All Forum Posts by: Sandy Blanton

K. Marie Poe Ah, that's easy to understand. You bought a mortgage, then short sold that mortgage to someone else. Of course if you own a mortgage you can sell your own note short of the face value.

This sounds more like "note discounting" to me than a "short sale."

Thus a "short sale" as defined by any definition one can find where a seller sells their property for less than amount owed, cannot be done without a real estate broker involved. At least in the great bulk of situations where a national lender owns the mortgage. I can conceive of the rare case where a lender with a portfolio loan would agree to a short sale without the traditional short sales process.

Finding a broker is as easy as finding a WalMart or Target.

You'll learn little to nothing about investing from the course. Off the top of my head, here are the things I can think of that I use regularly in my brokerage: *Disclose all defects up front, *Follow escrow deposit rules to the letter, *Disclose I'm a licensee at initial contact with a seller I'm buying from, *there are 43,560 square feet in an acre. *sigh

Bobby Gerry Interesting view on title insurance. Would you recommend a buyer get a title company to run title to see what/if any the exceptions would be? Now that I think about it, this would be a "free" way to find out if it is insurable and be notified of any issues.

[solicitation removed]

Thanks.

Any FHA lender can do the FHA products, if they choose that is, many of them don't do them due to the extra work. I have no idea about values outside of my two counties in FL. I would find an experienced agent to advise you. Agents with these designations are the best: CRS, CDPE, CCIM. IMO:) You can google the designations and find agents in the area that carry them.

Huggy Baird If I remember correctly, there was a problem in the chain of title from years back... caused by one of the heirs in an estate sale that failed to sign the old deed. We had to establish that the heir was deceased and that none of her heir had any claim to her share. Some twisted mess such as this.

I want to stress that the biggest trauma I faced was that I failed to initiate the suit for quiet title as soon as I bought the unit. The trauma came from "thinking" I could use the property for a loan, but was caught "with my pants down" when I found out the title wasn't insurable.

Fix and Flip: most risky, especially for a virgin.

Fix and rent: my favorite. The more you fix, the more equity you should have as the costs of repairs should always result in at least double the value added to the property. If you rent it for a year, then sell, you get long term capital gains rate.

Buy and hold: my 2nd fave for a virgin. But again if you buy and rehab, you're almost always better off.

There are amazing mortgages available for financing rehab costs. The FHA 203K streamline allows for purchase money and rehab costs of up to $35K...all with 3.5% down. The full FHA 203K (non streamline) allows for purchase money plus rehab costs unlimited so long as total loan doesn't exceed FHA limits. Also Wells Fargo has the only national conventional rehab product.

IMO:)

John Mireles I appreciate your position, but I don't concur. If the landlord drove his car through the house (or anyone for that matter), the tenant would have recourse against the driver/auto insurance policy.

Thinking about my two units burned by the kids playing with matches: by your analysis I should have been able to sue the tenant for my deductible since their child caused the fire?

I think the burden of proof would be too high for the tenant to recover from the landlord's lacquer issue.

IMO:) Cheers. *Please don't think I'm a lacked empathy for my displaced tenants. We helped them with necessities and moved them into another one of our units.

Raquel Barela Tell me about your need. Are you buying or selling? Is it a short sale? What area of Austin (zip code is ideal)? Price range? I can take these criteria and refer the best agent for you. If you prefer privacy, email this info to me: [email protected].

HB. If the property can be insured, buy title insurance. Not only does it perform miracles in the rare event there is a problem, it makes the property salable and mortgage ready.

I bought a tax deed property a decade ago. At purchase time I had no intentions of selling it or borrowing on it. Two years later, low and behold I had a need for cash. The title wasn't clear. It costed me $4K in legal fees and two years until I won my suit for clear title.

Will Russell Move into one of the quad units and stay a year, then move if prudent.

In our area, only repo/short sale multi family units are selling as the prices have plummeted due to lack of financing (unless owner occupied, which is rare). If you have your eye on a unit, get in the MLS and see if there's another available with more attractive numbers.

Huggy Baird You're right on, IMO. I think FHA will do up to a quad (4 units).

Cheers.