Turn Your House into a Rental Property

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An easy way to start out in real estate investing is the time when you are ready to upgrade and buy a new house, as most people do every six years. Instead of selling your present house and buy a new, keep your old house as rental. For more details see my Ezinearticle.com piece Don't Sell Your Home, Turn it Into a Rental!.

Another good article I came across is Should I Buy a Home in 2008? by Darin Sewell. Dreadful information about the slumping American housing market is all over TV news and in almost every paper. During this housing slump many potential first time home buyers often wonder, should I buy a house in 2008? While every persons situation is different this article presents a useful perspective on whether or not to buy a house in 2008.




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Time to Seriously Consider Refinancing as Interest Rates Drop

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Now may be the time to refinance your house, take some equity out, and use it for a down payment on another investment property. Today, I applied for a refinance loan myself. I am getting my financial ducks lined up to purchase another fixer upper this spring.

According to today’s Baltimore Sun article A Ray of Light for Housing, there is good news for buyers in that mortgage rates, appear to be falling. The average rate for a 30-year fixed loan has fallen under 6 percent, according to a Mortgage Bankers Association survey, and they expect it to show another drop tomorrow. The Federal Reserve's new lending provisions for banks, announced a week ago, are already helping, they say.

With many foreclosed properties popping up on the MLS, and lots of short-sales available, the time may be ripe to buy. Prices are negotiable.

As investors, we know that refinancing at a lower rate gives a tremendous boost to our cash flow. Equity is the silent wealth builder, generated as tenants pay down our mortgage for us. We can judiciously tap into that equity by refinancing and investing it into new rental properties.

If you buy a fixer-upper and the numbers don’t work for you to rent it out, consider living in it for a few years until the market improves. Then you can sell it at a higher price when the market recovers, or rent the house out and buy another property to live in.

I’m not saying it’s time for you to buy, but as investors it may be time to start doing some warm up exercises and take a few practice swings on the sidelines.


For another perspective on the status of foreclosures see Foreclosures Produce Deals, but No Steals at twowiseacres.com.


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Fix em Up, Rent em Out reviewed on Moolanomy.com

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Moolanomy.com has a review of my book "Fix 'em Up, Rent 'em Out," and in the same article is an insightful analysis of the pros and cons of real estate investing.

The article is entitled Meandering into Real Estate.


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Investing in Real Estate -- Learning Fixer Upper Skills Part 2

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Many people do not have skills in the building trades. How do they learn the required skills to start a business in repairing houses and renting them out?"

Two ways to learn the appropriate skills to repair fixer-upper houses are to 1) learn from the past, and 2) build a repair book library.

To read more head on over to my article on EzineArticles.com entitled Learn Fixer-upper Skills - Part 2 - Learn From The Past And Build A Repair Book Library.


Another article I found interesting at EzineArticles.com is How to find the best values in real estate by Kathleen Couch. The grass always seems greener on the other side of the fence, or other side of the nation. But the best real estate values may be in your own neighborhood.


Can you really buy a House in a Box? Find out at twowiseacres.com.

What are the 7 Key Factors to Build Alternate Income Streams?. See Moolanomy.com for the answer.

ConnieBrz is back with a flourish. Check out her provocative article Ruminations on the importance of home ownership.





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Guest Article by Bob Zachmeier, author of "Upside Up Real Esate Investing"

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Below is a guest article by Bob Zachmeier. He has written the outstanding new book "Upside Up Real Estate Investing" and I invited him to make a few comments about it. As background, I took Bob's real estate investment course in 2002, shortly after I began investing in real estate. It was the best real estate course I have ever taken, and the great information from the course is included in his book. His book is for sale at Amazon.com. I highly recommend it.



Thanks for considering my book, "Upside Up Real Estate Investing". I've made many mistakes during my 25 years of real estate investing, but have finally found a sure-fire system for success in any market. By sharing my mistakes and triumphs in this book, I hope to put you on the fast track to your own financial success.

Real estate investing has changed my life. Not only did it enable me to quit my job after 22 years, my wife was able to quit hers too. I picked her up from work in a limousine on her 40th birthday and she's never gone back!

I've taught a class on real estate investing for more than 8 years. Many of my students have also been able to leave Corporate America due to the repeatable system I've developed. You can too!

Book Description
View the triumphs and pitfalls of real estate investing through the eyes of a seasoned investor with nearly three decades of experience. Real life stories throughout this book will teach you valuable lessons and provide sage advice. The step by step process begins with initial planning and provides tips for finding, analyzing, inspecting, financing, and closing on investment properties. By sharing his experiences and practical investment advice as real estate broker, coach, college teacher, and author, Bob Zachmeier has helped thousands of people improve their financial well-being through real estate investing.


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How to Learn Repair Skills in Ezine Article

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Some people have a background in home repair and/construction skills before they jump into the fixer-upper business. Others of us, including me, didn't have those skills. In my new EzineArticles.com piece entitled Learn Fixer-Upper Skills by Doing, and by Taking Classes, I describe two methods to learn those valuable skills.

In addition, by clicking on the Expert EzineArticles Author link to the left, it will take you to a wide selection of interesting articles.

I also recommend How to Remodel a Kitchen for Under $4,000 (Part III - Contractors, Costs, Pictures and a Mea Culpa) over at twowiseacres.com. Rob and Mike's photos show an amazing transformation in their kitchen. However, I think we might have to chalk up alot of that to the fact that they did go over budget. Could they have accomplished that miracle of remodeling without going over budget? You be the judge.



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A Fixer-upper's Brush With Fame

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I was interviewed for an article that appeared in the Arizona Daily Star today, entitled Buying Real Estate. I attach it for your reading enjoyment.

Several investors are interviewed about their experiences in the Tucson real estate market. One disclaimer that I will offer is that I actually said "Prices are higher (not lower) so there's less competition when buying."

Now I know how my fellow celebs like Arnold and Bradjalina feel when they are misquoted. It's a heavy weight to bear.


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Fixer-upper Houses and Recession Article on EzineArticles.com

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Buying lower-priced fix-up houses, using your own time & effort to fix them up (and that of friends and relatives), and renting them is a fairly low-risk, high reward way to generate wealth & security. The higher prices and more-difficult-to-obtain loans of today's housing market present both challenges and opportunities. In general, recession may be a good thing for fixer-upper investors. Recession can drive rental payments up, and drive housing prices down.

For more details on this topic see my article Fixer-Upper Rentals -- Recession-Proof Investing at EzineArticles.com.





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Due Diligence Property Inspection, Part 8 - pest control and property damage

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Following the due diligence them from precious posts, we follow the outline from "Real Estate Investing for Dummies." As a reminder, the due diligence period is the time period between the acceptance of the offer and the close of escrow. It is the time to find out if you really want the property. If its not as good as you thought, you can ask the seller for adjustments, or get out of the contract.

Pest Control

For a good pest control inspection, it's a good idea to contract with a pest control firm and not try to do it yourself. A thorough inspection by an expert will cover much more than just infestations by wood-destroying insects. It will also document property damage by organisms that destroy wood and other building materials. This type of damage is referred to as dry rot, and they are caused by a fungus that needs moisture to multiply.

What you want, and what a good pest inspector will provide, is a diagram of the property showing the locations of damage from insects and dry rot. Sometimes these conditions require immediate attention, while others are areas to keep an eye in the future.

Serious Problems

Serious problems are those which affect the structure of house. Responses to this type or problem are:

-repair or replace the wood that has been damaged. The seller is almost always responsible to make the repairs on this type of damage. Lenders will generally not provide funds for a property until the work is completed by a licensed contractor.

Less Serious Problems

These problems do not present an immediate threat to occupants or the property, and can be dealt with at some future time. They don't affect the structural security, but that doesn't mean that they can be ignored indefinitely. If not addressed soon after closing, they can easily develop into serious problems that require you to address when you sell the property down the line.

Termites, a relentless foe describes an encounter that I had in a fixer-upper house with the wiley termite.

NEXT UP: ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

Moolanomy has an excellent post entitled Dave Ramsey’s Baby Step 6: Pay Off Home Early

Another insightful article at ezinearticles is Investment Property - Ways to Earn


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