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Dinner With The Millionaire Next Door
Posted on October 5, 2013 byHave you ever made a TOTAL fool of yourself – when you were least expecting to? Read on, and learn how I stepped square in the middle of it!
Last night, one of my lifelong friends – Mary Ann Doering – invited Kim and me over to a small dinner party she was having for her neighbors. Mary Ann is a wordsmith and the woman who proofs my columns.
As much as I like and appreciate Mary Ann, I did NOT want to go to her dinner party. Frankly, any get-together that doesn’t include real estate investors, capitalists and financial-freedom seekers bores me to tears. No matter – Kim made it clear that we WOULD be attending. What I didn’t know was that Mary Ann was setting me up BIG TIME! She was about to pull off her best practical joke on me EVER!
We got to Mary Ann’s before the other guests arrived. A few minutes later, the doorbell rang. Prior to the couple walking in, Mary Ann whispered, “I barely know these people. They’re pretty boring from what I remember.” GREAT, I thought: Now I’m really glad I came.
After meeting “Tim” and “Jane,” I began doing what I always do – asking questions. At one point, Mary Ann mentioned that she was rereading The Millionaire Next Door by Tom Stanley. Tim asked, “Who is Tom Stanley?” Read More→
The Profit Newsletter September 2013 Edition
Posted on September 2, 2013 by
The September 2013 edition of The Profit Newsletter is available for download just in time for our Atlanta REIA Main Meeting on September 9th. You can download The Profit Newsletter as a High Quality PDF or Low Res PDF for slower devices. The Profit is the official newsletter of the Atlanta Real Estate Investors Alliance and is a digital, 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! The high res version of The Profit is “print ready” for those who want to print the newsletter on their home or business printer. Also, be sure to Subscribe to The Profit Here so you don’t miss a single monthly issue.
What is Creative Deal Structuring and Financing?
Posted on September 2, 2013 by
I’ve written a weekly real estate investing newspaper column for more than ten years. During this time, we’ve looked at all kinds of creative deal structures and financing…but what exactly are these?
The easiest way to tell you what creative deal structuring is, is to tell you what it’s NOT. It’s not finding a house to buy at fair market value and then going to an institutional lender to get a traditional mortgage. That said, about everything else is creative deal structuring and financing.
The best deal structurer I know is Pete Fortunato. He has been one of our three primary real estate investing teachers since 1999. (The other two are Dyches Boddiford and Jack Miller.) Over the years, we’ve taken almost every seminar Pete has taught – every time he has taught it!
Much of our real estate investing knowledge comes from Pete. My biggest ah-hah Pete moment was seeing a picture of his Benefits House for the first time. These days, that picture hangs on the wall in front of my desk. Whenever considering a deal, I look at it and contemplate different ways the deal can be done. Read More→
The Profit Newsletter – September 2013
Posted on September 2, 2013 byYou Must Login to
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The Profit Newsletter for September 2013
Real Estate Investor Profits $68,000 Because of Her Mentor!
By Kimberlee Frank
Don’t Question Having a Mentor… JUST HAVE ONE! I remember when I decided to quit my job as a legal secretary and become a millionaire in real estate! I started with Carleton Sheets’ course. Once it arrived, I was to read it and take action. Yeah, right! I found that between my J.O.B. (Just Over Broke) and taking care of my children, I was busy and distracted, so the course sat on my shelf collecting dust. About 6 months later… Read More>>
Marketing to Owners of Vacant Houses
By Dustin Griffin
Last month’s article was on “Driving for Dollars and Farming with Flyers”. As you are out driving neighborhoods in search of houses to buy, you will soon discover that there are many vacant houses out there. Some of these houses are obviously for sale or rent as indicated by a sign in the yard, but many are not so obvious. These houses are just sitting empty, often deteriorating, waiting for someone like you to come along and buy them. Many of these houses appear to have been abandoned and unkept. Read More>>
How to Get a FREE Phone Number to Use in Your Business – Part 2
By Tony Pearl
Here’s What We’re Going to Cover in THIS Article: A quick & easy shortcut to get to your GV options. This makes it really easy. A few secrets. You’ll need these. How to get SEVERAL Google Voice Numbers. Use ‘em for home or office! Some limitations (and how to overcome them). And finally… How to get a FREE home phone LINE (and number). Yes, it’s true! Read More>>
Coach’s Response: What Are Your Four Answers?
By Russ Hiner
As the market improves, I have more and more people coming to me for coaching. I am excited about this because it means that you are taking responsibility for your success. You are reading my articles, and you are talking with me to achieve what you want in your life. Read More>>
7 Deadly Mistakes You Can Avoid – Part 3
By Ron LeGrand
There’s an old saying that goes “Even a turtle won’t get anywhere until he sticks his neck out.” Another old saying (that I made up) is “You’re never going to get rich sitting on your behind and waiting for it to come to you.” You have to make it happen. You have to get things started. You have to put the wheels in motion. And if they get stopped, guess who has to get them started again. You guessed right. Read More>>
What Is Securitization and Why Is It Fraudulent? Part 1
By Bob Massey
By now you have heard in the news about robo-signing, MERS, etc. and how the economy was brought down by Mortgage Backed Securities. But what, specifically, does that mean and how does it affect us as homeowners and real estate investors? As can be expected, the greatest financial fraud every pulled over in the history of the world began with taking away responsibility from banks and brokers… Read More>>
Case Study: Owner Carryback Financing
By Dyches Boddiford
With the real estate markets slowing in many areas of the country, we are seeing a resurgence of owner carryback financing. Most of you are aware of the basics of such financing, but you may not have been exposed to some of the more creative approaches. Read More>>
What is Creative Deal Structuring and Financing?
By Bill Cook
I’ve written a weekly real estate investing newspaper column for more than ten years. During this time, we’ve looked at all kinds of creative deal structures and financing…but what exactly are these? The easiest way to tell you what creative deal structuring is, is to tell you what it’s NOT. It’s not finding a house to buy at fair market value and then going to an institutional lender to get a traditional mortgage. Read More>>
Too-Cool Tools: Embracing Tomorrow
By Don DeRosa
Remember last month, when I talked about how amazing it is that one little smartphone or tablet can do so many useful things? Well, not everyone has much use for smartphones. Take my Uncle Milt: He’s convinced that true happiness lies in a phone that’s just a phone. And he’s pretty sure iPads are, well, evil. Every time I see him, he grumbles about the latest new-fangled technology. Bad enough they invented the fax machine, he says… Read More>>
Always Do A Little Thinking Before Making Every Offer
By Larry Harbolt
If I could wave a magic wand and re-live my early real estate investing career from the beginning, I think I would first try to learn more about what seller’s needs and thoughts are. I would also want to better understand the thoughts and logic that run through a seller’s mind when they are motivated and want to sell their house. Read More>>
How to Find Motivated Sellers with Almost No Money
By Kathy Kennebrook
You can locate motivated sellers even if you have little or no money to work with. Way back in the early days of my business I used some very inexpensive techniques to locate very motivated sellers, since we only had a limited budget to work with like many people who are just starting out in the real estate business. Read More>>
Got Funding? Get Creative!
By Bill Ham
Funding can be one of the largest barriers to entry in the real estate business. I remember the very first time I walked into a lenders office and tried to discuss funding for my first apartment complex I wanted to buy. My experience (or lack of) was immediately brought to my attention not to mention my complete lack of liquid assets (NO CASH!) Read More>>
Using Your Self-Directed IRA to Invest in Hard-Money Lending – Part 1
By Jim Hitt
When a real estate developer runs into a snag, and needs additional money to complete a project, or he wants a shorter-term loan of, say, six months to six years, he frequently turns to the “hard-money” market. In a nutshell, these are lenders who are looking to get a decent return on their money, with a margin of safety. They usually do this by holding a lien on the property, or on another property the borrower owns, in a practice called “cross-collateralization.” Read More>>
How to Talk to Sellers and Buyers If You’re Just Getting Started in Real Estate
By Courtney Larsen
If someone would have told me one year ago that I would be a full time real estate investor together with my husband and flipping houses for a living, I would have laughed at them! To be totally honest, real estate was never a passion of mine and I hadn’t given it much thought until I read “Rich Dad Poor Dad.” That got the wheels turning and when Matt (the hubby) discovered the niche of real estate we now love best… Wholesaling… Read More>>
Terminating Contracts
By Michael Vazquez
As investors, we all hope and wish that all of our contracts go smoothly. As much as we hate to admit it, the truth is that some things are out of our control. Appraisals, hidden renovation cost, weather and financing are just a few examples of what we have little to no control over. How one handles these obstacles is going to be what differentiates you from all the other real estate investors. Read More>>
Some Easy Real Estate Markets Around Atlanta
By Mark Jackson
Though recent signs have pointed to a lessening of the ongoing housing inventory crunch, many markets in the Atlanta metro area are still experiencing shortages of homes for sale. With consistent reports of inventory overall declining in the metro area, we found some bright spots. Using REIAComps helps to quickly see the number of sales and the best prices to buy year over year. Read More>>
Answers to Your QuickBooks Queries
By Karen Bershad
Q: I need to segment my balance sheet AND income statement into three departments (classes). Which version of QuickBooks can provide me with this capability? A: The lowest edition you can use to have classes on both the balance sheet and the income statement is the QuickBooks Premier. Read More>>
Atlanta REIA Welcomes the Sign Mafia!
By Jeff Nix
If you’ve been around the real estate investing community for a while, you already know the Sign Mafia. They have been serving our community of interest since 2002. They are best known for their bandit signs and property marketing packages. What are bandit signs? They are any signage placed in highly visible spots, designed to generate leads for buyers and sellers. Read More>>
The Profit Newsletter August 2013 Edition
Posted on July 31, 2013 by
The August 2013 edition of The Profit Newsletter has arrived just in time for our Atlanta REIA Main Meeting on August 5th. You can download The Profit Newsletter as a High Quality PDF or Low Res PDF (for slower devices). The Profit is the official newsletter of the Atlanta Real Estate Investors Alliance (Atlanta REIA) and is a digital, 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! The high res version of The Profit is “print ready” for those who want to print the newsletter on their home or business printer. Also, be sure to Subscribe to The Profit Here so you don’t miss a single monthly issue.
Landlords: How to Increase Cash Flow WITHOUT Raising Rents
Posted on July 31, 2013 byOne of the biggest mistakes we continually see real estate investors make is buying a rental property that produces a NEGATIVE monthly cash flow. When it comes to rental properties, positive cash flow is much more important than equity!
Here’s a typical example: An investor buys a single-family rental for $90,000. The property will rent for $725 per month and have mortgage payments of $485. The investor thinks: Wow, the property will produce a positive monthly cash flow of $240 – boy will I be sitting pretty.
But what about little expenses such as property taxes, insurance, repairs, vacancies, and management? When you factor these costs into the equation you suddenly find yourself knee deep in a pit of money-losing quicksand.
Always remember that investors make their profit – including positive cash flow – when BUYING the property. For a deal to be profitable, it’s critical that you know all the numbers and structure it accordingly. Read More→
America’s BIGGEST Ponzi Schemers
Posted on July 31, 2013 byWhen it comes to Ponzi schemers, Bernie Madoff and Lou Pearlman are rank armatures when compared to many of our elected officials. Can you spell D-e-t-r-o-i-t?
A Ponzi scheme is a FRAUDULENT investment operation that promises to pay BIG returns to its investors. Problem is, the investors are paid with money gotten from additional investors, NOT from profits made by the investment. At some point, there aren’t enough additional investors to cover costs. So the operation goes belly up, and the investors lose EVERYTHING!
Last week, Detroit declared bankruptcy. It is the largest city in U.S. history to do so. You see, Detroit owes its retirees $3.5 billion. One small problem – Detroit is $3.5 billion light of having the $3.5 billion it needs. In other words, the money promised to pensioners (police, firefighters, schoolteachers and government workers) isn’t sitting in a bank account somewhere. Instead, money currently collected from taxes is being used to pay the retirees. But because the city no longer has enough tax money coming in, they were forced to declare bankruptcy – which allows the city to clear ALL of its financial obligations and NOT pay its retirees. Doesn’t this sound EXACTLY like a Ponzi scheme to you? Read More→
The Four Things We Look For In A Tenant
Posted on July 30, 2013 byWe’ve been managing rental properties and tenants for nearly two decades. Over the years, we’ve learned TONS – mostly through the school of hard knocks!
In the beginning, we were clueless – as green as the fungus between my toes. In our middle phase of landlording, we often made things much more complicated than they needed to be. These days, hundreds of tenants later, we’ve boiled down what we look for in a tenant to the ridiculously simple.
Here are the four things I need from a tenant: 1) Someone who will take good care of the property. 2) Someone who can comfortably afford to make on-time monthly payments. 3) Someone who is easy to deal with. 4) Someone who will be a good neighbor.
Let’s look at each of these four categories and explain why they are so important to landlords. Read More→
What’s the Most Effective Way to Meet Sellers?
Posted on July 29, 2013 byLast week, Kim and I drove to Savannah, Georgia to speak to the Savannah REIA (Real Estate Investors Association). When teaching, in addition to presenting at a REIA’s monthly meeting, I do something most real estate investing teachers won’t do: I take the REIA members out to knock on sellers’ doors before the meeting.
Kim and I have built a very successful real estate investing business on the foundation of knocking on seller’s doors. We don’t put out bandit signs (these are the “We Buy Houses” signs you see at intersections), we don’t do mail outs, and we have the WORST website in the world.
Lots of “gurus” TALK about knocking on sellers’ doors, but when it comes time to walk the walk, just try getting them into a neighborhood, out of the car and up to the door. Read More→
I Have a Very High Opinion of My Opinion
Posted on July 9, 2013 byTo steal a quote from Pete Fortunato: I have a very high opinion of my opinion. I think that 99% of the time, I’m 100% right. Welcome to Willieland! Just imagine what beautiful Kim has to put up with every single day.
Real estate investors regularly call seeking our opinion about potential deals. Too often, after we explain that their deal is probably a stinker, the “discussion” turns into more of an argument about what a good deal is and what it is not. Let’s look at an example.
Since 2008, Fred has called about properties he puts under contract. As far as I know, he has never taken my advice. It seems he does one money-sucking, high-drama deal after another.
Last week, Fred called about a triplex he just put under contract. Because the investment property is in a VERY bad area of town where gunshots regularly ring out, I advised him to run from the deal – even if the property was FREE! Fred far from agreed, so back and forth we went. Read More→
The Most Important Six Inches In The World!
Posted on July 8, 2013 byKim and I are headed to Tampa tomorrow to attend Pete Fortunato’s Acquisitions seminar. Pete is THE BEST creative deal structurer we’ve ever met. This will be the twelfth or thirteenth time we’ve taken this course!
This raised a question from a fellow real estate investor: Why do you attend so many real estate investing seminars? You’re already successful. Don’t you think seminars are just a big waste of time and money?
Learning is NEVER a waste of time or money – especially if you’re learning from GREAT been-there-and-done-that investors.
For example, last month a fella called with a landlording issue. He (let’s call him “Tom”) bought his daughter a home some years back. She had moved out two years ago. Because Tom owed a lot more on the house than it was worth, he couldn’t sell it, so he decided to turn it into a rental.
Despite absolutely NO training, Tom – with a wave of a magic wand – became a landlord. After all, he was a pretty smart guy – so what could possibly go wrong? Read More→
Dang It – Just Sold Two Homes!
Posted on July 7, 2013 byMost folks think real estate investing is about buying, then selling a house, and walking away with a big pile of cash. This is known as “flipping.”
If your goal is to AVOID retiring wealthy, then flipping is definitely the way to go! The government steals nearly half of a flipper’s profits, and the flipper often foolishly spends the other half on important things like vacations, boats, watches, cars, etc.
On the other hand, if your goal is to be financially free – to be able to do what you want, when you want, where you want, why you want – then CASH FLOW is king. In other words, you want to KEEP your investment property and put someone in the home who will take good care of it and send you monthly mailbox money.
This is why, as a real estate INVESTOR, when a property sells, it hurts, and it hurts bad! Sure, you gain a pile of cash, but you LOSE your all-important cash flow.
Remember – cash can be a very dangerous thing as well as a huge obstacle to achieving financial freedom. Cash can make you stupid – especially if you are young! It’s way too easy to turn a pile of cash into a shiny red thing that honks and drops like a rock in value the second you buy it! Read More→
