Part I: Why Bankruptcies?
There are hundreds of thousands of real estate investors in this country. And the numbers continue to swell, largely because it’s a proven fact that investing in real estate has created more millionaires than any other form of investing! Geez, knowing that little fact... who wouldn’t want to be a real estate investor?
Of course, there’s always “the other side of the coin.” Truth is, 85% of those who call themselves a real estate investor never buy their first house!
These facts quickly lead us to the obvious question... Why? We think it’s simple... most investors never get past the first hurdle... finding a predictable, consistent and reliable source of leads to motivated sellers who are desperate to sell their homes!
As investors, we can’t afford to pay “owner-occupant” prices. We have to find motivated sellers who are willing to sell their homes for significantly less than the retail value. There must be enough of a “cushion” so we have room for cash flow on a rental or lease option property, retail profit on a fixer-upper, or wholesale profit on a quick-turn deal.
These challenges were exactly what we were facing every day of our investing business. We were pursuing every avenue we could think of to find good deals on a consistent basis. Many ways worked, but they were never consistent. Therefore, they weren’t creating the kind of income that we could rely on. And that was problematic because we really like consistent income. You? Then we literally stumbled into a wholesale deal that gave us a “net” profit of $55,000... yes, I said wholesale deal! And yes, I said $55,000 profit! I was in the house twice and my business partner was only in the house one time. How cool is that?
Potentially more exciting than the $55,000 of cold, hard cash in our bank accounts was that we believed there were many more homeowners just like the one we had freed from foreclosure! I bet you would have examined the heck out of that deal to figure how to find more like it, too. Right? Well, that’s exactly what we did and we found an untapped market niche of highly motivated sellers that all the other investors were intentionally avoiding!! Needless to say, we were “dancing in the streets” excited!
The niche we found was the “troubled bankruptcy” market. The homeowner (Jessica) that we “saved” from her foreclosure nightmare had been in bankruptcy just prior to us “stumbling” into her living room. Jessica couldn’t meet all the responsibilities that the bankruptcy court imposed, so she was unceremoniously “kicked out” of bankruptcy. And when that happened, the bank came running after her house again... foreclosure was looming large and in her state of Georgia, the process only took 35 days. Needless to say, she was more than a little thankful that we came to the rescue!
As we learned more about Jessica’s situation and the details surrounding a typical bankruptcy, we started to define this “troubled bankruptcy” market. Let us be perfectly clear... we do not advocate marketing to people who have just filed bankruptcy, whether it’s a Chapter 7 or a Chapter 13 (the two types of personal bankruptcies). Why? First of all, because not everyone in bankruptcy is a homeowner so you would just be throwing away thousands of dollars with your marketing campaign. Secondly, if someone in bankruptcy is meeting all the requirements imposed on them by the bankruptcy court, they are totally NOT motivated to sell because they are enjoying the protection of the court. In short, as long as they meet the bankruptcy court requirements, all other legal actions against them stop! Most importantly from our perspective, their bank can’t foreclose on their home so there is zero motivation for them to sell... at least not at an “investor” price.
HOWEVER, what we do advocate is marketing to: (1) homeowners, (2) in bankruptcy, (3) who are unable to fulfill their responsibilities to the bankruptcy court. This is our target market... for the simple reason that at least 95% of the time, these homeowners will soon get kicked out of bankruptcy. And when that happens, their mortgage company will move quickly toward foreclosure. Again, this is the ideal time for us, as investors, to insert ourselves into the lives of these homeowners and offer our assistance as buyers.
Are you starting to see why these homeowners are highly motivated to sell? They’ve been through it all... they were unable to make their payments, then perhaps they were facing foreclosure, then they filed bankruptcy to stop the foreclosure, and now they’re losing their bankruptcy protection. So they realize that foreclosure is coming again. Clearly, YES, they are extremely motivated to sell so they can get this emotional and stressful time in their lives behind them!
Caryn McKinney and Mark Klee originally partnered in 2002. Now they are a national voice on investing in bankruptcies. At the request of their subscribers and students, they have developed quality training materials and seminars to educate investors about this incredible investment opportunity. Their simplified and detailed information includes everything you need to know as a real estate investor wanting to purchase homes in the bankruptcy niche market, including training you how to access and prescreen the hottest leads coming out of bankruptcy. Now you can enjoy the same amazing profits as Mark and Caryn reveal their secrets. Mark and Caryn will be the guest speakers at the CT REIA Monthly Meeting on August 16, 2010: www.ctreia.com/events.php
This is a 5 part report. For the rest of these reports, please visit www.ctreia.com/articles.php.
Edited by CTREIA (08/09/10 01:01 PM)
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