Are you finally ready to start finding great real estate deals that you can wholesale for a fast profit? Well, let's get a big picture overview of some of the various ways that you can find deals as a real estate investor or real estate wholesaler, and in future articles I will break each one down in detail.

Before I get started, I want to point out that there are dozens, if not hundreds, of variations on these methods for finding deals. You may talk to another investor who is doing something similar (mailing a different list of people, using a different flyer method, and so on). So, to spare you the monotony of endless variations, I will try to discuss some of the more common and/or more effective methods I know of for finding real estate deals from years of personal experience and the experience of the hundreds of wholesalers who I work with.

How Investors Find Deals

According to a survey of investors in Gary Keller's book, "The Millionaire Real Estate Investor," 32% of their deals came from networking, 28% came from real estate agents and the MLS, 10% from driving and walking neighborhoods, 9% from newspapers, 7% from foreclosure listings, 4% from For Sale By Owner (FSBO), 3% from Internet and Database research, 2% from targeted marketing and 5% from other sources. So, there are many ways to find wholesale deals, we will be focusing on locating motivated sellers.

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Dividends are transfers of cash by the corporation to its owners—portions of a company’s profits paid out to the company’s shareholders.

Every company has to decide what to do with its earnings. It can plow them all back into the company to fund growth; make acquisitions; or undertake special projects. Or, it can siphon off some and return them as dividends to shareholders.

Reasonable minds can differ as to which is better, dividend-payers or non-payers. Those who think that a dividend-paying company is usually a better company cite factors like these:

--The company must be financially solid; otherwise the Board of Directors would not pay out the money.

--Cash flow must be plentiful. The dividend probably reflects management’s confidence in the stability and growth of future earnings, quite possibly based on information that is not publicly available.

--A company that pays dividends will probably invest the earnings it does retain more carefully. The dividend program imposes discipline upon management, which makes better decisions about what to do with the remaining money.

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If everything you knew about money was wrong, wouldn't you want to find out today? Most of what our parents and grandparents taught us about money, investing, mortgages, and financial security is wrong. They taught us to go to school get a job, work for the same company for thirty years, collect a pension, make a big down payment, pay off the house as soon as possible and the list goes on. The truth is that the rules of money have changed. While this advice worked 30 years ago, it does not work today.

97% of Americans are currently retiring with incomes below poverty levels. It is time to stop functioning on outdated financial information. Only 5% of US homeowners will ever pay off their homes. You have a 95% chance of failure when it comes to paying off your home. That is why you need to manage your home and your mortgage differently if you ever want to become financially independent.

Lets take for example two different people who each buy a $200,000 home. Each Earns $70,000 a year and has $40,000 in savings. Person 1 believes in the traditional way of paying off the mortgage as soon as possible. He is very committed to this so he gets a 15 year mortgage at 6.38% APR and puts all $40,000 of his savings down as a 20% down payment, leaving him zero dollars to invest. He has a monthly payment of $1,383. He has a tax rate of 32% so his net after tax cost per month is $1,227. He is so committed to the fallacy of paying down the mortgage that he sends the mortgage company an extra $100 a month in order to reduce the principle faster.


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In today's world of day-trading, mega-corporations, and high powered investment firms, it's easy to get discouraged when looking at your retirement plans. You can get lost in the notion of being a small fish in a very large ocean of investment options. It's at this precise point that it becomes crucial for you to adjust your paradigm, or way of thinking, in order to meet the challenges you're presented with head on. Think of this mental re-conditioning as a way to trim your sails in the face of today's financial storms.

To begin with, in order to be truly successful, or in other words to emulate the behaviors of truly successful people, there are a few key principles you must understand and apply to your daily practices.

The first and most important of these principles is that your life is and will be EXACTLY what you make of it. It sounds over-simplified, I know, but hear me out. The world functions down to the smallest atom on certain unchangeable natural laws. What goes up must come down, objects in motion tend to stay in motion, and so forth. But the most profound of these laws is that of cause and effect, a principle which simply states that a process must be initiated in order to carry itself out to completion. A similar concept which springs forth from cause and effect, and the core of what we're talking about here, is called the law of attraction, or manifestation, or any other name it has been called by. It is simply the force which carries an idea from its initial intent to its final result. What this means to you and I is that whatever intent or attitude we place into being has the full potential to be made manifest, like a message sent out to the universal order that will, in fact be answered in one manner or another. So getting back to the simple, what we think is what we will become, simply because we have started its creation by thinking of it.

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Real estate is not just about buying or selling a house. It is about educating consumers so they can make the best possible decision, according to Baldus Real Estate, Inc. which is teaming up with the College of Southern Maryland to provide existing agents with more educational opportunities, starting with a Maryland Ethics and Agency: Law and Responsibilities class April 23.
“Existing agents need to renew their licenses every two years and continuing education is big component of the process,” said Sharon E. Martlock, an associate broker and the director of training for Baldus Institute of Real Estate.

“CSM is excited about partnering with Baldus Real Estate, Inc. to provide real estate training. Through the Corporate Center’s continuing education offerings, businesses like Baldus Real Estate, Inc. can collaborate to bring training locally to meet the needs of their business and clients,” said Linda Schleip of the Corporate Center.

“Reputation and service are the two qualities that define a great real estate agent. In order to provide the best customer service, an agent has to know and understand the standards of practice such as what are the ethics involved in working with other agents, clients and lenders; what are the disclosure laws; what is illegal flipping and what are the signs of predatory lending? We need to be educated if we are going to give our clients appropriate counsel,” said Martlock, who pursued real estate 25 years ago after being dissatisfied with the answers provided by people who were supposed to be assisting her in her house purchase. “I realized I could do it and I could do it better,” she said.

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Think about owning a diversified portfolio of stocks that pays you to invest, in the form of dividends. Do you own a credit card? Well then you probably understand how fast interest expense can add up, becoming a financial nightmare. The opposite is true with dividend investing and how fast your dividend income can add up. Even better, when dividend paying companies you own increase their dividend payouts, your income increases! There are many questions to ask when investing in dividend paying stocks some of which are:

How long has the company paid dividends ? (Check the dividend yield and history)

There are amazing dividend paying companies such as Colgate Palmolive (NY:CL) (yield 2.0%) that have paid dividends every year since 1895 or Proctor & Gamble (NY:PG) (yield 1.9%) since 1891. These tremendous dividend histories confirm the companies' commitment to paying dividends. Normally dividend histories of 5 to 10 years plus are considered good.

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There are many people who are interested in forex trading. But before you start trading in forex, getting a good online forex trading education is important. The forex market is largely a technical market with its own forex terms and processes so it is important you grasp the fundamentals with an online forex trading education.

Why Online Forex Trading Education?

Most people who want to try forex trading are often busy with other aspects of life to take care of. They probably do not have the time to attend a course on forex trading. Therefore, an online forex trading education is more suited.

Since it’s online, you can take your time to read and digest the information at your own pace. Also most of the basics of forex trading can be found online for free. There are tons of websites that provide free forex trading courses and tutorials.

There are also free forex trading seminars online available plus advanced forex trading courses online such as the forexmentor program. While it’s usually not free, the costs are pretty cheap compared to attending a forex trading course in a classroom.

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There is a lot to know about investing. It all depends on what type of investing you are interested in as well. There are many different types of investment options out there. So what is investing, specifically?

When you invest, you are paying in a certain amount of money that you expect to grow with time. Most investments are considered long term investments meaning you will not get your money back right away but if you leave your money in, it can multiply dramatically over time. Types of Investing: Real Estate Investing, Bonds, Stock Investing, Mutual Funds, 401K. With stock investing, many of the younger investors see the market as a way to get rich quick. They are quick to sell off the stock that they have when it goes up or if they see it go down a little, they get nervous and sell it off. If they hold the investment and ride it out, they are much more likely to see it grow.

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