47 Reasons Sane People Sell A House Dirt Cheap Are you apprehensive about marketing to motivated sellers? Do you wonder whether people actually exist that are willing to sell their houses for dirt cheap without being forced? Join the club. I think most of us have these doubts when we got started. It’s only natural because we’ve likely never been in a situation that would make us want to sell under market value. The more marketing I did, the more it became clear that people were more … [Read more...]
Willow Tufano | 14 Year Old Real Estate Investor
December 6, 2012 By 2 Comments
PORT CHARLOTTE, FL - Willow Tufano became a real estate investor this year, at the tender age of 14. She partnered up with her Realtor mother Shannon and the two purchased a short sale in January 2012 for $12,000. They split the cost to purchase the property and the renovations. Once completed, they leased it out. In October 2012, they purchased a second property together for $17,500 with the same funding arrangement. Although they don't live in Port Charlotte, FL, they invest there because, … [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...]
Having Trouble Finding Real Estate Deals? Re-visit the Basics!
September 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Having Trouble Finding Real Estate Deals? Re-visit the Basics! I’ve been a little frustrated lately when reading online forums by some of the questions and responses being posted. The one that has frustrated me the most has been “Where are all the deals?”.To be very clear, this is a different question than “How do I find houses” or “How do I get started”. Those two questions are asked everyday by new investors trying to figure out the lay of the land and are looking for … [Read more...]
5 Steps to Negotiating Real Estate
September 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Have you been negotiating real estate all wrong? Studies have shown that only 40% of signed real estate agreements end with a successful closing. Why so few? Many buyers and sellers are conducting their real estate negotiations all wrong. Many assume that in a real estate negotiation, if you get the best of the other party and the deal is heavily one sided to your direction, that you have won. That may work with other businesses, but in real estate, the opposite is true. If a deal is too … [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...]
Real Estate Deals: Know When to Fold ‘Em!
July 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Real Estate Deals: Know When to Fold ‘Em!I recently met with a seller at her house. This house was part of an estate and was in very bad shape. It also been many years since an updates had been done.She told me that “she knew pretty much what she was going to be able to sell the house for”. This seller tried to put on a show of confidence even though she knew the house needed a roof, kitchen, bathroom and a lot of other repairs. This house also had some mold in the drywall in the … [Read more...]
Successful Women Real Estate Investors: 3 on 3 Interview Series
July 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Successful Women Real Estate Investors: 3 on 3 Interview SeriesIn the previous two installments of the three on three interview series the focus was on a specific investment strategy or type of business (spec-building & flipping & rehabbing distressed property), but this one will focus on a group of people, successful women in real estate. Real estate investing is often regarded as a male dominated business, but more and more often women are making it to the top of their respective … [Read more...]
The Benefits of Teaming Up in Real Estate Investing For Partners
June 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The Benefits of Teaming Up in Real Estate Investing For Partners.The horror stories of business partnerships: the tale of one partner cheating the other out of his life savings, the partnership turned Ponzi-scheme with one partner in the dark about the scam, friendships ruined by a disagreement or financial losses, and families torn apart by well-intentioned business plans. Who knows how many potentially successful partnerships never happened because of fear induced by these scenarios and … [Read more...]
An Investor’s View On Mastering Your Inspections
June 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment
An Investor’s View On Mastering Your InspectionsFrom real estate agents to banks, to flippers to buy and holders, to wholesalers to buyers and sellers (forgive me if I forgot you), inspections almost always have their place in the course of a real estate deal.I want to take a moment and view home inspections from a flipper’s point of view. My investment company currently holds mostly a short term exit strategy on our residential buying opportunities. In short, we are looking to get the … [Read more...]
First Real Estate Deal Emotions: Part 2 of 2
June 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment
First Real Estate Deal Emotions: Part 2 of 2Over the past 6 weeks I have been helping a new investor who has recently jumped head first into real estate investing and purchased her first property without testing her local resale market. Soon after purchasing this home, our story’s newbie investor “Karen” admits she might have bit off more than she could chew and was getting worried she had dug her own financial grave. This is when Karen contacted me.In Part 1 of First Real Estate Deal … [Read more...]
“Jogging” into Real Estate: Setting the Pace for Your Investing Success
May 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment
“Jogging” into Real Estate: Setting the Pace for Your Investing SuccessWhile first getting started in real estate, the issue I had to deal with most was the pace at which I moved. Move too slow and you’ll never get any momentum behind you and lose out on credibility. Move too fast and you get overextended and end up wearing a straight-jacket in a padded room. It’s a very fine line that the beginning investor must learn to toe, along with the experienced investor learning to … [Read more...]
Raising Private Money – Debt or Equity Partners
May 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Raising Private Money – Debt or Equity PartnersWhen you are ready to start raising private money for your real estate deals, there are two different types of private money partners you can look for: debt partners and equity partners. Both can help you raise all the money you need to fund your real estate deals, but they work very differently. In this article we’re going to take a look at both debt and equity partners. We’ll explore how they are different and why you would use each to … [Read more...]
Real Estate Deal Finding Strategies
March 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Real Estate Deal Finding StrategiesI was talking with a real estate investor friend recently, and she was showing me her “leave behind” business cards Everyone has their favorite ways to find real estate deals. I like direct mail marketing. After using it for a long time, it has proven to be very effective for me. Even though bandit signs can be very effective, I find that they are just cumbersome to put up and the local code officials in so many areas give you problems with those … [Read more...]
Investing Strategy that Works in ANY Market Especially Real Estate
March 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Investing Strategy that Works in ANY Market Especially Real EstateOne thing that the last several years has taught us is that financial markets can go up and they can go down. The real estate market is no different. When markets go up, everyone is happy and even bad investments can turn out okay. When markets go down, investors who used the wrong real estate investing strategy at the wrong time can get wiped out. Down times separate the good real estate investors from the bad or just lucky … [Read more...]
Our Deal of the Year
December 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment
The following is an outline of our deal of the year, and the events occurred over 30 days and shows that solving problems and being creative is more important than having a lot of money. I chose to outline the event chronically as the deal evolved, because it shows how investors can earn large profits by being flexible and keeping their eye on the prize.Day 1:While performing my daily scan of the Fresno MLS I identified a 10-Unit apartment building listed at $220K. The pictures and the … [Read more...]
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Asia Digest – Beer-Maker Brewing SE-Asia’s Biggest Deal, Australia Real Estate Crash Looming
Asia Digest – Beer-Maker Brewing SE-Asia’s Biggest Deal, Australia Real Estate Crash Looming Singaporean Fraser & Neave Ltd (more commonly known as F&N), one of the world’s biggest and oldest drink makers, has recently completed the drafting of a deal which will see it selling its brewery business to Heineken NV at 5.4 billion SGD (4.3 billion USD). With further fracturing and selling of F&N’s other assets anticipated, the remaining lion’s share of the company’s … [Read more...]