Real Estate Investing - Maximum Leveraging of Your Money

At this moment, you have access to some amount of money, from the extremes of only pocket change to the reserves of Bill Gates or Warren Buffet.

Suppose you want to invest your funds into some vehicle that will multiply the return.

You look around for the Return on Investment of various investment instruments. For every investment tool, varying deposit amounts of your funds are required. You must either put up your cash or guarantee payment from specified resources.

Real estate investing offers the maximum leverage potential possible for your funds.

I found a large house for sale 25 years ago. It was listed for $150,000, but had been on the market for an extended period of time because of its large size with an awkward layout. But when I walked through the house for the first time, I immediately envisioned how the layout was conducive to three living units instead of the single family home as it was constructed. I offered $10,000 down payment for the house for a reduced sales price of $100,000, and my offer was accepted. The upscale house is now worth $500,000 and has been refinanced numerous times to pull out cash. Yet, the three units have consistently returned a cash flow of much more than the mortgage payment for 25 years. Leverage from the $10,000 down payment is astronomical.

But leverage available from real estate investing gets even better.

I started a practice years ago of submitting zero down purchase offers to motivated sellers with a $10 earnest money deposit. I bought $1 million in houses during my first year of real estate investing. I bought another $1 million in property the next year, and $10 million worth of properties by the 4th year. Yet, all of these purchases were made without any cash down payment and only $10 in earnest money deposits. (Even the $10 was in the form of a check attached to the Purchase Contract, and seldom even cashed by the Seller!)

But the real estate investing professional can take leverage even another step.

The earnest money deposit check for $10 could be equally legal as a check for just $1.

And in most states, so I'm told by my friends who are experts in legalese, a verbal agreement is just as binding as one accompanied with cash or check. Now that's leverage!

Don't let 'em tell you that buying real estate investments without cash or credit is impossible. My first four years of buying $10 million in properties for zero down is proof that prompted an editorial in the Wall St. Journal featuring my real estate investing. And I have packaged that information in a huge Guide for the would-be and veteran real estate investing professional.

Phil Speer, Ph.D., started his real estate investing career 25 years ago. Without the availability of credit and using only a $10 bill, he purchased $1 million in properties in his first year, and had accumulated $10 million in properties by his fourth year. He was featured in a Wall St.Journal editorial as most successful investor in the Nothing Down Real Estate Movement, and was honored with a Caribbean cruise as top investor of the year. In his hometown of Nashville, Tennessee, he has been a businessman and Human Resources Consultant for 30 years. He is an author, speaker and seminar director. To learn how to profit in real estate investing, even without cash or credit, read his report at http://www.CashinHouses.com/. Subscription is free to his Fix-up Ezine. He and other contributing authors provide free articles and resources on real estate investing at his online "Academy of Advanced Real Estate Investing Techniques" - http://www.AAREIT.com.

More than 40 states signed onto a proposed $25-billion deal with major mortgage servicers over faulty foreclosure practices. New York, Nevada and Delaware joined California in holding out for better terms.

More than 40 states signed onto a proposed $25-billion settlement with major mortgage servicers over faulty foreclosure procedures, but California, New York and other key states were still not among them.

California has until Monday to share in a multi-state deal with banks to obtain mortgage relief and reforms. Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris, who walked away from talks last year, says the door remains open.

With a Monday deadline at hand, California officials have resumed direct talks with the Obama administration about joining a multibillion-dollar, multi-state mortgage settlement with the nation's largest banks, a source said Sunday.

The talk show host pays $12 million for the 4,088-square-foot house with four bedrooms and four bathrooms. The ocean-view home sits on 1.26 bluff-top acres with beach access.

In one of the more talked-about transactions in town, actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have sold their Malibu beach house to daytime host and comedian Ellen De Generes for $12 million.

The four-bedroom, five-bathroom house built in 1920 for industrialist James Wigmore lists for $2,875,000.

A decorative cast stone entrance opens to this restored Spanish Colonial Revival-style house in Pasadena's South Orange Grove area. Built in 1920 for industrialist James Wigmore, the house retains such original details as coffered wood ceilings and arched doorways.

They don't believe they can sell their property for what it's worth, so they're spending money on making their homes more comfortable.

Do you fit any of these descriptions?

A biennial research report by the National Assn. of Realtors indicates that a handful of real estate agents and brokers and their clients either don't know the law or don't care to follow it.

When it comes to lawsuits, real estate agents and brokers tangle mostly among themselves.

The president aims to help about 3.5 million people with good credit who are unable to refinance at historically low rates because their homes are worth less than their mortgages.

 

The White House hopes to help millions of homeowners lower their monthly mortgage bill with a $5 billion to $10 billion plan to set up a streamlined refinancing program for people who are current on their payments.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index of 20 large U.S. cities fell 1.3% in November from October as foreclosures continue to drag down the housing market.

Three straight months of home-price declines in the biggest U.S. cities showed that foreclosures remain a significant drag on a housing market that is entering its fifth year of deterioration.

L.A. Clipper Chris Paul may be quick down the court, but he moves pretty fast when it comes to buying multimillion-dollar real estate too.