Real Estate Investing

How an employee found the path to financial freedom and lived to talk about it

by Jay Castillo on November 9, 2010 · 9 comments

in Real Estate Investing, Real Estate Seminars, Seminars

Earlier this year, I shared with you Eden April Alemania’s story about the first auction of bank foreclosed properties she attended where she bought her first property. Her journey did not stop there. Incoming search terms: Eden and, eden foreclosure philippines

How to compute for Net Operating Income or NOI and find good investment properties

by Jay Castillo on October 18, 2010 · 10 comments

in How to do the Numbers, Real Estate Investing

In my previous posts about Maximum Allowable Offer (MAO), After Repair Value (ARV), and Cost Factor (CF), we determined these numbers for properties that we intended to flip for a profit. This time around let’s determine another number that is more applicable to income generating properties like multi-door apartments, which are obviously better kept for [...]

Amendments to the IRR of the REIT Act of 2009 proposed by the BIR

by Jay Castillo on October 13, 2010 · 4 comments

in RA 9856 - REIT Act of 2009, Real Estate Investing

A notice with regard to the proposed amendments to the Implementing Rules and Regulations or IRR of Republic Act 9856, otherwise known as the “Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) Act of 2009″ has been posted recently in the SEC website. This more or less confirms that the Secretary of the Department of Finance (DOF) Mr. [...]

How to compute for the projected costs for acquiring, carrying, and selling a property

by Jay Castillo on October 7, 2010 · 12 comments

in How to do the Numbers, Real Estate Investing

In my recent post on How to compute for the Maximum Allowable Offer or MAO for foreclosed properties, I mentioned that instead of multiplying the After Repair Value (ARV) with the Cost Factor (CF), you can just subtract the projected costs for acquisition, carrying costs, and marketing costs, from the ARV less Profits and Repair [...]

REIT updates: PSE REIT listing rules, BIR REIT IRR Draft, and BIR REIT RMC

by Cherry Castillo on October 6, 2010 · 1 comment

in RA 9856 - REIT Act of 2009, Real Estate Investing

I suppose a lot of you out there might be wondering whatever happened to the Philippine REIT. Since our last post about the REIT Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) released by the SEC, a lot of time has passed and it seems there has been no further developments. Why is the REIT’s implementation taking so long? Read on to [...]

How to compute for the Maximum Allowable Offer or MAO for foreclosed properties

by Jay Castillo on September 27, 2010 · 12 comments

in How to do the Numbers, Real Estate Investing

As promised in my post on how to compute for the After Repair Value or ARV of foreclosed properties, I will now discuss about Maximum Allowable Offer or MAO. Determining your MAO is probably one of the most important things you need to do, before you even consider buying a foreclosed property. This is because [...]

23 lessons learned from Ondoy

by Jay Castillo on September 21, 2010 · 11 comments

in Lessons learned, Reflections of a real estate investor

Almost a year has passed since Typhoon Ondoy devastated what used to be our home in Provident Village in Marikina last September 26, 2009. We have obviously moved on. However, my wife Cherry and I have come to realize a lot of things during the past year and we would like to share these lessons [...]

How to compute for the ARV of foreclosed properties

by Jay Castillo on September 14, 2010 · 5 comments

in Due Diligence, How to do the Numbers, Real Estate Investing

Real estate investing is a numbers game and one such number that a real estate investor who is into flipping properties needs to determine before buying a property is the ARV. ARV can stand for Approximate Retail Value, After Rehab Value, but the common term often used is After Repair Value. Incoming search terms: arv [...]

4 reasons why we need to be financially literate real estate investors

by Jay Castillo on September 6, 2010 · 14 comments

in Financial literacy, Real Estate Investing

In a recent post where I tackled the frequently asked question: “Are foreclosed properties good deals?”, I mentioned that financial literacy is a prerequisite to real estate investing, and with good reason. I believe that the lack of financial literacy will certainly lead to financial failure! Sometimes we need to fail but not like this! [...]

Are foreclosed properties good deals?

by Jay Castillo on August 30, 2010 · 16 comments

in Financial literacy, Real Estate Investing

It depends! Obviously not all foreclosed properties are good deals. It’s common sense that not all properties are good investments, foreclosed or otherwise, you don’t need to be a real estate investing guru to know this. However, based on the number of times I’ve either heard people ask or get asked this very same question, [...]