Phase Two -
More Real Estate

Investment Information

Let's continue our quest for real estate investment information.

First, get your most recent Sunday Newspaper. If you do not have one and it's too late in the week to get one, go to your local library or pull it up online. Most Newspaper companies have websites, which will allow access to their recent prints.

You should find quite a bit of real estate investment information in the newspapers.

Go to the Real Estate section. First go near the end of this section and look for "Money to Lend" offers. These are Hard Money and Private Money Lenders. Sometimes these ads are scattered throughout the Real Estate section.

Make note of these lenders.

Next, slowly look through the "Properties For Sale" area of the Real Estate section. Make note of properties listed as "foreclosure," "Handyman Special," "Investor's Dream," "Bank Owned," and other ads meant to imply a discounted property.

Compare those property prices to the prices of properties which are obviously near or at full retail price.

Some may not have the address or price listed. Simply call and ask the seller the asking price and address...nothing more. If asked, simply tell them you are a cash buyer doing a little research and if interested, you will contact them.

One by one, enter the addresses of the "implied" discounted properties into your SiteX.com account.

For my areas, SiteX estimates are higher than my appraisals. But I am only looking for estimated value, so SiteX is just fine. You may want to enter your home or the address of a property with a known value, into SiteX. This way you will know if SiteX estimated values are generally higher or lower in your areas of interest.

To determine if the price of a property is within your 60% range, add $15,000 for rehab. Your rehabs will range from $5000 or less, to $30,000. Use $15,000 to be in the middle and adjust accordingly, once you get hard number from your contractors, in addition to estimating closing costs and points.

For now, I would not consider a rehab which exceeds $30,000. It will take too long to complete. Time is also money. If you can do two deals, in the time frame it takes to do the one you are considering, do not proceed.

You can find properties with far less rehab.

You will notice that SiteX has quite a bit of additional real estate investment information. Look it over and become familiar with the available information.

Next, go online and choose any of the websites which supplies listings of government foreclosures. There are plenty of free sites. Please go back to Pt 3 and look in the section on Government Foreclosures. This will tell you how to get access to these lists.

Slowly go through your areas of interest on these lists. Plug them into SiteX and see how they work out.

Keep track of those which are close to the 60%LTV we look for. You will later, narrow your choices down to 3 properties.

Finally, call the Private Money Lenders and/or Hard Money Lenders from your list. Make an appointment to meet three of them, if possible.

At this meeting:

1st - If you are new let them know you are new to buying investment property.

2nd - Let them know you are assembling the support you need to assist in buying investment property and that you are gathering as much real estate investment information as possible.

3rd - Let them know you are already pre-approved with permanent financing. So in the event you use their services, you have already secured your refinancing. Show them your pre-approval letter. (They will be impressed and eager to lend to you.)

4th - Complete your quest for real estate investment information by asking for the following referrals: 2 contractors, 2 wholesalers and 2 property insurers. Tell them you have time to wait if they need to pull the information from somewhere. Tell them you understand the importance of receiving referral from lenders who actively lend on rehab projects.

5th - Some may have foreclosed on a few properties. They will offer you their REOs. Take the list and tell them you will have a look. But do not commit to anything. Research their properties like everyone else's. If interested make the same offers, you would make to anyone. Most were investors...they will understand and will know you are not professional if you do otherwise.

That's it for Phase Two.


From Phase Two - More Real Estate Investment Information, back to Investing In Real Estate Step-by-Step.