Tag Archives: forms

Your “Veteran” Stories…

If you’d like to share stories of veterans in your life, we’d love to hear about those men and women that sacrificed themselves, their families, and in many cases, their lives. Or even just the stories of the men and women that fought in wars here and abroad and their courage and character.

No matter what we think politically or the viewpoints on many of the past and present wars, we need to respect and honor the people that served the country. If you’ve got a great story that could touch our readers, please do share!

One of the organizations we support – and feel strongly about – is the Wounded Warrior project. Too many soldiers come home injured, unable to find work, and finding it very difficult to put their lives back together after service. This organization is doing some wonderful things and if you can get involved, donate, or support in other ways, there are hundreds of thousands of men and women that would appreciate it!

Also, if you have another charity that you support that helps Veterans and their families, please do share it with our readers.

5 Deals for Less Than $3K

In the month of October, we put 5 deals under contract and will be out of pocket less than $3000!

In fact, we used someone else’s money, so it’s not cost us a penny… just some time!

What exactly did we do?

1. Find the motivated sellers!

We started by sending out a direct mail campaign to about 350 property owners. What is different about this campaign versus our standard “absentee owner marketing” campaign is the fact that we found owners of VACANT land that had owned the property for more than 10 years!

2. Screen the leads…

Out of 350 letters that went out, we had about 70 calls! Yes… that’s right! Twenty percent of the people responded to our letter. Typically with other real estate direct mail, I’ll get between 8 – 15%, so this market is definitely hot!

Oh! And by the way… we actually send all of these leads to our virtual assistant who called them all back, filled out lead sheets, and gathered all the preliminary information. In some cases, she even pre-negotiated the price down!

3. Evaluate the deals…

Obviously with 70 deals (give or take), the due diligence took a little time. The great part, however, is that since you’re mailing in clusters, you can duplicate your homework across lots of properties! We hand picked the very best of the best and decided to make offers.

4. Make offers…

Next, we had to put our offers together. Some of the sellers, we called over the phone. Others, we simply dropped offers in the mail and hoped for the best! We gave them 10 days to get the contracts back to us and had 6 contracts back in that time period.

5. Additional due diligence…

The executed contract is just the first piece of the puzzle. Now, I would never suggest you go into a contract on a deal you don’t have every intention of closing on, but you aren’t going to do all the due diligence required on every deal until you have a contract in hand. For example, when we buy real property, we don’t pay for inspections and appraisals until after we have a signed contract. The same holds true for land. There are going to be additional calls to make and some more homework to do, but now it only takes you a short while since it’s the deals you’re actually going to close on.

NOTE: You may have noticed I said that we got SIX contracts back, but that we were closing on 5 deals. Why?

Because during the due diligence, we found some issues that were deal breakers for us. We simply decided to get out of the contract, which was completely within the terms of the contract, prior to closing. THAT’S what this secondary period is for!

6. Closing…

The last step in the acquisition process is closing on the deals! Since we wanted to use someone else for the financing (remember… the more you leverage OPM, the better your ROI is). So, we actually assigned the contracts to the LLC we set up with the partner on these deals. He put up all the money and we did the work!

7. BONUS: Pre-sold one…

We actually run regular ads for our properties on Craigslist and happened to be running a group of ads for seller financing. A potential buyer contacted us and the more we got to talking, the more I realized that one of these new properties was much more appropriate for their needs and pre-sold it while we waited for the deed to be signed off on! They are currently deciding between 2 of these BRAND NEW DEALS!

The Numbers

One of the lots, we picked up for a flat $500. It’s one block away from the lake and would have lake view with a two-story home on it. They are looking at that one for $4900 with seller financing option which will be $900 down and the balance seller financed at 8% for 12 months.

Total profit potential = $4575.44 (5075.44 – $500 purchase price = $4575.44)
Total potential ROI = 915%! (Our ROI is infinite because we had nothing invested)

If they choose the other lot, the purchase price is $8900. We have a total of $2100 into it will all closing costs and additional expenses incurred. If they choose this one, they’re going to pay $8900 with seller financing. This will be $1000 ad the balance seller financed at 8% for 12 months.

Total profit potential = $7190.36 ($9290.36 – $2100 purchase costs = $7190.36)
Total potential ROI = 342%! (Our ROI is infinite because we had nothing invested)

The best part about these types of deals is that there’s NO SHORTAGE of deals AND there are loads of people that are interested in putting up a few thousand dollars to “test” something when you can show returns like that on their money!

Heck, even when you split the profits… that’s still over 450% ROI on the first scenario and over 170% ROI on the second! Show those numbers to investors and they’ll be lining up to do deals with you.

PLUS… if you want to get started yourself… you can use your own money or even a credit card advance for less than the cost of most home study courses these days!

For more information on how we’re picking up these land deals for next to nothing, check out our Simple Land Investing

What’s the Biggest Obstacle That’s Holding You Back from GREATER Success In Real Estate?

We’re in the process of redesigning the Real Estate Training Academy from the ground up to better serve you, and to provide you with the missing pieces that are keeping you from achieving your real estate investing goals.

Please take a moment to let us know the single biggest thing that’s affecting your success!

The truth is, each and every one of us has obstacles that are keeping us from getting to the next levels in our business. We’re all just at different levels IN our businesses…

We’ll go ahead and do our best to address all of the responses over the next few weeks!

If you’re having a hard time coming up with something, just fill in this blank:

“Heather, if I could only _______________________,
I could achieve the success I want in real estate!

Reduce Your Chances of An IRS Audit

3 Simple IRS Audit-Reduction Tips… AVOID E-File! It was created to audit you better, more efficiently, cheaper. A former IRS commissioner called it, “State of the art auditing”. Using E-file is like putting your head in the mouth of an alligator, whose name is “IRS”! Instead file the computerized paper forms and mail them, making it more difficult for the IRS.

NOTE: Recent legislation states after December 31, 2010 (2011 on) returns are mandated to be filed electronically by most tax preparers.   Continue reading

Short Sale Attorney

More and more investors and real estate agents are using attorneys and negotiators to get their deals done.

It’s the perfect answer to the “I don’t want to deal with banks and short sales” issue. OR IS IT?

If you are a homeowner trying to get a short sale approved on your home, whether you’re a homeowner or an investor, you might want to think twice about the hands-off negotiations. There are far too many people that over promise and under deliver. Continue reading

Short Sale Package

There’s good news and bad news about short sales!

The good news is that if you can follow a checklist, you can submit a short sale package to the lender.

The bad news is that the checklist of documents can be daunting to say the least!

The best advice is to contact the lender prior to submitting your package to get their list in the event they have additional requirements, want specific components on their paperwork/letterhead, etc. Each lender is different, so it pays to take a few minutes up front to get Continue reading

Before You File Your Corporation or Limited Liability Company (LLC): 5 Things to Consider!

POINT # 1: Many investors believe that they can create a limited liability company (LLC) or file a corporate charter with the state and always have liability protection. This is SIMPLY NOT TRUE. The truth is that each of these business entities (the LLC, the corporation and even the limited partnership) require certain key steps after the structure is created. I always like to compare business entities to a fancy Italian sports car or a new baby…they WILL DEMAND PROPER CARE AND FEEDING!

They are fun on the first day, but you had better know how to maintain Continue reading

Limited Liability Companies (LLCs): Avoiding Disasters, Mistakes and Confusion!

By Darius M. Barazandeh, Attorney at Law / M.B.A.

I see it several times per day, everyday: An LLC disaster waiting to happen! No matter where I travel or with whom I speak, it’s clear that small to mid-sized business owners are not getting proper instruction on how to create, run, and maintain a ‘rock solid’ LLC. Did you or your attorney form your LLC? Are you now left with a stack of papers and confusion?

One comment that I repeatedly hear is, “Well, my attorney set it up for me two years ago…so everything is rock solid.” Usually, without much probing, I soon learn that little else has been done since then. I will typically find that even the attorney may have missed a few steps along the way! In fact, we have uncovered 24 mistakes/traps that LLC owners face all the time! Many of these mistakes are even made by attorneys, experienced business owners, and very talented people. So if you want to avoid disasters and create a ‘rock solid’ LLC…let’s get started!

While I can’t cover all 24 mistakes and traps in this article, let’s talk about the first 5 mistakes in some detail:

  1. The ‘Fatal Death’ Personal Liability Clause
    A handful of states have a strange option in their Continue reading

Important Documents

Here, you’ll find Important Documents that you’ll find helpful in your investing business.

To download the forms, you’ll need to mouse over the link and “right-click” and “save as”

pdf Iron Clad Addendum (Right Click & Save As)
pdf Assignment of Contract Addendum (Right Click & Save As)
pdf Addendum for “Subject To” Pre-Foreclosure Deal (Right Click & Save As)
pdf Addendum for Wrap-Around Mortgage (Right Click & Save As)
pdf Addendum for Seller Finance (Right Click & Save As)
pdf Addendum for Lease Option (As Buyer) (Right Click & Save As)
pdf Addendum for Lease Option (As Seller) (Right Click & Save As)
pdf Comparison of Purchase Option Techniques (Right Click & Save As)
pdf Letter of Intent (Right Click & Save As)
pdf Standard Contract for Purchase & Sale (Right Click & Save As)

Must-Have Forms

Here, you’ll find must-have forms that you can use when you’re speaking to sellers, evaluating deals, and working with other people in the business.

To download the forms, you’ll need to mouse over the link and “right-click” and “save as”

pdf Seller Call In Worksheet (Right Click & Save As)
pdf Property Selection Grid (Right Click & Save As)
pdf Marketing Tracking Sheet (Right Click & Save As)
pdf Evaluating Creative Financing (Right Click & Save As)
pdf Target Market Worksheet (Right Click & Save As)
pdf Standard Contract for Purchase & Sale (Right Click & Save As)
pdf Joint Venture Agreement (Right Click & Save As)
pdf Acquisition Spreadsheet (Right Click & Save As)
pdf Closing Process/Critical Dates (Right Click & Save As)
pdf Customary Closing Costs (Conventional) (Right Click & Save As)