February 2014

How to Find Cheap Houses For Sale: 10 Tips for Smart Shopping [From BiggerPockets]

by Brandon · 2 comments

“Cheap.”

That’s what I told my agent when she asked me what kind of house I was interested in buying.

I was 21 years old and looking for my first home;  I knew nothing about real estate, but I knew one thing: I wanted to buy a cheap house. At the time I was making barely over minimum wage so I wasn’t buying a cheap home because it fit into some master investment scheme… I wanted a cheap house because it fit in with my budget.

Can you identify with that?

I got lucky on my first deal and found a great, cheap home that I was able to fix up slightly and sell for substantially more money a year later.  Since then, I’ve learned that whether you are shopping for your own personal home or for a house to flip or rent out, finding cheap houses for sale in your market is imperative to securing your financial future. However, depending on what part of the country you live in, this might be difficult with the increasing competition in the real estate space.

How you define “cheap” is obviously relative, but this guide should give you a starting point for finding the lowest-priced houses in your neck of the woods.

(Should you actually buy cheap houses? That’s an important question, but not the subject of this article. Be sure to check out Ben Leybovich’s great post from yesterday called “Newbies Take Note: Why You Shouldn’t Buy Houses for $30,000” to jump into that debate!)

Let’s get started.

Ten Tips to Find Cheap Houses For Sale

 

1.) Sort by   (Click to read on BiggerPockets…)

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P.S. looking for hard money loans in California? Be sure to check out my friends over at northcoastfinancialinc.com. They have very competitive rates, can fund within a week and specialize in fix and flip loans and other hard money loans.

13 Rules Great Landlords (Almost) Never Break [From BiggerPockets]

by Brandon · 0 comments

13-Great-Rules-Landlords1

I’d like to convince myself that it’s not my fault… but I’m a terrible liar.

It is my fault.

At least 99% of the time.

I’m talking about my landlord problems. We all have them and 99% of the time it’s because I don’t follow “the rules.”

When we are children, we believe our parents set up rules just to be mean, but as we grow, we realize those rules are fundamental in keeping us safe and progressing properly through life.

The same applies for the “landlord rules.”

They matter, and they are there for a reason.

When I follow the rules, things generally go well. When I deviate from my rules, and decide to do my own thing… well, things go down hill fast.  I get crazy stressed, my wife and I start arguing, I don’t get to watch “House of Cards” with my sweetheart, and I go to bed hungry.

And somewhere a puppy is crying.

It’s not fun.

So today I decided to write down “the rules” in hopes that I won’t break them as often.  When I look back on the problems I’ve faced in the past few years, nearly every major incident could have been avoided or better managed had I simply stuck to the rules.

Hopefully this list will help you as well.

If you notice any item on this list I forgot to include, do me a favor and add it in the comments at the bottom. Let’s get this list up to 100. Maybe more.  Then maybe landlords, as a whole, won’t make so many mistakes.

With that, I give you:

13 Rules Great Landlords (Almost) Never Break

(Click to continue reading on BiggerPockets)

P.S. looking for hard money loans in California? Be sure to check out my friends over at northcoastfinancialinc.com. They have very competitive rates, can fund within a week and specialize in fix and flip loans and other hard money loans.