Real Estate Investors Association of Greater Cincinnati

O.K., so you have gotten it into your blood, mind, and soul that you want to be a Rehabber. Take that ugly, smelly eyesore and turn it into the gem of the neighborhood. No problem, right? After all, you’ve watched all the shows on HGTV and Magnolia Network. You know all about what countertops to choose…what color schemes will wow your buyers…and, that bathroom layout you have etched into your mind is killer….

Well, there may be just a bit more to it than you think.

In this article, I want to address some of the areas you will want to start with before ever lifting a hammer or paintbrush. Some of the things which, if done correctly ahead of time, will make your project run infinitely smoother, save you time and money and allow you to keep any hair you currently have.

What Needs to be Done?

Believe it or not, this is one of the areas where most of us…even experienced Rehabbers…have some of our biggest challenges. Do I replace the windows? What about the furnace? Should I use Home Depot countertops…Corian…mid-range? There are a myriad of things to consider here, and the more experienced and wiser you become, the closer you will be to “guessing right”.

For instance, on
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“If you were arrested for being a real estate investor would there, be enough evidence to convict you?” I was once asked! I wholeheartedly responded with a resounding, “YES!” You must be able to do that which makes you stand out from your competition. As you begin your campaigns as part of your overall marketing strategy and goal, continue to diligently test and track results as you go. You MUST be able to determine what marketing tools work best for you in your marketplace in order to draw the highest number of motivated sellers to your real estate investing business. 

People often ask me, “What is the best way to find motivated sellers and buyers?” My response is to do that which your competition will not and do a lot of it. Dare to be different in your approach to locating motivated sellers. Analyze, discover, and continue to rediscover the best combination of marketing methods that will generate the highest number of motivated sellers for your business. Develop three to five marketing techniques that give the very best lead-generating leverage possible and devote your resources to those marketing techniques which net the very best results. As simple as it may sound---don’t spend time on something that is n
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In 2020, I knocked on the door of a homeowner. I told him we loved his neighborhood and wanted to buy a home there. Did he know anyone thinking of selling?

As it turned out, he was about to put his home up for sale because he and his wife could no longer afford to pay their property taxes. Though their house would be paid off in a couple of years, due to being on fixed incomes, they were being forced to sell even though they loved their house and didn’t want to move.

Here’s how a Pure Option fixed this homeowner’s real estate problem. 

The homeowner said his home was worth $175,000. I agreed to pay his yearly property taxes. In exchange, he gave me the right to buy his home in the next twenty years for $175,000. Also, for each $1.00 we paid in property taxes, the purchase price would be reduced by $1.50. We also agreed to not exercise our Option to buy the property for the first 10 years of the 20-year option unless he moved from the home. 

This was a win-win deal. The homeowner was not forced to sell and move. We would capture all the appreciation gain on the property for the next twenty years. 

How often have you met with a homeowner who DOESN’T want to sell, but until now, you’ve been unable to help that person solve their real estate problem? 

Have you ever run into a homeowner with a situation like this? Pure Options are one of the least understood and least used deal structuring tools in real estate.  Now you know what to do!

Here's a good one that just came to mind while working with a new person in the game: Volunteering 

Volunteering is how I got started on the road to success.  

A very seasoned member of my local REIA gave me that advice when I asked him what I could do to become successful in real estate investing. He said to volunteer. And I did. 

When you volunteer, you will find it useful to have your information handy on a card to give out. If you haven't already, make sure to get yourself some basic business cards that have your contact info on them: name, email, phone number, and (maybe) address. 

I know people talk about doing things digitally but there is still an excellent case to be made for a business card. I'm pretty sure no one ever scrolls through their contacts in their phone looking at who they have not talked to lately. But they *will* take a look through a pile of business cards now and then. 

What if they come across yours, they realize they have a good profit motive to reach out to you, and then you are right there to capture the money. Won't you be glad you gave out a business card to them when you volunteered?

The other day I was talking to a good friend of mine about the changing market and what strategies he found worked best. 

We were sharing the various tweaks we had made to our own marketing plans and how successful they were or were not. It’s a conversation we often have.

But what struck me this time, and I am not sure why it hasn’t struck me before, was that the one strategy we always put in the success column is Follow Up. Consistently following up with a lead always works!

If One is Good, More is Better

I have always been a person who thinks in terms of if one is good, more must be better.

I figure that if I send one letter, 10 would be better.  If I make 1 phone call, 6 would be better. If I sent 1 email, 100 would be better! Okay, that may be pushing it, but you get the gist. Sending just one piece of marketing is good but more is better! I think that is why the idea of Follow Up has been something I have always used.

When I explain this strategies benefits to my coaching students, I always use the example of shopping in a store at the mall.  If you are like me, you walk into the store with a single purpose…to get the item you are looking for as quickly as possible and get the heck out of there! But if you are also like me, the store
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Do you remember 1969? Probably not. But I remember the year 1969 very well. It was the year in which I purchased my first rental house. I was still in college and realized that I needed to break the cycle of poverty in my family.  

First, I decided to get more education than anyone else in my family. So, I went to college and majored in business. While studying in college, I realized that most people in America who became wealthy did it through investment in real estate. My initial interest was in apartment buildings, but since they took large amounts of down payment money (the “nothing down” concept had not been invented yet) I defaulted to the single-family home as my IDEAL investment vehicle. 

By the time I graduated from college I had acquired three rental houses and one small office building. After graduation, I continued acquiring rental houses and titling them in my name personally. One sunny morning I woke up and realized the potential risk I was creating by owning all these properties in my own name. These were the days before you could access the county recorder’s office online. But you could go down to the courthouse and walk into the recorder’s office to look up each owner of every property in town. Wow, was I stupid! 

I began to research different ways of holding a title to real estate. When I di
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The type of policy available to property owners varies based on the type of building, the building occupancy type, and the frequency of the building being occupied.

There are six categories for insuring investment properties, but we will look at only DF1 and DF3.  

The DF1 policy is a base policy with limited coverage for the building.  It can be used for vacant (rehab/flip), rental or owner-occupied properties, but the coverages are generally very limited, usually to:

1. Fire and lightning
2. Explosion
3. Windstorm
4. Hail
5. Riots
6. Smoke damage
    

The risk to any insurance policy is the exclusions. This list is usually rather lengthy and is “required” reading.  It explains in detail the various conditions for which the policies offer no coverage,  Some of the common EXCLUSIONS include:   

1. Flood and water damage
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In 1978 a good friend of mine got me to joint venture with him on the purchase of my first single-family investment property in Colorado Springs. We continued to buy several other houses and a fourplex together. We hired 3 different management firms to run our small portfolio. Sadly, all three firms failed miserably, which forced me into the management business by default.

Initially, I just managed properties I owned or in which I had an ownership interest. Eventually, I expanded and took on others' properties to increase income and help cover overhead expenses.

As the business grew, I quickly became aware that the toughest part of property management was not dealing with tenants but dealing with the property owners who would eat up my time and increase my stress with questions and suggestions about their properties. It was difficult for them to understand that only one of us could manage their property.

In 1984 I stumbled onto a better way to do business.

I had a good friend with a problem house he had taken back through foreclosure. He wanted me to manage the property; however, I had very little interest in doing that. Over lunch in one day, I offered to lease his property from him for 35 years at a fixed monthly amount with the right to sub-lease the house to others.

This is an example of a master lease. I told him that if I wasn't making $1,000 per month spread on the rents by the end of the lease, then I had made
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Rob X is a landlord with a “real job” who doesn’t want his full name used for reasons understood only in corporate America. 

My name is Robert, and I’m a real estate investor association (REIA) member.  I have a confession to make: I don’t want to quit my job.

I feel a little funny saying that, because it seems like an awful lot of the gurus, experts, and people around me at my local group would really, really like me to want to quit my job.

In fact, it seems like “job” is a 4-letter word around my REIA. A lot of people can’t even seem to say it: it’s a word so obscene that they have to spell it. J.O.B. Which, for those of you who haven’t caught on yet, means “Just Over Broke”.

The problem is, I’m not just over broke. Like millions of other Americans, I have a pretty good-paying job, with good benefits, and a credit score to match. I don’t hate what I do. I don’t feel oppressed by my bosses. I kind of like what I do for a living. I trained for it, I got good at it, and I enjoy it.

In other words, I’m not looking for real estate to fix my financial life; my financial life has been just fine for years.

I’m looking for real estate, and real estate-related assets, to KEEP my financial life fine when I retire,
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              I’m a bit of a “one-trick pony” when it comes to real estate. Yes, I have really enjoyed learning about and doing several of the more creative deals that Vena and Bill teach (and it is some awesome stuff that they teach, by the way!). Yet, as I slowly integrate these into my repertoire, the majority of the deals I work go exactly the same way; buy the property, and then give a lease with an option to purchase to a tenant/buyer. There are so many reasons I love this strategy, though my favorite is the three different profit centers provided within one single deal!

            For example, the $4,000 minimum option fee that one of my tenants/buyers pays is similar to a small fee on a wholesale deal. This option fee is NOT a security deposit; it’s a non-refundable fee for having the option to purchase the property at some point in the future. So, it is your money the moment you receive it! And often times the tenant/buyer will put more down – $5,000 or $8,000 or even $10,000 or more!    

       
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