Confessions of a Real Estate Investor
Author: K. Kirkmanbr
Source: ezinearticles.combr
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Im not sure where to begin, but here we go...
Right now being a Real Estate investor is probably one of the most frowned upon professions. This time 4 years ago r.e. investors, brokers, appraisers, loan originators were among the top professions. Everyone was proud to be any one of those professions. Once the market crashed they packed up and left town without a trace! Now if you tell people you are a real estate investor the 1st thing out their mouth is OH MY GOD Hows that working for you right now?
They believe everything they hear and see about how bad r.e. is right now. The sad reality is this.... investors who had no financial education as it pertains to investing in Real Estate are either flat broke and about to let all their properties go, or have already made the decision to let go all the piece of crap properties they bought. This market has taken many investors for a ride that that never meant too take! I was a victim of this ride! A couple years ago I decided to expand my business to a different market. That market was Gary Indiana! This was by far the biggest mistake Ive ever made. Ive seen the city of Gary bankrupt a couple hard money lenders! Thank God I didnt invest too much money in that city! As an investor you have to be willing to take risk because without risk there is no reward! The thing to do is to make sure you minimize those risks and maximize your rewards! Now Im sure your wondering how in the heck do I minimize my risk and maximize my reward in this kind of market. Here is the answer.... you have to educate yourself:
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pK.Kirkman, CEObr a target=_new href=http://www.TheChicagoWealthBuilders.com rel=nofollowhttp://www.TheChicagoWealthBuilders.com/a br I will be having the last free real estate seminar of 2009. If you are seriously wanting to invest in real estate then this is an event that you dont want to miss!/pbr
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Why I Use Limited Liability Companies For Real Estate Acquisitions
Author: Herbert J. Stratherbr
Source: ezinearticles.combr
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Whenever I sign a purchase agreement for real estate, I always try to use a Limited Liability Company and these are the reasons why:
First, it limits your exposure in the event you default and get sued for specific performance. You should always try to limit your liability by signing without recourse and by excluding specific performance language in the buyers default paragraph located in the purchase agreement. Simply cross out the part that allows specific performance exposure or, better yet, never include it. If you have been following me, you already know never to use forms. Create your own purchase agreement or use mine.
Second, It gives you fluidity and the ability to assign your interest in the deal without having to assign the purchase agreement. Most banks will not allow you to flip the property by assigning the purchase agreement to a third party. If you purchase in a newly created LLC, you can simply assign your interest in the LLC rather than the purchase agreement. You might even do it in stages by assigning a partial assignment first, then the balance immediately after closing. The assignment can even be escrowed with the title company.
The third and most important reason is that it allows you to purchase without putting up a dime and as a reward it allows for easy syndication. How is this done? This is a $64 million dollar question...
So, how can you legally buy real estate with no money down? If you can answer this question you are probably already rich, however you still might like my clever approach.
Since I have closed more than $2 billion in real estate deals single handedly, I could tell you nine different legal ways to do this without being a candidate for the big house (jail)! Today, I will tell you one way to do this using a Limited Liability Company. I believe deal structures should be simple and I hope this is simple enough.
This would apply mostly to commercial transactions, since most single family homes and 2 family flats are not held in Limited Liability Companies. There are two assumptions I am using (1) the real estate asset is held in a LLC and (2) you can finance the transaction or know someone who can finance the transaction. Simply done - just join the LLC with your own LLC then let your LLC refinance.
Let me restate the structure:
You form an LLC. Let your LLC join the existing LLC. Purchase just 1-5% of the membership interest in the existing LLC. (Note: you should not have to pay for the 1-5% since you can unwind the transaction if it does not eventually close). Import whatever financial power you need to join you then refinance.
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pHerbert (Herb) J. Strather, author of Getting Rich Is Easy and Survive and Thrive in a Recession, is a real estate expert who has purchased, brokered and developed more than 3 million square feet of real estate, (mostly in Detroit), totaling more than $2 billion in deal;.including Woodbridge Estates, a 46 acre, $100 million mixed use residential community, and the elegantly appointed, Hotel St. Regis in Detroit. Strather is one of the originators of the casino industry in Detroit and is the former Chairman of Motor City Casino which he syndicated high risk capital of $3,350,000 and returned more than $160,000,000 to his investors./ppa target=_new href=http://www.stratheracademy.com rel=nofollowhttp://www.stratheracademy.com/a/pbr
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How to Use Real Estate Cycles to Your Advantage As an Investor
Author: Kevin Melitobr
Source: ezinearticles.combr
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Recently, there have been events within the real estate market that have caused many markets to change. These changes affected many real estate investors because the investors were not adjusting their strategy to the market. When the market changes as it has, your investing strategy must change as well.
You will be able to use this article to help you identify stages in the real estate cycle. When you know what the stages are in the cycle and what is causing the change, it will be easier for you to see the next stage coming. As a result, you can tailor your investing strategy to what is happening in your market.
Real Estate Cycle Stages
When you look at real estate cycle, the stages of the cycle go like this:
1. Increasing Rents/Prices
2. Increasing Construction
3. Overbuild
4. Rent Concessions
5. Declining Rents/Prices
6. High Vacancy
7. Little Activity
8. Accumulation
9. Low Vacancy
10. Increasing Rents/Prices (and the cycle continues on)
Basically, the factors affecting these cycles all revolve around simple supply and demand factors. Supply and demand are the major influences how the cycle changes from one stage to the next. Lets start with Increasing Rents/Prices portion of the cycle. The demand has outpaced the supply and caused prices to go up.
As supply begins to catch up with demand, the cycle goes towards the bottom of the cycle which is declining rents/prices. Listed above are the stages that happen between the top and bottom of the cycle. The important thing to remember is that supply (existing homes for sale/rent and new construction) and demand (people wanting homes for purchase/rent) is what is driving the changes in the cycle.
Keep in mind that there is not a set time frame of how long it takes to go from one stage of the cycle to the next. It could take 20 years or more to go around the cycle one time. It is also important to point out that each real estate market acts independently based on the supply and demand of their own area. This means that New York, Houston, and Seattle are all going to be in different stages of the cycle because they are their own market.
From my experience of training investors, we have found that there are certain investing techniques that are more effective in one stage of the cycle than another. In the top portion of the cycle (this means starting with the little activity stage and going around the cycle until the overbuild stage) rentals, rehabbing, and lease options are the best strategies that are suited for those conditions. These strategies will help you take advantage of the increasing demand to maximize your profits based on strategies that benefit from the increasing demand.
In the bottom portion of the cycle (starting with the overbuild stage and continuing until little activity) wholesaling, seller financing, and lease options are usually the best strategies for those stages of the cycle. Lease options mainly work well in the bottom stages of the cycle as an entrance strategy so that you are not stuck with a deal that is declining in value. These strategies are designed to protect you from the downside of the market while being able to profit.
What Does This All Mean?
The purpose of this article is to keep people from making mistakes when buying investment real estate. When investors understand how cycles work, what is driving the cycles, and what techniques are best, their success rate increases dramatically. You will be investing with the trends of the market instead of fighting against it. You are not going to be able to change the market conditions, but you can use techniques that will put market conditions in your favor. This is truly becoming an investor as you use the market to your advantage.
If you know what stage your market is in, you will also be able to adjust your strategy as the market changes. When you see levels of supply and demand changing, you can prepare for the next market cycle and modify your strategy to match the conditions. I am not telling you to time the market. Trying to time the market usually ends up in disaster. What I am telling you is that money can be made in real estate at any time. It is a matter of knowing how to use various techniques and when to use them. This will make your success rate increase because you will be able to make a profit when other investors cannot.
Critical Steps
Whenever you consider purchasing an investment property, I recommend the following steps:
1. Identify the stage of the cycle in your market - Again this will be based on supply (inventory of properties for sale/rent/being built) and demand (people moving in, jobs coming in, number of properties being sold). Find a qualified real estate agent and your city planner to obtain this information.
2. Analyze the deal - You need to crunch the numbers to ensure that the deal is profitable. Is there a certain technique you are going to use on the deal?
3. Make sure the technique works well for that stage of the cycle - When you align the market stage, the property, and the strategy with your market conditions, profitable deals are much easier to do. Successful deals are more plentiful when all three of these factors are aligned.
Spend the necessary time to obtain the information on your real estate market. This information will make you a more powerful investor so that you do not get stuck in deals that are not good for your market conditions.
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pKevin Melito is a real estate investor, consultant, and runs a company that offers training programs for real estate investors. He has created the web site a target=_new href=http://www.real-estate-investing-cycle.com rel=nofollowhttp://www.real-estate-investing-cycle.com/a to teach people how to invest in real estate./pbr
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Popping The Real Estate Bubble Myth!
Author: Roseanne Nephtbr
Source: downloadbr
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If you turn on the TV, listen to the radio, or even surf the internet, youll notice that there is a lot of people talking about the Real Estate Bubble, and asking the question, when is it going to burst? They (these so-called experts) have been saying for years that the real estate
market cant continue this type of growth. These experts remind me of chicken little, with all of their prosphesy of doom and gloom, and the sky is falling syndrome. The truth is there has never been a real estate bubble in the past, or presently, and there will certainly never be one in the future. Talk about there being a real estate bubble is the stuff that urban legends are made of.
Heres the readers digest version of what it all means. The
real estate market is really, a wave. Its cyclical, and
we are riding on a big wave right now. Real Estate is just
like Investing in the stock market, There are good years
when values rise and there are years that are better, when
values rise even higher. Thats it, in a nutshell. Real
estate has gone up and down throughout history, and
generally speaking, it is fairly stable. When you look at a
graph of real estate values, you would be able to see a
clear pattern of increasing values. Now some years would
have higher peaks than others, and all in all, it is a
gradual building slope from left to right. And it looks just
like a wave.
In addition, there are more up cycles, than down cycles. So
the recent growth weve had will be followed by ones of
downturn. The only difference is that it may not be as much
of an increase, in other words the increase will be slower.
The bottom line is, it will still be growth. This is why
there will always be growth. Real Estate is a basic need.
People need a roof over their heads. You can rest assured
that people will be renting, buying, leasing, and selling
homes. And it doesnt matter if the market is low or high or
if the interest rates are up or down. Real Estate is a sure
thing!
Remember Real Estate cycles tend to be regionally based.
Real Estate is always driven by the economic principles of
supply and demand. Some areas of the country, like
Seattle, are going gangbusters, and real estate values are
going sky high, and other areas like parts of the northeast
are not increasing by the same percentage. However
almost
all areas are going up in value. Historically, property
values increase in a strong job market. Other factors
to think about include; program funding, interest rates,
population growth, climate, and user-friendly state and
local governments, including school system changes.
These
are critical points to consider when investing in real
estate, either as a landlord or for personal use.
The key to successful real estate investing is to understand
what drives the market. Stay on top of what is going on in
your market place. Research the internet, read articles, get
involved with your community. One other key to staying at
the top of your game is to get a mentor or coach to help you
succeed in your real estate investing career. If coaching is
good enough for sports figures like Tiger Woods, why not
you?
To sum it up, Real Estate bubbles dont exist, but there is
a real estate wave. As any surfer knows, if you want to
ride the waves, you need to get in the water. Watching the
action can be fun, but will it put any money in your pocket?
Invest with the intention of providing a service for others,
and you can become rich investing in Real Estate.
Roseanne Nepht is founder of Real Estate XL - an
excellent resource site dedicated to information on
real estate.br
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How Do I Know I’m a Real Estate Investor?
Author: Danny Welsh
Source: download
I recently had a long chat with one of the most successful real estate investors I've ever met. As I often do, I wanted to get a real understanding of the "Why?" he did real estate and what he wanted to accomplish for himself by reaching financial freedom.
You see, I am firmly convinced of the truth that "If you have a big enough 'Why?' to do something, the 'How?' will reveal itself to you. This gentleman had some good things to say about the concept and completely opened my mind up to even deeper levels of understanding about the terms "success" and "freedom".
Listen, if you're serious about making real estate investing an ultra-successful career for you, you have to go even further than just having investing in real estate be what you do for a living.
It has to become a lifestyle. He threw my questions right back at me and we had some great give-and-take and it was like you could really feel that chemistry that comes into play when entrepreneurs are talking about their passion of investing in real estate.
For him, it came down to asking this question, which fans of Tony Robbins should recognize its like:
"If I had unlimited time, unlimited money, unlimited resources and encouragement, unlimited tools and teaching, unlimited support from friends and family, and unlimited belief in myself...what would I do? Who would I be?"
Most of us would do the things that are passionate about, right?
He was able early on to answer that he wanted to be a real estate investor who helped people solve problems and made money by investing in real estate. What he shared with me, however, is that he didn't self-identify as a "real estate investor" until many, many years later.
Until that moment, years later, when he claimed and began now to internalize the belief that "I am a real estate investor", he was a hobbyist, a dabbler, a dreamer.
He had this experience of self-actualization at a real estate seminar where one of the participants asked the speaker "How do I really know that I'm a real estate investor?"
The speaker responded that "You know you're a true investor when you can't NOT invest!"
He then went on to tell me that during the same seminar someone, obviously someone without a very strong "Why?" or motivation yet to become successful, asked the speaker "How can I find time in my busy schedule to do this business?"
The looked at this questioner with the same patience and understanding that showed that this was the hundredth time the speaker had fielded this question, and said in effect "If you're a real estate investor, you do not find time to invest and do this business...if you're serious about this business you make time to do it."
After my incredibly successful investor friend let that sink into him and he found that he could really grasp hold of those two simple concepts, he realized then and there that he'd always been trying to FIND the time to invest and take the necessary actions to get his business going. For all of his "career" to that point he had been finding and taking that time to do his "business" AFTER other things that his attention and time expenditures PROVED were MORE important to him than becoming successful with real estate.
The difference, after he had let these two concepts sink into him and really started to understand it and, most importantly, APPLY his understanding to his thought patterns and daily routines...
...the difference was that he did not just IGNORE the real-world practical matters that NEED to be a part of someone's life (like for example to the beginning real estate investor, a steady income from a stable source to provide bills' money and put food on the table) but other than that, he ASSURED himself that he would always MAKE time to create the life he wanted that was in answer to his compelling "Why?" to become successful? and he did it by taking solid, CONSISTENT actions and gaining unstoppable momentum.
I think that these 2 concepts? of IDENTITY and claiming that you ARE what you want to be, and CONSISTENCY in finding the time necessary to DO what you ARE? applies to anyone wishing to turn a dream into a reality, whether it is to become a successful real estate investor or whatever, be it a published author, big ticket actress, or even just someone who wants to become the "World's Best Dad".
Just substitute whatever it is that you're passionate about for finding time to do "real estate investing" and knowing how you are really a "real estate investor?" and you're on your way, if real estate investing is not your passion.
I understand for many people it's NOT. Many people want to USE the VEHICLE of real estate to take them to a place where you have the freedom and the luxury of time, and you have been able to achieve the financial security and independence to do what you want when you want.
Now, with me, it's writing. I'm passionate about writing, and will write whether or not I get paid for it. It's not just what I DO, but it's who I AM.
How would you answer my friend's question...if you had everything you ever needed already ACCOMPLISHED by investing in real estate and building a positive and successful lifestyle with plenty of passive income coming in every week?
What would YOU do? Who would you BE?
What's your dream? What's YOUR true passion?
What will you do with the extraordinary wealth you can accumulate in real estate?
Now I want you to write down what you are passionate about. You are passionate about something besides money, right? 
I certainly hope so! If you aren't, it's time to ask yourself a good hard question and take a long look at yourself and find out why not!
Maybe your answer is like mine, that wealth and income from real estate investing can give me the freedom to write whenever I want, to get paid or not get paid but to have the flexibility for it not to MATTER. Maybe you want to spend more time with your family. Maybe you want to escape the 9 to 5 grind and make sure that you never miss another Little League game. Maybe you want to spend time golfing, fishing, or sailing, or learning the intricacies of Thai cuisine.
Maybe in financial freedom you'd want to travel all over the world (of course, you'd at least LOOK at real estate while you're there right? That's called taking a PAYcation instead of a VACATION and you need to ask your tax professional about THAT little gift from Uncle Sam).
Whatever your "Why?" is take a moment now and write it down! Commit this to paper. It's important!
Now, here's where my friend and I agree that most people stop. This is hard. In fact, it's often a question that if you give it the thought and meditation time that it deserves just might make you cry or knock you flat on your backside. Asking this next question you're about to ask yourself can be downright HUMBLING or even, in some cases, extremely UPSETTING. But, you GOTTA do it!
Now, write down your well-thought answers to this question:
Why aren't you living this life and doing all these things you desire NOW? If you're not close, what would it take for you to be able to live your life of destiny and dreams?
Think this is a silly exercise? Just ask yourself, "Am I getting the results right now that I want out of my life?" If you're not, well...it might be wise to consider some opinions.
Just remember, without a map there is no treasure! Your "Why?" is the map that will keep you on track towards gaining momentum to becoming the IDENTITY of a true entrepreneur and professional real estate investor. And it keeping this in mind will PUSH you into taking all the actions necessary, in a CONSISTENT manner, to achieving everything it is that, until you WRITE IT DOWN, you only SAY that you really want.
Danny Welsh represents Home Investing Solutions, LLC . For Real Estate Professionals and Investors HIS provides a success- oriented atmosphere where everyone makes money together through the use of timely information, tools, training, educational material, and network support. Explore HIS books, articles, and free information at Home Investing Solutions. Be sure to sign up for the "Good Steward Newsletter" with real estate investing tips, resources and Deals!
Is Real Estate the New 401(k) for Retirees?
Author: Russ Whitney
Source: download
Hitting the traditional retirement age of 65 does not necessarily mean you are ready to retire?at least, not financially. Social Security benefits alone are simply not enough for most people to live on, corporate pensions are rapidly disappearing, and even people who have done some retirement planning are finding it necessary to continue working well into their late 60s and even 70s. Two-thirds of baby boomers polled in a recent survey said the cost of living is too high today to truly retire and never work again. And it seems they are right: According to the U. S. Department of Labor, nearly 1 million people age 75 and older are working at least part-time.
Savvy boomers are growing their nest eggs before and after retirement by investing in real estate. In fact, by providing people with a relatively safe way to invest and generate cash flow well into their golden years, real estate functioned essentially as a retirement plan before such plans became part of the U.S. tax code. Of course, actual plans such as 401(k)s allow you to defer taxes, but real estate investing also provides you with a number of tax-saving strategies. My point is this: If you want a comfortable retirement, real estate can help you get it.
Let's return for a moment to the 401(k) model. If you happen to work for a company that offers this type of retirement savings plan (and not everyone does), you'll make your contributions (which may or may not be matched by your employer) and have some limited options as to how the money will be invested. In general, you can?but don't have to?start withdrawing funds at age 59?; with few exceptions, you must begin making withdrawals by age 70?. Depending on how much you have invested and how much your funds are yielding, it's possible for your 401(k) nest egg to steadily dwindle in the years after you begin taking distributions. And that's when many retirees head to work in grocery stores, fast food outlets, and other retail operations.
If instead you have secured your retirement with income-producing real estate and/or related investments such as mortgage notes, you will receive revenue from your investments without the regulatory restraints that apply to 401(k)s and other government-sanctioned retirement plans. What's more, your capital (the property) is likely to increase in value as it generates cash flow, allowing you to provide for your heirs without having to sacrifice your own lifestyle.
To take full advantage of the potential offered by real estate takes knowledge. There is a wide range of options when it comes to real estate investing; you need to understand what those are so you can make the best choice for your particular circumstances and style. You need to know which strategies work in what markets and how to recognize economic cycles so you know how to respond to them, because educated investors can profit in real estate regardless of the economy. You need to know what to look for and how to maximize the opportunities so you can make the most of your investments and still have time to enjoy the other things that matter.
So, is real estate the new 401(k)? Actually, it's the old 401(k). For hundreds of years, real estate has afforded security for retirees, demonstrating that the proven methods of smart investing and financial management have worked and will continue to work in all markets and all economic cycles.
Russ Whitney, chairman and CEO of Whitney Information Network, Inc., is a recognized worldwide leader in the real estate investment and financial training fields. He is the bestselling author of Building Wealth (Simon & Schuster); Millionaire Real Estate Mentor (Dearborn Trade Publishing), and The Millionaire Real Estate Mindset(Doubleday). Russ Whitney has also produced numerous successful investing and personal development training programs on general wealth-building, real estate investing, stock investing, communications, selling skills, credit, and more.
For more opinions and comments by Russ Whitney, visit his blog at http://www.russwhitneyblog.com; for more information about his training programs, visit http://www.russwhitney.com