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Control Freaks Welcome

By Gabby Darroch

When you think about traditional banking systems, I am willing to bet you don’t think about having control over your money. Typically, the banks have all the control.

Think about that for a second. It’s YOUR money and the banks CONTROL it. They control what you do with it. They control what OTHER PEOPLE do with it. And they control the “wealth” you gain from it. I say “wealth” in quotations because for you it’s not really wealth at all. You earn pennies on your invested money while the banks gains upwards of 400% on that same money you invested.

I’m sure when I put it like that you see there’s something obviously wrong with the traditional banking system. It’s just another way the rich get richer, but what about you?

Well, imagine being in control of that banking system. With cash compounding you can be, and you’re going to notice some HUGE differences when compared to everything you’re used to in the traditional banking world. Here are 3 of them:

#1: You don’t have to lock up your cash.

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If you are currently contributing to some kind of retirement account, such as a 401k, you probably forget about that money regularly. Why? Because you can’t use it until retirement age without being severely penalized. Out of sight, out of mind. Right? Well with cash compounding you aren’t “locking away” your money for retirement that may not be here for another 10, 20, 30 or more years like you are with retirement accounts. And you get full use of your dollar when you need it… NOW! With those traditional retirement accounts, your dollar typically becomes weaker over time, leaving you with fewer dollars than you invested.

#2: You don’t have to turn over control to someone else.

It’s risky to give someone your money and not know if they are doing a poor job with it until it’s too late. Well, that’s what you’re doing when you invest your dollars into a traditional retirement account. If you had the right information, you could easily be the one that’s in charge of your money and know where your finances stand on a daily basis instead of relying on a stranger to do the leg work, only to find out they could’ve done better.

#3: There are guarantees from day 1.

The ONLY guarantee you’ll ever see with any qualified retirement account is that they won’t go below zero. So much for overdelivering on their promises. With cash compounding, you are guaranteed a minimum of 4% growth, no matter what happens in the economy. Your money isn’t tied to the market so if it crashes, you will still be sitting pretty.

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The Money Multiplier Method utilizes this cash compounding concept. And through these techniques, we help you to create your own generational wealth that is completely, 100% controlled by you.

Your money, in your control, working for you every single day… Who knew?

To learn more about this method and what it can do for you, please visit www.TheMoneyMultiplier.com, scroll to the very bottom and click on “Member Area.” Enter the password “bankwithbrent” and watch the presentation that appears on the next page.

When you’re ready to get started on creating your financial legacy or if you have more questions, please email us at [email protected], or give us a call at 386-456-9335, and one of our mentors will be in touch with you.

[email protected]

Assign or Double Close: The $9,000 Question

By Jeffery S. Watson

In a conversation I had with a real estate investor regarding the differences between assignments and double closings, we talked about the cost associated with double closing a transaction. When you close two separate real estate transactions involving the same property within a short period of time, say 30-45 days apart, there are certain inescapable costs incurred twice. The title and escrow company or closing attorney is doing almost twice the amount of work.

The general rule of thumb I have given investors has been that if the assignment fee is $9,000 or less, then go ahead and assign the contract so there is only one closing and the assignee (the new buyer stepping into the shoes of the first buyer) completes the transaction with the title company or closing attorney. If, however, the assignment fee is greater than $9,000, then it’s time to examine if a double closing should occur.

In certain jurisdictions, that $9,000 number would change. For example, in Cook County, Illinois, I would recommend it be $15,000 or higher because of the extraordinarily high cost of closing a real estate transaction in that jurisdiction. In some states, many of my clients wisely choose to double close on all transactions due to the large spread between what they are buying it for and what they are ultimately able to resell it for.

In your market, the best thing to do to determine whether to assign or double close is to have conversations with various title and escrow companies or closing attorneys. Do some cost comparison as to the usual and customary fees and whether those fees can be negotiated down. Find out the basic, unavoidable costs of closing a real estate transaction.

Until you have that information readily known to you, you cannot make an intelligent decision as to whether you should assign or double close on a particular transaction. With that extra information, you become more effective in managing your real estate business.


Jeffery S. Watson

Attorney

Jeffery S. Watson is an attorney who has had an active trial and hearing practice for more than 27 years. As a trial lawyer, he has a unique perspective on real estate investing, wealth building and asset protection. He has tried over 20 civil jury trials and has handled thousands of contested hearings. Jeff has changed the law in Ohio 5 times via litigation or legislation:

Smith v. Rudler – 70 Ohio St.3d 397
In re Hugley – 629 N.E.2d 1136
Bahr v. Progressive Insurance – 2009-Ohio-6641
Snyder v. Snyder – 865 N.E.2d 944
H.B. 463 amending the Ohio Civil Rights Act

Jeff has also been a real estate investor since 1994, investing in both residential and commercial properties. He currently represents established real estate investors in commercial and residential matters when the transactions involve self-directed retirement accounts. As a frequent and popular guest speaker and teacher on stages and webinars, he is a recognized thought leader and innovator in the field of real estate investing, wealth building and self-directed retirement account transactions.

He is a nationally-recognized authority regarding regulatory concerns with wholesaling. He was the co-creator of the Option Contract method that revolutionized the short-sale flipping process. Thousands of investors have used documents created by Jeff to flip properties.

Jeff is general counsel to the National Real Estate Investors Association. Jeff is general counsel to and a cofounder of Realeflow, LLC, which made the Inc 500 list in 2011. He currently advises six different national organizations with a combined membership of over 250,000 investors.

From 2010 to present, Jeff has led lobbying efforts in Washington, DC on behalf of real estate investors which has brought about several changes in both government regulation and policy on distressed property purchases and resales. In 2014 and 2015, his efforts on Capitol Hill helped bring about change in the U.S. tax code and helped reinstate the Mortgage Debt Forgiveness Act. Since 2015, Jeff has worked to secure passage of the Seller Finance Enhancement Act.

Jeff’s efforts to secure reform in the real estate arena aren’t just on Capitol Hill. In his home state of Ohio, he has worked with the Ohio Division of Real Estate teaching on the legality of wholesaling.

He is a part owner of Venture Land Title II, LLC, and his law firm prepares deeds and other documents for two title companies. He is also legal counsel to a number of other organizations including Eagleville Bible Church, Inc.

Jeff is the author or co-author of 6 digital books:

  • “Understanding Self-directed Individual Retirement Accounts”
  • “A Guide to Private Lending”
  • “Short Sales Done Right – How to Profitably and Legally Navigate the Short Sale Jungle”
  • “Death of the Land Trust … in Short Sales”
  • “How to Hire Your ‘Dream Team’ ”
  • “Understanding the Foreclosure Process”

In addition to his digital books, Jeff authors an email newsletter twice a week and maintains a blog at WatsonInvested.com on investing, business and entrepreneurship which are read by thousands of successful investors.

Here’s Your Invitation To Ignite Your Investment Performance

By Carrie Cook

Still looking for better investment performance? How does $1M in tax free returns sound?

Securing strong investment yields is still one of the top priorities of all investors out there today. Of course big promises alone can’t be the single driving force behind investment decisions. Otherwise we’d all be off to the casinos in Vegas to go all-in on every next roll of the dice, and financial planners would be out of business. Returns are important, but so is diversification, tax planning, and finding sustainable investments.

The Search for Sound Investments

Finding sound, profitable investments and enough of them can be challenging. Some have very diverse stock portfolios, yet really have no idea what to expect from their performance. Many have added owning a home to their assets, and hope to gain from equity growth as they pay down their mortgages. Some take this further with direct investment in rentals. Rental homes can provide similar benefits to homeownership, but can also bring significant time demands and expenses. Then there are REITs, which promise ease of investing, but provide no collateral and present the same high volatility risks they are exposed to in other stocks.

Then there is trust deed investing. This may also be called ‘note investing’ or private lending. This is a sector loved by sophisticated individual investors and institutional investors for its simplicity, strong collateral, and of course the yields. These are the types of investments which have made the likes of Warren Buffett, Sam Zell, Blackstone, and Bank of America very wealthy.

President of Ignite Funding, Carrie Cook says it’s entirely “possible to invest $100k at 10% in mortgages for 25 years, and reap $1M in tax free returns.”

Ignite Funding

This is exactly the type of investments Nevada based Ignite Funding specializes in. Ignite Funding has been featured on Modern Living with Kathy Ireland and Bloomberg Television. Led by president and woman entrepreneur Carrie Cook the firm has been providing these elite investment opportunities for 21 years.

Ignite Funding offers qualified investors the ability to participate in their success by funding high quality borrowers in the real estate space. These trust deed or mortgage investments provide cash flow, above average yields, and the security of being backed by tangible real estate collateral.

Some big funds and new note brokers have recently made this space popular in heralding the benefits of investing in distressed debt and non-performing existing loans. In contrast Carrie explains that Ignite focuses on issuing new capital to strong builder developers with great track records. Specifically the firm’s president explains that they carefully curate “a pool of highly prized borrowers who have been in business for at least 10 years.” In fact, this lender-broker does not even operate a borrower facing platform. They seek out those they see are the most qualified. If builders do find them Carrie says they “accept only around 20% of the requests received.” The funds are used for acquisition, development, and construction, and target a 10% to 12% annualized return to investors.

This is NOT Wells Fargo

Among the refreshing differences that investors will find at Ignite Funding is a serious dedication to sustainability and transparency.

Those are words which are easy for companies to spout out these days to capitalize on trends. But this company proves it by really putting the information out there. Other CEOs, especially in this male dominated field might deem some of this transparency clearly unnecessary and going too far. Yet, it is clearly in favor of the investors, as it holds their asset manager to a high standard and ensures they are working hard to deliver the best results today and over the long term.

Some of the ways you’ll see this displayed via the firm’s website include a calendar of deals being funded, five years’ worth of detailed performance documentation, and even information on defaults. That’s right; no matter how diligent and careful you are some loans will default. Some big banks have become infamous for how they hide this information for so long. Not here. Carrie Cook’s team clearly displays any default information, along with the cures. The data is encouraging too, with the company recouping over 100% of investor capital even in some of the worst performance cases displayed. Carrie credits this success not only to the investors and borrowers involved, but her teams attitude of being willing to “run into the fire, not from it,” as well as the consolidated approach of completely in-house operations from origination to servicing and loss mitigation.

Who is Investing in Trust Deeds?

In addition to the very visible and notable examples of big funds and billionaires who invest in this asset class, there are a growing number of private individuals who are experiencing great results here.

Ignite Funding accepts a minimum investment of $10,000, though Carrie says “around 75% of clients are using their IRAs to invest,” which means they can invest a lot more. However, one of the best features here is that while adhering to Nevada’s strict sustainability standards, this type of collateralized investment is open to those earning just $70,000 or more each year, providing they are not investing more than 15% of their net worth.

For those interested in learning more about trust deed investing, how Ignite Funding protects its clients with multiple layers of security, and who want to soundly diversify their portfolios find out more online at IgniteFunding.com.

Disclaimer: Money invested through a mortgage broker is not guaranteed to earn any interest and is not insured. Prior to investing, investors must be provided applicable disclosure documents. Ignite Funding, LLC | 6750 Via Austi Parkway, Suite 230, Las Vegas, NV 89119 | P 702.739.9053 | T 877.739.9094 | F 702.922.6700 | NVMBL #311 | CACFL #603J286 | AZ CMB #0932150 and AZCMBBR #0121055.

 

 

Luxury Portfolio – Million Dollar Houses are the Shortest Way to Riches

By Laura Alamery

Luxury portfolio is definitely the quickest way to real estate riches. Have you ever heard the statement, “the surest way to make $1-Million in real estate is to invest in a $10-Million home?” There is definitely some truth to that. The great news about it is that you do not need to have one million or 10 millions to invest in a luxury portfolio – like most of the strategies I teach about real estate investing, it is a matter of knowing how to control real estate.

Luxury Portfolio:

Many real estate investors have been engaged in luxury real estate investing for decades, keeping this as the best kept secret from the masses of real estate investors dealing mainly with “regular” real estate properties, unaware of the gold mine sitting right in front of them.

Mansions follow the same wholesaling principle as smaller homes: you can flip a mansion the same way as you flip a regular home, the only difference is the profit potential. Basically add a zero to your take home check.

There has been a surge in high-end and luxury flipping nationwide. Between 2011 and today, flips of homes valued at $1 million or more have risen almost 40 percent across the United States, according to RealtyTrac, the housing data company. Two main factors have contributed to this increase in interest on accumulating a luxury portfolio: the first one, with the real estate market collapse, Wall Street investors saw an opportunity in luxury portfolio investing and moved into the mid-market with so much money that they bought nearly every foreclosure in sight, mostly to rent out. The second factor has been the exponential increase of foreign investors in the US real estate market. Last year, Chinese investors spent $12 billion on U.S. real estate, making the country the second-biggest foreign investor, just behind Canada, according to the National Association of Realtors.

With so much money circulating in real estate investing from Wall Street to international investors, some areas are a sure bet for attracting high-end buyers either as owner occupants or investors looking to increase their luxury portfolio. These are some of the most popular cities for luxury real estate investing:

  • Beverly Hills, California
  • Manhattan, New York
  • Bel Air, California
  • San Francisco, California
  • Palm Beach, Florida
  • East Hampton, New York
  • Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts
  • Miami, Florida
  • Malibu, California
  • Denver, Colorado

However all metropolitan areas offer luxury portfolio opportunities – from major cities like Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, to smaller up and coming cities like St Louis, Pittsburgh and Indianapolis, all have mansions and expensive homes flipping or investing opportunities.

Now the question is “how do I find luxury homes and buyers wanting these homes?” Like I stated earlier, the concept is the same: you can flip or own and rent out a luxury home the same way as you can flip or own a “regular” home. Motivated sellers are present in every type of real estate. However you have to be aware of a very important principle – motivated sellers of luxury homes do not place their houses in the newspaper, nor do they have “For Sale” signs posted in their yards, as do traditional sellers. The target audience of motivated sellers will most likely be experiencing one or more of what I call the “Five Major Motivators”: Death, Divorce, Loss of Job, Job Transfer and Illness.

Dealing with luxury homes involves a little of a shift in strategy thinking, although the concept of investing and flipping stay the same. Once you understand how to locate motivated sellers and high-end buyers, how to negotiate with them and structure the deals, even just one closing a year can yield more than most people can make on a regular job.

Would you like to learn more about Luxury Portfolio and Real Estate Investing? Check out my exclusive training at a very special price for a limited time only!


 

Laura Alamery

Laura Alamery has been a real estate investor and mentor for almost 30 years. She has been a pioneer of several real estate investing strategies before they became mainstream, from wholesaling to raising private money. Everything she teaches has been developed from personal experience.

She runs real estate clubs in several cities from Chicago to Atlanta and South Florida.

Her focus today is to streamline the real estate investing business by simplifying the process while exponentially growing the financial results. In other words, how to truly live a financially and active lifestyle, without trading time for dollars. Her signature program is Rapid REI Riches.

Read more about Laura and connect at Lauraalamery.com 

A House or a Home?

By Albert Lowry

What’s the difference between a house and a home, and how do you make the best purchase choice in either case? Those seem like straightforward questions, but there’s a lot to take into consideration to make a smart decision.

First of all, a house is a property from which you expect to make money, and a home is where you live. There are some factors in common for choosing a good deal for either one of these but also some differences that you should be aware of.

In today’s market, for both houses and homes, it generally makes sense to avoid getting the biggest, most expensive dwelling you can. Buy only what you need, and you’ll have the opportunity to make improvements with the money you save. You can determine what would be right for a home size for yourself. In the case of buying houses for investment, the ideal size for a rental unit is 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. It’s what most renters want, so you have a better chance of charging a good monthly rental price and having high rates of occupancy.

Another factor that holds true for both houses and homes is the familiar real estate mantra of “location, location, location.” You can make more money from renting out a house in a desirable area. For the place you call home, you also want to be in a nice neighborhood where you enjoy living and your property retains its value.

That being said, don’t limit yourself to one area. There are good neighborhoods throughout most cities and towns, so it may be to your benefit to get out of your familiar zone and widen your circle to try to find some hidden gems.

When you’re out hunting for properties, one of the best suggestions I have for you is not to restrict yourself to drive-by shopping. A house or home may have little curb appeal, but be a real bargain for its appealing interior. You can always create curb appeal later with some sprucing up, so don’t let the initial let down of the exterior keep you from exploring further. Knowing that little trick will put you in line for some real bargains, plus you won’t be competing with others who passed up a bargain because they didn’t know this important tip.

Another common mistake people make when buying properties is to buy according to emotion rather than taking the time to do the necessary research. Judgement is distorted by emotions and that can lead to bad decisions. Instead, ask yourself whether the home you have your eye on will truly meet your long-term needs. And for a house, objectively determine its future profit potential and back that up with thorough research.

In both cases, you’ll want to consider the proximity of schools and shopping, whether it’s for your own quality of life, or for the house’s perceived value as a rental unit or as a resale. If promises have been made about future desirable development in the area, check for yourself that it really is a sure thing before paying a price that’s based on that expectation.

For any property you are considering purchasing, whether a house or a home, look for anything that has the potential to cost you a lot of money later on, even if it falls outside the scope of the professional inspection.

Now, suppose that you’ve found a property that you would like to buy. How can you get it for the price you want? I want to share with you some professional investor negotiating tips that have worked very well on a good number of deals I’ve made.

The first applies more to house purchases. To be a successful investor, it’s necessary to make a lot of offers. As a buyer, you always want to pay the price that you’ve determined to be a good value for what you’re getting. Plenty of sellers won’t see eye to eye with you, but there are others who will, and you’ll pay the right price.

There are the certain techniques that will help you achieve this. If a realtor has shown you a property you’re interested in, later try contacting the seller directly to ask some questions. Be personable and talk to him as a human being, not as an adversary. Ask him what the basis is for the price of the property. If you do a little research and find that it is not in line with comparable properties in the area, that can give you some leverage with the seller, especially if you present the facts in a reasonable and friendly manner.

If you are going to ask the seller for a lower price or for concessions, it’s a good idea to bring their expectations down with some finesse. One way to do this is to avoid showing interest in a property and point out its shortcomings in a way that allows the seller to save face and see your point of view.

You’ll find that if you perform your property search diligently, make rational judgements, submit a lot of offers, and negotiate effectively, you will pay the right price for either the home of your dreams or investment houses that have big profit potential for you.

Your partner in prosperity,

Dr. Albert Lowry

12 Steps to the Closing Table and the Big Check

By Kathy Kennebrook (The Marketing Magic Lady)

Okay, so your property is under contract, you’ve pre-qualified your prospect; they are working with the lender and everything is moving right along, right? Not necessarily. There are several steps to a successful closing and we are going to cover those one by one. Now remember, once you have your dream team in place, you will have the people available who will handle all of the details for you. In the meantime, you still need to know what all the steps are so you know everything gets handled properly.

  1. Make sure you get a big enough deposit from your buyer so they have some real dollars invested in the deal. Even if they are going for one hundred percent financing I still get as much as I can in order to secure the deal better. If your buyer puts down a larger deposit they are usually more committed to going through with the closing, so this is a requirement for me. I won’t even consider a deposit less than $1,000.00, but I always try for as much as I can get. The higher dollar the property is, the more deposit I require.
  1. Make sure that the lender or the mortgage broker orders credit and an appraisal on the property immediately. Usually, I will not consider a buyer who has not already been pre-qualified, so usually the credit check has already been done. Many lenders will try to wait until they get the contracts and other paperwork in before ordering the appraisal. This is a no-no. If you wait on the appraisal, it can hold up your closing by two to three weeks. Plus, if this buyer doesn’t end up buying the property, the appraisal can be used for the next buyer. Most appraisals are good for six months and now you have an appraisal that has already been paid for.
  1. Follow up with the loan processor to make sure the appraisal has been ordered and that the other parts of the closing are moving along. Many times your title agent or your Realtor or your sales person will do this for you, after all they want to get paid too. Make sure they have everything they need from the buyer regarding loan documentation.
  1. Follow up and make sure that title work has also been started. You want to make sure that everything is done in a timely matter so that there are no holdups when you go to close. Every once in awhile you may discover some small glitch in the title work that needs to be addressed, such as a deed that wasn’t done correctly. There would need to be an additional quit claim deed done to correct the mistake. Make sure the title agent understands the contract paperwork and what entity the funds are to be paid to. You also want to make sure they do the 1099 correctly so the right entity gets taxed. You will also want to provide the title company with a copy of the existing title policy. This means that they will be able to come forward from the date of your policy which takes less time and this may make the title search cheaper. Make sure the title agent understands who is going to pay for what regarding closing costs.

  1. Call the loan processor to make sure the property appraised for at least the amount of the contract. Make sure your buyer has ordered a termite inspection, a survey, a radon inspection or whatever else is required by the lender in order to close. Is there anything you can do to move things along? If you have a copy of a fairly recent survey, you can provide a copy. This will also save time and move you closer to the closing. Has your buyer’s deposit been credited? Have they gotten the paperwork they need to the lender including employment verification and rental history? These are all things you need to stay on top of.
  1. If your buyers are using city or county funds to supplement their loan, there will need to be another inspection done by the city or county. This is a stipulation of their program. Make sure this gets done quickly in order to address any issues that could come up with the inspection. If your buyers are having a home inspection done, make sure it is done right away. Not getting it done in a timely manner can hold up your closing.
  1. Does the lender have your information in order to be able to order a payoff on any underlying loans on the property? Have they received the payoff yet and have you reviewed it to make sure it is correct? Don’t just assume that just because they have been given figures that those figures are correct. Make sure they fax you a copy of the payoff for you to review. Double check the per diem amounts and make sure you aren’t being charged a prepayment penalty if there isn’t one due. Make sure the most recent payment has been credited against the amount due. These are problems I have had to deal with. If the loan is with a private lender, sometimes it takes even longer to get a payoff from them. Some of them don’t know how to prepare one, so they need the help of the title company or their real estate attorney for this. This is also the time you might be able to negotiate a discount with them. This works especially well if it was a seller held mortgage. We have gotten private lenders and sellers to negotiate discounts on loans on several occasions which just made our paycheck bigger.

  1. Has the buyer’s loan been approved? If not find out what the problem is and how to fix it if it can be fixed. If the loan has been approved find out what the proposed closing date is going to be. Has your buyer ordered insurance yet? You need to check this out and it needs to be done as soon as possible. This is another area where you could have a glitch. Sometimes the age of the property or the location of the property becomes an issue. For example, here in Florida where I live, if there is a hurricane brewing, we end up in a “box” which is a period of time where you can’t buy insurance until a hurricane passes. This can hold up a closing for several days unless the insurance is already in place. A buyer must purchase a homeowners policy for one year and it must pre-paid at closing.
  1. If you are selling a condo or a home with a home owners association, make sure the lender and the buyers have a copy of the home owner association rules and documents and that the buyers have set up their appointment for their meeting with the condo association or home owners association. If they are not approved by the condo association or homeowners association, the rest of the closing is a mute point. You need to make sure your buyer’s get through this process successfully.
  1. So now we have a set closing date. Make sure you contact the closing agent to make sure you get a copy of the HUD or closing statement before the closing takes place and before you arrive at a closing. Very recently we had a closing that didn’t take place because once we got the HUD all the figures including the asking price and seller assisted closing costs had all been changed. The closing price listed on the HUD was several thousand lower than the contract had called for. I have never seen anything like it and the deal never closed. Check the numbers! If there is a Realtor fee involved make sure the percentages are correct. Check the pro rated amounts you are being charged for property taxes or association fees. When you close on a property during the year, say in June and property taxes are due in October; you have to reimburse the buyer for the property taxes from January until the closing date in June since they didn’t own the property during that time period. The same would go for any association fees there might be. You will have to reimburse the buyer for the period during the month that they did not own the property. Double check to make sure these figure are correct. In my contract, if we are assisting the buyer in any way with closing costs, the buyer can’t walk away from closing with more than five hundred dollars. So this is another figure we check. Any amount over the five hundred dollars is credited back to our side on the closing statement.
  1. Call your buyer and make sure they have gotten a cashiers check for any monies they have to bring to closing and make sure they know where it is and what time the closing takes place. Make sure they bring a photo ID with them. The lender will require this. Believe me when I tell you that these are all lessons learned from experience.

  1. Now, Show up at the closing and don’t forget to bring the keys or garage door openers. Take several deep breaths and try to relax. Once you get through the closing take another deep breath, call your spouse and go out to dinner to celebrate.

Here is another point for you to consider. In my business, it is rare that I go to closings anymore since the whole closing process is outsourced. The funds from the closing are directly wired to an account for us so we get paid right away.

If I do go to a closing, I don’t go at the same time as the buyers. I usually go right after they are done with all their paperwork. The paperwork on a closing for a buyer is fairly time consuming and needs to be explained to the buyer by the title agent. I don’t like sitting at closings for an hour or more until I need to sign my documents. If you have done your due diligence and followed all the steps in the closing process, there isn’t really anything that can go wrong at the last minute, so breath easy but expect the worst.

Then when you get through the closing, cash your check or make sure your wire has arrived and go to dinner to celebrate!! For more information on Real Estate Investing tools and Marketing to Find Motivated Sellers, Buyers and Lenders visit Kathy Kennebrook’s website at www.marketingmagiclady.com. While you are there sign up for the free Monthly Newsletter and receive $149.00 in real estate investing tools absolutely FREE!

Due Diligence – What it is and Why it Matters!

By Laura Alamery

 

Buying real estate is not as simple as having enough money to purchase the property. It requires time and effort to check and make sure that the condition of the property is good and the title is valid before making the final decision. That is what you call due diligence.

In case the buyer discovers that something is wrong with the property, he may give suggestions to the seller so that the latter can act on it by addendum to the contract, or the buyer can decide not to buy the property.

Contractual Due Diligence

There are certain elements within the sales contract or purchase agreement which are critical to the ‘satisfaction’ of due diligence. Let’s take a closer look at each of them.

Contingencies – Any contingencies which the buyer wants performed prior to finalizing the purchase must be stated on the sales contract. Some examples of these conditions may include: inspections, partner’s approval, financing, research of code violations or permits – and, of course, a clear and marketable title. At the end of the contingencies timeline, the buyer must either release the them and proceed with the sale or cancel the purchase.

Time is of the Essence – Due diligence supported by contingencies comes with a definitive timeline in the sales contract. If the buyer cannot complete his/her due diligence by the deadline, he/she will have to renegotiate with the seller. The seller has the choice whether or not to agree to the extension; which in turn may compel the buyer to follow through with the purchase regardless, or cancel the contract.

Title Discovery – Whenever you purchase real estate (especially as an investor) a marketable title is the most crucial element. Without it, an investor cannot sell or transfer the property. There are several types of title discovery searches which look into a chain of title; as well as liens or judgments against the property. The following are 2 main types of searches performed; keep in mind these may go by different names according to the title company and location:

  1. Full Title Search – the most complete of the two, this search checks into everything affecting the property’s history. It is the only one that will be used prior to issuance of title insurance, and is of course the most expensive to perform.
  2. Letter Report – a summary of what’s on the title; which reveals any possible liens and judgments.

Please note: Securing title insurance is an important step. Though title insurance for cash transactions is optional, it is mandatory when the buyer must obtain a mortgage to purchase the property. In my professional opinion, an investor should always acquire title insurance. According to Wikipedia, “Title insurance is a form of indemnity insurance predominantly found in the United States which insures against financial loss from defects in title to real property, and from the invalidity or unenforceability of mortgage loans.”

Due Diligence Questions & Answers

 

Q: Should an investor perform due diligence on every property before purchasing?

A: Yes, and no. When an investor is looking at several possible deals at the same time – and not sure if they will go through with a specific contract, holding back could be wise. For example, it would be prohibitively expensive to perform even a Letter Report (average cost is $150) on every single property. These actions are also time consuming: even a title report will take 3 business days to be issued.

With that said, there are times when some basic due diligence is an important decision factor; for instance, when an investor is considering a property coming online at a foreclosure auction. The investor will want to know what potential issues there might be on title (liens, judgments) and whether the title would be marketable.

Q: Is it necessary for a title company to perform the due diligence for any sales contract?

A: The investor can actually perform a lot of their own basic due diligence without hiring a title company or spending any money. Checking with the appropriate government offices (most of them can also be accessed online) for some basic discovery is the simplest way to gain confidence in proceeding with your purchases.

Q: Which government agencies do you recommend searching to complete due diligence?

A: I don’t check with all the government offices for each property. If my discovery at the Recorder of Deeds Office comes out clean (with no red flags) I will stop there; unless I see a spotty history of liens and releases on title. This is also a useful means of locating properties undergoing issues that have kept them off the MLS. Here is a list of searches available in the public domain, and what you can expect to find:

  1. Recorder of Deeds Office – Will have record of liens such as: Mortgages, Federal & State Income Tax Liens, Sewer, Water, Judgments, HOA (Homeowner’s Association); and other property document history.
  2. Collector of Revenue – Lists any Back Property Taxes and Tax Liens
  3. Building Inspections Office – Data on any building violations and inspections.
  4. HOA – If the property is within a subdivision or a condo development, there are probably Homeowners’ Association Dues.
  5. Clerk’s Office – Mechanics Liens (filed by contractors for unpaid work on the property).
  6. Comptroller – City liens, for unpaid taxes and fees.

Due diligence is a must when it comes to purchasing real estate. Though a preliminary search can be performed at no cost before making your decision to proceed – it is my opinion that a full title search and insurance are necessary prior to final purchase.