This episode I answer a question I get all the time.

This episode I speak about how grateful I am and wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

While I have never been to the original TED (I keep applying, some day I will get in) I was fortunate enough to have attended both TedxDetroit events. This years event was even better and bigger than last with some amazing speakers.

Why this is so exciting, besides the fact that it is TED for Detroit, is that it proves there are great minds in Detroit working hard to solve problems and share ideas. One of the big differences between TedxDetroit and the original TED is that TedxDetroit is heavily represented by entrepreneurs. Detroit is ground zero for some amazing new businesses in the tech arena as well as established businesses growing like crazy.

For Detroit to have successfully sponsored two Tedx events is an great sign for the city. The quality of the speakers were second to none and I met some great people while attending and volunteering. To see and meet so many people actively making Detroit a better place to live, start a business, and invest was something really special.

My favorite quote of the day was from Dan Gilbert (owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers as well as Quicken Loans, basically a serial entrepreneur),”If you like to buy low and sell high, I suggest you get on the bandwagon, soon!” Dan went on to say that he couldn’t believe how cheap real estate was here and he was actively buying as much as he could.

I highly recommend that next year you apply and attend TedxDetroit. You won’t regret it.

I must give a shout out to a few of the players that made TedxDetroit possible. Charlie Wolborg of Curve Detroit (follow @charliecurve), Wayne State University, Dan Gilbert and of course the TedxDetroit board. Thank you for working so hard to make this happen and thank you for making this years TedxDetroit bigger and better than last years! I’m really looking forward to 2011 TedxDetroit!

Make your life uncomfortable,
Jeremy Burgess
The Detroit Market Expert

P.S. Check out some pretty cool pics of TedxDetroit. http://www.flickr.com/groups/tedxdetroit/

I’m not going to name theses companies so please don’t ask. I am going to give you some good tips on doing due diligence on the company you are thinking of working with.

The first is the most basic. Do a google search on the owner of the company and the actually company. In all cases where someone contacted me with their story and scam, this revealed that there were many people upset with multiple links. One or two bad comments don’t mean much in a market like Detroit where it is difficult to invest correctly but when you see more than a few, that is a reflection on how they do business, not a one or two time occurrence.

The second requires you to have some social media accounts and knowledge. Check them out on facebook, linkedin, twitter, and youtube. Those are the big four. Read through their posts and tweets and follow and add them as friends. I find this is a good way to see what kind of person you are about to work with.

The third requires some money. You can pay to do a background search on them and their company. Remember that no one is a saint (myself included) but if they have a criminal background or financial problems, it will show up here. This usually cost about $45 to do.

Finally, ask for some references, get cell phone, office phone, office address, home address, etc from them before you work with them. Most bad guys will not want to give you so many ways to find them. Then verify all of this information on public records or on the background search you performed.

Take a breath and keep your expectations in line. There are several decent companies (and unfortunately more than a few unsavory ones) working in the Metro Detroit area and we are not perfect. I make mistakes all of the time. Detroit is a difficult market to invest so sometimes things don’t run like clockwork.

In the last year I had to fire a long time partner in property management. This caused many problems with rent collection etc. What you are looking for is someone who will communicate with you honestly and work hard to solve the inevitable problems that arise and make them right.

When investors call me, I don’t promise the world or pretend that it is easy. There are many good reasons not to invest in Detroit and quite frankly, Detroit is not for every investor. If someone is painting you a picture of perfection or it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.

Happy Investing,

Jeremy Burgess

The Detroit Market Expert

When she starts asking me what I want to do and become, I lie. I tell her the lie that I know what she wants to hear. “I want to go to college and be a history teacher.” She easily and effortless gives me the advice that I’m sure she has giving thousands of students over the years. Take these classes, keep your GPA up, start taking SAT test classes, and be well rounded. While I half listen I’m stuck by the absurdity of what she is doing. Why the hell should I listen to her? What has she done and accomplished that would make her council sound?

Of course I smile and thank her as I leave and I enroll in the classes she recommends. I never went to college and I barely graduated from high school. Everyone I knew who had gone to college wasn’t making the money I wanted to make and they weren’t living the life I wanted to live. Old habits die hard though and for the next 6 years I wander though life trying to find my place. I joined the Navy, got out, attempted college, worked as a cook, and finally as a baker at Safeway. The entire time I know what I’m doing is wrong and won’t get me to where I want to go but this doesn’t stop me from running full speed to try and get there.

Then 3 days before I was married, it struck me. Everything I had been told was a lie. I’m not supposed to try and find my passion. A good job with benefits isn’t the safest bet. Most importantly, you don’t need to like what you do. There is a difference between being efficient and being effective. You can accomplish tasks efficiently that are not effective in reaching your goals.

From that point on I became obsessed with being effective. I would seek out things that nobody else would do and I would work hard to be effective. Often I didn’t like what I was doing but I loved the results I achieved. Much of this is still true today. It isn’t easy running a real estate business in Detroit and many times I do work I don’t enjoy. But my work helps investors around the world achieve the returns they need to retire in comfort. I provide jobs that are sorely needed in Detroit and the people employed (formerly incarcerated individuals) get a second chance at life. I use a local nonprofit, Motor City Blight Busters to do the rehabs, benefiting the local community as their profits are reinvested.

The results I achieve and the difference I make in the city of Detroit make all the work I dislike worthwhile. I realize this is contrary and against most sound advice. I say forget trying to find your passion. Instead, focus on the results you want. Find a difficult problem and pursue the solution with relentless passion, doing the work that few like. Your results will make all of the difficult work you do seem fun and you will be making a difference.

I can’t think of a better time in American history too question all of our beliefs and test them for effectiveness. Your boss and your government are certainly not the security you need in these times.

Watch this clip on TED and make a commitment to quit being efficient and start being effect. It’s never too late to make a difference.

Make your life uncomfortable,
Jeremy Burgess

Detroit foreclosure search

Free Report on Detroit real estate “how to”

It wasn’t that long ago that I was baker at grocery store chain out west called Safeway. I was making $11.76 an hour and I worked every weekend and holiday. Also, bakers have to be at work early. Early is an understatement. Many days I had to be at work at 3am to make sure everything was ready for the morning rush. The pay was low, the hours were crazy and long, and I had very little control over my future.

I worked at Safeway for over 3 years and almost everyday was the same as before. Make donuts, fry donuts, decorate donuts, make bread, bake bread, and then clean up and go home. I had worked myself into a nice “safe” place where to show up to work required little thought and planning. Every day was essentially the same as the last.

The good thing about a job like that is it does give you quite a bit of time to think. I did a lot of thinking during those 3 years and a lot of talking. Of course I wanted a better life, more money, and more time to spend with friends and family which led me to what I believe most people want, security. I wanted to know that my future was bright and at some point in time I would be able to retire and never worry about where the money was going to come from.

I just couldn’t see how to get there. No clear path lay before me where I could achieve and realize all of my goals and dreams. Luckily for me my best friend Jason who had recently come back from a tour in Iraq (apparently when he wasn’t being shot at he was reading) and said I had to read a book that changed how he thought about everything. That book was “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki.

That was 3 ½ years ago and I still remember the excitement and energy I felt as I finished reading the book. I began to see the world in a new light with new opportunities and different choices. This world had always existed; I just didn’t know how to see it. Excitedly I began to share my new thoughts and visions with my friends, family, and coworkers and unfortunately the reactions I got were seldom positive and encouraging.

I spoke about financial freedom through buying real estate, making investments, and buying businesses and how I could have a new life where opportunity exists everywhere regardless of how much money I had or how much education I lacked. It was disheartening to me that few people that I was then associating myself with couldn’t see what I saw and refused to read some of the same books I was reading.

When I began to take action and steps towards achieving my new life I began to realize several truths that were shocking and sometimes painful. What most people think and do is wrong, all success and opportunity begins in your mind, doing something is better than doing nothing even if it doesn’t work out, and most importantly you may have to hear 1,000 “no’s” but all you really need is 1 yes.

My life today is unrecognizable from my life 3 ½ years ago because I followed the truths above. It didn’t happen overnight and most people told me I was crazy and stupid but every day I did something that I thought would take me to where I wanted to be. I made many mistakes (and still do!) and I have heard thousands of “no’s” and they have all led me to my new life.

For those of you, who are sitting by the side of the pool watching others have fun, jump in! If you have resources to realize some of your dreams and goals, take action! If you have no resources, create resources by saving and making partnerships with those who do! If you lack the required knowledge, start learning even if you have to go to the public library to do so! And most importantly, if your current circle of friends and family don’t see and or support your dreams and goals, find others who do!

Just get started!

Jeremy Burgess
The Detroit Market Expert

Detroit foreclosure properties
Free Report on Detroit real estate “how to”

It also brings a really good point that I think many of us miss in life and business. Small things count. Many times, the small things count for more than the “big” things do. It really starts to make sense when you look at real life experiences.

One of the greatest little things I do that yields enormous results every week is blogging. It costs me nothing every week and takes less than 2 hours (usually unless I get a little wordy). This little thing that I do generates more business than the thousands of dollars I spend on more traditional advertising. Blogging also adds value to the traditional advertising dollars that I spend when they find my blog instead of a boring website.

What “small” things are you passing up on to work on “big” things? Are you even working on the big things in your business? What big things are you waiting to do until you have more time or money?

It is time to wake up and forget about the big things until you have done the small things. These small things will create business for you at no or low cost so you can afford the time and money to do the big things in your business.

Read the book and take action. No more inaction because you can’t do the big things.

Start doing many small things today and reach your Tipping Point.

Make your life uncomfortable,
Jeremy Burgess
The Detroit Market Expert

Detroit real estate
Free Report on Detroit investment properties “how to”

We all need motivation and inspiration to achieve our goals and our dreams.

And sometimes we even need it just to get out of bed!

There are days when nothing in our dreams and goals seems real or within our grasp. When I start to doubt or feel down about my progress and accomplishments I remember this quote, “Life’s a game of inches….” and I watch this clip of Al Pacino’s speech from Any Given Sunday.

Take a few minutes and watch this clip:

This clip is a powerful is a powerful motivator for me when I’m facing challenges in life and business. It keeps me grounded and reminds me that my success isn’t a sprint to the finish line that can be accomplished in a few days or weeks. My success and continued success is a combination of small steps or inches over a period of time that add up to miles at the end of the day.

Inches count! Every day our inches add up. Celebrate your small successes and inches and regardless of how tired you are, how you feel, or other responsibilities you may have, do just ONE thing that moves you closer to your goals EVERY DAY.

Now that you have watched the clip and read my blog, my question to is, “What are you going to do?”

Make your life uncomfortable,
Jeremy Burgess
The Detroit Market Expert

Detroit real estate
Free Report on Detroit foreclosure investing “how to”

This made me completely reevaluate my life and how I spent and invested my time. I became obsessed with how the rich and successful occupy their time. I read dozens of books on successful men and women and started to model my time management based on what they did with their time. I found that many of my daily actions were actually keeping me from being successful. I was spending over 3 hours a day watching movies and reading with no purpose. There is nothing wrong with entertainment but I was using it to distract myself from what I should have been doing, working on my success.

One of the things that I found that ALL successful and rich people did that the poor DID NOT was take at least one action EVERY DAY toward a written goal you have. No matter how small, progress was made every day.

So before you head out this weekend and go about your life, take a minute and evaluate how you are going to be spending and investing your time. Make a conscious effort to invest your time wisely and treat it like the precious commodity that it is. Take action no matter how small everyday to invest in your success.

Jeremy Burgess
Detroit Market Expert

Detroit real estate
Free Report on Detroit investment properties “how to”

Well, I thought so as well until I realized that all this person does is work. 80 years old and they’re still out there working every day. I’m not talking supervising or sales but down-right hard work with a shovel digging out trenches and moving dirt around. I have to say, hard work is an admirable trait and many entrepreneurs wouldn’t be where they are without it. What we have here is the classic old school business owner. Start a business, work hard in the business your whole life, and you will have enough funds to take care of yourself and your family. Don’t worry about vacations or money for another house because you probably won’t have time to enjoy them.

Instead of paying someone $10/hr. to shovel dirt or $14/hr. to drive truck, do it yourself because hiring people costs money and you can just do it yourself anyway. Does this sound like any so called “entrepreneur” that you know of? I’m not trying to knock these people down because they’ve done more than the “work 40 hours for 40 years for a 401k” (direct quote from entrepreneur Ken Brown) have done or will ever dream of doing. Can I suggest a better way though?

Where did valuing our time and making good business decisions take a back stage to plain old hard work? Why do we as investors and entrepreneurs feel like we have to do it ourselves because we’re the only ones that can do it and we have all this free time anyway? It starts out this way because our education growing up never teaches us the entrepreneurial way. We learn that if you want to get ahead you should work hard and save, which will give you enough money with social security to retire. We never learn about leveraging Other People’s Time (OPT) and Other People’s Resources (OPR).

To be successful and to grow a business whether it’s investing in Detroit Real Estate or running a factory that creates and distributes widgets, you have to master these techniques. Let’s use our construction company owner as an example. We know that his time is better served going other tasks like sales or marketing for his company rather than digging ditches but how do we measure this?

What we have to do for the construction owner and what you need to do for yourself is to figure out how much your time is worth? Let’s place a dollar value on your time. So what do you think? What’s your time worth? What should it be worth? Is it $50 an hour (~$100,000/year), $250 an hour (~$500,000/year), $1,000 an hour (~$2,000,000/year) or more? You have to decide how valuable your time is to you.

Let’s be very conservative and say our Construction Owner is only worth $50 an hour. What he has to do is to decide each task during the day and put an hourly rate on it. The tasks that fall below $50/hr. like digging trenches, driving truck, and going to the City Building to apply for permits, MUST be completed by someone else. The tasks like sales that can produce far greater than $50/hr. the business owner can do. Now what this does is it makes the business owner focus on the areas of his business that he can really add a tremendous value. The areas where he is adding almost no value (compared to the price that it can be completed by an employee for) no longer will get in the way of these higher priority tasks.

Because he is able to focus on areas in his business where he is adding a tremendous value, he not only can leverage his time more but he’s going to see his business grow. As his business grows, you will see his hourly rate increase to where he may have sales people and a company-wide manager. His time may become so valuable that he can only review reports from the company manager and tell the manager corrective actions to make. Now isn’t this really the goal of most entrepreneurs? I can hear someone saying right now, “What if this guy really likes to be working in his business and digging trenches?”. Well, that’s the beauty of leveraging other people’s time and growing your business. As you work on your business and not in your business, it frees up much of your time to do whatever you want (sitting on the beach in Maui, traveling around Europe, digging ditches), whatever that may be.

What does this mean to you as a real estate investor (full time or part time)? Well, it means that you need to figure out what your hourly rate is and make sure you have other people doing this activities that are below your hourly rate. Now don’t just take your annual salary at your J.O.B. and divide it by 2,000 hours. No, I need you to figure out what you should be making or what you will be making as an entrepreneur and do this calculation. If you’re making $5/hr. at a fast food restaurant, I don’t want you doing every task that is $5/hr. or more. If you’re going to be an investor and an entrepreneur, you have to think like one.

Once you figure out this hourly rate, you then need to start looking at the activities and tasks that you complete for your investments and assigning hourly rates to them. Anything that’s not at your hourly rate or above, needs to be outsourced to someone else. Do you think it’s too difficult to do or that there’s not anyone that can do these tasks? I’m here to tell you that it’s much easier than what you think. I know many people that offer outsourcing arrangements to investors and entrepreneurs and specialty companies that offer very specific outsourcing arrangement for real estate investors (Our company being one of them).

If you have a job and are investing part time, you MUST leverage other people’s time so you can grow your investments and leave your job. If you’re a full time investor, you MUST leverage other people’s time so you can continue to grow your business and do the activities that you want to do. I’m not here to judge your activities so if you’re the 80 year old construction company owner that just likes to dig trenches and drive truck, I’m not going to tell you that you shouldn’t be doing it. I just want to make sure you have the free time to do it.

Successfully Yours,
Jared Pomranky
Detroit Market Expert

Detroit real estate
Free Report on Detroit foreclosure investing “how to”