In July, fans of common sense and decency everywhere won a huge victory – in California of all places! The California Appellate Court ruled that Chase created and recorded false documentation in order to prove ownership of a property so they could foreclose on it. This is big news because it shows that the major courts in some of the biggest states in the country are catching onto the long con the banks have been playing in this country for over a decade. Not only is this a good thing for the country in general, it is creating a huge opportunity for real estate investors to do some killer deals while helping homeowners in need.

In 1998, Jan and Rosalind Kalicki secured a mortgage for their home in San Marcos California. A specialty mortgage banking company originated the loan, and Washington Mutual became the servicer. After WaMu went into receivership, Chase bought a large amount of WaMu’s interests, including the Kalicki’s loan. After being foreclosed on in 2008, the Kalicki’s filed a suit for wrongful foreclosure against Chase in 2009. The Kalicki’s claim was that Chase claimed ownership of the loan based on fraudulent documents.

In 2012, the court ruled not only that Chase had created and recorded fake documentation to show that ownership of the loan had been transferred to Chase, it was also exposed that a Chase executive had created a document that “fraudulently represented that a prior assignment had been lost and that Chase owned the Kalickis’ mortgage.” The judge ruled that the Kalicki’s owned the property and quieted the title in their favor. Chase appealed the ruling, but lost. Read More→

Some would say home flipping, in which a buyer resells a property quickly for a profit, is on the decline as U.S. residential price gains slow and foreclosures dwindle. The exception are those individuals who know a valuation first approach to real estate is key to buying right. REIAComps.com insure you have a complete feeling of confidence and sense of control over all the deals you intend to flip.

In the second quarter of this year, almost 31,000 single-family houses were flipped, representing a solid percentage of U.S. home sales. These are quite consistent with data from earlier last year and not much different from the second three months of 2012, when prices bottomed after the crash. Remember we define a flip as a property sold within 12 months of purchase.

Real estate investors who are using REIAComps.com are making stronger profits and finding better opportunities for deals even after a two-year surge in property values that’s now slowing. The median existing-home price climbed 4.9 percent in July from a year earlier, compared with a 13.1 percent jump in the same month of 2013. Distressed homes still account for their share of sales going back to 2008. Read More→

Even before investing in real estate or considering it, you may have heard radio advertisements announcing a national “guru’s” meeting coming to town, seen the latest no money no credit infomercial, been pitched on $25,000 real estate investment programs, and the list goes on. I have been invited to many meetings, courses, classes, groups, etc. and have learned plenty but I didn’t spend thousands to do so. I have learned that not all “gurus” are created equal. Here are a few tips to consider before attending another course or pitch meeting.

1. Does this “guru” still invest in real estate TODAY? If they do not invest in today’s market I more than likely will not spend any money on this person. It is OK to make an exception if the meeting is free to attend to see for yourself if the info is still relevant. I personally have been in the real estate investment business for nearly a decade and the market has constantly changed. What did work years ago does not work as well as it once did.

2. If the person does invest, do they invest in your market? It may be an informative meeting but may not be overly useful in your market. I would strongly suggest that you find a person at your local REIA that invests in your local market. Read More→

It is the goal of this column to answer questions about QuickBooks and how it is used in the REI arena. Knowing 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 with you, the members, submitting questions to Karen@smallbusinessadvisor.biz, and getting answers here in this column.

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.

 Q: It takes me all day to reconcile my bank account. I thought it was supposed to be easy in QuickBooks. Every rent check I receive shows up as a separate deposit in my check register, but when I go to the bank I deposit several checks at a time in one deposit. Why doesn’t it show up the same in my register as on my bank statement.

A; If you did not turn on the “Undeposited Funds” feature in preferences, then QuickBooks will put each received payment directly to the bank. You want the “Undeposited Funds” feature on so you can “collect” your received payments together as one deposit duplicating what you actually take to the bank. Read More→