A few months back, one of our rental properties went vacant.  It’s a nice three-bedroom, two-bath home with a fenced yard.  After a bit of paint and clean up, we stuck a For Rent sign on the lawn.

Over the course of two weeks, we received several great applications.  One application stood out above all the others.  The applicants had been on their jobs for years, they had solid references, they had the move-in funds ready to go, and they kept their current residence immaculate.  They would make PERFECT tenants!

Shortly before I called these ideal tenants to give them the good news that they got the house, I got a call from someone who wanted to buy the property.  They explained that their credit stunk, but they had $10,000 to put down.

Their $10,000 down payment got my attention and put the brakes on everything.  A thorough background check revealed that the prospective buyers didn’t pay their bills or maintain their current residence well.

Over coffee, the potential buyers explained that they had just inherited $20,000, had always wanted their own home, loved the house we had on the market, and buying it – if we gave them owner financing – would be a dream come true. Read More→

Is real estate a good, safe, profitable investment?  Consider this: More millionaires have made their fortunes using real estate as their primary investment over any other investment vehicles – including stocks and bonds.

With real estate, an average American with no college education can buy a house – often at less than 50 cents on the dollar – with little or none of his own money, get great tax breaks, and here’s the best part: have his tenant (or buyer) pay for it all!

Can you name any other investment that can match these benefits?  No?  So then why aren’t a lot more folks investing in real estate?  Why do so many people choose to be realtors instead of investors – lord knows, investing pays a lot more!

The answer to these questions is best summed up by the excuse most would-be investors give: “I’d love to invest in real estate, but I don’t have the money, and the bank won’t loan me a dime.”  Folks, this is one lame, stinkin’ excuse! 

Rarely do Kim and I go to banks for our purchase funds.  In fact, since 2005, we can count on three fingers the total number of loans we’ve gotten from banks to do our deals.  So how are we paying for them? Read More→

Last month, I did a knocking-on-sellers’-doors challenge.  To help folks better understand what real estate investing is really like, I posted my daily results on North Georgia REIA’s Facebook page – including pictures and many of the creative offers I structured!

For the month, I spent 9 days out getting face-to-face with sellers.  In total, I talked to 30 sellers at the door, 27 invited me in, and I made 23 written offers – including a $1 million offer on a $125,000 house!

Yesterday, I spoke with an investor who followed me on Facebook.  He said, “If I had been you, I would never have done a public challenge.” “Why not?” I asked.  He answered, “Because you talked to all those sellers but didn’t find a single deal.  Now everyone is gonna think you’re nothing more than a big, fat, ball-headed failure!” Read More→

One thing that REALLY sticks in my craw is the number of folks who claim that all I do is make low-ball offers when making offers to buy houses.  Kim and I have heard this nonsense for more than 18 years. 

Want the truth?  Can you handle the truth?  Almost every offer I make includes a full-price offer!  Don’t believe me?  I’m in the middle of a 30-day knocking-on-sellers’-doors challenge.  So far we’ve talked to 25 sellers at the door; 22 have invited us in and we’ve made 18 written offers.  You can see us in action – along with a number of full-priced written offers that we’ve made – by going to North Georgia REIA’s Facebook page.

Last week, I met with a realtor and a seller at the seller’s house.  Before I got there, the realtor told the seller that this would be a total waste of her time.  She said, “Bill’s nothing more than a scum-sucking bottom feeder.  All he does is make insulting, way-below-market offers.”  But here’s the thing: I had never met this realtor, nor made a single offer to one of her sellers – EVER! Read More→

Yesterday, I attended the Board of Assessor’s monthly meeting at the county courthouse.  Including me, the total number of private citizens in the room was…one!  This isn’t unusual. I attend several of these meetings each year – usually around property tax time – and I’ve never seen anyone else there except for the folks on the board.

For the record, board members are appointed by county government officials.  The members work hard and have a lot of responsibility on their shoulders.  Their job is to review property tax appeals, sales ratios and changes to the tax digest.  Before a decision is rendered, there’s a lot of open, back-and-forth discussion.

At the meeting, I learned that around 2,000 property owners filed property tax appeals – this is about the same number as last year.  I was dumbstruck that so few had filed an appeal.  Because Steve Taylor, the County Commissioner – who has one T-O-U-G-H job – recently announced plans for a 25% property tax increase, I figured there would be a flood of property tax appeals. Read More→

“Bill, you have a pretty big spot on your lung.  We’re not sure what it is,” said the doctor. If he wanted to get my attention, he succeeded!

I’ve never smoked, I compete in five triathlons and do several 100-mile bike races each year, plus I go to the gym twice a week – yet there I was, wondering whether I had lung cancer.

The good news is that it wasn’t lung cancer! It turns out that the spot on my lung is a result of me having had tuberculosis when I was growing up in Thailand.  No matter, the thought of dying caused me to look at many parts of my life – including our rental properties.

For most couples who own single-family rentals, one spouse is primarily responsible for taking care of the properties and tenants.  In our family, it’s me.

My health scare raised some all-important questions: What would happen to our rental properties if I suddenly died?  Would Kim know what to do?   Could she maintain our capital assets or would she be forced to liquidate all of our investment properties? 

I decided we needed to find out the answer to these questions. Read More→