On The Beach Education Corporation

This is a sacred time of year for me. I love July because I was born in this month. My creation is a miracle of life. When you consider life in all its abundance and diversity, it is an awesome miracle. And how all things are in wonderful balance even when we endanger nature itself. And on that note, I ask for your support with light and love to heal the planet. Please join me in reciting this healing prayer. The first time I read it out loud, it sent shivers throughout my body. These are very powerful words indeed. Namaste.

HEALING PRAYER
Thank you Nicole Chayka for forwarding this important issue. Dr. Masaru Emoto is a pre-eminent Japanese scientist who has done all the research and publications about the characteristics of water. Among other things, his research revealed that water physically responds to emotions. Google his name and find out.

Many of us have a predominantly angry emotion when we consider what is happening in the Gulf.  And while certainly we are justified in that emotion, we may be of greater assistance to our planet and its life forms, if we sincerely, powerfully and humbly pray the prayer that Dr. Emoto, himself has proposed.

Let us pray together and set an intention of love and healing that is so large, so overwhelming that we can perform a miracle in the Gulf of Mexico.

We are powerful.  Our united energy, speaking this prayer daily…multiple times daily….can literally shift the balance of destruction to restoration.

We don’t have to know how. We just have to recognize that the power of love is greater than any power in the Universe today. Please join me in repeating this healing prayer of Dr. Emoto’s.  Let’s take charge, and do our own clean up!

“I send the energy of love and gratitude to the water and all the living creatures in the Gulf of Mexico and its surroundings. To the whales, dolphins, pelicans, fish, shellfish, planktons, corals, algae and all living creatures . . . . . I am sorry. Please forgive me.  Thank you.  I love you.”

HOW FAST CAN YOU TYPE?
Get your speed clocked at www.TypingTest.com. My mom just got a laptop and to help her with the hunt and peck method of typing with one finger, I got her the Mavis Beacon typing program to help her become familiar with the keyboard. She went from 4 words per minute (wpm) to 31 wpm at 99% accuracy in just 2 weeks. Her new goal is to attain 40 wpm. Way to go mom. My speed is 115 wpm 93% accuracy. My sister Jan types 134 wpm. The key for speed is to stay relaxed. And being a pianist also helps.

MULTI-FAMILY BOOTCAMP
August 28-29, Edmonton, Alberta
Question: is multi-family investing your answer for creating long term sustainable wealth? My colleague Don Campbell is hosting a 2-day workshop to educate real estate investors on how to leverage economies of scale to grow your long term wealth faster and more securely. To be held at the Shaw Conference Centre at 9797 Jasper Avenue. The recent changes to Canadian mortgage rules have created more challenges for the smaller retail investor. However, commercial mortgage rules haven’t changed and is easier to finance (in my opinion). Don is offering this workshop for an amazing $587 if you register now. Click HERE for more info or to register.

BUYING ANOTHER BUILDING

Once you’ve done the due diligence on a region, you get to know the area very well. When a deal comes along, it is an opportunity to mitigate risk and get better economies of scale with an existing portfolio. This is why we are in the process of buying another 48-unit apartment building. The key to finding great deals is to niche. Some investors spread themselves too thin over a large market versus becoming an expert in a smaller market. It also takes patience, biding your time and waiting for the right market conditions to bring along the right deal. This is why it has been a year since my last purchase. I love shopping.

WEALTH TIP
The wealthiest people on the planet have one thing in common: fanatical integrity, as written in the book The Millionaire Mind by Thomas J. Stanley. He studied the habits of millionaires. He noted that the decisions millionaires make lead to building wealth, things like having a short planning window versus a long one. As John Maxwell says, “Thank God It’s Friday Oh Lord It’s Monday is a recipe for the poor house.”

PRO-ACTIVE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT – PART 9
Educating your tenants. One of the keys to successful preventive maintenance is training your tenants to take care of it for you. For example, if your properties have issues with humidity you need to train your tenants to use the fans to circulate the air to promote evaporation. This reduces the wear and tear on the apartment, reduces the incident of mold growth and damage to drywall. To view a sample letter that we give to all of our tenants, click HERE and feel free to use it to educate your tenants.

The only way to save for the future is to sacrifice some of the now. Brian Tracey

July Ono

The unexpected. This has been my experience this month. My step son’s mother was tragically killed by a train. Love and light to Adam for his loss. At my business coach’s insistence, I extended my stay in Vancouver to attend this amazing business workshop. My return flight to Thunder Bay was canceled leaving me stranded in Toronto. Life is life. You go with the flow. There’s no point getting stressed over things you cannot control. In these moments, think of the highest and best use of your life and make the best of your diversion. What are your learnings? What are your gratitudes? And on that note, Steve’s recovery has been amazing. Thank you for your love and prayers. Life is what you make it so make each and every day a great day.

CRASHING SAFELY
I survived my first test flight. Yes, that’s me in the cockpit with my instructor Jason Baillie of the Pacific Flying Club in Delta. Okay, I crashed in their ALSIM FLIGHT SIMULATOR. We took off from Boundary Bay Airport (ZBB) and landed in Vancouver (YVR) in a Cessna, did a loop, survived a stall and then I crash landed on Highway 99, all from the comfort and safety of the simulator cockpit. One of my lifelong dreams has been to pilot a plane. I was told years ago that I couldn’t be a pilot because I needed 20/20 vision. That is incorrect. It’s like driving a car, you need corrective lenses to fly. To book your appointment, you can find them at www.pacificflying.com

YOUR NATURAL GIFTS
The secret of success is to work with your strengths and delegate your weaknesses so you can focus on your natural gifts and talents. Once you identify your natural gifts, invest the time and effort to hone those gifts and become a master. Then create a business model around your natural gifts to serve others. This is one of the Success Factors in my coaching program.

PG IS PEACHY
Steve and I traveled to Prince George for our annual suite inspection. We conduct it ourselves to give us an overview of how the property and the tenants are doing. What used to take 2 full days has been reduced to a zippy 5 hours because we know what to look for now. The main issues are: closet door tracks, plumbing issues, delaminating cabinets, kitchen and bathroom fans, condition of carpet and laminate flooring. This year we noted very few issues due to the proactive maintenance that is conducted throughout the year by our onsite manager, giving this building two thumbs up.

ONCE YOU’VE GONE MAC YOU CAN’T GO BACK
I did it. I switched to Mac after years of deliberation. The straw on the camel’s back happened after I spent 15 minutes trying to connect to the wireless network and Steve opened up his Mac and he was online in under 10 seconds. Talk about an unfair advantage. My resistance was having to learn new programs. To eliminate that issue, my web designer suggested that I get Microsoft Word/Excel/PowerPoint for Mac. There are some new learnings that are somewhat inconvenient but I simply marvel at the clarity of the graphics and the supersonic connectivity. I love my Mac.

BETTER THAN GREAT – OUTSTANDING
This is my mission statement – in business and in my life. I discovered this short, simple, salient message encapsulates my values and it feels good. This is one of the first things Anurag Gupta encouraged us to discover in his 2-day Performance Breakthrough Workshop, among other things. Anurag is a $40,000 a day coach who has worked with the likes of Chip Wilson of Lululemon. He spent 2 years working with Chip who took that company to billions. It’s all about designing the architecture of your business around your customer’s wants and needs. Anurag has a very unique approach that has consistently outperformed industry standards. His mission is to provide indescribable breakthroughs. He is coming to Vancouver in October to deliver a 2-day workshop through my business coach Andrew Barber-Starkey. If you are interested in attending this breakthrough workshop to take your business to the next level, I can bring a few guests at an exceptional price. To register for the next workshop, please send an email to admin@procoachsystem.com with “I WANT OUTSTANDING” in the subject line.

PRO-ACTIVE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT - PART 8
Healthy Turns. This is one of the indicators we use to determine whether to buy a building especially in provinces with government mandated rent controls. You don’t want to get stuck with long term tenants. It’ll take years before you can raise the rent to current market valuations. The only way to get a building to be more profitable is to increase revenue and decrease expenses. To increase revenue, there should be about a 30% turnover per year. With one-third of the building vacating every year, it will take on average just over 3 years to manage the rents up, thus increasing cash flow and your bottom line.

The only way to save for the future is to sacrifice some of the now. Dave Ramsey.

July Ono

I have been enjoying the unseasonably warm weather in Thunder Bay having already reached a high of 30C. It was high time to get the bicycles out of storage and put to use. Steve is a rambunctious fellow. He found the steepest hill to fall off on and separated his shoulder. Emergency did nothing for his injury and slinging it made it worse. This condition is known as hockey shoulder. Apparently a lot of hockey players have it. The bone sticks out of his shoulder and it looks really weird. I am grateful that Steve did not break his neck or worse. He is recovering well while I nurse him back to health while managing 243 units, temporarily taking over the maintenance duties and working on two acquisitions. Another day in the life…

CAUGHT RED-HANDED
We caught this guy trespassing on our property. He was shoveling a truck load of roofing shingles into our garbage shed late at night. Check your local by-laws because this infraction is a $5,000 penalty in Thunder Bay. Make signs and post it on your garbage sheds. I was really upset when I lost half the photos during the download process. Thank goodness for geeks. My Manager used a ShareWare program that retrieves deleted files. And voila! He got those photos back and I got the man and his license plate. Just Google “Recover Deleted Files” to find the program. And yes, he shoveled it all back into his truck and promised never to return.

CONSPIRACY OF THE RICH
In Robert Kiyosaki’s newest book, he writes that there is $38 Billion of mortgage re-sets due by January 2012. If you think it’s bad now, the worst is yet to come. For those of you with a hankering to buy real estate in the U.S., you can use the next year to study up on taxation and other due diligence items. When the time is ripe to buy, you will be in the best position to know when to buy, what to buy and for how much. I have been watching the price of apartments drop from $50,000 a door to between $12,000 to $20,000. You can even buy foreclosed apartments at $5,000 per unit. It’s going to get ridiculous over the next few months. Banks don’t have liquidity. Currency is being devalued every day. Your best investment is to get educated so you know what to do with your money on your terms. Start up a mastermind or book club and study the masters. Start your own conspiracy of the soon to be rich.

REAL ESTATE SEMINAR: JUNE 12-13
The real estate rules have changed. If you are curious to know how high mortgage interest rates will go or how to qualify for mortgages, one of Canada’s leading real estate experts is coming to Vancouver. That would be Don R. Campbell. We have known Don since 2003 although this picture was taken in 2005 at his QuickStart Program. Don is the guy you see on tv or quoted in the newspapers for his unbiased research. I am sending you an exclusive invitation to this event which is usually reserved only for members at a fabulous price including hundreds of dollars of bonuses. Find out how the changes taking place in the industry will affect you, your future and your bottom line. The ability to take advantage of opportunities equals Perspiration + Preparation. Click here to read all the details of this exclusive event.

WORLD’S SMALLEST POLITICAL QUIZ
Left, Center, Right, Republican, Democrat, Tory or Liberal. I’ve never put a label on my political views because I agree and disagree with all of them. So I refused to be labeled until this little quiz came my way, thanks to Jon Addiss. The Fraser Institute said it’s “a fast, fun, and accurate assessment of a person’s overall political views.”  Suite University said it is the “most concise and accurate political quiz out there.” Over 15 million people have taken the quiz. The quiz pegs me as a Libertarian, support maximum liberty in both personal and economic matters, tolerate diversity and support a free market.
http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz

PRO-ACTIVE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT – PART 7
Inventory control. You may be spending a lot of money buying supplies that you already have. Storing equipment and supplies in a haphazard way leads to inefficiency. Four of our largest buildings have 1, 2 or 3 storage rooms per floor. That’s a lot of stuff and money lying around, out of sight, out of mind. Invest a day or two to sort and organize these rooms. If you can save from buying $1,000 in equipment and supplies, that’s the equivalent of having to earn $10,000 in gross income to pay for those supplies. Remember the 10% rule that I have written previously about. For every $1000 of gross income that you earn less your overhead, the average business is lucky to earn a 10% net profit, or $100 of profit free and clear to spend or invest as you see fit. For every dollar that you spend, you need to earn ten times that amount to be able to afford it. Effective management is about keeping costs under control while increasing revenues.

Money is for making things happen. Richard Branson.

July Ono

I am amazed that my Power Virtues are almost identical to my Survivor IQ Tools. I just read “The Survivors Club” by Ben Sherwood, gifted to me by my business associate Teresa Holoman, took the free quiz at www.survivorprofiler.org and discovered my top 3 survivor tools are flow, adaptability and faith. I am a Realist. It’s an easy and fascinating read. Where do you think is the safest place to sit on a plane? Front, Middle or Back? Where is the safest place to have a heart attack? Hospital or Las Vegas Casino? These tips can give you a survival edge.

LOOKING FOR A MENTOR?
I have been approached by several people to mentor them. This is a time intensive process and one-on-one is not the highest and best use of my time. If I’m going to mentor one person, I would prefer to have a dozen people in on the conversation. You can read more details here on how to sign up.

BE A MONEY ROGUE
You may have heard of Pavlov and his experiment on conditioning dogs. He would ring a bell when he fed the dogs. The dogs learned to salivate when they heard the ring. They were conditioned to respond to the bell. In the same way, we are conditioned to think about money in a certain way. When the financial bell rings, how do you respond? School does not teach us how to be entrepreneurs. We are indoctrinated in how to be good employees who follow orders. Good employees make business owners rich. Good employees have no concept of passive income; money they earn even while they sleep. You need to break free from your money conditioning and become a money rogue by starting to take control of your money. Robert Kiyosaki teaches this analogy: you are standing in front of two doors. One door leads you to financial security and the other door leads you to financial freedom. Financial security is getting a stable job. Financial freedom is starting your own business. The travesty here is that if you select financial security, you end up losing both because you are not in control of the money. As an employee you only have the illusion of security. You can start now, today. Get started by reading and becoming financially educated. You are in charge of your financial literacy. My Reading List is on my website if you need some titles to get started.

2-MINUTE MEDITATION
It’s like a two minute miracle. Taking the time to meditate has been a challenge. After several failed attempts, my angel healer Alice Brock encouraged me to shorten my expectations and create a 2-minute habit. Meditation is a practice. The focus is on the habit of sitting, not the amount of time. Research shows that meditating reduces health risks and prolongs your life span. This practice is now producing results that I can measure, most notably having fun and flow during times of stress where I would normally be anxious and uptight. Take a minute or two, for you.

SUDOKU WORKOUT
You can create new neural pathways in your brain by solving Sudoku puzzles. The brain needs to be exercised just like a muscle in order to be agile and alert by stimulating your cognitive functions to prevent your brain from atrophying. My first easy puzzle took 23 minutes. In four months, I worked my way up through medium to hard, and looking forward to graduating to hardest. Sudoku is a 9-by-9 grid of squares divided into 3-by-3 square blocks. The object of the game is to fill in the blank squares so that each of the numbers from 1 to 9 appears only once in each row, column and block. Happy solving. The game is addictive.

HABITAT FOR HUMANITY RESTORE
As part of any business owner’s ongoing strategy to reduce costs, we purchase used appliances and hardware items through Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore. Check your area for the nearest outlet. Just this month they had a special on used toilets for $20 each in Thunder Bay. They came out of a renovated hotel and were perfectly functional. It is also an exceptional way to give back to your community. Instead of throwing out your used doors, lights, fans, sinks, tubs, cabinets, fridge, stove, door trims, closet doors – basically everything in your house including the kitchen sink – donate it to HFH. Let’s choose not throw out re-usable items that pollute our landfills. We can choose to make a difference for a sustainable planet. There are window screens and trim that they don’t make anymore. The only way to replace these items is by finding them in the second hand market.

PRO-ACTIVE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT – PART 6
Templates. If you write the same type of letter repeatedly, it’s time to create a template. Templates save you time from having to re-create the same type of letter over and over. Some examples of commonly used forms are rental inquiry response, statement of account, suite inspection notices, notice to enter, noise complaint, parking violation, eviction notice, end of tenancy. Create form fields in the top half of the letter so you can merge data. Compose the main body in generic terms and leave room in the bottom half of the letter to customize the content for specifics. Have the same sign-off in all the letters to be consistent. Templates show professionalism, give the impression of a much larger organization, one that has systems and protocols. People need to know the rules in black and white. They can’t read your mind and they have short memories.

Sometimes your greatest asset is simply your ability to stay with it longer than anyone else. Brian Tracy.

July Ono

I was reminded of my power virtues being faith, flow, fun and love. A lot of times I would like immediate results and move forward with my plan. Then I am reminded to have faith and be part of the flow. Being in flow is not about feeling like I am one with the universe at the end of a project. Being in flow is about enjoying the journey, the process, and allowing it to happen the way it unfolds. So why not have fun in the process? I take life too seriously sometimes which is why I have Steve around and when the fun goes, the meaning goes and when the meaning goes the emotion goes and when the emotion goes, life becomes a chore. Having a mission, vision, purpose and goals are all very well and good and a key ingredient is fun to spice it all up. I am still learning to incorporate fun more purposefully into my life. As with all learnings, Tony Robbins says this: Change is automatic. Progress is intentional.

HST IS A SETBACK FOR INVESTORS
The BC Real Estate Convention recently invited me to write an article for their Annual April Convention showcase guide. They wanted a counterpoint to Minister Colin Hansen’s pro-government position. Basically real estate investors are not permitted to have Input Tax Credits or GST refunds. Other businesses are allowed to claim ITC’s and we are excluded. When the new Harmonized Sales Tax comes into effect on July 1st, the bottom line will be a 35% profit loss to our current tax system. For a sneak peak of my article, go to my Blog.

AN OLYMPIC VIEW
Since I don’t subscribe to cable or listen to the radio, watching the Olympics meant going to a pub or imposing on somebody with cable tv. As it turned out, Steve whisked me away for a week in Florida to help me unwind from an intense schedule of work. I watched with bated breath and clenched fists as the Canadian men’s hockey team scored the overtime goal sending a clear message to the U.S. and the world that we own hockey. We’re standing in front of the Epcot dome in Orlando.

12 LEVERAGED DAYS OFF
Steve and I enjoyed twelve days away from Thunder Bay to take care of business in Vancouver. We left October 1 7th and returned March 17th, five months to create a property management system, hire and train a team to implement those systems. The business is running itself now without our day-to-day supervision. This is how you want to design a business so that it operates with you. During our visit, we had scheduled 6 dinner meetings, 1 breakfast meeting and a luncheon. In between, we relished my mom’s much missed gastronomical delights. It’s so great having a mom in the house. She loves cooking and we love eating.

YACHTING CRAB FEST
One of our investors recently upgraded to a 65 foot Tollycraft and gracious invited us out for an afternoon launch. We thought the excursion would be for a couple hours. Instead, we docked at a marina in False Creek and fired up the grill. We were treated to a crab feast as passersby hailed us for a claw. As we passed by the Olympic Torch, I snapped this beautiful harbour view of the flame. Vancouver is a remarkably gorgeous city with its myriad reflections of glass in dazzling pink, aqua green, cool blue and incognito black. It is simply breathtaking.

KAYDENCE’ FIRST 1-2-3-4-5 STEPS
Okay, I am a proud grandmother. One of the benefits of living and working in Thunder Bay has been watching my granddaughter grow up. She took her first five un-assisted steps early this month. It was just 9-1/2 months ago that I could hold this baby in one hand. Babies love modeling and mimicking grown ups. Children are affected by what they see, hear and feel. Specific Incidents have long term high impact whether positive or negative. It is important to reinforce positive encouragement.

PRO-ACTIVE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT – PART 5
Documentation. One of the first systems to implement is a log book to record every inbound and outbound call. I use a hard bound book with lined paper and create columns for the date, time, phone number, notes where the name of the party and a summary of the conversation is written down. A big check mark is placed in the left column when that item has been followed up. Unchecked messages have not been followed up. A mentor from long ago once told me, it is better to have a short pencil than a long memory.

The greatest single source of wealth is between your ears. Brian Tracy.

July Ono

I LOVE YOU. Say these three simple words every day to the people you love and you will have magic in your life. I used to take love for granted and assumed my loved ones knew they were loved so why would I have to say it every day. The answer is that we need to say “I love you” to stay connected to heart and other people need to hear those words to feel your connection. I used feel stupid saying those words because it caused me discomfort. One of my mentors challenged me to look in the mirror every day and say to myself “I love you”. The secret to this technique is that you need to love yourself first before you can love others. It is through the abundance of love that you have that the overflow is easy to share. Valentine’s Day is not one special day of the year reserved to show, give, say, feel that special loving. Valentine’s Day is every day of the year.

DINNER IN ORLANDO

Steve planned our trip to Disney World a month ago and it coincided with an NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) course hosted by Richard Bandler that Julie Zhu, Will Chen, Andy Barrett and Selena Cheung were attending. In between their course and theme parks, we met up for dinner at Big Fin Seafood Restaurant for a delectable meal. And as an additional bonus, Steve and I were able to watch the Olympics in the evenings. Since we don’t have cable at home, it was a treat to watch tv in our hotel. Way to go Canada!

PROPERTY MANAGER-IN-TRAINING

We have hired a resident manager for the Ontario portfolio; actually a full time manager and a part-time assistant manager. All of the resumes we received were heavy on the maintenance work with minimal administrative experience. The key to effective property management is not maintaining the buildings although that is important. The key is in your communication and documentation. We decided to train a newbie with no property management experience. The great thing is that he has no bad habits to unlearn. The exhilarating part is watching our new team implement the systems put in to place. Laying the foundation for a successful business takes the most time and effort. Once it is operating as designed, you have taken yourself out of active management. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

INVESTOR SAVVY: CREATING VALUE

This is Al & Shelley DeMelo from Kamloops. We joint ventured on a 6-plex in Thunder Bay. They decided to visit us for a week as their way of creating value for me. We hosted them on our air mattress in the living room and they got to experience what it’s like being a resident property manager. After we inspected their lovely property, they helped us with an eviction in our Lakehead portfolio. It was an eye opening process and we had a lot of fun discovering the how-to’s.

CALLING IN THE SHERIFF

My property management staff had a wonderful learning experience on how to process a sheriff enforced eviction. We were dealing with a professional tenant who knew how to use the tenancies act to their advantage. As a result, this person was able to live in their unit for four and a half months without paying rent. The eviction process usually takes two months. Please note that in Ontario the Landlord Tenant Board will not process any hearings in the month of December. For details about how an eviction is processed in Ontario, please go to my blog.

FOR REAL ESTATE INVESTORS ONLY

My business coach Andrew Barber-Starkey is hosting an exclusive seminar in Calgary, Alberta on March 15th from 6:30pm to 10:00pm. I know from personal experience that being able to analyze deals, knowing contract law, being motivated are not enough to help you become successful. Why do you think so many real estate investors fail? It is not for lack of training or education. It is because of their lack of a plan and the system to implement that plan. Andrew has an exceptional program designed for entrepreneurs to help you achieve your goals. He states double your income, double your time off and double your speed to financial freedom in less than three years. In 3 years I was able to go from $40,000 in debt to multi-millionaire and I continue using his program. It was less than easy for me to unlearn all of my bad habits from years of doing it the wrong way. That’s why it is a 3-year program. Why stop using a winning formula? That’s the other half of my secret. When most people achieve their initial goal, they stop using the system that got them there. If you are looking for a way to be a more successful real estate investor, you can check out what Andrew and I have been up to Here.

Never forget: the secret of creating riches for oneself is to create them for others. Sir John Templeton.

July Ono

Welcome to the year 2010. I have been discovering that life is not about my expectations. Life is about how I manage my expectations. The reason that I have been experiencing disappointment and frustration is because my map of the world isn’t the way I want it to be right now. And that’s okay. It’s coming. Tony Robbins has a great saying: frustration means you are on the verge of a breakthrough. Instead of anchoring a negative feeling around frustration, he recommends reframing it into a positive feeling that is empowering. I’ve been having a lot of practice at this lately and my reframe is to first be aware that I am being frustrated, then to verbally state out loud “I am on the verge of a breakthrough. This is fascinating.” It’s taken about 4 to 5 weeks for me to notice that my frustration level has decreased. When I look at what I have accomplished versus what I haven’t done, I am always amazed at the results. And remember to say “Thank you.”

HIRING A RESIDENT MANAGER
Now that our systems are almost completed, we are in hiring mode. There is a position for a Resident Property Manager who will oversee a 243 unit portfolio spread over 7 buildings. The technical aspects: excellent administrative and management skills, computer-literate, fluent use of English grammar in correspondence required. The psychological aspects: self-motivated team leader, resourceful, forward-thinking, looking to settle down for the long term. This is a great opportunity for a self-starter to manage a multi-million dollar portfolio. Tell me why you think you are the perfect fit? Resumes to info@lakeheadapartments.com

AND THAT’S A RRAP
In January 2009, I purchased a 28-unit apartment building with a single investor. This is a lower income building that requires managing up. It meets the requirements to qualify for the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s Residential Rehabilitation Assistant Program aka CMHC RRAP. We accepted an invitation for assistance from one of my former Real Estate Network Group members, Chris Veale. He was a tremendous help in breaking down the units so that contractors could easily identify what needed upgrading and provide complete bids. The application process started in February 2009 and we got approval to proceed with bids in October. We just finished the electrical safety inspection and fixed all the deficiencies. This is a federal grant program targeting older buildings with low income tenants. The government offers owners assistance with upgrading their buildings. It takes patience to fill out all the paperwork but it’s free money. Upgrading buildings to handicap access is also available.

WHEN CONDO CONVERSION MAKES SENSE
This is a buy and hold strategy for certain buildings. The mill rate for residential properties is lower in Ontario than it is for commercial properties. For example, the property taxes on a 48-unit multi-family apartment is $18,000 versus a 48-unit multi-family apartment that has been condo converted is $9,000, this is a $9,000 savings per year. It’s easy to figure out the break even point when you will recoup the cost of converting and if it fits in to your exit strategy. This is a value add for this building and increases the attractiveness to a potential future buyer.

INVESTOR SAVVY: CREATING VALUE
Have you taken the time to think about an investment from your Investor’s point of view? How would you rate your investment? How do you create a wow experience? If you want to attract investors, what would they want to hear? The bottom line is important and it’s how you achieve that bottom line. Investors want to hear that you are continually increasing the value and performance of their investment, whatever the economic climate. Every month, every year, the revenue in your portfolio should continue to increase even in a down market. It’s easy to make money in an up market. The aphorism goes, all ships rise with the tide. The people who make money during a down market are the savvy investors. It’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who’s been swimming naked as Warren Buffett says. This is your opportunity to provide intrinsic value on top of financial value.

SUCCESS BLUEPRINT WORKSHOP
My business coach Andrew Barber-Starkey with www.ProCoachSystem.com is putting on one of his exceptional workshops. There’s no obligation to buy anything except to enjoy the day and learn lots.
Jan 19 in Burnaby; Jan 25 Edmonton; Jan 26 Calgary
Click here to download the Annual Progress review, an exercise that we use in his coaching program, as a free gift from Andrew.

PRO-ACTIVE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT - PART 4
When managing multiple turn overs at month end, give tenants an incentive to move out early and to move in late by pro-rating their rent and bonusing it back to them. This way you can manage multiple turnovers and spread it out over a week or two instead of doing it all on the last day of the month. This tip is part of my “How can I create a fail-safe, fool-proof property management system that is easy to use?” system.

Never forget: the secret of creating riches for oneself is to create them for others. Sir John Templeton.

July Ono

Life has certainly been unpredictable and that’s the way it should be. I am living in Thunder Bay managing 243 units and spending Christmas with new friends. Life is about change. Change is what gives us strength, flexibility, vitality, resourcefulness, resilience. I look back at some of the most challenging times in my life. They are what defined me. These devastating events made me who I am today. I learned to appreciate my depression, anger, despair, anguish, hopelessness; to celebrate my capacity to feel the length and depth and breadth of these intense emotions. That’s what makes us human. Emotions are energy in motion. They are meant to be felt and then to move forward. It is the intensity of these emotions where magic and miracles reside. I learned to transmute this energy into manifesting my new reality. Because the truth is this: the Universe has a grand plan for you. These experiences are what you need in order to take you to the next level. After you have survived the ordeal, you begin to see with clear 20/20 hindsight. This is part of the initiation process called life. Because the Universe sees you as a diamond-in-the-rough (polishing is not a pleasant process) so that you may become a brilliant light for the world.  For I know too well that the holiday season may not feel like a great time for many people. Regardless of how you feel, you are so very precious. Your life is a masterpiece. This season of your life is an exciting one. Enjoy it while you can because you may never feel the intensity like this again. Like a volcanic eruption, it will go extinct, leaving its mark and a wiser stronger you. Celebrate your life… in your despair… in your joy… because either way you are loved and cherished. My blessings go with you.

CHRISTMAS BLESSING
I would like to save some trees this year instead of sending out cards. You are all, every one of you, a special blessing to me.
http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=2007134554829&source=jl999

MAKE A LIFE CHANGING DIFFERENCE
Can you spare $25 this month? Perhaps drink less Starbucks? And give an entrepreneur at KIVA.org an opportunity to thrive. When that loan is repaid, you can recycle the donation to another entrepreneur.

DATE WITH DESTINY
This is an awesome event put on by Anthony Robbins.  Amazing. Transformational. Words cannot describe. It is to be experienced. There are 6 human needs: Certainty, Significance, Uncertainty, Variety, Love/Connection, Growth. At DWD you learn how all relationships are based on these 6 needs. Tony gives you the tools so you can use it for your own personal growth and to help others. He has also incorporated new relationship material that is fascinating. You can read more about the Meadow Report on my Blog. My caveat: as with all of his events, there are no official breaks so come prepared with water, snacks and food.

MY NEW LOGO

I love it and I hope you do too. The On The Beach logo has been eluding me since 2003. Finally, thanks to my brilliant media designer, Bojan (pronounced “boy-yan”), he intuited my description into this wonderful logo. Bojan is the head of our new OTBEC Media Group. He does graphic and web design, newsletter templates, videography, audio engineering, photography, storyboarding, image manipulation, business cards, brochures. He’s one talented boy (pun intended) and he is available to serve your needs if you are looking for unique and creative design work. He can be reached at bojan@otbec.com for a consultation.

PRO-ACTIVE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT – PART 3

Training tenants. It starts at the beginning from that first phone call to when they vacate the premises. Be aware of your voice; the timbre, inflection, tonality speak more than your words. If you end your sentences with a vocal inflection going up as you would ask a question, this creates uncertainty in the listener. Consciously choose to end your sentences with a downward inflection as this creates certainty. For this reason, I hired a vocal coach, Jesai Jayhmes, before I launched my first seminar. It’s all about communication. Make sure that your expectations are understood and that the tenants are made aware of the consequences for non-compliance. Verbal communication alone is not enough. You must have your expectations written down on paper and explain it to them. Even something as simple as paying rent on the first of each and every month must be reinforced. Get them to sign a separate addendum that they promise to pay on time. When tenants are ready to vacate, give them a move out checklist including instructions on what to clean, how much it will cost if they don’t clean it, where to dump their unused furniture, instead of leaving it behind for maintenance to clean up. (to be continued next issue)

Money is like manure; it’s not worth a thing unless it’s spread around encouraging young things to grow. Thornton Wilder.

July Ono

This marks my first month as an active property manager. I spent the bulk of work creating a property management manual with all the necessary forms from initial point of contact with a tenant to their end of tenancy. Putting these systems in place takes a lot of initial effort but in the end, it is so worth it. It’s like building a gold mine. You need to put the safety structures in place first before you can start mining for gold. Training tenants is one of my favorite activities. More on that next issue. This may seem opposite to our goal of creating passive income. Actually, there is no such thing as passive income. An income source (money) is energy. All energy requires management. The key is to leverage the energy so you do less and less as you begin to make more and more. All this work is required to turn an under-performing asset into a systemized business that generates cash like clockwork.

DATE WITH DESTINY
We’re going to Arizona next month to see Tony Robbins as part of Mastery University. It’ll be a very pleasant change from hard core property management to hard core personal development. Same intensity: different arena. Life is a learning journey. We are designed for continual growth and increase. If you are not growing, you are automatically dying. There is no such thing as status quo which means to keep things the way they are. Life is all about change. You can be proactive and make your destiny and choose the date. Do you create your life or do you let life happen to you?

SMALL EFFORTS, BIG REWARDS
The bigger you play, you will notice that small things make a big difference. Every effort that you put out has an Energy Return Factor. Small things done well have a pay-off. This takes patience and wisdom. It means: do your best even when no one is watching because how you do something is already evident to the people around you.

HARDWARE HEAVEN
Steve and I went to Duluth, Minnesota for a weekend to check out Home Depot and Menards. These are mega super stores and quite impressive. If Tim “the Tooltime” wished for a tool heaven, this would be that place. You could hear Steve gasp with exclamations of wonder and awe at the amazing prices. These were the regular retail prices. For example, green board (which is mold resistant drywall) sells for $21 a board in Thunder Bay versus $6. Even with the exchange rate, duty and taxes, the savings are substantial. Every cost savings makes a difference to your bottom line because expenses have a cumulative effect that erodes profit.

FOR BEFORE YOU BUY
Use the 10% Rule when purchasing something for your business. If you’re paying $100 cash at the check out, as a general rule of thumb that money represents a 10% net profit to you. So if $100 is a 10% profit, it actually cost you $1000 of sweat equity (labor) to generate that $100. Before you spend your well earned money, ask yourself what is the actual price for buying that item. Be deliberate in your buying activities. Be a conscious spender.

PRO-ACTIVE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT – PART 2
Under-performing properties can be rewarding deals but the real work starts when you take possession. The first order of business on take over is to conduct a suite-by-suite inspection of every unit, making detailed notes of every deficiency, repair or replacement. Work orders are issued to high priority items such as plumbing issues (leaking faucets and running toilets) and prioritized to low priority cosmetic items. Work orders for the building proper such as hallways, entrance and exit doors, fire doors, emergency lights, fire extinguishers, safety inspections, boilers, make up air, hot water tanks, scheduling annual inspections for fire hydrants and backflow preventer valves, etc. are also prioritized. Put together a cheat sheet list of every vendor and supplier with their contact information for easy reference. (to be continued next issue)

MONEY TABOOS AND TRUTHS
We all have money beliefs which are instilled into us from childhood. Most of these beliefs are unconscious and they run your life. It is these money presumptions that keep you in the poor house or keep you from experiencing the level of financial independence that you desire. My unconscious belief was that I could not make more money than my dad. I was handicapped by my hidden saboteur. This truth came to the surface during T. Harv Eker’s Millionaire Mind Intensive. Money is neither good nor bad. Money is money. It is an energy form. Money is a tool that when harnessed in a certain way, can pave the way for a toilsome or ideal lifestyle. I certainly couldn’t help myself in this arena since I was broke and my solutions were using a broke mentality. Since A.E. (After Eker), there have been many other mentors to add their perspectives. Reading books can only take you so far. Get out there and invade your comfort zone. Go on the Great
Money Adventure and discover what treasures lie in wait for you. And remember, you are more brilliant than you can ever know.

You have to put in many, many, many tiny efforts that nobody sees or appreciates before you achieve anything worthwhile. Brian Tracy.

July Ono

Travel has been the operative verb this month with only 11 days logged at home base. It’s fantastic having a live-in mom. She runs the house while we’re away and delivers the mail to our bookkeeper once a week. Thank goodness for Logmein.com. This program allows me to log in to my network from wherever I am and I have access to my files. I have the Pro upgrade so file transfers are simply click and drag from the home network to my laptop or vice versa. This allows me the freedom to enjoy extended travel and stay on top of business. And speaking of business, I’m seeing a lot of opportunity in the market place. Frankly, we are overwhelmed with them and you can only focus on one thing well at a time. You can move on to the next project once you have it systemized and running on its own. This building systems thing takes time.

SEMINAR CANCELED

Please note that the ‘Your Million Dollar Network’ seminar on November 11th in Langley is canceled. I would have loved to be there in person since this is one of my favorite topics to teach.

YOUR MILLION DOLLAR NETWORK - AUDIO

So in lieu of a live meeting, here is a full audio recording of a previous
YMDN seminar at YourMillionDollarNetworkBook.com/audio/.

REIT CONFERENCE

Canaccord Adams held a presentation at the Four Seasons introducing 9 public real estate investment trusts. What a treat to have the CEO’s in one room. Steve and I had the opportunity to meet one of our role models in the industry: Bob Dhillon with MainStreet Equities. He manages one of the smallest REITs in Canada, a $700 million portfolio. His business model differs from the others in that he puts all his profits back into the business to build value in the portfolio. The other REITs focus on dividends, distributions and quarterly reports. All of the presenters shared that they have retrenched to some degree due to the economy. Their focus has switched back to cash flow. The ones that speculated on equity are paying the price right now with vacancies and a soft market for new product. There are no large portfolios for these REITs to buy. Owners are hanging on to their investments because it’s the best place to keep their money. If you think your stock portfolio did bad, you’ll see why real estate is one of the best hedges against inflation especially when you watch the section on Leverage on the ELCPTAR video. Leverage gives you a multiplying effect with your money.

JOIN ME ON FACEBOOK

I finally have a Facebook page. One of my weaknesses is internet optimization and social media sites. Since you can’t do everything, you have to delegate the stuff you’re not good at to someone who is great at it, like a virtual assistance for example.

ROAD TRIP ACROSS 4 PROVINCES

Have you heard how flat the Prairies are? I disagree because Steve and I just traveled through wheat country and it’s anything but flat. It’s more of a rolling landscape. Prairie folk say that you can watch your dog run away for a week. Maybe 2 days tops. Steve loves driving. He convinced me to break in our new car, a 2008 Ford Edge. We made it from Vancouver to Medicine Hat in 14 hours, to Kenora in 13 hours and arrived in Thunder Bay in 5½ hours, for a total of 32 hours. Now I’m keen to finish our cross country trek one day and eat the famously fresh lobster in Nova Scotia.

PRO-ACTIVE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT

Before we buy a property, one of the final questions we ask ourselves is this: In a worst case scenario, would we be willing to live there if things went sideways? This is part of formulating your back up plans in advance, before you buy, so when a surprise comes your way, you have already prepared for it. It was an easy decision to make when our management team in Ontario wasn’t making the cut. We took over active management in order to stabilize the portfolio. When you buy a building that is below market value, it’s because the previous owners have not paid attention to the tenant profile or managed the rents. You get an under performing building which means opportunity for us. Rental income property is a business. The value of the business is based on the Net Operating Income. Banks lend on what the business earns. Once the property is acquired, the real business of real estate investing takes place which is property management. It takes 3 to 6 months to bring administrative and maintenance systems in to place. (to be continued next issue)

ELCPTAR ON YOUTUBE

You can now enjoy a mini lesson on the 7 Profit Centers in real estate, one of the foundational principles of real estate investing. ELCPTAR is trademark pending and the subject of my second book currently in the works. My new graphic/web/media designer has uploaded this video to Youtube.com/otbecvideos. See for yourself why real estate is so exciting from an investor’s point of view. And don’t even think you’re not an investor.

When you squeeze an orange, orange juice comes out because that’s what’s inside. When you are squeezed, what comes out is what’s inside. Wayne Dyer.
July Ono