Archive for the ‘Just for Fun’ Category

Live Event Photos, Networking Wall, and More

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

Thank you to all who attended our Live Event on Saturday! Putting on these events helps us to get closer to our members and hopefully open up a valuable networking channel for local investors. Our goal is also to educate our members about the latest trends, and we feel we accomplished that by providing different training sessions on lending, rehabbing, landlording, and creative ways for making investing work for you when you don’t have a lot of funds available.

As usual, it was a great crowd — I think we can say once and for all that MyHouseDeals.com are energetic, interested, and smart. You guys had great questions for our speakers and also proved that there’s plenty of deal-making going on in Houston. Way to go!

If you weren’t able to attend the event, we hope that you’ll join us for the next one. Check out some of the best moments by clicking the photo below. You’ll be taken to our Facebook photo album, where you can view the pictures and tag anyone you recognize from Saturday…

Photo Album for Aug 21 Event

While checking our photos, please remember to “Like” us on Facebook (you can do so by clicking the ‘Like’ button next to our profile picture.) It’s a great way to get updates and news about real estate investing and to network with fellow members. If you want to bypass the pictures and go straight to our page, just follow the link below…

http://www.facebook.com/myhousedeals

And speaking or networking, check out the final shot of the networking wall from the event. There you’ll find deals, calls for partners, offers from vendors, and financing offers! (Click the image to view the magnified, scrollable version.)

networking wall

If you were there, we hope you enjoyed the content provided. Can’t wait until the next event!



Photos from Saturday’s Live Event!

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

What an incredible event it was! Investors packed the house on Saturday for the MyHouseDeals.com Live Event! It was a memorable day of live training and networking.

And we’ve got the pictures to prove it! From the “Private Money” session with Tom Berry to the “Internet Lead Generation” discussion with Jack Mize and Jaremy Moritz, including their in-depth closed doors session for Premium members only in the afternoon, we captured every moment of the live event. Click here or the image below to see the pictures.

Click to see the pictures from the Live Event

We also brought back the “Networking Wall.” We asked our attendees who either needed a service or had a service to offer to write their name, phone number, and a short message on a large piece of paper on the wall.  By the end of the event it was completely covered with offers and services. As before, many people were frantically trying to copy everything down as the event came to a close… so we are making it available to you here in case you didn’t have a chance to. Check it out by clicking the image below or going to http://www.myhousedeals.com/houstonlive/networking-wall.asp

Click to scroll through the Networking Wall

These events get us so excited and motivated, we can’t wait until the next one! We hope you were there and enjoyed it as much as we did!

Until next time, happy (and profitable) investing!



So much going on!

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

Hello again fellow investor!

I hope you’ve  been doing well. I’ve been “crazy busy” lately. Normally, being busy takes me outside of Texas and all over the U.S. But over the last couple of months, I’ve been firmly planted in the Lone Star State. That’s not such a bad thing seeing that we’ve had some great weather. But as the summer draws near and the heat picks up, I’ll almost certainly be looking to high tail it out of here! :-) Anyways, here are some pics of what I’ve been up to. Enjoy!

My parents and brother came to Houston to visit…

Me (left), my dad (center), and my brother (right) take Rocky for a walk. In classic Rocky fashion, he decides to be adventurous and go "off road."

By brother spends most of the time pursuing his favorite hobby ... sleeping. (Yes, he's in there somewhere!)

We swing by the Rodeo and play a couple of games on our way out. My brother wins a prize by making 3 basketball shots in a row. I pick up a baseball and proceed to hit the dummy batter in the head 3 times. (FYI: hitting the batter is not good.)

I’m part of Entrepreneurs Organization (EO), and there was a conference in Dallas that I recently attended…

The first speaker was former president George W. Bush. I can't say much about him here since everyone is so touchy about politics, but I will say that he and I made intense eye contact from just 30 feet away. That's a moment that neither he nor I will ever forget. Haha! (I know, crummy picture, but yes, it's him!)

We take a tour of the Dallas Cowboys' new stadium. I touch Tony Romo's locker. I still haven't washed that hand! Haha. Just kidding!

Me with the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders. I had a piece of spinach in my teeth, but something tells me that's not what your'e looking at! :-)

Drove up to Groesbeck, TX to attend a BBQ cook-off with my dad’s cousins…

In this pic, my second cousin drinks Lone Star beer and cooks beans. As you can probably guess, Groesbeck is a lot different than Houston. I think they lost all respect for this "city slicker" when I drove up in something other than a huge pickup truck and didn't know how to deep fry a catfish or hitch onto a trailer.

My cousin gets first place out of 23 for his brisket. You can see him in the middle celebrating. This simple feat was enough to put him on the front page of the local newspaper.

In EO, there are small groups of 10 people called forums. My forum recently went to “bond” a ranch in Schulenburg, TX…

We took a break from our meetings to shoot skeet (clay pigeons). For fun, we competed to see who could shoot the most skeet in a row. Despite not having shot a gun in 8 years, I somehow managed to win by shooting 14 in a row. I used to be respected in this group. Now I'm feared. I prefer feared! Haha.

Rocky celebrated his 3rd birthday…

For his birthday, Rocky visited PetsMart where he sniffed food, other pets, and himself. In this pic, I let him choose his bag of treats. Big mistake. He selected "all of the above" and then gave me the evil eye when I bought just one bag. We've since patched things up. :-)

Hope you enjoyed the pics. And until next time, happy (and profitable) investing!

Doug Smith
Real Estate Investor
Founder of MyHouseDeals.com



The Million Dollar Real Estate Meeting

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

We are hosting another Live Networking Event with Training and Trade show in Houston! And it happens tonight! Reserve your spot here.

Remember this?

We came up with our own version of it here at MyHouseDeals.com…

Gentlemen, we can recreate it. We have the technology.

We have the capability to make the world’s best real estate investing seminar.

The MyHouseDeals.com Live Event will be that seminar. Better than it was before.

Better.

Stronger.

Faster.

The Million Dollar Meeting!

Our goal is top ourselves with everything that we do, and that’s the approach we are taking for this live event. We not only have a brand new, larger venue for this event to ensure we can accommodate more investors and allow for more networking than ever before… We’ve also assembled a panel with not one, not two, but FOUR Six Million Dollar Men.

We are calling them our Wholesaling All-Stars and they’ll be leading our advanced training session for the evening. Some would say they are bionic judging by the amount of investing activity they are able to generate. We just think they are smart and know exactly what to focus on to reap maximum profits from wholesaling in the current Houston market. And they are going to tell you exactly how you can too.

I’d like to introduce you to them… But before we get to that, go reserve your seat for Thursday night if you haven’t yet. I guarantee they will go fast. Just go here to register:

http://www.myhousedeals.com/HoustonLive

… now back to the panel. Meet the experts:

Brian Collins is a real estate investor and president of B.P.C Investments & Development L.L.C., a company dedicated to providing high-level expertise in real estate investments. Brian began buying and selling real estate in 2007 and specializes in rehabbing houses that have been abandoned or foreclosed. He is also a member of the Bellaire Exchange Club, a group with a mission to improve the quality of life in the Bellaire area.

Chris Funk is an active rehabber and landlord in the Houston area. Chris began wholesaling in 2005 and has used private money, hard money, conventional financing, and seller financing to buy properties. He currently holds a portfolio of 20 rental units.

Jaremy Moritz has been a real estate investor since 2001. During this time, he has bought and sold over 350 houses in the Houston area. Although Jaremy considers himself primarily a wholesaler, he has rehabbed over 100 properties.

Diego Ramirez started his real estate career as a contractor in 2004. He learned the ins and outs of investing from Doug Smith and Homevestors in 2005. Since then, Diego has bought and sold over 200 houses in the Houston area earning him over $700,000 in profits. Diego is an expert in wholesaling properties in low-income communities, and has a diversified portfolio that includes wholesaling, rehabbing, and rental properties.

Together, they will hare their most valuable tips and strategies, including…

  • How they’re getting their leads and deals
  • How they find the investors who buy their wholesale deals
  • What is working best in today’s market

They will also answer your questions directly during a lightning round of Q&A, so get your questions ready!

But before you can meet our panel and get answers to your questions, you must register to reserve your seat. This event happens tonight, Thursday April 22, from 6PM to 9:30PM at a hotel in the Greenway Plaza area. It’s free to attend, but you must register by clicking the link below…

http://www.myhousedeals.com/HoustonLive

See you at the event!

Doug and the team at MyHouseDeals.com



Big Announcement

Thursday, April 1st, 2010
We have a big announcement.
The National Association of Realtors is trying to shut us down! You heard me right. They want us gone, kaput … OUTTA HERE!
The details were revealed in a letter we received from their attorney late yesterday afternoon. Among other complaints, they stated that …
- “Hundreds of properties are being bought and sold on your website without the professional guidance of a trained Realtor.”
(Translation: They want your commissions.)
- “Properties are being presented outside of the time-tested framework of the traditional MLS system.”
(Translation: They want to maintain control by locking you into their MLS system.)
- “Sellers are clearly misinformed because their asking prices are far below what comparable sales show to be fair market value.”
(They cannot fathom that someone would take a discounted price because they want a quick and easy sale.)
Their claims are so outrageous that they’re hard to believe! In fact, before you get all worked up, maybe you shouldn’t believe. Look at today’s date. It’s April 1st.
Happy April Fool’s Day, Susan!
That’s right. The story isn’t true. Sorry if we almost gave you a heart attack! Our site and your deals aren’t going anywhere whether the Realtors like it or not! :-)

The National Association of Realtors is trying to shut us down! You heard me right. They want us gone, kaput … OUTTA HERE!

The details were revealed in a letter we received from their attorney late yesterday afternoon. Among other complaints, they stated that …

- “Hundreds of properties are being bought and sold on your website without the professional guidance of a trained Realtor.”

(Translation: They want your commissions.)

- “Properties are being presented outside of the time-tested framework of the traditional MLS system.”

(Translation: They want to maintain control by locking you into their MLS system.)

- “Sellers are clearly misinformed because their asking prices are far below what comparable sales show to be fair market value.”

(They cannot fathom that someone would take a discounted price because they want a quick and easy sale.)

Their claims are so outrageous that they’re hard to believe! In fact, before you get all worked up, maybe you shouldn’t believe. Look at today’s date. It’s April 1st.

Happy April Fool’s Day!

That’s right. The story isn’t true. Sorry if we almost gave you a heart attack! Our site and your deals aren’t going anywhere whether the Realtors like it or not! :-)



Love is in the air at MyHouseDeals.com

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

Last week was cause for celebration here at MyHouseDeals.com. Our lead website developer Travis tied the knot to his beautiful fiancee Jo. Travis and Jo got married in a beautiful and intimate ceremony in Galveston Bay.

Take a look at this picture of the two lovebirds moments after they officially became Mr. and Mrs. Miller.

Jo and Travis celebrate their big day

Jo and Travis celebrate their big day

It was party time after that, and we sure had a good time.

A toast to their happiness

A toast to their happiness

We wish them all the best, but sure are happy to have Travis back in the office working to continue to improve the website for you.

Please join us in congratulating the happy couple. Leave your comments below…

Until next time,

Happy (and profitable) investing!

The team at MyHouseDeals.com



Pics from Thursday’s Live Event in Houston!

Monday, March 1st, 2010

We had a fantastic turnout for the live event in Houston last night, and I want to thank everyone for attending!

Folks got there early to enjoy the trade show and network with fellow investors. Jim Goodchild spoke on “The near-term and long-term outlook for the Houston and National housing markets” and Brant Phillips revealed his “Lazy Man’s Real Estate Investing System.” Then it was on to more networking with our “speed networking” session!

The feedback was extraordinary! Almost everyone rated the event 5 out of a possible 5 on their evaluation forms. Here’s what some of you had to say:

“These guys are great – very knowledgeable.” — Jaymie

“Doug – You da best” — Dean

“Do it again! It’s motivating to see actual doers in my market” — Antonio

“I had a chance to talk to people who could help in many ways.” — Richard

“Speed Networking was great!” — Ricardo

“So much useful information that I can utilize in my investing!” — Michael

“Educational, informative, and entertaining.” — Terry

We took some pics, and I’m sharing them below. Enjoy! … Can you spot yourself in the crowd?

Click to see pictures from the event

Click to see pictures from the event

Again, thanks to everyone who attended, and thanks for all the love. I had just as much fun as you did. Many of you asked me when the next one will be. We’re already planning to have another event like this soon, so stay tuned for the announcement. As long as you guys keep coming, we’ll keep having them!

Until next time, happy (and profitable) investing!

Doug Smith and the team at MyHouseDeals.com