Marco Kozlowski

When I initially got involved with real estate I was a desperate struggling musician with four children. I was overworked and underpaid, constantly under pressure to make ends meet. At only 27 years old I was stressed beyond belief and virtually bankrupt. Saving money seemed nearly impossible being as how the money was spent weeks before it came in. Looking back I now joke about the only difference between me, as a musician, and a large pepperoni pizza is that the pizza can actually feed a family of four. I was miserable and knew I not only deserved more, but that my family did as well. I needed to do something about my unfortunate situation...but what?

It was 1999, I was watching TV one very late night, too stressed about money problems to get any sleep, when I froze while channel surfing and begin watching in astonishment as an infomercial aired and began promising me an abundance of wealth in the real estate industry even without having money or credit currently. Considering that I actually did have no money and my credit score was close to my shoe size I really wanted what they promised, more money, less work and complete financial freedom. All that I was required to do was get involved in real estate, but it was 350 dollars alone just to get the information. Although, I knew if I wanted to make any kind of a significant change in my life that I HAD to do something radically different. So, I took a deep breath and purchased the product with the last bit of money that we had set aside to get through the rest of the month. I knew what I was potentially risking, but in my mind the risk was well worth the reward.

After a few days, I received the package and ravaged through it like a kid on Christmas. I began by reading every book, flyer, and workbook. I also wore out the CD's and DVD's that the package contained to make absolute sure that I had expended all of my possible resources. I wanted to be sure that I knew the proper steps I needed to follow in order to be successful. These real estate techniques HAD to work, and they did - eventually.

The decision that I made to pursue this venture changed my life, the life of my family and the lives of their families for generations to come. It also changed the lives of my tens of thousands of students who I am able to constructively benefit on a day to day basis. That one conflicting decision has made me millions of dollars and spawned countless numbers of others who have achieved financial success using systems which I have created over the years.

Most of the concepts taught in that infomercial course were difficult for me to comprehend. I was clueless and could barely spell real estate, let alone grasp the entire industry and its inner workings. So, I decided to stick with one central area of focus at a time and within thirty days I made my first $7,000 from real estate using none of my own money or credit. I then abandoned the music business and decided to take on real estate as a full time responsibility and new passion. For years I'd been looking for something more for myself than simply being an inundated musician but I never knew what I was seeking. When I got my hands on that first check it became crystal clear that real estate was my future.

I first learned how to find good deals and started buying middle income houses in nice neighborhoods. On some, I used borrowed money from private investors and on others I took over overextended sellers' payments. I acquired over one hundred houses and a tenant to go in each.

Let me ask you this, do you have any tenants? And if so, did your tenants go to the same school as my tenants? The "Jerry Springer" school of tenantry? Well, if this is the case then maybe you came to the same conclusion as me. I soon realized that I went from a dead broke musician to a "rich on paper" and still dead broke landlord. Many of my renters paid late, if at all, making my bills impossible to pay. My financial world began to crumble. I'd spent two years buying the wrong properties, the wrong way, in the wrong areas, for the wrong reasons. I built my empire on a house of cards, not a solid foundation. I had gone about it all wrong.

You see, I really didn't understand the real estate business. I just bought properties because I had the ability to do so without money or credit. I bought all the rubbish savvy investors wouldn't touch. They'd already been to the school I was about to graduate from... The School of Very Hard Knocks. All of my properties inhabited by inconsiderate tenants were draining my resources financially and mentally. My days were spent solving their petty problems and listening to all of the embellished excuses for why they were unable to pay rent.

I had created a huge cash flow problem. I couldn't pay my bills and the collectors really started haunting me. The worst of them was my car company who called and badgered me until I warned them that if they called to hassle me again that they would not have a place saved for them in the HAT. They paused, asked what that was exactly, and I explained that at this point in my life, at the beginning of each month I take all of my bills and I put them in a big hat, and then, this is corresponded with a drawing! I made them aware that I take out two bills each month and those are the ones that I choose to pay. I then said to them, "If you do attempt to call me again, guess who's not going in the hat?" I got a chuckle from the gentleman on the other end of the phone, but unfortunately, two days later my car was gone. It's quite an endeavor trying to purchase a house when you're on a bicycle!

I was depressed, my entire family was mad at me and nothing I did seemed to work in my favor. At that moment, I wanted nothing more to do with real estate. Until the phone rang and it was a man named Bill who had seen one of my signs on the side of the road that promised that I was able to take over his payments, but when considering my current situation I thought that was a hilarious guarantee!

I spoke to Bill for a full 45 minutes before we even got to talking about real estate. I wanted to build a rapport with him by talking about my kids, about sports or fishing, essentially ANYTHING but real estate. All I did was dodge his real estate related questions for as long as I possibly could. Finally, I asked Bill what he did for a living - he was a divorce attorney. I asked him why he was selling his house -he was going through a divorce! I then asked him why that was a problem considering he was a divorce attorney. He explained that his wife was also a divorce attorney and he worked for her law firm. He was getting the house in the divorce settlement and he could not afford to make the $22,000 a month mortgage payments once the divorce was settled. Bill wanted me to make his payments. Unfortunately for Bill, all that was running through my mind was "yeah right!"

I told Bill there was no way that I would agree to make his payment. He naturally in return asked me why. Being as how I sure didn't want to tell him that I was utterly broke, I explained to him that after looking at my roster of houses, I had too many $22,000 monthly payments to make as it was! He chuckled, and then proceeded to ask me again. I managed to stand my ground and refused him a second time. I did however offer to try and sell his house for him, but all Bill did was go into a rehearsed rant about how every top real estate agent in the city has tried to sell it with no luck. He couldn't wait, he needed relief immediately. He hung up the phone.

I had completely forgotten about Bill until he called me back a few months later. I asked him how things were going and what had compelled him to call me back. He told me that he had gone to four different real estate investors who had all promised to make his payment and not one of them had followed through. He was now months behind on payments, facing foreclosure and his credit was ruined. He explained that I was the only one who took the time to get to know him on the phone before we talked business. He felt he could trust me considering that I was up front with him from the very beginning. (This was completely by accident as incidentally I had been feeling sorry for myself during our previous phone call and had purposely dodged his real estate questions.)

I then attempted to sell Bill's house for him. The first thing I tried to do was rent it out to tenants. Now, do you think that it's feasible to rent a multi-million dollar house that's behind on $22,000 payments and make a cash flow? No way! (Ask me why I know that!?)

The next strategy I used to sell Bill's house was a lease option. A lease option is when you find someone with poor credit, to put a large deposit down and service the monthly loan. Imagine placing an ad in your local paper to advertise this option that reads "$100,000 down, easy $35,000 month payments, any credit... okay!" Why do you think I know why THAT doesn't work?

I tried nearly everything that I could to get rid of this property and nothing seemed to work. After weeks of trying and almost giving up, I picked up a newspaper and saw the single word that would change my life forever - Auction.

A house in the exact same neighborhood as Bill's was being auctioned off that weekend. I knew that if a smaller luxury home could be sold at an auction, then I could use the same procedure to sell Bill's house. I sat in the back of that auction in sheer amazement as I witnessed hundreds of wealthy people fight over a house that they all wanted. The entire process was over in a total of eight minutes. The house sold for more than I had even thought it was worth and my A-D-H-D then kicked in resulting in my bouncing off the walls at this new opportunity that I had stumbled across. I now knew that I had the secret answer to selling luxury homes at a lightning fast speed.

I spoke to the auctioneer after the dust settled and I decided to tell him about Bill's house which he in return inspected that evening. He told me that it would be $50,000 to market the house through his auction company. Shocked, I asked why so much? He explained that it costs a great deal of money to aggressively market luxury homes in the outlets that he utilized. Such as The Wall Street Journal, The Robb Report, The LA Times and any other major publication that was needed to attract the right buyers with deep pockets. I didn't have the money at the time and asked if we could partner on the deal meaning he would front the marketing cost and we would then split the profits. We negotiated a deal that was much too favorable for the auctioneer but the house sold in four weeks to a cash buyer. The auctioneer made a high six figure paycheck and I walked away with $81,000. I was excited because I hadn't used a nickel out of my own pocket. I knew at that time that if I could concentrate on luxury homes and find better auctioneers with better terms that I would have the ability to crack the code to making millions of dollars without risking a penny.

That was over seven years ago and all that I've done since is focus on ways of finding, controlling and selling luxury property with no money at risk. I have created and perfected a system that allows anyone, who's willing to learn, to do the exact same thing.