All Forum Posts by: Shari Posey

Just yesterday I was talking to an agent who has a listing were squatters were living in thehouse almost 2 years! Also, I knew a woman who used to sneak into the neighbor's yard to plub in a extension cord and use the electricity at night. She did this for weeks before they noticed. (She was losing her house and couldn't pay utilities.)

I'm a Realtor. In the heyday, I heard this statement all the time and yes, there were some sales that were very easy. Boy, have things changed! Yes, people can find listings on the internet but in my market at least half are short sales, another 35% are foreclosures with listing agents who are less than helpful and 15% are with regular owners that normally are fairly standard sales. Almost every deal has complications and most non-investor buyers would not be able to solve them without professional assistance. Finding a house you like is easy--getting it into escrow and closing are really difficult in our area. I really wish the old days would come back!
(FYI--Most of my buyers also hire me to list their homes when they sell, so they must have seen value in the service.)

Bill-Yeah, you're right, the rentals can be a pain in the butt. Yet, for some reason, it seems easier to me to buy properties and pay them off early than to save money and try to invest in the stock market to get generate the same amount income.

Here's the website I used...
http://moneycentral.msn.com/personal-finance/calculators/retirement_income_calculator/home.aspx#Results

But I see that it also has 3% rate of inflation per year so maybe that makes the difference.
By preserving capital I just mean, maintaining the principal.
Yes, it would be impossible to find a CD at 5%--I was just assuming that I could get 5% in a mixture of investments.

Mainly I'm doing this as an exercise to see the pros vs. cons of paying off early. I had not considered how much cash you need to generate the same amount of income as our rentals get. Also, I'm not including any appreciation of the property in my analysis, which hopefully will go up again in the future. (We still have some appreciation since we purchase them well before the market tanked.)

I've read dozens of pros and cons about paying off properties early compared to paying off in 30 years. I have felt paying off was mostly a benefit for peace of mind and saving on the interest. (Yes, I know the arguments deductions for interest, etc.) However, I heard Suze Ormon give another reason and I just want to verify the math before I get too excited...
We've got $2,160 cash flow minus all expenses per month.
Is it true we would have to have $675,000 at 5% interest in order to generate the same income and preserve the capital?
That compares to $475,000 in total we paid for the properties. (Well, we also had a few years of interest before paying them off which I have not included but should to be completely accurate.)
Am I missing something in this anaylsis?

Michelle (or anyone else),
How does the information in this trustee sale site differ from Foreclosure Radar?
http://www.fidelityasap.com/ts.aspx

The Fidelity site is free.
Thanks,
Shari

I've read posts on this forum that RealtyTrac is not accurate. How about Foreclosure Radar? My title company can no longer give out lists of NODs or NOTs according to law. Any other suggestions on accurate services to provide this info?

Edgardo,
I'm not clear if you are buying these properties yourself and putting skin in the game OR are you working with investors to provide information and then acting as their agent to sell the properties?

In SoCal areas (LA & OC) most properties under $417,000 are selling at, above or close to list price. The banks are listing properties quite low and attracting multiple offers...unless the places is a real dump and no bank will loan on it. Honestly, I don't see that many deals. I think most people buying single units are owner-occupied, not investors. I think the only real deals are when you can get them directly from the bank but you've got to have very deep pockets and buy in bulk.

Also, the BPO is KEY! I just had a deal get rejected because the agent who did the BPO was on drugs or something and gave the bank a value way too high.

I was bitten by a pit bull--I was the dog's first bite victim. In other words, the dog did not have a history of being aggressive--I guess I just "got lucky" as I was walking by the house and someone left the gate open and the pit came right after me. I am extremely lucky there was a block wall I jumped on as the pit went after someone else down the street so when it came back to me it couldn't reach me. It was a rental property and it was the tenant's dog. I actually talked to an attorney for damages (doctor bills) and he said the tenant probably doesn't have any money but the landlord probably does. In the end, I decided not to sue anyone but I'm just that way...another person would have sued the landlord.
There is not a chance I would rent to someone with a pit bull...NEVER.