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Driscoll Enterprises Inc.

Investing in You and Your Future!

 

Issue 10 - April 2012
In this issue
Educational Corner - Renting or selling to someone who can't read.
Industry Related News - Expedited Short Sale Processing Coming
Laughs and Interesting Stuff
Projects and Opportunities
 

Dear Friends,

 

Today is the last day of the month and I am grateful to have time to put our newsletter together. As some of you know, before I got serious about real estate investing I spent more than 20 years building businesses for other people.   Today I occasionally provide management and business development consulting to companies that need a little help. Well April was a consulting month. I've booked 325 billable hours helping a local company put together a proposal to win some work from the Department of Homeland Security. It has been a challenging month, fortunately Mary Jane has kept the Real Estate Investing moving forward while I've been consulting.

 

Everyone is healthy and doing well. My mother, who is 90, had an incident at the end of March but is doing better now. One thing about having a large family is there is always something happening. We celebrated Kristina's (29) and Anna's (8) birthdays this month. We also celebrated Anna's baptism. Don and I are preparing a business plan to attract some significant private money so we can capitalize on the tremendous note buying opportunities available now. Kristina started a cleaning and organizing business and has several clients. David and Mary Jane are managing our mail campaigns. So bottom line, we're all blessed to be healthy and busy, and life is good. Hope it is for you too.  

 

To my accountability buddies - I put some weight back on this month, probably because I was eating to help keep my energy level up and stay awake during some very long days. I will double down in May.  

 

Quote of the month: "When you change your thinking you change your beliefs. When you change your beliefs you change your expectations. When you change your expectations you change your attitude. When you change your attitude you change your behavior. When you change your behavior you change your performance. When you change your performance you change your life!"- Dr. Walter Doyle Staples

 

 

    Kevin and Mary Jane

 

P.S.  If you'd like us to cover a specific item of interest in our newsletter please feel free to ask.  Also, if you have a lesson learned you would like to share we'd be happy to consider adding it to a future newsletter.

 

Renting or selling to someone who can't read?

 

Several months ago we had a resident in one of our manufactured housing communities ask if her brother could get into one of our "rent to own" homes?  The obvious answer is YES, if he qualifies.  When checking "Pete's (not his real name) background information we discovered he has worked the same job for several years which is great, but we also learned he can't read and has limited understanding.  His references and work history were solid, but how do you sign a binding contract with someone with limited understanding who can't read?

 

We contacted an attorney at Legal Shield (formally Prepaid Legal) to get some advice. They reviewed the contracts we currently use and had us add the following to our contracts.

 

_______ , ______ LEGAL COUNSEL ADVISED: I/we acknowledge the (Landlord, Seller, Optionor) has advised me/us to seek independent legal counsel to review this Agreement. (Initial only one)

 

____ I have an attorney and his or her name is______________________. My attorney has reviewed these documents.

 

____ I have an attorney and his or her name is _____________________. I do not wish to have my attorney review these documents or this transaction.

 

____ I do not have an attorney and I am aware of various legal aid clinics that may provide legal advice free or at a reduced cost, however, I do not wish to hire an attorney or seek legal advice to review these documents or this transaction.

 

Understanding:                     ,                   I/we have read and fully understand this document and agree to the terms contained within it

  • or

                        ,                       This document has been read and explained to me/us to my/our complete satisfaction in front of a witness and I/we agree to the terms and conditions as they have been explained to us.

 

Witness: I hereby attest that I witnessed this entire document read and explained to the Lessee(s) clearly and in a language they could understand and that the Lessee(s) were given ample opportunity to ask questions. Furthermore, the lessee(s) were given the opportunity to have the document reviewed by an attorney of their choice.

 

Signature:                                                                

 

Print Name:                                                              

 

Date                                            

 

We've added this clause to all of our sale, lease, rent-to-own, and option agreements. When we sat down with Pete to sign the papers we had a witness present and read the entire agreement.  After each clause he was asked if he understood or had any questions.  To avoid any misunderstandings later, the witness signed attesting to that we read and explained everything.  For added proof that we did all we could to make sure Pete understood what he was signing we videotaped the entire closing.  There were also several places for Pete to initial that he understood. 

 

We signed the contracts in November.  The payments come in on time every month, Pete is happy and has an opportunity to own his own home, and we're one step closer to filling our community; a win-win situation for all. 

By the way, because we believe in the benefits of being members of Legal Shield we signed up as representatives.   We use their services regularly and feel there is real value there, so if you want to know more please give us a call.

 

Expedited Short Sale Processing Coming

 

From: Nuwire Investor   

 

Banks have been ramping up short sales, when a bank allows a home to be bought for less than is owed on it, in the aftermath of the robo-signing scandal and foreclosures stalled. The challenge for investors and retail buyers alike is that short sale processing can take up to a year to process. Our experience is that generally, the bigger the bank, the longer the process.

 

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), announced recently they are directing the two mortgage giants to "develop enhanced and aligned strategies for facilitating short sales, deeds-in-lieu and deeds-for-lease in order to help more homeowners avoid foreclosure." It includes a requirement that mortgage servicers review and respond to short sale requests within thirty days.  

 

The new rules go into effect June 1 and with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac holding hundreds of thousands of distressed loans. The FHFA is requiring the two major banks to make final decisions on these sales within 60 days. As more short sales are processed there should be a corresponding downward pressure on home prices. However, as banks rid themselves of toxic loans the amount of money they must keep in reserve will decrease thus increasing the amount of money they have to loan, which, can help increase home demand pushing home prices higher.

 

March was the 25th consecutive month where distressed sales accounted for more than 40% of home sales in the market. The continually growing supply of homes for sale is making it difficult for prices to rebound to fair pricing levels, so prices for all types of homes continue to decline. "With nearly half of the market being distressed, we're a long way from a return to a normal market," said Thomas Popik, research director at Campbell Surveys. Think of this quote differently and you see that over half of the markets aren't distressed. The point is, remember all real estate markets are local, and some are recovering.

 

 

Laughs and Interesting Stuff 

   

Fishing With Jack Daniels   

I went fishing the other morning, but after a short time I ran out of worms. 
Then I saw a cottonmouth snake with a frog in his mouth. 

Frogs are really good bass bait.

 

Knowing the snake couldn't bite me with the frog in his mouth I grabbed that 
rattler right behind the head, took the frog, and put it into my bait bucket. 
Now the dilemma was how to release the snake without getting bit. 

So, I grabbed my bottle of Jack Daniels and poured a little whiskey into its 
mouth. 

His eyes rolled back, he went limp. I released him into the lake without 
incident and carried on fishing using the frog.

 

A little later, I felt a nudge on my foot. It was that same darn snake, with 
two more frogs.

 

 

A Gruff Old Man

 

A gruff old man, desperate for water, was plodding through the desert when he saw something far off in the distance. Hoping to find water, he hurried toward the object, only to find a little nicely dressed man with a small stand selling ties.

The old man asked, 'Do you have water?'

The tie salesman replied, 'I have no water. Would you like to buy a tie? They are only $5.'

The old man shouted, 'Idiot! I do not need an over-priced tie. I need water! I should kill you, but I must find water first!

'OK,' said the old tie salesman, 'it does not matter that you do not want to buy a tie and that you are mean. I will show you that I am bigger than that. If you continue over that hill to the east for about two miles, you will find a lovely restaurant. It has all the ice cold water you need.'

Muttering, the old man staggered away over the hill.

Several hours later he staggered back, almost dead.

'Your ******* brother won't let me in the restaurant without a tie!'

 


Projects and Opportunities 

 

In response to our new mail campaign we have received calls from several motivated sellers. So far, two of these sellers just want to get rid of their homes.  There are three capture options we can employ to help them out: assume responsibilities for the payments, execute a short sale, or buy the note from the bank. All of these options are better than foreclosure for the current owners so it creates a win-win situation for both of us.  

 

Our short sale project is still waiting for a response from the bank. We will be so glad when the new rules kick in.   

 

In May we expect to be taking possession of the manufactured home that was abandoned in one of our manufactured housing communities.  The home is in good shape on the outside and structurally solid but will require a total rehab of the inside.    

 

We continue to fill our 138 manufactured housing community in South Carolina by buying used homes, bringing them into the park, fixing them, and then selling with community or owner financing.   

 

Did you know that you can invest in real estate from your IRA or other retirement account?  You can also use your stock portfolio and invest without ever selling your stock (leverage, leverage, leverage!).  These investment secrets aren't well known but they are perfectly legal.  

Contact us and/or click on this Investment Secret link to learn more.

We are always willing to share information with you so please feel free to contact us

 

Driscoll Enterprises Inc. 332 West Lee Hwy., Suite 200, Warrenton, VA 20186

703-398-1188 or 800-887-0001

[email protected]

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