All Forum Posts by: Mark Ferguson

 This thread is from 6 years ago.  

 Greeley's median price is close to $250,000 now. There are some affordable homes based on other areas in Colorado, but nothing like four years ago. It is tough to find anything decent here for under $200k as well. There are a few properties,  but they are few and far between. 

If you buy right, you don't need to try to time the market. I have flipped through up and down markets. 

 Cutting out ac units on reo properties then telling the bank they were gone so he could get paid to install it back in again. Doing the same with pool pumps. Taking nice cabinets and appliances from REOs and putting them in his own flips. Sabotaging other agents so he could take their clients, forging documents in order to complete evictions. 

I finally got around to watching 99 homes. A movie about a crooked REO agent and evictions in florida. The movie was entertaining but had some serious issues.

1. Foreclosures in Florida (where the movie takes place) take on average 935 days. The movie makes it seem like someone gets two months behind on payments and they are evicted a couple weeks later. The truth is it takes years in florida and the owner can live there without making payments that entire time. 

2. In my experience an eviction does not occur out of the blue on a random day. People are given plenty of notice, given an exact date they have to vacate and a chance to argue in court. I have been a part of many cash for keys and evictions and only a couple times in 8 years was the previous owner still there with their stuff on eviction day. 

3. Cash for keys is done all the time and most people are actually grateful for it and agree. I think I had a 90 percent success rate with getting a cash for keys deal done. The banks would grade agents on how successful they were with cash for keys. The banks want to avoid eviction at all costs. 

4. In the movie an elderly man is evicted. Most banks would make exceptions for extreme cases where elderly, disabled, etc are evicted. They would go out of the way to find them a place to live or give them more time. The saying was don't do anything that would get you on the news. It is really hard to foreclose on a reverse mortgage, especially when the owners are still alive. 

5. In all of my REO work I never had one occupant super pissed at me, even after an eviction. Sure they were mad at the bank sometimes, but I made myself the messenger and tried to help occupants as much as I could. I even had occupants come back to me later to refer business to me or even buy a house after a few years. I know not all REO agents are like that, but many are super nice people.

6. The fraud the REO agent was involved in has never been seen by me. Except for HUD homes where HUD field service people stole copper and Ac units. That had nothing to do with REO agents. They simply stole them to sell them for scrap and got caught. I do know one agent that was caught buying his own listings through a relative. He was caught by Fannie Mae and black balled by every REO company and bank in the business. 99.9 percent of REO agents would never commit fraud and risk the awesome gig they have selling REO.

7. It seemed the movie wanted us to feel sorry for people who borrowed money and could not pay it back. It sucks the economy tanked and it sucks people lost their home, but if you borrow money and can't pay it back bad things happen. 

That's my take. I did like the fact they used actual Fannie Mae know your option forms. 

 Thanks Gino! Which area of Florida are you going to be in? Or are you already there?

 Thank you!

I found one snag in my plan that maybe the 1031 exchange guys can help me with. 

I was planning to sell a house here for $200k, use the $100k equity to buy a $100k house in Florida. But, I forgot that you have to replace the property with one worth as much as what you sell the old one for, not just use the cash you get out. 

I would have to sell one in Colorado for 200k and buy on in Florida for $200k to make the exchange a tax free event. Or can I sell one in Colorado for 200k and buy two in Florida for $100k?  Is that allowed

I have not seen it, but I have heard it was not very accurate from a number of reo agents. I'll have to check it and see it myself. 

I get great deals in multiple offer situations all the time. Many banks are required by their own policies to ask for highest and best in every situation where they get multiple offers no matter what the offers are.  

I think highest and best usually gets the best price for the seller. I find it silly when buyers say they won't offer because they don't want to get in a bidding war. Who cares? Make your best offer and see what happens.