The Wall Street Journal recently had an article about people hoping to get offers on their houses, burying statues of St. Joseph in their yards.  I am not sure exactly how having the Saint buried in the yard brings in the buyers, and I haven’t seen any hard data on the effectiveness of this program, but…..whatever works!

 Here is the article if you are interested in reading.  WSJ - When it Takes a Miracle

Best,

John

This the second in a series of posts about the Six biggest
mistakes investors make with Hard Money
loans.

Mistake #2: Not Getting Pre-Approved

I liken this mistake to the guy that
shows up to his construction job
without a hammer on his toolbelt.
Simple, yes. Stupid, yes. But
having a pre-approval letter
from a reputable lender in your
brief case at all times is a must!

It’s a tool many don’t bother using,
yet it can easily be the difference
between you getting the deal or
losing it. Just like in marketing, to be
successful, you’ve got to have
an arsenal of things to bring leads
in the door, not just one. The more
tools you have to help build credibility
the more deals you’re going to get.

Not to mention the confidence of
knowing that you have the funding
secured. No more second guessing
yourself, before you make that
final offer to the seller. Or how about
your competition sitting there matching
your offer. Who’s the seller going to go
with, the one saying he has funding, or
you, the professional with the letter
showing proof of funding?

Until next time,

Adam
P.S. To get a Pre-Approval letter now, go to www.WeFundHouses.com,
click on “Get Your Pre-Approval Now”, and voila, one more tool
to give you an unfair advantage…

One of the biggest keys to success in Real Estate investing is building a team of professionals around you that you can trust.  There are so many pieces to the puzzle, that no one really does it all themselves, you need to surround yourself with reliable, talented people that make your business operate at its best.  In any business this is true, but none more than real estate.  Finding reliable, honest, contractors is tough!  But once you find one, don’t you hang on to them like your life depended on it.  You bet!  The same should hold true for the other people that you have supporting your investing efforts.   Finding people you trust to help with marketing, legal issues, administration, and last but not least financing, are all very important to your success.  I think it helps to think about it that way and always be working to put your best team on the field every day.

At www.wefundhouses.com we want to be your go to player for financing your real estate needs.  On our site you can easily access everything you need to get your deals done fast.  Sign up for pre-approvals, apply for funding, or just use the wealth of resources we have for free on the site.

 Thanks for reading and Happy Halloween!

John

A recent article in Forbes magazine listed Ft. Worth as one of the best cities for real estate deals.  Noting that Ft. Worth was undervalued and affordable, and hadn’t experienced a huge post boom price correction, but was expecting acceleration in sales volumes, which would make this an ideal time to invest.  For the list of cities, and the entire article click the following link Forbes - Best Cities for Real Estate Deals.

 John

In a recent speech in Florida, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan expressed the opinion that he thought the worst of the subprime problems were over.  If you want to read an article about it you can find the link here. 

 John

Two words: Don’t be.

Everyday I get questions from other investors like: “With the big credit crunch in the mortgage markets, am I going to be able to sell my houses?”, “Should I look at holding my properties since there are fewer buyers out there?”, and on and on.

All of these are legitimate questions and astute real estate investors won’t ignore what’s going on. However the most successful ones will look for the abundant opportunities to capitalize on the current situation, especially if you live in Texas. Unlike many other areas in the nation, Texas has not experienced the significant market highs over the past few years which are now being hammered in many coastal markets.

If you’re an investor in Texas consider yourself lucky that you are faced with more opportunity than you can handle. Banks are about to be lining up to ask - no, BEG you to make offers on their REO’s. My advice, get you’re funding in place and start making offers to the banks.

Check out this blurb in the latest edition of Business 2.0. It’s a study done by Moody’s on what they think are some of the best real estate markets now.

And, if you haven’t already, don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter. We’ll keep you updated on what we’re seeing in the Texas market along with the best strategies to capitalize on the abundant opportunities. You can sign up at www.WeFundHouses.com.

-Adam

New Rules of Real Estate 2007 How to play the real estate bounce-back The housing market may be melting down, but Business 2.0 worked with Moody’s Economy.com to identify 10 cities that have just about hit rock bottom - and offer opportunities for savvy investors to get in while the getting’s good. By Paul Kaihla, Business 2.0 Magazine senior writer

1 of 10

Dallas-Fort Worth

Projected median sales prices for single-family homes:

Q1 2008: $151,930

Q4 2009: $161,690

Growth rate: 6.4 percent

The Metroplex, as locals call the Dallas-Fort Worth region, is smoking, adding jobs at twice the national rate. Better yet, those new jobs are concentrated in well-paying fields like banking, advertising, and health care. Dallas-Fort Worth sits at the center of the Interstate 35 corridor, a “megapolitan” galaxy of urban development that Virginia Tech researchers estimate will add 6.4 million new people and 2.8 million units of housing over the next two decades. Dallas also serves as the North American headquarters for international high-tech employers like Nokia and Ericsson. All of this makes Dallas one of the nation’s nine most global metros - cities that are hubs for international trade and foreign investment - according to an analysis by Moody’s Economy.com.

Dallas has largely avoided the boom-and-bust cycle, which is one reason this market is on track to post the best returns on housing of any major U.S. city during the next two years. An added bonus: The region’s service sector has escaped the collateral damage that comes when the bubble bursts and equity-driven spending dries up.

Before Adam and I founded We Fund Houses, I was looking to get some deals funded last year and I ran into a term I hadn’t seen before on some other hard money lender’s sites. That term was “interest reserve”. It sounded harmless, but when I talked to them on the phone and found out what it really was, it was far from harmless.

Interest reserves are a way that lenders force you to borrow more money on your loan as a hold back to pay the monthly payments. It may sound great to think you don’t have to worry about the payments, but in practical terms the reserve does two things that cost YOU the borrower more. One, you have to borrow more money than loans without interest reserves. And if you are borrowing more, guess what, the points and payments are higher! Second, that reserve counts toward the loan amount on the LTV. So not only are your payments going to be higher, but you will be bringing more out of pocket to the closing table to get your deals done too!

Interest reserves are something you won’t find at We Fund Houses. We are interested in building a relationship with our borrowers and becoming their primary funding source for their real estate investments. Not nickel and diming them to death. If you are interested in giving us a try, check out our website at http://www.wefundhouses.com/ there you’ll find a links to get the process started, as well as useful tips for real estate investors in our newsletter and e-courses.

Best,

John Winslow

Over the next few days I’ll be posting comments about 6 common mistakes or misconceptions too many investors seem to have about hard money loans for residential investing. I hope you’ll find them helpful, and don’t forget to watch for our other posts about rehabbing fast for maximum profit!

Mistake #1: Not Using Hard Money Lenders

When I first started my real estate investing
business years ago, I was not at all enthusiastic
about borrowing money from hard money lenders.

Let’s face it, at first blush, the rates seem pretty
high compared to banks, and aren’t people who
have less than perfect credit the only ones
that get these types of loans?

Well, it took me a lot of time trying to find
other sources & the painful experience
of working with banks before I came to
the realization that ALL good investors come to
quickly in their business:

IT’S NOT THE COST OF THE MONEY,
ITS THE ACCESS TO THE MONEY THAT
MATTERS!

Nothing new there, but it’s the truth. Too many
people spend so much time trying to find the absolute
cheapest source of money to fund their deals. If you
quick-turn real estate, it doesn’t take you long to realize
that there is actually not a very big cost difference
in using conventional funds vs. asset backed loans (ie
hard money loans). Not to mention the fact that many
of the rehab deals you’ll buy won’t meet the criteria
for conventional lending simply due to the condition
of the property.

So the question is, what do you want to spend your
time doing, looking for funding or looking for deals
that are going to put big fat checks in your pocket??

Asset backed loans are a great way to have a
consistent source of funds to grow your business
quickly, and help you focus on your most important
activities.

Until next time,

Adam Arnette

www.WeFundHouses.com

P.S. If you haven’t already, make sure you sign up for our chock-full of info, no-fluff newsletter at www.WeFundHouses.com

A recent article in the Dallas Morning News talked about an economic forecast showing that although nationwide home prices have been under pressure, it seems that the Dallas market, for a number of reasons, is likely to dodge the home price decline.

Read the entire article here.

 -John