Saturday, September 26, 2009

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.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

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?

Friday, September 4, 2009

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!"

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

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.