Reality TV Real Estate Flipping: How ‘Real’ is It? Hi. My name is Clay and I’m a reality TV addict.Survivor, Shark Tank, The Amazing Race, Big Brother, and the list goes on…At the top of my list though are the reality shows about real estate, in particular, flipping. I am a sucker for them, and if I’m honest, they were a big reason why I decided to get into real estate in the first place. I mean don’t you see the massive amounts of profits real estate investors make in 30 – 60 … [Read more...]
The Five Financial Benefits of Real Estate Investments
October 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The Five Financial Benefits of Real Estate Investments Financial advisors will tell you that there are five ways that you can earn a return on any investment. In no particular order, these are:Cash Flow or Rate of ReturnFederal Tax BenefitsLeverage of OPM (Other People’s Money)Principal PaydownAppreciation.One of the wonderful things about real estate is that you can get all five! Real estate is the only investment that I know of that potentially gives you all of these advantages!Think … [Read more...]
Why Real Estate Returns Are Higher than Stocks, Bonds and Mutual Funds
September 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Why Real Estate Returns Are Higher than Stocks, Bonds and Mutual Funds Investing in rental property is like eating a hot fudge sundae. Buying stocks, bonds and mutual funds is like eating hot fudge with the occasional spoonful of ice cream.With real estate rentals, your returns include:1. Cash Flow from Monthly Rental Income – A Huge Scoop of Your Favorite Ice Cream 2. Buying Money – A Second Scoop 3. Tax Free Refinancing – A Third Scoop 4. Appreciation – Hot Fudge on Top 5. Write … [Read more...]
Friday Asia Digest: The Great Tokyo Rebound | Asian Real Estate Gets Greener
September 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Friday Asia Digest: The Great Tokyo Rebound | Asian Real Estate Gets Greener Two decades of deflation, following the great Japanese property bubble burst in the early nineties, have left speculative investors on the sidelines as far as Japan is concerned. The ultra-safe and highly regulated business environment, tax incentives for foreign investors, and even the promise of spectacular cash-flow, in a world gone mad with negatively geared sub-prime properties, have not been enough to lure … [Read more...]
The Power of Appreciation and Leverage: Boost Your Real Estate Returns
September 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The Power of Appreciation and Leverage: Boost Your Real Estate Returns If you’ve read any of my blogs on BiggerPockets, http://www.biggerpockets.com, you’ve probably noticed that I am a believer in real estate appreciation. Yes, real estate can and has lost value in recent years; but over time, real estate generally increases in value. This is especially true if you happen to time the market effectively. I have not been shy about the fact that I believe now is a very good time to buy … [Read more...]
Real Estate Investing for the Next 10 Years: If It Were Easy, Everyone Would Do It!
September 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Real Estate Investing for the Next 10 Years: If It Were Easy, Everyone Would Do It! Real Estate seems so simple; all you do is buy low and sell high, right?Wrong!!!Well, what about buy and hold investing or land lording? That’s simple, right? All you do is buy a property and sit on it for 10 years or so and magic happens, no?Wrong!!!Okay, but setting up a long term financial plan and retiring from your day job has to be easy, because all you do is buy one additional property a year for … [Read more...]
How to Invest in Real Estate When Everything Is Too Expensive
September 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
How to Invest in Real Estate When Everything Is Too Expensive The most inexpensive property I’ve ever bought was for $16,000.00. It wasn’t in terrible shape, but it did need a good deal of work to get it up to a rent-able standards (about $30,000.00). The most expensive property was over a half-million for an apartment complex which I still own and love dearly.However, in some areas of the country, those prices are simply not realistic. In fact, in some areas you can barely buy the … [Read more...]
A Great Real Estate Attitude… thanks to Disney!
September 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment
A Great Real Estate Attitude… thanks to Disney! There’s nothing like pulling inspiration from a childhood Disney movie. You would think that these sorts of movies are only good for keeping your kids occupied; however, The Mighty Ducks (1992) has one quote in particular that I believe is a “must-have” if you plan on being successful in real estate:“It’s not worth winning if you can’t win big!”Still gets me fired up even after all these years!Let me take the words right out of … [Read more...]
Choosing from the Real Estate Smorgasbord
September 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Choosing from the Real Estate Smorgasbord Real estate is like a smorgasbord! You can pick and choose the foods you’ll eat, keep returning for more helpings, and learn what areas you like and which areas you love. Like food, once this information is digested by your brain you will then make an educated business decision to continue practicing this method or leave it for later or never.As a real estate investor and mentor I speak with sellers, buyers, and other investors who know exactly what … [Read more...]
Real Estate Investing Without Cash: Leasing Your Credit
September 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Real Estate Investing Without Cash: Leasing Your Credit Rather than re-hash the same “getting started in real estate without cash” article, I thought I would take my post in a different direction.Let me explain. . .A few weeks ago, Todd, a former co-worker, and I went out to dinner. During our meal, the topic of real estate investing came up. Todd shared that he had wanted to invest in real estate, but just never had enough capital to get started. I asked him why he let money stand … [Read more...]
Six Reasons Why Real Estate Trumps Investing in Stocks and Mutual Funds
September 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Six Reasons Why Real Estate Trumps Investing in Stocks and Mutual Funds I experienced a drug induced hallucination when I was 10. Laughing gas from my dentist caused me to visualize colorful puzzle pieces crawling all over the ceiling of the exam room. Hopefully, you have never endured this “wacky awake dreamlike state” but take my word for it, you feel out of control.To this day, I still feel a lack of control when I’m in the dental chair. Someone else is put in charge of my mouth and … [Read more...]
Your Real Estate Command Station
September 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Your Real Estate Command Station Efficiency is the name of the game. The less time you spend on a task, the more time you have to spend with family, friends, toys, vacations, etc.If you’ve read some of my other articles, you know that as a former engineer, I can’t help but be obsessive compulsive about making processes and tasks as efficient as possible.As I was sitting at my “command station” (desk in my office) contemplating what this article should be about, I noticed I had an … [Read more...]
The Number One Irrational Behavior of Real Estate Investors
September 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The Number One Irrational Behavior of Real Estate Investors If you ever get a chance to read my posts on the BiggerPockets forums, you notice that I am a big proponent of education, mentor ship, coaching, whatever you want to call it. I call it surrounding yourself with people you want to learn from and always learning something new. One week ago, I had the chance to travel to Boston to attend the Hubspot Inbound ’12 conference and do both!Before tying this into real estate, I think … [Read more...]
ABC of Real Estate
September 4, 2012 By 3 Comments
This is the ABC of real estate as told by my 2 year old daughter, Alexa. As you'll see, each letter of the alphabet corresponds to a real estate word. For example, A is for Agent, B is for Bank, etc. Here is Alexa reciting her real estate ABC: I saw my daughter watching YouTube videos of the alphabet and thought, "why not teach her the ABC of real estate?" At her age, she is such a sponge that teaching her words is quite easy. And once she learns once, it sticks. So I figured now would be … [Read more...]
What Does a Real Estate Wholesaler Look For In a Buyer?
September 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment
There has been a lot of conversation lately on BiggerPockets about working with wholesalers; the good, the bad and the ugly.I think that we can all agree that there both ethical wholesalers in this business, and those that are less than ethical. This is no different than you would find if you were looking at rehabbers, landlords or any other group of real estate investors.Since I am a full time wholesaler, I wanted to talk a little bit today about what I look for in a buyer which is what I … [Read more...]
The Top 100 Ways To Make Money In Real Estate
September 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Have you heard my “toilet story?”Let’s just say it involves a plugged toilet, three college-aged tenants, three weeks of procrastination (with continual use of that plugged toilet), and my bad mistake of not hiring a plumber. It was a low point in my investing career but a turning point as well. I realized the type of investor I wanted to be and the type of investor I did not want to be. I no longer work on toilets.It’s been years since that event, but I still think of it when I hear … [Read more...]
The Hardest Part of Buy-and-Hold Real Estate Investing: Delayed Gratification
August 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The Hardest Part of Buy-and-Hold Real Estate Investing: Delayed Gratification Let me start this post by saying I love “buy-and-hold” real estate investing. I just wish it was easier.Flipping real estate or wholesaling deals is appealing, as cash is quick and you know in a short time frame if you have made a good deal. Unfortunately, buy-and-hold real estate can take a long time to generate a meaningful amount of cash flow.This leads me to today’s topic, as I want to highlight what I … [Read more...]
So You Want to be a Full Time Real Estate Investor?
August 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment
So You Want to be a Full Time Real Estate Investor? Reading Michael Zuber’s post the other day got me thinking back to the days when I was a newbie investor and still had a full time day job. My weekends were pretty full also, as well as many of my nights after work. My wife and I worked very hard, buying and rehabbing properties, dealing with tenants, raising and saving capital. Heck, I even cut all the yards for a while. However, we worked so hard because we had a goal.That goal was … [Read more...]
A Flipper’s Best Friend? The Real Estate Wholesaler
August 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment
A Flipper’s Best Friend? The Real Estate Wholesaler If you’ve read any of my other articles, you know I’m a believer in doing whatever you can to make the most efficient use of your time; which, in return, creates the maximum amount of freedom possible (the end goal for the majority of people getting into real estate). For the flippers out there, the one “to do” item on your daily checklist that never disappears should be:Find a Wholesaler.As far as I’m concerned, a wholesaler is … [Read more...]
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Real Estate and “The Bathtub Recovery”
Real Estate and “The Bathtub Recovery” In last week’s article I talked about the importance of a ten year plan for real estate investing. In addition, I highlighted how important it is to use changes in market cycles to your advantage and the importance of adjusting your business model to suit the current and changing market cycle. Lastly, I called the reader’s attention to the fact that the market may be turning in a significant way. An outcome of the article was a reader’s … [Read more...]