REIC Ends 2008 on a High Note

Announcing a New Format
For those of you that may have missed it, Wednesday night's Real Estate Insider Club meeting was outstanding. We have changed the format of the meeting and we're getting rave reviews on the new structure. That being said, Wednesday night marked our last meeting at the Orleans as we are updating our club venue to Tommy Bahamas Restaurant in the new Town Square Las Vegas on the south Strip (215 and 15 interchange at the Southeast corner) right near Fry’s Electronics. The address is 6635 Las Vegas Blvd. South.

The new format will take out the hour long sales pitches that have slowly creeped in to stagnate the club atmosphere. The new format will focus very heavily on networking along with a panel of featured speakers and a round table discussion on the night’s topic.

A Recap of the Evening
Last night's meeting featured the 2010 Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors President Elect Rick Shelton. Rick spoke for about 30 minutes and discussed such topics as the local market, inventory, price bottoms, and the current financial crisis.

Next, Kyle Sprague of Pre Paid Legal shared with us the very economical services that are offered thru his company and how individuals can use the service to protect ourselves against identity theft.

Local Realtor on the street Scott Meservey was on hand as usual to give us the local update on the Las Vegas market.

Author, rehabber and former financial planner, Rich Warren spoke about the economy and how the current data compares to historic figures.

Of course yours truly host and founder Glenn Plantone emceed the event and offered my opinions and observations regarding the foreclosures I am finding and selling to my investors. Over the last three months I have sold 15 properties in the northwest. These properties are all foreclosures and all cash deals with the exception of only two that were financed, and all to investors except one to an owner/occupant.

The meeting ran about one and a half hours and ended with a round table discussion with myself, Rick, Scott, and Rich answering questions and giving our thoughts and opinions on the real estate market. As usual there were prized and giveaways. Gary Crouch of Designer Hometending was our big winner taking home a custom Tommy Bahama shirt.

Join Us in 2009 in Our New Venue!
For those of you have may have not been to the meeting in awhile we encourage you to take a second look. The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday January 14th from 6pm to 8pm in the meeting room behind the bar at Tommy Bahamas in Town Square Las Vegas. The cost is $25 to attend and that will include your dinner and the meeting.

November 12, 2008 REIC Meeting Summary

We had another successful turnout this month at the Real Estate Insider Club. After our regular pre-meeting networking session we kicked things off on time at 7 PM.

I began by discussing how I go about finding cash buyers for about 85% of my deals vs. 85% of most deals in town being financed with a mortgage put in place. Over the last couple of months I’ve been selling foreclosures in the northwest part of Las Vegas for somewhere between 35 and 50 cents on the dollar from highs of just 2 years ago. I followed that by providing an example of one bedroom condos going for $53,000 that were as high at $148,000 in 2006. With a 20% down fully amortized note in place these are cash flowing at about $250 a month. I’ve been able to get offers accepted for my investors because banks would rather take a discounted quick sure sale vs. waiting for a buyer that may not be able to get a loan in place because of uncertainty in the credit markets currently.

On the sponsor segment Keith Kinkelaar of My Wireless discussed the opportunity to get involved with a new network marketing company in which you earn residual income from your cell phone bills. Apparently this concept has not yet been tried in cellular phone service and has a huge potential for growth.

Our second sponsor of the evening was Mr. Rick Gross. Rick and partner Dan Fink discussed the new health drink Mona-vie the benefits of the drink along with the income potential of getting involved in marketing it to friends and family.

One of the staples of the club is that we always look at new and exciting concepts in real estate. This month was no different as we looked at a very exciting commercial real estate project in Salt Lake City, Utah. This commercial class A office building is getting double the returns of typical class A office rent. Qualified investors interested in this opportunity can get a hold of Glenn directly at 702.405.6481 or he can be emailed at gsplantone@gmail.com

In the “updates” portion of the evening, Tamara Bostrom, back from her European vacation spoke about a number of issues starting with the housing slump that caused the economic slowdown to the credit crisis on to the bailout and finished up with notes on how the recent Presidential election will affect the economy.

Our realtor on the street Scott Meservey discussed the current state of the Las Vegas housing market noting that investors are scared and believe there may be some more downside before we hit bottom. He noted that the inventory of homes on the multiple listing service (MLS) did shrink from last month but he also noted that banks are holding back a great deal of reo (bank owned) inventory that they have yet to put up for sale on the market.

Our monthly regular featured speaker Richard Warren author of “A Rehabbers Tale”Talked about the changing market and what a true real estate investor can do to take advantage of tools in acquiring real estate thru “buying subject to” and “lease options”. Rick talked understanding what tools are available and when to use them.

Our featured speaker of the night was David Seymour with the Dave Lindahl group that focuses on investing in multifamily real estate. Dave entertained us teaching us not only how to invest in multifamily but where to invest and the income potential that it has.

The Real Estate Insider Club meets the second Wednesday of each month at the Orleans Hotel and Casino 2nd floor meeting room area and is open to new attendees. The first meeting is free and annual membership is only $100 for a 13 month time frame. Membership includes the ability to market to the rest of the club (about 800 members) and attend all annual meetings and periodic weekend events free of charge.For more information on the club please feel free to contact Glenn Plantone at 702.405.6481 or email him directly at gsplantone@gmail.com