It is almost always best to get boots on the ground and meet the neighbors of a property before you make new acquisitions.

Failing to do so can bankrupt you fast. It only takes one or two duds weighing down your portfolio, or eating up all of the profits and cash flow from your other flips to really kill your flow.

So, how do you balance these best practices with efficiency? Why is meeting the neighbors so important and valuable?

Remote Versus Local Wholesaling

Virtual or remote wholesaling has become far more popular in recent years. Especially thanks to COVID lockdowns, new technology, and real estate investing courses promoting it.

It works. It can be hyper efficient and profitable. Especially at high volumes. However, while buying property sight unseen can be great in so many ways, it can also be risky.

Fortunately, you can find some balance. There are still ways to get the best deals and most fast, without getting lumbered with dead weight properties. For example, going out to meet the neighbors of a pending deal after you already have a contract signed with contingencies on it. Or hiring local contractors to go out and do some leg work for you.

So, why can meeting the neighbors make all the difference?

Avoid Grossly Overpaying

The last thing you want is to proudly show up at a property you just closed on, only for the neighbors to tell you that you paid double what it is worth.

Identifying Problem Neighbors

It is not uncommon for there to be problem neighbors. Some just don’t want neighbors or may be mad because they hoped to buy the property themselves. They can make it hard to do what you want with the property, or can actively block resales or rentals, versus becoming allies. You don’t want to be stuck with a property that you can’t flip or rent.

Problem Properties

There’s only so much you can see on Google maps or other virtual tools. There is only so much that you can see in person on any given day and time. Neighbors have a lot more information on whether there have been environmental problems, frequent flooding, or other issues that you just would never uncover until it is far too late.

Summary

By all means go fast and do a high volume of real estate deals remotely and out of your immediate area. Though, whether it is yourself, or a team member, meeting the neighbors before you close on a new deal can save you large amounts of stress and money, or cost you everything if you neglect it.

 

Is it time you went all in on real estate wholesaling?

How do you know when it is the right time to shift your focus from other real estate strategies to wholesaling real estate? Or to go all in on it in place of your other niches, or use it as your lead to get into real estate investing?

There are many ways to invest in real estate. This is one of the greatest and most profitable times to do it. Just make sure you are getting the most out of it; maximizing your upside potential, and stripping away potential risks.

When You Are Making Most Of Your Money Reselling Or In Equity

Perhaps you are already using a variety of methods of investing in real estate. When was the last time you really sat down to evaluate and compare where you are making most of your money and the best ROI?

If you are making a lot more in equity and reselling, than in rents, then it may be time to switch your focus to just wholesaling.

Perhaps you’ve owned rentals over the past couple of years, but have barely been making a couple hundred dollars per unit. Maybe you are net negative after costs, repairs, reinvesting in improvements and the personal time you’ve put in. If you can make more wholesaling the same types of properties in 3 days, than you can make in 3 years of rents, it’s probably time to change it up.

Construction Costs Are Eating Up Your Margins

Hyper-inflation has been adding 30% or more to the cost of construction materials. More hikes are coming in taxes and labor costs, if you can find good help.

This has already led many homeowners to indefinitely put off home improvement projects, and others to cancel plans to build new homes.

You may make more profit just by immediately wholesaling that property as-is, than trying to rehab or improve it. Not to mention you’ll get paid a lot faster, and be able to roll up and compound those returns more times over the year.

Uncertainty In Rents & Future Property Values

If you aren’t certain that your income from rents will be consistent, or you just aren’t 100% sure where values on flips and buy and hold properties will be in a few months or the next 24 months, then it may be better to sell now and make the gain rather than gambling on the future.

You Can Finance Your Deals & Eliminate Risk

Real estate wholesalers can take advantage of transactional funding to finance 100% of their purchases and even closing costs. It’s fast, easy funding, that means you can virtually take all of the risk out of investing.

 

While there may have never been a stronger real estate market, there are certainly some quirks happening out there. Where do you get the money to fund your real estate deals now?

New federal mortgage servicing rules may be exasperating mortgage lenders, while landlords continue to try and battle for evictions. At the same time, banks like Wells Fargo have either increased credit requirements for loan products, or have ended loan programs like the home equity line of credit. More recently Wells Fargo just surprised its customers with a last minute notice that it will be cutting off all personal lines of credit.

Plentiful Deals, High Demand

While some types of inventory have been tight, and prices have hit new record highs, there are still plentiful deals to do. In fact, with many home flippers sitting on the sidelines over the past year according to Bloomberg, there are still endless investment deals to be done. The retail market may finally be moderating according to NAR and the latest data, but right priced properties are still in high demand.

There’s a whole buffet of deals to be done, and scaling up volume now while the end buyer market is still there seems like the intelligent thing to do. For most it is just about having all of the capital to do it.

Transactional Funding

Transactional funding is still available for real estate investors. This is the easiest investment capital to get your hands on to fund your deals.

Best Transaction Funding doesn’t require a credit score, appraisal or income verification. That means no headaches if you missed some work or your income stalled during the pandemic, your bank hurt your credit by cancelling your credit line, or you just load up on too much toilet paper and other supplies on your credit cards. You can make offers with confidence, without worrying about appraisal issues, while being able to close in just days.

Real Estate Wholesaling

Transactional funding is specifically designed for real estate wholesaling. The lowest risk and highest reward real estate strategy to deploy in this current market.

Whether you are just getting started, need to fill gaps in rental income while waiting on evictions, or need to put lump sums in the bank to make up for lost credit lines you were counting on to finish rehab projects, wholesaling could be the ideal solution.

 

 

How risky is real estate investing really?

Investing in real estate is often promoted as a super low or zero risk business or investment. All with many great benefits. Yet, many would be investors get stuck on the sidelines, worrying about risk. It paralyzes them into inaction.

So, what are the real risks? How can you eliminate and minimize them?

What’s The Real Risk?

The truth is that there is no such thing as a 110% risk free investment. They don’t exist. Just like there is no guarantee you won’t slip and fall getting out of the bed in the morning, or a plane won’t crash through your roof and get you in bed in a freak accident if you don’t get out of bed each day.

In real estate there is a risk that property values will fluctuate, that malicious tenants and employees will try to sue you, that scammers will sue you for your website features, that tenants won’t pay, or even there could be an earthquake, wildfire or global pandemic virus that prevents you from collecting rents.

However, small the chances, these are potential risks. The most important question that investors should be asking is whether the risks outweigh the rewards or vice versa? Or even more critical, does failing to invest in real estate bring even more risk than doing it?

What if you don’t invest in real estate? What if the money under your mattress gets stolen or is devalued due to inflation? What if your own home catches fire and burns down? What if your bank goes bankrupt or leaks your information and you lose all the money in your checking and savings accounts? These may actually be more serious risks than investing in real estate.

What if none of those things happen, but you one day simply can’t work anymore or are laid off, and don’t have enough money for you and your family for 30 years of retirement? All because you didn’t invest in real estate.

When you dig in. what’s really scary is NOT doing it.

Ways To Reduce Risk When Investing In Real Estate

It seems far less risky to take action and invest in real estate. Yet, it would be foolish to completely ignore the potential risks either. Fortunately, there are several ways to minimize these risks, and boost your upside potential.

The top risks of investing in real estate seem to fall into these buckets:

• Falling values of properties you are holding onto

• In ability to collect consistent rents on properties you are holding long term

• Malicious business and personal injury lawsuits

• Exposure to losing any money you have tied up in properties

 

Here’s how to crush that risk…

Get Insurance

Insurance can help defend and against direct loss and damages to properties, as well as potential lawsuits.

Use Financial Leverage

If you don’t have any of your own money tied up in a property, then you can’t lose it. If you pay all cash for a property and sit on it, you are a target for lawsuits. So, what if you were able to use other people’s money to fund 100% of your investments? You’d have nothing to lose and everything to gain. That’s exactly what Best Transaction Funding does for you.

Secure Your Profits & Exit In Advance

The smartest, wealthiest and most successful investors don’t put out a penny unless they know they have a dollar coming in. They don’t buy inventory unless it is already presold. You can do the same thing with real estate through wholesaling and reverse wholesaling too. Find the end buyers, use transactional funding to finance the deal, and you are in, out and paid right away. You know you are going to profit before you buy a property, or spend an hour looking for one.

 

One of the biggest challenges facing real estate investors is the ability to focus. This is always true, but even more so during crisis moments.

Bruce Lee said a successful person is the one with laser like focus. How do you get better at maintaining that?

Limit Your Intake

It can be extra hard to maintain your focus if your mind is consumed with keeping up with evolving news. If you are checking new websites and social media feeds constantly, you aren’t being productive and you really can’t focus on what you need to do.

In reality, not much changes every hour. If you’ve already thought about the best and worst case scenarios for a hurricane or virus outbreak or economic downturn, then you should be able to take it in your stride. If you need a day to prepare for these things, take it. Then focus on your business.

It’s best if you can limit your news and social to once a day. If you are really an addict, then twice a day is plenty.

Get Your Mind Right In The Morning

Master focus by getting your mind right first thing in the morning. Take however much time you need to get in an unshakable mindset. It will pay dividends in focus and productivity for the rest of the day. You can meditate, read, exercise or anything else that puts you in your zone. Create a routine out of it.

Focus On Your Goals

Keep your eye on the goals and big vision.

Don’t allow yourself to be distracted by temporary blips. Keep your goals highly visible, so that they will always jolt you back to what you should be thinking about.

Focus On The Most Important Immediate Actions

Worrying and debating the news is not going to do much for you. Except to drag you down further. If you know your goals, you know the most important actions steps you should be taking next. That is typically signing new business so that you have more money coming in. Do that, and you’ll be best prepared for everything else.

Relax, Be Flexible

Be flexible. There are major crises which can really make it hard to focus. Give yourself a day off to get your mind right, adjust your plans and get refocused mentally. Get that out of the way, so you can be 100% in the game when you are working.

 

Still spinning your wheels trying to get started in real estate, or to just do more deals? Here’s the silver bullets you need…

You may have been breaking your brain on how to start investing in real estate for months. Or maybe you are already doing a fair amount of deals, but it just isn’t enough. It just isn’t maximizing your potential. Procrastination is the biggest monster to slay when it comes to making progress. That still applies, even if you are doing 12 deals a year, but are spending most of your time being busy instead of productive.

The Two Most Common Excuses

There are two extremely common excuses that people hide behind:

1. Time

2. Money

People say they don’t have enough time or money. Yet, they seem to have plenty for the things they are really passionate about. Here’s how to hack your way out of being “too busy,” and the “if only I had a little more money,” zone.

100% Financing For Your Real Estate Deals

Best Transaction Funding offers 100% financing for your wholesale real estate deals. If you don’t need any cash to buy and close on as many properties as you can find there is nothing holding you back. Your returns are off the charts. Your risk is pretty much as close to zero as you can get.

How To Hack Time & Make Progress

The first step to breaking through the time excuse is to feel the urgency. If you don’t like your current financial situation, or don’t think what you are doing now is going to cut it long term (and it’s not), then let that push you. The bottom line truth is that you’ll never have more time. Not until you start shifting how you use it.

If you need more urgency, count the days you might have left to change your situation and the future for your family. It’s not that many. Especially, once you deduct sick days, sleep and eating.

Recognize that every day you keep doing what you are now, you are stealing quality time, and financial progress from yourself.

Next, start blocking out your calendar.

If you leave it till later, there will always be something that sucks up your time. You’ll always be too tired or find an errand to run.

Beat that by blocking out your time to work on your real estate investing first. First every day. Black out your calendar for it. Set reminders for your inboxes. Refuse to do anything, until you’ve put in an hour or two on the most important next tasks. That’s probably making offers or talking to potential buyers.

Maybe you’ll have to get up a little earlier, or push other activities back. Just do it.

Do it even if you have a job or have to get the kids to school. Don’t let yourself do those things until you’ve got your prime time in taking action. If you refuse to do anything else, you’ll get this done. Even if it is the fear of the school truancy officer knocking on the door or your boss firing you.

Next, make the first day of your week all about taking the most important actions for your real estate investing. Block out your Sunday or Monday and only work on this. Then you’ll be blazing into your week with your most important tasks already done.

 

Hurricane Dorian is barreling toward the southeast, and could hit Florida as a Category 3 or stronger storm within days. Here’s the truth about hurricanes and investing in real estate.

Real Estate Closings

Hurricanes put the breaks on real estate closings. Even if the banks and title companies are open, you won’t be able to get an insurance policy to satisfy closing requirements once a storm is ‘in the box’. After the storm passes end buyers may need a new appraisal, and get it cleared by their lenders prior to rescheduling the closing.

The Truth About Insurance

The truth is that while it is often mandatory to have insurance, it probably won’t pay out. Even if it does, it probably won’t be enough, nor fast enough. Be sure you have coverage for fires, wind and flood damage. Get a great lawyer to help fight for your claim and be sure you have their contact information with you when you evacuate.

Hurricanes Aren’t The Only Threat

No matter where you invest there are going to be risks. Tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, and terror attacks can all bring similar threats to other areas. At least you can prepare for a hurricane and see it coming.

Landfall Isn’t The Biggest Problem

Staying and trying to ride out the storm is one of the worst mistakes people make. The initial impact of the winds and storm surge isn’t the real threat. The days and weeks afterwards can be much worse. It’s the looting, downed power lines, and disrupted business that can really do some of the greatest damage. You’ll never regret getting out of the way. You might really regret trying to stay. Real estate investors need to ensure they and their teams and business partners can run remotely without missing a beat. Or everything can crumble quickly without cash flow and closings.

Risk Vs. Reward

It’s always a balancing act. Some properties just aren’t intelligently built or placed. Can you believe they are still building stick built homes along the Florida coastline? This is especially true of multifamily apartments. Cover it up with a little stucco and no one knows what they are really living in. Other properties may offer the same returns with less risk. Though it’s hard to change the prestige of living by the beach and on the waterfront. The land may still hold the most value, but if you invest in these hurricane prone areas, it’s not if, but when and how hard you’ll get hit. As well as how often.

Disasters Create Opportunities To Help Others

Between homeowners impacted by storms and those wanting access to investments, wholesalers can be those best positioned to act fast and help most. WIth 100% transactional funding and speed, and the ability to work the middle from anywhere, wholesalers can be the biggest helpers.

 

Is real estate investing a race of speed, or is it more like an endurance race or decathlon?

You can approach real estate investing any way you like. Some may be inclined to rush and be highly motivated to go all in at full speed. Others take a very slow and long approach. Which works best? What are the pros and cons of these mindsets? What’s it really like?

The Sprint

Taking big and swift action is required if you want big and quick results. If you are throwing yourself all in to wholesaling houses or fixing and flipping and need it to put money back in your pocket by the end of the month, you had better hustle. You can do it, but you’ll have to go flat out, make decisions quickly and make no excuses.

Just 30 days could change your life. Yet, there are potential pitfalls and downsides of only being a sprinter.

It can make it tempting to take shortcuts and make unsustainable moves. Just like those marathon cheaters taking an uber to the finish line or Lance Armstrong in cycling. This is even true for those in buy and hold real estate and multifamily. These are the people trying to sprint, when they are really in a marathon.

You may burnout by going too fast. Or you might wake up and find you’ve smashed your 5 year goals in just 2 years, but didn’t make a plan for how to maintain it after that.

The Marathon

Others see real estate as a marathon. A really, really long race. One which requires a lot of stamina and endurance, patience and a lot of repetitive tasks.

If you end up living more than 5 years, then real estate really is a marathon. Quick results are great and possible, but once you are in the lead, you need to stay there. You don’t want to burn out after the first mile and throw in the towel. Yet, if you get too comfortable in the lead, there are plenty of people behind you looking to pass you.

There are some ways that real estate investing is not like a marathon at all. It’s not just one smooth track. Opportunities are always changing with the market and economy and other trends. There may be times to sprint, slowdown and pace yourself and to pause or leap.

The Decathlon of Real Estate

In reality real estate investing is probably much more like a decathlon or Spartan race. Days of both sprinting and long distance, as well as specialized skills in jumping, throwing and pole vaulting.

It requires many different skills. You’ve got to find the deals, fund the deals, flip the deals, and train in between.

To master it for quick progress and staying a champ for the long term, you’ve got to know when to do what, and where to focus. It’s smart to choose what to excel in, and it takes wisdom to know when to sprint or pace yourself.

If you live in a very seasonal real estate market this should be pretty obvious. Though in addition to larger real estate cycles, every year can bring its time to sprint, and cool down.

One of those coming up is back to school season when families are hyper motivated to sell and buy and move before the new school year starts. Ready, set, go...

 

The 4th of July is on us, and it can be one of the most pivotal moments of the year for real estate investors. How will you get the most out of it?

Are You Fully Flexing Your Freedom?

Some people may really feel their freedoms are being cramped. Yet, millions of people flock to this country every year for a chance at opportunity and to enjoy our freedoms. Billions would come if they could. To fail to take advantage of the freedom we have is a terrible waste.

We have an amazing opportunity just to be able to buy and invest in real estate. If you’re willing to hustle, you can build a million dollar business in almost no time at all, and be enjoying a 1% income and plenty of time freedom.

You don’t need a lot of money, time, a college education or credit to start wholesaling houses. Best Transaction Funding will even give you 100% of the funds you need to finance your wholesale deals. The only thing crazier than that is to not take advantage of it.

We’ve crossed the halfway point in the year. If you haven’t reached your goals yet, make this the moment you decide to get on track and do something about it.

Go Free Some People

Contemplating all the sacrifice made for these freedoms, and the birth of this country in fighting off high taxes and debt, it’s ironic how many people feel trapped in their homes or who are facing foreclosure due to high property taxes. You have the freedom to get out there and help them this weekend. You have the ability to set them free from that. It’s a gift. Flex it.

Give Others a Chance at the American Dream

Owning a home is still a core part of the American Dream, you can help make that happen, and make their dreams and aspirations a reality. It’s an incredible gift to be able to be a part of that. You can do this as a house flipper or wholesaler. Get out there and serve up some homes.

Celebrate Your Freedom!

Whether you are just waking up to the opportunities and resources available to you, or you’ve already blown your own mind with what you can achieve through real estate investing, celebrate it.

Take time out this Independence Day to really celebrate all of this.

Network & Build Relationships

If you are still struggling to get some traction toward these goals or are trying to get to the next level, the 4th of July weekend is a fantastic time to network and build relationships to make it happen.

Get out and attend local events or host your own. Break out the BBQ and light it up. You’re free to grill meatless burgers or real ones, it’s up to you.

Connect with others you can learn from as well as those who you can help.

 

There are a lot of choices in life and business. We don’t always frame them right. That can lead to a lot of lost opportunity and self-sabotage. If you’re in the real estate industry, or have been dancing with the idea of getting started in real estate investing, it’s worth asking these questions.

Would You Rather Spend a Lifetime Working for Someone Else or Take a Chance on Freedom?

Some people see making the leap into real estate investing or a career as an independent real estate pro as a risk. Others recognize how unreliable working for someone else is. How unsafe it is to bet your life on another boss.

Ironically, if you still haven’t made the leap, you’ll probably find it hard to find anyone who has tried working for themselves who would ever consider going back to a salaried job. Meanwhile, it’s a lot harder to find anyone who loves their job working for another company. Try asking around.

After all, what’s the worst that could happen if it doesn’t work out? You’ll probably be just right back where you are.

Would You Rather Settle for a Mediocre Real Estate Career or Hit Your Full Potential?

There are a lot of house flippers and other investors and agents who are doing very well, just by doing a few deals a year. Just one house every three months (4 a year) can deliver an income far beyond the average salary.

You might have more freedom, money, prestige and nice things, but is that it?

There are others doing 10 or 20 wholesale house deals or sales every month! It’s not about competing. It’s about knowing you are living to your full potential. Having no regrets.

Would You Rather Get Rich Fast for 15 Minutes or Enjoy a Wealthy Legacy

As a lot of people are about to find out when the market changes again, there is a huge difference between getting and staying rich. Get into real estate and you might blaze through your 5 year goals in a year, and achieve more than you ever thought possible. Though, if you’ve just taken a lot of high risk and questionable short cuts, it may not last long.

They only thing worse than tasting that success is losing it all. The bigger you are, the more it hurts when you fall. Ask the billion dollar real estate agents and investors who ended up in line begging for a minimum wage job at McDonalds in 2008. Most of whom couldn’t even get hired there.

Do go big. Do go fast. Just make sure you have a plan and are doing it sustainably. Then it can last a lifetime and longer.

Would You Rather Be Making Great Money & Be Working Like Crazy or Have Time Freedom?

Once in real estate you can quickly lose sight of your original dream of having more free time. Making more money is great. Though you can be really busy and be making a lot less than others who are simply working more efficiently and productively.

Don’t be stuck working crazy hours, nights and weekends. If you’re well organized you should be able to enjoy a 4 day work week and set your own schedule and vacations. Make sure you are using all the tools and help at your disposal.

 

Watch out real estate investors - the Z Apocalypse is here. Zillow has announced major expansion plans and advances into new sectors of the industry. How can real estate investors prep, survive and thrive?

Zillow’s New Moves

If you thought Zillow was already a pain for standing out online and the deals it wrecks with its seriously flawed Zestimates tool, that’s just the beginning.

Zillow recently attracted a lot of attention for taking over a large mortgage lender. Now it aims to capture and capitalize on real estate sales and listings and do all the financing for regular home buyers.

More importantly for investors, Zillow has also begun buying and selling properties itself. Like OpenDoor and so many wholesalers out there. It wants to list ‘em, buy ‘em, flip them and finance them.

 

Plus, the online giant has announced it will be offering property management and rental property services. It will act as the consumer facing portal for rental applications and approvals and processing rental payments.

Essentially Zillow is stepping on a whole lot of toes at once. All of these new revenue streams could create even more capital to expand its online monopoly in an attempt to starve smaller players out of the business.

What To Do

Obviously solo investors and small businesses are at a disadvantage in many ways. They don’t have a Zillow size marketing budget or giant team of sales staff to follow up with leads and cold call. Like Facebook, Zillow has also used all the content and links from users against them. Anyone who contributed to Zillow’s blogs, forums or credited it for data and research on their own blog, or used the site for their reviews, essentially gave away their own future business to the competition.

Fortunately, you do have some advantages to wield too. You can insist on running a very lean and highly flexible business that has better profit margins and can take advantage of market trends and new opportunities faster than Zillow.

You can stand out with your own personal brand and stay unique. You can specialize in being the expert in one niche, or become the local expert.

You can do far better at building personal relationships and providing superior personal service. You can provide more accurate information, follow up better, and conduct more targeted marketing.

Maybe you can even wholesale your properties to Zillow?

 

What are the keys to success in real estate investing in declining property markets?

The economy appears to be in great shape and the Fed even held on hiking interest rates again, for now. Yet, there appears to be more data and signs of softness in the property market showing up. All real estate is local, and weakness in Manhattan prices, San Francisco rents or swelling inventory and longer days on market in the south may not immediately impact where you are investing. These trends could change with the economy, or a new rush into real estate if tech and stocks crash. Yet, every real estate investor and CEO had better have a plan in advance to weather any declining market activity.

Here are the most critical factors to plan so that you are never caught out when the market fluctuates.

Marketing

When the market contracts many instinctively feel they should pull back on every penny and bunker down. Unfortunately, this it usually counterproductive and just speeds up their demise. You’ve got to keep marketing to keep the leads and deals and income coming in. In fact, this is when you should have an additional marketing budget to pick up the pace and scoop up market share while others drop the ball.

Profit Margins

This is the time to fine tune profitability. Don’t make the classic mistake of burning customers by giving less and trying to charge more. Instead, look for ways to operate more efficiently, optimize debt and cash flow, trim unnecessary overhead, and use smart leverage. Those with the best profit margins will have the most staying power, and most flexibility.

Income

This is the time to establish multiple income and revenue streams. This is especially true for rental property owners and fix and flippers. It’s time to diversify, and make sure you have a variety of income sources which can keep your overall finances resilient and consistent. This probably includes monetizing your online assets and real estate wholesaling. Wholesaling is an ideal strategy for a declining market. You can get in out and paid, can build in plenty of price cushion and can use 100% leverage by tapping into the best transaction funding sources.

 

 

Recent California wildfires have displaced thousands of residents. What help is available? How can real estate investors lend a hand?

The latest round of CA wildfires have dealt what may be one of the most catastrophic seasons on the state, with new record costs, and thousands forced from their homes. According to the state government website, 2017 has seen almost twice the average amount of acreage burned, with damage that could cost at least $1B, if not close to $5B. This includes around 8,500 residential homes which have been damaged or burned down.

The IRS has responded by extending some tax deadlines for those affected until January 31st, 2018. Victims may also be eligible for FEMA of up to $34,000 to help with funeral costs, emergency hospital bills, and housing expenses. There are also going to be a variety of agents and real estate investors looking to help house those displaced, and to offer quick sales for those who don’t want to, or can’t hang on and rebuild their homes.

A new report from UpNest shows data that suggests recent years of fires have not have much impact on the state’s property prices or demand. Yet, there are clearly many property owners who have lost everything, are still struggling to get back on track years down the line, and whose land is still badly scorched. The most immediate impact for real estate appears to be even worse lack of available housing, and rocketing rental and housing costs.

There is a huge need for fast acting real estate investors who can go in and help owners liquidate fire damaged homes, as well as for rebuilding and renovating them. Real estate wholesalers can play an urgent and much needed role in this, by finding, contracting to buy, and providing inventory to other investors who have more time and capital to reposition, remodel, and build. While fire damage and burnouts can typically be a roadblock for traditional mortgage financing, wholesalers can use Best Transaction Funding to acquire and flip these houses to cash buyers and those with flexible credit lines, that don’t rely on property inspections.

Summary

Data suggests that California housing prices are not likely to be slowed by recent fires. There is a big need for housing, and funding is available for fast flips. Wholesalers can help out by getting product in front of those with the time, money, patience to rebuild or rehab, while giving sellers the quick cash they need.

Labor Day is here and it reminds experienced real estate wholesalers to leap into action…

There are many ways in which Labor Day brings important opportunities for property wholesalers. Here are 5 to put into play this 2016 Labor Day weekend, and over the other coming long weekends the rest of this year.

Holiday Sales

Labor Day sales offer the opportunity for real estate business people to grab supplies and even take advantage of deals on services at a discount. Use this opportunity to make your budget go further.

Real Estate Marketing

With more prospects at home and with more prospects with free time to read marketing messages this is a great time to up your game and make those connections. Write those contracts and take advantage of the current market.

Open House Events

This is the ideal time to host open house events. Tailor them to your ideal prospects. This could be real estate tours, cocktail parties, charity fundraisers, of family BBQs.

Teach Your Kids About Real Estate Investing

This is a great time to pass on your knowledge to your kids, and equip them for a successful life. Teach them what to look for in homes, how to collect information from FSBO signs, and some basic DIY skills.

Celebrate

Work is a gift. It’s great to be able to work in real estate and invest in it. Millions may never have that opportunity. Take time off to celebrate that, and recharge before hitting it hard again after the holiday. Set a good example for those around you of how to work hard, and take care of yourself, and to seize these moments to enjoy quality time with those you care about.

 

Authored by Best Transaction Funding - the leading source of transactional funding for real estate wholesalers, where 100% financing, and saying “Yes” is what we love doing all day long. Request your Proof Of Funds Letter today!

Are you ready for some serious discounts on wholesale properties?

Forget the pennies to be saved on tax free days and at back to school sales. You’ll be able to buy the whole class some new threads and books with the profit on a couple of fast wholesale deals.

The sizzling summer mover season is done. There are fewer regular retail buyers in the market. That means less competition for house deals. While lagging data will take a few months to catch up, home prices normally soften during this period. Sellers get nervous because they aren’t used to dealing with seasonal fluctuations. All they get is that no one is showing up for showings. No one is making offers. And if they have one; their Realtors are getting hungry for commissions. This all makes for an excellent time to swoop in and score great discounts on house deals, and to negotiate the terms you want from a power position. It’s even a good time to go back to stubborn sellers and agents and get them to come down to your price. Which of course should be even lower now.

At the same wholesalers should find that buy and hold investors are back from vacation, and are getting serious about business again. This may be a short window to get them, before holiday madness starts, but this puts the icing on the ideal conditions for wholesaling.

So dust off your buyers list, load up on inventory, and flip it!

With a good transactional lender there is no reason wholesalers can’t enjoy a flurry of deals right now. And if you’ve still got time get involved with local backpack drives, and help others in the community that aren’t banking as well as you yet.

Want more tax free days? How about 365 days of tax free real estate investing? Check out next week’s post on how to slash your 2015 taxes by $10,000, and enjoy tax free returns all next year…

Authored by Best Transaction Funding. BestTransactionFunding.com is your leading source of hard money loans and transactional funding and for real estate, where 100% financing, and saying “Yes” is what we love doing all day long.

New data reveals more than 10 million distressed homes that could be ripe for US real estate investors…

Even though some real estate investors say they have been feeling the pinch from fast rising property prices and a lack of inventory, there are many more distressed properties out there than many can fathom.

While US home equity has been racking up hundreds of billions of dollars in positive gains many US homes are still deep in distress. According to National Mortgage News there were around 5 million underwater homes in America in mid-June 2015. But that’s only a small part of the story. CoreLogic data shows 85% of homes under $200,000 are still underwater!

Think that’s a bigger number? Then add another 20% of mortgaged US homes, or just shy of 10 million homes that have less than 20% equity. These represent homeowners that are also in a tight spot. Between Realtor commissions, taxes, closing costs, pre-payment penalties, back interest and fees, HOA and condo dues, code enforcement violations, property taxes, and marketing expenses most of this group may not be able to sell conventionally either.

Want MORE deals? Check out the 50% to 74% rise in bank owned REOs revealed in this real estate blog post. Then ice that with fresh new residential and commercial mortgage delinquencies. And then there are all the properties that are not mortgaged, but are in distress due to property condition, divorce, past due taxes, and more. 10 million is just a small piece of the pie.

US banks just got slammed with new regulations in June 2015 too. Some of the biggest have finally found that skirting their obligations to help homeowners, grant short sales, and approve real loan modifications has caught up with them. In some cases this means they are banned from increasing their mortgage loan portfolio size. That means they have to shift bad loans and old loans off their books in order to make new ones and make more money. That’s a whole new world of motivation for banks to help investors buy these properties.

There may be some negotiating, and creative deal structuring and financing to be done, but it’s unlikely we’ve seen opportunity this big for US real estate investing since the days of the pioneers heading west.

 

Authored by Best Transaction Funding BestTransactionFunding.com is the leading source of transactional funding and hard money loans for real estate wholesalers in the US, where 100% financing, and saying “Yes” is what we love doing all day long.

These three pitfalls can derail investors fast…

As the US real estate market keeps marching up newer investors appear to be on the verge of falling into many of the same traps that caught their predecessors off guard. It doesn’t matter how much money you are making right now, and how rosy the outlook is. It can all come crashing down if real estate investors don’t stay on point. Few can fathom just how ugly it can get, unless they’ve already been there. But it is certainly better to learn from others’ mistakes than to repeat them yourself.

A search of online real estate forums shows investors making these blunders:

1. Real estate and mortgage fraud
2. Investing for negative cash flow and speculation
3. Forgetting there is more to investing and life than just the money

Investors are openly debating committing mortgage fraud in some popular online forums. They might as well just turn themselves into the FBI now. Others are floating the idea of investing hundreds of thousands of dollars or leveraging themselves to the max to buy money pits that have negative cash flow.

Find out if Wholesaling is Legal Here and if Wholesaling Houses is Ethical Here

For most investing in real estate is about making more money. Everyone needs money to live today. There is even scientific data that shows that more money can make you happier (to a certain point). But when more money becomes the only goal, then it is a slippery slope where the perceived end always justifies the means.

Check out: How much money you need to be happy

The even more valuable and happiness advantage that comes from wholesaling houses

Read: How to get the most happiness for your buck

The Solutions

• Stay focused on your ultimate goals daily
• Refuse to falter from sound investment principles
• Look for where deals do make sense rather than sacrificing to invest locally
• Have an investment system which automatically keeps you in check

There are billions of dollars in real estate deals across the US. For some that might mean investing out of area, or out of state investing. Wholesaling houses and using transactional funding is a great way to always make your money when you buy, and lowering risk.

 

Authored by Best Transaction Funding BestTransactionFunding.com is the leading source of transactional funding and hard money loans for real estate wholesalers in the US, where 100% financing, and saying “Yes” is what we love doing all day long.

The proof is in – real estate investing in creating a surge in new U.S. millionaires…

Research from Fox Business and the Spectrem Group’s Annual Market Insights Report 2014 shows a dramatic rise in wealth. So just how rich are Americans now and how are they making so much money in what is supposed to be a ‘tough economy’?

According to the stats the number of millionaires in America actually hit a record high in 2013, up almost 2.54 million from 2008.

More notable numbers include:
• ‘Mass Affluent Households’ seeing an increase of 500k joining their ranks in 2013
• 352k more Americans reach Ultra High Net Worth status from 2008 to 2013
• Those worth $25M or more rose by 10%
• These figures do not include personal residences

Considering real estate has really been the only horse running in the race over the last few years it is clear that much of this wealth is a direct result of real estate investing.

The really great news for those reading this isn’t just that there is a lot more cash out there and end cash buyers to flip homes to, but that the housing market is really just warming up.

This means plenty more deals to be done in the years ahead. With big private equity bowing out and turning to funding rental property landlords to help them rehab and expand those wholesaling houses will not just find more bargain house deals coming online but an eager audience to sell them to fast.

The only missing pieces of the puzzle left for those that aren’t members of the above high net worth groups, and for those on them that want to get to the next level is to build better buyers lists and to tap into Best Transaction Funding to crank up the volume and rocket their wealth while the stars are aligned.

Ready to ramp up your real estate wholesaling and close more deals for every dollar spent on marketing?

Many winced when Facebook began pushing paid advertising and changed the game for those that had relied on it as a ‘free’ real estate marketing platform, but in many ways new options and tools have turned it into the most profitable channel for wholesaling houses.

In fact, with a little tinkering and an hour getting familiar with the social network’s option many wholesalers will find that they can fire their social media teams and get even better results, with a higher ROI, and a lot less stress.

Here are 5 tips to crush it with Facebook ads…

1. Targeting
One of the absolute best elements of Facebook advertising is the ability to laser target messages and ads to get them in front of pin pointed prospects. Don’t overlook the power of this. You can not only choose who to go after by where they live, what devices they use and how old they are, but also who they work for, and what they are interested in. So for wholesalers this could mean targeting the followers of certain real estate investing gurus and authors of books.

2. Pay Per Click
Facebook promoted posts, boosting posts and CPM advertising can sometimes deliver superior results and returns than PPC, but for those that really can’t afford to gamble with their wholesaling marketing budgets or only want to engage in strategies that deliver guaranteed results consider pay-per-click. This enables investors to set how much they are willing to pay per lead, and you might be surprised at just how much traffic you can drive in for $1 a pop.

3. Images
Images are a big deal when it comes to Facebook ads for real estate. The rules can be sticky and mean text within images is a no, no. Consider Facebook’s new stock photography, Fotolia, or taking your own original pics. Give some thought to what will resonate with your prime prospects and create the emotional trigger to click through.

4. Constant Fan Base Building
While it’s become almost effortless to drive traffic directly through to landing pages and contacting wholesalers this also means that many leads don’t stop to Like pages. You want your page following to be constantly growing, and with authentic Likes in order to minimize marketing costs and maximize ROI. Fortunately the social giant has also made this effortless for DIY marketers with automated page promotion choices.

5. Engage
This can’t be said enough. Yes, you may be taking your wholesaling seriously and approaching it as a business, but leave out the ‘Social’ in social media and you’ll find it harder to gain traction. Be open, personal, warm and engage with questions.
Test it, tweak it, close more deals…

How can investors find more viable inventory in today’s hot real estate market?

Declining housing inventory levels may be providing a nice boost to home values across the U.S. but this is also making it seem harder for some investors to line up as many deals as they would like.

Publicly available housing inventory levels are now way beyond what is required for a normal, healthy and balanced real estate market. At the same time the situation is being compounded by a dramatic increase in competition in the industry as more Realtors and investors jump into the game of hunting home sellers.

To come out on top in the midst of the current fierce bidding wars over homes for sale those wholesaling homes can use transactional funding to make cash offers and close quickly, even if they don’t have great credit.

Still it is smart to find more ways to uncover deals and navigate around the competition to get better discounts too. This can include tapping into non-performing mortgage notes versus REOs, or looking to niches like marketing for probate properties and building relationships for access to the rising number of pocket listings.

Still, ambitious real estate investors can feel that they are falling short of their volume and income potential. So what’s the solution?

Those that want substantial amounts of leads and need them to flow in predictably or at least on demand can turn to pay for performance marketing in the form of third party telemarketing through outsourced call centers or PPC advertising via Google Adwords.

For those that are on ultra-tight budgets or hate writing checks for marketing regardless of the guarantee of real leads or ROI taking a guerilla marketing approach can still work well.

This doesn’t have to mean substandard results either. Hot cloud storage service DropBox is pure proof of this. DropBox launched during some of the toughest times for small businesses, went live amid a maze of other competitors, and at a time no one saw the value of cloud storage, or cared about having it. Still, they managed to accumulate many users even before going live, then rocketed to millions of customers with 18 months by focusing on word of mouth referrals and viral campaigns.

These are all tactics that can be adapted for hunting down or attracting distressed sellers for bagging more discounted deals for wholesaling homes. The potential is huge, if you really have the determination.