Real Estate Investing’s Inner Game

THE INNER GAME OF COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

Every once in a while I get an internal reminder that I am a work in progress. In this instance it was not one of those “hit you over the head with an 8 pound sledge hammer” reminders that you get when you have been particularly blind to your own faults. It was more of a little “A Ha!” that had larger implications if uncorrected. And by being aware of this quiet reminder, I hope to avoid the previously referenced sledge hammer in the near future!

The subject of my internal wake up call was driving a beautiful new black Mercedes 550S Class sedan and was waiting to make a left hand turn across my lane. The driver was female, looked like she had just gotten back from the salon, and was politely waiting for me to pass. She did nothing wrong, sat there calmly waiting for me to drive by, with her flasher on. As I drove by I thought to myself something like: “Oh boy, there goes another rich twit in her paid for …”

Whammo.

The guardian of my mind popped into my head waving his mechanical arms like the Robot in an episode of that 1960’s television series “Lost in Space.”

“Warning!” “Warning!” “Danger, Craig Higdon!!!”

For those of you too young to know the reference, I’m sure that you can find an old episode somewhere on cable TV. You won’t have to wait too long before ol’ Mr. Robot shows up to give you a demonstration.

Anyway, do you realize what my “guardian” did for me? He trounced all over a “limiting belief” and gave me a chance to correct it.

Choosing Our Beliefs

For those of you not familiar with the term “limiting belief,” I first came across it while investigating Neurolinguistic Programming, or “NLP” some years back. NLP is a study of internal and external communication processes and its effect on human behavior.

One of the things that you learn in the course of studying NLP is that in large part our behavior is governed by our beliefs … and that our beliefs are what we make them! Think about that for a moment … we chose all of our beliefs! Everything that you believe about everything was a choice that you made. You will have to take my word for it for the moment because I could fill volumes on just this aspect of NLP.

Just for fun, you might want to examine a belief or two that you have. Start with something simple like: “I believe that peanut butter is good for me.” Now ask yourself a few questions:

When did I start to believe that? What evidence do I have that makes that true? What evidence do I have that makes that not true? What do I get out of believing that? What would happen if I did not believe that?

There are more questions to ask that would help you to change a belief, but hopefully in the course of asking yourself the questions above you came to the realization that you decided to adopt that belief at sometime in the past based upon some rules, some evidence, or an experience that you had. This has some interesting implications, doesn’t it?

And what does this have to do with commercial real estate investing, commercial loans, and construction projects? Quite a bit, actually.

One of the questions that I get frequently is: “How do I get started or go to the next level in commercial real estate?” The overly simple answer to that is: “Well, first you have to believe that you can!”

Limit Those Limiting Beliefs

Let me illustrate this. I have had people who owned multiple 1 to 4 unit properties, maybe 20 to 30 units in all, ask me how to buy their first apartment building or other piece of commercial real estate. When I get that question I have to chuckle … because they already have an apartment building! It is simply broken up into smaller chunks. Granted, the mechanics of multifamily real estate are slightly different than for multiunit residential, but in this case the questioner is already a commercial real estate or “income producing real estate” investor. He just hasn’t realized it.

He doesn’t “believe” that he’s is a commercial real estate investor and has thus artificially “limited” his options for investing. He does not yet “believe” that he can invest in other types of real estate.

So let me get back to my story and my little mental guardian. I passed the nice lady in the Mercedes, saw her make her turn in the rearview mirror, and we both went our merry ways. As I drove away, I changed my thoughts about her to: “She has done well and I wish her to continue to do well.”

Because I have had a little training in NLP I was able to catch myself looping into an old belief about wealth and wealthy people and make the “change” at the time in my thinking. The experience did serve to remind me that I need to be vigilant in my “belief monitoring” and that I might want to make a personal inventory of my beliefs concerning wealth in the near future.

And if you don’t think that you have some buried beliefs about wealth and being wealthy that are working against you in your real estate investments, my friend, you are simply kidding yourself. They are all there in the daily newspapers, T.V. shows, magazines, etc. You probably can’t go 10 minutes without hearing or seeing something “bad” about making money or being “rich.” Have you ever heard the phrase “filthy rich?” Uh huh. And I’ll bet that you know a bunch of others, too.

So you need to place a guardian in your mind to sift out those limiting beliefs. This will help you with any self-sabotage you may have encountered in your life. It is not easy without the right tricks, but it is very rewarding. So as you develop your commercial real estate investment techniques, remember to focus on your inner game to manifest your outer goals.

Note: NLP is slowly being supplanted by a more powerful “technology” called Hemispherical Integration. You can find out more about it at the web site NLPLA.com.

About the Author:

By Craig Higdon

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete statement with it: ‘“The Investment Property Insider” is published by Craig S. Higdon, a veteran commercial mortgage broker. He publishes the weekly e-zine and blog, www.InvestmentPropertyInsider.com, for commercial real estate investors, developers, and industry professionals. Visit the blog and get this free report: “The 7 Biggest Loan Mistakes Real Estate Investors Make and How to avoid them.”’

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If you need assistance selling your house ERA Othello Realty can share their expertise and experience with you in a friendly and professional manner. From all aspects of selling your house: from getting a qualified CMA (Comparative Market Analysis) to advising you on the presentation of your house, marketing your home online and in print, conducting an open house, showing your house within your guidelines and discretion, constant communication, negotiating the best price for your home and being with you until closing and beyond. We can also assist you in your search for a new home. Please call us at 732-364-2015. We are the realtors NJ! Look at these Listings of Homes for Sale in NJ. Marlboro NJ Real Estate, Homes for Sale in Marlboro NJ, Marlboro NJ, and Information on Marlboro NJ.

A real estate agent – a bridge over troubled water

The real estate and home buyers markets are evolving into a more balanced market giving buyers more negotiating power, give & take and added time to make purchase decisions. This trend is forecast to continue, and will result in smaller price increases in 2007.” Unless you bought your house recently and were hoping to “?ip” it at a hefty pro?t, chances are you’re not actually going to sell at a loss. So, the question remains how to sell your home at a reasonable price, and in a reasonable amount of time? The first consideration is price. What we need to do is have a look at what similar properties in your area have sold or recently. Remember that the key word is “recently,” not a year ago when the housing market was still in an irregular ?ux. Homes are certainly still selling, it’s just that they aren’t selling at the inflated prices that we saw over the past couple of years. Pricing your home properly is more important now than ever

The state of the current housing market could be cause for confusion amongst home sellers these days. Reports of a real estate slump in areas of the United States have left many people wondering if their markets will follow. In actuality, what is happening is world real estate markets are now “normalizing.” Instead of the unusual real estate market activity of recent years — record sales, double-digit price increases and frantic bidding wars — we’re going back to a more balanced real estate situation. The second thing to keep in mind is that in order to make your home stand out amongst similar ones in your area, you need to pay particular attention to its visual appeal. That means ensuring that your property is clean, clutter-free and in good repair.

A simple fact of home ownership for most of us is a mortgage. As necessary as it is, wouldn’t it be nice if you could pay it off quicker, freeing up your money for home improvements, your children’s education, your retirement fund or an endless list of dreams that need ?nancing? If your answer is “yes,” then you may want to talk to your mortgage representative and re-visit your current mortgage situation to see if it would make sense to re?nance or change the structure of your payments to help you achieve your financial goals.

Some mortgage reduction tips , some suggestions for paying off your mortgage sooner may include:1.Increase the frequency of your payments. If you get paid every two weeks anyway, why not make biweekly mortgage payments instead of one big monthly payment? You could reduce the term of your loan and save hundreds of dollars in annual interest costs! 2. Decrease the term of your loan. If you can afford the higher payments, choose a shorter mortgage term and pay substantially less interest over the term of the loan.3. Pay as much as you can — for your down payment and your monthly payments. Don’t pay more than you can comfortably afford. However if, for example, interest rates decrease when it’s time to renew your mortgage, then keep your mortgage payments the same, allowing more money to go directly to your principal.4. Use extra money for an annual lump sum payment.

About the Author:

By Bernice Lydan

Bernice Lydan is a licensed Barrie real estate professional. She provides real estate services within the Barrie real estate market. Her portfolio can be found at www.bigbayhome.com.

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The Various Real Estate Market

Real estate is a legal term that encompasses field along with any other permanent affixed to house. Real estate is often considered also called real property or we are also called self property. However, in USA there are numerical variations in the request of this concept among states as well as between county and city inside states. The discussions will in very necessary instance deal with housing real property is not similar as opposed to business real property.

Some types of the real estate property:

• Condominium: this is a multi unit structure I called residential, industrial that is provide by the property ownership. Every group is owned single and all general areas are owned in not divided interest ownership with all group owners having the same share.
• Commercial Property: real Property diagram for using by retailer, wholesaler, hotel and shopping center.
• Industrial Property: this property can use for the industrial reasons, I can use such as factories, company areas and developmental parks.
• Vacant Land: This type Land is not used for any purpose; this is a free space that off-site improvements.
• Mobile Home: A home group artificial in a plant and designed to be mobile to a place and semi-permanently close.

All the spaces refer by the Leased space that at present time has a financial lease contract on it. All leased space include, without regard of whether the space is presently occupied or not.

Real estate is often buying and sells with the help of a real property broker. Brokers may be employed to sell land, in which case their duty is to act really toward the major and gain the top price possible. They may also be employed by a buyer to locate property, in which case their duty is to safe the property at the minimum price. The broker responsibility is a simple one of an agent to foremost.

It is tenant with a top most credit ranking. To a real estate developer, impressed such a tenant is very necessary since the talent to arrange both building and permanent financing for a big industrial, commercial or company project, for example shopping center or office building, is often dependent leading pre- leasing a sure amount of the space to an renter.
For Seeking Help of Real Estate and also knowing the information about the property value please go to:

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Onlineghar.com is the biggest real estate agents in India. OnlineGhar.com aims to become India’s premier property portal that meets every aspect of the consumer’s needs in the real estate industry and will be a one - stop source for buying, selling or leasing any type of property anywhere in the country. To assist people when researching the Indian property market, onlineghar.com contains current and useful data about Indian property on their website. Properety-India is the Open-Realty is a free, open source real estate listing manager.

About the Author:

By Firoj Khan

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If you would like to buy a house/home we are your source of thousands of available listings of real estate. As a native Licensed New Jersey Real Estate Broker we have many agents in our realty who are very familiar with the needs of New Jersey Real Estate buyers. If you are interested in selling your house, or any other NJ real estate, we are here to help you sell. Our experience real estate office staff will walk you through the whole house selling process. Get in touch with us and we will show you how we can help your sell your home in New Jersey. We are the realtors NJ! Great Marlboro NJ Real Estate, Homes for Sale in Marlboro NJ, Marlboro NJ, and Information on Marlboro NJ.

House Signs And Their Importance to House Sellers

As a maker of house signs it never ceases to amaze me at how few house sellers consider the importance of having a decent house sign on the properties they are selling.

We are told that the first impressions are so important to prospective buyers that the decision whether to buy or not, can be made if the first minutes of a viewing. If that is true, hanging a decent quality house sign on your home must be considered as a small but important part of your selling strategy.

Consider if you will the buyers viewpoint, they have an address and they are trolling down the road looking for the house of their dreams, the very first thing they see will be the house sign.

You have probably spent vast amounts of time and effort re-building, decorating and cleaning. You may have fitted new carpets and curtains to impress the buyers, you almost certainly repaired that leaking gutter and re-painted the soffits and exterior paintwork.

Now have a look at the house sign.

Is the house sign or house number on your property a testament to all your hard work, or does it say, there were things you couldn’t be bothered to do.

The quality of the sign can either make a small but positive impression or it can put them on their guard. Has this house been cared for? Has the building work been carried out to a high standard, is this a quality home? The home owner or builder who has neglected the house sign may have neglected other things!

All or some of these things may be in some small way deduced from the quality and condition of the house sign.

If the property you are selling has been advertised as a quality development, does it really help your cause to have an old plywood sign nailed to the tree with the name written in felt tip pen, or the numbers of that ‘charming country cottage’ displayed with plastic numbers screwed to the gate? Don’t laugh I have seen this!

Having a poor house sign probably wont be a deal breaker of course, but if you are serious about selling your property it doesn’t pay to miss any trick.

This is not to say that you have to pay vast fortunes for a suitable house sign, the main things to consider are: does the design of the house sign suit the property. If the material the sign is made of compliments the building style, its a good first step.

Do not be tempted into the false economy of buying a sign that is too small for the house. That will look just mean. Nor in a style that is inappropriate. Smart homes should have smart signs. Cottages are best suited by rustic signs and if you have spent time and energy designing and decorating a contemporary home, then search out a contemporary house sign maker.

There are plenty of house sign web sites. Try to focus in on the style or material you would prefer for your house sign and then narrow the field by doing a focused search on a search engine.

Browsing these sites and taking the time to choose a house sign that will enhance the selling of your house will be time well spent.

About the Author:

By Steve Walker

Steve Walker has been a craftsman in stone and marble for 40 years. In his long career has practised as a stone mason, letter cutter, restoration carver, marble mason, and fireplace designer/manufacturer.
He now specialises in engraved stone, granite and slate house signs as:
www.stoneengravings.co.uk StoneEngravings, Engraved Natural Stone House Signs.

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How to Make Your Mortgage Business Thrive in 2007

Your 7-Step One Day Marketing Plan

In my consulting experience working with hundreds of mortgage professionals, I have noticed a similar attribute that is common to most independent mortgage brokers. Most are “doers”, not “planners.”

In reality, being a doer is perhaps the ultimate mark of a successful person. It’s what makes entrepreneurs a rare breed. Rather than thinking or wishing, they get out there and make things happen.

But I have encountered many mortgage brokers who get into trouble “doing” the wrong marketing activities the right way or “doing” the right marketing activities the wrong way. If you want to “do” the right marketing activities the right way you must start with a marketing plan.

You don’t have to kill a tree to create an effective marketing plan. In fact, you can create a successful plan for your mortgage business in just one day. To begin, don’t worry about writing style or making your plan fancy. Just go get a pencil and paper and let’s get started.

Step 1 — Understand Your Market and Competition

A big mistake that many mortgage brokers make is that they start marketing their services without first understanding the market and what it wants (not what it needs). If you try to sell something that people don’t want, they won’t buy it.

It’s that simple.

A profitable market consists of people who have dire wants that are being unmet, so much so that they will jump to buy your solution (mortgage product or brokering service). A profitable market can be compared to a lake with thousands of starving fish. All you need to do is throw in the bait and it turns into a feeding frenzy.

To get an understanding of your market you should ask yourself questions like:

• Are there segments in my market that are being underserved?
• Are these segments of my market big enough to make money?
• How much of a share of that market do I need to capture, to just break even?
• Is there too much competition in the segment of my market to be competitive?
• What unique problems does my market segment face when getting financing?
• What are the weaknesses in my competition’s offering that I can capitalize on?
• Does my market want or value my unique competitive offering?

Step 2 — Understand Your Ideal Client

Knowing your ideal client intimately is the first step to easy sales. Until you know (1) who your ideal clients are, (2) what they want, and (3) what motivates them to use your services, you can’t prepare an effective marketing plan.

To really get to know your ideal clients you’ll need to ask yourself questions such as:

• How does my potential client normally research their mortgage options? (e.g. search online, ask a friend, Yellow Pages etc. )
• Who is the primary buyer and the primary buying influencer in the purchasing process? (e.g. husband or wife, real estate agent, financial planner, accountant)
• What kind of habits does my ideal client have? For instance, where do they get their information? (e.g. television, newspapers, magazines, internet, word of mouth)
• What are my target market’s primary motivations for getting financing? (e.g. pride of ownership, lower payments, building equity, eliminate financial stress, etc.)

Step 3 — Pick a Niche

If you say that your target prospect is “everybody” then nobody will be your client.
The marketplace is jam-packed with competition. You’ll have more success jumping up and down in a small puddle than a big ocean.

Carve out a specific niche and dominate that niche; then you might consider moving on to a second niche (but not before you’ve dominated the first one!).

You could be a “Home Ownership Consultant specializing in Turning Renters into Home Owners” or a “Small Business Financing Expert specializing No-Income Verification Mortgages”. ” You get the picture. Make sure to choose a niche that interests you, that you are passionate about and that is easy to contact. I can’t stress this point enough.

There’s nothing more destructive than to pick a niche that you can’t communicate with or that costs you a ton of money to contact.

Step 4 — Develop Your Marketing Message

Your marketing message not only tells your prospect what you do, but persuades them to begin a relationship with you. You should develop two types of marketing messages. Your first marketing message should be short and to the point. Some may call this your elevator speech or your audio logo. It’s your response to someone who asks you, “So, what do you do?”

The second type is your complete lead generation marketing message that will be included in all your lead generation marketing materials. To make your marketing message compelling and persuasive it should include the following elements:

• An explanation of your target prospect’s problem.
• Proof that the problem is so important that it should be solved now, without delay. (e.g. painful mistakes to avoid, high interest debt to consolidate, stop renting and own your own home etc.)
• A free offer that you invite your prospect to take as the first step (i.e. free report, free consultation, free seminar etc.).
• An explanation of the benefits people will receive from taking your free offer.
• Examples and testimonials from happy clients you have helped with similar problems.
• A clear call to action (e.g. To get your free copy, call 24-hour Recorded Hotline 1-800-123-1234 ext. 34
• Emphasize that your offer is FREE with NO OBLIGATION

Step 5 — Determine Your Marketing Medium(s)

Remember, when I said that it’s critical to choose a niche that you can easily contact?
When you go to choose your marketing medium(s) you’ll understand why that was sound advice.

Your marketing medium is the communication vehicle you use to deliver your marketing message. It’s important to choose a marketing medium that gives you the highest return on your marketing dollar (ROMD). This means that you want to choose the medium that delivers your marketing message to the most niche prospects at the lowest possible cost.

The following is a small sample of tools you might use to get your message out:

• Newspaper ads
• Posters
• Seminars
• Television ads
• Signs
• Radio ads
• Trade shows
• Yellow Pages
• Articles
• Classified ads
• Newsletter
• Networking
• Take-one box
• Telemarketing
• Magazine ads
• Postcards
• Flyers
• Email
• Door hangers
• Fax broadcasts
• Brochures
• Website
• Business cards
• Public speaking

The trick is to match your message to your market using the right medium. It would do you no good to advertise your “Debt Consolidation Services, on a hip-hop radio station targeted at young adults who rent. This is a complete mismatch of the market, message, and medium. Success will come when there is a good match of these three elements.

Step 6 — Set Sales and Marketing Goals

Goals are critical to your success. A “wish” is a goal that hasn’t been written down. If you haven’t written your goals, you’re still just wishing for success. When creating your goals use the SMART formula. Ensure that your goals are, (1) Specific, (2) Measurable, (3) Achievable, (4) Realistic, and (5) Time-specific.

Your goals should include financial elements, such as mortgage amount funded, annual sales commission, gross profit, and so on. However, they should also include non-financial elements such as closed deals, applications taken, leads generated, new clients.

Once you’ve set your goals, implement processes to internalize them with all of your team members if applicable. This might involve reviewing them in sales meetings, displaying thermometer posters, and awarding achievement prizes.

Step 7 — Develop Your Marketing Budget

Your marketing budget can be developed several ways, depending on whether you want to be more exact or to develop just a quick-and-dirty number. It’s good to start out with a quick-and-dirty calculation and then to support it with further details.

First, if you have been in business for over a year and tracked your marketing-related expenditures, you could easily calculate your “cost to acquire one client” by dividing your annual sales and marketing costs by the number of clients acquired.

The next step is to take your cost to acquire one client and simply multiply it by your client acquisition goal. The result of this simple computation will give you a rough estimate of what you need to invest to meet your sales goals for the next year.

Conclusion

There you have it: The Seven-Step, One-Day Marketing Plan. It’s simple really. Of course you’ll need to study up a bit more about your marketing medium(s) of choice, its appropriateness for your message, and its associated costs. But try not to make the development of your plan a laborious, drawn-out task. Remember the 80 / 20 rule: 80% of your results will come from 20% of your effort.

My final word of advice is to make sure you set aside uninterrupted time to develop your marketing plan. It could very well be the most important document to which you and your team members will ever refer. Now you have the blueprint for success to not only survive in 2007 – but thrive!

About the Author:

By Doren Aldana

Doren Aldana, the nation’s leading Mortgage Marketing Coach, is dedicated to helping mortgage professionals attract more clients with less effort. Aldana is also the author of a 21-part Audio Seminar, "21 Secrets of Superstar Mortgage
Brokers and Loan Officers!" To pick up your copy of this special free resource visit:
http://www.mortgagemarketingcoach.com/

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