Real Estate + Technology + Business
Real Estate
Do you have a plan?
02502 days
by Jeremy
in Real Estate
“Where there is no vision, the people perish” – Proverbs 29:18
Real estate investing, just like everything else in life requires a plan. You can not float through it without a set path and expect to be successful.
This is more then just “I want to make a million dollars buying houses”. This is a methodical step-by-step plan that starts with a vision (perhaps the statement above) and is boiled down to the detailed elements of your daily tasks.
Your plan should answer the WHAT, HOW, WHEN, and WHY of everything you do.
Investing is NOT complex. Most people fail because they meander along aimlessly for a period of time with short bursts of activity.
If you have a well thought out plan, with clear defined goals, and you execute that plan in a consistent manner with perseverance I guarantee that you will be successful. Use this simple formula and “all your your wildest dreams come true”. (This is worth 100 times more then any money you’ll give to a late night “guru” – and it’s free!)
$250,000 Tax Free – Capital Gains Exclusion
02507 days
How do you make $250,000 – $500,000 and never pay taxes?
The IRS has setup a great way for you to take up to $500,000 in TAX FREE gains on the sale of your personal residence. If own a property, and live in it for at least 2 years you do not have to pay any taxes on the gain – up to $250,000 if you are single, or $500,000 if married and filing jointly.
You can do this with rental or investment property as well. As long as you meet the requirements above this applies to any property you own. You can not use this exclusion if the property is part of a 1031/Starker Exchange.
Helpful Links:
–> IRS Publication 523 – Selling Your Home
–> Motley Fool – Making Home Sale Capital Gains Disappear
–> Forbes.com – The Shelter Shelter
–> Bankrate – Capital Gains Tax Break a Boon for Owners
Real Estate Tech #1 – Duplicating Lead Information
02516 days
How do you get your leads?
If you have a web site (almost all agents and investors do) that you collect leads from (why do you have a web site if you aren’t collecting leads?), how do you receive that information?
Most people it seems have the home owner fill out information on their web site, which sends them an email, where they re-enter the information into their contact management software (if you aren’t using this, more on that later).
This is a waste of time! Once information is in once place, you should never have to re-enter it somewhere else. Almost all contact management software has a function to import information from a web site or email (ACT!, Goldmine, Salesforce.com, etc. can all do this).
I’ve spoken with investors who have full time staff members that spend their entire day collecting information from property owners and entering it into the computer. If you have a smaller operation, how much of your time is wasted with entering data, instead of marketing, buying, or selling?
Lastly, if you do not have a web site you are missing out on a huge opportunity. Home owners spend 10 – 30 minutes each entering their information at our web site – Fast Home Offers. With 4,500 people contacting us every month, that is 2,250 HOURS each month we might spend if we took all of the calls directly – that is almost 15 full time staff members!
Where are you duplicating information? Find out and commit to stop wasting time!
Real Estate Tech – Introduction
02516 days
Are using technology to it’s fullest in your real estate (or any) business?
It seems that real estate – especially at the agent and individual investor level – is a market that uses technology the least and could benefit the most from it.
Many investors are are the “just get it done” type. They will repeat a task over and over without taking a step back to critically think about the process and how it might be done more efficiently.
Over the next few weeks I’ll be posting various tips on how to combine the use of technology with your business. If you implement these tips, they could save your hours of wasted time.
Some areas I’ll cover:
- Why your file cabinets should be mostly empty
- Are all your leads going into your computer, or a stack of paper?
- Are you entering your leads into your computer, or is the seller?
- How fast can you put together a purchase contract, warranty deed, or lease contract? (hint – if it is longer then 30 seconds to a few minutes, you are wasting a LOT of time)
- Do you know how effective your marketing is?
- Could you tell someone the content and date of every conversation you’ve ever had with a homeowner or tenant?
- Could you easily direct mail every home owner in a 10 block radius of a zip code who has owned their house for more then 10 years, doesn’t live in it, and has a property older then 15 years?
Keep checking back, I’ll post something every few days.
Real Estate Investor Marketing: Blind Offers
02521 days
Today our company made 150 offers on listed properties in specific neighborhoods in the Dallas / Fort Worth area.
Using technology and automated processes we were able to make all these offers in 15 minutes.
The Criteria:
- On the market for over 60 days
- Listing price has been lowered
- In specific zip codes
- Offer price was 55% of the listed price
- No price cap
- Sight unseen
Of the 150 offers, we have had quite a few "no way" responses and a couple the are interested in selling. We will post our purchase rate (we expect to close 1-2 homes).
Cost of marketing: $0.00
Business or Hobby?
02523 days
Is your real estate venture (or mortgage company, or insurance company, or church, or …) a business or a hobby?
Do you have a business plan?
Do you have defined goals?
Do you have a plan on how to reach those goals?
Is what you do every day based on the goals?
Do you know how to find any document you need within a few minutes?
Do you spend more time working ON your business or IN your business?
Do you do what only YOU can do, and delegate the rest?
Are you proactive?
Do you have a process for everything you do?
If not, you are probably running your business more like a hobby then a true business.
If you have a business, or are thinking of starting a business I highly recommend you read and follow The E-Myth, by Michael Gerber. The principles in this book will help you run your business (no matter what size) more efficiently – which will make your more profitable and give you the ability to grow faster and more smoothly.
I have applied many of the principles in this book, and it has made a significant difference in how we operate and what we do.
Lease Option Law Signed – TEXAS
02524 days
Friday, Governor Perry signed into law House Bill 1823 which makes it nearly impossible to do a lease option in the state of Texas (see previous post).
We are currently investigating ways around this law, but you would be wise to understand exactly what your obligations and risks are if you decide to lease a house with an option tied to it.
Resources:
- Excellent list of the new rules by Attorney Steve Tiemann
- Text of HB1823
House Bill 1823 – Lease Options in Texas
02527 days
——————————-
UPDATE
See THIS POST if you are looking for more information – this law was signed.
——————–
Texas House Bill 1823 has passed the the full senate and is now on Governor Rick Perry’s desk waiting to be signed. Unless he vetoes this bill by Sunday, it will become law automatically.
What does this mean for Texas investors?
- Lease options will untenable in Texas. – Why?
- A lease option becomes an executory contract (contract for deed).
- You will have to give 30 days notice before enforcing a remedy in the event of a late lease payment
- You are disallowed the forfeiture of any option consideration (payment) because of a late lease payment.
- This bill retroactively allows a lessee/purchaser to cancel land rescind a lease option contract if it is discovered that the property was platted or subdivided incorrectly
- Although this Bill allows a “purchase money loan” on the property:
- It requires the permission, acceptance and acknowledgment by any underlying lender of egregious privacy issues surrounding the loan;
- It makes any violation a deceptive trade practice;
- It places egregious requirements on Lease Options, while not affecting transactions of greater significance (i.e., Wrap-Around mortgages)
- This bill is potentially unconstitutional because it creates "an alienation on property", provides for retroactivity, and causes a restraint on trade.
This bill is part of a systematic process of some in the real estate community to make it very difficult for investors to continue to operate their businesses. If we continue to allow these types of bills to pass unopposed your livelihood will become more and more threatened.
If you are a Texas resident, please contact Gov. Rick Perry today and voice your concern over this egregious bill.
FAX: (512) 463-1849
Phone: (512) 463-2000
ADDRESS:
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, TX 78711-2428
Preferably send something on company letterhead that is well thought out, concise, and professional.
LeadFeed – RSS leads from Fast Home Offers
02527 days
We recently launched RSS feeds at Fast Home Offers. This allows investors all over the world who purchase leads from us to view them via 3rd party products like Bloglines or FeedDemon (my new favorite).
After our press release and email to current subscribers the response was as expected. About 30% “This is great, exactly what we need” and 70% “what is RSS, how does this work, why do I need it?”. Obviously I need to do a better job of educating our customers on new products (not everyone knows what a BLOG is!).
This launch was precipitated by the very large amount of email that bounces back to us from SPAM and Junk Mail filters – both on individual computers and at the service provider level (aside – when is email going to get fixed? It is becoming almost useless for marketing anymore).
To view the RSS feeds and subscribe (leads are by state right now) visit LeadFeed.
We are always looking for ways to increase our ability to serve real estate investors.