The July 2013 edition of The Profit Newsletter has arrived just in time for our 3rd Annual Vendor Trade Show and 3 Year Anniversary Celebration. The Profit Newsletter is now ready for download as a High Quality PDF or Low Res PDF (for slower devices) 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.

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

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Choosing a great domain name (aka “web address” or “URL”) for your business and company website can be just as important as choosing your company name. In fact, when I am thinking about starting a new company or online venture, I often choose my domain name first since finding an excellent domain name that is not taken is often more difficult than choosing a good company name. Additionally, a well-chosen domain name is often more recognizable and memorable than my company names which may not be the same as my domain names.

If you plan on putting your domain name on all of your online and offline marketing material as I suggest, your domain name will often be the first thing people see and remember when viewing your marketing material and visiting your website. Therefore, your domain name is a crucial part of your business’s unique brand and identity online. So choosing the right domain name for your business is very important, so choose wisely.

For the purposes of this article, you need to choose a domain name you can use to establish your business’s unique identity and allow your prospects and customers to easily find you online. Read More→

Recently, I heard a talk show host say that all properties should have their own LLC and that a corporation should own all of the LLCs so that it will be the umbrella under which the LLC’s are safe.

Let me offer another point of view that, after years of experience, I can say has worked for me and for people whom I coach on a daily basis.

The reality is that an LLC for each property is impractical. The main reason is that each LLC would have it own tax return. This gets costly and tedious.

Compromise is the solution: Why not have a 3-in-one LLC that covers the good, the bad, and the ugly? Hear me out–an LLC is good because if someone tries to sue, by law the person has to take all or nothing; he cannot cherry pick. If you have a property that you just bought and it turns out to be a liability, it will balance out the GOOD property. And, the UGLY is a property whose cash flow is barely at fair market value.

If I am doing the buy, fix, and sell, this is an easy system. If the LLC is for long term holds and all the properties are “great”, then I have a chance to lose everything in that LLC. In this case, I create another LLC. Read More→

Working an effective short sale can seem impossible if your Seller is not providing you with accurate information.  The very first thing I require from all Sellers is a ‘complete’ Seller Information Sheet.  My Seller Information Sheet is customized to specifically catch every pertinent fact about the Seller and the house.

Below are several things that I need in order to review the deal and determine my exit strategy as an Investor and/or Realtor. Read More→

“Compassion brings us to a stop, and for a moment we rise above ourselves.” ~ Mason Cooley

Aunt Tillie is on fire! Not literally, of course. She’s hot into real estate investing. She’s got six rental houses, all occupied, and every tenant is up-to-date on the rent. At least, they were up-to-date until last month. Mr. Farkle’s rent was three weeks late last month and he still hasn’t paid this month. Tillie’s having a hard time deciding whether or not to start eviction proceedings. She knows he’d pay it if he could, but she can’t afford to give him free rent. Is it better to be kindly and poor, or mean and rich? And are those her only choices?

This balancing act – Should I be a sucker, or a scrooge? – is one of the toughest things real estate investors have to walk through, and we have to do it on a regular basis.

I had a disturbing conversation recently that brought this point home for me. A couple I know invests in real estate together. They have about a dozen rental houses, and they do very well. When the economy tanked, though, they found they had to be a little more flexible about collecting rent payments. Read More→

Welcome back! If you’re joining us from last time, you’ll remember that we talked about the “Biggest Mistake Most People Make in Their Lead Gen Marketing”. Whether you’ve read it or not, I’ll just re-cover it here, so that we’re all on the same page.

The biggest mistake is that most people try to SELL something too early in the process, rather than just get the prospect (reader) curious enough to take action and request more information.

Most of the time, we want them to either call us or fill out a form on our website.

By simply getting them to take that ONE, easy action – The First Step, you give your sales process the chance it needs to succeed. Of course, after the first step has been taken, the second and third steps are next. These steps should be a natural progression down a “slippery slope” that eventually leads to you closing the sale/deal. Read More→

When in real estate, a person has to learn to adapt to any situation. In order to do this, you must have the knowledge to do so. In real estate you can try to “fake it til you make it” but sooner rather than later you will be discovered. To prevent embarrassment and improve your odds of success learn, learn and learn some more!!

A great example of this is a new wholesaler with very little to no guidance or training. They post ads, signs and hands out cards claiming they will buy your house cash without any the ability to do so. Now, let’s say that he/she is able to convince someone to sell them their property and was savvy enough to get a due diligence period built in. The wholesaler is excited that he/she finally has a property under contract. But is it a deal? With very little guidance or training, the likelihood of the property being a decent deal, much less a good deal, is very slim. The wholesaler’s only exit strategy was to wholesale the deal. If he cannot accomplish then the deal is dead. You can make money being a “one trick pony” in real estate investing but the more you know the more you make. Read More→

Over the last 23+ years, I’ve known many investors and entrepreneurs. I’ve seen every possible scenario, from overnight success to plodding, sit-on-your-butt-and-do-nothing failure. I’ve known people who would get off to a great start, and then fade away, and some who would piddle around and never seem to get anywhere. I’ve known those who made a very successful living and even a few who became super wealthy.

Is there a magic formula for success? I wish I could tell you there was. It could have saved me a whole lot of headaches over the years. And having the copyright on that formula would have made me an awful lot of money. Unfortunately, there’s no more magic in being successful than there is in anything else worthwhile in life.

However, from years of experiencing my own successes and failures, as well as witnessing those of others, I have identified a few mistakes that can short-circuit an entrepreneur’s rise to fortune. I’ve compiled a list of the most common roadblocks you’ll face on the road to becoming a successful real estate entrepreneur.

Now, you may be one of the fortunate few, and never find yourself faced with any of these problems, and that’s great. More likely, you’ll recognize parallels in your own situation in what I’m about to discuss. My goal here is to put you in a position where you can identify these pitfalls. Then, when you encounter them (and you will), you’ll be armed with the ability to direct yourself around them and get back on track . . . immediately. You won’t have to worry about these things hindering you from achieving your goals. So, let’s dive in and go down the list. Read More→

Have you recently bought a property and need to ready it for tenants? Can’t sell your property because it’s not ‘market’ ready? Having trouble finding reliable contractors? Sparkle Property Cleaning can help you save time and money as your “One-Stop Property Cleanup Shop!”

Sparkle Property Cleaning, LLC specializes in the clearing out and cleaning up of rental, for sale, and foreclosure real estate properties in Metro Atlanta.  Sparkle is fully licensed and insured for your protection.  Working with investors, realtors, landlords, mortgage companies, and REO divisions of banks, Sparkle assists in getting properties back in shape and ready for a faster sale or rental.  Sparkle offers interior and exterior services that include; debris removal, minor repairs, painting, boarding windows & doors, locks changed, white-glove cleaning, lawn maintenance, pressure washing, gutter cleaning, and documentation (digital & still photos).  On time, every time, Sparkle Property Cleaning can be on your job in 24-48 hours – Guaranteed! Read More→

One of the concerns many of my students seem to run into is; once they find the deal, what do they say to the motivated sellers? How should that conversation go? On top of these concerns, many of my students say they are not really comfortable with having a conversation with a stranger, so how do they handle that conversation? How do you get over the “jitters”?

Okay, so you’ve practiced what you are going to say, you have a plan, you have your paperwork, you’ve probably procrastinated a little, then scheduled your appointment with the seller, so now what? You still feel those butterflies in your stomach and you’re still not comfortable with how the conversation with the seller is going to go. What should you say first? How should you make the offer? What if they ask you something you don’t know? What if they accept your offer? What if they don’t? Read More→

Hello fellow investors,

Now that summer is officially upon us it’s time to do some serious thinking how to maximize our profits over the next several months in the most effective ways. A few years ago I noticed another investor I knew who became very intensively busy starting in late March and early April. One day while we were having lunch I asked him why he did most of his deals in the summer months. He gave me a very well thought out and profitable explanation of his strategy, why he used it and how profitable, if done right, his strategy could be.

With so many schools continually receiving poorer evaluations, for many parents sending their children to good schools is becoming more and more important in today’s world. My friend explained that as the school year draws to a close and summer is quickly approaching that many parents start to look for areas with the best school accreditations to send their children and find a house to rent or buy. Once he explained what he was doing I started looking for three and four bedroom houses in the best school districts where I could buy houses affordably I could fix and rent or fix and sell to these families. I started looked for houses in those area’s that needed some cosmetic work done to them that I could buy at an affordable price or with terms that would allow me to make a monthly profit no matter what I did with the houses, rent or sell. Read More→