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Thinking about QuickBooks 2013?

Posted on June 27, 2013 by

It is the goal of this column to answer questions about QuickBooks and how it is used in the REI arena. Know how to record transactions in the proper way and have your set of books in good shape when it comes time for taxes. It is our intention to do this by you the members submitting questions to Karen@smallbusinessadvisor.biz, and getting answers here in this column.

Q: Does QuickBooks 2013 Integrate with Other Software?

A: Yes, in the following areas

  • Microsoft Word and Excel integration requires Word and Excel 2003, 2007, or 2010 (including 64-bit)
  • Synchronization with Outlook requires QuickBooks Contact Sync for Outlook 2003, 2007, and 2010 (including 64-bit) (downloadable for free at: www.quickbooks.com/contact_sync)
  • Email estimates, invoices, and other forms with Windows Outlook, Outlook Express and Mozilla Thunderbird, as well as web mail services such as Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, and Hotmail
  • Compatible with QuickBooks Point of Sale version 8.0 and later Note: Other Point of Sale Programs may or may not work well with QuickBooks

Read More→

Lenders like to argue that when a homeowner gets behind on the mortgage the issues involved in foreclosure are cut-and-dried.  The homeowner owes on the mortgage, they have not been able to catch up over many months, so they should pay and/or lose the house.  The reality is far less clear-cut.  In many cases homeowners do not argue in court that they don’t owe on a mortgage; the real questions are who does the homeowner owe the loan to and does the party bringing a foreclosure action really have standing to file for foreclosure?

An audit ordered by San Francisco assessor, Phil Ting, of about 400 foreclosures was reported in a New York Times article by Gretchen Morgenson showing pervasive irregularities in how mortgages are written and how foreclosure filings are carried out.  While the study was specifically of problems with San Francisco area foreclosures, similar findings could be made nationwide.  For example, a recent whistleblower report on Wells Fargo exposed the systematic fabrication and alteration of mortgage documents nationwide.  Their fraud was so rigorous that they even took loans that were endorsed properly and altered them as well! Read More→

The Gag Reflex

Posted on June 27, 2013 by

Last month, Kim and I were part of a panel discussion at Dustin Griffin’s Atlanta REIA monthly meeting.  The topic was about how we’re structuring our deals in the current real estate market.  A lot of time was spent answering questions about hedge funds and how they’re driving up home prices.

Because hedge funds are gobbling up an ungodly number of properties – and are willing to pay at or above a property’s CONSERVATIVE fair market value – many “investors” are no longer able to be high bidders at the foreclosure auction.  And because many of these so-called investors know of no other way to buy property, they simply quit showing up – or worse yet, pay WAY too much for a property.

Frankly, Kim and I don’t give hedge funds much thought – other than thinking they’re making one giant mistake that’s gonna bite them in the butt one day soon!  Sure, these days we’re rarely the high bidders on the steps, but that doesn’t mean we’re not doing deals.  Just the opposite is true! Read More→

Many real estate investors dealing with foreclosures, pre-foreclosures or foreclosure workouts are familiar with the case Reese v. Provident Funding Associates.[1]  In Reese, the Court of Appeals of Georgia held that failure to follow a notice requirement identifying the foreclosing lender was fatal to the foreclosure process.  Many real estate law scholars believed this ruling was correct and provided consumer protection.  Additionally, many real estate professionals saw this ruling as an opportunity to level the playing field in foreclosure and pre-foreclosure negotiation.  This ruling, however, is no longer good law.  It has been overturned.

Georgia law requires that a foreclosing lender give notice to a homeowner 30 days before foreclosing.[2]  It also requires that this notice correct identify the “secured creditor.”  In Reese, the Court of Appeals of Georgia interpreted this in a technical fashion.  It found that notice sent by a loan servicer which did not identify the lender was “fatal” to the foreclosure: “While a loan servicer may be permitted to send the notice on behalf of the secured creditor, [the servicer’s] fatal mistake was in sending a notice that failed to properly identify the secured creditor.”[3] Read More→

Download The Profit Newsletter for June 2013 (PDF)
The June 2013 Edition of
The Profit is Ready for Download!

The Profit - June 2013 - High Quality PDFThe June 2013 edition of The Profit Newsletter is now ready for download as a High Quality PDF or Low Res PDF format. The Profit is the official newsletter of the Atlanta Real Estate Investors Alliance (Atlanta REIA) and is a digitally delivered, interactive newsletter for new and seasoned real estate investors delivered as an Adobe PDF file to read on your PC, Mac, Smart Phone, iPad or other mobile ready devices with a PDF reader. Many of the articles and ads in The Profit contain many hyperlinks you can click or tap to visit websites, watch videos, listen to audios, download content, send emails, comment on articles, share socially and much more! And yes, The Profit is “print ready” for those who still like a paper newsletter. Be sure to Subscribe to The Profit Here so you don’t miss a single monthly issue.

Download The Profit Now!
See AtlantaREIA.com/The-Profit/Newsletter-Archives for our past editions

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Can I Have Your Business Card?

Posted on May 31, 2013 by

Do you have a business card? Do you keep them with you at all times since you never know when or where you’re going to meet someone important such as a potential buyer, seller, joint venture partner or private money lender?

It never ceases to amaze me how many investors I meet at seminars, conventions or local REIA meetings that I ask for a card only to be told that they don’t have one, haven’t had them printed yet, or forgot them at home!

What’s almost as bad, is when investors hand me crummy business cards with perforated edges that they printed at home or the ones they were too cheap to pay for that say “Business cards are FREE at Vista Print” on the back.

Many investors don’t realize how important business cards can be. They think business cards are made for one reason only… to give people the ability to contact you at some later date.

Most investors overlook the importance of having a professional business card that accurately reflects their brand. After all, business cards are often the first item prospects receive from you and are your first opportunity to make a strong first impression on them – positive OR negative.

Your image, reputation and credibility are everything in this business!

Read More→

First-quarter results of the Atlanta real estate market are in! If you’re an investor who is determined to buy real estate right now, while things are hot, then this information is definitely for you!

So let’s get down to – or into – business!

Make no mistake:
The Atlanta real estate market isn’t just hot – it’s burning
– and YOU can be successful more now than ever.

As I predicted in January, the market has turned, and the news media is being positive. There are markets/price points that are hot, and the competition—your competition–is cash. Experienced investors are hungry! They can’t get enough property. I’m excited–how often do you get to sell everything you touch?

But to be successful, you must be accountable. You need to have answers if you’re going to succeed:

  • Where are YOU as an investor right now, in this market—the one we have all been waiting for?
  • Are you where you want to be?
  • Are you asking yourself questions and, if you are new to this, are you asking the right questions? 

Read More→

How We Financed The Deal

Posted on May 31, 2013 by

Our last column sure brought in a ton of calls and emails!  In that column, we explained how last month we found, closed and financed a home in just three days by knocking on sellers’ doors – and didn’t use any of our own money.  (Click here for the article titled “What’s Old is What’s New”)

Here are the most common questions we were asked: What is a private-money lender and how do you find them?  Why do private-money lenders lend to you?  How are private-money lenders secured and paid?

More than a decade ago, Kim and I learned that a bank isn’t the only place to get a mortgage.  There are individuals who will loan you their own money and fund your deals. 

While banks can be a good source of long-term financing, they require a mountain of paperwork and take weeks to verify your information.  It often takes a month or more to get an institutional loan.  On the other hand, when dealing with a private-money lender (PML), because we’re dealing with a real person and the purchase property is being used as collateral for the loan, we’re often able to get immediate funding and close within a day or two.  This is exactly what happened with our April purchase. Read More→

“Without a sense of teamwork I think it’s really hard to build a great business.”
~ Martha Stewart

Sticker shock. I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling it these days. In the doctor’s office, at my kid’s college, and at the grocery store.

Business expenses are going up, too. Have you priced Microsoft Office Pro lately? Ouch!  But it would be almost impossible to run a business these days without it. Sooner or later, you’re going to have to cough up the bucks to get it. 

Or are you?

Maybe not, thanks to something called “open source.”

What the heck is open source? It’s software that’s created and improved by anyone who wants to pitch in, and it’s free for anyone who wants to use it. This is very different from the usual corporate model, where software is written in secret with lots of copyright lawyers hanging around the water cooler.

Open source is kind of a philosophy. The idea is that when you’ve got a talent pool made of the entire human race, instead of just a limited number of in-house professionals, innovations come more quickly, and bugs are eliminated faster. Everyone can contribute, and everyone can use it free, for any purpose. Read More→

It is impossible to outline a single set of guidelines for due diligence, but here is a basic checklist, in no particular order, to begin your due diligence with a deal presented by another investor (referred to as offeror here). No money or commitment should change hands until you have satisfied at least this preliminary checklist. After all, you spent a significant period of time making your hard-earned money; don’t throw it away in 30 minutes. Unfortunately, this happens all too often. In many cases with experienced investors who should know better.

  1. How well do you know the person offering you the deal? What is their reputation? Get names of other investors the offeror has done business with and talk to those along with other investors you know about their experiences or knowledge of this person. If you don’t know those investors, find out about them as well. Put more stock in the experiences of those investors who have been dealing with the offeror for years rather than a short period of time and have done several completed deals with them. What were their deals? Did they work out as expected? Did they check out what the offeror said? Did they receive the proper paperwork? Don’t rely solely on offeror’s references. A recent study showed that 40% to 60% of resumes have false references. You need to have independent references as well. For example, check with the president of a REIA local to where the offeror lives. Ask others in investment groups or classes where you met the offeror if they know him and his ethics. You can’t get too many references.
  2. Ask the offeror about their experience and history. Ask what you will find if you run a credit-check or background check. You ask tenants and borrowers for this information, why wouldn’t you with someone with whom you are thinking about investing. Then run their credit, civil and criminal background checks. I once did due diligence on a fellow where everything checked out until I ran a background check for $40 to find he was in bankruptcy. Check the Secretary of State’s website for any entities the offeror may control or be associated. Then Google search those entities as well. What do you find? Read More→

WARNING: If You Own Any Properties In Your Own Name Statistics Show You Have A Huge Target On Your Back And A Damaging Lawsuit Is Just Around The Corner If You Don’t Do Something FAST To Prevent This From Happening To You!

Let me share some very important facts that unless you do something FAST could cost you everything you’ve worked hard for. Statistics show…

Fact: Every year at least 7,000,000 (seven million) Slip-and-Fall Civil lawsuits are filed throughout this country costing millions of dollars. That means that at the very least 14,000,000 (fourteen million) people and their families will be party to those lawsuits that 85% to 95% are settled out of court. Most of these are nuisance suits generated just to get money.

I don’t want you to be the next victim? Why would you want to needlessly expose your real estate assets when you don’t need to jeopardize your financial future? Forget about time, stress and anxiety you and your family will experience just because you are named in a lawsuit. Even if you aren’t guilty of doing anything wrong it can ruin your life. When you are sued it costs you time, personal grief and attorney’s fees, and possibly thousands of dollars regardless of the outcome of the case. This doesn’t sound like a good formula for accumulating wealth to me wasting money defending you from those unscrupulous people and their contingency fee lawyers. Read More→

Has This Ever Happened To You?

You spend a good chunk of time writing what you think is a KILLER ad. You’ve picked where you’re going to advertise (Offline? Online? Both?). You set aside some marketing money, and hope that it works out by bringing you back some leads, which should turn out to be a deal or two.

Then you place the ad. And wait. And wait some more. You stand by the phone – or look at your inbox to see when those leads will come rolling in… And THEN what happens? Nothing! Nada. No calls. No email submissions. No love. Sound familiar? If you’ve been in business for any length of time, you’ve been there. It sucks.

No leads. No phone calls. Money down the toilet. Worst of all: No Leads = No Deals. And No Deals = No Income!

WHY did that happen? And what can we do to FIX it so it doesn’t happen again?

Well, there’s actually a lot of different things that could have made this marketing disaster. Here’s a couple example of some of these things may be beyond your control: Read More→