One of the most important things I believe every investor should always do before ever making an offer to purchase any property is to first think about what the highest and best use for that property will be. Every day I talk to newer investors who never stop to think about the best use of the properties they look at and how this simple exercise can, and will, greatly improve their profit from every deal they do. It took me years to understand the importance of first considering what I should do with each property I was looking at before even thinking about making the offer to purchase it. This may not seem to be of much importance to those who aren’t experienced investors but one thing is for sure, if you don’t understand how to best utilize the property it will greatly affect the amount of money you make at the end of the day. It is my opinion that you should always step back and take a deep breath before making an offer to purchase a property. Determine exactly what your plans are if you are successful buying the property, while also analyzing the numbers of that property before making your offer to purchase.  Read More→

QBO’s tools are generic enough that myriad businesses can use it. But custom fields and classes help you shape it to meet your specific needs.

Small business accounting is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. Your company is unique in that sense; you have your own customers and products, vendors and services. Your requirements for your accounting application—what it must do and how it does that—is unlike anyone else’s.

QuickBooks Online contains a standard set of features that can accommodate a broad cross-section of the millions of small businesses in the U.S. It also offers customization options that you can use to make it your own. Two of these are custom fields and classes.  Read More→

The difference between a successful real estate IRA investor and a not-so-successful one often comes down to due diligence. The investor who understands what goes into valuing a property, to include historic and expected cash flows coming in and out as well as risk – is able to make better decisions than a less skilled investor. If you’ve been blindsided by the unexpected as an investor – or if you believe you could be – here are some tips from experienced professionals to improve your due diligence and help you avoid getting caught unaware by the unexpected ever again.

• Don’t rely on pro forma financial statements and projections that you get from the seller. This is a common rookie mistake. But most of the experienced and successful investors we speak to have never seen a case where the actual cash flows from a real estate investment were better than the pro forma. Any such information you get from the seller should be considered, at best, a wildly optimistic scenario. You want to pay a fair price for the property’s actual performance, not the best-case but highly-unlikely scenario.  Read More→

“HD doesn’t mean anything to me. It’s a technical thing. It’s like demographics. A lot of people know about it.” ~ Craig Ferguson

When we talk about demographic data it is hard to grasp. The US Census information is available for free online, but it is hard to gain anything meaningful from that. The common person isn’t apt at reading through that information, and the way the US Government organizes those numbers isn’t easily absorbed.

Demographix is a very niche app. It is a well organized database that has used the US Census information from 2010. This is not for everyone, but working in different areas I find myself needing access to information fast. Ok Google or Siri doesn’t always answer my questions on the spot. It can take time to work out the details about the population of an area I’m trying to buy or sell a home in. Demographix is neatly organized and at a glance I can look through a clean user interface.  Read More→