It isn’t hard to figure out that there are record numbers of foreclosures, short sales, REOs (real estate owned properties), wholesale properties, rehab properties, commercial properties and many other types of discounted properties out there for the taking right now but many investors would rather not go through all of the steps involved with the purchase and sale of foreclosures, short sales, REOs (real estate owned properties), wholesale properties, rehab properties, commercial properties and many other types of discounted properties… and understandably so.

Many investors don’t realize this, but the guys that everyone considers to be “real estate investors” are constantly in need of outside funding in order to secure the deed on all of these foreclosures, short sales, REOs (real estate owned properties), wholesale properties, rehab properties, commercial properties and many other types of discounted properties and are able to pay out very healthy returns to private investors that loan them “private money”.

Of course we don’t recommend just going out and giving a private loan to any Joe off the street that claims that he can “flip a house”, but there are many real estate investors and real estate investing companies out there that are very honest and can pay out up to 25% returns on these private loans. These types of investments can be very lucrative and now is a better time than ever to get into private money lending.

With the current state of the housing market, we are seeing all time low prices on all kinds of foreclosures , short sales, REOs (real estate owned properties), wholesale properties, rehab properties, commercial properties and many other types of discounted properties. By having private money lenders in place, it allows the real estate investor to have more buying power and allows them to purchase properties at very low prices and allows them the ability to pay very nice interest rates.

Most people automatically think, “how can I trust this guy with my private money?”. Of course that is the most important question. The answer to this question is what makes private lending so great. Normally when you loan a real estate investor private money, the deed from the property is actually put into the private money lender’s name until the property is resold at a hefty profit. The real estate investor then pays the private loan back along with the percentage of return that was agreed upon.

Of course, as with any investment, there are risks so we recommend that you thoroughly research whoever it is that you intend on giving a private loan to, but investing in private money loans for real estate is a fantastic alternative to the stock market as well as an easy way to take advantage of the great deals in real estate without all the headaches.

REIhomesales Homebuyer Theme

In my last article about WordPress sites and how to use them for real estate investing, I explained some of the basic features in WordPress and some of its advantages. In the weeks after writing this article, I looked for some other information that would be helpful to pass along that was a little more in depth, and more relevant to real estate investing.

I came up with some pretty good advanced usage techniques to discuss in the future, but I had a hard time with deciding on the “next article in the series”. At first I thought I would make some lists of helpful resources that would make it easy for you to get a WordPress installed on your server and places to get some WordPress Themes.

After kicking around a few watered down ideas for this article, and searching for free themes and plug-ins that might be good for real estate, I decided rather than tell you where to get stuff to make your WordPress into a lead generating site for real estate… I would create the perfect WordPress theme for generating real estate leads and give it away for free. It took a few weeks, but with the help of the REIcreator web development team, I was able to create a WordPress theme unlike any other theme out there… the 100% FREE REIhomesales WordPress Themes Collection… Merry Christmas.

So what is so special about the REIhomesales WordPress themes?

First and foremost, the best thing about our WordPress themes for real estate investing is that they are totally free. If you already have a WordPress, just download them and install them, set your settings in WordPress’s admin on our special theme settings page in the appearance section, and you are ready to start receiving leads directly in your email inbox.

Second, I wanted to make the setup as simple as possible. I wanted the theme into a lead generating site with as few steps and the least WordPress knowledge needed as possible. Our themes require no installation of any special plug-ins in order to activate the lead generating possibilities of the theme. Simply install the theme and fill out the simple settings in your WordPress admin and you will be up and running. Just enter the email address you want your leads to get sent to and any time someone fills out the form on your site, their information is emailed right to you. Easy as pie with no plug-ins required.

Third, we wanted to allow you to easily add Google Adsense and other banners to your site. On our theme settings page in your WordPress, you can easily add your Google Adsense codes to your site without editing any html. Simply paste in your Adsense codes (or any other banner codes) into our easy to use settings form and hit save.

Next, we decided that we wanted to allow you to easily add things like Google Analytics and other scripts to your site without the need to edit the html. All you have to do is paste your Google Analytics code into the box on our settings form and your Google Analytics will be automatically installed onto your site on every page.

Since video is always cool, and everyone has a video on YouTube.com, we decided to make an easy to edit spot on the right side bar of the theme that will hold a YouTube video, playlist, or channel. Simply paste the embed code from Youtube.com into the box in the admin settings and you are able to edit your video, playlist, or channel from YouTube.com easily. Again, no editing of html is needed for this.

After all that was built, we wanted to make the things look cooler than any prebuilt lead generating sites that we have seen. Our team of professional web site designers and developers were able to make a really great blend of great looking graphics, ease of use, and SEO optimized html. Not only do our themes look great, but they will out perform many of the WordPress themes that are out there as far as search engine results and they will crush any pre-built real estate investor website system out there in conversion.

Of course, if you want a custom theme created just for you, REIcreator.com can design and build any custom WordPress or Website that you can dream up. Since the core of our WordPress themes is so solid, we are able to make custom layouts and graphics in a very short time, enabling us to deliver spectacular looking, high performance sites for a very affordable price.

Basically, we wanted to eliminate the need for editing any html, and we wanted to not rely on any plug-ins. Of course you can install all the plug-ins you want, and I will be writing another article on all of my favorite plug-ins and how I use them… but our themes are ready to generate motivated home seller leads and other real estate leads right out of the box.

These first themes are just the beginning. We are already working on more graphics and layouts as well as enhancements and upgrades for future releases.

If you don’t have a web server or you have no idea how to get a server or get WordPress installed, we are also now officially offering WordPress installation and hosting on REItrainer.com. Check out our very affordable WordPress installation and hosting packages. We will get you setup in no time and get you online generating leads for next to nothing.

Check back soon for updates on the new REIhomesales WordPress Themes for Real Estate Investors by REIcreator.

At REIcreator.com, we currently use WordPress on a few of our sites for a few different reasons. Although we develop websites ourselves, we found that WordPress came almost all of the functionality we needed for our blog. Rather than “reinvent the wheel” or use some other CMS like joomla or tridian, we decided on using WordPress to manage our real estate investing blog site, REItrainer.com.

By using WordPress, we had our site up and running in a matter of hours. I was able to design a custom theme and fill it up with our old articles in no time. After it was set up, I was able to give access directly to my writers and they are now able to easily post articles and pages without having a web designer or developer involved. They don’t really even really need to know anything about websites. All they need to do is write words. WordPress allows me to give them an “author” account, so they can write all they want and all I have to do is hit “approve” and it goes live on the website. You can set these approval setting however you want, I just like to have the final say on what goes online so I set it to give me that control.

Once the article is posted, WordPress allows people to post comments about your articles on your site. You can turn this off if you want but by having people comment on your articles, it looks good for your site and helps you gain rank on search engines. The reason for this gain in rank is due to the fact that search engines love new content. If people are commenting on your articles, your article is continuously getting updated as far as google is concerned. I have our comments set up so that I get to approve them before they actually go live on the site. This allows me to filter out the spam.

The comments settings are one of many simple settings in the WordPress control panel. In this easy to use admin, I am able to easily add and edit user accounts, add and edit articles, add and edit pages and much more. It is set up pretty nice right out of the box. A person with hardly any technical knowledge of the internet can be blogging and editing web pages in no time. If you have ever posted a blog or a comment on a website, you can manage a WordPress site.

To get a WordPress site set up, you will probably have to enlist the help of someone with some web site developing experience, but it will be the best money you ever spent. You can usually get someone to set it up for you for a few hundred dollars or less. If you pay for a web host, you are looking at around $10 a month or so, and around $8 per year for the actual purchase of your web site’s address. So, depending on how much your developers charge to install it, you could end up only having to spend a little over $100 a year to have a super easy to use and easy to update website. I forgot to mention that the actual WordPress application is totally free. All you have to ever pay for is setup, hosting , optional customizations (and sometimes help).

Of course, at REIcreator.com we can service all of your WordPress needs from simple WordPress installations to supercharged custom WordPress plugins and custom WordPress themes. Below are a few examples of WordPress sites that REIcreator.com has designed. These sites have a little more to them than just the basics, but they are still examples of very affordable websites that anyone can easily update.

http://CMYatesNews.com

This site is real estate investor and private money expert, Chris Yates’s video blog powered by WordPress. It utilizes a few addons and customizations such as the youtube video playlist, twitter feeds and others. The forms are made with infusion CRM and just needed some styling to plug them in nicely. The main appeal for using WordPress here is the fact that it is basically a blog. Chris is able to easily update and add pages, articles, blogs, events, videos, products for sale, tweets, and more… and he never has to wait for a developer to get around to updating his page.

http://CMYatesCapital.com

After seeing how easy it was to update his news page himself, Chris Yates had us rebuild his main private money lending website on the WordPress format. We were able to copy his existing site onto a WordPress and make it a lot prettier in a matter of a few hours. Now he automatically has a blog installed and he now has the ability to edit any page, add a page whenever he wants without the help of a developer. This saves so much of a few different people’s time and in turn saves him a ton of money.

http://REItrainer.com

This is our original WordPress site. We set this site up simply to allow anyone to write articles for us and allow them to post them on the site without taking up our valuable development time. It is pretty basic as far as the structure of the site. There are some great articles for getting started in real estate investing, Property Wholesaling, Private Money Lending, Buying and Selling Houses, Rent to Own and more. It also has a great real estate glossary on there.

There are so many ways to use a WordPress website to benefit your real estate investing business. This article is just the tip of the iceberg. I didn’t realize how huge the post would get in such a small amount of time, so I will probably need to make this into a series of posts. There is so much you can do to benefit your real estate business with a WordPress site. Once you get it set up, the sky is the limit. I will get more in depth on some more specific WordPress topics in my future posts. I will talk about using WordPress sites in different areas of your real estate investing business, such as marketing to home buyers and home sellers, generating private money, building wholesale buyers lists, using adsense and other banner programs, affiliate programs, selling ebooks and products and I am sure I will come up with even more topics.

You can easily do all of these things and more with a WordPress site and many people can figure out how to put all of these things into action after they get their site and tinker around with it a bit. Please feel free to post questions in the comments on this page and I will answer them so everyone can see.

Why Private Money?

Whether you have a long term or short term real estate investment strategy, private money lending is the single best way to fund the growth of your real estate portfolio. Private money lending works the same way as borrowing money from a bank, but the bank is a private individual with little or no stringent lending criteria who simply receives a Note and Deed of Trust or Mortgage (depending on the state you are investing in) in exchange for funding your deal.

Private money lenders can bring speed and efficiency to your transaction by asking fewer questions and moving money faster. Being able to offer a fast closing with private funds will motivate sellers to take your offer over your competition, and will entice them to take a much lower price from you than they would from a conventional buyer.

Low Costs, Flexible Terms:

Private Money Loans are very cost effective, with rates usually ranging from no points and 8% interest, to 3 points and 15%. Pricing and terms should vary depending on the overall risk associated with the deal. Private money lenders can provide various types of funding starting with “flash cash” (when you only need funds for a few days) to longer term notes as long as 5 years or more. Lenders may elect to receive interest payments monthly, quarterly, annually, or at the time of loan maturity.

Transaction fees on Private Money Loans are much lower than most as private money lenders do not have underwriters, processors, etc. on staff, and do not require nearly as much paperwork as conventional or government-backed loans.

Why you should protect them, and how:

As a professional real estate investor, you will want to protect the interests of your private money lenders as well as your own. We suggest providing them with the following documents to secure their investment capital:

• Promissory Note
• This is your lender’s collateral for their investment capital
• Deed of Trust, or Mortgage (varies based on state)
• This is the document that is recorded with the county clerk and recorder to publicly secure their investment against the real property that you areas as collateral
• Hazard Insurance Policy
• List the Private Moeny Lender as the “Mortgagee” to protect them in case of fire or natural disaster, etc.
• Appraisal (optional)
• Many private money lenders will simply research the value of a property online before making an investment decision. As many of your acquisitions will be properties that require significant renovation, an appraisal may not be necessary to establish value if your purchase price is obviously well below market. If a private money lender does require an appraisal, be sure to give the appraiser a copy of your renovation scope of work with total renovation cost and ask the appraiser for an ARV (after repaired value) figure on the appraisal.

100% financing still exists!

Private money lenders rarely require a down payment from you and may fund both your purchase and renovation of the property, or more! In many instances, we have purchased a property so far below market value that our lenders have actually funded our purchase of the property, all the renovation costs, AND allowed us to receive cash at the purchase closing to put towards our operating expenses and receive an initial profit up front.

This sounds great, but where do I find these private money lenders?

Private money lenders can be family members, friends, business partners, professional or personal acquaintances, attorneys, accountants, business owners, or strangers. Anyone that you come into contact with could be a potential private money lender for your real estate investment deals.

What’s in it for them?

Fixed returns on their capital providing better profits than almost all other investment vehicles, secured by real assets at below market value, insured against fire, theft, vandalism, and natural disasters, and the ability to do all of this completely tax-free within their retirement accounts if they desire.Need we say more?

Where do the funds come from?

The first seven strategies we will cover in this e-book highlight sources that private lenders can tap in order to take advantage of the incredible investment opportunities that you are about to open up for them.

To read the rest of ”21 Ways To Finance Your Real Estate Deals…Without Using Your Own Cash or Credit” By:Chris Yates, and learn about other private money lending and real estate investing strategies, visit CMYatesnews.com and purchase the ebook.You can also visit CMYatesCapital.com to learn even more about private money lending and how to begin earning great returns on your investment through private money lending to real estate investors.

In this economy many investors are looking for an alternative to the stock market and it is surprising that so few investors are familiar with private money lending as a way to invest in real estate. Private money lending is a very safe and easy way to get very healthy returns on your investment.

It isn’t hard to figure out that there are record numbers of foreclosures, short sales, REOs (real estate owned properties), wholesale properties, rehab properties, commercial properties and many other types of discounted properties out there for the taking right now but many investors would rather not go through all of the steps involved with the purchase and sale of foreclosures, short sales, REOs (real estate owned properties), wholesale properties, rehab properties, commercial properties and many other types of discounted properties… and understandably so.

Many investors don’t realize this, but the guys that everyone considers to be “real estate investors” are constantly in need of outside funding in order to secure the deed on all of these foreclosures, short sales, REOs (real estate owned properties), wholesale properties, rehab properties, commercial properties and many other types of discounted properties and are able to pay out very healthy returns to private investors that loan them “private money”.

Of course we don’t recommend just going out and giving a private loan to any Joe off the street that claims that he can “flip a house”, but there are many real estate investors and real estate investing companies out there that are very honest and can pay out up to 25% returns on these private loans. These types of investments can be very lucrative and now is a better time than ever to get into private money lending.

With the current state of the housing market, we are seeing all time low prices on all kinds of foreclosures , short sales, REOs (real estate owned properties), wholesale properties, rehab properties, commercial properties and many other types of discounted properties. By having private money lenders in place, it allows the real estate investor to have more buying power and allows them to purchase properties at very low prices and allows them the ability to pay very nice interest rates.

Most people automatically think, “how can I trust this guy with my private money?”. Of course that is the most important question. The answer to this question is what makes private lending so great. Normally when you loan a real estate investor private money, the deed from the property is actually put into the private money lender’s name until the property is resold at a hefty profit. The real estate investor then pays the private loan back along with the percentage of return that was agreed upon.

Of course, as with any investment, there are risks so we recommend that you thoroughly research whoever it is that you intend on giving a private loan to, but investing in private money loans for real estate is a fantastic alternative to the stock market as well as an easy way to take advantage of the great deals in real estate without all the headaches.

FINDING THE DEALS:

Let’s talk about what houses to look for. When you are looking for a good wholesale deal you are going to want to look at homes you probably pass everyday on the way to work or to the grocery store. I am talking about distressed properties. When I say distressed I mean houses that look vacant, abandoned or even boarded up. You’re going to want houses that are single family because there will be a surplus of those houses and the buyer will most likely want those kinds of houses. When I mentioned that, I’ll bet you know of at least one off the top of your head that’s fits this description. I think we all do. These houses are great because if the home is not in livable condition bankers wont loan anyone money for it and insurance agents most times wont insure it and best of all, Realtors want nothing to do with it so, its most likely not listed anywhere.

The owners of these homes are almost always motivated sellers. This means that for one reason or another the owner doesn’t have the money or time to worry about that property and has to sell it. You want to target these problem properties in middle to low income areas. A lot of these homes will only need cosmetic repairs but a lot will need some major renovations. That’s where people start to get confused. Why would you want one of these homes? Because of the deal you negotiate with that seller and the deal the buyer is getting , they are happy to pay you a small fee for doing all that work for a property that will make him anywhere from 30-50k. You don’t do any repairs!! You will be buying and selling as is.

MAKE THE DEALS FIND YOU

A big part of finding the deals is doing your due diligence and actually going out and finding them at first. I found my first wholesale deal on my jogging route I ran everyday. At the time I didn’t have ANY money to put into my real estate business so I had to do it the old fashion way. Now I use a lot of different strategies to have these sorts of deals find me. Below is a list of strategies I find work very well.

MARKET YOUR SERVICES:

There are a lot of unique ways to market your services to let the public know what you do.

• WEBSITE
• Signs ( “WE BUY HOUSES CASH, ANY AREA, ANY CONDITION”)
• Flyers (It is important that a lot of your material be branded with your logos. Remember this business is about networking and you want people to remember your logo).
• Door hangers
• Bulletin boards
• Car wraps (wrap your car in your company’s logo and contact info. A lot of people will see this, especially in rush hour. You can also use car magnets.)
• Direct mail
• Business card

If anyone would like to know how to get all of those products, you can contact www.REIcreator.com for all of your real estate marketing materials. They will make it easy and affordable for the beginner to get started and they will help you with great ideas specific to your needs.

There is one marketing strategy I left out of the above examples and I did it for a reason. Bird Dogs. A bird dog is someone who will go out and find these properties for you for a collection fee anywhere from $500-$1000. Most times you can set up a bird dog program like I did where I would get college kids who need money but don’t have time to be an investor themselves, to go out and find properties specific to your criteria. They will find the property, take a picture of it and get a contact number for you and if you close a deal on that house, you will give them the fee for their services. This will save you a lot of gas which is especially important now more than ever. You will also have more time to focus on the more important aspects of marketing listed above. Other good bird dogs are people in the public sector i.e. Mail Man, Sanitation Department etc.

So now you’re getting leads on houses and your getting ready to put out a contract on that property. There are two ways to wholesale a property. Assignment of Contract and Double Closing (simultaneous close).

ASSIGNMENT OF CONTRACT:

There are two contracts involved in this type of wholesale deal. One is going to be the Purchase and Sale contract between you and the seller. When you write your name on that contract, you are going to be writing “and/or assigns” next to your name. (Zac Beatty and/or assigns). This important to remember because it gives you the power to assign that contract to another investor, which you will be doing. The idea behind this is simple, you have found the property and negotiated an awesome deal with the seller and now you are assigning your right to do this deal on the terms you have negotiated with your buyer.

The other contract is going to be between you and the buyer and is called the assignment of contract. This contract will have the properties address and some information about the seller, you as the original buyer and about the new buyer you are assigning this contract to. You can find all of these contracts on this site. Remember, I am not an attorney, so you are going to want to get these contracts approved by an attorney before you use them. In the assignment you will also have the price of what the buyer is paying you for your services.

You can download copies of these contracts and more from REItrainer.com

A good wholesale deal would be around $3,000 – $7,000. However, in the market today, it is not unreasonable that you can go out make $8,000 + on your first deal. Note, when your profits are going to exceed $10,000 you will want to do a Double or Simultaneous close, but we will discuss that shortly.

Once you have assigned the contract you are going to want to collect a non-refundable deposit from the buyer. If you can get all of it than awesome! But this is just to make sure that if for some reason the buyer wants to back our of this deal, you still got paid some sort of compensation for your efforts. I would say half of the deal up front is reasonable.

So what you have done is sold your purchase contract to another buyer. You never had to own the property, you shouldn’t have to pay any closing costs, and your name wont appear on the deed. So, get the property under contract, assign that contract, and make some cash! This is by far the best way to start your real estate investment career and will help you understand the industry and give you the opportunity to work your own hours on your terms.

DOUBLE CLOSING:

As you now know with an assignment of contract the buyer can clearly see how much money you are getting out of the deal. Most investors and sellers will not care if you are making a couple bucks, after all, you did find the deal in the first place. You should defiantly be paid for your work. But, if for some reason they feel you are making to much money, they just might try to go behind your back or just never work with you again. If that is the case and you are going to be making $10,000 or more, you should do a double or “simultaneous” close.

When you are doing a double close you will be using two purchase and sale agreements. One between you and the seller with you as the buyer, and the other will be between you and the buyer, with you as the seller. Here is how it all works… You are actually “buying” the property and than “selling” it simultaneously to your buyer. The Title Company or closing attorney will handle the transaction making it a smooth stress free transaction without you, the seller, or the buyer together at the same table.

The buyer will typically be asked to come in first to close with you as the seller. They bring the money needed to buy the property (you will use this same money to pay the seller). The money is given to the title company or closing attorney and sits in a trust until the seller of the property comes to sign the papers with you as the buyer. You will show up last and sign both sides of the transaction (as seller and as buyer). Understand?? The seller will only see the transaction between you and them, and the buyer will only see the transaction between you and him/her. When you are doing it this way you may have to pay some closing costs, but you will be making more money so it won’t be an issue.

CONTINGENCIES OR “SUBJECT TO”:

This is a very important section to pay attention to when you are writing up contracts. Because these properties you are looking at are not homes you really want to purchase, you will use what is known as contingencies or “subject to” to protect yourself in the event you cannot find a buyer. (you will definitely want to check with an attorney before using any contract)

Whether you are doing an assignment of contract or double closing, you will be using the same contingencies in your addendum of contract. Always remember to put your name plus “and/or assigns” as the buyer on the purchase contract. In your addendum, put these contingencies and conditions:

* It is agreed that Buyer has 30 business days from the date of this offer to perform due diligence. This may include determining any needed repairs, researching the title, and confirming market value. In the event the buyer determines that the property does not meet with his/her approval, the contract will become null and void, and the buyer’s deposit returned immediately.

* Upon acceptance of offer, buyer to receive key to the property and have the right to show to any and all prospective occupants.

If the property is For Sale by Owner use that second contingency, if it is listed with a realtor, put:

* Buyer to receive access to the property upon acceptance of offer.

If the FSBO is occupied, than use the clause of:

* Buyer shall receive access to the property for the purpose of showing the property to prospective occupants and to obtain bids on repairs.

It is important to remember that using too many contingencies can easily kill a deal, so make sure to be safe, but not over cautious and scare away a great deal.

CLOSING ATTORNEY OR TITLE COMPANIES

An important part of being able to do assignments or double closings is having a good attorney or title company that understands what it is you are going to be doing. Some states, like Georgia, use attorneys to close real estate closings and others only need the title company to do such. You will want to check and see what your state requires. You are going to want to start calling around and talking to closing agents/attorneys. You want to talk to the actual person who will handle the closing so you will have to get past the front desk which isn’t too difficult. Ask them if they are familiar with assignment of contract and/or double closings. Have they ever done them before?

Do not get discouraged if they don’t know what you are talking about or if they don’t do that sort of thing. You might have to call 10 or more offices before you find the right one. Sometimes it helps to get a referral from an investor who has done this before. If you are in the Atlanta area, I recommend calling Steve at Harlan & Associates. He is a really nice guy who will help you with any questions you might have and makes the process a lot easier.

You will want to make sure the closing agent understands you will not be bringing any money to the table when you talk about double closings. Ask them how much they would charge you for this type of transaction. Also ask them if they charge for assignment of contract, typically the buyer ad seller will pay the costs since you are out of the deal except for the check you will get from the buyer that has been agreed upon.

It is also important to know how the buyer is going to be paying for the property. You need to know this because if the buyer’s lender sees your assignment they are most likely not going to want to do the deal. Or with a double close, they will see the contract between you two but your name won’t appear on the title as the owner. Sometimes this is a red flag to the lender/bank. So be sure to ask the closing agent if they have ever had a problem like that and see if they were still able to do the transaction.

Do not worry yourself with the problems you will have with the bank, as you will be dealing with investors who use private or hard money loans to do their deals. These types of lenders do not care if it is an assignment of contract or a double closing. When you deal with investors they use cash and can close quickly.

It is never a bad idea to start looking for private or hard money lenders for you to use in the future if you decide you would like to start buying, fixing, and selling.

YOUR OFFER, NEGOTIATING THE DEALS:

Now that you are on your way to doing a deal you need to know how to get a good price, and what a good price is. When I look at a property I will use this basic formula to figure out the number.

1. What is the ARV or “After Repair Value”?
2. Subtract estimated repairs.
3. Subtract profit for your investor.(If ARV is under$75,000, subtract $15k. If ARV is over $75,000, subtract 20% of the ARV)
4. Subtract at least $3,000 for yourself (can be more depending on the spread for the investment)
5. Equals the most you would offer.

When you begin negotiating with the seller, it may not be easy for you at first, especially if you are a shy or timid person. You have to be straight forward and to the point with the seller. Do not let them know you are nervous. Once you get them on the phone you are going to want to introduce yourself of course. Than , you are going to want to make sure you are talking to the home owner and let them know why you are calling. make sure you let them know you buy houses cash, and can close quickly.

After you have their interest there are a few basic questions you need to ask them.

1. Where is the property located? ( if you don’t already know)
2. How much are selling the property for?
3. Why are you selling? ( This can always give you a good idea of the motivation of the seller)
4. Do you own the property free and clear? ( meaning, is that property all paid off) If they say yes, that is great because they have more flexibility. If they say no you will want to ask them this…
5. How much is the Loan Balance?
6. How many years are left on the principal balance?
7. What are your monthly payments? Including tax and insurance.
8. What is the least you could take a a down payment?
9. How much estimated repairs? (Whatever they say, double it)
10. What is the lowest cash amount you would take for that property today?
11. Have you had any offer? What were they? Why didn’t you accept any?
12. How long have you been trying to sell your property?

After you have spoken with them for a little while you will be able to determine how motivated the seller really is. If it looks like a good deal than you need to set up an appointment with them immediately to get a signed contract. Do not wait because if you do, you could lose the deal.

BUILDING YOUR BUYERS LIST

In my opinion this is the easiest part of the Wholesaling world. There are so many wholesale buyers in this country it is insane. Especially with the market being the way it is, these guys are buying up everything they can get their hands on. It is important to remember an investor doesn’t have to fall in love with a property like a home owner would. If the numbers are good, their will be no problem finding someone to buy it.

Now that you are on your way to becoming a Wholesale investor, you need to build your database of buyers. Do not freak out if you find an awesome deal and don’t have the buyer lined up right away, but it is a good idea to start building your buyers list as soon as possible.

There are many ways and places to find investors for your database…

• Website: Having a website where people can sign up for your buyers list at their convenience is crucial in not only capturing that buyer’s information, but organizing all of them in a CRM, or customer relations manager. You can manage all of your leads coming in from your marketing in one back office Visit www.REIcreator.com and check out their CRM and website packages for any investor. They will work with you to optimize and automate your real estate business online at a very affordable price.
• Advertising: All of your advertising i.e. bandit signs, car wraps etc. should steer people to your web site where they can sign up without you having to call or talk to each individual one. You want to have a short catchy URL that people will remember. They are going to be driving so you have to make them short and sweet. (REIcreator has URLs for sale as well.)
• Join your local REIA (Real estate investors association) .You most definitely will want to join your Local REIA. There you will meet all sorts of connections and potential buyers. You will be able to build your business through the good referrals of experienced investors, which puts you at an advantage. Ask around, see what investors are looking for in a property and get their card and put them on your buyers list. See how easy it is??
• Go to Foreclosure auctions at the court house: There are a bunch of investors down there every time buying up property. These are the Big Dogs who can do deals. You want to mingle and build your buyers list their as well. You don’t ever want to look at other investors as competition. In fact, a group of like-minded investors working together can be an awesome advantage. There is enough to go around for everyone, so work together.
• Talk to people rehabbing houses in your neighborhood: These are usually investors or the person in charge will be. Like that show Flip That House, there is a big trend with people doing that now more than ever and you want to have those people on your list as well. You will be finding all sorts of properties so it is a good idea to have a diverse buyers list.
• Realtors, Lawyers, Bankers etc: These are professionals in the real estate game, they know investors and you want to make sure as many people as possible know what you do.

So, by now you should be well on your way to becoming a real estate wholesaler. Follow these basic steps and you should have no problem finding your first deal within weeks. Always remember, there is opportunity everywhere and it just takes a little leg work to get your business going.

For more information on building your wholesale buyers list, check out this article on using REIcreator’s Wholesale Property Websites to build and inform your buyers list. http://activerain.com/blogsview/369496/Build-Inform-Your-Wholesale

Getting started in real estate investing through private money lending is pretty easy nowadays. There is no shortage of foreclosures, short sales, REOs (real estate owned properties), wholesale properties, rehab properties, commercial properties and many other types of discounted properties out there and there are plenty of people that are experts in buying these properties. The trick is to find a reputable real estate investor or real estate investing company to invest your private money with.

One of the best ways to find a real estate investor to invest your private money loans with is to go to a meeting at your local real estate investor association. Most states or major metro areas have at least one real estate investor association and many of these associations will allow you to attend a meeting or two for free just to try it out. Most likely, any person attending the meeting is a real estate investor that is in need of private money loans on a regular basis, so make sure to mingle and introduce yourself.

While you are there you might hear about someone holding a private lunch meeting or small seminar about private lending. These small personal meeting are set up by real estate investors in order to educate potential private money investors about the process involved with private money loans for real estate investing. They are also sales pitch meetings, so make sure to be careful and try to get to know how this particular real estate investor is going to put your money to work. Make sure to shop around for different real estate investors in your area before giving anyone a private loan. There are plenty of real estate investors out there that are very trustworthy and can give you fantastic returns. Do your homework and find someone in your area (or in a hotter real estate market) that you feel comfortable working with.

Private money lending can be a very safe and lucrative way to invest in this economy and it is a great alternative to the stock market. Many people don’t realize that they can supercharge their existing IRA with private money lending and add to their retirement fund very easily. With the amount of foreclosures, short sales, REOs (real estate owned properties), wholesale properties, rehab properties, commercial properties and many other types of discounted properties out there right now, private money lending might be the best kept investing secret out there.

If you have any questions about getting started in real estate investing easily through private money lending, feel free to contact REItrainer.com and we will be happy to steer you in the right direction. You can also visit our links page for a list of preffered real estate investors to offer private money loans.