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Why You Want Bird Dogs Finding Your Deals, Real Estate Agents Make Excellent Bird Dogs (investment properties for sale)

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By Peter Vekselman

 Whether you’re a novice real estate investor or you’ve been at it for years, real estate investing is an endless series of challenges. First, you have to locate motivated sellers.

Then you have to buy it right, manage it even better, and still find a way to turn a profit. To top it off, you have to try to do all these things while simultaneously juggling the myriad other details of your life while laying the groundwork to become a full-time investor.

There just isn’t enough time in the day, is there?

Wouldn’t it be nice if profitable deals would almost magically come to you?

Well, they can.

By putting Bird Dogs to work for you there’s more time for you to concentrate your energies on more profitable activities: negotiating with sellers, putting together winning proposals, and moving on to the next deal.

In case you’re not familiar with what a bird dog is - or what a bird dog does - they are basically scouts that sniff out deals for you. Their sole job is to locate properties that have motivated sellers and lay the groundwork for you to move in and close the deal. This saves you time for the really profitable aspects of real estate investing.

While all bird dogs are not Realtors, Realtors have a huge advantage over non Realtor bird dogs, for obvious reasons: They have access to the local MLS, FLMS listings, they know the neighborhood, they know how long the homes are on the market, they know what buyers are looking for, they know what it will take to get it in resale condition, they have access to motivated buyers and sellers or can find them for you.

Without motivated sellers you can’t put together real estate deals. The problem you have is there are only so many hours in the day for you to do everything that needs to be done. If you still have a full-time job working for someone else you have even less time available for your marketing and prospecting efforts.

If you assume that marketing - of which locating motivated sellers is a critical part - takes 20%-25% of your time, you can easily see how little time that leaves for the other activities you need to be doing on an on-going basis to reach your goals.

By having a bird dog or bird dogs doing these things for you it allows you to better utilize the time resources you have at your disposal. A good bird dog isn’t born: they’re made. It’s going to take a little effort on your part to help your bird dogs help you.

The best way for you to do this is by clearly articulating to them what you need. Again, here is where Realtors can be invaluable, because you will spend less time bringing Realtors up to speed as they already have had extensive training.

The good news is that there are plenty of people willing to be bird dogs. They could be friends, family members, or others you come in contact with. You can also work with novice real estate investors through your local REIA to locate properties for you.

It’s also relatively easy to put together larger teams of bird dogs by utilizing message boards, Craig’s List, and other online resources. If all else fails you can run a newspaper ad of your own.

The main point here is that bird dogs will free up more of your time so you can do those things that have a greater probability of earning you money.

Bird dogs can be the path to your real estate investing goals. The finder’s fees you’ll pay your bird dogs for bringing deals to you are more than offset by the value - and the wealth - they’ll generate for you.

Take the time to learn how to work with bird dogs in reaching your investing dreams. As you get better at working with bird dogs you’ll find that you have more time and money for other pursuits - like deciding what to tell your boss when you quit your full-time job and take the plunge into full-time real estate investing.

Peter Vekselman has been successfully investing in real estate since 1996. He has completed over 1000 real estate deals, owned a construction company, been a private lender, and owned a property management

company. To learn more about Peter please visit

http://www.coachingbypeter.com.

Stuck in a Negative Amortization Loan? How to Convert to a Fixed Rate Mortgage
By Paul Chavez

 Foreclosure rates are still on the rise, leading some lenders to fail, and leaving millions of Americans without a home of their own. Fannie Mae along with Freddie Mac had reached to such point that they badly needed a “bail-out”from the government.
It’s getting bad with yet another wave of foreclosures set to begin in 2009.

Most of these will be borrowers in the Pay Option Arm plan. This is the Negative Amortization loan that was very popular the last 5 years. It is likely that Congress will outlaw the sale of these loans to unsuspecting borrowers in the coming months.

The Pay Option Arm comes with 4 payment options each month. The “minimum” Negative AM payment, interest only, 30-year (interest and principal amount)

and 15-year (principal and interest). The minimum monthly payment is negative amortization and was based on a teaser rate anywhere between 1%- 4.25%. Most borrowers obtained this loan and could only afford the minimum negative amortization monthly payment. The interest only, 30-year fixed and 15-year fixed payments are based on whatever index the loan was based on, such as LIBOR, COFI, CODI, MTA, etc., plus the margin giving you the fully indexed rate. The fully indexed rate is usually (index + margin) Many interest rates are closer to 8% and 9% rather than the range of 7-9% listed. Most borrowers therefore paid the minimum negative amortization payment of 1% which gave them a substantially smaller payment - but increased their mortgage balance with each payment.

A lot of people aren’t aware of the term “recast” and therefore may not be aware that they may be facing foreclosure because of this “recast” feature built into their Pay Option Arm loan. This is very important information.

Recasting percentages differ based on the lender. Most recast at 110%-115%. What this means to the borrower is this: If you have paid only the negative amortization minimum monthly payment for 3+ years or are getting close to it - your loan will recast sooner than you may have expected. If the loan recasts, the bare low negative amortization and the lone interest payment preferences vanish.

The borrower is left with only two payment options, the 30-year and 15-year fixed payment options at the fully indexed rate of 8% plus. Not only that, all of the negative amortization or as the lenders call it, “deferred interest” has increased your original loan balance at the same time their property values are falling in value. Result, most borrowers in Pay Option Arms find themselves upside down with no options other than to walk away or attempt a short sale.

In most cases the end result is bad credit or no money in their pockets to take care of the taxes caused by the short sale.

Depending on when your loan is set to recast - you can find this information on the “Note” with your original loan documents. It is possible that it will say “Adjustable Note”, etc. The key word is note. If your loan contract states that your loan will recast at 110% of the “original” loan balance, this means on average that you can expect it to reset three years from the loan start date. If the terms on the note call for a 115% recast, then you will recast before 5 years. In either case, borrowers will not be able to refinance because they will be stuck with no or even negative equity, and they will be saddled with a payment that they cannot continue to make each month. They have no way of converting into a fixed rate mortgage, as they are stuck in the Pay Option Arm.

When given the option or selling their home or being able to renegotiate their current loan, keep the payments affordable and convert to a fixed rate mortgage - statistics indicate most borrowers would ultimately choose to keep their home.

Loan Modification is a great option to help you with this. A loan modification is when the lender modifies your current mortgage in order to work with you because of a hardship. The purpose is to help make your loan more affordable. Usually it is in the form of a rate reduction and conversion of an ARM, typically a 30 year fixed.

In the past this was only used when a borrower was delinquent and suffered a hardship such as a job loss, divorce, illness etc. Now, borrowers can obtain mortgage help from their lender for unaffordable rate adjustments on adjustable rate mortgages.

Loan Modification services should include the initial consultation, compiling the full application, the processing of the application, the underwriting of the proposal, written legal contract of the proposal, legal department’s made up of brokers, attorneys, and paralegals communication for negotiation of the proposed modification, final resolution of the proposal and the final step which is executing the new contract and modifying the loan to meet your needs.

Paul Chavez ia a Real Estate Broker ,licensed in California ,that has over 10 years of experience behind him mainly dealing with out-of-court resolutions of Mortgage Foreclosures by talking to your lender for you to let you continue to live in your home while making lower payments . Get a consultation with no charge or obligation. We will use our knowledge and expertise to help save your home. With our assistance, Foreclosure doesn’t have to be your only option. If your house payments are overwhelming you, visit us at: http://www.candacapital.com/Loan_20_Modification_20_Services.html Starting tonight you can sleep soundly again.

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Generate Real Estate Leads While Helping Consumers
By Brandi Cummings

 Now more than ever consumers in the market to buy or sell a home are looking for help in how to go about doing that. Many homeowners are on the verge of foreclosure while others may be looking to take advantage of the low housing costs to upgrade or add to their property. The top priority in these consumer’s minds is to make sure they are making informed decisions that won’t come back to bite them later on.

At the same time, it is becoming increasingly difficult for real estate agents to generate the leads they need in this depressed market. When you combine the 2 problems - the consumer’s need information and the agent’s need for leads - you will find a solution that benefits both parties.

Just a few short years ago, consumers needed to consult with a real estate agent to get information about houses for sale, pricing, neighborhood and surrounding community features, how to choose the right mortgage, etc. Today, consumers look on the web. So as an agent, it would make sense to ensure that you are source for the information they seek and that you can be found where they are looking. Helping consumers by becoming an information provider is a win-win situation for the consumer and the real estate agent. Here are just 3 of the benefits of becoming an information provider in this tough economy:

1. Positioning yourself as an information provider is a great way to generate leads. Agents can generate leads by offering free reports through a toll free call capture system. This way when consumers call in to receive your reports you are able to capture crucial information needed to start developing that lead into a client. You will be able to capture their name, address, telephone number and know what they are in the market for based on the report requested.

2. As an information provider, you can begin to build rapport and trust until the consumer is ready to take action. Many consumers in the information gathering phase will not be ready to act right away. By putting yourself in front of them early in the decision making process, you can start to build a relationship with them. Then when they are ready to make their move, you will be top of mind.

3. An informed client is one that already knows what they want. As real estate agents know, a client that already knows what they want is much easier to work with than one that has no idea what they are looking for. Keeping them informed and up to date on properties available, options for financing, ideas for how to get their house sold fast, etc, will cut down on the time from contract to close.

The current state of the real estate market is tough on both consumers and agents. Real estate agents are in a position where they can reach out to consumers and offer a helping hand. With their knowledge and expertise they can help consumers make informed decisions while helping themselves weather this real estate recession.

Brandi Cummings, an expert author on the unique issues facing small businesses - including real estate agents, recommends RealtyOne800.com for more on becoming an information provider using call capture.

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Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 11:00 pm and is filed under realestate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.