Winston Westbrook

Archive of Winston Westbrook's Articles

Winston Westbrook is broker & owner of Westbrook National Real Estate Company servicing the cities of Victorville, Spring Valley Lake, Adelanto, Hesperia, Apple Valley & the surrounding Victor Valley High Desert communities of So. California. Specializing in short sale and distressed properties.

Winston has written 21 article(s) for the BiggerPockets Blog.

Real Estate Law

HUD May Limit SELLER FINANCING!

by Winston Westbrook | February 24, 2010

Attention my fellow investors! The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is considering a change in the rules that would in turn make seller financing a thing of the past. Yes, you heard me right! HUD may take the option away for those not licensed as a loan originator under the Federal SAFE MORTGAGE [...]

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Financing Real Estate

FHA Guidelines Scheduled to Change this Spring and Summer

by Winston Westbrook | February 15, 2010

The Federal Housing Administration more commonly known as FHA has recently announced major changes to their program to ensure long-term financial soundness. If you are involved in the retail side of real estate you need to listen up. If not, then listen anyways. You might learn something. The FHA’s main objective is to help serve [...]

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Real Estate Law

Contract Law: California Court rules on non-refundable deposits

by Winston Westbrook | February 13, 2010

I want to highlight a recent court case ruling that I came across here in California. Since what happens here in California seems to ripple to the rest of the 49 states, I would suggest you take a gander at the following. Kuish vs. Smith, G040743 [PDF] [DOC] Mr. Bradford Kuish entered into an agreement [...]

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Foreclosures

Why Are HUD Homes Becoming Popular Again?

by Winston Westbrook | January 18, 2010

A short while back I started noticing properties popping up in the surrounding Victorville neighborhoods with HUD homes signs in their windows. This caused me to revisit HUD homes, and I recently got approved to sell HUD homes in California. I didn’t want to get caught off guard with a client asking about a home [...]

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Real Estate Investing

You Can Learn a Lot About Investing in Real Estate by Dusting off Your Old Monopoly Board Game

by Winston Westbrook | January 11, 2010

So over this past weekend I went to Target looking for the Monopoly board game. Target carries the game in a beautiful wooden box. This is exclusive only to Target along with all the other classic board games we grew up with. The box fits like a big dictionary in your library bookcase and looks [...]

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Real Estate Tools

How to Research Local Crime Statistics for FREE Before you Purchase that Property

by Winston Westbrook | January 4, 2010

You find a perfect property to purchase. All the numbers are right. You have everything in place yet you have this sinking feeling that this might not be a great area to invest in. If only there was a way you could get the history of the crimes that have been committed in the area. [...]

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Rehabbing

How to Pick the Best Contractor for your REO, Foreclosure Rehab, or Other Remodel

by Winston Westbrook | December 28, 2009

How do you pick someone (a contractor) to take care of your REO, foreclosure, or other home improvement or rehab needs? Do you base it on: the nice shiny truck they came to visit you in? the neatly pressed uniform they are wearing? the sharp penmanship on the estimate? the jokes he or she cracked about the weather? [...]

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Real Estate Tips

Cold truth about the Winterization of REO Investment properties

by Winston Westbrook | December 23, 2009

Here in Victorville USA, fall and winter temperatures can drop below the freezing point. Because of this, it is customary to Winterize an unoccupied house for sale throughout fall, winter, and parts of spring. Since the majority of all the sales in this area and yours are REO (bank owned properties), banks decide it’s in [...]

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Real Estate News

Bank of America goes to Equator for Short Sales Processing

by Winston Westbrook | December 14, 2009

Have you dealt with Bank of America or Countrywide during this golden age of real estate? If you have, I am sure you received nothing but stellar service from them right? If you have received great service from them you better start blogging about it and praising who you dealt with at Bank of America [...]

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Foreclosures

Top 5 Reasons Why the Bank Did Not Accept Your REO Foreclosure Offer!

by Winston Westbrook | December 7, 2009

This week I would like to spotlight five mistakes being committed by real estate agents on their REO property offers to the banks. I hear from countless other broker and investor friends in the Southern California area how frustrated they are that their bank REO offers are not being accepted. When they send me a [...]

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Foreclosures

Investors: How to show you truly care in 2010; Save a Foreclosure!

by Winston Westbrook | November 30, 2009

In today’s market, more and more people are losing their homes; this is plain fact. The second one of your fellow Americans start to fall behind in their mortgage payments they begin to suffer greatly. They start to anguish mentally the second they know they cannot make the mortgage payment. They go through a plethora [...]

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Real Estate Tips

What Does Buying a Home “As is” Really Mean??

by Winston Westbrook | November 21, 2009

The family down the street is selling their home. If you didn’t attend the PTA meeting or go to the church with the family chances are you don’t know this seller. Unfortunately in today’s market we do know the seller. We can bet that the seller of that house is one of the following: Bank [...]

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Real Estate Investing

Invest on the Ground Floor

by Winston Westbrook | November 20, 2009

My grandfather was born in Guayaquil Ecuador in 1906. He came to America in the 70′s and would tell me stories about his business in Ecuador exporting bananas to the United States. He loved America and all it stood for; he wouldn’t drive anything but American made cars. Chevy to be exact, lol. He stated [...]

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Landlord Tenant

Landlords Beware: Discrimination can cost you Millions!

by Winston Westbrook | November 10, 2009

It cost billionaire Donald T. Sterling millions. On November 3rd of this year the Justice department received the biggest settlement on a housing discrimination lawsuit. Donald T. Sterling has agreed to pay $2.725 million to settle allegations that he discriminated against African-Americans, Hispanics and families with children at apartment buildings he controls in Los Angeles. [...]

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Housing

The best time of the year to buy real estate is…

by Winston Westbrook | October 12, 2009

I get asked the following question from time to time:
Winston what is the best time of the year to buy or invest in real estate?

I have been in real estate sales and finance since 1995 and I would usually say that towards the end of the year was the best time of the year to purchase a property. Why do I say this?

Less competition
Less competition
Less competition

I never had the hard stats to prove it but you could just get a feel for it based on market conditions. Towards the end of the year I would get less activity from:

advertisements
listings
referrals
etc etc

I got to thinking and so I came across this section in Google called Google Trends. Google Trends lets you see what people are searching for over a selected period of time. I found an interesting trend for the search for “real estate” in the United States.

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