One of the 6,127 reasons that I’m single is because I can’t stand high maintenance women (this one’s voluntary, so two out of 6,127 ain’t bad…I’ll get to the second voluntary reason in a minute). Anyways, right now I’m working on a pretty house wholesale deal (wholesaling a house subject-to) and the seller is crazy high maintenance. This guy calls me multiple times a day… “Hi Jason, this is Mr. Seller, its 5:00, just wondering if you’ve found a buyer…Hi Jason it’s 5:05, just wondering, Hi, Jason it’s 5:07…” This guy is also a talker which is why I have my assistant return the calls and handle almost everything. If you don’t have an assistant I would get one ASAP. I got my first assistant before I could even afford one and it was well worth it. And when I say assistant, I mean virtual assistant. My latest assistant lives in Wisconsin and has been with me for almost two years. I have her make all my calls and she handles almost everything for me. Remember, us investors need to focus on high dollar activities, not making phone calls. (By the way, I found a buyer for this wholesale sub-2, and at closing I will be getting a nice $9,997 pay day).

Okay, the second reason I’m single is because I’m cheap. I just got back from a week in Florida. As I was packing for my trip, I stuffed all of my clothes in my old suitcase and I destroyed the zipper trying to get everything to fit (but I did get it closed). Then when I tried to unpack, I couldn’t get the zipper open. Being that I’m such a patient guy, I ended up “teaching the bag a lesson”, which means it ended up in a dumpster after I tore the zipper off and it was totally unusable. So, I needed a new piece of luggage and asked my friend to show me the closest Goodwill store. I ended up getting a beauty of a suitcase for $2.13. It’s a Samsonite hard shell. I’ve always wanted one of those hard shell pieces and $2.13 is right up my alley. I love Goodwill and the Salvation Army stores.

Alright folks, if you’ve been reading my posts you know that I’m going through a lease option deal from A-Z. Last week was the paperwork needed between you and the seller and this week I am going over the checklist you need to follow after you have the paperwork signed. Here it is:

1. Make copies of all of the paperwork and either mail it to the seller or scan and email a copy to the seller.
2. Make copies of all keys (so you have a key and so you can also put a key in the lock box on the house).
3. Fax or mail the lender notification to the mortgage company so they send all of the coupons and mortgage info to your address.
4. Run a credit check on the seller. Since lease options are more risky, you need to make sure the seller is not in a dangerous financial situation (if they are, do a subject-to).
5. Fax the authorization to release form to the mortgage company and check the mortgage balance and the monthly payment amounts.
6. Send a thank you gift and card to the seller. (I usually send a gift certificate to a restaurant).
7. Go to the courthouse and record the option agreement. This should cost between $20.00-$50.00.
8. Start marketing the property to find a tenant buyer. Place a sign in the front yard, run classified ads in the local paper and post ads on Craigslist.
9. Set up your Excel spreadsheets, Word documents and folders for this property.

There you have it, my million dollar checklist. Next week, I will go over the paperwork for a tenant/buyer. I certainly hope that you are writing down all this information on lease options, because you are getting no B.S. info that took me thousands of dollars to perfect. Have a great week and remember to do at least one marketing activity every single day!

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Tags: creative real estate, crei, lease, lease option, real estate investing, real estate investor

When I become President and it’s the United States of Jason, I will impose the death penalty on anyone that stops at a yield sign…for heavens’ sake, if you were supposed to stop, there would be a stop sign and not a yield sign. Do you think they put that extra strip of roadway there for the fun of it? So, now you have been warned that unless you want the electric chair, do not come to a complete stop at a yield sign.

Alright, alright, now to show you how to make money. As most people know, I am a FIRM believer in only utilizing investing methods that require very little cash and absolutely none of my own credit. And that the best deals are when you work directly with the homeowner (which is why I don’t do foreclosures). Well, a partner and I just picked up a lease option deal in Baltimore, MD and I want to give you the numbers to show you why this is a must learn technique.

First off, I got this property from a landlord who I had already done a deal with, which is why my favorite group to target is absentee landlords (they usually own multiple properties). Anyway, we signed a five year lease option with a monthly rent of $800 and a purchase price of $80,000 (this means that anytime within the within the five years we can buy the house at $80,000). We put zero money down (yes…..zero, nada,, zilch, zip). My lease option agreement reads that I never put money down and that I make the first rent payment 60 days from the date the paperwork is signed (60 days gives me time to advertise the property and find a tenant/buyer…I always do 60 days).

After we took care of the paperwork with the seller, it was time to find a tenant/buyer. The best ways to find a tenant/buyer are classified ads (Rent to own, bad credit OK, 3br/2ba, only $1,399/mo, Free $300 rent credits, call Lisa 555-555-5555), placing ads on rental property websites and placing signs everywhere. The advertising will generate a ton of calls. Finding a good tenant is just like finding a motivated seller…you will go through about 99 bad leads until you find one quality lead.

Once you get your leads you can either set up appointments or use a lock box. For this property we set appointments on the weekends (you will want to set appointments, do not hold open houses or nobody will show). We ended up getting a couple who gave us $5,200 to move in. This breaks down as $4,150 in option money, $200 security deposit and $850 for the first months rent. Also, they have an option to purchase the house at $110,000.

We spent about $150 on marketing, put zero money down and got $4,150 in non-refundable option money. Now, I am no math genius but I think that’s a profit of $4,000…then of course don’t forget about the big payday when the property sells.

Speaking of big paydays, over the weekend I had a lease option tenant call me and tell me their loan was approved and they were exercising their option, so that’s another $30,000 payday…how can you not love this business?

Here is the million dollar lesson I hope you learned: You need to eliminate the word BANK from your vocabulary. You need to learn wholesaling, lease options and subject-to if you want to purchase millions of dollars worth of property every year. The only people who should be going to banks are your tenants when they buy the house and the people you are wholesaling properties to. I can’t emphasize this enough: You need to think like a “player” and not a “wannabe.” Players become millionaires using creative financing methods and wannabes wait for bank loans to be approved or they wait until they have 20% saved up to buy a property.

So, which one are you? A player or a wannabe?

Tags: creative real estate, crei, financing, lease option, wholesaling

Just as a review, buying property “subject to” means buying a property subject to the existing financing.
The seller’s original financing stays in place until either refinanced or sold to a third party. The investor/buyer takes title to the property while leaving the loan in the seller’s name. If we were to take over payments on a property worth $100K and the mortgage payoff is roughly $50K; our offer should be in the $80K range. That leaves a $30K equity payout to the seller. In the perfect world we would love for the seller to agree to accept that $30K when the property is refinanced or sold to a third party.

Assuming that the seller accepted these terms, the seller always is concerned about how they are protected. In these types of transactions we immediately notice that there really isn’t any way to force the investor to make on time payments on a seller’s loan. The seller generally has to trust that the investor/buyer is not going to let the payments go after a few months and leave their credit jacked. The seller realizes that if that happens then their equity payout due is in jeopardy.

So the question is: “How can the seller protect themselves from these types of situations?” The answer on the investor is “we don’t have to take title immediately.”

You may have heard of a Land Installment Contract. There is a pro-seller contract and a pro-buyer contract. In this case you would use a hybrid of the two to give the seller the most amount of comfort possible. In a gist, this agreement transfers the title of the property from the seller into escrow instead of it being transferred to the investor/buyer. Without title to the property the investor/buyer lacks the power of an actual owner and the only way to reap the full benefits of property ownership is to give the seller the equity payout in full via refinance or sale. Sellers love this. And the Land Installment Contract can totally be tailored to the situation. This will definitely help you close some of those home runs that turned sour.

Blessings to Your Real Estate Investing Successes,
Milton B. Yates

Tags: buying property subject to, creative real estate, financing, real estate investing, real-estate-finance, subject to

If I could just take a few moments and vent about my frustrations with real estate investors who do not follow formulas and do not stick with systems. Sheesh! If it isn’t one bad deal working it’s three bad deals working. Are times that bad that you have to reach for a good deal? NO! Are times that bad that you need to cut corners to make the deal favorable? It is never that bad. Have real estate investors forgotten their original high standards? Maybe so. I know one thing though, Investorino has lost its mind this month.

For those that don’t know me very well, I like free and clear investment structuring. My mentor has given me more than enough incite on how to creatively purchase free and clear real estate. So I have a very hard time seeing and believing the types of deals that are pieced together as though no rod of measurement is being used at all. Well, the name of the game in free and clear is that if the seller has time you have money and if the seller doesn’t have any time you don’t have any money (or much even) to give them. You can certainly pay upwards of 100% of a property’s value today, but the only catch is that price is going to be paid in one lump sum way later or paid over the course of time with agreeable terms.

So Investorino is strapped for cash. NO PROBLEM, because he’s got a great relationships with private lenders. He sees a killer free and clear property that is worth maybe $145,000.00, and it is time to do something a little creative. The subject property needed about $30,000.00 in repairs, so Investorino came up with a special big money down, monthly payment, schematic that the seller seemed to be fond of. The terms of the purchase were $40,000.00 to the seller at the transfer of title and 95 monthly payments of $1000.00. Target rent on houses within the subdivision with the same specs was approximately $1400.00 per month.

Does everyone see the cash flow?
Yes. Now let me show you a magic trick. I can show you how to make cash flow disappear (not that you really wanted to learn anyway). Investorino is going to solicit private funds for $85,000.00 to be disbursed as follows: $55,000.00 is to be made available for the jumbo pay at the title transfer for $40,000.00, to take care of any of the closing costs, and undoubtedly put some aside as a small reserve for the $1000.00 per month payments. $30,000.00 was to be used for the repairs.

Now if you think the bank was tough; check out these terms.
12% interest only on a year term with 5 points upfront and a 2 point renewal after each 365 days. Because Investorino didn’t want guarantee the deal with a partner or personally, the private lender decided that he wouldn’t provide the $30,000.00 in cash for the repairs and would like to see the finished project prior to submitting those additional monies. Uh-oh.

So now Investorino has to pay an additional $550.00 per month on a non-occupied property that needs $30,000.00 in work. Did you see it disappear…the cash flow? I did. Oh wait! Where is the $30,000.00 going to come from? Remember the property was free and clear of all mortgages and liens. The sellers will be in first position with the outstanding balance of $95,000.00, the private lender will then be in 2nd position with the $55,000.00 loan, and now there may be a 3rd mortgage needed to see this deal to the end. So this transaction is yielding about $5,700.00 to Investorino at the transfer of title. That amount is certainly not enough to get the ball rolling a the repairs.

Ending A: $30,000.00 magically appears in his account from an anonymous donor and the work is completed. Now the private lender will pay $30,000.00 to Investorino on which he will then pay an additional $300.00 per month for the adjustment in the loan amount. BOO! So now we are at $1850.00 in outward payments. Keep in mind that the market rent is based on those properties in rental condition and we can assume that this one is not. So now instead of losing $150.00 if he would have put a person in the property in its condition, he loses $450.00 per month because of the post-rehab disbursement. I told you it was magic.

Please be careful. This is about staying on the course and sticking to the formulas. Private lenders throw the formulas off all day long. Account for it and make a true adjustment in your purchase activity.

Blessings to your Real Estate Investing Success,

Milton B. Yates

Tags: creative real estate, hard money, learn real estate investing, private lenders, private money, real estate, real estate investing, real-estate-deals