7 Reason's Why Right Now Is the Perfect Time to Invest in #RealEstate

I know, I know – you’ve been hearing for years that it’s a great time to buy real estate. When the bubble burst a few years ago, and people were losing money on their houses, it made investing in real estate, understandably, a scary proposition.

But thanks to the same recession that caused the real estate mess, there are loads of opportunities for those with the financial resources and means to buy real estate. 

1. Mortgage Interest Rates Are Still VERY Low 
Several years back when the mortgage rates hit an all-time low, people went crazy buying homes and investment properties. Some of the same people ended up getting greedy and borrowed against their newfound equity, which eventually contributed to the downturn of the real estate market. Don’t repeat these mistakes.

2. The High Volume of Recent Foreclosures
Many former homeowners have been displaced due to foreclosure, so there are a lot more renters in the market, making it optimal for investors to buy rental properties without the burden of the mortgage payment.

3. People Prefer Houses to Apartments
Right or wrong, there is often a stigma associated with finding an apartment for rent. If someone has owned a home, they might see it as a step backwards to move into an apartment. This creates a great opportunity for you as a real estate investor. Also, those who have owned homes prior generally will make better tenants because they tend to treat rental homes as they are used to treating their own home.

4. Tenants Often Prefer Private Landlords
I believe most people would prefer to rent from a good private landlord as opposed to a property management company. For some, it is the security of knowing that only your landlord has the key to your home. Others might feel that there is an opportunity to eventually purchase the home through a lease with option to buy, or lease-purchase contract.

If you have a short-term investment strategy and can buy the property at a low enough price, a lease purchase or lease with option arrangement with your tenant might make sense. It also increases the likelihood that the tenant will keep the place in good shape since they are going to buy it.

5. Real Estate Prices Are at a Low
In many markets, real estate is pretty cheap. Some of the best places to buy are Arizona, Florida, California, Michigan, and Nevada. Considering that housing is generally your biggest expense, you might want to consider relocating to an area where you can get a nice property for a reasonable price. When I moved to Arizona from Maryland, my housing payment was cut by 66%, although we did also downsize our home a little.

6. The Short Sale Market
The short sale market in many areas has also created some great opportunities for getting a non-foreclosure home at a great price. In my opinion, a short sale is a better option than buying a foreclosure, because you never know what the history of the house is or what has happened while it has been sitting vacant.

7. Real Estate is a Great Long-Term Investment
Regardless of the recent crisis, real estate is still a good, long-term investment. If you look back 30 years, real estate is still valued much higher than it was. And if you have tenants paying your mortgage, it makes the investment that much more profitable.

Final Word

If you do decide to invest, find your local real estate meetup so you can network and find local investors and realtors who can help you navigate the ever changing landscape of the real estate market. They often know when properties are about to go on the market and may have a lead on a short sale property that can be a great buy.

Happy house hunting! Will you be investing in real estate in the near future? Why or why not?

WE BUY HOUSES     Eagle Thirteen Properties

My top 5 tips for investing in #incomeproperty #RealEstate

2016 is definitely a sellers market! There aren't many great deals to find unless you know how to market yourself and analyze those deals correctly. Once you've done that, here are my top 5 tips on investing in income properties. 

1. Get Finances in Order

This one seems obvious, but it can be more complicated than you think. Investing in an income property isn't like purchasing a house; it can be much more risky. With an income property, you never know exactly how your tenants will treat the property and how much work will need to be completed throughout the year. For that reason, it's extremely important to have financial stability and a low-interest loan.

To begin with, ensure that you have enough money to handle the ups and downs of a rental property. The first rule of financial stability in the rental business is ensuring you can afford the payments on a house without the rental income. You may not always have renters, and when you don't, the bank still expects you to make payments on the house.

You will also need a healthy sum set aside for emergencies. When the pipes burst and cause thousands in property damage the insurance won't cover, you need to be prepared to take care of the cost.

Finally, remember that when you run a rental property business, you are not running a home; you're running a business. Therefore, it's wise to have an account separate from your business dealings for your spending related to the care of your income property.

2. Understand the Market

The real estate market is one of the most malleable markets in the country. It can change at the drop of the hat, and it's difficult to predict when it will go up again, unless you're thoroughly immersed in the market.

If you truly understand the real estate market, you know when it's smart to purchase a property and when it's best to wait for a better price. You can also gauge the proper times to raise rent prices. Overall, you'll receive better returns if you can predict the market.

3. Begin with the Right Property

Almost every prospect requires that you start out low and work your way up, and real estate investments are no different. It's important to begin with a solid property before finding a challenge.

A feature article published on Fox News gives several suggestions for the type of rental properties beginners should consider purchasing. Some of their tips include:

• "Buy a property that you love."
• "Skip the prize properties."
• "Buy as a personal residence and change to rental."
• "Buy properties in good shape."

Each of these options are excellent suggestions for those joining the business. Once you've mastered the simpler income properties, you can move on to another challenge, such as flipping a dilapidated property.

4. Plan for the Care of the Property

Managing a property isn't easy. If you choose to be the landlord, it's your responsibility to collect rent, keep the books, file taxes, screen tenants, handle maintenance, work out the insurance plans, write the contracts, and more. Many feel that they're up to the challenge and try to handle the work themselves.

For others, the task is daunting to say the least. If that sounds like you, you'll probably want to look into hiring a property management company. A property management company can cost anywhere from 5-10 percent of a month's rent, which decreases your return, but can be well worth the investment.

There are many benefits of hiring a property manager including local knowledge, low turnover, legal knowledge, marketing expertise, and expertly handled maintenance. It's not the right option for everyone, but many have found the time and money saving benefits to be worth the monthly fee.

5. Screen Tenants Properly

Finally, once you've take care of the basics, it's time to rent out the property. However, it's not wise to use a first come first serve basis with tenants. You need to be sure that they'll pay the rent every month and treat your property respectfully. This requires a certain screening process, which will allow you to find great tenants.

Furthermore, be prepared for the tenant to screen you, in a sense. The best tenants will be prepared with the right questions. An article previously published on Inc.com outlines some of the most popular questions tenants ask before signing a lease. Make sure you have the answers ready, and take these questions as a sign of their dedication to the property.

Getting a handle on the income property business will likely be more challenging than you think, but once you've mastered these basics, you'll be ready for the next important business step: making a profit.

We Buy Houses Eagle Thirteen Properties

Top cities for #RealEstate #Investors

Top Cities For Real Estate Investors

Eagle Thirteen Properties

Millennials are finally moving into their homebuying years, but with precious few starter houses available for sale, a growing number of these buyers are choosing to rent single-family homes. That is a big opportunity for investors overall, especially in markets seeing the greatest rent growth — and some of those markets are surprising.

Large-scale, institutional investors may have cleaned house during the foreclosure crisis, buying distressed homes in markets like Las Vegas, Phoenix and much of Florida, but the bulk of investors today are smaller scale. They are seeing more lucrative opportunities in less-obvious markets. Knoxville, Tennessee, for example, saw a nearly 20 percent jump in single-family rent rates in the first quarter of this year, compared to a year ago, according to RentRange, a provider of market data and analytics for the single-family rental industry. Its average gross yield for investors was just more than 8 percent. Syracuse, New York, also ranks in RentRange's top 10 list of the most lucrative rental markets, with rent gains of more than 17 percent annually and an average gross yield of nearly 11.27 percent. Milwaukee, New Orleans and Charleston, South Carolina, round out the top 10 list.

"The single-family rental market across the U.S. continues to offer significant opportunity for investors," said Wally Charnoff, CEO of RentRange. "The robust data available today empowers even noninstitutional investors to analyze geographies and select the investment locations throughout the U.S. that are most opportune, as opposed to being limited to their own backyard." 

The just-released data actually show a shake-up at the top of the list, with Syracuse and Milwaukee entering the top 10 for the first time. Florida continues to have more markets on the list than any other state, even increasing in the first quarter compared to the end of 2015, due to single-family rent rises in the state.

The share of institutional investors, defined as those who purchase at least 10 properties in one calendar year, continues to shrink, now just 2.6 percent, compared to 3.4 percent a year ago, according to RealtyTrac. That has opened the door for smaller-scale investors to compete.

Real estate agents are reporting growing spring demand, but warn that it is being met with, "persistently tight inventory, making competitive multiple-offer situations commonplace in many markets," according to a monthly report for April released Monday by Credit Suisse analyst Michael Dahl. Of the 40 markets he surveyed, 36 saw higher prices.

Tight supply and higher prices will push ever more potential buyers into rentals. Saving for a down payment is one of the biggest barriers to entry for first-time buyers, and finding a well-priced starter home ranks right up there as well. Until the housing market regains a healthier balance between buyers and seller, rentals will clearly be a lucrative investment.

We Buy Houses In the greater Louisville, Kentucky area

5 tips that will help landlords find great tenants

The key rule in real estate is obviously “location, location, location.” We  have all heard that before. If becoming a landlord is in your future, you’ll want to follow the key rule to owning an investment property: “tenant, tenant, tenant.” Whether or not you follow that key rule rule will really make or break your landlord experience. I’ve already had feedback during this landlord series from a few readers that have had really unfortunate experiences with bum tenants. Some didn’t pay their rent and others trashed the residence. There are times that you’ll do all the right things and still end up with a bad tenant. Thus is life. But here are the important things to remember for the best possible outcome in finding a good tenant for your investment property:

Follow the Fair Housing Rules. Read up to make sure you aren’t making tenant decisions based on race, gender, sex, religion, disability, or family status.

Meet them in person. This should go without saying. You will want to physically meet them and walk them through the property. Seeing your prospective renter in person can give you some important indicators as to whether or not they will respectfully inhabit your home. You’ll get a sense of their cleanliness by seeing what they drive and the gut feeling you get about them is priceless. It takes very little time to conduct a walk through so make sure you don’t miss this.

Check their references. This includes calling their last two landlords, their employer, and their personal references. Don’t slack on this. You’ll want to have actual conversations with all of these people. This helps you develop a better picture of what your tenant is like. Ask their former landlords how clean this applicant was and if they paid their rent on time. Did they have loud parties? Did they part amicably? Those are the things you want to know.

Perform a background check. My favorite service is Transunion’s Smart Move. It is the easiest service for both the landlord (you) and the tenant. With this service you won’t have that annoying paperwork problem – and you won’t be handling your prospective tenant’s social security number. You create an account and send them the link. They pay a fee and fill out the proper information. Then Transunion tells you whether or not they are likely to be a good tenant. Simple as that.

Take a large deposit. You’ll want to take a substantial deposit that will actually cover damages in case your tenant turns out to be a rotten apple. One key tip is to never make the deposit the same as their monthly rent obligation. For instance, if the rent is $1,000 you should ask for $1,200 as a deposit. If you ask for the same deposit as the rent amount your tenant will likely assume that it covers their last month’s rent. You don’t want that.

If you heed ALL of this advice you are much more likely to get a good tenant which makes your job as a landlord MUCH easier. Don’t do this halfway. The price you’ll pay over the lease term because of a poor tenant choice is just too high.

Thanks for reading! Greg Hammond Eagle Thirteen Properties/ We Buy Houses

How to Juggle Your Real Estate Investing with a Full-Time Job

by Greg hammond

If your life is anything like mine , you probably know how challenging it can be to build your real estate business while holding down a full-time job.

If you have a family, friends, hobbies and a life –then you probably know it gets even more complicated…

Take ME for example. I’ve got several things on my plate every day:

• I have a full-time job (maintenance director for a local hospital) that usually consumes anywhere from 40 – 60 hours every week.

• I have a wife and three kids – all require (and fully deserve) some pretty substantial slices of my time each day.

• Every week, I put significant time and effort into publishing content for this blog (and reading through others blogs)
• I'm the co-chair for our local Relay For Life team

• I’m an active member of my church, neighborhood and a couple of local real estate groups where I try to participate in several extracurricular activities each year.

• I have a handful of other hobbies and fun activities including coaching my two sons basketball teams that I thoroughly enjoy  (and without these things, I’d probably lose my sanity).

Some days, it is totally feasible for me to keep all of these things working together in perfect harmony. Other times, it can be a major challenge to keep it all straight. When one or more of these segments of my life picks up and gets busy – life can get overwhelming very quickly.

Most successful real estate investors are quite familiar with this juggling act…   but how are YOU supposed to take care of all your pre-existing obligations AND carve out the time you need to run a profitable real estate investing business?

First off – I should clarify that my schedule doesn’t necessarily look exactly like this every week, month & year.

Depending on what projects are hot on the burner, some weeks may require that I devote substantially more time to “Rental Properties” (if I’m trying to buy a new property), or to my “Land Business” (if I’ve got a big transaction in the works), or to my “Full-Time Job” (when I get slammed with a massive load of projects to work on)…     but all in all, if I average out all of my various working activities over the course of an entire year, this is probably the most accurate representation of how my time is spent.

And to be clear, this is my “working life” we’re talking about here – so it excludes things like being a parent, husband, and other adult duties like cleaning the house, yard work, shopping, fixing stuff, etc.

My weekends (and some week nights after 7 pm) are still my most productive times of the week in terms of making progress with my various business endeavors. This time is essential to my ability to “get ahead” so to speak.

The End Goal

As of today, if I had to show you how I envisioned my life panning out over the next 20 – 30 years, this is probably the best representation of how I’d like to see my global income when all is said and done: It’s important to note that I have no aspirations of “full-time investing” – ever. Why? Because that would literally be nothing more than replacing one job with another.

In the future, I’d like the majority of my income to come from my rental property portfolio. Why? Because this stream of income will keep coming in the door without requiring any substantial work from me. It also has the benefit of some significant tax shelters that aren’t available from a job, a land business, a blog, or any other source of income (that includes flipping, wholesaling, rehabbing, and almost any other real estate business you can think of). These other streams of income (full-time job, land business, blog, misc projects, etc) can & certainly will provide some substantial income, but it’s only for the purpose of feeding the long-term growth of my rental property portfolio. They shouldn’t be the actual end game (according to my plan, anyway).

Of course, it’s impossible to know precisely how the future will pan out. There are an endless number of variables that could come into play and completely change the trajectory of where my life is headed. However – I do believe it’s important to at least have an idea of what direction I’d like life to go…   

How Is Your Time Spent?

Now that you know how I spend my time, how I make my money and what my end goal is – let’s talk about YOU.

 Where do you spend the bulk of your time? Which of your activities generate the majority of your income? Are you satisfied with your current situation or do you need to make some changes? If changes are needed – what’s your game plan?   What are you doing with your daily life? Are you moving towards the destination you want to reach?

Of course, you won’t be able to answer these questions until you truly know what you’re trying to accomplish – so take a few minutes (or hours, if necessary) to organize your goals, figure out where you want to go and what kinds of activities will bring you towards that destination.

If you’re lucky, you might just figure out some things that need to change… and the sooner you can do that, the better.

6 #realestate #investments you should avoid like the plague!

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As any experienced real estate investor will tell you, not all investment properties are created equal. Homes that might be perfect for a primary residence, for example, might not yield positive cash flows — and without positive cash flows, you’re losing money, not making it.

Here are a few things to think about and properties to avoid when you are ready to invest your hard-earned cash equity capital.

1. Anything that doesn’t generate rental income

These include second homes and land investments. Too many people invest in properties hoping that they will go up in value. But there is an opportunity cost to having money sit in real estate that doesn’t pay any income. Even if the property goes up in value, you’ve got to reconcile and account for all the money you would have earned if your money had instead been in the bank or in stocks and/or bonds.

2. Anything with negative cash flows

If you buy a “prize property” — such as a fancy downtown fancy condo, beach property or vacation rental — it’s probably going to be 20+ years before you get your first dime of positive cash flow. And that’s just no way to invest your hard-earned money. Pencil out any potential deal ahead of time, and buy properties that pay cash flow from day one — the moderately priced properties in non-prize areas.

3. Tenant-in-common (TIC) investments

These were popular from 2005 to 2007 as a way to diversify a portfolio without having to deal with the hassle of owning and managing real estate. But few people ever earned a dime because of all the costs and fees associated with the agreements.

4. Development deals

Development of land is extremely high risk. There are entitlement, construction and market pricing risks, plus countless others. These investments are best left to the extremely wealthy and experienced investors who can take the chance that they’ll never see their money again.

5. Condo-hotels, intervals & time-shares

These aren’t even investments. There’s no ability to predict cash flows, rental income or future value/sales prices. And they are very hard to resell and typically only at a fraction of the original cost.

6. Foreign real estate

You might be OK buying real estate in Canada or Britain – however don’t forget about the foreign currency risk — but foreign countries generally have different real estate laws, protections and fluctuating currencies, making these properties extremely high risk.

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Greg Hammond, We Buy Houses in Louisville/ Eagle Thirteen Properties