“Myspace” for Real Estate Investors

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I recently wrote a post on my entrepreneurship blog, YoungGunBusiness, about how niche social networking sites are the next big thing. Well, we ran with the idea and just opened access to the public to InsideInvestorSpace.

InsideInvestorSpace is a social networking site dedicated to connecting investors so they can meet, greet, learn, invest, and ultimatly…Make More Money!

The site will serve as a place to build your entire investing team. The classified section will serve as a place to find a local agent, attorney, appraiser, contractor, accountant, or even a great wholesale deal. The forum allows you to ask any question pertaining to real estate investing and community members can respond. You can start a group in order to network with people in your area or a group that focuses on the foreclosure process.

It doesn’t even cost anything to join. It’s Free! Go check out the site and become a member. It will take you about 2 minutes.

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Real Estate Investment Tips and Strategies : Key to the Business

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I remember when we were at our first big real estate seminar. We were salivating like pavlonian dogs waiting for Louis Brown to get started. We had heard him speak at a one day seminar before and were ready to learn more from the master himself.

As I suffered from a case of information overload over the 5 day period, one thing stuck in my head. Lou said, “Follow-ups are the key to the business.” He mentioned that around 60% of his deals came from following up with sellers days, weeks, and months after initial meetings with them.

In my first year of investing, we made over $20K on a deal in Mount Pleasant, SC because we followed up with a seller for several weeks after we made her an offer. Even if you give a seller your information after you have met with them, your job is not done. People lose things all the time. I always just ask a seller, “Do you mind if I put you in the follow-up log?”

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Secrets of Real Estate Negotiations : How Discounting Notes Equals Big Profits

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About a year ago, we were contacted by a man who had a house he wanted to sell quickly. The seller had inherited the house and owned it free and clear. He had listed the property for a few months at $850,000 the prior year with no luck. He had gotten himself in a position where he wanted out fast and was willing to take a discount.

After Dusty worked his magic negotiating with the owner, we had the property under contract. Our purchase price was $550,000. But that’s not all! You’ve got to remember that price is only one component to any deal. The agreed upon terms were that the seller would get $200,000 at closing and a note for $350,000. He was to receive payments of $25,000 every six months until the loan was paid in full (and YES, that’s a zero percent loan).

Fours months went by; the previous seller found himself in a bind and accepted an early payment of $15,000 as payment in full for the first $25,000 payment we owed him. Not bad. We got a $10,000 discount.

It wasn’t two months later that he was calling again. The total balance that we owed the seller now was $325,000, and he wanted more money. Too bad his next payment wasn’t for about seven months. We were fine with the already agreed upon payment schedule. He, on the contrary, was not.

After about two weeks of going back and forth, we struck a deal. And what a deal it was! We agreed to give him $10,000 that day, an additional $10,000 two weeks later, and a final payment of $130,000 due in ninety days.

So what do all those #’s mean? The seller’s original note was for $350,000. After discounting his note a couple times, the total we paid him was $165,000. That’s an $185,000 Dollar Discount! And that was all after we bought the house.

Anytime you can get a seller to take back financing for a portion of their equity, do it! It’s less money that you have to come to closing with, and you can structure the payment terms

Posted in Negotiating, Real Estate Investment Financing Strategies | 1 Comment »

Are You Using Zillow to Help Comp Properties?

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The best way to comp property currently is through MLS. If you are not a realtor though, you may not be able to access it. Enter Zillow. This service provides sold data for homes all over the country.

I have access to MLS for our primary investment areas. When we get a lead outside of those areas, I jump on Zillow to get a rough estimate. I wouldn’t suggest using it as your sole method to valuing property, but it’s a start.

Zillow has many more resources, but I haven’t used any other ones yet.

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Not Enough Time in the Day : Real Estate Investment Tips and Strategies

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Hire a birddog!

After starting our real estate business, it wasn’t even a year later that we started to use birddogs to leverage our time.

Our primary strategy to acquire homes at that time was to go door to door to homes that were facing foreclosure. That information is public, so we were excited about that, and we figured that if anybody was motivated to sell, they should be. Although we got some good deals from door knocking, it was a lot of work. Driving around all day on week nights and weekends was no fun anymore. There had to be another way.

Enter the birddog. There are people out there that are happy to donote their precious time to be your eyes, ears, and legs. We found some hungry aspiring real estate investors and trained them to go out in the field for us. It was a great deal for them not only for the learning involved but the profits we split from deals they brought in.

Anyone who has a real drive to become a successful real estate investor knows the value of a mentor. Find you a birddog and put him to work. Your time can be spent elsewhere.

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