I was browsing my local library just a few weeks ago when I came across an audio CD program called the Weekend Millionaire’s Real Estate Investing Program.  In the corner was the tag “How to get rich in your spare time”.  Upon closer inspection of the CD case I discovered the program was written by Mike Summey & Roger Dawson.  I had never heard of either, but decided I would listen through the progam.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to all the CDs, and am now on my 2nd time going through them.  There is a vast amount of knowledge contained in this set, and some great advice.

The main principle of the program is to explain how it is possible to get rich over a period of 10 to 15 years simply buy purchasing 1 investment property per year. The authors go to great lengths to show how this is possible, and they give very many examples of how to do it.

Mike Summey handles most of the “ins and outs” of searching for and locating property in the Weekend Millionaire’s Real Estate Investing Program.  Roger Dawson mostly deals with how to negotiate with sellers.  Both are well experienced in Real Estate, and their advice certainly sounds good to me.

As with all Real Estate purchasing programs, the authors teach you how to become an investor.  If you follow their system of purchasing 1 investment property per year for 10-15 years, you would certainly become a millionaire.  This is not a get rich quick scheme – far from it!  The system takes 10-15 years, and they are quite clear about that.  However there is nothing to stop you acquiring more than 1 property per year.

This program focuses on purchasing single family homes. The authors claim that single family housing is the “bread and butter” of Real Estate investing.  These homes attract decent tenants, and are easiest to rent.  Although they talk briefly about multifamily and commercial properties, they recommend “cutting your teeth” on single family dwellings first.

A lot of time is spent on cashflow.  This is one of the buying criteria.  Mike Summey teaches that you do not look at the advertised price of a home.  You must calculate its NOI – Net Operating Income.  So you basically start by calculating how much it would rent for, then subtract all your costs associated with ownership (taxes, insurances, property management, repairs & maintenance, etc).  This will then leave you with a figure from which you will have to pay your mortgage and your profit.  If you can get the right balance of financing rates, and expenses you can then use the NOI to calculate what the wholesale value of the property is. This will be the maximum offer you can make on it.

Cashflow can be low for the first few years, but as time goes on rents increase.  These small increases in rent add up significantly over the years.  Eventually your tenants will have paid off your mortgage completely. You will now be receiving a high payment for very low expenses.  If you multiply this by 10 or 15 homes, the amounts can be significant.  Your cashflow is really passive income, and over that period of time your passive income stream will become very high.

The authors are also strong advocates of using property management firms.  This way the Real Estate Investor can concentrate on actually buying property instead of fixing appliances, unblocking toilets and so on.  A property management firm will obviously charge for their services – typically 8-12% of monthly rent.  They handle renting the home, screening tenants, dealing with repairs, contractors etc, evictions, and more.  Having someone else manage the property in this way frees up the investors time significantly.

Conclusion

Did I enjoy this series?  Definitely.  My favorite sections are those on power negotiation by Roger Dawson, but I really like hearing about all the examples of properties these guys have bought.  They are good at coming up with creative financing, and have managed to buy homes with $0 down and private mortgages from the owners.  I had not realized that would be possible.

I would certainly recommend readers consider this strategy for Real Estate Investing.  There is a lot of wisdom contained in the audio program.  My mp3 player is loaded up, and presently I am listening to the entire thing as I cycle to and from work every morning.  There is so much more I want to learn about Real Estate Investing and negotiating!

You can visit the author’s website at http://www.weekendmillionaire.com for more information and to view their product selection.