An Industry Leader Discusses His Deals

By Hannah Ash

Larry Goins doesn’t know it all. “When it comes to real estate, the learning never stops,” he tell me. When one of the country’s leading investors pauses for a moment of self-reflection, it’s worth a listen.

“You can learn something from everybody you meet,” he tells me. It’s one of the secrets to his success in real estate; he’s always on the hunt for a way to do it better. “Just this week, I attended two webinars,” he casually remarks. I must admit: I’m taken aback.

For someone who has been engaged in all aspects of real estate since the 1980’s, Larry Goins isn’t full of the slam-dunk advice one might expect; instead, his advice is to ask questions and keep an open mind. That’s what he does, he says. He wants to know how he can do better and wants to meet people who can teach him how; he is full of stories of things he’s learned this week and this month.

For a man who once served as president of the Metrolina ReIA and is a mortgage lender, real estate broker, agent and licensed general contractor, one would think he might just want to rest. Mr. Goins, however, is one of those rare breeds who love what they do so much, it doesn’t feel like he’s working a job. Goins’s work is stacking up success after success and helping others find their own successes along the way.

Mr. Goins has a motto, “People and principles before profits.” When he’s not working, he’s with his family. I ask if they share his interest for real estate. His 17 year old daughter loves equestrianism, he says, “and she regularly takes to the ring, riding in shows”. Goins also has a son and wife. “My 9 year old son is already a hard money lender,” he laughs. When it comes to his wife, it’s not much different, “Pam is a hard money lender too. She also gives of her time generously by leading her church’s food pantry organization.” Both altruistic and driven to succeed, it should come as no surprise that he’s found a way to marry his two loves together; family and success. Following in suit, Goins has seamlessly merged his love of successful real estate investing and his love of educating into a dream job. He works with a large team of professionals who are all as excited about real estate as he is. Based in his scenic hometown of Lake Wylie, South Carolina, The Goins Group focuses on education while his Investors Rehab is all about actively buying and selling a lot of real estate.

A published author, his first book, Real Estate Day Trading, is available in bookstores everywhere. HUD Homes Half Off, his newest release, is available on Amazon and through his website. In his free time, Goins regularly hosts seminars, webinars and gives interviews as a way to motivate other investors to get serious about their money. Goins’ real estate blog is full of well-crafted tips for new and seasoned investors.

An apprenticeship in real estate investment is the best way to describe what Goins and his team offer students. You can’t get a college degree in real estate investing, but, Goins says, “you can latch onto someone experienced whom you trust to start learning.” He and his team, in many ways, operate like a trade school. There are books to read, active mentors, seminars and real-world investing experience through Investors Rehab.

For investors looking to get started or looking for a new edge, The Goins Group aims to serve. Each week, the business advisors Larry trusts to work alongside him in his office, check in with students to touch base, answer questions and provide some motivation. Goins says he too gets on the phone and talks to his students whenever necessary.

The skills his investors learn, Goins says, can change lives. “Real estate is what you make of it”, Goins explains, and his programs work for everyone; his clients come from all walks of life. One of his students, Alon, a pediatrician currently living in New York City, is working with Larry to diversify his investments and bring in some extra cash flow. Another client is a former prisoner who was able to change the direction of his life forever. “Do your techniques work?”, I ask. The proof is in the pudding: the hundreds and hundreds of letters and video testimonials that Goins and his team proudly receive each year say it all. As an active real estate investor, Goins has a simple approach to buying real estate; his philosophy is one that most investors can rally behind, “I buy houses. I don’t get sold houses.” Goins says people often say to him, “Wow! That’s a great deal. Where’d you find it?” goins explains, “I tell them: it wasn’t a good deal when I found it. We created the deal.” Investors Rehab, the investing arm of his business, attracts all types of investors. Whether it’s an investor looking for a great deal or someone he’s mentored, Investors Rehab has no shortage of buyers.

To create such good deals, Goins and his devoted team are always on the hunt for property to buy. He estimates they make a jaw-dropping 2,000 to 3,000 offers a week; they purchase 10-15 properties a month through their office. Once an offer has been accepted, his dedicated team gets three repair estimates and conducts a comparative market analysis. The properties Goins buys and sells aren’t “turn-key,” he says, they are what he has dubbed, “learn-key.”

Learn key? “That’s right,” Goins tells me, “Learn-key means you learn as you earn.” Investors buy properties for great prices that need a bit of work, and thanks to the research the Goins team does beforehand, they know about how much work will be needed before a property is rental-ready or can be flipped. The legwork goins’ team does takes away some of the risk for new investors and is a great help to seasoned investors. “Learn-key properties come with instant equity while turn-key properties come with instant cash flow”, goins explains. He wants investors to get the most equity they can out of a deal. Simply stated, learn key teaches investors to fish whereas turn key gives investors the fish.

Larry Goins, and his career in real estate, stand apart from the rest. His continuous drive to perfect his craft, learn better ways of doing things and new challenges to win is both inspirational and rare. Though his son and wife have an obvious interest in real estate, perhaps his daughter’s interest in horseback riding indicates that she too hasn’t fallen far from the Goins tree either; in both real estate and riding, there are always different horses to tame, new challenges to tackle and techniques that can be improved upon.

“Keep Learning. Take action.” Goins says. Just as in horseback riding, in real estate you can’t go far unless you saddle up and start riding. Since this is an article about a man driven to help others, it should come as no surprise that he’s decided to offer our readers his book about buying HUD Homes Half Off free of charge to our readers. Think of it as a nudge to take action from Larry himself.

To receive your copy, simply visit Amazon or get your free copy via this website: http://freehudbook.com/

Taking Title

By Garrett Sutton, Esq.

houseTitle to real estate sounds grand. As you think of titles let your mind wander back again to medieval England when titles such as Baron and Duke meant you were part of the nobility and peerage system. And not coincidentally, if you had such a title you also owned land. As our legal systems evolved, real estate title–the means by which you owned valuable property rights – remained ever so important. Because title conveyed power (and with power came corruption and fraud), a system to accurately record the chain of title developed. Over time you had to defend your title with the proper paperwork. The ‘checking system’ that evolved means that there are two steps for the transfer of title.The first step is the granting of a deed whereby the grantor transfers the property to the grantee. An investigation of the sequence of deeds to establish an accurate chain of title is then performed. If the grantor actually has clear title, according to the public records, a policy of title insurance may be issued and the property transferred. (Please note that property can be transferred without title insurance but that most banks won’t take the risk in making a loan without it.)A noticeable break in the chain of title means that the buyer–even though they believe they are the rightful owner–can be subject to the possible claims of others contesting the title. It can also mean that the property is now very difficult to sell, because future potential purchasers don’t want any doubts about clear title.

Accordingly, title insurance is important. Before insuring you against the risk of future claimants, a title company is going to check the public records to see if there are any troubling gaps in the chain of title. If gaps exist they won’t issue a title insurance policy. If they won’t issue a policy you won’t buy the property. It is that simple. Follow their lead. Transferring Title

The specter of title insurance affects the way you will transfer title to property.

There are two ways to transfer title:

1. a grant Deed. this deed (or ‘Warranty Deed’) implies or warrants that:

a. The Grantor (the person granting the property) has not transferred the property before, and that absolute ownership (‘free and clear’ title) is conveyed.

b. Unless the Grantee (the person receiving the property) agrees otherwise, the property is free from any liens or encumbrances against it.

c. Any after-acquired title (ownership that goes to a Grantor later) is also conveyed to the Grantee.

2. a quit Claim. this much weaker deed only:

a. Transfers whatever present right, title or interest the transferor may have. (If the transferor doesn’t have any rights, neither do you.)

b. No warranties are made as to any liens or encumbrances. (So if there are undisclosed mortgages against the property it’s not the transferor’s problem – as it is in a grant deed. Instead, it is now your problem.)

c. No after acquired title is transferred.While often advocated by promoters as the easiest means for transfer, the quit claim deed is not your best choice. First, know that in many bank involved ReO (real estate owned) transactions the ReO lender selling a foreclosed property will only use a Quit Claim deed.

Why is this?

It is because the lender has no idea what happened on the property prior to foreclosure. During the boom documents were not properly kept or transferred, the banking industry’s MeRS electronic recording system failed to keep up with it all, and many documents were just plain lost. This is no way to maintain a good chain of title on the nation’s real estate.

It was so bad in 2009 that a large national title company announced it would no longer issue title policies to two large national banks. These lenders’ records were just not trustworthy, and the title company was not going to take the risk. Know that for years to come there are going to be title issues arising from the real estate collapse in 2008.

It is for this reason that sellers (mainly banks) of foreclosure properties are using quit claim deeds. They don’t know what happened and they aren’t about to warrant or guarantee that they have a clean title to convey to you. The quit claim deed they use instead says, “We don’t know what we’ve got but whatever we’ve got we’re giving to you.”

What is offensive is the lengths that some of these lenders will go to get you to bite on a quit claim deed. They will tell you that it grants you full rights to the property. It doesn’t, because neither you nor the bank really knows what those rights are.

To further get themselves off the hook after taking your money for the property these banks will bury the fact that they don’t warrant good title in an Addendum at the end of a sixty page contract. They want you to waive any rights you may have in the matter. They may or may not know that the title is so defective that the property will be severely devalued. But they want you to release them from any future problems and sign off that everything is okay. There have been reported cases where the Addendum is intentionally withheld and only provided to you at the closing. (You know, at that last meeting at the title office where you are expected to sign 47 documents without reading them.) Accordingly, please be very careful and have your own attorney review such transactions.

The second reason a quit claim deed is not preferred is because the quit claim deed severs an express or implied warranty of title. (Remember, you are just granting whatever you may own which may be something, or nothing.) As such, the title insurance doesn’t follow. While this may not seem like a big deal, let’s consider an example.

garrettYou buy a property in your name. Part of your closing costs includes a policy of title insurance. Several years later you want to transfer title to an LLC for asset protection. Your friend says a quit claim deed is the easiest and quickest way to go. You file the quit claim deed and now the property is titled in the name of your LLC. Later, you learn that the boundaries weren’t properly surveyed. You seek recourse from the title company since they insured the boundaries were correct. But you now learn that by quit claiming the property into your LLC you have unwittingly cancelled your title insurance policy. The boundary issue is no longer insured.

The way to avoid this problem is to use a grant deed or a warranty deed. A title insurance policy isn’t extinguished in such a transfer. As well, a grant deed is just as easy to prepare as is a quit claim deed. But in either case, remember that easy isn’t always best. If you are not an expert at title transfers, I would have a lawyer or title company handle them.

For more information on this and other title matters, please read my book Loopholes of Real Estate or visit: www.CorporateDirect.com