Bernard Zick's

Advice for the Impatient Investor

For real estate investors who don't have time or money to waste!  

September 2004

 

Editors: Bernard "Barney" Zick bernard@zick.com, Karen Zick and Amy McIntee

This email was sent to you by REIT, Corp. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add bernard2-9168385@autocontactor.com to your address book.

 

 

 

In this issue:

Real Estate Mortgage Business Builder Boot Camps in 2004

Getting Started

Advanced Strategies

Metro Areas Continue to Show Strong Home Price Gains According to Latest Survey by NAR

Announcing a New Plan for TeleHelp Sessions

Upcoming Events

Real Estate Mortgage Business Builder Boot Camps in 2004

Announcing the most in-depth, intensive three-day Boot Camp you can imagine on how to market, sell, and conduct a loan origination business.

Cash Flow IS KING!  As a real estate investor, there is nothing like having a steady cash flow coming in to help “grease the wheels” of this cash intensive business.  I tell people that are in a good, well-paying job that they like, stay there!  You will have better credit and fewer worries than if you go “cold turkey” into the business.  (I know...too many metaphors!)  If you have been released into the private sector, as the corporations like to term it, then your choices are fewer.

So, some people sell vitamins.  Some sell plastic bowls.  I buy and use multi-level vitamins.  Good stuff.  Karen loves those bowls.  But I have a hard time going to someone behind on payments and saying, “I want to buy your house and if you don’t want to sell to me I have vitamins to give you strength for your move and little bowls to put your stuff in.”  I don’t think so.

One of my Mortgage Loan Originators is sending out a letter (with Home Office approval) that says, “If you are behind in your payments, I would like to try and re-finance your house.  And if you cannot get a loan, I will buy it.”  That is the short version of the letter.

Bottom line is, being in the mortgage lending business is a great way to not only make a steady flow of income, it is a great way to work on lending and buying deals all at the same time.  The marketing group we work with, Freedom Equity Group, is the best in the United States.  They are new, about three years old, but went from zero to paying out over $60,000,000 in commissions last year!  And the broker group that clears our loans has over 12 years in the business and a great reputation.  Lastly, unlike other programs out there, my goal for the operation Karen and I are building is to specialize in investor financing.  Not only are we doing it, we have the blessing and support of everyone in the marketing group and the brokerage group.  The details and our plans are too extensive to cover here.  But, suffice it to say, there is ten times more “in the mill” than you see here.

I have outlined most of our major policies in the column on the right.  Now for the details about the trainings…I have included this in our “news” letter because it is timely and to me it is great news!  Now you can be making tens of thousands a month (one of my real estate students, just out of college, made $70,000 recently in a single month), but you can be doing it in a business that fits with investing.  Not only that, understanding loans will make you a much smarter and more liquid investor!

SIGN UP AND RECEIVE TRAINING AND HANDS-ON ASSISTANCE WITH YOUR FIRST THREE LOANS FOR ONLY $1995.*

• Huge Text, new in 2004, with scripts, marketing plans and instructions

• CD of presentations and loan work sheet on Excel

• Web Site Reference Center

• 90 Days of phone support while training

• Personalized help from Karen Zick on your first three loans.

You can sign up with us at www.zickhomeloans.com and pay only $695 plus $500 out of your income of your first three loans, or if you are not signed up with us, pay $1995 and you will get back the first $500 out of your first three loans when you sign up with us later.  The training will include more materials if you have submitted the application for employment prior to the event you attend.  If you never sign up with us, the cost is $1995 – which is a real bargain and we are considering increasing it soon.

You will get paid, for starters, 25% of the points and back end on your first five loans before you move up in pay grade.  The top end is 70%.  We will hold your hand through your first three loans if you are signed up with us. Odds are, the first three loans will more than pay you back all your training costs!

At the three-day Mortgage Business Builder Boot Camp, the first day will focus on marketing and sales.  The second day is about how to present loans and how to present the opportunity to people you will sign up and the last day concentrates on how to do the paper work.  Plus, there will be a bonus session on how to do hard money loans in the evening.  I will present the marketing and sales training.  Karen and a loan processor from the broker will present the technical details.

The first of three Mortgage Business Builder Boot Camps is scheduled for Chicago on September 16th, 17th and 18th, just two weeks away.  Join us in Houston on October 22nd - 24th (a great month to visit Houston) when we hold our second Mortgage Business Builder Boot Camp.  The dates are definite for our third training boot camp subject to booking a hotel for December 3rd - 5th in San Diego.  Go to www.zick.com to sign up online or call 800-677-3253 for more information.

 

Do take action now.  Karen and I plan to sign up 100 people between now and the end of the year.  We are going to spend the time after that supporting the people we have signed up and driving the new business to them.  We are going to support you with a monthly recruiting call the first Monday of each month starting in October and a closed door call to those that are signed up on the fourth Monday of the month starting September 27th.

 

*You will need to pay an additional $299 direct to Freedom Equity Group for your State Registration as a mortgage originator and a year of your own Web site.  You do this when you sign up online.  If needed, we will assist you with the application process.  Karen personally is doing it now and Marilyn in our office will be doing it very soon.  We will accept $1995 now or payments of $695 now and $500 out of each of your first three loans as stated above, but the $299 is done on the Web and does not go to us.

Getting Started:

Q. Hi Barney,

Just got your new negotiating course, it's great. I'm listening my second time thru already. Here's a last minute deal that just showed up yesterday. I know the numbers (LTV) aren't good by any stretch of the imagination, but my bank account is coming up on empty and this house can be marketed immediately for sale. My problem is I only have a few days to put the deal together. The Seller just called me yesterday. My question is, “Can anything be done with this deal to make it sweeter?”

First mortgage payoff: $214,000

(if I want to reinstate the 1st: $23,288)

Value: $250,000 (solid numbers on comps) - could maybe get 265K if I put someone in that needs to clean up their credit

Brand new....built in 2002, needs no work at all

I know this deal doesn't have a good LTV but there is still cash in this which can put food on the table.

Any suggestions on stalling the sale, short sales, anything?

Thanks,

J. B.
St. Louis, MO



A. This is a good example of a deal that you needed to be prepared for in advance. In so much of the U.S. the only thing harder to find than a good deal is finding a good tenant or tenant buyer. IF you had done what I have been telling students to do…IF you had been building a list of people that want to buy on lease option… you would be ready to act.

Maybe a short sale would work IF you have been doing them and have the right contact with the lender. Starting from scratch might take too much time. If you have to sell half of the deal, sometimes you can buy time. Last week I got a Temporary Restraining Order to stop a sale. I showed the judge I have the money to buy and the lender had delayed getting me the payoff information.

So look at the cards you have to play and make the best bet… Please don’t plunk down $23K not having an exit strategy! That is all that comes to mind.

BZ


Structuring a Deal with a Possible Option

Q. Hello Barney,

I made a cold call to a woman whose property is in default. It's a six unit structure. She told me that she is paying the arrearage and is not sure what else she wants to do. She told me that she bought the property from the county and also the lot behind it. She recently opened the yellow pages and called a contractor to see about doing something with the lot.

Here are the facts:

* She lives out of state with her husband
* They do not need any immediate cash
* Her children are successful and don't want a thing from parents
* She liked me a lot and offered to sell it to me to develop or joint venture
* She offered to fly out to show me property
* I estimate the 6-plex to be worth approximately $1.1 million and the large lot $6-800K
* Contractor mentioned about $1.4 million to build (what exactly, I'm uncertain)
* She offered maybe she could sell to me for "a few hundred thousand"
* She spoke to me for over a half hour on phone...she really wants to do business with me.
* 6-plex seems occupied with several deferred maintenance issues
* Lot is huge, buildable and has view. This property is located in San Francisco in a very hot middle class neighborhood

Any suggestions would be welcomed...I would love to get in without cash; I believe she would do owner financing.

Anxious in San Francisco

A. The first thing is to find out the loan balance. That is ALWAYS first. My advice will change drastically based on that answer. 1. Can you do what you want to do on your own? That will change things a lot. 2. If you will do it as a joint venture, the whole plan will change depending on what your JV associate can bring to the table…cash, credit, construction experience, what?

As to solutions, you could buy it with nothing down, give her a note for all the equity. That note could be structured to be paid, WITHOUT INTEREST but plus a quarter of the profit. That would solve some cash flow challenges. Make sure the note is ONLY secured by the building and not the lot. Or, if you can get that, make sure the note has a right of subordination. Then go to the first mortgage lender and find out how much they need to release the first mortgage on the lot alone. Next, borrow the money to build on the extra lot. If she is also secured with a subordinated second on the lot, her note will be a second on the property that is now vacant. Then get an appraisal and buy her out.  

A completely different approach is to buy the lot on back only then do the deal as outlined above. I could go on but you really need to find out what SHE wants to do and what the financials are on the place then get back to me.

BZ

 

Advanced Strategies:

An Overlooked Point About Taxation

A student writes: Barney, as usual I really enjoy and apply the content of your newsletter. I have a comment about the zero interest article in your April edition. The whole newsletter was particularly outstanding, so perhaps that recent vacation is paying dividends too, but of course not quite like those ROTH-IRA owned corporations you talked about in a separate excellent article.

The tax benefits to the SELLER of a ZERO interest offer seem to be overlooked. The bottom line is that sellers and even retirees on fixed incomes of only about $44,000 total income (before deductions) would probably appreciate an offer with ZERO interest more than one with interest if they knew the different tax consequences. In the event the seller should even make a request for interest, one could steer the conversation down the road of saying something like, "Okay Mr. Seller, do you prefer to pay 25% to 37% federal tax on the interest, or would you prefer only 15% tax on the (long-term) capital gain with ZERO interest?"

Of course, one always recommends to the sellers that they check with their CPA as well.

My background:

I have managed to do two good deals with owner financing with ZERO interest. Both involved ZERO of my own money too. The teaching I got on ZERO interest was from another instructor who I believe you taught, and then from you from the stage. Both of you said just shut up, do not EVER bring interest up, get an agreement, and just get the paperwork done.

Whilst negotiating the last deal I did last summer for a property that I bought and sold with owner financing as well, I mentioned some ideas ("trial balloons") for offers including one that would be with interest payments (because it would have been for a lower price and more frequent payments than the one with ZERO interest). As the seller of the vacant property lives in one of the two priciest suburbs in the Washington DC Metro area and is in the highest tax bracket, she had talked with her CPA recently and let me know quickly that she wanted nothing to do with interest. She preferred capital gains to be taxed at much lower rates. I quickly dropped the idea of interest payments and we were down to other offers including owner financing with ZERO interest.

Though I only found out much later after doing the deal from a far more experienced investor that the IRS can, upon audit, review the ZERO interest transactions and charge "imputed interest", the seller in the highest tax bracket was very happy to choose the owner financing offer that would pay her ZERO interest.

Of course, the following applies for the most part to only non-owner occupied residences...

Best Regards,

"R.C."


A. Yes, I agree, imputed interest could be charged by the IRS. So don’t use the save taxes argument. I have found most zero interest deals are done either by sellers that are very anxious, sellers that could care less…they just want out, or smart sellers that know they are giving something up but are happy with what they are getting in exchange!

BZ

Metro Areas Continue to Show
Strong Home Price Gains

 

Copyright © National Association of REALTORS®, Reprinted with permission.

Home prices in the second quarter increased at a strong rate in most metropolitan areas in comparison with the same period a year earlier, according to the latest survey by the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS.

The association's second-quarter metro area home price report, covering changes in 128 metropolitan statistical areas, shows 49 metros had double-digit annual increases in median existing-home prices and 11 metros had generally small price declines-none in areas that had experienced sustained periods of rapid growth.

David Lereah, NAR's chief economist, says 49 is the largest number of areas ever to experience double-digit annual price gains. "A tight supply of available homes in a record sales market has been favoring sellers," he says. "Even so, the low level of mortgage interest rates and loan origination costs are providing the headroom necessary for buyers to handle higher prices in most areas."

No Evidence of Bubble

The national median existing-home price was $183,800 during the second quarter, up 9.1 percent from the second quarter of 2003, when the median price was $168,500. The median is a typical market price where half of the homes sold for more and half sold for less.

NAR President Walt McDonald, broker-owner of Walt McDonald Real Estate in Riverside,
Calif., says there's no evidence of a price bubble.

"The relatively small numbers of areas showing price declines have experienced one or both of the factors necessary for home prices to soften-a period of local economic weakness or an abundant supply of homes for sale in those markets, which is very much the exception to the rule for the nation as a whole," he says. "In short, these are not corrections because there had been no unusual inflation in those areas."

Prices Up Most in Las Vegas

The strongest increase was in Las Vegas, with a median price of $269,900-up 52.4 percent from the second quarter of 2003. Next came Anaheim-Santa Ana in Orange County, Calif., at $655,300, a 38.7 percent jump. Third was Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif., where the second quarter median price of $294,500 was 38.5 percent higher than a year earlier.

Lereah says the Las Vegas price performance is quite remarkable. "That is the biggest annual home-price increase in any metro area on record," he says. "A close examination of the data shows why-Las Vegas only had a 1.7-month supply of homes on the market in the second quarter, compared with a 4.2-month supply for the nation as a whole. By contrast, a housing supply in the range of 6.0 months represents a fairly even balance between home buyers and sellers."

Median second-quarter metro resale prices ranged from $93,800 in South Bend-Mishawaka, Ind., to nearly seven times that amount in the Anaheim-Santa Ana area. The second most expensive area was San Francisco Bay, with a second quarter median resale price of $647,300, followed by San Diego at $559,700.

Other low-cost markets include Syracuse, N.Y., the second least-costly area at $94,700, and Waterloo-Cedar Falls, Iowa, with a second quarter typical resale home price of $95,400.

Northeast Posts Strongest Regional Increase

Regionally, the strongest increase was in the Northeast, where the median resale price during the second quarter was $214,800, a rise of 17.6 percent from the same quarter in 2003. The strongest increase in the region was in the Portland, Maine, area, where the median existing-home price was $231,200, up 23.4 percent from a year ago, followed by Atlantic City, N.J., at $194,800, up 18.6 percent. New Haven-Meriden, Conn., with a typical price of $246,800, was up 15.6 percent.

In the West, the median existing-home price of $259,700 was 10.9 percent above the second quarter of 2003. After Las Vegas, Anaheim-Santa Ana and Riverside-San Bernardino, the next highest increase in the region was San Diego, which rose 37.4 percent, followed by the Los Angeles-Long Beach area, up 30.4 percent to a median price of $438,400 in the second quarter.

The second quarter median existing-home price in the South was $170,300, up 8.7 percent from a year ago. The strongest increase in the region was in the Sarasota, Fla., area, where the second-quarter median price of $264,800 was 29.9 percent higher than a year earlier.

Next came Ocala, Fla., with a median price of $112,300, an increase of 27.0 percent; the Miami-Hialeah area at $271,900, up 25.9 percent; and the West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Delray Beach area of Florida at $294,000, also up 25.9 percent.

Minneapolis-St. Paul Leads Midwest

In the Midwest, the median resale home price of $150,300 during the second quarter was 7.1 percent higher than the same period a year ago.

The strongest increase in the region was in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, with a median price of $218,000, up 10.6 percent in the last year. The next highest increase was in Appleton-Oshkosh-Neenah, Wis., where the median price of $127,600 was 10.1 percent higher than the second quarter of 2003; followed by the Madison,
Wis., area, at $199,700, up 9.9 percent.

-NAR

Announcing a New Plan for TeleHelp Sessions

Beginning September 13th, the second Monday in September, we are going to offer two calls a month to help you build your real estate investing business.  One call will be an interview with an especially successful student and the other will be an open question and answer forum with additional tips and tactics.  Watch for an announcement containing more information about our TeleHelp Sessions on the second and third Mondays of each month.

 

Not to worry…our free TeleHelp calls will continue on the first Monday of each month, but they will now focus on recruiting questions for our mortgage origination business.  More news to come very soon!  The initial complimentary call of this type will be on October 4th.

 

Barney has reserved the fourth Monday of each month for a closed door call for participants in our Mortgage Loan Program.  Additional information will be provided very soon!

 

 

Next Real Estate Options Boot Camp

 

Atlanta, GA

 

Fri. & Sat., October 1st & 2nd, 2004

 

Details below…

 


Upcoming Events

 

For those of you who purchased a boot camp as part of your home study materials, you will have to use your privilege this year. If you have attended our Options Boot Camp before, you may come again. The information has been revised. Of course, the portion of the boot camp when we work on deals, which takes most of the second day, is different for each event. It is a real eye opener for those of you yet to do your first deal.

For more details about our Options Boot Camp, Click Here.

Click here to register for an Options Boot Camp.


Real Estate Options Boot Camp

Atlanta, GA

Only $1,995 per person

 

Fri. & Sat., October 1st & 2nd, 2004

 

Location to be determined very soon...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

 

Click here to register for an Options Boot Camp.

 

Questions?  Send us an email or call 800-677-3253.

 


 

Real Estate Mini-Seminars


No Mini-Seminars are scheduled until Fall 2004. Go to
www.zick.com to see current listings between newsletters.

 

Barney will be a guest speaker in Kansas City and Dallas at Real Estate Association Events this fall. Call our office for details if you live in these cities.  1-800-677-3253


BRAND NEW:

 

Mortgage Business Builder Boot Camps

 

Chicago, IL

 

Only $1,995 per person

 

Thu., Fri. & Sat., Sept. 16th, 17th & 18th, 2004

 

Holiday Inn Glen Ellyn

1200 Roosevelt Rd.

Glen Ellyn, IL 60137

(630) 629-6000

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 

The next two Mortgage Business Builder Boot Camps are planned for:

 

October 22nd, 23rd & 24th, 2004 in Houston

 

Houston Marriott Westchase
2900 Briarpark
Houston, TX 77042
713-978-7400
 

and

 

December 3rd, 4th & 5th, 2004 (tentative) in San Diego.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Click here to register for a Mortgage Business Builder Boot Camp.

 

For more info. go to www.zickhomeloans.com  and select "Contact Us" or call our office at 800-677-3253.



Help Wanted Ads:

The summer is a very busy seminar period. This is especially true while we are building our mortgage operation across the U.S. (We added 14 new states this month alone!) So if you sent us an email about trading your skills we may not have answered you. We will. Please be patient.

Also, be careful what you put in the subject line of your emails. We delete 100 at a time. “Student Question” or “Trade” works well! “Make Big Money” or something similar  will get you deleted! Thanks for your help.

BZ


IMPORTANT POLICY STATEMENT ABOUT ALL FUND MORTGAGE/FREEDOM EQUITY GROUP PARTICIPATION

It has taken awhile for us to get our plan together. And, of course, there may still be changes! But it is time for us to put as much as we can on the table so, if you are serious, you can get to work!

We are starting our Mortgage Business Builder Boot Camps. The first one will be in Chicago in a short two weeks.

The first time we offered it was in Chicago, as a market test. Many people were interested but we did not require them to join Freedom Equity Group / All Fund to attend. We are making that a requirement now to get a special discount and assistance with your first three loans.

Cost

We have offered the training at several events since. The pattern is now set. The cost of the training is $1995. You can pay it all at once. However, I believe in our program and know if you work our program you will make lots of money. So here is the deal. I’ll bet two-thirds of that on your success…

- If you are signed up under us, you can attend for $695 up front and we will take $500 out of each of your first three loans to complete the follow up training.
- If you are not signed up under us, but under someone else, you can pay $1995 at registration and attend the event.
- If you are not signed up at all, you must pay $1995 to attend, up front.

So the bottom line is, get signed up under us for the installment program.

By the way, all sponsors that I know of with Freedom Equity Group / All Fund charge something out of the first three loans to pay for training. So if you think that you are better off signing up for someone that does not offer training, you most likely will still get charged out of the first three loans.

Several of the sponsors I know take ALL the commission you make on your first three loans. If I was signed up with that sponsor, I would do three very small loans at first and “sand bag” any bigger loans for the next group! This way, you can make as much as you want on the first three loans and you only have to pay out the first $500!

Our hope is that you will catch fire in this business and by the time you do the first three loans you have made all your educational investment back. So, bottom line, if you work the program there is no cost; it pays!

Husbands, wives and children

If you want to bring one of these, great! If they are signed up and a part of the business, they pay just like you do. And, we will do the training loans with them too.

If they are just assisting you with the business, they can attend for $295 to cover our room costs, coffee breaks, etc.

If your child is between 14 and 18 years old, really interested, and can pay attention (don’t you dare drag them there!), they can attend for $50. Children over 18 can pay the $295. Where else can you attend a three day event and learn a business for so little?

The book you will receive will be for studying after the event. We will have a fill-in outline that everyone will receive. There will be one book for each full-paying participant.

More than your money back!

If you are signed up under us, you can return to attend the training for free. All you have to do is bring someone you signed up under you!

Think about it. You get to come for free, they pay us $695, but YOU collect the $500 per loan on training THEM on their first three loans.

For us, we get our costs covered. It costs us at a MINIMUM $695 per person to put on a three day event. We don’t really make money unless you or your associate you sign up make money with placing loans.

They get profits from placing loans, giving them their educational investment back. You get trained associates, we build our shop. It is a win-win deal all around.

Guess what? Your associates can do the same. They can come back for free bringing as many people as they want AS LONG AS THOSE PEOPLE ARE SIGNED UP under them! You get the picture.

Will the ground floor be empty?

You are getting in on the ground floor and it is true that Chicago is our first ever three-day boot camp on the subject. So, you may be asking yourself…will the ground floor be empty of content?

Our first three training sessions will be Chicago (9/16 - 9/18), Houston (tentatively 10/22 - 10/24) and San Diego (tentatively 12/3 - 12/5). Go to
www.zick.com for more details. Since we are new at doing these trainings, will we be learning how to train on your dime?

Absolutely not. First of all, Barney will be at the first three trainings talking about Sales and Marketing. He spent 15 years teaching these topics to businesses from New York Stock Exchange firms down to a two-man firm in England. This is a secret part of his career not known to most real estate investors. His results have been staggering. One firm, a national blood testing company, said that after his training, sales rose 15% over their previously best month ever. The English direct mail company, that made over a million a year, got the biggest boost ever from Barney’s ideas, and that is after five years of searching for the best consulting in England and putting their ideas to play. Barney increased their profit margin!

Secondly, we have one of the best company trainers coming out to teach the two technical days. You will learn how to present our best loan to prospects, how to present the opportunity to recruits and how to do the loan paper work. It will be an information packed event.

Best way to sign up…

Do it via our web site and we will follow-up or do it by calling our office 800-677-3253.

But, do it today!


The Fine Print...

(Back to top)

We will do one newsletter like this one (Advice for the Impatient Investor) and one called the REIT Report (containing Real Estate Education Industry News and a lot of personal opinions), approximately once a month.  (However, keep in mind, our newsletters are free so don't get upset if we skip one occasionally!)  

Advice for the Impatient Investor has been published for fourteen years (but not in a row). The next issue should be out about October 1st.  The next REIT Report will go out on or about September 15th.  

Folks smarter than us told us to say: We take no responsibility for the accuracy of the postings.  All contents of the postings are the responsibility of the posting party.  The foregoing material is strictly for informational purposes only and does not provide legal, financial, accounting or investing advice or services. Use of any of the foregoing information does not create a client relationship.  You should not act on the information provided without seeking legal, accounting and tax counsel of your choice.

We reserve the right to terminate the subscription of anyone at any time.

Copyright note: Submission of an email message or art work affirms that you are authorized to and have given Bernard Zick, et al, non-exclusive permission to reprint the content of your message in all forms, electronic or otherwise, in all languages throughout the world.

Copyright © 2004 by Real Estate Investors Training Corporation.

ISSN # 0272-8559

All Rights Reserved, no reprints to other email lists or websites without Bernard Zick's permission.

This email was sent to you by REIT, Corp. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add Bernard Zick [bernard2-9168385@autocontactor.com] to your address book.

You have permission and are encouraged to forward this e-newsletter in its entirety to a friend!

Check out our website: www.zick.com.

To MANAGE YOUR SUBSCRIPTION, please send e-mail to: newsletter@zick.com.

Please type, 'change account information' in the subject line if you have an address change or if you no longer are interested in receiving this e-newsletter, type 'no thanks' in the subject line of your e-mail.

Our lists are NEVER sold.

Article submissions and questions are welcome and should be sent to newsletter@zick.com

Mail to: P.O. Box 6399, Kingwood, TX 77325-6399

Phone: 281-358-0409 Fax: 281-358-6591

Email: newsletter@zick.com

Website: www.zick.com


Remember: You may be my student, you may be my best friend and I MAY love you…but, I am not a lawyer.  I am not YOUR real estate broker.  You are not my client.  This e-mail is not intended as legal, real estate or accounting advice.