Is flipping real estate illegal? This is an extremely misunderstood topic among beginners and experts alike. The legality of flipping real estate is swirling with myths and half truths and although I am not an attorney, I will lay out the facts that my experiences have taught me on the subject. (Disclaimer: I am not providing legal advice in this article and for such advice on any legal related issues, always consult a qualified attorney.). If you are (or are considering becoming) a creative … [Read more...]
How to Reduce Your Property Tax Assessment
October 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment
How to Reduce Your Property Tax Assessment The downturn in the real estate market has created a potentially ideal situation for anyone who holds real estate. This is because you have a good chance of reducing your property tax assessment and thus your property tax burden by appealing the value. I have saved thousands of dollars by appealing my property tax values, and you can as well.Your property taxes are based on the “fair market value.” The local tax assessor is supposed to … [Read more...]
Mortgage Loan Forgiveness is Here!
October 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Mortgage loan forgiveness is for real and it is here. How? Back in the spring of 2012, federal banking regulators settled with 14 major mortgage servicers over alleged foreclosure abuses to the tune of $25 Billion. Among the 14, included industry leaders such as Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citibank and Wells Fargo. Now, homeowners are opening letters from these companies and nearly fainting when they read the substance of the letter which describes complete mortgage loan forgiveness. Here's … [Read more...]
Where Oh Where Have All the Distressed Sales Gone?
September 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Where Oh Where Have All the Distressed Sales Gone? The signing of the Attorneys General agreement five months ago was supposed to speed up foreclosure processing and move more properties through the pipeline faster than we’ve seen since Robogate. Over the past year, new initiatives by the GSEs and the biggest banks, and improved transaction management technology were supposed to get record numbers of short sales to closing faster and easier than ever.So what the heck happened?If you’re … [Read more...]
Inspecting A House: A Valuable Real Estate Education that Costs a Penny
September 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Inspecting A House: A Valuable Real Estate Education that Costs a Penny Want to vastly increase the probabilities of success in the real estate investment business? Want to create a perception about yourself that instills trust and confidence? Well for the first 50 people to sign up, you can accomplish this for the introductory price of $1,495!But wait! If you sign up within the next two days, you can get this for only… are you ready? $997!Sound familiar? I have good news and good news (no … [Read more...]
The $9.2 Billion Impact of 28.1 Million U.S. Real Estate Investors
September 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The $9.2 Billion Impact of 28.1 Million U.S. Real Estate Investors As most of you know, BiggerPockets.com has been the online home for real estate investors for almost 8 years. Through that time, we’ve developed intimate knowledge of the investor market and mindset. However, we knew that simply stating our belief from those years of insight and access to investors was not going to mean much, if anything, unless it could be backed up by scientifically significant data. We felt it was … [Read more...]
Seller Marketing: The Direct Mail Fail
September 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Seller Marketing: The Direct Mail Fail Back in April, I wrote a post about using direct mail and door knocking to acquire more distressed properties (at the time I was buying exclusively at the auction and off the MLS). In it, I promised to keep BiggerPockets readers updated on my progress with these campaigns. Well, so far, it’s not going well. While I’ve scored a few small victories with the door knocking (more on that at the end of the post) the direct mail campaign has been a complete … [Read more...]
Is Buying a Foreclosure a Good Idea?
September 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Is buying a foreclosure a good idea? Maybe. Are you looking to buy a home to live in or are you an investor? If you're goal is to occupy the property as your primary residence, buying a foreclosure may be right for you. You can get more bang for your buck by purchasing a home that needs a little TLC. But if you are a real estate investor, buying a foreclosure may not be a good idea at all. Here are four important steps to follow when buying a foreclosure to live in as your home: Hire a … [Read more...]
1st is Good But Who’s on 2nd?!? Hopefully it’s YOU!!
September 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment
1st is Good But Who’s on 2nd?!? Hopefully it’s YOU!! Until this post I have only talked about 1st position notes. From a control standpoint, they are the best investment — you have the right to foreclose on the property. That means you essentially have the right to control the asset and your ownership of the note is the highest priority. Now, consider this: Some investors like the low prices of 2nd position notes as an entry point to note investing. So what exactly is a 2nd … [Read more...]
How The Summer Squeeze is Changing Investing
August 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment
How The Summer Squeeze is Changing Investing Investor participation in the housing market dropped sharply In July for the second straight month, reversing long-term growth in investor purchases of residential properties, according to the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey.Investor participation in the housing market fell to 21.9 percent of all transactions in July, from 23.5 percent in June, based on a three-month moving average. Investor participation back in May … [Read more...]
It’s Time to Crank Up the Old Marketing Machine
August 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment
It’s Time to Crank Up the Old Marketing Machine For the past few years deals have been plentiful for real estate investors; so plentiful in fact many of them felt that they no longer really had to do any marketing. Foreclosures and bank owned properties were everywhere. A lot of real estate investors have had their pick of great deals. All they had to do in many cases was to cherry pick bank owned properties right off the MLS.As the supply of foreclosures and REOs begin to decline, these … [Read more...]
Short Sales Cast a Long Shadow
August 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Short Sales Cast a Long Shadow Yesterday the GSEs, Fanny and Freddie, accelerated the switch to short sales that has been underway for the past two years by announcing new servicing standards to speed up and streamline the processing of short sales for borrowers whose mortgages are held by the GSE’s, which is about half of all mortgages in the nation. The new guidelines, which take effect in November, allow servicers to approve a short sale for borrowers who have certain types of … [Read more...]
An Escrow Agent’s Value to a Real Estate Professional
August 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment
An Escrow Agent’s Value to a Real Estate Professional Real Estate Agent and Real Estate Investor: If you are closing deals, this blog is a must read!An Escrow Agent or Escrow Officer works at a title company and handles the documents and monies to close a real estate transaction. Working with a solid Escrow Agent can save you thousands of dollars and hundreds of headaches over time!I am going to let 3 true stories explain why a Title or Escrow Agent is one of the biggest assets an … [Read more...]
‘Property Wars’ Distorted View of Reality
August 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment
‘Property Wars’ Distorted View of Reality I don’t watch much television. However, on the rare occasion I do sit down in front of the tube it’s unlikely my remote control will stop on a reality TV program. My beef with all of these shows is that they aren’t very realistic. Maybe it’s because, most of the time, reality isn’t all that exciting.The reality TV show formula is easy to dissect. Mix together a colorful protagonist and antagonist, a lot of yelling and screaming and, most … [Read more...]
Don’t Get in Trouble Flopping a Short Sale
August 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Don’t Get in Trouble Flopping a Short Sale With the declining number of REO foreclosures on the market right now, many investors and wholesalers are having success acquiring properties through short sales. However, dealing with REO foreclosures and short sales can be two very different animals. While buying and selling an REO is typically straight forward, the laws surrounding the reselling of a short sale are quite different.For those new to real estate: a short sale is a real estate … [Read more...]
Legislating Disaster in Nevada and Maryland: Good Intentions Gone Wrong
August 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Legislating Disaster in Nevada and Maryland: Good Intentions Gone Wrong It stands to reason that if you pass a law delaying something bad for your local housing economy, like foreclosures, in hopes of buying time to help a few defaulting borrowers, you’ll be delaying the inevitable and all other homeowners in the market will eventually pay the price in the form of delayed depressed values and extended pain.That’s pretty much what’s happening right now in several states with new laws … [Read more...]
The Convoluted World Of Real Estate Handouts
July 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The Convoluted World Of Real Estate HandoutsTwo weeks ago, we found our company in a position that, somehow, we had not dealt with in our years of buying real estate in Memphis and Dallas. After having completed close to 800 transactions in the last 3 years, last week was the first time we had run into a closing where the seller used a government program to assist in the sale of the home. Not only was a government program used, but the bank involved in the loan got into the act as well and … [Read more...]
Why Aren’t Sellers Selling?
July 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Why Aren’t Sellers Selling?Several factors are driving the inventory drought which is dramatically changing housing markets, especially for properties under $200,000 in Western markets. HousingWire reported yesterday, for example, that Phoenix short sale prices rose 23 percent in June from last year, while foreclosures were up 36 percent and non-distress sales up 11 percent.Nationwide the drought helped push the average home sales-to-listing price ratio to 95.6 percent in June, according to … [Read more...]
Why Short Sale Discounts are Growing & The Best Banks for Bargains
July 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Why Short Sale Discounts are Growing & The Best Banks for BargainsThe discounts on distress sales are critical for investors. Discounts− the price differences between “normal,” full value properties and a distress sales like foreclosures or short sales−set the parameters for capital gains when a property is sold, especially in markets with modest price appreciation. All things being equal, the greater the discount the greater the potential gain.Discounts for foreclosures versus … [Read more...]
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Realtor Ads as a Gauge of Your Local Real Estate Market
Realtor Ads as a Gauge of Your Local Real Estate Market Investors are constantly bombarded with statistics. Housing starts are up in the United States, housing starts are down in a particular city. Resale inventory is high, retail inventory is low, short-sales are up, short-sales are down. Don’t get me started on the “shadow inventory” that’s been poised to flood the market for years now. It’s very easy to get caught up in all these statistics. Unfortunately the numbers can be … [Read more...]