Sunday I was holding a open house at one of our company's condo conversion projects and was thinking to myself, how can I get one of these units for myself as an investment property?The first thing I must tell you is that it is one particular unit that I am wanting. The reason I want that particular unit is because it is next to the model unit. My plan is to live there for one year while selling the other condos then owner-finance my unit to a new buyer.The only problem is the unit I want has a renter and the owner is saving those units for last. He wants the rents from those units to continue while he does the conversion of the vacant units. He is also not taking reservations on occupied units and I am not willing to wait for it to be vacated - I WANT IT TODAY!I'm presenting my proposa... 06/28/2007

The title may seem to be good to be true, but it isn't. You maybe able to buy a property at as low as 6.5%,tomorrow, with as little down as $1,000 and no closing costs upfront.How does this work? The Veterans Administration forecloses on homes and sells some of them with vendee financing on a bidding process and requires no credit check. The highest bidder wins! They will even finance your closing costs for you.The catch is a lot of these homes are in out of the way places. So, if you don't mind having your first investment property being a couple hours away, now, maybe your chance to become the next great investor.For more information on owning a VA foreclosure home, please feel free to contact me anytime. 06/28/2007

I have many investors who buy and sell properties through me and most of them know each other. How do they know each other? I introduced them and I let them teach each other and myself new ways of investing.I've have also met some investors and when I ask them if they know any other investors that I might be able to help, they say, "I don't talk to other investors." When I find out why they are usually afraid that they may lose deals to other investors. I then explain to them the best investors realize that they actually get more deals talking to other investors.The reason why you can actually get more deals and make more money is because there are times when you can't buy an investment property, since you are already tied up with 3 or 4 other deals. You then tie up the property and ass... 06/25/2007

    Perhaps everyone already knew and it's just me but I had no idea that Beaverton was so diverse.  I read an article about all the types of ethnic food stores there are in the Beaverton area and they are thriving due demand created by a huge ethnic population.  Foods like pickled duck eggs, bok choy, dried kelp and seasoned pollock entrails are available to me with just a short drive and I didn't even know it.  Now I just need to find out what to do with them.      Beaverton is 28 percent minorities with Latinos being the largest group.  Even in the Beaverton School District there are students who come from homes where nearly 80 languages spoken.  Other groups included in the 28 percent are Asians, East Indians, Middle Easterners and Eastern Europeans.  Sadly though none of these mino... 06/25/2007

Unfortunately foreclosure is something that happens to people when bad things happen in their lives. Death, divorce, job loss and medical bills can get anyone behind on payments. That doesn't mean that you should try to hide your head in the sand and pretend it isn't happening.If you think you are going to get behind on your payments, call your Realtor and ask them if they think you have any equity. If you do, call your mortgage broker immediately and they maybe able to do a no costrefinance for you. This may lower your monthly payments or catch you up if the reason you started to fall behind was only a temporary situation.Please do this before you are late with your first payment. If you wait until you are behind, it may already be too late. If you are not able to get a lower payment o... 06/25/2007

Whether you are thinking of remodeling for the purpose of making your home better for yourself, or are updating it to put it up for sale, you need to consider the cost. Hiring someone to do the remodel can cost you thousands of dollars and be a major intrusion to your home and family.There are ways you can save thousands of dollars, by doing these remodels yourself and places like Home Depot and Lowes want to help you. Why do they want to do this? They are hoping you will choose to buy from them when you go to buy the products for the remodel.For more information on both stores programs and classes on home improvement, please feel free to click on the store links below for further information. Home Depot - Know How ProgramLowes - How-To ClinicsAlso, before you start any major remodel on... 06/24/2007

Do you need a certain amount of money out of your home, but it just isn't worth that yet? I have a solution for you that can be done in any market. It doesn't matter if it is a sellers or a buyers market! I can get you much more than the appraised value for your home, and it really doesn't take any extra work on your part, like doing a complete remodel would.The way to do this, is for you the owner, to either offer a lease-option or owner-financing. This can increase the amount of money you get for your home from anywhere between $25,000 and $1,000,000.If this sounds like something you might be interested in as a home owner, please feel free to contact me anytime. 06/23/2007

Do you own a rental property and are thinking about putting it on the market? If you have a long term lease, then you need to tell your tenant that you are putting it up for sale. There are a lot of reasons you need to do this, one is that if you want to have it shown, you need the tenant's permission. Another reason is they can ruin the place, just to make sure the home doesn't sell, if they think they will be evicted.One of the best options I've seen is if you need to sell a property that has a tenant is offer the tenant an incentive to move. Tell them you will give them one months rent for them to move early, this can save a lot of headache for you in the long run.It is a lot easier to sell a vacant staged home, than it is with a renter in a home. If you pay a renter to move out, you... 06/21/2007

Recently, I had a buyer call me who had lots of investment properties. The banks decided to say no more  lending until you have sold some of the others that are making positive cash flow for my client every month. So why would a investor who has positive cash flow get rid of such a property? The answer is he wouldn't!This is where I came into the picture. He wanted more properties and needed someone who could find him a deal with creative financing. In this case it was owner financing to the rescue. I had a buyer that had a major fixer that was in probate and he had been told by other, that it would cost him thousands to fix it up and put on the market for sale.My buyer said he would buy the property at full list price and pay the seller 8% interest for a two year period while he fixed ... 06/20/2007

I recently had a seller whose father had died and the home was in probate. The seller had a fixer property that the bank would probably not have done a loan on. So what did this seller do with my help? We decided to list with owner financing, so they could sell it for full price and make money from the interest on the loan.How did this go for my owner? We sold it in one hour! Not bad for something others had told him he wouldn't be able to sell with out spending thousands of dollars. This owner will make $35,000+ in interest over the next two years and he sold the home for full appraised value.For more information on how to sell your home on owner financing please feel free to contact me anytime. 06/20/2007

Why does one investor get rich, while another investor loses his shirt? Usually it is because of the amount ofresearch one does prior to getting into investing. You don't think Warren Buffet just wakes up and says, "I will buy that stock for that price," and gets rich do you? That isn't the case at all; he investigated each company he invested in, sometimes for months, before putting a dime in to that company.As an investor in real estate you should do the same. Find the home, evaluate it, do a cost analysis and then if the numbers work, buy it. You don't have the months to check out an investment property like Warren Buffet does a company, but you do have enough time to make sure the numbers can work for you.The problem with most of the investors who lose money in real estate is that t... 06/20/2007

May Residential Highlights     May Residential Highlights Market Activity in the Portland Metro Area appears to have cooled when comparing May 2007 to May 2006. While new listings continue to grow, the market experienced a decline in both closed and pending sales transactions. The number of new listings in the market continued its growth trend, increasing 4.8% over last May’s total. See table below. On the other hand, the total amount of closed sales dropped 8.3% (2,802 v. 3,054), while pending sales dropped 16.4% (3,054 v. 3,651). The average sale price reached a record high of $348,800. This is likely the result of increased high end home sales, which included five homes that sold for $2 million or more. The 12,486 active residential listings at the end of May would last approximately... 06/19/2007

Let me first explain I think investing in rental property really is a great investment if done right. But, if there as a better way to make money from your rental property, wouldn't you want to know about it?The best way that I have come across to make money from your rental properties is Lease-Option and here is why.The first reason is you have someone agree to pay you more than the going rates for your home for a 2-3 year period. They are willing to give you a bigger deposit than someone who is just a traditional renter and are morelikely going to take better care of it since they are planning to purchase it. Unlike with a renter if they  decide to not buy the property, you get to keep the down payment no matter what.Second you don't have to do repairs in the middle of the night. Thos... 06/17/2007

Recently one of my investors put an offer on a property and from the beginning of the acceptance of the offer things started to go wrong.                                                Timelines, miscommunications, hiding of known facts (Buyer), but after all was said and done we had a sale fail on our hands. The buyer released the earnest money without argument, but we sent a letter of apology with the release form explaining what had happened, and why.Then the next weekend the seller's agent called and said "Thank You, the letter explained everything and my seller also apologizes. If your buyer now wants to re-submit the offer I think we can let cooler heads prevail and maybe we can work out a deal.It is amazing what one 15 minute letter did on a deal that took 45 days to fall apart.  06/14/2007

I showed a home a couple of years ago and the showing instructions were no showings between Friday after 5pm and Monday 9am.Both my buyers and I really wanted to know why. I went back Saturday during the day and there wasn't a parking spot for 7 blocks! My clients told me they went Friday night and the same thing, except lots of lights and really loud music from a party that was going on.The reason the owner was limiting showing times was he didn't want potential buyers to see on the weekends that this was soccer party central.I later checked police records and on the weekends the neighborhood was visited a lot for noise and drinking. I'm guessing who ever ended up buying this property didn't do what my buyer and I did and I'm guessing they were in for a very rude awakening the first we... 06/13/2007

You see it in car ads, so why not homes? A car loses value, where a home rarely does, so why do so many banks require large down payment or great credit? The main reason is they are not in the house business they are in the money business. They just are to big to understand and make it work.                                                     This is why an individual can offer a lease-option or owner financing, and make great money at it. They just need to be taught how to make it work.A great way to find an owner that maybe ready to consider owner-financing or lease-option is to look for a landlord who has been given a 30 day notice from a tenant that they plan to vacate the property.Do you have friend who is renting and is about to move and you love their present home? Give me a call... 06/12/2007

Did you know that as a rehabber you can buy a fixer and save thousands by never closing?                                                         A closing costs money! But if you lease a property for PITI from an owner you can pay hundreds less per month, fix it up and then sell for thousands more. You cash out the original seller and assign the contract to the new end buyer, and you keep the difference for yourself.A true win-win for everyone involved. The seller's mortgage payments are paid, you get a property without having to close, and pay closing costs, and the end buyer gets their dream home thanks to your amazing remodel.Call me and I will help you find these properties and get you started making more tomorrow!  06/09/2007

What happens to a home when someone dies and there is no one in town to take care of it? A lot of times it can end up in foreclosure and the family loses thousands in inheritanceWhy? Mainly because the family can't afford to take time off from work, fly across country and get a home ready to sell.What if you were there to help them? You offer to set up an escrow account through probate and you purchase the property and do all the clean up. Do you think you could get a deal? You bet you can! People will sell quickly, just to end the headache.For more information on probate and homes for sale through probate, drop me an e-mail or give me a call anytime.  06/09/2007

Let me start with the fact that I don't agree with that statement at all! I was reading on Yahoo about investing and found this article about how buying a home is not a good investment. The article showed all the ways you evaluate an investment and how buying a home didn't compete.Some of the things they didn't take into consideration, in my opinion, are that the fact that people who own a home usually make more, are healthier and their kids do better in school. So to me, buying a home can be an investment in ones self.So do I agree with this article? - NO! But, everyone is entitled to their opinion.  06/05/2007

It sure did for one of my clients today! I was under contract on a home and the disclosure forms came in and one of the disclosures was that the home was once used as a drug house.This home was now owned by the wife and the husband (Dealer) was now in jail. My clients loved the home, but the wife was a stay at home mom and was worried that someone who didn't know that the dealer has moved tocement office (Jail) would come to the door and possibly put her family in harms way.I couldn't argue with her and think I would have done the same thing, since the owner had only been in jail less than a month. I felt sorry for the seller, but she also understood and said it is something that she just couldn't lie about.What would you have done if you had been the listing agent?  06/03/2007