Archive for June 2015

“Would you like to buy a home of your own,
but don’t have the big down payment or credit?”

Real estate is a vehicle that cannot only provide you big checks within a few days but also a monthly residual income and a big backend payday. It can retire you so you’ll never have to worry about what the government will pay you when you become a senior and don’t want to work anymore, and the best part is you can make a lot of the money tax-free using your Roth IRA.

The problem is most people believe it takes money and credit to buy real estate and that you need a license or experience. None of that is true. I’ve been teaching people how to buy and sell houses for over 30 years now and to this day I buy 4-6 per month without using any of my own money or credit with one part time assistant and a couple of virtual assistants to get all the work done. I literally spend less than five hours a month in the real estate business to manage this very profitable income stream. It is truly a full time income with a part time effort, which is the way I like all my businesses to produce and assume you do to. Read More→

In my last article I told you how you might be able to wipe out virtually any mortgage through a TILA rescission. The idea of rescinding a loan using the Truth in Lending Act had been around for a while, but its viability in court was completely dependent upon the whims and prejudices of the individual judges hearing the cases. Well, the Supreme Court of the United States cleared all of that up with a unanimous decision that has cleared the way for TILA rescissions. As I explained last month, the opportunity is HUGE, but could our window be closing?

The decision as spelled out by Justice Scalia of the Supreme Court is extremely rigid. It says that a bank has 20 days from the time a notice of rescission is dropped in the mail to contest its validity. After that 20-day window is up, the note has been rescinded as an operation of law. The notice of rescission itself carries all of the power of a court order. No further proof or lawsuit is required from the borrower, and after the 20-day period, no arguments can be made by the bank. The bank must provide the cancelled promissory note, file a satisfaction of the mortgage, and pay back all of the money paid by the borrower. While collecting all of this will almost certainly require the borrower to file an enforcement action against the bank, the ruling allows for no deviation from the letter of the law. It no longer matters what a particular judge thinks of the law. Read More→

Scary Websites

Posted on May 29, 2015 by

“Currently computer graphics are used a great deal, but it can be excessive.”
~ Hayao Miyazaki

The other day, I was web-surfing while I waited for a program to download, and I came across a site that really caught my attention. In the upper right-hand corner, a big Jolly Roger pirate flag was waving. In the upper left-hand corner was a little animated dancing hamster. A tiny cartoon kitten ran across the bottom of the screen, and in the middle of the page fireworks burst out in an infinite loop. Then suddenly, my iPad started blasting “Whole Lotta Love” by Led Zeppelin. It was a full-blown spectacle!

I tried to scroll down the screen to find a “music off” button. But the screen went on and on… and on… and on. One very long screen with a black background and neon-colored type. No links, just text. And every few lines, new and even cheesier animation.

At this point, I was desperate to stop the music. So I backed out of the site so fast I still don’t know what it was advertising. A funeral home, I think. Or maybe socks. All I know is, I had to get out of there. Read More→

Thick Skin in Real Estate

Posted on May 29, 2015 by

Many people get into real estate, a few succeed, and others decide real estate is not for them. There are many roles a person can take on in real estate but being an investor requires the thickest skin. An investor faces rejection daily, is essentially profiting from other’s misfortune, and depending on the level of the investor, can be risking thousands of dollars.

As an investor, rejection sometimes comes as a simple NO and other times it comes with plenty of four letter words. Why does this happen? Well, you are or should be attempting to negotiate a purchase price low enough to make a profit. At the same time you must make sure you can validate the offer and can explain it to the seller. When you just give a seller an offer that investors give, the seller is usually quick to say NO. Many sellers do not look at their properties from an investment stand point but are emotionally tied to the property. This causes them to take an investor’s offer as an insult. When the seller takes an offer as a huge insult, the seller may do a number of things from hanging up to lecturing you about how the offer was so insulting, to yelling. This is where negotiation skills come in to play. You must have thick enough skin to let all this go and, if given the opportunity, explain the reasoning behind the offer. I have seen newbies and veteran investors both lose it, get into an argument, and as a result lose the deal. I have always said, “Lose your composure, lose the deal.” Read More→