Condominium Regime

The legal definition of condominium is: the absolute ownership of a unit based on a legal description of the airspace the unit actually occupies, plus an undivided interest in the ownership of the common elements, which are owned jointly with the other condominium unit owners. Each unit owner of a condominium has individual title to the space inside his unit. The space is sometimes described as beginning with “the paint on the walls.? In addition, each unit owner has an undivided interest in the physical components of the condominium buildings and land.

A popular type of condominium development is the multi-story apartment. In this case, there is no land under each unit. In these developments, the condo association usually handles maintenance of the building exterior and common grounds, while the unit owners maintain the interiors of their units. A condominium association is selected to make decisions about expenditures for repairs, and to handle administrative work related to the common areas. Fees are collected from the unit owners to pay for common maintenance. The association normally holds an insurance policy covering the jointly-owned areas, while individual owners carry insurance for the interior components of their units.

Condo projects may resemble duplexes, town homes, garden homes, or residences on regular lots. In general, the creation of a condo regime allows the developer to get more density approved than would be allowed if he had done single-ownership lots. This is often the reason why the condo regime is chosen instead of a development with single ownership lots. A condominium may be built as two units of a duplex. In this case, the two owners may jointly make decisions concerning maintenance of any common areas. By setting up the units of a duplex as two condos, the owner is able to sell them to two different owners.

Each condominium has rules that are specific to the development, so no assumptions should be made about their requirements. It is important to read the condominium documents carefully before purchasing a condo. The documents specify the maintenance that is covered by the common budget. In one project, the association may handle exterior components, decks, pools, sidewalks and driveways. In another, the individual owners may be responsible for more maintenance of their units, including foundations, roofs, and exterior walls.

If you have questions about the division of labor between the common budget and the individual owners of a condominium, you can present your question to the condo board itself. The board can give you an interpretation of the rules and clarify how the issue has been handled in the past. Another possibility is to ask a real estate attorney to review the documents for you. Realtors, other unit owners, or maintenance workers are not appropriate or reliable sources for the interpretation of condo documents.

The Texas real estate contract for condominiums contains a provision requiring that the buyer be given a copy of the condo documents, with a period of time to review them. During the document-review period, the buyer may terminate the contract without penalty. In addition, a resale certificate is must be provided by the association president or manager. This document provides information on the current budgets, insurance coverage, special assessments, lawsuits and other matters that affect the association.

Fee Simple Ownership

In contrast to the condominium regime, you may own real estate by fee simple. “Fee? which comes from the word, “fiefdom? refers to legal rights in land, and “simple?means unconstrained. Fee simple is the most common type of ownership. It is the absolute legal title to real property, including both buildings and land.
In fee simple, there are several different possibilities with regard to your obligations of ownership:

(a) Your property may not be in a subdivision at all. In this case, your deed will not include any subdivision restrictions that control your use of the property. Be aware that there could be some deed restrictions put in place by previous owners. In addition to deed restrictions, you may be governed by city or county ordinances or zoning laws that limit your use of the property.

(b) Your property may be in a subdivision with very few restrictions, no common areas, no architectural control committee, and no mandatory dues. Usually these are older subdivisions.

(c) Your property may be in a subdivision of homes on large lots, or in a town home or garden-home community in which there is a legally created homeowners association. In this case, every homeowner is required to be a member of the association. The association may charge mandatory dues and enforce subdivision rules. A certain level of maintenance may be required of each property owner. For example, you may need association approval of exterior paint colors, fences, or additions to your home.

Like the condominium form of ownership, fee simple ownership does not prescribe how maintenance is handled or how developments are governed. For example, the owners of a town house, with fee simple ownership, may be required to fully maintain their units. Or, the owners’ association may cover painting, roofing and yard work for the owners. In subdivisions where there are single family homes on large lots, it is more common for the homeowners association to manage the common grounds, pools and parks, while the individual lot owners fully maintain their own properties.

Understand your ownership rights and obligations

Before buying into a condominium regime or purchasing a fee simple property, you should have a clear understanding of the type of ownership you will have in your property. If you are buying a condominium, it would be wise to read the condo documents carefully and understand how maintenance is divided between the individual owners and the condominium association.

If your ownership is fee simple, with individual ownership of the land, you should review the deed restrictions (if there are any) and understand the restrictions and obligations that apply to your property. In the fee simple form of ownership, there may be mandatory dues to pay for common area maintenance, or, in some cases, the dues may be used for partial maintenance of the individual properties.

If you have a question about your type of ownership or about your obligations as a homeowner, it would be wise to review the title documents with a real estate attorney before proceeding with your purchase. Ask plenty of questions! A clear understanding of your type of ownership, and of your obligations as a homeowner will result in a more satisfying real estate purchase.

Figuring replacement cost isn’t very useful. It’s difficult to say what land is worth in a city center where none is left for sale, for example, and tough to gauge depreciation of the home itself. Valuation from replacement cost is used as a secondary method, and for unique homes that can’t be compared easily with others. However, the primary method of real estate appraisal used for homes is a market analysis using comparable sales.

Real Estate Value 101

First find at least three similar homes in the same area that have sold within the last year, and preferably within the last six months. You can find this information is in county records (sometimes online now), or from a real estate agent with access to the multiple listing service. Make sure you have the basic sales information: sales price, terms of sale, description of the property, etc.

Here is how you use this information to find real estate value. Write down the selling price of your first comparable. Review the description item by item, adding to the sales price of the comparable for each thing it doesn’t have that your subject home has, and subtracting for each thing it has that your subject home doesn’t have.

This sounds confusing, but it will make sense once you try it a couple times. For example, if your subject home has a second bathroom, and the a comparable doesn’t, you add the value of the bathroom to the sales price of the comparable. If a comparable home has a blacktop driveway, and the subject home doesn’t, you take the value away.

What you are doing is rectifying differences, to see what the comparable home WOULD have sold for if it was just like yours. Suppose a comparable sold for $140,000, with one less bathroom than your subject home, and a bathroom is worth $15,000 in your area (ask a real estate agent for help with these figures). You ADD $15,000 for the bathroom it doesn’t have. You subtract, say $4,000, for the paved driveway it does have, that your home doesn’t have. $140,000 plus $15,000, minus $4,000 gives you a comparable sales price of $151,000.

Do this with all differences between the subject home and each comparable. Once done, average the three comparable prices. If, for example, the three comparables now have adjusted sales prices of $151,000, 162,000, and 149,000, add the three figures and divide by three. The indicated value of the home is $154,000.

All appraisal is an inexact science. You might only find comparables sold over a year ago, and have to estimate appreciation in the area. If a comparable sold with seller financing, you have to decide how much this affected the price. Still, for all of it’s flaws, for single family homes this is the most accurate method for finding true real estate value.

The Real Estate Math You Don’t Need

The gross rent multiplier is one formula you don’t need. I bring it up because people are sometimes still using it, and there are better ways to estimate value. A gross rent multiplier is a crude way to put a value on a property. You decide that properties are worth 10 times annual rent or less, for example, and simply multiply the gross annual rent a building collects by ten to get your value.

There are obvious problems with this formula. You need to constantly change it to reflect interest rates, because a property might be profitable at 12 times rent when interest rates are low, but a money loser at eight times rent if the financing is expensive. Also, there are just plain different expenses for different properties, especially when some include utilities in the rent, for example. Gross rent doesn’t say much about the factor that makes a property valuable: the net income.

Real Estate Math You Need

Rental properties are bought for the income they produce, so this is what your real estate valuation should be based on. That is why your real estate math education needs to start with the how to use a capitalization rate, or “cap rate” to determine value. A cap rate is the rate of return expected by investors in a given area, or the rate of return on a property at a given price.

An example might make this clear. Take the gross income of a property and subtract all expenses, but not the loan payments. If the gross income is $76,000 per year, and the expenses are $32,000, you have net income before debt-service of $44,000. Now, to arrive at an estimate of value, you simply apply the capitalization rate to this figure.

If the normal capitalization rate is .10 (ask a real estate professional what is normal in your area), meaning investors expect a 10% return on the value of their investment, you would divide the net income of $44,000 by .10. You get $440,000 – the estimated value of the building. If the common rate is .08, meaning investors in the area expect only an 8% return, the value would be $550,000.

Simple Real Estate Math

Estimated value equals net income before debt-service divided by cap rate – this really is simple real estate math, but the tough part is getting accurate income figures. Is the seller is showing you ALL the normal expenses, and not exaggerating income? If he stopped repairing things for a year, and is showing “projected” rents, instead of actual rents collected, the income figure could be $15,000 too high. That would mean you would estimate the value at $187,000 more (.08 cap rate).

Besides verifying the figures, smart investors sometimes separate out income from vending machines and laundry machines. Suppose these sources provide $6,000 of the income. That would add $75,000 to the appraised value (.08 cap rate). Instead, you can do the appraisal without this income included, then add back the replacement cost of the machines (probably much less than $75,000).

No real estate formula is perfect, and all are only as good as the figures you plug into them. Used carefully, though, real estate appraisal using capitalization rates is the most accurate method for estimating the value of income properties. For putting a value on a single family home, you need another approach. Yes this means more real estate math to learn, but we’ll save that for another time.

Watch for personal motivators, too. Is the seller more motivated by what she reads or by what she hears? Is she more motivated by the promise of a fast sale, or a high price? Listen for clues.

A seller who continually says, “I see” is probably more visually oriented and motivated. You want to show such a seller the advantages of your offer. Don’t just explain the offer, but point out on paper why it can work for you both.

Statements like “I just don’t want any problems,” or “I just want to be done with this” indicate she is more motivated to avoid stress than by positive goals. In this case, you would want to make the process as easy as you can for the seller. You might also suggest that this is her chance to “be done” with selling.

Early in your real estate negotiations, gather any information you can on the seller’s motivations, then decide how to use this information. For example, I have a friend who likes to see himself as a shrewd negotiator. Letting him “win” a lot of small concessions is a sure way to get what you need most. Use a seller’s own motivators, and even their own words. If they say “I understand” a lot, then start a statement with “I think you understand why…”

It is even easier to use the specific motivations involved. If you learn that a buyer of your house wants to be able to tell his friends what a great price he got, push hard on every other area. Get the terms you want, have him pay all the closing costs, etc. Take the attitude that if he’ll give you what you want, he’ll get what he wants.

A little more sophistication is called for most of the time, of course. You can’t just say “Oh, you want that? Then give me this.” Negotiate hard in all areas, but let him “win” the concessions he wants from you, and downplay what you have won. You’ll both be happier in the end. There are many important principles involved in real estate negotiation, but you can’t go wrong starting with an understanding of a seller’s motivations.

Below are some of the current tax savings opportunities set to expire soon, starting with those scheduled to expire at the end of 2007.

Energy Efficient Expenditures: Last year’s Tax Act provides incentives for people who make energy efficient improvements to their homes or commercial buildings. Plus, manufacturers of energy efficient appliances get a tax credit for each unit produced, so consumers should ensure that this tax break is passed along to them with each qualifying purchase made. Most of these energy efficient tax breaks end on December 31, 2007.

$2,000 Credit for Contractors: During 2006 and 2007, homeowners who purchase a newly constructed energy efficient home, or have their home substantially rehabbed to become more energy efficient, need to be aware that the contractor is eligible for a $2,000 tax credit from the IRS.

Increased Section 179 Deduction: Through the end of 2007, taxpayers can elect to write-off the first $108,000 (in 2006, up from $105,000 in 2005) of equipment purchased each year, instead of depreciating the cost of that equipment over its useful life of 5 or 7 years. Starting in 2008, the Section 179 deduction will once again be limited to just $25,000 per year. Anyone purchasing a business or adding equipment to an existing business should consider doing so before December 31, 2007, to allow for a much larger upfront tax deduction.

Here are a few tax breaks scheduled to expire in 2008 that will impact the capital gains tax rate.

Reduced Tax Rate on Capital Gains: Currently, the maximum tax rate on long-term capital gains (assets held for more than one year before being sold) is 15 percent. Effective January 1, 2009, the capital gains tax rate is scheduled to jump by one-third to 20 percent. Investors who plan to sell any of their real estate or investments at some point this decade should consider selling appreciated assets on or before December 31, 2008 to lock in the lower tax rate. Congress is trying to extend this provision through 2010.

Zero Percent Capital Gains Tax Rate: The 2003 Tax Act provides for a zero percent capital gains tax rate during 2008 only for people in the lowest tax bracket. Individuals should consider gifting appreciated property to their children or grandchildren who will be 14 or older that year, and have them sell those investments. Provided the child realizes capital gains of about $30k, no tax will be owed on that gain (assuming the child has no other income). Parents hoping for financial aid for that child need to consider how this strategy might impact that child’s potential college financial aid package.

Most everything else expires in 2010

The biggest tax planning challenge is what to do after 2010. On December 31, 2010, the 2001 Tax Act is scheduled to sunset, with the bulk of the tax rules returning to the pre-2001 rules. This means that the marriage penalty, stealth tax, and reduced retirement and education savings limits will return. How Congress and the President elected in 2008 will deal with the U.S. income tax code as the provisions of the 2001 Tax Act sunset is anyone’s guess.

Plan Ahead

Tax planning one year at a time used to do the trick. In 2006, with major tax breaks expiring in three out of the next four years, tax planning is now a five year proposition. It’s best to start doing it today, and project out a few years, keeping these tax dates in consideration.

Good luck,

How so? First and foremost by checking your potential buyers credit score can help resolve your worries of your buyer ability to repay their future debt to you. Heck, I don’t know of any bank that would not check the credit score of any one of their customers seeking a mortgage. So why shouldn’t you?

The second benefit of checking your buyer credit score is what if you should ever decide to ever sell your real estate note, trust deed, or owner financed mortgage for all cash? By knowing your buyers credit score would not only benefit you now, but it would also make your real estate note more valuable in the future.

Here’s why. The first thing a promissory note buyer/investor is going to require to sell your note is your payer credit score! Your buyer credit score is paramount to how much money you will ultimately receive for your real estate note. Of course the higher the credit score the less risky it is to a perspective promissory note buyer, thus making your note more valuable to them and ultimately you.

So, just what is an acceptable credit score concerning a real estate note? That is entirely up to you, but if it was my note I would not accept a score of less than a 550. The credit score counts for 40 percent of a total of 100 percent in rating your real estate notes value. So whether you are creating or selling your real estate note it pays to get your buyers credit score in more ways than one.

So, you have to resort to legal means to find motivated sellers. Despite a slew of advertisements on the web and in pint, there is no easy answer for succeeding in real estate investing. Expect to put in long hours and hard, migraine-inducing work in order to make a profit. However, this is the best way to learn any skill.

Who Are They?

Just what makes a motivated seller (or buyer) any different from any other real estate seller or buyer? “Motivated seller” is a euphemism for someone who knows more than the average person about real estate investing. It also means they are willing to negotiate in order to sell. They are to be distinguished from the average person who is just curious what he can get on the current market, or who will only sell under strict circumstances.

A motivated seller in real estate investing could mean that they are desperate to sell, but it also means that they could be experts in negotiation, are beginning the foreclosure process or are thinking of removing the property from the listings altogether. Think of motivated sellers as really successful used car salesmen. You will not be able to pull any kind of wool over their eyes.

Why would you want to find a motivated seller when you’re into real estate investing? They are truculent, argumentive and going to give you a hard time. However, they are also the ones who will wind up eventually selling you the property you want and often at your price. They need to get rid of the property that they have.

Finding These Guys And Gals

There are many online newsletter services that claim to do all the work or finding motivated sellers for any real estate investment newbie. Don’t believe them. Sure, they will find you some motivated sellers, but you will find them anyway if you concentrate on the property and not the on the seller.

The best way to find motivated sellers in real estate investing is to not look for them. Then, they show up like buses. Whet you need to do is concentrate on the property available. First off, is the property worth buying in the first place? Is it within your price range? How much fixing up does it need?
Location, Location, Location

In order to select the property that you are going to work to buy, you need to consider the location it’s in and the real estate market in that particular area. Select the area before you select an individual property to target. Once you’ve hit a target area, then you can get to specifics buy looking at real estate listings and even doing a direct mail campaign for that particular area.

If you do a direct mail campaign, make it short and sweet. A regular (and economical postcard) with the necessary information is all people will need to see. And people can will se information on a postcard immediately as opposed to having to open an envelope. People will often not even bother to open an envelope from an unknown or unfamiliar return address, just assuming its junk mail.

When you concentrate on a location and get the word out that you are interested in buying for this location, then the sellers will come to you like flies to rotting meat.

Of course, the first questions that you must answer is how emergent is your need for quick cash? You can likely generate the most SHORT TERM cash by selling a freshly rehabbed house. But, you will give much of it away in taxes come next April.

If you keep it, you stand to make more! You will also enjoy some great benefits while you own it such as cash flow, a tax break, and MORE cash with the future appreciation. You can still pull some nice cash a few months after buying it when you refinance (post rehab) the property from your hard money (at 70% loan to value) to long term financing (at 85% or 90% loan to value).

The short answer is an investor is going to make considerably more money by hanging onto a property after it’s rehabbed. There is a downside to it. You have to be a landlord, and you have to decide if you want to do that. I don’t think it’s too bad as long the landlording is done correctly.

Let me illustrate the difference in overall money between rehab and sell, and rehab and rent investing with this example;

Let’s say appreciation rates are 5% in your town and the average price of a freshly rehabbed property in the neighborhoods investors buy in is $100,000. Let’s also say there is Bill and Fred.

Bill sells his properties after rehabbing and makes $15-18,000 per house. Good boy Bill!

Fred keeps his rehab projects and cash-out refinances, pulling out around $10,000 per house within 3-6 months of ownership. (Fred trades his 70% loan-to-value (LTV) ratio hard money for long term, 30-year mortgages at a lower interest rate with an 85-90% loan to value ratio. He pockets the difference between what it costs to pay off the hard money and the new mortgage less closing costs. This works out to about $10,000 per property.)

Bill (rehab and sell) makes a great living. Ten houses per year is $150,000-$180,000 per year…nice jingle! The downside is that Bill has to keep rehabbing to keep making that living year-after-year and pays taxes on all that money as regular income (ouch!). So his $150,000 per year is in reality somewhat less.

Fred (the rehabber) also makes a great living. Ten houses per year makes him $100,000 or so in tax free, spendable cash. But, Fred controls a million dollars in real estate and it’s going up in value year after year. Also, Fred pays no taxes on that money he gets from the cash-out refinances. It’s part of a mortgage, so must be paid back, therefore is not income! I love that part!

Let’s look at what Fred’s doing more closely.

Let’s say Fred bought 10 houses valued at $100,000 each, owes $90,000 on each one (after the 90% cash out refinance), so he controls $1,000,000 in property. If he keeps them 5 years (assuming a low appreciation rate…which is pretty conservative):

Purchase year – 10 houses x $100,000 = $1,000,000
Year 1 – Same 10 houses X $105,000 = $1,050,000
Year 2 – Same 10 houses X $110,250 = $1,102,500
Year 3 – Same 10 houses X $115,762 = $1,157,620
Year 4 – Same 10 houses X $121,550 = $1,215,500
Year 5 – Same 10 houses X $127,627 = $1,276,270

Essentially, Fred makes an extra $50,000 per year for keeping 10 properties. After owning them 5 years, if he sells, he puts $276,000 in his pocket.

Remember

- Some parts of the country will appreciate much faster than 5%. Heck some places properties will double in value in 5 years.
- No tax benefits of keeping the property is included here. That equates to thousands of dollars in real income.
- This is ONE ten-house year. Let’s say you want to “top out” at owning 30 houses. Well, in just a couple of years your buying will slow down to a trickle and you’ll start selling and cashing out of properties. I mean, how many ten-house years to you need to string together before you are set for life?
- What if you hold these houses 10 years? The numbers get pretty exciting.

If you’re like me and you don’t want to do this for too many years, then holding properties for a few years makes a lot of sense, especially if you don’t have much personal money invested in them.

So what of poor old Bill? Chances are, Bill will satisfy his need for short term cash, then start holding property. What do you think?

A friend started doing the same thing and explained the process to me. It was a way to get a great return on capital. It was the opposite of buying with no money down. You bought for cash.

A Real Estate Investment Formula

It is simple, really. When you buy for cash, you often get a much better price. A house that needs a little work might be worth $75,000, for example. By offering $65,000 cash, you negotiate your way to a $68,000 purchase price. If not, you walk away – there are always others.

Then you put few thousand into high-return repairs and improvements. Paint, carpet, and maybe asphalt for the dirt driveway. For our example, we’ll say you put $5,000 into it.

Now it’s worth $85,000 perhaps, but you target those buyers who can’t get financing easily, and you finance it yourself. By making it easy for the buyer, you can get $90,000 for the home – and do it without a realtor’s commission. Whatever the sales price, you let the buyer put 5% down, and make monthly payments of 1% of the purchase price. Of course, you get higher than market interest too.

The buyer is thrilled that they can buy instead of renting, and you get a capital gain of perhaps $14,000 after expenses, plus good interest. Your total rate of return is somewhere over 25%!

The first to do this consistently in our town were a father and son. They were both lawyers, and saved money by doing their own foreclosures when necessary. After forclosing, they just raised the price and sold it all over again, of course. By the way, if you can get an average return of 18% on your money, you’ll turn $75,000 into more than one million dollars in about fifteen years.

First things first, you have to get focused! This is the only way to get good at overcoming objections and solving problems unique to different types of motivated seller markets.

Let simplify this whole real estate marketing game and boil it down to this:
Who, What, When, Where, Why & How (And How Much)!

Who:
Who is that we are going to be talking to? Who is that we are going to be trying to purchase homes from? You may want to work in one or two of the following markets: foreclosures, absentee owners, our probates, divorces, for sale by owners, tired landlords. This is your market ?the who.

What:
What are you going to say in your marketing? This may be a real estate marketing script that you follow, a direct mail postcard system that you roll out, or specific copy in your advertisement. Understand, that you are looking for motivated sellers to take action. If youe taking the time to write a letter, place an ad, etc you want your prospect to do something like call you or email you or listen to a recorded message!

When:
When are your prospects going to receive your marketing message? Timing and consistency is everything to your real estate marketing campaign. You need to be the single person (or company) they think of when the moment strikes at which they realize they are, in fact, a motivated seller!

Where:
Where are they going to receive your message? Obviously if youe door knocking, you’ll meet them at their home. But if you are marketing to personal representatives of an estate, the attorney may receive the letter and pass it on. It important to think about where your potential seller is going to “see?your message because this will affect the action they take.

Why:
This is where your real estate investing exit strategy comes into play. What are you going to do with the property once you’ve gained control? Are you going to wholesale it to another investor? Are you going to fix it up and flip it yourself? Are you going to hold on to it for rental?

As you grow into your real estate business, you’ll have a number of options for each deal depending on what most suitable for the piece of real estate. You may have properties that you can assign, rehab OR rent. But, initially, decide where you are on your real estate investing scale and work within those parameters. If you are asking: “Should I focus on rehabbing houses or should I target probate??youe asking two different questions.

How:
The next thing is the communication method. That is ‘how are we going to talk to our potential motivated sellers??So let suppose your market is foreclosures or pre-foreclosures (the who). The next question is how? There are basically only four methods that we can use to communicate with our target market.

1. Driving for Dollars (or door knocking)
2. Telemarketing
3. Direct mail
4. Mass marketing

How Much:
I toss this in because this is going to affect your real estate marketing strategies. How much can you afford to spend? Understand for a few dollars a day, you can have an extremely profitable real estate investing business. It doesn’t take a lot of money to bring in home run deals!

Here a quick real estate marketing business plan that you can implement immediately using the Who, What, When, Where, Why & How approach:

Who: Pre-foreclosures within 2 weeks of sale at the courthouse (note how specific this is)
What: Yellow legal pad letters
When: Two weeks prior to the sale
Where: Prospect Home
Why: Seller is more motivated and has run out of options
How: Hand-written, hand addressed, first class postage and return address label
How Much: Based on a budget of $100/month, I will send 59.5 letters each week (remember to figure out your marketing budget down to the penny ?stamps, ink, paper, envelopes, etc.)

And there you have it! 7 Simple Steps for your real estate marketing plan.