The Importance of Goals in Life

By Jeremy Burgess | March 5, 2010

Many motivational speakers, business gurus, and parents if you are lucky, talk about the importance of having and setting goals in life. I personally ignored goal setting for a long period of my life. And the goals I did have later in life I didn’t even bother to write down. It’s interesting that as human beings we don’t do the things we know is important to our health, wealth, and life.

I’m guilty of it myself. For the last six months I haven’t written a goal or even looked at my old written goals. Gee, I wonder why I haven’t made the progress in my business and my personal life that I would like recently.

For those of you who doubt the importance of goals, I recommend you look at it from a different perspective. You are going on vacation and your car is packed and the gas tank is full. The problem is you don’t know where you want to go. Maybe you have an idea on where you want to go but you didn’t bother to pick up a map. Yeah you might get there but odds are you are going to have a challenging time doing it.

Of course there is the other side of that coin. You plan your vacation in an advance, print maps and even book hotels and events. My wife falls into this category. However, you give little to no thought about what you want to achieve in your life.

Specific written goals provide the road map to success for your life. They give you a focus and a direction to put your effort and energy behind. Now, instead of driving around lost and confused in life, you have a destination and a map on how to get there.

People ask me all the time about my success as a real estate investor. How did you do it? I’ve had many answers as I have progressed in my real estate investment career and it amuses me how much simpler my answer becomes as I become more experienced.

My success or lack of success has always been tied to specific written goals that are reviewed daily with some form of accountability. You can track my successes and failures by how closely I did the above.

If you are struggling to get started or maybe have hit a plateau or worse, you are in the bottom of the canyon and you have to climb your way out… maybe it is time to put some goals to paper. I promise you won’t regret it.

For help on getting started I have included a link to an article written by Tony Robbins on Goal Setting.

Be a renegade,
Jeremy Burgess

Posted in Non-Real Estate/Business | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Be Thankful on Thanksgiving

By Jared Pomranky | November 25, 2009

This seems like a pretty easy concept, doesn’t it? Everyone says to be thankful but not everyone actually lives up to their lip service. This should be something we do year round but the holidays give us a chance to make up for lost time. This goes to focusing on the positive and not always looking at the negative. Don’t ignore challenges in your life but see them as what they are, challenges, and not problems. They are something to overcome.

I am thankful for all of the innovation and positive change I see in Detroit. There are many like-minded individuals and businesses that refuse to take part in the doom and gloom mentality that seems to run rampant in the media and many people’s perception of Detroit. If things aren’t going great for you, don’t just blame it on the economy or run from your problems, face the challenges and innovate. Innovation is what will set apart businesses in a down market and will set you up for extra-ordinary profits when the economy turns around. There are a lot of businesses having blockbuster years this year!

I am thankful for my family, friends, and girlfriend Holli. Sure there are challenges in any relationships but this is the time of year to set those squabbles aside and find those bonds that have been strong. Make sure you surround yourself with people that will support you through good times and through bad times in your business and personal life. This is critical to being successful because you will have good times and you will certainly have bad times.

I am thankful for organizations like Motor City Blight Busters and John George who tirelessly and selflessly commit themselves to causes that are bigger than themselves. As Ghandi so eloquently put it, they are the change they want to see in the world. Organizations like this create and support the social, physical, and economic changes that are required for the turnaround and prosperity of Detroit. Being a part of these organizations or supporting them through volunteering helps make these changes occur.

Be thankful this thanksgiving and focus on the positives. It’s far too early to be a scrooge…

Be a Renegade,
Jared Pomranky

Posted in Real Estate Mindset | Leave a comment

Has the Housing Market Bottom Passed?

By Jared Pomranky | November 20, 2009

I just saw a post from a Realtor quoting RealComp statistics in his post Four Positive Signs That the Real Estate Market is Recovering in Metro Detroit that the housing market has turned around in Metro-Detroit. Some of the points he quoted were:

All MLS October ‘09 sales at highest levels since 2004

Lowest on?market inventory levels in any month since January 2006 (42,785 in October 2009, 48,059 in January 2006)

NonForeclosure Sales Top Foreclosure Sales in Metro Detroit. For the month of October, the total nonforeclosure sales were 3,483 compared to 2,938 foreclosure sales….

…Months supply of inventory (MSI) has dropped by nearly 50% ? from 11.9 month supply last year to 6 month supply this year

I am an optimistic person and I know that the real estate market WILL turn around. This is great new, right? Well, any way you look at it, this is good news. Let’s just chose which points we look at to get that good news…

The first point above that you can look at for good news in the market are that October ‘09 sales are the highest they’ve been since 2004, which means there are buyers coming to the market. The second is that there were 3,483 non-foreclosure sales in October. The points about foreclosure inventory levels being low and foreclosure sales being low is an artificial statistic.

If you read my post in August about The False Real Estate Market Bottom in Detroit, you’ll remember that we are looking at a false bottom or an artificially inflated market. This all has to do with the foreclosure moratorium by mortgage companies and the State of Michigan. What this did is create a huge backlog of foreclosures that will be dumped on the market in the next couple of months.

In the post I predicted that the the foreclosure flood would hit Metro-Detroit in November of 2009 to January of 2010. It no longer looks like November will be that time but I feel confident on a January-February 2010 flood of foreclosures hitting the market (barring any government intervention, which would be a bad idea). Banks are not good at foreclosing on and getting REOs listed, which you’ve most likely seen working in real estate, and these foreclosures are no exception.

Per RealtyTrac, Michigan is still #7 in the nation for Foreclosure filings. Looking at the Wayne County information, which is what I used in my original analysis, foreclosure filings for August, September, and October of 2009 are the highest they’ve been this year. This all points to more foreclosures on the market.
Wayne County Michigan Foreclosure Filing Informationn - Realty Trac

Inventories are down but foreclosure filings are up. That points to future inventory growth and towards other intervention (the government), which created artificially low inventories.

Where’s the Opportunity?
I’m a strong believer in finding the opportunity and not spreading doom and gloom like the national media. What you need to know is exactly what’s going to happen when a flood of foreclosures comes on the market. There’s going to be increased inventories, decreased prices, and lower buyer confidence in the market. This is only going to be temporary because sales are still strong and the inventory will get eaten up but all of them at once is going to cause these activities to occur.

While the market and most people are reactive, we need to be proactive and see this for what it is. A temporary phenomena. Taking action when these foreclosures come on the market in buying the foreclosures and fixing them up to rent out or flip is going to put you in a very good position. There will be plenty of inventory to choose from and by the time you get your property stable and rented for awhile, the rest of the market will catch up. By that time inventories could well be on their way back down.

We have a window of opportunity coming up that you will never see in metro-Detroit real estate again. What are you going to do when presented with this opportunity; take ACTION and invest or kick yourself later for not doing so?

Posted in Real Estate Market Analysis | 1 Comment

Investors – Take Advantage of the Tax Credit Extension!

By Drew Sygit | November 10, 2009

The new tax credit extension is a great opportunity for real estate investors because land contracts are eligible (as always), and because now people that have recently owned a home are also eligible.

Why is this important? Because it allows homebuyers & real estate investors a potential “back door” for doing zero down transactions!

Let’s take a look at how such a deal would look:

  1. Let’s assume you have someone that wants to rent one of your properties because they have no money for a down payment or that would like to buy, but has no down payment.
  2. You get them interested in one of your properties.
  3. Have them speak to a mortgage expert to be sure they qualify for a loan. You may also need to bring in a credit repair expert to evaluate their credit. When can it be cleaned up enough to be eligible for a mortgage?
  4. If the mortgage & credit experts give you the green light, sell them your property on a land contract for a price you know the property will appraise for.
  5. Take whatever security deposit money & funds they have as a land contract down payment.
  6. Walk them through the process of filling out the tax credit documents and send them to the IRS.
  7. Wait until their check from the IRS comes in to be used for their down payment.
  8. Have them refinance the land contract with your mortgage expert to pay you off.

Now this is a very simplified overview of the process and there are a lot of issues that need to be thoroughly investigated at each step:

  • Do they qualify for the tax credit?
  • Do they have any tax liens?
  • How can you be sure they’ll give the tax credit to you?
  • Will they follow through on any required credit repair?
  • Etc, etc, etc…

Most of these issues can be overcome. If they can’t, there are plenty of other buyers out there looking for homes.

Look up the details of the new options on the tax credit extension or consult with an expert familiar with it.

The point is to get out there and make it happen!

Be a Renegade,
Drew Sygit

Drew’s Mortgage New’s

Posted in Metro-Detroit Real Estate | Leave a comment

Positive Ideas from Detroit

By Jared Pomranky | November 3, 2009

If you missed the inaugural meeting of TEDxDetroit, you missed something big. It was a meeting of minds from Michigan that talked about positive change, innovation in business, and good things going on in our state. Know what was missing from the meeting? Negativity, doom and gloom or any talk about something not happening. We need more positive ideas and people from Detroit and Michigan!

Our state and city have been through some challenging times and I know it’s not always easy to see past that. Dwelling on negativity, however, will just perpetuate a down economy and bad things. Focusing on positive change and what we can do to make a difference in our city and state will create the positive change that we need. I’m not talking about just saying that we’re in the best economy ever and that everyone can be millionaires just by saying that they are, I’m talking about actually focusing on positive change that you can create.

What about Dawn White, co-founder and President of Accio Energy (a Michigan based company that has multiple patents for wind energy) and her invention of wind energy without the blades (i.e. not a traditional wind turbine with loud moving blades)

TEDxDetroit wasn’t only about business and entrepreneur speakers; it was also about local performances. My absolute favorite was this poem (and I wasn’t a fan of spoken poetry) written and performed by D Blair “Detroit, While I was away” (found on Positive Detroit)

As Ghandi so eloquently put it, “Be the change you want to see in the world”. Michigan needs positive ideas and positive people, is that you?

Be a Renegade,
Jared Pomranky
Southeast Michigan Real Estate Club

Posted in Non-Real Estate/Business | 1 Comment