FAQ: Answers To The Most Asked Questions - Start Here

Hello everyone!!

This is my first post. I have just signed up and received the "Profit from Real Estate Right Now" and "Be a Real Estate Millionaire" books which I am currently reading. My reason for getting in you ask? Well, here's my situation. I live in Michigan and have a small business which is strongly connected to the automotive industry. I'm still struggling along with the business, but with the declining economy and struggling auto industry you might be surprised to know I'm looking for other means of income. My credit's in the crapper and my bank isn't going to loan me any money anytime soon. I have two (yes two) mortgages in addition to the original promissory note owned by a relative which of course puts my original house "upside down" according to lender terms.

So here's more good news, I've been separated for a good period of time and live in a friend’s house and pay rent. He has filed Chapter 13 and the house I'm currently living in is in foreclosure. I see an opportunity here but with no credit it seems all but impossible for me to purchase this property. Additionally, I didn't know about the situation until I recently got the foreclosure notice taped to my door. It was to be sold by auction today (3/4/09) but I'm told that because of the President's real estate moratorium the sale has been delayed until the moratorium has expired or lifted. I thing that's within the next couple of weeks. So here I am with an opportunity in my lap and no credit and I don't know what to do. It seems time is of the essence. Any suggestions?

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Dan

Thank You, Anita!

Yes, I am here now and I just want to know,
Do I really need a Real Estate agent? Or is it just to help you find
properties more easily or more of them or what? Because from what I'm
reading in "Profit from Real Estate RIGHT NOW, it seems you don't necessarily
need one. (or are there things we as an Investor just can't do?)
Also, where does the Agent make his/her profit or commision?
I didn't see that in the book so clearly.

Please someone set me straight. I am a newbie here and am very
excited about getting started!! Thank you ahead of time for your reply.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Michael8

I have been trying everything I can think of to get started. I have my room all organized, business phone, a pretty good team lined up ie, carpenter, painter etc. The only thing I can't seem to get my hands on is money. I can't find anyone out there who will loan me money. I'm not getting the no money down thing. How do you buy a house without any money. And keep it for rental envestment. Any comments will be taken seriously. Thank you for providing this site for us newbies. Janet Duty

Today I found a home and based on my research the owner may be dead and without family. I got no relatives from my research. She's 91, the home has never been mortgaged, and the place is unkempt. It seems like the home was built and inhabited by the original owners. I'm new but there's no records on this house! It has a BBL number and no tax are due. I called the home number I received from my research and it kept ringing. Most older people have older phone service without voicemail. The phone is still active because it was ringing. I don't know if I'm right (I hope I'm wrong) but I think the owner recently died without family. IF that's the case, how can I go about buying such a home? Thank you.

I recently read Dean's new book. Any pre recorded messages that are in general besides what is listed in his book that have worked for anyone? Right now I am trying to build a buyers list before I do anything else.

Have just begun to sink my teeth into Deans book. Very interested in foreclosures. If I go to local banks, would their REO dept happily give out a listing of bank owned properties they are looking to move?

1st time on site just listened to the infomercial. My question is if we have bill collectors ringing the phones obviously our credit is bad how can you purchase anything nowadays with bad credit. I don't have a house but i tried for years but not a good score and don't have the money to put down.

Anita,
What do you think of using Dean's Coaching? Have you used them?
Alfred

I just got the books. I am 22 and understand very little bout real estate. could you give me any tips to help me jump start

This is just a suggestion about the site. First of we all know this is a great site for newbies,but wouldn't it be better if our new comments would show up first on the pages instead of the old. We see the old dates first,it would be more helpful to have the new questions/comments first,in order to elaborate quicker or help one another if the first things we see are the new questions and comments. Does anyone agree,is this just a suggestion....

I agree it should work in reverse. All the new stuff should be first not last.

HEY DG FAMILY IF U WANT TO SHARPEN YOUR TOOLS,THEN DEANS BLOG ARE THE WAY TO GO.I AM A NWBIE LIVING IN BROOKLYN NY.MY BOOKS JUST CAME IN THE POST OFFICE.AND I AM FIRED UP.LISTEN TO THE BLOGS AND FOLLOW THE DEAN OF REI.
WS

Hi my name is Dion and this is my first post. I have a couple lined up to lease my house for 1yr with the option to buy after. At the one year point we are planning on giving them back 50% of the lease money so they can use that as a down payment. We will have a positive cash flow of $150 per month during the lease period. They have agreed to give us our full asking price of $95,000 at the one year period, using their share of the 50% of monthly lease payments. My wife and I are very serious about getting into real estate investing and so we are wondering is now the time to get an LLC and do the lease through that? Second, our next house we are buying is a good buy on a cul de sac in a nice neighborhood. We are planning on buying this house, living in it fixing it up and either renting or doing another lease option like we are doing now, then moving on. Is there a time limit that we have to stay in this house (capital gains etc...)? Do we need to transfer house #2 into an LLC then sell, lease, rent etc... before moving on to #3?

We are very new but yet very excited to be controlling our own financial destiny.

Thanks to all for any response - it is greatly appreciated

hello everyone,
My name is Hank and am one semester from graduating college. I have read Dean's book and ready to get started soon. I was wondering where i should start? Would foreclosures be a good first step? Please help me out with this one. Thank you all

Hi everyone my name is Hank Robertson and am one semester from graduating college and getting ready to start my career in real estate. I have purchased and read Deans book How to become a millionaire.Where should i start? I was thinking foreclosures may be a good starting point? Have any ideas? How did all of you start? Thanks to all who help

hi
am very new to this thing, i just started to read the book and i am eager to start. i just don't how, right now i have no money and poor credit. i have been looking at some duplexes lately. can someone please explain to me in simple terms how i go by securing this place with no money down( this place is been advertised by a real estate agency. thanks

have been looking for purchase agreements,iee contracts and disclosure statements. Being new at this i cant seem to locate them any help. have a house to sell quickly.gonna do some dean work

Ok so I got the book yesterday and have read the whole thing ( I couldnt put it down) I am still trying too asborb it all and going back over reading and re reading chapters. I went through this website from top to bottom before I even bought the book and so I was wondering is what the very next step was for the rest of you. Once you put the book down what was the first thing you done to get started. I know everyone is probably in the same boat but Imma say it anyways...I also have NO credit No money and Im just wondering what work for some of you guys.

Hello does anyone have information on hard money. hard equity lenders in nj?

thanks

I bought my first property for 39k with a tax value of 95k two weeks ago then found out about Dean's new book. I have setup the property with a pm company who will get between 750 to 800 with no problem. I'm looking at a positive cash flow of $400 a month. There are so many REO properties in the area I want to be aggressive while they are low. Does tax value equal equity? How do I start with no money?

Thanks,
Andrew

I'm another newbie to PMI and blogging. This will be my first Blog ever! I was reading (I believe one of your blogs) about bird dogging and my computer locked up or ran out of batteries. I don't remember where I was reading it. It was sweet and simple, right to the point, but a longer Blog...........

Can you help me? I'd love to finish reading it.

Thanks!

deb

Hello,

My name is Nick. I just signed up this morning, although I've been a reader of this message board for a couple weeks. I ordered Dean's "Think a little different" books a while back and to be honest, just got around to reading them and found them amazing. I am only 20 years old and I don't have time for College as I manage/develop artists/bands and a lot of my time is spent touring, among other things. This is my plan to live the life I've always wanted to, I guess I just needed some help and reason to keep at this. Reading this board and the success stories along with the support and friendliness on here was just amazing to me. I have a real estate background and a decent understanding of the foreclosure market, but I guess the issues I have after reading the books are what I can do and what the rules are where I have to get started in NJ. I currently don't have any money to invest but Dean promises ways around it and I look forward to hearing about them in his new book. With that said, thank you for having me. I'm very young and when I get into things, I become obsessed with them, so I feel I could make a lot of money doing this.

If anyone has any advice or tips for me to get going, I'd really appreciate it.

Thank you!

I remember reading in the book "Be a Real Estate Millionaire" that one can collaborate as a middleman between a buyer and the seller and collect a previously agreed upon fee. The book went on to mention a success story on page 208 of some college student who was one of Dean's students going on to make $11,000 off of his first deal like this. Sounds good, but could you end up being charged with "Acting as a real estate broker without a license" for a deal like this?

Hello! My husband and I are ready to invest in real estate! I have found a seller who dramically reduced her house from 157k to 148k because she is moving to Arizona for a fresh start. The house has 4 bedrooms and 2 bedrooms. There is a new contruction for shopping center going on in the area. She is using her va loans and cant do lease options, or deed or anything. She hopes to move to Arizona in April this year. Any suggestion?

Can anyone give me a few pointers regarding enhancing my AFF website. I would like to target both sellers and users with the site. I am considering put a page for buyers on my site. Does the make sense to do?

Also is it permissible to copy info from other websites on to my website as long as I credit the source where the information was obtained?

Lastly, does anyone have a AFF website that I can view?

First, let me say I truly believe everything that Dean says. This is a historic period for real estate investors. I believe that NEVER in the history of the U.S. has so much real estate been available at deep discount as now.

I'm a 47 year old CEO of a crumbling business. I have spent my entire retirement savings and personal savings trying to save my business in the telecommunications sector. I'm a great manager and have a good head for business. I managed my company through the dot com collapse, but now, I've lost too many of my customers, and my business will fail. I've accepted that.

My personal credit is good today. Ten years ago, I took a personal hit and filed bankruptcy. Over the last 10 years, I've rebuilt my credit, and now my FICO is around 700.

But, I'm heavily in debt again, to the tune of about $70,000. My business has operated at a loss for nearly 4 years now, while I struggled to meet existing contracts. Now, those contracts will expire, and it's time to move on.

How can I buy take advantage of today's real estate market, under these conditions?

-Jay

I haven't even finished Dean's book yet, but already fired up! But I'm not quite sure how to get started. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

This is my first time on this site, and I'm as green (inexperienced) as they come, but I guess you just pick up a newspaper, write the phone # off of a "for sale" sign, or just stop and ask what the price is.
I'm so broke I can't afford to pay attention, BUT I WILL get the hang of all this, or die tryin'.
I haven't even finished the book yet. I came on this site lookin' for a "list of due dlilgence", have NO idea what it even is, but I'll find one, and learn how to use the dadgum thing, just 'cause I simply have no choice.
I guess what I'm sayin' is, trust in God, sink or swim, necessity IS the mother of invention, you WILL figure it out, just as I will, with alot of determination AND help from here, and above.
I feel like I'm in over my head, don't know how to swim, and the bill collectors are all on the bank holdin' guns, waitin' for me to surface cuz they need a target, and they figger I'm it. Got some NEWS fer 'em.
Ain't happenin'.
Good luck and good fortune to ya son.

The Purchase Agreement that is given by this website has a part called "Prorations" it reads....

"There shall be prorated between seller and buyer as of closing all (a) real estate taxes and installments of assessments as shown on the latest available tax duplicate; (b) interest on encumbrances assumed by buyer and (c) rents and operating expenses; with buyer assuming liability for such items following closing. security and/or damage deposits, advance rentals or considerations involving future lease credits held by seller shall be transferred to buyer at closing without proration."

Can someone translate this for me?

Thanks.

These "pro-rations" are just closing adjustments that will either affect the buyer or seller, as I understand it. For instance, say the prop taxes for the home you are trying to purchase run form July 1 thry June 30 (fiscal year). Say the taxes are $3,600/annum. Your closing takes place on Sept 30, and the SELLER paid the 1/2 year taxes that was due July 1 for $1,800.

Since the closing occurs 9/30 you would be responsible for the taxes from 10/1 thru 12/31. That means you would owe 3 months worth = $900 as a credit to the seller since seller paid the entire $1,800. (I am rounding the # of days) but you get the idea.

Part b) sounds like accrued interest on the existing mtge that the buyer may owe. I suppose this is the accrued interest based on when the seller last made their mtge payment. If they made their monthly pmt on 9/1 and you are closing on 9/15, you would owe 15 days of interest that the seller paid. This would be a credit to the seller.

Part c)are only applicable if you are buying a rental property that is occuppied. For instance say you buy a duplex that has 2 renters. Say you bought this prop on 9/15, and both tenants have paid their rents to the seller for the full month of Sept. This would mean that the seller gets to keep 14 days worth of the rents and you get a "credit" for the remaining 16 days at closing because the seller rec'd rent for the full mo of Sept and you NOW own the prop as of 9/15. As far as sec deposits, that too is given as a credit against the purchase price becuase you are now assuming these liabilites and are responsible to pay back to the tenants' sec deposits when thye vacate the premises as per their lease arrangement (less any expenses they may incur i.e. damage of any kind, not returning the apt in same condition as they rec'd it, etc).

I wouldn't get too caught up with this area too much, I assume the credits to seller and buyer are calculated by the attys, title co, etc. Just make sure you ask questions and get suitable answers.

Neil