Atlanta Real Estate Investors Alliance Blog

Getting paid by your tenants in a timely fashion is one of the biggest challenges of being a landlord. QuickBooks can help in several ways.

You’re meeting your business goals. Making sure that every property that has a tenant has been invoiced in QuickBooks. (You invoice in QuickBooks so you can track the timely payments made by the tenants.) You take advantage of vendor discounts. Basically, doing everything in your power to keep cash flow humming.

But you can’t control how quickly your tenants pay you.

You can, though, use QuickBooks’ tools to:

• Make it easier for tenants to remit their payments,
• Remind tenants about unpaid balances, and
• Keep a close eye on unpaid invoices.

Figure 1: QuickBooks lets you accept payments from tenants in multiple forms. Accepting credit cards and e-checks is likely to speed up your receivables.

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It was March 12^th, 1982, when I had a decision to make, and it didn’t seem like a very big one. You see, there was a seminar coming to town called “How to Buy Real Estate with No Money Down,” and it caught my attention because I certainly had none and didn’t want to continue doing what I had been doing for most of my life. I believe I saw the commercial on television, and after about the third time it aired I got to thinking about it and said, “Well, gosh, what have I got to lose. I know it’s a scam, I know they’re full of crap, but I might as well go down and check it out. Maybe there is something there, maybe I can find a way to get out of this mechanic job and make a little money for a change that lasts more than 15 minutes.”

Now, this was not an easy decision because I was going to miss my favorite television show “Dallas” with J.R. Ewing. For me to miss J.R. in order to go to the seminar was a big, big deal. We laugh about it now, but it wasn’t so funny back then because J.R. was the guy that gave me hope. He’s the first exposure I had to see what it was like to be very rich. I couldn’t really see myself as J.R. at that time, but I certainly wanted to be like him. I’m not sure I wanted to be as mean as he was. Of course, some people will say I am. I certainly wanted to have his money and his power. Read More→

Negotiating is a vital part of your business when it comes to cashing in big on short sales. It is always important to know who the investor is on the loan, and I’m not referring to who is servicing the loan and collecting the Sellers payments. There is an investor behind the scenes. Also, find out the type of loan, ie: private, conventional, FHA, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac and whether there is private mortgage insurance (PMI) or mortgage insurance (MI) on the loan. Knowing all these facts allow you to negotiate based on the percent of value each one of the Investors and/or Private Mortgage Insurance Companies on the Loan will accept on a short sale.

I found this new information to be very interesting and should not be taken lightly when negotiating on a short sale. Many Sellers are behind on their monthly payments which include principal, interest, taxes and hazard insurance. When the Sellers make their payments, the taxes and insurance monthly payment is placed into an escrow account to pay the taxes and hazard insurance when they become due. When there is not enough money in the Sellers escrow account to pay taxes, the Lender will pay them. However, when there is not enough money in the Sellers escrow account to pay the hazard insurance policy, the Lender still pays it, but it becomes Mortgage Forced Insurance. This is in place only for the protection of the Lender, not the Sellers, and normally costs 2 to 3 times more than normal Hazard Insurance. Read More→

Recently I was having a discussion with a friend of mine discussing some of the different ways to create wealth not only from real estate but other forms of investing that can give huge returns. We talked about the usual ways of making money buying real estate and we also talked about other ways of creating income without having to do any physical work for the money. Of course when you are a real estate investor your first thought is usually either about, buying foreclosure properties, wholesaling properties, fixing and selling houses at retail prices, and also buying long term income properties.

One subject I have never talked about before that I think is an important part of every real estate investors portfolio of investing opportunities is to also own paper assets for income. From this point forward we will refer to paper assets simply as “Paper”. So what are paper assets? Paper assets come in many different forms. Some different paper assets come in the form of property tax certificates, land contract paper, contract for deed paper and promissory notes secured by a mortgage or a deed of trust paper. It is my belief that every real estate investor should be diversified and have several different income streams to help them build the wealth they desire. Read More→

Have you been in real estate for 6 months, or have you really been in real estate for 1 month? Because if you’re really in real estate, you’ve made a deal by now, maybe several.

Here’s the truth: If you’re not making offers, if you’re not making deals, you’re not in real estate…yet.

Are you making the mistake of preparing and then doing nothing? Listen, if you’re prepared, then you have the education. You’ve paid a lot of money to take courses, you’ve read the books, and you’ve watched the videos. You understand that buying real estate is not rocket science. You understand that making an offer is not difficult. You have a power team: a contractor, an attorney, a survey company, and a real estate agent.

But you just don’t seem to be able to get one deal done.

What will it take for you to make a deal?

How can you overcome this fear and lethargy? Read More→

Over the years investors have always wanted to know which way they should go. Buy a house cheap, fix it up and rent it out. Over time collect the cash flow, keep some and use a portion to pay the house off. It’s the oldest and truest way to build wealth and a secure retirement.

Then there are those who are seriously focused on making some money now. They either want to “Wholesale” a house doing nothing to it all or the alternative option may be to acquire, renovate and sell for a really good profit and do it again. This method doesn’t build wealth but you can make some potential steady income.

Truly good real estate investors know the valuation of their deals is key to insuring success and protecting projected profits. To effectively determine if a deal is a rental building wealth or flip to make some much needed cash, you have to analyze a deal fully. All the market areas covered by REIAComps.com, insure you easily know which way an investor should go. Read More→

If you are blessed and fortunate enough to have lived on this planet for a while, there eventually comes a time when you start to notice the same thing that countless ancestors of ours have noticed over the eons… The undeniable fact that, sorry! You’re getting old.

The first signs of this sad truth probably reveal themselves to you in a very subtle fashion… An extra ache when you wake up in the morning; Recuperating from injuries takes longer than it used to; Or it could be a grey hair or an extra wrinkle in your smile. As my (older) brother always likes to tell me, “getting old is not for the faint of heart.”

Such subtle signs are a painful reminder of our own mortality. They can either make you sad or remind you that you may only have a certain amount of time left on this spinning blue rock we call home.

If you like movies, you know you’re getting old when the actors you grew up watching & admiring start showing their age… or die. (Even though Tom Cruise & Keanu Reeves are immortal. They never age!) Read More→

As a real estate investor you must always adjust to new market trends, rules and regulations. Recently, as any good investor should know, the industry has been having to make some changes due to the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule. These changes have and will continue to affect any person closing a property involving an owner occupant loan.

Investors that renovate properties to sell will need to add at least an extra month or two of carrying costs. Why? Well, while not going into too much detail, all HUDs will need to be approved by the buyer and underwriter at least 3 days before closing. In reality, this will mean that the delay may be as many as 6 days because we all know how long underwriting can take. Some investors may not know this, because it is normally not enforced, but currently buyers are supposed to receive a HUD 2 days prior to closing. However, the norm for most closings is having a HUD prepared the day or evening before or the morning of the closing. I have even witnessed some buyers and sellers not receive a HUD until minutes before closing. This way of doing business will soon be gone and I for one like this part of the change. Originally the changes were to be enforced in August but the enforcement date was changed to October 3^rd. Therefore, make sure your lenders and title companies are ready for these changes and do not delay your closing any more than needed. Read More→