Robin Basichis

When I first started getting into Loan-Modifications and Short-Sales I contacted existing companies and did a lot of Internet research looking for sources of information and possibly an employment opportunity. A friend who knew I was getting into the business hooked me up with one of these - Billboard Slogan 'We'll Save Your House From Foreclosure,' type of deals. I won't mention the name of the company or any of the players - but I'll tell you what happened after the guy got out of the car wrapped with advertising that told all about "Saving Your Home." This number one front man for some legal firm here in town shakes my hand, gives me an earnest look and hands me his card. First thing out of his mouth, 'You know, we're not like the other guys - we really are about helping people who are in trouble, you know.' I don't know about you, but when someone wears their heartfelt intentions on their sleeves and what they're saying sounds all too good to be true, it sends chills down my spine and red-flags up in the air. The smart move for me would to have just gotten out of there, but I hate to be rude plus I'm a sucker for a good story. I hung around and listened to what Robin Hood - The Super Hero - had to say. He launches into this pitch telling me how he's on the prowl 24/7 looking for those unfortunates in the midst of being foreclosed on. They need him. When he finds them they are met with open arms and and he bravely takes them under his wing like the Super Hero that he is, where they will be safe from the inevitable doom they have been expecting when the other shoe drops from their mortgage company. The first thing he asks his new customer is how much their monthly payment is. So, let's say they tell him they are paying $3200 a month on their home, which they can no longer afford, or will not be able to afford it in the very near future. He goes into his cape, pulls out a magic wand, and presto - they no longer have to pay $3200 a month to their lien holder. He tells them to forget all that - 'Instead of paying the bank $3200 pay me half of that - no - you know what I don't even want half - just give me $1400 a month because that's what kind of guy I am.' He goes on, 'I don't care what you do with the rest of the money, you can save it, gamble it, give it away to the poor, it's all up to you, it's your money now, forget about the lousy stinking bank.'

Some folks, and they can be smart folks too, that just don't know too much about Real Estate, could get a real warm and fuzzy feeling inside over that kind of offer. After all the the fear and burden of foreclosure has been looming over their heads day and night. Now someone is offering them a solution. Someone, in this cold hard world acutually cares, and has come to their rescue. But most people that own property weren't born yesterday or the day before, so after that initial warm and fuzzy feeling they start coming to their senses and are asking questions like how is this guy actually going to keep their house out of foreclosure. The Super Hero's answer is this - 'We are not going to keep your house from going into foreclosure - we want your house to go into foreclosure - and as the bank moves along with the process we are setting up a legal mind-field to sue them for some kind of breach of contract that we will find somewhere in your loan papers - in your deed of trust - in your escrow and title papers -in your note - somewhere we are going to find a glitch and sue them into oblivion, and that is how we will get your house back.' The homeowner asks the Hero for a guarantee and the Hero tells him plainly that their are no guarantees, just loopholes. 'There are so many loopholes out their to trip up the lender in the minefield that will be placed with the money your are coughing up to his law firm for up to a year and a half that it is just about impossible to fail.' "But, what if you fail," the homeowner wants to know. Again he is told about all the thousands of loopholes and that there is less than a one-percent chance that this approach will fail.

The homeowner is scared and tired of being harassed by the lender and the Hero is quite convincing with the Loophole Strategy, so the homeowner says he'll do it, The Hero loves it when people say they're going to do it, and he goes back into his cape and he pulls out a couple of nice little documents for the homeowner to sign. The first document is the agreement to make the monthly payment of $1400. The next document if signed transfers his rights of ownership to a trust entity inside one of the Hero's firm's LLC's. What just happened? The homeowner has just given up his bundle of rights offered to him in the deed of trust and has submitted to what you call a contract of sale, or what they used to call a land contract, which most always carries with it the doom of forfeiture - which means if you do not pay the Hero his $1400 a month he can put you and your family out on the street without a filing. 'Don't worry about that,' the Hero says. 'The chances of something bad happening in this deal is less than one-percent, trust me - becasue you can.'

Now the homeowner talks it over with his Wife, maybe they should maybe they shouldn't, and it goes back and forth for a couple of days. He doesn't usually talk to too many other people because he is ashamed of what's happening to him and if the Hero can get him out of it without his friends and family finding out about - well what the hell does he have to lose but the house, which he is going to lose anyway if he doesn't do something about it. So he and the wife decide to go ahead and let the Hero take care of things. The Hero is so happy - he's happy for the people, and he is happy for himself and he is happy for his firm. Problem is he is not satisfied yet - he wants something else for his effort. After all he's going to fight the bank like a raging tiger and when it is all said and done the bank in this particular environment will probably do a modification. If the original note on the home was $400,000 and it will now only appraise for $300,000 the bank will usually come back with a compromise and let the house go at market value or a little bit under. The Hero who put himself on title now wants equity. He goes to one of his investor buddies and the investor buys the house for lets say $275,000 and the Hero offers to sell the house back to the original owners for $350,000, and he lets them know that it's a real score getting that home back for $50,000 less than they originally paid for it. So let's go over the numbers. The Hero told me the optimum time to keep the hustle going is eighteen months so that's 18x$1400= $25,200 plus the other $75,000 he made off the homeowner by selling the house back to him so the Hero winds up with $100,200 for his efforts. That is close to half of what the house is actually worth. I did the numbers right in front of him and he wasn't ashamed or embarassed at all. He said, 'Yeah, that's about what we expect to make on a deal. Our overhead is pretty high so we have to make that type of figure to grease the gears and keep everything running smoothly.' Just out of curiosity I asked him what my take would be if I brought a customer to him. He smiled at me a told me I would make $300. and if I kept up there would be bonuses and all kinds of perks coming my way. I could not believe that this guy had the gall to stand there and tell me he would pay me $300. to make him potentially over $100,000. You could do a lot with that hundred-grand. Depending on the case some of the best law-firms around are selling packages between $2000 and $4000 to do loan modification and get you our of foreclosure. Even if you have to go into a bankruptcy filing to save the house it shouldn't come out to more than that.

Watch who you are dealing with out there. This town espcially is filled with Wolves in Sheeps Clothing. Good luck - Robin Basichis 702-279-8025 robsellsvegas@gmail.com Contact me anytime for a free consultation.

I read the news today about who will qualify for loan modifications in the Obama Stimulus Package. Seems to me you have to meet an awful lot of criteria to make this guy happy in order to get some help from him. I won't go into a dissertation about what the government is offering to home owners right now. Firstly the information is all over the media and you would have to be brain dead not to pick up on some of it. Secondly, these laws are subject to change at any moment because I do believe no one in government actually knows how to really address this problem and come up with a template solution. What I do believe is Realtors are your front line defense in helping you get the banks to make concessions on your loan. One clear advantage when working with a Realtor rather than a thrid-party Loan-Modification Company is that you have greater legal protection at your disposal. When you use the services of a Realtor or Broker that individual or organization which he represents is bound by legal and ethical laws written by The Real Estate Commission, as well as monitoring controls provided by The National Association of Realtors and the Division of Industry, which handles licensing controls and guidelines. Secondly, a good Relator works the field - knows the landscpae, and with access to the MLS should have a better understanding of the market and home values than most organizations. It is a realtors job to know this stuff. They will use this information to their advantage when negotiating on your behalf with the bank or loan servcing company.

It would not be fair or true to say that all Realtors are the most honest, transparent and forthcoming people in the world of business; the fact is many of them are not. But they are watched, and they do have to answer to a higher authority if they get reported for doing something unethical and underhanded to a client or another Realtor. A realtor's biggest fear is to wind up in front of the Real Estate Commission fearing their license will either be suspended or revoked depending on the severity of their actions. So, if a Realtor who is supposedly helping you in any transaction, be it a conventional sale of a home, loan-modification or a short-sale decides to get cute and rip you off with poor service, or just decides to do nothing and abscond with your money, then you have the option to report them to the Commission.

You have to be careful when you use anyone who you are depending on to help you to get out of a bad situation that involves your home. Before you sign up with a Loss Mitigation Expert or an Attorney, check them out to make sure they are running a legitimate operation. I have come across many that are not legitimate and are not looking out for your best interest. Law Firms are notorious for screwing people, and it is much harder to go after an attorney for damages than an agent or a business owner. They know the law, they know the loopholes and the know how to mess around with your life and get away with it. On the other hand some Law Firms are quite good when it comes to loan-modification and short-sales. When I need legal help I have found reputable firms that have been not only affordable but very effective in getting your loan knocked down or your home situated in a short-sale. You just have to know who and what you are dealing with and everybody is filled with stories of goodwill.

Getting back to the point about Realtors as the front line offense against foreclosures. I really believe they are much more important and effective than any type of legislature or stimulus package. It is clearly in their best interest to lend their efforts to solving the foreclosure problem. They will not get back to business as usual until the crisis is solved. If a Realtor got into the profession of selling homes for the right reasons - those reasons being to provide a fiduciary duty to their client and to the public - then it is in their best interest to continue to do so no matter if they are providing services for loan-modification or the sale of a house. If I am acting as your Realtor and help you, your friend or one of your family members get out of a mess with your current mortgage you are going to remember me. If you walk away satisfied with my services not only will you refer me to others for loan-modifications and short-sales you will also refer me as a real estate agent you can trust to buy or sell another home. The primary goal of a Realtor is to increase his or her's Sphere of Influence. The most effective way to increase the Sphere of Influence is by word of mouth. Advertising in the media and on the Internet, websites, email blasts and everything else you can think of in terms of marketing pale in comparison to what word of mouth will do not only for a Realtor but for many in the service industry. The reality is a decent Realtor who is looking to grow a business long term should be looking to help you anyway they can to get you out of a bad situation.

One thing to keep in mind, getting a loan modified is not rocket science. Although most banks will come off tough and crusty at first their underlying agenda is to keep you in the home even if they have to discount the price and the interest rate. Foreclosing on your property costs them money and time. They have to pay all kinds of fees to initiate the foreclosure and in this market they are unlikely to sell the home so it winds up back on their books - which means they have to spend more time and money getting the property ready for resale. It could take them over a year to go through the process and it unless the house has tons of equity in it - which most of them don't, then it is a losing proposition for them. It is in their best interest to negotiate with you and your representatives so they can keep you in the house.

If you have any questions or comments please get in touch with me. I can be reached on this site or at robsellsvegas@gmail.comor at 702-279-8025. I will be glad to go over the details of your situation and answer any questions to the best of my ability. I am very familiar how loss-mitigation operate and what type of criteria they are looking for when it comes to furnishing paperwork. They all want you to provide a package which include Hardship Letters, Financial- etc. They all have their own style when comes to rules and regulations. Some lenders are easy to work with and some are not. It is a myth that you have to be in default to get started on loan-modification. If you want reduce your interest rate and principle you should open up a dialouge with them as soon as you can. I am also a loan broker and I keep abreast of all the new programs and regulations that are coming out, and what I don't know I have a whole network of people who work in the business who can find answers to questions.

I am guessing that those of you who have been involved in short sales may have had similar experiences as mine. I live in Las Vegas, and though it has not gone undisputed, Las Vegas is certainly running neck and neck with Fort Myers, Phoenix and a couple of other cities for clinching the title in the heavy weight division of Foreclosure Capitals. The banks own nearly 85% of the homes in our city. A lot of these homes were investor owned until the bubble burst and equity took a hike. Hardly anyone has equity now a days. If you bought a house thirty years ago, never refinanced it and payed it off, you have equity, otherwise you probably own a liability. If you bought a house in this century and didn't put a ton of money down chances are you are upside down. People that bought homes in 2003 and 2004 that were valued at for $400,000 are now living in homes that are worth less than half of that. Most people aren't stupid and they start thinking, how long is it going to take me to recover that money that I lost on this place? Ten years, twenty years? They're sick about paying a mortgage on a house based on a value that is twice as much as it is really worth. I get lots of calls from folks asking me, how do I get out of this mess? They don't want to just walk away from the house and lose their credit - they want to negotiate with the bank and maybe do a Loan Modification or even a Short-Sale. Here's the first problem - If you and your family are working hard, making a decent living and paying all your bills, which includes your mortgage, the bank does not want to hear from you about loan modification or about short sales. If you never had a late payment and your credit is strong the bank will give you sound advice by telling you if you can no longer afford your home you should sell it and buy a house you can afford. After you tell them you can't sell your house for half of what it's worth the bank will say that you will just have to make up the difference somehow, and how you do it is not their problem - after all you are the one that asked them for the loan - they didn't come after you - or maybe they did, but that doesn't matter now. How unfortunate and sick is it when you get caught in a situation of being a good hard working citizen, pay your bills on time, and those actions you performed in good faith and honesty have placed you in the worst possible category to be when it comes to wresting your way out of a home that has become a liability and a bad real estate investment. Now we move to the next problem. Let's say you want to move and you'll worry about the other house later - you just want to get into a home about the same size you are living in now for half the money, but you don't have a ton of money and your credit is not quite good enough to buy another home while you still own the one you are living in. What do you do? What happens even if you do have some money and your credit is strong enough to qualify you for two homes - the bank usually will not lend you money for a home that has less value than the original value of the home you are currently living in? The bank wants you to move up not down. Even in the best of times they frown upon those who want to downsize to a smaller home. You think about this for awhile and decide you are no longer willing to throw good money after bad by paying on a rotten investment. You want out of the house. If your credit has to take a hit so be it. If you have to rent for awhile, well their are plenty of rental properties out there for the taking. You stop paying for a couple of months. For the first 60 days the bank starts sending you threatening letters. They will foreclose - you will be naked in the street - you will be tarred and feathered for not meeting your obligations - so you better bring your loan back to current status if you know what's good for you. Then, when you get closer to 90 days deliquent all of a sudden the bank turns from Methuselah into a Dutch Uncle. You start getting letters from them asking how they can help - what can they do? After they ratted you out to the credit bureaus for late payments and destroyed your credit to the point where you can't get enough financing to buy a Yugo, they want to be your friend. You call the Loss Mitigation Department and they give you some options. You decide you want to do a short-sale and cut your losses. The bank will ask your or your broker for all types of documents like bank statement, tax returns, hardship letters, purchase agreements, listing agreements, listing broker - it just goes on and on. You send them all that stuff. You wait a while and then you call them to find out if they received everything. After they finally figure out who you are they tell you that it takes several weeks for the package of documents to get into the system, so you wait some more. You call again, say in about three weeks from the first phone call - again they tell you the same thing - it has not gotten into the system yet, but when it does it will be forwarded to a representative. For months you keep on calling and you get the same answers. Then one day you receive piece of registered mail. The envelope is thick and it has the name of your mortgage servicing company on it. You open the letter and inside is a Notice of Default or an Intent to Foreclose. You get sick inside. You blame you spouse for talking you into this horrible mess. It would have been better to have just kept on making payments, at least we would still have a roof over our heads. Now what's going to happen? The car is just not big enough to hold two kids and the dog. You call the loan company and they put you on hold for an hour and then you get disconnected. Finally you get through. You ask for the person that you dealt with last time but nobody knows who that person is or where to find them. You tell your story about how you sent in all the proper documents and have been waiting patiently for them to be processed. They put you back on hold for another hour and then they come back. The person on the line tells you that you were missing one document and they canceled your file. You ask what document and they tell you. You tell them you sent that document and become infuriated when they tell you they didn't receive it. You ask them why they hadn't contacted you and they say they did try to contact you but they were unsuccessful. You want to know what to do now. The person on the other end tells you there is nothing you can do. You ask to speak with a supervisor and they put you back on hold. The sun is starting to go down when the supervisor gets on the phone. He listens to your sad story and tries to act sympathetic. First he tells you there is nothing he can do. You keep on telling your story about how you sent in all the necessary documents and how you have been following up with phone calls on a regular basis. Your wife is standing behind you biting her nails and telling you all kinds of things you should be saying that your not saying. He checks the records in his data base and finds out you are telling the truth. Finally he takes pity on you and tells you to submit another package. You are shocked he is asking you to do this - you ask him why he can't use the original package and he tells you he can't use it because your file has been closed and a new one has to be opened. Don't you know a new file requires new documents. You franticly pick through your papers until you retrieve all of your documents and send them out once again. The process starts all over again. You call - they tell you it will take several weeks to get in the system. Now your wise to them and are no longer satisfied with that answer - right away you ask for a supervisor. The supervisor tells you he will put a rush on your file and make sure that one of the representatives receives it. Still you wait. The average short sale takes five to six months to consummate. That kind of time-line works against you in this market. After you have finally found a buyer and submitted the Purchase Agreement six months go by and the house is no longer worth what it once was. It has to be reappraised. The mortgage company does another appraisal but the bank that your buyer is using has their own appraisal on the property that is less then your lenders. The buyer starts getting nervous about over paying and tells you if he doesn't get a price reduction he is walking.

I have been down this road several times. Any company that tells you they can do a fast and easy short sale for you because they know the ropes is lying. It is a long, tedious and frustrating process without any guarantee that you will be able to sell the house in the end. It is hard to name and or identify the best actions that should be taken when you are upside down on a home. I don't claim to know what the best moves are, but I can tell you the best scenario. If you are a married couple and one of you bought the home in severality - in other words just one of you shows up on title, and the spouse who is not on title is credit worthy, he or she can purchase the next house without being affected by the Short-Sale or Loan Modification on the original house. If you fall into that category then you should hop in the car or go online and take your pick of the the foreclosed properties you have been seeing and hearing about. There are tons of them and you can wind up with one hell of a deal. If you don't fall into this scernario there are other ways around the problem - each case is pretty much situational. If you are a broker - agent - or homeowner and are not familiar with this process give me a call and I will do anything I can to help. I have negotiated with several banks on Loan Modification and Short Sale and I know the drill. It does not make it any easier - I do not have the magic potion to get it done, but I do understand what happens when you get involved with banks and what the pitfalls are. I can be reached at robsellsvegas@cox.net or at 702-279-8025. I will be happy to speak with the bank on your behalf. Respectfully - Rob Basichis

If you are still breathing then you know that two primary reasons for our current economic failure is the housing crash and the credit crunch. Now the banks are getting billions of dollars in a new bailout package to help rectify our problems. If they put their money where there mouth is we may be able to climb out of this mess sooner than people think. The banks own over 80% of the properties in the Greater Lar Vegas area, a phenomenon that has not been seen before in this town I don't think. They need to get these houses off their books and back in the hands of home owners. I own a company called Clean-Outs by the Touch-Up and we specialize in providing services for getting REO's back into marketable condition. We have a staff that cleans the property out - paints - does handyman work - replaces flooring - window treatments - repairs roofs - HVAC - plumbing, landscaping and other services that may be needed to get a property ready to sell. Each time a bank accepts one of our bids and we go out and service the property it puts people back to work. Depending on the scope of the work needed on the property we can put up to ten or more people on a project which creates a distribution cycle that puts money in peoples pockets and gets homes back on the market. The more work our people and our stakeholders receive the closer they get to be able to afford a home considering they are in the market for one. But the banks are slow and deliberate in getting the job done - they are often cheap and too conservative about getting the moving on a project in a timely manner. The banks have to be encouraged to move quickly and the government, who is supplying these banks with King's Ransoms, should put more emphasis on getting these properties released back into the public sector. What are they waiting for? Are they looking to see if the market is going to rebound before they release their assets at discount prices? If that's the case they need to listen to economists and the feds and take in the consensus that nothing is going to really change until late 2011 or 2012. If they get on the stick and start flipping these houses they can beat this time-line by creating a trickle-down effect which will benefit everybody. Obama has created this enormous package to create jobs and that should be a good thing in the overall, but right now we need him speak with the banks who own distressed properties to get them motivated on rehabs. If a small business like ours can create ten or more jobs just think of how many other businesses related to real estate and related fields can do. Lots of people and business will benefit - from the guy selling fertilizer to the guy selling window replacements. Small Business creates most of the wealth in this country and that is what the government and the banks need to concentrate on. You don't need more government to get the job done. You just need Obama or Bidden to make a phone call to the banks and get them moving in the right direction. Recovery is going to come from a grassroots effort and not by expanding government. Banks need to start fixing up their properties and begin lending again. It is disheartening to see a city that was once a palace turn into a former shell of itself. We need to get our city back.

If you are handling REO's and Foreclosures please visit my website at robsellsvegas.net. I believe by working together we can make great things happen and climb out of this mess much quicker than people think.

Thank you - Rob Basichis - The Touch-Up Man - 702-279-8025

I have invested in real estate for most of my adult life. When I lived in Philadelphia in the eighties I hopped on the trend of fixing up houses for Yuppies who were giving up their homes in the suburbs for a more urban experience. I found a backer and went on a rampage buying up houses, fixing them up and flipping them. I road that horse for about five years and then the horse got sick and died. It wasn't all that safe in the inner city of Philly, it never was. The Yuppies start having kids and they were finding out the city schools were not too good for education or the health and long term survival for their children. So they moved out and went back to the suburbs. The trend started around 1983 or 1984 and by 1990 most of the Yuppies were gone. The bubble busted and property values dropped like they did here in Vegas. I was so upside down on most of my properties that I had to let them go back to the bank. I worked pretty hard to acquire fix up and rent those properties and I wound up losing everything. I swore I would never do it again. I moved out here and bought a nice place in Green Valley. I went back to school and got a Masters Degree in Business - after that I started up some businesses, some successful some not. I moved here in 1993 and prices of homes stayed about the same for years. I was happy with that - no sense in investing here, values are moving too slow. Then it happened - the biggest boom I ever saw. What I swore I would not do I did again and got back on the horse. To make a long story short the horse died again and I lost again. I tried real hard, but my timing and planning were not what they should have been and I don't blame anybody but myself. At least there is some consolation in knowing that you are not the only one, but that doesn't put any money in my pocket. I have a long history of heart problems and I got sick last summer and had go in for my third open heart surgery. Everything went okay but the recovery was long and hard and I am still not back to full strength. During my convalescence I started doing a lot of reading about e-commerce and e-marketing which I have avoided learning about. I began taking a closer look at sites like this and sites like Facebook and Twitter, and started to understand the value in them. I've done a lot of soul-searching and thinking about what I was going to do next. Now that the banks own most of the houses in this town I thought there had to be some money to be made from them. I started a business called Clean-Outs by The Touch-Up Man. It is directed to anyone who is handling REO'S Foreclosures and Bank owned properties. What my company does is prepare the property for sale. We do everything from cleaning out the contents, to painting and cleaning the toilets. We are dependable and affordable. You can find my website at robsellsvegas.net All the contact information and stuff about what we do is there on the site. Now that I made my pitch I would like to hear back from people. If you are a little stressed about doing this e-marketing thing maybe I can help. I'm guessing a lot of you out there can probably help me. I just entered into a PHD program that addresses leadership and management in Internet technology and ecommerce. The program will take me three years to complete and I promise to keep you apprised of what I have learned. Please, send me a note, let me know what's going on. Tell me your war stories and show me your scars and I'll share mine with you. I may not be flush with money, but I'm filled with stories.