Jajco:
I've negotiated many short sales and have a business in Northern NJ where we do short sales quite a bit.  (20 in the last 8 months).  Short sales are much more acceptable these days then they were in the past.  Banks now have a clear idea as to how they are processed.  Although banks still stink to deal with, a good real estate agent and attorney will be able to get you out of these homes.  If these are investment properties, which seem to be for you, you will not qualify for the HAMP / HAFA program.  If you don't know the difference and yours are all investment properties, you can actually disregard HAMP / HAFA.  Irrelevent to you as these are only for Primary Homeowners.

You will need to have someone negotiate a short sale or Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure for you.  If you are truly dealing with a financial hardship, that is favorable for you.  The lenders will try to get money from you, but they can't if you don't have any.  If your income barely supports your living expenses, it becomes VERY hard for them to take assets from you.  If you do have money in checking or savings, they will ask you for a settlement… The amount of the settlement depends partially on what you are worth and how good your real estate agent / attorney is. 

My suggestion is to find a qualified short sale realtor in your area where you own your properties.  If someone says they are "Short Sale Certified" whoopty doo… find someone with references…or use the old school interview phone call process.  If they sound like they know what they are doing, maybe hire them.  A real estate agent has more time to dedicate to your short sale then an attorney….UNLESS that attorney also lists the property for you.  Again, I suggest using an agent who uses an attorney for only contract review, doc review, title, and closing.  The short sale process is a tedious killer.  You must have all of your financials and paperwork in place and submit ALL of it with UPDATED bank statements and pay stubs with your offer when you happen to get one.  It is important you send the lender bank statements and pay stubs the day you get them…If you don't they will eventually ask for it and it just delays things.

Good luck…any questions, feel free to PM me.

Saw this coming.

WI:
I know the area Steve is buying in.  Most of them are off of Palm Beach Blvd just east of downtown Ft. Myers.  I know several HUD agents who sell REO's there.  Those prices still exist.  Keep in mind your goal in this area should simply be off cash flow and not potential upside though.  This area is considered the Ft. Myers "warzone".  Even though it is not similar to bad parts in Detroit, it is one of our inferior areas.  My brother just bought a home there and after repairs he was in it for $38,000.  His rent is $650 and fixed expenses are very low.  He is subsidized by Section 8 for $500 of the $650 so at the very least, he is guaranteed $500 a month. 

To me, you need to own several here to make it worthwhile.  These prices in the $20's are still do-able though.  I have talked to many investors who buy here and some love it and some hate it.  I guess it's just a hit or miss and you have to have someone on the ground and really good management to maintain a good investment here.  A property manager can make or break this area for you.  But you just have to know where you are buying into and as long as you are comfortable with that, then you can run your risk numbers.

I agree with Jay.. I recently had 7 people from Singapore in.  I rented a van that I drove.  No third party buses.  I like to drive and talk.  At lunchtime, we all sat at a table at a local buffet restaurant and while this is a time for me to just take questions about my business or myself personally, I had one guy who has NEVER BEEN IN THE U.S BEFORE transform into a Negative Nancy.  I rebuttled the first 3 or 4 of his comments.  Clearly the other investors were getting annoyed. .  Ever see the movie Avengers?  Well you can imagine I turned into the Incredible Hulk and my New Jersey attitude came out of nowhere.. (and so did the accent a little!)…. I point blank told him that if he had nothing but negatives to say I would gladly get him a cab and he can go back to the hotel and chill by the pool.  As he antagonized the group, I told the waitress he was no longer on my tab and told him to leave or we would all get up and leave this moment without him.  (I think I cussed once).

He ended up leaving..  My point is, I agree with Jay's take on that one negative guy along for the ride.  Once everyone got back to my office, they started playing devils advocate and asking me similar questions as jerky was asking.  I was able to overcome those concerns with facts, but they were temporarily poisoned.   I try to keep my groups to 3 or 4 max. 

Alex, fly and buy's have screamed "ripoff" for awhile.  There are many ways to strucrture it, but those offering don't pay out of the goodness of their hearts.  They reimburse IF the investor closes on a deal and that deal is fluffed with an extra $5k to reimburse their trip expenses. 

Where are you buying?  I've seen foreign investors use Miami attorneys for a Cape Coral transaction.  Granted, their job is more paperwork then knowing the markets, it still hampers the situation by using an "out of area" attorney.  If you are in Miami area there are good attorneys there.  If you are in Cape Coral / Fort Myers, there are good ones there.  Same in Tampa.  So, where are you buying?

WI:
Thanks for the clarification.  Candidly, I am not a fan of property managers either.  I'd love to see a sample managment contract that you are referring to from OZ.  Yes, in most cases here, management companies have too much authority.  My PM is great, but maybe I am bias because he leases space in my office and he knows I am watching   That said he runs a good system.  Maybe I can show him what you are referring to and I can try and mold him a bit if it is a win-win.

Hi Buzzer: 
Scott here, aka Cheeves.  True story, but the first time one of my Australian customers called me a bloke years ago, we almost had some fighting words, until I found out that the term is endearing  

I've said my piece about Cape Coral so many times, but certainly will point out that although growth has taken place, there is still a good window of opportunity to buy homes under 100k.  If you hold for say 5 years, I can almost assure you that you will be in a much better place then today.  Why?  Well, construction permits are doubling almost every month.  Why?  Inventory is dwindling.  I have said this for 12 months now.  CAPE CORAL WILL MEET REPLACEMENT COST VALUES BY THE SECOND QUARTER OF 2015.  Buying a house for say $100k has an average replacement cost of $160k.  So, in 3 years you gain a modest 20% every year.  I might be off a few bucks, but that is my theory and I'm sticking to it.  I am an analyst by trade, wholesaler at heart.  I'm a numbers freak and if you believe in trends and bell curves, today is favorable.  Additionally, Cape is a very safe area to invest in where you will get an annual ROI of about 8%.  Show me someone that illustrates double digit ROI in a good area of Cape and I'll call them a liar.  It's a safe, second home market rented and bought by a demographic that minimizes risk.

FYI, 12 months ago, I spoke to an investor from Australia.  He thought my prices of $75,000 for a duplex in Lehigh Acres was too high.  I sold it to another investor a day later.  Todays duplex prices are about $90k.  Funny thing is this SAME Aussie investor called me 2 months ago thinking of buying.  I said the price is $80k for a duplex and he balked again.  Probably figured prices would come down eventually.  So I sold that duplex 2 weeks later for 88k.  Point is, prices are going to continue to rise until sales volume or inventory changes from the direction it is going in.  Local income levels favor price increases from the median / average…and the favorability is high.  Prices on housing can afford to go up some more and as income levels improve more, so will prices.  We are not caught up in the "fake market" we had during the boom.  Real jobs are being created…Infrastructure is going crazy here and the Baltimore Orioles are in talks with the city to takeover the former Red Sox Stadium…That would bring 3 baseball teams here.  Don't undermine baseball.  It brings in a massive amount of revenue for 4 months out of the year which brings loads and loads of tourism.

Unfortunately, I don't know a thing about Jacksonville except the Hooters Restaurant I went to ran out of Coors Light in the keg and I was greatly disappointed.  For that reason, never again will I visit Jax

Hope this helps…

Your bloke:

Scott / Cheeves

Richard-
This is my third request in asking you to post your guidelines / qualifications for financing.  I'm not asking for me anymore.  I am asking for the investors on this site who are looking for answers without private messaging.  As a Florida wholesaler, I have been more then transparent with what is going on and try to provide as much info as possible.  Why don't you put your cards on the table anytime I ask and show the investors what you offer? 

TheMagnix:  If you are looking at buying distressed properties, you can forget about any type of financing or carry backs.  It simply doesn't exist.  Your best bet is to work with wholesalers.  There is a distinct difference in pricing for cash buyers and financing buyers.  That is how the retail market is.  Working with wholesalers, you can sometimes buy at wholesale prices and with a strong enough offer, they will allow you the time to close via financing.  We allow 30 days with extension possibilities but the offer needs to be tight.

As per the most recent Morgan Stanley 2.0 report for housing, purchasing wholesale properties will provide investors not only potential cash flow but a significant opportunity to see added value as the wholesale prices catch up to the increasing retail market prices.  I have seen this on my own personal investment properties.

To buy HUD homes, you have to be approved to buy HUD homes.  Kind of a difficult process.  My opinion is that your best bet, wherever you buy in the U.S is to used a licensed wholesale company.  Chasing high discounts will be less fruitful for you at least in FL where top wholesalers blanket the market.  We provide about a 15% discount from retail pricing.  For some that's not good enough.  For most, it is a turnkey property, with an easy purchase process for international investors.  Our domestic investors get the same deal, no better or worse.

Kyler:  LOL @ I love my ghetto properties.  One of my biggest investors is out of New York City and they buy every building in East Orange NJ that yields them a 10% + Cap Rate.  Personally, if I invested in E. Orange, I'd want closer to 20% but it just doesn't exist in areas in close proximity to NYC. 

For 10%, I would rather go to Medellin, Colombia and wear a billboard sign on my chest saying "I HATE PABLO ESCOBAR AND HIS ENTIRE FAMILY" rather then investing in a warzone that gets me 10%.  Get me 20% like you get and I'm in.  Problem is, I don't have a plan for it like you do.  Sounds like you have a really good system in place and have a niche that works.  That's what its all about.  Different strokes for different folks.  I tell every one of my international buyers who come to me with information overload from reading, meetings, and classes that they need to find a niche they like.  There is something to do in every niche.  You just have to have a plan. 

FYI, I've been to Medellin several times.  Absolutely love it (love the housing market too   But if you walked around with a sign about Pablo, you would be torchered, beaten, stoned, waterboarded, violated, and maybe 3 years later killed!