Chattanooga REIA Blog

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I’ve been in a few businesses in my life, still have a few and probably will until I check into the nursing home, and maybe even after.

When comparing buying and selling houses to other businesses, the contrast is so big, sometimes I wonder what the world would be like if all small business owners were exposed to my training before they opened their businesses.

Let’s take a look and compare to my restaurant.

You can start real estate immediately with no money, no credit and no risk and expect to make a profit within the first month or two.

The restaurant required several months looking for a location I had to build out. Then, I signed a long lease with a $7,500 deposit (albeit non-recourse). Then it took 10 months and several hundred thousand dollars to get it opened and a massive amount of my time. As to the profit…it’s been a serious negative and will take many more months to break even. Then we’ll discuss a profit, maybe.

Your real estate business has no employees, only a virtual assistant or two. That means no payroll alligator to suck you dry and no employees to manage or account for and no regulations strangling the life out of your business. Read More >>

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All good real estate investors know the valuation of their deals is key to insuring success and projected profits. Since late 2013 transactions in numerous market areas have seen strong sales activity. But what to do when transactions start to slow? All the market areas covered by REIComps, insure when sales changes happen you are not caught off guard.

Last week, we began seeing a number of Support Tickets asking the question, “My retail sale properties aren’t getting multiple offers any more. What am I doing wrong? Equally, we have seen tickets which ask, “Several of our current units for sale in the same area where they have sold in less than two weeks aren’t getting showings”.

Truly, essentially these are the same question, but we had to dig deeper from a valuation perspective. Remember, when we “buy right” typically we can drive the market selling slightly lower. Or in some cases due to sound acquisition, an investor is able to improve a dwelling insuring that buyers can’t wait to make an offer. Read More >>

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How many times does your phone need to ring to make a deal? Well, the more rings you have, the more possibilities there are, right? But here is the catch: you don’t want just any calls. You want quality calls. It doesn’t matter how many calls you get if they aren’t ones that are going to lead to getting paid.

You may have heard real estate gurus telling you how to get that phone to ring. But I can show you how to get the phone to ring so that when you answer, you’ll have a potential good deal on the other end.

First, quality calls will decrease your overhead. I typically spend $1000 per closing on marketing. In the past, I bought the latest in high tech products which were supposed to send me 10 leads per day. The problem was that, while the leads were plentiful, the number that actually worked was less than I wanted.

You see, I want to make the time that I spend worth it. I want sellers who call me so ready to sell that I can barely finish saying, “Hi, this is Russ. How may I help you?” And I want them to say, ” I heard you were the best in the Atlanta area, you pay a fair price, you are respectful, and you do what you say you are going to do. I don’t care what you offer me, I will take it because I know you will be fair. I know you can close in 30 days. I trust you.”

How can YOU get these kinds of calls? I’m about to tell you. Read More >>

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This month I believe what I will be sharing with you can be very important to you financially as well as to build your financial freedom faster and easier. Last month I questioned why all of the so-called Guru’s are pitching how everyone should be wholesaling properties to build wealth. From my own experience as I said last month, if all you do is wholesale deals you have a job. This month I want to explain what I have experienced over the years doing this type of deal and what I have learned that keeps my buyers clamoring for more deals on a continual basis. The reason I decided to write about this subject is because without the practical knowledge of how to structure your wholesale deals, it is going to be more difficult to pass those deals along to other investors. I hope this information will open your eyes to the real world and what it takes to be more profitable.

Last month I left off by saying, if you always pay too much for the properties you wholesale, the seasoned investors aren’t going to be interested in the properties you find and you will be forced to sell or assign the purchase agreement to other people who don’t know what they should pay. This is because those people don’t really understand how to figure the numbers and once they do figure out they paid too much, it only stands to reason that they won’t want to buy more properties from you. Once word gets out you are asking too much and it will be assumed you don’t know what you are doing and investors will avoid you like the plague. Everyone wants to make an adequate profit from every deal they do or they won’t do the deal. You must realize that there are other ways to profit from real estate other than being a wholesaler. Read More >>

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Ok, I admit it. I use four-letter words. A lot. Some of these four-letter words are the kind you may not like to hear if you’re a fine, upstanding person of high moral fiber. Oh well.

The OTHER four-letter words I use are awesome, and if you know how to utilize them properly, they can make you super RICH! Best of all, you can say THESE four-letter words in ANY crowd, around anyone, without having to worry about getting slapped or getting the evil eye.

So, without any further delay, I’d like to share a short list of some of my favorite four-letter words that can make you rich & are safe to say around women, kids, and Baptists. ;)

I’ll also present these words in a way that mostly applies to real estate, but I promise you that what you’re about to learn here will apply to ALL areas of your life where you want to have success!

FAIR enough? (hey! That was a four-letter word already!) Here we go…

The first word on the list is an F-Word: FLIP. Read More >>

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Just got a call from a realtor. She represents a homeowner who needs a quick sale. The realtor said, “Bill, my client will only consider an all-cash offer. We’re not interested in any of your creative razzle-dazzle deal structures, understand?”

Kim and I get a lot of calls like this. I’ve learned not to say, “No seller wants cash – EVER – ya dingbat!” Saying such would ruin the relationship and destroy the possibility of meeting face-to-face with the seller.

So what do you think? Do sellers really want cash or could I possibly be right?

In this situation, what if I immediately agreed to pay the seller’s $80,000 asking price – in cash? There’s only one condition: The seller must put the $80,000 on her kitchen table, cover it with plastic wrap, and agree that once a month the seller, realtor and I will get together and marvel at the big stack of money.

Sure, this is a silly stipulation that no seller would agree to. But why – since the seller is getting exactly what she wants – wouldn’t she agree to it? Think hard on this. It’s an important question to contemplate! Read More >>

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Many of us are aware of the potential for real estate to function within our portfolio. Not only do we believe in real estate as an investment, but we know that over time, it tends to go up in value – there is, after all, only so much land to go around! But what happens when you incorporate real estate into your retirement portfolio? Do the rules change when you’re running a Real Estate IRA?

Truthfully, many of the same principles of real estate hold true when you’re investing in real estate from within a Real Estate IRA. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some other things to be aware of – this is, after all, a different type of investment account.

Even so, you’ll find that investing in real estate through a Real Estate IRA isn’t only intuitive, but can be just as intuitive as investing in real estate from a “general investment” perspective. We’ve put together three “Golden Rules” here to not only demonstrate some of the similarities but some of the differences in investing in real estate for short-term growth and investing in real estate for retirement: Read More >>

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Last month I wrote about how you could use the right of rescission as a silver bullet to stop a foreclosure in its tracks. Once you drop a notice of rescission in the mail, your loan has been nullified as a matter of law and the bank must either comply with the rescission or prove within 20 days that they have the right to enforce the note. Well, over the last few weeks I have been seeing more and more from the banks that the right of rescission has them on their heels. The banks are sending their lawyers around their offices explaining exactly how rescission leaves them vulnerable.

The main point that the lawyers are making to the banks is that mailing in a notice of rescission is all it takes to cancel a borrower’s loan, note, and mortgage. The notice is effective from the moment it is dropped in the mail as an act of law. This was written specifically into the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) so that homeowners wouldn’t have to use an attorney to act on their behalf, thus restricting the remedies provided by TILA to borrowers who can afford an attorney. While the note is canceled immediately as soon as the notice is dropped in the mail, the bank has 20 days from the date of receipt to respond. This is a good reason to send the notice with return receipt requested. This provides you with proof of the exact date the notice of rescission was received. Read More >>

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Wholesalers send me deals daily but I have started to notice that many of these wholesalers are wholesaling another wholesaler’s property. Before proceeding, I want to be clear that I have no issue with this but there is a right way and a wrong way to go about it. Also, understand that if a buyer/investor receives the same property from multiple sellers he/she will contact the seller with the best price. Wouldn’t you? Keep in mind that you did nothing to acquire this property. You merely sent it out to a buyers list you put together, which with today’s technology takes only a few minutes. So what should you avoid and what should you do when wholesaling a wholesale?

Let’s list a few of the major DON’TS:

• Don’t wholesale another wholesaler’s property without permission. It is best to ask and establish a long working relationship with that wholesaler/seller. Just imagine if you end up having a buyer for the property but the wholesaler/seller has sold it or maybe he/she is not interested in working with you. It is best to get all this out of the way first.
• Don’t add on a ridiculous fee to the price if it is not justified. The last thing you want to do is be known as the wholesaler who markets deals with very little to no potential profit. What’s worse is if the property is being shopped by multiple wholesalers in the market area and your price is the highest.
• Don’t waste time marketing another wholesaler’s “deal” until you have seen a contract. Many times a wholesaler will claim to have a deal under contract but in reality he/she is still just waiting for it to be executed. Pre-marking is fine but don’t spend too much time on it until you see a contract.
• Don’t contact the original seller of the property. If you run across the seller at the property and want to know more about the condition of the property or the neighborhood that is fine. However, do not discuss price, closing dates, mention wholesaling, etc. These are items you discuss with the wholesaler/seller you are working with. The last thing you want to do is jeopardize another person’s contract or be accused of trying to go around the other wholesaler to contract the property yourself.

Read More >>

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“I always say shopping is cheaper than a psychiatrist.” ~Tammy Faye Bakker

The other day I was in the grocery store picking up some milk. In the checkout line, the checker asked the guy ahead of me if he had one of those loyalty cards. Well, this guy took out a shoebox full of those cards – a shoebox! –and started searching through them. It took forever!

Okay, maybe I made that up. Actually, if anyone needs a shoebox for those cards, it’s probably me. And if I were to pull out that shoebox in the checkout line, I’ll bet no jury would convict the checkout lady if she shot me right then and there.

Now, just in case there’s anyone who still doesn’t know about loyalty cards, it’s time you did. They’re promotional wallet cards that big retailers and businesses give out, usually for free. When the checker scans the barcode on the back (or when you give the checker the phone number they have on file for you), you can get all kinds of deals that are only available for people who sign up. Read More >>

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Signage is an important tool for you to use in your real estate investing business. Using signage is another inexpensive way to draw motivated sellers and deals to you. Many real estate investors find that signage can produce more deals in a year than some of the other methods they use in their businesses. Once again, you need to test and track the results in your own business. There are several different types of signage you can use. Some are permanent, some are temporary. Some are very inexpensive and some will cost more. I will discuss several different types of signage I have used in my own business.

One type of signage you can use is magnetic signs or vinyl lettering that goes on your vehicle. You can also "wrap" a vehicle with signage. Wrapping a vehicle means signage all the way around it. There are sign companies who will design this type of signage for you. This is a little more expensive and a little more permanent; however, it can be easily removed should you decide to sell your vehicle. Magnetic signs work very well, especially if you only own one vehicle. Sometimes you will be working with a seller who doesn’t want their neighbors to know they are selling their house and you will need to remove your signage before going to see that seller. Make sure your message is short and to the point since other drivers have only seconds to see your message unless your vehicle is parked. Read More >>

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You may have noticed that the Atlanta market in general is hot right now. Prices are going up. The newspaper is telling people values are going up. CNN, Fox and more are reporting more new developments every week it seems. If you are a homeowner, this is the news you have been wanting to hear. ‘Sellers’ market!’ is being proclaimed by agents in recent months and to a reasonable degree, that is the case.

So where does this leave you as a wholesaler? I would argue it leaves us in one of a few positions:

• Ride the wave and pay more for properties and hopefully wholesale for higher LTV’s
• Learn more about creative financing
• If you want to wholesale, stick to your formulas that you know work based on today’s values

Which is the right answer? As a wholesaler, clearly number 3 and to some degree number 2 if you want to branch out from just wholesaling. Yet answer number 1 is the answer that seems to be taken by the majority of wholesale deals that cross my desk. Read More >>

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Intuit discontinued its own QuickBooks mobile app a while back, but there's still plenty of processing power available for your smartphone or tablet.

In days gone by, running a company was a 40 hour per week proposition. You might have taken work home some evenings or gone into the office on weekends.

Those days are over, thanks to the internet and mobile technology. This fundamental change in the way we do business means that it's now hard to get away from work. Your smartphone and tablet are usually within easy reach, and they're always tempting you to check in.

On the flip side, that kind of 24/7/365 accessibility has numerous benefits. There are, for example, apps that can be integrated with your desktop QuickBooks company file, which enable you to: Read More >>

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Unless you are already rich and have all the cash you need to build your real estate empire, you will probably need to explore the world of private money. Private money can come in many different forms such as investor’s capital, private loans, and hard money loans. Most real estate entrepreneurs start with capital from friends and family. This may be the best place for you to start raising money for your deals. Depending on the relationships you have with your friends and family will determine if this a good place to start or not. They may be willing to join you in your deal or they may still see you as the person they remember growing up and not the new real estate mogul you are now. Regardless of their opinion the best way to start raising money from your immediate contacts is to focus heavily on your real estate education. Friends and family will know you are new to the business and may be hesitant to jump in. If they see the amount of education and work you are putting into your new business then that attitude may change.

When you are ready to start farming cash from new sources then you need to start by networking. Networking is one of the best business skills you can learn. In the beginning most people are nervous about networking. I have found that this is usually because the person is not comfortable enough discussing the subject of real estate. Again you need to be constantly working on your education. This will lead you to be able to network confidently, discuss and answer questions, and to start building trusting relationships with new investors. If you are not comfortable and confident in your ability to discuss real estate investing they will not likely be confident in you. Read More >>

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Calculating costs to purchase, fix and resell a house has always been a downfall for many Investors. At a recent Real Estate Investor Meeting, I heard a great explanation of how people come up with their numbers. You all need to be sure you don’t fudge your numbers and fool yourself into thinking you are going to make a profit. This Article focuses on all the things you must consider when purchasing a property, such as holding costs, cost of the money, and closing costs that you will incur on properties.

When a student contacts me on a property and says “This is a great deal,” I always ask “Why do you think so?” Their response is “because.” Well….”because” is not a good enough answer. This is how I analyze a deal. First, I look for the Sold comps in the same subdivision that have sold in the past 90 days. I will then look at a total of 6 months in that subdivision. I look at square footage, garages, bedrooms, bathrooms and pools. I then look for the Active, Active with Contract and Pendings which all affect the value of my property. I budget accordingly as if I am going to hold it for at least 4 months, which is required in order to sell to a retail buyer with FHA funding. Depending on the price point, about 80% of our buyers have FHA funding. I look at the Active, Active with Contract and Pendings and note what ‘type’ of listing they are. If they are short sales, I really give weight on these sales because it’s very possible they would not be bank-approved and could sell lower or higher than list price. If they are Pending sale which is a straight sale, I can assume that they are close to list price; however, until they sell, I can’t be sure. I will then look on MLS or REIFAX and search a half mile radius to see what other comparables I can find. Based on all the comps and the repairs in which I plan on doing, I will determine if I believe the value of the home will be close to the middle value of the comparables or the high value of the comparables. Read More >>

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Last month, I taught you about two ways to make money in real estate. I covered retailing and wholesaling. Those two methods generally involve buying houses that are in need of repairs at a deeply discounted price. This month, I will teach you about the other two ways to profit in real estate that is considered to be the Pretty House Business.

Lease-Options – Many people are not aware you do not have to buy a property to profit from it. In the case of lease-options, we lease it from the seller with an option to buy it at some predetermined price and term. Our objective then is to install another tenant-buyer in it, sublease it for a higher price and monthly payment, then collect a non-refundable option deposit from our buyer. In my case, the minimum is usually $10,000 except on a few very low end houses where I’ll accept about $5,000. This deposit never gets returned to the buyer if they do not close. It does, however, get applied to their down payment. But if they move out of the house and don’t close on it they lose the deposit. That’s made real clear up front, and since all of our transactions are closed with an attorney, it’s made clear at the lease-option closing as well. Read More >>

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Really good real estate investors know and rely on the valuation of their deals as the key to success and profits. The economic slump that richer countries have suffered during the past seven years can be blamed on a runaway housing bubble that started right here in the U.S. All the market areas covered by REIAComps, insure when pricing changes happen you are not caught off guard.

When it comes to the tic of the housing bubble, there were other issues like poor oversight of the broader financial system which led to the crash. But without the real estate bubble, there would likely have been no financial crisis.

Which is why the fact that similar-looking bubbles inflating in countries from Canada to the U.K. have economists worried that there might be other catalysts of future crises laying wait for us in the weeds.

Last week, in a Forbes article, IMF economist Min Zhu published an article called “Era of Benign Neglect of House Price Booms is Over,” in which he sounded the alarm over rising global home prices. Zhu explains how he determines whether home prices in a particular country are overpriced. Read More >>

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Recently I was coaching a student, and we came across what appeared to be an excellent opportunity. Because of my knowledge of the area, I was immediately able to give the student the right price to offer. I showed him how to negotiate the contract, which he did perfectly.

The result? With my knowledge, we were able to do only minimum work. While we found that the property wasn’t the deal we expected, we did so without wasting time. Since time equals money, it is essential to know your market so that you don’t work too hard for nothing.

We decided that this student, a new investor, was going to buy a house for $5,000 and wholesale it to an area landlord. Rents there were approximately $800/ month. Rehabbing would be close to $30,000. When we subtracted management, vacancies, taxes, insurance, and maintenance, the property would earn a 20% return. This was a great opportunity for anyone who wanted to become a landlord in that area—and a great opportunity to make a $7000 wholesale fee. Read More >>

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I have noticed over the past months that almost everyone I talk to today tell me they want to be a wholesaler. These people want to wholesale deals as a way to generate fast money to pay their living expenses each month. What in the world is going on here? Why is it that all of a sudden everyone wants to become a wholesaler when there are so many other different ways to profit from real estate other than wholesaling?

Don’t get me wrong I’m not suggesting that wholesaling isn’t a great way to get started as a real estate investor. All I am suggesting is wholesaling is only one way to make money buying real estate but it’s not necessarily the best way in my opinion. Having done many wholesale deals over the years I have come to the conclusion that if the only way you buy real estate is wholesaling where the investor either buys or gets the property under contract with the seller and then resells the property to another person or assigns their assignable purchase agreement to another investor and passes along the deal you structured with the seller for a fee. Read More >>

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Recently, I was in one of my favorite marketing forums (name withheld) where I usually exchange brilliant ideas with other geniuses, and one of the members happened to mention some negative things about real estate, some of the teacher/gurus, and how ‘this real estate stuff doesn’t work.’

This guy was insulting several of our well-known teachers that we’ve come to know and love. After reading a little bit of what he said, it was clear to me that he hadn’t done any deals, and like most people who say this kind of stuff, was speaking from a place of ignorance and/or frustration.

“Guru X is a scamming d-bag who only makes money from selling courses!”

“Guru Y USED to do deals, but not anymore, and now he just sells this stuff to people who don’t know any better.”

Normally, I don’t like to waste my time with small-minded or ignorant people. But in this case, I chose to set things straight, because there were plenty of other people who would also be reading what was said. And those people deserved to hear the truth. Read More >>

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