Real Estate investment NIGHTMARE!!!

Checklists checklists checklists. I now use more checklists then I ever did before when it comes to my investments.

Okay so couple years ago I invested in 1940 “ ish” craftsman style house. It was a quaint little house, cute little front yard, cute backyard, quiet neighborhood, the type of place where people walk their little doggies on leashes down the street smiling at everybody.

The interior house was just as cute as the outside. Beautiful wood floors hidden underneath horrible carpet, large windows, and a huge kitchen. All I had to do was add some paint …add some landscaping and that was it.

WRONG!!!!

Everything was going great until... The electric went out! This was my major introduction to “old wiring.”

Follow link below to “a story that I wish I had read before I bought the house”….

Electrical Issues with fixers

Real estate investing tactics...

If you have any intrest in real esatate investing you are going to have one major thing you will need above all else...LEADS.

Doesnt matter if your a investor or a agent/broker..it always come down to the same thing...you need to know where the deals are in order to pass them on...or take advantage of them yourself.

R.E. Leads article

Have you ever noticed????

So this morning I am having coffee with a group of Real Estate professionals...and as you can imagine the topic turns to the current economic crisis we are in.

Our group is made up of real estate agents, a broker or two, one man who owns multiple mortgage houses as well as two (full time)commercial and residential, real estate investors..of which I am one.

The vast majority were expressing concern over how the new loans will not be as user friendly to the investor...how the decline of credit will kill off a new generation of buyers etc etc...

Now being one of the older ones in this little coffee clutch, I sat back and just listened to the conversation of controlled panic.

Comments ranged from the waste of money on the "bailouts" to the impending doom of the increase in taxes.

When out of nowhere I hear Robert (the other full time investor) ask the big question:

"So instead of worrying about yourselves, what are you doing about your clients...both new and old???

The silence actually hurt your ears. He went on to talk about how the art of Real estate investing has seen these pitfalls before...and people still manage to invest.

But he wanted to know about how these RE "professionals" were helping the client bases they had already built. Had any of them called old clients to see if they could be of some help??? Could they look at doing a restructured loan for them??? Did the client need to list a property????

One of the younger members of the group made the comment about not wanting to be "yelled at by a client over the current market conditions"....to which the reply was..."At the time you first worked for them did you do the best for the client that you could have??? or did you do the best for your commission?"

Needless to say I left our monthly "meeting" with a very different feeling as when i went in.

I was reminded that we the real estate profession is a service based career...and it is our job to server our clients as best we can.

Real Estate investors looking at HELOCS

So like most real estate investors...you maybe wondering how to carry on with your "Real Estate investing plan".

Everyday we hear about more goverment bail outs...more banks making less loans...and the over all plummeting of our economy.

Here is a article that helps explain the HELOC loan (Home Eguiity Line Of Credit). Please PLEASE PLEASE (do you get the sense of concern here)Please do your research before you consider one of these...THEY ARE NOT GOLDEN parachutes.

Here is the link:
Is an Equity Line of Credit the Answer to Your Financial Needs?

News on commercial investments

Here is a great video that was sent to me by a fellow investor...might want to take a look.

Commercial concerns in Real Estate

Here is another from the same source.

Market info on Commercial RE....good video


As always I suggest going to my Real Estate investing information to get more info...do you homework.

Real Estate investing- your BIG 3 MIND TOOLS!!

Well my real estate investing friends...one holiday down..one more to go. I hope everyone has had a good holiday season so far. I am sorry about not droping notes as often as I hoped to but life has had some other callings as of late...But anyway.

Ok. So. The BIG 3 MIND Tools.

Mind tools are just ways to look at things around you. To be honest the tools are not specific to any given subject. (However for the sake of the topic..we are going to use then for Real Estate investing.)


1) ACCEPT FAILURE!!!! This is a VERY hard one to understand...let alone commit yourself to. Now what this means is that you need to understand that YES you can loose money. Ok...thats it... I want you to accept that this indeed can happen. ( Calm down...Im not done yet) Now...once you have accepted this...you can move forward with your real estate investing.

Most of the time when we as a human being, loose something we value, we tend to remember the steps we took that cost us that loss... and when you remember how the events unfolded you tend to notice where you could have taken steps that could have prevented it. So loss is not always bad.

Ok...now do you see my point. The Best lessons in life (and investing) are always gonna cost you something.

2) Commit to "Finding a way" "But Doc...I want to invest but I dont have any money." BING BING BING BING..WRONG ANSWER!!!

Go out and find the property you want to invest in..do the homework on it...price it out...holding costs... repair value...etc. Then Look for the money. It is far easier to walk in to a room full of strangers and get money for a investment you have outlined...then walk in and just ask for a blank check.

When you want to learn something bad enough, get something bad enough...you find a way dont you??? "Find a way."

3) Dont think your the smartest person in the room

Ok this one is the most important of all three. Just because you have read every blog/book/investment website...etc. doesnt mean you are the smartest person in the room when it comes to investing. I know some top notch Real estate agents who cant find an investment to save themselves...but they can talk you into buying a million dollar house.

You need to understand upfront that investing is a TEAM sport!! I will always drill this home. To be a really prosperous investor you need a team...this is NOT A SOLO event.

Mortgage Brokers, Real Estate Agents, Inspectors...etc etc...you need a team or a way to find these people.

Use web groups to ask around. Join REI Clubs. Drop a few dolloars and join a service to use the MLS.

You will not ever know everything you need to know to make a investment flow with out a hitch however, you can talk to people with the expertise in the areas you find problems in.

Use online resources for networking. Find out who is recommended for what? Need a good plumber because you dont know anything about plumbing in a 1945 craftsman home? Find one.

As always I will list a few links at the bottom for various services...USE THEM.


Now go out and invest.


Real estate investing information resources:



Tons of information from agents to brokers to title companies from all over the country. Real Estate investing information and resources


Mortgage info / real estate loan:

local and state loan information

Real estate investing information online - Where to find it and how to use it. (Tool Box #2)

At any given point, at any given time, real estate investors are inundated with sources for information about all sorts of real estate investments.
News, T.V. blogs, websites, newsletters, the list goes on and on and on…
It is up to you to figure out what are the best sources for you to use and how to use them. I will touch on some of the sources that I use.

News sources

Ok…I will admit…one of my biggest sources of news for economic news is Forbes.com. I use them for the simple fact that they have up to the minute updates from ALL over the place. Bloomberg, AP, CNN money, etc.
I don’t have to go all over for the simple fact they do most of the chasing of information for me.

Forbes Economy Pages

Now for a second source of news (specific for real estate in the areas I invest in) I am also fond of DQnews. I have found them to give good update information and tracking trends for the part of the country I invest in most.
DQ news

Reference resources

Ok now when you’re looking at resources it is important to get the best bang for your “free buck” that you can. So resource good resource sites are really hard to find…at least a good “all in one” site is.

First on my list is Investor411.org. This website has a bit of everything on it. I have developed a good relationship with the owners of the site and like the future plans they have for it.
Right now you can log on this site and find a very high volume of good information about many real estate investing topics. They have information from mortgages to legal contracts. You can find real estate agents to gardeners. They have recently expanded to include FOREX information…and as of this writing are updating all the foreclosure information on the website.

http://www.investor411.org/

Real estate inspection links
Real Estate inspection reports

Real estate information reports
Real Estate information services

Real Estate agents from across the nation

Agents and office across the U.S.

In closing on this website, I was recently informed that in an effort to keep the content as accurate as they can…the offer free advertising to those in the real estate profession and services areas. Log in and check it out. I highly recommend it.

Online tools.
A few years ago I had the pleasure of coming across a young man at a wealth building expo who had developed a great tool for real estate investors.
The tool is: eRealinvestor.com
This website offers the investor the ability to view all the financial information you need to use to evaluate a potential project at a single glance. I cannot say enough about this website. In my opinion this is a top notch resource.
erealinvestor.com