Before I get to those notes, though, I want to make you a little fly on the wall of our staff meeting this morning. You’d undoubtedly prefer to be a fly on some other wall, but this last week, REIC had three major, exciting things happen at the office that I want to share with you.

1. I mentioned that I was in meetings all week, so we’ll start with that one. Let me be clear that I’m not important enough to warrant this kind of attention on my own, but I was part of the training for a new outside sales group as the notetaker and general scribe. We had about a half dozen highly skilled sales professionals who are going out to share REIC’s resources with a broader group and they’re excited to get out and help more people get on the path. Don’t worry, this doesn’t change the level of personal service you receive as a member of REIC, we just want to help as many people as we can. I’ve got to say that the more we learned about the details behind what REIC does, the more impressed the sales guys and I were by the company. If you’re already a member, you’ve got first-hand experience with it. If you’re not a member yet and are looking at the blog to find out more, let me tell you that everyone here is focused on what would be best for our members.

2. The next big thing that happened at REIC this week was our first Boot Camp. It was a training for the people who have gone through the home study kit and wanted some more information and training. It’s a manageable amount of good information and there was lots of personal interaction with the team here.

3. The last big thing we did last week was hold our first coaching graduation. We brought together people who went through all of the personal coaching steps and purchased their first investment property. Exciting, right? You can do it too and you’re not alone. Our members do this all the time, we just wanted to make sure they realized what a big step it is to make their first investment deal.

Did you catch how these three things are all the similar? The essence of REIC is training you how you can become a real estate investor and connecting you with the talented team of people here who are excited and committed to helping you succeed. And not just some generic ‘you’ printed on some script we’ve got on our computers.

We’re committed to you, the person reading this blog post right now. Stop rolling your eyes because I saw that and I’m serious. If you don’t have your personalized blueprint yet, you can get started right now. Just click here and we’ll get you started. If you’re not ready yet, that’s cool too. I’ll see you back here soon.

Jordan works as one of our consultants and helps to educate individuals who are interested in REIC. He’s passionate about the REIC  and is a successful product of the Strait Path System.  As an early 20′s newlywed and a very recent homeowner, Jordan is on his way to purchasing more homes and building his wealth through real estate. Below, Jordan wanted to share his rental renovations on his basement apartment.

“As you may know, I did a little work on the basement apartment in my house before renting it out. It was pretty trashed before, pink counter tops, greasy cupboards, and a grimy, broken stove.”

A month of long evenings and about $600 later, I moved someone in and am collecting $800/mo! Pretty good deal, if I do say so!

Boys fool around while they are single and girls, well, they shop.

So, obviously, with that mentality, I over-treated myself on occasion and became a practitioner of retail therapy. I was doing pretty good for myself after college. I landed a really good job right out of school (especially for the job market and especially for Utah county) and was spending a little too much—not more than I made, but almost!

Anyways, as I read through the book draft, one thing stuck out to me. Spend less now and make the sacrifice to not spend for a few years in order to create room for building wealth! So save, invest and skip out on the stuff that you don’t need.

This isn’t a new idea, but reading that concept in the context that it was in (a book talking about making money, legitimately) struck a chord. To me that meant, stop eating out, stop compulsive shopping, stop buying things that I “need” (cause let’s face it, girls “need” everything for everything). And me, being in love with fashion, should know and accept that fashion comes in cycles and that if I miss a season, I’ll see quite a few of the same styles in a few seasons or in the thrift store.

For those of you who read the blog, know that I love getting my news updates and editorials from MSNBC. They had a great article called “How to Escape a Shopping Addiction” with 10 steps Gotta have your steps. For those of you who have shopping addictions, be it in retail, electronics, big masculine toys, this might be a fun read. Enjoy!

• Abby had her baby shower
• Shilo Peay’s wife had her baby this weekend – they are naming her Jersey
• Welcome to Brady Uselman
• Edye sold a lease option last week.
• Jordan Eyre is closing on his house this week.
• Stephanie’s “baby” turned 15 this weekend and celebrated with a huge party?
• Dallin Earl graduates from high school this week. He has 9 people signed up for this week’s seminar and is on fire with the BD program
• Steve Diamond’s associate in Albuquerque have put together a BD meeting at a local food bank with 11 people show to the program; Kevin introduced the seminar, 9 have filled out paperwork, and six who are watching it online.
• Welcome to Rick Roller – a real estate broker who has joined TREF, and has become a business developer. Gave story of a couple of 15 year old teenagers trying to decide what they wanted to be in HS. One said he wanted to be student body president, the other senior class president. An older brother suggested they interview the current leaders to see how they did it.  They followed his example, and were successful. They learned that the secret to success is to find a system that works, learn how it works, and do it.
• Welcome to Corbin, a new staff member who has joined REIC after 3 weeks employment. They decided to take the steps to make a change in their life. He found that the principles we teach work for others, and wants to do it for himself and his family.
• Three people who signed up last week did so because someone had handed them the book, which they read, and decided to take action.
• Josie – our paintball activity is on Friday with assignments. Please RSVP to Josie so she knows who is coming, and sign up for a food item.
• Thanks to our coaches, who continue harvesting wonderful testimonials.  Nik played a testimonial recorded by Rodney Beacham. The message is that REIC takes real estate to a higher level, where you find your real meaning in life, and use real estate to help you achieve the financial key to make it happen.

You would be surprise to find out that more than 200 million Americans invest into a particular investment every month with the following features:

• It earns on average a zero to negative 3 percent annually
• Once the investment is fully funded, it produces no income, no dividend, yet you are still required to pay taxes on it annually
• Every dollar you put into this particular investment, increases rather than decreases risk.

Please enjoy this document by downloading it below!

The Worst Investment in America

There’s even buzz from the Beehive State.

Better known for its share of the Rocky Mountains, vividly colored plateau and canyon vistas, salt flats, Mormons, a bright, multilingual workforce and the likes of outlaw Butch Cassidy (Circleville), Donny and Marie Osmond (Ogden), Roseanne Barr (Salt Lake City), James Woods (Vernal), and Loretta Young (Salt Lake City), Utah is swiftly coming into it’s own as a hot housing habitat.

“We have been through a weak cycle that has affected all areas of the State of Utah. However, this year looks very promising,” Mark Watterson, from Keller Williams in Midvale, UT reported to the Realty Times Market Conditions Report.

How hot is it?

The 45th State to join the Union, Utah now ranks 35th in home appreciation, moving up fast, 15 spots from its dead last position a year ago, according to the just released Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight’s First Quarter 2005 Home Price Index.

The index says the selling price of Utah homes rose 6.3 percent from the first quarter of 2004 to the same period this year. That’s only about half the national rate of increase, at 12.5 percent, but some Utah markets are much, much hotter.

The Utah Association of Realtors own first quarter report revealed Salt Lake County, the state’s largest real estate market, clocked an 8.09 percent increase in the average sale price of single-family detached homes, put at $204,311 in the first quarter this year, up from $189,013 in the first quarter 2004. During the first quarter this year, nearly 3,500 homes (single-family detached and condos) sold in the Salt Lake County market. Condo prices rose only 5.98 percent.

In smaller markets, some of them resort areas, first quarter prices truly skyrocketed.

According to the association, after Salt Lake County, the next largest markets and their quarterly sales (all homes), along with average price increases, were:

* Utah County, 1,015 home sales, house prices up more than 19 percent, condo prices up 15 percent.

* Washington County, 724 home sales, house prices up more than 21 percent, condos up more than 15 percent.

* Weber County, 690 home sales, house and condo prices both up nearly 18 percent.

* Davis County, 686 home sales, house prices up nearly 10 percent, condo prices up by more than 14 percent.

* Resort town Park City yielded more condo sales (184) than single-family home sales (140) and clocked a 15.5 percent increase in average condo prices and 19.3 percent for houses.

“Some experts feel that Utah is unvalued by 25 percent. I feel a 10 percent growth rate is extremely likely,” said Watterson.

“With all the out-of-state investors looking into Utah, it can only improve our appreciation over current levels. This is an exciting time as we watch our most important investment become more valuable. This is a great time to be in the game and not on the side lines,” Watterson advised buyers and sellers who’ve been waiting to move in, up or out.

Utah’s more affordable housing market is enjoying some housing market spill over from it’s booming neighbors.

“Utah real estate values have appreciated more solidly in recent months, a trend expected to pick up speed in 2005 and 2006. The reasons include more impressive economic growth and the fact that Utah real estate is again ‘bargain priced’ versus its neighbors,” said area economist Jeff Thredgold.

On it’s western border, Nevada currently has the nation’s fastest appreciating home prices, which rose more than 31 percent in the last year. The nation’s most populous state, California, just west of Nevada, is No. 2 on the OFHEO’s Home Price Index list with home price appreciation higher than 25 percent. To the south, Arizona enjoyed a 19.43 percent home price appreciation during the first quarter and ranks No. 7 in the nation on the OFHEO Home Price Index list.

However, Thredgold says Utah is leaving in the dust its first recession in 50 years (from 2002 to 2003) and can hold its own economically. The state is a mecca of academic and higher education institutions that produce a well-educated workforce and its pro-business climate attracts existing and start-up businesses in the technology, pharmaceutical and biomedicine fields, among others.

The state’s net job creation is second in the nation only to Nevada during the last 12-month period and the jobs aren’t just lower-paying service jobs, but employment gains in manufacturing, finance, trade, transportation, utilities, professional and business services and construction, as well as the leisure and hospitality sectors.

Unemployment is down to 4.6 percent from the nearly 6 percent two years ago, Thredgold reported.

“Utah is the 5th fastest growing state and the real estate market is showing it,” Mayra Sanchez Johnson of Prostar Realty reported to Realty Times’ Market Conditions Report.

“Prices are steadily rising and a well-maintained home will sell in less than 30 days. New housing is booming and there are offerings from condos and townhouses to starter homes and luxury homes at very affordable prices,” she added.

My paradigm of real estate investing had been soured by bad experiences with real estate agents, an economy in the dumps, an almost complete lack of time (because I have had to work so much to keep the bills paid), and the word “landlord.” I know for a fact that I would never make a good landlord. And I have no desire to find out otherwise.

I began looking into REIC when their Human Resource Department contacted me regarding a position I had applied for. The interview process started with a phone interview, and being the good interviewee that I am, I looked at their web site for more information about the company and what they are about. Five hours later I had to take a break and begin processing all of the information I had just taken in. I began to ask myself if this was just another scam. Can such huge returns happen in a down real estate market? During a phone interview, I asked for more information about the company. One of the questions I asked was about the growth of the company over the past year. The number I was told was astounding: over 300 percent. And this growth was experienced during a down economy. So I continued with the interview process and became successful at becoming one of the newest REIC employees.

All of this took place about two weeks ago. Based on my experiences with the people of REIC, I am confident that REIC will be around for a very long time and will help people make a lot of money in real estate—including me.

~Josh Nuttall