Archive for January, 2011
USA CASHFLOW INVESTING
Posted by: | CommentsNOTE: IF ANY VIDEOS DO NOT PLAY PLEASE TRY FIREFOX BROWSER!!
This is the recording of my recent Webinar. The techo gremlins meant my audio was lost on the first webinar so I rerecorded myself on the replay. I have loaded the USA speakers slots separately for you below then the bulk of the presentation.
(In fact I spent around 15 hours getting this edited and loaded. I hate technology sometime)
Andrew Waite: Expat Kiwi long term resident of Phoenix Arizona and publisher of Americas largest magazine for residential property investors speaking on the US market.
Demographia Latest Ratings
Craig Jennings: Craig is a US based Real Estate Broker and also principal of a ruen key investment and property management company in Memphis Tennessee.
Craig explains what to look for in property management and why Memphis is USA’s Number 1 investment city for cash flow!
And finally yours truly covering the fundamentals and opportunities in the USA right now!!
For more information and to start getting set up to invest in the USA please email me HERE and we will assist free of charge 
Even US economists are getting on board with the facts:
http://www.dailywealth.com/1615/The-Best-Time-in-History-to-Buy-a-House
Developing character
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The Bible is pretty clear on how to develop good character. And regardless of whether you believe the Bible to be the literal inspired word of God or just a bunch of wise sayings and stories I find it is rarely wrong when it comes to helping us understand ourselves. Almost like it was written by our designer .
So how do we develop good character??
By suffering!! Yay!!
Because suffering produces perseverance; perseverance develops character and developed character produces hope. (Romans 5:4)
That last bit is awesome isn’t it. We will have more hope as we persevere in suffering because the resultant character development will increase our capacity to overcome the suffering and to see the bigger picture.
Man if we could learn to look at difficulties in this way we would stop running from them and actually seek them out wouldn’t we?
Hands up who would like more hope. I see that hand. Well the answer to more hope is literally right in front of you. How are you dealing with the current problems/suffering/difficulty/left filed events in your life??
Are you persevering through them and looking constantly for solutions and allowing yourself to be OK with the things you can’t fix immediately? If you are then you are on the Romans 5:4 journey.
Hang in there, a bigger, better more hope filled you IS being developed right now.
Don’t miss the new you by giving up!!
Get going and Stay Safe ~ Dean
Character
Posted by: | CommentsAs a father of 5 I am always very proud of how my kids behave in social situations when “nobody is looking”.
I was thinking of this today as my wife and I watched a group of children using a large rope swing at a beach.
One older child was trying to get the kids to be “fair”, while 2 particularly selfish kids stopped anybody else form getting on.
It showed I am sure both the attitudes of the respective parents about life but also just how fallen humanity is without help.
I resisted the urge to go and fix the situation so the preschoolers could have a turn as none of my own children were involved.
So thought for the day, if character is how we behave when no “big people” are looking and our character is displayed in our childrens behaviour, how is your character development looking today?
Get Going and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus
PS: Don;t forget Thursdays webinar covering all aspects of high cashflow investing in the USA. Register HERE
Property Tip Time
Posted by: | CommentsIf you boil property down to its core elements it is pretty simple:
1. Finding and Purchasing.
2. Maximising return.
Really that’s about it.
And I believe the most important skill required in the whole game is to learn how to NEGOTIATE.
Whether you are buying, selling, appointing professionals, organising maintenance or just striking up a conversation in a cafe we are actually negotiating all the time.
So understanding this and learning to observe what we are doing will significantly improve your results.
Who is your vendor?
Negotiating with a private vendor:
Where ever possible always negotiate face to face with a private vendor. This is so you can read their body language and most importantly figure out what sort of person they are. Most of us never learn this.
For example if you were negotiating with me, a right brained extrovert, then the conversation needs to be about the post sale celebration, liking my guitars and cats and convincing me that you are a fun guy, (or gal).
But if you did that to my left brained, analytical wife you would be in big trouble. She wants to know that you have the money to settle, that every detail is in your offer and that you are well dressed and in a smart car.
So when negotiating, understand it is all about the type of person you are dealing with, nothing to do with the $$ in your offer.
In fact one of my standard lines when negotiating is:
“Let’s assume that the price is going to take some work and put that aside. Why don’t we get everything else sorted out then we can finalise that.”
60% of the time my offer is accepted unchallenged because I negotiate things that are important to the type of person I am buying from.
Get Going and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus
Plummeting, collapsing and other emotive words
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Most of the property related media in the last week has centred around the latest housing figures showing a continuing, albeit slight decline in sales and median house prices. Now I have explained the foibles of median prices before HERE and I know I will never change the medias addiction to meaningless information……..
But as investors we need to thank the media for this addiction. The people with vested interests in house sales, AKA real estate agents spent the second half of last year predicting that spring would see a recovery, then during spring they predicted the Christmas/summer recovery and now they will no doubt be talking about the March or April winter recovery .
What this clutching at straws has done though is to remove any credibility any Real Estate Company Heads might have had and reinforces to vendors that things really are as bad as the journalists are telling us. And this simply creates opportunity for good buying in a flat market for you and I.
We have never had so much vendor conditioning as we have right now. Only a fool would be holding out for top dollar for anything in this market. I am currently negotiating a property that has dropped from $10,000,000 to $6,000,000. It is worth more than ten but this market says it is worth what someone will pay, and so far that is nothing.
Whether it’s Cannons Creek or Paratai Drive there are bargains to be negotiated right now.
Thank the media for beating up everybody to our advantage but don’t you dare believe what they are saying yourself!!
Get Going and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus.
Logic in Action
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Another Management Meeting
It’s Friday in New Zealand, time for a laugh, have a great day!!
Get going and Stay Safe ~ Dean.
Gross is well, gross :-)
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Yesterday I talked about the need to revisit our investing goals based on the fact that the market may be flat for a looong time and inflation will eventually appear.
So to combat that we want cash-flow right? So understanding yield is important. I have explained this in detail before HERE but just a heads up that the rampant “Gross yield is amazing” brigade are back.
In fact on Trademe right now there are a lot of adverts form property finders even quoting gross yield like it means something. This is a most misleading tactic often used by agents, so sad to see it used by other professionals. The point is though to know the difference between net and gross and never assume the figures are net unless you have it in writing and they can be verified. Check out THIS for more details.
I see an increasing amount of cleverly written ads spawning in the last 4 weeks, DON’T GET SUCKED IN!!
Get Going and Stay Safe ~ Dean.
My 1000 slots are filling fast for next weeks webinar on safe USA investing,
Register HERE if you want to join us ASAP
