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Find Cheap Houses For Sale

“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 outfinding 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

(Click to read 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.

Rental Property in the Next 90

I was sitting down for dinner with a friend the other night and he said to me “Brandon, I want to buy my first property but there is so much information out there. I just want to see the whole process, neatly outlined, so I know my step by step plan.”

And I thought “Isn’t’ that we all want when learning something new?

We want to see the whole picture, not just broken up parts.

Today I want to help you do just that – learn the step by step process for getting your first rental property in the next 90 days. For those of you who like something tangible to look at, at the end of this post I’ll show you where you can download a free 1-page PDF summary of this process- neat and clean, just like my buddy ordered.

Alright, let’s get started.

Step One: Get Pre-Approved.

(Click to read 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.

Triplex

Today I received a private message from a BiggerPockets colleague (we’ll call him Jake) that asked a very good question about a potential property he was looking at. Rather than try to summarize, let me just show you the message:

Rental Property

I wrote out a rather lengthy response and then decided this would make a really good discussion here on the blog. So follow along with me as I analyze this potential property and show you how I look at something like this.

The Potential Rental Property Deal

Allow me to quickly sum up everything in the above question, just so we are all on the same page.

  • Jake owns a home already, with a mortgage payment of $734 per month. His home would rent for $900.
  • Jake is considering a Triplex that just came on the market in a good area
  • The triplex consists of a main house with two basement apartments.
  • The current asking price of the property is $250,000, but Jake is hoping to pay $210,000.
  •  Jake would move to the triplex, live in the main house, and rent his former house and the basement apartments.

So Jake’s wanted to know my thoughts. Would I do it?

Honestly, at first, I thought “Seems decent.”

HOWEVER.

Then I dug into the numbers.

(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.

The Real Key to Success is Cheating

Remember that kid you used to play games with who always cheated?

Whether it was poker, Monopoly, Pogs, homework – whatever – he/she use to cheat.

(Maybe that kid was you?)

Cheating is looked down on by a lot of people… and rightly so.

  • Cheating in games: bad… no one will like you.
  • Cheating on your taxes: badder… you might end up in prison.
  • Cheating on your wife: baddest… you deserve a punch in the face.

(alright Grammar Nazi… sometimes I make up words. Deal with it.)

However, there is one area of life I’m going to encourage you to cheat at… and that’s real estate investing (or “business, to be a bit more general).

Yep, whether you are planning to flip houseswholesale dealsbuy rental property, invest in a Subway, build a tech startup, or any of the million other ways to make money in this world, some cheating in business can actually help you find more success and it’s totally legal – and acceptable – to do.

What The **** Is He Talking About?

(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.

The Best (and Worst) US Real Estate Rental Markets in 2014

Today RealtyTrac released a new report that shows the best and worst rental markets in America by county.

Although there appears to be good and bad markets in all parts of the nation, perhaps unsurprisingly, the vast majority of the best markets appear to be concentrated throughout the Midwest, while the worst markets tend to focus on  the East and West coastlines, with California leading the pack with 6 of the top 20 worst markets, followed by New York (with 4) and Virginia (with 3).

To determine the best and worst markets, RealtyTrac divided the average 12 month rental income by the median sales price for residential homes in that county. The results show the Annual Gross Yield, which can give an indication to real estate investors which markets will fare better for cash flow.

According to RealtyTrac:

To calculate the annual gross rental yields we used the median sales price for January 2014 except in states where the sales prices is not required to be disclosed on the sales deeds. In those non-disclosure states we used the  median list price for January 2014. The rental rates we used were the average fair market rent on three-bedroom home for 2014 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Related:The 2% Rule: Fact, Fiction, or Feasible?

The #1 Best and #1 Worst US Rental Markets

(Click to read 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.

property investment

I was 12 years old when I took off my face.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t my whole face, but it was a good section of skin covering my nose, forehead, and chin. And if it hadn’t been for that rock getting in the way of the wheel on the scooter I was riding, I would have landed that jump just fine.

Stupid rock.

(Stupid kid.)

But it’s okay. I got better. My skin healed.  I learned.

Besides… chicks dig scars.  

Now I watch for rocks before doing sweet jumps. Or I just don’t do sweet jumps anymore.

But that’s the point of growing up: making choices and learning from those consequences. 

And in some ways, I’m still learning. Only today, those rocks are different. Today I’m not landing many sweet jumps, but I am landing sweet property investments, and most of the time I land them alright.

Every once in a while, of course, I hit a rock.

And it hurts. And I lose some of my face.

But it’s okay. I get better. My skin heals. I learn.

And chicks dig scars. 

That’s what I want to share with you today – some of the things I’ve learned; I want to point out the rocks so you can save some of your facial skin and stay pretty.

But not too pretty.

So the following are 5 and 1/2 tips for making your first (or next) property investment. Pay attention (or don’t. It’s all good.)

(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.

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