Sudeira Real Estate Investing

Real Estate Investing, Consulting and Education

Posts Tagged Education

Where to get started in real estate investing.

Feb 24

Posted by Cliff in Education, Real Estate Investing | No Comments

I’m a beginning real estate investor, and would like to know of resources (i.e. books/people/internet) where i can get info on buying houses for resale and for rentals. But just want to gather information that will keep me from making costly mistakes and avoid pitfalls.

This question is echoed by many people across the country that are looking for the doorway that leads them out and onto the path of real estate investing.  But that door is hidden and often times locked or at least damn sticky.

#1 Piece of advice for new real estate investors – Don’t get suckered!

When you are just starting out, everyone and their cousin wants to sell you the secret to this and that.  Everyone has a path to fortune in just minutes a week.  What?  You a bridge to sell me too? 

There are no secret formulas to real estate investing!

I am sure I am going to tick off all the ‘Gurus’ with that statement, but it is true.  No Guru has a secret formula, there is no magic website that has direct and secret access to buyers who are giving away homes.

Guru real estate trainers have one agenda; that is to give you enough information each time to keep you coming back and buying more, hoping the secret to making a fortune is right around the corner.  They have all made their money doing various things and are now just leveraging that to make even more money.  Honestly, do you think Donald Trump has ever done a short sale on a single family home?  I bet not!

So rule #1 is avoid the so called gurus and the hucksters and the websites with golden promises.  What you need grasshopper will not be found there.  Take your time and start reading articles on sites like  Bigger Pockets where other real estate investors hang out.  There is plenty of information to get started with there. 

If you want to get some books on real estate investing then just be sure that they are recently published.  The world of real estate investing is constantly changing and while a book may have been a great resource for hot strategies 5 years ago, now it is out of date.  Books can give you some good background info on the business and highlight the big principles, but they are just the start of a foundation.  You wouldn’t want to go to a doctor that had only read the course manuals would you?

Next time we will go over my #2 piece of advice for would be real estate investors; Picking Your Poison.

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Buying Pre-Foreclosure Homes

Nov 6

Posted by Cliff in Education, Pre-Foreclosures | No Comments

In reading through the real estate articles as I do every morning, my eyes fell on one entitled ‘Buying Pre-foreclosures’.  Opening it I found that it was a nice little article on how you can score big rescuing homes from foreclosure.

The best thing about pre foreclosures is the prices that are associated with them.  In most cases, the owner has no choice but the sell the house, and therefore will listen to just about any offer that he receives.  Due to this very reason, you can find pre foreclosures for sale at nearly 50% off market value.  This is an ideal time to purchase, especially if you are looking to save a lot of money.
Buying Pre-Foreclosures

Ok, that is all fine and good, but I think they are missing out on a few things.  Primarily, this was a strategy that worked better a couple of years ago when homes were appreciating and people actually had positive equity in their homes.  Then you could come in, scoop up a home and do all sorts of things like sell it on a land trust subject to existing financing or roll it into a lease-purchase.

The problem is that few pre-foreclosure homes have any equity left!

Preforeclosure Homes

With homes across the country taking record losses, you almost always are going to find that properties in pre-foreclosure are upside down and in a short sale situation.  Which is a whole other beast unto itself.  Can you still find homes that this will work for?  Sure! But they are far and few between compared to a few years ago.  This doesn’t stop people from selling you their snake oil plan for buying pre-foreclosure homes and making a killing at it.

With my curiosity on the subject piqued about what people are doing with this strategy right now, I did a quick web search.  What I found is a lot of people ready to sell you their ‘secret formula’ to getting rich buying and selling pre-foreclosure homes.’

I am sorry, but I always am a bit suspicious of people selling you their formula for getting rich. A true value at only $97 of course!  Why are they not out making money doing what they purport to be experts at instead of selling eBooks? That never has sat right with me.  Of course what really gives it away is that when you are reading their websites and hit the words ‘instant wealth’.  Real estate investing is a long term business, not an over night get rich quick scheme. 

Save your money and don’t fall for the hucksters selling you get rich quick real estate plans.

If you want to learn real estate investing, there are better ways!

Take it from me, you can’t learn everything you need to know about buying pre-foreclosure homes from reading an eBook.  If you really want to learn how to invest in real estate, you need to be learning it from people that are actually doing the types of deals you want to do, not someone making a living selling eBooks.

If you are looking for some rock solid real estate education, contact me and I can put you in touch with the people that can really deliver.  Until then, don’t fall prey to the get rich quick schemes!

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Top 3 mistakes that kill real estate investors

Nov 3

Posted by Cliff in Real Estate Investing | No Comments

We all make mistakes, it happens.  But when real estate investors make mistakes, they are big and expensive.  Do you know what the top 3 mistakes real estate investors make are?  You should, because any one of them can end your real estate investing career, especially if you are just starting out!

REAL ESTATE INVESTOR MISTAKE #0

BUYING A PROPERTY JUST FOR THE APPRECIATION – This is the top real estate investor killer of the last few years, and I put it in at number zero because you should NEVER buy a property based solely on its appreciation.  This is akin to trying to time the stock market.  Yes you can buy and sell on the up swing and make money.  People were making 15% a quarter on houses in the Seattle area doing this.  But, just like stocks, when the needle swings the other way you get burned.  And many real estate investors have gone under because of this!

 

REAL ESTATE INVESTOR MISTAKE #1

PAYING TOO MUCH FOR A PROPERTY – We all love a good deal and sometimes we get too excited by what appears to be a ‘hot deal’ and jump in before checking out all the facts.  This is where knowledge of the market you are in and having a great real estate agent on your team are essential.  Get your offer in and then follow up to make sure that you are accurate on your estimates of what it will sell for and what your repair and holding costs will be.  Screw these up and you can be upside down and bleeding money in a heart beat.

 

REAL ESTATE INVESTOR MISTAKE #2

NOT HAVING ENOUGH EXIT STRATEGIES – You have probably heard it a hundred times.  “The money is made when you buy the property.”  Sure, but the truth is that you don’t get to have that money until you actually execute an exit strategy.  Which one it is doesn’t really matter.  What is important is having one primary and at least one secondary way of exiting from your property when it is time.  This is a trap a lot of investors fell into with fix and flips.  They bought it, fixed it and now can’t sell it.  With no back up exit plans, they are hosed.  Don’t be that investor!

 

REAL ESTATE INVESTOR MISTAKE #3

TRYING TO DO IT ALL YOURSELF – “No man is an island!”  Yeah I know I am making with the quotes today, but it is true.  You might be able to pull off doing it all yourself but is it smart?  Especially if you are doing a hands on project like a fix and flip, there are things tasks you should farm out, delegate and just plain farm out.  Even if you know how to do everything on the list of projects, it is a good idea to not take it all on.  You will quickly burn out if your face is in real estate projects from before the sun comes up till after the sun goes down every night.  Stay fresh, work smart and delegate out what work you can!

There are top 3 mistakes that will kill your real estate investing business.  There are of course many other pit falls that you can trip in, but these are three of the most common killers of real estate investors.  If you have any questions about real estate investing or have a project you would like to talk over please contact us!

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