Mark's Journal

like punching the banker in the f$#$# head?, uuugghhh, they can be sssooooo annoying sometimes or i mean most of the time. SULLY.

about the punching stuff, but seriously they are rediculous.lol, SULLY.

only a quick question right now but what is the RSS and should i take the time to subscribe

Someone like dgAdmin could probably answer better than I can... but I think it sends forum posts/topics to your email???

I am finding out fast that I am going to keep on being impressed with the people on this site. So friendly and knowledgeable, it makes me feel good about the investment I made

Got an email from my lender. She cant/wont put insurance on the new properties. Says I have to do it. But OFC she still needs evidence of insurance.

That is new. Whatever.

So I have a call into my insurance agent. In the past I have jsut given out names and numbers and the lender dealt with it.

I had emailed my realtor and askd for a preliminary HUD-1. She punted, saying that Title needed info from the lender.

Well.. docs are coming today and tomorrow. Monday is a holiday (for some at least). I have no intention of paying per diems.

So I emailed my realtor again and said that we need to get Title in line. I have to have a preliminary HUD-1 tomorrow.

I go the prelim HUD-1 from Title. Only one minor error so we are good to go. A pretty simple form actually.

Insruance is 521.00 for the year. Payment is 944 a month.

One set of docs comes today and one tomorrow so I will just sign all tomorrow. The holiday puts a wrinkle in things but we should still be ok.

The glass people took it on themslves to go out to the property to give the estimate without my realtor's approval. As it turned out their phone estimate did not include a frame. That doubled the price and thus put them out of the running.

They gave me a hard deadline of June 19 to do the work. I hope they aren't sitting by the phone and waiting for my call.

What a mess yesterday was.

I got the docs on the refi. Lawyers Title was insisting that the primary trustee sign some of the docs (the Warranty Deed especially). They pointed me to the 4th paragraph in the Co-Trustee document.

So I pointed THEM to the 5th paragraph where it says that the co-trustee (me) has the same rights, duties and powers as the first trustee and may act independently without the signature or power of the first trustee.

Im not at all sure what is unclear about THAT.

They said take it or leave it. We are leaving it. I called my realtor and lender. We are moving the docs to a different title company today.

Additionally, when I saw how many notarized signatures were required (about 30), I asked to sign at a local Lawyers Title office. They said there would be a notary charge for that (on top of the 952.00 I was already paying them).

SO done with Lawyer's Title. I guess whatever work they did on my file (and the overnight fees) were gratis. Thanks so much.

All of this happened betwen 430 and 6pm on the day before a getaway day of a 3 day weekend.

The title companies are refusing to close. VERY frustrating. I'm trying to convince myself to just accept it and not be penny wise and pound foolish.

So far it is mostly not working.

Just wondering how to start a journal. Do you go into Forums under invetment journal and start a new forum topic. Just need to know so I can put down my life in print and it will help me stay on track. Thank-You and Good Luck Future RealEstate Millionaires

Just like you said. Go to Investing Journals, read the sticky from dgadmin, and then start your own. We'll be looking forward to keeping tabs on you. lol

Sorry for butting in, Mark.
btw, I feel your frustration. It'll all work out, though. You're a pro.

Rina

Signed the docs for the 1st purchase on Saturday. No worries on those.

THe refi is still not settled. We have 2 title companies looking at the docs. One said that thehy believe they can close the deal and would expedite it.

But there is no time right now for the 1st purchase so I am going to close that from our HELOC and then repay the HELOC out of the refi funds.

A great example of short term/long term financing.

I pulled the down payment from the HELOC today. The wire will be out in 5 minutes (not that anyone is counting).

I am trying to get Title to verify receipt of both the docs and the wire. So far, they are silent.

Lender will have to verify the new payment (and receipt at Title) tomorrow but I have been assured that is no problem.

Stewart Title appears to be coming to the rescue. They are strongly intimating that they can do (and expedite) the refi. That will extinguish the HELOC.

The wire and docs did arrive. The lender asked for ID at the very last minute. Don't they have a checklist or something?????

I got it out this morning so we should be good to close today.

I ordered the new HeatPump. The one on the prop was "ghetto" per my realtor. The HVAC guy reminded me that he would need power and water. :oops. Good point. I made a note.

I need to call the landscaping guy, handyman and cleaning lady more or less in that order. Probably tomorrow after I get word that we have in fact funded/closed.

I wrote a LO ad for CL. No response. Im beginning to wonder about the viability of CL. There is just A LOT of ads for peeps to weed through on there since its free. I have never had problems filling vacancies through the newspaper and may fall back on that.

Im still debating LO vs. a straight rental.

I might be engaging in a deal with NO realtors. What are the steps one would have to do for the buyer and seller?

buyer steps -

seller steps -

Im not sure I understand. Are you the buyer or the seller? If you are just bringing them together.. then you are a realtor.

the buyer. But he (the seller) has never sold without a realtor. So I want to ease his mind. What are the step each of us will need to do?

Ah.. ok.. let me think.

Well, you need a purchase agreement.

You need some type of compensation to make the contract valid (earnest money.. 10.00. Or a promissory note. Or something.)

You will want a title search.

You will want an inspection.

He will want to know that you can/will close.

He will want to know what happens if you dont close (typically earnest money is liquidated damages).

He will want time limits on the contingencies so you dont tie up his property forever.

You will both want to have a closing agent who isnt an idiot.

That's what I can think of off the top of my head. Anyone else, feel free to add.

I set up an email chain with someone who claims to have access to bulk REOs in the midwest.

The deal is that he would be wholesaling to me and I would be retailing. Pay cash at 30K per, sell on land contract for ~450 per month. After 6 months sasoning, sell the note for ~38K. So you would make ~36% on your money in 6 months.

My thoughts.. I guess its ok but I just cant get excited about putting that much money out. I would be looking for a bigger discount.

Also, there are a very limited number of these I could do. Doesn't seem sustainable.

Title is screwing up the closing so we may not fund/close today. The prelim is wrong.

Also, the escrow officer basically told me that they will NOT tell me when we close. I can find out from my realtor.

That is some EXCELLENT service I am paying for.

How in the world do these title companies stay in business?

the buyer normally even talk to the tilte folks? I thought the realtor (if one is being used) does all that. The buyer just submits offer and gets financing and pays for any inspections.....right?

You can do whatever you want. But what sense does it make for Title to call the realtor to tell me what they need when they can just call me directly. And they do.

It just seems to be a case of "we will call you if we need something but dont bother us otherwise eventhough you are the one paying us"...

didnt know that they called buyers directly..since realtor is who requested the tilte search...good to know.

but I like for the realtor to do somethiing to earn their 3% you know...

The realtor has more than earned her commission. Title is just being snotty.

Thanks for the phone call Rina... Im fine. Just have some personal issues to deal with so Im not sure how much I will be around for a while.

I will post a couple of updates while Im here today...

Both deals have closed. Pretty much all the work is done on the 1st one. Cleaning lady will be in Wed and that is it.

The new HVAC unit is in. My maintenance guy has finished all the small stuff. (That still added up to 1900 ). The landscaper is also done. No paint or carpet needed but Im still it for ~7500 (mostly the heat pump).

I made plane reservations to go out and hold the open house at the end of the month. Need to get it rented. Ill also take a bunch of pictures. The 2nd house will flow into July. No way around it.

So far still very disappointed in how the ads are going. Absolutely zero responses from CL. Too much noise I think.

I did get 3 calls from the newspaper ad. I will re-run it closer to the end of the month. That should be good enough.

The 2nd escrow was a total fiasco. I will write that up in a separate post.

For some reason, I am getting mail from the lender at the property address for the refi. The tenant was very nice and said it was no problem to forward them. I asked the lender to double check that file.

My experience with Title Companies has been almost universally bad. (Exception for Stewart Title who did a bang up job on my refi escrow.)

But First American Title was the worst of the worst. Ill try to remember all the mistakes they made but Im sure I will forget a few.

1) They sent out docs that did not need to be signed AND docs that TITLE needed to be signed along with the docs I needed to sign.

2) They failed to mark the places where we were supposed to sign.

3) They did not send out CC&R's till AFTER COE so I was actually signing a CCC&R acceptance and disclosure without ever seeing them. The AZ rule is 10 days before COE!

4) When they did send the CCC&R's out later that day (via email), they sent out only about 10 pages of the 38. (VERY lucky that there were no onerous or even prohibitive rules about rentals.)

5) When my broker called to ask about the CC&R's, they said they could not send them because they did not have the buyer's address. Huh?? Then how did you send me the docs that I just signed yesterday?? (The escrow agent said that she was a bit "overwhelmed". Heh. Yeah, I guess. This was actually REALLY funny at the time.)

6) In the packet of docs that they sent out, the didnt send my copies so I was signing docs that I would not have copies of.

7) When they did close, they didnt tell either me or my broker. I heard from my lender and then contacted title and my broker. My broker had never heard from them nor had I. Title said they contacted my broker who was to tell me. I guess they were too overwhelmed to contact anyone.

Because of #2, they sent out a doc to be re-signed 2 hours before funding was to take place. So we ended up closing 3 or 4 days late.

Thats a good thing and I know all will progress well. I have missed your post but you are understandably busy so I will check your journal when I seee new entries to keep up. Much success and keep up the good work.

Wow, what a fiasco that was, I'm really glad to see you still closed! Try running your ads on different days, I know from experience this makes a difference. I ran an add on Sunday got 2 responses, ran the same ad on Wednesday and got 10 responses that day and I'm still getting them. I hope that helps you. Also try backpage, yahoo, myspace and REI onine groups if you already haven't.