It's been an eventful week to say the least, geez. I'm not one to complain and I usually keep my problems to myself, mostly. In this case I wanted to share why rental properties and the horror stories you have heard can and do happen. It sucks when it does, but you need to keep your chin  up and keep going. Always look at the big picture (you own a property that you can keep forever), you have a cash machine that makes $1000s per month regardless of where you are. Cash flow baby $$$$$$$$$.

Now The Negative

Back in July, one set of my tenants moved out so I needed to get it rented before I left for Vegas for 6 weeks. The tenants gave me little notice and I should have kept their damage deposit for that little stunt but I didn't (last time I do that…). I showed the place numerous times and no one wanted to rent it, for whatever reason. I ended up getting renters, two 20something year old males. They weren't my first choice, they were my only choice, since I had to go to Vegas in a few days and it was nearing the end of the month. I ended up giving the place to them…

Everything seems fine for all of August, and the tenant Adam calls me on my cell phone in Vegas and asks me to tell him what day I am coming back so he can have rental money in his account when I deposit the September rental check. I got back to Vancouver roughly September 4 then I called Adam my tenant, and ask him if I can deposit the rental check now. Really, the rental check is meant to be deposited on the first of every month, if it is not deposited on the first of every month then legally you are allowed to send your tenant documentation stating that they are late with the rent and they have five days to pay it or they have to move out.

I let him get away with not paying me the rent when I got back, he said on the phone that if I could give him a couple of days that he would have it all together. I agreed being the nice guy that I am then I called him back a few days later asking if he had the rent money and he said he was just waiting for a check to come in from his former employer and the checks were random and there is no set time when he would be getting the check, now I started to worry. I told him that I would give him four more days to get me a check and if he didn't have the money ready I would be coming to the condo to talk to him in person and getting the money in person. I told him I would be coming down to the condo to visit him that evening (September 14) at 7 PM. He then texted me back saying that if I could come at 9 PM, I didn't respond. Now I realized that Adam is taking me for a ride.

I went down to the condo just as I stated at 7 PM on the dot. Surprisingly Adam open the door, and the other tenants was walking out of the condo with a huge dog. They never told me they had a dog. This was not in the agreement, another problem to deal with. Anyways the condo reeks of booze and there is long dog hair all over the new maple laminate floors. Now I am super pissed, but I didn't say anything.

I listened to Adam's BS story, about why he didn't have the money. Apparently, he lost his job and now he was scrambling to find friends or family to lend him cash. He says he applied for a credit card which he was denied (surprise) and he was going to use the credit card to pay the rent. At that point I had had enough of the lies and excuses. I need to pay my mortgage I told him and this can't go on any longer it's September 14 and you haven't paid your rent this month. I told him to give me the keys and the remote controls for the condo. I then told him they had to leave now, "you cannot stay here the night" and they could call my cell phone tomorrow morning I would meet them back at the condo, and they can start moving out all their crap.

Back to the state of the condo. The condo was only used by them for one month and a half. The condo went from being a really nice place, to smelling like a nightclub after midnight. There was black dog here everywhere. I have no clue what kind of dog they had but that fucking dog was shedding dog hair like a madman. They told me that they apologize for the situation that happened and they would be cleaning up the mess and they would prove to me that they were responsible, lol. Yeah right….

Well the next three days, me and my wife had to clean up 99% of their mess, touch of the walls, vacuum all the dot hair, throw out three black large garbage bags full of beer cans and beer bottles. It was a nightmare that consumed the bulk of four days last week.

  I  told them that they had to get all of their furnishings out of the building. This never happened, me and my wife had to clean up all their mess and they left some personal belongings in the parkade that the strata council charged me with a $200 fine to get rid of.

These scumbags have little respect for other people and other people's property. The lesson I learned was, two males should never be chosen as tenants. Men are generally dirtier than women and if you have 2 together it's even worse. Do not rent to people in their early 20s unless they seem responsible. References can be faked (their friends can pretend to be their landlord reference).

  In this province, renters have too many rights. I wasn't about to let these scumbags stay in my condo for three months free, while I took them to the arbitration board. Sometimes you need to put the law in your own hands because many laws are in favor of the people creating all the problems.

Now I can say my condo is completely cleaned I touched up with paint in the places that needed touching up and I should be securing new renters this evening. They're meeting me with the damage deposit as well as 12 months post dated checks I am renting it to two women and one of their boyfriends. Women are always better to have as renters than men, because they are cleaner usually and from my experience they seem more responsible.

Has this scared me in any way? Hell no! When you rent properties to people there is always going to be something, however if you look at the big picture rent will pay your mortgage and in the long run will give you thousands of dollars per month for ever. You can then give this rental property to your children and they can get thousands of dollars per month forever. This can go on forever and ever. How can you beat that?

So, keep on smiling and keep buying rental properties they will make you rich and you'll be able to have a great life because of them. Don't look at the small things, look at the big picture. No pain, no gain. If you want to have a life where you never have to worry about anything, then keep your job and work until you're 65 like an idiot. Life isn't meant to be full of work. Work hard now, and retire early later.

On another note I have been busy putting offers on over 30 condos down in Las Vegas. I don't plan on buying 30 condos, but I am putting offers and low balling on many of the condos to see which condos I will choose. I should be purchasing another two or even maybe three condos within the next week. This will keep me on my goal of purchasing two or three condos before the end of September. I wrote down that goal when I was in Vegas, and now it will happen.

Anyways, that's all for now. I've been buying up real estate, and cleaning up real estate and now I can rest and go back to Internet marketing.

This post has been a long time coming. I think I was just scared to write down how I felt about all this. First off let me say this, the people who talk the most do the least. The more they talk the less they do do. Action speaks louder than words. I consider myself a straight forward person, no bull shit just do what I say and that’s it. That being said I feel almost embarrassed not reaching financial goals I outlined in the last few months. When I said I wanted x amount of dollars it should have happened. Everyone has their ups and downs like it or not it is part of life. I’m not superman and negativity can get the better part of me, this is where MotionGroove.com always kicks in.

I have put up many posts regarding financial successes and goals that I have achieved and there have been big ones, from my point of view anyways. Considering I came from being a carpenter/ cabinet maker, I can hopefully give myself a pat on the back for what I have done with myself in the last 10 years of my life.

Things change and when that happens you need to go with the flow. I for one am surprisingly not happy when change comes, especially when it affects me in a negative fashion. I’m almost 40 now and I seem to get stuck in my ways. I need to push myself in order to move forward. My industry is ever changing, always evolving and I need to evolve with it. If I wanted to remain at a place with no change I should have stayed working as a cabinet maker making $17.27 per hour, I would be better off. Yeah right.

Focus is the key to success, you need to know what you want and you do not stop until you get what you want, NO MATTER WHAT! What the fuck is the point of wanting something if you don’t even get or achieve it? Wasted energy my friends. The question really is what do I want? I have had so many changes hit me this years it’s pretty amazing. Where do I go from here?

Personally for me, I’m a fighter. I hate giving up, I have too much pride to quit. It could be a reason I hate change. I am scared of the unknown, I am scared of failure. I am in it to win it, losing at anything gets me super pissed, sometimes depressed. These are things I have learned about myself. It’s time to get back on track.

Where to go from here:

1. I have to set my alarm clock for 5:00 am wake up, every day people. This will give me ample time to finish what I need to get done.
2. A daily goal list of things I want and need to get done.
3. I need to continue pushing myself forward, try new things test various  projects out.
4. Don’t be so hard on myself. I know when I have tried as hard as I could. I did everything I could and other shit gets in the way let it go, it’s not my fault.
5. If I was making $3,000 profit per day, maybe today is different. You can only do as much as you can. Things change, find new ways to make that revenue. Think outside of your box, more money is waiting for you around the corner.
6. Real estate time – Prices are slowing in Vancouver and I am planning on buying possibly 2 more condos this year in Vancouver.

This post seem to go all over but I needed to get my thoughts on the screen, so I can go from here. It’s my own way of clearing my head so I can make room in my mind for what is coming next. I may sound like things are falling off of a cliff but in reality anyone would dream to be in the position I am. I am hard on myself and this post proves it once again. Some people are happy with what they have but I want more, why? I have no clue but I am in a competition with myself to be the best that I can be. It’s a never ending competition and the only winner in this competition is me. Happiness and sadness are a fine line for me anyways. I need to push myself to be who I truly am.  If I’m not busting my ass I don’t feel good, I need to sweat to smile. This is how I live my life, 100% or nothing. Onward and upward.

This time around public, I need to make them happen privately. Focus, focus, focus, the law of attraction works. I am living proof, even though I talk myself out of  it sometimes, stupid me. Negativity will kill your inner self, my inner self. Here it to reaching my goals…

I figured I better post these photos before  they become non relevant, since I am in Vancouver now. Well it was fun while it lasted. We stayed in Vegas for almost 6 sun filled weeks, it was awesome! We walked daily for about an hour, felt great with the sun in our faces, wearing shorts and t-shirts.  Buying that condo in Vegas was one of the best decisions I have ever made, it feels so good to be able to getaway anytime we want.

I’m back in Vancouver looking at the rain outside and wondering why the f*ck we even came back to the “most beautiful city on earth” (Vancouver?!). In any case now I can focus on the work tasks as hand with no distractions of nice weather, LOL. Driving wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, 20 hours to get there, with a night in Boise, Idaho in between Vancouver and Vegas.

Now it’s to get off my lazy ass and make some money!

I don’t like not making my goals and it seems the last time I blogged about getting back to my $1500 profit per day it didn’t happen. Why not?

1. Part of it really has to do with me and my relaxed work ethic. Psychologically I think I am happy with the success I have achieved so I don’t work as hard as I should be or did in the past.
2. I don’t push myself like I used, the end result is lower income.  Another reason is feeling sorry for myself because I’m not making as much (stupid I know…). Money screws with your head, when you making tons of it you want more, when it comes in less amounts you get pissed off, angry etc..  Human beings are strange creatures, always wanting more and more, never being satisfied or happy with what they have already.
3. Lastly the internet is constantly evolving and changing and many opportunities that I made hundreds of thousands of dollars from in the past aren’t there. Competition comes in and pretty soon you aren’t making money. Google chances how the rank websites and your AdSense earning dry up and so on. Surprisingly I still make about $1,100 month from Ad Sense, from informational websites I built in 2003-2006. I haven’t touched them in years since at least least 2006. $1,1000 isn’t a ton of cash but I get check for doing nothing. Back to the changing Internet, I found loopholes in search engine like Google, Yahoo and MSN that allowed to get very cheap targeted traffic to my sites and made a killing for years. Most of those loopholes are now closed unfortunately, however the money I made from these tactics has been invested in real estate safe and sound.

I made at least 2-3 million dollar in revenue  from many, many loopholes that  I found that will be forever closed. I am very grateful for being in the right place at the right time in many situations for many years. I basically milked every idea I had as long as I could, and still milking some now as I write this. Being resourceful has helped to cement my financial freedom for as long as I am alive and my kids (and grand children) will be taken care of long after I am gone 50-60 years from now, for that I am so VERY grateful for! I feel like  I have done my duty as a provider, and it feels great to have achieved it.

Don’t count me out yet though, not even close. I still have some tricks up my sleeve I’m not going to slowdown and retire. I have too much energy to stop!

As for the local affiliate marketing I tried it with a local plumbing company, I made a website for them, I set up phone tracking so my client (plumber) knew that these calls were coming from me. So far from what I know he got 1 customer from it in about 1 month.

1. The problem is this, he doesn’t answer the call every time because he is busy being a plumber, if he calls a few hours later then that potential customer may have gotten another plumber lined up for the job.
2. I am paying for all the online advertising, so I get screwed because he isn’t on the ball!
3. Also some plumbing  jobs are just too small for this plumber to do, for instance changing a leaking faucet isn’t really worth it to him. I get 10% of each job, but it hasn’t worked out too well.
4. Traffic for local marketing campaigns is much lower than a dating site where you can target millions of people. For instance for this plumbing client, I get anywhere from 5-13 clicks a day. This is enough to get a job per day you would think but apparently lots of the phone calls are people asking questions more than booking jobs.
5. He has poor communication skills and takes him forever to call me back (many days usually).

I’m not too bummed out on this because I knew there were be problems that I wouldn’t be able to foresee until I actually had a campaign running. Local affiliate marketing definitely does work, because I track the phone calls the plumber is receiving. He is getting the calls but a factor of a few things really isn’t making this deal work out for me. Currently I lost around $250 roughly on this test, you live and learn. I don’t regret doing this project at all, I learned lots and I can use what I have learned on other clients that will pop up. I will be pausing the phone tracking as well as all my online advertising for this client. I wasted enough of my own time and money to try this out. If the client doesn’t want to put in much  effort then I have no alternative. I don’t like chasing clients for their input or money. There are way too many other people who would love an opportunity to have a chance at expanding their client base and only pay for actual clients. Whatever, you live and learn…

Watch this video below it is very inspirational Will Smith is the man he is a driven man, so awesome!!! He never gives up he would rather “die on a treadmill”. This is how you achieve success, so simple but yet SOO POWERFUL. He understands the universe and a crazy work ethic. AWESOME. This video sums up how I feel…

heading out on the 20 hour drive from Vegas to Vancouver

stopping for gas in some Nevada desert gas station

through the Nevada desert..

cool rock formations in the Nevada desert..

Nevada highway patrol

creepy little town in Nowhereville, Nevada USA

ditto

Once you get to Western Idaho, it all changes and looks like Vancouver…

cool looking winding road…

Almost home!!

I’m actually trying to post a little less. I don’t want to post anymore than every 3rd day. Honestly I feel that my blog is a waste of my time. It is fun to do but I don’t want to spend hours every day working on something that doesn’t offer $$$$. It’s a fun hobby but I have to keep to a certain level, every 3 rd day is more than enough I would think. I just accumulate my photos and stuff for 3 days and post them all at once.

I have been having a tough time focusing on my business, not very motivated at all. Once again, my earnings have dropped lol. See, it’s not that easy to work online, things change super fast on the web. One day you are making $5,000 and the next you are down to $500! It can be an emotional roller coaster ride to say the least.

In reality I can’t complain, I can retire right now if I wanted to but I really don’t. I have been working to get my profit back up, and I am having some success but not to the amount I have been accustomed to. If you had to get into affiliate marketing it’s much tougher now than it was when I first started.

But where there is a will there is a way. I like to feel sorry for myself for a bit then I bounce back. Right now the “feeling sorry for myself” process is almost finished and I starting to work a bit more to get things back up. Affiliate marketing takes a ton out of you. It is not a get rich quick deal, it’s super tough. Honestly sometimes I  don’t even know how I did it at all. Motivation is the key to success, without it failure is probable.

Time to get back to work, personal blogs make very little $$$.

Ok, here is the deal with these lollipops, they cost $25 each! These are basically celebrity endorsed by “stars” such as Holly  Madison, Kendra Wilkinson, Mike The Situation Sorrentino and all the rest of the “stars” with their photos on the Sugar Factory walls (see below). Then dumb teenage girls spend $25.00 to look trendy, douchebagettes!

These are twist on lollipops, you can buy replace tops for $5 each. The bling bling stick is reusable, and it comes in a plastic case, LOL. If I ever buy on of these then you will know I have become a FULL douchebag!

Endorsed by Carmen Electra, Brittney Spears, The Kardashians, Spice Girls, Denise Richards and all the rest of the “stars” that got paid to lick the lollipop…. Consumerism at it’s worst! $25 lollipops, yeah!

Looks like she got pissed at me for taking photos of $25 lollipops lol, OH WELL!

Now you know why Americans are all FAT, deep fried Oreos? Yeah, I’m sure you really need to eat those….

Deep fried twinkies of course, what else would you expect if you can get deep fried Oreo cookies!

Inside Planet HollyWood hotel, pretty cool

This is indoors, even the sky………

On the way to Red Rock Canyon, amazing scenery. It’s like the Grand Canyon (but much smaller) however it’s only l 12 minutes by car from my condo!

Beautiful rock formations…

Cheeeezy smile!

The wild west all over again…

While I’m not a big TV guy, after 9 pm I usually sit down, after we put the kids to bed to watch some TV. Recently I found out about a show on MTV called Jersey Shore.  The “reality show” focuses on a group of Italian Americans who work out, wear Ed Hardy, drive an Escalade (I got one yeah…) and go clubbing, and they all live in a house on the New Jersey water shore. I have no clue why But I did some reading up on the show and it seems lots of Italians back east in New York and Jersey seem pretty pissed about the show.

Here is one thing you need to ask yourself when watching any “reality show”, is it really real? I don’t think most reality shows are just filmed, personally I think many of these shows are staged. I also think they chose the participants (actors) of the show based on how well they will do in the ratings. That being said, don’t you think they will choose the actors who will give them the highest viewership  and ratings?

They call each other “Guidos”, am I offended by that? Lol fuck no. It’s TV people, it’s all bullshit and the show is designed to bring in maximum ratings. Of course the guys on the show look like douche bags because it brings in ratings $$$$$$$$$$$$. If you don’t realize that reality shows are mostly bullshit then your’e as dumb as the “Guidos” on Jersey Shore.

Whoever created the show is brilliant he knows how to push people’s buttons and he is making lots of money because of it. Also don’t you think the “Guidos” on the show put on just a bit on an act to get ratings? Doh, you dumb ass, they get paid to be on the show so I can guarantee you the play the part as cheezy as possible. Wake the f*ck up!

It amazes me that people still don’t understand reality shows are SHOWS! If the camera was on you, I think you would act different, especially if you get a paycheck because of it. And all the people calling them “Guidos”, remember this, the guys on Jersey Shore are laughing all the way to the bank you fucking  idiots. It’s all about money, like most things in this world from the War In Iraq to the Jersey Shore show.

Now if the Italians on Jersey Shore are smart they will buy real estate! If anyone called me a Guido I would just laugh at them…..

I’m not really sure why I felt compelled to talk about this however it’s true. Stop watching TV and go make some money you assholes, DOH.

Enough said.