by Gagner | Apr 12, 2015 | Finding deals
How to Find deals Previously I wrote a blog on where to go and how to network with people who might help you find great real estate deals. I find this an important topic because it is the people that I have developed strong relationships with who are bringing me the majority of my deals today. Meeting the right people is the crucial first step, however you must nurture these relationships in order for them to be productive. For this blog, I will assume for a moment that you have already met people who may be able to help you in your business. Let’s now focus on how to rise to the top of the list for each and every one of those important people that can help you find a deal now. I have 3 golden rules that will help you succeed in most aspects of your life and business, and they certainly apply to developing strong relationships. First, do what you say you will do. Second, be easy to do business with. And last, help others succeed with no expectations. Apply these simple guidelines to the people you meet, and they will serve you well. Amazingly, following these rules will also make you stand apart from most others. Finding deals thru your “network” is simply about being “top of mind” with those people who are effective at identifying the deals you are looking for. Staying in regular contact with people is pretty basic stuff, but most often it is where we fail. The more you can prioritize and systemize your communications, the more likely you will succeed...
by Gagner | Apr 5, 2015 | Real Estate News, Uncategorized
Today, I would like to share a video that was just produced by Brett Jennings, who is both a friend and highly successful real estate broker in the Bay Area. Brett provides an easy to understand explanation about where the Bay Area real estate market has been recently and where it is headed in 2015. There are several dynamics that influence the direction of the market and help predict whether it is becoming “over-valued”. Given the pace of home appreciation over the past several years, it is reasonable to ask whether we are approaching another bubble. Brett provides information that helps us understand the answer to these and many other questions. Hope you enjoy his video!...
by Gagner | Mar 24, 2015 | Real estate agents
I am excited to report that I recently had an opportunity to be interviewed by Ryan Smith of Niche Agent, and discuss how real estate agents can work with investors and maximize their commissions. The Niche Agent (www.thenicheagent.com) is an educational platform for real estate agents. Although the company is based in Canada, there are agents from all over N America that use the educational material on this site, including blogs, podcasts and a popular ebook. I was asked to share how I successfully work with real estate agents in my fix and flip business. It is all about helping agents win big financially, so they find more deals. Real estate professionals can easily double and triple their earnings by learning how to work with investors that will reward them generously. I hope you enjoy the tips and lessons I share…...
by Gagner | Mar 8, 2015 | Trust Deed Investing
Private money lending for real estate Most people have been conditioned to believe that earning double-digit returns is only possible for those willing to take large financial risks. I am here to tell you that it is not true. I know this because my private money lenders earn these types of returns, while being exposed to risks far less than what I believe the stock market offers. Our private-money lenders have their loans secured by actual real estate assets. In the “worse case scenario” (the occurrence of a major, unexpected problem), the principal can be recovered thru the foreclosure process. How does the process work? There are 3 steps we follow in California: 1. Bridge Equity Group and their private money lenders come to an agreement on terms. These are typically loans for 12 months with no pre-payment penalty. In most cases, loans are paid back in less than 6 months. 2. Once a house is in contract, the borrower signs a promissory note (legal document that defines all terms of the loan) and a deed of trust (legal document that secures the loan against the house). At close of escrow, the title company records the deed, which places a lien against the property. With a lien recorded against the property, it cannot be sold until the loan is paid in full. 3. Property is the rehabbed and sold, at which point the lender is paid back their principal and all accumulated interest. The key is to work with borrowers who have a successful track record, experience, and integrity. I recommend that you always check references. In addition, there...
by Gagner | Feb 22, 2015 | Finding deals
Your network equals your net worth. It is true that the people you choose to be around will generally have a significant influence on you, either good or bad. This is true for all areas of your life, including real estate investing. To take it a step further, I believe that leveraging the knowledge, resources and good will of those people in the business of successful investing will not only help you get started, they will also be a critical source of the leads and opportunities that are the life blood of any real estate business. I would like to explore the many ways of meeting the people who will help you on your journey to successful investing. This is all about networking to find real estate deals. Joining your local REIA (real estate investing association) is probably the simplest and quickest way to meet like-minded investors. Google “real estate investing association + your city” and you will likely find multiple groups. These groups generally contain everybody from beginners to experts. The 1st rule is not to be shy. Get out of your comfort zone and talk to as many people as practical. To network effectively, you must show sincere, genuine interest in the people you are meeting. Ask questions, be curious and most importantly try to figure out how you can help them. The most important question might be ”how can I help you be more successful?” If they are unsure how to answer the question, here are a few ideas: 1. Offer to help find deals (more on that later). 2. Help connect them with other resources...
by Gagner | Feb 18, 2015 | Latest Projects
In this video, we show you the next step in our Berkeley Victorian foundation replacement project. Previously, the foundation had been poured, and above it, the mud sill and shear walls have been built and anchored. Now, the construction of the cripple walls is next. Essentially this is plywood that is attached to the studs and shear walls, and helps to reinforce the entire foundation. Cripple walls are an important factor when seismically retrofitting a house, and help to provide the reinforcement necessary to making our house seismically sound. We hope you enjoy viewing the progress made on this...
by Gagner | Feb 10, 2015 | Residential Wholesaling and Flipping
This article is about finding house deals and helping home-owners that need to sell their house fast. There are many reasons why somebody might need to sell fast. I won’t be talking about why people need to sell quickly, rather sharing strategies on how to find these people. If you are in the fix/flip business, finding and working with distressed property owners directly can help eliminate significant costs associated with “finding deals”. Namely, I am speaking of agent sales commissions or wholesaler fees. Of course, many of the techniques to identify sellers do require some marketing expense. Here I would like to provide ideas on how you can find distressed properties, while helping homeowners that are in a situation to benefit from a cash buyer. If you are on a budget, there are many techniques that require more time and less money. Driving thru neighborhoods and writing down distressed looking properties is a start. Typically there are on-line resources that allow you to plug in an address or APN number to identify the homeowner is. Armed with a name and address, you can mail a letter stating that you buy houses for cash and are looking to buy in their neighborhood. You can create “I Buy Houses for Cash” signs from your own materials (or buy them from companies like www.cheapsigns.com). These ”bandit” signs are almost always effective at getting your phone to ring from all types of people. It is a little like finding a needle in a haystack, so be patient. Placing door hangers on pre foreclosure homes is another economical option (door hangers are very inexpensive to get printed). Title...
by Gagner | Feb 3, 2015 | Real Estate News
In our last video, we showed the placement of forms and rebar under our Berkeley Victorian house, where the original foundation had once existed. This new video shows the result of pouring the concrete foundation into the forms and then removing the forms after the concrete had cured. In addition, we have begun building the cripple walls above the new foundation/mudsill and below the girders and floor joists. We did this work along the length of both sides of the house, and now we will repeat the process at the front and back width of house and down the center length of the property. Some contractors may choose to lift the entire house to do the entire replacement at one time, but my contractor decided it was more economical to do it in two stages (probably because he would have had to subcontract out the lifting process. Hope you enjoy the progress on this Berkeley Victorian foundation...
by Gagner | Jan 27, 2015 | Volunteer Work
Bridge Equity Group recently had the pleasure of helping the local Habitat for Humanity team do construction work on their Silicon Valley project located at 1081 Palm St, San Jose. This house is a complete remodel sitting a mile away from the downtown. On this particular day, work was being done to prepare the roof for new shingles, as well as a complete seismic retrofit. We accomplished most of our goals, however there is much work that still needs to be done. I was assigned the task of trimming out the wood above the mudsill to make the wall surfaces flat. Once the wood surfaces were flush, we began mounting LPF4 brackets every 24 inches along the perimeter of the house. In addition to the LPF4 brackets, larger brackets were screwed into both the concrete foundation and mudsill every 36 inches. Finally, additional fixtures were mounted on top of the mudsill (and screwed in to the concrete foundation) to keep the house from lifting vertically in a quake. I am very confident that this house won’t go anywhere in the largest earthquake! What follows is a little history about this wonderful organization. In 1976, Millard and Linda Fuller founded Habitat for Humanity. The concept was to build homes for low-income families, where the families themselves worked alongside volunteers to construct their homes. The idea for partnership housing came from Koinonia Farm, a small, interracial, Christian community outside of Americus, Georgia that was founded in 1942. In this model, homes are not given to low-income families for free. Rather, families are provided no interest loans to help purchase...
by Gagner | Jan 18, 2015 | Real Estate News
Today, I would like to share a video of the foundation work being done on my Victorian home in Berkeley CA. This house was built in 1902 on a brick foundation. Although there were no major deficiencies in the foundation itself, we decided to replace it so that the buyer would have confidence in the foundation of our new renovation. This video captures how the house is being supported while the new foundation is being formed and eventually poured. In our case, we have supported two side of the house with large beams and 4×4 posts, while the original shear walls were removed. Next, forms were constructed to hold the vertical portions of the foundation structure, followed by rebar placed within the forms and base area. This is where the job stood at the time of the video. ...
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