Chris
4 Good Ways To Live Life With Integrity
Life can be challenging and in an effort to save time and energy we sometimes cut corners by settling for a little less or doing a lot of what we don’t want because it’s easier. But that little voice inside of us that voice that tells us that something isn’t right, that we should expect more keeps coming up. Living a life of integrity is not the easiest path. It can mean consistently going against the majority, taking a stand for yourself in a way you may not have before and putting your foot down even if it means upsetting a friend. Not everyone wants to rock the boat but for those who want to create a life that fulfills them, a life that just feels right, here are four ways to get started:
- Don’t settle for less than what you deserve in your relationships – Too often we believe that it is humble to settle, based on what I like to refer to as a shame-based belief system. Somewhere along the way someone or something let you know that you were less worthy. As a result, you took that assumption as true and have been settling for less ever since; less than ideal partner, less than supportive friends, less than gratifying job, even a less than happy you. The bottom line is that living with integrity requires that you challenge yourself by asking what your life would be like if you had your ideal partner, more supportive friends, a more gratifying job or even a happier, more fulfilling life. How would those changes look and feel? You’ll find that because they look and feel better than what you’re currently experiencing, you’ll be more compelled to make the changes that align with that new vision of your life.
- Ask for what you need from others – We have been indoctrinated to believe that if we ask for what we need from someone else then we are needy. As a result suffering in silence has become noble, even romantic. I submit that martyrdom is just another form of settling for less. Our bodies are great example of asking what for what you need. If you’re stomach grumbles, you give it food. If your eyes are heavy, you get some sleep. If you are coughing and sneezing, you take cold medicine. We fulfill those needs quickly because they are physical. But what happens when you have a friend who says she is going to take you to the airport but when you call her, she went on a trip out of town for the weekend without letting you know? What need does that violate? Reliability, trust, respect, honesty, those are just some of the needs we should expect from others. Understanding your needs helps you to establish solid boundaries. Making your needs known helps you to enforce those boundaries and teaches others how to treat us.
- Speak your truth even if it makes others mad – How many times have you disagreed with what your friend did to someone else but were afraid to tell them because you believe that they you would lose a friend? It’s common for us to let little injustices slide because it would just be easier; evidence of that is in the world around us. The problem with that habit is the little things have a tendency to add up. Having a voice to express our truths is one of the most powerful privileges we have as humans. If we speak our truth with caring and respect, then the message can be that much more effective. If you wind up losing a friendship because of it, you have to wonder if that person really was a good friend after all.
- Make choices based on what you believe – When I was being too much of a teenager, my mother would ask “if your friends were jumping off a cliff, would you jump too?” While my answer was obvious, it’s a lesson that belies the simplicity of the question. How many of us have done things, said things, been things that others believed we should be while ignoring who we really are? It is easy to get caught up in the latest and freshest because a lot of other people believe it’s relevant. What if that’s not what we believe or who we know ourselves to be? The quickest way to stifle potential and waste precious time is to live the unlived lives of others. Those desires you have for a more fulfilling job, starting your own business, traveling more, mean something otherwise, why would they repeatedly surface? Making your choices based on your beliefs is one of the best ways to live with integrity
Working on these four points helps you to behave in ways that align with your personal values and to become who you need to be. Only then will you be able to understand what it means to live with integrity.
Should an REO Offer Be Different Than a Short Sale or a FSBO Offer?
While REOs (bank-owned Properties), short sales and For Sale By Owner (FSBO) offers are made to different types of sellers, the offers have some common traits, but are essentially very different.
REOs are properties foreclosed by lenders who take them into their property portfolio and intend to resell them in the future. They could be acquired by a Trustee’s or Sheriff’s Sale, Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure or a number of less common ways.
Investors make offers on REOs once they become listed on the Multiple Listing Service. Only a few smaller regional banks and credit unions will sell their REOs directly to investors without listing them. In some areas of the country, REOS are hot sellers and full listing price is offered by investors.
The listing prices are determined by the asset manager in charge of the case after reviewing a Broker’s Price Opinion (BPO) from the listing agent. The problem is this BPO relates to the highest closing prices in a specific neighborhood and may not take into account the condition of the property or the legal issues with the title to the property. Because of the distressed nature of most of these properties or their neighborhoods, the offers investors make should be based on a wholesale price well below the initial listing price of the REO. As a generalization, REOs bring about 30% – 40% of the final judgment amount or the total amount owed the lender after fees and expenses for the foreclosure.
Short sales are actually principal reductions of mortgages so a property can be sold that was upside-down in the market place. This means more was owed than the property could be sold for. The homeowner is the seller, not the lender. However, the lender has to approve the sale because he is taking a discount from what is owed on the mortgage. Short sales, again as a generalization give the lender back about 50% to 65% of the amount owed on the mortgage.
Owners selling their properties are different than either of the above examples. These individuals, if they are truly motivated sellers, can make decisions instantly, not weeks or months later. They also will take less than fair market value (FMV) if they don’t want to have two mortgages or have no use for the property. Here an offer can be pegged to FMV and can be more easily negotiated. Expect to pay between 50% and 80% of FMV, but you will know what you are getting and when. In addition, an investor will get an extended inspection period in which to market and sell the property to another buyer before he closes.
In summary and as a generalization, REOs will be much lower priced than short sales and even FSBOs in most cases. Short sales will need to be close to the BPO for the Loss Mitigation Representative of the lender to agree to the sale – usually 80% is acceptable. FSBOs can be all over the board depending on the condition of the property and the motivation of the seller. It is fair to say that if your first offer is accepted, your offer was too high!
The 3 Reasons Stopping YOU From Fulfilling Your Real Estate Investment Dreams
Have you scanned the paper, the net, dreaming of what these investments could do for you?
If so, what has stopped you?
There are 3 reasons why people don’t move ahead with this dream.
- Knowledge
- Finance
- Fear
Now there are list subheadings under these 3 reasons
The first one is Knowledge which include:-
- You are a procrastinator
- You are a perfectionist
- You lack confidence
- You analyse to the point of being paralysed
- You are not committed to learning
- You have poor priorities
- You lack organisation
- You just feel overwhelmed
The next issue is Finance, What stops you in this area?
- Your lack of knowledge of the market
- Your ability to negotiate
- Your fear of bankers
- Your inexperience of finance
- Your lack of confidence
- Fear of losing you money
- A misunderstanding of what money is?
- You feel overwhelmed
And then for most of us there is fear?
What are we fearful of? There seem to be 2 major fears. Which group do you fall into?
- Fear of failure? What will people think if it doesn’t work? Will I end up with nothing? What if I want to sell and I can’t? What is your self talk on failure?
- Fear of success? Some of us fear success and what it will do to our lives. Again, will people still like/trust/be friends with me if I’m successful? Will I be able to manage the success
OK! What can we do about it?
- Realise that people aren’t thinking about you. They are thinking about themselves, just like you!
- Other people won’t pay your bills, educate your children, feed or house you. It is your responsibility. Get going!
- Do research on finance. Go and talk to bankers, it’s like shopping. Talk to finance brokers. If you don’t have a cat, don’t buy cat food! Don’t buy what you don’t want!
- Get educated. Knowledge is power. Knowledge gives you a feeling of control. Read. Real estate people have freebie evenings. Go to a few and pick through what is truth.
- Keep an eye on the real estate sites so you get a good idea of values, time on the market, what is good buying, areas that are good.
- Learn to negotiate. Don’t worry about what the salesman is saying about the price, the owners, and the market. Set your price, go in a bit lower so you have a bit or ‘wriggle’ room. Stick with your evaluation.
- Negative sentiment in the market can be helpful!
- Don’t get emotional about the property. Properties are like buses, another one will come along tomorrow! There are plenty of opportunities.
- Don’t beat yourself up. ALL business takes time!! But remember, at some stage the rubber has to meet the road, there must be action.
How To Motivate Yourself To Tackle Those Chores
In today’s busy world, there never seems that there is enough time to get everything done. The days are too short, the time just passes by too quickly and that “Honey Do” list seems to get longer by the minute. Why is that?
Perhaps it seems that there are never enough hours in the day to get to all the things you have to do because things on that “To Do” list aren’t tasks that you look forward to. You try not to think about it, you procrastinate, you don’t give it a proper place on your priority list, or you don’t place it there at all. You know those chores need to get done but you go about your day finding other things to do, or waste your energy coming up with excuses for not doing them.You may not realize that it is you that will ultimately suffer by your non-actions.
By putting things off, you are just adding to the problem. Take a minute and think of this example: one of those chores that you dread, could be dealing with those monthly bills and trying to balance your budget. It might be something that you are not really looking forward to, especially if finances are tight. By not tackling that chore and ignoring it or pushing it aside, it becomes an open wound that starts to fester. Your “balance owing” will start to increase in size with interest charges. Not only that, your credit rating will be affected which in turn will have a negative impact on any future plans. Your life is certain to be interrupted by nagging phones calls from collection agencies and your stress level will also increase that now impacts your health. All this could have been avoided, had you dealt with the issue at hand properly and in a timely manner.
“Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.” – Thomas Jefferson
There is great wisdom in Thomas Jefferson’s words and they are definitely words to live by. Find motivation in those words to alter your thinking and take action. It’s all in how you approach things.
Change your way of thinking. Look for ways to pretty up that “To Do” list with check marks. With each check mark for a task completed, you will feel a weight lifted and experience a sense of accomplishment. Turn the “have to” chores into “want to” adventures. It will make you more effective and more satisfied at the same time.
Transforming Your Business Starts With Transforming YOU
Transformation feels scary. Why? It is mostly because we’ve been conditioned unwittingly to think of change as “life threatening.” Granted, we have an instinct for survival wired into our brain, yet we have a greater authority – conscious choice – that can temper the violence of this fear-response to change. If we do not realize that we can “rewire” our brain and change this perception, we will continue to act robotically. This would not be so unhealthy if we had not been programmed with so much fear and limitation in our thinking. Who wired us? Where does this come from?
Answer: Genetics, environment, karma (some people do believe in reincarnation; life does cycle, after all), and personal perception based on choice – conscious or otherwise – and often done before age 7!
Real transformation begins with a collaboration between our own mind and heart – thought and feeling. Speaking from personal experience, I can say that because my perception decided as a teenager that feelings were bad and “terrifying,” so I decided to repress them with my will. This is NOT a good idea. Doing this will “retrain your brain” to see feelings as the “enemy” and will kick in your “survival” stress response so fast you will be hijacked before you can blink.
One reason we associate “bad” feelings with transformation that expands us is because we were also unwittingly taught that it is a good thing to “humble” yourself by thinking small. You don’t want to get “too big for your britches.” Well, if our pants were too small we’d buy a bigger size – or change something. Why do we keep our minds stuffed into a little box?
Or, perhaps some ignorant adult trying to motivate us told us that we would “amount to nothing.” This set some of us on a track of becoming never satiated, hungry overachievers – always “doing” to avoid feelings of “not good enough.” Not a good idea, let me tell you! The message here is to realize that transformation does not have to be so “scary.” You will first have to learn how to gain insights into how you are co-creating your experiences by learning via your logical brain, and how and why this “logic” fears feelings so much. The logical side will block your insights if you fear even listening to new ideas.
Most people feel “safe” by believing the “same old, same old” because we’ve trained our brains to behave this way. I’ve experienced this shift that I’m writing about here. It’s the shift to begin to free your mind from the tyranny of old, outdated information that keeps you stuck and afraid to change. It’s the tyranny of only focusing on worry and “surviving” that is blocking our ability to thrive. One of the big keys is physiologically and logically learning how to “make friends” with your feelings.
Until you do this, your joy and passion for life will remain buried under all that fear. And FEAR – Fictitious Evidence Affecting Reality – will stop you in your tracks when you attempt to reinvent yourself and/or innovate your business. Feelings are the door to expanding your spirit, your creativity, and your mind. It’s time to talk about the elephant in the room. The butterfly is breaking out! How do you feel about this?
Act in Faith
Quote of the Day – “Faith is thinking something is true to the extent we act upon it. ” W.T. Purkiser
Act in faith is a principle that must be learned by experience. Faith without works is dead. Most people, regardless of their faith, are familiar with that verse of scripture in the Bible from James. However, the idea of blind faith is ridiculous. However that is a far as many individuals ever get. They have no idea that James was talking about having faith in God. Faith in faith doesn’t work. Faith in the power of the living God does work.
You have to place your faith in something powerful enough to accomplish the goal you have in mind. You can place your faith in self but self is limited to your knowledge and experience.
Faith in God is unlimited and it makes more sense to trust in an unlimited power instead of the limited power of self.
Self might be able to accomplish a few task on this earth but still it is limited.
The key to accomplishing a major goal an impossible goal is to trust in the living God to help you accomplish the goal. You can’t accomplish anything without first having faith then act in faith.
You can’t jump off the highest building in the world and expect to live. However, if you get a glider, parachute, or a small plane to fly off the building with you will accomplish your goal. First you must have the power greater than self a glider, parachute or a small plane. Second, you have to trust the tool to get you to the bottom safely. You will never accomplish your goals with just faith or with just the act.
You want to get to the bottom of the building but you must first have faith in the power or tool then act on the faith.
I think I might be complicating this subject. Maybe not, act in faith. Have faith in a power greater than self because self is limited. Trust in self you will accomplish little chores. Trust in God and you will move a mountain.
Faith in action is critical to accomplish any goal in life. I want you to take a faith test. Pick someone you think you can trust. I dare you to try little faith test. Have someone stand behind you. You face away from the person and close your eyes. Ask the person to catch you as you fall backwards into their arms. Can you do it without flinching. I can’t do this very well because I have a trust issue with people.
To be honest, at times I have a trust issue with God. Yet, in order to move forward in my life I have to trust others and trust God to catch me when I fall.
Remember faith requires actions.
By: Dr Bob Wilkerson
What To Look For In A Fixer-Upper
Buying fixer-uppers has been a common investment technique for many years. These days, with millions of foreclosed homes available at bargain basement prices, fixer-uppers can be an excellent choice for buyers who are shopping for a home to live in, as well as for real estate investors.
Fixer-uppers are properties in need of repairs. They may be liveable in their present condition, or they may need quite a bit of work before they can be occupied, but in either case, there are some very important considerations when choosing the right property to help insure that you can achieve your personal objectives.
1. The Location
It used to be pretty rare to find a fixer-upper in a nice neighborhood, but the housing crisis has changed that. Today, fixer-upper properties are readily available in many of the nicer neighborhoods, especially in those states that have been hit hardest by high rates of foreclosure.
Don’t be impatient. Look around your chosen area carefully before making a final choice. It’s very important to be familiar with the local market. Choosing the right location will result in better property appreciation, and more demand when you are ready to sell, or better tenants and higher rental rates.
Avoid locations that have too many vacant properties, locations that have too many other investors in the area, or are places that you would not want to live yourself. Investor over-crowding tends to increase your competition and will therefore reduce your profits.
2. Know The True Market Value.
A property is not always a good deal just because it is a fixer-upper. Don’t let anyone sway your judgement about a property simply because it’s a fixer-upper. Just because a home has been foreclosed on does not automatically mean it is a good deal. Good deals are made through knowing what the true market value is, then negotiating a price that is as far below the true market value as possible.
3. Find A Fixer-Upper Project That You Can Handle.
Whether you are planning to live in the property, fix it up to sell or fix it up to use as a rental property, the most common mistake is that of taking on a project that is beyond your ability to handle.
I’ve done dozens of fixer-upper projects, including managing them for other investors. The biggest problem I’ve seen consistently is investors who take on projects that are bigger than they can handle. This leads to cost over-runs, projects that take too much time, and even running out of money and another foreclosure. I’ve seen numerous projects that were never finished after the buyer got over budget and ran out of money.
It’s easy to rationalize a project before you start, and inexperienced investors often believe that they can renovate an entire house in 4 weeks, working only on weekends in their spare time. That is a common mistake.
One biggie I suggest is to avoid any fixer-upper that needs walls moved in order to be functional. Moving walls and things like staircases can create unexpected problems unless you are planning to use a contractor who has adequate experience and a crew that can get the work done correctly. I’ve seen projects that began well and got totally out of hand and over budget after the investor decided to make extensive changes to the original floor plan.
If you choose a fixer-upper property in a desirable location, keep your rehab budget and necessary work within your ability to control, and you have a good renovation plan that you can stick with, you should find yourself owning a great property at a below market price. That means you’ll have some positive equity or a positive cash flow right from the start. And after all, that’s the main reason why you should consider buying a fixer-upper.
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