Buying a fixer-upper at a discount and bringing it up to par to rent or sell is a proven business model, in or out of a Real Estate IRA. Renovation and construction projects are just part of life for the serious Real Estate IRA owner. Even if you don’t particularly think of yourself as a renovator and you’re just relying on rental income with no ‘pop’ in price from your renovations, sooner or later you’re going to have to replace the roof on that property. In which case you’re going to have contractors crawling all over your house, tearing it up.

That’s a dangerous time for any property owner, and Real Estate IRA owners are no exception. Any time you have construction workers working on property you own, in or out of the Real Estate IRA, you expose yourself to risk and potential liability.

Protecting your Real Estate IRA investment

Here are a few principles to keep in mind to protect your IRA:

1.)   Working on it yourself? Don’t do it. You are a prohibited individual and you are not allowed to provide services to your IRA. Doing so can result in penalties and even the disqualification of your IRA. Plus a G.C.’s experience, contacts, leverage with subcontractors and general liability insurance can prove invaluable in seeing the project through to successful completion. Read More→

Does this sound like you?

I just don’t have enough money to…
     go to a seminar and increase my real estate education.

I just don’t have enough money to…
     put a house under contract.

I just don’t have enough money to…
     fix up a house.

If this sounds like you, then we need to work on attitude! Thinking this way is self-defeating and will not lead to success. The reality is, you find a great deal, you can find the money. If the deal is a good deal, then the money will come with some creativity on your part. If the deal is average, no one will give you money unless you know how to market. The last choice is, of course, a bad deal, and no one will give money on these deals unless you are a super sales person and the stars line up properly, and even then, it will happen a only few times in your career.

With these things in mind, I am offering you some great places to get credit and cash so that YOU can find the money that you didn’t think you had. It IS out there. Understand that if your credit is poor to really bad, some of these techniques will not work. If you have assets, finding is much easier, but even with bad credit, you CAN find the financing. You’ll just have to work a bit harder. Read More→

It took a long time, but New York’s federal courts have finally ruled that forged documents don’t cut it when the banks are trying to foreclose on a homeowner! In a blistering, 30-page ruling, a federal bankruptcy judge from New York’s Southern District has slammed Wells Fargo for falsifying documents in order to foreclose on a home in Westchester County. Not only did the judge take Wells Fargo to task for trying to foreclose using falsified documents, he slammed the bank for its willingness to make up evidence after the fact in order to enforce its claims. This is a huge development for homeowners and real estate investors that could have a real impact on their ability to negotiate with banks.

It has been common knowledge that the banks were faking important documents ever since the robo-signing scandal started five years ago. For some reason, it took years before judges would stand up and forcefully reject the made up documents by the bank. The New York case is a textbook example of the fraud I have been writing about for years. Wells Fargo forged signatures and dates on the endorsement and the assignment of the note in order to foreclose. The exceptional feature of this case is that it includes the testimony of a Wells Fargo employee who was a manager of the default documents department at the time of the foreclosure. This employee admitted to signing up to 150 original documents per day as well as creating assignments when necessary. This proved to the judge that Wells Fargo had a general practice of forging documents whenever necessary in order to foreclose. Read More→

Over the years I have learned many sales techniques to get the deal done and closed. Although all those techniques have assisted in closing numerous transactions, they are not the reason I close so many deals. The number one contributing factor for my success and many other investors’ success is being the go to problem solver. Whether you are trying to get a property under contract or sell an investment property to an investor you must identify their problem and solve it.

Many investors and wholesalers approach a potential seller of a property and assume that the only thing that is going to matter in their conversation/negotiation is the price. This is a factor but it is usually not the defining factor. For instance, recently a property was under contract for nearly $20,000 below list price. Yes, this was a property on MLS. What was it that separated my offer from all the others? Experience! After having an extensive conversation with the listing agent, I discovered that the previous buyer backed out of the contract because the title was clouded. I asked about the issue and it turned out that it was an heirship issue with about 4-5 generations of siblings. After explaining how I have successfully closed many other transactions with this similar issue she decided it was in her client’s best interest to accept the offer. After I had an executed contract, I explained the process I had gone through in the past to get a similar situation closed. We used a title company that was accustomed to handling these types of transactions and we are now days from closing. While we have not yet closed on the property, I have now become this listing agent’s go to buyer for similar deals, as she has stated that she runs across this situation often. In addition, I explained to her from the beginning that as a buyer we are willing to wait as long as it takes to close. This was important because many buyers move on after only a month or two of waiting for a closing to happen. We are now at 3.5 months with 4 different extensions signed. As long as the value remains the same in the area we are sticking it out until it closes. Read More→

There are a number of apps that will work with QuickBooks to make your life easier to work with QuickBooks software.

There are a number of categories that you may want to look at for apps that will work with QuickBooks:

1. Sales and Marketing
2. Productivity
3. Operations
4. Finance & Accounting

In the app center you can click on the area above that you are interested in and your topic will be sorted and brought to the top and you can look over each app, see how many reviews it has received. Be aware that not all the apps work with every version of QuickBooks. Some are for the “On-Line” only, some are for “Desk Top” only and some work with both – some may only work with Premier or Enterprise. Read More→

They say that the only thing that stays the same is change. I’d like to smack whoever said that, but I have to admit that he’s right. When it comes to the things that matter to us, my loyal reader, this is definitely the case. Things like real estate investing, marketing, and the market itself, etc. These are things that are constantly changing.

So if THOSE things change, WE need to change, too… if we want to keep up. For example, when I first went full-time as a real estate investor, short sales were still in their early days. So I did a TON of them & made some serious coin. Since then, laws have been passed, banks have caught on, and I’d rather get poked in the eye by a sharp stick than do a short sale now.

Not only that, but the main market where I live & operate (the Washington, D.C. area) has gone from cold to hot, then back to cold in the crash and is now hot again. Investors come & go like transient people around a campfire.

The older I get, the wiser I get (or so I like to believe). Therefore, it has become apparent that if we want to stay alive in this business, we need to be able to not only read the trends of where things are NOW, but also where they’re going. And be able to keep up by developing & using the right techniques & strategies that are appropriate for what’s going on. Read More→