Real Estate blog

Archive for October, 2007

Learn to flip foreclosure properties for enormous profit and discover nine other proven real estate investment strategies during a 90-minute online training presentation with Howard Small. Howard тАФ a well-known and highly successful investor, author, trainer and mentor тАФ will show you 10 exciting ways to make serious money in real estate so that you can decide which strategies work best.

Howard will teach you how to:

Make foreclosure money without investing a lot of time, cash or creditEarn loads of cash from the Foreclosure Food ChainтДвMake money in 30 days or less without having to buy or own propertiesProfit from investment techniques that fit your comfort level and budgetUse creative steps to make money as a foreclosure team

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“Hi Gary. LOVE your blogs. Question for you, I still have my condo in La Jolla. Where could I find out what the current rents are? I need to raise the rent and thought there must be something online but haven’t found a good source. Anything you use in your office? Thanks in advance.”

***ANSWER:
Nice to hear from you.

The only online source that I know of, and I’m not 100% sure, is for members of the San Diego Apartment County Apartment Association (www.sdcaa.com).

Other than that, you might try checking rentals at the Union-Tribune (www.SignOnSanDiego.com) or www.CraigsList.com.

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Ethics in investing is a topic that I’m interested in. This is one that I’ve written about before, both in the press

Hi folks,

I hope you had a great weekend. I certainly did, a bit busy as I’ve been working on my virtual real estate empire a lot (as usual) and of course using the brand spankin’ new PLR Pro Ebook service in combination with the ‘normal’ PLR Pro content service and boy do I love these guys! They truly deliver such a wonderful stuff (and what not)…,but that’s not what I wanted to share with you today, nope, today I want to tell you something totally different.

And it’s something I think you’ll like…

What you’re about to discover is for anyone who would like to make money online without having to: build websites, blogs or a email list, sell stuff, learn internet marketing, affiliate marketing or anything ‘technical’! Basically…everything I talk about on my blog…and it gets even better, as all of the things I mentioned above will be done by ’someone else’!

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I’ve often stated that one of the most important factors in your success as a real estate investor is your ability to select, screen, and retain quality tenants. This is something that I think I’m pretty good at, which has helped me as an investor.

I was going to write an article about this not to long ago when, bam, I ran into a problem: tenants who stopped paying.

The tenants were a flaky young couple that I knew I might be taking a chance back when they signed the lease in May. But I decided to rent to them and mitigated my risk by signing a short lease (six months, with renewal contingent on timely payment), charged them first and last month’s rent upfront, plus one month’s rent as deposit. I won’t go through the boring details, but they ended up breaking the lease and abandoning the property while they owed me money. If you find yourself in a situation like this one here are some points to keep in mind.

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I got some interesting emails from readers responding to my recent posts on real estate fraud. Here’s one of them (posted w/ permission from the author, with names and minor details changed):

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Chris,

I was approached by an acquaintance, Phil, to invest into a get rich quick scheme. I was to be the buyer and mortgage holder for two houses, but all documents and paperwork would be mailed to Phil’s residence and Phil would be responsible for all mortgage payments and monthly maintenance fees. I was promised a gift of cash in exchange for using my good credit. All was good for several months, and then I started receiving calls from American Servicing Company for non-payment.

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Record foreclosure filings have prompted some savvy real estate investors to action. While some seasoned conservative investors are advising to sit on the sidelines, hold on to the properties they currently have and wait to invest in more, there are seasoned real estate investors used to investing in distressed properties who are cashing in by tweaking their strategy to fit today’s real estate market.

“It’s all about analyzing projects from the outset and create a manageable plan of attack,” says Glen Daniels. Glen is an investor with over 20 years of experience in buying distressed properties and rehabbing them for profit. Glen believes that an investor who analyzes, budgets and markets properties effectively will overcome the obstacles of any real estate market.

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Effective home selling these days requires the right attitude. The most effective sellers take the stance тХитЦУтХи╨ТтХд╨кWe are no longer home owners, we are home sellersтХитЦУтХи╨ТтХд╨м. This attitude goes a long way in preparing the seller for whatтХитЦУтХи╨Т╤В╨Ф╨▓s ahead. The following is a list of ten other things to keep in mind when getting ready to sell your home.

1. Realistic Pricing- September of 2007 saw 6,767 homes for sale in the Pikes Peak MLS. ThatтХитЦУтХи╨Т╤В╨Ф╨▓s compared to 5,929 in 2006. There are just a lot more homes to choose from. Buyers may look at 40 to 50 homes before they get to yours. By the time a buyer sees your home they have a pretty good sense of what the price should be and if they donтХитЦУтХи╨Т╤В╨Ф╨▓t their agent does. This is why pricing is so important, with so much inventory on the market the ones that are selling fast are the ones that are well priced. IтХитЦУтХи╨Т╤В╨Ф╨▓m not talking about bargain basement Crazy Eddie type pricing but thoughtful, realistic pricing that puts your home where it should be in the context of the marketplace.

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It is expected that the Australian real estate investing market will continue to grow in the near future, however, the rate of growth is expected to slow in NSW and Western Australia where the markets are expected to correct themselves.

Although, some regional areas of NSW such as the Newcastle / HunterValley area will probably continue to grow at a steady rate and Western Australia is still experiencing a high demand which is largely dependent on the resources boom.

Queensland, particularly South East Queensland, is expected to maintain strong capital growth in the residential property market as a result of continued migration from other states. However, rental yields are not expected to increase substantially despite low vacancy rates.

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Most of the news about housing these days is bad news. Countrywide Financial, the nations largest originator of home mortgages has reported itтХитЦУтХи╨Т╤В╨Ф╨▓s first quarterly loss in 25 years. Additionally, the Wall Street Journal says, Home Buyers have been sidelined due to better lender oversight and tightening of credit in the lending industry.

In the Colorado Springs Real Estate market we are feeling the effects of the changes in the lending industry in conjunction with a softening economy as well as a large number of foreclosures in certain areas and price ranges.

Although many buyers and investors have decided to sit on the bench and watch. We think this is a great time to be in the market as a buyer.

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