CALLING
ALL INVESTORS - JOIN MY INVESTOR GROUP AND IMPROVE YOUR ROI
January 10, 2009
Charles HanesI’m not bragging when I say that I
can increase your return on investment in residential condos because, that’s what I
do! I’m not your average Realtor. I am first and foremost an investor. My second
label, if that’s what you’d call it, is that of an Investor’s Agent, as I
bring significant numbers of investors with me when I show up to invest. My next label
would be that of Publisher of meaningful information to people looking to invest in
residential condos.
You really couldn’t get more specialized than I am as a Realtor. I never aspired to
be a Realtor, as my interests have always been in New Media production. I have a
background in commercial music, rock video, corporate video and television production but
always financially supported my efforts in the Arts by selling residential condominiums
for Developers in Toronto.
Later in life I realized that I was just throwing good money after bad trying to make it
in the Arts here in Canada due to the small buyer target audience. Oh, if you are a super
star talent like David Foster or Celine Dion (amongst others), you can certainly do it,
but as a small guy in the production side of things you have to realize that the big
reward is just not there.
I’m glad that I turned to condos and specifically glad that I became the founding
“Buyer’s Agent” in the city
when I was forced to get my real estate License. I had decided to build the web site with
revenues derived from Realtors paying for strategically positioning them at the pulse of
the industry but no matter how good what you’ve got is, you just can’t get
Realtors to buy it.
To the person, they all cried the blues to me. They were “loving me to death”!
They wanted to play but just couldn’t pay! “We’ll gladly pay you when there
is an actual deal” was the common lament. I wanted to operate my web site and be paid
to make them successful but no-one would buy. They offered to share is results but to do
that I would have to be a licensed Realtor.
So I went to Real Estate School, took the courses and passed the “open book”
exams and voila! I became a Realtor, legally entitled to earn “Referral Fees” (a
portion of commissions resulting from the sale). I didn’t want to be a “normal
Realtor” (if there is such a thing). I wanted to deliver the multimedia
“content” that I had envisioned for this niche industry within the overall body
of real estate that I knew very few people (including Realtors) knew much about!
Did you ever see the commercial where these young people launch their web site and then .
. . one “hit”, five “hits”, a hundred “hits”, a thousand
“hits”, a million “hits” etc., etc., etc.!
Well, that’s what happened with simplycondos.com. We
became an overnight success story in 2001 and have continued to expand our outreach and
market share ever since.
Over these years I have assembled a loyal following of condo investors (a ton of end users
as well). I never ask anyone to invest in anything I wouldn’t invest in myself and
when investing I take everything very, very seriously! Your money or my money, I take it
very serious that we achieve optimum return on investment every time out!
Here’s what a couple of these investor have to say about their relationship with me
over this time period. I have never had a client lose any money! I always get the best
selection and access to suites, as I’m called in early to comment on their
development well before they launch. |
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During the past five years, as so many investors flocked to condo sales sites on their
own, unattended by professional buyer’s agent, prices have been allowed to go
absolutely crazy! They don’t seem to understand the process of condos and I guess
they don’t know that there are investors like me who being dozens of buyers in early
and buy at greatly preferred rates to what they buy at and enjoy the best selection.
So, my investors/buyers get first pick and buy and discounted rates and then the developer
opens the sales to the public after raising prices and they pick from what’s left and
pay a whole lot more. This works well for my investor group as when the time to sell
comes, we just wait for those “do-it-yourselfers” to try to sell their units as
they set the price for us and we optimize our return on investment, thanks to them having
paid “retail pricing”!
Usually when one of these people find out how it works they sign up for my FREE
Buyer Agency Services. I already
published (long ago) that now is not the time to invest in Toronto condos. It certainly
isn’t the time to buy in Florida
either as the news just this morning said “Miami/Fort
Lauderdale still have a long way to fall before any possible turn around”.
That said, and if you understand the power of “efficiencies of scale”, now is an
excellent time to strategically position yourself to invest. Knowledge is power in this
business and you don’t find knowledge in the public domain (newspapers for example
won’t publish negative information on developers who are paying them $35,000 -
$50,000 for full page colour ads per day).
In 2008, for example, I took my investor group into a Toronto luxury development in the
prestige Forest Hill area. Prices
were running in the $600 per square foot with starting suites (12XX sq.ft.) listed at
approximately $700,000. At the time, people were lining up to speculate in downtown
average stuff priced at over $600 per square foot and this Forest Hill condo was fully dressed
with a minimal number of residences and uncompromising appointments and finishes!
I took in a dozen or so deals when the developer needed them to secure his construction
funding and enjoyed a 15% DISCOUNT (approximately $100,000) per unit!
Even if you were astute enough as a consumer to identify this Forest Hill development as the
“best”, a lone wolf investor would have paid $100,000 more than my investors!
When they both try to cash out, well you can see the disadvantage that the lone wolf
investor is at!
So now I’m going back to Florida (I
originally built the site for Florida) where I’ve spent the majority of my winters
(it’s a market that I know pretty much as well as the Toronto condo market) as a
buyer/investor.
Although this is not yet the time to buy down there, unless you can take a bigger bite out
the prices to factor in the continued fall that is being called for like I intend to do,
this IS the time to study.
I’m flying out on Monday to bring you the information that I accumulate for us all
down there with respect to buying up investment properties. Plan to read all my articles
and be sure to Register
with me so I can keep you privately informed on critical information that really
can’t be shared in public as we end up creating our own competition by letting that
Joe Idiot Lone Wolf read my stuff and try to outleg us, (making themselves look like
geniuses – I guess).
That’s it for now. I’m Charles Hanes
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