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Monday, June 30, 2008
Real Estate Series Day 1 My New Style
Well I made it to day one!
I've decided to start a new style
to my blog too. I'm one of those people that needs structure so I'm bringing it to my blog too. It should allow
you all an easier reading experience too.
My blog will now feature
1. A commentary beginning.
This might be a gripe, a vent, a complaint or an exciting victory, just depends on my mood and the day :-) You know how that
goes!
2. Next will be a call to action to better your financial future.
3. Will be
an insight into my work life.
4. A recap of last nights dinner. I know this sounds crazy but as a self proclaimed
"foody" who can't cook and doesn't eat meat, I love to read about other peoples dinner happenings and I
figured I can't be the only one, right?
5. Will be the main guts of the blog and in this series tips, info,
and ways to save your home or save money on home ownership.
I'm excited to see how this will play-out over
this next month. I hop you all will join me with your thoughts, questions and opinions!
Here we go!
Today's thoughts is brought to you by Mc Donalds! I'm trying to understand why Mc
Donald's would allow a check casher/ pay day loan company to open a kiosk inside one of their restaurants. Better yet,
I'm not sure why I care so much. I drove by a Mc Donald's and actually started laughing when I saw it, and I still
don't know why it's still in my head. I really do not care for these pay day loans. I believe that in a true emergency
everything is fair game, but they just seem to be the worst ones out there, and then to see it in a Mc Donald's, well,
I guess it bothers me because it just makes it too convenient. Enough said.
The action for today
is to call your creditors:
Here's how it's going to work.I know I've said this before but the first step
to financial freedom is to pick up the phone. How many phone calls do you need to make that you've been putting off? I
admit to needing to having calls that need to be made too. It seems like the majority of the time I remember that I need to
call someone after business hours. I've been keeping a running list of "to do's" but I often joke in my
mind that I should keep another list of places that I keep my master list!
So your list of people to call should
include the following people.
1. All creditors- including your credit card company, mortgage company,
and anyone else you owe money too. This is especially important if you are having problems paying all your bills. The point
of your call is to ask in every which way if they can lower your rate and payments.
2. Utility companies-phone,
cell phone, cable, dsl, dish, propane (you get the picture) You want to ask if there are any specials or different programs
that lower your monthly bills. You'll be surprised how eager they are to help... many people on the other end of the line
are feeling the pinch of this economy too, and who better to "know" the ways to a discounted bill than them.
3. Your insurance companies- This might not be on the top of your list of places to save, but it
should be! With the right agent, who knows what questions to ask, you can save 20% or more by either switching companies or
making small changes with your existing policies.
4. Your pharmacist and doctor- Both of these
medical care professionals either have samples or know of programs that can help you save on your prescriptions.
Today's work activityis not too exciting. It seems we are having a problem locating a property
that a bank needs some info. on. I've tried every which way, but everything I can find says it's vacant land and all
the maps (and me driving for hours) don't show the house even exists. We'll figure it out, it's just frustrating.
On another note, since the fires in October, I have done reports on house that truly no longer exist. Saddest one was a person
who's escrow closed the day before the house burnt down. Talk about bad luck... their solution was to never make a payment.
I know there's more to the story, but there were no winners in this deal, except for the sellers, I guess you could say
they had really good luck, but even that sounds wrong.
On a happy note, we received another bank owned listing
today. We'll be going out and checking to see if it's vacant. If someone is still living there we'll be offering
them "cash for keys" which is paying them money to leave the property in a good, clean condition within a certain
about of time. I'll blog more on that later.
Dinner last night was spaghetti and turkey
sausage. It's amazing how cheap spaghetti can be. But do you ever wonder why Italian food at a restaurant can be some
of the most expensive when the ingredients are the cheapest? Same goes for Chinese food. So the spaghetti was $1, the sauce
$1 and the sausage was on sale as it was purchased on the sell by date for $3.45. So $5.45 for a dinner of 4. Not bad. Had
this been at a restaurant I'm sure we would have been looking at at least $50 and that includes no beverages as we only
drink water!
Deed In Lou of Foreclosure is the real estate topic for the day. First of all a deed
in lou of foreclosure is when the bank agrees to take title to the property by the homeowner signing over ownership back
to the lender. The former homeowner then walks away from the property and the loan (in most cases). I
chose to talk about a deed in lou today because this is one of the most asked questions I get. On first look it seems that
this could be a great solution to both the homeowners problems and the banks. You would think that the banks would jump at
just taking the asset (the property) back without having to spend the time or money with a foreclosure. Unfortunately for
anyone hoping to do this, I have only seen one property where the bank agreed to this and I've seen thousands of tax documents
on different properties. From what home owners have told me the banks will say it's a possibility and request that you
send in the financial packet and then say that they are not doing deed in lou's. Here are the reasons that banks are not
open to deed in lou's even though it would save them money on the whole foreclosure and eviction process.
1.
The banks don't want to make it easy to walk away from your home. Can you imagine if they said yes to every homeowner
that has negative equity in their home regardless if they can afford the payment? By saying yes to one homeowner they are
opening the floodgates to other homeowners requests. Which leads me into reason #2.
2. Banks try hard not to flood
certain markets with foreclosures. They know that if they were to accept a deed in lou then the home would become instantly
marketable and if they already have an over abundance of properties they are trying to sell, then they would further bring
down the values of all the properties. If they can slow the process they can possibly slow the devaluation of their assets.
3. Banks hurt their balance sheets and financial worth every time they have to add an asset back under their ownership.
It's in their best interest to slow down the acquiring of properties and clear out the ones they have on the books before
they take more.
As you can see there's a lot more to the deed in lou for the banks. I think everyone would
agree that it would be easiest and best for the homeowner to do a deed in lou, but the banks have decided that it's not
in their best interest. If you are hoping to do a deed in lou, please contact your lender and explain your situation. Your
best chance is to send them their packet filled out with your financial situation outlined, but just be prepared for a battle.
There are other options available and be open to what they can offer. Just remember not to accept an offer from the bank that
puts you in an even worse position.
Tomorrow we'll dig into short sales!
6:29 pm pdt
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
My Glass House...and Stop Foreclosure!
I shared that my website (www.noexcusebudget.com) is getting more and more visitors as the economy goes farther into a recession (yes, I've
decided to call it what it is, regardless if the "experts" call it one or not) but the cat's out of the bag
as to what my day job is (bank owned property specialist) and I've been receiving emails from people wanting to buy a
foreclosure and from those wanting to avoid one. Here's my first post in my month long real estate series.
When I started this blog I had really strong feelings about budgeting and being responsible for your own actions. Well,
I still do, but I've realized over the past couple of years that I live in a glass house, especially when I use this
blog as a diary of sorts.
Real Estate has been my passion and means of financial support and when the market tanked
I went into shock. I long said that it couldn't keep going up at the rate it was. Around here the median home price
would have been 2 million dollars in a few short years. What I didn't expect was for it to crash in the way that it did.
It was practically overnight when the sub-prime mortgages dried up and loans were nearly impossible to get. Thankfully my
shock was short lived and I had to change directions. I was able to "get with the game" before it was too late for
me and I now sell bank owned properties in Southern California.
Back to my glass house... surrounding myself with bank owned sales (REO's,
real estate owned) has opened my eyes to the fact that nobody, no matter how well prepared you are, is immune to loosing
your home. Now you can say "what if it's paid for", well what if you have no money for taxes? In my area you
have 3 years before you loose your home to unpaid taxes, but still there are people who stay in financial shock
for years. It can be debilitating and so can major medical issues, death, divorce. etc. There are so many scenarios
that I have seen where people loose their homes in scenarios I never though imaginable. Even people who have owned their homes
for 20 or 30 years and refinanced their homes during the peak can become homeless. These people will never
"recover", they are retired and on a set income. Who's to blame, they are and maybe others too. It's not
my place to place blame and it's won't change anything at this point. I just hope we all learn from this. Don't
get me wrong, these homeowners made a very poor choice in taking out all that money and agreeing to a repayment
term that they could not afford, but who knows what they were told. Maybe someone swore to them that they would be able
to refi. to a better rate and term that they could afford, and when that time actually came to refi. these same people told
the homeowners that the loans were no longer available. Again, I've learned not to judge.
To keep me
from getting down and depressed about all these different senarious, I focus on the good side of my job...and that is
to get new owners, who can afford to maintain their homes, to buy these empty homes thus helping the neighborhood recover
which is good for all the other homeowners.
Here's a few tips if you are facing any type of default on
your mortgage.
#1. Consult a real estate professional for a current market value of your property. We call these
"CMA's". You need to know if you have equity or how much you are upside down.
#2. Re-do your budget
(be sure to use my free budget worksheets) to see where your money is going and where it needs to go.
#3. Call
your mortgage company and explain your situation and see what they can offer you to help you save your home.
#4.
Don't go into shock. Remember to eat and sleep. This is a temporary situation. No matter what the outcome is, this will
not last forever. I'm hearing more and more about people ending their lives over their housing problems. If you feel depressed
and need help, please get help. Call your local hospital for a referral to a mental health professional. If the situation
is acute, call 911!
#5. Don't use all your money to pay bills... sounds strange, but keep some cash around
incase of a real emergency. Prioritize your bills.
1. Food
2. Personal care products (toilet paper, toothpaste,
soap, etc.)
3. Gas and car payment (especially if you work outside the home)
4. Utilities
5. Mortgage (if you
rent this might need to be higher on the list)
July brings a new month for us all. My goal is to blog everyday.
Every time I try to do this some disaster gets in my way (literally, death, fires, you name it) but I'm going to try again.
This month will be dedicated everything real estate. I'll be posting about short sale, what happens if you do loose your
home and ways to save your home.
If anyone has real estate questions please feel free to send me an email. Please
note that our brokerage (Sale Pros Realty) is in California. Laws vary by state. I'm more than happy to offer assistance
and/or referrals outside of California, but it will generic in nature as I am only licensed in Ca.
9:19 am pdt
Sunday, June 1, 2008
It felt like a massacre once I was done...
and that was only making lunch. So the kids wanted soup. They've been
begging me for weeks, and now my youngest swore she was getting a cold and soup was the only thing that would save her. Normally
this would have been an easy request to satisfy. I'd go to the pantry and open a can of soup. Done!
Not this
time, they wanted homemade soup. My oldest was convinced that homemade soup would make her sibling healthier... and who was
I to say no.
So I look in the freezer and found one of those little chickens that they have ready and hot at the
grocery store, of course I paid half off, or $3.00 for the sucker. It had to be used that day so I froze it. Next I pulled
out some leftover (frozen) carrots, onions, and some fresh celery. I don't normally have all these on hand but I was slowly
freezing any leftovers thinking this day may come and it did. I also found a loaf of frozen (half priced too) sourdough bread
to go with the soup... now we were set!
That was until I realized I'd have to pick off all the meat from the
chicken. That is when it started to go down hill. I might as well have shot, plucked and cleaned the darn thing myself. I
felt bad. Now you remember, I'm a vegetarian raising meat eaters right? I'm one of those moms that lets her children
choose their own way in life, at least food wise and mine chose to eat meat... really eat meat. So here I am.
I
had to take pictures... first of the carcass.
Here was the final product... chicken noodle soup!
It was edible, or so they say. I think that some people, like myself are just not cut out to be cooks. Thank
goodness that the common grocery store recognizes this and convenience foods are becoming healthier and less costly. My best
grocery trick lately has been to purchase prepared foods once they are marked down. My new favorite grocery store, Fresh and
Easy seems to mark down their bread in the afternoon. They only sell that days fresh bread. It's great to pick up and
freeze. It also helps me not waste the bread as I only defrost it when I really need it. Here's a picture of the sourdough
bread.
Fresh and Easy (by the way does anyone else think that's not the best choice for a stores name? I know that
it's an English Company, but really, I think about a "new" "woman of the night" if you know what I
mean) Anyways, they are running a sale to promote their organic coffee. The 12 oz. bag is $2.99. I normally buy the non-organic
variety for $4.99/12 oz bag, but I was even happier to buy the organic for $2.00 less. Next I used the $5/20 coupons
that they mail and hand out at the store and really stocked up on coffee. I plan to go back and buy more before the sale
is over, I think around the 12th of June is the end. The coffee is good too!
I've decided to post every day
this month. There is a lot happening in the personal finance area these days and as usual I have a lot to say.
Hope
you enjoyed my attempt at cooking. I'll keep trying. Thankfully my children are still well nourished despite my obvious
shortcomings in life!
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Hi! I'm Heather Reese, founder of the No Excuse Budget
I realize the importance of having control
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Discover my proven system for:
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