Ground Leases 101: A Financing Alternative Despite the relative return of liquidity in the credit markets, many real estate owners and developers are still facing an uphill battle to obtain sufficient funding for their projects. One way to move that project from the drawing board to the construction site is eliminate the high property acquisition costs and turn to ground leasing as an alternative. Before you get started, here are a few issues to consider before signing the lease.Don’t Be … [Read more...]
What’s In Your Real Estate Purchase Contract?
September 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment
What’s In Your Real Estate Purchase Contract? How wordy do you need to be when purchasing a property? Some purchase offer contracts can run into the dozens of pages. I find the opposite works better for me. I currently use simple and concise contract language that fits on about one page when I wish to make an offer on a property. This contract language has evolved over the years and I use it for several reasons.It keeps things simple.Keeping it simple sometimes makes the deal.I can … [Read more...]
3 Key Tips For Screening Tenants
September 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment
3 Key Tips For Screening Tenants Everyone has their own method and criteria for screening tenants. Many folks use a formula that is a percentage of gross income to determine if they make enough money to qualify for the property. There will also be other factors such as length of employment and previous landlord recommendations. But the sad fact is that after all that due diligence, you may very well still end up with a tenant that doesn’t pay the rent and doesn’t take care of your … [Read more...]
Four Pieces of BAD Advice on Managing Rental Property You Should Forget
August 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Four Pieces of BAD Advice on Managing Rental Property You Should Forget Every once in a while I come across a blog post or an article or even a video that I think misses the mark so badly that I want to reach through the computer at the person who put it out and ask them “what are you thinking”? Not your usual disagreement or not understanding someone’s point of view, but actually wanting to ask why in the world they give the advice they are giving. I never do mind you. I think … [Read more...]
3 Ways to Overcome Restrictive Leasing Covenants
August 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment
3 Ways to Overcome Restrictive Leasing Covenants I have been buying and selling houses for over 7 years now and never really had any problems with my Homeowners Associations …. until this year. Interestingly, I’ve run into problems on three different properties in different neighborhoods just in the last few months. What I’ve encountered are HOA’s with restrictive covenants limiting an owners ability to rent properties in the neighborhood.It’s understandable why an HOA would … [Read more...]
How to Think Like a Buyer When Getting Your Property Ready to Sell
July 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment
How to Think Like a Buyer When Getting Your Property Ready to SellThe house is finally done after a whole lot of “blood, sweat and tears”, and now it’s time to get your wholesale flip “retail buyer ready”. Real estate investors all have the same question at this point; how can I make my house stand out from the other homes for sale in the neighborhood? The answer is quite simple. Your home has to make a better first impression than your competition. Your potential buyer has to want to … [Read more...]
Real Estate in Japan – “The Tenant is King”
July 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Real Estate in Japan – “The Tenant is King”We’ve covered the basics – Japan’s got beautiful cash-flow, zilch to negative capital gain (may change, may not), and the icing on the cake – the best and safest business and residential environment one could possibly hope for as a foreign investor or business person.So, the question begs to be asked –why isn’t everybody and their dog shopping there???Well, the big boys, (GS, DBG, Fortress, TPG, etc) already are, as mentioned. As for … [Read more...]
Commonly Overlooked Lease Issues: Third Party Rights
June 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Commonly Overlooked Lease Issues: Third Party RightsThis series is devoted to highlighting those often neglected lease provisions and prevailing on our landlord readers to give them a second look when crafting their contracts. Last month, we looked at the benefits of affirmatively addressing the, dare I say, not uncommon occurrence of a landlord default on their lease obligations and potential tenant remedies in such circumstances. Today we look at third party rights.Third Party Rights: The … [Read more...]
How Should You Structure Your Real Estate Partnership?
May 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment
How Should You Structure Your Real Estate Partnership?A partnership occurs when two or more people join together for business purposes. It’s a legal entity recognized by the state where the partnership was formed. Partnerships can take many different forms based on risk allocation and tax purposes. Let’s take a look at some common partnership structures. A word of caution before we proceed: Each state may have slightly different rules and regulations governing partnerships. Take the time to … [Read more...]
Be Careful When Inheriting a Tenant
May 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Be Careful When Inheriting a TenantWith the extraordinary number of short sales and foreclosures over the last few years, many distressed properties are actually being purchased with the previous tenant still residing in the property. For many investors, the thought of avoiding up front rehab costs as well as the time and expense associated with finding a tenant adds to the appeal of this scenario. Admittedly, I too have been drawn to certain properties because of the prospect of inheriting a … [Read more...]
My Lawsuit From an Unhappy Tenant
April 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment
My Lawsuit From an Unhappy TenantI wrote about how I was getting sued by one of my tenants for the first time ever. To give you a quick recap, I had a tenant sign a lease and then the day she was supposed to move into the property she claimed that it was “uninhabitable” and wanted her money back.Obviously, I was not going to return her security deposit or first month’s rent because the tenant had walked through the property previously, and had signed a lease, in which she acknowledged … [Read more...]
Managing My Own Rental Property?
March 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Managing My Own Rental Property?There are many good reasons to manage your own rental properties. First, there is the common saying that “nobody cares about your property as much as you do.” That’s true and nobody will likely try harder to find and keep good tenants than you will. Another reason to manage your properties is because it will save you a good amount of money. Most rental companies will charge you 10% of the monthly rent. Therefore, if you’re renting a place for $1,500 a … [Read more...]
Property Management Is There A Quick Fix?
February 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Property Management Is There A Quick Fix?Will the single family investment dream crumble before the realities of managing rental properties? Last year only about a third, 35 percent, of single family rentals made a profit on their rental income. The 3.8 million that lost money or broke even saw their owners’ dreams of a steady, annual rental income evaporate into the ether.Lack of profits isn’t due to lack of effort. Nearly eight out of ten individual investors manage their own … [Read more...]
Lease Issues (Part 1)
February 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Lease Issues (Part 1)In th attempts to make their lease agreement more user friendly to the tenant, landlords often omit useful lease provisions. This series will be devoted to highlighting those often neglected provisions and prevailing upon our landlord readers to give them a second look when crafting their contracts.Topic One: Landlord Defaults and Tenant Remedies Many landlords neglect or outright refuse to address the situation in which they themselves have become a bad actor. Perhaps … [Read more...]
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Putting Together a ‘Team’ for Your Real Estate Business – It’s About Results
Putting Together a ‘Team’ for Your Real Estate Business – It’s About ResultsMany on BiggerPockets, me included, often refer to the ever present, but somehow nebulous, Team. Speakin’ only for myself, Team has a very well defined meaning as it relates to what I do. Before abandoning my hometown real estate market, my Team consisted of assistants and a transaction coordinator. That was pretty misleading though, using 20/20 hindsight. Consider that from 1977 through 2003, 27 years, I used … [Read more...]