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Using Short Sales To Buy Property With Little Or No Equity
By Judson Voss
You know that it’s possible to buy a house that has little or no equity in it for less than is owed on the mortgage! Yes, it’s possible. Let’s say that you, as a property investor come across this homeowner who is behind in their mortgage with the bank. On the current real estate market the defaulted property is worth $100,000, but the homeowner is actually in debt for $115,000. It is possible for you to get that homeowner’s house for just $70,000.
This seems impossible, but a little known practice called, “Short Sales” in defaulted note buying allows you to purchase property that is over financed and has little or no equity in it! This is basically when you work with the bank to renegotiate the selling price of the house and the bank writes off the remainder of the mortgage.
Getting Started with the Short Sale
When you work with this homeowner, you will become the homeowner’s advocate or intermediary with the bank. So the first thing you’ll need to do is get an “Authorization to Release Information”, and fax it to the bank so that you can negotiate with the bank. This basically means that the homeowner is giving the bank permission to speak with you concerning their mortgage.
When you contact the bank you’ll want to explain to the bank the reasons why they should be
willing to let go of the house for less than it is valued and for less than is owed on the mortgage. This involves putting together a little package with information that the bank may request from you and extra information that you include on the condition of the house.
For example; the house may need a new roof. There could be all kinds of deferred maintenance and it needs all kinds of repairs. You could even point out that the housing market is declining in the area or point out that there are loads of other houses on the same street that haven’t sold. Basically, you present your case to the bank explaining the reasons that they should let the property go cheap. Be sure to include photos of the damage to the property or the decline.
Using the Short Sales technique it is possible for you to work with the bank to reduce the selling price of that defaulted property. You are able to purchase it from the homeowner for a reduced price and the homeowner can get out from under this mortgage without it being on their credit.
All you need to do is approach the banks professionally, put together a good case for reducing the price (such as needed repairs to the property) and for good measure include some photos of damage or neglect on and around the property.
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Global Network Initiative Hosts First Public Forum in Paris
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Global Network Initiative Launched
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DHS issues final rule for Secure Flight
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CDT Report: Browser Developers Compete on Privacy Controls
CDT released a report today showing that Internet browser developers are increasingly competing to offer better privacy controls. This new competitive focus on privacy represents a boon to consumers who can now base their Web surfing decisions on which browser best suits their personal privacy needs. The report reviews and compares the privacy tools available for the latest versions of Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Apple's Safari. The report compares the browsers in their offering of three key tools -- privacy mode, cookie controls and object controls ? which can greatly reduce the amount of personal information users give up online and leave behind on their computers.
Campaigns Should Expose Improper Demands to Take Down Videos
Once the election has passed, the presidential campaigns should publicly expose specific incidents in which overaggressive copyright claims have stifled political expression during this campaign cycle, CDT said in a letter to both campaigns today. The McCain-Palin campaign recently complained that campaign videos containing less than ten seconds of broadcast footage have been removed from YouTube at the demand of media companies who own the footage. Such "takedown" requests are improper because the use of brief clips of footage in political commentary is generally legal under the "fair use" provision of copyright law.
President Signs I.P. Enforcement Legislation
President Bush yesterday signed into law the PRO IP Act, an intellectual property enforcement bill that calls for expanding certain legal remedies, providing enforcement resources, and creating a new I.P. Enforcement Coordinator in the White House. CDT supports vigorous enforcement of existing intellectual property laws and appreciates improvements that were made to the bill during the legislative process. CDT still has concerns, however, about how certain provisions in the bill could operate in practice.
NSA Spying on Americans in the Green Zone
The National Security Agency is intercepting and retaining communications of innocent Americans in Iraq's so-called "Green Zone"; agency workers even pass around the most titillating conversations, according to explosive allegations made by two NSA whistleblowers in an ABC News segment airing tonight. According to the report, collection of telephone conversations U.S. soldiers and aid workers in Iraq had with their families in the U.S. continued even after NSA analysts knew that the telephone numbers on which they were eavesdropping belonged to Americans who had no ties to terrorism. The report calls into question assurances the NSA and Justice Department repeatedly gave Congress that internally enforced "minimization procedures" are adequate to protect the private conversations of Americans.
Justice Department Issues New FBI Guidelines
The Justice Department today issued new guidelines for FBI investigations, weakening the standards that have long been in place to ensure proper targeting of law enforcement and national security investigations. The guidelines represent another step in the creation of a domestic intelligence system in the United States. They permit FBI agents to go undercover to collect information, send in informants and tail citizens, all without suspicion of wrongdoing or connections to a foreign power.
CDT Lays Out Rule of Law Agenda for Next President and Congress
In testimony submitted to the Senate Constitution Subcommittee today, CDT called for the next President and Congress to impose checks and balances on governmental national security measures. The testimony, submitted in connection with hearings exploring proposals to restore the rule of law, calls for an update of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and for measures to ensure that intelligence collection complies with FISA and is subject to judicial oversight.
Bill Would Rein In Laptop Searches at the Border
Random, intrusive searches of the contents of laptop computers at the border would be outlawed by legislation introduced on September 26 by Senators Feingold, Cantwell, Wyden, and Akaka. The Traveler's Privacy Protection Act (S. 3612) would require U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials to have a "reasonable suspicion" of a crime before they could search a laptop computer and other data storage devices; a court order based on probable cause would be needed to seize a device. Travelers would have the right to be present while electronic devices were searched, discriminatory searches would be barred, and strict time limits for searching would be imposed. The bill, which limits its protection to residents of the US, would displace recently-disclosed Customs policies permitting suspicionless laptop searches at the border that could last for weeks.
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