Atlanta Real Estate Investors Alliance Blog

WARNING: If You Own Any Properties In Your Own Name Statistics Show You Have A Huge Target On Your Back And A Damaging Lawsuit Is Just Around The Corner If You Don’t Do Something FAST To Prevent This From Happening To You!

Let me share some very important facts that unless you do something FAST could cost you everything you’ve worked hard for. Statistics show…

Fact: Every year at least 7,000,000 (seven million) Slip-and-Fall Civil lawsuits are filed throughout this country costing millions of dollars. That means that at the very least 14,000,000 (fourteen million) people and their families will be party to those lawsuits that 85% to 95% are settled out of court. Most of these are nuisance suits generated just to get money.

I don’t want you to be the next victim? Why would you want to needlessly expose your real estate assets when you don’t need to jeopardize your financial future? Forget about time, stress and anxiety you and your family will experience just because you are named in a lawsuit. Even if you aren’t guilty of doing anything wrong it can ruin your life. When you are sued it costs you time, personal grief and attorney’s fees, and possibly thousands of dollars regardless of the outcome of the case. This doesn’t sound like a good formula for accumulating wealth to me wasting money defending you from those unscrupulous people and their contingency fee lawyers. Read More→

Has This Ever Happened To You?

You spend a good chunk of time writing what you think is a KILLER ad. You’ve picked where you’re going to advertise (Offline? Online? Both?). You set aside some marketing money, and hope that it works out by bringing you back some leads, which should turn out to be a deal or two.

Then you place the ad. And wait. And wait some more. You stand by the phone – or look at your inbox to see when those leads will come rolling in… And THEN what happens? Nothing! Nada. No calls. No email submissions. No love. Sound familiar? If you’ve been in business for any length of time, you’ve been there. It sucks.

No leads. No phone calls. Money down the toilet. Worst of all: No Leads = No Deals. And No Deals = No Income!

WHY did that happen? And what can we do to FIX it so it doesn’t happen again?

Well, there’s actually a lot of different things that could have made this marketing disaster. Here’s a couple example of some of these things may be beyond your control: Read More→

It amazes me how some people, most in fact, who have the same amount of hours in a day, get so little done. I’ve always had a hard time understanding why people intentionally waste time and live an unproductive life. Most people are just hanging around waiting to die. Every day is the same, more or less, and a whole lifetime is spent doing or accomplishing not one darn thing worth remembering.

Not me brother. The older I get the more valuable each of those days becomes and I’m fully aware none of us are getting out of this life alive.

If you’re reading this, I hope you’re not one of those folks I’ve just described, but I bet you could make a list of those who are. Some will have your last name perhaps. If you get this week’s lesson, you paid for it, which by itself tells me you’re looking for a more active and productive lifestyle. Kudos on that decision.

It’s hard for me to understand why some people can’t get one productive thing done in a whole day. Personally, I’d rather be snowed under than bored. Never could understand how people can lay on a beach all day and do nothing. Not me bubba!

Okay, Ron, what’s the secret to getting so much done? Are you superman? Nope! Not even close. I’m a 65 year old, overweight auto-mechanic. I’m no genius. I barely got out of high school, no college, just 45 years of working for myself and making the same stupid mistakes I see people make everywhere I look. Read More→

There are innumerable issues that can be caught in a forensic audit and used to argue either that a title is clouded or a foreclosure proceeding is improper.  Here’s a list of nine common problems that may lead to a positive outcome for a homeowner doing legal battle with a lender or servicer:

1. An individual purporting to be an officer of one lender or servicer shows up as the officer of several other companies at the same time. It is improbable, if not impossible, for one individual to simultaneously serve as an officer of several institutions.  This is an indication that someone hired by a document processor was told to sign thousands of forms per day for many different institutions. Such individuals are required to swear by virtue of signing the documents that they have personally examined all documentation and personally know of the loan—again an impossibility.
2. A name appears on several different documents for the same person but in different handwriting.  For example, there are many different handwriting samples of the same purported bank officer, Linda Green showing on thousands of different loan and foreclosure documents. Read More→

When writing killer copy for an ad, there are several components that need to be addressed. The first of these is to grab the reader’s attention. If you don’t get the reader’s attention immediately, you will lose them. You need to remember that the average person is bombarded with hundreds of advertising pieces per day and yours needs to stand out. The second component is you have to raise their interest. Is the ad going to be something of interest to them? Does it spell out what you can do for them? The third component to a killer ad is desire. This is where you list proven benefits to your seller. And the fourth component to a killer ad is a call to action. You have to tell your seller what you want them to do or they won’t do anything. So let’s address these components one at a time.

The key component for writing any ad to attract motivated sellers is to begin with a killer headline. This headline has to answer the big question “what’s in it for me”? Using a really great headline can mean the difference between your success or failure at attracting motivated sellers using ads. Your headline is the very first thing a prospect sees when looking at your ad, or while scanning a page of ads, so it must deliver a clear and understandable message that makes your seller want to know more. You only have a fraction of a second to grab their attention so your headline needs to be strong and benefit driven or you’ve lost this prospect forever. Read More→

Going through a Foreclosure action and losing your home is a very stressful situation for anyone.  Until you walk in those shoes yourself, it’s hard for an Investor or Realtor to understand what a Seller is facing in their day to day life.  I would like to share how a Seller feels during this process so that you can really begin to understand the Seller’s experience.  It IS a scary roller coaster ride and you can help deter them from crashing and burning at the end!

Owning a home has always been the American Dream.  Sellers become very emotionally attached to that “dream home.”  They work their tails off, save as much money as they can, and make the big purchase.  Unfortunately, the adjustable rate mortgage was introduced to our economy which allowed Sellers to purchase the home of their dreams with little money down, interest only payments with the Sellers knowing that in 3 to 5 years they will have to refinance their home to a fixed 30 year mortgage in order to keep it.  When the housing market crashed, it affected everyone drastically.

Many people found themselves without a job ie. realtors, mortgage brokers, developers, contractors and many more people in different occupations.  Can you image if you had a 700+ credit score and then suddenly you weren’t able to make your payments on your home, car, credit cards, and purchase food or clothing for your family?  This is such a humbling experience that many Sellers don’t survive.  Everything they have worked for their entire life is gone!  This situation has crushed many dreams and is still occurring daily. Read More→

Years ago I learned appraisers and other property valuation folks use three methods to build a value for a piece of property. The sales comparable or market approach basically look at what comparable properties sell for, the cost approach looks at what it would cost to build the property, and the income approach considers the value of the income stream that a property generates or could generate. Each of these methods has a different use and different type of property for which it is most appropriate. Let me share a little more detail before giving a slightly different investor focused concept.

Comparable Sales Approach

In the comparable sales approach, a value is created by looking at what similar properties in a similar market have sold for. Your REIAComps.com Membership is very useful here. For example, if three similar three-bedroom homes sold in the same neighborhood in a range of $75,000 to $85,000, it’s reasonable to assume that a comparable property would also sell in that range. The appraiser would choose a specific value by adjusting each comp for the unique characteristics of the property that they are analyzing. You can get assistance performing this same comparable analysis by using the Valuation Support Desk through your REIAComps.com Membership. Read More→

Lack of Knowledge

Many people make mistakes due to a lack of understanding of the governing rules. This article covers two of the most common mistakes. Understanding these rules can help you grow your self-directed IRA without fear of losing out to avoidable errors.

Violating Once-Per Year IRA-To-IRA Rollover Rule

You have two options when moving assets between your IRAs; one is a transfer and the other is a rollover. Under a transfer, the delivering IRA custodian pays the amount to the receiving IRA custodian for the benefit of your IRA. Transfers can be done for an unlimited amount of times.

Unlike a transfer, a rollover can only be done once during a 12-month period per IRA. Failure to follow this rule will result in loss of tax-deferred status, which means that the amount would be treated as ordinary income and could be subject to the 10% early distribution penalty if the distribution occurs while you are under age 59½. The amount could also be subject to a 6% excise tax if not corrected by your tax-filing deadline, plus extensions. Read More→

When a tenant is in default, many landlords face a common question: whether pursuing their tenant for a money judgment is worth the extra time and expense.   All experienced landlords know that they can quickly evict a tenant.  However, the extra effort to obtain a money judgment[1] and even more effort to collect on that judgment may or may not be worth it.  In some situations, a distress warrant may solve this dilemma.   

Many landlords and property managers may have performed dozens of evictions, but may have never heard of a distress warrant.  A distress warrant is an accelerated proceeding by a landlord against a tenant to seize the tenant’s leviable property to satisfy rents owed.  Leviable property includes equipment, furniture, machinery – and as one sheriff once reminded me, cows.  This would not include property subject to the process of garnishment, such as bank accounts or wages.

The legal background of a distress warrant begins with the concept that every landlord has a lien against the leviable property of his tenant.[2]  The way to enforce this lien is through a distress warrant.  The process is not extremely complicated, but is riddled with technical requirements and pitfalls for the inexperienced.  Unlike the eviction process, which many non-attorneys pursue successfully, I do not recommend that a non-attorney attempt a distress warrant proceeding.  Let us now discuss some advantages and disadvantages of a distress warrant.  Read More→

“What’s the best way to find deals?”

This is the number one question I get asked by my real estate students. The answer is in the title. Most people new to the real estate business these days are looking for a “magic bullet” system that will bring them all the good deals they can handle. Unfortunately it doesn’t usually work that way.

There is no better way to consistently produce viable real estate deals than through quality relationships with commercial brokers and agents. No owner of a commercial property is going to go out to the road side and put up a “For Sale by Owner” sign and hope a qualified buyer happens to drive by. They are going to find a great broker and list the property with them.

I tell my students “You are trying to buy a property that is not for sale yet.” Good deals don’t stay on the market long. If you call an agent and they have something for sale, chances are it’s not a good deal. Your job is to build a relationship with this agent or broker so that when a seller walk in the door with a hot deal…you immediately get a call! Read More→

Managed by Alexandra Spollen and based in Acworth Georgia, Georgia Home Deals is a full service investment property wholesaler, retailer, property management and lease purchase company.  Alexandra has 20 years experience as a loan officer and is well suited to assist with full service property acquisition related transactions. They are well connected to the investment community and can arrange hard money loans as needed.  Their real-time updated website is http://www.homedeals.biz/. It is a simply formatted listing page highlighting their available properties.  Georgia Home Deals served 83 purchase clients in 2012 and is proud to offer their services to the Atlanta REIA community. 

Georgia Home Deals:  Wholesale property provider,  contact Alexandra Spollen at 404-660-1865, via email at alex.spollen@directlendersllc.com or visit them on the web at http://www.homedeals.biz/. 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. It is our intention to do this by you the members submitting questions to Karen@smallbusinessadvisor.biz, and getting answers here in this column.

Q: Why is it when I export one of my lists and I go to import it into another company data base it comes up with Error on line XX?

A: This error message and root cause will vary based on the information that is being imported. Here are a few examples:

1. Error occurs when the account name or account number on line xx is already being used in the file and the account is of a different type.
2. Importing and Invoice or Bill with an account type other than Accounts Receivable or Accounts Payable.
3. Importing a transaction with an account that has not been created prior to import. Read More→