Real Estate Leads Guide » real estate investing

Internet Marketing is Very Similar to Real Estate Investing

Guest Author — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 21:25:02 +0000

If you wanted to start learning the ins and outs of investing but you found Real Estate to be a particularly expensive investment to start, there is something quite similar that has the same basic aspects. This is known as Internet Marketing. What you do is create websites (houses), and you have the choice to either fix them up and sell them later (flipping a house) or you can put advertisements on it (like renting your house to tenants). The only difference is that hosting (mortgage) for the websites costs less than ten dollars a month as opposed to what a house costs per month. As your investments grow, you can choose to buy new sites, add content, sell old sites, or outsource the work (property management). As you can see, many aspects are very similar.

Normally people start investing because they want to create passive income. Because of the internet, making money has never been easier. Not that it won’t take work, because it will. However, if you’re willing to work hard for a few years, that will give you more of a profit than working for someone else. If anything, think of Internet Marketing like a business. What can you do to make your business grow? The more you work, the more you will eventually make. You may fail sometimes or you may succeed but the only thing that happens is how many times you get up after you fall. At least you don’t have to worry about going bankrupt when you make a bad investing decision with Internet Marketing. At worst, you lose out on the domain name and hosting costs in internet marketing as well as the time you spent working on the sites. But with Real Estate, if you make a mistake, you’re in a lot more trouble. May as well make the easier choice.

Are you concerned that websites can’t make as much money as Real Estate can? If you are, you might be surprised. Many people have became rich just by creating successful websites and have far less hassle than real estate. But the concepts are pretty much the same, so switching over is easy. When investing in real estate, you have to worry about keeping up the properties, collecting rent, bad tenants, and other unforseen problems. In Internet Marketing, you have to worry about deindexing, click bombers, and spam. They’re really just two parts to the same coin. So if you want to take up investing, why not give Internet Marketing a shot?

The Three Levels of Real Estate Investing

Guest Author — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 22:21:00 +0000

Anybody who’s successful at any level of real estate investing has come to understand the special relationship between hard money lenders, rehabbers, and wholesalers. Some experts call this the “symbiotic trinity” of real estate investing as all three of these groups help and need each other to be successful. Interestingly, although they need each other equally, these three categories also represent three different levels of real estate investing.

If you have no money and sub par credit and want to get started in real estate investing you will start out as a wholesaler. Wholesaling takes a lot of time and effort, and is the least passive of these three types of real estate investment. Smart real estate investors typically buy house for 70% of the home’s after repair value. A wholesaler makes money by finding houses that are priced below 70% of their after repair values. Since they don’t have any money to buy the property themselves they need to have a relationship with rehabbers who are willing to buy the contract from them for a sum of money.

It may take a few deals, but eventually these wholesalers will accumulate enough money to move to the next level- rehabbing (typically they’ll need about $5,00o). Once they do this they keep doing what they’ve been doing- looking for houses. But now they have a little bit of a bigger selection- since they can now buy houses for 70% of the after repair value. They’ll use the money they’ve saved as a down payment for a loan from a hard money lender. Then they’ll fix the property up (rehab it) to sell or keep for passive income.

Once a rehabber has made enough money from these deals (let’s say $100,000) he can either move on to multifamily real estate investing or hard money lending. Many real estate investors like investing so much they keep doing it- moving on to bigger and bigger projects. But many decide to become hard money lenders- lending out money to rehabbers at high interest rates and pocketing the monthly payments. Hard money lending is typically the most lucrative and safe of the passive investments.

How to Select the Right Online Mortgage Quote for Yourself

Guest Author — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 00:04:59 +0000

Today Internet has changed the whole scene of home loans. Now an online mortgage quotes is being offered by money lenders using the Internet. Previously it required lots of labor and time to meet a mortgage provider again and again and convince him with your credentials. Now government regulations have provided rights to mortgage companies to provide their services to clients easily using the Internet. However many money lenders play a predatory role in catching clients who are innocent with rules of repayment. So it is necessary to check all details of an online offer of any mortgage. Take a view of below given precautions to select the right online mortgage quote for yourself:-

1) While searching for favorable online home mortgage loans visit multiple websites of different service providers. By doing so you will get the opportunity to explore home loan offers with different incentives and different terms. You can go through the online credentials of all mortgage plans and select the right one according to your needs. Another benefit of visiting multiple plans on the internet is that you can make online inquiries any time about those mortgages

2) Internet has an anonymous feature. Keeping this point in view you should carefully study and compare an online mortgage quote with others. This rule applies on all kinds of online services like online auctions, internet shopping and dating.

3) Many online mortgage companies aim at beguiling clients. So after coming across a particular company be frank and straight forward to ask questions of their time of incorporation, service record and evidences of their achievements. Always go forward to accept an online mortgage quote from those companies that you already know. Sign up mortgage plan of only that service provider; which don’t have any fraud complaints on the internet.

4) Online mortgage loan has drawback, the rates of these are totally different in reality than those seen on the internet. Many factors of home loans like credit history of a client etc affect the interest rates. So don’t take less interest rate shown on the website to be granted.

5) Online surfing is not for time wastage. So first decide what are your needs in a mortgage plan then search it on the internet. By making careful analysis of an online mortgage quote and talking frankly to a money lender you can put down 20% price of a home loan.

6) Always keep your entire financial information ready to enter it quickly into an online form. This tip can help you if you find a clean and appealing mortgage loan plan. By keeping all information about your credit you won’t feel trouble in filling many online forms repeatedly.

7) While choosing an online mortgage quote compare interest rates of home loans with the previous ones. This will help you to compare the benefits of all mortgage loans with each other.

If you get a genuine online money lender then evaluate his work record. Before signing any home loan offer, talk to his previous clients. Discuss the benefits and drawbacks that were experienced by the clients.

Getting Started in Real Estate Investing with Pre foreclosures

Guest Author — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 18:26:23 +0000

Many people these days are looking for a new work at home opportunity and real estate investing could be just what they need to achieve their financial goals. Many people think real estate investing is only a rich man’s game and that it takes big bucks to play. The truth of the matter is that if you buy right it is nearly impossible to loose.

One of the secrets to real estate investing like any other business, is that if you work hard and do your research you will make money. You have to be willing to work harder than the other guy, but this often isn’t really that difficult when you consider how lazy many people out there are.

Getting your start in the real estate market is the hardest part of the game. There are definitely barriers to entry but with some hard work and determination you can overcome these barriers and make them a thing of the past.

My first suggestion is that you avoid becoming a jack of all trades in the real estate business. The success stories come from those individuals that specialized in one area and became experts. That said using the pre foreclosure market can be a great way to break into the real estate investing business. Here are a couple of reasons why the pre foreclosure market can be great place to start.

Everyone is motivated

No one wants the pre foreclosure, not even the bank that is trying to take possession. The homeowners probably just want out, and the neighbors don’t want a vacant house sitting there collecting weeds for the next 6 months. Foreclose cost everyone money. If you can offer a solution you can be a game changer.

As I already said, the bank doesn’t want the property

This is no secret, but why then do the foreclose? Simple, it cost them more to hang onto a nonepreforming loan than it does to go through the hassle of foreclosure. That said foreclosure still cost them a fortune. A single foreclosure can cost a bank tens of thousands of dollars and restrict their ability to loan out more money. Banks are not in the property management business and don’t want liabilities sitting on their balance sheets.

This is a specialized area of the market

Pre foreclosures represent a very important part of the real estate cycle. The area effectively the start, meaning that when you deal in this market you are dealing in the wholesale market. This means that you are dealing with investors. Investors are more savvy than retail buyers and are also more willing to buy property as is. This is a niche that you can exploit.

Avoid the competition

Ever heard of buying a foreclosure at auction? I am sure you have and so has everyone else. That is why buying at an auction is possibly the worst way to buy. IN some situations you may have to pay for the entire house on the spot without actually looking inside. Getting the good deals before they even go to auction will ensure that you don’t have to deal with this level of competition eating into your profits.

Real estate investing can be a lucrative business, the hardest part is getting started.

Is It Time To Get Back In The Water With Real Estate

Guest Author — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 20:41:16 +0000

Granted there were a lot of people hurt in the last real estate crash but this does not mean real estate is not a good investment. Long term it is very hard to beat the returns on property if you are investing in places which will give you a return on a monthly basis. By this I mean rental or leased properties. If you are buying raw land and waiting for it to appreciate to a point where you can make some money you are better off putting your cash in a bank. People who make money real estate investing buy properties that will pay for themselves and then when the property appreciates it is like getting free money.

One area really hit hard by the recent bubble was Florida. This area, along with California, Nevada, and Arizona was drastically overbuilt. There was no way all the homes and condos were going to be sold as fast as the developers claimed. So the developers lost their shirts and now the people who really understand how the market works are swooping in and buying great places for a fraction of the building cost.

In particular, Miami Beach condo deals are working out very well for people who stayed out of the market until there was “blood in the streets” and then they started to pick up distressed properties left and right. The fact is people still want to live in these areas like Miami Beach. So if you can buy a condo for a more realistic price than they have been offered for in the last few years, and you can rent it out for a year or two, then as properties appreciate again, you can sell it for a profit. The old adage “buy low and sell high,” is at work here for people who are in the know. Most experts agree we are at or near the bottom for residential real estate so now is a time to start looking around for deals.

The Differences Between the Austin and San Antonio Real Estate Investing Models

Guest Author — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:27:31 +0000

Many beginning investors are interested in the “bread and butter” model of real estate investing. What they may not consider is that this technique varies from city to city, and in Texas, real estate investing in San Antonio and real estate investing in Austin are two very different propositions.

While the typical “bread and butter” model is much more applicable to San Antonio, many investors remain very faithful to Austin and are willing to give up the greater opportunities for equity and cash flow in San Antonio to invest there. However, if you do want to invest in Austin, don’t give up hope- with a little extra time and capital it is possible to find great deals there as well. But bear in mind, the sooner you detach yourself from emotionally investing in specific cities, the sooner you can start reaping the benefits of investing where the truly great deals are.

To make this comparison simpler, the “bread and butter” model is generally defined as a property that’s after repair value is around $80-$120 thousand, has three bedrooms, two baths, and a two car garage, renting below $1,000 monthly. Because of the appreciation Austin has seen within the last 20 years it’s not easy to find property in the “bread and butter” price range. As time passes, and property continues to appreciate, it makes less and less sense to invest near downtown. Because of this investors have had greater luck investing in real estate in towns just outside of Austin like Kyle and Buda. Newer properties in the Round-Rock area also fit this model. Because of the mass amounts of people moving there is recent years, lots of homes were sold by lax lending practices and are now being foreclosed on. This has led to sale pricing on homes that offer greater equity and little necessary repairs. This situation provides great opportunities for new investors who need not be frightened of huge rehab costs since the homes are new. Although these deals are great, many of them require $20,000 out of pocket, a sum that proves too great for many investors.

In San Antonio however, there is significantly less competition while homes are being sold at nearly 50% discounts. This environment has led to a great option for investors with little capital to start with- hard money. Typically, hard money lenders will put up 70% of the money for the deal but tend to have higher interest rates than other lenders because they are private lenders. Because of this investors usually go into these positions with an “exit strategy,” like refinancing.