There’s a bit of debate going around my office here in Westminster, Colorado. So I’m hoping you can help resolve a few things for me.

Here’s what I’m wondering:

Can you pick a better title?

Basically it sums up the Winning in the Cash Flow Business course in book form.

But I’m not 100% sold on the title. In fact, I’m considering changing the title of the book to “The Cash Flow Secret.”

However, before I do anything, I want to know what you think.

Do you like “The Real Estate Secret?”

Do you prefer “The Cash Flow Secret?”

Or do you have a better idea?

Also, do you think people are afraid of getting involved with real estate right now?

Do you think people hear the words “real estate” and instantly tune out… or do you think many people still recognize real estate as a tried-and-true pathway to wealth?

Remember, there’s no wrong answer here. I want YOUR opinion, your gut feeling.

So please leave a comment below and let me know what title YOU would pick for my book… and how YOU think people feel about real estate right in America right now.

I’m going to send a FREE copy of my book to the three people who provide the best ideas or suggestions.

So don’t be shy! Share your thoughts with me below.

– Russ

Here’s the deal.

I’m always telling students to KEEP your eyes OPEN because potential note deals are EVERYWHERE!

Because once you start ACTIVELY SEARCHING for cash flow notes, you’ll be amazed at how often you start to notice potential note deals all around you.

Why does this happen?

It’s actually a simple mental trick. You see, the human brain is incredibly powerful. You can train your brain to search for specific items.

For example, let’s say you decide to buy a new vehicle and you end up getting a red pick-up truck. Immediately after driving off the lot, you start to notice red pick-up trucks almost EVERYWHERE!

Why does this happen? Are there suddenly a greater number of red pick-up trucks on the road?

No.

But because you’re the proud owner of a brand new red pick-up truck, your brain has been “switched on” to red pick-up trucks and you’ll notice them all the time.

The good new is, you can “train your brain” to seek out cash flow notes.

See for yourself.

One of my employees was on vacation down in Florida recently. He was walking down the beach and this is what he saw:

One of my employees snapped this photo on his recent vacation

Pretty neat, right? When you’ve got your eyes open for possible cash flow note deals, it’s amazing how often you’ll find cash flow note deals.

Even though Drew — one of my employees here — was on vacation… even though he wasn’t thinking about cash flow notes… he still ended up finding a potential cash flow note lead.

Ok, now it’s time for the quiz.

Pretend YOU were the one walking down the beach. Pretend YOU were the one who saw this sign. Obviously, the words “owner financing” should catch your eye. (Because — as you already know “owner financing” is just another term for seller financing, cash flow notes, etc.)

So here’s the million dollar question:

You’re walking down the beach on sunny day. You see this beach front property — offered with seller financing.

What do you do NEXT?

Leave your answers in the comments below.

– Russ

And it’s all because of YOU — because students like you are visiting the blog, joining the discussion by leaving comments and helping to make the Dalbey Blog a great online “meeting place” for students in the cash flow business.

So today, I want to do a little something different.

I want to get to know a little bit more about the men and women behind the blog comments. Specifically, I’d like to hear about your current job, your career or however you spend most of your time these days.

You all know what I do so please help me learn a little more about YOU.

I know we’ve got some retirees, a few truck drivers and a couple full-time cash flow professionals. But I’m interested to hear from EVERYONE.

So please leave a comment below and tell me what you’re currently doing to pay the bills… what you do for fun… and how you plan to make enough money so you have more leisure time and less financial worries.

– Russ

And some people take it to another level, claiming “Money is the root of all evil.”

(By the way, that quote is incorrect. The actual quote from 1st Timothy 6:10 says “For the love of money is the root of all evil.” Big difference.)

But a new study shows that maybe money CAN buy happiness — or at least a little satisfaction.

A new analysis of an existing happiness survey shows that your level of income can indeed affect your level of happiness.

Here are the details:

Researchers polled 136,000 people across 132 nations and asked them about their level of “life satisfaction” and “enjoyment of life.”

They discovered people with higher incomes ranked their level of “life satisfaction” higher than those with lower incomes.

So what does this mean? Can money buy happiness?

Mae West said it best...

I tend to agree — and I’ve been on both sides of the fence too.

I’ve been so poor I had to sell the clothes off my back just to get a few bucks to eat. And I’ve been rich too — becoming a millionaire in my late 20’s.

And in my opinion — money CAN make you happier. But only to a point.

Back when I was broke, I was unhappy.

Because lack of money can cause stress and problems. I don’t know if money can buy happiness or not.

But I DO know that having a little bit of money frees you from the problems that NOT having money creates. And that can boost your overall feeling of satisfaction.

So if you’re hurting for money right now… if you’re unhappy with your current situation… then I challenge you to use that unhappiness. Channel your dissatisfaction into positive energy and commit yourself to making some extra cash.

How?

Well, you can probably guess what I’m going to say.

The Cash Flow Business.

Because discovering how to make money in real estate without risking a cent on property changed my life. When I made $6,620.00 on my very first deal, it opened my eyes to a whole new world.

A world where you can make money on your own terms.

A world where you can work as little or as much as you want and never have to answer to a boss.

So if you’re looking for a way to make some extra money, check out my course — Winning In The Cash Flow Business.

If you’re already a student of Winning In The Cash Flow Business… then I want to hear from you. What do you think — can money buy happiness? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

– Russ

A lesson in tenacity from a tennis match

I’m not the world’s biggest tennis fan, but there was a recent match that made worldwide headlines and FORCED me to sit up and take notice.

As you might have guessed, I’m talking about the longest tennis match in history — which took place just a few days ago.

Two evenly-matched athletes went head-to-head and battled tooth and nail… neither man willing to give an inch or accept defeat.

When the dust finally settled… John Isner defeated Nicholas Mahut 70-68 in a match that lasted 11 hours and five minutes, spread out over 3 days.

The lesson I learned? Sometimes the key to success is simply a matter of wanting it MORE than the other guy.

Take this record-setting tennis match, for example. I think it’s safe to say that these two men were about as evenly-match as you could hope for. I’m sure they both saw their share of lucky bounces and bad breaks during the 11-hour match.

But one man wanted to win just a little bit more. One man held out just a little bit longer. And at the end of the day, success showed herself to the man who wanted her more.

Here’s What This Record-Setting Tennis Match Has To Do With YOU And The Cash Flow Business…

If you’re a long-time blog reader, I’m sure you’ve heard me tell the story of man who came within 3 feet of a fortune.

As the story goes, way back in the 1800’s during the great California gold rush, a man set out west to search for gold and find his fortune. As luck would have it, one day this man was panning in a river bed when he discovered a few small gold flakes.

Quickly and quietly, he marked his spot and snuck off to secure the high-powered drilling equipment he’d need to extract his underground fortune.

When he returned and started drilling, everything went according to plan. The drills went down, the gold came up and the man had dollars signs in his eyes. But then something unusual happened.

Without warning, the gold vein seemingly dried up. So the man moved the drill around, testing different spots, hoping to pick up the underground gold vein again.

But it was no use.

Finally, the man abandoned the site, sold the drilling equipment to a “junk man” and returned home with his hat in his hand. However, that’s not where the story ends.

Because the “junk man” called in a mining engineer, who pointed out the first prospector quit drilling a mere 3 feet from a million dollar underground gold vein.

The lesson is simple: Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up. Because right at this very minute, you could be closer to success than you can possibly imagine.

Now it’s your turn: What did you learn this week about overcoming adversity and “sticking with it?” Please share your stories in the comments.

– Russ

How to find future notes on Ebay.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been showing you ways to find potential note leads on the internet… FOR FREE!

And today, I’m revealing yet ANOTHER quick, easy and FREE way to find potential note leads and maybe even note deals on the ‘net.

Today we’re focusing on Ebay — the massive online auction website launched way back in 1995.  Did you know that over 2 million people use Ebay every day to buy, sell and trade anything from cars, clothing and yes… even real estate!

And because you can buy, sell and trade real estate on Ebay, you can bet it’s a good source for cash flow notes too.

See for yourself:

Step #1:  Go to www.Ebay.com

Step #2:  In the search bar, type in “seller financing”.

seller-financing results on Ebay

Next, you’ll notice all sorts of listings for people selling homes and land with seller-financing.  As I showed you with my craigslist post, you can contact these sellers because these leads could potentially become future note deals.

You may only see a few listings so here’s a trick you can use to find dozens more:

Try EbayClassifieds.com

Again, just search for “seller financing” in your area you may stumble across properties offered for sale with seller-financing.

Let me show you:

I went to EbayClassifieds.com and selected “Denver” as my local area.

Then I searched for “seller financing” and look what I found:

Ebay Classified Results

As you can see, EbayClassifieds returned a whole bunch of listings. So I started clicking through and on the 2nd one I found somebody selling a condo… offering seller financing!

Obviously, there’s no guarantee this property will sell on a note. In fact, it’s a pretty small chance that this particular listing will end up as a note deal somewhere down the line.

But what if every month you sat down a made a list of 250 potential, future note deals you found on the internet? It wouldn’t cost you a dime, just a couple hours of your time every month.
After a year, you’d have your own list of over 3,000 potential future note deals.

Will they all become finished note deals?

Of course not. But do you think at least 1 or 2 of those 3,000 could end up putting a big, fat finder’s fee in your pocket?

There’s only one way to find out. Sure, it will take a bit of work every month but it won’t cost you a cent.

Let me leave you with this quote from legendary self-help author Jim Rohn:

“Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.” – Jim Rohn.

It’s simple strategies – like finding potential future note leads on Ebay – practiced diligently, that can propel you to success.

So here’s what I want you to do:

Pick a day every month to put these strategies to work and search the internet for potential future note deals. Make it the same day every month – for example the 1st or the 15th.

Mark it on your calendar and make an appointment every month to search for note deals on the internet. Use this day every month to build your list of potential note leads.

Remember, you should still be searching for note leads at your local court house as well. Take massive action and use all of these strategies to tip the odds in your favor and help you get your first note deal done as fast as possible.

I want to hear from you: If you’ve already taken action, leave a comment below with your results. Even if you haven’t started yet, leave a note to share your intentions with your fellow students. This will help strengthen your commitment to take action and follow through.

– Russ

I got tons of positive feedback about the strategy. There are 181 comments and counting… plus many of you reported finding note leads with this strategy.

But I’ll bet some of you STILL haven’t taken action.

Because you’re not convinced finding notes can be as simple and easy as I say it is.

So here’s UNDENIABLE PROOF that what I’m teaching you can lead to your very first note deal and maybe even put some cash in your pocket.

Using the very same step-by-step plan I showed you, I set up a Google Alert for the term “Cash Flow Notes”.

Google scoured the internet and sent me a bunch of results for “Cash Flow Notes.”

See for yourself.

Here’s the actual email alert sent to me from Google:

My Google Alert

Now, just as I told you in the original plan, some of the results were useless and some of the results were just general information like news stories, articles and blog posts where cash flow notes were mentioned.

So I expected that.

But I also expected that sooner or later Google would send me a few leads.

And that’s exactly what happened with one of listings in the Alert I got from Google on June 9th.

Google sent me a link to a Craigslist ad from Michigan from someone looking to sell a cash flow note!

I clicked the link and here’s the actual ad Google found for me:
This guy wants to sell his cash flow note — and he’s already given me 95% of the information I need!

Look What Google Found For Me!

In fact, if you look at the script I gave you in the Winning In The Cash Flow Business manual #1 (Find ‘em!), you’ll see I gave you 18 questions to ask a note-seller. And this note-seller has already provided the answers to 15 of those questions right in the Craigslist ad!

To earn a finder’s fee, all I have to do is call or email this guy (he actually says right in the ad “call or email with questions”) get the answer to the other 3 questions from the list I gave you and then post the note on the Note Network so note buyers can start bidding on the cash flow note!

Maybe the deal will go through… and maybe it won’t. But I could earn a quick finder’s fee and it wouldn’t take more than a few minutes to get the extra information I need and show this deal to my buyers.

See! This stuff really works!

And It’s ALREADY WORKING for other note finders. Angela left a comment on my last post (comment number 163) and said:

“…I set up several alerts after reading your blog post, and within minutes I received 3 “I want to sell my note” and several “Owner Financing.” I am now getting ready to check them out & make the calls. Thank you so much.”

And Glenn also left a comment on my last blog post (comment number 139) on how he used it to find two notes:

“Because of your tip I actually made contact with a foreclosure investor out in Arizona who has been looking for an outlet to sell new notes he is creating by buying and selling foreclosures.

He has two notes he is going to fax me tomorrow, and he wants to establish an ongoing working relationship with my company to help him sell his foreclosure notes.

Finding a person like him is like finding a gold mine. Thank You Russ.”

Now It’s Time For YOU To
Find Your Goldmine!

If you haven’t done it already, set up some Google Alerts for common cash flow terms and start searching craiglist for note deals!

And most importantly…

STOP worrying about competition!
STOP worrying about tiny details!
And STOP thinking you have to study “a little bit more” before you get started!

Listen, Martin Luther King Jr. said it best:

“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” – MLK

The fastest way to learn is to start working on real note deals with real money on the line. So what are you waiting for? Use the strategy I just showed you and take the first step in faith today!

Try my Google Alerts strategy RIGHT NOW and then report back to me with your results in the comments.

CLICK HERE to see the post where I reveal the strategy.

– Russ

How Google Can Find You Note Leads

Google is a massive company. They’re #102 of the list of Fortune 500 companies. In 2009, the company earned $23 billion dollars in revenue.

And believe it or not… now you can get Google to do some of your note research for YOU!

Here’s how:

Google offers a free tool called “Google Alerts.”

Google Alerts is simply a way to get news delivered to you on a specific subject. So, for you and me, we’ll use it to find home sellers selling their homes through seller financing.

Here’s what to do:

#1: Go to Google Alerts.

Google Alerts

#2: On the right side of the page, you’ll see “Create A Google Alert.”

In the “search terms” box, type in “Seller Financing.” (Make sure you enter in “Seller Financing” with quotes as this will help to narrow the results.

Here's what your page should look like.

For “Type”, select “Everything” (it should already be displayed.)

For “How Often” select “Once A Day” (again, it should already be displayed.)

For “Email Length” select “Up to 20 results”.

And finally, where it says “Your Email” just enter your email address.

#3: When you’re all done,
just hit the “Create Alert” button.

Here’s the screen you’ll see next:

Google Alerts Verification

Basically, Google just wants to verify that the email address you provided is your real email address.

So before Google will start sending you results, you’ll have to verify your email address.

To do that, just go to your email inbox and find the message from Google.

Here’s what the email looks like:

Here's what the Google Alert email will look like.

TIP: If you don’t see the email from Google, check your “Junk” or “Spam” folder as sometimes the emails will end up there.

Open the email, and here’s the message you’ll see:

Google Alerts Verification Email

To verify your email address and start receiving alerts from Google, simply click the “Verify this Google Alert request.”

Next, you’ll see this page:

Verification Page. Success!

Once you see this page, you are all set.

Google will start to email you alerts on the topic you selected.

You can repeat this process using
as many different terms as you want.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

“Owner Financing”
“Cash Flow Notes”
“Trust Deed”
“I Want To Sell My Note”

Then, every single day, Google will email you information on seller and owner financing.

Some of it will be informational only.

Some will be junk.

But you’ll also find some great leads from time to time.

Because Google Alerts will pick up information from people are selling their homes through seller/owner financing.

So now you’ll have potential note deals emailed directly to you, for free!

And free is good, don’t you agree?

That’s a million dollar tip I just shared with you. Now it’s up to you to go set up your alerts.

Put this into action TODAY and within 24 hours you can have one of the biggest companies in the world doing your legwork for YOU.

Within 24 hours, Google will send you all the latest information about seller financing and maybe even a few leads too.

NOTE: Do you like these kinds of blog posts? Are you interested in more ways to find notes on the internet? Or would you prefer more information about finding notes with old-fashioned “paper-and-ink” strategies?

Leave a comment below and let me know your thoughts. Tell me what you want me to write about in this blog.

– Russ

In Honor of Memorial Day

Like most people, I like to take a minute each Memorial Day to silently thank the brave soldiers who sacrificed their lives for this country.

However, this time year I started to wonder just how many soldiers have died defending our freedoms.

So I looked it up. It took a bit of research but the answer is…

1,311,732

That’s one million, three hundred eleven thousand, seven hundred thirty two Americans who died in battle.

To put it in perspective, the new Dallas Cowboys football stadium seats about 100,000 people.

The number of American soldiers who died in battle would fill over 13 football stadiums.

Which got me thinking: What is so important that over a million people would sacrifice their lives?

The civil war was about slavery (among other things.) World War 1 was about defeating communism… World War 2 was about defeating the Nazis. And currently our soldiers are fighting the war on terrorism.

But those are just surface explanations. I believe the REAL REASON so many American’s were and are STILL willing to fight and die in battle can be summed up with one word:

Freedom

Over a million people DIED so that we could enjoy freedom.

So to honor our fallen soldiers, I want to hear from you.

Please leave me a comment explaining what FREEDOM means to you.

– Russ

Is the recession finally over?

Good news, right?

Does this mean the real estate recession is over and prices will finally start to rise again?

I don’t think so.

On Wall Street, we had a saying to describe this phenomenon:

“Dead cat bounce.”

When a stock falls quickly from a high price to a low price… right before it hits rock bottom, it sometimes “bounces” up a few dollars… then it comes crashing down again.
Just like if you were to throw a dead cat off a roof, when it hit the ground it would bounce up…

Hence the phrase, “even a dead cat bounces.”

We’re seeing something similar in the real estate market right now. Prices tumbled so far down for so long and last month they finally perked up a bit.

The main reason home sales spiked last month was because April was the final month to take advantage of the home buying tax credit.

It’s human nature to wait until the last minute. And that’s exactly what most buyers did — waiting until the final month of the tax credit.

But now, the tax credit is off the table. And I think it’s unlikely that home sales will continue to rise.

In fact, with the tax credit gone, mortgage applications have fallen to their lowest levels in 13 years. Which means fewer people are beginning the process of applying for mortgages in the hopes of buying a home.

So What Does This All Mean?

Here’s my take on it: The government tried to jump start the next real estate boom by offering the tax credit. And it worked for a few months, but it doesn’t look like it fixed the problem.

Real estate values are going to continue to stay in the basement for a while longer. Partly because banks have made it darn near impossible for the average Joe to get a mortgage.

This sounds like bad news… but it’s actually GOOD NEWS for note-finders like you and me. Because even more home sellers will turn to seller-financing to get their properties sold.

This creates a note and this creates an opportunity for us note-finders.

There are already $169 BILLION dollars of notes on the market today — and I think this number will continue to rise.

What do you think?

Is the Real Estate Recession over? Or are we stuck in this slump a while longer? And what are you going to do to make money with this information?

Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

– Russ