Archive for the ‘Private Money Websites’ Category

How To Build A Good Power Team As A Real Estate Investor

Sunday, February 20th, 2011

The first time most people venture into real estate investing, they are intimidated by numerous things they do not understand about the business. They are scared of doing things wrong.

A smart real estate investor lets professionals do their job. Instead of learning how to do everything yourself, building a power team can help you tremendously in your business.

These tips will help you get off the ground by building the right power team.

What is a power team?

A power team is a team of people who can handle your business needs as a real estate investor. Depending on your business model, you may need some more than others. Here is a list of people you may need in your power team:

1)      Title company – to close  your deals for you. You must get a title company that works with real estate investors. They know all the ins and outs of the business and this makes your work very easy. Once you fax them the contract, they will handle the rest. Most title companies have their in-house lawyers.

2)      Insurance agent – to insure your properties

3)      Home inspector – very important person in your power team. Inspections have saved me sometimes tens of thousands of dollars when buying a property

4)      Contractors – Handy when you need to fix things up. Most real estate investors need rehab work, even if it is minor.

5)      Handymen, general cleaners – Sometimes you these

6)      Mortgage broker – either you need financing, or you need to get your buyer qualified to buy your houses. This is a very important person in your dream team.

7)      Hard money lender or private money lenders – private money lenders are more preferable and cheaper. A real estate investing website for attracting private money is necessary for this. A good website is suggested at the foot of this article.

Hard money lenders lend on the property, not your credit. Identify a good HML to work with.

8)      Appraiser – when selling your properties or refinancing, you may need an appraiser

9)      CPA – to keep your books clean!

10)   Real estate investors – some have cash to buy the properties you have!

11)   Realtors – sometimes you need the services of a realtor, e.g. to buy REOs. A good relationship with a realtor will get you comparable sales on properties, etc.  Get a Realtor who is friendly to real estate investors.

Where do you get all these people?

The best place to get your dream is your local real estate investment groups. Other real estate investors already work with these people. They know who delivers and who does not. Do not be surprised to have your entire dream team ready in one or two networking meetings.

Do you need all the people above?  No, it depends on your business model.

Do not be surprised to find that most real estate meetings are sponsored by vendors. These vendors are your dream team all in one roof! If you do not have such groups in your area a little more research will be needed.

Ultimately, the most important thing in real estate investing is doing deals. Do not be paralyzed and wait to do a deal because you do not have a dream team! You build one as you go.

Successful real estate investing must be driven by a ready supply of private cash available from private money lenders. Targeting these lenders requires you convince them that their money is safely invested in your deals. Learn how you can attract investing cash through a private money website.

Success tips for beginner real estate investors

Monday, February 14th, 2011

When you are venturing into real estate investing for the first time, there is usually an overload of information and confusion that can leave you thrown off and decrease your productivity.

These few tips will help you get organized and be more successful as a real estate investor.

1)      Get a business name

Even though a business name should not stop from doing a deal before you get one, it is important to get a name. What do you do if you get a deal before you get a business name? Make the money first, register the name later!

2)      Pick out a business model

You cannot do it all. Pick one business model at a time. You are a newbie; all the pieces will make sense in due course. The first step is to make money as a real estate investor and reduce confusion.

Do not be surprised that you will try most business models in due course. It’s part of the learning process.

3)      Get a real estate investing website

This is extremely important for a successful real estate investing business. It tells your story for your so you never have to keep repeating yourself over and over.

It pre-screen and pre-negotiates with motivated sellers and presents deals that save you lots of time, usually hands off.

When you are selling houses, it makes this work very easy. Most importantly, it builds your buyers list for you, making selling future properties a snap. Of course a good website also helps you manage all types of contacts.

You can attract private money investors on the website to finance your deals, as well as attract and reward bird dogs or people that send you motivated sellers.

Of course, get a real estate investing website that is adaptable so you can use it as your business model changes.

A good website is suggested at the end of this article.

4)      Put your dream team together

Get a title company that works with real estate investors. Get a good inspector for your houses, a Realtor you can call upon when necessary, plumbers, contractors, etc.

Keep these contacts on your real estate investing website and open a folder for them.

5)      Join a real estate club

Join a local real estate group. Make sure you atten all meetings. This is where you meet people who do exactly what you are trying to do. Talking to them will reduce your learning curve drastically.

You will know what works, what you can do tomorrow and what you will need to do to sty in business.

Most groups hold classes; never under-estimate what you can learn even when you think you are experienced.

Most importantly, these contacts will help you get motivated sellers, or even buyers for your properties. Some of them buy properties at wholesale prices for cash!

6)      Manage your time

This is a business management tip that is extremely important. Schedule some time for marketing and growing your business. Put off less productive tasks for later. Keep a diary with important things to do every day.

7)      Keep business tools handy

Keep some contracts in your truck that you can fill by hand. A digital camera for taking pictures. A voice recorder for recording property addresses when you cannot write. My iphone does wonders in this respect. Keep some trash bags, hammer and other simple tools you might need from time to time.

In your office, each property should be filed in its own folder along with closings documents, spare keys, etc.

In today’s real estate market, a lot of real estate investors find themselves with deals they need to wholesale to other real estate investors. Whether you are buying houses selling them or wholesaling them you can close more deals using less time, money and effort through a website for wholesaling houses that drastically reduces your workload while increasing your efficiency.

How to negotiate a lower price in real estate investing

Thursday, February 10th, 2011

Making offers that get accepted is the first and most important step of real estate investing. Unless you can negotiate a price that makes you profit, you cannot succeed as a real estate investor.

These tips will help you make offers that get accepted when buying houses.

If you are a home owner looking for your dream home, these tips will also help you.

Obviously, the way you negotiate depends on who the seller is. If you are buying directly from a motivated seller, you negotiate differently than when buying from a bank, or through a Realtor.

Let’s look at each scenario.

1)      Buying from motivated sellers

This is the one I find easiest. As a real estate investor, before making any offer, you must know the fair market price after repairs, repair costs, mortgage balance and the asking price.

Your offer is determined by these four factors.

Assuming the mortgage balance allows it, your offer may not necessarily be what the seller is looking to get. Of course before I can talk to motivated seller, I already have all the numbers and have determined the deal can work.

I prefer to do it on the phone whenever possible. Say they want $65,000 on a $100,000 house that needs repairs. Even though I have the asking price already, I will ask:

 “What is the lowest price you can accept for this house?”

“$65,000 dollars?? Hmm”

I can pause for at least 1 minute. This works like magic.

Then I’ll ask “is that the best you can do?”

I will then listen as the motivated seller talks his way down. Never sound excited even when it sounds too good. By the end of the conversation, I will still tell them I need to look at my numbers and will get back to them later.

Then I will call them back and make my offer. Or I can make my offer in writing. If their asking price is still too high for me, I will still make a lower offer, while still looking at the needs of the seller.

Most of these offers will get accepted.

2)      If motivated seller has a Realtor

Sometimes motivated sellers may have properties listed with a real estate agent.  As a real estate investor, I never make offers through a Realtor. I tell the motivated seller I can buy the house, but due to real estate commissions, my offer may not work for them. I ask them to give me a call when the listing expires.

Usually they will call their Realtor and ask them to cancel the listing. Then my offer would work like a motivated seller.

If you are a home owner buying a listed property, then you must make your offers through your Realtor. Unfortunately you don’t have clear information such as mortgage balance, etc.

3)      Buying REOs

When buying REOs, it is important to make sure your contract says you are buying “as is, where is” and you have a clause that covers inspection.

Once you make an offer, the bank is likely to make a counter offer. You can justify a lower price after inspection. Remember that all offers have to be written and go through your Realtor to the listing agent, who then submits it to the bank.

Successful real estate investing not only demands buying houses efficiently, but also selling them quickly. Learn how you can quickly sell your houses even in a poor market using a real estate investor website for selling houses.

How to make an acceptable offer on a bank owned property

Tuesday, February 8th, 2011

In today’s real estate market, most banks have more houses in their inventory than they can handle. They are selling more houses than anyone else in a market with very few buyers.

Making offers that these banks accept is therefore important whether you are a real estate investor or a regular home buyer.

These tips will help you make successful offers to the banks and buy REO houses cheap.

1)      Get pre-qualified

When you are buying a property from a bank, you must first be pre-qualified, or show proof of cash.

 The bank will not consider your offer until you get this, so this should be your first step 

2)      Get a good buyers agent

Almost all, if not all, bank owned houses are listed for sale by Real estate agents. So any offer you make will have to go through the Realtor. You must therefore get a good buyers agent to work for you.

3)      Do your due diligence

Lots of the properties bank have need little or no repair. Be sure you check to make sure no repairs are needed or do a good repair estimate. You will use these to negotiate a better buying price.

Of course, you must have conservative comparable sales to back your offer if necessary.

4)      Order an inspection

Consider this a must when buying a REO property. Banks will rarely fix up houses, but will offer them at a discount when possible.

Make sure your real estate contract has inspection verbage to get you covered.

An inspection will bring out issues you were probably not aware of. This would be a strong bargaining point with the bank which should also bring down your offer price.

Banks will not accept offers which have conditions that they fix the property. You buy this type of property as is where is. Make sure your contract shows this. They will offer discounts based on needed repairs.

5)      Other costs

If the home is in a community where there is a home owners association, make sure that all dues are paid up, and your fees will be prorated from the day you own the property. In foreclosed properties, it is common for fees and fines to accumulate.

These costs should be credited at closing.

Similarly, make sure there are no back taxes owed. Again, these fees should be prorated and credited at closing.

Lastly, make sure the utilities are paid up; you could be stuck with huge bills that were not cleared by previous owner. Make sure this is cleared.

6)      Make offers lower than the asking price

Banks are willing to negotiate. Always make an offer lower than the asking price. Properties that are older in the market will be more discounted than those that are just listed.

In general avoid making more than 10% lower than the asking price. If your offer is rejected, you can always offer a little more depending on the bank’s counter offer.

No matter whether you wholesale houses, do short sales, buy or sell houses or whatever your real estate investing business model is, it is necessary to close more deals using less effort, time and money to make more profits. Learn how you can automate your business using an interactive real estate investor website.

How To Make Offers That Get Accepted In Real Estate Investing

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

One of the biggest challenges for real estate investors is to make offers that get accepted. When investing in real estate, buying properties is the basic foundation of any real estate investing business.

Unless you buy properties, you cannot make any money.

Here are a few tips on how to make sure your offers get accepted.

The offer you make depends on the type of property you are buying.

1)      Buying from motivated sellers

If you buy houses from motivated sellers, it is necessary to have the following pieces of information:

a)      Market Value

Do your due diligence to find out conservatively how much the house would be worth in a perfect condition. You cannot make any offer until you have this information.

b)      Mortgage balance

You must get this information before you can make an offer. If a seller is not willing to provide this information, they are not motivated enough. Move on to a motivated seller.

The mortgage balance must allow you to buy the house and still leave you with a profit. Thus means that the offer you give must allow you to own the property free an clear and still make money.

c)       Repairs needed

Based on the information given by the seller, you can estimate the repair costs even before you drive to see the house.

It is necessary to do your own repair estimates before you can make an offer. Of course I prefer to see the house myself.

d)      Asking price

If the owner is asking for too much money given the above 3 pieces of information, you might never make the deal happen.

A good asking price must take into account the market value, mortgage balance and repairs. You can then make an offer based on the asking price. If at all the mortgage balance and repairs allow you to make an offer that can leave you with a profit, by all means do it.

No offer can be too low, but you also have to take into consideration the seller’s needs. If they are facing foreclosure, then they probably need some money to move, or their asking price might be just enough to get away from the property.

If the mortgage balance is too high compared to the value of the house, it does not make sense to make an offer. Move on to the next deal.

When all is said and done, the only bad offer is the one you have not made. Make as many offers as you can. You’ll be surprised how many get accepted.

2)      Buying foreclose properties

The only considerations to make is the asking (listing) price and repairs. The bank is trying to offload their inventory and are willing to negotiate.

In today’s market, most REOs will be listed below market value. Depending on your exit strategy, if the numbers are close to making sense, by all means make an offer.

Remember the banks are willing to negotiate, so always make an offer lower than the asking price.

In order to be successful in real estate investing, it is necessary to close as many deals as possible while spending as little time, money and effort as possible. Learn how you can achieve this by automating your real estate investing business with an automated real estate investor website.

How to invest in real estate with little or no money

Monday, January 24th, 2011

Most people fear venturing into real estate investing thinking they need a lot of money to start. Others fear the “No money down” scams out there.

Can you really invest in real estate with little or no money? Let us explore this topic in this article.

The traditional method of buying real estate is having cash, or getting a loan which also involves putting a sizable amount as down payment. This can get expensive and unsustainable if you are a real estate investor looking to buy many properties.

Let us explore alternative methods of buying real estate with little to no money:

1)      Wholesale real estate investing

Flipping real estate involves looking for a highly discounted property, then putting it under a contract. You then turn around and get a real estate investor to buy it at a wholesale price.

You can either assign the contract to the buyer, or you can do a simultaneous closing where you buy the property, then sell it on the same table.

If you do a contract assignment, then the only money you need is earnest money when you put the property under contract. Typically this is between $100 to $500. The real estate investor buyer must produce earnest money to get into the deal, meaning you do have spent no money.

If you do a simultaneous closing, a few scenarios can happen. You might be able to use your buyers cash to close the first transaction when you buy the property. The same cash is used to close the 2nd transaction. You walk away with the difference.

In this transaction you spend no money.

In a simultaneous closing, you might need transactional funding to close the transaction where you buy the property. Typically hard money lenders will not need any money from you to fund such a transaction.

Again, you spend no money of your own.

2)      Seller financing

Sometimes, you may negotiate with the owner so they accept monthly payments instead of all cash for the purchase.

You might have to produce some down payment to make this happen.

You then turn around and look for a buyer who will also be making monthly payments, typically higher than you make. Of course, they will have to produce more money down than you have paid, meaning you end up spending no money of your own.

Such deals are owner financing, lease options, rent to own, etc.

In this case you will need the down payment to make the deal happen.

3)      Partnership

You can have a partner who puts up the cash you need for your real estate transactions. Of course you spend no money of your own, but you have to share the profits as agreed.

4)      Financing

You can use a home equity line of credit or similar credit to finance your real estate investing transactions.  You will pay interest, but again you spend no money of your own.

Successful real estate investing not only demands buying houses efficiently, but also selling them quickly. Learn how you can quickly sell your houses even in a poor market using a real estate investor website for selling houses.

How to find the best short sale deals for real estate investing

Monday, January 17th, 2011

Negotiating with banks to buy properties for less than the mortgage balance can make you big profits in real estate investing. Not all short sales are potentially profitable, which some can make you lots of money.

This article walks you through the best sources of profitable short sales.

Even though short sales involve negotiating with banks to get a discount on the mortgage, some short sale deals are a waste of your time.

As a real estate investor, you should aim for those deals that will make you more money

1)      Target motivated sellers directly

The best source of houses for sale is buying houses directly from motivated sellers. This is before the property gets foreclosed.

The motivated seller must be at leat 2 months behind on their mortgage payments to qualify for a short sale.

You can target these motivated sellers by targeting people in legal trouble who own real estate. These include people going through divorce, burned landlords, people with liens, people whi have inherited properties, vacant houses, expired listings etc.

In other words, you target people who own properties they most likely want to sell, even though these properties may not be listed on the market.

2)      Make sure you have enough time

In some states like Texas, when a foreclosure is files by the lender, it is usually foreclosed within 3 weeks. In other states you may have several months before foreclosure happens.

Make sure you have enough time to get the bank’s attention before they have to foreclose on the property. It can take weeks to months just to get the bank’s attention.

3)      Target short sales with more than one mortgage

The holder of a second mortgage can lose 100% of their investment in foreclosure. They are therefore more willing to negotiate than the holder of the first mortgage.

This means you can get 80-90% discount on the second mortgage. If you also negotiate the first mortgage and get 10-20% discount on the first mortgage, you can make a clean profit from such short sale deals.

 4)      Avoid short sales listed in the MLS

Typically, real estate agents will approach banks and list properties as short sales. They are open to any offer they can get, of course the higher the better for them.

Usually no real estate agent will tell you the mortgage balance. And of course you will never know if there is one or two mortgages.

This means you can only make blind offers. As a real estate investor, it is in your best interest to get the mortgage balance before you can make any offer to buy a property.

Even though you can get good deals from listed short sales, you are most likely to offer more than you normally would if you had the mortgage balance. And of course you will waste too much time because most of your offers will be rejected anyway.

Stick to motivated sellers and you will find short sales deals that will make you some good money.

In order to be a successful real estate investor, you must attract motivated sellers, convince them to sell you their houses, make offers that are acceptable and close deals that make you money. Learn how you can achieve this with a  real estate investor web site for buying houses.

Short Sales, Reos Or Motivated Sellers – Which Is The Nest Real Estate Investing Model?

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011

In a market full of mortgages going into default, a lot of real estate investors are never sure which way to go to get the best deals.

Do you get foreclosed REOs from the bank? Do you do short sales to buy the houses for less than the mortgage balance? Or do you stick to buying houses directly from motivated sellers?

This article sheds some light into these 3 situations.

These 3 methods all have their pros and cons; let’s analyze each one:

1)      Buying foreclosed houses from banks – REOs

Banks have a lot of inventory in foreclosed homes and they seem to be piling them up every day. As soon as they foreclose on them, their next step is to put them back on the market to sell them.

There are few buyers, and these properties can sit on the market for a very long time and still get no buyers.

Banks are therefore willing to sell them less than their market value, even more so if they need repairs.

As a real estate investors, shop carefully for good REO deals because not all them will meet your buying criteria or equity argin for you to make a profit.

2)      Short Sales

If a home owner is behind on their mortgage, the bank eventually forecloses on those homes. Before they foreclose, they are often willing to take less than the mortgage balance. This negotiation is called a short sale.

Typically, a bank will do an appraisal to know the exact value of the home. Then they can give you a discount on the mortgage based on their numbers.

A bank that holds a first mortgage is likely to offer very little discount on the mortgage, usually not more than 20% especially if it does not need major repairs.

A bank that holds a second mortgage can lose 100% of their investment in a foreclosure, so they are more willing to negotiate much lower. It is not unusual to get 80-90% discount on a second mortgage.

It therefore makes a lot of sense to do a short sale on a property with more than one mortgage.

Short sales can also take a long time, usually 3 to 6 months. You must therefore have enough patience and capital to last you through such long waiting periods.

Banks can also turn down your request even when all numbers look good. You must therefore be ready for rejection.

Lastly as in REOs, you must close fast as soon as your short sale is approved. Banks will not accept creative financing on short sales.

When all is said and done, you can create a lot of equity and profits as long as you select the right deals, have patience to wait for a long time, can take rejection and you can close fast.

3)      Motivated sellers

There are so many ways to buy houses straight from a motivated seller depending on their situation. This includes creative financing.

You also get the flexibility to negotiate easily if the mortgage balance allows, and you can be as flexible as you need when closing, e.g. you can wholesale a deal right from a motivated seller to a wholesale buyer.

This is always the best way to buy investment houses as long as you can target people in need of selling their houses. 

Learn how you can run your real estate  investing business from a real estate investing website that also automates  your business from http://www.realestateinvestorswebsites.net/website-types

How To Be Safe With Investment Property

Friday, December 3rd, 2010

When investing in real estate, it is important to stay safe and avoid potential losses that can put you out of business.   Identifying and avoiding such pitfalls if therefore crucial to your real estate investing business.

 Follow these 6 tips to stay safe and profitable as a real estate investor.

1) Buy properties with equity
 This is a simple, golden rule.  Avoid properties you buy at market value.

 Expect no price increase in your investment properties in the near future.

 The real estate market is full of properties with no buyers.   Even banks are offering properties at deep discounts, as much as 30%.

 Even if you use creative financing from motivated sellers, focus on properties with equity.

2) Know your area
 Even with equity, you must make sure you buy houses in the right neighborhood.

It also means that if you decide to keep it, you might not get good tenants.

Focus on an area that is favored by most people.   Is this a place you would like to live in?  Would you feel comfortable if your kids grow up there?

 Is this an area that is growing and shows even better potential in the future?

 If you answered yes, then this may be a good place to invest.

3)  Is there demand for rental properties?
 If you rent out properties, consider rental demand before you buy your properties.  Is there demand for rental properties in the area?

If you were unable to sell your house right away, can you hold it as a rental property?  This of course will provide you with a security cushion in case of unforeseen circumstances.

4) Think outside the box
 You could still make money with little to no equity with lease options, rent to own or owner financing.

If you have equity in it and can acquire the property on terms, you could be in the profit zone from the beginning and still sell it at a profit eventually.

Real estate laws have been changing recently, so consult an attorney for your real estate transactions.

5)  Invest little money
 If things did not work out as expected, how much money can you lose?  The less you invest, the less you can lose if things go South.

 This applies whether you get a traditional bank loan or buy on terms.

6)  Get private money investors
If you invest in real estate, having a ready source of private money is crucial for your business success.   You have flexibility what types of properties you buy and how you finance them.

For example, you cannot acquire a lease option property using a bank loan, but can do so with private money.

 It is necessary to have a good real estate investor website for attracting private money investors for this.   This website will tell your story for you.

Once you have private money investors, the sky is the limit.

Why private money is important in real estate investing

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

With the economic meltdown and tighter lending regulations, real estate investors are finding themselves with less and less money to do business. Both traditional mortgages and hard money are no longer so easy to get, making private money lending the easiest option to finance your real estate investing deals.

Private money is  the type of mortgage obtained from private individuals who have money to invest and are looking for higher returns than they can get in traditional investments such as banks or CDs. The investment is usually secured by the real estate property being purchased and not you as the borrower.

So why is private money the way to go in real estate investing?

1) No credit restrictions

The credit of the borrower does not arise in private money lending – the investment is secured by real estate. The terms and conditions of the loan depend on you and the lender

2) Easier and faster to obtain

It is easier to get a private money loan than it is to get a traditional mortgage or hard money. There are no tough under-writing procedures, and in most cases, the lender is the only under-writer. As such, you can have the money in a few days.

As long as the real estate investment makes sense to the private money lender, your deal will be funded. If it will make enough residual income to make interest payments and it secured by a real estate property worth more than the money invested in it, your deals will most likely get funded.

3) Less expensive

Private money is much less expensive than a business partner. While most partnership transactions will be split 50/50, private money lenders will ask for 8% to 15%. There are no points or origination fees that you get in hard money.

4) Few restrictions

No traditional or hard money lender will lend you their money if it involves creative financing. This is where most real estate investors get stuck. For example, if you take over existing mortgages, your real estate investing deals can only be funded with private money.

How do you convince private money lenders?

First, it is important to understand that nobody will trust you with their money if they do not trust your capabilities. As such, it is important to have a real estate investing website for seeking private money. The website should be simple and serve to convince potential private money lenders that your real estate deals are the best to invest their money with.

The website should also offer a way for them to sign up to become a private money lender.

Secondly, a business plan and success kit is important for convincing private money lenders. Any private money lender will want to see the type of deals you have done. If you do not have an impressive credibility in past deals, you must prepare a precise business plan for each deal showing all the numbers such as comparable sales, inspections, repairs cost estimates, rents, profit potential and so on. The clearer you can make this information, the more likely that your deal will get funded.

Ultimately your real estate investing business will flourish with more supply of readily available, cheap cash for your deals with private money.