My Mother called me a few minutes ago.
Some where in the Mid-West there was a tragedy last night. Some one lost their life. Their family faces the horror of the unexpected, but with love in their hearts they offered a gift of life.In the mist of pain they generously donated the deceased organs. Pray for them and their loved one, for they are truly great and generous people.
Very, very early this morning, my brother Joe got a call from the hospital, get here now! Joe's kidneys had failed two years ago, the results of type 1 diabetes he's suffered with since he was 4 or 5. Joe is also getting the pancreas some time tonight. 43 years of insulin shots several times a day, two years of dialysis three times a week, yet Joe will leave the hospital with out an insulin kit, Joe won't live between dialysis appointments for the first time he can recall. Pray for Joe, too. He's a good man and father. His twins are just finishing their first semester in collage.
Consider donation. Talk about it. I can only think of one harder decision. Leave a living monument to your love one.
Bill
Joe and his twins 9-07
In: Like Condos and Apartments O/O Homes and N/O/O Houses Are Not The Same! I wrote about a home salesman giving irresponsible advice on investment property evictions. This would-be tough property manager saw any late payment as a personal attack and responded instinctively with out regard to the landlord's best interest, or simple human compassion.
Late payments/defaults are rarely personal. Late payments are most often due to circumstances beyond the tenants control. So don't take them as a personal affront. Avoid knee jerk reactions, until you've considered what's in the landlord's best interest.
So when do you evict?
The simple answer is when it's unlikely the tenant will ever pay! At which time you file for eviction the day after a payment is due. It's not personal, it's just good business. These decisions are simple. You may feel bad for the tenant, but your fiduciary lies with the property owner.
But, life is not always so simple. What do you do when the tenants problem is very short term? You consider the cost of eviction, of rehabbing the unit to make it ready for the next tenant, and the tine and expense necessary to rerent the unit. You also consider the tenant's situation and history, then you attempt to work through the problem.
Will the tenant keep his promise? You don't know yet! You can't afford to take a chance, yet you can't afford not to! It's a classic enigma! So what do I suggest, take the promise or evict? Both!
Like Reagan said "trust, but verify!" When it comes to dealing with late paying tenants you can "have your cake and eat it too!"
In most states there is a fixed time between filing an eviction order and when the tenant can be forceably put out of the property. The time varies from 3 to 30 days, if the landlord accepts any money from the tenant during this term the eviction process normally ends. So what I recommend is if the tenant promises to make the payment on the 15th you file so that the Constable shows up on the morning of the 16th. If the tenant pays then the eviction is stopped. If the tenant doesn't pay on the 15th they are homeless on the 16th! You're going to add the cost of filing to the late charges, so the tenant pays. If they pay you've saved the considerable cost or replacing the tenant.
Chronic late tenants are another problem. The landlord's mortgage is due on the first of each month, so most rents are also due on the first of each month. However the most common pay period is every two weeks. If every month were like February, exactly four weeks this would be no problem, they are not! Many home owners live pay check to pay check and almost tenants do! Rent and paydays are seldom going to match, this is primally the tenant's problem, but landlords often demand payment by Friday or accept promises that don't consider when the tenant's next payday. Such promises and/or demands are only going to cost the landlord, with out a source of income, payments are rarely made. Sometimes it's necessary to adjust a due date, it's a major nuance, but again it's often less expensive than replacing the tenant.
The point is weather you are managing property for the landlords or you are the landlord your decisions have to be tempered with the landlord's best interest in mind. The same principle applies to all other landlord tenant problems, except for violations of the law.
Nuisance rarely trumps cost!
Bill
William J Archambault Jr
The Real Estate Investment Institute
Just because they look alike Condos and apartments are not the same!
Just because they sell the same type of properties residential REALTORS® are not necessarily investment REALTORS®!
Just because your state doesn't require different licensee for different specialities doesn't mean you're qualified because you're licensed!
I just read some well intentioned property management advice that couldn't have been much worse with out suggesting illegal activities. I was going to go through the five high sounding points, but that would mean identifying the poster.
The tough property manger may sound good, but more often than not he cost the landlord money, lots of money! "Absolute power corrupts absolutely" it is never so true as it is with some god like property mangers. It's just another case of an agent/manager with six months experience many times over.
All of us are in the people business, our actions have to be in the best interest of our fiduciary, our client, not our personal ego. Personally, I will not, nor will I let my clients be taken advantage of by a tenant! Nor will I suffer the expense of eviction, rehabing, and replacing a tenant to feed some demagog's ego. If you would not want a property manager to be your landlord, don't depend on them to protect your interest as a landlord.
Bill
William J Archambault Jr
The Real Estate Investment Institute
I was deleting e-mail early this morning when the subject line read: "Buy Low Sell High" Trite, but always good advice. I had to look. Wow! I could send hundreds to buy stuff I could resell on the internet for thousands! Delete!
"Buy Low Sell High" is good advice, so what are we waiting for? In most areas real estate is lower than we ever thought it could ever be again. It's time to buy!
What if we haven't hit bottom? What if we have hit bottom? Both question are irreverent! Irrelevant, that is if you buy only properties that will provide a positive cash flow! With all the former home owners needing to rent in many if not most areas rents are higher than ever.
Now is not the time to procrastinate! So check your local rental market and start buying. Who knows your market than you? You're a real estate professional, what are you waiting for?
Bill
William J Archambault Jr
The Real Estate Investment Institute
I wrote a blog a few days ago: My Real Estate Agent Just Ask Do You Want Fries With That? /action/blogs_admin/write/775479/action/blogs_admin/delete_entry/775479 Responding to Lenn Harley's, excellent blog: THE REAL ESTATE MARKET IS THINNING OUR RANKS, GOOD OR BAD NEWS?? Candice Reinke commented:
"Bill - Can I ask as a new agent, what you mean by a "good" agent? Are you speaking in regards to someone who knows their market, contract, systems, etc? And of course ethics? Or am I missing something? As a new agent, I am finding this market, shall we say, challenging, lol. I really want to make real estate my lifelong career and profession. I have no problem working hard and earning that right, but I don't want to go wrong.
Any tips you can offer a new agent so that we avoid becoming what you and Lenn have blogged about?
These questions were to important to address in a short comment.
"Can I ask as a new agent, what you mean by a "good" agent?
Personally, I classify agents as: Great, Good, Incompetent, and Mountebankcos.
"Are you speaking in regards to someone who knows their market, contract, systems, etc?"
No! All four groups are excepted to know these, even the incompetent often have mastered these. As important as these items are they're not reverent because they are required. Like learning to drive, knowing how the car works doesn't make you a good driver, it just makes it possible for you to try driving. Real estate salesmen have passed a multiple choice test, it doesn't meant they know how to use the information.
"And of course ethics?"
Ethics, are the difference between the Great and the Good and the Mountebankcos is lack of deliberate evil intent! REALTORS® have a Code of Conduct to guide them, but it's not enough! For at least three decades our schools and many churches have been teaching situational ethics, which is more properly described as rationalizing and justifying your behavior, that's not ethics!
Mountebankcos ! Personally, I believe the only ethical difference between the Incompetent and the
It's often said that ethics control your behavior when no one is looking. I can accept that, but in real estate and mortgage lending people are often looking they just don't understand. I believe ethics are a predetermined conduct, decided upon before you face temptation. I outlined this in: Stone Tablets / Bill's Rules For Real Estate People
"As a new agent, I am finding this market, shall we say, challenging, lol."
This is not a laughing matter, we're all finding this market challenging!
"I really want to make real estate my lifelong career and profession. I have no problem working hard and earning that right, but I don't want to go wrong."
" I'd say with help you've got two of the most important factors covered. Real estate is fu enjoy it, but real estate is hard work!
"Any tips you can offer a new agent so that we avoid becoming what you and Lenn have blogged about?
" Get started on your GRI! Get your E-pro, but keep it quite. Then decided on what you want to specialize in and go after the specific designation in that area. Take every class and seminar you can. When you think you know a subject, teach it! There is no better way to hone your skills than to teach them.
Don't worry about learning all the answers. Learn the questions! Read: I Stand By My Advice / Experts Work Cheep and: Two Catalog Cases and Two Attache Cases / Competence VS Expertise Participate! Active Rain is great, ask questions, blog tell us what you think! Build a list of experience "friends" you can call on to help. Lenn Harley and Brian Tutus are great sources of information, have you subcribed to their blogs? You have only one product, you and your service, talk to your peers, they are not competitors, they can't sell you. Chose your broker by the services and training they offer you. Remember 70, 80, 90, or even 100% of nothing or very little isn't worth mentioning! 50% of a lot is great!
I hope this helps.
Have you subscribed to my Blog? My pod-cast, http:///www.realestatesage.info?
Good Luck,
Bill
William J Archambault Jr
The Real Estate Investment Institute
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E-Mail Me at wja@reii.org The Real Estate Investment Institute, publishers, speakers, teachers, hands on & long distance consulting. 39 years expe
I've been in lending and real estate going on 39 years. My fourth book, Get The Money / A Consumers Guide To A Successful Mortgage Application" is to share that experience with the consumer. By understanding the mortgage loan application, and process, hopefully they won't feel like an innocent prisoner standing before a Judge.
There are things in this text that you are not going to agree with! Things that you're going to shout: "That's not right!" "Not fair!" "That makes no sense!" If you're into social reform great, but this a book for people that want/need a mortgage! You can either be a social reformer or a home owner! Take your choice! In real estate and lending we have our own Golden Rule.
"He with the gold rules!" To Get The Money, give them what they ask for!
I've been in lending and real estate since 1969, but lately I mostly write and teach real estate investment..
Mortgage lending and borrowing, real estate, financing, sales, investing,, SFR, and Apartments.. "Get The Money / A Consumers Guide To a Successful Mortgage Application" is a guide for consumers helping take the mystery out of applying for a mortgage. "Get The Money / A Consumers Guide To a Successful Mortgage Application" dispels that feeling of standing in judgement. "Flipping For Fun and Profit" The art of buying low and selling hig quickly! "A Bakers Dozen / A Real Estate Anthology" I, III, II, IV. 
Do you have any good testimonials that clients have provided you in the past? Be sure to add them here.
Mortgage lending and borrowing, real estate, financing, sales, investing,, SFR, and Apartments..
I'm the author of "One House At A Time / Finding And Buying Single Family Rentals" a book for new real estate investors and burnt out victims of TV Real Estate Gurus. "One House At A Time / Finding And Buying Single Family Rentals" is also ideal for people who though they couldn't own their own home, everyone can own a home.
"Get The Money / A Consumers Guide To a Successful Mortgage Application" is a guide for consumers helping take the mystery out of applying for a mortgage. "Get The Money / A Consumers Guide To a Successful Mortgage Application" dispels that feeling of standing in judgement.
"Flipping For Fun and Profit" The art of buying low and selling hig quickly!
"A Bakers Dozen / A Real Estate Anthology" I, III, II, IV. I met Bill Archambault in 2002, which was three years too late (more on that later). I was just hired as Operations Manager at a new mortgage broker, called Custom Home Loans. I had no Mortgage Industry experience. My background included similar positions at start-ups and nearly start-ups in the Semiconductor Brokerage and Design Automation oftware Industries. Because I was so new to the Mortgage Industry, I read books and periodicals, but mostly I asked questions. One of my favorite sources of information was Bill Archambault (this book's author). I liked speaking with him because he had worked in this industry for decades and was still enthusiastic about it. He was excited to talk and I was happy to listen about HUD subsidized home developments he had built in the Midwest and about how we can help clients build wealth through Real Estate and so forth. His stories were
easier to understand than books with Nevada Revised Statutes, legal
definitions and case law. And it was even more interesting when
contrasting it with HUD periodicals and rulings.
I met Bill Archambault in 2002, which was three years late. On February 22, 1996, I met my wife, Ana Maria, while visiting Las Vegas. I instantly fell head over heals for her and dated her for a few months back and forth while I lived in Orange County, CA. In June, I moved to Las Vegas to be with her (everyone say, "ah"). We were married the following June and our son, Hunter, was born in February of 1999. We were living in a nice, but small home that my wife had purchased before
we were married. With my income added to the family budget, I felt we could afford and upgrade. I also wanted to have a house that I felt was "our" house, plus we wanted a house with a pool. So, we started looking for a new home. One night, my wife put our baby, Hunter, in the car to try to get him to sleep. When she was driving around, she saw a home with a "For Sale by Owner" sign in the yard. My wife knocked on
the door and the owners showed her the house. She instantly liked it and we made an offer for the home. Our existing home was listed with a Realtor and we asked a friend for a referral to a Loan Officer. Here is where our beautiful story turns into a financial nightmare.
It should be noted that in 1999 all I "knew" about the Mortgage Industry was that you put 20%, so you don't pay PMI and you do a 15 year fixed mortgage, if possible, so you can save on interest. The home we sold had a payment (including principal, interest, taxes and insurance or
PITI) of $888 fixed for 30 years as a primary residence loan at about 7% interest and she had lived in it for about 3 years. Rents for home like this were about $1,100 per month, so it would have been a great rental, but I thought we needed 20% down for the new home. Our Realtor didn't tell us, don't sell the home. That would have meant she would have missed out on $9,000 commission for selling it. Our Loan Officer didn't
advise us how we could finance the new home with zero down and still have an affordable payment. We asked for a 30 year fixed loan with 20% down and that's what he gave us. Looking back, we should still own that home. Had we kept it, we would now owe $100,000 on a home worth nearly $400,000. A $300,000 mistake that I could have avoided, had I met Bill
Archambault 3 years earlier. Timing is everything and knowledge is powerful, I am a living example.
Best regards,
Brent A. Wood
Chief Operating Officer
Custom Home Loans
"You are the Harvey Mackay of foreclosure real estate...now I fell....well...kind of...shark-proof " Brian Brady
Billl - awesome... That is one of the best blog posts that I have seen on the Rain - thanks!! there should be a Hall Of FAME board - that would be on it.
Kate Bourland 8-3-07
"Hello Jason, Bill Archambault here."
It may not seem like a big deal to you folks, but when I heard that, I cringed. You see, to me, that guy is to Mortgage Lending as Babe Ruth is to baseball.
by Jason Sardi on 08/07/2007
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