Lex Levinrad Real Estate Investor, Speaker, Author & Mentor

On this podcast episode I talk about the cost of borrowing money and specifically the fear of borrowing money (which I see many beginners have). I use a live case study of a house that I am currently fixing and flipping in Cocoa Beach, which will be listed on the MLS in the next few weeks for $169,900. My purchase price was $55,000. On this fix and flip case study, I borrowed ALL of the money. I borrowed the $55,000 to purchase the property and I also borrowed the $30,000 to repair the property. My out of pocket cost at closing was zero. And I received a check of $28,000 which I used to contribute towards the cost of the repairs. I only needed to lay out $2,000 from my pocket for closing costs and another $1,800 for taxes, insurance and utilities. The net cash that I laid out from my pocket was only $3,800 on this house. The profit on this deal is $58,950 assuming I can net a sales price of $160,000. That profit of $58,950 is AFTER commissions, interest, insurance, repairs, utilities and closing costs. That p

On this podcast episode I talk about how to calculate the After Repair Value (ARV), so that you can know how much to offer on a property. Most new investors, and a fair amount of seasoned investors make the mistake of using common tools like Zillow, the MLS, and the Property Appraiser Website to estimate what a house is worth. On this podcast I talk about why that is a mistake and how that mistake can cost you a lot of deals (and a lot of money). I use as an example, a house that I just purchased last week from a wholesaler. I paid $105,000 for this house and the wholesaler purchased it for $90,000. According to most online estimates on sites like Redfin, Zillow, Movoto and Trulia the house is worth around $125,000. However the real ARV on this house is probably more like $165,000. I explain to you in detail how I came up with that number by showing you how I use the MLS to see what is for sale right now and how a first time home buyer with an FHA mortgage thinks. Using the wrong tools, or not having complete

On this podcast episode I talk about the systems that you need to set up to get started as a wholesaler. I talk about the benefits of having your real estate license and why this is important for marketing properties, getting lock box codes and having access to properties. Then I cover buyer and seller web sites, and why it is so important to have a motivated seller site for motivated seller leads and a cash buyer site for cash buyers. Your cash buyer site also doubles as a site where you can post your wholesale deals. If you don't have any deals then post another wholesalers deals (with their permission). Or even better - hire a virtual assistant to do it for you! I speak about call tracking and why you need to use a call tracking system so you can track your buyer and seller leads. You need to know where your leads are coming from. I also speak about phone systems and why you shouldn't use your cell phone or Google Voice for your phone number for your websites and bandit signs and direct mail. Then I talk a

On this podcast episode I talk about borrowing money to fix and flip houses. I start out by explaining why you should borrow money for fix and flips, even if you have the cash to fix and flip without borrowed money. I explain the tax benefits, leverage and increased return on investment by using borrowed funds. We also talk about deal flow, and why no matter how much cash you have, you will eventually tap out if you don't tap into borrowed funds from private lenders. I breakdown a deal, showing you the typical borrowing costs for a borrower if they were borrowing money from me to do their first fix and flip and what that looks like. I also talk about why you should attend your local REIA meetings to meet and network with other investors, wholesalers, rehabbers and lenders. If you need to borrow money then go where the lenders are. And finally I talk about why the best thing you can do if you are just starting out, is to learn how to locate deals for other investors. That is what our Partnership Program is all

On this podcast episode I talk about marketing your wholesale real estate deals. The system that we employ I like to call "brute force" marketing. Since we have Virtual Assistants posting so many of our deals in so many places, they just have to get noticed by cash buyers. And that is the point since that is what makes the phone ring! And if you want to sell houses then you need buyers. I share with you the template that I use with my Virtual Assistants and the sites that we use to post our wholesale real estate deals including: Wholesale Real Estate Deals Blog Lex Real Estate System Site Investor Carrot Web Sites Wholesale Deal Sheet Craigslist Ads My House Deals Facebook Page Facebook Groups Text Blast Email Blast List on MLS Facebook Ads Phone Calls to buyers Personalized Emails Personalized Texts If you employ our system for marketing your wholesale real estate deals (which is really simple to do) you will see that your phone will start ringing with cash buyers! If you are brand new to real estate and wan

On this podcast episode I talk about one of the easiest ways to find good wholesale deals. Direct mail, ringless voicemail, bandit signs, making offers, bidding online and outbound dialing are all excellent ways to find good deals. But sometimes as investors we forget that there are some really good wholesale real estate deals out there that are already under contract by other wholesalers in your market. Think about it for a second. They have spent the money on marketing to find the seller. They have gone on the appointments and they have "locked up" the property. Now all they want is to sell it to a cash buyer and make a profit. You need to learn how to be that cash buyer that they want to sell to. This is an amazing opportunity since everyone wants to learn how to wholesale, and every new investor wants to be a wholesaler. But no one wants to borrow money and close on the deal themselves! That creates an opportunity for real estate investors like myself that are willing to "take a deal down". If you have th

On this podcast episode I talk about how to find motivated sellers. On previous podcast episodes, I spoke about marketing to motivated sellers and sending direct mail. On this episode I talk about many of the motivated seller resources that are out there and lists that can be purchased or compiled. I break these down into 6 main categories Direct mail (what to mail for example postcards) Mailing Lists (who to mail to and types of lists) Cold Calling (who to call and how to get lists) Online Marketing (how to get leads online) Offline Marketing (how to get leads offline) Driving For Dollars (finding deals by driving) If you are brand new to real estate and want to learn more about how to wholesale real estate and flip houses then please register for the free wholesaling real estate training at this link below: FREE WHOLESALING TRAINING https://www.lexlevinrad.com/webinar FIXING AND FLIPPING TRAINING If you want to learn how to fix and flip houses I have a fix and flip training webinar at this link: https://www

On this podcast episode I talk about how to find cash buyers and how to go about building your cash buyers list. On previous episodes, I spoke about the importance of marketing to motivated sellers in order find wholesale deals at discounted prices. Once you find those deals, and get them under contract, then you need to have a cash buyer in order to sell that property. Having many cash buyers is the key to being able to sell those houses that you have under contract. And the more cash buyers you have, the easier it will be to sell your deals quickly. We sell some of our deals in less than two hours because we have so many cash buyers. Knowing how to build your cash buyer's list is just as important as knowing how to find wholesale deals. If you want to be good at wholesaling you need to know how to do both very well. When you have a big list of cash buyers, you will find yourself in a situation where you have more cash buyers than deals. At this point other wholesalers will reach out to you to market their d

On this podcast episode I talk about learning how to wholesale real estate, and why wholesaling attracts the largest amount of new real estate investors. I share with you the importance of having a goal and a vision of thinking about, understanding, and knowing what you want to achieve from wholesaling. I also explain to you why one person's goal and how much they are looking to make from wholesaling may be very different to someone else's. It does not matter whether you have a full time job with no spare time, or you have lots of time but no money. What does matter is knowing how to employ your circumstances into trading either your time or your money (or both) into learning how to wholesale. The key thing to understand is that it will help you if you have a vision of what it is you are trying to accomplish BEFORE you get started learning how to wholesale. Ask yourself what it is that you want to achieve. Listening to this podcast episode should help you with that. If you are brand new to real estate and wan

On this podcast I talk about the Buy, Repair, Rent and Refinance strategy which is often referred to as BRRR. The concept behind the buy, repair, rent and refinance strategy is that if you can find deals at 75% or less of the After Repair Value (ARV), you can essentially be doing no money down deals because you will get your money back when you refinance. You will then be able to use that same money to buy your next property. When you refinance the property and get your money back then you are essentially in your first deal for no money down. At this point you can use the same funds to buy the second property and then repair, rent and refinance that one too. You can do this for your first ten rental properties. What makes this strategy even more appealing is when you borrow the funds from a private lender to purchase the property. Once you do this once, you will realize the only thing stopping you from buying unlimited properties is having more private lenders. When you have multiple private lenders you will

On this podcast episode I talk about raising private money from private lenders. Many beginners that don't have much money want to know the "secret" to raising money. The reality is that there is no secret. The secret is approaching investors in the right way and knowing how to find those investors. You see if you ask people who have money to invest with you, they will invariably say no. The secret that you need to understand is that you need to focus on what THEY NEED. They need security, and they need to know that you are going to pay them their interest payment every month, and they are going to need to know that their investment is safe and that they have collateral. And finally, they are going to need to know that you know what you are doing and that you have some experience. If you can show them those 4 things then you will have no problem raising capital. If you are brand new to real estate and want to learn more about how to wholesale real estate and flip houses then please register for the free whole

On this podcast episode I talk about how to get started investing in real estate with no money. If you don't have much money, but you want to learn how to get started in real estate, then listen to this podcast. I will explain to you why being a real estate property locator or bird dog is the best way to start out, and why you don't need to have any money to start looking for deals for investors. That is how I started out, and that is what I recommend for you as well. Even if you do have money, I still recommend that you start out as a property locator and learn how to wholesale, before you start putting your hard earned cash (and credit) on the line. If you are brand new to real estate and want to learn more about how to wholesale real estate and flip houses then please register for the free wholesaling real estate training at this link below: FREE WHOLESALING TRAINING https://www.lexlevinrad.com/webinar FIXING AND FLIPPING TRAINING If you want to learn how to fix and flip houses I have a fix and flip traini

On this podcast episode I talk about buying deals directly from wholesalers, and how that is an untapped niche that many investors don't utilize. Much of the focus for new and experienced wholesalers focuses on finding deals, getting the houses under contract and then flipping those houses to cash buyers. However, just because you are a wholesaler, doesn't mean you can't be a cash buyer too. The key is to know what a property is worth. If you know the After Repair Value of the property, and you know for a fact that there is a substantial profit that could be made by rehabbing that property, then you can close on the house yourself and fix and flip the property. All you would need to do this is access to capital, a private lender or a credit line. Even if you have zero desire to be a rehabber (like many wholesalers) you will not give away your best deals too cheaply if you know what they are worth and you know what you could sell them for. Knowing the ARV is very important. You can also apply this same strateg

On this podcast episode I talk about getting started in real estate and the three main investing categories of real estate which are wholesaling, fixing and flipping and rentals. When you first start out in real estate, you need to decide if you want to focus on learning how to wholesale, how to fix and flip or how to buy and hold rental properties long term. It is tempting to want to learn all three investing strategies at the same time, but this is a classic beginner's mistake because each strategy requires a different and unique skill set. You will actually advance more quickly as a new investor if you focus on one skill set as a time (for example wholesaling). For most new investors, wholesaling and learning how to locate deals for other investors is the best way to start out because it gives you the most learning and requires the least amount of money. You don't risk any money wholesaling and if you are a beginner this is a very key and important consideration. If you have a good job and decent credit th

On this podcast episode I talk about the types of contracts you should use for wholesaling. One of the most common questions that I get is "what type of contract should I use". The answer is it depends. If you are buying from an entity like a bank or short sale, HUD, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, then you will need to use the Standard Purchase Contract for your state. In Florida it's called the FARBAR Contract. Banks and entities will also not allow you to assign their contracts so you cannot use the words "and or assigns" on a contract if one of these entities is the seller. However if you are buying directly from a motivated seller then you can pretty much use any contract that you want. When buying direct from sellers your contract should be: 1. short 2. assignable 3. have as long of an inspection period that you can get away with - the longer the better. FREE WHOLESALING TRAINING https://www.lexlevinrad.com/webinar FIXING AND FLIPPING TRAINING If you want to learn how to fix and flip houses I have a fix and fl

On this podcast episode I talk about buying houses with no money down. One of the easiest ways that I know to explain "no money down" deals is to give you a real life example of my first no money down house that I purchased. The house that I am talking about on today's podcast was a house that I estimated had an After Repair Value (ARV) of $120,000. The house was offered to me by my mentor (who got it from a wholesaler). The purchase price was $50,000 which included all of the wholesalers fees. The house had a significant amount of water damage from Hurricane Frances and needed around $25,000 in repairs. I purchased this house with a $50,000 loan from my mentor's partners dad. I borrowed the $25,000 for repairs from my friend Darryl's mom. After repairing this house (using my mentor's crew) I rented out the front house for $1,200 and I rented the back unit efficiency for $600 (total $1,800 per month). I went to my mortgage broker Warren to refinance the house. The house appraised for $163,000 and after paying

On this podcast episode I talk about driving for dollars and how driving for dollars has one of the highest Return on Investment (ROI) of any of our marketing methods that we use. I discuss the old school method of using a notepad and pen to jot down the addresses of vacant and boarded up properties and how to use the property appraiser web site to locate the property owner (to mail them a postcard or letter). I compare that to the new technology methods of using smart phone apps like Deal Machine (www.dealmachine.com) and Send Fuse (www.getsendfuse.com) to market with postcards to motivated sellers. If you are not driving for dollars and using these apps then you should be. I also discuss your "investor toolkit" and what tools you should have in the trunk of your car when you are out looking for deals by driving for dollars (including bandit signs). Incorporate driving for dollars and utilize bird dogs by giving them access to your apps to make sure you are maximizing your opportunity to find wholesale deals

On this podcast episode I talk about how to get started as a property locator or bird dog for other real estate investors. I share my story of how I got started as a bird dog working for my mentor Ben, and why being a property locator for another real estate investor is one of the best ways to learn about investing in real estate. Learning how to find and evaluate deals is the most important piece of the real estate business. And it is the one piece that eludes most new real estate investors since they never put the time into learning how to do this. If you can find good wholesale deals then you can wholesale these houses to other investors, you can fix and flip these houses, or you can keep them as rental properties. The most important thing is learning how to find good wholesale deals at wholesale prices. And one of the best ways to learn this is by being a bird dog or property locator for another real estate investor. That way you risk their money and not yours. And you don't need to risk your cash (or you

On this podcast episode I talk about financial freedom and how to structure your life in a way that you can slowly move towards being financially free. Financial freedom means having the time and financial resources to be able to do what you want and whenever you want to do it. That means by definition that you will not achieve financial freedom by working hard at your job. You will achieve financial freedom by learning how to invest in real estate. And one of the easiest ways to do this is by buying rental properties at 80% or less of their fair market value since you are effectively buying these properties with no money down. If you are brand new to real estate and want to learn more about how to wholesale real estate and flip houses then please register for the free wholesaling real estate training at this link below: FREE WHOLESALING TRAINING https://www.lexlevinrad.com/webinar FIXING AND FLIPPING TRAINING If you want to learn how to fix and flip houses I have a fix and flip training webinar at this link:

On this podcast episode I talk about how you don't know what you don't know. If you are new to real estate investing or if you are just starting out, and trying to learn how to wholesale real estate and flip houses then it is important for you to know what you don't know. If you don't, you will tend to jump to conclusions based on your existing knowledge (which is very limited). This will cause you to make the wrong decisions. Making the wrong decisions when it comes to your income and your net worth can be the difference between being broke or having a life of financial freedom. How you deal with money and the financial decisions that you make will have the biggest impact on your net worth and income. Make sure you invest in your education and learn what you don't know so that you can make the right financial decisions. I use some real life examples of two houses that I purchased yesterday. One is a deal that was brought to me by a wholesaler which we had been marketing for around a week which I purchased fo