Author: Lou Gimbutis

More than One Way to Skin a Cat By Lou Gimbutis One of the very first Real Estate Deals I ever completed with my mentor netted us just under $40K, and came from a lead that most “Investors” would have tossed into the trash can. The Seller contacted us with a house worth approximately $100K, with 3 mortgages on it, all in default: the 1st for around $35K, the 2nd around $30K, the 3rd also around $30k.  Doesn’t smell like a deal so far, does it? We didn’t bother attempting to discount the first, as well-entrenched as they were with…

The Power of Clearly Set Goals in Real Estate “Your goals today will largely determine what your portfolio looks like 20 years from now, and thus your lifestyle.” By Lou Gimbutis, Chief Homebuyer, Property Solutions, LLC Goal setting is integral to success in any field of endeavor, but particularly in Real Estate Investing.  While differing strategies can certainly pay off very quickly, the greatest benefits come to those who buy property and hold on to it for a long, long time.  Rents tend to rise over time, co-relating roughly with inflation, but your mortgage payment will stay the same.  Then,…

Negotiation Tip –  Be A “Don’t-Wanter” of the Deal By Lou Gimbutis I’ve been involved in a lot of negotiations, and read a lot of books on the subject.  There is a basic principal of negotiation that is fundamental; that is below the level of tactics and techniques.  In fact, it doesn’t apply to negotiations alone, but to almost every type of human interaction.  Here it is: Other things being equal, when you push or move towards someone, they will have an automatic (and many times unconscious) tendency to pull away. This can easily be demonstrated with the concept of…

The Funniest Thing a Tenant Ever Did to Me By Lou Gimbutis Have you ever noticed that the very funniest stories that we have to tell were not in the least bit funny at the time the events occurred?  It seems that only the detached perspective that comes with the passage of time can mysteriously transform the horrible to the hilarious. Awhile back, a tenant of mine quit paying.  Nothing new there, business as usual.  Out in the mail goes Step 1 of the eviction process.  After a few days had passed, I stopped over to find out “the scoop.”…

A Buyer’s Market is Coming – What Do we Do!!? By Lou Gimbutis Well, there’s always panic, but I’d not recommend it. The front page of the Mecklenburg Times recently carried the headline “U.S. will become a buyers market in 2020, according to experts.”  I knew it was coming, real estate is cyclical.  The “experts” guess as to when is undoubtedly better than mine, I just know that it’s coming.  We need only look to the past to see that Buyer’s Markets follow Seller’s Markets as inevitably as night follows day. However,  history is no simple mirror with which to…