Real Estate Investor Insider : American Investors in Real Estate Online

Rental Tenant Strategy

noreply@blogger.com (poidog2) — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 18:30:00 +0000

Had an interesting conversation with my Accountant today. We were talking about the recent increase of vacancies had expereinced in the last few months. It was taking it's toll on my cash reserves, and we were discussing strategies on keeping the properties occupied and in good condition.

One of the things we came up with was offering a quarterly insentive to the tenant, and a lease renewal bonus on signing up again.

Basically, we talked about a $100 discount quarterly on making on time payments and keeping the units well maintained, and a first month discount on a lease renewal.

Keep in mind you want to make sure you build in some key information like making sure that the unit is inspected, and rent payments need to be made on time!

When you factor in a 60 day vacancy between tenants, and the cost of fixing up between tenants, the disounts or incentives you offer are going to be less than the recurring cost of finding new tenants! Remember you make money when you are able to keep the same tenant year over year!

Hope you have a great one! To Your success!

unsecured business line of credit for real estate investors

noreply@blogger.com (poidog2) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 05:50:00 +0000

It's still in the news! The subprime mess! The Banks are reporting their quarterly earnings this week and it looks like more write downs! Just because everyone is talking about the credit crunch, doesn't mean that there is no credit out there to be had however. this is a must know guide to real estate investing.

For those of you interested in investing, you need to know about and understand unsecured lines of business credit.

There is still lots of unsecured business line of credit for real estate investors. And that is something that all real estate investors should have in their portfolio of funding tools.

An unsecured business line of credit for real estate investors is basically unsecured credit like credit cards that are not collateralized by something like a house or a car. The business part means that the card is in your entities name. One of the big pluses of unsecured business line of credit for real estate investors is it does not report to your personal credit and affect the amount of credit available in your name!

I have access to $200,000 in unsecured business line of credit for real estate investors, and you can too! There are things you need to do and there is a right and wrong way to go about getting your credit so don't just go out willy nilly to get credit or you may screw it up.

To learn more about this and to learn how to buy real estate without money...Click Here

The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007-From the White House

noreply@blogger.com (poidog2) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 08:28:00 +0000

Today, President Bush signed the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, which will help Americans avoid foreclosure by protecting families from higher taxes when they refinance their home mortgages. This Act will create a three-year window for homeowners to refinance their mortgage and pay no taxes on any debt forgiveness that they receive. Under current law, if the value of your house declines, and your bank or lender forgives a portion of your mortgage, the tax code treats the amount forgiven as income that can be taxed.

This Act will increase the incentive for borrowers and lenders to work together to refinance loans and allow American families to secure lower mortgage payments without facing higher taxes.
This Act Is A Good Step To Address The Housing Market, But Congress Has More Work To Do

Congress needs to complete work on responsible legislation modernizing the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). This bill will give FHA the necessary flexibility to help hundreds of thousands of additional families qualify for prime-rate financing.

Congress needs to pass legislation permitting State and local governments to help troubled borrowers by issuing tax-exempt bonds for refinancing existing home loans. Under current law, cities and States can issue tax-exempt bonds to finance new mortgages for first-time homebuyers.

Congress needs to pass legislation to reform Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. GSEs provide liquidity to the mortgage market that benefits millions of homeowners, and it is vital that they operate safely and soundly. The President has called on Congress to pass legislation that strengthens independent regulation of the GSEs and ensures they focus on their important housing mission.

The Administration Has Moved Forward On Targeted Actions To Assist Homeowners That The President Announced In August

The President and his Administration have launched a new initiative at the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) called FHASecure. FHASecure expands the FHA's ability to offer refinancing by giving it the flexibility to work with homeowners who have good credit histories but cannot afford their current payments. By the end of 2008, the FHA expects this program to help more than 300,000 families refinance their homes.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson have assembled the private-sector HOPE NOW alliance. HOPE NOW recently mailed hundreds of thousands of letters to borrowers falling behind on their payments and is supporting a toll-free mortgage counseling hotline, 1-888-995-HOPE.

HOPE NOW has developed a plan under which up to 1.2 million homeowners could be eligible for assistance. The HOPE NOW plan will help subprime borrowers who can afford the current, starter rate on a subprime loan, but would not be able to make the higher payments once the interest rate goes up.

How Far Might Housing Prices Fall?

noreply@blogger.com (poidog2) — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 00:47:00 +0000

How Far Might Housing Prices Fall? (Barry Ritholtz in Seeking Alpha, Jan. 4th): "WSJ: "Federal Reserve Economists study: U.S. house prices "likely would have to fall considerably" to return to a normal relationship with rents... Prices would have to fall 15% over five years, assuming rents rose 4% a year. House prices would have to fall further if the adjustment took place more quickly... That means the rent/price ratio is about a third below its long-term average. To return to normal would require some combination of falling prices and rising rents. The paper suggests house prices would need to fall about 3% a year, if rents grew in line with their 4% average annual growth this decade." That's a pretty hefty pull back over time, especially on an inflation adjusted drop."

noreply@blogger.com (poidog2) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 08:01:00 +0000

Your Credit Score

As a real estate investor, it is important to keep tabs on your credit score. When you are obtaining financing for your investor loans, your score will play a significant role in your approval, and very importantly your interest rate and program you will qualify for.

Currently, the highest credit score is 800.

Ideally, as an investor you want to have a credit score above 700. We’ve found that 730 gets you the best deals.

If you don’t have great credit, that’s okay, getting your debt under control and making on time payments will help get you back on track.

Some of the things that will affect your credit score are: late payments, the amount of recent inquiries, the amount of revolving credit you have, the length of time you have had accounts outstanding in good standing.

Any late 30 day marks will have a negative affect on your ability to get a loan. Loan underwriters are looking for people who pay on time. When a loan is not performing, it affects the bank’s portfolio.

If you have had many hard inquires on your credit, meaning credit checks from companies you have actually applied for, your score goes down. This is because a red flag goes up as companies are not sure why you needed to apply so much, and they are also not sure how much new credit you may be approved for.

The actual amount of credit you have available to you may affect your credit score. Leverage is a good thing, but if you have too much of it available to you, the banks see you as a potential risk if you were to max out the entire potential credit available and run into truouble.

What banks like to see is regular, on time payments. A healthy amount of extended credit, with balances is also a good thing banks like. They are, after all in the business of making money, so they like to see a balance that you are paying interest on.

Lastly, your credit score is an average of the 3 credit bureaus. It is known as a Trimerge. The three companies are Trans Union, Experian, and Equifax. Each has it’s own score. What you need to do as an investor, and savvy consumer is know what your score is, and know what kind of activity it is getting. You’d also be surprised at the errors that you could find on your report.

In order to keep track of your score, you can order a report one time, or you can order a membership to a site that allows you to pull unlimited reports to keep track. Services also provide tips on credit improvement, and updates when your someone inquires on your credit. Experian is seen as the big daddy of the big 3 agencies. You can sign up for a membership and keep track of your score. Click here to visit the site.

Marketing for Success-Business Cards

noreply@blogger.com (poidog2) — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 20:19:00 +0000

Marketing is the key to your success as a real estate investor. The only way you are going to find leads, people to wholesale to, and private investors is to get the word out!

It is important to keep an eye to costs, as your marketing dollars need to fit into your budget.

One of the first things you should have as a real estate investor and business owner is business cards.

They should be professionally done, not on a inkjet printer with the tear perforation. Your image needs to be professional. The cards should serve not only as a piece for contact information, but also as a marketing tool.

Consider placing a teaser line on the back of the card that says, "Want to earn and extra $500? Contact me for more information." People call you and tell them that you pay on successful close on leads. Now you have a new Bird dog.

When I go out, I always leave a few cards around for people to find. In fact, a colleague I know puts his card in the slot at gas stations where you put in the credit card at the pump. He gets call from that!

You can have cards made locally or use can get great deals on the net. I use Vista Print for my cards, because they offer great deals, and they even have free cards for those of you getting started with tight funds.

Check them out, they have a really easy to use template that you can use to create very professional looking cards, even with gloss! 75% Off Premium "Custom" Business Cards at VistaPrint.com!

New Real Estate Investor-Commit to Taking Action!

noreply@blogger.com (poidog2) — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 01:06:00 +0000

Well, it's a new year!

You have 12 months, 365 days...so what are you going to do with it? Commit to taking action!

Make the decision to take action today! Set you plan, and then follow the plan!

Don't be someone who sits on the sidelines. Get in the game!

Decide right now to do something every week, and don't stop until you've reached all of your goals!

Ever watch ants? I love to watch them. Ever notice that whenever they come up to a barrier, they try to go around it. The never stop until they get to where they are going. You could learn a lot from ants. Pick up an ant mentality.

To your success.

Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (poidog2) — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 23:18:00 +0000

As this year comes to an end, and we open the pages of a fresh, new chapter in your life, have you taken the time to really ponder your results in the last twelve months, and planned out and designed your life for the next coming year?

So often we tend to live life by default, taking what comes.

Make the next twelve months the best ever! To your Success!

Here's a great article from one of the masters of personal development, Jim Rohn:

Goals/Goal Setting
The major reason for setting a goal is for what it makes of you to accomplish it. What it makes of you will always be the far greater value than what you get.

When Andrew Carnegie died, they discovered a sheet of paper upon which he had written one of the major goals of his life: to spend the first half of his life accumulating money and to spend the last half of his life giving it all away. And he did!

Some people are disturbed by those tough days because all they have is the days. They haven't designed or described or defined the future.Goals. There's no telling what you can do when you get inspired by them. There's no telling what you can do when you believe in them. And there's no telling what will happen when you act upon them.

We all need lots of powerful long-range goals to help us past the short-term obstacles.The ultimate reason for setting goals is to entice you to become the person it takes to achieve them.Don't set your goals too low. If you don't need much, you won't become much.

If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work on you. If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you. Whatever good things we build end up building us.We all have two choices: We can make a living or we can design a life.

Have you considered using the internet for finding leads?

noreply@blogger.com (poidog2) — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 23:37:00 +0000

If someone is going into foreclosure, and it's 2am in the morning. Where do you think they are going to see what they can do? ONLINE. They go into Google and type in "foreclosure help", or "sell my house," or "need to sell fast." Imagine if you had a website online and it pops up. They fill in that information and you get the lead!

How about finding a way to attract private investors?

You see how powerful the internet can be as another tool in your Investor Tool Box?

You are a real estate expert. What if you were to build a site devoted to helping others become investors? Could you find a way to make money from that?

There's tons of ways to make money with the internet and your real estate expertise.

Market for leads, Market for Private Money, Market for other investors!

You can get someone to build you a site, or you can buy pre built sites.

My recommendation is to learn how to market on the internet first. That puts you in the drivers seat.

for more information on my recommendation for the best learning site, check out this link.

Can you use $200,000 in credit?

noreply@blogger.com (poidog2) — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 20:09:00 +0000

Here is a squidoo lens I came across. It talks about how you can use business lines of credit for your investing needs.

Check it out and share with others.

Unsecured Lines of Business Credit

To your success!

Why Invest In Real Estate?

noreply@blogger.com (poidog2) — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 07:55:00 +0000

Great Article on the "Why " in Real Estate Investing.

Where else can we use OPM?!

Check it out here.

Getting Started

noreply@blogger.com (poidog2) — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 16:31:00 +0000

Morning.

Just getting this blog started, and getting things formatted.

For those of you getting going in Real Estate. Check out this article on taking those first steps!

Click here to visit the site created by RimfireWholesaleDeals.com.

And hey, have a great day!