Real Estate Investing 101 and Beyond

Florida House Bill 483 passed and goes in to effect Saturday. This bill is a win for the real estate consumer in that it makes the delivery of estoppel certificates a more uniform practice. The highlights you should  know are as follows: 1. It caps fees that can be charged for the preparation and delivery of an estoppel: a) $250 for unit owners who are current b) Additional $100 for "expedited" estoppel requests c) Additional $150 can be charged for owners who are delinquent 2. Requires that the estoppel require certain information 3. Estoppel certificate is to be issued within 10 days of written request of owner or owner representative 4. If the closing does not occur and a proper request is made the fee for the estoppel is to be refunded. As always, if you're just a glutton for punishment, the full bill as provided by the FLTA can be found by clicking  HERE . 

Just like Subject To's vs. Assumptions , Tax Certificates vs. Tax Deeds fall under the category of terms investors use interchangeably, but really they are two different things. To know (and remember) the difference it’s helpful to also understand the basics of how the tax sale process works. Tax Certificate: When a property owner becomes delinquent on their property taxes the county issues a tax certificate for the owed amount. There are investors who are attracted to these certificates because they earn interest. When the owner finally remembers to pay their taxes they must pay the money owed to the county, and they also must pay all of the accrued interest owed to the certificate investor. The key point to take away here is that a tax certificate investor is entitled to earn interest in the investment,  but has no ownership interest in the property.  Tax Deeds: If after two years the property owner has not paid the amount owed to satisfy the certifica...

​I was recently invited by the host of Real Estate Live! with Michele the "Queen of Real Estate Radio" to discuss a few topics of interest to investors. Video of the show is posted to YouTube. Check it out! https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=2zndUd4pHbM

I recently had a conversation with a great investor from Ohio. He had hired a company based in Las Vegas to draft a trust document, and a bunch of other stuff to help him on his journey into wholesaling. He was kind enough to let me see the trust document created for him. There was no mention of any statute from any state saying that this document was a trust under the laws of....X. There were no instructions telling him to put that language in the Deed that would place property into the trust, and for some reason the seller was named as a party to his trust. Basically, this guy just had a weird contract that allowed his seller to still have an interest in the property - even after he gave them funds to close. At the risk of sounding harsh- this guy was taken advantage of, and he would need a ton of experience to be able to manipulate these documents into something workable. I know I always say, "A trust is just a piece of paper" which is true, but it's a legal piece...

I held a Facebook Live event that was a general Q&A on land trusts. Click the link below for the play back. Also, to be sure you don't miss more Live events like the FaceBook group Land Trusts for Investors and Richards Law Firm for details on upcoming events. Live Land Trust Q &A Event Play Back