September ’09 Christmas on the way!!

Selling:

Definitely a good time to off load stuff if you need to. You’re not going to get as much as you want but you will get a reasonable price right now and this may well be a lot better than you will get in 6 or 12 months time when reality bites back.

Trading:

My students and peers are finding increasing opportunity in the trading arena.  You have to be executing the right strategies but assigning, finding to order and creative repackaging of portfolios are all so easy at the moment.

It’s taken a lot of hard work to find successful methods in a flat environment but find them we have .

There are a lot of things to NOT do in this market [First Name] so make sure you are equipped with the right ammunition before you go off half cocked.

One golden rule is to start with a preapproved buyer in this market.

Another strategy that has some real legs is utilizing a kind of lease option to remove vendors break fees.  Scores you both brownie points and discounts on purchase.

I’ll be covering this in the first episode of my 6 month webinar mentoring secrets series next Tuesday.  Grab the free DVD and join us!!

Or if you really don’t want a free DVD of the latest no money down strategies I’ll let you in on the first session for a buck!! Yep, one single dollar!!

Finance:

We have a bit of a short term interest rate war on which is nice if you’re floating but not much help to long term rates.

It is still flip a coin season as to whether to lock in long term rates under 8% or stick with short term money.

If you are in a position where you might be able to write some debt down then stay short term or floating and get the debt down as fast as possible.

If you are really risk averse then go for a good 2 to 3 year term or use the dollar cost averaging technique. If you have 500K loan float 100K, fix 100K for 1 year, 100K for 2, 100K for 3 and so on.

This helps you spread your risk and provide some stability to your borrowing. A dramatic rise or fall in interest rates will have less impact on you this way.

Generally finance is still hard to get unless you don’t need it. The banks are saying their lending is relaxing but in reality nothing has really changed. There are some new products on the horizon and I think money will free up for a while, till we have our proper recession next year

RULES, RULES, RULES

I wanted to make some comment regarding rules at the moment.  Not necessarily your buying rules but the general investing “rules of the rich” that we all take for granted.

We are in unprecedented times and I think this calls for unprecedented action.

For example, we are all taught to keep all loans on interest only as only interest is tax deductible, and that is true.

HOWEVER in the current climate I think it is wise to get your gearing as low as you can so if you  can make principal payments, MAKE THEM. AS MUCH AS YOU CAN AS FAST AS YOU CAN.

There is no point minimising tax at the expense of equity and cashflow.  If we take a belt and braces approach we want to minimise our exposure to property values declining and we want as much protection form falling rents as possible.  Well the fastest way to do that, after winning Lotto, is to reduce your debt.

If you utilize revolving credit facilities rather than table mortgages you have access to the funds if you need them or you can always borrow again later when things recover but don’t sit there paying a dollar to save 39 cents. Pay the 39 cents and get rid of the dollar debt.

A second rule we have to watch in this market is leverage.  Now I’m all for leveraging property, that’s what makes it the world’s greatest wealth creation tool, but in this market you don’t want to be leveraging using fringe strategies.

Cranking up the credit card for example is a killer in this market.  Borrowing money from friends is a killer in this market. There is simply too much risk of unemployment, business failures etc.  There are plenty of safe ways to leverage, vendor finance being an obvious example, where the risk is being shared by the current owner, rather than your bank or your parents house.

So the next time you find yourself trotting out some investing rule, whether it’s come from me, Rich Dad, or Donald Trump, just stop and ask yourself:

“[Is that still true in this market?”

WISDOM FROM THE OLD SCHOOL

I shared this article 2 years ago but came across it recently and thought it worthy or re airing given the current conditions for investors.

“One man I greatly admire for his wisdom is Michael Yardney from Australia.

Below is a recent article of his entitled  “The Habits of Successful Property Investors”.

I have added some comments of my own. I recommend you take the ten main points, print them out and stick them where you can read them everyday until they become true in your life.

“Over the 30 years I have been involved in real estate I have had the privilege of working with many successful property investors. In that time I have seen some who I thought smarter than me fall by the wayside when their decisions proved to be wrong and I have carefully observed those who have maintained and grown their long term wealth.

In particular in the last 5 years, as I have been presenting at property seminars throughout Australia and South East Asia , I have had many lengthy discussions with successful property investors to look for points they had in common. It has been very informative to discover they had very similar habits and attributes which contributed to their ongoing success.

If you want to become a successful property investor, I suggest you consider putting these ideas or concepts into action. They have worked for others so they should work wonders for you.

* 1.Take full responsibility for your life.

What happens to you is a result of your thoughts, your feelings and your actions. So take responsibility for both the good and the bad things that happen to you.

I don’t believe in circumstances or luck.

People create their own circumstances or luck by putting themselves in the right frame of mind to accept success. Successful people know they are the pilot of their own lives. The less successful people feel they are just a passenger going along for a ride.

Become a pilot – not a passenger.

By taking responsibility for both the good and bad things that happen in your life you will reduce the number of bad situations that occur and increase the number of good things that happen to you.

I find that under achievers love to take responsibility for good results but always seem to blame others for their bad results.  Over achievers know that both the good and the bad occur and that there is no one else is to blame for either.

* 2.         Become Decisive

Once you have made a decision stand by it.

We all make decisions in different ways.  Some of us just make decisions intuitively.  Others must think through all the ramifications before they make a decision.  Yet others of us make our decisions on gut feel – we just know what feels right.

Whichever way you make a decision once it is made, stick to it and don’t question it, even if others around you do.

You will never only make good decisions.  That’s impossible.  Just accept your decision.  Follow through.  Then deal with any problems that arise immediately.  Don’t let problems sit around and fester, they never disappear.  So don’t beat yourself up over it, deal with it and move on.

The people with the biggest regrets are those who have never done anything, not those who made mistakes. In “The Millionaire Mind”, the author noted that a typical millionaire in
America “expected” to go broke at least once. In other words you can only learn by making mistakes.

* 3.         Embrace change

It is often been said ‘the only constant thing in life is change.’  So look forward to change and see it as an opportunity and take advantage of these opportunities while others are frozen in the past.

Property markets change, interest rates change, supply and demand changes.

Market sentiment certainly changes.

The great thing is that whenever change occurs it opens up fantastic opportunities. If you are committed to moving forward, you will have to move out of your comfort zone. This is change and initially feels uncomfortable, but if things stay the same you will find you are really moving backwards.

The same is true of you in the area of personal growth. There is no such thing as “arriving”, you are either growing or stagnating. Move out of your comfort zone, that’s where they hide all the money!!

* 4. Find opportunities where others see problems

Some people see the cup half full, while others see it as half empty.

When confronted with opportunities, the average person finds reasons why not to do something, yet successful people look for reasons why they should take action.  Find ways to make the situation work, rather than not work.  This is particularly true in property where you will find vendors with problem properties. If you find a way to solve those problems you will be adding value and making money.

* 5.         Successful property investors invest.  They don’t speculate

Speculation is based on hope. Investment is based on fact.

Speculators look for the things like the next ‘hot spot’ or the next big thing, or the latest fad. Then they hope things will work out.

Investors recognise that property investment can be boring. They know its not very exciting just buying a good property and waiting for it to increase in value, but they don’t look for excitement in their investments. They don’t want to speculate.

Investors ask questions like what has worked well over the last 20 to 30 years. They don’t try to pick the next hot spot.  Instead they follow a strong longstanding trend.

While successful investors avoid risk by looking for predictable returns, speculators would say ‘Well this area hasn’t performed for a long time and it is about time for it to perform’ or ‘Now must be time for things to change.’

Many speculative investors live in the world of fantasy hoping luck will solve their problems.

Super successful investors know that no matter how much they wish for something to happen it is not luck that’s going to make it happen.  They look at the reality of every situation and realise that they make their own luck by working hard and focusing on facts.

* 6.         Super successful investors build a competent team around themselves

They don’t expect to do everything themselves and they are not afraid to pay for good advice.  Successful investors surround themselves with people they trust who know more than they do.  I’ve often said ‘If you’re the smartest person in your team you are in trouble.’

So be honest with yourself about your abilities.

You can’t be good at everything but you have the potential to be great at one thing.  So choose your one or two things to focus on.  Then find others that are better than you at the things you aren’t good at and make them part of your team.  That’s what is so great about the Massive Action Forum, it gives you access to a complete team of experts under one roof PLUS a large group of top investors to learn from and with.

* 7. Successful property investors have learned to use debt wisely

They are not scared of taking on debt. They have learnt how to use other people’s money to grow their own substantial property portfolio.

While most beginning investors use finance to buy properties, experienced property investors understand that once they have a property portfolio they will be able to borrow against it and use finance to fund their lifestyle.

* 8. Successful investors belong to a Mentoring Group

They have learned to hang out with ‘winners’ not ‘whingers.’

Find a group of like minded people and meet with them regularly to help you in your investment endeavours. Learn what makes winners and copy their habits.

* 9.         Successful investors act with integrity

If you commit to do something always make sure you do it.

I have seen so many people in the investment business that are full of “wind.” They tell you they will do something and create all these sort of excuses why it hasn’t happened.  Some of them are acting as honestly as they can.  Some of them never had any intention of keeping their commitments.

To stand out from the crowd you must do what you commit to do.  It will get you a great reputation in the real estate investing world.

* 10. Super successful investors think very differently to average investors

They have a different mindset and think of the big picture while underachievers tend to get lost in fine detail.

For example successful investors recognise that the value of their property, if well positioned, will double every 7-10 years.  Yet the average investor will worry about fluctuation in interest rates or land tax changes or other minor details. They tend to get lost in the detail and often get paralysed while analysing the situation and they never take action.”

This article was written by Michael Yardney, a respected property commentator and director of Metropole Properties

Final Thoughts

I sometimes think I take this educating thing too seriously. I honestly lie awake at night thinking of ways to help more people and worrying that the people I am helping are succeeding.  So I am always looking for ways to add value without increasing cost. This thinking launched my mentoring forum in 2006 which continues to assist investors around the country and give them access to a group of positive property people and my team of experts.  I hear of people paying 20 or 30 grand for mentoring and just cringe because it simply isn’t possible to justify that level of cost to people. Goodness that’s a deposit on a property.

So my webinar series is another innovation to give you 20 grands worth of mentoring for the outrageous price of $47 a month and the first month free.

No-risk 1 month trial + free No Money, No Problem DVD (postage only)	$1 no-risk first month trial

Sometimes we devalue things that are not expensive, well don’t do that  with this. Every fortnight we get 90 minutes to get educated and answer your specific questions, HOW GOOD IS THAT!!!!!

In the last 4 weeks my students have

• Created 80K equity in one deal
• Created 60K equity in 1 deal
• Negotiated 1.2 million dollar purchase no money down and cash positive
• Made multiple 5K and 10K assignment fees

Plus I’ll give you a lease options technique to eliminate break fees for vendors PLUS warn you about something that has just happened in Auckland that has devalued thousands of properties, and nobody knows about it yet!!

I could go on but the point is If you’re not getting results get some help, and don’t get ripped off in the process