For some strange reason I often find that there are not that many women involved in making money in real estate.

Yes there are many female real estate agents, but the number of female mortgage brokers and real estate investors is very minimal.

Then when you take it to the next level of contracting, the number gets even smaller.

Often times, when I am introduced to a new individuals, especially when I am about to do a job for that person, I always get this “crazy” look like what am I doing there.  I guess it doesn’t help much with me looking much younger than I actually am.

Oh and don’t let me be in a hardware store like Home Depot or the local small store and ask for certain materials for certain jobs; then I really get the looks.

They always tell me that there are not that many women in real estate, especially the investment side, and it just seems “strange” to see me doing what I do and knowing what I know.

I can’t lie though, because there aren’t that many women, especially with my good looks , I get away with a lot of things.  I get material and tactics and even cash for deals for little to nothing.

All the “boys” want to teach me and I like to play up to it. I smile and chat with them and (even though I’m a very happy and friendly person to all, including women) I go a little extra with them.

Because of this I learned a lot about assignments and how to structure certain deals.  Yes I paid for a course that was not worth what I paid for it. I read it and learned from it. However, most of my knowledge came from the streets.

You’d be amazed at how much you learn just from doing it.  The exposure alone and word of mouth is worth millions.

Hopefully through this blog, I can help other women break into real estate and make a killing. There is too much money out there to just leave it to the men .

REO is short for Real Estate Owned. This property is that of a home that was initially foreclosed on.  On the foreclosed date that is given by the County Sheriff’s department,  also known as Sheriff’s Sale date, the property is then put up for auction.

During the auction, bidding can start for as low as $100 depending on the state. However, when it is a straight foreclosure, many times the bid has to be near the owed amount. In this case, no one bids on the property and it then goes back to the bank.

Once at the bank, it is now an REO.

Yes, you can go directly to the bank and ask if they have that property and what are they selling it for. However, it is more advised to go to the REO real estate agent.

This is because they have more listings for more than one bank and they also do an appraisal of what the house is worth. If they are really experienced, they will know how much it should be listed for to get a quick sale. Therefore, they will most likely convince the bank to list it at a lower price.

For a list of REO brokers in your area, simply go to REOBroker.com and select your city and state. You can fund the purchase of an REO using your own money, hard money lenders, private investors or even a mortgage lender.

Using a hard money lender gives you more lead way with purchasing a distressed property, foreclosure or pre-foreclosure.  This is because they already know your intentions as most of these lenders (also known as private money lenders) are often investors themselves.

With hard money lenders the criteria is not as difficult as with a regular mortgage lender. This is because each loan is structured a little differently.

Mortgage Lender:

• Property is usually owner occupied or renter occupied
• Property has to be habitable before closing
• Will loan from 97% to 80% of the purchase amount depending on the loan
• They don’t allow borrower to take more money than asking price unless it is to cover closing and very minor repairs (repairs usually no more than $5000)

Hard Money Lender:

• Property is usually vacant
• Property is assumed to be distressed
• Will loan 65% to 75% of the estimated value of home after repairs
• Can borrow enough money for repairs and even loan payments as long as it fits within above range

They also aren’t as strict when it comes to credit. However, you should have good credit and do deals with the best interest of the lender and yourself because after all, you are both in it to make money. Post

It is also wise to check around before settling for the first hard money lender you come across. This is because not all of them offer the same rates and it would be better for you to find the one with the lowest. The rates can range from 9% to 16% depending on your credit. This is also true for regular mortgage lenders, but their rates are much lower because they are backed by government programs and therefore they go by the financial APR (annual percentage rate). Their rates can be as low as 4.5% to 10%, depending on your credit scores.

A pre-foreclosure is the time period from when the borrower misses 3 to 6 months of mortgage payments. The bank then starts litigation to foreclose on the property. Once they contact the courts and the borrower is served with notice that they (the lenders) have started the foreclosure proceedings, the home is considered a pre-foreclosure.

In other words, right before foreclosure.

Why should you go after a pre-foreclosure?

Banks are not in the business of holding on to properties. Although they do not want to take the house from the owner, they feel that they have no choice.  Lenders usually accelerate the proceedings because they are unable to get in contact with the borrower.

Borrowers sometimes feel like they are stuck between a rock and a hard place with no way to pay their mortgage. So instead of talking with the lenders, they rather “duck and dodge” their phone calls, not realizing this just makes matters worse.

The only good thing about pre-foreclosures for the borrower is, they have between one and two years before the actual foreclosure takes place. This means they can live in their home mortgage free for this time period.

This is the time that you get in to convince the borrower that you can help them get rid of the home before they have a foreclosure on their credit.

What many people fail to realize is there is actually a process to the foreclosure proceedings. Although you receive notice that the lender is starting to foreclose on your home in as little as three to six months of being delinquent on your mortgage, it is still going to take them at least another six months to a year to actually get the approval from the bank.

Therefore, here are the four steps to stay in your home mortgage free for at least a year and a half during foreclosure.

1)      Ignore the foreclosure statements – It sounds crazy, but there is no need to remove all of your belongings as soon as you get notice. As I mentioned it takes about six months to a year to even get the courts approval.

2)      Once your first year is almost up, if you have income, you can try to start your own loan modification – All you need to do is contact the bank and show proof that you can pay a lesser amount of the mortgage. This process usually takes a couple of more months to get an approval or denial, but meanwhile, the bank will put a hold on the foreclosure proceedings.

3)      Contact a bankruptcy lawyer – Also after the first year, contact a bankruptcy lawyer and begin the proceedings. Even if you can’t afford to pay the bankruptcy, this also stops the foreclosure proceedings until everything is verified.

4)      Due a short sale – Believe it or not, this proceeding alone can take up to a year. This is probably your best option. Because banks are overwhelmed with foreclosures, once they receive a contract on a home, they will postpone the foreclosure until they come up with a decision on the short sale. Most of the time the short sale is accepted and if not, then they will just negotiate it up a little higher. Either way it buys time.

If you are in a situation where you may loose your home, do not panic. There are many options for you including contacting the HUD programs that help pay for some of your mortgage payments, depending on how much you owe and what you can now afford.

If you find that HUD can’t help and the foreclosure is still in progress, then try the above. You will be surprised at how much time they can buy you.

Whatever you do, do not abandon your house and just leave it distressed.

Finding foreclosures is probably the easiest task in making money with them. The hardest part that requires work and investigating on your behalf is finding an owner of a foreclosure. In reality, this home is not actually foreclosed on, it is actually distressed.

Anytime we see boards and abandonment, we assume foreclosure which would mean the bank took back the home. But when the home is free and clear, and owned by the borrower, but abandoned, it is distressed.

This is because the owner may have walked away from the home because they moved out of state and didn’t want the hassles of renting, or they may have died, and the heirs didn’t want to move in or deal with renters.

In any case, the home is not actually a foreclosure.

So there are three simple steps to finding an owner of a foreclosure or distressed property:

1) Going down to the county clerk’s office or registers office – Sometimes you can get lucky and have a real address and not the address of the distressed property. This can be the case if the home was a rental.

2) Check the tax records – Even though owners abandon their properties, they sometimes keep up with the taxes because they do not want to owe the government. In this case, the records will show a recent address.

3) Go online – This has three other options in itself:

a) Google the address and see what comes up. Sometimes you can get information on the owner in that way.

b) Check public records online instead of physically going to the office. Most government offices are now online and you can input the address information in the correct fields and get the owners information.

c) You can use online sites like Peoplefinders.com with the name and address or Reversephonedetective.com if it the county books supplied a phone number. I would only advise this if the above methods did not work. This is comes in handy because public records whether online or in person usually have outdated information. Although you have to pay for these types of services, at least they are current.

Or you can just try your luck in buying short sales.

Buying short sales is a very good deal for an investor because basically you are getting a home that was once valued at a high price, for much less.

The reason banks even think about doing a short sale is because they do not want to foreclose on the home and have it on their books.  Therefore, they would rather take a small loss than lose 100% of the money they invested into the home.

It also saves them time of actually having to take full possession of the home after the foreclosure and pay all the fees that goes with it.

It is also wise to buy a short sale because the odds of the property being vandalized is much less because the owner usually still lives in the property as opposed to foreclosures that are usually broken into and stripped of anything valuable.

There is also the issue of bidding. When buying a foreclosure from a listing, you have to bid on the price either at an auction or through a realtor. If there is more than one person interested in the property, you have hope that your bid was the highest.

When buying short sales, you are the only one dealing with the bank directly and giving them your offer.

Finding foreclosure listings is very simple.  Especially since there are so many people losing their homes.

First, you can ride around your local neighborhood and get the addresses of foreclosures (they are properties that are boarded up) that you are interested in.  You then take that information down to the county clerk or register’s office in the county the property is located.

Once there, you go to the books which are listed by address.  They are usually right in the lobby or you can go to someone who works in the office and ask if they can look the property up for you. If you have more than one, then you probably should look through the books. Then you can get the bank’s information and contact them and find out the following:

1) If they still own the property or did they sell it to another bank

Many times than not, the original lender sells the property to another bank which may not be recorded on the deed.

2) If they still have it, how much are they asking

If the bank still owns the property, they will give you their asking price. You can then negotiate directly with them if the price is not what you want to pay.  It is very easy to negotiate for a foreclosure because the bank wants to get rid of it as fast as possible.

3) If the owner actually owns the property free and clear

If this is the case, then you will not be able to negotiate any thing with the bank because a “free and clear” title means the borrower paid all of their mortgage payments and the bank released the home.

4) If the owner owns the property, you will then have to try to find the owner

There are many ways to try to find owners of foreclosures. You just have to do your due diligence. Once you find them, you can easily convince them that it would be in their best interest to sell you the property than to just have it sitting there unoccupied for the squatters to take it over.