First of all, expect to be anxious and know that it’s okay to be anxious. You probably wouldn’t be very good at what you do if you didn’t care about the outcome.

Next, while you are feeling anxious, get in front of a mirror and practice what you are going to say to the seller. Do this more than once. The more you practice what you are going to say, the more comfortable you will be and therefore less likely to forget what you were going to say. Practice controlling your voice and be mindful of how fast you are talking. Your speech should be at a moderate volume and speed when speaking to a seller. Remember to breathe! Practice what you are going to say all the way through without making faces, gasping or throwing out any expletives. Your seller doesn’t care if you’re speech is perfect, they just want to know what you can do for them to help them solve their problem. You might even want to practice what you are going to say in front of a spouse or close friend.

Remember that your sellers are people, just like you. They are probably just as anxious about having a conversation with you. After all, selling their home is a big decision, even if they are ready and know they need to sell.

Expect the unexpected. Maybe the seller will accept your offer right away. Maybe they won’t like your offer at all. You really should have some idea of how to approach this based on the prior conversation you should have had with the seller on the phone.

Kathy Kennebrook also wants you to remember that all of these techniques can be applied to the conversations you are having by telephone with your motivated sellers. In fact, once you get good at conversations with sellers on the phone, many times the deal will be cemented even before you end up face to face with a seller. Also be prepared to sit on couch as opposed to being at a table so bring something hard to write on, like a clip board or a briefcase. If you need to wear glasses don’t forget to bring them with you. If you are bringing a briefcase, stick a flashlight inside. Kathy Kennebrook has had several instances where she has had to fill out paperwork in semi-darkness and a flashlight is a big help. Just learn to expect the unexpected.

Be sure and establish a ritual to get ready to speak to sellers. Make sure you have all your facts and figures straight and make sure you have all the paperwork with you that you could possibly need to cover a variety of scenarios. The more professional you look, the more comfortable the seller will be working with you. Be sure and let your seller know ahead of time what paperwork you need from them.

The easiest and best way to get comfortable working with sellers is by making more offers and doing more deals. Develop a positive attitude and philosophy about making offers. Don’t take it as a personal rejection if the seller doesn’t accept your offer. They may accept a subsequent offer, maybe not.

But do you know what Kathy Kennebrook says about this? There is always another seller waiting in the wings who really wants to work with you and if you are dealing with the right kind of sellers at the beginning, you will make more deals than not. So get out there, make some offers and do some deals!!

For more information on tools for the Real Estate Investor, be sure to visit Kathy Kennebrook’s website at marketingmagiclady.com.

Okay, so you’ve practiced what you are going to say, you have a plan, you have your paperwork, you’ve probably procrastinated a little, then scheduled your appointment with the seller, so now what? You still feel those butterflies in your stomach and you’re still not comfortable with how the conversation with the seller is going to go. What should you say first? How should you make the offer? What if they ask you something you don’t know? What if they accept your offer? What if they don’t?

Being “ready” or prepared is a relative term. Just because you don’t feel quite ready or totally comfortable dealing with this motivated seller face to face to make the deal doesn’t mean you shouldn’t just jump right in there and do it. You absolutely should!! Kathy understands this concept first hand after having many conversations with motivated sellers. And it only gets easier every time you do it.

Kathy Kennebrook believes that there are definitely some things you can do to get prepared for a conversation with a motivated seller, especially if you haven’t done it before. With adequate preparation you can become more ready than not, and by being more ready, your chances of a successful conversation with your seller are greatly increased. Readiness is not just a practical matter; it is a state of mind that affects our emotions and feelings of preparedness. When you feel more ready to have a conversation with a motivated seller, you begin to relax, creating a more comfortable atmosphere and leaving you with fewer things to worry about.

Having conversations with motivated sellers is an art can be practiced. Kathy Kennebrook knows that with the right approach, it doesn’t have to be scary or unnerving. In fact the conversation with the sellers and the making of the deal should be fun, exciting, challenging and fulfilling, knowing that you are helping this motivated seller solve whatever problem they are having that necessitate them selling their property.

But sometimes it just seems like there are “demons” who hide out, just waiting to turn a normal, intelligent person into a quivering bowl of jello. When we get in front of the seller, we stutter, we mumble, we keep changing the subject, anything to steer away from the matter at hand. And worse still, we start to sweat, our hands begin to shake, and our memory of what we were going to say just fades away and we forget important facts we wanted to share.

Kathy Kennebrook shared a scenario where she had an appointment with a motivated seller and drove around the block four times before turning into the seller’s drive-way, just to try to calm the jitters she was having. She ended up buying the property and later on the sellers mentioned to her that they had seen her going around the block several times. Fortunately they all had a good chuckle over it.

So how do we get past these jitters? And how do we get ready for these all important conversations with motivated sellers?

Be sure to read part two of this article next week when Kathy Kennebrook shares many ideas to get ready for these all important conversations with sellers and get your deals made!

In the meantime, be sure to visit Kathy Kennebrook’s website at marketingmagiclady.com where you can find many tools she has available for buying and selling properties quickly for your Real Estate Investing business.

Some of the largest expenses you will incur as a Real Estate Investor will probably be your attorney bill. As investors we need attorneys for handling evictions, reviewing contracts, setting up our estates, drafting contracts, etc.

I started investing in real estate in 1985. As my investing business grew I built up a network of attorneys, this was something that just seemed to happen over time and thousands of dollars later. I first found an eviction attorney, since I had many rental properties. I then ended up needing to create a few LLC’s (Limited Liability Companies) for my various properties and partnerships. With this need, I hired a corporate attorney.

Over time I ended up with some tough cases against some of my past tenants owing me larger amounts of money. I wanted a “pit bull” attorney, a litigator, to go after them, so I hired a litigator. Over the years, my assets increased rapidly with my real estate purchases, and I found myself needing an estate-planning attorney. I wanted a living trust created. WOW and this is just a few of them.

I realized that legal fees were something that you must incur in any business; however, saving legal fees was even more important to me. I needed experts in all areas of law, but I hesitated to call each of them unless I really had to have their representation. Each call was a minimum 15 minutes I was billed for – at $200/hour – every time I called it cost me $50. Sometimes I would call for a simple question and get a $50 bill.

As a Real Estate Investor, you will have many questions. It is too expensive to pick up the phone and call an attorney for each little question you will have. So, what do we do? We either ask someone (another investor) who has experience, but they might not be giving us a legal opinion, or we do without. Both paths can be very costly or end up disastrous. Kathy Kennebrook has had the same experience in her Real Estate Investing business as well so she wanted me to share this important information with you.

Back in 1997 I was attending a real estate seminar and someone spoke on a service called Pre-Paid Legal. Up to that moment I had not heard of it, but I was fascinated by what it could help me save in expenses. I absolutely loved the attorneys that I had in my network, but I didn’t want to spend unnecessary legal fees either. To this day I still have the same attorneys as I did when I first started in this business, but now I also have the service called Pre-Paid Legal. It has saved me thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars each year!

Pre-Paid Legal has several different components to the plan. The first plan is called the Expanded Family Plan. It offers many services. It is not a be all end all for the real estate investor, but it is so reasonable, that you can’t afford to NOT have it. As a member this plan gives you access to A+ rated law firms in every state, all over the United States and also 4 Provinces in Canada. What you receive with this plan is amazing: unlimited phone calls to your local attorney firm, review of personal contracts up to 10 pages in length (no charge and unlimited), one business contract review per year, representation in court if you are personally sued (the trial and pre-trial hours continue to grow each year you are member up to 335 hours in year five), audit representation on your personal tax return with a tax attorney, drafting of yours and your spouses will (with updates each year), court appearances for moving traffic violations (accidents and speeding tickets), and much more. The great thing about Pre-Paid Legal is that it works in other states, other than where you live, if you need an attorney. I invest in many out of state properties. The attorney’s in my network are not licensed in those states. Pre-Paid Legal will refer me to an attorney in those states for my real estate needs, and also any speeding tickets. The cost for this plan is only $25 per month. You can see why it is a no-brainer if you are serious about investing in real estate, for that matter even if you are not.

There is also a Home-Based Business Rider available in most states. This add on plan gives the real estate investor: 3 business contracts reviewed per month up to 15 pages in length, 3 collection letters per month, and 3 business letters written on behalf of your business per month. As a member you will also get access to a website full of downloadable contracts and also many articles on small business. The website you will receive access to is called: www.gosmallbuz.com The cost for Home Based Business Rider, as an add on to the Expanded Family Plan is only $14.50 per month. If you are in a state that has this plan, you will definitely want to take advantage of it’s availability.

The last plan that Pre-Paid Legal offers and that Kathy Kennebrook and I personally have is the “Identity Theft Rider”. This plan will not only monitor your credit daily and tell you of anyone that touches your credit, but the plan will also restore your identity if it is confiscated and misused. Did you know that one out of every four families this year will be affected by Identity Theft? This plan can be added on for only $9.95 per month.

All of the plans are for the entire family: kids to the age of 23 if a full time student, and your spouse or significant other (if you live together). Identity Theft is for both partners.

I use Pre-Paid Legal with my current attorneys to formulate my legal team. For me, this service was, and still is a no-brainer. I could give you countless number of stories on how I have used it over the years and how it has saved me thousands of dollars, I’m sure Kathy Kennebrook can as well but here are just a few of mine:

Example 1: I was refinancing an apartment building and needed a rushed appraisal.

Unfortunately, the appraisal had mistakes in it and was not completed on time. I tried to get my money back. The cost was $2400! The mortgage company and appraiser ignored my many requests for reimbursement. I even sent certified letters requesting a refund. No response from anyone I was utterly and completely ignored. I decided enough was enough and I called Pre-Paid Legal. That same day they sent a letter out to the appraiser (no charge to me) and the mortgage company. Within 2 weeks we had received a check for $2400 returned to us. Amazing that my letters meant nothing, but a letter from a high-powered attorney firm got a response!

Example 2: When my daughter had turned 16 she had 2 car accidents involving other people (4 accidents in all, but that’s a whole other story) I called Pre-Paid Legal for representation for these two accidents and they went to court with us. At 16 years old you can lose your license for this many accidents in a short period of time. At both appearances they were able to get all the points removed and her record is pretty much clean. She did have to pay the fines and attend a 1-day class, but she didn’t lose her license nor did our insurance go up due to potential points on her record. Having an attorney on your team really makes a difference!

I felt the need to share this information with all of you. I wish I had known about the service when I was starting out as an investor. If you like what you have read about the service and would like more information, you can go to www.chooseyourlegalplan.com and review the plans first hand. If you like what you read, you can sign up directly right on the aforementioned site. If you have further questions please call Kathy Kennebrook at 941-792-5390 and she will be happy to answer them based on your specific needs or wants.

To your success,

Wendy Patton

Another really great advantage of using direct mail to locate motivated sellers is that since it is targeted to specific lists and specific types of sellers, you are getting the very best use of the marketing dollars available to you. Kathy Kennebrook understands that the more direct mail campaigns you do, the higher the response rate gets. So the more you do it, the less it costs per lead and per deal. Direct mail is the only marketing technique out there that allows you to have these controls.

In addition, you are using your available marketing dollars to target specific types of sellers as opposed to other types of marketing like signage or an ad where you are hitting a much broader market area and hoping someone in that group has a property for sale.

Kathy Kennebrook firmly believes that you should always have between three and five marketing techniques working for you at any given time and one of them should absolutely be direct mail campaigns to motivated sellers. You can continuously customize your mailings so you can target specific types of sellers within your market, so you are able to “flex” with your market as your market continues to change. Direct mail is the only type of advertising that allows you to do this.

There are several great ways to get the lists you need to mail to. For the most part they are very easy to get. Kathy Kennebrook gets lists to mail to from her local newspaper, from the property assessors office, from mailing list companies, from the courthouse, and from on-line resources.

There are also several national mailing list companies that can customize whatever types of lists you need. Kathy Kennebrook suggests that you make sure the lists you are using are coming from a reliable source and that the information on them is current.

When deciding what marketing tools to use in your real estate business to locate motivated sellers, direct mail absolutely needs to be one of your primary tools. It is definitely one of the most inexpensive, effective, and powerful tools there is to locate highly motivated sellers and create very profitable deals for your business.

For more information on attracting motivated sellers and buyers for your real estate investing business, be sure and visit Kathy Kennebrook’s website at Marketingmagiclady.com.

Kathy Kennebrook is often asked whether or not there are still good real estate deals out there with the market constantly changing like it has been. Kathy Kennebrook believes that the real estate market will always experience ups and downs and as Real Estate Investors we need to be trained on utilizing the best tools to locate the motivated sellers within those markets.

Kathy Kennebrook also knows that we need to learn to be flexible in our marketing in order to bring in the highest number of new deals. Kathy Kennebrook often hears comments like, “you were just lucky” or “you got in on the real estate game when there were still lots of deals out there, it’s just not that way anymore”. Those folks couldn’t be more wrong in their thinking. This is just “stinkin’ thinkin’” as Kathy’s friend and mentor Ron LeGrand would say. There are always deals to be made if you know where to look for them no matter what the market is doing. This is just a matter of having a marketing mind.

Kathy Kennebrook also knows that using direct mail to attract motivated sellers is always one of the best tools in the real estate business for locating highly motivated sellers on a regular basis no matter what the real estate market is doing. There are several reasons for this.

The first reason is that generally speaking, there is no competition for these properties whatsoever. Most of your competitors don’t use targeted direct mail campaigns to locate motivated sellers; and the sellers themselves generally don’t know they are going to sell their property until they receive contact from you.

You see, Kathy Kennebrook knows they have a problem to solve regarding their property; they just don’t know how to do it until they receive contact from you and know you are there to help them. These are the unique sellers your competitors simply don’t know about.

Secondly, once you build a machine whereby you have direct mail going out on a regular basis, you create an ongoing source of leads as you continue to build credibility with the sellers you are mailing to regularly.

Not only do you have deals coming at you today, you are constantly planting seeds for future deals. Kathy Kennebrook knows that Direct Mail campaigns are the only marketing technique where you can create this scenario. As these sellers’ situations change, they will contact you first because you have taken the time to create credibility with them through your mailings, even if they are contacted by someone else in the interim.

For even more information on locating highly motivated seller in any market, be sure and check out her article next week.

In the meantime, make sure you visit Kathy Kennebrooks website at Marketingmagiclady.com for even more information and resources to locate highly qualified motivated sellers and buyers for your real estate investing business.

Think about it. Kathy Kennebrook starts beefing up her direct mail campaigns from October to January. There is a specific reason for that. You see, during the holiday season, folks are getting cards and letters from relatives and friends they haven’t heard from in year so they are opening all of their mail, including the personal looking letter they just got from you.

Now if this same person has a house they neither want nor need and they could use some ready cash during the holidays, don’t you think they are going to be more motivated to sell?? And so… along comes this letter from you explaining how you can help them solve their problem.

Can you tell where Kathy Kennebrook is headed with this thinking?? Of course you can; really great deals from highly motivated sellers. The other thing that’s really great about this scenario is that if you followed Kathy Kennebrook’s formula, you are going to be dealing with exactly the type of seller you are looking for in your business and exactly the type of deal you want to do.

So now, let’s take it a step further. Say you are one of those lucky folks who happens to live in an area where property tax bills go out anywhere from September to December. So now this same seller still has a house they neither want nor need, AND they just got a big property tax bill to go with it right around the holidays. OUCH!

This is exactly the kind of seller Kathy Kennebrook is looking for! And this is exactly the type of seller you should be looking for in your real estate business as well. These sellers create an ideal opportunity for you to create a win-win solution without any competition whatsoever!! And a great deal is created with a truly motivated seller!

For more information on Kathy Kennebrook’s real estate investing products make sure you visit her website at marketingmagiclady.com

So what does Kathy Kennebrook mean by Work For Equity? Simply, it means that you have a property that needs some repairs that you want to sell. Instead of wholesaling it, you will sell it to an end user or homeowner who will do the repairs in exchange for some of the equity in the home. You can either sell your properties this way or lease/option your properties using this method. Kathy Kennebrook has done both successfully.

For example, say you have a home that all fixed up would be worth $150,000 and it needs around 20,000 in repairs, perhaps paint, carpet, appliances, or bathroom rehab. You should have purchased this home for around 82,000 or less if you structured your purchase correctly. You could then lease/option or sell this home on a Work For Equity program for around 115,000-120,000. This gives your buyer an opportunity to gain some sweat equity in the property by doing some of the work themselves and allows you a big paycheck at the end without having to do any of the repairs yourself. Kathy Kennebrook likes using this technique to sell properties since it gives a potential buyer the opportunity to purchase a home when they might not have been able to do so otherwise.

You have to be very specific about the terms when selling or lease/optioning a property this way as to what repairs are going to be done and in what time period. Kathy Kennebrook provides a list to the buyer of repairs that need to be done and she goes over it in detail with them. Kathy Kennebrook then has them sign an agreement stating that these repairs will be completed within a specific timeframe which might be 12-24 months, depending on what you and your buyer agree on. Kathy also keeps tabs as to what repairs have been completed. While the repairs are being done to the property, Kathy Kennebrook also has her mortgage broker working with her buyers in order to get them qualified for a mortgage once repairs are completed. She will allow the buyers to live in the property while repairs are being completed as long as the repairs are not something that is going to create a dangerous situation for the buyers.

This is a really good way to sell homes that need work and make more money on them than you would if you had just wholesaled the property. Selling homes on a Work for Equity program will bring you buyers that would otherwise not be able to purchase a home so it creates a win-win solution for all involved, and brings you buyers you would not have had before. In a sluggish market, this is a really good way for you to sell properties that need rehab and make really good profits on your deals.

For more information on buying and selling houses quickly in any market, visit Kathy Kennebrook’s website at marketingmagiclady.com.

Kathy Kennebrook will typically hold a second mortgage for her buyer’s with a three year balloon. At the end of the three year period, they still end up owing her most of the principle of the original loan. This can become a nice stream of income for you both on a monthly basis and long-term. You end up getting a big check when your property is sold, then smaller monthly payments for a period of time, then another big paycheck at the end of the buyer’s balloon.

The other method Kathy Kennebrook suggests using to sell properties is to owner finance the sale of your property for your buyer, and then sell the note to someone else at the closing table. If you structure your deal correctly, you usually end up being paid between 90-93% of the total amount in cash when the closing takes place. In this instance, if Kathy Kennebrook knows she is going to sell the note at the closing and take a lump sum cash payment, she makes sure she has sold the property for its full retail value or a little more. This way Kathy still gets a big paycheck and most of the value of her property’s sale.

These are just a couple of other methods you can use to sell houses that will drive buyers to you even in a sluggish market because you are offering your buyers assistance that most other sellers are not.

For more information on selling homes on a Work For Equity Plan, check out part three of this article. In the meantime, visit Kathy Kennebrook’s website at Marketingmagiclady.com for even more information on buying and selling homes quickly in any market.

Kathy Kennebrook believes that owner financing is another good way for you to sell your properties. Many sellers do not offer owner financing so this is another good way for you to drive potential buyers to your properties even in a down market. Kathy Kennebrook suggests simply advertising that you are offering financing assistance for your buyer. Many times you will have a buyer who has a significant down payment; they just can’t qualify for a loan for whatever reason.

Usually if Kathy Kennebrook owner finances a property, she at least wants her buyer to have halfway decent credit or at least workable credit that can be cleaned up over a period of time. You can sell your properties using owner financing one of two ways. If you sell a property that has an underlying mortgage, you could do a wraparound mortgage with your buyer.

A wrap around mortgage is simply a mortgage that wraps around the underlying note. Kathy Kennebrook would absolutely suggest using an attorney to put these deals together for you so it is done correctly and in a way that allows you to foreclose out the note if your buyer stops paying.

So how does a wrap around mortgage work? What this means is that your buyer pays you a mortgage payment each month on your property and you pay your underlying mortgage. The difference between these two payments is yours to keep as monthly cash flow as long as taxes and insurance are handled. If you have used an attorney to do the wrap around mortgage for you, your buyer is going to be responsible for the taxes and insurance on the property and will provide you with proof that these have been paid.

For more information on owner financing properties and wrap around mortgages, read part two of this article next week. In the meantime, visit Kathy Kennebrook’s website at Marketingmagiclady.com for even more information on buying and selling properties quickly in any market.

After Kathy Kennebrook had been in the Real Estate Investing business for a little while, she developed some really effective marketing strategies including direct mail to locate highly motivated sellers. Kathy Kennebrook then put together a system to create a machine that would bring her deal after deal after deal.

Now you too can learn Kathy Kennebrook’s secrets to attracting motivated sellers!! Learn out how Kathy Kennebrook made a seven figure income in just 12 short months using her Unique Direct Mail Strategies to locate motivated sellers. Learn how you can do the same in your pajamas without licking a single stamp!

* Learn how to carve a unique niche market that other real estate investors simply don’t know about.

* Learn how to implement a “cookie cutter” system that works every time to get more motivated sellers contacting you than ever before.

* Learn how to find the owners of vacant, abandoned houses even when they don’t want to be found.

* Learn how to find and make incredible deals with out of state owners.

* Learn how to start from scratch and complete your first deal within 30 days.

* Learn how to implement a dummy proof, affordable and efficient marketing system that will have motivated, qualified sellers contacting you in droves practically begging you to take their property off their hands.

* Turn small marketing dollars into BIG profits with minimal effort and HUGE results.

* Learn how to automate the system so you can deal with the many sellers who will contact you.

* Learn how to pick out the marketing gems that work best for you in your area and capitalize on them for maximum profits.

* Learn how to use Kathy’s special response mechanism that gets motivated sellers contacting her quickly giving her all the information she needs to make the deal.

* Learn how to find and make incredible deals with burned out landlords.

* Learn how to follow up with prospective sellers so you buy their property when their circumstances dictate that they do so.

* How to use telephone scripts so you never have to wonder what to say to these motivated sellers.

* Learn how to locate motivated sellers who will simply deed you their homes in lovely neighborhoods.

* Learn how to call on ads, what to say, who to call and how to get someone else doing all the work for you so all you have to do is deal with the sellers who really want to sell. I even have all the telephone scripts so the sellers are pre-screened for you.

* Learn how to use attorneys to find you great deals on distressed properties no one else knows about. This is an excellent lead generation tool you only have to market for one time.

* Learn how to find and work with owners of properties with no mortgages and get really creative financing on these beautiful properties in excellent neighborhoods.

* Learn how to use wholesale buyers to bird dog for you, build your lead base and make even more money for you by buying the properties from you after you get them under contract.

* Learn how to find your personal dream home in a lovely neighborhood with no cash out of pocket and no credit.

* Learn to recognize the difference between a motivated and a non- motivated seller and end the conversation quickly with a non-motivated seller.

* Learn how to make the deal on the phone before you ever go see the property.

* Learn how to use 24 additional marketing techniques that are some of my personal favorites to build your lead base and let even more motivated sellers know you buy and sell houses.

Kathy makes it absolutely brain dead simple for even the beginner investor to find great deals!! For more information on Kathy’s Marketing Magic System, visit her website at marketingmagiclady.com