If you’re looking at properties on a fairly regular basis, I’ll guarantee you’ve heard the following line in the past 6 months:

“We have an appraisal from [insert date here] for $[insert amount here].”

Stop. Write it down. What was the date they told you? If it’s anything other than the last 3 months, it’s obsolete.

According to Shobhana Chandra of Bloomberg.com,

“Sales of previously owned homes in the U.S. fell in April and the supply of unsold properties reached a record, signaling no let-up in the 27-month housing slump.

Purchases declined 1 percent to an annual rate of 4.89 million, higher than forecast, the National Association of Realtors said today in Washington. The median price fell 8 percent from April last year, the second-biggest drop.”

The average American home lost somewhere around 4% in the last 6 months. At the median home price of $202,300, your seller just lost more than $8,000 in equity. In the last year, they lost more than $16,000. Their appraisal is invalid and a new appraisal will be needed.

For all of you investors out there looking for great deals, don’t listen to the hype. Do your homework.

As an real estate investor, you probably spending a lot of time looking at a lot of property. But, what about you out of state investors? And you international investors? How many times do you have the freedom to rush in and check out something you’re buying?

The major problem here is that no one has the time to fly all over the place like this. If you have the money to show up every time you get a pending deal all the way across the nation or overseas, you’re probably wasting your time.

We’ve talked a lot about building a good team in our Tuesday’s Tips so far, but I want to talk about a member of the team who often goes unidentified. I like to call him the “uninterested party”.

Seeing that you’re ballsy enough to be investing a long way away, in a different area of the country or world, you need to have someone on your side. I can’t tell you how many real estate agents and birddogs I see who are pushing the line a little too far. I watch this go down all of the time.

They want, and need, to close deals so badly, that they’re muddying the waters and distorting the facts to just get a sale or two. They’re in desperation mode and as long as they’re doing that, they’re not looking out for your best interests.

You need an uninterested party on your team who can give you an honest critique of the property you’re about to purchase. They can’t have anything that will sway his/her opinion. You might call this an inspector. You might call this your “Uncle Bob” who lives in Indianapolis who steps in to look things over for you. You might even call this your property manager, who has to deal with the headaches after you purchase the property. Whatever you call ‘em, you need ‘em.

So, find an uninterested party to evaluate your deals. If you pay them $200 to walk you through the property over the phone and find out it’s going to take a lot more money than the amount your real estate agent told you, you will have saved more than $200 and learned a lot about the agent who’s “representing” you.

Tuesday’s Tip: Find yourself an uninterested party. You need better representation than a salesman who only benefits when you buy. Think about it.

We’ve created a lens on Squidoo for Positive Cash Flow Real Estate. I’m really impressed with what Seth Godin has put together to bring people and information together and thought this would be a great place to reach more people.

We’ve linked some of our favorite blogs and sites there for you to get more information and education for maximizing your cash flow.

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