All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

cmc22,

I consider bird-dogging personally as scouring forums to see attractive projects, then flying to that location and buying up all the property around it. That's my personal definition though.

I picked this diddy up from the urban dictionary. It is essentially the basis for my rant and for me sharing my personal and professional experiences over the past 13 years in Real Estate.

1. professional liar

A professional liar is someone who is able to make up a story and tell it in such a way with false supporting details to make listeners belive its true. A good listener however will be able to pick up that some part of that story does not correspond with other parts of it. However when these types of liars are caught in the act they rarely ever have support to back up there story. Most of these types of liars are very insecure about themselves so they make up lies to convince themselves that they are something when in reallity they are nothing. Liars like this never admit they are lying because that is there way of life.

I first came across this professional while doing residential loans. The professional liars consisted of account executives with major lenders and borrowers, of course.
Whether it be lying to get you to submit to fill their pipeline, only to reject the deal a week later after their monday morning production reports, or the borrower that lies about their income, then claims ignorance once you receive their tax returns.

My question is simple. Why?

The next professional liars I came into contact with was in commercial lending. Typically speaking with most people it seemed they had legitimate sources of lending, only to find out they were so far removed I had a better chance at being closer to the heir to the British Throne. Not to mention the actual lenders themselves that blew sunshine and collected their due dilligence fees only to turn your deal down after 30 days referring to their disclaimer that they didn't have to fund a deal if the month had 31 days in it, or some other vague obscurity loophole they could fall back on. Other funds presented LOI with 5 points on a 200M deal. Simply incredible, again I ask. why?

My latest run in with these folks have been in the bulk REO world. A truely amazing breed of people. From brokers to bankers to realtors and their dogs groomer. Everyone knows everyone and is direct, so to speak. Direct to the guy who is direct, who is direct to the barber who heard of a package that's being sold by a guy who knows a guy.

Currently I am directly in line to the illusive Lehman REO... via 7 people of course. Seven different people claiming to have direct ties. Ask me how many time I have spoken to Lehmans. guess... go ahead and guess... yes zero.

I am not certain if liar is the appropriate term to use for some of the individuals involved. Some of them are good people. Gullible, yes. Naive, maybe. Others... professional liars. For the life of me I can't figure out why the lesson in futility? The countless emails and hours of paperwork all for not. What is the point of it all? What exactly do they have to gain?

If someone can answer this question, then they are truely wise beyond their years.

:violin:

Well, <sigh> I'll take a risk here and explain my methodology. Some of you may or may not understand the reasoning behind what I'm about to tell you and quite honestly I'm not 100% I do either, but it's just something I have to do.

I will offer seller financing to people that cannot get a loan, period. I have some very trusted, ethical loan officers that I consider good friends that have to turn people down all the time. Some of those would be borrowers have just had a crappy series of events. Some deservedly are in their positions. Others not.

This industry has been extremely good to me. It has lately provided me with a peace of mind that I never dreamed possible. It has quite frankly made it possible for me to never lift a finger again for the rest of my life. With that being said, I'm reminded of where I was 8 years ago following a devestating divorce that left me homeless, living in my car and wondering where the hell I was going to eat next. My credit was destroyed, my ex-wife made every attempt to destroy me even further.

I was given a chance by someone who offered me nothing more than an opportunity to prove to myself who I was. I wasn't promised fortune, I was simply given a second chance to make things right. I seized that opportunity and it has given me a new wife, another daughter, home and a successful career. I owe my debt ten times over. I intend to repay it with compassion and love.

When a person decides to buy from me, I will help them with their credit, I will help them by giving them a second chance. I believe a home instills a sense of pride and accomplishment which is the foundation to self respect.

Also, many friends I bowl with on my Friday night league are good, honest hard working craftsman in the housing industry who now find themselves for the first time afraid of what their future may bring them. If I simply break even on each house, if I'm able to employ the 13 people I want, if I'm able to give people that second chance they are looking for, then maybe I can fix my portion of the world, one step at a time.

Maybe other people in this industry who have made alot of money will do their part too.

Here's a question: What the average upper level management bonus for a REIT fund manager?
500k? 1Mil? 5M?

Now, in one act of kindness, how many houses can he pay off that are in pre-forclosure within 10 miles of his home?

Many people made alot of money over the past 5 years, I'm not saying making cash is bad, I'm simply saying, there is only so much you can spend. The more you spend, the bigger that hole in your stomache gets.... at least for me.

Flipping,

I tried to order the 760LI from my dealer and she said it was not available in the US right now. That's the big monster with the V-10 or V-12 or something like that. What's with these European cars not being available to us lowly Americans? I'm pretty dead set on the 750 right now, but I think when that Camaro comes out I may just have to grab one. Summit racing is about 45 miles from my house. I would seriously consider dropping that Camaro off to them and give them a budget with instructions to "keep it under the hood" and see what they return. I like the idea of a "creeper". I'm thinking I may be suffering from a little bit of mid-life crisis. Although, I've had to work my butt off and I went without for many years now, I could finally be rewarding myself. Time will tell.

Tim,

I was a Deputy Sheriff for 5 years after I got out of the Navy. I've owned my share of firearms. I own zero today and don't feel much loss. Possibly because I have a couple little girls in the house.

With that being said, I have been tooling around with an idea for a business for the past couple years. Possibly fantasy, possibly a decent idea. Here is how it goes:

DTI - Dynamic Training Institute

A full size replica town complete with sfr, office building, airplane, gas station, streets etc, etc. Anyone in the military or police background know there are a couple types of training. Dynamic and Static. Dynamic is full blown balls to the wall as realistic as possible.

I have a ton of friends that are retired cops I play golf with on Thursdays and most of them long for the old days. Many of them teach a class here and there for this that and the other. I'm considering starting a facility that would be state of the art. My staff would be full of retired cops.

Dynamic scenario settings. houses for hostage settings. Large three story building for search and contain. An airplane fuselage for S&G. (&^% & giggles) and a long paved track for P.I.T. maneuvers and lastly a live fire firing range.

I would stock the facility with standard SWAT weapons, modified to shoot paint. AR-15, MP5 and handguns of different variety. The facility would be 100% smothered in digital recording devices. The team leader would sit in a control booth and record the entire exercise. The facility will be manned with live bad-guys! Hired staff to play the role of aggressors.(I can think of some high school kids doing this for cheap!) No standing mannequins, no pop up targets, real live thinking individuals hiding behind furniture and their sole mission is to kill as many cops as they can. I want it to be as real as possible. There will be a state of the art debreifing facility manned by a computer geek to rerun the scenarios at the push of a button.

I will have bungalow style housing on site for the whole team to stay on "base" so to speak. I would sell the facility a week at a time. Government money is big money. When the facility is not in use by a department, I can open it up as the premier paintball facility and subsidize my costs accordingly.

I know it sounds like a pipe dream, but if I don't do it, someone else will.

Zaghi,

I don't know of any "shortcuts" or loop holes. As the Bank they have an obligation to recover as much of their loss as possible. I don't think there could possibly be an "interception" but I could be mistaken.

My objective is to contact the REO agents in my area. There are a couple well known and and one happens to be a past associate. I'm going to target those properties that have been sitting for 180-365 days and make them an offer. My key point is how cheaply I can rehab the home. Obviously I'm not going to be putting walnut doors and granite countertops in the houses, but I will make sure they are at least structurally sound and visually appealing.

I would prefer to keep the home in my inventory by offering seller financing. It increases my company's asset strength should I ever need to borrow, and if I can't short sell or flip it, I can still generate the cash I need to purchase my next batch of homes.

My other option is to purchase directly from the local banks in bulk. Possibly up to 5M at a time. I do not know what the market bares in my area at this time, but I'm hoping to hit my tagret of $0.50/$1.00. I still have much more preparation to do.

G

I did a preliminary budget breakdown yesterday and discussed it with my foreman. Im keeping my crew on salary and now I have to wade through the quagmire that is benefits.

Ironically enough, I found the perfect office/warehouse site. guess what, it's an REO. It's less than 2 miles from my home and closer to one of my favorite watering holes. To boot the asking price is a little over 400k and a steal for where it is. I guess I'm going to be taking the good with the bad here.

Back on task, I initially figured in 35% addition to payroll to cover benefits. Does this seem conservative enough or am I looking at a much higher rate?

Right now I'm looking at about 5-10k profit on a 150K house selling at 75% of actual value. It's a slim margin so i hope I'm planning accordingly.

I've been debating with myself for quite some time now over my next toy/vehicle purchase.

One part of me says BMW 750 another says, grab that Caddy you've always wanted. I'm only 35 so I've faded out the Caddy, until I saw this....

http://autos.yahoo.com/articles/autos_content_landing_pages/573/exposed-2010-chevrolet-camaro/;_ylc=X3oDMTFhOWxzdG8yBF9TAzI3MTYxNDkEc2VjA2ZwLXRvZGF5BHNsawNjYW1hcm8tZXhwb3NlZA--

Is this a sign of mid-life crisis? I've always been timid of muscle cars because they seem to always get away from me around corners. I'm not so much craving the speed and tire chewing as I am the low grumbling growl when I idle up to a stop sign. I love the sound of a nicely tuned Mustang, but I detest Ford and any derivate of that family. What kind of toys do you folks play with and why? Was it a childhood fantasy finally realized or simply, that looks cool I gotta get one of those?

:rock:

I have a project in the Islands that was a referral from an affluent Palm Beach friend. Needless to say the developer is one of the largest on his Island and his net worth personally is vast not to mention his company's holdings.

I have a CPA letter giving me a glimpse I imagine, of this clients financial standing. I contacted a hedge fund and he sent me a quaint intake form, essentially asking me to divulge every last detail of the project and borrower's life history. I simply asked the fund for a conditional LOI so I could fly down and present it to the developer and the fund is giving me some static about full disclosure of the client.

I advise the fund that my client has the financial ability to self fund, but would rather use other money so he can continue with his other ventures. The fund took an attitude that "He is the one asking for money, not us". Now in a usual preferred banking enviornment, such arrogance towards a high profile client would never be exhibited. I'm seriously considering withdrawing the deal from the fund and taking the business elsewhere. The only problem is, I'm certain this particular fund can perform since they have done-so in the past for me.

To boot, the borrower is requiring the fund to give him an ability to fund affidavit.

You zip it Mr.!

Did you see the other forum? we proofed up 3 times Friday, guess how many deliveries? Go ahead, guess......

:pissed: