John Paul started by making an announcement in a Sunday paper just saying ?real estate investors group starting, for information give me a call? and he put a cell phone number there for people to contact him. At their first meeting they were about 16 people. He stood in front of those people telling them that he never done a real estate deal but he was there to learn and make sure that they had those meetings. They needed a leader and he took the initiative of being their 1st president. Since then the organization grew to over 500 members. Now they are a full fledged non profit real estate investors association with over 150 members in the Memphis area and since 2002 John Paul has been a real estate investing guy. He stepped down as the president and he is now serving as the executive director of the group. Most of the deals he has done in some way involve somebody from the real estate investors association, whether they were a buyer or a seller, money partner or whatever the case might be. Start working with people in your club because they are real people. You need to think who the buyers are if they have real cash or if they have access to the hard money. So, what you have to do is to pick only those motivated persons and build yourself a great network of successful people to work with and the investor groups are great places to find those people.

His advice for somebody who's looking for the structure of an investment group in another city is that you need to join the national real estate investment association; you need to get small groups of people together and join the National REIA (www.nationalreia.com ). They serve as an umbrella organization that supports the local REIA group. Another benefit of these groups is the availability of hard money lenders or private lenders within the group itself. You need to know what your resources are and just capitalize the costs or hard or private money in that part of the deal. For example they visited the National Group and invited some of their board members to have dinner together. That's the second thing John Paul recommends for everybody who wants to start a group: model yourself, don't try to figure out on your own!

Another thing a person should do is get those magnetic We Buy Houses signs for their vehicle. For John Paul they were worth the $87 investment as they brought him $12,000 profit from transactions altogether on wholesale deals. Nobody should be embarrassed of using them on their cars because the one who's embarrassed is letting money pass by.

John Paul's piece of advice for the new real estate investor is to not to be afraid to act, do not let yourself become paralyzed by fear and over-analysis. You need to take some time so don't panic. Give yourself six months and just consume information. A good way is to listen to tele-seminars or find information on the Internet or pick some books from the library.

Posted by Donnie McLean on February 25, 2009 at 11:07 PM

About Donnie McLean
My name is Donnie McLean and I am an Exclusive Buyer’s Agent for the Charlotte Metro area of North Carolina. After earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from The University of South Carolina in 1988, I sold residential real estate for a national firm before founding my own real estate company, The McLean Investment Group. Since that time, I have been involved in banking, mortgage lending and other entrepreneurial endeavors and have come back full circle to my true passion – real estate. I have earned the Accredited Buyer Representative (ABR®) designation, which is the "benchmark of excellence in buyer representation." This coveted designation is awarded to REALTORS® by the Real Estate BUYER'S AGENT Council (REBAC) of the National Association of REALTORS® who meet the specified educational and practical experience criteria. I also currently hold a North Carolina Real Estate Broker’s License, South Carolina Real Estate Broker's License and I am an active real estate investor. I specialize in new homes and real estate for sale in the Greater Charlotte Metro area, which means that I live and breathe the local new home market and will create an itinerary of homes that matches your needs. I will work for you, the homebuyer, safeguarding your interests, negotiating prices, arranging financing and managing the closing. In this region, there are many new home communities with hundreds of models to choose from. Being a member of the national, state, and local associations of Realtors, including the local Multiple Listing Service, gives me access to thousands of resale homes that are also available in the region. And now for the best news: my Buyer Agent's services are FREE to you, the prospective buyer! There are no hidden charges or obligations. How is this accomplished? All fees are paid by the SELLERS in the form of previously negotiated co-broker and listing agreements. My goal is to provide each client with the best service possible. I believe that every real estate transaction is unique. My business philosophy is simple: I treat others the way that I would like to be treated. Buying a home is probably the biggest investment that most people ever make. I want to assure you that I take that responsibility very seriously. I look forward to sharing my knowledge and expertise with you. Don’t go unrepresented! Call me to find out how I can save you time and money. I hope to hear from you soon.




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