The Bipartisan Policy Center recently released its projections for the national market in “Demographic Challenges and Opportunities for U.S. Housing Markets,” a 52-page report we have summarized in this multimedia presentation:

We enjoyed reading and laughing over all the entries. After careful consideration we picked our five winners. We will contact the winners for their addresses and send them their MP3 players.

Here is the original Armando Montelongo quote:

“I want to teach as many students as I can to be successful, because I know it really sucks to be broke and helping people is what gives me my greatest reward in life.”

The winners are:

Did you enjoy this contest? What other contests do you think we should do? Let us know:

Armando Montelongo Companies employees took a break from the office to enjoy a beach party on May 4.

Staff volunteers grilled up a feast of burgers and hot dogs, while employees splashed around in the Rancho Montelongo pool and slid down a huge inflatable water side.

Even Armando himself took time to splash employees and join the fun.

Check out our video of the party:

RealtyTrac, which tracks and studies foreclosure listings nationwide, has compiled a simplified version of the steps involved in a short sale, in which a lender agrees to accept less than what is owed on a house from a buyer, often as a way to avoid the often lengthy and expensive foreclosure process.

Here’s a quick checklist of the process, with information from the RealtyTrac blog:

What do you think? Is this helpful? Are you ready to start making more short-sale offers? Let us know:

We have added another way for you to connect with us: Pinterest.

Pinterest is a social photo and video sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based pin boards. You can scan through other users’ pin boards and “re-pin” content you find interesting. Pinterest’s missions is to “connect everyone in the world though the ‘things’ they find interesting.”

On the Armando Montelongo Pinterest page, you’ll find boards with helpful information, videos, great Armando quotes and fun photos. Feel free to follow, “re-pin” and share our boards.

Pinterest is an invite-only site, but if you’ll e-mail us at socialmedia@teamarmando.com, we’ll send you an invite. Happy pinning!

Here’s our home on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/amcompanies/

If you’re new to Pinterest, check out this how-to video by LessonsUnder5:

Ready to get started? E-mail us for an invitation, and let us know what you think:

A couple from the April 2012 Armando Montelongo VIP Bus Tour — with their baby Rylee in their arms – says “thank you” for the experience in a new video.

Be sure to click on some more of the videos from the latest and greatest of the Bus Tours to hear about more life-changing experiences.

The photo at right, by the way, is of Armando and Rylee, during a break at the Bus Tour on Saturday night.
 
 

“David looks over at me with this tense, am-I-going-to-feel-the-same-way-he-does look,” Kathi recalls. “And he asks ‘What do you think about this?’”

She smiles at the recollection.

“I go ‘Hello? It’s totally a no-brainer,’” she says with a laugh. “This is exactly what we were going to do.”

At the next break, they went to the back of the room and registered for the next event. Two years later, the couple from Irvine, Calif., has progressed through the educational system, to the point of doing multiple house flips – and the honor of teaching students on the VIP Bus Tour.

“I think back to that day, and then I flash my life forward to where we are today…” David says, his voice trailing off for a moment. “I never in my wildest dreams…”

He stops for a moment, choking up. “I’m a pretty emotional guy,” he says. “This has completely changed our lives.”

And it all started with that look.

Laid Off – and Happy

When the couple went to the intro event, Kathi Duncan was getting back into the work force after staying home as their two children were growing up. She quickly shifted from a 9-to-5 job, though, to finding, fixing and flipping homes.

David continued to work as a key account rep in the footwear industry, a career that had paid the bills for many years but held little appeal to him anymore. He worked as a real estate investor when he could, and they started slowly, using their own money to buy and fix houses. They set a goal to be working together full-time by the end of 2011.

In July of that year, he underwent knee replacement surgery. After three months of rehab, he went back to work – where he was told he was no longer needed by the company. They went to a Bus Tour a couple of weeks later, telling some of their friends about the layoff.

“They were like ‘That’s great, you got fired! That’s so freaking cool! Good for you!’” says David, who admits his initial reaction wasn’t as positive. “But the reality was that it allowed Kathi and me to focus more on our business.”

His wife calls it the “best thing in the world.”

“We were working toward that goal anyway, and it just solidified that goal,” she says. “We had no reason to procrastinate. We’re full-speed-ahead. It motivated the heck out of us.”

Positive Future

Kathi ‘s “no-brainer” reaction at the initial event has carried through the last two years.

“I knew I was going to love it, but it’s even like ten-fold more,” she says. “I can’t imagine not being able to do this, and I can’t imagine anything I would rather do.”

Their projects are all in Southern California, a rich market for house flippers that is close to home for the couple, and they have started investing in buy-and-hold properties as well. Their long-range plans include bringing their daughter into the business.

“She’s 20, so she’s young,” David says. “She should have a fun time. But we want to create something for her. And we have a son who has learning disabilities who now lives on his own. But we need to build something into a special-needs trust to protect his finances and to make sure that when we’re gone, there’s something there that will keep him safe, and there will be an income flow that’s protected.”

The couple didn’t go into the process with the aim of being mentors, but they were asked to be in the master mentor program after less than a year and progressed to the role of bus leaders.

“It was a gift,” David says, choking up slightly. “It was really a gift. The fact that they picked us was pretty amazing.”

Bus Tour Leaders

The Duncans’ style on the Bus Tour is a combination of Armando’s push-your-limits style and their own experiences as parents. They foster a sense of community among their students, while at the same time making sure everyone understands the process.

“The greatest gratification, I think, is teaching,” David says. “We do things on the bus to mix it up, things that force them out of their comfort zones like Armando talks about.

“To see them come out and say ‘Yeah, I got it, I got it’ is so cool. It’s just remarkable.”

David recalls a student at a recent Bus Tour who was attending with his daughter. He quickly developed a negative attitude, one that the Duncans noticed right away. David spoke to the man, noting that he needed to let go of the negatives in his life.

“I told him ‘You will have wasted your money and three days of life, and you will not have allowed it all to sink in,’” David says. “And then I went to his daughter, who was like 21 or 22, and said the same thing – ‘You need to pick your dad up.’”

The next time David noticed the man, he had shed his attitude – to the point where he was wearing a bucket on his head and taking part in everything his group was doing. Two days later, they met again, in the lobby of the hotel.

“He had really gotten involved and he had learned a lot,” David says. “I gave him my number. He’s never called, but I suspect he’s doing OK.”

As are the Duncans.

“It’s a natural high,” Kathi says of the radical change their lives have taken in the last two years. “You develop the belief that you can do real estate, that you can set these goals and achieve them.

“You get the means and the motivation in your heart and mind, and the dedication to do whatever it takes to get wherever you want to go. It just blows my mind.”

David agrees.

“For all these blessings, we have to thank Armando for seeing something in us that we did not see,” he says. “The true dedication to our success has come full circle, and we are eternally grateful.”

Are you ready to make the kind of change that David and Kathi made? Visit ArmandoLive.com to get started. And feel free to share this post and/or leave your thoughts below:

You also can see the photos, complete with captions, at our Flickr site.

If you were there, be sure to check and see if you made the collection. Enjoy!

Look like fun? It’s twice as educational…leave your thoughts below:

Feel free to leave your comments below:

We’re always looking for better ways to connect with you, too. That’s why we’re launching our own little presence on the iPhone.

And it’s easy to install, too. Here’s how:

 
Click on the icons to find out about social media at the Armando Montelongo Companies: