The trouble with buying houses at a county court house is that there’s always plenty, of competition from the professionals. This usually makes everything too expensive except for combat zone properties. On the other hand, there’s little competition at the federal court house. Here’s where Federal Land Bank, Farm Home,and direct VA loans are foreclosed. It’s also where the IRS liens can be purchased and where Bankruptcy Trustees liquidate assets. IRS distress opportunities come in a variety of packages.
When we have prosperity in the United States, usually as a result of extended periods during which interest rates are relatively low, it is possible for ANYONE to succeed. Our markets are so vast, our citizens so effluent, our institutions so liberal, that practically every form of commercial activity has a theoretical and statistical chance to succeed. The problem with that scenario is that good times cause millions of would-be entrepreneurs to enter the market place. Success becomes a very competitive venture in which those with true ability are virtually indistinguishable from those without the skills and knowledge normally required as a prerequisite to prosperity.
In hard times, the reverse of the above holds true. Slowing economic activity causes businesses to retrench. The faint of heart drop out, others cut back on costs, materials, labor. They slow down their payments to the banks. They withdraw surplus funds to meet current expenses. Bankers, seeing their reserves beginning to diminish, are faced with increasing loan demand from borrowers who foresee less and less certain profits with which to repay them. Interest rates are increased to meet market demand for money. Loan terms are stiffened to discount increasing risk. Money becomes tighter and tighter. THIS IS WHEN THE BEST OPPORTUNITIES HAPPEN!
Effective use of your time is the key to being able to hold down a job to earn a living while still working toward the day that you achieve your personal financial freedom. Think of it this way. Each Monday you’re given a deposit in your time bank of 160 hours. How you use this deposit can make the difference between succeeding and failing financially. Let’s take it one day at a time to see where we ca squeeze out working hours:
One of the keys to success in any business is to avoid competition. If you can operate in a noncompetitive atmosphere, you can focus on expanding your assets and net worth rather than on beating out the other fellows for the few deals for which a transaction may be possible. The easiest way to avoid competition is to as much as possible avoid doing what all the other people are doing. You shouldn’t follow the crowd if you don’t want to wind up old and broke like the average American. If you want to achieve extraordinary success you must use extraordinary methods? What might they be?
When you first start to buy houses, it seems inconceivable that you could just ask someone if they wanted to sell their house or not at the front door. But when you think about it all those real estate offices that advertise page after page of houses for sale in the paper are proof that sellers abide in quantity out there in the big wide world. All you’ve got to do is to find them. Let’s approach the problem of finding motivate owners methodically.
Being an entrepreneur can be lonely and hard work. The learning curve or transition from employee to entrepreneur is hard, if not impossible, for some – yet others take to it like a duck in water. Many people who work for someone else have tried to get out of the rat race only to get discouraged, lose focus, or just determine it’s not worth it or not for them. So, they still get dressed up every morning, fight the traffic, go to work in a job they can’t stand, and put up with a boss they would love to see fired, and pray every day that they don’t get laid off tomorrow. I hope this doesn’t fit you.
It always amazes me that people with buckets of diamonds at their feet want to hire someone to pick them up rather than doing it themselves. How does this apply to Pre-Foreclosures? Rather than going door to door to sniff out distress and Pre-Foreclosure situations,, or getting the names of late-payers from lender collection departments or independent collection agencies, then mailing those in default a solicitation to buy their home, so-called entrepreneurs want to buy lists of Pre-Foreclosures from others who have compiled them. What’s wrong with this picture?
No matter how adroit you might be at negotiating with distressed owners, you’re always going to be a couple of days late to the rummage sale.
Big expensive houses appreciate more, look better, and are easier to rent, but they create negative cash flow in almost any market. If you’re looking for ways to reduce negative cash flow and increase your income, think small, cheap, and mobile.
As credit begins to disappear from the market, people are going to revive the ancient and tested practice of trading their equities.
CashFlowDepot.com member Marcus, discusses a recent deal that he bought from heirs who were very behind on taxes and about ready to lose the property. Jack Miller always taught is that the deal is never over... so Marcus continued to negotiate until he came up with a creative way to solve the seller's problem and reduce the amount of cash he would need to do the deal at the same time. Read on for inspiration
When financing dried up and the market slowed, I found myself with an inventory of Options and no money, so I began to combine Options with leases under the terms of which, I had the right to sublease the property until it sold so long as I paid all property expenses and mortgage payments. Bear in mind that I did things differently from most people. Instead of leasing a property and then trying to negotiate an Option, I Optioned a property, then tried to negotiate a lease. This grew as a natural progression to my Options.
