Sep
10
Buy Investment Property Without Seeing It
Posted By: Ramon Rivas on September 10, 2010 at 4:39 pmWhy would you buy investment property without seeing it? It’s a numbers game. Whether or not you see the property before you make an offer isn’t nearly as important as making sure the numbers make sense.
A man in California used to just send out offers on a hundred MLS listings at a time, offering 25% less than the asking price on each one. Occasionally a few sellers would accept his offers. He never had to look at the homes beforehand. Including an “inspection and approval” clause in the offer meant he could always back out of the deal later when he saw the house. Meanwhile, he efficiently found the truly motivated sellers.
This true story demonstrates that with a good clause or two in the contract, you don’t have to worry about making an offer before you see a property. It’s true when you buy investment property or your next home. When it isn’t everything the seller says it is, you can reject the deal with little or no loss. So why wouldn’t you want to look at the property?
Buy Investment Property By Numbers
The main reason you might skip looking at a property before making an offer is time. This is certainly true if the property is far away. If you don’t get a price that makes sense, why spend your time traveling to look at real estate investments? A price and terms that make sense – this is what is important. Of course you’ll probably want to look at the actual property eventually, but looking at the numbers is how you invest.
Investors value income property according to current cash flow (or should if they want safe and viable investments), so start by verifying income. Get the actual income figures for the past 12 months. Always consider the potential income if rents are raised, vending machines are added, etc., but base your offer on the current income.
Verify all expenses with investment properties. If any expenses listed by the seller seem unusually low, they most likely are. Just substitute your own best guess in place of any suspicious numbers.
After you determine the net operating income, apply the appropriate capitalization rate to arrive at the value. If you’re not sure how to do this, get help. However, you really should understand the principle of how to figure a cap rate. This is a numbers game you’re playing.
Calculate loan payments (talk to your banker), and see how much cash flow you’ll have. Then you can figure your cash-on-cash return based on how much of your own money you put into the deal. Just divide the cash flow by your investment.
When the numbers work, you can safely make an offer. Inspections will tell you if there are problems that will affect the cash flow. You can always renegotiate if there are such problems (assuming you made your approval of all inspections a contingency of the offer). Of course, you can even go take a look now that you are truly ready to buy that investment property.
Aug
21A Day in the Life of a Bulk REO Investor
Posted By: Ramon Rivas on August 21, 2010 at 7:35 pmHey, I am not sure how this happened, but I was able to convince Kenny Rushing to let us inside his office and show us his business from the inside. In this video you’ll get to see the insight of the Multi-Million Dollar operation Kenny has created investing in Bulk REO Packages. You’ll get to see his offices in Tampa, FL and meet some of the key players in his team.
Pay particular attention to the video after minute 6:00 as Kenny will share some key tips he uses in his business to successfully bring profits in the hundreds of thousands of dollar in individual deals. Kenny is for real and he is the best at he does, so enjoy this free video.
If you haven’t done so already, Download Kennys Conspiracy Report here. This great information will be gone soon, so don’t wait.
Oh, one last thing, I almost forgot. Did you register already for the chance to Win One of the THREE (3) FREE Houses Kenny is Giving Away?
– >> Enter to win One of the THREE FREE Houses << –
Aug
17Curb Appeal is Key to Real Estate Investing
Posted By: Ramon Rivas on August 17, 2010 at 11:51 pmIf you are interested in real estate investing for handsome profits, you need to consider the curb appeal of any property you wish to rent or sell. A big part of the real estate game is buyer and tenant psychology. One thing that researchers have found about tenants and home buyers alike is that emotional response accounts for a great deal of investor success. In other words, the investors who can appeal to a tenant or buyer’s emotions — and make the tenant or buyer imagine themselves in the property — has the greatest chances of success. Curb appeal means improving the first impression that your property makes. Studies have shown that when the first impression of a property is positive, it is easier to convince a tenant or buyer to invest.
There are many ways that you can increase the curb appeal of your properties without a great deal of time and money:
1) Clean. A very tidy appearance is paramount to good curb appeal. Therefore, be sure to scrub the sidewalk, flagstones, walkway, windows, and siding. Mow the lawn, rake the leaves, clear the snow, and do everything you can to create the neatest possible appearance. You can do much of this yourself, although you may want to hire professionals or at least rent a high-pressure cleaning system for taking care of the exterior tiles or brickwork of a home. If the sidewalk outside your rental property or home is crumbled and in poor shape, you can generally contact the municipality to fix the problem.
2) Choose great colors. The color of your property goes a long way towards asserting good appeal. In general, you want to consider the colors of the properties around your property. If you are selling a suburban home, for example, located in a lot surrounded by pastel colored homes, you do not want to paint your property a right color. It would stand out too much. The right color blends well with the properties on either side of it. Make sure that the colors are fresh by applying a new coat of paint. Don’t forget the colors around the property, either. A bright green lawn or even crisp white snow contrasted with the few pine trees create visual appeal as well. If you’re interested in real estate investing, learn which colors to select, or hire a professional to select the right colors for you.
3) Repair. It should go without saying that you should ensure that everything outside is in good working order and looks attractive. This means that any broken walkways, bare patches on the lawn, and rickety shutters should be fixed up at once. You’ll find more success in real estate investing if you are selling a property that people want to buy.
Without a doubt getting into real estate investing is sure to prove to be a very profitable exercise because people that have entered into this line of business have made tons of money. However, there is more to real estate investing than simply making money because you should also derive pleasure from your pursuit of investing in real estate. The truth of the fact is that wholesaling homes is a way of investing that lays the foundation for all other types of real estate investments and it is also a means whereby you can earn some quick cash.
Little Capital Required
In fact, it is quite common to earn as much as ten to fifteen thousand dollars per month from wholesaling homes and all it takes is to work as little as twenty hours in the week and without having to work over the weekends. If you are thinking about real estate investing you should also consider wholesaling homes because it is a great business that does not require much capital and there is also little need to get credit and, best of all, it is quite simple to learn the ropes. All you would need is having an investor list or two and within a short span of time you could be making good money.
As far as wholesaling homes and real estate investing go, it requires nothing more than to get control of properties, which are then marketed and sold to the investors that have enough cash. It is also a lot better way of making money than say, rehabbing properties in which you would need to wait six to eight months before you realize any serious money.
Essentially, wholesaling homes require that you locate lucrative looking deals and it also means having to market these homes mainly to those who are involved in rehabbing as well as retailing properties. The fact of the matter is that first buyers are always on the lookout to make a small though quick profit and will generally pass over the bigger profits to those who are indulging in real estate investing because they do not have the time, money and patience to repair properties that they have bought. And they also don’t wish or cannot afford to wait for months until the property can be sold after it has been properly rehabbed.
Thus, if you were considering real estate investing and more particularly wholesaling homes, you would want to buy the property and resell it as soon as possible and maybe make one or two quick deals each month. Such types of deals do not require that you have much money or credit and there are also no bosses to answer to. What it really involves is being able to locate a good deal and having someone to buy a property from you.
Actually, finding bargain buyers is not very difficult and the entire wholesaling of homes can be completed in just three weeks from start to completion of the deal. However, remember that in this form of real estate investing you need to ensure that you do not pay more than is necessary for a property and also ensure that you allow for enough scope for making a profit when selling to bargain hunters. Also, try to close the deal as soon as you can and for cash only and try to avoid buyers who want to buy through bank guarantees because that would mean delays in getting loans sanctioned and that is not good when wholesaling homes.
The bottom line is that wholesaling homes is a simple form of real estate investing and it does not require any great learning to get into this form of business. With a little luck and plenty of perseverance and hard work you can easily turn ten deals each month and thus make a tidy profit as well.
Due to the upcoming expansion of the state of Oklahoma, neighborhoods around the city of Tulsa had forecast the rise of their homes’ value.
In Scranton, Pennsylvania, houses are expected to rise in value due to the efforts of the mayor to improve its neighborhoods and convert vacant homes into much more saleable empty lots.
The exterior of the house also affects its asking price. In Alabama, where people take pride in their southern heritage, lawns are kept well-manicured and the houses are well-maintained. Prices are expected to steadily grow.
In Texas, builders still show their confidence in the market through the steady inventory of new homes, especially in Edinburg where land is quite inexpensive. However, prices are expected to be more or less the same due to the prevalence of low-paying jobs in the area.
Real estate agents in Florida are expressing confidence over the strength of the local economy and are expecting market stability as result of low interest rates.
In Nevada, however, prices are expected to drop due to rising inventory, with exception of houses near amenities like golf and spa.
California real estate is expected to maintain its tight inventory as population continues to grow.
The recent slump in house prices, however, have affected several states in the country. Due to several layoffs especially in the manufacturing industry, houses in the Midwest area are lowered in value and homes with price tags of more than a million may be discounted just to get it off the market.
If you are looking for value in your real estate investment, it might pay to determine first which localities are considered most ideal. According to a survey done by CNN, the town of Fort Collins in Colorado is chosen as the best town to live in, followed by Naperville, Illinois and Sugar Land, Texas where diverse communities abound. http://www.States-RealEstate.com provides essential resources for buyers, sellers, home owners, real estate professionals, real estate investors, or any one seeking to connect with the world of real estate.
