Month: March 2008

Kathy Kennebrook believes strongly in using direct mail to locate motivated sellers for your real estate investing business. With the market being in its current state of affairs, there are more sellers than ever before. However, as a seasoned real estate investor herself, Kathy Kennebrook understands that we still need to be locating the most highly motivated sellers in order to construct the very best deals. Remember, your profit is being made on how well you buy a real estate property.

If you are one of Kathy Kennebrook’s students and you have been implementing a direct mail system to locate highly motivated sellers as Kathy suggests, one of the things you will begin to notice, as she has, is the residual effect of your mailings. Over the last few months Kathy Kennebrook has had many sellers contacting her that she originally mailed to months before. This is because they have held onto her letters and now they need to sell. They are more motivated than they have been in the past because they are finding it more difficult to sell their properties.

You see, when Kathy Kennebrook mails a personal looking letter to prospective sellers, folks who are much more likely to have a property they need to sell, they hold on to it, even if they are not ready to sell at that very moment. As the market has begun to change and houses are becoming more difficult to sell, these sellers are contacting Kathy and selling houses to her at even better prices than ever before. Therefore, this market has created wonderful opportunities for Kathy Kennebrook to make even better profits from her real estate investing business.

Many of these properties are in good condition so Kathy Kennebrook is holding onto them as rental properties or lease/options. Then later on when the market improves, as it has already begun to do, Kathy Kennebrook will then begin to sell them and make huge profits. In the meantime, she will continue to rent and lease/option these properties, make a good monthly income from them and reap the tax benefits that go along with it.

For more information on locating more qualified motivated sellers for your real estate investing business, visit Kathy Kennebrook’s website at marketingmagiclady.com.

Kathy Kennebrook also uses her Credibility Kit to find more private lenders. You already have all the information about yourself and your company and deals you have done in one place to show your potential lenders. Looking at your Credibility Kit leaves no doubt in their minds that they will be making a good investment in you and your properties. Plus, you have references available if they would like to see them and follow up with any of them. Kathy Kennebrook also gives her potential lenders an abridged copy of her Credibility Kit in case they know of someone else interested in loaning her money for her deals. This is a great way to build this part of your real estate investing business.

Your personal Credibility Kit is going to be one of the most important tools you’ll ever add to your real estate investing business. Nothing speaks more loudly or more clearly about you or your integrity than letters from sellers you’ve already done deals with, personal reference letters, letters from lenders, letters from buyers, before and after photos of properties you have rehabbed, copies of closing statements and copies of ads you have run. The professionalism that a Credibility Kit presents to your sellers, buyers and potential private lenders is a real asset to your real estate investing business. Another great reason to use a Credibility Kit is that it gives your seller something to look at while you are looking at their property to determine the amount of repairs needed.

Kathy Kennebrook’s personal Credibility Kit has given her the edge when buying property on many occasions simply because none of her competition had this amazing tool and the sellers choose to work with her because she looked a lot more professional and her Credibility Kit prepared her to answer any questions they had. Get the competitive edge on your fellow real estate investors and start buying more deals by building your Credibility Kit today! You’ll never regret taking time to build this amazing tool for your business.

Check out Kathy Kennebrook’s web site at Marketingmagiclady.com for more information on Credibility Kits. Even if you are just starting out in the real estate investing business, Kathy Kennebrook has taken the time to explain to you exactly how to build your kit and she even provides a template with everything you need to build yours. You have no idea of the power a Credibility Kit can give you until you put one together and start using it in your Real Estate Investing business.

For more information on locating even more buyers for your real estate properties and all kinds of marketing materials, visit Kathy Kennebrook’s website at marketingmagiclady.com.

Your Credibility Kit tells a story about who you are and what you can do for your seller or buyer in order to get a deal done. It will list the benefits to the sellers or buyers as to why they should work with you, a Real Estate Investor. The other main function of a Credibility Kit is to give you the confidence you need in order to create a win-win solution for you with your sellers. It should have all the tools you need in it to get you through the offer making process. For example, in the back of Kathy Kennebrook’s Credibility Kit, she has a list of different types of offers she can make on a property. This helps Kathy Kennebrook when talking to the seller and keeps her from getting tongue-tied or forgetting a strategy that could just help out that particular seller. It also includes a cost analysis sheet which shows Kathy Kennebrook’s sellers exactly how much it would cost them to sell their home in the traditional way and how much money she can save them at the closing table. Kathy Kennebrook’s credibility kit simply gives her sellers all the facts they need to make a sound decision to sell their property to her. Kathy Kennebrook also has another “cheat Sheet” in there that lists all the paperwork she needs from a seller in order to make an offer. This way she doesn’t waste the seller’s time or hers. Kathy Kennebrook also has similar information in her Credibility Kit for working with her buyers.

She includes information on how she can work with them to give them time to clean up credit issues for example. She provides information for them regarding mortgage brokers they can work with to get their financing in place in order to get the deal closed. Kathy Kennebrook also provides information on how the lease/option process works and why a potential buyer may need to lease/option a property in order to give them more time to secure financing.

This one tool will separate you from your competition like nothing else can and help to bring you more deals than you can handle. Kathy Kennebrook uses an abridged version of her Credibility Kit when working with out of state owners. Think about it, without this information, they have no idea who they are working with. The copies of letters from Kathy Kennebrook’s title agent, real estate attorney, insurance agent and private lenders are particularly helpful in these instances and on many occasions her sellers have called these folks to make sure she is “for real” before signing any contracts. So make sure your team members are aware that they may be getting calls from potential sellers so they are prepared to answer their questions.

Be sure and follow up next week in order to find out how to use your Credibility Kit to acquire private lenders for your real estate investing business. In the meantime, be sure to visit Kathy Kennebrook’s website at marketingmagiclady.com.

Why do you need a Credibility Kit for your Real Estate Investing business? In fact, what exactly is a Credibility Kit? This is the question Kathy Kennebrook hears most often from students when she is at real estate investment events. Think about this for a second. Have you ever had a contractor come out to do a bid for you on some work you wanted done, say new cabinets, or siding on your house or new windows? Do you remember seeing the book they brought with them that showed the photos of jobs they had completed, testimonial letters from satisfied customers and copies of their licensing and insurance? That was their credibility kit. Why then as a real estate investor are you not doing the same thing? This is definitely a tool you will need for your real estate investing business and it’s so easy to create one if you follow a few simple steps.

Your personal Credibility Kit will not only build credibility and integrity for you with your sellers and lenders, it will give you a serious edge over your competition. Almost none of your competitors know about this incredible tool that makes you look like a true professional in your Real Estate Investing business, whether you are working with sellers or buyers of properties. In our current market with so many properties to choose from, you need to make yourself and your property stand out from all the others.

Kathy Kennebrook mentioned above about contractors using a book like this to show you samples of the work they have done before. They do this because they want your business and up to that point you don’t know anything about them or the quality of their work. They also want you to choose them over their competitor. Your Credibility Kit serves the same purpose in your Real Estate Investing business. Your Credibility Kit should show photos of properties you have bought and sold, letters from sellers you have bought properties from, copies of paid off notes and mortgages, before and after photos of properties you have rehabbed and letters from your “dream team”, including your title agent, real estate attorney, the Realtor you work with, your insurance agent, your pest control person, a home inspector, and your surveyor. It should also contain personal reference letters from friends and business acquaintances, such as your boss if you are still working, your banker, your CPA, your pastor or priest or any service organization you are part of. It can also include copies of any ads you run as well as your business card. It should also have a section explaining to your seller or buyer why they should want to work with you. These are all good ways for your sellers and buyers to see the kind of real estate professional you are.

Make sure you also include letters from your mortgage broker and your private or hard money lenders. These can really help you cement a deal when a seller has a question as to whether or not you, as a real estate investor, can close the deal. Kathy Kennebrook knows this from first hand experience. There have been instances where she has been at a property with several investors and Kathy Kennebrook ended up putting the property under contract simply because she had her Credibility Kit handy to show the seller so they knew she could close the deal. Kathy Kennebrook has even had sellers take a moment to call her real estate attorney or title agent to make sure she really was who she said she was and that she could really close on the contract before they signed it. What a powerful tool! Kathy Kennebrook has even been at properties with other investors and ended up buying the property because she had her Credibility Kit with her.

To find out even more about building a Credibility Kit and why you need one, be sure to read next week’s article. In the meantime, for more information on locating buyers and sellers for your real estate investing business, visit Kathy Kennebrook’s website at marketingmagiclady.com.

Continuing from part one of this article, let’s finish discussing late fees. For some reason the courts don’t consider late fees when they give a judgment to the Real Estate Investor, but they will add on additional rent. So Kathy Kennebrook just needed to add this language within the body of her lease so the court would add this amount to any judgment she received.

Rule 4- lay out in your lease specifically what repairs the tenant is responsible for while renting from you, the Real Estate Investor. This was another lesson Kathy Kennebrook learned the hard way from the “school of hard knocks”. One night a tenant called around dinner time and had a stopped up kitchen sink. So Kathy Kennebrook and her husband went over to the property only to discover that there was a child’s cup stuck down in the garbage disposal, blocking any water from going down the drain. From this experience, Kathy Kennebrook added another clause to her lease. This clause states that the tenant is responsible for the first 50.00 of all repairs, and that there is a charge of 35.00 for her handyman to go look at any problem for the tenant. When Kathy Kennebrook added this clause to the lease, it very quickly stopped all the “nonsense” calls she was getting.

Rule 5- Get someone else to do all repairs for you. Kathy Kennebrook has put together a list of vendors she uses for any repairs her properties might need including a general handyman, a pest control person, a plumber, an electrician, an air conditioning person and an appliance store that gives her excellent discounts on appliances for her units. The way Kathy Kennebrook works this out is very easy and works very well. When a tenant contacts her about a repair, she contacts the vendor needed to do that repair. The vendor contacts the tenant directly and they make the arrangements to meet. The vendor takes a look at the problem and calls Kathy Kennebrook for authorization to do the repair. This cuts down on a lot of time and hassle for Kathy Kennebrook and takes care of her tenant’s problem quickly and efficiently.

Rule 6- Whether or not a landlord should allow pets in rental units is always a big question for a lot of the real estate investors Kathy Kennebrook meets. Kathy has the answer to this dilemma. In some units, Kathy Kennebrook does allow pets, but once again there are specific rules. She has specific weight limitations and the tenant is only allowed one pet. The tenant must provide photos of the pet which are attached to a separate pet lease which outlines all the conditions of having a pet in the unit. Some of the conditions are based on common sense and some are county ordinances. The tenant is required to a pay an additional amount of non-refundable security deposit for the pet and an additional amount of monthly “pet” rent. Having more than one pet in a unit is grounds for immediate eviction. The tenant also signs off that they are responsible for any damage the pet causes to the unit or to another person.

Building specific rules into your real estate investing business regarding property management is the best way to protect you and run a stress free rental business. For more information on property management and finding all the sellers and buyers you need for your real estate investing business, visit Kathy Kennebrook’s website at marketingmagiclady.com.