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...]
How to Make Money in Real Estate
September 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Discovering how to make money in real estate can be a daunting experience. Real estate is a vast subject matter and millions of people earn a living (and some actually become fabulously wealthy) from real estate. After being a part of more than 1,000 real estate transactions over the past decade personally, along with coaching and training thousands of investors from all walks of life throughout the United States and Canada, I've heard, seen and done enough in real estate to simplify for you how … [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...]
12 Tips for Being a Good Landlord and Having Happy Tenants
August 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment
12 Tips for Being a Good Landlord and Having Happy Tenants Every landlord would like to lower the turnover in their properties. It’s costly to attract and retain good tenants, not to mention the costs you incur when they move out and you have to turn a vacant rental. It just makes good business sense to strive to have happy, long term tenants in your properties. However, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have good systems in place and treat this like a business. Here are some … [Read more...]
The Disadvantages of Section 8 Rentals
August 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The Disadvantages of Section 8 Rentals It felt like I was walking into a cave. A dark, messy, smelly cave. I looked around at the walls of my Section 8 rental and saw black, only black. The tenants had decided to add some “color” to the décor. But seriously, who paints walls black? And poop? Who leaves dog poop all over the floor? And trash? How can a family of four leave two, not one, but two dumpsters worth of trash? I started calculating the cost of priming and repainting, carpet … [Read more...]
A Must Use Form for Every Landlord: Release to the Rights of Possession
August 6, 2012 By 1 Comment
A Must Use Form for Every Landlord: Release to the Rights of Possession The “Release to the Rights of Possession” form is one of the most important forms that a landlord can use. It is a must use for every landlord. It helps protect you from future claims from former tenants. Let me explain.When you sign a lease with a tenant, you legally give them what is termed “possession” of that rental unit. The tenant then occupies and possesses the rental unit for the term of the … [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...]
Dealing With Tenant Drama: Are You Ready?
July 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Dealing With Tenant Drama: Are You Ready?Tenants are the reason we survive as landlords. By paying their rent, tenants put gas in our cars, food on the table and hopefully a little money in the bank. Tenants, however, are human, and being human means they bring drama. Are you ready for it?Sometimes the drama is petty.“My roommate and I don’t like each other anymore, she needs to leave.”Sometimes it is more serious.“I lost my job.”You as the landlord need to be ready to deal with … [Read more...]
How High will Rents Rise?
July 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment
How High will Rents Rise?With single family rentals soaring, especially in high foreclosure markets, home sales showing signs of life, and more multifamily construction coming on line every day, it doesn’t seem possible that vacancy rates could continue to decline and rents continue to rise.But they are.The commercial real estate research firm Reis reported last week that the apartment vacancy rate fell to 4.7% in the second quarter from 4.9% in the first quarter of the year. It’s the … [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...]
Hong-Kong Real Estate: Leases VS Freeholds & the Chinese Connection
June 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Hong-Kong Real Estate: Leases VS Freeholds & the Chinese ConnectionAs promised, here’s a drilldown of some unique characteristics of the Hong-Kong property market, including tips, tricks, inside information etc – starting with the most significant and drilling down to the misc odds & ends –Government LeasesAll land in Hong Kong is leased from the Government, (as opposed to being freehold, which is the straight-forward ownership we’re all familiar with). While this concept may … [Read more...]
Multifamily Investing: Updating an Older Property for Maximum Profit
May 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Multifamily Investing: Updating an Older Property for Maximum ProfitMultifamily investing has never been hotter. Multifamily apartments that are in great condition are fetching some of the highest prices seen in years. On the other hand, older dated properties are selling at much lower rates. If you have an older apartment complex that has become a little dated, now is the time to consider making some strategic upgrades. It’s time to focus on upgrades that will deliver a big bang for … [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...]
Importance of Real Estate Maintenance Funds
May 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Importance of Real Estate Maintenance FundsAn amazing run of good luck has come to an end. Despite owning a number of older rental properties, I haven’t had to deal with a major repair in almost two years. Recently I had to replace a water heater that failed and take care of several plumbing problems requiring extensive repairs. While I wasn’t happy about it, it wasn’t a problem because I had maintenance reserve funds set aside for such events. Of course, you have reserve funds for your … [Read more...]
Get a copy of my best selling book ($9.97 on Amazon.com) and an investor training video series FREE!
Buy Where People Want to Live
Buy Where People Want to Live I was at a business networking meeting a couple of weeks ago and met a real estate investor. As usually happens, we started talking about the state of the market in the area. He couldn’t contain his excitement about a deal he had just closed to purchase a rental property. This wasn’t his first but he was fairly new to the business. The price per square foot certainly seemed like a good deal; the house was in good shape and he was starting to advertise for a … [Read more...]