Stacy Kellams (RealEstateCourseReviews.com) surprised us by attending our recent 4-Day Internet Real Estate Academy (December 11th-14th). Jeff Adams (5 Star rated on RealEstateCourseReviews.com) wowed Stacy with the wealth of information that he shared during his sold out 4-Day event.
Below are video reviews from our students at our last 4-Day Internet Real Estate Academy held in Los Angeles, California on December 11th-14th.
On this video, you will see:
Doug Dethlefsen - Doug has been a full-time investor for 7+ years. He has purchased residential and commercial properties and came to our event to learn some of the current methods of using the Internet to help his business!
Diane Schmidt - Diane is a new investor who enrolled in my program and has already begun working deals from the leads that she has received from me. She thinks the information she received is “awesome” and that the academy contained more information that she thought possible.
Michelle Isaak - Michelle owns a real estate investing company and has purchased 100’s of properties. She loved the information and methods that were taught and believes she will be able to take her business to a new level!
Wesley Young - Wesley is a real estate investor that has been in the business for a few years and has attended numerous training events. He felt that my latest training event was the best one that he has ever attended.
Bhadra Patel - Bhadra enrolled in my program about 6 months ago. He immediately started receiving leads and is currently working several deals from those leads. He attended the training event to learn as much as he can about using the internet to find deals in real estate.
Dell Wright - Dell is a new real estate investor and was very happy with the information that he received. He feels that the information the he received in the 4 days would have taken him a lifetime to accumulate!
Watch highlights from my SOLD OUT 4-Day Internet Real Estate Academy.
There are a good many reasons why foreclosures are opportunities for everyone if handled correctly. We are, currently, in the midst of a property market correction which has seen a reduction in available credit, more difficult financing and an increase in foreclosures as banks and financial institutions call in mortgages which have fallen behind in their payments and try to minimise their exposure.
Without a doubt on the face of it none of this looks great for our economy but before we leap into superficial opinions let’s look at the facts by dissecting the process of a foreclosure and what happens the moment a real estate investor acquires a house.
A property will not even be considered for foreclosure unless its owner has missed at least four monthly payments, sometimes more. The moment a property comes up as a foreclosure prospect its owner has become unable to keep it. He cannot service his debt and he cannot maintain the property. The bank or lender is not getting paid, the local economy is not benefiting, local house prices in the immediate vicinity begin to become affected by a property that’s failing to maintain the standards. The City may put fines which start to accrue on a daily basis because regulations are being broken. The property, in other words has become financially gridlocked and, in terms of what it does to its immediate micro-economy, has become a black hole.
This is exactly the process that a foreclosure stops and reverses. The moment a foreclosure comes into play a property that has been gridlocked and has been sucking money out of the economy, begins to pump money back in again. For a start the Real Estate Investor will pump money immediately into the system as they do the appraisal for the property, complete their due diligence and set up advertising and publicity.
Even if, at this stage, he sells the property without lifting another finger or doing anything else he will have sold it to someone who is prepared to do it up which means more money going into the economy in terms of DIY and upgrading of the house.
The Real Estate investor will have made money which is taxable and certainly he will need to spend some in order to maintain his lifestyle and office. If he is really successful he might expand which means hiring more staff decreasing unemployment and enabling more people to have jobs, benefiting them and the local economy.
The chain goes on and on and the more you analyse it the more clearer it becomes that foreclosures are part of our financial system for a very good reason. Without them property, money and jobs would be trapped, unable to escape from the downward spiral of depreciation and recession they would find themselves locked in.
Foreclosures have been getting so much bad publicity in the press lately that to say they are a good thing and produce a win-win scenario for real estate investors, lenders and even homeowners is to fly in the face of reason but let’s examine things for a moment through a scenario that actually happened to me.
I once bought a house for just $3,000. The couple who owned it had to move due to work commitments. House prices in their area had shifted little since they had bought the house and they were ready to default on their mortgage and allow the home they owned go to foreclosure rather than wait months and months to sell the house and then struggle to get the asking price which, at any rate, would have left them little room to maneuver in terms of relocation costs.
I stepped in, arranged to take over their mortgage payments, gave them relocation money and found a buyer who wanted to step in and pay the asking price because of family pressures. I made some money so I was happy. The couple received more from me than they would had they tried to sell the house themselves and move, so they were happy. The lender had got their money back and had not lost anything. So they were happy. This was a foreclosure that produced a win-win scenario all the way and it was only made possible because of the way our economy is structured and the real estate model in a free market works.
Of course there are scenarios where the homeowners have to move for far more serious reasons. Maybe they really are in trouble with money or maybe there is a death in the family and they can no longer make payments. But even in those cases a true real estate investor delivers a win-win scenario. Homeowners, many times, fail to find any solution to their money problems and get caught in a downward spiral with the only outcome the loss of their home and the irreparable damage of their credit history. A real estate investor is an expert who supplies solutions that can work.
Through the process of foreclosure (or even before it) a real estate investor can take over a property, allow the trapped homeowner the ability to move on without the burden of the house any more and can then work to get the property back in the market where it can start delivering value for all concerned.
Foreclosures can deliver a win-win scenario almost every time provided the foreclosure is a real result of the way our economic model works rather than a case of misrepresentation or misselling or predatory lending by a mortgage lender. In that case the equation is imbalanced (or stacked if you like) to favour the mortgage lender and potentially unfair to the homeowner and that is never a good thing.
The great debate, right now, is whether the Fed should step in and regulate foreclosures or should we let the free market regulate itself through its own controls, checks and balances.
First let’s establish that under the Home Ownership & Equity Protection Act of 1994, the Fed has the power to set such regulation which compel lenders to tighten up on their lending practices and establish a more transparent lending process that is a lot less predatory than some we see at the moment.
According to ACORN, as one of the nation’s top three regulating agencies for the financial industry, the Fed has a responsibility to prevent abusive lending practices. Its president, Maude Hurd has often gone on record to say that ‘The Fed could step in right now and help stem the tide of foreclosures, American homeowners shouldn’t have to wait for Congress to pass new legislation.’
Some of the recommendations made to the Fed by ACORN include:
At the moment Congress has not decided one way or another and neither has the Fed decided to make a stand and force lenders to adopt stricter practices and this has left many potential homeowners exposed to lending practices which may, in turn, lead them into situations where they could not meet their debts.
Owning a home is part of the great American Dream and, potentially, anything that is done to make it harder for people to achieve it strikes at the very heart of a sacred cow. However there is a lot to be said against accepting lending behavior that only serves to increase the profits of the lender. Predatory lending practices which do not permit American home owners to fully understand their financial commitment and, as a result, later on lose their home, ultimately, harm the economy at large.
An economy where the number of foreclosures disproportionately reflects the number of new and established home buyers is an economy that is teetering on the verge of a recession with a real shrinkage of services in terms of building new homes, developing them or fixing them and this has a knock-on effect on the retail trade.
It may well be that the market will see sense and predatory lending practices will stop as lending organizations and institutions begin to self-regulate their industry, but if that does not happen the Fed will need to step in or risk having the great American economy go into a fatal tailspin.