Tampa Real Estate Investors Alliance Blog

The September 2017 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 will 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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 “The more I examine the issue of clutter, the more effort I put into combating it, because it really does act as a weight.” ~ Gretchen Rubin

The Key Ring app is a mobile wallet that can consolidate all your store loyalty reward cards. This is a great way to keep all your cards in one place and stay organized with lists and coupons right in the app. Instead of cluttering up your physical key chain, the app allows the user to hold all the store membership cards. So, you’re never without them! It also holds gift card information, which is great! Never lose track of a gift card again. This app has over 12 million downloads, making this one of the most practical and useful apps.

This digital wallet makes your rear facing camera a barcode scanner, just point and shoot your membership card. Just be sure to get a clear view of the barcode on the card. It will recognize all the data associated with that barcode and store it for you. To present the card in store just show your phone. The barcode for that store’s loyalty card will appear on screen that the clerk can scan at the register.  Read More→

I hate being an idiot, but when you screw up like I just did, it qualifies me to be the biggest nimrod in the land!

The most powerful document in real estate investing is the option agreement.  Sadly, the least used and most misunderstood document in real estate also happens to be the option agreement.  Why don’t more folks know how to effectively use options to control property?  Probably because there are so few investors who have experience using options. 

Most folks have heard of Lease Options, but what about Purchase Options, Performance Options and First Right of Refusal Options, to name but a few?  Read More→

Many students have asked me “Can you short sale a reverse mortgage?” and I had informed them that I have never done one before.  However, recently I have received two seller leads who have reverse mortgages that had asked for assistance in selling their homes.  A Reverse Mortgage is different from a regular mortgage that a homeowner would receive. 

A Reverse Mortgage is normally used by elderly individuals who owned their home free and clear that don’t want to have a monthly mortgage payment, want their equity out of the home and want to continue living in their home until their death.  Here is my understanding of a reverse mortgage.  Read More→

Real estate held within a real estate IRA is no different than real estate held elsewhere. Most of the same general principles that are applicable to any other real estate investment apply to real estate IRA properties, including contractor selection and hiring. This piece will deal primarily with the specific issues that apply to real estate IRAs (as well as real estate investments held within self-directed 401(k)s, SEPs, SIMPLE IRAs and other tax-advantaged accounts).

1. Observe prohibited transaction rules. When you own a real estate IRA, there are certain restrictions on whom you can bring on as a contractor to help fix, repair or renovate your real estate IRA properties. First of all, you cannot hire yourself. You cannot work for direct compensation or salary in any capacity in your real estate IRA. The IRS enforces very strict laws that prohibit you from using your real estate IRA to transact directly with yourself, your spouse, your children, grandchildren, parents or grandparents or those of your spouse, as well as any advisor who works with you on your real estate IRA in a fiduciary capacity. The same goes for any corporation or other business entity they control.  Read More→

I firmly believe that learning how to manage your rental properties as a Real Estate Investor is instrumental to the success and profitability of your income properties and your sanity, especially in today’s market where so many investors are buying and holding property.

As a Real Estate Investor, you don’t have to hire a property management company to manage your rentals unless you really want to. You can manage them yourself easily if you set down some specific rules for your tenants and your business. Once you reach a number of rentals where it becomes a lot more work than you want to deal with, then you may want to hire a property management service. But if you own fewer than 30 rental properties for example (I’m talking about single family homes or duplexes) you can definitely handle the management yourself by simply following a few rules.  Read More→

In this article, I will go over a life-threatening thinking disease most of us have (but are unaware), a way to cure that disease, and immediate actions you can take to cultivate happiness.

For the majority of my life I was plagued with a disease. This disease was the root of much pain and regret, along with endless rumination and misery.  I was pursuing a career as a musician and was fixated on the material wealth, vanity, and approval of others. Deep down inside I was truly empty.

I was never happy with any and all aspects of myself and my life, as a result of this self-hatred I criticized myself, family and friends, pushed everyone away, and sabotaged anything good in my life. What masked the underlying issues was a pattern of nit picking everything to avoid taking a good look at myself and the baggage I was holding onto. What troubled me most was that I had the most beautiful life and an abundance of happiness right in front of me, but I was plagued with NGE.  Read More→

Over the past few weeks I have had several conversations with investors who say they can never get any seller to give them seller financing terms. This just doesn’t make sense to me. I have in the past, and still do have success getting seller financing terms on many of the properties I buy. After having these conversations and several days to think about what the investors said to me and why they are having absolutely no success getting the sellers to give them any type of seller financing terms is why I decided to write this article.

One of the investors I talked with told me he is buying as many as 35 houses every month, paying cash for them.  This investor has already put together a group of private lenders who provides him with all of the money he needs to buy his properties. For him and all others who have private lenders providing them with the cash they need in my opinion have a wonderful thing going for them and I wish them much success. This article isn’t for those who already have all the money they need to do their deals. This article is for the majority of investors I meet who have little or no money or they don’t have private lenders who are willing to fund their deals.  Read More→

Tracking even the little expenses is important.

How does most of the money you owe individuals and companies get disbursed? Do you print checks, or write them by hand? Use credit cards? Pay online through your bank’s website?

Keeping track of your outgoing funds can be challenging, since there are so many ways to complete those transactions. But it’s important that all expenses are recorded correctly and consistently, to keep your company file accurate. In addition, so many of your expenses are tax- deductible. You don’t want to miss any of them.  Read More→

As most people know hurricane/ tropical storm Harvey has left a path of destruction in Texas and Louisiana. Now, only two weeks later, hurricane Irma is projected to hit Florida. These disasters do not come around as often as a foreclosure, fire, broken pipes, job loss, deaths or a number of other things but all these are life changing events in people’s lives. Keep this in mind when making an offer on their home.

The easiest way to make a profit in real estate, much like most things, is to buy low and sell high. If you are sourcing your own deals and speaking directly to these sellers you need to fully explain the reason behind your offer.  Read More→

In February 2017, I wrote about beginner’s rules and the first presentation a person could do when looking to raise capital.  I talked about the mistakes that I made early on. I just changed the names to protect the innocent, me.

I want you to think about being able to raise private money from local sources, business people, retirees, and people who have money sitting in banks or accounts that are barely earning them a .01% rate of return.  If you are one of those people then we need to talk.

So, picture yourself walking up to people and building a relationship. Is this scary? Is this awkward? Is this a cake walk?  Read More→

Many business owners try their hand at various business deals before stepping into their sweet spot.  Real estate investing is the avenue that many people have used to make their mark in the business world.  Ready to dive into the real estate market by investing in a rental property? The opportunities are ripe, but I certainly don’t want you to make any mistakes so follow these tips and you’ll be on your way to securing a successful deal.

First, the only numbers you should trust are yours.  Use REIAComps to do your due diligence which should involve determining the best purchase price and After Repair Value (ARV), along with potential expenses, maintenance fees, and any other costs associated with a given property. Double check any information provided by the broker or seller.  One of the easier avenues to check is REIAComps.  Confirm all of your numbers so you know exactly what kind of expenses to factor into the deal.  Read More→

In this article, we’re going to be discussing one of the essential skills you must possess if you’re going to be successful in this real estate (or any other) business.  When you master this skill, you’ll be MUCH more efficient with your time, reduce frustration & anxiety, and keep your self-respect and motivation.  Sound good?

Of Course, I’m Talking About How To Properly Pre-screen People.

We all know that the first thing we need in any business is LEADS – people who have raised their hands to signal that they’re interested in either our product or service…or are at least interested in getting more information about it. In real estate, this could simply be a list of people who either want to sell their house or buy a house.  Read More→