tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170007672007-09-21T23:57:29.021-07:00Sam I AmBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17000767.post-55685278550714737502007-09-22T00:57:00.000-07:002007-09-21T23:57:29.415-07:00

The person who offered me $250,000 to buy my house, immediately changed their offer to $225,000 when I told them I would accept their $250k offer.And I am sure if I had accepted the $225k offer their offer would have then dropped to a $200k offer. This happens a lot when dealing with buyers, at first it used to bother me, after a while you get to a point where you expect it and then don't really

Sam I Amtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17000767.post-44463550530990032762007-09-18T21:32:00.000-07:002007-09-18T20:32:56.938-07:00

The word add-on stopped working, but now I have figured out how to publish to Blogger by email. So it is a few extra steps and I lose all the formatting, so it is less than idea, but I am able to publish posts this way and it sort of works.I type them up and then email them to blogger and they are added to the blog.This gets around the problems of posting online, and it also gives me a back up

Sam I Amtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17000767.post-1171923451348598272007-02-19T14:17:00.000-08:002007-02-19T14:17:31.393-08:00

Who will buy all that real estate?Lately I have had several different people ask me what I think real estate is going to do in the future. If you look back at the prices of houses in Sacramento, since before 1900 there has been a 10 to 12 year cycle in the prices.The prices go up then peak, then pull back for a year or two then level out and get ready for the next cycle.The last couple years we

Sam I Amtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17000767.post-1168494224360382902007-01-10T21:43:00.000-08:002007-01-10T21:43:44.410-08:00

A couple weeks ago I went to the starlight and played some poker, I ended up winning just over $100.00 in around 2 and a half hours.I was just thinking that the reason that I won that money was very simple, over the last year I have learned the rules of playing poker, and I was playing with people who had less skill than I do at playing poker, and many of them were there for a different reason

Sam I Amtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17000767.post-1168485598930773212007-01-10T19:19:00.000-08:002007-01-12T01:48:40.540-08:00

Title Company Customer Service Departments You will be dealing with these people a lot, they have a lot of information you need. I found one title company that would answer emails, so I could email as many requests and then they would email me back the copies of the documents that I needed and I could print them out. This worked very well, and they did not seem to mind how many requests I put

Sam I Amtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17000767.post-1168321814341022882007-01-08T21:50:00.000-08:002007-01-08T21:50:14.376-08:00

Usually when I knock on someone door and ask them about the loan they haven’t been making payments on, I usually like to get to the point within the first minute.  I don’t want to spend a lot of time only to find out that they won’t talk about their loan, I would rather spend that time looking for someone else who is interested in talking about the loan they can’t pay.Some people are worried

Sam I Amtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17000767.post-1168319099863572782007-01-08T21:04:00.000-08:002007-01-08T21:04:59.896-08:00

You want to always make sure you have certain things when you go to look at houses.Make sure you have a note pad and some pens, I like the bic pens that you can buy 10 in a package if you lose one it’s no big deal, just grab another one. You will lose your note pads too, so keep some extra ones. When looking at defaulted properties, people will answer their door then say something like I will

Sam I Amtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17000767.post-1168315405663078082007-01-08T20:03:00.000-08:002007-01-08T20:03:25.670-08:00

When your starting out I think it’s best to stay away from the houses that are going to sale at the court house steps, just because it take a lot of time and energy to keep up with all the sales.It really is a full time job for at least 2 people, and if you pick out a few of the sales and try to get luck and hit one it seems that you will always go after the wrong one.The amount of work involved

Sam I Amtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17000767.post-1168313597901773502007-01-08T19:33:00.000-08:002007-01-08T19:33:17.940-08:00

I just had someone ask me about one of those seminar guys who was saying that you could make $10,000 with a couple hours work, or they bought a house for $500 and sold it the next day for $100,000.These things are true, but they are very misleading. The reason is that they lead you to believe that anyone can do this, and I guess even that is sort of true. In the sense that anyone can buy a lotto

Sam I Amtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17000767.post-1168164783272035602007-01-07T02:13:00.000-08:002007-01-07T02:13:03.280-08:00

When I got started in the Real Estate business I had someone who took the time to train me.  We worked together for many years, then throughout the years I have worked with several other partners.I have done my best when I was working with other people who are kind of like minded, and we were able to motivate each other.Usually one person will do better if they have a specialty and they

Sam I Amtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17000767.post-1168164145633073482007-01-07T02:02:00.000-08:002007-01-07T02:02:25.633-08:00

When you start out in the Real Estate business, it will take you some time to learn how to be more efficient.If you look at a house and then drive around the neighborhood and look at some similar houses for sale, maybe call a few agents to see what they are asking for their houses.This all takes time, it’s easy to spend a couple hours looking at one house, you may not average 1 or 2 houses per

Sam I Amtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17000767.post-1168163540513691162007-01-07T01:52:00.000-08:002007-01-07T01:52:20.516-08:00

If you talk to enough people then eventually you just get lucky. I have found the harder you work the luckier you get. But the bottom line is to close a deal with a large chunk of equity in it is a lot of luck.A friend of mine was at lake Tahoe, he liked the lake and one day ran into an older woman and happen to ask her if she would like to sell her house. This house was sitting right on the lake

Sam I Amtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17000767.post-1168162201600529162007-01-07T01:30:00.000-08:002007-01-07T01:30:01.693-08:00

When you’re just starting out one of the things you need to keep in mind is the time to buy a house.If you’re looking at buying a foreclosure before it goes to sale, there is quite a bit of work to be done.  You must find an owner who is willing to sell their home, and work out a deal with them.Determine the Market value of the home and how long it would take you to sell it.Contact the lender and

Sam I Amtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17000767.post-1167472009151792692006-12-30T01:46:00.000-08:002006-12-30T01:46:49.200-08:00

Just finished watching one of those late night shows on cable. The ones where they try to sell you their real estate package by telling you how easy it is to make money buying real estate.This one was on county tax sales. You can buy 100,000 dollar homes for $235.00.  This is true, but it’s not quite as easy as it seems at first.I have tried this method, and while you can make money at it, there

Sam I Amtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17000767.post-1167470422326463822006-12-30T01:20:00.000-08:002006-12-30T01:20:22.376-08:00

If you do enough deals then you eventually get one that really works for you.  If you’re working and buying 1 or 2 houses a month, then about once a year you will come across a deal that just turns out to be a gold mine.I have worked with a lot of partners over the years, because at different times I have found people who complemented my skill set and motivation at the time.When I started out I

Sam I Amtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17000767.post-1167015523227006822006-12-11T18:58:00.000-08:002006-12-25T19:45:30.373-08:00

I just realized that I never did finish my Real Estate example with Bob. I told Bob to go to the recorder office and look up all the defaulted properties (properties where people are not making their loan payments) Then go out and knock on the doors of these houses and ask the people if they were interested in selling their house. I went to maybe 20 houses with Bob and kind of showed him how

Sam I Amtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17000767.post-1167021218381938302006-11-24T20:33:00.000-08:002006-12-24T20:34:17.666-08:00

One of the biggest deals that I could have done, was on an apartment complex. I found a bank that had made a loan for 1,800,000.00 Then the owner had stopped making payments and the bank foreclosed and took the property back from him. I called the bank and asked them if they would sell the apartment complex to me for $350,000.00 The banker said that I had to give them all my credit

Sam I Amtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17000767.post-1167171144090802142006-10-26T14:12:00.000-07:002006-12-26T14:13:08.803-08:00

When you’re selling a house, you don’t have to be a great salesman, but there are a couple of things that you need to know. The main thing you need to do is figure out very quickly who is a real buyer and who is a lookie-loo. You can waste a lot of time on people who have no interest in buying your house and this will take away from the time you could have spent on someone who was a serious

Sam I Amtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17000767.post-1167104588803671572006-09-25T19:43:00.000-07:002006-12-25T19:44:39.043-08:00

One really good thing about the real estate business is that you have a lot of options and a lot of different ways to do things. You can always learn something new and try things a different way. The different ways that have worked out well for me buying houses: foreclosures boarded up houses buying properties in probate bank REO properties buying before the foreclosure sale buying in default

Sam I Amtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17000767.post-1167020137706218822006-08-24T20:15:00.000-07:002006-12-25T19:45:04.386-08:00

When you live in an area where property values are rising a lot of time people from other areas don’t think about this. They get locked into what they think about real estate in their area and a lot of times don’t give it much thought. I was talking to a guy who was not making his payments a couple weeks before his house was going up for sale. He had a loan for $125,000 and a few years ago

Sam I Amtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17000767.post-1139175781627722892006-02-05T13:43:00.000-08:002006-08-12T17:19:58.406-07:00

If you've ever had insomnia and watched late night television you may have seen the infomercials telling you that you can buy real estate with no money down. But can you really purchase investment property without having any cash? The answer is, "yes!".Anyone can purchase property without having any cash, but it's not nearly as easy as the gurus proclaim. Can you do it even if you have bad credit

Sam I Amtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17000767.post-1134637546016729342005-12-15T01:05:00.000-08:002005-12-15T01:05:46.046-08:00

Donald Trump Sued by Real Estate BrokersBy SAMUEL MAULLAssociated Press WriterDecember 14, 2005NEW YORK -- Donald Trump faces a lawsuit by three real estate brokers who say he still owes them $1.3 million from the profitable sale of land and apartments he owned in Manhattan.The lawsuit centers on Trump's sale of 77 acres of riverfront and three buildings to the Extell Development Corp. and the

Sam I Amtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17000767.post-1134349648673844792005-12-11T17:07:00.000-08:002005-12-11T17:07:28.776-08:00

In a previous post I said that I explained to someone how to buy and sell a property, and they made a profit of $24,000 following my instructions.Today I was looking around on the internet and found a site that sounded interesting, with step by step guide to buying real estate.  The steps were:buy a housefix it upsell itI thought this was kind of obvious that person didn’t know much about real

Sam I Amtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17000767.post-1134346251212610602005-12-11T16:10:00.000-08:002005-12-11T16:10:51.283-08:00

If you want great rents, tough neighborhoods are the place to be.This is one of the problems with the real estate business.  Almost all the great rents are made in the really tough neighborhoods.Why is this a problem?  Well your tenants sometimes get shot and then can’t pay the rent.I had one house and the husband and wife kept getting arrested.  This worked out fine for about 2 years, as soon as

Sam I Amtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17000767.post-1133945887346556222005-12-07T00:58:00.000-08:002005-12-07T00:58:07.573-08:00

This is kind of interesting that people are using blogs to sell real estate.  I have not had that much success with advertising online when selling houses, but I think it will become more and more popular.By Tara Siegel BernardFrom Dow Jones NewswiresSome home sellers are turning to Web logs, or blogs, to make their properties stand out among traditional real-estate listings.When Mesha Provo, an

Sam I Am