Buying Foreclosures, REOs. Short Sales, FSBO, MLS and More

There are basically three types of “foreclosures” available to purchase. When I say foreclosures
I should clarify the ways in which a property is available as a home owner doesn’t make a payment on their property.

Pre-Foreclosures – home owner doesn’t make payments and prior to a foreclosure an individuals has an opportunity to buy the property.

Foreclosure Auctions – if a home owner doesn’t make payments and nobody buys the property PRIOR to the public auction, the property will be put up for auction on the steps of your local county courthouse.

Bank Owned (REO) – if a property does not sell at a foreclosure auction, the bank essentially buys the property back and then they list it with a REALTOR for them to sell.

I'm in the process of doing my research and trying to get as familiar as I can with various investment techniques before I make my first deal. I had a few questions on the assignment process and was hoping someone on here could offer some helpful insight.

This site provides great templates for things like agreement to purchase and assignment of contract but do most people simply draft their own based off these examples? I would assume that you would meet with an attorney and work with them to draft whatever contract you needed, that way you could legally add in your escape clause if you wanted one. I was just curious what some of the more experienced REI's have done.

I'm driving down the street and I see a distressed/vacant property. I take down the address and find the house on the county records. When I look at the tax billing address it names CORELOGIC w/ their branches location in Hoffman Estates, IL. I've seen this for different houses with various home owners. After checking around... it doesn't look like this home is listed on the MLS yet. How do I find/contact the homeowners? How do I proceed in this situation?

Hi, I'm Sidney Brown, I'm a new investor who had a tough start in the real estate investing business. I'm currently doing sandwich leases with cash buyers as mortgagees. I'm working with a realtor to find these credit challenged tenant buyers and short sale properties. I'm going to rent the properties to the tenant buyers until they can have good enough credit to get a mortgage to buy the properties to buy the house near fair market value from the cash buyer (within a year or so). I'm going to make money off the rent and 40% of the profit when the cash buyer sells them the house. (The reason behind this form is so new investors and myself can learn about doing sandwich leases to help fund deals to build and grow their business and mine's too.)
Warmly,
Sidney Brown.

Sentiment Says More Price Rises Coming

The majority of Americans today are expecting home prices to continue to rise, with only about a third believing they will fall in the near future. Just a year ago, 49% of Americans expected prices to continue to fall. Analysts say that crossing the 50% threshold marks a significant milestone in consumer sentiment.

Home Appraisals Not Killing Home Sales as Much Anymore

Hi,Im new to the assigning community. Can anyone walk me through How do the real estate agent I work with and I get paid if im assigning the houses she sent to me through MLS?and How do the contracts get written up?

Bought a REO for 67K in early January from Bank of America. It was a 3/2/2 split level in a great location.

We removed the overgrown landscaping and mulched the beds. Gutted one bath, ceramic around new tub, vanity, etc. Other bath kept shower but new everything else.
Kitchen removed partial wall for more open layout. Updated wiring in house, carpet, new hardwood main floor, refinished existing hardwood upstairs. Drywall repair, paint, doors, etc.

Listed house in early March with my realtor for $136,500. Had multiple offers on first day on market.
I was excited as all the other deals!! Accepted offer of $133K and we closed in 30 days.

Who out there is wholesaling in New York? I am new to this program and Deans training and have started building my buyers list and working on finding good members for my power team. I've attended a lot of REI club meetings recently and a lot of investors are telling me how tough it is to wholesale in New York. They cite the main reason as Attorneys not wanting to sign contracts knowing you as the party are buying it through a trust or LLC and that you are obviously making money on it as an investor. In some cases saying that it is against the law, which I don't believe it is. Can anyone help me out here? Who is doing successful assignments or double close/wholesale out there?

Thanks so much.

Emma

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Hey guys.

I'm 20 years old, wasn't laid off but my hours are maybe 20 hours a month. I really am sick and tired of living at home with my parents and would love to marry my amazing girlfriend and give her and I the best life possible. I have 1k saved up and was thinking about starting in Real Estate.

I would love your advice on what are some of the basic essentials you need to have to make investing in Real Estate successful? Do you have to drive around all day to find houses? Do you even have to be able to drive or can you do all your transactions over the phone? Do you have to hire a lawyer and accountant and set up a business bank account and get an EIN? Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Home price increases in February showed the biggest gain since near the top of the housing bubble. The S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index tracks prices in 20 major markets and posted in February a 9.3% increase over the previous 12 months. This was the biggest 12 month gain in the index since May of 2006. The index had shown a steady 12 month decline in prices almost every month over a five year period through May of 2012. Things turned around again and every month since then prices have been rising.

Analysts tend to agree that this is an unsustainable pace. However, with prices so low when it began, it’s really expected to slow down as they get back to more normal levels.

Hot Markets Creating Pocket Listings