There was a time when I would say the most difficult thing in making money in real estate would be finding buyers. However, I am now going to change that to also finding properties. My reason for this is there are just too many foreclosures and short sales out there!! I know this is a good thing for investors, but for regular buyers it is kind of turning out to be a bad thing. Why? Because most of the properties out there needs work and regular buyers are not willing to do the work. They want something they can just move right into. Especially if they are FHA buyers. Who wants to deal with a 203K loan having to wait months for a contractor to do some work, the bank inspecting the work, then rinse... [Read more...]
I don’t know if you have noticed or not, but there are many buyers out there looking for properties now. I thought that since the $8000 tax credit had expired in June, well you had to close by the end of June anyway, that many were not going to want to buy anymore. On the contrary though… I have received many text messages and phone calls from wholesalers and bird watchers asking if I have any properties. Although my property inventory is down, I can see myself making a lot of money this summer. If I can just get my hands on a good hard money lender then I will definitely be okay. Especially since NJ has just passed a new law giving first time home buyers who buy in this state a... [Read more...]
Recently I had a dentist come to me and ask if I would purchase a property using his money and have him as my hard money lender. Now I know your probably thinking “well why would he come to you?” because I was wondering the same thing when it first came to my attention. This is what happened. I have a construction company that was doing work on the dentist’s son’s house (who is a doctor by the way). And the dentist saw our work and wanted us to do some things to his house as well. He lives in Staten Island NY and we are based here in the Newark NJ area. Anyway one day the dentist tells my project manager that he was ready to buy a house that could be flipped basically. ... [Read more...]
I have been in the middle of doing a short sale with Indie Mac Bank since December of 2009. They denied my first short sale offer of $110,000 without informing me at all. I did not know it was denied until February 2010. I gave them this much time because they always tell me they need 30 days for the negotiator to get back. However, they never got back. Anyway, once they informed me that it was denied due to an unacceptable offer, I countered at $120,000. Again this was in February. It took them about two weeks to tell me the file was in their system. Now, the negotiator did get back to me on the 30th day after the file hit the system, and all she did was asked me what was the realtor’s... [Read more...]
Would you believe I still attend foreclosure seminars. In fact, I just went to one that was conducted by American Foreclosures on Sunday, May 2, 2010. The founder, Craig Laube, discussed how he came about with the idea of the company. He gave a timeline about his being a struggling realtor, who then learned how to get the lis pendens from the courthouse in Trenton NJ. He then started selling the lists to other realtors and the snowball basically grew from there. He now owns websites that give you a list of foreclosures in your town, Americanforeclosures.com as well as a couple of lis pendens sites, NJlispendens.com, NYlispendens.com and Phillylispendens.com. For a membership fee, you will have... [Read more...]
It’s funny… … I advise that you sell your home in a short sale rather than do a loan modification or a foreclosure. However, there is even a downfall to doing a short sale. Here is what I decided. I am going to list the positives and negatives for each of the above options and I guess you can decide which works best for you. LOAN MODIFICATION Pros: You get to keep your home Your monthly mortgage payment will be lower Cons: The bank usually asks for a substantial downpayment You will still owe the bank more than what the house is worth FORECLOSURE Pros: You will no longer have the bank hassling you about a payment You will no longer have to deal with obnoxious tenants... [Read more...]
17 Apr
I ask people the question “Why rent when you can buy” all the time and I have noticed that a lot of times I get the same answer. Because they do not have the credit. Well let me say this. Credit is the least of your worries. If you have a job that pays well and you can afford the mortgage along with your other bills, then you are 3/4 past the battle. Credit is something that can be fixed. There is no need to pay astronomical payments to get it done neither. If you have no credit, then that is probably even better. There is no negotiating to get your payments down and all those other hassles. All that needs to be done is for you to get yourself a couple of prepaid cards that report... [Read more...]
What I am finding to be one of the most difficult jobs in real estate today is finding buyers. Because of the situation most of us are in, it is not easy to find someone willing to buy, with good credit and having a good paying job. You either get one or the other. I am finding buyers willing to buy but having horrible credit that may take at least six months to a year to repair. Or I am getting people with good credit, but no job or a job that pays very little and they therefore cannot afford a mortgage. When I do find someone with good credit and a good job, they want to do my job instead of just buying a nice home for themselves. Everyone thinks they can purchase a home and do the repairs... [Read more...]
Ok I know you have heard of practice what you preach. Well I am preaching that you should never procrastinate in real estate. If you do not make moves then guess what? You will not make any money. It is very easy to tell yourself that you cannot make it. This then becomes the excuse for you not going forward and just doing something to put you one step closer to getting and closing a deal. You have convinced yourself that you will never be able to make a dime because you do not have any money to start. I know the feeling because I had that same thought when I first started. I had $500 and bought the Carlton Sheets package and after reading and listening to it, I told myself that the no money... [Read more...]
If you are inexperienced, you will notice that you may be spending a lot of money while doing a property rehab. The main reason for this is that when people first decide that they want to be real estate investors, they go in looking at properties from a personal level. They look at a property and decide that they are going to change the home and fix it up to look like something they would live in. This is a bad move! When fixing up a property rehab you must remember that you are going to either do one of two things: Keep it Sell it If you keep it, then you are going to rent it out to people who have no financial interest in the property. Therefore, you have to make decisions based on what... [Read more...]
