A Vision of Hope

I am a dreamer. I always have been. My parents encouraged me to dream big my whole life long. Dreams take a lot of work, but they offer meaning, satisfaction, purpose, and hope.

As part of my work in REIC and, in particular, my desire to be sharing it with others (which is why I became an IBD, not the other way around), I was encouraged to create a vision for what I wanted to do. What really was my dream or vision in sharing REIC with others.

Since my LDS mission in Costa Rica, I have had a passion within me to participate with and serve the Latino community. I've been home over 10 years and I still think about Costa Rica more days than not. Anyway, to the point.

I realized that I wanted to share REIC with Latinos in this country. I know so many that work like crazy but can never seem to get ahead. It's sad how many seem to rent forever and ever. I can share financial independence and home ownership with these people. I can introduce them to a company that will help them get ahead.

In sharing this vision with some of my close family, one person suggested that I might write out exactly what I imagined a Hispanic family's path might be. This could help me envision what they might have to go through to get there and thus enable me to anticipate needs and better serve. So I did, and I am sharing it below. This story of course represents only one possibility. REIC can benefit people no matter where they are financially, but this seemed to match the type of family I hope to help.

I would love to hear any feedback from you on whatever, be it details that perhaps I missed, logistics I didn't consider, or perhaps the people in the story just don't feel real to you. Positive feedback is also welcome. At any rate, this is how I envision one Latino family's potential path toward financial independence; here is why I want so much to share this:

...in case I need to mention it for legal purposes, this is a fictional story that represents a possibility. No guarantees are implied here. It's my dream for someone's reality, not a promise of one.

Vision For a Hispanic Family Getting Ahead
The following story is about a fictional Latino family and their journey through REIC. It is assumed that they have obtained all needed legal paper work and have no need to fear deportation, loss of property, etc.

The Lopez family immigrated to the United States from Mexico in 2005. Sylvia, the Mother, has had a hard time picking up English in her seven years here. The Father, Juan, has picked it up a little better due to work. He can get around pretty well but he still struggles here and there. They have two children, Michelle who is 4 and Juan Luis who is 1.

Juan works a lot to support his family. He carries one full time job at a factory and a part time job doing janitorial work. They currently rent a small 2/1 condo in Provo. It seems that no matter what they do, they can not get ahead in life. Each time they start building their savings well, something happens that requires them to use it. It seems like an endless cycle of captivity.

One day in August of 2012, Juan saw a flyer about becoming an owner and landlord. The Lopezes have wanted to own their own home for a while, but, as mentioned, things seem to get in the way for them. Juan called me on a Tuesday evening between jobs and we set up a time on Saturday for him to come to my house to learn more. I invited him to bring his entire family.

On Saturday he showed up with his family, though a few minutes late. I presented to him the options available through Strongbrook REIC. I discussed with them right there the idea of purchasing a home with a basement apartment which they could rent out to cover their mortgage. The idea really resonated with them and they wanted to learn more. It was a bit of a blow when they saw the price tags to join REIC. At the moment they had only $2,000 saved up. He thought they could save up the next two thousand by the end of January.

In an effort to not let them lose track of this goal, I then introduced them to the Wealth Club. They felt that would be a good move for them and decided to join. After some work with cashflow counseling and due to the benefits they were getting, they were able to meet their goal of raising the $4,000 by the end of January. On Monday, February 4th, 2013 they purchased the basic, one-property PSA with REIC. They had mixed emotions because they were excited to get in and get started, but it felt a little bit like starting everything all over again. They now had to save up a down payment for a home.

I spoke more with Juan in February and we spoke about the IBD program. I explained that he could get his wealth club benefits for free if he signed up three others in the program. I also shared with him about how the commission structures worked. He caught onto the idea with a passion. By April he had enrolled four families in the wealth club and was receiving his silver plan for free. The commissions from them were also paying his IBD costs. Over the next few months, he enrolled another family about once a month.

It still took a while, but with the help of the IBD program and saving as best they could, they were able to qualify for their first home in another 14 months. It was on Thursday, June 19th, 2014 that they purchased their first home. It had a basement apartment that they were able to rent out by the end of July and the rent from it covered all but $50 of their monthly mortgage! They were no longer paying the $700 / month of rent; instead they paid only $50 for their mortgage! They were finally owners and starting to get ahead!

By now Sylvia was doing better with her English as she had been practicing hard. Michelle was now 6 and in first grade while Juan Luis had just turned 3. In July they also discovered that Sylvia was again pregnant!

Due to their new housing situation, Juan was able to quit his part time job and spend more time with his family. Even with that lost income, they were still immediately able to save $700 per month! In January of 2015 they upgraded their PSA with REIC to enable them to do three more property transactions. In early April of 2015 they had a new baby girl they named Isabela. During this time, Juan was promoted at his work. He had more energy from not working two jobs and his supervisors had noticed his improvement. Thanks to this, even after the expenses of having the baby, they were qualified in September to purchase another home.

In October of 2015 they again bought a home with a basement apartment which they had rented out by the end of the year. In this home, they basement rent covered the entirety of their new mortgage with seven dollars to spare. They were also able to rent out the home they moved from that December. At this point they owned two homes, paid no mortgage costs out of their own pocket, and were earning $663 per month in residual income.

In the spring of 2017, the Lopez family purchased a larger home with 6 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms which they used all for themselves. They again rented out the space they moved from and the income from the four rents covered the mortgage of their new home plus around $50 a month. In the summer of 2017, they sold their first home. With this money they upgraded to the unlimited property PSA agreement and were able to buy a third investment property, paying 20% down.

And thus they are on their way to becoming financially free. They enjoy a better quality of life, better familial relationships, and they are filled with optimism and hope. They are achieving the dreams they sought out by coming to this beautiful country.

Personal REIC Disclaimer

I posted earlier about REIC on this blog and how I'm not much of a salesman and such. While true, I have no sales experience (unless you count my LDS mission), I think telling myself "I'm not a salesman" or "I'm a bad salesman" etc. is poor self talk. Not having experience does not equate to being bad at something.

Also, I have now officially joined the REIC direct sales team. So while my two previous posts were created when I had no such affiliation, I thought it appropriate to state that now I do. Still, due to my aversion to sales, there is little that could persuade me to actively pursue this. I am doing things that are far beyond my comfort zone. It is because I believe very much that REIC can help people, no matter their current financial situation, to obtain financial freedom. In fact, if you can start before you become to "settled" into your current situation, the more quickly you'll be able to obtain that freedom.

Anyway, the main point of this post is to state that I know have joined the direct sales team which previously I knew little about.

Safety and Security

I've been pondering this idea a bit lately and finally formalized it into a question. If you have thoughts about it, feel free to share them. I don't have any yet, but I do think it will be an interesting area of study... like 57 other areas of study I think would be interesting. :)

What does “security” or “safety” mean? And do we want it? At first blush it seems like something any rational person would desire. Yet thinking about it more deeply, what does that mean? Did not Satan offer “security” to all God’s children? That was certainly not desirable. What principles exist around “security” and “safety”? In what ways can “security” and “safety” benefit us and what ways can they damn us?

Motivations

I once read the words of an LDS woman who stated "I don't know much about Ron Paul, but from what I've heard, I don't want to." I couldn't help but laugh out loud at the irony for how often do LDS people hear "I don't know much about the Mormons, but from what I've heard, I don't want to."

In the same vein, it frustrates many a Mormon (and I think should frustrate anyone) to hear people say they wouldn't vote for Romney because he's a Mormon. So now a question of honest introspection... will you vote for Romney because he's a Mormon? Oh I know, he's an amazing leader, has incredible business sense, and his moral life is of unquestionable value in a candidate. But really... are you? Even in part?

Might I predict that some (not all) reading this are now saying to themselves "well, yes, perhaps. And why shouldn't I?" and coming up with reasons for which it is perfectly good sense to have that be a part of their motivation for voting for him. Please, now, set aside the knee-jerk justification stream (don't worry, we all do it all the time) and get honest with yourself. Do you really think that a person's religion-of-choice is a legitimate reason to vote for him or her? Why or why not? And how does your answer coincide with the sixth amendment which states "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

You may vote for whomever you wish and for whatever reason you desire. I invite you to consider your reasons openly and honestly.

The REIC Strategy

The last post got my mind spinning so I wanted to share the basics of the REIC strategy. Now, Kris Krohn wrote an entire book on it so I certainly won't be going into that much detail. I highly recommend the book as a source of further information. It's very practical, an easy read that you can download on that site or you get a free hard-cover copy if you go to one of the introductory seminars.

Here are some of the key points to the "Straight Path" strategy:

• Buy at a discount
• Buy least 15% under retail
• Think of a bell curve. Most homes will be priced about right, but there will always be outliers on both sides: some priced too high, some priced too low. The ones priced too low don't stay on the market long. REIC specializes in finding these. 
• Consider how this impacts your risk and tolerance to market volatility!
• Buy at least 3bed/2bath homes under the median home value
• When the RE market tanks, what homes get hit worse, standard family homes or high end homes? Answer: high end homes get crushed! Yes, homes under the median price get hit too, but your standard family homes will not get hit nearly so bad.
• Buy homes that are move-in ready
• I'm not interested in fixing up a place. I don't like manual labor. I also don't want to spend a fortune to fix it up. After closing, it should be darn near ready to show.
• Lease-option exit strategy
• Lease-options sometimes get a bad name because the landlord's goal is to go through as many tenants as possible. Essentially taking advantage of his neighbor. This is not the case here. The goal of this lease option is to get the family owning the home.
• If the family feels ownership of the home, they will take more care of it. A classic line Kris uses is "just don't call me when the toilet breaks." In other words, they take ownership of it. This reduces the amount of time and effort you have to spend maintaining it.
• A lease option implies a down payment to "get in" plus a monthly payment that, if paid on time, will create discounts off the purchase price when they buy. (There is a recommended algorithm for down payment amounts and monthly rent that I will not entreat here.)  The down payment is another boost to minimizing your risk.
• Compassionate Financing (TM by REIC)
• There are so many responsible people who do not qualify for bank loans. Legitimate circumstances may have harmed their credit, they may have recently changed jobs, or any myriad of things. You can help them get into your home and help them qualify for a loan to purchase it.
• When a tenant purchases through your lease option, s/he/they can build more credit in the home than they often can through a conventional bank loan.
• REIC enables you to offer credit repair help for people who need it.
• Helping people get into a home they will purchase is a boon for them. Taking advantage of people is never right; helping them get into a home they can own is a great service.

I hope through these points you saw the 6 pillars well represented.

I don't want to keep jabbering on here, so I'll give you a few links.

• The 5 profit centers explain each place you can make money through this system and shows how even when one or two or three don't cooperate, you'll still be okay. You'll see the 6 pillars represented throughout this.
• You may be wondering by now what it would look like for you if you were to actually consider doing something like this. The 4 phases (yeah, they have all this number stuff set up, but it really is a good way of explaining it) can help you get a good feel for that.

Introduction to REIC

  As an upfront disclaimer, the intent of this post is to be informative; this is not intended to be an outright sales pitch. That said, I am a very happy and enthusiastic client and would unabashedly be pleased to learn of someone becoming a client through my introduction. Would I get a kickback? Yes. Would that motivate me to do this? Not at all. I'm no salesman, and for good reason. Is this some MLM? Not one bit.

  We joined REIC in September of 2010. They are a Real Estate Investment Company. So... who cares? I've always had big financial dreams and have pondered much about how to reach them. REIC has made a significant difference in my financial hopes and shown me how to reach them.

  I hope, here, to concisely paint a broad picture about what REIC is and isn't.

So, here goes. REIC:

• Helps others do, not just learn about, Real Estate (RE) Investing
• They do have training, but that's just the beginning. They do not charge for their training. (Well, there is a one-time fee to join so you could call that the training fee, but it gets you in for life.)
• They make money when you successfully transact (so actually doing) real estate. That is their business model.
• Provides you with a financial and investment coach for the rest of your life
• With your coach you will develop a 10 year financial game plan.
• (I can't begin to tell you how cool I think this part is; I just love it!)
• Your coach will train you initially and be there to help you all along the way thereafter.
• You are encouraged set up appointments to meet with your coach or you can simply call and ask questions as needed.
• Makes RE Investing accessible to the layman. They believe that any RE investment should (they call these the "6 pillars"):
• Take the least amount of time
• Take the least amount of effort
• Have the lowest amount of risk
• Provide service
• Work under any market condition
• Be profitable for the investor
• Strives to set realistic expectations
• I've never heard (from them): "You can not fail if you do what we say"
• I have heard things like:
• "There is risk in doing Real Estate and we don't want you to take on more risk than you're comfortable with"
• "This is how we minimize the risk"
• "Real Estate can be hard"
• "You can expect having some difficult moments as a Real Estate Investor"

What REIC is not:

• A pushy sales group
• They are passionate, but not pushy.
• I remember in my first seminar, Kris Krohn (founder) said something similar to: "Some of you will be excited about this and will want to jump in and we think that's great. Some of you will think this does not make sense for you and that's fine; we will part as friends."
• There was no "you must join tonight if you want to get this price" kind of stuff.
• A couple weeks after that first seminar, we decided we wanted to join. We met with Kris Krohn and, after a while of talk, I finally said: "So.... we're in?". I realized later that he would not invite me. For him, it had to come from me. I had to want it. That is not what I call typical sales. I liked it. I still do.
• A get-rich-quick scheme
• One of the greatest parts for me is the 10 year plan, or your plan to (be able to) retire in 10 years. I don't find 10 years to be "get rich quick".
• It seems to me that get-rich-quick shemes often make it sound easy and effortless. While REIC does try to take as much of the effort out of it as possible, they make no mistake to tell you that doing RE investing has its hard parts.
• An upselling company
• REIC does not try to make a living making sales to its clients. It makes a living when its clients transact real estate.
• This is not to say they do not advise us to make other purchases. That's part of why you get a coach - so you know what you need to do to successfully do Real Estate. (e.g.: We purchased liability insurance when we bought a property. There was no kickback to them on this. It was through our already existing insurance company.)
• An MLM
• When joining an MLM, there is a product or service you are selling. You can also get people "under you" selling that same product or service. Joining REIC, you are a consumer of the service.
• Technically there is a Direct Sales group within REIC that you can join if you wish... if you're a salesman. I don't know much about it. I'm there to be a Real Estate Investor, not a salesman. UPDATE
• The kickback you get for referring a friend is there for all, though much less than what you get if you are actually part of the Direct Sales team.

Well, this is getting pretty long winded. Some things I didn't mention here that I may in a later post (or would be happy to if you wanted to contact me directly):

• What their Real Estate Investment strategy is specifically (some of the "how's" to the "6 pillars" listed above).
• Some concerns I had going in that I think are not uncommon and some experiences that helped resolve them.
• Probably more, but I'm getting tired of thinking about this post for now.

Do you have any questions about REIC you'd like me to answer in another post? Do you have any concerns about REIC you'd like me to address? Not that I will resolve them, but perhaps I can provide some helpful information? Please feel free to let me know directly or in the comments.

EDIT:
I just found this video. It seems to cover a lot of what I just said and it's only 3:18 long. I can't get it to embed or I'd let you watch it right here. Sorry.

Google+ / Chrome Plugin

I like Google products. I think many would consider me a "Google Fanboy". Among other things, I like Google+. I'm always logged into my Google account and don't really like having to log into Facebook too, not to mention Twitter or LinkedIn. (I don't use LinkedIn much, but it is supported.) I just want one place for everything and since Google is already my online headquarters, I'd like to stay there.

Well, progress is being made. Presenting http://sgplus.me/ . (It's free, though there are "upgrade" versions you can pay for.) I'm still exploring this product and its capabilities, but I have been able to post things in G+ and have them auto-post into FB and Twitter too. It's worth using for that feature alone, but of course that's not all it does. I can also import my Twitter and FB feeds so they show up intermixed with G+ posts or just off to the side under Sparks (or both or neither). I can easily comment on a FB post from within G+ or retweet something.

But wait, there's more! I can also mix in RSS feeds with my G+! How cool is that?!  There are still features I've not tried out yet, e.g. I understand there's a way you can import your FB photos into G+, but I'm already very impressed by its simplicity and its feature set. I'll update here as I learn more, but for now +1 to sgplus.me!

Now if only there was a way to auto-post in G+ when I post on my blog. I mean, there is, if people add my blog to their RSS feeds in sgplus.me, but that's not what I'm getting at. I want a native G+ post to be created with a modifiable but default sharing setting (Extended Circles or some such) saying "I posted to my blog. Check it out. <link>"...