Are Rogue Realtors Becoming Escrow Vampires?

A wholesaler and longtime friend called me to ask if either I or any of my students  was looking at two specific properties. He gave me the addresses but they didn’t  strike a bell with me. I asked why and he went on to relate that he had contracts  on both and that the realtors involved had stolen his deposits and he was having  to fight to get the deals closed and/or get his money back. These deals have  some serious lessons for newbies and seasoned pros alike so take the time and  read all of this article – it could save you tens of thousands of dollars!

Shortcuts to Finding Real Estate Deals by Driving for Dollars

Driving for dollars to find real estate deals has been the source of literally millions of
deals for investors, and even buyers looking to live in these properties. Many investors
have become millionaires by simply driving neighborhoods, or having bird dogs do it for
them. But if you are just starting, or having trouble finding deals, here are a few clues
to sniffing out the money in a neighborhood.

Home Inspectors Stealing Investor Deals?

Now it’s happened twice in a short period of time so you need to know about it so it
doesn’t happen to you. We have the usual players in the following deals – an investor,
a seller, a property inspector, and in the second case we’ll discuss, another investor
looking to re-sell the property.

Seven Things Lenders Are Doing to Dispose of REO’s by
Reducing Their Dependence on Realtors®

It’s happening – some lenders have had it with all the stuff they have to get through to
get out of distressed REO properties and are looking for answers to make their lives
simpler. They are targeting realtors in a number of ways – first they are in the process
of starting their own brokerage firms which is what they did to the stock brokerage and
financial planning industries. This was despite it being illegal at the time for the lenders
to own these firms. All the banks did was lobby with tons of cash and got the rules
changed while it took years, it did happen. So now they own what is left of some of the
largest stock brokerage firms in the country, how soon will the large franchised real
estate offices start in the same road?

1-20-2010

A student sent me an email asking about a property and whether it could be a deal. She had
started prospecting for the homeowner months and months before and he suddenly called her
back.

Are Cities Land Banking or Sandbagging the Public?

Land banking is the systematic process where a city, county, state or the Federal
Government acquires land for the benefit of the public. Sounds pretty simple, so
why would there be controversy about this practice? Maybe you haven’t heard
anything about it because it is often a best kept secret. It can be a best kept
secret because possible leaks of the information could cause an increase in land
values or because the governmental agency is doing it in a discriminatory
manner under the guise of cleaning up blighted areas.

How to Avoid the Bandits of the South Florida Real Estate Investing Community

An uncommon occurrence that lately seems to be happening all too often to
newbie and experienced investors is when a buyer changes the terms of the
contract at or just before the closing. I know you are thinking that you have a
contract so that can’t happen, but let’s look  at exactly how these guys are getting
away with it.

Can You Really Buy and Sell Real Estate Remotely?

Every once in awhile I get a call from an investor or homeowner who has a
property for sale and their question is almost always the same, “Will you buy it?”
The issue is that the property is usually in another state. While the price may
seem like a killer deal, usually they aren’t. For years we referred these sellers to
local Real Estate Investment Clubs (REIAs) and hoped for the best – meaning
we expected a referral fee or even a “thank you”. After 20 or 30 referrals I never
got a call back that the deal had been sold/purchased, even after I called back to
follow-up. That’s how you live and learn.

The Best Method of Doing Deals With No Money, No Credit and No Risk

I get the question from newbies and especially realtors® all the time, “Is it really
possible to legally do deals with no money, no credit and no risk?” Realtors®
tend to believe that it is frankly impossible to do real estate transactions without
borrowing money or having cash to close a deal. Actually, there are many ways
to do deals with no money, no credit and no risk including the more common
ones: options, “subject to” (special situations and changing laws may apply),
owner financing (new regulations may apply), combo of owner financing and
subject to, partnership agreements with sellers, and an assignment of contract.

The Fallacy of the Maximum Allowable Offer (“MAO”)?

Before we look at the subtleties of a traditional real estate method of calculating
an offer to a seller, let’s preface this overview with where the calculation should
be used. In general, there are three types of possible purchases – bank-owned
foreclosures (REOs), non-REOs, and income properties. For this exercise and to
make it very simplistic, we’ll look at non-REOs which are basically purchases
from homeowners selling their homes.