Investing in the right computers, software, phones and faxes, if done correctly, can save you a ton of time and money.

Over the years I have bought, and paid to have set up for me, computers, faxes, and software applications. Only to find out I had bought the wrong stuff, paid too much, or did not need half of what I bought. These were very frustrating and expensive mistakes and you can avoid them.

You see, we as investors are a niche, small business community. And unlike realtors, appraisers, and mortgage brokers we do not have blueprints or guides to follow to show us how to set up shop.

In this article, I will discuss the things you need and the things you don’t need, and will include a $30,000.00 dollar investing tip for you.

First things first, a computer is a necessity. I have always purchased Hewlett Packard’s better known as HP’s and have had great success with them. They cost more, but what you save in computer technicians repairing the cheap ones, and the computer’s longevity, well its just worth it.

I recommend buying the small office version of mircosoft small business package. The package that has Word, Outlook (not just outlook express), Publisher and Excel. If you are planning on being a real, honest to goodness, long term investor, then I recommend you start right the first time with these products. Let me explain why.

In Word you can type all your documents, letters, articles, letter heads and set up simple files. Your virtual assistant (va) can help you with that, should you be as uneducated on software as I was in the beginning.

Outlook, this is my all time favorite. All my website addresses, passwords, bird dog contact info, business and personal Christmas card lists are easily stored there. I have an “easy to access” list of investors, one for Las Vegas, Texas, and my vip investors club. It can be separated logically for easy to reach and use applications. All my houses ever purchased are listed in Outlook by seller name, or address including contact info.

For Publisher, I don’t know how to run this program at all! Therefore my virtual assistant (VA) logs onto my computer from Michigan and can create a house flyer, letterheads for the company and other graphics for me in mere moments.

Your office fax, here is the priceless tip. I made thirty thousand dollars cash on a single wholesale flip when I received a fax that contained only these words in tiny print-on a large-blank-white-8.5×11- sheet of paper:

I need to sell my house, my number is xxx-xxx-xxxx.

I am serious as a heart attack that’s all it said. And yes I made exactly that amount.

The Lord works in funny ways sometimes, as I was able to pay off my daughters ten thousand dollar medical bill in one payment.

Maybe just because I had a fax, and it worked.

Tags: bill guerra, fax, flipping, houses, investing, office, real estate investor courses, wholesaling

As an investor you can flip, wholesale, and buy creatively. As a realtor you can do the very same things. But at some point in the negotiations, you must simply disclose that you are realtor. No big deal.

Investors are governed by the state, federal, and local laws. Realtors are governed by the board of Realtors. However, if a questionable situation arises and the investor is hauled into court, and this can happen irregardless if the investor is guilty or not, the investor answers to the state attorney generals office.

Well the same is typically true with Realtors, if they are found guilty they answer to the board of realtors, whose lawyer is the attorney general, and their office as well. So basically investors and Realtors answer to the lawyer.  Like Bob Dylan says “ya gonna have to serve somebody.” Be it the law, your customer, motivated seller, or board of Realtors, you have to answer to someone.

Fees: a realtor has fees that total in a given year to about $1000-$1500. Give or take a few dollars.

Access: a realtor has multiple listing service access (MLS). The MLS access allows the realtor to access all houses for sale, to run accurate property comparables, as well as list and sell houses for profit.

The investor on the other hand must become a Realtors assistant or have a friend give them MLS access, and they are dependent upon the whim of this individual. Many Realtors go out of business, some have discrepancies with the investor, so the vital MLS access needed for the investor is in a constant state of flux and at risk of being denied, nine times out of ten.

The realtor has access to any house listed on the MLS. They have the lock box codes, or supra key, and can walk in, analyze the rehab costs and walk out at their leisure. Now they can make make an offer to buy the house and get paid their commission to boot. Investors on the other hand cannot enter property on their own accord, they must be accompanied by a realtor, when they can come together on their schedules.

Investors worry about being governed by the board of Realtors and they shouldn’t. This board is really to keep Realtors, investors, and brokers on the up and up and easy to contact in the event there are issues. Its a check and balance system for the public to keep realtors, brokers and investors honest. Now maybe you can begin to consider some of the pro’s and con’s of becoming a realtor or stay an investor. I have seen both very successful with, and without the Realtors license.

Tags: bill guerra, flipping houses, real estate investor, realtor, rehabbing, reiclub.com, wholesaling

Establishing value on your property is critical. Skill number one above all other skills to master.

The most important aspects of being a real estate investor is the ability to establish value on houses or properties you are considering buying, wholesaling, or flipping. Irregardless of location, be it California, New York, Houston, or Dallas, its a must have skill to learn in time.

But how do you master comping property if you do not have Multiple Listing Service (MLS) access? How can you practice and practice running comps (like I have until you breeze thru it), looking at land, comparing variables like year built, location, lot square feet, bed and baths, subdivision and lastly what is the property next too? Is it next to a commercial center, stinky ranch or pig farm or a nice area with a creek or lake? These factors are important to know in learning to master running comps on property.

Before you can become proficient with running comps, you need MLS access from a realtor if you are not one already. And this is how you do it. You want to find a realtor you know on a personal level, maybe a friend, friend of the family, or relative. If you don’t have a realtor on hand you need to make friends with one.

This is how you go about making friends and getting MLS access. Drive for dollars and find a vacant, boarded up house, one you want to consider buying or wholesaling. Find two or three, then call a few Realtors up and tell them you are a real estate buyer or investor and need a good realtor to buy thru and run comps.

Start off only giving them a few addresses to comp then a week later give them a few more, meanwhile take them out to coffee get to know them, their likes dislikes, hobbies, etc. Form a relationship with them. A week later give them a few more comps to run, be sure the houses are in your actual buying areas of interest. In other words make sure its real comps of real houses. Its one way to get to know your platinum areas.

Phone your realtor.  Talk to him or her about the houses he or she comped. Make the chat a casual conversation. Ask them if they would like you to refer them (realtor) to the sellers who want to list. Of course the realtor will say yes! Let them know not all sellers you meet are desperate or motivated sellers and some simply need a good realtor to list with.

Then when a seller does not want to sell ask them if they would like to talk to your realtor to see if listing is right for them. Call the Realtor and give them the seller’s name, phone, address, and the condition of the house. This will show the realtor you are serious. No one works for free. Keep track of those referrals and maybe the realtor will give you a small finders fee once listed and sold.  Just don’t ask for one at this point. Your sole goal is MLS access! The gold standard of running comps.

Somewhere in the discussions you are giving them the comps to run, they start to get a bit overwhelmed at the extra work load of running the comps for you. This is what you want. They need to realize in the back of their minds without you mentioning it, they should just give you MLS access.

However, when you feel its a good time, tell them you can “save them time by getting MLS access as a “real estate assistant” or such, just whatever is easier for them” which they can ethically do. This is why, they have real estate assistants who run comps for them, look up properties on the MLS and help out in the office for them.

If you are giving them leads they are going to be more than happy to give you the access you need once you establish trust with them. It is wise to be working about 2-3 Realtors at once to see who is actually a big picture or forward thinker. Do this until they get you the MLS access. Do this until you can speak their language. Do this until you get your MLS access. But stay in touch with the other Realtors, because you never know when you will need them too.

Let this soak in a bit and see if it helps you to get the MLS access you need. Zillow or no other comp service is worth a darn, hey its hard enough to establish value with the MLS as it is. Some Realtors will say they can run the comps but a realtor see’s comps thru a different light than the investor. Here is one major difference, WE write the $200,000 check to BUY the house, Realtors only list the house. We better be right-on with our comps! Get it!?! So they see running comps thru a different pair of glasses, and this is one of many reasons why you need the actual MLS access yourself.

Tags: bill guerra, find realtor, flipping, real estate investing, rehabbing, renovating, wholesaling

As a seasoned, birddog, wholesale, or just new real estate investor, you need all the tools of the trade you can get at your immediate disposal. One important piece of data to have as a real investor is the list of houses going into foreclosure.

But how do you get this list? Is there a fee? If there is a fee, is the fee worth it? And why do only the seasoned investors have these important lists?

I use to ask these questions of myself often. Along with how I could get realtor multiple listing access to run comparable’s (to determine a properties actual value) on properties, among other tools I needed to have.

When I found out that all I had to do was have a title or escrow company email the list to me daily, I was floored! And that is all you have to do too! I could not even believe it.  Sure enough, I called a tile company and they sent me daily foreclosure lists, free!

This is how you can do it.  Simply phone a local title company and ask to speak to their marketing representative. The title companie’s market rep is the person whose job it is to drum up more business.

The rep has a number of tools that are of help, which we can go into later. But in this context, really, all you need to do is call the rep, tell him or her you are buying and fixing houses and to have his people put you on the daily email list for foreclosures.

That’s it, its that simple.  If you run into a snag, call another title or escrow company, they will do it for you. Its one tactic they use to hustle up more business. Now once you get the list, take time over several days to become acquainted with the list, how to read it, what to look for, and be a student of real estate and it will pay you dividends.

Tags: bill guerra, bird-dog, flipper, foreclosures, real estate investing, small business, wholesaler

In this article let’s discuss setting up your office with printers, faxes, telephones and cell phones. What to get when and where.

My virtual assistant (va) always saves me a lot of time and frustration with software programs I do not know how to run, so I can do what I do well, which is wholesaling, birdogging and flipping houses. Along with playing, and having fun of course.

One example is the software Excel spreadsheet, which I have no idea on how to run. However, I need this for my financials and personal expense spreadsheets, which keeps all my finances and monthly expenses easy to read at a moments glance. The virtual assistant logs right on and sets up those charts and graphs for me lickety split, nothing to it!

Remember time is a business person’s greatest commodity. A va, when you can afford one, saves tons of time and money.

I have a Hewlett Packard or hp printer, fax, scanner, and copier. Mine is still an older ink jet. But I strongly recommend the laser style. Why? Laser is cheap to print, and does not smear. Well, in fact its a lot cheaper to print.

Likely it rains where you are at, unlike here in Las Vegas. Rain and moisture equals smearing. Laser may take a second or two to warm up but well worth the investment. Enough said on laser printers.

Paper. I buy the good kind at Sam’s Club. Why? Because I would rather spend a few dimes more on good paper that doesn’t jam.

It always happens. You are trying to get out the door to work or to see that motivated seller and need to print a contract. You must be on time demonstrating you are not some flake. But now you are held up trying to unjam paper from the printer.

No thanks to that cheapo paper, you saved a dime on.

The office phone.  Recently I began using Magic Jack for our general phone. So far it works very good.  Its $49.00 to buy it which pays for the first year of service as well. Then $19.95 per year there after. Much less expensive than using Ma Bell, Embark and more reliable than VOIP. Don’t have it? I’d say get it!

Your office fax, here is the priceless tip. I made thirty thousand dollars cash on a single wholesale flip when I received a fax that contained only these words in tiny print-on a large-blank-white-8.5×11- sheet of paper:

I need to sell my house, my number is xxx-xxx-xxxx.

I am serious as a heart attack that’s all it said. And yes I made exactly that amount.

The Lord works in funny ways sometimes, as I was able to pay off my daughters ten thousand dollar medical bill in one payment.

Maybe just because I had a fax, and it worked.

After that I was sold on always having a consistently working, and separate fax number. You should too irregardless of cost. So now I have Cox’s Cable as my consistent fax provider, and its like 15.00 per month.

I put my fax number, email, cell phone, and web address on all my advertising materials thereafter!

Lastly, yet equally important, the successful real estate investor needs a cell phone and s/he will put that number on all their advertising.

Oh, yes and ALWAYS answer your phone. I cannot begin to tell you how many deals I have gotten because the motivated seller calls other investors who do not answer. How do I know this, trust me I ask them!

Tags: bill guerra, flipping houses, investing, realtor, rehabbing, small business office, wholesaling

Realty and personal property terms have often been confused as to what they exactly mean. Here we will clear that right up for you. We will look at the terms personal property, realty, land, real estate, and lastly, real property.

Let’s begin with personal property. Personal property, also known as chattel, is everything that is not real property. Example couches, TVs, things of this nature. Emblements pronounced (M-blee-ments) are things like crops, apples, oranges, and berries. Emblements are also personal property. So when you go to sell your house, flip, or wholesale deal, you sell or transfer ownership by a bill of sale with personal property.

Realty.
Realty is the broad definition for land, real estate, and real property.

Land
Land is everything mother nature gave to us like whats below the ground, above the ground and the airspace. Also called subsurface (underground), surface (the dirt) and airspace. So when you buy land that’s what you get.  Keep in mind, our government owns a lot of our air space.

Real Estate
Real estate is defined as land plus its man made improvements added to it. You know things like fences, houses, and driveways. So when you buy real estate this is what you can expect to be getting.

Real property
Real property is land, real estate, and what’s call the bundle of rights. The bundle of rights consist of five rights, the right to possess, control, enjoy, exclude, and lastly dispose. So basically you can possess, take control, enjoy, exclude others, and then dispose of your real property as you wish as long as you do not break state and federal laws.

Lastly there are two other types of property we should mention.

Fixture
Fixture is personal property which has been attached to realty and now is considered real property. So you would ask yourself upon selling, to determine value, “did you attach it to make it permanent?” The exceptions to this rule are the garage door opener and door key, these are not considered fixtures.

Trade Fixtures
Trade fixtures are those fixtures installed by say a commercial tenant or can be the property of the commercial tenant.

I hope this clears up some misconceptions about personal property, realty, land and real estate and now fixtures and trade fixtures!

Tags: bill guerra, flip, real estate defined, real estate investor, real estate terms, realtor, wholesale

With all the foreclosures occurring, now is a most advantageous time to buy and invest in houses. But how do you know what is a good deal and what is not. Well if you want to rehab, wholesale, landlord or bird dog these guidelines and specifics will help you.

Lets start with what is actually a good deal and what is not! To do this we are going to need some basics. Start by calling, or emailing if you are shy, 5-8 Realtors and find out what the average selling price is in your area in the past 3-6 months.

Buy doing this, it will give you whats called a landmark or baseline to work from.  Let me explain, because some of your Realtors may not understand. They might ask, well for what area? Or what price range? No, no, no, like Amy Winehouse says. Ask them to give you an average of ALL, EVERYONE of the houses sold. To get this, you take all the houses that have sold in the metro area and average them out. Usually its listed in your newspaper too. The newspaper can be about 80% accurate with their numbers, just an FYI.

Once you get this price, say the average selling price is $250,000, divide that by 2 which equals $125,000. These are the houses you want to look for, period, IF you are gonna be a bird-dog, wholesaler, or rehabber.

Now the goal is to buy the foreclosure or preforclosure.  Take $125,000 divided by 2 again and buy your investment deal at $75,000. This is why: more folks can afford a $125,000 house than a $250,000 house, so you have more buyers. This makes your house deal a much higher demand than a $300,000 house. To put it another way, more folks can afford to shop at WalMart than can afford to shop at Nordstroms or Macy’s department stores.

As one gets more experience with their rehabbing costs, areas to buy in, what to buy and the greater picture you can pay more. You can take that $250,000 number and only take 25% off that price equalling $187,500. Then cut that $187,500 in half to $93,750 and buy at that price.

Be sure to assess your rehab costs, this is important as well. And there are other criteria to consider, certainly, but in this context that should help. But generally you can’t go wrong with these numbers.

Tags: bill guerra, bird-dog, birddogging, flipping houses, foreclosures, real estate investor, wholesaling

Often the new, and occasionally the seasoned investor will close on a marginally profitable house deal or flip which only sets them up for bad buying habits. This should be avoided. There are many reasons to not do marginal or skinny house deals. Let me share a few.

If an investor finds themselves in the rut of buying houses with small equity, they realize the very reason they became investors is now beginning to elude them. The reason they became investors was quality of life. Let me repeat this sentence. The reason they became investors was quality of life. Ponder that a moment.

We become business owners to have a life, have money for the extras, spend time with loved ones, and pursue our passions and hobbies. When an investor starts wholesaling, rehabbing, and closing on skinny deals, precious time begins to slip through their hands. We find our self like the proverbial mouse running nowhere on the wheel in our cage.

However when an investor passes on skinny deals and buy, bird dog, wholesale, or rehab houses with generous equity they avoid the mouse trap or wheel. Bigger paydays occur, not as many, but much larger.

The workloads, frustrations, and risks are greatly diminished. Now the investor is free to enjoy their lives, time with family, and take more days off. They have learned to work smarter not harder.

Quality deals over quantity deals, that is the investing you want to do.

If you cannot survive between deals, keep the day job, nothing wrong with that. Face it, not everyone can be a Warren Buffet. Your day job gives you a steady payday and some friends. Working alone, can be well just that…alone.

I have been full time for about three years now, and just recently I went back to working as a nurse part time. The market slowed down so I did the obvious. I enjoy it, its nice to do it when and how I like, not just because I need a job. So new guy, take a deep breath, exhale, stay with your job for now. Start making long term plans to do investing for the next 1-2-5 years and see where you can take it!

So just remember quality house deals over quantity deals, and then you can laugh at the mouse on the wheel.

Instead choose the quality deals, those are the ones with a lot of equity in them. I like to begin at 50 cents on the dollar during seller negotiation, and at times much cheaper if need be.

When you hold back from buying and wait for the really great deals it pays dividends. The small deals will eat your lunch in time. Trust me on this, experience is talking to you!

Also here is the big overall problem. An investor will not realize until they are too deep in it that all their precious time is now at about, when averaged out, $5.00 per hour  but with the liability, stress, and frustration of $80.00 per hour. Chew on that a while.

Another part of the overall problem is in the middle of it quantity investor’s begin to realize what they have created, a monster. No, not a good profitable monster like you are thinking. Guess what, now they don’t know how to do business any other way. They are stuck. On the wheel. Enough said.

Now if you are following the rules of quality over quantity, you easily learn how to find, evaluate, and estimate great deals. You are wiser, while spending less money and time searching for deals. You are now a wise investor.

Tags: bill guerra, bird-dogging, flipping houses, real estate investing, renovating, wholesaling houses

The first thing you want to put aside is the notion that you need to form a corporation, get a business license, buy all new computers and things like this. This is a plague I had too when I was new, guess it was part of my learning curve. But what it kept me from doing was finding my first house.

Learn; key word learn how to find your first house deal.

We read a lot online saying “oh you need a C or S corp, or LLC, or LLP, or should I set up a Sole Proprietorship” Geez, forget that junk, it will come in time.  But now is not the time. Trust me, its just something keeping you from finding that first great deal.

Learn; key word learn how to find your first house deal.

What you do need is cash first and fast right!?! You need a deal first or several to put in your LLC or C, or S corp. You only need to find a house first. Find your first deal for another investor and s/he will gladly help you.

You say “Oh but they will steal it and I wont get paid.” Very very rarely does this happen. A seasoned investor knows the best deal is the one a bird dog points to, or a wholesaler brings him, already under contract, a very clean and easy deal. He does not want to cut that cord with you, unless he is a fool or you are asking too much for your deal.

Learn; key word learn how to find your first house deal.

Remember: bird dog first wholesaler second, true investor or rehabber thirdly.

Oh and start off as a bird dog, would you?  I don’t give a darn how much money you have because you can loose it in a heartbeat in real estate. I don’t care if you are a realtor and think just because you are you will be a wise investor right off. You wont. I, don’t purport to be a great realtor once i get licensed this month either, no…I will learn from pro’s.

Learn; key word learn how to find your first house deal.

As a bird dog, and soon to be new wholesaler, please get it out of your mind that you’re going to make a killing on your first few deals.  I just roll my eyes at the hopeful new birddog who says “I want to make 30% or I want to make $5,000 on my deal.” For one, the new birddog doesn’t even begin to know what a good deal is. So help your mentor and you will be helped. If he is selfish, keep him on the back burner and find a new one.

Plain and simple, learn from a mentor, someone who has gone before you.  You know, like a physician, prior to practicing s/he has to do a lot of shadowing other doctors in residency. Hum wonder why, think about it!

Okay, that’s out of the way, and I am feeling better. Here is the deal. Learn from others, close mouth, open ears, and learn, and learn, and learn. Once you know how to run comps on properties, know the right and wrong areas to focus in, understand how title and assignment works, pushing a deal through, and what rehab costs are, THEN you can consider doing your own deal.

In the meantime, bird dog, you will learn so, so very much. Find an investor you can help.  Yes help him and help him make money. In that short mentoring time you will really get a handle on the big picture. Like what is a deal and what is not a deal?

Learn; key word learn how to find your first house deal.

So keep it simple and sweet.  Find a mentor and ask him what you can do to help HIM or HER and tell them you want to learn bird dogging.  Don’t tell them your going to be the next hot investor.  I bet your learning time drops and you begin to make money right off.
Happy Trails,
Bill Guerra

Tags: bill guerra, bird-dog, birddog, Flipping Homes, houses, real estate investing, realtor, wholesale

One of the best ways to advertise and market for motivated sellers is by using what real estate investors call Bandit Signs. They are called bandit signs because you have to put them out at night on the sly! They are those plastic coroplast signs, 18×24 inches, you have seen posted on telephone poles at intersections. Classy? No.  Effective? Yes. In fact, the most effective advertising there is for real estate investors, hands down!

I can’t tell you how many times motivated sellers have driven by and saw our signs then called asking “I saw your sign, how does this work?” Bandit signs work great, most city ordinances do not like them littering up the side of the road and they have a point, they do look tacky. Nonetheless they work great.  If you call the city, this is what you say, “What times can we put out signs by our businesses for the weekend?” Usually they say put the signs out by Friday 5 pm and be sure to remove them by 8am Monday morning.

I cannot tell you how many deals I have gotten by bandit signs. The verbiage I use is “We Buy Houses” on the first line, and “CASH QUICK CLOSE” in 72 hrs” on the second line and the third line I put my phone number. Here is an example of what we use:

WE BUY HOUSES; CASH QUICK CLOSE;

We like to staple them up about 10 feet or higher on telephone poles so they are not easily removed except by us! Roofing nails work better than staples, you can find them at the hardware store. They are one to two inch nails with orange plastic washers prefitted. The plastic washers are about 1-2 inches in diameter and make it more difficult to pull the signs off. When you do have to remove them us a fillet knife to slice the sign in half. You know the 11 inch knife you use to fillet fish with, that’s the one, works like magic.

Put the signs up in your target or gold mine areas. The areas where you want to birdogg or scout for your wholesale house deals. You do not want to put several up together but spread them apart some, so they stay there and will not get removed as quickly.

Intersections are the best place to put them, this way while motivated sellers are waiting at the red light they can grab a pen and jot your phone number down or dial your number right then and there.

I hope this helps.  You get more deals as a new wholesale investor or birddog.

Happy Trails,
Bill Guerra

Tags: bandit sign, bill guerra, investor advertising, real estate investing, zero down