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Here’s one of the comments/questions I got about the joint venture opportunity I sent out last week …

“I don’t understand why you don’t just keep the deal yourself, it’s a cash cow!  Why would anyone sell a property like that for half its value and with cash flow?  Way to find a sweet deal.”

I figured others had the same thought, so I wanted to share my reply …

“Why don’t we just do it ourselves?  We WILL if no JV partner wants in.  But we don’t want to get in the

One of the reasons I look forward to the holidays and typically check out for 3-4 weeks around this time is to do some reflecting, planning, and also some refining and resetting of my goals.

It’s an ideal time to do it, so I hope you’ve had a chance to do something similar.  If you haven’t though, I really encourage you to set aside some time and do it right now. Honestly, it’s never really a bad time for setting goals and laying out the plans for achieving them!

Amazingly, less than

Ran across an entertaining and inspiring story about Martin Varsavsky, a 25-year old (at the time) born in Argentina, who moved to New York to escape the regime in his home country.

His father died when he was only 24, leaving him with “more debt than money”.  So what did he do?
Well first off, he got very, very determined.  And bold.

And then he set out to make a huge real estate deal:  Buy an old loft building in Tribeca – which was then a rundown neighborhood in lower Manhattan – rehab

I was having a discussion with a colleague and friend last week and in the middle of our conversation he says to me …

“Flipping Sucks!”

“They’re a lot of work.”

“You need to be really good at finding deals these days … usually have to buy with all cash or with a high-cost loan so there’s more risk … manage a bunch of people to get the work done … and then hope the market is still good and it sells for the price you thought it would.”

“That’s a lot of stuff

Ok, let’s pick up from last week, where we went over the various types of direct mail you should be sending out.  This week, in the 4th and final part of this series, we’ll be going over what you should be saying in your pieces.

Challenge #1 in this game is getting a prospect to simply open your letter.  That’s why I like the whole personalized, under-the-radar, hand-written looking, envelope approach.  They tend to get opened.  (That’s one plus by the way of mailing postcards … no opening necessary!)

Challenge #2?  Getting

In part 1, we went over some stats/data on why direct mail still makes sense from an ROI and results-getting standpoint.  Then in part 2, we covered WHO you should be mailing to and why.

This week, in part 3, we’ll be going over the various types of direct mail.  In other words, WHAT should you be mailing …

Yellow Letters

Yellows letters are exactly what they sound like – letters written on yellow legal pad paper, usually handwritten, and made to look very personal.

Just like someone sat down, whipped out a pen,

Ok, let’s pick back up from a couple of weeks ago and dive into some of the basics of direct mail, starting with the LIST.

Who should you be mailing to?  Who are the best targets for finding motivated sellers?  And which group tends to have the greatest potential?

The answers?  It depends.

There really is no one specific target or mailing list that is the BEST for any given market.  Each market is different, so only testing can give you a straight-up, truthful, answer.

But to make things easier … I’ll give you

Direct mail is dead, right?

That seems to be the general consensus out there, because every time I mention it or talk to a group about it, typical responses I get sound kinda like this …

“No one reads mail anymore … that’s old school stuff.”

“Direct mail is for old folks.”

“People hate junk mail.”

“Direct mail is too costly.”

“Why do direct mail when you can just email people?”

That last one is a biggie … and a HUGE reason a large number of marketers and businesses have totally abandoned direct mail.  Yup, email and

I know I’ll get just as many landlords who agree with me as those that will disagree with me, but I’m gonna take a stab at it anyway!

So here’s MY list of ‘The Top 5 Landlord Mistakes’ (for 1-4 unit rentals primarily … but I’ll tackle apartments/commercial property mistakes in a future issue):

#1) Being Under-Capitalized

I remember early in my real estate career having over 20 rentals (mostly 1-4 unit residential properties) … being flush with equity … yet struggling to pay the light bill!

Ever been there?

Not fun.

That’s why my investing

I met up with a long-time colleague the other day I hadn’t seen in maybe 4-5 years or more …

At the time, he was working for a software technology company … and also burning the midnight oil working on a couple side ventures, one of which was a real estate investing business.

So I ask him … “What are you doing these days?  Are you still working with the same hi-tech company?”

He replies … “Oh no man … I haven’t been with them for almost 3 years now!”

“I’m doing real estate