Friday night draws to a close…

It’s been a great week full of insight, tips and new assignments. When we return on Monday, you’ll get to see how my business plan is coming along and check out the results of my CMAs…we’ll see if Mitch is happy with my numbers or if it’s back to the drawing board for me. Make sure you checkout the discussion forum, there’s a lot of helpful tips and great advice from many different folks. Think of it as your own and post your thoughts and ideas, I promise there’s someone out there who’s thinking the same thing and will welcome the discussion. It’s been a rainy week, but a successful week none the less. We got to meet with Mitch a couple of times and Shannon as well. We even managed to pin down Lee Salinas for a few minutes and get his insight into the importance of a business plan and he shed a little light on his BizPlan for me. I’m fortunate to get to interact with all these professionals and get some one-on-one time with them. If you’re watching the videos and staying plugged in, then you’re getting virtual one-on-one time with them too. Now, if you have specific questions you want me to ask the gurus, investors or anyone, post them in the forum and I’ll try to work them in to my filmed discussions. I hope you have a great weekend and get rested up, next week will undoubtedly prove to be busy, busy, busy and I’m looking forward to the excitement. We’ve already learned so much thanks the mentors, guest speakers and free Ebooks, just think what you’ll know tomorrow…these are exciting times. Have a good evening and I’ll talk to you soon…back to www.WealthAddress.com.

As the weekend fast approaches, it’s business as usual…

Good morning, it’s Friday June 29, 2007 and we’re still hard at it, working our way up the ladder to real estate investor status. Yesterday was a great day with a lot of really sound advice, YouTube is being a little persnickety both yesterday and this morning and not allowing me to upload the latest videos, but we’ll get it worked out and have the videos up shortly. Today I get to meet with Shannon again, Mitch tells me she has something in her possession that he would like me to see. This sounds pretty good! After that, I’m going to work on my assignments…getting those CMAs done on the properties Mitch assigned and also getting Lee Salinas’ BizPlan in my hot little hands so I can get going on that…and of course, I need to compose my list of potential private lenders and turn that over to Mitch as well. So, lots to do and rarely ever enough time to do it! Stick with us and learn along with me…back to www.WealthAddress.Com.

Another rainy day down…

As Thursday draws to a close, I think it was a hugely successful day. I got a chance to sit with Mitch and bounce ideas off him and he offered up a giant chunk of advice through his revelation about “zero money down.” It’s imperative to him that I understand that I DON’T NEED MY OWN MONEY TO INVEST. That sounds beautiful when you say it…in fact, you should say it, right now…say it. Feels good doesn’t it? It’s liberating and invigorating and just knowing and understanding that little tidbit of information I have already bolstered my confidence level ten-fold. I feel like I can buy any piece of real estate, anywhere, anytime…as long as it’s a good deal, because the money will come! Thanks Mitch for the inspiring words and the helpful advice, it’s a simple idea, but the complexities of the rewards it can bring are immeasurable and it takes just a bit of time to pound that idea into your mind. It’s burrowing its way into my noggin as we speak and there it will reside to direct my real estate career. Anyway, it’s been a great day with a lot of insight, advice and new assignments. I hope you’re following along and grasping the theories and ideas as we go…if ever you have questions, post them in the discussion forum and they’ll be answered right away. Well I have to get to work on some CMAs myself now and start digging through the seat cushions on the couch for loose change so I can buy the BizPlan, and when I do…I’ll be in business! …back to http://www.wealthaddress.com/.

Thursday morning, still raining…

Good morning, hope everyone’s staying dry today, maybe a hard task for those of you in the S.A. area. I wanted to apologize for not yet having Lee Salinas’ video up. We use YouTube and they have file size limitations and his is just over the limit and the editing software I just bought doesn’t let me save it in a format that YouTube accepts, so I’m trying to work that out. Once I do, I’ll get the video up online right away, again sorry for the delay. Today, we will be meeting with Mitch around 10:00am or so and he’ll give us some words of encouragement and possibly set us up for the next assignment. This should be a good one and I’m anxious to hear what’s in store for me. I hope you’re following along, the wheels are starting to turn and we’re moving in the right direction. Stay plugged in and we’ll be back…back to www.WealthAddress.Com.

From Joe--Business Planning and Solid Advice

You hit it right on the head Wes, it is almost 2am my time on the east coast and I am still engaged. Lee is a great source of information. Real Estate investing is a busy profession like many others but most of us have a passion for the craft. That is why we stay up so late and get up so early. We simply love what we do!

Regarding the importance of a business plan, I cannot endorse that more. It is absolutely essential to have a written document of how you plan to conduct business. As an example, the Wealth Address site was almost 70 pages in the scope and planning documentation for its creation. You MUST have a roadmap to tell you where you are going and refer to it frequently. One thing I do is sit down with my accountant, partners, and lawyer twice a year to review how things are going. I buy a great breakfast at a fancy place and we spend an hour or two going over what we have done and what we can improve. Putting a legal mind and accounting mind across the table from each other combined with your creative questions can be very powerful. I strongly believe this and although I do not have a board of directors in the traditional fashion these people help keep us focused and on the right track

Here is an important tip on these people. Use the best available. They may charge more but it well worth it in the outcomes of your business. Do not go cheap on these two areas because not only will you get what you pay for, you will get a bunch of junk you did not expect. Recall our conversation on the lawyer that used boiler plate contract language and pigeon-holed me into not being able to raise rents on the tenants. Read the documents carefully.

Make sure your lawyer is familiar with the concept of trusts. They are powerful. Do not let yourself be talked out of using them because your legal advisors do not see the benefit. This is a sure sign that you are dealing with someone who does not understand our business. Always hold title in the trust if possible. We will go over this more in later discussions. A good lawyer should be familiar with 1031 IRS rules on exchanges of like property and your accountant should be as well. If they look confused when you mention these concepts, get some new advice. Do not pay for someone to tell what you cannot do because they do not understand it. End the encounter quickly and find someone who does.

There are great fill-in-the-blank business plans out there and Lee’s is excellent. You may have to deviate a bit for your certain niche. Do not be afraid to do so. Good advice is well worth the money in the long run.

Plan to win and use winners in your planning!

Don’t settle for someone that restricts your endeavors. Back to www.WealthAddress.Com

Wednesday’s wrap up…

Today was a great day, I got to speak with Mitch in the morning and then Lee Salinas in the afternoon. I can’t tell you enough how fortunate I am to get time with these highly respected, incredibly busy and unbelievably successful people. I hope you’re taking full advantage of this and following along closely. We’re laying the foundation now for a strong future and you can and should be doing the same. You know it’s 10:00pm here in San Antonio, Texas as I type this recap and I just got off the phone with Mitch after an hour of conversation. It’s uplifting and motivating to know that such a person with his record of success takes time to talk to me and find out how I’m doing, how things are going in my world and what I want to do with my career. How many bosses/mentors have that kind of relationship with employees/students, or even care to? He’s a genuine person and I consider myself lucky to be counted among his friends. He told me the other day in another late evening conversation that he couldn’t let me fail now because I’ve gotten under his skin (I asked for clarification, it’s a good thing!) and now he feels an attachment to me and my success. Am I a lucky guy or what?! You can have that same level of success if you just follow along and do as I do and listen to Mitch. It’s not uncommon for me to talk with him for hour long stretches at a time. He’s called me at 10:00pm and at 7:00am; he’s full of ideas and plans and literally full of life. I know I’m rambling a bit here, but this is for me as much as it is for anyone else out there reading. I’m happy to be in the place I’m in, I’m grateful for the opportunities I have and I feel blessed to be surrounded by friends, family and colleagues that care about me and my success. It is my hope that you too have such a support network and find what makes you happy…I’ve found what makes me happy in my work and my family.
In other news, Lee Salinas spent some time with me this afternoon discussing the importance of a business plan and exactly how to use it to gain that most precious commodity…other people’s money. After listening to him, the BizPlan purchase will be a no-brainer. Thanks Lee for spending the time with me today, and I look forward to working with you in the future. Also, Mitch has asked me to meet with him in the morning tomorrow and he’s going to go over a few things with me and he hinted at maybe having another assignment for me. So I’m excited about that and looking forward to tomorrow. You know the hours these guys put into their business is unbelievable, but as Mitch told me, it’s his passion and the time truly flies. It’s not unheard of for me to get emails from both Mitch and Joe at 3:00am…on a regular basis. These guys are animals and I feed off their devotion to their craft, as I hope you will too. Well I’ve talked enough for one night, good luck to you all, have a great night and I’ll talk to you in the morning…back to http://www.wealthaddress.com/.

Wet town can’t dampen my spirits…

It’s Wednesday morning and the rain is falling on the fair city yet again. It feels more like April outside with the constant, daily showers. I can’t complain though, here in San Antonio in years past, we’d be three months into a drought by now and on serious water rationing/restrictions…so the rain is welcome. Of course now I’ll have to mow my grass more often. Today we’re going to meet with Mitch and he’s going to sum up the point of CMAs to us this morning. He’ll probably give me some insight into what comes next. We’re moving forward and starting to put the pieces of the puzzle together in a meaningful way that will greatly impact the success of my future real estate investing career. These things take time, but I’d rather build a castle on solid ground than on shifting sands if you know what I mean. I hope you learned from Shannon yesterday, but if you have questions for her please post them in the discussion forum and she’ll answer them right away. Stick around, today’s going to be full of new and exciting lessons. Good luck to you all…back to www.WealthAddress.com.

Tuesday comes to a close…

I certainly learned a lot today. Thank you to Shannon for teaching me all about CMAs and thank you to Mitch for getting us together today. She told me about gathering information from the Bexar County Appraisal District (BCAD) and use that knowledge to figure out the square footage of the house and the neighborhood it’s in. Then she told me how her office uses MLS (Multiple Listings Service) to build accurate CMA (Cost Market Analysis). I won’t be able to use the MLS because I’m not a realtor, nor do I work for one, but it is a great option for those of you that do have access to the MLS. Hopefully in the future I will be in the right position to have access myself! Then she explained how I could harvest the same information myself with a little leg work. If I drive the neighborhood I’m interested in and checkout all the houses for sale and get the info. on them, I could build my own CMA from there. It makes sense, but takes a little longer. No hill for a stepper I say. Then I use that information to decide how much to offer on the house and to know how much I can expect to make on the sale of the house. It’s very interesting information and when you cut through the extras, it’s actually a fairly simple process at its roots. The complexities come in the details, the saying goes that the devil is in the details and here is living proof. You can make it as quick as you want or as in-depth and time consuming as you want…your call. If you have questions or want more details, just hit the discussion forum and Shannon has agreed to answer any of your questions. Have a great night and we’ll be back at it in the morning…back to http://www.wealthaddress.com/.

Good Tuesday morning…

Hope everyone had a restful evening and is ready to take on a new day. If you haven’t already, make sure you sign up for the newsletter and the free eBooks; you don’t want to miss out on the wealth of knowledge you’ll receive for free. Today we will be finishing up gathering email addresses from the free magazines and then this afternoon we will meet with Shannon Stephen to discuss CMAs. Shannon is truly Mitch’s right hand; she heads up a huge portion of his business. She handles all his closings, billings, paperwork and much more. She’ a very talented young woman with a good head on her shoulders and Mitch appreciates her hard work, diligence and commitment. We’ll meet her this afternoon and she’s going to show us some really cool stuff. As always, I’d like to invite you to the discussion forum to come online and chat with me, if you have questions, suggestions and so on, that’s the place to speak your mind. I think my cameraman is back today, he’s still not a hundred percent, but he’s feeling better. I picked up my car yesterday too, so I’m mobile again without having to borrow anybody’s vehicle. Things are looking up! Stick with us and keep learning…back www.WealthAddress.com.

Another day comes to a close…

Thanks for sticking with us today, we may not have done a lot on video today, but I got a lot of things accomplished. Especially in the arena of building my networking lists. I followed the advice of both Mitch and Joe and have begun to build my first distribution list (for emailing to prospective clients, agents, partners etc.) and I’ve done so absolutely free. I’ve been going through the free magazines I picked up in the café and have started building my list from all the advertisements in them. It was quick, easy and again very free. At this point in my fledgling career, I’m almost too broke to pay attention if you know what I mean…and getting slammed with a $1,000 repair bill for my car today did not do wonders for my financial situation either. But I know that things will get better and I will continue to strive to learn and improve myself and become a successful real estate investor. I’m hoping that in a few years I can look back on this time and laugh off the “hard times.” I do have a full-time job still as I remind you nearly everyday, and as such, I have to mine for email addresses during my lunch time or whenever I get a free minute. I’m sure many of you are in the same boat. It takes a little time, but if you can get halfway organized you’ll find time to accomplish all your tasks. Besides, this one will someday pay dividends. Tomorrow we meet with Shannon Stephen, if all goes well, she’s an insanely busy person and has graciously invited me into her world to learn about CMAs…which I think means Comparative Market Analysis, but we’ll find out more tomorrow if she has time. I believe this will prove to be invaluable to the burgeoning and enduring success of my career, as it plays such a crucial role in deciding to purchase a property. But we’ll let her explain that to us tomorrow, I’d hate to make too many bold statements one way or the other and then have to eat my words. I hope you read Joe’s post just below this one, it’s full of incredibly important information and sheds a little light on the marketing aspect of real estate…an almost obsession (in a very good, profitable way) for him. I’ll be back at it in the morning, check out the discussion forum, it’s starting to come to life and as always, stay plugged in…back to www.WealthAddress.Com.

From Joe--A Word on Marketing

I hope everyone watches closely this week as Wes begins the very critical process of building his business network. To get the good deals you have to be in contact with the people who can show them to you. Many people mistakenly believe that Real Estate Agents and Realtors do not need to be included in your network of contacts, but as I believe you will see, nothing could be farther from the truth. These professionals deal with houses and customers all day long. Often an investor can help when a Realtor cannot. Realtors will sometimes dismiss these leads as worthless. However when we set up a mutually beneficial relationship with them, we can start making things happen. Certain real estate professionals cater to certain areas of the city. These may be areas they know better than others, are more comfortable with, and are more educated about the environment. All of this is valuable information to the real estate investor. However, this is a two-way relationship. Some of my best deals have been produced by Realtors who keep an email list of investors handy. Some even break it out by what the investors like to purchase. As investors we can do the exact same thing. We publish our email address on our business cards, flyers, signs, websites, and other advertisements because we hope people will get in contact with us to do business. The same is true for Realtors who publish them. They want to be contacted if you are willing to do business. An excellent way to do this is to advertise to these professionals what type of property you are interested in purchasing. A short friendly email with your contact information is a great way to do this. Tell them to keep you in mind or contact you if they run across a property that matches your preference. One thing to remember is that occasionally people will confuse this as spam (unsolicited email). It is not and there is an important distinction. If you have trouble remembering what spam is go to www.Google.com and type in the phrase define:spam in the search box. You will be presented with many definitions which do not apply. First, a short email to these professionals is in direct relationship to the business they are in. In fact, you are seeking to do business with them! It is not unsolicited because they have advertised their email address just like you do. They are in fact soliciting people to email them about business in their field. If business in their field is considered to be “junk” by them, than perhaps you would do better not to do business with them. As a general rule, try to keep your initial email volumes low somewhere around 10-20 a day is reasonable. If people do not want to do business with you fine. If they accuse you of spamming, you can send the Google definition back at them and ask if they are seeking to do business in Real Estate. Either way, it is always best to leave your name, email address, and phone number on all your electronic correspondence. You WANT the world to know what you do and you are looking for a mutually beneficial relationship. Remember, you have to SELL the houses you buy as well and the business flows both ways! Back to www.WealthAddress.Com

Good Monday morning…

It’s a brand new week, full of possibilities and endless opportunities. What does this week hold in store for me??? Who knows, but you can rest assured it will be exciting and highly educational. I’m going to try to meet with Mitch today and find out what his plans are for me now and what the next step on my journey should be. Unfortunately today we’re down our cameraman…my brother is feeling a little under the weather, but should be back tomorrow. So the camera work may be a little shaky today because I’ll be running it myself. In the meantime, I’m still studying the business plan that Margaret let me borrow and I’m poring over the free magazines I picked up the other day. I still need to get with Raymond Braun and get a copy of his checklist for rehabs, and make that available to you guys as well. We’re moving forward and learning faster and faster and more and more everyday, stay with us or get on board because you don’t want to be left behind. Have a great day…back to www.WealthAddress.Com.

It's Saturday...

Well it’s Saturday and time to rest up a little bit and recharge my batteries for next week. I know myself and I know that if I don’t take a little down time to reflect and recoup, I’ll be worthless over the long run. My body needs a little time to recover from the week’s madness, excitement and adventures. I'm also hoping to spend some time playing with my son, he's so cool and we have a great time. I'm not sure he looks a whole lot like me, you decide. He's a year old and growing and learning faster than I ever thought possible for such a little person. I'm truly blessed to have this little guy. I’m looking forward to next week, I feel like we’re starting to get rolling on the more enticing aspects of real estate investment. Last week we got to meet Mitch Stephen my mentor here in San Antonio and he gave us some great tips and sent us out on our first assignment. We got to ride out with Yaneira and see that nice check for almost $14K that she’s cashing after only 15 hours or so of work. Then we met Raymond Braun a seasoned investor and business partner of Mitch’s and what a wealth of information he provided me. I’m a lucky guy to have gained access to so many respected and successful people in the real estate world and I know the list of folks I meet will only increase. I hope you’re following along as the lessons will be coming quicker and more in-depth shortly. It’s an exciting time and you’ll be glad you’ve been following along since the beginning. To your continued success, have a great weekend…back to http://www.wealthaddress.com/

The weekend is here…

Well we’ve wrapped up the exciting first week of the “Wealth Address Millionaire Challenge” and what a week it’s been. I’ve already learned so much and made the acquaintance of some really great people. I’m looking forward to whatever the future holds for me. I hope you’re getting engaged and following along with me as I continue on my journey. Things are really starting to get going now and I sense that my first purchase may not be toooooo terribly far away and I’m certainly looking forward to that! Over the weekend I will review the business plan more closely and continue to read and re-read the free ebooks I got when I signed up for the newsletter. Your mind can never be too prepared for what lies ahead. And I look forward to spending some time with my wife and our beautiful son over the weekend; he’s such a joy to my world. I can’t remember what life was like before him anymore. Well, stay at it and keep learning and driving forward in your quest. We’ll all get to the finish line together. Have a great weekend…back to www.WealthAddress.Com.

It’s Friday!!

Everybody loves Friday, the end of the week, the endless possibilities of the weekend…it’s a great time. For me, it’s business as usual, there’s just not enough time in the day to do all that I need to accomplish. For a long time it’s been the case of running out of money before I run out of month, but now I’m running out of day looooong before I run out of work. But luckily for me, I happen to thoroughly enjoy what I do. It’s not often I’ve been able to say that, or ever really, so I feel fortunate and blessed to have such an opportunity. I believe I’m finally the guy who is in the right place at the right time and it feels great. I hope you follow along with me and take advantage of every opportunity to learn and increase your knowledge about the world of real estate investing. I know I may seem a little “all over the map” but there is a method to the madness, my mentors assure me! They are going to pull all of these pieces together and it will start to make more sense as we go and as we start to realize the bigger picture. As always, if you have questions or suggestions for me, drop by our discussion forum and chat with me. I’ll be going over the business plan I received from Margaret and learning how to use it, then I’ll probably go ahead and get my own, so I can get things going. Mitch has also given me some advice on how to get some emails, leads and a lot of information free and if we have time to get to that today I’ll do it and tell you more about it later. So come along and enjoy the ride and learn with me as we go…back to www.WealthAddress.com

Exciting day winds down…

Well it’s just about quitting time on Thursday. What a busy day we had today, full of lessons and invaluable information. We set out to do one thing today (go over the BizPlan) and got a hot lead on a rehab-in-process that Mitch turned me on to early this morning and we had to change plans. We will go over the BizPlan tomorrow hopefully, but today it was absolutely necessary in that we got a glimpse of the inside world of rehabbing. And an exciting world it proved to be, full of variables, formulas and tons of numbers. I learned an unbelievable amount of information today, in fact, I’m quite sure I will have to watch all the videos of Raymond Braun again just so I can remember all that was thrown at me today. Raymond is a man of integrity, class and has a real down to earth personality that makes him incredibly accessible and easy to talk with. I feel very fortunate that Mitch is inviting me into his inner circle of friends and colleagues. I know that I’m getting one heck of an education and it is my sincere hope that you are following along with us. I’m not sure what all tomorrow holds for me, but you can rest assure that I’ll wake up hungry for more knowledge and anxious for more experience. Have a great night, check out the videos and stay plugged in…back to www.WealthAddress.Com.

Good morning, day 4 is here…

Today is Thursday, June 21, 2007 and we’re heading down the path to real estate investor-hood (I’m not sure that’s a word) and well on our way to gaining greater knowledge. This morning I will be meeting with Margaret, Mitch’s wonderful assistant, and going over her business plan so she can explain it to me. It’s important that I understand every aspect of building an effective business plan so that I don’t fail right out of the gate. It’s absolutely essential that I effectively construct a business plan for the purpose of attaining private money for building my investment career. So that’s something we’re going to learn about today. I’ll pick it up, go over it with her, study it myself and then tell you all more about it! And if it’s as good as I hear it is, then I’ll go online to www.WealthAddress.com and purchase Lee Salinas’ BizPlan and get started on my journey. I know it may seem a little slow right here at first, but it’s entirely necessary that I build a strong foundation from the very beginning upon which to build my future real estate investing business. After all, castles built on shifting sands won’t stand for long. I certainly don’t want to be that guy. And I have no desire to get in over my head ever, much less right off the bat and find myself up to my ears in debt. So stick with us as we lay the strongest foundation we can and you do the same so that our future successes may be better ensured. That’s all for now, good luck to you and keep following along with us…back to www.WealthAddress.com.

Finishing up day 3…

What an exciting day it has been. We’ve been all over the city today in the pouring rain, meeting mentors and investors. We’re on track now folks. Today we got to meet Mitch Stephen and what an exciting guy he is, full of energy and ready to get things going. He gave me my second assignment today, to follow successful real estate investor Yaneira Miranda on a mysterious trip to some undisclosed location. After riding out with her, I learned that we were going to a lawyer’s office and were there to pick up a check. She worked about 15 hours on this one project and cashed a check for over $14,000!! I got to see the check, hold the check and shoot some video of the check. That was highly motivational for me, how many businesses allow you to work 15 hours and cash that kind of paycheck??? Not many, I assure you. This is a very appealing aspect of real estate investing, so it’s very inspirational. Watch the video and you can learn a little more about how she did it and what you can do to duplicate her success. As always, keep checking in, the videos are updated several times throughout the day and new information is posted daily. Read the blog, visit the discussion forum and sign up for the newsletter. Tomorrow morning we’ll be back at it! Back to www.WealthAddress.Com.

Joe Ponce Checking In

Hi Folks,

My name is Joe Ponce and I probably need to jump in this discussion as Wes's other success coach. You will see my posts appear as Wealth Address because I am the moderator of the Blog. Watch closely as Mitch begins to mentor Wes and the style he uses. He has spent many years freely giving advice away but NEVER to the extent you will see with Wes.

I know a lot of investors. Some have many courses and books for sale and some have none. I am at least familiar with most of "players" in the industry because these are the people I turned toward when I started investing years ago. I try to go to a seminar per year (funded as a business expense by my company of course). This year we went on the National Real Estate Investors’ Association Cruise and had a ball. I had a lot of fun mixing with the other investors and sharing ideas. We were in the final phases of starting Wealth Address and a number of people were interested in the idea.

I will give you a bit of background on myself so you know the perspective I approach this with. I am not bragging or selling myself short. I am an Army Officer still on Active Duty for about another year and some months until retirement. I have always been a technical guy with a good dose of creativity thrown in. This can be a wild combination and I am never short of ideas or things to think about. However, I do believe in action and Wealth Address is a product of this.

I began my career as a Medical Evacuation Helicopter Pilot in the mid 1980's and served in Desert Storm and another follow-up trip to that wonderful sandbox. I was the guy always interested in how things worked and eventually ended up as the Maintenance Test Pilot and Platoon Leader for the maintenance company for all of the Blackhawk aircraft. Don't confuse this with the Experimental Test Pilots that try to break the wings off airplanes. After we fixed them, someone had to test them out and that guy was me.

In the mid 1990s I decided to change courses and enter the world of information management and have spent the last 10 years doing that. I am in charge of a wonderful crew of folks that manages the network, voice, video, computers, and all of the other electronic systems it takes to make a hospital run. I really like what I do and the challenges it offers. I am also really looking forward to retirement especially after my third trip to the desert during the Iraq invasion. It is just really hot over there in terms of temperature and attitude if you know what I mean.

Anyway, I love investing in real estate and have a good bit of purchases and sales under my belt at probably 500. My business partner and I actually did 44 investment purchases while I was in Iraq via email. So I never believe that “it won’t work where you are” business.
This brings me to another point. My partner a co-coach Mitch lives in the San Antonio market as does Wes is our protégé. This is the same city that “Flip that House” is filmed out of. While I have watched the show, there are a number of things that do not add up to me…like the money spent on rehabbing homes. It is fun to watch and makes for good entertainment but it doesn’t do much for your bottom line.

Lord knows I am not a shy person, but you won’t see much of me in front of the camera. My most precious commodity is time. My wife and I are full time active duty military and we have three wonderful children. My work on the site is often at 2-3am and nobody wants to film me in the dark at that time!

I will pull all of the back-end pieces together of this documentary and move the electrons around so you have fun and learn something. You really have some great investors and people to watch here!

This site is like nothing else ever attempted in the real estate investing world and I hope you appreciate that. We want you to take action after seeing what can be done and look for a mentor in your area. I am not going to push products on you or demand $19.95 in shipping costs to send you some electronic information. At the same time, I am a military guy and don’t like people the WASTE MY TIME! Put the information to good use or get the heck out of the way and let someone else through.

We will provide the majority of the information and occasionally recommend a product but YOU have to take action. This is not a soap opera for entertainment. It is real life, with real people doing real deals. That is my two pennies and for those of you who do not like it…too bad.

For those of you with an open mind and a desire to learn…welcome to the library of success on Wealth Address. We are like no other site out there because we show and teach the REAL DEAL not some made-up fantasy to get your money. Frankly we do not need your money. This is a FUN project we decided to undertake about 4 years ago.

Wes is the fortunate guy but he is going to have to work to be a success like the rest of us.

Just get off the couch and do what he does…you will find yourself in the ranks of successful investors before you know it!

Best of Real Estate Success!

Joe Ponce

http://www.wealthaddress.com/

Day three, Meeting the Mentor…

Good morning, it’s day three of the “Wealth Address Millionaire Challenge” and today we finally get to meet one of our two main mentors. Mitch Stephen is his name and he hails from San Antonio, TX like myself and is quite a local hero. He has purchased or controlled well over 1,000 properties since going full-time in March of 1996. He invests in just about everything from single family residence to commercial property, manufactured homes, raw land, boat and mini-storage units, large Texas ranches and everything in between. He’s a student of the school of hard knocks and has earned every bit of his success and the respect of others through sheer grit, determination and a whole lot of faith. You’ll get to meet him today and it’s going to be fun, he’s a great guy with a sharp wit and wicked sense of humor. He’s going to be getting me started on my quest today. I don’t know what he’s going to tell me or advise me to do, so I’m excited to learn about it just like you! Make sure you sign up for the newsletter and five free e-books, it’s important that you have a strong base of knowledge in the preparation for your investing career (so they tell me!) and you can find it in those e-books. As I receive my assignments and proceed further down the track of my career, I will be posting greater details about my responsibilities and results. If you have questions for me, suggestions or just want to say hey, stop into our discussion forum and drop me a line. I’ll be filming my meeting with Mitch and posting it shortly thereafter, so make sure you keep checking back in, the ball is starting to roll and we’re getting underway. Good luck and have a great day…back to http://www.wealthaddress.com/.

Day two draws to a close…

Well it’s late in the evening on Day 2 of the “Wealth Address Millionaire Challenge” and we’re getting close to wrapping things up for the day. I’ve spent most of the day on marketing, something you can certainly never do too much of in your business. It’s important to promote yourself, your company and your ideas every step of the way. I’ve been posting articles, press releases, making phone calls and composing emails all day. Looks like tomorrow will hold much of the same in store for me. I’m getting the opportunity now to learn how to balance my time between my job (working for www.WealthAddress.com) and my soon to begin real estate investing career. I’m excited to get that portion of things going, but I know and understand the value of a strong foundation and that is exactly what I’m currently working on. Stick with us and learn right along with me and remember if you have questions, go to our discussion forum and type away. I’ll be checking it daily and look forward to some great conversation. Have a great night and I’ll be back in the morning. Good luck to you all…back to www.WealthAddress.com

Good Morning, back at it…

Good morning to you all, hope you had a restful evening. Today we are going to do a little more work on the website, and you can follow along. As I have mentioned before, it’s important that everyone understand that in addition to learning to become a real estate investor, I have (like many of you) a full-time job working for www.WealthAddress.com. It is very time consuming as all jobs are, but the reward of seeing your hard work come to fruition is unmatched. Today I will be sending out more emails, inviting more friends, colleagues and acquaintances to sign up and participate. In addition to that, I’ll be sending out press releases and posting articles on the web today, this will help drive traffic back to our site and get the participation level up. This will serve at the very least, two major functions. First, the more we have participating, the more chance that a huge number of people can learn along with me and succeed in the real estate game. Second, with big numbers come big ideas, meaning that when we get thousands and thousands of people signed up, our discussion forum will come to life with great conversations and tons of helpful hints. Everybody knows that two heads are better than one, so how about 10,000 heads or 50,000 or more??? It will be unbelievable to have that kind of mastermind group at your beck and call. If you can think of a question, no matter how outlandish it may seem, type it into the discussion forum http://wealthaddress.com/PerlEx/wwwboard/wwwboard.html
and you can rest assure that you’ll get your answer. I’m excited about the prospects of where this can go and how many lives can be touched and forever changed for the better by participating in such a sweeping event as this. So come online, sign up and tell everyone about it…there’s plenty of room for everyone! Back to www.WealthAddress.com

The first day draws to a close…

Well the first day is winding down and I got a lot accomplished…most of it was behind the scenes, but plenty was done. For now and over the next few days or so, a lot of what I do will be on the backend of www.WealthAddress.com as I continue to prepare the site for the Challenge! Keep checking back everyday and tell others to come along and sign up as the real estate investing part of my journey is soon to kick off. As always, if you have a question for me, a suggestion, criticism or advice, please go to the discussion forum here at: http://wealthaddress.com/PerlEx/wwwboard/wwwboard.html I’ll check it daily and respond to any posting as soon as I possibly can. I look forward to talking with everyone and I hope you learn as much as I do and we can all be successful together. Have a great evening and I’ll talk to you in the morning as the Challenge continues. Good fortune to you all. Back to www.WealthAddress.com

And so it begins…

Good morning this is Wes, the journey begins, the stage is set and the story is about to unfold. Please take the time to sign up for the newsletter and updates at www.WealthAddress.com, you won’t want to miss a thing. This journey has been over four years in the making for the two founders of Wealth Address, Joe Ponce and Mitch Stephen. All their hard work, due diligence and commitment is about to come to fruition as we launch the “Wealth Address Millionaire Challenge.” If you want to succeed like I do, then it is absolutely vital that you plug-in and follow along from the beginning. You don’t want to leave out any steps in the process. I’ve been reading and have read the free E-books that you receive when you sign up, so make sure you do the same. These books offer unbelievable insight into the mindset of wealthy people. This is a resource you will want to tap into repeatedly as it is the enlightened that are typically the most successful. Check back here several times a day as this blog will be updated throughout the day, everyday with the latest in my adventures. Visit www.WealthAddress.com today and set a course for success with Wes. Good luck to you all, talk to you soon.

Getting to Know Wes

Hi everybody, this is Wes O'Neill and I'm about to become a highly successful real estate investor. It feels great to say that, I must admit. How is this going to happen you ask? Before we get too deep into that, let me tell you a little bit more about me.

I'm 31 years old and I was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. I recently graduated from the University of the Incarnate Word with a bachelors in Philosophy. I've had several different jobs throughout my career, but nearly all of them centered around sales. I've sold paint, pet supplies, western wear, designer sunglasses and advertising. I've been at the top of the game in my field and I've been at the lowest of lows. All throughout my time working in the corporate world I always felt a little out of place. I never felt quite right about how I was used nor the person I was becoming. It's a tough world in corporate America and friends are in short supply while enemies abound. It was really no way for me to live. I got two great things out of corporate America, first was incredible experience and education and second was my beautiful wife. We met while working at the local newspaper, she in marketing and I in outside sales for advertising. We've been married for four and half years and have a wonderful year old baby boy and we feel truly blessed.

So knowing a little about my history, you may be able to better understand where I'm coming from and where I intend to go. I came to work for Mitch Stephen and Joe Ponce, both incredibly successful real estate investors and entrepreneurs. In addition to their many undertakings, they own a website, http://www.wealthaddress.com/ and through an interesting chain of events and truly being in the right place at the right time, I came to work for them. My title is the National Director of Sales and Operations. My day-to-day functions involve the management of the site from the back-end, marketing the site, increasing traffic, posting articles and talking with real estate gurus and experts from all over the world and more. It's a great job, I love what I do and the education I'm receiving is of inestimable worth. About two months ago, Mitch and Joe approached me with a great idea and a chance of a lifetime opportunity. They asked me how I would feel if they took up the mantle as my mentors and took me from average guy with no experience in real estate and made me a successful real estate investor. All I had to do in return was record every aspect of my journey pertaining to investing. I will have to video tape, voice record and write blog entries on a near daily basis, chronicling my rise to investor status. Needless to say, I was pretty ecstatic at the mere chance that this could be done and that I could become an investor of respectable proportions. I jumped all over it and ever since then have been laying the ground work to roll out this adventure. It has taken a lot of hard work and preparation, but we're just about to launch this innovative undertaking and we're inviting everyone we know (and those we don't know too) to come along and join in the fun and excitement. Pin your dreams and desires to mine and we can all become successful together. You will have access to the same mentoring and advice I receive. You will be able to purchase any and all products I purchase along the way and you will be given a window into my world and that of my mentors. If you want to get started, but are a little anxious as to how to go about it or what to do...sign up and watch me go through my first deal, if you are dedicated to following along and learning as I do, there's no reason why you can't duplicate my success.

Are we sure that this will work? Yes, I think we can safely say that my mentors are more than reasonably sure they can give the tools I need. Do we know how long this will take? Not a clue. Will there be some failures and set backs along the way? Undoubtedly, but when the dust settles and the smoke clears, I will be a successful real estate investor. So come along with me on my journey, watch as it unfolds, sit on the sidelines and observe or get into the action with me. I will be here on this blog daily, telling you how my journey is progressing and I welcome advice, comments, criticism and encouragement from anyone out there who would like to be a part of this ground-breaking challenge. Watch the videos, listen to the voice recordings and read, read, read and you and I can make it together.

I wish you good fortune in all your endeavors and maybe I'll see you out there as our investor paths may someday cross. Good luck to you all.

Wes gets his mind right

Wes O'Neill is available to discuss WHY he is reading these books and what the books have meant to him. As with all of Wes's assingments, we don't move forward until every assignment is completed. In some cases Wes is able to progress on other assignments in conjuction with his reading assignments.

Wes is focused on become a successful investor. His commitment was to do whatever it takes. So far... Wes is right on target.

Have any other investors out there read any books that changed their lives? The 2 books that changed my life were "Think and Grow Rich" and "Self Made in America." Think and Grow Rich taught me that I was probably NOT going to get to the top by myself and about brain consortiums etc., etc.. Self Made in America taught me that I may need to be prepared for a lonely stretch of raod where you friends and even family fall off your wagon as you begin to sacrifice at levels that make others uncomfortable. Don't worry, my experience is they all come back when you get rich.

Mitch

HELLO... my name is Mitch Stephen. My partner Joe Ponce and I founded WealthAddress.com as a place where Real Estate investors can go to continue their education, ask for help from experienced investors around the country and the world. WealthAddress.com is a place where you can TEACH or BE TAUGHT. The site currently houses over 6,800 article on the subject of achieving financial freedom through creative real estate investing. To make learning from the ground up more interesting Joe and I decided to find a novice investor and document his journey as we mentor him to his first ever real estate investment purchase. We found theperfect person for the job... Wesley O'Neill.

We are about to begin the "Realistatification of Wesley O'Neill." Wes is a complete real estate novice. He begins his journey armed with a good head head on his shoulder and a lot of WANT TO. Other than that, he's as green as an investor can get.

Since we are going to be posting this documentary online at WealthAddress.com.
The first step is for Wes is:

1). Register for the 5 free gifts and Newsletter online at www.wealthAddress.com

If you think this is a joke or some simple marketing ploy you are mistaken. The very first thing we are asking Wes to do as his mentor is to sign up at this site. Here is why...

The second step
2). Read the 5 free EBooks that are going to be sent to you when you register at wealthAddress.com

In order to become financially independent you have to understand some basic concepts and theories about what financial freedom is and how those that are financially free think. You cannot shortcut this lesson. Without a solid foundation you will flounder around for along time. Let's begin today to "get our minds right." Feel free to discuss any personal revelations you may have while reading these books here at this blog. For those of you following along... Wes has already read these books. We have discussed each one of them at length. He will be continuously assigned different books as he progresses. We never stop learning about real estate and about how to improve ourselves and our minds.

See you soon