All Forum Posts by: Bob Floss II

You have to know your audience. If you are targeting an area with older residents, a well crafted yellow letter might work. When I get them I throw them straight in the garbage. For a younger audience, I'm a big fan of postcards. You have about three seconds to get their attention so design something eye catching and straight to the point. 

Yes, as a lawyer I've sent out mail for my clients and we obviously get a higher response rate. However, I only do it if the client has a target property type or area and I know they are ready to close. It wouldn't be appropriate for me to generate random leads for you to qualify. 

@Ryan Canfield Give me a call tomorrow morning and we can discuss.

@Matthew Olszak Thank you for calling attention to this legislation. The RLTO already puts landlords at a disadvantage, adding this to the mix would be disastrous for the commercial market in Chicago. 

@Cory Cox You are filling in a lot of blanks with assumptions, some of which I think are wrong, but I don't know your local landlord/tenants laws. You need to talk to a local attorney before you cause a problem.

@Peter Arroyo I agree with @Randi Plevy, it all depends on your contract and how you treated the inspection contingency. You can always withdraw your request and inform the seller you would like to move forward. However, at the end of the day, you cannot force the seller to give you a credit or reduce the price. 

@Patrick Soukup Ask to review the management agreement and make sure you are not bound for any reason to use them going forward. Unless there is something in the agreement or the property is listed for sale, neither you or the owner were obligated to go through them. 

You should not have to avoid properties with third party management companies. If the seller wants to include them, they will, if the seller does not, that is their decision.

@Sean Dougherty The second mortgage is going to require some payment, they are not going to release for nothing. Did you put the payoff to the first and second mortgage on the prelim HUD and provide a payoff for the second mortgage to SPS? When they saw there was a second, SPS should have included a minimum payoff in their approval letter. SPS has been doing this for a long time and they wouldn't have put zero for the second mortgage if they knew they needed approval. It sounds to me like SPS thinks they are the only loan on title. In order to get the SPS approval modified, it will have to go back into review. The current approval letter is worthless as far as being able to close. The client will have to sign a document at closing that no funds have been paid out that are not reflected on the HUD. The first mortgage will not approve the HUD if you show a payment to the second mortgage they did not approve. The second will not give you an approval letter taking zero.

The best thing I can tell you is re-submit the file correctly with a payoff to the second mortgage and request SPS accelerate the review.

@Sean Dougherty Who is handling the negotiation of the short sale? This should be handled by an attorney or title company that understands the situation. When you submit a short sale package, you would have submitted an estimated settlement statement that broke down the closing costs, fees, and payoffs to the lenders. During that process the 1st lien holder is made aware of a 2nd lien holder and they include the minimum payoff to the 2nd. They do this to ensure the 2nd mortgage has an incentive to cooperate. Often the 2nd makes you jump through hoops and will attempt to get more money, including asking the client to wire money before the closing, but they almost always end up taking the offer from the 1st.

If you have a 1st lien holder offering nothing to the 2nd lien holder, I have to believe something was done wrong.

@Kobi Walsh What type of property are you looking to buy and what area? Different agents have different specialties.

I have a love/hate relationship with Auction. The online bidding is hands down the best opportunity to make an aggressive purchase on a property without the wasted effort that goes into attending a judicial or sheriff auction. However, Auction is only interested in procuring a buyer and collecting earnest money and after that the process can be painful. I'm supposed to close on a property next Thursday that went under contract June 1 and its been pulling teeth to get the seller to the closing table. It's been that way for almost every property I've done through Auction.

It's been mentioned before, but I'll say again, get your own title insurance!!