Atlanta Real Estate Investors Alliance Blog

“A picture is worth a thousand words.” ~ Anonymous

Today, here’s on offering for you Android fans.

Let’s set the scene: You’ve found a terrific little house to buy. You’ve finally reached an agreement with the seller, but one of his requirements is a little unusual. You want to run it by your lawyer.

Unfortunately, it’s 4:00 p.m. on Friday. In one hour, your attorney is flying to the Himalayas for three weeks to climb Mt. Everest. Even if he could get a signal up there, he has no intention of answering his phone while he’s gone. If he receives the offer before he leaves, he will read it on the plane and at least send you a quick text before he piles on his mountain-climbing gear. But if you don’t get it to him in time, well, you’re going to have to rely on Bernie, your wife’s aunt’s boss’s son, a really strange guy who just passed the bar exam after failing it twelve times. You’d really, really like to use your own attorney.

Now here’s the problem: You are at the house with the seller. Neither of you has a scanner. You are 45 minutes away from your office. Your assistant has the week off. What to do? Read More→

The Atlanta real-estate market has finally hit bottom which means that things can only go up. How do I know that? Stupid money has returned: once again, people are willing to pay too much for properties, and banks are willing to look the other way. In fact, there is big money from hedge funds that are allowing people to buy many properties at once. What this means for us, the agents and small investors, is that we face more competition for the properties which are priced right.

So what do we do? We arm ourselves with research. Without knowing what we are up against, we cannot make informed decisions that will keep us in the game.

First, when you find a superstar, they become your benchmark: you do research and find out their business model. But studying them is not enough; you must take action by mirroring what they do to be successful. Read More→

Today, the person that has the inventory calls the shots and the infamous REO agent has the inventory everyone wants. There are currently more investors with the willingness and ability to buy but not enough deals. More and more of the “investment deals” that are circulating are beginning to show smaller and smaller margins. If you have the ability to establish a strong long lasting relationship with a REO agent your success as an investor can become more stable.

The number one thing you have to remember about an REO agent is that they are not the final decision makers. They answer to asset management companies who answer to someone else and so on. The REO agent that you establish a relationship with can be your cheerleader. That agent can work for you in convincing the asset company that accepting your offer is in the seller’s best interest. This is accomplished by performing on all of your contracts, or at least on the majority of them. Creating a track record with REO agents is very important. Once a track record is created you will be the first person that comes to that agent’s mind when the next HOT deal becomes available. How awesome would it be if that agent called you and gave you a heads up that they had a slam dunk deal in the pipeline and you contracted it before it hit the market? This happens! Read More→

Now IS the perfect time to purchase and resell short sale properties.  Why?  Due to major mistakes by Lenders made at the time Homeowners obtained financing, our market is flooded with homes in which the Lenders are willing to accept short sales.  Lenders such as Bank of America, Wells Fargo, GMAC, CitiMortgage and Chase from 2006 to 2008, have major mistakes in their paperwork.  They are reaching out to Homeowners asking them to do a Short Sale or Deed-in-Lieu.  However, many of the Homeowners aren’t aware of the fact that they can’t do a Deed-in-Lieu if they have a second lien.  And, if they owe Homeowners Association dues, which are a personal debt against the Homeowner, they may still be liable for the difference. 

Homeowners Association dues need to be satisfied in full so that if a house is deeded back to the Lender, the Homeowners are no longer responsible for any more dues.  There is a statute which states that the Lender that forecloses on the property is responsible to pay only one year of Homeowners Association dues.  When conducting a short sale, this statute has little or no meaning to the short sale Lenders, meaning they may not agree to even pay one full year.  I have seen Homeowners deed their property back to the Lender only later to find out that they are still liable for the difference owed on the Homeowner Association dues.  Brutal! Read More→

“The soul of a lazy man desires, and has nothing;
But the soul of the diligent shall be made rich.” (Pr 13:4)

Some think wealth accumulation is the result of a series of uncontrollable events called luck or chance. Others believe it is solely the result of a person’s deliberate, well thought out financial planning and activities performed during the course of their lives. Our look into the Wisdom of God reveals that, “diligence is at the source of wealth accumulation and laziness is the culprit behind poverty and despair”.

It takes more than just wants and desires to produce success and wealth. The difference between unproductive people and those that are highly successful is not in their possessions. It goes deeper than that. The difference between a person that refuses to work when given the opportunity and a person that works hard to obtain success is not in their actions. It goes deeper than that. The difference between these two, fundamentally different, groups of individuals goes deeper than their desires; their hopes; their aspirations; or even their dreams. Read More→

Whenever I am out and about talking about real estate investing or teaching on property management, someone always asks the age old question. What does it take to be a good property manager? There are four distinctive skill sets required to manage property effectively that I call the four buckets of property management. Each one of these buckets requires very different personality traits and proficiency. A property manager or management company must have the “right people, in the right seat on the bus” to insure your success as a real estate investor.  Property Managers use two basic business models.  One is “Departmental Management” where you have a team approach and different members handle the different aspects of the management. The other is “Portfolio Management” where one person is assigned a portfolio of properties and manages all aspects from start to finish. There are advantages & disadvantages to both models. Let’s take a look at the four buckets I referred to and you decide which model better suites your needs. Read More→

Georgia has become one of the top five states for film production thanks to our Georgia Legislature.   This dramatic increase in filming in Georgia is due to the tax credits afforded to production companies spending at least $500,000 on qualified production and post-production making them eligible for a 20% tax credit.   Furthermore, if the production company includes a Georgia promotional logo in the feature film, television series, music videos, or video game, can receive an additional 10% tax credit.  Commercial and music videos spending $500,000 or more are also eligible for a 20% tax credit.

While movies can be full of make believe, the film and television industry in Georgia provides more than 25,000 real jobs for real people. Some of those jobs are directly involved in production. Other film-related jobs include hair and makeup stylists, caterers doctors, truck drivers, electricians, painters, construction workers, accountants, security guards and many more.

Last year, the direct economic benefits of film production in Georgia came to nearly $2.5 billion. In fiscal year 2011, works, Hollywood studios, production companies and independent producers invested more than $689.3 million in Georgia. The production industry has positively impacted thousands of businesses, from hotels, restaurants, grocery stores and rental car companies to hardware stores, lumber yards, garden nurseries, heavy equipment rentals and office supply companies.  Read More→

Welcome back! We’ve come a long way so far, and made a LOT of progress. But we’re not quite done yet, so listen up…

In our last article, you got a great introduction to Keyword Research, SEO (Search Engine Optimization)-both On-Page and Off-Page (remember?), and how to get started on getting a ton of FREE Traffic to your website.

Go back to last month’s issue for a refresher on that – it’s worth the read.

So now we come to the next part, and that is:

How to Get a Ton of Laser-Targeted Traffic to Your Site-FAST!

Before we embark on this particular adventure, I need to set the stage properly.  It’s important that you have your On-Page SEO stuff taken care of first. Again, On-Page SEO is what you do ON your web page that makes it optimized for that particular keyword. This includes putting the keyword in the first and last sentence of that page, bolding it a time or two, italicizing it, underlining it, and all that other stuff we covered in the last article. Read More→

Mobile landing pages are different from traditional web pages. Users of mobile devices have less patience, yet are more engaged when they find what they want.

Knowing about web landing pages and what makes them successful isn’t the same as what you need to know about mobile landing pages. The tracking method, the conversions, and the need to keep your pages up to date with the latest devices are important to the success of your marketing plan.

1^st Must – Know Your Goals.

Be specific about which aspects of mobile marketing are critical to your business. Whether your priorities are downloads and apps, phone calls, redemption of mobile coupons, actual purchase rates, or the generation of further leads, know what your goals are before you get started. Read More→

Where can I find a good mailing list to find motivated sellers? How can I create my own list to find highly motivated sellers? These are the big questions that I get a lot from Real Estate Investors! The true secret to success for a Real Estate Investor is finding sellers who really need to sell. I use different direct mail campaigns to locate different types of motivated sellers: out of state owners, properties quit-claimed from one person to another, expired listings, burned out landlords, vacant properties, military transfers, and pre-foreclosures, just to name a few.

The best part is that you can customize your direct mail piece and your list to reach exactly the kinds of motivated sellers you want to deal with in order to create the kinds of deals you want for your real estate investing business. This is best done by locating mailing lists and refining them to meet your individual criteria, then mailing to these potential sellers again and again, thus creating a multitude of profitable deals.

Investors often neglect to market to sellers using direct mail because they think the list is too difficult to get, or they only send the mailings once and quit. They don’t take the time to create the machine that will bring them deal after deal. Read More→

For almost two decades, I’ve been teaching folks that it’s better to be wealthy than rich.  And to be wealthy, you must own capital assets that provide you with mailbox money.  Mailbox money is money you make while you sleep.

In my opinion, the best capital asset for the average American to own is rental property.  After all, what other investment vehicle can be purchased for 40-cents-on-the-dollar, provide incredible tax breaks, be financed with a long-term note, generate monthly mailbox money, and as a bonus, be paid for by someone else (your tenants)?

Well folks, last week, after talking with David Tilney, I learned that there was a fundamental flaw in my thinking!

David Tilney has owned and managed rental property since 1978.  He’s one of the best, most knowledgeable and creative landlords in the country.  David has been one of my primary real estate investing teachers since 2004. Read More→

Thinking Like A Successful Investor

An investor of real estate understands that general knowledge is not what it takes to create wealth. If general knowledge was what it took to create wealth, college professors would be the wealthiest people in this country and we all know that is not the case. Successful real estate investors know that it takes specific knowledge to create wealth. That is why real estate investors buy hard assets, (such as the seller’s house) at a price or with terms conducive to making a profit. If an investor can’t make a profit, they usually have no reason to buy a property unless they plan to live in the house. An investor who is a true capitalist knows they must always offer a seller something the seller likes and values more than what they are giving up or a deal will never happen.

Most sellers are looking for a large sum of cash, a monthly income stream, debt relief or any of a myriad of ways to receive that thing the seller likes more than what they are giving up.

Now that we have established this fact, as an investor it is your job to figure out what you can offer the seller that will be liked enough that the seller is willing to exchange their house for whatever you offered them. If both parties aren’t happy with the deal, it will never happen. Read More→