Short Selling Roundup

Real estate short selling or ‘loss mitigation’ seems to be in the news these days. In a nutshell this is a play involving talking a bank into selling a distressed property at less than what is owed so that the bank suffers a smaller loss than it might in foreclosure and the buyer gets a bargain. CRE Online has an article that outlines it: ‘If you are new to real estate investing and wondering what real estate short sales are: A short sale means getting the bank to accept less than what is owed as payment in full. For example: You find a homeowner in distress who owes $100,000 on a property that is worth $100,000. What do you do? Most real estate investors walk away–unless they know how to use a short sale…’

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Rich Dad: Find Great Real Estate Investments

The Rich Dad site has a great article by Kim Kiyosaki: ‘…Start with a small property � a single family home, a duplex, or 3-plex. Invest a lot of time and a little money in your first deal. Mistakes are part of the process, and you should expect to make them. With each mistake, you become smarter and your next investment easier. So make your mistakes on small properties, learn from the mistakes, and then move on to larger properties. This is also why you want positive cash flow properties: The cash flow can buffer the mistakes you�ll make along the way…’

RD: Uncle Sam Wants You To Start a Business

The Rich Dad site has an article about the tax reasons for starting your own business: ‘…A lot has been said about the many advantages of starting your own business. Let�s start with the tax incentives. It�s no secret to anyone that the tax laws are written to promote business ownership. So do what the rich do. Start your own business and take advantage of the favorable tax advantages that come with owning a business…’Thanks to Lifestyles Unlimited E-zine for this link.

Lifestyles May E-Zine

Lifestyles Unlimited a real estate mentors group based in Houston has its May E-zine out. This issue has some good links in it: What a Billionaire Taught Me About Great Business, a commentary on an excellent book: The Richest Man in Babylon, a little froo-froo stuff (my opinion, I’m a Psychiatrist, but hey if it works for you…) on Being Truly Free and Winning At Life as well as a highly recommended site: MIT’s entire curriculuum is online for anyone here.

Baltimore: Rehabs surge as market is flooded with investors

There is an interesting article in the Baltimore Sun about the number of rehabs going on: ‘…The Baltimore region’s unprecedented boom in housing prices has attracted unprecedented numbers of investors and rehabbers – many to the city, where plenty of homes in poor condition can be had. In the late 1990s, there was one real estate investment club in the area and few members showed up. Now there are three, and they’re all popular. The Mid-Atlantic Real Estate Investors Association alone draws more than 200 people to its monthly meetings at the Pikesville Hilton, where speakers discuss the finer points of financing, foreclosures and tax credits…’

John T. Reed the Anti-Guru, Guru

John T. Reed has an interesting website and real estate investing career. Reed is the author of numerous books on real estate investing, all of which are available only by ordering from his website. One of the more interesting pages on his sprawling, mostly text website is his opinion page on real estate gurus in which he skewers the vast majority of them. He uses relentless logic and evidence gathering to produce sometimes banal, at other times surprising details on many real estate investing gurus. Whether you agree or disagree with him, think he is a crank, overly critical, obsessive, or has scrupulous integrity, his points are thought-provoking.

Lifestyles Unlimited Provides Unique Mentoring Program

Houston based Lifestyles Unlimited has a real estate mentoring and investing program that really works. provides a unique real estate mentoring program that can take most real estate investors to the next level. They have been in business for 15 years and have had countless real estate investing successes from single family houses to 200+ unit apartment complexes. The program is something of a learning laboratory for real estate investing and management that constantly reacts to market conditions and evolves strategies in a way that individual investors cannot.

It accomplishes this with a combination of full-time staff with extraordinarily deep real estate experience and an extensive community of members who remain in touch and assist one another. Education is a constant theme of Lifestyles, something it excels at. Members receive extensive education through seminars, field trips and e-mail lists.

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REJ: Over and Under priced Single Family House Markets

Want to buy an overpriced home? Try Chico, CA which is estimated at 43% over what they are supposed to be. Want a bargain? Salt Lake City, Utah where homes are -23% of what they should be so says The Wall Street Journals Real Estate Journal: …There is no sign of a national “bubble” in home prices, says Richard DeKaser, chief economist at National City, but “there is a growing risk of ‘bubblettes’ in certain places.” Mr. DeKaser studied data for the past 25 years on 99 metropolitan areas to determine price levels that would be expected for each city based on such factors as population density, incomes, interest rates and past premiums or discounts compared with other parts of the country. He then looked at the difference between those expected levels and actual house prices in 2004…’

TW: Small-Scale Property Management Software

Tech Watch has an article on rental property management software from Quicken: Quicken Rental Property Manager, launched earlier this year, offers a simplified and relatively inexpensive alternative to full-scale property management solutions. This program for Windows PCs�which offers a bare-bones approach to property management for tracking the income, expenses, and all the tax-related activity�is the first of its kind to meet the needs of small-scale property management at an affordable price. (The software is available in CD-ROM or via an online download for $99.99.) �It�s designed for those who handle from one to 10 properties, but it can support as many as 50 rental units,� says Andrew Reback, Intuit group product manager for Quicken Rental Property Manager…’ Other ‘sophisticated’ (and more expensive) solutions mentioned in the article are: Yardi System Inc. Residential Property Management, W.G. Software Inc. Tenant File, and MRI Residential

Getting Started with Rental Property

So you’ve been thinking of owning and running rental property, or maybe even renting out the house you live in now instead of selling it? You’ve talked it over with your friends or loved ones and they think you are crazy to try. You get the standard discouragements like: When you are a landlord you get: ______

a) Called all the time. b) Your place destroyed. c) Sued.

d) Difficulties finding a renter. e) Taken to the cleaners. f) All of the above.