Atlanta Real Estate Investors Alliance Blog

Have you created a mobile friendly version of your website(s) yet? If not, why not? Your customers are not going to wait until you do. Statistics are warning us of this! With more people accessing your website/blog, Twitter posts and Facebook posts using their smartphones, they are also visiting and seeing your marketing with a smartphones as well.

If your website is not easily readable on a mobile phone, you’re in trouble since many (or most) mobile users will simply leave your site and take their business elsewhere. More than half of all users say they wouldn’t recommend a business with a bad mobile site. So even if you don’t think you need a mobile version of your site, you could, in fact, be losing customers without one.

Having a mobile friendly website, amongst other things, will render your images differently, helping on load times. Readability is also another huge concern. Your average mobile user will not want to spend much time trying to find the content that they’re interested in.

The art to designing a good mobile website is to eliminate all the content that is not all that important for users to see on a smartphone. Consider providing a clean and easy way for customers to “tap to call”, “tap to email” or “tap for directions” which will help the overall functionality and effectiveness of your website on a mobile device. Read More→

The majority of mortgages in the United States are sold into securitized trusts called REMICS and are not held as in-house or “portfolio” loans.  All sub-prime loans are sold off in this way and have been since the late 1960s.  The practice became especially common in the 1990s when the writing of sub-prime loans became more prevalent.  Many prime loans also wind up sold as mortgage-backed securities.

REMIC is short for Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit.  They are investment vehicles which hold commercial and residential mortgages in trusts and then issue securities representing an undivided interest in these mortgages.  Investors, such as insurance companies, pension funds, and wealthy private investors, buy these mortgage-backed securities.  The securities are assembled into pools called tranches according to their level of risk.  Higher risk mortgage-backed securities command higher rates of return.  REMICs are managed by a trustee, often a large investment bank, and are governed by pooling and servicing agreements (PSAs). Read More→

“My child, if you have put up security for a friend’s debt, or agreed to guarantee the debt of a stranger; if you have trapped yourself by your agreement and are caught by what you said— follow my advice and save yourself, for you have placed yourself at your friend’s mercy. Now swallow your pride; go and beg to have your name erased. Don’t put it off; do it now! Do not rest until you do. Save yourself like agazelle escaping from a hunter, like a bird fleeing from a net.” (Pr 6:1-5)(NLT)

By definition, a co-signer is obligated to pay when the other person defaults on their obligation. A promise to pay another person’s debt is an entrapment by one’s own words. So when the borrower fails to make the payments, the creditor can come after the other person that has signed and agreed to be responsible for re-payment of the loan. In such cases, the borrower receives the benefit and the pleasure, and the co-signer receives the obligation and the burden to re-pay the debt.

Even if the borrower pays on time, the full amount of the unpaid loan will negatively count against the co-signer’s debt-to-income ratios (DTI). This DTI formula is used to help determine if a person has more debt than they can handle. So, since the co-signer is also responsible for paying off the loan, that debt may hamper their ability to get a mortgage, other financing or other benefits that depend on a good credit score. Read More→

The Dream

George L., a client of American IRA, LLC, wanted to purchase a 56 unit, 1.2 million dollar mobile home park inside his IRA account.

The Details

George was determined to make this dream a reality and worked hard in negotiations with the owner of the mobile home park finally settling on these details:

• Purchase price $1,200,000
• Down Payment $200,000 from an old 401(k) plan
• Owner financing $1,000,000 at 6% interest

A Word of Caution about Loans inside an IRA

The American IRA account specialist informed George that the owner financing needed to be “non-recourse” to qualify for IRA financing.

The account specialist explained further that “non-recourse” means the property is the only collateral; neither George L. nor his IRA can be held liable.

George went back to the table with the owner and was able to negotiate non-recourse terms for the owner financing. Read More→

Up to this point the sellers that have been mentioned had no interests in being investors. They usually saw the extra property as a burden of some sort. Now negotiating with a fellow investor is different because they know the value of their property and/or its’ potential. When negotiating with an investor you need to be at the same experience level. If you are new to real estate investing and are trying to “fake it til you make it” in negotiating with seasoned investors, they will see right through you and move on to another buyer. Admit that you are new to investing and the selling investor may even cut you a deal to assist you in getting started. There are two distinct seller investors one of which are investors selling to retire or just wanting out of investing and then there are investors that are just checking to see what they can get for their property but are impartial to whether is sells or not. Read More→

Hello again! Picking up from where we left off last month, we were discussing how almost everyone now has a smartphone, email, Facebook, and they read their text messages within 5 minutes of getting it.  We also discussed how most other types of traditional media are on the way out: Yellow Pages, newspapers, etc.  Basically, everyone is using the internet these days.

So if you’re in business, you need to not only BE on there, you also need to position yourself correctly AND take advantage of the emerging technologies that your prospects are using to possibly find you. This includes having an optimized, converting website. Please look at Part 2 of this series to see what needs to be on your site.  Contact me if you need help with this.

So, I’d suggest you get that website set up first. Use the ideas that were presented earlier to get your content together, and ALWAYS try to answer the main question your visitor is asking himself as he looks at your site: “What’s in it For ME?”

After you have your site together, you can take that content and use it to set up your Facebook Fan Page.  Again, do a Google search on a recent post to see how this is done, because there’s not enough space in this article to teach you. But basically, you’ll just sign in to your existing Facebook account & set up a Fan Page from there. Look for the links. Read More→

Is this depressed housing market making you nervous? Are you thinking that you can’t make money when real estate prices have dropped by as much as 50%? Do you think it is impossible to sell a house in today’s market?  If you answered yes to any of these questions, this special report was written for you.

Many real estate investors are shying away from the ugly house business right now because they fear selling houses in a depressed real estate market. We have all heard the horror stories of real estate investors who lose their shirt because they get stuck with a property they just can’t sell or rent.

I am here to tell you that this does not have to happen to you, but there are nine rules you can never violate. Selling a house starts before you ever buy it. I start focusing on marketing strategies as I pull up in the driveway for the very first time, not after I purchased and renovated the house.  Most untrained investors never focus on selling until after they have the property renovated and by then it is too late for most. Let me explain why in more detail. Read More→

Throughout your life, no matter who you are or how you earn your living, you need to be concerned about protecting your assets. Your assets may include your home, vehicles, jewelry, boats, artwork, properties and whatever other assets you accumulate along the way. After all, you work hard for what you have and there are always going to be people out there who want something for nothing. The more money you have the greater a target you become, and you’ll want to protect yourself from frivolous lawsuits.

In the real estate investing business this is especially true. The real estate business is one of those where you will be piling up assets quickly. If you are holding properties and you have tenants or tenant/buyers in your properties, this can make you an even bigger target for possible lawsuits. For this reason alone you want to be holding your assets in another entity, such as a land trust in order to keep your name off of public record. The main advantage to purchasing properties in land trusts or other entities is anonymity. If everything you own is in your own name, it makes it easy for someone who wants to sue you to find out what you have. If a plaintiff’s attorney looks on public record and it appears that you have nothing, you are much less likely to be sued. Read More→

If you are one of those investors that have been waiting for the bottom, you’ve missed it!  Foreclosures are seeing multiple offers with “up bidding” because these are the properties that are perfect for investors wanting high cap rates from rentals. Monthly sales were considerably stronger in January through May compared to both of the last two years and June sales will likely be equal or higher once lagged closings are processed.  The usual seasonal low points in January were higher in both 2011 and 2012, possibly indicating a firmer base for continued sales growth following distortions caused by government purchase incentive programs in 2009/10.  While sales have increased during 2012, the number of Active Listings in Atlanta are at a 12 year low. Read More→

Real estate investors must protect their assets by assuring that parties with sufficient legal authority execute purchase and sale agreements and other documents associated with their business. Failure to do so may result in voided transactions and a complete loss of title on the property. Multi-member LLCs, partnerships, and corporations are at greater risk for such oversights, but all investors who do business through asset protection entities should be aware of legal guidelines for real estate transactions in Georgia to avoid potential losses.

In general, entities must be in “good standing” in the state in which it they were created to execute real estate transactions. Basically, this means, do not forget to pay your annual registration fees to the appropriate office each year, most likely the Georgia Secretary of State’s office. Furthermore, any person signing or executing documents on behalf of the entity must have the authority to do so on behalf of the entity. In order for a person to have legal signatory authority, such authority must be reflected in the entity’s filings with the Secretary of State. Read More→

Get on the Bus with Us on Sept 29^th & 30^th!

We are living in a rare moment in history. Housing can be purchased for less than the cost to build, interest rates are at an all-time low, and the pool of qualified renters is an all-time high. Now is the time to GET ON THE BUS and take advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity!

Whether you are a seasoned investor, just getting started, or just need to find out what all the talk is about, a great option is to participate in a Property Foreclosure Tour. These tours are showing up in every major market across the nation in many shapes and sizes. When booking a tour you should consider some of the following things:

• Who will the providers be representing on the tour, you or the seller?
• What market areas will they be covering?
• What types of properties will you see?
• What types of service and expertise will be offered?
• What type of education and information will be provided?

Read More→