Fixer Jay’s Mom & Pop Millionaire Blog

There is only one good reason I know of to take on an investment partner! It’s when you don’t have enough financial horse­power to do the total deal by yourself. You need help!

Consider the want-to-be investor who knows just enough about real estate to be dangerous. He has more guts than it takes to fight mountain lions, but not enough cash to rent a “pay toilet” in a greyhound bus depot! Nine out of ten times, this joker will attempt to convince someone with money – that by simply joining together, they can both become millionaires! That’s pure horse-pucky, and it’s certainly the wrong approach to use if you’re a broke investor looking for “Mr. Moneybags”.

Looking In All the Wrong Places

Inexperienced folks often think their best friends are the best candidates for investment partners. Frequently you see partnerships develop between friends at the golf course members of the same social club, between people who attend the same church or work together for the same employer. Let me assure you, it’s not nearly enough to guarantee a successful Invest­ment relationship.

The biggest mistake that cashless partners make trying to entice a partner with money is to oversell the deal! They often overstate the benefits the money partner is supposed to receive. If I were to show you all the proposals offered to me, and if we added up all the profits I’ve been promised I would need to rent the Bank of America headquarters building to store my money.

Benefits must be Totally Equal for All

One major problem with most small real estate investment partnerships is that al­most always they are engineered by the broke partner! The typical arrangement I see is where on partner I. asked to put up cash and the other is supposed to contrib­ute equivalent personal services.

I don’t know how you think, but I’ll tell you this much about myself. I’m very skep­tical about anyone who proposes a joint plan using my money, while risking only personal services themselves. My first ques­tion is aimed directly at the heart of the issue. If you’re so smart, and if your ideas are so good, then why is it I’ve got the money and you don’t? Unless the question gets answered to my total satisfaction, I will not consider going forward. And neither should you!

Tags: Success Secrets by FixerJay
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Sticking to basics means buying pro­perties that I know will return me a profit of some kind. I determine this by studying all the dollar numbers plotted in year by year. What I want to see clearly is how much money I will invest in the deal to start, how much more for fix-up and what my monthly fixed costs of operations will be when I’m done. After that, I plot in the expected income, month by month-usually for five to ten years or perhaps to a future sale date.

My yellow ‘pad studies are purposely simple. I’m only interested in cash returns. The two Questions I ask myself are: will I make profits on this deal if I spend x number of dollars and when do I get to have those profits in my hand? That’s what every day ordinary investors need to know.

Too many people get all tangled up with complicated strategies. They seem to have the same mind set as runners who insist that without pain there can be no gain. If you want pain, I suggest you buy a $100,000 house with $850 mortgage payments and rent it out for $600 a month. For those who need higher levels of pain, buy a motel or small business opportunity. If you over­complicate your wealth building plan, quite often you’ll become distracted by information you don’t really need to make money.

For example, a friend of mine is a friend of mine is a computer buff. He has drawers full of complicated studies!  He figures out his rents per square foot, how much paint he’ll use in the next 20 years and the number of qualified renters in the county. Still, he has one serious problem. His computer shows his net worth at nearly $500,000, but he’s paying out $2,100 every month in hard cash so he can stay in the rental housing business. Although he has a good paying sales job I figure if he buys a couple more rental properties using his current strategy, he’ll soon be broke.

Tags: Fixing For Money by FixerJay
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One of the major benefits in this business is that it’s very stable and almost 100 percent predictable. You can expect to enjoy a nice long career and a very rosy future if you invest in basic housing. Do not allow yourself to get side-tracked.

A few words of caution are appropriate here. Do not get side-tracked. You must constantly stay on guard against the “slicksters” who expound on softer, easier and faster methods that will make you rich. I have discovered this vulnerability in myself. I suspect there is a close relationship between a housing entrepreneur (which I am) and a “make it Quick” speculator which I ain’t. I’m just a sucker for slick sounding “get rich” schemes.

“I’m just a sucker for slick sounding ‘get rich’ schemes.”

After many years investing and with much self-discipline, I have learned to listen politely, nod my head and finally say no thank you. I’m in the housing business and that’s all I can handle at this time. I’ll explain a bit more about just how recession proof income housing really is. I’ll also tell you some good reasons why it pays to stick with this proven winner.

I shall always be grateful to those people who sold me on the proposition that investing in income producing real estate was truly a solid and proven pathway that leads to financial independence. I also discovered it’s the same path that leads to a genuine personal freedom. Real estate investing has given me the opportunity to control my own life and all my affairs.

People often ask me, “What do you enjoy most about being your own boss? Is it making more money or is it the freedom to spend your time doing the things you really want to do?” The answer is both. The way I see it life would be very dull indeed if I had to spend all my waking hours stacking my real estate earnings in a room and guarding it.  On the other hand, without cash flow or profits, I wouldn’t be able to do all the things I like to do even with my freedom.

Tags: Success Secrets by FixerJay
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“You might as well realize that the time for opportunity is past. There’s no longer any use trying to save for investing. The best you can hope for is to keep a steady job and stay off welfare. Nobody will ever again be able to build an estate big enough to produce an independent income. “Those are the words from a senior economics pro­fessor at a prestigious California university. In a moment I’ll tell you the rest of the story, but first let me stress how important it is to choose who you listen to. You can learn the most from positive people.

The world is full of “Chicken Littlies” who are always telling whoever will listen that the sky will surely fall by a particular date that they pick. I’ve yet to see even a small piece of blue sky lying on the ground. I’ve even quit wearing my hard hat, except on those rare occasions I visit a tenant to pick up a late rent payment.

“Real estate cycles create winners and losers alike.”

Real estate cycles, both up and down, are nothing new. Every investor who has been successful enough to stay in business for a while has experienced them. Real estate cycles create winners and losers alike. The secret to survival is learning how to surf or stay afloat. If you’ve ever watched surfers you can’t help notice how they roll with the waves. Good surfers are not toppled by even the most treacherous waves. They even look forward to experiencing the thrill of meeting them head-on.

Real estate investors can prepare them­selves for treacherous times just like surfers. They can do this with new experiences and by continuing their education. When you are knowledgeable about what you’re doing and have the confidence that comes with that knowledge, doom and gloom predictors will have very little effect on your investment strategy.

Lead-based paint is a big worry for all investors who own and operate older rental property. The government claims small children are eating our window sills and, in some cases, ingesting lead-based paint manufactured prior to 1978 by the Gestapo paint distributors.

As to the economics professor and his gloomy forecast about future opportunities, let me just say that he’s the kind of educator who can keep an entire graduating class working their buns off at Burger King.

Tags: Vision of Opportunity by FixerJay
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