Category Archives: real estate

Time is more important than money.

blogs, Business, Entrepreneurship, Money, real estate, , ,

Today I read a blog that very clearly states the delegation thing I was talking about the other day.  Sure you could do everything yourself to save a bit of money in the short run but in the long run that type of thinking will cost you your potential.  This is what AJC said on the 7million7years blog today.

Trading time for money is exactly the wrong way of looking at it: time is a finite resource; money is an infinite resource, why trade the finite one for the infinite one?

In other words, they keep printing money, but nobody is giving away more time.

So, every time that I can find an opportunity to ‘buy’ time with my money that’s exactly what I will do.

It’s why I give my shirts to the drycleaners; my mowing to the landscapers; and my property management to the experts. It’s why I outsource practically everything to do with my investments, too – except picking the investments themselves, or managing any issues to do with risk.

If I didn’t outsource my property management, I would eventually stop buying real-estate because every property that I bought would add to my workload, and who wants to do anything that makes you have to work harder?

So, I may lower my return on each property somewhat, but I reinvest the ’saved time’ into purchasing more investments … the whole shebang is much greater than the parts.

If you want to be a successful business own the employee mindset and the frugal mindset will hold you back.  It has for me, I see it now that this was one of my biggest mistakes, that is why I talk about it so much.

I am torn between all that is possible

Business, Computers, concepts, Entrepreneurship, Inspiration, Marketing, MLM, real estate, , , , , , ,

Right now I feel that I am at a cross roads. I know so much, I know so much that I could never hold down a job, I know what it out there, and working for someone else is not an option. I am a true entrepreneur. Now that being said there is so much out there that I can do but I have limited time and limited focus. I choose to spend a good deal of time with my family because that is a priority. Let me tell you, my readers, what I am thinking about right now.
My main company for over a decade has been Emerald Computers. It was a great business from 1997 until about 2003 but then the industry changed, and got much more cutthroat and less fun. Also the profits dropped out. I lost my passion for it. Passion is a subject I have been thinking about a lot recently. If you do not live your life doing what you have have passion for you are living a wasted life. 80% of people can not stand their job, they can not stand what they now do for a living. 20% of the people their work is their passion, and they love to do it. For years I loved computers, not because of the technology but mostly because I could open peoples eyes up to what is possible and I loved that. But my business did less and less of that and more and more of the grinding out work that was not fun. When the passion left so did the profits. I went from averaging 70 hours a week working my company in 2002 to about 30 in 2005 to almost less than 5 in 2007.

I always was thinking about Real Estate, how it is a business where you make real things that stand there for many years. I know people that drive around a city and point out buildings they had a hand in making a decade before. Also I LOVE the art of the deal, where you negotiate price and terms and come up with a deal. It is like a huge game, trying to get the best for your side in every deal, nothing in business is more fun for me. Real Estate is the land of the largest deals, and the fastest way to make real big money. You can be creative and make transactions by bringing parties and ideas together in unique ways.

Now the problem with real estate is that you need knowledge or you need money. I don’t have this type of money because my computer company took it all, and my knowledge is all theory. I think I know at least 90% of what I know, but every time I think I have it all figured out I find out more I don’t know. Because of this a fear has set in so I do nothing, which is the worst thing of all to do. When you do real estate with no money to invest you will find the deal every now and then but it is far from steady, so I wanted to have something that was more steady.

Because of this I started looking for a MLM, because before Emerald Computers, and even during it I made some good money in the world of MLM business. With all the tools I have for online marketing and communications I figured I would have a huge advantage at any MLM that I would join. So I spent a good deal of time looking into everything that I could do. After looking for months almost all of the major MLM businesses that I saw were promoting a health product that they produced for $5 and sold for $50. I figured out that I really don’t have a passion for doing a MLM that is based on a health product, I think deep down that many of these don’t work, and that even if they do I don’t want to spend my life selling them, I have more important things to do.

So after a while I decided to work with a company called Nouveau Riche. What they do is have a college right down the street from my house. For 1 week every two months they teach a full week of really high quality classes about Real Estate. I bought the CD version of these classes, they were good. Next they provide a community of investors. It all sounded really great, just what I wanted to do. Then I really pushed it hard, trying to find people to invest with, trying to find people to pay to go to the college. They had an event where you could invite people to and they would have a 6 hour sample of classes that were taught by the school. I had been to them in the past, and they were great. At the end they would have a short 30 minute sales pitch for the college. This time there was new leadership and they promised it would be even bigger and better than before. I was really excited. I invited over 100 people. I got 40 people to say they would be there. It was all going well. Then on the day it was backwards, it started out with over two hours of hard sales, worse than if you went to a timeshare. That was followed by even more sales, and then an hour of decent education, followed by 2 more hours of hard sales. The people I had there all felt screwed, and lied to. They wanted education and what they got was this junk. After that day I have not gone to any meetings and have not talked to any leaders in the company, it was a bust for me.

So then I started looking a MLM that was for something that I could stand behind. I set down some rules. First it had to be something that was a good value, it had to save people money or make them money. Next it had to be something that was product driven, I wanted to product to sell the company. (One of my best friends Fred Coit is a big leader in Monavie and they have a great product driven company.) But next I wanted to do something that I would have a passion for. Last I wanted something with no marketing restrictions. You many not know that most MLM companies have many restrictions on how and where you can market, and I wanted something I could hit heavy online, and be creative with my marketing.

After about 2 months of looking I finally decided on SendOutCards, they offered a product that was only 1/3rd the cost of the competition with better service, it was product driven meaning that most people in it only really promote the product. I think that they are the BEST MLM for my style.

Now I am torn. What do I do with my days, I have a computer company, I have a ton of time, energy and passion devoted to getting into the real estate business, which is my true passion. And now I have this new business that is really fun and has a great product. For the last two month I have been floating. I have been like my 10 month old son, I focus on whatever seems the best at the time, but I may change on a whim. Last week a typical day was for me to wake up and talk to a few computer customers, then talk to a real estate agent about some houses then call a few people and tell them about SendOutCards. For the last few months when people ask me what I do for a living I really don’t have a good answer for them. I was at a meeting last Wednesday where I stood up and talked about Emerald Computers and SendOutCards, handed out flyers for SendOutCards and business cards for Capital Active (The Real Estate Company). I must have seemed very confused to some of these people.

So this is where I sit now. Emerald is the business that is putting food on my table, it is what I live on but every time I want to make money I have to trade large amounts of time for it. Sometimes it is easy and I get a call and make $500 in 2 hours, other times I make calls all day and make nothing. SendOutCards could be a huge business and with two months of good effort I could have a team large enough that I could pay all my bills from the money it makes. And Real Estate could make millions with ease and joy if I could get all the pieces to the puzzle together.

So my question for my readers, is this multitasking normal for someone who is a serial entrepreneur, and what would you do? This is interactive so please leave a comment, I will reply to them.

Yahoo Groups as a Great Business Tool

Computers, Internet, Marketing, real estate, , , , , ,

I don’t know if you have ever heard of Yahoo Groups.  As the name implies it is owned by yahoo and it is a way for you to build and maintain a group of people.  It is actually very easy to use.  I have been a member of different groups for years now but today I started my own.  I started a group of local people who are interested in real estate investing.  If you are interested in that topic click here to sign up, it is focused on Phoenix Arizona but anyone can join.

There are many things you can do with this group.  It works a lot like a blog.  You can change most everything, and it is very fast and user friendly to set up.  You have the choice of making things private or open.   It will manage members, and send them all new messages in their email.  You can choose to moderate the messages, you can mange who is a moderator.  You can post photos, polls to ask questions, post a community Calendar, have databases to store information that every needs, and you have a section add files that people can download.  (You even get 100MB of free space)

All and all it is really a great service offered for free.  The only semi scary thing is that you don’t have real control, what if yahoo decides to stop offering the service, or what happens if they decide your group as not a good group and they delete it.  I think the chance of both is very slim.  You also run that same risk with wordpress.

I made the top 30 in 7m7y.

Business, concepts, Entrepreneurship, Inspiration, Investment, Money, real estate, , , , , ,

I don’t know if you remember.  But a few weeks ago I told all my readers about how I was entered into a contest called the 7 Millionaires in training.   Well last week the announced the top 30 and I was in it.  On thursday of next week I will be hoping to be in the top 15.  From there it will be the final 7.  The prize for this contest is something really cool and really great, it is a mentorship from a highly successful serial entreprenure and real estate investor.  It does not say how long this will last but I bet it will last until most of the final 7 are millionaires, at least that is my hope.   Cross your fingers and wish me good luck., God knows I need it.

His blog is really good, find it here, he has written many of my favorite articles like this, this and that.

If you would like to tune in, there is a web broadcast show every thursday night at 6pm PST.  Click here.

2008 is Half Over. Lets make some goals.

Business, concepts, Entrepreneurship, Inspiration, real estate, , , , ,

Most people review their plans every year for new years, they make resolutions, some minor and some major.    For most people these are gone by the end of January.  I try to update at least once per quarter, and usually break down goals for each month at the start.

In this blog I am really talking to people who run their own business, who can determine how profitable that business is, and want to make stellar profits.  It is said that 70% of the people in the US don’t have any specific goals.  27% have goals in mind, but only 3% have written goals.   In this 3% you will find over 95% of the entire wealth of our nation.  Most people who have jobs fall into that 70%.

For this month my goals are in two main areas.  First in my computer company, I want to market more to existing customers and drum up at least 10k in profit from doing this.  The plan is one of daily action and contacting people.  I have a huge database to work with, which is good, but the economy is limiting spending which is bad.  I also want to do more real estate investing.  I want to do at least one thing each day to build my network, knowledge and to actually do deals.  Today I looked at various agents to work with.

So far 2008 has not been a very good year for me financially, though many steps have been made in the right direction.  I have spent a good deal of time rebuilding from the bad things that happened in 2007 and the end of 2006.  I have stopped the bleeding, and now we have positive cash flow for the first time in a long time.  I also have expanded my knowledge and my network by huge amounts.  All of this was important but is meaningless with out action, now is the time for action, and to put everything to work.

So what are my goals for the second half of 2008.  Well my two main areas of focus are Real Estate investing and the continuation of the computer company.  The computer company is fairly easy money, because I have a huge database of customers, a ton of existing marketing and websites and everything is in place.  But computers are not very profitable right now.  For this reason I have been trying to move into real estate for years.  I understand the local Phoenix market very well because I was born here, I have been building my knowledge to the point that I am confident that I can most any sort of thing I want to do.  Now I am building my network of buyers, agents and money suppliers.  I want to do at least 10 real estate transactions before the end of the year.  I also want to Average 30k in sales per month for the computer company.  With an average real estate deal of 20k and a monthly computer profit of 10k that would net $260,000 by the end of the year.  Of course this needs to be broken down to monthly goals and then to daily action.  In order to reach these goals daily action must be done, I have a huge checklist for each business of things that need to be done, and my goal is to spend at least half of the working hours of each day working on these goals.

The point of this blog is not to talk about what I have done, but to inspire you to do the same.  Write down where you want to be at the end of the year.  Then figure out what you need to do each month to get there, then figure out the specific actions that must be done to get there, break it up into daily chucks and then ACT on it.  I have usually been good at the planning but a bit into it I would get discouraged, and settle back to a lower level of action, and then I would miss my goal.  One cure for this is accountability, you could do this in a few different ways, one is to make all of your goals, subgoals and actions public and let your friends have access, so that they can help you.  I have decided to simply talk to my business partner each day and we each will keep the other accountable.

So go out and make your action plan today.

A story from the heart, what drives me.

Business, concepts, Entrepreneurship, Inspiration, Investment, Money, real estate, The World, , , , , , , , ,

I often think about my dreams. To me almost all of my dreams have to do with my legacy, what I leave behind for future generations. For me there are a few things that really give me a great since of satisfaction. First, I really think that it is important to help out people who need help, and want the help. The think that I feel really made my life what it is the fact that I had access to education and tools to take advantage of that access. I started high school in 1989, and I was the only person I knew who had a computer at that time. I also spent a huge amount of time learning. By the end of high school I knew more about computers than any teacher there, same thing went when I was in college, almost all of this was self taught. (In high school I entered into a state competition, and got first place in the entire state for computer expertise) I only placed number 24 when I went to the national competition.

To everyone’s surprise computers turned out to be a huge industry, taking control of much of how the entire world works. I was given a huge advantage. Now we all know that computers are VERY important to success, so I have gone on a plan to give very poor children, access to computers, and access to quality education. These are kids that would not be able to get a good education or maybe even go to school. These are kids that will live a very poor life if we do not step in to help. This year we are looking to support 7 kids. The cost for one year is about $800 per kid. I am trying hard to raise this money now because it needs to be committed by the first of June. If you want to help out you can donate using PayPal. (Just send to my email [dragon(at)capitalactive.com] as a donation) Anything you send will go directly to help these kids.  This photo is of the 4 kids we helped in 2007, before they met us they were living in a small shack, with a tarp as a roof, they never had been more than 10 miles from home, and never even seen a mall.  (I have before pictures also but they would break your heart.)  They were very smart but the schools they went to were very poor, and this kids were years behind the city kids, even though they were near the top of their class in their rural schools.  In one year they were able to catch up and pass the city kids, we gave them quality food, clothes, and housing.  This year I want to do even more.   My goal is to support 7 kids.  We will use these 4 and add 3 boys.  Without your help I don’t know if I can do it.

The next thing is a much larger thing. I really want to develop Real Estate. I have always been interested in architecture and large buildings. When you see a large building you know that someone designed it and also someone thought of it and paid for it to be built. To me this is the ultimate legacy. I want to build great unique buildings that will stand out. I decided to go a different path, and I went into computers and business. But now I want to go into. I firmly believe in the mixed use real estate concept. Basically building communities, of housing, work, and shopping all in the same mega complex. This is the way life used to be but, here in the southwest, the car made all of these things disperse. Most people travel many miles to work, and at least a mile to shop. There is no community left in many places and this lack of community is one of the major things destroying our country. Imagine if you lived on the 7th floor of the building, shopped on the first and second floor and worked in your office on the 15th floor. All the while you had many friends, and felt like you truly belonged. I don’t just want to do real estate; I want to do real estate with a purpose. I have a young son, only 9 months now, and I want to leave him a legacy he can be proud of, and one he can carry on.

I also want to provide quality housing to people in need. Imagine going to a city in Asia, where the people are poor, and getting the community to work together to build a massive complex, I would supply the materials and organization, the community would do most of the work, and we would own the building and charge a very low rent. People would have the ability to move up from the squalor to live in healthy and much higher quality housing. What is I can do that, and impact a thousand lives in a very profound way. This is the legacy that I want to leave.

Now I am only 32 now, I have decades to do this. I am looking for like minded people who will know more than me to advise on these projects. I don’t think I will have the resources for a few years to do such a thing, but once I do it will roll on and on.

This is my WHY, this is the reason I want to be hugely successful, this is the reason why I need to make the things I do work. It is much more than me I do this for.

If you know of ways to get this done faster or cheaper I would love to hear from you. Please email me or comment below. Thanks.

The future of Real Estate

Business, Government, Investment, Money, real estate, , , , ,

Many people are wondering if Real Estate will bounce back.   Well the answer must be “OF COURSE”.

It is all supply and demand.  The run up in 2002-2005 was simply due to huge demand.  This demand was caused mostly by very cheap lending rates and how easy it was to get loans.  During this time millions of people purchased their first house.  Another factor was the reduction of the value of the dollar.  Something can go up in price while keeping a steady value when the value of the currency it is measured in falls.  This is also what happened in the 2000-2006 years.

So what caused prices to go down in 2007?  Well supply and demand again.  In many places developers were very excited about the prices going up so they ramped up production to record levels. (Increase supply) Next came a credit crunch, and the cheap money and the easy money left the system.  This made most people not able to qualify to get the house they wanted.  (Lower Demand).   To make matters worse many people felt they were at the top and that it would be a good time to sell so they listed their house for sale.  (Increase Supply).  Then in many places like Phoenix, there was a huge crackdown on illegal aliens.  Tens of thousands left their houses, many did not sell they simply just left.  Most were renters and left their lease, making the landlord have issues. (Reduced demand, increased supply).   Some people were used to the easy credit and have been living well beyond their means for years now, and when that stopped they could not pay their bills, and that included their house and they could not sell or refinance so they were foreclosed on.  (Lower demand for ownership, higher demand for rentals.  Higher supply of homes)   So with all of these things working together there was no reason for prices to not go down.

So where do we go from here, Well prices must go back up.  Builders stopped most building in mid 2007, and most places have many more people moving there than houses being built.  (Decrease Supply)  Well the credit crunch seems to be letting up, more deals are getting approved, mostly with government support.  (Increase Demand)  The lower prices are making people think twice about selling now, and many houses are coming off the market and turned into rentals.  (Lower supply for ownership, higher supply for rentals)  The illegal alien mess will not be resolved any time soon but most the people who are going to move already have.  The number of loans that have payments that reset soon is going down, also the government is making new rules to help these people keep their houses, which will result in less foreclosures.

In 1974 the median home price was 32,000.
In 1984 the median home price was 72,400 (a 126% gain in 10 years)
In 1994) the median home price was 107,200 (a 48% gain in 10 years or 235% in 20 years)
In 2004) the median home price was 185,200 (a 72% gain in 10 years or 478% gain in 30 years)

During this same time the size of houses increased from less than 900 square feet to well over 1700 on average.

So it is now a great time to invest, everything is on sale due to these supply/demand factors.  But where do you invest?

There are a few underlying economic facts to consider when picking the location of your investment.  First you want to be in a place that is growing, meaning more people are moving there than moving out.  Then you want to see how many vacant houses are on the market.   If you look at a city with 50,000 vacant houses but 10,000 people move there each month (These are the numbers for Phoenix) you can see that soon the houses will be full.   A city like Detroit is not good because people are leaving, there is no growth.  You need growth for demand, and demand vs supply sets the price of real estate.

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