buy a property for considerably less than it's worth and then manage the deal incorrectly from purchase to resale, you can still lose your shirt.

The same can be said for Hard Money Lending. There's far more to it than lending a sum of money based on a low percentage of the property value. You have to take the borrower into consideration -- their credit status, income, net worth, cash reserves and experience. Not only the appraised value of the property should be considered, but also the expense of renovation and ease of resale should you have to foreclose. You have to make sure the deed is unencumbered, that there is title insurance in place to protect your interests, that the mortgage and note are prepared correctly and sufficient funds have been escrowed for renovations. The borrower should personally sign the note -- not their corporation or LLC. That way, in the event of default, you can go after their personal assets. These are all common sense steps. But all of these steps are rarely taken in the course of making hard money loans, and skipping just one of them will leave you vulnerable to substantial loss.

Both Real Estate Investing and Hard Money Lending are like writing a story. When I writer creates a story, he doesn't just start at the beginning and expect it to write itself. He writes the beginning, middle and end. However, so many novice Investors and Lenders start at the beginning of the process and expect the rest to take care of itself.

All too often, novice Real Estate Investors make great buys on properties, hire contractors to renovate them and trust the contractors to do the jobs correctly -- only to have shoddy results when the work is completed. Then the Investors hire realtors to sell the properties for top dollar, only to be brought down to earth when either no offers come in, or only low offers because of the poor workmanship of the renovations.

The scenario for many novice Hard Money Lenders is similar. They interview the borrowers. The borrowers build rapport and trust, then present potential deals along with appraisals. The lenders make the loans and wait for their profits. Months later, they're still waiting. Eventually, they have to take the properties back deed in lieu of foreclosure, or foreclose altogether. At this point, the properties are often in much worse condition than when the lenders first made the loans, and the lenders must fund the renovations out of their own pockets. When they finally put the properties on the market for resale, they're often surprised when their realtors tell them the properties are worth much less than they were led to believe by the appraisals the borrowers initially provided. Now the lenders are in the unenviable circumstance of hoping to minimize their losses on the deals.

A potential deal must be weighed and judged on its own merits before the potential risk and reward can be ascertained. The good news is that the Profit Safely Success Coaching Program puts someone in your corner who has been there and done that before. My only interest is safeguarding your interests. The more you succeed because of my counseling, the more you will seek my counseling and refer others to do so. It's a win-win proposition.

I don't want to scare you away from Investing in Real Estate or Hard Money Lending. When done correctly, both pursuits offer vast financial rewards. Not only will you make money, but you will also turn vacant housing into homes, transforming neighborhoods for the better and helping communities by bolstering their tax bases. Both Real Estate Investing and Hard Money Lending are noble pursuits. I'm just making you aware of the risks involved so that you can protect yourself against them in order to Profit Safely.

I've been in the real estate game a long time as both an Investor and a Hard Money Lender. I've bought properties No-Money-Down with Owner Financing and with Lease Options. I've done Short Sales with banks. I've put properties under contract with Options and then sold the contracts without ever putting a penny down or taking ownership of the properties. I've bought properties with Cash, Bank Financing, and with 100% Hard Money Financing. I've sold properties Wholesale As-is, and I've renovated properties and sold them Retail. I've even bought and sold properties through IRAs. Chances are, I've already been through scenarios very similar to any that you'll present to me. I'll offer invaluable insight that will enable you to safeguard yourself as you proceed through each deal. Very often, I'll also recognize additional profit streams that will enable you to compound your profits.

Many so-called Mentoring Programs and Real Estate Investment Clubs gather a bunch of novice investors into a group in order to sell them "wholesale" properties. They convince the novice investors that they can buy the properties "wholesale", do the necessary repairs and then sell them at "retail" prices for huge profits. The only problem with that scenario is that more often than not, the markup on the "wholesale" properties is so much that all of the potential profits are eaten up. The novice investors are left holding the bag on properties they bought at inflated prices and are lucky to break even on their investments.

I'm not selling a particular Investment Program. I'm not "wholesaling" properties to my Profit Safely clients. I'm not soliciting capital from my Profit Safely clients in order to fund my deals or arrange Hard Money Loans. I'm not selling anything but my time and knowledge. I'll take your specific situation into account -- your credit status (yes, you can invest in real estate without good credit); your available capital; your level of comfortable risk; whether you want to buy real estate, or lend hard money to Real Estate Investors; your level of expertise in evaluating property values, condition and repair costs; your existing contacts in the industry -- Realtors, attorneys, title companies, accountants, contractors, etc.; and many more facets of the business that are too numerous to mention here. After gathering this information I'll help you put together a plan of action that tilts the scales of success in your favor. There are no guarantees in life, but the more knowledge you have, the better prepared you are to safely avoid the obstacles that are sure to arise as you proceed on your path to success.

If you're serious about Profiting Safely as either a Real Estate Investor or Hard Money Lender, I have two levels of Success Coaching available. I offer an initial FREE Success Consultation by telephone for both, with no obligation on your part. After the initial phone consultation, providing that both you and I are comfortable working together, our Success Coaching relationship will commence in order that you might Profit Safely!