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Saturday, December 30, 2006

Real Estate Investing Can Make You Rich

If you are going to get rich, you may have to give up everything you ever learned in school and from your parents and start from scratch. Now that's not a definite by any means. You may not have to start over. If someone along the line taught you, for instance that it doesn't actually take money to make money, then you may already be on the right track.

That's right. Robert Kiyosaki, author of the Rich Dad book series, said it exactly like this: It doesn't take money to make money. I often hear people say it takes money to make money. I disagree. We had no money when we started and we were also in debt. It also doesn't take a formal education.

He then mentioned Bill Gates as someone who never completed a college education. Which would you rather have, a collection of doctorates or Bill Gates' money?

What it does take, Kiyosaki says, is determination and a willingness to learn quickly. But you also have to know what to do with your talents and, most importantly, to know which part of the Cash Flow Quadrant to generate your income from.

The Cash Flow Quadrant is an icon taught to him by his best friend's father, a man to whom he refers in his books as his rich dad. It is an illustration of what his rich dad called the four different types of people in relation to money: Employees, the Self-employed, Businesspeople and Investors. Each quadrant comes with its own outlook on the world. The outlook of those in the B and I quadrants are the ones that help make them rich.

When Kiyosaki says you need to be willing to learn quickly, he doesn't mean go back to school to improve your job skills. He means you should learn about investing, preferably investing in real estate. The rich dad on whom he based his books was a real estate investor. You can get rich investing in real estate because everything else depends on it. At the beginning of his book Cash Flow Quadrant, he pointed out how so many of Hawaii's businesses were sitting atop real estate that his rich dad owned.

But he doesn't just mean you have to learn the nuts and bolts of investing. You do have to learn about those things, at least to the point that you are able to intelligently choose a professional to help you with your investments. But more importantly than that, you have to learn how to think like an investor, and possibly a bit like a business person too.

That is a far cry from thinking like a Self-employed person. According to Kiyosaki, a self-employed person is someone who owns a job, not a business. You don't own a true business, he said, unless you can leave it for a year and return to find it still making money for you. Businesspeople, he said, know better than to try to do everything themselves. In order to save time and money, they hire people to do the things they can't do or don't have time to do. That's why hiring a qualified real estate professional to guide you in your decisions can be a good investment in and of itself.

However you decide to do it, learning the nuts and bolts of real estate investing yourself or by hiring a qualified person to advise you, it is definitely time for you to move to the I quadrantthat is, if being rich is something you'd like to consider.

About the Author
Investment Property Specialist - Alex Anderson Connects Real Estate Investors With High-Quality Investment Properties. Get A Free Copy Of, "The Investor's Rental Guide"

What is a sandwitch deal?

This is a great way to make money in real estate especially if you do not have alot of money. The object of this type of deal is to find a motivated buyer and seller and place yourself in between. This is a very easy way to make alot of money with absolutely no risk. Here is an example of a sandwich deal. Find a motivated home owner who wants 100k (for example) for his home. Find out how much the home is worth on the market. If the house is worth 10% or more, make him the following offer: I will lease purchase the home from you, but you have to give me a break on the price and I cannot put anything down. If he says no and it is a good enough deal, try and work something out or just leave. If he says yes, get them to sign an assignable lease purchase agreement. Make sure it is assignable, because you now have the ability to lease the home to someone else or sell it for anything you want over the sale price. Now here is the best part, put a for sale or lease to own sign in the yard and find someone to put in the house. Make sure and get the owner to put in the lease when they will vacate (sooner the better) and do any small cheap touchups that will make it sell faster. I normally run ads in the paper that say something like Lease purchase in all areas. Now, how much do I make? I usually try and get 10% off the sellers price and ad 10% to my ask. That makes a 20% profit for doing very little work (no credit used and no risk) When i say there is no risk, that is not entirely true. You usually have about 30 to 45 days to get someone to give you an earnest money check to cover your first lease payment. There is a way to make more money in the long run, but less up front cash. Instead of selling the home, lease the house for 10% down and ad 20% to the sales price. Most people who lease to own never worry about the price of the home, just the payment. Give them a payment that makes you $100 or so dollars per month and wait for you payoff. Remember that only 20% or so will ever buy the house so you will be able to keep the downpayment they made and re lease the home when they leave. I try and save up a few months rent incase someone skips out on me. If you get 20 or thirty of these lpos going, you are making good money per month and you have zero liability for the house. Here are some items to always watch for:
Make sure you pay the house not directly to the lender (not original owner)
do not make any repairs to the house
make sure the lease contract is assignable
try and get as nice an area as possible
do not give the home owner any cash unless it is a great deal
have an amount you want to make on each deal or walk away.

Friday, December 22, 2006

how do i refinance my home

Do you have questions about refinancing your primary residence? This decision can be very important to your bottom line. A great way to start your investigation on refinancing is to look at a comparison site like http://www.lowratebroker.com

Monday, December 18, 2006

Lease Purchase VS Sale

Lease Purchase VS Sale

What is a LPO (lease purchase option) and how can it help me? An lpo is a great idea for any real estate investor. You an make extra money and pay less taxes by leasing a property instead of selling it. You do not have to even own a property to lease it. The first thing you need to do in order to lease a property is find out how much you need down and how much you need per month. Most investors want around 10 percent down and a couple hundred dollars per month profit. I normally lease a house that I know will be hard to get someone qualified or I don't really want to take a profit right away. The typical person who tries to buy a house via lpo does not think that they will qualify for conventional financing. I think the most important thing in considering a person for an lpo is how much they make per month and how long they have been on their job. I also look at the rental history of the person and how long they have lived in the area. Give your customer at least 2 years to convert the lpo and let them know that the home will appreciate every year for them and the price on the contract is what they will pay no matter what the market does. It should be easy for the leaser to get qualified if they make at least 12 payments on time via check or money order. Most banks view a 12 month lpo as a refinance instead of a purchase, therefore you can put someone in your property, charge them a premium and play the odds on them even being able to fill the contract. Here is how an lpo works:
Buyer signs at least 2 year lpo and puts down at least 10 percent (non refunable)
Buyer is responsible for all maintaining, taxes, insurance (get proof)
Buyer has a finite time to execute contract and if they cannot, they forfeit the down payment and have to either sign another lpo or vacate the property. Do not make the lpo assignable or transferable.

How can I make money off an lpo without home ownership? You can control a piece of property by simply leasing it from the owner and assigning it to another person. Here is an example:

Home owner wants out of the property now.
Real estate investor gets them to sign an lpo
Investor has them vacate property and make it look presentable
Investor now finds a person to sub lease the property from them. You get the same out of this as if you owned the property.
Investor collects the monthly rent and pays Home Owners Mortgage.

Here are the pitfalls:
Home Owner goes bankrupt (check your state)
Leaser damages property.

The advantage of this type of lpo is that you have almost nothing to loose. If you cannot find someone to lease the property or the leaser does not pay the payments, you keep the down ayment and via the lease agreement you contact home owner and let them know that you are canceling the lpo. Remember that if the seller is motivated, you will not have to put anything down and sometimes you can even get them to pay you.

posted by rob @ 5:05 PM 0 comments

Sunday, November 05, 2006
The After pics

Go to this link to view the after photos
http://rehabpicsafter.blogspot.com/

posted by rob @ 2:54 PM 0 comments

Thursday, November 02, 2006
Rehab pics BEFORE

here is a link to some pictures of a before rehab
http://rehabpics.blogspot.com/

posted by rob @ 10:24 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Is networking important for rehabers?

Ask any rehaber and they will tell you that they get a lot of their houses from other rehabers in their network. Most new rehabers ask why would someone giveaway a property that will make money. The answer to this question is very easy, it takes about 20 offers to get one good house. What happens when you get 3 or 4 out of 20 offers? Lets say that you have been in the business several years and you have 4 houses, what would you do if you could not get to all those houses? Would you turn down a good deal or would you buy it and flip it to another investor for a little profit. Most investors only work on 1 or 2 projects at a time, the other houses they own can be easily flipped to other investors for a quick profit. I usually price my flip to investors cheap because it is so much easier to sell to a pro. It is easier to sell to a pro because they know that numbers are all that matters and if they know the project will make them money, they will cut you a check. I usually do not let the investor know what I paid until the deal is done. Most investors do not care how much profit you make as long as they know you are not taking advantage. Remember the most important thing about networking is to not try and kill the buyer, because one day you will probably buy from them.

posted by rob @ 8:29 AM 0 comments

Monday, October 30, 2006
Great Free Sites

Great Free Sites

Where do you start finding rehabs? The internet is full of great information and some of it is free. Here is a list of sites I use almost everyday.

http://www.rehablist.com
This site is great. You can sign up free of charge and get fresh rehabs sent right to your email. This is also a great networking tool.

http://www.realtytrac.com
This site gives a free 7 day trial, but after that it is pretty expensive. I would sign up for the free trial and see if you like it enough to keep it. The one negative is that most investors know about this site.

http://www.realtracs.com
This site is great if you are in the Nashville Tennessee area. It shows you listings of all MLS houses.

You can search MLS listings in your site and find out your free site alternative. Set yourself up with automatic email notifications of any house that is listed in your specific price range.

http://www.lowratebroker.com

This site will find your customer or yourself the best rate on a new mortage or refinance. You can get a potential buyer to go to the site and get pre approved, so you do not waste your time on someone who is not qualified.

posted by rob | 9:32 AM | 0 comments

Friday, October 27, 2006
Finding your comps

How do I know how much a potential real estate investment is really worth?

In order to make a profit off of a real estate investment, you will need to first find out how much your property will be worth after fixup. There are a few ways to find out your potential investments worth:
Professional appraisal
Tax records
Recent comparible sales (comps)
internet sites like www.zillow.com

The first way on the list is a professional appraisal, this is the most accurate, but it can cost up to $400 for this service. Tax records are a good place to start, but they are usually 10 to 25% below the MARKET VALUE of the property. Comps are great and most real estate agents will give you a list of comps or let you know the approximate cost per square foot in the area. Internet sites like zillow are a great place to start your research on a potential investment, but do not make this your decision maker. I recommend getting comps and if you cannot find any comps within a 6 month period it is possible you will have a long selling cycle.

posted by rob | 2:36 PM | 0 comments

Loan to Value

Loan to value

How much will the bank loan me to fix up an investment property?

Banks are willing to invest in a piece of property if they believe that it will be worth more than the acquisition price and fix up. Most banks will only loan a percentage of the subject to appraisal. The percentage of value for most banks on construction loans is between 75 and 90 percent. The loan to value ratio of your bank is very important. As an investor, you will need money for the property and all expenses incurred for fix up. Most investors try and keep 10 percent of the loaned money as front end profit. Here is an example of a typical flips numbers:
Property cost 50k
fix up cost 14k
subject to appraisal 100k
bank loan to value percentage 80%

In this situation, you will have an up front profit of 16k. You will need to keep out money for interest payments and other costs.

For loan information go to http://www.lowratebroker.com

posted by rob | 2:34 PM | 0 comments

Home Inspections

Home Inspections

If you are new to real estate investing, a home inspector can really be a great tool. Flipping a house can be very profitable, but there are several things that you will need to inspect before you buy a possible investment property. If this is your first flip, you will definitely need to get an inspector if you are not sure about the following things:
Electrical wiring
Plumbing
Mold
Water damage
Foundation
Roof
Flooring

The items listed above can be very expensive if there is a major problem. Most real estate investors will crawl under the house and inspect it for everything on that list. If you are going to use an inspector, make sure they are licensed and have been in business at least 2 years. Most investors use an inspector that deals mainly with rehabs. Inspectors are not very expensive, but they are worth it if they find a major problem. When considering your first flip, know your limitations and call in an expert when you are not sure about something in the house that may be very expensive to fix. If you miss a foundation problem, you may have to pay 4 to 5 thousand dollars just to get it up to code. The biggest problem with everything on this list except the roof is that it does not really ad value to the house if you have to fix the problem. Every real estate venture that you do will lower your dependence on experts. One important tip is to stay with the inspector while they do your property. If you stay with the inspector and ask questions, you can learn how to do it yourself.

posted by rob | 2:32 PM | 0 comments

Monday, October 16, 2006
Is The Real Estate Market Getting Worse?

New mortgage applications dropped even though interest rates dipped to a 6 month low this week. This week applications are over 20% below this same time 1 year ago.Some experts are saying the overall momentum for the real estate market is definitely downward and possibly entering a recession.

As we all know, extremely low mortgage rates sparked the housing boom, but the recent plunge in mortgage rates did not motivate consumers to take action. Some real estate markets that have seen some of this volatility are Northern Michigan Arenac County, Las Vegas, Nevada and the Bay Area, Laguna Beach and San Diego in California.

Will the Federal Reserve cut rates again?

As the Unites States housing market slows to a crawl, it may also negatively affect the overall economy. The Federal Reserve will have a tough decision to make. Short-term interest rates may have to be cut instead of increased.

In addition, the Federal Reserve also has concerns about inflation. Rates may need to be lower sooner than expected, but how will that affect the real estate market?

The National Association of Realtors said existing home sales fell for a fifth straight month in August. Also home sale prices dropped from the previous year. This has not happened in 11 years.

There are also other reports indicating strength in the U.S. real estate markets. The Commerce Department said sales of new U.S. homes rose in August. New single-family dwelling home sales increased 4.1 percent in August from a downwardly revised July rate