Can't Sell Your Home – Start Investing In Real Estate!

So you’ve been trying to sell your home for quite a while, with no success. Oh, sure, you’ve had a few people through, maybe even a lot of people, and every time your life was disrupted… all for nothing. No offers, not even a nibble. It’s getting frustrating. Since life has given you some lemons, why not make lemonade and use this as a springboard to start investing in real estate?

You may be wondering, “How can this be an opportunity for me to start investing in real estate?” Glad you asked.

Since you’re having trouble selling your house through conventional means, maybe now’s the time to go a bit unconventional, and learn a creative real estate investing technique in the process… a technique that you can use over and over again to create wealth for you and your family.

If you use this technique to sell your home, you will be following in the footsteps of thousands of other homeowners who have followed this same strategy to start investing in real estate.

I’m talking about the lease / option method of selling your home.

What is a lease option? Simple… instead of selling your home outright, you’re going to lease it to someone, and at the same time give them the option to purchase it at a fixed price within a fixed period of time.

Why does this work? How can this allow you to sell your home faster and easier? The answer has to do with the type of people that will respond to your “lease with the option to buy” or “rent to own” ad. They will be people with bruised or damaged credit, but don’t let that scare you. Often these are good people who are back on track after a tough period in their life.

They’re not deadbeats… at least not the ones you’ll be putting in your home, because you’ll be carefully screening them. You’ll want to check their story, and verify employment and income. Trust your gut, but verify everything. Select carefully, and realize that it may take two or three tries before you get to the end result you’re looking for- a tenant who becomes a buyer.

The other great reason to use the lease/option technique is price- you can often sell for full market value… even more! What a great way to start investing in real estate.

There are three important terms you will need to negotiate with your tenant/buyer in order to enter into a lease/option agreement with them… price, option term, and monthly rent. Once you’ve learned to do that, you’ll be well down the path many others have followed to start investing in real estate.

Price is the price you will sell them the house for when and if they exercise their option. The option term is the length of time the option to buy is open to your tenant buyer. This is often one year, but could be longer. It’s up to you. I’ve seen option terms as long as five years, but in my mind that’s too long, unless you just want to be a landlord.

Finally, the monthly rent should be enough to cover your mortgage, taxes, and insurance, plus something left over to give you a positive cash flow every month. After all, there is a little hassle involved, so you should get something for your trouble.

Now, here’s the icing on the cake. You can and should collect a non-refundable option fee from your tenant/buyers, and you should get it upfront. The amount is negotiable, but generally about three percent of the value of the home is appropriate. So, on a $150,000 property, the option fee would be between $4,000 and $5,000. This shows good faith and commitment on their part.

Hopefully by now you can see that this is a great way to both get your home sold and start investing in real estate. You make money three ways… when you collect your option fee, when you sell the house, and every month in the form of positive cash flow. Plus, the home remains in your name until they exercise their option, so you still get all the tax breaks associated with homeownership.

Listen, I know there’s a lot more to say on the subject of lease option, and there’s certainly a great deal more on how to start investing in real estate. This is just a primer, but hey… we’ve all got to start somewhere, right?

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No Money Down Investment Mortgages

In any meeting of real estate investors the topic of no money down investment mortgages almost always comes up. I’m a firm believer in putting as little cash as possible into my real estate deals, and if you’re going to succeed in the long term, you should learn to think the same way.

This is really just Real Estate Investing 101… as simple and basic as you can get, yet vital for you to understand. No money down investment mortgages are a topic you should seek to understand and here’s why.

Your supply of cash is limited, and always will be.

There it is. I don’t care how much cash you have now, or ever will have. I don’t care who you are, or where your bank account stands. You’re cash supply is finite, not infinite, and cash is a valuable resource that gives your real estate investing flexibility and leverage. Using no money down investment mortgages allows you to preserve cash, one of your most valuable resources.

Having ready cash allows you the flexibility of moving quickly when others can’t. It also gives you confidence and leverage when making your offers. That doesn’t mean you need to actually use your cash… merely having it is often enough.

Using no money down investment mortgages and other types of low or no down financing should be undertaken with great care, however. Make sure you’re not paying full price for your properties and financing them at full market value. The way to employ no money down investment mortgages is to buy value. In other words, buy at 80% of market or less, preferably much less.

That one strategy alone will ensure your long-term real estate investing success. If you just go out and pay market, finance the full value, and thus hang on to your cash, don’t make the mistake of thinking you’ve accomplished anything worthwhile. A chimp could do that.

Learn to recognize and buy value. Finance as much as you can to leverage your limited cash, and repeat the process. Over and over. Use creative financing and no money down investment mortgages to accomplish your goals.

Now, go make more offers!

For more information on creative real estate and no money down investment mortgages try http://www.dealfiles.com/investmentpropertymortgages.html.

If you would like to learn about beginning real estate investing try http://www.dealfiles.com.

Private Money For Real Estate Investing – Get Confident - Get Flexible!

What’s so great about having private money for real estate investing? Have you ever looked a fantastic deal square in the eye and had to walk away because you weren’t in a position to move on it? If so, ready access to private money could have made the difference.

Having a reliable supply of private money for real estate investing gives you two things you need to be super-successful… confidence and flexibility. Let’s see why…

First, imagine that your marketing is working like it should, and you’re getting calls from highly motivated sellers anxious to get out from under their property. Further, let’s assume you’re already in the middle of a deal or two, and you have, say, a quarter of a million dollars tied up for the next few months.

You get a call from Mr. Gotta Getoutnow, who has already moved and is shouldering two huge house payments. His vacant house, valued conservatively at $190,000, is costing him a cool $1200 each month… and he hasn’t lived in it for 6 months! He’s willing – even anxious - to let it go, if you’ll just cash him out of his mortgage to the tune of $132,000.

Unfortunately, your marginal credit rating won’t permit another loan, your cash is tapped, and your house is already mortgaged to the hilt for those other deals you’ve got working. How much confidence do you have on the phone with Mr. Getoutnow? My guess… not much! But how much could you have if you knew you had access to a half million or so in private money for real estate investing?

See the difference? I thought so!

Now, when you get his call, instead of hemming and hawing about some nebulous ‘creative acquisition techniques’ you’ve used successfully in the past, trying to impress him with your vast knowledge and experience, you simply tell Mr. Getoutnow, “I’ll be right over,” and off you go to get the house under contract. You have the confidence to do this because you know, comfortably resting in your hip pocket, is all the private money for real estate investing you could possibly need!

What about flexibility? How does private money for real estate investing give you that?

The answer is in the options private money for real estate investing gives you. Let’s face it, the number one stress inducer in real estate – other than tenants – has got to be obtaining financing and working with lenders. Why? Because they want so much freakin’ information, that’s why.

If you’re like me, you can’t stand filling out all those forms banks ask you to fill out. What could they possibly need all that information for anyway? I mean, come on. It’s a loan, here’s the property, it’s worth $150k, I need a loan for $100K, what’s the problem? When you have private money for real estate investing, you don’t fill out forms!

Not only that, but what’s up with those lenders having to hammer my credit report every time I get a loan? First there’s an inquiry, then they add the loan to my list of debts, so the whole world knows my business. I’m definitely NOT down with that. Now that I have all the private money for real estate investing I could possibly need, there’s no hits on my credit report, and nobody ever sees the debt listed. I don’t have to worry the next time I go to apply for a car loan that I’m going to have to answer a whole bunch of stupid, embarrassing questions. I’m a happy guy!

Heck, I’m just about the most confident, flexible guy in town, thanks to my ability to raise private money for real estate investing! I can’t say this strongly enough…

You’ve got to figure out how to get some of your own!

Thankfully, it’s easy enough to do, and you don’t have to pay a small fortune for some guy’s overpriced course. There are tools that can help you, and eliminate a lot of the hard work you would otherwise have to do upfront, but these tools don’t need to be expensive.

For more information, and a more in-depth article, visit Private Money For Real Estate Investing on the DealFiles website.

Now, go make more offers!

Tom Dunn
www.DealFiles.com

Real Estate Investing Mentors – Maximum Mentoring

If you have looked for and found one or more real estate investing mentors, you may be wondering, “What next? How can I get the most from this real estate mentoring relationship?”

The answer is, quite simply, give the most!

It’s strange but true, the relationships we typically get the most out of in life are those we put the most effort into, and your relationship with your real estate investing mentors will be no different.

Be prepared to go out of your way to be helpful to your real estate investing mentors, and you will be amazed at what happens. Whenever I have mentored someone, it has been my experience that the more they put in, the more they got back. If they were especially helpful and generous with their time, they not only learned more quickly, but they also achieved their goals much faster.

Let me give you an example. Close acquaintances of mine, a couple, had been looking for real estate investing mentors for quite some time before they asked me. I gladly agreed, and we decided to work on a rehab project together. Using my expertise, I would buy a house that needed rehab. Using their expertise, they would rehab the house. We would then rent it out, holding it in an LLC.

That’s exactly what happened. They did everything I asked of them, and then some. Not only did they complete the rehab in a timely manner, they did a fantastic job. They learned by watching closely how I acquired the house for far below market value. They learned, because that’s why they were looking for real estate investing mentors in the first place.

They also watched and learned how to get the house rented, and how to properly manage the rental. They can now do all of this on their own, and I’m sure they will. They learned because they started out looking for real estate investing mentors with the right mindset- they had the will to work hard!

If you would like to know more – such as exactly how to go about finding real estate investing mentors – check out Real Estate Investing Mentors.

Now, go make more offers!

Tom Dunn
DealFiles.com