The Real Deal Real Estate Show with Larry Harbolt

Over the past few weeks I’ve had several investors come to me and tell me that they can NEVER get sellers to give them seller financing terms. For me that makes no sense: I have plenty of success in getting seller financing terms on the properties I buy, over 30 years in fact. So today I’m going to help out those investors who are having little to no success in negotiating seller financing terms on their deals.

I’ve talked with some investors who are buying upwards of 35 houses A MONTH. They already have a network and a system of lenders that allows them to pay cash for each house. This podcast isn’t for them; it’s for those investors that don’t have the cash or the network to scale their business yet to such a high level.

Cash is never the only way to buy a house; I’m living proof. Even if you have money, eventually that money runs dry and your business shrivels up. So why not just save that money for other deals and negotiate seller financing terms whenever you can?

For all your real estate education needs, visit me online at LarryHarbolt.com.

Good Luck and Happy Investing!

Every investor has to ask themselves this question sometime: “What the heck should I be buying to build my portfolio and cash flow?”. For some people, what they care about most in an investment property are:

• Style
• Price
• Neighborhood
• Income ability of the property
• Whether the property is or is not listed on the MLS

Most investors DON’T think about some of these important aspects of the property that could seriously impact your bottom line:

• The highest and best use of the property itself
• The number of bedrooms, bathrooms, and overall size
• The amenities: the lot size, a paved or unpaved driveway, a pool, a garage, etc.
• Home owner association (HOA) fees
• Special assessments owed on the property, i.e. new utility work
• Active code enforcement leads
• Updated cooling and heating system
• Size of the kitchen
• The types of windows
• The type of flooring
• The exterior siding or paint
• The current state of the foundation
• How close is the property to a busy street
• Architectural features
• Layout of the rooms
• Condition of the neighborhood roads and sidewalks
• The overall curb appeal

In the end, you need to decide how hard you want to work and how much you want to spend on each of your houses. Be mindful and do your homework on EVERY SINGLE PROPERTY you come across. This is how you’ll make more money on every deal you do. Otherwise you’ll make some costly mistakes.

For all your real estate education needs, visit me online at LarryHarbolt.com.

Good Luck and Happy Investing!

What is your attitude about becoming a real estate investor?

I hate to bust your bubble (actually, no I don’t), but it takes a LOT of hard work to become successful in this business.

Do you really want to put in the work? Are you willing to knock on doors, talk to neighbors in the street, and sit down at kitchen tables?

Most new investors today are lazy. They aren’t dedicated enough to put in the hours, blood, and sweat to make those goals a reality. They want their easy, comfortable lifestyles and aren’t willing to work outside of the usual 9-5.

Do you know when sellers are usually out of the house? 9 am to 5 pm. So why are you expecting to contact them when they’re out at work themselves?

You have to be willing to burn the midnight oil in order to succeed. When you make that change, you’ll have a market all to yourself.

For all your real estate investing education needs, visit LarryHarbolt.com

Good Luck and Happy Investing!

Today want to emphasize just how important it really is to take a step back and think your entire deal through. When you look at a house, what exactly do you see?

Do you just see bricks or siding and a door?

Or are you seeing a cash-flowing asset that can supplement or replace your income?

Every property is a tool to build wealth and improve you and your family’s lifestyle. It’s important that you see MORE than just dollar signs with each opportunity you come across. You need to think about the exit strategy for each deal.

Remember: “Until you know where the back door is, you don’t go through the front door.”

For all your real estate education needs, visit LarryHarbolt.com.

Good Luck and Happy Investing!

I’m seeing too many people overpaying for properties today, well after the Recession hit the real estate market in 2008. Today’s market conditions are what we call a “seller’s market”; home prices are going up and keep rising. Most investors don’t qualify for conventional financing from banks, so they’re finding other sources of funding with higher interest rates. Another issue is that properties are only staying on the market for a short time. Before the downturn investors could put in a full-price offer, but were rejected because sellers knew that the next day they’d get an even higher offer.

Have you ever been to a real estate auction? Most investors there have no real limit or budget and constantly overpay. You MUST know your numbers! If you don’t know the numbers, don’t buy it. Without that information, done accurately, you will continue to lose money in this business.

Sometimes, when I’m bored, I’ll watch one of the popular flipping shows on HGTV. These so-called “experts” are just guessing at the numbers, without really understanding their own market or the neighborhood of the property they’re looking to buy. They’ll either offer full asking price or just under, and they ALWAYS end up paying beyond their rehab budget and go beyond their original timeline.

This is because they DID NOT KNOW THE NUMBERS. They just guessed and ran with it, throwing dollars at the deal and assuming they would make a huge return. That rarely happens, if ever.

STOP OVERPAYING FOR PROPERTIES!

Visit us at LarryHarbolt.com for all your real estate education needs.

Good Luck and Happy Investing!

Today I’m covering all the nuances and steps for the "wrap-around mortgage". A wrap-around mortgage is a loan arrangement in which an existing loan is retained, and an additional, larger loan is then created around it. The new lender agrees to make payments on the existing loan, which usually has a lower interest rate than the new loan being added. In the end, the rate on the new loan produces a higher yield than the old loan currently attached to the property.

If you want to truly build wealth and create freedom for you and your family, then you need to learn and understand how to analyze a deal. I'll be sharing just a few of the steps to get you started on the road to your first property.

Today I want to talk to you about getting out of your house, off your computer, and out into the world. Deals aren’t only to be found in meetings or over the phone; you need to actually take the time to talk with sellers on their own turf. This is where you’ll find sellers who could use your help and opportunities to help your family and grow your wealth.

Door knocking is almost a lost art among investors today; however, it’s still a powerful and effective tool to finding sellers who may not know they want to sell. One of the best in the business is Bill Cook, a former Kirby vacuum salesman. He takes groups on property tours and actually knocks on houses in a neighborhood in a demonstration; many times the homeowner will let the entire group of over forty people in!

Knocking on doors can be dangerous, especially for women; if you feel unsafe on your own, then bring someone with you as a buddy, especially in rougher neighborhoods. I prefer to find unloved homes that clearly need repairs and help. If the occupant isn’t the seller but a tenant, you can usually find out from them (they might need reassurances that you won’t kick them out after buying the property, however).

If you see older people working in their front yard, make sure to stop and talk with them. Ask them about the neighborhood, compliment their home, and build that rapport. Older people who have been in the neighborhood for years will know who is looking to sell, and you just might get a deal out of it.

Need practice negotiating? Go to a yard or garage sale. Find something cheap and negotiate with the seller and get it cheaper. This is training you can’t get in a guru’s class or an expensive seminar; it might cost you a dollar if you buy the item, and you always have the option to walk away. This is a fantastic, no-pressure environment to get  you into the negotiating mindset.

Visit LarryHarbolt.com for my investing courses and resources to take you further in your investing career.

Happy investing!

After my recent podcast on the inner workings of the Subject-To deal, people have been asking me relentlessly about how to do “Lease-Option” exit strategies in their deals. Today we’re going to cover how you can do your own Lease-Option deals, or as it’s more commonly known, the “rent-to-own”.

If a property has been on the market for many months, it has a mortgage, and the seller doesn’t live in it, then there’s a good chance that the sellers are making two mortgage payments. If they’ve renovated the property, you’ll often find that sellers are reluctant to put in tenants for cashflow if they can put it on the market and sell it for top dollar. But if it sits on the market for months, they’re continuing to lose money every month it doesn’t sell. This is where the Lease-Option comes into play to help ease their financial pain and help you gain control of the property.

The Lease-Option allows the tenant to lease the property now and gives them an option to purchase the property at a later time under a certain set of circumstances. This gives you, the investor, control of the property and the option to put it under your corporation or a land trust down the road when you exercise your option.

For a FREE copy of my Lease-Option cheat sheet, go to http://www.larryharbolt.com/leaseoption.

Happy investing!

Many investors have unfounded fears about Subject-To deals; specifically, they usually have no idea what a Subject-To deal even involves! My goal today is to break down the confusion around this deal structure with old-fashioned knowledge. If you have the education, then you can use this strategy as a tool to acquiring more deals.

A “Subject-To” deal is defined as the acquisition of a property that already has a pre-existing mortgage. However, the person buying the property does not become personally liable for repaying that debt. This is the opposite of “assuming” a mortgage, where the buyer would take over the mortgage payments of the property they are purchasing and therefore becoming personally liable.

Remember: If you take a property Subject-To, YOU ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PREVIOUS FINANCING!

You need to make sure you have all the proper paperwork for the deal, including a Purchase Agreement and any documents if you’ll be putting the property in a Land Trust. You can learn about land trusts and how to structure your properties to best protect them at my Land Trust Bootcamp coming up in November.

For more information on my Land Trust Bootcamp from November 11-13 in Tampa, Florida, click here: http://www.larryharbolt.com/landtrustbootcamp.

For your own copy of my cheat sheet that walks you through Subject-To deals, visit  larryharbolt.com/subject2.

Happy investing!