Atlanta Real Estate Investors Alliance Blog

Over the last two months we discussed Step #2 of “Determining Your Marketing Plan in 7 Easy Steps” which was to “Determine Your Market”. We broke Step #2 down into 2 parts which were to determine “Who and What is Your Market?” and “Where is Your Market Place?” This month we’re going to move along to Step #3 which is to “Determine Your Marketing Methods”.

Webster defines a “method” as a careful or organized plan that controls the way something is done. Coming up with an organized marketing plan is exactly what the 7 Steps are all about so we want to put some careful thought into the methods we will use to get our desired results.

In Step #1, you determined how many leads you need to achieve your personal and business financial goals. In Step #2, you determined who you want to market to and where you want to market.

In Step #3, you need to determine what marketing “methods” you will use to promote your real estate investing business to your desired prospects in your market area so you can generate your desired number of leads each and every week/month to reach your financial goals. Read More→

There is money to be made in real estate, but you need to think about real estate investing as the business it is. Allow me to share some common mistakes that beginning and even seasoned investors should avoid.

For those of you connected to REIAComps, the control and feeling of confidence you have over your deals is priceless. Using REIAComps to investigate the value of houses as they come to market, against the recent sold comparables, will provide you a solid position to “make your profit when you buy”.

1. Getting emotionally involved. This is the biggest and most common mistake beginning investors make. Emotions and business do not mix well.
2. Paying too much. To make money investing, you have to find a good deal. Look for properties that need a little fixing up. Your goal is to find a distressed property that you can purchase at 60- 70 percent of other sold comparables. REIAComps makes that part of your investing business much easier.
3. Ignoring schools. Good schools attract good renters. Conversely, only the most desperate renters are willing to subject their children to failing schools. Read More→

“I accidentally forgot to graduate from college.” ~ Anne Lamott

Last week my Aunt Blanche came to dinner and told us all about a class she was taking: Financial Markets, at Yale. Really? THE Yale? Blanche is pretty imaginative, so I thought she was making it up. Sure enough, though, she proved it: She’s got a certificate in Financial Markets from Yale University. I have to admit I was impressed. It had to have taken work and dedication, and, I imagined, lots of money, too.

That got me thinking about how important it is to invest in ourselves, particularly in our own education. So many of us think we don’t have the time or money to spend on ourselves. We feel overwhelmed just facing the details and expenses of daily life. In my experience, though, learning something new gives me new energy and motivation to spend on all the mundane stuff.

Maybe you’d like to invest in yourself, but someone else has told you it’s just silly. That sounds like a naysayer to me, so let’s talk about naysayers for a minute. You know who they are: the folks who tell you it’s dumb to spend 15 weeks on a college course. The ones who say you’re too old, you’re too busy, you’re not smart enough. There’s a naysayer in every family. And too often, the worst naysayer of all is YOU. Read More→

I want you to be wealthy. I want you to make $5000 in the next 30 days. I know  I can show you how. So every month, I explain how to navigate the very real possibilities in the real estate market. I encourage you to get out and beat the bushes for motivated sellers because I know they are out there and they are ready, willing, and able to sell to you.

This month I want to explain how you can avoid real estate ditches, potholes, and blunders. Believe me, I have found them through trial and error, and my experience can help you to avoid them.

The most common mistakes are:

1. Not following your business model.
2. Buying with someone else’s numbers.
3. Buying from a control freak realtor.

3 Ways to Avoid These Mistakes

I. Follow Your Business Model

Your business model is the most important thing to stick to when buying or wholesaling a property. It should include

• How much money you want to make
• The area of town you’re interested in
• The type of buyer you need (owner occupant versus investor) Read More→

There’s no doubt that the number of properties being advertised for foreclosure has been plummeting for the past year and a half.  The question is, why?

In 2009, when foreclosure numbers began to skyrocket, the only way a bank could deal with borrowers who were behind on their mortgages was to foreclose.  The fact that banks – actually it was loan servicers like the infamous MERS – didn’t have possession of the borrower’s note, nor the legal right to foreclose on the property, is a topic for judges and attorneys.

At the same time, you had thousands of borrowers who, because they couldn’t/wouldn’t make their mortgage payments, simply “gave the house back” and walked away.  (It didn’t matter to the borrowers that the bank didn’t give them a house; it gave them money…and the bank – rightfully so – wanted their money back, not a house.)  A bank’s only tool to deal with this situation was to foreclose on the property, and then sell it in hopes of recouping some of their loss. Read More→

Last month I mentioned I had discovered that every property I drove past was one of four different types of houses every investor needs to be able to quickly recognize if they want to increase their bottom line every year. This month I will explain two types of houses that can really increase your income every year.

I struggled for years to find properties that would allow me to make enough money to feed my family and pay my bills. I had no idea what I was doing or what I was looking for. All I knew was I was trying to buy any house I could find just to make money. I struggled to figure out what I should look for so I started buying houses that I could fix and sell retail. This was a good idea but I could only do a few of these houses each year because I did my own rehabs at that time. It was taking long periods of time to fix and get every property sold and I kept running out of money. It was always a struggle to pay the bills each month. I wasn’t getting checks from my closings very often. All I could do was try to buy houses I thought would make me the most money.    Read More→

In the first two parts of this article, we covered a few nice things like wholesaling, when & why you might not do a deal, and then how to make money even when you don’t buy a house.

The big secret I revealed in the last article was: You SELL the leads of the houses you don’t buy.

Now Your Question Is: “Ok. It makes sense! But HOW do I sell these leads?” Good question! 

Again, let’s keep this simple.  I suppose you could go and build a squeeze page, make a sales funnel, put up ads on Facebook or Adwords, etc. But don’t. Please. What a waste of time – especially at this point. Let’s keep it simple, ok?

Instead, why not just make a few phone calls to some of these local people? Ring a few Realtors. Call a couple of contractors. Get the Interest of some Investors. Dude – Dial for some Dollars!

Go on Google & do a search for “YOUR CITY Realtor” or Contractor. Or do a search for “We Buy Houses CITY”. Ex: “We buy houses Seattle” Read More→

The problem…

You and/or your client have found real estate to purchase. The inspections go beautifully and then a giant road block shows up. What’s the road block? Your client wants to purchase it with their Self-Directed IRA and their IRA can’t qualify for a non-recourse loan because it doesn’t have the cash reserves for the 35% down payment the non-recourse lender is requiring.

The solution…

Self-Directed IRA investors have a technique they call “Subject To” that can solve this funding problem.  The “Subject To” loan qualifies as a non-recourse loan and can be used to purchase real estate within a Self-Directed IRA. It should be noted that the “Subject To” method can be used for deals whether the property is being purchased by an individual or by their IRA.

“Subject To” defined

Subject To means “Subject To the existing mortgage on the property.” Put simply, the owner of the property transfers the deed to the property into the buyer’s name (or the name of the buyer’s Self-Directed IRA) and the buyer (or their Self-Directed IRA) is responsible for making the payments on the seller’s existing mortgage. Read More→

In this article, I continue the five-part discussion about contracts for deeds by discussing the four options, or remedies, sellers have when a buyer defaults under a contract for deed. 

When a buyer defaults, subject to the terms of the contract, the seller has four legal remedies.  Two of the four remedies include the same first step – rescinding the contract.  The four possible remedies are: (1) sue on the contract; (2) foreclose; (3) rescind the contract and bring ejectment; (4) rescind the contract, re-enter and re-possess.[1] 

Under the first remedy, the party preserves the contract (as opposed to rescinding it) and sues on it for damages.  This option is similar in time, cost and procedure to other suits on a defaulted loan.  This remedy is generally not the preferred option unless (a) there is substantial equity in the contract versus the value of the property, and (b) the buyer is someone from whom money could be collected after a judgment is rendered. 

The second remedy is foreclosure.[2] In foreclosure, the property is sold at public auction to recover the defaulted amount for the seller.  In order to foreclose without judicial process (the way most foreclosures are performed), the contract for deed must contain or be accompanied by certain language including a power of sale provision.  While foreclosure is a quick and effective remedy, most use a contract for deed for the express purpose of avoiding this remedy.  Read More→

For centuries the courts have been rigged in favor of the banks.  The banks have the kind of time and money that homeowners could never dream of, and they are more than willing to use both to get their way.  You’d be wrong, however, to think that’s the only way the system was crooked.

If a homeowner whose loan was securitized tried to force the bank to show the chain of title, the court would tell the homeowner that they didn’t have standing to make that demand.  The homeowner then is left with no way of proving that the foreclosing bank/entity does not have the authority to foreclose.  Not anymore! 

In the case of Steinberger v OneWest Bank, et al, the court ruled in a special action that the homeowner does have the standing to demand that the foreclosing bank/entity provide a securitization timeline in order to establish their claim of authority to foreclose.  This timeline of assignments and transfers would prove whether or not assignments were made after a note had already been transferred to a securitized trust and could be declared invalid.

This is a huge win for homeowners because we now have the right to demand that banks prove their authority to foreclose before the court. Read More→

Are you sitting on a ton of cash and you are not sure what to do with it? Do you need to find a real estate investment to put all that cash into? Are you struggling to find a deal that will give you a good ROI on all that cash you have laying around? Or does this describe you…?

Do you need to find some cash to do your real estate deals? Are you trying to figure out how to get your deals funded? Are you looking for partners to help with the cash to get started or perhaps you are looking for a “no money down” deal to get you going?

If the second description is you then you are not a real estate investor…you are a real estate entrepreneur! You are a real estate business owner, not an investor and there is a BIG difference. An investor is someone that fits the first description. An investor already has a lot of cash and needs to put it into a deal to get a return on all that money they have laying around.

Most people don’t realize that they are real estate entrepreneurs and are not actually real estate investors at all. This is one major mistake that most new real estate entrepreneurs / investors make and it can definitely lead to early failure in the real estate business. Read More→

I got into the real estate investing business to have more free time for myself and my family and to have the financial freedom to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. I wanted my life to be more worry free. I have spent a great deal of time accomplishing that goal and I want to share some of my insights with you as a real estate entrepreneur.

When you decide to become a Real Estate Investor, make sure you structure your business in such a way that it doesn’t become overwhelming, even more so than a full time job could be. It’s very easy to fall into that trap, especially if you work from home. You can also fall into the trap of trying to do everything yourself, and long-term, this just won’t work. Believe me when I tell you that most tasks in your business need to be delegated to others starting with your marketing.

In my particular case I like to work from home and most of the functions of our business are handled off sight and by Independent Contractors. One of the ways I solved the problem of getting overwhelmed with work was to determine what hours per day would be dedicated to my real estate investing business. At the end of the day the door to the office gets closed and the phones go to an answering service. Your family will appreciate you for this as well. Read More→