All Forum Posts by: Justin B.

Thanks for the responses my morning rant...

The thing that bothers me most about investing in RE is that people have no idea or they don't care that their price is not competitive.

I meet people who have had their homes or properties listed for months, some almost half a year, and they refuse to drop the price!!

I just want to scream "how are you asking this much when your neighbors are selling 10-30% below your asking price, are you out of your gourd?"

Now I get that some are underwater on their financing, those aren't the people I am talking about. And how does someone think 5-9% is an acceptable cap rate in a C or D property type???

Any tips, scripts, or advice when dealing with these people?

I would send him a letter to inform him that you are entering the premises within 24 hours. Send it. Then enter the place and take pictures to prove that there was a reason to believe that they had vacated the building.

Given the fact you served him with a 3 day letter already will show the court that you had reason to assume he was leaving and had already left.

Gather his **** up and store it somewhere for a month and then toss it out if they don't make attempts to pick it up. I would also send an additional letter pointing out that you will store their items for no greater than 1 month with a charge of $50. (check with an attorney on this letter)

I do remember reading somewhere that REO agents sometimes have buyers lined up before the houses hit the mls, and the listing of the property is a mere formality in the foreclosure process.

As an example, the most recent report of "existing home sales" showed that 4,900,000 homes were sold on an annualized basis in November, 2013 (the last reported month). Since this is an annualized number, we must divide it by 12 months to see the estimated seasonally adjusted number of sales in November was actually just 408,333 homes. This number of existing home sales represents just 0.3% of the total number of homes available. This is what I mean by "activity at the margin." When put into this context the "existing home sales" report doesn't seem nearly as exciting.

What about new homes? New home sales were 421.000 on an annualized basis this past November (the last reported month) which equates to 35,023 new homes per month. This makes up an even smaller percentage of the total homes available at just 0.02%.

Understanding "sales" represent only a very small fraction of the housing market we must look at what is happening within the total housing market to get the real story. In this regard, we can use the Census Bureau data to see how many homes are just sitting vacant, owner occupied or being rented. From this data we can get a much better picture of the real strength of the economy, and how much of a potential "tailwind" there may be.

Read More...

Home Ownership

The simple reality is that there has really been very little actual recovery in housing. With five years of economic recovery now in the rear view mirror, it is clear that the average American is really not recovering as evidenced by the lowest level of home ownership since 1980.

Read More...

REO To Rent

While the Federal Reserve, along with the current Administration, have tried a litany of programs to jump start the housing market nothing has worked as well as the "REO to Rent" program. With Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, and the banks loaded with delinquent and vacant properties, the idea was to sell huge blocks of properties to institutional investors to be put out as rentals. This has worked very well.

The chart below shows the number of homes that are renter occupied versus the seasonally adjusted homeownership rate.

"first time homebuyers" out of the market. The problem is that when the herd of speculative buyers turn into mass sellers - there will not be a large enough pool of qualified buyers to absorb the inventory which will lead to a sharp reversion in prices.

http://www.landandfarm.com/search/Farm-for-sale/

http://www.landsofamerica.com/america/

http://www.farmseller.com/

http://www.loopnet.com/Farms-For-Sale/

http://www.landwatch.com/Farms_Ranches

http://www.unitedcountry.com/

http://www.ranchland.com/

this should help you get started if you want to look for comps, specialty real estate professionals, or diy...

http://www.kfeducation.com/insurance-ce/?new_level=ins_ce

Go here, Go to the right of the page that says "single courses" and choose your state. There will be quite a few insurance courses, navigate to the Claims Classes Tab and choose the last class which should be Residential Construction Basics.

If you want the manual its an additional $19.

How much equity do they have in it?

Is it pretty rural, or do you think with a nearby prop mgmt company you might be able to rent it until you sell it?

Hello BP,

I was taking some continuing education classes for my insurance license and I noticed Kaplan Education (search Kaplan Insurance Continuing Education) has a class that will take you through constructing a house, from foundation to finish. Very informative, teaches nomenclature etc.

Here is the info:

Residential Construction Basics, 3rd Edition
Total Credit Hours: 7.5
Skill Level: Basic

This fully illustrated course shows how a home is built, beginning with the foundation and following with each step until the structure is complete. Students learn construction nomenclature and the latest residential construction techniques. It includes a brief refresher course in estimating math.

I remember seeing BP members like myself look for ways to understand construction without throwing down huge amounts of money for classes or time for volunteering.

Hope this helps you on your journey!

How bout property brothers? If I was on that show I would save double the renovation budget. Everytime they agree on what someone wants, surprise surprise something in the walls or foundation etc., have to give up something you want...I love how you see surprised couples, "have you not seen this show before"?

How bout love it or list it, the people could absolutely find whatever they wanted in another house if they weren't laying down 30-80k remodeling their old home...