Our October meeting had a little something for everyone.  Debby Verbeten was with us from All States Investments, LLC to shed some light on notes, note buying, and seller financing.  Whether you are looking for a quicker way to sell your own properties for top dollar quicker, or you are trying to figure out a way to buy more homes from private sellers using THEIR money, Debby showed you how she structures seller financing and creates a note.  This strategy works even with an existing mortgage in place and it does NOT need to be assumable!  If you struggle for private money and find yourself leaving the deal table with a motivated seller because they do not own their home free and clear, then you need to sit down with Debby and have her help you put something together that's a win win.  If you're looking for another way to put your own money to work for you, she is also an expert in the note buying community.

You can see more about Debby and her company and services at http://allstatesinvestments.com/

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Debby's Bio:

As a principal of All States Investments, LLC, Debby is trained in the manufacturing of quality notes as well as the acquisition of performing, nonperforming and defaulted notes.  She has over 25 years of experience in Real Estate and she is recognized as an expert in her field. Debby is one of the founders of All States Investments, LLC and her experience and driving force serve as vital assets to the successful day-to-day operation of All States Investments, LLC

In her spare time, Debby enjoys traveling, scuba diving and spending time with her family.

Then, we heard from Katie Felten with MKE Live from Milwaukee who shared some information and tips on how we can all be using social media like LinkedIn, Twitter, and FaceBook to further grow our business, get leads, sell houses, and even get private money lenders with ease!!!  Katie is a social media expert and her partner, Dave, has a special niche in working with the real estate industry.  If you've been perplexed by how to use this stuff for more than just finding out what your friend in Florida ate for breakfast, then this information will surely propel your business!  Katie and Dave were super kind enough to give our members FREE access to a 70 page detailed e-book that Dave wrote specifically for realtors.  There are a LOT of gems in there that we can start applying TODAY!!  They are also hosting a live webinar for us to attend on October 1st at 10am.  Check the homepage for the details on that!

Katie's Bio:         _________________________________________
Katie Felten, President and majority partner of MKELive, is recognized as a leading trainer, consultant and speaker on new media.

A natural networker, Katie signed up as a LinkedIn user in 2006 and immediately recognized it as a tool that could exponentially expand peoples' opportunities in their careers or sales efforts. Her skill in teaching and communicating the useful tools of networking through new media and face-to-face communications led to the creation of MKELive (www.mkelive.com ), an event and consulting firm that provides training, consulting and event services to organizations throughout Wisconsin and the Midwest.

Today, Katie is frequently asked to speak to professional organizations about LinkedIn and social networking media, and has been quoted in articles from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, New North B2B, and been featured on multiple blogs. More than 5,000 people have heard Katie speak since April 2009.

Our June meeting was one that nobody could afford to miss!  Bob Norton flew in from Utah to share his very simple system on how he makes over $150k per month flipping homes.  Bob is a self-made millionaire in real estate through flipping homes (wholesaling and rehabbing) and we got an intimate opportunity to spend time in our monthly club meeting asking him questions and learning from him!!  This was a meeting that could change your real estate career, and one that everyone took something home from.  Thank you Bob for spending so much time with us and sharing all you had to give!!

Learn more about Bob by clicking here.

Want to break into more of the hot real estate market out there, but just find yourself without enough cash to buy the deals?  Our April meeting featured Joe McCall, a lease options expert from St. Louis, MO.  Joe has found a unique niche in lease optioning homes he does NOT own!  He matches motivated sellers with buyers who cannot yet qualify for a loan and collects the fee in between.  Joe came to Green Bay to share how he does this and how YOU can do it anywhere in the country from the comfort of your home computer!  This is your opportunity to make some money in real estate without buying a thing. 

If you'd like to check out what you missed, go to Joe's website at:  Wholesaling Lease Options

Bonnie Zagora was born and raised in Poland and received her registered nurse degree in Krakow. She came to the United States as a legal immigrant in 1987 and joined her mother who was already living in the USA for 8 years. Due to an unfortunate circumstance, three months after arriving from Poland, she and her mother found themselves homeless after her mother lost the 6-flat where they lived. Having been in the United States for only three months, Bonnie did not understand what was happening. She found a real estate sales person by calling a newspaper and the agent helped them to understand the situation. They became good friends, and the rest, as they say, is history. Bonnie never worked in her field as a nurse. Instead, she became a full time real estate broker in 1988, working for small and large offices including over 6 years with Re/Max. To this day, Bonnie has spent thousands on continuing education including Northwestern University. She has bought distressed properties, including apartment buildings, single family homes, condos, townhouses, and vacant lots. Today she is a real estate investor with a broad range of real estate investment knowledge specializing in helping people in foreclosure.

Our October meeting was a great success!  We had Maria Triantos, the Midwest Regional Director from Security Trust Company come in from Illinois to share the ins and outs of investing inside of retirement accounts.  She shared the different types of retirement accounts that can be used and how to use them.  She also went into great detail the different ways to invest outside of Wall Street.  Using a self-directed IRA, we can grow our money tax deferred or use a self-directed Roth IRA to grow it tax free!  Maria shared the things that cannot be done and the legal ways around those items where there were any to be found.  She also gave us other creative ideas to investing in not only real estate, but other things as well.  Partnering with others in the group is the best way for us to all grow together and legally use our funds.  There were some great insider tips that were also shared, but too many to put in here.  If you missed this meeting, you truly missed a great opportunity!  Check out the link below to download Maria's PowerPoint presentation from the night, and feel free to call or email her with any questions you might have or to have her help you set up an account.

Thank you Maria!

Steve Cook came to our July meeting and shared his inspiring beginnings in real estate with us.  After listening to a guy who has made millions in the industry who started with absolutely nothing...not even knowlegde or experience, there was no way any of us in the room could deny that it is possible for any of us in any area!  Steve shared what we need to do to get started and to get it done.  He also shared a few nuggets for those of us who have been doing deals to be able to make more.  He specifically talked about breeding Birddogs and getting the best deals to come to you.

Then....Steve went in a direction that he is most passionate today.  After teaching so many to be so successful and make LOTS of money in real estate, Steve came to realize that families and lives were falling apart from the business "monsters" that were created.  He took some time last night and shared the pitfalls of "success" or what is perceived as success with us.  He talked about getting our vision for our life down BEFORE laying out our goals for business and then laying out the business plan that will achieve those goals.  I noticed that his words struck a cord with many who were there.  A few people came up to me after the event and made specific comments on how it has affected their thinking right away and they had a lot to go home and think and talk about.  Steve Cook still does real estate deals and he still makes great money doing it.  However....he spends most of his time today coaching and helping to fix people instead of fixing houses.  This is an extreme passion of his and the real reason for his continued success through the changing markets.  To learn more about this concept, visit http:www.lifeonaire.com  .

Shaun McCloskey from Short Sale Wealth http://www.shortsalewealth.com/ joined Steve Cook on the trip to Green Bay!  He mostly stayed in the background, but he spent a lot of time after the meeting talking with us.  Steve and Shaun stayed until after 10:30pm answering the questions from our club.  Then a couple of us stayed and talked with them until 1:00 in the morning!

If you ever want to have Shaun or Steve answer any of your questions, along with others across the country (many of whom are being personally coached by them), you can simply get a FREE login account for the community forum on Steve's website at http://www.flippinghomes.com/  Steve is there almost everyday answering the questions that are posted.

About Steve Cook:

Steve has been investing in real estate since 1998 and has experienced up AND down markets.  He started with no money, no credit and no knowledge.  If you are in the same boat, you need to hear his story and how he got started and actually did deals.  Today, he has personally done over 450 deals and taught thousands of investors!  Steve is willing to share everything he knows and all of his secrets.  He believes that investors don't compete with each other, but complete each other.  That's why he will tell you all he can and not hold anything back.  You will enjoy learning from his wins AND his losses to help you do what works in the future. 

More about Steve at http://www.flippinghomes.com/ and http://www.stevecook.com/ and http://www.lifeonaire.com/

Entity Selection, Protection and Taxes

Ken Zacharias, CPA from Schenck Business Solutions shared his weath of knowledge and specific real estate investing expertise with us!  At our May meeting, Wade Micoley could not say enough great things about Ken.  Even after 25 successful years of real estate investing, Wade doesn't do anything without first running it by Ken to do the numbers.  We were fortunate to have him speak to us and answer our questions.  He shared insight on topics such as: Entity Selection, Taxes, Self-Employment, Bookkeeping, Starker Exchanges, Capital Gains, and more!

There was a lot of great info and Q & A exchange....too much to go through here.  However, one of the things that was heavily discussed was setting up an LLC.  You can do it yourself online for $130.  I promised the link and here it is:  http://www.wdfi.org/corporations/forms/corp183forms.htm  This link is only good for an LLC structuring in the state of Wisconsin.

If you'd like to have Ken working for you, call him for a consultation at 920-455-4207 or email ken.zacharias@schencksolutions.com

Bio on Ken Zacharias:

Ken has a broad background in the income tax and general business consulting areas. He has extensive experience in taxation issues concerning real estate, including like-kind exchanges, use of partnerships and LLCs, construction and developer issues, and capital gains planning. Ken also does extensive work in the manufacturing area. Ken has been with Schenck Business Solutions since 1999, when Shinners, Hucovski & Company merged with Schenck. Prior to the merger, Ken had been with Shinners since 1985 and served as a shareholder.

Areas of Specialization

Taxation Real Estate Counseling

Education

St. Norbert College, BBA, 1985 Certified Public Accountant, 1988 More than 40 hours per year of continuing professional education with major emphasis on topics that affect the real estate area.

Professional Memberships

Wisconsin Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Member American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Member

Community Involvement

Children's Hospital President's Council Children's Hospital Spring Reception Chairman Brown County United Way, past Allocations Committee Member Green Bay West Optimist Club, past President Youth Basketball and Baseball Coach

Wade Micoley on Investing

Hello Everyone, I just spent over an hour putting all the great notes from the May meeting on here only to hit one wrong key and wipe it all out.  Hopefully, I will have the time (and ambition) to do it all over again later and get it here for you.

All I can say is if you missed the May meeting with Wade Micoley, you missed some of the best information anyone has ever been willing to share!!!  For those of you who thought the meeting was just going to be a pitch fest on doing business with Micoley & Company Real Estate and what they can do for you, you were waaaaaay off!  Wade is a seasoned investor with over $65Million in real estate holdings and he shared his top keys to success with us.  If you ever have the chance to hear from him, do NOT miss it.  He was fantastic and held nothing back from buying to selling, from residential to commercial to mega commercial, from flipping to holding, and the keys to your foundation in this business....it was all there!

(keep checking back and I will do my best to get back here and retype all of my notes)

PS.  You can see the article he referenced here: http://nreionline.com/finance/news/scores_smaller_banks_projected_collapse_0506/index.html

Bio on Wade Micoley:

Broker/Owner, Wade Micoley, founded Micoley & Company Realtors based on the real estate systems that he developed over his 13 years as Broker/Owner of a top producing RE/MAX franchise.

Throughout his 20+ years as an active real estate agent in the Green Bay area Wade has become well known for his high level of integrity and sensitivity for the concern of the community. During his tenure with the RE/MAX franchise Wade began to recognize the value of a systematic approach to the real estate process. So, with a core administrative staff focused on transforming the real estate transaction into an innovative "team concept" system, the independently owned Micoley & Company Realtors was born in 2003.

Prior to his establishment of Micoley & Company, Wade was well known for his success as a results driven top producing agent. Thanks to Wade's leadership during his time as the Broker/Owner of RE/MAX 1st Advantage his team was regularly ranked in the top three in closed transactions for RE/MAX companies nationwide. While providing keen leadership to his team Wade simultaneously was continuing to sell real estate at a record breaking pace, allowing him to be regularly ranked in the top 10 for RE/MAX agents nationwide.

Wade continues to be known for his personal success, and his leadership of top producing agents. Micoley & Company Realtors continues to be home to many of Wade's RE/MAX team members, along with many other experienced and knowledgeable agents. Because of Wade's philosophies to only hire full time professionals who value continuing education and training the Micoley & Company team continues to close the most transactions per agent throughout Green Bay and the surrounding areas.

Presently, Wade has been focusing on continuing to develop his already extensive experience in land development and real estate marketing. Wade has been developing land for over 10 years, and continues to develop numerous residential subdivisions throughout several counties in Wisconsin. In addition to residential sales, Wade and the agent sales force are expanding into the commercial market and plan to become the most knowledgeable team in the Green Bay and surrounding area in this field of the industry. Presently, Wade and 18 agents have successfully completed courses 101 and 102 of the coveted Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) designation.

When he has free time Wade enjoys his hobbies of playing guitar, riding his Harley motorcycle, and golfing. Wade also especially enjoys spending time at his Lakewood cottage with his family - wife of 20+ years, Marla, and two sons, Mitch and Jordan.

Wade was born and raised in Oconto Falls, and is currently a resident of Suamico.

Wade is also the owner of Tycore Built Building Company and W.M. Development.

Our first meeting was a great success!  Charlie Pfrang (see bio below) came up from Port Washington, WI to share his many years of investing experience with us.  He started the night out talking about setting goals.  He said that in order to be successful in real estate, you need to be flexible and willing to multi-task.  He also recommended reading the book, "Think and Grow Rich"...and then go back and read it often.

Next, Charlie talked about his main area of investment focus, "OTO" or Occupy to Own.  He uses the word 'occupy' instead of 'rent' to make sure and get the point across that he does not want to be a landlord...these occupants WILL buy the property.  Charlie uses Credit Coach of WI to help get the occupants ready to qualify for a loan and purchase his properties in the future.  He also only does repairs on the home for the first 30 days and after that, they are responsible for those costs.  His profits are figured for each property on a very fair and upfront basis of either $20k or 15%, whichever is greater, after all costs.  We talked in depth about how he gets the homes ready, how he finds the occupants, what he does in different problem scenarios, and much more.

Then, we moved on to talk about a growing sector in today's market, Short Sales.  Charlie discussed the pros and cons of working this sector and some things to be aware of, like 2nd mortgages and liens.  There was a lot of group discussion on the topic and some great insight from Debbie Sesselmann of Micoley & Company Real Estate. 

The next topic of discussion was rentals.  Charlie talked about buying properties today for very low prices (and low interest rates) and holding them for 5 to 10 years and then going to refinance them after they appreciate to use the money to pay for other stuff (ie: a new car, college tuitions, anything else you might want to save for).  When you refinance, you pay some fees but you do not pay any taxes on that money.  If you sell, then you have to pay the taxes.  Charlie had a great recommendation for getting and keeping tenants...go for longer leases (like 2 or 3 years instead of the tradional 1 year lease).  Your tenant will be excited to see that their rent will be locked in for longer and you can be excited about not having to worry about the expenses of turning tenants all the time.  Charlie also threw a tip out there that we should all go and look into commercial lending and learn more about it and the advantages it might offer us.

We then spent some time talking about the government program, TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) and what we should all be doing to get this money for investors and help the communities and programs that have this money use it in the best possible way to do what it was intended to do.  Charlie had some great ideas and I am sure we will be talking more about this!  Watch the site for any specific direction on where you can get involved and make yourself heard.

The rest of the evening was spent talking about some of the other areas that Charlie has been working in, including adult group homes for BIG money, and answering questions.  Charlie closed with a list of properties that he has already fixed, occupied and ready to go that he is willing to split the profit on.  He plans to make those available to you here on our website. 

Charlie also has a 3 day seminar/outing planned in Port Washington in May that is limited to only 7 people!  Details of that workshop will be posted here on the website as well, so check back.