What's Your Story?

As entrepreneurs it is important to have a great introductory story ready when someone asks you, "What is it that you do?"  You only get one chance to make a first impression.  Make it short, usually less than 30 seconds, so you don't bore those who aren't interested and interesting enough so your target audience may want to know more.  In the industry this is often referred to as your elevator speech/story.

Mary Jane and I have been struggling with our story because we recently added a new direct marketing business that we passionately believe in but it may not necessarily appeal to the people we partner with in our real estate investing endeavors.  Usually we won't know which of our businesses would appeal to someone until we get to know them better.  Therefore the challenge is for our story to create interest and offer flexibility to go multiple directions as we get to know our contact better?

Our previous story went something like this. "Our team invests in multi-family and other properties in emerging markets.  We routinely partner with other investors on these projects providing them opportunities to earn returns higher than they can generally earn elsewhere."  This has been an effective introduction to our real estate investing business but was too specific to include the direct marketing option.  

Last week we were fortunate enough to get some time with our new friend Peggy Kimmey.  Peggy is a Certified John Maxwell Team Coach, Teacher, & Speaker but more importantly she is a great person to know and genuinely cares about the success of others.

Anyhow we were discussing the challenge we were having with our 30 second "elevator speech/story."  Peggy had us tell her the current story and she admitted it really didn't do what we wanted it to do.

Great speakers, marketers, and business development professionals all know that information tells stories sell.  Peggy spent more than an hour with us discussing our business activities, why we love what we do, how we help people, and successes we have enjoyed from our businesses.  We finally hit a story that she thought would gain attention, encourage further discussion, and tell our story in a way that would allow flexibility to take further discussions in multiple directions depending on the interests of whomever we are getting to know better.

Our new "elevator speech/story" goes something like this.

Do you know a chicken chaser?

Well we do, and as you might imagine, a chicken chaser works very hard and doesn't make much money.  In fact, the chicken chaser we know can't read or write.

We helped this person buy his own home and we made money and our partners made money.

If you'd like to know more about how we help people live their dreams, and make money, please let us know.

Of course the story needs to be tweaked depending on your audience, a room full of people or just one-on-one.  But it does create interest.  We tried it out for the first time yesterday at a Chamber of Commerce networking event and that first question does get them to pay attention.  Thanks Peggy!

We hope you have learned from this article two things.  First, you need an interesting story to tell and second, it's important to have a friend, family member, or best yet, a coach to help you refine your message.

If you'd like to know more about Peggy or her services please visit her website at http://www.kimmeyconsulting.com/.  Peggy is also offering participation in a virtual Mastermind group to discuss John C. Maxwell's book, "The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth."  This group will meet either Fridays 12-1 EST April 5th through May 24th, 2013 or Tuesdays 8-9 EST April 23rd through June 11th, 2013.  The cost is $224 if you don't already have the book or $200 if you do.  Sign up here.  

February 2013 Apartment Market Summary?

Axiometrics Inc. reports that the apartment market continued to post positive results in February 2013.  Annual effective rent growth was 3.53% and the occupancy rate increased 35 basis points (bps) from a year ago.  While rent growth has remained steady the pace has been gradually slowing.  February's annual effective rent growth was the lowest since August 2010

Breaking the results down by asset class points out a number of differences: slowing growth rates for Class A, steady growth rates for Class B, and improving growth rates for Class C.  Annual effective rent growth for Class A properties slowed to 3.2% at the national level in February 2013, after peaking at 5.9% in June 2011.

Concession values have been falling dramatically over the last three years.  In December 2009, there were more than 2,300 properties offering an average concession value of at least two months free on a 12-month lease.  As of February 2013, that number had shrunk to just 335 properties.

Nationally, the occupancy rate increased 8 bps from 94.05% in January to 94.13% in February. This rate is up 35 bps from February 2012 and 71 bps from February 2011.  The latest Axio forecast projected the national average occupancy rate to reach 94.9% in 2013.  Currently, 28 of the top 88 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) have an average occupancy rate greater than 95.0%.  

  CRE Investor Sentiment Index at All Time High 

Marcus and Millichap reported that the Commercial Real Estate (CRE) investor sentiment index is at an all time high.  Click here for video.  

By Beth Mattson-Teig, Contributing Writer

(Comment from Kevin: The supply of fix and flip properties is actually getting tighter in many markets due to institutional buyers gobbling up homes.  This is creating a shortage of inventory for rehabbers and it also offers those who have to foreclose on fix up properties a demand for those properties.  A very good thing for note investors.)

Both individual and institutional investors continue to find ample opportunities to acquire properties at discount prices. Since starting to buy single-family homes at the beginning of 2012, Los Angeles based Colony American Homes has amassed a portfolio of nearly 10,000 homes. "The ability to buy homes at attractive values in all of the markets that we are in continues to be very compelling," says Justin Chang, CEO of Colony American Homes.  For example, Colony expects to buy 1,000 or more properties in South Florida alone over the next year.  FULL ARTICLE 

So what does all this mean?

1. With rents and occupancy rising, efficiently managed multi-family properties will improve their net operating income (NOI) and thus increase the value of the property.  This indicates multi-family properties continue to offer a good investment opportunity, however, as the market continues to improve finding properties that offer significant upside potential will be more challenging.
2. With CRE investment sentiment higher there will be more competition in the commercial sector.
3. With single family homes being picked up in mass amounts there is also smart money moving into this sector which should eventually help the recovery of single family home markets. 

As we've been saying for years now, real estate investing is a great area to focus on. The time is now and the place in the good old USA.  Those that take action now can still experience these once in a lifetime benefits.  When will you get involved? 

Laughs and Interesting Stuff 

The next time you get the urge to go blasting through the sky in a pressurized metal tube keep these tips in mind.

Keep your seat belt fastened.  There can always be unexpected jolts from take off to landing.  I was on a flight where the pilot bounced the plane extremely hard twice while landing.  His voice on the intercom quickly eased our white knuckles as he said "Take that you bad, bad runway!

"As you exit the plane, please make sure to gather all of your belongings.  Anything left behind will be distributed evenly among the flight attendants.  Please do not leave children or spouses.

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If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed... if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed. -- Mark Twain

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MONEY

• A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs.
• A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't need but it's on sale.

BATHROOMS

• A man has six items in his bathroom: toothbrush and toothpaste, shaving cream, razor, a bar of soap, and a towel.
• The average number of items in the typical woman's bathroom is 337. A man would not be able to identify more than 20 of these items.

ARGUMENTS

• A woman has the last word in any argument.
• Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.

FUTURE

• A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
• A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.

MARRIAGE

• A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't.
• A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, but she does.

DRESSING UP

• A woman will dress up to go shopping, water the plants, empty the trash, answer the phone, read a book, and get the mail.
• A man will dress up for weddings and funerals.

NATURAL

• Men wake up as good-looking as they went to bed.
• Women somehow deteriorate during the night.

OFFSPRING

• Ah, children. A woman knows all about her children. She knows about dentist appointments and romances, best friends, favorite foods, secret fears and hopes and dreams.
• A man is vaguely aware of some short people living in the house.