Victoria Real Estate Investors Club Newsletter
March 27, 2012 meeting
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Breakfast Meeting
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Sat, April 14,
9:30am
Princess Mary Cafe
On West Bay in the inner harbour, at 453 Head St in Esquimalt
reserved under
Real Estate Club
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Cheri Crause
Royal LePage
Coast Capital Realty
1933 Oak Bay, Victoria
250-592-4422
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AINEY
CONSTRUCTION
250-818-9725
Renovations, Additions, Roofing, Siding, Fully Licensed and Insured
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Mike Patterson
Plumber
When you need a trustable, reliable, and reasonable Plumber who can do the job right the first time.
250-880-0104
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|  Hi Folks!
I'm writing this in sunny Phoenix, AZ. Ok, there's a few clouds today but it's been sunny most days. We'll be taking advantage of the Cactus League baseball schedule in the next few days and bicycling along the canal is pretty neat.
Big lesson for us yesterday and today - No Internet !!!
At 4:30 pm yesterday, in the middle of a Skype call to Canada, poof - no internet and no phone. I thought, oh well, it'll come back up soon. By 10 pm we were panicking! After a couple of calls to Cox, we finally determined we were the only folks in our neighbourhood with this problem. Yikes!
During the wait we gradually realized that so much of our lives are wrapped around having internet access that you could say we're almost addicted to it. Denise had online business to do using Dropbox, I had to get this newsletter out, we both have IMPORTANT emails to receive and answer, etc.
Today at 3pm the Cox guy (Gary) arrived, swapped out our modem, cleaned up a few cable connections and now we're good to go. Thank You Gary!
So, the big lesson for me: I can't do business without internet access. Do I have a backup for this tool if it goes away? Yes I can get the internet on my smartphone but it's too small to do things like this newsletter. My backup here in Phoenix is to drive/bicycle to Luci's (our favourite coffee shop) and do work there. What's your backup if Shaw/Telus has a 5 day outage? Can you do your RE investing and other important activities without in-house internet? What's your backup plan? What's your disaster recovery plan for when you lose everything when your house/condo burns down while you're at Yellow Point Lodge for the weekend?
Get the planning done folks! RE investing is a business and successful businesses have backups for everything.
Do any of your properties have oil tanks? I predict you need more education about those big ugly things so you make better decisions about their use/replacement/insurance. Come out to our meeting on March 27th when a representative from Victoria Tank Service will do just that. See article below.
The economists are raising a fuss again about Canada's economy and the "fact" we're in a housing bubble. Where do they get these labels? What do economists know about reality? Anyway, there's an article to the left in RE NEWS where they attempt to scare readers. Read with trepidation!
Check out the article below about Drive By Real Estate Investing. Yet another tool in your RE investing tool-box.
Cheri Crause will be your host on the 27th!
Gord Knox
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| March 27, 2012 Meeting |  Speaker: Corey from Victoria Tank Services
Topic: Oil Tanks, Keep 'em or Chuck 'em?
As an investor, dealing with an oil tank is sometimes a mysterious process. When the property insurer asks if you have an oil tank, the next question is always "How old is it?". If you've owned the place for a long time, you may know the answer. Likely, you don't. I recommend your answer should always be "I don't know."
The why's and wherefore's of owning an oil tank will be answered in detail by Corey. Even if you have an oil tank on your own property, this talk will be a huge education. Bring your questions!
Comfort Hotel
3020 Blanshard St
7 - 9 pm
March 27, 2012
After-meeting meeting at Redd's down the hall and up the stairs afterward. Get to know each other personally over food and drink.
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An Important Secret When Driving for Dollars in Real Estate Investing
| By Dave Dinkel
I am often asked what is "Driving for Dollars" by new real estate investors. The answer is very simple, it is the process of scouting neighborhoods for homes that might be for sale by their owners or are already listed by Realtors for sale. The reason that driving is required to find these properties is that they are sometimes not advertised for sale in a place that an investor can easily see, or they may not yet be advertised at all.
Typical example of invisible properties are For Sale By Owner (FSBO) where the seller has only put a for sale sign in his yard. Other properties that are owned by out-of-area owners may have had their for sale sign stolen. Other properties can be in foreclosure but not yet bank owned (REOs) but the homeowner has abandoned the property. These abandoned properties are ideal candidates for short sales if the homeowner can be made to understand the benefits of a short sale versus a foreclosure to his credit history. More and more lenders are offering "moving incentives" to homeowners to leave their homes - even if the homes are already abandoned.
Most distressed properties that are abandoned have high grass, if there is any grass left in the yard. They may have broken windows or doors and are basically distressed looking. Sometimes there will be mail overflowing the mail box but most often the mail is being forwarded. There may be squatters in the property so be careful if you go exploring in an open door.
On a typical drive through a neighborhood looking for distressed properties, an investor will find some that are perfect candidates from their physical appearance. He will go back to his home (office) and start to investigate who the owner is and where to contact him. He may find their new mailing address and looking online he might get their telephone number. He could just mail to the property address to see if it is being forwarded. Most likely, the homeowner doesn't want to be found and mailings go unanswered. His phone may even be disconnected because of his being hounded by bill collectors.
There are skip trace services that specialize in finding people who don't want to be found. The average person running from bill collectors doesn't mask his identity, he just doesn't answer mail or the phone. For legal summons and collection agencies, the skip trace services are the answer. They can be expensive so I suggest an investor take a different tact.
I have found that no matter how quickly the homeowner left his home, he usually alerted a neighbor to his dilemma and gave this person some cryptic contact information - a cell phone or email address. The investor would literally go from neighbor to neighbor and explain that he had an interest in buying the subject property and will make sure the owner makes money even if the property is upside down. IRS and code liens don't matter as they can be cured.
I find that the neighbors are very helpful because at least one of them has contact information for the homeowner.
The other big benefit is that the neighborhood will look better when the derelict property is improved. This has even worked for us once when a husband beat his wife and she was running from him. A friendly neighbor contacted the wide and her attorney contacted me. I spoke to her attorney and never met her, but did buy the property and made a very substantial profit on it. Now, go start driving for dollars!
Dave Dinkel has over 35 years experience in real estate investing which has given him a unique perspective into the real estate market. http://www.DaveDinkel.com is the place to interact with Dave Dinkel. You can read some of the latest informative Real Estate articles he has written. Here you can discover and educate yourself on topics ranging from foreclosure, For Sale By Owner(FSBO) Sales, Credit and much more.
Article Source: An Important Secret When Driving for Dollars in Real Estate Investing
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