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Winston Westbrook

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
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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
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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
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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?

What is it? What are you [...]

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Real Estate Tips

Cold truth about the Winterization of REO Investment properties

by Winston Westbrook | December 23, 2009
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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 their [...]

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Real Estate News

Bank of America goes to Equator for Short Sales Processing

by Winston Westbrook | December 14, 2009
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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
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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 REO offers are not being accepted. When they send me a copy of [...]

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Foreclosures

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

by Winston Westbrook | November 30, 2009
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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 of [...]

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Real Estate Tips

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

by Winston Westbrook | November 21, 2009
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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 of [...]

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Real Estate Investing

Invest on the Ground Floor

by Winston Westbrook | November 20, 2009
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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 [...]

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Landlord Tenant

Landlords Beware: Discrimination can cost you Millions!

Thumbnail image for 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.
The Justice Department [...]

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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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Foreclosures

Top 20 tips for making offers on Freddie Mac/Home Steps REO properties

by Winston Westbrook | October 5, 2009

Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddi...

In today’s challenging real estate market where 30 offers on homes out here in Victorville, CA is the norm, (and I’m sure the same applies all over the United States) we need every little bit of information to help our offers stand out from the crowd.

I have made countless offers on REO properties including Freddie Mac deals, and these tips reflect my experience in dealing with them. These are the things that Freddie Mac always counters with and always wants flat out.

When making an offer to purchase a Freddie Mac or Home Steps owned property you should try and follow these guidelines to help your offer stand out from the crowd and help you save a day or two in negotiations with them.

The Top 20 Tips for Making offers on Freddie Mac, Home steps or FHLMC Properties

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Real Estate Marketing

How to learn from Junk mail

by Winston Westbrook | September 28, 2009

I go to my post office box once a week. I insert my key and kaplow out comes a pile of junk mail. Sometimes I think I am just paying for my post office box just so companies can send me junk, lol. Just a few years ago I would’ve been ticked off to be getting so much junk mail but now I embrace junk mail. I love junk mail.

I get junk mail from banks, auto dealers, insurance companies, fast food chains, super markets, travel, get rich quick schemes and the list goes on and on.

Fortune 500 companies spend millions hiring the top advertising agencies of the world to create and come up with the best advertising. These advertising agencies take into account every little detail and every word that’s said.

I know we don’t  have millions of dollars to spend on the best advertising money can buy so why don’t we learn from these advertisers and put together the best of best for FREE.  Let’s learn from our competition and such.

The next time you pull out a pile of junk mail and instead of just tossing it into the trash stop and look it over for a second.  Separate the mail that catches your attention from the mail that is flat out junk mail and uninteresting. Take the mail that seems interesting and look for the following:

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Real Estate Investing

Investment Property Nightmares: How to get rid of that smell!

by Winston Westbrook | September 7, 2009

I purchased my first investment property in Victorville, CA. It was an REO that looked ok on the outside but I had no idea what I was going to find inside. When I opened the door to take a look inside I couldn’t believe anyone could live in such conditions. The place looked and smelled like a garbage dump. I am not kidding, it literally looked like one. Roaches would cascade down doors I opened them up. I think they were upset that I disturbed their sleep, lol. The previous owners pets no doubt had full range of the house, but especially in this one particular front bedroom. The smell of urine was so bad you needed a gas mask. Even though the property was in need of many repairs it was still a great investment.

The Battle to Clean this Investment Property

I ended up purchasing the property and began to gut it out. I removed all the carpet and hauled out all the trash. The smell began to lighten up around the house but this front bedroom still had that awful smell. I thought that by taking the carpet and padding out it would of solved the problem, but I was dead wrong.

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