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Real Estate Articles By Robb Beltran
Bubble Schmubble, Real Estate Investing for Now and Forever
How Valuable is Your Time? Rebuilding New Orleans
Bubble Schmubble, Real Estate Investing for Now and Forever
By Robb Beltran
The real estate world is still being bombarded with the luminous thought of the real estate bubble bursting or popping or whatever it’s supposed to be doing. High priced markets and hot areas like Miami, Las Vegas and Phoenix have certainly seen a recent decline in pre-construction and condo flips but investors haven’t left town just yet and if they have let me know because I’ll be there on the next flight.
New investors don’t have to be afraid of the bubble hype; they simply need to understand that real estate investing is about strategy and education. The right strategy will push you though any bubble or market. You simply need to educate yourself on what strategy is going to work for you. One of the big factors you should always remember when investing is that you make your money when you buy, not when you sell. Taking a gamble on a hot new market and its appreciation is just that, a gamble. If you buy a property at 30-50% below after repair value or fair market value today, your investment and return will only grow from there. You don’t have to wait for the appreciation. It’s already there. If the market grows in value, that’s just a bonus. If you’re a flipper and your worried about the potential bubble, then it’s time to change up your strategy. Now may be its time to find a tenant buyer or renter. In these markets, the key is to have someone else paying down your mortgage while you are building equity and even earning some positive cash flow.
As the interest rate continues its climb up again more and more people are going to find themselves in trouble. Those who took advantage of the adjustable mortgage rate that was a deal a few years ago will soon be looking for a way out. Renters looking for their first home will now have to wait a little longer unless you are ready and able to help them.
I believe the so called bubble markets are soon going to be a virtual candy store for the savvy investor looking to take advantage of the worried investor or homeowner looking to dump their investment for something better.
Almost every late night real estate guru preaches the key to making money in real estate is finding a “motivated seller.” In these markets people are going to find themselves more and more motivated as time goes by. Divorce, bankruptcy and death show no bias so be ready. If you want to stay in the investing game, stay on course, buy low and smart and rise above the bubble hype to stay educated on all the different ways to truly make money in real estate investing and wealth building.
Robb Beltran is an active real estate investor and publisher of the Real Estate Info Network. The Real Estate Info Network promotes real estate education through real estate seminars, e-books and real estate investing courses.
www.realestateinfonetwork.com
www.belstarproperties.com
How Valuable is Your Time? Rebuilding New Orleans
By Robb Beltran
Time is money. We’ve all heard that and in real estate investing it couldn’t be truer. Rehabbers depend on time or the lack there of to make their money. The more time they sit on a property, the less they make. Long-term real estate investors hold property for one or more years to cash in on appreciation and they make their money when their tenants pay the rent on time. How valuable is time though?
It’s been said that money can buy a watch, but it can’t buy more time.
On a recent trip to New Orleans I learned that time itself appears to be more valuable than money in the Big Easy these days.
In partnership with volunteers from Dubuque Iowa and Catholic Charities of New Orleans Operation Helping Hands (www.catholiccharities-no.org), Belstar Properties spent time, not money in New Orleans. It has been almost one year since hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, but it looks as though it could have been yesterday.
Waist high in debris and battling humid temperatures in the hundreds we were volunteering where money could not be found.
Hundreds of thousands of New Orleans residents simply cannot afford to pay to clean out their houses and rebuild. Money from donations help of course, but it is the time of thousands of volunteers and workers that are truly the most valuable asset in New Orleans right now.
In nine days our group of nine volunteers completely cleaned out the debris and gutted two properties. One off them was a duplex in central New Orleans. Two properties may not seem like much when there are still 140 thousand still uninhabitable, but for the residents of those homes our time was as good as gold.
William Smith, the owner of one of the homes we worked on was thankful for the donations given to him by Operation Helping Hands, but he didn’t thank us for those. Surrounded by his family and teary eyed, he thanked us for our time. “I can’t believe you all took time out your lives to come down and help us,” he said over and over. “Thank you.”
It was those two words that made my time down there worth it. I could have used those nine days to make more offers or rehab another house, but for me so far this time has given me the biggest return of any investment I have ever made.
There are still thousands of residents waiting for their time to get their lives back on track. Their time will come when more volunteers can donate more time to help and continue helping to rebuild New Orleans. As real estate investors we know there is a lot of money to be made in real estate and we always seem to make the time for the next deal. The question to ask yourself though is how valuable is your time and can it be used, even for a little while, for a greater good?
If you can’t take the time to go down to New Orleans yourself, I urge you to continue your donations to programs like Operation Helping Hands, www.catholiccharities-no.org so that others can.
Robb Beltran is an active real estate investor and publisher of the Real Estate Info Network. The Real Estate Info Network promotes real estate education through real estate seminars, e-books and real estate investing courses.
www.realestateinfonetwork.com
www.belstarproperties.com
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