Positive Feedback From One Of The Reipients Of The Letter We Sent Out!

John just got a phone call from one of the recipients of the 12 letters we sent out from the Profit Grabber software.

The caller said, "You're just one of those realtors aren't you!?"

John answered, "No, it's just my wife and I who buy properties and try to help people if we can."

This helped the man relax and share information about his own home which is in the process of loan restructuring, but is still behind in payments and in risk of foreclosure. At this time, the caller just wanted to talk and is hoping that he can keep his home.

John congratulated Laura for getting the Profit Grabber software loaded, working, and producing results. Laura happily accepted his compliment.

When trying a new strategy,

it is rewarding to see the first fruits of your labors.

Great complex with 6 Units in Scapoose OR

John and Laura looked at a 6 unit complex in Scapoose Oregon on their Christmas day travels. They are preparing an offer to buy it. They are hoping the owner will carry the contract for them. This is an owner that John has known for many years, in fact, it was one of his high school teachers. That is something to keep in mind when considering people you may know that you would like to invest in. Some contacts go way back, like this special person to John.

STEPHEN AND RACHEL 1ST HOME

Stephen and Rachel bought their first house. They were pleased to receive the $8,000 government credit (plus interest) on the purchase of their home. It's great to see the kids buy their first home, and in time to settle in before their little one is born in the spring! CONGRATULATIONS!
Now lets get the other kids into homes while the $8,000 is still available! And anybody else who is a first time home buyer, now's the time!

Mailed 12 Letters, Our First Letters Using Profit Grabber ...

Laura and John mailed out their first 12 letters today offering help to people whose properties are in the foreclosure process, but not completely foreclosed,  using the Profit Grabber Software. Laura created a notebook for keeping track of letter responses and for compiling information on real estate deals. This is an exciting step, they have done a lot of real estate transactions in their lifetime, but this is the first time for this approach.

Henderson Nevada Duplex Decision

John and Laura are considering a property in Henderson Nevada, a duplex. Property is cheap there, it seems to be an emerging market. There are so many properties for sale right now, prices seem to keep coming down, when will be at the bottom? THAT IS THE MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION, THE RIGHT ANSWER AND THE RIGHT RESPONSE WILL MAKE A PERSON RICH!

Busy With the Holidays, But Still Doing Business. Hoping to Help Home Owners

Even though John and Laura are getting ready for Christmas like so many of you, they are taking time to continue doing their real estate business. Laura just prepared 11 letters to be sent to home owners who are distressed. The homeowners were located through a list of properties that are foreclosing.
John and Laura are hoping to help these homeowners from going into full foreclosure by working with them, possibly helping them catch up back payments, and discussing options that would avoid foreclosure.

Mobile Home Park in Oregon

John is looking into putting an offer on a mobile home park in Oregon. He's wanted to own one for a long time now, and it looks like now is the time.
A few obstacles:
1. The zoning has changed since the former owner had it running as a mobile home park. This is an obstacle John is working to overcome by communicating with the city. The zoning is now "commercial".
2. There are no mobile homes there anymore.
John responds well to challenges. He's got his sleeves rolled up and he's going to work on it.

Cold but Warm

It is definately winter here in Oregon. It is cold outside, (below freezing) but we are warm in our house with a woodstove burning brightly! Fortunately, we get to work from our home, so travel is not necessary during this cold weather, unless we want to. We are looking forward to a trip to LA and Las Vegas next month for some seminars.

How The Real Estate Auction Went On The Courthouse Steps In Corvallis & Albany OR

The auction on the courthouse steps went well. John has attended and purchased property using this method before, but it was Laura's first time to attend this type of auction. Both John and Laura learned from observing two auctions yesterday, one in Corvallis OR and the other in Albany OR. First, it was freezing cold, but that was OK, they dressed warm.
Second, none of the investors bid, they felt the properties were too expensive, so the properties went back to the bank and will likely be listed with Realtors. The investors felt they would see the properties listed for less than the opening bid at the auctions.
One of the investors told John that he attended an auction on the coast where one property was bid on for 13 hours! Yes, at one point in the auction, the investors were bidding up the bids by one dollar and it continued for 13 hours. This goes to show that a person must bring their funds in large and small amounts because they won't get change back. Bring several cashiers checks, (or cash, but that's not recommended due to the safety issues of carrying that amount of cash) and make them out in your own name. Be prepared to show the checks to the auctioneer before the auction begins, along with your identification.
It would be a good idea to attend a public auction at the courthouse steps prior to bidding so a person can get the feel for how they work. A person can find out when and where these auctions take place by looking at the legal ads in newspapers and checking websites of the trustees.

Courthouse Steps Auction

John and Laura are attending a property auction at the courthouse in Corvallis Oregon. There are properties up for auction that they are interested in, but they are still thinking that property values are going down. Their old fashion business model is "BUY LOW, SELL HIGH".

Lease Option Extenion

John and Laura just returned from Portland OR where they attended a Northwest Real Estate Investor meeting, featuring John Burley as the presenter. He was a good presenter, experienced investor and was able to keep the audience awake even late on a work day evening.
A new concept they learned was offering a buyer owner financing for a lease option and giving the buyer a 10 to 20 year option, this creates a cash flow for the seller. Apparently the buyer, if they are a first time buyer still qualifies for the $8,000 tax refund. This was very interesting, because traditionally, John and Laura have offered a one or two year lease option, but in this economy, a longer option would be beneficial.

Laura More Seriously Started Using The Profit Grabber Software To Organize Leads

Laura Holbrook seriously started inputting information in the Profit Grabber, a software by Marco Rubel. She is using lists from property that is in forclosure. She just looked at one of the properties this evening in the city of Brownsville, Oregon.
It may be a property that she and her husband John will put an offer on at the auction because of it's location and price.
Laura feels it is a property that would have an immediate cash flow as a rental.

Robert Allen Arm Twisters! Have You Experienced It? John & Laura Did Today!

Has anybody got high pressured into signing up with the Robert Allen coaching program? John and Laura Holbrook took a Persuasion IQ test offered by a free webinar and then had the follow up phone call evaluation, all in all, it was several hours of their time and in the end turned out to be a very high pressure telemarketing technique. Both John and Laura scored as total loosers according to their evaluator and wouldn't amount to anything if they didn't give Robert Allen's group about $9,000 to prove their were serious about wanting a successful life. John was asked, "Why would we (Robert Allen's group) want you as a coaching student?" John answered, "I see it more as, why would I want you as my coach?"
Laura asked, "How many is a handful of new coaching students," when the evaluator said it was such an exclusive coaching offer that only a handful of people would be choosen for it." The answer was a condesending, non-numerical answer including wondering if Laura knew how many fingers she had on her hand.
Both John and Laura felt like they would never want to do business with such a rude, arm twisting person, even though they both have developed respect for Robert Allen and much of the work he has accomplished.
Tell us about your experience with Robert Allen coaching.

John Is Interested in Buying and Selling Mobile Homes and a Mobile Home Park

John Holbrook attended a Robert Allen seminar in Portland Oregon on November 6 and 7th (he missed the last day, Sunday). He was most excited about Friday's presentation on mobile homes and mobile home parks, something he's been wanting to invest in for some time now. He will be on the look out for mobile homes that he can purchase and re-sell to a new buyer using owner financing. (John will carry the contract.) This will enable people who otherwise could not qualify for a home because of the difficulty in getting bank financing, to get into a home.
Please contact John to find out more information: 541-466-5150 or holbrookproperties@gmail.com

John, Laura, Teresa, Mark, Craig at lunch in San Diego California in September 2009

John and Laura Holbrook, Teresa Graves, Mark Peters and Craig having lunch in San Diego in between session of the Syndication Boot Camp.

Real Estate Investing

Paul Worcester and John Holbrook at the Sydication Bootcamp. San Diego California. September 25, 2009.

John Sobotkowski, Laura Holbrook and Gregg Fasbinder at the Sydication Boot Camp in San Diego CA.

Laura with Cathy Emmons

Laura Holbrook met Cathy Emmons of Washington. They sat next to each other on day one of the three day Syndication Boot Camp in San Diego California and enjoyed getting to know each other.

John & Laura At Syndication Boot Camp

What's a Syndication Boot Camp you ask? This is a training put on by Dave Lindahl and his group that taught how to legally put together Real Estate investors complying with the new laws and regulations that the government has recently established. As you may know, John and Laura Holbrook are Real Esate investors, they own apartments in Austin Texas, a motel in Oregon and houses, as well as their own property management company.
John and Laura learned to assume that when investing with a group of investors, it is a syndication. This is a safe rule of thumb and a way to keep the investors safe and themselves well within the law. They are looking forward to investing with people they know in a market that is very inviting.

3 New lots

John and Laura just divided 3 new lots off of 2 exsisting ones (now there's 5).

What changes follow the creation of new lots?

1. Property taxes for the new lots.
2. Utilities need to be brought to the lots, and eventually we will build duplexes on the new lots. John has been working with the City of Sweet Home Oregon to get approval for the division long before it was done.
The city is putting a new sewer line in soon, and has told us that we have a limited amount of time of installing a manhole and pipes while the old road is still there. The city does not want people to cut into the new road they will be putting in ... so ... it takes money to have the job done ($7,000 bid).

They are wondering if that's a good use of money in this economy.

Any comments about this project?

Portland Real Estate

John and Laura attended a North West Real Estate Investment meeting (REI) in Portland last night. They wanted to go so they could hear Jason Gilbert present on his real estate methods.
John and Laura are friends with Teresa Graves who works for Jason in San Diego CA and since they have so much respect for Teresa, they expected to enjoy Jason ... which they did.
It was also good to meet up with friends who also attended Jason's presentation.
Since John and Laura have been investing in real estate longer than some of the other investors have been "alive", some may think they know it all, but they don't, that's why they attend these events. Continuing to learn keeps them young and vitalized.
Jason had some great ideas.
One of the attractive ideas to John and Laura was the M.L.O. Try before you buy and get paid. It's a leasing technique that is offered to a commercial property owner. The technique allows the the property owner the convenience of collecting one check for the lease, plus allows the the lessor the option to collect the rents and keep any difference in the amount paid on the lease. Jason said it well when he said, "Try before you buy and get paid..." John and Laura would like to try a variation of this.
Laura enjoyed meeting some of John's friends, like Brian Moy, who shared his excitement with Laura about an investment he is making and expecting to close soon.
It was also fun to see Mark Peters and hear about his adventures and seminars that he has attended.
Liz was there signing people in, John and Laura haven't seen her since the San Diego seminar in the spring.
There were a lot of other people who were fun to see.

We repeated a mantra:

"I can do this! I will do this! I'm committed to starting now!

Laura followed Jason's instructions to repeat this:

I will do a commercial deal in the next 60 days!"

to the person seated to her right (Mary Austin), then Mary repeated it to Laura.

"You will do a commercial deal in the next 60 days!"

Salem Oregon Housing Market

John and Laura have been traveling a lot this summer and are happy to be home again in Oregon. They assisted their son and daughter-in-law in putting an offer on a home in Salem Oregon. The offer was about $10,000 over the asking price, and after being lead to believe that their offer was accepted, they received an email stating that another offer from another buyer was accepted. It's a competitive market out there right now in Salem Oregon and in other areas of Oregon. It would be interesting to find out some of the experiences that other people might be having in the real estate market.

JOEL BAUER HUGGING JOHN & LAURA HOLBROOK AT PASSION TO PROFIT SEMINAR IN LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA

John Holbrook, Joel Bauer, and Laura Holbrook enoying a friendly hug at the Passion to Profit seminar in Los Angeles, California.

John gave Laura a ticket to the Passion to Profit seminar as a birthday gift. When Laura found out what her present was, she was apprehensive about it at first. Her concerns evaporated within a short time into the seminar. She became quickly aware that Joel Bauer is a presenter who truly wants to help others become great and successful.

What an amazing seminar!

Everybody should attend a Joel Bauer Seminar!

Joel Bauer inspires people to make immediate improvements in their lives. By the end of the first day of the seminar both John and Laura had learned how to dress in a way to more possitively influence people. They went to a store after the first day ended and purchased a few clothing items (seen in the picture) to begin their positive improvements.

Both John and Laura feel like they have had new ideas infused into their lives and business and are anxious to continue to impliment the improvements.

Listened to a Dave Lindahl conference call today and really enjoyed it. It's important to keep learning and improving our skills. We would like to buy some storage units like he suggested.

Mike and Cindy Martell: HAPPY BUYERS of Country Lane, Sweet Home OR

Biggies House

Wow, selling Biggie's house is becoming more of a challenge than we thought. First, it was the home of Laura's late mother, so the emotional aspect is greater than the business side of selling property. We have sold and bought a lot of property, but there is a difference when dealing with an estate. Progress is being made, which we are grateful for.

BIGGIE'S HOUSE DELAYED...

The buyers for BIGGIE'S HOUSE have a big delay in their financing. Two months ago they withdrew all of their money from their bank account and put it a safety deposit box, because they were worried about the banking system. Turns out, in this case, the mortgage lender doesn't want cash from a safety deposit box as a down payment, they want the funds to be in a bank account for 60 days, or at least this particular lender does. So ... the 30 day closing is much longer than 30 days now.
LESSON: Before making a creative money move, check with a professional banker or lender to make sure you are not creating unnecessary challenges.

Joseph and Crystal buying a house tomorrow

Joseph and Crystal are getting ready to close on a house in Hawaii. Their mortgage loan will have a 4.5 interest rate ... yeah!
Interest rates keep going up, today they were in the 6% range, we want to buy while they are relatively low and prices low too!

Biggie's House Sells: Brownsville, Oregon

Biggie, the cat, lives in this 3 bedroom, 1 bath, single car garage, established yard with shade trees, roses and herbs, hot tub, cat condo, wood stove, gas and electric heat, air conditioned, property that sold last week. We listed it with a realtor, Sheri Gregory with Heritage Northwest Realty, Sweet Home, Oregon. We like working with Sheri and her assistant Jaida, they are a great team. We were pleased with their advertising as well as the attention they gave each prospective buyer. Advertising does payoff! As does a clean property in a nice neighborhood, as well as being able to greatly discount the price. The offer was $112,000.00, (asking price was $122,000.00, purchase price 7 years ago was $115, 000.00...loan balance is $78,405.00) which we accepted. The buyer also wanted us to throw in the refrigerator, washer and dryer ...

Biggie agreed to throw in the appliances, he said, "What does a cat need those things for anyway?"

Sounds like a low offer? It is, but it's also the only offer we have had in the five months it has been listed.

"A Bird in Hand is Worth Two in the Bush," my mother used to say.

We added two addendum's: 1. We use the title company of our choice (Amerititle in Albany, Oregon) 2. We make no claims or guarantees that the hot tub is operational. What we learned.... always check the lot lines before listing, buying or selling property. (Something we already knew, but needed a refresher on.) As it turned out, the fence was about 5 feet on to the adjacent lot, which added expense and time on our part, because a fence, hot tub and deck had to be moved. If we would have done our homework a little better, and not just listened to neighbors who claimed they knew where the lot lines were, we would have found out where the pins were in the ground for the lot lines. Since we also were selling the lot next doors (it sold before the house) we could have done a lot line adjustment, prior to selling the lot, costing us some money in fees, but saving us time and more money and headaches. We are always learning and re-learning lessons.

PRACTISE MAKES PERFECT!

Country Lane Oregon, Lease Option Sucess!

John and Laura Holbrook sold this home, as a lease option. Price $219,000. It is located in Sweet Home, Oregon. It's a 4 bedroom, 2 bath ranch style home, large 2 car garage, barn, fenced 1.5 acres. John and Laura just got a call this week with the good news that the buyers are getting ready to close. The buyers put $40,000 down, and were given a lease option. One of the many things John and Laura learned was that unless it is stipulated beforehand, the realtor gets the commission on the full selling price and not just the down payment. This is an expensive lesson, because most of the $40,000 down went to realtor fees and closing costs. But now that the buyers are excercising the lease option to buy, the Holbrooks will be getting the rest of the profit. Next time the Holbrooks will be sure that the commission is based only on the down payment because sometimes that is all that the seller will receive. In this case, the buyer is able to get financing, so the full profit will be realized.

Good life with grandchildren and ducks!

This is what a good life looks, having time to play with grandchildren! Nothing like marking duckings so the grandchildren can tell their ducks apart.

John & Laura Holbrook exploring Northwest coastal properties and taking some time to dig for clams.

While John and Laura Holbrook were at the Washington coast this week end for Mother's Day, they saw many properties for sale, from small trailers to large beautiful houses and condos with ocean views and easy walks to the beach. There have never been so many properties for sale in the Long Beach, Ocean Beach, Washington area since they have been enjoying that area, it's a great time to buy, lots of choices! Let them know if you would like to own coastal property! They can definitely help put together a dream coastal package. Notice in the video, it's taken at about 10:00 am May 9, on the beach in Oysterville, there is nobody else around, the beach is like a private beach! There's not many places in the world where a beautiful, clean beach can be enjoyed like that. Anybody can enjoy the beautiful Northwest coast!

Apartments we want in San Antonio Texas

John has been looking into buying apartments in Texas. There is one that has really caught our interest in San Antonio Texas, it is bank owned. He will talk to the bank tomorrow. We'll keep everybody posted on how that goes.

John Holbrook, Laura Holbrook, Mark Peters, Teresa Graves: Taming the Bird

This is what we did on break from the Dave Lindahl seminar. We needed to just relax!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

Dinner after the Dave Lindahl seminar

John Holbrook with Liz Dauw and Mark Peters.
Having dinner in San Diego CA after the Dave Lindahl seminar on Buying Multi-Family Apartments.

John Holbrook with Charice Richardson and Shirly at the Marko Rubel seminar on Forclosure. April 2009

John Holbrook with Marko Rubel

John Holbrook with Marko Rubel at the Forclosure seminar in San Diego, CA. April 2009

Hi fellow Bloggers: This is Laura and John Holbrook standing in front of the Star of India in San Diego Harbor, San Diego California.

Laura and I are back from ten days in San Diego. We attended two Real Estate seminars. We learned several new strategies for this market to use in buying more foreclosures and multi-family apartments.
The weather was nice and sunny, but we didn't get to spend much time outside. We were in the seminars for ten to twelve hours a day. We would like to share what we learned with those of you that are interested.

Just finished day 4,the final day, of Dave Lindahl's seminary in San Diego CA. We met lots of new people and connected with some people we were already friends with. What did we learn, more than I can even share, but I will as time goes on, and we begin to implement techniques.
John and I want to buy more apartments in Austin Texas, since we already own real estate there, we have apartments (check out our pictures of them in one of the blog posts), it makes sense to add to them. We have our apartment manager, Manny there and a dependable maintenance man, Gustavo, and legal team in place in Austin.
Of course we love Oregon, where we live, and will continue to purchase real estate there.

Oregon Property

Oregon Property

This is Laura Holbrook, reporting on the Dave Lindal seminar in San Diego, day 3. First off ... wow! I've been investing in real estate for many years, and I am amazed at how much there still is to learn. I have a notebook full of to do lists from this seminar, and there is still one more day! One of the first things I am going to do when I get home is start a self directed roth IRA. I have wanted to do this for about a year, but I am completely convinced that I want one and need one.
Does anybody out there have one, if so, do you love it, or not?

Some of us from Holbrook Properties are
soaking up new information about buying multi-family real estate, along with some California sunshine. Can't wait for them to come back to Oregon and put into practise what they have learned. I hear they have learned new strategies in the area of bringing investors together to purchase apartments!

Invest in property while prices are down.

John and Laura are itching to buy some property, it's what makes our business tick. We are looking in Oregon, but also other states. It is a great time to buy. John and Laura both feel, while the markets are down, it's a a good time to invest. When the stimulus money really hits our economy, it will do what it is supposed to do, "Inflate our deflated economy" which means, prices will go up again.

John, Than Merrill and Laura at the seminar last month in San Diego. John and I keep learning and applying what we learn. Than is a real estate investor who is featured on the TV show, Flip This House. John and Laura flip houses too, but have never been on TV for it. We have picked up new skills on organizing our investment efforts, using the internet and video. We will begin taking video of our properties and posting them. Laura bought a Flip video camera at Walmart last week, it fits in one hand, records 30 minutes of clear video and it was half price for only $49. As the video recording time increases, the price increases. So far, we are happy with the video results, and it's so easy and fun to use!

This is my new business card. When John, Abe and I went to the Than Merrill Real estate seminar last month, we learned a lot about working in today's market. I set some goals to boost our business, some of them were to get a new business card, web page, blog and to buy a flip video camera. Even though John and I have worked in the Real Estate investing business for many years, we are learning new techniques. John and I support ourselves working in the real estate market, buying, selling and managing property. We want to build our business and include more people in it, which is why we are opening up more avenues to invest with other people.

Meet the Webbs

One newest clients, the Webbs, are looking for real estate property that has water near-by, preferrably a lake or pond. They might even be interested in a starter home with a pool. They are good neighbors, would like to organize a Neighborhood Watch to keep slugs and snails out of the neighborhood. They are organic gardeners, never use pesticides, only natural methods of pest removal. They eventually want to open a cottage business selling eggs. Contact us if you know of a property that would be a good fit for the Webbs, they are motivated buyers because they are crowded in a small condo-box, with only a bowl of water to bath in.

What our cat does.

On our ranch, everybody has to pull their weight, do their part, even the farm cats.

Our apartments: Austin Park Plaza Apartments

I thought people would like to see some pictures of the apartments we own in Austin Texas. We talk a lot about them. I know our son Abe and his wife Beth have been there, and stayed in one while they were going to concerts in Austin. Julie, our daughter visited there with John a few years back. But for those of our family and friends who haven't been there yet, here's a little glimpse: The pool, the apartment buildings, the park (ie. the name ... Park ... ).

I shared an idea I had with John today: There are a lot of people out of work, wanting to make more money, and some might want to invest in real estate but don't have the money to do it. A lot of people know it's a good time to buy, but can't afford to for various reasons. How about if we (John and I) buy a property, say a fixer upper house and give a few options for people to become a part of investing with us.
Allow people to log work hours on the house.
We don't pay them until we sell or refinance the house.
Our investment workers could be paid with money or if we refinance, part ownership. That would be discussed up front. Perhaps more than one property could be in progress at a time.
Is this something that would interest people?
It would be a good way to invest in real estate, without any financial risk.

Welcome to Property Oregon

Welcome to Property Oregon. We, (John and Laura) began investing in property in 1974. We are not Realtors, we are investors. We are at a point in our lives where we can mentor those who want to enter this profession or progress in real estate investing, large and small. This is how we support ourselves and our lifestyle. We buy and sell property, mostly in Oregon, but also in Texas, California, Utah, Washington and as far East as North Carolina. It's a profession we passionately and profitably pursue. Through education, experience and net working, we have developed systems that work for us and we will share what we know with our fellow bloggers.

1. Yes, we think it is a great time buy and invest.

2. There are bargains galore in Oregon, single family and multi-family.

Ask us questions, nothing is too small to ask or too large.