columbus reia real estate investors association april 2011 newsletter

“Small Claims Court Secrets Reveled”

STEVE ZEHALA, Executive Director Columbus REIA

Thursday APR 14 5.30pm Gordy’s -Westerville Upstairs

The next Columbus Real Estate Investors Associ-ation meeting is Steve Zehala's presentation of Small Claims Court Se-crets Revealed. Yes, spring is in the air and finally winter's death grip appears to be coming to an end but winter occasionally rears its ugly head to let us know it's not going out without a fight….. but for the most part it appears we are home free and thank goodness it was a long hard winter! Fantastic Deals are Being Made!

We are hearing about fantastic deals being made and in fact we too are making fantastic deals as we speak. This spring appears to be a very profitable one indeed and if you are interested in purchasing real estate you better get started right away before this once-in-a-lifetime experi-ence passes you by and prices jump back up. Meeting Agenda

Here's the agenda for our next meeting. We start our meeting at 5:30 PM where we will be networking and folks will be introducing them-selves to everybody in the crowd. Each person will be giving the eleva-tor speech as to what business they are in and what they do and this is an incredible networking opportunities everybody at our meetings looks forward to and loves. At this time we will be serving dinner and drinks to folks who are inter-

ested in coming by right after work Like a bite to eat. After everybody has had an opportunity to introduce them-selves we will spend some time allowing them to meet others who share like-minded ideas Or those who are offer-ing services others need so they can continue the networking process. After that we will do a question and answers period for masterminding and solving issues that folks have better in our group. Time permitting, we will do a buy and sell and trade sessions where folks who have properties they are looking to move and/or by can let everybody in our group know what they are after or what they have to offer. Main Event of the Evening: Small Claims Court revealed!

After this we will get into our main meeting which will be Columbus Real Estate investors Association's own Execu-tive Director Steve Zehala where he will be detailing the small claims court secrets that he has been using for years in the court system. In addition to going through the process and how he does it you will get details on how it works, what small claims court can do for you, why you would ever want to try it, the upside than downside and what you can expect. Including: Where you need to go to get the forms and some secret things you can do with them. What it will cost you and what to expect in the amount of time it will take to do this. What you can expect, the good, the bad and the ugly. The BS that people will tell you in this process to try to dissuade you from actually using your rights in court. That and much, much more and any questions that you have about the process will be discussed. Steve has been to court hundreds of times and knows this process extraordinarily well and you do not want to

miss this opportunity to have an incredible amount of knowledge given to you on the subject matter. We look forward to seeing you there!

UPCOMING EVENTS: APR-2011 MEETING DETAILS:

Small Claims Court Secrets Revealed

Presented By Steve Zehala Columbus REIA

Thurs, APR-14, 2010 5.30pm Where: Gordy’s in Westerville

——————————————— FOCUS GROUP MEETINGS:

——————————————— J. T. Keiderling Short Sales

Focus Group Wed 4/13/2011 6pm and Tue 4/26/2011 6pm

Urban Coffee, 7838 Olentangy

——————————————— Scott Emerick- Landlording/ Wednesday 4/28/11, 6:00 pm

Panera -Mill Run Hilliard

——————————————— Steve Zehala- Real Estate For Breakfast-

Mastermind Group Thursday 4/28/11, 7am-9am

Cup of Joe’s– Bexley

——————————————— Register for any event at: ColumbusREIA.com

*Seating is Limited Register Online to Get

April 2011 Register for All Events at www.ColumbusREIA.com

2 YOUR PATH TO REAL ESTATE INVESTING SUCCESS

Real Estate Investors Association of Columbus • www.ColumbusReia.com 458 N. Cassady Ave • Bexley, Ohio 43209 • Phone 614-258-1000 • Fax: 614-737-5304, 24 x 7 • Email: [email protected] • To become a member of Columbus REIA please visit our website at www.columbusreia.com

From The Trenches, Steve Zehala “EXERT YOUR RIGHTS IF NEEDED!

Are Being Squeezed…..YEP!

In the current economic times, and with companies doing more and more cost-saving measures one of the first things to be cut is customer service. Time and time again we are finding that no mat-ter what the company, time, or place, when it comes time to get service or to have technical support on something that we paid big money for we cannot get through to somebody who has the answers! We are forced to jump through hoops, go through mas-sive phone trees, go to websites for absolutely where no contact information is given, and we are forced to go through their pro-cess.

Keep Hopping They Like Hoops!

Interestingly, most of the time ,this process is not disclosed in advance. Often we are promised a rosy and easy support system only to find things dramatically different after we brought the prod-ucts home. In addition to this numerous agencies and other com-panies and entities that we have to deal with are making it in-creasingly difficult to get any sort of service regarding matters or issues that have affected us. Most of these companies know that a huge majority of people will not take any action against them no matter how many barriers they put up and how many hoops that make us jump through. The question you have to ask yourself is will you be one of those people that will do whatever they tell you to do?

What if 75 Bucks could make it go away?

What if I told you that for a small amount of money let’s say $75 you could get a high level person on the phone and get your mat-ter resolved quickly, effectively and to your satisfaction. Let me say there are no guarantees in life but I will say that depending on actions that you take you can get incredible results in much less time if you know how to use the legal system. Unfortunately, for most people the legal system in the United States scares them to death. Usually people's experience with the legal system is when they’ve received some sort of negative certified letter and are forced to go to a hearing or a court and they don't want to be there. But we can use those same intimidation factors to our ad-vantage in any number of unsatisfactory situations in which no other remedy would likely be available.

Count The Time You Waste!

As an example the next time you need customer service for something start tracking how much actual time you spend trying to get the issue resolved. Let's say as a landlord some prior ten-

ant was able to keep the gas name in your bill for several months. Let's say they were able to chalk up an $800 gas bill over a period of a few months in the winter time. How much time do you think you could spend trying to get that issue resolved? We’ve tracked it before and you can spend three or four hours (or more) of your time getting a simple issue like that resolved just because of the ridiculous hoops the operators on the other side of the phone will try to make you jump through. We all know they just have some sort of troubleshooting list that they go to that they regurgitate to us when we call trying to make the problem go away from them as fast as possible. Well, the problem is if your time is worth 40, 50, $60 an hour or no matter what your time is worth you want to get these issues resolved as fast as possible.

Flex or be Flexed!

The hoops they make you jump through will not go away in less you force the issue. In situations that are completely not our fault why are they make us are guilty until we prove ourselves inno-cent? That is the rub that really got me motivated to become an expert in the legal system. In the example that we are discussing somebody on a phone call can put a bill in your name and run up a liability that somebody's expecting you to pay. It's not your fault that they didn't check an ID, that they didn't do enough screening, or made some sort of mistake on their side that would have pre-vented this issue. No they just make you pay it or make you jump through hoops to prove that the bill is not yours. For me that is unacceptable.

Let me give you another example.

Sometime ago I spent $3000 on a top shelf computer. In addition to purchasing the computer I purchased their highest level war-rantee that guaranteed on-site repairs in the event something would break down. As a longtime computer owner and as most of you know out there when you buy computer it’s not a matter of if it will break it’s a matter of when it will break. At that time computers cost quite a bit of money and being without your machine likely meant that you are unable to work during that time. So true to its reputation the computer finally broke down at some point and cheerfully called for the fast on-site customer service. Little did I know the number of hoops that they were going to make me jump through. Additionally, this guarantee of mediate on-site repairs was just a ruse and did not really exist. After spending hours on the phone with people that were almost incomprehensible the bottom line was they wanted me to pack up my computer and ship it to California. I was furious, smoke is coming out my ears. Well, having a certain amount of expertise in Municipal Court through my experience with evictions I decided it was time to turn the tables on them and make them jump through hoops. At that point I filed a small claims court case against them for breach of contract claiming that they had lied to me when I purchased this computer. The cost of filed a suit at that time was probably about $60. Little did I know how much attention that would get me.

Lets Play Nice Nice..

About two days before our small claims court hearing a high-level representative from that company called me back and said Mr. Zehala we would like to settle this issue immediately. I was still

FROM THE TRENCHES, Steve Zehala, Columbus REIA Executive Director



Private Real Estate Consulting, Problem Solving, & Negotiating

Don’t Take a Knife to a Gun Fight! Don’t go to war alone!

Do you need help negotiating a creative deal? Need forms & Paperwork? Need

Help?

Have you found a good deal but have no money?

Do you want somebody to look over your shoulder to make sure you’re not mak-

ing a bad deal?

Are you having real estate related problems– with no one to turn to? Are you

upside down & want to escape with your credit ?

We have done hundreds of deals, been attacked, sued, ambushed by TV crews,

hosed, abused, lied to, been evicted & evicted & hundreds, foreclosed & been foreclosed, inspected, hit by bottles of ripple, threatened by Attorneys, buyers,

sellers, closing agents, chased by pit bulls, attacked by fleas, roaches, the IRS, the City, the tax auditor, the Sign police, Section-8 inspectors, drug dealers, Liberals & more! We rarely back down and we almost always win! For us it’s fun and it’s all a part of the business!

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE KNOWLEDGE OR EXPERIENCE!

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE VALUE OF HELP AND THE MASTERMIND. If we

don't know the answer we likely now someone who does!

Sometimes just ONE missing piece of information WILL change your life!

Call or e-mail Steve Zehala at:614-258-1000 or [email protected] For simple reasonable Fee or Deal based assis-

tance! We have been there!

fuming from their deceptive advertising regarding their on-site warranty and made a huge demand. I wanted a brand new top shelf computer sometime down the road, and I wanted my com-puter fixed on-site immediately. Without hesitation and on the spot I was given what I demanded. I was somewhat shocked and amazed at how easy the conclusion and resolution was. This got me really thinking. When I have issues would be smarter just to file a small claims court case rather than spend several hours working through somebody's phone tree and hoops? Well I don't want to file a small claims court case every time I have an issue, but when the issue is reasonably significant and I know that the other side is going to be a complete Pain in the you know what well then that is the action that I take.

Knowledge is Power!

So the name of the game is to have an understanding of the legal system. The legal system is far simpler than most people think and with just a small amount of training and a little bit of courage you can have issue after issue that has been a pain to you re-solved quickly and amicably. A small Claims Court case, or really any kind of court case will get somebody's attention immediately. If they don't respond to your complaint they lose you win case closed. Learning this process will empower you for the rest of your life. No longer will you be bullied by folks who have policies and procedures that are ridiculous who implement them knowing that most folks will never challenge them. So if you're tired of be-ing bullied, exercised, and having your changed jerk then come join us at our next Columbus Real Estate Investors Association meeting I will reveal how I use small claims court case to resolve the issues time after time after time.

Once Empowered Always Empowered!

PS once you become educated to the legal system and its powers you can then use these methods to beat back anyone, including, mortgage lenders, credit card lenders, pretty much anybody out there that has breached a contract or broken in agreement with you. This is incredibly empowering. You'll start smiling when peo-ple jerk your chain and do things that you never agreed to do. It takes you to a whole new world where you almost look forward to somebody treating you poorly. I know it's sad to say that that's the case these days and you have these situations where you have nowhere to turn this is your answer.

It Ain’t All Roses….

Now let me mention there is a downside to using court to resolve issues. The other side can countersue and also create some hav-oc in your life so you do not want to go in thinking that every result is going to be positive, and you need to be prepared, educated, and know what you're doing to some extent. But in most cases where it's a simple issue that somebody has wronged you small Claims Court can be an incredible device to get results.

Yep there are some Secrets too..

At our meeting we will be discussing the insider secrets that I use personally when I file a small claims court cases including some little known techniques that really get to the other party's attention. Additionally I will show you how I set my cases up and what I have done in the past. Please be aware that I am not an attorney and will only be discussing what I do in my cases. Until you start exercising in enforcing your rights in whatever situation you find

yourself in the other side will continue to trample you and walk all over you. Once you learn how you can force the other side to play by the same rules that you do you will get immediate attention and respect and will not continue to take advantage of your good nature.

Smile and Relax!

So the next time some expensive item that you purchased breaks down and you're looking at a very large cost due to no fault of your own you will smile knowing that you're just a piece of paper and a small fee away from complete resolution. Not to mention

the fact in most of my cases not only do we win hands down but the other side reimburses us for the cost of filing the case. You will not want to miss how to take these issues and resolve them yourself.

Steve Zehala



614-433-0570 We Fund the Purchase & Fix Up $$$

-24 Month Financing -Loans up to 70% ARV

-No Prepayment Penalty -7.95% Interest Payments

OHIO REHAB LOANS

YOUR REHAB PRIVATE LENDER 614-433-0570

-Fast Approvals and Quick Closings-

Profit Sharing Opportunities Available for Lower Credit

Scores!

www.OhioReabLoans.com

Disclaimer: this newsletter and its accompanying enclosures are designed to provide accurate and authoritative information regarding the subject matter covered, however neither its publishers nor contributors assume any responsibility for errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or advice. If accounting, legal, or other professional advice or expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Each individual reader is solely and wholly responsible for any decisions made or actions taken that may be motiva ted herein. Also, any sligths against individuals, companies or organizations are unintentional. These notices are based on publishing industry guidelines jointly adopted by the publishing industry and Ameri can bar association. All rights reserved by the publisher. Violation of copyright is a federal offense subject to criminal prosecution and penalties that may include fines and/or imprisonment, and also subject to civil litigation in pursuit of damages. Furthermore, reia does not represent, endorse, nor otherwise take any responsibility for the content, accuracy, truthfulness, or reliability of any of the information contained in advertisements discounts, information materials, or other offers or promises made by any vendor, advertiser, speaker, etc., nor as to the quality or reliability of any product, information or service offered in the advertisement or contained in a presentation. Reia makes no representation as to the charac-ter of any vendor, mentor, advertiser, or speaker, and the publishing of any advertiser or speaker by reia, or of the reliabi lity or truthfulness. Any reliance upon any materials, written or oral, shall be at your sole risk. Reia expressly disclaims any and all warranties, express or implied, including, without limitation, warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose with respect to any advertised service, mate-rials, information and/or products.



Book Review “Strenghtsfinder 2.0” by Tom Rath Review by, Steve Zehala If I was ask you what are your top five best traits in your entire repertoire what would you say? How important would it be for you to know what the most prevalent traits of your personality are you? How important would be to know that the people that you communicate and do business with? Or, even knowing what those traits are in your spouse or significant other? Well that is what the book Strengthsfinders 2.0 does for us. I give this book my highest possible recommendation and I sug-gest for $20 and you go out and buy his book as soon as you can. Addi-tionally and more importantly this book comes with a certificate inside if it allows you to go to the Strengthsfinders.com website and take an incredible test that will point out to you and your top five best and most dominant personality traits that you are likely not aware of. This is an incredibly important in helping you determine what your best suited for no matter what you do or where you're at in life. I re-cently bought this book on a recom-mendation from a good friend of mine and I was incredibly im-pressed. Now this is not just some willy-nilly latest fad book that at-tempts to point out obvious traits for you. The test and this book are based on 40+ years of scientific research that is based on the Gal-lup organization's data that they've been collecting for years. They keep updating this book and this program with new scien-tific data that they find on a regular basis and the Strengths find-ers 2.0 book and test are incredible. The test that you will take if you purchase this book will last about 45 min. or maybe even less than that and are very simple questions that take 30 se-conds to answer. Each question runs on a sliding scale which you drag it over to the side that you prefer more. As an example they might ask you a question would you rather read a book or would you rather go to a party? You then slide the scales to-wards the one you prefer more. Over time the questions get very detailed into pinpointing your particular personality traits. As they start to identify things in your personality they put more questions in to your test that will specifically pinpoint the items of your strength.

As an example in my case I thought I knew myself pretty well but the strengths finders test really pinpointed some details items that I hadn't put my finger on. As an example I am a learn-er is my major trait. Now there are about 34 identified traits that the Strengths Finder book puts forth. Out of those 34 or 35 traits the test tries to pinpoint your top five in the tests that you take. The whole premise of the book is this we need to focus on what

we are good at and find others to do the things that we are bad at. This makes perfect sense. Why waste our time on doing things that we don't like and may not be good at when there are other folks who have this as their main strength and love to do it? We spend far too much time in our lives focusing on things that we will likely never be good at and that is one of the major premises of this book. Focusing on what you excel at will jumpstart you and push you forward faster than trying to become good at something you do not like. The test identified my number one trait as a learner and I always recognize that I enjoy learning new things that I was not completely aware how dominant a personality trait this is for me. I love new projects, a new software program, I love to learn

something new. The problem is after I learned something new I become bored to death with it and have very little interest in going forward. I suspect a lot of others out there have the same trait (In my case better known as ADHD!). So Yes, that's me! When I am learn-ing and figuring things out I am as happy as a clam. After I figure out how to do something or to use it most of my interest drops off. Numer-ous other traits were identified that I was not completely aware of but once I saw the test results made perfect sense to me. Additionally it's extremely helpful for spouses and signifi-cant others to see each other's strengths. As an example my wife is always upset with me because I'm always questioning her on different items. Almost like a prosecutor inter-rogates a witness. The book has identified me as a strategist and a strategist is always ask-ing questions of other people trying to get to the solution to a problem or to make sure all the facts have been reviewed. But in her mind me questioning her constantly is just a way of me showing a lack of confidence in her abili-

ties. This could not be further from the truth! This strategist trait is just an ingrained personality style but the strengths Finder book pointed out to me. When I pointed this out to her and she smiled and said she still doesn’t like it. Such is life!

Imagine the harmony and pointed assignments that can be giv-en to coworkers and employees if you knew what their major strengths were in their personalities. We like to think that we know these but until you see them quantified through this book and test the idea becomes crystal clear. I highly recommend that you have folks that you do business with and take this test and share the results with you so a coordinated effort can be made to put folks in a position to maximize their strengths. Take this test have as many folks as you know take it and show the result and you'll be glad you did. In fact I recommend even buy-ing the book for somebody and making them take it so you'll have that information for you. Additionally I believe they even have a version for children imagine how helpful that would be knowing your children's strengths in advance and then choosing a career path. Very powerful stuff, very well done and I give it the highest possible recommendation. Take it you'll be glad you did!

Steve Zehala



Ohio Foreclosure Process

By Dan Frontgate Ohio performs its foreclosures judicially. Specifically the

County Court of Common Pleas have jurisdiction for the fil-

ing of a foreclosure complaint. There are eleven (11) separate steps to the foreclosure process in Ohio. They are:

1) Breach letter; 2) Complaint to foreclose; 3) Title Report 4) Judgment Decree; 5) Praecipe ( order of

sale); 6) Appraisal by three disinterested freeholders

7) Newspaper Publication; 8) Foreclosure Sale; 9) Motion to Confirm the Sale; 10) Confirmation Hear-

ing; 11) Sheriff's Deed.

1.) Breach letter

The first step in the Ohio foreclosure process is for the lender

to notify the homeowner by certified mail that he/she has

breached the contractual terms of the promissory note and to notify the owner of its intention to foreclose on the home and

seek a deficiency judgment. This letter will be forwarded to

the homeowner prior to the filing of the complaint to fore-close. This is the end of the private information which we

will only see if we are able to enter the home prior to an auc-

tion and purchase the property from the homeowner directly.

2) Complaint to Foreclose

The Complaint to Foreclose is just a lawsuit which is filed in

the court where the property is located. The attorney prepares the complaint after a review of the file, performs a title search

and has sent a breach letter to the homeowner. It recites the

facts of the breach of contract by the homeowner. For in-stance the complaint will recite the amount of the original

mortgage, the current amount that the homeowner is behind

on the mortgage and will include all of the other parties of record.

3. Title Report

A list of all parties interested in the property.

4) Judgment Decree

Once the court has established that a judgment shall issue, they will enter into a judgment which will set out the amount

of the debt due on the house, orders the foreclosure, marshals

the liens, establishes the priority of payment and orders the

property to be sold free of liens.

The judgment decree will contain the following:

1) a recital of the pleadings filed; 2) a finding that service has been made 3) a finding as to the lien for

the real estate taxes; 4) a finding as to the validity of

the mortgage and its right to foreclose; 5) finding as to the priorities of the liens; 6) order of sale to the

sheriff.

5) Praecipe (order of sale)

This must be filed with the clerk within three days after the

decree.

6) Appraisal

Ohio requires that the property be appraised by three separate impartial individuals and that the property cannot be pur-

chased for less than two-thirds of the appraisal except when a

junior lien is foreclosing.

7) NEWSPAPER PUBLICATION

The notice in the newspaper is required to have the following

information contained therein: 1) The time and place of the sale.

2) The street address of the sale and description of the proper-

ty.

8) Foreclosure Sale

The sale is then held in the courthouse at the county court-

house where the property is located. The high Bidder is re-quired to deposit ten percent (10%) of the winning bid by

certified check or cash with the sheriff. If the high bidder de-

faults on his obligations to make all payments within the pre-scribed time the high bidder will lose his/her deposit and the

property will be re-advertised for sale.

9 Motion To CONFIRM The SALE

This simply is an order prepared by the Banks lawyer con-

firming the sale and the order of payment.

10) CONFIRMATION HEARING

The standards to confirm a sale are that if the judge finds that

the sale was regular it will be confirmed. It is not subject to

appeal unless there was an abuse of discretion.

11). Sheriffs Deed

After the confirmation hearing the winning bidder will be

given a deed by the sheriff deed.

LeaseOptionBusinessPlan.com Steve Zehala’s Lease Option Business Plan is the simplest,

safest, easiest lowest risk way for you to make huge money in

real estate immediately. It takes no credit, no money, just the know-how and motivation. No matter what the market does

this system will work all day every day and I will provide

you with all you need so you can take the ball and run with it.

TODAY! ***** Over 20 hours of live train-ing with forms and details**** Oh and by the way did you know the Federal Government

has outlawed owner financing….unless you live in the

premises you’re selling (Read about the lovely -Safe Act it’ll

make you warm and fuzzy all over), if you’re real estate in-

vestor what are you going to do to overcome this? Well read

on Skippy we have the answer…. GOTO LEASEOP-

TIONBUSINESSPLAN.COM FOR MORE..



Steve's Tip of the month… TAKE CASH! Were you aware that a certified money order can bounce? You better believe it! Ask me how I know? On any kind of certified funds check that you received the customer receives a carbon copy with details of that transaction for proof that they paid the funds in that they were paid in full. A little known fact about these checks is that if the consumer loses them for claims to have lost them they can con-tact the provider of that check and have a stop payment put on it and issue another one. For a long time and we were of the belief that once you had one of these checks you were good to go and had no worries. That is not the case! Some time ago we had a person put a large sum of money down on a property like $3000 type of money and put a stop payment on this check. And yes they were still in the property. We were now forced to be in a position to go and negoti-ate the $3000 back from them not to mention the is-sues you have with your checking account if you had written checks against the funds they had given you. There is no way that I am aware of to unwind what I just described as far as these certified funds types checks use. The precaution and the moral of the story is take cash! If you take cash there is no stop payment and you are now in a power position. On any significant type of deposits we now require cash only. This is a reversal to our prior position which was money orders so that receipts where easily given to the folks who had paid. The other main reason for

typically using money orders was to prove to a lender down the road that the party had paid the funds and that the owner had not just made up a receipt to try to make it easier for the person to purchase a house. That is the downside to taking cash that lenders might not allow a credit for those funds received in the pur-chase situation. Talk to your mortgage broker or lend-ers about that but in our case we'd rather have cash and know we have the funds and worry about the stop payment issue that can occur.

So have simple receipt book at your hand and the next time you need to take sums of mon-ey take cash write the receipt and you're good to go. Oh and by the way the careful about people who claim to put cash to through a drop box, let folks know if they're going to pay in cash they need to pay in per-son or meet with somebody live. On occasion we've had people

claim to pay cash through our 24 hour rental drop box only to find they were pulling our leg. Do not fall for this trick as that straight out of the tenant rip off the landlord handbook. If they're going to pay cash will happily accepted that they must make sure that some-body gets it in hand so there are no disputes. Have a great month and happy land lording.

Above Board Management, LLC

PO Box 297875

Columbus, OH 43229-7875

JayShafer Property Management &

Investment Real Estate Specialist 614-891-5484(o) 614-562-8809©

614-891-0722(fax) [email protected]

APRIL 2011 YOUR PATH TO REAL ESTATE INVESTING SUCCESS

WWW.COLUMBUSREIA.COM

columbus reia real estate investors association april 2011 newsletter

Documents

small claims court secrets

court system

networking process

main meeting

court hundreds of times

fantastic deals

meeting agenda heres

main event