All Forum Posts by: Brian P.

I like Hatties answer plus I want you to adopt a new mindset. Your goal is to get rich, if it isn't get out. The way this country is going your going to need to be rich to be comfortable.

In reply to Joe Villeneuve's three questions there are plenty of times when he would have put me on his reject list. I understand the logic of his questions and he is basically right but at certain times his list would have led to rejecting a seasoned investor and broker with 60 years of investment experience, and 50 years of broker-agent experience and the kind of agent he is looking for. 

But the true purpose of his questions are to screen out certain types and if he throws out the baby with the bathwater once in a while so be it. But as others have mentioned I would be qualifying him and and he would have to  prove to me that he wasn't a waste of my time and effort before I would accept him, it is always a two way street with a good agent.

Wow, 33, it sounds like it is time to apply for social security. God, to be 33 again, sounds like a dream come true. Rule #1, yes it takes money to make money but the par't t they leave out is it doesn't need to be your money, something the rich have known for years.me

Now my advice get your real estate license, you will run into deals by the ton that you will pass on as an investment but can be profitable by listing them, and buyer prospects that you don't have something to sell them now, but are prospects for a listed property.

 ,The advice of picking one area of activity and learning it well and then adding another down the road is good advice. My personal experience taught me that for me it was better for me to build a tool box and when I found a prospect or lead that wasn't a fit for my current main activity I could find the right tool for them and make money rather then passing on the deal. If I were starting today my foundation would be wholesaling with a side of lease optioning.

I started investing a week after my 16th birthday with my 19 year old brother, you needed to be 21 then to contract but he was married thus could contract for us legally. By chance I was in the office of a top mover and shaker in town and saw a card taped to his desk that said "If you don't take a chance, you don't stand a chance." I wrote that down and read it every morning for a year or more.

Frank

Josh gave you a good answer, I want to make one thing clear though, the courts have ruled that an option without consideration is an offer, not a binding option, so pony up a ten dollar bill to do the deal. 

When I started $2 bills were in circulation, if I got one I would put it in my wallet to use as option money, a dollar was good then but having it in my wallet was a strong reminder to find a deal and that the gods were telling something.

Second thing, start a new mindset, When I started I used marketing by mouth, I figured out prospecting was the name of the game and talking to people was the main activity of the game. I got leads and deals from people I thought anything more hi how is your day going would have been wasted breath. This was not easy for me because I was basically an introvert back then. Talking to a seller, I would have been less stressed walking up the 13 steps to the hangman's noose.

Andrew  

It really depends where in the process you hit and the timeline for the process. You can hit a lot more doors with a mailout but for the homes in my main market I prefer face to face at the door. It is much more effective for me and what I say depends on where they are in the process and contrary to what you think, most are willing to talk, they are looking for a way out of their problem and they really don't want to chase away some possible help but are basically embarrassed or ashamed. Keep that in mind.

The good news is she is not hurting your credit rating and it is no big deal and it is a very good thing that you learn how not to use banks in your investing. She is most likely right she will not likely qualify and unless the new rate is better why should she? As a broker I dealt with far to many bad divorce cases. Send her some flowers with a note saying thanks for doing such a good job maintaining our credit standing with the loan on the house and I shouldn't have asked for you to sell a home you love. Proud of you.

The thing I'm concerned about is you seem to have a very weak lease agreement and it is missing several clauses which would make your life much easier. Also when I make call to a current landlord I want to make sure it is the current landlord, the guy you talked to could have been his best friend. plus I ask that landlord to sign a form confirming in writing what he said to me on the phone. I once had a good friend pass a problem tenant on to me he wanted to get rid of which lead to the creation of the form.

Traditionally telling a seller they will receive all cash has just meant they will be getting all cash at the close of escrow, just cash, nothing else. There was no promise of  your pockets being stuffed full of green stuff at the time of the offer but it has evolved to the point a seller expects you to have it all available now, in your pocket or in the bank when you make that statement, and so if it is otherwise you should make your intentions clear because even though the seller will get cash, it is misleading to most people today if you don't have the actual cash available at the moment.

OK, reverse mortgage, normally an easy sell for loan officers but the wrong thing to do in most cases, but loan officers love them because it is an easy commission, and they don't fall out because you failed to qualify. 

The foreclosure still has a demand amount to pay it off, how much is it and what is the house worth?

Maria

This is for you as well as all the other newbies. Fear kills more things that could have been then anything else. After your first hundred you will be feeling slightly better, after 200 even better and so on until you understand. The people you are trying to help are angry, frustrated, ashamed and humiliated, most will still be decent when contacted by you and this will be the norm but this home was once a step toward their dreams and all was well with the world back then. 

I personally didn't like letters,  I liked my first contact to be at the door, which for me was a very fearful thing, I also feared making or returning phone calls. What changed was my attitude of I was there to help if I could, if only to direct them to someone else if need be but my first goal was to help and not a deal or nothing. 

I remember one of my first doors almost made me quit foreclosures instantly. I was 19 years old and the guy opened the door with an axe in his hands and very angry. My fear response surprised me, I said ok George I see the axe but I didn't see any cherry trees on my way to the door, I looked at his yard as I said it. The guy looked surprised then started to laugh. He said look people have been bothering me and my wife with tons of mail and phone calls and people leaving things on my door and bothering me at all hours of the day and night but everything is ok now, the guy at the bank said he filed some paperwork that gives me 3 months to try and work things out before the bank will contact me again. I said I don't know about that, I'm the fuller brush man, paused then said just kidding then said that is true but the next contact you will get is a notice of trustee sale and they will sell the house at a foreclosure sale and that day someone else, not you will own the house.

How about you give me a couple of minutes and I will explain what is going on. His wife joined us to listen and then I said let me tell you why I am here and we made a deal. I made $500 but this was when you could buy a home in the S.F.bay area for $15,000. After it was done I asked if I could keep in contact with them because when this part of your life is over you may want to take advantage of getting a house again at a discount and I can show you how to do that?  You are not alone, there are over x foreclosures every year in the Bay Area and sooner or later most dust themselves off and get on their feet and start over again on where they wanted to go and they get there. I think you two have what it takes to do it.