All Forum Posts by: Cortney Jones

@Ned Carey and @Tom Yung

would the same be true if you were in the process of paying attorney's fees to foreclose and quiet the title?  

I just bought a tax lien in AL and through discussions with owner and neighbors we know that the likelihood of redemption is basically nill so we've started the process to take possession of the home and quiet the title.  This process will be an addition couple thousand dollars in retainers and fees.  In this case, would you insure?  And if so, what type of policy and any recommendations for who to call?

Thank you, in advance. 

@Rebecca Ramos - I'm sorry that this happened to you.  

There really are some great trainers in the industry and I hope that you find someone that you can resonate with who is honest, trustworthy and helps you find your way. 

@Justin Hayman - primarily just in AZ myself, but I work with and mentor people from across U.S. so whenever they get a deal, I help them wholesale it too.  Most recently some have been in AL, TN, OH and WA state. 

@Terry Miller - most don't offer guarantees because we can't guarantee people will take action on what they are taught.  

BP and every FB group for REI is full of people with dreams and ideas of achieving those goals who are just looking for a handout and an easy button, but won't do the work to back it up.

@Michael Burks  - not referring to you

Yes, a lot of mentors have sales funnels.  Some of us work off of referrals and word of mouth.  If I have 25+ years experience and have spent well over $100k in education over the years and worked my tail off to have closed hundreds of deals then that experience and knowledge are valuable to some.  To others it's not, they prefer to go it alone and do it the longer way.  That's cool. 

I'm the first one to tell people that you can LEARN everything you need to know for FREE at the local library.  Learning isn't the battle for most, it's the DOING (which usually means overcoming the fear).  If having someone who has been there and done that by your side and helping you teaches you a way to make money that changes your life for the rest of your life, then that is worth something.  

I had to pay it in money, blood, sweat, tears, overcoming fears, frustration, hard work, and tenacity. 

The funny thing is that I felt the same way about the sales funnels at first and started mentoring people for free.  I spent a TON of time meeting people, making them videos, talking to sellers with them, etc. and they would stop part way through the deal and not follow through because a kid was sick, they had to work overtime, their mom was in hospital, their car broke down,etc.  Or get cold feet. Or find other excuses to not get the contract signed or do their part.  

After a couple of years of this I decided that people who didn't have any skin in the game didn't take it seriously and had no reason to NOT waste my valuable time.  That's when I started charging.  I don't charge $25,000 and no, I don't guarantee you success because I can't control your actions.  Only you can do that.  I can guarantee how I will show up, what I will provide and the opportunities you'll have. 

I love helping people get started in this business, but I love spending time with my family more.  I DO get personally vested into helping others succeed and all too often take their failures and mistakes on as my own.  For every person asking for a free mentor, there's 200 others sending an email or calling my office.  90% of who will never do anything.  

If you spending money on a mentor gets you to take action once and for all, then that mentor would be doing you a disservice if they didn't charge you and get your to take action.  

@Brian Haugh  THE most passive way to buy and hold real estate is going the traditional route of working with a Realtor and getting the best deal you can, hiring a property manager to manage the property and know that, it's never 100% hands off.   In some markets, you can still get a discount and buy below market.  In hot markets, not really. 

However, buying through a good wholesaler can be a great way to find undervalued assets where you can yield higher returns.  Wholesalers (myself included in full disclosure) spend a lot of time and money finding and negotiating great deals.  I know what my buyers (both landlords and rehabbers) are looking for and what to send their way.  I personally wouldn't send a complete gut job to a guy with your criteria because I know that's not what you're looking for.  I would send you (if I were in your market) properties that just need some cosmetic work.  The discounts wouldn't be as high as one needed 2 baths, kitchen, flooring, etc. but it would still be a discount. 

It doesn't hurt to build relationships with the wholesalers in  your area.  You may only pick up 2-3 deals a year that way, but it is a very viable option.  I have many people on my buyers list who buy nothing but cosmetic repair type, buy & holds and they are able to save a ton of time and money buying from me rather than learning the trade and spending a bunch of money marketing on their own.   

I would go back a year, but test it an see how many you get.  If that's the only marketing list you're using, then you want to make sure you have enough leads to meet your goals.  If going back 3 months only gets you 50 leads, then that's probably not enough to get a deal.  Tweak the numbers until you're able to get what you need and are willing to spend money on. 

@Matthew Ray  when you say, "seeing a lot of foreclosures in my area" I'm going to assume you mean from the mls system?  

There are different aspects to the foreclosure business. Some investors buy foreclosures from the mls through a realtor. These are properties that have already gone through foreclosure and been taken back by the bank and put up for sale. Also called REO (real estate owned) In these cases, yes, you buy them just like any other house and you can usually use traditional financing. Your realtor would negotiate with the bank, on your behalf, to get you the best deal. Depending on how competitive your market is, the condition of the house, how long it's been on banks books, etc. that discount could be as little as 10% and as much as 50-60% . Before you close on the house and can secure a loan your lender will have the title company do a title search to make sure all liens are off the property.

Some investors also buy what's called pre-foreclosures.  These are deals that investors try to find BEFORE the bank takes them back.  There are a variety of ways to find them - direct mail to people who are late on mortgage payments, have delinquent taxes, etc.  Bandit signs around town marketing "we buy houses," knocking on doors in high foreclosure areas, and many more.  When buying these you can often get a bigger discount because you don't have attorney fees, bank fees, realtor fees, etc. added on, but you do have to know what you're doing.  Usually on these you would have a title company run a preliminary title search to ensure there aren't any other liens on the property, then you can buy through a variety of different ways - owner financing, subject to, cash, traditional financing, etc. 

@Nick Brubaker, as an investor and a licensed Realtor, here is my 2 cents.  First off, the other advice you've received is true and real.  MOST investors do buy at 70 cents and they DO NOT do it through the mls.  The data from the report doesn't really apply to them since they are buying at a large discount and making their money when they buy.  They just receive the profits upon sale. 

With that being said, your situation is a bit different since you're wanting to live in and occupy the home for some time and make some large improvements to it.  The #1 thing to consider is to not over improve the home for the area.  You're making a home with the idea of it being an investment ALSO.  

Most investors are just buying a house at a discount and making it into something that can be sold to someone else to make a home.  

So, no, you're not crazy with your ideas and numbers, but . . . as an example, if you convert the garage into a rental and every other house in the area has a garage then when you go to sell, it will be difficult to find a buyer because buyers in that area may expect a garage.  

If you plan to make a 2 bedroom into a 3 bedroom then you will have to not only look at the cost of what it will be to do this, but how much more does a 3 bedroom in that area bring when selling.  Remember, you can't use the house across the street as an indicator if it's not an exact comp.  ( same style, same age, same approx. square footage, beds and baths)  If it costs $15k to add on a 3rd bedroom but 3 bedrooms in your area are only bringing an additional 10-15k, then the extra cost, if you decide to move forward, is your cost of living, usage and enjoyment.  

A perfect example of this is mini blinds.  In some homes you can put in a $5 set of mini blinds and that's perfectly fine and acceptable and buyers wouldn't think twice about this.  In that same house, if you put a $250 set of blinds, that's cool, you liked them, but if you try to charge an extra $4,000 for the house because it has 20 sets of expensive blinds people will laugh at you. 

In my area pools are common place.  If you buy a house without a pool and decide to put one in, it will cost you between 40-80k depending on how elaborate you want to get.  Value wise, when you go to sell, you'll get maybe $10-13k more on a comp for it because nearly every house has one so it's expected.  If you did a really great job on it, you can maybe appeal to someone's emotions and get a little more and sell a little faster, but there's no guarantee.  

Make the improvements you want to make for your personal enjoyment, but without overbuilding and improving for the area and always keep in mind that you can't predict markets or values in the future. 

Hope that helps. 

@Kevin Zolea, agree with @Brie Schmidt that you should test them out first to see which one you like the best. Also, why not join both? Chances are they are on different days and will attract different people. The WHOLE reason to attend REIA groups is for the networking. Know going in that most of them are just pitchfests. They will parade new speakers in each month who will tell you just enough to get you excited and then sell you into a 3 day to teach you what to do, but not how to do it. For that, you have to buy the $25k mentoring program. :-)

You can learn what you need to know by listening, reading free books from library, if you're cash strapped.  If you want to hire a mentor to speed things up and learn from someone else's experience and the investments they've made, that will get your there faster.

Also, check meetup.com for meetings in your area.  A lot of areas have great real estate investing clubs that are not advertised through the major REIA groups. 

Good luck and welcome to investing!

I recently considered investing a substantial amount of money in John's CEO program.  It is basically work that I'm already doing, mentoring and joint venturing on deals to teach people, however, he already had all the systems and processes into place and it was appealing to me to have that all done for me.  

John's team sells this "opportunity" as an application process, yet, when you get the application it starts out as that and then towards the final paragraph states that it's a legally binding document.  The document was very poorly written with little detail and a LOT of ambiguity about what they were actually offering.  I asked a lot of questions and added an addendum onto the contract to clearly spell out the information that I was promised by the salesperson.  I have been investing for 25+ years if there is one thing I know it's don't leave things to interpretation.  "He said" is NOT a defense and you can only go with what you have in writing.  The sales person called me back and said that John was bothered by my addendum and had chosen not to work with me.  I said, well if that bothered him and he's not willing to back up what you say in writing then I don't want to work with him either.  

I guess I should have been concerned when a 1/2 of the page of a 3 page document is all about protecting their reputation and repressing my 1st amendment rights to share my opinion about someone and their service, or lack thereof.  Here's a small paragraph of theier contract.