If you are a flipper I have potentially GREAT news! You may be asking me, Why is it only “potentially” GREAT news Andy? Great question so give me a moment to explain… As of right now there is a 90 day flip policy with FHA. What this has meant as a flipper is that you had to wait 90 days from the time that you bought the property (and your deed was recorded) before a fully executed contract with FHA financing would go through without any hiccups. It was not impossible to sell your property inside that 90 day window, Read more…

It’s a funny thing how difficult – and how easy – it can be to learn who actually owns a property – critical information for a real estate investor! Perhaps you’ve picked this property out on a drive-by and don’t want to knock on the door; or the property is vacant; or you are avoiding talking to a resident tenant. How do you find out how to contact the owner – and even some background information about them? In the United States, the County Tax Assessor’s office where the property resides has public records of who owns each property, along Read more…

Read my other posts about direct mail, one of the strongest real estate investment tools I use. 4 Critical Reasons To Use Direct Mail 4+ Tools for Direct Mail Efficiency Every neighborhood, no matter how upscale or low-income, has a homeowner(s) who is having financial troubles and is falling behind on their mortgage payments. Those are the people you want to reach, before they contact a realtor or are in foreclosure. Some neighborhoods have more homeowners with mortgage problems than others, so look at rates of foreclosures, trends in employment and so on. Watch for a future post on choosing Read more…

Mortgage rates survived the summer of 2014 still low and stable! Real estate investors want to know: How long will that last? Forecasters are predicting a rise in rates – as they have been doing for over a year. Almost none of the forecasters are willing to commit to a timeframe, but most see the rise as inevitable, and probably sooner rather than later. What are some of the seemingly contradictory factors that have interest rates jogging in place? Upward forces: Both the improving economy and the Fed indicate a rate increase is coming. Downward pressure: Unstable world events keep Read more…

Many promising real estate investment opportunities aren’t listed or advertised for sale, anywhere. Somewhere a homeowner is missing or under-paying their mortgage payments and doesn’t know WHAT to do about the dunning letters the lender is sending as part of the pre-foreclosure process. As a real estate investor, you want to find this homeowner while she/he can still make their own decision to sell, avoiding a foreclosure, before the lender takes control of the property. Watch for a future post describing the step-by-step pre-foreclosure and foreclosure process. Why are many homeowners who are slipping into a growing hole of overdue Read more…

If you are observing an auctioneer pattering a foreclosure sale property to a group of poker-faced bidders, at some point you may realize that the auction has ended – but who bought the property? Everyone is expressionlessly ticking off a clipboard list, updating a tablet or laptop, or muttering into a mobile phone … even the auctioneer gives few clues as to what has become of this property. So who are the buyers of foreclosure auction properties? There is a very good chance that no one bought the property, even if there were bids. The foreclosing lender typically sets a Read more…

Are you new to real estate investing and don’t yet know where to find foreclosure auctions? I’ll focus on non-judicial Trustee Sales, which are held in most states. A few states do only judicial auctions of foreclosures – aka a “Sheriff’s Sale” – but we will put those aside for the time being. Foreclosure auctions, aka Trustee Sales, are arranged by the County Clerk’s office and held in the county where the property lies, at a specified date and time, usually at the courthouse or county administration building. Before a foreclosure property can be auctioned, the lender must follow a Read more…

What’s tricky about an appraisal is that you and the homebuyer negotiate the selling price of your finished fix & flip property without knowing what the appraised value will be (although your experience may give you a good estimate). But whatever the agreed selling price, most homebuyers are dependent on the appraisal to secure a mortgage that will make the deal work. Is there anything you can do to help influence a favorable appraisal? My advice is to require the appraiser to contact you first, before you allow them access to the property. This is your chance to speak with Read more…

What’s tricky about an appraisal is that you and the homebuyer negotiate the selling price of your finished fix & flip property without knowing what the appraised value will be (although your experience may give you a good estimate). But whatever the agreed selling price, most homebuyers are dependent on the appraisal to secure a mortgage that will make the deal work.  Is there anything you can do to help influence a favorable appraisal? My advice is to require the appraiser to contact you first, before you allow them access to the property. This is your chance to speak with Read more…

Settle back next to the fire for some haunting tales of house-selling nightmares … As an earnest real estate investor plying your trade, how were you to know the real reason for the very discounted price on this property was not problems with structure or cosmetics – but because there was a gruesome murder in the home, one that dominated headlines many years ago? As Halloween approaches I thought I’d share a rare, if ghoulish, topic … just how do you sell a highly-publicized “murder house”? Or, as the experts delicately phrase it, a “stigmatized property”? Even if there is Read more…