All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Welcome to the group,

I was wondering, do you work with Christian and Kevin at REI Group or is it a different company?

Ed

In today's society online degrees are becoming more accepted. I would make sure it is an accredited school. It's always going to come down to an individual's opinion. Let's be realistic, even a non-online degree from one school is not seen as prestigious as a degree from another school. When it's all said and done, a degree is better than no degree and if it means continuing to work and build for your future, while simultaneously getting your degree, then why not? One thing about an education, no matter where it is from, it's an accomplishment that can't be taken away from you.

Welcome Anton,

I also live in Southern California and know Jocelyn and Alex from your company. Sometimes it really is a small world.

Ed

We do live in a global market and a downturn in the US market can have an effect in a place like Costa Rica, although it doesn't necessarily have to be dramatic. For example, in the US things are tight for a lot of people. Homeowners may be paying more each month on their monthly mortgage payments which leads to less disposable income. That extra money that is now going to a mortgage might have been vacation money to go to Costa Rica. Costa Rica does make a good portion of their income from tourism so there is some effect going on. I know a little more about Costa Rica than some other foreign countries because I do have business associates that live there.

Birds of a feather flock together. On this site you'll find a lot of people who are very passionate about RE Investing. They have experience and the truth is that no matter how much experience one has there is always more to be learned. Sharing ideas among like minded people leads to better education, this is a forum where people give and get ideas from each other (people who know what they're talking), don't have to be afraid to ask a question, and can get a positive motivation. We keep each other on track to attain our goals. It's a place where people know where you're coming from and don't judge, but try to guide. It's not a religious thing, it's an entrepreneurial thing.

We work with birddogs all the time. Some are re investors, but don't necesarilly have the money to buy each deal so they provide us with leads and if the deal goes through then we pay them a percentage from the profits. Sometimes birddogs are not involved in re at all and just want a finders fee. We all know people that wouldn't mind making a finder's fee for referring someone to us. Most of the time people just never ask them.

The contracts can vary and many times there are no contracts, but there must be trust.

You can have a business card that says "We buy houses, or we give referral fees for finding pre-foreclosures".

Nowadays I have many birddogs that call me up and will tell me of a friend of theirs who is losing their home or about a home on their block that is going into foreclosure and we call that homeowner and see if we can work out a deal. If we do a deal then I pay a referral fee. I'm always looking for birddogs.

It is important to teach a new birddog exactly what you are looking for in terms of properties in order to make sure you're not wasting your time or theirs.

Birddogs are not part of the actual real estate transaction in any part of the paperwork so basically what they make is a referral fee.

Can a birddog become an investor, of course. The best way would be for them to work out the deal with the homeowner and assign the contract. I wouldn't call them a birddog after that as now they are a wholesaler.

The thing with re is that there are plenty of ways to make money in this industry.

If you have enough birddogs you basically have a team out there that is constantly looking for good deals for you.

Depending on the transaction and the deal made with the birddog, I find a referral fee can range from $500 to tens of thousands. We try to be fair with our birddogs as with all business we look for long standing and continuous relationships. Treat people right and they will continually come back to you with more.

Everyone has different goals. Being a birddog is right for some and not right for others. Ultimately, look for the win-win for all and everyone will be happy.

I think you need to pick what you want to do first before buying. You have options, maybe too many options (LA, LV, OC, live in the place, rent it out, invest with you mom and move). First decide where you want to live, if you want to invest by yourself or with your mom. Once you have some of those decisions made you can then have some parameters in place to start looking for the right property for you.

This is new to you and it will be scary, but you can think or you can do. It's the doers that make their dreams reality. Good luck to you.

Hi Joshua,

Thank you. I look forward to helping others in the community. I love helping others. The truth is that nobody knows everything and I look forward to learning from the other members as well.

The Millionaire Next Door, by Stanley and Danko

It really opened my eyes up to how everyday people became wealthy. It wasn't full of fluff or even motivation, it was just a study of real individuals that came from normal beginnings and were able to obtain wealth. Their behaviors, habits, and even incomes were most surprising to me and taught me that what most people think is the way to wealth due to a lot of famous wealthy people the media exposes us to all the time is not really the way most obtain wealth.

It's a matter of finding a comfort zone, that comfort zone usually comes with being familiar with a situation. If you're new to "getting out there" then at first it is normal to have low confidence. Think of the first time you tried to ride a bike. Were you perfect right away? Maybe you fell a couple of times, but once you got the hang of it I'm sure you weren't getting nervouse everytime you got on the bike because you had the confidence that you knew how to ride it.
It's the same with most situations in life. Once you have some success the confidence will build. Over time the things you were nervous about will become second nature to you.