Shadowing Rina in The Tundra:)

Y ou are in the trenches and makin it happen !!! Fabulous!!! Sounds like you are getting an rei education and in the shadow of a great person ....RINA..... great job and the faster you get comfortable being uncomfortable.....the faster you will climb that success ladder. Way to make things happen for yourself!!!!!!!!!
Jay

Loved your post! Sounds like Rina is still moving and shaking up there. You felt the fear and you did it. I love it.

Excellent lessons yes! Although a bit vicarious for now.
I admit that soon, i'll be jumping on my own parachute with no 'tandem' instructor.
Oh, i see you have both a Sellers site and a Buyers site! wow!
Thanks for the links:)
Sassy

It was scary and nerve wracking...even though it wasn't even MY money at risk!!!!!
The experience of getting to go bid for other investors was priceless indeed!!!
Yes, Rina is having a lot of fun! She is a good teacher who really loves this. Her face lights up when she talks about POSSIBILITIES in every scenario. Its so much fun that it's never a boring moment.
Sassy
p.s. i believe i met you 2 octobers ago in the cities at a MNREIA mtg:)

Well, there was this house. Some investors were working to help the Sellers.
The mortgage was around 250k. Market value had gone to approx 169k.
There were PRE-APPROVED buyers who offered 139k!!!
Try as everyone did...The bank wouldn't take it.
Who knows what goes on inside any banks' processes for Short Sales and REOs to understand loss mitigation policies?
Shortly after the bank ejected the previous owners, the heating system BURST when the home was left unoccupied unheated in these frigid tundra temps.
That affected the value. They listed it for 76k.
So sad for the bank considering they could've gotten 139k prior to these chain of events.
The smart investors QUICKLY put in a bid and got the property for
Lesson here was: The EARLY bird often gets the worm!
JUMP on a good deal before someone else does!
Keep checking emails, keep checking new listings daily, keep checking Craigslist daily.
And have hard money lenders and investors and buyers lined up, in mind beforehand.
Oh yea, it has a beautiful lake view too!
The neat thing is, it may take only 13k to fix up the heating system for resale.
And better yet...what if the previously rejected PRE-APPROVED buyers STILL want the property for their price of 139k after repairs???
WOW. Wouldn't that be awesome?!

I know Robin from when our kids went to same private school when they were little.
She had bought a nice new house several years ago on a decent lot outside Asheville.
She gets sick quite easily. Allergic to mercury (yes like the type used for dental fillings etc) and many many toxins and common chemicals which most people have a higher tolerance for (of course this catches up to us eventually later in our lives). You know, like the chemicals and such in our shampoos, our soaps, our cleaning supplies...things like that. (Like brake fluid in our shampoos; i looked at my brake fluid container, it said "propylene glycol" and not to get near eyes or in mouth, then i checked the bottles of shampoos in the house, most have "propylene glycol" in the ingredients).
Her fibromyalgia has been intermittently debilitating and her ribs can break without any reason but by just rolling over in her sleep.
So, she had not been able to keep working in her business and lost her brokerage business and fell behind on her mortgage four years ago when it was still with Countrywide. Then her mortgage was eventually bought out by Bank of America a while back.
She waited for foreclosure proceedings to start as she was still too ill to work steadily. One, two, three years passed. Still nothing. No foreclosure, no notices, no proceedings.
I did some research and found that Bank of America had bought most of the loans from Countrywide for about 16 cents on the dollar or so. Oh, perhaps with so much instant equity, there was no need to rush things til many issues get straightened out? Many former Countrywide homeowners i've chatted with from Las Vegas to Orlando have mentioned the same thing, that it's been 1-4 years and nothing has happened despite their non-payment of monthly mortgage payments.
I did more research and found many interesting articles and news reports; I question if the class-action lawsuits against Countrywide since 2007 had anything to do with the 'limbo' experienced by those homeowners?
Now that some major class-action lawsuits have been settled and approved by judge, perhaps it will affect those homeowners from hereon out.

Yes we met at the MNREIA meeting. Glad you are here, and learning from the best. Are you still up in the hinterlands or back in your home state?

Cathyb

Still learning before going home. Narrowing down market to focus on. NC or Seattle or FL or Boise. We'll see:)

Met another investor liquidating most of his portfolio and retiring to warm sunny Florida.
Two decades ago, he divorced and found himself completely broke.
Couldn't move back into his home cuz it was still leased out.
So he lived in a cabin on land he bought before the divorce.
He persevered with NO RUNNING WATER while figuring out how to get back on his feet. He cut trees for lumber to mill or sell with a chainsaw, large trees on his land, it provided a livelihood.
How did he learn real estate investing with no funds for classes or training?
Real estate boot camp?
No.
Workshop?
No.
Training classes?
No.
He just managed to figure it out on his own.
And an older investor kindly gave him advice.
Meeting people who have been given a hand up by others who have BEEN down that path and experienced the potholes, remind me that there ARE those who KNOW and truly BELIEVE that there is ENOUGH PIE TO GO AROUND and therefor they have no fear in sharing their knowledge and advice to others.
And that those in Scarcity thinking, keep every secret to themselves from fear that there may not be enough to go around and therefor want no competition if at all possible.
Thanks to the Deans and Robyn Thompsons out there who teach and encourage us.

Some brokers are expecting availability of Short Sales to grow after the new federal regulations get passed.
That lenders will be required to call or contact the borrowers and must send a representative to physically sit down with the borrowers to go over options, alternatives and suggest a short sale before they will be allowed to foreclose.
With the Robosign uproar last fall of 2009...trustees were, prior to that widespread hold on most foreclosures, taking the lenders word on the fact that everything was "good to go" for foreclosure. The new legislation may hold bank trustees liable also in addition to the lender; may also hold trustees accountable to verify that everything is in order for foreclosure and no longer just take the lender's word on it. This will cause banks and their trustees to verify everything repeatedly before proceeding with foreclosure, causing the process from start to finish to take longer, which is said to affect REOs to a "trickle" and cause Short Sales to increase supposedly.
My friend's friend in FL already sued and got her house back. It had already been foreclosed on and sold at auction. And she got it back. It will be interesting to see what other side effect will come out of this Robosign situation. Lawyers suggest they can do a "forensic audit" on a homeowner's mortgage to check for state and federal violations, and that any violations found can be used as Leverage to modify terms of the mortgage to help out the distressed homeowner. Interesting.
These delays may give homeowners extra time to find funds or new income to save their homes. Assuming they are in an area where there is a decent job market.
I saw condos in FL going for 15k or 30k. Many were brand new. And not selling. In asking i found that when people lost their jobs and their homes, they often had to move away to find work as they were not able to find another job locally. So it looks like FL condos in certain areas are a great deal for those who do have the money to buy them cheap and already have an income stream of some sort.

Three contractors beat us to the fabulously clearance priced neutral carpet available at the first place. We continued on the carpet quest to Home Depot as closing is coming up in a few weeks.
We found an even thicker plusher carpet at the third place and the manager let us have it for half off!
He sent around back to let the warehouse guys load it.
We wanted them to stick the carpet in back of suv as the back window opens and roll can stick out a little with red flag on it as required for road travel. For some reason the guys decided to fold the roll of carpet in half.
We thought nothing of it. No big deal, no fuss from us.
We got the new carpet to the house.
It was folded and tied so tight, it SPRUNG open pronto as soon as we cut the rope they used to tie folded carpet roll!
We were so excited at installing it.
And Rina taught me how to "bounce" it into place under the trim edges.
When done we were happy; the buyers will be happy to see a nice new carpet.
Then we stepped back to admire.
Uh ohhhh...there was a lumpy earthquake zone done the middle of the carpet from where the warehouse guys folded the carpet.
We tamped on it, yanked on carpet, pulled it to smooth it down, used weight to try to flatten...you name it, we tried it!
Still lumpy where stretched.
Carpet contractor said we may need to glue down the middle as it is probably permanently stretched!!! oh no!
AND...there was a gap of about nearly an inch along part of one edge due to the carpet being stretched unevenly.
Lesson here...
1) never again will we allow anyone to FOLD our roll of carpet in half like that again!!!!!!!!!!
2) buy a couple inches extra measurement for width AND length and not just length when possible!
3) never assume it is cut to correct measurements requested
4) or contract it out if feasible!

Am loving your Tundra journal and all that you are learning!

Rina called Seth the carpet expert! He graciously came over that very night and got messed up carpet fiasco cut, FIXED and put into place before appraiser arrived!!!!!! YAYYYYYYYYYYY!!!
From this i learned that again it is so very important to build and keep good relationships with those you work with and trust! That when you take care of those who do work for you, they will take care to help you out when you are in a bind!!!!!!!!!!!! whew!
Needless to say, i think we perhaps killed Robyn's amazing Bissell vacuum by clogging it up with loads of new-carpet-fluff in my attempt to impress the appraiser and inspector with how good the carpet looks ;P LOL
Off to Walmart i go for a swedish eureka! LOL

Remember the house worth 240k that the bank tried to short sale for 170k and they turned down PRE-APPROVED buyers offering 139k? and then, when the heating system froze and burst after occupants were out, market value sunk and they only got 76k for it?
Well...a good, descriptive Craigslist ad later...and a cash buyer has now appeared!!!
Investor got fed up with the paltry one percent interest on his monies in the bank so he decided he was going to invest into something like real estate that can generate better returns for him.
(I was told by several investor-teachers that there are billions of dollars in retirement accounts nationwide earning a single digit return and that many people have in the past relied on the interest generated off their savings and etc as funds to live one. And that now that those funds to live on has decreased from ten or five percent down to measly..., there are many hungry for a better return in order to be able to keep paying their expenses without eating into their precious principal amount.)
What's more amazing is that the closing to buy it from BANK hasn't happened yet and a wholesale cash buyer has shown up!!! WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The possibilities that materialize just blows my mind!

I love your narration, but wanted to clarify, did you and Queen of the Tundra
get that prop? Hope the weather is warming up, up there. Are you two coming down for meeting tomorrow night in Twin Cities?

Take Care,

No, we missed the REIA mtg. There was a 4 p.m. deadline on paperwork that she had to get done pronto for bank.
I'm shadowing and learning as much as i can:) The only rental i've had so far is in NC back home.

-Keep all receipts in a folder together for quick and easy access when needed.
-Carry hand-sanitizer. I never know what i'll get into at properties.
-Have measuring tape in car in case of measurements needed.
-Copies of checks such as Earnest Money etc should be held by EACH investor involved in deal and not to just one person, in case a copy is needed by someone and the sole copy is in possession of someone NOT reachable on the road etc.
-keep emergency roll of charmin in car and gallon of water, in case buyers' small child wanders off and doesn't understand that toilet has been winterized.LoL;)
-make periodic entry of data into QuickBooks, or have a part-time assistant do it. No procrastinating til end of year:)
-remember that VA loans may require me to own the property for a minimum of 30 days before an offer to purchase can be executed and accepted.
-don't show property on days during asbestos removal as possible dust may be hazardous to those not wearing hazmat suits and masks that asbestos removal contractors are wearing!
-carry vinegar spray bottle in case of need to deodorize cat pee on carpet before showing property. um...or maybe not THAT soon right before showing property Lol.
-carry mobile printer-scanner-scanner in car. i never know when bank will require certain paperwork with asap deadline.
-be ready to go in the mornings as i may never know what interesting adventures and errands await each day to be accomplished.
-keep an ear out for those actively looking to buy throughout the day

Sassy, you are too funny! I'd better keep up on your journal to see what crazy things you're "learning" living with me. haha! Thanks for sharing your observations, and sorry I still get a kick out of the little things (such as trying to bounce carpet into place. lol)amongst the actual profit-making. Investing life is definitely a dream come true, and I'm enjoying having you as a roommate til you head out west! (You make a mean hippy salad and keep me laughing when we're running around or checkin out deals online in the wee hours). Thanks for holding back on posting the bigger stuff. At times discretion is in order. Few more months and I'll/we'll be free to post my head off!

We'll have to do some intense research/footwork on your target area before you go. You're gonna do great!

Love ya!

Rina