Craig, Merlin, bulls and bears, oh my

The latest Real Estate Connect, a conference that brings together real estate professionals and technology, engaged the industry in a range of discussions: Riding out the roller-coaster housing market, taking blogging to the next level, figuring out the foreclosure market, gauging the future of multiple listing services, navigating the many online real estate sites, and managing Internet communications were among the hot topics.

Connect attendees heard insight from Craig Newmark, founder of the global network of craigslist community sites, and from Merlin Mann, a new media personality who shared tips on managing your time and whittling down the multitude of messages in your e-mail inbox. Attendees also heard a variety of views on the state of the housing market and economy, and had an opportunity to witness the launch of a national brokerage franchise network.

The following is a comprehensive list of Inman News articles that focus on events during the Real Estate Connect conference in San Francisco, held July 23-25, 2008, at the historic Palace Hotel:

• In "MLS stakeholders take on syndication, public sites," panelists addressed pressing issues facing multiple listing services, such as the debate over public-facing MLS Web sites and syndication of property listings data.

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More Foreclosures, More Home Fires

The biggest surge of mortgage defaults in seven decades coincides with an increase in blazes in foreclosed properties led by states with the most repossessed homes, according to fire safety officials in Nevada, Massachusetts and Ohio...

"Home arsons follow foreclosure trends, with a lag," [Coalition Against Insurance Fraud spokesman James] Quiggle said, pointing to an increase after the last housing slump when the number of blazes reached 116,600 in 1992 from 111,900 in 1990. "We're facing a potential spike in arson like we've never seen before."

A National Fire Protection Association official says that nearly two thirds of all blazes in "unsecured vacant buildings" have been set intentionally, Bloomberg reported.

Making matters even worse, fires in vacant structures—such as those that have been foreclosed upon—present a more dangerous scenario for firefighters.
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Foreclosures expected to rise despite rescue plans

WASHINGTON — Home foreclosures will keep rising next year no matter who is elected president in November.

Even the optimism that surrounds a new president cannot resurrect home values overnight, and presidents have no direct ability to reduce rising mortgage rates. Nevertheless, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain both promise help for homeowners facing foreclosure.

Obama supports a broader role for government than does McCain. Both envision the Federal Housing Administration providing new, cheaper mortgages to distressed home­owners who otherwise would have difficulty refinancing into more secure government-insured loans with lower monthly payments.

For the plans to work, lenders would have to be willing to take a substantial loss by reducing the amount owed on the loan. But some would have a powerful incentive to do so. A refinancing deal could allow them to recover far more money than they would get from the costly process of foreclosing on the property and trying to resell it.

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Pending home sales fall 4.7 percent

WASHINGTON -- A measurement of pending home sales fell to the third-lowest reading on record in May as the housing market's recovery continued to prove elusive.

The National Association of Realtors' seasonally adjusted index of pending sales for existing homes fell 4.7 percent to 84.7 from an upwardly revised April reading of 88.9. The index was 14 percent below year-ago levels.

"The overall decline in contract signings suggests we are not out of the woods by any means," NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement.

Home sales are considered pending when the seller has accepted an offer, but the deal has not yet closed. Typically there is a one- to two-month lag before a sale is completed.

Wall Street economists surveyed by Thomson/IFR had predicted the index would come in at 87. The index, which sunk to a record low of 83 in March, stood at 98.5 in May 2007. A reading of 100 is equal to the average level of sales activity in 2001, when the index started.

Pending sales fell around the U.S., sinking the most - 7.1 percent - in the South, and the least - 1.3 percent - in the West.

Sales of existing homes edged up in May, indicating that buyers were taking advantage of deeply discounted prices. But many economists believe prices must drop further before the housing industry can mount a sustained recovery.

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Foreclosure filings rise

Foreclosure filings rose in Whatcom County last month, but are still below the state and national rate.

There were 59 foreclosure filings in June, up from 40 in May, according to RealtyTrac, a company that tracks foreclosure filings across the country. A foreclosure filing includes default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions.

The number of filings in June means there was one filing for every 1,446 homes in Whatcom County. The state rate was one filing for every 984 homes, while the national rate was one filing for every 501 homes.

The June filing total also is higher than June 2007, when there were 33 filings.

Across the country, filings decreased 3 percent in June compared to May, but were still up 53 percent year-overyear. Nevada, California and Arizona continue to have the highest foreclosure rates, with Washington ranking 22nd in the U.S.

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REO Properties- Some of Real Estate’s Finest Gems for Investors

When real estate investors evaluate their options for what types of properties to invest in, some of the first things that come to mind are preforeclosure, short sales, and other types of foreclosure properties. This tendency is a natural one. After all, sellers facing foreclosures are naturally going to be more motivated and that is what most investors are looking for.

Where do most investors turn to when they seek preforeclosure opportunities? Sure, they take a look at free foreclosure listings or even sources of foreclosure listings that they pay for. While these sources may lead to productive and profitable deals, they also require extensive marketing and business promotion in order for an investor to tap into these preforeclosure opportunities.

To Get a Free Foreclosure and short sale Course including how to buy REO Properties, Go here Reo Properties

What other options do investors have? Well, in today’s market, more and more realtors are marketing properties as short sales in the MLS. While these do represent preforeclosure opportunities, I also think that this can be risky for the investor because many real estate agents are pretty new to the foreclosure world (and thus may just be learning what is a short sale) and you are taking a chance that the agent in charge of the deal actually knows what they are doing. Plus, you still have the emotional aspect of the sale, a natural by-product of foreclosures that can complicate deals in some cases.

A significant but often overlooked option available to investors concerns bank foreclosures. This umbrella term includes REO properties and HUD homes but it all ties in with the REO process, the phase of foreclosure that follows the auction and where a lender must then sell the foreclosures in their inventory.

Many investors shy away from REO properties or HUD homes because they feel they have less negotiating power or simply lack the capital to make aggressive offers and play along with the rules that REO lenders stipulate. While I favor preforeclosure and short sales myself, I also have a system in place that allows the machine to run on autopilot, a system that I can also teach you.

My efforts here are to assure you that there are indeed deals to be found within the realm of REO properties. The offer process in many ways is less complicated, there is little to no emotion on the part of the seller (the REO lender), and deals can be completed much more quickly. If that appeals to you, and capital is your primary limitation, then you owe it to yourself to check out my Preforeclosure Cash Flow System and the module within it that covers how to obtain unlimited amounts of capital for your foreclosure business.

In closing, the entirety of the foreclosure process is ripe with deals that are there for the picking. As rigid as REO properties or HUD homes may seem, the REO process is as much as part of foreclosures as the preforeclosure side of the business. Don’t limit your scope, learn from what I have to offer you, and I wish you the very best in success in real estate investing.

To Get a Free Foreclosure and short sale Course including how to buy REO Properties, Go here REO Properties

Dedicated to Multiplying Your Income,

D.C. Fawcett

The Business Building Coach to the Foreclosure Industry

www.realestateforeclosuresinvesting.com

Who’s to blame for the foreclosure crisis?

In today’s mortgage and real estate environment, people are looking for a scapegoat to blame for the Subprime Mortgage Crisis. Some believe it’s the lenders fault for offering aggressive mortgage products to homeowners.

The truth of the matter is: Its not the lenders fault.

Homeowners and Home buyers need to take responsibility for their actions.

It’s not the lenders fault that the homebuyers didn’t make their mortgage payments.

It’s not the government role or responsibility to bail out these homeowners.

In this time of the market you need to be focusing on no Risk Strategies for your real estate investing business.

Several of these strategies are:

Options

An option controls a home and gives you an equitable interest in the home giving you the right to sell the home for any price you want creating as much profit as you want.

However it does not obligate you to buy the home so there is no risk. An option agreement can be secured with a $10 or $100 deposit. This is No Risk Deal because you have no money invested and it doesn’t require the use of your credit. These work on all types of properties, single family, commercial, land , large, small, Ugly, Pretty, low end and high end luxury.

Short Sales

Short Sales are a strategy that only applies to homes that are in foreclosure, behind on payments or about to behind on payments. Short Sales Work Awesome in this market because there are so many of them out there right now. They’re very easy to find right now and you have nothing at risk. All Short Sales are no money down and do not require the use of your credit.

Performance Subject-To/Lease Options

This is a deal where you offer to help a homeowner sell their home for them by taking over their mortgage payments only if you can find a lease option buyer for the home. One thing you do not want to promise to a “Subject-to” seller is that you will guarantee to make their payments on a home when you don’t know you can sell it on a lease option.

Guaranteeing to make someone’s payments and then not doing what you promised will make an unethical investor that doesn’t operate with integrity. Sometimes this is beyond your control because you don’t have the cash flow to make the payments. If you don’t promise to make their payments in the first place, you can’t get in trouble. Make sure you get this in writing because sellers always only hear what they want to hear.

What Not to do:

You should not be using your credit to buy houses on marginal deals. You should only use your credit if you have to or if the deal is grand slam deal or a commercial deal. Never put any money down on a “subject-to deal” unless you know you’ve got it sold.

Remember You have nothing at Risk if you:

Don’t use your own credit to buy houses,

Don’t write any checks to acquire homes,

Don’t make guarantees to sellers you can’t support
I’m sure these tips will help you sleep better at night

I will be teaching a section on no risk strategies to use for today’s market at my seminar on May 8th in Tampa. Seats are filling up Fast.

How you can get started investing in bank foreclosures

Tampa, FL - There has been a lot of talk in the media about the real estate investing market and the increasing number of bank foreclosures. The media is showing a negative outlook on the real estate market because they are saying that home sales are slow.

The general public believes this because during a downturn it takes longer to sell homes because there are more homes on the market. There are a lot of bank foreclosures and reo properties on the market which has added to the inventory. Smart foreclosure investors know this is all BS because they know that a home can sell just as fast if it has more exposure in the marketplace. The reason why homes don’t have as much exposure in a slow market than in a hot market is because the homes have more competition. The fact of the matter is; Now is the best time to get started in real estate foreclosure investing because the opportunities to create huge profits and wealth is endless.

To get a FREE Foreclosure Training course,

Go here right now Bank Foreclosures

More millionaires have been made in a down real estate market by buying investment properties than any other market. Anyone can make huge profits in a down real estate market if they take some time to go to real estate investing classes. The hottest class to attend right now is on short sale training.

A foreclosure short sale is when a lender accepts less than what’s owed on the mortgage. It’s a critical part of any real estate foreclosure investing strategy in today’s market because 95% of all homes entering foreclosure have equity in them. Short Sale training can separate the men from the boys when it comes to making it big in today’s real estate foreclosure investing market.

It always important to have a mentor when buying investment properties or when you are a real estate investing beginner. Getting advice on real estate investing can make or break your new entrepreneurial venture because you have to understand you make money on a property when you buy it and you realize it when you sell it. If you buy properties the wrong way or overpay for an investment property, you are putting yourself in a risky position.

Foreclosure loss mitigation business opportunities are all around us. Most people don’t know this industry exists. Or they hear negative things in the media about how foreclosure investors rip off homeowners by stealing their houses. Well that’s what the media’s job is.

They need to spin the stories to make it more interesting for the people watching their shows so they don’t go to another channel. If they go to another channel, they will get lower rates and less money from their advertisers. So take everything with a grain of salt. You need to treat everyone you help with a foreclosure listing with respect and not take advantage of them. This is why the media has so much to say about bank foreclosures.

To get a FREE Foreclosure Training course,

Go here right now Bank Foreclosures

Loss Mitigation is the department at the mortgage company that negotiates the defaulted loan or loan in foreclosure with homeowners. The Loss mitigation department negotiates real estate short sales for their bank or their investor. Negotiating with mortgage companies gets into advanced foreclosure training because if the loss mitigation specialist working at the bank finds out that you are a real estate investing beginner, they will take advantage of you.

Real estate investing beginners can also invest in a foreclosure course if they can’t dedicate the time out of their schedule to attend a foreclosure class or other real estate investing classes. The best investment for a real estate investing beginner is to get a foreclosure investing short sale course. This is the best advice on real estate investing you can get for today’s rapidly exploding foreclosures market. Short sale training is sometimes referred to as loss mitigation training.

There are resources on the internet for free foreclosure listings, however you have to remember; “You get what you pay for.” Usually these free foreclosure listings are not accurate because they compile these free foreclosure listings from old information from public sources. The best way to find quality foreclosure listings is from your local courthouse. In some areas, there are companies that go to the courthouse for you and will sell the foreclosure leads to you. The most important thing is that you get the foreclosure listings on a daily basis.

We are in the greatest real estate market you may see in your lifetime. You can start your own foreclosure investing business right now. You don’t need good credit, a ton of cash, or any experience to get started because all Foreclosure deals are down with no money down when you that the right foreclosure training.

Are you going to let this once in a lifetime opportunity to help distressed homeowners and make a ton of cash along the way pass you by?

Why You Should Focus on the Home Foreclosures In Your Real Estate Investing Business

The opportunities that exist in the foreclosure niche are huge right now and they are continuing to grow at a rapid pace. This is spurred by the increase in foreclosures across the country being led by California and Florida. Focusing on home foreclosures allows you to work on Luxury Homes without the traditional Risk you would normally assume by qualifying and signing for a mortgage. A far better strategy than investing in hud homes.

To get a Free Foreclosure Course, click this link right now: Home Foreclosures

In the Foreclosure Niche, you take control of a property by “getting the deed” and selling the home to an investor or owner occupant depending on the price range, neighborhood and condition of the house. By Focusing on Luxury and Higher end Home foreclosures, you can make more profit per house with the same amount of work. When you combine this with the ability to short sale Jumbo Mortgages, You’ve got yourself the golden ticket.

Lenders are extremely flexible on negotiating high dollar mortgages and jumbo loans because they definitely don’t want these houses back. Would you rather make 10% on a 150 thousand dollar home or 10% of a 1.5 million dollar home? The Mortgage Marketplace has created such a large number of home foreclosures that it has created unlimited opportunities to do these types of transactions.

This is because of the very aggressive sub prime products they put out in the market place and their loosened guidelines for allowing weak borrowers to buy properties they normally wouldn’t have been able to buy. They did this because of competition needed to get their money out in the market place. The Foreclosure Niche is the Best Niche in The Real Estate Investing Business because:

-- The ability to control High Dollar and High Profit Potential Homes with no Risk.

-- You don’t have to have Good Credit because you don’t have to qualify for mortgages in your own name.

-- You don’t need a lot of money to get started. This business has very low barriers of entry.

-- You don’t need any experience because if you follow my system, it will show you how to create the huge checks by following the step by step system.

-- You can purchase a foreclosure quickly because you have a motivated, cooperative seller.

There are not enough investors in the marketplace right now to handle the volume of homes going into foreclosure. We need more investors and I’m on a mission to create very successful investors that want to get extremely wealthy over the next two to three years.

This situation won’t last forever. Just 3 years ago it was very difficult to find these types of deals. Its so easy now, its pathetic! Take advantage of it while its here.

What is a Short Sale ?

Let’s first cover what the definition of a short sale is.

A Short Sale is when the bank agrees to accept less than what’s owed on a mortgage foreclosure that is secured by real estate.

To get a Free Foreclosure Investing Course, Go Here What is a short sale

Benefits to the Seller of the property

The seller wins by avoiding foreclosure by selling their home before the foreclosure auction even if they owe more than its worth.

If sellers were to sell their home foreclosures the traditional real estate transaction with a realtor without a short sale, typically they would have to bring tens of thousands of dollars to the closing to sell their own home. This is not an option for them because they are in foreclosure and don’t have any money.

Sometimes they are able to get some moving money out of the deal where they would get nothing if they lost the home back as a bank foreclosure. A bank foreclosure is also known as an reo.

Benefits to the Lender

The Lender wins because they are getting some of their bad debt paid off and are decreasing the amount of foreclosures and reo properties they have.

You see, when a lender has delinquent loans on their books, it affects how much money they can lend out in new loans because they are regulated by the FDIC. So the more bad loans they can get rid of, the more good loans they can then go ahead and acquire. This is why they have the Loss Mitigation department to help the bank liquidate their foreclosure listings.

Also by taking a home to auction, the lender will lose 35-50 thousand dollars.

So it’s a huge cost savings to them to do short sales before the auction occurs.

Benefits to you the Investor

The investor wins because we get to make a great profit on a home while offering free foreclosure listings to our buyers, most of the time in the area of 25-200 thousand dollars, that we have invested little money in, have not had to put our credit at risk and we don’t have to rehab the property.

Most of the time we are able to get these properties at 60 cents on the dollar and they are in great condition. I have acquired foreclosures through short sales in bad condition for as low as 28 cents on the dollar. That means I was able to acquire a home for 28 cents on the dollar by doing a short sale with the lender. You can’t buy hud homes for that much of a discount.

The information of how to short sale a home benefits everyone:

It benefits Realtors because in today’s market Realtors are getting tons of listings with no equity and they can turn these dead leads into strong commission checks that they wouldn’t get without knowing how to help their sellers out with a short sale.

It benefits investors because they are getting a lot of leads now from sellers that owe more than their house is worth. The only option for them is to do a short sale.

And the short sale business for investors is awesome in this market because you don’t have to make payments on the house, you don’t have to make repairs to the home, you don’t have to put your credit on the line to do the deal and you make a huge profit just for structuring the whole deal. The best part is you can control large luxury style homes while generating exponentially more profit than starter homes without any risk. You make ten times more profit on a luxury home than a starter home and its that same amount of work and still no risk.

Home Foreclosures are at an all time high and it is your time to get in the game and help out some needful homeowners while make a boatload of cash along the way. Short Sales need to be a part of every investor’s real estate investment strategy in today’s mortgage and housing market.

What are the causes of the high rate of foreclosures?

In the first half of 2007, subprime loans made up 54 percent of the loans starting foreclosure. In the last half, subprime loans will make up 60 percent of the foreclosure starts. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, subprime loans only represent 14 percent of all loans outstanding.

Most of the subprime loans are on the east and west coast, particularly south Florida and and southern California, but also New England and Texas. Most of the delinquenicies are happening in the Midwest. So what does this tell us?

Foreclosures are everywhere and are easy to find and profit from.

Historically the reason for default has not been loan type or because mortgage companies have made bad loans over the past few years.

The number one reason for default is from Job Loss or Loss on Income. This accounts for 36% of defaults.

The number 2 reason which accounts for 21% is due to illness in the family.

The number 3 reason is because people have taken on too much debt and is the one that all of the newspapers are talking about.

The 1st and 2nd reasons have always been there and will not go away. The additional of the mortgage problem is what has created the increase in the foreclosures we are seeing.

These top 3 reasons account for 70% of the mortgage defaults.

Another precursor to foreclosure is divorce and quite often someone that is going through foreclosure is filing bankruptcy to stop their foreclosure actions.

Lesson to learn from this.

If you want to get ahead of your competition, you should be targeting not only the the foreclosure list for your marketing efforts but also:

1. A list of homeowners in your farm area that are 60 days behind on their mortgage.
2. A Divorce List
3. A list of people that have filed bankruptcy and are failing out of their Chapter 13 plan.

By targeting these three targeted lists as well as the foreclosure list, you will crush your competition by getting the deals before they even know about them. You will be the only person contacting these homeowners and you will be the only game in town for their problem with their house payments.

Discover why investing in hud homes can bankrupt you before you even start your foreclosure investing career

I get asked all the time by new real estate investors if investing in hud homes is a good strategy. I will be recap in this article what I tell them….

Hud homes as an investment is not a good strategy because when new investors think about buying bank foreclosures, they first place they think of is hud homes. This creates a lot of competition for these hud homes which creates more demand for the home foreclosures.

The increased demand drives up the price and new investors tend to get any and will buy based on emotion instead of logic because they “just want to get their first deal”. If you pay too much for a property, you will lose your shirt on the deal. That’s why it important to not overpay for the property because you make your money on a property on the day you buy, not the day you sell.

This is why it’s important to have the right real estate investing training so you know how to spot the good deals from the bad and not overpay for a property. Your first deal can bankrupt if you don’t structure it the right way. I see this all the time in my real estate investment club. The guys that don’t take the time to invest in their education are soon out of business because they try and figure it out on their own and fail.

Short Sales are a great way to guarantee that you won’t overpay for properties. If you are wondering “ what is a short sale “ or are wondering what the “ definition of a short sale is“ here you go. A Short Sale is when the lender accepts less than what is owed on a mortgage on home foreclosures.

All of The deals are no money down.

We don’t give the sellers any money when we get the deed to their house.

The only thing you have to pay when you get a deal is the cost of the notary and recording fee when you record your deed. That’s a maximum of $100. Now my acquisitions manager is a notary so I don’t pay any notary fees. If you don’t put any money down on the house, you aren’t putting any money at risk.

You don’t need good credit to do short sale deals.

You don’t need to go get a mortgage when you do short sales deals. If you don’t need to use your credit, you aren’t putting your credit at risk. You fund the deal the way you structure the transaction. You fund the deal by either:

The ability to own houses without having to make monthly mortgage payments.

There are no monthly payments to make for short sale deals. The houses are either

in foreclosure or about to be in foreclosure. You don’t need to make any payments therefore you aren’t putting any money at risking making monthly payments.

Preforeclosures and Short Sales are extremely easy to find right now.

There aren’t enough investors out there to handle all of the deals in the market. That’s why I’m on a mission to equip you with all of the resources you need so you can go out there and help all of these struggling homeowners and make a lot of money while doing it.

You may here some real estate speakers say to stay away from foreclosures because there is too much competition. Well that was then and this is now. They are teaching old information because they are not currently practicing what they preach. I am actively buying and selling foreclosures in my own backyard and I know what works and what doesn’t work. And I have to tell you there is no competition for preforeclosure and short sales now because there are so many of them.

Short Sales are easy to get because it doesn’t require you to do a lot of negotiating with the seller because they know they don’t have any equity and they’re just looking for a way out. You are their solution! I love working with short sale sellers because they are the most motivated sellers out there.

Short Sales are the most profitable quick turn deals to do in residential real estate because you’re making all of your profit on the discount with the lender

One of the biggest benefits of the short sale business is that it works even better on Luxury Homes. The banks are more flexible and more negotiable on larger mortgages. Banks don’t want to take houses back and they definitely don’t want to take back Luxury homes.

It takes the same amount of work to do a deal on a luxury home than it does to do a starter home. The difference is A Luxury home pays 10 times as much profit. Its like doing 10 deals in one and when you combine the short sale strategy with luxury homes, you’ve got the golden ticket.

You See, Banks are in the money business. They’re not in the Real Estate business. They don’t want to own any properties. Their only interest is making interest on their money. Foreclosing on homes is a hassle they have to deal with because it’s a cost of doing business for them. The sooner you understand this the sooner you will realize how huge this opportunity is for you right now.

When banks lend out money – they have to keep a multiple of 5 times the amount of money they lend out in reserves. When a loan goes bad, it’s now considered a non-performing asset and that limits the amount of money they can lend out.

It costs a bank a minimum of $30,000 to foreclose on a home. They would rather take a discount on the mortgage and get that bad debt off their books so they can lend out more money.

You are the solution for them. Banks need you to help them liquidate their houses so they can get rid of their bad debt. You are doing them a great service.

Why You Should Focus on the Foreclosure Niche In Your Real Estate Investing Business

The opportunities that exist in the foreclosure niche are huge right now and they are continuing to grow at a rapid pace. This is spurred by the increase in foreclosure rates across the country being led by California and Florida. Focusing on foreclosure transactions allows you to work on Luxury Homes without the traditional Risk you would normally assume by qualifying and signing for a mortgage.

In the Foreclosure Niche, you take control of a property by “getting the deed” and selling the home to an investor or owner occupant depending on the price range, neighborhood and condition of the house. By Focusing on Luxury and Higher end Home, you can make more profit per house with the same amount of work. When you combine this with the ability to short sale Jumbo Mortgages, You’ve got your golden ticket.

Lenders are extremely flexible on negotiating high dollar mortgages and jumbo loans because they definitely don’t want these houses back. Would you rather make 10% of a 150 thousand dollar home or 10% of a 1.5 million dollar home? The Mortgage Marketplace has created such a large number of defaulted mortgages that it has created unlimited opportunities to do these types of transactions.

This is because of the very aggressive subprime products they put out in the market place and their loosened guidelines for allowing weak borrowers to buy properties they normally wouldn’t have been able to buy. They did this because of competition needed to get their money out in the market place. The Foreclosure Niche is the Best Niche in The Real Estate Investing Business because:

1. The ability to control High Dollar and High Profit Potential Homes with no Risk.

2. You don’t have to have Good Credit because you don’t have to qualify for mortgages in your own name.

3. You don’t need a lot of money to get started. This business has very low barriers of entry.

4. You don’t need any experience because if you follow my system, it will show you how to create the huge checks by following the step by step system.

5. You can purchase a foreclosure quickly because you have a motivated, cooperative seller.

There are not enough investors in the marketplace right now to handle the volume of homes going into foreclosure. We need more investors and I’m on a mission to create very successful investors that want to get extremely wealthy over the next two to three years.

This situation won’t last forever. Just 3 years ago it was very difficult to find these types of deals. Its so easy now, its pathetic! Take advantage of it while its here.

Why Would a Lender Do a Short Sale?

There are many ways to lose a home but signing away ownership in a manner that destroys credit, embarrasses the family and strips an owner of dignity is one of the hardest. For owners who can no longer afford to keep mortgage payments current, there are alternatives to bankruptcy or foreclosure proceedings. One of those options is called a "short sale."

When lenders agree to do a short sale in real estate, it means the lender is accepting less than the total amount due. Not all lenders will accept short sales or discounted payoffs, especially if it would make more financial sense to foreclose; moreover, not all sellers nor all properties qualify for short sales.

If you are considering buying a short sale, there could be drawbacks. For your protection, I suggest that all borrowers:

• Obtain legal advice from a competent real estate lawyer
• Call an accountant to discuss short sale tax ramifications

As a real estate agent, I am not licensed as a lawyer nor a CPA and cannot advise on those consequences. Except for certain conditions pursuant to the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, be aware the I.R.S. will consider debt forgiveness as income, and there is no guarantee that a lender who accepts a short sale will not legally pursue a borrower for the difference between the amount owed and the amount paid. In some states, this amount is known as a deficiency. A lawyer can determine whether your loan qualifies for a deficiency judgment or claim.

Although all lenders have varying requirements and may demand that a borrower submit a wide array of documentation, the following steps will give you a pretty good idea of what to expect.

• Call the Lender
  You may need to make a half dozen phone calls before you find the person responsible for handling short sales. You do not want to talk to the "real estate short sale" or "work out" department, you want the supervisor's name, the name of the individual capable of making a decision.
• Submit Letter of Authorization
  Lenders typically do not want to disclose any of your personal information without written authorization to do so. If you are working with a real estate agent, closing agent, title company or lawyer, you will receive better cooperation if you write a letter to the lender giving the lender permission to talk with those specific interested parties about your loan. The letter should include the following:
• Property Address
• Loan Reference Number
• Your Name
• The Date
• Your Agent's Name & Contact Information
• Preliminary Net Sheet
  This is an estimated closing statement that shows the sales price you expect to receive and all the costs of sale, unpaid loan balances, outstanding payments due and late fees, including real estate commissions, if any. Your closing agent or lawyer should be able to prepare this for you, if you do not know how to calculate any of these fees. If the bottom line shows cash to the seller, you will probably not need a short sale.
• Hardship Letter
  The sadder, the better. This statement of facts describes how you got into this financial bind and makes a plea to the lender to accept less than full payment. Lenders are not inhumane and can understand if you lost your job, were hospitalized or a truck ran over your entire family, but lenders are not particularly empathetic to situations involving dishonesty or criminal behavior.
• Proof of Income and Assets
  It is best to be truthful and honest about your financial situation and disclose assets. Lenders will want to know if you have savings accounts, money market accounts, stocks or bonds, negotiable instruments, cash or other real estate or anything of tangible value. Lenders are not in the charity business and often require assurance that the debtor cannot pay back any of the debt that it is forgiving.
• Copies of Bank Statements
  If your bank statements reflect unaccountable deposits, large cash withdrawals or an unusual number of checks, it's probably a good idea to explain each of those line items to the lender. In addition, the lender might want you to account for each and every deposit so it can determine whether deposits will continue.
• Comparative Market Analysis
  Sometimes markets decline and property values fall. If this is part of the reason that you cannot sell your home for enough to pay off the lender, this fact should be substantiated for the lender through a comparative market analysis (CMA). Your real estate agent can prepare a CMA for you, which will show prices of similar homes:
• Active on the market
• Pending sales
• Solds from the past six months.
• Purchase Agreement & Listing Agreement
  When you reach an agreement to sell with a prospective purchaser, the lender will want a copy of the offer, along with a copy of your listing agreement. Be prepared for the lender to renegotiate commissions and to refuse to allow payment of certain items such as home protection plans or termite inspections.