The Future of Investing is Here

Investing & Financing DEALS is Now as EASY as Shopping on Amazon!

By Lori Greymont

Here’s another big statement: InvestNestis about to completely disrupt investing as you know it…and not just real estate investing — investing across different classes of assets.

What do I mean when I say ‘disrupt’? Look at Uber — it completely disrupted the transportation market. When you take the middleman out of the supply channel or financial arena. Uber took out taxi companies and simply connected drivers with folks who need rides. The same thing is happening right now with investing…

High-yield investment opportunities just recently hit the market in a big way. Until the Jobs Act passed in 2012, sponsors weren’t able to advertise deals. Investors only found out about them via golf course meetings and backroom deals. You had to have an incredibly strong network, one that took years to build, to really get in on these opportunities. As a result, services have cropped up to help sponsors get the word out and to help investors find deals. Unfortunately, these services have been based on a middleman model. The middleman, who connects investors with sponsors, takes a cut. This drives costs for everyone and slows the whole process down.

Enter InvestNest. This marketplace ditches all the barriers to success in investing and financing by replacing them with a clean, simple platform that has one goal: facilitating deals. In the same way that you can go to a shopping mall looking for a suit, browse different stores, and even get measured right there to have the suit tailored, InvestNest has it all.

“We’ve created a technology that is really simple for the investor to get information, share information, stay in the app, and compare opportunities.“

Users can follow investment opportunities, follow builders, lenders, operators, and more. The app is user-centric and intuitive.

An investor finds a deal and says, “I really wish I could get my financial planner to look at this.” That’s easy. Click a button, shoot the planner an email and he gets to go right to the deal. Want your attorney to check out a deal? Again: hit a button.

For developers and sponsors, the shopping mall model also applies. InvestNest gives them all the benefits of opening a store in a place with lots of digital foot traffic instead of opening one off the beaten path that takes lots of time and marketing money in order to generate any real buzz.

So, what’s the backstory behind InvestNest? One name: Brian Barbuto. Brian’s 41 years of reinventing the real estate wheel and racking up successes have guided him to this moment in time: he’s poised to completely change the way we buy and find buyers.

A family man by heart and an inventive builder and entrepreneur by trade, Brian has developed everything from playgrounds to the first equestrian communities and single-attached family homes. And now, he’s developed the investment platform of the future.

Early in his career, he was known as a whiz kid. He completed his first development project by the age of 22; by age 27 he was awarded BIA Builder of the Year. From there, he went on to pioneer the first attached single family housing project in Southern California. He’s the guy who coined the phrase, ‘single attached family homes’. His career could be best defined by successfully, and continuously, finding demands and meeting them.

“Throughout my career, I’ve probably built everything that you can imagine building. I’ve built golf course communities, industrial parks, medical/professional centers, retail centers. The fun and theenthusiasm of building something that had never been built before was always more interesting to me than the cookie cutter concept of just building something over and over and over again.”

His work speaks for itself. He has developed more than one million square feet of commercial space, completed over 1,000 residential units, and worked through over $100MM in real estate project funding. Brian’s portfolio includes mixed-use, commercial, industrial, and resort communities, as well as innovative residential communities and world-class vineyard estate homes.

Now…Brian has merged all of this excellent experience with the right technology. The result? A state-of-the-art marketplace that’s going to change the way we find and fund deals.

Brian is a problem solver, “a lot of folks have teed up some really great projects, projects that are in great demand, that will be very successful, but the capital isn’t there.

At the same time, I was starting to see just how much our lives were becoming interwoven with tech — especially for millennials. They’re self-driven: they go to WebMD and self-diagnose, they go to LegalZoom for legal advice. They go online for pretty much everything today: Recreation, entertainment, work, and to create wealth.

What we’re looking at is seven million accredited investors in the Millennial bracket: they want to do everything on their own. We have a shortage of capital in the development and business world— statistically right now, as an example, there are over 3,700 development projects spanning across the U.S. that are teed up, entitled, ready to build, but are stagnant for a lack of capital and funding. And this cross section between developers who need financing and millennials who want to use technology for investing….that’s exactly where the big opportunity is.”

InvestNest is not crowdfunding. Brian explains, “We’re not a private equity firm operating on the Internet. The majority of crowd investing you see online today basically is putting a new spin on what private equity firms do or capital companies have been doing forever, but they’re using their technology to tell the story about an investment opportunity, instead of sending it by way of an email or placing a call.”

Brian continues, “We say, that’s great for them, but we want to get beyond that. Let’s do something better. Let’s educate and empower the investor. Let’s give the institutional investor a place to go, and let’s tee up sponsors with investment opportunities in all industries, in all asset classes, in a standardized fashion, so they can be seen and evaluated in a standardized fashion.”

InvestNest is the only place that investors can insure their principal investment. Capital Asset Protection (CAP) is an insurance product that was specifically designed for the InvestNest marketplace. Sponsors who want to offer this option to their investors must go through rigorous third party due diligence reviews, then pay for the protection.

It will insure the investor against several kinds of loss, possibly up to as much as 80% of their investment. As you and I both know, investing is not saving. With every investment, you have a chance to lose money.

Can you imagine the peace of mind investors will have knowing there is a backstop to their loss with this insurance?

InvestNest is a true market disruptor and it’s about time. For far too long, investing has been restricted to the Ol’ Boy’s Club. Now, anyone who’s an accredited investor or sponsor can start taking advantage of the deals and capital that’s out there with just a few clicks of a button.

I’m not impressed easily. I’ve been immersed in the high-tech world of Silicon Valley for decades.

I also head SJREI, an award-winning real estate investors association in San Jose. Because of this role, I’m cautious as to where I direct our members. InvestNest managed to not only impress me, but excite me. I’m excited about what the future holds for all of us investors and developers.

When I think about shopping 10 years ago vs. now, I can’t believe the difference. I wonder what we’ll all say about investing 10 years from now.

By Leon McKenzie, CEO, US Probate Leads

The real estate industry is full of potential for both REALTORS® and investors looking to cash in. One sector within the industry that will allow you to spread your wings and fly is the probate real estate sector. This sector has a value that runs in the trillions due to wealth left behind by aging and dying American homeowners. If you are interested in building a profitable realty or real estate investment business, then you definitely should pursue probate leads.

There is one question though: what constitutes a good probate real estate lead? What should you be on the lookout for when determining whether to spend your time and money investing in marketing to that lead?

After all, time is money and you do not want to pursue probate leads that are going nowhere. Not when you have to contend with competition.

Well, the secret is in having a list of criteria that you can use to find the right leads. Here are some of the factors that you can consider:

1 THE REPUTATION OF YOUR PROBATE LEADS SOURCE

Probate leads are only as good as their source. Do you have any idea of the reputation of your source? Now, you could go down to the county courthouse yourself and attempt to find a few leads that you could follow, but be prepared to spend a lot of time there.

You can rest assured however, that this is the most reliable way of getting good leads.

You could also use referrals to find leads but there is only so much you will get in the way of quantity of leads. How many people do you know who can tell you where the latest probate leads are?

You could also utilize online resources like social media, but there would be no way of you ascertaining whether the information you are getting is correct until you follow up. And this could waste a lot of your time.

For all the above reasons, you should consider using a probate leads company whose sole job is to find good probate leads for its clients. A company of this nature would do due diligence because its reputation depends on the quality of the product it provides.

Do note that not all probate real estate leads companies are worth your money. You want to get your information from a company that is reputable and reliable. A company that provides the latest leads is your best shot of getting access to good quality leads that have yet to be pursued. In addition, your leads source should provide a comprehensive list of leads from as many counties as possible from across the nation.

2 THE POTENTIAL VALUE FOR MONEY YOUR PROBATE LEADS CAN BRING

You have no way of knowing which probate leads will work out for your real estate business and which ones will not. However, you can determine based on the pricing package whether leads are worth buying in the first place.

Quantity is not always a good thing. Cheap is not always better. What you want is quality. Ten probate leads that will result in a sale or two are much better than 50 probate leads that will not work out at all.

So, what you are looking for is how many leads are on offer for sale, how much they will cost you, and their potential return on investment. You also need to consider just how many people will have access to the same set of probate leads at the same time you do.

The latter is very important because it determines the level of competition you will have with other REALTORS®and investors for the same leads. This in turn will determine your success rate when it comes to converting those leads into clients.

It would be prudent therefore for you to be on the lookout for a set of probate leads sold for a fixed affordable price. It would be even more profitable for you to hold out for leads that are offered to you exclusively for a set period so that you can have the first shot before your competitors get access to the same leads.

3 THE QUALITY/ COMPREHENSIVE NATURE OF THE LEADS

What is the nature of the leads that you have access to? We definitely are not talking about the name of the executor and nothing else.

A name alone will not help you if you want to launch a marketing campaign strategy to reach out to your potential clients. What you want are details; lots and lots of details. You are far better off getting a probate lead that constitutes of the mailing address of the probate property and the phone number of the person who can be reached as primary contact. This is much better than having a name only. You can always address an introductory letter to the title “the executor” until you are able to get the name of the contact you reach out to.

If a lead does not contain at least the mailing address, ignore it. That lead is not worth your time and energy. It will require you to waste a lot of resources just to find out if the lead is worth pursuing, which you could have spent wooing otherleads and trying to convert them.

4 RESPONSIVENESS OF THE LEAD

A lead remains so until you convert that person into a customer. For that reason, you need to gauge whether a lead is worth pursuing further based on how responsive that party is to your first attempt to communicate.

If you want to be the best REALTOR® or real estate investor in your locale, it is important for you to learn how to read into not only what people are saying, but also what they are not saying. When you choose to stick to probate real estate, be aware that you will be dealing with the grieving on a regular basis, and they are a bit more unpredictable than the ordinary potential seller. So, gauging how responsive they are is a skill that you need to learn, and learn very fast.

The fact of the matter is that most executors who act as the primary caretakers of probate properties are motivated sellers. It’s just that some of them need to grieve and get their act together first before they choose to part with the properties that they are in charge of.

As a REALTOR® or real estate investor, you need to keep two lists. One list should be for those leads that are very responsive, and the other should be for those leads that are worth revisiting several months in the future.

The moment a lead that you reached out to contacts you, pay very close attention to what that person wants. If the lead in question just wants to ask what it is that you do, that’s good enough. Even if that lead is not ready to be converted into a customer, the fact that he or she has reached out to your business means that what you are offering in the way of services has caught the lead’s attention. You should double down, and nurture that lead until you can get what you want.That is a very good quality lead.

Other very good quality leads consist of executors who live far away from the probate property they are in charge of, as well as those in charge of prime properties that beneficiaries are fighting over. Such executors are usually very motivated to sell and get rid of the troubling property just so that they can have peace of mind and steer clear of stress. Also be on the lookout for leads associated with properties that have pending bills. The bills indicate an overwhelmed executor who has no idea of how to go about managing an additional property. Leads of this nature can easily be converted to customers because they do not want to handle financial stress for long.

That said you should not completely ignore leads that show a reluctance to even contemplate selling a prime probate property. If the death of the lead’s loved one is still fresh, it makes sense that the executor will not be in a mood to part with that person’s property. But if you were to offer your services a few months down the line, that lead would be more amenable to being nurtured and converted into a customer.

It would be prudent therefore, for you to learn the useful skill of gauging the responsiveness of a probate lead on a case-by-case basis.

CONCLUSION

While the real estate industry as a whole is very competitive, a significant part of the probate real estate sector is still uncharted. You can be a pioneer in your locale, if only you take the time to invest in your realty or real estate investment business.

The quality of your probate leads is the foundation to building your real estate business into a successful company, so tread carefully when acquiring them. Start by scrutinizing the reputation of your probate

leads source, determining the ROI, selecting the highest quality of leads based on details provided, and then learning how to gauge the responsiveness of the leads you contact. By paying attention to the details, you will set yourself up for success. It will be much easier for you to laugh all the way to the bank thereafter.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Leon co-founded US Probate Leads more than 12 years ago and has witnessed its growth during that period from a one city lead provider in the probate space to the only national provider of probate leads for virtually every county in the country.

Leon likes to point out that US Probate Leads is the only company providing Probate-related Real Estate-related leads to Investors and REALTORS® based on data collected directly from individual probate courts in virtually every state. This has been achieved by building a National Network of Researchers that visit each county one time each month. Leon’s team processes this incoming data and makes it available to individual subscribers for their use in reaching out to highly motivated property sellers.

What Is It? HOW IT WORKS. How You Benefit.

By Bruce Kellogg

In a real estate transaction, seller financing takes place when the seller and the buyer agree that the seller will lend some of the purchase price to the buyer to facilitate the sale.

This is often labeled “owner will carry” (“owc”), and is a well-trodden path in residential, commercial, and land transactions.

HOW IS IT DONE?

As in any real estate transaction, buyer and the seller negotiate the terms of the loan, including the amount, due date, interest rate, and monthly payment. Other terms could include a late charge and a “due on sale” clause, and more.

The documents consist of a promissory note and a deed-of-trust or mortgage, depending upon the laws of the state for securing loans to real property. Depending upon the state, an attorney, escrow company, or title  company will prepare the documents for the parties, making the process very straightforward, though not necessarily simple.

NEGOTIATING THE TERMS

Down payments are usually between 10% and 30%, depending upon the buyer’s financial position, the buy-er’s creditworthiness, and the seller’s need for cash. A credit report on the buyer is essential.

It is possible to have a loan where the payments are interest-only, but some degree of amortization is preferable so the buyer is building up equity and can refinance more readily in the future. The interest rate should be a “market rate”, or less if lending to a friend or family member. Excessive interest rates do nobody any good, just making it harder for the buyer to succeed with the property.

The length (“term”) of the loan is negotiable based on the needs of the parties. The note could be written with one or more “options to extend” in case conditions for refinancing are not favorable when the loan matures. The idea is not to create a condition where the buyer cannot pay off the loan when it comes due.

WHAT ABOUT COLLECTING PAYMENTS, AND PROPERTY TAXES?

Sometimes with seller financing the buyer will neglect to pay the property taxes or keep the premises insured. The best way to prevent this is to hire a “loan servicing company”.

They will do everything, and even foreclose, if the need arises. The cost is reasonable, and the piece-of-mind is priceless!

WHAT IF THE BUYER DEFAULTS?

There are three alternatives. The obvious one is to hire an attorney or foreclosure company to legally recover the property. Then, it’ll be necessary to make repairs and re-sell the property, or rent it out. This should be chosen if the buyer’s default appears to be permanent, and cannot be corrected.

If the buyer’s default appears to be temporary, a job loss for example, then it’s best to suspend payments. Once the situation is resolved, modify the note to include the missed payments and proceed as before.

The third alternative is to sell the note at a discount and let someone else deal with the default.

Discounts on defaulted notes are typically 40 –  80%. This is a terrible idea! Don’t do it!!!

WHAT IF THE SELLER NEEDS MONEY LATER?

There are several alternatives here, also. The first is to sell the entire note at a discount. Since the note will be “performing” (i.e., not in default), the discount could be in the 20 – 30% range, which isn’t so bad if you need cash.

But maybe you don’t need to use the entire note. You could sell just part of the note, or just a certain portion of the payments. There are markets for notes across the country and over the internet. Notes can be very “liquid” nowadays.

Finally, you could borrow against the note. The legal term for this is “hypothecation”. Private parties, banks, credit unions, and “factoring companies” all do note hypothecations. Check the internet first.

BENEFITS TO THE BUYER

There are two primary benefits to the buyer. The first is that the buyer can negotiate a “customized” loan with the seller to accommodate the buyer’s circumstances. Banks and mortgage brokers usually sell their loans on Wall Street, so the loans are standardized. These don’t necessarily fit everyone!

In addition, commercial lenders charge “loan origination fees”, also known as “points”. Most sellers do not charge fees for lending, and in many states they cannot. This saves quite a bit for the buyer.

BENEFITS TO THE SELLER

There are two benefits to the seller. The first is that carrying some financing facilitates the sale. No doubt about it!

Secondly, the note that is carried back generates a regular monthly income stream that is secured directly by the property. This makes it a very good, long-term investment.

ABOUT THE WRITER:

Bruce Kellogg has been a Realtor® and investor for 35 years. He has transacted about 500 properties for clients, and about 300 properties for himself in 12 California counties. These include 1-4 units, 5+ apartments, offices, mixed-use buildings, land, lots, mobile homes, cabins, and churches. He is available for listing, selling, consulting, mentoring, and partnering. Readers can reach him directly at: [email protected] , or (408) 489-0131.

By Anita Cooper

Investing out of state can be nerve-wracking, especially when you’re unfamiliar with the nuances of the markets you’re investing in. A property can look really good on paper, but does that automatically translate into a great buy?

Not necessarily.

That’s where due diligence comes into play. A knowledgeable broker can help you fi nd a good investment property, but that doesn’t always mean the broker can help you make the most of that investment.

The perfect option then, would be an investment savvy real estate broker who is also a highly effective property manager.

Pam Blanco, real estate broker and Owner of Professional Asset Management and Sales (PAMS), is that perfect option for investors who are interested in Texas properties.

She knows first-hand the frustration of finding a true partner who can help make the investing journey easier. When asked if she’d ever considered investing out of state or overseas, Pam shared a frustration that’s common among out of state investors: finding knowledgeable and professional industry contacts where they want to invest.

Anita: Have you ever considered investing out of state or overseas?

PAM: Not necessarily overseas, but out of state, yes. I struggle a little bit with management companies and REALTORS®. So for example, I find a good agent, but they don’t know a whole lot about property management, or I find a good property management company, but they can’t tell me what sells in a particular neighborhood, so it’s kind of frustrating.

Anita: What types of properties do you specialize in?

PAM:I do single family and multi-family. In fact, I would say, you know, I kind of grew up in the multi-family realm. I worked my way up through the ranks, so I understand multi-family very well.

In fact, we actually manage a smaller multi-family; it’s a specialty of ours, but we also do single family home. For first-time investors who are just getting into the business, and they’re looking for liquid properties, we help guide them through that. But I would say, more importantly, we just try to counsel them on good areas to be in. We help them find properties that are going to profit.

Anita: Please share with us how your program works and why it’s so unique?

PAM:We have a team of full-time researchers who do all of the research on potential investment properties, then put together ROI sheets for investors every week.

When an investor chooses a property they like, we actually draw the contracts for them, represent them in the sale, and then we do the rehabs for them as well.

So typically, when we put an ROI together, we’re budgeting the rehab, then performing the rehab for them, and then managing the investment afterwards.

We kind of have a vested interest in the property to perform as we specified in our ROI sheet, so it’s really important to make sure that we do that.

In addition, we also counsel investors on what type of investment they want. Some people want a long term hold, while others are just looking for their kids’ college education, so they may be looking at a five-year or a 10-year hold, so it just depends. We put together a plan for them and their portfolio based on what their actual goals are.

Anita: So what is your favorite part about the business?

PAM: “I’m going to say probably the deals and the people. So I guess to me — maybe, I am a deal junkie — but you know it’s the thrill of that chase, finding the best deal, getting properties that work for investors, and then managing them to make sure that it does work.”

Anita: Where would you say you see yourself and the biz in the next 5 to 10 years?

PAM:I would like to see the company in multiple states. I’d also like to see the number of investors that I work with pretty much triple and then open it up to multi-state.

As of this writing, PAMS manages more than 500 properties for its clients; a large proportion of them out of state investors. Individuals who are interested can reach Pam Blanco at 817-907-7347.

Anita Cooper is the founder of Northwoods Writer, a marketing resource for real estate professionals. She lives with her family in beautiful Wisconsin.

WHAT MAKES PAM DIFFERENT?

A true turn-key opportunity: Using knowledge and skills gained from many years working with both property management and investment companies, Pam Blanco has designed a “one-stop shop” for investors looking for profitable investing opportunities in Texas.