Information On How To

As far back as the 1970’s Sears envisioned a kiosk in their stores where a customer could buy stock and even real estate. It was a bold look at the future from one of the world’s largest retailers. All they had to do was to get the consumer to come to their stores to do business. This was quite a challenge thrown down to both Wall Street and Main Street USA. Most of us probably never heard or remember this strategy, and it never got off the ground. People just did not equate Sears with stock or real estate; they were a department store.

In fairness to Sears, the technologies and conveniences did not exist to enable the plan. Sears may have also thought themselves too big to fail. That theme does seem to be a constant.

Hmm, it appears that history does indeed repeat itself, and perhaps at shorter and shorter intervals. It may be ironic that by speeding up processes and the rate at which things can change, the lessons of history are lost at a quicker rate. Did that make sense? If it did, you may be thinking a bit like me – you’ve been cautioned.

In the 1980’s the successful real estate agent became more independent and needed fewer and fewer services from the brokerage firm. As they claimed a higher and higher portion of the brokerage fee, margins for the real estate brokerage began to shrink. Some phenomenally high interest rates had a similar impact on the mortgage banking industry. Unless buyers had no choice, they did not take on these inflated mortgages. The mortgage industry literally shrunk along with their profit margins. We all know that real estate cycles; it goes up and it goes down. The curve is rarely smooth, and is punctuated by sharp turns in one direction or another. Most features of the real estate industry react quickly to the conditions in the market that affect it. Now we have the background for the next attempt to create a commodities market from the real estate process.

In 1974, the Real Estate Settlement and Procedures Act (RESPA), as amended, was passed. It opened the door for consolidations within the industry. To foster competition, companies were regulated to prevent abuses in the industry and to keep prices to the consumer lower. It was almost ironic that the very act that was passed to prevent abuses, in a way opened the door. I don’t know that it has empirically been demonstrated that RESPA actually lowered costs or prevented abuses. With HUD as a watchdog, there was little real enforcement, and although fines were levied, industry practices ultimately were left to the states to manage. It took decades to sort it out, and Wall Street only a few months to make it yesterday’s issue.

The point for mentioning RESPA was that it allowed what was called “controlled business entities,” a term later changed to “affiliated business entities.” The home builder and the real estate brokerage could now have a captive mortgage and title business. The theory was that this would somehow create efficiencies and economies lowering the cost and improve service to the consumer. It didn’t. With all of this vertical integration, each one of the independently managed businesses was caught in the same financial wringer.

What was not taken into consideration was the pro-cyclical nature of the model. When one business was down so were the others. The upside was champagne and roses, but the downside left little room for beer and carnations. There were other oversights as well. Not understanding the risk models for businesses outside of their core competencies was seldom given the focus it deserved. Few also embraced managing the business with the same zeal they had for their core model.

The result was that many of these affiliated arrangements have failed, and the industry model for how transactions are managed remains much the same as it has since the post WWII era. Certainly technology has improved systems, but not nearly to the extent that it could. The competitive natures of the individual sectors of the real estate business keep the technologies proprietary and therefore parochial. A 21st Century model for the industry will come from somewhere outside of the core real estate industry. Next came a far a more organized and systematic attempt to create a commodity market in the real estate arena.

The boldest strategy to commoditize the residential real estate market came from a company called National Realty Trust (NRT). NRT has gone through a number of name changes. In the mid to late 1990s NRT was known as Cendant (CD). The CEO of Cendant, Henry Silverman was a Wall Street visionary who understood commodities. He was big in the rental car business (Avis) and in hospitality with a string of motel franchises. Mr. Silverman viewed the real estate as a commodity that could be franchised and methodically went about acquiring national real estate marks such as Coldwell Banker (Residential), Century 21, ERA and Sotheby’s. Subsequently they also acquired established regional real estate companies. They were and remain the largest single group of real estate companies in the industry.

Cendant experienced an accounting scandal in the last decade and lost its impetus. It never quite recovered from the scandal, and the company divided its assets into four groups. The real estate companies were sold to the Apollo Management Group. Apollo has been beset by the soft real estate market and a suit filed by Carl Icahn over a debt exchange plan. With the continuing financial and legal problems, they stumble along with business as usual. They are not in a position to lead the real estate industry into the 21st Century. This strategy involved getting in upstream in the transaction by “owning” the gatekeeper function. It required enormous amounts of capital, and technology was evolving to provide a far more efficient less capital intensive platform to emerge. The Internet makes anyone with the vision and the concept to be a potential player.

Allow me to introduce Soft Sell Solutions LLC, a creative concept for the 21st Century model for real estate. Forged with decades of experience and inside industry knowledge, the concept is supportable by existing technology, demonstrated consumer practice and buy in. The vision and passion to deliver a seamlessly integrated system stands ready to tie the disparate process together.

The third article in this series Who Controls the Real Estate Process sets the stage for a 21st Century approach.

Tony Alonzi and his partner unite not for profit 501 (c) (3) organization and corporate sponsort to raise awareness in and funding for causes. The mission is unique in that it provides the sponsor with marketing, advertising and public relations resources along with multiplying their philanthropy. Join them in making a difference and in living happy. Their web site is: http://www.riskhappiness.com

Investing in Real Estate has become urban legend the myths abound about how much you can increase your wealth by investing in real estate and in particular residential real estate, so much so that the average Joe believes that making money and creating wealth when it comes to real estate is a given and in alienable right so to speak.

Average mums and dads are jumping onto the real estate bandwagon with no knowledge or training in the fundamentals of investing. These folks are fed the myth that using their equity from their family home will miraculously make them into real estate tycoons, all to often these poor misguided souls end up losing the home and everything else in their pursuit of real estate’s Eldorado.

To perpetuate the myth these naive investors are advised to hold on to their real estate investments for ten years or longer, this is great in theory if you are in your twenties and do not need the profits in the immediate sh rt term to help fund a decent retirement, unfortunately when you look at the demographics of these investors they are in their fifties with plenty of equity in their family homes most usually own their family home and have neglected doing any thing for their retirement till now and in horror discover that they will not be able to have their current lifestyle on the pension.

Little wonder real estate investment seminars are packed with these late bloomers all hoping to make a fortune by investing in residential real estate, the seminar presenters ensure that is all these folks here, after all this is a valuable gravy train.

Try this little trick next time a telemarketer calls and asks you to attend a real estate investment seminar, and the telemarketer asks you if you own your own home and how much equity you have in it, reply by saying that you have none, I will guarantee that before the word none leaves your mouth they have hung up on you, interesting isn’t it?

Tragically no one is told when a real estate investment has gone bad or failed to perform as happens on a daily basis with the stock market, why is this so? One of the major reasons are the volumes of money that Governments, Banks and marketers make from selling the residential investment myth, that is also the reason why Governments have been loathe to legislate that investors under go an investment training program before they can invest, as once the myth is busted the gravy train will not be as plentiful and the flow on effect into allied industries would be catastrophic.

This myth is well and truly busted as you can loose everything from a failed real estate investment and there are no such things as guaranteed growth with out doing some work for it.

Here are 7 simple ways to maximize your money from real estate investment

1. Know your profit before you buy

Do your due diligence and find out if the price you are paying is below market value, a simple rule is can you resell this property today for a profit and if so how much.

2. Type of Neighborhood?

The community surrounding the property can change in a variety of ways that can adversely affect your real estate income property. Increasing vacancy, for instance, can lead to reduced rents, which in turn means reduced maintenance causing building deterioration, This can cause a roll on effect if more properties start to decline in the whole neighborhood,compounding the problem.

The nearby construction of facilities such as prisons, sewer treatment plants, and airports will also likely have an adverse effect on the area. Also, perhaps more subtle and slower in coming, is a decline due to increased crime, perhaps resulting from an adjoining neighborhood spill over. If you still want to invest here find out what it is that makes it special that everyone else has over seen, often gems are discovered with a little digging,

3. Impact of poor or neglected Infrastructure

The impact of being directly under the flight path of airplanes, construction of a major highway or intersection can limit access to the property, cause noise and dirt by the construction and all this can have a negative impact on the property’s ability to attract and keep tenants. The end result may be an increase in your investment real estate value, but construction and major works can take up to a year or more and during that time you could expect your real estate investment value to drop. Or worse still the infrastructure is neglected and the local authority does not have the Tax base to start remedial works to bring it up to standard,

4.Controls

Governmental controls and regulatory changes to zoning can adversely impact real estate investment properties. Real Estate investors that purchase raw land for development, for instance, can see their plans grind to a halt because of a building moratorium or anti-development sentiment. All of which results in downturn in value.

5. Finance

Difficulty obtaining finance or the lenders require more of your capital to top up your borrowings,yers for your rental property if you decide to sell, This type of condition is prevalent at the moment as lenders are devaluing the amount that they are willing to lend against real estate, in most instances I have seen lenders valuations or real estate down by up to 30% to 40% of the contract price depending on the region this could be higher again, this trend should alert the investor that the deal they think is great may not be so great after all, unfortunately marketers have this covered as they are dealing with naive and unsophisticated investors by saying that the lenders always value the property for less, if that is what some one lending you money says about your intended investment wouldn’t it be prudent to listen and renegotiate or if that is not possible walk away from the deal.

6. Lack of or no maintenance.

If your property is the run down, get it brought back up to a good condition. This will make it more appealing to prospective tenants

7. Pressure to sell

Highly motivated sellers may reduce a property to a bargain basement price and smart investors watch for property owners who must sell to take advantage of the owner’s strong motivation to quit the property. Always try to avoid ever reaching the moment when you are forced to sell.

These are just of many tips I use to maximize my profits from my real estate investments and so can you.

Author Brian Norton is a highly respected and astute investor, property developer, agent,auctioneer and author, Brian Norton is a Highly respected public speaker and consultant, He is an industry expert and trainer and assessor, sign up for his soon to be released book “Dare to Dream” at [http://benjimite.com] or through the comments section on [http://blog.realestate-profit.com].

In commercial real estate, you will undertake a variety of presentations, in a variety of circumstances. Most of them are business-like in nature, focusing on the needs of the tenant, the property buyer, or the property seller.

Get to the core issues

Each of these groups has unique property requirements and points of focus. It is their needs which must be identified and clearly addressed in the sales pitch or presentation. Many successful commercial real estate agents will have a preliminary meeting with the client or customer so that they can identify key issues and concerns. This allows the commercial agent to return to the client or customer in a few days with a well structured proposal that addresses the needs of the customer or client.

It’s all about THEM, not YOU!

When you design an investment or commercial property proposal for presentation, the document should be 90% regards the property and the client. Frequently you see this rule disregarded or broken with the proposal document being largely regards the agency and the personnel.

Rarely is the property transaction a simple matter of the property rental, the property price, or the physical elements of the property. In most situations, it is the combination of these things which must satisfy a fundamental equation of need that the customer or client has. In getting them to this fundamental need, you will identify an element of pain that the customer or client is experiencing. This is what you focus on.

They are Experienced

It is interesting to note that many clients and customers in commercial real estate are reasonably comfortable in circumstances of business negotiation. This means they may not tell you the total big picture or all the elements of a transaction until they are ready. Conversation and connection in the presentation process should be biased towards the client or customer using well selected questions which allow the agent to interpret the body language coming from the client’s response.

When you believe you have identified the element of clients pain related to the property transaction, you start to magnify the problem in terms of today’s market, then offering stable and logical solutions that your real estate agency business can provide to the client or customer. Invariably, the commercial real estate transaction in today’s market centres on financial matters such as:

• High vacancy factors
• Other property choices and chances are available
• Underperforming leases
• Unstable cash flow
• Unstable tenancy mix
• Tenanted conflict
• Escalating building operating costs
• A shift in demographics which exposes the property to a unstable future
• Mortgage payment pressures
• Age of the asset
• Needs for refurbishment or extension
• Competition properties attracting tenants away from the subject property

This type of information and interpretation requires your intimate knowledge of the local region. This is by both property type and by location. This is the higher value that you bring to the customer or client. Being able to distinctly define local market awareness is a major advantage in any commercial real estate presentation or sales pitch. You must be seen as the best knowledgeable solution to the problem.

From Experience

After many years working exclusively in the commercial real estate industry, I found that my unique skill was in market knowledge and the display of that in any formal presentation to the client. Being able to talk about market trends and financial performance in a solid and sound way will help the client understand that they need your services. Coupling that with your extensive and relevant database of enquiry clearly shows the client that they need you.

A fantastic commercial real estate presentation is a function and balance of lots of things. Things like:

1. A well established pre-planning process is a strategic advantage for every commercial real estate presentation. Strategy is everything in commercial real estate. Every property presentation requires planning.
2. Making sure you are asking the right questions of the client or prospect. Plan your questions relative to the subject property so that you help the client think about opportunity and changes that are possible.
3. Using your market knowledge and giving good answers. Have a variety of market facts and trends available to call on. Feed them into your presentation; facts are always useful. They can also be used as a channel to direct the discussion when the client is forcing you to justify your approach or your experience. Confidence and control must be the basic rule of your property presentation. When the client takes control of the presentation you have lost.
4. Using your experience in the marketplace so that you are telling relevant stories of success in similar properties. Stories of other properties will always interest of the client.
5. Making sure your personal presentation is optimised for the connection in the presentation. It can be that you are using a combination of the proposal document, the marketing document, and computer slide presentation, samples of your database, photographs of the subject property projected on to slides, and photographs of comparable properties projected on to slides.
6. Choosing the placement of people at the table or strategically positioning them in the room is always important. Much has been written about where you should sit relative to the client. The basic rule is adjacent to the client rather than across an area of barrier such as a table. Being within arm’s reach allows you to pass documentation to the client at the appropriate time. Documentation should not be provided to the client until you are ready for them to review it; otherwise it is a distraction of their attention.
7. Make sure that your proposal is simple and yet well directed with a clearly defined outcomes of sale or lease. Many proposal documents in commercial real estate are much too wordy so the main messages are lost and not clearly defined. The best proposals are less wordy and more illustrative. The best balance of a commercial real estate proposal is a mixture of 25% words, 25% pictures, 25% graphs, and 25% white space. This becomes a document which is clearly read and understood.
8. Combine good illustrations and photographs of the subject property into the proposal or presentation so that any lengthy descriptions or paragraphs are broken up. This will keep interest of the client in your documentation.
9. Make sure that your marketing package is value for money, and yet reaching the target market that the property serves or needs to attract. All too often, we see examples of generic marketing by the commercial real estate agent to the broader and less specific marketplace. Showing the client that you clearly know and will attract best the target market will always help your conversion to a potential listing. Be very specific about the target market and how you will reach it.
10. Ensure that your commission costs are fair and reasonable for the location. In most circumstances, discounting your commission should not be an option as it will make you poor and remove or detract from your enthusiasm for the sale or lease. ‘Cheap’ means ‘cheap and without focus’ and the client needs to know this. The property deserves better. You are not cheap because you are the best and you do a great job. A fair commission is always paid for a positive property outcome.
11. Always provide testimonials that are relevant to the property transaction. When you combine relevant history and details of happy customers into your presentation you will make the client feel more comfortable.
12. Always display clear and sound market knowledge that impresses the client relative to their property. This will include extensive awareness of comparable properties that compete with the subject property. You should be able to talk solidly about property prices, comparable rents, rental growth, returns on investment, changes to the future demographics of the area, and properties in the immediate precinct of relevance. In many cases, it pays to walk around the local area just prior to any property presentation so that you bring immediate and clear pictures of the precinct to the discussion. Many times this has been of significant advantage in my presentation processes. Talking about neighbouring properties localises the client and their thought processes.
13. Come up with a variety of ways to serve the client. Innovation and relevance will always impress. In today’s market, this is relatively easy considering the marketing opportunities and tools provided by the internet & technology. Be proactive in your property promotion processes so that the listing for sale or lease stands uniquely different in its marketing campaign from the others in the area. This does not have to be expensive to the client or to your office, given that the internet and electronic technology is historically cost effective. In today’s market, the traditional methods of publicising the property in the property pages of the local paper, is becoming much less important in the marketing campaign. Most commercial property buyers and tenants research the market from the Internet first and foremost.
14. Almost every property agency will say that they have excellent communication and connection skills to support the property promotion process. From experience, this is largely incorrect and typically the average commercial salesperson or leasing person will exercise ordinary communication channels with the client. Put yourself in the shoes of the client. They expect and deserve frequent updates on the promotion of the property even when nothing is happening or when the adverts are producing little response. When a property campaign is not producing the results, it is important that you act or adjust with alternative recommendations and strategic changes to the promotional campaign for the client to consider. Rarely would you get to the property campaign correct in the first week. It is in this time that you must consider fine tuning the promotion process so that the target market is being reached in a timely and effective way. This means that every property enquiry generated from your promotions must be tabulated so that you understand what channels of marketing work most effectively with the property in question.
15. When addressing the client or the client group in a formal property presentation, the answers and information you give must be delivered well and provide relevant solid property knowledge, in a practiced and professional delivery. Any sales or presentation tools relative to the property must be relevant and you should know how to use them with exceptional skill. Fumbling and faking information is not tolerated by the client.

So there you have it. These are some of the key skills to use in a commercial real estate presentation. Whilst many real estate agents think that they are the best alternative in the market to promote sell and rent commercial property, the reality is they do not get the message across when it matters most in front of the client.

To be the best commercial real estate agent in your area, you must show that you are just so, and you do this in the first 10 minutes of the time that your presentation takes. The client will have formed an opinion by then.

Be prepared to walk away from any demands for discounting that the client or customer demands. In this market they need a great commercial real estate agent providing a great job; discounting is not an option. Show pride in your services and walk away when the client demands discount in marketing or lower commissions.

##Need More Help?##

John Highman is a prominent investment real estate speaker and coach that helps real estate agents and real estate brokers globally to improve their commercial real estate market share and close more sales and leasing deals. He himself is a successful real estate agent that has specialised in commercial, industrial, and retail real estate of all types for over 30+ years.

Whether you specialise in real estate sales, leasing, or investment, John has the tools that can help you and your office succeed in your market.

Today John Highman gives workshops and keynotes to real estate agents and brokers globally on how to be professionally better than your competition in any market and drive more of the right listings and commissions.

Join John Highman’s global community of commercial real estate agents and brokers. The community can be accessed at http://www.commercial-realestate-training.com

I often tell people that becoming a millionaire in the real estate business is an easy thing to accomplish. They usually give me a look of bewilderment. I say that you don’t have to understand every aspect of real estate in order to begin investing. The best thing to do is start with a basic buy-and-hold strategy purchasing whatever type of property you are capable of buying with as little money down as possible. How you buy something with as little money down as possible depends on your financial situation and what types of mortgages you’re capable of qualifying for. Since guidelines for mortgages and government intervention changes daily, it’s impossible for me to tell you the best way to do that. I can tell you how I did it for years using the all-money-down technique I described earlier in the book. But I’ll give you a quick refresher course below.

If you bought $100,000 house through conventional means, you may have to put 20 percent down is $20,000 plus closing costs that will cost you approximately $3000. In this example, you put $23,000 down to buy $100,000 investment property. Using the all-money-down technique, you would buy a $100,000 property for cash putting all $100,000 down plus the closing costs of $3000. At this point, you have $103,000 down on the property and you begin to invest an additional $5000 to fix the property up. You now have a total of $108,000 of your money into the property. You put the property up for rent and you find a good tenant, so now you’re empty investment property is a business making money and shows a profit. Now you go to the bank and you get the property appraised with the intention of doing a cash-out refinance. Because you fixed up the property and it’s a money-making business, the property appraises for $114,000. The bank is willing to lend you an 80 percent mortgage on the $114,000 appraisal giving you a mortgage of $91,200. You originally put down $103,000 and received back a mortgage for $91,200 making your out-of-pocket costs $11,800.

When using the all-money-down technique as compared to buying a property through conventional methods, you save $11,200. Now of course, you’re going to have a higher mortgage and less cash flow coming from the property, but you’re also going to have $11,200 to buy the next property with.

Sometimes the homes you buy are going to cost you $10,000 to buy; other times you’re going to break even on the deal. You might even be lucky enough to actually get paid to buy a house, which has happened to me once or twice. The goal was simply to just keep buying as many properties as possible until you build up a portfolio worth millions of dollars. You will make a profit from the cash flow, but most likely that’s going to go back and do things like repairs and vacancies in all the other issues that come up with real estate. If you do end up banking $10,000 during the year from the cash flow of your buildings, there is your down money to buy an additional property and expand your portfolio further.

I have constantly repeated that you’re not going to find the cash flow to be something of tremendous value to you. The cash flow will help pay for the necessary things and give you down money for future deals, but in the end you will work hard for very little money. The real surprise will come when you’ve ridden the cycle from bottom to top and created a gap between your portfolio’s value and the amount of mortgages that you owe for the building. Accruing equity in your buildings, you will slowly begin to see your net worth increasing as the years go on.

For example let’s just say you bought one property a year for five years valued at $100,000 a property. Since the five years that you bought the properties, values have gone up somewhat and the mortgages have gone down, and your net worth is the equity in between. As you begin to see this throughout your investing career, especially when the market is on the rise, it can be an exciting time.

Your expectations should be to live off of the income from your job while the profit from the rental property business is used to fuel its needs. You’ll usually get to a point somewhere when a real conflict will develop between your current career and your real estate investments. It’s hard to be in two places at once, and ultimately it will begin to catch up with you. For me this conflict was easily resolved since I only wanted to be doing real estate anyway, but if you love your day job and you plan to continue it through your life, you’re going to have to make some tough decisions. You could keep your day job, but someone is going to have to run your portfolio.

I maintain that getting a seven-figure net worth in equity strictly in your real estate holdings is not that difficult to do. I recommend you join real estate investment clubs and read as many books as you possibly can. As you begin to make investments, you’ll find friends in the businesses that relate to your industry such as people in the mortgage business. I recommend that you associate with as many of these people as possible so that your knowledge of the industry expands tremendously.

A friend of mine who’s an intelligent guy took some of this advice and began moving quickly. In his first year, I think he bought two properties, but by his second year he was already doing $300,000 flips and buying multiunit investment properties with a partner that he has. First of all, I’m not a big fan of partnership for the deal size he was doing, and second, I think he was growing a little too fast. If he didn’t have a job, I wouldn’t have a problem with the speed of his growth, but because he had a well-paying job, I cautioned him not to move too fast. The second half of 2009 was a rough year for him as his $300,000 flip was not selling, and he’s already had to do two evictions. Carrying the mortgage and his $300,000 flip was expensive and was already causing some tension in his partnership. It’s not going to be all fun and games; as your portfolio grows, your problems grow with it and the workload grows.

Another thing I can say about the issues in the real estate business is that they seem to come in waves. Even when I owned dozens of homes, I would go six months where I wouldn’t need to change a doorknob and then all of a sudden all hell would break loose. I’d be dealing with an eviction, two vacancies, and apartments that were destroyed. When it rains it pours in the real estate business; at least that’s the way it worked out for me. I remember on two separate occasions during the summertime one year followed by the next summer a year later I was bombarded with all kinds of issues. In this business, you can’t let a vacant property sit and wait because you’re losing money every day it’s not rented. The process of getting it renovated and re-rented is the highest importance.

As bad as I make it sound, I think you’ll find it all to be worth it in the end. It seems that no matter how much money I made, I have learned in my career I never really save. As you earn more money, your lifestyle increases and you begin to upgrade your homes and cars to the point where your bills go right along with your salary. The real estate business is almost like a bank account you really can’t touch easily without selling a building, so it continues to grow and feed off of itself. It’s a terrific feeling when you realize that your $550,000 portfolio experienced a 10 percent increase in values in the last year and you’re up an additional $55,000.

I’m using the same principles today in the commercial arena buying larger buildings with similar strategies. I can’t buy a $3 million building with the technique, but there are many other things that can be worked out in the commercial world. Nowadays I use strategies that involve complex negotiations with the sellers where I convince them to carry paper or lease option the building. I can also borrow money from banks for commercial investments giving the bank that piece of real estate I am buying as collateral as well as existing pieces of real estate as collateral. I call it redundant collateralization and am seeing more and more of it every day from banks.

If you can go from broke to seven figures in one real estate cycle as I’ve suggested easily making yourself $1 million during your first real estate cycle, then just imagine what you can do in your second real estate cycle. I plan to be carrying a real estate portfolio with the value north of $10 million and have that portfolio under my control before the real estate market begins to show any gains. I expect the gains will begin to show sometime around 2013 or later. Can you imagine if you’re holding a $10 million portfolio and the real estate market goes up a meager five percentage points? It doesn’t matter how much money I made that year in income because as long as I can keep my business afloat I am up half a million dollars in equity in one year. If I’m ever lucky enough to see the crazy increases that we saw in 2005, can you imagine what it will feel like to see a 20 percent increase in values in one year when you’re holding a portfolio worth eight figures?

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt

Let’s dream about holding a portfolio worth $12 million when the market goes up 20 percent giving me a one-year tax free gain of $2,400,000. I believe that this is a realistic expectation for my second cycle of the real estate business. In the year 2025, I will be sixty years old. I feel certain that if I continue to just do what I’ve been doing my whole life, I surely should have a net worth of many millions of dollars strictly for my real estate holdings. I know of no other way to make money in these types of numbers as easily as I do in the real estate business. I don’t deny that other people have the means to make this kind of money or even more, but I am not familiar with those methods. I consider myself an expert on real estate, and I certainly feel as some of the things I’m talking about here will happen to me as long as I’m lucky enough to still be breathing when 2025 rolls around.

This is why I love the real estate business, and this is why I’m pumped every day to get out and keep it going because I can see my future is filled with bright and sunny days. I feel terrific about getting up in the morning and going to work, and when you have that kind of attitude, there’s no way you can fail. This morning I woke up at 5:30 a.m. and went to my office building to reorganize some equipment in our communication room. I’m spending some afternoon hours on a Sunday working on my book and feeling great about my possibilities. If you love what you do, you will be much happier and much more successful at whatever you try.

I don’t even consider the things that I did this morning or writing this book as work in the regular way people think of it. Obviously, it is work that I’m doing, but I don’t have a negative feeling about the word work or what it entails. I get a terrific sense of accomplishment from getting up in the morning and making things that happen furthering along my career each day in baby steps toward the ultimate goal of massive wealth accumulation. I hope that some of you reading this book will really grasp the things I’m talking about above. I feel that may be the most important message in the entire book.

Here’s an idea you should think about after you buy your first property. Make sure that you take some time after you bought it to really analyze what’s going to be involved in being a real estate landlord. If you like it or even love it, let’s get the party started, and if you don’t get out right now. If you’re going to proceed in the business just for the money but despise dealing with tenants and working on buildings, you really have to be careful and reconsider what you’re about to do. This business is not for wimps, and it takes a heck of a lot of guts to be a real estate investor. To get to the level that I have achieved, you may have to take half of your net worth and roll the dice on some large commercial building risking the twenty years of hard work on one deal. Until you go through that process, I can never truly explain to you what that will feel like. My name is Phil, and I’m addicted to real estate.

Phil Falcone is a Philadelphia area full-time real estate investor who started in the business at the age of 23, and whose portfolio today includes commercial offices, apartment buildings, and residential homes. As the owner of Falcone Real Estate Holding Corporation, he prides himself on his non-stop real estate focus and determination, his ability to be a great professional speaker, and on his fun, outside-the-box approach to real estate.

A fear of bubble comes in the mind of everyone who is looking to buy or invest in real estate now a day. But without looking at facts one should not come up with any conclusion that speculates real estate bubble in India.

Indian real estate industry is growing with a CAGR of more than 30% on the back of robust economic performance of the country. After a little downturn in 2008-09, it has revived rapidly and shown tremendous growth. The market value of under construction project has increased from $70 bn at end-2006 to $102 bn by end-June 2010, which is equal to 8.2 per cent of India’s nominal GDP for 2009. Besides the Govt. initiatives- liberalization of foreign direct investment norms in real estate in 2005, introduction of the SEZ Act, and allowing private equity funds into real estate, key factors contributed to this tremendous growth were ‘lower price’ which has attracted buyers and investors not only from India but NRIs & Foreign funds have also deployed money in to Indian market. In addition to that, aggressively launching of new projects by builders had further improved this positive sentiment which paved the way for rapid growth in market last year.

Now question is whether any Bubble is forming in Indian real estate market? Let’s look at the recent housing bubble in USA, Europe and middle-east. Beside economic factors, key contributing factors in those bubbles were rapid rise in price beyond affordability, home ownership mania, belief that real estate is good investment and feel good factor among which rapid price hike is a key cause of any real estate bubble.

Comparing it with Indian scenario, all those factors are working in major cities of India specifically Tier-I cities. Prices has skyrocketed and crossed earlier pick of 2007 in the cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Gurgoan, Chandigarh & Pune. Even in some cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Gurgoan and Noida prices have gone by 25-30% higher than the pick of the market in 2007. However during economic downturn in 2008-09, prices fell by 20-25% in these cities. Other factor is home ownership mania and belief that real estate is good investment. Need based buyers and investors were attracted by lower prices in the end of 2009 and started pouring money in real estate market. Tier-I cities Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Bangaluru, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata has shown maximum investment in real estate projects. Developers have taken the advantage of this improved sentiment and started launching new projects. This has further boosted confidence among those buyers and investors who had missed opportunity to buy or invest earlier which has further increased price unrealistically fast. And at last feel good factor which is also working since last few months. The key factor of any bubble market, whether we are talking about the stock market or the real estate market is known as ‘feel good factor’, where everyone feels good. For the last one year the Indian real estate market has risen dramatically and if you bought any property, you more than likely made money. This positive return for so many investors fueled the market higher as more people saw this and decided to invest in real estate before they ‘missed out’. This feel good factor is at the heart of any bubble and it has happened numerous times in the past including during the stock market crash of 2008, the Japanese real estate bubble of the 1980’s, and even Irish property market in 2000. The feel good factor had completely taken over the property market until recently and this can be a key contributing factor for bubble in Indian property market. Even after flow of negative news on real estate market correction and/or bubble, people are still highly positive on real estate growth in India.

Looking at above factors, there is possibility of bubble formation in few cities in India but it can harm buyers and investors only if it bursts. Generally bubble form with artificial internal pressure and can stay for long time if not acted by external force. Similarly, in case of real estate market, bubble can burst if demand and price start falling suddenly and drastically. Few findings of recent research by IKON Marketing Consultants throw more light on this. According to that majority of investors from Delhi, Mumbai, Bangaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Gurgoan, Chandigarh & Pune are now not willing to invest at this level of price as not seen any rise recently. Majority of them are about to exit and book profit on their earlier investment. Other factor is demand supply gap. In city like Mumbai were around 6500 apartment with 45 million square feet space is under construction but majority of developers are worried on lack of 100% booking. Same situation is with Delhi and other major towns of India which has demonstrated higher than expected enthusiasm. Though developers giving positive outlook of market while interviewing them but their confidence level is very low which is giving negative signals of falling demand in nearest future. Third important factor is expected outflow of foreign fund. India, as an attractive investment destination a huge fund has been deployed in Indian property market by foreign institutes and NRIs. But now property market in US, Middle east and Europe has been stabilized and started growing gradually which is attracting foreign funds due to lower prices. A huge fund is expected to withdraw from India as foreign investors see greater opportunities in those countries. All these factors may act as external pressure which may lead to bubble burst.

Considering above facts, IKON Marketing Consultants predict that there is a possibilities of real estate bubble in Tier-I cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Gurgoan, Chandigarh & Pune. However, IKON does not see much trouble in overall market as Tier-II and Tier-III cities are growing gradually and are the backbone of Indian real estate industry. According to IKON’s research, Indian real estate industry may see some down turn in 2011. It may start from 1st quarter of 2011 and last up to 3rd quarter of 2012. However it will be not too intense as it was during recession period. It is expected that price may slash by 10-15% during this phase of correction but under certain situation it may last up to end of 2013 with price correction of 30% specifically in Tier-I cities.

By its nature, a bubble is a short-term phenomenon while Indian property market has shown continuous growth, apart from periodic adjustments, in the last few years. One should not forget that there are more than 400 million Indians waiting to hit the middle class group which will require more than 75 lacs housing units by 2013. Whether bubble burst or see a bit trouble in short-term, growth story will remain intact for Indian real estate industry. However affordability is the most important factor when it comes to housing prices and middle class housing is much levels of affordability in most of the major cities in India. People, who compare India with developed European cities, forget the huge difference in affordability in both areas. Of course there is a huge demand for housing but they can only buy what they can afford.

Azaz Motiwala is a marketing consultant and Founder of IKON Marketing Consultants, a leading marketing consulting firm help clients to solve their marketing problems and achieve their marketing objectives with sustainable business growth. IKON serves wide variety of Industry including Construction and Real Estate for real estate marketing in India