Real Estate Investing Contracts on Toilet Paper

Even if your real estate contract has been written on toilet paper, it's valid.

Content of your real estate investing contract is what's important.

Your financial destiny in real estate investing is sealed BEFORE you walk into a real estate closing as a buyer. You have set inconcrete your profit (or loss) before you turn the door knob to enter the office of your attorney or title company at closing. The payoff of the transaction under anticipation is predetermined when the contract is signed between you as the buyer and the other party who is the seller.

The interpretation of these cold, hard words is that you must recognize the importance of the real estate contract that ties together the property transaction. Your contract contains implications for determining profits in advance.

When we strike a deal in real estate investing, we usually just reach for some pre-printed contract form that came from a real estate office or stationary store. We usually forfeit many of our closing rights to some stranger who put together traditional jargon and processes without recognizing that we ourselves have the right to charter this course. Subjecting ourselves to legalese of an attorney who may not even be a real estate investor nor own more than his own home is the pattern followed by most who purchase and sell real estate.

The first order of business in writing contracts is understanding that any sale or purchase of property is negotiable. While the payment of certain closing costs may be customary or traditional for the buyer and the seller, we are not bound by this protocol. Without differing specification in your contract to dictate your personal direction, the closing agent simply resorts to customary convention.

But by understanding your rights as buyer or seller of real estate property, you can actually INCREASE your profits on a transaction by the wording of your contract. However, these settlement terms must be in writing on your contract in advance of the closing. Otherwise, potential profits fly out the window.

One of the most euphoric feelings I have ever experienced in this business of real estate investing was walking out of a closing with a check payable to me for $75,000 on a package of a few cheap real estate properties! As with anyone, I had a use for that cash! But those profits were dictated on my special personal contract in advance of closing.

Much more cash at closing is available to real estate investors who take control of the options available by independently choosing wording in the content of their own purchase contract and sales contract. This choice is readily available to the real estate investing professional who understands these rights and applies them in the construction of a personal contract.

The suggestion in this article is not legal advice but encouragement to take advantage of an opportunity available in real estate investing. This suggestion is not encouragement to become greedy with legal rights but to give notification that negotiation is available over the dictates of closing costs. Sometimes transactions are profitable only when these considerations are understood.

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. http://www.CashinHouses.com/ 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.RealEstate-Investing.net/business/flipping.html/ 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" at 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.