Tag Archives: foreclosure

Foreclosure Help – Are Lenders Stepping Up?

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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… Continue reading →

Getting Started in Real Estate: Finding Focus

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 Before we get into the nuts and bolts of your real estate investing business, it’s important to start with some basic goal setting! Yes, I know that it’s no fun but it will help with your mindset and will get you focused on the right track.

Let me guess, you’ve read a book, bought a home study course (or 2, or 3 or even more!), or just got back from a 3 day “bootcamp”. Your mind is spinning with ideas and you want to do everything and you want to do it right away. I can relate. I left my first training years ago and wanted to:

I got home and tried to do all of these things all at once. I sent letters to people in foreclosure. I bought a subscription to a data service to market to private mortgage holders. I drove through neighborhoods looking for abandoned homes. I worked morning, noon and night and ran from house to house chasing anything and everything. I desperately wanted this to work and I desperately needed a real estate deal ASAP! Continue reading →

Foreclosure Listings: 5 Tips to Finding Them First

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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. Continue reading →

Short Sales: If Not Now, Then When?

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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 (1) 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? Continue reading →

Free Real Estate Marketing Ideas…

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Recently, Brandon and I were elected to chair the marketing committee at Keller Williams. The company model doesn’t include a marketing “budget” for the office. Marketing is the sole responsibility of the agents within the office to orchestrate and execute.

Despite that, agents all agree when they sign on to have $50 taken out of every closing to pay for office marketing. A decent model when listings are selling. However… when the market comes to a screeching halt and sales dip, the marketing budget dips too! We were running an ad that cost nearly $5000/month largely paid for by individual agents that wanted their listings showcased in color in the Sunday classified section once/month.So… here’s what happened! We got “elected” to the committee at the end of January. The first meeting we were able to pull together was the first week of March. In the interim, prior to having our first meeting and even recruiting our committee, we immediately slashed the ad! The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results! This is absolutely true when it comes to marketing! Continue reading →

Lenders Trying to Save Themselves?

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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? Continue reading →

6 Options for Foreclosure Sellers

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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… Continue reading →

The 4 Stages of Finding Foreclosure Properties

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Every time you turn around, the word ‘foreclosure’ is all over the news! So… if you’re a home buyer looking to buy a foreclosure property or an investor wanting to learn how to invest in foreclosure property, then you’re timing couldn’t be better!

There is a lot out there on foreclosures; from how to stop your own foreclosure to how to ‘get the deed’. You could probably go to a different foreclosure seminar every other night for a month to learn the tips, tricks and tactics.

BUT… NONE of that matters unless you know how to FIND FORECLOSURES. It doesn’t matter how you negotiate with homeowners, what you say to Continue reading →

Short Sales – Don’t Do It

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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. Continue reading →