All Forum Posts by: Laura Alamery

If those houses are in preforeclosure, it means that the lender has started the foreclosure process and it depends on the State you are in how long this process is. I would look in the local legal paper to find out if there is a foreclosure date. Also try to locate the owner and see if you could purchase one on a short sale (and stop the foreclosure.)
I am sure you have short sales negotiatiors/experts in your area; ask an agent or look on Craigslit. Let them deal with the short sale - you might have to pay a fee, but it is worth having someone in the business doing this.
Otherwise get funds ready to purchase the house at auction (cash or hard money/private loan,) but you might be up to competition.
My suggestion is try a short sale.

Yes, there is nothing you can really do. The bank does not really care about the tenants in cases like this and they obviously are not giving you the time of day.
I would keep calling them and ask to speak to a supervisor - harssing them might get you to finally speak to someone. :)
In the meantime get your funds ready to purchase the property at auction (probably a hard money loan, unless you have cash), purchase the property and eventually refinance.

I use Postlets. They also provide a Gallery feature, where all the properties are on one nicely laid out page, as a website, with all your contact info, logo, etc. and it is free. Really nice! :)
They also syndicate your postings to many real estate sites (including FSBOs), craigslist, backpage and social media sites, and that can save you a lot of time.

Let the agent keep both sides of the commission, plus you might offer him/her to represent you as the buyer's agent and you can offer a small commission (another 1%) if you end up buying the property (check if your State allows dual representation by agents - in any case, let them keep both sides of the commission.)
The agent might still have to list the property per bank request and rules, but you will be the first one they will call once it gets in the MLS. ;)
Smaller banks and local credit union might be willing to work with a private investor without listing the property, so you can try to contact them directly, but larger national banks will not. They assign the REOs to asset managers and agents that they contract in each city and that is the end of that, so you have no choice but to deal with the agent representing the lender.

Ask the title company. You don't have to wait up to the closing date to find out; they can provide you a preiminary HUD (closing statement) based on a certain closing date. Once the title company runs title and find out any outstanding liens, they can give you pretty accurate prorations and closing costs. Of course this is free, since you will eventually close there ;)

Short term is usualy less than 1 year. Long term over 1 year.
As far as private lender fees ... it really depend on the lender. I am seeing that if the lender is in the business of making loan, they will want at least 10% plus points. Other private lenders (like investors with cash to invest or real estate syndicators) will take less or on a sliding scale based on the final proceeds/profits.

I agree with Jackie. Make sure that you factor in all the costs, including transactional funding fees, for both closings.
Just have the title company provide you with the HUD1 (closing statement) for both closing in advance of the actual closing time/date, so you can make sure all the numbers work for you or you might have to negotiate fees with the title company, transactional lender, etc. to make it work.

The easiest and fastest way to get private money is to run an MLS search in the area where you plan to invest, find out the cash buyers for that area in the last 6 months and look them up at the Recorder of Deeds office.
Then contact them to find out if they will partner or loan you money on a particular deal: they might want to partner for the first few deals, to protect their investment, but they eventually will just loan out.
This works out great for short term (less than a year) private funding.
As far as mortgage, they will be on the title via a Deed of Trust and Mortgage Note, so they are protected. If they are particularly worried about the process and new at this, you might also give them a Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure to hold on to and exercise in case you don't make your payments.

Yes, insufficient income is a legitimate reason.
As long as you don't give the impression that you are discriminating, you will be ok. I am always of the opinion that we have to go with our gut feeling as landlords: even if the credit is perfect and the income is great, if the tenant is not giving us the right vibes (remember the movie "Pacific Heights" ?:), don't take the tenant!

Have an attorney write a letter to the condo association "refreshing" the concept that if the condo goes to foreclosure they will get nothing, so they better accept $xx today or you (as the buyer) will cancel the deal and the foreclosure is on xx date.
I resort to attorneys in situations like this (some times the title company attorney can do this for free, if you are a repeated client) and I have had good success.