Life has risks. Investing adds new risks. Investing in real estate adds new risks specific to real estate investing. One risk that is unique to real estate investing is the risk of buying a stigmatized property or having a property become stigmatized while you own it. In this class, James will: Uncover hidden gems in the real estate market and turn them into profitable investments. Learn how to leverage the power of stigmatized properties to create buying opportunities that others overlook. Disc...
Aug 09, 2024•25 min•Ep. 114
Real Estate Investing Through Massive Foreclosure Periods Join us for an exclusive episode of the REFP podcast, focusing on "Real Estate Investing Through Massive Foreclosure Periods." In this enlightening episode, you'll dive into the following insights: Discover the secret to making money during economic downturns, a strategy that can set you apart from the crowd. Learn how to attract a specific group of unaffected renters for maximum cash flow, a targeted approach for consistent income. Uncov...
Aug 02, 2024•51 min•Ep. 113
Deal Alchemy™ - Debt Paydown to Cash Flow Join us for an exciting and enlightening class with James Orr as he delves into the fascinating world of Deal Alchemy™ . In this class, listeners will discover a surprisingly powerful strategy that has the potential to drastically improve cash flow on rental properties. Whether you're considering buying a new rental property or already own one, this episode is a must-listen. Deal Alchemy™ is all about the art of transforming and combining returns in real...
Jul 26, 2024•25 min•Ep. 112
Tax Deductibility of PMI Payments Are you an owner-occupant puzzled by the ever-changing rules around PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance) deductibility? Or perhaps an ambitious real estate investor, hungry to maximize your deductions and supercharge your profits? Then this class is your golden ticket to the world of tax wisdom! Join us for an exhilarating journey through the labyrinth of PMI tax laws, where we'll explore: Two Distinct Worlds: Owner-occupant properties and investment/rental properti...
Jul 19, 2024•14 min•Ep. 111
Functional Obsolescence Unveiled: The Silent Value Killer in Real Estate Investments—and How to Defeat It! There's a often overlooked risk of investing in reale state: obsolescence. Whether we're focused on properties that are or will become functionally obsolete or drift directly into economic or physical obsolescence... these are real-world risks with real-world impact to your bottom line. Learn all about them including examples, how they show up and how to overcome them in this special class....
Jul 12, 2024•31 min•Ep. 110
How to Analyze an All-Cash Rental Property Purchase Deal analysis is important. Learning how to analyze deals is a critical skill for all real estate investors, whether you're financing 100% of the purchase or buying a property without a loan at all and paying all cash. In this class, we will look at how deal analysis changes when you plan to buy a property for all cash, without a mortgage, using The World's Greatest Real Estate Deal Analysis Spreadsheet™ . Or, check out the deal analysis exampl...
Jul 05, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 109
How Return on Investment Changes Based on Credit Score With PMI Does your credit score really matter when you're buying rental properties? Sure, your credit score impacts the mortgage interest rate you can get with traditional mortgages. And yes, your credit score affects how much private mortgage insurance (PMI) will cost. Your credit score can also be a factor in the cost of insurance on your properties. But does it really make a significant difference? In a word: yes. Most people are surprise...
Jun 28, 2024•42 min•Ep. 108
So, are you stressing out over higher mortgage interest rates and properties not cash flowing as well as they used to, or in some markets, not having positive cash flow at all... even with 25% down? What's a real estate investor seeking financial independence to do? In this class, we will compare two strategies. In both strategies, you first buy an owner-occupant property with a 5% down payment to live in. Then, in the first strategy, you save up for a 25% down payment and buy a rental property....
Jun 21, 2024•31 min•Ep. 107
So, you're considering Nomading™. Excellent! But as you dig into the details, you may wonder what the impact would be if you chose to buy a more desirable, higher quality, but maybe less optimal property at full price (without a discount), versus focusing on finding a slightly less desirable, slightly lower quality, but slightly more optimized rental property that you can buy at a 5% discount. How will that impact your speed to financial independence? How will that impact your net worth? Find ou...
Jun 14, 2024•26 min•Ep. 106
Deal Alchemy™ - Black Box Cash Flow Deal Alchemy™ is all about manipulating returns to get the returns you desire most. One variation of Deal Alchemy™ has you think about your rental property investment as a black box. You put money into the black box, some magical things happen over the next few years and out pops profit which you can spend like cash flow. That's what James will cover in this mini-class. In this class, James discusses: The definition of alchemy What is Deal Alchemy™ How to mani...
Jun 07, 2024•32 min•Ep. 105
Warning - Risks of Rental Demand Declining When Investing in Real Estate Risk, risk, risk... Life is full of risks. To a limited degree, we get to choose which risks we voluntarily take on. For example, if you choose to invest in real estate, you choose to take on some additional risks that you might not—directly—face if you opt to invest in something else with its own set of risks. One risk when investing in real estate is the risk that the property you buy as a rental experiences a decline in ...
May 31, 2024•27 min•Ep. 104
Private Mortgage Insurance Myths Reputation can be a challenging thing. I have found, through many conversations with clients over the years, that Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) has a questionable reputation with home buyers in general and investors in particular. However, much of its reputation is based on half-truths, bad information, lies, and myths. In this special class, James will discuss some of the more common myths about PMI and the truth about what PMI is, and why its reputation is m...
May 24, 2024•27 min•Ep. 103
Warning - Risks of Neighborhood Decline When Investing in Real Estate Everything in life has risks. Not investing adds certain types of risks, while investing adds other risks. One risk that some real estate investors face is the possibility that the neighborhood they're investing in will decline, causing values and/or rents to drop. So, how do we prevent this, and what can we do about it if it happens to us? In this mini-class addressing the dangers and risks of investing in real estate, James ...
May 17, 2024•28 min•Ep. 102
How to Analyze a Duplex Some real estate investors are sensitive to their ability to get ten 30-year fixed rate financing loans and would prefer to fill those loan spots with larger purchases than just single family rental homes. One way to do that is to buy more expensive properties like duplexes, triplexes or fourplexes. In this class, James will walk you through how to analyze a duplex using The World’s Greatest Real Estate Deal Analysis Spreadsheet™ . Or, check out the deal analysis example ...
May 10, 2024•21 min•Ep. 101
How to Calculate PMI If you're a house hacker, Nomad™, investor buying properties with less than 20% down, or buying creatively where the seller has PMI, you'll want to make sure you know how to analyze deals that have Private Mortgage Insurance. In this mini-class, James will cover how to analyze deals that have PMI, with an emphasis on doing it using The World's Greatest Real Estate Deal Analysis Spreadsheet™ . In this class, James discusses: What is Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) and why do...
May 03, 2024•13 min•Ep. 100
In many cases—not all, but many cases—real estate investors can speed up the time it takes to become financially independent by choosing to pay off the mortgages on their properties early. Sometimes it makes sense to take every extra dollar beyond a healthy amount of reserves and aggressively pay off properties as quickly as possible. Other times, it might be better to invest money that you have earmarked to pay off properties in something else—like the stock market, for example—until you have e...
Apr 26, 2024•36 min•Ep. 99
Deal Alchemy™ - Residential vs Commercial Property Deal Alchemy™ is all about manipulating the returns you're earning on your investments. Often, this is done through the choices we make when selecting the investment property and the strategies we choose to implement. For example, you could choose to invest in residential properties where your tenants would live in the property. Alternatively, you could choose to invest in commercial properties where your tenants do not live in the property. Oft...
Apr 19, 2024•15 min•Ep. 98
Warning - Risks of Loan Called Due When Investing in Real Estate Investing in real estate adds some risk to an already risk-filled life. However, certain activities and strategies when investing in real estate create additional risks that other strategies and activities do not have. For example, choosing to utilize strategies where the lender has the right to call a loan due—like many types of creative financing, using home equity lines of credit, and many commercial loans—adds the additional ri...
Apr 12, 2024•30 min•Ep. 97
How to Analyze Buying a Rental Property at a Discount in Independence Some real estate investors insist on only buying properties where they can purchase them at a significant discount. While not mutually exclusive, other investors insist on buying quality properties at a fair price as long as it gets them their desired returns and will stand the test of time. Buffett began as a deep value investor and eventually shifted his focus towards investing in high-quality companies. “It's far better to ...
Apr 05, 2024•37 min•Ep. 96
How to Calculate PMI If you're planning to buy a property and put less than 20% down, you're likely to be required to pay Private Mortgage Insurance. Lenders prefer that you put at least 20% down, but if you insist on putting less than 20% down, they may still make the loan. However, they will usually do so at a slightly higher mortgage interest rate for taking on more risk and require that you pay a third party to insure them in case you default. This insurance you pay to the third party is cal...
Mar 29, 2024•13 min•Ep. 95
There are a large number of investing strategies you could pursue as a real estate investor: Nomad™, house hacking, fix and flip, buying 20% down rentals, buying 25% down rentals, saving up to buy free and clear rentals and many, many more options. Which is the best? Which gets you to financial independence fastest? Which gives you the highest net worth? Which gives you the highest standard of living in retirement? Which has the lowest amount of risk? Which should you pursue and implement? These...
Mar 22, 2024•31 min•Ep. 94
Deal Alchemy™ - Increasing Down Payment There are four primary returns from investing in rental properties: appreciation, cash flow, debt paydown, and the tax benefits of depreciation. Additionally, there is a secondary return in the form of the interest earned on the reserves required to make the investment in the first place. Many real estate investors prefer the cash flow return over the others. Often, we can manipulate the investment to shift returns between appreciation, cash flow, debt pay...
Mar 15, 2024•20 min•Ep. 93
Warning - Risks of Rental Property Expenses When Investing in Real Estate Risk is all around us. When we choose to invest in anything, we’re choosing to take on the additional risk characteristics of that investment. For example, when we choose to invest in real estate, we choose to take on the risk characteristics of the specific real estate investing we opt to do minus the risk mitigation and elimination strategies we put in place. One of the risks of investing in real estate is the risk of re...
Mar 08, 2024•43 min•Ep. 92
How to Analyze a New Construction Single-Family Home Property in Independence Your ability to analyze deals is arguably the most important skill as a real estate investor. It allows you to make smart investment decisions and helps you avoid making career-ending bad decisions, such as buying cash-flowing-sucking vampire properties. In this class, James will help you utilize The World's Greatest Real Estate Deal Analysis Spreadsheet™ (a free download) to analyze a new construction single-family ho...
Mar 01, 2024•34 min•Ep. 91
The 3 Strategies to Pay Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) Whether they're putting 15% down and buying a non-owner-occupied property or utilizing an owner-occupied loan with 0%, 3%, 3.5%, or 5% down for Nomading™ or house hacking, some real estate investors will choose to put less than 20% down. With the decision to put less than 20% down comes the choice of how to pay for private mortgage insurance (PMI). There are three options (plus some combinations of the three options): up-front lump sum, le...
Feb 23, 2024•30 min•Ep. 90
Investing in real estate is full of truthy-sounding falsehoods: it is always better to do X than Y. However, if you were crazy enough to sit down and do the math, you'd find the truth to be much more nuanced. For example, should you take all your extra cash flow and savings and apply it to your mortgages each month to pay off rental properties faster? And if you do, is that a faster path to financial independence? Does it result in your having a higher overall net worth? A higher overall standar...
Feb 16, 2024•31 min•Ep. 89
Deal Alchemy™ - Cash Flow to Debt Paydown There are four primary returns from investing in rental properties: appreciation, cash flow, debt paydown, and the tax benefits of depreciation. Additionally, there is a secondary return in the form of the interest earned on the reserves required to make the investment in the first place. Many real estate investors prefer the cash flow return over the others. Often, we can manipulate the investment to shift returns between appreciation, cash flow, debt p...
Feb 09, 2024•26 min•Ep. 87
Warning - The Risk of Down Payment Size When Investing in Real Estate Life is full of risks. When we choose to invest, we choose to take on additional risks. If we invest in stocks, we choose to take on certain risks. When we choose to invest in bonds, we take on different risks. When we choose to invest in real estate, we choose to take on additional and different risks. One of the risks associated with real estate investing is the risk of down payment size. If you put a large amount down—or ev...
Feb 02, 2024•48 min•Ep. 86
How to Analyze a 5% Down Single-Family Nomad™ Property in Independence Using the latest version of The World's Greatest Real Estate Deal Analysis Spreadsheet™ , we will walk through how to analyze a single-family home Nomad™ property with a 5% down payment. Learn how to analyze deals correctly and avoid buying cash flow vampires. Only buy the best deals that make sense in this special mini-class, which is part of our deal analysis series. Check out the video from this class here: How to Analyze ...
Jan 26, 2024•37 min•Ep. 85
What Affects Your PMI Rate Lenders prefer that you put at least 20% down, but if you push hard enough, many will allow you to put less than 20% down if you're willing to purchase insurance to protect them in case you default. This insurance is called Private Mortgage Insurance. The cost of this insurance depends on several factors. Some are primary factors and have a significant impact on the cost of the insurance policy. Other factors are secondary and affect the premium, but only to a smaller ...
Jan 19, 2024•17 min•Ep. 84
