We are big on setting and achieving goals so we’d like to share our 4 main goals for 2012:

1) We will exceed the return expectations and needs of our investor partners.

Thus far, 3 of our funds have been completed. We are pleased to report that our investors received the following average IRR on their capital:

Fund 1 – 24%

Fund 2 – 26%

Fund 3 – has only one property (rincon) remaining in escrow to sell in early March and we are projecting a 22% average investor IRR for that fund.

Fund 4 – 33%

Fund 5 – has two properties left, linwood which went into escrow the first day on market and they both look solid. This may be our best fund to date.

Fund 6 – We have purchased a $510,000 property on a golf course with minimum work & a condo so far with a few more in the pipe.

2) We will purchase 30 properties and 20 sales in our single family funds

while continuing to maintain a conservative selection process and high profit margins. We have increased our manpower here in the office by hiring Max Frank for accounting support and Tamara Peterson for administrative and project support. We have the team and resources to expand on our current model and start exploring new opportunities within our residential niche.

3) We will diversify our funds with some higher-end homes.

4) We will open a separate fund to buy and hold property.

Goal Setting & Modeling others

Goal Setting

Here is a great video from Brian Tracy on goal setting. If you’ve never heard of him you should strongly consider hearing what he has to say. He is a great teacher and motivator and has inspired me for years.

In part 1 of this series I explained the many benefits of hiring virtual teams. In part 2, I will discuss where to find the right people for your virtual teams.

There are several quality online vendor marketplaces that can help you find the right person, not only for your assistant needs, but for any work you need that doesn’t need to be done in person. A few of these include ODESK.com, Guru.com, and ELance.com. ODESK has some key features that I feel help it stand out from the others. The vendor signs in when beginning work for you, ODESK then takes screen shots every 30 seconds. You are then able to check and see what work they were doing and how long it took to get each project done. This provides accountability for the work they’re doing and allows you to confirm you’re getting what you pay for.

You can go to these sites yourself and search for a vendor to get the work done or post a job and have vendors post bids for the work. You also have the option of going through a hiring company. When going through a company you send them an application for your company. They will find applicants, narrow down 2-3 for you to interview, and then hire them for you. Some of these companies also have offices where the VA’s works from, allowing them to assist you in managing your virtual team. You can learn more about this option by checking out supportsave.com or myoutdesk.com. Myoutdesk.com specializes in virtual real estate assistants.

It is often assumed that virtual team members are always working from out of country. However, this isn’t always the case. You have the ability to hire someone from your local community, within the state, out of state, or out of country. When determining whether to hire locally or abroad, there are a few things to consider. When hiring locally, you have the ability to meet with your virtual team member face to face and you are able to have them come to the office if needed. Depending on the kind of work needed, this can be a strong incentive to work with someone locally. A potential downside to hiring locally is that the cost may be higher than hiring someone out of area.

A benefit of hiring out of country can be the cost savings, since foreign labor is generally less expensive. However there are some challenges that need to be considered. Firstly, there can sometimes be language barriers to contend with. While the majority of out of country virtual assistants are English proficient, there can still be language issues that can come into play. Another challenge can be the time zone differences. You may be just getting into the office while your VA is getting ready to be done with their day. Although, this has the potential to be a benefit if you have 24 hour staffing needs.

Once you have narrowed down you search, there several tests you can use to help narrow your search ever further. Typing, Word, and Excel tests can be extremely helpful in determining the skill level of your potential virtual employees. You can click here to access links to several different tests I use when hiring my VA.

After you have found the right VA members, providing them with the right training and resources can help eliminate many of the challenges of working with people remotely. In Part 3 will we cover the many tools available to help you effectively equip your virtual team and streamline the work process.

You can read the rest of this series by visiting PART 1 and PART 3.

WOW that was a long title.

For all of you who have spoken to me about how we get a lot of business we don’t keep it a secret that we owe 80% of our business to Realtors and the relationships we have with them.

Being a recovering agent has given me a lot of insight into how that world operates which has helped me tremendously. In addition, the skills that made me successful as a Commercial Agent has helped me out in the buying business & even raise money for our Real Estate syndications.

In case you don’t know it yet everyone and their Mother is a Real Estate investor and calling a Realtor to let them know you are another one doesn’t make their day. Contrary to popular belief, At least not the good Realtors, the ones with GOOD deals.

Many times investors are under the impression they are doing Realtors a favor by calling them and telling them how great you are and about all the money you have to buy properties. Because you once bought a property, or your rich uncle said that if you found a good/right deal (which they can’t tell you exactly what their definition of a good deal is) they would give you the cash to buy it.

Sorry to dash the dreams of getting rich quick like the course you paid thousands for said you would, it just doesn’t work like that.

Bottom line – if a realtor has a great deal they don’t need you because there are people fighting for good deals. The Realtors who need you are the ones who can’t find the deals.

So how do you compete with all the other investors out their looking for deals? You need to make sure you understand a few important things that are important to a Realtor (or good wholesaler I guess).

1. MOST IMPORTANT – if you read nothing else understand this. Close the deal whether a residential or commercial agent they want to know that if that agent finds you a great deal and they bring it to you, YOU WILL CLOSE! Remember they don’t get paid unless you close the deal so don’t waste their time.
2. Make quick decisions. If an agent lands a good deal many times they only have one shot. If they call you and it looks like it fits your criteria get out there right away. If once you are out there it doesn’t work for you make sure to let them know why it didn’t work. If you don’t give them feedback on deals they send you they won’t send you them anymore.
3. Don’t be a douche – Even though a realtor will call you EVEN if you are a jack ass I guarantee they will call the person who isn’t a jack ass before you if all else is equal. It’s not the number #1 requirement not to be a Richard but it is a small community and if a Realtor can find someone else who isn’t one they will get the calls.

With all that being said it doesn’t mean an Agent shouldn’t have a mutual respect for you, it just means that many times for you to earn their respect you need to understand where they are coming from.

So once you have established some credibility the next thing that is important is to build that relationship and use your sales and marketing skills to keep those agents remembering you when good deals happen.

This leads me to our Realtors appreciation event at our most recently completed flip in San Diego’s 92113 neighborhood (click here to see the property website). We will be holding it open BEFORE it hits the mls and have called almost every Realtor who has either listed, sold, or has a property pending in the neighborhood and given them the heads up (and asked them if they have any other good deals) and sent out an email blast to every agent in San Diego to invite them.

We will be doing 2 things. 1 giving agents who have buyers in the area a shot to get their buyers in before it hits the MLS and we are also taking 30 minutes out of the 2 hours to talk about 3 ways they can find deals for investors in this market.

Other great ways to get Realtors to remember you are to

• Be consistent in your follow up
• Send them an email and or letter after the first time you talk to them spelling out your criteria and what’s in it for them.
• When they close deals call and congratulate them.
• Go to broker/agent caravans and present your properties you have for sell. Make sure to let them know you are a buyer.

Here is the flier we sent out for the event this weekend.

And since I can’t figure out how to make this document appear correctly in this blog post and it’s 10 at night and I want to go to sleep click here to go to the flier and see what was sent out.