Atlanta Real Estate Investors Alliance Blog

OTHER TRUSTS

There are numerous possibilities for the name given to a trust. Such names are often chosen to reflect the primary function of the trust: Education Trust; Wealth Replacement Trust; Charitable Remainder Trust; Spendthrift Dynasty Trust, etc.

Since names are assigned to trusts the public can get the wrong impression. It is often assumed that a named trust is like any other consumer good, such as the name ‘car’ or ‘truck’. A person wants to buy, say, a car but not a truck. They want a Spendthrift, but not an Education Trust. Actually all trusts are just trusts. The primary thing that differentiates them are clauses written into the trusts. For example, a single clause will turn an education trust into a spendthrift education trust.

The point is not to let names become confusing. The fundamentals of trusts are simple to comprehend. First, all trusts are either inter vivos or Testamentary. Inter vivos trusts are set up while the grantor is alive and are often referred to as a ‘living trust’. The testamentary trust, on the other hand, is set up after the person’s death by authority written in the deceased’s will. All trusts will be either an inter vivos or a testamentary trust. Read More→

It is the goal of this column to answer questions about QuickBooks and how it is used in the REI arena. Know how to record transactions in the proper way and have your set of books in good shape when it comes time for taxes. Submit your questions to Karen@smallbusinessadvisor.biz and we will do our best to get them answered here in this column.

Q: I just started to use QuickBooks and when I look at my chart of accounts I found an account called “Opening Balance Equity”. I did not create this account. How did it get there and what is it used for?

A: The account “Opening Balance Equity” is not a General Accounting Practice account; it is an account that is generated by QuickBooks specifically for setting up specific accounts that will have a beginning balance. For instance: bank accounts, credit card accounts, mortgages and several other types of accounts. QuickBooks “assumes” that the brand new user may not know where to put the off-setting entry when setting up a bank account or other type of account with an existing beginning balance. It allows the user to get their accounts set up and begin using QuickBooks. Later, your CPA will come along and re-class those amounts to their proper place in your books. This account should always have a zero balance.  You should never post anything directly to this account. Read More→

Which is better for real estate investors – buying a note in pre-foreclosure, buying the house through a short sale, or waiting until the house comes on the market as an REO? That depends on the difference in the discounts expected, the condition of the house, and the likelihood of reaching an agreement with the current homeowner to either move or purchase the note at a discount and remain in the house.

The discount on the note may well be less than the amount of discount the lender will be willing to take for the house as an REO. Having the note gives the note holder considerable flexibility—and some additional risks. The note buyer can decide to set up a new mortgage with the current homeowner, negotiate a “cash for keys” or deed-in-lieu of foreclosure with the homeowner, or may be stuck taking the homeowner through a long, drawn-out foreclosure process. If the latter happens, then the note buyer may well be better off waiting until the home comes on the REO market rather than tying up funds unproductively waiting for the foreclosure process to complete. However, if you have a cooperative homeowner, buying the note presents you with some incredible opportunities. Read More→

“To say that I am organized is an understatement, but my car tells a different story.”
~ Emily Procter

I love summertime, don’t you? So many memories in the making! Barbecues with the family. Long, lazy evenings by the pool. Ball games and beer.  Mowing the lawn. Mowing the lawn again. And mowing the lawn again…. And when, oh when, are those kids ever going to sleep? Man, it’s hot! I’m going inside.

I love air conditioning, don’t you?

When you’ve had enough of the summer heat, maybe it’s time to pay some attention to your office. You do have an office, right? And no, a pile of paper on the kitchen table doesn’t count as an office. You need some dedicated space.  It could be just a corner of a room but it needs to be set aside just for business. It needs to be pleasant, quiet, and comfortable.

You may not want to spend the time, but it really is important for you to organize all the files and “stuff” you’ll have around you.  If you’re not organized, things fall through the cracks. Deadlines get missed. Money evaporates. I’m speaking from experience here.  There was a time when my home office looked like the aftermath of a hurricane.  Stuff was everywhere.  That’s when I knew I had to get organized!

Now, it’s your turn. Your home office doesn’t have to be expensive. It does need to be reasonably efficient, though, so setting it up deserves some quality time and attention. Read More→

Hope everyone is doing well and out there putting out their marketing, getting leads, and doing deals. You can’t make much money in real estate if you aren’t doing deals, right? Real estate “Deals” can come in many forms. You can have a wholesale flip, where you are basically flipping the contract for a fee or doing a double closing. You might be closing on a house yourself that you intend to fix up and resell (fix n flip). When you resell that house, which would be considered a deal, and that is when you get paid (my favorite part). You might have just bought a house from the bank or a wholesaler that you intend to put a renter in. You may have just stroked a deal with a home owner to “owner finance” their house and you intend to rent it out. Or, you were able to negotiate a lease option with a home owner with a nice low down payment and monthly payment, and you can turn around and lease option that to somebody else for a higher down payment and higher monthly payment – very nice!

Gotta love Real Estate – so many ways to make money!! But we’re not in it for the money are we? Yeah – we are. Ha! Read More→

If you have looked at more than a few deals over the last year you have undoubtedly seen a distressed asset. Repairs needed, low occupancy, bad management (or tenants) are some examples, just to name a few. From single family to large apartment complexes there are distressed assets in all types of real estate these days. Fortunately they can be hidden goldmines if you know how to get financing. Most lenders are not lending on distressed assets, making it harder to close these deals, let alone mitigate the needed repairs.

My favorite way to deal with this is with a master lease option or seller financing. If you can get the seller to give you control of the property then you can do the fix-up and flip it for cash or keep it for cash flow!

Either way you structure the deal, the idea is to limit the cost of getting into the deal because you will have repairs and other expenses to overcome while you get the property cash flowing.  Here are some tips for getting started with a rehab property using creative financing. Read More→

It is as easy to succeed as it is to fail. Why does this sound untrue? Because most of us forget that we have a choice: we can enjoy the good and overcome the negative. What we must remember is that when we encounter something that we initially see as negative, we have a choice about how to react.

Did you know that Harland David Sanders, the famous KFC “Colonel”, couldn’t sell his chicken? More than 1,000 restaurants rejected him.

Or that Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas”?

Or that Henry Ford’s first auto company went out of business?

What made these people successful after so many “failures”? Read More→

(This article is continued from Part 1 in the July 2013 Edition of The Profit Newsletter.)

3. Listening to poor advice. This is something you probably already know. As you go through life, there will never be a shortage of people who want to give you advice. Your parents, your spouse, friends, in-laws, kids, they all have opinions about what you’re doing and what they think you should be doing. Very often, the value of their advice is worth exactly what you paid for it . . . nothing!

   I’m not saying these do-gooders aren’t honest, intelligent and well-intentioned. However, you must ask yourself, are these folks qualified to give you advice? Have they had any experience in what you’re doing? It seems to be human nature for people to offer advice on subjects they know nothing about. What baffles me is how often the recipients of this so-called wisdom will listen to it and even act upon it without ever questioning the credentials of those giving it.

   Through many painful experiences, I’ve learned that when you take advice from people who don’t know any more about the subject matter than you do, the quality of that advice is, at best, suspect. Plus, very often, listening to unqualified advice can have a negative impact on your focus (see roadblock #1).

   So, who should you be listening to? I believe in taking advice only from people who are: Read More→

Combining a self-directed IRA and real estate is a trend that is picking up speed fast! Real estate investors are redirecting their focus and purchasing homes with their self-directed IRAs in mass. Partly because they refuse to settle for living on the measly average $1,230 per month social security check that many retirees are forced to budget with.

Large companies are cutting back on their employees’ hours in preparation for the Obama Care regulations and this change is causing people to rethink their futures prompting them to obtain both a self-directed IRA and real estate investments. With their salaries shrinking, they are looking for alternative revenue streams to build their retirement accounts.

So why is real estate picking up steam? Many people have lost their homes to foreclosure, others can’t get financing due to the new bank regulations, and some people simply do not have enough confidence in the real estate market to buy a home so they are looking for rental properties to live in. For these reasons, the demand for rental properties is at an all-time high and real estate prices, while slightly on the rise, are still low enough to make this an investors’ market.  Large cities listed in the top 10 fastest-growing U.S. cities of 2013 are among the most sought after in the rental market. There are droves of residential properties on the market at great prices and investors are buying them up quickly. Read More→

I am consistently asked about liens.  Who can file a lien?  How can I file one?  What are my rights?  These are all common questions I hear from real estate brokers, contractors, landlords and others.  For the next few months, I will discuss different industries that have the right to file a lien against real estate.  In all these industries, the right to lien arises when services or goods provided go unpaid.  I will also briefly outline the legal process for perfecting these liens and the necessary next steps.  To begin, I discuss real estate broker’s liens, specifically commercial real estate brokers and the Commercial Real Estate Broker Lien Act.[1]

Licensed commercial real estate brokers have the right to file a lien for services rendered, which are not paid.  There is no lien statute for residential real estate brokers.  Commercial brokers have the right to file a lien for virtually all compensation that has been agreed to.  This includes commissions and compensation for sales, leasing, property management, consulting services and auctions. 

Commercial brokers have the right to file a lien against commercial property only.  Commercial property is defined as all real estate other than: (1) “real estate containing one to four residential units;” (2) vacant land which “is not zoned for nor available for commercial, multifamily, or retail use;” or (3) agricultural land.[2]  Again, there is no right for a real estate broker to file a lien against residential real estate.  Read More→

So how are we going to get ready to have a conversation with our motivated sellers? I believe that readiness is a state of mind, and I have put together some ideas for you designed to help you have meaningful and successful conversations with motivated sellers resulting in profitable deals.

First of all, expect to be anxious and know that it’s okay to be anxious. You probably wouldn’t be very good at what you do if you didn’t care about the outcome.

Next, while you are feeling anxious, get in front of a mirror and practice what you are going to say to the seller. Do this more than once. The more you practice what you are going to say, the more comfortable you will be and therefore less likely to forget what you were going to say. Practice controlling your voice and be mindful of how fast you are talking. Your speech should be at a moderate volume and speed when speaking to a seller.

Remember to breathe! Practice what you are going to say all the way through without making faces, gasping or throwing out any expletives. Your seller doesn’t care if you’re speech is perfect, they just want to know what you can do for them to help them solve their problem. You might even want to practice what you are going to say in front of a spouse or close friend. Read More→

Okay, the media in general is touting the US economy is doing better than it has over the last bunch of quarters. People across the country are working again. Typically this news leads people to feel better about the overall economy. More directly, this has translated to a recovery in the real estate market.

Signs show home values are coming up from the lows of 2008-2011. It is easy to keep track of values using REIAComps. Sales in many markets have been increasing and there a good volume of houses to choose from and lastly the number of folks looking to buy are up.

These previously mentioned factors are good for people who purchased at the height in 2004-2007. This was the time period when negative equity was born. Upside down mortgages became common place far too often. Read More→