3 Quick Ways To Get Rid Of Unwanted Rental Property For Top Dollar In Today’s Market: How to Make Your Problem Property More Appealing

Russell Bradchulis — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 09:22:45 +0000

Even though you need to sell your property fast, there are things that you can do to help speed up the process that don’t take too much time or money.

The first thing to remember in selling your property fast is to add a little curb appeal. Trimming the bushes, mowing the lawn, and planting a few flowers can add tons of curb appeal to your property and will give your prospective buyers a good first impression of the property.

Second, be sure that the interior of the property does not have a bad odor. Use a subtle air freshener to make the property smell fresh and clean. Bad smells can turn buyers off who may have otherwise been impressed. You can also light a candle with a fresh clean scent and play soft music in the background to make your prospective buyers feel relaxed.

Beware of clutter – Limit personal items and furniture in the property and avoid any clutter. If necessary, consider placing large items in storage during the sales process. Make sure that each room is neat, clean, and tidy.

You may want to consider sprucing up the paint or replacing the carpet to freshen the property up. Just a little bit of paint and carpet can add a ton of value to your property and will get you top dollar.

Be sure that your asking price is a fair asking price. Compare your property to other properties in the area that have sold recently and their sales prices. Price your property competitively. If your property is highly overpriced, you will turn prospective buyers off. Be willing to negotiate and create a win-win transaction for
everyone involved.

Russell Bradchulis is the CEO and Founder of Foresight Home Solutions, LLC, a full-service real estate solutions provider specializing in Foreclosure Assistance, Residential Redevelopment, and Estate Liquidation. You may call him at 781-333-4447 or email him at russell@foresighthomesolutions.com

3 Quick Ways To Get Rid Of Unwanted Rental Property For Top Dollar In Today’s Market: Sell Your Property Using a 5 Day Quick Sale Auction

Russell Bradchulis — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 09:08:36 +0000

You may be wondering if you’re going to need to hire an auctioneer or auction house for your Quick Sale Auction, and the answer is “NO!” You can hold a Quick Sale Auction yourself with minimum time and effort. There will be some marketing expense involved, but will be well worth it when the house sells.

The goal of the 5 Day Quick Sale Auction is to market the property for 5 days and on the 5th day, hold an open house for 2 hours when all of your prospects will view the property and place a bid on it if interested. Again, the idea here is to create a feeding frenzy of real estate investors and other prospective buyers.

You will not need an auctioneer as the bidding process is similar to that of a silent auction. You will have an Auction Bid Sheet in the kitchen with the following information:

Name
Primary Phone
Address
Email Address
Bid

This is where your prospective buyers will place their bids and will be able to see what the previous bids are. This is the most important piece of paper in the house as this is what you will use later in your round robin process.

There is an important decision that you have to make before you market your property for auction. There are two types of auctions, an absolute auction and a subject to reserve auction. In an absolute auction, you agree to sell the house to the highest bidder, no matter what. In a subject to reserve auction, you can set a minimum price that needs to be met in order to sell the house.

Use this timeline for your 5 Day Quick Sale Auction:

5 Days Before the Auction:

Place an ad in the paper to run every day up until auction day with a few details of the property, the address, date, and time of the auction. Use wording similar to “bids starting at hundreds of thousands below market value!” Do not let anyone see the inside of the house before auction day.
Have flyers printed out which include the following information:

A picture of the property
The asking price – use “Bids starting at hundreds of thousands below market value!” instead of listing a price
A brief description of the property
Detailed information on the property including:

Year the property was built
Property type (ex. Single family, Duplex, Condo, etc.)
Square feet
Number of bedrooms
Number of bathrooms
Property taxes
Room dimensions
Garage info
Basement
Lot size
Heat, water, and sewer details
Repairs needed
Age of roof

Bring your flyers to local businesses such as coffee shops, real estate offices, grocery stores and leave a stack at each place or hang on their community board
Place a “Home For Sale” sign in the front yard of the property with a phone number where prospects can reach you along with a literature box full of your detailed information flyers
Place your ad on free sites like Craigslist.com and use social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter to get the message out. If you have a website, make your auction property a “Featured Property” to draw attention and give details on the auction
Have a Home Inspection done and have the report ready for the auction

3 Days Before the Auction:

Be sure to check your newspaper or online ad to verify that it is being printed exactly how you want it
Refill your literature box at the property and be sure that your sign is still in the yard and highly visible
Place “Home For Auction” signs around the neighborhood with the address and date and time of the auction
Be sure to have returned all phone calls with inquiries about the property and auction
Make a large “AUCTION TODAY” sign with the time to be used at the house on the date of the auction
Do any last minute tidying up or cleaning of the house and yard area

AUCTION DAY:

Arrive to the house at least 1 hour before the auction is scheduled to begin
Place your large “AUCTION TODAY” sign in the front yard of the house so that it’s highly visible
Replace any “Home For Auction” signs around the neighborhood with arrows pointing prospective buyers in the right direction
Place your detailed literature sheets and copies of the Home Inspection on the kitchen table, along with the Auction Bid Sheet and your business cards
Have comparable readily available as well for properties within a mile of the property that you’re selling.
Answer everyone’s questions during the auction and let them know that you will be contacting them later if they place a bid. Verify that the phone number that they’re leaving will be a good number to reach them within the next 2 hours
Once the auction has closed, call each person that placed a bid and let them know what the high bid is. Give them an opportunity to increase their bid. If they increase their bid, mark their new bid on the sheet. You will get down to 2 or 3 prospective buyers bidding against each other and you will continue the
round robin process of calling each one to let them know what the high bid is and give them the opportunity to increase their bid until you come down to one buyer.

In an absolute auction, the highest bidder gets the house. If you placed a reserve, you don’t have to sell the property if the highest bid does not meet your reserve. There are also auction houses that will hold the auction for you for a fee. They will do all of the marketing for you and will hold the auction. Some of these auction houses are:

Hudson and Marshall (http://www.hudsonandmarshall.com/)
House Auction (http://www.houseauction.com/)

3 Quick Ways To Get Rid Of Unwanted Rental Property For Top Dollar In Today’s Market: Working with a Residential Redevelopment Company

Russell Bradchulis — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 09:05:27 +0000

You may not have heard of a Residential Redevelopment Company yet, but they are quickly growing across the United States.

Residential Redevelopment Companies are popping up all over the place and are in search of properties just like yours to redevelop and beautify. Residential Redevelopment Companies specialize in buying problematic properties across the community. They rehab and beautify these properties to rejuvenate and rebuild entire communities and neighborhoods.

They may be a little harder to find, but oftentimes the search is worth it, as they can normally pay more for your property than a single real estate investor can pay. These companies can be found through networking at your local REIA, they can be found in the yellow pages, as well as online.

Again, if you’re able to find more than one Residential Redevelopment Company, schedule them to look at your property one right after another. These companies are snatching up entire city blocks, rehabbing them, and re-selling or renting them in order to rebuild and beautify entire communities.

As long as your property is not in complete and utter shambles, you will receive top dollar for it and, most likely, a quick close.

The same applies when meeting with the Residential Redevelopment Company as when meeting with a local investor. Be sure to have hard copies of information that they can take with them and refer back to with complete details of the property, including a picture. This will help them to remember the property and will show that you have pride in the property that you’re selling which will, in turn, make it more appealing to
the potential buyer.

Fourth of July Considerations

Russell Bradchulis — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 12:18:13 +0000

I’m getting ready to have some breakfast and now that the coffee has started flowing, I’ve gotten to thinking…

What did you have for breakfast today? Maybe cereal, or fruit, or eggs. When you bought those you had a choice between any of the myriad brands at the store. Have you bought an iPad? Do you have a car? Ever go out to eat at a restaurant? Buy clothes? Jewelry? Post on Facebook? Fly somewhere? Have to decide: Mac or PC? Choose the gas station that had the lower price? Buy the cheaper version of something? Buy the more expensive version of something? A Wii?

That’s a pretty simple way to see that you have a choice. We ALWAYS have a choice. That is the essence of the free market, of capitalism, of liberty. Being able to choose not just the breakfast we want, but the LIFE we want. We are not guaranteed the life we want–that would be absurd and impossible. But we are guaranteed the ability to CHOOSE the life we want, and then to go make it happen.

Some people choose to live a life that is centered around taking care of a family. Others choose a life of academic research…..perfecting their skills at the same job for fifty years….starting a business….being a yoga instructor….being a chef…..going into politics…..standing on the street and begging for money…be a democrat….be a reupblican…. These are all choices. We are not confined to any sort of lifestyle in this country. We are not even confined to a life of liberty! If you don’t like this place, you are free to go wherever you like.

“Four score and seven years ago our Fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in LIBERTY…” — Lincoln

THAT is where we live. THAT is the principle, the one basic principle, on which this nation was founded: the ability to choose. And I, for one, would fight to the death to preserve that choice.

So today I am thankful to the Founders for establishing this place that has surpassed every other civilization that has ever existed on this Earth, and that has yet to meet its match. And I am thankful for the men and women who died in the defense of this great country. I am thankful that I have the LIBERTY to choose the life that I want to live, and then to go LIVE IT!

No, we are not the only place on Earth, and we may never do everything quite right, but we will always cherish the right to choose, we will always choose liberty, we always will be the United States of America. Happy Fourth of July!!

3 Quick Ways To Get Rid Of Unwanted Rental Property For Top Dollar In Today’s Market: Working with a local real estate investor

Russell Bradchulis — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 08:57:02 +0000

Believe it or not, you CAN sell your problem property in today’s down real estate market, and you even have options. There are people out there who are looking for just this type of property, you just have to find them. They will be happy you did and will take your property off your hands. Some will even pay you handsomely for it.

Why would someone want to buy your problem property? Profit is the long and the short answer, but it goes much deeper than that for many who are interested in property investing, even if profit is the ultimate goal.

Some people really enjoy working with their hands. Purchasing a property in need of light cosmetic repairs and retouches is a great way to get their hands dirty without risking too much money, time or effort. Properties needing more serious work may require a pair of hands that have some degree of experience rather than hands that are best suited for balancing books.

You may not know this, but there are real estate investors in your area right now who are clamoring to get a property like yours. If they haven’t found you already, it’s time for you to find them.

Start with your local Real Estate Investors Association, also referred to as REIA. You can find your local REIA online with dates and times of upcoming meetings. You don’t have to be a member of most REIA’s to be able to attend the meetings, but you will have to pay a small fee at the door. Normally, if you’re a first time
attendee, the fee will be very small, just a few bucks, but if you continue to attend the meetings as a non-member, the fee may increase.

REIA’s welcome everyone from investors trying to sell properties to investors trying to buy properties – landlords, rehabbers, and even contractors who will give REIA members a special deal on their services.

Once you find the meeting that you’re going to attend, don’t go empty handed! First, bring business cards with you so that anyone who’s interested in your property can contact you. Second, be sure to print out flyers to take with you.

Be sure that your flyers include the following information:

A picture of the property
The asking price
A description of the property
Detailed information on the property including:

Year the property was built
Property type (ex. Single family, Duplex, Condo, etc.)
Square feet
Number of bedrooms
Number of bathrooms
Property taxes
Room dimensions
Garage info
Basement
Lot size
Heat, water, and sewer details
Repairs needed
Age of roof

If the house is priced right, and is in an area where it can be pretty easily fixed up and sold, or even rented, you will have more investors wanting to see it than you’ll know what to do with.

Another way to find local real estate investors in your area is to simply Google “real estate investors” followed by the area that you’re located in. For example, “real estate investors Atlanta”.

You may have to take a day off of work if you have a lot of investors who want to see it, but you can pretty easily get everyone there in one day. Schedule them all in 30 minute increments in the same day. Give each investor time to look around and inspect the property themselves and ask you any questions. It’s okay if appointments overlap as this will cause a sense of urgency among the investors. Knowing that there are a
number of other investors looking at what could be their next big check will cause them to act quickly if they are interested in the property.

Another way to get a large number of investors to your property all at once is to schedule an open house for two hours when everyone can come at one time. A good time to schedule your open house would be towards the end of the work day, around 5 or 6pm. Do not schedule it for more than 2 hours as it leaves a bigger window for your investors to show up and the sense of urgency will not be there.

Again, having all of your interested investors there at the same time will create a sense of urgency and the ones who are truly interested in the property will act quickly. A local real estate investor can often pay cash for their next investment property, and most want to close very quickly. If an investor is looking for their next big project, they are looking to start it right away. The quicker they can buy it, the quicker they can start work on it, the quicker they can sell or rent it and start making a profit.

The 5 Fastest Ways to Stop Foreclosure in 48 Hours Or Less: LOAN MODIFICATION

Russell Bradchulis — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 08:52:31 +0000

The Loan Modification includes changing the original terms of the mortgage through several methods.

This option provides for either a permanent change in one or more of the terms of a your loan, which allows a loan to be reinstated and results in a payment you can afford.

If your mortgage is an adjustable loan, the lender might freeze the interest rate before it increases or change the interest rate to a more manageable rate for you. A lender might also extend the amortization period. This is called a loan modification. Loan modifications are rare.

A loan modification can consist of any of these things:

A permanent change in the interest rate.
Capitalization of delinquent principal, interest, or escrow items.
Possible extension of loan term. The use of any three of the above items will result in the reamortization
of the loan. Maximum interest rate adjustment to current market rate plus 150 basis points although at mortgagee’s discretion, note interest rates may be reduced below market.

All or a portion of the PITI arrearage (Principal, Interest, and Escrow Items) may be capitalized (added)
to the mortgage balance. Foreclosure costs, late fees and other administrative expenses may not be
capitalized.

The Mortgagee may collect the legal and administrative fees (resulting from the canceled foreclosure action), from you to the extent not reimbursed by HUD, either through a lump sum payment or through a repayment plan separate from, and subordinate to, the modification agreement. No administrative fees for completing the Loan Modification documents can be passed on to you. The modified principal balance may exceed the principal balance at origination and the modified principal balance may exceed 100% loan-to-value. The following conditions will apply:

All Loan Modifications must result in a fixed rate loan.
The Loan Modification must fully reinstate the loan.
Subsequent defaults are to be treated as a new default.

The 5 Fastest Ways to Stop Foreclosure in 48 Hours Or Less: A DEED IN LIEU OF FORECLOSURE

Russell Bradchulis — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 09:46:22 +0000

The Deed-in-Lieu of Foreclosure allows a mortgagor in default, who does not qualify for any other HUD Loss Mitigation option, to sign the house back over to the mortgage company. A homeowner is sometimes better off signing a deed-in-lieu rather than letting the lender start foreclosure proceedings. That’s because with the signing of a deed-in-lieu the borrower is voluntarily giving the home back to the bank. Although the loan default would be entered on your credit record it may not do the damage that a full foreclosure would. Foreclosures usually stay on your credit file for at least 7 years. You can also avoid the time and stress involved in fighting a foreclosure battle that the lender is sure to win.

The lender (the mortgage servicer) can pay, not to exceed $2,000 compensation, to the mortgagor (you, the homeowner), however the $2,000 compensation is not paid to you until you have vacated the property.

Any compensation must be applied to any junior lien(s) placed on the mortgaged property. The loan servicer may determine that a “current” mortgagor is eligible for the Deed-in-Lieu of foreclosure option. Under no circumstance should you be encouraged to default on their mortgage for the purpose of qualifying for this option. A Deed-in-Lieu must be completed or foreclosure initiated within six (6) months of the date of default, unless the mortgagee qualified for an extension of time by first trying a different loss mitigation option or an extension of time was approved by HUD prior to the expiration of the time requirement. If the Deed-in-Lieu follows a failed special forbearance agreement or the preforeclosure sale program, then the Deed-in-Lieu must be completed or foreclosure initiated within 90 days of the failure.

A deed-in-lieu can only be done when you have one mortgage on the property. If you have a first and second, you cannot do a deed-in-lieu. There may be income tax consequences as a result of the Deed-in-Lieu of Foreclosure.

The 5 Fastest Ways to Stop Foreclosure in 48 Hours Or Less: Hope for Homeowners (HoHo)

Russell Bradchulis — Mon, 31 May 2010 09:42:36 +0000

In July of 2008, the United States Congress passed and President Bush signed into law a bill commonly referred to as “Hope for Homeowners”. In the land of acronyms, it got the nickname of HoHo. HoHo has some characteristics that each homeowner who is thinking about needs to know before they try and access the 300 billion dollar loan guarantee designed to help homeowners who are underwater refinance their homes. The term “under water” is not referencing Katrina, but rather the fact that people now owe more on their house than what it is worth.

Under Hope for Homeowners a homeowner who now owes more on their house than what it is worth could apply to the program and receive a write-down of the value of their mortgage to 90% of its current market value. In addition to the 90% of the current market value, then there would be a 3% FHA refinance fee added to the new mortgage amount. The new mortgage would then come at current market interest rates of approximately 6.5% as of the date of this writing plus a 1.5% annual surcharge, bringing the interest rate of 8% as of today?s writing. That interest rate is clearly not competitive in the market.

Finally, there is the back-end kicker in HoHo. When a homeowner has accessed the program and then later on realizes some value appreciation in their property due to the market changing then when the homeowner either refinances to lower the interest rate from the high 8% or sells the property, HoHo will take half of any appreciation. Perhaps the following illustration will help.

A person bought a $200,000 home five years ago and made a 5% down payment and got a 5 year interest only ARM for $190,000. The home has since fallen in value by 25% down to $150,000. By making the interest only payments since the inception of the loan, she now owes $190,000 entering a repayment amortization reset. HoHo will provide for a writedown of the current mortgage to 90% of the current market value, thus $135,000 plus the 3% refinance fee taking it to $139,050. Then in five years if the homeowner sees the house go up to $165,000, when they sell the property, they will have to split the $26,000 in equity with the Federal government and we can anticipate the Federal government will not split the costs of selling the property.

Finally, since Hope for Homeowners (HoHo) is new, the program will not be available until sometime in October of 2008 and will probably take several months to implement and figure out how to handle it.

The 5 Fastest Ways to Stop Foreclosure in 48 Hours Or Less: Chapter 7 – Discharge Debts

Russell Bradchulis — Thu, 20 May 2010 09:39:37 +0000

Chapter 7 bankruptcies provide for the total discharge and liquidation of debts. Because of this powerful debt relief tool, individuals are only able to file a chapter 7 bankruptcy once every eight years. In a chapter 7 bankruptcy, people may list their home and mortgage as one of the debts that they are seeking to discharge. If this is the case, and it is clear intention that they have abandoned all hopes of saving the property and continuing to live in the property. If an individual chooses not to include their house in a chapter 7 bankruptcy, then they are still intending to keep the house, and must stay current on the payments on the house while the other debts are being discharged.

Many people think that if they can discharge their other debts, then they will have enough available cash to get caught up on their house payments and stay current. More often than not, they are wrong. Even if the house is not included in a chapter 7 bankruptcy, the stay granted by the filing of the bankruptcy will apply to the mortgage and the foreclosure action. If the homeowner can then bring the mortgage current, then the foreclosure action goes away.

Most of the time though the homeowner is unable to bring or keep the mortgage current and the bank then files a motion for relief of stay. Chapter 7 is a valuable tool and a homeowner who realizes that they are going to lose their house may be best served by waiting until after the foreclosure action is completed or until after the short sale is done and then using the chapter 7 bankruptcy to wipe out any deficiency judgment that may remain.

The 5 Fastest Ways to Stop Foreclosure in 48 Hours Or Less: Chapter 13 Repayment Plan

Russell Bradchulis — Tue, 11 May 2010 09:34:23 +0000

The 2005 reform legislation has made chapter 13 the most common type of bankruptcy. Essentially, chapter 13 is a Court-supervised and Court-monitored repayment plan where the debtor provides the Court with a listing of all of their debts and a budget for their monthly needs. Any extra money left over each month is applied to pay the arrearage owed on the debts. One of the benefits of a chapter 13 repayment program is that a lot of the outrageous late fees, interest rates, and other charges can no longer apply on these kind of debts. The typical repayment program usually lasts between 48 and 60 months.

The vast majority of chapter 13 repayment plans falter and eventually fail. Plans can falter even where the debtor gets a “grace period” from the Court for additional time to try and catch up for missed payments to the trustee.

The typical Chapter 13 plan sends the debtor wages to the Court appointed trustee who pays all of the creditors according to a plan presented by the debtor and agreed to by the creditors.

After the bankruptcy reform act of 2005, chapter 13 repayment plans also include partial repayments in what used to be a complete discharge. Chapter 13 bankruptcies can be filed again within a shorter period of time after the last plan, either failed or terminated. However, to prevent abuse, if a chapter 13 plan is dismissed by the Court due to the debtor’s noncompliance, the debtor cannot file a new chapter 13 for at least one year.

Several new rules exist about automatic stays and refiling, they are:

Automatic stay is terminated 30 days after petition in case filed by individual under chapters 7, 11 or 13 if case pending within 1 year preceding was dismissed other than that refiled under dismissal under 7078; may be continued if Court finds refiling in good faith.
No automatic stay is in effect in cases filed by individual under chapters 7, 11, or 13 if two or more cases pending in 1 year preceding were dismissed other than that refiled under dismissal under 70; Court may impose stay is established later filing in good faith.
Stay automatically terminates 60 days after sec. 362(d) motion filed in case filed by individual under 7, 11, or 13 unless there is final decision or extension reached.

Many times people will not include their house payment in the chapter 13 plan. This is frequently the result of individual preferences of the attorneys that they hire to represent them as well as the characteristics of the trustees appointed by the probate Court to administer chapter 13 plans. Even if a house is not included in any chapter 13 bankruptcy, the bankruptcy does protect the house by filing a stay on the foreclosure action and that stay remains in effect as long as the homeowner then gets and remains current on their house payments.