Archive for The Profit

Looking for a great place to invest your Real Estate IRA dollars? Start right here in the Southeast. The 2017 Homeunion 2017 National Single Family Rental Research Report is out and Atlanta was named the #1 top city in its “Opportunity Ranking” metric for real estate investments in the single family home market. The number two city was Orlando, Florida.

Overall

The Opportunity Ranking indicates markets that provide a “strong balance of supply/demand fundamentals while offering favorable entry prices and limited threats,” said the study authors. The markets in this index were measured by a combination of cap rates and entry prices, as well as projected job growth in 2017.

Lots of construction activity counted against markets in this category because of the risk of overbuilding.

The remaining cities in the top ten for this metric were, in order, Seattle, Las Vegas, Chicago, San Diego, Oakland, Detroit, Dallas-Fort Worth and Memphis.  Read More→

I have been mentoring for many years and have found that my best deals come from actually “speaking” directly to a Seller and working out a win-win situation.  Since I first started investing back in 1998, I have not purchased a property directly from the Multiple Listing Service.  However, some Investors would prefer not to talk to Sellers and would like to be fed deals from other Investors or from the Multiple Listing Service.  We each have different personalities and based on your personality and your personal preferences, I may be talking to you.  If this is your mind set, then I would recommend the following:

1) Find at least 2 Realtors that will be willing to set you up to receive listings that are emailed directly to you for your review, along with Expired Listings.  You will want them to do a search for some of the following key words:  TLC, Handyman Special, Must Sell, Seller Motivated, Short Sale, and REO.  Read More→

I think the better question is why wouldn’t someone give you $100,000 in cash? Is it because you would run off with the money? Is it because you have little to no experience in handling that kind of money? Does that thought run through your mind on a regular basis?  Well it needs to stop! Focus on the goal and dump the negativity! If you are a crook stop reading this article.  The best question to ask is, who will fund my whole project, (the purchase price, the repair costs, the monthly payments, the utilities, the taxes, and insurance) and allow me to make a good profit?

Let me put the quantity of money into prospective. Let me also put into prospective the major two differences between a hard money lender and a private lender.

In the past I thought that $100,000 was a lot of money. Today this amount will buy a nice single family house in a blue collar neighborhood. The house will need to be fixed up and it might be in an area with a less than desirable school system. So, if your business plan is to fix up houses in the price range of $50,000 then sell at the $100,000 this will work. You will be very happy to have a person invest in your project. The project must make sense. The project must make money for the investor/ lender. The investor/ lender is sharing the risk with you.  The investor/ lender will want to know that they will be paid back on time and in full with no excuses or late night phone calls.  Read More→

Download The Profit Newsletter for May 2017 (PDF)
The May 2017 Edition of
The Profit is Available for Download!

The Profit Newsletter - May 2017The May 2017 Edition of The Profit Newsletter, the official newsletter of the Atlanta Real Estate Investors Alliance, is now available for download. There are 50 pages this month full of upcoming meetings, workshops, webcasts, educational articles and other valuable information for your real estate investing pleasure and success. Download it and check it out!

The Profit is Atlanta REIA’s digital, interactive newsletter for serious real estate investors delivered as an Adobe PDF file to read on your PC, Mac, Smart Phone, iPad or other mobile ready devices. Many of the articles and ads in The Profit contain many hyperlinks you can click to get more information online! The high res version of The Profit is “print ready” for those who want to print the newsletter on their home or business printer.

Be sure to Subscribe to The Profit by Email or Subscribe to The Profit by Text so you don’t miss a single issue.

Download The Profit Now!
High Quality PDF / Low Res PDF / The Profit Archives

The majority of us have been taught that financing means putting your name on that dreaded bottom line.  Be thankful that the time has come for you to learn a new way to play the game of financing.  Understand, however that the rules of financing have not changed; you were just not aware of all the rules.  I am about to share with you ways to buy real estate without having to jump through credit hoops and debt to income foolishness.  Since going to the bank is my least desirable method to finance real estate, I will discuss with you my four favorite ways:  owner financing, subject 2 financing, private lending and hard money.

Owner Financing:

Owner financing is my all-time favorite way to finance real estate due to the fact that you get to set the terms of the financing, if the property is owned free and clear.  You may be asking yourself, why would someone owner finance a property instead of just selling it and moving on for cash?  Well, I could give you all the reasons in the world; however, for the sake of time I will give you the top three reasons:  Read More→

In this article, we’re going to discuss something vitally important that may very well help you understand a LOT about yourself and everyone around you on this planet.  Yes, that includes dealing with sellers, buyers, private lenders, and even those alien creatures we love to call tenants. Also-your mother, brother, father, sister, sons and daughters, uncles, best friends and distant relatives.

So You might NOT want to read this article… Unless you want to discover the secrets behind the reasons WHY people DO or DON’T Do the things they do…or don’t do.

It all comes down to TWO things. The Carrot and the Stick.

The CARROT represents something GOOD that we WANT, while the STICK represents something BAD that we DON’T want.  Read More→

The Power of Networking

Posted on May 1, 2017 by

Networking is perhaps the most underestimated resource every single investor has.  I am constantly amazed at how in a world as interconnected as it is, I am constantly seeing how little we leverage each other to get more deals done.  I sat recently and wondered why and came to some conclusions:

  • Perhaps we are too ‘competitive’ and don’t want to share our deals
  • Perhaps due to some less than ethical behavior, we keep our deals to ourselves and as a result have to work harder to get them moved
  • Perhaps we had a bad experience in the past with another investor that has us playing ultra conservative
  • Perhaps you believe ‘everyone else’s deals are bad’ therefore you must find your own (common issue)
  • Perhaps you have know idea how big your market really is
  • Perhaps you are too married to social media (most people who are Buyers want a phone call!)

There are probably several reasons we can come up with that aren’t written down here.  The point is all of these above and more keep us from simply reaching out to others, much less doing business with them.  Take for example social media.  Read More→

Download The Profit Newsletter for April 2017 (PDF)
The April 2017 Edition of
The Profit is Available for Download!

The Profit Newsletter - April 2017The April 2017 Edition of The Profit Newsletter, the official newsletter of the Atlanta Real Estate Investors Alliance, is now available for download. There are 52 pages this month full of upcoming meetings, workshops, webcasts, educational articles and other valuable information for your real estate investing pleasure and success. Download it and check it out!

The Profit is Atlanta REIA’s digital, interactive newsletter for serious real estate investors delivered as an Adobe PDF file to read on your PC, Mac, Smart Phone, iPad or other mobile ready devices. Many of the articles and ads in The Profit contain many hyperlinks you can click to get more information online! The high res version of The Profit is “print ready” for those who want to print the newsletter on their home or business printer.

Be sure to Subscribe to The Profit by Email or Subscribe to The Profit by Text so you don’t miss a single issue.

Download The Profit Now!
High Quality PDF / Low Res PDF / The Profit Archives

Wahid Shakur aka Mr. TycoonThis month I am sharing some Mental Gems that I know would be of great use to you. It has to do with the misconception that…BIGGER is BETTER and/or Quantity over Quality.

Just this past month I was speaking with one of my platinum students in Dallas, TX.  We were discussing his marketing when I shared this view with him to make a clear point.  You see, he was having a problem that most of us have at one point or another in our investing career.  We begin to doubt that we are doing enough and start to believe that we need to do a LOT more because the deals are not knocking the door down.  You see, one thing that we have to be clear on is the understanding that the deals will come as long as we are consistent in our marketing!  Read More→

Be 100% There!

Posted on April 3, 2017 by

How important is it, when meeting with a seller, buyer, renter, realtor or contractor, to be totally focused on that person?  If you’re not paying complete attention to what that person says and how he or she says it (tone of voice, hand gestures, body position, eye movement), isn’t there a good chance you’ll miss critical information that’s being shared with you?

The number of people who are not 100% there during a meeting has become epidemic – and is a major pet peeve of mine!  If you’re over fifty years old, you already know what I’m talking about.  Baby Boomers grew up without cell phones, emails, and text messages.  Heck, we didn’t even have phone answering machines!

Here’s an example of this epidemic at work.  A real estate investor needed help structuring a deal and asked for an hour of my time.  He drove up from Atlanta and met me at the Adairsville Waffle House. Read More→

When making offers on properties as an Investor, you will need to have your exit strategies in place prior to purchasing the property.  What I mean by that is, who is your buyer and what type of financing are you going to allow the buyer to use when you sell the property.  Knowing this will allow you to maximum your profits.

When I look at properties to purchase I always analyze the value of the property and how long I will have to hold the property before I am able to sell the property for a profit.  The comparables that I use are through Realtytrac.com and also the Multiple Listing Service.  Realtytrac will give me the values in the area, however, the Multiple Listing Service “MLS” in addition to values will provide me with how the property was sold ie; Cash, Conventional mortgage, USDA mortgage, VA mortgage or FHA mortgage.  You can normally assume houses under $200,000 that many of the buyers purchasing at this price point are FHA mortgage buyers.  FHA mortgages are mainly used for first-time homebuyers.  The Mortgage Lender requires 3.5% as a down payment which attracts many first-time homebuyers.  Read More→

Doing Equals Results

Posted on April 3, 2017 by

A few months ago, I began learning about and got more involved in apartment investing. I wrote about the steps I took to make industry contacts while building credibility. Fast forward to now and my work is definitely paying off. In many ways, the results I was looking for are coming to fruition but there are also other results, that I did not expect, that are appearing as well.

Some results I expected from my efforts were credibility, partnerships, maybe a mentor, an actual deal, financing and much more that will definitely come with patience and more work. At the beginning I thought credibility was going to the hardest part but it was not. Because I had done my homework and took the time to learn this niche, the people who I spoke with respected the dedication. Another surprise was that all my single family investing actually carried some credibility of its’ own into the apartment investment crowd. From many articles, podcasts, videos, etc. I was led to believe that the multifamily crowd looked down on the single family residential (SFR) investors but it simply was/is not true. In fact, while SFR investing is not a prerequisite, there are many ex- SFR investors who invest in multifamily. These are the people that relate to my current situation and have been eager to provide information and guidance. These relationships have grown into discussions around partnerships and potential financing. While I have still not identified an official mentor I am treating all the assistance I am receiving from multiple investors as a mentorship. This also gives me the opportunity to discuss one aspect of apartment investing with multiple investors so I can then try and decipher which information is best for me and/or which information I personally want to apply. While I have not actually found a multifamily deal that I personally like, I have underwritten many properties. Just like SFR investing, it’s a numbers game.  Read More→