Investing Without Cash or Credit with Peter Conti

Worlds #1 Greatest Commercial Real Estate Mentors Issue Bold Challenge

Because we have been called the “Worlds #1 Greatest Commercial Real Estate Mentors” it’s not a surprise to anyone that we get attention from two very different types of people. The first category is people like you. Someone who is serious about taking big steps in their life and isn’t afraid to search for knowledge or guidance to make sure that you get where you want to go.

The other category contains those who say they want to do big things but when push comes to shove, they quickly come up with a thousand reasons why they can’t do something new. I don’t have the money yet, I’m going to wait for a better time, real estate would be great but only if I got started ten years ago... and they go on and on. By coming up with excuses to give to other people they convince themselves in the process that they are doing the “right” thing by playing it safe.

We believe to the core of our being that a willingness to step up to the challenges life offers us is what makes champions of us all. There is a reason that you are reading this book. It just may be that you are finally ready to take the first step towards living the life of your dreams. To prove that commercial real estate investing is really possible, we recently took the bold step of issuing a challenge to the press to prove that anyone, and we do mean anyone, can make $1 million or more by investing in commercial land development.

After all, if a former auto mechanic and introverted engineer can make a fortune investing in commercial real estate, then you can, too.

Here’s the challenge that we sent out to 3,159 TV stations, radio stations, and newspapers:

“Give us a team of people who are committed to going after their dreams and within 90 days they will have a land development deal under contract and within 180 days the project will be fully underway. By the time the team is done they will have developed the knowledge and confidence to be able to put together commercial deals on their own and they will have made $1 million or more.”

 

We believe that the key to making things happen is in making a commitment that you can’t back down from. We have publicly put ourselves on the line and now the pressure is on. We are going to win or lose with the whole world watching us. To watch those we’ve picked to be on the challenge team in action and cheer them on, go to www.landdevelopmentchallenge.com.

3 Powerful Negotiating Tips For Real Estate Investing Deals

There are many aspects to investing in real estate that need to work like a symphony. All must do their part and perform well. And it doesn’t matter if you’re investing in homes or commercial property.

 
One of your most powerful skills is your ability to negotiate. But don’t let that word scare you.

 
As you’ll soon discover, negotiating a winning deal is simply a skill that can be learned. You’ve been negotiating all your life. We all do it every single day to get something we want.

 
Here are three very powerful negotiating tips you can use right away in your own investing adventures.

 
1. One of the greatest concerns a seller has is the fear of making a mistake. A person who’s driven by fear during negotiations tends to constantly look for something wrong. And that tendency causes a seller to disagree with almost anything you say.

 
What you’ll do is simply turn it around. Here’s how…

 
Your goal is to lead the seller through a process of admitting obvious truths with you instead of defensive arguing. And you can skillfully turn this into a winning deal.

 Here’s a quick example…

 Seller: I listed the property several months ago with a local real estate agent.

 You the investor: And that’s been working well for you? (Turning it around…instead of saying, “That hasn’t been going so well?”)

 

Seller: No, not really. We haven’t found anyone who’s serious.

 

This is a very typical scenario. Notice the seller still disagrees with you. But the difference is the seller is telling the obvious truth. And there’s no ‘defensive’ arguing leading to building walls with you.

 
2. Learn the language patterns of reluctant buyers. There are specific language patterns used. You can simply learn them to become a more effective negotiator.

 
The most often used pattern is how everything is ‘qualified’ before saying it.

 
Here are just a few patterns you can use:

 
“I’m not sure about this, but maybe we can…”

 
“This might not be possible, but what if…”

 
“I don’t know if my partner will agree to this, but what if I persuade her to go along with…”

 
What’s happening is you, the reluctant real estate investor, are subtly stepping back from a deal. You’re not totally backing out. The effect is subtle when properly executed.

 
And this creates psychological space.

 
The natural tendency is for the seller to move forward to fill that empty space. It’s a natural human thing to do. We’ve all done it in various scenarios in life.

 
This is very powerful once you’ve mastered your own style with this technique.

 
3. Never discuss specifics of price, terms, or numbers until you’ve spent time talking through the seller’s motivation to sell the property. In addition to helping solve someone’s problem, your benefit will be getting a great buy.

 
I’ll explain why this is so important…

 
First, emotional reasons are at the core of all buying and selling decisions. People make emotional decisions justified with logic to make us ‘feel’ like we did the right thing.

 
The seller realizes and is intellectually aware of the motivations for selling the property. But spending time bringing out the motivations through sincere discussion will make the seller feel it. The focus shifts from a mental awareness to emotional feeling.

 
And when that happens you’ll also get to the real motivating reasons for selling the property. The last and most powerful benefit from doing this is…

 
You’ll be creating an emotional rapport, or bond, with the seller. And that leads directly to the single most powerful negotiating tip of all.

 
Master the ability to create an emotional connection with people.

 
The only way to achieve high success investing in real estate is to negotiate great deals the seller and you feel good about. The seller feels good because you’ve met her needs. You, as the investor, feel good because you made a healthy profit.

 
Creating an emotional connection compels the seller to work with you. Rapport builds trust and a willingness to work with you as a ‘team.’

 
Use these tips in your own real estate investments because they work. They are just a small handful of what I’ve used in my own investing career.

5 Mistakes To Avoid When Investing In Apartment Real Estate

Commercial property can seem like the ultimate form of real estate investment. And when proper due diligence is done apartment properties can become a cornerstone of your investing business.

The ugly flip side is a field of scattered and broken dreams.

Many investing failures could have been prevented if only a little homework was done before inking the deal. It’s not hard and it isn’t rocket science.

Here are just a few important areas you should be aware of before taking the plunge. They may seem like common sense to you as you read them. But you’d be shocked if you knew how many commercial investors overlook the simplest things.

      1.  Failing to inspect      the apartment buildings...again, just before closing. Of course               you’ll      inspect the apartment during your initial evaluations. You decide to buy      and             secure your financing. You’re all set to take over in a month or two.

 Be darned sure you have a close look before you close the deal. This is important especially with older apartments. But even newer complexes can have their issues.

 
It’s a smart idea to have a professional inspector do this. This is what they do for a living. So they know what to look for. More often than not, they’ll uncover new problems or even problems overlooked by you.

         2. Only work with      experienced commercial property lenders. Forget your regular bank.         They do      not specialize in apartments or commercial property investments.

 
Commercial mortgage brokers understand more than you do, or your bank, when it comes to investing loans.

3.

Don’t invest in      apartments under the assumption you can just raise rents and make a lot of      money. The real world doesn’t quite work that way. Ask yourself this      question...

Why is the seller unloading this property? If it was so easy to just raise the rent, why doesn’t the seller just raise them and make more money?

 
The critical observation in any scenario is to look at the existing rent prices for the property. How does that mesh with the asking price?

 
Take existing rent fees into consideration for your offer. And think critically about any statements on the rent being too low. Again...if the rent is too low, why doesn’t the seller just raise them?

4 .

Failing to      comprehensively examine income, expenses, and taxes over a period of time.      Sometimes you’ll find potential landmines just waiting to happen.

 Always ask to see the corporation’s returns for at least the last several years. This will help you have an accurate idea of how the property performs in real life.

 Then contact the county assessor’s office and ask about the location’s tax situation. The important items include last years taxes, the current years taxes, and if taxes will increase next year due to the sale of the property.

 Doing this can reveal potential large, unexpected costs to you in the future.

 Looking into the      future and pretending you’re the buyer...5 or 10 years down the              road. This      is a bit of a judgment call on your part. But you’d be surprised at how      you          may feel about the property and location.

Take a good look around and imagine what the grounds will look like in 10 years. How about the surrounding area? How are the neighborhoods nearby?

 
If things look a little run-down, how will they look in the future?

 
If there’s a lot of open space next door...fields or woods, for example, you might want to find out about it. Who owns it? Are there any existing plans to develop it? You never know, maybe someone wants to turn it into an industrial operation.

 
How will any surrounding developmental plans impact your apartments?

 
Use your imagination as you do this. If you don’t have good feelings about it, then listen to that and act accordingly in your best interests.

 
Learning how to spot potential pitfalls can save you a lot of money and headaches. Investing in commercial properties such as apartments can be lucrative if done right. And the smartest thing you can do is become educated and learn from those who’ve traveled before you.

How to Make $20 Million Starting Today

Greetings from Annapolis

The leaves are just starting to fall here - it's not hot yet you still don't need a jacket at night.

Today is the final day we are editing our latest book:

Investing in Commercial Real Estate for Dummies - to be released in January 2008

Here's quick sneak peek from Chapter 1

My name is Emily  and I’ve used the information in this book to go from being a 22 year old college student and in less than 5 years reach a level of wealth and lifestyle that is.. well… I guess you’d call me a multi-millionairess.  In my senior year of college I went to some real estate investing clubs and I discovered creative investing.  I knew it was possible because they said you don't need cash, and you don't need credit, and I knew I qualified for that. 

But I didn't know the step by step the details of what needed to happen next.  When I joined the Residential Mentorship Program, I was actually shaking and sweating because it was the biggest check I had ever written but I said, “Please God; if this just helps me get my first deal, I know that it will all be worthwhile.”

It seemed like I had it make when I signed up my first creative purchase of a single family home just 23 days after getting started. Well, this and a few other deals ended up falling apart over the next six months mainly because I didn’t quite have all the confidence that I needed yet. When people asked me why I didn’t give up I told them that I knew real estate worked. I had seen it work for other students in the Mentorship Program and I wanted to prove to myself that it could work for me.

I’m glad I stuck with it because the next month I bought the first of many homes using Peter and Peter’s system. Then after buying houses for a number of years I went to their Commercial Training. I met several people who partnered up with me to buy a commercial property for $560,000. We used the Instant Offer System to get the owner to carry back 95% of the financing. To make it even better we used Peter’s Money Principles to get an investor to provide the 5% down payment.

Most people would die to have a commercial property like this that creates a cash flow of over $8,000 a year right from day one. I found that people in the Mentor Family have continued to encourage me to grow. In one of our recent deals we raised over $4 million dollars in outside funds so we had the money to purchase a property that is worth $20 million. After we split this property up and change the zoning it will be worth over $40 million.

Looking back, it is hard to believe.  When I started I was making $10 an hour at a part time job. One year later I would have been thrilled to make $50,000 on a duplex.  Now I own over $80 Million of real estate in my various partnerships.  The key to escaping the rat race was to start small and then hang around with other investors who think big.

Get the Green Light on Your Land Development Deals

Right now I’m up in Maine with my folks who summer up here. It’s wonderful to spend some time with them. If you don’t have a lifestyle that allows you to spend quality time with the people you love most, it’s time for you to reach out and grab it. If you are serious about making a change in your life grab me by the hand so I can guide you All The Way To Your First $40,000 In Profits.

By the way... I don’t mean to offend anyone, but.... oh what the heck. If you are unable to commit to something that is guaranteed to work but that might seem “scary” at first or “take some hard work”, please do everyone a favor and do not click the link above!

Some of our Commercial Mentoring Program™ students are studying the zoning and approval process so that they can make Millions (yes Millions) doing land development projects.

While we often think of the planning and zoning officials as roadblocks to giving us the green light on our land development deals, it’s important to understand what zoning is all about.

Here’s a quote from the Anytown USA zoning and planning department:

Our purpose is to promote the health, safety, and general welfare of the residents; to encourage the most appropriate use of land throughout the municipality; to promote traffic safety; to provide safety from fire and other elements; to provide adequate light and air; to prevent overcrowding of real estate; to promote a wholesome home environment; to prevent housing development in unsanitary areas; to provide an adequate street system; to promote the coordinated development of unbuilt areas; to encourage the formation of community units; to provide an allotment of land area in new developments sufficient for all the requirements of community units; to conserve natural resources; and to provide for adequate public services, as an integral part of a comprehensive plan for municipal development.

Big picture is that these agencies want the same thing we do, but the people that work there just don’t make big piles of money from commercial real estate like you and I do. So the key is to understand how to connect and create relationships with “City Hall” rather than running in the door and asking them to approve all of your projects.

Come to think of it, this makes sense in any relationship that you are getting into. Get to know the other person and find ways to help them out first. Then, later, you’ll find that you’ve got a friend on your side to help you out.

As I mentioned, right now I’m sitting on the porch at my parents’ small home up in Sidney, Maine where they spend their summers. We have roots here going back 200 years to John Quincy Adams. (Whom my grandmother insisted that we are related to)

 

I’m looking across the field to the farm where my brother works on my cousins’ dairy farm, milking cows. Even though the land that his houses is on is not very big, the view out my brother’s backyard is across lush green fields and trees as they slope down to the river. As you stand on his back deck, you'd never guess that this area has absolutely no zoning whatsoever. This means that if someone wants to rebuild a school bus in their front yard, then they can do it.

 

Luckily most of the neighbors work together to keep the community looking fairly nice. In effect, the zoning and planning department of any municipality work just like the community does in Sidney. It’s just that in bigger cities you’re going to deal with the planning department rather than your neighbors.

 

To Your Success,

 

Peter

 

Update on Big Profits in a down Real Estate Market

Last week I met with 52 dedicated people in Denver, CO who came from as far away as Alberta, Canada to brainstorm with my friends and I as part of the “Making Big Money Investing in a down Market” Symposium.

 

While it’s too late for you to get in on this, I have been buried with requests to somehow make all of the new ideas that were introduced, challenged, filtered and refined at this get-together available to everyone who wants to get their hands on them. I was blown away by how the Brain Trust Process^TM was able to come up with brand new supersized methods of investing in real estate.

 

A key theme seemed to be using leveraged technology to connect with hundreds or thousands of sellers instead of just sitting down with one motivated seller at a time.

 

I won’t be releasing these ideas until March of 2008 after I’ve had time to fully test them out with my own investing. At that point you can expect to see an online training course with a title that is similar to the symposium. If you want to get a sneak peek, or play a part as one of my “guinea pigs” to help me refine ideas like “The Lazy Millionaires Short Sale Investing System” please go here to jump on the bandwagon.

 

That’s it for this week.

 

Live BIG!

 

To Your Success,

 

Peter

 

P.S. Want to grab my hand as I walk (or run) you through the process of Making Your First $40,000 Investing In Real Estate?

 

Please do not apply unless you are absolutely serious about following my guidance and instruction.

 

Why Land Development Will Make You Rich

When you take a five acre piece of raw dirt that is worth a million dollars because it's in a really good area, and you change its use, better known as zoning, there's a very good chance that the value of just that raw land can go up 25 to 100% in value. Assuming you know how to raise the funds using private investors, you buy it for a million. In a couple of years, depending on the community; and what's going on, you go through the entitlement process, which can take you from a year to two years, you can double what you paid for the property. 

Okay so now you made a million dollars in a two year period, so how much is that per year? If you do in the math with me, that equals Five hundred thousand.  How many people do you know who make $500,000 a year? So if you know, you can hit pay dirt in land development, what's holding you back?

It could be the money you say. I hear you. When we started out we didn't have much money either. The neat thing about land development, is just like other types of real estate, you can put together land development projects without using much of your own money. 

Listen to some of the stories from my Commercial Mentoring Program™ students who are doing it right now! If they can do it, you can too. Need more proof? I started out as an auto mechanic, come on. Go for your dreams. Live BIG.

To Your Success,

Peter

 

 

CNN Reports Real Estate Foreclosures Sky High

 

The newspapers and TV did an awesome advertising job for us investors this week by putting out some great negative headlines! You can’t pay for news this good!

“Foreclosures: No relief in sight”

July foreclosures nearly double from last year

NEW YORK

(CNNMoney.com) – “The flood of foreclosure filings showed no sign of let-up in July, according to the latest data from RealtyTrac, the online marketer of foreclosure properties.”

“179,599 foreclosure filings, which include default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions, were reported nationwide for a 9 percent rise over the previous month and a 93 percent jump compared with July, 2006.”

With foreclosures headed sky high, the market right now is perfect for real estate investors, but only if you know how to take advantage of it. Make sure you read “Making Big Money Investing in Foreclosures without Cash or Credit” and visit Your Special Bonus Page to get free training, foreclosure laws from most states and other goodies.

If you are within a quick plane trip to

Baltimore

, come join me in person at my

“Ultimate Investors Bootcamp” In 2 days you’ll learn how to grab on to big profits from foreclosures, short sales, and even commercial real estate investing! Don’t miss out!

 

How does commercial real estate compare to residential

        Questions on commercial real estate were the topic today when I was the guest on Vena Jones-Cox's radio show in Cincinnati, Ohio.

        We were talking about commercial real estate investing and had some questions about why commercial real estate might be better than residential real estate.  First off,  I love single-family homes.  They've been my bread and butter for years and I still continue to invest with my Residential Mentoring Program™ students all across the country in single-family homes.


Commercial real estate is really exciting, though, because of three reasons and they all had to do with leverage.

1. Time - a commercial real estate deal, while it does take more time than a house deal, by putting in just a little bit more time.  You end up getting a ton more profits.  That's what I call leverage
2. Money - you may be thinking that with a commercial real estate deal.  You need to have lots of money in the bank for down payments and covering fees and environmental inspections and that type of thing.  While doesn't hurt to have a little but a capital work with, you can put together a commercial deals without using much of your own money.          for example in a shopping center, which we recently purchased for 4.2 million the entire $400,000 down payment was brought in by outside investors.
3. G.U.T. -   Jumping into buying big deals like commercial properties means that you're operating from your gut.this stands for your "greatest unique talent".  There's nothing to build your confidence like going out making an offer on a $2 million property, having accepted, then working through all the challenges of taking it to closing and turning it into a cash flow and property.

        We also had a question from a listener in Texas who want to get started investing in commercial real estate. obviously you need to get educated first, then try and find someone like an experienced investor or mentor, who will take you under their wing and show you the ropes.
       
        Check out our Commercial Mentoring Program™ if you'd like to see some examples of deals that our students have done, or if you are serious about getting going investing in commercial real estate.

To your success,

Peter

Commit to Your Dreams and “Chance” Will Work for YOU!

I wanted to share an observation with you. I’ve noticed that the moment people make a serious commitment to something; all kinds of “accidents” seem to work in their favor.

 

Here are two quick examples of this: 

 

First, a student in the bay area of

California

decides he is going to buy foreclosures. He’s never done it before but he leaps in with both feet and makes a commitment. It turns out that his girlfriend’s neighbor is losing her house to foreclosure and our student buys the property and nets over $100,000!

 

Second, one of our Residential Mentoring Students™ makes the BIG leap to commit to Commercial Investing (which is a SIGNIFICANT commitment). Six weeks later he finalizes his purchase contract on a 154-unit apartment complex in

Austin

,

Texas

.

 

Were these both “accidents”? I don’t think so.

 

So I ask you to commit or recommit to your investing goals. Jump in with both feet even if you’re not fully ready, heck, especially if you’re not fully ready! Then start to notice all the things that fall your way. This doesn’t mean you won’t be tested. Of course you will. But if you stay the course, you can and will succeed in a BIG way.

 

I KNOW it is possible for you.

To Your Success,

Peter