Atlanta Real Estate Investors Alliance Blog

To steal a quote from Pete Fortunato: I have a very high opinion of my opinion.  I think that 99% of the time, I’m 100% right.  Welcome to Willieland!  Just imagine what beautiful Kim has to put up with every single day.

Real estate investors regularly call seeking our opinion about potential deals.  Too often, after we explain that their deal is probably a stinker, the “discussion” turns into more of an argument about what a good deal is and what it is not.  Let’s look at an example.

Since 2008, Fred has called about properties he puts under contract.   As far as I know, he has never taken my advice.  It seems he does one money-sucking, high-drama deal after another.

Last week, Fred called about a triplex he just put under contract.  Because the investment property is in a VERY bad area of town where gunshots regularly ring out, I advised him to run from the deal – even if the property was FREE!  Fred far from agreed, so back and forth we went. Read More→

Kim and I are headed to Tampa tomorrow to attend Pete Fortunato’s Acquisitions seminar.  Pete is THE BEST creative deal structurer we’ve ever met.  This will be the twelfth or thirteenth time we’ve taken this course!

This raised a question from a fellow real estate investor: Why do you attend so many real estate investing seminars?  You’re already successful.  Don’t you think seminars are just a big waste of time and money?

Learning is NEVER a waste of time or money – especially if you’re learning from GREAT been-there-and-done-that investors. 

For example, last month a fella called with a landlording issue.  He (let’s call him “Tom”) bought his daughter a home some years back.  She had moved out two years ago.  Because Tom owed a lot more on the house than it was worth, he couldn’t sell it, so he decided to turn it into a rental.

Despite absolutely NO training, Tom – with a wave of a magic wand – became a landlord.  After all, he was a pretty smart guy – so what could possibly go wrong?   Read More→

Most folks think real estate investing is about buying, then selling a house, and walking away with a big pile of cash.  This is known as “flipping.”

If your goal is to AVOID retiring wealthy, then flipping is definitely the way to go!  The government steals nearly half of a flipper’s profits, and the flipper often foolishly spends the other half on important things like vacations, boats, watches, cars, etc.

On the other hand, if your goal is to be financially free – to be able to do what you want, when you want, where you want, why you want – then CASH FLOW is king.  In other words, you want to KEEP your investment property and put someone in the home who will take good care of it and send you monthly mailbox money.

This is why, as a real estate INVESTOR, when a property sells, it hurts, and it hurts bad!  Sure, you gain a pile of cash, but you LOSE your all-important cash flow.

Remember – cash can be a very dangerous thing as well as a huge obstacle to achieving financial freedom.  Cash can make you stupid – especially if you are young!  It’s way too easy to turn a pile of cash into a shiny red thing that honks and drops like a rock in value the second you buy it! Read More→

Austin Boston Berry (aka Austin Boston) bought his first investment property about two weeks ago.  It’s a nice four-bedroom, two-bath, all-brick home on Grassdale Road in Cartersville, Georgia.  And here’s the best part – Austin Boston is only twenty-four years old!

The key to Austin getting this deal was his tenaciousness.  He stayed after this deal.  He met with the seller on a regular basis.  Kim described Austin as being a little bulldog – and because he’s a Georgia Tech grad, he didn’t like this moniker one bit!

But what if, because he didn’t have a contract to use, he didn’t give the seller a written offer?  It’s likely he would have lost this deal.    

Most folks think the scariest part of real estate investing is meeting with sellers.  It’s not.  It’s when you make an offer to a seller and the seller says…YES!

What’s so terrifying about the seller saying yes?  It leads to the all-important question: What do I do next?  So what DO you do next?  You document what you and the seller just agreed to: You write up a contract.

Contract?  What kind of contract?  Where do I get a contract?  What needs to be in the contract? These are common questions we’re regularly asked.  Here’s another: “What if I sign a contract with a seller but then change my mind because there’s something wrong with the house, or I can’t get financing, or I find a better deal…how do I get out of the contract AND get ALL of my earnest money back?” Read More→