Atlanta Carpet Service is a charter business member with Atlanta REIA and a veteran provider of flooring and installation services to the real estate specific market since 1990. Company owner, Jeff Nix is also the volunteer Business Member Director with AREIA. More than your ordinary flooring store, ACS has extensive experience and exposure to the Real Estate industry & rehabbers market dating back to 1985 providing flooring in all price ranges from low end rehab replacements up to residential occupied homes. Read More→

Since I am the type of investor who purchases properties in multiple counties and in multiple states, I have had lots of experience buying homes and vacant land in rural communities. In fact this is a part of our business that we find to be very profitable for us. I will share with you that buying properties this way is a science in and of itself. There are many different parameters and techniques you need to implement to buy properties in rural areas, but it can be a very profitable business for you.

First of all, if you like to buy vacant land, it can be a real challenge at times. For example, many times the parcels you are looking to purchase will not have a street address, making them more difficult to locate on public records to do a search. You will need plat maps and street maps in order to locate these properties. One advantage to buying in rural areas is that generally speaking the folks at the court house, the property appraiser’s or assessors office and the tax collectors office are usually easier to work with and very knowledgeable about the local area and property. Read More→

Rick is a single person with no immediate family. After hearing a discussion I did on stacking Limited Liability Companies (LLCs), he wanted to know what he could do as a single person. At the time he owned seven properties. Three had almost no equity. One had over $60,000 equity and the other three varied from $25,000 to $30,000 in equity.

Rick was fully exposed to the liabilities created by ownership as well as management. He indicated he was actively seeking more property. His objective was to acquire roughly 12 properties in the near future. He did not want to risk all he had worked for in one frivolous lawsuit.

First, he needed to insulate himself from the management liability. Management seems to be even a stronger lightening rod that property ownership. By separating management from ownership, any payment for management by the owner becomes earned income. To provide a liability shield and mitigate the tax issues, an S corporation can be used. Plus a corporation provides additional tax-advantaged fringe benefits every entrepreneur should consider. In certain situations a C corporation could be used, but the S corporation suited Rick the best. Read More→

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.

You are invited FREE!
Come to the Small Business Group for a
Year End Business Health Check Up!!
Do you know what your Safe Harbor is?
Do you know when you have reached that point in your business?
Are you getting all the tax deductions you are entitled to?
How are you keeping a good set of books?
Are you working with a Payroll Company?
Are you in compliance on 1099 employees?
Are you currently working with a CPA?
Reserve your FREE Ticket here: http://bit.ly/1bRmeKO

Q: I received a “Refundable Security Deposit” from my tenant. How do I enter this into QuickBooks?

A: This is a Liability account that you will need to payout at some later date. In your chart of accounts you should have a Liability account set up for Security Deposits Escrow – or some name that sets it apart from security deposits you paid that are owed back to you (which is an Asset). In the deposit window, instead of showing this as income you should go to this special Liability account and book it to that account.  When it is time to pay the tenant the money back, less any damages if need be, you will write the check out and expense it also to this Liability account to clear the money from the account. Read More→

Many Realtors and Investors really don’t know the secrets to a successful short sale. They think just because they make an offer close to market value that their short sale should go thru! Obviously, that is not correct. The secret to a successful short sale consists of several things including 1) listing price and 2) broker price opinion/appraisal on the property.

Let’s start with the listing price. How do real estate agents get paid? By commission right? Are they not taught that they need to list the house as high as possible to get the best price for the seller and the highest commission for themselves? So … when a Realtor is not trained how to do a short sale, what price do you think they list the house at? They list it for as high as possible. Unknowingly, they are doing a disservice to the sellers, buyers and themselves; as it is the Short Sale Lender that tells the agents, sellers and buyers how much they are willing to sell the property for. So, when the Realtor lists the property high, it encourages the BPO agent, who is also a Realtor, to try and reach for the list price. Remember, they use to be Realtors receiving commission and they too would list the property as high as possible. The only designation that I hold as a Real Estate Broker is SFR which stands for Short Sale Foreclosure Resource. I took this class just to see what the Realtors are being taught on short sales. I was impressed that they also recommend that the property be listed LOW not high so that the BPO Agent will provide the Short Sale Lender with their own value instead of reaching for list price. Just like an appraiser, they are also encouraged to reach for the list price since 99% of the time appraisals do not come in higher than either list price and/or the purchase price which a buyer is willing to pay. Read More→

The last several months have been extremely encouraging for real estate investors who are purchasing notes from banks!  Every day more and more judgments in foreclosure cases are coming down in the homeowner’s favor as judges become aware of the depth of fraud the banks have committed. What we are seeing in the market is more judges making the right decisions, and the banks starting to run scared of this turning tide.

Several judges across the country are clearing their dockets with surprising speed using one simple trick.  They are forcing banks to prove that they made a loan to the homeowner.  Simple, right?  All of the signed documents the banks can throw at the judge don’t matter if they can’t prove that they ever loaned money to the homeowner.  The fact of the matter is that the banks never actually loaned out any money to the borrowers.  For years judges have been taking the banks’ word that they have all of the signed paperwork from the homeowner that they need, and inferring that a loan was made, but that is starting to change.  The number of judges accepting this smokescreen, while still too large, is shrinking. Read More→

Here it is almost the end of another year and it’s time to ask yourself again, was this a prosperous year for you or not? If you feel that you haven’t had as prosperous of a year as you might have wished for you may want to ask yourself what you could possibly do differently next year to achieve your financial goals. 

What are you thinking might be your problem or don’t you think about it? Did too much life get in the way, or were you too busy to make offers? You didn’t make offers because you couldn’t find any good deals, or you couldn’t find the money you needed to complete but a few transactions, if any? Did you have too much competition in your area, or were the prices simply too high and good deals evaded you because other investors got to the good deals before you and scooped up those good deals? Whatever your reason don’t you think it’s time to come up with a new plan that will allow you to capture some of those good deals others are so proud of?

In just a few weeks it will be time to make another New Year’s Resolution so if this hasn’t been what you had imagined as your most prosperous year, I thought this would be the perfect time to think about making some changes in your real estate business. One thing I can tell you for sure, there are good deals everywhere you look. There are plenty of good deals if you know what to look for and understand how to profit from the deals you find. So let me ask you, what does a good deal look like? Could it be a good deal simply because of the price you have to pay for the property? Could it be a good deal because of the payment amount you can negotiate with the sellers that will allow you to cash flow the property? Could it be a good deal because of the neighborhood the property is located in? All of these can be good reasons why you might have a good deal. It’s a good idea to know why any deal you do is a good deal in your eyes. Read More→

Last year at this time, we were all wondering what was going to happen to the market.

My prediction? I knew that things were looking up, and guess what? I have good news.

Here is the update for Atlanta’s 10 county area:

• sales are up
• number of participating counties is up
• prices are moving up
• AND, most importantly:

The bottom has come and gone in Atlanta.

The sellers’ market is changing. I am seeing more sellers asking premium prices for their properties. But that is not going to happen. The biggest reason is the people giving out the money are not willing to risk a 15% increase in prices in 3 months.

Where are YOU RIGHT NOW?

Consider this: Unless you are out working the field right now, you are missing out.  ALL housing price points are moving in Atlanta, and these are transactions are going on as you read this. If you are serious, YOU need to be: Read More→

Hello – Nice To See You Again!  Here’s what you’ve learned in the first 2 parts of this article:

1. How important it is to have a website, if you’re in business in the 21st Century.
2. There are so many things you can do with it, like get more business, educate your consumers, entertain an audience, inspire your community, link it to Facebook, etc… and that’s just scratching the surface.
3. We also discussed HOW and WHERE to actually get a website up & running quickly – all for either FREE, OR almost free (inexpensive).
4. We identified the first few steps you need to take on the road to having a nicely-performing, lead-generating website for your business.

Ok, with the quick review out of the way, I have a question for you: Have You Done Your Homework?  If you recall, I’d given you two choices: 1. The free route (to learn how to get started), or 2. The paid route, if you’re running a business or want a ‘legit’ site.   

If you’ve wisely chosen the legit/paid route, you should have picked a domain name and bought it by now! Remember?  You should also have gotten your Hosting Account set up.

You… did that, right? Read More→