Usually… no. Most of the time, you can wait until the real estate investment is under contract before you order an appraisal. If you’re borrowing money to buy the property, you’ll need one for the lender anyway. If anything fishy pops up on the appraisal, you can usually back out of the deal on the […]
Your first real estate investment is the hardest. There are so many available techniques and options that it’s easy to get overwhelmed and stop. I mean, consider the following (incomplete) list. Bank owned properties, short sales, motivated sellers, rental properties, lease options, VA foreclosures, apartment buildings, mobile home parks…
It’s theoretically possible for a beginning […]
Jack Canfield, the author of Success Principles and Chicken Soup for the Soul, likes to tell a story about a retired woman that’s dreaming of going back to college. She hesitates because it will take at least four years to finish, and by that time, she will be 69 years old. Jack finally persuaded her […]
For some reason, everyone in the real estate investment industry seems to think that you need to be old to be successful. When a twentysomething walks into a bank and applies for a $500,000 loan, the loan officer will look at them funny. How can they trust someone so young with so much money? Sometimes, older […]
Popularized by guys like Carleton Sheets and Robert Allen, nothing down is one of the hottest topics in real estate financing. The idea is that you can finance a real estate investment without using any of your own money. You just go to the closing, sign a few papers, and walk away with a real […]
Growing up, few of us are lucky enough to have a parent or teacher explain the importance of building credit. Then, when you decide to buy a real estate investment or sign-up for a credit card, you’re shocked when they turn you down because of insufficient credit history.
The reality is your buying power is […]
Here’s the typical scenario. You find a motivated seller that is willing to give you a great price, so you rush to your bank or mortgage broker to get prequalified for your loan. You tell them that you’ve found a great real estate investment and you want to know what the terms are.
The next day, […]
Walk into any real estate investment meeting anywhere in the country and what will you see? A bunch of old geezers! People typically start thinking about investing later in life, so the industry is understandably a little older. Thankfully, that’s changing, but if you are young, it’s still easy to be a little intimidated. You […]
If you want a mentor in this business (or any other), you have to offer something in return. Otherwise, you’re asking them to help you become a competitor… for nothing in exchange. There’s only one problem: what do you, a lowly novice, have to offer? As it turns out, a few things: