Here’s a quick and easy technique when you're talking to investment property owners:

So, you're out there doing lead generation, looking for investment properties like duplexes, triplexes, or RV parks. Often, when you ask owners if they've considered selling, the answer is a flat-out no, right? Happens a lot. But here's the game-changer: ask them why they're holding onto the property.

"Why are you holding onto this property?"

Give them a moment to think, and their response might be about it being a good investment or passing it on to their kids. Respond with understanding, acknowledging the value of holding onto good investments.

Then, drop the bomb: ask if they know their current rate of return.

Offer an income analysis sheet to calculate their cap rate and return on investment.

Now, here's the kicker – if you can beat their current rate of return, would they consider moving their money to something even more profitable?...

Would it be crazy to buy a house now?

This is a question that people are gonna ask you. I've heard this question come up a few times just in my social circles.

I'm gonna tell you there's two key reasons why it's a great time to buy a house. Not just a good time, but a great time to buy a house.

1. You have more buying power than you've ever had in the last 10 years.

Think about the last year. Just last year, if you were gonna go buy a house, you're competing with 10 other buyers, you're always gonna be in a multiple opera situation. You're gonna have to come in with non-refundable more money, go over full price, have an appraisal gap language, remove inspections before you've even done an inspection. You were at such a disadvantage as a buyer.

Let's contrast that with today:

When you come in as a buyer, first of all, sellers are reducing their prices en masse. Plus, they're gonna reduce their price again, when you make an...

When you drive around your neighborhood or your community, you're gonna see some dilapidated houses. And you know, who else sees those? The city and county.

So what the city and county generally have is a compliance officer that's in charge of enforcing the city and county standards for how homes and properties should be maintained.

Now their standards are probably much lower than our standards, but they have to keep these properties to a certain standard. And if they don't do that, they give the homeowner or the property owner a violation notice. And this violation notice can become sequentially more serious with large fines attached to them.

So why am I bringing this up?

Well, it's a marketing opportunity.

One of the highest concentrations of buyers today is buyers looking for flip opportunities. These dilapidated properties, they can turn around and flip and, and turn a profit on. But there's not very many of them out there.

So...

There's one thing we've all done as human beings, living in the United States of America. I guarantee every adult has thought about this at some point:

They've thought owning a rental would be super cool.

Even if they're not homeowners yet, they've thought it would be nice to be on the other side of the equation — and not be paying rent, but also receiving rent.

So this makes for a great conversation. And there's something interesting that's happening in the world today, which we don't talk enough about in the real estate world, which is this:

A lot of millennials and the next generation of buyers coming in are being taught and embracing this concept that they don't want to own their own home.

They wanna continue renting their own home because they want a mobile lifestyle. And they wanna be able to move from New York to Miami to LA. They wanna surf around and have that mobile lifestyle, but they wanna own a couple rentals.

So...

Lawrence Yun was recently quoted as saying, "If you are under the age of 40, you have never seen inflation this high in this country."

The inflation rate in November hit a record 6.8%. That's the highest we've seen in decades.

So when we look at these numbers and everybody's talking about inflation, how does this relate to estate?

It's an interesting conversation. It's something that we should talk about with our clients.

Here's the good news when it comes to real estate:

Real estate is a tremendous asset and a hedge against inflation. That's why last year, we saw a record number of people investing in real estate. In fact, it was the the highest recorded ever. The percentage of homes purchased was 18.2% were sold to investors.

One reason is they're using it as a hedge against inflation.

So here's what's happened according to Lawrence Yun. He says that real estate has proven to be a good hedge against inflation. Some examples:

In the 1970s,...

If you know people in your sphere of influence that own investment property, I've got some good news. Also, if you own an investment property, I've got good news. And if you're trying to sell investment property, I've got good news:

The investment property side of our business is going through a real resurgence right now. We knew during COVID they got kinda hit. We know the eviction moratoriums made it really tough for them. But now we're starting to see people come back out of that.

So here's a few good numbers in that arena that come from us from the NAR economist blog:

Two of them are dealing with absorption rates. Absorption rates, meaning how many units are being absorbed by the market.

In Q2 and Q3 of this year, 700,000 units were absorbed by this market. It's a lot of units, but completely instantly absorbed by the market.

Vacancy rates have fallen in 2011-ish from 6.9 back then all the way down to 4.6 now. That's a nationwide...

What's one thing we all need to be concerned about?

Inflation.

We're starting to see inflation rise across many spectrums of the economy. And it is a little bit unnerving when we look at it. Inflation has actually crossed the 2% threshold it's actually past 4% right now.

It's different every month, but it's rising fast across all kinds of asset classes and employment. We're starting to see that real, serious pressure on wages. And a lot of wages have driven up.

We now have more job openings in our country than we've ever had recorded before. Think about what I just said: Job openings are wide open.

This idea that we have an unemployment rate is almost ridiculous because every American -- based on the amount of openings right now -- could be employed. They're choosing not to be employed in some areas or they're choosing not to go to work because of wages or whatever. But in a lot of areas, there's not just enough jobs, there's too...

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I have a goal for you: Buy a rental property in the next 12 months.

Now, why would you want to buy a rental?

Years ago, one of my mentors said to me, "Jim, do you know the easiest way to make a million dollars in real estate and the hardest way to make a million dollars in real estate?" I said, no, tell me. He said, "Well, the hardest way to make a million dollars in real estate selling it. The easiest way to make a million dollars is owning it."

I never forgot those words.

Now that doesn't mean that I quit my day job and I tried to become a flipper. It also doesn't mean I'm chased some unrealistic get-rich-quick kind of schemes. What it means is that I understand the most powerful investment on earth I can make as a REALTOR is to invest in my retirement and buy rental properties every single year.

That's exactly what I've done throughout my 30 years in this business. My rental properties create stability and financial independence so that my business...

A recent study that shows about 6% of people are taking advantage of eviction moratorium laws. In other words, they're not paying their rent and they're just staying in place. In those cases where the tenant is unable or unwilling to make their rental payment, it can become a burden on the people that own these investment properties.

Why? Because they have to continue to make their own mortgage payments.

As a real estate professional we should reach out to investors as a resource. How? Try using the "Lock In Your Upside" script:

"My name is (your name) with (your company name). I am calling about an investment property at (address of units) did I reach (owner name). Great! Quick question - how did you do with rent collection last month? You know, the biggest challenge that I'm hearing from rental owners in the market when I'm talking to them is that they're having a challenge with the eviction moratorium. The reason for my call is that we have still...

When the stock market is in turmoil it's a good time to connect with clients and remind them why buying residential rental real estate is such a safe, stable, and secure investment.

Here are 7 Reasons Why Real Estate is a Great Investment: 

1) Appreciation - The market has returned to a healthy, stable, and predictable 4-5% appreciation. Rental properties go up in value as rental prices rise.  With high demand and low vacancy rents have been rising steadily for several years. In addition the job market and the maturing millennial generation are creating thousands of new households each month. 

2) Depreciation - The IRS allow rental owners to "write down" a portion of the value of their rental investment over a period of time. This allow rental owners to offset some of their annual gains which can increase their ability to shelter income. Always refer your clients to a qualified CPA for guidance. 

3) Sweat Equity - When rental owners make improvements to their...