I have been asked for people willing to tell their ‘Ive been ripped off’ US RE story – Please help.

There are a number of US based Aussie groups online.  Talk to people in those forums.  They'll give you a ton of good advice,  no strings attached.

Bottom line, unless you do your due diligence and work with people you can trust you will get ripped off sooner or later.

There are great opportunities in US Real Estate, but from my 17 years experience living in the US, the Yanks are very good at extracting money from your wallet legally or otherwise.  Before you go chasing huge gains, first make sure you have limited your downside.  Do your homework.

Cheers,

NealeinMI

TZ,

Nice to see the forum readers are realizing how much data they can get for free on line,

I suppose you went to the Public RMLS website put in the address and up popped the property as pending… Probably to a local wholesaler then being sold through the normal marketing channels… And being pending @ 40k does not mean it will sell for that. Pending is only the last listed price it could have sold for more or less than the pending amount… Only realtors who are members of the MLS have access to the Sold data.. And or the counties GIS system but usally depending on county takes anywhere for 2 to 6 weeks to update.

Assessed values have no true bearing on properties value either being too high or too low…

maybe there should be a spot on this site that has the most common links in the  markets that are attracting the most interest.

One could look for their city and wha La there is 5 to 10 links,,, county GIS,,, county tax Assessor, Public MLS, Zillow and Trillia ( even those are notorisly bad for true values they provide other details) On line trustee services where you can see real time foreclosures just like US investor see them ( some of these you have to pay and join to gain access others are free.

one that I think the audiance would like to check out is:

http://www.northwwesttrusteeservices.com

just go on sign in and play around you can see whats happening forelcosure wise in the Pacific Northwest and  other areas they service.

Just remember this is just one of Hundreds of companies that prosecute foreclosures in the US….. But these are the true sources of these foreclosure deals… these are the guys I buy mine from this is what buying a bank foreclosure looks like, You do not buy direct from a bank you buy from one of these services the banks hired to cry the sale at the steps.

Let me know if anyone likes this  would like to get some feedback

google Northwest Trustee Services… it will give you a link I hit the link I provided and Northwest site came up if you scroll down a little.

Foreclosure.com is more of a zillow type service just general outdated info basically.

Northwest Trustee is the actual Trustee that Sells the property you make your check out to North west trustee when you bid.
for instance in Georgia its all Attornies offices.. These trustees are all attorney owned just fyi.

In some areas you can hire bidding services.

Like I bought 2 foreclosures in Lehigh acres a few summers ago… Bidding service was 5k each.. I picked them up for ;mid 30's and flipped them to GB buyers.  Pheniox you can find them for 3k or so…

they are hard to get a hold of as of course they get inundated,, and you want to be very careful because your sending the whole purchase price for the house over in Cash… so as I think about it its probably not a suitable route for OZ,,, Unless you had a really good feel for the people your sending your cash too… I can just see it now OZ spruikers setting up bidding services OZ investors sending them money and these guys walk off with your hard earned money and never buy anything…

However you can come over here and bid for yourself…This is were the better capitalized companies get there deals.

JLH

POSTED THIS BEFORE AND VERY OLD INFO BUT A GOOD STEP THROUGH….

In Atlanta you just have to add termites to the equation……

Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000149 EndHTML:0000014617 StartFragment:0000000199 EndFragment:0000014583 StartSelection:0000000199 EndSelection:0000014583 This is an update as to the auction procedures having now sat down with the title agent who has been emailing me the list of liens and upcoming properties. This email is to provide you with as much information as I have (any errors are with full disclaimer that the below is  given to the knowledge I have at this point). It will hopefully allow you to make grandiose decisions as to whether this may be a route for you. Remember, there is no real estate agent involved with the auctions – nor are their contracts – this is walking up, buying a house with cash up front, paying off any liens, getting title, cleaning it up, fixing it up and renting or potentially down the line flipping etc.

Now those steps explained in detail:

1. The properties that are sold at auction have the potential to be great bargains.
   

Example: 1905 Emerald Green, 89106 went under the hammer for $40,100 at auction, 2 days later it was listed back on the market for $52k. 1925 Emerald Green was a bank foreclosed property that, whilst 100 sq ft bigger needed a lot of work and was listed for 64k… Just 6 doors down!

1. There is NO due diligence time frame, no inspections, no walk throughs, no anything… You can peer through the windows and guesstimate from there. The roof could be collapsing, the a/c may not work, squatters could have broken every single item in this property and you should probably assume they have.
2. We do not know for sure which properties will ACTUALLY come up for sale on the day, we have a list that we subscribe to that tells us up to 2 weeks out which properties are SLATED to come up but we do not know at this point:
   

• whether there are known liens that make it inadvisable to bid
• whether it will be postponed
• what the Trustee’s opening bid will be – which may be 20k over any rational bid you would want to make….– the Trustee represents the primary lien holder… At this point, title is actually still in the Owner’s name who is being foreclosed on and as most of you know, this is the final step before title reverts back the bank and, if the property is passed in at auction. The auctioneer will call initially upon any beneficiaries of the current owner as to whether they wish to bid, they will then say the Trustee’s bid is “x” and if any other offers…. If none, this property will officially become a foreclosed property and appear as such ultimately on Yolanda’s list.
  

1. The night before the auction, we receive the list of known liens from the title agent that provides this free to those who are willing to use them ( – I am happy to make that swap!)… This will be as close to a preliminary title report as you can get and with the exception of HOA fees (which it is NOT recommended to bid on as apparently you should always triple the amount of $$ stated on the lien) the agent felt comfortable that it is highly unlikely (although not impossible) for a big unknown. He has said that National Title Agency will guarantee that you would not ever lose money on your purchase as a result of a lien not discovered or revealed… You may not make any money but at the worst case they would have too much to lose based on that. These and any other liens discovered must be paid off by the successful bidder during escrow* before clear title is presented… These liens will show up on the closing statement provided by the title company handling escrow* (*rough approximate is “settlement” time frame in Australia handled by a solicitor).
2. On the day of the auction, the properties come up in random order – there are between 100 and 150 each day and you just have to sit there, listen carefully to the auctioneers very very fast prattle and wait and hope. Any of the following may happen:
   
   • The property is withdrawn from the auction (lienholder and owner having worked a deal)
   • The property is postponed from the auction (twice I have had that happen whilst on my “dry” runs)
   • The trustee starts with an opening bid that is waaaayyyy too high (think reserve price by bank)
   • The beneficiaries of the current owner comes in to bid on the property
   • You are outbid
   • You win
     
3. To BID at auction you must have a representative acting under Power of Attorney (POA notarized) for and on your behalf with the POA held in the name TITLE WILL BE IN – if that is under an LLC you must have the POA made out to the LLC etc…. POA would in this instance be granted to SelectUSAProperty LLC and be highly limited!… That POA would either
   

Have cashier’s checks IN THE NAME THAT TITLE WILL BE to match up to the full and total amount of the winning bid – the POA will sign these to the Trustee and be given receipt … This should be to the PRECISE dollar (no change) – so the object of the exercise is to bid by a minimum of 1 penny (1 cent) above the bid before…… Trust me, I have seen these things go to 81 cents to win!

• EXAMPLE: The maximum you decide you will bid up to on Property X is $50,101.51. You should have cashier’s checks as follows: 3 x 10k, 4 x 5k and 5 x $20…. Take $5.00 in small change as well….
  

  OR….OPTION….RATHER THAN HAVE ME PHYSICALLY TAKE THE CHECKS….:
YOU CAN USE A COMPANY THAT RESIDES IN THE SAME BUILDING AS THE AUCTIONS TO HOLD YOUR FUNDS….Their name is: US LS…. They are a Licensed Escrow Agency – the president is a guy called Mark Gross. Their website is http://www.usls.biz <http://www.usls.biz>  and his email is [email protected]
… From what I know they would work like the trust account at Silver Canyon… The company is licensed and bonded and charge $300 per transaction… So, let’s say that you deposited $75k with them and gave SelectUSAProperty LLC POA for a property that you won at only $60,500k, they would charge you $300, cut the check for $60,500 and you would have a residual balance with them of $14,200. You can log on to see this balance etc. Please note that I do not have ANY personal experience of this company and can not vouch for them beyond knowing that some of the wholesalers are using this company as their fund holding mechanism. Please do due diligence – they are bonded and insured but I am guessing so was Enron!

1. After the hammer drops – assuming you are the winner…
   
   1. You are presented with a receipt (Actually immediately after it would be presented to the representative from SelectUSAProperty LLC … Me… )
   2. Receipt is taken up to the title agency company to open escrow (situated in the building inside and upstairs from where the auctions are held) and open escrow just as “normal” as we do with a foreclosed property – in 7 to 21 days you will receive the deed, we take the deed, clear and pay off any liens, pay title insurance and other title closing fees and title is then transferred to you…NOT INCLUDING THE LIENS, BUDGET $1250 for TITLE COSTS AND TRANSFER FEES INCLUDING TITLE INSURANCE (protecting you from any further liens etc) on a property under about $80k
      

PERSONAL OPINION ONLY ON STRATEGY (IE DO NOT NECESSARILY AGREE OR FOLLOW THIS AND DON’T SUE ME FOR THE BELOW….)
… Strategy is the BIG thing… If you choose to go down this path, and please this isn’t for everyone – NO DUE DILIGENCE is massive…

Firstly…there is little point in trying for just one property…the chances are it doesn’t even come up! Basically about 2 weeks out my personal recommendation and thoughts that are merely OPINION only is:

1. Choose zips/areas/age/type of house that you either know well or discuss with me
2. Pick 10 properties from the above that WE KNOW WELL – we know what has sold, we know what it rents for, we know the street, the neighbourhood etc… And ones that you would feel very comfortable bidding on that are slated to come up 2 weeks out do as much indirect due diligence as possible on these in that time frame including me attempting to peer through any windows, talk to the occupants and ask if I could take a peak etc (they may WELL still be occupied)….
3. Choose CAREFULLY the MAXIMUM BID you would make on these…. I tried to think of it like this: The MAX bid should be calculated roughly as:
   
   1. what is a known BANK FORECLOSURE COMP on that street or close to (not MARKET… We don’t want market comps, we want a bargain compared to bank foreclosed – or at least come in on par)….
   2. Calculate backwards ASSUMING THE WORST as per the following:
      
      1. Clean Up – these aren’t tidy houses – these have tenant leftovers/garbage in them…. $1,000
      2. EVERYTHING broken or needing repairing:  
         
      • A/C = $4000,
      • Repaint whole house = $1,200,
      • Carpet = $1,200,
      • ALL appliances = $1,200,
      • Light fixtures/labour, broken heaven only knows what = $1,600
      • New garage door and opener = $1,000
      • New Water heater = $800
      • TOTAL = $12,000 = your max bid is a recent equal bank foreclosed comp less 12k!! That probably gives you something BETTER than a bank foreclosed because even the foreclosed properties need about 4k of work!
        
4. Assume that of these 10 that you have mulled over for 7 days: 3 will have cost prohibitive liens, 3 get postponed, 2 have a Trustee starting bid over your maximum and 2 may actually go to bid….
5. Further assume of those 2, you get out bid on at least 1….YAY… You MAY get the chance of buying one but you have no idea which of your original 10 that might be!!!
6. Make your bid (in increments of 1 penny or 1 cent over the person before you!), stand firm to your maximum amount and cross your fingers. I personally feel that we are retail purchasers – the wholesalers HAVE to make a mark up and I feel that is our edge… We aren’t there for that so we SHOULD dollar for dollar probably have the capacity to outbid them