All Forum Posts by: Jeff NA

Originally posted by Karen Parker:

It is not the end of the world and life goes on.

Hey, no one believes that the sun always rises tomorrow more than I do. But I would never dream of writing that on a billboard and telling someone else that recessions end. Sure they do, or, maybe more accurately, they have in the past. This recession isn't anything like any recession that any of us has seen. I think we can agree on that.

Now, I'm not suggesting that this recession won't end. But I AM suggesting that you, I, Ben Bernake, the guy behind those billboards, or anyone else should be making definitive statements about the end of this one.

I wasn't trying to be negative. I'm just a big fan of looking at marketing and advertising pieces. I saw that business from the inside once, and it's silly, silly stuff.

Went on a bike ride today looking for properties to market to, and one of the houses that looked like a candidate turns out to be owned by someone in Colorado (Portland, Oregon here).

So my questions is this: if an absentee owner responds to direct mail, how do I end up getting inside to take a look? Has anyone ever run into problems dealing with someone 1,000 or more miles away? Any stories? Suggestions?

"Interesting fact about recessions ... they end."

Yeah, so what if it has caused you to lose your house, job or marriage? Don't worry about it! It will be better someday. Maybe that day is 4 years away.

"This will end long before those who caused it are paroled."

Does that statement apply to Penny Pritzker?

Funny that no one here is from Boston. Anyone ever spend much time there? Because if you did, you'd be aware that it's an EXTREMELY racist city with a long history of race related problems in the police department.

I have no idea what happened that day, but I know I've seen blacks be singled out for absolutely no reason at all. If I were a black man, I imagine that there's only so much I'd be able to handle until I got a bit irate and told the officer to go pound sand up his ***.

Gates says this isn't the first time that he's been unfairly singled out. I imagine in his position he comes in contact with other blacks that have been unjustly targeted. We can all sit here behind our keyboards in Ohio and South Dakota and wherever else that isn't Boston and pretend like we know what we're talking about. Chances are that we're much more ignorant than we care to show.

Completely out of curiosity, and at the risk of sounding very dumb, can anyone tell me what the commissions are on selling (or acting as a buyer's agent for) multi million dollar properties? Just wasting time sitting at my desk, I looked at a $4.5M parcel and was wondering if an agent still gets a typical 3% on something like that, or if that is negotiated down.

Randal,

As I understand it, and I'm sure it would be wise to take everything I say with a large grain of inexperience:

I've heard of being able to get an extension on a foreclosure to start a short sale process as late as ten days before the auction.

And as far as a seller getting a NOD, that seems like the BEST time to do a short sale. Certainly not too late at that point. In Oregon, there are four months between the NOD and the auction date. Plenty of time.

Jeff

Originally posted by Jeff And Cheray Warner:

That's too bad. Here in OR, I can get comps from title companies but not all of them are willing to look up the info even though they have access to it.

While it won't work for Grant's Pass, the Oregonian has a list of real estate sold in the past 18 months on their website for the Portland area. Incredibly helpful, although you only get the sale price, sale date, and date recorded. Still, I can quickly take that info down to the research room and find the parties involved.

Jeff

So now that I've designed an ad that I run on Craigslist daily, I'm moving onto direct mail. I'm planning on sending letters with hand written envelopes to properties I find on the NOD list and to properties that I find vacant.

Just wondering before I start if anyone has an opinion to share on exactly what or what not to write to NODs. I've read or heard that some people make sure to not mention anything like foreclosure, and just keep it plain. I certainly understand that take on it, but I'd prefer to be as direct and no nonsense as possible. I'd also like to position myself as someone capable of helping someone work through a short sale instead of just another person buying houses. Although it seems that the more experienced just keep it simple and short, like Crosswind's response at http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/93/topics/24724-can-a-short-sale-be-wholesaled-

Mailing to absentees or code violations seems like it would be best to just say something like "I'm an investor and I am interested in buying your house." Just looking for opinions on the message to send to NODs.

Many thanks in advance. You folks keep me inspired and optimistic.

Jeff

Originally posted by Randal D:

Now, if I took or placed ANY personal calls on that line, would that technically mess things up as well?

I think your risk of EVER running into trouble for something like that is extremely slim, at worst. Even with Bush sitting in Crawford listening to your phone calls, I highly doubt you have anything to worry about when making a personal call from a business line.

Back to the topic though, since it's been hijacked a few times, a PO Box here in Portland starts at $22 per six months for the 3'' x 5.5'' size. Like Comcast (and a million others) might say, that's less than the price of one latte a week!

Originally posted by Adam Anderson:

I understand what you are saying about our society being wastefull, but what do you do i a city like Flint where population is half of what it was 30-40 years ago?

Honestly, I'm not sure I have the answers. What is Flint's property tax like? It would seem to me, being completely ignorant of the situation, that it should be close to zero. Who owns those properties? Can they sell for $1k? How about $3k? $5k? $10k? Put someone in them and let's move on. I guess the argument will be that at $5k, the people buying in will create less value than bulldozing and putting in a park. Maybe that's true. I don't really know. I just know that it's a shame to see all that good wood go to a landfill and to see taxpayers pay for those places to be knocked over. I guess I'd feel better about it if I were even slightly convinced that things were going to change.