Some Tips On Cheap Website Design

Cheap Website Design For Real Estate Websites

Let me start buy saying that when I say ‘cheap’ website design I don’t mean shabby, shoddy, or anything along those lines.

By cheap website design I mean inexpensive, cost effective, affordable.

The inexpensive website design service I wanted to share with you today is called Weebly.

I’ve been using this for quite some time on many of my websites.

=> Click here to learn more about Weebly website design

How To Use Cheap Website Design From Weebly

There are three things that I personally use cheap website design from Weebly for.

Short-Term Listing

Often times you’ll have a single property or listing that becomes available every now and then.

It may not be worth the time and effort to purchase a specific domain name, hosting service, and design a destination website for that listing.

Examples of this are be single-family homes, apartments that are rarely vacant, or single-tenant properties that are only vacant every now and then.

You can design a cheap website using Weebly without having to purchase a domain name or a dedicated website hosting service.

Weebly allows for cheap website design by letting you create a subdomain within your Weebly account.

An example of a subdomain is ‘HouseForRent.Weebly.com.

Concept Or Product Testing

Maybe you’ve got a new property that you want to try some test marketing on or a new marketing idea that you want to try out, but you’re not ready to spend the time and effort designing a full-blow WordPress website until you know the idea is going to work.


Weebly makes this type of cheap website design very easy.

You can use a domain name that you’ve purchased, or use the subdomain technique.

Weebly has A LOT of pre-made website templates to choose from, all with drag-and-drop design, targeted toward specific businesses and industries plus many for generic use as well.

You can design several cheap websites, each with a variation of your idea, do some market testing, and decide whether or not it’s worth the effort to go full scale.

Landing Or Sales Page

You may have an ebook that you’re selling, or want a landing page for your visitors to register for a program, sign up for a seminar, and more.

Cheap website design from Weebly is great here as well.

Within a few minutes you can have your landing page up and running, customized to your product plan, and simply direct visitors to this site from your online or off line advertising or your main website.

What Cheap Website Design From Weebly Offers

Weely is a great cheap website design resource for a lot of different uses.

Here are some of the things that you can do with Weebly:

• Free website hosting
• Drag-and-drop website design
• Use your own photos or graphics
• Import your own HTML
• Incorporate AWeber email marketing
• Integrate Google Analytics
• Have multiple pages and drop-down menus
• Utilize a contact form
• Embed videos
• Create a blog
• Free and paid versions

I’m probably leaving a few things out, but you get the gist of what Weebly offers from this list.

By the way, don’t let the ‘paid version’ of Weebly scare you off.

I personally use this version and it’s still way less expensive than hosting your own website, especially for the uses we covered.

=> Click here to learn more about Internet marketing

Drawbacks To Using Cheap Website Design From Weebly

Using Weebly for cheap website design is great for product testing, simple one-page sites and landing pages, and for the occasional listing.

Weebly does not offer the diverse array of plugins that WordPress does or allow as much customization of the theme.

It’s also more difficult to optimize your SEO using a cheap website design with Weebly.

Search engine optimization with WordPress is much easier, provided you do several things right.

The takeaway is – unless all you have are one-time listings - once you’ve done your product testing or need a full-blow website for your real estate business that you can fully optimize, WordPress is going to be the better option.

As with all of my other articles, I hope you've found this post on cheap website design useful for your business!

Jeffrey Roark
Basic Property Management Blog

Is Multi Family Investing A Smart Thing To Do?

Investing In Multi Family And Apartments

Multi family and apartments have always been attractive real estate investments.

One way that you can tell this is that multi family and apartments have always had very low CAP rates, relative to office and retail real estate investments, for example.

Multi family and apartments are also a ‘step up’ for the beginning residential investor who might start with one or two single family homes, is successful with those, and is ready to move up to a larger residential income producing investment.

Why Invest In Multi Family And Apartments

As the saying goes . . .

People always need a place to live

. . . and that’s what makes investing in any residential income investment financially attractive.

Other reasons to invest in multi family and apartments include:

Ease of Management

The individual units of multi family and apartment properties are not geographically spread out as are single family homes.

Also, if the number of multi family or apartment units you have is large enough you may be able to justify the expense of an on site manager.

Economies of Scale

If you’re replacing the roof on a house, you’ve replaced it for just that one house. When you’re doing a roof repair on multi family or apartments you’re taking care of multiple units.

Easier to Sell

You’ve got multiple selling exit strategies when investing in multi family and apartments.

You can sell to a beginning single family home investor ready to move up.

You can sell to another investor who already owns multi family and apartments.

Or you can ‘go condo’ and sell the individual units to owner-occupants or beginning single family investors.

The Risk Of Investing In Multi Family And Apartments

This graph caught my eye the other day.

Shadow housing inventory is property that COULD come on the market for sale and eventual rental. The reason this product is not on the market is that the banks are sitting on it, for now.

So far the banks have been able to manage the gradual flow of short sale and foreclosure property coming to market.

When this REO-type of property comes to the market, for the most part it’s real estate investors that snapping the product up, rehabbing of needed, and turning the investment into residential rental property.

As an investor in multi family or apartments you’ve got to consider the very real risk that at some point the lenders will increase the flow of foreclosures – or maybe lost control of the flow altogether.

At which point there will be a lot of single family home property that was formerly owner-occupied now coming onto the market as rental property.

Many smart real estate investors don’t think this will happen.

But then, very few real estate investors envisioned the crash of the real estate market that we’re now muddling through.

Think Outside The Box

When analyzing what type of investment real estate is right for you it’s important to think outside of the box and consider the competitive threats to your real estate investment from as many angles as possible.

In The Basic Property Management eBook there’s a lot of time spent on teaching you the proven, real world techniques that the professionals use to minimize the risk and maximize the return of your real estate investment.

Click here to learn more about The Basic Property Management eBook

More About Multi Family And Apartments

As always, I hope you've found this investment property management training article on multi family and apartment investing useful!

Jeffrey Roark
Basic Property Management Blog

Some Rental Tips For Tenants

A Few Rental Tips For New Tenants

You’ve probably noticed that rental tips for tenants are tough to find.

That’s because most property management training articles are focused on landlords and property managers, not on giving rental tips to tenants.

Today we’re going to turn the tables a little bit and review a few rental tips for tenants that will give you an idea of how a landlord thinks when he or she is trying to rent their house.

These rental tips are based on my personal experience renting houses, condos, and apartments to a lot of different tenants. They’re based on fact, not fiction.

Know Why You Are Calling

Rental tip #1 is be prepared and keep a list.

One thing that landlords look for is if the prospective tenants knows what they’re calling about. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten calls from a tenant who saw my ad on the internet, but because they called so many different places, they had no idea where my rental house was.

See, if the landlord has to play guessing games, you’re not coming across as somebody who is serious about renting a house – even if you are.

Be Up Front

Your second rental tip is to be up front about any credit issues you might have.

The fact is that in today’s market very few people have perfect credit. There have been a ton of foreclosures, short sales, job losses, credit card debt increases, and much more.

Often times it’s not your fault that there’s a credit issue.

Rental tips that we give landlords are to first, see if a tenant has the provable income to meet your rental requirements. Then, consider any credit issues after that.

As long as the rent gets paid on time and the house is taken care of, most landlords will be pretty flexible.

It’s best if you’re up front with a landlord about any credit issues you might have. Doing this goes a long way to showing that you’re serious about renting and also saves both you and the landlord a lot of time if in fact they’re not willing to work with you.

Let’s face it, there is a lot of rental property out there, and if one landlord is unreasonable about something, you’ll very likely find another one that is willing to work with you.

Submit A Complete Application Package

Having a simple website set up for the house for rent is one of the top rental tips that we give landlords, owners and property managers.

Doing this makes it easy for you as a tenant to download the rental application, see what documents and information are required from you, and then put everything together in one neat package.

You might be surprised at how many prospective tenants DO NOT do this, even when the instructions are right there on the page.

This is always a big mistake.

See, in the eyes of the landlord, this is the first time they’re dealing with you. It’s kind of like a ‘first date’.

If somebody who wants to rent my house is sloppy in the application information they give me, or keep forgetting things, it makes me very nervous about how often they’ll pay the rent on time and how well they’ll take care of my house for rent.

More Rental Tips

As a tenant it’s a good idea if you can think like a landlord or owner – to get inside their head.

It puts you on more even ground when you’re trying to rent a house, and it’s always good to know how the other side thinks.

Our best selling 5 Step House Rental eBook is written for landlords and owners trying to rent a house.

Click here to learn more about The 5 Step House Rental eBook

We’ve discovered that more and more serious tenants are investing in the eBook also. They find that by understanding what a landlord is looking for, it helps them rent the house that they really want.

As always, I hope you've found this article on rental tips for tenants useful!

Jeffrey Roark
How To Rent My House

Real Estate Wealth Fast and The American Dream

How To Build Real Estate Wealth Fast To Achieve The American Dream

The stock market is no place to build any kind of real estate wealth fast. Look at the Wall Street super firms struggling for survival.

A lot of firms on Wall Street were founded on building real estate wealth fast. But no more, it’s all just smoke and mirrors today.

In Detroit, the automotive industry is on life support and hoping for mouth - to - mouth resuscitation from everybody’s favorite Uncle or Big Brother – depending on their perspective.

Elsewhere, from Main Street to some of the lesser - known boardrooms across this great land, Americans from all backgrounds and political persuasions have one thing in common: they’re all circling their collective wagons, convinced that life as we know it has either come to an end – or soon will. 

How To Build Your Real Estate Wealth Fast

So where do you fit in?

Are you going to join the crowd and act like a lemming?

Or are you willing to harness a once - in - a - lifetime opportunity and hitch your wagon to building your real estate wealth fast and grab your piece of the American Dream?

It’s really no secret that people everywhere are fearful for the future and have lost sight of building wealth through real estate.

They’ve watched their life’s savings evaporate in a few months time, seen some of the biggest financial giants in the world topple like dominoes, and in some cases have learned first?hand what it’s like to be handed a pink slip.

With all this bad news, one of the soundest pieces of advice known to man – building your real estate wealth fast - has been relegated to junk bond status by almost everyone.

As a result, most people have little hope for the future.

You have a chance to be different by choosing to build your real estate wealth fast.

Now is a very special opportunity for you to secure a future free from financial worry by investing in your real estate wealth building system. 

Learn The System To Build Real Estate Wealth Fast

When everyone else is cashing in their chips and going home, savvy investors are taking some initiative and buying all the real estate they can get their hands on while prices are low.

It’s the best way to build real estate wealth fast that you can think of.

It’s true that real estate prices have hit distressing lows and billions of dollars of equity has disappeared from the real estate market.

That’s all the more reason to buy real estate now – and to start building your real estate wealth fast today - before prices shoot back up.

Economics 101 tells us that the Law of Supply and Demand dictates that the best time to start building your real estate wealth fast is when nobody else wants it.

The fact is, right now nobody wants real estate.

That means demand is low.

Which means that prices are even better.

Nobody ever got rich overnight by buying an asset that is expensive and in demand.

The best time to start building your real estate wealth fast is now, while prices are low. There’s almost no competition and many of these wealth building real estate properties can be purchased for as little as 40 or 50 cents on the dollar. 

Why To Start Building Your Real Estate Wealth Fast Now

I know that the average person would rather shoot themselves in the foot than buy something that may or may not go up in value.

Before you take aim on your big toe, think about this:

Real estate generates cash flow and that’s the key to starting to build your real estate wealth fast.

During the Great Depression, millionaires were created when people with a little bit of money or credit bought as many low?priced investments as they could reasonably get their hands on, with the firm belief that times would eventually get much better.

They knew way back then that the time was ripe to start building their real estate wealth fast.

When that happened, they would become overnight millionaires or multimillionaires.

Conventional wisdom says that you run from danger whenever possible. 

Cash Flow Properties Build Real Estate Wealth Fast

But these aren’t conventional times.

Now is the time to scoop up as many bargain properties as you can.

You can guarantee a winning transaction by making sure you’ll have positive cash flow – the key ingredient in building your real estate wealth fast.

You’ll have the added bonus of monthly, on?going cash flow.

Ultimately, property values will skyrocket. When they do, your net worth will grow with meteoric speed and your real estate wealth will be built fast than you can believe. 

The Key To Building Your Real Estate Wealth Fast

You’ll become an almost overnight success story.

All because you had the nerve to defy the flawed logic of the rest of the crowd and start building your real estate wealth fast today.

Now is the time for you to harness your future. The wealthiest people in the world can’t all be wrong.

They’re buying as much real estate as they can.

That’s the key to building your real estate wealth fast.

Using Social Media In Property Management

Investment Property Management And Social Media

Since the humongous Facebook IPO is on its way I wanted to share a few tips on how to use social media for your investment property management.

Believe it or not there’s such a thing now as a ‘Social Media Manager’, who for a few thousand dollars A MONTH will teach you how to use social media.

=> Learn How To Market Property

Knowing how to use social media for your real estate and investment property management business is not that difficult.  You just have to keep a few things in mind.

Why Use Social Media For Real Estate

First, let’s step back and take a quick look at why you should use social media in the first place.

After all, if you’re part of the baby boom generation you probably didn’t grow up with Facebook, Twitter, Digg, and the internet, so sometimes it’s a bit of an intellectual struggle as to why use this social media stuff in the first place.

Several years ago, maybe a bit longer, it was very common to run newspaper display advertising or print classified advertising when you had space for rent.

Using the yellow pages was another must-do, and it was easy to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars a month for a rather small display ad in your local yellow page directory.

Media Dinosaurs

It’s no secret that now days a lot of people do not read the paper, let alone watch the evening news.  There are a lot of reasons for this but we’ll save that discussion for another day.

The yellow page directory today, at best, is used for a door stop. 

I don’t know about you, but I can’t tell you the last time I actually used the yellow pages.  There is one in our office, somewhere in the lobby or maybe the copy room, I’m not exactly sure.

Today it’s all on the internet and that’s where people go to for information and a whole lot more.

That’s also reason numero uno why you should be on the internet too.

Using On Line Social Media

When we think about how to use social media for your real estate and investment property management business what we’re really talking about is having a PRO ACTIVE PRESENCE on the internet, some ‘face time’ if you will.

At a minimum you should have accounts with these social media outlets:

1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. Digg
4. On Line Article Directories like Blogger, Gather and Ezine*

* I used to use Ezine, but these guys have gotten to be such a pain in the you know what that they’re really not worth the hassle any more.

With these above social media outlet suggestions I assume you’ve already got a website set up.

=> Learn How To Use Social Media On Your Website

Details On How To Use Social Media

With Facebook you can quickly and easily set up a profile for your self and your businesses.

Facebook is pretty much do-it-yourself, but if it seems like too much trouble then hire somebody to do it for you – You can probably find a friend’s kid or younger employee of yours who’ll do it for free.

A Twitter account is simple to set up also.  You can even have your Facebook account send ‘tweets’ to your Twitter account.

Unless you have a lot of spare time on your hands you don’t necessarily have to send any messages out on your Twitter account.  Simply let Facebook do it for you.

Digg, Blogger and Gather are great websites for posting short, original content articles that contain ‘backlinks’ to your main Website and your Facebook account.

In short, what Backlinks do is demonstrate to the search engines, like Google and Bing, that your on line presence has some credibility.

More On How To Use Social Media

You could go on, and on, and on about how to use social media for your real estate and investment property management business, Facebook Twitter, Google, Bing, search engines, backlinks and much more.

With this article on how to use social media I hope you’ve gotten an idea of some of the quick and easy things you can do to start building and expanding your on line presence.

As always, I hope you’ve found this article on how to use social media in your real estate business useful!
Jeffrey Roark
Basic Property Management Blog 

How To Rent A House In One Day

Here’s How To Rent A House In One Day Or Less

I figured out a way to rent my house in one day and I didn’t even use a real estate agent, the multiple listing services, or any of that other time wasting stuff.

My house for rent was priced at a market rent and I found good tenants to rent my house.

You probably know that a lot of time and money is wasted trying to rent a house.

Last week I was able to rent my house in only one day – actually less than 24 hours – by following a few simple steps and using free or inexpensive marketing techniques.

=> Get More Tips On How To Rent A House Using Social Media

Simple Steps To Rent Your House

Here are the items you’ll need to rent your house fast:

1. Sign
2. On Line Advertising
3. Website
4. Phone number for prospects to call

Total cost for the above, assuming you already have a phone number - $25.

Think about it.

If your house rents for $900 a month, that’s $30 per day in rental income.

Each day that your house is vacant, off of the market, not rented, you’re losing $30 each and every day.

So last week when I rented my house in less than one day, I spent less money - $25 – than a single day’s worth of rental income.

I didn’t have to run expensive newspaper ads, I didn’t have to pay a real estate agent to put up a sign and pay them a juicy commission just to have them sit around and wait for the phone to ring.

I didn’t have to listen to their excuses about why my house wasn’t getting rented.

I did it my self and saved a ton of money, and so can you.

Learn How To Rent A House Fast

Here’s the rundown on the steps I used to rent my house in less than one day:

Sign

This was the most expensive part of getting my house rented. The nice thing is that I can use the sign again, next time I have to rent my house.

There are plenty of inexpensive, on line websites where you can design your sign and have it printed and shipped to you ASAP.

You don’t have to be a graphic artist or designer because these sign design websites have easy-to-use templates.

As long as you can spell, you can design your sign in less than a few minutes.

When you design your sign, be sure to put your phone number on the sign (I know what you’re thinking but you’d be surprised at how many people forget this step) and make sure to put your website address on the sign.

On Line Advertising

There is one free – or depending on what market you’re in, inexpensive – on line advertising source that will work for you each and every time.

It’s simple to post an on line ad.

Don’t try to write a novel about your house for rent with your on line advertising.

Simply include some basic information about your house for rent, what the rent is, one picture of the house, where it’s located, and a link to the free website that you’ve set up for your rental home.

Also, be sure to include your name and phone number.

DO NOT include an email address. You want prospects to call you, not write you.

Website

Set up a simple, free website.

On your house rental website include a little more detail about your house for rent, but again, do not write a novel. You want prospective renters to call you for more information.

Include a few more photos, an on line flyer if you have one and a rental application if you have one.

=> Learn More About Using Internet Marketing To Rent Your House

Make sure your website has your phone number that prospective renters can call to schedule an appointment to see your house.

More Tips On How To Rent A House

That’s it. You can actually do all of the above – design and order your sign, write a short on line ad, and design a simple real estate website for your rental house in less than one hour.

Sure, it might take a bit longer the first time around, but think of all the money you’ll be saving by not having a real estate agent wasting your time and by getting your house rented fast.

In the 5 Step House Rental eBook we give you the details on where to go for easy on line sign design, free and inexpensive on line advertising, and teach you quick and easy ways to set up a website.

Click here to learn more about the 5 Step House Rental eBook

I hope you've enjoyed this article about how to rent a house in less than one day without using a real estate agent!

Jeffrey Roark
How To Rent My House Real Estate Training

Tips On How To Market Property

A Few Tips On How To Market Property

Good ideas on how to market property are becoming more and more important as the competition for good tenants increases.

In the good old days you could put up a sign and wait for the phone calls to come in so tips on how to market property weren’t all the important.

You’ve probably noticed that the ‘good old days’ are just that.

I read the other day that compared to a couple of months ago, both retail and office vacancies are on the increase, apartment vacancies are on a slight decrease, and that more and more people in their 20s and 30s and moving back in with their parents.

This has enormous implications on how to market property and is a leading indicator of how much competition there is – and will be – for good quality, paying tenants. 

How To Market Property – The Basic Steps

There are only a few basic items that you need to effectively market your property:

1. Sign
2. On Line Advertising
3. Website

Total cost for the above, excluding a phone number to call, is about $30. That’s the cost of the sign.

These property marketing items are the same whether you have one unit or space available for rent or sale, or multiple units.

It doesn’t matter. Think of these items as the building blocks of your property marketing campaign. 

Learn How To Market Property

Here’s a quick breakdown of each item, what to do, and what to include and - just as importantly – what Not to include.

Sign

At about $30 before shipping this is the most expensive part of the three how to market property steps.

Buying a sign is something of a one-time investment because the odds are you’ll be able to use it over and over again.

There are plenty of inexpensive, on line websites where you can design your sign and have it printed and shipped to you ASAP.

You don’t have to be a graphic artist or designer because these sign design websites have easy-to-use templates so you can design your sign in just a few minutes.

Think of your sign as an outdoor billboard. The simpler the better, and the more eye catching the better.

Remember that people seeing your sign are probably not standing still so keep your message short and sweet.

When you design your sign, be sure to put your phone number on the sign (I know what you’re thinking but you’d be surprised at how many people forget this step) and make sure to put your website address on the sign.

On Line Advertising

There are a few free – or depending on what market you’re in, inexpensive – on line advertising sources that will work for you each and every time.

It’s simple to post an on line ad.

Don’t try to write a novel about your property with your on line advertising.

Simply include some basic information about your space for lease or sale, what the price is, one picture of the property, where it’s located, and a link to the free website that you’ve set up.

Also, be sure to include your name and phone number.

DO NOT include an email address. You want prospects to call you, not write you.

Website

Step #3 of how to market property is to set up a simple, free website.

On your real estate website include a little more detail about your property, but again, do not write a novel. You want prospects to call you for more information.

Include a few more photos, an on line flyer if you have one and a rental application if you have one.

Make sure your website has your phone number that prospects can call to schedule an appointment for a showing or tour. 

More Tips On How To Market Property

That’s it. Pretty simple, yet I’m still surprised at how many owners, landlords, agents and property managers don’t take the time to do these few simple things.

You can actually do all of the above – design and order your sign, write a short on line ad, and design a simple real estate website for your property in less than one hour.

Even if you’ve never designed a sign or built a website before.

I hope you've enjoyed this article about how to market property.

Jeffrey Roark
Basic Property Management Blog

The Basic Steps To Building Your Real Estate Wealth Fast

How To Build Your Real Estate Wealth Fast – The Basics

My article a few weeks ago on how to build your real estate wealth fast received a tremendous amount of response so I wanted to follow it up with another that I hope you'll enjoy.

Last month I strongly encouraged you to stop thinking about it and starting doing it.

Today I’m going to strongly suggest that now is the time to begin quickly building your real estate wealth.

I don’t have crystal ball so I have no idea if the market is bottomed out yet.

What I do know is that only a fool tries to time the exact bottom – or top – of a market.

Trying to do that is a sure-fire recipe for Not building your real estate wealth fast.

What I also know is that in almost every market there is a huge amount of money flowing in buying up short-sales, REOs and foreclosures.

Property is being rehabbed, rented, flipped, and real estate wealth is being built fast, right before your eyes.

Savvy real estate investors – people just like you – are getting wealthy in real estate as we speak.

There’s a huge amount of opportunity out there right now to start building your real estate wealth:

• Lenders aren’t getting their loans paid
• Home owners are getting foreclosed on
• Renters are relocating because their rentals are getting foreclosed on
• Banks have so much product in the pipeline that they don’t know what to do
• Sellers that need to sell now are amazingly motivated to sell . . . .

To sell to someone just like you who is intent on seizing the day and building their real estate wealth. 

Look Before You Leap

There are a few things that you should keep in mind before getting started:

Bidding Wars

Do not ever get caught up in a bidding war.

I’ve personally seen some otherwise smart real estate investors get emotional over a particular deal and pay way more than they should have.
Have your game plan set up, know what your exit strategy is before you buy, understand what your true rehab costs are going to be, and always have a Plan B and C if possible.

OPM

Using Other People’s Money is what a lot of real estate wealth is built on.

Remember, the more of your own money you have tied up in the purchase, the less you’ll have for rehabbing and marketing to find tenants.

Reliable Suppliers and Vendors

Have these guys and gals lined up before you close the deal.

Creating a Rehab Team is one of the smartest things you can do to build your real estate wealth fast. Unless you have a lot of time on your hands - and a lot of skilled construction knowledge – it’s best to outsource this part of your wealth building real estate investment project.

Buy From Sellers Who Want To Sell

Even with the way the market is today there are still sellers out there who whine about having to sell for less than what they (over) paid for their property during the boom times.

Is this your problem?

Of course not. If you’re trying to buy real estate from a seller that doesn’t want to sell for what you think the property is worth, then move on.

It’s their loss, and your future gain.

Stick To Your Plan

Know if you’re buying the property and will keep it for the cash flow, or if you’ll building your real estate wealth fast by selling the thing to another investor.

=> Learn More About Building Your Real Estate Wealth Fast

Have your Rehab Team put together and understand what your actual costs are going to be to get the rental property up and running and rented fast.

I hope you've enjoyed this article on how to build your real estate wealth.

Jeffrey Roark
How To Rent My House

The Bottom Of The Housing Bubble?

If you're an active real estate investor or investment property manager like I am, the short answer to this housing bubble question is, "I don't know."

The somewhat longer answer to whether we're close to the bottom of the housing bubble is, "I don't think so." 

Where Is The Housing Bubble Bottom?

Let's start with this chart from the Census Bureau that tracks home ownership rates for the past 16 years:

You could make the argument that we're reverting back to the norm of 1995 where ownership rates of homes was about 64% versus today's level.

This next chart uses data from the Case-Shiller Housing Price Index and tracks back to just post World War II, a better view than going back just to 1995:



Up until the year 2000 when the housing boom went vertical, the price index bounces around between 100 and 120.

You may know from experience that the pendulum always swings further in one direction before going back to the norm, so you could guesstimate that housing prices are going to drop another 15% - 20% in the next few years. 

Should You Wait For The Housing Bubble Bottom?

No body has a crystal ball, so the answer to that question is going to vary with each investor.

Here are a few things to consider:

Has the market bottomed out?

The favorite definition of a buyer's market is when there are 10 properties for every 1 buyer.

Experienced real estate investors will never, ever, try to time the top or the bottom of any market.

Investment Strategy and Product Types

What is the real reason for buying a property and what asset class matches your business skills & personality?

CAP rate

What is projected for the property and are you satisfied with that return?


Cash-on-Cash return

What is projected for the property and are you satisfied with that return?

Capital reserves

No matter how many profit & loss variables an investor considers, some of them are going to be wrong.

Market rents could significantly drop, competitors could flood the market, the economy could stagnate for years, property taxes could increase, and it could take much longer than expected for the house to rent.

Is there money in the bank - the capital reserves - to cover these worst-case scenarios?

Cash. Speaking of money in the bank, many experienced investors will pay cash for a property and seek to finance later. In a distressed market the ability to close quickly with few contingencies will lead to more deals being made at lower acquisition prices.

In The Basic Property Management eBook I really focus and drill down on how to find the right real estate investment property, how to set the right investment expectations, and how to set up a system to profit and make money from your investment real estate.

=> Learn more about Investment Property Management

There are certainly opportunities in residential investment real estate right now that are created by the housing bubble.

Experienced real estate investors will take their time, analyze the investment returns with each individual deal, and always have a drop dead point where if they can't get exactly what they want, they'll move on to the next deal.

The housing bubble has given us a lot of great real estate investment deals to pick and choose from.

I hope you've found this article on the housing bubble and investment property management useful!

Jeffrey Roark
Basic Property Management Blog

Tips For Tenants On Foreclosed Home Rentals

Some Tips If You’re A Tenant Renting A Foreclosed Home

Am I going to be renting a foreclosed home?

Renting a foreclosed home is one of the biggest fears that tenants have, and also a common questions that you’ll run into if you’ve got a home for rent.

If you’re a landlord don’t take the question personally.

The fact is that in today’s real estate market, a lot of tenants end up renting a foreclosed home that they had no idea was getting foreclosed on.

=> Click here to get more Tips For Tenants

Until they come home one day and see the notice on the door.

Foreclosure Rent Scams

Unfortunately there’s a few scammy landlords out there that decide to stop paying the mortgage on their rental home, but keep collecting the rent from the tenant, then disappear when the rental home gets foreclosed on.

Leaving the tenant holding the bag and scrambling to find a new place to rent.

If you’re a tenant, I Know you’ve heard these stories before.

The sad thing is, most people only know or care about the ‘tenant scam’ stories but simply aren’t aware of the real estate investors that trick tenants into renting a foreclosed home.

Tenant Tips For Foreclosure Rentals

If you’re a renter and trying to avoid a home going into foreclosure, it can be tough.

Some areas have ‘disclosure laws’ where a pending foreclosure or trustee sale is public record, and some do not.

So trying not to rent a foreclosure home can sometimes be like a roll of the dice.

The good news is, in 2009, there was a Federal law passed called The Protecting Tenants At Foreclosure Act that gives you, the tenant, specific rights if the home you’re renting is foreclosed on.

To get a copy of the law just do an internet search of “Protecting Tenants At Foreclosure Act”.

Tenant Protections For Renting A Foreclosed Home

Here are a few tips to follow if you’re a renter and want to protect yourself in case the home you’re renting gets foreclosed on:

• Have a valid written lease
• Make sure the rent is at fair market
• Don’t rent from a relative

With this last point I don’t mean to imply that your relatives are going to stiff you.

In order for the Federal law to protect you, the rental home lease has to be an ‘arms length’ transaction.

As a renter you’ve probably got a good feel for what the ‘fair market’ rent is.

With the lease, it might be worth paying a real estate agent or a real estate attorney a few bucks to get a second opinion.

The one exception to these above rental home tips is:

If the person buying the foreclosed home that you’re renting wants to live there themselves, then you do need to leave within 90 days of notice.

When I wrote the 5 Step House Rental eBook I figured that a lot of landlords and property manages would be buying the book. And they did.

=> Learn to Build Your Wealth In Real Estate Fast

But I’ve also discovered that there quite a few tenants buying the eBook as well, so that they can learn how to think like a landlord!

As always, I hope you’ve enjoyed this How To Rent My House article on renting a foreclosed home!

Jeffrey Roark
How To Rent My House

Tenant Lease Default - How To Spot Them Before They Happen

The Early Warning Signs Of Tenant Lease Defaults 

Tenant lease defaults usually come at the worst possible time.

Just when you think everything in your property is running smoothly, when you’ve finally reached that magical 100% occupancy number, you get a phone call informing you that a tenant is defaulting on its lease.

No doubt about it, tenant lease defaults can catch you by surprise.

But often times there are early warning signs that will let you spot potential tenant lease defaults before they catch you off guard. 

Know Your Tenant Patterns

Before you can begin to accurately predict if a tenant is going to default, you need to know what the tenant’s normal patterns are.

You should know by memory these tenant patterns:

• What date you normally receive the rent check
• What are their normal business hours
• Who normally runs the shop or office
• How prompt are they in returning messages
• How often do they complain, and what do they complain about

Once you understand what your tenant’s normal behavior pattern is, you can then keep an eye out for changes in tenant behavior, changes that might be a sign of pending tenant lease defaults.

When there's a change in behavior, you should understand well enough what the tenant's normal behavior is, to say to yourself, "That's odd . . . .".

To be sure, one or two changes don’t necessarily mean anything, but if you start to notice a change in the overall behavior pattern of your tenant, you’re probably going to have a tenant default on your hands. 

Tenant Lease Default Examples

Here are a few situations where I’ve found early warnings signs to be a reliable predictor that a tenant may start to have trouble paying the rent:

Increasing number of complaints from the tenant

Usually if business is slow and people have trouble paying the rent, they’ll look for an outside source to blame.

That source is often going to be you, or the property that they’re renting from you.

One early warning sign of tenant lease defaults is when the tenant starts to complain – a lot – about things like landscaping, the neighboring tenants, or little things that were never an issue before that are suddenly a big deal.

Forgetting to pay the rent

Everybody forgets to do things.

You’ve probably forgotten to pay a bill once or twice in your life.

I know I have. But not that often.

If your tenant forgets to pay the rent statement once, make a mental note of it. It may be nothing, or it may be an early warning tenant default sign.

Watch to see if a pattern of forgotten rent payments develops. Often you’ll see one ‘forgotten month’, followed by a few ‘remembered months’, then back to a forgotten month.

Complaints about the condition of your property

If you’re following a property management routine similar to the one we describe in The Basic Property Management eBook, your property management is probably going like clockwork, and any issues that might come up are quickly taken care of.

Your property is presentable, attractive to your tenants and their customers, and lets you maximize the rental income.

In other words, the condition of your property is pretty much the same, day in and day out.

With this in mind, if you start getting complaints from a tenant about -

• Parking
• Trash pickup
• Water pressure
• Tenant next door

All of the little things that haven’t changed since the complaining tenant moved in but that are now suddenly a Big Deal,

You’ll want to start watching the tenant carefully to see if there are other early warning signs of a tenant lease default.

Click to learn more about tenant management in The Basic Property Management eBook

Jeffrey Roark
Basic Property Management Blog

How To Spot Tenant Rent Scams

The Warning Signs Of Tenant Rent Scams

If you’re active in any type of home rental leasing you’ve probably run across more than your share of tenant rent scams.

In the 5 Step House Rental eBook we spend some time discussing various ways to qualify tenants, including the “First Date Technique”, and share other tips, tools and techniques on avoiding tenant rent scams.

=> Learn More About How To Qualify Tenants

I wanted to share with you this tenant rent scam of my own that I ran into the other day, one that had “red flag” written all over it, with the hope that you’ll be able to read the writing on the wall and avoid a big problem.

How To Spot Tenant Rent Scams

Here are three ‘red flags’ that you can look for when keeping an eye out for tenant rent scams:

Tenant wants to move in right away
The tenant hasn’t seen your home for rent yet, but knows yours is the one they want to rent
They have money in hand, all paper work filled out, and seem almost too good to be true

Let’s take a look at each tenant rent scam red flag in a little more detail.

Wants To Move In Quickly

This is red flag #1 with tenant rent scams.

The tenant will always have a reason that they need to move in quickly, something to do with a hardship they’re facing or some unexpected emergency, something that will appeal to your sense of fair play and emotion.

While the tenant’s story may be true, more likely than not you’re setting yourself up as a victim in a tenant rent scam.

Stick with you prospective tenant qualification program and don’t feel like you have to cut corners or rush just because the tenant needs to move in right away.

Your House For Rent Is The One They Want

This is tenant rent scam #2 and is again designed to appeal to your emotions.

Out of all the houses for rent, they picked yours.

Which by-the-way they haven’t actually seen yet, but they just know your home for rent is the one they want.

The ploy is a favorite among tenant rent scammers and is designed to get the landlord to think that renting to this tenant is a fait accompli, that doing your normal background and credit checks on the tenant is just a detail.

Among tenant rent scams this one is surprisingly effective since people always like to be flattered, and landlords are no exception.

I’ve Got The Money And I’ve Got The Application Filled Out

This is the first thing that the tenant rent scammer told me when she called about the house I had for rent.

Right away I saw the red flags and knew I needed to be on guard with this prospective tenant.

#3 of our tenant rent scams involves the tenant trying to demonstrate to you that they’re the perfect renter. After all, if they have their money in hand and paper work completed, what could go wrong?

Think about the last time you rented something. Did you come with money in hand and paperwork filled out without actually seeing the thing that you wanted to rent?

I didn’t think so.

Fortunately for me, and unfortunately for her, I’d just rented the house.

Tenant Rent Scams And Fair Housing Laws

You may have noticed that one theme that runs throughout this article is to stick to your tenant qualification process, a procedure we cover in detail in the 5 Step House Rental eBook.

=> Learn More About Fair Housing And How To Rent A House

Make sure you have a system in place to qualify tenants, treat all tenants equally and fairly, and don’t unintentionally violate any fair housing laws.

I hope you've found this article on tenant rent scams useful for when it comes time to rent your house.

Jeffrey Roark
How To Rent My House

Seven Ways To Build Your Real Estate Wealth Fast For Financial Freedom

Building your real estate wealth fast is one of the quickest ways to financial freedom that I can think of.

But let me ask you something: How many people do You personally know that have built their real estate wealth up to a level where they don’t have to worry about finances?

Let me ask you something else:

Are you tired of worrying about money?

Are you tired of not having what you need to provide for your family?

Gaining wealth through real estate fast is not luck.

The trick is to have a game plan, apply it to everything that you do, and move forward to building your real estate wealth, ridding your self of the 9 to 5 harness, and not worry about money again.

I’m going to share with you seven tips that have personally worked for me. I think they will work for you, too.

Remember, these real estate wealth tips are based on personal, real-life experiences, not some classroom, textbook, wishful thinking.

=> Learn How To Make Money In Real Estate Investing

One more thing, before we get started, it’s important to understand that wealth is not the same thing as money. 

Money Is Not Wealth

Here are my seven tips to gaining real estate wealth fast and getting the financial freedom you deserve for you and your family.

Faith

You’ve got to believe in yourself, in your family, and in the people you surround yourself with. If you Believe you’re more likely to take calculated financial risk which is a key ingredient in building your wealth in real estate.

Positive Attitude

Always have faith in yourself. Have the positive mental attitude that you’ll achieve what you set out to do. Have specific goals. Face problems head-on and solve them.

There will always be people that tell you that you cannot achieve real in real estate fast. Simply do not associate with these people. Surround yourself with successful, positive, like-minded people.

Remember, if it was easy, anyone could do it. Believe that you are not just anyone.

Go out there, do what few people have the guts to do, and build your real estate wealth fast.

Stay Healthy

This is all about diet, exercise, and getting enough rest. Plain and simple.

Remember that what you eat is fuel for your body. If you look at something you’re planning on eating and can’t immediately tell what it’s made of, eat something else.

Walk more. Don’t search for the parking spot closest to the entrance. Take the stairs. Walk the dog twice a day.

Try getting seven hours of sleep each day. Get up at the same time every day of the week, and go to bed at the same time every night. You’ll be amazed at how much better you feel after only a few days.

Do What You Say You’re Going To Do

Good people associate with other good people, people that they know and that they trust. You will not be able to build sustainable real estate wealth fast if you don’t have integrity.

Give More Than You Take

You’ll gain a lot more with a win-win situation. It’s a lot easier to get what you want with sugar instead of spice.

Cliches? Yes. True? Yes again.

Always Learn

There’s a big difference between having 20 years of experience and having 1 year of experience 20 times.

Seek out educational opportunities and realize that you can learn something from anybody or anything.

Even failure. Here’s the thing. If you don’t fail, you’ll never learn how to succeed.

Have consistent daily habits, have a game plan, and stick to it.

Know how to manage your time. Remember, if you don’t manage your own time somebody else will manage your time for you.

Live Within Your Means

Do not go into debt for the sake of consumption. Downsize your living space. Cook more and eat out less. Donate clothes that you haven’t worn for the past two years. Consult with your doctor on ways to get rid of one bad lifestyle habit you might have.

Most of all, limit your self to one hour of television per day.

If you make all seven of these steps part of your self, part of your daily routine, part of who you are, you’ll be well on your way to building your real estate wealth fast.

Jeffrey Roark
Real Estate Wealth Fast
Make Money In Real Estate Investing

How To Handle The Real Estate Time Sucks In Your Business

Do You Have Clients Who Are Real Estate Time Sucks?

I'll admit that until recently I'd never heard the term 'real estate time suck' before.

The other day I was on the phone chatting with my attorney when she mentioned that a case she was working on was an incredible time suck, which in this case meant increased legal fees for the client.

When you bill by the hour having time suck situations is probably a good thing.

In real estate, more often than not, we're paid for actual results. If a property is sold or leased, we're paid. If nothing happens, we're not.

Often times property management fees are based on a percentage of gross monthly revenue, so again, the more cash flow the real estate investor receives the more you're paid. Lower cash flow means lower property management income.

=> Learn More About Investment Property Management 

You probably have real estate time sucks that you work with right now, maybe without even realizing it.

Real estate time sucks are those people that you end up working for free for.

Clients, vendors, tenants, brokers, agents, suppliers – all can be time sucks when they take up a lot of your time without generating a commensurate level of income.

Your real estate practice is a professional service.

Can you imagine meeting with your accountant for an hour, thanking them for their time and advice, and expecting Not to pay them?

Your revenues will actually increase when you starting weeding out the real estate time sucks in your business even though you'll end up reducing the number of people you work with.

Every year I take a look at the people I work with in my business and identify the time suck ones that I end up working for free for.

And I get rid of them.

At first it’s a scary thing to do because you’re actually going to lose some money at first.

The trick is to take all of the extra time you have and focus it on the revenue producing clients you’ve got and to get new worth-while people to work with.

Here are three areas of your business that you may have real estate time sucks in, without even realizing it:

Property Owners

If you’re a broker or in property management you’ve likely got some high maintenance clients.

A while back I had a similar case myself.

We had one property owner that generated about 25% of our management revenue. The problem was that dealing with the guy sucked up 4X the amount of time compared to our other clients.

I finally cut him loose, and guess what?

Over the next two months we were able to use the extra time that was no longer being sucked up by this property owner to double the revenue that we’d lost from him.

Property Manager

If you’re a property owner you may be in a situation where your property management company is sucking up a lot of your time by forcing you to be involved in making petty decisions, such as reviewing plumbing bids for a stopped up sink.

Maybe the management company is doing this as part of their CYA routine or maybe they’re not clear on what your expectations are.

As the client you’ve got to decide which is which, but if you have a property manager like this, then you’re working for free without realizing it.

Tenants

Tenants can often me the biggest real estate time sucks of them all.

You may have a tenant that, like clock work, always has a maintenance request right around the time the rent is due.

Or maybe they always have to be chased down for the rent.

=> Learn More About How To Change Tenant Behavior

If you’re a property owner and you’ve got a management company that deals with this, you may be thinking that it’s not your problem.

But believe me, the extra expense that the property manager incurs in dealing with this time suck tenant will come back to you, the property owner, in one way or another.

If you’re not sure that you have a real estate time suck tenant, ask yourself this question, “Do they pay their rent?”.

If the answer is, “Yes, but . . . .” then the tenant is a time suck.

In real estate most of what we do is fee based, so the natural reaction is to take a quantity over quality approach, to have as many clients as possible, with the idea that more clients means more potential revenue.

There are a lot of problems with this approach, one of which is you end up attracting more than your share of time suck clients.

Jeffrey Roark
Basic Property Management Training
How To Make Real Estate Wealth Fast

Real Estate Rent Data From Your Cell Phone

How To Get And Use Real Estate Rent Data From Your Cell Phone

In the 5 Step House Rental eBook we discuss the importance of your getting boots-on-the-ground real estate rent data and information on your competitors.

Getting accurate real estate rent data is important so that you know you’re pricing your house for rent correctly and so that when your prospective tenants inevitably say,

Well, the house down the street is going for $X less than yours

You’ll already have foreseen that objection and will have a list of reasons why your house is the better rental. 

My Real-Life Real Estate Rent Data Example

The other day I was waiting for a prospective tenant to show up at a house I have for rent, and made use of that extra time to pull up the neighborhood real estate rent data on my iPhone.

=> Get Success Tips To Rent Your House

I was shocked at what I discovered.


Mind you, we practice what we preach. Before putting the house on the market for rent we followed step-by-step the market intelligence steps listed in the 5 Step House Rental eBook and determined an accurate asking rental price.

And at the time it was.

The house I had for rent was one of the largest in the neighborhood and had amenities that the competition didn’t have. So when we went on the market our asking rent was on the high side, and justifiably so.

What shocked me about the real estate rent data I pulled up was that asking rents had actually decreased by about 20% over a very short period of time. 

How To Use Rent Data

Fortunately we didn’t have to lower our rental price because the family that I showed the house that day decided that it was exactly what they were looking for and that the price was right.

I lucked out on that one, and that’s OK.

Getting real estate rent data off of the internet by using your cell phone or computer is a good first step, but it’s best if you don’t stop there.

Here’s why.

There are a lot of available homes for rent that won’t show up in your search. The common ones are FSBOs, rental homes listed by real estate agents who decide not to go on the MLS.

Often times property management companies will not put their houses for rent on the MLS, even if they belong to a realtor association.

So if you just depend on the internet for your real estate rent data it’s going to be skewed and you run the risk of pricing yourself out of the market. 

What To Do With Your Real Estate Rent Data

Here’s what I did while waiting for my prospective tenants to show up:

1. Downloaded the real estate rent data to my iPhone
2. Used a ‘closest to me’ radius search
3. Drove around the neighborhood and actually looked at the competition

Step #3 is the one that a lot of people skip, so you’ll be way ahead of your competition if you go the short extra mile.

This is the boots-on-the-ground research I mentioned earlier.

=> Learn More About How To Rent A House

See, reading the rental data that you download is one thing, but actually seeing the other homes of rent is something totally different.

Does it back to the street? Is the next door neighbor less than desirable? Is the yard overgrown and full of weeds – or all dirt? Does the house for rent scream short sale or pre-foreclosure?

The more you know about your competition the more prepared you’ll be for questions from prospective tenants, and the quicker you’ll be able to get a leased signed with the perfect tenant for your home for rent. 

How To Get Real Estate Rent Data From Your Cell Phone

The cell phone app that I like to use is the one from the National Association of Realtors’ site. It’s free to download and can be used with pretty much any version of a smart phone.

The Realtor app pulls real-time data off of the local MLS and includes property photos, asking rents, property specs, and contact info for the listing agent if you want to take your research one step further.

It’s best not to rely on this real estate rent data alone because there is often times a lot of rental property that is not on the MLS.

Jeffrey Roark
How To Rent My House

The Steps To Profit In Real Estate

Tips On How To Profit In Real Estate 

I'm going to tell you a quick story about something I learned when first playing tennis, a story that is also one about how to profit in real estate.

In life we tend to think that things are very linear, that they move in a straight line, and when we devise our blueprint of how to profit in real estate we inevitably use that linear, straight line thinking.

The problem with thinking like that is that it’s not really based on reality. 

Learning Tennis And How To Profit In Real Estate

The baseline of the tennis court is the line at either end of the court, the one that runs parallel to the net.

Court coverage is a must-have in tennis, especially when you’re playing singles. You’ve got to be able to move from one side of the court to the other pretty quickly, before the ball gets there.

=> Learn How To Make Money In Real Estate Investing

We’ve been taught that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line (there’s that linear thinking again).

And as the crow flies, that’s true.

But that’s not true in tennis.

I’d been struggling with my baseline court coverage, and was having trouble moving quickly enough from one corner of the baseline to the other.

I was moving fast enough, but for some reason either the ball kept getting past me, or I’d get jammed by the ball, either way missing the shot and losing the point. 

There Is No Such Thing As A Straight Line Profit In Real Estate Or Tennis

Then my coach pointed out the obvious.

What I was trying to do was to move in a straight line from one corner of the baseline to the other. My mistake was to neglect the angle of the ball, as if I were playing in some kind of vacuum.

You see, in tennis, when the ball is hit to the baseline it goes deeper in the middle of the baseline and more shallow at either corner.

So to get to the ball in time I actually had to move in an arc and not a straight line. If you’re not a tennis player, picture a big ‘U’ at the bottom of the court.

Just as I wasn’t stepping my way along the baseline, most people trying to make money in real estate investing do not take a step-by-step approach.

=> Learn The 5 Steps To Make Money In Property Investing

They try moving in a straight line, and to their dismay discover that the line leads to . . . nowhere. 

Step By Step Profit In Real Estate

Sorry if I burst your bubble by saying this, but real estate wealth is not created out of thin air.

You need to religiously follow a strategic, well practiced step-by-step approach to making money in real estate investing. That is how to profit in real estate.

Here are the five steps to take to profit in real estate:

1. Education
2. Planning
3. Creativity*
4. Learn From Your Mistakes
5. Find A Mentor Who Will Give You Trusted Advice

* By creativity I mean thinking outside the box and strategically considering the myriad ways to profit from your real estate investment.

If you’ve been studying our real estate wealth fast articles you know that we cover the above five steps in detail on this website, so I’m not going to waste your precious time by doing it again here.

Jeffrey Roark
Learn To Make Money In Real Estate
How To Build Your Real Estate Wealth

Expense Stops For Tenants And Landlords

If you’re a landlord and you’ve got your tenants under a NNN lease you’re probably not too worried about expense stops.

When done correctly a NNN lease allows for all of the expenses related to a property to be passed through to a tenant, so in effect there’s a 100% expense stop for the landlord and no expense stop for the tenant.

If you’re active in commercial leasing you know that no two NNN leases are the same, and no two expense stops are the same. In practice, each lease is different and designed to meet the objectives of the landlord and the tenant.

=> Learn More About Tenants And Leases 

Expense Stops Defined

Expense stops typically show up in gross or modified gross leases, though some times in NNN leases as well.

An expense stop clause means literally what it says: After a defined amount of expenses, no more expenses will be incurred by that party, be it landlord or tenant.

This might sound confusing but here’s how it works in real life: 

Landlord Expense Stops

Let’s say that you’re a tenant leasing space under a full service or gross lease. In theory this means that the rent you’re paying includes everything (though often times net of electric and telecomm).

But in your lease there might be an expense stop provision in favor of the landlord, aka a landlord expense stop, that says if the landlord’s operating expenses exceed $X per year, then that additional increase will be passed through pro-rata to the tenants.

For example, the landlord’s operating expenses may have increased by $25,000 this year compared to last year. If your lease has a landlord expense stop of $15,000 – in other words the landlord is only going to cover the first $15,000 per year of increased expenses – then that balance of that $10,000 is passed on to you, the tenant.

So even if your lease has a flat 3% annual increase, if there’s a landlord expense stop provision, as the tenant you could be on the hook for that extra $10,000 plus your 3% annual rent increase. 

Tenant Expense Stops

Expense stops work both ways.

If you’re a landlord who has a lease with a tenant expense stop in place you could end up eating any sudden increase in operating expenses instead of being able to pass them through to your tenants.

Let’s use our example above.

Instead of there being a landlord expense stop of $15,000 let’s say there’s a tenant expense stop of $5,000.

=> Read More About Investment Property Management Training

As the landlord your operating expenses year-to-year still increased by $25,000, but with the tenant expense stop of $5,000 in place, as the landlord you’re going to end up having to ‘absorb’ $20,000 in expenses that you can’t pass through to your tenant. 

Collecting On Expense Stops And NNN Lease Charges

While having tenant expense stops, landlord expense stops, and NNN fees in NNN leases sounds good, the key question as a landlord is whether or not you can actually collect any increase in NNN charges or increased expenses from your tenants.

Jeffrey Roark
Basic Property Management Training

Create Real Estate Wealth Fast - Tips, Tools & Techniques

How To Create Real Estate Wealth Fast

What do successful investors know that you don’t know about creating real estate wealth fast?

Do they know something about creating real estate fast that you don't? Are they smarter than you? Do they have contacts that you don't? Do they have some kind of real estate wealth crystal ball?

The answer to all these questions is NO!

Last year I received a lot of questions from our How To Rent My House readers about exactly how to get started in real estate investing, and on how to build real estate wealth fast, so I wanted to spend some time today talking about just that.

=> Learn The Step-by-Step Formula to Profit In Real Estate

Often times people think that there's a "secret ingredient", that there's some big secret about how to make money in real estate investing and building their real estate wealth fast.

Look, I've spent years in real estate learning the system. I've read books, gone through expensive real estate training programs, attended seminar after seminar on how to build real estate wealth fast, and traveled around the country and even internationally.

Pretty much all of this was a huge waste of time and money.

I'd like to share with you tips based on my own personal, proven, hands-on experience from actually working, investing, and building wealth in the real estate market for almost 25 years.

First and foremost, if those guys (and gals) that you thought were smarter than you can do it, So Can You.

The nice thing is, you don't need to waste your time and money - like I did - reading tons of books, going to real estate classes (more on that later), and pouring money into real estate wealth seminars taught by people who really have no clue about what they're doing. 

Just Do It

Just get out there and do it. Get your feet wet. Test the waters.

Stop thinking about it, stop making excuses, and Start Doing It.

Start building your real estate wealth fast T-O-D-A-Y. 

You Do Not Need Big Bucks

Even in today’s market there are lenders willing to do deals.

One option is a hard-money loan where you can finance your property on a short-term basis. Hard money lenders typically lend around 50% to 60% of a property’s value and the interest rates can be in the double digits.

But remember, this is a short-term, fix and flip financing strategy.

After you close the deal on your property, you’re going to want to rehab it quickly, get it rented, and either hang onto the thing to build your real estate wealth using the on-going, long-term cash flow, or do a fix and flip and sell it to another investor, or maybe even do a lease-purchase to the tenant.

If you decide to hang onto the property you’ll need to make sure that you have financing in place to buy-out the hard money lender so that you’re not stuck with a high long term interest rate.

With this exit approach, make sure you’ve been pre-qualified and pre-approved for your take out financing before you commit to the property.

One of the keys with this approach is to have your exit strategy figured out before you actually own the property.

Believe me, you’ll sleep a lot easier at night knowing that you’ve got another take-out investor lined up when your rehab and leasing is done, or that you’ve got your refinancing already in place!

If your predetermined exit plan is to cash out when your work is done, consider using a tax deferred exchange, aka a 1031 exchange, to defer any potential property gains taxes and have your entire profits on your first deal available to invest in your next deal.

It may not be a bad idea to have your next deal already lined up.

It’s always a good idea to talk to your tax advisor about tax deferred exchanges. Again, do your homework first, and do this before you actually close on your first deal.

=> Learn How To Make Money In Investment Realty

Know your exit strategy and always having a Plan B are critical steps to building your real estate wealth fast. 

Do Not Overpay For Your Real Estate Investment

I know you’re thinking that this is common sense. And it is.

But you’d be surprised at how many real estate investors I’ve watched get caught up in the emotion of the wealth building real estate chase and end up paying more than they’d planned on, or underestimating the amount of rehab needed to get the thing rented fast.

There are three good sources to determine a property value:

1. Your own research
2. Appraiser
3. Real estate broker

In that order. Nothing beats your boots-on-the-ground research and your intuition when it comes to building your real estate wealth fast.

Jeffrey Roark
Make Money In Real Estate
Profit In Real Estate

The Five Steps To Building Your Real Estate Wealth Fast

In my last article on how to build your real estate wealth fast I strongly encourage you to stop thinking about it and start doing it.

Today I’m going to strongly suggest that now is the time to begin quickly building your real estate wealth.

I don’t have crystal ball so I have no idea if the market is bottomed out yet.

What I do know is that only a fool tries to time the exact bottom – or top – of a market.

Trying to do that is a sure-fire recipe for Not building your real estate wealth fast.

What I also know is that in almost every market there is a huge amount of money flowing in buying up short-sales, REOs and foreclosures.

Property is being rehabbed, rented, flipped, and real estate wealth is being built fast, right before your eyes.

Savvy real estate investors – people just like you – are getting wealthy in real estate as we speak.

=> Learn How To Make Money In Investment Realty

There’s a huge amount of opportunity out there right now to start building your real estate wealth:

• Lenders aren’t getting their loans paid
• Home owners are getting foreclosed on
• Renters are relocating because their rentals are getting foreclosed on
• Banks have so much product in the pipeline that they don’t know what to do
• Sellers that need to sell now are amazingly motivated to sell . . . .

To sell to someone just like you who is intent on seizing the day and building their real estate wealth. 

Look Before You Leap

There are a few things that you should keep in mind before getting started:

Bidding Wars

Do not ever get caught up in a bidding war. I’ve personally seen some otherwise smart real estate investors get emotional over a particular deal and pay way more than they should have.

Have your game plan set up, know what your exit strategy is before you buy, understand what your true rehab costs are going to be, and always have a Plan B.

OPM

Using Other People’s Money is what a lot of real estate wealth is built on. Remember, the more of your own money you have tied up in the purchase, the less you’ll have for rehabbing and marketing to find tenants.

Reliable Suppliers and Vendors

Have these guys and gals lined up before you close the deal. Creating a Rehab Team is one of the smartest things you can do to build your real estate wealth fast. Unless you have a lot of time on your hands - and a lot of skilled construction knowledge – it’s best to outsource this part of your wealth building real estate investment project.

Buy From Sellers Who Want To Sell

Even with the way the market is today there are still sellers out there who whine about having to sell for less than what they (over) paid for their property during the boom times.

Is this your problem?

Of course not. If you’re trying to buy real estate from a seller that doesn’t want to sell for what you think the property is worth, then move on.

It’s their loss, and your future gain.

=> Get More Tips On How To Make Money In Property

Stick To Your Plan

Know if you’re buying the property and will keep it for the cash flow, or if you’ll building your real estate wealth fast by selling the thing to another investor. Have your Rehab Team put together and understand what your actual costs are going to be to get the rental property up and running and rented fast.

Follow these five steps and you’ll be fast on the way to building your real estate wealth.

Jeffrey Roark
Build Your Real Estate Wealth Fast
Make Money In Real Estate

Is The Internet A Threat To Your Tenant Mix?

Most property management training courses spend some time discussing tenant mix and how to find that perfect harmony for your multi-tenant property.

With our first investment property management training article of the New Year, I wanted to share some thoughts about how the internet has, is, and will be affecting your tenant mix. 

The Internet Is Your Friend

The internet plays a huge positive role in effective property management, marketing and leasing.

=> Learn More About Real Estate Internet Marketing

The internet is the key ingredient to zero or low-cost marketing efforts, establishing a professional image for yourself and your properties, and can reduce your back-end property management costs through on-line tenant billing, on-line payment portals, and tenant repair requests. 

Tenant Mix And The Internet

There are pros and cons to everything.  When it comes to tenant mix and the internet there may have more cons than pros.

The internet is creating an 'open source' world, where entrepreneurs and small business owners can have incredible leverage, create businesses literally over night with out the need for a bricks-and-mortar location, and by extension wreak havoc with your tenant mix. 

How To Protect Your Tenant Mix

Obviously you're not going to be able to stop the internet.  But you do have quite a bit of control over the mix of tenants in your property.

Here are a few tips that I've used to try and protect the tenant mix in our retail properties from the negative influence of the internet:

Sign short-term leases

Unless you're planning on selling your property, it's hard to argue against this.

By signing a short-term lease you minimize the risk you're taking on a tenant, the tenant is reducing the risk it is taking on its business, you're able to improve your tenant mix by taking on what might otherwise be a more risky tenant, and you're reducing you costs by not having to pay a hefty up-front leasing fee to a broker.

Abate rent in exchange for tenant TIs

The more of its own money a tenant puts in to its space the better it is for you.  The odds of a tenant doing a 'midnight move' are reduced and you've had some improvements done on your vacant unit as well.

Keep your rents competitive

The internet has had a huge impact on brick-and-mortar locations and will continue to do so for quite some time.

But physical locations do have their advantages. 

=> Find Out More About Tenant Mix And Property Managment

If you've signed a short-term lease with the tenant and are in a position to pass through some reductions to the tenant, you'll given the tenant one less reason to consider moving its business completely on-line.

Discretionary Income, Tenant Mix And The Internet

If you're able to apply those three steps to your business model, with luck you're going to attract a higher volume of prospective tenants and may be able to be a bit choosy.

Over the last couple of years I've personally seen some tenants more affected by the internet and by there being less discretionary income than others.

Here are my top 10:

1. Travel agencies
2. Mom-and-Pop convenience stores
3. Video rental
4. Electronics repair
5. Churches
6. Book stores
7. Fitness
8. Cellular
9. Insurance
10. Printing

If you're actively involved in property management and trying to get a good tenant mix no doubt you'll be able to add to this list.

Note that all of these businesses compete with readily-available substitutes found on the internet or are affected by there being less money in the economy, or both.

Jeffrey Roark
Investment Property Management Training
Make Money In Real Estate Investing