Hello, my name is Matthew Chan.  I am the publisher and author of “The TurnKey Investor” series of books and audio programs.  I am also a real estate investor and entrepreneur based in Columbus, GA.  In my local area, I am best known along with my real estate business partner, Wes Weaver, as the principals of OwnerFinanceHomes.com, “The #1 Providers of Owner-Financed Homes in Columbus, GA & Phenix City, AL”. Although I am best known now as the publisher and author of “The TurnKey Investor” series of books and audio programs, I do not consider myself a “real estate guy”.  I consider myself more of an entrepreneur who felt compelled because of life circumstances 10 years ago to become a real estate investor.

Working as a Teen-Ager

In my real estate investor bio, I tell people I was involved in real estate since I was a teenager but what I don’t mention is that I really did not like real estate very much, nor did I have much interest at that time.  I was “forced” into the business when my mother asked me to help do grunt work and menial labor with her couple rental houses.  Grunt work like helping paint the inside of houses, install door knobs and locks, mowing and raking the yard, vacuuming the floors, and so forth.   These were tasks I hated to do and I complained forcefully how much I disliked doing this kind of work.

Although I eventually got myself out of doing physical work on her rental houses, I was frequently called upon to use a typewriter and make revisions to the lease my mother used at the time.  Because English was my mother’s secondary language, I would do my best to select the best words, phrases, grammar, and punctuation to incorporate into her leases.  She would frequently draft or dictate business letters in her imperfect English for me to revise and type.  Over time, I grew proficient at interpreting what my mother wanted me to write in her business letters and her leases.

I will admit, I did all of this very unhappily and with much resistance.  Today, I can honestly say that I am grateful to her that I was “forced” to learn such important skills at a relatively young age.  It is one reason I am so comfortable with preparing my own real estate contracts, forms, and agreements today.

The College Years

After I graduated high school, I went to college.  Readers of my book “The Intrepid Way” know that my very first semester was a disaster.  I made a 1.8 GPA average and was promptly put on academic probation.  The subsequent semester I did marginally better but failed to meet the minimum GPA requirements to stay in the university and I was put on academic suspension.  In effect, I was kicked out of the university for poor academic performance.

I was forced to retreat and enroll in the local community college and salvage what credits I had earned at the university and move forward.   After getting my act together, I did eventually graduate from the community college and re-applied to the university.  In my application, I pleaded my case to the university and promised them I had learned from my mistakes and would do better going into my upperclassmen courses.

After nearly 7 years of working in full-time jobs and attending college classes part-time at night, I eventually graduated with my Bachelor of Science in Business Administration.  After graduation, I worked in the corporate world for two years before I decided I would pursue a Masters Degree in Business Administration.  I would get my MBA degree nearly 3 years later.

I Ignored Real Estate For Years

During this 10 year period, I did not invest in one piece of real estate and the idea of a portfolio never entered my mind.  Although my mother encouraged me to buy real estate to invest in, I never felt stable enough to make that commitment.  More significantly, I simply had little interest or desire to invest in real estate of any kind.

My memories and experiences of real estate investing were quite negative.  It was unsexy, hard work, and I really did not understand the point.  Although my mother frequently said that that the tenants were paying for her properties, my mother was secretive about the values of her property, her equity positions, and what she owed on her properties.  And so while I would continue to assist my mother in lease revisions and business letters, I would have no desire to buy any real estate for myself.

After leaving the corporate world, I became an independent technical trainer and consultant of networking technologies.  I eventually became nationally known within the industry for my advisory roles.  After a successful 4-year run, I embarked on a costly business expansion that failed miserably.  I became disillusioned with the technical training business and was desperate to find a way out.

An Infomercial Plays Once Too Many Times

One night while living in the Atlanta area, I saw a popular late night real estate infomercial once too many times and decided to order the real estate investing course to see what it was all about.  When I finally did receive the course, I studied and found the course informative but somewhat lacking in details.  But I had gotten enough information out of the course to follow-up on the Internet to other courses, books, and seminars.  It would be a year later that I would buy my first mobile home.  A few months later I would buy a 2-bedroom investment house.  And many months later, I would become a financial partner in a small house that needed renovation.

Although I had a bit of a slow start in Atlanta, I had done and seen enough to realize there was a much larger potential.  I had learned techniques and ways of investing that was far more appealing than the conventional hands-on landlording my mother had done.  With that realization, I moved to Columbus, GA in late 2000 and the rest of the story you can easily find elsewhere.

I would later come to the conclusion that my mother clearly had the right idea to invest in real estate and build her own real estate portfolio.  She clearly had invested in quality properties but I felt that she did not have to do all the menial labor and grunt work.

My Mother is a Self-Made Millionaire

Nevertheless, I am happy and proud to say that my mother has become a self-made millionaire despite being an immigrant without a college degree and English as a secondary language.  Her retirement is better than 90% of the U.S. population.  To this day, she knows nothing about stocks, mutual funds, IRA’s, 401K’s, or pension plans.  All she knew was taught to her 20 years earlier, If she bought a good house to invest in, people will always want to rent from her and subsequently pay off her mortgage.  She would also get ongoing appreciation and would one day own the property free and clear.  She knew it would one day be her retirement plan.

By many people’s standards, my mother has become wealthy and without the help of any social programs or government assistance using a very simple and unsophisticated real estate investing plan.  She has done less than 10 real estate purchase transactions her entire life and has never managed more than 5 properties simultaneously.  She has never had used employees or property managers to manage her handful of properties.  Today, her modest real estate portfolio consists of less than a half dozen of well-selected and quite valuable properties.

My Own Multi-Million-Dollar Real Estate Portfolio

Clearly, I have gained a healthy respect of a well-managed and performing real estate portfolio.  Today, I have my own multi-million dollar real estate portfolio that I semi-actively manage and nurture.  It continues to grow year after year without my needing to do deal after deal.  I no longer feel the pressure to keep doing deals.  I am much more selective of what I buy and now looking into commercial real estate.  And with the exception of two or three challenging properties, I love my investment portfolio.
I used to be envious of people who would conduct many buy and sell transactions per year until I realized that many of these individuals treated properties as inventory to be bought and sold like used cars working for earned income.

I have since learned that nearly all wealthy people have a real estate portfolio even those individuals who have a stock portfolio.  And every person who chose to invest in real estate and create a real estate portfolio did not get inspired by the idea of managing property or becoming a landlord.  In other words, no one gets inspired to invest in real estate because of the management responsibilities.   They get excited about the large amount of wealth, equity, and cash flow they will one day have.  They simply recognize that management responsibilities is the small price they pay for having others (tenants) entirely pay for these incredible valuable assets.

Getting Inspired to Build Your Own Portfolio

I have used my personal story to give you insights and perhaps a small amount of inspiration as to why I think building your own million-dollar real estate portfolio is so important and why I am passionate about it today.  In the large ocean of real estate investing seminars being offered today, most are focused on doing deal after deals for active income.  However, there are nearly no real estate investing seminars that will teach you to how build a multi-million dollar real estate portfolio from scratch and take it to the level you are comfortable with.

Whether you want to buy 1 property, 10 properties, or 100 properties for your own portfolio, I think you will found our workshop to be a one-of-a-kind experience in an environment with intensive discussions and private financial and business information disclosure rarely found anywhere.

Come join us on October 10-12, 2008.  I look forward to seeing you there.

Sincerely,

Matthew Chan

P.S. Take a peek at our Workshop Registration Form. It might be good use of your time to take a quick look at it.

P.P.S. You might also want to read the article "Great Reasons to Attend the Workshop".