While some areas of the country may actually be starting to see the housing market turn more in favor of sellers it is still essential to be constantly innovating in order to flip houses quickly and consistently. Don’t copy local Realtors and other investors. Their marketing may not be as successful as it looks and it certainly won’t help you stand out.

So what could you be doing to flip more houses? Those who already have homes and are planning open houses should strive to maximize traffic, not only through invitations but by pulling in as much drive by traffic as possible too. It is a fact that your best pool of buyers often comes from those who have family or friends in the neighborhood already. So have the kids put up a lemonade stand and wave cars in, hire some attractive ladies to do car washes while prospects browse your homes or come up with a creative giveaway for everyone who stops in.

Giveaways are often hotly debated. Forget the gift cards to Home Depot, free TVs or iPads. Come up with a giveaway that will get your real estate investing company in the news. You can write your own press releases or contact journalists from local newspapers with your story. What about giving away free pizza or Starbucks for a year? Or are there any other local businesses who you can partner with, who will donate a giveaway for the free marketing attention?

If you already have a number of properties why not organize a limo or helicopter tour of them to maximize your sales potential in one day. If you are by the water then perhaps even a foreclosure cruise could be a great idea. Plus if you sell enough homes on the spot you can take the next couple of weeks off to relax and enjoy your profits.

Finally, get creative with your financing by tapping into transactional funding so that you can close faster and rocket your volume so that you can sell more homes.

Hopefully you haven’t been to badly affected by hurricane Irene, though with 3 more months of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season to go and 8 more hurricanes forecast you must make sure that your real estate investing business is prepared.

There are many resources online for tracking storms, finding tips for protecting your properties and advice on battling with your insurance company to get what you are owed. However, what is equally if not more important is business continuity and having your real estate investing business prepared. There may not be much you can do to prevent property damage if a category 4 hurricane sweeps through town, but you can survive losing a property or two a lot easier than being out of business for several week or months.

If you are not prepared and set up to stay wired and connected when a storm rolls in you are asking for trouble. It is usually not the impact of the hurricane itself that kills businesses. It is not having internal or external communication and access to crucial data. This means no deals are being done, all of the marketing you have out there is wasted, staff will leave and your competition will move in. By the time you catch up it could easily be 3,6 or even 12 months down the road. Can your business and your bank account take it?

So what should you be doing to prepare your real estate business? By utilizing Internet phone services which can be forwarded anywhere, using cloud computing technology for accessing databases, storing information and collaborating and having remote staff on call you can keep on operating without missing a beat.

Though this is also a time to line up back up financing sources so that you can still close those deals you were working on and take advantage of hot opportunities with flash funding and transactional lending.

You have no doubt already found your transactional lender invaluable when it comes to flipping houses quickly with minimal risk and for maximum profits, but can they help you with your marketing expenses too?

If you are serious about real estate investing, regardless of whether you are flipping a few houses a month with funding from your transactional lender or you are focus mainly on buy and hold you probably have a good amount of marketing going on. This may include direct mail, telemarketing, display advertising, your website, a blog, PPC advertising and social media marketing. Whatever you are doing, it can certainly add up, but obviously you can’t expect to be flipping a significant number of homes each month without some type of advertising.

So how can you off set your marketing costs or tap into additional money so that you can expand on what you are doing?

One of the easiest ways to add to your income every month is through referral partner or affiliate programs. This is especially true if your real estate investing enterprise does a lot of online marketing. You can easily monetize your blog and website and even social media by allowing or running affiliate ads. This pays you a commission for every visitor who clicks on an add or buys something from a partner. This can be done through PPC with Google Adwords, affiliate directories and networks like Clickbank or Commission Junction or by hand selecting complimentary services.

If you haven’t asked your transactional lender yet they may have a referral program too. You probably run into other investors and buyers everyday who could use a transactional lender and who would be really grateful for the referral. So why not get paid for it? You could be making up to 10% of the fees your transactional lender makes on their transactions. It doesn’t take a genius to see that this could quickly build up to quite a nice marketing budget every month!

Come back next week to find out how to make even more from referral networks...

Once you have your transactional funding lender lined up and you have potential buyers lined up to flip houses to it’s time to focus on marketing to distressed and motivated homeowners.

What are some of the most effective marketing tactics for reaching these potential sellers that being used by the top real estate investors today?

Many of the most targeted lists you will get your hands on unfortunately may not come with phone numbers. One of the best ways to reach them is with a direct mail campaign. Forget postcards just because they are cheap and glossy. If you are working on a tight budget then you will find that handwritten and addressed style letters work incredibly well. If you can find someone else to do the writing though in order to maximize your time. Your teenager who wants shopping money, a neighbor who needs to make a little extra on a part time basis or a stay at home mom or dad. Give your letter a personal tone, though consider using toll free numbers to test different versions of copy, for capturing caller IDs and assigning leads to your sales staff if you have them.

One issue you may come across in your hunt for new seller leads is that while some attorneys, title companies, agents and insurance reps may want to share their client’s info with you, they may feel they are restricted in the personal information that they can share. The easy way to get around this is to run email campaigns as joint ventures. Have your partner send out your message to their database as a personal recommendation and you can even include a copy of your Proof of Funds letter from your transactional lender so they know you are serious. This is far more powerful than cold marketing, not to mention it can be free. Offer your joint venture partner a referral fee or send out an email message from them on their services to your database in return.

Another version of this marketing strategy is to put together a newsletter either as a mailer or in email form and have several of your strategic partners sponsor it so that it costs you nothing. Build subscriptions and readers for it online by enticing home owners with valuable content that is applicable for their current situation.

There are many places to find homes to flip today. You can often find deals among short sales, HUD homes and REOs. However most of the best deals are those that aren’t already listed. These are the distressed or motivated homeowners who haven’t taken action yet but need help and a way out of their homes. So where do you find them?

Credit Bureaus
You can actually get leads right from the credit bureaus with information on 30, 60 and 90 day late payments. However, legally this information is only to be shared if you are able to offer them a per-approved credit offer. So be careful if tempted to use this type of lead list.

Lead List Providers
Lead list companies and data compilers can tailor almost any combination of filters to allow you to hone in on potential leads. This can be done by LTV, mortgage amounts, lender and more. These lists are normally sold from anywhere between 2 cents to $2 dollars per name depending on the criteria you select.

Some companies you may want to check out include:

• DMALeads.com
• ListSource.com
• US Data Corporation
• Info USA

Attorneys
Probate, divorce and bankruptcy attorneys often have access to the best leads on distressed homeowners and others who want to sell quickly. They have privileged information on properties that have small or no mortgages and where the sellers are desperate to sell. Though do expect them to want to do the title work.

Title Companies
Title companies have huge databases of potential leads. They have data on when adjustable mortgages will come up for adjustment, who paid cash for their properties, who is delinquent on their taxes and they know who other cash investors are in your area who may be great prospects for flipping your properties too. Again they are going to want the title work in exchange for giving you these leads.

Loan Officers
Bank loan officers have a constant flow of leads. They take inquiries all day long from those who can’t qualify for refinances and they know who is behind on their mortgages and of course who have big bank balances too. These loan officers don’t make very much and will either be happy to exchange referrals or look for some type of referral fee.

Be sure to come back next week to read some of the best ways to capitalize on these leads....

There have been a number of stories about ‘short sale fraud’ circulating in the last couple of weeks. Short sales are of course one of the great sources of discounted properties investors using transactional funding tap into to make big profits flipping houses. So should you be worried as a real estate investor and consider staying away from short sales?

Not at all! According to one Washington, DC attorney and short sale expert in an interview this week ‘short sale fraud’ is mostly a concept dreamed up by greedy lenders who are jealous of the profits real estate investors are making.

So how are some getting in trouble for their involvement in short sale flips? It is important to note that it isn’t the investors using transactional funding to acquire and flip homes for quick profits that are finding themselves in hot water. It has been licensed real estate agents who have been found to have mislead and blatantly lied to the banks in order to get short sales approved that have been the ones catching the heat. Such is the case with the Realtor in Connecticut who just got 8 months in the slammer. It seems she found a buyer and instead of submitting that offer to the bank, had a fellow real estate agent buy the property and then had them flip it to the end buyer for an extra $30,000. Nothing wrong with making a quick profit. The issue was the agent in question clearly abused her position and deceived the bank by telling them the property couldn’t sell for more when the deal was already set up.

Should the banks care at all if the property is resold, who to, when and how much for? No, if they are happy to recoup what they can and complete the short sale that should be the end of the story. Though licensed agents do have a fiduciary responsibility and those required to sign an affidavit confirming full disclosure in the A-B side of the transaction ought to be upfront. However, again full time real estate investors may want to think twice before renewing their real estate licenses again just to avoid the extra potential heat.

Otherwise get out there, lock down wholesale deals, put offers on short sales and use your transactional lender to help you flip homes quickly for some nice paychecks.

Despite the availability of 100% financing for purchasing and flipping investment properties with transactional funding some in search of true no money down deals still struggle to come up with earnest money deposits to lock down the most attractive bargains whether they are foreclosures, HUD homes, short sales or from other distressed sellers.

Transactional funding does offer 100% financing to cover both the acquisition price plus closing costs, but if you have to come up with a deposit to get a signed contract and you are running short on cash what are your options?

Obviously reaching out to friends and family isn’t ideal. You can try other investors and offer them a piece of the pie but that can really dig into your profits and mean giving up some control. Though don’t give up yet.

If you still have a regular job too then you can always try getting a payday advance loan. Normally they do not require any credit checks and can be funded in hours. You can also get a cash advance from one of your credit cards and pay it off within the grace period to avoid finance charges. If you don’t have a credit card or good credit and you do have savings but just don’t want to use them, then consider a secured credit card or secured line of credit from your bank. This will also help rebuild your credit rating.

If your credit isn’t bad then what about a signature personal loan from a local bank? Of course it is much better to keep your personal and investment credit separate and you will want to register a business to work under if you haven’t already. This opens the door to obtaining a business line-of-credit or even getting an AMEX card.

If none of the above are options, don’t panic yet. Transactional funding is often referred to as ‘flash funding’ for a reason - you can close in just days. There is a good chance that if you can close fast enough you won’t even need to make a deposit. If you absolutely must then ask your transactional lender about a Proof-Of-Funds (POF) or Verification of Deposit (VOD) letter which may be sufficient to help you get the deal accepted.

1. No Qualifying
Transactional funding requires no qualifying like you have experienced when applying for a conventional or even hard money mortgage loan. There is no credit check, so it doesn’t matter if you have had a few bumps and bruises in the last few years or you previously went through a bankruptcy or foreclosure. You won’t have to verify your income, how much money you have in the bank or even if you have a job. You don’t even need an appraisal. All you do need is a qualified end buyer who you will flip the property to.

2. Quick Closings
You can get your transactional funding approved and to the closing table in just a few days, which is why it is often referred to as ‘flash funding’. It is great to have as a back up even if you have plenty of cash just in case something comes up so that you won’t miss your closing. Plus many property wholesalers today will only give you two weeks to close if you want to get the deal. So if you want the best bargains and the biggest profits you really have no option but to pay cash or use transactional funding.

3. Act As A Cash Buyer
The speed that transactional funding provides and the fact that there are no underwriting hoops to jump through means that you can really act as a cash buyer and demand even bigger discounts when making offers on properties. This will give you a decisive edge over your competition and allows for either making a larger spread on each deal or being able to flip houses with a lower retail price tag so they move faster.

4. 100% Financing
Transactional funding provides 100% financing of your purchase price plus closing costs enabling true no money down real estate deals.

5. Lower Risk
Having access to a great transactional lender means being able to flip homes quickly and easily, getting in and out without the risks associated with holding or speculating on appreciation.

6. It’s More Affordable
If you have used conventional mortgage financing or hard money lenders to fund your real estate deals in the past you know that hefty junk fees and paying lots of points can seriously dig into your profits and make or break a transaction. You will find transactional funding a lot cheaper, leaving more money on the table and in your bank account.

1. Have A System
Don’t just have a plan, have a system that with enable you to operate efficiently and rapidly grow and scale your real estate investing activities. This way one day you can even begin franchising or sell your business for big bucks.

2. Find A Great Funding Source
Even if you are getting into real estate investing cash rich at some point you are going to want to use leverage to do even more. So find a few great funding sources for your acquisitions including conventional mortgage lenders and banks as well as private lenders and transactional funding sources.

3. Build Relationships & Partnerships
Loyalty goes a long way in real estate investing. Plus the more business you give one company whether it is a transactional lender or Realtor the better deals and more flexibility you will find. You can also bet that having a good relationship with your vendors can also help you pull off even faster closings and flash funding when you really need to get a deal done ASAP.

4. Inspections
You have heard it before, but it really can’t be said enough - always get inspections done no matter how many deals you have done before and how fantastic a condition the property appears to be in. This also applies to walk-throughs. You never know what can happen between the time you sign the contract and you hand over the cash.

5. Don’t Alienate Real Estate Agents
Some real estate investment courses have portrayed real estate agents as the enemy and too costly to deal with. However, in reality they can often find you great deals, save you plenty of time and even help you find the best flash funding sources when you need quick financing to close on your flips.

6. Always Be Networking
Sometimes it is really who you know, not what you know that brings you great deals and helps you get them closed. Your success in real estate investing will directly relate to how many new contacts you can make each day.

7. Keep Building Your Marketing Skills & Knowledge
Today the deals go to those who are great at marketing themselves. So keep on top of the latest trends, embrace social media and mobile marketing and get out there to win the most buyers and sellers.

Staying on the right side of the law or at least avoiding extra unwanted attention from the authorities can sometimes be a tricky business when flipping houses. Unfortunately many out dated real estate investment courses and programs provide information that either doesn’t work any more or has become illegal. However, this does not include transactional funding.

Dry closings or simultaneous closings where an investors uses a buyer’s money to fund a double closing and pay the seller are definitely frowned upon and can at the very least get you the wrong type of attention. Plus of course it does pose technical issues with recording deeds in time to satisfy the end buyer’s lender’s requirements which can jeopardize your deals.

Flash funding or transactional funding is different. This type of financing provides you as a real estate investor with the funds to close your A to B transaction with the seller, with real money. Then you can have a separate closing for the B to C side which cashes you out with your end buyer via a cash purchase or their bank financing. This is completely legal, though the mechanics may need to work slightly differently depending on where the end buyer is bringing their funds from.

In many cases you can easily close both ends of your deal within three days often even on the same day. However, in circumstances when the end lender wants to see the recorded deed from the first transaction you may need to wait as long as a couple of weeks. Thankfully the best transactional lenders are now rolling out extended financing options that can give you as much as 40 days to re-pay the loan.

So yes, transactional funding is completely legal and above board, though if course as always it helps to use a title company or closing attorney who is comfortable with this type of real estate deal, knows how to facilitate a smooth transaction on both ends and is familiar with how different lenders require things to be done.

A few years ago during the big boom in the housing market it was only the real pros who could get access to transactional funding and you often had to be pretty well connected to be able to take advantage of it. However, you could say that the one great thing that has come out of the recent rise in foreclosures is that transactional funding has actually become much easier to get your hands on.

Some people confuse transactional funding with hard money lenders and private mortgage lenders, however it is actually very different in some ways. No doubt everyone has learnt that hard money lenders have become far more cautious and strict on the loans they make than a couple of years ago. It used to be that providing you had a pulse and there was equity in a property that you could get a loan. Today these hard money lenders are often offering very limited LTVs and even require credit reports and proof of income and assets in many cases. This makes it a lot more like trying to jump through the hoops of a conventional mortgage lender or bank than what hard money was designed to be like.

In contrast transactional funding couldn’t be easier to get. You need to be aware that this is not a form of financing that works for those with buy and hold strategies, but it is perfect for wholesalers and those focused on flipping houses. Transactional funding is specifically for those who already have an end buyer and simply need the funds to close on the A-B transaction first.

What do you need to qualify for transactional funding? Virtually all you really need is your purchase contract and your sales contract with proof that your end buyer has been approved for a loan or has the cash to buy the property. There are no appraisals needed, no income and asset verification or credit checks. It is really that easy and you couldn’t ask for a better way to keep a steady stream of deal flowing.

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