Rob Kelly

I'm interested in events that others may be using to promote their brand and business...I thought I would share what we are doing.

Here are a few that we organize and sponsor, targeted to the Real Estate Investor client. All are fun, relatively low cost, with generally positive results in attendance and feedback.

Cash Flow 101 game-Primarily geared to the RE investor folks. We get together at a local bakery once a month and play Robert Kiyosaki's "Cash Flow 101". it's like monopoly on steroids for adults. We play for 3 hours, it's a great chance to spend quality time with potential buyers, plus it's fun to play! Usually, the primary topic is real estate, so you get a 3 hour window to share ideas and get in front of potential clients.

Investor Tag Along-as active investors, we usually have 3 to 4 investment projects a year undergoing rehab. The Investor Tag along program was designed to invite interested parties and potential clients to the project site every 2 weeks or so for a "project walk through". We provide coffee and donuts, spend a couple of hours letting everyone check out the project, talk to the sub contractors and vendors. The goal is to allow people to get comfortable with the idea of buying and fixing up a property for re-sale or fix and hold, if they are able to achieve this comfort then we have a client potential in the works for a project of their own.

Foreclosure Bus Tour-We just launched this 2 weeks ago with www.DenverForeclosureTour.com. Our first event went great, 24 people joined up, 10 were "new unmet" who decided to come out on a Saturday for a tour of up to 10 bank owned/HUD homes. We had an Attorney, Mortgage broker, and a Property inspector on board. Our goal was to create a "rolling classroom" to give folks the chance to learn as much as they could about Real estate investing in foreclosed homes.

Those are three that we have scheduled for regular promotion. We've got another set of promotions targeted more "sphere of influence" and primary residence clients that I can share if anyone is interested.

I would like to hear what others are doing! It would be great to pick up some new ideas and share strategies,

rob

"Thinking of Real Estate? Think of Rob!"

www.RobKellyColorado.com

www.DenverForeclosureTour.com

Twitter: @RobKellyCo

I found this interesting, in tough Real Estate times, raise the fees on folks trying to make a living! I guess in the big picture, it is probably a good idea, we have a lot of Real Estate "professionals" in our State, many of whom are not actually practicing Brokers.

For you folks out of state, are you seeing increases in your licensing fees?

Here is the full article if you are interested:

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/nov/22/real-estate-license-gets-more-expensive/

"Thinking of Real Estate? Think of Rob!"

www.RobKellyColorado.com

www.DenverForeclosureTour.com

Twitter: @RobKellyCo

"People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, make them."
George Bernard Shaw

This just popped up on some "quote of the day" service. Some of them are corny or cliche'd but this is one that resonates with me. In my adult life, I've always expected postive things to happen to me...with this expectation, I've typically been rewarded with an awesome family, career and income growth. Not that it's been easy by any stretch, but it reinforces my belief that you "get what you expect".

I've seen the flip side of this, with friends and associates who expect doom in gloom in all aspects of their life and business, and they seem generally to get their share of it in generous doses...

Anyone else care to weigh in on these observations?

"Thinking of Real Estate? Think of Rob!"

www.RobKellyColorado.com

www.DenverForeclosureTour.com

Twitter: @RobKellyCo

As you may have seen from a previous post, we launched our inaugural Foreclosure Bus Tour last Saturday. www.DenverForeclosureTour.com if you are interested.

I've been flooded with emails from Active Rain agents and questions from other agents in my office, generally curious about the following:

"How did it go?"

"How many people showed up?"

and of course, of interest to most of us making a living in this business...

"Did you get any buyers?"

From the top...It was awesome! We had a 32 person bus scheduled, 10 bank owned/HUD homes to see, and a a group of 23 investors/interested parties willing to commit a chunk of their Saturday to tour these homes and spend time with a Realtor (me), Mortgage broker, Attorney, and Home Inspector. Of these 22 attendees, approx. 10 were "unmet" prior to this event. These are folks who responded to the direct mail, web search, or were invited by a current client. I consider that a decent turnout of new potential clients, and to a person they were quality folks who were a joy to spend time with.

Our goal was not to hard sell anyone, but to offer a "rolling classroom" type setting where folks could review investment potentials, ask questions of the onboard experts, establish rapport and learn as much as possible about the concept of Real Estate investing in the Denver Metro area.

The energy level was high, we powered folks up with coffee and donuts prior to getting on the bus, and then took a 20 minute drive to the first home on the tour. The attendees quickly established conversations with our onboard experts and each other, you could certainly feel and hear a "buzz" of interest.

Once in the properties, we had folks crawling over the homes top to bottom, asking questions on market value, potential rents, repair issues, financing options, etc. We had many good group Q&A and conversations in the kitchen, basement, wherever a good question would pop up and folks would gather around to learn. Our Attorney, Mortgage Broker and Home Inspector had many 1 on 1 and group conversations with potential future clients.

We ended up spending about 5 hours total on the tour, including drive time. We walked through or drove by 8 homes. Comment feedback after the tour was very enthusiastic, we had direct interest in 3 particular properties that attracted interest from tour attendees.

Any buyers? Yes. I took a qualified investor out yesterday for a review and selection of the same neighborhoods, and he picked two properties to offer on. I also have appointments scheduled for later this week to sit down and discuss specific plans for getting into Real Estate investing. Each one of these prospects is a "new" client for me...I did not know them prior to the tour. In addition, I have 10 new database additions with folks who are more motivated then your usual prospect.

All in all, a positive experience that we will repeat again after the holidays,

rob

"Thinking of Real Estate? Think of Rob!"

www.RobKellyColorado.com

www.DenverForeclosureTour.com

Twitter: @RobKellyCo

Has anyone worked through one of these yet?

Thought i'd share this with other active investors and investor focused Agents. Our goal is to execute one of these, understand how to smoothly and safely conduct a Self Directed IRA investment, and then share this opportunity with our clients.

We are getting a lot of interest from investors who are very displeased with their stock market focused IRA funds.

We are under contract for a SFR using our Self Directed IRA investment, using Entrust New Direction IRA. http://www.newdirectionira.com/

We've locked up a nice brick ranch style fixer in Northglenn, CO. The goal is to rehab and then re-sell this property. We have a decent re-sell market in this are for home like this in remodeled condition for between $165k-$175k. Our purchase price is $113.5k, rehab budget of $15k.

A few interesting twists to the Self Directed IRA angle: As a buyer's agent representing myself, I can't receive a buy side commission, all reconstruction costs must be funded from the IRA, any net proceeds from the sale of the property must return to the IRA...where we hope to replace some of the "negative" from the last several months of stock market fallout.

If we were to hold this property as a rental unit, it is possible to then use a Non-recourse loan within the IRA (65% LTV) from a local bank. This offers a viable "plan b" as a rental hold if the resale market does not support the sale of this property. One nice note, since the loan is "non-recourse", it does not attach to our personal credit, and should be exempt from the Fannie Mae 4 investor property restrictions.

We would be capped at 65% of the initial contract price for one year, after that we would be able to re-finance at 65% of the ARV (After Repair Value). A little equity heavy, but given today's lending market it's not that far out of range. Sure helps the monthly cash flow numbers!

"Thinking of Real Estate? Think of Rob!"

www.RobKellyColorado.com

www.DenverForeclosureTour.com

Twitter: @RobKellyCo