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The Profit Newsletter for January 2014

Constructing Offers
By Ron LeGrand
Once the seller is called by either you or your virtual assistant using our property information sheet, the prospects will come at you in one of four categories: 1) they’ll be free and clear, 2) there’ll be a mortgage with lots of equity, 3) there’ll be a mortgage with a small amount of equity, or 4) they’ll be over-leveraged. All prospects will fall into one of these categories. So, now our job is to look at the property information sheet and figure out what to do next…. Read More>>

Where is Your Market Place?
By Dustin Griffin
In last month’s article we discussed Step #2 of “Determining Your Marketing Plan in 7 Easy Steps” which was to “Determine Your Market”. In Step 2 we covered “Who and What is Your Market”. Using Wholesaling as our investment strategy, we determined that our ideal property prospect was a distressed, vacant, ugly house with no mortgage or a low loan balance. Our ideal seller was a motivated seller who needs to sell and often needs to sell quickly… Read More>>

Buying a Business With Your Self-Directed IRA
By Jim Hitt
Stocks, bonds and mutual funds are all well and good – for those seeking ordinary returns. But if you have a particular expertise, or access to a lucrative market for just about any good or service, you have the potential to earn much more by going into business for yourself than you stand to gain by investing in the broad market. Fortunately, your Self-Directed IRA doesn’t limit you to the mundane investments you read about in the papers all the time. Read More>>

Wait – My Phone Will Do What???
By Don DeRosa
So, here it is: January. You’ve gotten most of the pine needles and tinsel out of the carpet so the dog won’t eat it. Aunt Flora and Uncle Ruben have gone back to Miami. Your kids are back in school. And you? You’ve had a minute or two to breathe and enjoy the satisfaction of a holiday season well spent. Time is precious, isn’t it? But now, it’s time to get moving again. Read More>>

Why Do Courts Let Banks Steal Houses?
By Bob Massey
If the courts rule against the banks in the homeowners’ favor, but no news outlets report it, does it really happen? That’s the situation we’re in now. If you’ve been digging deep, you might have seen that the estimate of bank losses from mortgage related lawsuits has increased to $100 BILLION in future payouts. This number includes settlements and judgments as well as legal fees for defending all of the lawsuits. How many stories about this have you heard on the major news outlets? Read More>>

Selling a Property: Identifying Comps in the Area
By Mark Jackson
Selling an investment property can be a very challenging process. One of the preliminary considerations in selling the property is what price you should ask. Evaluating the prices of comparable houses in the neighborhood may sometimes solve this problem. However, for those of you connected to REIAComps, the control and feeling of confidence you have over your deals is priceless. Read More>>

The 10 Deadly Mistakes That Will Kill Your Dream
By Kathy Kennebrook
I am frequently asked, “If you had it to do over again what would you do differently?” Well, I’d like to answer that question for you. There are several things you can do to help your business grow and several things you can do to kill the dream before it ever has a chance to become a reality. Let’s talk about the “ten deadly mistakes” that can kill your dream. Read More>>

The Objective is a Written Offer
By Bill Cook
A common mistake made by real estate investors is to forget why they knock on the seller’s door. By “forget,” I don’t mean the seller answers the door and the investor stands there with a stupid, lost look on his face. I mean the investor doesn’t understand the basic objective of why he’s there. Do you know the ultimate objective of meeting with sellers? I mean, why are you there? What’s the purpose? Is it to be given a tour of the seller’s house? Read More>>

Master Lease Options 101
By Bill Ham
Lease options have made a big comeback in today’s market. They are great ways to take control of real estate without using banks or lenders. They are also a great way to fix up a distressed asset that a bank won’t lend on. Once you have the property up and running, you can then sell for quick cash or refinance for a long term hold. A master lease option is a set of two contracts that give us the right to control the operations and the sale of a property. Read More>>

Whose Financials Do I Use For Divorced Couples On Short Sales?
By Kimberlee Frank
Many of my students repeatedly ask me, “Do I need both the Wife and the ex-Husband’s financial documents when negotiating a short sale?” I let them know that there are several variables that I need in order to give them an answer. In order to have a clear understanding of whose financials I need to collect, I need the following information: Property Appraiser sheet, a copy of the last recorded Deed, a copy of the Property Settlement and Judgment of Divorce. Read More>>

Turn Your TRASH Into CASH – How to Make More Money by Selling The Leads You Get… Even if You Don’t Buy The House! – Part 1
By Tony Pearl
Not too long ago, I wrote a sweet 3-part article on how to fill your pipeline full of leads & deals. I hope by now that you’re using that advice to get lots of leads coming in that you can work with. If not, then go back & read it again! And now that you (hopefully) have leads coming in, it’s time to introduce you to a new technique to make money. Read More>>

How Should I Title My Personal Residence?
By Dyches Boddiford
Often I have investors ask me what entity should hold their personal residences. Many want to use at least the land trust or Family Limited Partnership. But by using any of these, you could be losing tax and financial benefits. So, how do you protect it? Your personal residence is protected by being mortgaged 100%. Don’t worry, I am not suggesting that you have loans out totaling the full value of your residence, but have a home equity line up to 90-100% of the value. Read More>>

Hitting the Bulls Eye: Becoming a Hunter
By Russ Hiner
Owners of vacant houses can be hard to find, so I am about to give you some insider tips so you can hunt these elusive owners… Once upon a time, I found a boarded up house and wanted to find the owner. Given my experience, I knew that trying to find the owner through tax records might get me an address, but mailing anything to that address would be a waste of my hard earned 42 cents. I needed to find another way to hunt this owner. Read More>>

Pick An Area To Focus On And Focus On It!
By Matt Larsen
Happy New Year!! You may be reading this in early January even though I am writing this in December so I figured I’d throw that out. Hope you had a great Christmas season as well. It’s always my favorite time of the year. Our December one year ago I think was still our best month Wholesaling. We did 12 deals – which was insane. Don’t let up in the holiday season – it can be a good time to get deals. Read More>>

WARNING! Only Offering Sellers CASH for Their Property May Be Detrimental to Your Financial Future!
By Larry Harbolt
A few weeks ago I attended a weekend training put on by, who I believe is the most creative and knowledgeable real estate investor and teacher in this country. The training was put on by Peter Fortunato. Peter spent two days with his class explaining how dozens and dozens of deals he had helped structure without the need for institutional financing or credit. It truly amazed me how he never completed any of the deals he spoke about in the same way twice. Read More>>

The Profit Articles for January 2014 on TampaREIA.com

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How Many Units to Retirement?
By Bill Ham
Do you have a solid plan to have your real estate investing be your vehicle to retirement? Do you know how many units you need to own to quit that job? Not having a solid plan of action is one of the biggest mistakes I see new investors making. Most people know that they want to be full time investors and they want the passive income from real estate to replace their working income but they never really form a solid plan to get to that goal. Read More>>

Who and What is Your Market?
By Dustin Griffin
In last month’s article we discussed Step #1 of “Determining Your Marketing Plan in 7 Easy Steps” which was to “Determine How Many Leads You Need to Succeed”. This month we’re going to cover Step #2 which is to “Determine Your Market”. A Market (noun) is defined as “a place or area where products and services are bought and sold”. Your market consists of the area where you do business, the products and services you buy and sell as well as the buyers and sellers of your products and services. Read More>>

A Barrel Full of Fishhooks
By Bill Cook
Last Friday, I took Michele, a new real estate investor, out knocking on sellers’ doors. Hers was a very, very special case that touched my heart. Recently, Michele lost her husband. This caused her to fall into financially troubled times. In an attempt to dig out of the I-don’t-have-any-money pit, she attended one of those “free” real estate investing dog-and-pony shows that come to town regularly. Read More>>

Busy Season? Don’t Lose Your Mynd!
By Don DeRosa
I love the holidays! But they can be pretty tough to navigate, what with parties, church and synagogue events, school happenings, gift shopping, cooking, work, and everything else I’ve got to manage. Thank goodness for my iPad, because otherwise, I would forget about Grandpa Bill’s annual Christmas Luau. And that party is a hoot! Read More>>

The Most Cost Effective Way to Find Deals
By Matt Larsen
Alright – Winter Time! Time to hunker down and do some deals before Christmas. You want to give out good gifts this year right? Well get to it then! It’s cooler out so you will be less tempted by the beach and the pool and can focus on your marketing and getting the phone to ring. So as I am writing this article in early December, I’m thinking about the deals we did in October. Read More>>

Self-Directed IRAs: Investing in What You Don’t Know
By Jim Hitt
If you’ve been following our articles, then you know we have often talked about how self-directed IRAs give you the freedom to invest in what you know and understand with your retirement account. This is the first time that we will talk about investing in what you don’t know. Introducing Jenna, she is new to real estate investing and knows some very experienced real estate investors she can lean on for advice. Read More>>

Prescreening Prospects
By Ron LeGrand
In our last issue, I dealt with Locating Prospects by using a virtual assistant to call FSBO ads. I said that’s pretty much all we do here and can’t keep up with the leads they generate. This month we’ll discuss how to determine if it’s a suspect or a prospect and quickly determine which need to be called and which need to be trashed. It all begins with my Property Information Sheet… Read More>>

Marketing to Motivated Sellers in Rural Communities
By Kathy Kennebrook
Since I am the type of investor who purchases properties in multiple counties and in multiple states, I have had lots of experience buying homes and vacant land in rural communities. In fact this is a part of our business that we find to be very profitable for us. I will share with you that buying properties this way is a science in and of itself. Read More>>

You Can Rely on Assessed Value
By Mark Jackson
As a trainer of appraisers for nearly 15 years, to those who hold private and public roles, one thing is certain, local assessor offices around the country make relying on their values rough on investors. However, for those of you connected to REIAComps, the control and feeling of confidence you have over your deals is priceless. The stuff going on in places like Clark County, NV or even your own area won’t shake you. Read More>>

Why Are Banks Letting Criminals Steal Homes From Them?
By Bob Massey
The last several months have been extremely encouraging for real estate investors who are purchasing notes from banks! Every day more and more judgments in foreclosure cases are coming down in the homeowner’s favor as judges become aware of the depth of fraud the banks have committed. What we are seeing in the market is more judges making the right decisions, and the banks starting to run scared of this turning tide. Read More>>

It’s Time for a New Year and a New Plan!
By Larry Harbolt
Here it is almost the end of another year and it’s time to ask yourself again, was this a prosperous year for you or not? If you feel that you haven’t had as prosperous of a year as you might have wished for you may want to ask yourself what you could possibly do differently next year to achieve your financial goals. Read More>>

What Makes or Breaks a Short Sale?
By Kimberlee Frank
Many Realtors and Investors really don’t know the secrets to a successful short sale. They think just because they make an offer close to market value that their short sale should go thru! Obviously, that is not correct. The secret to a successful short sale consists of several things including 1) listing price and 2) broker price opinion/appraisal on the property. Read More>>

How to Make a Website For Fun or Profit – Part 3
By Tony Pearl
Hello – Nice To See You Again! Here’s what you’ve learned in the first 2 parts of this article: (1) How important it is to have a website, if you’re in business in the 21st Century. (2) There are so many things you can do with it, like get more business, educate your consumers, entertain an audience, inspire your community, link it to Facebook, etc… and that’s just scratching the surface… Read More>>

Case Study – Single Person Asset Protection
By Dyches Boddiford
Rick is a single person with no immediate family. After hearing a discussion I did on stacking Limited Liability Companies (LLCs), he wanted to know what he could do as a single person. At the time he owned seven properties. Three had almost no equity. One had over $60,000 equity and the other three varied from $25,000 to $30,000 in equity. Read More>>

The Profit Articles for December 2013 on TampaREIA.com

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Check Out These Great Authors & Articles In
The Profit Newsletter for November 2013

Abandoned Properties – One Of The Best Kept Money-Making Secrets
By Reggie Brooks
When I began my career as a real estate investor in 1985, I stumbled across a little known area of real estate that had the potential to make us a ton of money. This was an area of the market that went unnoticed by most people. This was the area of abandoned properties. Read More>>

How Many Leads Do You Need to Succeed?
By Dustin Griffin
Recently I wrote an article on “Determining Your Marketing Plan in 7 Easy Steps”. You can apply these 7 Steps to market your home buying and selling business or pretty much any other business, product or service you wish to promote. In this article, I want to expand on Step #1: Determine How Many Leads You Need to Succeed at Wholesaling. In order to determine how many leads you need to succeed at Wholesaling, you need to begin with the end in mind and ask yourself a few more questions… Read More>>

Building a Better Blog
By Don DeRosa
Last month, if you’ll remember, I talked about starting a blog. I began with a reality check, which I’ll repeat here: Blogging can be a great marketing tool, but it takes a lot of work to keep one up. And don’t expect riches! I gave you four other tips as well: make sure you have something to say, know your goals, identify your audience, and read other blogs. Those tips are just as important when you sit down to write individual posts, too. Read More>>

Negotiate Like A Pro
By Bill Ham
Have you ever made a great offer, had it accepted and then for some reason it just fell apart? This is an all too common occurrence in the real estate business. The most common reason for this is an improper negotiation prior to the acceptance of an agreement. If you view a real estate negotiation as “win/lose” situation, then you probably got the buyer or seller to agree to something that they really weren’t comfortable with. Read More>>

How Countrywide Created 3.5 Million Fraudulent Loans and What It Means to You
By Bob Massey
My last two articles focused on the great Securitization Swindle the banks have been perpetrating for over a decade. It was successful because the banks created such a tangled web that it was nearly impossible for everyday people, lawyers, and judges to understand what was happening. But what if they committed a comparatively straightforward fraud? Surely that would be caught and stopped, right? Read More>>

Making the Impossible Deals Possible
By Bill Cook
A realtor asked me to talk about a real-world example of a recent deal we did that demonstrates how we make impossible deals possible. No problem, but I ask one favor: As I describe the homeowner’s situation, BEFORE you read how we structured the deal, think about how YOU would have done it! Read More>>

Foreign Real Estate in Your Self-Directed IRA
By Jim Hitt
Many people are surprised to learn that not only can they take direct ownership of real estate within their IRA, but they aren’t even restricted to owning land within the United States. The IRS rules regarding what you may or may not invest IRA assets in are very liberal, and there is no IRS restriction whatsoever on ownership of foreign assets, including real estate. Read More>>

Case Study: Piercing the LLC Liability Shield
By Dyches Boddiford
Sally and Julie grew up together and have decided to invest in real estate. They both have regular jobs, but figure they can find a property, fix it up and rent it out in their spare time. They find a good property which takes most of their savings as a down payment. They figure that over the next few months, they can get the repairs done with money earned on their regular jobs. Read More>>

Nationstar and Auction.com Take Advantage of Short Sale Sellers!
By Kimberlee Frank
Recently we were working a short sale through Nationstar who requested that the Seller sign a document allowing Nationstar’s affiliate, Auction.com, to sell our short sale. Yes, you heard me correctly! We already had a buyer, submitted all the financials to Lender, and had the BPO (Broker Price Opinion). However, they hadn’t countered the buyer yet. The form that my agent and her Seller signed stated that Auction.com was allowed to hold an auction on the property and should my agent be a dual agent on both sides… Read More>>

How to Make a Website For Fun or Profit – Part 2
By Tony Pearl
Having a free website is great! This is particularly an attractive option IF you don’t run a “real” business, or if you’re only concerned with sharing your thoughts or ideas with the world. However, if you DO run a legitimate business, or if you’re interested in making money or being perceived as legitimate… or if you want to learn how a true website is made these days, then keep reading! Read More>>

Create Your Own Luck in Real Estate Investing
By Matt Larsen
Howdy! As I am writing this in early October, I’m celebrating my one year anniversary of quitting my job as well as our 50th deal, as we closed deals 48, 49, and 50 last week. We are also a couple of weeks away from our one year anniversary of our 1st deal back in late October 2012. So as I reflect back on these milestones and the last year, I wonder how to attribute our early success. Was it luck?Read More>>

Choosing the Road to Wealth
By Kathy Kennebrook
More people are becoming millionaires today than ever before in the real estate business. So what makes these wealthy entrepreneurs so different? They chose the road to wealth and real estate as the vehicle to get there. When choosing the road to wealth, there are some important distinctions that set the truly successful people apart from everyone else. Read More>>

Locating Prospects
By Ron LeGrand
Last month, I said we were going to spend the next few issues going through an ACTS or Sandwich Lease Option deal. The first step is locating prospects, and that’s what we’re going to cover here. Actually, this is one of the easiest steps in the multiple steps of getting through a deal and getting your first check. Today, my team does nothing but call FSBOs to get more leads than we can handle, and in fact… Read More>>

IMPORTANT: Private Money and Cash Flow
By Russ Hiner
One of the most important rules to remember is that…
Cash Flow Starts and Stops a Business. As my career has matured, I have realized that the best way for me to grow my business is by making others wealthy — making YOU wealthy. I want you to learn from my mistakes and enhance your life and your business. I know that you can do it with certain essentials in place. Read More>>

Local Market Actually Does Equal Location
By Mark Jackson
As a regular writer for the Atlanta REIA and Tampa REIA, I look forward to sharing with readers current, timely concepts and ideas regarding the valuation of real estate in many markets. Perhaps even better than sharing in these articles, is knowing REIAComps helps to quickly see how the location of your market impacts the profit of a deal year to year and in some cases, month to month. Read More>>

Do You Have a Burning Desire to Buy One Hundred Houses per Year? If You Do, Be Sure You Are Prepared!
By Larry Harbolt
Recently I was talking to several of my students who each said they wanted to buy 100 houses next year. These students had listened to one of the gurus who had bought and sold over one hundred houses in one year and is now teaching people how to duplicate what he had done. I listened closely to these bright eyed, inexperienced students tell me they wanted to do the same as the guru, which frightened me to death. Read More>>

The Profit Articles for November 2013 on TampaREIA.com

Download The Profit October 2013 Edition
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Check Out These Great Authors & Articles in
The Profit Newsletter for October 2013

Acquire a New Operating System for Your Real Estate – Trusts
By Jack Shea
We are talking about a more global approach to real estate investing using land trusts. Investors should be acquiring a new operating system for their real estate. Just as Windows Vista includes word processing, spreadsheet, e-mail, contact management, Photoshop, and more. Read More>>

Five Marketing Musts
By Dustin Griffin
When it comes to 800 Pound Guerilla Marketing, I have learned that the number of motivated buyer and seller leads I am able to generate only seem to be limited by the time, effort and creativity I put into the marketing process, rather than how much money I spend. Read More>>

What Is Securitization and Why Is It Fraudulent? Part 2
By Bob Massey
In last month’s issue, I began to explain exactly what securitization is and why it is fraudulent. For several years the mortgage banks in this country were flat-out making up transactions and trusts to cover for the fact that they were pocketing their investors’ money. But that wasn’t enough for them. They bundled up the loans, intentionally loaded them with toxic mortgages to increase their rate of return, and sold them to themselves for a “profit.” Read More>>

How to Get Your First Check, Step-by-Step
By Ron LeGrand
Several members have asked me to lay out the steps required to get your first check with a detailed description of each. That’s exactly what you’ll get, but it’ll take several editions to get it done. You may want to copy these lessons and build your own manual as we go. Read More>>

Working Smart: Making $5,000 From Selling Houses You Never See!
By Russ Hiner
Have you ever heard the saying, “Work smart, not hard”? It’s one of my personal favorites, and I’m here as a coach to show you how you can do it. I’m guessing that when you think about buying a property, you’re assuming a lot of leg work: traveling to the property, inspecting it, doing the due diligence, and checking your numbers. Read More>>

To Blog or Not to Blog?
By Don DeRosa
Do you have a blog? Have you ever thought about starting one? For a while there, you could be shunned if you didn’t have a blog. Every Tom, Dick, and Alice had a blog. Heck, even my second cousin Flora, the cat lady, had a blog. All God’s children had a blog! Thankfully, the hype has subsided. But the potential benefits of blogs – and pitfalls – are still there. Read More>>

5 Tips to Getting Your Next Deal Funded Creatively!
By Bill Ham
Funding in the real estate business can be one of the biggest barriers to entry and one of the biggest headaches! Here are some tips to help get your next deal funded. Remember that the only thing that sellers really care about is solving their problems. Make your offers a solution to their problems. Do your homework on the seller and the property. Find out why they are selling and if the property is distressed in any way. Make an offer that solves the seller’s problems. Read More>>

Getting Realtors to Work For You Bringing You Even More Sellers and Buyers For Your Real Estate Investing Business
By Kathy Kennebrook
Whether you are a serious investor or you’re just getting started in the real estate investing business, you need to have at least one Realtor on your “dream team”. There are many ways a Realtor can help you in your business, both on the buying and the selling side and they can play an integral role in building your business. Read More>>

Using Your Self-Directed IRA to Invest in Hard-Money Lending – Part 2
By Jim Hitt
Hard money lending can be a great place for self-directed IRA or other retirement assets. There are, however, a few things to be aware of before you commit: Hard money loans can be illiquid. If you are nearing or over age 70, pay attention to your required minimum distributions. You must make these RMDs, even if the borrower pays the loan late. You may want to earmark RMD money to come from another source besides the hard money lending part of your portfolio. Read More>>

How to Make a Website For Fun or Profit
By Tony Pearl
f you want to sell/educate/entertain/enlighten/etc. just about anything to anyone in the world these days, you can and should have a website. No matter what you do, you will be able to reach and communicate with anyone you desire with this incredible tool. But how do you make one? What do you put on it? What do you say? And how do you add those cool videos and funny pictures of cats on there that everyone loves? Yes, these are the questions I often hear people ask. And today, I’ll do my best to answer them for you! Read More>>

Closing Short Sales Back to Back While the Money Stacks!
By Kimberlee Frank
I was just up speaking for Atlanta REIA when a member asked me “isn’t closing short sales back to back illegal?” My answer was NO! He asked me, when did that change? It has never changed. He just didn’t ask the right questions to the right Attorney or Title Company. Closing a short sale back to back can only be done with full disclosure which I always do on my paperwork to the short sale lender and to the “C” Buyer. Read More>>

How to Talk to Sellers and Buyers If You’re Just Getting Started in Real Estate
By Matt Larsen
OK! So you have decided you want to get into real estate investing and you have gone to some real estate seminars and classes and read some books. Great! You have learned that the next step is to put out some marketing to get leads coming in, like people that want to sell their house, and hopefully at a discount. So you have started doing one or more of the following… Read More>>

Dinner With The Millionaire Next Door
By Bill Cook
Have you ever made a TOTAL fool of yourself – when you were least expecting to? Read on, and learn how I stepped square in the middle of it! Last night, one of my lifelong friends – Mary Ann Doering – invited Kim and me over to a small dinner party she was having for her neighbors. Mary Ann is a wordsmith and the woman who proofs my columns. Read More>>

From Top Secret Clearance to Minimum Wage at Krystal
By Dyches Boddiford
Major Zane Purdy’s life crumbled overnight… Maj. Zane Purdy was making over $100,000 a year employed by defense contracting company, General Dynamics, when his identity was stolen and sold to an identity theft and tax fraud ring. Now, Purdy makes $7.25 an hour at a Krystal to support his wife and two children. Read More>>

Make Sure Your Rental Property Always Has a Cash Flow Using the Correct Formula Before You Buy!
By Larry Harbolt
I spent the last weekend attending a training event put on by one of the premier real estate teachers in the country today. As I listened to her teach phenomenal content, I kept hearing her talk about the MAO formula to determine the most that anyone should pay for any property. The basic MAO formula is… “The After Repaired Value of the subject property X 70% less Repair Costs = the most you should pay for any property” when using institutional or private financing. Read More>>

What Do Underwater Mortgages Mean For You?
By Mark Jackson
Across the country there are cities which have high percentages of underwater houses. Cities like Tampa, FL have as much as 43 percent of area home mortgages seriously below its formerly established market value. Fortunately for investors there are numerous areas like Tampa which have a large volume of homes with a mortgage balance exceeding the home’s value by at least 25 percent. REIAComps helps to quickly see the number of foreclosure sales of these types of houses in your market month after month. Read More>>

The Profit Articles for October 2013 on TampaREIA.com

Download The Profit September 2013 Edition
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Check Out These Great Authors & Articles in This Month’s Profit Newsletter

What is Creative Deal Structuring and Financing?
By Bill Cook
I’ve written a weekly real estate investing newspaper column for more than ten years. During this time, we’ve looked at all kinds of creative deal structures and financing…but what exactly are these? The easiest way to tell you what creative deal structuring is, is to tell you what it’s NOT. It’s not finding a house to buy at fair market value and then going to an institutional lender to get a traditional mortgage. Read More>>

Marketing to Owners of Vacant Houses
By Dustin Griffin
Last month’s article was on “Driving for Dollars and Farming with Flyers”. As you are out driving neighborhoods in search of houses to buy, you will soon discover that there are many vacant houses out there. Some of these houses are obviously for sale or rent as indicated by a sign in the yard, but many are not so obvious. These houses are just sitting empty, often deteriorating, waiting for someone like you to come along and buy them. Many of these houses appear to have been abandoned and unkept. Read More>>

How to Get a FREE Phone Number to Use in Your Business – Part 2
By Tony Pearl
Here’s What We’re Going to Cover in THIS Article: A quick & easy shortcut to get to your GV options. This makes it really easy. A few secrets. You’ll need these. How to get SEVERAL Google Voice Numbers. Use ‘em for home or office! Some limitations (and how to overcome them). And finally… How to get a FREE home phone LINE (and number). Yes, it’s true! Read More>>

7 Deadly Mistakes You Can Avoid – Part 3
By Ron LeGrand
There’s an old saying that goes “Even a turtle won’t get anywhere until he sticks his neck out.” Another old saying (that I made up) is “You’re never going to get rich sitting on your behind and waiting for it to come to you.” You have to make it happen. You have to get things started. You have to put the wheels in motion. And if they get stopped, guess who has to get them started again. You guessed right. Read More>>

Using Your Self-Directed IRA to Invest in Hard-Money Lending – Part 1
By Jim Hitt
When a real estate developer runs into a snag, and needs additional money to complete a project, or he wants a shorter-term loan of, say, six months to six years, he frequently turns to the “hard-money” market. In a nutshell, these are lenders who are looking to get a decent return on their money, with a margin of safety. They usually do this by holding a lien on the property, or on another property the borrower owns, in a practice called “cross-collateralization.” Read More>>

Case Study: Owner Carryback Financing
By Dyches Boddiford
With the real estate markets slowing in many areas of the country, we are seeing a resurgence of owner carryback financing. Most of you are aware of the basics of such financing, but you may not have been exposed to some of the more creative approaches. Read More>>

Got Funding? Get Creative!
By Bill Ham
Funding can be one of the largest barriers to entry in the real estate business. I remember the very first time I walked into a lenders office and tried to discuss funding for my first apartment complex I wanted to buy. My experience (or lack of) was immediately brought to my attention not to mention my complete lack of liquid assets (NO CASH!) Read More>>

Always Do A Little Thinking Before Making Every Offer
By Larry Harbolt
If I could wave a magic wand and re-live my early real estate investing career from the beginning, I think I would first try to learn more about what seller’s needs and thoughts are. I would also want to better understand the thoughts and logic that run through a seller’s mind when they are motivated and want to sell their house. Read More>>

Real Estate Investor Profits $68,000 Because of Her Mentor!
By Kimberlee Frank
Don’t Question Having a Mentor… JUST HAVE ONE! I remember when I decided to quit my job as a legal secretary and become a millionaire in real estate! I started with Carleton Sheets’ course. Once it arrived, I was to read it and take action. Yeah, right! I found that between my J.O.B. (Just Over Broke) and taking care of my children, I was busy and distracted, so the course sat on my shelf collecting dust. About 6 months later… Read More>>

Coach’s Response: What Are Your Four Answers?
By Russ Hiner
As the market improves, I have more and more people coming to me for coaching. I am excited about this because it means that you are taking responsibility for your success. You are reading my articles, and you are talking with me to achieve what you want in your life. Read More>>

Too-Cool Tools: Embracing Tomorrow
By Don DeRosa
Remember last month, when I talked about how amazing it is that one little smartphone or tablet can do so many useful things? Well, not everyone has much use for smartphones. Take my Uncle Milt: He’s convinced that true happiness lies in a phone that’s just a phone. And he’s pretty sure iPads are, well, evil. Every time I see him, he grumbles about the latest new-fangled technology. Bad enough they invented the fax machine, he says… Read More>>

What Is Securitization and Why Is It Fraudulent? Part 1
By Bob Massey
By now you have heard in the news about robo-signing, MERS, etc. and how the economy was brought down by Mortgage Backed Securities. But what, specifically, does that mean and how does it affect us as homeowners and real estate investors? As can be expected, the greatest financial fraud every pulled over in the history of the world began with taking away responsibility from banks and brokers… Read More>>

Taking the Plunge to Go Full Time
By Courtney Larsen
If someone would have told me one year ago that I would be a full time real estate investor together with my husband and flipping houses for a living, I would have laughed at them! To be totally honest, real estate was never a passion of mine and I hadn’t given it much thought until I read “Rich Dad Poor Dad.” That got the wheels turning and when Matt (the hubby) discovered the niche of real estate we now love best… Wholesaling… Read More>>

How to Find Motivated Sellers with Almost No Money
By Kathy Kennebrook
You can locate motivated sellers even if you have little or no money to work with. Way back in the early days of my business I used some very inexpensive techniques to locate very motivated sellers, since we only had a limited budget to work with like many people who are just starting out in the real estate business. Read More>>

The Profit Articles for September 2013 on TampaREIA.com