Ok, so my husband and I just bought our first house to flip and I figured that there are others out there that may want to do the same. So, I will post as we go through the process so you can get a good feel for what it is like.

To start with we went the easy route and bought a property that was not listed on the MLS that I found through some industry connections. Most houses that will work for flipping have multiple offers and can be tough to get. None the less, we found our in a better area of North Mpls.
Step 1 – Get pre approved with a reputable lender and one who deals with these types of rehab loans on a daily basis – they are not your typical loan.
Step 2 – Find the house and make sure that you will be able to buy, rehab and cover all costs and still be able to sell at a profit. You want to know the comparables near your house so that you know what a REALISTIC sale price point is.
Step 3 – Have your contractor review the house to let you know how much it will cost to rehab and if there are any issues with the house.
Step 4 – Get your escrow set up. Please note that you will need to put at least 20% cash into an escrow account based on the total loan amount (cost of house + rehab costs).
Step 4 – Get a good title company (I recommend Trademark Title) to get you clear title. We ran into an issue on our house where there was a cloud on title from 3 transactions ago. Trademark Title is the only company that caught it! You want clear title and a smooth closing with no suprise assessments down the road. Which I have seen happen many times with other title companies.
Step 5 – Close on the house – we closed on Sept 1 and then we wait a couple of days for the contractor to get approval from the lender to get started.

So, this is where we are at in the process.
Our contractor is staging the supplies and we’ve already got people walking by on the street asking when it will be done! Hoping to be done within 6 weeks so looking to list it mid October!

Jen McKinnon
Realtor / Investor
AGENT REFERRAL NETWORK
jen[at]mnrealestateteam.com

Afraid to move in this market? Learn the math behind buying a home at a great price and with a great interest rate! Take advantage of the opportunities to enhance your current financial stability in today s low mortgage interest rate environment by joining us for our upcoming seminar and Q&A forum.

Topics include:

Eye-opening financial benefits of buying a home now versus waiting for economic recovery
Pricing and preparing your home to sell in this market
How a loss on your sale may be recouped with a good buy
Cost effective services to rent and manage your home if it doesn’t sell

Featured Speakers:
Ronny Loew – MN Home Loan Partners
John Stenroos – MN Real Estate Team
Lisa Atkinson – Set to Show Homes

For more information or to register today call
Jen McKinnon
Realtor / Investor
MN Real Estate Team
612.384.1073
jen[at]mnrealestateteam[dot]com

Do you love watching those TV shows in which people are buying houses, fixing them up and reselling them for huge profits? Most of the time it looks like controlled chaos. Furthermore, these people don’t look or sound any smarter than you, but they claim they made as much money on this one house as you did all of last year.

You go to bed at night with visions of hammers and sheetrock dancing in your head? The next morning, you wake up and starting thinking about how you can grow your house flipping money tree!

Flipping houses can be exciting, lucrative, demanding, risky, and rewarding all at the same time. The best line I ever heard applied to flipping houses is: “You make your money when you buy; you get paid when you sell.”

For more information or to register today call

Jen McKinnon
Realtor / Investor
MN Real Estate Team
612.384.1073
jen[at]mnrealestateteam[dot]com

This no-frills/no fluff information packed seminar is offered regularly as a follow-up to our introductory Investment Real Estate 101 seminar. Using a case study format, you’ll review how to calculate cash flow. We’ll learn about and discuss the important financial analysis tools an investor needs to have; cap rates, before and after tax “cash on cash” return, and 1st year return on investment. You’ll also be introduced to the Internal Rate of Return, a powerful tool which measures not only current cash flows, but also future cash flows, as well as tax benefits, appreciation, mortgage reduction, and selling costs over the entire projected life of the investment.

This seminar is designed for the novice investor, but old pros are welcome as well.

Your instructor, is a member of The Minnesota Real Estate Team and an experienced investor. We are delighted to now offer expertise to you in this free seminar! Bring ALL your investment real estate questions!

Topics include rental rates, vacancies, operating expense ratios, cap rates, the impact of financing and interest rates, cash on cash returns, potential tax benefits for the investor, capital gains treatment, calculating seller’s net at sale, and anything else we have time for!

You’ll leave with a better understanding of how to analyze an investment, giving you more confidence to compete with the sharks and approach today’s opportunity rich investment market.

For more information or to register call

Jen McKinnon
Realtor / Investor
MN Real Estate Team
612.384.1073
jen[at]mnrealestateteam[dot]com

Come and learn about investment properties in the Twin Cities. We will teach you a concrete, non-infomercial way to build wealth through real estate. This seminar will be a one and a half hour presentation in regards to wealth building through real estate. There is no charge at all, no contracts you sign with us, no consultation fees, no hidden agenda.
The seminar simply will be an excellent opportunity for you to learn more about our process: how you get pre-approved, what type of low-down loan product to choose, and then how we step you through the process of finding the home and helping you get it rented out.
Whether you are a beginner or an advanced investor, this will be a great chance for you to learn more about how you can build your long term wealth through buying real estate.
Our investment seminar instructors, team leader, Ryan O’Neill owns 15 single-family homes, and our mortgage coach Rob Bonahoom has over 20 properties. All of us have experienced the benefits of real estate, and we’re excited to share a free seminar with you on how you too can get into the game (or continue on).

Contact me for more information or to sign up!
Jen McKinnon
Realtor / Investor
612.384.1073
jen[at]mnrealestateteam[dot]com

Now, I want you to know that I will never pressure anyone to buy a home. However, as I have stated in the past, if you find a home in the Twin Cities that you like, you’d better be ready to move fast. And I mean within hours!

I have a client who is a first time buyer and is looking at using an FHA loan to purchase his first house. He is looking to pay under $160,000 and plans on having to do some repairs and cosmetic work to the house.

First of all, most of the homes we are looking at in the Northern Suburbs of the Twin Cities are short sales or foreclosures (bank owned – REO).

Second, we are having a difficult time finding houses that will accept FHA financing as most bank owned / REO homes have a number of problems that FHA inspecion will not pass without the seller fixing the issue (which 9 times out of 10 the bank, who is the seller, will not fix).

Third, when we are making offers the houses are usually in a multiple offer or better yet, a highest and best situation (this is where the seller, usually a bank, will call for all offers to be resubmitted with their absolute highest and best offer. This puts everyone who has submitted an offer into a “panic” and gets the bank more money. Good tactic for them, bad for buyers.

Finally, we ran into a situation with a Twin Cities suburb home that had been relisted on the market for only 6 days and when I called in the morning there were no offers but alot of interest. 5 minutes later one offer was submitted. So we got out and looked at the house about 2 hours later and I informed the agent immediately that we would be submitting an offer. Come to find a few hours later that the bank had already accepted the first offer that got submitted and although the listing agent submitted ours he did not forewarn the bank that a second offer was coming in. This would have given them two offers to review and potentially the option to have us submit highest and best.

So, as you can see, some REO / bank owned listing agents are actually acting quickly and submitting offers ASAP and I feel this was a very rare bank that made a decision in HOURS instead of days or weeks like many take.
One more reason to act fast and be ready to make the decision. Get the offer in and use your inspection contingency to back out if need be.

Jen McKinnon
Realtor/Investor
MN Real Estate Team
The #1 Real Estate Team in MN

612.384.1073
jen [at] mnrealestateteam [dot] com

Agent Referral Network
10663 165th St Suite 17
Lakeville, MN 55044

The housing market in the Twin Cities is an incredible market for home buyer’s of all price levels right now. Buying a home in the Twin Cities is especially exciting for First Time Home Buyers and especially those looking at homes under $200,000 because inventory is HIGH! Not to mention the nice $8000 tax credit that you will be eligible for on your 2009 tax return.
So, as a future home buyer, what are some important pieces of information that you should know and be prepared with?

1. YOU MUST BE PRE APPROVED
I don’t know how many times we can say it….talk to a lender and get the pre approval out of the way. Homes are selling FAST and no seller – especially a bank owned property / REO / short sale is going to even look at your offer without a pre approval letter or if you are paying cash, a proof of funds.

2. BE READY TO WRITE AN OFFERMany houses are going into multiple offer situations within days of being listed. This means that buying a home in the Twin Cities can be much more difficult because there are alot of buyers just like you out there and the ones that are pre approved, look at listings everyday, can get out to look at houses quickly and are ready to pull the trigger and write an offer are more likely to win the home that they want to buy.

3. DON’T GET EMOTIONAL – YOU AREN’T ALONE
On a daily basis, I am looking up houses to show clients who want to buy and on a daily basis, I am running into houses that are listed as active on the MLS but are really either in a multiple offer situation or are already sold. Why, you ask, would the house still be listed as active then and tempt you with it’s pretty pictures and hot price point? Many houses listed today (especially those under $200,000) are short sales, foreclosures or REO’s (Real Estate Owned) and the listing agents on these properties are VERY busy and typically don’t get the status updated on MLS fast enough. They are also overwhelmed with how fast properties are moving.

4. USE THE INSPECTION CONTINGENCY TO YOUR ADVANTAGE
When you make an offer on a house, always ask for an inspection contingency (unless of course you bring an inspector with you on the first visit) because you obviously want to inspect the property before you buy it and the inspection contingency allows you a timeframe that you can still back out of the transaction and get your earnest money back (the money you gave when writing the offer and will be used towards your purchase). You can back out during inspection for ANY reason. Bottom line, WRITE THE OFFER and back out if you need to. If you do not write the offer, you will NEVER get the house. Of course, I don’t want you to write a purchase agreement on a house that you do not want to buy but if you are even remotely interested in a Twin Cities house, WRITE THE OFFER or someone else will.

Call me when you are ready to start looking!
Jen McKinnon
Agent Referral Network and
Member of the MN Real Estate Team

612.384.1073
jen[at]mnrealestateteam[dot]com

As the Jefferson’s said, “we’re movin’ on up!”
Are you hoping to make the move to your “next” home?

Do you need a bigger house because of a growing family or maybe you want to move into one of the Twin Cities best school districts like Wayzata, Minnetonka, Edina or Eden Prairie. Or, maybe you just want to take advantage of the great home prices in the Twin Cities or the even better mortgage rates that lenders like Cornerstone have to offer.
As a Twin Cities home buyer, we have a great seminar that you should check out that will cover all of your questions.

Moving in a Down Market
Tuesday, June 2nd, 6:30- 8 PM

Afraid to move in this market? Learn the math behind buying a home at a great price and with a great interest rate! Take advantage of the opportunities to enhance your current financial stability in today’s low mortgage interest rate environment by joining us for our upcoming seminar and Q&A forum.

Topics include:
- Eye-opening financial benefits of buying a home now versus waiting for economic recovery
- Pricing and preparing your home to sell in this market
- How a loss on your sale may be recouped with a good buy
- Cost effective services to rent and manage your home if it doesn’t sell

Please contact me for more information or to register:
Jen McKinnon
612.384.1073
jen [at] mnrealestateteam [dot] com

Ok, I was out showing houses last weekend and I think I collected a bouquet of smells from all the various vacant properties that my client and I were looking at.
Everything from cat pee to feces to mold to old food smell and other scents that we had a hard time identifying!
Sometimes I don’t understand how people live the way they do. How do you get so many stains on your carpet and not even bother to TRY cleaning it up?! Has the bathroom EVER seen a sponge and how is it that so much grease builds up in the kitchen that you need a Brillo pad to clean off the top of the range?
I saw one house that had more dirt and handprints on the walls that there was paint. I just don’t get it….
I see some houses in all parts of the Twin Cities and assume they have been empty for months given the condition they are in and then when you ask the neighbor about the situation of the house (all neighbors love to give you the scoop if you ask…) you find out that it’s only been empty for a week. A week! That means the old owners lived in the piles of junk and dirty carpet and walls and oh my gosh, it’s pretty gross. My favorite was a house in Minneapolis that had a bloody handprint on the wall. Needless to say we walked out pretty quickly. I don’t even want to know how that got there.

Stay tuned for more humerous stories!

Jen McKinnon
Realtor / Investor
612.384.1073

Are you a first time home buyer in the Twin Cities? Now is a great time and even better than we saw last year! Hello….$8,000 tax credit!
If you are wondering about First Time Home Buyer financing and assistance, Alec Grebis with Cornerstone Mortgage is a great person to contact. He wrote a great article about this at his blog, The Mortgage Scoop. Remember, talking to a knowledgeable lender is the first step in the home buying process!