I’ll admit, I had an advantage over many of you when I got started in real estate:

     I had no money and no way to get any.

     I was just out of college, effectively self-employed, had a mountain of debt weighing me down, and had no assets that I could borrow against. Let’s just say that the nice bankers I met with were anxious to work with me…in a couple of years.

     How is any of that a good thing?

     Well, it meant that it was “Creative finance or die” in Venaworld. I had no choice but to offer to assume loans, or buy on land contract, or ask for seller carrybacks, or some combination of those things, if I wanted to buy and hold a property.

     But for many years, I had a limiting belief about seller financing: that the sellers who did it did it for the same reasons that banks and private lenders do: for the “return on investment”.

     In other words, I thought that they were doing math in their heads that went something like:

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Rehab Loans for Real Estate Investors: Mistakes and Solutions

Looking to invest in real estate? Rehab loans can be a great way to get started. These loans allow you to purchase a property and make repairs or upgrades before putting it back on the market. The most important thing is to learn from the mistakes of others and not make them yourself. Here's what you need to know about rehab loans, the most common mistakes made when getting a rehab loan, as well as how to avoid them. Read on to learn more!

Most people think of a fixer-upper when they hear the term rehab loan. However, this is not always the case. A rehab loan can also be used for new construction or purchasing an already renovated property, provided that it still needs some work to get it into marketable condition. Here are some common mistakes of Rehab Loans. 

The Most Common Rehab Loan Mistakes Include: 

• Using Your Credit Score for A Commercial Project.  

It's easy to think you'll just put the same credit score you would o
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              Ah, for the good old days of 2009.

              Finding deals was SO easy.

              We didn’t even need a marketing budget; there were literally thousands of bank-owned and short sale deals just sitting right there in MLS, and a day of looking at 15 houses and making offers would usually turn up at least one at literally fifty cents on the dollar.

              Of course, figuring out what “fifty cents on the dollar” meant was a guessing game; so few houses were selling that coming up with comps was nearly impossible.

              And getting those deals sold was a teeth-gritting, anxiety-producing process, too; even at a 40% discount, there weren’t a ton a motivated cash buyers in the market, and when we called 10 who’d specifically identified that kind of property in that area as their favorite, they’d all say, “Yeah, I might be able to get there in the next week or 2”. Buyers saw no reason to go runnin
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"You don't pay taxes – they take taxes." - Chris Rock

Up till now, whatever you made on eBay, Etsy, and the like might have seemed like tax-free cash. But now, the IRS will be in the know more and more regarding those sales… and that’s something you’ll want to keep in mind going forward.

Lowering the limit

Rules that were in effect until this month said that if you sold goods or services via platforms like eBay, Etsy, and Uber and if that platform used third-party transaction networks (think PayPal), you received a federal tax document called a 1099-K, and your income was reported to the IRS.

Thing is, you didn’t get that form unless you had at least 200 transactions worth a combined twenty grand or more.

Now, that limit’s been lowered.

Payment apps such as PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, CashApp, and other third-party e-payment
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Why it’s Hard to Learn Creative Finance (or Anything Else You’re Struggling With)

When a topic (say, real estate, or creative real estate), or anything else) is brand-new to you, it's easy to hear, read, watch, whatever it is you do, something that strikes you as true and valuable...

But because your brain doesn't have anything to relate it to, it seems to store it in a place that's not accessible when you want it.

It's like there's a set of organized files for some things (I know how to quilt, or play the guitar, or drive to the grocery store) that if something else comes in that can be related to those "(I'm learning how to make collages, oh, hey, it's similar to making quilts. Here's a ukulele, oh, it feels like a tiny guitar, but oh, hey, the tuning is different this way. I need to go to my friend's house, oh, it's go to the grocery store and then turn left, right, left") it's easy to process and remember.

If there's nothing in there that the brain can relate to what you just learned, the new info seems to go into a junk drawer--or get misfiled.

"They're talking about options on houses. Those sound awesome. Apparently, you need some cash, which I have, and a seller who doesn't really want to sell, whi
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Entering into escrow on a home can be both exciting and stressful. The excitement comes from knowing you are close to moving into the new home. The stress comes from issues that will arise.

Budget for Closing Costs, Prepaid Loan Interest, and Home Insurance Premiums

As part of any closing, you need to go through certain steps to make sure you are both getting what you think you have purchased as well as paying for it. Each of these steps has an associated cost, known as closing costs. You have to pay them before you can take possession of the home. If you do not, the deal will not close and you will lose the home.

When going through escrow, costs associated with closing can accumulate quickly. Here is a closer look.

Cost Considerations

Prepaid loan interest is an ugly little surprise for many first time home-buyers. The lender will often require you to pay the interest that accumulates between the day the loan is funded and the day you are actually scheduled to make your first loan payment. Many people mistakenly believe they have roughly a month before they have to start paying. This is rarely the case. The sudden requirement to pay a hundreds or thousands of dollars can be a nightmare. If at all possible, you should try to get the lender to fund the loan as close as possible to the actual closing date, even on it. Try to avoid closing the loan on a Monday. The lender will have to fund the loan the previous work week, which mean
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In our final blog on self-direction, we’re going to cover taxation your retirement account might be subject to. Many people are surprised to hear that if they self-direct the account in real estate that it will have to pay a tax. But it’s true! This is because the types of investments your account makes with a broker (stocks and bond, etc.) would not have to ever pay taxes on the income. But in real estate, you can make money in other ways that ARE taxed.

And if you are subject to this tax, then your retirement account must pay that tax in the year, or years, that it incurs the tax. And this means, the account itself, NOT YOU, pays the tax. And if don’t have enough funds in the account (because it’s invested elsewhere), you may have trouble paying it.

There are two types of taxes that you might face. For simplicity we’ll just call them the “business tax” and the “leverage tax.” Both are really part of what is called the unrelated business income tax (UBIT).

The business tax applies to any business your retirement account engages in. Remember that if you invest in stocks, your IRA is not “engaged” in the business; it just “owns” part of a business. If you want to do flips with your IRA and if it’s “regularly and consistently” engaged in doi
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“Americans: Time to gather up those receipts, get out those tax forms, sharpen up that pencil, and stab yourself in the aorta.” - Dave Barry

On November 15, 2021, President Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law. You’ve probably heard of it as the trillion-dollar-plus infrastructure bill. It has a lot to do with bridges, roads, drinking water, climate improvement, public transit, and internet broadband. It’s being called a “once-in-a-generation” law, and, yes, it is big news.

A few of the new law’s tax provisions are high-flying: extending some highway taxes, tinkering with taxes for superfund sites, and allowing bonds for some broadband projects and climate-friendly facilities.

There’s also a provision to extend relaxed funding requirements for employer-sponsored retirement plans. (We can tell you more about that one.)

But the Act also tweaks taxes you and your business might pay. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest changes.

Credit discard

The Infrastructure Act will have a big impact on small businesses that planned to take advantage of a popular pandemic-related tax break.

The Employee Retention Credit (ERC) was a real goody, a tax credit for a big chunk of the wages paid by companies that the pan
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This blog is going to cover some tips to make being a landlord a great experience. Owning rental properties means dealing with tenants. Many investors either don’t like or don’t want to deal with tenant and property issues, so they will hire a professional property management company. But if you decide to self-manage, here are some things you should understand.

First, remember asset protection. Title to your rental should be held in a well-designed, protective LLC. Not all LLCs are created the same! What you get online is not sufficient. It should be created by a competent asset protection attorney. This will protect you and your personal assets from tenant slip-and-fall lawsuits.

Second, have really good lease agreements. There are numerous free forms available. So I would recommend getting at least 3 or 4 options and read through them. See what clauses are in them and which are important to you. If you need to amend or revise one, you should work with an attorney to draft it as you may accidently do something that might hurt you.

Third, make sure you have the appropriate liability insurance. This is the one you get from your insurance agent and not t
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The simple answer to the seemingly complex question of “Who needs a real estate coach?” is everyone investing in real estate. That’s right, the institutionalized investing company to the one-person show need coaches and advisors.

The CEO of a public investing company has mentors/coaches as well as a board of directors to turn to. They often don’t have a choice of who their coaches are, but real estate investors do. Unfortunately, with this choice of a coach comes another choice that is often made instead. That choice is to not get any help at all.

Not getting any help at all is very often the cause of failure statistics we hear so much about. Real estate investors will often claim that they don’t have the time or money for a coach. Think about that comment. How can you not have the money to get help from someone that can potentially save or make you more money since you obviously are not getting it done on your own? Or how about that time you are lacking? Maybe if that investor sat down for an hour with a coach, they would be able to see why they don’t have time and do something about it with the help of someone who has already been in those shoes.

A coach gives to real estate investors something most of them don’t have; a sounding board and a board of directors to turn to for advice. These are two great resources to
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