As an investor who has been making a lot of offers on REO’s I know the challenges that everyone is facing today getting their offers accepted. The next hurdle has become getting to the closing table. I have heard and tried a lot of different techniques lately and here are a few of my observations.

First of all, there is a lack of inventory right now in many places. For example, here in Minnesota we have a 6 month redemption period. So all those properties that didn’t get foreclosed on back in November 2008 thru March 2009 are not on the market yet. Expect a flood of REO properties hitting the market late this year or early next year.

Secondly, the $8,000 tax credit is due to expire on November 30, 2009. This has caused a lot of buyers who qualify for the first time home buyers tax credit to buy now.

Third thing I have noticed is that the lenders have loosened up their financing guidelines somewhat as of late, which has allowed a lot of investors who can qualify for mortgages to pick up these REO’s for long term rentals. Which is a good strategy right now if you can get the financing. Even non-owner occupied interest rates are relatively low right now which has allowed for good cash flows from rental properties that were picked up as REO’s. More...

I was just talking with a close friend Robyn Thompson (The Queen of Rehabs) on a conference call last night with a bunch of students. And we got to talking about what kind of properties not to buy in today’s market and something she said made a lot of sense. She said she will not buy a small house right now.

While that makes sense, I had not put a lot of thought into it until last night. I have noticed a few things from buyers that told me that I should only be dealing with larger homes, but I hadn’t spent much time thinking about it. So I probed Robyn a little more about her philosophy towards buying larger homes and here is what we talked about.

First of all, because a lot of people are losing their jobs, they are starting small business and they are usually converting one of their bedrooms into a home office. And then I mention one other trend that I have been noticing. A lot of younger people that are losing their smaller homes to foreclosure and are being forced to move in with their parents or other relatives. And it doesn’t look like this is going to be a short term trend. I have talked to a lot of buyers recently that said that they are looking for a larger home because their sons, daughters and their spouses are moving in with them.

Also with the cost of elderly care and nursing homes, more and more people want to have their elderly parents live with them. There is yet another trend that Robyn Mentioned that I also agreed with and that is mother-in-law apartments are becoming more and more popular as a way to offset the cost of living.

These are just of few of the trends that Robyn and I have been seeing lately, and that is why Robyn is currently only buying 4 or 5 bedroom homes with plenty of space for multifamily and things look like this will last a long time.

What are your thoughts? I want to hear from you and together we all will be able to better prepare ourselves for the future.

Leave your Thoughts in the Comments Section just below this post.

This question is like quicksand to many investors who feel like this new wave of technology has passed them by, and for that matter who can blame them?

But in business it isn’t about blame, it’s about identifying opportunity and seizing it… Figuring out what’s broken and fixing it… Growing, adapting, and recognizing… To those who are up to their knees in sand there is a very simple solution to getting out:

Grab the stick and slowly pull yourself out. In this case I am referring to getting a website and slowly building traffic through education, trial and error, and common sense. Fact of the matter is that you don’t need a full blown website with all sorts of doodads on it. Why? Because all those doodads distract from the main purpose of having a site, if you have all sorts of reports, weather plug-ins, news streams, and pages galore you’re sinking again.

What you want your website to do (fortunately) is very simple.

1. Convince your visitor to take action
2. Get Their Contact Information (to form a lead, either motivated seller or buyer)
3. Advertise your properties/deals

Informing them of the latest Mortgage News Daily updates does not do anything for you except take your visitor to another page, one that isn’t yours! And you’ve lost them. After years and years of testing bells and whistles we’ve come to the conclusion that a lean mean lead generating machine is the way to go.

The key word being LEAN!

Think of things from the motivated seller’s point of view: More...

Real estate is changing at an ever increasing pace.  A few years ago, you were hard pressed to find an abundant supply of Bank REO’s on the market.  Short sales were the rave and houses were still selling so most potential foreclosures were either going through a short sale or were sold before the banks got possession through foreclosure.

Then last year the banks all but stopped accepting short sales and the number of new foreclosure filings started to increase at record paces.  This caused a flood of foreclosures reaching the banks REO department and our focus shifted to finding good, no great deals by searching the MLS for bank REO’s.  We were able to acquire great deals on foreclosures and rehab them for resale.

Then last fall there were so many foreclosures that we were no longer able to resell the properties retail so the new focus became acquiring these bank REO’s for rentals.  This was a good strategy for many because we could buy the properties cheap and rents remained high.  This gave investors good cash flow.  And that is something we haven’t seen in many years.

Recently though we have been experiencing something quite different.  With all the foreclosures on the market, everyone wants in on the good deals.  That includes first time home buyers who have a huge advantage over investors.  Their 1st advantage is that they can get an FHA loan which only requires a 3% down payment compared to the 30% investors must put down. Their 2nd advantage is that they get an $8,000 tax credit just for buying.  Their 3rd advantage is that they qualify for the numerous first time home buyer rehab loans available through most cities and charitable organizations. More...

In the news lately the headlines are all about the higher than expected home sales. June saw an 11% increase in the number of homes sold compared to this time last year. However, if you listen to the reports or read the articles, buried somewhere in the story will be the caveat that while the number of home sales is up and that prices in some areas are stabilizing or in some places actually decreasing, is that the available homes for sale is at the lowest levels in a decade.

So why have home sales increased? There are a few reasons to explain the home sales increase as of late and the increase in sales prices as well.

• The $8,000 first time home buyers tax credit expires on December 1, 2009. So anyone who can take advantage of this has to do so now, because no one knows for sure whether or not congress will extend the tax credit.
   
• Because of all the foreclosures, many investors are buying up REO’s as quickly as they can.
   
• Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had a moratorium on foreclosures from November thru March. They started filing foreclosures again in April, so those properties will not start hitting the market until later this year.
   
• A lot of homeowners who normally would be selling simply can’t sell their houses right now because they owe more than the properties would sell for, so they are staying put for now.
   
• Some homeowners, who could actually sell right now, know that they couldn’t qualify for a new mortgage. More...

As part of President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act the $8,000 First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit gives first time buyers incentive to buy in an effort to increase demand and get a handle on the falling home prices. This provides investors with another means of getting buyers to buy, which is something we all should take advantage of. The details and requirements are fairly straight forward:

• The buyer must not have owned a home in the past three years
• The new house must become the buyer’s primary residence for 3 years, if not, then you must pay back the $8,000
• This credit will only apply if the buyer buys between January 1, 2009 and November 30, 2009.

The 2009 Credit is a true, money in the pocket deal. Those that bought a home under the 2008 version, which was basically an interest free loan to be paid back over the course of 15 years) cannot claim the 2009 credit.

The income qualifications hinge on the Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI)

Adjusted Gross Income is your total annual gross income less your standard deductions or if you itemize, then the deduction would be your total itemized deductions. Example, if you make $50,000 a year and you have $10,000 in itemized deduction then your AGI would be $40,000.

For single tax payers the breakdown is as followed in terms of MAGI:

• Full Credit - x < $75,000
• Partial Credit - $75,000 < x < $95,000 – Partial Credit
• Not Eligible - $95,000 < x

Married Partners who file separately each having a MAGI <$75,000 are eligible for $4,000 each.

Filing jointly with a combined MAGI of $150,000 < x < $170,000 will be able to get a reduced credit.

When a buyer is looking to take advantage of the 2009 Tax Credit and meet the qualifications they have two options that they can take and in some cases it may be better to do one over the other:

Claim it for 2008 – If the buyer has already filed their 2008 return they can file a 1040x amendment and claim the credit after the purchase. This would be worthwhile if their MAGI fell in the range of getting a full credit and/or if they are expecting to be earning more in 2009 that would push them into partial credit territory.

Claim it for 2009 – The buyer can claim their credit on their 2009 tax return by using the 5405 form. If the buyer isn’t expecting to make as much this year, but made $75,000 < x in 2008 it would be worth considering waiting for the 2009 tax season.

Anyone selling homes should take measures to integrate this incentive into their marketing materials. It would be a savvy idea to incorporate the 2009 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit into a special report, into your flyers, handouts, internet ads, pretty much anything across the board when it comes to pushing the sale of a property to an end buyer. Those who can do this the best will have an advantage over those who don’t in what will possibly end up becoming a lucrative but competitive field. As home prices fall to levels where renters, who didn’t have their credit ripped apart by the foreclosure wave, will fit these tax credit qualifications will be looking to move up, especially with a $8,000 sweetener.

Ever wonder were all that money is going from the stimulus bill that congress passed without even ready what was in the bill? I have, and thanks to a colleague of mine who just sent me a link to a very cool website, we can now start tracking were the money is going.

Stimulus Watch is a website setup by many talented programmers that got together to create a website that compiles all the information about projects across the country that’s getting their funding directly from the stimulus bill. Simple got to Stimulus Watch and select your state.

If you have a house for sale, or are planning on selling one, then you need to know about the first time home buyers tax credit for 2009. This tax credit will give first time home buyers upto an $8,000 tax credit this year if they purchase a house by December 31, 2009.

IRS - First-Time Homebuyer Credit

This year, qualifying taxpayers who buy a home before Dec. 1, 2009, can claim the credit on either their 2008 or 2009 tax returns. They do not have to repay the credit, provided the home remains their main home for 36 months after the purchase date. They can claim 10 percent of the purchase price up to $8,000, or $4,000 for married individuals filing separately. http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=204671,00.html

This credit does not have to be paid back like the $7,500 tax credit/loan issued in 2008 as long as the buyers remain in the property as thier primary residence for at least 36 months (3 years).

This seems to be the toughest subject for investors to understand, especially new investors.

What is 'Subject To'? Here is a section from the Purchase Agreement I use that talks about encumbrances and marketable title:

When you buy a property and take over the existing mortgages and start making the payments directly to the bank, you have bought the house 'Subject To' the existing mortgage.

Example:

Maplewood, MN 4 BR / 2 BA The seller had a job transfer and needed to move in a relatively short time frame. I bought the house from the seller, and he was able to make the transfer on time, and with out worries of having 2 mortgage payments. $60,599.34 - 1st Mortgage $15,386.71 - 2nd Mortgage I got the deed, and started making the payments on both the first and second mortgage. After putting about $25,000 in rehab work, I sold the property for $170,000 on a Contract for Deed. I have about a $400 per month positive cash flow from the difference between what the Buyer is paying me, and what I am paying the 1st & 2nd Mortgages.

The mortgages in the above example are still in the seller's name, but I make the payments directly to the bank.

Why would the Sellers, sell me the property and leave the mortgages in his name? The Seller was motivated, and I offered him the best solution he had available to him at the time.

How can you buy a house 'Subject To' with the due on sale clause in the mortgages? Simple, the due on sale clause says that the lender may call the loan due; it does not say they will.

The due on sale clause came about in the late 1970's and 1980's when the interest rates were rising. Interest rates had gotten so high, that many people started assuming mortgages with lower interest rates then what they could get from the banks. The banking industry figured out that their toughest competitors were their own, lower interest rate loans. So they came up with the due on sale clause. However, they had enough foresight to figure out that if interest rates were lower in the future, then they would be better off letting the old, higher interest rate loans in place.

Every once in a great while, a bank will try to enforce the due on sale clause when the title has transferred, but I have never heard of one going all the way through foreclosure. I have never had it happen to me, and I have never talked to anyone that has had it happen to them. As long as you keep making the mortgage payments on time, why would the banks want to call them due, just because title was transferred? They wouldn't.

In fact, most of the time, when I am talking to the banks about the loans that are in someone else names, they tell me, they are glad I got involved with this property, because this is the first time since they wrote the mortgage, that the payments are actually being paid on time, every month.

The other benefit to the sellers is that I actually increase their credit scores.

One of my favorite reasons for buying houses 'Subject To' is that my name is not on the mortgages. Heck, my name is not even on the deed. I put every house in a land trust. We will discuss Land Trusts in one of the next few articles. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, I don't own anything, but I do control a lot.

'Subject To' seems to be a complicated subject, but it is not as complicated as most people make it out to be.

As a real estate investor and a student of technology I have been preaching for a long time that every serious real estate investor should look into taking advantage of the incredible reach technology provides us. While looking through some archives I found an old radio interview where I had been the special guest and shared my ideas on thinking outside the box, using technology to boost business, and essentiality of having a website. The original interview can be heard in its entirety here at Realty Talk Radio:
http://www.realtytalkradio.com/index.php/component/content/58?task=view

Looking back at this interview we have come a long way since the interview (aired 2/21/2006) and I still hold the same views on the subject. The internet is one of the most incredible tools ever to come our way, a complete transformation in how information is sought and exchanged is something that cannot be ignored. Every business card you hand out, every bandit sign you stake in the ground, each promotional item you print up, and all other advertisement that does not have a website address with a website behind it can be considered a waste of money.

For years I have been working on creating websites for the real estate investor who doesn’t want to put in the time and money to develop the site and then have to add another significant monthly expense keeping someone around to do updates, fix bugs and monitor the web hosts stability so the site is always working. There is a lot that goes into creating a website where even a quick simple independent site will require numerous costs that can be confusing and you still don’t know if it’s going to work. Your hands on ability to update your site and control its content depends on your computer savvy, but typically most real estate investors aren’t knowledgeable in such things.

After years of work we have finally released our brand new real estate websites that fit perfectly into the real estate investors business. As a real estate investor myself, I’ve run into many of the same problems that anyone else would have and have taken all of those lesson and integrated them into our websites. Let me go over a few of these issues and how I have designed the websites to make the best of them.

Problem #1 – We aren’t accessible 24/7, some sellers maybe hesitant to call on the phone but would be more open to something a little more impersonal. More...