Brian - L.V.

That's exactly it! You have to ask yourself how you'll benefit by having a partner vs. going solo. Otherwise you're just giving up half of your profits, making things more complicated, giving up control of your deals, and potentially training a competitor. If that's what you're looking for, I'll gladly be your (remotely located) partner! Plus I'll only take 40% of the deal, so you'd be coming out ahead! I'm just kidding.....unless you're gonna do it.

Hi Jonathan, I was actually going to ask you about this since you mentioned it in a short sale post I did a few weeks back. How would an option to short sale work vs. a short sale? Thanks for your help!

That would be a potential concern, but worst case it's not like you can't cancel your option in the future if your cashflow heads south. Next time, I wouldn't frame it in a "if you're comfortable" sort of way because it implies that she shouldn't be comfortable with the situation. If you explain the way everything works in a matter of fact tone, it tends to smooth over most concerns homeowners have because it seems like you've successfully done this type of thing a thousand times. Minor point, but little things like that can kill deals. Hope it helps!

Yeah, I don't remember what Brian Tracey called it exactly but it works for a lot of things. Before I started studying sales, I did this with a pain in the heine homeowner who constantly wanted me to send him my contracts and was just being annoying. I told him I was looking at other deals and wasn't sure I'd be able to move forward with his property anymore, and when he got back to me all he asked is when could we get together to do the paperwork. The fear of loss is often more powerful than the potential for gain.....

How did that work out for him? It's funny to me that there's always some %*#@%! brother-in-law type that has to throw in their unsolicited opinion. I don't know about everyone else, but I'm not going to take medical advise from a plumber who took some biology classes "back in the day". Exactly. I've found that a pain in the ass potential t/b tends to turn into nightmare t/b down the road. I understand his concern, but it makes me wonder if he really had a lease option and not just some rental agreement with the seller where they said he could "buy the house down the road." I'm sure you understand that an option is a legally binding unilateral contract, so if you choose to move forward with this t/b you can show him in the option paperwork where it spells out that you agree to sell the house at the specified price. If that doesn't work, then take the deal away from him. If you chase a dog it'll run. If you run, it'll chase you......

That's exactly my point! The guy must have thought that I'm a moron or something. I understand that the homeowner has to be behind on their payments, have no equity, be able to prove financial hardship, have the house preferably need some repairs, etc. Basically, it needs to make more sense for the bank to cut their losses vs. going through the hassle of fixing up and listing the house. Will lenders potentially allow the contract to be assigned? Again, it's my understanding that banks wouldn't really allow this but I've heard of people doing it. Yeah, I'm not overly excited about it but a foreclosure fell in my lap from my marketing so I'd like to be able to help the guy (and make some $ for my troubles). Is there a better way to approach a deal that doesn't have any equity and has a distressed seller? Sounds interesting. Is it something like getting an option for the price you'd be willing to pay, assigning to a buyer contingent on the bank accepting the offer?

Sooooooooooooooo Brian, You single? I ain't shy (well, actually I am), but I just couldn't resist I was wondering how many hotties were here on this board. You just can't beat brains and good looks ya know! Lol of course! It's just so hard finding someone that appreciates me for my genius, ya know? It doesn't exactly help that I've been voted the world's sexiest genius by a panel of my peers. I mean c'mon, my eyes are up here! Exactly!

Well, if he looks like Brian - L.V -- than EVEN HOTTER (Bikini, Speedo, what's the diff?)! Just check out who he looks like at the Corner Bar! That's definitely true! Yeah, I'm sure we could work something out for the infomercial. I could give you a mentor discount or something..... Wait a sec. What is this libelous filth that being erronously propagated about me!? It's not my fault that my abs are made from the finest granite and I have eyes so dreamy you could lost in them forever!

I've been looking at doing some short sales when options won't work, and I couldn't find the answer to my questions as of yet. First of all, the lender told me that they won't consider doing a short sale until the payments are brought current which I don't believe at all. Just in case, has anyone heard of this? Secondly, I'm mainly looking to do a wholesale flip but I'm hearing that many lenders don't allow the contracts to be assigned and require things like pre-approval letters to be submitted in the short sale package. Is this true that many lenders don't allow this? I obviously am not interested in taking title or doing any rehabbing, so I'm looking to flip to someone on my buyers list that specializes in rehabs. Overall how would you rate the process? Even though you typically hear that it's not exactly the easiest process, I've also been hearing just as much that it's not so bad and is definitely worth the paperwork hassle in terms of the payday, especially with all of the pending foreclosures flooding the market. Thanks!

That's pretty cool! It's good to know that my life-long conclusion of "winning of the genetic lottery" has been scientifically confirmed: Female: 74% Demi Moore 73% Keira Knightly Male: 70% Michael Owen 68% Mathew McConaughey I have also been compared to a young, ruggedly handsome Stanley Tucci also.....

There's a 10% penalty for making a non-qualified withdrawal from an IRA before age 59 1/2, on top of paying ordinary income rates if it's a traditional IRA. The IRS rules on useage of the property are pretty complicated (for instance you can't buy property inside of an IRA for your own personal use/use of dependents unless you're over 59 1/2. In that case you could take the property as a distribution. True investment activities are ok.) so you'll definately want to talk to your accountant/tax attorney.

So I'm driving to go meet with a client today and I notice that the A/C doesn't seem as effective as it usually is. I look at the thermometer and see this: It actually was up to 127, but it took a second to get my phone out of my pocket since it melted to my thigh.....

Mainly second-hand from the realtor, but he did send the homeowner a few pics. Most don't support what the realtor is complaining about, other than that the painter missed the pantry. I'll agree that needs to be done. Yes, I do have pics of when I took the house and how I left it. Don't know if it'll help or hurt me since they are all general overview pics (like you'd put on your website) vs. documenting any minor deficiencies when I got the house. That makes sense. My thing is I'm willing to take a couple of hours out of my weekend to prevent a big hassle over this. But if he's gonna try and play hardball by essentially saying he's not going to have the realtor let me in to try and take care of this stuff, then there's nothing more that I can really do. The thing with the emails is just because the homeowner is in Africa on business. He's saying that he'll be back next week. I did use MC's contracts, of course.

Hey everyone. Thanks for the advice so far. The homeowner just emailed me back after I've been hounding him over the past couple of days to take care of some of those minor issues the realtor brought up with the grout being cleaned, pantry painted, and the lawn being taken care of. He basically told me that instead of letting me into the house to take care of this stuff, he's waiting for professional estimates. So he's essentially saying he wants to send me $1000 bill for some minor issues. In that case, I'd imagine that they're going to do any work that they want done and try to charge me for it. Any further suggestions?

It's not necessarily the realtor talking to me, but telling the seller what he feels needs to be done in order to make the house "rentable". The seller is currently overseas for his job, which makes it harder since he has to go by what the realtor says vs. seeing it himself. I believe the carpets are the original that came with the house, which was built in 1999. So condsidering the age, it's still in good condition. I'm going to go back over to the house and do a few little clean up chores that the realtor mentioned to save a fight. It'll only take a couple of hours to hopefully build some goodwill. I'm not about to start doing the major stuff the realtor is talking about obviously. That's totally what I'm looking to do asap. It makes it harder since we pretty much have to communicate through email, but I've been saving a copy of everything that I've said in case. I didn't mention anything about a lawsuit, but the homeowner mentioned something to the effect that if he doesn't get the house back in EXACTLY THE SAME CONDITION as two years ago, he's gonna "show me how upset he's getting". I don't want any trouble with this, but am not going to shell out $2-3k over this either.