There’s a reason you live where you do. It might be because it’s close to where you grew up or it could be because the lovely woman who said yes to your marriage proposal likes taking long walks on the beach with you at sunset. Then again, you might live where you do because you were driving cross-country between your junior and senior years of college and had mechanical problems there, liked the atmosphere – and returned after graduation. Regardless of the specific reason, you live where you do based on an emotion or a series of emotions. Just because you live there doesn’t make it a good place to invest in real estate.

Real estate is a decidedly unemotional commodity unless you’re shopping for your primary residence. If it’s not – it should be. Thousands of successful real estate entrepreneurs know that in all ways real estate is a numbers game. Up markets, down markets, stagnant markets – it’s all about numbers. You contact ‘X’ number of sellers before you find the one property you ultimately buy. Because you live where you do, conditions may or may not be conducive to great investment opportunities. While conditions around the corner from your home might fit your investing goals, it’s a safe bet that you can find better conditions and better opportunities somewhere else. Is it written on a stone tablet somewhere that you have to invest where you live? If that’s what you think, you need to hurl it to the ground so that it shatters your erroneous thought process. Use stone cold reason to unleash your potential for profiting from your real estate investments.

The very emotions that make your neck of the woods such a great place to live are the very same reasons that could make it a lousy place to invest in real estate. With that said, you could live in an ideal area for real estate investing.If you live in a tourist trap or an area with an abundance of beaches, fair weather, and amenities that are considered ideal to the majority of people, a lot of other people will want to live there as well. If rental rates and property values are extremely high, you don’t necessarily live in a solid area for real estate investing.

Instead, look at the numbers without being bound by the emotions that fueled your desire to live where you do. Explore and examine other markets across the country or even abroad. The good news is you can do this business “virtually” without having to personally visit or live in the area in which you’re considering investing.You may find by looking at numbers from a variety of research and data sources that St. Louis, Missouri, Charlotte, North Carolina and McAllen,Texas make sense to you. Don’t get hung up on whether or not you would want to live there. It doesn’t matter if you like the atmosphere, the environment, or the look of the community. All that matters is: What do the numbers tell you?

Willie Sutton didn’t rob banks because he particularly liked the ambience of bank lobbies, the great customer service, or the way the bank President tipped his hat to all the ladies he passed walking on the sidewalk. He robbed banks because that’s where the money was. Politicians of every political persuasion have learned that mingling politics and religion to the point that you debate the merits or faults of vastly differing viewpoints is suicide. So don’t kill your potential to turn a promising real estate investing career into a never-ending cycle of personal disappointment by allowing emotion to enter your real estate investing equation. X +Y=Z, but when you plug emotion into the equation you get chaos – and missed opportunities.

Keep emotion out of it and remember it’s all about the numbers. Live where you want to live and invest where it makes the most sense. If you do you’ll discover that the numbers will be on your side and your profits will be in the bank. Now that’s something to get emotional about!

Blessings,

Charrissa Cawley

www.REIconferences.com

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At one time or another, just about every kid in America has heard the “Invest in Your Future” speech, the pep talk teachers, athletes, and celebrities pepper young people with to get them geared up, thinking positive, and laying the foundation for a successful life by getting an education and planning on doing great things. As real estate investors, we can all stand to rip a page from their playbook and do the same thing.

If you’re feeling a little nervous about your investing prospects, it’s not because you know too much. You need to constantly better yourself and plan great things. Start by learning something new every day. There are a lot of resources out there that can teach innovative techniques for pulling profits out of real estate regardless of what CNN has to say. The news media loves to trash everyone – and everything. They’ll help put people, investments, and ideas up on a pedestal so they can be there with their video cameras and notepads to describe the ensuing carnage when they beat them down. Journalism is the ultimate growth industry!

Instead of playing the game, learn something and keep moving forward. You need motivation? Here’s some: Plan on doing great things. It’s all well and good if you dream of having the fattest investing portfolio at you next REIA meeting. Having a bigger goal is better. Sure, money blunts some of the pain of being broke, but nothing gives you a greater sense of self-satisfaction and personal fulfillment than doing something good. So eat and drink investing, make your millions, but on your way up use some of your success to help a worthwhile group. It could be helping your kid’s soccer team buy new uniforms or helping Habitat for Humanity build or renovate houses. Find something larger than yourself that you care about and get involved!

Remember this: Regardless of how successful you are in life, there will always be someone just a little richer, a little taller, a little thinner, a little better looking, or a little younger than you. If you judge true success based on money alone you’ll be a big fish in a very shallow pond. Instead, commit to something larger than yourself. By helping others on your way up, you live a richer life and – if something unforeseen happens and you slip or get knocked off your pedestal – your descent back down to Earth will be softened by the goodwill of all those you have helped along the way.

It beats the heck out of a crash landing with live footage airing every 15 minutes on CNN. That’s the way I see it.

Happy Investing! Charrissa

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I saw an interesting interview on a major news network the other night that really illustrates the extent of the current credit mess that we find ourselves in the middle of.  The Federal government – with the blessing of the U.S. Congress – is poised to prop up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – with a huge infusion of government cash subsidized by the American taxpayer.

The government knows these two lenders service or guarantee half of all home mortgages, and if they go down, the impact on the economy could be huge, disastrous, and long-lasting.  It would make the Savings & Loan scandal of the 1980s look like child’s play.

The government’s master plan has just one major flaw:  According to this renowned legal eagle, it’s illegal for the government to bail out specific private entities while leaving others to sink or swim on their own.  While politicians and lawyers wrestle with vague concepts they can’t even begin to wrap their heads around, millions of homeowners are hurting and begging for solutions today, not months or years from now.

As usual, while the government moves at a snail’s pace to fix a problem they themselves contributed to by looking the other way while sub-prime lenders played “gotcha games” with loan applicants with checkered credit histories, real estate investors like you and me are rolling up our sleeves and quietly going to work.

If a homeowner can’t afford to keep their home, they’re looking for a way out.  They don’t care who helps them or how that help comes.  They’re dying for relief from a housing crunch that is slowly choking the life out of their economic futures.  This is great news for you as an investor!  Do your part to help homeowners by relieving them of properties they can no longer afford to keep.  They’re crying out for help.  While you help them, you’ll be helping communities, and making a real difference for your future.  Now that’s what I call a win-win-win transaction!

So what are you waiting for?  Get to work!  Your country needs you!

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Hey guys, Its been a bit! I have been swamped with the summer madness and travelling all over the place.  However, I wanted to catch up with you all and say hello and also give out a link to an article that I just read on a blog that I just loved.  Here is the link: http://www.simpleology.com/blog/2008/07/why_nice_guys_and_gals_will_ru.html  It talks about how being kind and paying it forward is really the way to go in life-lines up with my philosophies on life perfectly!  Also, just wanted to let you guys know what we are up to-we are laving for Greenville/Spartanburg, SC on August 1-4 for the next tour-that will be our last tour of the summer and after that, we are going to move to a bimonthly and then eventually a schedule where we hold tours every 3-4 months and that will be it. I still want those who meed the opportunity to learn one on one and want to be handheld through the process, but the tours will just be less frequent.  Also, for those of you who have not registered for REI Conferences Wealth Camp 2008, taking place on September 20-21, you need to do so. Seats are filling up quickly! go to www.wealthcampseries.com Cant wait to see you all there!

Charrissa

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