Author Archive
Agreements for Deed in the State of GA
Posted on March 29, 2011 by
A lot of investors have come to me asking about agreement for deeds. Apparently they have been to seminars or heard from fellow investors that they are a great way to transfer property while still holding title. In Florida, this is certainly the case. Florida Courts specifically recognize Agreements for Deed and has legal procedures that make the use of that document smooth. In addition, Florida is a Judicial Foreclosure state and Agreements for Deed allow you to avoid the lengthy foreclosure process in Florida and simply evict the prospective owners for non-payment just as you would evict a tenant here in Georgia. However, here in Georgia, such documents are not given official legal recognition and we have a Non-Judicial Foreclosure process. These two reasons make Agreements for Deed impractical in our state. Read More→
What Every Real Estate Investor Should Know About Incorporating
Posted on November 9, 2010 byOne of the big pitfalls of starting a small business, such as real estate investing, is how to protect your personal assets from your business investments, and the other way around. If you buy everything in your personal name, you run the risk of a single lawsuit wiping out not only your investment, but also your personal property. As such, I generally recommend that all small business owners incorporate their business in some way as to provide maximum reasonable protection for your assets.
There is one good reason to buy property in your own name solely, and that is for a refinance. If you buy real estate and plan to refinance the property to get cash out, or to pay off a hard money loan, almost all conventional banks will require the property be in your own name. If you know this is your plan going in, then I recommend you buy the property in your personal name and keep it in your personal name until the refinance takes place. This will leave you exposed to the liability of the security deed, and any consequences of foreclosure or defaulting on the loan, but it is the only way to get the refinance done in the first place. Buying originally in your own name will save you from troubles with possible seasoning issues down the road. Even in this instance, I still recommend putting the property into a business entity of some sort after the refinance is complete. Read More→
The Georgia SAFE Act and What It Means to Investors Using Owner Financing
Posted on September 24, 2010 by
Congress has reacted to the financial meltdown in the housing sector in a number of interesting ways. Very few of them, I feel, are likely to actually deal with the root issues of why the bubble grew so much in the first place. In 2008, the US Congress passed the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008 (Also called SAFE Mortgage Licensing Act or simply the SAFE Act). The main purpose of the act was to restrict the ability to make mortgages to those that are licensed by the state. Georgia incorporated the SAFE act into law in 2010 with an update to the Georgia Residential Mortgage Act (Called GRMA) that can be found in O.C.G.A. 7-1-1000 and following to about 7-1-1018. The changes to the law have significant impact on investors who buy real property in Georgia and sell it using owner financing.
The first and easiest thing to note is that there are no changes when the purchaser is an investor. The law does not attempt to restrict buyers who are also investors. If you are an investor-to-investor seller of property, you need read no further and be glad that this is the case. Read More→
