Commercial Real Estate Investment Articles

Okay, here it is. Now get ready to laugh your butt off. I’m a foreclosures expert, right? So I’m asked to speak to a group of recent seminar graduates who, after finishing the program, really don’t know all that much. The chairperson of the group asked me afterward if I would be interested in going in with her on two real estate investments that she had found. I would put up the money, and she would do the rehab work.

So you wanna be a rehabber? Before I give you my Top 10 List, I want you to know that I have been an active real estate investor for only two years. I started by visiting Creative Real Estate Online. It has been crucial to my success.

I do rehabs in Baltimore and have done about seventy in the last six years. I read Jonathan Mednick’s Rehabbing Houses Top Ten Tips, and thought I’d chime in with my perspective. It was generous of him to take the time to share his views.

The following is Frank Chin’s reply to Jonathan’s Rehabbing Houses Top 10 Tips (Part 1)

I see this question asked a lot on the Main Real Estate Forum. Here are some of my ideas on how to locate the owner of an abandoned property.

I don’t know how popular this idea is or if it has been discussed before–or if it would even work in other areas of the country. However, I do have an idea for making money in rural areas.

Getting motivated sellers to contact you is what real estate investing is all about. One of the ways that we have been successful is to locate potential deals using death notices in the obituaries. Before you call me a creep or a hearse chaser, give this area a little time and attention.

This is for all those who live in the more expensive areas where homes are selling in the $300,000+ bracket. I made this post some time ago in response to someone living in California. She couldn’t figure out a way to buy in this price bracket, get a mortgage, and be able to rent with a positive cash flow. Maybe this will help with getting your creative juices flowing.

I own an active business, plus I own rental properties. We have over 300 bills to pay each month between the two. While I was employed, my wife stayed home and took over the bill paying. She didn’t keep on top of it, and it got totally out of control

You’ll always make money when you are buying a property cheap, cheap, cheap. Depending on the economy, it may not be as easy as it sounds, especially in the beginning.

These are classic, overgrown grass, and broken window situations. I am now on my third deal in three years buying a “mom and pop” roadside motel (less than 15 units each) in a rural area for less than 50% of market value. In every case, I bought these deals for no money down with cash in pocket at closing.

Here’s a crash course in commercial real estate terms.

I was inspired by recent posts concerning an FAQ sheet to give to tenant/buyers about the lease option. I started thinking that a Q&A sheet like that would come in very handy for sellers as well.

I have been promoting lease options for almost a year now and have been working my butt off getting tenant/buyers to take the properties I have and finding the ones they want. It has been a waste of time to find specific properties for tenant/buyers. So I had a chat with my favorite lender, and we came up with a plan.

Many times people looking to get into rehabbing and flipping houses find it difficult to locate a real estate agent who will work with them. Here’s a letter I drew up to mail to agents. It was designed to be sent using our corporation letterhead. However, I’m sure you can adapt it to your own method or approach. The basic ideas can also be used when contacting Realtors either by phone or in person.

I am in the process of starting up my flipping and rehab business right now. Here is a secret that I have found: Find some houses that have been rehabbed in the past. You can do this by simply searching the public records at the county recorder’s office.

I’ve been running an ad since last Sunday on a house that I am selling. I’ve had a mix of calls between owner occupants and investors. I’m fascinated with the investor calls.

These are the tools and techniques I’ve used successfully when looking for pre-foreclosure and REO properties. I hope other real estate investors find them as useful as I have.

This is a “no brainer” technique that allows you to gain access to more tired landlords and close more lease option deals. I wish I could tell you how I came up with this idea, but I truly don’t remember. I have been using this successfully for over two years. If you play the lease option game, you should get a kick out of it.

Here are four rules that have been very helpful to me in both my business and personal life. They were told to me by a long-time real estate broker and investor in California years ago.

Last weekend, my folks had a garage sale. I was just sitting there thinking, and all of a sudden it hit me: Why not make up some signs that say “We Buy Houses” and see if I can get any leads? That’s exactly what I did.

As most of us know, one of the toughest things to overcome for our buyers is the down payment. Especially when that down payment needs to be verified. I have on two occasions now successfully overcome this problem both legally and ethically.

Let’s assume you have run an ad geared toward generating calls from sellers. The first question is: How is the call answered? I don’t know about you, but I don’t have time to sit around waiting for my phone to ring, so my phone is answered by voice mail. The caller is required to leave a message if he wants to tall to me.

After being in the single-family house business for the last 28 years, I was looking for a way to make my operation more efficient. And along came the Internet. WOW, what an improvement to my business! Here is what we did.

Five years after buying and giving back about fifty units–and newly penniless, I discovered this thing called creative real estate. Control without ownership, solving people problems, use your brain to buy property–not your cash.