Atlanta Real Estate Investors Alliance Blog

The March 2016 Edition of The Profit Newsletter is now available for download. There are 50 pages this month full of upcoming meetings, workshops, educational articles and other valuable information for your real estate investing pleasure and success. Download it and check it out!

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The IRS is very interested in Self-Directed IRA’s (“SDIRA’s”). They are especially interested in IRA’s that invest in real estate or via trusts or via “Checkbook LLC’s”. How do I know that? Two reasons. First, several IRS employees have very directly told me so. Second, the IRS has recently changed its reporting requirements in search of this very data. Specifically, every IRA is required to file Form 5498 once per year. That form tells them the value of your IRA.

Starting in 2015, the IRS has required that new data be reported on Form 5498. Among other things, they want to know whether the IRA is investing in real estate, LLC’s or trusts. In other words, what IRS employees are telling me in audits is being reflected in regulatory changes. It all points to the same conclusion: The IRS is very interested in SDIRA’s. Which means your SDIRA needs to be up-to-snuff and reflect the latest developments in the law. Read More→

As professionals we’ve heard it said that it is absolutely imperative that you have a really solid Power Team.  A Power Team is composed of several individuals.  Some of the most common in Real Estate are closing attorneys, loan officers, contractors, insurance agents and appraisers.  These are all key people to any given transaction and any one of them can make or break a deal so it’s important to have ones that understand what you are doing, are on your side and have lots of quality experience.

We have had the privilege of working with many people along the way with varying levels of success.  Some of these people have been nothing short of outstanding. On the flip side, let’s be honest, some are a bit of a nightmare to work with. As a result, we have learned to never underestimate what they can mean for your business.  Let’s take attorneys for example.

A solid closing attorney is a critical part of your Power Team. We have literally had Sellers that were ‘on the edge’ about whether they should work with one of these ‘We Buy Houses’ people but were given an extra dose of comfort by our attorney. On the flip side, we thought we had an attorney that was on our side once literally talk down to a Seller. Sadly, it killed the deal. That particular deal was a renovation that was good for at least 50k…down the drain. Talk about a hard lesson in choosing your Power Team! Read More→

Recently I read an article written by Michael Snyder, a graduate of the University of Florida law school. I found it very interesting. This article was titled “Sell Everything!”

His headline read, “Royal Bank of Scotland Tells Investors to Fear 2016 Financial Cataclysm.” The 20^th largest bank in the world is predicting that 2016 will be a cataclysmic year and Investors should be afraid. This prediction of course is aimed at the stock market, but there is a connection between stocks and real estate many real estate investors aren’t thinking about.

As the stock market is currently going into a Bear Market and people fear losing all of the value in the stocks they own, many will panic and start to sell thinking they must get out NOW if they want to keep as much of their equity as possible. It is also important to realize that when the market goes down, the companies who issued the stock, many times must also lay off workers to stay profitable. This is the bad part that few real estate investors think about. Why is this important? It’s important because when this happens, many people won’t be able to pay their mortgage payments and slowly those people will start going into foreclosure and eventually lose their homes. For a period of time renting may be their only option. I believe owning rental property is a smart move for those who start buying income properties today. Read More→

One of the concerns many of my students seem to run into is; once they find the deal, what do they say to the motivated sellers? How should that conversation go? On top of these concerns, many of my students say they are not really comfortable with having a conversation with a stranger, so how do they handle that conversation? How do you get over the “jitters”?

Okay, so you’ve practiced what you are going to say, you have a plan, you have your paperwork, you’ve probably procrastinated a little, then scheduled your appointment with the seller, so now what? You still feel those butterflies in your stomach and you’re still not comfortable with how the conversation with the seller is going to go. What should you say first? How should you make the offer? What if they ask you something you don’t know? What if they accept your offer? What if they don’t? Also remember that if you created your direct mail campaigns correctly in the first place you already have most of the information you need to have from the seller in order to create the deal. Read More→