Is there Greener Grass to Real Estate Investing?

This may come as a surprise to you but trust me when I tell you the grass is not always greener on the other side.

What kind of oddball do you think I am here making this type of statement as a real estate investing lesson?

Well, for me this lesson was one of those rather costly, hard learned lessons that I’m sharing with you. This is one of the most basic fundamentals when it comes to investing in real estate that far too many people overlook when on the lookout for their first property or gaining more properties. They believe they’d be better off investing in an area other than their own backyard.

They see all the stories of where someone picked up a property cheap and they think, “I wish I could, I would have if I were in an area like that, blah, blah, blah.” Or they think of the area that has seen double-digit appreciation rates and think “if I was only in an area like that.” The fact is whether you’re in a red-hot market or a slowing market, there’s a way for you to make money investing in real estate. It starts by just realizing that you’ve got opportunity in your own backyard to make this a successful business.

Here’s why:

When you’re thinking of investing in real estate, you’re looking for sellers that have some underlying situation that’s causing them to want to sell. Usually, these sellers have a problem of some sort that’s causing some undue pressure. We call these ‘Motivated Sellers’ and if you’re not attracting motivated seller then you’re wasting your time.

And there’s not an area in the country without motivated sellers!

The problem with thinking the grass is greener in another market keeps you from looking in your own backyard for the next profitable deal.

Even though, this sounds basic, it’s easy to fall into this line of thinking. At one point, I was convinced that I could work another market that was nearly 4 hours from where I lived. I’ve got to confess that this was a costly lesson.

While you can make money in another market, I was stepping over dollars in my own backyard to pick up dimes in a completely different market. See I tried building my business wide instead of building it deep in my own market. Lesson Learned.

See, I want you to focus on your own market, instead of making the mistake of spreading yourself too thin. Once I realized this lesson, I refocused my business and started building it like a business instead of a mom and pop shop. See, so many people are opportunist and just look for wherever they could make a potential buck. Just realize you know more about what’s going on in your own backyard than anywhere else. Also, it’s imperative that you work to build key relationships with people in your business. This was a major problem when attempting to do deals in too many markets - you’ve got to find new contractors, new realtors, new closing agents, and new investors to flip to. It’s like basically starting from scratch in every aspect.

So, the key lesson is to stick to your own backyard and master the system before you even think of looking outside your area.

About the Author

Derek Pierce is a full time real estate investor and business owner, who, now reveals how he went from corporate slave to Real Estate Success in with his Free E- Coaching Program. To sign up for the Free Program, go to http://www.thereisecrets.com

Real Estate Investing - 4 Steps to Moving Beyond the Fear

Do you find yourself fearful of getting started in real estate investing? Are you unable to take action because of uncertainty and doubt? You’re not alone. Here are 4 easy steps to moving beyond the fear of investing in real estate.

1. Group the Real Estate Investing Process into Bigger Manageable Pieces

One reason why you might be fearful and uncertain about moving forward as a real estate investor is that you feel overwhelmed with all the detail and unknowns.

When you start something new, it often helps to take the entire process and group it into a few (3 or 4 big pieces). The idea is that a 3 or 4 step process you can understand and grasp in one thought. A 19 step process is overwhelming and when you are overwhelmed you tend to freeze up.

I am not suggesting you oversimplify and not look at the details. I am suggesting that you group and then sub-group each group adding more detail as you get further into the process.

For example, maybe you break down investing into 4 parts:

a. Finding deals
b. Acquiring the property
c. Fixing the property
d. Selling the property

Then, go back through and break “Finding Deals” into 3 or 4 main parts and so on.

2. Walk through the Process in Your Mind First

Once you have the whole process broken down into neat groups, then take an hour or two in a quiet place to walk yourself the entire process. Visualize yourself finding deals and talking to the motivated sellers. See yourself getting financing and closing on the property and so on.

Notice any parts you feel uneasy about and write them down. Then write down what you know and do not understand about the process. Then go back and learn more about that before you visualize the entire process again.

3. Take the next step

Take the next step every day. Each day, just take the next step in the process of buying the house. This is not a race to get the end fastest. The first deal is your learning process. Take your time and work through each step like you visualized in your mind.

4. Minimize your risk

Eliminate the fear by deciding to only do a low or no-risk deal. I suggest that new investors start out wholesaling houses where they have very little invested in the deal.

By limiting your risk and knowing that you are only at risk for the $20 you put up as an option fee, you can move forward through the fear or remove the fear completely.

Real Estate Investing - Made Easy

It takes time and effort for a real estate investor to locate a deal. There are lots of properties for sale, but finding the deals has not always been easy. Fortunately, many tools and websites now available are making it easier. There are sites which help generate leads from motivated sellers and there are sites which provide valuable information to assist the investor in determining property values. As a result, investors can get leads and do most of their analysis before they even see a property.

One site that is good for determining property values, is a subscription site called Real Quest (http://www.realquest.com). Real Quest allows subscribers to look at liens, tax records and comparable sales. Another site, http://www.zillow.com which is free, even shows an aerial view of some properties. In addition, many of the counties across the U.S. now have free access to tax records on-line. And, of course, if the investor is a licensed agent they have access to the MLS. Taking advantage of these and other on-line resources, an investor can calculate the retail value of a property without even seeing it.

Figuring out the offer amount is important, but most deals are won or lost in the negotiation. Before an investor even tries to negotiate price, they need to develop a relationship with the seller. The best way to do this is to listen. Why are they selling? What is their financial situation? Where are they moving to? It?s most important to build rapport. Just listen; there will be plenty of time to ask questions. If the investor can give the seller what they need, it?s much more likely a deal can be made. And, it?s not always about the price; sometimes they need something else, like a certain closing date, help with moving costs, etc.

Some investors focus just on rehabbing properties and don?t have time to screen sellers and locate deals. That?s where the value of a good wholesaler comes in. A wholesaler spends their time locating and negotiating deals and then selling them to investors who rehab properties. The good wholesalers know how to talk to sellers and negotiate the deals. They provide a valuable service when they buy right and some even provide financing for the rehabber.

Unfortunately, wholesalers sometimes have to hold properties longer than they plan. When that happens, holding costs are passed on to rehabbers and prices increase.

The good news is, the Internet is just starting to change that too. Wholesalers can now use on-line real estate investor auctions, e-mail lists or other creative Internet strategies to quickly find buyers for their deals. And thanks to the Internet, the wholesaler can cut their holding costs and pass those savings to the rehabber. As a result, everyone wins.

If you?re a real estate investor and you?re not using the Internet to locate, analyze or sell your deals, you?re missing out on a great opportunity to save time and cut your costs.

About the Author:

Tom Wood is a real estate investor and broker in St. Louis, MO. He owns and operates an internet auction site for real estate investors to buy and sell properties. http://www.reiauctions.com

Time Is Money For Real Estate Investing

A popular phrase is that time is money. I’m sure you’ve heard that - right?

Well let me ask you something, if time is money, then how are you investing your time in your real estate investment business? Is it a profitable investment?

Are you doing things that will bring a return on your investment or are you wasting the one equal resource among all of us? With so many opportunities available to us, sometimes it’s easy to get caught up watching what everyone else is doing instead of minding our own business. See, as a real estate entrepreneur you must constantly be on guard to always respect and honor your time.

So, allow me to go over the areas that you should be investing your time. These areas are the most important areas for you to see real growth in your real estate investment business.

First, you should focus on your marketing systems to continuously bring you leads of motivated sellers every single month that will beg you to buy their home. The marketing of your business is the lifeblood to its growth. As you are first starting out, you may have a limited budget; therefore you must focus on low cost, direct response strategies to get people to act immediately. Then, as you complete a few deals, re-invest a percentage of your profits back into your business for marketing.

Next, you must focus on building relationships. Everyone that you meet may know of someone that you could help out. When you think of building relationships, think about the people that see motivated sellers all day long and work to build alliances with these people as they can refer you business every single month. After all, many of these businesses are advertising and it’s impossible for them to assist everyone that comes through the doors. For example, if you develop a relationship with a mortgage company, they could refer you leads of homeowners that are in default that call trying to refinance before they are foreclosed on. You could by their house to stop the foreclosure. See, these types of loans are almost impossible to do and you could be helping the mortgage company by taking care of their customer. And as a result, you’ll get repeat business.

The next area I want to discuss is mastering the art of negotiations with motivated sellers. You must first learn to build rapport with each seller before talking about any numbers relating to the house that you’re looking to purchase. It’s a proven fact that negotiations will go better for you if the party likes you. So, find an in that you can talk about with the seller, then slowly move into talking about the house focusing on a solution for the pain they are going through by owning the property.

Finally, last and certainly not least, your exit strategy becomes one of the major pieces to this puzzle that you must master to creating big paydays. Many times this can be a tougher area to crack because all your focus has been on how to acquire the deal and not on how to sell it. Just look at most real estate forums and you’ll see everyone wants to focus on the latest, greatest way to acquire a deal. Master your exit strategies and create a systemized approach to getting out of deals in record time.

So, if you want to grow your business to where you are doing 1-2 deals or more per month then you need a system that is constantly working for you bringing you deals in every month. These systems help to take the guesswork out of what you should do next. Now, invest your time wisely creating systems in these four areas and watch your real estate investment business grow!

About the Author

Derek Pierce, full time Real Estate Investor, shows
you the exact strategies to his success in his Free Book: “How I
Went From Corporate Guinea Pig To Real Estate Success”. Get
your copy and Real Estate Investing Tips by going to http://www.thereisecrets.com

Selecting an Answering Service for Your Real Estate Investing Business

Here’s how I have my real estate investing business call system set up and what I look for in an answering service.

First, I have all different types of my marketing out to find motivated sellers. I use things like classified ads that have my toll free 24 hour recorded information line telephone number on it. I use different extensions for each type of marketing. So, my classified ad in the weekly free newspaper has a different extension than my post it notes that I have delivered door to door in my farm neighborhoods.

When a motivated seller sees my advertisement and wants additional information they can NOT call me directly. They must go through my 24 hour recorded information line to listen to a pre-recorded message that is about 5 minutes long and explains to them in my best presentation voice, the benefits of them working with me and having me buy their house.

Once they have listened to the message, I give usually give them two options: go to my website and submit a form or call me directly.

If they decide to go to my website, they fill out a web based property information form which is directly loaded into my Real Estate Investor Database contact and business management account for me to deal with when I am ready to talk to motivated sellers.

If they decide to call my office directly, they actually do not call me. They call my 24 hour answering service. Here are some things I look for in an answering service.

First, I must be able to forward my phone number to them. I have my system set up so that the 24 hour recorded information line actually forwards the call to the answering service instead of having the seller hang up and call into a separate number. I prefer this and it requires that the answering service give you a local number (not a toll free number) because, as I understand it, you can not forward one toll free number to another toll free number.

Second, they must be willing to input the leads into my Real Estate Investor Database for me directly. Imagine getting over 100 leads in a few days and having to manually add each one to your contact management system. It is a real pain, so the service must be willing to add the new leads directly into my contact management system (which is web based).

Third, they must be reasonably priced. What is reasonably priced? I think less than 50 cents per call is reasonable. If they are going to charge a monthly fee it should be a monthly minimum against calls and not a monthly fee in addition to a per call fee.

Fourth, they must have reasonably good response time. You do not want your motivated sellers on hold for 10 minutes waiting to get through. You want them to wait no more than 2 minutes and most times they should be able to get through immediately.

Those are the qualifications I look for in a live answering service for my buying system.

Time Is Money For Real Estate Investing

A popular phrase is that time is money. I’m sure you’ve heard that - right?

Well let me ask you something, if time is money, then how are you investing your time in your real estate investment business? Is it a profitable investment?

Are you doing things that will bring a return on your investment or are you wasting the one equal resource among all of us? With so many opportunities available to us, sometimes it’s easy to get caught up watching what everyone else is doing instead of minding our own business. See, as a real estate entrepreneur you must constantly be on guard to always respect and honor your time.

So, allow me to go over the areas that you should be investing your time. These areas are the most important areas for you to see real growth in your real estate investment business.

First, you should focus on your marketing systems to continuously bring you leads of motivated sellers every single month that will beg you to buy their home. The marketing of your business is the lifeblood to its growth. As you are first starting out, you may have a limited budget; therefore you must focus on low cost, direct response strategies to get people to act immediately. Then, as you complete a few deals, re-invest a percentage of your profits back into your business for marketing.

Next, you must focus on building relationships. Everyone that you meet may know of someone that you could help out. When you think of building relationships, think about the people that see motivated sellers all day long and work to build alliances with these people as they can refer you business every single month. After all, many of these businesses are advertising and it’s impossible for them to assist everyone that comes through the doors. For example, if you develop a relationship with a mortgage company, they could refer you leads of homeowners that are in default that call trying to refinance before they are foreclosed on. You could by their house to stop the foreclosure. See, these types of loans are almost impossible to do and you could be helping the mortgage company by taking care of their customer. And as a result, you’ll get repeat business.

The next area I want to discuss is mastering the art of negotiations with motivated sellers. You must first learn to build rapport with each seller before talking about any numbers relating to the house that you’re looking to purchase. It’s a proven fact that negotiations will go better for you if the party likes you. So, find an in that you can talk about with the seller, then slowly move into talking about the house focusing on a solution for the pain they are going through by owning the property.

Finally, last and certainly not least, your exit strategy becomes one of the major pieces to this puzzle that you must master to creating big paydays. Many times this can be a tougher area to crack because all your focus has been on how to acquire the deal and not on how to sell it. Just look at most real estate forums and you’ll see everyone wants to focus on the latest, greatest way to acquire a deal. Master your exit strategies and create a systemized approach to getting out of deals in record time.

So, if you want to grow your business to where you are doing 1-2 deals or more per month then you need a system that is constantly working for you bringing you deals in every month. These systems help to take the guesswork out of what you should do next. Now, invest your time wisely creating systems in these four areas and watch your real estate investment business grow!

About the Author

Derek Pierce, full time Real Estate Investor, shows
you the exact strategies to his success in his Free Book: “How I
Went From Corporate Guinea Pig To Real Estate Success”. Get
your copy and Real Estate Investing Tips by going to http://www.thereisecrets.com

Private Money For Real Estate Investing - Get Confident - Get Flexible!

What?s so great about having private money for real estate investing? Have you ever looked a fantastic deal square in the eye and had to walk away because you weren?t in a position to move on it? If so, ready access to private money could have made the difference.

Having a reliable supply of private money for real estate investing gives you two things you need to be super-successful? confidence and flexibility. Let?s see why?

First, imagine that your marketing is working like it should, and you?re getting calls from highly motivated sellers anxious to get out from under their property. Further, let?s assume you?re already in the middle of a deal or two, and you have, say, a quarter of a million dollars tied up for the next few months.

You get a call from Mr. Gotta Getoutnow, who has already moved and is shouldering two huge house payments. His vacant house, valued conservatively at $190,000, is costing him a cool $1200 each month? and he hasn?t lived in it for 6 months! He?s willing ? even anxious - to let it go, if you?ll just cash him out of his mortgage to the tune of $132,000.

Unfortunately, your marginal credit rating won?t permit another loan, your cash is tapped, and your house is already mortgaged to the hilt for those other deals you?ve got working. How much confidence do you have on the phone with Mr. Getoutnow? My guess? not much! But how much could you have if you knew you had access to a half million or so in private money for real estate investing?

See the difference? I thought so!

Now, when you get his call, instead of hemming and hawing about some nebulous ?creative acquisition techniques? you?ve used successfully in the past, trying to impress him with your vast knowledge and experience, you simply tell Mr. Getoutnow, ?I?ll be right over,? and off you go to get the house under contract. You have the confidence to do this because you know, comfortably resting in your hip pocket, is all the private money for real estate investing you could possibly need!

What about flexibility? How does private money for real estate investing give you that?

The answer is in the options private money for real estate investing gives you. Let?s face it, the number one stress inducer in real estate ? other than tenants ? has got to be obtaining financing and working with lenders. Why? Because they want so much freakin? information, that?s why.

If you?re like me, you can?t stand filling out all those forms banks ask you to fill out. What could they possibly need all that information for anyway? I mean, come on. It?s a loan, here?s the property, it?s worth $150k, I need a loan for $100K, what?s the problem? When you have private money for real estate investing, you don?t fill out forms!

Not only that, but what?s up with those lenders having to hammer my credit report every time I get a loan? First there?s an inquiry, then they add the loan to my list of debts, so the whole world knows my business. I?m definitely NOT down with that. Now that I have all the private money for real estate investing I could possibly need, there?s no hits on my credit report, and nobody ever sees the debt listed. I don?t have to worry the next time I go to apply for a car loan that I?m going to have to answer a whole bunch of stupid, embarrassing questions. I?m a happy guy!

Heck, I?m just about the most confident, flexible guy in town, thanks to my ability to raise private money for real estate investing! I can?t say this strongly enough?

You?ve got to figure out how to get some of your own!

For more information, and a more in-depth article, visit Private Money For Real Estate Investing on my website.

Now, go make more offers!

Selecting an Answering Service for Your Real Estate Investing Business

Here’s how I have my real estate investing business call system set up and what I look for in an answering service.

First, I have all different types of my marketing out to find motivated sellers. I use things like classified ads that have my toll free 24 hour recorded information line telephone number on it. I use different extensions for each type of marketing. So, my classified ad in the weekly free newspaper has a different extension than my post it notes that I have delivered door to door in my farm neighborhoods.

When a motivated seller sees my advertisement and wants additional information they can NOT call me directly. They must go through my 24 hour recorded information line to listen to a pre-recorded message that is about 5 minutes long and explains to them in my best presentation voice, the benefits of them working with me and having me buy their house.

Once they have listened to the message, I give usually give them two options: go to my website and submit a form or call me directly.

If they decide to go to my website, they fill out a web based property information form which is directly loaded into my Real Estate Investor Database contact and business management account for me to deal with when I am ready to talk to motivated sellers.

If they decide to call my office directly, they actually do not call me. They call my 24 hour answering service. Here are some things I look for in an answering service.

First, I must be able to forward my phone number to them. I have my system set up so that the 24 hour recorded information line actually forwards the call to the answering service instead of having the seller hang up and call into a separate number. I prefer this and it requires that the answering service give you a local number (not a toll free number) because, as I understand it, you can not forward one toll free number to another toll free number.

Second, they must be willing to input the leads into my Real Estate Investor Database for me directly. Imagine getting over 100 leads in a few days and having to manually add each one to your contact management system. It is a real pain, so the service must be willing to add the new leads directly into my contact management system (which is web based).

Third, they must be reasonably priced. What is reasonably priced? I think less than 50 cents per call is reasonable. If they are going to charge a monthly fee it should be a monthly minimum against calls and not a monthly fee in addition to a per call fee.

Fourth, they must have reasonably good response time. You do not want your motivated sellers on hold for 10 minutes waiting to get through. You want them to wait no more than 2 minutes and most times they should be able to get through immediately.

Those are the qualifications I look for in a live answering service for my buying system.

Selecting an Answering Service for Your Real Estate Investing Business

Here’s how I have my real estate investing business call system set up and what I look for in an answering service.

First, I have all different types of my marketing out to find motivated sellers. I use things like classified ads that have my toll free 24 hour recorded information line telephone number on it. I use different extensions for each type of marketing. So, my classified ad in the weekly free newspaper has a different extension than my post it notes that I have delivered door to door in my farm neighborhoods.

When a motivated seller sees my advertisement and wants additional information they can NOT call me directly. They must go through my 24 hour recorded information line to listen to a pre-recorded message that is about 5 minutes long and explains to them in my best presentation voice, the benefits of them working with me and having me buy their house.

Once they have listened to the message, I give usually give them two options: go to my website and submit a form or call me directly.

If they decide to go to my website, they fill out a web based property information form which is directly loaded into my Real Estate Investor Database contact and business management account for me to deal with when I am ready to talk to motivated sellers.

If they decide to call my office directly, they actually do not call me. They call my 24 hour answering service. Here are some things I look for in an answering service.

First, I must be able to forward my phone number to them. I have my system set up so that the 24 hour recorded information line actually forwards the call to the answering service instead of having the seller hang up and call into a separate number. I prefer this and it requires that the answering service give you a local number (not a toll free number) because, as I understand it, you can not forward one toll free number to another toll free number.

Second, they must be willing to input the leads into my Real Estate Investor Database for me directly. Imagine getting over 100 leads in a few days and having to manually add each one to your contact management system. It is a real pain, so the service must be willing to add the new leads directly into my contact management system (which is web based).

Third, they must be reasonably priced. What is reasonably priced? I think less than 50 cents per call is reasonable. If they are going to charge a monthly fee it should be a monthly minimum against calls and not a monthly fee in addition to a per call fee.

Fourth, they must have reasonably good response time. You do not want your motivated sellers on hold for 10 minutes waiting to get through. You want them to wait no more than 2 minutes and most times they should be able to get through immediately.

Those are the qualifications I look for in a live answering service for my buying system.

Is there Greener Grass to Real Estate Investing?

This may come as a surprise to you but trust me when I tell you the grass is not always greener on the other side.

What kind of oddball do you think I am here making this type of statement as a real estate investing lesson?

Well, for me this lesson was one of those rather costly, hard learned lessons that I’m sharing with you. This is one of the most basic fundamentals when it comes to investing in real estate that far too many people overlook when on the lookout for their first property or gaining more properties. They believe they’d be better off investing in an area other than their own backyard.

They see all the stories of where someone picked up a property cheap and they think, “I wish I could, I would have if I were in an area like that, blah, blah, blah.” Or they think of the area that has seen double-digit appreciation rates and think “if I was only in an area like that.” The fact is whether you’re in a red-hot market or a slowing market, there’s a way for you to make money investing in real estate. It starts by just realizing that you’ve got opportunity in your own backyard to make this a successful business.

Here’s why:

When you’re thinking of investing in real estate, you’re looking for sellers that have some underlying situation that’s causing them to want to sell. Usually, these sellers have a problem of some sort that’s causing some undue pressure. We call these ‘Motivated Sellers’ and if you’re not attracting motivated seller then you’re wasting your time.

And there’s not an area in the country without motivated sellers!

The problem with thinking the grass is greener in another market keeps you from looking in your own backyard for the next profitable deal.

Even though, this sounds basic, it’s easy to fall into this line of thinking. At one point, I was convinced that I could work another market that was nearly 4 hours from where I lived. I’ve got to confess that this was a costly lesson.

While you can make money in another market, I was stepping over dollars in my own backyard to pick up dimes in a completely different market. See I tried building my business wide instead of building it deep in my own market. Lesson Learned.

See, I want you to focus on your own market, instead of making the mistake of spreading yourself too thin. Once I realized this lesson, I refocused my business and started building it like a business instead of a mom and pop shop. See, so many people are opportunist and just look for wherever they could make a potential buck. Just realize you know more about what’s going on in your own backyard than anywhere else. Also, it’s imperative that you work to build key relationships with people in your business. This was a major problem when attempting to do deals in too many markets - you’ve got to find new contractors, new realtors, new closing agents, and new investors to flip to. It’s like basically starting from scratch in every aspect.

So, the key lesson is to stick to your own backyard and master the system before you even think of looking outside your area.

About the Author

Derek Pierce is a full time real estate investor and business owner, who, now reveals how he went from corporate slave to Real Estate Success in with his Free E- Coaching Program. To sign up for the Free Program, go to http://www.thereisecrets.com

Next Page »