Creative offers Ashley and I were two broke kids straight out of college when we got started in real estate investing. We had a mound of student loan debt and no money in our pockets to invest. And because we had either been self-employed or full-time students while in school, we had no real, verifiable income. That fact, coupled with a high debt to income ratio from the loans,…
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should I was talking to an investor friend, recently, who was facing a conundrum. You see, he had become very specialized in one area of real estate. And the strategy he’d been using to buy on auction platforms, do minimum rehabs and resell was no longer working. Referencing the book by Spencer Johnson M.D., my friend said, “My cheese moved.” …
How can we structure this deal? In the summer of 2010, I was blessed to have a sure-enough successful husband-and-wife real estate investor team take Ashley and me under their wings. They have a passion for giving and enjoyed teaching aspiring and established investors alike on how to creatively structure deals. Without them, Ashley and I wouldn’t be where we are. That passion lives on today as they travel…
What is a market inversion? Are you familiar with the term market inversion? If not, that’s OK. I wasn’t until recently. But as real estate investors, you need to understand what it is, and more importantly, what it means for the current and upcoming real estate market. First off, let me give a quick overview as to what market inversion is from my understanding, and then I’ll tell…
A beginner’s struggle Recently I was asked about the main struggles that Ashley and I faced when we began our investing journey. These struggles really boiled down to two things. The first was where to get money for deals. You see, Ashley and I were broke kids with a mountain of student loan debt and no verifiable income when we started out. This meant that we weren’t good…
“What Box” is coming I’m often asked where I go to learn about real estate investing. Truthfully, Ashley and I have been blessed to meet, befriend and attend seminars with some the most creative real estate investors out there. And we go back to the same classes time and time again. Chances are that if you are reading this column on Sunday morning in Bartow County, I’m…
Make sure they understand People tend to naturally say “No” to things they aren’t familiar with. This is a reality real estate investor must overcome in order to get a “yes” on a creative deal structures when talking to sellers. You do that by making sure they understand what you’re proposing. Take owner carry-back financing for instance. Most people are accustomed to the idea of making payments, especially…
Man on a wire Real estate investing is not for the faint of heart. Nor is it for the faltering soul. To be successful at it, you have to be willing to ride the roller coaster while pushing forward. Take what happened to us last week for instance. As I was leaving my house after lunch on Monday, I get a call from one of the pre-foreclosure…
Subject-to deals Subject-to seems to be the new buzz-word circling through many of the real estate investor teaching arenas. That’s because in our current market, subject-to deals present a great opportunity. Before I get into that, let me explain what one is. A subject-to deal is where you buy a house from someone with a mortgage in place. Instead of getting your own loan to pay off your…
Expenses Escaped Ashley and I have been blessed to have Peter Fortunato as one of our main teachers since we got into real estate investing. When it comes to creative real estate transactions, Pete is like one of those guys that does chainsaw wood carving. He walks up to something that looks like a stump to everyone standing around, cranks up his creative chainsaw mind and begins to…