About Us
Ronan here…
What is Real Estate Trend Alert and how does it work?
RETA is my investment research service for people interested in profitable real estate. The entire point of RETA is to put us on the inside of the world’s greatest real estate opportunities.
Our group was born out of my frustration…
I began traveling the world looking for real estate opportunities decades ago. And for years I searched for a group like RETA. I wanted to join like-minded folks eager to pool our buying power and share in the best real estate deals around the world. I searched in vain. There was no such group.
So, in 2008 I founded my own and called it, that’s right, Real Estate Trend Alert. Or RETA for short.
How do we get the best real estate deals?
First…
Whatever your business or profession I expect you know what a huge advantage it is to be first. First with an idea. First to develop a product. First to market it.
The same goes for making truly staggering profits in real estate.
To be a Real Estate Trend Alert member is to be first on the very best real estate deals in the world. First to get wind of a big transformation, a big trend or a major Path of Progress event, first to get in on the ground floor of that transformation…first to get in on a best-in-class real estate at off-market
prices.
That’s why I have a team of researchers and analysts. It’s why we spend a small fortune on travel and research. It’s why I have two chartered accountants to run the rule on things. To be first.
But to be first is not enough of an advantage…
We must be first together.
And the core strength of our RETA club is our group buying power. It’s by acting in unison with like-minded investors that we get the incredible deals that we do.
Alone, I can’t bring much to the table when I negotiate with developers besides my charm. I might not even get into their office. With RETA members at my back though, I can bow developers to our will, craft insanely good terms and prices, and leave everyone a winner. And, after many years in existence, our RETA group now has a heavy-hitting reputation in the right circles all over the globe.
Our group buying power is highly respected and sought after. It’s how we get deals no one else gets, deals that even the most informed local real estate insiders can’t believe.
To be a Real Estate Trend Alert member is to be first on the very best real estate deals in the world
And the core strength of our RETA club is our group buying power. It’s by acting in unison with like-minded investors that we get the incredible deals that we do.
Alone, I can’t bring much to the table when I negotiate with developers besides my charm. I might not even get into their office. With RETA members at my back though, I can bow developers to our will, craft insanely good terms and prices, and leave everyone a winner. And, after many years in existence, our RETA group now has a heavy-hitting reputation in the right circles all over the globe.
Our group buying power is highly respected and sought after. It’s how we get deals no one else gets, deals that even the most informed local real estate insiders can’t believe.
What People Say About RETA
Greg Bush, England, retired
Nicole Garner, Arizona, business owner
Patrick Carr, Denver, chief financial officer
Justin Barnett, Miami, retired
Robin Shortle, North Carolina, property manager
Brad Costanzo, seasoned entrepreneur, growth strategist and investor.
What do you get when you’re in the RETA club?
I’ll email you frequently with news of deals, reports from the road, analysis of markets, that sort of thing. This is particularly useful for keeping up to date on current deals. RETA members have this website, videos, reports…a vast library of resources. They are available to help you with anything. And there’s a buyer’s liaison too, to help you out after you’ve bought in any RETA deal.
I like thing simple and smooth. And that’s what I want RETA to be for members. The real juice of RETA membership though…the biggest benefit of them all…
That has to be the off-market RETA -only deal.
An off-market RETA deal is one I negotiate exclusively on behalf of RETA members on real estate I expect will rise in value. I use our awesome buying power as a group when negotiating.
For a deal to cut my muster, I have to see clear potential for us to double our money invested in five years. I particularly love deals that offer us rapid appreciation and enormous income potential should we choose to rent upon delivery.
All Sorts of Deals
Besides the off-market deal we have other sorts of deals. Flash deals for instance are one off and urgent. Like a luxury ocean-view villa in Nicaragua at 50% off…or a townhouse selling at a big discount in Spain. Both examples of flash deals I’ve brought to RETA members.
Also from time to time I might bring you some vicarious dream real estate my team has found, something that’s good value but not a red-hot RETA deal—think a castle in Italy or a cottage in Ireland. Something special with a lifestyle twist that often stacks up as a respectable investment, just not the stellar yields and gains we focus on for RETA.
An example is when I scouted historic village homes in the south of France that were ideal for renting out in the summer and spending time in yourself the rest of the year. You could figure on a 6% gross yield doing that. Not bad for your own slice of history in a fairy tale French village. But not the kind of incredible yield we hunt for at RETA.
What People Say About RETA
Johnny Corbyn, Virginia, business owner
Roger Day, optometrist, California
Tom Walton, software engineer, Washington
Ray Steele, Lake Geneva, WI, retired
Jim Ballard, retired, Oregon
Vince Santos, retired, Denver
Opal Daves, Model, Actress, writer, California
Why Do Developers Give Us These Deals?
When it comes to our truly special off-market deals, why do developers agree to offer us the unbeatable pricing they do?
The short answer is because of our RETA group buying power. By that I mean our capacity as a group to buy out communities in the space of a weekend or even less time.
Our deals need to be a win for everybody. A win-win-win. The developer gets fast sales, RETA members get incredible pricing, first dibs and often exclusive financing, and my company receive a fee, which helps keep the lights on, the travel happening, and the deals flowing.
By all buying together at the same time our group can change the developer’s business.
When developers decide to proceed with a project there are typically two numbers they target.
One is the profitability, the other is Internal Rate of Return (IRR). Without getting too technical, IRR is the annualized rate of return on their cash invested.
Developers look for the lowest-risk route to hit their targets.
By doing a deal with us at RETA it means the developer gets a quick chunk of sales under his belt. That’s because we bring our phenomenal group buying power to bear. And that cuts the project lifespan significantly.
In other words, the developer can get the project done much quicker, which has a huge impact on the IRR number. It boosts it (conversely, stretching out a project reduces the IRR proportionally).
Cutting the timeframe of the project also reduces costs because sales and admin offices are staffed and open for a much shorter period of time.
Meantime, because the developer has less inventory to sell to the local market, they can charge a higher price.
This all adds up to a very simple equation for a developer: They can offer really big discounts to us and still hit their numbers, while reducing their risk (and, by extension, our risk).
That’s the win for the developer and it’s the win for RETA members. By way of full disclosure the third “win” in our win-win-win is that my company get a fee for playing our part. Much of which gets ploughed back into travel and research and is the reason I’ve been able to grow Real Estate Trend Alert.
As you can see, the stronger our group, the more amazing deals I can negotiate for us.
And now you can see why developers come looking for us…and how we can get such amazing deals. (Plus, developers often offer RETA members exclusive financing, a major benefit in lots of overseas markets were foreigners would struggle to get bank financing.)
