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I've been looking for a succint answer to this question. What is the tax implication difference between a flip and a assignment? For the purposes of my question I want to get a few definitions straight. 1) a flip is a sales contract where I go on title either as an out right purchase or sub2, and then re-sell it to another buyer. In this scenario, I would cause a title seasoning issue and would be "guilty" of dealing. 2) an assignment is a contract where I have a lease option or pure option, do not cloud the title in any manner, create no seasoning issues and simply assign my contract to a substitute buyer for a fee (perhaps for services rendered) Is this the correct terminology for these transactions? Are my definitions correct? Could I be considered a dealer in either of these 2 scenarios? or Is the "Flip" the only one where I am considered a dealer? Any help that can be provided is greatly appreciated. option8

This is great information! Thanks for posting the great results you are getting! Just one deal pays for this avenue... option8

That's right! Sorry...I responded to this via pm and missed seeing it here. If's it is a retail property, the closing is fast. If it is a lease option, I'll pay them when I get the money from the tb. (I may be way off base here, but do the sellers get deductions for the cost of selling a home?---what if they are relocating for a job.) The take away real message here is we don't LAY OUT ANY UPFRONT money if we can help it. option8

Hi everyone, Due to recent, overwhelming activity in my business, I've had a few radical shifts in my thinking and thought I share a bit. As you know, I'm a big, big proponent of networking! If I'm going to have 5-8 regular sources of leads, I need to tell everyone about what I do. NETWORKING I attended a "home sales party" the other day. It's not usually my thing, but I thought it would be a great opportunity to network. I really didn't want to go, but I forced myself get up and attend. Boy am I glad I did, because I was right! From that event on Sunday, I received leads on 3 potential buyers and 4 sellers. One contact at this party locked on to one phrase in my "telling people what I do". The magic phrase that emerged was "creative financing". She used this phrase with those she subsequently told and the result was 2 of the buyer leads. (I think I'm going to have to intentionally include this in my marketing!) I was also invited to join a local business networking group. (This had been on my list of things to locate, but I hadn't gotten around to it....) If I can add one tiny suggestion for everyone to implement... Don't just tell everyone what you do. Tell them what you do and then boldly ask them if they know anyone with a property for sale or someone who needs a home. Another Example: I called a house cleaning company the other day to make arrangements for a home we are moving in 3 weeks. I told this gentleman what we do and asked him if he knew of anyone with a home to sell --- His family has an estate they are settling. CLASSIFIEDS Lately, I have been running a few classifieds to move a couple of properties. I really don't have great faith in the classifieds, however great things have happened because of these ads. First, my rule of thumb is: if they call and don't leave a message, I call back anyway and ask "What were they looking for?". I do this because it gets me more buyer for my LOs, but from these recent ads I have obtained 8 investor buyers for flips. One of these is a locator for a huge investor looking for multiples. It just so happened that I had a profile for a multiple on my desk and was able to make a sweet fee for assigning a contract. If that isn't good enough, they'd like more multi-family properties, so I've been telling everyone I encounter that I am looking for multiples. You know what, I've located about 10 --- each one to flip for a sweet fee! Did I get my property moved from these ad's? No! But with one phone call, I did ratchet my business to another level. Finally, our WEBSITE is really cranking right about now. I'm not sure if people are coming off their holiday/winter stupor or what, but we've been getting 5 leads a week lately. Many of these are people who are relocating and are highly motivated to move their properties. I know that sometimes it seems like I do a "brain-dump" on this board. I apologize if the dumps are hard to follow, but I hope someone benefits from my inklings. I repeat: Everything you do in life is a HUGE MARKETING OPPORTUNITY for your business! Be prepared to capitalize on every opportunity that presents itself. Happy Hunting... option8

Doug Pretorius (ON), First of all, remember, we haven't put out any "Buy Houses" bandit signs. I don't think I'd put my URL on it. The sign police could always find you from this. All of our Outrageous Signs have been made to move properties, so contain no URL because I want to convey the image that this is a single one time sell and a possible great deal for the responder to my sign. From a raw numbers perspective, EVERYONE has access to a phone, so telephone number would be my first choice! Not everyone has computer access... option8

This is good stuff, Andrew and I echo Michael's comments. Your posts contain valuable information on the financing end of the properties. Just another reason why I love this community! option8

Tell me more please... Are these "as is"? What about showings? Is this an on-line auction, ebay or what? Thanks option8

pinkerton, pinkerton, pinkerton... If I did this, now I'd have to put a call into Vinnie. option8

As I review the original post, I see that the property is already being rented out. They are already 1/2 way there, but with the T, T & T problem (that's Tenants, Toilets and Trashed Property). Get them to voice those fears and to see how elegant your solution is and how it addresses all of those issues. option8

On a serious note, This is just an objection (in a long list of possible ones) that we need to become skilled at handling. The best way to handle objections is to make an emotional connection with the sellers. Let's stop a minute and examine the emotional root of objection and we should be able to put it into perspective and skillfully address it. Remember, she is in a tight situation and all she is doing is voicing her worst fears. What came out of her mouth is only the FINAL thought in the entire discourse she's having with herself. Here's a sample of the entire thought stream that she didn't verbalize: OH NO! I can't sell my home! What am I going to do? We don't want to lose our new dream home. I'm stalling with the builders, already. I guess we are going to have to rent! How am I going to manage all of this? I don't want to be a landlord? The tenants will trash our home, then we'll never be able to sell it. Remember that they are dealing with these thoughts everyday and feeling the pressure of moving that house. Then along you come with what seems like a good solution and her conversation continues. "This seems like a possible solutions! How do I know he know what he is doing?" and out comes the inquiry into your experience. So now you need to address this objection directly and honestly and push her back into focusing on her problem and her fears, not your experience. My conversation with her would go something like this. I would validate her question by acknowledging her wisdom in being concerned. Inform her that although you have never done this particular transaction before, you have studied intensively and have business associates / mentors that have hundreds of transactions under their belts. Now, you put the ball back in her court with a few question: By when do they need to sell the home? What will they do if they don't sell? (there are a few possible responses here: Rent, Don't know or Stay put) If she responds with the magic word "Rent" --- you jump in there with both feet! Yes, Mrs Seller, this is a great alternative so you can get on with your life and move in into your new home, knowing this one is in great hands. (At this point, you need her to express the negatives of this...Ts and Ts, late night call, maintenence issues, collecting rents, evictions, etc...) If she says "We don't know" then again, you jump in with both feet anyway with the same info, but you say the fearful words "Well... I guess you could always rent it out" and go down the same path. If the answer is Stay put, then I'd go with "What a shame for you to miss out on your new home opportunity, when there realy is a pretty simple solution..." Your solution is perfect for these scenarios. Your suggestions: 1) You can take a long term lease on the property and manage it for her, without the frustrations and costs associated with dealing with a typical property management company. OR 2) With your specialize knowledge, you can locate a tenant/buyer using Michael's CA Strategy to put the property on auto-pilot and put a buyer in place TODAY to ultimately get the property sold. Explain that this isn't a complicated process and they end up with "super tenants who are motivated to be home-owners" . I hope this makes sense. I'd be interested in hearing everyone else's solution to this problem. Tapping into the emotions behind what people are saying is a powerful skill that will keep us from missing opportunities. option8

You could always send her MC's address option8

Sorry, for including them here. We pay little to nothing for them. We designed them in MS Publisher (or you can find a template for MS Word on avery.com or at Microsoft's website), printed a master on bright white paper and took them to the copy center (not Kinko'w) with our card stock. A couple of dollars for the cutting and you have stacks and stacks of really inexpensive business cards... We go thru loads of them and no one has ever made a negative comment about our "copier cards" This only make a minute dent in the marketing budget. Although the postcards can be inexpensive, the mailing charges can be steep. However, I will add that the Earn Extra Cash Postcard that you hand out to birddogs is another inexpensive idea! Maybe all of this will encourage someone to think about marketing on the cheap! option8

Cedric, Believe me, i did the research! It all depends...the price varies depending on if you are getting an affiliate site with a company who specializes in web sites for investors or are you buying an investor site that is not an affiliate . Neither is a bad choice, just different options. The affiliate will drive some traffic to you that you didn't personally solicit. This is great in the beginning, but ultimately your personal marketing activities will drive people to your site. Finally, you have the choice to start from scratch. I personally don't recommend re-inventing the wheel. You have a few other questions to answer: Do you want to have auto-responders? A property submission form? Des your market demand a bi-linual site? Do you want to be able to list your properties on the site...this is called a listing manager, Do you have the right to customize your site, expand and refine your own pages with little or no cost in the future? If this is an affiliate program, are you able to choose the number of counties you want or do they charge you for every county? Additional considerations: Customer service- is it automated, fast, considerate and at no additional cost? Can you use your own domain name? Finally-- Once you have decided all of this and select your service, the setup fee should be between $600 to 1000.00 (one time charge) with the monthly fees should be between $59.00 to $100.00 per month---NO MORE! This is great pricing! Where else can you get a 24 / 7 international billboard for your company for this price. You couldn't run ads in every newspaper in your market for a month at this price. I believe this is one of the best business decisions we ever made. We had 4 submissions to our site this week. ..highly motivated sellers who need a solution to their property challenges. Hope this helps and I'll happily entertain more questions anytime. option8

Actually, our ads give the 866-XXX-XXXX, Ext XX. This is where the get the extension to enter. We use the first digit for the box # and the second digit to indicate the source. 0=Wesite 1=flyers 2=signs 3=ad 4=etc... This way we know exactly witch property they are calling about and which marketing method they are responding to. option8

I, too, have been getting the sellers to pay for the ad. I just tell them we can take it out of closing! option8

Gary (Mo) We are using the results now system. It has 10 boxes. One we use for our tenants to call us...Ext 9 We use one box per property. ---4 set aside for this purpose. We use the first 5 boxes for motivated seller messages. I can see us getting to the place where we need more than 4 boxes for the property marketing. If I knew then what I know now, I would have tried to find a system that had more room. The best thing about this system is it captures the caller ID, so even if the person doesn't leave a message, we can call back. Why bother? These callbacks contribute significantly to my buyers list. That property wasn't what you were looking for? Perhaps I have others or will stumble on one that meets your needs. option8

You're right...there are only 5 choices. That's all I could come up with that are free. The additional marketing avenues I could think of cost money, so I put these up first. Do you have another freebe avenue in mind? option8

Mr Saint, CoNgRaTuLaTiOnS!!! You are about to take the most awesome ride of your life and I hope you enjoy every hill and curve in the journey! option8

While taking stock marketing activities I was curious what is working for everyone in the area of FREE advertising. (I also wanted to see how the poll feature of Michael's board works.) I could only use 10 choices in the creation of the poll, so I've only posted the free ideas right now. Please take a second to tell us which of these free avenues is working the best for you. Also take a minute to contribute additional ideas for "FREE" marketing. If you are looking for good marketing ideas to add to your current mix, you may just find something here. This is a good time for a gut check! Do you even know which activity is producing the most results? (even though is these are free!) option8

We are located in central Ohio Send me a email and let's see if we can help you. option8 inhighgear@ameritech.net

CC Rider - MI. So you noticed that subtle difference! It really isn't all that big a deal! There is so much room for negotiation in these contracts. I have a contract that I use sometimes where the TB pays the first $200 every month and the owner pays everything over $200. The real point is that I don't pay for maintenence. Remember, in this particular situation, these are currently renters, not TBs. So I was doing pretty good to get them to take the $200 threshold. (Phrased this way: The biggest concern I have about helping you get into this property is I do not want to be a landlord! I don't want toilet calls at 2:00am! With a 3 year old, I don't have time for the headaches! I don't deal with that insanity now and I never want to deal with the landlord headaches! . (See how I'm doing them a favor and how there's no way I could to this and cover the repairs). This is a 50 year old home with the original AC, so we figured the home warranty would be a good idea to cover the seller's exposure. There are so many twists and angles and areas for negotiation in the field of lease options. You do have room to maneuver. Get comfortable with your current contract and remember, if maintenence is a deal breaker, there are always other solutions. Where to get a home warranty? Do an internet search in Google? AHS is one. I gave my seller the 1800 # for 2 different companies. Cost about $300 - 450 for the policy option8

I've think I've figured out one more way to make this deal more profitable! Thanks to me, these sellers have become funded buyers and they've shared with me what they are looking for in a home. The way I figure, the realtor will not look at FSBO homes. So..I suggested I look for a property for them. Guess what? I think I may have found TWO! Think I'll go call these FSBOs and see if their home is still available anyway, ever thinking... option8

Pete. Congratulations on closing these deals!!! option8

Watch out for this opportunity: I have a good working relationship with ONE classified ad person and ONE direct phone number to her desk. I email her my ad with my expected cost, she calls me back and confirms the ad, we tweak it for best placement and if the seller is paying, she waits for a call from them on her direct line with the credit card. I praise her and thank her at every opportunity. Essentially, I have made her feel she is an important part of my team. (She also gets paid on commission!) I placed a 2 week ad in my local paper to start this past Sunday. (This was one of 3 ads I had running) The paper neglected to run the ad! This isn't her fault...the breakdown came after the ad left her desk. She knows I don't blame her, but.. ...I intend to capitalize on this mistake BIG TIME! My award winning sob story went something like this: This omission will have CATASTROPHIC EFFECTS on my business. I have a terms with this seller that I can't meet because the ad didn't run as expected! The paper's error will cause me to change a scheduled open house! It is a domino effect...printing costs, staffing changes, etc, etc, etc... This is the third time in 3 weeks that their systems broke down for me personally. They are the only game in town, but that doesn't mean they can afford to provide shoddy service! I am requesting amends in the form of free advertising. 1) I want this particular ad run at no charge 2) I'd like another ad at no charge-preferably a display ad rather than and for as long as possible! I asked her to find out how sweet a deal she can get for me! She is so sorry for the error, I can't wait to hear what they come up with. I'll report back as soon as I hear from her supervisor (BTW...I've been just waiting for a mistake like this to happen so I could leverage the opportunity to the best advantage) Be sure you watch your ad's carefully. option8

What kind of discount are you looking for? option8