The February 2015 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 may 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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Let me summarize with a question before I start writing…. How many hours in your current job or situation will it take for you to make $65,000? For most, this is more than an annual income, so I know your answer would be 2,000 hours or more. I didn’t count the hours on this deal, and we haven’t closed yet, but I know it will be double digit hours, not in the thousands. If someone has told you that short sales don’t work, they either didn’t have the right partner, weren’t properly trained/educated, or… they are lying to you because they want all of the short sales to themselves and don’t want you as competition.

My office exploded in December! I’m thinking “time off, relax, jingle bells” but I had a short sale deal that had other plans for me. I ended up at the City of Margate fighting two liens that were filed against my short sale deal, in addition to a $2,300+ water lien. Lien #1 was for a Dirty Pool and Lien #2 was because seller did “not” file a Vacant Home Affidavit, Lien #3 was the water. The total due, without the Water Lien, was over $40,000. The Lien notices were attached to the front door, which was covered like a jungle, on April 7, 2014. I represented the Seller as a Listing Agent and the Buyer as a Selling Agent. I got a Power of Attorney from the Seller so I could appear before the City of Margate and negotiate the liens. Whatever was agreed upon at that hearing would be set in stone and could not be re-negotiated. Before we could even get the City to stop assessing daily fees, the dirty pool had to be cleaned. We didn’t know there was a Water Lien of $2,300+, as the lien that was recorded was only for $500.00 but the City charges a maintenance and garbage fee monthly of $70.00 no matter if the water is on or off. Not Good! I needed water in order to drain the uncovered pool (no screen) and refill it. Read More→

“One of the most feared expressions in modern times is ‘The computer is down.'”~ Norman Ralph Augustine

One night I got a panicky call from my cousin Marv. He was about to put the last, finishing touches on a presentation he had been working on for weeks. He powered up the computer, waiting for the usual stuff to flash across the screen. Something flashed, all right: a big, blue, blank screen. Everything was just gone. Marv told me he didn’t think it could happen to him. “I mean, I’m careful! I don’t open links on suspicious emails, and I don’t click on ads unless I’m sure of the source.”

“Well, that’s good,” I told him. “Give me your boot disk and I’ll see what I can do.”

“What?” The look on Cousin Marv’s face was as blank as that awful blue screen.

“Okay, how about backups?” I asked. Maybe we could at least get his presentation back.

Marv smiled. “Oh, I’ve got that! I always keep a spare copy of important documents. On my computer.” His face fell. “Oh.”

For a minute there, I felt a little superior. Really, no backup? But then I had to remind myself that I’ve been sloppy about backups, too, from time to time. I’ve lost documents. I’ve seen the dreaded Blue Screen of Death. What an awful feeling! Read More→

Did you know that every month, within 5 miles of your home, there’s a $15,000 net-profit deal waiting to be had? The hard part is finding it, and then knowing how to creatively structure it into a big-profit deal. There won’t be a large sign in the yard that reads: Stop Here – $15,000 Deal Inside!

A common mistake made by many would-be real estate investors is to run a We Buy Houses ad, then sit back and wait for the phone to ring. A truth: The phone rarely rings! Because of this, most new investors go out of business long before they find their first deal!

To succeed at real estate investing, you must get face-to-face with sellers on a regular basis. The fastest, cheapest and most effective way to accomplish this all-important task is to simply knock on sellers’ doors and ask why they’re selling.

In addition to door-knocking, you must continually learn creative deal structuring techniques from experienced real estate investors. The best creative deal structurer I know is Pete Fortunato. With nearly 50 years of deal-making experience under his belt, he’s the master!

To show you how to make the impossible deals not only possible, but also very profitable, let’s look at one that Kim and I just completed. Read More→

Here we are already in the second month of what I believe is going to be a bumper year for real estate investors. For real estate investors who decide that they need to change the way they are trying to buy houses, many have little success without available affordable financing.

Did you see the movie Groundhog Day? In the movie events kept repeating themselves over and over. Today I am seeing this very same thing happening to real estate investors. Many investors today are still trying to do exactly what they did in the past and it still isn’t working for them. Most of these investors are getting what most of the other investors who lack the ability to borrow money are getting which isn’t very much. Many of these beginning investors are struggling to make little money, most are just going through the motions of what they were taught by some guru.

I just spent 5 days teaching with Robyn Thompson at her Junkers to Millions boot camp and I was amazed to hear her students who are totally unaware of any method of buying houses other than getting institutional financing to buy houses. I discussed this with most of her audience during my time at the boot camp and found that over 75% of those attending were unable to get any type of institutional financing for one reason or another. Does this sound familiar for you too? Read More→

After spending almost 30 years teaching good folks how to use real estate to take their life back, I’ve learned there’s a very short list of things that stop some from rapid growth. In fact, it even keeps some from developing a life-long career and separates them from financial freedom.

With today’s automation and systemization, there’s only a few things for the real estate business owner to do. Everything else should be done by someone or something else, thus freeing up your time to focus on the business—not be a slave to it.

However, if these few things aren’t set up and put on auto pilot, it’s the kiss of death, and many owners spend years doing stupid, nonproductive stuff or worse, quit and go chase another shiny object.

The ones who get it and actually do what they’re taught excel quickly and start making money without a major interruption to their current job or profession. All my seven figure annual earners clearly understand this basic principal and did what it took to get automated. Read More→

Dancing… and Real Estate? What gives?

What? You still want to know what else dancing & real estate investing have in common?

Ok, lest ye forget what we had talked about in our last article, I’ll give you a quick reminder. After all, it’s been a month already, right? And let’s get all the new kids caught up to speed, too…

When I upgraded my profession from a Ballroom Dance Instructor to a Real Estate Investor many years ago, I noticed that these seemingly different businesses had some things in common, namely:

1. You have to LEAD;

2. You have to deal with OBSTACLES;

3. You’ve gotta have RHYTHM;

4. You need BALANCE; and…

5. You’ve gotta have the right PARTNER!

Remember all those? If not, just go get last month’s issue of this publication… it’s all there!

But guess what? We’re not done yet! Yes, just when you thought it was safe to get back on the dance floor, I have 5 more things to share with you. Ready? Read More→

One of the things that never ceases to amaze me in the real estate business is how many investors leave hundreds or thousands of dollars on the table at closing due to errors in the closing documents. This is an area where many investors need to be educated. Many times investors get excited about the bottom line and forget to check the figures on the documents.

It is a mistake to assume that the HUD or closing statement is correct or that the closing documents are correct. The person preparing the closing statement can make mistakes. In addition, the person preparing the closing statement and documents is using figures that they have acquired from other people who could also make mistakes, such as the insurance company, the Realtors, the lender, home inspection service, or the surveyor.

You need to take the time to read all the documents carefully before closing on any deal. I have personally seen errors on the HUD at almost every closing I have ever been part of. Many investors only look at the bottom line and think “yes that’s enough money” but they fail to look at the whole closing statement, and in doing so possibly leave thousands at the table. I just had a closing take place recently where there was a mistake of a thousand dollars on the HUD. They put one of the buyer’s expenses on my side of the closing statement. I don’t know about you, but I think a thousand dollars is a lot of money to leave behind when you are entitled to it. Read More→

In this business, in client meetings, telephone consultations and seminars, we find ourselves answering the same common questions about real estate IRAs over and over again. So we thought we’d compile them here, in one convenient list.

1. Is it legal to hold real estate in an IRA?

Absolutely. The U.S. tax code gives taxpayers broad latitude to hold just about anything they want within an IRA. The only restrictions as far as the types of allowable investments are as follows:

• You can’t own life insurance in an IRA.
• You can’t own gems or jewelry.
• Any precious metals you own in an IRA have to meet certain standards for purity and consistency. See our exclusive Guide to Gold and Precious Metals IRAs for more information on this topic.
• You cannot own alcoholic beverages within an IRA.

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We all have 24 hours in a day, right? No one has more or less. And some people are successful investors, right? Is that because they have more time than you do? Do they have 26 hours in a day?

This sounds silly, doesn’t it? Then why do so many people say that they just don’t have enough time to achieve success?

Are you one of these people? Do you say that you don’t have enough time?

Understand that time is a resource. Once it is gone, there is no getting it back. Time is not bigoted, racist, or only for the rich and beautiful. You can’t bank a few minutes. There is no going back. Everyone everywhere has the exact same amount and gets to spend it however they choose.

So how do you choose to spend your time? 8 hours sleeping… 3 hours eating…8 hours working…1 hour commuting. .. 1 hour with family… 1.5 hours getting ready to… that leaves just a short 1.5 hours to change your life. This must change if you are to succeed. Read More→

Rents are on the rise in most markets today. This is a great way to increase overall revenue and value of our deals. In this article I want to discuss the reality of raising rents and increasing values of our multifamily properties.

As I stated rents are naturally on the rise but raising rents is not always as easy as it may seem. “The rents are below market” seems to be the mantra of realtors today. I can’t remember the last time I looked at a property that the agent didn’t tell me that I could raise the rents and make a lot more cash flow. I agree in a lot of cases the rents could have been raised but rarely can it be done for free.

On average rents can be raised by 1-3% per year without any upgrades needing to be done. This is what we call the “annoyance raise”. When analyzing a deal and considering a rent raise as a “value add” component we need to look at several factors and ask one very important question, “why are the rents currently low?”. In most cases I don’t find that the current owner hates money and just won’t raise the rents because they just love the tenants so much. Your agent may want you to believe that something like this may be the case and you can just magically raise rents but it usually doesn’t work that way. Read More→

Almost every real estate investor who buys short sales or pre-foreclosures has heard this story a hundred times. A homeowner requests a loan modification from the bank, the bank grants a “temporary” modification, payments were made and accepted, then bank changes its mind and forecloses on the homeowner for not making the full, original mortgage payment. It has been happening every day since the economic crisis began, leading millions of homeowners into foreclosure. This was business as usual for years, until a recent appellate court ruling that modification offers are in fact enforceable contracts that must be honored by the banks.

In this case, Wells Fargo offered a temporary modification to a homeowner. The offer was accepted, and the trial payments were all made and accepted. Wells Fargo then disavowed the modification settlement under the claim that it lacked consideration. Wells Fargo then went ahead with the foreclosure. The trial court ruled that Wells Fargo was correct by saying that there was no consideration. The appellate court reversed that ruling, declaring that there was more than enough consideration. This ruling has led to hundreds of cases in which trial and appellate courts have enforced the modification agreements ignored by banks. Read More→

Ask any Realtor how he or she prices houses, and you will hear a version of the following statement: “Well, I look at the comparable sales and then I …”

The same answer would include potential buyers, lenders, brokers and even appraisers. The data within REIAComps has consistently shown investors how to determine both solid acquisition value and after repair value for residential real estate.

Now, in the defense of Realtors, using comparable sales (“comps”) to price listings is what they were taught. Find the (3)“closest”comparable sales, make some adjustments for the differing features and use this analysis to arrive at an asking price for the home.

Truly, Appraisers typically use the same technique, as do most county assessor offices. Free broker and agent lead generation web sites like Trulia and Zillow apply similar inputs to their valuation algorithms. The comparable sales method has been in use for the measure of my career, and I am approaching 20 years in the valuation business.

A comp flatly, is a closed sale sharing as much similarity as possible with the home being valued. A good comp will be a recent sale of a similar type of property from within (or nearby) the subject property’s neighborhood. In theory, the more similar the comparable sale, the more power it has. The base logic behind using comps to price goes something like this —if House A sold for $X, House B sold for $Y and House C sold for $Z, then your house should sell for some adjusted average of the three. The catch is, the comps used are the most appropriate ones available.

But, we have to ask, is this really accurate? Read More→