Dan (SoCAl)

The Smiths were unable to conceive children and decided to use a surrogate father to start their family. On the day the proxy father was to arrive, Mr. Smith kissed his wife goodbye and said, "Well, I'm off now. The man should be here soon." Half an hour later, just by chance, a door-to-door baby photographer happened to ring the doorbell, hoping to make a sale. "Good morning, Ma'am", he said, "I've come to..." "Oh, no need to explain," Mrs. Smith cut in, embarrassed, "I've been expecting you." "Have you really?" said the photographer. "Well, that's good. Did you know babies are my specialty?" "Well that's what my husband and I had hoped. Please come in and have a seat". After a moment she asked, blushing, "Well, where do we start?" "Leave everything to me. I usually try two in the bathtub, one on the couch, and perhaps a couple on the bed. And sometimes the living room floor is fun. You can really spread out there." "Bathtub, living room floor? No wonder it didn't work out for Harry and me!" "Well, Ma'am, none of us can guarantee a good one every time. But if we try several different positions and I shoot from six or seven angles, I'm sure you'll be pleased with the results." "My, that's a lot!" gasped Mrs. Smith. "Ma'am, in my line of work a man has to take his time. I'd love to be in and out in five minutes, but I'm sure you'd be disappointed with that." "Don't I know it," said Mrs. Smith quietly. The photographer opened his briefcase and pulled out a portfolio of his baby pictures. "This was done on the top of a bus," he said. "Oh my God!" Mrs. Smith exclaimed, grasping at her throat. "And these twins turned out exceptionally well, when you consider her mother was so difficult to work with." "She was difficult?" asked Mrs. Smith. "Yes, I'm afraid so. I finally had to take her to the park to get the job done right. People were crowding around four or five deep to get a good look." "Four or five deep?" said Mrs. Smith, her eyes wide with amazement. "Yes", the photographer replied. "And for more than three hours, too. The mother was constantly squealing and yelling - I could hardly concentrate, and when darkness approached I had to rush my shots. Finally, when the squirrels began nibbling on my equipment, I just had to pack it all in." Mrs. Smith leaned forward. "Do you mean they actually chewed on your, um... equipment?" "It's true, Ma'am, yes. Well, if you're ready, I'll set-up my tripod and we can get to work right away." "Tripod?" "Oh yes, Ma'am. I need to use a tripod to rest my Canon on. It's much too heavy to be held in the hand very long." With that, Mrs. Smith fainted.

Boy, no kidding. I spoke with a southern California mortgage broker this afternoon, 15 years experience, who is working with a married couple looking to buy. They both have FICO scores over 800 and 30% cash down, but need to go no-doc. She cannot get them financed. WTF??! I am so leaving this state. Dan

Fun! Here's what it came up with for me, in order: Andie MacDowell (oh Man...I LOVE her!) Jennifer Lopez (what can I say?) Francis Ford Coppola (now we're moving closer to the truth) Don Adams (yep) I think the real question here is ... when you see Francis Ford Coppola do you think "wow, he's sort of got that Jennifer Lopez/Andie MacDowell thing going on." Well, do ya? Dan

I've used the free version of efax for the past six years or so. Works great. With Free you're limited to 20 incoming per month. I didn't think that would be enough when I signed up, but I've been under my limit for 72 months. The trick there is to keep your fax number away from realtors and bankers, who still don't grasp the concept of "signature page" or "email." Dan

Setting the price at the end of the lease would help me a lot given the current declining market. But how is this done when an option is involved? I understood that the purchase price must be stated in the option, otherwise no option exists and you're simply giving the T/B the first right of refusal, which isn't nearly as advantageous as an option. Dan

Realtors shouldn't interpret a little foot traffic as "the market is back" or has hit bottom, or is in any way healthy. This applies to all of the areas which experienced the strongest price increases over the past few years. These markets won't hit bottom until there is a substantial drop in inventory and foreclosures return to normal rates. Seeing as how we are still facing a bumper crop of foreclosures, the bottom is still a long way down. Also, get ready for the unintended/unexpected second wave of walkaways: the 2003-and-onward buyers who manage to hang on through the neighborhood foreclosures and short sales only to see their new neighbors buy at the "new" bottom. If that meant only a $20K difference they'd suck it up and make the payments. But out here, it's a $100K - $300K difference. In parts of San Diego, it will be a $600K difference. Mailing the keys back to the lender will be an easy decision. Dan

C'mon. Was it even possible to lose a property in 2004, 2005 or 2006? Whatever scam these guys were running wouldn't work TODAY. Dan

Prices ARE going down; that's a real problem. In order to set next year's Option price today, sellers have to agree to some hefty discounts. Most in my area can't do that, no matter how much they want to. I'm at ground zero for homeowners who are upside down in excess of $100,000. For T/Bs, it's not a matter of "seeing what happens." If the property value falls below what they agreed to pay at the beginning of the LP period they likely can't get financed and will lose their Option money if they can't renegotiate. I haven't talked to any T/Bs who are willing to gamble 12-15K to "see what happens to the market." Dan

Uh, Jay . . . tell us again which organization was responsible for convincing millions of buyers that they COULD afford it — and in fact "You can't afford not to!" Here's a hilarious Monty Pythonish skit on Mortgage Bankers: Click Dan

Unless you own the house and can guarantee the payments, how can you be sure the current owner won't soon be going through the same problems? Which potentially makes the situation much worse for a T/B, having their option money at risk. That's how it is in my neck of the woods. Add to that many sellers being $100,000+ upside down on their house and CA's are just a wonderful memory. Dan

You crack me up, Michael I couldn't wait for their rosy rebuttal and sneaked over to check their website. I'm pretty sure I wasn't seen. Here's the rotating flash subhead on their front page: "The housing market may be stabilizing in the wake of mortgage disruptions." What a relief, huh? Dan Freedom Creek LLC

I agree, Doug, that IS the guy we're looking for and no doubt they exist. Needle in a haystack around here, though. I'm jaded! Made in Canada, you can get through to a FRBO with just one question: "Would you be open to selling your property at the end of the lease?" Depending on your market, you can stick "I'm not a realtor" before or after that. I always use it; it's a selling point. "No" is self-explanatory and ends with "thanks for your time." A "Yes" opens up all sorts of possibilities. Let them talk. They may eliminate themselves in a couple of minutes, OR they will tell you exactly what you need to do to sign them up. If you notice yourself talking too much or "selling" too hard, back off and listen. Then you can confidently present solutions that address their problem(s) rather than hoping they'll be dazzled by a canned presentation. I don't call ads marked with broker, agent or mgt company. I also avoid townhomes, condos, horse property or anything "unique." That eliminates 80% of the classifieds, but what's left is my target market. Hope that helps! Dan Freedom Creek LLC

Calling FRBOs has been the path of least resistance for me. RTO is similar to what they're doing right now, except with better tenants and a possible sale at the end. They can stop taking calls, stop showing the house and end up in a better position than if they go it alone. Their houses are usually vacant and ready to go. The worse that can happen, whether I find a T/B or not, is they keep doing what they're doing. This is a very simple sale for the lease purchase investor. FSBOs come in two flavors: SMART FSBOs, which make up only about .00001% of the market, are rarely seen. These are the guys who price their house right, have it ready to sell and move it within two weeks. Typical FSBOs (99.9% of the market) have their property priced higher than even the most optimistic realtor and don't know diddly-squat about comps. They are already mentally ready to close, which is not what I'm offering. They are also getting hit up by agents for a listing and investors with every kind of "can't miss" creative financing proposal. Many can't go on to the next thing without selling their house. If they can, you have to convince them to reverse their decision to sell, rent the place and put a *possible* closing off for 1-2 years. FSBOs, in my opinion, are too messy to deal with.

Huh. So how did you figure real estate would be a good career choice for you? I know you don't literally have a logo like that, but would you expect people to rush to do business with someone who clearly despises them? That kind of thing comes across loud and clear. Let's say I own a property free and clear. In order for us to do business, you would offer me zero per month? And on top of that, you would propose that I pay you? Fair Market Rent is a major component in a rent-to-own transaction. It may be in everyone's interest to agree to be over or under, but you can't ignore it and expect to prosper. Dan Freedom Creek LLC

Geez, take your pick! Wrong price. No T/Bs. Flakes in the marketplace. Financially unstable owners. 30,000 homes for sale in my area in any given month, another 30,000 in some stage of foreclosure, less than 5,000 actual sales, short sales in the thousands, and ===> "Take over my payments! No down, no qualifying, move in today!" When those guys don't have any takers, and surprisingly many don't, you know the market has tanked. No matter how tuned in WE might be, the general public is clueless and sometimes you just have to wait for them to wake up and SMELL THE COFFEE. Buyers smell it long before sellers, of course, but they are reluctant to commit money to a market that is rapidly sinking. They are waiting for the "bottom." On the flip side -- I kid you not -- as recently as 60 days ago sellers were telling me prices were *possibly* coming down "somewhere else," and those problems would work themselves out before the end of the year. Holy Head in The Sand, Batman!!!! Having said all that, CAs are still my favorite deal by far. As soon as sellers and buyers are on the same page again -- which I think is starting to happen -- CAs will be front and center. Dan Freedom Creek LLC