Ultimate Guides

Learn what you need to know to find success in real estate investing! Here, the Real Estate Financial Planner™ team has collected all our Ultimate Guides so you can explore everything from investment strategies to financing to rental properties. Dive into the topics that have been holding you back so you can make informed choices, take action, and make your real estate investment goal into a reality.

The Ultimate Guide to Market Corrections

Watch the entire 1 hour 57 minute class that James taught on market corrections here: This class was taught on November 18, 2020 via webinar with Brian Williams. This class picks up where my class on Should I Wait for a Real Estate Dip to Invest in Real Estate? leaves off. In the “market dip” class, I talked about: The obvious idea that: if you buy at relative lows, you perform better Historically, recessions are not necessarily real estate market corrections Predicting the future: technical analysis versus fundamental analysis The smartest investors all say: timing the market is incredibly difficult, … Read more

Ultimate Guide to How to Get Down Payment When Investing in Real Estate

In this 2 hour 13 minute class, James discusses his best ideas for how to get a down payment for your real estate investing. This class was taught on September 16, 2020. Topics for this class: COVID-19 Update and Rental Property Delinquency Update Not Just Down Payment… Down Payment + Reserves Two Approaches to Down Payments: Reduce (the need for down payments) and Produce (the needed down payments) Price and a discussion of Gary Keller’s “Be In The Middle of the Market” chart from The Millionaire Real Estate Investor book Dealing with strong seller’s markets, above market offers, weakening appraisal … Read more

How to Invest $100K – Detailed Financial Plans

Are you looking for information on how to invest $100K? If yes… then grab a cup of your favorite beverage and buckle up for the ride of your life. Below, I have laid out detailed “financial plans” for investing $100K in a savings account, CDs, bonds, stocks as well as an assortment of real estate strategies. And, if you’re thinking to yourself… well, I really have $110K… or, I have $10K… or any amount for that matter… you can, quite easily, just change the assumptions in the Scenarios below, rerun them in your own Real Estate Financial Planner™ account and … Read more

Ultimate Guide to Converting Your Owner-Occupant Property To A Rental

In this special 1 hour and 58 minute class recording James (with a little help from Brian) teaches you how to convert an owner-occupant property to a rental. This is the first time we’ve taught this particular class. It was taught on March 4, 2020 via webinar. Download Checklist As part of preparing for this class, I created a two page PDF checklist summarizing what was taught in the presentation. Download Checklist If you have suggestions for improving the checklist (things we missed, better order or formatting, etc), please do let me know via email or via comment below. 90 … Read more

Phases of Financial Independence™

When modeling your investments for achieving financial independence, we look at your journey as having 4 distinct phases. Each phase has its own sub-phases as well. Each phase is named after the goal you are working toward achieving. So, you might say, I am working on Phase 1… which is working toward having achieved minimal financial independence. Or, I am in phase 3 working toward safe financial independence. Or, I am working toward leaving a legacy (phase 4). Phase 1: Minimal Financial Independence In Phase 1, Minimal Financial Independence, you are working toward having the absolute minimum you’d need to … Read more

The Ultimate Guide to Private Mortgage Insurance

Since real estate investors utilizing conventional financing are often putting 20% or more down when purchasing rental properties, the discussion of Private Mortgage Insurance isn’t typically associated with real estate investing. However, with the increased popularity of real estate investing strategies like house hacking and Nomad™, there is an increase in real estate investors that are opting to live in their properties that will ultimately becoming investments. Plus, there are down payment options for investors that require less than 20% down as well. These will also have Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI). Watch the entire 1 hour and 43 minute class … Read more

The Ultimate Guide to Should I Pay Off My Mortgage

In this 1 hour and 54 minute class, James helps you think about how to answer the question of whether or not you should pay off your mortgage on your properties and especially your rentals. We’ve only taught this class this one time (so far). Should I Pay Off My Mortgage? Are you wondering: Should I Pay Off My Mortgage? Such a simple question, but there are many considerations to whether you should pay extra on your mortgage and specifically… should you pay off your rentals early? Turns out that the Real Estate Financial Planner™ software is uniquely qualified to … Read more

The Ultimate Guide to Credit Repair for Real Estate Investors

As a real estate investor, your credit can be an important factor in how well your investment performs. How much of a difference does your credit score make? That’s what I will cover below. Why Your Credit Score Matters There are real estate investing strategies that you can do with little or no money and no or bad credit, but (as you might imagine) they do limit the number and types of deals you can do. We won’t be discussing the no and bad credit strategies here specifically. Instead, we will focus on how to improve your credit so you … Read more

The Ultimate Guide to 1031 Exchanges

Check out our ultimate guide to 1031 exchanges including 1031 exchange basics, 1031 exchange rules, 1031 exchange timelines and much more. We will discuss 1031 exchanges for rental properties and even the challenges associated with trying to 1031 exchanges your primary residence. Class Recording: 1031 Exchanges The following two real estate seminars on 1031 exchanges are based on the same power point presentation. One was first presented on May 31, 2017 and the second was taught on June 12, 2019 to our local real estate investor group. Here’s the most recent version of the class. And if you want to … Read more

The Ultimate Guide to Investment Property Loans

Whether you’re looking to learn how to finance and buy your first rental property or are already a seasoned investor hoping to access future deals without paying a premium, this is the ultimate guide to investment property loans. As you can imagine, how you choose to finance the purchase impacts multiple aspects of the process for real estate deals. With that in mind, here are the main topics we will teach you here to take your investing knowledge to the next level: Lender Selection Dos and Don’ts – The lender(s) you work with should be part of your dream team … Read more