Atlanta Real Estate Investors Alliance Blog

Time and health are two precious assets that we don’t recognize and appreciate until they have been depleted.” ~ Denis Waitley

Wow. What a year! The turkey leftovers are gone. There are just a few pine needles left in the carpet. And your Aunt Miriam, thank goodness, has gone home to Indiana and has taken the fruitcake with her. Now it’s time to reflect.

I don’t know about you, but I reached many of my goals in 2012, and that feels great! Still, I know 2013 will bring plenty more challenges and opportunities. It would be boring, wouldn’t it, if we were completely finished with everything by the end of the year. I mean, what would we do then?

So we carry our unfinished business into the following year. That’s what New Year’s resolutions are for, right?  “For every single day of 2013. I’m going to eat just 700 calories and jog six miles!”

For many of us, new year’s resolutions are made to be broken. In fact, for some of us, the best way to make sure something doesn’t get done is to make a new year’s resolution to do it. It’s the kiss of death!

Thankfully, though, we live in the digital age where help is as close as your iPad. So this month, I’ve got two apps to recommend. Read More→

There are two approaches you can take to determine whether or not there has been negligence or fraud in the loan process.  Both paths can be equally effective in uncovering lender misconduct and providing you with leverage for negotiations with the bank.  One path follows the documentation from mortgage application through foreclosure documentation, and the other approach follows the money trail.  This article will examine how the documentation can lead to a damaging case against a pretender lender.  Our next article will cover the money trail method.

In order to prove that they have the right to foreclose on a property, it is becoming standard for lenders to be required to produce the original note on the property.  The note is required before a court will allow a lender to sell a property.  It must show that the lender is named with a recorded economic interest in the property.  However, in many cases these original notes have been either lost in the securitization shuffle or purposefully destroyed as the note bounced around from entity to entity.  The note could even have been Photoshopped or otherwise forged to make it appear that the entity trying to foreclose has the standing to do so.  Fortunately, the lenders are being called on it by the courts. Read More→

Real Estate IRA Investing – The Purchase

A young couple found a home they wanted to purchase with their real estate IRA. The purchase price was $50,000. They borrowed $55,000 and had $800 worth of repairs. I know that $800 worth of repairs for a house purchased with 1,400 square feet, three bedrooms, and two baths through a short sale sounds absurd, but these are actual numbers from an actual deal.

Real Estate IRA Investing – The Repair Bill

I’ve personally never seen $800 worth of repairs in my entire life and I’ve been in this business for 40 years. I can’t even walk through the house for $800. I don’t know what it is but I’ve never done that, so that was phenomenal to me. The deal’s great but how did you get $800? They actually got a little cash back at closing since they borrowed $55,000 for a $50,000 purchase. Read More→

“Such wicked people are detestable to the Lord, but he offers his friendship to the godly.” (Pr 3:32, NLT)

As a business person, have you ever considered that honesty produces a substantial financial gain? Or, that dishonesty inherently produces huge monetary losses? I realize that everyone might not agree with this conclusion.

However, the biblical evidence suggests there are many advantages to being honest and there are dire consequences to dishonest practices in business and in life. It is clear that ethics do have a profound impact on the bottom line. An even more basic thought, indicates that our business practices dictate our relationship with God! The Book of Proverbs contrasts the financial outcome of the honest versus the economic decay of the dishonest. Let’s examine some of these profound truths. Read More→

The Short Sale lenders are getting crazier and crazier.  That is why you need to stay current with the short sale changes.  Approximately 3 years ago, Bank of America was the first short sale lender to start requesting that the new buyer of the property consent to not resell the property for less than 30 days.  This statement was included in their short sale approval letter.  This statement alone caused a lot of challenges to investors who were still looking to close back to back on transactions.  A few short sale lenders thereafter, such as GMAC and Wells Fargo, started adding 60 to 90 day resale clauses on their Arm’s Length Affidavits, but not their short sale approval letters.

Recently, I was in the process of purchasing a property where I needed to get an extension on the short sale approval letter.  The reason was that the Homeowner Association advised us that, pursuant to their by-laws, their 35% ownership of investment properties had been reached and only homeowner occupants can purchase the property.  The servicer for the lender was Seterus.  I received a brand new approval letter for the same exact buyer as before, but with a few different statements: 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: I need to segment my balance sheet AND income statement into three departments (classes). Which version of QuickBooks can provide me with this capability?

A: The lowest edition you can use to have classes on both the balance sheet and the income statement is the QuickBooks Premier.

Q: If I change the reporting basis in the Reports & Graphs preferences from Cash to Accrual what reports will this change?

A: When you change your reporting basis the main area that will change is the Balance Sheet. On a Cash basis it will not show the Accounts Receivable or the Accounts Payable; on an Accrual basis these two accounts do show up.  While you can modify reports back and forth between Cash and Accrual any reports you run for your CPA or for any loan request or other reason you are providing financial reports you should always run them the same basis that you file your tax returns. This way your balance sheet at 12/31 of any given year should match those tax returns you are providing. Read More→