Maria Rogers...REO, Foreclosure and Short Sale Expert: May 2010

grant money for buying a home

This came in my email today if anyone is looking for a program like this,

Let me know,

Thanks.... Maria

 

Hello,

 

My name is Shane Nichelson and I am with RiverHills Bank. We are a community lender located in Clermont county and have been serving the people of our community for over 100 years.

 

We are an active participant in the annual Welcome Home Program sponsored by the Federal Home Loan Bank and I wanted to let you know we still have a few $5000 grants available for any clients of yours that meet the program guidelines.

 

As you know, the program has modest income requirements but could provide down payment and closing cost assistance for any qualified buyer.  When we couple this grant with our FHA or our popular 5% down payment option, most homeowners can still buy a home even if they have little of their own funds!

 

These grants are first come and first served and could be gone at anytime. If you have someone who is actively looking for a home and needs help with the down payment, call me today and get details on how we can help you and your clients.

 

Thank you,

 

Shane Nichelson

RiverHills Bank

0 comments • Maria Rogers Center • May 27 2010 07:24PM

A Simple 10 Word email to breathe life into those dead deals from months past.

Via Wholesale Mortgage Services:

Here is a simple 10 word email that will revive dead deals from months past.

First, I read a study and it said that over 50% of people that inquire about a purchase, will proceed with what they asked about, within 18 months.

But get this, only 15% of them will do so in the first 90 days.

That means it's crucial to stay in contact with them.

Of course the only way to do that is to have an automatic system in place to stay in
contact with them.

Ok, we all know how important it is to stay in contact, but I am going to give you a
simple email to send out to capture the dead leads that haven't taken action yet, even if you haven't stayed on contact with them.

Here is the email to send out, and then I'll explain why it is so effective.
------------------------------------------------
Subject Line: A quick question for you
Body of email: ‘'Are you still wanting to buy a house in <:put city here>?''
-------------------------------------------------
You may be tempted to add to this email, but don't. It already has 3 key things going for
it.

1. It's short
2. It's personalized
3. It's expecting a response

Send out this email and then tell me how well it worked out for you.
This is a simple strategy that costs nothing to implement!!!

4 comments • Maria Rogers Center • May 27 2010 06:39PM

What's the Best Thing for a Short Sale Seller?

When it comes to helping sellers in foreclosure I feel like I am in so many grey areas the whole situation is overwhelming.

In my super slow market area the only people who seem to be buying short sales are investors.

Investors who want to make a buck (as well they should).

Investors who would like to have the help of an agent willing to bend the rules- to influence a BPO agent with some convincing low ball comps and a repair list to restore the place up to the Taj Mahal level using the contractor with the largest Yellow Pages ad.

Investors who have cash and can buy now, today, who don't mind waiting six months while three negotiators quit, the package gets lost and refaxed eight times, etc.

Investors who won't need an FHA loan that the home won't pass because it's missing a few shingles or has a bit of torn (eek trip hazard!) carpet.

I get approached as an agent who works with distressed properties and REO by investors all the time looking for great short sale buys... and I have no problem with bargain hunting. I made my living as an investor for years.

Here's where I get a little worried... a lender calls me wanting my opinion on the value of a house. The agent has the house listed for example at $150,000 (which is a normal nice family home in my area). I call the agent to see if there have been any offers, if the home needs repairs, etc.

Yes, they tell me, we have an offer for $80,000 (really? why is it listed for $150,000 if it's worth $80,000... first red flag).

It needs $50,000 worth of repairs they say. Wait, I have a list! I will meet you at the property along with my three brothers who work as bouncers in a bar holding comps you better use because we know where your office is they say (ok, that part is an exaggeration but not by much)

Second red flag.

I visit the property and the repairs are for a new kitchen, new roof, and all new bathrooms. House is about six years old and is in pristine condition.

Third red flag.

I tell all agents (nicely) before I visit a property I will not accept comps provided by them because 1. I know how to find my own comps or else I shouldn't be agent. 2. It's unethical to try to influence a BPO or appraisal.

What's going on here? The agent is collecting high price offers close to list price from retail buyers. Those don't get presented to the foreclosing lender. The only offer the lender sees is the low offer from the investor.

If the inspecting agent agrees with the listing agent and decides to do as they're asked, the investor (and usually also the agent) makes a good profit on the sandwich money in between what the investor is paying for the property and what the end buyer pays.

Okay, so who benefits? The investor, the agent and the end buyer who although they are paying close to retail usually gets a bit of a bargain. The end buyer doesn't have to wait three years for an answer to their offer because the bank has already agreed to do a short sale. The seller benefits because they get out of a foreclosure. Everyone is happy right?

But what about the lender who is leaving thousands on the table without knowing it? Are they our client and do we owe them a fiduciary duty? I guess technically they are not- at least in Ohio the seller owns the property until the house goes to sheriff's sale. Anyone who has hard a short sale listing go to sheriff's sale knows how tough it is to make that dreaded phone call to a seller. But don't we have an ethical responsibility to be honest in our dealings even with a non client such as the foreclosing lender?

Short sales are an important  part of the real estate market these days, and likely will be for many years to come. I started doing short sales in 2003 before most people had ever heard of them as I have always worked in a depressed market.

Situations like the one above are going to keep happening, and are going to become even more prevalent, until some force steps in to regulate short sales AND make them easier on the agent, the seller and retail buyers. Until then, in depressed markets there are two dismal choices- bend the rules or tell the client you probably can't help them because buyers have wised up and are no longer willing to dangle from a hook for months waiting for an answer to an offer and neither are their agents.

I really don't like either :-(

 

1 comment • Maria Rogers Center • May 27 2010 01:59PM

Why I Hate Social Media! And You Probably Do Too But Won't Admit it! (A REVISIT)

Via Jeff Dowler ~ Carlsbad Real Estate ~ 760-840-1360 (RE/MAX Moonlight Beach (CA DRE Lic. # 01490977)):

I wrote this about 9 months ago, and Bob Stewart thought it deserved another visit. I like sharing my opinions so I can't say I disagree.

I reread it, and I don't see that my thinking has changed.

I enjoyed writing this - the reality as well as the sarcasm - and hope you find it worthy of a read, whether you agree or not. After all, we're both entitled to our opinions. I would be curious about what YOU think.

I really do see the value of social media, otherwise I wouldn't be there in spades. But there is some stuff that, quite frankly, just irks me, so I tend to ignore or avoid it.

Or poke fun at it when I can. Enjoy. Or not.

******************************

Why I Hate Social Media! And You Probably Do Too But Won't Admit it!

Like so many I've joined all the popular social media sites, and some not so popular ones.

I've spent countless hours adding profiles, uploading photos, adding videos, and sharing personal information and I've had it. I hear there's a point to all this, but quite honestly, I have grown to hate social media. 

Here's why: 

What if I don't WANT to follow you?!!THERE ARE TOO MANY SOCIAL MEDIA SITES - every time I think I am on all the right ones, another one makes an appearance, and I feel obligated to join. My spreadsheet for tracking sites, log ins, and passwords is totally beyond control and impossible to maintain. And worse, I often get invited to join a new site by someone I don't even know. I have created more avatars and screen names and passwords than anyone in their right mind ought to be doing. I'm just not inventive and it takes too much blasted time.

AM I A TWIT, a twitterer, tweeple or a tweeter? Am I tweeting or twittering? There are more darn applications and things you can do that start with Tweet or Tw. And the number of new words in our lingo as a result of one bloomin' site is enough to make an English professor commit harakiri. And who is this Mr. Tweet character? Is he a real person? And then there's Twellow, and Twellowhood, Tweetdeck and Twirl, and on and on and on. Enough of the T word. The S word comes to mind. Not the one you're thinking.

THE GUILT around not having enough followers, friends, connections or links is enough to keep me in church 7 days a week. Confession isn't even part of my religion and I feel compelled to confess my inadequacies as a participant in the social media world. Just when I think I am making headway some idiot with 1,315,719 followers wants to follow me. Now that's a blow to the ego. Perhaps I should follow all the get-a-million-followers-per-day techniques that I see out there. Then Adam and I could be on the same playing field. I couldn't keep up with it all but so what. Isn't it all about the numbers?

Social media in action

I FEEL ASHAMED I don't feel like sharing intimate details of my bodily functions, discussing what I am eating and where and how I feel about it, or passing along personal reflections on how wonderful life is because of the great attitude I woke up with that morning after only 2 hours of sleep even though the dog died, my kid is a druggie, and my client is suing me for a million bucks which I don't have because my mortgage is in default but that's OK because I'm working on a loan mod with BOA. I still feel great, though, because I know telling you that will inspire you to become the best you can before the end of the day. You can watch my vid about it...trust me. It'll work. DM me if you need help.

Social media is driving me nutsTHERE ARE MORE FRIGGIN' QUOTES out there from famous people than you can possibly keep track of, or even begin to ponder and hope they will make your measly life better, which of course they won't. And if I hear one more quick way to make a million dollars using Twitter in 1 hour I'm going to barf. No doubt I needed to share that and someone will have a video I can watch that will help me cure the nausea, which of course I will then have to retweet ad nauseum so others can DM me to congratulate my new-found success, and then I can write an e-book and become famous overnight and gain billions of followers. And start my own special fan club on Facebook.

I DO NOT GET THE FRIEND THING. Why is it so many people want to be my friend? I don't want to be your friend, I don't like your avatar (I think that's what they call those ugly pictures on people's profiles), and your mindless blathering doesn't interest me one iota. But I know if I don't let you follow me or I block you I will feel extreme guilt and need to spend more time in church, which I don't have time for. And you will probably keep pinging me to follow you, or join your mindless fan club, or attend some stupid event for an idiotic cause I have never heard of and that I could care less about, which of course means I am not engaging with others on-line as I should and therefore will probably get blacklisted or have my account deleted.

I HAVE LOST MORE SLEEP than I ever imagined I could survive without.It was bad enough when I started blogging several years ago but keeping up with all the updates, tweets, RTs, DMs, link and follow requests means I have to get by on even less sleep than I did pulling all-nighters and partying in college. I thought I was beyond that. I'm sorry but I DON'T feel social at 2 in the morning when I have to get up at 6, but I seem to have no option. There's that guilt thing, again, about social media. There must be a Cure That Guilt video out there somewhere.

PARTICIPATING IN SOCIAL MEDIA MAKES ME AS PARANOID as...well, you know. I know I am going to say something that will offend someone and get sued. Or my identity will get stolen because of all the personal stuff they ask me to share in order to set up my profile that everyone in the world can see. I know someone already is stalking me...I think...or maybe I am just paranoid. But they keeping DM'img me on my phone.

Perhaps you've realized by now this is all in fun...well, mostly. Maybe you just don't get it. I guess I wouldn't be doing what I do if this all really irked me.

Or maybe it does and I just can't admit it out of guilt. Who knows?!

0 comments • Maria Rogers Center • May 27 2010 11:10AM