Tampa Real Estate Investors Alliance Blog

The Tampa Real Estate Investors Alliance (aka “Tampa REIA”) is a new Tampa Bay real estate investors association for new and experienced real estate investors, real estate entrepreneurs and other real estate professionals who invest and do business in the real estate industry.

Tampa REIA’s purpose is to help promote our members’ real estate investing and business success by providing extremely affordable, high quality, relevant real estate investing information and education, as well as frequent, fun and rewarding real estate networking opportunities. Our goal is to be the premier educational and networking organization for real estate professionals in the Tampa Bay area.

We will achieve these goals through our meetings, special interest groups, networking events, seminars, webcasts, workshops, retreats, bus tours, charity workdays and other member benefits such as big discounts from suppliers such as Lowe’s, Sun Belt Tool Rentals, Sherwin Williams, Sears Commercial, Sprint, Nextel, Rent Fast, Build a Sign, Super Smart and our business members and industry partners.

We will also be publishing our brand new newsletter, The Profit, which will be delivered each month a week or so prior to the Tampa REIA Main Monthly Meeting. The purpose of The Profit is to help keep you and our members, friends and followers updated on all the ups and downs of the real estate market; changing laws, rules and regulations; the latest real estate investing techniques, strategies and so much more.

The Profit is also designed to keep you and our other subscribers updated and informed of all the events and happenings going on at Tampa REIA each month as well as exposing you to a wide variety of speakers, trainers, mentors, experts, vendors and suppliers serving the real estate industry. Read More→

Hello, my name is Tony Pearl. I’m a successful veteran real estate investor who has done a lot of deals but got bored with it all a few years ago and started ‘playing around’ with marketing on the internet.

Translation: When the crap hit the fan and real estate started sucking in 2008, I had to do something else to put food on the table, and I chose the internet.

It is my pleasure to bring you the ‘inside scoop’ on how things are progressing for me and other real estate investors who are successfully going online to get buyers, sellers, private lenders, and almost anyone or anything else you can think of to use in our businesses… and how you can do the same! That’s what this column, “Pearls of Wisdom,” is all about.

So unless you’ve been living like a cave man these past few years, you’re surely aware of how almost everybody is online now. Think about this: Who do you know who DOESN’T have at least the minimum requirements of an email account or Facebook profile? It would probably take you a minute to come up with a name, am I right? Exactly. Read More→

Rental Properties in Your IRA

For legions of investors frustrated with puny yields on savings and bonds, slow growth retarding stock market returns, and the usual substantial risk involved in security investing (any given stock or bond can potentially become worthless overnight), we have good news: The combination of declining real estate prices and steady or increasing rents have opened up a window of opportunity in real estate for income-oriented investors. In fact, years after the “smart money” was selling off real estate ahead of the bubble collapse, we are seeing signs that smart money is getting back in the real estate market. Indeed, up to 20 percent of residential real estate now sold is sold to investors – and not just to “play and pray” amateur property flippers, but to value-oriented investors as well, who are seeking to generate immediate positive cash flow.

Advantage for IRA Owners

This is a big development for IRA investors, because generating cash flow sufficient to maintain properties is important for IRA owners. Because you are restricted to $5,000 in new contributions to IRAs every year ($6,000 for those over age 50), you have to pay for any needed repairs or renovations to properties either with cash in the IRA, bringing on a partner, non-recourse debt financing, or other retirement assets you can roll over into the account. When you can realize immediate positive cash flow from a property, however, net of financing costs and taxes, that takes a lot of the pressure off, and makes owning real estate in an IRA much simpler. Read More→

Ever wondered how millionaire investors find the most profitable deals? Satisfy your curiosity and save yourself time, effort, and loads of cash by consuming these five fundamentals that millionaire marketers use to gain massive wealth & prestige.

1. Don’t get caught up in the “BIG PICTURE”

Stay focused on your marketing. One of the biggest mistakes professionals make is they start to believe that they’re only a doctor or lawyer or mechanic. They forget that their number-one responsibility is marketing. Without marketing, there are no patients to see, clients to advise, or cars to work on. Smart business owners know how to market their product or service and are successful at doing it. You must constantly market your business if you wish to be successful. Constant marketing of your business is how you find the best deals.

To begin marketing you must first identify all the various methods to market in your area, how much they cost, and whether they even work. Learning what methods not only work, but are most cost effective can cost you thousands and even hundreds of thousands of dollars through trial and error. Read More→

The Mortgage Electronic Registration System is just that—an electronic registration system. MERS came into being after the GSEs produced a white paper in 1993 stating the case for an electronic registration system to track mortgage assignments. It was officially launched in 1997.

From the point of view of the mortgage industry MERS made it possible to transfer mortgages or merge lender acquisitions efficiently without triggering local transfer taxes and other recording fees. It changes what has always been a public documentation process to a private one. The industry claims the MERS system allows the industry to have a central repository for mortgage assignment information in order to keep a more accurate picture of ownership.

Courts have not been unanimous about the legitimacy of MERS and many courts have ruled that MERS muddies the waters in the recorded chain of title and cheats counties out of much needed revenue. In fact, county recorders in several states have sued the MERS system for loss of documentation fees. On the other hand, the MERS website lists cases it has won in at least 22 states since the beginning of 2011. There is clearly a window of opportunity to fight MERS’ legitimacy as an owner of record in many foreclosure cases. Read More→

“We should not only use the brains we have, but all that we can borrow.”
Thomas Woodrow Wilson

One of the scariest things for new – and even experienced – investors is estimating the cost of repairs on a prospective investment property. If you’re off by even a little, it can cost you thousands in profits. If you’re off by a LOT, well, instead of walking away from the closing with a check for thousands, you might be bringing money to the table.

Finding a reliable contractor is a good first step. (Hint: go to your REIA meetings and network. Ask for recommendations. Interview several.) But the best way to know that you’ve got a good estimate is to become familiar with determining what repairs are needed and how much they cost.

So where do you start? One of the best apps I’ve seen to guide you through this process is the Home Builder Pro Calcs app. (At press time, this app costs $4.99 on the App Store and can be used on the iPhone and iPad.) Read More→

1. Overcoming Fear. When I first got started in the real estate business I had a tremendous amount of fear. There was the fear that prevented me from placing the ads, the fear that prevented me from making offers, and the fear that paralyzed me to the point that I was not able to move forward in a real estate investing career.
2. Knowing The Numbers And Exit Strategies. After I made my first 50 offers I overcame that fear. After I got an agreement accepted I had the fear of not knowing what I was going to do with the property and whether or not it was going to be profitable. The exit strategy is the plan. The exit strategy defines what your profit is and how much profit there will be. Once I was able to get a handle on the exit strategies and refine the numbers my career started to take off. Read More→

“They may say, “Come and join us … let’s ambush the innocent! …Think of the great things we’ll get! We’ll fill our houses with all the stuff we take. Come, throw in your lot with us; we’ll all share the loot.” My child, don’t go along with them! Stay far away from their paths.” (Proverbs 1:11-15)

We have all faced the question; “Is this a good business opportunity for me?” The answer to this question may come from your professional training on how to evaluate a deal. Sometimes, we find ourselves enrolled in the school of “Hard Knocks” taking the freshmen class of “Trial and Error.” But, if you are an entrepreneur, there may be is a more critical question that has to be answered and your answer to this question may not be quite as forgiving.

That question is; “Who am I doing business with?” Have you ever found yourself challenged to do business with someone who operates with a fundamentally different set of values and moral practices than yourself? Have you ever been asked to participate in a venture or business proposition that just didn’t sit right in your heart? Sometimes, at first glance, it may seem to be quite attractive and a potentially profitable proposition. But after some careful thought and discussion, you begin to feel uncomfortable about the person or the proposition. Read More→

“If you were arrested for being a real estate investor would there be enough evidence to convict you?” I was once asked!   I wholeheartedly responded with a resounding, “YES!”  You must be able to do that which makes you stand out from your competition.  As you begin your campaigns as part of your overall marketing strategy and goal, continue to diligently test and track results as you go.  You MUST be able to determine what marketing tools work best for you in your market place in order to draw the highest number of motivated sellers to your real estate investing business.

People often ask me, “What is the best way to find motivated sellers and buyers?”  My response is to do that which your competition will not and do a lot of it. Dare to be different in your approach to locating motivated sellers. Analyze, discover and continue to rediscover the best combination of marketing methods that will generate the highest number of motivated sellers for your business. Develop three to five marketing techniques that give the very best lead-generating leverage possible and devote your resources to those marketing techniques which net the very best results.  As simple as it may sound—don’t spend time on something that is not productive. Read More→

Have you noticed a declining number of people attending real estate meetings lately? Because I’ve run a weekly real estate meeting myself for over 13 years, I’ve seen my own group attendance diminish from an average of 200 people each week to approximately 50 over the past couple of years. I realize many investors are confused, scared and have lost faith in the real estate investing business and who can blame them? You can’t open a newspaper or turn on the television without hearing anything but negative news about the real estate market. All we hear about is the declining sales prices, lower number of sales, almost no building starts and of course the record number of Foreclosures nationwide. Who can blame investors for shying away from buying houses in this market? Many investors are waiting for the market to bottom out before they are going to get back in the business. There is no better time to be buying houses than NOW, yet many investors are finding it impossible to fund their deals while other investors believe doing Short Sales is their only chance to make money today. This is not true! That kind of thinking is simply crazy! Read More→