5 Reasons to Avoid Foreclosure at all costs! - How bad is a Foreclosure?

5 Reasons to Avoid Foreclosure at all costs!

1) Unlike most negative credit items, having a foreclosure on your credit report is virtually impossible to “repair”

2) A homeowner will always have to disclose that they went through foreclosure on all future mortgage loan applications affecting future financing rates and program availability.

3) Major decrease on your credit report affecting a persons ability to get to get a car, personal loans, or credit cards.

4) When filling out rental applications you must disclose that you have went through foreclosure, greatly reducing the number of apartments available for rent.

5) Many Employers run credit checks when applying for a job, foreclosure is one of the main items putting potential new hires in jeopardy of not getting a job.

To your success,

Preston Matix
Real Estate Investor




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Real Estate Purchase
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San Diego Based Real Estate Blog

How to Successfully Launch a profitable Real Estate Business

How to Successfully Launch a profitable Real Estate Business

The hardest part of getting your Real Estate Investing business started is overcoming the fear of the unknown that comes with attempting anything new. Many of my students get stuck before they even start suffering from analysis paralysis. Getting caught in the train of thought that if they just buy one more seminar, they will finally feel confident enough to get in the game and finally start doing deals.

What we all need to understand is that fear will never go away no matter how many courses you buy, or how many boot-camps and seminars you attend. The only way to get over this fear is by actually getting in the game, you need to face your fears and execute! We do not need to start with huge deals getting started, or even any of our own money. So many times, investors think that they need to put everything on the line to get into real estate investing. That is so far from the truth, I did my first almost 50 deals without ever using any of my own money or credit. This are what everyone has heard of called "baby steps", everyone that is successful today started with baby steps. These are just stepping stones to growing a big investing operation like myself and my partners have. It all started with finally pulling the trigger and doing are first deal. Looking back on it now with over 300 deals under my belt, the only regret I have is not getting started sooner!

Here is an easy action guide for you to start using today, this will help you finally start working towards your goals. Follow these easy steps and you will be well on your way to being a successful real estate investor!

Attend a REIA / Meetup / Investment club meetings : Networking with other investors is the best and first step to starting your investing career. The people you will meet at these events can be a big help to you while first getting started. I always say that "Relationships are the only shortcuts to success". For a lot of us this can seem a little nerve wrecking in the beginning, but be rest assured that this is the most important step in starting your business. Another major bonus is that these meeting are usually free! If this is a big challenge to overcome, you might want to consider attending one of my events to help you sharpen your networking skills. Remember... you are always on the air!

Meet with successful Investors: Sometimes we need to see before we can believe. Meeting with an active successful investor will give you the inspiration you need to get your butt into gear. When I was first getting started I made it a point to meet and surround myself with as many of these people as I could. We have all heard that saying..."You income is the exact average of the 5 people you hang out with most"...so why are you hanging out with your broke friends? If you need help finding successful investors to meet with, a REIA or Networking group as explained above is a great place to start.

Take Action: The only way to invest in your first deal is by finding your first deal!! Whatever your chosen model is, you need to find properties to invest in. So if you are going to be looking for motivated sellers, then you need to get on the phone with sellers. The only way we can get better at talking to our clients is by talking to more and more of them. Practice makes perfect, right? No! Perfect practice makes perfect! Practice your scripts, roll play your scripts and get on the PHONE!! Read this very carefully...TAKING ACTION WILL MAKE YOU RICH!!

Getting starting and making money investing in real estate is not easy and anyone that tells you it is has not done any deals. If you want to be successful you need to be ready to get outside of your comfort zone and act in spite of fear! Because of this we must make sure we are always surrounding ourselves with the right people on a regular basis as well as feeding our mind positive thoughts on a regular basis. Make sure to check back for my next post on "The Winning Mindset."

What are you going to do to get started?


Yours in Success,

Sam Khorramian

Success Expert



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Escrow Checklist - How to Close your Real Estate deals Easy and Fast with these handy checklists

Escrow Checklist - How to Close your Real Estate deals Easy and Fast with these handy checklists

Escrow Checklist – Closing Checklist - List of Items needed

Below is a great escrow checklist for closing your deals. When agents and investors start closing deals sometimes the details can get over looked. So as your deals start coming to fruition you will want to systemize things to make it easy. Take a look below at some of the Items that will be needed for most closing’s in CA (Other states will vary slightly). Print out the checklist below and turn it into a checklist for each one of your buyer/seller transactions. Put them in each file and check them off as you get the Items in, that way you can stay on track and make sure there are not delays as you progress towards a successful closing.

Seller Escrow Checklist

1) Escrow Instructions – Review with escrow officer and check for accuracy

2) HOA information (if applicable) – Get HOA information and find out if there are any problems with the building. Make sure a condo cert has been ordered. Get all contact info and payoffs.

3) Confidential Statement of Information – Must be fully and accurately filled out so the title company can complete their title search.

4) Certificate for 1099 Reporting – Make sure it is complete and signed

5) Affidavit of Non-Foreign Status – IRS requires buyers to buy from a foreign seller to withhold 10% of the purchase price from the sale proceeds, this form shows that they are in fact a US Resident and of “Non-Foreign Status”

6) California Real Estate Withholding Certificate (Form 593-C) – Completed. Determines if the seller is exempt from Franchise Tax Board. For additional Information call the Franchise Tax Board at 888 792 4900

7) Grant Deed – Signed and Notarized. Make sure the names match title.

Buyer Escrow Checklist

1) Escrow Instructions – Review with escrow officer and check for accuracy

2) Confidential Statement of Information – Must be fully and accurately filled out so the title company can complete their title search.

3) Insurance Information – The lender will

require at least fire insurance prior to funding. Designate an Insurance agent and supply contact information.

4) Preliminary Change of Ownership – Filled out and submitted to the County Recorders office at the time of recording the grant deed. Used by the tax assessors office.

5) Vesting worksheet – Showing how title will be held. Needs to be supplied to lender prior to docs.

6) HOA information (if applicable) – Get HOA information and find out if there are any problems with the building. Make sure a condo cert has been ordered.

What else are you using on your checklists, how can we make this list better?

To your success,

Oliver Graf

Real Estate Expert
Follow me on Twitter: Twitter.com/OliverGraf360



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10 Reasons Professional Investors and Real Estate Agents might want to consider outsourcing their Short Sales

With statistics now showing that 1 in 4 mortgages in the United States are upside down, there is no shortage of short sale business to be found. The question is what are you doing with them? Here are some thoughts to consider on whether to outsource the negotiations or try and negotiate yourself....

1) You have to have a Buyer to start the Short Sale process with the Lender. They will not even look at your package without an offer.

2) Short Sales can take a very long time to negotiate. You risk losing buyers because people want to buy NOW!

3) Short Sales can take a lot of time and effort. As a successful Real Estate Agent, you have better things to do than negotiating with the banks, you should be focused on listing and market properties, finding sellers, and finding buyers.

4) There are some states states where attempting to work a short sale for a homeowner can be looked at as breaking the law because you are “acting as a lawyer.”

5) The Lender will battle you on all aspects of your offer, including the commission. You must be prepared to fight the lender for what you are worth

6) You’re a professional Real Estate Agent, not a professional loss mitigator. Good negotiators have years of experience in the loss mitigation departments and understand how the loss mitigation process works.

7) Working with a negotiation company can benefit you because they have developed relationships with the Lenders that can expedite the Short Sale negotiation process.

8) A Short Sale requires stacks and stacks of extra paperwork that is outside of the normal forms you may be used to. Partnering with a loss mitigation team can help you because they already know the items each Lender requires and can provide them to the lender ahead of time to shorten the Short Sale process.

9) Meeting the BPO agent. Most good short sale negotiation companies will send someone out to meet the BPO agent so you can spend your time on more important things.

10) Short Sales will take your focus from the things you know you need to do in order to be a successful Real Estate Agent and have you working on tedious time consuming tasks. In my opinion its better to hand it over to someone else who has the experience doing the negotiations and focus on getting more business!!!

What has been you biggest challenge with short sales?

Contact me if you would like help finding a company to outsource your short sale negotiations too.


To your success,

Oliver Graf
Real Estate Expert




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Real Estate Submit Short Sale
Real Estate Short Sale
Real Estate Short Sale Tips
San Diego Based Real Estate Blog

Sentate Bill 94 - Does it hurt the chances for getting Loan Modificaion Help?

Sentate Bill 94 - Does it hurt the chances for getting Loan Modificaion Help?

The California Assembly recently passed Senate Bill 94, a bill that aims to protect homeowners from loan modification scammers. However, does it end up having the unintended consequence of eliminating a homeowner’s ability to retain an attorney to help them save their home from foreclosure.

The bill, which included an “urgency clause” and was set to start immediately. SB 94 prevents companies, individuals, and even attorneys… from getting up front fees or any other form of compensation until after the Loan Modification has been completed.

Supporters of the bill say that the state is currently over run with scam artists who take advantage of homeowners desperate to save their homes from foreclosure by charging exorbitant up front fees and then failing to deliver anything of value in return. In their opinion, by making it illegal to charge up front fees, they will be protecting consumers from being scammed.

While there’s no doubt that there have been unscrupulous companies that have taken advantage of homeowners in distress, the number of these “con artists” is unclear. It was time for something to be done, but does SB94 fix or worsen the problem?

Supporters, state that homeowners will still be able to hire attorneys, but that the attorneys will now have to wait until after services have been rendered before being paid for their services. They say that attorneys, just like real estate agents and mortgage brokers, will now only be able to receive compensation after services have been rendered.

People who oppose the bill on the other hand say, “Getting a lender or servicer to agree to a loan modification takes months, sometimes six or nine months. If I worked on behalf of homeowners for six or nine months and then didn’t get paid by a number of them, it wouldn’t be very long before I’d have to close my doors. No lawyer is going to do that kind of work without any security and anyone who thinks they will, simply isn’t familiar with what’s involved. Real estate agents get paid through escrow, where is our security”

Take a look in the future…
California’s ALT-A and Option ARM mortgages are just beginning to re-set, one third of these types of mortgages are still set to adjust in the next 24 months! This will cause homeowners payments to rise, and with almost half of the mortgages in California already underwater, these homeowners will be unable to refinance and foreclosures will increase as a result.


For more information take a look at SB94: http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/sen/sb_0051-0100/sb_94_cfa_20090327_152419_sen_comm.html

Does SB 94 end up reducing the number of legitimate firms available for homeowners to turn to? Will SB 94 actually stop con artists from taking advantage of homeowners in distress? Or will it end up only stopping reputable lawyers from helping homeowners?



To your success,

Oliver Graf
Real Estate Expert
Follow me on Twitter: Twitter.com/OliverGraf360



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Real Estate Pre-Foreclosure
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San Diego Based Real Estate Blog

Short Sale Success! Wachovia short sale with 3 loans!!

The short sale of real estate is not a questionable practice in today's softening real estate market, it may be a necessity. The short sale transaction is a legal and much more beneficial alternative to foreclosure or even bankruptcy. Lenders are motivated to accept short sale offers to for a number of good reasons. The short sale of your home can result in a win-win-win situation for all parties involved

Our latest short sale success was on a property that had 3 mortgages and over 5k in back HOA payments!




1st Lender: Wachovia
2nd Lender: Wachovia
3rd Lender: Dyckoneal


Our team was able to negotiate with all lenders to agree to the short sale terms and pay off ALL the HOA arrears!

Please contact me for NO COST help with short sales!


To your success,

Oliver Graf
Real Estate Expert
Follow me on Twitter: Twitter.com/OliverGraf360



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Real Estate Submit Short Sale
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San Diego Based Real Estate Blog

Foreclosure Properties are selling at a Record Pace - Get them before they are gone!

Good Foreclosure Properties are selling FAST!

Buyers in most areas are finding that bank owned / real-estate owned (REO) properties(homes that the lenders have repossessed and put back on the market)often are selling the day they are listed for sale, sometimes faster. According to the founder of Foreclosure.com, offers on REO properties are coming in immediately after the listing comes on the market, and some homes have been put into contract in less than 90 minutes.

What this means to buyers today…

• On average, inventory on California properties priced less than $300,000—the most-competitive price point for todays foreclosure buyers—have dwindled from a 10-month supply a year ago, to less than a 4 month supply in July, according to the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.)

• Since the inventory levels of homes priced in the lower end of the market are so low, buyers are finding that lenders/sellers are not willing to negotiate on the price. In many instances, lenders/sellers expect the first offer to be the best and highest possible for the buyer, and most are being sold over list price. Since competition is so high, when writing offers be prepared to make the best offer you possibly can upfront in order to be considered.

• Instead of holding onto REOs for the best prices—and paying the property taxes and maintenance and carrying costs—many banks are selling these properties as quickly as possible, according to Foreclosure.com. “In this market, if banks can liquidate them fast, it makes more sense to get them off the books,” said the company’s founder.

• In spite of efforts by lenders and the government to prevent foreclosures, many economists and housing experts are predicting another wave of foreclosures by year’s end, and many of those properties will be offered for a quick sale. According to the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, 53 percent of loans that were modified in the first half of 2008 fell back into arrears and will most likely end up in foreclosure down the road


If you are serious about buying property while taking advantage of the available tax credits make sure that you and your agent are prepared to work quickly!


What have you noticed from the REO buying experience?


For any help or questions on buying REO’s Please contact me:

Oliver Graf
Real Estate Expert


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