Atlanta Real Estate Investors Alliance Blog
CaptureNotes: Your Life, Color-Coded
Posted on January 30, 2013 by“I’m known for my handwritten notes.” ~ Pamela Anderson
You’re driving your Uncle Bugsy to the doctor when you spot a “for sale by owner” sign in front of a nice little brick house. You’re already running late, but you’ve been watching this house – it’s got a big blue tarp draped over the roof – for a couple of months now. You’ve got no pen and paper, and you won’t have time to stop later. Sure, you can snap a picture with your cellphone, but you’d really like to take some notes, too.
Unfortunately, Uncle Bugsy isn’t known for his patience, so you’re only going to have about a minute before he starts complaining about how inconsiderate kids are nowadays.
What should you do?
If you have an iPad, the solution is a great little app called CaptureNotes. CaptureNotes might look like just another note-taking application, but it’s not. Yes, it lets you do all the usual note-taking things: create notes, choose the type of paper and ink color, and doodle and scribble on a touch screen. So far, it’s pretty ordinary.
But there are three other things CaptureNotes does that make it really useful for us as real estate investors. Read More→
Pre-Screening Sellers For Your Real Estate Investing Business – Part 2
Posted on January 30, 2013 byBy remembering just a few basics, you, as a Real Estate Investor, can quickly determine whether or not a seller is motivated to sell their property. First of all, a motivated seller will ask questions like “how soon can you buy my house?” or “How can you help me get out of this situation?” or “How soon can you get here?” An experienced Real Estate Investor knows these are really good questions for a seller to ask.
There are two types of houses we are going to buy, either pretty houses or ugly houses and there are motivated sellers in both of these categories. When you are marketing to sellers, there are certain types of sellers who are much more likely to have a house they need to sell.
For example, I personally like working with out of state owners (folks who own a property where you live but don’t live there full time), heirs, divorces, vacant houses, estate and probate properties, military transfers and pre-foreclosures. These sellers are much more likely to have a house they need to sell “right now” and that’s the kind of seller you want to work with. As a Real Estate Investor, you may also run into landlords who are fed up with tenants ruining their properties over and over. These are all good sources of motivated sellers. Most of these sellers are folks who don’t live in these properties. Read More→
How Do I Handle a Refundable Security Deposit in QuickBooks?
Posted on January 30, 2013 byIt is the goal of this column to answer questions about QuickBooks and how it is used in the real estate investor 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: I am having difficulty reconciling my bank account. I have reviewed each entry and have found that several of my deposits do not match the amount the bank has for them. How do I see all my detail on each deposit without clicking on each one to open it?
A: Go to Reports – Banking – and look for a report called “Deposit Detail”. It will give you line-by-line detail of your deposits in one report and you can compare that to what you have in the bank. If you make copies of the checks for each deposit and put it with your deposit ticket on each one, that will give you a paper back up of what you actually gave the bank. This way if the bank made the error then you have details of what you produced to the bank. Read More→
Greed In Business = Trouble In The Family!
Posted on January 30, 2013 by“Greedy people bring trouble to their families, but the person who can’t be paid to do wrong will live.” (Pr 15:27)(NCV)
The relentless drive to acquire the elusive “American Dream”, is what fuels many business professionals. To many, in pursuit of the world’s definition of success, means “getting more and more”, “climbing the corporate ladder at all cost”, or perhaps it means “the end justifies the means, no matter what!” This kind of ill-advised pursuit requires that a person disconnect other areas of life that makes significant demands on their time and attention. One way to separate these distractions is to departmentalize them.
Highly motivated entrepreneur and business professionals often compartmentalize their professional interests from the rest of their personal lives. Many “go-getters” tend to divide their lives into these different compartments and make decisions as if they are not interconnected. For many, their thoughts about church, religion, matters concerning God and the Bible, or even their family, have little or nothing to do with their day-to-day business decisions and activities that are required to be successful. They rationalize that these different compartments neatly and separately co-exist. For instance, one might; Read More→
New Territories
Posted on January 30, 2013 byWith each New Year comes new ventures. More and more often investors have to expand their investment territories in order to stay active. As technology continues to make the world a smaller place many investors are also looking at investing in different states and some in different countries. By doing this the amount of inventory increases dramatically if you make the right contacts. At the same time if you work with investors that are open in investing out of state or in different countries you have the ability to sell more.
With all this said it is not always as easy as it may sound whether you are the buyer or seller. As the buyer you need to make a trip to the new area you are looking to invest in. The reason to do this is obviously to learn the market but secondly to make a few key contacts in the area. The main contacts you need to make are a few wholesalers, real estate agents, contractors, a title company, and property management if you are looking for rentals. Not only will these contacts help you in their area of specialty but they can also be go-to people for a second opinion on any potential deals. In order for this to be a win-win situation you want to use these contacts’ services. For example, if you ask a contractor to verify repair cost on a home you should use him/her for that project. Read More→
2013: A Year of Achieving Your Goals with PAC
Posted on January 30, 2013 byEvery New Year’s Day, people consider what they want to accomplish in the following year. Well, we are now 30 days into 2013, and I am sure that you have reflected on 2012. What resolutions did you follow to success? What results have you seen from last year’s work?
At the beginning of 2013, I reflected on what I considered success. Like many of you, I realized that I want to improve my monetary, financial, relationship and problem-solving skills because these lead us to success. What is success in 2013? ACHIEVING MORE OF YOUR GOALS.
We all know that success in our business means learning new tricks, tips, and techniques. We must accumulate knowledge and power. We must achieve a superior capacity to think and act effectively through presentations, best practices, and strong strategies. We must have a highly competitive advantage: a platinum value. But how do we strengthen the skills that we MUST have? Read More→
The Best Deals To Do in Real Estate in 2013 & Beyond! – Part 2
Posted on January 30, 2013 byWelcome back! If you read Part One of this article, you know that we covered the other different types of popular real estate deals that most people do, and the biggest problems with them these days. Then we talked about how advantageous it is to do the new type of deals: Wholesaling Pretty Houses!
But we still have a few important things to cover, so let’s pick up where we left off…
Once you agree on the deal & terms with the seller, you get all the paperwork signed & closed at either a title company or attorney’s office. No exceptions. You’ll want that legal backup in case the seller conveniently forgets what they agreed to later.
So now you’ve got a deal under contract & all the paperwork signed. What now? Simple. You get it ‘sold’ as an opportunity to a tenant buyer who: 1. Has a decent chunk of money to put down (typically $5,000+/minimum), and 2. Can afford the existing monthly mortgage payments. Read More→
Bill Ham
Posted on January 30, 2013 byBill Ham has been investing in real estate for 8 years and has created a portfolio of nearly 400 units in Macon, GA. He created his entire real estate investing portfolio using creative and seller financing.
Jon David Huffman
Posted on January 30, 2013 byJon David Huffman is a litigation attorney specializing in real estate disputes, business disputes and commercial collections. With more than a decade of experience managing small businesses before attending Emory Law School, he brings a business owner’s perspective to the practice of law.
Reserve a Vendor Table for the February 4th Atlanta REIA Main Meeting
Posted on January 28, 2013 byDear Atlanta REIA Business Members:
Our next Atlanta REIA Main Meeting is on Monday, February 4th at the Crowne Plaza Ravinia Hotel located at 4355 Ashford Dunwoody Road in Atlanta, GA. This month, local real estate expert, Bill Cook will be our main speaker and will be talking about how to make extremely high yields investing only a few thousand dollars in mobile home deals.
We are offering vendor tables this month for $29.95 for Gold Members, $49.95 for Silver Members and $79.95 for Guests if you are one of the 1st 10 Business Members to RSVP. Please reserve a table before they are all taken at this discounted rate. As always, your ongoing support and participation in Atlanta REIA is GREATLY APPRECIATED!
Please RSVP Now so we know you are coming and can start marketing your business to our members ASAP!
Again, we appreciate your participation with our group. I hope to see you at the meeting!
What’s Happening at Atlanta REIA – Week of January 28, 2013
Posted on January 28, 2013 byMonday is Atlanta REIA West with special guest Joe Thompson who will be speaking on the importance of having well defined goals for 2013. Three will be Late Nite Networking after the Atlanta REIA West Meeting. Thursday is the Haves & Wants Meeting with Joe Thompson at 5 Seasons Brewing in Sandy Springs. Next Monday will be the Atlanta REIA Main Meeting for February with Bill Cook on “How to Earn Mailbox Money!” Come join us! Read More→
Order Lonnie Scrugg’s New Book Today for FREE!!!
Posted on January 25, 2013 byLonnie Scruggs, the father of Lonnie Deals, published a new book today: Taking the Mystery Out of Money
You can download it today AND TODAY ONLY for F-R-E-E!
Lonnie is a national treasure and one of the most talented and successful real estate investors in the country. We LOVE this guy!!!
Here’s a link to down load his his book. Again, it’s free for today and today ONLY!
LINK: http://www.amazon.com/Taking-Mystery-Out-Money-ebook/dp/B0036ZAO6Q
Bill Cook
PLEASE NOTE: Bill Cook will be speaking at Atlanta REIA on February 4th about “Lonnie Deals”, so come join us and learn how to make ridiculously high yields on your money buying Lonnie deals!