Unless you’ve been in a cave, you know the power of Twitter when it comes to marketing. You may have also heard about a little search engine called Google, yes?
You may already be posting your real estate listings, REOs, rehabs or rentals on your blog or website. You might also be using a service like TweetLister to generate tweet friendly property listings. Well, hold on to your hat, because Google has announced that they’ll be indexing Tweets. Not only is that HUGE news for search results, it means that you can start a virtual flood of traffic to your site to create massive real estate profits!
There’s a good post today at the Calculated Risk blog about the current and upcoming buyer frenzy that we’re seeing in the market. Campbell Communications did a study that showed that 43% of home buyers in Q2 were first-timers. Obviously, this is a result of the $8,000 first time home buyer’s credit that ends in November.
While it’s good for sellers right now – and of course the NAR is trumpeting the end of the bad market – bear in mind that the tax credit program is an artificial stimulus and the resulting buying spree is just as artificial.
Real estate agents say they’re seeing a surge of first-timers who want to close on a property by Nov. 30, the deadline for the credit. The rush has set off bidding wars and stirred up a normally quiet August market.
So as an investor, this is an excellent time if you can get a short sale negotiated and flip that property to a hungry first-time buyer – but any smart investor knows that “the fat lady” will be singing come November.
Calculated Risk makes some very good points:
This has boosted existing home sales, and will continue to boost existing home sales (reported at close of escrow) through November.
This will put upward price pressure on low-to-mid level homes during this period. This is the also the target price range for most cash-flow investors.
At the same time, the foreclosure moratoriums and modification programs have limited supply – especially in the low-to-mid priced areas.
This level of first-time buyers is completely unsustainable – even if another tax credit is enacted. There was significant pent up demand from potential first-time buyers who were priced out of the market in 2004-2006, and then were afraid to buy as prices fell. But demand from these buyers will wane.
This doesn’t help the mid-to-high priced market because a large percentage of sales are distressed (REOs or short sales), and there is no seller to move up.
Expect a surge in existing home sales (and some new home sales) over the next few months. Expect prices at the low end to rise (simple supply and demand). Expect all kinds of reports that the bottom has been reached.
As little as two years ago, having a website was a novel concept for many real estate investors. Today, it’s just as rare to find an investor that DOESN’T have a site offering his services. Websites were supposed to be THE magic bullet when it came to generating leads, but it didn’t turn out that way for most investors. Why? Because your run of the mill website, while useful, is NOT the best way to generate leads on the Web. Why is that, and what can be done to make them more effective? read more…
The latest news in the housing market is that Fannie Mae is hemorrhaging cash to the tune of $14.8 Billion and needs an injection of another $10.7 Billion of your tax dollars. Even better – the foreclosure wave don’t seem to be slowing down. It seems the only good news we got this week was that unemployment’s dropped to a paltry 9.4%, BUT( you knew that was coming) the number of people getting unemployment benefits is still the highest ever.
So with all this God-awful news, how can we as investors and RealtorsTM stay competitive and sell real estate quickly and most importantly, at a profit? Clearly, old “tried and true” methods just don’t work in a market where the landscape changes on a daily basis – we must adapt to survive. read more…
Further legislation to create more transparency in lending goes into effect today. Named the Disclosure Improvement Act, and part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act (HERA), the new rules mean the days of walk-in walk-out loans are gone. While the new legistlation will act as protection for borrowers, it also has the potential to slow down closing times by up to 30 days.
David Hitchings posts an article writen by Al Hewitt explaining the new legislation:
“Recent federal legislation can impact your closing date. When completing your purchase A=agreement, even if you are prepared to move forward and close quickly, a more conservative timeframe of at least 30-45 days from the time of the contract acceptance would be a more realistic expectation at this time. Listed below is information on two pieces of legislation that stand to impact your closing date, and a few bullet points that explain the reasoning behind and effects of each measure. HERA was designed to ensure that the borrower(s) involved in the transaction are given accurate disclosure information (Truth in Lending Statement pertaining to Annual Percentage Rate or APR) regarding the loan they are applying for and adequate time to re-evaluate their decision to proceed in the event of any changes that would impact their costs to finance.”
Under the new law, any time the interest changes by a predetermined amount, new disclosures must be presented to the borrower. Other factors can also mandate re-disclosure documents. More protection for borrowers will hopefully mean less defaulting loans in the future. But the restrictions add days to a process that is already to long for some.
As interest rates on adjustable mortgages continue to increase, the number of homeowners finding themselves in a tight spot also rises. The equity that was supposed to insulate those homeowners from losing their home has been lost as home values decreased rapidly. Although the government, along with many companies and non-profit groups, have reached out to assist these troubled homeowners, there are still loan modification scammers who are willing to take advantage of the situation. read more…
New home sales for the month of June increased by 11 percent, compared to May. This is the third consecutive month that new home sales have risen. While this is undoubtedly good news for the housing market and the economy as a whole, what is concerning is that roughly a third of all existing-homes sold during June were short sales or foreclosures. These types of sales are bringing down rising inventories, while presenting great opportunities for first-time buyes and investors. But, they also can take a toll on home values. read more…
Buyers List 101… Bam! Pow! Whoooosh! “Holy wholesale Batman, that guy contracted and assigned that contract in 4 HOURS!” Yes, grasshopper, it happens, but not without a buyer’s list! Listen in, and read on to learn FREE ways real estate investors build a list of other investors to assign/flip their junkers and ugly houses to as fast as you can say “Newbie Tuesday”! read more…
Working intimately with so many entrepreneurs, I’ve heard a lot of horror stories about virtual assistants.
Tales of mis-hiring, terrible work quality, overbilling, identity theft…
I even heard one story about a new VA taking off to Central America never to be heard from again.
(Okay, that one actually happened to ME!)
I’ve been through it all — good [...]
This article was written by a contributor to the book Be a Real Estate Heavyweight. For more information on the book, be sure to check out www.RealEstateHeavyweight.com.
I overheard a conversation recently while circulating at a commercial real estate networking event in Los Angeles. The person speaking said they were buying distressed loans (promissory notes) at significant discounts from commercial banks. The loans were already in foreclosure, and the person speaking (buyer) wanted to buy the notes now so that they would end up with the actual real estate by completing the foreclosure. read more…
Deferred Sales Trusts have been around for about three (3) years now and have been used successfully to assist taxpayers in deferring the payment of their capital gain taxes and under certain circumstances their depreciation recapture taxes over a predetermined period of time into the future.
Have you ever felt that the world is getting busier and you have less and less time as each year goes by? It is easy to get into this mode of thinking, and run around in circles trying to get everything done. You may have thought the only answer was to employ staff, and deal with the personnel issues and headaches that arise from that, but there is an alternative.
The U.S. Senate is considering a bill that would severely limit the way you do business as a creative real estate investor and, more importantly, is an inexcusable infringement of the property rights of all Americans.
HR 1728, which you can view in its entirety here, deals with a plethora of mortgage-related issues, mostly around limited read more…
When I first started getting into real estate investing years ago, my enthusiasm for learning the business couldn’t have been higher. I started researching and learning all I could. I planned and then revised how I wanted my business to operate, I reviewed my local markets and talked to local investors who were doing a lot of business. But after a year, I still owned no properties, I had done no deals, and had spoken with very few actual sellers. Why? Because I fell into a common trap that snags many aspiring real estate heavyweights. read more…
Over the last several months we’ve been doing our best to provide you with a taste of the kind of up to date, quality information and techniques you can expect to find in the book Be A Real Estate Heavyweight. We’ve covered many aspects such as Tax Lien investing, entity structuring, taxes, owner financing… but we haven’t even begun to scratch the surface.
Now it’s May 15th and the Be A Real Estate Heavyweight guide is finally available to the public. The book contains, hands down, the best real estate investing knowledge and techniques that is available anywhere today. Its written BY some of the most successful real estate investors in the business, FOR investors like just like you who also want to be successful in our current market.
You get the updated techniques and skills from big names like Lou Brown, Than Merrill, Richard Roop and many more. Also included with the book are 27 free bonuses to help you get a jump on your competition. Check out all the details at our website Real Estate Heavyweight DOT Com and be sure to sign up on our blog for further updates.
In closing I want to thank you all again for following us on our blog, on twitter and elsewhere. And I want to wish you all good luck with your future real estate investing career.
"I can't think of 1 single long term trend in out country and economy that doesn't benefit Self Storage - it's the perfect storm - a hurricane of profits."
-- Ben Stein
Unless you’ve been in a cave, you know the power of Twitter when it comes to marketing. You may have also heard about a little search engine called Google, yes?
There’s a good post today at the
When I first started getting into real estate investing years ago, my enthusiasm for learning the business couldn’t have been higher. I started researching and learning all I could. I planned and then revised how I wanted my business to operate, I reviewed my local markets and talked to local investors who were doing a lot of business. But after a year, I still owned no properties, I had done no deals, and had spoken with very few actual sellers. Why? Because I fell into a common trap that snags many aspiring real estate heavyweights. 
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