Real Estate Investors Association Meeting

This week we attended our first Real Estate Investors Association Meeting. There were about 30-40 people in attendance and the topic for the night was “Flipping not Flopping”. We are not actually interested in flipping properties at this point in our lives; we were more interested in meeting other investors and networking.

We did meet some very interesting people. Most of them were shocked not only to hear that our first investment is to be out of state, but that we have no intentions of ever going to Texas to see the property. A few of them acted like they had never even heard of people investing in this manner before. Based on what I have read, I thought it was quite common. Maybe the idea has not hit the east coast yet.

There was one man who sparked our interest. He presented himself as a hard-money lender. We discussed the difficulty with finding the small hard-money lenders, and he hinted that he might be able to help us. When I have done searched for hard money in the past I have only found large companies that only lend money in the millions. One day I will be working with hard-money lenders like these, but that day is not today.

The man who taught the seminar had some interesting methods and point of views about investing. He has only been in real estate for 2 years, but has made enough money to now hire people to help him with his system. Some of these young and eager men were also there. Not only did they work for this man, but he was also helping them with their own deals. Sort of like an apprenticeship.

Although it was interesting to hear what other people are doing with flipping, I could not help but wonder about the legal and ethical issues around it. I understand that it is a last report for some people who are in default on their mortgage and that they will lose the house anyway. But I think that I would feel too much like a vulture. There is an increasing problem with foreclosures across the country. There has to be a better way to help these people. But then again, there is not way to stop people from making bad decisions, financial or otherwise.

The legality of it all is also a question in my mind. There seemed to be several legal fine lines that this man played with on a regular basis. I am positive that there are several instances where questionable legal strategies were used. In a way I think what they are doing is an excellent way to make money. I have no problem with using legal loopholes, and I hope my career takes advantage of some. You need to have a certain personality and temperament to make flipping really successful, and I am not one of those people. (But you never know, there could be a million different ways to flip properties.)