What's going on...

What the bleep do we know — Continued

2008-11-17T13:45:00.000-08:00

--- Written by Jordan Lin, www.vantagerei.com

There is hidden message from water.

Before, I used to think holy water, or water that had prayers of Buddhist monk would have some sort of power is a little bit out there and mysterious. But from the studies of a Japanese researcher Mr. Masaru Emoto, it totally proved such power exists. The way he figured out the messages in water is by the crystals water would form. If the water was taken from very clean sources like glacier water, it would form beautiful crystals. If the water is taken from polluted sources like tap water, or polluted river, it would form ugly crystals. Sounds logical, isn’t it? There are some pollutant inside the water that would somehow interfere with the forming of crystals so it’s quite reasonable. But then he brings the experiment farther. He takes the bottle of tap water and have a Buddhist monk do prayers on it and compare the difference, amazing results were found. The water before prayers would still have deformed and ugly crystals. But the water after the prayer is somehow purified, and forms very beautiful and complete crystals. Interesting isn’t it? There is more, I would list few of the findings below:

Music can have effect on water. If you let the water listen to classical music, it forms beautiful crystals.

Water can read too. If you write words like love, thank you, hope, gratitude, God, or Buddha on the bottle, it forms beautiful crystals. On the contrary, if you have words like hate, killing, dislike, it would create ugly crystals or no crystals at all.

The more pure, or clear the thoughts are, the better the effect. If it’s done in a group with pure and clear thought, it would have even better effect. The result happened immediately, and distance have less part on the effect.

Due the the copyright of the pictures, I cannot put it on my newsletter according to their website. So for those of you who is interested, here is the links to it.

www.hado.net/index.php

Owner Financing KCMO Rental Investment Properites - Great Cash Flow

2008-11-16T13:00:00.000-08:00

We are now offering seller financing for our cash flowing investment properties. If you cannot get financing to buy real estate, owner financing is an excellent way to go. Do not wait to buy real estate, buy real estate and wait!

The Numbers (Real Deal)

Down payment: $10,000
Loan amount: $55,000
Interest: 8%
Amortization: 30 years (3-year balloon)
Taxes (2008): $674.52 per year
Insurance (2008): $367.24 per year
Monthly gross rent: $750
Monthly mortgage payments (PITI): $490.38
Current property management fees (10%): $75 per month
Cash Flow: $184.62 per month
Cap Rate: 22.15%

Check out our website for more info: www.vantagerei.com

This is the time to buy when everything is on sale.

How do you know you are protected from the investment? These are properties that cash flow positively every month, meaning, you are paid to own these investments. Not to mention other advantages of owning real estate such as tax deductions, appreciation potentials, passive income, etc.

To learn more about the benefit of owning positive cash flowing properties, read Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad Poor Dad. This book changed my life. He writes in simple, easy to understand manner and it's in story format. I used to hate everything business related but this book was different. No business background required.

Anyone what wants to learn more about real estate investing, I highly recommend this book.

Global Positioning System (GPS)

2008-11-15T13:05:00.000-08:00

GPS is a handy tool for real estate investors. You enter the address of a property you want to see and it takes you there. It is especially useful when we go to a new city where we want to invest.

We have a Garmin nuvi 350 GPS. Garmin (NASDAQ) is founded by Gary Burrell and Dr. Min Kao, and their world headquarters is in Olathe, Kansas. Olathe is one of the suburbs of Kansas City, Missouri.

I have to mention one of the good things about investing in Kansas City which is surrounded by many beautiful and modern cities like Olathe and Overland Park. In 2008, the US Census Bureau ranked Olathe the 24th fastest-growing city; CNN Money ranked Overland Park #9 on the "100 Best Cities to Live in the United States” list. Imagine a city (Kansas City) with under valued real estate surrounded by higher priced cities like Olathe and Overland Park. The revitalization of downtown Kansas City has started and over $4.5 billion dollars have been invested. With the high price of oil, people have begun to move back into the downtown core area where they work. Greater Kansas City is headquarters to:

- H&R Block (NYSE)
- Embarq (NYSE) – Communications carrier. Las Vegas, Nevada metropolitan area is its largest market. Employs about 18,000 people.
- Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE) – Employs about 70,000 people
- YRC Worldwide Inc (NASDAQ) – One of the largest transportation and logistics providers in the world. Employs about 70,000 people.
- Commerce Bank (NASDAQ)
- Cerner (NASDAQ) – Health-care information specialist. Employs about 7,800 people
- DST Systems (NYSE) – Information business. Employs about 10,500 people.
- Novastar Financial (NYSE) – Mortgage lender. Employs about 2,032 people
- Applebee's (NASDAQ) – Employs about 32,260 people.
- Interstate Bakeries Corporation (NASDAQ) – Largest wholesale baker and distributor of fresh bakery products in the US. It owns Hostess, Wonder Bread, Dolly Madison, Butternut Breads, and Drake's brands. Employs about 25,000 people.
- Great Plains Energy (NYSE) – A holding company that owns Kansas City Power and Light Company which provides electricity for the city.
- AMC Theatres – The second largest movie theater chain in North America. Employs about 21,000 people.
- Hallmark Cards – Employs about 16,000 people.
- The French pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE) has one of the largest drug manufacturing plants in the United States and the plant is located in South Kansas City. Employs about 100,000 people.
- Federal Reserve Bank headquarters – Bills issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City are marked with the letter "J" or the number "10." Employs 925 people in Kansas City.

The Key to Attracting Anything You Want in Life

2008-11-14T15:09:00.000-08:00

I am reading a book called "The Key - The Missing Secret for Attracting Anything You Want" by Joe Vitale who's also feature in "The Secret."

This book is about consciously, we may know what we want (ie. health,wealth, happiness) and we think we practice the law of attraction to achieve what we want but subconsciously, we may have old believes or old programmings that are actually asking the universe for other things or even things we don't want. When our conscious and subconscious mind are not congruent, we seem to hit blocks and unable to attract what we want in life.

In this book, Joe talks about several clearing methods to get rid of our stuck energy in ourselves so we can receive what we ask for in life. I summarized some of the clearing methods on a Squidoo Lens. Check it out here

http://www.squidoo.com/thekeybyjoevitale

Now the market crashed, what do you do? How can you turn crisis into opportunity?

2008-11-05T21:38:00.000-08:00

--Written by Jordan Lin, www.vantagerei.com

Last month, we went to Las Vegas and Los Angeles for two investment classes. There are so much to learn and so much to do. We learned about stock and option trading in Las Vegas. On the second day of our class, the market crashed. It’s been the worth crash since 9/11. The Dow Jones Industrial average dropped to 7000’s almost half of its high years ago. Talk about the way to learn how to invest in stock: when the market is crashing down like you never seen before. However, as bad as it sounds in this market, many people actually made tons of profit from it. The instructor pointed out that before the market crashes, there are many indicators that is suggesting that way. So for those who is experienced and know what they are doing, it’s an exciting time for them. For those of you who bought stocks or mutual funds and were predicting they were going up in value before the crash, I feel very sorry because the lost has already happen. And for those of you who still have money to invest, it’s really the right time to buy. Just like real estate, you buy when everyone is scared.

If you are new to the investing world DON’T MAKE ANY MOVES YET

Sorry but I have to make this loud and clear. Don’t just go to any financial advisor and start buying mutual funds or stocks. Instead, invest in yourself. Many people have made the mistake of handing money to some financial advisor without knowing exactly what’s going on, and thinking that the financial advisor is smarter than you so they can make a wiser decision on how to invest. Here are some facts I like to point out:

Not every advisor has your interest in their heart because of the way they make profit. Many advisor out there are not advisor at all, they are simply a sales person selling the products their company is selling. And they make money when you invest, not when you make profit on the investment. But don’t get me wrong, there are some out there that are truly financial advisors and they can benefit you greatly. So shop around to find the real financial advisor, not mutual found sales person.

S&P 500 outperforms 85% of all the mutual funds out there. So if you want to be ahead of 85% of the pack, just buy funds that follow S&P 500. Also, they don’t have stinking fees either. However, you can do better if you wanted to. There are funds out there that are constantly beating S&P 500, long term or short term. To find them, the key is “no-load-funds,” meaning the fund doesn’t charge you fees at the front end or and at the back end.

Invest in stock or real estate is not risky. Thinking you can just following what the so called experts are saying and you will be fine is risky.

Would you let your son take your car key and start driving without getting a license first? I hope not. The same thing applies here. I have been to many seminars and spent a fortune on it too. Do I think it’s worth it? Absolutely! I know these seminars are very expensive and not all of them are good. But there are many good ones out there that would truly benefit you financially. What if you don’t have the money to take the course? Go to the library and borrow books on it. Then save enough money to go to the reputable ones. What if you don’t have the time? That’s a lie, and you know it too. You make the time to do things that are important to you. Do you have time to shower? Do you have time to eat? You need seminars even more if you think you don’t have time. Hopefully you get my point.

If you don’t know where to begin, I would suggest that you can go buy this book and read it: Secrets of the Millionaire Mind

From this book, I have learnt a lot about how we were conditioned from people we know when we grow up and how the riches think. It’s a great starting point for everyone who is interested.

Last word I like to share with you:
Be scared when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are scared.

Vancouver Apartment Buildings

2008-10-23T10:16:00.000-07:00

I read a report from a Commercial Realtor today. I've subscribe to their report for free for several years now. Today, I've found the cap rate for apartment buildings in Vancouver has finally increased.

It used to be around 2% last year when the market is hot. 2% cap rate is not very good. Now it is about 5 or 6%. This is an indication that the purchase price has come down a bit in Vancouver apartment buildings.

The investment properties I have are around 20% cap rate which is calculated by Net Operating Income (NOI) divided by the Purchase Price. NOI is calculated by annual gross income minus annual expenses.

A fast and simple way to look at cap rate is to use it to see if the investment makes sense.

For emample, for a property with 20% cap rate, the interest rate on borrowed money is say 7%, so 20 minus 7 is 13. That means I still have 13% in my pocket after mortage payment and expenses. For a 2% cap rate, in order to have positive cash flow, I need to find loans with less than 2% interest...extremely unlikely unless you have a rich aunt who pratically will lend you the money for free.

So to buy a investment property with cap rate of 2% and if I can only get mortgage about 7%, that means I'll have negative cash flow every months. This strategy is okay if you have a lot of money or are investing for appreciation. But I personally think apartment buildings are for cash flow.

A general rule of thumb is to find investment property with 2-3% higher cap rate than your interest on the loan.

Mind Blowing Documentary

2008-10-01T23:54:00.000-07:00

It’s scientifically proven that your wishes do come true

Couple weeks ago, I watched a documentary called “What the bleep do we know?” It’s a complicated documentary that tries to tell people that your thoughts actually shape the world in a very strange way. Because there are so many concepts in the movie and that it’s impossible to tell you all about it. I will describe these ideas separately through my coming newsletters.

First idea that I would like to share with everyone is that your thoughts has the ability to shape your world. Also, your thoughts not only will shape the world in the future, but even in the past!! To prove this idea, there has been an experiment done. First, they have a random number generator that would randomly create “1” and “0” number continuously. They then record result of the machine generating “0”and “1” in two copies. They keep one copy in a safety box, and another one to an experiment target. They want the subject to take the copy home and meditate with it. They want the subject to “want” more “1” in the result. And during the experiment no one can know the result of exactly how many “1” or “0” were produced. When next day the subject comes back with the copy, guess what? There are more “1” than “0”!

What this experiment shows was that the mind can actually create things that you want (more “1” than “0”), and that the mind can create it the in the past (it was just the recording of what the machine generated). Very weird isn’t it? I know it sounds very out there, but it’s one of the Ah-Haah moments that I had. Everyone who have watched or read “the Secret” knows that it’s the power of intention, or the law of attraction put to work. What it means is if you want something in your life, you need to think about how good it would be to have it. You need to feel it with as many senses possible. And then get ready to receive it. But for me, it’s not really convincing enough of how this kind of phenomenon happens. Until I watched “what the bleep do we know” and it totally changed my mind. So now I make it into a habit that I would meditate everyday on what I want the next day would be like, and what I want my life to be like – with the “expectation” that it will happen. Strangely, bit by bit, it’s really working towards my goals. What a world. So for those who would like to try it, you can start with getting the best parking spot. Next time when you go some where busy, talk to the universe that you need a parking spot and “expect” it to be there. Try it a few times and let me know what happens. – By Jordan Lin

Vancouver Real Estate Market

2008-09-27T18:08:00.001-07:00

My hubby and I bought and flipped a condo in 2007.

Now I think the market is cooling down so I am preparing myself to buy and keep.

I am looking at the real estate stats published by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV). Residential sales in Greater Vancouver was the highest in 2007. Sales in August 2008 was lower than August 2006.

“In August, properties on average remained on the market longer than we’ve seen in recent years,” said Dave Watt, REBGV president.

Since May 2008, the benchmark price has decreased about 3-4% for all types of properties (detached, attached, condos) in Greater Vancouver.

For detached homes, the 5 year change on price is +78.1% in Greater Vancouver. Vancouver West has the highest increase of 98.1% over other areas in Greater Van. In areas like Port Moody and Pitt Meadows, the price change over 1 year is already negative.

For attahced homes, the 5 year change is the highest in Vancouver East (104.4%). The one year change is double digit (13.2%) compare to other areas in GVRD. No negative change over one year (at least not very significant 0.1%).

As housing price increases in GVRD, first-time home buyers who cannot afford single family homes in desirable Vancouver West bought attached home in Vancouver East. This is where we bought our condo because of its affordable price.

For apartments, there are several areas with more than 100% change over 5 year (Port Co, Vancouver E, New West, Richmond). Areas experiencing negative increase over 1 year included West Van, North Van, and Vancouver West).

I think this is because of the higher real estate prices, first-time home buyers who usually can afford only apartments, condos buy in the suburbs or less desirable areas in Vancouver. Recent years, the prices got so high in desirable areas that it is leveling off (West Van -4.9%).

Over the 5 years, apartments (condos) has the largest price increase, followed by attached homes.

Check out www.realtylink.org for the stats.

Fannie Mae & Freddi Mac Situation

2008-09-15T10:57:00.000-07:00

Author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki's comments on Fannie and Freddie: latest video commentary

Weekend Millionaires Mike Summey & Roger Dawson's online chat about this: http://www.weekendmillionaire.com/2008/09/09/chat-transcript-september-8-2008/

All these talks about the foreclosure crisis in the U.S. A lot of people are freaking out and saying to stay out of real estate. But all the experienced investors I know are buying up as many as they can. Some investors say it's the best time to buy in 50 years, since the depression or since ever!

I read on CNN Money.com that only 5% of all mortgages in the U.S. are in default. The media made it sound like more than 50% are in default.

So I say, I am so lucky to have the knowledge and experience I have right now, to be ready for this opportunity. I am trying to buy as many as I can because when I buy I make money. Even if the price never go up again, I still make money every month from my investments.

The banks that were in trouble have already made their money when they originated the loan and then sold the loans. Fannie Mae who bought the loans raised money from selling securities to foreign investors. The government now will use the taxpayer's money to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie. All those people or entities that got us into this mess in the first place have already gone away with the money. Yes, I agree they should have tighter regulations so it won't happen again.

These are just my personal opinion.

Where to Find the Money to Invest in Real Estate

2008-09-13T15:30:00.000-07:00

Where can you find money to buy properties?
I get this question a lot lately.

Here are some ideas that you can try:

1. Cash or credit partner – if you know someone with cash and/or good credit who can quality for a mortgage, you can find a deal and present the deal to them to see if they want to invest with you.

2. Hard money lender – there are a lot of hard money lenders out there. Just Google "hard money" and you will find about 15.8 billion English pages. Contrary to popular beliefs, harder money can be cheaper than cash or credit partners. These lenders are investors themselves and they will make sure you have a good deal before they lend you the money.

3. Money in your self-directed retirement account – if you call the bank and ask them to invest the money in your retirement account in real estate, they will likely say no. The banks only sell stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and they only want you to buy their products so they make money. Get a self-directed retirement account and you can invest in almost anything, even account receivables.

4. Home equity line of credit – if you have equity in your home, you can get a home equity line of credit (aka HELOC) to buy properties. Robert Kiyosaki said home equity is like lazy assets. Pull the money out and invest in performing assets (not doodads). Make your money work hard for you.

5. Credit cards – there are a lot of zero percent interest for one year credit cards out there. If you can get personal or business credit cards with enough credit limit, you can buy a house nowadays.

6. Private money – if you can find people to lend you money at lower interest rate than hard money, it’s another good way to go. It can also be money in someone else's self-directed retirement account that they want to invest.

7. Ask the seller to finance the property. I will consider owner finance my properties if the buyer meets my criteria. Check out my properties for sale at www.vantagerei.com

When I first started out, I've used private money, conventional mortgages, HELOC, and more private money.

But if you buy with hard money lender or credit card, make sure you can refinance the house 6 months down the row otherwise the high interest rate will kill the deal. Feel free email me if you have any questions.

Foreclosure Investment Group Grand Opening - Please Come and Join Us

2008-08-19T09:36:00.001-07:00

Visit Foreclosure Investment Group

Visit Foreclosure Investment Group

Website Address:
http://webuyusa.ning.com/

House with Crazy Dog

2008-08-11T21:14:00.000-07:00

This didn't make my "Top 3 Most Interesting" (see my blog posted on March 14, 2008) but it's so funny that I have to add it.

I think there used to be a dog (or two or more...) living in this house before it got foreclosed. I call it the "Crazy Dog House." The wood trims around the windows were all chewed up pretty badly by the dog(s). Even the trims on top of the windows were damaged. The dog(s) must have jumped up to chew on the trims.

I guess the good dog(s) stayed inside the house and chew on the wood trims.

The bad dog(s) were put in the basement where they get to chew on a door stored in the basement. Check out the picture...what kind of dog(s) can do this? Or did the dog(s) chew up the door so badly that the owner had to remove it and put it in the basement?

JORDAN & JENNY’S NEWSLETTER - August 2008 -

2008-08-11T20:55:00.000-07:00

Investment Game – Cashflow VS Appreciation

Why do you invest in Kansas City compare to other area like Los Angeles?

People like to invest in real estate because it appreciates over time. So it’s always a good idea to invest in places where it’s experiencing growth. However, there is another big factor that you need to take into consideration, which is cash flow. When buying and holding a property, there are many costs involved such as mortgage, property tax, insurance, and property management fee. It is important to know how much the holding cost will be for certain property before buying the property. If you are going to lose money each month holding the property, you have to make sure you can afford it. You need to know if your current income can support you & the property. Also, plan out how long you are going to hold the property and calculate the holding cost. That way you will know the exact cost of the whole invest instead of just the asking price.

In areas like Los Angeles where it has a higher potential for appreciation, it’s always a good idea to invest there when the property value is rising. Even it means taking some negative cash flow, the potential for appreciation might still outweigh it. But when property value goes down, it goes a lot faster than other cities too. So not only you need to consider the negative cash flow each month, you also need to consider how much you lost in equity. In my opinion, the only time to go into high price & high appreciation cities is when it’s starting to see appreciation. Typically a real estate
cycle last 5~10 years, so you still have plenty of time to get into the market and let it grow after you see the initial growth.

Where do you invest when it’s in the down turn?

There are several reasons why it’s good to invest in Kansas City.
1. Compare to more desirable places like New York or California, it doesn’t appreciate as much as fast. However, at the same time, it doesn’t depreciate as much either. So it makes a good place to invest for cashflow when the market is in the down turn.
2. Right now, if you want to purchase a property that rents for $800 a month in Vancouver, you will be looking at condos that are at least $250,000. But if you want to find a property in Kansas City that generates $800 rent, they will only cost you $50,000 to $70,000.
3. Even though the whole United States is experience the real estate bust due to the sub-prime mortgage, there are still some cities that are doing pretty well because of its own economy. For Kansas City, it’s undergoing the biggest revitalization since in the 1980s. A total of 15 block area of the down town core is being tear down, reconstruct, or expand. New constructions includes new indoor professional sport stadium, H&R Block headquarter, Kansas City convention center expansion, and whole new mixed use area called Kansas City Power & Light District. The total public and private investment is estimated to be about 5 Billion dollars.

The most amount of adjustable rate mortgage is issued between 2002~2005. Typically this kind of mortgage changes interest after 5 years. This is why we start to see huge amount of foreclosure flooding the market in 2007. We expect that there will still be huge the amount of foreclosure coming to the market until year 2010. That’s when the market condition will become normal, and could be a good time to start investing in markets like Los Angeles. At that time, you can easily refinance the properties in Kansas City then invest in other market, or even use the cashflow from Kansas
City properties to pay for the holding cost of the properties in other market. Not to mention by that time, the properties in KC would have made you 3 years worth of cashflow and have the potential for appreciation.

So remember, there are different investing methods when the market is up, or when the market is down. You can’t just rely on one method to be successful in real estate investment.

~Wholesale Opportunity Available~
Last month, we have finally had an offer accepted. Our record had been buying one house every month. But this time, it took us more than 3 month to get this property accepted. I think it’s because we were trying to get the best deal, and finally we were able to find it. This particular property actually has the highest projected cashflow than any other single family houses that we have bought, and we want to pass the saving down to our buyer. So here is how it works:
- This is a wholesale deal so you buy the property as is.
- We give you all the contact of my power team member so you can renovate and have this property rent out. We have worked really hard qualifying and interviewing our team members. And they have done a great job for our other projects. Although we don’t make any guarantees, we know they would do a good job for your project.
- Throughout the time from renovating to renting it out, I will provide my expertise and guidance to help you if you have any questions.
- After you rent out the property, you can then relax and start collecting rents.

Here are the numbers:
6620 Lydia, Kansas City, MO 64131
Cash Flow: $308+ per month
Wholesale Price: $22,500
1.5 Stories
Single Family House
3 Bed 1 Bath
1186 sq. ft.
4356 sq. ft. Lot
$12K~15K Rehab
Rent: $750 to $800 per month
Note: the cashflow is based on you use financing with 30 year mortgage @ 7% interest rate. If you use all cash to do the whole project, you will have at least $560 of cashflow each month.

If you or you know someone who might be interested in investing in real estate, please let us know. We give out referral fees to people who help us getting the deal done. ^^

~New Wholesale Property Available in 64131~SOLD

2008-07-19T12:30:00.000-07:00

Property Sold. Thank you.
For other available properties, please check out www.vantagerei.com

JORDAN & JENNY’S NEWSLETTER - JULY 2008 -

2008-07-18T21:59:00.000-07:00

Open Mind

I used to think foreclosed homes are bad. Now I specialize in buying foreclosed properties. Thanks to my mentor Jeff. The first time I heard him speak, he says something like if your glass is full, how can you learn new stuff? Empty your glass, have an open mind, and see what else are out there. I decided right there I was going to listen what he had to say and it changed my outlook on foreclosures. I didn’t know why I think foreclosures are bad, I just thought they were bad. It must be my past conditioning. I heard people talking negatively about foreclosures. It’s bad if they lose their homes, it’s bad if they trash the house, but it’s good if I can buy them cheap, it’s good if I fix them up and put a nice family in the house, it’s good that I am getting positive cash flow out of the house every month. So who to say foreclosures are bad, it just depends on how you see it and which side you are looking at.

Freedom vs Security

I quit my job and went out on my own to invest in real estate. Some people tell me it’s risky to invest in real estate. It is if you don’t know what you are doing. I spend a lot of time and money learning how to invest. Some people don’t so they think it’s risky. Some people think having a steady job is security. The banks like it if you have a steady job. But according to Robert Kiyosaki, having a job as your only source of income is risky. What if you get sick, get laid off? If you don’t show up at work, there’s no money coming in. Buying rental properties are different. Regardless of whether I work or not, the tenant has to pay rent every month. Now if I build up my rental cash flow to be equal or greater my monthly expenses, I am financially free, meaning I can choose not to work and the money still comes in passively. What’s more, the tenant eventually pays down my mortgage and I’ll have a debt free house plus increased cash flow. Awesome! I love passive income. I now have the time and money to do whatever I want. This is freedom and true security.

How Exactly Do We Invest?

Our friend usually ask us, how do you actually do the investment? Let me briefly describe it without going into too much details. We work with realtors to send us information on foreclosed properties. We then negotiate with the bank to get the best deal possible (usually we get 1 property for every 60 offers we send out). After having it under contract, we send out an inspector to inspect the house, take picture of the property and the neighborhood. We ask 3 contractors to give us bid on the rehab and choose one to work with. We have our property manager to go to the property to estimate how much it can be rented for after rehab. Then we close on the property, start the rehab, at the same time start looking for tenant. When rehab’s done, we have a project manager to inspect the rehab work to make sure it’s done right. Then put a tenant in there and start collecting rent. We have put together pictures of the latest project that we did. Hope you like it. By the way, we are selling this property too.

Better Investment

Are you tired of losing money in the stock market? Getting low returns from mutual fund? Or is your money just sitting in the bank making you less than 3% interest and have the bank come around and charge you 20% on interest for using their credit card? Are you looking for an investment that’s guaranteed to give you income by the government, and is secured by real estate? Most importantly, are you interested in making at least 8~12% interest constantly? Here is your chance. We are selling one investment just like it. I have been talking about how to invest in real estate for several months, teaching people how to find the power team member. But what if you don’t have time to do that and is looking for a turn key solution? We have negotiated with the bank, qualified the area, rehabbed the house inside out, and found a qualified tenant in there. All you have to do is: nothing!!

So here are the numbers:
- 3Bed/1bath
- 1140 sqft
- Rent: $800/month
- Tax: $671
- Totally renovated
- insurance: $700
- Net operating income: $7,269
- Market value: $85,000
- Asking price: $64,900

Return on Investment: 11%

Here are some concerns people might have:

Q: I don't want to get phone calls from the tenant in the middle of the night to fix the toilet.
A: When we transfer the property to you, it’s already being managed by professional property manager. They will take care of the problem for you. Plus, the house has just been renovated, you will have a problem-free property when you buy it.

Q: What if tenant trash the house, or doesn’t pay the rent?
A: The tenant is sponsored by a government program called Section-8 Housing. The people who are in the program are typically low income or handicapped people. And because it’s not easy to be on the program, they want to stay in the program as long as possible. If they trash your property, you have the right to evict them, and they will be removed from the program. So it’s not their best intention to trash your house. Every month, the government sends a check to your property manager, and the property manager will send you the fund after deducting their fees.

Q: How do I know I am getting a good deal?
A: We provide you the sold comparison houses in the area. So you know how much the houses are sold for. We then deduct 20% off from the market value so we know you are clearly getting a great deal.

Q: What if I apply for a mortgage?
A: Even better! Believe it or not, you will be getting higher return by using other people’s money. Let’s say you borrow the money with a 30 year fixed, 7% interest, and 20% down payment. Your net operating income will decrease to $3177/year. But because you only invest 20% of $65000 in cash, which is $13000, your cash on cash return will then become 25%. Yes, that’s right. I actually have a term for this: Cha-Ching.

If you are interested in getting more information on this property, call me or email me. I will be happy to answer any questions for you. Don’t worry if you are not buying, we know it’s not for everyone. Besides, you will know better on what exactly we do.

For more information on this property and other great opportunities, check out our website at www.vantagerei.com

JORDAN & JENNY’S NEWSLETTER - JUNE 2008 -

2008-07-18T21:54:00.000-07:00

Wealth Retreat – Las Vegas
Last month we attended the wealth retreat held by Enlighten Wealth Institute in Las Vegas. We were excited to meet so many like minded people, and have received a lot of new information in real estate investment. During the event, Robert Allen, the founder of EWI, said something that inspired me a lot. He said in order to be successful in investing, or in anything, you have to have a big enough “WHY”. Why do you want to be rich, why do you want to have your own business? What do you really want? “Here is the thing, until you have a big enough reason of why you want to do this, your mind will always find you all kinds of excuse not to do it.” Reasons like: this will never work, I am too young, I am too old, I am too busy, I don’t have money, my English is not good, I am too fat, I am too this, too that. I need to tell you this: it’s all crap that came out of your “mind” and not your true self. So I encourage my friends to spend time with your self in a quiet place and really figure out what do you want in your life. Imagine what you can do when you become successful, try to see it, smell it, feel it, taste it and listen to it. Only when you do that, you can then realize that abundance of opportunities is all around you. The reason why you didn’t see it before is you never really paid attention to it.

How do you find a good buyer’s agent?

During the time we were in Kansas City, we spent a lot of time interviewing and working with several agents. We end up having 2 agents working for us, and it has been working very well from our experience. Since we invest out of town, and a lot of times we buy properties without even seeing it for ourselves. It’s really important to have a buyer’s agent to look out for you and help making the transaction smoother. But it wasn’t always that smooth. First problem that we see a lot is that the agent won’t present the offer for you because the price is too low. So during the initial interview with realtors, we ask them this question: do you feel comfortable making low ball offers for us? If they say “yes”, we keep going. If they say “no”, it’s no point wasting you and the realtor’s time by keep going with the interview. A lot of times we need to make low ball offer just to make the deal work. So the realtor will really need to understand that with every ten offers, only one will be accepted. Another key point to a good realtor is if they are investors themselves. Have an agent that is an investor too actually makes your life a lot easier. They will understand you way better as a client, so when they are looking for properties for you, they can look at it as investment, rather than a home. They will also be able to qualify the neighborhood for you, tell you the ball park range of how much the rehab would be, and could it be a good investment or no. One may ask, if the agent is a realtor, won’t they keep all the great deals for themselves? This might happen, but I rather have an agent that can find a good investment for me than finding me a good home. Besides, there are an abundance of great deals out there.

YOU CAN SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTERS ON OUR WEBSITE: www.vantagerei.com

JORDAN & JENNY’S NEWSLETTER - MAY 2008

2008-07-18T21:49:00.000-07:00

JORDAN & JENNY’S NEWSLETTER - MAY 2008

Las Vegas Here We Come!!!!

We want to let everyone know that we are going to attend the asset protection bootcamp & wealth retreat in Las Vegas from May 26th to June 1st. Last year we attended this exciting seminar and have met so many like minded people. We are looking forward to meet more people in the event. For my EWI friends, if you are attending the event too, please drop us an email so we can arrange and possibly meet again!!

The First Deal is Always the Hardest – by Jenny

I remember when we were doing our very first real estate deal which was a fix-and-flip in Vancouver, BC. After the initial excitement of getting the accepted offer, the reality set in. Are we going to buy this condo or not? It’s a $200,000 plus debt that we’ll go into. What if we cannot sell it in time (we would not be able to cover the mortgage payment even if we rent it out)? What if we go over the budget for fixing up the condo? On top of everything, I made a mistake in the calculation which means we’d not be able to sell the condo using a realtor. In other words, we either sell the condo ourselves or sacrifice all our profit to pay for the realtor’s commission. I immediately picked up the phone and called my mentor who was an experienced real estate investor. She said if we had to sell it ourselves, then that’s what we would have to do. Jordan and I decided to go ahead with the deal. Even if we didn’t make any money, we’d have already got our feet wet and learnt a lot by going through with it. Now looking back, I am glad we went through with it. I realized the first deal is always the hardest because I felt like I didn’t know much about flipping a property (because I had never done it before). Naturally I would want to know EVERYTHING before I attempt such a great endeavor. But after going through a number of real estate deals, I realized you can only learn so much from reading, going to seminars, etc. A lot of things we learn from actually DOING. A successful real estate investor said: you get READY, FIRE, AIM, fire, aim, fire, aim instead of ready, aim, aim, aim, aim…and never fires. Now I still don’t know everything about real estate investing but I know I can learn and ask investors with more experience along the way.

Cashflow Bootcamp – by Stacy Kennedy from Enlightened Wealth Institute

In the beginning of May we have attended another real estate investment seminar. It’s called Cashflow Bootcamp. From this bootcamp I have learnt a great deal about analyzing cashflow deals down to the very last detail. How to either manage your tenant or your property manager to make sure they are doing a great job, and creative ways that you can get funding for your deals. In my opinion, it’s a must go for all my EWI friends & investors. But keep it in mindthat you should attend the foreclosure bootcamp to get the foundation before you attend this one. Otherwise you will be just overwhelmed by the amount of information that Stacy presents.

YOU CAN SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTERS ON OUR WEBSITE: www.vantagerei.com

JORDAN & JENNY’S NEWSLETTER APRIL 2008

2008-07-18T21:43:00.000-07:00

We are back to Vancouver!

Hi Everyone,

We are finally back to Vancouver now after being in Kansas City for 5 months. During this period, we have done a total of seven real estate deals. Two of them it’s already fixed up & rented out. Another two I have wholesaled to other investors. Two are under the contract and waiting for bank to close on it. One of it we are doing the rehab right now, or technically I should say the contractor is doing the rehab right now. When you have the right power team member, you can just lay back and let them do their thing, and be able to manage your business from virtually anywhere. Although I am in Vancouver right now, I am not worried about the progress of rehab at all. After all, they don’t get paid until they finished the work. And I have a project manager on site to make sure everything is done correctly. I am back to Vancouver this month because I can’t legally stay in US for more than six month. Therefore, I am treating the trip back to Vancouver like a long vacation and get back in touch with my friends over here.

Dallas Trip for Continuing Education

Before I came back to Vancouver, we went to Dallas Texas to take another real estate seminar to continue our education. The instructor is a local big time real estate investor. We were actually surprised to see that the market is doing pretty good there. The instructor mentioned a very important point: if you want to see how’s the market going to be, look for population growth & job growth. More demand, higher price. It’s that simple. Dallas Texas happens to be just like that. This is the city that’s worth investigating. In the US, people have misunderstood that the real estate market is bad. It’s not the real estate, it’s the financial market that is bad. The financial institutions had reached too far and giving money to anyone that is alive. That hurt them. And now they have tightened the rules up too much, so that people are having hard time to get a loan even with excellent credit score. People still want to buy houses, they just couldn’t get the loan to buy. So it drives the market down even further. But time will pass, it won’t take long before the banks realized they aren’t making any money and will eventually loosen up the rules to lend money to people again. After all, that’s how they make money. At the mean time, it’s just the greatest time ever for experienced investors to pick out the sweetest deals on the market and make a profit from it. At last, for my friends in Vancouver, if you are interested and want to know more about how we invest in the US, please feel free to call me or send me an email. ^^

YOU CAN SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTERS ON OUR WEBSITE: www.vantagerei.com

JORDAN & JENNY’S NEWSLETTER MARCH 2008

2008-07-18T21:34:00.000-07:00

Recently we have noticed a very interesting phenomenon, when we make offers to the bank, it take them longer and longer to reply. What our realtor told us is that because the amount of foreclosure houses is just piling up on the asset manager’s desk, and so they are just overwhelmed by it. I say this makes it an even better moment to buy foreclosure houses. That would explain why this month alone we had 6 accepted offers. 2 out of 6 we have never even been to that property. We ended up close on one property, wholesaling 2, and renegotiate 1 with the bank. Another 2 we just outright canceled the contract with the bank. You might ask, how crazy are you to make offers to properties you never been to? Well, my answer to that is you must have an inspection clause in your contract. When I make an offer to the bank, I will have a 10 day inspection period for me to hire a qualified inspector to examine the property to make sure there is no problem with it. Now here is the beauty, in Missouri, there is no licensing requirement to be a “qualified inspector.” You can be a contractor and you could be qualified to be an inspector. And a good realtor can easily help you cancel the contract for you once you found out any problem with the property that would bust your budget.

That’s the Importance of Inspection.

Inspection really works!! One of the properties we have had a contract with the bank, we ended up not closing on it. It was because during the inspection, a major problem with the foundation was discovered. This house we originally expect about $5000 cost to fix it up to rental condition. But the inspector found out there was extensive damage with the foundation, and will cost some where from 10~20K just to fix the foundation. Keep in mind that we even had contractors to take a look at the house before we arrange for the inspection. However, sometimes an experienced inspector can find out problems that you wouldn’t have dreamt of in a million years. Also, try don’t use the inspector that realtors recommend, because it would create a conflict of interest. Realtors want to have the transaction go through, that’s how they make their money. But inspectors can potentially ruin the deal. So it’s better to look for qualified inspector from somewhere else. A good tip to find a qualified inspector: go to www.superpages.ca and search for inspector. Call at least 10 of them and ask them 3 questions: Are you a licensed inspector? How many inspections have you done (minimum 1000 houses)? What’s your background (background in structural engineering, construction is good)? Can you send me a sample of what your inspection report (look for detailed report)? Sometimes calling 10 inspector might not be enough, in that case, call 20, or even 30 until you find the right one

Giving Back

Last month I mentioned the idea of being financially free. To me, being financially free is just a step, a step to free you to do what you are really supposed to do. There are so many great ideas and things that people can door create to improve the world. However, a lot of it didn’t come true or happen because of lack of money. Last year, I came across a very unique non-profit organization that uses very innovative ways to solve the problem global poverty, and it’s called "Unitus". There is an old saying that instead of giving people a fish, you show them how they can catch a fish. I am a very strong believer of show you how it’s done, instead of doing it for you. See people in third world aren’t all handicapped. They were all able people that can work. What they are lack of is the tools, knowledge, and that little start up money to have their own business and make a living. So the founder of Unitus came up with an idea to give out micro loans to people. They lend out money usually less than $100, and so people can use that money to buy weaving machines, raising chickens, or buy wholesale product and resell them in the market. They also have supporting groups that educate people the basics of financial education and how to run a business. To this day, they have helped millions of people so that they can stand up with their own feet. I think it surely beats just handing them bread and milk everyday. If you would like to know more information or to make a donation, just log on to www.unitus.com – unite us.

Our New Website – www.vantagerei.com

We have made another website for our business in the United States. Feel free to check it out, we have very good wholesale price houses that we want to pass the opportunity on to other people. We have included all of the information necessary for you to decide if it’s a good deal or not on the website, so you don’t need to dig around for other information. It would also show you the steps we go through to qualify if this property is a good deal or not. Because we are people with integrity and we like to sleep very well at night, all of the deals that we pass on to you are the ones that we would keep for ourselves. That way, I don’t have to worry you not liking the deal or me stuck with it, because a good deal is a good deal.

YOU CAN SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTERS ON OUR WEBSITE: www.vantagerei.com

Jordan & Jenny Newsletter—February 2008

2008-07-18T21:23:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

I was very surprised by the temperature difference in Kansas City. Over here, the average temperature in winter is around -5 degree. But there had been a few days that dropped to like -16 degree and the next day became 12 degrees Celsius. What a big change compared to Vancouver.

For this month, I am trying something new. I want to share with everyone what I am doing, what I know, and what I am interested. So I separated in to several little chapters that tells you my current progress in real estate, share with you my real estate knowledge, and my personal interest.

For the month of January, we have moved from the studio we rent to the house we own and moved again from the first house to the second house. It’s a very wonderful and satisfying feeling when the first time you step into the house you buy and actually live in it. It also feels much better that I am paying myself the rent than paying for other people’s mortgage and can’t even own the property. We didn’t realize how much time it can take to organize the rehab for two houses, and moving at the same time. My goal is to acquire one property every month. I still have 5 days to do it. ^^

Real Estate Knowledge Corner—Financial Freedom

My friend has asked me this question: what is financial freedom? My definition of financial freedom is: you have enough passive income every month to support your desired lifestyle.The next question would then be: what’s passive income? A passive income is the opposite of earned income like salary. Everyone has income from the job they have. Either you are paid by the time or by the work you did, you need to do something to earn that income. But what happens if you stop working? You don’t get any check from your boss. A passive income is money that comes in every month without you working for it. So it doesn’t matter if you are on vacation or you are sick or you are sleeping, the money still comes every month. A few examples of passive income are: vending machine, coin laundry, storage, real estate, loyalty, dividend from stock. These types of income only require you to spend the time to set it up for the first time. Once you set it up, you only need to spend maybe 10 minutes or less a week to maintain it. And for the rest of your life, unless you sell it to someone else, or something unforeseen has happened, the money will come to you whether you like it or not.Think about it, if you have enough money coming in every month to pay for all the expenses you have, what would you rather be doing right now? Who would you rather be with? Where would you rather be? That’s where the biggest difference is: When you are financially free, it FREES you to do whatever that you WANT to do, instead of what you NEED to do or HAVE to do. Even if you love your job, you can still do it, you will then become going to work everyday because you want to, not because you have to.

Our First “Cash Cow” in Kansas City

We bought this single family house back in December. It has already been fixed up really nicely and it’s going to be rent out in February. The listing price for this 2 bed 1 bath property was $49000 when it was just listed. But the bank dropped the price to $32000 after being on the market for 3 months. We made an offer for $15000, and got it for $18000. The cost to fix it up is $10000 (including painting the whole house, new roof, new plumbing, and buying used appliances). We have just rent it out for $650/ month. So all in cost (buying it, fixing it, closing cost, insurance, tax, utilities) ~ $31000. Even if I borrow all the money from the bank at 6.25% interest to do the whole deal, I still net about $280 of cash flow each month. Because this house actually worth $65000 at market price, I have made $34000 in equity. That’s more than what I made at Best Buy in a year!! For a deal that costs $31k and generates $280 a month for the rest of my life and $34000 instant equity, I’d say it’s a pretty good deal for me!! I try to make it as simple to understand as possible, but if you are interested in knowing more, feel free to contact me.

Martial Art – my interest (Jenny found it boring until she started using it to hit me)

All of my close friends know that I have a huge interest in martial art. Don’t know why, but I just like to fight. Noooooo, just kidding. I am a peaceful person who just happens to be fascinated by the art of Kung-Fu. As all of you knows, there are many styles of martial art. The one that I am particularly interested in and practice is a style called: Wing Chun. This style was said that it was developed by a female shao-lin monk back like 300 years ago. So the moves and theories behind it are all concentrating on ways to overcome a larger force with little or no force. Because women don’t have as much muscle as men do, you need to rely on other ways to generate a great amount of force without using plain muscle. That’s why I like it so much because it focuses on how to make each and every move as efficient as possible. Here is a video clip of my sigong (the teacher of my teacher) demonstrating how much power human body actually have. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cJkJeKpGt8

JORDAN & JENNY’S NEWSLETTER - JANUARY 2008

2008-07-18T21:12:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends,

Happy New Year to everyone!! Another year has gone by. What an exciting year it was for us. A lot of great things and challenging things happened this year. I have definitely learnt a lot this year. So here is my recap:

January – I have been promoted to be the supervisor in training at Best Buy. I tried to do my best as a sales person and supervisor not because I want to kiss ass or anything. I do it in a sense to prove to myself how good of supervisor you can be, and to learn as much as I can on how a big corporation operates. In my opinion, you will never learn anything unless you put your heart to it 100%.

February – We have closed on our first investment property in Vancouver. We spend about one and half month renovating it. We did tiling, painting, changing counter tops, laminate flooring, and dry walling. You might ask why we didn’t hire contractors to do it. It was because we want to experience and learn how it’s like to renovate a house, and also, we didn’t have the budget either. ^^

April – Our first investment was ready to put on the market. You can go to our website if you are interested on how it looks like. www.vantagecanada.com

September – Our property was finally sold after 4 month. We didn’t price it too high or anything. But rather, it was because there was a balcony that needs replacement since it was rotted and water leaking through. So when people go check out the property, they see a big blue tarp right on the roof where the balcony is. In Vancouver, there was a big problem with leaky condos. A lot of condos that were built around 1990~2000, the building code is not good enough for the new building techniques. And so those condos had bad roof and siding design and would eventually leak water into the building structure. A lot people lost money because of the amount of money needed to fix the building. So when people come to see our condo and saw that big blue tarp, they would be scared away because it might be a leaky condo. Even we priced it 5% below market price and offer to pay the fix up, it still took us 4 month to get it sold. Our lesson for this is you need to really be on top of what the management company is doing to your property and their schedule is like, so you know what to expect and you know when is the best time to sell. To replace a balcony for a condo like that, you should be looking at about $50000 and less than a month to finish it. But by the time we close on that property, it still looks like what it was 4 month ago – a blue tarp covering it.

October – we have attended the foreclosure boot camp & field training from EWI (Enlighten Wealth Institute) in Kansas City and Indianapolis. We have also FIRED OUR BOSSES and moved to Kansas City to establish our power team over here and start our real estate investment empire.

November – after a month of searching, analyzing, and making lots of offers (we sent out 45 offers) on properties, we finally have our first house accepted. I have written another column to cover this property. It will be on the newsletter for next month.

December - We have bought another house. This time, it’s a duplex, at a better location, and even better cash flow. This year was the year that Jenny and I both turned 30 years old. But in my mind, I am still 25, full of energy, just got a slightly bigger belly. Although I didn’t make my goal for this year (flip 5 properties and make $100k in real estate), we still managed to flip 1 property and make 20K cash and make 60k in equity. So my goal for next year is to at least assign 10 properties and acquire more properties so we have $2000/month cashflow or more.

Jenny’s Little Corner – How We Get Started

Some people began asking how we’ve gotten into real estate. It all started when my best friend Johnson persuaded me to read this book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki many years ago (before this, I stayed anyway from anything business). In his book, Robert introduced the idea “Financial Freedom”which can be achieved mainly by acquiring properties that produce positive cashflow. Although I liked my old research job but I found it harder and harder to do the 9 to 5 thing. I started to follow what Robert said in his book, I tried network marketing, quit my research job to go work for a company that was going public (to learn the stock side of business), tried to look for income properties in Vancouver (we later learned that Vancouver is more a flip market than a cashflow market), read as many books on real estateas I can get my hands on, went to free seminars on business, stock or real estate. We eventually have to pay tuition to get more advanced information and mentorship but at the beginning when you don’t know anything about real estate, there are so many free resources out there and you can pick and choose your mentors (the authors of those books), go to these authors’ websites and go to as many free seminars as possible. That’s how we get started.

YOU CAN SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTERS ON OUR WEBSITE: www.vantagerei.com

Jordan & Jenny’s Newsletter – NOV 2007

2008-07-18T21:05:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,

Thank you for reading our very first newsletter (I am hoping that it won’t be the last one). The reason why you get this letter is because you have known Jordan or Jenny at some point in time. This newsletter is pretty much a tool for us to get back in contact with all of you, sort of like a periodic update from us, what’s been happening in our lives, what’s exciting, that kind of thing. Since it’s the first one, it might be a little rough, lots spelling, grammatical errors, etc.

Kansas City – Exciting City

Yes, we have moved to Kansas City, Missouri two weeks ago. This is our first stop in our real estate investing empire. We are here to buy rental properties to hold for cash flow or resell for quick cash. Since there are a lot of great things happening in this city and the housing price is still relatively low, we’ve decided to come over here for about 3 to 6 months, to set up our power team and buy some properties. Then we will move on to the next city and do the same thing. The city is actually putting a lot of money down, either in tax incentives or invests with private corporations in an effort to revitalize the city. Here are the few great things:

• A new sport stadium right inside downtown core called Sprint Center, a joint venture with Sprint, has just finished construction – about $250 million worth of investment. They are also trying to bring a NBA team or NHL team over here too.

• The Power & Light District, is currently under construction. When finished, it will be a commercial, residential, and entertainment mixed use area located at the west side of Sprint Center. H&R world headquarter is going to be there, bring about 2000 new jobs alone. Altogether, it’s a $2 billion project, estimated to bring 8000 new jobs, and 10000 new housing after completion.

• The city is also planning to have a new light weight rail going from north of Kansas City all the way to thePlaza area. The citizens have voted last year to support the building of the light weight train. But it’s still in the planning stage. After all, what we’ve seen here is somewhat like Vancouver in 2000, everything is breaking ground, and people are excited about new changes.

But because of the foreclosure problem from ARM mortgages, a lot of bank owned properties have flooded the market. To an investor point of view, it is a good time to BUY & HOLD. Since we are able to get houses at very discounted prices now, the monthly rental income can cover all taxes, insurance, property management fees, mortgage payments, and still generate positive cash flow, meaning cash in the pocket every month! Wait until the housingmarket returns to normal and add appreciation to the formula!

Until Next Time!

About Sprint Center, Power & Light District, Light Weight Rail
http://rewebportal.com/powerandlight/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=8
http://www.kcata.org/

Newsletters

2008-07-18T20:49:00.000-07:00

Hey, I've decided to post the newsletters Jordan and I wrote since November 2007 on my blog. We usually only email the newsletters to our family, friends and associates but recently, I've realized that maybe the information on our newsletters may be of use to other beginning real estate investors. The newsletters are kind of like a diary of our investing journey, we've recorded our experience, lessons learnt, etc every month. So here they go...

I am back in Vancouver

2008-07-14T22:42:00.001-07:00

I have been back in Vancouver since April this year. Although I still travel once or twice per month to the U.S. for real estate seminars. I am getting tired of flying now but am still excited about going places and meeting new people when I travel. I heard one of the check-in agent say the airline only guarantee to take you from one place to another. They don't guarantee you what time you will get there. I have had flights cancel twice now. That's the annoying part. OK. No more complaining.

I have been investing out of town since April. At first, I was nervous because I don't get to go look at the houses anymore. But luckily, we already have our power team set up in Kansas City, MO and we've been working with them for quite some time now. I trust them to be my eyes and ears. We have two houses that I didn't get to see the final renovated results in person. Both houses are rented out now so I don't think I will get to see it besides in pictures. We have a house under contract and I have never been to that property. But I feel OK, if the inspection pass, I will probably buy it. Check out my website at www.vantagerei.com for some of the houses we have for sale. I will be updating the site soon with more properties.

Top 3 Most Interesting

2008-03-14T10:11:00.000-07:00

Jordan and I came up with the Top 3 most interesting things in our real estate investing business.

#3. We drove by one of our properties and saw a bunch of people inside the house. There's a guy outside the house standing by a car with a lot of tools in the trunk. There were 2 or 3 guys standing around the front door. The lawn mower was moved from the back yard to the front yard. We though they were trying to steal our empty house and all they could get was the lawn mower. So we called our realtor, he told us to call the cops. We did. The next day, we found out they were just there to fix the front door. They were called in by the seller. They also removed our broken lawn mower. Oops. Sorry.

#2. Our offer was accepted on this property so we went look at the house for the first time. During the time we were there, the house across the street was quite busy with activities. I saw cars driving back and forth on the street. I saw a mom taking her toddler to that house. I thought to myself "what a family oriented neighborhood." Then after we checked out the house, everything was good and we thought we could go ahead and buy the house. As we were driving away, we saw there were a dozen of sneakers in a variety of colors hanging on the power line. Each color of shoes represented a type of drug. The house across the street was a drug house. We called the realtor and canceled the contract to buy the house.

#1. We got an counter offer, so we went check out the house with our buyer's agent. The house again looked not bad. The neighborhood was ok but as we toured down to the basement, there was a nice 2000 something Jeep Cherokee with leather interior and nice audio system in the garage. I naively asked the realtor if the car comes with the house. The realtor found the registration for the car lying on the garage floor and called the owner. It turned out the car was stolen 3 weeks ago. The teenager from across the street came over and ask if we wanted him to move his car from the back of the house (there was another older car in the back yard). We told him it's ok, we've alreay called the police.

Bonus: Young kids in trouble...we don't know what they did...I only heard the police yelled "get down on the ground" when he was chasing the kids. We saw this happen when we were checking out our investor friend's house.

Time goes by fast...

2008-01-31T18:06:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's January 31st already!!! Time goes by so fast. I guess I am enjoying what I do now, hence time goes by quickly. I remember it was torture when I was an employee waiting to get off work, staring at the clock which moved oh so slowly. Donald Trump said something about people who can't wait for the weekend to come and something like he enjoys every second of everyday, no matter if it's weekend or weekday. I think I understand now. It was just the end of 2007 and now it's the end of January...I had an exciting two months...bought 2 rental properties (1 house + 1 duplex = 3 units total). Fixed them up nicely and all are rented out already except the unit we are living in right now. Now I am waiting for the contract on the 3rd house we are buying...I am so excited!!!

Canadians In America

2007-11-17T20:19:00.000-08:00

I finished my field training one month ago today. We flied to KCMO the next day (actually, the day after that because of the flight delay). We found an loft to rent without any problem (found it the same day we started looking). Just have to pay $100 extra per month for not signing a lease. Easy to rent a car and drive. Got a Virgin pay as you go mobile phone so we don't have to sign a 2-year lease and pay $400 deposit. Getting a digital phone and internet take longer because they have to check our records (took about 2 days instead of on the spot qualification). Also we have to put down some deposit and pay $20 extra per month for not signing a 2-year contract. Opening a bank account is easy, just bring your passport and driver's license. All we can get is debit credit card because we don't have SSN. But I found out online banks could be fined for requesting our SSN if we file a lawsuit in small claim court. Our solution is to form a LLC so we have an EIN and build our business credit first. But we did get a LOC from RBC Centura using our Canadian credit. I haven't figure out how I want to use that LOC to build my personal credit. Maybe use it to rehab houses. Having an account with Gas and Electricity companies is just as easy as opening a bank account. Refinance a house is possible but will get better terms and rates if we have any kind of visa to stay here for 5 years or more. And I got a library card today just showing my Canadian driver's license and a piece of mail with my address and name on it.

goodbye j.o.b.

2007-10-11T11:48:00.000-07:00

goodbye j.o.b.

goodbye, see you never...

no more job for me, ever.

i don't need you

i don't want you

i will be great without you...

the challenge

2007-09-01T18:02:00.000-07:00

i was listening to breakfast with bob yesterday. he likes challenges and he has 100% success rate so far. he even says allen, his last name, is in the word challenge. so was my last name. then i was thinking, quiting my job here, leaving everything here, and going to a brand new city where i've never been to before in my life. it's even in a different country. i know no one there, knows nothing about that city, and to start doing something i've never done before, it's totally like a challenge. i am so excited about it. i know i am up to the challenge and i can do it because i am a warrior. no question about it. it's a new start, to the rest of my amazing life.

completion date

2007-08-28T21:23:00.000-07:00

today is a special day. a monumental day in my life. in my real estate investing life. i am going to get my big fat check from my first flip!!! my lawyer's assistant called me this afternoon. the check is ready for pick up she said. i asked her to courier the check to me. i will be staying home tomorrow morning to sign for the package. then i am going to admire, kiss, scan, take photo with and dance around with the check. thank you universe for answering my request, thanks to my family, my mentors, my friends for helping me along the way and thank myself for all the hard work looking for and going through with everything. i did it!!! and i can do it again!!! =D

first posting

2007-07-04T11:07:00.000-07:00

i am reading the book "my start-up life" by ben casnocha. a 19 year old entrepreneur. it's an interesting book and i am having fun reading it. i guess he inspired me to blog...so here it is, my first posting. 7/04/07