Today we are discussing a somewhat advanced strategy for you to use after you have been in the creative real estate investing business for a while. I call this “Rehab, Refinance, and Cash Out”. This Identity theft has become the fastest growing criminal activity in the 20th Century, replacing illegal drug sales. For the perpetrators, it offers the highest profit margin with the least risk. In fact, according to one expert, it is estimated that fewer than 1-in-700-identity crimes actually result in a conviction.
In the United States alone, Identity theft has reached $53 billion dollars a year. Consumers are directly shouldering about $5 billion of that, but the rest, which is paid by businesses and retailers, is passed on indirectly to consumers who are paying more for goods and services.
How BIG is this Problem?
In recent months, there has been a rash of reports about big thefts, where criminals are stealing identities in mass quantities. Banks, credit card companies and businesses that house servers storing passwords or other sensitive, private information have all reported “break-ins” that happened through the use of Trojan viruses and other online hacking methods – resulting in the loss of millions of pieces of information being stolen. There have also been instances of the information just getting “lost”, of employees selling it and other lax security measures resulting in the same thing – thieves having access to your identity.
What do Thieves Want?
- Your Name - Date of Birth - Home Address - Phone Numbers - Social Security Number - Driver’s License Number - Credit Card Numbers - CW2 Security Code (the number on the back of your credit card) - Your Credit Report - ATM Cards - Telephone Calling Cards - Mortgage Details
Where Are They Getting All Your Information?
High-tech methods include online thefts from:
- Banks - Credit-Reference Agencies - Retailers - Credit Card Networks - Data-Brokerage Companies - Payment Processing Companies - Phone Companies - Schools - Your Employer - Doctors, Clinics and Health Departments - Government Agencies
But there are still low-tech methods that are effective as well:
- Dumpster Diving - Mail Theft - Retail Theft - “Phishing”/pretexting/pretending - Purse/Wallet Theft
What are Thieves Using Your Information For?
- Making charges to your existing credit cards - Opening new credit cards in your name - Having phone or utilities turned on - Withdrawing money from your existing bank accounts - Employment purposes - Driver’s Licenses - Tax Fraud - Social Service benefits - Student loans - Business or Personal loans - Health care - Mortgage loans/leases - Auto loans - Using your ID when caught committing a crime
How Can You Protect Yourself?
- Keep a photocopy of all your credit cards, bank account numbers and investment account numbers in a safe place - Keep your credit card receipts – don’t throw them away in a public place - Put a “fraud alert” on all your credit reports - If you apply for credit and the card doesn’t arrive on time, call the card issuer - Choose difficult to guess PIN numbers or passwords. (Don’t use birth dates, your mother’s maiden name, pet’s name, etc.) - Never give personal information to anyone who sends you an email, a letter or calls you asking for it - Shred any personal information – such as bills, credit card or bank statements, even pre-approved credit applications before throwing them away - Don’t use the ATM machine if someone is watching you - Pay attention to what’s going on around you – cell phones often have cameras in them. If someone is standing close by you with a cell phone while you're entering a PIN number at the ATM or in line at the grocery store, block their view - Review your bills each month for unusual or suspicious charges. If there’s something you don’t remember or doesn’t seem right, call the creditor right away - Check your credit report at least once a year - Store your cancelled checks safely, or better yet, have the bank do it. You can always get a copy if you need one. - Don’t leave your purse in plain sight when driving - Keep your valuable locked in the trunk or glove box when driving - Make all personal information on your laptop or computer password protected - Don’t carry information about your PIN numbers, passwords and account numbers in your purse or wallet; or at least don’t make them easily identifiable as to which account they belong to
Warning Signs that Your Identity Has Been Stolen:
- Although you have good credit, a loan application is denied, or you’re refused extended credit requests - You are suddenly contacted by a debt-collection agency - Your purse or wallet has been stolen, or your house broken into - There is unfamiliar activity on your credit report
What to do if it Happens to You:
- If your purse or wallet is stolen, call the police immediately, and file a report. Make sure that you’re given a report number - Contact your bank, credit card and other credit extending companies and report the theft - Close the accounts - Contact the credit-reporting companies in your area, and report the theft. - Review your credit report every 90 days for the next year for suspicious activity - If there is fraudulent activity, have it removed immediately and monitor your credit report every 90 days for the next year - Put everything in writing, and follow up with your credit card companies, banks, and credit reporting agencies. Keep copies of all supporting documents - File a report with the Federal Trade Commission - Change the passwords on your existing accounts and create new ones for new accounts
Identity theft is real, and it’s a growing problem, and it could happen to you. Although there are no guarantees that you can keep your information safe, by paying attention to the risks and taking proactive steps to protect yourself, you can minimize your chances of someday having an “identity crisis”. Good luck!
David Neese is a real estate investing author who offers a free course for real estate investors delivered by email, audio and teleseminar which you can get for free at: http://www.freerealestateinvestingcourses.com/ You can find more information about David at http://www.digitalsuccesscoach.com/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Neese
Additstrategy can lead to true long term wealth and financial independence. This works very well in a buyers market like Memphis where prices have been quite flat for some time. You need to use this to augment your wholesaling for immediaIdentity theft has become the fastest growing criminal activity in the 20th Century, replacing illegal drug sales. For the perpetrators, it offers the highest profit margin with the least risk. In fact, according to one expert, it is estimated that fewer than 1-in-700-identity crimes actually result in a conviction.
In the United States alone, Identity theft has reached $53 billion dollars a year. Consumers are directly shouldering about $5 billion of that, but the rest, which is paid by businesses and retailers, is passed on indirectly to consumers who are paying more for goods and services.
How BIG is this Problem?
In recent months, there has been a rash of reports about big thefts, where criminals are stealing identities in mass quantities. Banks, credit card companies and businesses that house servers storing passwords or other sensitive, private information have all reported “break-ins” that happened through the use of Trojan viruses and other online hacking methods – resulting in the loss of millions of pieces of information being stolen. There have also been instances of the information just getting “lost”, of employees selling it and other lax security measures resulting in the same thing – thieves having access to your identity.
What do Thieves Want?
- Your Name - Date of Birth - Home Address - Phone Numbers - Social Security Number - Driver’s License Number - Credit Card Numbers - CW2 Security Code (the number on the back of your credit card) - Your Credit Report - ATM Cards - Telephone Calling Cards - Mortgage Details
Where Are They Getting All Your Information?
High-tech methods include online thefts from:
- Banks - Credit-Reference Agencies - Retailers - Credit Card Networks - Data-Brokerage Companies - Payment Processing Companies - Phone Companies - Schools - Your Employer - Doctors, Clinics and Health Departments - Government Agencies
But there are still low-tech methods that are effective as well:
- Dumpster Diving - Mail Theft - Retail Theft - “Phishing”/pretexting/pretending - Purse/Wallet Theft
What are Thieves Using Your Information For?
- Making charges to your existing credit cards - Opening new credit cards in your name - Having phone or utilities turned on - Withdrawing money from your existing bank accounts - Employment purposes - Driver’s Licenses - Tax Fraud - Social Service benefits - Student loans - Business or Personal loans - Health care - Mortgage loans/leases - Auto loans - Using your ID when caught committing a crime
How Can You Protect Yourself?
- Keep a photocopy of all your credit cards, bank account numbers and investment account numbers in a safe place - Keep your credit card receipts – don’t throw them away in a public place - Put a “fraud alert” on all your credit reports - If you apply for credit and the card doesn’t arrive on time, call the card issuer - Choose difficult to guess PIN numbers or passwords. (Don’t use birth dates, your mother’s maiden name, pet’s name, etc.) - Never give personal information to anyone who sends you an email, a letter or calls you asking for it - Shred any personal information – such as bills, credit card or bank statements, even pre-approved credit applications before throwing them away - Don’t use the ATM machine if someone is watching you - Pay attention to what’s going on around you – cell phones often have cameras in them. If someone is standing close by you with a cell phone while you're entering a PIN number at the ATM or in line at the grocery store, block their view - Review your bills each month for unusual or suspicious charges. If there’s something you don’t remember or doesn’t seem right, call the creditor right away - Check your credit report at least once a year - Store your cancelled checks safely, or better yet, have the bank do it. You can always get a copy if you need one. - Don’t leave your purse in plain sight when driving - Keep your valuable locked in the trunk or glove box when driving - Make all personal information on your laptop or computer password protected - Don’t carry information about your PIN numbers, passwords and account numbers in your purse or wallet; or at least don’t make them easily identifiable as to which account they belong to
Warning Signs that Your Identity Has Been Stolen:
- Although you have good credit, a loan application is denied, or you’re refused extended credit requests - You are suddenly contacted by a debt-collection agency - Your purse or wallet has been stolen, or your house broken into - There is unfamiliar activity on your credit report
What to do if it Happens to You:
- If your purse or wallet is stolen, call the police immediately, and file a report. Make sure that you’re given a report number - Contact your bank, credit card and other credit extending companies and report the theft - Close the accounts - Contact the credit-reporting companies in your area, and report the theft. - Review your credit report every 90 days for the next year for suspicious activity - If there is fraudulent activity, have it removed immediately and monitor your credit report every 90 days for the next year - Put everything in writing, and follow up with your credit card companies, banks, and credit reporting agencies. Keep copies of all supporting documents - File a report with the Federal Trade Commission - Change the passwords on your existing accounts and create new ones for new accounts
Identity theft is real, and it’s a growing problem, and it could happen to you. Although there are no guarantees that you can keep your information safe, by paying attention to the risks and taking proactive steps to protect yourself, you can minimize your chances of someday having an “identity crisis”. Good luck!
David Neese is a real estate investing author who offers a free course for real estate investors delivered by email, audio and teleseminar which you can get for free at: http://www.freerealestateinvestingcourses.com/ You can find more information about David at http://www.digitalsuccesscoach.com/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Neese
Additte income and retailing for bigger short term profits. Rehab, Refinance and Cash Out is a long term wealth building strategy and will be something you will be glad you did as it is a long term buy and hold strategy, and those are the strategies that lead to true wealth accumulation and financial independence.
Let me explain how this works. You find a good middle to low end 3 bedroom home that you are able to buy from an out of state owner or other motivated seller that needs a little work and you buy at 60% of after repaired value. You buy the house using a hard money lender like http://www.pleaseclose.com/memphistrading and do your fix up and have a property management firm manage the property and put a renter in the house. The hard money lender will typically loan you up to 65% of the after repaired value to purchase the house which you use to buy the house and then repair it. Now that the home is repaired you obtain an investor friendly mortgage and cash out by refinancing at 80-90% of after repaired retail value and you should be doing this with properties where this strategy gives you back at least $10,000 at the refinance that you can use in your business any way you need. Do not use this money to live on, use it solely to grow your real estate business. Once you have done this strategy on 10 homes you should be able to keep finding better and better deals because you can close quickly as you have cash in hand to make things happen. More cash equals better deals and more opportunities.
By the time you repeat this strategy 20 times you should have at least $200,000 cash plus about $200,000 equity and 20 homes giving you at least $2000 per month positive cash flow whether you decide to work this month or not since you have a property management company handling things for you. With average annual rent increases, within five years that $2,000 a month should grow to $4,000 a month. In 30 years you should have $2 to 3 million plus in paid off real estate. It’s a good solid long term strategy to add to your immediate selling from wholesaling, retailing and lease options that the extra $200,000 in cash will help grow tremendously.
The rent minus the management fees and all loan and other costs must leave you with positive cash flow or this strategy should be avoided. If you cannot cash out on the property I don’t recommend holding it long term as you want to be able to use your best mortgages to cash out.
You can purchase using http://www.pleaseclose.com/memphistrading if your Equifax credit score is above 550(which is bad credit) or you have a co-borrower who has an Equifax score over 550. A good investor friendly mortgage company will give you good rates if you are at 660 middle score or above and the very best rates if your middle score is 720 or above. Your first 10 investor mortgages in your name and 10 in your spouses name are the easiest to qualify and get the best deals. After those you really need a good investor mortgage company to work with. Take the time to find the real investor friendly mortgage companies that can help you get loans for 100 properties and not just the first ten and let them have the easy ones and the tougher ones. I do recommend having more than one good lender available though, but stick to the ones that specialize in investor loans. Find out from other investors who the most investor friendly mortgage companies are to use to refinance the repaired home.
I do not advocate becoming a landlord as I do not believe this is a valuable usage of your time and energy. I highly recommend asking around and finding a good property management company that will charge you 10% or less to start out with and gradually lower that % as you add more and more properties.
I feel this is an advanced strategy as you won’t see any cash in your pocket from this strategy for 4-6 months after you find the deal which is a long time to work and not see any pay. If you are wholesaling and making consistent money each month then it shouldn’t matter. This strategy will magnify the profits you make in your investing business in ways you might not have imagined. This strategy is a natural progression from wholesaling as you are already helping others find these kinds of deals, now you will be able to get the cash out typical of probably 2 wholesale deals, just paid slower, and at the same time building a nice future nest egg.
David Neese is a real estate investing author who offers a free course for real estate investors delivered by email, audio and teleseminar which you can get for free at: http://www.freerealestateinvestingcourses.com/ You can find more information about David at http://www.digitalsuccesscoach.com/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Neese