Real estate investing is a very rewarding business to be in. Whether you are interested in short term deals like flipping houses, or prefer long term cash flow properties, there is real potential to make a good living.
At Zulianet we look at various topics surrounding the business of real estate investing. Written by real estate professionals and based on our experiences with clients, we strive to reveal the information that can help you take your real estate investing business to the next level. While our real estate experience has been mostly in California, our lessons and information can be applied to real estate investing regardless of the location.
If you are investing in real estate, chances are that at some point in your career you will be in need of financing. We look at options, from house flipping financing to long term commercial and multi-unit financing. One of the benefits of real estate investing is the ability to leverage your money. This leverage allows you to take advantage of other people’s money in a manner where you can make larger profits than you could with many other investment opportunities.
Hard money is currently the choice of many real estate investors who are in need of financing. Those looking to get into the real estate investing business, however, are at a disadvantage. Hard money is hard to find if you don’t know where to look. In particular, niche hard money programs can be tough to find unless you have spent years cultivating relationships and a large network of investors to call upon. We explore the options available and look at specific solutions to help you locate money that often times only seasoned real estate investors can find.
In addition to hard money financing, gap funding can go one step further. While hard money lenders are going to want you to have some ‘skin in the game’ (essentially cash in the deal), gap funding is a type of funding that will basically fund the gap between what a hard money lender is willing to finance and the total cash needed to complete a project. The upside to using this type of financing is that you can leverage more of your own money (and even potentially do complete deals with little to no money of your own tied up), but the down side is that this type of financing can be even more expensive than hard money. We explore the various pros and cons associated with gap funding as well.
Getting the right properties under the right contract for the right price is another barrier of entry to investors. Even those who have been in the business for some time can always use more information on just how to close a seller, work with a bank or find the tape from the REO asset managers. We also look at what you should look for in an agent, where you might find properties and how to get them under contract at a price point that allows you to make a profit.
Real estate investing for the short term also requires additional team members. For those doing fix and flip transactions, having a contractor you can depend on is a big deal. In addition, getting inspections done upfront and learning what types of repairs can potentially end up causing major overruns in your budget is very important. We cover all this and more with the goal of helping our readers become more well informed real estate investors.
Bookmark us today and come back often. We are updating our posts regularly, and strive to keep our readers informed of the most current information, trends and financing available. Good luck!