March 2009 Archives

This month for our Building Blocks Success Series, we interviewed Michael Schneider, a real estate investor, licensed contractor and Realtor with a background in engineering and construction management.

In this Building Blocks interview, we talk to Michael about rehabbing and condo conversion, and the ins-and-outs of something that a lot of us dread - hiring contractors and employees.

Because Michael also owns rentals and has experience as a property manager and a project manager, he is able to share some of his best-kept secrets about managing properties that you won't want to miss - particularly in this market.

350 new foreclosures were filed in Massachusetts over this past week, ending Friday, March 27, 2009, 246 less new foreclosed properties than last week with 596 new foreclosure filings.

Broken down by county, Barnstable County had 24 foreclosures, Berkshire County had 6 foreclosures, Bristol County had 32 foreclosures, Essex County had 49 foreclosures, Franklin County had 3 foreclosures, Hampden County had 32 foreclosures, Hampshire County had 6 foreclosures, Middlesex County had 51 foreclosures, Norfolk County had 30 foreclosures, Plymouth County had 35 foreclosures, Suffolk County had 33 foreclosures, and Worcester County had 49 foreclosures.

The biggest movers from last week to this week were Berkshire County (50% increase, 4 -> 6), Norfolk County (23% decrease, 39 -> 30), and Hampshire County (25% decrease, 8 -> 6).

With all the buzz about Social Media and Web 2.0, what better time to take a look at the great evolution in marketing properties for sale.

When real estate listings made the leap from being in a printed and bound MLS books of years past to the dial-in MLS systems, listing information began to become more digital.

It wasn't long before properties would have a photo attached to the digital listing, and shortly after that, properties had multiple photos.

Attend any real estate seminar or boot camp, and you'll hear advice about using a call answering service for your real estate business. A call answering service automates an administrative task - freeing you up to run your business instead of dealing with constant interruptions by the phone ringing.

A call answering service is also a great tool to have in place should you decide to run a marketing campaign that will generate dozens of phone calls in a relatively short time. You don't want to be showing a property and having your cell phone ringing off the hook while talking to a potential buyer or seller!

You can find various call answering services at various levels and price points. What follows are some of the services I've used - and the pros and cons of each one.

The world is changing and no where is this more evident than with traditional advertising and marketing. Newspapers are dying. Magazines are dying. People throw away mail without looking at it and delete commercials through TiVo. So how do you reach them?

You must hang out where your prospects hang out - and that's online, where everyone is connected 24/7. Local expert and social media pro Dianna Huff knows all about that first hand as she's helped small business owners turn social media into loyal customers and money in the bank.

Dianna's going to be our speaker at our upcoming Turning the Key meeting on April 2nd in person in Dedham, MA and LIVE worldwide via video over the web.  I managed to grab a few minutes with her on the phone for a quick pre-meeting interview about "Social Media", "Web 2.0" and how you can use them both to attract buyers and sellers and you'll want to hear this!

596 new foreclosures were filed in Massachusetts over this past week, ending Friday, March 20, 2009, 153 more new foreclosed properties than last week with 443 new foreclosure filings.

Broken down by county, Barnstable County had 41 foreclosures, Berkshire County had 4 foreclosures, Bristol County had 56 foreclosures, Dukes County had 2 foreclosures, Essex County had 77 foreclosures, Franklin County had 5 foreclosures, Hampden County had 43 foreclosures, Hampshire County had 8 foreclosures, Middlesex County had 108 foreclosures, Nantucket County had 2 foreclosures, Norfolk County had 39 foreclosures, Plymouth County had 66 foreclosures, Suffolk County had 60 foreclosures, and Worcester County had 85 foreclosures.

The biggest movers from last week to this week were Bristol County (100% increase, 28 -> 56), Hampden County (72% increase, 25 -> 43), and Suffolk County (58% increase, 38 -> 60).

If you have a multi-family apartment deal that you're considering investing in, or if you are in the process of putting together an Offering Memorandum for your deal, you'll be looking at the deal by the numbers.

But how do you know what to believe and what not to? Which numbers are the most important? What does "Pro Forma" actually mean?

How do you make sure you're comparing apples to apples when you have what looks like the perfect deal?

There's nothing better than a direct mail campaign for getting a steady flow of motivated sellers calling you to buy their homes or other property. Sales letters come in a variety of copywriting formulas, all designed to boost response rates by presenting sales arguments in the best order.

The oldest of these is known by the acronym AIDA, which stands for attention, interest, desire, action. And although other formulas have been developed, most are based on the original AIDA, whose components are essential to any successful persuasion attempt. Here's how it works:

443 new foreclosures were filed in Massachusetts over this past week, ending Friday, March 13, 2009, 47 more new foreclosed properties than last week with 396 new foreclosure filings.

Broken down by county, Barnstable County had 26 foreclosures, Berkshire County had 5 foreclosures, Bristol County had 28 foreclosures, Essex County had 57 foreclosures, Franklin County had 4 foreclosures, Hampden County had 25 foreclosures, Hampshire County had 10 foreclosures, Middlesex County had 73 foreclosures, Nantucket County had 3 foreclosures, Norfolk County had 36 foreclosures, Plymouth County had 64 foreclosures, Suffolk County had 38 foreclosures, and Worcester County had 74 foreclosures.

The biggest movers from last week to this week were Hampshire County (400% increase, 2 -> 10), Norfolk County (80% increase, 20 -> 36), and Middlesex County (59% increase, 46 -> 73).

A relatively young real estate investor, Brian Davis, of Charlotte, North Carolina, purchased his first property after graduating from college, with the plan of fixing it up while living in it and then renting it out. One property lead to two . . . which lead to Brian's current portfolio of nine rental properties. We caught up with him recently and got his take on the hot Charlotte market and why buying and holding is a great tactic right now.

ForeclosuresMass Monthly: Brian, how did you finance your first property?

Brian Davis: I purchased it with an FHA loan as a first time buyer. I then lived in the property while fixing it up and once it was ready, hung a "for rent" sign and had it rented in a month. I then refinanced it and used the cash to purchase my next property where I did the same thing.

I recently started reading Robert B. Cialdini's "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" and was struck by an interesting study in the first chapter.

Harvard social psychologist Ellen Langer conducted a study based on the seemingly built in human response to respond to a favor better when there's a good reason to fulfill the request.

In her study, someone would approach a line of people waiting to use the copier at the library and ask to make copies.

In the first group, the person would say: "Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I'm in a rush?" An overwhelming large number of people responded favorably (94%) and allowed the person to skip ahead in line.

In the second group, the reason was dropped and the question was changed to: "Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine?" In this situation, the positive response dropped significantly to only 60% of those in line letting the person skip ahead.

And, just to test to how important the actual reason was, a third test was conducted, this time again with a reason, but... a useless reason. The reason was a restatement of the obvious: "Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I need to make copies?"

Adding a reason, even though it's an obvious and unnecessary to state reason, brought the positive response back up, this time to 93%.

How can this study can help us real estate investors and marketers?

It can help in two very effective and useful ways.

396 new foreclosures were filed in Massachusetts over this past week, ending Friday, March 6, 2009, 21 less new foreclosed properties than last week with 417 new foreclosure filings.

Broken down by county, Barnstable County had 26 foreclosures, Berkshire County had 4 foreclosures, Bristol County had 51 foreclosures, Dukes County had 1 foreclosures, Essex County had 57 foreclosures, Franklin County had 3 foreclosures, Hampden County had 35 foreclosures, Hampshire County had 2 foreclosures, Middlesex County had 46 foreclosures, Norfolk County had 20 foreclosures, Plymouth County had 46 foreclosures, Suffolk County had 53 foreclosures, and Worcester County had 52 foreclosures.

The biggest movers from last week to this week were Barnstable County (73% increase, 15 -> 26), Bristol County (31% increase, 39 -> 51), and Suffolk County (23% increase, 43 -> 53).

Do you have a question about financing real estate transactions? Now you can get them answered by Dan Burke, financial expert for Capital Trust. This month, Joe, a plumber, asks about the advantages of using hard money to purchase foreclosed properties.

Dear Dan,

Dan, I dabbled in real estate investing years ago and would like to get more involved given the recent availability of properties that will actually cash flow. I have worked hard to put myself in a position to acquire the real estate but realize that I can't get the rehab money required to make the units rental ready. I have good credit and was considered a good borrower not so long ago. Do you have any realistic solutions since the banks are making financing very difficult for a Self-Employed Guy who Understands Excellent opportunity?

Thanks, SEGUE

Teetering on the verge of bankruptcy while managing a portfolio of over 400 tenants and toilets, investor Scott Meyers asked himself why if all the books and courses he had bought were supposed to work... he was about to loose everything.

Scott went on to discover Self Storage and has since created his fortune in Self Storage. He now owns several properties and thousands of units located several hundred miles apart, and he manages them all remotely with the aid of the internet and self service kiosks!

Scott's going to be our speaker at our upcoming Turning the Key meeting on March 5th in Dedham, MA, but I managed to grab him on the phone for a quick pre-meeting interview about why he loves self storage, and what these self-storage kiosks are all about.

Listen to my interview with him below.