Results tagged “money” from boozwatt.com

As a real estate investor, I’ve done it, seen it, or heard it all. The news is filled with doomsday predictions daily, and Real Estate investors are bailing left and right. The good news is, there is still money to be made in real estate, and with less and less real estate investors in the market, there’s even better deals to be had, and more money to be made than before. 

The number one question we're continuously asked by new investors is “how do I get started investing in real estate without a bunch of money in the bank?” It’s a legitimate question. Let’s face it, most people that begin investing in real estate more than likely aren’t happy with their current financial situation in life, and are looking for and expecting more. Therefore, most of those people don’t have $10,000 - $40,000 in the bank to spend on their first property. Even if you happen to have excess money in the bank, maybe you don’t want to use it to acquire your investment properties. Whatever the situation, investing in real estate with no money down is a very important part of growing your real estate empire. 

There are countless changes, upgrades, and updates that can be made to any given property. What separates successful, long term real estate investors from the rest is the ability to maximize their resources (time and money), and in turn, their profits. This has become more important due to the relatively thin profit margins available in today’s real estate market compared the margins available over much of the past decade. Thinner profit margins leave a much smaller margin of error. In order to assure a much greater chance of success on a flip property, it’s absolutely crucial to maximize every ounce of your available resources for your flip project. No matter their timeline or their bankroll, investors doing flips always have limited resources because time equals money due to mounting carrying costs, and the more money expended on renovation equals less available profit on the back end. Therefore, it is crucial for each real estate investor to understand how to maximize their profits from a flip project. So let’s get started. You’ve followed the formula here and the tips and suggestions here, and you’ve identified a potential flip property. Now on to the planning stage.

I recently wrote an article elsewhere on the site discussing investment strategy as it relates to finding potential rental properties. In that article I discussed the inverse relationship between rental properties and renovation / “flip” projects, and I received a lot of emails asking for elaboration on the subject. After clearing it with our company’s other lead partner, I’ve decided to answer the call for more elaboration, and describe in detail our company’s investment strategy. While you’ve already learned elsewhere on this site how our company evaluates “flip” properties and rental properties (see link above), this is how we put it all together. When I was starting out in real estate, one thing I looked everywhere for was real world success stories, and how individuals and investment companies got where they were. My thought was, if not necessary, there’s no reason to re-invent the wheel. The problem is, a majority of the time you can only find that type of information in books, and I didn’t feel like having to pay for it. Secondarily, I’ve always wondered, if you’re so good at real estate investing, why are you writing books instead? But I digress. Here is our strategy, free of charge, to the loyal readers of boozwatt.com:

Flipping properties isn’t the same business as it used to be. Even as short as two years ago, “lipstick” alterations (meaning cosmetic changes such as paint and etc.) would yield massive returns. There’s no question that the market has changed, however. Discussions about the changing real estate market are on every news channel, every real estate website, and even within these pages of boozwatt.com. Flipping properties has become more of an art form now. It requires not only the transformation of a formerly ugly property to something of uniformly appealing taste (appealing to uniform taste is harder than it sounds), but also an efficient maximization of renovation dollars. The reality of today’s real estate market means that the margins on flipping properties is smaller. A prudent investor must buy for a good price, spend efficiently on the renovation, and then list below the market price in order to sell quickly and avoid carrying costs, which can become devastating the longer a home goes unsold. 

Today’s foreclosure market is absolutely record setting. Recent results have shown that foreclosures have increased 93% compared to last year. NINETY THREE PERCENT!! That’s insane. This is good news for real estate investors for two reasons. 1) A majority of these properties used to be on the regular market before they went into foreclosure, soaking up buyer interest and padding the inventory numbers, thus the foreclosure process will remove them from the pool, and 2) more foreclosures equals more deals. The second part is the obvious one. More foreclosures equals more deals. Duh. But what isn’t so obvious is the impact. Not only are there more deals to be had, due to foreclosures, but there are less investors to take advantage of these deals. 

There are obviously a countless number of ways to invest money these days, however one is so fascinating we decided to test it out here at boozwatt.com. It’s called credit card arbitrage. It involves utilizing funds garnered from no interest credit card offers, and investing the money in various traditional avenues. Here’s how it works....

Plan, Do, Achieve - Business Success. Action planning can help you get there fast!

Let me ask you three questions - Does business success planning sound more fun than business planning? To be successful in business, do you need to take action? Do you take action more quickly and easily when you are having fun, or when you know that your action will make a difference? Answering 'yes' to any of the above questions indicates that you are ready for business success planning - an action-oriented approach to help build your business faster. The driving force behind this is the thought that you can move faster and with more ease when you focus on doing what you enjoy and when you understand key requirements to grow your business. This eliminates the worry and loss of time that results when you have no business success plan.

A wonderful way to diversify your investment portfolio is to learn forex trading. Many new investors have discovered the world of foreign exchange trading to be an exciting new challenge. One that is filled with rewards that are beyond what they were achieving as stock traders. Currency forex trading is a great way to branch out into new investments. Experience a completely new world of investing by stepping outside of the chaotic domestic economy.

Napoleon Hill, the author of Think and Grow Rich, believes that a person does not have to be a genius to become rich. Any person can become wealthy if he thinks positively and has a deep desire to achieve his goal. Positive Thinking: You must see your financial dreams and know that you will be able to attain them. You must already own them.

The 12 Rules of How to Avoid Losing and Start Making Money from the Stock Market.

RULE 1: WHY DO YOU INVEST? Make more money, this is the answer to most people. If your reason is to make more money, then ask yourself these three questions:

Aside from the implementation of your actual business strategy, there is nothing more important than being aware of, and utilizing, one of the greatest provisions of the Internal Revenue Code -- the 1031 exchange. The 1031 exchange, named, intuitively, after its provision in the Code itself, allows for the deferral of income tax on gains from property held for investment purposes by allowing those gains to be exchanged for similar (“like kind”) investment properties. I highlight “deferred” because it doesn’t allow an investor to avoid tax on the gains, but it allows tax on those gains to be deferred for as long as they are being held in a qualifying property. The great part about the 1031 exchange is that you can use it over and over again, as many times as you want. Therefore, you can defer taxes on your gains theoretically for your entire life. There’s also the potential, with some creative tax planning from your accountant, to never have to pay these deferred taxes, if you set it up in a way to pass it on to your children or even a charity (don’t quote me on this -- definitely check with your accountant on this one). Either way, the 1031 exchange is the single greatest gift the government has ever handed real estate investors. So, let’s see how it works:

Congratulations to Stewart Hsu, at stewarthsu.com, the winner of the October 17 article submission contest!! The article offers some very good advice on the beginning stages of real estate investing. His article, “How to Get Started Investing in Real Estate,” is featured in full below. Enjoy!

An extensive and well diversified portfolio of income generating real estate is a must for the well-rounded, successful real estate investor. While asset building itself comes from the profits garnered through various forms of flipping including investing in foreclosures, the inevitable end game for all real estate investors should be the funneling of those profits into an ever increasing holding of rental properties. For example, the strategy our company uses is a rather aggressive blend of asset generation through flipping various properties, and then a direct funneling of a set percentage of those funds into income generating rental properties. The percentage itself changes with the market.