Thursday, January 15, 2009

Foreclosures for 2008

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My home state of Illinois made the top 10, ranking 9th in the country for states with the most foreclosure filings in 2008. Nearly 100,000 Notice of Defaults (NOD) went out to property owners. This is a 55% increase from 2007 and a 126% increase from 2006.

Nationwide, more than 2.3 million foreclosure filings went out to property owners. California, Florida and Arizona were the top 3 states to have foreclosure filings issued to their property owners. Nationally this is a 81% increase from the 2007 and a 225% increase from 2006.

What does this mean?

It depends on who you are and what you perceive.

To many it means the end of days and we are eternally doomed. For others like myself, it "screams" more opportunity. Opportunity to assist others, provide education to those who want to learn, and turn this foreclosure mess into growth, creating personal success. Also, to provide people with affordable housing because investors know how to buy for pennies on the dollar.

There is no reason to dwell on what has happened. Everyone needs to keep moving forward.

You can sit back and wonder what happened or move on. Now is the time, more than ever, to learn how to make this into a business for yourself resulting in increasing your retirement portfolio.

What is your perception of all these foreclosures?

Tony

Pennies on the Dollar

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Everyone! Real Estate is inexpensive these days!

Why do people buy more in a market when prices go up and not when they are as cheap as today?

Answer: Lack of education and FEAR! Fear stems and is brought to you by....you know the answer.

Here is an article from Forbes.com Home sales may be rising, but motivated sellers are asking less.

http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/106439/Where-U.S.-Home-Sales-Are-Rising

Treat real estate investing as a business and you will have a better chance of succeeding!

Enjoy the article!

Tony

Loss of Control

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Why are people sold on their equity as being a major contributor for their retirement funds? Keep reading.

This seems to apply to those who work for someone else.

Why are people sold on giving their hard earned money to someone else to invest in companies they have no clue about? Loss of control.

This also seems to apply to those who work for someone else.

Do you ask your company's financial planner to look at the strength of the financial's of the companies in which they are going to invest your hard earned money? No? Real Loss of Control

This seems to continue to apply to those who work for someone else.

A lot of people refinanced their homes to pay off debt, extending that debt over 30 years. Yes, they opened up monthly cash, but at the same time they jacked up their credit cards again and they spend that monthly cash because they cannot live without the newest toy. This cannot be denied! This is sold to everyone on a 24/7 basis. It is never ending unless you change your ways! Again, look at the first question I asked.

I'm aware of other reasons - medical, divorce, loss of job.

For those who work for someone else, the trend seems to be that they have NO CONTROL over their hard earned money. They have a higher tax bracket than business owners, they are not educated on controlling their finances, and they think it's cool to have the latest toy to keep up with the status quo.

It is time to start taking control of your financial well being. Start your own business and invest in cash producing assets. These cash producing assets can pay for your liabilities. I must be clear on this: Control yourself and your finances even when you get to this point. You can make a lot and still spend the amount made. You need to control and discipline yourself.

Education is key to being successful!

Do you want to be successful and live like the wealthy do? Contact me!

Control or loss of control...your choice!

Tony

Personal Money Management Is Key

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Hopefully (Con)gress can turn into (Pro)gress!

They are at it again. Talking about how to save homes and provide relief to homeowners. Congress is seeking more aggressive tactics to make this happen.

Ok...............

Here is another concern to consider....

If they allow homeowners to receive relief from their ARM's, Balloons, and Neg Am loans, the consumer still needs to manage their money so they will not fall behind again on their mortgage.

Consumers have so much personal debt that America has not been this broke since the Great Depression. Credit cards are maxed out and a lot of people spend their money on things they do not need or cannot truly afford.

Here is a link to an article written today.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28642344

Coming from a mortgage background, I have said in the past that you cannot only blame the banks. Consumers need to know their limits and live by them instead of constantly living beyond their means to keep up with the status quo.

Manage Wisely!

Tony

CEO's next to go - I told you so

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In one of my previous articles - Eyes On Our Income Opportunity - I mentioned that high level executives were the next to lose their jobs. Shareholders want results and they are demanding change.

These high level executives are starting to look at Nouveau Riche's opportunity because it has the potential of replacing their income and will provide them more time with their families.

Here is a link to a story in the Money section of MSN's web page.

http://blogs.moneycentral.msn.com/topstocks/archive/2009/01/14/more-ceos-getting-fired-in-economic-downturn.aspx

This is a snippet from the article.

The bottom line is that investors want results. In good times, they're happy to reward CEOs with bonuses and other perks for a job well done. In bad times, they want the CEO to answer for what went wrong.

To me this represents the mindset of Instant Gratification from the shareholders. If they aren't instantly happy, they go in an uproar, calling for the head of the company to resign. There seems to be no thought of building long term wealth.

At the same time, spend, spend, spend is what they want, but consumers can spend only so much when most of them have an income limit. It is an endless, vicious cycle.

CEO's, if you are reading this and ready for a change, contact me! I will be more than happy to talk.

Happy Opportunities!

Tony

Food Poisoning Saves Her Father's Life

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Here is a non-related real estate story I'm going to share with you. When I heard this, my jaw dropped to China. I'm not kidding. I went numb and my jaw dropped. It is not terribly long but...

I heard this story from a woman who was in my Landmark Forum seminar in Chicago March 2008. In case you have not heard of Landmark Education, it is a platform for Personal Growth and Development. You get to share a lot with other people. It is life transforming.

I'm keeping names out of this article for privacy reasons.

This woman called up her Dad to come over for dinner one evening. She went shopping and was going to cook dinner for him being all excited to have him over. If I recall correctly it was chicken. She was looking forward to spending a quiet evening and quality time with her father. They ate the food and he went home. She was happy her father enjoyed her cooking and the time they spent together.

The next morning, they talked on the phone. He had gotten food poisoning from the chicken and called in sick to work. Her reaction turned from being upset to grateful because her father called in sick to work. Her father was supposed to be the pilot for one of the planes that flew into the World Trade Center Towers on 9/11.

It still gives me the chills today when I think about it and as I write this article.

Tell the ones you love how much you truly love them!

Tony

Congratulations 2008 Winners Circle

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I never run out of information to blog about.
On last night's Nationwide Chairman Call, Co-founder Of Nouveau Riche, Bob "The General" Snyder announced the 2008 Winners Circle for Nouveau Riche.

1. Andre and Tami Popa

2. Chad Wade

3. Ben and Heather Echevarria

4. Stephen Gregg

5. Jason Nedrow

Andre Popa told his story of immigrating from Communist Romania struggling to live the American dream and how he over came that after joining NR. In December 2008 alone, these winners made $154,500.

Remember the economy is a matter of interpretation. We have what people want and deserve. An Income Opportunity and Real Estate as a retirement vehicle to build your wealth! Contact me to get started!

Collectively these 5 individuals agreed that this can be done with the right system. Nouveau Riche provides this system.

Congratulations to these 7 individuals and to those who made it happen for themselves in 2008. With the direction Nouveau Riche is headed in 2009, buckle in tight and hold on, this is going to be fun!

Tony

Van Halen - Across the Decades

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Back in early 1978 as Disco was popular in mainstream music melting the brains of rock 'n' rollers everywhere, along came Eddie Van Halen. When rock fans first heard this 1:42 amp blasting, face melting solo, rock guitar would never be the same again.

Turn this up if you love rock guitar!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8w-0bSo9OcI

As we entered 1984, Van Halen was ending an era with David Lee Roth and Eddie went on T.V. and showed David Letterman how rock guitar is played.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmtzqa5X1FQ

In 1985, Sammy Hagar joined Van Halen bringing years of experience resulting in Van Halen having their first number one album with 5150, released in '86. Every album with Sammy went to number one until his departure in 1996. He brought a new fan base and Van Halen became more popular than ever.

My favorite VH video - Released in 1991 on VH's For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge CD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v4QcJ3mbZ0

After a not so popular try with frontman Gary Cherone, VH took some time off until a reunion in 2004 with Sammy Hagar and 2007-2008 with Roth at the helm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iejxKW_N75g

I know, I know, I'm a Van Halen music junkie. Everybody has their things in life they love. Music is food for the soul. It gives me positive energy.

What are some things in life you love having on daily basis?

Tony

Thank You Chad!

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I am personally writing this blog thanking and dedicating it to a wonderful mentor, Mr. Chad Wade. Nouveau Riche started out in 2000. Soon after Chad came aboard determined to change his life and the lives of other people.

Chad was making $40,000 a year pressing shirts in the back of a dry cleaners in his family business, never seeing his family due to long hours of managing the different locations. Chad saw NR and choose to take on his life.

He started in Utah were he resides opening that market. After a while, he came to Chicago and Florida, expanding his business marketing Nouveau Riche's education and college experience to provide people the SAME and EQUAL opportunity he was given. Chad is a man driven and passionate about helping others. He knows no other way.

After years of determination, hard work, smart thinking, being mentored by millionaires, and personal growth and development, Chad is the top income earner in NR. He is the Independent National Associate (INA) for Utah, Illinois and Florida.

To this day Chad has made close to (he may have eclipsed) $4 million dollars marketing Nouveau Riche's real estate investment education. That is a lot of business money to live a wonderful lifestyle and invest in real estate and sustain those investments. He makes money marketing our product and using our prodcut.

Earn While You Learn - He made money while learning to invest in real estate.

He was making $40,000. He has made $4,000,000. A significant growth in income. Chad never knew how to start and run a business or invest in real estate. He followed his mentors and is now a product of the product. He, along with others is making great money in this economy because we have what people want....an income opportunity and real estate as a wealth vehicle for retirement.

Does anyone have a mentor they would like to say thank you to?

Thank you Chad!

Tony

Positive Energy

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What is the opposite of negative? Positive

One definition from Merriam-Webster:

8 a: having a good effect : favorable

This analogy is rarely used in society on a grand scale. There is so much of the opposite coming through the mainstream media causing people to become complacent and worried. Constant bombardment of negativity 24/7 from many news sources is keeping people from achieving their true potential because they beleive in this filtered medium.

Watch the news. The majority of the stories are so negative. Personally I don't know how these desk reporters do this day in and day out. I guess they consider it a job. (no comment)

Solution: Turn off the T.V., read more books, engage in personal growth and development. Learn from successful people and hang around them more. Believe me it rubs off on you and your mind shifts in a different direction. The feeling is so good! I personally have a lot more energy...positive energy!

I'm not saying to give up certain things you love to do. For example I still watch 24, but I engage the majority of my time doing things that assist in my personal and professional growth. That is my value belief.

Start having more positive energy and spread the great news!

Remember, most of the things people worry about never happen.

Are you ready to engage in positive energy and spread the news?

Tony

READ THIS! I implore you!

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I would like to personally thank ROBIN ROGERS for posting this article. Look her up and do business with her!

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People need to understand the mindset of investors and how this actually works. To find out, contact me so I can sign you up for our real estate investment college and our premiere education. If you choose NOT to contact me to educate yourself further in the area of real estate investing, please DO NOT complain about this situation regarding real estate investors. None of us knew this until we became educated ourselves. The wealthy write the rules, when you know the rules, you can play the game.

My comments will be in bold text. Let's get started.



------------- ... Investors are swooping in and buying and accounting for most of the rise in sales. This is because we have the right education and the systems in place to move forward. Also we know real estate is the best investment.

"While the purchases are trimming the inventory of unsold properties, most of those bought by speculators will likely return to the market when prices rise again, hampering any recovery", said Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz and Yale University Professor Robert Shiller in interviews. The smart well-educated investor knows true long term wealth is through buy and hold. Most high powered investors will buy in bulk and rent them for a while. These properties CANNOT be re-introduced all at the same time into the market. They need to be slowly introduced back out into the market so it will not crash.

"We're creating a shadow inventory of homes that will be right back on the market as soon as the economy and the housing market begin to improve," said Stiglitz, a Columbia University professor of economics. "We could see a double-dip in the housing recession if that happens." They will not all be back on the market. See above comments. Also, if the economy improves then more people will be able to buy....right?

... The repossessed properties offer opportunities for investors, who typically buy homes at auction and rent them out until prices increase and they can sell. What myself and other investors like to do is buy low and sell them (if we sell and not rent) with equity still in the property to give the buyer the "instant equity." No need to greedy. Make it a win-win for all parties. I would rather sell it quick for less profit, then struggle to sell for NO PROFIT!

"These speculators are preventing the market from crashing now, and when they get out it could fall again." said Shiller, who helped create the S&P/Case Shiller real estate price indexes This is a possibility, but as I said earlier, intelligent investors who treat it as a business to help others can prevent this from happening. Besides with the state of the banks, only serious qualified buyers will purchase these homes. Others will rent keeping everything stable because the homes will be owned by those investors who can sustain the payments.

Dario Moscoso of San Diego bought a three-bedroom foreclosed house in San Diego three weeks ago for $490,000, half of what it would have fetched a year ago. He's renting it for $2,500 a month and plans to sell when prices rebound. "We hope to put it back on the market in about a year," Moscoso, 52, said in an interview. "We'll gauge the market and see how it goes." Don't hope...this is speculation right here. Rent it, cash flow, have the tenant pay down the mortgage and sell it when the time is right.

The "speculative fervor" is returning in the market in part because investors have the edge in buying foreclosures, said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Investors do have an edge, but there is no reason to buy-sell everything for a quick profit. Baker said he considered buying a Washington home at a foreclosure auction last year until he learned the terms of the sale. Winning bidders had to complete the deal within 30 days, half the time of a standard home purchase, or lose their deposits. It was a risk he didn't want to take. Awesome!! He should have taken advantage of this. He didn't do it because he was not properly prepared for it. Part of the system to do this is having private money lenders ready to invest and a team in place to ensure a quality closing to meet the deadline. Having this in place MITIGATES risk! Does not eliminate, but mitigates.

"Regular homebuyers are excluded from the foreclosure market because the rules favor professional investors and that lack of competition is driving down prices," Baker said. Ahhhhhhhhhh NO! The proper education, and ANYONE can do what we do. Even if you do not want to invest, educate yourself so you can compete. I do not know how any more clear I can be!

"In past housing recessions, we didn't see as many mortgages under water, so it didn't matter if the focus was on speed and not on maximizing value," Stiglitz said. "Now, the same banks that created the problems by mismanaging their risk are mismanaging the disposal of their assets." That depends who is buying the assets. If you sell to the proper qualified individuals, the banks risk is mitigated as well.

"If you're a first-time buyer with a young family, do you really want to buy a home sight unseen and risk losing your down payment?" What? This is not the way to do it unless you are experienced. Homeowners buy on emotion and need to see the property. Investors look at numbers. Big difference! Stewart said, minutes before starting a foreclosure auction in Boston. "Investors know how to close a deal quickly and they don't care what it looks like -- they're either going to rent it or flip it." ------------ True. It depends on the investor and what they want to do. They may flip to another investor who loves buy and hold. It is a game and it is up to the investor and their business model of what they do. It is not rocket science.

So lenders and investors are conspiring to ice home buyers out of the market and slow down the housing market recovery? I do not agree with this. Investors may be doing lease options with their tenants, selling the property in 2 or 3 years to them. It all depends on the investor's strategy and business model.

This seems strange to me, since I work with so many residential investors. They're having trouble getting mortgage programs at a decent interest rate and have to put down at least 20%. Smart investors will have private money in place to buy all cash or buy 'subject to.' There's no FHA or VA program for investors except on VA repos. Last fall, I had one investor--active-duty military--meet all the qualifications for a VA vendee loan, but Ocwen still required 20% down instead of the low down payment advertised. He forfeited his application fee. There are no traditional investor mortgage progragrams for governement loans. Be creative and learn form us!

I suppose investors could find cash or hard money to buy properties at auction vs. trying to get a mortgage. But how does rehabbing and/or renting a house--improving a neighborhood and offering a home to someone who can't afford to buy--contribute to the downfall of our society? It doesn't. If people knew how to manage their money, it would not be an issue. If prices rise again, they would have to rise quite a bit to cover the acquisition and rehab costs. Nope. They factor in all of these upfront based on how much they want to make in the end. If it does not work, they move on to the next one. And if the investor has good tenants in the property, why would they want to sell anyway? Again, this depends on their business model. The current investor may want cash now and sell it to an investor who likes buy and hold.

Should lenders sell their properties only to home buyers? No! Not a chance. Should investors be charged a premium for buying residential real estate? No! Not a chance. And is it true that investors don't even want to look at the properties they bid on? Yes! The numbers determine our decision along with what our strategy is. We put in place UPFRONT a system to make it work.

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Learn to invest and how the game is played! Contact me to change your way of thinking or accept what is going on and don't complain about it!

Are you ready to learn from successful real estate investors?

Tony

***Remarks I received from another site.


Thank you Tony for the well thought out strategies! Looks to me like investors will save this market.

01/13/2009 12:46 PM
by Akron Ohio Homes for Sale. David M. Childress (Howard Hanna Real Estate Services)
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So if my comment has two or more sentences, do you make two paragraphs?! LOL. You truly did a good job going through that article and pointing out the academics vs some realities.

01/13/2009 01:01 PM
by Heath Coker, Real Estate Broker (REindex.com & Cape Group Real Estate)
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I have worked with a few investors/groups and I feel that the newer one's don't really know what they are doing.. The one's that have been at this for a while have been through the ups and downs and really have a great feel for the market and what to do in these tough times. I have an investor that I call when ever I am in a situation that I don't have a good answer for and he always comes through for me.. The newer one's always seem to be looking for an opportunity and don't have much to offer... The true investor will help us out of this market while the others will only help themselves... That is just my view on this..

01/13/2009 01:04 PM
by Michael E. Walsh (RA) AHWD (Abe Lee Realty, LLC)
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Thanks Tony for that great blog and your great startegies! I hope you have a great day!

01/13/2009 01:10 PM
by James Engel KW Beverly Hills (Keller Williams Realty Beverly Hills)
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