THE INVESTOR NETWORKING PARTY, BEST AND WORST DEALS OF THE YEAR CONTEST AND SILENT AUCTION Presented by Multiple Speakers
Silent Auction at Holiday Party Silent Auction: The December 1 meeting is a special treat for another reason. The Real Estate Investors Association of Greater Cincinnati (REIAGC) will also hold a silent auction of real estate courses, bootcamps, tools and equipment, and other great items - and it’s all to benefit the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law so bring your cash or your checkbook to get some great deals! Got Stuff? Donate it to our Silent Auction! Do you have real estate-related books, courses, audios, tools, or other things you’d like to get out of your garage and into someone elses’? Donate them to our silent auction! Just bring them to the early meeting on December 1, and we’ll use them to raise money for the Center for Constitutional Law!
Networking Party: It’s the time of the year for sharing and caring…which means it’s time for you to dust off your best war stories and most awesome wins of the year and share them with your fellow REIAGC members! The December 1 meeting is a member favorite, year after year whether you compete or not, you’ll learn a lot from the stories you hear!
it’s inspiring and someone will walk away with the coveted plaque in the following categories: · Best Overall Deal of the Year · Worst Deal of the Year · Best Deal by a New Investor (a “new investor” is one who completed their first deal within the past 12 months) · Most Creative Deal of the Year
Arrive early and hang out with your potential new agent, contractor, partner, mastermind buddy-who knows? Bring business cards and your elevator speech and join us for snacks and sodas at 6 pm. Then at 7:30 pm, compete or just come to learn about REIAGC members’ best and worst deals of 2016. It’s fun, it’s educational,
To compete in one of these categories, your deal must have been in 2016, and you must email the details and any backup documentation to AskVena@gmail.com by November 28, 2016. The winners in each category will get bragging rights AND an awesome plaque to display for years to come.
If you plan to donate something, please send an email to 10945 Reed Hartman Hwy., Suite 113, Cincinnati, OH 45242. Plan now to join REIAGC for the December 1 party as this will be the LAST MEETING OF 2016!!
Happy Holidays From The Staff and Board of Directors of REIAGC 10945 Reed Hartman Hwy | Ste. 113 Cincinnati, OH 45242 P: 513 407-3137 www.cincinnatireia.com
July 2013 61 A
2016 BOARD OF DIRECTORS & COMMITTEE CHAIRS
DECEMBER 2016 Sunday
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President Anita Johnson 513 334-0444 Vice President Drew White 513 207-9846 Secretary Jim Shapiro 513 515-6717 Treasurer Scott Ellsworth 513 272-8400 Board Members Ben Bauer Gina Bowden Eric Kottner Narendra Mundhe Cheryl Long Linda Hull Tom Terlau Association Manager Nancy Terry 513 407-3137 Cincinnati REIA 10945 Reed Hartman Hwy | Ste. 113 Cincinnati, OH 45242 P: 513 407-3137 | F: 844 734-2472 www.cincinnatireia.com
Disclaimer
The REAL ESTATE INVESTORTM is published 12 times a year by the REAL ESTATE INVESTORS ASSOCIATION OF GREATER CINCINNATI. The subscription cost is $120 per year. First class postage paid. © Copyright 2016 by the REAL ESTATE INVESTORS ASSOCIATION OF GREATER CINCINNATI. All rights reserved. Reproduction or dissemination in whole or in part, in any form whatsoever, is expressly prohibited. Printed in the USA. The information contained herein and information shared at meetings and events is believed accurate, but it is not guaranteed or warranted in any manner. The information is provided with the understanding that neither the author(s), program speaker(s), nor the publisher (or its directors, officers, employees or agents) are engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional advice. REIAGC does NOT pre-qualify, evaluate, endorse, guarantee or warranty any particular deal, service, company, or person. We recommend you perform your own due diligence and seek appropriate legal, accounting, or other professional advice before making any investment.
20152016 2 | The Investor ||August December
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GENERAL MEETING
6 pm - Networking Party, Best and Worst Deals of 2016, Silent Auction Crowne Plaza Blue Ash
FRIDAY MORNING MEETUP NO MEETING IN DECEMBER
WHOLESALING FOCUS GROUP
6:30 pm | Perkins 7108 Hamilton Avenue North College Hill Michelle Clayton - 513 400-4937
MARKETING FOR REAL ESTATE ENREPRENEURS
20 22 26 27
LANDLORD FOCUS GROUP NO MEETING IN DECEMBER
FORECLOSURE NOTE BUYING SHORT SALE FOCUS GROUP NO MEETING IN DECEMBER
CREATIVE BUYING AND SELLING FOCUS GROUP NO MEETING IN DECEMBER
NORTHERN KENTUCKY FOCUS GROUP NO MEETING IN DECEMBER
9 am - 5 pm Columbus, Ohio To register: call 888-275-8362 or www.centralohioREIA.com or www.cincinnatireia.com
INVESTORS LUNCH
11:30 am - 1 pm Century Inn Restaurant 10675 Springfield Pike Dave Jasper - 513 942-5110 or Max Arroyo 513-772-5736
MISSION STATEMENT
OF THE REAL ESTATE INVESTORS ASSOCIATION OF GREATER CINCINNATI (REIAGC) • Encourage our members’ success through education and professional services • Represent REIAGC members as positive, ethical contributors to the economic and the social well-being of our community
PRESIDENT’S CORNER
By Anita Johnson, REIA of Greater Cincinnati President Wow, it’s hard to believe that it’s now December and we’re in the last month of the year! As I reflect on the past year, I’d have to say that it’s been another great year for the Real Estate Investor’s Association of Greater Cincinnati (REIAGC). We’ve continued our focus on bringing you quality educational programming, while at the same time providing more opportunities for you to network with like-minded individuals. As I shared at our Annual Meeting in October, we’ve had a lot of notable accomplishments this year and I’m looking forward to an even better 2017. I’d like to thank all of you for your continued support of REIAGC throughout this year. Special thanks to all of our staff and volunteers - whether you served on the Board of Directors, are on staff, or volunteered with our subgroups or at any of our events, your service is greatly appreciated and we would not be the organization we are without your efforts.
pete in one of these categories, your deal must have been in 2016, and you must email the details and any backup documentation to AskVena@gmail.com by November 28, 2016. The winners in each category will get bragging rights AND an awesome plaque to display for years to come. We will also be hosting our annual holiday auction during the December 1 meeting. Do you have real estate-related books, courses, audios, tools, or other things you’d like to get out of your garage and into someone elses’? Just bring them to the early meeting on December 1, and we’ll use them to raise money for the Center for Constitutional Law! This is always a great meeting. Finally, I don’t know about you but if you’re like me then it’s at this time of year that you tend to ask yourself, “Where did the year go?” The days and months all seem to be one big blur and there never seems to be enough time to do everything. As the holiday season apime out proaches, make sure to take some time just to spend with family and friends. They are our most precious gifts.
Don’t forget – we will only have one meeting this month, Have a wonderful and blessed holidayy which is our Holiday Party on December 1. Come out season!! for some great food and networking, and at the same time compete or watch your fellow REIAGC members Anita Johnson compete for Best and Worst Deals of the Year. To com-
THE FORECLOSURE NOTE BUYING SHORT SALE SUB GROUP NO MEETING DECEMBER 2016 Due to the holidays falling on the 4th Thursday of December the Foreclosure Note Buying and Short Sale Sub Group meeting will be taking December off from meeting. We’ll be spending our time working on new topics and speakers for you. So come January, you’ll have a fresh attitude and we’ll have fresh topics for you to get the most out of our time together. So with that said, let me be the first to wish you Happy Holidays and may all your goals and real estate dreams - that you have written down, not just imaged or wished for in your mind - come true! A goal is not a wish. So take the time to plan and strategize NOW how to get there and make it happen!
FRIDAY MORNING MEET UP SCHEDULE CHANGE Due to scheduling and the holiday’s, the REIAGC Friday Morning Meet Up will be taking a break. We will not have a meeting in December. Join us for our next meeting on January 6, 2017!
See you January 26, 2017, at Wendy’s Restaurant on Mulhauser Road off of the I-75 Union Center Exit in West Chester. Happy Holidays from Deb and John!
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WELCOME NEW REIAGC MEMBERS! REIAGC Would like to welcome its new members and thank its renewing members in the month of October: Arnessa Allen Lorna Babcock Shelby Baird - Caledonian Partners LLC Carmen Baird - Caledonian Paratners LLC Brent Baker Angela Baker-Colyer - Clarke Contractors Aaron Bamberger Regina Bradbury Darrell Brand - Sibcy Cline Seph Brown - Bruwn Real Estate Mike Bruening - Emby P & I Co. LLC Michele Burnett - Living Our Dream Inc Casel Burnett - Living Our Dream Inc Felipe Carranza Robin Childs Harold Clark Kimberly Clay Bill Cochran Ron Conradi Chuck Darling - RLCD Properties Sally Doran Michael Escobar Marian Espinosa Samuel Fitzpatrick Ben Gammon Brent Gammon Ilan Goldman Denise Grannen William Grannen - Homestone Properties Derek Grannen Pamela Hudgins- Koenig - Property Investors Jalissa Hutchins Jona Hyun - Hyun Properties LLC Carol Inskeep Diana Janosik John Janosik Elyse Jenkins Fitzpatrick Bryan Jones Andreia Jones
Meg Kasarcik Joe Katenkamp Eileen Kittleson Timothy Lacey Daniel Lasorso - Duck Creek Property Solutions LLC Michael Leyer Stephen Licata - Homewood Investments LLC Ernest Lindlar Reginald Lindsay - Mitzi Bullock & Sons Properties Diane Meiners - DFSM LLC Tom Miller Noreen Mitchell John Mitchell Kim Mitchell Carl Moore Sarita Patel Grant Rothenburger - Roth Investment Group Christina Sall Jason Schmidt Andrew Seehusen - Madisonville Properties LLC Caetano Sequeira Rebecca Sequeira Chad Sittloh - Sittloh Consulting Services Jennifer Webster - Porch Light Investments Aubrey Wells Kevin Zamora
Benjamin A. Bauer, Attorney at Law 10999 Reed Hartman Hwy., Suite 108A (513) 851-7600 Ɣ ben@thebauerfirm.com -
Wills, Trusts, & Probate Ɣ Real Estate Ɣ Evictions LLCs Ɣ Small Business Law Ɣ Civil Litigation -
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December 2016
ARE YOU CRAZY BUSY OR MEANINGFULLY PRODUCTIVE? BY JACKIE WOODSIDE
Days are growing shorter, school is back in session, and the pace of life seems to pick up like a fast-flowing river. Before you know it, you’ll get swept up in the no-time, washed-down cultural stream called “crazy busy.” Crazy busy has an energy all its own – a buzz and pull that everyone seems to feel – especially at this time of year. Busyness in our culture has reached epidemic proportions and I believe it is costing us dearly. One of the chief causes of stress in our society results from people not doing what is important to them or what they value. Too often people feel as though they are simply running a rat race on a hamster wheel. They run and run, but they never feel like they accomplish anything. They are crazy busy, but not productive. The characteristics of being busy can be described as disorganized, chaotic, distressed, reactionary, scattered, and often anxious. Conversely, learning to embrace the principles of meaningful productivity lead one to be centered, ordered, clear, accomplished, optimized, and at ease. Two people
can be doing the exact same job function, but if one is busy and the other is productive, there will be drastically different outcomes in both what is produced and experienced. I teach a wide variety of approaches to shifting from busy to productive. Here are four principles and practices that can help you move from being crazy busy to being meaningfully productive in your everyday life. #1: PRACTICE THE “PRODUCTIVITY CYCLE.” Plan, prepare, debrief, and repeat. Yes, I know this may seem like four principles in one, but I teach these together so that people begin thinking of this productivity cycle as if it is a single step. First, you plan your tasks for the week and then prepare for the following day in advance. After that day is complete, you debrief to see what is left to be accomplished and what new tasks have emerged. And finally, you repeat the process again. It takes practice, but soon, you will get into the habit of using these principles so that you begin each week and each day with your goals declared, your tasks scheduled, and your
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thoughts clear regarding your objectives.
in order to move into meaningful productivity. You can relax and celebrate after accomplishing a major task, but it’s important to plan your time accordingly and stick to the plan.
#2: ALIGN YOUR ACTIONS WITH YOU GOALS. Far too often people end up doing busywork because it is so easy and mindless. The real work of moving toward your goals is challenging and requires that you be mentally focused. It is all too common that people avoid the mental work in lieu of mindless work. The key is to move from mindless busyness toward meaningful productivity. So start your day by determining what it is that will move you forward and give you a sense of feeling productive. Then schedule those things into your day so you know when you are doing to complete these tasks. Your sense of accomplishment will increase and you will be motivated to do more. #3: MANAGE YOURSELF, NOT YOUR TIME. One hundred percent of the people who have taken my productivity courses and trainings admit to all kinds of selfdefeating, non-productive activities. They lose hours surfing the web, engaging in mindless social media, playing video games, watching television or online videos, reading and responding to emails, and so on. You have to manage yourself
#4: TOSS YOUR “TO-DO” LIST. This comes as a total shock to most people, but to-do lists do not support your productivity. This is because none of the items on your list are grounded in time nor do you have a sense of how long it actually takes to get any of them done. Thus, you write down fifteen items, accomplish five, and feel like you’ve done something wrong. Lists set you up for failure while scheduling your life and following your schedule sets you up for meaningful productivity. When you first begin planning your time this way, I strongly recommend determining how long you estimate an item will take, and then double it. Once you start tackling things in time, you will likely see that this is the appropriate amount of time to schedule. Implementing these four principles will set you well on your way to a life of meaningful productivity. And you can say goodbye to crazy busy!
Max J. Arroyo, Jr. Vice President Investment Property Asset Manager Berkshire Hathaway Profesional Realty Commercial Services
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December 2016
SETTING LIMITS BEFORE YOU NEGOTIATE AN EXCERPT FROM MR. DREW’S HOME STUDY COURSE Note: this is an excerpt from Mr. Drew’s “Negotiation for the Real Estate Investor” homestudy course, which you can buy on my website for $495 or something like that.
of the property, subtracted repair costs and subtracted your profit. At that point, it’s simple: you just never, ever, pay more for a property than the arithmetic tells you is allowed.
As an educated real estate investor, you should already know what makes a great deal versus a good deal versus a marginal deal versus a bad deal. You are aware of all of the formulae and have the skills to calculate values and costs. But have you ever sat down and thought about what YOU, PERSONALLY want from a deal?
No, I’m talking about something more along the lines of a mental image, decided upon BEFORE you even have a specific deal in mind, of the things that you want out of ANY deal. Yes, the most you’re willing to pay (or the least you’re willing to accept) are part of this general outline of “must haves, but you should think about the other things you want and need from a transaction as well. What are some things that don’t involve price and terms that could be important to you? Well, here are some that are important to me:
Buying, selling, and renting properties is about more than price and terms. It’s also about ease vs. hassle and time and energy. If you haven’t thought about EVERYTHING you want from a deal, you don’t know where in the negotiation you have to stand firm, and where you can give a little to get a little. When I say think of what you want out of a deal ahead of time, I’m not talking about a specific deal. Obviously, when you sit down with a seller to discuss what you’ll pay for his property, you should have your maximum allowable offer or offers calculated. That means you’ve gathered all the information that you can, determined the after-repaired value
1. TIME. My partner and I get calls all the time from sellers who have properties in Hamilton (a city about 40 minutes north of where we live) or Clermont County (an area on the far east side of town that takes us an hour or more to get to). When these calls come in, the phone negotiation is much more aggressive. Why? Because I don’t want to drag myself out to North Boofoo for anything less than a completely slamdunk deal, and because I only want to do it once. If I’m trying to wholesale a deal in one of these areas, I want to be
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appliances appliance for better terms or quicker possession or the aforementioned discount.
able to tell the buyer, “it’s on lockbox, show it to yourself, it’s an absolute steal, tellll me when you want to close”. And in order der to do that, I have to be getting it at a LOWER price than a property that’s closer to home, AND have a highly motivated seller who’s willing to sign a contract and give me a key at our first meeting. I can’t know that unless he tells me so over the phone. If he doesn’t tell me what I want to hear, I move on. 2. HASSLE. There are certain things in our business where the pain in the posterior (or or the potential liability) is out of proportion on to the value that thing creates. Differentt people have different pet peeves in this regard; one of mine is buying appliances for rental properties, because the only thing that makes sense to put in them is used refrigerators and stoves, and these have to be bought from used appliance stores that are out of the way, open odd hours, and have unpredictable inventories. A hunt for a good used appliance can take hours, so we always, always ask for every appliance on the premises, and ask for a significant ($1,000+) price reduction if we can’t get them. On the other hand, as important as they are, we’re willing to give up the
3. 3 MENTAL ENERGY. I know wholesaling backwards and forwards. I have all the forms, contracts, service people, and knowledge at my fingertips. There’s nothing I have to look up, learn, produce, or otherwise expend any energy on doing to make a wholesale deal happen. In fact, I have other people who do 99% of my work for me. A Drew’s life is a good life. On the other hand, the first time I did a “subject “subjec to” deal, I had nothing in place to make it happen. I didn’t know how to fill out the contract, what to tell the closing agent, or how to handle the paperwork. Although I understood the concept of subject to, and saw that it could be profitable, doing the first deal took 2 days of research to make happen. There was no way I was going to work for 2 whole days–in a row yet!– for any deal that wasn’t a home run. I basically kept talking to sellers on the phone until I found one that had a 4.5% fixed rate 30 year loan AND $20,000 equity AND a property that was in great shape and in my own neighborhood before
Building Value LLC 4040 Spring Grove Ave. CincinnaƟ, OH 45223 (513) 475-6783 www.buildingvalue-cincy.org 8
John C. Wagner | 513.857.9179
December 2016
bothering to go see one of these houses.
just can’t be reconciled with your own.
Now, of course, I have the things I need to do these deals without any stress, and treat them like any other purchase. But I still commonly pass up potentially profitable deals on mobile homes, condos, and commercial properties simply because they’re not in the “obvious home run” category, and I’m not interested in investing the energy to learn about them unless they are.
One of the real estate strategies that I’ve been most involved in over the years is wholesaling, where I put properties under contract for a certain price, then sell my right to buy the property to another investor for a $5,000-$20,000 profit. A lot of the advertising and marketing that my partner and I do is to attract sellers of the kinds of properties that lend themselves to wholesaling–primarily cheap, ugly ones in bread-and-butter or border-zone areas–and it’s a fact of a wholesaler’s life that about 20 times as many sellers will respond to this advertising as actually have good deals. At the beginning of my career as a wholesaler, I pretty much looked at any property that a seller called us about (mostly because at that time, not too many sellers were calling!) which meant that I spent a LOT of time standing on the front porches of various unmotivated sellers trying to get them to accept prices that just didn’t fit their goals at all.
Some new investors, armed with $50,000 in education and no experience at all, take the view that they’ll pursue any deal that looks like it has a profit at the end, no matter how vaguely they understand how that profit might be realized. From my perspective, this is a strategy that produces a lot of activity but not much result. From a personal and negotiating standpoint, it’s much better to set limits on what you will and will not accept in a property in general and a deal in specific up front, and then concentrate on finding the deals that fit those requirements. Whether you’re buying, selling, or renting–or hiring a contractor or buying a piece of office equipment, for that matter–figuring out what you will and will not accept well ahead of the actual negotiation makes a big difference in how confident you’ll feel as a negotiator, how profitable your deals will be, and how good you’ll feel about ending a negotiation and not looking back when it turns out that the other guy’s needs
Once we got our marketing plan together, though, this became impossible. We commonly receive 5-10 calls A DAY from sellers when all the ads are running and the mail is going out. So we developed a set of basic standards–limitations, if you will–that guide us to this day in deciding whether I actually leave my house to go to look at a property. We find out over the phones whether these standards are met, and if they aren’t we usually don’t even open negotiations, much less waste the time it takes to physically look at the property.
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THE IMPORTANCE OF ACCOUNTABILITY IN REACHING YOUR GOALS BY VENA JONES-COX Let me begin by saying that, personally, I like to believe that I am more than capable of defining, planning, and reaching my goals all by myself. I’m pretty smart, pretty knowledgeable, and pretty driven, and I don’t like other people telling me what to do. If I wanted someone standing over me, watching and judging my performance, I’d have a job instead of a business. Let me now go on to say that I find that I am far more focused and effective at reaching my big goals when I have people who hold me accountable to them. Yeah, it’s a contradiction. But I think that for almost everyone, there are 2 sets of priorities in life: the things you HAVE to do (go to work, clean the house, pet the dog, pet the husband, etc) and the things you don’t have to do, but which bring much greater long-term rewards (flip enough deals to quit the job, buy a house, train the dog, train the husband). The first set of goals is relatively easy to accomplish, if only because day-today life doesn’t proceed very well without them. The second set is more difficult, because, in all honesty, your life won’t change much if you don’t flip a house this week. That particular lack of change should, of course, be viewed as a BAD thing, but if everything else is going OK (you haven’t lost your job or been faced with a giant medical bill or something), it’s not a bad enough thing to spur you into action next week.
In an already-full life (which I think most of us would agree that we have), it’s often difficult to find the time to do something that will eventually lead us to a better life; it’s so much easier to tick off the “must dos” and put off the “wanna dos” until tomorrow. THE MUST DOS IN YOUR LIFE VS. THE WANNA DOS For example, the “must dos” in my business life include making sure a certain number of offers go out every single week: just as some of you MUST go to work every day to pay the bills, I MUST buy houses every week to keep food on the table. “Wanna dos”, as I use the term here, are not those fantasies that you’d do in a perfect world if time or money were no object (not that I don’t have a long list of THESE, too). Wanna dos are things that would have a large positive impact
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on your life of your business, but have very little immediate negative impact if you don’t do them.
spur you on to bigger and better things, which will, in turn, spur THEM on, and so on.
An example of this kind of “wanna do” in my own business is to test adwords for my house-buying website. If I do it, I will probably get 5-10 more qualified leads each week. If I don’t, nothing changes. Doing it would probably be a “high leverage project”—once I figured out the right adwords, they’d continue to generate extra leads indefinitely with no more work on my part. But it’s not a “must do” in the sense that something awful will go wrong if I don’t do it.
Now, lest you think I am lecturing without doing, let me say that I have not one, not 2, but THREE separate systems for doing this in my life. I have a weekly 1-hour call with a personal coach for the purpose, as well as a weekly breakfast meeting with a colleague AND an occasional mastermind meeting. Yes, it takes all of that to keep me on track.
For many of us, there are more of these “wanna dos”—what Steven Covey calls “Quadrant B items”--than you could ever reasonably complete in your entire life. And, unfortunately, these things don’t tend to fall cleanly into any one period of time that you might set aside (for years, I had the fantasy that I would write my next book “as soon as I had 3 weeks to devote to it”. Yeah, right…turns out the only way they get written is one hour here and there for months and months and months.) It would be so much easier if these goals WERE simple, and closed-ended, and if the world were going to fall down around our ears if they didn’t happen…but the fact is, they’re not. And yet they’re important—crucially important—to growing your life beyond its current boundaries. So how do you motivate yourself to tackle them, EVEN THOUGH they will never be nipping at your heels the way your other to-dos do, and EVEN THOUGH you will almost never get the satisfaction of completing them in one clean sweep? HOW ACCOUNTABILITY HELPS GET THOSE IMPORTANT WANNA DOS DONE The answer is simple—set up an accountability system with another person where you choose and name the highestleverage “wanna dos” in your life, then are responsible for reporting your progress on those goals to someone else periodically. This is a very powerful arrangement that works for a number of reasons. 1. Most basically, it’s a lot easier to blow off your want-todo list when you don’t have to TELL someone else that you blew it off. The very act of having to say it out loud to someone else is enough to make you make progress that you otherwise wouldn’t. 2. Having to come up with something to commit to for your accountability partner or partners in the first place makes you look at that whole “wanna do” list and decide which is the highest leverage and most do-able. Dragging out the list and examining it makes it more a part of your day to day life, which is always a good thing 3. Finally, your accountability partner’s own progress will
3 FORMS OF SUCCESSFUL ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNERSHIPS I’ve both seen and experienced several forms of this “accountability partnership”. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. They are, in no particular order: a. Hire an accountability partner. In this case, only YOU are accountable, because the person at the other end of the line is a professional of some sort who’s there to focus on YOUR progress. The advantages of this arrangement are that the other person has no vested interest in letting you beg off by saying “I had a tough week” or in letting you avoid or change the topic. He’s PAID to hold your feet the fire, and is willing to do so even when it makes you uncomfortable. I use a personal coach for this purpose—one who’s not in real estate, but knows what my goals are by virtue of the fact that we’ve worked on them together. I also serve as accountability coach for my FastTrack students, spending a few hours working out what the highest-leverage things in their business are, then calling them semii-weekly to make sure that they’re on track with their stated goals. It’s amazing how many of them will admit to doing the entire list Sunday night so that they wouldn’t have to tell me on a Monday morning call that they didn’t accomplish what they set out to do. And that’s fine with me, because the important thing is that, unlike a lot of other people trying to build a real estate business, they do it. I couldn’t care less if it’s 10 minutes after our last accountability call or 10 minutes before out next one, as long as it gets done! (If you’re not a FastTrack student and would like to become one) you can check out the program at http://regoddess.com/coaching/fasttrack.asp) b. Recruit a friend, colleague, or acquaintance. This is, in some ways, the most risky method—if your partner is 1) not willing to call you on your excuses, lack of performance etc, 2) does not have your best interests at heart 3) is too competitive to want to see you succeed or 4) cannot commit to regular, scheduled contacts, they will do you no good (and, by the way, you have to be just as good a partner to them as they are to you!) For this reason, I never recommend using a spouse or significant other as an accountability partner—there’s just
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too much chance of history and day-to-day grievances getting in the way of a good experience. Similarly, be careful when choosing a competitor as your accountability partner. In one sense, getting another person in your field to bounce goals off of is good; in another, you’re risking the whole competition thing throwing you off track. My weekly accountability partner is another investor; however, she lives and works in a geographic are that I don’t go into, and vice versa. c. Put together an accountability group. With the same caveats as the above, sometimes a group of 3-4 people meeting regularly has a synergy that 2 can’t. I’d like to share just a couple of more thoughts about this topic before I send you off to find an accountability partner: First, be sure that you understand and continually re-commit to the purpose of your meetings, whether they be in person, by phone, or whatever. Your meetings have one purpose and one purpose only—to express and report on the progress toward your goals. Do not give in to the temptation to chit-chat or troubleshoot or brainstorm until AFTER you’ve done the important work of your meeting. Second, be sure that you, yourself, are clear on the highleverage wanna-dos in your life. If you come into your meetings with a goal of “I plan to make it through this entire week without exploding” or “my goal is to keep breathing in and out all week long” or similar “have to” goals, you’re missing out on the power of accountability. Telling someone that you’re going to do what you’re already doing or that you know you MUST do is a waste of your time and theirs. The point is to pull out some of the things you should do that you wouldn’t normally do and see what you can accomplish—not to keep on doing the same old same old. Third, meet regularly and frequently. Once a week or biweekly is ideal.
Fourth, don’t play games and don’t let your partner play them, either. I once left a mastermind group for the simple reason that the members did not hold each other accountable for either their behavior or their goals. When your partner gets angry because you asked him WHY he made no progress at all this week, or when you intentionally set the bar low because you just don’t feel like accomplishing anything this week, you destroy the trust that’s necessary for these arrangements to work Finally, overreach, but don’t over-overreach. Choose goals will accomplish a lot if you reach them, and that are difficult and out of your comfort zone. DON’T tell your partner that you’ll do 15 of them this week! With my accountability partners, I usually have 2-3 projects each week that I lay out. With less, I don’t stretch. With more, I only look at what I didn’t accomplish, rather than at what I did. There is immense power in this kind of accountability. Make it your next goal to find or hire an accountability partner TODAY. Reprinted with permission of Vena Jones-Cox. To get more free articles and tips, subscribe at www.TheRealEstateGoddess.com
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December 2016
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THE ‘FOUR YESES TO SUCCESS’: WHAT ARE THEY AND HOW DO YOU GET THEM? BY DON DEROSA
How many times have you been told by a seller not to bother to come over if you’re one of those investors who’s just going to make a low ball offer? Does that stop you or do you go anyway? Me? I always go. If it’s a house I’m interested in, the seller is motivated and the numbers work, I go. Because I do my due diligence and come prepared with the information to show the seller why my offer is a reasonable one. Even if it’s tens of thousands less than they want out of their house. I usually get them to say ‘Yes.’ That’s because having an objective basis for your offer makes the negotiating process much easier. And when you take the time to explain the numbers and the logic behind your offer, the seller appreciates it. Most other investors don’t take the time to do it. You build credibility and earn trust. (And you gain confidence in yourself, too!) But perhaps the biggest benefit of walking through the objective basis for your offer is that you get a series a ‘yeses,’ or agreements, which lead to an ultimate ‘yes’ to your offer. Let’s back up and make sure you’re clear on some basic concepts that will get you to that ultimate ‘yes.’ In this business, knowledge truly is power. And you know the old real estate adage: You make your money when you buy, but you realize it when you sell. That means that before you ever go to meet the seller – before you ever make an offer – you’d better know what that house is going to cost you and what you can sell it for. In other words, it means doing lots of due diligence up front. Now, this is pretty basic stuff. But a lot of investors use old
rules, ratios and formulas (e.g. the MAO – Maximum Allowable Offer – formula) to evaluate properties. Those old rules don’t necessarily work in this market. And even if they do, using those old rules to put together your offer doesn’t help you explain the objective basis for your offer to your seller. Which doesn’t help you get that series of ‘yeses’ that will lead to acceptance of your offer. So if you follow my system to get those ‘yeses’ when you visit a seller, you’ve already looked up the ‘solds’ in the neighborhood. Most sellers base their estimate of their home’s value on flyers in the neighborhood. But those only show asking price, not sales price. When a seller tells you that their house is worth X because the house down the street is selling for X, you will politely tell them that the house was listed at X, but sold for Y, a lower price. Immediately you build credibility, because you will say it nicely, but authoritatively. You will show that you’ re a pro, and that you will use objective information, and not just opinion or guesses, to evaluate their house. After you build rapport, you’ll walk around the house with the seller and take notes on all of the repairs that need to be done. You’ll ask a lot of questions, eliciting ‘yes’ responses. (“Are these the original countertops?”) Meanwhile, you will explain to the seller that you renovate your houses with extra special touches to make them stand out and sell quickly. Then you will sit down and walk through my evaluation tool with the seller. And this is where you start getting your four‘ Yeses to Success’ First, you explain that this is a tool that you use to evaluate houses, so that you account for all of the costs associated with the property in order to ensure that there will be a profit on the back end. Because of course, you won’t be living in this house; you’re buying this with the intent to make money on it. You ask, “You’re ok with that, right?” You need to make sure that the seller is ok with the fact that you’re in this for a profit before you go any farther. (Note: That may seem intuitive, since you’re an investor, but you still need to make sure they understand it, and get them to say ‘Yes’ they understand it.) And you explain that your company has certain criteria you have to meet and thresholds that you have to pass in order to make it a deal you’ll pursue. Taking the time to do this is important. It shows that you’re a
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solid professional, that you have an objective basis to what you’re doing. You’re not just holding your finger up in the air to see which way the wind is blowing. It also sets up your competition, so that if they don’t go through a similar process, your seller won’t necessarily view them in a similar professional light. And it gets the seller to continue to say ‘yes.’
bers.
Then you walk through the numbers that go into your evaluation. And as you go over the numbers, you get agreement, or a ‘Yes,’ as you describe what goes into each one. You’ll review the four expense areas: acquisition costs, holding costs, repair costs (based on your walk-through of the house – so there should be no surprises!) and selling costs. Each time, you get them to agree (your four ‘yeses’) that those are the costs that go into buying, rehabbing, holding and selling the house.
It’s all in the numbers. It’s four yeses to success.
And when you’ve gotten those four ‘yeses,’ your offer is just one more ‘Yes’ in the process. Because it’s all based on the numbers. It becomes you and the seller against the num-
You can only offer as much as the numbers allow. Unless the seller goes against every ‘yes’ that they’ve uttered during the negotiation, the only logical conclusion is that your offer is a valid one. And usually, they’ll take it.
And you’ve got a profitable deal. Don DeRosa was recognized as one of the nation’s top 21 real estate investors in the New York Times bestseller The Millionaire Real Estate Investor. Don, who is a full-time investor, trainer, and mentor, offers a complete system to build and run a thriving real estate business. He is the first to make all of his training material available on mobile devices like the iPad, so investors can truly leverage tools and technology to make more and work less.
HERE’S HOPING YOU’RE IN THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT
REIA ofcinnati n Greater Ci 14
December 2016
Vendor Members Directory Business Accounting
Accounting
Company
Contact Info
Chuck Vonderhaar, CPA
Chuck Vonderhaar 513-563-0598 chuck@cpvcpa.com
www.cpvpa.com
Ellsworth & Associates, CPA’s www.ellsworthcpa.com
Building Supplies
Butler County Edge-Co www.edgcowholesale.com
Scott & Deanna Ellsworth 513-272-8400 sellsworth@ellsworthcpa.com
Business
Company
Contact Info
Inspection Services
Criterium – Cincinnati Engineers www.criterium-cincinnati.com
Mathew Klein 513-474-9600 criterium-cincinnati@fuse.net
Property Mgmt
Berkshire Hathaway HS Commercial Division
Max Arroyo 513-772-5736 marroyo@bhhspro.com
www.firstcirclepm.com
Brent Fening 513-868-2068 edgcobp@yahoo.com
Rehab & Restoration
Cincinnati Home Improvement Co., LLC www.cincyhomeimprov.co
Building Supplies
Pease Warehouse
Building Supplies
Surplus Warehouse
Cleaning Products
OdorXit www.OdorXit.com
Cleaning and Evictions
Swept Away Property Cleanouts
Exterminator
Formula Exterminators
www.peasewarehouse.com
www.surplus-warehouse.com
Financial Services
Badcat Properties, LLC
Financial Services
Dayton Capital Partners
www.badcatproperties
www.DaytonCapitalPartners.com
Financial Services
Excellent Financial
Financial Services
www.guardiansavingsbank.com
Guardian Savings Bank
Financial Services
ReCasa Financial Group, LLC
Financial Services
Spring Valley Bank
Floor (wood) Restoration System Floor Restoration
www.recasafinancial.com
www.springvalleybank.com
Fabulous Floors of Cincinnati
Stephen Pease 513-867-9926 Stevep@peasewarehouse.com
Rehab & Restoration
Brent McCleneer 513-245-2222
Rehab Project Mgmt
swcincinnaticlrn@ecbarton.com
Exit Best Realty
Sasha Allen 513-344-3972 TeamAllen@fuse.net
Real Estate Brokerage
Federle Inc., Realtors
Fred & Cindi Goff 513-671-7378 cindi.goff@gmail.com
Real Estate Brokerage
Outside The Box Real Estate
Sam Moore, Jr. 513-485-8599 moorejrsam@hotmail.com Darrin Carey 937-458-3303 Darrin@DaytonCapitalPartners.co m
Kelvin Mitchell 888-493-6075 excellentfinance@aol.com Sharon Altman 513-923-4100 saltman@GuardianSavingsBank. com
Legal
The Bauer Firm, LLC www.thebauerfirm.com
Real Estate Services
www.federleinc.com
www.OTBrealestate.com
Homes By Bethanny www.homesbybethanny.co m
CORE Group www.coregroupre.com
Real Estate Services
Exit My Foreclosure
Restoration
Icon Environmental
www.ExitMyForeclosure.com
Dan Poske 513-301-0247 dposke@cmsllc.com Marty Russell 513-545-1637 martysrussell@gmail.com Dennis Taylor 513-851-4021 dennist123@aol.com Christina Carey 513-509-2705 Christina@OTBrealestate.com Bethanny Johnson 513-307-9349 bethanny@bethannyjohnson.com Jiries Dawaher 513-504-5565 jtd8.re@gmail.com Kristin Caledine 513-509-9814 Kristin@ExitMyForeclosure.com Jeremy Clayton 513-396-6653 clayton@IconEnvironmental.net
Security
ADT Security Services
Kristen McClanahan 513-497-7990 kmcclanahan@adt.com
Tenant Screening
National Tenant Network
John Spafford 877-579-3520 john@ntnonline.com
Title
Servicelink
Wholesale Properties
You Buy Houses
Jon O'Connor 513-354-4400 joconnor@mcswaincarpets.c om
Contractor Services
BKH Contracting
Ben Bauer 513-851-7600 ben@thebauerfirm.com
Financial Services
Secured Investment Lending
Nancy Lawler 614-221-6770 nlawler@recasafinancial.com
Dave Woodcamp 513-761-6688 springvalleybank@cinci.rr.co m David Caldwell 513-453-4006 Donald Boling 513-300-9203
www.mcswaincarpets.com
Realtor
www.bestexit.com
Josh Appelman 859-916-5201 josh@united-installs.com
www.IconPropertyRescue.com
Olmec Reflections, INC. McSwain Pro Floors
BildWise www.BildWise.com
Real Estate Brokerage
davidcaldwell@ fabulousfloorsusa.com
Flooring
www.united-installs.com
Deb Meyer 513-266-4008 deb@odorxit.com
www.fabulousfloorsusa.com
www.olmeccarpetcleaninginc.com
United Installs, LLC
Christopher Penn 513-898-1878 cincinnatihomeimprovement@g mail.com
OlmecReflectionsinc@gmail.com
The Investor
www.ntnonline.com
www.svclnk.com
www.youbuyhouses.com
securedinvestmentlending.com
John Wagner 513-857-9179 John.wagner@svclnk.com Drew White 513-471-0141 DrewWhitePix@gmail.com Keith Hardig 513-266-8719 keith@bkhcontracting.com Brittany Kiah 407-878-2830 Brittany@securedinvestmentlend ing.com
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REIAGC Meetings Cincinnati REIA is Moving! th Our General are held at: Beginning Thursday April 7Meetings our general meetings will be held at:
Crowne Plaza- Blue Ash 5901 Pfeiffer Road Æ” Cincinnati, OH 45242
Located at I-71 & Pfeiffer Road Be sure to come and check out our beautiful new location!