Real Estate Investing: Buy To Rent, No Money Down

The market for rental houses is as strong as the demand for new homes. Why not have your cake and eat it too through buying to rent!
With home sales at a record high, it might surprise you to know there is an equally strong market for rental properties. A constantly moving population of business professionals and financial over extension in the 1990s are the primary reasons why an ever-increasing number of people will be renting suitable properties instead of buying a home this year. This is great news for real estate investors!

The robust house rental market is allowing smart investors to have their cake and eat it too. Instead of buying a home, fixing it up and trying to flip it for a profit, real estate investors can turn the home into a rental which provides a positive monthly cash flow. And the home is always there to be sold if the need arises.

It varies by region and the typical age of houses in a particular area, but the general rule for purchasing a property thats optimum for becoming a rental is a house less the fifteen years old with easy access to major highways and shopping areas. Homes should never be out in the middle of nowhere and always less then a forty-five minute drive to major business areas. Three bedroom houses that have central air conditioning and come with all major appliances (including a washer and dryer) are likely to fetch a higher monthly rent.

Many investors shy away from rentals because theyve heard the horror stories told by landlords who chose the wrong tenants. But that has become the exception to the rule. Most people who need to rent a home have good credit, a solid record of on time rent payment and solid employment. Some are professionals whose job requires frequent relocation. Others have purchased a new home and are waiting for it to be built. In places like Phoenix where I live, a population boom has extended the waiting time to move into a new home.

Finding qualified tenants has become easier with inexpensive credit and background checks. Anyone that wants to rent a house knows a credit and background check is all but mandatory. You can avoid tenant nightmares by refusing to rent to anyone with evictions, bankruptcies or judgments against them. Ironically, people with all those things on their credit report can actually purchase a home to live in or rent out with no money down.

There are a number of ways for anyone to purchase homes, apartment buildings or other properties regardless of credit or employment history. All it takes is the right information and persistence. The lazy need not apply, but the rewards are substantial for those who try.

more at http://billknell.tripod.com/buy/money.html

About the Author

A native New Yorker now living in Arizona, Bill Knell is a forty-something guy with a wealth of knowledge and experience. He’s written hundreds of articles on a wide variety of subjects. A popular Speaker, Bill Knell presents seminars on a number of topics that entertain, train and teach. A popular radio and television show Guest, you’ve heard Bill on thousands of top-rated shows in all formats and seen him on local, national and international television programs.

“How To Increase Your Net Worth By $20,000 to $100,000 On Every Real Estate Investing Deal You Do”

Consider these parameters for a real estate deal:

Consider these parameters for a real estate deal:

Property Value: $250,000
Purchase Price: $160,000
Repairs: $2,500

If you analyze the numbers, you see that the equity available in this deal is $87,500 (Property Value minus Purchase Price minus Repairs).

So here’s a hypothetical question for you: Assuming that the information above is accurate, and the property is located in an area that you view as acceptable and/or favorable, then:

If I offered to give you this deal in exchange for $10,000 in cash, would you do it?

Remember - this is hypothetical. The real question here is this:

Would you exchange $10,000 in cash for $87,500 in equity?

For most smart investors, the answer is: Absolutely YES!

And this is called “Wholesale Real Estate Investing” - the process of buying a lot of equity at a very significant discount from another real estate investor who has already done the hard work of finding a deal and getting it under contract.

Just think about that - consider how easy real estate investing would be for you if you had a network of real estate investors in your area (and maybe all over the country) who, several times each month, offered you the opportunity to purchase significant amounts of equity for a severe discount…

…It would be quite easy to become wealthy, wouldn’t it?

The answer is: Yes, it will.

You’ve got to admit - it will be a pretty wonderful thing when you know how to find great real estate deals in which you can trade a small amount of cash for a large amount of equity without even having to find the deal yourself…

…and that’s exactly what wholesale real estate investing is all about.

Wholesale real estate investing is conceptually very simple. Here’s how it works:

First, “Investor A” finds a great real estate deal with a lot of equity. Typically, Investor A will have spent a significant amount of time, money and expertise to find the deal, negotiate the term and get the property under contract. By putting the property under contract, Investor A now has control of the property, and the equity in the property.

(For this example, imagine that Investor A has found a property worth $200,000 and has set a purchase price of $115,000 and he also knows that there are $15,000 in repairs, which leaves an equity position of $70,000).

Second, “Investor A” finds another party, “Investor B”. Investor B recognizes that the contract that Investor A has established is worth $70,000 in equity, and so he strikes a deal with Investor A to turn the deal over to Investor B in exchange for some amount of cash (we’ll use the value of $12,000 in this example).

So Investor A is giving up $70,000 in “potential” profit in exchange for $12,000 in current profit. And Investor A is paying $12,000 because he believes he can make more than that on the deal, since there’s a full $70,000 of equity.

This deal between Investor A and Investor B is called an “Assignment”, because Investor A is assigning the contract to Investor B.

Third, Investor B does his “due diligence” to confirm that the deal is as good as he thinks it is.

Finally, Investor B closes the purchase of the property, and Investor “A” receives the assignment fee from Investor B.

This is, obviously, a simplification of the process. But this is essentially how it works - not so difficult, is it?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Real Estate Investing: Buy To Rent, No Money Down

The market for rental houses is as strong as the demand for new homes. Why not have your cake and eat it too through buying to rent!
With home sales at a record high, it might surprise you to know there is an equally strong market for rental properties. A constantly moving population of business professionals and financial over extension in the 1990s are the primary reasons why an ever-increasing number of people will be renting suitable properties instead of buying a home this year. This is great news for real estate investors!

The robust house rental market is allowing smart investors to have their cake and eat it too. Instead of buying a home, fixing it up and trying to flip it for a profit, real estate investors can turn the home into a rental which provides a positive monthly cash flow. And the home is always there to be sold if the need arises.

It varies by region and the typical age of houses in a particular area, but the general rule for purchasing a property thats optimum for becoming a rental is a house less the fifteen years old with easy access to major highways and shopping areas. Homes should never be out in the middle of nowhere and always less then a forty-five minute drive to major business areas. Three bedroom houses that have central air conditioning and come with all major appliances (including a washer and dryer) are likely to fetch a higher monthly rent.

Many investors shy away from rentals because theyve heard the horror stories told by landlords who chose the wrong tenants. But that has become the exception to the rule. Most people who need to rent a home have good credit, a solid record of on time rent payment and solid employment. Some are professionals whose job requires frequent relocation. Others have purchased a new home and are waiting for it to be built. In places like Phoenix where I live, a population boom has extended the waiting time to move into a new home.

Finding qualified tenants has become easier with inexpensive credit and background checks. Anyone that wants to rent a house knows a credit and background check is all but mandatory. You can avoid tenant nightmares by refusing to rent to anyone with evictions, bankruptcies or judgments against them. Ironically, people with all those things on their credit report can actually purchase a home to live in or rent out with no money down.

There are a number of ways for anyone to purchase homes, apartment buildings or other properties regardless of credit or employment history. All it takes is the right information and persistence. The lazy need not apply, but the rewards are substantial for those who try.

more at http://billknell.tripod.com/buy/money.html

About the Author

A native New Yorker now living in Arizona, Bill Knell is a forty-something guy with a wealth of knowledge and experience. He’s written hundreds of articles on a wide variety of subjects. A popular Speaker, Bill Knell presents seminars on a number of topics that entertain, train and teach. A popular radio and television show Guest, you’ve heard Bill on thousands of top-rated shows in all formats and seen him on local, national and international television programs.

The Changing World of Real Estate Investing

THE REAL ESTATE FAD IS OVER! If you?ve been dreaming of ?Flipping? real estate because you?ve heard of people making a fortune flipping houses - YOU ARE TOO LATE! The real estate fad has come and gone!

Like all fads, the ?Flipping Real Estate Fad? lasted only a short period of time. This is not the first get rich quick fad to occur and it certainly won?t be the last. Whether it?s flipping real estate, day trading stocks, breeding ostrich eggs, or trading tulips, our history is replete with examples of get rich quick fads that took the world by storm and ended badly for nearly everyone.

One of the first recorded examples of a get rich quick fad was the Tulip Craze that occurred in the Netherlands in the 1600?s. Tulips had just recently been imported from Turkey into the Netherlands. Many of the richest Dutch citizens started collecting the flowers and proudly displayed them in their homes. As time went by, the middle class took notice that this flower was so prized by the rich, and also started collecting the flowers. Before long, everyone wanted tulips and tulip bulbs and the prices started going up. As the prices rose, people started trading tulip bulbs as if they were a commodity or a stock. Someone would hear of a neighbor that had traded a tulip bulb and made a big profit. The neighbor also wanted to cash in on this new venture. Before long, it seemed like everyone was trading tulip bulbs. It got so ridiculous, that entire estates and life-savings were traded for a single tulip bulb!

At some point, prices became so ridiculously high that a few smart investors realized that the tulip fad couldn?t continue forever. These ?smart money? investors sold their entire stock of tulip bulbs and locked in their massive profits. Others followed suit and soon it became apparent that the market for the bulbs had disappeared. Suddenly, everyone wanted to sell their tulip bulbs and there were no buyers. In no time, panic selling caused prices to drop so far and so many people lost money that the country?s economy was propelled into a depression. So ended one of the world?s first recorded Get Rich Quick Fads.

Get Rich Quick Fads have continued to occur from the time of the great tulip craze to the present. The technology bubble of the late 1990?s was a prime example of one of these fads. The price of internet and technology stocks soared. Many of these inflated stocks were of companies that had no way to make money. Many thought that the price of technology stocks would continue to go up forever, because ?this time things are different?. RIDICULOUS! The value of a company who can?t make money is ZERO! People were blinded by greed and simply didn?t realize this reality until the crash occurred.

The economy of the United States took a double hit in the first two years of the new millennium. First, the tech bubble burst taking the entire stock market down with it. Then, a small group of terrorists brought our country?s economy to its knees with the attack on the twin towers of the world trade center. In response, the Fed lowered interest rates to a 40 year low. This lowering of interest rates along with the introduction of relaxed lending practices kept our country?s economy strong and opened up the possibility of home ownership (and real estate investment) to more Americans than ever before.

The increased demand for real estate also increased the demand for all real estate services. Homebuilders, realtors, rehabbers, appraisers, lenders, and everyone else in any real estate related business prospered. The demand for houses exceeded the supply and many smart investors began to speculate on houses. This was the birth of the house flipping craze! As the smart money began to make money ?flipping?, the middle class took notice and also started flipping. Before long, it seemed like everyone was flipping property for a nice profit. Demand for houses increased and it seemed like there was no limit to house prices. New investors entering the flipping business drove up the demand for houses, which increased the prices. The more prices went up, the more new investors entered the market and bid up prices even higher. It became a vicious cycle. It got so ridiculous that new ?investors? would camp out in hot markets just for the chance to bid on pre-construction projects.

This vicious cycle continued through late 2005, at which time the real estate bubble started to deflate. The smart money realized that prices had gotten ridiculously high and that the end was near. These ?smart money? investors started selling their real estate portfolios

The real estate fad is over. Demand has dried up and the number of houses on the market is increasing. In many areas, prices have already started down and this trend will surely increase as time goes by. The home buyers and ?investors? who used interest-only loans, negative amortization loans, and adjustable rate loans over the past few years will soon have payments that are drastically higher, when their promotional rates expire. Millions of these people will not be able to afford the higher payments and will lose their homes to foreclosure. All of these millions of additional houses on the market will further depress prices and prices will likely stay low for many years to come. The flipping fad is ending as suddenly as it began. With the lack of retail buyers, there simply isn?t a demand for flipped houses. Millions of the new ?investors? that started flipping during the recent fad will go out of business, losing a lot of money.

Why have I gone to the trouble to write such a gloomy report? Is this story over? NO! The TRUTH is that there always has been and always will be big money to be made in real estate. However, the money to be made isn?t in flipping or in the latest fad!

For me and others like me, the real estate bust will be very profitable. You see, I am not a ?Flipper? and I was not caught up in the recent real estate fad. I am in the rental property BUSINESS and I offer a product that people ALWAYS NEED?..a place to live!

There are MILLIONS of millionaires in the United States?…seven million millionaires to be exact. Many of those millionaires made their money owning rental properties. Rental properties are needed in all markets because people need a place to live. In fact, as the real estate market gets worse, more people will become renters.

Just today, I received a call from a woman who was looking for a house to rent. The reason that they needed a place to rent is that their house had been foreclosed upon. She explained that their mortgage payment started out at $600 per month with one of those gimmick introductory rate loans. Recently, their loan payment had gone up to nearly $1,100 per month and they simply could not afford it. They got behind on payments and the bank is foreclosing on them. Now, they will become my renters.

Why are rentals such a great way to make money, grow rich, build wealth, and retire early? The answer lies in the 5 different ways that we can make money with rentals, often without using any of our own money. The 5 ways to make money with rentals are:

1. Equity at closing!

Rental Properties MUST be purchased at a discount. It is almost impossible to buy a rental property at retail price and then rent it for a profit. The difference between what we pay for the property and the market value of the property is our equity, and can amount to tens of thousands of dollars for each rental property!

2. Cash flow

With rentals, we receive rent from our tenants each month and then pay our operating expenses and the mortgage. The amount of money left over is our cash flow. This is money you can spend for living expenses, to buy a car, for your mortgage payment, or anything else that you like. Cash flow is the lifeblood of every business.

3. Pay Down of Principal

One of the exciting things about rentals is that the tenant pays the mortgage payment and all expenses for us. Over the term of the loan, the mortgage will be paid off and we?ll own the house free and clear!

4. Appreciation

Historically, houses appreciate at 3% to 5% per year. Think of this as the icing on the cake.

Let?s consider a $50,000 rental property. Even if it only appreciates 3% per year, that is another $1,500 in equity that we pick up each year! You?ll note that we didn?t have to do anything to get this equity. All we had to do was continue to own the property!

5. Tax Depreciation

As if the previous four ways of making money weren?t enough, the government has seen fit to allow us to depreciate our rental property. This can be a significant savings on our taxes and is the same as making additional money on your property. As of the writing of this book, properties are depreciated over a 27 1/2 year period. This yearly depreciation can be thousands of dollars per year on a single rental property.

ARE YOU GETTING EXCITED YET?

By reading this article, you have already taken the first step toward improving your financial situation. Where do you want to be at the end of this year? Are you satisfied with your current financial situation? Are you happy working for someone else? Are you in a good position for retirement? Do you dream of the freedom of working for yourself? Would you like to make a significant contribution to your church or favorite charity?

If you do nothing to improve your situation, you will probably end this year in the same position that you ended last year. IF THIS YEAR IS TO BE THE YEAR THAT YOU CHANGE YOUR LIFE, YOU MUST DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT! If you have decided that operating a rental property business might be YOUR PATH TO FREEDOM, then you need to get started. Start with learning all you can about the rental property business and develop a plan to get you from your current position to your desired goal.

Virtual Real Estate Investing in 2006 by Jack Humphrey

Copyright 2006 Tale Chaser Publishing, Inc.

Virtual real estate is becoming more and more lucrative as the “overnight successes” (spam sites) are disappearing due to search engines “sand boxing” all new sites and de-listing spammers.

Gone forever are the days where anyone with moderate experience could come into a market and dominate it within a month or two in the search engines. Since Google and other engines no longer reward new sites of any kind with immediate results, only the mature, savvy e-real estate investor will win the day in 2006.

Smart niche site network publishers have been gearing up for 2006 with solid, well-thought-out site designs, content strategies, and niche research to place content rich sites up with no other goal than to let them grow and season into very valuable properties in 6-8 months time.

Having a site entrenched in the search engines means you have been around for at least 3 months - and that is stretching it. Rewards are coming to those who wait patiently. And only to those content site publishers who build real sites, not the spammy sites we were all waiting anxiously to disappear from the engines last year.

Finally, content, which has been referred to as “King” for years, (but treated in reality like a cheap whore until recently) is truly the focus of smart investors looking to build a network of sites on special niches to attract lucrative advertising and product sales revenue.

Many virtual investors and developers who have built now popular sites are selling their networks for millions today.

And this is the real “out.” Smart virtual real estate investors not only build to profit in the short term, but are building popular sites and networks of sites with an eye to cash out big in the coming year.

All it really takes is good research, creativity in isolating a market, and most of all - patience. The longer you let your network grow and season and the more popular you make it with strong promotion tactics, the more it is worth to investors who are looking for any site network that moves traffic.

The second level of virtual real estate investing is buying up networks of content sites and focusing the traffic on profitable product lines, affiliate product sales, services of all kinds, and for advertising revenue.

Investors who sell traffic via banner advertising, pay per click, and any number of text linking schemes always seem to have a higher demand for ad space than traffic supply. This will continue to be the case in the coming years and smart niche site publishers are banking on the advertising industry’s insatiable appetite for good targeted traffic.

Once people get over the Adsense boom and bust period of 2005, they will start to realize that Adsense is merely “funded research” and the big game is the virtual properties themselves.

Biggest mistake in 2006?

Spam sites! Once they are dropped out of the engines, and they all have been or will be soon, they are totally valueless. Complete and utter failures from the domain name to the time and money poured into them.

Yet publishers who go the extra mile and exercise a modicum of respect for their industry are still floating the wave of profits by creating real sites.

Think about it this way: A publisher who starts from nothing today and builds one rich content site per week in 2006 is going to have about 52 sites this time next year.

With a good marketing plan for each site which includes no SEO tricks and nothing even “grey hat” in the mix, she should have the ability to isolate 10 sites in her network worth spending more time on than the others. This is given that the revenue model for each of the 10 sites is producing at least $10 per day.

Turning those 10 sites into $30 a day earners can pluck up over $100,000.00 in revenue in a year’s time! With good research on profitable niches to provide with good content, and a simple but solid marketing plan for each site, anyone with the proper training and patience can get into the game.

Now the publisher in the above example is pulling in $300 per day with just 10 sites. Last year it took upwards of 100 or more spam sites to do the same thing with no hope it would continue from day to day depending on when the engines caught up with them and de-listed them.

The publisher in the above example can keep that money rolling in indefinitely without fear because her 10 sites are perfect content sites that search engines love. No tricks and no spam software involved.

A publisher can then go on to find the next 10 winners in their network or continue to focus on the current 10 with an eye on drastically improving one or all of the sites’ profit margins with ramped up marketing and content development.

Now comes the great part. A publisher who finds their 10 winners and develops them into sites that average 300-500 visitors per day each now has a network of sites pulling in 3000-5000 eyeballs each and every day.

Depending on the markets served with the 10 winners, a site network like this, which has proven revenue and traffic, can easily value from $150,000.00 and up these days.

Why? Because of the traffic, proven profits, and the quality of the sites themselves. This is something that was totally forgotten in the Adsense spam site days. The guys who built 5000 sites with no more value than a single, traffic-less affiliate casino site have lost everything they worked for. Once they were out of the engines, they were out of business.

And they have nothing to sell. No assets. No content means no value. No search engine rankings means no serious traffic and no revenue.

But the publisher who built just 10 content sites last year that are now doing at least $30 each per day is sitting on not only $109,500.00 gross yearly revenue, but also a network worth far more than that which they can sell to rabid investors looking for just such a deal to land in their lap each and every day.

Again, all it takes is knowing the niche publishing industry and the tactics for creating and marketing content rich niche sites and a little patience.

This is what the market wants. All you have to do is give it the elbow grease it deserves to reap massive profits down the relatively short road to success.

About the Author

Jack Humphrey is the managing partner of http://www.contentdesk.com and author of the renowned Power Linking series of internet marketing courses. More information on the niche publishing industry can be found at http://www.contentdesk.com/csb

Real Estate Investment: The Benefit of Investing

The successful real estate investor never makes a real estate investment because it’s romantic. Real estate is not purchased, held, or sold on emotion for it’s neither love nor beauty that compels. As one real estate investor put it, “Only women are beautiful.”

Real estate investing is about the return on investment. And real estate investors trying to decide whether there is a potential benefit to purchase, hold on to, or to sell rental income property rely on four basic returns inherent in real estate investment property to make that decision.

Understanding these investment decision basics, where they come from, and how to calculate them is what fuels real estate investment success.

1. Cash flow. All real estate investment property ebbs and flows with a stream of money coming in from rents and other income, and money going out for operating expenses and debt service (loan payment). Cash in minus cash out results in cash flow. When more cash comes in than goes out the result is positive cash flow, and when more is spent than received the result is negative cash flow.

The goal of course, especially for the small investor without deep pockets, is to be sure the property always produces enough cash to pay the bills. Before making the investment, prudent investors should always run the numbers and look for the benefit of positive cash flow.

2. Appreciation. Another benefit of real estate investment is the tendency for real estate to grow in value over time in what is known as appreciation. Future selling price minus original purchase price equals appreciation. Straightforward enough, but smart real estate investors don’t leave appreciation to chance–they follow the income stream.

Smart investors understand that other real estate investors buy the income stream of rental property (as they do). The more income stream they can sell, therefore the more they can expect their property to be worth; the faster they can increase the income stream, the sooner the property will most likely appreciate.

Thus, successful real estate investors consider market and economic conditions, physical improvements, and operating expenses to determine the likelihood of increasing property value. The result of a favorable location, a positive shift in supply and demand, a good probability to demand higher rents or lower vacancies, or an opportunity to reduce wasteful expenditures are all issues that could effect appreciation and are carefully considered by thriving real estate investors.

3. Loan Amortization. Amortization means to reduce periodically and hence, loan amortization suggests a periodic reduction of the loan over time. Therefore each time tenants pay the rent they provide cash to pay down the debt and benefit real estate investors by virtually helping them to buy the property.

4. Tax Shelter. Real estate investment also provides an investor the benefit of being able to legally reduce annual or ultimate income taxes.

As a general rule, most costs incurred at the time of purchase are deductible in the year of purchase. All expenses you incur in the operation of the property are deductible. The IRS allows you to deduct the interest you pay on your mortgage. The IRS also assumes that your buildings are wearing out and becoming less valuable over time and therefore allows you take a deduction for that presumed decline in what the tax code calls cost recovery (i.e., depreciation).

Of course there are nuances and exceptions in all tax matters, so real estate investors should always check with a tax expert to be sure what the current tax laws are for the investor in any particular year.

Successful real estate investors are a testament to the benefit of making money with real estate investment property. You can benefit, too. Just be sure to run the numbers, either on your own, with good real estate investment software, or with the help of a real estate professional. Remember, real estate investing isn’t whimsy, its business.

Best of all, real estate investing is profitable when it’s done correctly.

About the Author

James R Kobzeff is an active real estate broker and developer of ProAPOD Real Estate Investment Software - ProAPOD Real Estate Investor Software - real estate investing solutions that put rental property analysis at your fingertips!

Real Estate Investing: Buy To Rent, No Money Down

The market for rental houses is as strong as the demand for new homes. Why not have your cake and eat it too through buying to rent!
With home sales at a record high, it might surprise you to know there is an equally strong market for rental properties. A constantly moving population of business professionals and financial over extension in the 1990s are the primary reasons why an ever-increasing number of people will be renting suitable properties instead of buying a home this year. This is great news for real estate investors!

The robust house rental market is allowing smart investors to have their cake and eat it too. Instead of buying a home, fixing it up and trying to flip it for a profit, real estate investors can turn the home into a rental which provides a positive monthly cash flow. And the home is always there to be sold if the need arises.

It varies by region and the typical age of houses in a particular area, but the general rule for purchasing a property thats optimum for becoming a rental is a house less the fifteen years old with easy access to major highways and shopping areas. Homes should never be out in the middle of nowhere and always less then a forty-five minute drive to major business areas. Three bedroom houses that have central air conditioning and come with all major appliances (including a washer and dryer) are likely to fetch a higher monthly rent.

Many investors shy away from rentals because theyve heard the horror stories told by landlords who chose the wrong tenants. But that has become the exception to the rule. Most people who need to rent a home have good credit, a solid record of on time rent payment and solid employment. Some are professionals whose job requires frequent relocation. Others have purchased a new home and are waiting for it to be built. In places like Phoenix where I live, a population boom has extended the waiting time to move into a new home.

Finding qualified tenants has become easier with inexpensive credit and background checks. Anyone that wants to rent a house knows a credit and background check is all but mandatory. You can avoid tenant nightmares by refusing to rent to anyone with evictions, bankruptcies or judgments against them. Ironically, people with all those things on their credit report can actually purchase a home to live in or rent out with no money down.

There are a number of ways for anyone to purchase homes, apartment buildings or other properties regardless of credit or employment history. All it takes is the right information and persistence. The lazy need not apply, but the rewards are substantial for those who try.

more at http://billknell.tripod.com/buy/money.html

About the Author

A native New Yorker now living in Arizona, Bill Knell is a forty-something guy with a wealth of knowledge and experience. He’s written hundreds of articles on a wide variety of subjects. A popular Speaker, Bill Knell presents seminars on a number of topics that entertain, train and teach. A popular radio and television show Guest, you’ve heard Bill on thousands of top-rated shows in all formats and seen him on local, national and international television programs.

Real Estate Investing: Buy To Rent, No Money Down

The market for rental houses is as strong as the demand for new homes. Why not have your cake and eat it too through buying to rent!
With home sales at a record high, it might surprise you to know there is an equally strong market for rental properties. A constantly moving population of business professionals and financial over extension in the 1990s are the primary reasons why an ever-increasing number of people will be renting suitable properties instead of buying a home this year. This is great news for real estate investors!

The robust house rental market is allowing smart investors to have their cake and eat it too. Instead of buying a home, fixing it up and trying to flip it for a profit, real estate investors can turn the home into a rental which provides a positive monthly cash flow. And the home is always there to be sold if the need arises.

It varies by region and the typical age of houses in a particular area, but the general rule for purchasing a property thats optimum for becoming a rental is a house less the fifteen years old with easy access to major highways and shopping areas. Homes should never be out in the middle of nowhere and always less then a forty-five minute drive to major business areas. Three bedroom houses that have central air conditioning and come with all major appliances (including a washer and dryer) are likely to fetch a higher monthly rent.

Many investors shy away from rentals because theyve heard the horror stories told by landlords who chose the wrong tenants. But that has become the exception to the rule. Most people who need to rent a home have good credit, a solid record of on time rent payment and solid employment. Some are professionals whose job requires frequent relocation. Others have purchased a new home and are waiting for it to be built. In places like Phoenix where I live, a population boom has extended the waiting time to move into a new home.

Finding qualified tenants has become easier with inexpensive credit and background checks. Anyone that wants to rent a house knows a credit and background check is all but mandatory. You can avoid tenant nightmares by refusing to rent to anyone with evictions, bankruptcies or judgments against them. Ironically, people with all those things on their credit report can actually purchase a home to live in or rent out with no money down.

There are a number of ways for anyone to purchase homes, apartment buildings or other properties regardless of credit or employment history. All it takes is the right information and persistence. The lazy need not apply, but the rewards are substantial for those who try.

more at http://billknell.tripod.com/buy/money.html

About the Author

A native New Yorker now living in Arizona, Bill Knell is a forty-something guy with a wealth of knowledge and experience. He’s written hundreds of articles on a wide variety of subjects. A popular Speaker, Bill Knell presents seminars on a number of topics that entertain, train and teach. A popular radio and television show Guest, you’ve heard Bill on thousands of top-rated shows in all formats and seen him on local, national and international television programs.

Real Estate Investing: Buy To Rent, No Money Down

The market for rental houses is as strong as the demand for new homes. Why not have your cake and eat it too through buying to rent!
With home sales at a record high, it might surprise you to know there is an equally strong market for rental properties. A constantly moving population of business professionals and financial over extension in the 1990s are the primary reasons why an ever-increasing number of people will be renting suitable properties instead of buying a home this year. This is great news for real estate investors!

The robust house rental market is allowing smart investors to have their cake and eat it too. Instead of buying a home, fixing it up and trying to flip it for a profit, real estate investors can turn the home into a rental which provides a positive monthly cash flow. And the home is always there to be sold if the need arises.

It varies by region and the typical age of houses in a particular area, but the general rule for purchasing a property thats optimum for becoming a rental is a house less the fifteen years old with easy access to major highways and shopping areas. Homes should never be out in the middle of nowhere and always less then a forty-five minute drive to major business areas. Three bedroom houses that have central air conditioning and come with all major appliances (including a washer and dryer) are likely to fetch a higher monthly rent.

Many investors shy away from rentals because theyve heard the horror stories told by landlords who chose the wrong tenants. But that has become the exception to the rule. Most people who need to rent a home have good credit, a solid record of on time rent payment and solid employment. Some are professionals whose job requires frequent relocation. Others have purchased a new home and are waiting for it to be built. In places like Phoenix where I live, a population boom has extended the waiting time to move into a new home.

Finding qualified tenants has become easier with inexpensive credit and background checks. Anyone that wants to rent a house knows a credit and background check is all but mandatory. You can avoid tenant nightmares by refusing to rent to anyone with evictions, bankruptcies or judgments against them. Ironically, people with all those things on their credit report can actually purchase a home to live in or rent out with no money down.

There are a number of ways for anyone to purchase homes, apartment buildings or other properties regardless of credit or employment history. All it takes is the right information and persistence. The lazy need not apply, but the rewards are substantial for those who try.

more at http://billknell.tripod.com/buy/money.html

About the Author

A native New Yorker now living in Arizona, Bill Knell is a forty-something guy with a wealth of knowledge and experience. He’s written hundreds of articles on a wide variety of subjects. A popular Speaker, Bill Knell presents seminars on a number of topics that entertain, train and teach. A popular radio and television show Guest, you’ve heard Bill on thousands of top-rated shows in all formats and seen him on local, national and international television programs.

The Changing World of Real Estate Investing

THE REAL ESTATE FAD IS OVER! If you?ve been dreaming of ?Flipping? real estate because you?ve heard of people making a fortune flipping houses - YOU ARE TOO LATE! The real estate fad has come and gone!

Like all fads, the ?Flipping Real Estate Fad? lasted only a short period of time. This is not the first get rich quick fad to occur and it certainly won?t be the last. Whether it?s flipping real estate, day trading stocks, breeding ostrich eggs, or trading tulips, our history is replete with examples of get rich quick fads that took the world by storm and ended badly for nearly everyone.

One of the first recorded examples of a get rich quick fad was the Tulip Craze that occurred in the Netherlands in the 1600?s. Tulips had just recently been imported from Turkey into the Netherlands. Many of the richest Dutch citizens started collecting the flowers and proudly displayed them in their homes. As time went by, the middle class took notice that this flower was so prized by the rich, and also started collecting the flowers. Before long, everyone wanted tulips and tulip bulbs and the prices started going up. As the prices rose, people started trading tulip bulbs as if they were a commodity or a stock. Someone would hear of a neighbor that had traded a tulip bulb and made a big profit. The neighbor also wanted to cash in on this new venture. Before long, it seemed like everyone was trading tulip bulbs. It got so ridiculous, that entire estates and life-savings were traded for a single tulip bulb!

At some point, prices became so ridiculously high that a few smart investors realized that the tulip fad couldn?t continue forever. These ?smart money? investors sold their entire stock of tulip bulbs and locked in their massive profits. Others followed suit and soon it became apparent that the market for the bulbs had disappeared. Suddenly, everyone wanted to sell their tulip bulbs and there were no buyers. In no time, panic selling caused prices to drop so far and so many people lost money that the country?s economy was propelled into a depression. So ended one of the world?s first recorded Get Rich Quick Fads.

Get Rich Quick Fads have continued to occur from the time of the great tulip craze to the present. The technology bubble of the late 1990?s was a prime example of one of these fads. The price of internet and technology stocks soared. Many of these inflated stocks were of companies that had no way to make money. Many thought that the price of technology stocks would continue to go up forever, because ?this time things are different?. RIDICULOUS! The value of a company who can?t make money is ZERO! People were blinded by greed and simply didn?t realize this reality until the crash occurred.

The economy of the United States took a double hit in the first two years of the new millennium. First, the tech bubble burst taking the entire stock market down with it. Then, a small group of terrorists brought our country?s economy to its knees with the attack on the twin towers of the world trade center. In response, the Fed lowered interest rates to a 40 year low. This lowering of interest rates along with the introduction of relaxed lending practices kept our country?s economy strong and opened up the possibility of home ownership (and real estate investment) to more Americans than ever before.

The increased demand for real estate also increased the demand for all real estate services. Homebuilders, realtors, rehabbers, appraisers, lenders, and everyone else in any real estate related business prospered. The demand for houses exceeded the supply and many smart investors began to speculate on houses. This was the birth of the house flipping craze! As the smart money began to make money ?flipping?, the middle class took notice and also started flipping. Before long, it seemed like everyone was flipping property for a nice profit. Demand for houses increased and it seemed like there was no limit to house prices. New investors entering the flipping business drove up the demand for houses, which increased the prices. The more prices went up, the more new investors entered the market and bid up prices even higher. It became a vicious cycle. It got so ridiculous that new ?investors? would camp out in hot markets just for the chance to bid on pre-construction projects.

This vicious cycle continued through late 2005, at which time the real estate bubble started to deflate. The smart money realized that prices had gotten ridiculously high and that the end was near. These ?smart money? investors started selling their real estate portfolios

The real estate fad is over. Demand has dried up and the number of houses on the market is increasing. In many areas, prices have already started down and this trend will surely increase as time goes by. The home buyers and ?investors? who used interest-only loans, negative amortization loans, and adjustable rate loans over the past few years will soon have payments that are drastically higher, when their promotional rates expire. Millions of these people will not be able to afford the higher payments and will lose their homes to foreclosure. All of these millions of additional houses on the market will further depress prices and prices will likely stay low for many years to come. The flipping fad is ending as suddenly as it began. With the lack of retail buyers, there simply isn?t a demand for flipped houses. Millions of the new ?investors? that started flipping during the recent fad will go out of business, losing a lot of money.

Why have I gone to the trouble to write such a gloomy report? Is this story over? NO! The TRUTH is that there always has been and always will be big money to be made in real estate. However, the money to be made isn?t in flipping or in the latest fad!

For me and others like me, the real estate bust will be very profitable. You see, I am not a ?Flipper? and I was not caught up in the recent real estate fad. I am in the rental property BUSINESS and I offer a product that people ALWAYS NEED?..a place to live!

There are MILLIONS of millionaires in the United States?…seven million millionaires to be exact. Many of those millionaires made their money owning rental properties. Rental properties are needed in all markets because people need a place to live. In fact, as the real estate market gets worse, more people will become renters.

Just today, I received a call from a woman who was looking for a house to rent. The reason that they needed a place to rent is that their house had been foreclosed upon. She explained that their mortgage payment started out at $600 per month with one of those gimmick introductory rate loans. Recently, their loan payment had gone up to nearly $1,100 per month and they simply could not afford it. They got behind on payments and the bank is foreclosing on them. Now, they will become my renters.

Why are rentals such a great way to make money, grow rich, build wealth, and retire early? The answer lies in the 5 different ways that we can make money with rentals, often without using any of our own money. The 5 ways to make money with rentals are:

1. Equity at closing!

Rental Properties MUST be purchased at a discount. It is almost impossible to buy a rental property at retail price and then rent it for a profit. The difference between what we pay for the property and the market value of the property is our equity, and can amount to tens of thousands of dollars for each rental property!

2. Cash flow

With rentals, we receive rent from our tenants each month and then pay our operating expenses and the mortgage. The amount of money left over is our cash flow. This is money you can spend for living expenses, to buy a car, for your mortgage payment, or anything else that you like. Cash flow is the lifeblood of every business.

3. Pay Down of Principal

One of the exciting things about rentals is that the tenant pays the mortgage payment and all expenses for us. Over the term of the loan, the mortgage will be paid off and we?ll own the house free and clear!

4. Appreciation

Historically, houses appreciate at 3% to 5% per year. Think of this as the icing on the cake.

Let?s consider a $50,000 rental property. Even if it only appreciates 3% per year, that is another $1,500 in equity that we pick up each year! You?ll note that we didn?t have to do anything to get this equity. All we had to do was continue to own the property!

5. Tax Depreciation

As if the previous four ways of making money weren?t enough, the government has seen fit to allow us to depreciate our rental property. This can be a significant savings on our taxes and is the same as making additional money on your property. As of the writing of this book, properties are depreciated over a 27 1/2 year period. This yearly depreciation can be thousands of dollars per year on a single rental property.

ARE YOU GETTING EXCITED YET?

By reading this article, you have already taken the first step toward improving your financial situation. Where do you want to be at the end of this year? Are you satisfied with your current financial situation? Are you happy working for someone else? Are you in a good position for retirement? Do you dream of the freedom of working for yourself? Would you like to make a significant contribution to your church or favorite charity?

If you do nothing to improve your situation, you will probably end this year in the same position that you ended last year. IF THIS YEAR IS TO BE THE YEAR THAT YOU CHANGE YOUR LIFE, YOU MUST DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT! If you have decided that operating a rental property business might be YOUR PATH TO FREEDOM, then you need to get started. Start with learning all you can about the rental property business and develop a plan to get you from your current position to your desired goal.

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