Real Estate: Next Rehab Project

We have looked at how we should, in theory, perform an inspection. Now I will go through a rehab to show you the actual steps and missteps we make. There is always something we over look in the initial inspection. That is why we have a fudge factor in the estimates to allow for something that is overlooked or hidden to our original inspection.

Emerson is a 3 bedroom, 1 bath single family residence with 1050sf. We are going to rehab it so we can Rent-To-Own (Lease Purchase Option). I estimate rehab time to be 3 weeks from start to finish. Estimated start time is April 30th. Here is our scope of work & my estimate for the rehab at 410 W Emerson Ave:

Basic Rehab

1. Landscape:............................................................$1500
2. Paint: Exterior & Interior......................................$3738
3. New gutters............................................................$250
4. New roof.................................................................$5175
5. Repair fence south & east side of property............$500
6. Repair holes in wall................................................$500
7. New flooring...........................................................$3450
8. New cabinetry.........................................................$350
9. New countertop......................................................$750
10. Repair wall heater..................................................$250
11. Replace doors: kitchen, garage & entry door........$375
12. Replace outlets and switches.................................$750
13. Replace toilets (2) & tub (2)..................................$350
14. Replace vanity........................................................$350
15. Replace appliances................................................$1000
16. New hardware.......................................................$575

Price out

1. Replace interior doors.............................................$867
2. Replace windows (vinyl).........................................$1500

So my initial budget is $19,850 with $2367 for additional work. We will see how I did in a day or two. I am having a contractor give us a price to do the work. In the meantime I will be doing videos of our progress. I will be posting those soon.

See Ya,
Mike

Can You Still Make Money in Real Estate as an Investor?

I know I wrote about this last November but I realized that I did not answer that particular question. I was derailed into the real estate market. But the question asked here is "Can You Make Money in Real Estate?" especially in the economy we are in.

My answer is still YES! But how you make money has changed radically in the last six months. I will relate what changes we have gone through to illustrate. In May of 2008 we were running a good direct marketing campaign to a lot of different people (Out of area owners, high equity owners, distressed owners, etc..). We would get a good response from our mailings. But around August we started to see a change. The number of calls were decreasing. We compensated for this by increasing our mailings and the number of calls stabilized. But we kept having to increase our mailings to keep the number of calls coming in the same each month. Also the number of appointments to talk to sellers fell also. As the economy started to sour, people decided that change, any kind, was bad. Everyone wanted to stay in their homes instead of making a moving.

Meanwhile the number of closing we did each month was decreasing. Also the exit strategy changed very quickly. We discovered, fortunately for us, the exit strategy we were basing our business model on was not going to work. Any business model that relied on a retail buyer (average Joe in the market place - that needed a loan to buy) was not going to qualify for a conventional loan unless they had a sterling credit rating. Fewer and fewer were in this category everyday. We switched our buying & selling model to a buy and hold model. We buy, with private money, with the idea of cash flow each month. The big payoff will occur years down the road. We still pull a small amount out at closing, but the primary focus of the property is positive cash flow. We stiff offer our properties with owner financing (8% down payment) and Lease Purchase Option (3% Option Fee) which generates lots of calls.

The days of buying a property for 60% on the dollar, rehabbing it and selling it for 95% on the dollar to a retail buyer are gone for now. We need the credit market to stabilize first and then resume a reasonable practice of lending before we can think about that again. I do not know when that will be, but I will be watching for it and as soon as I see it I will let you know.

See Ya,
Mike

Real Estate: Part 3 of How We Analyze REO Properties

Hey everyone,
Here is the last part of my 3 part series on how we analyze foreclosed properties in minutes. In the first one we showed on we enter the basic information and how it is used by the software; the second one showed the repair estimate module and how you just have to select what is needed and the costs are calculated with a fudge factor.

This last module will show the reports and forms that are in the software and how we use them to make offers on foreclosed homes. So watch the video below and let me know what you think. I want all the feedback I can get.




See ya,
Mike

What We Use to Analyze Properties

We have been making a lot of offers for foreclosed properties. It helps being in the foreclosure capital of the world. We developed a program called JM2 Deal Analysis. We use the program to quickly see if the property is going to fit our criteria for buying and selling. Once we see that the property fits our criteria, we continue to use the program to refine our deal and send out PDFs of our offer to private lenders.

The video below (from our YouTube channel: mdsarch) walks thru the intro and property entry part of the program. Over the next two days I will be adding videos showing features of the software.



Let me know what you think of the program. Email me with any suggestions you may have, mike@jm2buyshouses.com

Modesto Real Estate Market

Today's post will be brief. I am in the process of downsizing my office so I have not had much time to research. But I did look at Yahoo Real Estate site for information on the Modesto market. Wow is it amazing. Here are the numbers:

Listing Type ---------------Number -----------Median Price ----------Price Change from Feb

Homes for Sale: ----------- 414-------------------$164,900------------------ (-1.8%)
New Homes: ---------------- 5 --------------------$352,000 -------------------0.0%
Foreclosures ------------3,972 --------------- $194,000 ------------------(-3.0%)

If you want to see the website here's the link: Modesto Real Estate Is there anyone who thinks we are near a bottom. I believe the median price (for foreclosures) is so much higher than "Homes for Sale" is the banks have been holding the properties 1) because they have cash from the first bail out and do not have to liquidate their inventory (at least until the regulators show up) 2) they are holding out hope that another government program will help them with their inventory. Well we are seeing that the program will help homeowners who can not make the payments by lowering their payments. But it will not affect people with loans larger than their property value. We should start to see the banks lower the price of the properties so they can get them off the books. When that happens you will see the price of the property drop again. Even if that was not the case, we are still seeing property values drop almost 2% in one month, wow 24% a year. It is no wonder that the median price in Modesto, CA is $164K down from $369,000 at it high.

So get your private lenders ready and make your offers as if you are selling several months in the future (i.e. 4-6 months x 2% (drop per month)). The bottom will come but I do not believe it will be from the cash flow (rents - expenses) from the properties. There are just too many of them. We continue to work with people who want to own a home and can make a rental payment( for a period of 3 to 5 years). That is how we will stabilize this make.

I guess I was not that brief. Have a great weekend.

See Ya,
Mike
Follow me on Twitter: MDSArch

The Name of the Game is Change in Real Estate

Change is the name of the game here in California's Central Valley. And after reading the paper today we may be stuck with it for a while. See Modesto Bee article: Housing programs could have little impact here The reason why the program will not help the central valley is the big price drop. The median price in the Central Valley has drop over 50% from its high. The Government's plan only deals with payments not values. So hundreds if not thousand of people who are upside down have to decide if it is worth the wait and continue to pay a large mortgage on a property that is worth 50% less than when they bought. Most people are going to walk away. One home owner I spoke with has a $500k mortgage on house that they purchased for $700,000 in a neighborhood with house selling for $200k. There is no incentive to stay. Well a foreclosure on your credit report is bad, but there will be so many people in the same boat that the credit market will have to adjust.

So what does that mean for us investors. We have to buy better and better, translation lower and lower price. As long as we have foreclosures, the median price of homes will continue to drop so the banks can sell their properties. Couple that with the unemployment rate and you have a lot of change. But that is exactly why the market needs investors. It needs individuals who will take the risk to buy the properties, rehab them and sell or rent them to people. In fact there are going to be a lot of people who had adjustable rate loans that will need to rent. Better yet - do a Lease Purchase Option and you begin to restore their dignity and self-worth of former homeowners who lost everything. While giving them the chance to owner a home.

That is why Countrywide's new policy on not allow a purchaser of a foreclosed home to resell it in the first 30 days puts one more roadblock in the marketplace. I know why they did it (fraud being a big part of it) but to throw a large wet blanket on a complicated transaction does not help the situation. What should you do? Get all the private money you and go buy foreclosed homes from banks and lower prices so you can Lease Purchase Option them. That is what we are doing.

If you have the money but do not want to go through the process of buying, rehabbing and renting then email us. We can handle all that for you and give you a good return that is secured by the property. We are always looking for private lenders.

See Ya,
Mike

What's Working Now in Real Estate

With the current economy, we have had to adjust our buying model almost daily. Creativity is the key word today. I know it is a word from the past, but one that applies today. You need to be creative to adjust to all the changing markets. Flexibility is another word I would use to describe how we are working today. One day you may use direct mailings and the next you are looking at Foreclosed homes. You can't set you self up in one part of the market for long and hope to continue to grow.

The two markets that are working for us are Foreclosed house & high equity. Foreclosed because when you live in the foreclosure capital of the world you have to look. After a year of making offers to bank who are trying to sell homes that need $25k in repairs for retail, we are starting to see banks make an effort to move properties. House that we made offers on a couple of months ago only to be rejected are cutting prices to below our original asking price. A side note: I find it interesting that listing agents of these properties do not call investors back that made offers on the properties to see if they still want them. I think I would do that before I lowered the listing price, Hmmmm. Oh well that's just me. So we are going back to properties that we made offers on several months and seeing if the property is still available. If they are we recheck the comps (usually lower) and resubmit a price (usually lower). Our market is still dropping from 2 to 5% each month.

High equity homes can be really fun if the seller can wait for their money. Our definition of high equity is 60% and above (i.e. a house worth $100,000 and the owner has a loan on for no more than $40K). We have purchased many homes from sellers who need to sell but can't find a buyer and will provide owner financing. We frequently get that owner financing at 0% interest. How? By asking them for it. When that happens you can pay a higher price for the property because every payment is paying down principle.

Using this deal structure we frequently put a small 1st Deed of Trust, from a private lender, to pull money out of the property to run our business. The seller is in the 2nd position. Again you ask why would the seller do that, because we asked. So our private lender is in a very secure position, the seller is getting payments on a house they could not sell and we have a property that because of the deal structure we can repackage and offer owner financing to a buyer or a Lease Purchase Option (see previous post) and still make a positive cash flow. Throw in substitution of collateral and you have a sweet deal (But I will save that for another post).

See Ya,
Mike
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/MDSArch

Hooray Orangeburg is Leased

You need a strong constitution for real estate because of the roller coaster rider. But I can definitely tell you today is an up day (see next paragraph). You buy a property and you do repairs on it and you assume (right or wrong) that you will move the property in one day. OK maybe that is mostly wrong. But I can dream. Realistically you need 60 days from the time you offer the property until it is sold or leased. Why? Because it is a big purchase and people need time to think and ponder on the purchase before they can say yes. Even if it is a great deal.

That brings us to Orangeburg. A property we purchased last December 08. We spent several weeks getting it repairs and in livable shape. We held an open house and very few people came. We offered the house at a great deal but the people were not ready. We continued to market the property in the newspaper as a Rent-To-Own in the rental section. The calls came in and in less than a week we have leased the property to a great family.

The woman is a single mother with three kids who is renting in a not so good part of town. One of her daughters commented when she entered the house "...that it was a castle". Maybe not a castle to me but that is why I love this business. We were able to take a property that was ripped up, rehab it and lease it to someone who would not have gotten a second look from a bank. Another person who feels more secure now that she has a home of her own. Truly the American dream even in this economy.

So lessons learned: 1)It takes more time than you thnk to move a propery; 2) Boy it is fun to help people; 3) We need to do more of this.

I have been getting questions about what is Rent-To-Own and how our program works. I am going to put together a video and post it here on the blog tomorrow explainig our program ad how you can use it to gain home ownership. Even if you can not buy a home today, you can lock in today's prices for a future purchase.

See Ya,
Mike

Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up!!!

Follow-up is the word when it comes to selling properties. In fact follow-up is the word in buying properties also. You must not rest on your leads. Even if you get tons and tons of leads (I actually don't know how many tons and tons of leads are but it sounds like a lot) you can not wait for them to call back. As my mother says "He who hesitates is lost" and that can not be more true. The buyer or renter has too many options for you to sit back and wait.

Do not count the property sold or rented until you have cash and a contract in hand. Otherwise the property is still available. Let me tell you a tough example on that note. Our first property we purchased, and I will admit we purchased it wrong. We paid too much and were optimistic about selling it quickly. We poured all kinds of money in the home. We took it from a REO nightmare to a beautiful home. We had our open house and we got a few people through it. We were priced to high for the market. We continued to market the property to avail. Then a woman came by and said the house was perfect for a program she was putting together. In fact she wanted buy it with owner financing and pay it off in 7 years. That worked out to $3300 per month. Well we got the agreement drawn up and she sign with a earnest money deposit. We found out later that the check she gave for the earnest money bounced. We asked her and she said that an investor pulled his money early but she would have the money in there soon. Meanwhile she paraded interior designers, furniture reps, etc through the house to begin to get the house ready. Well many months passed and no closing. Finally we told her to put up or shut up. We canceled the escrow and realized that we lost 3 months of marketing for the house. We lost all the momentum. We never recovered. We gave the house back to our private lender and learned a very expensive lesson.

The deal is not closed until we have the money and the contract in hand. Otherwise the property is always available.

Weekend Happenings

Well as you can see I have changed my blog layout. That is the problem when you have an architect writing a blog. I am still looking for that perfect layout but in the meantime this layout looks good.

The Open House over the weekend went pretty well. We had more people show-up on Sunday than Saturday which goes to show that I do not know how the market will react. I would have thought the it would have been the other way. We got a few people who are interested in the property. We did discover that the flat fee listing we had done did not display in the local MLS. We are still learning things everyday. We have corrected that problem and we got a bunch of calls from realtors asking if the property was still available.

So the house maybe sold by the end of the week. That would certainly be good news. Once we have this sold we will concentrate on the next property. Hey anyone want a fixer in Tracy $165k all fixed up make offer as is, owner will carry.

See Ya,
Mike

Open House Reality

Open Houses are boring. You prepare very hard for the flood of people that will come through the house and very few come. That is just the way the market is right now. We spent a lot of time on clean and fixing and prepping to show the house to 8 people. For a four hour open house that is one person every 30 minutes. Let me tell you that is a lot of sitting around. I find that I look over all the things maybe I should have fixed. By the end of the day it is a long list and can be discouraging.

But in the end we did get one or two people who were interested in the house. Managing expectation is key. I always think we will sell the house in one day. A house is just too big a purchase for someone to walk-in and say "YES, I'll take it" There are just too many houses on the market. The prospective buyers need to see it, usually more than once, and compare it against other houses on the market. So I am preparing mentally for day two of our open house and we will be looking for those people who came through on Saturday to return and start talking price.

I will let you know how it goes.

See Ya,
Mike

The Real Estate Market Waits for No One

Hi everyone,
I am just getting back on my feet after being sick all weekend and I still have the same problem I had last week. Being sick did not make it go away. In fact today is my cut off day. I will either find a source of funding for our latest property or I will end escrow and work out getting my deposit back. That could be a fight. I still working with several private lenders but the problem is timing. I may not have enough time to get the funds here without paying a penalty (which I do not like to do).

The market - any market is running scared right now. There is so much uncertainty that people would rather do nothing for the time being then lose money. I can't say I blame them if you read the paper or listen to the news. My job is to help them to look beyond that and look at the long term return they will get from a investment that is secured by real estate. Property values are down in California but they will not remain there for long. Too many people like to live in this state and there are too many jobs for them not to. That means housing demand will grow sooner rather than later. It will take time for people to realize that they have a job and can spend money again before we see any recovery. But that means we have an opportunity to increase our investment portfolio. I don't know about you but we are buying houses that cash flow in California. Something that was unheard of only 12 months ago.

Meanwhile we are doing what everyone else is doing in this economy. We are cutting expenses and limiting spending to only what we have to do on the properties. That is the new model. You need to hold properties for a longer period and have them cash flow. I see holding the properties for many years. Though some we will hold forever as a great source of cash flow. Ultimately reaching our goal of 15 to 20 houses that are free and clear with a great positive cash flow.

Let me know what your model is and how it is working.

See Ya,
Mike

New Valentine's Day Tradition

Happy Valentine's Day!!! Now I know it may be tough to be happy and uplifting with the way the economy is today but I say we start a new tradition. They say: "Home is where the heart is.." but I want to revise that to "The Heart is where the home is". So with that theme I am starting a new tradition: Forget the flowers but a house.

Yes, don't waste your money on flowers that will die; buy something that your spouse, partner, significant other will remember forever: A House. With prices so low, now is the best time to be buying. You say you can't qualify for a loan for the house, that's OK I hear only the bank presidents can qualify. Don't let that stop you. When it is tough to sell houses sellers become motivated and will deal. Ask for owner finance; we do and you would be surprised how many people say yes. We offer owner financing on all our available properties with no bank qualifying. If you do not have the down payment, then do a Lease Purchase Option ( also known as Rent-To-Own) the house. You do not own the house but you lock in the price of the house in today's value and you can get credit towards a down payment to purchase the house in the future.

So don't wait go out today make that offer on a house and get it gifted wrapped for your loved one. You say you do not have a loved one well then buy it for the most important person in your life - YOU!! An additional benefit from National Buy A House Day (trademark pending) is it will give one hell of a boost to the economy. Way better than any bail out that will come and a lot cheaper in the long run.

Happy Valentine's Day: now go get that house and then buy the flowers. If you need one just visit www.JM2SellsHouses.com.

See Ya,
Mike

Working under the gun in real estate is stressful

Wow the days have gone by since the last time I posted on my blog. Monday I told you about our setback on our latest deal. Well today I still have that challenge. I have been talking to all kinds of people about private money. That is why I spent so much time on it in the 30 Day Action Plan (see previous blog posts). It is vital because once you have it and can keep a constant flow of it you can make real estate deals with confidence. If you have to find the money after you have a deal signed then you live in the land of stress and that is not fun.

We continue to talk to people about the possibility of earning 8 - 12% on their money secured by real estate. But what we are finding is while people like the interest rate they are fearful of the economy and do not want to make any changes until it settles out. So we keep talking and meeting until we have what we need.

So I will keep at it and let you know more tomorrow.

See Ya,
Mike

Real Estate - One Step Forward & Three Back

Wow what a weekend. I am glad to be back to work (like I take the weekend off). One of the many things I have learned in running our real estate company is that things change on a dime and you just have to be ready for them. Some days it is "One step forward and two or three steps back" That is what happen this past weekend.

We have a great property we have an offer in on that we are buying with private money cash. We have everything all set to close this coming week. Well I heard over the weekend from him that his money is not available for 2 to 3 months. Why? it really does not matter. That happens and you have to move quickly. All my plans last week for the property and what we were going to do to it are gone or at least in jeopardy. I did not get much sleep last night as I formulated what I would do this morning to resolve this challenge. That is how you need to look at it. It is a challenge that I need to over. You will get a lot of them in this business and you either fight or run. Well I have too much on the line to run so I am fighting as hard as I can. Do I need this challenge? - probably as much I need a hit in the head but I will learn from it.

So I have my plan for the day to fill this gap and I will be talking to a lot of people today to try and save this deal. This is the life of a real estate entrepreneur and I need to always be ready. This does show me that I do not have my business model completely set. If I had all the private money I needed then this would not be a big deal. That is why you need to talk to everyone you know more than once and then expand out form there.

Well I am off. I will let you know how I did tomorrow.

See Ya,
Mike

Real Estate Nightmares

You are sleeping soundly when it happens: you find yourself sitting straight up in bed, your heart beating fast and sweat breaking out all over your body. Congratulation you are officially a real estate investor with properties for sale or rent. It happens suddenly. One night the world is in order and peaceful and the next you are awake at 3:00am in the morning. I know because it happens often for me. Mike what does it mean?

It means you own more than the house you live in. It is that simple. You can't prevent it because once you own more than one house that asset now needs an occupied (preferably one that is paying a monthly rent), maintained, rehabbed and it will generate bills (electrical, water, gas, sewer, insurance & taxes). You start this business with big dreams about buying and selling houses and making big money but it is the details that will drag you down each and everyday. You can over come this - in fact if you are still reading this blog you probably already know this- with commitment and persistence. Because there are days that the crap hits the fans and usual ends up on you. You have to wipe yourself off and keep going. My motto is "Keep moving forward". It's like walking in mud if you stop it takes twice the effort to get moving again.

Another valuable asset for you will be your support team. This maybe a spouse, friends, family or employees. I am fortunate that I have all of these and I use them. I have a very supportive wife who listens and challenges me everyday. I work with my brother to bounce ideas or just dump on him if I need to and lastly I have a great staff. My staff take care of a lot of the details so I can focus on the big pictures items like private money and buying properties.

So when you wake up in the middle of the night - remember to be grateful for the challenge of the day to come and welcome to the club. Also I find it helps to have a pad by the bed to write down what is on my mind to get it out so I can go back to sleep. Have a god night sleep.

See Ya,
Mike

In Real Estate it's about Implementation

Implementation. A key word in real estate; actually in any business but very important in real estate. Why? Because there are so many great programs in the market to buy and sell real estate but it does not do any good if you do not implement. That is one thing no one really talks about. Sure you can watch the shows on TV - buy a house for $50,000 - fix it up for $15,000 and sell it for $125,000. That sounds fantastic, right? And it is possible to do, but what they do not say is that the real estate investors saw over 100 houses and made 15 offers and talked to countless people before they got the deal. Not to mention that it took four months of effort. Yes, you can get lucky and get a deal right off the bat, but that has never been my business model.

Typically my model is based on the longest time it takes to do something and that is after some dead ends on the bumpy road. Hey, don't get me wrong, I love real estate. It is fun to take something that no one wants and turn it into the pride of the neighborhood. Just be prepared to work like a business that is if you want to do more than one a month.

So dust off the program you have on your shelf (I have them also) and commit to implementing the strategy for a period of time longer than 7 days. You have to give it six months and see if you results are not better.

Hey drop me a comment and let me know what programs you have and what's working for you.

See Ya,
Mike

Real Estate Course: Day Twenty-Nine of 30 Day Action Plan

Day 29

1. Private Money
2. Next batch of mailing
3. Talk to sellers

Day Twenty-nine: Private money! I promise this will be the last time I bring it up. If you have done it over the past 29 days you should have had some successes. Go back to those that liked the idea. If they has lent to you thank them. They are helping your business grow. See if they have any additional funds they would like to lend. Ask them if they know anyone who they think would be interested in the same program. Above all, take care of this person.

If you purchased a large list last week (Day 5), you should be preparing a second mailing or a third if you did one earlier. Why do you want to break-up a large list into two mailings? Simple logistics is the answer. You or someone else has to answer the phone and if you sent a large mailing in one batch you could get a bunch of calls all at once (over several days). You may miss some calls. Dividing it over two mailings will make it easier to take the calls. You will repeat this mailing next month following the market rule of multiple mailings.

Go look at five property leads from the realtors you have met. You are evaluating them for equity (market value – repairs – loans = equity).

Real Estate Course: Day Twenty-Seven of 30 Day Action Plan

Day 27

1. Talk to one person every day about your private money program
2. Lunch with an expert (realtor/title officer/mortgage broker)
3. Follow-up with everything

Day Twenty-seven: Private money! We have been talking about this for the past four weeks. That is how important this is to your business. It is absolutely vital. If you have not done this over the past weeks then you might as well quit now because you need the money to continue your business. Yes you can get some from a bank, if you have god credit and a large down payment but that will only take to two or three properties. I do not know about you but my business model involves many more properties than four. So go pull out your warm list and review how everyone on it responded to your offer. Compile a list of people who said no because you will go back to these people. We want to give them five opportunities to say no.

You have had some good lunches over the past four weeks. Though your lunches you have been talking and building your power team. Continue to talk and network with these people. They can help you in the success of your business so help them with theirs.

Remember to follow-up on all the properties you have written offers on. Follow-up is a key to the success. Check in with sellers you have talked to and made offers on. Things change over time and they maybe more receptive to your offer.

Real Estate Course: Day Twenty-Six of 30 Day Action Plan

Day 26

1. Talk to one person every day about your private money program
2. Lunch with an expert (realtor/title officer/mortgage broker)
3. REOs – Talk to realtors
4. Talk to Title Company
5. Make more offers

Day Twenty-six: Private money! Review your warm list and how they responded to your offer. You may have to modify your presentation. You are selling an opportunity. You are not asking the person to buy anything. They are lending their money and getting an interest payment.

Have lunch with an expert. Make sure you rotate your list of experts so you grow your list of real estate experts and contacts. Remember you can also talk to them about your private money program. That will help with the action item above.

You should be constantly talking to your realtor network about REOs (Foreclosed homes) in your farm area, researching them and making offers. Any offers that were rejected should go in a file to be resubmitted in 30 days if it is still on the market. Do not go chasing deals; let them come to you.

You should also be talking to your Title Officer about deals you have in escrow. Reviewing preliminary title reports, checking documentation and removing any roadblocks and challenges that come up during the escrow. Do not assume that no news is good news.

Continue to make offers on properties that meet your criteria. It is a numbers game. Look at 100 properties for 10 offers to get one deal. That is why you tell house finders, realtors, etc. what you are looking for to cut down the time needed to find the leads. The numbers do compress, as more people know what you do and begin to refer properties and people to you.