If you can provide the kind of information about a local property market that intercepts browsers as they are going through the process of turning into buyers, you’re golden. Here’s what we mean. The average property buyer is no longer going to pick up the phone and call a real estate agent when he or she is interested in purchasing a property. First, they’ll head to the Internet for preliminary research. The more and varied places they run into you, the better for your business.

It should go without saying you need a website. Not a stagnant one, mind you, but a real, live, rootin’ tootin’ cyber presence with nuggets of information pertinent to the local property market, as well as evidence of how knowledgable you are. But don’t stop there. People stumble across real estate information from a variety of directions online and you need to have a solid presence on as many as possible.

Don’t forget national and local networks dedicated to real estate, as well as social media outlets and micro-blogging sites plugged into the industry. Visit forums and leave helpful comments. In this Age of Content, it’s to your advantage to liberally sprinkle yourself far, wide, and local. The goal is always to make yourself the ubiquitous presence that pops up whenever someone is looking for random information related to the local market. They see you once, maybe they’ll forget. They see you twice and go “Hmmm.” They see you three times and start to think, “This must be the guy or gal that knows what’s what about the place I’m interested in.”

Be personable, knowledgeable, and most of all – available. And don’t neglect to create a valuable online home base for your business.

The AIPIS Team

Flickr / Margaret Ornsby

1. Web 2.0 – If you’re participating in Web 2.0 to any appreciable extent, you’ll appreciate that podcasting is a natural extension of blogging and other forms of social media. When it comes to propagating your brand, it’s wise to leave no stone unturned.
2. It’s Easy – Too many entrepreneurs have the mistaken impression that podcasting is complicated. As AIPIS founder Jason Hartman likes it say: “It’s a lot easier than Internet marketing.” With all the tools and technology available for podcasters, it’s deceptively easy to get your podcast recorded and uploaded to the Internet.
3. Asynchronicity – Asynchronous is a word that goes to the heart of what makes podcasting so popular. To understand, let’s look at the opposite, which is synchronous. Synchronous broadcasts like radio and television operate on the principle that you have to be watching or listening to a show at the moment it is being broadcast. With asynchronous communication, like podcasting, it doesn’t matter how long ago the thing was posted online. Five minutes or five years. Makes no difference. The podcaster records at his convenience and the listener downloads and listens at his convenience.

For more information about how and why it makes sense to start a podcast, visit our affiliate website, Speaking of Wealth, where you’ll find a growing collection of blogs and podcasts dedicated to this topic.

The AIPIS Team

Flickr / derrickkwa

Jason and Anthony then talk about how income properties become your angel investors. Anthony realized the value of investing in income properties and leveraging, and he explains the highlights of being a real estate investor and becoming successful. “It’s determination,” Anthony says. He advises real estate professionals to continue educating themselves and keep their finger on the pulse of the business.

There are a couple of ways you, as a real estate or mortgage professional, can take advantage of Jason’s strategy. The first would be to actually loan money yourself. Jason and some of his clients typically earn 12.25% interest over the course of a short-term (around four months) loan. Add onto that a $500 funding fee paid from the borrower and this starts to look like an attractive proposition in today’s chaotic Wall Street investing climate.

The second way to profit from private lending opportunities is to let your clients with money sitting on the sidelines know about it. Believe us, there are enough borrowers to go around. At this point, you’re probably wondering just who these mysterious buyers are? Actually, they aren’t mysterious at all but are local market specialists hand-picked by Jason to scout properties to recommend to his Platinum Properties Investor Network. The business model for these local specialists is simple: buy houses at a great price that need a little work, rehab them, and then either sell them locally or put the best deals into the network for Jason’s clients. The problem with this process, in the eyes of the traditional lending industry, is that such properties as this fall into the “transitional” category, which means it is difficult to qualify for normal loans.

That’s where private lending sources step in to fill a market need.

As we already mentioned, Jason and some of his clients have already been making this kind of short-term loan to local market specialists for a while now, with excellent results. One thing to keep in mind with hard money loans is that they are not secured by the usual creditworthiness factors like income to debt ratio. Instead, your loan will be secured by the underlying value of the property itself. Though far from a wild-eyed leap of faith, this sort of loan is seen as riskier, which explains the substantially higher interest rate you earn as compared to a standard bank loan which runs only a few percentage points these days, thanks to a housing market still languishing in the cellar.

As long as Bernanke, Obama, and the rest of the Hole-in-the-Wall-Gang are trying to fix the economy, expect traditional interest rates to stay low. This is great for those buyers who do manage to snag a traditional bank-financed loan, though not so good for the bank itself. Don’t cry too hard for them, though, there are plenty of miscellaneous fees your friendly neighborhood loan officer can slap on to make up the difference.

Something else we really like about short-term private loans is the simplicity. As an arrangement between private citizens, there’s no need to involve a bunch of government regulators with alphabet soup acronyms. So, how do we suggest you make use of this information? Maybe you prefer to make a few loans yourself to get a feel for how the game is played. Once you’re comfortable with the process, it might be time to begin talking to a few clients about it. The key here is to position yourself as not simply a real estate agent or mortgage company representative.

You aren’t in the property business, remember, you’re in the service business, and the more services and actionable information you can provide a client, the more likely he’ll dial your number when he’s next in need of a trusted partner to complete a property deal. There’s a good chance you will meet with some skepticism and initial resistance at first, because the idea of hard money lending, as a source of last resort, has suffered from its share of bad press. The difference is that the borrowers Jason is talking about are not desperate homeowners trying to avoid foreclosure. These are successful businessmen and businesswomen who don’t fit neatly within the government’s idea of a “good risk” despite the fact they might actually be a safer bet than the millions of people who walked out of banks with mortgages for so many years and straight into foreclosure.

For more information on how to get started in private lending through Jason’s connections, call his office at 949-200-8009. No hard sales pitch at all. Just good, profitable information for those ready to take advantage of it.

The AIPIS Team

Flickr / 401k

So what exactly can social media do for your company? First let’s make sure we know what we’re talking about. There are essentially two components we refer to when we say “social media.” The first includes outlets like blogs and podcasts (both audio and video). These are safer choices because the message can be strictly controlled by the business. The second component is where the true “social” part of Web 2.0 comes in. This is where people gather to talk about any topic under the sun and refers to services like Facebook and Twitter. A real estate business considering establishing a presence in this wild and woolly “socialsphere” should be aware of the risk versus reward ratio.

A real estate company wants to always put a professional face on for the public. Purchasing a house or investment property might very well be the largest single expense in a person’s life, and they want to know that they aren’t working with a hipster doofus. For example, say you upload a promotional/informational video to YouTube. That’s all well and good but you have no control on what video pops into the rotation immediately afterwards. For all you know, it could be promoting cat juggling in South America. Like it or not, in your potential client’s mind, you’re inadvertently approving this black market sport. For those who might be concerned – the only cat juggling we actually know about has been confined to an old Steve Martin movie, and we’re pretty sure they weren’t real cats.

When it comes to deciding whether or not to dip your company’s toes in the social media pool, there are a few things to consider.

1. Define your target market: There’s a world of difference between marketing to Gen-Y’ers and stockbrokers. They probably don’t hang out in the same places. While Twitter might be a great place to introduce yourself and make friends to potential casual customers, not everyone will be amenable to that approach. Are your clients more stuffy, buttoned down, and wear three-piece suits? If so, LinkedIn could be a better option.

2. Return and investment: It takes time to establish a presence with social media, and time is money. The question is whether the time spent is worth the return on your investment? Lots of businesses get into social media precisely for the reason that it is less expensive than other traditional methods of advertising. There’s no crime in that, but consider how much time you can afford to spend daily in the socialsphere. Monitor the returns. Does it generate new business? That’s the bottom line.

3. Hard selling: There’s a huge difference from the real world when it comes to social media marketing. People can be QUITE resistant to blatant advertising in cyberspace. While getting flamed in a forum is no fun, the larger problem is that hard selling simply doesn’t work in these new venues. The goal here is to contribute to the social network; don’t just market to it. People smell marketing coming a mile away and avoid it. Learn from the example of Text 100, a global public relations firm that didn’t even have a marketing agenda when they took to social media, but rather simply wanted to scope it out in order to reduce risk to their clients.

The bottom line is that if you’re just in social media to push your wares, you’re probably in for a rough ride. Good luck out there making your real estate business more social. Let us know how it works out.

The AIPIS Team

Flickr / AslanMedia

1. Don’t wait until you’re desperate to keep in touch with people who might be willing to do you a professional favor when asked. Drop an email or make a phone call even when you DON’T need anything. This concept is networking gold.
2. Use airplanes, supermarkets, sporting events, weddings, festivals, bookstores, and cocktail parties as an opportunity to talk to people you don’t know.
3. Learn to sound sincerely interested when you ask someone, “What do you do?” There’s no telling where it might lead.
4. Learn to be a professional listener. Too many people are poised to respond and forget to pay attention to what the other person is saying. Practice asking a question and then allow time for the response to play out. Don’t interrupt and don’t be like a hyperactive chihuahua waiting to chime in with your own two cents worth. Being quiet is worth its weight in gold.
5. Practice until you “got game.” Develop a presentation that works for you, whether it be flashy or subtle, and hone it until it becomes natural. Like most things, practice makes perfect, and networking is not an exception.
6. Keep some sort of personal informational handout on you at all times. Business cards are, of course, the tried and true standby. Don’t be afraid to pass them onto strangers liberally.
7. Join every club and association in your field you can think of, then don’t be a stranger. Unless you show up at events and actually interact, it’s just a waste of money.

A final bit of advice when it comes to career networking is to follow up on every lead, no matter how minor it might seem at the time. You truly never know what secrets lurk behind a person’s bland exterior. That nebbish guy with the limp handshake at the party might be the next Donald Trump.

The AIPIS Team

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Q: Is it even legal to put assets besides stocks in an IRA?
A: The short answer – absolutely! A slightly longer answer is this. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 established guidelines for both traditional and self directed IRAs. Instead of creating a lengthy list of what sorts of investments are allowed, Congress instead singled out two particular assets that are excluded, namely life insurance contracts and collectibles such as art, jewelry, or baseballs. Other than that, consider the field wide open.

Q: Why am I just now hearing about self directed IRAs?
A: The truth behind the secrecy regarding self direction of retirement assets is easy to understand once you think about it. The retirement industry is driven in large part by massive corporations that create a significant chunk of income through transaction fees. More transactions equals more profits for them. Great for their bottom line. Not so good for you. This is why large investment brokerages spend millions in advertising, touting the benefits of their business model – DIRECTED IRA accounts – in hopes that the true benefits of guiding your own destiny gets lost in the hubbub.

Q: How many people actually use self directed IRA accounts?
A: The number is growing by leaps and bounds because the retirement industry can’t suppress the truth forever. Wall Street instability is helping push people to seek other investment choices. Right now, about 4% of retirement account holders own non-traditional assets, but we seem to be at a tipping point. Analysts expect to see about $2 trillion entering this market over the next few years. The reason? Once again, people love the idea of controlling their own destiny.

Q: What’s the best non-traditional asset to put in an IRA?
A: Ask one hundred different people this question and you’re likely to get just as many different answers. For our money, though, the choice is real estate, hands down. History has shown that income property ownership is the all time best investment. To be able to add it to a retirement account on a tax deferred basis is icing on the cake. And don’t worry if your friend, attorney, lawyer, banker, or mother-in-law claims that real estate held in an IRA is illegal. While some types of IRAs don’t allow this, a self directed IRA, commonly called a real estate IRA, is expressly intended for this purpose.

Q: How do you open a self directed IRA?
A: The process is similar to opening a traditional Individual Retirement Account. Many banks and other types of financial companies offer self directed IRA services. They fill out the paperwork, keep the books, and disburse profits, but may NOT offer financial advice. Expect various annual fees and services to add up to around $300 to $500. Since the IRA mandates how real estate and self directed IRAs must be administered, there’s really no way around these expenses. Just keep in mind what you’re gaining – the ability to invest in non-traditional assets on a tax deferred basis. This could be worth hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of dollars, to your portfolio’s net worth when you retire.

One thing we should be perfectly clear on when it comes to investing in real estate inside an IRA. You cannot put a property into a self directed IRA which you intend to use personally. Your dear Uncle Sam is quite serious about this point. Say you divert $100,000 from a traditional IRA to purchase a piece of property you plan on leasing to hunters. If the IRS gets wind you’re using the land for your own recreation, they’ll slap you with a “self dealing” penalty and immediately consider ALL the funds in your traditional IRA to have been distributed, which, if you’re younger than 59 ½ years old, triggers income tax and early withdrawal penalties. Trust us, no duck in the world is worth that price.

The bottom line is this. When it comes to investing in an IRA, don’t overlook the fact that you might be able to create much more wealth in the long term by opening a self directed retirement account.

The AIPIS Team

Flickr / 401K

Vince Villegas is an Associate Broker with Keller Williams Realty; he has been licensed since 2002.  After 6 straight years of doing business “the old-fashioned way” and killing himself working 90+ hours a week, Villegas finally hit the wall in 2008 and went from selling 56 homes in 2007 to just 8 homes by October 2008. It was than he faced the scariest decision in his life — either get out of the business or find a better way.   He of course chose to find a better way. It was then he began his journey to understand the principles of long-term business success.  In 2010, after uncovering the secrets of a successful business, Villegas finished #49 in Sales for Coldwell Banker North America and climbed to #27 in Sales by May 2011 (Villegas joined Keller Williams in August 2011) all while working only an average of 5 hours per week.   Agents across North America have been taking note of his success and began seeking his knowledge — wanting to know not only his famous system to building a consistently profitable business using Craigslist, Backpage and Kajiji, but also how to design the exact business they want for themselves from the ground up. Today he coaches agents all over the world on how to create million-dollar real estate businesses for themselves, while enjoying their perfect life. He has been featured as an expert, and has ranked among the most read experts, on sites like BrokerAgentSocial.com, CrackerJackAgent.com and ActiveRain.com.

As the founder and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, make no mistake that Mr. Buffett is still a staunch proponent of stock investing, and who are we to judge? Stocks have served the man well, but the truth is that, due to increased speculation amidst the 24/7 news cycle, today’s stock market is a radically different (and more dangerous) beast that it was when Buffett was cutting his teeth on profits for the first time in the 1950s. One of the reasons it’s so easy for Buffett to make money in the modern stock market is that he already has lots of money and can influence a single stock’s price direction simply by dumping a few truck loads of Berkshire Hathaway funds into it. Price shoots up because “Warren Buffett is investing in it.” The end result is that Buffett makes his money quickly on the back of a quick spike, then gets out while latecomers with much fewer resources are still jumping on the train.

Some might be put off by this method but we see it as smart. Very smart. However, what Mr. Buffett alluded to in the video is that single family residential homes is a much better and likely more profitable endeavor for the average investor without a billion dollars to dump on the market all at once. While Wall Street is still a great place for the super wealthy and brokerage houses which make their money via administrative fees, the churning nature of the stock market is simply too dangerous for the little guy.

The good news is that the little guy can take his modest portfolio and plow at least part of it into an income producing property. If you’re nervous about the idea, start with one and see where it takes you. Following Jason Hartman’s method of selecting and buying rental houses almost guarantees positive cash flow and eventual financial independence. Yes, we did say “almost.” By now you should know there are no guarantees in this life but one huge reason this style of real estate investing tends to outperform others year in and year out can be summed up in two words: universal need. How many people in this world aren’t in the market for a permanent roof over their head? There may be a few nomads in Pakistan who are perfectly comfortable braving the great outdoors night after night but most of us aren’t that hardy.

In fact, the vast majority of people in the world find themselves either building, buying, or renting a dwelling of some sort. This makes it a universal need. Great demand is inevitably accompanied by the chance to earn great profits. Buffett uses as evidence the recent decline of housing prices in most major markets and rightly points out that buying right now is like getting real estate on sale. What Buffett doesn’t mention, but Jason goes into frequent depth on during the course of his The Creating Wealth Show podcasts, is that there is even more good news for property investors.

1.Borrowing Standards are Tougher: It’s much tougher to get a loan now than it was ten years ago. Most banks and lending institutions now require at least a 20% down payment in order to loan you money. It used to be that 5% was sufficient. This is bad news for victims of the Great Foreclosure Crisis and people without cash reserves who want to buy a house, but it’s great news for investors with cash on hand. The continued slump in house sales is great news for investors because it drives the prices down.

2.Rent is Rising: In a confluence of “who would have ever thunk it” rental rates are increasing while house prices decline. Those same people who can’t afford a down payment in the new world of housing are forced to rent, creating a larger demand for rentals than before. This perfect storm of events for investors means you can buy properties cheap and rent them for a bunch.

That’s why Jason Hartman and Warren Buffett think single family residential units are about the best investment you can make today.

The AIPIS Team

Flickr / brianDhawkins

HOWARD S. FRIEDMAN is Distinguished Professor at the University of California in Riverside. LESLIE R. MARTIN is Professor of Psychology at La Sierra University, and Research Psychologist at UC Riverside. They met when Leslie began graduate study in 1991 at UC Riverside, where she became a key and continuing associate in Howard’s then-launching lifespan longevity studies. Here are some facts about their work, their interests, and their qualifications.

Their scientific research on health and longevity has been published in over 150 influential and often-cited scientific articles and chapters in leading books and scientific journals. In addition, Professor Friedman has authored or edited ten academic books about health and one prior trade book, The Self-Healing Personality. His textbook on Personality is now in its 5th edition. He served as Editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Mental Health, which received recognition as a “Best Reference Source of 1998″ from Library Journal. His edited book, Foundations of Health Psychology was named a CHOICE Magazine Outstanding Academic Title. Professor Martin’s books include Health Behavior Change And Treatment Adherence, and a textbook in health psychology.  Leslie and Howard have spent 20 years collaborating on the research described in The Longevity Project.  The study tracks the loves and lives of 1,500 Americans from childhood to death.

Putting the research findings into practice, Leslie is passionate about adventure travel that stretches her past achievements. She climbed Kilimanjaro (to the summit), and she recently completed the Marathon des Sables. This ultra-marathon is a 151-mile self-sustaining endurance race across the Moroccan Sahara, in which runners must carry all food and clothing for the entire marathon (in their backpacks). (See picture.) Always interested in a challenge, in her early 30’s Leslie became a champion for her age group in high-jumping. When she is not in the lab or writing about health, she is planning which mountains she will next climb.
Less extreme in his physical adventures, Howard prefers swimming, hiking, and cultural travel. In addition to his research and teaching, he writes every day, including a “My Turn” column published in Newsweek, and a new blog.

Dr. Friedman is the recipient of two major career awards for his health psychology research. In 1999, he received the Outstanding Contributions to Health Psychology Award from the American Psychological Association; and in 2008, he was honored with the James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award from the Association for Psychological Science (APS), an international award and the most prestigious in his field of applied research. See: http://www.psychologicalscience.org/awards/cattell/citations/friedman.cfm

A graduate of Yale University (magna cum laude with Honors in psychology), Dr. Friedman was awarded a National Science Foundation graduate fellowship for his doctoral study at Harvard University. He is a thrice-elected Fellow of the American Psychological Association (in Personality and Social Psychology, Health Psychology, and in Media Psychology) and an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Society of Behavioral Medicine.

Dr. Martin graduated summa cum laude from the California State University and received her Ph.D. from the University of California in Riverside. She has received the Distinguished Researcher Award, and the Anderson Award for Excellence in Teaching, both at La Sierra University. Former department chair, Dr. Martin has also received awards for outstanding advising and for service learning. In addition to her research on pathways to health and longevity, she studies physician-patient communication and its relationship to medical outcomes and has lectured widely on these topics.