Any opinions of real estate offer analysis software?

Question

Hey all,

This weekend I attended a real estate investment intro seminar hosted by Kris Kirschner.  I was dismayed to discover that it was mostly a day long advertisement for his week long, $5000 seminar, but he did touch upon some interesting strategies.  His method is called "Autopilot Real Estate Investing", and he has had someone develop some really helpful software to figure out what is and what is not a deal.  It will also automatically calculate 3 different offers that should be advantageous to you and fair to the seller.  Unfortunately, the software costs $1500, which is far more than I want to spend.  I was wondering if anyone had experience with similar programs that are more affordable.  Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Garrick Solberg · Answer

Well, I definitely want to learn as much as possible, and I am trying to make full use of this site.  It is definitely one of the most genuine sources of real estate information I have come across, next to my local REIA meetings.  I am looking for software similar to what Kris Kirschner was offering because I am trying to figure out what is a deal and what is not.  I think my first goal is to try to wholesale, but the actual profit method will have to depend on the specific situation.  I guess if I had to come up with a specific question for now, it would be - when you are speaking to a motivated seller, what information do you gather from them, and how do you transcribe that information into offers (ie, real numbers) that should be profitable to you and agreeable to the seller?  Right now I know of ways to advertise that I buy homes, but I'm afraid to do it because I have no idea how to handle the leads once they are in my lap.  So, off to more reading, and thank you again for your input and assistance!

Joshua Dorkin · Answer

http://www.biggerpockets.com/recritic.html

Garrick Solberg · Answer

Thanks for the replies, guys!  Yeah, the seminar (which I did not know was an intro seminar going into it) had a morning and afternoon section.  The morning section had me pumped, but it wasnt until the afternoon session that he kept referring to how to do various things with the "cd".  If I had known the cost of the cd, I would have walked out right then b/c I wasted a whole afternoon finding out how to use a program that I will not purchase.  Apparently his ad worked well with the rest of the group, as people were lining up in droves to put down their deposits.  I figured there had to be some more affordable alternative, and some more decent people out there that just want to help rather than make a buck off newbies.

The income property analysis tool seems like it could be very useful, but a lot of it is over my head right now.  Also, there are a lot of blanks that need to be filled which I can't really answer.  An example would be the various expenses (I have no clue what they will be ahead of time), the whole depreciation section is greek to me, I'm not sure what to expect for sales cost, vacancy rates, appreciation, capital gains tax, vacancy rate, etc.  Plus, I can't tell if it has an option to give you suggestions on what is a good offer.  Perhaps I am trying to use this in the wrong way, let me know!

Richard Warren · Answer

This is just another marketing program designed as a “free” seminar.  The program you describe is just a way to separate you from $1500.  There are numerous calculators available free of charge.  One of them is the Property Analysis Tool on this site.  Another is the Cash Flow Calculator that can be downloaded for free at www.NARREIA.com .  As for the weeklong seminar, you can get most of that information here for free.  There is a benefit to attending investment courses but you need to decide if it is worth it to you.  These seminars are designed to get you to buy the week long training where they will try to sell you a mentoring program that will cost even more.  After that there will be something else.  Like the saying goes, “those who can do, those who can’t teach”.

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