Joplin Area Real Estate Investor Association

The concept of “branding” is an elusive topic.

Many are of an opinion of what a brand is, however, few know the true definition. More important, even fewer know how to properly leverage their personal brand for greater results in business and life.

Your brand is more than a logo. It’s who you are, your reputation in the market, how you are perceived. Your personal brand stands for something. It’s a positive, negative, or natural feeling in your prospects or colleagues minds.

A properly designed and delivered brand opens the doors to greater opportunities, earning a higher income, producing more sales, or positioning you as an expert in your field.

We all have a brand whether we know it or not. In fact, not having a brand – is a brand. Think, how are you being seen in the market. Are you being intentional with your brand, or is it a byproduct of how other perceive you?

Here are 3 specific advance personal branding strategies you can employ starting today to grow your business.

1. Getting Your Brand Known. You are in control of your brand. Give it a name, a look, a feel. Start with your reputation. Then make your colleagues, business associates, clients, customers, employers know your brand. In today’s market social media plays a big role. Are you being conscious of your presence in social media – remember, your market is watching.

1. What you say DOESN’T c
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 When you first think of the consequences of rising interest rates, you could naturally conclude that would drive real estate prices down.  Over the long haul, you would be right.  However, when you look at what is going on now as rates are rising, you might be shocked to see that both rates and prices are rising together.

Mortgage rates have been increasing steadily since the begging of the year 2022.  At the beginning of the year, mortgage rates were right around 3.2%.  As of the end of April 2022, mortgage rates have risen to around 5.2%. Some resources are show as high as 6.1% as of this writing.

The interesting thing is that the median sales price for real estate is also increasing. The median home values of Minnesota, my home state is currently $326k, the twin cities metro area is a little higher at $340k. 

So why are prices still increasing at the same time interest rates are also increasing.  To explain that you need to have a little understanding of economics.  In the simplest form, when supply is high and demand is low, rates tend to drop lower to encourage borrowing.  This is one of the tools that the federal reserve uses to spur growt
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   Let’s face it: making deals complicates our lives.  

    When we first become involved in real estate, buying a property can be very anxiety-provoking: I mean, really, even though we’ve done all our due diligence and run the numbers 15 different ways and talked to our favorite mentor about it and it STILL looks like a great deal, how do we ever REALLY know? And this leads to self-esteem problems, as we’re constantly second-guessing ourselves and berating ourselves over our lack of confidence. 

    And even for seasoned investors, taking on a new deal is stressful—an accepted offer means that we must find a buyer, start a rehab, or put an ad in the paper to get a tenant. Plus, there’s the additional bookkeeping when the checks roll in, and, of course, the taxes to pay on the profit at the end of the year… 

    Since stress and anxiety lead to psychological and medical conditions, including high blood pressure, overeating, bad hair days, fear of success, and a whole host of others, making deals should obviously be avoided at any cost. So, I think it’s important, for the sake of our own health and well-being, that we all learn how to NOT get trapped into making a deal. Here are some suggestions: 

        1. Make Sure You Know EVERYTHING Before You Do ANYTHING. You can avoid
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            One of the most boring topics – to most real estate investors, anyway -- is insurance.  That’s why so many get themselves in trouble when it’s too late to do anything about it. 

             As a real estate investor, you NEED to understand the basics of insurance that directly impacts your business.  Property insurance and liability insurance are the backbone of your business’s asset protection plan. Having a major insurance issue – and not having the proper insurance coverage in place – could easily cause your real estate business to go OUT of business, and take all the wealth you’ve built up over time down the drain with it.

            Our goal, thru these articles, is to provide a better basis to your real estate insurance knowledge so that you can ask the right questions and make the right decisions when it comes to your insurance.

            The first topic, as a basis of understanding, is to discuss “reconstruction value” versus “street value”.  Too often people use street value—what the property would sell for today—to try to determine what value they need to use to insure a property.

      &n
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 That is the question every rehabber asks himself/herself.  Many cities and states don’t legally require that all contractors be licensed (though most require that plumbers, electricians, HVAC contractors, and the like are). But even in places where a license IS required, there are plenty of unlicensed folks who are happy to do jobs ‘under the table’.

The natural thinking among real estate investors is that we can save money by not using licensed folks: that if I use a licensed contractor the job is going to cost me more money.  

Yes, I have asked that question myself.  And I have tried to cut corners by hiring the “handyman” who is not licensed.  Here are a few of the results I have seen.

1. On an early project I discovered the contractor who was doing excellent work, had a cooler on the job.  I didn’t think much about that until I noticed beer cans on the job site.  So, I dropped in one day unexpectedly and discovered my contractor was drinking beer on the job.  When questioned, he replied, “I’m doing fine.  I am perfectly OK to do the job while drinking.  To prove it, I can trim my thumb nail with this power miter saw and will not cut myself.  Here, let me show you.”  He didn’t get
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              Beginning investors have a tendency to get stressed out by the very thought of “negotiation”.

              They put off calling sellers (or calling them BACK) for days and days. They worry about what the seller might say and what they should say back to the seller.

              It’s as if they believe that something they could say to the seller—or fail to say—would make that seller motivated or not motivated.

      The truth is, sellers come to you already motivated or not motivated, and what YOU say doesn’t change that one way or another. And since that very important fact is completely out of your control, that means that the only thing you actually need to worry about in a “negotiation” is

1. Building rapport
2. Getting the information you need
3. Protecting your time

              To that end, there ARE some things that experienced real estate entrepreneurs do, and do consistently, to maximize that chances that any given seller negotiation will be a successful one.

•               Balance your need to get the information quickly
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It’s the little things like a free dessert or beverage that makes customers feel special and appreciated.  There is nothing difficult or expensive about paying attention to your customers likes and dislikes (Wayne’s Eggs) — remembering their names and keeping track of their buying preferences.  Little things frequently produce big results.  Unfortunately, many business owners miss the small things and then wonder why they lose the business to a competitor.  Here are just a few of the “little things” that can set your business apart from the rest.

• Smile
  A smile is contagious and makes people feel welcome.  Oh, and by the way, it takes fewer muscles to smile than it does to frown.  Plus, research from the 1970s and 80s suggests that your facial expression might influence your mood.  (Try putting a smile on your face and see if you feel happy.)  So, make sure you have a smile on your face when you’re dealing with your customers, so they know their business is important to you.

• Take Responsibility for Mistakes

Everyone makes mistakes and training your customer service team to quickly apologize for mista
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“To contract new debts is not the way to pay old ones.” - George Washington

In the age of virtual currency, rising inflation, and online shopping, helping your teenager get their feet under them when it comes to money seems like an absolute necessity. 

So, wouldn’t it be great if you could pry your teen from perma-scrolling TikTok and Snapchat long enough to teach them a few things about money? However, you might be surprised to find that one great money education tool for them (or anyone) is having a credit card.

Yep, you heard that right. Giving your teen a credit card could really help them learn a few things about money and managing it.

Think about it: You have to handle paying the balance and watch your spending when it seems effortless (at least until the bill arrives). You learn the ins and outs of interest, credit scores, and paying off a tab over time. It’d be tough to find a better money teacher than that. 

Obviously, this is going to mean some hard work and lots of one-on-one time to keep them from going off the
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For whatever reason, a lot of real estate investor have this idea that a career path in real estate is strategy-based; we’re all supposed to start with wholesaling, move on to the bigger checks (and bigger complications) of retailing, then buy single family rentals, and then, we we’re really knowledgeable, wealthy and experienced, end up in apartments or notes.

In real life, there’s no such prescribed life cycle; lots of people start out in rentals, or even note-buying; I myself discovered wholesaling only after nearly 5 years in the lease/option business.

But there IS a path that we should all recognize and be on that has nothing to do with our age at entry, or our favorite asset class or exit strategy, and that’s the journey from trading our hours for (highly-taxed) dollars to having our lifestyles completely paid for by our assets.

This metamorphosis takes place in 3 stages, the terms for which were coined by the great Pete Fortunato.

     Starters are folks who are still learning and exploring the trade. They’re willing to do what it takes to get educated and to do the hard work of finding deals, which means that, in a sense, they’re still trading hours (spend finding, constructing, and managing properties) for dollars. If they&rsqu
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Renovating Your Older Forever Home

Maybe that old home you just bought isn’t quite as perfect as you would like, which isn’t surprising or unusual. From serious issues to more aesthetic problems, there are a whole host of fixes for older dream homes. It can be a bit stressful to figure out which repairs and projects to focus on first, and that’s why having this resource list brought to you by the professionals at the South Jersey Real Estate Investors Association can help you get started.

Start By Addressing Structural and Safety Issues

Some updates may not be urgent, but when it comes to problems that pose a risk to your safety or your home’s structure, repairs simply can’t wait.

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