The Facebook Stalker: Real Estate Investors Need Thick Skin! Facebook is one of the great tools for real estate. Networking, selling, building buyer’s lists, and even advertising if you want to spend some marketing dollars. I’m on Facebook quite a bit and it has helped contribute greatly to the building of my business. When I stop and think about it, the real estate investor’s relationship whom I do the most business with was formed thanks to Facebook.However… as is the case with … [Read more...]
The Every Day Impact of $9.2 Billion Spent on Investment Property Renovations
October 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The Every Day Impact of $9.2 Billion Spent on Investment Property Renovations For the past few years, I have been on a mission to shape a narrative for real estate investors that at best, is not understood by the main stream media and at worst is completely ignored. I place a lot of the blame for the lack of coverage of this particular narrative on real estate investors and even investment companies like my families. For too long we have failed to tell the proper story early on and have … [Read more...]
Inspecting A House: A Valuable Real Estate Education that Costs a Penny
September 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Inspecting A House: A Valuable Real Estate Education that Costs a Penny Want to vastly increase the probabilities of success in the real estate investment business? Want to create a perception about yourself that instills trust and confidence? Well for the first 50 people to sign up, you can accomplish this for the introductory price of $1,495!But wait! If you sign up within the next two days, you can get this for only… are you ready? $997!Sound familiar? I have good news and good news (no … [Read more...]
What’s That Underperforming Property REALLY Costing You?
September 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment
What’s That Underperforming Property REALLY Costing You? I was out of town last week and had an opportunity to meet a number of different investors on my trip. One conversation in particular stuck with me because I believe the scenario is common to a lot of people. Many investors that are in the market today for investment properties were the same ones that were buying properties either during the real estate frenzy of the mid-2000’s or on the front end of the recession (before prices had … [Read more...]
Are Your Real Estate Goals, Actually Goals?
September 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Are Your Real Estate Goals, Actually Goals? Goals.I think the first time I learned about goals was sometime in elementary school. We’ve all heard of them. We all know what they are. We all know how to set them… but do we really?I found in myself that as I grew older and got into the ‘real world’, my goal setting practices never grew with me. Instead, they stayed back in the pleasant little “I have no worry” land of elementary/middle school. The way we are taught originally … [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...]
Pursuing Real Estate Investing Freedom? Consider Getting a Real Estate License!
August 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Pursuing Real Estate Investing Freedom? Consider Getting a Real Estate License! One of the most highly talked about and debated questions within the world of real estate investing is ‘should’ or ‘should you not’ get licensed in your state? There are numerous articles on BiggerPockets discussing pros and cons and everything in between, but I wanted to throw my $.02 into the debate.There are a ton of financial reasons to pursue the license, but in this article, I’m going to focus on … [Read more...]
Muscle Memory for Real Estate: Improving Your Efficiency
August 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Muscle Memory for Real Estate: Improving Your Efficiency According to Wikipedia, the definition of ‘muscle memory’ is as follows:Muscle memory has been used synonymously with motor learning, which is a form of procedural memory that involves consolidating a specific motor task into memory through repetition. When a movement is repeated over time, a long-term muscle memory is created for that task, eventually allowing it to be performed without conscious effort. This process decreases … [Read more...]
Owning Rental Property Without Managing Tenants: Why I Use Property Managers
July 31, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Owning Rental Property Without Managing Tenants: Why I Use Property ManagersA few weeks ago, David, a co-worker of mine, got on the topic of investing in rental properties. After what seemed like 20 minutes, I found out the following about David:He owned a 4-plex ten years ago. He lost a lot of money. He hated dealing with tenants. He will never buy an investment property again. What I deciphered from his story was that he took on too much. He handled every aspect of his rental business … [Read more...]
How to Raise Private Money Anytime, Anywhere. Even Over Chicken Wings!
July 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment
How to Raise Private Money Anytime, Anywhere. Even Over Chicken Wings!This isn’t any sort of ground-breaking new real estate principle, but always be ready to talk about your business and private money! I’ve read other articles on BiggerPockets talking about this same principle, and with a recent experience of mine, you can throw me into the category of “believer”.The point of this article is to offer encouragement that these sort of things “do” happen in the real world, and not just … [Read more...]
Investors: Be Careful of Misplaced Motivation!
July 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Investors: Be Careful of Misplaced Motivation!I’m sure many of you have heard the cliche’ saying, practice makes perfect.It’s a great saying, but sorry to say, is 100% wrong. I don’t remember where or how long ago, but I remember someone telling me that which caused the “huh?!?!” type expression on my face.This person then said, perfect practice makes perfect.After soaking it in, things finally clicked, “Ahhhhhh! That makes sense.” What benefit is the practice if you aren’t … [Read more...]
Calculate Yield: Comparing Your Buy-and-Hold Investment Options
July 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Calculate Yield: Comparing Your Buy-and-Hold Investment OptionsAs an investor looking at multiple properties, how do you decide which one is right for you? Do you pick the one with the most bedrooms? Do you pick the one with the biggest discount to past value? Do you pick the one with the cute kitchen and the new paint?First things first, a new investor must decide on what type of investor they are. This means, does the investor want to buy-and-hold the property, or do they want to flip the … [Read more...]
Real Estate Marketing: The Walking-Talking Billboard
June 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Real Estate Marketing: The Walking-Talking BillboardCredibility. This was probably my single biggest fear when I first was getting started.How am I going to find good deals?How am I going to get good contractor pricing?How am I going to impact people with my face-to-face networking?Let’s be realistic, the majority of people starting out in real estate investing don’t exactly have the budget for renting out billboard space along busy highways. This was the boat I was in, so I figured a way I … [Read more...]
Three Budget Items Not to Forget Regarding Your Property Analysis
June 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Three Budget Items Not to Forget Regarding Your Property Analysis.Almost everybody has a different formula when it comes to rates of return and cash flow analysis. While it is imperative that investors have a good way to analyze investment properties, there is no right or wrong answer to this equation. I believe it boils down to experience, location, and personal preference when deciding what line items and assumptions to use when creating your deal analysis.Most models include the staple … [Read more...]
Your Real Estate Scope of Work: Reducing The Drama
June 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Your Real Estate Scope of Work: Reducing The Drama “Why did you replace that light fixture? I said not to! I’m not paying for that!”- “Excuse me? I remember you pointing to that fixture and saying you wanted it replaced! You ARE paying me!”Yuck. Sounds like something you’d hear on a Jerry Springer episode entitled He Said. She said. Although I’ve never been in a situation like this, I’ve heard stories from others who have and have never envied a fellow investor who ‘has’ … [Read more...]
Our Flipping Journey: Taking a Property From Ugly to Pretty
June 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Our Flipping Journey: Taking a Property From Ugly to PrettyI hate textbooks.Don’t get me wrong, I have used them and when needed will still pay a few dollars for one on Amazon or eBay, but for the most part, I find them pretty worthless. Why? Simply put, because everything is always displayed in “perfect world” conditions. As is the case in any business, but even more-so in real estate, these textbook conditions just don’t exist.Instead of just complain about it, I’m going to take … [Read more...]
IRS Section 121 And The Land Trust Beneficiary
January 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment
IRS Section 121 And The Land Trust BeneficiaryShould you put your personal residence in a Land Trust?IRS Section 121 And The Land Trust Beneficiary is a post from: Real Estate Investing Blog For Real Estate Investors.Read the full post here... … [Read more...]
IRS Section 121 And The Land Trust Beneficiary
January 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment
IRS Section 121 And The Land Trust BeneficiaryShould you put your personal residence in a Land Trust?IRS Section 121 And The Land Trust Beneficiary is a post from: Real Estate Investing Blog For Real Estate Investors.Read the full post here... … [Read more...]
Loan Programs That Will Help Sell Your Real Estate Investment Property
December 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Loan Programs That Will Help Sell Your Real Estate Investment Property You bought that investment property, rehabbed it from top to bottom and now you’re wondering where the buyers are. Unfortunately this economy is nothing like Field of Dreams – “If you build it, they will come” does not necessarily work anymore. There are so many discounted properties on the market right now, the fix and flip model is trickier than ever. Investors need as many tools as possible to make this … [Read more...]
New Investment Property for Christmas?
November 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Why the End of the Year Can Bring You the Best Investment Property Deals & How You Can Prepare With the holiday season quickly approaching. Chances are you’ve started gathering Christmas lists from your children. In order to get the best deal on gifts, you are in full of anticipation of the holiday sales ahead. After years of experience, you know that some of the best deals can be found closer to the holidays, but you have to be prepared, have a plan, and be able to act quickly, or … [Read more...]
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