All Forum Posts by: Don Levy

Larry
If these people are buyers you might want to put them in a lease with option to purchase until the credit eases up or until they can save more money or work on credit or whatever. I've used it for this purpose and it works well with many benefits for you as well.
Good luck,
donrock

Here's a good hint to anyone wanting an absentee owner list. Get friendly with your local title company and most of them will give you them free. I'm in California and Chicago Title would pull up the list, put in on floppy and print out label for me. If they weren't too busy and I didn't want labels they would do them while I waited.

Don't pay for them unless you absolutely have to. With the cost of postage its going to cost plenty without the add expense.

Good luck,
donrock

Welcome to the forum, Leroy. I would suggest my favorite way of investing and that is with lease options. Some of the benefits are:
It doesn't take much money to get started.
The tenant/buyers usually pay more for rent & to buy the property
The T/B usually takes better care of the property.
It's pretty hands off as the T/B usually pays for minor repairs
If you get transferred you can sell your option or not worry as the T/B is taking good care of the property.

[SOLICITATION REMOVED BY ADMIN]

Good luck,
donrock

William,

I hope you get this going soon because now you have attention.
If it can do what you say it will at least keep the appraiser honest.

By the way would you tell me how you really about banks?

I look forward to hearing from you and if I can help don't hesitate to ask. I would love to be an appraiser again if it wasn't so tough to put up with the outside problems.

donrock

There is a talk about reducing borrower's principal on their loans to help them stave off foreclosure. I would like to know who has to take the hit when a loan is reduced. Most lenders package their loans and sell them to bigger companies, so are these companies who bought the loans in good faith going to have to take the hit?
A lot of loans are sold to investors who acted in good faith. Are they going to get zapped?
Maybe the loans that are going to be reduced will be sold back to the originators. This makes the most sense. Does anyone know the answer to this question?

The problem with investing out of state is control of your properties. Unless you have a enough units to warrant a live in manager you have to depend on property managers. Not only do they cost you money, but many of the them are just rent collectors and don't really care that much about your property.
I've found a good way to invest in houses out of state is with lease options. People that plan on eventually buying the propery tend to take better care of it.
Good luck,
donrock

Welcome to the forum, John. Your best bet is to find your own properties before they become common knowledge or listed for sale. It's better to work pre-foreclosures than than having to compete with other over REOs or listings.
Good luck,
donrock

Welcome to the forum Tina. What is it you're looking for in and didn't find in the other sites and hope to find here. You'll find that we are pretty friendly and also helpful here. Hopefully that is what you're looking for.
Good luck,
donrock

William welcome to the blog and good luck trying to make Zillow into anything but a fount of misinformation. I was an appraiser for 20 years until I got fed up with the banks and agents grinding me for $50 off on appraisals. I got my brokers license 10 years ago and just retired it and myself 2 years ago.

Back when I was appraising a couple of companies tried to get machine generated appraisals as the accepted way of getting a value. They even sold several banks on it but all it did was cause problems and was finally dropped. It didn't work then and I don't believe it will work now.

There is no substitute for human inspections and a general feel for the value of a property. You cited a number of problems that I don't believe can be overcome. From my experience I don't think the MLS or agents will give the necessary information to make it work.

Sorry to bumkick a new member but the machine generated appraisals caused me so much trouble I'm still mad about them.
Good luck,
donrock

Welcome to the forum, Lisa. It sounds like you are doing things right so far. If you need some tips perhaps my RE blog and free Foreclosure report might give you some you haven't thought of.
The blog URL is below in the sig and it has the request form for the report on it along with a lot of other info.
Good luck,
donrock