REI Marketing Tips

I often get feedback not only in my own investing business, but also from students around the country, who get frustrated because other people, (often times realtors with whom they’re trying to network with) tell them that flipping short sales “illegal”.

This actually happened to one of my door knockers very recently. He was calling a home that was listed for sale (evident by the sign out front). After speaking with the owners and getting the agents contact info, he called the agent to let him know that we would like to write an offer on the property (tomorrow).

The agent said that his father had recently been to a DRE seminar here in California, and apparently a CAR attorney had told his father to “steer clear of double escrows”. (Important note: this is 100% hearsay, but let’s assume for the purpose of this blog post that the information is correct).

The agent asked us if we could “send him something” in advance of our meeting. I figured that this might be happening to other people out there as well, so I have included some of the email that we used, so you can use it in your own marketing as well.

Please note that the information below is meant for an email (and NOT a flyer) simply because it contains links. Feel free to copy and paste and use as you see fit:

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Recently, Freddie Mac, FHA and Wells Fargo have all made major changes to their business models to allow for short sale properties to be flipped, legally and ethically. In fact, that’s what me and my company, www.SaveMeFromForeclosure.com do.

Now before you get worried about thinking that we’re doing something “illegal”, I want to point you to 3 specific bulletins from these three major financial institutions that have been issued in the last 6 months:

First, in October of 2009, Freddie Mac released a bulletin that you can download here: http://www.freddiemac.com/sell/guide/bulletins/pdf/bll0924.pdf. On the first page of this bulletin is link to Freddie Mac’s Best Practices for Loans Involving Possible Property Flips, which can be found here: http://www.freddiemac.com/sell/guide/bulletins/pdf/bll0924xA.pdf. Most interesting to note is that Freddie Mac says that

“A property involved in a flip may be resold on the same day or within days, weeks, or months of the purchase. In some cases, the seller of a property flip never holds title to the property, but instead sells or assigns their interest in a contract to purchase the property to a third party.”

Freddie Mac then goes on to say that:

“Property flips are not inherently illegal and not all transactions involving a rapid purchase and resale are improper. Legitimate property flips are acceptable transactions in connection with loans purchased by Freddie Mac.”

Finally, Wells Fargo, who issued more mortgage loans that any other company in 2009, has now allowed their borrowers to buy properties that are being flipped by others. You can see this internal document that Wells Fargo mortgage lending released at the beginning of 2010 here: http://www.macedesigns.com/clients/srec/WellsFargo.pdf

So why is this significant? Three MAJOR players in the United States housing industry are changing their policies and business practices to allow for short sale flips and for homeowners to get mortgages where the seller is “flipping” the property to the buyer.

I’m sure you’ll agree with me that if 3 big time banking giants like HUD, Freddie Mac and Wells Fargo are making these changes, they’re accepting the legitimacy of short sale flips and them as a viable way to help eliminate foreclosures and help rebuild and stabilize the housing market.

In fact, last fall, before 2 of the 3 major announcements were even released, Mr. Lem Marshall, Special Counsel to VAR (the Virginia Association of Realtors) posted an article in their Commonwealth Magazine, a publication that is “A journal for real estate professionals published by the Virginia Association of REALTORS®”

You can read the entire article here.  (The main article is on page 12 of the publication, which is page 14 of the PDF), or, if you prefer a quick 2 page PDF document extracted from the magazine covering this very specific topic, you can download it here. What’s important to note, however, is how Lem ends the article, and his analysis of short sale flips, with the following paragraph:

So who loses? Nobody. Even the tax collectors and insurance folks come out ahead, as they get payments from owners making productive use of the asset. We all gain when inefficiency, uncertainty, and waste are squeezed out of the system. And we help hasten the return of reasonable market valuations, something of great benefit to our communities at large.

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Hopefully that the information can help you in your business.  I would recommend writing the email in your own voice, or even taking the information above and making a 2 or 4 page flyer that you can use to market to agents with short sale listings.  I’m actually in the process of doing that myself, and it will be made available to our community of exclusive SaveMeFromForeclosure.com local representatives.

However feel free to copy and paste any of the information (and links) in this email and use it in your marketing.  I would love get your opinion on what we’ve included here, and how you’re using it in your business, if at all.

Also, if you have any success stories (or challenges) using this information please feel free to post them here in the comments section.  We love hearing success stories, but if you have any challenges using this hopefully as a community we can help you further.

Happy Investing!

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Just a quick reminder that I’m hosting a FREE training teleseminar tonight with a national Title, Closing & Escrow Expert to discuss the latest updates with what’s going on with short sale flips.  All of the details can be found right here, including dial-in and webcast information:

To listen live by phone you can dial 813-262-0467 and use conference ID 686172 or you can listen for free, online at http://www.attendthisevent.com/Classic/?eventid=10876476

This is a free training call, and NOTHING will be sold.  On this teleseminar tonight here’s just a few of the things that we’ll be covering:

1.    Are Option Contracts Dead?
-What’s the best paperwork for me?
(Option Contract Vs. Purchase Agreement)
-How to use Addendums that work (to get your files to be
seen as “legitimate” in the eyes of your lender
-Disclosure! (Why not having the proper disclosures in
place could land you in a very bad place…)

2.     Are Back-to-Back Closings A Thing of the Past?
-How to structure them for success (and what lenders won’t
even consider them)
-Secrets of Transactional funding requirements (how to
ensure that the funds show up, your deal closes, and you
get paid)
-The single biggest secret to becoming the “Owner of Record”
(Hint: if you mess this up, you won’t be able to sell the
property to your end buyer)
-The surprising truth about what other options are
developing (get the information to remain on the cutting
edge of doing short sale flips)

3.     30-Day Closing Restrictions Are Being Enforced!
-WARNING: We are starting to see a Return of Funds
-The shocking truth about what happens if you are subject
to a “Return of Funds”, and what it means to your deal)

4.     Understanding and Correctly Using Business Entities.
-The secrets to closing as an LLC that the other big-time
investors don’t want you to know
-The simple trick to keeping your entity valid and up to date
-The one thing you must never do when closing a deal
(hint: we’ll be explaining why you can’t use your DBA)

5.     FHA Waived the 90-Day Rule!
-How to understand what it means in short sale flips
-What we learned when we took a closer look at the waiver
(And What are the new restrictions, if any)
-The single biggest impact on the “C” Lenders
-The surprising truth about Predatory Practices (and whether
or not you should be concerned)
-How does the FHA define ‘Flipping’ (and whether or not they
consider it illegal)
-How to “get around” the 20% guideline in the waiver (it’s not
as difficult as you think)
-Understanding “The seller holds title to the property” (and
knowing how to get around this clause for your back-to-back
closings)

Excited?

You should be.  Remember, this training is ALL-CONTENT.
NOTHING IS FOR SALE (however you can feel free to send in
thank you emails when we’re done)

Remember, get the call details and ask your questions here:

http://www.attendthisevent.com/Classic/?eventid=10876476

Remember you can ask questions as well, in advanc, and during the call.

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Great news for all short sale investors: FHA just announced that they are NO LONGER requiring 90 day seasoning for people to purchase properties.

So what does this mean for you?  Let’s break it down into the most simple terms.

Many people who were using the technique of using short sales for “back-to-back” closings had difficulty in finding “end buyers” who could be approved for financing, because FHA wouldn’t allow them to buy these homes.

In other words, investors were finding it increasinly difficult to find an “end buyer” for their “back-to-back” closings because that end buyer was NOT allowed to use FHA financing (per FHA guidelines).

Well come February 1st 2010 the FHA has decided to WAIVE that for a 1 year period.

You can read the entire waiver directly on HUD’s website right here.

Here are some hilights:

• 90 day seasoning rule waived for 1 year beginning February 1st 2010
• No pattern of previous flipping activity exists for the subject property (ie no multiple flips within the past 12 months)
• The property was marketed “openly and fairly” by MLS, auction, FSBO, etc
• If the increase in price is over 20% of the seller’s acquisition cost, a 2nd appraisal may be required
• All transactions must be arms-length, with no identity of interest between the buyer and seller or other parties participating in the sales transaction

More directly from the HUD website:

The policy change will permit buyers to use FHA-insured financing to purchase HUD-owned properties, bank-owned properties, or properties resold through private sales. This will allow homes to resell as quickly as possible, helping to stabilize real estate prices and to revitalize neighborhoods and communities.

Note the last sentence in the paragraph above: “This will allow homes to resell as quickly as possible, helping to stabilize real estate prices and to revitalize neighborhoods and communities.”

That tells me that HUD and other lending institutions are finally starting the see the value that short sale and preforeclosure investors are bringing when it comes to rebuilding America’s housing market.

This is GREAT news for you, because now your end buyers are allowed to use FHA financing!

To give you a better understanding of this, and the ever changing landscape of short sale investing and flipping, please join me for a free, content-packed, special training teleseminar this Wednesday evening, January 20th at 6pm PST/9pm EST.

On this call I will be join by one of the nation’s leading title company experts, who is currently closing deals in all 50 states!  My special guest and I are nto only going to be discussing this groundbreaking announcement from the FHA, but also discussing short sale flips, closings, HUD1′s, title companies and insurance, back-to-back closings, working with realtors, plus MUCH much more.

Please note that this content only teleseminar will be ALL audio.  It will NOT be a webinar.  Also please note that there is no registration.  You’ll be able to either dial-in OR listen via the Internet.  Also, you can ask questions about ANY do to with short sale investing.  There is a question box on the teleseminar page.

I am looking forward to having one of America’s leading short sale closing and title experts on the line with me this Wednesday evening, January 20th at 6pm PST/7pm MST/8pm CST/9pm EST.  Get your questions ready, and I’ll “see” you on the call!

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For those who didn’t see the ground breaking webinar that we hosted last night, you’re in luck. We’ve arranged a replay for you.

Just visit http://www.reimarketingtips.com/fundingreplay/ and you’ll see exactly how you can:

* Flip Short Sales To FHA Buyers Without Worrying About 90-Day Seasoning
* No Longer Worry About Bank Of America’s 30-Day seasoning
* Legally and Ethically Flip any Short Sale or REO Property
* Go to a Real Estate Investing & Foreclosure Boot Camp for FREE

That last point is important. I can only leave the webinar replay up until Sunday night at midnight. Nathan and Chris are letting every who takes them up on their amazing come to a FREE bootcamp in Las Vegas. but they need to finalize their numbers ASAP, so the offer for the bootcamp comes down at midnight on Sunday. Hurry up and check it out now by clicking here.

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I recently met Nathan Jurewicz, aka “The Short Sale Kid” at an event in Las Vegas, for the first time ever.
Before I met him, I though that he was an arrogant punk who made a lot of silly videos.

However, after meeting him in person, I learned a valuable lesson about “not judging a book by its cover”.

Nathan, his business partner Chris McLaughlin and I will be hosting a very special webinar this Wednesday evening, October 28th, at 6pm PST/7pm MST/8pm CST/9pm EST. Watch the short video below to learn more:

To register for this revolutionary webinar, just click here. We’ll be revealing, among many things:

- How to do short sale and REO flips with ease, without using any of your own cash or credit
- How to fund deals when your “C” buyer wants to get an FHA loan (if you don’t understand this, it’s even MORE reason for you to get on this free training webinar with us)
- How to close deals when Bank of America (Countrywide) tells you that you have to hold the property for 30 days

Plus much, much more

Please join us for the webinar on Wednesday evening. Just make sure that you register here first.

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