Our First Deal Fed a SCAM!

I can't believe that our credentials were used to scam 2 elderly men, ages 77 and 79 out of $60,000.



Imagine my surprise , when I got a letter in the mail with a copy of a promissary note in my name, a copy of a "Deed of Trust with Assignments of Rents" on the property we rehabbed in Riverside and a copy of the 2 deposited checks of $30,000 into an account called Carlton Financial at Wells Fargo, a copy of the appraisal on the property, and a letter asking me to pay the monthly installments directly to the investors.



We bought the property in Riverside late July. In August I inquired with a broker about getting some cash out of the house so we could accelerate our investing activities. The broker ordered an appraisal which came in at a rediculously low amount. That meant that we wouldn't be able to get enough cash to do anything significant so we turned it down, and decided to wait for it to sell.



According to these elderly gentlement, this lady presented them with the appraisal and drove them to the property. They also thought the property was worth more than the appraisal and felt confident in taking $60,000 out of their CD to fund a secure property earning a much higher interest rate. She even paid their interest payments for a couple of months and then she disappeared.



I'm not out any money, and the county records are executed properly. The only ones financially affected from this deal is these poor men, but I still feel violated and am appauled that someone falsly used my credentials and our property to steal money from the elderly.

Our First Deal Fed a SCAM!

I can't believe that our credentials were used to scam 2 elderly men, ages 77 and 79 out of $60,000.



Imagine my surprise , when I got a letter in the mail with a copy of a promissary note in my name, a copy of a "Deed of Trust with Assignments of Rents" on the property we rehabbed in Riverside and a copy of the 2 deposited checks of $30,000 into an account called Carlton Financial at Wells Fargo, a copy of the appraisal on the property, and a letter asking me to pay the monthly installments directly to the investors.



We bought the property in Riverside late July. In August I inquired with a broker about getting some cash out of the house so we could accelerate our investing activities. The broker ordered an appraisal which came in at a rediculously low amount. That meant that we wouldn't be able to get enough cash to do anything significant so we turned it down, and decided to wait for it to sell.



According to these elderly gentlement, this lady presented them with the appraisal and drove them to the property. They also thought the property was worth more than the appraisal and felt confident in taking $60,000 out of their CD to fund a secure property earning a much higher interest rate. She even paid their interest payments for a couple of months and then she disappeared.



I'm not out any money, and the county records are executed properly. The only ones financially affected from this deal is these poor men, but I still feel violated and am appauled that someone falsly used my credentials and our property to steal money from the elderly.

Our First Deal Fed a SCAM!

I can't believe that our credentials were used to scam 2 elderly men, ages 77 and 79 out of $60,000.



Imagine my surprise , when I got a letter in the mail with a copy of a promissary note in my name, a copy of a "Deed of Trust with Assignments of Rents" on the property we rehabbed in Riverside and a copy of the 2 deposited checks of $30,000 into an account called Carlton Financial at Wells Fargo, a copy of the appraisal on the property, and a letter asking me to pay the monthly installments directly to the investors.



We bought the property in Riverside late July. In August I inquired with a broker about getting some cash out of the house so we could accelerate our investing activities. The broker ordered an appraisal which came in at a rediculously low amount. That meant that we wouldn't be able to get enough cash to do anything significant so we turned it down, and decided to wait for it to sell.



According to these elderly gentlement, this lady presented them with the appraisal and drove them to the property. They also thought the property was worth more than the appraisal and felt confident in taking $60,000 out of their CD to fund a secure property earning a much higher interest rate. She even paid their interest payments for a couple of months and then she disappeared.



I'm not out any money, and the county records are executed properly. The only ones financially affected from this deal is these poor men, but I still feel violated and am appauled that someone falsly used my credentials and our property to steal money from the elderly.

Social Media Experiment

You may or may not know that I've chronicled our real estate adventures on a blog, http://budurl.com/ltvblog.  Of course that references a Facebook Fan page at http://budurl.com/lowtechventures, and then I am tweeting all about it and the other issues I learn along the way on http://twitter.com/lowtechventures.

I've written an article and blasted it through cyberspace called "How to Find Your Next Flip - 5 Tips For Locating Highest Profit Areas" that should post back to the blog, or generate some affiliate sales.  Next I'll post a video on youtube with the "before" video on the next rehab project.

We have 25 fans on Facebook, and almost 700 twitter followers - the real question is, what does all this mean?

I'll keep you posted on my social media experiment

How to Find Your Next Flip - 5 Tips For Locating Highest Profit Areas

The current foreclosure market gives investors the best opportunity for buying, fixing, and reselling properties for a profit. As a real estate investor, how do you know certain locations will yield a good profit?





We were fortunate enough to find good foreclosure and rehab deals in Southern California and we made a nice profit. However some other locations don't have the same profit potential. For example, you can get houses in Detroit for $5,000, but who will buy the finished product? If you can't sell it, you are stuck with it. Always have a valid exit strategy in mind before you invest in anything. Which is why it is so important to rehab properties that are attractive to your end buyer.

Here are the questions I ask when considering a specific area:

1. Can you identify a single zip code with both high and low prices?


2. Are foreclosed housing prices still declining in an area?


3. What is the predicted population growth rate?


4. How good are the public schools?


5. What is the unemployment rate?

Answering these 5 questions will tell you if your target location has potential for significant profits from your flip. Getting these questions answered takes some research. Here is what I do when evaluating a location:

1. Pick a location, any location. - Actually I start with the top 10 foreclosure list and try to find a place that I actually wouldn't mind visiting some day. I have personal issues, such as I don't want to deal with cold weather, so I look at the warmer climates. From that list I just pick one and start my analysis.


2. Unemployment rates are easily found with a Google search "unemployment rate"


3. Analyzing is tough work. First I look on RealtyTrac and pick a city and a state. Just for an example, let's analyze Phoenix. I click the "Trends" tab and enter Pheonix, AZ in the search field and click on search. I see that there are some zip codes that have more foreclosure activity than other zip codes. I then click on "Sales Trends" and it shows me where I'm going to get the best value for my dollar. Then just merely point to any zip code and you can see the average sales price vs the average foreclosure sales price. This is critical information because that will determine the profit potential, and the economic information of a particular zip code.


4. Once I'm comfortable with 1 or 2 zip codes, I then look at the schools systems to make sure I'm buying in an area that is attractive to families. The best resource I've found is greatschools.org. Once you're OK with the schools, then it's time to find a fixer.


5. One reason I like ZipRealty is you can choose almost any area of the country, and it also gives you an idea of what other rehabbed properties sold for. So in this case, I search on the zip code, pick out a house (they tell you which ones are foreclosures). If I like the house, I click the tab that says "Sold Homes". The map displays the actual locations of homes sold recently. Clicking on an icon will tell you the sales price. If I see a good price difference between the foreclosed house and a rehabbed house, and have a good idea of what it will take to rehab the property, then I'm ready to make my offer.

This is one of the exercises I go through to pick my next area for foreclosure investments. The main purpose is to make sure that after I have rehabbed a property, that I will have a qualified buyers that want to live in that area - and we make a good profit as well.

How to Find Your Next Flip - 5 Tips For Locating Highest Profit Areas

The current foreclosure market gives investors the best opportunity for buying, fixing, and reselling properties for a profit. As a real estate investor, how do you know certain locations will yield a good profit?





We were fortunate enough to find good foreclosure and rehab deals in Southern California and we made a nice profit. However some other locations don't have the same profit potential. For example, you can get houses in Detroit for $5,000, but who will buy the finished product? If you can't sell it, you are stuck with it. Always have a valid exit strategy in mind before you invest in anything. Which is why it is so important to rehab properties that are attractive to your end buyer.

Here are the questions I ask when considering a specific area:

1. Can you identify a single zip code with both high and low prices?


2. Are foreclosed housing prices still declining in an area?


3. What is the predicted population growth rate?


4. How good are the public schools?


5. What is the unemployment rate?

Answering these 5 questions will tell you if your target location has potential for significant profits from your flip. Getting these questions answered takes some research. Here is what I do when evaluating a location:

1. Pick a location, any location. - Actually I start with the top 10 foreclosure list and try to find a place that I actually wouldn't mind visiting some day. I have personal issues, such as I don't want to deal with cold weather, so I look at the warmer climates. From that list I just pick one and start my analysis.


2. Unemployment rates are easily found with a Google search "unemployment rate"


3. Analyzing is tough work. First I look on RealtyTrac and pick a city and a state. Just for an example, let's analyze Phoenix. I click the "Trends" tab and enter Pheonix, AZ in the search field and click on search. I see that there are some zip codes that have more foreclosure activity than other zip codes. I then click on "Sales Trends" and it shows me where I'm going to get the best value for my dollar. Then just merely point to any zip code and you can see the average sales price vs the average foreclosure sales price. This is critical information because that will determine the profit potential, and the economic information of a particular zip code.


4. Once I'm comfortable with 1 or 2 zip codes, I then look at the schools systems to make sure I'm buying in an area that is attractive to families. The best resource I've found is greatschools.org. Once you're OK with the schools, then it's time to find a fixer.


5. One reason I like ZipRealty is you can choose almost any area of the country, and it also gives you an idea of what other rehabbed properties sold for. So in this case, I search on the zip code, pick out a house (they tell you which ones are foreclosures). If I like the house, I click the tab that says "Sold Homes". The map displays the actual locations of homes sold recently. Clicking on an icon will tell you the sales price. If I see a good price difference between the foreclosed house and a rehabbed house, and have a good idea of what it will take to rehab the property, then I'm ready to make my offer.

This is one of the exercises I go through to pick my next area for foreclosure investments. The main purpose is to make sure that after I have rehabbed a property, that I will have a qualified buyers that want to live in that area - and we make a good profit as well.

How to Find Your Next Flip - 5 Tips For Locating Highest Profit Areas

The current foreclosure market gives investors the best opportunity for buying, fixing, and reselling properties for a profit. As a real estate investor, how do you know certain locations will yield a good profit?





We were fortunate enough to find good foreclosure and rehab deals in Southern California and we made a nice profit. However some other locations don't have the same profit potential. For example, you can get houses in Detroit for $5,000, but who will buy the finished product? If you can't sell it, you are stuck with it. Always have a valid exit strategy in mind before you invest in anything. Which is why it is so important to rehab properties that are attractive to your end buyer.

Here are the questions I ask when considering a specific area:

1. Can you identify a single zip code with both high and low prices?


2. Are foreclosed housing prices still declining in an area?


3. What is the predicted population growth rate?


4. How good are the public schools?


5. What is the unemployment rate?

Answering these 5 questions will tell you if your target location has potential for significant profits from your flip. Getting these questions answered takes some research. Here is what I do when evaluating a location:

1. Pick a location, any location. - Actually I start with the top 10 foreclosure list and try to find a place that I actually wouldn't mind visiting some day. I have personal issues, such as I don't want to deal with cold weather, so I look at the warmer climates. From that list I just pick one and start my analysis.


2. Unemployment rates are easily found with a Google search "unemployment rate"


3. Analyzing is tough work. First I look on RealtyTrac and pick a city and a state. Just for an example, let's analyze Phoenix. I click the "Trends" tab and enter Pheonix, AZ in the search field and click on search. I see that there are some zip codes that have more foreclosure activity than other zip codes. I then click on "Sales Trends" and it shows me where I'm going to get the best value for my dollar. Then just merely point to any zip code and you can see the average sales price vs the average foreclosure sales price. This is critical information because that will determine the profit potential, and the economic information of a particular zip code.


4. Once I'm comfortable with 1 or 2 zip codes, I then look at the schools systems to make sure I'm buying in an area that is attractive to families. The best resource I've found is greatschools.org. Once you're OK with the schools, then it's time to find a fixer.


5. One reason I like ZipRealty is you can choose almost any area of the country, and it also gives you an idea of what other rehabbed properties sold for. So in this case, I search on the zip code, pick out a house (they tell you which ones are foreclosures). If I like the house, I click the tab that says "Sold Homes". The map displays the actual locations of homes sold recently. Clicking on an icon will tell you the sales price. If I see a good price difference between the foreclosed house and a rehabbed house, and have a good idea of what it will take to rehab the property, then I'm ready to make my offer.

This is one of the exercises I go through to pick my next area for foreclosure investments. The main purpose is to make sure that after I have rehabbed a property, that I will have a qualified buyers that want to live in that area - and we make a good profit as well.

FINALLY - 90 Day FHA Season Rule Waived

I don't know how many times I've heard this, come to find out the fine print had some restriction, but this time it appears that us normal investors can finally rehab a property and immediately sell to an FHA buyer!



Here is the link to the actual ruling: click here



There is one snag - but easily handled:  If there is more than a 20% difference between the purchase price and the sales price, the rehabber must document and justify the difference in value.  In most cases, there will be an increase of over 20% - so keep track of those records, and good luck when it comes to dealing with FHA rules.

FINALLY - 90 Day FHA Season Rule Waived

I don't know how many times I've heard this, come to find out the fine print had some restriction, but this time it appears that us normal investors can finally rehab a property and immediately sell to an FHA buyer!



Here is the link to the actual ruling: click here



There is one snag - but easily handled:  If there is more than a 20% difference between the purchase price and the sales price, the rehabber must document and justify the difference in value.  In most cases, there will be an increase of over 20% - so keep track of those records, and good luck when it comes to dealing with FHA rules.

FINALLY - 90 Day FHA Season Rule Waived

I don't know how many times I've heard this, come to find out the fine print had some restriction, but this time it appears that us normal investors can finally rehab a property and immediately sell to an FHA buyer!



Here is the link to the actual ruling: click here



There is one snag - but easily handled:  If there is more than a 20% difference between the purchase price and the sales price, the rehabber must document and justify the difference in value.  In most cases, there will be an increase of over 20% - so keep track of those records, and good luck when it comes to dealing with FHA rules.

I Want Your Story!

Hey all - I've been making offers right and left and not gotten a single nibble.  Nobody likes to hear about nothing, so I need some success stories!



Please contact me - I want to interview you for our next podcast.  You can reach me at jean at lowtech-ventures dot com.

I Want Your Story!

Hey all - I've been making offers right and left and not gotten a single nibble.  Nobody likes to hear about nothing, so I need some success stories!



Please contact me - I want to interview you for our next podcast.  You can reach me at jean at lowtech-ventures dot com.

I Want Your Story!

Hey all - I've been making offers right and left and not gotten a single nibble.  Nobody likes to hear about nothing, so I need some success stories!



Please contact me - I want to interview you for our next podcast.  You can reach me at jean at lowtech-ventures dot com.

Dealing with Contractors

My husband and I are rehabbing a nice little garden home that backs up to half-million and up homes, in Lakewood subdivision in Austin, TX.  Built in the early 80's, this 1700 sq foot garden home is in bad need of updating.  That neighborhood deserves a nice update.

We interviewed 3 contractors and my experience with them was similar to those that my business partner and I had in California when WE interviewed 3 contractors.

• One had us talked into doing more than we had wanted
• The other was pretty young (OK, call me age biased, but clearly this guy didn't understand simple issues like what investments will result in a cash return for us.)
• The last one understood just what we needed, knew what needed to be done, and open to creative ideas.

The one theme that carried throughout was that this rehab won't be cheap.  But the investment will return in a good sales price - no doubt about it.

I'll keep you posted.

We're off to a New Year - and New Successes!

We are just so excited about the next real estate adventure!  There are so many opportunities to choose from: California, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, and dare I say the F-word? Florida.



One of the aspects I really like about the training we had was knowing the freedom to rehab houses anywhere in the country - anywhere it makes sense, that is.  I am very comfortable researching areas, analyzing the housing prices, the trends, the school systems the road systems, and all the things that fit our criteria of where to invest next.  So many have criticized our inclination to work outside of our home area, but the reality is that our home area doesn't make sense right now.  (However I do have to admit that we have made some offers in Austin - although I doubt they will be accepted.)



Now that the holidays are over, we're ready to hit the ground running looking for our next opportunities.  We'll keep you posted!

We're off to a New Year - and New Successes!

We are just so excited about the next real estate adventure!  There are so many opportunities to choose from: California, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, and dare I say the F-word? Florida.



One of the aspects I really like about the training we had was knowing the freedom to rehab houses anywhere in the country - anywhere it makes sense, that is.  I am very comfortable researching areas, analyzing the housing prices, the trends, the school systems the road systems, and all the things that fit our criteria of where to invest next.  So many have criticized our inclination to work outside of our home area, but the reality is that our home area doesn't make sense right now.  (However I do have to admit that we have made some offers in Austin - although I doubt they will be accepted.)



Now that the holidays are over, we're ready to hit the ground running looking for our next opportunities.  We'll keep you posted!

We're off to a New Year - and New Successes!

We are just so excited about the next real estate adventure!  There are so many opportunities to choose from: California, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, and dare I say the F-word? Florida.



One of the aspects I really like about the training we had was knowing the freedom to rehab houses anywhere in the country - anywhere it makes sense, that is.  I am very comfortable researching areas, analyzing the housing prices, the trends, the school systems the road systems, and all the things that fit our criteria of where to invest next.  So many have criticized our inclination to work outside of our home area, but the reality is that our home area doesn't make sense right now.  (However I do have to admit that we have made some offers in Austin - although I doubt they will be accepted.)



Now that the holidays are over, we're ready to hit the ground running looking for our next opportunities.  We'll keep you posted!

Finally! An easy to use blogging tool

I've been around the internet-world for some time, first as the original owner of staffing.com and continually dabbling in various endeavors, either to support my career or as a side interest.

This blog is my main blog that will point to all of my other interests.  I'm a Mom, Wife, Real Estate Investor, Social Media Diva, Technology Commercialization Expert, Author, and Affiliate Marketer.  I've been unemployed for almost a year, but I HAVEN'T been bored.  Between gardening, Real Estate and family life with teens, I've experienced enough ups and downs to last the rest of my life.

Enjoy my various ramblings...