Great time to build a future?

The economy seems to be in a troubled state today. You hear all the bad news daily about unemployment and companies shutting down. You can choose to believe all that bad news or start working on making some good news.

I started buying investment real estate in 1985. I was buying properties in Mesa Arizona at a cost of $15,000-$35,000. The banks wanted to dump them and there where plenty of renters. I would run an ad in the local paper and rent my property almost immediately. I remember one Saturday I posted an ad in the paper and when I got to the property I had a line of people in front of the door. In fact two people got in a fist fight. Now that's supply and demand at work.

I later sold those proerties for almost double what I paid for them. I had 8 proerties in all and I also made a great cash flow with them for 5 years. I then cashed all them in and made more money than I could have imagined.

Let's fast forward to today. I can buy homes for $25,000-$35,000 in the Cleveland Ohio area. They rent very quickly and cash flow $400-$800 per month. The banks want to dump their homes and get them off the books. All this means their are great deals waiting for you.

Buying homes in the Cleveland area is less than buying a car. The time to buy may seem gloomy today, but their are a lot of investors that are cashing in on today's market. I just purchased a home in Bedford Ohio for $11,300. It was a super buy on an acre lot. Selling the property on a land contract will make me a $30,000 dollar spread. The home will rent for $650-$700 a month and cash flow $450-$500 per month.

That's a great monthly income and a great future profit. I get these all the time. Getting these types of homes can be tricky if your not out their everyday looking for the deals.

Understanding that todays market can make you a fortune is good news. The trick is to get into it. Building your future is today. The market has never been more affordable. Financial freedom is less expensive today then any other day. You just have to start making your own good news and quite listening to all the bad news. Brett Young WWW.Rooftopprofitmax.com

Maintaining your business

There is a lot of work and customer service the customer never hears about. Things you need to take care of, that the client doesn't even know about.

We had an electrical problem with a duplex that required me to spend a lot of time to get this problem resolved. No profit for me, but it effected my clients bottom line. Taking care of it made my client more money and they did not have to deal with it.

Starting a business is hard to do, but I think maintaining it is even harder. This requires the day to day operations and looking how to maintain and make your process even better.

Our company just installed a new marketing assistant that we hired. All his job is to take care of all the new rentals and vacancies. This allowed our management company to focus on showing and managing the properties. It also rented our units faster so our clients can make more money on their investment property.

We also set up a new auditing system for rehab and repairs to ensure everything was finished and up to our clients standards. This also made the properties rent faster. For example one of my contractors came up with the idea to decorate the bathrooms in one of our freshly rehabbed duplex's. We showed the property twice and it was fully rented in 10 days! The main thing the tenants liked was the bathrooms and how they looked! We have now implemented that into all our new rentals. The auditing system picked up that very important information.

This is just a few ways I maintain my business. Always looking out for your client will create a great income for you! Maybe not today, but if you stick with it the future becomes unlimited! Maintaining your day to day business, will give you more time to get new business because your old ones are happy! Brett Young WWW.Rooftopprofitmax.com

How much rehab is enough

When your buying real estate and flipping the property you need to have a planned budget that will work for your property. The budget is the most important thing you can have. Some investors look at their equity and think it is unlimited. This can get you into trouble.

When you get your budget for a home you can then plan what to do with it. A great way to know is get in your car and go to some open houses in the neighborhood, or look at some that are up for sell. This way you know your competition and the market.

You need to also look at some solds in the neighborhood to see what type of homes are selling faster. For example a home may have larger bedrooms and a very nice kitchen that sold quickly. Some of the lots of the solds may be a premium lot (bigger or on a nice street) that could also affect the price. What I'm saying in a nutshell make sure you understand what type of remodeled homes are selling the fastest.

In flips you can save a lot of money with paint I use washable flat paint. It looks nice and cost 70%-80% of the price of other paints. Your cheapest upgrades are always lighting. You can put the best lighting in and still stay in budget. It also makes your home look very nice.

I always dual paint flips(two color) this really makes a property pop when people are looking at it.

You can blow your budget by putting things in that really don't help you sell the properties, Example would be cabinets in a kitchen. That can cost an arm and a leg. Refinish or put on some nice counter top instead. Another would be bathrooms, you can spend a lot on these.

Make sure that what your doing will keep you in budget. Remember your in the flip game to make home very nice, and also make yourself good profit for all your hard work. Always look at what type of upgrades people are buying in that neighborhood and you'll do great! Brett Young WWW.Rooftopprofitmax.com

Building Your Business

Building a business can seem easy at first, but a some point you'll hit a Plato and you'll level out. A lot of business owners fold up tent here and quit.

I've personally built three business and know the Plato's you can have. I had a pet food delivery service www.Gooberpetdirect.com I started out of my garage. The very first ad I did was flyer's. I canvased the neighborhoods with door hangers. I got a few clients out of that, so I kept doing it for 3 months. I eventually Plato'd out.

The business started a new marketing campaign with a paper called Penny saver. They offered me a front page on all the zones they didn't sell. Penny saver gave me a great price on it and I started doing that. They delivered my ad to almost 80,000 homes a week. It cut into my wallet a few bucks but it worked. The business got 20-60 people a week.

That eventually did the same thing Plato'd out and I had to come with another new idea. We came up with the Goober News (Goober was my dogs name). I ran some fun stories and advertised all my new items to my clients and had a club goober you could join. The key though was a 10% discount I offered to clients to bring in new clients. That idea got me 150 new clients a month. In fact the dog food companies came in and told me I had uncontrollable growth. I thought to myself that's a problem? ; )

When I sold the company we had 6000 clients and gross sells of $1,000,000 dollars. Our ticket average was $35 compared to Petsmart which was around $19.

So when one idea Plato's out then think of a new marketing piece and start it upwards again. Remember that marketing is the key. Learn your existing clients and build your company from them also, they are your best advertising. Brett Young Valley Realty WWW.Rooftopprofitmax.com

Everyone needs real estate

I'm always hearing that real estate is going down in this long rescission we are having. Although that may be true you still have to look at the opportunity of buying investment real estate in this type of market.

The first opportunity is how affordable it is. This is the first time in my 25 year career that practically anyone can get into the real estate game. I moved 3000 miles because of the opportunities in this market.

The second is that everyone needs a place to live. If you get into the right areas the demand can be very high for rentals and flips. In some areas rental rates has stayed the same and the price of real estate has not effected the rental rates. That makes your cash flow very good. We are seeing 20% and up on rental returns. Remember Location,Location,location

The third is your end game. When the market turns and it will, if you have some of this quality low priced real estate you will make a fortune. We are seeing .25 to .30 on the dollar for our homes and multi plex's. We believe that our clients could make 70%-200% on their investments when the market turns.

You can also make a handsome profit on land contracts. With the banks not lending this market has really spiked. We are seeing 10%-15% returns. These homes have no maintenance and you will net a very healthy profit. So being a bank can make you a lot of money in both cash flow and when they cash out at the end of the contract.

The last thing I want to talk about is buyers of these investment properties. In a good market their are literally thousands. I remember in 2003-2006 you need to bid on 100 homes to get 1 or 2. You made great money on them but it took a long time to get them. You also had to get with the right people that was very rare.

Today you can get a home in a much shorter period. It still takes some time but you will get one pretty quickly. That's because the Rooftop team is out their everyday looking at the new deals and some older ones also. So that means that you will be able to get a lot of real estate in this type of market.

So what are you waiting for? Today's market is a great cash flow machine that is waiting to put money in your pocket. Brett Young Valley Realty WWW.Rooftopprofitmax.com