Atlanta Real Estate Investors Alliance Blog

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” ~ William Arthur Ward

It is best to teach by example. Now that everything is on a digital platform it can be difficult to find the right words to explain an action step-by-step to someone. Whether it is a menial task like sorting through spam email or getting a website listing to appear on a mobile platform, it is confusing to explain something in an email or text message. I find myself to be a visual learner and the best way to show me something is a short video tutorial.

Thank goodness for app developers: Pro Recorder (Free): Record Web Screen/Video – for Dropbox and Google Driver is By the company CONG DUC TRAN is the solution to my problem. As I often do, I was browsing the app store looking for something that could capture my screen actions in a video. I am familiar with other programs but they only cover my desktop or laptop, not my iPhone or iPad. Using this is a breeze, especially since you can easily save to a Dropbox or Google Drive account. It makes sharing the video easy and since it saves on a cloud storage platform no need to eat up all your memory.  Read More→

Through the 1990s and early 2000s millions upon millions of loans were created. This created some interesting issues for the banks. In some cases, they were looking for ways to cut down on the steps in the process in order to reduce the time it took to process a loan in order to keep up with the flood of business. In some other cases, they were looking for ways to take advantage of the system to bilk homeowners, their investors, and the government out of as much money possible. Unfortunately, the solutions the banks came up with for both of these issues resulted in a system of rampant mortgage fraud that the courts are only now finally catching onto. So how can you determine if your loan or the loan on a prospective deal is fraudulent?

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 true lender is named with a recorded economic interest in the property.  The note as submitted by the lender in a foreclosure hearing may clearly be fraudulent because it was notarized after the fact with a stamp that was not even valid at the time the mortgage was taken out.  Read More→

In the last two posts, we talked about building credibility with Buyers.  We have covered four steps so far.  Last month, we talked about the importance of having a real deal and doing your own due diligence as key points.  This month, we will talk about how to continue creating credibility and maintaining it for the lifetime of a deal.

Step 5: Maintain Open Communication

In a world where social media dominates and text messaging is overused for serious matters in my opinion, almost if not every Buyer I have met over the years prefers phone communication or in person when it’s time for real things to happen.

For most deals, we are talking about tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Millions for the even bigger players.  It is quite reasonable to assume that at some point, people want to talk to another human when doing a deal together.  This is step 1 of what I call ‘real communication’.  Talking to a real person on the phone achieves magic that an email or text rarely can accomplish.  Read More→

You might have heard of a Real Estate IRA. You might have even looked into it as an option in the past as you considered the retirement options that make the most sense for you and your family. But if you’re not familiar with this kind of retirement account, you might be surprised at just what kinds of investment results you can have when using it properly.

Don’t believe us? Let’s take a closer look at the Self-Directed Real Estate IRA—and how it can uniquely benefit your retirement plans:

Benefit #1: Getting More Leverage with a Real Estate IRA

One of the most fascinating concepts in real estate investing is that of leverage. By using leverage, you can make purchases you otherwise wouldn’t be able to make with the cash in your bank account. In Real Estate IRAs, you’ll be expected to use non-recourse loans, but you’ll still be able to use this concept of leverage to your advantage. In other words, you can buy real estate that you otherwise would not be able to with plain, ordinary cash.  Read More→

If you are going to meet a seller you will inevitably hear objections to the first price you offer. You can be as little as $1,000.00 off the seller’s asking price and the seller will still look to get you to the asking price. It is in our human nature to try to look out for our best interest so do not get upset. All you simply have to do is prepare for the most common objections and get the seller to agree with you.

Here are the objections I run into the most and how I have been able to successfully overcome them.

1. Your offer is too low. Usually before I make an offer I try to have them tell me their asking price. Once in a blue moon their asking price is what you can pay. Usually, however, the price is higher. Naturally, when I make the offer the seller’s response is that my offer is too low. If they have not given me a price I ask for it again. From this point you have to be good at math or pull out a calculator and explain the offer to the seller. Show the seller the closing cost, carrying cost, renovation expense, possible unknowns specific to their home, closing cost on the back end, agent commissions, marketing expenses, etc. I actually show sellers what I plan to make on their home and what it breaks down to in months and weeks. In most cases, they see I’m not trying to get rich off one house and realize my offer is a fair offer.  Read More→

The number one thing that makes an Investor successful is finding, buying and selling properties from a Motivated Seller.  As I have stated in previous articles, the only thing that makes Investors money is a Motivated Seller.  So … how do you find motivated Sellers when it’s a Seller’s market?  There are several ways to become successful and as an Investor the key to your success is having a marketing machine running all the time.  A Seller’s market means that when a property is listed on the Multiple Listing Service, the Sellers receive multiple offers from Investors, homeowners and landlords.  Obviously a homeowner is willing to pay list price or more for the house since they are going to live in the property and there is a personal attachment.  Landlords will pay up to 75% to 80% of the market value and Investors pay 60% to 65% of market value.  Yes, the repairs come into consideration for the Landlord and the Investor, however, the homeowner is more accepting of repairs needed to the home, as they are planning on making changes anyway.  Therefore, submitting offers on the Multiple Listing Service is very time consuming for an Investor and the rate of acceptance is much lower than for a homeowner.  Read More→

You’ll be visiting QuickBooks Online’s Settings screen regularly, so it’s good to know what’s there.

You can get into a rental car and just start driving to your destination. But you soon realize that you need to know where the temperature controls and the radio tuner are. If it starts raining, you must know where the wiper controls are. And when it gets dark, you’d better know how to turn on the headlights.

The same goes for QuickBooks Online. You can create bills and start paying them or begin to invoice customers or record expenses as soon as you set up an account (though you’ll be adding a lot of data on the fly). But you’ll soon discover that those tasks would be easier if you had established all of your Settings first.

If you have multiple employees using QuickBooks Online, for example, it has probably occurred to you that not everyone needs to have access to everything in your company file. You’ll want to connect the site to your financial accounts, build a budget, and specify payment terms and types.  Read More→

This article was not easy to write. In fact, it was one of the more challenging articles I’ve written in a while. Why? Because it deals with something that’s not easy for us to talk about: The reason why most people don’t take the action they know they should so that they can have the success they say they want to have.

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary. It’s an old-school, classic, tried-and-true principle: If you want to have success, you’ve got to work hard to make it happen.  And hard work means taking action.

Why do you think most people don’t take the action that needs to be taken?  I believe it comes down to two things: 1. Lack of Knowledge, or 2. Abundance of Fear.  Read More→

Did you ever wonder why some people are really wealthy and some people barely live paycheck to paycheck? Did you ever think “Why can’t I be wealthy like them?” What do the wealthy people know that I don’t? “How did they get rich? These are all valid questions, but I would say, the reason why you are or aren’t a wealthy person is entirely between your ears. So what exactly do I mean by that?

It’s simply this. Wealth is based on a state of mind, not on how much education you have, how many hours you work, or who you know. A wealthy mindset is created by believing in who you are, who you want to be and where you want to go. It is said that our thought processes control the person we are and the person we become, and this is so true. I know a lot of people, many of whom are real estate entrepreneurs, who have become extremely wealthy and yet came from backgrounds of poverty and little or no education.  Read More→

When we think of the Fourth of July we think about fireworks, grilling, and being with friends and family in celebration. I am a very big pyrotechnics fan, I always have a supply of fireworks for any occasion. If there is any excuse to launch a mortar or rockets, then I am very excited. Yes, I have gotten my share of injuries. I still have my eyes and fingers. The injuries healed. This is just like getting involved in real estate. You must know the risk and rewards when you buy and sell real property.

When I am picking out the right explosives to use in a celebration I have certain criteria. The mortars have to have color and reports. I also have rules in real estate. I have certain types of houses which I will buy and others I will pass on. I will pass on certain areas. I need to know what is the profit/reward ratio. The process I use has four simple rules. The first rule is to know what you are buying. Are you buying a house, commercial property, apartments, or storage units? How big? Get it inspected so you know what you are getting yourself into.  Read More→

After closing the doors of North Georgia REIA forever, we have been reminiscing about the best lessons we’ve shared with our group.

With this in mind, here’s some sage advice from an old investor.

How do I know whether a deal is good or not?  How do I know what I’m looking at?  And if I decide to take the deal down, how do I get it funded fast without going to a bank?

When Kim and I began our investing careers in 1995, we thought all houses were pretty much the same.  But over time and with experience, we’ve learned what types of houses make the best investments.  Read More→

This is an article I wrote a few years ago. Again I am hearing the rumblings of some of my students who believe they can buy 100 houses or more every year and it scares me to death. I believe what this article says is so important for every investor to know. That is why I decided to have this article republished.

Recently I was talking to several of my students who each said they wanted to buy 100 houses this year. These students had listened to one of the guru’s who had bought and sold over one hundred houses in one year and are now teaching people how to duplicate what they had done. I listened closely to these bright eyed inexperienced students tell me they wanted to do the same as the guru and it frightened me to death. Later over dinner, I mentioned what I had just heard to my wife. She encouraged me to tell my tale of woe about the years of agony we experienced because I got too big for my britches and against my wife’s better judgment I had tried to do the same thing myself.  Read More→