A law taking effect January 1, 2024, has killed any hope of anonymity by using a Wyoming LLC, or an LLC in any state for that matter.  Even if you are not worried about anonymity, you are going to be profoundly affected by this law.

In 2021, Congress passed the Corporate Transparency Act. This law creates a new beneficial ownership information reporting requirement as part of the U.S. government’s efforts to make it harder for bad actors to hide or benefit from their ill-gotten gains through shell companies or other opaque ownership structures.

The new program is called the Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting system, and it will be implemented by the FinCEN (Federal Financial Crimes Enforcement Network), a department within the Treasury Department – the same folks who brought you the IRS.

Never heard of FinCEN?  If you have any type of a business (corporation or LLC), it will become as common in your language as the term “IRS.” 

Under the new laws, “beneficial ownership information refers to identifying information about the individuals who directly or indirectly
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You and I both know that you aren’t gonna be reading and digesting a long business article at this time of year, so we’ll keep it light this week.

Don’t ask me why, but I have, over the years, accumulated an enormous amount of real estate poetry. The muse usually strikes me around Christmas time, which explains the “Night Before Christmas Meets Dr. Seuss” nature of a lot of this. Anyway, it amuses me—hopefully, it will give you a little smile, too.

Ode to Holyoke Lane by Vena Jones-Cox

‘Tis the night before Christmas

And I bring a tale

Of five hard-learned lessons

From one little sale.

It’s a story of heartache,

Of trouble, of loss,

Of hassle and torment

And headache and cost

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When I was 2 or 3 years old, my mother took me on trips to the library almost every week. While she checked out the latest mystery novels, I always went to the same shelf in the children’s section and pulled down the same worn, tea-colored book called “I Can’t, Said the Ant.” I must have made my mom check that book out 50 times. I had every word memorized, every illustration emblazoned on my brain, and every character befriended in my daydreams.

In case you missed out on this epic, the basic plot is that a teapot falls off the counter and breaks its spout, and if it isn’t put back up, it will die some horrible teapot death. All of the denizens of the kitchen—from the dinner bell to the pie to the pot—beg the (oddly, single) ant in the kitchen to get the teapot back to the counter and repair the broken spout.

Much rhyming ensues (“I can’t bear it, said the carrot” is one that still sticks with me), and ultimately, the ant, who initially, as you might guess from the title, doesn’t see how he can manage it, rounds up a work crew of insects and rescues the unlucky teapot from the floor. Read More...

There’s an old piece of advice generally given to husbands regarding arguing with their wives that goes, “Do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy?”.

And the longer I’m in the wholesaling business, the more I realize that nearly the same advice applies to negotiating with sellers—only it’s, “Do you want to be right, or do you want to get the deal?”

Don’t get me wrong: I have more than my fair share of gotta-be-right-ness. In my younger days, I often found myself debating with sellers about the “facts”—how much their house would sell for fixed up, how much their neighbor’s house sold for last week, what it would really cost to re-do the roof and gutters, and on and on.

Back in those days, I think I had some of the same psychology I see in you folks when you say to me, “I’m afraid to talk to sellers because I’m afraid they’ll be able to tell that I don’t know what I’m doing, and I’ll lose all credibility.”

This assumption that sellers sell to you because you’re intelligent, experienced, or a bigger expert than they are about houses in their neighborhood is just dead wrong.

Sellers sell to you (at the crazy prices and terms that you offer) because

1. Your offer solves wha
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          The thing is, there’s a major question that most people never deal with because it’s not as fun or inspiring as thinking about goals. Yet, unless it’s resolved, it will continue to be nearly impossible for you to reach any of those great goals you’ve set for yourself. And the question is:

          Are there any “messes” that need to be cleaned up before you can really be effective in your real estate endeavors?

          Most of us have one or more of these: they’re like walls that we have to scale every time we try to do anything else. Often, they’re so overwhelming that we have a hard time even looking closely at them, but they’re always at the edges of our consciousness, distracting us, making us feel hopeless and helpless, and making it very difficult to move forward. Examples might include:

• Bad books that keep us from understanding what we’re really making on deals, from balancing our accounts, from filing taxes on time, and so on
• Loans that are about to balloon or have already ballooned, and we have no exit strategy from that loan
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         …is in the 5” or so between your ears.

        For real, people, if you want to know the difference between the people around you who are “killing it” in wholesaling or retailing or notes or income properties or, heck, pig farming or app development or whatever and those who have the same access to the same education and the same resources but never make any money, it all lies there.

        After 30 years of hanging around real estate associations as a newbie, board member, experienced investor, and coach and educator, I’ve watched thousands of people come and go. Some meet every goal they set out to complete.

        Most don’t.

        And they don’t because they believe that if they learn what to do, then all they have to do is do those things, and riches/security/freedom will follow.

        That would be 100% correct if not for, you know…LIFE. Life has a way of getting in your way. Whether your goal is building wealth, losing 40 pounds, or learning to
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         …is in the 5” or so between your ears.

        For real, people, if you want to know the difference between the people around you who are “killing it” in wholesaling or retailing or notes or income properties or, heck, pig farming or app development or whatever and those who have the same access to the same education and the same resources but never make any money, it all lies there.

        After 30 years of hanging around real estate associations as a newbie, board member, experienced investor, and coach and educator, I’ve watched thousands of people come and go. Some meet every goal they set out to complete.

        Most don’t.

        And they don’t because they believe that if they learn what to do, then all they have to do is do those things, and riches/security/freedom will follow.

        That would be 100% correct if not for, you know…LIFE. Life has a way of getting in your way. Whether your goal is building wealth, losing 40 pounds, or learning to
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As you probably know, one of the big benefits of membership in COREE is your ability to post deals—wholesale, rental, or properties you don’t want anymore—on COREErocks.com, where they’re then sent to our nationwide list of over 7500+ potential buyers. 

Lots of members are taking advantage of this and selling deals (and filling rentals) using it, as you can see in your inbox. 

But we’re also seeing lots of members who haven’t used it or who are using it in ways that aren’t as effective as they could be. So here are a few tips for increasing the effectiveness of your ads and staying within the law as we understand it so that this powerful tool works for you. 

• First, in order to post ads on our site, you MUST have your own “Pros” website, which comes free with your membership, already set up. 

If you log in to COREErocks.com with your password, you’ll see a tab at the top called “my account” and a dropdown that says “my website.” If you haven’t set up your site yet, you’ll be prompted through a series of easy steps to get it set up. If you alread
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Just this morning, I was having yet another conversation with a fellow educator about the frustration we have with students who have the brains, education, and resources to make deals—but who, month after month, do everything BUT make deals.

We discussed people who spend big bucks on courses, set up their LLCs, draft land trusts, buy marketing/accounting/management software, attend local REIA meetings religiously, have a color-coded filing system, get their real estate license, start a buyer’s list, concoct every conceivable question about every conceivable scenario in a deal…

…in fact, do everything that it takes to be a successful real estate entrepreneur except make offers.

Many of these people are successful in their other endeavors; many have good jobs, nice houses, great kids, you name it. But they can never seem to get to the point of actually buying a property, no matter what we tell them or how much time passes.

What many of you seem to be waiting for is that NEXT bootcamp or the NEXT investor meeting or the NEXT meeting with their coach.

And what you’re hoping for is th
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Many folks believe they procrastinate because they are “lazy”. As a result, they beat themselves over the head and feel bad about it.

(Maybe you do too.)

It’s not true though.

Procrastination has nothing to do with laziness.

This is just a cop out. It’s a story you tell yourself so that you get to feel bad for a little while “punishing yourself” for not taking action and following through on the commitments you made. Trouble is, it only makes your procrastination worse and reinforces the negative cycle.

You need to break the cycle.

How?

By understanding what really causes procrastination. It’s not what most folks think. There’s something deeper at play, something unconscious, and it’s stopping you from getting into action, staying in action, and following through on the commitments you made to others and yourself.

Ultimately, it’s stopping you from building your dream.

When you don’t follow through on the promises you made, you’ll often have a story that you tell &m
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