Real Estate Investing Made Easy By: Brian Haskins Copyright 2012 By Brian Haskins Smashwords Edition Smashwords License Statement This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. Introduction What I am about to share with you is my journey from struggling and broke to a successful real estate investor. I will share with you my struggles and failures, as well as my successes and some of my student’s stories as well. What I will teach you can be done, even if you have no money, no credit or any previous experience. I am a living case study. I went from broke, wondering how I would pay my rent and not knowing where my next meal will come from to a completely successful, wealthy real estate investor. I can now work when I want and how much I want. I set my own schedule and live the life I want. Now I need to point out, what I am going to share with you is not a “get rich quick” opportunity. It will require some work but if you follow what I teach you and the simple systems that I have perfected and taught hundreds of other students, you, too, can find success as a real estate investor. You will have the opportunity to provide the life you want for your family, and like me walk in to work and fire your boss forever. What were going to cover How I went from broke with only $100 in my account to $96k in 9 months. How to do this in your spare time - working around your 9 to 5 job. Which strategies work best and how to profit fast. How to negotiate with sellers to get the best deals. How to sell your properties lightning fast and profit big. How to take your business to the next level and fire your boss! Why Did I Write This Book? I wrote this book because I really had a hard time making this whole real estate thing work. I struggled and only wished there was someone that was giving away this kind of great information when I first started. I told myself if I ever figured out how to make money in real estate and put together a system that worked well I would share it with everyone. It's just my way of giving back … Chapter 1 How I Got My (Rocky) Start… I got started in real estate as a very young cocky kid who thought he could do anything. I was completely broke living paycheck to paycheck. I hated my job. Just thinking about waking up every day and making someone else rich made me sick. I was working construction and it was long hours for not much pay. I was watching TV one Saturday morning and I saw a TV show called “Flip This House”. If you're not familiar with it, basically it shows people rehabbing houses for a profit. It would show them working on houses for a few weeks and then selling them the same day for as much as a $50,000 profit. All I could see were dollar signs. I was completely hooked the first minute I saw this show. I knew I could do that, and do an even better job. I started to learn as much as I possibly could about rehabbing houses. I begged my parents to help me get a loan for my first rehab project. They were very skeptical but in the end they agreed and said they would help me with my first house for a split of the profit. To make a long story short I failed miserably. I bought a house that needed way to much work and we went way over budget and the repairs took months since we all had full time jobs. In the end we sat on the property for almost a full year and made no money. I begged my parents to help me get a loan for my first rehab project. They were very skeptical but in the end they agreed and said they would help me with my first house for a split of the profit. To make a long story short I failed miserably. I bought a house that needed way to much work and we went way over budget and the repairs took months since we all had full time jobs. In the end we sat on the property for almost a full year and made no money. Being young and as hard headed as I was, I told them I knew I could rehab another house and be successful, knowing what we knew now. My parents couldn’t afford to help me with another project so I had to look elsewhere for a loan. I found someone to loan me the money and I was able to flip the house and make a big profit. Things were finally starting to turn around for me and I was building a really great rehab business making a lot of money. I started doing multiple projects at the same time and everything was great until the real estate market took a huge nose dive and I couldn’t sell any of my properties. I got stuck holding half a dozen properties paying the mortgages and taxes which quickly led me to being broke again… I quickly started researching ways to make money again and a friend of mine invited me to go to a local Real Estate Investors group that met and networked once a month in my area. I was reluctant, considering the experience I just had investing in real estate, but I was so broke I would have done anything at this point. So we went to the meeting and I will never forget the day. It was the biggest turning point in my life. That night I was introduced to a simple, yet highly profitable investing techniques that I could use to get me out of my slump and to help me get on top of the game again. That strategy was Wholesaling. In the next chapter we’ll cover wholesaling and why it’s such a powerful strategy, yet still simple enough anyone can do it. You don’t need any cash to get started, you don’t have to get any loans, and you don’t need any experience. Wholesaling, unlike rehabbing or any other real estate strategy, can be done in any kind of real estate market, good or bad. It can be done in every city across the nation big or small. Nothing really affects it. It’s almost bullet proof! Chapter 2 What Is Wholesaling? Before we get started I want to take a moment and explain why I told the entire story of how I got started. (I know it was kind of long.) The reason is, I wanted you to know that I am nobody special. I have failed several times and I wanted to show you that even a failure like me can make money Wholesaling. Wholesaling is a very simple concept. Wholesaling is not something new. It's been done literally since the beginning of real estate sales. It's one of the safest strategies and it doesn’t require you to buy properties like rehabbing or rental properties. It doesn't require you to fix them up or deal with tenants. This is the only strategy to actually work in all kinds of real estate markets, good or bad There are only 3 steps to a wholesale deal 1. You find undervalued properties people want to sell. 2. You contract the property. 3. You then find a buyer that is willing to pay you more for the property than you have it under contract for. You then sell them your contract and profit. There is no holding the property. You never buy it. You never fix it or put any money into it. The rest of the book we’re going to take each step and break down exactly what goes into putting a wholesale deal together. Before we go into all the details I want to walk you through a deal so you can get a better understanding. Let's talk about my first wholesale deal. Loughborough Property Let's talk about how I found this property. I posted some signs around my neighborhood that said We Buy Houses with my phone number on them. I got some calls but they weren't really motivated. I finally got the call from this seller. She said you can have the property for what I owe on it. I just want to get out of the property. I was pretty intrigued so I met with her. The house needed tons of repairs. Almost a full rehab. The good news she only owed $40,000 on the property and fixed up it could sell for $160,000! The house needed about $60,000 in repairs, which would total about $100,000 investment for someone and they could sell it for $160,000 I thought this was a home run, so I said ok. We filled out the contract for $40,000 and I was able to find a buyer to pay me $50,000 for the property. After a few small fee’s and closing, I got this: I hope you can see the opportunity here. Now I know I have done a lot of talking about myself already, but I want to give you a little more background so you know that I am actually qualified to teach you about wholesaling. Since I got my start wholesaling, I have since closed several hundreds of deals, in multiple states selling over 100 million dollars of real estate. I have taught hundreds of students in all 50 states and even in other countries. I still run a real estate wholesaling business and flip houses on a regular basis. So what do you need to get started wholesaling your first house? You do not need a whole lot to get started wholesaling houses. You basically need an internet connection, a phone and that’s about it. It is also helpful to have a scanner or fax machine, a website and also a VOIP phone system that allows some flexibility and extensions. Let's take a look at these tools and why you would need them: 1. Access to the internet - It's great to have access to the internet for researching deals and finding deals as well. If you don’t have access to the internet you can go to the public library and get access for free 2. Phone - You need to be able to have some way for people to contact you when wanting to buy or sell a house. 3. Scanner or fax - It’s a helpful idea to have some way to scan and email or fax contracts and other paperwork. But it’s not a must when first starting out and something that can be added later. 4. Website - A website is a huge part of your wholesaling business. It’s a great way for buyers and sellers to find you and a great way to automate your business. It's not a must when you’re first starting but something you might want to look into once you get started. Here is the websites I use in my own business and also the websites most of my students use. http://www.CheapREIWebsites.com These websites are about the most affordable you can find and they are easy to use and customize. 5. VOIP Phone System - Most people don’t want to use their cell phone for business so there are a lot of solutions out there that give you a lot of options. The company I use is called Ring Central they have many affordable plans and give you lots of flexibility. You can get a local or 800 number with extensions which will come in handy and we’ll talk about that later Chapter 3 How To Find Undervalued Houses? Before we start talking about the strategies I want to make one thing very clear. Before you start getting creative and trying to find your own ways of marketing make sure the people you are targeting are people who are motivated sellers. I see so many people chasing houses, but they don’t know if the seller is motivated or not. We want to find people who need to sell, not people that want to sell. Let me repeat that because it’s a very important take away. You want to find people that NEED to sell, not people that WANT to sell. The second big take away is you need to find people with equity. If they don’t have equity, then more than likely we won't be able to work out a deal with them. The properties need to be worth more than what they are asking. We'll talk about how much equity they will need to have in another chapter. Where will you find these types people and what kind of people are we going to be looking for? These are going to be people: Who maybe have recently lost their job and can't afford the high payments anymore, but have been paying down their mortgage for a while. People who have recently inherited a house they do not want. People who have recently been transferred. People who have 2 mortgages. Maybe they bought a new house and couldn’t sell their old house. One question I get all the time is, “Why would these people sell for a discount?” It’s a great question. Most of the people who end up selling to an investor usually have tried selling the conventional way with a realtor or for sale by owner. They are running out of options and it gets to the point they would rather give up their equity and just be done with the problem Now you have the basics set up. It’s time to find wholesale deals. There are hundreds of ways you can find motivated sellers. What we are going to focus on today is going to be the 5 best ways that are all either low cost or no cost. The reason we're going to focus on low cost and no cost marketing strategies is because if you are anything like me, when I first got started, I didn’t have any extra money to spend. I always recommend to my students they start out with low cost strategies instead of spending their money on more advanced strategies right out of the gate. This will allow them to get their first few deals under their belt and get a little money built up before moving into more advanced strategies. The following strategies are the 5 best low cost strategies I have found after years of testing. These strategies work nationwide and in all kinds of real estate markets. 1. Bandit Signs Bandit signs are a great way of finding motivated sellers. Bandit signs are the plastic signs you see hanging from telephone poles and on the sides of roads. The key to bandit signs is that you need to rotate the areas and placement of your signs. If people get used to seeing them, then they won't notice them. Here is an image of a bandit sign Typically you want to keep it short and simple, 2 or 3 lines max. You want something eye catching. I like to say something like I'll Buy Your House For Cash (xxx) -xxx-xxxx [...]... it’s a good quick tool you can use that doesn’t cost anything 2 Realquest.com - Realquest is a paid tool but they are much more accurate than Zillow 3 The MLS The MLS is by far the best tool and the most accurate It’s the tools used by realtors and appraisers to determine values on properties You should contact a realtor or your local Realtor's association to see if you can pay to get access When searching... real estate agent Typically the property went into foreclosure and then the bank tried to auction the property off If the property doesn’t sell at auction, then the bank will list the property with a real estate agent Typically these properties are listed at much lower rates than non-REO properties, so in some cases you can get them for great deals You can find REO properties through a local real estate. .. now have all the information to be able to go out, take massive action and make money in real estate investing For those of you that still would like more training, I have a few resources I would like to extend to you My REI Wealth School I have created what I consider to be the most inclusive and easy to use real estate system anywhere It’s a 20 module, completely in depth, hands on training where you... taking advantage of people We are just providing a service they need I get Christmas cards and thank you notes from people regularly 6 Will This Work In This Bad Real Estate Market Yes, you can wholesale in good and bad real estate markets It doesn’t really affect us There will always be people who are in a situation that they need to sell and they will sell for under market value I would say we’re in a... help as many people as possible Please take just a moment and share this information Please go here to like us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/BrianHaskinsFanPage 2 Please share this on twitter – http://twitter.com/home? status=Free+141+Page +Real+ Estate+ Investing+ Book+Download+It+Here+http://www REIWealthPdcast.com 3 Please rate this book on Amazon Disclaimer : The author, publisher, contributors... out right here – http://www.BrianLikes.com/freedomsoft I highly recommend using it It’s made a huge difference in my business, and saved me tons of time and headaches It’s the tool that has made the most impact on my business Once you have the information about the house, it's time to start evaluating the property to see if it’s a good deal or not The best way to do this is by running comps or searching... An easy way to do this is by using a free service called Postlets.com It allows you to make really nice looking fliers that you can automatically post to craigslist and other sites 2 Bandit Signs Bandit signs are a great way to find buyers for your properties You can post them around the neighborhood and in the area around the house You want to use an appealing message and you want it to look homemade,... you through setting up and running a real estate investing business What do you get? You get 20 modules, each released once per week for 20 weeks, or you can choose to get all the content at once Each module contains: * Videos – broken into small actionable sections you can implement right away * Audios * Software And Other Tools * Extensive Resource Sections * Easy Action Plans Each module and all... need to get started? * Can I do this with no money? * Why would people sell at such a discount? * Will this work in this bad real estate market? * Is there any risk to get in trouble or lose money? 1 Do I Need A License To Do This No, you do not need any licenses to wholesale real estate in any state The reason you do not need a license is because you are contracting the properties, which means you are... understand wholesaling and think you are acting as a realtor pairing up buyer and sellers, which is not the case 2 Is This Legal Yes this is 100% legal, ethical and moral Some people think just because you have the opportunity to make money, there has to be something illegal This is not a new strategy Wholesaling has been around since the beginning of land and real estate transactions You’re just buying low . Real Estate Investing Made Easy By: Brian Haskins Copyright 2012 By Brian Haskins Smashwords Edition Smashwords License Statement This. me to go to a local Real Estate Investors group that met and networked once a month in my area. I was reluctant, considering the experience I just had investing in real estate, but I was so. rehabbing or any other real estate strategy, can be done in any kind of real estate market, good or bad. It can be done in every city across the nation big or small. Nothing really affects it.