Atlanta Real Estate Investors Alliance Blog

“I have a thing for tools.” ~ Tim Allen 

So, here it is: January. You’ve gotten most of the pine needles and tinsel out of the carpet so the dog won’t eat it. Aunt Flora and Uncle Ruben have gone back to Miami. Your kids are back in school. And you? You’ve had a minute or two to breathe and enjoy the satisfaction of a holiday season well spent. Time is precious, isn’t it?

But now, it’s time to get moving again. The warmth of the holidays has become the chill of winter, and with that comes heating bills and college tuition and credit card bills. It’s time to make some serious money.

I realize it’s not easy to get in gear again after the New Year. But if you’re like me, you can’t afford to sit on your laurels for too long. Lost opportunities are very expensive.

That doesn’t mean, though, that you can’t have a little fun while you’re at it. So go get that new smartphone Santa brought you, and let’s get cracking. You know you want to!

There was a time when owning a smartphone was a luxury. Not anymore! It’s probably the most useful single gadget you own. I know people who take a lot of pride in having a very basic cellphone. That’s a valid choice, of course, but now I wonder how I ever got along without this amazing device. Read More→

When you begin to learn about real estate investing you normally hear about the big picture of how to find and sell real estate. Obviously, this is important because without a piece of real estate to buy or sell there are no profits. However, let’s assume you have the acquisition and disposition of real estate down to a science. Now it’s time to pay more attention to the details because as the saying goes, “the devil is in the details.” I like to say, “Profit is in the details.” In this case I am referring to fully understanding the true cost of closing a property.

Beginning with the contract, it must specify and make it clear who is responsible for each and every penny at the closing table. When you send over a HUD to the buyer/seller there should be no misunderstanding of who should be paying what. After nearly a decade of investing in real estate, I continue to see investors and wholesalers run into this problem time and time again. A few costs that are usually debated over are the title services and settlement costs, document prep fee, courier fee, tax certificate fee, government recording fee, HOA transfer fee, title policy, and even though its only $2, the state guaranty fee.  Individually all these fees are relatively small compared to overall purchase price but together can add up to be a few thousand dollars. Now imagine if you close multiple deals per month, these small costs can really impact your bottom line. So how do you overcome having to pay these fees? Read More→

If the courts rule against the banks in the homeowners’ favor, but no news outlets report it, does it really happen?  That’s the situation we’re in now.  If you’ve been digging deep, you might have seen that the estimate of bank losses from mortgage related lawsuits has increased to $100 BILLION in future payouts.  This number includes settlements and judgments as well as legal fees for defending all of the lawsuits.   How many stories about this have you heard on the major news outlets?  Zero.

Over the last 15 years, the banks concocted a scheme to defraud their investors and borrowers that resulted in over 15 million people being displaced from their homes, and you have not seen a single story detailing the fraud the banks perpetrated and the damage it caused.  You would think this is the type of story that would be all over the news, but the media remains silent.

Despite the lack of coverage from the media, the payouts and estimates of future payouts from the banks keep getting bigger.  The reason for this is simple.  Investors and homeowners are filing valid claims of fraud against the banks and judges and juries keeping awarding bigger and bigger settlements. Read More→

Happy New Year!!  You may be reading this in early January even though I am writing this in December so I figured I’d throw that out.  Hope you had a great Christmas season as well.  It’s always my favorite time of the year.  Our December one year ago I think was still our best month Wholesaling.  We did 12 deals – which was insane.  Don’t let up in the holiday season – it can be a good time to get deals.

So this month I want to talk about Focus.  Real Estate investing in general has got to be the most distracting business out there.  I’ve never been in a business where you can be going in 10 different directions.  Using 10 different exit strategies and 10 different marketing techniques.  I am/was one of those people.  I thought I could be a “wholesaler/lease option/seller finance/subject to/fix and flip/short sale/REO/vacant land/note trader” Real Estate Investor.  Now I still think I “can” be this, it will take time.  I think there are some bad asses out there that are this Investor, but they are 10-20 years into the business.  Don’t try to be an expert in 10 different types of deals right out of the gate.  Perfect one – which means you are consistently making money from it – THEN move on to the next strategy.  Then have 2 strategies going for a while until both are making money – THEN add a 3^rd.  And so on. Read More→

I am frequently asked, “If you had it to do over again what would you do differently?” Well, I’d like to answer that question for you. There are several things you can do to help your business grow and several things you can do to kill the dream before it ever has a chance to become a reality. Let’s talk about the “ten deadly mistakes” that can kill your dream.

1. Listening to people who make less money than you do. There are a lot of folks out there who don’t understand this business at all, yet they will want to give you advice faster than anyone else. They basically want to keep you where they are, which is broke. Surround yourself with people who can guide you in a positive way and a forward direction. Get involved with your local real estate club or a mentoring program like Ron LeGrand provides for you. Read all you can on the subject of Real Estate Investing and educate yourself to move forward with your business. Don’t let a “naysayer” kill your dream. Read More→

Often I have investors ask me what entity should hold their personal residences. Many want to use at least the land trust or Family Limited Partnership. But by using any of these, you could be losing tax and financial benefits. So, how do you protect it?

Your personal residence is protected by being mortgaged 100%. Don’t worry, I am not suggesting that you have loans out totaling the full value of your residence, but have a home equity line up to 90-100% of the value. If you get the line from a first tier lender, the mortgage document at the court house will typically not specify that it is an equity line. It will appear that that amount is a loan on the property. Of course, you don’t have to draw on the line if you don’t want or need to, but having it available will provide you financial comfort as well.

Why not move the personal residence into an entity? Well, there are three reasons: Read More→

Many of my students repeatedly ask me, “Do I need both the Wife and the ex-Husband’s financial documents when negotiating a short sale?”  I let them know that there are several variables that I need in order to give them an answer.  In order to have a clear understanding of whose financials I need to collect, I need the following information:  Property Appraiser sheet (whose name is listed as owner?), a copy of the last recorded Deed (whose name is on there?), a copy of the Property Settlement and Judgment of Divorce (who was awarded the property and does it contain verbiage stating that a certified copy of the Judgment of Divorce and/or Property Settlement can be recorded in lieu of a Quit Claim Deed).  

FOR EXAMPLE:  Husband and Wife bought the house together with a Mortgage and Note from Wells Fargo.  They then get a divorce and the Wife is awarded the house with no interest from the ex-Husband.

When Sellers get a divorce, typically one party will say they want the house and that person will be solely responsible for the debt on the house.  A good attorney will ensure that there is specific verbiage in the Judgment of Divorce and/or Property Settlement which states that the Wife is going to be responsible for the debt on the home and that the ex-Husband will Quit Claim his interest by Deed over to the Wife so that he is no longer on the property.  In addition, a good attorney will add verbiage in the Judgment of Divorce and/or Property Settlement which states that should the Husband not sign a Quit Claim Deed to transfer the property over to the Wife, then a certified copy of this Document (Judgment of Divorce and/or Property Settlement) may be filed with the Recorder’s Department in lieu of (instead of) a Quit Claim Deed to transfer the property. Read More→

Lease options have made a big comeback in today’s market. They are great ways to take control of real estate without using banks or lenders. They are also a great way to fix up a distressed asset that a bank won’t lend on. Once you have the property up and running, you can then sell for quick cash or refinance for a long term hold.

A master lease option is a set of two contracts that give us the right to control the operations and the sale of a property. The term “master” is typically given when you are doing this in multifamily and is just a lease option when doing single family deals. The master lease gives us the right to “rent” an entire property with the right to sublet the units. By implementing the master lease we can effectively take control of the property and all of its operations. We can also control the cash flow!

The master lease side of the agreement is what will allow you to fix any problems the deal may have before you sell it or refinance with a lender. You essentially become the new owner without having to actually purchase the property. This will allow you to hire new management to take control of the deal and to implement your plan of action. Read More→

Owners of vacant houses can be hard to find, so I am about to give you some insider tips so you can hunt these elusive owners…

Once upon a time, I found a boarded up house and wanted to find the owner. Given my experience, I knew that trying to find the owner through tax records might get me an address, but mailing anything to that address would be a waste of my hard earned 42 cents. I needed to find another way to hunt this owner. So I started thinking like a bill collector. I did research on the bill collector site to learn how they locate people and get their money from people who “skipped.”

Here is what I have found: most investors are lazy. If they send the postcard to the address on file and get the card back, they have run out of creative ideas and move on. I have learned, though, that diligence pays off. One more step, the one that the lazy investor doesn’t take, will be the one most likely to get you results.

Great News! Once you find the owners, they are very easy to negotiate with because you are solving a huge problem for them. They won’t go out and find other investors at a higher price. They will wonder how YOU found them. Read More→

Not too long ago, I wrote a sweet 3-part article on how to fill your pipeline full of leads & deals.  I hope by now that you’re using that advice to get lots of leads coming in that you can work with.  If not, then go back & read it again! 

And now that you (hopefully) have leads coming in, it’s time to introduce you to a new technique to make money.  I’m going to try to keep this brief, because this technique is very simple, and we don’t want to complicate it. Don’t do like I did in the beginning & over-think this.

It works & it works well – IF you simply take action & DO it!

Here’s The Problem: As you begin to market for sellers of houses (motivated or not), you’re going to come across a lot of various stories, situations, and circumstances. Sometimes, you might find that you’re not able to buy the seller’s house or do business with them. There are a lot of reasons why this is possible. Read More→