Real Estate Investing: Buying Property Out of State

Buying property out of your local area where you live is not something that is recommended for the new investor. That?s why we made purchasing our first real estate investment out of state our top priority! Why? Because a set of circumstances presented themselves that made sense for us to follow through on and purchase vacant land several states away. We paid cash for this property at a significantly lower price than market calls for in the area. Additionally, it matched our investment criteria and was a small enough deal for us that it made sense to buy it. Why have we italicized the term ?us? thus far? Because this is a topic we believe does not belong on this site, however, we learned alot from the experience and want to share some simple lessons learned in this particular article as well as future articles. Bottom line, we are not recommending people new to real estate investing run out and buy property several hundred miles away!

Information is vital to good, sound real estate investing. No, good information is vital to sound real estate investing. No, actually, you, the buyer, gathering a ton of information about a property you plan to buy, is absolutely necessary in order to increase your odds for success at real estate investing! Phew! Okay, so we got that straight. So how do you get information and how do you get quality information? Do you call a few realtors and ask them about the area? That?s like asking a barber if you need a haircut. What about calling the local chamber of commerce? A local chamber of commerce is a good starting point, but it depends on who you speak with. For instance, you might speak to a person trying to market the area to bring business or improvement to the area. You may or may not get accurate information or the correct data given your investment goals.

Talk to multiple sources. Make several phone calls to different businesses. A reputable developer in the area can be an excellent resource for connecting you to other phone numbers to contact and possibly even some of their personal contacts.

Verify everything! Verify every statement a seller makes. If you can get someone to take pictures of the property you?re buying, that?s very important. If you?re buying vacant land, you?ll want to know if the lot is buildable, in a flood zone, zoning, utilities, sewer, and the surrounding neighborhood and subdivision.

When you contact municipalities, be sure to call back several times if you do not get a cooperative person on the phone. For some reason, people down south are nicer. They tend to spend more time on the phone with you and bear with you while you struggle to put two and two together. Don?t be afraid to let information sink into your head while you?re on the phone and ask the person on the line to wait while you write things down.

It pays to prepare for phone calls. Write down questions. It pays to have a questionnaire available. If you use ours feel free to make it your own. If you do not understand a terminology you can contact us or look it up online at any real estate investment website. Log all of your phone contacts and write down names and extensions of helpful people.

Another good source of information will be the local paper of that area. There you will find classifieds and legal notices which can give you an idea how business is growing and where and when foreclosure auctions are to take place. As you compile more places to follow up with from simply reading the paper, make sure you actually follow up! Many newspapers have websites, but you will not get the same information you will with the actual paper.

Additionally, you may also look into local real estate investor clubs and organizations. Here you will find possible online access to localized forums where you can chat and post questions, possibly make contacts and get further information. Local real estate investment clubs will help to get your foot in the door with other investors. This is important as you can learn what to do?and what not to do.

It cannot be stressed enough that is is very important to log everything you do. Make sure you write it down somewhere so that you may refer back to your notes on paper, rather than in your head. Hopefully, what you write, who you talk to and what you read will allow you to make wise decisions when considering your investment strategies for out of town real estate.

?2006 noobdogs.com

Real Estate Business Investing - Risk Taking For Profit

Many people today are going into the real estate business. Lots of us seem to be willing to take a risk. But keep in mind that if you are thinking of investing in real-estate, you might as well be gambling. There is no guarantee that the land or home you invest in will bring a profit. The rule of thumb is that the greater the potential for earnings, the greater the risk. Fortunately, if you are interested in the estate business you can take advantage of the myriad of helpful information available on the internet. Just go to google and search away to your heart’s content.

When it comes to purchasing real-estate it is critical that you have all the statistics and facts. Consider how much capital you can afford to invest. The amount will be different for every individual. I may be able to afford only $160,000 but maybe you can spend $500,000. Figure out how much you are willing to spend and how much you would like to make.

Television happens to be another good resource that you can take advantage of today. There are a number of good reality shows that deal with the current real estate business. Just recently I watched a show about a couple who had saved up some extra money. They wanted to try their luck in the real estate business. Their plan was to purchase a home and flip it. It was in Florida, but not in the greatest area.

Unfortunately, they paid more than they had planned to flip the home. Honestly, it was a mess when they bought it and they had to completely gut it and totally re-do the yard. They then put it on the market and the real heartache began. At first it would not sell at all and when it did, it went for less than what they hoped for. They had to lower the price substantially and barely broke even in the end. They wasted all that hard work, time and effort.

The bottom line is that the real estate business can be very risky, as I said earlier - a gamble. Just be sure to obtain all the information you need before investing your hard earned dollars in this market. Knowledge is power when it comes to the real estate business.

Real Estate Business Investing - Risk Taking For Profit

Many people today are going into the real estate business. Lots of us seem to be willing to take a risk. But keep in mind that if you are thinking of investing in real-estate, you might as well be gambling. There is no guarantee that the land or home you invest in will bring a profit. The rule of thumb is that the greater the potential for earnings, the greater the risk. Fortunately, if you are interested in the estate business you can take advantage of the myriad of helpful information available on the internet. Just go to google and search away to your heart’s content.

When it comes to purchasing real-estate it is critical that you have all the statistics and facts. Consider how much capital you can afford to invest. The amount will be different for every individual. I may be able to afford only $160,000 but maybe you can spend $500,000. Figure out how much you are willing to spend and how much you would like to make.

Television happens to be another good resource that you can take advantage of today. There are a number of good reality shows that deal with the current real estate business. Just recently I watched a show about a couple who had saved up some extra money. They wanted to try their luck in the real estate business. Their plan was to purchase a home and flip it. It was in Florida, but not in the greatest area.

Unfortunately, they paid more than they had planned to flip the home. Honestly, it was a mess when they bought it and they had to completely gut it and totally re-do the yard. They then put it on the market and the real heartache began. At first it would not sell at all and when it did, it went for less than what they hoped for. They had to lower the price substantially and barely broke even in the end. They wasted all that hard work, time and effort.

The bottom line is that the real estate business can be very risky, as I said earlier - a gamble. Just be sure to obtain all the information you need before investing your hard earned dollars in this market. Knowledge is power when it comes to the real estate business.

Real Estate Business Investing - Risk Taking For Profit

Many people today are going into the real estate business. Lots of us seem to be willing to take a risk. But keep in mind that if you are thinking of investing in real-estate, you might as well be gambling. There is no guarantee that the land or home you invest in will bring a profit. The rule of thumb is that the greater the potential for earnings, the greater the risk. Fortunately, if you are interested in the estate business you can take advantage of the myriad of helpful information available on the internet. Just go to google and search away to your heart’s content.

When it comes to purchasing real-estate it is critical that you have all the statistics and facts. Consider how much capital you can afford to invest. The amount will be different for every individual. I may be able to afford only $160,000 but maybe you can spend $500,000. Figure out how much you are willing to spend and how much you would like to make.

Television happens to be another good resource that you can take advantage of today. There are a number of good reality shows that deal with the current real estate business. Just recently I watched a show about a couple who had saved up some extra money. They wanted to try their luck in the real estate business. Their plan was to purchase a home and flip it. It was in Florida, but not in the greatest area.

Unfortunately, they paid more than they had planned to flip the home. Honestly, it was a mess when they bought it and they had to completely gut it and totally re-do the yard. They then put it on the market and the real heartache began. At first it would not sell at all and when it did, it went for less than what they hoped for. They had to lower the price substantially and barely broke even in the end. They wasted all that hard work, time and effort.

The bottom line is that the real estate business can be very risky, as I said earlier - a gamble. Just be sure to obtain all the information you need before investing your hard earned dollars in this market. Knowledge is power when it comes to the real estate business.

Real Estate Business Investing - Risk Taking For Profit

Many people today are going into the real estate business. Lots of us seem to be willing to take a risk. But keep in mind that if you are thinking of investing in real-estate, you might as well be gambling. There is no guarantee that the land or home you invest in will bring a profit. The rule of thumb is that the greater the potential for earnings, the greater the risk. Fortunately, if you are interested in the estate business you can take advantage of the myriad of helpful information available on the internet. Just go to google and search away to your heart’s content.

When it comes to purchasing real-estate it is critical that you have all the statistics and facts. Consider how much capital you can afford to invest. The amount will be different for every individual. I may be able to afford only $160,000 but maybe you can spend $500,000. Figure out how much you are willing to spend and how much you would like to make.

Television happens to be another good resource that you can take advantage of today. There are a number of good reality shows that deal with the current real estate business. Just recently I watched a show about a couple who had saved up some extra money. They wanted to try their luck in the real estate business. Their plan was to purchase a home and flip it. It was in Florida, but not in the greatest area.

Unfortunately, they paid more than they had planned to flip the home. Honestly, it was a mess when they bought it and they had to completely gut it and totally re-do the yard. They then put it on the market and the real heartache began. At first it would not sell at all and when it did, it went for less than what they hoped for. They had to lower the price substantially and barely broke even in the end. They wasted all that hard work, time and effort.

The bottom line is that the real estate business can be very risky, as I said earlier - a gamble. Just be sure to obtain all the information you need before investing your hard earned dollars in this market. Knowledge is power when it comes to the real estate business.

Real Estate Investing: Buying Property Out of State

Buying property out of your local area where you live is not something that is recommended for the new investor. That?s why we made purchasing our first real estate investment out of state our top priority! Why? Because a set of circumstances presented themselves that made sense for us to follow through on and purchase vacant land several states away. We paid cash for this property at a significantly lower price than market calls for in the area. Additionally, it matched our investment criteria and was a small enough deal for us that it made sense to buy it. Why have we italicized the term ?us? thus far? Because this is a topic we believe does not belong on this site, however, we learned alot from the experience and want to share some simple lessons learned in this particular article as well as future articles. Bottom line, we are not recommending people new to real estate investing run out and buy property several hundred miles away!

Information is vital to good, sound real estate investing. No, good information is vital to sound real estate investing. No, actually, you, the buyer, gathering a ton of information about a property you plan to buy, is absolutely necessary in order to increase your odds for success at real estate investing! Phew! Okay, so we got that straight. So how do you get information and how do you get quality information? Do you call a few realtors and ask them about the area? That?s like asking a barber if you need a haircut. What about calling the local chamber of commerce? A local chamber of commerce is a good starting point, but it depends on who you speak with. For instance, you might speak to a person trying to market the area to bring business or improvement to the area. You may or may not get accurate information or the correct data given your investment goals.

Talk to multiple sources. Make several phone calls to different businesses. A reputable developer in the area can be an excellent resource for connecting you to other phone numbers to contact and possibly even some of their personal contacts.

Verify everything! Verify every statement a seller makes. If you can get someone to take pictures of the property you?re buying, that?s very important. If you?re buying vacant land, you?ll want to know if the lot is buildable, in a flood zone, zoning, utilities, sewer, and the surrounding neighborhood and subdivision.

When you contact municipalities, be sure to call back several times if you do not get a cooperative person on the phone. For some reason, people down south are nicer. They tend to spend more time on the phone with you and bear with you while you struggle to put two and two together. Don?t be afraid to let information sink into your head while you?re on the phone and ask the person on the line to wait while you write things down.

It pays to prepare for phone calls. Write down questions. It pays to have a questionnaire available. If you use ours feel free to make it your own. If you do not understand a terminology you can contact us or look it up online at any real estate investment website. Log all of your phone contacts and write down names and extensions of helpful people.

Another good source of information will be the local paper of that area. There you will find classifieds and legal notices which can give you an idea how business is growing and where and when foreclosure auctions are to take place. As you compile more places to follow up with from simply reading the paper, make sure you actually follow up! Many newspapers have websites, but you will not get the same information you will with the actual paper.

Additionally, you may also look into local real estate investor clubs and organizations. Here you will find possible online access to localized forums where you can chat and post questions, possibly make contacts and get further information. Local real estate investment clubs will help to get your foot in the door with other investors. This is important as you can learn what to do?and what not to do.

It cannot be stressed enough that is is very important to log everything you do. Make sure you write it down somewhere so that you may refer back to your notes on paper, rather than in your head. Hopefully, what you write, who you talk to and what you read will allow you to make wise decisions when considering your investment strategies for out of town real estate.

?2006 noobdogs.com

Real Estate Investing: Buying Property Out of State

Buying property out of your local area where you live is not something that is recommended for the new investor. That?s why we made purchasing our first real estate investment out of state our top priority! Why? Because a set of circumstances presented themselves that made sense for us to follow through on and purchase vacant land several states away. We paid cash for this property at a significantly lower price than market calls for in the area. Additionally, it matched our investment criteria and was a small enough deal for us that it made sense to buy it. Why have we italicized the term ?us? thus far? Because this is a topic we believe does not belong on this site, however, we learned alot from the experience and want to share some simple lessons learned in this particular article as well as future articles. Bottom line, we are not recommending people new to real estate investing run out and buy property several hundred miles away!

Information is vital to good, sound real estate investing. No, good information is vital to sound real estate investing. No, actually, you, the buyer, gathering a ton of information about a property you plan to buy, is absolutely necessary in order to increase your odds for success at real estate investing! Phew! Okay, so we got that straight. So how do you get information and how do you get quality information? Do you call a few realtors and ask them about the area? That?s like asking a barber if you need a haircut. What about calling the local chamber of commerce? A local chamber of commerce is a good starting point, but it depends on who you speak with. For instance, you might speak to a person trying to market the area to bring business or improvement to the area. You may or may not get accurate information or the correct data given your investment goals.

Talk to multiple sources. Make several phone calls to different businesses. A reputable developer in the area can be an excellent resource for connecting you to other phone numbers to contact and possibly even some of their personal contacts.

Verify everything! Verify every statement a seller makes. If you can get someone to take pictures of the property you?re buying, that?s very important. If you?re buying vacant land, you?ll want to know if the lot is buildable, in a flood zone, zoning, utilities, sewer, and the surrounding neighborhood and subdivision.

When you contact municipalities, be sure to call back several times if you do not get a cooperative person on the phone. For some reason, people down south are nicer. They tend to spend more time on the phone with you and bear with you while you struggle to put two and two together. Don?t be afraid to let information sink into your head while you?re on the phone and ask the person on the line to wait while you write things down.

It pays to prepare for phone calls. Write down questions. It pays to have a questionnaire available. If you use ours feel free to make it your own. If you do not understand a terminology you can contact us or look it up online at any real estate investment website. Log all of your phone contacts and write down names and extensions of helpful people.

Another good source of information will be the local paper of that area. There you will find classifieds and legal notices which can give you an idea how business is growing and where and when foreclosure auctions are to take place. As you compile more places to follow up with from simply reading the paper, make sure you actually follow up! Many newspapers have websites, but you will not get the same information you will with the actual paper.

Additionally, you may also look into local real estate investor clubs and organizations. Here you will find possible online access to localized forums where you can chat and post questions, possibly make contacts and get further information. Local real estate investment clubs will help to get your foot in the door with other investors. This is important as you can learn what to do?and what not to do.

It cannot be stressed enough that is is very important to log everything you do. Make sure you write it down somewhere so that you may refer back to your notes on paper, rather than in your head. Hopefully, what you write, who you talk to and what you read will allow you to make wise decisions when considering your investment strategies for out of town real estate.

?2006 noobdogs.com

Real Estate Investing By The Numbers: Part 1

In our recent Mastermind Group training session, our key topic of discussion was how to invest by the numbers. The longer that I spend investing in real estate and also evaluating projects around the county, the more and more I am astounded at the lack of knowledge from “so called” professionals. For most individual real estate investments, the level of analysis is not terribly difficult?. You find yourself doing the same thing over and over again. In this article, I will try and share this simplistic view and how you can know more than 95% of the “professionals” in this market.

What You Need To Know? For any investment, there really is 4 things you need to know and guess what, NOBODY gives them to you in a normal sales presentation. Let’s break down each one and how it is obtained:

1)Purchase Equity ? This is one of the simplest to obtain but is easily abused by sales people. What you want to know is what is your purchase price, relative to the actual STREET PRICE; i.e., the price a real individual in the area would pay to own your property. How do you get it? Appraisals, talking with agents in the area, running test ads in newspapers, etc.

2)Annual Appreciation (%) ? Now the witch craft begins?.. This requires a CRYSTAL BALL to look into the future. Because of this, appreciation is an OPINION that you should form on your own?. An “Experts” OPINION is still an opinion and you should treat it as such. To make an opinion, you had to consider things like job growth, lack of similar product, future demand, etc. Bottom line is that you would like to come up with a % number and this takes a little practice but after looking at a few areas, you can pretty easily form an opinion. PLEASE NOTE: If we “project” appreciation rates in an area, we are violating securities laws so we don’t do this. We share all the information about an area and why we like it and then have to leave it up to the individual to form their own opinion. However, when we have decided to introduce a property, we have formed our own OPINION and we like what we see.

3)Annual Cashflow ? Over time, you will either be making or losing money on this investment. It may turn out that small amounts of negative cashflow make sense if the annual appreciation and purchase equity are strong. The components that you have to gather for annual cashflow are

?Gross Annual Income; ?Management Expenses; ?Taxes, Insurance, HOA; ?Interest Expenses; and ?Maintenance Estimates

Fortunately, most of the expenses can be estimated pretty closely. For gross annual income, realize that again, NOBODY can predict the future. So, you can gather market rents data that you believe are comparable, apply any safety factor that you like, and then use that for ESTIMATES.

4)Special Tax Situations ? This is typically an unusual situation for individual investors but applies in areas such as the Go Zone where bonus depreciation can be used.

How Do You Use This Information Suppose you could see EXACTLY what was going to happen into the future?.. Of course, we know this is unrealistic however it still does not hurt to try based on our assumptions.

Suppose you looked into the future and you saw that in 5 years, your net gain on a property was going to be a little over $87,000 with a $21,000 dollar total investment and a little bit of your time. If you KNEW that was GOING to happen, what would you do? Would you purchase the property? Would you pass on the property? Why?

Realize, that for a $21,000 investment, this equates to making 33.9% on your money, year after year after year. That is not too shabby. Let’s apply the “rule of 72″ here which states that you can calculate how long (approximately) it will take to double your money with a certain return %. You take 72% / 33.9% = 2.1 Years to double your money. Is this something that is good?

The answer of course depends on a few factors but let’s put it into perspective. Suppose you invested $100,000 at a steady 33.9% rate of return. In 15 years, then you have now turned that $100,000 into $7.9 Million. Got your attention yet if you KNEW this was going to happen? Of course, if we have to take on all kinds of risks to get that return, then that may, or may not be such a good idea. If, however, it is low risk, now you have the makings of a good investment.

My argument now is that IF YOU COULD SEE INTO THE FUTURE, and you saw this kind of performance, you would be excited. Right? Well, why not pretend we can look into the future and CALCULATE what the future looks like using our 4 KEY parameters above. If we like the “future” answers, and we believe our assumptions, and we believe the risk to be low, isn’t that a prudent approach?

For many non-investors, they believe that real estate investors take on tons of risk and are gun slingers?? Quite contraire, monsieur, that is exactly what we DON’T do. Good investors simply look at all the FACTS, make some estimates of key parameters, estimate future performance, and then play “what if” games to what happens if things don’t work out exactly as thought.

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