Commercial Real Estate Investment Articles

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Investing in real estate or discounted paper is a wonderful way to increase the size of your retirement fund rapidly. The “Rule of 72” explains why. The Rule of 72 is a banker’s rule that calculates the number of years it will take for a sum of money to double. You divide the number 72 by the annual percentage rate you are receiving on that sum of money. For example, if you are earning 6% interest on a CD, divide 72 by 6: 72 / 6 = 12 years

People spend cash on real estate for a variety of reasons. Probably the most common reason for spending any cash at all is that the bank making a new mortgage on the property requires a cash down payment or it won’t approve the mortgage.

Here’s how I found seven (7) new real estate investors who will pay me cash to buy my position in escrow. I found a local chapter of “National Association Of Remodeling Contractors” and called a couple dozen names on the membership roster. I told each one:

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.

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

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.

There is an incredible power in understanding the time value of money. The investor who understands the power of cash flows will be the investor who gets very rich. No matter what you do in your investment life you simply must understand the time value of money.