Buying Houses from A to Z

~ A Complete Guide For Finding, Negotiating, Financing, And Buying Single Family Houses ~

Almost a half of a century ago Jack Miller made up his mind to finally get serious about building a financial estate which would provide reasonable financial security and a comfortable lifestyle for his family. A major problem was that his formal education in management and electronics provided me few skills with which to achieve this.

Fortunately, a couple of years before,at the age of 40, Jack had been laid off because of corporate down-sizing. He’d been forced into real estate sales by default when he’d been unable to find another job that would pay enough to support his family. As a result, he’d been able to build up a little experience in residential sales and financing. But he’d never really set specific long-term goals which would provide the financial success that he wanted; or a workable plan to reach them. Frankly, he’d been too much a dreamer and too little a realistic goal setter. In the spring of 1973 this all changed dramatically.

Jack’s particular spark of inspiration was a seminar conducted by Warren Harding. In it, a competitive class problem was assigned to see how much property each of us could amass in a year starting with an imaginary $20,000 in cash. The rules were that we could do anything feasible in real estate that we were qualified to do. The prize would go to the person who was able to find ways to invest the initial take to make it grow the most over a single year without relying on speculative bank financing or personal loan guarantees. Jack was one of the class winners. Solving this class problem started him on the fast track to success.

This book aims at showing you how you can do it too.

Our line of march will begin with your personal preparation for success. Goal setting. Building the will and confidence in you so that you’ll actually get started to commence to commence. You’re going to learn a variety of ways to find houses that you can buy. You’ll be exposed to distress-market buying both before and after foreclosure sales, bankruptcies and tax lien forfeitures. How to avoid or out-run the competition. How to co-exist with professional real estate brokers and Realtors. Helping you to meet greet, and deal with strangers from whom you’ll buy or to whom you’ll sell or rent houses. Teaching you how to look at a house to decide its desirability, the costs of repair, whether it’s a ‘keeper’ or a ‘flipper’, whether or not to buy it, and how to establish its value.

As we move deeper into the material,we’ll also introduce you to the gentle art of negotiation. This more often than not involves less sparring over price than using various financing alternatives to wrest a feasible, economic deal from the seller. So we’ll explore a few creative financing techniques that are useful for buying houses as well as institutional credit approaches.

After you’ve arrived at a price and terms acceptable to all parties, you’ll need to find the money that you’ve agreed to pay the seller. Where will you get it? You’re going to learn to ‘mine’ your own resources for cash and collateral. And how to get private lender loans when you need them.

You’ll need to learn how to inspect a property before you own it. Does it have termites? What’s its condition? What about the electrical wiring? Plumbing? Air conditioning and heating system? Roof? Foundation? Insulation? What about lead paint, asbestos, radon? Is the sump pump working? Is the cellar dry? Are there any expanding soil problems? Do all the doors and windows operate properly? What is the condition of the kitchen appliances, water heater, water softener, filters? Let’s not forget the exterior: gutters, down-spouts, soffits, fascia, siding, antennae, chimney cap, fences, lawn, trees, shrubs, drives and walkways. How about any septic system and well? What needs to be done to bring everything up to snuff? How much will the repairs cost?

Once we’ve got you started on the right track, we’ll give you a peek at more sophisticated transactions using trade-ins, paper, and tax-free exchanging techniques to help you pyramid your equities even faster. As the number of properties you own grows, you’ll need to know something about rental maintenance, management, bookkeeping and taxes. So, we’ll show you some techniques that will make handling rentals relatively painless and profitable.

Jack urges you to read and re-read your book as often as you can. You’ll see something each time that you may have missed before. That’s because, as you learn about real estate, you begin to grasp principles and insights which weren’t perceived before. You’ll soon discover something that’s critically important if you want to make a lot of money in real estate and keep it. The more you know, the more you make. Conversely, what you don’t know that you should have known can cost you everything you’ve made. There’s no way out. You’re going to have to keep on learning for the rest of your life.

TABLE OF CONTENT

Fortune-Building Fundamentals
Setting and meeting Personal Goals
Goal-Setting Secrets from A – Z
The Present – Value of You
Title 18 US Code Creditor Fraud Warning
Horizontal Apartment Concepts
How to Make Money without Money
Getting to Know the ‘Players’
L-E-A-D-E-R Properties
Figure 1: Dollar Devaluation Illustration
Which Properties Make the Most Money?
Location – Location – Location
Out-of-Area Properties
Finding Motivated Sellers
Working with Brokers
Buying Without Brokers
Solicitation Cards
Fig. 2: Sample Door Hanger
How to Know You’re Buying ‘Rights’
Fig. 3: Sample Competitive Market Analysis Form
Cold-Canvassing Techniques
Turning Ugly Ducklings into Swans
Optioning Fixer-Uppers
Using Leases to Control “Fixers”
Fig. 4: Sample Master Lease Form
Documenting Your Deals
Fig. 5 and 6: Sample Purchase Contracts
Saving Dollars and Delays Using ‘Disclosure’
Fig. 7 and 8: Sample Disclosure and Disclaimer Forms
Itemizing Seller Motives from A-Z
Pyramiding Wealth
Using Houses to Pay for College
Commencing to Commence
Using Budgets to Create Capital
Contacting the Enemy
Shotgun Techniques
Buying in Distress Markets
Buying With Car Loans
A-B-C Distress Groups
Discount, Buy-Back Distress Warning
Two Critical Distress-Buying Success Secrets
Buying Distressed Loans, Not Distressed Properties
Using management Distress to Buy Cheap from Lender
Cash … The Lethal Weapon
Discounting IRS Debt for Fun and Profit
Dealing with Bankruptcy Debtors and Trustees
50 Ways to Buy Distressed Property without Any Competition
Negotiating Your Best Possible Deal
Questions That Uncover Profits
Real Estate Purchase Checklist Form
Analyzing the Ads
Q & A Techniques
Sample Questions
Lies, Dammed Lies, and Prevarication
Buyer’s half of a Negotiation Dialogue
He Asks. Then You Ask
Letting Your Documentation Negotiate For You
Figures 9 & 10 Estimated Seller Proceeds Worksheets
Buying Houses without Bankers
Free-Form Finance Formulas
Closing the Deal
Deed of Conveyance
Figure 11. Sample MLS ‘Input’ Document
Figures 12 – 14. Sample Deeds
Figure 15. Sample Promissory Notes
Figures 16 – 17. Sample Mortgage Deed Form
Figure 18. Sample Note secured by Deed of Trust
Figure 19. Sample Short Form Deed of Trust and Assignment of Rents
Figure 21. Sample Installment Sale Contract
Figure 22. Sample Assignment of Contract
Figure 23. Sample Bill of Sale
Using Title Concepts to Improve Deals
Conventional Financing Techniques
‘Do’s’ and ‘Don’ts’s’ of Fail-Safe Financing
What Makes Bankers Tick
Defeating Due-on-Sale

Use the lessons you’ve learned in this book as soon as, and as often as you can in order to be able to retain them, and to start making serious money. Buying Houses from A to Z could be your first step on the road to a long and illustrious career in the single family house investment field.