One of my favorite time-wasting ‘relax’ websites is a video aggregator blog called Devour. I take no responsibility for the ensuing addiction if you click that link.

Today they posted one of three short films I had to share with you. They’ve done a Man’s version of the popular book Eat, Pray, Love. My wife and I have been fortunate to travel quite a bit in our lives, living in four different countries since we met, visiting many more and doing some amazing things. Some of my favorites include taking ballroom dance classes in a small Irish community college, watching the World Pipe Band Championships in Scotland, eating at every McDonald’s in northern France and attending Mass in Italian in St. Peters’ Basilica.

Travel is important to us both, as is trying new things and new food. Learning (and reading) is a passion we both share, and these shorts expmplify what we’ve done, how we live now with our son and what life holds for us in the future.

Watch, be inspired and go do something new.

EAT from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

LEARN from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

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I’ve heard from two people today who own, or have ordered an iPad. There’s an Edmonton iPad user group starting up.

It’s pretty gnarly looking, and if you’re talking with people or want to share information or presentations, it’s brilliant. If you’re tech savy and in sales you should buy an iPad yesterday.

Jared Chamberlain had some good (brief) comments on his.

Me, I’m going to wait until the second gen. The only presenting I’d do with it would be for JV partners, and they come to me and my 15″ MacBook Pro works just fine for me.

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There’s been some great material at the last few REIN meetings about mortgages, particularly timely given the Bank of Canada’s decision to raise prime.

Don Campbell was on BNN, CBC, Alberta Primetime and a couple others talking about the best way to approach the coming rate hikes. Watch the video or scroll under to get the quick skinny.

The best option is to stay variable and make optional payments to bring your payment level up to the same level as the fixed rate payments. It’ll save you tens of thousands of dollars.

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I love good presentations and things to do with the internet. JESS3 has done a 2010 version of their State of the Internet project. Enjoy!

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from JESS3 on Vimeo.

(Hat tip to etre.)

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I wanted to post this sooner, but NBC is stupid and removed the original video which managed several million views in just a few days. It’s really worth going to YouTube and watching it in HD.

Enjoy your weekend, and feel proud to be Canadian. I’m planning on writing offers on some properties this coming week, and I’ll be at REIN’s ACRE weekend in Edmonton on March 12-14th. If you see me come say hi.

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Brent reminded me of this video, and it seemed apt for a sunny +30 day in Kelowna. I hope you’re out there enjoying the day!

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Sorry for the lack of posting this past week. I’ve been lost in the middle of moving out of my old place, into Megan’s place, cleaning that place up to show, and moving back to Edmonton for three weeks. Did I also mention that work has been busy but completely awesome? I’m also finally getting on the other side of this cold.

Two days late, here is your Song of the Week. It’s not really a song, but more a video parody. (If you’re on Twitter you should check out this version of the parody.)

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Here’s a video of an interview Don had with the folks at BNN (the Business News Network). She starts off with one of Don’s old quotes, and asks if he still thinks it’s true today.

Even in today’s unsustainable economy, an investment in real estate is still a solid investment, backed by solid assets.

Here’s some bullet points I took from the video:

• Look long term. The next 18 months are going to be a roller-coaster. We’re looking for yield, and return on investment (ROI).
• The Three F’s: food, fuel and fertilizer.
• National stats don’t mean anything.
• Remember; people go to school during a recession. Towns with 2 or more  post secondary institutions are a good possibility. Pay attention to education. Avoid forestry driven towns.

The interviewer is a smart lady, and pretty sharp. As she says at the end of the interview:

It’s common sense, look where there’s robust economic activity.

The other guy says “he glosses over the costs of maintaining rental properties” and she stomps on him. Apparently she’s reading Real Estate Investing in Canada (and knows the truth). Good short video. Don’s good at rapid-fire interviews like that.

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The current market is full of amazing deals, and the US market is full of even more interesting buying strategies that the Canadian market. Getting an offer that’s anything more complicated than 10% below asking accepted is complicated. Now I’m just going to talk the Canadian real estate market for a second, because that’s the only place I buy, and I don’t mess with short sales, forclosures or pre-forclosures.

Some great ways to buy creatively.

• Vendor Take Back Mortgages (I’ve heard of huge VTB’s, zero interest with a 3-5 year balloon payment)
• Lease-options (aka the Rent to Own)
• Discounts
• Existing tenant rent-to-own
• Buying in bulk (the speculator who bought 7 units in the same pre-build)
• And the good old fashioned hard work finding a motivated vendor.

But I stumbled across this interesting video from Jason Hanson’s BiggerPockets blog.

Four tips we can learn from Jason:

1. Let the other person talk. A lot. Keep what you say to an absolute minimum, and don’t be afraid of the silence. When there’s silence, the first one to talk is the loser. Don’t be afraid to break it off, hang up the phone and move on. There’s a lot of other listings, and breaking it of is often a good strategy with motivated vendors.
2. The Seller named a price first. They who quoth thine desired price first shall loseth thy negotiation. She asked $550,000, he came back around $300,000, which set him up to pitch the lease option, which is what Jason wanted.
3. Jason offered a written proposal of his offer. If you’re thinking lease-options or vendor take-back mortgages, you should know how to explain them but you should have it in writing. They’re never easy to explain and there can be a lot of variables.
4. End by giving them something. All Jason did was give them another way to contact him, although a more personal one. By moving from the regular office contact information to his personal cell phone number, you make the seller feel more important. He also used the term ‘Ma’am’ towards the end: sucking up a little never hurt!

Now go watch the video, all 7 minutes of it!

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