Access Beats Ownership

Ways to make money…..

I recently told you there was a way to get some of the cheese, the cheese being the money and/or real property in a world that offers diminishing jobs and spiraling inflation.

I think by now you realize that my philosophy is to work for yourself.

There are many reasons for this but one of the best ones is that when you work for yourself you have many bosses and it’s almost impossible to be fired or laid off or made redundant.

In addition there are many tax advantages.

Working for yourself is one of the best forms of job security.

You will also recall that I suggested that with all the extra money being printed, that your savings would be ravaged because of runaway inflation.

My advice was and is to get some real property. The less the dollar is worth, the more the property appreciates.

But here you are without any real savings. You have no money coming in because you have no job. So how do you get property without money?

Seminars?

There are countless seminars that explain how to buy property in foreclosure and then what to do with it – most of these seminars are useful for making money if you are giving the seminar.

If you are taking the seminar you still need a way to make money so that at the right time you can buy A distressed property and fix it up or even carry it for awhile.

That means you might have to hold onto your distressed property and, while you have it, make payments on it. That takes money.

So where are you going to get your operating capital and living expenses while you wait to make a fortune on distressed property?

I have the answer for you but before I give it to you, or before you figure it out, let’s look at the way two people make money. Lets call them Broke Joe and Wealthy Willey. The big difference is that Wealthy Willey has some cash, Broke Joe is flat busted.

Look at it like this….

Let’s say Wealthy Willey sees a nice home for sale and it was valued at $500,000 in the recent market run-up. Let’s say with the downturn in the economy he can buy it for the rock bottom price of $200,000. And now let’s say he is going to rent it out for $1,000 a month.

You might think Wealthy Willey is making $12,000 a year on his investment.  And he gets to hold onto the property while it goes back up in value after this major recession is over.

Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? But Wealthy Willey has expenses. There are taxes and insurance so that takes care of a couple of months of income.

Then there are repairs and vacancies. And that means newspaper ads and agents to find new tenants.

All this evaporates another couple of months of income. And he has to pay for accountants and maintenance and on and on.

By the time the smoke clears, Wealthy Willey ain’t so wealthy.

He may only get to keep six months of rent a year. That means he’s “earning” $6,000 a year instead of $12,000 — either way his return on his money is horrible.

For the sake of this exercise let’s say Wealthy Willey invested in five properties that he bought for the rock bottom price of $200,000 or a grand total of $1,000,000.

If he is making payments on his mortgage he may not be breaking even.

Things could be very tough for Wealthy Willey even though he had to be a millionaire to buy those six properties.

So you’re broke. So what?

Now let’s look at Broke Joe. His name tells it all. He has little money. But he does have access to a car and a cell phone and he knows something about accounting — he can assemble a simple spreadsheet and knows how to deposit money in the bank and write checks.

He understands something about keeping a house in repair. He can do simple maintenance — and if a problem comes up, and say a new water heater has to be installed, he knows who to call. Best of all he lives fairly close to the property.

He can qualify a renter — and he knows how to write an ad. Of course he is at home on a computer. In short, Broke Joe can do everything that Wealthy Willey needs in a property management company.

Some property management companies charge ten percent, a few less. Many property managers charge 15 or twenty percent. Some as high as fifty percent. This is especially true with homes that are listed as vacation rentals.

Here is a link to what I am talking about. http://www.vrbo.com As you can see there are tens of thousands of people who need help with renting their homes on a short term basis.

And this is one of a dozen web sites.

Broke Joe decides to become a property manager. And he decides to specialize in vacation rentals. The turnover is usually much higher.

The rents are higher for a short term stay of one week to a month. Broke Joe finds some people like Wealthy Willey and offers his services. Keep in mind Broke Joe’s niche market is vacation rentals.

Wealthy Willey likes to earn money. That is why he bought five houses.

When he realizes that Broke Joe can rent his property out for $6,000 a month instead of $1,000, Wealthy Willey is pretty happy. He’s so delighted he agrees to pay Broke Joe 20 percent of his new income stream.

Each month Broke Joe earns $1,200. Suppose he ends up in charge of five vacation rentals. That’s $6,000 a month. That works out to $72,000 a year. (Of course that’s when everything goes along perfectly. Things never go perfectly, there could be cancellations or many unforeseen circumstances.)

Nevertheless, let’s look at Wealthy Willey’s cash situation. He spent a million bucks and now he is getting 3 percent or $30,000 a year.

Who can survive better?

There are a lot of Wealthy Willeys in the world. Many are retired, many are overwhelmed with various problems that come with age and many have never learned to use a computer. They need help and they need it desperately.

Now let’s look at Broke Joe’s situation. He makes twice as much money out of that million dollar investment as Wealthy Willey did. And Broke Joe didn’t have to put up a penny to buy any real estate.

Let’s say inflation continues. The price of the rentals will increase and as it does, Broke Joe’s monthly income will increase because he gets a percentage of the entire monthly income.

This is Jaron’s Theory One:  Access Beats Ownership (ABO).

Broke Joe has access to great property and he makes a terrific profit from Wealthy Willey’s million dollar investment.

He makes more money than Wealthy Willey was making and now that Broke Joe is in charge, Wealthy Willey is making more money too. It’s a win-win situation.

Is there work involved? Of course there is. It takes awhile to set up such a management company.

And it helps if you live in a place known as vacation destination.

Guess, what? You do.

Look down!

You’re standing

on a gold mine.

Just look around at the number of hotels and planes and cars that enter your world every day.

Multiply this by the fun things to do — everything from rock concerts to theme parks and on and on to skiing to boating to clubbing to sun bathing.

So what is the best way to learn the business? How about by working for a management company for three months? I bet you could learn 90 percent of the secrets?

Or how about taking a course on vocational rental managements? And don’t forget to check the real estate laws that govern these things.

You may need to get a license but can probably work with a broker. Some places are wide open.

Who do you think is going to make more money — Wealthy Willey or Broke Joe?

One has a million dollars. One just uses his noggin.

And remember that if something goes wrong with a property — say a roof blows off or a quake knocks it in half, who has to belly up to the counter and lay out tens of thousands of dollars? Maybe hundreds of thousands? Wealthy Willey has to lay out a lot of cash.

Broke Joe does not have to spend a nickel.

But you say — what if the property goes up?

Doesn’t Wealthy Willey make a lot of money? Sure. If the property appreciates. If it falls Wealthy Willey takes it in the shorts. Let Wealthy Willey sell his place — for either a huge profit or loss — in both cases the new owner is probably going to need someone like Broke Joe to manage the place.

Of course as a property manager for a vacation rental you are in a perfect position to find great deals. You know what the market can handle.

You have the inside track on what vacationers want. You know who is selling before the local real estate agent.

So what kind of energy and time does it take to manage a vacation rental? Once things are set up, about two hours a week per property. So five properties is ten hours a week. That’s not a forty hour work week.

That’s a forty hour work month — and you can earn up to $72,000 a year. Imagine what you could make if you doubled your hours and worked twenty hours a week.

So to recap. You cannot depend on getting a job in today’s world. You have to make it happen yourself. By using your head, you can make more money than a guy with a million dollars.

There are significant management fees to be earned in looking after vacation property. The best way to learn is to work for a vacation rental company and take a few courses. You already have 90 percent of the skills that are required to be your own boss.

A good book on how to manage property is called:  The Unofficial Guide to Managing Rental Property by Melissa Prandi.

Another book that is worth looking at is:  Property Management for Dummies by Robert S. Griswold. Both are on sale on Amazon.com.