After Repaired Value – The Most Important Skill

After Repaired Value – The Most Important Skill
Determining the after repaired value (ARV) of a property is probably the most important skill an investor can have!   We analyze over 100 properties a week and being able to quickly determine what they are worth saves us hours of time.  If a property is way overpriced we...
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House #33 – Bad News, Frustrated, Edison Pulled the Electric Meter

House #33 – Bad News, Frustrated, Edison Pulled the Electric Meter
I guess I haven’t blogged at all about House #33 yet.  We put it under contract last week after having  the listing agent trying to get our offer accepted for almost 4 weeks.  Neither of us were that excited about the house, no garage, flat root in a mediocre area.  As you...
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Know your Competition – Real Estate Investing

Know your Competition – Real Estate Investing
When you read the title of this thread, you are probably wondering where I am going with this article.  This is not about working with or being friends with your competition, although I think that can be valuable.  It is about knowing the deals other people are getting. I have this...
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Real Estate Investors – What Not to Buy

Real Estate Investors – What Not to Buy
Finding that perfect deal that meets all the rules is already so difficult, but there are some problems properties have that no investor can fix. I thought I would make a list of some of the things that get me to pass on a property, no matter what the price is: Busy Streets This...
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Investing in a War Zones?

Investing in a War Zones?
One of the age old debates of real estate is should an investor buy properties in the “war zone” areas.  These properties usually go for very low prices because a majority of investor won’t touch this area.  The numbers almost always look good on paper, but what...
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Earnest Money Deposit on REO Properties

Earnest Money Deposit on REO Properties
When you submit an offer on any piece of Real Estate you will have to provide an Earnest Money Deposit on the property.  This demonstrates that you are willing to take action on purchasing the property and you actually have the funds.Your deposit is a commitment to purchase the property...
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Working with Random Appraisals

Working with Random Appraisals
If you have been following the blog, you probably know that right now our biggest problem is not finding a willing buyer, but getting a bank that is willing to fund the loan.  The rules have changed and appraisers now are our biggest challenge. Most of our properties sell to FHA...
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Pulling the Best Comparables (Realist Tax)

Pulling the Best Comparables (Realist Tax)
A long time ago I spoke about how I used a very small part of Zillow to help with my price analysis.  They changed their site, to no longer allow quick sorting on their “Search Nearby Sales” which basically makes the tool a lot less useful for me.  But even before that...
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Looked at 10 houses on Monday

The market sure seems to be hot with a lot more buyers than inventory.  We are search to buy at least two properties in April, so we identified 10 properties that looked like they would meet our criteria. After spending three hours looking at them, I got home and ran some numbers. ...
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California Hard Money Loans

If your an experienced investor you have probably heard people talk about hard money.  I am going to provide a brief explanation of what it is, and who it is best suited for. Hard Money in terms of Real Estate is basically a private loan against real estate.  Typically it is a single...
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