Archive for July, 2008

How Do We Find Our Deals?

July 28, 2008

We could tell you, but then we’d have…sorry, couldn’t resist.

We are very, very open about how we get our deals and we believe that not only can you get out there and find one yourself in this current market, but we ENCOURAGE it!  When anyone buys vacant foreclosed, or distressed property of any kind it is HELPING the economy by putting cash back into the system!

90%-95% of our deals are bank foreclosures.  What makes the REOs (bank foreclosures) we find special is that we do NOTHING but scour the foreclosure listings day and night for that one property that the banks are especially sick of or don’t want (i.e. boarded up so you can’t even see the inside or in trouble with the city).  Since foreclosures pretty much make the market, obviously it has to be “sub-forelcosure” prices to be a deal.

Sometimes banks just price it way too low (imagine trying to find an accurate selling price for thousands of properties across the entire country!)  Sometimes they just screw up on price, and, well, who better to grab that property than you or me?  I have to tell you, it is like finding a needle in a haystack, but they are in every neighborhood- and you CAN find them, especially when you know your values.

(BTW, buying directly from the bank with no bank broker is a myth, we’ve yet to hear of one single case of that.)

We also have other methods of marketing from “We Buy Houses” signs to direct mail.  We send postcards to owners that have property here but live out of state…often they want to dump their property but just haven’t done it because it is such a pain in the rear to come here, sometimes evict tenants, fix up the property, find a Realtor, show the house to strangers, , wait months for it to sell, risk vandalism, risk finding a flaky buyer that doesn’t close, ….you get the point, and all of this during a declining market)…To them, any cash in hand is a huge bargain. 

Last but not least, our friends and associates sometimes refer a motivated seller to us simply because they know what we do, and they know that the seller will be treated with respect and fairness.

Common to popular belief, we (or 99% investor buyers out there) almost never buy from a family in foreclosure in the current market.  A very important point here is that I did not say there is anything wrong with that as long as it is win-win and there was no possible way the family was going to keep the property anyway.  Almost 0% of the homeowners in foreclosure have any equity, so it is extremely difficult to find them unless you are good at skiptracing; and It just makes so much more sense to put resources on the rotting non-performing assets and breathing new life into them anyway.  The economy needs investors right now.

We’re having a free one hour webinar with detailed info on how we deal with banks, how to talk to brokers, how to know it’s a deal or not, and how to wholesale them to another investor for instant cash if you choose.  It will be Tuesday, July 29th, 7PM Pacific and 10PM Eastern.

Just register here (don’t wait, I think there are about 32 spots left). 

 

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/694796523

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.FlipForeclosuresForProfit.com

 

Banks Not Countering

July 25, 2008

We picked up a couple more deals, a 3/2 Coachella and a Cat City duplex.

One thing that we are seeing happening is that the banks did not counter our offers.  That is definitely a new deveopment-  wow, now is the time to get out there and hit the pavement…we’re now shooting 45 to 65 cents on the dollar, depending on condition and location, and hitting with more and more frequency.

The cool thing is that retail buyers are still actively buying- by the way, year-over-year sales volume in Riverside County is up almost 12% versus big drops of roughly 20% for LA and OC.

One more random observation, some banks are not taking cashier’s checks right now- only money orders…don’t know what that is about, but we’ll report back when we find out.

Kurtis and Cindy Squyres
http://www.FarBelowMarket.com

Thy Neighbor’s Mess

July 21, 2008
Who Will Buy And Fix These Houses?

Who Will Buy And Fix These Houses?

Here you have it folks, today’s front page of the Desert Sun.  As you probably know, Cindy and I were on the front page of the LA Times last week.  The response was overwhelming, but I wish I could say it was all good!  It turns out that more than one person perceive what we do as opportunistic taking advantage of people losing their homes.  I even received some hate emails. 

Well, I am long overdue for getting back into the blog habit, and some of the attitudes of the general public towards house flippers (I don’t even like that word anymore) is something to be desired and was enough to get me back to the keyboard…for the life of me, WHY??  We are not buying from those in foreclosure, but even if we were, would that be wrong if it just prevented the above photo from occurring and the homeowner got a check where instead they would have a Sheriff knocking on the door?

I have one question, if we as investors do not enter the market and scoop up and fix these rotting structures, who will?  We are the sole saviours of the housing market, there are so many vacant, non-performing assets out there, and at the same time an actual shortage of clean housing.  Are we supposed to wait for families to buy them?…news flash, with the condition of many of these houses, there is a better chance of a 50 degree day in Palm Springs in August than there is of someone getting a loan.

Among the arguments, flippers inflate home prices…huh?  If we did that we would wait a long time to get a profit- we fix up these foreclosures and sell them BELOW market so we can get paid!…clean houses that are cheaper.

Here are just a few genius comments:  “Nothing against Kurtis and Cindy Squyres, but there’s a term in Wall Street: “Pigs Get Slaughtered”.”, “Buying more than one house for purposes other than occupancy ought to be limited, and heavily taxed. The money from “flipping” should be taxed more than cigarettes”, “Flippers and vultures all very active and gouging honest people”, “Flippers, vultures…I can’t believe these scum are still out there snatching houses from families”, “Kurtis and Cindy Squyres aren’t flippers, they’re floppers”, “when the market collapses, Kurtis and Cindy Squyres will be flipping burgers”.

You get the point…of course most weren’t like that but there were quite enough to get my goat.  In the same article an authority states that investors keep the bottom from falling out completely.  Again, who is going to take care of this problem?  WE ARE, THAT’S WHO THE *@^& IS GOING TO AND WE ARE GOING TO HELP THE ECONOMY, THE BANKS, FAMILIES GET AFFORDABLE HOUSES, AND WE ARE GOING TO GET STINKING RICH DOING IT…WHO IS WITH ME?

              …let the whiny babies whine, the ones whose favorite words are “can’t” and “impossible”.  Whether you believe it can be done or you believe it cannot be done, you’re right! 

Chances are if you read this far you are with us, you believe it is possible to thrive in a recession, that for someone to win doesn’t mean someone has to lose, and what you focus on is what you get…let’s mop up this mess.

Flipping burgers?  not yet…Here’s a picture of my family in Maui a couple weeks ago…c’mon guys, the banks need to move ‘em, and investors want ‘em…

….I’m doing a free webinar (online presentation) next week to show you exactly how we find our deals just to thank you for not being one of THOSE people.  (if you think buying stinky bank houses at huge discounts and passing on great deals to investors is unethical than you’d best unsubscribe from our blog, and don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya)….otherwise, stick around, you are going to get a TON of free help from us to do this stuff- it’s not rocket science and you CAN do it.

Here’s tthe link to our free presentation that will be July 29th, at 7:00 PM

Just register and then show up at the right time to that page…you call in the phone number given to hear the audio:

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/694796523

 

Squyres Family In Maui
Squyres Family In Maui

Be Happy And Prosper,
Kurtis

BTW – (Here is a link to the article in case you haven’t seen it…)

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/inland/la-fi-homesales17-2008jul17,0,6740066,full.story

 

http://www.flipforeclosuresforprofit.com

http://www.FarBelowMarket.com