Vacation Time

I’m heading out to Boston tonight.
I will be on vacation for a week. I am finally meeting my girlfriend’s family.
She’s been living with me for a year – it’s about time.
Here are some to dos I need to handle when I get back to Los Angeles, feeling all refreshed by the eastern time zone.
Create [...]

The Art of the Deal

I’ve been reading The Art of the Deal, by Donald Trump (1987). I’ve heard /read from numerous  sources that this was a good book; A keeper, and one that’s worth re-reading. I am about half way through and I must say, I like it a lot. Much more than the other real estate book I [...]

Good Property Management

Today I read a thread on biggerpockets.com about property management. Do-it-yourself versus hire-a -company to do it. It was very informative. I learned the difference between property management and property maintenance. I am also exploring more Vegas neighborhoods over the world wide web.

Structuring a Deal

Today I researched more markets. This time in Arizona instead of Nevada. I learned about some good neighborhoods from city-data.com. It’s amazing what information is available on the world wide web.
The latest book I am reading has some solid sounding information on deal structuring. The author says that fundamentally there are two ways to make [...]

Property Management Software

I ran demos on a few property management software applications. Some felt pretty good. I’m so tempted to build one myself. But that is just me switching projects to prolong the risk of making offers and doing deals. Fear of failure and success have fun ways creeping up on me. A semi related project may [...]

Restrictions for Real Estate Investment Loans

I read today it’s going to be harder to get conventional loans as a real estate investor:

Investors can only get 4 loans, including their primary loan
Loan must be at 80% LTV.
More fees.
4Plex requires 25% down.

Looks like I only have three more loans left before I have to get creative. I see an opportunity for commercial [...]

Older Condos

The air conditioning pan is leaking in my condo, the one I live in. I had an AC person look at it. And he made it worse. I’ve decided to try and fix it myself. I think that this will be a little complex and very difficult. But after paying 243.00 to watch this clown make [...]

How to find an out of state Realtor

I started contacting Realtors yesterday through homegain.com, as per the concepts of the previous blog entry. I have a couple Realtors that made it through the email screening. I need to get more email ‘interview’ questions together first. I will chat with them on the phone this week. I need to figure out [...]

Free Information

Yesterday’s actions towards my goals – market analysis – had me stumped. It’s so daunting trying to find this data for a target market:
Population Trends:
Employment Trends :
Over Building:
Socio-Economic Trends:
However, through some of the forums I frequent, creonline.com and biggerpockets.com, I’ve often read that you can get most information on how to be a “real estate [...]

Property Management | Market Analysis

I am looking into property management software. Being a California resident will probably force me into being a long distance landlord. That means hiring property management companies. If I find quality one’s I will use them. But I will also investigate how much management I can do with property management software myself . I [...]