ABC’s Of Prospecting

The ABC’s of prospecting, which is the life-blood of your business and your income, is very simple. We all know our ABC ‘s so now you must practice this very simple formula which is ABP. ALWAYS BE PROSPECTING.

My father always told me that I should be an excellent physical shape because, like everyone, I was always jumping to conclusion.

How many times have you or I started thinking about not talking to someone, not offering them our great service and not offering them our great business opportunity because we thought:

• They might not be interested.
• They are too smart or too successful to do what I’m doing.
• They are just so different from me.

If you believe in what you are doing and you absolutely MUST believe 100% in yourself, your company and your opportunity. I believe you have an ethical responsibility to view everyone as a prospect and offer them the chance to make a decision about their future.

Who is your prospect? Everyone!! Especially today, everyone is working too hard, needing extra income and looking for a way out of the Hamster wheel…

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Driving For Dollars – Following The Signs To Great Real Estate Deals

Driving for dollars. Is this a game show, with the host saying: “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. In tonight’s edition, we have…” Seriously, you can make a lot of money at this “game” – my favorite source of finding good deals in real estate.

Pick a neighborhood that interests you, e.g., in transition, being fixed up, near a river, and so on. Drive around it slowly and write down at least 20 addresses of neglected, vacant, or condemned homes. Often, they’re sporting signs saying For Sale, For Sale by Owner, or For Rent.

Next, contact the owners. You may have to be persistent and call and call to find their numbers and reach them. You can contact the Registrar of Deeds, get on the Internet, and go to the local tax records office. Ask a realtor to look them up on the MLS computer. Once you find them, call or write them to learn more.

Houses with Motivated Sellers How do you tell if a house or property might be owned by a motivated seller? Look for the following characteristics:

• Neglected
• Undeveloped Land
• Vacant
• Condemned
• For Sale
• For Sale by Owner

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First Step In Becoming An Investor – Know Thyself

Shakespeare says, “Know thyself.” These words speak true for real estate investors, too. Early in my business, I learned quickly what I am not good at… accounting. I stashed receipts in shoeboxes for the first nine months of the year. The other three months, I tried to figure out what I did the first nine months. That is no way to run a business! Now I hire a service that takes care of these bookkeeping and accounting activities that still stress me out.

To “know thyself,” write down the real estate activities you like. If you love to talk to people and sell, you’ll be good at recruiting tenants, putting deals together, and selling them. Maybe you love detail and finance. You could happily pull together mortgages and financing deals. If you easily get irritated at people, you probably do not want to manage property, and so on.

Determine your answers to these questions, then build your team:

• What do you like to do? And not like to do?
• What kind of people do you like to be around?
• What kind of deals would fit your personality?
• What aspects of real estate investing best fit you?

Your Business Plan

Most real estate investors have absolutely no plan. They set out to find that property, they buy it, then figure out what to do by accident. When tenants do not pay rent, for example, they quickly evict them without researching options. Let me save you a lot of headache by insisting you write a plan…

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360 Degree Real Estate Investor Software – The Prospect Manager

As a real estate investor, you no doubt will (or have) put much thought, effort, and money into your marketing efforts to find prospective properties you wish to buy. Yet many investors lose or squander potential prospects through a lack of organization or focus.

The 360° Real Estate Investor Software System will allow you to store, track, and measure everything you need to do while determining the value of each lead! It will also allow you to manage and maintain all the necessary information and tasks associated with the properties in your pipeline.

Imagine, in one place, you’ll be able to store and work with all the information related to each “Prospect” such as:

• The address
• How you originally found the prospect
• All the analyzed financial information and projections (i.e. potential profit on a flip, the projected monthly cash flow, the projected rental rate, the capitalization rate, the projected return on investment, money out of pocket, etc.)
• Repair lists / scope of work
• Work Orders

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11 Powerful Tax Strategies for Real Estate Investors

Article by Al Aiello (reposted with permission)

Real estate is one of the safest and quickest ways to build wealth. It also yields the best tax-saving opportunities to accelerate your wealth building even further. Unfortunately most real estate investors (and CPA’s) are not aware of these golden opportunities.

And remember what Supreme Court Justice, Learned Hand said…

“Any one may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury; there is not even a patriotic duty to increase one’s taxes.”

So let’s go for it! Here is a checklist of some of the more important strategies you can do to save taxes and thus increase your wealth as a real estate investor1. This checklist will then be followed by a more in-depth discussion:

1. UNDERSTAND THAT SAVING TAXES ACCELERATES WEATLH: Know why saving taxes makes you wealthy and is well worth the effort.
2. SELECT THE RIGHT ENTITY: Start off with the right form of ownership.
3. AVOID IRS: Employ “Audit-Proofing” Techniques To Be Free of The Worry & Costs of IRS Intervention.
4. AVOID INEPT CPA’S: Fire-Up, or Fire Your Tax Advisor.
5. DO NOT OVERTAX RENT INCOME: While it is Ordinary Income, Rent Income is Not Subject to Social Security taxes.
6. CREATE VALUABLE DEPRECIATION DEDUCTIONS: Substantially Increase Depreciation Deductions Via Componentizing (Cost Segregation Analysis).
7. GENERATE REPAIR DEDUCTIONS: Employ Strategies To Reclassify Rehab Improvements Into Fully Deductible Repairs.
8. REAP MORE DEDUCTIONS: Employ Strategies To Find Overlooked Deductions For More Savings.
9. AVOID PASSIVE LOSS LIMITATIONS: Deduct Unlimited Property Tax Losses Even if Over $25,000 or Your Income is Over $150,000 by Being a Real Estate Professional.
10. AVOID BEING A DEALER: The First Planning Strategy For Reducing Taxes On The Sale of Property At A Taxable Gain – Is to Avoid Costly Dealer Status.
11. SELL YOUR PROPERTIES TAX-FREE: Avoid Paying Capital Gain Taxes On The Sale Or Disposition of Property…

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How To Sell Houses In A Down Market For Full Market Value

Article by Robyn Thompson (reposted with permission)

Many real estate investors shy away from the ugly house business because they fear selling houses in a depressed real estate market. We have all heard the horror stories of real estate investors who lose their shirt because they get stuck with a property they just can’t sell or rent.

I am here to tell you that this does not have to happen to you, but there are nine rules you can never violate. Selling a house starts before you ever buy it. I start focusing on marketing strategies as I pull up in the driveway for the very first time, not after I purchased and renovated the house. Most untrained investors never focus on selling until after they have the property renovated and by then it is too late for most. Let me explain why in more detail.

Step #1 for selling a house starts with buying the right house that the majority of first time buyers would want to call home. The easiest mortgage money for a first time buyer to qualify for right now is for a FHA, VA or Conventional Financing. The good news is the down payments are low and the seller can pay most of the prepaid expenses and closing costs. The bad news is the buyers need good credit. Buyers with good credit scores are much more critical about the house they pick to call home. Real estate investors must be very selective with the homes they are buying, renovating and selling to ensure they can sell for a large profit… (click here to read the rest of this article)