In 1988, I was living in Paris, France with my brother, Sam. Sam was a fashion photographer. His job was to take pictures of lots of very pretty girls – and get paid to do it! Needless to say, I L-O-V-E-D Paris!

I got a call from my dad. My grandmother was very sick. He needed me to fly home immediately. Soon after I arrived, my grandmother passed away. Part of settling her estate was getting her house, which was built in 1930, fixed up and sold. This was my first attempt at a major rehab.

At first, I thought: No problem. I’m mechanical and handy with tools. I quickly realized that I didn’t know what I was doing and was in way over my head. Each repair that I did took much longer and cost a lot more than estimated. My frustration level shot through the ceiling. All the while, my dad kept calling and asking…

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What a difference three years can make! At the May 2010 foreclosure auction, there were only 5 real estate investors on the courthouse steps bidding on 186 foreclosures advertised for sale in the legal section of the newspaper. Two days ago, at the May 2013 auction, there were over sixty investors bidding on less than forty properties! Good golly, Miss Molly!

Here’s just one example of how ridiculously high the bidders are pushing sale prices on the steps: A house at 15 Waters Edge in Acworth, Georgia had an opening bid of $57,500. A house a few doors away sold at auction last summer for around $85,000. The two houses are similar to each other.

Our maximum bid price for 15 Waters Edge was $70,000. The house needed a shave and haircut rehab – about $12,000 to bring it into perfect condition. As the property was cried, the top-bid price quickly zoomed north of $100,000 – then climbed to $125,000! When someone bid $150,000, my jaw hit the ground. The winning bid on the property was an astronomical…

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Our last column sure brought in a ton of calls and emails! In that column, we explained how last month we found, closed and financed a home in just three days by knocking on sellers’ doors – and didn’t use any of our own money. (You’ll find that column, titled “What’s Old is What’s New,” on our website.)

Here are the most common questions we were asked: What is a private-money lender and how do you find them? Why do private-money lenders lend to you? How are private-money lenders secured and paid?

More than a decade ago, Kim and I learned that a bank isn’t the only place to get a mortgage. There are individuals who will loan you their own money and fund your deals.

While banks can be a good source of long-term financing, they require a mountain of paperwork and take weeks to verify your information. It often takes a month or more to get an institutional loan. On the other hand, when dealing with a private-money lender (PML), because we’re dealing with a real person and the purchase property is being used as collateral for the loan, we’re often able to get immediate…

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April’s foreclosure auction put Kim and me on a quest: To discover where the best real estate investing deals can be found. Due to a huge increase in the number of bidders, a significant decrease in the number of foreclosures and rapidly shrinking profit margins, the most profitable deals are no longer happening on the courthouse steps.

To solve the mystery: “Where to find the best deals now?” Kim and I made a goal on April 5th to knock on doors and talk to 60 sellers by the end of the month. We started by knocking on every homeowner’s door whose home was slated to be sold at the May 7th foreclosure auction. In addition, every time we saw a For Sale sign in a yard, we knocked on that door, too. (NOTE: You can read about our daily door-knocking results by going to North Georgia REIA’s FaceBook page.)

What is the result of April’s door knocking? We bought one house last week, we’re closing on a second this week (it’s a subject-to deal), and we have two short sale offers pending on properties that were due to be cried at…

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If you’ve been following our real estate investing column, you know that since the beginning of April, Kim and I have been on a quest to find out where the cheese moved.

At April’s foreclosure auction, we noticed a sudden and dramatic shift in the real estate market. For reasons pointed out in earlier columns, the foreclosure auction is no longer the best place to find deals. The low-hanging fruit is G-O-N-E! (You can find our earlier columns on our website.)

We think the best way to find out where the cheese moved is to go to the frontlines. For this reason, April’s goal is to meet face-to-face with 60 sellers.

I’m writing this on April 17, 2013. Here are our results so far this month: I’ve met with 35 sellers; we’ve found and bought a house on Green Acre Lane in Cartersville; we have a second house under contract (it’s a short sale deal); and we’re working to buy a third property before it’s sold at May’s foreclosure auction (it’s a subject-to deal.)

It’s astonishing how much and how fast the market has changed. Since 2009, the foreclosure auction was THE place to buy. Now, because of a huge increase in competition and a dramatic decrease in the number of foreclosure properties, the prices people are paying for foreclosures are…

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Last week’s column – The Cheese Has Moved – was about the dramatic change Kim and I witnessed at April’s foreclosure auction. We watched investors pay a lot more for properties. Higher purchase prices ensure thinner profit margins, and thinner profit margins mean greater risk – it reminded us a bit of 2005 and 2006. (You’ll find last week’s column on our website.)

Since the fattest deals will no longer be found on the courthouse steps, we’re forced to ask, “Where did the cheese go?” In other words: Now where will we find the best real estate investing deals?

To answer this question, I’m on a quest to spend April knocking on sellers’ doors. The goal is to meet face-to-face with 60 sellers. On the front line is most often the best place to find out where the market is going. (By the way, I’m posting the daily results from my door knocking on North Georgia REIA’s Facebook page.)

What am I seeing out there? Real estate is experiencing an…

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If you haven’t read Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, it’s time to – especially if you’re a real estate investor – because folks, when it comes to buying property at the foreclosure auction, the cheese has definitely M-O-V-E-D!

From December through March, Kim and I took some time down and didn’t work foreclosures. We got back at it last month and went to April’s foreclosure auction loaded for bear. There were six properties on our target list. With this many targets, we were confident of being the high bidder on at least two of them. Imagine our disappointment when…

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A civic group asked if I would speak to its members about success. After being in “the game” for nearly 40 years and achieving much success – along with experiencing a ton of failures – I’ve whittled my list of attributes needed for success down to nine.

First, let’s acknowledge that each person’s definition of “success” is different. More importantly, it’s a mistake to make my definition your definition. You must decide what success means to you!

Sadly, lots of folks never take the time or make the effort to write down what success means to them. This is like getting in the car to go on vacation without having a destination in mind. How will you know if you’re on the right road, or whether you ever arrived?

Here are my Nine Pillars of Success: Action, Persistence, Sacrifice, Belief, Integrity, Associations, Life-long Learning, Loving What You Do and Giving Back. Let’s briefly look at each attribute.

The most important pillar is…

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Recently, I spoke with a real estate investor who’s having a tough time moving up to the next level of investing. She’s very smart – she has a college degree and is working on her masters. She isn’t the least bit afraid of hard work. She and her husband have already done a couple of deals.

Here’s the thing: She feels she needs to know everything about real estate investing before doing her next deal. I think this has a lot to do with her level of education. For years, she’s been taught that to succeed, you must first go to school and learn lots of stuff before stepping out into the real world.

This just isn’t so. I’m not anti-education – far from it! Each year, Kim and I invest 5% of our net income into our education. At the same time, we’ve never let a lack of education keep us from meeting with sellers. Never forget…

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We’ve all heard that too much of a good thing can be bad. Let’s look at two examples and see if this theory holds water: rental property and chicken poop.

I have a long-time friend who owns more than 100 single-family rental houses. Most people look at this guy with awe. Sadly, I’m forced to look at him with pure pity.

We talked this morning. I invited him to join me, and five of our investor friends, on a 5-day trip to California in April. The purpose of the trip is to get together and discuss creative deal structuring and financing. I’m pretty sure lots of golfing and boating will be thrown in for good measure.

He really wanted to go but was forced to weakly admit, “I can’t be away from my rentals for that long. Something is bound to go wrong, and when it does, I need to be here to fix any problems.”

He and I got into real estate investing around the same time. We had similar goals: to own enough rental properties to produce enough mailbox money so we no longer would have to labor for a living. This would allow us to travel, spend more quality time with family and friends, plus give us the means to help others.

Today, we’ve both reached our goal…sort of. The problem is, my buddy doesn’t know his number. When asked how many rental properties he wants to own, he answers, “More.” More? Why more? When is enough, enough? When does enough become…

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