Optimism And Enthusiasm Are Keys Success

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  I think I’m the luckiest person in the world!  When others get soaked, I walk between the rain drops.  Each day, while I’m still sleeping, a seemingly endless stream of cars carrying worker-bees has already started clogging expressways for 20 miles in every direction.  I don’t have to do that.  Each morning when I wake up, my first conscious thought is to affirm how fortunate my life has been, and is today.  Here are just a few of the things I appreciate about my life.  

 

I’m healthy, productive, and happy. 

I’m surrounded by friends and family who support what I do.

I live and work in a lovely place that selected for myself.

I don’t have to commute to work at all.  No rush-hour traffic for me.

I get to wear (or not wear) anything I like all day long. 

My pay is based solely on how long and productively I want to work. 

I get to start work as early as I want, and to work as late as I want. 

I can take vacations anytime where and when I want without asking permission. 

I have no boss to make me waste time and effort doing stupid things. 

I get to make all decisions regarding my financial security and that of my family. 

I am free to take full responsibility for my activities, good or bad.

I can do what I do anyplace in America, and in many foreign lands.

I am able to earn more than most of the people in the world.

Because I work for myself, my company won’t be merged.

I don’t have to worry about being laid-off, down-sized, or fired.

My retirement plan is completely within my control.

 

          I’m convinced that being able to maintain a positive, optimistic attitude generates extra energy.  Employing that extra energy productively creates success.   I’m not alone in my appreciation of my life.  In contrast to “wage-slaves” at any level, most self-employed persons who buy, sell, rent, fix, finance, and invest in single family houses feel the same.  Check around among those who have “regular jobs” and who are dependent upon employer-based retirement plans,  Note how less fortunate they seem to see themselves.  If we can focus on the opportunities that single family houses afford, regardless of the day-to-day difficulties we might encounter, we’ll still be a lot better off than our employed peers.  Take a gander at the following statistics gleaned from “The Flyer”.  We never had it so good. 

 

          “Count your blessings: 

 

          If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head, and a place to sleep, you’re richer than 75% of this world.

 

          If you have money in the bank, or in your wallet, or spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.

 

          If you woke up this morning with good health, you are more fortunate than the million who will not survive this week.

 

          If you have never experienced the danger of battle unfolding all around you, or the loneliness of imprisonment, or the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

 

          If you can attend a church meeting without fear of persecution, harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.

 

          If you are able to read this newsletter, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.



TIME BUYS MONEY, MONEY BUYS TIME!

 

           The more productively I work, the luckier I get.  Entrepreneurs need to develop a high degree of self-discipline.  They need to be self-starters who are willing, able, and ready to cultivate the skills needed to detect, identify, and find profitable solutions to problems.  Almost without exception, “bad luck” seems to follow those who don’t have the self-discipline to actively seek ways to improve their skills and know-how.  Of course, this is pretty self-serving from a person who sells seminars and books, but I think my point is self-evident in many instances. 

 

          Each week, 168 hours is deposited in everyone’s “time bank” to use as they choose.  The efficiency with which you use your hours directly bears on your success.  National studies reflect that entrepreneurs work from 60 – 80 hours per week in contrast to employee’s average 40 hours.  Why do entrepreneurs work so long?  I think it is because they don’t try to use time efficiently.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to have more time off without sacrificing income?  Start by improving your efficiency by eliminating time-wasters.  Let me list a few:

 

1.  Too much time in a car is one of the biggest time-robbers?  How many hours a week do you spend doing this? How much more do you spend on car expenses such as insurance, maintenance, gas and oil, etc. because of the daily miles you put on it.  A long time ago I discovered that I didn’t need to travel near as much if I could find ways to get others to do things without my having to leave my workplace.

 

     a.  Eliminate troublesome tenants with rigorous screening.  This stops many  problems before they start.  I haven’t shown a rental to prospective tenants since 1975 yet I stay full up.   A local tenant credit reporting agency ran a “tab” for me on all credit applications.  When someone called on a rental ad, they talked to a recording that described available rentals and how to find them.  The tape further directed them to a public “Mail Room” where they could “buy” a rental credit application.  The Mail Room put 90% of the application fee into my private mail box and kept 10%.  The applicant then FAXed the completed application directly to the credit agency.  For applicants with high credit scores, they FAXed me the better applications and I contacted the applicants at the telephone number provided.  Only then did I tell them how to get into the rental house to see if it worked for them.  Once they were ready to rent the house did I take the time to interview them. 

 

     b.  Tenants pay rents in the form of Money Orders at the same Mail Room.  I make one trip to pick up the rent and deposit it into a nearby bank.  When they have repair problems, tenants FAX a description of the problem directly to designated repair specialists with whom I’ve done a lot of business.  They check with me prior to initiating any work.  Imagine the time and money I’ve saved doing this. 

 

2.  In the mid 1970s, I closed my office and never went back.  By working out of my home, I saved about $25,000 per year in direct office overhead.  I increased my income by renting out the office space I had been using.  This cost saving created enough extra income to make it possible to “move up” to a nicer home.  I now live in a central location that’s convenient to banks, title companies, appraisers, maintenance people, the post office and professionals whom I needed from time to time.  I saved hundreds of hours of commuting time each year with this single change in my methods.  It also improved my efficiency.  Now, any time I can’t sleep, all I have to do is to go into my home-office, turn on my computer, and go to work.

 

3.  I try to find the very best professionals to work with, and to give them all my business.  I swiftly discovered that I no longer needed to waste time sitting in mortgage and real estate brokers’ lawyers’ and accountants’ offices.  I simply call them, and FAX them any information they need to do the job I wanted to have done.  I also quit attending closings whether property was being bought and sold.  I realized that being at a closing serves no purpose and gives the other party an opportunity to renegotiate a deal.  When I’m selling, the closing agent wires the sale proceeds directly to my account so it can clear quickly and earn interest until I need it for another deal.  I use the time I save to focus on more profitable opportunities.  

Copyright © Sunjon Trust All Rights Reserved, www.CashFlowDepot.com. (888) 282-1882
Quotation not permitted.  Material may not be reproduced in whole or part in any form whatsoever.

MULTI-TASKING MAKES TIME WORK HARDER . . . 

 

          Once upon a time I was in a Burger King where the cook hadn’t shown up for work.  The owner was trying to take his place.  He’d take an order, cook it, then serve it before taking another order.  He lost a lot of customers.  Successful entrepreneurs have to be more like short-order cooks who can keep a variety of foods cooking at the same time without burning anything.  The have to be able to do more than one thing at the same time if they expect to make serious money.

 

          Given that everyone has multiple things to do, it’s critical to set priorities so that the most important task is performed first.  John D. Rockefeller once said that every income stream has a narrows; and that the person who controls the narrows can control the income stream.  For well-healed rehabbers, the “narrows” is the “pipeline” full of houses that can be acquired and fixed up profitably.  Keeping this full is where fixers succeed or fail; so finding suitable houses is where the most hours per day should be spent.  For those with limited financial resources, finding money with which to buy and fix houses has to rank near the top. 

 

          In either instance, next in importance is to evaluate the necessary work that must be done. Next is to coordinate both labor and materials in a logical sequence so that the house can be ready for marketing at the earliest possible time.  Some high volume rehabbers hire their own employees to fix up houses; voluntarily incur the extra costs attributable to workers compensation insurance, payroll taxes, and insurance to be able to control the work rather than using cheaper, but less reliable, “contractors”.  Lower volume rehabbers usually go with contractors to hold costs down on each house.   You could employ a skilled professional to supervise lower paid, lesser skilled contract personnel; and to do jobs that require special professional qualifications such as electrical, plumbing, heating/air conditioning. 

 

          The more tasks a person can do at the same time, the more money each hour of work will earn.  It’s a good idea to lay out a job, and to FAX instructions to the person in charge describing the overall job to be done, by whom, and when.  Ask for FAXed confirmation after everything has been completed.  This way, you’ll have a record of what you want done, and when it has been completed.  This control concept works well with long-distance rentals.  One tenant who was renting a house 2500 miles away would deposit his rent in cash into my account there, then get the bank to FAX the deposit slip to me in Tampa.  So long as the FAX was time dated prior to 5 PM the last working day of the month, I knew the rent had been paid on time.  If the FAX came in late, a late charge was added to the next month’s rent.  All I had to do was to send my check drawn on that account to VISA to prepay my credit card account.  Thus, the rent was instantly accessible to me for my own uses.

 

          When it comes to driving, I’m a real miser.  I put less than 50 miles per week on my car.  I only go out when it is absolutely necessary.  Even then, I see how many things I can get done with a single trip.  I make it a practice to drive down different streets on each trip to be able to check out neighborhoods.  I keep bright yellow “CASH FOR YOUR HOUSE” brochures in my car, and place them on any house that looks unkempt, or in need of extensive repair.  My route usually takes me by the bank, materials suppliers, and houses being rehabbed.  Not only do I get a lot of things done with minimum time out of my home “office“, but the entire cost of the use of the car can be expensed against houses I’ve gone to inspect.

 

          I check out houses that people either want to sell to me, or use as collateral for loans.  When I can speed up a job, I’ll pick up needed materials, tools, and equipment so workers aren’t idled waiting for something to work with.  I include any other stops I need to make for personal reasons.  I also drive by rentals near my route of travel to see if any preventative maintenance should be done.  Cheapliness is next to Godliness.  It’s costs less to paint houses the same so you can send painters from one job to another.  Rather than throwing away mixed paint colors, mix them up and use them to paint faded utility sheds and fences.  I’ve even been known to recycle shrubs and privacy fences from el cheapo houses to better houses to enhance appraisals and to justify higher rents or sale prices.

 

 

 

 

HIGH-TECH DEVICES CAN STRETCH TIME . . .

 

          When it comes to high-tech I’m a dinosaur; still, I’m amazed at the ways high-tech devices such as computers, cell phones, FAX machines, email have changed the way we do business.  Let me give you ten examples you might be able to use:

 

1.  In many areas, for about $25 the county tax assessor will slice and dice tax records and “burn” a CD with the names and addresses of out-of-area owners, properties held in single names, non-owner-occupied properties, and off-sized lots. 

Through mail-merge word processing programs and subscription fulfillment jobbers, these lists can be incorporated into solicitation letters that can be folded, stuffed, and mailed out by the thousands virtually untouched by human hands.

 

2.  Direct mailing of letters to solicit sales of houses works well, but it is expensive and labor intensive.  Through the use of a FAX broadcast, a posting in an internet chat room, computer links, or email attachments, it is possible to show houses for sale and rentals to anybody who logs on.  Today, some Multiple Listing Services use email listing which can be sent to Brokerages in seconds.  Using email  this way has generated signed offers within hours of a house being listed.

 

3.  In past years when sellers are in dire need of quick cash, I have bought several properties sight unseen by getting a local broker to snap digital photographs of exteriors, interiors, and neighborhoods and post them on a web site.  On occasion, I‘ve gotten them to print out their photos and send them to me.  I’ve also done the same thing with VHS format video tapes FEDEXed to me overnight.

 

4.  One wheeler-dealer I know has a world-wide cell phone.  While waiting in line for a cruise boat with me, in a matter of minutes, he paid for his family’s cruise — all on the telephone without leaving the boarding line — by agreeing to buying a house and wholesaling his oral agreement to one of his regular wholesale buyers.

 

5.  Late model cell-phones have the capacity to allow you to view properties real time over your telephone.  These too can be relayed to investors, or downloaded onto a computer or a disc for closer viewing.     

 

6.  One extremely high volume producer who covers hundreds of miles buying houses uses a GPS indicator in his car to guide him through unfamiliar neighborhoods to prospective customers.  He does almost all his business on cell phones.

 

7.  Some high volume producers use wireless computers on which they have loaded just about every real estate, contract, or mortgage form they’ll ever need.  They use these in their negotiation so that when the prospect says “yes” they can just print out the completed paperwork, then use a wireless FAX to open escrow and close fast.

 

8.  One real innovator in the management field requires all his tenants to open bank accounts that he can access with his computer.  With their permission, he withdraws their monthly rent and transfers it immediately into his own interest bearing account.  Their rent is only late when they don’t have enough in their account.

 

9.  It is no longer necessary to go anywhere to apply for a mortgage loan or to get a quick read on whether or not a potential buyer can be approved for a particular house.  This saves weeks of nursing a weak buyer through the loan application process only to have the loan refused at the last minute.

 

10.  Some title companies will give good customers a CD which contains title information for areas they service.  With these discs, buttressed by digital images taken by specialists they hire, bidders at foreclosure sales can research loan and title information real time while deciding how much to bid.

 

           

Copyright © Sunjon Trust All Rights Reserved, www.CashFlowDepot.com. (888) 282-1882
Quotation not permitted.  Material may not be reproduced in whole or part in any form whatsoever.

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