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Palos Verdes, CA. When I first started buying and selling rental income property, I put an offer in on a building. I had my appointment set at 1:00 PM and I had to wait until 3:00 before the seller would see me. So, I sat in the office for nearly two hours anxious to present my offer. When I finally did get into the seller’s office to present the offer, he looked at it and started laughing. He pulled a stack of offers about 3 inches deep out of his lower left-hand desk drawer. He said, “You’re kidding. Get me another offer”. Right then and there, I should have asked for a counteroffer, but still being new at the game, I went back and rewrote another offer. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the property.
About a year-and-a-half later, the same seller had another property for sale. I presented the offer, but this time I made sure he was on time. When I presented the offer to him, he started laughing and again he reached in his lower left-hand drawer, pulling out a stack of offers and said, “You’re kidding. How can you offer me this; get me another offer.” I said, “May I see them?” After a brief tug-of-war, I was able to look at them. They were for other properties and some of them were two or three years old. He was playing “real estate poker.”

I sat down with him and said, “If you want to sell, we want to buy; I have offers on two other properties.” Actually, we didn’t have any. Nevertheless, I was playing “real estate poker”, too. We negotiated. He got the price he wanted, and I got the terms I wanted. I made a substantial profit on it and I saved money on my taxes. Why is the seller selling? Finding the answer will give you the negotiating edge. For the most part, being in a weak market is enough motivation in itself. However, there are other circumstances beyond depressed market conditions that motivate owners to sell; it could be poor management, seller’s personal tragedies, retirement, tax problems.

• POOR MANAGEMENT: It’s possible that the owner is doing a terrible job managing the property, and there might be more vacancies than normal for the area. Maybe the building is run down and the seller just doesn’t want to put any more money into it. The seller could be an absentee owner without a competent local property management company, or one that simply doesn’t know how to delegate.

• PERSONAL TRAGEDIES: Death, divorce, bankruptcy, or illness could force the sale of a property. These are trauma situations for the seller. We’re not suggesting that you take advantage of people in distress. You should certainly treat them fairly.

In personal tragedies, the seller usually wants cash-which is diametrically opposed to your standard operational procedure. Your investment plan calls for leverage created, in part, by seller financing. However, if the price is right, you can still maintain leverage by structuring the transaction with outside financing. You’ll probably be negotiating with a trustee, and the trustee’s primary goal is to get as much cash as quickly as possible for the beneficiaries. Be prepared to act quickly when working with personal tragedy circumstances.

• RETIREMENT: When some people retire, they want to pack it all in. They don’t want the problems of management. The motivational key is the monthly income check. If you can structure your purchase to give the seller the required monthly check, you will have an excellent chance at the deal. Notice I said required monthly check. Monthly payments can be in any amount. However, you must arrange them to give you the maximum cash flow and tax write-offs.

• TAXES: Taxes are one of the most compelling motivations in real estate transactions. A seller might want to trade his or her building for another piece of real estate to defer taxes. The seller might want your property or might have another property in mind. If you’re able to accommodate the seller in a trade, you might be able to gain advantages in other areas such as price and terms.

The seller might be amenable to selling on an installment basis with little or no money down and carry back accrued paper. This financing package ideally fits into your plans. Whatever the seller’s motivation, be flexible enough to explore all avenues of approach. Try to work and rework the transaction to suit everyone’s needs. Your success depends on finding the right motivation and the degree of intensity. Don’t attempt to negotiate any real estate transactions unless everyone is motivated. Ideally, the more the other party is motivated the better it is for you.

Each trader who tried himself in the forex market is well aware that high yield is impossible without high risk. However, there are exceptions to this rule too. One of the exceptions is the strategy of arbitrage trading, which allows one to earn profit near or even exceeding 100 percent of used capital with minimum risk. Let’s figure out what arbitrage trading is and how you can implement it in the forex market.

Classic arbitrage trading involves making profit from differences in prices using identical financial instruments that are traded on different exchange markets. The main point of arbitrage trading is that when the price of an asset on the first exchange market becomes higher than on the second exchange market, an automatic sale on the first exchange market and an automatic purchase on the second exchange market are made. When the prices become the same again, the positions are closed and trader receives guaranteed profit. It is natural that price difference must exceed the trader’s expenses (spread and charges) at both markets. Such arbitrage transactions are appealing because they provide guaranteed profit and low risks as an aggregate position is always neutral in relation to the market.

Let’s consider how you can implement arbitrage in forex. Many traders have probably noticed that different forex brokers may have slightly distinct quotes at times. One way to implement arbitrage strategy consists in finding two brokers that have the greatest divergence in prices for a certain currency pair and organizing trading between them. In this case, when the prices diverge, you will have to open reverse transactions with both brokers. This would be an implementation of classic two-legged arbitrage.

However, so-called one-legged arbitrage, when a transaction is concluded only with one broker, appears to be more profitable. The fact is that the divergences in prices usually appear because the quotes of one broker begin to lag behind actual prices during specific periods of time. Thus, if you have an outrunning source of quotes, for instance, from another broker with a faster price feed, you will be able to open a position with the lagging broker in the direction of actual prices during the lagging periods to get guaranteed advantage. It is natural that there is no point in opening a hedging transaction with the second broker in this case.

Are you considering moving into a project manager position? While not technically a “career” in the traditional sense (you won’t find project manager listed the same way you’ll find CPAs or airline pilots), it is seeing a growing demand from businesses of all sizes and within all industries. Project managers handle all types of projects, from large IT installations to manufacturing and production test runs. If you’re interested in this type of position, it’s a good idea to know if you’re the right fit. To help you make that determination, here are some of the more important qualities a PM needs to have in order to be successful.
1. A Good Leader
A project manager must be a leader – you don’t need to be a “natural-born” leader, but you need to have learned leadership skills and be comfortable exercising your authority. You’ll be ultimately responsible for your team members (and the success or failure of your project), so being able to lead is a vital consideration.
2. Ability to Listen to Others
During your projects, you’ll have to listen to a variety of different people, and you’ll need to be able to retain the information they give you. From stakeholders to managers and individual team members (not to mention suppliers, and others you’ll have to interact with), having good listening skills is vital.
3. Communication Skills
The note above about listening ties directly into this one – you must have good communication skills. If you’re not able to communicate effectively with a broad range of people (from senior management to those who answer to you), you’ll find that you are not able to achieve your goals. Quality communication at all times and on all levels is one of the cornerstones on which successful projects are built.
4. Education and Training
Again, while project management is not really a specific field, there are education and training programs out there that can provide you with the foundation you’ll need in various project management techniques and processes to help ensure that you have what you need to be successful. PMI is the most recognizable and longstanding such institution, but there are many others out there that can also help you get the education you need. Make sure that the education program you choose has a good reputation in the industry, and has a high success rate with graduating students landing PM jobs right off the bat.
5. Ability to Stick to a Schedule
As a project manager, time will be of the essence. You’ll have a schedule for project completion that must be adhered to. You must be able to stick to a schedule, which means that you need to not only have good time tracking skills, but be able to look for potential problems and hurdles down the road that might derail your progress.
These are just a few of the important qualities a project manager needs. With the right skills and mindset, you can enjoy a rewarding experience as a PM.