Unbeatable Strategies To Get In
The Real Estate Game
By Sean Flanagan
The author has permitted the reprinting and redistribution of this
article.
Real Estate investing is an exciting, yet lucrative, way to create
sustainable wealth and residual income, while securing your
family’s economic future. Unlike many other business
opportunities, real estate entrepreneurs don't need a mountain of cash
or flawless credit in order to get in the game. Here are four effective
strategies for launching your own real estate investing empire
Bird Dogging -- This is probably one of the simplest ways of getting
started as a real estate investor. Instead of marketing property,
you're more of an information broker. A bird dog simply locates
property that is available at below market prices, gathers some
information about the property and the owner, and forwards the
information to a real estate investor that would be willing to make the
purchase.
Bird dogs gather much of the information a real estate investor needs
in order to evaluate whether or not a property would make a good
investment. Examples of the kind of information gathered include
• Name and address of property owner
• Asking price of the property
• Condition of property (sometimes with photographs)
• Information about current financing and payment status
• Background information regarding liens and other encumbrances
• Detailed report about owner’s motivation to sell
• Sometimes an analysis of rehabilitation costs and
anticipated after repair value
Depending on the arrangement you work out with the investor and the
amount of work involved, bird dog fees average between $500 and $1000
-- and sometimes much more. You don't need any cash or credit, and
because you're simply providing another investor with information,
there's absolutely no risk to you of becoming entangled in any type of
property dispute. You risk only your time, and if the investor to which
you give the information fails to pay you for your services, you simply
avoid doing business with that investor again in the future. However,
investors are hungry for moneymaking properties; therefore, the
overwhelming majority will gladly pay you for quality information.
Wholesaling -- This method of real estate investing involves many of
the same elements of bird dogging, but in this case, you actually
approach the owner of the property, negotiate a sales price, and place
the property under contract for sale. Instead of making the purchase
yourself, however, you assign -- or sell -- your interest in the
property to another investor, who then completes the transaction in
your place.
For instance, pretend you locate a property worth $100,000 and you were
able to negotiate a sales price with the owner of $60,000. You would
gather all the required information, and sell your real estate contract
to another investor. That investor will generally be willing to pay you
between $1000 and $3000 for the right to complete the transaction with
the seller in your place. Again, the amount of money you can make for
each transaction will vary depending upon the investor with whom you
are working and the amount of work you have invested in the process.
I've heard of investors receiving as much as $5000-$10,000, depending
on the margin of profit available to the investor.
Double Closing -- Sometimes you'll locate a property that has an
extremely motivated owner. If you do, it's possible that the seller
might be willing to sell you the property for as little as 40% of its
value. If this happens, you can still assign your contract to another
buyer, but you may want to keep more of the profit for yourself. When
this is the case, you simply arrange for a double closing. Here's how
it works
• You sign a contract to purchase the property from the seller
• You then sign a contract to sell the property to another
buyer or investor
• On closing day, the investor or buyer of the property pays
you for your interest in the property
• You then take the proceeds you've received from the sale of
the property to pay the seller, retaining the difference for yourself
Because there is an increased risk that your buyer could potentially
back out of the deal before the transaction is complete, you receive a
much greater reward. Another way of accomplishing the same goal is by
you obtaining a hard money loan in order to pay the seller first for
the property. You can then turn around and sell your interest in the
property to another buyer. While you'll incur some financing charges to
the hard money lender, you may determine that the expense is worth it
in light of the amount of money you'll be making off of the deal.
Subject to -- The fourth strategy I want to identify for getting
involved in Real Estate investing with little cash or credit is by
purchasing a property from a seller subject to the existing financing.
You don't have to actually assume legal responsibility for the existing
financing, but you are purchasing from the seller and are acknowledging
the existence of the current financing.
Each month, you would pay the owner of the property a house payment
equal to the amount you've worked out, and the homeowner will then make
the underlying mortgage payment, retaining the difference for
themselves.
If the owner's lender finds out that equitable title of the property
has passed to you, there is an outside chance that the lender could
call the note and require payment in full for the loan. However, the
reality is that right now millions of Americans are unable to make
their house payments. Lenders are overwhelmed by foreclosures and other
delinquencies. They don't have the time or the inclination to look at
each payment check that comes through the door to ensure that the
payment is actually being made by the borrower. In all honesty, they're
just grateful to get their money; they really don't care how the loan
gets paid as long as it gets paid.
As you can see, getting into the Real Estate game and making money is
possible regardless of whether or not you have impeccable credit or a
mountain of cash at your disposal. I've identified just four ways that
you can get involved in real estate investing on a scale congruent to
your level of experience and your willingness to take on risk. There
are many others that you can learn. A good real estate Coach can
provide advice and insider knowledge about these and many other more
advanced real estate investing techniques. Regardless of whether you
seek out a mentor or you fly solo, real estate investing provides you
with multiple ways of creating wealth and a much brighter future. You
won't get rich overnight, but by being smart and learning the ropes
real estate investing can be your ticket to a secure future
Sean Flanagan went from dead broke, living off Ramen Noodles and
selling used pallets from the roadside for $20 a day, to a self made
real estate multimillionaire in under 2 years time.He has a FREE audio
course which you can get right now by quickly visiting
httpwww.yuckyhouseleads.com . He also gives away a coaching program for
new real estate investors at httpwww.yuckyhousesystems.com
If
you would like to take advantage of the market and learn how to invest
in real estate and you are local to the Dallas Fort Worth area, I know
a really great teacher and mentor here in Arlington Texas. Please take
a look at his web site: DennisJHenson.com,
Dennis has a great Mentoring and training program, I know because I am
one of his former students. I learned a lot from his one on one
teaching technique. - Michael Harman 817-457-7572
mchfun.business@gmail.com
http://www.biggerpockets.com/articles/