Best Real Estate Directory

 

I just recently got home from a whirlwind multi-state trip for my lead gen business, which included a stop in Dallas. Wow! Major city sprawled out for miles and miles. Not only is Texas big – 801 miles north-to-south and 773 east-to-west miles, but the cities are massive. Massive cities mean mucho people, and mucho people mean many homes, businesses, and properties that someone has to own.

There are real estate opportunities in Texas

Texas has, since the recession started to reverse in 2010, been seen as a relatively safe and healthy real estate market to invest in. The state, up 3.5 million people in that 9 year stretch, has seen more growth than either Florida or California by nearly a million people. Those folks have to live somewhere, and Texas real estate investment firms would like you to believe it is in needed 1.5 million new houses. Housing, after all, has been relatively cheap compared to places like Seattle where the average house is over half a million, or San Francisco’s median 7 digits.

There is something for everyone in Texas

There is a lot to be said for the diversity and spread out nature of Texas. Whether you want German food and bluebells in Fredericksburg, a cutting edge music, arts, and clubbing scene in Austin, or the most diverse school district in the nation in Houston, Texas has something for everyone. Industry, fishing, hunting, coasts, canyons, sagebrush, and the holy grail – Friday Night Football. And food! It does not matter if you want barbeque, seafood, the biggest juicy steak you have ever seen, Tex-Mex or kolaches, you can get them in some part of Texas.

Don’t like what you see or have to do? Start driving. It might take you a while, though, to get there.

North Texas mixes desert and plains, as well as rivers and small towns. East Texas is full of agriculture, backwaters, and refineries. Central Texas ranges from hill country to flatlands with cattle, big towns, and more cattle. Coastal Texas has long barrier islands and fantastic seafood. And if you like wide open spaces for as far as you can drive, just head west out of Dallas.

West Texas has more abandoned towns than Nevada does ghost towns from the gold rush. The reasons are economics, and resources. No jobs, little water. But if solitude is what you want, you can buy your own small town for next to nothing in many parts of West Texas. Just make sure you have a way to support yourself. By mail. 3 days a week. ‘Cause that is as often as the postman gets out there.

Texas has something for everyone and every part of the state is as different as if you went to another planet. Texas is, after all, larger than a lot of countries. They have even tried to become their own country. More than once.

Texas national pride. There is a reason they say “Don’t mess with Texas!”

They mean it.

Texans are not only proud of Texas, but look after their own

One thing about Texas unlike some places, Texans pull together. For all the stories you hear about tough State Troopers (true) there is one thing – Texans are Texans when it comes to natural or other disasters. There is not a state that didn’t learn a thing or two about humanity, inclusion, and caring for your neighbor like Texans did during Hurricane Harvey. Heck, Texas even reached out and took in tons of folks during Katrina, and they do not even like Louisiana. Just the way they are.

So where is the hottest real estate in Texas?

Texas is so big and spread out, how do you know what is a good investment in Austin, or where to look in Dallas or Houston? Are neighborhoods important? And where are the arroyos (river washes), an important consideration during storms for flooding issues. Texas is the only place I have every driven where there are flood depth markers under nearly every overpass, and most show over 10’….wow.

It is really nice that in my virtual real estate business, lead generation sites, I do not have to worry about flooding, the neighborhood, or the local economy much. I own the sites and it is all on the internet, so I can help anyone in any neighborhood make more money for their business. I do it from the luxury of my comfortable office chair in my own home. I make a really strong rate of return with solid customers, too. Check out this no cost, no obligation link to learn what I am into:  https://www.bestrealestatedirectory.com/lead-gen/

Is using a real estate investment club or firm a good option in Texas?

Back to Texas property, one option is a real estate investment club, where people pool their resources. Not being there can be a hindrance, though, since you do not know anyone, and Texans can be a little leery of outsiders. A lot of people turn to the advice of a real estate investment firm due to that.

Ask a Texas real estate investment firm, and they will tell you everything is hot. According to Dale King, realtynewsreport.com, in an October 22, 2018 article Commercial real estate markets prosper; Texas metros follow suit, says Avison Young Investment report, particular attention should be paid to Austin and Houston multi-family housing, and very large commercial properties. What he does not mention is who is paying for the property.

According Steve Brown, Real Estate editor for the Dallas News said in a June, 2017 article Hello, good buy: Texas’ commercial property a key target for foreign investors, 20% of the investment money for commercial properties, be it residential multi-family, warehousing, manufacturing, or whatever, came from China, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and Venezuela. China alone accounted for 17% of the closings in Texas. Texas only trailed Florida in how much foreign money flowed, snapping up real estate.

What is driving the Texas economy

Texas is a big oil and agricultural state, among many other things. Cattle are king in Texas and oil flows instead of blood in many Texans’ veins.

What a lot of people do not know is the oil market in Texas is primarily from shale extraction. Shale extraction is expensive, with a lower yield and higher sulfur content, which requires more refining. More refining means more pollution and toxic chemicals. Just ask the folks in Beaumont what happened during Hurricane Harvey – hhhmm, wonder if that has anything to do with their housing values going down?

The more demand for oil, and there is always an increase when the economy is growing, the more jobs Texas can gain. Wars are especially profitable for Texas as resources have to come from home instead of depending on foreign sources. Storms, especially those not hitting Texas Gulf platforms, also drive oil prices up.

Oil is also traded on the world market and is joined at the hip to world politics. Let there be a barf in Saudi Arabia or Korea or Russia or China and prices bounce all over the place. That said, Texas’s economy can fluctuate dramatically on the turn of a dime. I prefer to have a business like mine that is not blown around by political winds and is a lot more stable. Every business needs more customers, and that is what my lead gen business provides them – more qualified customers.

What they are not telling you is that many of those folks moving to Texas are coming to escape winter, economic hardships in manufacturing, and early retirement as baby boomers. Texas’s population is changing and becoming more diverse. A lot of Texans do not consider that a good thing. Texans are proud of who they are and like to keep it that-a-way.

Is the Texas real estate market hitting over priced range?

According to Inzo Winzer, president of North Carolina based Local Market Monitor and pundit of all things related to forecasting real estate investments, Texas can still be a good investment in a few areas. In the Feb. 8, 2019 Forbes.com article Investing in Texas real estate? Here are a few things you should know, Winzer breaks down what is going on in Texas by job rates, house valuation change, and income to house price rations.

Texas claims its good realty market is due to a growing economy and booming jobs market, since job growth has been around 4%, nearly twice the national average over the past year. Problem is, the wages and the job count do not coincide well.

While Dallas (+8%), Houston (7%), and Austin (7%) are all up in home values in the last year, you have to dig a little deeper to get the real feel for home prices versus the economic conditions of the area. When you look at home price versus income last year, Dallas is at -24%, Houston at -23%, and Austin at -31%. In other words, people lost that amount of buying power versus how much they make towards a home. Anything over 20% is considered an over priced market. The more over 30%, the higher chance of a crash in local real estate values.

Translation: people moving/living/transitioning there from elsewhere or within Texas can not afford a home on their salaries. I say within Texas (perhaps displaced by Hurricane Harvey) as a million of the 3.5 million population change apparently was from within Texas. Apparently if you come from another area of Texas, you are coming from a foreign country, or state, or something. But, like all things Texas, big. Just give or take a million. Or two.

Where, if any, are safe property purchase bets in Texas?

Winzer suggests that if you want safety in Texas, buy moderate residential properties near a major hospital complex. With some of the highest out-of-pockets in the nation, I am not convinced those would be good long-term investments. The paradox is to make money in the slow and low growth areas, like those hit along the coast, you have to buy higher end properties. Not sure I would want to pay for flood insurance in Beaumont or Brownsville about now, either, if it is even available since FEMA rewrote the flood zone maps after Harvey.

Of course, Texas being big has big college towns, like Waco, Lubbock, and College Station. Rental properties in college towns, as long as you rent to staff and faculty and not students, usually are pretty safe investments. But even these three towns had drops, up to 9%, in home values last year, and a mixed review of income ratio to home pricing. All had job increases. So where are they living if they are not buying? Rentals.

The rent situation is not a lot better, as rent in all three towns plus Ft. Worth averages over $1K a month. The major towns in Texas are growing and doing ok, but when you look at the Local Market Monitor for Texas’s top 15 metropolitan areas, there are a lot of areas that it is pretty obvious are not doing so well. Some, like Brownsville, Corpus Christi, and Beaumont, got hit super hard with Harvey and are still (and will be for a very long time) in recovery mode. While Beaumont and Brownsville both show valuations up, remember that most of that is due to lack of available housing that survived the storm.

Other areas like El Paso, while home values are slightly up, still have serious disparity with regard to wages versus home prices. You can tell a lot about the local area by how cheap rent is. Nearly all areas damaged by hurricanes are down in jobs. If they are in a building boom, that seems a bit strange. Even San Antonio, the state capital, is up on home prices, but down on employment and wages.

Currently the one exception where you can make a good real estate investment that is not a college town is Ft. Worth. Ft. Worth average rent is over $1,000/mo and had both an increase in home values and average income to home price last year. Demand is still good, since it is commutable to Dallas. So, investing in Ft. Worth can still provide a comfortable income. Kind of.

What kind of ROI are you looking for?

Since I make an 80-90% return on investment in my lead gen business, I was curious what the return would be on a Ft. Worth piece of rental property. Ft. Worth has an average home price of $255,000 for last year. Average rent is $1,032/mo.

Let’s do a little math.

That is a .4% gross return on your investment.

You take out taxes, maintenance, vacancy, you will be at probably 30% less than that. But, just for sake of comparison, let’s use the .4%. At those average numbers, it will take 247 months, or 20.6 years, for you to get your money back. That is not counting repairs, taxes, large expenses like appliances, roof replacement, or months you go without a renter. And heaven forbid you get a bad renter who tears the place up.

I did not even mention the 2 a.m. calls when the toilet leaks, or the threats from weather (Texas also has tornados that wreak havoc), or a gazillion other things that cause ulcers when you own rental property. It is so much easier and relaxed to just pull up my bank account online and see all the automatic deposits from my lead gen customers, every month, just like clockwork.

I average 80-90% ROI on my lead gen business. Seriously.

Let me show you what I am talking about with some facts.  Below is the first site I ever put up:

It took me six hours to build it and rented it within the first month for $750/month. It has been rented ever since. I do not have to touch it. My customers are thrilled with the results. Their payment automatically shows up the first of every month.

After expenses, I have made net profit of $32,400 on this site over the last 4 years. That is a killer return for 6 hours of work and a very little bit of expense every month.

Now that is Texas big and that is no bull.

Why are you telling me this Ippei? Do you want competition?

Honestly, I am not the least worried about competition. 2.4 million small businesses in the U.S. need more customers. There is plenty of room for good, hard working, honest business people to help them grow. Lots of room.

See, I got involved in lead gen after trying nearly every MLM, internet marketing, drop shipping, you name it business there was to make some extra money online. I had graduated with a degree and gone straight into the $35K/yr J-O-B, which I quickly came to loathe. I knew I was never going to be happy unless I worked for myself. So I started to look. I made some money. I was working stupid hours at my job and my other businesses, and still had no life. Then I read about Dan and his coaching program for building and owning lead gen sites.

After some research I thought Dan looked pretty straight up, a straight shooter, from the hip as the Texans would say. He was working his business every day, not just selling a bunch of fluff like so many others. So I signed up for a call to learn more. After talking I decided to sign up, pay my tuition, and get to work.

Yes, lead gen is work. Any business is. But it is way less hours and stress than I spent in any other business or at my old J-O-B. Oh, by the way, I killed the job in 5 months and never looked back. I am 29 and in 4 years I have a very comfortable 6-figure income, and I travel and have other ventures. And I work part-time now doing it.

I kind of like my 80-90% profit margin. I also like working for myself and not worrying about the company being sold and outsourced overseas. Or the oil industry dying, yet again, and again, and again.

If you are looking for a business you are in control of, that does not control you, provides a solid passive income, and is not tied to the world oil market, check out this link: https://www.bestrealestatedirectory.com/lead-gen/

You will not regret grabbing the bull by the horns, and that is no bull.

 

I am not old enough to remember the Florida Orange Growers Association ads with Anita Bryant telling people “Orange Juice! Not just for breakfast anymore!”. But there are a lot of people who wax nostalgic when they think of their parent’s station wagon loaded with vacation gear, headed down Hwy. 27 through the lush Florida Lake Wales ridge orange groves. The sand of the pristine blue Gulf was so close you could taste the salt. You could even stand your little sister’s pestering “Are we there yet?” as you watched first wide, Spanish moss covered oaks, then groves, then finally palm trees out the windows.

“Ahhh, Florida.” And now you finally get to be there 365.

Florida is growing up fast – really fast

According to the January, 2019 AARP The Magazine, baby boomers, now age 65 and being those born 1946 and 1964 are retiring at the rate of 10,000 per day. The boomers grew up in a time post world war showered in a land full of prosperity and abundance. The free love and hippy generations of the ‘60’s gleefully turned to prosperity, materialism, comfort, and self-indulgence, fueled and approved by parents who wanted it easier for their kids than they had it.

And easier is a key word for many boomers. That includes dealing with winter, not the thing most of them want to do.

They are headed to Florida en masse. Rust belt states are loosing population, and Florida has become the 5^th fastest growing state in population according to the January 3, 2018 Des Moines Register. Many boomers soon to retirement already own property in Florida while working their last couple years in the Rust and Snow Belt.

You have to put that in perspective, though, since the “official” population stands at 21.7 million, and does not count the millions of snow birds (winter residents) nor the dual property holding boomers, still licensed in their home states while finishing up their careers. That brings the state to a functional population of around 27 million, with an overall increase in state population of 11.7% since 2010. Some areas have seen in excess of 40% per year in the hottest properties in suburbs of Naples and elsewhere.

Interest is down, home values are going up – jump on Florida?

Boomers are planning ahead, too, trying to beat the real estate value increases in Florida while mortgage rates are still low. And because of that, residential property in Florida is booming. Trying to guess the emerging markets is the challenge, though.

Florida’s mortgage and real estate industries took a huge hit, 3^rd in the nation on foreclosures, during the recession post 2007’s peak. Part of the problem was a market grossly bloated by horrifically overpriced real estate that tanked far worse than most places in the nation, often loosing as much as 80%.

Much of that gross overpricing was due to market demand by the first wave of boomers heading down to retire.

But the hit did not last long. Florida’s building never really slowed down, at least around Orlando, Naples, most the Treasure and Sun coasts, and points in between. The builders were looking into their crystal ball, which showed more people retiring soon and wanting to shed their parkas for flip flops. The educated gamble worked, and their building binge has only increased, rental prices have increased, and so has traffic. After all, the boomers escaping snow had to go somewhere. Why not Florida?

So where is the best place to buy a house?

What does all that mean for investment property in Florida?

It means many of the flip houses that flopped during the recession – massive numbers of foreclosed houses were in every part of Florida – are gone and have been gone. Property has gone up, 7.9% last year, and a prediction of 4.9% by Zillow for 2019. Zillow only admits to a 20% drop in Florida values from the peak in 2007, but some areas like the Gold Coast and Daytona area saw up to 70% decreases. Those areas are up 25% or more in just the past 3 years and had already recovered some in the five years previous.

Orlando, according to Forbes Feb. 2018, “Best Buy Cities: Where to Invest in Housing in 2018” states Orlando was up 35% over 3 years, and considered Orlando the #1 hot spot. Why? Orlando is still 22% below national housing median costs. That is one reason the boomers are flocking. Orlando has a 3 yr population increase of 7.6% alone. Jacksonville stands at 5.9% in that same time, Last year Orlando averaged 9% increase in property values on homes. It is predicted to gain 21% by 2021.

Orlando has a few of serious issues, too – sprawl, resources, and infrastructure needs. So do Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-West Palm (South Florida), Jacksonville, and Tampa. Traffic is atrocious, air quality has become an issue, and crime has increased. Those issues face nearly all of Florida, were water, in particular, and infrastructure, such as roadways, police and fire protection, and local resources especially for seniors are often seriously lacking.

A right to work state, Florida has limited state and local resources. Water, sewage, brush and forest fire protection, are all very big issues. Forbes is also quick to say fast growth markets tend to be overpriced markets very, very quickly, making investment risky at best. Medium priced slower markets tend to have lower risk, reasonable returns and way less stress.

Boomers may find some future needs have challenges getting met

Programs for the elderly are lacking, health care needs such as primary providers are popping at the seams, and finding home health care is a big challenge and extremely expensive. And you might not find Florida the retirement bargain you once thought of, as cost of living has greatly increased. Long term average rental rates have outpaced Minneapolis-St. Paul.

So why isn’t this a paradise for investment?

Residential investment property has largely dried up

What Forbes is talking about is a working couple relocating and owning a home, not investment property. Most of the cheap houses, especially those coming out of foreclosure you can make good money on have evaporated, and inventory is very short even on fixer uppers and “as is” property. You have to be able to locate a decent property in a good school district (resale always has to be a consideration for down-sizing later) that you can afford, and afford to fix up.

And speaking of fixer uppers, you better be able to and have the time to do the work yourself. Trades are all short handed in Florida. It may take you quite a while to get everything done that needs done on a property, and Florida real estate tends to be somewhat seasonal. Miss the snow birds and you wait until next season. Rental property also is subject to a higher transient rate than nearly anywhere else in the nation.

Should I be looking for vacation rental property in Florida?

So if I were hunting good investment real estate, would I hunt residential in Florida? Or a vacation property like a condo? There are many horror stories about buying a condo to rent out in Florida, many of them revolving around Spring Break and the notorious damage done by students. (In contrast, Bike Week in Daytona has few issues other than traffic and people hitting motorcyclists.) Even Airbnb has people qualify their ages and what events they are coming for.

I mean, after all, Florida is about this, right?

Waterfront property is still a relative bargain

Florida might, however, be the one place you can afford to buy oceanfront property, as Florida is the lowest cost per foot average of waterfront property in the nation. It will still run you double what a standard house will, though. The next challenge is the availability of insurance coverage. Many areas find premiums the highest in the nation.

Why? Two reasons – hurricanes and sea level rise.

Florida has experienced three major storms in three years. They had 5 in 2004 which put many insurance companies out of business, leaving property owners hanging. According to the National Hurricane Center in Miami, hurricane strength and damage potential has increased and will keep increasing, due to global weather and ocean current changes, and warming oceans.

One of the best things to come out of 1992’s Hurricane Andrew was a vast improvement in building code. The Miami-Dade Hurricane Code has become required for most new home and commercial construction in all parts of Florida. The painful lessons learned from decades of shoddy workmanship and shaky inspections coupled with developer leeway via old boy politics came to an end with the most expensive storm the US had seen until Katrina, Harvey and Irma years later. Did I say there have been 3 devastating storms in three years? Two of which have been the two costliest storms in U.S. history?

What that means is you can buy a building or house with some assurance it will survive a major storm intact. That was not always possible in Florida. You might, however, want to build it on stilts.

What is going on with sea level rise?

Sea level rise, regardless of your opinion, is a real fact. The State of Florida has been quietly preparing for major socio-economic impacts within the next decade due to sea level rise. Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, St. Augustine, all the way to Brunswick, GA take sea water breeching the seawalls or backing up through city sewer and storm water systems every binaural, spring, or king tide day now. That translates to several days a month, and have been for a couple years.

There are communities in Florida like Edgewater below Daytona that are facing the entire town being flooded by 2030 with 11-30 inches of water per the State Consortium on Sea Level. Discussions have not even touched on all the areas off canals built from trenched marl, or blackwater swamp areas in Big Bend, salt marsh below Ft. Myers, or areas along the Intracoastal Waterway. Tallahassee has been real quiet as it is bad for business if they state the facts. They have been working on it for 8 years.

What does that tell you?

What about storm damage and insurance?

One of the biggest issues on oceanfront property is beach erosion. Often the beach is not the only thing to get destroyed, as storm damage, even high tides, can take out roads, utilities, and in some cases, wash out your septic system. Those are all reasons that insurance companies do not like to write oceanfront property and charge you accordingly.

The Miami Herald, Nov. 27, 2018 in “The Invading Sea: New Florida Governor Must Tackle Sea Level Rise and Climate Change” noted that not only was Florida having issues due to water and weather, but Florida had to also face flooding, increased fire issues, ground water contamination, rapid decrease in natural areas and species, fresh water springs in serious jeopardy, sewers, chemical dumps, the huge, and dying Indian River Lagoon, and even military ordinance issues within the state. Even those endorsing incoming governor Ron deSantis, such as South Florida’s Ron Bergeron, who headed the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for many years, wryly joke about the name given the study and used by the State – “Paradise in Trouble”.

On the good side, property taxes in general are slightly below national average, and Florida has no personal income tax. The state also does not have estate taxes nor intangible taxes. Homestead exemptions are liberal once you actually reside in state.

All that adds up to comforting reasons for baby boomers to be flocking to warm Florida winters and no snow to shovel.

What that means for an investor is you have to look and try and guess where they are next headed to.

You can buy “as is” property and do the refurb and hope for a modest profit after all that work. It is extra challenging since boomers are the key buyers, and boomers generally do not want a house or building that has maintenance if they can avoid it. They are buying new homes in developments with HOA’s and a golf course.

So what is the best kind of real estate to invest in?

Retiring means turning in the key, not having to hunt turn-key. It is supposed to be a lot easier, right?

How about digital real estate? That is what a lead gen property is, and most people run their business at home with a laptop and an easy chair. You get to name your own schedule, work as much or little as you want, at what times you want pretty much. A lead gen business is a perfect match for retirees not yet quite ready to retire. If you want something to make some decent $$$ and still get in a round of golf, check out this link https://www.bestrealestatedirectory.com/lead-gen/ about the fastest growing business on the internet in 2018 according to businessreivew.org.

When I am investing money, I do not want to have to wonder, dig, research for weeks, probably visit, and then second guess Mother Nature about my money being tied up in a property. I want a safer, surer investment. I would rather have my view be this

 

 

 

 

Or this…

 

 

and let someone else deal with the hurricanes and beach erosion.

I would rather be putting my extra money into my lead gen business where I know it is safe from predators, no matter how many legs they have.

 

Business and commercial investment property in Florida – what about that?

A lot of the baby boomers suffered significant losses to their 401(k)s during the down swing, and many of them are hunting for second income streams to offset those loses. There are a lot of businesses up for sale right now in Florida.

There are lots of companies out there ready to take your hard earned cash for a business.

Just make sure they do not take you.

Florida, sadly. has a long history of people taking people, be it property in a swamp or unscrupulous unlicensed contractors post storms or preying on the elderly. Due diligence and much caution are advised.

Any number of biz-you name its have sprung up trying to “assist” boomers in buying a business. Sellers are even utilizing Craigslist to avoid brokerage fees. Buying a business usually involves purchasing the good will, trade secrets, inventory, and other stuff that make the actual operation possible. A business also has to be somewhere, whether it be a room in the buyer’s house, or a commercial space to have all their “stuff”.

The old catch phrase of “location, location, location” really hits true in commercial property in Florida right now. Some areas are booming – such as Sarasota, Venice, parts of Ft. Myers, Naples, areas around South Florida, Orlando, and Ponta Vedra, SE of Jacksonville. And some of those same areas, plus many others – may as well have scabbies when it comes to off-loading tired old commercial buildings.

One only need drive down Hwy. 1 or get off 441 to see strip malls nearly empty, shopping centers with lots of large vacant stores, and free standing empty buildings. A few have sold and are being bulldozed for urban renewal – mostly multi-family housing, because rentals are getting scarce and expensive in Florida. A big challenge with commercial redevelopment in Florida is dealing with old boy politics, city and county councils, and infrastructures set up to make most of their money off impact and permitting fees. Commercial investors have deep pockets, right?

It is interesting when you try and find information, blogs, or articles on investing in Florida, all of them are written by commercial property investment groups. They try to convince you that Florida is tax friendly, has low unemployment (because so many of them are retired!!) is “relatively inexpensive compared to New York and Los Angeles” (well, what isn’t??) and is the #1 investment location for foreign capital.

So even if you get ahold of a decent little shopping plaza, what can you expect? 10.6%.

Great ROI, right? Not so fast. Over 20 years. And that is the national average per investopedia.com. Numbers for Florida are not so forthcoming. A lot has to do with so much excess property sitting vacant in places like most of Orlando’s suburbs, Daytona to Titusville to Cocoa Beach and south, large chunks of Jacksonville, vast expanses of the panhandle, and what little of the keys is still intact after Hurricane Irma.

You see, there is huge commercial property growth – a lot of it new construction – in high rent districts like Sarasota and Wellington – but not a massive amount of anything in the vast remainder of Florida.

I, for one, do not want to have to drop several million dollars to get a piece of commercial real estate that may have a 2-4% rental ROI. All I need is one vacancy and I have lost my shirt.

Besides, why if you are retiring to Florida do you really want a business to tie you down 24/7? If you do, are you already underfunded and need the cash flow? That is one reason there are so many business for sale in Florida. People coming down and thinking it will be easy. It isn’t. Running a brick and mortar is just as hard in Florida as anywhere else.

I am my own boss, on my own hours, kind of like being retired…

I would rather not have to play Russian roulette with my money. My lead gen business regularly returns 80-90% profit margins to me, day-in and day-out. I travel when I want. Let me explain how I got into this wide open, ethical, honest, business model.

After graduating from college with a degree and a new corporate $35K job, I quickly realized that if I really wanted to make money, it had to be doing something besides working for someone else. So I started to hunt. I tried MLM’s. I tried reselling inventory. I even tried online as an Amazon seller. I made a little, had a lot tied up in inventory, and worked a lot of extra hours. I had no life. I did this for several years, then I read an article about Dan and the lead gen coaching program he has written.

This business coaching program did not resemble anything I had seen

I have to admit, I was sort of jaded by then, but Dan came across as a straight shooter and hard worker, and he worked the business himself every day. I looked around for blog articles and information and was pretty impressed with what I saw. Since I was working 40+ at my regular job which I was learning to hate, and and another 30+ on my own pursuits, I thought “what the heck, nothing to loose.” I clicked on the link, signed up for a free information session, and the rest is history.

Dan did not promise me any pie in the sky. He said, and I knew, that owning a small business (well, I am not so small any more, I an way into 6 digits, pushing 7 this year) was work. Sometimes a lot of work. But I also knew that if I wanted freedom to be my own boss, make my own decisions and mistakes, that I needed to work. I was impressed. Having a background in computers, I knew the internet was the up and coming arena for all things business.

So, I signed up, paid my tuition, took my classes seriously, and dove in. I still worked my “real” job – for 5 months. I killed it in 5 months. Really. And I never, ever, looked back.

The very first lead gen site I wrote was this one.

and rented it right away for $750/mo, direct deposited to my bank account.

Not much compared to a rental, you are thinking. Not so fast. I have been making that every month for 4 years. My expenses are minimal. I have profited $32,400 on that site in the last 4 years, and I do not touch it. I am not even sure I have had to talk to the customer in a couple of years. Mailbox money with continual, stable, residual income.

Will your rental property or flip house do that? I doubt it. Let alone have an 80-90% return.

My retirement is set. I am 29. I do not play golf, but I have a lot of traveling I want to do, and outdoor activities I love. And I am getting to enjoy them and make a 6-figure income every year building my business. Oh, that is profit, by the way.

Do you really want to start a new career, or own a business you are married to, again? Or have to bust your butt repairing real estate destroyed by an irate foreclosed-on owner? Not me. I like the ease of my lead gen business. If you are looking for some of that comfort and self-indulgence, maybe you should consider lead gen in your future. The view is pretty darn good from where I work.

Check it out, no cost, no obligation. No irritating sales calls. No one pushing you to do anything you do not want. Just information. Click here and get some real retirement spending money https://www.bestrealestatedirectory.com/lead-gen/

And pass the suntan lotion while you are at it.

 

Michigan has a lot of diverse advantages going for it

Home always holds lure, and since I grew up in Detroit, I still have a big soft spot for all things Michigan. Michigan has a lot going for it – revitalizing cities, resilient farmers, great pro and college sports teams, and tons of outdoor activities. Michigan also is home to large and diverse manufacturing and commercial interests that range from mining to car manufacturing to agriculture to major tourist destinations in the UP. That is Michigander speak for the Upper Peninsula. You know, that thumb looking thingy above the mitten? That.

When my lead gen business starting very early giving me great cash flow, I looked at real estate to invest in

One of the challenges in Michigan real estate investment is the diverse types of property available, most requiring various amounts of rehab and renovation. Sure, you can buy a house to flip and fix it up pretty easy, and you might not sit on it for too long. But how long will you be sitting on a piece of commercial property or a farm?

Airbnb: a good way to invest real estate money in Michigan?

Residential property is always interesting when it comes to how people plan to get a good return on their investment. One thing being pushed by real estate investment groups for Michigan property right now is using homes as rental units through Airbnb. Heba Baker pushes that potential in Michigan Real Estate Market 2018: Can You Make Money Investing Here?, August 19, 2018 on mashvisor.com. Baker does a good job of hitting stats on the large cities including Lansing, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, and of course, Detroit.

Lansing stands out for really cheap median house prices in the market at $107K last year. Baker claims that you can get a rental return of 8.95%, making a return of over $2K a month. That does sound appealing, until you realize the occupancy is left out of those figures. Who goes to Lansing with any regularity besides for football?

Grand Rapids has a tight housing market, and outside Lansing, there is no city mentioned whose ROI is over 1.54%. That is, unless you are putting people up in $80-90K homes in suburbs of Kalamazoo that are sort of questionable. Then you might get 4-5%., maybe. If you are lucky.

The data does not support the Airbnb investment model

If you really want some techie data, Airdna’s Marketminder, the leader in plotting returns, occupancy, average rental night fees, and the like, can provide it. Take a look at Michigan’s famous north shore, nestled on Lake Superior. Even Airdna shows average occupancy of rental property running around 40%. So, take that $2040 per month “revenue” and not even taking out for housekeeping, taxes, upkeep, you name it, let alone the person that has to manage the property. That drops the “revenue” to $816 per month on an average. I make that much on one lead gen rental per month.

All this rental magic return talk never addresses once you buy the homes what you have to put into the homes to get them into rental condition. No information is shared about what is so attractive about Kalamazoo, Lansing, or Detroit. Sure, Wayne State is in Detroit, Michigan State is in Lansing, and Western Michigan is in Kalamazoo, but outside of freshman orientation and graduation and a few Big 10 games at MSU, there is not a lot of happening stuff going on here. Two weekends a year is not going to get you a return on your cash real estate investment.

I regularly have an 80-90% profit margin on my lead gen properties. Why would I tie up a couple $100K in a house in a who knows neighborhood praying someone needs a rental? That does not even compute with me. I like my 80-90%, direct deposited monthly, residual income off my “virtual real estate”. I own my virtual real estate, there are no property taxes, and I do not need its driveway plowed in the winter.

Agriculture is big in Michigan

It has been said if you want a real thrill, jump out an airplane. But if you really want an adrenaline rush glued to the edge of your seat, buy a farm. In Michigan. In the winter.

Agriculture is one of the top three industries in Michigan, along with manufacturing (obviously, autos leads that) and tourism (which we all know is “Up in the U.P.”) Michigan grows a lot of hay, sugar beets, beans, corn and wheat, and is one of the nation’s largest producers of Christmas trees. Now that is happening business for a return on your land investment, as in oh, 8-20 years to grow a crop of trees that can be destroyed by one heat wave shipping them south after cutting. Michigan also grows a lot of hot house bushes and plants, which actually account for 14% of their agricultural output according to netstate.com. Well, somebody has to grow all that stuff that freezes in the winter, right?

Choosing agribusiness investment property can be challenging

Back to the winter farm purchase, though. A little geology is a good thing here. Michigan, like other states around the Great Lakes, was pretty much formed out of glacial moraines pushed up during the last ice age. Put that in every day language and you are talking dirt and rocks pushed up together. Rocks. Lots of rocks. To rockhounds Michigan is a paradise of agates, copper ores, and other pretties of every color and pattern. To a farmer they are a nightmare.

A white blanket of snow is a realtor’s BFF to pawn off rocky, swampy, or poor quality farm land.

Buying a farm or any raw ground in Michigan should only be done when the snow is off. Period. That kind of limits looking around to four or five months, less mud season, so make it three or four. Any good farmer knows that if you are going to plow and plant even alfalfa the rocks have to go because even one good one will break a tine off your cutter and you are down for repairs. Meanwhile it rains on your hay, ruining it. And rocks, while there are machines that do some good, usually have to be picked. By hand. You get the ugly picture.

The poor land, the low swampy mucky clay clogged stuff, well, you can buy that all day long. Selling it is another thing, if you can find a sucker that can fend off the mosquitoes. And doesn’t mind rocks.

So once you have found the perfect piece of nice dark loamy soil next comes the sticker shock. Good Michigan farm land runs $5,000 per acre, and it rarely sold except when lost. Farming in Michigan is suffering the same fate as elsewhere, in that family farms, many held for generations, can not compete with agri-conglomerates.

Agricultural property is notoriously difficult to get banks to extend mortgages on, especially if you are not a farmer, as the failure rate without experience is high. They are not keen on investors, either. Insurance can be a whole different issue. Many farm structures are older houses, barns, machine sheds, pole barns, that fit into a different insurability category, if at all. Also, many farm policies require the property to be occupied. Do you want to deal with a renter calling about a frozen sewer line at 2 a.m. when it is -30 below?

Michigan is an outdoor recreation bonanza

Recreational property in Michigan is usually scarcer than hens’ teeth. Michigan has three main interests for tourist business – the lake shores, the hunting areas in the north, and the UP. (Going for a weekend in Detroit can be more like going with Xminks into Call of Duty, so we are not going to call that a holiday stop.) The challenge with recreational areas in Michigan is many of them have been settled and are in the same family ownership, or belong to the state. Lake cabins, fishing resorts, boating operations, up state hunting preserves, usually are limited, have high insurance, taxes, and very seasonal revenue streams.

Yeah, I know, some of them rent snow machines. You ever tried to keep a snow machine up and running? I would rather be sitting on a warm beach somewhere with my laptop and a cold drink working on my tan and a new lead gen property. No 30 minutes to put on enough clothes to keep from freezing in very sub-zero weather, and I am making money. Repairing snow machines does not.

The really good recreational areas are pretty much tied up or belong to the State

Really nice resort type property such as in on the Upper Peninsula, which you can only get from the rest of Michigan by boat (or a very long drive the length of the state, across northern Ohio and Illinois then up the length of Wisconsin…who ever divided this state like this anyway?) isn’t for sale. It has been in private trusts or state ownership since time immortal. They do grow some apples and some gourmet food up on the UP, but it is limited, expensive, and mostly goes to hoity toity restaurants.

The other great place is Mackinaw Island. It is only accessible by boat or ferry, too. It is a beautiful place with a grand historical hotel, which is wicked expensive to stay at. And only open about 4 months a year. The whole island is sort of a wildlife sanctuary, so buying property there if it ever came available is super expensive and has many rules like HOA policies except much tougher. Tying up my money to even be able to enjoy it for 4 months a year let alone not make anything on it and having someone tell me how to enjoy it seems a little lame.

So is commercial property the way to go for real estate investment in Michigan?

Commercial properties in Michigan come with some challenge. First is condition of the buildings, many not maintained for over two decades due to the struggling Michigan economy. Next, what liens and issues may come with the property? A lot of properties in Michigan come with more than back taxes or repairs. Some come with fines and EPA issues.

Flint everyone knows is tragic and may never recover from the environmental issues it faces. Many Michigan cities have environmental challenges, as manufacturing and industry were pretty lackadaisical about chemicals, leftover industrial waste, toxic cleaning materials, and the like just being dumped onto the nearest land or into the nearest water. Sometimes it was just left right where it landed on commercial properties. This means ground water and ground, period, on many properties face expensive clean up, disposal fees, inspections, and health concerns.

Chemical clean up and pollution is a vacuum for your dollars, if you go there.

Third, what is the tax base on the property, and last, can I even find a buyer or renter for it once I purchase it? Rehabbing commercial buildings is often a moot thing to do, as many renters or new owners will want to build out according to their needs.

Retrofitting commercial buildings is costly

Often commercial investment properties will require old equipment being torn out and hauled, as much of it is has no resale value, is worn out, is out of date, or is just simply too expensive to move and/or retrofit. It has to be done, though, to make the place rentable or salable. Tearing out and hauling large factory equipment is expensive, often 6+ digits expensive. Add that to the costs of acquisition, clean up, taxes (often back taxes), and commissions to handle both purchase and sale, you have eaten up a chunk of any money you might make on a larger commercial building.

Smaller commercial properties are more doable, if the building you are thinking of investing in does not require extensive repairs and updates to meet code. Many small business and commercial real estate owners lost their properties during the recession in Michigan. This is especially true in large cities like Detroit. Detroit, while making a comeback, has major neighborhood issues with many that will never recover. Is that small strip plaza in an area where people are actually rehabbing homes and selling at a reasonable profit, or is it in an area that looks like a bombed out war zone?

Lots of due diligence is needed in any city in Michigan, period, when you are putting money into either commercial or residential real estate, to see if there is any chance of a return on your investment dollars.

Detroit is recovering….maybe

On the topic of commercial business in Michigan, it is worth note that General Motors, GM, is the largest employer in the state. They are based in Detroit. Detroit is one of those areas the real estate investment companies keeps telling you is a great place to buy property.

USAToday reported on Nov. 26, 2018 that GM was preparing to close plants in Michigan, Ohio, Maryland, and Canada. That included the Detroit Hamtramck plant. GM is laying off 15% of their salaried work force, and numbers of hourly workers facing reduction is still being challenged by the unions. Then they got hit with negative sanctions for having to close plants.

It does not sound like Detroit is a sound place to invest real estate dollars now or for some time to come.

I would rather have some control over where my money comes from, and goes.

When I build out a lead gen property, I know from experience that I will see a very strong return on my investment. I own the property, and I make the decisions. I get to choose who I rent the leads to every month.

Let me explain about the return. When I built my first lead gen site

I spent about six hours doing it. I got it rented right away, for $750 a month, direct deposit into my business account. I have a little bit invested in monthly fees to keep the phones lines up and the website active. I have rented that site for 4 years, and I have cleared, in pure profit, over $32,400 on that one site. And I hardly ever touched it once it was up. Can you say you never touch your rental property? I bet your $750 is going for the mortgage and not into your pocket as profit.

Is Michigan real estate investing making money or a social gathering?

Real estate investment companies would like you to believe that buying rental property in Michigan is a strong, smart investment move. Areas like Detroit and Ann Arbor have real estate investors clubs popping up. Meetup has even jumped into the real estate investment parlor, with get-togethers matching up people with money and contacts from MREI as well as investment firms that specialize in Michigan real estate both residential and commercial.

Taxes in Michigan are a big problem for investing

There is another thing about real estate investing in Michigan. Across Michigan reported on patch.com, January 24, 2019, that a recent study by 24/7 WallStreet found that Michigan’s property tax rate is the highest in the nation. Above downtown New York City and Beverly Hills. Wow. Add that to 6% flat income tax, 6% state sales tax, and the fact that all pensions and retirement monies are taxable in Michigan and you have a heavy burden on people already praying their jobs do not go away.

I did a lot of investigating into both commercial and residential investment opportunities in Michigan when I started having real revenue and extra cash from my lead gen business. I kept hearing how good an opportunity it was with recovery happening. That was not what I found to be true. It just could not match my lead gen business.

After attending the University of Michigan and graduating to the $35K a year corporate gig, I knew early on I was not going to be happy punching the clock. It was drudgery and it was immediately obvious I would never make enough to have a life, let alone a lifestyle, like I wanted. So I started looking around.

I did a lot of research and reading, and got involved with several MLM’s and then drop shipping via Amazon. I was still working the 40+ hour job, too. I worked my backside off and made some money, but had zero life and was exhausted all the time. I made a little decent money drop shipping for Amazon, but it was killer to keep up with the time, tracking, and issues generated by such an enterprise. So I kept looking.

I knew in order to make a decent life for myself long term, I had to find something that provided residual income with the least effort to maintain. That meant whatever that business venture was, it had to be rock solid, streamline, and easy to learn, understand, and operate. I had a background in computers, so of course, I looked more toward online opportunities, as I simply could not deal with all the inventory and space many small businesses required, let alone the narrow profit margins and cost of acquisition, slow turn rates, taxes, and the like.

That was when I discovered the lead gen coaching program Dan has written and was working every day

It took a couple of years of looking, trying, and working myself half to death, trying to eek a decent profit margin out of the online models I was spending time and money on, when I ran into Dan and the lead generation coaching program he had put together. I regularly read entrepreneurial blog I followed., and there it was. Here was a guy like me, well, sort of, I had the college bills and he did not, but he was not much older than I was (I was 25) and he was making money hand over fist. He had a scalable business, with a very high return on investment.

And he had a life. That was really important to me after several years of 80-90 hour weeks. I needed a life. So I thought, what the heck, the call was free and no obligation, and I signed up for a phone conversation about his program. The same place I set up a call is right here https://www.bestrealestatedirectory.com/lead-gen/

I was impressed. Dan was a very straight shooter, obviously ran a very ethical business, and was positive and full of energy. Most important to me he was not trying to sell me somebody else’s stuff – his coaching program was his, he worked his business that he taught how to do every single day, had a family and was making serious money. He was not cutting corners to get, or keep, customers – his motto was always give more than you get.   And he was able to invest in other streams of revenue to create a legacy for his wife and children. Impressive.

I really liked what I saw and heard. I got all my questions answered straight up. So I signed up, paid my tuition, did the homework and learned the program. I saw that even though I had a computer background, it was obvious that anyone with only a little work could learn, easily, even if they had never been around computers.

I had to hang on to the corporate job for 5 months to cover my bills. I resigned to go full time in my business at five months. And met my bills. And I never, ever, looked back.

My business investments average 80-90% return. Consistently. For four years.

Was it hard work? Yes, at times.

Was it scary? A little. Any business you own is a little scary at first.

Was there a learning curve? Yup. It is the internet, it changes constantly.

Will it tap out? No. No. and No. The world is going digital, period, to find what they need, when they need it, for the price they need it. Successful businesses are learning that, and it is wide open for people like me – us – to help them grow.

How many of you can say you walked away from your j-o-b to your own healthy business with residual income that paid all the bills plus some in five months? Not many.

Would you like to?

Here is the link https://www.bestrealestatedirectory.com/lead-gen/  for more information and to sign up for a no commitment, no cost call to learn about the training and opportunities it can provide for you.

You will be so glad you took that first step to freedom. I sure was.

Or you can go shovel snow in Michigan to fix that broken sewer pipe.

Choice is yours.

 

Welcome to winter!

Many northerners are looking for somewhere warm to get out of the cold, dreary, long days of winter right now. I know winter is also a great time to check out those blustery locations for what is going on the rest of the year and how they look for investment, especially in real estate.

Growing up in Detroit, I tend to associate winter wind and cold with lake effect. There is no town that matches up with that better than Chicago. After all, they have been long known as the Windy City for a reason, as they are strategically located at the southwestern most end of Lake Michigan. And, if you are talking about real estate, one of the first tenets is “Location! Location! Location!”

Chicago is centrally located for the strategic movement of personnel and freight

Chicago has location going for it. And relocation. More corporate headquarters are moving to Chicago than any other major city in the U.S. Location is a major reason.

Located at the crossroads of the northern half of the U.S., if you are going most anywhere, you have to go through Chicago or around it. If you are driving, you hit the famous “Loop”, passing over many of Chicago’s traditional old ethnic neighborhoods. That diversity has been a strong point for Chicago since before Mrs. O’Leary’s cow kicked over the lantern, leading to the great Chicago Revitalization Project…urrr, I mean, Fire, that leveled most the city in 1871. Just about any culture you enjoy is available somewhere in Chicago.

When flying, you likely will transfer through one of Chicago’s two very busy international airports – O’Hare, or Midway. (Midway is also one of the busiest commercial freight airports in the U.S..) Over 102 million passengers passed through O’Hare in 2017 alone, and it serves as a major junction point for many international flights.

Chicago has a massive waterfront, and is one of the busiest commercial ports on the Great Lakes – in the entire northern U.S. for that matter. So busy it has several ports that function as a regional system connecting fresh water rivers with commercial shipping across the Great Lakes and then ocean bound via the St. Lawrence Seaway.

The Chicago stockyards and rail yards are some of the largest in the nation. Cattle, hogs, and other livestock pass through Chicago, most via truck freight and rail. The railroads still have major roundhouses and union yards in Chicago, and millions of tons of freight pass through there heading east, west, north and south every year.

All those things make a great combination for manufacturing and corporate offices where people and goods have to have great access to transportation and supply chain opportunities. And the greater Chicago area has the trained labor force to handle those transportation needs. That force is largely union.

Labor unions are cornerstone in Chicago industry and commerce

Unions are the backbone of the Chicago transportation network, as well as construction, manufacturing, education, and other industries. No fewer than 62 major unions are strong and competitive there. They exercise considerable control over the strategic movement of goods into, and out of, the Chicago docks. Supply chain managers have to deal with laborers who make a high wage – plus benefits and protections – thanks to the unions. Unions have had a positive impact on safety and conditions for over 100 years, but also add to the cost of the goods and services in the area. They also make for some very complicated and at times tenuous business requirements many companies would sooner avoid.

Chicago – The Windy City – the #1 U.S. corporate relocation spot

Corporate giants including GE, ConAgra, and Archer all moved major portions of their corporate headquarters to Chicago in the past few years. Many decisions were due to the ability to move people and goods easily and at lower cost because of Chicago’s centralized location. The transportation industries in Chicago have a long history of stable, highly trained workers thanks to many years of union labor dealing with the automotive, lighting, ore, agricultural, and manufactured goods that move through the terminals and ports of the region.

Real estate investment opportunities in Chicago should be strong, but are not

With all this business moving to town, it seems like real estate investment opportunities in Chicago would abound. Chicago was hit hard during the recession like all major metropolitan areas. Chicago business seems to be bouncing back and should present strong turnkey real estate investment opportunities. Why, then, has Chicago been the only top ten major U.S. city to loose home values? According to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Schiller Indices, Chicago home values went down 2.6% last year, and have languished near the bottom of home value increases year after year. Why?

There are a lot of reasons, and some of them not so apparent. Chicago has a number of issues. Property taxes have more than doubled in ten years. The housing market is very soft. Chicago has more under water homes, i.e. more owed than they are worth, to the tune of 135,000 at EOY2017, more than NYC and LA combined. A little perspective helps to see below the surface why investing in Chicago has to be done with extreme due diligence and a large measure of luck.

Frankly, I like safer investments like my lead gen business. I do not have to count on luck for revenue.

Workers are looking for flats and condos in Chicago, not houses

While Chicago has a lot of corporate headquarters moving to town, the workers are not buying traditional real estate. It might seem like a good time to buy a home in Chicago, but problem is, many of the corporate types, used to living in an airplane seat or working 60-85 hour weeks, do not want the responsibility of a large home or property to maintain. They just do not have time. Or the money. It is not cheap to live in Chicago.

Median income is $62,848, which sounds great, until you consider that rent in one of the safer areas of Chicago runs between $1300 and $2900 for a two bedroom apartment. The cost of living is 23.4% above the national average. So if you are looking for investment property, you truly need to gravitate to neighborhoods close enough to areas of employment that renters or buyers can afford a decent place and make a decent wage.

Chicago is the 14^th most expensive city to live and work in in the world

Most companies moving to Chicago are bringing staff or hiring into the area. The corporate workers moving to Chicago are opting for condos in towers or multi-family housing units, not turnkey investment properties. Nor are they buying the McMansions in Lake Shore, Highland Park or North Shore at 7 digits plus. There is no guaranteed loyalty or longevity any longer in business. You do not know when you are going to move again and have to sell, or even have a job to pay the mortgage.

That is another reason I am so keen on my lead gen business. I do not have to worry about the company selling, irate bosses, or meeting their bottom line. I meet my own.

The vast majority of jobs coming to Chicago are white collar and professional, and not located downtown

Chicago may lead the nation in corporate relocation, but those people are not the ones living in the neighborhoods where cheap property (i.e. investment real estate) can be had. The suburb of Englewood, for example, has had a nearly 75% decrease in population in two years from 2015 to 2017 due to lack of work and crime. Those houses average $20,500. White-collar folks coming to work at Archer, ConAgra and GE are not going to live in those rough neighborhoods and drive clear across town to work just to get a cheap place to live.

Traditionally ethnic neighborhoods around Chicago are emptying out, too, some rapidly. The Latino population, who moved into South Chicago heavily in the 1990’s, are leaving at a rate in excess of 10% in the first decade of the 21^st century alone. Other traditional cultural areas are seeing similar negative changes.

More people are leaving Chicago than are moving to Chicago

Private real estate is lagging, badly, on resale in Chicago. Chicago was the only one of the ten most populous cities in the U.S. for both 2016 and 2017 to loose population. Why? A lot of it is due to lack of long term resale value on homes.

That means a gut of houses on the market. Locals are not getting those new corporate jobs. And people are retiring, sometime early, due to work availability going from manufacturing to corporate. So Chicagoans are leaving. By the droves.

So who are you going to sell that fixer-upper to?

Baby boomers are retiring and leaving the winter, taxes, and crime in Chicago

The largest generation in U.S. history, the baby boomers, are retiring, en masse. And they are leaving northern cities – especially Chicago – and heading for warmer climates, like Florida. Property taxes pushed by massive city debt, cost of living, and crime are three reasons.

Winter is another.

The City of Chicago has some of the worst debt of any major metropolitan city in the U.S. 

And it affects real estate values

Michael Hicks, economics professor at Ball State and one of the most respected people studying Midwest economics puts it bluntly, “There’s a direct correlation in the declining demand for homes…In every region, affluent or not, demand is compounded by government that they’re doing their best to send Chicago off the rails.”

Chicago has only 9.5 billion in assets with a city debt of 42 billion according to statedatalab.org. And they have no way to pay it off. In fact, according to Kyle Gibson states in Feb 6 2018, “Chicago Ranks Second Worst of most populous U.S. cities for fiscal health”, Illinois News Network (Feb. 6, 2018),

Chicago has a debt of over 40 billion, which is $45,000 per person in the city. That is not including the $20,000 additional dollars per person it would take to cover the outstanding bills the city currently owes. And Chicago has no way to pay those bills except to push the debt out onto the taxpayers – i.e. business owners, and property holders.

There is a long history of excessive borrowing to cover city expenses to run Chicago.

There is also a long history of questionable accounting practices and management of that money.

Property taxes have more than doubled in Chicago in the past decade. A lot of that rise has been government trying to stem financial bleeding from running a town in a manner way over its ability to pay for services that notoriously stink.

And with boomers and ethnic groups leaving and property languishing, that means less money in the property and business tax coffers.

The elephant in Chicago’s financial closet is economic separation

Like many big cities, the Windy City is known for neighborhoods. Sadly, Chicago has also gained a reputation for some of the most dangerous hoods in the country. Gangs, drugs, violence, and shootings are on the news nearly daily, broadcast all over the country, about Chicago. Chicago is portrayed as having some of the highest murder rates and per-day shooting counts in the nation. People are afraid for their kids, and grandkids, in their own yards. They want out.

Admittedly, crime rate has improved to an all time low, and numbers are actually better than many metropolitan areas in the US. However, murders and shootings are up, accounting for half of the national increase in 2016.

A lot of the crime in Chicago carries the burden of its historical image, and “newsworthiness” fueled by what is controversial. Chicago has made a lot of effort to isolate and more carefully control perceptions in order to attract big business. Still, the south and west sides are kept isolated from the Loop and the downtown, lakeshore and north areas where tourist and business traffic in and out of the city are heaviest are kept under a close watch, and everyone keeps a zipped lip.

Education and judicial reform are critical for Chicago to rebound

According to June 21, 2016, Crain’s Chicago Business “16 Solutions to Chicago’s Most Vexing Problems”, 14% of the population of greater Chicago lives below the poverty line, virtually unchanged since 2012. The educational system in Chicago has many challenges, including underpaid teachers (everywhere) and lower expectation for quality in the classroom than many areas. There is little collaboration between schools anywhere in the district. This creates challenges in graduating qualified people to become the new workers to fill home town jobs.

Those issues, along with badly needed court reforms, are big stumbling blocks in an area where nearly universal business S.O.P. is refusing to hire convicted felons. With one of the highest perceived crime rates in the country, that is gasoline on a bonfire to keep entrepreneurial ventures out.

I don’t know about you, but this does not sound like fertile ground for my investment dollar. Why would I take the risks of this city situation when I am consistently making 80-90% profit on my lead gen sites?

Least of all, winter…

As trivial as it might sound, potholes are a big issue in Chicago.

Cursing the damage to your car is a reality in a city that does not have the fiscal where-with-all to fix the darn things. Another challenge is run-off and industrial pollution, both magnified in the winter-to-summer annual transition as salt and chemicals drain into nearby rivers, canals, and Lake Michigan. Clean water regeneration, invasive species brought into the ports that threaten commercial and recreational fishing, air pollution, and disposal of toxic waste are all big, serious local health and economic issues.

But winter presents other financial barriers.

Chicago does not have a market for vacation buyers or international real estate investors, and weather has a lot to do with it. Do you want to go “enjoy” Lake Michigan when there is a 50 below wind chill? Not me. I would rather be kicked back with a customary cool beverage of choice under a palm tree somewhere, laptop in hand, working on my lead gen properties.

Given all these factors, is no wonder, seeking warmer climates and wanting to snag a retirement home before prices in those areas go up even more, that baby boomers are leaving and heading south.

My lead gen business is a lot better investment than real estate in Chicago

Lead generation properties act a lot like real estate, except they are virtual. What I mean is, when I write a website to bring in business for a client, increasing their bottom line, I own that digital site. And I get paid every month. Well. Really well in some cases. And they are glad to pay me.

When I graduated from college and took the “normal” $35K j-o-b working for big corporate America, I was miserable. I knew I would not last unless I got out. So I started to look for an escape route.

I investigated every imaginable way to make money on line, since my background was in computers. MLM’s, while some were sort of ok, were a pain, and most died painful, expensive deaths. My friends and family had started avoiding me. (Now I have really cool friends who make as much or more than I do that hang out with me.)

Next I tried Amazon and other avenues to resell products, drop ship, you name it, I tried it. I was working crazy hours, making some decent money, but was exhausted and had no life. That was not why I went to college and sure not what I wanted in my life. So I kept looking. Then I discovered Dan and the lead gen business coaching program he put together.

I signed up for Dan’s training on how to help businesses grow, legitimately, ethically, and I never, ever, looked back. You won’t either if you decide to give it a chance. Check out how at https://www.bestrealestatedirectory.com/lead-gen/ .

Yes, I worked for a while and did both businesses – my job and my lead gen business. Was it hard? At times, yes, but most things worth having take some effort. I worked a 40 hr week and worked as much as I could at getting my business up and running. It did not take long until I not only had cash coming in every month, but my business was growing and I was getting referrals to other businesses that needed my services. Word of mouth from happy customers is the best free advertising you can get!

See, there is a really massive number of businesses that need more customers.

Something like 2.4 million small businesses that can use more business just in the U.S. That is a lot of potential customers. And every day more people go into business for themselves. Have you dreamed about it? Now is your chance. It does not cost you even a dime to listen. And I want you to ask questions. Anything you want to know. We will give you a straight answer, or find someone who can.

Dan showed me how to get my life back, be my own boss, and make money. And the best part, I was in control. I could work as hard as I wanted and actually see something for my hard work. I learned from my own mistakes. And I got to kiss the j-o-b goodbye in five months.

Yes. You read that right.

Five Months.

I really like the feeling of doing things to help clients prosper in their businesses, reasonably. Because when they prosper, I prosper. It is not just about the money, either. It is about doing something good for both of us in a positive way. And getting to work a short work week, travel just about anywhere I want, and doing cool things with friends does not hurt.

This is just one of the sites I put up for a customer –

 

I put maybe six hours into the site, one of the first I did. I get paid by automatic deposit every month, and have for four years at $750 per month. After expenses, because all legitimate businesses have expenses, I have made $32,400 the last four years off six hours of work and literally not had to touch the site again. Pretty great return on investment, huh?

Being your own boss running your own business is possible with some work and investment

Would you like to kiss your j-o-b goodbye investing in yourself instead of someone else’s profit share? Go visit this link to find out about our training program https://www.bestrealestatedirectory.com/lead-gen/ .

At 29 I have some disposable income to invest from my six figure income. That is why I looked at the Chicago investment real estate market. My lead gen business is a whole lot safer, surer, and less stress. I work when I want to. I play when I want to. And I do not shovel snow when I do not want to any more.

Check us out. There is no obligation and it does not take a lot of time. I can hook you up with a live person to get any questions you might have answered.

I knew I could not keep going in, day in and day out, to a job I hated. I had to do something for me.

Do you?

 

 

So you’ve worked hard, squirreled some cash, and want to find a way to make it work for you…

You are getting tired of the grind and not being master of your own life. Everybody is an “expert” how to invest your money – stocks, muscle cars, crypto currency – but everyone eventually mentions real estate. You’ve done a lot of research and know there are towns post-recession ready to move forward to heal, grow, expand, and invite companies back to provide jobs and invest in the community.  Sounds like a win-win for you and real estate investment, one of the most lauded, tried and true methods to grow your money in a “safe” financial market.

Or is it?

Detroit MI is one of those “safe” real estate investment towns.

Detroit went through a direct ground zero hit during the economic downturn, barely weathering the recession of the decade. Massive layoffs occurred at the “Big 3” – Ford, GM, and Chrysler – starting post millennium. Things got a lot worse when the recession hit with more plant closing and layoffs. Desperate, Detroit finally filed bankruptcy, the country in horror this mega-size city had four out of ten zip codes with the highest foreclosure rates in the nation.

 

Detroit is being called a phoenix by realtors and investment firms alike.

In Crain’s Detroit Business’s 9/23/18 blog “Opportunity Abounds in Detroit – If You Know Where to Invest”, Brent Maxwell of IPS Realty – Detroit claims Millennials are flocking there for “out-of-the-box” careers.

Really? Millenials are all about lack of jobs and money. More likely they are looking for cheap housing.

Maxwell claims rightly that government is throwing money at Detroit.  Detroit has long had a serious slumlord problem, and they are now being ticketed for derelict properties.  With metro resources stretched to the limit and no relief in site, it is probably an effort to avoid the maintenance and safety issues run down properties bring to the city.  Maxwell closes iterating that only locals can begin to know safe or recoverable neighborhoods and it has to be a grass-roots effort.

Sounds like challenging investment, especially if you live in SoCal or Arlington, VA.

Real estate investing in Detroit looks like it should be a no brainer.

Lots – and I mean LOTS – of vacant and run-down houses. A trained out-of-work work force. Government incentives to bring companies back. Detroit has nowhere to go but up, right?

As an investor, I looked hard at the real estate market in Detroit.

After all, I am a homegrown son, having spent most of my life here with no intention of moving.  I am a successful business owner with dozens of lead-gen properties making me good, high ROI money every month and considerable disposable income.  You would think that flipping houses would be high on my investment list since it appears to be easy money right in my back yard.

Uh,  yah… Nope. I simply make too much money in my lead generation business, with far less risk and far less investment, and a lot less worry.

Let me explain. Detroit had a lot of cheap houses, but businesses are slower to recover than the housing market, due to capital investment.

 

You can make money on Detroit real estate – sort of.

Detroit’s housing median price in 2016 was $36,000 (yes, you read that right). There has been a 41% drop in foreclosure rates since 2016, according to the S&P/Case-Schiller Home Price Index quoted by HomeVestors Franchise in June, 2019. Many of the worst run down houses were bulldozed, others renovated, making available houses more limited.  Motivated sellers still in foreclosure may have a property worth looking at to rehab in neighborhoods that might recover in the future.

And you may not have to do the manual labor and hunt yourself. There are lots of large investor groups nation wide that would love to play with your hard earned cash.

Reality is, Detroit’s renaissance is contingent on a number of things

Namely, governmental decisions revolving around tariffs, incentive programs targeted for cutback, mortgage rates that are stalling, and rumblings of another recession.

Are your hard earned dollars really going to be safe invested in cloud-in-the-sky promises of urban renewal and mega-industry regrowth?  Ask GM.

I don’t know about you, but when I am investing my hard earned cash, words like “might”, “may”, “could” just do not provide me warm fuzzies.

Numbers warm my heart a lot more. Let me give you an example. My very first lead-gen web property I put up 4 years ago brings in $750 a month.  It took me about 6 hours to write and launch, and I have barely touched it in 4 years.

I rented it the first month. $750 x 12 months = $9,000/yr  x 4 years is $36,000.  This site has cost me about $75/mo – $75 x 12 x 4 = $3,600.  So I made $36,000 – $3,600 = $32,400 in profit.  I get a direct deposit every month of $750. How much is it going to cost you to remodel and bring up to code one of those derelict houses you paid a $1,000 or more that you are going to sell at $36,000 or maybe$50,000?

I am consistently making 80-90% profit on my lead-gen sites. How much is your real estate return on investment?

Another thing about my lead gen business is I work about 20 hours a week and make high six figure income, all doing something people need and want. Do you? Or would you like to and just do not know how to get there?  I can send you in the right direction.

 

I hate to say it, but I am leery of the economic future and its stability in an area so depressed.

I would love nothing more than to see Detroit rise like a phoenix from the ashes, but I am also a smart, shrewd, observant, successful business owner.  There are too many red flags and promises rather than realities in the chance of investment profit through the salvation of Detroit real estate. I would much rather reinvest my extra funds in my lead generation business.

If you are thinking, “Ippei, you are abandoning your home town” –  it’s not true.

My lead-gens, while now all over the U.S., started and still focus first on Detroit and the surrounding areas.  I help local businesses grow so they can stay open, provide more jobs, open second locations. I am nearly 100% guaranteed residual income while still helping local business owners heal and grow into healthy, positive cash flow entities that make Detroit the place you dowant to come back to for the opportunities.

It is pretty amusing to me that HomeVestors Franchise quickly points out in their June, 2019 article that:

When it comes down to it, Detroit’s real estate market is worth investing in. But, to have a good chance of  finding deals that can yield potentially great returns, don’t rely on fire sales or fireside chats. Rely on a property investor lead generation strategy that finds distressed homeowners of undervalued properties and leads them to you.

I want to be the guy who owns the lead generation machine,

not questionable real estate or the stressed out worrying about somebody I don’t know playing with my hard earned cash on “maybe” neighborhood recovery.

Sure, there are houses to be bought cheap – as little as $100 to get them off the city’s tax roles. But how do you know it is a house in a neighborhood that has any chance of recovery? Detroit is a city of neighborhoods – and hoods – and you have to know what you are getting into.  Maxwell openly admits that some areas are ripe for investment property and others will never recover and even the city does not want some to recover as they are too bad and hopelessly far gone.

Finding a fixer-upper is not a problem. Finding a good investment was, and still is.

Realtors in Detroit want you to believe that investing in run-down blocks of single and multi-family homes is the golden key to making a lot of return on investment – fast.

Really?

Detroit is vast – 136 square miles.  It is estimated there are roughly 1,000 out-of-town investors putting down $50K here and $100K there, picking out houses or even an occasional block to refurbish. But how do you pick what has potential or is hopeless and will never recover in Detroit?  You either have to be on site, or have someone you can trust who is very knowledgeable acting on your behalf who is not trying to screw you .

This is one arena where armchair internet investing is likely to blow a big, ugly hole in your wallet.

I like knowing my investment is safe, and growing not only for me but helping the business owners I work with.

When my customers prosper, I prosper.  And I like being my own boss – less stress, more time, pride of ownership. It feels really good.

When I graduated from MSU at 25 and jumped into the hated $35K/yr, I knew immediately I would never get ahead or be happy working for “the man”.  I spent a lot on every internet investment and business model golden egg you can name – drop shipping, Amazon, lots more. I knew I wanted to be my own boss and control my life.  Yeah, I made some money, but it was a lot of work, I still had no control over my time, the risk was high, and, I could not make enough to feel safe killing the 9-5.

 

Then I ran into Dan and the lead gen business coaching program.

I paid my tuition, took the training, and never looked back.

Five months later I was able to safely and comfortably kill my j-o-b.

Once in the training program for the lead-gen business, I got way more than I paid for – a coaching program, hands-on and personnel, 24/7 support, twice weekly exclusive trainings, tons of materials, forms, programs – all free.  A world-wide private work group where questions and challenges are tackled head on with professional, polite, expert advice, often in a spirit of fun.  And I made like-minded friends, many heavy hitters, who push me to be a better businessman and entrepreneur.

Are you going to get that dealing with contractors or a non-descript and non-explanatory property investment group?

I average 80-90% profit on my lead-gen sites, and have consistently for four years. I can put you in contact with the leadership of the group to schedule a no cost conversation to see if the lead-gen model might be a great match for you.

 

 

“Ok, Ippei, I get it, you like your lead gen business. Enough. Is it for real or is it another lead-on internet business where my money disappears?”

I will answer that with yes, it is very real.  You do have to put in some work and perseverance.  And yes, there is very real opportunity.  Last year 64% of all searches were on mobile devices. People looking for goods and services they already had decided to purchase or they would not be looking!

And, in case you are wondering, we are not some sleazy MLM.  There are millions of business owners who need our help and often come to us. The market will never be saturated.

In fact, this program was voted the #1 internet business opportunity of 2019 by businessreview.org and several other organizations.

 

See, lead gen sites are a lot like physical real estate.  

You own the property and what you do with it is your business.  If you are an investor, you build it up to sell or rent and make money.  When you build lead generation sites, websites that direct customers to a local, vetted business, to get services or goods, you own the online real estate.

 

Your customers get exclusive leads and you get quality customers.

You build a site – a property – that exclusively gives leads to one business in an area, helping them increase traffic. It also problem solves for the customer hunting someone to fix their furnace, tint their windows, or provide limo service for their daughter’s wedding.

It has cost you maybe a couple hundred bucks to build, not tens of thousands and tons of time to refurbish like a house.  And you rent business owners use of the space, providing them leads that only go to them, unlike other large referral services that send the leads to many, sometimes dozens, of companies vying to provide the low ball dollar quote – and often, lower quality goods or service.

 It was all there for me to grab ahold of my own future and destiny, responsible for my own business and motivation. 

I was 25 and still working 40+ when I started, and you can as well.  Four years later I make high six-figure income and take time to travel, enjoy outdoor activities, and build my business. It is easy to automate and scale the system once you get rolling.

You, too, can get set free.

Ask me how. It is painless and the phone call is free. Or go straight there at https://www.bestrealestatedirectory.com/lead-gen/

Believe in yourself and learn how to launch yourself towards freedom.  There is no time like right now.

 

Have you make the choice that you are going to give real estate a try? There are a few different things you need to learn before you dive right in though. I am hoping that this article will give you some helpful information. I’ve gotten my real estate license so I know everything that is going to need to go into it for you to be successful.

 

First Tip

The first tip and in my book is going to be the most important, is to stay true to yourself. You know yourself better than everyone. If something doesn’t feel right, don’t push it. You owe it yourself to do everything how you want to do it. In order to be successful in real estate, you are going to really need to push your boundaries. That is why I am telling you to be true to yourself. If you aren’t comfortable with stepping out of your comfort zone, then I suggest you find something else.

 

Real Estate requires more people skills than you could have ever imagined. You need to be able to adjust to different situations and go with the flow.

 

Second Tip

Tip number two. Real Estate is a very self centered thing. You are going to be running your own business so you need to be able to be the boss of yourself. That can be a really good thing and a really bad thing at the same time. Some people dream of being their own boss and others prefer to have someone that gives them guidelines.

 

If you can run your own business and have good people skills, I think that you are going to be really successful in the real estate business.

 

Your next step once you decide that you are going to pursue a career in the real estate business is to find a school to get your certificate from. This is a super important decision and might even be one of the biggest ones of your life. It is going to be the place that helps you learn to be a good real estate agent. In order to be a real estate agent, you are going to need the actual license.

 

I’ve done tons of research on this topic and I feel super confident in pointing you in a few directions. I think it is best to ask yourself questions when you are looking for a school so then you can get direct answers.

 

The first question or thing that I look for in a real estate school is going to be how long has the school been around for. The longer the school has been around for, the more reviews and information there is going to be for you. There are so many options in the state of California so you need to pick wisely. The schools with the most experience are going to know the state best and have the most accurate information.

 

The next question you need to look at is does the course have state recognition?

 

California has different awards for the schools that are able to put out good education. In order to get one of these awards, the state has to go through and make sure the course has everything that is needed for you to succeed. So I highly recommend that you find anything that the state says about the school.

 

Are you able to talk to other people that have been through the school?

 

I feel as though this is a really good question and resource for you at the same time. The more people that you can talk to about the real estate school you are thinking about joining, the more information you are going to get out of it. Ask around to find other information on the school you are planning to attend.

 

Who are the types of people you might find at this school?

This is kind of an awkward question, but sometimes it might help to find a school in which the people are similar to you. Whether that be age, or experience. The more you people like yourself you find the better off you are going to be.

 

These are some really good questions that should be able to help you decide if the school you are looking at is going to be right for you.

Rockwell

I now want to move into a school that I personally believe is going to be the best school in the whole state of California. This is a really good real life example of a real estate school that you can look into. This school is called Rockwell. It is very well known over the whole country and has a great reputation. Their real estate division is top notch and will help you prepare for the real estate exam.  

 

They aim for the bigger picture. You are going to learn how to be a real estate agent, along with learning how to prepare for the exam. I liked this school because you also get courses that are going to help you stay in the loop even after you are done with the course.

 

Rockwell is really helpful for people that are trying to maintain their current life while also working on their real estate education at the same time. They are very flexible and make sure all of the times work for both sides. Here are some of the features that you are going to get out of the course.

 

-Courses that work on YOUR demand. There are many different videos and other sources for you to use to help you study.

-Actually getting to learn in a classroom: The experience of learning in a classroom is really big for success. You need to make sure that you get all of the skills needed.

-Being able to study at home. You have the option to get textbooks to bring home with you and use them when it works best.

 

The first step:

The first step that you need to accomplish in order to get your real estate license is to find the program that is approved by the state. This is why I told you to try and look at Rockwell. They are one of the best ones in the state and are fully approved. Everything is written and designed by professionals. You can get your license no matter what you are trying for in the industry. They are one of the best options. Rockwell should be at the top because of all of the bullet point that I talked about above.

 

If you are thinking about becoming a real estate agent in the state of Michigan then you came to the right place. You can simply sign up for a classroom based class if that is what you prefer. This article is for the people that might not like the classroom setting as much or are interested in possibly checking out the online route to get your license.

 

I am one of the people that don’t have as much time and need to go the online route. I really liked being able to work at my own pace and when I felt like it. As I am probably going to guess most people that read this article already have jobs or other responsibilities such as a family. When that is the class this is when going the online route might be the best solution for you.

 

There are so many different real estate courses out there that are going to be able to help you get the job done. I am only going to go over about 3 of the choices for the sake of time. I would say that these are the 3 best courses available and are really going to help take you to the next level when it comes to getting your license.

 

There’s a lot to learn about online real estate courses that you must know before we get into this article. I’m going to review all of the 3 courses that I liked but not until I cover some basic real estate ground that I think is going to help you out when reading all of my reviews.

 

Tip number 1

 

Most if not all of the courses out there for you to choose are very outdated and old. Although they are still certified by the state, you still need to know that some of the information may have changed or be different now. Just keep that in mind when you are completing the course or reading about some of my favorite choices.

 

You’re probably wondering to yourself how this even managed to happen and how they haven’t been updated. Well I wondered the same thing when I was completing and reviewing these courses.

 

When these courses came out, it was before there was any iPhone or tablet for purchase. That should give you a really good time frame as to what it was like when they were first released. Again this doesn’t mean they are bad or all of the information is wrong. It simply means they are slightly old. Chances are good that some of the textbooks that you have used have over the years have been outdated. It doesn’t mean they’re bad, just something to keep in mind.

 

Although I believe everyone of these courses needs to be updated or completely re completed, we aren’t going to get that lucky. So because of that, we have to work with what we have, and that is the outdated programs.

 

There are so many courses out there that are simply not good choices and really bad. I highly suggest you look into them as much as possible to make sure you are getting your money’s worth. I hope that after reading this little article you get a good idea as to what exactly you should be looking for when it comes to an online real estate course in Michigan.

 

The 3 best courses that I believe take over the state of Michigan

 

There are many courses and classes out there that I believe are really good quality and are going to help you get your license, but again, just going to cover 3 of the main ones.

 

There is one licensing company that is going to certify all of the courses is the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs. Their website isn’t overly helpful in telling you what courses are good and approved so you kind of need to do the work on your own to figure it out. There are more than 15 classes that are approved in the state so you have many options to pick from.

 

Like I said I can’t go into major detail on all of them so I’m going with my top 3.

 

1. Real Estate Express

The first class or course that I want to talk about is Real Estate Express.

 

I actually went through this course myself unlike the other ones in which I just read about so I probably know the most about this one. Real Estate Express is the real deal. Although it was still out of date it was still really solid and I was very happy with my overall experience.

 

I think it is probably the best online course available and you should definitely think about going this route.

 

With real Estate Express you can get textbooks to help you study in person. This was really helpful to me because I was more of an in person, old fashion book study. It was really easy to highlight key information and create notes for myself.

 

I know it is early in the process but I’m gonna jump right to the point. I decided to go with Real Estate Express because of the super high pass rate. I didn’t want to spend a ton of my hard earned money to go off and fail the course. I wanted a program that was going to help me actually get my

License.

 

All in all I had a really positive experience with real Estate Express and think it was really easy to work with as long as you put the time into it. I would highly recommend that you check out real Estate Express. Although I am still going to review additional programs, I had a really good positive experience with them. I can say first hand they have good information and help get the job done.

 

Moving on to the next program that I want to talk about

 

2. Brightwood Education by Kaplan

This is another online course that has an amazing pass rate. I was really big on finding a company that was going to be able to help me succeed and actually put my money towards something.

 

I really liked the idea of going with Kaplan because of how much they care about their students. They are more personal with their students than real Estate Express and make sure that they are getting all of the help that they need. They have many physical locations as well and make sure that you are always getting what you need.

 

They have tuition plans if you can’t pay all of the money up front which can be really helpful for some. Don’t let the money scare you away from getting your online real estate license. There are many ways around it such as a payment plan.

 

The only negative factor, I guess you could call it, is that it is probably the most expensive school that I found and you’re really gonna have to put down some serious money. However they are also one of the beet options available and make sure that you are going to succeed.

 

Definitely worth spending some time and check out Kaplan if I were you.

 

 

3. Career Web School

The last school I’m going to talk about is Career Web School.

 

Definitely not one of my top choices as far as classes that help you get your real estate license. Again I don’t think there is a ton of quality out there so I decided to add it in case you don’t like my first two options.

 

They’ve been around for years and are probably the most recognizable out of all the courses. They have a pretty good pass fail ratio and make sure that you are getting exactly what it takes.

 

The weird thing about Career Webschool is that it is probably the most modern out of all of the courses out there. Definitely something interesting to keep in the back of your head.

 

Wrapping up all of my thoughts on the online real estate courses in Michigan

 

Although I found these courses to be the top 3 for me that doesn’t mean they are going to be the best for you. I highly suggest that you go and check out all of the options out there and read up to make sure you are 100% comfortable with the choice you end up making.

 

Some of the reviews out there are really bad and people have gone through all sorts of different experiences with them. That is why I suggest that you check our multiple reviews and compare to make sure you are getting the most accurate information out there.

 

The more reviews you read the more you are going to learn about these courses and it is going to help you make the best choice possible.

 

I really hope this helped you learn about some of the best real estate courses out there for you.

 

Thanks for reading and good luck!

Have you ever thought about making an upgrade in your life? Tired of doing the same things over and over again? Then maybe you should consider getting your real estate license online. There are so many perks of being a real estate agent and although the process is long, it can really pay off in the end if you put in the time.

 

Some of the perks of becoming a real estate agent include: the potential for a higher salary, flexible hours, boosting your moods and the potential to be your own boss one day. Those were some of the perks that got me to finally decide to make the choice to switch over.

 

While the process is very straight forward in getting your license, that doesn’t mean that it is going to be easy at all. You have to pass the California real estate exam in order to get your proper license. I wrote this article to help you get a good idea of what you might need to do in order to finally complete the process and make the leap of faith.

 

First let’s talk about some of the reasons why you should even consider enrolling in an online course in the first place.

 

I’d say one of the biggest reasons that I decided to go the online route is because I have a ton of responsibilities that I need to take care of on top of getting my license. As much as I would like to stop my other job and eliminating everything else I have to do, I couldn’t do that. Let’s talk a little more in-depth why you might go the online route:

 

-flexibly:

 

In order to complete the course and become an agent, you need to finish 135 hours of training. This definitely isn’t an easy task and it is going to require a lot of your time in order to get this done. Most people have other responsibilities that they need to take care of on top of managing to get their license, so being able to work at your own pace is something that is going to be really important. I liked being able to learn in a place that I felt comfortable with, rather than having to sit in a classroom all over again.

 

Getting your own learning plan:

 

Getting to work at your own pace means that you are allowed to spend as much time on one subject as you want. You are basically your teacher. If you

don’t feel comfortable with one topic, you simply don’t have to move on. Most of the courses that we are going to talk about have all sorts of practice and different quizzes for you to look over when you have questions. I highly suggest that you take advantage of being able to go at your own pace.

 

The chance to save money:

 

Yes, it is still going to be a lot in order to get your real estate license. However, getting your license online might be one way for you to save some money. You can factor out travel costs, possible food costs and many other things when you decide to learn online. Might not be a ton, still something worth thinking of though.

 

*you have to remember that you are still getting the same quality of education online that you are getting in person. You are the one who has to put the time in for it to work though.

 

Now let’s move into one topic that tends to get to people quickly: How do I find an online school in California that is going to be good for me?

 

There are so many options as far as online real estate school go, especially in the state of California. It can actually be rather overwhelming at first. I’m going to talk about some of the most important things when it comes to finding the best school for yourself.

 

Accreditation-

 

This is the first thing that I would check on when looking for schools. It is going to verify that the education that you are going to be provided is of the highest quality.

 

Looking at the qualifications-

 

Make sure that the school you think about going with is actually going to help you prepare for your local state test. Sometimes the bigger brands like real Estate Express have so many different programs and you have to double check that it is going to help you.

 

Getting support even after you finish the class-

 

It can be really frustrating after you finish the class and then you’re sitting there and have no clue what to do. I highly suggest you find a program that is either going to link you with a mentor to help you find a job or even a job itself.

 

Looking at student reviews-

 

Now I decided to include this because a lot of people tend to look at reviews from past students, but you also need to be careful. There are quite a few of reviews that are bad from the students that failed, etc. I would browse over some of the reviews but definitely don’t take any of them too seriously.

 

I think we’ve finally gone over enough of the overview for us to start talking about some of the specific schools that you might enlist in. I only used real Estate Express personally, but have done tons of research and talked to many people about the rest of the programs. I feel confident enough to pass along information.

 

Real Estate Express

The first school I want to talk about is the school that I personally used to get my license and that is real Estate Express. This is the one that I can give first hand experience for.

 

I think real Estate was the top pick for me for a variety of different reasons.

 

The pass rate- real Estate Express has one of the higher pass rates of all of the courses around. I really didn’t want to spend tons of time and money to just fail the class, so finding a course that has been known to put students through successfully was big to me.

 

The phone support-

 

This was actually probably the reason I ended up going with real Estate Express. A lot of the information when it comes to real estate isn’t going to be that exciting and sometimes you are going to need help. Real Estate Express is the only online course I know that offers phone support with your mentor. It helped me out so much, and I feel as though I was able to finish earlier rather than waiting for an email response.

 

Positive reviews-

 

Although there are so many negative reviews out there for real estate schools, I felt like all of the ones I read for real estate express were rather positive and actually made me want to give them a chance.

 

Overall I thought that real estate was made very professionally and made to last. It helped me get my real estate license and I know that it could help you as well.

 

Career Webschool

The next school I want to talk about as far as online real estate schools go is Career Webschool.

 

I personally never used Career Webschool but I read a lot and did quite a bit of research. I believe that it is a very solid option and will be able to help you get your license as well.

 

I think the biggest thing that stood out to me about Career Webschool is the fact that they have tuition assistance. I’m not going to lie, paying for an online real estate isn’t an easy task. I truly believe that they care about their customers by offering tuition assistance.

 

Their pass rate is very similar to real Estate Express so you are going to have a good chance to pass if you put the time into it. I wasn’t a huge fan that they didn’t have phone support because of how hard the content can be, but you might really like Career Webschool after you read about it.

 

All of these schools slightly differ in someway so you have to decide what school is going to be best for your success. Career Webschool offers a demo so you can get a good idea of what you are getting into.

 

Kaplan

The last school I want to talk about as far as online Real estate schools go is Kaplan.

 

Kaplan is probably one of the most notable real estate schools out there as it is approved in almost every state out there and has put thousands through their program.

 

Kaplan is very similar to Career Webschool in many ways. You can get tuition assistance if you can’t pay for everything ahead of time.

 

What’s unique about Kaplan is that they have many different programs available for you to pick from. Regardless of what type of real estate you are trying to go into, Kaplan is going to have the plan that is going to work for you.

 

Well that’s all I have for my little summary for online real estate schools. I highly suggest that you do more research than just reading this article though. It is going to be a really big decision for you. Find a school that is going to help you pass the California real estate exam.

 

I suggest getting as many demos as possible and then going from there. The demos are going to give you a really good idea of what the program is going to be like. Thanks for the spending the time to read. I really hope that you have a ton of success in getting your real estate license!

Are you sick and tired of your same old 9-5 job? Looking to make a change in your life? Then this article could be really helpful for you. Getting your real estate license online completely changed my life and I believe it can do the same for you. Being a real estate agent is way different than all of the other jobs out there. If you are good at it, it is more profitable than most, you can set your own hours, and overall is going to be a positive change in your life.

 

Most people that try to go for their real estate license have a lot of other responsibilities in their life. That is why getting your real estate license online is a great solution. You can balance all of the other things you need to get done in your life, on top of working at your own pace. There are so many real estate schools in the state of Texas that have online classes for you to choose from.

 

It’s great that you want to go with a real estate school online. However it isn’t as easy as just going with the very first school that you come across. You are going to have to spend tons of time and money in order to get your license so you must know exactly what everything about the school you are going with.

 

I personally used one of the schools that I am going to talk about but still researched the others a ton to make sure I knew what I was telling you. The more research that you put into the school ahead of time the better off you are going to be.

 

Let’s get right into some of the things you need to look for in your online real estate school before we get into the actual schools themselves.

 

You might be asking yourself, “why would I spend the time and money to get my real estate license online versus a classroom setting?”. Well that question varies from individual, but chances are that the online course is going to be cheaper and more affordable. You also have the option of working at your own pace. Like I mentioned above, when you have a lot going on, it can be really helpful to have that option.

 

All of the courses that I am going to tell you about are certified so you don’t have to worry about that. You are going be receiving the best possible education as far as real estate goes in the state of Texas.

 

How do I find the best school?

 

Chances are if you’ve ever been interested in online real estate you’ve seen the hefty list of schools out there, even from a simple google search. You need to make sure that you find a school that matches all of your personal needs.

 

All of the schools differ in their own way so I suggest spending the time to make sure everything they have is comfortable with you.

 

I think that is enough background information for you to consider. Now I believe that it is time to actually start talking about some of my top choices as far as real estate schools go in Texas. These choices might not be best for you, but I want to give you some information so you can at least think it over.

 

Real Estate Express

 

The first school I want to talk about is real Estate Express. This was the school that I used to get my online real estate license so I know a ton about the school and feel very confident in suggesting the course for you.

 

I would say that real Estate Express is probably one of the most popular choices around. It has been around since the mid 1990s and has helped hundreds get their real estate license.

 

They have all of the qualifications needed to help you successfully get your real estate license. A really cool and unique thing about real Estate Express is that they have all sorts of different courses available to you. Say you want to go above the beginning stage, you can look into more advanced concepts such as real estate marketing. Regardless of what you want to do in real estate, they are going to have something for you.

 

Their pass rate was one of the best of all of the schools I looked Into. It came in at around 80% so it felt very good investing in them. I didn’t want to spend hundreds of dollars and hours just to fail my real estate exam. They have tons of practice exams and other study tools to make sure that you are ready for the state exam.

 

Another thing that I really like about real Estate Express is that you have the option to talk to your personal instructor over the phone. The material can get really dry and sometimes it is just helpful to talk to someone over the phone about the material. Most other schools don’t offer this service.

 

That’s a pretty good summary of real Estate Express. If you are thinking about going with this school, I suggest getting a demo. You should get an even better idea if the school is going to be right for you.

 

The next school that I want to talk about is Career Web School

This is another fan favorite and popular among many. Career Web School has a lot of positive qualities and is a good choice.

 

Again, I personally didn’t use Career Web School but that doesn’t mean it might not be right for you. I still suggest that you look into every school out there to find the best match.

 

One thing that stood out to me about career Webschool was the tuition plans. Paying for real estate courses can be really expensive and sometimes even scares some off. It shows me that they truly care about their students that they are willing to work with them so they can complete the course.

 

Career Webschool has been around for many years now and has put hundreds of people through their program. I didn’t use Career Webschool because there isn’t any access to phone calls with your instructor over the phone so I decided again them.

 

This doesn’t mean that they are a bad choice. Some people are perfectly fine just simply reading a text and taking a test. If you are interested in career Webschool, I highly suggest that you get the demo that is available to you. It is going to give you a really good idea of what it is like.

 

The last school that I want to talk about in Texas is Kaplan.

Kaplan is very similar to career Webschool in many ways. I decided to put Kaplan at the bottom of the list though because it had the lowest pass rate of all of the courses on this list and I’m not a fan of low pass rates. That again doesn’t mean it won’t be good for you, just for the sake of the list I put it 3rd.

 

Kaplan also doesn’t have phone access to your instructor but that doesn’t mean that email support isn’t going to work for you. They have all of the information online on their program so you shouldn’t have any issues with that.

 

They also have tuition assistance so if you are interested and don’t have the money yet, then you should be able to find something to work out. I saw a lot of pictures of Kaplan’s online real estate school and they really do have a good and professionally set up program. They too have put through a ton of students and will be able to help you succeed if you choose to go this route.

 

Now I went over 3 choices that I think are the best choices in the state of Texas. This doesn’t mean that these are going to be the best for you. This just simply means that they posses some of the best qualities and have a really good chance to help you succeed.

 

I really hope this list helped you find what real estate school is going to be best for you. There really are so many good options out there, it was very hard to pick one that was “the best”. I suggest you spend as much time as possible to find the best school for you.

 

Reading this review should give you a good idea and even push you in the right direction, but you are going to be spending hours and hours and hundreds of dollars in pursuing your real estate license. I suggest you put in the time to research to make sure you find the best school.

 

Thanks for spending the time to read my article. Getting your real estate license in Texas is a really big step in your life, but can also really pay off in the end. Good luck on your journey!

 

Working in the real estate industry can be very rewarding if you put the time into it. One of the best states to work in though, is California. California is home of sandy beaches, Hollywood, the ocean, and plenty of other attractions. Because of this, it is one of the most popular places to live in the entire country. People from all over want to live in California. That makes it great for real estate agents like you and me.

 

It seems as though the training road is so long when it comes to real estate, and as if you are never going to reach the end. When we look at real estate renewal programs, you have to make sure that you have plenty of time to get everything completed correctly. In this article, I am going to go over all of the details of renewing your California real estate license. You won’t be able to keep your license and continue to work if you don’t renew your license correctly.

 

Let’s get right into it

 

The requirements

 

The state of California says that you need to renew your license every 4 years. In order to renew your license, you have to put in at least 45 hours of study time, with some of it going to towards customer protection. This can seem like a huge bump in the road for some, but if you just work at it right away, you’re going to be ok. I suggest getting it done early so you don’t run into any problems with the state. Let’s talk more about some of the specific things you need to continue to renew your license:

 

Salesperson who is renewing for the first time:

 

-5 different 3 hour course that have to do with ethics and agency

 

-minimum of 18 hours that is devoted to customer protection

 

-other hours to get to your 45 hours

 

If you are a broker who is renewing for the first time, there are slightly different requirements

 

-6 different 3 hour courses

 

The rest of the requirements are all the same so you don’t have to worry about that

 

Salesman & broker second renewal:

 

-45 hours of a few different things:

-1 8 hour survey course that is going to talk about different topics such as fair housing and risk management

 

-18 more hours that go towards customer protection

 

-more hours to fill up the remaining hours needed to get you up to 45 total hours (these may be anything that you want them to be)

 

Now this is the case for newer renewals. There are a few things that change if you got your license before 2008 that I felt was going to be important to mention:

 

The 45 hour requirement only came into place for agents that were official after October 1, 2007. That means that this course is going to work out really good for you.

 

Being able to do your California real estate renewal courses online is a huge savior for many reasons. You are able to work at your own pace and schedule the classes when you can actually work.

 

Make sure to take the studies seriously, and actually plan setting aside 45 hours so you can complete it when needed. I decided to lay out 2 different schools that should make this very easy for you.

 

Let me remind you that these aren’t the only courses you can go for, but they are two of my favorite. Make sure to research and find the one that is going to be the best for you.

 

The first renewal course that I want to talk about is real Estate Express. If you’ve read any of my other reviews on schools for your state, you probably see that I always talk about real Estate Express. That is because it is both a good option to get your license, and to use as a renewal service.

 

While it is a good option, there are still a few differences that I feel it would be beneficial to talk about. Real Estate Express actually got a partner to help them with renewal programs. That company is named McKissock learning. You can get a renewal program if you are a salesman or a broker, so no matter your situation, real Estate Express is going to help you out. You can get individual courses if you need to go more in depth on anything as well.

 

The other option I want to talk about as far as renewal programs go is Kaplan. This is another option that I also talk about using to get your real estate license.

 

This is another solid option as far as renewal goes. There are basic packages that are going to help you get your 45 hours done if that is what you choose to do. They also have smaller 15 hour packages that go more in depth on other subjects that you might be interested in learning more about, so I suggest you check that out too.

 

That’s all I have as far as renewal services go for real estate courses. Getting your real estate license renewed isn’t nearly as deep as getting your actual license, so you don’t need to stress out nearly as much. The two programs that I gave you are going to be really good options as far as renewal programs go. These aren’t the only two out there. I suggest you read as much as you need into possible courses to make sure you find the perfect fit for you.