What impact would a complete meltdown on the financial system have on your investing career?  Would it have an impact — or would you even notice?

In case you haven’t noticed, our financial system is struggling to recover from the near-collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the subsequent takeover.  Since then, there’s been an unending parade of bad news.  If things continue in the direction they’re heading, there seems to be widespread agreement that credit could be as hard to get as a parking space at the World Series.

Are you prepared if it happens?

Now is the best time to get your financial house in order, so if you haven’t started the time to act is NOW.  Fix any lingering credit issues because lenders are growing more and more selective about who they’ll work with.  This doesn’t mean you won’t be able to get a loan or that real estate makes a bad investment.  As a matter of fact, real estate makes even better sense with each passing day!

What it means is that you have to be is prepared.

You’ll still be able to get financing for your deals, but it will likely cost you a little more.  So you may have to spend a few bucks more than you had planned.  Here are three strategies that can help:

1.  Hard money lenders –they’ll charge you more, but with today’s low property values you still ought to be able to wind up with positive cash flow, in spite of the higher interest rates.

2.  Private money — Line up private money lenders.  They’ll still say yes when everyone else says “no” — if the price is right.  It takes a little work, but it can be worth the effort if you’re able to line up much-needed cash.

3.  Creative financing — Real estate investors are a verstile bumch.  If all institutional financing were to dry up in a day, you’d still be able to get creative in finding motivated sellers.  If you haven’t already, learn the ins and outs of how creative real estate finance works.

The mail still gets delivered when it rains.  There’s a financial storm brewing on the horizon and the wind has begun to blow.  Regardless of what happens to the credit markets, you can still take advantage of this unprecedented opportunity to expand your real estate empire.  Get out there and deliver your future!

Blessings!

Charrissa Cawley

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Real estate prices have dropped like a rock and if you’re looking to build your investing portfolio and seize the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build a lasting legacy, now is the time to kick yourself into overdrive.

The foreclosure mess has caused prices to drop like a rock — and in some markets you can get unbelievable bargains on property if you’re diligent and you buy in the right places.  So how cheap can you get property?

Is a buck too much?

That’s right…a dollar.  That’s not a down payment or an option fee — that’s the total price somebody paid for a real house on a real lot in Detroit.  That very same property sold for $65,000 in November 2006 and at the time was reportedly the nicest house on the block.  Of course the property fell on hard times now and was sold for much less, but I’d venture to guess it was worth more than was paid.  I hear the buyer paid all cash:)

If you’re resourceful you can get property at rock bottom prices.  Do you want to see houses that sell for anywhere from $1 to $10,000? Check out this link!  http://stlouis.missouri.org/development/realestate/index.html Maybe you won’t find YOUR perfect property for a dollar.  Maybe it will be $500 or $1000 or maybe even $5000. But you don’t even have to be able to do math to know that nine times out of ten a deal like that makes great sense if it is located in the right area! How much thicker can your portfolio get if you can scoop up a handful of properties for even 40 or 50 cents on the dollar? 

It’ll take some planning, diligence, and following through on your plans.  Do your due diligence; make sure a property will make a good investment and then buy all you can.  Today’s prices won’t be available forever, but while they are you may as well be the one building equity and positioning yourself for the inevitable real estate turnaround.

When it comes, you’ll be prepared.  Who’s first in line for a million dollar payday?  Is it you?

What are you waiting for?

Blessings!

Charrissa Cawley

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I read an interesting article the other day that said that recent college grads are having trouble finding the type of employment they’re looking for, and that the ones having the most success are those that utilize their school’s job placement office.  It went on to say that students and graduates seeking help are two or three times more likely to find the job they’re looking for.

Is your real estate investing career going nowhere fast?  If it is, or you’re not seeing the results you want and need as quickly as you had hoped, you might want to follow the wisdom of job placement officers.  If your base of knowledge is limited and your confidence is lagging, tap into a resource that can get you out of the ocean of doubt you find yourself languishing in.

REI Conferences has the training, the knowledge, and the tools you need to get you swimming in a pool of cash.  Whether you need information about how to find good deals or where to go for research on new markets, we can help. 

Every real estate investor wants to be a player that can build a fat investing portfolio and a good coach can bring out the best in you.  Learn what you can and turn to REI Conferences for answers to all of your most pressing questions.

Once you have the answers the questions aren’t a problem.  Then your only problem will be what you’re going to do with the cash.

I think you can figure that one out!

Blessings!

Charrissa Cawley

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For millions of Americans Labor Day is nothing more than a reminder that they need government intervention to provide them with a day to celebrate the fact that they work entirely too hard for much too little, and that when the last sentence has been written on their working career, that they can look forward to retirement – and worrying about whether Social Security or their meager savings will be enough to sustain them until they die.

As a real estate investor, you’ve gone a different direction. You believe in yourself, your dreams, and the vast world of untapped potential that lies out there in the unprotected sea of real estate entrepreneurship. You reject the idea that your value is tied to what an employer is willing to pay or a labor union can negotiate on your behalf.

You want to create wealth, create opportunity, and you want to do it on your terms.

On this Labor Day I want you to rededicate yourself to the principle that real estate investing can be the vehicle that makes your financial goals reachable if you’re willing to simply step out on faith and claim them by doing a few simple things and doing them well.

Instead of a $100-$200 paid day off you can count on building a portfolio that will allow you to have as many labor days as you like. Except in your case, a labor day will be a day you choose to work in order to dramatically increase your income, instead of a government-sanctioned day of rest that forces you to thank someone else for throwing you a bone and giving you a day off to reflect upon the mediocrity that is your life.

Which future do YOU prefer?

Blessings!

Charrissa Cawley

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I read an article the other day that knocked me off my chair.

I honestly don’t know if it was ignorance on the part of the “journalist” who wrote the article or whether it was part of a much larger, deeper running conspiracy to try to fool the American public. Let me tell you what I read.

The article was in a national publication (I’m not going to tell you which one to protect the stupid – or the guilty) but the article said that if you were interested in buying property right now on the cheap, you should consider buying REO properties from lenders. As a real estate investor, you know that this idea makes perfect sense.

Here’s where the story went south… and wound up somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico. The reporter said that if you wanted to get a real bargain given the number of REO properties on the market, you should approach your friendly banker and if you were a really “savvy investor”, you “might” be able to negotiate an REO purchase in the neighborhood of 95%.

That’s right… 95%.

The idea that someone might be willing to pay nearly full retail for an REO right now is absolutely laughable. Banks are bursting at the seams with REO properties. Banks have more REO’s then teenagers have excuses, and now there are news stories telling people how to go to the banks and pay retail.

That begs the question in my mind: Is this journalist stupid, misinformed, or is this story a plant from either the banking industry or the federal government to try and kickstart the real estate market? I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but it certainly makes me wonder. Think about it for a second. The average untrained Joe can waltz into any realtor’s office in America and get that deal — or better. I seem to remember reading a statistic from the National Association of Realtors one time that said that the average home sold for about 93% of list price. What’s up with that?

I’ve heard of investors getting deals for as little as 50 cents on the dollar, depending on the lender and how hungry they are to move a property. If you’re a brand new investor, do yourself a favor: Don’t believe everything you read. You might be better off getting real estate investing advice from the National Enquirer!

I’m not trying to kick sand into the gearbox of their well laid plan, but I think someone is trying to pull the wool over the eyes of a lot of people. Maybe I’m wrong… maybe it’s not a conspiracy.

What do you think?

There is a lot better information out there, that won’t put your neck out on the line. You deserve honest information from reliable sources. Apparently, newspapers have become repositories of fictional accounts. If you need better Real Estate Investing tips and advice, try this link…I think you’ll like the advice (and the results!) a whole lot better.

 www.reiconferences.com

Blessings!

Charrissa Cawley

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More than a million homeowners are in default on their mortgages and about 10 million more are upside down – owing more on their homes than they are worth. Daily reports on CNN paint a grim picture of the current housing and banking situation. As real estate investors, we have an unprecedented opportunity to create real wealth for ourselves while helping homeowners who are desperately looking for an exit strategy from their homes without the societal stigma – and lasting credit damage – that comes from foreclosure. They’re looking for a graceful way to quietly exit stage left with their dignity intact before their lender takes it along with their homes.

As bad as the situation may seem for the homeowners, it’s even worse for banks. Every homeowner that winds up on the street due to foreclosure costs their lenders dearly – they face growing public scrutiny from Legislators, the media, and anyone with an ax to grind – and adding insult to injury, they have to set aside funds to cover their anticipated losses, which further reduces their ability to provide other loans and places their very futures in jeopardy.

Now there’s a new threat.

Foreign investment funds, many of them financed by record oil profits, are circling like vultures moving in for the kill. Their target? REOs. A handful of these investment funds have amassed more than a trillion dollars that’s burning a hole in their collective pockets, and they’re itching to snap REOs up in mega-purchases of several billion dollars at a time, hoping to pick them up for as little as 40 cents on the dollar. A number of these funds are controlled by some of the wealthiest countries in the Middle East, looking for yet another opportunity to turn a huge profit.

Individual real estate investors like you and me can secure our futures today, but only by acting now. These properties will go somewhere. These market conditions won’t last forever, and foreign interests with an almost unlimited supply of blank checks and favorable currency conversion rates are causing oil tycoons to take on the dual role of real estate mogul.

There’s a silver lining for homeowners as well. They’ll bounce back. Once they get their financial houses in order they’ll look to re-enter the housing market. As this happens, the historic real estate downturn could turn into a surging market as increased demand causes prices to escalate. The question is: how thick will your portfolio be when this happens?

Real estate isn’t a bag of Lay’s potato chips. So get all you can while you can because, unlike potato chips, they won’t make more.

Happy Investing!
Charrissa Cawley

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How do you prefer to receive your cash? Little dribs and drabs at a time, like might come in a one gallon bucket, with the potential to leave nice uniform piles all over your living room – or high volume profits that can gush through a properly placed pipeline, saturating your future with spendable cash?

If you’re anything like most people – and I’d bet you are – you’d choose the pipeline any day of the week.

Then why are you still holding a bucket?

In today’s real estate investing market, there’s no doubt you can generate real sustainable wealth for yourself. You can run ads, distribute ink pens, or throw rocks attached to your business card through people’s windows. While I don’t advocate this approach unless you relish the thought of a visit from the Boys in blue, each of these strategies will get you attention. And you can make money with all of these strategies (even the rock idea might work once in today’s market!), but to really maximize on the opportunities available now, I recommend you pitch the bucket over your shoulder and use your computer to electronically build a never ending profit pipeline.

You’ve heard people screaming from the mountaintops that the Internet is the wave of the future. The future is here, the future is now, but it won’t do you any good if you don’t know what you’re doing or how to proceed. REI Conferences has all the answers you need to build your pipeline. With the proper knowledge and tools you can learn how to lay the foundation for your pipeline and arrange for a tanker to periodically slip by and take your profits to the bank.

So what are you waiting for? There’s never been a better time than right now to get started. Point your web browser to REI Conferences and start digging the foundation to your future!

Charrissa Cawley

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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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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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