Archive for December, 2015

The Profit December 2015 Edition

Posted on December 11, 2015 by
The Profit Newsletter for Tampa REIA December 2015
Download the December 2015 Edition of The Profit Newsletter Now!

The Profit - December 2015 - High Quality PDFThe December 2015 edition of The Profit Newsletter is now available for download as a High Quality PDF (print quality) or Low Res PDF for mobile devices. The Profit Newsletter is the official newsletter of the Tampa Real Estate Investors Alliance and is a digital, interactive newsletter for serious real estate investors delivered as an Adobe PDF file to read on your computer, tablet, or smart phone with a PDF reader. Many of the articles and ads in The Profit contain hyperlinks you can click to get more information online. The high res version of The Profit is “print ready”while the low res version may load faster on your mobile device. Also, be sure to Subscribe to The Profit so you don’t miss a single monthly issue.

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You Must Get Your Personal Debt Under Control If You Want to Quickly Achieve Financial Freedom. This Can Be Done Much Faster Once You Eliminate All of Your Highest Interest Rate Consumer Debts First.

This month I want to start with examples of how you can eliminate your personal debts much, much faster without sacrifice or having to bring in one more penny every month. I am going to explain to you how to pay off your consumer debts much faster which will save you thousands of dollars of interest you will never have to pay. Here is an example of what I am talking about.

Let’s say the payment of your highest interest rate debt is $212.83 minimum payment. If you will add the $93.00 (a good number for a family of four at a nice restaurant) you saved by not dining out each month with your family will total $305.83 ($212.83 + $93.00 = $305.83). If you pay that amount each month for this debt until it is paid in full, it will greatly shorten the payback time of that debt saving you hundreds or even thousands of dollars of interest. Read More→

I have spoken with many Realtors and Investors who informed me that they are not interested in listing or buying short sales because the Short Sale Lenders are always higher than the actual value of the property.

I have stressed over the years how important it is to meet the Realtor or Appraiser that was sent from the Short Sale Lender at the house with the Purchase Agreement, Hardship Letter, Comparables, Crime Report of the Area and Repair Estimate for the property in order for the Short Sale Lender to have the actual value of the property.

The BPO Agent/Appraiser does not provide to the Short Sale Lender the Crime Report or the Repair Estimate on the property. This information is provided by the Listing Agent or the Negotiator representing the Seller when you have to dispute the value. In fact, a BPO Agent may only have 3 little boxes to include the costs of the repairs so they can’t always include all the repair costs that the house really needs.

The BPO Agent/Appraiser has been informed from the Short Sale Lender that they do NOT consider cosmetic repairs. So what are cosmetic repairs? Paint, Carpet, Appliances and updates of kitchens, bathrooms, roof and air conditioning unit that are functional. Read More→

There Are No Tears in Real Estate

Posted on December 11, 2015 by

With less than a week left before completing a major rehab on our latest real estate investing deal, all Kim wanted to do was to drop to the floor and cry when she saw what had happened to every interior wall in the home.

The day before, the walls had been perfect. But on this day, the walls looked like something you’d see in one of those circus houses with funny mirrors that make your head look huge while making your body look the size of a walnut.

In this home, we’d replaced all the paneling with new paneling. Then came two days of constant rain. Because the HVAC system wasn’t yet working, there was a significant increase in the home’s humidity level. The new paneling quickly absorbed the excess humidity and became wavy.

A multitude of things made Kim want to cry. All the time and money spent demolishing the old walls and installing the new ones was for naught. The rehab was scheduled to be completed in five more days, but now would be extended by at least two weeks. The extra work would cause this rehab to go over budget. Read More→

LightArrow’s LifeTopix App Review

Posted on December 11, 2015 by

“A place for everything and everything in its place” ~ Benjamin Franklin

The developers at LightArrow must have had me in mind. Or at least, someone like me. I found myself constantly checking various apps, and across devices it is easy to lose track of messages, updates, and photos. I’ve been juggling things for a long time, but LightArrow has made an app that makes everything mesh together on one screen.

LifeTopix is almost like an operating system for all your apps. This single app makes one place where you can view your calendar, update travel plans, make a checklist, even order things on that list or make memos to yourself. I love the fact that you can install this on your phone or your tablet, and the interface is very clean with a white background. It even prompts you if you forgot something.

Doing what I do is my passion, but also overwhelming at times. I like the fact that this one app has consolidated my other apps, and really saves me time. Instead of bouncing around from one screen to another, everything that is important to me is on one screen. At a glance, I can see my tasks, reminders, and in this screen I can even shop. Read More→

Will You Sink or Swim?

Posted on December 11, 2015 by

This is your life. You have decided that real estate investing is something you want to do. But…

Are you sinking or swimming?

Right now, I am teaching a 58 year old friend to swim. I can see his fear. He is thinking, “What if I drown?” or “What if I can’t do this and I look silly?” We all have fears about uncertainties; fear is natural and good—it can keep us out of trouble! But, when fear controls you, when it stops and paralyzes you, when it keeps you from success, it is a problem.

Remember: There is no such thing as a dead end.

Your fears can be conquered easily through calculated action and baby steps.

How is your business like learning to swim? Like my friend, you probably have fear. Maybe you fear loss of financial security or not being able to know a bad deal from a great deal. Maybe you fear failure, or you fear what people will think if you make bad decisions. Maybe you even fear success. The problem is that fear will wear you out and kill your drive. Just like the swimmer, you need to know when to swim and when to float. You need to learn to trust the system and yourself. Read More→

Are You Working On the Wrong Things?

Posted on December 11, 2015 by

I recently conducted the first two days of one of my boot camps and shortly thereafter spent two hours on the phone doing one-on-one calls with students. There’s a common mistake I see students making over and over again, and it doesn’t seem to matter if they are new or been around awhile. That mistake is: doing everything they can to feel busy except the critical things required to stay in business.

It’s so easy to be busy. Anyone can do it, and most people would say they’re very busy almost all the time. I hear things like: “If only I had more time, the days just aren’t long enough, so much to do and so little time.” A rat in a circular cage is busy running in circles, but getting nowhere. Pretty soon he has a heart attack and dies. Being busy will not make you rich. In fact, it can have the opposite effect and prevent you from ever achieving wealth. Don’t get me wrong. Rich people are busy too. I’m very busy most of the time with something always chasing my attention. There’s always an endless supply of things to work on that suck up my time. The difference is I constantly and consciously work on…only those items I can’t delegate and are worthy of my attention.

Minutia is a deadly disease that steals away the most productive time of your life and robs you of the great things you could accomplish…if you only had time. Well, I suppose I don’t have to tell you that we all have the same amount of time in a day and no bonus hours will ever be added. Rich people and poor people alike are granted the same opportunity to turn that time into greatness or waste it the same way, day in and day out until they’re dead. Read More→

Leveraging the Right Way

Posted on December 11, 2015 by

Investing in real estate is one of the most advantageous and attractive avenues to use to build a business and ultimately wealth. I would say it has three times the potential of making money than most any other business. Using REIA comps to guide your investment choices protects against the turns made by market forces. I want to share with you some advantages that I believe will be most beneficial for you.

As a rule, there is more stability. Real estate investments are traditionally considered a stable and rich gainer, provided if one takes it seriously and becomes a student of the game. As a rule of thumb, if you have an area where there are plenty of resources available and low stable mortgage rates, you have good reason for investing in that real estate market. On the contrary, if you find a property in a place, which is under high inflation, it may not be a prime location.

With real estate, necessity is the mother of all inventions. Acquiring all the knowledge and skills through experience of selling and purchasing properties requires guidance and consistency. The support REIA comps provides gives you a leg up on property valuation and purchase. Take the time to gain education and hone your craft in order to have a formidable business. Doing market research, using or developing the right real estate strategies can make deals happen for you in the right manner. Read More→

What the heck is a Squeeze Page? And why should you care?

Ok, so there’s this whole “thing” called Internet Marketing. All the kids are doing it these days. The thing is… it works! And one of the neat things that work in Internet Marketing is Squeeze Pages, because they get you LEADS for your business…BIG Time!

I wrote this article because a lot of people have been asking me lately about what’s working in the world of internet marketing to help real estate investors get more leads from the internet. When I ask them if they have any Squeeze Pages up, they either give me a blank stare or silence. Or both.

So if that’s you, then this article is for you & people like you – people who have very little to no knowledge or experience in the powerful yet confusing world of internet marketing.  Trust me, it’s very, very easy to get lost down this rabbit hole. I’ll save my story for another day. Read More→

How secure is your retirement nest egg? If you own a Real Estate IRA, you might have an idea about what kinds of protections your retirement income has; but if you’ve never heard of the things, now’s as good a time as any to learn what your options are.

While many people associate an investment in real estate with speculation, the truth is that real estate can be a highly secure way to ensure that you have enough for retirement. Not only does real estate provide an opportunity for growth, but it’s capable of providing you with a stable income that you can use when you need it the most. And with the following three protections built right in to the Real Estate IRA structure itself, you’ll see that these investments can be much more secure than you originally thought. Read More→

You Don’t Need Money

Posted on December 11, 2015 by

You don’t always need money to buy real estate…if you know how to use creative financing. Creative financing is a broad term. There are many ways to complete a real estate transaction using creative financing, so many in fact that it would take me at least a full day to teach you all of the tricks of that trade. In this article I am going to cover the two most popular creative financing techniques that I have had the most success with. They are Master Lease Options (Lease Options) and Seller Financing. I created a 400 unit portfolio using creative financing without ever needing a traditional lender like a bank and you can too. It’s really not that hard.

Master lease options (MLO) or lease options are a great way to get started in the real estate business or to limit some of the risk of buying a distressed asset. We use the term master lease options when we are discussing a multifamily property as there is more than one unit involved, therefore the term “Master Lease”. If we are discussing a single family deal then it’s just a lease option. They are basically the same thing and will work the same way.

A master lease option is a set of two contracts. The first is the lease that allows us to “rent” the property with the right to sublet or re-rent the property to a tenant. This gives us control over the operations of the property and the CASH FLOW! With this document we now control the operations of the deal including management. This will allow you to manage it yourself or to hire a management company to do it for you. If there is work that needs to be done to the property you can now get it done under the lease option. If there is bad management you can now hire new management and lease up the place so it makes more cash flow (multifamily). The lease will set a “rent” payment to the seller and it will stay fixed for the life of the contract so you always know what the payment is. Ideally this rent payment will consist of the owners mortgage payment, taxes, and insurance. This will allow the seller to break even and will allow you to keep any positive cash flow! Read More→

Despite what you may be hearing in the news, foreclosures are increasing nationwide. Sure the media has been trying to paint a rosy picture by showing areas where foreclosures have been decreasing, but those are only specific areas. When looked at nationwide, things do not look so great. Foreclosures are bad enough, but the fact that the vast majority of these are sham foreclosures pushed through by pretender-lenders with no right to foreclose should be a source of national shame. Fortunately there have been two major court decisions that show the tide is continuing to turn against the banks and in favor of homeowners and real estate investors.

In US District Court for Oregon, a judge reaffirmed that the Supreme Court of the United States settled that a rescission is effective at the time that the notice is sent, whether or not it is sent within the three-year period set out by TILA. The bank in this case was arguing that the law was never intended to let borrowers cancel their loan transactions. The court specifically shot this notion down, saying that, while the banks and trustees have an interest in the finality of these transactions, consumers have a “countervailing interest in avoiding wrongful foreclosure.” This is a HUGE decision because it affirms that, no matter what the banks say or what lower courts try to argue, a rescission is effective as an operation of law the moment it is dropped in the mail. It does not matter if the rescission is done 15 years after the loan is consummated. If the bank fails to contest the rescission during the 20 day period established by TILA, the note and mortgage are gone. Their only option after that period is to go to a court that has the proper jurisdiction and prove that the rescission is wrongful and that they can prove standing without using the note or mortgage (now legally nonexistent) as evidence. Read More→

Co-Wholesaling: Legit or Problematic?

Posted on December 11, 2015 by

Lots of real estate courses out there talk about the subject of co-wholesaling or JV’ing. (Joint Venturing for short) It sounds simple enough. If you are new, work with someone experienced to do business together that seem trustworthy. If you are experienced, work with people you know and trust. You can market their deals for them and hopefully bring them a Buyer. It’s very simple so what could go wrong?

In a word: Everything

If there is one topic that I think is one of the most scathing I hear from Buyers, it’s co-wholesaling. It ranks right up there with off base renovation estimates.   How can something so simple be so problematic?

Let’s take a look at the issues so you can see how to avoid these pitfalls and have more success with this underutilized subject. This is a simple subject as long as you get it right. Read More→

Focused Investors

Posted on December 11, 2015 by

Entrepreneur’s minds go a hundred miles an hour in many directions. This can be great at times and at other times not so great. In the case of real estate investors, it tends to be the latter. Real estate investors have a habit of learning how to make money in one aspect of real estate investing and then another and then another etc.

Before the investor realizes it, he/she is just doing what comes easiest and not considering the most profitable exit strategy. Or worst, the investor has not fully learned one strategy and is not maximizing profit. How can you solve this issue? FOCUS!

Investors usually progress in the following order: bird dog, wholesaler, flipper, landlord, and lender. This is not mandatory but it tends to be a natural progression for many. At the beginning bird dog will usually only bird dog because it is all they know how to do. Naturally, by being in the real estate investing community, they begin to learn how to wholesale.

At this point, the wholesaler will still be pretty focused but then he/she begins to buy-fix-sell properties. This is where it gets tricky. Should the investor wholesale a property he/she finds or invest in the property himself/herself. This question comes up every time the investor puts a property under contract.

Then after a few homerun deals the investor decides it is time to begin keeping a few homes as rentals. A few months go by and now the question to wholesale, fix-sell, or fix-rent begins soon after placing a property under contract. Read More→

As you probably know if you have been reading my articles, I strongly advocate using direct mail to locate highly motivated sellers for your Real Estate Investing business no matter what market you live in and no matter what your real estate market is doing. With the market being in its current state of affairs, there are more motivated sellers than ever before if you know how to find them.

As a seasoned Real Estate Investor I fully understand that I need to be locating the most highly motivated sellers in order to construct the very best deals. Remember, the profit on a deal is made when you buy a property.

In addition, while many investors enjoy working with pre-foreclosures, short sales, REO properties and buying houses on the court house steps, these properties take time to close on and there is a lot of competition for them.

In the meantime you need to be able to continue to fill your funnel with cash producing deals in order to keep your business moving forward. Working with motivated sellers that your competition knows nothing about is definitely the way to accomplish this goal and direct mail is the best technique to draw in these very motivated sellers. Read More→

Thurs, December 10th at 6PM @ Doubletree Suites Tampa Bay
Tampa REIA – December 10th
at the Doubletree Suites Tampa Bay
Creative Deal Structuring is Not Only Important, But Essential to Your Real Estate Business
with Special Guest, Larry Harbolt

Tampa REIA Members Can Attend for FREE.
Guests Can RSVP Online Now for $15 or Pay $20 at the Door.

RSVP Now!

Tampa REIA Members Please RSVP on Meetup.com
Tampa REIA Members Please RSVP on Meetup.com

Larry HarboltTampa REIA is excited to announce that Larry Harbolt, local real estate investing expert, will be the special guest speaker at our Main Monthly Meeting on Thursday, December 10th at 6PM. The meeting will take place at the Doubletree Suites Tampa Bay located at 3050 North Rocky Point Dr West in Tampa, FL. Larry will be sharing his wealth of knowledge with us about structuring deals in ways that avoid using banks for financing at all costs.

Due to the much stricter qualifications banks are requiring their borrowers to adhere to today, it has become nearly impossible for many investors to get any type of institutional financing, especially those who have less than stellar credit and small cash reserves. This problem has, and will continue to eliminate a lot of investors from the business, especially those in the early years of their investing career.

How would you like to learn how to structure deals so that you will never need to beg for a loan from any lender ever again? Larry is going to share with you multiple ways to structure and finance the deals you do regardless of your financial situation. You can them use these strategies every day for the rest of your life, no matter how your personal situation may or may not change. By using these techniques, you can quickly become financially free by buying houses and doing deals over and over without ever having to take any money out of your own pocket or getting any type of a loan.

“I believe, as I have for many years, that the secret to every real estate investor’s success will be to use some sort of creative techniques and deal structures. Doing this is essential in today’s real estate market, even if you could qualify for an institutional loan. Why would you want to qualify for a loan when you don’t need to?” ~ Larry Harbolt

Once you learn how to buy houses without needing to get a loan at a bank you will always be able to do more deals and make more money in any real estate market! Once you know how to…

  • Buy real estate profitably in any market or economic cycle.
  • Understand how to buy real estate when you have No Money.
  • Buy real estate when you have not so good credit.
  • Create the terms that will make you cash today regardless of the current real estate environment.
  • Overcome seller objections like a pro-negotiator.
  • Ask the right questions that will create Golden Deals.
  • Create extra profit out of thin air on most of your deals.
  • Never have to beg for or apply for a loan again.
  • Know how to buy and sell all the property you want and never use a bank.
  • Structure offers with no payments or interest, and get the seller to gladly accept your offer. This alone will drive your cash flow through the roof.
  • Buy millions of dollars of real estate and never have one debt shown on your credit report or be personally liable for a penny owed.
  • Build multiple income streams, like the banks do, and acquire free assets without investing a dime out of your pocket.
  • Learn how to change the length of the loan months or years after the closing and make the seller ecstatic to do so, you both win.
  • Build an empire of monthly cash flow and cure negative cash flow; these are the secrets only a handful of people know about.
  • Generate big profits from the “deal after the deal”. All seller-financed deals have back end profit centers if structured properly, and Larry will show you how it will cost you a fortune if you don’t know these investor secrets.
  • Carefully chose your words that have the potential to earn you big paydays when you’re ready to cash out your seller.
  • Create huge discounts on your seller carry back financing with no negotiating needed when you plan to pay the sellers off. If you know how to do this up front, you can avoid having to deal with a flaky seller later.
  • Buy and Sell a property for the same price and still make a profit.
  • Learn to negotiate deals without ever talking to the sellers.
  • How to make thousands up front buying houses “subject to”, sell them with owner financing fast, and earn monthly cash flow with little to no maintenance on your part, few tenant issues and fewer costly entanglements. If you want to increase your monthly cash flow, this could be an entire business platform worth your focus, and Larry will give you a plan to do it!

Larry will also show you how to structure deals with zero interest, no payments, and even how to do deals if you are in bankruptcy. Larry has students who have bought over 20 seller financing deals in 2015 using his techniques and strategies. You aren’t going to want to miss hearing what several of his students are currently doing to make extra profit on 5 to 15 extra deals each year making $3,000 to over $30,000 on each of those deals!

And then, if all of that wasn’t enough, Larry is also going to teach you about:

  • The 7 Deadly Mistakes All Investors Make.
  • Think about your goals before making your offer.
  • Understand why any property is a good deal worth pursuing?
  • Think through the deal so you know you will make a sufficient profit before you do the deal!
  • Understand what the highest and best property use is that will maximize your profit.
  • Know how to quickly pre-screen which properties are the best candidates.
  • How to avoid violating the Dodd-Frank Act legally, morally and ethically.
  • Determine what the best buying strategy should be for every deal.
  • How to get into the mind of the seller — what do they want? Why do they want it, and the best way to give them what they want!
  • How to build instant rapport and be the savior to today’s distressed sellers.

Come out and see how easy it can be to get started doubling or tripling your current income and buy more houses using little to none of your own money. All this is happening at the Tampa REIA Main Meeting on Thursday, December 10th at 6PM at the Doubletree Suites Tampa Bay located at 3050 North Rocky Point Dr West in Tampa, FL.

As always, Tampa REIA Members can attend the event at no charge and Non-Members can Register Online for $15 or pay $20 at the door. Be sure to bring your business cards and flyers and join us for an evening of real estate deals, vendors, networking, education and fun! See you there!

RSVP Now!

Tampa REIA Members Please RSVP on Meetup.com
Tampa REIA Members Please RSVP on Meetup.com

*Meeting Agenda
6:00 PM: Tampa REIA Meeting in Tampa
6:15 PM: Announcements, Introductions, Haves & Wants
7:30 PM: Main Presentation with Larry Harbolt
9:30 PM: Late Night Networking at Whiskey Joe’s Bar & Grill

*Please Note: Meeting agenda is subject to change.

Late Night Networking at Whiskey Joe’s Bar & Grill

Whiskey Joe's Bar & Grill Tampa FloridaAfter the conclusion of the Tampa REIA Main Meeting (around 9:30PM), we will be reconvening at Whiskey Joe’s Bar & Grill located at 7720 West Courtney Campbell Causeway in Tampa for the “Meeting after the Meeting”. Come eat, drink, network and have fun with us as hang out late into the night on Tampa Bay!

See Tampa REIA Events Calendar for More Events!
Sat, December 12th at 9AM – Tampa, FL
Tampa REIA Presents:
Creative Deal Structuring:
What to Say, How to Avoid Banks and Still Get PAID!!
A Full Day Workshop with Larry Harbolt
Saturday, December 12th from 9AM – 5PM
At the Doubletree Suites Tampa Bay
3050 N Rocky Point Dr W, Tampa, FL

Larry HarboltAs the real estate market is starting to change for the better, qualifying for institutional loans are still very difficult for many real estate investors. Hard money loans are too expensive and should only be used for short term deals anyway. For those exact reasons, it is essential for real estate investors to learn how to keep their businesses thriving without having to rely on banks or other institutional lenders. On Saturday, December 12th, Larry Harbolt will be teaching a full day workshop that will equip you with the knowledge and tools to be able to do just that. The workshop will begin at 9AM located at the Doubletree Suites Tampa Bay, 3050 N Rocky Point Dr W, Tampa, FL

During this workshop, Larry will teach you magic words that create huge fortunes and how to use multiple strategies to catapult your real estate business to the next level in the shortest possible period of time. He will also be exposing new and different strategies that he rarely shares in detail which will immediately allow you to structure more and higher profit deals so you can make far more money than you are currently making. Come hear what Larry has to say and learn how to continuously do deals regardless or whether money is hard to get or not!

Saturday, December 12th will be your ticket to creating multiple profit checks regardless of your financial situation. After this workshop, you will know how to immediately structure deals that you never thought possible. Don’t miss this great opportunity to hear from a local real estate expert who knows our market and is currently doing deals right here in the Tampa Bay area. Register now!

Register Now!
See Tampa REIA Events Calendar for More Events!