Commercial Real Estate Investment Articles

In real estate investing, as in many aspects of life in general, we are salespeople. Learning sales techniques can increase our ability to produce a better income for ourselves by allowing us to make better deals, whether buying or selling.

Here is a great tool that works for buying and selling, but we’ll concentrate on just the buying side.

Fire-damaged homes offer great profit potential but also pose special concerns and hidden risks for investors. I would not recommend a fire project for the first time investor, but I would suggest that experienced investors and renovators should not overlook an opportunity that has few competitors.

My partner, Rick Vesole, and I do a lot of lease option type transactions. I recommend that you always record every such real estate transaction you enter into on tape. Real estate is generally thought of as the most expensive thing people will buy in their lifetimes. As such, people tend to get skittish afterward. It can save you thousands of dollars if you have “proof” of your intentions and theirs.

Dealing with seniors is a whole ‘nother deal, and those of you doing so should be conscious of some real danger areas that might hurt YOU, not Granny! First, being really real and approaching “seniorhood” myself, and being all too aware that I’m basically the same sorry sinner I was at 25, 45…, I’ve got to level with you and startle you with the revelation that people don’t get any better as they get older. Older, yes, but better, no.

As far as advertising and promotion goes, I have my own radio talk show called “RENT TO OWN.” In fact, it is also a small radio network. At various times I can be heard in six metropolitan areas in Florida, broadcasting on four radio stations.

I’m very new at this game so I’m not sure if anyone has done this. I just bought my first property (big ol’ home) that needed quite a bit of cosmetic work: paint inside and out, new carpet, new tile, landscaping–you get the idea.

Reading recent articles about lease options reminded me of not only the lease option buying that I have done over the years, but also of the tremendous advantages of selling on a lease option. My income increased dramatically when I discovered the benefits of selling on a lease option.

Todd Bockman originally posted this article on our Main Real Estate Forum.

Here is an idea that I have not tested, but may be workable. Have the owner of an abandoned home donate the home to a non-profit organization that you have an agreement to share profits with. Then arrange for 100% financing to fix-up the home. (A great LTV with no other liens on the property should make for easy financing.)

In my last article on lease options [Advantages of Selling on a Lease Option], I listed the many benefits to you (the Optionor) of leasing to your tenants with an option to buy. This article will continue the discussion in more detail.

In part 1 we talked about some if the things that make manufactured home communities ideal investments and the different types of communities we’re liable to run into. Now let’s look at placing a value on them.

Now that we’ve found our acquisition candidate and have come to a preliminary meeting of the minds with the seller, we need to spend some time and money to see if we want to take the “relationship” further. Before we get too deep into the process, there are five items we should be aware of and think about as we progress.

At the recent Creative Real Estate Online Convention, I visited with several new found friends who wanted to learn how to figure out what a particular manufactured home land lease community was worth. After repeating our story and the basics of the business several times, I thought I’d reproduce some of those cocktail napkins for the benefit of those of you that may have liked to see them.

In Part 1 we talked about some of the things that make manufactured home communities ideal investments and the different types of communities we’re liable to run into. In Part 2, we discussed how community values are determined using the income valuation approach, how the NOI, (Net Operating Income) is arrived at, and the basic premise behind the Cap (capitalization) Rates.

In The E-Myth, Michael Gerber puts forth the reason that most small businesses fail. The business starts because a technician who is good at something (repairing toilets and other small house repairs for example), decides he should be in business for himself.

I think it is time someone put a stop to the accelerated mortgage nonsense. This scheme, variously known as the “Banker’s Secret” or accelerated mortgage plan or bi-weekly mortgage plan are almost always a very poor deal for the person who decides to go into one of these programs.

You do not have to scour the courthouse or do mass mailouts to find good, small notes to buy. Just create them yourself.

I have created a time machine. Just think back to the remember when you could buy a house for $6,500, hold on to it for a few years, and sell it for $30,000. If I could do that now, I’d buy ten. Well I’m here to tell you. You can. I just did. The city was Baltimore, but the location can be anywhere with inner-city decay: Board ups, drugs, high crime, etc.–exactly the place everyone expects to find a fortune.

In my part of the country (Wisconsin), this technique is almost unheard of, but it works. Here is what I did.

4 Super Landlord Tips You’ve Never Heard

One of the best ideas that I have used when trying to get a lease purchase deal closed uses an alternative type of option consideration/earnest money deposit. If the seller is okay with the idea of a lease option or lease purchase but thinks my consideration a little too low, I simply ask him how much exactly he needs.

I found a single-family home appraised at $149,000. The seller had $62,000 in equity. I offered $105,000 all cash, which was accepted. I found a partner to front the $105,000. Refinanced the property at 80% of market value for $119,200.

For the last couple of months, I’ve sent the following postcard to every “house for rent” ad in my local paper. I don’t call on the ad, I just use a CD reverse directory to get the addresses from the phone numbers.

Property owners who live out of state are frequently very motivated to sell their real estate. Tenants may have stopped paying the rent, started trashing the property, or the property may be vacant. It is very difficult to control your real estate investments when you live far away from it.