April was a great Month

In The DFW Area we currently have 40 Properties for sale
5 Pending and we sold 6 properties

Since January 1st we have sold 12 properties
And expect it to pick up.

Houston and San Antonio are also picking up
We sold 1 last month in San Antonio( we have only been listing there for 2 months)
And 3 in Houston.

We currently are now opening the Austin market so Austin lets sell some properties
With Tyler and East Texas next.

This past week has been a very busy week for listing
I may need to hire someone soon!
Yes I take care of everything by my self
Well over 70 plus properties per month and growing.
So the agents that cant keep a hold of 3 -6 by themselves makes me laugh.

Those of you that know me know I had good Teachers.
Thanks Larry and Linda.

Incase you want to know a typical day for me is I am up at 430 am in the office by 5:15 am
I don’t normally get home until 6 or 7 pm

I try to get home for Dinner as my 3 year old has no idea why I have to work he just knows IM gone
A side note to other Realtors This is not a 24 hr a day Job there are other things more important
This is why I get up early so Those other things know I care.

Mini Camp started for the Cowboys so lets hope the DB’s we got can cover this year.
I was a little disappointed that they didn’t get offensive line help.
As we all saw the great job the fill ins did.

Anyway got to sell your houses bye

How to Buy Reo Properties(bank foreclosures)

So you want to buy a foreclosure ?
You have some money, and an ok credit score.
Heck you’ve been watching HGTV and DIY for the last 6 months, and well you think you are ready to go.

Well let me give you some things to think about before you ever start looking at houses.
If you plan on doing the work yourself you need to be experienced.
Do not attempt things if it’s your 1st go around.
Every time I see new investors do this they all ways lose money A LOT of it.

So the 1st thing you need is either a good general contractor or a lot of contacts for good inexpensive contractors in all phases.
You will need foundation people, roofing, plumbing, electricians, landscapers, floor installers, dry-wallers ,cabinet installers ect ect.

This is THE MOST INPORTANT PART OF REHABBING ANY PROPERTY. You need to have knowledgeable contractors who know real prices and will cut you a break on the repairs.
This is the stage where you make your money.

The Bank prices houses by having Real Estate Agents do a BPO. Brokers Price Opinion
Their job is to find out everything that needs to be repaired. NOT UPDATED but repaired.
If it is broken or is in need of repair i.e. Carpet is too dirty to clean, the walls need paint, there are no appliances.
They will then estimate the needs at retail (if you can get these things fixed below retail you will make money if not you will not)

Then The Agents will pull up similar properties preferably in the same subdivision and the same style of house.
These are called comps.
They will compare those to this house and figure out an average price per sq ft. Then minus the amenities and repairs and then they have a rough idea of what it should sell for.
80 % of the time the bank ALL WAYS OVER PRICES IT.
The agent has no control over the listing price.

Each property has between 5,000 and 10,000 that they can negotiate.
Even if it’s a 250,000 they at most can only lower it $250,000

Every 30-60 days (some at 45) they ask the agent for a new BPO and that’s when the lower the price.
Things that factor them changing the price are
#1 Their investor if the company says they need a certain amount for the property even though the agents BPO shows that that’s too high they will still market it at that price and will not take less(I know its stupid but these are the same
Business’s that lost billions and billions of dollars. I guess they don’t factor in holding costs like the rest of the world.

#2 Offers.. The Asset manager is the banks representative and he is the one to go to the head of the REO dept and say look all of the offers we are getting seem to match the agents BPO so we need to lower the price.

#3 The agents BPO each bpo will show either no properties are selling or they are selling at less prices ECT ECT.

So when a property is 1st listed that is not the best time to buy it as it is at its most expensive price typically around the 2nd or 3rd price change is when all of the action heats up(other investors know this too.)

You have contractors so now you need funding
There are many ways to fund your purchase.
The best holds true make money with other people’s money.
You want a certain % of return for the money you spend.
Or ROI Return on Investment.

You are going to need to add a bunch of extra cost to this house when you sell it so the less you spend out of your pocket the more you can make.
Good investors Target about 20-30% of what THEY SPENT OUT OF THEIR OWN POCKET.

The easiest is buy the property and live in it
Then you can get into it for 3% down and just the repair costs

Otherwise nowadays you’re looking at 15-20% down
And most rehab projects cost about 10-20k
There are Hard Money lenders but they are going to want to see a bout 40% value in the property.
So you will need money the days of no money needed are over.
There are hard money lenders that will treat it like a construction loan
They will ask you to get them a very complete estimate of repairs the property will need
And add that to the price of the house, then they will ask you for 15% of that and give most of that back to you at closing for you to rehab the property.
In my experience you will need 20-25% to make sure you can cover all unexpected things.
Like more repairs then you realilized longer holding time(takes longer to sell) or it won’t sell for what you thought.

Which brings us to my next point

You need a good agent someone who KNOWS these types of properties
Your average century 21 agent does not! They say they do but they do not.
They are not familiar with the entire process it is much different then buying a normal retail house.
In larger markets there are only a handful of agents that list all of the foreclosures(you will never ever get to talk to them as they have a complete team that works on these) however you will find that their asstaints are agents and they are the ones that do most of the leg work. That’s the person you want.

You need accurate comps and an accurate DOM DAYS ON MARKET and will it really sell and at what price.
Sites like Zillio go by Tax value. Well in most Markets that dose not mean didley. Tax values are all ways off either too high or to low.
So Your REO AGENT is your best friend

Next you need to be able to sell it
Craig’s list and forsale by owner sites only hit 10-25% of the people
And you have a product that you are trying to sell for top dollar IE retail.
So where are there the most of these sold?
On your local MLS. There are many companies that do Flat fee MLS listings
Like the Best Choice Realty.
Where traditional agents charge you 3% to list and give 3% to the buyers agents.
Flat Fee companies only charge you anywhere from $49-1000 to list
This saves you money and this helps you sell for less then your competition.
Make no mistake about this this is a product and there is competition a lot of it!
Real Estate is based on the law of Substitution . NO One will pay more for something if there is another similar product like it for less.
You say your house is different. To you it may be but fore the most part all of the houses in a subdivision are going to be similar.
Also it’s only worth what people are willing to pay for it.
I get people telling me all of the time that it’s appraised for this or it’s worth this.

Yet it is still for sale. What does that say?
No one is willing to pay that much for it so it is over priced.
This leads to my next point
To make money you need to have all of the repairs done with in 30 days and get it sold with in 3 months other wise holding costs will eat up your profit.
So list it for what you want.
Don’t over price it thinking that oh they will just try to beat me down.
That is not the case
If your property is priced better then any other property it will sell faster and it my get competing offers(a bidding war) also you don’t have time to waste (unlike the banks) you need to know right away if you can get what you need or not.
Otherwise you will need to either owner finance, lease or come up with another exit strategy.

After you have all of this in place then its time to start looking
You need to trust the agent that they will show you what areas are moving and at what price.
When it comes time to make an offer cash is all ways best.
As the banks feel it will close faster
Also closer to the end of the month.
They do get bonus for selling so many properties .
There is so much more to this then just looking a a fixer upper
You need to have a complete team in place before you start

Also the more damaged the better .
The banks only discount for damaged goods not ones that need updating
And as you will most likely be replacing all of that stuff anyway you want it damaged.

There are many views and many ways of making money at this .
However I promise you no infomercial or quick conference will get you to make money right away.
It will only get you to lose it right away.
If you do your home work slow down and take your time this is a great way to make money a lot of it.
If you just got fired or need quick cash this is not the way to do it.

3 things in this world you can count on
You will Die
You will have to pay taxes(how much is up to you)
People will Buy and sell houses and each year it will be more and more.
Why
Because the population is all ways growing so there will all ways be a need for housing.

Good Luck!

Hello world!

This is my 1^st post I hope to at times to inform you as well as entertain you.

I am not an English major  so please forgive my incorrect grammar.

We are the company that is setting the standards for the rest of the Retail Real Estate world to follow.

Did you know that a For Sale By Owner Company can not talk with you about price or comps?

In Texas that would be acting as a Real Estate Agent and it is against the law.

Most of these companies can only do 1 thing

Put you on their website and that’s it.

Where we can list you on MLS and help you with anything you need.

Did you know that BUY OWNER  in all most all major cities show 1200,-3000 listings

And the vast majority of those are WAY OUTDATED or have not been for sale for some up to 5 years!

Yes 5 Years!

When you need to sell your property go with a Realtor there are plenty of good ones there.

Now Lets get into the housing crisis.

I was a former REO agent(worked with the banks foreclosure listings)

The  United States of  America(we the people ) just gave the banks billions of dollars because they ran their business’s so poorly.

Wow that makes sense. We did it to help the economy.

Wouldn’t it have made more sense to say every bank employee who loses their job and can not find another one(or who are in financial need) get extended unemployment benefits ,or even maybe real help to go back to school.(how much less would that have cost?)

No instead our government gives your money to the people who knew what they were doing.(are they going to buy stuff to simulate the economy?)

Financial geniuses know that if you give someone a loan when they have nothing at stake(no money in it) no proof of income(how can they pay it back)

They know that their Loss mitigation dept or reo dept (foreclosure dept) will be charged 6% by the real estate agent and it will cost them another 3% in legal fees to foreclose on it.

That means that they are all ready 9% behind

Take in the fact that all of the housing values were bumped up by their buddy appraisers and WAL- LA you have a Mess.

The Government knew this. How do they fix it ? They reward them.

They give billions of dollars to companies that screwed everyone.

Right now my wife is going back to school to become come a nurse (at 39)

Did you know that the amount of student loans has really not changed much in 25 years yet tuition has ,the cost of books has, the cost of living has

$5000 per semester. That’s what you get .

Try paying your bills on that.

Most courses like this one require you to get a 4.0 Grade average and even with a perfect GPA there is no guarantee that you will be accepted into your school.

So when do you have time to work not to mention take care of your kids and household.

Maybe the all mighty USA (OBAMA) should think of ways to help the PEOPLE(you know the ones where all this money came from)

I am not into them just giving it away.

But don’t you think that if people want to go back to school and they maintain an excellent GPA they should be entitled to loans at a good rate

After all it is their money.

They key to the world is knowledge  and EVERYONE should be able to get it.

If my company needs money are they going to give it to me? NO!

Ever try getting an SBA loan? Good luck.

Our country needs help. In less then 100 years the people in power which say they are the common man(a us Senator makes 200 k a year the average usa salary is 70K is that common) have bled us dry and stolen from the cupboard way too much.

When the founding fathers VOLUNTEERED to help run the country they did it for FREE yes NO PAY(that kind of takes out a bunch of people now a days)

Keep all of this in this context. When we the common man screw up we don’t get rewarded.

To make any business run good you need to cut expenses and raise income.

Our government has done just the opposite

While a lot of our people(Americans sit WAY BELOW THE poverty line) we give money(foreign Aide) to other countries

Hey that’s nice f you want to help your neighbor but should you not help your family 1^st?

I could go on and on. Why don’t people in power use common sense?