How to buy a home or house and
get cash back at close of escrow
That's right, buy Not Only with
No Cash, Get Cash Back at Close
of Escrow!
To refer to
this section as real estate
investment is actually a
misnomer. What we will be
discussing is actually no
investment at all! And in one
case,
you could almost call it reverse
investment because instead of
putting money into the
transaction, i.e. absolutely
nothing down, you will actually
be taking money out at the close
of escrow while still owning the
property.
That's
right, Cash back at the close of
escrow. In the long run, I
think this is the section that
will be of the most benefit for
the most people. You will learn
a number of ways to buy property
without investing one cent
and without using any of your
present assets as collateral.
The thing you need to keep
in mind, is that although,
these methods will work for
anyone, they will not,
necessarily, work for all
properties or with all sellers.
During
real estate negotiations, there
is a common saying,
"You
give me my price, I'll give you
your terms.". When
buying a property with nothing
down, you need to take the
attitude that your main concern
is long term profits not short
term gain.
The reason
for this is that if the seller
is giving you such great terms
that you don't have to put a
penny into it to buy it, chances
are that he will, at least, want
a reasonable price for his
property. The flip side of the
coin is that if you can
provide a sizeable chunk of
cash, there is a good
possibility that he will be much
more flexible on price.
But, since we are assuming
that you do not have the cash to
work with, your main criteria
for a purchase should not be
price.
Although,
at times, you will find an
exception to this rule, (ie. a
property that is worth maybe
$80,000 that you can purchase
for $65,000 AND get terms) the
point I am trying to make, is
that if
you insist on waiting for the
great price, for every property
you buy, you will probably pass
up nine that over a period of a
couple of years could have made
you thousands.
Although,
everyone has their own criteria
for determining their investment
strategy, here is what I think
is important:
1)
Price I don't feel that it
is necessarily important that
you purchase the property
substantially below market
value, but I do think it is
definitely and obviously
important that you don't pay too
much.
2) Terms
The main
concern here is that it does not
cost you anything to buy it.
3) Cash
Flow It is
important that the rents you
receive on the property are
roughly equal to or greater than
the mortgage payments plus taxes
and insurance. Many people feel
that they can afford a negative
cash flow of $100 or $200 per
month (i.e. monthly expenses
that are $100 or $200 dollars
more than the rent they
receive). This, in the long
run, limits you because there
are only so many properties you
can afford if they are each
costing you $200 per month.
Also, I've
seen colleagues who thought they
could handle these kinds of
"negatives" only to find that
they had buried themselves
financially and eventually lost
everything.
4) Area
For anyone who has ever taken a
real estate course, this comment
is going to be a shock. I
don't think location is
that important. In real
estate school we are taught that
the three most important
features of a property are
"location, location and
location." But I'm a firm
believer that any property is a
good investment regardless of
the location
IF YOU GET
THE RIGHT PRICE AND TERMS!
The most
important thing you should
consider when buying a property
is will
it pay for itself?
Even if you don't buy it for ten
or twenty thousand below market,
if it pays for itself, it is a
gold mine. Why? Even though
you haven't made a dime yet, you
are immediately reaping the many
tax advantages that are still
available to the private
investor. Also, as I mentioned
earlier, your goal should be
long term profit. There is
hardly any area in the U.S.
that, with the exception of
normal business cycles, real
estate does not consistently go
up in value. As we all know,
there are exceptions, but
historically, the downturns are
few and far between.
Different areas appreciate at
different rates, but it is
usually going up right along
with rents. For the smart
investor, that creates a huge
opportunity...
Let's say
that in the next year you buy
five duplexes for about 200,000
dollars each. We'll further
assume that they are each valued
at $200,000; your payments are
about $2000 per month and you
are receiving rents in the
amount $950 per month per unit.
Many
shortsighted individuals would
be less than enthusiastic with
this situation. What they would
see is five duplexes with
$1,000,000 dollars of debt, no
equity and payments higher than
the income.
But for
the person with some vision,
that is very exciting! Let's
look at your situation five
years from now...
The
appreciation rate on real estate
varies greatly nationwide, so
I'm going to use what I believe
in a normal market is an almost
ridiculously conservative figure
of 5%. Also, rents are
increasing at a much greater
pace than real estate values so
I'm going to use a 10% per year
rental increase...
1) At
an appreciation rate of only 5%
per year, in five years, each of
your duplexes would now be worth
over $250,000 dollars. You
bought them for $200,000, so you
now have $50,000 in equity on
each of your 5 duplexes for a
total of $250,000 in equities!
And that doesn't even take into
account your principle reduction
from making those payments for
the past five years!
2) With
a rental increases of 10% per
year, at the end of five years
the rents you would be receiving
would increase from $950 per
month to a little over $3,000
for each of your five duplexes.
So, even after making your $950
monthly mortgage payments you
would still have over $1,000
dollars per duplex, per month,
of pure profit.
So, you would now have a
positive cash flow of over
$5,000 dollars per month!
PLUS, you
have over $250,000 in equity!
As you can
see, even though at the time you
bought these properties they did
not make you a dime and in fact
were costing you a little bit
every month, by simply holding
on to them you have acquired a
substantial amount of equity
plus, a hefty monthly income.
The moral of the story is simple
If
it pays for itself, buy
it! Now, here's how
you do it...
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