Commercial Real Estate Investment Articles

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.

33 Ways to Find Motivated Sellers

Here are a couple of real estate investing tips for beginners that will get you started in the right direction. You can do a no money down deal with no cash, no credit, no income, no nothing, except some general knowledge backed with a desire to succeed by going out there and taking ACTION!

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.