The Interview:
Linda:
Congratulations Lou on being this month's cover
story in Mentor's Magazine!
Lou: Thank
you Linda...I consider this to be quite an
honor. Especially because of the process I went
through to be picked!
Linda:
It is well known that your students have made
large sums of money investing in Real
Estate...What I'd like to know is how did YOU
get started?
Lou: Well,
it's an interesting story. I was raised by my
Mom and in those days we lived in a very basic
"no frills" type of apartment. Money was
definitely an issue because we had very little.
I realized early on if I was going to live a
better life, then the old axiom of: "if it is to
be...then it is up to me" was a saying I had
better learn to follow. I was intrigued by a
married couple who were friends of ours. They
lived in a duplex, then later bought it. They
lived in one side and rented out the other. Over
the years they bought one, then another, then
another. They moved into a big house, bought a
luxury car and it proved to me there was a good
plan in what they did.
Linda:
So you saw the power of Real Estate at a young
age. What did you do?
Lou: I
found a Realtor and went about finding a house.
I was only 19 years old at the time. Mind you I
had never lived in a house before, but I still
wanted to own one. I was working for the
American Red Cross and made very little so it
would have been impossible for me to qualify for
a loan. I looked for a property where I could
take over the existing loan and make their
payments. As luck would have it, I found a great
brick house, two bedrooms, two baths and invited
my mother to become my first tenant.
Linda:
What an opportunist you are!!! What happened
with that property?
Lou: I
started with a new employer and they transferred
me to Atlanta. I decided to sell and made a 37%
gain in just 1 1/2 years of ownership. When
moving to Atlanta, I found a Realtor who
understood what I wanted and found another
property -- again taking over the existing loan
and buying at a discount.
Linda:
Lou, you're also well known in the area of deal
structuring. Do you buy many deals today in this
traditional way?
Lou: No, I
do still buy through Realtors, but most of my
deals today are found by generating my own leads
and buying directly from the seller. We have a
process to find out about houses that aren't
even on the market. I've found it's better not
to have competition. You do better deals that
way.
Linda:
Is this what made you decide to do real estate
deals full time?
Lou: I love
real estate, and it has made me and my family
very comfortable! I found that if you took just
a little time to learn what to do...then the
rest was easy. It is just a matter of finding
the courage to "Do it!" Real Estate Investment
has provided for me a beautiful home, nice cars,
incredible vacations and a lifestyle that most
people would love to have. In my 29 years of
investing, I've learned a thing or two about
making huge piles of money. No doubt about it:
Real estate is the ideal investment for massive
passive cash!
 Linda:
Alrighty then...I want to
know how to do what you do. I'm going to pick
your brain for secrets. Do you buy using any
particular strategy?
Lou: Oh
yes! The key ingredient is caring about the
seller. When you do that...everything falls into
place. I really like to structure the deal by
solving the seller's problems while getting them
to carry back owner financ-ing and taking over
their existing financing. That's part of my
process. If there is ex-isting financing...I
want to use it. Other equity is to be paid over
time or at the end. Cash is King and we use it
sparingly. If I use cash, I want to get at least
$2.00 in equity for each dollar of cash. We have
a formula that shows the seller why this offer
makes sense. It has been widely used by us and
our students and they are fascinated by the
results. It really works in all parts of the
country.
Linda:
It sounds like you have an incredible system.
Tell us more.
Lou: Yes, I
do have a good system. In order for you to make
the most money possible, you need a proven
strategy. I've created a simple, easy to follow
process and it's fool proof. It's called the
Street Smart Wealth System.
Linda:
Okay...then start spilling the beans. What are
some of the ideas behind the "Street Smart
Wealth System"?
Lou: The
system starts at the very beginning. Find the
best deals and negotiate them in order to
provide the best short term and long term
benefits. After negotiation and acquisition, you
must get the most long-term profit the right
way. The system walks you through the process of
finding occupants who take care of your
property, who get up in the morning and go to
work so you don't have to. For that, you need a
plan. We follow a step-by-step process that
allows us to:
- Uncover deals no one else
knows about
- Finance those deals without
having to go to the bank
- Purchase them privately so
you don't reveal your real estate holdings to
the world
- Correctly renovate or repair
the property without the typical hassles,
contractor problems and expenses others
experience
- Find the right tenants to
"hire" for your property
- Appear as a professional
property manager, not the owner
- Super charge your cash flow
to generate "massive passive income" to allow
you to get free of the shackles of your current
job
- Raise money at low interest,
many times with zero payments interest accruing
- Create 'profit centers' in
buying, borrowing, renovating, managing and
selling
- Protect it all as you buy and
hold it
Linda:
Do you feel this is a particular skill set?
Lou: Most
certainly. This is a learned skill and must be
done with care. After all, when you are
negotiating a deal, you can make thousands in a
short time and you are structuring the deal to
solve the sellers problems. This is a skill that
will pay you back more than you can imagine! We
simply do this business the non-traditional way.
The refinements we've created give us more money
quicker and allow us to hold property easily for
maximum profit.
Linda:
Lou, do you teach others how to do this?
Lou: Yes, I
have a four day boot camp -- which is like a
college class in just four days, that literally
allows my students to learn what I know about
making the most from each deal and how it is
structured.
Linda:
What is that class called?
Lou: I call
it "Millionaire Deal Maker"...because that's
what it is. I teach them how to become
millionaires by structuring deals the most
profitable way. It's really powerful and not
duplicated anywhere in the industry due to my
unique ways of teaching it. I've found it's best
to have four different offers for each deal. My
system lays that out so it's easily duplicable
for anyone. Most investors just walk away when
the seller doesn't accept their offer. We get a
higher percentage accepted.
Linda:
One of the things you teach in your bootcamps
has to do with profit centers. What are those?
Lou:
Dependable monthly income sets you free. Having
a series of built-in Profit Centers increases
your cash flow and accelerates your wealth. The
system includes many, but here's a few: pet
fees, pet rent, extra person fees, additional
rent, discounted rent and more. Another
"Income Accelerator" involves offering potential
renters the option to buy the property. Why
would I do this? It's another profit
center/problem solver. We sell them the chance
to buy. That's a very powerful attraction to
someone who wants to get ahead. And we offer
them a great deal too -- including partial rent
credits toward the purchase, credit of their
initial (non-refundable) option consideration
and even backup owner financing. My experience
is that we end up with a better tenant who
typically improves our property. Imagine that!
Many do not exercise the option to buy for
various personal reasons, which is probably why
they are tenants. In that case you end up
getting a better property back and starting
over. Oh well!
 Linda:
Do you have other profit centers?
Lou:
Yes...the option wealth and cash flow
accelerator gives you the benefit of
non-refundable option fees, a better property
and better tenants. If they do buy, you get the
price you want, they pay the closing costs, no
realtors fees, and you get rent right up to the
date of closing and more! Can it get any better
than that? Yes! The strategy goes on to have you
offer to carry back the home financing. Why kill
the Goose that lays the Golden Egg -- convert
rental income to interest income by providing
the financing to them. We offer to carry under a
concept called "Agreement for Deed." It works
sort of like vehicle financing, where the lender
keeps the title until you pay them off. Here you
keep the Deed (control) until your buyer pays
you off. With this strategy, you get extra
income because they must pay at least 10% down
to get the owner financing in our "American
Dream Home-ownership Program." You receive
interest income and you just might end up
getting the house back...just like a bank. (If
you can't beat 'em.... join 'em). We don't hope
they have problems...but we are in control if
they do.
Linda:
I hear that you also teach about tax benefits
and retirement accelerators. Let's hear a little
about that.
Lou: Under
the rental/option scenario we get to accomplish
another goal which is tax benefits. This comes
through the excess depreciation the government
gives us for being landlords. Are you starting
to see the Retirement Accelerators that come
from receiving the Option fees and Down
Payments? There is so much more profit available
to us. Because you have a plan and a system,
you'll be able to earn all these profit centers
from each house. It just doesn't take many to
get really wealthy. The process includes
buying right, keeping as many as you can by
structuring the deal right, managing right by
including the profit centers and avoiding taxes.
You do this by holding right using Land and
Personal Property Trusts to avoid lawsuits and
probate, combined creates a winning formula of
profit centers and safety that is unbeatable
when applied right. In order to accomplish this,
you need the right paperwork and training
designed to produce all these benefits.
Linda:
Right...Okay Lou, why are you giving up all your
secrets?
Lou: That's
easy. I like to share what I've learned. I get a
kick out of teaching others how to bypass my
painful mistakes, and believe me when I say I've
made plenty of them! I also share that you are
far better off when you have many ways to find
deals, not in competition with others. I have
identified over 50 that are in my system.
Linda:
That's mainly what you are known for, isn't it?
Lou: Yes,
actually I'm best known for a couple of things,
and that is why I have developed a system to do
this business. So many people were coming to me
for direction that I decided to put everything
down on paper and start teaching. I really wish
I had a system like this that I could follow
when I got started, but it didn't exist. As a
result it cost me tens of thousands of dollars
in learning through mistakes. This system is
important to follow to be sure mistakes that
I've learned the hard way are not repeated.
Because of this I what is widely known as the
"Whole Enchilada" of real estate investing. It's
a step by step process to find deals others
don't know about and negotiate them to yield the
highest profits. It will also teach how to
uncover all the hidden profits, and to sell them
quickly for both short term and long term
income.
Linda:
Wow, it sounds like a system folks really need
to do this business with the most efficiency.
What else are you known for?
Lou: There
is one that started out bad but ultimately
turned around to be a good thing. Early on I got
sued. It was then that I learned that if I
didn't pause and discover how to protect my
assets... I could lose everything at the blink
of an eye. It's happening all around us
everyday. It was then I started learning about
the incredible power and safety of Trusts. I
created a system to implement the use of Trusts
every time we bought a property. Many regard my
system as the most cutting edge of any out there
and it's simple to use. The other great thing
about it is, it doesn't require the involvement
of a lawyer.
Linda:
I can see how that is important. Is asset
protection the only thing it does?
Lou: Not by
a long shot. The use of trusts helps you do what
I call "estate planning as you go". Every time
you buy property you create a separate trust. By
having these in place you avoid the cost,
confusion and delay of probate as well. Property
can pass instantly at your or your parents'
death and totally bypass the costly and
confusing probate process.
Linda:
And your system allows your students to do it
themselves?
Lou: Yes --
It's broken down into a simple six step
checklist and is complete with all the
documents, and they're on disk as well.
Linda:
Is that all they need to do it?
Lou: Yes,
however I have a Boot Camp called "Maximum Asset
Shield" where I can reveal the more than 30
benefits of trusts and how to best use them.
It's an in depth extension to my home study
system.
Linda:
Your training is starting to sound very
comprehensive. What else do you offer?
Lou: We
learned that while we provide a ton of cutting
edge information in our systems, folks still
need the one on one contact and focus provided
in the live setting. We have broken down the
business into four segments and we train them on
exactly how to do the business, taught by
someone who has been doing it since 1976. These
are...
•
Millionaire Jump Start
-- where we train our students on building their
own business plan -- we do it right in class,
teach them about contracts, trusts and the
details of how to get quick cash after leaving
the training.
•
Millionaire Deal Maker
--where we teach even the shyest people to go
and create killer deals that their competition
has no clue about. We spend three days doing
nothing but creating profits through transaction
engineering and we add a 4th bonus day of
additional strategies to do other types of
deals.
•
Massive Passive Income
-- where we train exactly how to create a 24/7
money machine. When you are tired of acquiring
property...the work you did years before keeps
on making huge profits year after year because
of the way we sell rentals to our tenants. This
is where an area I am well known for comes in.
We create extra profits in all our keeper
properties. I call these "Profit Centers". They
are critical to long term wealth. You see, I
know the real path to wealth is in holding
property, not buying and selling. So we have
tweaked our system the last 29 years into an
unbeatable process that allows you to have
control over your assets. Not like the stock
market where you have no control. And you have
tax advantages unmatched by any other
investment. This includes income from interest
as well as rental income. Finally...and probably
most important.
 •
Maximum
Asset Shield
-- here we take everyone through the process of
creating their own trusts -- Land Trusts,
Personal Property Trusts and Living Trusts. We
also lay out how each of the entities plays a
role so we cover Corporations, LLC's, Family
Limited Partnerships and more. Everyone not only
leaves with a plan but with much of the plan
already done.
Linda:
Wow, that seems to be exactly what I've heard
people really want when they do this business.
You're right, they do need a system of training
that takes them soup to nuts through the
process. This does really seem to round out your
system.
Lou: Yes,
It does. The students love it and tell us
repeatedly they think it is the best training
going. Our mission is our students success, so
we simply are not happy unless they are cashing
checks and building wealth. Obviously the more
successful our students are, the more successful
we are. We also offer coaching. We learned this
is a lonely business and it is easy to get off
track. Our coaches follow our system and insure
the students will be a success. That really is
the final component to quick , safe money.
Linda:
Lou, It seems to me that you are saying that
anyone from any walk of life with no credit, no
money and no experience can make money at this
business. Is that really true?
Lou: Linda,
it really is. Isn't that what happened for me? I
started at ground zero -- that means nothing. It
took me years on my own to make it. My students
now follow my system, bypass my mistakes and
delays and get to the money MUCH quicker than I
did. It reminds me of two students who
followed one of my concepts and had the seller
pay them a check for $27,000 to buy their
property. In fact I have received three
unsolicited testimonials this month from
students who have followed this one simple
strategy and received checks from sellers.
Another example was newlyweds Matt and Kim
Vestrand who received a check for $2,700 from a
seller and they have sold it the way I teach for
another check from the buyer for $10,000, and
will receive yet another check when the buyers
(who are tenant/buyers now) cash them out. That
one will be at least $30,000!
Linda:
Whew!!! Lou, what are some other student success
stories?
Lou:
Frankly, there are so many it's hard to pick.
Romey and Christine started with me and followed
my buy and hold plan. They received checks on a
refinance of two properties and still own them.
In their first 14 months they have cashed
$310,000 in checks, still own the properties,
receive $12,000 per year in cash flow and have
equity of over $60,000. Most folks believe the
quick cash comes from buying and selling, but
you need to know which ones to buy and sell and
which ones to hold for maximum wealth.
Linda:
But don't we sometimes need cash to buy?
Lou: Yes.
Some of the best deals are getting the bank to
take less than they are owed on properties that
are over-financed. These are called Short Sales.
I've perfected a system to get them to cooperate
and give us thousands of dollars in discounts.
Those require cash.
Linda:
How do you get that money?
Lou: I have
a system whereby we borrow from individuals --
either personal money or IRA funds. We use those
funds to make our deals. I know what you are
going to ask next -- how much does that cost?
Well...how about zero points, 6% interest
accruing, no payments until sold? Sound too good
to be true? It's not! I have a process to borrow
for maximum profits. I've been in this business
for 29 years and I've never gone to the bank for
financing on single family or small multi-family
properties. No need to. This system of how I
raise money is how I have done that.
Linda:
Does your system work in all parts of the
country?
Lou: Yes,
we have students -- successful ones --in all 50
states and ten foreign countries as well. They
write and call to tell us of their great
conquests. Just the other day I received a
letter from Dusty Keefe in South Carolina. We've
found it is critical to not only have forms but
to have the right words on the paper. I taught
him when he was only 22 years old to record an
"Affidavit and Memorandum of Purchase and Sale"
form at the Court House. He did and when his
seller went to sell to the most powerful broker
in town, their closing was stopped...all because
he had followed the system. The seller was
forced to abide by the contract from my "Street
Smart" system and Dusty closed on the purchase
at $130,000. He has a buyer now at $230,000.
That one idea -- followed the way I teach will
net him $100,000 profit on that one deal. We've
learned the devil is in the detail and so is the
profit! Ignoring the details will cost you. It's
critical that you dot the I's and cross the T's,
but you don't know what you don't know. So we
follow a system that makes sure not to leave
those things out. You don't even have to know
the pitfalls or think about them because they
are built into the system. Dusty, a college
student, came to all my training sessions and
now he makes real money while his friends are
just starting a career and will not reach
maximum earning capacity until they are in their
50's.
Linda:
Lou, you've convinced me I could actually do
this myself. Average people can make way above
average money, create retirement income and have
plenty of free time to enjoy it! Now I
understand why so many people can become wealthy
investing in real estate. With a system I can
copy what you do, bypass a big learning curve
and avoid the pitfalls. How can we find out more
about your systems?
Lou: First,
anyone can check us out at www.LouisBrown.com.
But let me do something special. I'm going to
offer your readers something they really need.
Call 1-800-578-8580. Tell us you saw the Mentors
Magazine article and I'll ship you a free gift
-- a 2-hour limited edition CD set called "How
to Create Your 24/7 Money Machine." I want to
support folks just like me who want to get
ahead. This will give them a better
understanding. Education is the key to huge
wealth. I want everyone to learn from my
mistakes. |
