check (3)

Normally there are two ways most REO agents handle their utility bills but wait, there is a third:

1. Pay each bill with a check and set the check aside for several weeks until it is due to minimize the leverage of funds

2. Pay by bill-pay through your banking website which only takes daunting hours of your time due to hundreds of accounts that are no longer used or require deletion

3. Use Realty Pilot's Concourse 360 to create the record of the check file and print one check for each utility company at the end of the month

Let's face it banks don't pay a management fee for properties as an REO and the longer the hold time of a property the more free labor the banks are squeezing out of you. One of the most important things to know is where your break even number with days to hold a property is. Is it based on the number of tasks that are involved, is it due to the price of the home or is it the amount of time the home stays in your inventory? All of these are concerns but the one most important is hold time. The longer the hold time the more chance the REO asset will cost you money rather than make you money. So what do you do? First, pin point what costs you money then find a way to minimize those costs. Since this blog is about utilities I am going to let you in on a little secret.

Utilities will cost you money by the amount of time spent paying the bill-pay through your bank and takes money out of your pocket immediately. They will also cost you money printing numerous amounts of checks every month only to release them strategically hoping not to miss one and you still have to scan a copy of that check for the invoice record. Additionally there could be deposits and bonds involved to support the volume of bills under your own name. So what do you do?

Realty Pilot's Concourse 360 has come up with a very unique check writing system that allows you create the check file within their system right from the expense record that looks just like your check without printing and scanning. This check file stays with the expense that is tracked for each property. This allows the agent to pay all bills for a utility company on one check at the end of the month. So now you only have to print one check for each utility company and your money is not immediately dispersed allowing you to reduce the amount of time your funds are leveraged for the bank or asset company.

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Careful with that foreclosure notice!

Yesterday, I was assigned a new property out in the country. I drove out there after completing a Cash for Keys with a property closer in to town. I approached the subject property and parked outside the driveway. There was a big truck parked by the side of the house - but it was a commercial vehicle, not a personal vehicle. I went down and knocked on the door - nobody home, but by all appearances, someone was still living there.I went back to my car, grabbed my camara, and took a bunch of pictures. I got back in my car, and saw that a neighbor lady had come out of her house and was kind of standing by the side of the road, looking like she wanted to talk to me. I pulled up to her, opened my window, and said, "Hi!"She asked why I was taking the pictures? "I'm casing the joint," I deadpanned. Ha ha, no, just kidding - I'm a professional, not a comedian, and certainly not a professional comedian. No no, what I really said was, "Well, it looks like your neighbor here lost the house to foreclosure."Thereupon we embarked upon a little friendly conversation about the wave of foreclosures that is going on, how bad the economy is, how this particular neighbor had been having problems for a long time (divorce, apparently), etc. We spoke for a few minutes, and I gave her my card, and said not to worry, the house wouldn't be boarded up, it will probably be sold pretty quickly, and hopefully the property will be sold to some sold owners. I asked her to please call me if she sees anything funny going on over at the house.And with that, I drove away. As sometimes happens, though, I started to wonder - did I get the right house? What if I made a mistake, and that wasn't the right address? I would have just posted an occupancy check notice on the door of some house that wasn't foreclosed on, and told the nieghbor lady that the house had just been lost to foreclosure! D'oh!And then this morning, as I'm sipping my coffee, browsing my RSS New Reader, I see a story in the local newspaper:From [The Santa Cruz Sentinel - Oops! Foreclosure notice in error]Bob Richter was puzzled when a man rushed up to his home in Santa Cruz Gardens one Saturday and posted a foreclosure notice offering him cash to turn in his house keys. The man took a photo of the posted notice, then left.Richter and his wife bought the house in 1977, and the mortgage is paid.It turned out the posting was in error.I hate it when that happens! Actually, it's never happened to me - the occupant of the house did call me a few hours later, and we've already worked out a cash-for-keys deal, so as soon as the lender sends over the task to work it out, I'll reply immediately with the details and get the ball rolling on it. All in a day's work.Happy 4th of July everyone!
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New Property Assignment in Salinas

I got a new property assignment today, way out in Salinas. Naturally, I had to rush right out and do an occupancy check. I've never had a property assignment that far out before, it's a good 45 minute drive from my office. Salinas is a town that has been very, very hard hit by foreclosures, and property values have been crushed. This particular house is a single-family attached residence, in a neighborhood that seems nice enough.The house had been listed for much of the year as a short sale for $469,000 or so. There was an abandoned "for sale" sign still on the property, and a notice that it had been winterized. I talked to the neighbor lady, she was nice enough, and said that the former occupants had moved out back in January.Tomorrow, I'll go back there with my locksmith. I told him hey, I can just find one in Salinas, it's a long way to drive to make $120 or whatever, but he said no no, happy to make the trip, blah blah - I guess he doesn't want to risk one of his best customers finding another locksmith...after all, Salinas is not very far from Watsonville, where most of my business is.It turns out, this place probably isn't going to sell for more than $200,000. I'll probably recommend listing it for $175,000 - I dunno, I have to do the BPO first. Ahh, BPOs. Love 'em. LOVE 'EM. Not. But now, I have to do one chop-chop, as it is due momentarily.
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