Austin Boston Berry (aka Austin Boston) bought his first investment property about two weeks ago.  It’s a nice four-bedroom, two-bath, all-brick home on Grassdale Road in Cartersville, Georgia.  And here’s the best part – Austin Boston is only twenty-four years old!

The key to Austin getting this deal was his tenaciousness.  He stayed after this deal.  He met with the seller on a regular basis.  Kim described Austin as being a little bulldog – and because he’s a Georgia Tech grad, he didn’t like this moniker one bit!

But what if, because he didn’t have a contract to use, he didn’t give the seller a written offer?  It’s likely he would have lost this deal.    

Most folks think the scariest part of real estate investing is meeting with sellers.  It’s not.  It’s when you make an offer to a seller and the seller says…YES!

What’s so terrifying about the seller saying yes?  It leads to the all-important question: What do I do next?  So what DO you do next?  You document what you and the seller just agreed to: You write up a contract.

Contract?  What kind of contract?  Where do I get a contract?  What needs to be in the contract? These are common questions we’re regularly asked.  Here’s another: “What if I sign a contract with a seller but then change my mind because there’s something wrong with the house, or I can’t get financing, or I find a better deal…how do I get out of the contract AND get ALL of my earnest money back?” Read More→

In 1988, I was living in Paris, France with my brother, Sam.  Sam was a fashion photographer.  His job was to take pictures of lots of very pretty girls – and get paid to do it!  Needless to say, I L-O-V-E-D Paris!

I got a call from my dad.  My grandmother was very sick.  He needed me to fly home immediately.  Soon after I arrived, my grandmother passed away.  Part of settling her estate was getting her house, which was built in 1930, fixed up and sold.  This was my first attempt at a major rehab.

At first, I thought: No problem.  I’m mechanical and handy with tools.  I quickly realized that I didn’t know what I was doing and was in way over my head.  Each repair that I did took much longer and cost a lot more than estimated.  My frustration level shot through the ceiling.  All the while, my dad kept calling and asking, “What’s taking you so long, boy?”  I nearly went postal!

Fast forward to today.  Last month, Kim and I bought a house on Green Acre in Cartersville, Georgia.  It was built in 1969 and needed a ton of updating – walls, wiring, plumbing, kitchen, bath, fixtures, flooring, etc.  How does this rehab compare to my grandmother’s rehab?  There’s no comparison: the Green Acre rehab is as easy as eating pie. Read More→

What a difference three years can make!  At the May 2010 foreclosure auction, there were only 5 real estate investors on the courthouse steps bidding on 186 foreclosures advertised for sale in the legal section of the newspaper.  Two days ago, at the May 2013 auction, there were over sixty investors bidding on less than forty properties!  Good golly, Miss Molly!

Here’s just one example of how ridiculously high the bidders are pushing sale prices on the steps: A house at 15 Waters Edge in Acworth, Georgia had an opening bid of $57,500.  A house a few doors away sold at auction last summer for around $85,000.  The two houses are similar to each other. 

Our maximum bid price for 15 Waters Edge was $70,000.  The house needed a shave and haircut rehab – about $12,000 to bring it into perfect condition.  As the property was cried, the top-bid price quickly zoomed north of $100,000 – then climbed to $125,000!  When someone bid $150,000, my jaw hit the ground.  The winning bid on the property was an astronomical $168,000 – $30,000 more than the property’s current fair market value! Read More→

April’s foreclosure auction put Kim and me on a quest: To discover where the best real estate investing deals can be found.  Due to a huge increase in the number of bidders, a significant decrease in the number of foreclosures and rapidly shrinking profit margins, the most profitable deals are no longer happening on the courthouse steps.

To solve the mystery: “Where to find the best deals now?” Kim and I made a goal on April 5^th to knock on doors and talk to 60 sellers by the end of the month.  We started by knocking on every homeowner’s door whose home was slated to be sold at the May 7^th foreclosure auction.  In addition, every time we saw a For Sale sign in a yard, we knocked on that door, too.  (NOTE: You can read about our daily door-knocking results by going to North Georgia REIA’s Facebook page.)

What is the result of April’s door knocking?  We bought one house last week, we’re closing on a second this week (it’s a subject-to deal), and we have two short sale offers pending on properties that were due to be cried at May’s foreclosure auction.

To be clear: At the April 2^nd foreclosure auction, Kim and I got outbid – and outbid by a lot – on every one of our target properties.  In other words, we got our teeth kicked in and walked away with no deals and had none in the pipeline.  Knocking on doors immediately turned on the spicket and caused deals to gushed forth…and best of all, we had little competition! Read More→

If you’ve been following our real estate investing column, you know that since the beginning of April, Kim and I have been on a quest to find out where the cheese moved. 

At April’s foreclosure auction, we noticed a sudden and dramatic shift in the real estate market.  For reasons pointed out in earlier columns, the foreclosure auction is no longer the best place to find deals.  The low-hanging fruit is G-O-N-E!  (You can find our earlier columns here.)

We think the best way to find out where the cheese moved is to go to the frontlines.  For this reason, April’s goal is to meet face-to-face with 60 sellers.

I’m writing this on April 17, 2013.  Here are our results so far this month:  I’ve met with 35 sellers; we’ve found and bought a house on Green Acre Lane in Cartersville; we have a second house under contract (it’s a short sale deal); and we’re working to buy a third property before it’s sold at May’s foreclosure auction (it’s a subject-to deal.)

It’s astonishing how much and how fast the market has changed.  Since 2009, the foreclosure auction was THE place to buy.  Now, because of a huge increase in competition and a dramatic decrease in the number of foreclosure properties, the prices people are paying for foreclosures are increasing, while profit margins are tanking.  Scary stuff! Read More→

Last week’s column – The Cheese Has Moved – was about the dramatic change Kim and I witnessed at April’s foreclosure auction.  We watched investors pay a lot more for properties.  Higher purchase prices ensure thinner profit margins, and thinner profit margins mean greater risk – it reminded us a bit of 2005 and 2006.

Since the fattest deals will no longer be found on the courthouse steps, we’re forced to ask, “Where did the cheese go?”  In other words: Now where will we find the best real estate investing deals?

To answer this question, I’m on a quest to spend April knocking on sellers’ doors.  The goal is to meet face-to-face with 60 sellers.  On the front line is most often the best place to find out where the market is going.  (By the way, I’m posting the daily results from my door knocking on North Georgia REIA’s Facebook page.)

What am I seeing out there?  Real estate is experiencing an incredible shift. Read More→