All Forum Posts by: Mat Lewczenko

Lots of resources online at www.hudhomestore.com

how to buy FAQ:

http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/housing/sfh/reo/reobuyfaq

Generally the owner occupant bid period is 14 days. Then open to investors. (exclusive period to extended period).

To bid you need to make an offer through a registered bidder who has a valid NAID#

I'm sure there are some great section 8 investors that can help out. I just read a really good book you may want to take a look at:

http://www.amazon.com/Buy-Rent-Foreclosures-Million-Worth-ebook/dp/B006ZZQLQ6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385774228&sr=8-1&keywords=buy+%26+rent+foreclosures+3+million+net+worth

Author spent quite a bit of time talking about the S8 system and his policies. It was a pretty decent read. You may want to check it out.

The attachment to the lawn concerns me. If you are this worried about how the grass looks, what happens when the tenants leave the insides 'well lived in'.

If you have a strong equity position you may consider selling and getting two properties instead.

Welcome, keep on being 'obsessed' with this forum. You know, I heard somewhere that "Passion is often confused with obsession by the mediocre."

I feel fairly confident to say that there are plenty of 'obsessed' individuals on this forum. You already have some amazing advice, keep networking locally, find some active investors and stay curious, keep asking questions. Successful people are dying to share their experience with new investors, but they don't want to wast their time with tire kickers. Show some initiative, ask how you can help them in exchange for being able to shadow and ask questions. You will be surprised how much you can learn quickly.

@Dev Why Check your inbox, I'd be happy to share my story and help in any way that I can.

@Dev Why If it makes sense to YOU then yes, get your license. It fit my long term plan, so that's what I did. I am now 100% full time real estate, was able to build a business in three years that now my wife doesn't have to work, and we are buying properties.

Getting a license is not that difficult, but you have to check in your state. I can connect you with some good brokerages in your area.

Can you do it part time? Yes, absolutely, I did - for a year. Did it suck sometimes? YES, I was being pulled in several directions at once. Are you willing to hustle for a year or two to get to your goals? Then it is absolutely worth it.

This forum is great in so many ways. There are so many roads to your goals. The one thread that you will continually see is "it works, only if you do."

Action is the thread - not perfect action, or polished action, but informed action and a willingness to look silly and fail along the way making changes as you go. The biggest difference between successful individuals in any field and civilians is that the successful individual is willing take action faster, and adjusts for results sooner. So those who are killing it in any industry are just those who have made more mistakes and fixed them before others around them.

Sorry to wax poetic on you :) Hope this helped.

Here is how I got started. (Disclaimer: This will not be flashy and exciting, nothing quick about this get rich technique.)

I joined all the local investor groups. Found who was actually doing deals. Took them to tons of lunches, asked them a million questions. Then I got my real estate license, now I am still working full time elsewhere, I had to, I needed to make money, But now I have access to the market, MLS, and I started studying the trends, neighborhoods, absorption rates, list to sales price ratios, investor activity, cash purchase areas, absentee owners, etc.

Now my investor friends, they all had "we buy houses cash" sites, they get leads, lots of them, they make offers on those leads. If the seller was not in a position to accept an offer that made sense to the investor, they said, "No problem, I have a really great agent that can help you sell your house retail and try and get you more money than I can offer." Then I would just start getting listings from my investor friends. I would in return send them leads I found that might be good investor deals. 18 months later, 20-30 transactions down the road at, I now have more cash coming in than expenses, created great relationships with lenders and contractors, and am now in a position to start buying.

It wasn't fast, it wasn't sexy, it wasn't full of clauses and contingencies, but I was neck deep in real estate the whole time, helping people with problems, and that was my passion - as I am sure it is yours.

So, my opinion, which may be the slower route, is get into Real Estate somehow, work for someone, and investor, management something. Maybe even get your license, learn the business on the transactional side so you can see a smoking hot deal from a mile away and then have funds or resources to take advantage of it.

Write down your goals, create an action plan daily and stay focused and move forward. One of my favorite quotes is "I'm not there yet, but I am closer than I was yesterday."

From what I have found, motivation cannot be created, only uncovered with good questions, if it is even there to begin with. Now, they may not have a big need in the moment, but time can create pain: motivation - so you can't find out how long you need to wait unless you have a follow up plan. I think a 60-90-180 day automated drip of some kind is really valuable. You could create an email option via any of the online mail systems that costs you nothing, and you can get their email at the initial meeting "just to stay in touch, and keep your database of sellers up to date".

Even so, I don't waste too much time with the unmotivated, they keep me away from the motivated. Track your conversions and work the numbers. Automate the follow up with no cost to you and just keep on churning away. Best of luck to you.

I was thinking about this same strategy before actually I did it. I had some of those checks they send that said "must be deposited before xx date". I called the CC company and asked them if they could resend them, they said over the phone that they didn't have that ability. Lo and behold, I now get them at least every other month. So just call and ask for more, they will show up. I am right now refinancing a multi-family that I bought and rehabbed using those CC funds at 3% up front, pulling my credit advance back out from the rehab, increased my equity by 80k and now my CoC returns are up to 30+%. I will be doing this over and over again. It only took me 4 months to rehab and stabilize then refi and cash out my rehab costs plus a little bit more (if I choose) and have a nicely cash-flowing property. Oh and I now have a ton of points/miles, I may take a vacation later this year :)

There really is no downside to having an agent help you in your search early on, BUT, you do need clear guidelines as to what YOU consider a deal, i.e. cash on cash returns, total return, target rents, exit strategies etc. If you don't know exactly what you are looking for then you will find it every time. If the property is already on MLS then the seller already has your agent's compensation figured in, and no, going directly to listing agent will not get you a better deal most of the time, the listing agent usually just double dips on the commission and their fiduciary is to the seller, so don't look for much help from them other than what they are required to provide you by law.

Check around, see what agents are helping other investors, talk to them, lunches work great :) there are good and bad agents for sure.

Joining a REIA is a good idea, if you haven't done so already.