Send Us These 4 Things And We’ll Send You An Investment Property Analysis
January 10, 2008 by Norman · View Comments
Based on your feedback from the Foreclosure/REO lists we’ve been providing, we are going to start offering free investment analysis of individual properties. Send an email to norman at myeastbayagent.com with the following information:
1. Purchase price
2. Down payment
3. Property address
4. & If it will be self managed
Using this info, I will produce a basic investment analysis with projected expenses and appreciation and email it back to you. Check out the attached pdf as an example.
The First East Bay Foreclosure Lists of 2008
January 6, 2008 by Andy Kaufman · View Comments
Another Sunday means another fresh set of active East Bay Bank Owned/REO lists.
Right now we’re only publishing lists for Western Alameda & Contra Costa Counties, but if there’s demand, I think that Norm might be up to the task.
A few quick facts from last week’s download stats:
* 319 total downloads of the various lists. That’s up 93% from last week!
* 77 people downloaded the entire package of lists.
* The ratio of d/l for SFR/Income property lists were 3.8/1
* The Alameda County Income Property lists were d/l’ed 6 times more than the Contra Costa Income Property lists.
Thanks to everyone who downloaded the lists and checked them out. The phone calls and emails that have started to roll in assure us that our readers/community members/business partners are finding value in the lists and your kind words and future earned business are what totally makes our effort worth while.
As much as you rely on us, we rely on you to help us improve our services. Thanks to a couple suggestions that we received last week, we’re going to be rolling out a couple of new features in the near future that we’re super excited about, so stay tuned.
Once again, I’ll also be posting the lists in the ‘relatively static’ Foreclosures / REOs section of the site, so if you miss a week and want to find an older one, look in there.
Same deal.. If you see something that strikes your fancy and you want more info, want to write some offers, or just want to talk about how we can do some business together, just call or email us (my info is on the top right corner) Cool?
So without further ado, here’s this week’s lists…
Download All the Lists at Once (.zip file)
Alameda County Residential Income REO List
West Contra Costa County SFR REO List
West Contra Costa County Residential Income REO List
Oh yeah, while your at it, don’t forget to check out our REO listings here.
photo credit: me!;)
The Last Set of Foreclosure/REO Lists for 2007
December 30, 2007 by Andy Kaufman · View Comments
Hot off the e-presses, here comes this week’s lists of active Bank Owned/REO listings in Western Alameda & Western Contra Costa counties.
A couple quick facts from last week’s download stats.
- 165 total downloads of the various lists
- 35 people downloaded the entire package of lists.
- The ratio of d/l for SFR/Income property lists were 3.3/1
- The Alameda County lists are 5.78 times more popular than the Contra Costa lists.
I have to admit that I was a bit surprised at the volume of downloads, especially since it happened in what’s usually the slowest week of the year for real estate. Looking forward, we’d love to build on that number and *gasp* get our first phone call/email as a result of posting them.
I’ll also be posting the lists in the relatively static Foreclosures / REOs section of the site, so if you miss a week and want to find an older one, look in there.
We think that these lists contain valuable information for anyone looking to buy, or invest in East Bay REO properties. In return for posting these, we hope that if you see something that strikes your fancy and you want more info, or want to write some offers, or just want to talk about how we can do some business together, that you contact us (415-449-1609). Cool? … Cool.
So without further ado, here’s this week’s lists…
Download All the Lists at Once (.rar file)
Alameda County Residential Income REO List
West Contra Costa County SFR REO List
West Contra Costa County Residential Income REO List
Oh yeah, while your at it, don’t forget to check out our REO listings here.
Beware of Foreclosure Rescue Scams
December 17, 2007 by Andy Kaufman · View Comments
As the number of Bay Area foreclosures quickly rise, the number of scam artists out there trying to prey on distressed homeowners in trouble is rising as well. Teresa Boardman of the St. Paul Real Estate Blog shared this video with us the other day and thought that I’d share it with you.
Even though I feel that this ad conveys an important message, I have to add that there ARE honest real estate investors out there who have the resources to create a win-win situation for distressed homeowners who wait until they’re neck deep in the foreclosure quicksand before reaching out for help.
The problem lies in that it’s exceedingly tough to figure out who the ethical investors actually are before signing away your deed. Also, even if someone is acting in good faith; do they have the experience to navigate through a complicated pre-foreclosure transaction?
The gurus smell blood and the foreclosure seminar circuit is booming and along with that comes scores of “investors” with little, or no experience.
It’s important to remember if you feel that you’re beginning to fall behind, the earlier you take action, the more options you’ll have. If you wait, your options will narrow along with any potential returns.
If you’re a homeowner who’s falling behind and is looking for information online, I’d recommend checking out The Foreclosure Report. Local mortgage broker, and all around dynamite person, Mike Mueller put this site together as an online resource for people in your situation. I’ll also be working on assembling resources for you on here, but The Foreclosure Report is a great place to start
Once you’ve done some research online, give a trusted real estate professional a call. Even if we can’t personally help you, we can probably point you in the right direction.
4 Ways to NOT Buy an East Bay Bank Owned Foreclosure
December 16, 2007 by Andy Kaufman · View Comments
Since a majority of our business is centered around East Bay foreclosures, namely Bank Owned REOs, our marketing efforts tend to bring in a variety of interesting responses. Since I’m feeling a bit snarky tonight, I thought that I’d share a few of them with you in the form of the following how-NOT-to tips.
1. The first way NOT to buy an East Bay REO is to send me a one line email with no name attached.
“I’ll offer 480″ or “I would like to offer 250,000 for this house.”
That’s it. No name. No phone #.
I’ve been getting a quite a few of these recently. While I get the feeling that most of them are just scam artists, or seminar newbies; there have to be a least be a few that simply don’t know any better. I usually just ask them politely to contact me via phone so that I can better asses their needs, but that seems to scare them away. I have played phone tag with a handful of these potential buyers to no avail and have actually talked to a few, but half of these “connections” invariably lead to #2.
2. If you sincerely would like to make an offer, you’re going to need to put it in writing. Don’t expect me to relay a verbal offer to my client (the bank) and expect them to respond. They will laugh at both you and me and tell us to put it in writing if we really want an answer.
3. The third way NOT buy a east bay REO is to ask to buy via lease option. When buying a bank owned property, this simply is not an option. The bank has no interest in keeping the property on their books for any longer than necessary and for this reason an offer asking for a lease option will get flat out rejected.
4. The fourth, and final way NOT to buy an East Bay REO is to ask me to make a verbal offer to buy the note outside of escrow and w/o title insurance so that you can avoid transfer taxes & transaction costs.
This was an actual request from an investor that says that he’s does it all the time and I’ve been trying to work out the mechanics of this transaction for the past week or so. Still, it doesn’t compute. Why would a bank do that?
I did ask my client (the bank) if they’ve ever heard of such a thing and got a rejection email resembling something from #1 in this list- “all transactions must go through escrow” Plus, if the bank foreclosed and took the property back, why is there a note in the first place? If anybody has seen something like this and could enlighten me, I’d love to hear it.
So there you have it, 4 ways to NOT buy an East Bay bank owned property. In all reality though, I’m a glass is half full kinda guy and the ultimate goal of this site is to educate potential clients so that we can put some deals together, which means that I’ll be working on a companion post entailing what you SHOULD do to buy an East Bay REO.
You’ll just have to wait a few days though. Deal?
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