The Real Estate Professional

Avoid 12 Common Mistakes Made by Novice Investors and Ensure High Rates of Return!

Real estate investment has provided many investors with positive cash flow, tax benefits and satisfaction of making an impact in others lives. Like any investment however, real estate has intricate nuances and market trends that when ignored can cause an investor tremendous heartache.

Unbelievably many first time investors are willing to part with their hard earned cash without taking the time to study their investment. They rely on traditional trends and gut feelings. Before you risk your investment take the time to learn all you can about your market. By aligning yourself with the right Professional you can avoid these 12 common mistakes, and you’ll ensure an excellent return on your investment.

1. Failure to Determine Your Time Need – Cash flow, capital appreciation, tax benefits, loss of management, equity pay down and pride of ownership are just some of the thing s that need to be  addressed before you make that investment. A service -minded real estate professional can be a tremendous asset by taking the time to evaluate your needs and making sure you’ve got all your bases covered.

2. Not Checking out the Seller or Sellers Agents Numbers – Claims of extremely high rates of return run rampant in real estate investment. Don’t get caught up in the excitement – check everything: rents, payment history, read more

Foreclosure Real Estate Investing: How NOT To Lose Your Shirt At The Foreclosure Sale For real estate professionals, this past year has been one of the most painful in recent times — defaults are up, homeownership is down, foreclosures have soared and the poorly performing housing sector is starting to create negative ripple effects in the broader national economy. Since all projections indicate that 2008 will be equally as challenging, should property investors run for the hills, put all their money in AAA rated munis, and ride out the storm until the next boom? Absolutely not! There’s no question that 2008 will bring reduced housing demand, lower prices in some areas, and fewer loan options, yet 2008 looks strong for treasure hunters. At HMB, we’ve been seeing investors scoop up bank REO’s for 40 to 50 cents on the dollar and selling them off at nice profits. After all, people will always buy property if they can get a great deal, no matter what the market conditions. Your job is to simply find the best deals. Many great deals will most certainly come from foreclosures over the next 24 months.

If you intend to jump into foreclosure auctions, follow these tips to help insure a profitable transaction: A� Do your homework: I recently had one of my investors call me and ask me if he would be risking anything greater than his security deposit if he simply walked away from a house he purchased at auction. Because he was intimately read more

Strategy 1: Only spend time with qualified sellers who have both motivation and condition. Motivation: a compelling reason to sell with a time crunch to do it in Condition: there is a way to structure a profitable deal – either the seller has the equity to take a deep discount in price or the financing is such that you can structure terms for you to make your profit that way. Strategy 2: A deal is only a deal once you have signed contracts in hand. And even then, you might not. I just made an offer on an awesome house in a high appreciating area. There was a cash offer in ahead of me for full price. I made my offer higher. The seller rejected my offer because it was not a cash offer, and accepted the cash offer. Within 24 hours the cash offer pulled out. Apparently he made offers on several properties, tying them up, and picking which ones were best, and pulling out of the rest. Strategy 3: Use “standardized” forms and contracts that you know how to use fast. Have your attorney review contracts you have, and have a standard version of them legally approved. Then make changes to them for each transaction by using an addendum. Strategy 4: Perform your due diligence before; during and after you have the property under contract. I need comparables and a rough idea of repair expenses before making my offer. The title report is not essential until I have my offer accepted because I have a contingency clause allowing me to cancel if I don’t read more