Did I make a good decision by signing up for this program?

General Real Estate Investing
1

Hey all,

I am an officer in the Marine Corps and am currently deployed to Iraq.

Prior to departing for Iraq I was in the process of starting a real estate investment business. I was not scheduled to return to Iraq- this deployment “just happened” (hard to explain).

I made it pretty far in establishing all the basic requirements for getting the business going (i.e. business identity, website, PO Box, phone, fax). I also signed up for coaching with Carleton Sheets. My account is on hold until I return (sometime this summer).

Here are my questions:

  1. Does any one have any feedback on the Carleton Sheets coaching program? Good? Bad?

  2. I will be moving to New York City after I get back. Is this a poor place (bad maybe) to real estate invest? I own a house (in North Carolina), have equity, and very good credit but little capital.

  3. What else do you recommend for me to get my business going (when I back)? I am willing to drive/invest up to one hour from the city. Maybe farther if need be.

Any insight you provide will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Elizeli

2

Sorry to hear that your life has been disrupted…again. If you have access to the internet, you could work on finding and developing initial relationships with;

  • Lenders

  • Title Agencies

  • Real Estate Agents

  • Appraisers

At least you can have a lot of leg work done. Good luck and keep your head down. :beer

3

First and foremost, THANK YOU for your service to our country! It is appreciated, although not always stated. I know this is an unpopular war but an important one, nonetheless.

To answer your questions (and these are my opinions):

(1) Expensive. All realestate is local and I don’t think that I want some young, inexperienced kid in California (or whereever) trying to tell me the best way to invest in NC or NYC.

(2) The NYC market is extremely tough. Prices are high, taxes are exorbitant, the landlording laws are extremely biased (and not in a good way!).

(3) I think you need to try to figure out how the locals are making money in the NYC market (though, I would poke out both of my eyes, rip out my tongue, and have my fingernails pulled out with vice grips before even condidering life in NYC - but, each to his own!). It is tough in the entire corridor from Washington, DC up past Boston, though there are some pockets that can work (somebody is making money there!)…

Keith

4

Thank you for your replies. I have found several real estate clubs in and around the city- thanks to this site.

I’m going to give them a try and do what you suggest- make contacts and find those people that are making money. I’m looking to invest in the more “rural” parts of New York- about an hour or so north of the city. I don’t think I can jump right in to the NYC real investing scene just yet (specially, not as a newbie).

On the lighter side: I volunteered (in an odd way) for this deployment so my spirits are fine. Besides, things are going fairly well here. There has not been a significant gun fight since May of last year.

Let me know any more ideas you may have. Thanks again.

5

I’m from western Mass…the rural parts of the state are like 5-1/2 hours out of the city!!!

LOL…

Keith

6

I would suggest corresponding with RookieNYC. He has found some great deals (although not in the city).

Good Luck,

Mike

7

Thank you for your service to our country. Please convey my appreciation to your troops.

I think NYC is an excellent place to invest. Of all the places in the country, that is probably the most solid market-- huge population, top paying jobs, geographical restrictions that limit building.

However, NYC real estate is played at a high dollar level. It’s the same game, the numbers are just bigger. Much bigger.

It’s a bit too late to ask about the program you’ve already signed up for. When back isn’t an option, you go full speed ahead. If you’ve paid for the program already, then you wring every drop of information out of it that you can and use as many hours of it as you can possible use. Use determination to get all your money’s worth out of it.

8

Keith…LOL, yea, I know that rural New York is pretty far outside the city. You’ve got to understand I grew up in the Bronx. To me, if there are more than five trees within eye distance then you might as well be in the country.

Mike…How do I find rookienyc? I have done the search on this site and have not been able to locate him.

Tot…Thanks for the inspirational words. I’m definitely not intimidated by investing in the city (I’ve been through worse…if you know what I mean). I plan to get back and hit the ground running.

Thank you all and God bless.

Luis

9

elizeli,

You can find rookieNYC at:
http://www.reiclub.com/forums/index.php?action=profile;u=12826

Down at the bottom of the main page , there is a block with a ‘calick-on’ that says, “Members List”. This will take you to an alphabetical list of members…at the top of that page is a ‘click-on’ that says, “Search for Members”. You can serch by name or by e-mail address, etc.

Keith

10

First off… THANK YOU for serving our country and protecting all of us!!

Next up some advice…

Do you have any family in NYC?? How about N Carolina?

If you do, what I would suggest is having them do a little leg work for you. It won’t take them more than a day or two.

I advertise for ALL my properties. THIS is THE SECRET SAUCE!!! I had a great mentor who became a MILLIONAIRE a few times over by investing in real estate. He told me when I was starting out…

KID, how many people know you want to buy houses??

My answer…NONE.

His reply…Well how the hell are they gonna call you??

Have someone… a friend, a family member, find you some small local newspapers in areas YOU CAN AFFORD to buy homes in. RookieNYC has done very well in Upstate NY. Lot’s of homes for under $75K.
Run ads in those papers…

The golden rules of advertising are…

They have to SEE IT…
They have to REMEMBER IT…
and, THEY HAVE TO BE ABLE TO FIND IT AGAIN WHEN THEY NEED IT!!!

These ads take time to work, start running them about 3 to 6 months before you get home.

Something like this works really well for me…

WANTED. House for $35,000 CASH, ANY CONDITION, no inspections, no banks, no REALTORS, Close in 5 days. Call 555-555-5555 to arrange pick up of your $35,000

The beauty of this ad is the PRICE. It should be HALF of what Low priced homes sell for it that area. Having the price in there makes you stand out. It also plants a seed in a potential sellers head. That $35K might be the exact number he needs to buy a trailer in Florida, or pay off some bills. They SEE that NUMBER and that’s what get’s them to call.

The beauty of this is you don’t need coaching. Believe me, This board has the best coaches money CAN’T BUY on it. And I can tell you that from my experience here, WE’RE ALL thankful to the men and women in the military.
You won’t find a more enthusiastic group of supporters.

Now…back to the plan…get those ads running about 3 months before your due back to the U.S. you’ll hit the ground running and have a nice little MONEY machine all set up for you.

11

Im right here …And being I have a brother-in-law in Iraq serving our country I would be more than happy to help you get started in NY…I will help any way I can…Send me a private message through this site and I will be in touch…

12

I took the Sheets Coaching Course. They ‘guaranteed’ that if I followed the plan I wold find a no money down property that would give me at least 10k in spendable cash within1 year.

It happened in 6 months. And although it was my best cash at closing deal it was just one of many.

Jeff

13

Everyone,

Thanks again. I feel blessed to have found this forum.

fdjake- I will return in early summer to the states and will move to the city in early fall. I will implement your recommendation the instant I return to the states. While out here, I will find where to advertise. The idea of the “$35,000 cash” is brilliant.

Keith- thanks for the relay. I will get in touch with him.

Jeff- good to hear a success story, thanks.

I look forward to learning from you all and providing the forum with my experiences.

Luis

14

Excuse me! Does anyone realize that real estate is about to take its biggest HIT in history?

The way everyone is going on about buying houses, you would think it was still 2005.

Luis, you are getting started at a great time. However, you need to adjust your techniques to the times. I don’t think you will get hurt with the Sheets program, but I see they are still teaching like nothing has changed.

The fastest growing part of the real estate market is people losing their homes. Help them avoid foreclosure and they will pay you and maybe even give you their homes!

Last year, a young lady named Sharon, in Sullivan Cty, about 3 hours west of the NY City, had a problem. Her house had become her Enemy! Since her divorce, it was robbing money from her every month, it had already eaten through her daughter’s college funds and was threatening to get her and her kids tossed out into the street as its mortgage had not been fed in 3 months.

Sharon saw our ad for a program that rescued people in her situation. She wanted to get rid of her house but did not want to ruin her credit, (she worked on Wall St) with a foreclosure. She responded and we ended up doing a deal where she got her house off her back by giving it to me, including the $40,000 equity (Mtg $205,000-MV $245,000). I put the house in a land trust, which allowed me to wrap the mortgage without worrying about the due on sale clause and passed it onto a local fireman and his family for $10,000 down and mortgage payments that bring me $375/mo in passive cash flow. I freaked Sharon out by sending her a check for $5,000 to help her rebuild her daughter’s college fund!

Luis, since you have access to the Internet, find a program like I use that will let you make money helping people avoid foreclosure while you are waiting for that 1 in 100 longshot you can pick up for free or for a good price. You will have built up some capital and some good motivated prospects by the time you return this summer, God Willing!

Bill Young

15

Good luck Luis, keep us posted when you get back!

16

Howdy!

I did Carlton Sheets waaaayyyy back in 2004. My area (west coast) had a fair amount of tax liens available, but most were in really rotten areas. I did close on 2 eventually. I had to spend some $$ making the property fit for renting. I still have the properties and they are still rented.

The tax lien auction lists dried up in 2005 and I cities didn’t have to do any during the boom. You will probably have to wait a few more months, maybe a year to get in on anymore auctions. And even with that, you’ll have to venture to outlying areas or to locations that had massive foreclosures.

In any case, with the economy being down and most banks unwilling to lend, even if you do find a tax lien property at a good price, you will have to hold and rent it out for a while before trying to flip it - unless it’s in an area that’s still supporting population growth and a stable economy.

Good luck!