Tampa Real Estate Investors Alliance Blog

The January 2013 edition of The Profit Newsletter for Tampa REIA is now ready for download as a High Quality PDF or Low Res PDF format. In cash you didn’t notice by now, The Profit Newsletter is a digitally delivered, interactive newsletter for real estate investors to read and use with your PC, Mac, Smart Phone, iPad or other mobile ready device. Many of the articles and ads in The Profit contain hyperlinks you can click or tap to visit websites, watch videos, listen to audios, download content, send emails, comment on articles, share socially and much more!

The Profit is a “new” Newsletter and were just getting started, so be sure to Subscribe to The Profit Here so you don’t miss a single monthly issue. And please be sure to tell your real estate investor friends to subscribe as well. This newsletter is for sharing.

This month you can read, interact and enjoy a variety of articles on real estate investing and more from Don DeRosa, Bill Cook, Bob Massey, Larry Harbolt, Kimberlee Frank, Dustin Griffin, Kathy Kennebrook, Ron LeGrand, Jim Hitt, Tony Pearl, Russ Hiner and Erven Kimble. And don’t forget, Tampa REIA Business Members can advertise in The Profit at deeply discounted rates. Enjoy!

High Quality PDF (6Mb) / Low Res PDF (4Mb)

Time and health are two precious assets that we don’t recognize and appreciate until they have been depleted.” ~ Denis Waitley

Wow. What a year! The turkey leftovers are gone. There are just a few pine needles left in the carpet. And your Aunt Miriam, thank goodness, has gone home to Indiana and has taken the fruitcake with her. Now it’s time to reflect.

I don’t know about you, but I reached many of my goals in 2012, and that feels great! Still, I know 2013 will bring plenty more challenges and opportunities. It would be boring, wouldn’t it, if we were completely finished with everything by the end of the year. I mean, what would we do then?

So we carry our unfinished business into the following year. That’s what New Year’s resolutions are for, right? “For every single day of 2013. I’m going to eat just 700 calories and jog six miles!”

For many of us, new year’s resolutions are made to be broken. In fact, for some of us, the best way to make sure something doesn’t get done is to make a new year’s resolution to do it. It’s the kiss of death!

Thankfully, though, we live in the digital age where help is as close as your iPad. So this month, I’ve got two apps to recommend. Read More→

You’re probably asking “Are you really gonna talk about financial calculators?” and thinking: Yawn, yawn, yawn – wake me when it’s over!

Here’s the thing: Our real estate investors group is geared for experienced investors. To master creative deal structuring and financing, we all need to know how to speak the same language. A great communication device that accomplishes this task is a financial calculator.

Remember, a financial calculator is about MONEY, not math! Knowing how to make it sing and dance is critical to achieving financial freedom. I promise, once you know how to use a financial calculator, your real estate investing world will never be the same. Plus, you will be head and shoulders above most any investor you meet – including the so-called gurus!

Let’s use a financial calculator to answer this interesting question: Can you become a millionaire by delivering pizzas part-time for five years? If you think you can’t, then you’d be W-R-O-N-G! Read More→

There are two approaches you can take to determine whether or not there has been negligence or fraud in the loan process. Both paths can be equally effective in uncovering lender misconduct and providing you with leverage for negotiations with the bank. One path follows the documentation from mortgage application through foreclosure documentation, and the other approach follows the money trail. This article will examine how the documentation can lead to a damaging case against a pretender lender. Our next article will cover the money trail method.

In order to prove that they have the right to foreclose on a property, it is becoming standard for lenders to be required to produce the original note on the property. The note is required before a court will allow a lender to sell a property. It must show that the lender is named with a recorded economic interest in the property. However, in many cases these original notes have been either lost in the securitization shuffle or purposefully destroyed as the note bounced around from entity to entity. The note could even have been Photoshopped or otherwise forged to make it appear that the entity trying to foreclose has the standing to do so. Fortunately, the lenders are being called on it by the courts. Read More→

This month I want to give you an example of different ways any investor can use notes to buy houses instead of using CASH. Once upon a time I knew an investor who was trying to structure a deal with a seller who wanted the money from the sale of his property to buy a motor-home so he and his wife could travel the country. The investor asked the seller if he was able to find a motor-home of the sellers liking, would the seller use the book value of the motor-home in exchange for the down payment on the property the investor was trying to buy from the seller. This was regardless of what the investor had to pay for the motor home he would be trading to the seller for his property. The seller told the investor exactly what he wanted a motor-home to have, that he would accept. Once the investor knew what the sellers wanted, he then immediately set out to find a motor-home he could use as catalyst to complete the transaction to buy the sellers house. Read More→

The Short Sale lenders are getting crazier and crazier. That is why you need to stay current with the short sale changes. Approximately 3 years ago, Bank of America was the first short sale lender to start requesting that the new buyer of the property consent to not resell the property for less than 30 days. This statement was included in their short sale approval letter. This statement alone caused a lot of challenges to investors who were still looking to close back to back on transactions. A few short sale lenders thereafter, such as GMAC and Wells Fargo, started adding 60 to 90 day resale clauses on their Arm’s Length Affidavits, but not their short sale approval letters.

Recently, I was in the process of purchasing a property where I needed to get an extension on the short sale approval letter. The reason was that the Homeowner Association advised us that, pursuant to their by-laws, their 35% ownership of investment properties had been reached and only homeowner occupants can purchase the property. The servicer for the lender was Seterus. I received a brand new approval letter for the same exact buyer as before, but with a few different statements: Read More→

Are you tired of making offers on houses listed in the MLS only to have the price bid up by other investors and hedge funds? Well, that’s what happens when there is an inventory shortage and everyone is chasing the same leads. The minute a new listing hits the MLS, there are often multiple offers on the home by the end of the day.

Instead of competing for the same small pool of leads, you need to generate your own leads… leads no one else knows about but you. You can do this by using many of the same methods and techniques that have been working for years such as…

• Bandit Signs – Putting out we buy houses signs with your phone number and web address in and around the neighborhoods where you want to purchase will get the leads coming in almost instantly. Be sure to be aware of the sign ordinances in your area to avoid fines.
• Flyers – You can distribute we buy houses flyers virtually anywhere to get the leads pouring in almost as soon as you put them out. You can flyer parking lots, neighborhoods and houses for sale. You can also have your flyers distributed with the local paper, on pizza boxes or by the postal service for about 14 cents each. Read More→

I strongly believe that pre-screening sellers is one of the most important tasks you will undertake in your real estate investing business. The more quickly you learn to pre-screen prospects, the more money you will make in your Real Estate Investing business. This article is focused on teaching you how to tell a good deal from a time waster in 30 seconds or less.

If you don’t learn to pre-screen prospects quickly and efficiently, you will get burned out of the real estate investing business by working with sellers who won’t sell you their house, no matter what you say. Your job as a real estate investor is to very quickly determine the difference between a prospect and a “suspect”, meaning someone who needs to sell versus someone who just wants to sell their property.

People who just want to sell will either reject you immediately (don’t take this to heart, it just helps you move on quicker) or they will jerk your chain with a bunch of excuses as to why they won’t sell to you. Don’t waste your time with these folks!!

I know from first hand experience that motivated sellers will make themselves known to you quickly and they are a whole lot more fun to work with. Their attitude is more like “Please take my house off my hands…..now!” They are usually pretty easy to identify once you ask the right questions. Read More→

There’s a lot of ways to make a million bucks, but most involve some kind of business, and that business must have the potential to achieve a high income, or all one has is a low paying job he/she happens to own. We all have a choice. So, why not choose a business that can make you rich?

I know a dentist who spent $400,000 on two sandwich shops which his family runs and can barely break even. There’s no way to sell because there are hundreds on the market and a business making no money isn’t worth much, especially when it has no upside potential. He’s headed for a $400,000 seminar, but hey, we all take them and look how much smarter he’ll be the next time.

In 1982, I was bankrupt broke, working as a mechanic, 35 years old and clueless. I got into a heated argument with my wife over a washing machine. She wanted a new one and I wanted to fix the old one because I didn’t have the $150 to spend.

That night, there was no sleep. All I could think about was how big of an “a—hole” I was for arguing with a mother of four whom I’d already been married to for 17 years because she wanted to wash clothes for her family. The next day, I started looking for a way out. I didn’t want to live like this for the rest of my life. There had to be something I could do to make a better living.

My way out was real estate. I started reading books and attended a seminar to get me started. Greed and hunger took over from there. Before I knew it I’d bought and sold several hundred houses without using my money or credit, and still do it today, over 2,000 now.

I tripled my income easily the first year, and it continued to climb for years thereafter until I started creating courses on what I know, and selling them in 1987. Then my income tripled again.

Today, my company continues to market information products to real estate investors and those who want to triple their income on the internet or learn how to start and grow any business. Since that has become my chosen field and hundreds of thousands have gone through our training, it puts me in a good position to see what people do right and what they do wrong.

One lesson I learned the hard way has become my credo: Read More→

Real Estate IRA Investing – The Purchase

A young couple found a home they wanted to purchase with their real estate IRA. The purchase price was $50,000. They borrowed $55,000 and had $800 worth of repairs. I know that $800 worth of repairs for a house purchased with 1,400 square feet, three bedrooms, and two baths through a short sale sounds absurd, but these are actual numbers from an actual deal.

Real Estate IRA Investing – The Repair Bill

I’ve personally never seen $800 worth of repairs in my entire life and I’ve been in this business for 40 years. I can’t even walk through the house for $800. I don’t know what it is but I’ve never done that, so that was phenomenal to me. The deal’s great but how did you get $800? They actually got a little cash back at closing since they borrowed $55,000 for a $50,000 purchase. Read More→

As I write this, it’s coming up on the end of 2012. The real estate market is still crazy, and there are a lot of questions in people’s heads as to what the market is going to do. What else is new?

Ever since I first got in to real estate investing, back in 1996 (wow!), the market has ALWAYS been changing. So that’s NO excuse not to get involved & do some deals. The KEY is to just recognize WHAT the best strategies are to use at the moment, then learn all you can about them, and – most important of all – ACT on what you learn!

Winners with tiger blood running through their veins will tell you that CHANGE (and chaos!) just creates more opportunity, and the real estate market right now is certainly no exception. It used to be that the hot things in real estate were: Wholesaling, Short Sales, Rehabbing, and of course, the related “Get the Deed” system, where you take over existing houses ‘Subject To’ the existing mortgage. Read More→