Suddenly all of those who have been denying a new dip was coming are realizing they were way wrong. Many are still lying to themselves about how deep this is going to go. What do you need to know about surviving and thriving as a real estate investor now?

It’s Going To Make 2008 Look Like A Vacation

This economic crisis is going to make 2008 look like a test trial. Expect the fall out from COVID-19 to be at least 2x as bad.

Fortunately, we can also take comfort in the fact that there are predictable patterns and cycles. The massive shift in daily life will really shake up some people.

They didn’t know life could change this much, so fast. Yet, we know that over the long term most real estate will keep growing. Today, the luxury NYC condos that were selling for $2M yesterday are probably worth less than a roll of toilet paper. Other parts of the market, where those quarantined have lots of yard to move around and maybe room to grow their own food are going to explode in value.

Schools and work may never be the same. In many cases that is a good thing. It is just speeding up the most to being more efficient.

A 70% drop in the stock market and some housing markets shouldn’t shock you.

Foreclosures

There will be some similarities from 2008. As in the best moves to make to get through. Yet, some things will be substantially different.

Don’t count on a flood of foreclosures. Governments are already banning foreclosures and evictions. If we don’t eradicate the virus fast, the foreclosure process will probably be years in the making.

So, be wary of spending all of your time and marketing money on foreclosures. Sellers aren’t going to buy the fact that they will lose their homes.

If you hold mortgage notes, the best thing you can do is to be proactive. Communicate with your borrowers. Give them a break on payments. Those will be the ones who stay and work things out with you.

However, there will be other types of distressed property sales. Especially among new developments and all of the owners of Airbnb properties who far overpaid and can’t rent their units. As well as speculators and flippers who need cash. Don’t forget condo owners in big cities who don’t want to be quarantined in small apartments in the middle of the chaos.

Landlords & Renters

Renters are going to stop performing. They are already being told Trump is going to send them bailout money, just like Obama in 2008.

Be proactive, talk to them, give them a break now. Or they are going to drag it out a lot longer than you think. When they do get out, you may have to lease at dramatically lower rates.

You can make it, if you work with them now, and keep tenants who will deliver cash flow again in a couple of months.

Wholesale Real Estate

Real estate wholesaling is the perfect investment strategy for this market. Get in, out and paid fast. Before the market can change on you. Use transactional funding to finance your deals, and hold onto your cash for now. They are already making runs on the banks and banks are limiting access to cash. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to invest it as asset prices get lower in the months and years ahead.

Just don’t stop marketing. This is your chance to expand market share.

 

Check out the latest real estate news and trends that could impact your investing…

There are a lot of changes in play in the property market. Many may influence where the best deals are to be found in 2020, and make it difficult to do business in other areas. Here’s what you should know.

Counties Using Delinquent Property Taxes To Boost Revenues

Some counties across the country are becoming increasingly aggressive in using property taxes as a tool for seizing property and making big profits. Such as this case in Michigan, where the owner lost his home for just $8 in unpaid tax related fees. The county made a profit of over $24,000 on it. These may sound like good deals, but it is also a warning to watch the mail and not let a dollar in unpaid fees cause you to lose your assets.

Millennials Have Given Up On Home Buying

So much for the massive tsunami of millennial home buyers which were expected to drive the market, and all the dollars real estate companies have put into marketing to them. According to a new survey from Apartment List, over 12% of millennials say they never plan to buy a home. Even among those that would like to one day only 20% to 30% are on track to being able to do it.

Illinois Regulates Real Estate Wholesaling

IL has become the first state we know of to implement new laws requiring real estate wholesalers to hold a brokers’ license. This applies to anyone wholesaling more than one property per year in the state, including assigning contracts.

Mass Unemployment Coming Soon?

Truckers are suing California after a newly proposed law would kill off 70,000 jobs. After malicious lawsuits and perhaps some poor employer behavior, The Golden State has stepped up to stomp out the gig economy and contract labor. This is a rule that would impact some of the largest tech companies who use remote employees as a substantial part of their workforce, including Apple, Amazon and Uber. It’s a warning to self-police the industry and keep up good peer pressure. Most should be able to find alternatives, such as hiring outsourced labor as vendors who are paid through an LLC or other entity, instead of as independent contractors.

Texas Turns To Taking Over Hotels To House The Homeless

If you thought moving to TX sounded like a good idea for avoiding high housing costs and taxes in coastal states, think again. It’s so bad in Austin now that the city plans to take over hotels to house their exploding homeless population.

Check out more upcoming trends, real estate taxes and laws impacting the real estate market in 2020 in our report here.

 

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.

 

Wholesaling is pitched as one of the easiest and fastest ways to get into real estate and get paid. Finding deals and finding buyers in this market may not be too difficult. If the price is right, the property will sell. That just leaves the question of how you’ll fund your deals.

More and more investors are finding that sellers and buyers try to cut them out when they attempt to assign contracts, and aren’t closing on the buy side first. Here are five ways to finance your wholesale deals, and some of the pros and cons of each options.

Cash

You can use your own cash to finance deals like this. It can be extra cash on hand, retirement savings in a self-directed IRA, etc. It may be the cheapest option. The downsides of this are you’ll never be able to fulfill your full potential. You will be limited on the number of deals you can do at a time. You are bearing all of the risk or getting stuck with a deal. You won’t be maximizing your full ROI potential by using leverage.

Conventional Mortgages

If you’ve got awesome credit, plenty of assets, and a perfect income profile, there’s a chance you can walk into a bank or mortgage lender and get a conventional type loan. The problem is that few will close fast enough for you. It may take 30 to 60 days to close. Far more than the 1-2 weeks most sellers will expect. You are also going to need appraisals and maybe an inspection. Repairs and low loan amounts can quickly trample your loan application. Not to mention the high closing costs.

Hard Money Loans

Hard money is great for house flippers and distressed properties. It’s typically fast. Though you’ll still need skin in the game with your own cash, and likely the money on hand to prove you can afford the rehab. It’s expensive money, though that may not matter too much if you are in and out before the first payment is due.

Private Money

Private money is highly desired by real estate investors. True private money (not hard money lenders advertising ‘private money’) can offer great fluidity and flexibility in funding deals on the fly and on great terms. Once you start doing great at wholesaling, you’ll eventually find these people wanting to fund you and put their money to work to share in your profits. Just be wary of taking the long detours and getting distracted with trying to raise money instead of getting right into investing.

Partners

There are many potential benefits of partnering up with others, especially if they are bringing all the capital. Just be sure you get everything in contracts and writing to minimize the damage of future partnership breakups. Do the math carefully on your returns and how that compares to other options. Having a partner who will fund 100% of your deal is great. Though, if you’re giving up 50% of your profits, that may be far more expensive and less profitable for you than financing it.

Transactional Funding

Transactional funding provides 100% financing for real estate wholesalers. All with no appraisals or any of the underwriting hoops you’ll find with hard money lenders or conventional bank loans. It can be a lot cheaper than you think too. While giving you the ability to close in just a few days. That means you’ll be able to beat the competition with better offers, and keep all the profit.

Get in touch with Best Transaction Funding today and get your free proof of funds letter to make your next offer...

 

Tax refund season is an especially great time for real estate wholesalers. Here’s why…

Tallying Up What You Made

For a start, this is probably when you are really tallying up all of your income and profits. If you’re newer to wholesaling then this should be a big year for you. If you’ve only been in a few years, you’ll be seeing how much more you can make in real estate than other jobs. It’s going to be mind blowing at first.

Just make sure you are tapping all of your available deductions, write-offs, and breaks. Don’t overpay. This is probably not the year for defaulting to DIY income tax filing, Turbo Tax or H&R Block. Upgrade to a real CPA who can help you with a real tax strategy.

Raising Capital

You can get virtually unlimited funds for your wholesale deals from Best Transaction Funding. Though you can rarely have too much capital. Given the trajectory of the economy and real estate market, the more you can amass now the better.

This is the perfect time to raise more capital. Many individuals and families are plowing double contributions into their IRAs (2018 and 2019). That’s dry powder to invest right away. Help them find a home for it. Others are just getting a good sized tax refund check and can use it to invest with you as a partner or private lender.

Wholetailing Properties

This may be the one chance many individuals and families have to come up with a down payment to buy their own home. Sure, some will blow it on new devices, cars, and taking on more debt. Beat the retailers to the punch and let them know they could be buying a home with that money. Try wholesaling retail to the consumer.

Distressed Properties

Just a few thousand dollars in tax refund money can be exactly what many homeowners and tenants have been waiting for to move. They may not be able to catch up on all their back payments. Though they can use it to move on and start fresh. Relieve them of the burden of their property, and let them move out.

 

If it hasn’t hit your markets yet, all the data is suggesting a softening housing market is coming your way. How can real estate wholesalers thrive during these times?

Recognize It

Don’t pretend it’s not happening. That won’t stop it. Don’t be scared. It’s just temporary. Instead, focus on being over-prepared. Be objective. Expect an over-correction. Know your numbers and what you’ll have to do each day to make your goals.

Don’t Stop Marketing

90% of the players in today’s real estate market have only gotten in the game post 2008. They haven’t planned for this. They don’t know how to handle this. That’s good for you if you get out in front of it. Whatever you do, don’t stop marketing. That’s what will keep the house deals and income coming in. In fact, try to find the budget to do more, and soak up the void being left by competitors.

Slash Unnecessary Overhead

To survive and thrive in a declining market you’ll need to be lean. Cut unnecessary bills, and gain more flexibility so that you can move faster, and aren’t fooled into making desperate decisions.

See the Opportunity

When the market falls in one city, it rises somewhere else. This may be a different segment of your own city. Like luxury versus affordable housing. Or it may be time to expand to a new market for more value and deal volume. Keep an eye on where other end investors are heading and where lenders are most likely to keep lending.

Bid Smart

Don’t overpay for deals. You can still make great money on wholesaling real estate every day. Providing you don’t pay too much for them. Price in enough profit for your end buyer, and to account for any further dip in prices before you flip it.

Work on Those Relationships

The strength of relationships with lenders, end buyers, vendors, and sellers will get you through. Show they can trust your recommendations, judgement, and service.

 

What types of properties are ripe for real estate wholesaling now?

Whether you are just looking to scale and diversify what you are doing now, or you are just now looking to begin wholesaling real estate to diversify from other strategies and income sources, these five property types are worth exploring.

1. Homeowners with Equity

More and more homeowners are becoming ‘distressed’ as they feel more uncertainty about the market. Most now have more equity than they’ve had in years. No one wants to lose that. They don’t want to see all of those tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars evaporated by a declining market. Yet, there are others who still want to buy and are not worried by any temporary fluctuations in home values. Get in the middle here. Help equity rich homeowners cash out their equity and secure those gains, and connect the property to another buyer.

2. Underperforming Multifamily Apartments

Multifamily apartments have become more and more in demand. More buy and hold investors have stepped up to enjoy the economies of scale these properties provide. Yet, there are many small and medium sized apartment buildings which remain underperforming. They may be ready for renovations, have been managed poorly, or just having aging owners who don’t want to deal with it any more. Add value as the connector.

3. Retail Property with Higher Vacancy Rates

We’ve seen a huge correction in the retail property sector over the past couple of years. There has been a big restructuring. That has left many retail units empty. Yet, there are other retailers who are ambitious on growth. They need more floor space, more locations, and they have the capital to expand. Some will even be potential buyers of their own real estate. Bailout landlords with these vacancies and put them in the hands of better managers.

4. Land

From raw acreage to infill lots, there are plenty of opportunities to flip land deals. With land and new construction still being the more profitable route to profits in many areas, expect there to be more demand in this sector over the next few years.

5. Builder Close-Out Deals

Builders in prime areas like Manhattan are noticeably struggling with over supply. They’ve hit the peak of the market, and would love to cash out and finalize some of their condo projects and new home communities. With the right marketing to the right audience, these deals can still be very attractive to buyers. Especially international investors and buyers. Builders may be willing to negotiate a range of incentives from upgrades to discounts, and deeper discounts for bulk purchases that help them exit a project.

Whatever you’re wholesaling, Best Transaction Funding is here to help you fund your deals...

 

Watch out for these four real estate and mortgage trends that are evolving now…

The US real estate and mortgage market is changing fast. Many diverse trends and conflicting headlines are showing up. Some of these are local market differences. Like new foreclosure spikes by double digits and declining property prices and rents. Others may have more macro impacts, with bigger opportunities and consequences. If you are out there wholesaling houses now, make sure you know what’s going on.

Mortgage Interest Rates

Bank Rate reports that mortgage interest rates have come down in August 2018. Average 30 year fixed mortgages are only 4.37% and 15 year fixed loan rates are averaging 3.78%. That’s great news no matter what you are financing or refinancing.

Housing Beginning to Drag Down the Economy

Market Watch reports that housing is now finally beginning to pull down the national economy. The chief economist for Fannie Mae says that lackluster building activity, slow sales activity and and brokers commissions are all beginning to become a lag on the whole economy. Other analysts report that only around half the number of people are moving for jobs in 2018, and many home buyers have simply given up. Less building, fewer listings sold, and lower Realtor earnings can all start showing up in unemployment figures, GDP reports, and the balance sheets of local businesses.

While we never want to see other suffers, the sooner agents and sellers who have been overpricing listings catch onto this, the sooner wholesalers should be able to scoop more deals at better prices. If you’ve been longing for the glory days of 2008 and cheaper houses to come around, we could see more distressed sales and motivated sellers ready to take action soon. Providing you are wholesaling and are negotiating at good prices, this is all good news.

Alternative Lending

Investment capital is still plentiful for now. This is the time to use it. Non bank lenders have seen their market share rise over the past 4 years, and made over $60B in loans last year. In addition to transactional funding there are credit unions, crowdfunding portals, conduits, home equity loan lenders and private lenders will to provide capital. Real estate investors can use these sources to fund marketing, make down payments, do rehabs and grow their businesses. Don’t expect this to last forever. So, do take advantage of all the leverage you can get while it lasts.

Just watch out for shady lending and deals in the gray area which could make you a target and scapegoat when things go south. Remember what happened to all the stated income borrowers last time around.

Watch Your Advertising Practices

Facebook just got it with a big suit from HUD. The government agency alleges that Facebook has effectively let real estate professionals and businesses discriminate by providing them with its targeting tools for advertising on the social network. While no one should ever discriminate, many may be accused of it, even though they didn’t realize they were doing anything wrong by trying to market to their ideal audiences. Don’t think for a second that with all the pressure Facebook is under today that it won’t sell out its users and advertisers and give them up to the feds. This may seem extreme, but your financial survival and freedom may rely on revisiting your Facebook ads, promoted posts and social feed and removing anything which shows preference for marketing to any groups of individuals and leaving anyone out.

 

Mother’s Day is easily one of the most important days of the year. We wouldn’t be here without mothers. Wholesaling real estate is also important. It can empower women to achieve more of what they want, and is a powerful tool for taking care of the moms in our lives.

Buying & Selling Real Estate

There are a lot of mothers out there who need a break. Some really need a good ethical wholesaler to give them access to a real deal on a home. Others need access to quality real estate investment opportunities. Many still need a solution to exit a bad situation and the burden of a property that isn’t helping them. Wholesalers can really help in this space.

Wholesaling Real Estate For Mom’s

Wholesaling real estate is a great way to get ahead financially, give your kids the life you want, have the free time to do life with them, and have the time and surplus money to treat yourself to those shopping sprees and spa days that you really need and deserve.

This makes this Mother’s Day a great day to commit to getting started in wholesaling real estate. If you know a mother who could really benefit from doing this, then perhaps gifting her a book on real estate wholesaling or paying for her to attend a course is the best gift you can give her this year. One that will go on giving for a lifetime and generations.

Using Wholesaling to Fund Your Mother’s Day Gifts

Wholesaling houses is an awesome way to make cash fast. It can be used to raise the money you need to give moms awesome gifts. It can be a tool to find and give the gift of real estate. Maybe there are partners, spouses, daughters or parents in your life that could really use  a new condo, income property, or a space in your own assisted living facility.

Taking Time for the Moms in Your Life

Aside from the money, the great thing about wholesaling is the freedom to take special days off, like Mother’s Day. Spend it with your moms, grandmothers, daughters that will be future moms, and neighbors who are moms.

Remember that you don’t need any more cash than you have now to start wholesaling more real estate, if you use transactional funding.

 

Ready to create more effective Craigslist ads for you wholesale real estate deals?

Many real estate wholesalers are using Craigslist to promote their properties. It can be a viable platform for advertising real estate. Yet, how you structure your ads can make a world of a difference in the results you get.

If you aren’t getting the sales you expected, or are bogged down with unqualified leads and time consuming calls that leads nowhere, try out these tips…

Your Contact Info

Make sure your contact information is obvious, and that prospective buyers can get through to you in their preferred medium. Many buyers on Craigslist prefer making email inquiries. They don’t want to be sold or spend time on the phone unless it is a good fit. So, enable email replies, have a phone number, and any other contact details you are using regularly.

Pictures

The more pictures you can include the better. No one really expects all wholesale deals to be beautiful. What they want is to know the real deal to figure out if it is a match. You’ve got to close that gap if you want qualified leads to contact you. So, ugly or not, include as many photos as you can.

Repair Info

Many qualified house buyers may skip your ads if you aren’t clear on what repairs are needed or not. Some will assume the worst, and just move on. You don’t have to include a full inspection report, but if the electrical and plumbing is okay, say it. If the roof is still viable mention that.

Cash or Finance

It’s okay to say you only want cash buyers, if you really must have a cash buyer. That will filter out a lot of inquiries that don’t match. However, if you are willing to finance the property, make sure you say that upfront in your headline, or you’ll be missing buyers too.

Justify the Price

Some real estate ads get skipped because they sound too cheap or too good to be true. Buyers assume there is a bigger problem lurking. If you need to move it fast and are discounting it for speed, or condition, mention that.

If You Repost Ads

Serious buyers are checking Craigslist every day, week in and month out. If your headline was “this won’t last a week!” and then you repost 2 weeks later you lose credibility. Let them know why. Did the last deal fall through? Have you dropped the price? Get all that in your headline.

Lead to Effective Landing Pages

If you are going to try and draw people to your real estate website with your ad, make sure it takes them to an effective landing page. One which is unique, clear about the process, has the ability capture leads but also enables them to graze and find out more about you and your other inventory.

It’s okay not to be so corporate. Sometimes a personal touch and connection can be better than a cheap brand or cold corporate giant. It depends on who you are dealing with and the types of buyers you are trying to attract. Know your customers.

Respond

Don’t waste time posting house ads on Craigslist if you are not going to respond to leads. You are just going to burn potential connections and buyers.

Then if they see your ads again, they will probably report you as spam or a scam. When buyers do reach out, get their direct email address and phone in case you take your ad down or it expires.

 

Want to keep on enjoying the incredible perks of wholesaling real estate?

Here are six secrets of the super successful over the long run…

Deliver What You Say

If there is one thing that makes or breaks a real estate wholesaler, and the business, it is delivering not just value, but what is presented. You may not have done a full appraisal, or full inspection, but you should represent the product well. Just like you hate walking into a hotel with your family on vacation to find it is nothing like the pictures. Or the opposite can really wow you.

Invest Yourself in Making Your Buyers Successful

The same goes for your sellers too. People can tell if you are just trying to make a buck off of them, or you are really eager to help them succeed. Help them win, and they’ll be able to buy more deals from you.

Systems

To go big, and long in this business, you’ve got to have systems. Systems for sourcing deals, distributing inventory, and making the closings work as smoothly as possible.

Embrace New Technology

Not every investor loves to play around with every new device, or test out new tech in their business. Yet, if is one of the easy ways to keep getting noticed, stand out, be more efficient, and get an edge. That runs the gamut from new phones with better cameras, to funding option, methods of communicating, and lead generation software.

Build a Long Pipeline

Short term thinkers are always desperately looking to close a deal today, and to pay the bills this month (maybe even for last month). That’s an expensive way to do business, and has many pitfalls. The savviest also work on building their future pipeline. Don’t throw away leads, just because they aren’t ready to close yet. If you start nurturing a bulging database now, you can have 10 or more deals coming in every month on autopilot for the years ahead. Treat everyone well, drip market to them via email, Facebook, and mail.

Build Your Brand

Don’t just market at people either. Devote time and budget to grow your brand each month. Then people will come to you. Be proactive about protecting your reputation. Especially online. Roll out content that will keep in front of your customers for years.

 

Mega data hack at Equifax could make real estate wholesaling even more vital to numerous individuals and families.

The massive recent data hacking scandal at credit bureau Equifax could shake up the finances for millions of Americans. Could wholesaling real estate be a solution for putting your finances back together?

50% to 100% of Americans could have had sensitive data stolen through the Equifax data breach according to cybersecurity experts. That means hundreds of millions of individuals who could have their identities stolen, credit histories destroyed, and bank accounts emptied. Experts say it can take over a year to fix this issues, if they are ever fixed.

In the meantime many may find they are unable to get jobs or promotions, can’t rent new housing, and don’t qualify for traditional home loans. This is on top of the recent losses caused by major hurricanes Irma and Harvey.

Real estate wholesaling stands out as one of best ways to get back on top of finances. It’s fast, can produce quick results and big paydays, and perhaps most importantly - does not rely on having good credit or using your credit to qualify for financing. For these reasons many who find they need a new career, or an alternative real estate investment strategy in order to cover financial gaps, replace losses, and carve a new path forward may discover they have few other options.

There are still substantial opportunities to wholesale real estate across America. This can include single family homes, as well as commercial properties. Expect there to be more activity in this part of real estate over the next few months and years. While some may be able to hang on with current savings for a little while, the more time that passes, the more who may be impacted by the above factors. Those who are first to establish themselves in wholesaling will definitely have a great edge.

Have you been impacted by these factors already? Have you considered wholesaling?

Property wholesaling and transactional funding are about to play a far more vital role in the finances of thousands as the US real estate market shifts…

The head of the world’s largest real estate brokerage, Keller Williams, recently spoke out warning that the outlook for the property market isn’t as rosy as it has been. This follows right on the heels of warnings of softening in the hospitality market as NYC’s One57 hotel swirls in rumors of efforts to sell. In reality we don’t know when a new correction will hit, how deep it will be, or how long it will last. Most agents and investors, as well as consumers won’t recognize it until we are deep, deep, into the correction. It may already be in play, or it may not hit for another decade. Regardless; it pays to be ahead of the curve.

When the shift does hit some will be changing strategies, and direction. Some will try investing overseas before those markets change, others will head back into old fields and careers, etc. Of course US real estate has proven to best for the long run. But not everyone has the guts and finances to hold during softer years. But you’ve got to make money – so what do you do?

Wholesaling houses to those that can rehab or hold as rentals can be the ideal way to augment your income and pick up the slack from any other areas. This can be full time or casually as you come across deals. The beautiful thing about wholesaling real estate is it doesn’t matter what direction the market is heading in. Lock in the spreads and right terms, and the buyers will come.

Regardless of how much cash you have or don’t, transactional funding provides the fuel to do unlimited deals and keep your cash rolling in, and the ability to protect what you’ve built. If you haven’t been wholesaling this is certainly the time to be learning about it, and building your network and brand in this space. That is if you want to survive and thrive in the next couple of decades…

The Brexit has brought mortgage interest rates down, and that’s great news for U.S. real estate.

While not everyone is happy with the fallout of the British decision to leave the European Union it could prove to be a great thing for many American real estate buyers, sellers, and investors.

The Brexit crushed the stock market, caused banks billions in losses, setup US and EU banks for over a trillion dollars in cash short fall, and even resulted in funds freezing customer withdrawals from London property investments. That may be sadly catastrophic for many, but there is hope for those that have been able to cash out of those other investments.

The Bank of England is pushing banks to make lending easier, including lowering interest rates. Bankrate.com reveals that U.S. mortgage rates have also fallen back to almost the record low we saw 4 years ago. As of July 14^th, 2016 that meant 30 year fixed home loan rates at just over 3%, and 15 year fixed mortgage rates in the 2% range.

Low interest rates could be awesome news for property owners that have been wanting to refinance, as well as buyers who thought they missed the boat. Sellers too could find this a powerful time to sell since low rates mean borrowers will be paying less monthly for higher priced homes.

The bad news is that there is even less hope of earning good returns on savings or other investments except for real estate. Long term property price sustainable could also be even more threatened due to the current and going artificial manipulation of markets. Banks aren’t making much and don’t have much of a cushion when they are lending at 2%. When interest rates go higher home mortgage payments could easily double, even if prices don’t go up. All together this may appear to some as being just a little too reminiscent of the setup of the early 2000s.

Fortunately there could be some highly profitable sweet spots out there for property investors. The first is noting that if Brits pull back from some market it could provide better buying opportunities for domestic investors. The ensuing demand for U.S. real estate from other foreign investors could then help beef up spreads on flips. Those that stick to wholesaling real estate can benefit by leveraging cheap money now, and avoiding being stuck when rates go up later or cracks appear in the markets.

 

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.

Where are the buyers?

There are still mountains of real estate inventory to choose from out there. With unlimited funding available from transactional lenders and hard money lenders the key to unlocking the cash for most is finding the buyers. So where are they?

The 3 Types of Buyers Investors Need to Focus on Now

PROFESSIONAL INVESTORS

Real estate wholesalers looking for qualified buyers, and specifically cash buyers who are easy to work with should absolutely be honing in on serious end investors. They know the business, will either have financing lined up or the cash to move immediately on fair deals, and will often become repeat, high volume customers. Find them online in real estate forums, via social media, and at local investor meetings and meetups.

INTERNATIONAL BUYERS

Tapping international home buyers and investors opens up the world to a massive pool to funnel deals too. Most expect to pay cash, or at least to put down a lot of money. They see American real estate as being cheap, and are often very easy to work with, if you keep it simple. If you haven’t yet, start expanding to market your real estate deals internationally. Check the data and find out who the strongest international buyers are in your market. Hire someone who speaks their language, or find a partner company that can help. Then lead with contacting overseas Realtors, Google ads targeting foreign buyers in those countries, and look for ways to collaborate with Chambers of Commerce and Tourism bureaus.

GROOMING THE NEXT ROUND OF BUYERS

The absolutely biggest and most common mistake that 99% of real estate investors and businesses make, and which invariably cripples them, is only focusing on buyers for this week and this deal.

Savvy investors and businesses owners who continue to thrive and enjoying growing incomes and profits are those that start loading their pipeline years in advance. Most people will buy a home within the next 5 to 7 years. Many will move more frequently than that, and will end up buying second homes, vacation homes, and investments regularly too.

Make connecting, and assisting with preparing to buy and invest a part of your annual strategy. This may include friends, family, ex-coworkers, aspiring investors, recent victims of the foreclosure crisis, and renters.

Start loading your pipeline with these buyers and you’ll find more deal volume this year, and more easy deals to do every month each year after this.

 

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.

New data reveals who the biggest house flippers and real estate wholesalers really are…

There are a lot of misconceptions about flipping houses, and wholesaling in particular. The industry and gurus are often a big part of this. When many people hear “wholesaling” or “flipping houses” they now think of fraud, Vanilla Ice, infomercials, “no credit, no money, no experience,” promises offering newbies the chance to make big money fast in a couple hours a week. These things are not necessarily totally incorrect. But the numbers over the last 12 months show quite a difference between perception and reality.

2015 stats and transaction data sets from Property Shark show celebrities renovating and flipping luxury houses, hedge fund managers turning over prime properties for millions in profit, and top executives putting their cash into real estate, and reselling repeatedly.

There is no question that wholesaling real estate can be a great way to enter the game, and to start hacking your way to better finances. But it is not just for newbies, or those trying to break their way through from the minimum wage or middle class rat race. It can be a great full time and long term business and investment strategy. Even for the 1% it is proving to be a highly desirable way to augment careers and other efforts to generate income and wealth.

For the sophisticated individual flipping houses provides essential diversification, big leaps in wealth and net worth, a solid asset when other things aren’t going as well as planned, and it’s fun. This is not a strategy that just yields a few thousand dollars to amateur middlemen. Consider that prices in 3 New York City neighborhoods leapt up by $3M in the last 12 months. Previous data from RealtyTrac has shown average profits from flipping houses in some US cities averaging $60,000 to $100,000. That’s just pennies compared to some of the high-end luxury flips happening in LA and NYC. Some are being flipped for tens of millions of dollars, and when it comes to commercial real estate; even a hundred million or more in profit.

Hedge fund managers, CEOs, talk show hosts, and actresses are flipping houses, condos, and co-ops in top markets, and others are turning over pools of single family rental homes. The main difference in their strategies, aside from the price tags, are the use of professional designers, and real estate agents, and leveraging the protections of LLCs. They take this business seriously, and that seems to be paying off, big time.

 

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.

A new Huffington Post report heralds wholesaling as ‘The Real Estate Investment Niche for Everyone’. So what makes wholesaling real estate so attractive for new and veteran investors alike? What does it really take to get in, and be successful at wholesaling?

Flipping Houses to the Stars

The Huffington Post starts by highlighting that real estate wholesalers who are inspired by reality TV house flipping shows might actually find wholesaling comes with less stress and headaches. In fact, wholesalers can profit by flipping houses to TV celebrities. But without the mayhem and emotional roller coaster of dealing with renovations and contractors.

While the concept of buying at deep discounts remains the same as with other types of wholesaling, the profits margins can be a lot better on real estate. This is something industry personality and founder of an Inc. 500 ranked wholesaling and education company Kent Clothier says drove his family to switch from the world of groceries to property.

This comes right on the heel of Fox News highlighting the pros of selling houses to wholesalers for regular homeowners, versus paying 6% to list with a Realtor.

So as wholesaling properties becomes increasingly legitimatized by the mainstream media and business sector, what do aspiring investors need to get in, and win?

What it Takes to Wholesale Houses

According to the above mentioned report you’ll need:

Some real estate education

Potentially some deposit money for making offers

To find properties and negotiate contracts at discounts

A transactional funding lender to finance your deals

Buyers to sell too

There are a number of wholesale training providers out there, though industry gurus like Sean Terry say success is more about having alignment and the drive to really go out and make it happen than just what tools to use.

Worth Trying

Given that wholesaling real estate appears less risky than the alternatives, it seems worth trying, at least to get your feet wet in real estate. It could be the best bet for those finding it hard to make the numbers work on rehabbing or rentals in their area, or who are unsure about the future of the market, and may be light on cash, and have low tolerance for risk and loss.

Authored by BestTransactionFunding.com; America’s leading source of transactional funding and hard money loans for real estate wholesalers, where 100% financing, and saying “Yes” is what we love doing all day long.

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.

When does wholesaling real estate trump buy and hold investing?

Dangerous Ideas

Some very dangerous ideas are being floated in online real estate investment forums today. They may not be new ideas, but they appear to be new ‘eureka’ moments to some having them.

Chief among them are:

Buying negative cash flow properties

Betting on appreciation

A five minute dive into online real estate conversations will quickly yield comments like “I don’t understand why anyone would ever sell real estate, because it always goes up.” Or “what’s wrong with buying negative cash flow properties, that’s all that is available in my market.” To be clear; real estate has proven to have almost predictably gone up in value for decades. And there are under-performing and non-performing properties which can be improved on, and managed better, to yield strong cash flows and returns. But in the context being used, it appears that new investors are already completely oblivious to the crash that happened just a few years ago. Blind to the billions of dollars in foreclosure homes that sit next door, and are depressing entire communities across the US.

Real estate appears to invariably go up over time. But there can be deep and long troughs in between growth spurts. Very few are equipped to really weather these soft spots until markets rebound, and bounce upwards again. Then there are the silent woes of being a landlord. This includes depreciation, property maintenance and repairs, and problem tenants. Put simply; appreciation can provide great bumps to wealth building. But ignoring the costs and risks of buy and hold real estate investing can be financially disastrous. This is even more risky for those only invested in slow returning income properties with thin spreads. Those in a negative equity situation can be sitting on a ticking financial bomb, that won’t take much to trigger. When this happens pent up captive equity and paper losses and gains won’t be much good.

Smart Wholesaling

The reason that sophisticated investors choose real estate wholesaling is that is provides real cash returns, with the least amount of risk. Wholesalers are in and out of the market, and get paid fast. Their financial futures, incomes, and lifestyles are not tied to the performance of any specific property, or even neighborhood. Wholesaling works all the time, in any market cycle. Those lump sum cash rewards can be reinvested in more wholesale deals, or in scaling a wholesaling business, while transactional funding can be used to finance acquisitions. Other profits can be used to pay cash for personal items, and what can be afforded to invest in more risky investments can be put into buy and hold rentals, and other more diverse assets.

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.

List building is critical to profits from wholesaling real estate. What are you doing to boost your list in 2014?

The importance of list building for wholesalers can’t be ignored or underestimated. Having a strong buyers list means being able to flip houses fast, take advantage of more opportunities, being able to leverage 100% financing from Best Transaction Funding, and adding profits to every deal thanks to speed and great relationships, not to mention maximizing marketing ROI.

Your buyers list may be your best ally and asset in the months ahead. It can prevent your business volume from being impacted by constant Google SEO changes and the cyclical nature of other marketing channels.

So how are you going to bulk up your list?

1. Offer Perks
Offer cool perks in exchange for personal data and referrals to your list.

2. Better Website Themes
Your theme could be list blocking you. Maybe it’s time for a new upgrade to a sweet looking HTML5 theme or better WordPress template which makes your opt-in form a magnet.

3. Better Blogging
Get serious about blogging. Post better blogs and more of them.

4. Social
Don’t just build your list via your website. Build your list directly on social networks too. Think iFrames on Facebook and get Instagram if you haven’t yet.

5. Burn Your Business Cards
Are your business cards a lame excuse for not insisting on getting contact information on the spot? If so ditch them and trade email addresses, phone numbers and social likes with everyone.

6. Landing Pages
Launch a new landing page and promote it. Consider contests, offering exclusive information and access to secret off-market properties.

7. Drive in New Traffic
Drive in traffic from new sources. Who haven’t you been reaching out to or getting in front of? What about using Adwords, Facebook, Slideshare, Amazon, other blogs and online magazines?