Looking for Best Real Estate Agent in California ?
People from all backgrounds and all walks of life have found amazing success in the world of real estate investing. If you feel that you have what it takes to generate real profits in this way, but just need a bit of know-how, this article is for you. Keep on reading to get some terrific advice.
Reputation is important when you are stepping into this arena. Therefore, you should make sure your reputation is trustworthy. Once people know you’re trustworthy, they’ll be more willing to work with you in the future.
Make sure you have a budget when you invest in real estate that includes how much you’re going to have to pay to fix the home you’re buying up. You don’t want to blow all of your money on getting real estate just to find out that you can’t afford to fix it up.
Think long-term when investing in real estate. While some investors seek to make quick turnovers by buying cheap and flipping within weeks or months, your better bet is a longer view. Look for safe properties where you can park a big sum of money and get investment return via monthly income like rent.
When deciding to buy a property or not, consider how appealing it will or will not be to prospective tenants. No property is worth your money if you won’t be able to sell or rent it, so consider the purchaser’s perspective. How soon can you sell? How high will your profits be? These are all things to consider from the buyer’s point of view before you buy.
Build a strong team that is going to work with you during the whole process. This means that you will need to get a realtor, accountant and lawyer that will help safeguard you in case anything goes wrong in the process. These people will also give you great advice while you invest.
If you’re going to try getting into real estate, you need to consider how much time you’re able to spend on property management. The issues tenants have can become time consuming. If you see that you don’t have enough time in managing it, you could choose to hire a person to manage it for you.
Property values go up and down; don’t make the assumption that it will go up only. This isn’t good to think about for any property out there because this assumption is pretty dangerous. Your safest bet is to only invest in properties that provide a nearly immediate positive cash flow. Then you will have an income you can count on, and you can probably look forward to property appreciation.
When negotiating, you should limit the amount of talking you do. If you try to dominate the negotiation right out of the gate, they know everything and can actually end up bidding you higher than they would have accepted to begin with. Actively listening will help to ensure that you get the greatest deal possible.
See if there are all of the stores and schools that you’ll need around the real estate that you’re thinking of getting for your family. You don’t want to move to an area where you’re not near anywhere that you need to go to. It would cost you a lot in traveling expenses, so keep that in mind when you move anywhere.
When you want to get an investment property, you have to be sure that the rent you’re collecting will cover most of the mortgage payment you pay monthly. This allows you to feel confident about owning the property. Few things are worse than needing to pay your own money to cover the mortgage, because the payment you receive from your renters isn’t enough.
Hire a professional inspector to come out and see the property you’re thinking of putting your money into. You may think that you can just look over the property on your own to find problems, but if you’re not trained you may miss some things. When problems are found, you should make sure to get some money off of the property or have the owner fix it for you.
Never buy properties only to run up the number that you totally own. This is a rookie mistake. Research each property and calculate its value as a genuine investment. This must be what takes up most of your investments.
Insure all of your properties, even if they are currently vacant. While insurance can get expensive, it will ultimately protect your investment. If something were to go wrong on the land or in a building you own, you will be covered. Also, have a general safety inspection conducted once in a while too, just to be on the safe side.
You are not going to find huge financial success overnight. Therefore, it is important to break down your goals into smaller, short-term objectives. Make sure you have a to-do list to accomplish each day. Before you know it, you will be well on your way to achieving your larger goals.
Always factor in after a thorough inspection of a property the repairs that need to be made prior to your profits. You will have to make most general repairs before selling a property. When thinking of renting a property out, you must consider maintenance costs. Try to keep your budget realistic to avoid any unpleasant surprises.
Endeavor to keep emotion out of the process of negotiation. You are investing in this property and will probably not be living there. Control your emotions so that you never overpay and cut into your potential for profit. You’ll make extra money if you use this advice.
To make sure you buy a good piece of real estate, find out what similar properties have sold for. This will give you a good idea of whether a property you’re considering is worth the price you’re about to pay for it. There are public databases about recent sales, or you can ask a real estate agent to help.
Real estate investing offers almost anyone the opportunity to accumulate wealth as long as they are willing to put in the hard work. To get a real estate career off the ground, it is essential to learn the tricks of the trade. Hopefully the piece you have just read has gotten you inspired to keep going.
Addicted to Real Estate - Why I Can't Stop and Why You Should Start
One creative way to get started investing in real estate is to use a lease option. The biggest advantage of using lease options to invest in real estate is --control. This method of investing, basically gives the investor the right to possess -- be in control of -- and profit from a property without owning it.
A real estate lease option contract is a combination of two documents.
The lease part of the contract is where the owner agrees to let you lease their property, while you pay them rent for a stated period of time. During the lease period, the owner can not raise the rent, rent it to anyone else, or sell the property to anyone else.
The option part of the contract represents the right you purchased to buy the property in the future, for a specific price. If you decide to exercise your option to buy, the owner has to sell it to you at the negotiated price. The option part of the contract obligates the seller to sell to you during the option period -- but it does not obligate you to buy. You are only obligated to make rental payments as agreed during the lease period.
When the lease option contract is written and structured properly, it can provide tremendous benefits and advantages to the investor. If the lease option includes the "right to sub-lease", the investor can generate a positive cash flow by renting the property to a tenant for the duration of his lease, or lease option the property to a tenant-buyer for positive cash flow and future profits. If the lease option includes a "right of assignment" the investor could assign the contract to another buyer for a quick profit.
Lease option real estate investing, is a flexible, low risk, highly leveraged method of investing that can be implemented with little to no money.
High Leverage
It is highly leveraged because you are able to gain control of a property and profit from it now--even though you don't own it yet. The fact that you don't own it, also limits your personal liability and personal responsibility. Only if you decide to purchase the property by exercising your "option to buy", would you take title to the property.
Little to no money
The real estate investor's cost to implement a lease option contract with the owner requires little to no money out of pocket, because it is entirely negotiable between investor and owner. Also, there are a variety of ways the option fee can be structured. It can be structured on an installment plan, balloon payment or other agreeable arrangement between both parties. The option fee can even be as little as $1.00.
In order to secure the property for purchase at a later date, tenant-buyers typically pay a non-refundable option fee of approximately 2%-5% of the negotiated future purchase price to the seller. Depending on how the lease option agreement is written and structured, the investor could possibly use the tenant-buyer's option fee money to pay any option fee owed to the owner.
Flexible
Lease option real estate investing is a flexible method of investing because the terms of the agreement, like payment amounts, payment dates, installments, interest rate, interest only payment, balloon payments, purchase price and other terms are all negotiated between seller and buyer. Responsibilities of both parties are also negotiable. For instance, if the investor doesn't want to act in the capacity of a landlord, he could specify in the lease option agreement that tenant-buyer will be responsible for all minor maintenance and repairs and the original seller will remain responsible for any major repairs.
Financially Low Risk
It is low risk financially, because if the property fails to go up enough in value to make a profit, you have the purchased the right to change your mind and let the "option to buy" expire. Even if your tenant-buyer decides not to buy the property, you have profited by a positive monthly cash flow from the tenant-buyer's rent payments, and upfront non-refundable option fee.
Let's look at an example of a lease with option to buy structured in a way that the investor profits in 3 separate phases of the investment.
Profit #1: non-refundable option fee
Future sales price negotiated with the current owner is $125,000 with an option fee of 2% of the sales price. Option Fee you owe the owner is $2,500. The future sales price you set for your tenant-buyer is $155,000 and the option fee is 4% of the sales price. Option fee the tenant-buyer owes you is $6,200. You collect $6,200 from tenant-buyer and pay $2,500 to the owner and your profit = $3,700
Profit #2: monthly cash flow from rental payments
The Monthly rental payment you negotiated with the owner is $1,000. You set the monthly payment at $1,250 per month for your tenant-buyer. Each month you collect $1,250 from your tenant-buyer and pay the owner $1,000 each month. Your profit is $250 monthly positive cash flow during the lease period.
Profit #3: is set up when the lease option contract is initially written
The third profit is the difference in the negotiated future purchase price with the owner, and the future purchase price set for your tenant-buyer. Let's say the property goes up in value to appraise for at least $155,000. Your tenant-buyer decides to exercise their option to buy. You buy the property from the owner at $125,000 and then sell it to your tenant-buyer for $155,000. $155,000 - the $125,000 you pay to the owner = $30,000 profit.
Of course the key to making lease option real estate investing work, is finding motivated sellers and buyers. Finding these motivated sellers and buyers shouldn't be difficult. The continuing down turn in the real estate market, has created a large number of sellers who can't sell their property and buyers who can't get financing to buy. The seller could possibly get a fair offer to be paid in the future, by selling their property to a real estate investor on a lease option basis. A potential tenant-buyer could obtain home ownership, without having to qualify through traditional home loan guidelines.
One disadvantage of lease option real estate investing, involves the tenant or tenant-buyer possibly defaulting on monthly rental payments. This would make it necessary for the investor to come up with money out of pocket to pay the owner, and possibly have to proceed with eviction process. However, there are certain provisions that can made, and also various "contract clauses", that can be included in the lease option agreement, to deter buyers from defaulting on payments.
If the investor fails to do "due diligence" before entering into a lease option agreement, he could end up with a property that is unmarketable. There could be a number of liens on it, issues involving ownership of the property or it might be in foreclosure. By diligently performing research before entering into a lease option agreement, the investor can avoid these mistakes. A few things the investor could do is-- perform background and credit checks on both the seller and buyer, search public records in reference to ownership and property status, or do a title search.
Despite the few disadvantages, lease option real estate investing continues to be an excellent way to invest in real estate with little to no money and low financial risks. It also remains to be an excellent way to gain control of a property you don't own, to generate cash flow now, and possible future profits on flexible terms.
Bottom line-- you don't have to miss out on the lucrative profits being made by investors in today's real estate market
The more you understand creative real estate investing strategies, and apply them now, the more profits you will make in today's real estate market. Don't put off getting the real estate investing education you need -- to succeed in today's real estate market.
Learn these things and more:
- Creative investing strategies and concepts for Lease option real estate investing, foreclosure investing, and wholesaling and flipping real estate.
- How to structure every deal right so you make more on each deal and eliminate your risk.
- What needs to be included in your real estate contracts now-- to safely avoid issues that could cost you thousands!
- The most powerful legal clauses you can use to completely eliminate your risk in all your offers.
- The step by step approach to invest in real estate with minimal risk.
- How and where to research properties effectively to save hundreds of hours in time.
- The best ways to creatively finance your investment properties.
- How to know the true market value of properties so you never overpay again.
- How to control properties with no money, credit or income verifications so you can make a lot more.
Home Buyers and Sellers Real Estate Glossary
We all are thinking about it and some of us are actually taking action and getting their hands on real estate investment properties. The longer the NY Stock Exchanges doesn't produce desirable returns the more people are starting with real estate investments.
For most of us the obvious choice of properties are single family homes. Although you can invest in real estate without owning a home, most people follow the experience they made while purchasing their own home. This is familiar ground and the learning curve for doing a real estate deal of this type is pretty slim.
Of course there's a drawback with this approach. The competition is fierce and there are markets where investors are artificially driving up the cost of the properties while completely discouraging first time home buyers. If this is the case, the burst of the real estate bubble is just a matter of time.
How do you avoid these situations and still successfully invest in real estate? How do you get ahead of the competition and be prepared for bad times in real estate investments as well? The only answer I have is commercial real estate.
Why commercial real estate you might ask? Commercial real estate is a solid investment in good and bad times of the local real estate market. The commercial real estate I'm referring to are multi unit apartment buildings.
Yes you will become a landlord and No you don't have to do the work by yourself. You are the owner and not the manager of the apartment building. The cost of owning and managing the building is part of your expenses and will be covered by the rent income.
Apartment buildings are considered commercial real estate if there are 5 or more units. To make the numbers work you should consider to either own multiple small apartment buildings or you should opt for bigger buildings. This will keep the expense to income ratio at a positive cash flow. Owning rental properties is all about positive cash flow.
With investing in single family homes it is easy to achieve positive cash flow. Even if your rent income doesn't cover your expenses 100%, the appreciation of the house will contribute to the positive cash flow. With commercial real estate the rules are different.
While single family homes are appraised by the value of recent sales of similar homes in your neighborhood, commercial real estate doesn't care about the value appreciation of other buildings. The value of the property is solely based on the rent income. To increase the value of a commercial real estate you need to find a way to increase the rent income. The formula on how this is calculated would be too much for this short article. I listed a few very helpful books where you can find all the details.
What's another advantage to invest in commercial real estate? Commercial real estate financing is completely different than financing a single family home. While financing a single family home you are at the mercy of lenders who want to make sure that you are in the position to pay for the house with your personal income. Commercial real estate financing is based in the properties ability to produce positive cash flow and to cover the financing cost.
After reading all these information about commercial real estate you want to go out there and dive into the deals. Not so fast. First, you need to learn as much about real estate as possible. In commercial real estate you're dealing with professionals. If you come across too much as a newbie you will waste these guys's time and your commercial real estate career ended before it actually started. Second, no commercial real estate lender will lend you any money if you can't show at least a little bit of real estate investment experience.
What's the solution to this? Go out there and do one or two single family home deals yourself. It doesn't matter if you make huge profits to start off with. Most newbie investors are losing money on their first deal anyway. If you can manage to show positive cash flow with your single family home deals you are ahead of the pack.
My advice, buy a small single family home in a decent neighborhood and rent it immediately. This will keep your out of the pocket expenses at a minimum and you will have rent income to cover for your monthly expenses. Bonus, you gain experience as an investor and as a landlord.
Here's another observation I made during my real estate investment career. Most people like to analyze, learn, discuss and analyze some more. They never actually got to do a real estate deal. They love to talk about real estate investments, but never did it themselves.
My approach to real estate investment was simple.
- I bought some books about real estate investment.
- I read every single one of them.
- I put together a simple plan on how I want to get started.
- I started looking for properties.
- I bought my first investment property 30 days after I started reading my first book.
- I made positive cash flow with all of my properties so far.
What is my point? You have to go out there and practice what you've learned. The only valid credential in the real estate business is practical experience. Having a couple of deals under your belt, you can go out there and start looking at commercial real estate and even impress seasoned investors with your knowledge. Because you made this experience by yourself and you know what you're talking about.
Home