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You may be one of the unfortunate home owners who finds themselves between a tight financial place, unable to afford your house payment and tempted to respond to those “We Buy Houses” yard signs. Continue reading
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If you’re asking, “Should I short sale my house?” you’re not alone. Many facing foreclosure are asking the same question.
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As we discussed in the previous post short sales are becoming a more attractive investment strategy so know how to buy a short sale and what to look for is equally important. As long as we are on the topic lets go ahead and look at what makes a worthy short sale candidate. Continue reading
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According to Realty Trac 29% of homes in the United States are under water. That means that more than a quarter of the home owners out there owe more than what their house is even worth. This makes short sale buying a real option. Continue reading
Let the Cash Flow-
“Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man”
-Benjamin Franklin
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that some of the big US banks are beginning to open up to doing more commercial loans. This is great news for us as investors because buying and holding rental property tends to take money and lots of it. If you have more than five mortgages you will no longer qualify for a traditional mortgage. At that point you will be required to take out commercial loans in order to hold your properties and continue to grow your real estate investing business. There are many ways to invest in Oklahoma City real estate without any of your own cash (and I would love to share them) but you will not be able to build an empire of passive income via rental homes without a little help from the bankers. 2011 has all the makings for a great year for investors in OKC and across the country. Get your 2011 goals set and put a plan in place to achieve them. How many cash flowing properties do you plan to buy this year? How do intend to find, finance, and rent them? Leave your comments and questions below. I will be happy to answer any real estate related questions.
Happy New Year!
There was a man who loved Jesus so much that he decided to do something special for Jesus’ birthday. Since he was a candy maker, he decided to use his talents to make a special candy to honor Jesus: So he designed the fist candy cane.
If the candy cane is held upright, it is in the shape of a shepherd’s staff, which the shepherd uses as he watches over his sheep. Jesus is our shepherd. If the candy cane is turned up side down, it becomes the letter “J” for Jesus.
The scriptures tell us that by Jesus’ stripes we are healed. Jesus was beaten and stripes were put upon His back when He was crucified in payment for out sins. So the candy cane was made with red and white stripes to represent the blood of Jesus, which washes away our sins and makes us pure and white as snow. Once bold stripe represents our belief in one God who is father of us all. The three fine stripes represent the Trinity, one God who has revealed Himself to us in three ways: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
There are a lot of candy canes in the stores today made with different colors but they are not true candy canes unless they are red and white and have on bold stripe and three thin stripes.
Have a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year!!
PS If you have not started making your goals for next year….. Why the heck not? Take a little time over the next few days and make the goals, put them on paper, and create and action plan to achieve them. Your dreams are nothing but dreams until you make a place and take consistent action to make them a reality.
Remember, if Christmas isn’t found in your heart, you won’t find it under a tree.”
~ Charlotte Carpenter.
Well here we are 9 big days until Christmas day. Are you ready? I really love this time of year; there just seems to be something magical about it. This weekend I get the privilege of watching my three beautiful kids while my wife scrambles around and takes care of the last minute Christmas shopping. Personally, I think my wife got the short end of that stick. I am actually looking forward to it with all the “Downtown in December” stuff going on. Did you know they are offering free river cruises this weekend? You get a free cup of hot chocolate while you enjoy all the Christmas lights around down town Oklahoma City. I may take the kiddo’s on that and then hit the outdoor ice skating park. Well, on second thought I better stay far from the ice but the sledding may be fun. Oklahoma has come such a long ways in the last fifteen years it is unbelievable. Well happy last minute shopping & don’t forget to pick up that cash flowing cow I mean house for your spouse. You kids college education may depend on it.
News9.com
OKLAHOMA CITY — Real estate experts have said although there are fewer houses on the market this time of year, winter may be the best time to buy a house. And Oklahoma City is one of the best places to purchase a new home.
Home buyers may get a better deal during the winter months because interest rates are typically lower, sellers are very motivated, and there’s less competition from other buyers. But where people buy homes also makes a big difference.
Local Market Monitor, a real estate forecasting group, ranked the five best markets for prospective home buyers in 2011, and two cities in Oklahoma were near the top of the list. Oklahoma City was number two, followed by Tulsa at number three. The top market for buyers was San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos area in California.
The researchers at LMM placed Oklahoma City at number two because the average home price is $156,948 and expected to increase 1 percent in 2011. Researchers said in this dismal market, any increase in value is good news. Tulsa’s average home price is $151,384 and expected to remain flat in the next year.
The five worst markets for housing are:
This should inspire all of the Oklahoma City fence sitters to get off their duff and go do something. We are the Sooners remember- Go grab some land. We have a great Real Estate market here in Oklahoma City Oklahoma and should be taking advantage of it. With the cold and Christmas upon us there is very little competition out there. I personally plan on adding at least one more property to my portfolio before the year’s end. What are you going to do? If you need a little help finding that perfect investment property- join our VIP Buyers list at HotHouseOK.com
It is time to go Christmas shopping.
“To conquer oneself is the best and noblest victory; to be vanquished by one’s own nature is the worst and most ignoble defeat”.
Plato
Effective December 31 2010 Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency will close the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program waiting list. OHFA currently has over 12,000 families waiting to receive rental assistance and they continue to receive about 1400 new applications each month. The average wait time for these families is three to five years. Anybody in need of this assistance must submit their application prior to 12-31-2010. I would hope that after five years of time most of these applicants would be able to pull themselves out of their financial hardship and avoid the assistance altogether.
Call me crazy but—this sounds like a huge incentive for sec 8 tenants to do whatever they can to keep from being kicked off the program. Once they lose their free or deeply discounted rent they will have a long wait before they can get back on. I have had great success renting homes in Oklahoma City to Section 8 tenants. Another advantage is your rents are guaranteed to come in and be deposited right into your account. That’s right- You don’t have to go chase rents down the first of every month. Some may complain about the inspections and the high standards that the program will hold you to. I see it as a blessing for this only helps me to stay on top of my investments rather than letting them rot. If you would like more advice or information on how to take advantage of the section 8 program please feel free to contact us at anytime.
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover”.
Mark Twain
Buy and Mold – I mean hold
There are multiple real estate investing strategies out there. You do not need to do them all but pick two or three and become an expert. Every investor should utilize land lording as one of their niches. No, you won’t get the big fatty Michael more paychecks like you do in rehabbing but you get a steady Cash flow, appreciation, debt reduction, and tremendous tax advantageous. Ok ok I know, not even Donald Trump gets Mickey Moore size checks but the Trump does buy and hold.
Bird dogging, wholesaling, and rehabbing are great-but what happens when you take a break or go on vacation? That’s right; your income goes by by. I don’t know about you, but I never set out to build a business just to have another job. I want residual cash flow poring like Niagara falls into my account month after month regardless of what the heck I am doing at that time. It does not matter if I am working, playing catch with my three year old son (he throws to hard I’m scared), laying on the beach, or playing Chinese checkers in my underwear- I want to be paid-period. Buying to hold is one of the best way to accomplish this and to build the life that we all really want. Yes, we all want it but most are to chicken, lazy, or to dang complaisant to make it happen. Don’t let that lazy, yellow, broke wuss bag be you.
Leveraging is one of the things that makes buy and hold so powerful. You can buy a hundred thousand dollar house with a 20,000 down payment (or 0 down) and then use OPM for the balance. You then use OPM (tenants) to pay off that balance. You now have a 100,000 dollar house for 20k. Now imagine that you bought that same house from a motivated seller for 60k with 12k down (20%). Now you bought that same 100k house for 12k. Are you starting to get the big picture? When is the last time you bought 100k worth of stock at a 40% discount and used OPM for 80% of the purchase? I bet never- that just does not happen. With real estate you can do that and much more all day long. As a matter of fact I am closing on a nice town house in NW Oklahoma City this week at a 40% discount using none of my own money.
Now you do need to use some caution with leveraging; it is a double edge sword. Leverage abuse is the number one cause of investor death. Keep this in mind and never forget- if you’re paying more than 70% of the home’s value you are not investing. Gambling, collecting, speculating, flagellating- maybe- but you are not investing. You have to leave a bare minimum of 30% equity in the house. This serves as a buffer in case the housing market drops or if you need to sell fast for any reason. It is also hard to create a strong positive cash flow if you are over leveraged. Use the sword- just don’t cut off your own stinkin legs.
If you want access to some the hottest Oklahoma Real Estate deals before it is ever leaked to the general market…visit http://HotHouseOK.com
Dan Romriell