Home Equity Loans

One of the best ways to generate mortgage leads is through working with home sellers
who are going it alone as For Sale By Owner or FSBO.

The key to FSBO marketing is creating partnerships with home sellers. Since almost
every buyer needs a mortgage, you provide a necessary service that will enable
a seller’s home to be sold. Real estate agents traditionally refer buyers to loan
officers during the home-selling process, but with FSBOs, there is no agent. That
means the seller assumes the role of referring buyers to loan officers and that’s
where you come in.

Most sellers are not very familiar with the process of selling real estate and won’t know that they should require interested buyers to be pre-qualified prior to accepting an offer. Helping sellers understand that you can save them oodles of time by pre-qualifying their potential buyers is a literal gold mine. You could also prepare a flyer on a variety of loan types and payments for a mortgage on that seller’s home. FSBOs want to sell their home and, therefore, they will give your business card to everyone that comes through. That means fresh mortgage leads for you, whether for this property or another one.

The most effective way to secure relationships with for-sale-by-owner sellers
is to offer more than pre-qualification services. FSBOs need marketing help like
a free ad on a for-sale-by-owner website and promotion to buyer lists. They also
need sample contracts and disclosures, industry contacts like title companies
and appraisers, yard signs, and even home flyers. These items can be bundled together
into a “for-sale-by-owner kit,” which can be offered to sellers in exchange
for the opportunity to pre-qualify all buyers showing interest in the home.

You can use a variety of sources to locate FSBOs in your area, including:

Tip! Fourth step is optional; you can apply for a mortgage after bankruptcy even with bankruptcy discharged yesterday and just about any time you want.
• Local Newspapers
• Yard Signs
• Paid service that scours websites and newspapers every day

Some of the popular methods of contacting FSBO sellers are:

• Phone
• Direct Mail
• Door Hangers
• Web Links

Most FSBO sellers will be very enthusiastic about the services you can offer them and will gladly refer buyers to you. Additionally, the sellers themselves will most likely need a loan to purchase their next home, and, having established a professional relationship of trust with them, you put yourself in a great position to provide that loan. That’s another mortgage lead.

The author is involved in several online real estate businesses, including http://www.fsbo3k.com, one of the leading FSBO websites in the United States, and a resource for mortgage brokers looking for http://www.mywholesalelenders.com wholesale lenders.

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In this country millions of homes are sold every year. In most cases buyers go to a
bank or finance company to seek mortgage financing.

In some cases, 200,000 in the U.S., home buyers rely on the seller rather than a
financial institution to provide financing because:

• The purchaser may not qualify for a traditional mortgage.
• The purchaser may be a relative looking to save on closing fees.
• The seller may be interested in having a long-term income stream.

Often the seller is pressured into providing financing for the purchaser instead of
receiving a lump sum. This forces the seller to assume the role of a mortgage
company, worrying about servicing and collecting a monthly income stream. A
stream, which may or may not be consistent, depends on the payer’s ability to meet
their monthly obligations.

Peacock Capital provides an option to note holders nationwide who are ready to sell
their homes and use the equity for their own purposes.

We will purchase the note for a lump sum and collect the monthly checks. No more
worrying about the “Check is in the mail” Or, “Will they stop paying, forcing a
foreclosure?” Or, “Has my buyer kept up with their insurance payments?” Etc.

Afra AmirSanjari is the Principal for Peacock Capital.
Peacock Capital specializes in solving the cash flow challenges of Small/Medium
Businesses, Government Vendors and Individuals with innovative financial solutions
by providing a network for securing operating capital.
http://www.peacockcapital.com a>
info@peacockcapital.com

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In an earlier article, we presented various options for ensuring that you have positive cash flow when holding rental houses, by minimizing loan payments. One problem which we now can address is to how to eliminate the need for paying mortgage insurance. Any loan with less than 20% down payment will include or require mortgage insurance. It may be included in the rate (which is called “Lender Paid Mortgage Insurance” or LPMI) or more commonly it is a separate itemized item, but in either case you must pay it.

If you want to pay less than 20% down, the best way to get around mortgage insurance is to finance your purchases with two loans, a first and a second mortgage. For example, the first mortgage is commonly 70%, 75% or 80% of the purchase price and the second mortgage makes up the difference to 90% or 95% of the purchase price. You can get both mortgages from the same lender, but usually you can find better rates on the second mortgage from a lender that specializes in second mortgages. An independent loan broker can put this together for you nicely.

Both mortgages typically close escrow at the same time and both lenders are fully aware of each other. For simplicity, put both loans in the same escrow and sign them both at the same time. If you want to be tricky and try to use two mortgages to get to 100% financing (i.e. no down payment), there are ways to do this, but we do not recommend it and it is not within the scope of this article.

The second mortgage is typically at a higher interest rate than the first, but not always. For example, there are some very competitive home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) with rates only a fraction above the prime interest rate. You have to have good credit scores to qualify, but if you do, they are very attractive. The problem with a HELOC based on the prime rate is that it assumes the prime rate does not get too high before you pay it off. As you may recall from the early 1980s, the prime occasionally does go sky high and it could happen again.

There is a particularly wide variation in the interest rates for second mortgages from various lenders. Moreover, if your credit, income, and assets are not ideal, you may not be qualified for certain second mortgage programs, so it may be more difficult to find a second mortgage at a good rate that you do qualify for. It is very important therefore to ask your independent loan broker to check out various options and to shop the rates. He/she should be comparing at least half a dozen different second mortgage programs.

When you use two loans as described above, it is usually advisable to have an interest-only or minimum payment loan for the first mortgage. This allows you to focus on paying down the principle on second mortgage over a period of say 5 years, if you can afford it. If you cannot do that, than obtain a second mortgage that also has a 5-year fixed period and an interest only option. You are then covered with predictable and low payments for at least 5 years.

This article has reviewed a strategy for improving your cash flow when purchasing investment rental homes — namely, using two loans to eliminate mortgage insurance. There is much more to say on this topic. So keep an eye out for additional articles by the same authors on this and related topics.

(c) Copyright 2004, Jeanette J. Fisher and Robert S. Kramarz. All rights reserved.

Jeanette Fisher, Design Psychology Professor, is the author of “Doghouse to Dollhouse for Dollars: Using Design Psychology to Increase Real Estate Profits,” the only book to reveal interior design secrets on how to make top dollar investing in real estate. For real estate and interior design psychology books, articles, tips, and newsletters: http://www.doghousetodollhousefordollars.com.

Robert S. Kramarz is a loan officer for a major loan brokerage. He has over 20 years experience in finance and business management and comes from a family a long background in real estate investing and banking. He specializes in providing financing for purchase of investment real estate. He can be reached by email at MrFunding@22cv.com. Further information is available at the website http://www.sweetloan.info.

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