All Forum Posts by: Phil Reames

Hey Devin, Another option is the law library at the Kalamazoo Public Library. They have a great law librarian who will help you find anything you need. As a library patron you even get a free hour per day of Westlaw.

Voting limits? What an odd concept. I thought the whole point here was to encourage interaction. Apparently in the eyes of BP there is such a thing as too much interaction and that needs to stop!!! :)

I only have the second one.  If you spend a lot of time in the car I would suggest the pdf and the audio.  With the audio you can turn unproductive drive time into productive drive time.  I download all of the BP podcasts and listen to them while driving.  Tremendous resource and best of all the podcasts are free!!!  :)

And just to be clear the reason I said both is that you have two different questions and neither book will answer both questions.  Make sense?  

Buy them both!

Early in the sales process try to get in to the habit of answering a question with a question.  It helps you gain knowledge and walk the prospect to a sale by getting a series of small yeses leading to the big yes.  Here is an example.

"Can you close quickly?"  Average sales person says "sure we can close in as little as ...."

Professional sales person says "Is closing quickly important to you?"  Sometimes the first question is just a smokescreen.  This question will help you find that out.  They might say "not really, I was just wondering".  Or they might say "Yeah, it really is."

Salesperson: "I see.  Tell me a little more about your situation that makes closing quickly in important issue for you. "  Now you listen to their response.  You follow up with "Sounds like if we can get this closed before (insert the reason) we could really hep you out a lot couldn't we?" and you say this while shaking your head yes.  They will almost automatically say "Yes" and shake their head yes as well.

There is an old saying in sales.  If you say it they can doubt it.  If they say it it has to be true.  You just got them to say that you could really help them out.  

You have now just gotten a small yes leading to the sale and you have gained way more info for closing the sale than just saying "yep, we can close quickly".  Make sense?

Answer a question with a question.  Practice on your wife and kids.  You have to make it an automatic part of your speech pattern.  It is a lot of fun.  Just don't make the mistake I did.  I taught my wife the technique.  She uses it on me.  I can see it coming.  But she does it so well that I can't fight the logic of it!  "This new ring looks good on me doesn't it?"  "Why yes it does."  "And you do want me to look good don't you?"  ...............I've learned not to fight it.  :)

Whenever someone asks a question like that my answer is always "depends. Tell me your situation." The ultimate answer may still be no but this gives you the opportunity to get all the info before making that decision.

The preferred lenders was one of the hooks that got us there too.  Once I found BiggerPockets I realized there is money everywhere so that became much less important.

Once you don't buy the $20,000 to $40,000 they drop you like a hot potato.  You get a one page hand out about the funding company and some other stuff and that's it.  They send you on your way.  No follow up calls.  No phone number for us to call in to if we have questions etc.  From what I've read if we want to try and collect on that guarantee we have to be prepared to go to battle.  

As far as teams of contractor they don't have them.  They tell you that you need to assemble a team.  

You don't get the software unless you pay for it.  

As far as analyzing deals there are great calculators here on BP and then you can get people here on BP to double check your deals for you for free.  Just post them and people will take a look.

I've learned way more detailed and useful information here on BP than I ever got out of the class.  

As far as the testimonials, I've actually tracked some of those folks down on the internet and found that while some have been successful, others have already left real estate.  

So again I would say the $2,000 class was worth it to me for the quick starter education but I wouldn't go beyond that.  

My wife and I did back in September.  Here is our take on it.

We went to the free thing but before paying $2,000 for the three day course I wanted to do my due diligence (I am a financial planner).  I read about what a scam it was but decided to go anyway.  But I had already decided that we were not going to pay $20,000 to $40,000 for coaching.  Luckily in my due diligence I ran across Bigger Pockets so I knew there were plenty of free resources.

We went to the 3 day course and quite frankly I feel I got my $2,000 worth.  I'm a big Do It Yourselfer but I recognize the value of paying for some knowledge initially to give myself a head start.  That is what I feel I got for my $2,000.  I got enough knowledge in those three days that I had a better idea of what I was looking for and where to start my research on Bigger Pockets.  So I won't be asking for a refund.  I feel I got fair value.

I will warn you that if you don't buy they will try to shame you in front of others.   Not a good tactic to use on me.  While those who initially bought were taken in the other room the guy who was leading the thing goes to the white board and draws a line down the middle.  Then he says something like "a smart man once said the best way to make a decision is to list the reasons for going ahead  on one side of the line and....

At that point I started laughing out loud and blurted out "Don't tell me you are going to use the Ben Franklin close on us!  HaHaHa!!!!!!"

That killed the rest of his sales presentation.  Man if looks could kill, he was shooting daggers at me.   That's what he gets for trying to embarrass me in public.  :)

As I said above we did not pay for the mentoring through Success Path.  I just need information.  @Bigger Pockets is a great resource for that.  The other thing I would suggest checking out is @Michael Quarles program.  Very reasonably priced and exactly what I was looking for.  I highly recommend it!  As I said above I know the value of expert advice and I can tell the difference between that and what Success Path was offering, at least in my opinion.  

Hope that helps!

As long as they aren't dealing I wouldn't worry about it. If they are dealing then different story because of civil forfeiture laws. But unless you see a lot of short visits at all times of day or night I doubt they are dealing.

Not sure where you got the idea that you can't deduct your marketing expenses but you certainly can do so. Whether you have an LLC or are simply filing a Schedule C as a sole proprietor, you can deduct the expenses incurred in generating your wholesaling fees and this includes your marketing.

As far as the tax rate that will depend on your overall income tax rate. If you are the single owner of an LLC you will be taxed just like a sole proprietorship. So for example you have income from a regular job and you have NOI (Net Operating Income) from your real estate endeavors you would add those two incomes together to find your tax rate.

I am a financial planner and my advice would be that you find a good CPA in your area who specializes in real estate.  Good professional advice is almost always worth the money in the long run!

Hope that helps.