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...]
Which Comes First: The Real Estate Deal or the Buyer’s List?
October 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Which Comes First: The Real Estate Deal or the Buyer’s List? This question is kind of like another question where people can’t seem to agree on the answer; “Which came first; the chicken or the egg”? Real estate investors all have a different opinion when they are asked whether you should find a deal first or start a buyer’s list and then find a deal. For me, the answer has always been “the deal.” If you have a great deal, you can always find a buyer for it.I had someone email … [Read more...]
8 Stupid Mistakes That Can Kill Your Real Estate Investing Business
September 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment
8 Stupid Mistakes That Can Kill Your Real Estate Investing Business When you were a baby, you made tons of mistakes.You learned to walk on your own by walking, falling, getting up, walking again, falling…You hit your head, you cried, and you learned to be more careful… but, what would have happened if you one day decided to give up walking entirely?You said: “This walking thing is just too tough for me, y’know I keep hitting my head, bumping my butt, its just waaaay too hard. I think … [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...]
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...]
Negotiating with Home Sellers Is a Process
September 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Negotiating with Home Sellers Is a Process I have found time and time again, that negotiating with sellers is more of a process than an event. Many times when we meet sellers at their house, they will just throw out an asking price that is nowhere in the ballpark. They tell us what “their expectations are”. And more often than not, they just pull this dollar amount out of thin air. If you ask them how they determined the asking price, they will just simply say “that’s what I decided I … [Read more...]
Your First Steps as a New Real Estate Investor
September 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Your First Steps as a New Real Estate Investor I began walking just minutes from childbirth.I walked right out the door as my mother was being carted out in a wheel chair. The doctors were amazed.By three months old I was power walking around my local shopping mall (with sweat pants), by six months old I was running side by side with my old man, and by one year I had completed(and won) my first Boston Marathon. It’s all been easy since then.Impressive, right?Of course this isn’t true.I … [Read more...]
The Six Pillars of Real Estate Investing Success
September 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The Six Pillars of Real Estate Investing Success I’ve been thinking a lot about ”success” recently.Not only about success in real estate investing, but also success and just plain happiness in general.No doubt, there’s been a ton written about “the steps to success” in real estate investing. Reading what’s here on BiggerPockets is a tremendous way to learning so many of the skills needed to achieve success in real estate.There’s been a lot less written about the mindset or … [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...]
3 Missteps That Can Derail Your Real Estate Investing
August 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment
3 Missteps That Can Derail Your Real Estate Investing With the unprecedented drop in real estate values over the last few years, more and more people are trying their hand at real estate investing. With the wealth of available knowledge related to real estate investing, it is not difficult to research the possible investment strategies and locations in which to invest.Not surprisingly, investors in this market cycle seem to be more cautious about their investing … especially when compared … [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...]
Ten Quick and Easy Ways To Increase Your Property’s Value
August 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Ten Quick and Easy Ways To Increase Your Property’s Value Do you remember 2007?I do. It’s the year I got married, the year I graduated from college, and the year I bought my first home.2007 was a good year.I remember how great the real estate market was. I remember watching the various “flipping shows” as investors made tens of thousands of dollars by simply making their properties pretty and selling them for top dollar.I also remember the slow-down, the decline, and finally the crash … [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...]
How to Never Lose Monopoly Again
August 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment
How to Never Lose Monopoly Again I once beat a friend in Monopoly in twelve minutes.I don’t know if that’s a world record but it’s got to be close. During our summer after high school ended we played a game of Monopoly every single day. (I bet you can guess how popular I was with the ladies…) We became extremely quick at the game and memorized every card’s value and the distance between every spot on the board. My twelve minute game was a result of a nearly perfect set of rolls in … [Read more...]
New Investor Mistakes: Advice for the Real Estate Investing Novice
July 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment
New Investor Mistakes: Advice for the Real Estate Investing NoviceI am very fortunate to get the opportunity to speak and correspond with real estate investors of all experience levels. I find these conversations to be very valuable as I get to see the investing landscape through additional sets of eyes.As you might imagine my most common communication is with new investors who have not bought their first properties yet, but they are very excited and are ready to go.I find new investors break … [Read more...]
Reaching the Eye of the Storm of Real Estate Investing
July 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Reaching the Eye of the Storm of Real Estate InvestingA hurricane generates the same power in one day that the entire world generates in 200 days.Living in Texas, I am well acquainted with hurricanes and the power they contain. The outer bands of a hurricane are where the wind begins to pick up and as it gets closer it becomes increasingly more fierce, until reaching the eye of the storm. We can liken real estate investing to such a natural phenomena.As a budding new investor or someone on the … [Read more...]
I Want To Be A Real Estate Investor. How Do I Start?
July 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment
I Want To Be A Real Estate Investor. How Do I Start?I’m Not A Flipper — I’m 20-Something and Want To Be A Real Estate Investor — How Do I Start?I get asked that question almost weekly, usually by the 20-something generation. Their relative profiles are fairly similar with a few obvious exceptions. They’re pretty smart. Most of ‘em have degrees of one sort or another. They make decent money — generally speaking, in the $40-60,000 a year range. They’re evenly split between married … [Read more...]
9 Ways to Leave Behind “A Great First Impression”
July 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
9 Ways to Leave Behind “A Great First Impression”Real estate investors have gotten some bad press in the last few years, and some of it was well deserved. But I believe that in most cases, it was simply due to a lack of understanding about what real estate investors do. There are those people out there that think all real estate investors take advantage of folks that are down and out; homeowners that are in some type of distress. While I’m sure those investors are out there, the vast … [Read more...]
How I Accidentally Bought Two of Kurt Cobain’s Former Homes and Why That’s Not Even The Best Part.
July 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment
How I Accidentally Bought Two of Kurt Cobain’s Former Homes and Why That’s Not Even The Best PartKurt Cobain is a big deal.If you are unfamiliar with the name “Kurt Cobain,” perhaps you are much more familiar with the band “Nirvana.”Still no?“Smells Like Teen Spirit?”“Come As You Are?”If you are still lost, just trust me when I say that Kurt Cobain was, and is, a big deal.As the front man of the 90′s grunge band “Nirvana,” Cobain led the group to over 75 million album … [Read more...]
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