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So, I've been getting into real estate investing these last few years and I've been blessed to have some incredibly wise men and women surround me in the process. One thing I've learned is the value of owning property of any sort. It's seriously a stewarship decision for me. I'd hate to be given a gift and not make the most of it. This is how I think of it.

$800/month for rent = $9,600/yr
If you buy a $110,000 home at 6.5% interest, your monthly payment is $795/month (assuming you're escrowing $100/month for property tax). Of that $795, about $650... continue reading >>

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This is a true story about me, Abe, and my first buying experience. Hopefully there will be someone on here that will benefit from this first-hand account of a predatory lender.

Back in 2003, at the age of 24, I decided to buy my own place. I had been looking online at the market in Chicago and was convinced that renting was about the same as throwing money away. For 6 months I lived out of my car. I had a small backpack with all of my clothes in it and I slept on the... continue reading >>

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Hey all, I noticed that a lot of us are taking the time to at least attempt to write a decent blog. These blogs are for the community and are hopefully helping us all out. I don't know if you all noticed, but there's this "baller points" system here. If I'm lucky, I'll get 2 points on a given day. My next step up comes at "novice", which is something like 250 points from where I'm at. Anyone else in this boat? Anyhow, that means that we're on the 5 month plan... continue reading >>

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HB4050 is the short term for House Bill 4050, which was passed that past year in Illinois. The long and the short of it is this. In order to cut down on predatory lending and foreclosures, the state house thought that it would be a good idea to locate the 10 most victimized zip codes in the state and change the mortgage laws there. As it turns out, all of zip codes are on the South side of Chicago, which is almost entirely low income black and latino population. The law requires lenders (banks, not brokers)... continue reading >>

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I'm gonna try to make this quick, as it seems that spending all day reading blogs might not be the best use of our collective time. But, I think this is important to know.
Fellow investors, especially those of you who are "buy and hold" investors, let me give you a quick tip.
1) If you live in a city where the market is doing well and you're likely to make between 5%-15% a year in appreciation (maybe more depending on where you live) then your primary equity building tool will be appreciation, not paying the mortgage... continue reading >>

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Hey, I was recently leaving a comment on a user's blog and realized that the information could be good for everyone. So here it is.
"I recommend you start an LLC for EACH of your investment properties. For example, you would have one called "123 Main St. LLC". And another called "8910 Washington Ave. LLC". That way not only can litigators not go after your personal property, but they cannot even go after your other properties. When you've got a few properties and troublesome renters, contractors or neighbors, you'll be glad you did."
I've done... continue reading >>

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As many of you may have seen, my Hawaiian brother Donovan and I'm sure many others, has recently seen an ad for a 1% home loan. I just checked out the site. It's what we call an Option Arm. They've got a really bad reputation, but aren't all that bad. It just depends on what sort of investor you are. Here's the skinny.
If you get an Option Arm mortgage at 6% on a $200,000 home, you'll pay $1200/month, at 30 yrs. If you get the same loan and just want to pay the monthly... continue reading >>

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Hey, this is short and many of you probably already know what I'm going to tell you. But, for those of you who, like me, have not yet investigated the entirety of this site, I wanted to take a second to encourage you to take a look at the Resources link. I was there today and am THOROUGHLY impressed by all of the resources that our Admins have put in one place. They've got links to everything from cretid repair services to people-to-people lending services, and documents a plenty. Nice work Colin and Matt. You've... continue reading >>

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Ok, everyone, I'm gonna let you in on an amazing secret I recently discovered. It's more or less a loop hole in the way banks lend money. I know it sounds like I'm giving out fairy dust here, but I swear this makes sense. Here's how it works. If you currently have a HELOC (home equity line of credit) then this will make a little more sense to you.
In order to do this you will need to have a heloc that you can use as an MMA (money merge account).
Let's say you have a heloc... continue reading >>

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As I was reading a blog recently, I made a comment that we should all keep in mind. Ryan Dehler wrote a wonderfully inquisitive blog that questioned why we even teach others to do what we do, as it, more or less, creates competition for us. Colin wrote a thorough and well thought out response.
I wrote this:
In my case, I help others succeed, even if they become my competition, because my INTEGRITY and CHARACTER depend on it. If I'm more concerned with making money than I am with helping people then I don't deserve the... continue reading >>

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