Real Estate Genius Investment Software Blog

By K. Kleinholter

You usually don’t hear people talking about “hidden” costs when flipping houses, rather, you hear about how much money they made.

“And we really didn’t have to do much either!”, you’ll hear them say.

While there are flipping jewels that do indeed fall into people’s laps, the reality is that those flips are few and far between. If you’re considering flipping, you certainly want to go into it with a lot of enthusiasm, but with a healthy dose of caution as well. Learning to “read” houses when inspecting them before buying will help you see more clearly what possible repairs might be needed to make the house ready for the market. Not paying attention to certain warning signs of structural problems could mean the difference of making, or losing money altogether.

If you’re relatively inexperienced at flipping, or considering your first flip, pay attention to what the house is “telling you”. You could go into it thinking you will make some great money, only to spend any profits on major repairs. Remember, in many flips, you are buying foreclosure property, property with tax liens against them, etc. So, understand that you are buying the property as is, warts and all.

Some major repair signs to be on the lookout for, are the following:

Having this particular increased-awareness mindset makes good business sense when evaluating any piece of property. Consult with a professional such as a general contractor or realtor and have them help you assess any possible repairs and related costs. When you have all of the facts and figures in front of you, can you then make an informed decision. When you do, in fact, submit a bid, you’re price will reflect any necessary repair expense.

If you’re relatively new or considering entering the house flipping business for the first time, please visit http://www.House-Flipping-Helper.com for more information regarding all things house flipping and remodeling.

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By Jonathon Hardcastle

Investment in property is seen as one of the best ways to earn money from your existing capital, with stable yields year on year. But why is it that property is such a worthwhile investment, and isn’t investing in property tying you down and your money up in bricks and mortar? In this article we will look at exactly why property is considered to be a wise investment, and the factors to consider when investing your money.

Investing in property can be a very beneficial endeavor. Working around basic accounting principles, the property you acquire is a capital asset, thus hopefully increasing your overall net worth. This doesn’t seem the case when you consider the amount of money you can plough into property with no immediate return. However, property usually appreciates in value, rather than depreciating, year on year, which slowly increases the value of your total assets for when you eventually sell. Furthermore, this overall gain doesn’t fall within the parameters of income for tax purposes, and so can escape this burden to a large extent in your annual tax returns.

Investing in property also has the added bonus of allowing you to grant charges and standard securities against borrowing, over a property that isn’t your home. That means you can raise finance from your property without risking your home, so even if you default on the loan repayments, you’ll still have a roof over your head. Furthermore, if you negotiate a lease with a tenant for your property, you can expect a return of 8% of the value of the property each year in rental income, which would certainly be sufficient to pay off any mortgage and leave some nice profits to play with. Just remember to let the taxman know, because he has a claim on that as extra income.

A potential way to secure property investment is to act through an incorporated company, to raise finance from investors and institutional lenders alike. Of course, this has the great advantage of limited personal liability, although you may still find yourself granting personal securities over money you borrow. Whether or not you choose this vehicle, it is certainly one of the most popular for large scale property investments the world over.

Investing in property isn’t a guaranteed return on investment, but you’re almost as good as it gets. Property has the potential for high earnings and big profits, but with all this big money floating around, remember the scale of risk involved.

Jonathon Hardcastle writes articles on many topics including Investing, Finance, and Business.

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By Bryan Benson

An over leverage home is one that you want to stay away from… meaning that the amount owed is more than what the house is worth, even more than the AVR. About the only thing you can do with these homes is list them.

An exception might be if there is significant damage to the home, for example if there is fire damage. Under these circumstances, selling the home by traditional means may not be an option. The average buyer does not want to buy a house that needs repairs, they want a house that is ready to go… ready to move into and start making it a home.

But people in this business are not the average buyer. In fact, homes in this condition are exactly what is sought after. Spending a couple thousand dollars in repairs is all that is needed, and then the house is back in shape to sell to that average buyer, which is what generates our profit.

Complications can creep in when it is a HUD home. They usually insist on listing the home, which only a realtor can do. But again, we’re dealing with a home with excessive damage which can’t be listed the traditional way. So, do you just tell the mortgage company the place had a fire so there’s no point in listing it because no body’s going to buy it, or should you play the game for a while?

That’s really the question. Well, the answer is you’re going to need to play the game. HUD mortgage companies have a set of parameters that they have to push this thing through in order to get it to meet their criteria. Because even lost mediators are subject to internal audit and if a deal ever comes up down the road as having not been done by the book, their butts are on the line. One of the most common parts of a short sale is for the seller to have had the house listed at one time previous to your negotiation with the bank. The bank wants to know that all normal methods of selling this house for some value greater than what you would presumably offer have been exhausted.

You may also be wondering if you should let the bank know that the place is vacant until they’ve figured out for themselves via the VPO or something. It is preferred that the house be vacant and you having the control of it and being the VPO contact. So at that point you’re going to have to disclose the fact that it is vacant because they are going to need to get in it to do the VPO.

For additional information on real estate investing and the hot foreclosure market, I recommend joining Ron LeGrand’s href=”http://www.MillionaireMakerNewsletter.com” mce_href=”http://www.MillionaireMakerNewsletter.com”>Millionaire Maker Newsletter The newsletter itself is loaded with great tips and resources, and he’s usually giving away something free like a CD or something that generally has a lot of great information on it.

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By Chris Parks

A successful Real Estate Investor is someone who is continually profitable and does not deviate from sound mechanics. They use formulas and specific criterion. They often ignore the market trends and all the hype because successful Real Estate Investors make money no matter what the market is doing.

So, why does the news continue to portray Real Estate Investors who are in over their heads? The reality is that these reports are not really about true Real Estate Investors rather they are about Real Estate Speculators.

And the differences are major.

What the news really should be reporting on are of all of the people who bought brand new homes from builders knowing (speculating) that they would be able to sell or flip “it” (”it” meaning the contract) before settlement? Maybe you are you are one of them? Or know someone who is.

While some real estate speculators were able to make quick and easy money this way, many of them are now stuck with houses they never planned on owning in the first place.

Now some investors who put yet to be built homes under contract simply walked away from the contract even though that often meant forfeiting their sometimes hefty and almost always non-refundable deposits. This is why many home builders who have large inventories are being forced to offer purchase incentives in order to try and sell off some of it. On the other hand, many of the speculators who did go through with the purchase are now facing foreclosure on these now vacant and not ever lived in brand new homes.

The bottom line is that speculating is not investing. Speculating is gambling, at best, where the current market absolutely can and does make a huge difference.

Speculating investors who mistimed the market are finding that it is taking much longer than they planned to resell their property. Some who bought with the idea of renting for a few years to allow some natural appreciation are seeing their adjustable rate mortgages resetting to levels incompatible with the local rental market.

Many wanna be Real Estate Investors watched too many infomercials about getting rich in real estate overnight. They watched too many house flipping TV shows and went into the process of investing with insufficient knowledge and capital.

While true Real Estate Investors will ride out the current market conditions virtually unscathed, the Real Estate Speculators are struggling to get out with shirts still on their back.

About the Author:

Chris Parks is a member of a small group of Real Estate Investors and Entrepreneurs who created Real Estate Investing for Newbies http://www.REIforNewbies.com in order to teach and assist new Real Estate Investors in a step-by-step and easy-to-understand manner.

Visit http://www.REIforNewbies.com Today and Claim Your Free Report!

(c) Copyright - REIforNewbies.com. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

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By Peter K

One of the most difficult things for new real estate investor is finding real estate investing deals. In fact, there are some experienced investors that continue to have this problem, even after working at it for several years. Although it can be difficult to find real estate investing deals, it is not entirely impossible.

The first thing that investors must do to find deals is lose the mentality that a fairy will allow deals to fall in your lap. Did you notice any deals coming to you before you were an investor? Why should you attract more deals after you start real estate investing? The answer is that you won’t. To find real estate investing deals you have to look for them. Some of the more traditional ways are knocking on doors, which is very effective technique, but you have to either walk from one house to another or hire someone to do it for you. Either way, either you or someone else has to go through a tedious process.

One of the more recent, 21st century technique to find real estate investing deals is by using the power of the Internet. The Internet can and will allow you to have motivated seller contacting you instead of you chasing them. So how do you go about doing that? Well, there are several ways to approach this process.

One way is to set up an adwords campaign on Google. Adwords are those tiny ads you see at the top and right sides of your screen when doing searches on Google. People pay certain amount for each ad and Google posts them on each and every single page. There is a lot of different criteria that go into creating a successful adwords campaign that I just cannot get into it here. It would take me page and pages trying to explain it to you. I do have a valuable Internet resource on my website that is specifically optimized for real estate investors.

Try running real estate investing newspaper ads. Many investors don’t purchase ads because they are deemed as being expensive. Think about it like this: all it takes is one real estate investing deal for you to come up with the money to pay for an entire year of ads. Sound better? It should. The best place for your ad is in the “Money To Lend” section of the newspaper. When foreclosure is looming, many homeowners want to borrow the money to save their home. Once you receive a phone call from a potential distressed seller, you can begin working your real estate investing magic.

How would you like to find out about an alternate Internet resource that lets you post those same ads for free? Well there is such a resource and many people oversee the power it holds. it is one of the biggest and most popular sites on the Internet and is specifically targeted to your local market. it doesn’t get any easier to find real estate investing deals than this. This free resource
is called craigslist. Just type that into Google and it will be there, trust me. The you just go to your local market and post your ads.

Don’t think that because it’s not raining real estate investing deals that there are none out there. There are plenty of deals all around you, you just have to look for them. Until you establish your reputation, you have to do the work it takes to find deals in real estate investing deals. People won’t just bring them to you right off. Do the work that other investors aren’t willing to do. Soon enough you’ll find yourself with more deals than you can handle.

Peter K is the founder and creator of the latest real estate investing resource, “Real Estate Black Book.” Real Estate Black Book is the Ultimate, All-In-One real estate investing Internet Resource. This 56 page ebook contains every Internet resource you need to help you succeed in real estate investing while helping you dominate your local real estate market. Craigslist is just one free resource that I have listed here. there are several other popular websites that let you post your ads.

For a limited time, you can get your very own Real Estate Black Book for FREE. Just go to http://realestateblackbook.com to find out how to get it for free.

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