Last month, on the blog over at RalphRoberts.com, I wrote:

“Dontwanner”… a property that the owners don’t want so much that they’re willing to do anything to get rid of it, including offering it for sale at a deep discount. Think of a dontwanner as a “Your Trash Is My Cash” opportunity. As I tell my readers, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”

Now, thanks to my good friends at RealtyTimes.com, I’ve been given the chance to share more “Dontwanner” wisdom. From yesterday’s online version of RealtyTimes.com:

Recycling Trash into Cash with Dontwanners
By Ralph R. Roberts, CRS, GRI

Dontwanner (don’t want her) is a term I often use to describe distressed properties — houses and other real estate that the owners don’t want so much that they’re willing to do anything to get rid of it, including deeply discounting it. Real estate investors can score big profits on dontwanners by recycling what the owners consider burdensome trash into cash.

Every neighborhood has its share of these trash-into-cash opportunities, but finding them can be a bit challenging, especially if you don’t know where to hunt for these hidden treasures. In this article, I show you how to spot the dontwanners in your neighborhood.

Cashing in on the Four D’s

When treasure hunting for distressed properties, remember that either the property or the owner can be distressed. Usually it’s both, but some of the best opportunities can be discovered by looking for distressed owners. Follow the four D’s:

• Death
• Divorce
• Desperation (resulting from a job loss or other financial setback)
• Drunkenness

To read the rest of this article, please click here.

I’m pleased to share that I’ll speaking later this week at the Fall Meeting of the Nebraska REALTORS® Association. My workshop–which is scheduled from 8:30 AM - Noon on Wednesday, September 20–is titled Ignorance of the Law Is No Excuse: Recognizing, Avoiding and Recovering from Real Estate and Mortgage Fraud, and has been approved 3 credit hours of Continuing Education.

Topics I plan on covering include:

1. Defining real estate fraud: real-world examples of real-world real estate scams.
   Measuring fraud’s impact: on individual homeowners; the real estate industry; and local, state, and national economies.
2. Differentiating between “Fraud for Profit” and “Fraud for Housing.”
3. Identifying common schemes and schemers, including Asset Rental, Air Loans, Chunking, Double Sales, Straw Owners and Buyers, Nominees, and Faulty Appraisals.
4. Spotting the warning signs of a fraudulent real estate deal.
5. Proven tips and tricks for avoiding fraud and steering clear of gray areas in your real estate-related transactions.
6. Practical advice for real estate agents, appraisers, mortgage brokers, investors, title companies, and lawyers.
7. Reporting fraud: one person can shut down a shady deal. Why you need to be that person and what you should do when you suspect fraud.

If you would like to know more about the Nebraska REALTORS® Association, check out their website by clicking here. And if you’d like to more about my talk and workshops related to Real Estate & Mortgage Fraud, click here.

Since the National Association of REALTORS® named the week of September 10-16, Realtor Safety Week, I thought I would take the time to encourage my fellow Realtors to implement basic safety measures, especially when they’re most vulnerable — when they’re heading out of the office to show a house.

From my recent article on REALTOR Safety on RealtyTimes.com:

Real Estate Self Defense: Protecting Yourself in the Field
by Ralph Roberts

Headlines across the country prove that a career in real estate can be hazardous to your health. A tragic story is the most recent wake-up call to agents to protect ourselves in the field.

Agents are even more vulnerable to random acts of violence than any resident who happens to live alone. Residents can lock their doors to potential intruders, and they usually have a phone in their house or apartment to call for help. Neighbors are often on the lookout for suspicious activity.

Agents, on the other hand, often drive strangers around for hours looking at homes. By the nature of our business, we willing enter homes to show those strangers around the premises. In an empty house with nobody else within earshot, a violent criminal has almost complete freedom to act on any disturbing impulse that his mind can imagine.

All the police can do is show up after the crime has been committed and investigate, and for the victim, it can be too late.

Click here to read the rest of my article on REALTOR safety, which includes 10 tips for staying safe.

How does a proven Real Estate Agent adapt and find success in a market that’s headed toward a slowdown? That’s the key question that will be answered during today’s Real Estate Success Summit in Denver, Colorado. Organized by my good friends at STAR POWER® Systems, the Denver Real Estate Success Summit is presented as part of STAR POWER’S Real Estate Success Summit series, a comprehensive and intensive training program designed to show Realtors how North America’s top Realtors succeed regardless of market conditions.

Joining me in Denver as presenters:

• Tom Cain of RE/MAX Realty Associates in Champaign, IL
• Gayle Henderson of RE/MAX Excalibur Realty in Scottsdale, AZ
• Shon Kokoszka of Keller Williams Advantage Realty in Lakewood, CO
• Rob Levy of Prudential Northwest Properties in Portland, OR
• Brian Maecker of RE/MAX Advantage in Colorado Springs, CO
• Leslie McDonnell of RE/MAX Suburban in Libertyville, IL
• Tami Spaulding of The Group, Inc. in Fort Collins, CO
• Diane Stow of RE/MAX Traditions in Longmont, CO.
• And of course, Howard Brinton, founder of STAR POWER Systems in Boulder, CO.

I really like events such as this one. They allow successful agents like myself to meet up-and-coming Realtors, as well as to share the secrets of our success. All told, the 10 of us who will be presenting in Denver represent the top 1 percent of real estate producers in North America. Participating in events such as this affords everyone in attendance an opportunity to see and hear first-hand what elite agents who hail from comparable markets have done to overcome similar challenges, surpass their competitors, and realize successes they’d only imagined when they first started in the business.

Before I wrap up this post, I do have to share how my journey to Denver started. United flight 529 was supposed to leave Detroit at 3:26 PM and arrive in Denver at 4:31 PM. Unfortunately, after the plane was fully boarded and pulled away from the gate, our pilot announced that the flight was going to be delayed because a nasty storm system stretched from Ontario, Canada, down through the state of Indiana. After sitting on the tarmac long enough to burn a sufficient amount of fuel, the pilot’s voice once again made its way through the cabin, this time to tell us that ‘flight control’ (my words, not his) was trying to determine if it made sense to go back to the gate for more fuel now or take off now, stop somewhere for fuel, and then make our way around the storm. Long story short, we went back to the gate–”in the name of safety,” said the pilot–but not before being treated to an X-Men movie featuring people with wings jetting out of their backs and knives coming out of their fingers (not a good movie for people who are locked up and sweating inside of an airplane headed absolutely nowhere).

Oh how I love being a road warrior, which when you stop to think about it, is not unlike surviving and succeeding in a down market. Knowing how to cope during stressful and challenging times–such as my flight to Denver or when I faced my first downwardly headed real estate market–is what ultimately makes you a success. When the going’s good, everyone gets in on the act and makes a killing. It’s the rare few who have done their homework, planned their work, and worked their plan who survive.