All Forum Posts by: Don Mack

Carleton Sheets program gives you all the basics. It goes into subject to investing, as well as lease options and rentals. With his course you will also learn common laws.

For the price he gives you the best information, but you need continued education to really grasp the concepts he teaches. :pup:

There are no secret grant programs, you can call your local agencies to see what they have available. Its simple as calling them.

I have experience with his course, but you won't get all the property leads he says you will. He uses basic newspaper ads and bandit signs.

What are you wanting from his course?

You said Ford doesn't offer a 30 day guarantee, you are right about the guarantee. They offer a hundred thousand mile warranty. But do you think a warranty is just a guarantee? :goofy: I mean lets be honest here, if the car doesn't perform within the warranty, you can get yours fixed for free or get a new car.

On investment courses, which would you like to have a warranty or a guarantee. Plus if you are that skeptical, you shouldn't even think about buying the course. You need to trust your own gut, as with any business. Do your research and if things don't check out, then don't buy into it.

Originally posted by "REI":

Do you screen the deals you take on? One way to get the ratios up is to remove the ones that are unlikely to work before starting. If you do screen or filter out specific deals what can you tell us about the process?

Yes i do screen out the deals that i take on. No need in working the unworkable.
First i look at the condition of the house. If there are not enough repairs to bring the price down, i look at the comps to see if there are enough low ones to justify my asking price. If not i move on to the next one. Since short sales take so much time. You can short pretty houses also, but you need the balance of comps. There is some more screening, but it is case by case.

What proves this stuff works is the first ss that i came across was in september of 05 and that was actually my first deal. I learned a whole lot from this first deal. The mitigator told me a lot things i don't think he was supposed too. This one was with ocwen and he pushed this one through, i think. I flipped it to an investor for a $7,000 profit. Let me remind you guys, with the nature of short sales, if you get them approved, you only have 2 weeks on average to close.

all the ones i closed almost didn't happen because closing attorneys here are not used to high paced closings. They either wanted more money or didn't want to close anymore. There was a lot of fussing going on from my end, because they lenders weren't willing to extend the closing. Some if they hadn't closed would have gone to foreclosure the next day.

Originally posted by "REI":

Do you have a strong sense of the average timeline? Shortest and longest plus the average for short sales you work on?

On average with the shorts i work, takes around 3 months. The shortest one i had accept was from a smaller bank that had already ordered a drive by bpo. I sent them my package and a few hours later, the lady called back and said this is my offer and we are not negotiating any more. To my surprise it was $3k less than my final offer. The bank was BB&T.

The longest short sale that i have ever worked on was with CW. I started last April and didn't get the short sale accepted until the end of December. They tried to bully me down for the longest. So i started sending back the same offer, because according to the comps i knew i had a deal. The homeowner owed $135,000 on a house worth $120,000. Work them down to $72,000.

Originally posted by "REI":

Any sense as to the average discount that you obtain when you get a deal accepted?

I thought you were going to forget this question. The average discount is around $50k. And i only deal with the bread and butter.

Originally posted by "REI":

Are most of the deals you have accepted showing multiple liens? If so, what is the average discount that you see on the 1st? What is the average discount you see for junior liens? Many of the cases I have seen show a 1st at 82% or higher and almost zero for the holders of the junior liens.

To this day, i have only been able to work a ss on properties that have one lien. The ones with second liens, i either have the first accepting the discount and the second not wanting to work, or the second willing to settle but the first feels secure.

I hope this will help someone out.

I don't mind letting others in on getting more short sales accepted. But you have to ask questions. I can't just write a how to in this one thread, since it will take more time than i prefer to use on the subject right now.

Go ahead and ask away.

Besides what problems are you guys having getting them approved. If you can't get a short sale approved, i doubt you are getting good deals on reo's. unless you like letting the agent negotiate for you.

I have negotiated 8 out of 17 short sales. They do indeed work. Some i worked out with $40k in equity on a $100k home to fifty cents on the dollar. Three were fifty cents and all had min. $40k+ equity in them. And i mean bread and butter homes.

Yeah keep making excuses. :superman:
Some investors are buying site unseen and reselling to a buyer that they will never meet.

The question is are you ready to run a business or just continue to have a hobby?

I agree that when placing newspaper ads, sellers will need to speak with a person. Whether you use a professional answering service or someone close to you. You need to answer all calls, because in the newspaper, your competition isn't very hard to find.

The seller will go to the next ads, because they have a thirst for a solution as soon as possible. So the first best salesman to make contact will win the battle.

Look for some live answering services. All they will do, is prescreen the callers to your specifics. Things are truly getting easier.