In this article I want to give you some answers.

My partner Blaise Dietz has been raising his first hedge fund with his partner Ray. Ray has already started two previous funds, so his track record and Blaise's track record each help to raise the third new fund.

The fourth fund will be a piece of cake.

Speaking for myself only, I have started several funds and I have got investment from funds. I have raised about $20 million from private equity so far.

First, let me answer a simple question.

What is a hedge fund? A hedge fund is a partnership. The partners are investors. And they pool their capital and agree to have a general partner or fund manager make investments with that pool of cash.

Hedge funds have an investment approach that can be unique or similar to other funds. The funds that my partner and I are involved in make investments away from Wall Street.

Investments in good cash flowing businesses secured by first mortgages on quality properties.

If someone comes to us and has something that doesn't fit that, we can invest in it but using a different pool of funds.

We have a number of investors and direct lenders who will look at and invest in a variety of deals that our students bring in.

Even if those deals don't fit the hedge fund.

But back to starting your own fund, what you need first is a track record of some kind. Otherwise nobody will invest with you.

Investors want to see that you know what you are doing. And they want to see deals you've been doing. Deals that are similar to the ones you say your new hedge fund will do.

Second, you need a "book". A book contains disclosures and contracts that investors need to read and sign in order to invest in your fund. Lawyers and accountants put the book together and it is of course very expensive to get done.

You can spend $60,000 to $200,000 on the book, in my experience. I am sure you could get it done cheaper, but the investors will judge you by your law firm. An expensive law firm is in fact more trustworthy than a lawyer working from his kitchen table.

Third, you need a marketing approach to find investors in your fund.

To market to investors, you have to show the track record we mentioned earlier. And you have to show that you will have good deal flow.

Fortunately, in the fund that Blaise is raising now, we have all that. A track record from previous funds, and an investment approach and investors who are interested in investing. And we have deal flow.

Our students bring in deals every single day. Many deals.

Some of them are quite good. Many of them are bad. That's the nature of the funding business.

The rewards of having a fund are great. And the rewards of being in the funding business, IF you know what you are doing, are awesome today. Never been better.

For instance, we can pick up a fee of $200,000 on a $2 million bridge loan.

Or we can do a real easy $200,000 financing and pick up maybe $5000.

(If you are a student, you get a healthy percentage of that in the form of a check at closing.)

The secret to the whole thing is access to DIRECT lenders, no brokers PRETENDING to be lenders.

And to know how to judge a deal like an underwriter would.

We sometimes put in 100 or 200 highly skilled hours on a single deal. But our students simply bring in the deal and we do all that work. They just have to do some qualifying, then if it makes sense, make the introduction and help the borrower get some paperwork to us. After that the student can earn very high fees and they do nothing at that point.

That's the beauty of the money finder business. And if you get good at this, you build a track record for yourself and you may find yourself raising a hedge fund of your own.

But you have to know the keys to getting funded.

I would say the number 1 key to getting funded is as it has always been. Be prepared.

The #1 thing a lender wants to see is that you are prepared. You have the answers. You are not surprised when you get a question. You've thought things through.

This means you have to have an executive summary and hopefully a pro forma financial statement. An executive summary can be one or two pages.

C'mon, you mean you can't write one or two pages? Of course you can! It's easy.

The purpose of the executive summary is to move the loan forward so the lender takes you seriously. It's a matter of getting through to the higher level people at the lender who actually make the decisions. The underwriter. The loan committee.

It's vital that your executive summary sells your deal. So here's how you do an executive summary.

I like to include several small sections, each with a paragraph or two, like this:

Overall summary. I summarize the deal in a few sentences.

Property description. I describe the property as it is today. Including physical description, gross and net operating income, problems and challenges, advantages and features.

Plan for the property. What I am going to do. A few sentences highlighting my plan to invest money, increase cash flow, sell the property or refinance.

Sources and Uses of funds. How much I need. How much I have. Where I get it. Where I will get it. What I'll do with it when I get it. Again, only a few sentences is fine.

Exit strategy. More detailed but only a few sentences. The exit strategy is often the most neglected part. It is how the investor or lender will get out. You must have a plausible reasonable exit. And this is either selling the property or refinancing with permanent financing. If you want to refinance you have to show that the property will be eligible for permanent financing that is available today, not two years from now on a hope and a prayer.

Management team. Who are you. What your experience is. Hopefully in the asset class and the asset size that you are talking about. If not, you better get someone else to also put down here.

Financial highlights. A simple pro forma like gross income, operating expenses, net operating income, on a pro forma basis, for the next few years.

Make sure you have proper disclaimers and that you aren't marketing your executive summary in violation of securities laws.

To approach any lender for any decent sized deals you need to show you are prepared. This executive summary outline will help you get prepared and show the lender that you are. Good luck!

This chart will make you rich.

It shows you a horrible, horrendous problem. A problem resulting from a long term lending crisis.

It will make you rich when you realize that banks are not lending to:

• small businesses
• commercial property investors

And therefore, if you HELP small businesses and commercial property investors to WORK OUT their problems, to get money and get loans, you can make a FORTUNE in this lending crisis.

Giant new opportunities for people who are HELPING others to

• stay in business
• get a lower loan payment
• do a short sale on their commercial property
• replace their no-good bank with a new lender (likely a hedge fund)

So the real business that this long term lending crisis will be in helping to save jobs, preserve our economy. Helping people to make huge gains. Avoid losing everything.

It's tremendously exciting work. And we need more people doing this work.

chart courtesy of ContraryInvestor.com

I used to sell computers. I remember my first $250,000 deal. What a rush. When $250,000 was real money

And more recently I sold a software deal that did over $1 million.

I raised $14 million for an investment of mine. That was fun.

And of course, in real estate, I have done many deals that were million or more.

The truth is that the million or more deals take as much time as the little tiny deals.

Except you are dealing with people who are more sophisticated and if anything are EASIER to work with than the people at the $100,000 or $500,000 level.

But many people are afraid of working big deals. Or, on the other side, they work deals that are PIE IN THE SKY.

Now if you are interested in getting the big deals, go where the big deals are.

And that means, today, the banks.

Today, banking relationships that have been around for years are gone. The bank has been taken over. Or the bank is calling loans and trying to raise cash to meet "Texas Ratios" and are throwing clients of many years loyalty straight into the fire.

At this time, it is possible to get some very large deals by helping the business find funding to replace the now-gone banking relationship.

The way to do this is to walk into a bank and ask them for their turndowns. That's right, straight into the jaws of your "competitor" in the funding business. They will often give you great deals.

Here is just one note from a student of Commercial Funding with some early field reports:

I just came back from visiting my first 2 loan officers at local credit unions. It went very well.

I went in prepared for the cold shoulder, but both guys I talked to reacted exactly like the fellow on the call last week said they would–they have no one to send their commercial loan turndowns to and would be happy to let me look them over.

The second man I visited is the underwriter for a co-op of 7 credit unions in my town.

He told me that last year, they received applications for $250M in commercial loans, approved $160M of those, and actually funded only $50M.

He is very interested in working with me to get me the loans that the CU's can't fund.

–"Mary"

Fantastic. Someone who not only has gotten the message, but is actually taking the ACTION step. Mary, congratulations! You are going to go far, I am sure. Just keep up that type of an effort. And together hopefully we'll make a few clams together (or maybe a lot, who knows.)

Point is, Mary will introduce a lender (hopefully from my team) to the borrowers that this bank and this credit union brings. And just one deal can result in finder's fees that are eye popping and life changing.

Since Mary will be introducing the borrower to us, she will not be doing the hundreds of hours of work that go into underwriting a "Big Dog" loan.

Mary will be busy getting the next deal. And meanwhile, we will be working to make the deal happen and to change Mary's life financially for the better.

Ain't it sweet?

And one more note. Mary's results are NOT typical. Most folks sit on their butts and don't do anything. Mary went out and spoke to a credit union. And look at what could come out of that! Are you interested in seeing what you can do? Then be here on the training and then for gosh sakes TAKE THE ACTION STEP please.

Don't just talk, do something.

Private money for real estate transactions

Richard, what is the best way to get private money for residential rehabs
and flips?

Thanks,

Ben

How many have you done?

If you've done some, then you can meet people with money by advertising. Make sure you have talked to a lawyer first. Advertise that you have deals that come in and that need funding, secured by real estate, short term, 8% interest.

Meet folks, show them your track record and tell them next time you have a deal, would they like to be on the list of people you call? If so they need to be able to act right away.

You will give them the property address and appraisal particulars (by an independent appraiser) and they will be offered the right to fund the deal.

Their money will go into an escrow or attorney client trust account and will fund a loan and they'll get a mortgage or deed of trust.

It isn't that hard and people are hungry for yield so they will be quite interested.

Commercial funding deals — what next?

Richard, I have an opportunity for 600 units in a big city. Note; I have a Fannie construction take you that is in process.

Have 5 seperate units offered for debt service/assume the loans at an average of a 8 cap. I will need a temporay solid financial person
to jump on and off at closing for points and feels.

My thoughts are the investor gets Points, Fees and 50 percent of the maxium pull out of equity at the 120 refinance.

Donald

What are your goals, Donald?

If you want to work on solid deals that bring in income, then work on deals where there is a buyer and a seller, and all you have to is introduce them to solid funding. We have the solid funding and we will teach you the business. Don't work on deals that don't have those ingredients.

If there is an owner of a substantial commercial property who has his loan called due, or who is facing foreclosure, that can be a great opportunity also.

How do we prequalify commercial real estate loan opportunities?

Hello Richard my question is what are you using to get values to prequal the different properities.

We don't. We ask the borrower. Commercial is a different animal. First thing is the rents, the gross income, and then the net income after expenses, the net operating income. That is what really determines value and the borrower or owner can tell you that hopefully.

warmly

–Richard Geller

Marty W. is a student of ours who at the time of this interview has been doing commercial funding for less than 30 days. This interview reveals a lot about how Marty has been succeeding and how you might too.

Feel free to leave a question or comment.

Disclaimer: most folks who purchase training do NOTHING with it. Those that do, can go far. We can't make claims that you will achieve any given level of earnings because most people don't achieve much in this regard and we can't tell who WILL and who WON'T work a program to the max. We don't have enough statistics yet to determine track records with regard to students of our training. We do know people who make a lot of money in this funding business, and our team does, so we have a huge confidence in this business in general.

This is very key information showing you WHY the crash is taking place, and who will take the place of the banks who have quit lending, and how you can profit from it.

• 3000 banks are threatened with insolvency, equal to almost half the banks in the United States
• A multi-year problem that is costing $4620 from you, your son, your daughter, your spouse, and every other person in America.
• How some people are making staggering profits cleaning up and helping to solve this enormous problem
• Most people are unaware of the huge size of this problem
• Most people don't know the little known secrets of simply finding people in financial trouble and introducing them to lenders who are EAGER to help them

Please leave a comment or question. Thanks!

Craig is a student who started around the end of November. He was essentially brand new in Commercial Funding. See what Craig says about his start and his opportunities.

Please leave a comment or question. Thanks!

Is there a way to be a winner instead of the victim of the terrible economy?

In this article I will attempt to answer these two questions:

What is the reason for the down economy?
What is going to be a winner going forward, and why?

My personal failure story

I've failed so many times I am an expert at it.

In 1989, my California real estate ventures including pre-foreclosure buying. A little apartment development. And some mortgage origination, primarily hard money lending.

In 1990, real estate started to C-R-A-S-H.

That wasn't fun for me. I almost got out unscathed except for a loss of several hundred thousand dollars, and I had to short sell my personal home.

But, I got into a new business and that started to skyrocket. The very same economic problems in California that caused me to lose my shirt were also the cause of my success.

And that brings me to the present day situation.

Low interest rates guarantee more depression — and more opportunity

When the stock market crashed in 2007 and 2008, the US government reacted by lowering short term interest rates to practically zero.

So if you are depending upon interest for, say, retirement, then your bonds and savings are paying like zero. Maybe one percent.

This means that savers and investors are receiving NEGATIVE interest on their money because you have to subtract inflation.

I don't know about where you live, but where I live, the groceries and heating and expenses are up sharply over last year. There is a lot more inflation than the government acknowledges.

So when you account for inflation, savers, retirees and investors are getting KILLED by low interest rates.

And the stock market is down 50% over its highs of a few years ago…and is FLAT over the past 10 years, or lower.

If this is the case, then why does the government keep interest rates so low as to discourage savers and investors?

Simple. The government is in huge amounts of debt. There is a $5000 per PERSON deficit in the US this past year and at least as big a deficit this year.

So all that borrowing costs a lot in interest. If they can lower interest rates, they can borrow cheaply.

The other reason interest rates are being set so low (on the short term) is to help the banks. The banks can borrow money (yes the banks are huge borrowers) at .01 or 0.5% rates, and lend it out to the government at 3% and make a guaranteed profit. It's all about bailing out the banks, remember that.

This may change as there will likely be some sort of currency crisis in the next year or two. That's why I am always telling you to buy gold, silver and things like food and extra household goods.

The very low interest rates are discouraging investment and discouraging saving. That is why the "recovery" is phony as a three dollar bill. There is no recovery. It's all about government spending to "stimulate" the economy. It's a castle built on sand.

The only solution for you and I is to do two things. First, to have our own business and not be dependent upon someone else for our income. And second, to be in a business that thrives on bad times.

Most business suffers to one degree or another in bad times. But there are businesses that do very well as times get worse. Today, the businesses that do well include government contractors, and anyone who is helping deal with the enormous distressed real estate opportunities that are out there.

What the commercial real estate crash means to you

Banks have two trillion in loans either going bad or ready to go bad. This is the commercial real estate crash I am always talking about.

I predicted the residential real estate crash and sold my last piece of residential real estate in 2005. I taught hundreds of people to get into the residential loan mod and short sale business, and I have hundreds of success stories. Now I am teaching people how to thrive in the commercial crash. It is still quite early in the game and there is time to do quite well.

What's nice about this is that this business should last for many years. The residential crash started in 2005 although most people didn't know it. And here it is, 2010, five years later, and prices are still falling. You can do so well in the next five years that people will make their fortunes and will no longer have to work.

It's your choice. Work within the realities of today, or fight them and be a victim. Working within the realities mean self-employment and working in areas that thrive in bad times. Being a victim means a J-O-B and seeing your living standards fall even further.

Please comment on what I have said here. I'd like to get your opinions. Thanks!

This idea will blow you away.

There is no such thing as a turn down to your commercial project with this system.

It's a way to get large pools of capital that you can help direct.

Legally and legitimately.

There are several trillions of dollars at your command. If you know what you are doing. I have made this video to make it very clear. This is good for commercial lending, and commercial loans of all sorts. Commissions, and for your own portfolio that lets you do your own deals with retirement money so the profits are tax deferred.

Tell me what you think. What's on your mind. Specifically write a comment as follows:

1. What do you see as the biggest opportunity for this?

2. What is the biggest obstacle for you?

I'll answer as many as I can. Thanks!

warmly

–Richard Geller