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!

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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.