Real Estate Genius Investment Software Blog

By Virginia Wherland

Investing in real estate can be one of the most profitable investments around. Whether the investment makes you money through resale or through rental, it can be very lucrative. But it isn’t without its challenges, and a big investment can also mean a big loss. However there are a few simple ways to play it smart.

Investing in real estate for re-sale is similar to how people buy stocks and bonds. There is a risk involved. This type of investment requires a good sense of timing, and also a keen eye for trends and good bargains. The goal is to buy low and sell high. Investing for resale can mean buying foreclosed properties at a discounted rate, then fixing them up or just waiting until the market is a little better, and then selling them for far more money. Oftentimes, the money earned from one sale is used to buy another property. Having fluid assets allows one to buy a deal whenever it comes up. The key to success with this investing is truly timing. As a general rule, the longer you can afford to hang on to a property, the more money you can earn when you sell it. For while the market has constant ups and downs, these are all, baring any major disasters, set within a generally constant movement upwards. So keeping your investment property for at least ten years is a good rule of thumb for earning a nice profit. That doesn’t mean it can hurt you if you find yourself the owner of a super hot piece of real estate in a total sellers market. If you can make a good profit sooner, do it, but for most investments, the longer you sit, the more you’ll earn.

This brings us to the next way of investing, the way that makes a real estate investment at least pay for itself, and that is renting your property. Ideally, this can earn you a good income while you wait to sell for a profit, so it can really be a win/win situation. But managing a rental isn’t easy. Tenants can be a pain, and can cause your property damage. On the other hand, stable tenants will provide you with a steady income, and can even gradually improve your investment.

If you think you’d have trouble being a landlord, it is possible to hire a property manager, but this is an added expense. If you are planning to purchase a property to rent out, do your research. You need to be fully informed about your legal responsibilities. Finally, be sure to screen your tenants. While you never know a person’s tendencies from one short meeting, you will be able to weed out some of the problem-types from the start. Managing a rental property isn’t hard to do, it just takes keen judgment.

By researching all of your obligations carefully, and paying careful attention to the market, property investment can be an exciting and profitable venture. Finding an experienced real estate agent you can work with helps make it more reliable.

Virginia Wherland, experienced Minneapolis real estate agent. Visit her web site for help finding Bloomington MN homes for sale.

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Check out the free 2008 Internet Real Estate Yellow Pages (pdf). It contains all the names and contact info for all the players you need to know about if you want to make money in real estate. This is published by MagicBullets.com.

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 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 Steven Gillman

The following collection of real estate investing tips will probably have a few things that you already know. That’s okay. There will be a few you haven’t heard before as well, and in any case, we sometimes need to be reminded of what we know.

1. Find an agent with the right experience. When selling real estate, drive around and see what else is for sale in the same area. Look particularly at the name of the agents on the signs. The agent whose name shows up the most in your neighborhood will likely know best how to price and market your property. You can also do this by looking through real estate guides to find those agents who are either active in your area, or with your type of property.

2. Make low offers correctly. When making a low offer that may offend a seller, let him know that it isn’t personal, that this is just what you need to make the deal work for you. You can include a list of concerns or of things that you will have to repair, to justify the lower price. If you have a choice in a situation like this, it may be better to let the agent present the offer without you. It can be tough for a seller to hear you say anything bad about his property in person. A list of concerns is less personal, and less likely to offend him - which makes it more likely that he’ll seriously consider your offer.

3. Look for “extra” opportunities. When flipping a house, you might normally look for fixer uppers that can simply be “put into good shape” and sold for a decent profit. But if there are “extra” opportunities that other investors aren’t seeing, you can make even more. These are things like a full basement that can be converted into living space, or attic space that can be made into a bedroom or office, or an extra lot that can be split off and sold without reducing the value of the home much.

4. What to do when rentals won’t produce cash flow. People often buy rental houses, duplexes, and even four-plexes for homes, thinking they are “investing” as well. They pay according to personal values, so these properties can be priced well beyond where they would produce cash flow. Apartment buildings, on the other hand, are priced according to one thing more than anything else: net income. The lesson? When you can’t make cash flow with small rental properties, think bigger.

5. How to find motivated sellers. Real estate investors will often talk about the importance of “motivated sellers,” but how do you find them? When searching newspaper classified advertising, pay attention to the wording. “Need to sell,” “Must sell,” and “Will look at all offers,” are the usual indicators, but you can look at the rental ads too. “Must have a good job,” may indicate a landlord who is tired of tenants and ready to sell. Searching county records for out-of-state owners is another way.

6. Don’t rely on appreciation. If you are planning on rising real estate values as your primary way to profit, you’re speculating, not investing. Recent drops in values in many areas show the flaw in this strategy, but also keep in mind that transaction costs can be up to 10% of the sales price, so you have to have a big increase in value just to break even. Enjoy any appreciation as a bonus, but buy based on the cash flow, a plan to increase the value (fix and flip), or some other well-thought-out plan for profit. This may be the most important of these real estate investing tips.

Copyright Steve Gillman. To see a photo of the house we bought for $17,500, get a free ebook on how to buy Cheap Homes, and a free real estate investing course, visit: http://www.HousesUnderFiftyThousand.com

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There are a lot of catalogues of free insurance quotes, available on the web directories for the clients. The bank loan is offered for the customers by going through all process of loan. The banks are liable of repossessing the real property of the debtors if the debtor is unable to pay all loan charges, this process is known as foreclosure. The payday loans are provided for the customers for the short terms when they are in need of money urgently. The mortgage broker leads are offered for the customers who want to take loan on the basis of real property. The life insurance provides monetary security for the insurers in the case of any injurious or death case. The dental insurance provides the financial help to the customers who want to get services of dentist for teeth treatment.

By Mark G Chambers

Even Donald Trump says that now is the best time to buy Real Estate. The record high number of foreclosures are showing a multitude of amazing deals for the eager investor. Many experts are also predicting that housing prices are still going to drop as much as 50%. With all of this contradictory information, what should the small time average real estate investor do?

Housing prices have done a dramatic retracement recently. There are plenty of bargains out there for considering. Even if the prices drop significantly, the potential investor needs to look for ways to minimize their risk. This can only be done by understanding the current real estate market and by knowing which strategies work best in the current market.

Understanding the current market is not easy unless you’re a seasoned professional real estate investor. An in depth market analysis is necessary to understand all of the variables that can affect your future investment.

This market analysis can be performed by the investor themselves, or by a real estate expert. The benefit of having a pre-prepared market analysis is that all of the guesswork is removed. You will simply read the information and then be able to make an informed decision. It can be confusing to do your own analysis of the real estate market unless you have a lot of personal experience.

My recommendation is to seek out both the advice from experts, and to do your own research. By reading books and taking courses, you will learn more about performing your own research over time.

The second step is to understand which real estate investing investing strategies work best in today’s tough market. This can be done after you determine what the current market looks like.

An interesting strategy that works in all markets, and works especially well going into 2008 is by using the “Lease Purchase Agreement.” This strategy is also known as rent-to-own, lease purchase, lease option, lease option to purchase, lease purchase contract and lease option to buy. All of these names refer to the same strategy.

The magic of this strategy is that it helps you make more money monthly than a traditional landlord collecting traditional rent. This strategy also helps you to collect a higher purchase price than current market prices. It’s possible to sell a home on a rent-to-own basis for as much as 10% to 30% higher than the current appraised value of the property.

The Lease Purchase Agreement also allows you to collect more money up front than if you were to rent the property as a landlord typically does. The beauty of this is that if the tenant-buyer ends up not purchasing the home, the real estate investor get’s to keep the entire up front down payment money if the Lease Purchase Agreement is not activated.

The buyer also benefits from using a Lease Purchase Agreement because it allows them to have an ownership interest in the property. They will often agree to handle all maintenance of the property under the agreement because they are intending to lease purchase the property. Of course the LPA gives them the option to purchase the property, they do not have to. If they do not purchase the property under the contract, then the investor can sell the property to someone else at a later date for a higher price (possibly using another rent to own agreement).

The savvy real estate investor protects themselves from risk, and is setup nicely to earn extra profit under the lease purchase option agreement. It does not matter whether the tenant-buyer ends up purchasing the home under the lease option or not, the investor is protected either way under the rent-to-own system.

Mark Chambers is a Real Estate Investing expert. Mark teaches people how to purchase Real Estate creatively to build wealth quickly. For an in depth analysis of the current Real Estate market, including which strategies work best in today’s volatile market, please visit Mark’s website at http://www.LeaseOptionFortune.com.

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It’s a thoughtful and practical gift, which must might get someone you know started on a profitable investing career in real estate. That makes it the gift they’ll never forget!

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By Chris Parks

What is one of the best ways to approach taking control of your life? Many feel it is having your own business. To be clear, I am not advocating quitting your job tomorrow to start a new business as this would not be wise. You most likely would not be able to replace your current income right away. What I am suggesting however is “building” a Real Estate Investing business in your spare time, which is different than “starting” a business.

You see, starting a Real Estate Investing business implies that you will finish it or simply give up. When you build a Real Estate Investing business you are doing it the right way, at a pace you are comfortable with. Building conjures images of growth, and that is what you want. Right? So how do you build a Real Estate Investing business?

First you need to choose a Real Estate Investing vehicle or strategy that you can work in your spare time, without jeopardizing your current job. Ideally you would be able to begin building your Real Estate Investing business with very little money. You would not cause financial hardship to your family.

You would be able to use resources that you already have. You must have a product that is desirable and that you can build upon. The Real Estate Investing business has to have the ability to begin earning money quickly. There must be enough growth potential to eventually allow you to quit your job and regain control of your life.

I know this may sound like a pretty tall order, but remember we are talking about your financial future. Would you want anything less? You will have to steadily work towards your goals (you must set goals), and it requires a different way of thinking.

Change is not easy, but it is necessary. Are you currently living the life you have always dreamed of? If not, you need to change something. Remember, regardless of the economy, a Real Estate Investing Business is a perfect product people simply because people will always need a place to live.

About the Author:

Chris Parks is a Real Estate Investor who has been involved in Real Estate in one capacity or another since the mid 1980s. As a member of a small group of Real Estate Investors and Entrepreneurs, and always having the knack for explaining Real Estate Basics in an easy to understand manner, Chris 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, easy-to-understand manner.

(c) Copyright - http://www.REIforNewbies.com All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

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By Chad Wiley

1. Money is made at the buy, not the sell of your flip. When flipping a house your money is made at the purchase not at the sell of the house. So, many times people buy a house with the intensions of making a huge profit only to find out that they could not make any money after all the renovations because the purchased price of the house was to high. When you purchase your property you need to be sure that you buy the house with enough money to make renovations, have carrying cost, and add about 5% for extra expenses, and see what type of profit margin you will be left with.

Example: If you buy a house for $120,000 and the houses in the area sell for $155,000, and the house needs $15,000 to fix it up. You are now at $135,000. Carrying cost for six months on the home is $6,000. Now, at $141,000, and the fees and closing cost my extra 5% $6,000. Now, cost is at $147,000, and that is if everything goes as planned. Profit is under 10,000 dollars. The mistake was made at the purchase at the home, not the sell.

2. Get an inspection on the home - Get a complete inspection done on your property. By, spending a few hundred dollars on this expense you can save thousands in problems that you cannot see. Foundation, Pest, Wood Rot, Etc… By, getting a full inspection you can rest assured that you know every thing that is wrong with the property before its to late. In the contact for the house you need to make sure that you have 7 days to have a inspection preformed, and if the inspection finds problems that are going to cost more money that you are willing to spend you can get out of the contract with no penalties.

3. Don’t do the work yourself: - Get a contractor or several sub-contractors and have the work done quickly. You need to have you house flipped ASAP, so that you can get it on the market and get it sold. When I started flipping my brother and me did a house together, and we did all the construction. I had a construction background and figured it would save thousands, but it took us over 4 months to get the work done that a contractor could have had the work done in a month. But, we trying to save money on our flip did all the work on our time off and after work, and it just took to long. On our 2′nd flip we used contractors for almost everything and had the house completely flipped with a new roof, new air conditioning, new hardwood, and much more in only 3 weeks. We did not have to spend all our time working on the property and were able to spend that time looking for the next deal. This is how you get rich in real estate.

4. Place the property 1 to 2 percent below market value: If you are wanting to flip real estate and make money the object is to buy and sell the property as quickly as possible, so that you can move on to the next house. If you purchase a house and try to sell it at top dollar to make and extra couple of thousand dollars on your flip, and end up holding it for 6 months you are loosing money. Get the house on the market at a price that is going to blow the competition away, and you will sell it no matter what the market conditions. On our second house the market for selling house went down do to the housing market as a whole, and the tightening of the loans across America. We were told that you could not sell a property in this market, but we went ahead anyway and flipped our house. After 3 weeks on the market we had 3 people wanting to buy the house. Why, because we offered it at such a great deal that people wanted to jump on it. That is what you have to do especially if the market is slow.

5. Use a real estate agent - Do not try to sell you house on your own. Harness the power of a real estate agent and the power of the MLS system. When you do a FSBO you are depending on people driving by your house and seeing you sign, with a real estate agent you have some one actively marketing you house to get it sold. Once again this will free up more time for you to look for more great deals. If you want to help the process I have found that craigslist and listing you house in google adwords help to, but I use these tools with the help of a agent to make sure I have all my bases covered.

I hope this article has been helpful with the basics needs of flipping a house. If you will study and learn you will make money. But, do your homework before you purchase a house, and make sure that you can pull a profit on your deal. Then, make it happen!

By: Chad Wiley

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Our website allows you to list your home for free, and is a great resource for real estate information.

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