John T. Reed’s real estate investment blog

Ohio action against follower of Robert Kiyosaki and Bill Gatten Copied from the Ohio Division of Real Estate and Professional Licensing Summer 2007 Newsletter Below is a copy of the redacted statement that is published on the Web site of the Ohio government Division of Real Estate and Professional Licensing Summer 2007 newsletter. I obtained an unredacted copy of the statement. The one at the Ohio government site is fully redacted. The one below is partially redacted by me where the person in question may not be a public figure. Where the person or organization was obviously a public figure,...

While reviewing Jay DeCima’s book Fixin' Ugly Houses for Money I was reminded of how many misconceptions float around real estate as if they were gospel. I decided to put an article about it here. Misconception Example of who said it The truth Detailed explanation Wraparound mortgages increase the lender's yield DeCima page 252 You get the same yield and more flexibility with a separate second mortgage that has the same yield as the wraparound would have. The buyer/borrower gets the same total payments as the wrap and also has more flexibility. my How to Structure your Mortgage book Get good...

Getting how-to information from infomercial gurus (See numerous pertinent articles by clicking here) Ignoring transaction costs When investors brag about their real estate profits, they leave out the transaction costs. You cannot do that. They are enormous in real estate, typically around 10% of the value of the property when you buy and something similar when you sell. In contrast, transaction costs when you buy securities (stocks and bonds) can be as low as zero if you buy direct from the borrower (e.g., the U.S. Treasury) or company (e.g., Apple, Inc.) in question. Since real estate investors typically use leverage...

Copyright 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006, 2007 John T. Reed Seminar and home-study course ratings Definition of nothing down I need to define nothing down because a number of people have written to me that I was wrong, then proceeded to describe a deal which was not nothing down. A nothing-down deal is a real estate acquisition in which the loan-to-value ratio after closing is 100%. Nothing-down gurus like to claim nothing-down status for deals where a partner puts up down payment money or where you have a 100% loan-to-purchase-price ratio, but not a 100% loan-to-value ratio. This article...

John T. Reed's analysis of Carleton H. Sheets' books and tapes I received two cartons of Carleton Sheet’s books and tapes from his associate in the spring of 1998. (Sheets’ name is sometimes misspelled as Carlton Sheets or Carelton Sheets.) I appreciate their generosity in sending all that material, but I wonder why they did it considering my approach to real estate and what is contained in Sheets’ material. Where to begin? Overview Sheets targets beginners. The curriculum he devised for those novices is not what I think beginners need to know. In fact, it appears to me that the...