Last week I got a letter in the mail from the IRS. Of course, when I saw the envelope I thought two things: “Crap, I’m getting audited” and “crap, I owe them more money.” When I opened the envelope there were several documents, which I didn’t really understand (or have the patience to understand) and [...]

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Landlord Tenant

Mobile Home Tenant Screening Guide

by John Fedro | September 4, 2010

Ultimately whoever occupies your investment home is your decision.  The choice of who will move-in, maintain and occupy your investment property should be carefully screened and cherry picked until you have the “perfect” tenant or tenant-buyer.  Let’s get real, “In many areas of the country some landlords are fighting over the scarcity of renters in [...]

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Commentary

Green logic, Bertrand Russell and a Girl Named Meka

by Jim Simcoe | September 3, 2010

When I was a freshman in college I took an Introduction to Logic Class.  As a business major I thought that taking the class would be a good idea; plus the girl I had a serious crush on was a philosophy major so I figured I’d see her in class. The first 2 months of [...]

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Commentary

The SAFE Act: Most Confusing Legislation of 2010?

by Shae Bynes | September 2, 2010

Today marks my 40th post for the BiggerPockets blog and yesterday I realized that up to this point I am yet to write a commentary.  That changes today. Pardon my rant, but I think the responses to this post will help a lot of people. Ok, seriously? I can’t think of anything that has been more [...]

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Real Estate Investing

Introduction to Internal Rate of Return (IRR)

by J Scott | September 2, 2010

Today’s Quiz: What is my return on the following investment: I bought my first investment property back in August 2008. I paid $63,500 for the house using my own cash. I spent the next two months rehabbing it with $34,000 of my own cash. It sat for about 5 months before I lease-optioned it for [...]

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Real Estate

Real Estate Investing Rules from Richard Branson

by Julie Broad | September 1, 2010
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“Even after careful research, not all ideas are good; sometimes your competitors have better ideas or they’re faster than you. The modern entrepreneur takes failure in his or her stride and moves on.” ~ Richard Branson, Screw It, Let’s Do It Sir Richard Branson made a cameo appearance on the HBO show Entourage this week [...]

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Learn Real Estate

The 4 Most Important Things to Remember When Evaluating Real Estate Deals

by Ryan Moeller | September 1, 2010
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There are a lot of things to consider when evaluating a deal.  As real estate investors, we must find great deals.  Not good deals, but great deals where we can minimize risk, maximize annual return and control our success.  Here are the 4 most important things to remember when evaluating deals: Avoid Speculation as the [...]

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Real Estate Law

Can Nevada or Wyoming Protect Your Real Estate Investments in Another State

by Clint Coons | September 1, 2010
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I received an email from a client recently who was concerned about some information she received from an promoter of Wyoming and Nevada LLCs. She was told that a Wyoming LLC registered to conduct business in California will provide greater protection from charging orders than a California LLC. I hear this same argument time to [...]

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Commentary

3 Categories & 1 Word Reveal The Truth About The Success of Your Real Estate Business

by J. Lamar Ferren | August 31, 2010

Have you ever wondered why some businesses fail? It’s more than just a business plan or lack thereof. I think its something much deeper than that. You see, in the mist of all this “doom & gloom” in the economy that we keep hearing about, there are businesses out there that are failing but there [...]

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Real Estate Investing

Walkin’ the Talk – What I Told My Own Daughter To Do

by Jeff Brown | August 31, 2010

Sunday morning found me havin’ breakfast with my newlywed daughter and her wicked cool hubby. They’re both anomalies in this economy. Within a reasonable time both of them found jobs completely congruent with their degrees. In a year or so they went from starving students to, “I think we’re gettin’ outa hand with the whole [...]

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Commercial Real Estate

Real Estate Syndication: 3 Ways You Can Profit

by Khary Reynolds | August 30, 2010
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As a real estate investor it is critical that you have access to readily available capital in order to capitalize on the numerous opportunities that are present in today’s market. One way to do this is by acquiring properties through syndication. Real Estate Syndication is simply the pooling of funds from numerous investors and channeling [...]

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Housing

Housing Market Summary – Week of August 30th

by Ryan Hinricher | August 30, 2010

A busy week of mostly negative news for the macro housing market offers; a look at NAR’s Existing Home Sales report, numbers on new home sales, interest rates, mortgage applications, and the Mortgage Bankers Associations quarterly report on delinquency and foreclosures. Existing Home Sales: Expected Fall The National Association of Realtors reported that existing home [...]

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Real Estate Investing

Investing in Ghost Town Real Estate

by Richard Warren | August 30, 2010
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Visitors to Las Vegas and other parts of southern Nevada often take a break from the gaming tables to visit nearby ghost towns. These vestiges of mining booms gone bust are rich in history and folklore. Places like Goldfield, Rhyolite, Calico, and others offer a glimpse into days gone by and while walking among the [...]

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Real Estate

The Ten Best in RE.net This Week: August 29, 2010 Edition

by Dean Ouellette | August 29, 2010
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1 ) One of the quickest deaths to a short sale transaction is a bad BPO, and it happens way to often. When the BPO is out of the ballpark, you really need to go to work and educate the bank. As Melissa points out the best way may be preventive maintenance and meeting the [...]

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Real Estate News

Negative Equity Declines: Is It Good News?

by Alex Cortez | August 29, 2010

Let’s talk about what the 2Q 2010 negative equity report released by CoreLogic. The amount of homes underwater declined, but is it good news?

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