Recent Comments

• Andy Webster’s 6th Investment Property of 10 – Video Case Study (10)

  • Gary Cooper: Hi Dale, Excited about coming to Saturdays’ meeting. Hope to join Lifestyle soon! I’ve been listening to your radio shows. I was in air-conditioning for over 30 yrs as a (TDIndustries) techician throughout the metroplex until an auto accident 2 yrs ago. Broke my back and had a very long recovery. I was an installer for 15 yrs then a commercial tech for 15. I never was much of an indoor person. So, by being forced to stay at home, I have learned much. I write article’s at ezinearticles.com. I’ve also took Trump’s entrepreneur’s program, which is RE. And I took a commercial RE course there as well. The accident wiped us out. Our new home in Forney was foreclosed on and my truck (Ford Harley 350) was reposed. There was a 6 month gape between when my workman’s comp checks ended until my disability check’s started. That’s really what sunk us! I go to the VA hospital as an out-patient and we ride the bus everywhere now! But I’m soon to get a car so I can work RE. My niche…

• What Does a Membership to Lifestyles Unlimited Include? (4)

  • Chelsea: Hello, good post.
  • Quinn Hauf: You know, I have to tell you, I really savor this webpage and the informative insight. I find it to be energizing and very informative. I wish there were more blogs like it. Anyhow, I finally decided to write a comment on What Does a Membership to Lifestyles Unlimited Include? – I just wanna tell you that you did a nice job on this. Cheers mate!

• Del Walmsley’s Three Rules of Investing (10)

  • Dah-veed: Del Walmsley, Got Email from Shauwn Digman. Called S.A. office to register for 8/12/10 open meeting… Spoke with Rene Manes – very informative & encouraging. Look forward to meet the S.A. people that can help me & I want to help others a.s.a.p. Such a need to get the Wisdom & Basics out to make it as a ReaL Estate Investor, to end the struggles of lack, bad bosses & co-workers… Work Hard & Smart is the way! Rene also mentioned I might get something if went to website, so I did &: I FOUND HEAVEN
  • John Joseph: I understand the basics of the ‘Three Rules’. Please explain why the plan is only practiced with residential properties, either single or multi-family. I assume there are issues with expanding this philosophy to other income producing properties, such as commercial or ’special use’ properties, such as mini-storage facilities, etc.

• What Does it Take to be a Successful Real Estate Investor? (6)

  • Ian: We are Principals. We are full service Developers (www.bgigroup.ca ) with a Private banking arm. (www.bgicapital.ca ), and a US subsidiary. We are based in Toronto Canada (47 years experience) and have sourced various US distressed product through Non Performing Note or direct asset purchase valued at $5Mil – $500Mil. We are looking to JV with investors/partners on added value deals in prime US markets. We’ll look after delivering the finished product, whether it’s Rehab, stabilization, or construction completion of incomplete projects – Multi family, Condos, Hotels/Resorts, Retail, Office, Recreational. We can also act as Development Managers or Loan Monitors of your problem deals to do turnarounds or Workouts. Contact – BGI Group per: Ian Jones (MRICS) President ian@bgigroup.ca direct – 416 689 7523 www.bgigroup.ca
  • Alfonso: Thanks Steve. Chris, I’m glad you mentioned that you made the mistake of worrying also. I specifically wanted to include in my article the part about how I worried SO MUCH about my first deal. Even my friend who I mention in the article, the guy who landed the $45,000 equity capture, is worried about his deal. It’s still being rehabbed and he’s terrified that he won’t be able to rent out the place. It’s natural to worry, but you’re right that it isn’t necessary. I appreciate your follow up guys.
  • Shirley: You nailed it !! The thing that hold most back is taking the chance. It seems like a HUGE thing but when you do and see how it is done you wonder – Why ? Why have I let so many opportunities pass me up from not taking a chance. If you think about it we take chances everyday just by driving and no one seems to let that inhibit them as much as they let the thought of Real Estate investment inhibit them. I am glad that we are members of Lifestyles and we took a chance !! Thanks Alfonso !

• How a Real Estate Investor Should Take a Phone Call from a Prospective Tenant (6)

  • V: This is great information. Thanks for sharing. Would love to see more of your procedures.
  • Jerry Davidson: Thanks for being so thorough, Jeff! I’m a flowchart guy, so really appreciate the technical visuals.
  • Loan Tran: very helpful. will definitely implement a few ideas. thank you.

• Buying Apartment Complexes – The Real Estate Investor Radio Show (1)

  • terry: On this show, at about the 05:00 time mark, you talk about a SF home that has $5k – $6k into it with a $4300/yr cash flow. Then, you say that this is a phenomenal 115% return on investment. Can you tell me how this number is arrived at? I calculate a phenomenal 86% COC return ($4.3k/$5.0k) Thanks

• Fire Sale: Investing In Distressed Assets (5)

  • Darcie Bario: I wanted to thank you for this great read!! I definitely enjoyed every little bit of it I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post

• Single-family Property Management Fundamentals: “Hassle-Free” Landlording (16)

  • product positioning: I don�t usually reply to posts but I will in this case. Good Stuff – Nice Concept too:)
  • Ramiro Higby: Exceptional layout. It’s ıdeal in particulars.
  • Tim Randall: FYI, I can’t view this correctly on the latest Halon browser.

• Banks? We Don’t Need no Stinking Banks – Unconventional Financing Fundamentals (13)

  • Khan: I would love to get some information on the private lenders and understand how the program works.
  • Ron: Chris Robinson…I read your input from earlier and I could use some guidance from Chris or really anyone as to how I can locate private investors in the Houston area. I have been in the new home construction business as a sales professional for a major builder based in Houston. Sorry..can’t mention names but you would know them. I have lots of home construction knowledge but I am having trouble locating Private investors in the Houston area. Hard money lending will not work for me due to a divorce several years ago. I had an individual who was going to back me but told me today that he won’t be able to for several months. Which means I may lose out on two deals that I have a contract on. The only problem is now I can’t give them a proof of funds letter to take the purchase to the closing table Any guidance would be appreciated.
  • Karen: Good point David. Always make sure you have multiple avenues for financing (on both the front and back ends) when structuring your business plan. You never know what things may change that you have no control over.

• Before You Cosign a Loan, Understand Your Obligations (3)

  • Mer Pengar: Find out exactly how much money you’ll be borrowing and how long you want to spend paying it off. Paying off loans quickly is more advantageous to you since the longer your loans have outstanding balances, the more you’ll pay in interest in the long run.
  • Lån: A few years ago, I took a loan while was still servicing another from a different bank and it turned out to be one of the worst decisions that I have ever made in my life. My property ended up being auctioned, taking me back to point zero.
  • Albina Dostal: When one is taking a loan he/she must know how to repay the loan because the banks can not give someone money and the he/she does not have any way of generating money in order to repay the loan.

• Ian Hancock Wins 2010 HAA Apartment Owner of the Year Award (1)

  • Stephen Davis, Host: Way to go Ian and all the Lifestyles winners.

• North Texas Real Estate Much Healthier than Other Parts of The Country (4)

  • Kate Gallor: Very good written article -, but cant see many comments. Any how great stuff. Ill pass this on to a friend or two, thanks for this.
  • GB Pics: Very nice Article! I will share this! GB Pics

• How to Protest Your Property Taxes and Win (38)

  • Chris: Even though this thread has been inactive for some time, I thought that I would post my experience since it may help others. I live in a planned community in north Fort Worth, Tarrant County. All of the homes in the neighborhood are less than 5 years old and were constructed by two builders with similar lot sizes, exteriors, and finish. My home was valued at a higher amount relative to recent sales that I have seen. However, when browsing through the 2010 TAD statements, it was comparable. Even so, I decided to protest based upon market value and unequal appraisal. I found 10 comps that sold within the last 15 months, 9 of them were within the last 90 days, that made my case. The mean avg. of these properties was $10 less than what my property was valued at. I formatted these properties in a spreadsheet showing the following: address, year built, sell price, sqft, $/sqft, and value ration vs. my property. I summarized the values as a mean average, then weighted my property…

• The Indymac Boys Got a Sweetheart Deal by the FDIC (2)

  • Debra Kinser: OK…you found a problem. What is the solution? What can the regular “Joe” out here in email land do?
  • Morgan Feng: The video on this page was removed, but I found it again on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssl5yb7FewA. If that get removed too, just search for ‘Indymac deal’ on Youtube.

• A Real World Example of How Simple Things can Affect the Lives of Others (1)

  • Brian Carter: Awesome article!!! Sometimes we get caught up in a property and lose sight of what we’re really doing this for or we wonder if all the little things actually matter. It’s residence like that, who put things back into perspective for us… make us realize that we really are affecting the lives of others with what we do. Thanks. Brian Carter

• FIRE!!!!! The Case for Investing in Real Estate Now (4)

  • John: Thank you Jeff for sharing such a personal experience
  • Hanee Hasan: This was a great article Jeff, I’m motivated to not be stalled by the “appearance” of fire and will begin the process now to get going. I do want to rescue my family and I realize now that I have to get going despite the doubts that I may have. Great, great article!
  • Tim: Thanks for taking the time to write this very inspiring article. Your words enCOURAGE me. It’s time to take action!

• Welcome from Founder Del Walmsley (1)

  • carlos velasquez: Dear Del: I ALSO HAD A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE DURING THE 1989 WALL STREET CRASH. UNFORTUNATELY I DID NOT KNOW OF REAL STATE AND THINGS KEPT GOING SOUTH. NOW I HAVE ATTENDED THE INITIAL WORKSHOP AND THE TWO DAY SEMINAR AND SEE THIS OPPORTUNITY AS A SECOND AIR. NOW I AM IN THE PROCESS OF MOVING FUNDS FROM A REAL STATE VENTURE IN GUATEMALA AND HOPE TO BE GETTING MY MENTOR PRETTY SOON.

• Damage Control (8)

  • Victor Dukart: Howdy there,Great blogging dude! i am Fed up with using RSS feeds and do you use twitter?so i can follow you there:D. PS:Do you considered putting video to this blog posts to keep the visitors more interested?I think it works.Best wishes, Victor Dukart
  • homepwnerer: The experienced landlord was correct. He can base his knowledge on owning rentals for more than 1 or 2 turn-overs and would also see many different ranges of renters to include the full family (4-5) to the single professional.
  • gene kennedy: excellent article on the basics of landlording

• How To Leave A Comment: VP Stephen Davis Will Show You How (21)

  • David Fisher (PIG) San Antonio: Steve, Wow have things changed for me in a year from that initial question to you. I was hoping to buy a few houses and hearing I could not do it from some lenders. I never gave up and went forward looking for other lenders. Some how I ended up with 2 single family rent homes and a 29 unit apartment complex last year. This year so far I just closed on a 4 unit yesterday. I have offers in on 2 more 3 units and a 5 unit. San Antonio market might be new for Lifestyles but it worked for me. I learned what works. Do not take advice from the negative types and those that never did it. Just take action and be the example. Everyone can be successful with a good road map.
  • windows 7 driver: Super-Duper blog! I am loving it!! Will be back later to read some more. I am bookmarking your feeds also

• Increase Your Bottom Line – Supplementing Rent with Ancillary Income (8)

  • Hunter: I just collected $400 in non-refundable pet deposits. Amazing! I read this article two weeks ago when my lone rental was ready to advertise for occupancy. The qualified tenant has two little dogs and I took your advise. They didn’t even flinch. Thank you.
  • Lear RIojas: thank you so much I have been eating move in fees for three years never thought to pass it to the persons who created it thanks
  • Jamie: Congrats on your article, Renee! Clear and concise. Great job!!

• The Six Ways Real Estate Investing Makes You Money (8)

  • Marlon V Garcia: Thanks It is a great entry, “The Six Ways Real Estate Investing Makes You Money” I do agree. Real Estate is the most powerful tool to make money in today’s market industry. and as the Real Estate Expert, Robert Kiyosaki said knowledge and Financial Education advise helps to fill our gap around the world like a Golden River. Kiyosaki state “I have a problem with too much money. I can’t reinvest it fast enough, and because I reinvest it, more money comes in. Yes, the rich do get richer”.
  • Charles Brooks: Great article, very informative.
  • James Eisenlohr: Very good article, Brian. Real estate is a wonderful investment for so many reasons. I wrote a similar article on my site. Check it out: http://freedomby40.com/2010/02/5-amazing-ways-that -real-estate-can-make-you-wealthy/

• The Real Estate Investor Web Series Episode 2 – Brian and Shauwn Check Out Blue Lake (1)

  • rui: Way to go Brian. Happy to see you making deals down there. Keep in touch and let me know when you come to LA. Cheers, Rui

• Karen Davis’s 6th Investment Property: Video Case Study (84)

  • Carey Adel: someone who knows his stuff and can write well equals a great read, thanks
  • Andrew Pelt: awesome comment about credit

• Wrap Mortgages and Due on Sale Clauses – The Real Estate Investor Radio Show (1)

  • Ron Miesner: Hi Stephen, Is there really hope for anyone to build a good income with real estate? I retired a while back and like you say, now I find myself in debt and broke. I am living on social security at age 69 wondering what to do. In my situation, can I generate cash flow like you say? Thanks for your time. Ron Miesner

• Pay Yourself First: The Equity Goose and The Cashflow Golden Egg (9)

  • Larry Copling: Very nice article. I first learned about the concept of paying myself first way back in the late 1970’s with A.L.Williams (of “Buy term and invest the difference” fame- His organization is now Primerica). The additions to the concept offered by these latest authors really increase the power of the ideas. Thanks for the article!
  • Flora: Excellent article. Thanks for taking the time an explaining it so anyone can understand it. We are constantly bombarded with a lot of information that requires jumping through a lot of hoops that we loose sight that saving and investing is really something everyone can do regardless of income level.
  • Shauwn: Great article. Yes many of us have been exposed to these principles, but many still do not follow them. Great for the gentleman who feels as if he doesn’t need this advise. “Waste of his time”. What he hasn’t realized is that someone taught him these principles. Brian, thank you for taking the time to teach these wealth building principles to others.

• Tips for Real Estate Investors who Want a Successful Working Relationship with Contractors (9)

  • Handyman: Thank you for the sensible critique. Me & my neighbour were preparing to do some research about that. We got a good book on that matter from our local library and most books where not as influensive as your information. I am very glad to see such information!
  • real estate: Thanks, I like the your suggestions for Real Estate Investors who Want a Successful Working Relationship with Contractors, This is very helpful keep adding.
  • Jerry Plake: Natalie – I read your article and thought it was ver well done and comprehensive. You touched on the many aspects of contracting that members need to understand. Cris also did a good job on the radio today (2/2/10) explaining the key points. I printed it off for my personal reference to remind me also how to give our members the best service we possibly can. Jerry Plake/ Start2Finish Please visit our website to find out more about our services and to see before and after photos.

• Special Guest Robert Kiyosaki! Del Talks Real Estate Investing with the “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” Author (1)

  • Single mother: A single mother is faced with innumerable challenges starting form household expenses to buying things from the market to looking after the children

• Real Estate Investor Natalie Pilkinton Owns Three Houses on the Same Block! (9)

  • steven: Also Natalie, what figures do you use to determine your cashflow? how much for maintaince and vacancy? thanks!
  • Mike: I don’t see how this is good investing. $200 a month cash flow for each house? If you have turnover every 2 years in a house and the house is vacant for a month plus you have to pay to paint/do misc repairs during that turnover, I don’t see the profits. Seems like you’re just holding on to the properties long enough til you can sell and grab that equity. I’m in Illinois and I won’t touch a house unless it cash flows at least $300. $350 is really my low end though unless I’m grabbing a ton of equity.
  • Keith: Hi Natalie, Congratulations! Could you explain your asset protection / liability mitigation strategy? I.e. are each of your properties in an individual LLC? Do you have one LLC holding your entire portfolio? Etc. Do you self-manage your properties, or are you using a management company? And if so, is the manager a Lifestyles vendor? Thanks

• How the Health Bill will Affect Real Estate Investors (1)

  • Adam: I miss the show where can I find it? I know that Del put out really great info. Also thanks lifestyles unlimited for the great info you guys post.

• Why Home Prices Don’t Drop when Interest Rates Rise – The Real Estate Investor Radio Show (1)

  • Alan: So let me get this right. We all know that house prices will go up when interest rates fall. But you claim that they will also stay the same or go up when rates rise. So essentially housing prices are always going up or are stable. So why did the Fed waste all that money trying to keep interest rates low? They should have just listened to you and let rates go up…problem solved.

• Writing Offers – Keys to Negotiating! (3)

  • Ryszard: This might be a good outline to use in negotiating IF you’re dealing with the seller directly. Put it into the context of a typical Lifestyles SF deal. You respond to an blast e-mail and get the property first. You look at it and make on offer. The Lifestyles Agent sends you a contract, you sign it and.. wait. I’ve tried to interject myself into the process but get told I can’t talk to the seller. We’re totally dependent on the Agent to do stay on top of the deal. Are they? Where do we get to apply negotiating techniques in this kind of system?
  • AJ: I liked the article. It was a skeleton, but if you know “a little” about negotiating, you can pretty much flesh it out yourself.
  • Susan: Thumbs down!! This article needs a lot of improvement. Nothing is explained in detail- it just looks like an outline for an article. Please give detailed information, such as explaining each term and step of the process. And don’t tell us do to something like “Use higher authority to create the good guy/bad guy game” without explaining first WHOSE HIGHER AUTHORITY and WHY we should play the game at all- not to mention HOW it’s to be done. Come on, Lifestyles, you can do better than this!

• The Real Estate Investor Who Bought 74 Houses in 2 Years ~ Robert Hammond (14)

  • Robert Hammond: They were not FHA loans they were Fannie Mae. And at the time, it was ‘the fannie mae 10′ that you could do. With the banking crisis they change the limit to 4 homes. The process was basically… buy with cash or hard money short term loan, then do a cash out refinance into a 30 yr fixed Fannie Mae loan. Had to keep my credit score up and my debt ratio down. Probably the last 5-6 we did in my wife’s name…her credit and debt ratios were stronger.
  • Kyle: Robert, Can you explain how you went about acquiring the 10 initial properties using FHA loans? Thanks.
  • Allan Yao: Robert, How did you acquire such a high number of houses in 24 months and still rehab them? You were averaging over 3 houses/month!

• Real Estate Investing Links for September 30, 2009 (2)

  • amador realestate: Its the 1st time i am on your site and i would like to congratulate you for the big effort you are doing to write such excellent posts.

• The Real Estate Investor Web Series ~ Brian and Shauwn Close Glendora with No Money Down (10)

  • Steve Carlson: That’s a good deal. I’m anxious to see the after video and hear about the next one …or 10. Nice work guys.
  • Shauwn: Michael – Thanks first for visiting our website and watching the video. Congratulations on your two investment properties. We had no money out of pocket, so our return is infinite. This was privately funded, where our investor earns a higher return on their capital than they would with traditional methods, but our cash on cash is infinite. There is more competition in the market, which i think is great. More people are taking control of their finances and making changes for their families. I do feel though here recently with the tax credits available our competion has been home owners. Families can purchase homes in need of some repair and receive the credit to improve the home. When that ends in April, there will possibly more oppurtunities. Just a idea. Thanks Again, and good luck
  • David Fisher (PIG) San Antonio: The reason this is so awesome is they did it with 0 dollars of their own money. There are many ways to do deals. Anytime you have 0 out of pocket is amazing. Go try that in the stock market. Can I have 500 shares of your stock and just collect the up side and oh and by the way I don’t want to pay for it? Just let that sink in. It’s awesome.

• Understanding Single-Family Home Property Values (11)

  • Jeff Smith: Not exactly. The mv of the house is the cma w/o distressed sales (unless the subdivision is all or mostly foreclosures), bc those are actual sales. The equity based on that figure is real whether the lender agrees or not. But if your loan is a fnma product you’ll need an additional analysis for financing that includes foreclosures, like the one that Bryan did.
  • Doug Freeman: Jeff, Great Information! This makes it very evident that historical and accurate sales data on the subject property is THE key to determining real value as an investor. B. Batson in the DFW office taught the SFPE class this past week ( my third time attending-I learn something new every time)and while doing the evaluation included a foreclosure in his analysis. This in effect gives the “blended” evaluation you talked about in your post correct?
  • Bryan Batson: @Jeff Excellent post! I’ll be using some of your points in my next Single Property Evaluation class next week. @William Quest has the MLS rights to the Austin, DFW, Houston and San Antonio markets right now. These are the only markets that we can access to our members to pull the historical MLS sold comps.

• “How Can You Expect Your Wallet to Grow if You Don’t?” – The Real Estate Investor Radio Show (1)

  • Brian Carter: Great show for new investor. A couple of phrases come to mind: “Kaizen” “Just Do It” “Stop Analysis Paralysis” Here is another saying I’ve heeard from a fellow investor. “You have to get out of your own way, before you can become successful.” I don’t want to offend anyone by the following comment, but I think for some… it needs to be said. Maybe I can coin this phrase one day. “YOU are the only reason you have what you have and YOU are the only reason you lack what you lack.” It’s said a better way here: “You deserve what you settle for.” Okay okay, I’ll stop with the one liners. I hope this along with the show causes you to take action. Thanks. Brian Carter

• Top 10 Reasons for San Antonio’s Bright Future in Commercial Real Estate (1)

  • Alysha Milo: First of all, this is a really informative article! I’ve got a big question nagging me, I really like the layout of your website and tried to install the same theme on my WP site. Anyhow, there is some kind of strange php error in the sidebar. Do you have any hints, what version are you using? Please PM me on Twitter @LovnLivin or per e-mail.

• Low-Information Diet for the Real Estate Investor (7)

  • Faulkner: I’m afraid that the Pit bull needs a special type of operator…these dogs, regardless of how ‘warm’ nevertheless have teeth, are still creatures not having moral concepts and once they DO bite, won’t allow go. As in all creatures…some have a tendency to be additional suseptable to instinctual behavior and time and time again, this breed tends to perform just that.
  • Bryan Batson: @ Everyone – Thanks for the kind words and I’m glad some of my experience can help y’all on your journey. I’m an information junkie that has to constantly throttle myself down and refocus on the task at hand. You can be effecient at a number of mundane tasks i.e. email, but you must ask yourself “Am I being effective?”. If not then, you need to analyze your tasks and pick out those 20% producing you results and THEN streamline those. @ Brad – The first thing I would if you haven’t done already is get a financial statement and cashflow statement WRITTEN DOWN ON PAPER. You need to know what you’re working with financially. This will give you a starting point as to what kind of properties you’re going to acquire and how you’re going to acquire them. Secondly, the 2Day is definitely a must. Del does an excellent job of giving you the outline of what you should look for and what you should do. After you have…
  • Brad: As a newbie to LUI I was told to wait until the 2 day course to “pull the trigger” on anything. I have been looking for a while and have 4 realators sending me potential properties before I signed up. I have seen the info overload you spoke about and as a newbie HOW do I know where to draw the line? I have enough info to be dangerous but not enough to be effective….

• Real Estate Investing Links for October 7, 2009 (1)

  • Elizabeth Tombrello: That is a great entry. I really believe it will turn out to be a very crucial piece of information in the future for me.

• Get to Know Real Estate Investor, Mentor, and Vice President Stephen Davis (14)

  • Bobbye Henry: Hi Steve Watched your video It’s great Love Bobbye

• Case Study: Natalie talks with Jeff Hunt, a Houston Real Estate Investor – The Del Walmsley Radio Show (1)

  • Jess internet jobs: This is really something I can understand. Thanks for the article I have subscribed to your rss.

• “Cradle to Grave” Financial Environments – The Del Walmsley Show (2)

  • Rick: Great show Del, It really is a bit scary. Confiscation of the private sector’s assets?……wow. I suppose they fear runs on the banking system with its reserve ratio where it is, and LTVs on devalued collateral. The currency situation scares me as well. The money suppy has increased at an unprecedented velocity and devaluation of the dollar is on its way……glad a good portion of my money is in real estate.
  • michael lenard: Del I appreciate your opinions on these matters and could not agree more. What you are saying about the governments actions sadly is true.I don’t know how you feel about bible profesy, but there are many indications that a period of time is coming when government (one particular man?) will actually set out to control every form of commerce right down to how we can buy or sell anything. Without preaching a sermon it is alarming anyway. I hope that you will consider voting this coming session and find the best canidate possible. It may not help much, but it is still one of the best freedoms we have. Thank you so much for your effort to help people become finacially free. Please keep it up.

• How 15 Rent Houses Can Retire You Faster than a $1 Million 401k (26)

  • will: yes i have thought about that also.
  • Brian Lee: Will, since you have 60k in equity in the house, have you considered refinancing the house, taking out around $40k; and using that money to buy 4 more houses with hard money loans?
  • Omar: Will, The way I look at it is that if you are going to put the money to work and it is going to give you a ROI that is higher than the interest you are paying on your home, then get a home equity loan on your home and that loan should give you enough to repay your loan plus some more. Just be careful, when you are a beginner you are propably going to make more mistakes than an experienced investor (i.e. you will spend more than necessary on your investment properties), so just keep that in mind. Also, I always “listen” to what my gut tells me (keeping in mind that I have completely lost the fear of investing in RE), so if my gut were to tell me that I want a house that is fully paid for to keep my family in, then I will factor that “feeling” in my decision process. Just think about how much risk you and your family can tolerate.

• How Real Estate Investor Brant Phillips added $33k to his $500k in Equity with House #28 of 30 – Video Case Study (7)

  • Kerstin Tatro: Dig the blog.
  • Brant: We pay simple interest, generally 7-12% monthly with a 2-5 year balloon…this is a very safe and secure place for people to invest their money…Our private money lenders really enjoy the safety of our deals b/c their is generally a large amount of equity and cash-flow, so they feel secure placing their monies in these type of homes…see our website for some more information: www.HoustonCapitalGroup.com

• Real Estate Investing Links for February 3, 2010 (1)

  • John Cooper: Wow this “bad news” sounds like a great opportunity to make some serious money in real estate! McKinney Homes

• Why Investing in Houston Real Estate Makes a Lot of Sense ~ Texaplex Houston (2)

  • John Cooper: What that says to me is that it is time to get in to the Houston real estate market! McKinney Homes
  • Glenn: Wow! If I didn’t already live here I would move here in a minute!

• Is This A Good Time to Invest in Real Estate?  (7)

  • David Daily: You would think these people needs some place to live. I can say that from leasing 3 sfh from November 2009 to January 2010 a big percentage of my callers were living with family and friends and a lot continue to do so. My homes are in great shape as alway and I had to come down $50.00 on each to get them rented. I had more call than ever but its the first time I had someone ask me if I had a house for $750 or $800. I do not know if multi familt rents are up or not, I just know my sfh are down. It is the best time to buy ever. If you can buy. There is always some way to do it, but it is not easy. It just does not seem right that you can have 780 credit scores, cash reserves and steady income, and lenders will not lend because of this or that. They should look at the fact that I have owned many houses for 5 years and never missed a mortgage payment. If I were a lender, that would do it for me.

• The 401K Scam – New Developments You Should be Aware of – The Del Walmsley Radio Show  (4)

  • Dad: Well, your reaction to this plan seems a little over the top. From reading just this its hard to bring all the details into focus because of all the apoplectic prose, the “unbelievable”s, etc; but it sounds like at worst you will have to make a choice when you start to withdraw money from your retirement account, to buy the annuity or not. Yes, it shouldnt be that way, I agree. But I dont agree that it means in the future we won’t have such a choice. We’ve had IRAs for years and no one has been forced to save money in them.
  • Paul: Who is John Galt?

• Who’s Your Favorite Guru? (3)

  • Arie Archut: Very good post. I’ve found your blog via Google and I’m really glad about the information you provide in your articles. Btw your sites layout is really messed up on the Chrome browser. Would be cool if you could fix that. Anyhow keep up the good work!

• Real Estate Investor Video Podcast Compilation (1)

  • Chris Robinson: This is great.

• Real Estate Investing Links for January 27, 2010 (2)

  • Julie Broad: Thanks for featuring my article!! You’ve got a great list of real estate article here … I was very interested to read the predictions on apartment shortages. Thanks again, Julie
  • kendall kellam: If 19% of apartment loans are 60 days pass due why do you say apartment investing is good?

• Discussing the Article “How 15 Rent Houses Can Retire You Faster than $1 Million 401(k)” – The Real Estate Investor Radio Show (1)

  • estate agents: Well,good informative article….It’s very helpful who looks for the houses for rent.

• A Step by Step Road Map for Success in a New Decade! (3)

  • Keith: I read Lifestyles’s articles, and I must say that they are great articles, have attended two of their meetings and will certainly be a member. I am an immigrant from the island of St. Lucia (Caribbean) and speculatively build couple house and sold. Likewise purchased undevelop land, sub-divide it and resold. Looking forward to share some of my experiences, because one could make a substantial amounts in exploring other markets.