BiggerPockets

How We'll Survive In 2010

How We'll Survive in 2010

In titling today's column, I was surprised when the word "Survive" and not "Thrive" popped into my head.

I'm a very optimistic guy. My morning begins around 4 AM with a mug of hot, black coffee in hand. (Thank God for the man who invented the automatic coffeemaker!) I look forward to the start of each day because I know that this day will be better than yesterday.

How strange it is, as 2010 approaches, to find myself thinking about surviving and not thriving. What's up with that? Guess all the bad economic news - especially concerning real estate - has had its effect on me.

This must be true for many real estate investors because we're getting lots of calls asking about our 2010 game plan. Specifically, investors want to know whether we're pulling back or continuing to buy investment real estate.

To answer this question, here are our 2010 goals:

Normally, our yearly goal is to do 25 to 30 real estate investing deals. For 2010, we've lowered this number to 6 to 10 deals. At the same time, we want to dramatically improve the quality of our deals. In other words, we only want to do OMG (Oh My Gosh!) deals. These are deals that bring lots of equity and cash flow.

At the same time, with the properties we buy, we insist on getting incredible loan terms. It may surprise you to know that we've not gotten a new conventional mortgage since 2005. Instead, we've concentrated on doing Subject-to deals, Owner-Financed deals, Master Lease/Options, Deed-for-Note deals, Lonnie deals and Creative Options.

How do we plan to find these OMG deals with incredible loan terms? We'll meet with more sellers than ever before. Will this be easy? Sure, if you think knocking on hundreds and hundreds of sellers' doors is easy.

Another of our goals is to sell our "C" properties. To do this, as these less desirable rental properties become vacant, we will sell them with owner financing instead of renting them. When owner financing is offered, a property rarely sits empty for more than 30 days.

Kim, who is one of the best and most experienced short sellers in the country (she's been doing it since 1999 - before "short selling" had a name), is upping the number of shorts she'll do in 2010.

To cut repair costs, I'll spend more time inspecting the rental properties we manage, working harder to get vacant properties filled and concentrate on finding top-quality tenants and tenant-buyers.

If you've not yet done it, it's time to set your 2010 goals! Goals are your road map to success.

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