The Real Estate Sage at The Real Estate Investment Institute - REII

The market is down! No question about it! Right? Well maybe. In many if not most neighborhoods prices are not what they were two years ago, but that doesn't necessarily mean people are losing money. It's likely most homes are worth more if not considerably more that what the owners paid for them.

Yes, there are major exceptions. If you bought a new home in Las Vegas in the last 3 or 4 years and have to leave don't look back you'll turn into a pillar of salt! It's likely you've been... (This is a family friendly blog.)

There is another name for a real estate market with an excess of listings! This is a Buyers Market!

Not everyone has to sell, so the buyer's with little or no flexibility will still have to pay full price! The buyer buying with their head instead of their heart can always get good deals. In a Buyers Market they can get great deals.

It's going to take a major adjustment for the Home Buyer's Agent to prosper in a combined Down Market and Lending Crisis. To succeed and yes even soar in today's market you need to act like real estate opportunity investment salesman!

This is not CCIM type investing rather like the old Farm and Land Institute brokers. This forgotten group had a very simple creed: "Find two people with problems and solve them!" Think about it you've got a would be buyer in a down market with a gyrating loan market, that's one person with a problem. Your listing agent counter part has a 9 to 24 months supply of listings, that's bound to include many that really do need to sell soon. Those sellers have a problem! Solve it.

Think of the list price as irrelevant like the "Buy it now" price on E-Bay!

Make offers like you're on E-Bay offer what's good for your client regardless of list price. If the seller doesn't accept it move on.

While your driving by houses write several offers have the client number them in order of preference. Present them one at a time until ones accepted.

You're going to be told that's not the way we do things! So what? The only reason to stick to tradition is because it's still working for you!

You're going to be out of many peoples comfort zone. Again! So what? There are higher traditions! Things like honesty, integrity, fiduciary, service, and eating!

What investment salesmen know is that the profit is made when you purchase the property! If your client is worried about the market let his offers reflect his concern! The seller has the same concern, your client might be the proverbial "Bird in Hand!"

If a listing agent refuses to present an offer turn him into the state.

Despite all the head lines there is plenty of money available for home buyers, even investors. If your local mortgage broker can't help you there is at least one on-line lender that still works one on one, me.

Remember even if rates go up, rent is 100%!

Remind you clients of the advice from the anonymous sage:

"No matter whether

you rent or buy

you pay for the

space you occupy!"

Bill

William J Archambault Jr

The Real Estate Investment Institute

I just left one of my long winded comments on Brian Brady's blog Speak English or Go Home! You should read that about the English only question. I wanted to add a short story about one of my non-English speaking clients.

I had done almost two dozen loans for a family who's primary language was Tagalog, when they refereed me to a brother who was moving to Las Vegas from the LA area. I was told that neither he nor his wife spoke English, I offered to have one of my Tagalog speaking Originators call. No it seems that the brother was raised in a village somewhere in Belize and spoke a mixed dialect of Spanish and Tagalog, like the Tex-Mex spoken in some areas of South West Texas.

With the brother in my office we took the application over the speaker phone, I understood one word in fifty. Knowing the brother was hard to reach I asked how I was going to talk with the client? It seems that they had moved to LA 9 years ago so their daughter could go to school here, at 14 she could translate for me after school. Well the first time I needed to talk to the young woman I found out that besides her native tongue that only her family spoke, her primary language was "Valley Girl" we got through it but it wasn't easy.

Late one Thursday afternoon she called, her mother wanted to know how long the loan was for? I responded "it's amortized over 30 years" she slammed the phone in my ear. It was a long day I was tired, I thought no more of it.

Early the next morning as I rived at the office I noticed the large Oldsmobile sitting full of people with the engine running. I had no sooner sat my brief case down when a large man angerly shouting rushed in! I couldn't understand a single word, I truly didn't know what was going on.

Thankfully his brother came running across the parking lot, at least now I could assume this was my LA client. After his brother got him to stop shouting he turned to me. He asked if I had talk to his niece yesterday? I said yes she called, ask a question and hung up on me. He asked what she asked and I told him. He asked what I said? I told him I had told her the loam was amortized over 30 years.

The brother starts laughing! After an awful long time he starts talking to my client, now they're both laughing. I begin to think I'm not going to fight, to survive. It seems like hours but was probably more like 15 minutes before he explains to me that the Valley Girl had mistaken "amortize" as some form of amoray. The girl had told her mother I said, I wanted to "love her over thirty years!" The men left, I consider locking the door.

The uncle came back in and asked me to step out to the window in the lobby. The Olds pulled up-front. A woman in the front seat was shaking her finger at me. An old woman in the back was shaking her fist. (She was the Matriarch, I had financed all of her children and all her adult Grandchildren.) In the center peaking over front seat back with only her eyes and tri-colored hair showing was my translator. Behind the wheel the driver was still laughing.

We closed the loan a week later, but after 21 loans to the family I never got another. I saw one of the Granddaughters and ask her about it she said Grandma said no.

Bill

William J Archambault Jr

The Real Estate Investment Institute

http://www.reii.org         http://www.williamjarchambaultjr.com

"If you're going to cut and paste, give them something to think about" -- William J Archambault Jr

"You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in
order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater
vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are
here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you
forget the errand."-- Woodrow Wilson

"There is always more than one way!" - William J Archambault Jr

"Knowledge is power." -- Sir Francis Bacon

Imagination is more important than knowledge. - Albert Einstein

"Experts work cheep." - William J Archambault Jr

"Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you. - Dr. Seuss

"Never tell me it can't be done, tell me what I have to do to do it." - William J Archambault Jr

The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. -- Walt Disney

"Lets roll." - A life saving hero

Bill

William J Archambault Jr

The Real Estate Investment Institute

First National Mortgage

http://www.reii.org

http://www.williamjarchambaultjr.com

My thanks to:allaboutquotes.com and famous-quotes-quotations.com

Survival of the fittest.

You've spent the last 15 years of your life learning and perfecting your real estate knowledge only to have your world come crashing down around you.

More than three score of mortgage lenders closed their doors.

Your local MLS has a nine month supply of listing.

No thinking buyer will pay $400,000.00 for a new house and then pay taxes on the $80,000.00 rebate. (Despite the fact that you put $20,000.00 down and financed $380,000.00, the $80,000.00 rebate is taxable income not borrowed money. If you buy the house you put out $20,000.00 but you get back $80,000.00! Then you pay the IRS $28,000.00 for a net cash gain of $32,000.00 but you owe $380,000.00 on a house you could net about $291,000.00 out of. Ya, buy a house pocket $32,000.00 and lose $57,000.00 in the closing room!)

The discount brokers are offering "full service" for nearly nothing. You don't believe them but a lot of sellers do. Who can blame the sellers, their house has deprecated and you, the man that sold it to them want 6 or 7% of what's left to resell it! To them you just added insult to injury!

One in every 438 houses is in foreclosure!

Some people really do have to sell!

Your broker has reduced your share of the commission to 50% or less and is talking about a desk fee each month. He said something about the broke being put back in broker.

You talked to an employment agency about other work and they tell you there are 5,000 other REALTORS® looking for work.

When the office closes you stop at a bar to cloud your mind and run into the Executive Vice President of your local Board finishing his liquid lunch, he's been there since noon. You tell him what they said about the 5,000 he said it sounded about right. You comment about that being a third of the local Board, he says remember the 3,000 that are not renewing their licences, and the 1,500 who are moving in with their parents or kids. You tentatively say that leaves at least half the Board making a living? He says no most of the remaining are professional's spouses, they never have or had to make a living. You ask who's surviving, he says the same 20% that use to make a really great living. He ask the bar tender, the one with the "R" pin on his collar to call him a cab. You say don't I'll take you home, quickly adding for no more that the cab would cost and you don't have to tip me we're friends. You don't order a drink after all, you might need that $3.50 for a gallon of gas.

You take your "friend" home and take the $60.00 he has left.

You rush home, the kids will be a sleep and your wife can take your mind off your troubles and make you feel good all at the same time. She tells you about her head ack as you come in the door. She's been shopping $200.00 for half a grocery cart and the last $20.00 she had with her only bought a quarter of a tank of gas! You give her the $60.00 and your $40.00 lunch and drinking money. You go to take a shower, she says make it short the electric bill is outrageous, not to mention the water bill.

What's a real estate expert to do?

You want to argue with me? After agreeing with everything I wrote so far?

You're going to tell me that houses are deprecating! You say you can't make a profit in a down market!

You're thinking like a house salesman! Investment salesman know that you make the profit on the purchase not the sale! You collect the profit on the sale, when the property was bought right the profit is already there.

As a REALTOR® you've spent you whole career brokering in the traditional way, working for commissions. Unless you're in that top 20% you may not be around to see the recovery doing thing traditionally.

Form a partnership wit a client or two with money. You're then going to make low ball offers on a lot of properties. You're going to make subject to offers on properties in foreclosure and on vacant listing. What about due on sale? What about it? What lender is going to bother you when the loan is now up to date and the payments are made on time? They really don't need another REO or bad loan. Just don't hide what you're doing, that could be a crime. Put each property in a separate LLC and charge you money partner/s a small management fee, rent the place and wait. Then do it again, and again.

Your not so aggressive collages are going to dislike you so what they can't afford to buy lunch anyway! They'll say something about here comes Bill with another damn low offer! The smatter ones will call you at least they can show their client an offer! So what if most get turned down, some will be accepted. Your job is to offer people in trouble an out, if they don't need to accept your offer they won't, you're not going to be offended, there are plenty of other opportunities. A 9 month supply of opportunities!

Buying low and selling high is the second oldest profession. When you represent an investor or your self buying low is when you make your profit. Waiting for an investment to grow/appreciate is farming.

Traditional REALTOR® thinking is a big commission and move or to the next, Investors work for a little bit now, a bit more next month, and a little bit more down the road. Collectively little bits add up! A sears of little bits is what they call an annuity.

There are very few areas where the population is decreasing, and every time some one gives up a house they become a renter, every renter is an improvement in that market. The worst of the fully indexed ARM is still at a historically good rate. There may be some adjustment in who lives where but there is a tenant for almost every property, you haven't seen tent city popping up, have you?

Improve your opportunities read: Beat The Sharks and Net Offers A Better Real Estate Option my book "Flipping For Fun And Profit" would help but read the free articles first. This is not your father's real estate, but it might have been your Grandfathers! Need more help I work by the hour, the half day, the day, and the week, I can finance you or your clients in all 50 states if necessary (you don't need financing even at my low fees if you can avoid it)!

Two last pieces of advice:

When you're being creative be extremely honest!

When all else fails find someone with a problem and shovel it!

You see I know This too shall pass!

Bill

William J Archambault Jr

The Real Estate Investment Institute

http://www.reii.org

http://www.williamjarchambaultjr.com

I've been thinking of Al Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade and how we'll feel when this all works out. Think about it.

"Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them

Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!

All the world wondered.
Honor the charge they made,
Honor the Light Brigade,

Noble six hundred."

I've been memed! My friend Rich Kruse did it this morning. I though he knew better, after all I'm known for being brief and Active Rain only has so much band with.

O'well. I do list myself as the greatest living expert on the opinions of William J Archambault Jr, so I guess I'm the one to write it. I'll try and be briefer than Tolstoy's "War and Peace," although I don't find Leo that wordy. I'll start at the beginning.

"In the beginning God Created the heavens and the earth... God said, "Let there be light, and there was light"...the light was good... God created man in his own image."'

That part always gets me, I wish the Lord had taken better care of himself. Lets fast forward a few years.

In 1608 AD my Great... Great Grandfather Jacques Archambault arrived in the new world. Jacques work his way North passing thru what is now Canada to Michigan's upper peninsula then to Wisconsin and back to lower Michigan.

  I came along in early 1948, proud to be the first born of Bill and Jeanette.

 My Grandfather was born William Jennings Brian Archambault, I use to ask my Great Grandfather about Grandpa's name all he would say is your "Grand Mother a lot of explaining!" I never learned, we lost Great Grandpa when I was 16 he was well over 100.

After several moves I went to grade school in Rosebush a small rural but excellent system although they never could teach me to spell! I went to high school in Portgage (Kalamazoo) Michigan a large top academic school.

In high school and collage I was a working photo journalist. I had made myself part of the schools public relations department, when I graduated in 1966 they hired me part time for the next two years, I went from student to part of the administration in three months.

Rich, this covers a lot of what I haven't written about or hinted at. Maybe I'll tell some more another time. There is:

20 years with a horse named Goldie.

Collage during Vietnam and Civil Rights.

The Portgage Herald.

USMC

Brenda.

Eric.

15 years with the EAA.

The Bank.

REALTORS®

Teaching.

I moved a house.

The apartment projects.

Amy

My first partner..

My second partner.

Moving West.

Smascing my leg in a reodo arena.

Incline Village

The Boat.

My last partner.

REII

My first seven books.

I'm now lending in all 50 States

Bill

William J Archambault Jr

The Real Estate Investment Institute

First National Mortgage Sources

http://www.reii.org

http://www.williamjarchambaultjr.com

I was very empresses with Bryan Brady's pod casting Profitable Podcasting: My Equipment, but I didn't want to do phone interviews. I wanted to record some of my articles simply as an alternative presentation.

I simply wanted to be able to record and upload from my desk top or lap top computer. I Googled looking for a program and found one at a reasonable price, with a down loadable two week trial. I down loaded and subscribed to a host for my pod-cast, https://www.godaddy.com (a great host and reasonably priced) . Then I created a new domain for my pod-cast http://www.realtestatesage.info (Braggadocios? Well maybe, but who would go to a site like http://www.realestateidiot.com? I wrote this and though just maybe I should check, would you believe it exist. So I tried http://www.realestatefool.com Yep, it's there, my apologies to them both, but you get the point.)

So armed with the trial recording program I recorded and edited and then needed another program to convert the wave file into a useable MP3 file. The results weren't bad, but I wasn't happy.

Then I stumbled across Nathan Hartman's AR blog Podcasting Equipment - Microphone Recommendation Asking about microphones. I commented and ask about recording programs. A true Gentleman Nathan responded with two recommendation. One Audacity. Was a free download. I chose it. It worked well and intuitively. Saturday morning I listen to Kim Commando's computer show and lo and behold she recommended the same program over several costly others.

I've got a lot to learn yet, but it worked and I've posted an audio version of my "Net Offers" at http://www.realtestatesage.info

We're a varied community here at Active Rain, if you can't find the information you need just ask. Thanks again Nathan.

Bill

William J Archambault Jr

The Real Estate Investment Institute

http://www.reii.org

http://www.firstnationalman.com

Yes I got rained on today not once but three times and it feels good!

The simplest to explain was a letter from a fellow rainer who I'd lost track of, I responded and he did too. Three simple and short letters, but two of us feeling better, a good start to my day.

The second came as a real surprise, a new AR commercial real estate broker. I'll past in the letter.

I responded, unfortunatly I didn't remember him, but of course I remembered the time and circumstance.

This is part of what he wrote back:

There are a lot of people in real estate and mortgage lending and yet here on Active Rain we're one community where you can run into old friends and acquaintances, These two from opposing coasts, but one community made me feel good, I can only hope that I did the same.

My day wasn't over. My cell phone rang, I glanced at the number I didn't recognize it, I said, hello. A tentative voice on the other end ask is this R-E-I-I? I said yes, he said Bill. I said Tom? He said Hi! My baby brother, Tom! have 3 younger brothers and a sister all back in Michigan. Now this is either trouble or very good news, I said "What's Up? He excruciatingly took his time before saying "I'm coming to Vegas and if you and Brenda are in town I'd like to come a day early so we can spend some time together." Great news. Tom explained he'd been trying to call all morning, but the numbers he had at the office had all been changed over a year ago. He said he was about to call Mom, see Leave it to Mother / Central Michigan When he looked at all the computers on his desk. Tom's a software executive, programing genius (?) He says then I typed your name in and you were all over the place, by the way what is Active Rain?

That's it, no great moral or lesson. It's already been said we reap what we sow, Active Rain let me connect with a couple of old friends, and impress a cynical baby brother. If they can find me then it's all worth the effort. The fact that it made me feel good was a bonus.

As I go back into lending in all 50 states maybe AR can help me spread the word.

Bill

William J Archambault Jr

The Real Estate Investment Institute

http://www.williamjarchambaultjr.com

This started out to be a comment on another blog. I don't know the blogger, a Realtor® of unknown experience, reading his home page didn't help. The subject, mortgage brokers as investment advisors, is worthy of further discussion.

I'm not advocating mortgage brokers as investment advisors, but I believe educating the client as to his options is the moral responsibility of every loan originator. Most people don't know they have options.

Sir,

Don't stand in front of any mirrors! That finger your pointing might hit the right target.

I know the NAR's spokesman told congress that those evil mortgage brokers forced buyers into homes they couldn't afford. Can any thinking person believe that? I've been in lending and real estate since 1969 and I don't know how to force a buyer to over buy. I must have missed that class. I have taken many, many NAR sanctioned classes that taught that the home buyer should buy the largest, most expensive house possible. The idea was the buyers would be happy with the house longer than a smaller less expensive one. Realtors® also taught leveraging your real estate, and that even at the same appreciation/inflation rate you make a lot more on bigger/more expensive more leveraged house.

Many have conveniently forgotten that wisdom! It's a shame because it was good advice then and it's good advice today!

Everyone wants to point a finger, but no one points to themselves or at the consumer who stopped making his payments!

You're right it would be better if mortgage brokers weren't acting as investment advisors, better for the mortgage brokers. We've got a generation of Realtors® that have replaced financial statements and credit reports with "pre-approval" letters, yet continue giving real estate investment advice! Yes, buying a single family house even to live in is real estate investing. Without all the buyer's information, that advice can only be relevant to their own commission.

The mortgage broker is the only one who rigorously reviews the client's entire financial position and knows all his alternatives. Just how many of your clients have a financial planner, fee or other wise? Even if they do have a financial planer it's unlikely they know anything about real estate and mortgages. Real estate investment requires hands on involvement, Financial planners prefer hands together investments, you know the kind where after the purchase your only involvement is to put your hands together and pray!

Most people don't think of themselves as investors or potential investors, until somebody knowledgeable explains their position to them.

With out credit and financial statements, all to many judge a buyers ability by the car he drives into the parking lot, not even thinking that Hummer comes with a $50,000.00 loan.

Most people think that because most real estate investors invest in single family houses and that's what home salesmen sell, that investment and home salesmen are the same, they're not!

For all the problems, stop and consider the success rate of all those sub-prime loans. We've had the largest most successful growth in home ownership in the history of the world. If it weren't for the politicos this would be celebrated!

There are going to be a lot of people falling out of the business. Finger pointing won't save you. If you want to shrive I suggest integrity and education.

Bill

William J Archambault Jr

The Real Estate Investment Institute

http://www.williamjarchambaultjr.com 

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood... Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by, and that made all the difference." (Robert Frost)

It's Sunday morning and as we start the day I often turn on the radio for background noise. Sundays I listen Glen Haege's, "America's Handy Man." I always enjoy his show, I grew up doing my own home maintenance, I understand and enjoy his ideas. Glen's instance access data base is something to envy, I wish I had my loan programs so accessible.

Then comes the weekly mortgage distortion show, it always makes me mad, I've been in lending and real estate all my adult life, I understand the problems and the distortions, presented.

There's nothing unique about knocking everyone else's business or claiming your's is the only right way, and even nonsensical advice is legal when presented as one man's opinion. If you truly have a better idea it will stand on it's own. At a time when the market is in turmoil self-serving distortions may be the road most traveled, but that doesn't make it right.

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose." (Dr. Seuss)

I think it's time for professionals, real estate and lending to take the higher less traveled road. We need to realize that shelter is second only to air and food in human needs. While breathing and after eating sex is universally practice, with it's predictable byproducts there will always be a need and a market for our products and services.

We have free will, we have a brain, we have two feet, it's time to take the path less traveled, stick to truth and facts, it makes all the difference.

Bill

William J Archambault Jr

The Real Estate Investment Institute

http://www.williamjarchambaultjr.com