From the category archives:

Real Estate Investing

Real Estate Investing

Invest on the Ground Floor

by Winston Westbrook | November 20, 2009
Thumbnail image for Invest on the Ground Floor

My grandfather was born in Guayaquil Ecuador in 1906. He came to America in the 70’s and would tell me stories about his business in Ecuador exporting bananas to the United States. He loved America and all it stood for; he wouldn’t drive anything but American made cars. Chevy to be exact, lol. He [...]

0 comments Read the full article →
Real Estate Investing

Compounding Gains: Optimizing your Money’s Growth

by Kyle Koller | November 16, 2009
Thumbnail image for Compounding Gains: Optimizing your Money’s Growth

There are many savvy real estate investors out there that understand how commercial and residential income properties operate. They can spot value-add opportunities a mile away, and they have the team necessary to implement them. They are confident that at any given time, they can find a real estate investment worthy of pursuit. They faithfully [...]

2 comments Read the full article →
Real Estate Investing

Are You Really a Real Estate Investor?

by Richard Warren | November 16, 2009
Thumbnail image for Are You Really a Real Estate Investor?

At a small lunchtime gathering of real estate investors last week someone made an interesting comment. The conversation had turned to the topic of wholesaling and then rehabbing and flipping properties. The comment was very simple on the surface – if you didn’t actually hold on to properties were you an investor, or did you [...]

1 comment Read the full article →
Real Estate Investing

The Drake Equation Applied to Real Estate Investing

by Ben Roberts | November 11, 2009
Thumbnail image for The Drake Equation Applied to Real Estate Investing

Anyone ever heard of the Drake Equation?  If not, don’t feel bad.  It’s not a generally known term outside of the geeky space community (of which I am sadly a part).  In short, it’s a equation that was formulated by Dr. Frank Drake in 1960 to determine the practicality of SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial [...]

4 comments Read the full article →
Real Estate Investing

5 Reasons Why Real Estate Investors Fail

by Ryan Moeller | November 10, 2009

One of the biggest reasons small businesses fail is because the owners cannot separate themselves from the daily processes to focus on improving, growing and making their business a success.  They are stuck working 12 hours a day handling the daily processes and burn out.  Real estate is similar in many ways.  Here are 5 [...]

10 comments Read the full article →
Real Estate Investing

WHY do YOU Invest in Real Estate?

by J. Lamar Ferren | November 7, 2009
Thumbnail image for WHY do YOU Invest in Real Estate?

A couple of days ago, a fellow blog contributor named Shae Bynes posted a great blog post regarding a 7 day plan for aspiring real estate investors. You should definitely check it out when you get a chance.
With that said, I really liked one of the key aspects she mentioned in her post which talks [...]

7 comments Read the full article →
Real Estate Investing

A 7-Day Plan for Aspiring Real Estate Investors

by Shae Bynes | November 5, 2009
Thumbnail image for A 7-Day Plan for Aspiring Real Estate Investors

(This blog post is for the newbies, but for those who have crossed the line into actual real estate investor, I believe there’s something in here for us all!)
As someone who was an inexperienced real estate investor only two years ago, I can completely relate to the challenge of moving from an aspiring real estate [...]

26 comments Read the full article →
Real Estate Investing

The Tax Lien Certificate Money Tree

by Justin McClelland | October 29, 2009

The Rundown
Tax Lien certificates can be a very lucrative and safe investment.  A tax lien is a claim against an item by another party, which utilizes that item as security for repayment of a loan or other claim. A tax lien is placed on a piece of property by the government when the owner fails [...]

4 comments Read the full article →
Real Estate Investing

How to come up with your Offer Price on a Real Estate Deal: Do’s and Don’ts

by Ryan Moeller | October 27, 2009

How do you come up with your offer price?  Do you offer 10% less than the offer price?  Do you get into a bidding war, pay full asking price, wing it or do you have a strategy to come up with your offer price?  I am amazed at the responses to these questions and would [...]

3 comments Read the full article →
Real Estate Investing

Do you use a script when screening Motivated Sellers?

by J. Lamar Ferren | October 25, 2009

using a scriptCan scripts hurt or help you when screening motivated sellers? This is a debatable question and I’m going to address both sides.

Using a script versus not using one can really change the entire tone of the conversation and can even be what closes or breaks the deal.

Let’s talk about the pros and cons of using a script…

5 comments Read the full article →
Real Estate Investing

Residential Land Development – Part 3: Zoning, Design and Financing

by Craig Grella | October 23, 2009

To recap Residential Land Development Part 2, we discussed the importance of performing an economic feasibility study with cost estimating to determine a max price land offer and whether or not there is enough profit in your potential deal to warrant spending more time on it, or actually developing the land.

Assuming you’ve done that initial research and arrived at the conclusion your numbers look good, you’re ready to go back and do it all over again. This time you’re going to be more exact with your numbers. To do that, you’ll really need to hone in on the potential design of your house, and to do that you need to research what’s possible on your lot. You do that by learning all you can about the zoning codes in your city. These are the third and fourth steps in the residential land development process.

4 comments Read the full article →
Real Estate Investing

How to Use Round Robin Auctions to Sell Your Investment Properties Quickly (Part 1 of 2)

by Shae Bynes | October 22, 2009

42-16238032Round Robin Auctions are an awesome way to sell your properties quickly –  fully or partially rehabbed homes or even a personal residence — because they create a sense of urgency, generate a lot of foot traffic, and help you to get the best offer that the market demands at that time. While I’ve only done this once, my mentor has done it successfully over and over again for years regardless of the market conditions. It works.

I received a specific request from a BiggerPockets member to review how we did this, and because its pretty long to explain, I’ve decided to break this into a 2 part series.

You may or may not be familiar with Bill Effros’ book “How to Sell Your Home in 5 Days.” The entire premise of the book is that in 5 days you can sell your home at the highest possible price that the home demands, risk free. How?

  1. Day 1-5: Offer your home for 50% of what it’s worth.
  2. Day 4-5: Show your home.
  3. Day 5: Sell your home for 100% of what it’s worth.

There are plenty of details in each of those steps, but that’s the general idea. Keep reading to learn more!

15 comments Read the full article →
Real Estate Investing

How I’m Closing My Latest Lease Option Deal

by Jason Hanson | October 21, 2009

If you’re a new investor, you’re probably not going to believe what I’m about to tell you.

But, once you become experienced in this business, closing deals is easy… just like shootin’ fish in a barrel. It’s pretty much like every skill you learn in life. The first few times you tried to ride a bike it was obviously difficult, but now you can hop on a bike any time with no problem.

The most important thing you can do is to never give up. Just make it through the first few struggling months in this business and then you could be set for life.

I’m bringing this all up because of how easy my latest deal is going. I’m going to break it down for you step-by-step so you can see how to do this yourself.

1 comment Read the full article →
Real Estate Investing

Is Active or Passive Investing Right for You?

by Ryan Moeller | October 20, 2009

There are a lot of skills needed to become a savvy and successful real estate investor. Do you enjoy the challenge, have the time and/or have the comfort with the knowledge and skill needed to be a success? Are you comfortable with investments backed by real estate but do not want to deal with the hassles and time? Here are some of the skills and questions you must ask yourself to find out if active or passive real estate is right for you.

1. Are you a people person – Networking, sales, relationships – Real estate is a relationship business. Investors network, build relationships and are constantly selling themselves. The best investors often seem to be the ones who are well liked and good with people.

11 comments Read the full article →
Real Estate Investing

The Needle in a Haystack: Shifting Through Income Property Listings

by Kyle Koller | October 19, 2009

Many investors have a favorite strategy for weeding through the numerous income properties on the market in their search of a solid investment. Some use the “price-per-door” as a benchmark. Others consider the “gross rent multiplier (GRM)”. Yet others are convinced that capitalization (cap) rates are the way to go.

Which evaluation tool is best?

Investors have asked me the above question numerous times. A more profound question would be, “Is there really a BEST way? Let alone a right or wrong way?” Let’s explore some of the common comparison strategies.

Price-per-square foot

This technique is extremely easy to apply. Simply take the building price and divide by the number of total square footage of improvements. Thus, a 12,000 square-foot property with a list price of $1 million has a price-per-square foot of $83.33/sq. ft. This can be a useful tool when comparing different properties in a demographic area. It is not, however, without its limitations. For example, this method does not take income or expenses into account. Evaluating a property exclusively with this method and you could find yourself money pit and you wouldn’t even know it.

7 comments Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Copyright © 2004-2009 BiggerPockets, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
BiggerPockets® is a registered trademark of BiggerPockets, Inc.