UltraForeclosures - Finding Fortunes in Foreclosures eBook

UltraForeclosures.com Presents: Finding Fortunes in Foreclosures INTRODUCTION Winds of Fortune Are Blowing Your Way! It‘s the ―Biggest Blow‖ in 70 Years Our UltraForeclosures Team is Here To Help You Level 1, 2 or 3 – Which Is Right For You? This Could Be Your Rendezvous with Fortune How to Get the Most Out of This Book From the bestselling author of Collecting Wealth STEP 1 -- KNOW Options for a Homeowner in Distress How the Foreclosure Process Works How to Build Yourself a Powerful Network Sinkholes and Cesspools to Sidestep Starting Now, Profit as a Foreclosure Investor in Foreclosures Complete One Deal a Month for One Million Dollars a Year Fortunes Lee Troxler and the “Open Your Own Finding RealtyStore” Team STEP 2 -- FIND A Business Territory to Call Your Own With an Eye for Foreclosures About to Happen Hottest Homes in Your Hands—First! Homeowners Calling You, Wanting to See You How to ―Prospect‖ for Potential Clients Auctions: Stepping Up to Level 2 Actions Government Guaranteed Homes for Sale Bank REOs—Hanging With ―the Suits‖ in Level 3 STEP 3 -- VALUE Knowing What Good Properties Look Like Doing Your Due Diligence on Properties Calculating How Much to Offer STEP 4 -- FUND Reviewing Your Financing Options Finding Partners Who Treasure You Using Private Lenders Buy a House With Zero Cash STEP 5 -- BUY Dispatching Your Competition Right From The Getgo Preparing an Offer They Can‘t Refuse Handling the Appointment with Smarts Acting Fast After the Handshake to Lock-in Success STEP 6 -- FLIP Package Your Property into a Retail Plum Proven Guerrilla Marketing Strategies CONCLUSION WORKSHEETS Appendix A ~ Summary of State Foreclosure Laws Appendix B ~ Notice of Default Worksheet Appendix C ~ Sample Letters to Homeowner in Foreclosure Appendix D ~ Homeowner Loan Analysis Appendix E ~ Homeowner Interview Worksheet Appendix F ~ Property Inspection Checklist Appendix G ~ Sample Offer Letter for a Bank-Owned Property Appendix H ~ Profit Calculation Worksheet Appendix I ~ Sample Letter to Subordinate Lienholders Appendix J ~ Purchase Agreement Appendix K ~ Buyer’s Closing Checklist Appendix L ~ Home Repairs: What Brings the Greatest Return? Appendix M ~ Top 10 U.S. Cities Expected to Explode in 2008 Not surprisingly, the homeowners with sub-prime loans are in greatest trouble. Subprime mortgages account for $1.3 trillion or 12.6 percent of the total mortgage debt.i The rate of defaults on these sub-prime loans has tripled between 2005 and 2007. And $567 billion of sub-prime adjustable loans were scheduled for rate resets in 2007ii, meaning borrowers who are already strapped will see their monthly payments shoot through the roof. It gives us no pleasure to share these grim statistics with you. But the hard truth is: Over three million Americans are facing a foreclosure crisis. This number if going up, not going down. This is because of the uncontrolled spending habits of most Americans, fueled by borrowed money. Since the baby boom generation shows no inclination to ever live within their means, the number of foreclosures can only increase year after year. This will increase the opportunities for foreclosure investors year after year, as well. Yes, the winds will be blowing – stripping fortune from some, delivering it to others. But just because millions of homeowners face foreclosure, that doesn‘t mean you can easily swoop in to the rescue and pocket a princely sum. It‘s not quite that easy. But that‘s a good thing. If it were that easy, everybody would be doing it and there wouldn‘t be as much opportunity for you! You are showing by your initiative that you have what it takes to make yourself rich. Finding your fortune in foreclosures is within your reach, even closer than you think if you will take the right approach. What do we mean by ―right approach‖? Well, there are pretty much only two ways to approach anything worth having in life. You can take the lone wolf approach, or the wolf pack approach. The lone wolf will learn everything possible and strike out into the market in search of fortune, making mistakes, stumbling from time to time, always vulnerable to the cruel elements. Those who join a wolf pack, on the other hand, learn to hunt together and protect each other, and enjoy the warmth of the pack environment as well. We suggest the latter approach using the talents of our UltraForeclosures Team. Our UltraForeclosures Team will help you find a fortune in foreclosures as fast as possible. How will we do this? 120 years of experience in 240 minutes. If you could soak up and start benefiting from 120 years of fingers-in-the-sawdust real estate know-how in just 240 minutes, would you? You‘re already doing it! If you read at an average pace, you‘ll rip through this book in about four hours, or 240 minutes. And you will be devouring the sum total of our 120 years of experience in the real estate marketplace. Yes, when you add up the combined experience of all the talented members of our UltraForeclosures Team, you have 120 years of ―ready, set, buy and sell‖ expertise working for YOU! Because you had the good sense to acquire Finding Fortunes in Foreclosures you now have our entire UltraForeclosures Team guiding you, alerting you to pitfalls to avoid and opportunities to pursue. Unlike other books that are written by one person, offering only one person‘s limited perspective, this book was written by our entire UltraForeclosures Team so you get the benefit of all of our practical, hands-on experience. You get to learn at your own pace and seek extra help on specific issues, because you have a ―dream team‖ of money-making geniuses backing you up, giving you strategies you can successfully implement with little or no money. You’ll get the value of the team approach when you make money on your first deal. Every member of the UltraForeclosures Team brings a special expertise to the table. One of us stepped right out of business school into a big firm that ran billions of dollars in residential lending, mortgage brokering, and property management. Back then there were no books laying out the ―how to‖ and ―why for‖ of making money in real estate. So when faced with new challenges, this member overcame by trial and error and when mistakes were made, they were never made more than once. Now with nearly 20 years of experience buying, selling, renting, managing, and creatively financing hundreds of real estate properties, this member is devoting himself to making it easier for those who follow in his footsteps. Another member has spent five years in the real estate trenches, chasing down foreclosure listings, inspecting properties, making repairs to the properties on her own after hours, running guerrilla marketing campaigns to ―flip‖ the homes, making $5,000 here and $10,000 there in a steady march up from the trenches into the boardroom here at UltraForeclosures (though she‘s still rehabbing homes in her off-hours—can‘t keep a good woman down). Perhaps the most colorful member of our UltraForeclosures Team must go by the title ―Mr. M‖, short for our ―Mystery Man‖ because if he reveals his identify he will no longer be of value to us, or to his employers at his ―day job.‖ You see, Mr. M is associated with a big Wall Street investment banking house that buys billions of dollars worth of mortgage-backed securities (more on this later) and Mr. M knows as well as anyone which direction the housing market is headed in coming years. He‘s also a crackerjack at financing the purchase of homes with little or even zero capital. A word of warning: He has no tolerance for all the ―get rich quick‖ schemers out there who claim to buy homes for $100 and sell for $100,000. ―Bullslop,‖ he says. But there are ―partnership deals‖ that reward those with more hustle than cash in their pockets. If that‘s you, you‘re going to love Mr. M‘s advice in the coming pages. One of our members is fairly new to foreclosure investing. She comes to the office each day with many of the same questions, doubts, and feelings of inadequacy that many people encounter when they begin something new. She knows that real estate investing can be complex, with thick legal documents, and its own lingo that can give you a severe case of MEGO (My Eyes Glaze Over). So she works doubly hard to make sure every strategy and every recommendation is easy-to-follow, left foot then right foot, inspiring in you a willingness – no, an eagerness! – to open up your horizons and your potential with all the confidence you need to pursue your dreams. You‘ll learn about our ―120 years of experience‖ as this book unfolds. In one ―case study‖ after another you will see how they approached foreclosure opportunities, what strategy they used, why they succeeded or failed, and how much money they made. More importantly to you, you‘ll learn how to make similar kinds of real estate deals. The key takeaway here is best summed up in a recent movie: Like Jerry McGuire said, “Help me help you!” In the hit film, Jerry McGuire, a sports agent played by Tom Cruise tries to motivate his client to step out of his comfort zone and play with all the heart and superstar talent he possesses. ―Help me help you,‖ Cruise pleads. And so we plead to you: The very fact that you acquired this book tells us you have the heart and talent it takes to succeed in foreclosure investing. You have the potential to score one tremendous victory after another. All you need to do is help us help you now. We‘ll share all of our strategies and even our secrets for finding a fortune in foreclosures. The time is now to take action and achieve the life you‘ve always wanted. It doesn‘t matter what part of the country you live in. It doesn‘t matter what you‘re now doing for a living. It doesn‘t matter what your personal story has been to this point. It matters only that you want to get more out of life. MUCH MORE! This may be your best chance ever to go from hoping to happening. The hardest decision you face is: Where do you plug in? Do you plug in at Level 1, Level 2, or Level 3? It really is that simple! Level 1, 2 or 3 – Which Is Right For You? Hint: Most likely, Level 1 will be right for you—but not necessarily! What makes Finding Fortunes in Foreclosures such a unique book is not that it prepares you to buy foreclosures using practical, street-smart techniques (tons of books also do that well). And not that it steers you clear of potential sinkholes, cesspools, roadblocks and tar pits that would otherwise ruin you (tons of books also do that well). And not that it‘s geared to all levels of experience (tons of books also do that, but they go about it wrongly). What makes Finding Fortunes in Foreclosures truly unique is the QuikQuiz we‘ll now suggest you take. This QuikQuiz will help us help you by identifying the skills, talents, grit and gumption you bring to the table. Your answers to the questions in this quiz will help us recommend to you the Level you should begin at. If, for example, you are advised to begin at Level 1, and within a couple of months or even weeks you have mastered Level 1, then by all means push ahead to Level 2 or even Level 3. Taking the QuikQuiz helps you know where to start, by pointing you to the sections of the book that you should devour first. That said, in the strongest language possible, we HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you read the entire book cover to cover first. Then go back and re-read the Level you think is best for you—based on all that you now know about foreclosure investing. Knowing which level to plug in at will help you succeed faster! Get ready for a strategy tailored to your level of interest and talent. It will be as if our UltraForeclosures Team came out to your home, sat down with you on the couch, and mapped out a strategy that fits you—and only you. Nobody else in the big world of real estate offers you such an advantage. It‘s an advantage that more than 40,000 members of UltraForeclosures.com are sure happy to have, judging by the letters and emails they send: My husband and I joined about 3 months ago and began searching Alabama for homes in foreclosure. We found the perfect house in Roanoke with over 2,000 sq. ft. and a built in swimming pool and hot tub. The price for the house sitting on an acre of land was only $23,000. (That's less than we paid for our car!) Thanks for your wonderful website! --Tanya Lambert I researched bank owned properties on your website and was able to find several that I was interested in. I am now the proud owner of a $302,000 investment home in Triangle, Virginia. I must say that your site was very easy to use.-- Cheryl Bennett Four days after joining we closed on a repossessed Palm Harbor mobile home. The home has 1850 sq ft on a 1/2 acre lot with landscaping and is beautiful. Are you sitting down? We paid $43,000. The home is so-o-o nice our daughter who is getting married soon decided she wanted it herself. The home cost 1/3 of comparable homes. Our family is a satisfied customer. -- Linda Hill, Kinston, N.C. I am a Realtor and have been looking for a good foreclosure site. Your site is very current and gives all the information I need. I've joined other sites that were the same price and quit because nothing was current. Thank you UltraForeclosures, you guys are awesome! --Patty O'Fallon, MO UltraForeclosures.com is the best site I've visited among many on real estate services. It has current listings, a professional and concise tutorial, and a quick response clientsupport. It is complete and easy to use.--Ethelyn Coger, Los Angeles, CA You‘ll hear from more UltraForeclosures.com members as we proceed, but if you‘re like us you would much rather get on with the future successes you could be enjoying rather than the past successes others have enjoyed. Right? So let‘s take the Foreclosure Investor QuikQuiz! FORECLOSURE INVESTOR QUIKQUIZ To assess your skills, talents, grit and gumption: YES           NO           1. Do you enjoy scouting for deals and special discounts? 2. Do you have at least 10 hours a week you can devote? 3. Do you own your home, or have you owned in the past? 4. Have you ever bought or sold real estate? 5. Have you ever bought or sold a home in foreclosure? 6. Do you have a minimum of $10,000 you can invest? 7. Are you good at making basic home repairs? 8. Do you warm up to people fast and enjoy meeting new people? 9. Are you comfortable reading and understanding long contracts? 10. Do your friends try to hold you back, but you have learned to ignore them and keeping reaching for your dreams? YOUR SCORE 1-4 Yes Answers 5-7 Yes Answers 8-10 Yes Answers Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 1 – Pre-Foreclosure Investing If you answered ―yes‖ 1-4 times on the QuikQuiz, you should begin at Level 1 and focus first on ―pre-foreclosures‖. These are properties that have not yet been foreclosed on by the lender, but the lender has probably sent the late-paying homeowners a notice of default. The owners know they‘re in trouble, and haven‘t figured out a solution yet. As a Level 1 investor you will learn the UltraForeclosures Team 6-Step Strategy: 1. KNOW the foreclosure business, 2. FIND homeowners interested in selling to you, 3. VALUE their properties to make sure you‘re getting a good deal, 4. FUND the deal using cash from business partners we‘ll introduce you to, 5. BUY the properties for the best discount you can get, and 6. FLIP the property to another buyer where you actually see the fruits of your labor in your own bank account. These six steps are designed to take advantage of the skills, talents, grit and gumption you possess. Your focus is on homeowners in trouble – you will be their Captain America arriving at the 11th hour to rescue them in their hour of need. You will make a fat fee for your efforts. You will find a fortune with little or no cash out of pocket, no fighting the banker for a loan, no trying to outbid deep-pocketed investors at the auctions, and not much fixing up of the home. Instead, you will make quick deals. How quick? You‘ll find out in the chapters ahead where we lay out the Level 1 strategy in complete detail. But suffice to say that while some foreclosure sales take months, others take days! Let’s be clear on one thing: We don’t enjoy seeing people lose their homes. Surely you feel the same way. But you didn‘t get them into the trouble. And you can‘t forgive their loans. All you can do is help homeowners make the best of a bad situation, and earn a handsome reward for your expertise. As a Level 1 investor, you are probably still a novice in this area of expertise. You may even find it hard to think of yourself as an "investor." Believe it or not, this will work to your advantage! The freshness and integrity that you bring to the situation will serve you well. And don‘t worry if you feel like you‘re ―in over your head‖ at first. Our UltraForeclosures Team is here to walk you – step by careful step – through the whole process. If you have good people skills, an ability to bargain and negotiate, a grasp of basic numbers and a belief in yourself, you‘re already halfway to payday. How big of a payday? You may be wondering, “Does Level 1 limit your earning ability?” Not even remotely! In fact, some of our Level 1 Investors are making as much money as our Level 3 Investors because they have mastered Level 1.The money-making will come once the Level is selected, and mastered! The big goal in foreclosure investing is to find a reliable pipeline of property owners who are motivated to sell in a hurry. That is exactly what you have in pre-foreclosure properties. These homeowners have mortgages or deeds of trust that are in default, and they are facing foreclosure. That‘s motivation with a Capital M! As we noted earlier, the coming months and years are almost guaranteed to serve up a record number of these foreclosures and opportunities for you to step in and, properly armed, buy at discount directly from the homeowners themselves. Can you make a million dollars a year like it says on the title? Only if you want to. This million dollar figure is not some empty fantasy or sensational claim. Not at all. With today‘s market conditions, any foreclosure investor willing to learn and master the ―six steps‖ can close one deal a month netting over one million dollars a year. How could you close one deal a month netting over one million dollars a year? The average price for a home in America is currently about $250,000. If you target an area where homes sell in the $250,000 range, you will make between $5,000 and $50,000 per deal completed. Complete one deal a month and you could net between $60,000 and $600,000 a year. Will you complete deal your first month out? Possibly, but probably not. Give yourself a couple of months, though, and you could work into a groove of buying and flipping one property a month and seeing between $60,000 and $600,000 a year. That work for you? To hit the million dollar income figure, you have to either (1) do more deals or (2) find pricier homes. You‘ll find it difficult to complete more than one per month, and we won‘t try to stop you if you want to bust butt and complete two or even three a month. But you won‘t have any time leftover to enjoy your newfound wealth! So the more realistic alternative is to find more expensive homes in which the owners face foreclosure. One of our UltraForeclosures Team lives in Santa Barbara where the average home sells for over a million dollars. Think those kinds of homes never fall into default? Think again! Owners of high-end homes are often in deeper trouble, since it can take $10,000 a month just to pay the mortgage. Not everybody has that kind of cash at their disposal. If you get to these homeowners first, as you will learn how to in Chapter 2, you could see several hundred thousand dollar paydays for your efforts. Do one of these each month and your million dollar income is now a reality, and a magnificent one at that! But, what if you earn only $25,000 your first year? Well, we suspect that you are not going to complain about them potatoes, and that you could put an extra $25,000 to good use. Are we right? So what are you waiting for?! LEVEL 1 Advantages of Pre-Foreclosures Properties are easy to find at foreclosure listing services such as UltraForeclosures.com. Vital information is free or cheap for the asking at government offices or on the Internet. You inspect the property yourself and see if the value is there. VALUE the property and decide if it’s a good investment for you to pursue. FUND the deal with all the alternative financing sources available to you. BUY at the lowest price possible through smart negotiating strategies. FLIP the property to another buyer and walk away clean and profitable. FIND the homeowners in trouble and develop a plan to help them. How This Book Helps You KNOW the market and the basics of profiting in your target area. Level 2 – Auction Investing If you answered ―yes‖ 5-7 times on the QuikQuiz, you most likely have a much greater familiarity with the promises and shortcomings of the real estate market. You may even have some direct hands-on experience in foreclosure investing and are using this book to sharpen your skill set. We applaud you! We recommend that you focus on both Level 1 (Pre-Foreclosures) and Level 2 (Auctions). When a homeowner has run into trouble and cannot make monthly payments, cannot refinance and does not sell during the narrow pre-foreclosure window, the foreclosure officially begins. After one, two or three payments are missed, the lender sends the homeowner a notice of default. If the homeowner does not make up the back payments, interest, and penalties, the lender takes the property to be auctioned off to the highest bidder on the courthouse steps or some place similar. This is where you come in. As a Level 2 investor you will still apply many of the tips and techniques in the UltraForeclosures 6-Step Strategy… Know > Find > Value > Fund > Buy > Flip …but the process is likely to speed up and get real hectic real fast. Hang onto your shorts, it can be quite an action-packed ride on auction day! Foreclosure auctions can offer some of the most exciting and attractive buying opportunities. This is because the opening bid is based not on the value of the home, but on the mortgage balance owed to the lender. This is truly bargain-basement buying, if you know how to buy. If you are a novice to auctions, you can find yourself getting fleeced seven ways to Sunday. So in Chapter 2, we walk you through the entire process to ensure that when you bid at auction, you are well-prepared and knowledgeable with the odds of success firmly in your corner. LEVEL 2 Advantages of Auctions Properties are easy to find at foreclosure listing services such as UltraForeclosures.com. Vital information is free or cheap for the asking at government offices or on the Internet. Properties often sell for big discounts to savvy auction bidders. You don’t have to deal with the home owners directly. That means no cold calling and no door knocking! BUY at the lowest price possible through smart bidding strategies. VALUE the property and decide if it’s a good investment for you to pursue. FUND your purchase using advance agreements with good partners. FIND the auctions in your target area and weed out unwanted properties. How This Book Helps You KNOW the market and the basics of profiting in your target area. FLIP the property to another buyer and walk away clean and profitable. Level 3 – REO Investing If you answered ―yes‖ 8-10 times on the QuikQuiz, you are probably an old-pro in this business or a young pro on the way up! You know your target markets and the kinds of foreclosure investing opportunities available to you. There is every reason for you to focus on all three levels of foreclosure investing—to maximize the opportunities coming your way. Level 3 investing kicks in after the homeowner defaulted and the property was taken to auction but the lender was unable to sell at an acceptable price. At this point, the property becomes what is known as an ―REO‖, shorthand for real estate owned by the lender. Real estate lenders are in the business of making loans. They are not in the business of owning real estate. They need to move their REOs as quickly as possible (we‘ll explain why in Chapter 2). With the dramatic increase in foreclosures, lenders have begun paying more attention to their REO inventory and devising ever more professional methods for disposing of these unwanted properties. But at the core of their disposal efforts is a network of private investors and real estate agents who actively want to obtain foreclosures. Your goal is to (1) strike up relationships with people in these networks and ultimately (2) become a part of the networks so that lenders call you when they have REOs to unload. One of the many advantages of REOs is their abundance. In any given market there will be dozens at any given time. But there are also very real risks and disadvantages to REO investing which is why we have slotted it as a Level 3 endeavor. The hard fact is, if an REO is really worth buying, the lender will often have a ―friend‖ or established investor who is more than happy to acquire it on terms that work for both the lender and the investor. Really good deals often go under contract the first day they become available. But by learning the tricks of the trade, you may soon find yourself on the local banker‘s short-list of ―people to call‖ when big-profit homes become available. LEVEL 3 Advantages of REOs How This Book Helps You Properties are easy to find at foreclosure listing services such as UltraForeclosures.com. There are lots of REO properties available in most every market. Most of the risks have been resolved and hassles eliminated. It’s not unusual for a property to sell for less than 50% of market value. You don’t have to deal with the home owners directly. That means no cold calling and no door knocking! KNOW the market and the basics of profiting in your target area. FIND a path into the network of buyers that the lenders unload REOs to. VALUE the property and decide if it’s a good investment for you to pursue. FUND your purchase using advance agreements with good partners. BUY at the lowest prices through savvy negotiating with lenders. FLIP the property to another buyer and walk away clean and profitable. There you have it—a brief introduction to the three levels of foreclosure investing, and our recommendations on where you should begin. As you read on you may decide to begin at a level different from what we recommended. You have our complete support and our best wishes! Think of the levels as guideposts, not straightjackets! For truly, from this day forward… This Could Be Your Rendezvous with Fortune You have now held this book in your hands long enough to begin working something of a miracle in your life. Only it‘s not a miracle. It‘s real. Very real. It‘s what happens when you commit heart and soul to an endeavor. You begin to visualize yourself accomplishing something truly fantastic, something larger than yourself, something very real. As surely as you read this book, there is almost certainly a plea rising in your throat. A plea that probably goes something like this: “All I ask is for one chance to prove that money CAN’T make me happy” That‘s not asking too much, is it? Just one chance? Well, this is your chance to find out for yourself just how happy you might be with a whole new professional life pumping hard cash into the family coffers. If you don‘t jump at this chance now, what will the consequences be? Do you have a boss who stays up late at night thinking of ways to make you money? It‘s the other way around, probably. Nobody ever got ahead waiting for the boss to give them what they deserve. People get ahead by taking charge of their lives! Real estate investors are known to be take-charge people. It‘s no coincidence that, as reported in Fortune magazine, 97 out of 100 millionaires made some or all of their fortunes in real estate. They took charge just as you are now taking charge. What makes foreclosure investing such a wonderful road to wealth is that it doesn‘t require a college degree, a whole lot of work experience, or even wads of cash (though cash always helps!) All it requires is a good attitude, a willingness to learn, and the resolve to succeed. Don’t let anybody turn OFF your success switch! We‘ve seen it happen a thousand times – a budding entrepreneur gets fired up to attack a big opportunity and someone, usually a friend or family member, reaches over and flips off the success switch. It‘s a tragedy! And the saddest part is, the switching off is often done with good intentions. A friend or loved one doesn‘t want to see us get hurt, or spend too much money, or take a risk, or, or, or… There‘s always some reason. But it has been over 200 years since Samuel Johnson said ―the road to hell is paved with good intentions”—so clearly time hasn‘t changed human nature. Then there are the ―friends‖ who don‘t actually want you to succeed. They may not even be aware of their actions. But deep down inside they know they‘re not doing anything to better their lot. And if they see you breaking away, they don‘t want to be caught stuck in the mud, looking bad. None of us needs ―friends‖ like these, but we all have them, and we need to keep their hands away from the switch. So right now, before we get into the meat of this book, let‘s make a list of the ―sorry excuses‖ people will trot out to try to derail your success, and then let‘s knock ‗em down!  Not enough time! Really? How much time do you spend working to make somebody else rich? How much time watching TV, or some other time sink? Reclaim that time for yourself—you‘ll be amazed at how much you have. Then, spend that time learning and taking charge and filling your potential.  Can’t afford to quit job! Many UltraForeclosures.com members start in foreclosure investing on a part-time basis, transitioning to full-time once they begin making more in one month or even one week than they once made all year. Of course, to succeed financially requires a totally focused, organized, and systematic approach. Winners prioritize their foreclosure investing, putting it before all other interests. So the real question here is, what do you want to be doing with your life? Are you satisfied with your life so far, and your prospects for the future? Do you want to plod along on someone else‘s treadmill for all your days? Or do you want to be your own boss, choose how long and how hard you work, and take charge of your life? Do you yearn to make enough money to pursue your interests, or spend more time with your family? Well, now you have a real way to transition out of a job and into a financial adventure that could be your most rewarding ever.  No foreclosures nearby! It would be more accurate to say ―there are no obvious foreclosures‖ nearby. You do have to know where to look. We know this because we run the UltraForeclosures.com database of foreclosures—the most sophisticated listing there is. On any given day in any county in the U.S. there are dozens of foreclosures. As many as one million homeowners could lose their homes in the next 12 months. Every one of them would like to know the alternatives available to them. Why not be the one to give them what they need?  Not enough money! Cash is king. He who has the gold makes the rules. Money can't buy love, but it improves your bargaining position. You‘ve heard all the lines, no doubt. And they are true, to a point. But what makes foreclosure investing so powerful is that a lot of deep-pocketed investors are looking to invest in real estate at a bargain (and that‘s what foreclosures are, right). If you find houses at a bargain, the money you need will find you. We‘ll show you how to put together the deals the right way so investors want to ―partner‖ with you and share profits.  Too much competition! Perhaps you know people in the foreclosure business, or have attended a seminar or an auction and you have seen how competitive the bidding for hot properties can be. It‘s true! More and more people are getting into foreclosure investing—because it‘s fun and profitable. But at the same time, home foreclosure rates are rocketing upward and every day nearly 2,500 more homeowners in distress need helpful solutions. So there‘s more than enough new prospects for everyone. Plus, when you think about it, you actually want competition! It means there‘s a real market and smart people are attacking that market. Think of the iPod. It‘s just an MP3 player, and MP3 players had been around for years before Apple built a better product and whupped-on the competition. So study up, become better than the competition, and whup on ‗em!  Real estate is in a bubble! Oh really? The only constant in real estate is that over the long run, prices go up. According to the National Association of Realtors, home appreciation in the United States has increased an average of 6.4% since 1968, when the average home cost $20,100. Today the same property is worth just under $250,000. If the trend continues, in 2038 the average home could be worth in excess of $1.5 Million dollars! Sound too good to be true? Well, folks in the late 1960s sure had a hard time envisioning a $250,000 sticker price! Fig. 2: US Home Price Appreciation Since 1968, Projected to 2048 (6.4% annual increase) $3,500,000 $3,000,000 $2,500,000 Property Value $2,000,000 $1,500,000 $1,000,000 $500,000 $0 1968 1978 1988 1998 2008 Year 2018 2028 2038 2048 Source: National Association of Realtors Granted, housing prices are slated to fall for the next several years as the sub-prime lending mess sorts itself out, interest rates increase dramatically, and baby boomers settle into their retirement homes—no longer active homebuyers. All these reasons point to big opportunities short-term. Homeowners who bet on ever-rising prices now face the reality of declining prices. They are in trouble. So short-term you couldn‘t ask for a rosier scenario. Long-term you can expect housing prices to continue their historic climb into higher and higher territory—which is the ideal environment for buying, selling and sometimes holding real estate.  Foreclosures are too risky! Are they? Foreclosures are just bargain-priced real estate. And real estate has long been the safest investment of all—because real estate will always be there, generating capital gains as well as positive cash flow. But you must buy the right property at the right price in the right location. Ask yourself this: could people in your neighborhood be in preforeclosure right now and need cash? What‘s so risky about investing in a great property at a great price in an area you know?! This book is ideal for…          Entrepreneurs who want to find their fortune buying and selling foreclosures. Short-term investors who wish to purchase properties at below-market prices and fix them up and flip them for a quick profit. Long-term investors who want to purchase homes, hold onto them, and rent them out to tenants while the properties build up equity. Real estate agents who wish to help customers and clients buy foreclosures. Landlords who wish to buy foreclosures as rental properties for rental income and tax deductions. Building contractors who want to buy foreclosures that need work, fix them up and flip for a profit or keep to live in. Renters who wish to purchase a home at an affordable price. Mortgage brokers who want to help investors make great deals. Accountants and attorneys who want to help clients buy foreclosures as tax shelters. How to Get the Most Out of This Book This book is designed to meet you where you are today, assess your talents and goals in foreclosure investing, and direct you to he specific strategies that are best for you on three levels: Level 1: Negotiating with homeowners in pre-foreclosures Level 2: Bidding against other investors at the auctions Level 3: Buying after the auction from the lenders For each of the levels, there are six steps: Know > Find > Value > Fund > Buy > Flip We‘ll run through these steps, explaining the basics: how foreclosures happen, state-bystate nuances, legal formalities, money details, communications, scams to sidestep, key facts, etc. You‘ll learn the value of connecting effectively with homeowners in distress, and how to connect with the genuine compassion you surely feel for them. Then we‘ll move into actual foreclosure situations, giving you sample dialogue you can use in specific situations, along with the worksheets and handy tools you need in each of the six steps of the foreclosure process. We‘ll recount dozens of case studies and success stories from folks who, like you we hope, see foreclosure investing as a chance to prove their potential. (Some of the case studies are compilations or we’ve changed the names to protect privacy.) In the end, you‘ll have the strategies and insider secrets that let you compete with the best and even earn your position alongside the outstanding—and outstandingly wealthy—leaders in foreclosure investing. Indeed, we will be eagerly awaiting word of your own success stories so we can include them in updated versions of this book! Don‘t hesitate to contact us and let us know what‘s working for you, what isn‘t working for you, and how we can better help you find your fortune in foreclosures and achieve the million dollar lifestyle you so richly deserve. Email us at fortunes@UltraForeclosures.com Best of fortune to you! The UltraForeclosures Team STEP 1 -- KNOW In this first of six steps you‘ll gain a basic understanding …………………………… Read our full 200 page Foreclosure eBook at www.UltraForeclosures.com i http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17584725 ii Statement of Scott M. Polakoff, Deputy Director Office of Thrift Supervision before the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, United States Senate, March 22, 2007