Debt backed by collateral is NOT a Social Responsibility to Pay Back

If you give your word that you are going to pay somebody back that is lending you twenty.

"Hey Mike... I have no cash on me ... lend me $20 and I'll pay you back tomorrow."

That's personal responsibility. Mike lends you $20 and if you don't pay him back... guess what? He's not going to lend you $20 in the future. Your credit from Mike is pretty much cut off... Mike lent you money for nothing in return. His choice... Your Personal and Social Responsibility...

Pretty simple concept... You agree?

Now... Let's say we ask Mike for $20 and in return... he gets your watch to hold on for collateral. You don't pay Mike ... he gets to keep your watch. You get pissed off because it's a "sentimental" watch or some other sappy thing like that.. You want to take Mike to court, etc.. etc..

Well... you agreed to pay Mike back or ... he got to keep your watch. Judge Judy would not hesitate to rule in favor of Mike.

Not too complicated... is it?

So why in the hell does the whole housing thing have to be so damn complicated?

You borrowed money... some bank leveraged the money they had on deposits and made your dream come through by lending the money so you could move into something? (And hey.... I can appreciate the whole sappy thing about not understanding terms, payments and everything else but you know what --- drive down the highway at 120 MPH after drinking a 12 pack of beer and see where that gets you even though you don't understand the law. Not very far...)

You moved in.. you got to enjoy a great home with terms involved that included paying somebody who lent the money so you could move in in the first place. Let's say Things go good.. you make money... the economy is great and you move on to bigger and better things. Sell the home for more then what you paid, pay the mortgage off, take the profit and move on. SWEET deal... the bank does not even ask for a share of that profit.

On the Flip Side...

Oh Crap... Values tank and all of a sudden.... the home is worth FAR LESS then what you owe on it. Oh Crap... Job lost... What's the big deal?

The Bank lent $300,000 and now the home is worth $100,000. Walk Away if you lost your job or whatever... The Bank put up $300,000.... let them have their damn property worth $100,000. Social Responsibility? Really? Give me a break.... the banksters wanted your monthly mortgage payment.

There is NO SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY on the deal.... The Bank paid out $300,000 of leveraged cash with terms for you to pay much more then that back when interest is involved... you can't pay it back on a property now worth $100,000.... MOVE ON.

BIG DEAL. THERE IS NO SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY INVOLVED except for the Banksters wanting you to feel Guilty about not paying them back. Guess What? Vice Versa --- Making the Banksters feel guilty about taking back a property worth $100,000 that they lent $300,000 on is NO BETTER. Trust me... My Mom is a Retired Bankster and I know All About it. They ARE SCREWED ALSO!

The "Social Responsibility" thing is a BRAIN WASH Technique from the Banksters. My MOM is a "Bankster" with over 30 years in the Banking Business.... She got out of the banking business and RETIRED when Banking turned into a Business in HOW TO SCREW YOU. Yes... I said it... SCREW YOU by getting you into debt.

Does Anybody Really Feel Bad About this?

Years ago I was a Casino Dealer in a high end Casino and one night... like many... I was completely waxing a high roller of every dime he had. His losing streak was so bad, it was kind of sad... easily over a couple of hundred thousand dollars.

Down to his last bet... he asked me If I would give him $5,000 for his Presidential Rolex. I obviously could not do it on the table but I called the old school floor supervisor over and the predicament was discussed. While it was against Nevada Gaming Laws to give the guy cash on the table, an arrangement / phone call was made where somebody showed up WHO did give him $5,000 cash for his Presidential Rolex --- a Rolex that was obviously worth over $20,000.

He put the money up on the table.... and he lost.

I'll never forget how he took that loss.... a pure Gentleman compared to others. He did not cry, he did not bitch, he did not threaten to sue. He took the loss like a man and walked.

About two months later he came back to my table. To the same guy (me) who took all of his money and he slapped $4,000 in cash for chips at my table. About an hour later he had over $40,000 in chips and a phone call was made.

He got his watch back for $10,000.

He tipped me $5,000....

A complete Class Act... I'll never forget that...

There was speculation that he was a drug dealer or something not so Kosher with society. Due to my job at that time, it was really not my place to judge people or choose who I wanted to work with... but I can tell you... that no matter what he was, he certainly had more class then some house hold names that I dealt with. Far more class then a certain famous golf player who people thought was a class act at that time.

Regardless... the biggest hands of fate I dealt with were in the $150,000 a hand nature.... the people you may know that can handle this type of money may have winced when they lost.... but they certainly did not cry about it. They did not hire Attorneys to review the bets, they did not lobby Congressman to pass laws to get their money back.

They took their losses like men and ladies .... and they took their wins as very generous people.

Personally... I think America could learn a lot about Las Vegas nowadays. It's what America used to be where fortunes can be made... and where they can be lost.

There is reward where people cheer... there are losses where the losers lick their chops and come back.

Personally.... I love the Winners and I love the Losers who lick their chops and come back roaring...... I can't stand whiners and people who blame everybody else.

It's my personality growing up with an old school "Bankster" mom...

Stop the crying and let's move on...

Paul Francis
Prudential Real Estate
Las Vegas Real Estate
702.592.3058

Never... EVER Give Up on Your Short Sale..

As I walked across the office carrying over six folders of paperwork more then one question was asked if I had had a busy day/week. Nope... this is just one file I casually answered.

One file? Yep. One file... just closed escrow on it I casually answered again.

Easily over 1,500 pages of documentation in those six folders. It took six buyers and five No's to get a yes and get it to closing. Over 600 e-mails... well over 30 hours on the phone in a span of over two years. I personally closed well over 50 short sales in that same time span...

Casual curiosity turned into questions that were fun to explain...

Pretty much everybody in the office knows that I do Las Vegas short sales and have been doing them for quite some time. I have several other real estate agents that want nothing to do with them and refer them to me. When they leave the office... they wish me a good night since more often then not... I'm the last one to leave the office.

Some interesting questions asked:

Who was the lender(s)?

Originally... Countrywide. Then it turned over to Bank of America. Some heads turn in agreement on how difficult the original Countrywide Short Sales were... and how many of them just turned into foreclosures for all of those sellers that just gave up. Our first two buyers were shot down by Countrywide... they wanted far too much then what the property was worth and FAR TOO much for my sellers to contribute when they had no money to contribute.

Why did it take so long for this Short Sale to Close?

So long of an answer from the sellers lenders.... so many bad answers when they came up with one. So many buyers who said forget it and moved on.

Quite Honestly... I had almost said NO and that's the most Important No there is..

But I never said NO... and neither did my sellers. We never gave up from the time we took the listing in February of 2009 until we finally got the lenders to say yes in July of 2011. The only NO's I gave were the ridiculous terms the lender was giving us. For example: May of 2009... they wanted the buyer to pay $10,000 more then the property was worth AND for my sellers to pay an additional $10,000 cash to settle the account with NO future deficiency judgment rights waived.... We gave them the big NO. They closed the file and we had to start over.

They said NO... we said YES to continue on and try again. We continued on until we got the Yes we wanted which included all future deficiency judgement rights waived which is SO, SO important to obtain in writing in Nevada.

You Lost Money On this Deal..

Sure as hell did and Oh Well. I easily lost money on this $160,000 deal and with the way my sellers acted during the whole process.... I would not hesitate to do it again. These were dream clients who wanted to do nothing but the right thing and those are my type of clients. Not one bitch during the whole process when I had to ask for updated financials and all of the other jump through the hoops nonsense some lenders ask for.

We Never Gave Up to Get that Yes...

My sellers were the absolute champs of the distressed homeowners world. Yeah... I stuck with it for over two and a half years to help make it happen but my sellers were the epitome of fantastic homeowners who did whatever it took to get to closing day and never gave up. They could have easily just walked away and let their Las Vegas home become another sad foreclosure statistic but they did not....

Geez... they never even asked for anything but a short sale approval. My opinion... but if you want to help any homeowners... these are the homeowners that should be helped.

Best Wishes and NEVER GIVE UP! If you don't get what you want the first time around.... try, try again. Short sales are so much easier then they were three years ago but they still require Pros who don't care about the money when it comes to doing the right thing.

Cheers!

Paul Francis
Las Vegas Short Sales
702.592.3058

What Was I thinking putting an offer in on a Short Sale update.... AKA.... Give me My Man Cave!

Yeah... I got sucked in... sucked in big time on a super cool place that I blogged about not too long ago. (Read about my Short Sale Fiasco Here). I'm a dollars and cents kind of guy so I put in an offer on a place in a great location that made cents. I asked some questions.. I got some wrong answers.

Sure as a bear loves honey... the loan servicers come back and want $6,000 more then my offer. Comps say that's fair, my wallet wants to say no but the heart goes ahead and says yes. It's a great location... property is in great condition (vacation property) and geez.... I already have plans for the place. I Ok it... At this point for Las Vegas Real Estate, I think it's undervalued anyways and with my calculations of what I can rent the home out for... the return is a helluva better then what I would get in the bank and much safer then playing the Ponzi scheme taking place on Wall Street right now.

Just Stick a Big "SUCKER" on my forehead.... LOL!

Oh hey... Great job letting me know about that second loan Mrs. Listing Agent!

First lender approves the short sale last Friday after jacking me up for another $6,000 (Thanks Indymac!) and then I find out.. there is a SECOND LOAN! What the???? (The Listing Agent originally told me there was only one loan.)

Of course.... the sellers "chosen" Title officer never bothered to send me over a Preliminary Title Report long, long ago when we had an accepted offer... My Fault... I should have asked for it to review when the offer was first accepted but I was so busy taking care of my clients.... I put my own business on the back burner.

Now... the second "debt collector" issues a letter of approval on 06/27/2011 ON THE CONDITION that it closes by 06/30/2011 or the seller has to come up with another $2,500.

WHAT THE????

An ordinary buyer or a first time buyer would not be able to handle this.

Rush Emergency.... Scramble, Scramble, Scramble... Title sends over all of their closing documents to sign. Reviewing them... I catch another problem...

Hello Kids... there is A MASTER PLANNED Association also involved here where you need another HOA payoff demand. How did you not know that????? UGH!!!!

Reviewing the Settlement Statement

Escrow fees... Jacked up. Whoa... wait a second... I'm getting charged for the home warranty when I asked for the seller to pay for it?? Oh yeah... Mrs. Listing Agent forgot to tell me that not only did Indymac want an additional $6,000.... they also said they would not pay for a home warranty... FANTASTIC!

Now you know one of the reasons why so many short sales have buyers back out.

THANKS for Letting me Know!

Message sent to the Title Company that their fees are jacked up... no questions asked and they take care of that number. Money wired in, documents signed... hopefully set to record today. Yeah... today or the second "debt collector" named LTD Financial Services is going to want the seller (or me) pay an additional $2,500. Thanks a lot LTD Financial Services.

Am I MAD, MAD, MAD???

No... not really. I came across a great property that is move in ready in a great community where I know that the cash on cash return is going to be about 15% once I do turn it into a rental. Of course... I would have rather taken the $6,000 and partied it up in Las Vegas then giving it to some scumbags that are who knows where but it is what it is.

I personally don't give too much of a Hoot about Las Vegas Real Estate Values at this point anyways if you look at what really matters

Whatever... Las Vegas Real Estate is undervalued and the cash flow numbers are what I care about. I got a great property that is highly desirable in Las Vegas and I'll have ZERO problems renting it out when the time comes AND get a nice return for the cash laid out. It could have been better but it is what it is....



Paul Francis, CRS
Las Vegas Real Estate
702.592.3058

Major Real Estate Disaster Avoided!

And a valuable lesson learned....

No.. this has nothing to do with Countrywide doing what a responsible lender should have done before Bank of America was coerced into buying Countrywide and ended up paying another $8 Billion dollars plus for a crap company that helped BK millions of Americans... (Thanks a lot Senator "Countrywide Chris Dodd"!!)

This has to do with silly ole me losing my portable zip drive somewhere... my portable little zip drive that I can pretty much use anywhere, anyplace. On that little portable zip drive is over 20 Las Vegas short sale files, several buyer contracts along with loads and loads and loads and loads of disclosures, paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork with everything that it takes nowadays to collect a $900 check after a successful closing in Las Vegas.... LOL!

Being a mobile and agile Las Vegas Real Estate agent that is all over Las Vegas... I learned long ago that carrying stacks of files with me all over the place just was not the best solution. Need some paperwork for a Las Vegas short sale right away?? I can just pop into the nearest Prudential Office (several convenient locations across Las Vegasland) or anyplace with a computer and internet connection and get it over to you as soon as possible. Need something after hours and I'm at home? No worries... zip it right over with no problem.

Beats the hell out of carrying around my short sale files that easily average well over 200 pages per file... All on a little thingamadinger that is right on my key chain. (I'm certainly not an office agent and NEVER will be. I like to see things in person... that's what a REAL real estate agent does.)

Problem is ... I took that little thingamadinger off of my keychain. Got home after a typical Vegas night, opened up my e-mails and somebody requested something. No worries... I'll shoot the document over right away... or so I thought.

Gone... Missing... OH NO!

For security reasons ... since it has so much confidential information on it, no worries. It's got a super insane long password that sometimes I even have a hard time remembering what it is even though I type it in at least 5 times a day. So Paul... why don't you use online storage? Good Question... I do... but not for confidential information because I have a friend who is considered a hacker that can hack right into anything that is online. If it's electronic... it can be hacked.

Heartbeat is racing... think, think, think... where did you last see it?

What's really freaking me out is that I have not backed it up to disk in quite a long time. I have important closings coming up and several, several documents essential to close them to get my big $900 checks.. (LOL!). BIG MISTAKE...

In addition to that... I have a custom Excel program to track all of my expenses for tax reasons... when I collect receipts... I've formed a habit that whenever I log into my thingamadinger that I input those receipts to their respective categories. Makes it easy to do my taxes, makes it easy to see how much money I am losing practicing Las Vegas Real Estate. Five to ten minutes a day doing this easily equates to hours and hours of time after six plus months. Five to ten minutes I can tolerate... hours and hours to do this I would rather do all of the other wonderful things there are to do in Las Vegas.

Regardless...

Think Back to What You did for the Day...

Hmmm... well it started out with a good friend/client of mine that lives at the incredible Veer Towers in CityCenter who was out of town and asked me to sit in on his place because new furniture was being delivered.

Heck Yeah... I'll do that anytime of the week!!!

Veer Towers is incredible and such a joy just to go to... asking me to hang out there and babysit his sweet pad with incredible views of the Fabulous Las Vegas Strip is actually doing me a favor... LOL! It's a mandatory Valet residential Tower unless you want to self park at the Aria Parking garage. (The staff at Veer is absolutely fantastic...from Valet to Concierge to the Tower keepers. Far better then what I've experienced at other wannabe high rise residential places in Las Vegas. Good Job Bruce!!)

I choose to Valet.... I took my little thingamadinger zip drive off of my key chain when I turned over the car to Valet and went up to his super cool pad with amazing strip views to do some work on my laptop.

Furniture delivered... done with my tedious task of hanging out at a Fantastic pad at Veer Towers. (Some of us Las Vegas Real Estate Agents will do anything!!!) Head to the office to pick up a title package and do some work on one of the office computers. My friend pops back into town telling me his plane hit the ground and asked if I could pick him up at the Airport and we would go out to eat on his dime for doing him a favor.

Heck Yeah!!! I'm a Starving Las Vegas Real Estate Agent... We don't turn down great food at a great place! Lots of Laughing..

Pick him up and head over to one of our favorite places where the ladies are friendly and the food is great.

Have a great dinner.. head back to Veer Towers to hang out for awhile. Head home, check the e-mails, get a request and pull out the 'ole keys to shoot out a document. Problem is... no thingamadinger is on those keys...

OH NO!

Check the Pockets.... Not there... OH NO!

Check the Car.... Not There.. OH NO!

Text my Friend to see if I left it at his pad... Not There... OH NO!

Call the restaurant we always go to that knows us by name.... they look where we always sit... Not there... OH NO!

I'm not going to sleep until I find it... NO DOUBT.

Jump into the car and speed off to the office.... See some crazy wrecks on the way (It's Vegas) and get to the office. Sure as Bears love Honey... there it is... still in the drive of one of the office computers... Looking at me like I had abandoned it.

The joy of me seeing it again... and it seeing me was a moment that should have been filmed to bring tears to your eyes. A simply amazing experience and a lesson learned...

NEVER Take your Little Thingamadinger for granted... NEVER...

My Thingamadinger makes me a super efficient, extremely agile Las Vegas Real Estate Agent. It brings so many people so much joy and my irresponsible behavior of not backing it up at least once a week in case it leaves me is something that I'll never neglect again.

I promise...

For super fantastic responsive Las Vegas real estate from an agent and his thingamadinger that has been practicing for years and actually spends more time looking at incredibly great places instead of sitting in the office.... Call me.

Yeah sure... I could hire a bunch of rookie real estate agents and make them do all of the work for a cut of their commission and sit in the office all day..... but that's just not my style.

Cheers!

Paul Francis, CRS
Las Vegas Real Estate
702.592.3058

Yes... the mass E-mails with Lame... very LAME Headlines...

I have a certain e-mail account that I've had for years and years and years. Long ago I realized that a ton of spam was being sent to it for one particular reason and it's the ONE PARTICULAR REASON why my local Association has this e-mail account to this day and not the one I really use.

According to the Greater Las Vegas Association of REALTORS.... Information is never Sold to 3rd Parties...

That's why to this day.... I still get real estate related junk after junk after junk.... 6 years after I stopped using the account as my main e-mail address except for giving it to the Associations... because of Junk, Junk, Junk....

And honestly.... I really did like the e-mail address since it's VERY, VERY old.

Sorry... I really got tired of going through 40+ spammy e-mails a day to take care of my clients so I had to switch over to new ones. Clients I really do not know get my basic one... Clients that are VIP status get my super secret one so I know they are taken care of instantly and I don't have to go through a bunch a crap to read their e-mails.

Everybody gets Spammy Spam e-mails all day long. I get it... but considering this e-mail account and who has it.... well... all of the real estate agents or real estate related services SPAMMING me with all of their real estate related stuff are part of the problem.

You got the e-mail list of Las Vegas Real Estate Agents from Somewhere (paid for it I'm sure) and now you are a contributing part of the problem.

I hit spam, spam, spam all day long.

Well... actually... I only check my old e-mail address about once a week ... more like once a month.... so let's see what super clever headlines from Real Estate Marketing geniuses I got today on my Old, Old real estate related e-mail address that made me just hit the spam, spam, spam button.

JUST LISTED!

Wow!... Well ... I've got to jump all over that one since it was "Just Listed" along with the other 100 or so that were "Just Listed" in Las Vegas today.

Single Story Dream Home!

Ok... maybe this one is not too bad...(but it's certainly not good) ... but I seem to see this headline every time I open up the e-mail to this account. SPAM BUTTON HIT! You lose... too bad... so SAD.

STAGE 1

What???? This is a competitor Real Estate Brokerage Company in town trying to make a name for themselves by sending out mass e-mails. Stage 1? Are you kidding me???

Translation: We have ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE who you are, what company you are with and what you do. (Honestly... we really don't know your name.)

My Answer: I don't think I've ever done a deal with them...

Stage 1... What's that? The first stage of bringing my standards down to your level?

I would not bag on this one so much.... but you don't even know my name or what I've done before that mass e-mail was sent to me.

If you REALLY want to recruit top real estate agents in to your company... YOU BUILD a PERSONAL relationship and not mass E-Mails. (To My Junk E-Mail Account by the way... LOL!)

Do yourself a favor Mr. or Mrs. Recruiter and figure out who you are sending those e-mails to.... before you send them out. You got the list of e-mails from somewhere... and I CERTAINLY have not used that e-mail account on any advertising for a long, long, long, long time....

Spammity, Spam, Spam button hit!

Too bad... so Sad... SO LAME! And I say that because you do not have the basic clue of what the real estate business is ALL about in the first place.... RELATIONSHIPS!

You send me something like that and think I'm going to jump ship??? LOL!!!

I get the Machine Gun Advertising recruiting e-mails all of the time... the one mentioned though just annoys me for some reason... probably because they market themselves as a top notch real estate brokerage and don't take anybody on.

HUD HOME REDUCED!

Fascinating.... along with the other 100 or so that have been reduced because of inflated appraisals in the first place. I don't know what it is with HUD Homes... for some reason... even if they are in somewhat decent shape.... the paint, carpet... it's just all tacky, tacky, tacky. I like the HUD system for bidding... but for whatever reason their appraisals seem to be inflated. I guess the appraisers sent out for these just don't have a clue that Chinese Dragon Red and Vomit Pea Green just are not very pleasing together.

HUD HOME REDUCED... to me... just means that you've gotten closer to a selling price for my clients to be interested. Just my opinion... but the HUD Homes that I see tend to be JUNK Homes. Lots of work needed just to be able to walk in the door without being blinded by tacky colors...etc, etc..

Property Management

Enough said on that one...

Experience the Difference!

Yeah... right in line with the "Stage 1" difference pointed out above. You have no clue who you just sent this lame e-mail to and I have no clue who you are.

Experience the Pride of Home Ownership!

Really???? You send that crap headline to me????

Agents Needed for New Office!

Oh yeah.... Let me jump all over that and bring me and all of my clients over to your "new" office in this market. Before you send that lame mass e-mail to me... you might want to consider PAYING me MONTHLY just to come to your office. See "Stage 1" and "Experience the Difference" comments above.

These are the Winners of Today's daily e-mail BS delivered to my E-mail Account which ended up in my Spammity Spam box. You Certainly need some Marketing Help and I see a HUGE business opportunity of bringing you up to the next level.

Sadly... there were about 30 others that hit the Spammity Spam Box that were not worth mentioning. And that's only one day's worth of e-mails to this account. No time to really go through all of the ones from the past couple of weeks. They all seem to be from the same senders anyways...

Headlines are Everything

If you are in the Marketing Business... then you certainly should know that a Good Headline is FAR, FAR more important then all of the words to fill up the space in the message you are trying to get across.

Your Spam Failed... I did not even bother to open up your Spammy E-mails and they just got sent to Spammity Spam Land. Learn how to write a headline and maybe you'll have a better chance tomorrow when you send me the same tired junk.

Congratulations!

All of the winners above get a 10% discount on my marketing services / consultation that will bring you to the level of where our Company and my services are so you stop wasting your time and annoying us with your SPAMMY E-Mails.

Just send your request to the same E-Mail you originally caught my attention to and I'll take care of the rest.

For those of you that can figure out the E-Mail address your winning headlines were sent to... You get an additional 20% off...

Thank You so much for giving me a blog post topic that took me about 5 minutes to write!

Paul Francis, CRS
Las Vegas Real Estate
Summerlin Real Estate
702.592.3058

Updated

Thanks to Broker Frank LLosa of Frankly Real Estate Inc. in Northern Virginia for sending me this Blog Post:

Cease and Desist Letter from NAR

Certainly Worth a Read. My main complaint on this post though is that the Spam being sent over is not even somewhat interesting to consider opening up to read in the first place. Same things... same tired message.