Like many homeowners, I got my escrow analysis recently on one of my investment properties (and it wasn’t one that I was doing especially well with in the first place). I’ll tell you right off the bat that it’s got a negative cashflow to begin with. Perhaps one of these days I’ll go into the whole story on why and what the long term exit strategy is.

Long story short, the payments went from $2285.84 to $2811.67.

Oh yeah… and the HOA went from $500/quarter to $533/quarter. I know this doesn’t sound like a lot, but every dollar starts to add up.
So, as of January 1, 2008, the payments have increased from $2452.61 to $2989.34. This means that my payment went up $536.73 every month. And keep in mind, I was upside down every month before. THIS HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE MORTGAGE ADJUSTING and I have owned this property for 19 months so there’s no first year adjustment for taxes to take into account.

My first reaction was to get angry – I mean really angry. Are you kidding me? How did this happen? So I quickly called the bank to try and figure out what was going on. They were collecting around $714 per month for taxes and insurance. This is DOUBLE what my taxes and insurance should be. (more…)

by R. Preston Ely

Have someone else do it for you.

Short sales get dealt with just like everything else in my life that even remotely smells like stressful labor; they get delegated. Outsourced. Sub’d out. Avoided at all cost. The purpose of this article is to encourage you to do the same.

Life is too short to do things you hate. Don’t you feel the same way? Did you know you don’t have to do things you don’t like? You are not a prisoner. You’re free. I spent ten years of my life doing what the world considers “real” work. I’m done. Real work blows. Who is to say what is real and what isn’t anyways?

“Reality is an illusion. Albeit, a persistent one.” - Albert Einstein

Something wonderful clicked inside my head a few years back after my dangerous escape from Cubic-Hell. It’s weird because it just evolved kind of naturally. The only way I can describe it is a complete 100% aversion to doing anything at all that I don’t find enjoyable…and the ability to actually get away with it.How to outsource all your unwanted “duties” in life is the topic of another article. Let’s focus on the subject of short sales for now. (more…)

By Bill Twyford

Having a firm grasp on language patterns will help you close more deals. In addition to using embedded commands, which are word groups that order you to do something, you must incorporate assumptive language patterns into your vocabulary. Assumptive language patterns assume the outcome of what you are asking.

When doing short sales you can ask the bank the same question, two different ways. Read both sentences and see which one you believe to be more assumptive:

• Hi, my name is Bob and I was wondering, do you do short sales?

• Hi, my name is Bob. I am working on a short sale for the property located at 123 Elm St. The loan number is #34777. Where do I need to fax my short sale package so that you can go ahead and get this deal approved?”

We are assuming the bank is going to say yes to our short sale, instead of wondering if they short sale at all.Let’s look at another example of assumptive language patterns you can use when speaking to homeowners:

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by Bill Twyford

The key to success is knowing how to communicate with others. Whether you are a real estate investor, work at a fast food restaurant, or are a doctor, without good communication skills people won’t like you. Have you ever met someone and didn’t like them, but didn’t know why you didn’t like them? They just “rubbed you the wrong way.” Subconsciously you did not like their communication skills. My goal is to teach you to master your communication skills so that you can have others eating out of the palm of your hand.

Sounds good, where do I begin? Embedded commands. What the heck are embedded commands? Embedded commands are patterns of language that bypass conscious reasoning and speak directly to the subconscious mind. Embedded commands influence people at the subconscious level. This allows you to direct people to take specific actions.

Our subconscious mind is in a constant search for patterns. Using one embedded command at a time is not a pattern. You have to basically, bombard your customer with command after command to get what you want. Our conversations have become so routine that our mind has virtually fallen asleep. Our subconscious mind runs on auto-pilot. (more…)

There are essentially 5 steps to being successful in real estate marketing. Before we go into the 5 steps of real estate marketing, I want to encourage you to become a student of marketing. The moment that you are able to find your own deals - on demand - the more money you will make! It’s a direct correlation. When I started out in real estate, I didn’t understand how to “really” market for deals. I was depending upon real estate agents, local real estate investing groups, etc. I did a lot of deals, but I realized I wasn’t making the kind of money I knew I could in estate.

Follow these five steps to successful real estate marketing and you’ll be on your way to filling your own funnel full of five-figure deals.

1. Define Your Target Market:
   You must be focused… If you run in too many directions, focusing on too many real estate markets, you’ll always be skipping around, never getting ahead. You need to learn overcome objections; you need to know how to handle the different situations that arise. Once you master one market, then you can duplicate your system across market after market. For instance, you may choose to start working with foreclosures or out of state owners. Once you get the real estate marketing system in place for one, add the other. Then, you can simply duplicate it over and over again!

   The single most important thing to remember is that you MUST target motivated sellers…. PERIOD.

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The real estate industry, or more appropriately, the mortgage industry is facing daily changes. As you probably know by now if you’ve read the newspaper or watched television in the last three months, the sub-prime mortgage market has made some huge changes… Second mortgages are quickly going by the wayside in exchange for loans with mortgage insurance, which is now tax deductible*.

If you do the math, even with PMI, loans often end up costing the borrower less than the hybrid loans of recent years.

But… the changes affect the new loans, not the existing mortgages with which sellers are facing foreclosure in record numbers. And this is the major reason the real estate market has flat-lined, depreciated, or ____________ (fill in the blank with your market). Let’s face it… homeowners got bad loans and the mortgage industry was getting wealthy. So, let’s not feel too bad for the lenders :-). They not only did it to themselves, but to homeowners and investors. Have you ever heard the saying, “Pigs get fat… hogs get slaughtered”? (more…)

Everyone is looking for a foreclosure “deal” these days – and there’s lots to choose from these days, but be careful… just because a property is in foreclosure, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a “deal”. In fact, nowadays, it takes more time to sift through the leads to find the really good opportunities within the foreclosure market.

The more potential foreclosure properties you have to sift through, the higher your chances are for finding a deal.

The top 5 ways to finding foreclosures are:

1. Bandit Signs
   Bandit signs are plain white or yellow corrugated signs with metal stands that stick into the ground. You can find preprinted signs or you can buy plain signs and handwrite your message on the signs. Place them on corners of busy intersections or in neighborhoods in which you want to purchase a foreclosure home.

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If you’ve resisted the foreclosure market in the past because there was a lot of competition or because banks weren’t so willing to work with you on the short sales, it’s time to move past it! You see, even though people are still trying to break in to the foreclosure market, the “speculators” who called themselves investors over the past few years are gone! So… that leaves room for the cream of the crop to really rise.

On top of that, many serious investors have been tapped out, holding on to properties they acquired when the market was at it’s peak, and now cannot unload. There are more investors going into foreclosure because they bought the “wrong kind of deal” than ever in the past. So… this is prime time for new investors or investors that were not able to really get going because of the competitive market. Investors that are still in the game now are really working together and building their teams of investors. They’re back to specialieing and referring out the deals that don’t fit their own models. The feast or famine mentality is going away - FAST! and investors are once again working together!

Add all of to the fact that banks can no longer afford to NOT short sale. Lender after lender is going belly up, taking back properties that have no chance at all to sell for the mortgaged amount. They are left with two choices: 1. Take back the property after the foreclosure sale and try to sell it with a Realtor; or 2. Short sale now and get out.

Naturally, the question is: Why would a bank take a huge discount when they can take the property back and then sell it themselves? (more…)

Here’s an interesting story. I called Indymac, the lender for my home loan. I chose a pay option arm for a few reasons. I understand the loan and use it from an investment perspective under the advise of my CPA and two. But… at any rate, I called to ask what my options were at this point with a about 18 months left on the prepay. I told them I’d like to consider refinancing the loan with them and asked if they would they be willing to work with me on the prepayment penalty. As I suspected, their answer was an emphatic, “No”.

I did the numbers and it simply doesn’t make sense. BUT… what about homeowners that can’t afford the payments when they adjust? They have two choices: 1 - pay 3 or 4 times what they’ve been paying for the last few years; 2. Default on their mortgage and go into foreclosure. Sometimes the loans adjust in the middle of a prepayment penalty. So, what options does a homeowner have when faced with this situation?

This is the most frustrating thing, in my opinion. You’ve got homeowners that listened to their mortgage broker or loan officer, have paid faithfully by the terms they understood (there was a lot of misinformation about these neg-am loans), and then lose their homes because the lenders won’t budge. I realize the banks are in it to make money - and prepayment penalties help that - but don’t you think they’re going to lose a whole lot more when all these loans default? (more…)

There are essentially 6 “options” that sellers facing foreclosure have. To be an effective marketer, you need to know what options people have at each phase and how you can help them - and profit at the same time all along the way.

Here are the 6 options to solving their situation:

1. Borrow money from a friend or relative to catch up payments…

2. Work out a payment plan with the bank…

3. Refinance…

4. Sell through a Realtor…

5. Sell to an investor… (more…)