Tampa Real Estate Investors Alliance Blog

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.

Michele went to the seminar hoping to find an “easy” way to make “lots” of “quick” cash. Don’t you know – this is exactly what their course promised! Because Michele didn’t have the $20,000 cash needed to pay for the special “mentoring” package, she chose to raid her retirement account – the last money she had on earth – to buy the “guru’s” package. In other words, she willingly dove headfirst into a barrel of fishhooks!

Before you roll your eyes, know this: Over the years, I’ve met thousands of people who have made similar decisions! Why do you think those dog-and-pony shows continue to come to town?

Michele’s intentions were good – she was simply looking for a way out of her financial mess. She honestly believed she was trading her $20,000 for $1 million dollars. Read More→

“It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?” ~ Henry Thoreau

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!

We’ve talked about applications for getting organized before. Well, I’ve found a new one I think you’ll like: “Mynd” calls itself the “calendar with a brain.” That might be taking it a little far, but it’s pretty darned smart.

The best applications can integrate with other apps to make your life easier. What do I mean by that? Well, let’s say you’ve got an appointment with your lawyer at 3:00. When you made the appointment, you put it into your smartphone’s calendar. (You did do that, didn’t you?) On appointment day, your calendar sends you a reminder, and you’re ready to get in the car and go – but you don’t remember where her office is. If your apps aren’t integrated, you’ll have to exit your calendar, go into contacts, and find your lawyer’s address and jot it down. Then you’ll have to exit contacts, get into your GPS application and enter the address. What a pain in the neck! Don’t you wish your calendar could just talk to your contacts list and fetch the address for you? Well, that’s exactly the kind of convenience I’m talking about. Read More→

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 November, I’m thinking about the deals we did in October.  It was actually one of our best months (after a bunch of slow months).  We did (9) deals in October.  Yeah – that seems like a lot.  And they were some of the easiest deals we have ever done – and the way we found and executed the deals was about the most cost effective way you can get them.  We spent zero marketing dollars – directly – on getting these deals.  How is that possible you ask?  Well let me explain.

Networking.  The (9) deals were all accomplished just through networking.  I found the sellers of the properties and buyers for those properties just through networking.  No direct mail, no fancy websites, no bandit signs, no door knocking.  Over the past year and a half or so we have been out there in the real estate investing game and doing marketing, meeting buyers and sellers, meeting other investors, meeting other real estate professionals – whether its Realtors, Title Agents, Contractors, Property Management, etc.  We get out of the house a lot and do a lot of networking and do our best to build relationships. Read More→

If you’ve been following my 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.

Setting the stage…

Introducing Jenna, she is new to real estate investing and knows some very experienced real estate investors she can lean on for advice. She’s looking for her first deal and has not yet mastered the art of networking.

Jenna’s Goal…

Jenna is looking for her first purchase with her self-directed IRA…a single family home for $60,000 or less in an area that currently has a shortage of rental properties available. She wants 50% equity in the home she purchases and, given her inexperience, she is looking for a home that needs very minimal repairs. Additionally, she wants a net monthly profit of $250 per month. Her goals are ambitious even for an experienced investor. Read More→

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. There are many different parameters and techniques you need to implement to buy properties in rural areas, but it can be a very profitable business for you.

First of all, if you like to buy vacant land, it can be a real challenge at times. For example, many times the parcels you are looking to purchase will not have a street address, making them more difficult to locate on public records to do a search. You will need plat maps and street maps in order to locate these properties. One advantage to buying in rural areas is that generally speaking the folks at the court house, the property appraiser’s or assessors office and the tax collectors office are usually easier to work with and very knowledgeable about the local area and property. Read More→

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.

Most municipalities across the country use a formula tied to market value for assessing residential property taxes. In many parts of the country some form of non-disclosure is the norm. Thus, relying on assessed value is a second option. 

However, when the decision to reduce the assessed value of a property from $19.5 million to $2,500 was decided by the State Equalization Board in NV, you can just imagine the problem this caused. The use of any assessed values to develop an offer price or ARV is literally eroded. There goes any hope of making a good offer to buy or sell.  Read More→

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.

Several judges across the country are clearing their dockets with surprising speed using one simple trick. They are forcing banks to prove that they made a loan to the homeowner. Simple, right? All of the signed documents the banks can throw at the judge don’t matter if they can’t prove that they ever loaned money to the homeowner. The fact of the matter is that the banks never actually loaned out any money to the borrowers. For years judges have been taking the banks’ word that they have all of the signed paperwork from the homeowner that they need, and inferring that a loan was made, but that is starting to change. The number of judges accepting this smokescreen, while still too large, is shrinking. Read More→

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.

What are you thinking might be your problem or don’t you think about it? Did too much life get in the way, or were you too busy to make offers? You didn’t make offers because you couldn’t find any good deals, or you couldn’t find the money you needed to complete but a few transactions, if any? Did you have too much competition in your area, or were the prices simply too high and good deals evaded you because other investors got to the good deals before you and scooped up those good deals? Whatever your reason don’t you think it’s time to come up with a new plan that will allow you to capture some of those good deals others are so proud of?

In just a few weeks it will be time to make another New Year’s Resolution so if this hasn’t been what you had imagined as your most prosperous year, I thought this would be the perfect time to think about making some changes in your real estate business. One thing I can tell you for sure, there are good deals everywhere you look. There are plenty of good deals if you know what to look for and understand how to profit from the deals you find. So let me ask you, what does a good deal look like? Could it be a good deal simply because of the price you have to pay for the property? Could it be a good deal because of the payment amount you can negotiate with the sellers that will allow you to cash flow the property? Could it be a good deal because of the neighborhood the property is located in? All of these can be good reasons why you might have a good deal. It’s a good idea to know why any deal you do is a good deal in your eyes. Read More→

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.

Let’s start with the listing price. How do real estate agents get paid? By commission right? Are they not taught that they need to list the house as high as possible to get the best price for the seller and the highest commission for themselves? So … when a Realtor is not trained how to do a short sale, what price do you think they list the house at? They list it for as high as possible. Unknowingly, they are doing a disservice to the sellers, buyers and themselves; as it is the Short Sale Lender that tells the agents, sellers and buyers how much they are willing to sell the property for. So, when the Realtor lists the property high, it encourages the BPO agent, who is also a Realtor, to try and reach for the list price. Remember, they use to be Realtors receiving commission and they too would list the property as high as possible. The only designation that I hold as a Real Estate Broker is SFR which stands for Short Sale Foreclosure Resource. I took this class just to see what the Realtors are being taught on short sales. I was impressed that they also recommend that the property be listed LOW not high so that the BPO Agent will provide the Short Sale Lender with their own value instead of reaching for list price. Just like an appraiser, they are also encouraged to reach for the list price since 99% of the time appraisals do not come in higher than either list price and/or the purchase price which a buyer is willing to pay. Read More→

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.
3. We also discussed HOW and WHERE to actually get a website up & running quickly – all for either FREE, OR almost free (inexpensive).
4. We identified the first few steps you need to take on the road to having a nicely-performing, lead-generating website for your business.

Ok, with the quick review out of the way, I have a question for you: Have You Done Your Homework? If you recall, I’d given you two choices: 1. The free route (to learn how to get started), or 2. The paid route, if you’re running a business or want a ‘legit’ site.

If you’ve wisely chosen the legit/paid route, you should have picked a domain name and bought it by now! Remember? You should also have gotten your Hosting Account set up.

You… did that, right? Read More→

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.

Rick was fully exposed to the liabilities created by ownership as well as management. He indicated he was actively seeking more property. His objective was to acquire roughly 12 properties in the near future. He did not want to risk all he had worked for in one frivolous lawsuit.

First, he needed to insulate himself from the management liability. Management seems to be even a stronger lightening rod that property ownership. By separating management from ownership, any payment for management by the owner becomes earned income. To provide a liability shield and mitigate the tax issues, an S corporation can be used. Plus a corporation provides additional tax-advantaged fringe benefits every entrepreneur should consider. In certain situations a C corporation could be used, but the S corporation suited Rick the best. Read More→