I was REALLY amazed by what this STUDENT developed with C++ , and plenty of time on his hands.

If you don’t know, copper theft among REO Listings all over the US has reached epidemic proportions. In the first quarter of 08 , approximately 6 REO listings were stripped of their copper in the Circleville area alone. When this happens, it greatly devalues the price of the home, in addition , many other systems are also damaged. The last home I sold that was vandalized due to copper theft needed approximately $6,500 in repairs, and the theif only made off with around $300 in copper.

Who pays for copper theft? Ultimately you and I do, like any bank or institution that suffers from theft, the cost is passed on to the consumer. This comes out in the form of higher interest rates, PMI increases, and insurance rate increases.

Now, what’s my answer to copper theft?

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=RxBa5bQfTGc]

This is a automated sentry devise created for the sport of paintball. I’m sure you don’t know, but I’m a big paintball enthusiast and was amazed at the level of intelligence with the program. The “Sentry” can acquire targets that it sees as “Threats” (Perhaps people entering a home from 9pm to 7pm?) and fires a steady stream of paintballs at the target till the target disengages , or the system runs out of paintballs to fire. Now , the great thing about this is , paintball guns can fire a variety of ammunition ,so paintballs could be replaced with items that are a little more force full , IE pepper spray balls.

This REALLY , REALLY , REALLY bugs me, and I always have complaints from other agents about this.

Normally when a home is listed, it’s put on a MLS service ,which is just a computer network available to real estate agents in a geographic region. In my area, 99% of everyone uses the Columbus Board of realtors, which spans about a 60 mile radius from Columbus on out, practicly every single company in my area is a member, and this is the resource we have to find properties for our clients.

I was doing some research today, and figured that I would look at another region’s MLS service to see if by chance someone had a listing in my area. When they do this, it means that most if not all of the real estate agents (And their clients) do not know about these properties. The less agents know about properties, the lower the resale is, less competetion and overall hurts the market place.

From my search, I found out that HUD has picked a out-of-region broker to list atleast part of their inventory, this means that anyone that wants to buy a HUD property almost has to drive around and look for properties with the winterization stickers. It makes buying a HUD FHA foreclosure MUCH harder for the consumer, as well as the agents. In the mean time, I found foreclosures by other banks that have been listed and are not marketed properly.

Here’s a list of what I found.

Laurelville :

Circleville :

• List Price: $169,850.00
  

  City:	Circleville
  State:	OH
  Zip:	43113
  Style:	Ranch
  Bedrooms:	3
  Baths:	2
  Year Built:	1987
  School:	Logan Elm
  Acres Approx:	7.5

List Price: $164,900.00

List Price: $160,000.00

List Price: $154,900.00

List Price: $114,900.00

List Price: $84,900.00

List Price: $32,000.00

Now, many of you know , most of these properties are priced under market price, and good reason , they’re hidden from real estate agents, and for the most part the public too.

Are you SERIOUSLY Interested in buying a foreclosed home or property? If so, then we’re serious about helping you buy one. Fill out our form located at http://www.realestatecircleville.com/foreclosurerefferal.html and we will help you with the process!

As of the moment, I have a CITI Bank short sale under contract for a client of mine. It’s located adjacent to the deer creek golf course by Mount Sterling Ohio, absolutely wonderful house.

Anyways, According to the listing agent, she has been in the process of getting the short sale aproved by Citi Bank, FOR 6 MONTHS! They’ve finally escalated the case to management and now it’s being taken care of.

I want to pass on a small tidbit of information with short sales if you wait a long time with no response (And it happens all the time) DO YOUR BEST to escalate it to management level if it hasn’t been approved within 3 weeks. The last Short Sale I had with HSBC Bank had to be escalated to a manager, and it was closed within 2 weeks of doing that after a month of deadlock.

As always, if you have tips on short sales, post a comment or email me about it and i’ll incorporate it to the blog.

If you would like help with a short sale, or want to buy a short sale, contact me : Brandon.Schlichter@RealLiving.com

I wanted to point out a little known fact about Pickaway county, and some differences and figures from the Pickaway County Home Grant Program and the differences between it and other first time homebuyer grants.

I received a letter from the City of Circleville Grant Department Homebuyer Workshop today. They will be having another workshop July 14th and 15th, although this does YOU no good because it’s already past the date.

Even though it’s too late to enter the program, it’s a really great idea to plan this program in to your schedule. As you may of watched on a late night infomercial or two about programs to get government grants to buy a home (I bought one of the books too). It seems like government grants are hard to get or such, the simple fact is they’re not too awfully hard to get, but for Pickaway  county, they’re not only relatively easy to get, but they’re the best in the entire state of Ohio.

Columbus Ohio has several first time home buyer grant programs, which allow a buyer to attend classes to learn about home ownership and in return receive a reduction of interest or a sum of money to go towards the purchase of a property. Ohio Financing agency (OHFA) also has a bond program that helps first time buyers get a discounted rate and/or help with the down payment. OHFA also has a great program called “Ohio Heroes” which gives a discount to emergency workers and teachers in Ohio over the standard program.

I will list the 3 programs that I’ve done research on, and the greatest thing is, that the OHFA bond program may be able to be used with the Pickaway County program.

Columbus Housing Partnership (CHP) Down Payment Assistance Program -

• Eligible homebuyers can receive up to 3% or $4,000, which ever is less, for down payment
• assistance and up to $2,000 for assistance with closing costs. The assistance may not be
• combined with other programs.

Requirements of Eligibility -

• The homebuyer must have debt ratios of no more than 31% (housing) and 43% (totaldebt).
• The interest rate on the first mortgage must be a fixed rate loan and may not exceed the current market rate by more than 2%.
• Non-Conforming loan programs are ineligible.
• The homebuyer must have a minimum of $500 towards the application fee, down payment and/or closing costs.
• The homebuyer may not have more than $3,000 in liquid assets (excluding 401K andpension funds).
• This loan is to be subordinate to the first mortgage on the property being purchased.

The are also ineligible tax districts and a maximum income allowance. You can find out more information at http://www.chpcolumbus.org/FranklinCountyGuideline.pdf

OHFA Bond Program – (Current rates are from Brett Rigney at Real Living Mortgage, 614-273-7919 and are only valid for a while)

• 30-year fixed rate FHA/VA/RHS-RD/conventional loans are eligible
• 2-1 buy downs are permitted, please check Underwriting Guidelines for specific product

 

• 1% origination fee
• $150 transfer fee to master servicer (US Bank fee)
• $79 tax service fee (US Bank fee)
• .25% Adverse market fee (Fannie Mae fee conventional loans only)

There are also income qualifications and property qualifications, I’ve had several clients go through this program without a issue.

And my favorite , Pickaway(And Circleville) County Grant Program -

• Up to $20,000 in down payment assistance per household
• Up to $5,000 to update/repair property.
• 2 Night Classes must be completed
• May take up to 8 weeks to complete paperwork with the grant
• Grant is forgiven at a set % per year of occupancy.

I’ve known a dozen or so people to go through the Pickaway county grant program and it’s wonderful. With the median price in Pickaway county being around $140,000 , this program can get you close to the 20% down goal of many homeowners and help get the interest rate down. If you’re interested in this program, you can call me and I’ll put you in contact with the right people.

Total breakdown of market activity over the past 30 days….

• 71 new listings
• 17 Back On Market
• 11 Contingent on Financing
• 50 Price reductions
• 40 sold
• 25 Under Contract
• 15 Withdrawn

If we take the numbers of New + Back on Market, and Subtract them from the total number of Under contract + Contingent + Expired + Withdrawn.

We end up with a total volume surplus of 18 homes. This number isn’t too bad at all.

Well, I figured that I would post what I deem a nearly complete list of every single REO and BPO company out there, this is much more complete than one of my more previous posts.

I’m near certain this is going to be quite close to those lists on ebay and such that offer complete lists, if any of these links do not work, email or post a comment and I will remove/moderate them.

Harbor Asset Management
harborams.com

M.D. Webb & Associates, Inc.
www.mdwebbinc.com

MGIC
www.mgic.com

Evaluation Solution
Evalonline.com

REO Corporation
www.remusa.com

Trinity Valuation
www.trinityvaluation.com

Evaluate USA
evaluateusa.com

GO BPO
www.gobpo.com

Premier Asset Services
www.access.pasreo.com

Land America 
www.ladsvalues.landam.com

Corporate Valuation Services Inc.
www.provalu.com

Pro Teck
wwww.pro-teck.com

Acranet
www.acranet.com

REO World
www.reoworld.com

Nationwide BPO’s
www.reonationwide.com

BPO’s online 
www.bposonline.com

Goodman Dean Corporate Real Estate Services
goodmandean.com

i Mortgage Services
imortgageservices.com

REO Network
www.reonetwork.com

AVM Asset Valuation & Marketing
www.assetval.com

REO Illinois
www.reoillionois.com

AVM Asset Valuation & Marketing
AVM’s real estate / mortgage
assetval.com

e Mortgage logic
www.emortgagelogic.com

HomEq Servicing
homeq.com

Rels
www.evalueit.com

W-M Realty Services
www.w-mgroup.com

Clear Capital
www.ClearCapital.com

REO 4 U
Default, Pre-Foreclosure, Foreclosure, & Disposition of Non-Performing Assets.
www.reo4u.com

Corporate Realty Services
Real Estate Services
stlreo.com

Single Source Property Solutions
www.singlesourceproperty.com

BPO Direct
www.bpodirect.com

Finiti
brokerweb.finiti.info

Light House Real Estate Solutions
www.irescorp.com

Centurion Asset Management
www.centurionam.com

MCB
www.mcbreo.com

Fiserv Lending Solutions
fiservlendingsolutions.com

America’s info Mart
quickbpo.com

National Asset Management Group
www.namg.com

Premiere Real Estate Services
www.premierebpo.com

Integrated Asset Services
www.iasreo.com

Financial Asset Services, Inc.
www.fasinc.com

Valuation Edge
valuationedge.com

Advantage Valutation
www.advantagevaluation.com

Safeguard Properties
bpo.safeguardassetmanagement.com

REM Corporation
www.remusa.com 

Ok, Now I do have a request (This is posted much after the origional posting.)

I’ve had OVER 2,500 people view this thread and many have emailed me thanks for this post, as it has helped them contact asset management companies and get business.

So , Here’s my favor, could you PLEASE post a link to this blog : realestatecircleville.wordpress.com from your own website(s). It helps me improve my overall rankings, which in the end may help me pay for the blog without anyone spending money. If you could do this , I would greatly appreciate it.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/iaf6oAZLU88]Well ,after another 25 or so BPOs for my JP Morgan Chase contacts, I’ve recieved another glorious REO Listing.

At the bottom you’ll see my full “Virtual” Youtube tour of the property, it’s an absolutely amazing property, listed at a scant $19,900 , with a large barn.

1br , 1ba on .41ac , 378 Square feet.

*Update* Property is now trash-free as compared to the video.

*UPDATE* The property has now sold, for a luxurious value of TWELVE THOUSAND DOLLARS!

Unfortunately there was a major septic issue that was uncovered later on , and this lead to a lowered sales price. The total time on market was abou 17 days , for reference , the average market time in this area is about 120 days (4 months) I didn’t do too bad on this deal.

I wanted to post my thoughts on a quite popular real estate website (RealtyTrac.com) and the frustration that I have had with this company.

Many, MANY people go to this website to obtain real estate information, mainly with foreclosures due to them showing up in the first few pages of Google’s search for foreclosures.

Individuals are then directed to a nice map of the US where they can select areas/counties of interest. Once they do that , a VERY large list of properties will come up, enough to make anyone thrilled with the potential of HUNDREDS of foreclosed properties in their area.

While this may seem like a great thing to jump in to, I’ve received tons of calls from individuals who ask me about a property or properties I deal with that are found on RealtyTrac.

The BIGGEST thing I run in to is the inaccuracy of information on the website, in my area, they throw every single property that has almost any legal issue associated with it on to the website. Reviewing the properties that are on the website states that there are 181 properties in my county that are available as foreclosures. This is well over TEN TIMES the number that is available. It may be true that there are 181 delinquent homeowners and the such, but they’re not available at all. In fact, if the homeowner resolves the issue with the bank, which could be a changed address or like to have the bank issue a notice of default, the property will remain on the website.

So  , that information they ask you to pay for? It’s not only old , it’s also incorrect the vast majority of time. The “Values” Stated as well are usually grossly incorrect, in my area ,they are posting the amount the lending institution purchased the property at. One property I had listed was asking $124,900 , and the website posted that it was available for $80,000. I received phone calls from several individuals who were crushed to find out that they couldn’t buy the home for $80,000. The property went on to sell for $118,500 after repeated notices to these RealtyTrac buyers that the home was well in the range of the $124,900 asking price. THEY PAID TO RECEIVE INCORRECT INFORMATION!

Not only that, many real estate agents are convinced to pay a monthly fee or such to receive the names and phone numbers of the people who view homes on the website. Not everyone knows that many of these “Free” websites like homegain.com and housevalues.com sell your name & Phone number to the highest bidder.

It’s very upsetting to see the impact of technology on a industry that does not always have professional rooting in technology.

I wanted to update this forum and update all the readers as to all the wonderful things I’ve read about bulk REO Sales.

I was somewhat incorrect in stating that no bulk REO sales take place, as from my research since the last post, I’ve found about 10-15 deals that have closed. All have been smaller packages in the 1m to 25m range, with one being a package with a purchase of dozens of REO properties in metro Detroit for $62k (With a market value in the 2 million range, talk about a deal!).

Anyways, In addition to finding out all this WONDERFUL information I’ve also been contacted by plenty of people that didn’t know what they were doing, and have absolutely no hopes of ever accomplishing bulk REO deals.

So, Having said that, I do have TWO Bulk REO seller brokers that do have legitimate deals, and can close them/have closed them.

Heck, I’m involved in a package deal right now, and everything is good.

So…..If you would like to be set up with one of the fabulous bulk REO Sources , I’ll need this information from you :

• Are you principals or agents in this space?
• What is your capital structure? Hedge fund, LLC, Subsidiary?
• Will you be using a warehouse line or straight equity in your expected REO transactions?

• What equity capital is “in position” today? What warehouse/financing is “lined up”
today?

• Have you done a transaction before? If YES, what law firm did you use?

• How many people in your company?

• What was your company doing last year?

• When and how did you raise your equity funds? Reg D offering 504, 506?

• How long have you been in this type of business?

• What title firm branch did you use? Name?

• Who is your accounting firm?

• What state are you incorporated in

• Who is the person in your organization with the most experience in this space?
What’s their experience?

• What is your stated investment strategy?

• Does the management of the firm also control the investment decisions?

• Elaborate on your exit strategies?

• Is there anything that we should know about your firm?

If you can answer those questions, I can then put you in touch with a legitimate seller.

Don’t want me in the daisy chain? I do have flat fee for their contact information.