Sleep Well At Night By Getting The Right Investment Property Insurance

How would you respond to the catastrophic news that your multi-unit apartment has sustained severe damage due to a tumultuous windstorm or a fire? Will you say:

“Oh! That’s bad to hear, but everything will be okay since I got it covered.”

“Shucks! Is the insurance I got sufficient to cover against the damage?”

“Oh no! I have not yet gotten insurance. How am I gonna recover from this? ”

You do not want to be uttering the last two statements, right? Sleep well at night knowing that your investment property is appropriately covered for such losses due to unwanted events like fire, windstorm, lightning, explosion, riot, and unwanted business scenarios such as loss of rents, loss of money, and the like, by getting the most appropriate investment… Read the rest

Understanding The Scope of Investment Property Tax Deductions

One of the perks that attract investors to put their money in investment properties is tax incentives. No other investment vehicle offers this much tax advantage that rental property investment can offer. These deductions can significantly mean your profit or loss. However, those new to their role as landlords, and a few old-timers often unwittingly pass up on the opportunity to make tax savings from their property investments because they do not know the extent of the exemptions. Cash in on this exemptions by familiarizing yourself with what are covered in investment property tax deductions. If you own small residential rental property(s), then you can enjoy the following tax deductions:

Investment Property Tax Deductions For Owners of Small Residential Rental Properties

Depreciation. You, as a landlord, can recoup the cost of… Read the rest

Many posts ago, we discussed the merits of taking in Section 8 tenants. Many landlords a lured to rent out their properties to these tenants because HUD’s Section 8 has made things easier for them in terms of minimizing late rental payments; property protection; minimizing turn-over; and shortening vacancy periods. If you want to your rental property business to be virtually stress-free, then follow these steps:

Prepping The Rental Property For Section 8 Tenants

Getting the rental property ready for inspection by interested Section 8 tenants would obviously be the first thing to do. Stage the home to make it more appealing and do not forget about curb appeal to lure them inside. When renovating properties for these type of tenants, go for durability over grandeur. Remember that there is a mandatory Section 8 inspection, so forget… Read the rest

Contract Assignment

A great way for a fledgling real estate investor to kick-start a career in this business is by flipping contracts. When you assign a contract, it means that you grant another party to your rights and prerogatives in a written agreement in exchange for consideration. In legal parlance, “consideration” is anything that has value, including money, goods, services and promises. In this post, let’s use the term to denote “money”.

The Real Estate Contract

As you already know, a transaction in real estate involves two primary parties: the seller who has a property to sell for a specific amount and the buyer who is willing to buy the property for a certain amount. The two will hash out prices until they reach a certain agreed amount. Once they strike this bargain, the agreement materializes into a Purchase… Read the rest

Landlord Tips on Rental Applications and Lease Agreements

Prevention is better than cure. The cliche surely applies to renting out properties, and legal documents such as Rental Applications, Lease Agreements and lease clause inserts are your prophylaxis to the headaches that many landlords suffer from when they have not taken the trouble of getting vaccinated. Some experienced landlords and lawyers handling landlord versus tenant cases prescribe some landlord tips for the beginning landlords who are most often still legally blind and additional landlord tips for those who have been in the business for a time.

Landlord Tips on What Legal Documents to Prepare

For a smooth-sailing contract-signing with the tenant, require him to bring the necessary documents including a copy of his social security card, driver’s license, and the amount due in cash, certified funds or money order. The… Read the rest

Foreclosure defense is a legal strategy in which a homeowner retains the services of an attorney to complete a forensic loan audit of all the documents associated with the mortgage. The attorney is looking for fraud and predatory lending violations than can then be used to aggressively counter sue the bank for damages and in return force the bank to negotiate with the homeowner or investor. Remarkably, on average over 80% of all residential loans since 2003 contain such violations. During the housing boom, banks could not push new mortgages through their system fast enough to satisfy the appetite for profits by Wall Street.

Bankruptcy alone does not relinquish ownership of the property. The bank has to legally foreclosure on the investor in order to take back the property. This means the investor could actually keep collecting any rents received until the property is sold at auction assuming the bank does not assume the rents as they are entitled to. The main thing bankruptcy accomplishes is that it eliminates the right of the lender to collect a deficiency judgment from the investor when the property sells for less than its loan amount.

Over the past year, I have talked with several investors down on their luck because of the real estate market crash.  Everyone seems to have the same story, “I didn’t see this coming”.  More accurately put, I would say that most of us had our blinders on and tried to enjoy this gravy train as long as we could.  So what does an investor do to get through this downturn?

Banks are Approving Loan Modifications for Investors

Bank of America (Countrywide), Harris Bank, and local community banks are some of the banks that we have first hand experience with in successfully modifying the loans on rental properties.  Surprisingly, contrary to all the news you here about how difficult this process is, all the loan modifications we have done have been fairly easy!

Here are some of… Read the rest

Put that Positive Cash Flow to Good Use

In the years leading up to the real estate debacle which began in May of 2007, many real estate gurus were touting that even if a property barely breaks even on a monthly cash flow basis, it’s still a good deal because of skyrocketing home values.  The option arm mortgages were also marketed on this same premise, that home values will never go down.  That game is over.  The easy money loan programs are gone and interest rates will most likely rise in the future.  This will keep prices in check and property values will appreciate very slowly over the next 5-7 years.  This makes cash flow king once again; speculation is dead. Fortunately for rehabbers and investors alike, positive cash flow has never been easier to obtain given… Read the rest