In Real Estate “Time” is a Wealth Development Tool

From The Desk Of Colm Dillon

Hello, Colm here …

In this report I use figures from my area of the world … I know they don’t apply all over the world, but they should encourage you to get the figures for yourself.

After all no report is going to make your money grow … it’s the knowledge you gain and “Your Application Of The Knowledge” that makes your financial wealth Grow.

In another report I gave you a concept I borrowed from Phil Ruthven, a truly wonderful speaker on economics, on how he looks at Home Ownership.

Now I want to look at the Tools we have available to help us Grow!real estate wealth,

So folks, if you want Real Estate Development, you must use all the tools available to you to get some. Of all the tools you have, the single most important one is TIME.real estate wealth,

1. Time is your greatest friend. Time to buy good investment property and let it double in value every 8 to 10 years or better.real estate wealth,

2. Federal Government Real Estate Investment Tax Deductions are another tool the Government uses to tell you in Words Dollars and Cents that they want you to get wealthy so you can look after yourself to your final days. real estate wealth,

3. Correct Financial tools are also vital to your wealth development. See my report of Finance. I will go into some further detail in this section on the use of Evergreen Lines of Credit and how they work.

4. Good Real Estate Management is the next tool. Well-managed and well-maintained real estate investments, that houses good quality tenants is also essential. Trying to do this work yourself, is a mistake. See my report on Property Management. real estate wealth,

In Australia, it has been instilled in our consciousness, that we must all own our own home. And there is nothing wrong with the concept. It’s just that we should have been told to rent it out; Don’t live in it.

By buying a house TO LIVE IN, while we are young, we are wasting the wealth creating tools of Time, Double Income, (if married) Property Income and Tax Deductions. No wonder so many people have to play catch up later in life. real estate wealth,

So the first clue to Real Estate Wealth Development is don’t buy a residential property for you and you partner to live in. You buy a house as an investment and you rent elsewhere.

Growth Tool No. 1 – Time

Time is your greatest friend. Real Estate is a long-term investment and by being loyal to it, the real estate will reward you handsomely all through your life. real estate wealth,

You can prove this to yourself, as I did, by getting the figures of average house sale prices, from the Australian Bureau of Statistics for Brisbane, the largest City in Australia.

To save you the trouble I got the figures and I painstakingly went through them in order to validate the old wives tale that, “real estate doubles every seven years.”

Well, it does better than that, you’ll be pleased to know.

I was able to get the figures from 1973/74 to 1994/95. I think I started there because that was when I arrived in Brisbane on transfer from Melbourne. real estate wealth,

That is a twenty-two years period, during which we had several credit squeezes, a few recessions and a few good times as well.

In 1973/74 an average house price for the whole of Brisbane was $23,234.00. That average includes the best and worst house and suburb.

Seven years later, in 1980/81, it was $43,470.00 an increase of 87%.

However by the next year, the eight-year, it had risen to $56,757.00 giving an increase of 144% from 1973/74. So you see that it more than doubles by the eight year. real estate wealth,

Going on a further seven years from 80/81 to 87/88, the $43,470.00 went up to $83,679.00; a further 92%.

Interestingly, going on one more year to the eight year, it had again increased to $113,917.00 giving an increase of 162% from 1980/81.

A further seven years from 87/88 to 94/95, the price of the average house in Brisbane went up to $163,325.00; a further 95% increase. real estate wealth,

Unfortunately the Bureau amalgamated the Shires of Logan and Caboolture into this statistical base and I could not extract the figure for the eight year.

However on the evidence of the previous 22 years I believe it is safe to assume the increase would be at least 5% making it an increase of 100%. real estate wealth,

So these figures prove that over a period of 22 years the asset has increased by seven times its original value and all you would have to do is buy it at the beginning.

I hope this gives you some idea of why TIME is so important to growth. And remember that I am talking about average prices, I am not talking about hot inner suburbs that will obviously do much better.

If you REALLY understand these figures; you should ask yourself why you are willing to miss out on buying good real estate by stopping negotiating for the sake a few hundred or a few thousand dollars. I’ve seen this done many times because of stubborn-ness. Crazy! real estate wealth,

For goodness sake it’s the Real Estate Asset that is in short supply; not money. If you have found real estate that fits your criteria; BUY IT!

Foreclosures are at an all time high and as an investor one must take advantage of this rich opportunity. How do you find Foreclosures? Well, there are several basic methods that you can use to find foreclosures or pre-foreclosures:

1. Search Public Records to find Foreclosure Listings:
In various stages of the foreclosure process, notices are recorded with the County Clerk at your County Recorder’s Office. This information is public record and is available to anyone. Just visit your county’s office and you can search for a Notice of Default (NOD), Lis Pendens or for a Notice of Sale. The best part of searching public records yourself is that it is Free.

In addition, you’re likely to find newly posted properties that haven’t yet reached many of the online foreclosure data providers.

2. Foreclosure Listings | Look Online:
Performing online searches are quite a bit easier than going to the Clerk or Recorder’s Office, but you certainly won’t be the first to find out about a pending bank foreclosure.

Typically you’ll need to use an online listing service, where you can either participate in a free trial or pay a weekly fee to view their listings. We recommend checking out the free trial offers so you can see which provider you feel best suits you. There are both national and regional foreclosure listing services, which provide Notice of Default, Notice of Trustee Sale and Lis Pendens data on properties in the foreclosure process. Many of these companies will provide information including name, address, loan amount owed, and additional loans outstanding, while a select few will even provide contact phone numbers. Please refer to my review of the best foreclosure listing services at Foreclosures Listing Services Review

Some of these companies will even provide listings of Bank REO Properties, but you can get that information for free online as well. Many of the large national and regional banks will list their REO properties on their websites.

3. Search Local Newspapers for Foreclosure Listings:
Part of the requirement for filing a foreclosure is that the Notice of Sale be published in the Newspaper. If you search local papers and business journals, you can easily find notices for trustee sales in the Public Notice section.

4. Find Asset Managers:
You can also find REO properties through Asset Management companies. Simply put, these companies help lenders dispose of assets. Many of these asset management companies will provide listings of the REO properties that they represent on their website.

5. Find Government Foreclosures:
Lastly, the government can also foreclose on properties. See our section How to Buy A HUD Home

Where to find and receive the best foreclosure listings? This is what most Real Estate Investors, Realtors, loan officers and the general public wants to know. Foreclosure and pre-foreclosure inventory is at an all time high and everyone is looking to get accurate and fast information on properties in default or in foreclosure within their local market. In the present Real Estate market, to become rich or stay poor is often determined by a mere scrap of information. If you can receive accurate foreclosure data then as an investor you are able to make accurate analysis in the purchasing of a property. There are many online foreclosure services of which some do a great job in providing accurate information. I will be reviewing and have personally used the following foreclosure listing services: RealtyTrac, Foreclosure.com, and Bargain Home Network .

1. RealtyTrac

   
   RealtyTrac foreclosure service provides an adequate amount of property information along with all pertinent foreclosure and default information. I personally have used this service many times with successful results and actually have purchased 3 property listings provided by them. RealtyTrac lists properties in various stages of the foreclosure process; additionally, they include homes for sale by owner and general resells. RealtyTrac has listings from all fifty states including Washington D.C. You can search for properties based on city, state, zip and county. Although RealtyTrac doesn’t have quiet as many listings as the #2 service, Foreclosure.com, RealtyTrac includes almost all the information an investor or first time buyer needs to know about a property like publication date, price, status, beds, baths, default amount, taxes and more. Additionally, listings are updated daily. Although RealtyTrac includes a considerable amount of information, the addition of equity percentage, legal information and sales history would have given this site a perfect score. Not only does this site provide you with current foreclosure listings, it is also a great resource for those looking to learn more about the foreclosure process, state specific laws and community demographics. They also include Google maps in most of their posts.
   

2. Foreclosure.com

   
   This is the foreclosure listing service which I also use and it will provide for all your foreclosure needs. They include one of the most complete and informative selections of listing types and the most search features. There are more than one million properties available nationwide within their databases. Foreclosure.com was edged out by RealtyTrac because that they do not include the date the property was listed and they are lacking some additional information like the property’s default amount and informational articles. Foreclosure.com includes one of the most informative and comprehensive lists of pre-foreclosure and foreclosed properties I have come across. With more than one million properties nationwide, including D.C. and Puerto Rico. They include listings for properties in REO, NOD, Notice of Sale, Auction or those repossessed by the government like HUD, VA or Fannie Mae. Forecloser.com has one of the best foreclosure listing services around. Whether you are a home buyer or a serious investor, the information Foreclosure.com provides is invaluable. The only thing holding this site back is that it does not list the date the property was posted. We would like to assume all information is up to date and current.
   

3. Bargain Network Homes

   
   I have used this service occasionally and have found it to be accurate, informative and fast, it has a high concentration of foreclosures and government listings. Searches for properties are based not only in a state or county, but also those with a certain price range, beds or baths. They also include a comprehensive list of property details including status and publication date. Bargain Network Homes is an investor friendly foreclosure listing service. They include how-to guides, various reports and laws by state. The one and biggest difficulty with this service is you can only cancel your account through the telephone. This can be an annoying and inconvenient method especially for those trying to contact the company during off hours. Bargain Network Homes provides foreclosures in all stages of the process including those that have gone to auction online. They list properties in all 50 states including Washington D.C. and you can search for listings based on price range, beds, baths or property type. Details include the property’s status, the date the listings was posted, loan information, tax information, assessed value and more. Although Bargain Network Homes is a great site for searching for foreclosed properties and foreclosure related information, we found in today’s day and age there needs to be more options for the consumer to cancel their subscription.
   

I use all of the above services and generally am happy with all. RealtyTrac is my preference and the one which I use daily and if I were to recommend one, it would be RealtyTrac hands down. The reason I have all three is because each provides a different variety of information and the more information gathered from different resources the better I will be to make accurate decisions. As an successfully real estate investor the more tools to help you in your decision making process the better. Real estate is a competitive business. Foreclosure listing services give investors the edge they need to be successful when time is of the essence. Online listing services provide you with all the information you need to know at the click of a mouse, including the property’s stage of foreclosure, it’s specs and who to contact. Traditionally, a foreclosure real estate investor would have to go down to their county courthouse and request a list of foreclosures in their area. With an online foreclosure listing service, you can get all the information you need without leaving your office and spend your time on more important details, like closing the deal.