I'm desperate and need your help
 

I've been a member for a few months now and am amazed by the amount of profitable things people have shared. I love this board. I wish I had more to contribute and I will try to do so.

But I come to you now in extreme pain. I'm a real estate investor by trade and have been burned badly by the market. I can't sell my properties. Plus I started a speculative strip center in another state that has been difficult to lease up. I've put thousands of dollars into this thing and need more money to build out the spaces for the tenants.

Plus I paid a well known copywriter who has since passed away thousands of dollars to put together a promotion that he had started. He sat on it for a number of months and then died unexpectantly and the estate told me too bad so sad.

Before that this copywriter convinced me to invest thousands of dollars with his friend who told me in person that this other promotion had already been tested and just needed money to roll out. To appease this well known copywriter I gave the money and then found out this other guy blew the money.
This promotion was not tested and he was using my money. I was the guinea pig.

All of you may be saying he is naive, dumb, stupid for trusting all these people. You'd be right - I come from a Catholic background where we're supposed to believe in the goodness of people. And I was honored that this well known copywriter would even work with me. But as I found out other people also lost money.

Forget it. I've now come to my senses. No more trusting. Due diligence. All that stuff.

Anyway these past 7-8 months have been a total disaster and I'm leveraged to the hilt. Now to get to the point.

DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY IDEAS TO MAKE QUICK CASH? ANYTHING THAT WOULD HELP ME! I'M OPEN TO ANYTHING! I"M DESPERATE AND WILL TAKE ACTION ON YOUR IDEAS!

THANK YOU!!

P.S. I wasn't going to post this because I was so embarrassed by my mistakes. However, the reality is I need your help.

OK. Let's start the damage control. First thing...a clear eyed assessment.
 

Hey Killarney,

As a "first responder"...I have to look around and make an assessment. What is going on? Is there immediate danger? What is taking place?

I could be wrong, but your "hit" isn't over yet. What did you get from the well known high profile "gurus" you worked with? Anything at all?

Did they discuss their plan? Or supposed plan?

I'd start with the out of state project...can you dump it quickly and take the loss or would that be devastating? What dragon or wolf is knocking on your door and can not be put off any longer?

Do you have a clear NEON SIGN view of what is going on, or are you too close to the subject?

Grab a piece of paper and list what happens today if NOTHING happens today? Is someone going to sue you? Will you lose your home, your car, or any personal property?

Which of your real estate specs can you get out of without loss? Although it may feel that way because they didn't perform up to expectattions.

Killarney, you start with a clear headed assessment of where you are standing. And then take a deep breath.

You have learned a lot (which at the present doesn't pay the bills, but in the not too distant future, it certainly could)

Put each property on a 3 x 5 card with the price you paid, how leveraged you are...and put them in front of you to look at.

What do you need to do to turn the corner? Get tenants? Will that work? IS that the answer the gurus had for you?

Let us know a few of the details, and this group of "thinkers" can and may come up with some viable steps you can take.

Gordon Jay Alexander

Re: I'm desperate and need your help
 

Gordon and Everyone,

I'll give more details. First the speculative real estate project. I bought 4.5 acres of vacant land and a building leased by Dollar General. I built an 8,000 sq. ft. strip center on part of the land and the remaining would be built on in the future. The only reason I proceeded with the sale is that I had 2 letters of intent from well known tenants.

One backed out after the fact and as I found out afterwards the other one never signed the letter of intent and the bank still gave the loan. As I've found out over the past few months there were a lot of "questionable practices" by those involved - the appraiser, real estate agent, bank and seller.

Up to this point I had been exclusively involved with single family homes - buy, fix and sell. But I wanted to get involved in commercial real estate and took the plunge. My down payment was $168,000 and I've also put in another $130,000 to cover expenses and negative cash flow. A lot of this has come from credit lines I have established for my real estate. Tenant lease up has been slow but is now picking up after a number of months. I've had to offer some free rent and am striving to break out even once the building is leased up. To break out even overall with a sale I have to have the building leased (to be continued)

Re: I'm desperate and need your help
 

Part B-I've always wanted to get involved with direct marketing projects. So as I mentioned in the 1st post I contacted a very well known copywriter. I had read his newsletters on the web. He mentioned he had tons of ideas for different promotions but didn't have the time. But you could hire him at 15k and he would write an ad for the promotion and we would share in the profits. I contacted him because as I said he was "the Best." After I sent the money(he liked handshake agreements) we would get started. Well it took me a few weeks to get a hold of him and then he changed his tune and wanted me to come up with my own idea and he would write the ad. Then he said his friend was running a skin creme promotion that had been tested and just needed money to roll out. Gary said this promotion was a winner and I could make a lot of money. By the way a picture of his girlfriend was in the ad. So I sent a ton more money. A few weeks more went by and Gary finally called. I gave him an idea for the promotion - a real estate information product. He said he would get to it soon - but in April he died. Long story short I contacted the estate to try to get my money back and it was a losing cause. This copywriter might have been honest in the past but as I found out I wasn't the first guy he ripped off. In the later years he was going off reputation and I bought into it

Re: I'm desperate and need your help
 

Back to the other promotion. Weeks went by with the other promotion and what I found out is that I had been lied to. The promotion had not been tested and ready to roll out. My money was used to do the testing. This guy however does I believe have some morals and he was being used by Gary just like I was. He's trying to make good with me but in the meantime I'm out that money.
Part c- my present real estate projects. Prior to the last few months my rehabs would sell within 30 days. But this real estate crash happened like overnight and I'm stuck with 2 houses that wont sell. I bought both with lines of credit. There is equity in both and I've reduced the prices but they still haven't sold.

So as you can see I'm highly leveraged and have lost thousands of dollars. My cash flow is nil. I'll end this diatribe in the next post with what I have learned..............

Re: I'm desperate and need your help
 

Like many of you I want to be wealthy. I have a love for doing 3 things. Real estate, directing marketing promotions and turning around failing businesses with powerful marketing. I was living comfortably until the last 10 months. Maybe things were too easy for me.

I used to be a Catholic priest and a lot of my trusting others comes from catholic guilt and believing all people are good and giving them the benefit of the doubt. I also havea fault of wanting to please people and not saying no to them. The experiences I've shared with you have changed me. I'm looking at business in a whole new light. I now trust no one until we do business a few times together. And I've also learned to check out referrals. There's a myth out there that just because someone refers someone that person is reputable. Hasn't been true in my experience. I need to concentrate on what I want to do with my business career. But in the meantime I'M STILL LOOKING FOR ANY MONEY MAKING IDEAS TO INCREASE MY CASH FLOW!!! THANK YOU!!

Re: I'm desperate and need your help
 

It's getting close to the Holiday BUYING season.

You said you have some space available in your strip mall.

Set up a "Christmas Craft" show...where you rent space for $500 a booth for the Holiday from Nov 15 thru Dec 25. 20 Booths gross $10,000.

The "Craft" stores and Churches know people who make crafts to sell.

You'd have to run some local ads AND...this lends itself to Free PR from local media.

Or set up a "Business Fair" where local businesses would rent a space to display their wares or services. Beauty Salon doing new hairdos, Nail Salon doing new nail designs, carpet cleaner, painter, plumber, roofer, water softener, pest control, realtor, bank.

Which reminds me;
I did the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Annual, "Aspen Home Show" in the banquet room of the Holiday Inn on Hwy 82 just before you get into Aspen. First time I rented 30 booths for $500ea...2nd, 40 booths for $600, 3rd, 50 booths for $750.

AND....I did a "Holiday Craft Fair" in the same room, one Christmas. Started the day after T'Day thru Sunday at 6pm...the biggest shopping weekend of the year. Rented 50 booths for $300 for the weekend.

Ran some ads in newspaper, radio and local Tv and...got some good PR.

You'd have to "hustle your bustle"...make phone calls, go see people to sign them up and collect your booth rent.

In the "Holiday" show I rented a helicopter for $1500...talked Barbi Benton into dressing up in a "revealing" Santa outfit....let all the media know that Barbi as Santa would be "landing at noon on Friday, the day after T'Day.

Got some GREAT...FREE PR...and had a smashing show.

Don Alm

Great idea from Don
 

.... there are many stores and business owners who would be keen to have short-term space at a reasonable rent in a place which is getting publicity ... especially with Christmas coming around. Not knowing the local regulations, you might consider getting a huge banner made saying just that and putting it somewhere visible on the side of your mall. Contact local craft associations to let them know as well.

I'd probably have in front of me a note of my monthly overheads to service the loans - one of those cute little graphs where I could mark out each time I made a contribution towards the overheads .... quite motivating seeing it being filled up.

There is a market for PLR articles about house-flipping. You could probably sell some here in the special offers section - as well as the Warrior Forum. It won't make you a fortune, but meeting a percentage of your costs would be better than chewing your fingernails ....

Is there any use which could be made of the remaining land in your commercial real-estate - storage, parking, .... or what about letting people sell their autos there themselves. I'm certain that there's a whole lot of posts by Don on setting up such a business.

Are there any local charities looking for a venue for a charity event - so that you could make the mall busy and get free publicity for your venue?

Your rehabs - I read somewhere about Lease to Buy - not knowing anything about this, I'm going to ask if this is a possibility for you? Would they rent as vacation rentals?

Is there a market for running courses on renovating property to resell? You probably have a lot of expertise on this.

I don't know if that's any help at all - my hubby and I saw a programme on UK television about the state of the US property market (Cleveland, OH) - and to say that it was frightening is a small understatement. I hope you manage to find a solution.

Margaret

Re: I'm desperate and need your help
 

Great ideas as always Don.

I would add that if you can't sell the residential properties, can you at least find renters?

You could also rent strip mall space for holiday office parties possibly? I like Don's idea of craft shows and business fairs. Maybe you could host a swap meet every weekend. Give others a means to generate some extra holiday cash and also get a little cash flowing your way as well.

If you've been around these boards for a while, and you're looking for others ways to make quick cash, I'd look into chatteling (see Gordon), or Skip's quick cash reports: http://makemoneyalerts.com/sowpubtwofreereports.html
or Don Alm's Midas Report: http://www.donalm.com/
Those all contain some ways to make some quick cash, maybe some could even be modified to use some resources you already have, who knows!

Good luck, and keep us posted on how it all turns out.

Todd

Re: I'm desperate and need your help
 

You've had some great ideas here so let's add to them.

Have you considered a children's toy and learning show in the mall area...one weekend or more? Sure to get people's attention this time of year. Try an after hours one so parents can get babysitter help and shop without the kids.

Another option: a local artist's show in one segment of the mall areas. Lots of specialty things that don't ordinarily occur.

Incidentally, you might check with a lawyer. There might be a way to get your money back from the estate. Of course they'll try to discourage you but it's worth a try. Not your fault the agreement wasn't completed so no reason you should have to forfeit. Worth checking at least. Estates have been tapped before as I know from a close friend's experience.

You might consider lease-options on the houses. Do a thorough check on the new folks, make sure they can follow through with the purchase eventually. More likely to take care and pride in the place and avoid wrecking the house. Even if they don't purchase eventually, you've had the income and any improvements they do to add value.

Sandi Bowman

I'm desperate and need your help... Create a whole Bunch of Media Buzz...
 

Killarney,

Things always have a way of working out and Coming together...

Real Estate usually goes in 5 Year segments or so...

Sometimes we just have to Do something different for awhile along with some Creative Diversification in other areas of Work and Business...

I Bet a whole Bunch of Media Buzz... Could change Much of your Current situation and others... ;)

If you never heard of Casey Serin...

Creatively Twist his idea into your own Real Estate Buzz and get the Media... to Love & Hate you... :)

How the world's most hated blogger makes money...
http://www.sowpub.com/forum/showthre...tate+blogg er

Get A Job, Says Wife. Then His Money Blog Closes Down: So What’s Next For Casey Serin?
http://www.thedigeratilife.com/blog/...r-casey-serin/

IAmFacingForeclosure.com is now owned by Aaron Krowne...
http://iamfacingforeclosure.com/contact.html

Keep in mind the current USD/CAD dollar situation... Lots of CAD dollars are looking to buy into the American real estate markets... I can't believe the Amazing deals...

From a previous post...

Where homes are affordable
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/...mag/index.html

New Rules of Real Estate 2007
How to play the real estate bounce-back
The housing market may be melting down, but Business 2.0 worked with Moody's Economy.com to identify 10 cities that have just about hit rock bottom - and offer opportunities for savvy investors to get in while the getting's good.
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/...iz2/index.html

Phil

Re: I'm desperate and need your help$
 

I'm sorry you are in trouble.

Did you plan on posting on Halloween or was it just a
weird unfortunate coincidence?

Anyway...

My take on your best option is to return to the world's
oldest professions in the world.

One has already been suggested by Gordon.

It's called Welching.

Bury those deadbeat assets as fast and deep as you can. Give them back to your lender and let it become their problem.

I know your credit is ruined. It could mean bankruptcy. I'm really sorry for that but you're being hit with a baseball bat eventually you gotta bleed
fast and hard but it gets you back on a path to regrowth.

I know it's going to hurt like a MoFa.

Second option.

And the one most overlooked by anyone with a pinch of ego yet is really great solution for you.


BEG!

Tell us your story then go QVC on us.

You know they tell us a great story on why we should buy their product then you have 30 minutes to buy this product or it's gone forever never to return.

That's your situation isn't it?

If you don't get cash your **** dun gone to the po' house.

You need to go QVC on our asses.

Why else should you do it?

It's cheap for you to market your product.

Get on the phone call your relatives, ex-wives, high school teachers, sons and daughters then lay it on the line. You could do this 24 hours straight and won't cost you any real money, you don't have any right?

Good luck....

The Answer To Your Real Estate Problem Is....
 

To sell your properties with owner financing then simply sell the notes to a note buyer. That can happen in as little as 30 days and with proper struture of the note terms you should be able to net 90 cents on the dollar.

The note buyer will run the buyer's credit to make sure that they are a good risk and with some money down(5-10%) it would be a slam dunk.

Jim
[email protected]

There is ALWAYS a way
 

Killarney,

Thanks for ASKing for ideas.

Often, the Problem you Think you have is Not the problem you Really have. And so, solutions to problems you think you have don't often fix the Real problem.

So first thing is to do like Gordon suggested... assess.

But I take it a step further....

You say you need CashFlow. But what you Really Need is what having that Cashflow would do for you - what you'd spend it on.

For example: You could use Cash to buy food. So what you really need is Food and not cash, right?

So if you are short on Cash itself then you have Multiple Problems to solve...

Obtaining Food
Paying the rent/mortgage on your home
Paying Interest on investment loans
Putting gas in the car
And so on.

Each of them are Individual Problems and can each have a different Solution, besides you having Cash to spend.

In Australia the Salvation Army provide Food Vouchers which allow you to buy up to $X worth of Groceries. And if you Buy Smart you can get a Real Lot for even just $100 - rice, potatoes, pasta, and other Filling Food to keep you fed while you get sorted.

There is also rent/mortgage assistance as well from some charities. To keep you out of the bankruptcy house (Garth, suggesting Bankruptcy is bad advice as the money is Still owed but now the credit is totally shot. There is ALWAYS a way out of a jam. Always.)

A car can be gone without for a while if Gas is a problem. Or take public transport. Ride a bike. Walk.

As for Interest Payments in Investment Properties. I'm with the others here... lease with Option to buy, wrap around mortgage, contract for deed, or any other similar Owner Finance where the payments taken in are larger than the ones going out. And as was suggested... the Notes such terms create can also be on-sold to others.

For the Strip Mall. Is there a way to offer them as Serviced Offices? How about Self Storage? Combination Leased - such as a masseur, nail technician, facial person all sharing the one Store; or an accountant, lawyer and financial planner all sharing the one store; loan broker, insurance agent and conveyancer all sharing (all examples need minimal FitOut to work well)? A themed front - dance studio, martial arts practice center, yoga/pilates (all also require not much more than the existing empty space)?

The Amount of money needed to Make Payments is also something to consider. As is taking zero profit on the Residentials just to offload them fast.

There is Always a way.

Michael Ross

Re: I'm desperate and need your help
 

Hi Killarney,

Thanks for asking for help. Along the lines of what Don said... here is an idea for you:

Organize a workshop / bootcamp / unconference.

1. Find 4-6 real estate and investment gurus. Tell them your story - how you're facing some problems and how you're thinking of organizing a workshop to come out of the hole. Make a deal with them - to pay them a percentage of the passes sold. Maybe you can hold this workshop at your strip center thats semi-developed?

2. Promote your workshop via
i . The speakers lists
ii. Direct mail
iii. Affiliate programs and joint ventures

3. Auction off your properties at the end of the workshop.

3.b. Before the event - announce that other people can list their properties for auction / sale too - for a fee or a percentage of sale.

So it can become a real estate workshop + close out sale of properties.

Similar idea: organize a workshop for small business owners. And then sell off the vacant properties in the strip mall at the end.

Re: I'm desperate and need your help
 

you've really got some great ideas here! i agree with auctioning off your properties. there are a lot of people out there who are sure to be needing your stuff and will be willing to pay for it!

rent space for teachers.
 

My aunt owned a school that she rented to people to conduct classes and she charged a percentage of the income that the teacher collected.

For example suppose I know a lot about Microsoft Excel. I create a course on Excel and call several companies to offer to tech their employees excel. Then I book a room for a certain number of days and pay the 'landlord' 20% of my gross.