Category Archives: Tips Of The Week
Bank Foreclosed Homes – 3 Methods to Find Your Next Foreclosed Property
The term foreclosure has been a buzz word in the real estate world for decades but in the last twelve months the term has become well known by anyone who reads the newspaper or watches the news. Pickup the local newspaper and you will find several articles on foreclosure. Foreclosure is one of the best ways to buy real estate at a discount but there are risks involved.
As long as you calculated and accept these risks you can buy properties that have been foreclosed on by the bank at a significant discount because the lender that now owns the property is not in the real estate business, they are in the lending business and will do what it takes to dispose of the asset and get some or all of the money back so they can lend it back out.
Identifying the best sources of foreclosed properties will be your first challenge but I have included the 3 of the best ways to find foreclosed properties.
1. Build a list of REO agents: A REO (Real Estate Owned) agent is hired by the bank to sell the property for the bank. Find out who the top REO agents are and set up an individual meeting with each of them and be prepared to discuss what type of property you are looking for, how fast you can close and what type of proof of funds you have. After you meet with them, continue to follow up with them on a weekly basis and see what new listings they see coming in on the horizon.
2. Search Bank Websites: Many banks will list their foreclosed properties on their website. Enter your search criteria and it will tell you the address of the property and who to contact to get more information. In some cases the information may list a Realtor but the property has not been listed or is in the process of being listed so you can get a jump start on your completion.
3. Registry of Deeds:- Where they record deeds is another great place to get information on foreclosed properties. Keep in mind that more and more areas are now online and access to the information is only a click away. You can use information at the registry of deeds in order to know if a bank has taken back a property after the auction. The way you will see this is in the grantor/grantee index. Look for the Seller as the grantee and this will signify that the foreclosure deed has been recorded and the bank will be selling the property and you will have a jumpstart on the competition.
There are many ways to profit from foreclosure and this is just a small sample of different techniques that you can use.
Pre Foreclosures – How to Eliminate the Competition
When Don and I started out in this business, there were very few deals and a ton of competition. In today’s market it seems like there are a lot of deals and very few investors. No matter what type of market you are in, you need to be aware of what your competition is doing and you need to stay ahead of them.
The reason there are less competitors today is because many investors are on the sideline afraid to do deals because the quick turn real estate game is not what it was 2 years ago. It has changed but they either chose not to adapt or were not paying attention and got knocked out of the game. While the economy and market have the competition back on their heels, it’s time to throw the knock-out punch by implementing this strategy that the competition is not using and probably never will.
Become a total solutions provider: You have 2 options when you approach a homeowner that is looking to sell because of their financial situation. You can either be a property buyer or a total solutions provider. The property buyer’s only goal or intention is to buy the property while the total solutions provider is looking to help the homeowner first and buy second.
As a total solutions provider you will evaluate the homeowner’s situation and offer alternatives to selling such as: forbearance agreement, refinance, and private loan. As the solutions provider you will present options to the homeowner and if all of them get eliminated, you can then proceed with the purchase of the property.
If you are able to use one of the options to save them from their situation then you will walk away from the deals with a bounty. However the bounty will not be money. The bounty or reward for your good deed will be a testimonial letter from the homeowner that you will then use in your direct mail campaigns in order to increase your response rate. There is also no better feeling than helping someone who has been unable to help themselves.
You have two options: Continue to offer one solution or become a total solutions provider. If you want to do the same marketing but close more deals, the solutions provider role is for you. How many more deals will you get into as a result of using the solutions provider approach? There is only one way to find out, implement this strategy, answer when the phone rings, and show these homeowners their options. How many testimonial letters will you have 30 days from now?
