What Can Go Wrong When Investing in Short Salesby John Occhi, Hemet CA REALTOR Mission Grove Realty View More Articles on Investor Mistakes That Can Really Bit by Clicking HereThere are many opportunities for Real Estate Investors today and it seems like the latest buzz word is SHORT SALE. There are a several very good reasons for this. 1) They are in abundance: Just about every street in Hemet and the rest of Southern California either has had a short sale, has a short sale in progress or will have one in the next year. Not only are they abundant today, but the well is deep; and2) They are a very lucrative market where the investor can literally create a handsome amount of equity out of thin air for about 20 to 30 hours of work spread out over a month or two; and 3) It doesn't take a ... 07/16/2007

Is That Congress I See on the Big White Horse?  by John Occhi, Hemet CA REALTOR  Mission Grove Realty   Anyone who does not have their head buried in the sand knows that the United States is on the verge of some sort of financial disaster as a result of repercussions of the blows the housing industry has recently taken.  There are of course many opinions as to what the actual crises are, who is to blame and how do we prevent the worst case scenario.  That is not the purpose of this article.                                Ultimately, many families will lose their home either thru foreclosure or though some sort of loss mitigation method in the preforeclosure cycle, that might include an actual "short sale".  Quickly for review, a short sale is when the bank accepts less payoff for the m... 07/16/2007

Is This Kinky Loan for You?by John Occhi REALTORRealtor Consultant to Foreclosure InvestorsI was reviewing some of my previous writings on other sources whan I came across this article on a very kinky loan program that I had written about last December, Just when we thought we saw the Kinkiest of Loans....Jeremiah Miller, President of Mortgage Payment Deferral, Inc. has announced a patent pending program that will allow homeowners the ability to defer their mortgage payment for a full year - that's right defer your mortgage payment for a full year! He says that it will work with ANY type of mortgage. The program has 2 names that it will be marketed under - first for those who prefer the English language, there is the "12 Month Deferral" if you prefer to sound cool and quote jargon then... 07/15/2007

The #1 Thing to Never Do When Facing Foreclosure - Or, How Not To Lose Your Hemet Home    by John Occhi, Hemet, CA REALTOR  Mission Grove Realty  Obviously when a home is lost to foreclosure there have been a lot of mistakes made.  There are times when a Hemet CA homeowner is in pre-foreclosure and ready to lose their home because they have made some bad financial mistakes; the most common using their home as an ATM machine.  Then there are other times when bad things just happen to good people and the Hemet homeowner finds himself a victim of circumstances; job loss, sickness, death are just three examples that can turn someone's life around in a New Your minute.This article is neither about condemning the foolish or offering sympathy to the unfortunate - because once you have your Not... 07/15/2007

Why Do I work the PreForeclosure Market and Want to Help?   by John Occhi, Hemet CA REALTOR   Mission Grove Realty   As a REALTOR® that specializes in the Hemet - San Jacinto Valley real estate market, I know for a fact that there are many homeowners who have fallen behind in their mortgage and today many are in preforeclosure.  Many can save their home from foreclosure if they only know where to turn and who to trust.                                                                                                             Pre-foreclosure is a problem that is very near and dear to my heart - as my wife, Sherri, and I have been  dangerously close to losing our home over the past two years.  You see, Sherri was diagnosed with cancer 12 years ago.  Last January, my wife's cancer came bac... 07/14/2007

What Do You Need for Your Loan   by John Occhi, Hemet CA REALTOR®   Hemet CA Real EstateMy job as a REALTOR® is to help you find and buy (or sell) a house.  It does not matter if you are looking to buy your first home, a second home, if you are a move-up home buyer or an Investor.Unless you are paying cash - you will be seeking financing.  As your REALTOR® I really don't want to hear your tales of financial woe any more than I want to hear how magnificent you are with money and how much you are worth.  Let me be blunt at the risk of sound rude:  I DON'T CARE!What I do care about is that you work with a lender that I already have a working relationship with.  No, I don't get a kick back.  No, the lender does not wash my car or buy me dinner - maybe a cup of coffee and an occasional lunch... 07/13/2007

You Wonder Why You Need Title Insurance?   by John Occhi, Hemet CA REALTOR®   Hemet CA Real EstateIt is always amazing that people want to cut their costs in the most ridiculous ways.  I'm not even going to go into how silly people are when they spend their money - but when they want to save, they will "cut off their nose in spite of their face", as my grandmother would tell me so many years ago.Title insurance is just one of those things that you NEED to transfer property.  I suppose there are deals made everyday that don't have Title insurance.  You know the typical deal when a brother sells his sister a house and hold the note...without ever recording it.  20 years later he dies, with a mortgage unknown to the sister and then what?Or how about the newlywed man who added his new bride... 07/13/2007

ActiveRain Birthday Wishes   by John Occhi, Hemet CA REALTOR®   Hemet CA Real EstateOn my journey to my place in ActiveRain - now a member of the elusive BRONZ club with 50,000 or more points, I have been asked to reflect back on my journey - and what better place than to start at the beginning..I read in Inman news on July 12th that ActiveRain was celebrating its 1 year birthday.  The day before I read in the Official ActiveRain Blog : SEATTLE, July 11, 2007 - ActiveRain, the world's largest social networking site for real estate professionals, marked its one-year anniversary today by surpassing 35,000 members and 120,000 posts, and projecting monthly double-digit growth over the next 12 months.Well, of course being a good member, I stopped in to wish AR congratulations and a Happy Bir... 07/13/2007

Home Prices Expected to Recover in 2008 As Inventories Declineby John Occhi, Hemet CA REALTOR   Hemet CA Real Estate   The National Association of REALTORS (NAR) announced today a correction to the figures they released just last month.Now they want us to believe that we will see a 5.7% drop in the number of existing-home sales while the national medium price will fall 1.4% to $240,100.I don't have the figures computed, but I can tell you we have already seen greater hits then this in the local Hemet CA real estate market.The new homes are expected to take a big hit with a 17.7% drop in their sales following an 18.1% drop in the 2006 period.Last year, there were 6.48 million homes sold across the country and this year they are expecting 6.11 million (anyone want to bet we don't hit 6 mi... 07/11/2007

9.1 California Families out of 1,000 Have Lost Their Home to Foreclosure  by John Occhi, Hemet CA REALTOR   Hemet CA Real Estate   Anyone who has been keeping up with my blog and my local real estate activities in Hemet, CA know that I have been very much involved in the pre-foreclosure market.I have aligned myself with Freedom Foreclosure Prevention Service as a resource to help homeowners work through their financial hardships and, if at all possible, to save their home from foreclosure.  This process, in the industry is known as "Loss Mitigation".                                        Unfortunately, for most homeowners, the process is expensive - with the lender often requiring a large initial payment that most homeowners simply do not have available.  They are, after all, in troubl... 07/11/2007

Maximize Your Credit Score to Maximize Your Investment   by John Occhi, Hemet REALTOR   Hemet CA Real Estate   We all know the importance of a high FICO score when it comes to your personal credit.  The difference in 100 points can make the difference in thousands of dollars being spent each year in real estate interest payments. Yes, poor credit can effect so many different aspects of your life, but the purpose of this article we will narrow the discussion to the real estate investor - whether professional investor or rookie on his first deal.  Good Credit is more than important - it is critical!Even if you were independently wealthy and could afford to use your own money - why?  The cornerstone of successful investing is to do it without spending your own wealth but using other people... 07/08/2007

What about a Short Sale Package? by John Occhi REALTOR Realtor Consultant to Foreclosure Investors Every investor who wants to do short sales as a from of real estate investing knows that one of the very first steps is ordering the Short Sale package direct from the lender. Don't forget, when there is more than one lender, you need to order the short sale package from both lenders.Each lender has their own formats of how they want the package submitted for their review and ultimate approval. Yes, you will find similarities between various lenders - but you must understand and respect they are individual entities and want things done their way - if you want them to cooperate with you.It is critical that your package be complete. You will find that time is not your ally and if they have ... 07/07/2007

What Do You Really Know...When You are in Foreclosure, Part 3by John Occhi REALTOR   Realtor Consultant to Foreclosure Investors   I just posted an article that I wrote addressing some of the issues that homeowners face once they are in foreclosure.  Most of what a typical distressed homeowner believes is just a myth - passed on from one uninformed do-gooder to another and soon the myth is believed to be a fact (Heck, Bill Clinton got away with it for 8 years).  After the first article, I knew there was still more half-truths floating around, so I finished the first article with a second on the same format. After reading through the first two articles, I started thinking what other information do I typically hear straight from the homeowners I work with, who are in a pre-foreclosure sit... 07/07/2007

What Do You Really Know...When You are in Foreclosure, Part 2   by John Occhi REALTOR   Realtor Consultant to Foreclosure Investors   I just posted an article that I wrote to diminish some of the myths that homeowners hear all the time - often form those with good intentions but often form those who are misinformed, telling half-truths or repeating out dated information.  Some times the information comes from those we would normally feel comfortable with in seeking advise - you know family members, neighbors and co-workers and then sometimes the lies are spread by devious individuals looking to capitalize on your unfortunate situation. As a disclaimer, I am a professional REALTOR who has a fiduciary responsibility to every client I represent.  A very simple definition of a ‘fiduciary' i... 07/07/2007

What Do You Really Know...When You are in Foreclosure   by John Occhi REALTOR   Realtor Consultant to Foreclosure Investors   The more I talk with homeowners facing foreclosure the more I know that there is a huge amount of misinformation being circulated (which is the entire reason for my blog - to set the record straight). Homeowners who are falling behind in their payments are constantly feeling the pressure and stress of a pending doom - known in our society as FORECLOSURE.  The problem is that most of the ‘information' being circulated is coming from people who really haven't got a clue but have nothing but the best intentions.  You know who I am talking about...your brother-in-law, a neighbor, or even a co-worker.  Everyone thinks they are an expert. Please don't let these experts... 07/07/2007

So You Have a Short Sale Lined Up - Is the BPO Your Friend - Step #10by John Occhi, Hemet - San Jacinto Valley REALTORHemet - San Jacinto CA Real EstateA "Broker Price Opinion" or BPO is a critical step in evaluating the market value of a property.  Mortgage lenders will order them to evaluate a number of different real estate transactions.  A BPO is used for everything from portfolio acquisition to checking on a properties condition when the first or second payment is late - and they don't have to be consecutive late payments.  Most importantly for the real estate investor, a BPO is used to determine when to foreclose on a property, to evaluate short sale offers and finally to establish a sales price once the home has been foreclosed on.For the sake of this article we will focus on the... 07/06/2007

So You Have a Short Sale Lined Up - Tick-Tock...Watch the Clock - Step #9by John Occhi, Hemet - San Jacinto Valley REALTORHemet - San Jacinto CA Real EstateReal Estate Investing Can make you a lot of money in only 20 hours a week...sounds like a late night infomercial, doesn't it?  Or, it could be on of the thousands of claims made on the Internet if you just Google the term "Real Estate".The truth be told, they are right and if you didn't believe it you wouldn't be pursuing information and an education in real estate investing - you'd be happy going to that job every day and every week, for the rest of your life.So, lets look at the 20 hours.  Is it 1 hour a day? ...Definitely not.Is it 4 hours a week? ...I doubt it.2 hours every other day? ... No, No, and NO!If you are going to commit... 07/05/2007

Has Google Gone to Far, this Time?   By John Occhi, Hemet CA REALTOR   Hemet CA Real Estate   It has just been brought to my attention that the Google search bar is now a nationwide reverse telephone directory!That's right, go ahead any type in your phone number (555-555-1212) into Google and your name ad address appear with a link to map out your exact location.I know that Google prides itself in the amount of information they gather and the profiles they build on each of us based on our web use - but come on Google, a little privacy please.Now, I understand it does not work on unlisted phones numbers and cell numbers are hit and miss (mine only showed up all of the web pages I have used it).  I also understand that it currently only works in the United States - but then again, how lon... 07/05/2007

Is this Good News for Homeowners?   By John Occhi, Hemet CA REALTOR   Hemet CA Real Estate   I just read in a newsletter that the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) and the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators (AARMR) are working together, towards a common goal.They issued a joint statement they referred to as a "Join Consumer Alert on Mortgage Payment Increases".  The alert is geared towards those homeowners who have a high-risk loan for ending up in foreclosure:  the interest only, neg-am and the ARM's.  Homeowners are urged to start planning and budgeting immediately for their pending resets of their rates...especially if they will happen in the coming year.(A ‘reset" or "trigger" is when a real estate loan moves from one interest rate to another.)The aler... 07/04/2007

Can You Believe it - Still More Mortgage Fraud?   by John Occhi, Hemet CA REALTOR   Hemet CA Real Estate   One of my favorite blogs that I keep up with is the Mortgage Fraud Blog - to me it is better than a good episode of Law and Order on the TV (still my favorite show).Well this morning an article was posted about a Mortgage lender publishing a very convincing website with all of the right credentials - you know, Better Business Bureau, State Licensing and an impressive Lexington office address.Well it's all a scam and the Kentucky Office of Financial Institutions has issued a warning to the good citizens of Kentucky to be wary.It should be a warning to everyone not to conduct this type of business with a party that you cannot verify who they are.  Read the article above - there are s... 07/04/2007