Investing In Real Estate With Lex Levinrad

• The Opportunity With Section 8 Rental Properties

  TRANSCRIPT   Hi everyone, welcome to the Investing in Real Estate Show. This is your host, Lex Levinrad. On today's episode, I want to talk to you about the opportunities in today's market with rental properties. We have a very unique set of circumstances that have led us to where we are now. The first thing we saw was the absolutely crazy increase in prices that happened after COVID, from 2020 to 2022. There was a huge jump—most areas increased at least 50%. In some areas, prices went up as much as 70%, 80%, even 100%. With this huge price increase, it became nearly impossible to find cash flow. It just didn’t exist. But there was another thing that happened after COVID—a direct result of COVID—and that was the inflation effect. The government pumped a lot of money into the economy with EIDL loans and PPP loans, and people were flush with cash. This is one of the reasons prices went up so much. And it wasn’t just real estate—everything went up. Even the prices of Rolex watches increased. There was simply too much money floating around in the system. The net result of that was inflation, which we were all aware of. Suddenly, rents were going up, along with the price of food, gas, and everything else. The concept of rents going up is very important. Regular market rents increased quite a bit. Looking at my own rentals, for example, a property that rented for $1,300 went to $1,475, then the following year to $1,550, and the next year to $1,675. That’s a significant increase. I have a HUD Fair Market Rent tool on my website at www.lexlevinrad.com/hud. You can use it to see fair market rents. You simply select your state and city, and then you can view all the ZIP codes in that city. For example, if you’re in Florida, you could choose Broward County, then Fort Lauderdale, and then view the rents HUD pays for a three-bedroom in each ZIP code. This tool works nationwide. One thing to note is that the number you see is the maximum amount, including utilities. If HUD lists the maximum at $2,100, my experience is that actual Section 8 rents end up around $1,900. I generally deduct $200–$250 from the HUD number to get a realistic rent amount. Before buying a property, I recommend calling the housing authority in the area. If you’re thinking about renting a property with Section 8 in Deerfield Beach, Florida, for example, call the Deerfield Beach Housing Authority and say, “I’m a landlord with a three-bedroom, two-bathroom rental. What rent could I get for Section 8?” Even better, visit them in person. Many times, they have flyers or TV monitors showing current rental listings. You must first understand what you can get for rent because cash flow is your top priority when buying rental properties. Many people in real estate have heard the phrase “location, location, location.” I think this is often misleading. You can buy in the best location in the world—even Beverly Hills—but if you overpay or it doesn't have cash flow, you’ll lose money. Yes, location is important, but if you had to choose between a great location with a bad return or a less desirable location with a strong return, I would choose the strong return. For example, I lived in Boca Raton, Florida, for 20 years. It’s an upscale, highly desirable area. If you’re buying for appreciation potential, that makes sense. But if you’re buying rentals, you’re not living in the property—your tenant is. When you buy rentals, what matters most is how much rent you can get and whether it will cash flow. Cash flow is rule number one. If you’re starting out, Section 8 is a good place to begin. I’m not saying you’ll stay there forever—eventually, you may want to own rentals in higher-quality neighborhoods with higher-quality tenants—but when starting, cash flow is key. Areas with low prices and high rents give the best returns. A great place to start is by checking Section 8 rent amounts with the HUD tool at www.lexlevinrad.com/hud. You enter your state, city, and ZIP code to see what HUD will pay for a three- or four-bedroom. That’s tool number one. Tool number two is price. We currently have an unusual set of circumstances making rentals an especially good opportunity. First, real estate prices peaked in 2022. In Florida—especially the condo market—prices have since dropped significantly. In some areas, I’ve seen 30% declines from the peak. Some markets, like Boca Raton, are holding strong, but others—Palm Bay, Kissimmee, and similar—have dropped more. It’s not just Florida. Markets like Houston, Las Vegas, and Phoenix have cooled considerably. The second factor is how much rent you are getting. Section 8 rents are set by the government, and because of inflation, HUD’s rent amounts have increased dramatically. Properties renting for $1,500 two years ago may now rent for $2,000. This means that while prices have come down, rents have gone up, creating cash flow opportunities. For example, in Florida, a $200,000 ARV (after-repair value) house might rent for $2,000 on Section 8. That meets the “1% rule”—rent is 1% of purchase price. Traditionally, the rule of thumb was not to pay more than 100 times monthly rent. If you buy at full retail price, put 25% down, and get a conventional mortgage, you might have cash flow. But I teach my students not to buy retail. Instead, I teach the Buy, Repair, Rent, Refinance (BRRR) method—buy at a discount, fix it up, rent it out, and refinance. We typically buy at 50–60 cents on the dollar. For a $200,000 ARV house, that means paying around $100,000–$110,000. This is possible if you find motivated sellers—people in foreclosure, probate, tax delinquency, bad tenants, fire or flood damage, etc. Once repaired and rented, you refinance at 75% of appraised value. If it appraises at $200,000, the bank will lend $150,000. If you bought and renovated for $150,000 total, you get your money back. If it appraises higher, you may even pull cash out. The challenge for new investors is finding these discounted deals. That’s why I focus on teaching motivated seller marketing. If you don’t have the cash to buy and repair, there are creative ways to raise it—private lenders, partners, 401(k) loans, home equity lines, even credit cards for materials. I often lend my coaching students money for their first deal if it’s a good one. Your mindset is key. Many people think they can’t do it because they don’t have the cash. But with the right deal, money is not the problem—finding the deal is. Now is a rare opportunity: prices are down, rents are up, and foreclosures, short sales, and bank-owned properties are increasing. With the BRRR method, you can buy with little or no money down, create equity, and generate monthly cash flow.  We have the Buying Rentals and Building Wealth Boot Camp coming up next weekend. To learn more visit https://www.lexlevinrad.com/buying-rentals-building-wealth-boot-camp/  We have 3 preview tickets left for the Buying Rentals and Building Wealth Boot Camp.  To grab one of those tickets call my office now at (561) 948-2127  

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• How To Make more Money

  On today’s podcast episode I talk about how to make more money.  I talk to some students at my real estate training events who are looking for ways to increase their income. Not everyone is interested in waiting years to build wealth and equity with rental properties. Some people are looking to make more money now. And that is what today’s podcast episode is about.  Many new real estate investors are attracted to real estate investing and specifically wholesaling and flipping houses, because they are looking for an easy way to make more money. But I have noticed that these people who are looking to make more money usually have either a spending issue or an income issue.   People that are looking for more income usually have a few things in common. They have too much credit card debt, may have student loans, have too many expenses, and not enough income to cover all of those expenses.  The net result is a struggle to pay the bills every month. What we call the “rat race”. How do you get out of that struggle of living paycheck to paycheck?  For some it’s a spending issue where they simply spend too much money relative to their income. For other’s it’s an income issue where they simply need to learn how to make more money. For most people it’s a combination of both too much spending and not enough income.  And what is surprising is that I see this even with people who have relatively high incomes of $150,000 or more. People tend to increase their expenses as they increase their income. And that is what keeps them stuck in the rat race. Keeping up with the Joneses, buying new cars and nicer houses to impress your neighbors is a poverty cycle that will keep you broke forever. So how does one learn how to make more money? Is the answer to get a better job? Or is it to switch jobs or even get a second job?  The answer lies with none of these. Instead what is needed in order to make more income is to gain specialized knowledge. A person working at a fast food restaurant does not have specialized knowledge and that is why they make $13 an hour. Anyone could do their job. Few want to. They have no specialized knowledge. The more specialized knowledge you have, the more money you will make. You need to learn specialized skills. A good example of a specialized skill is learning how to be a property scout or deal locator. We call these people “real estate bird dogs” in the industry. If I paid you $5,000 or $10,000 for every house that you found for me, then how many houses would you need to find per month to exceed the income from your job? The answer is not many at all. If you knew how to find houses you would have a specialized skill that could make you a lot more money than what you are currently making.   If you become good at locating wholesale real estate deals at discounted prices, then getting paid to find these deals by an investor like me will make you a lot of money. Learning how to flip these deals to other investors for a profit is a specialized skill called “wholesaling” which can make you a lot more money than what you are getting paid at your job. It’s a specialized skill. And it’s a skill that you can learn. I teach this skill at the Wholesaling Real Estate Boot Camp. Learning how to buy foreclosures and bank owned properties is a specialized skill too. I teach this at the Foreclosures and Bank Owned Properties Boot Camp. Even learning how to buy rental properties at a discount and how to employ the Buy, Repair, Rent and Refinance Method is a specialized skill. I teach my students how to do this at the Buying Rentals and Building Wealth Boot Camp. These specialized skills will make you a lot of money because most people do not possess this knowledge.  Regardless of your real estate investing strategy, whether you want to buy and rent, fix and flip, or wholesale and flip you need to know how to find deals. The more deals you can find, the more money you will make. And that skill set of knowing how to find deals is very valuable.  Doctors and dentists, and other busy professionals that want to buy rental properties don’t have time to search for and locate deals. They want someone to bring deals to them. That is why wholesalers get paid so much to locate deals. The skill set of learning how to locate deals is a skill set that you can learn. I have taught over 7,000 students these skill sets at my real estate training events.  Learn how to buy foreclosures and bank owned properties at the Foreclosures and Bank Owned Properties Boot Camp. Learn how to be a deal finder and get paid to find deals with my Real Estate Bird Dog and Partnership Program. Learn how to find wholesale deals at the Wholesaling Real Estate Boot Camp. Learn how to fix and flip houses at the Fixing and Flipping Houses Boot Camp. Learn how to buy rental properties and build wealth at the Buying Rentals and Building Wealth Boot Camp. These are all specialized skills that can be learned.  If you learn these specialized skills you will have specialized knowledge, and you will make more money, increase your income and increase your net worth.  If you want to learn more about my real estate training programs, boot camps and coaching call my office at (561) 948-2127 and speak to one of my Student Support Managers.  

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• Understanding the BRRR Method

  On today's podcast episode I talk about the Buy, Repair, Rent and Refinance strategy commonly referred to as the BRRR Method. This is one of my favorite real estate strategies and one of the easiest ways that I know to create long term wealth with real estate.  The Buy, Repair, Rent and Refinance Strategy was the method that I used to make my first million dollars in real estate. It has helped me, and many of my students become multi millionaires. Ironically, out of all the real estate investing strategies that there are, it's the easiest strategy to employ for a beginner and requires the least amount of effort. The BRRR Method consists of four components BUY REPAIR RENT REFINANCE BUY The first step is to find a rental property that would work using the BRRR Method. Your goal is to find a property that you can buy, repair, rent and refinance where all of the costs of the purchase and renovation of the property are covered. Once you locate a property, you purchase it using a loan from a private lender. I teach my students how to get private lender loans at my real estate training events.  REPAIR  The second step is to repair and renovate the property. We call this stage the "rehab" stage. Before you can rent the house to a tenant, you will need to make the property rent ready. How much work is required to make the property rent ready depends on the property. Some houses only need a new coat of paint and fresh carpets. Others require more renovation like updating the flooring, the kitchen, and the bathrooms. Some houses require major renovation like new roofs, central air conditioning, plumbing or electrical work. In some cases you may be able to buy a property that is already rented (with a tenant in place). In this scenario you can skip the repairs because the house is already rented and does not need to be repaired. However, usually, for the BRRR Method to work, you would need to buy the property at a substantial discount to market value. And that means that most of the time the property would require repairs. RENT  The third step is to rent the property. You will need to have a tenant in place in order to be able to refinance your mortgage. The bank will want to see the amount of rent that the tenant is paying, and will want to verify this by getting a copy of the lease, and also by confirming that the rent is being deposited into your bank account. You would typically collect the first month's rent, last month's rent and a security deposit from the tenant when renting out the house. REFINANCE The fourth step is to refinance the mortgage to a lower interest rate fixed mortgage. In order to refinance the mortgage the bank will require an appraisal. For investment properties, banks will typically lend 75% of the appraisal value. A house that appraises for $200,000 would be able to get a mortgage for $150,000.  The goal with the refinance is to get enough money from the bank in the refinance to pay off the private lender and to cover the purchase price and the repairs plus all closing costs and other fees like points, interest, and insurance. Done correctly, (like in the example I used in this podcast episode) you can buy a house with no money down using the BRRR Method.  EXAMPLE On the podcast episode I spoke about a house that could be purchased for a purchase Price $80,000. Assume you could get a private lender loan from someone like me for $70,000. If this property required repairs of $30,000 and fees and points and closings costs were $10,000 then your total cost to purchase and repair this property would be $120,000.  After the house was repaired, let's say you rented it to a tenant for $2,000 which is the going market rate. Now that the house is rented, your goal would be to refinance the mortgage so your mortgage broker orders and appraisal and the house appraises for $200,000. The bank is willing to lend you 75% of the appraisal amount which is $150,000. I recommend the 15 year fixed rate mortgage so that your house is paid off in 15 years (or less if you pay a little extra each month). You have to pay back the private lender loan of $70,000. You also want to pay yourself back the cost of the repairs ($30,000) plus the cost of the fees and points and closing costs from when you purchased the house ($10,000). In some cases you may have used Home Depot cards to pay for materials and you may have paid your contractor with a credit card.  HERE IS THE BREAKDOWN Purchase Price $80,000 Private Lender Loan $70,000 Fees and Points $10,000 Total Cost $90,000 Repairs $30,000 Total Cost Including Repairs $120,000 Your Cash Out of Pocket (or credit cards used or a combination of both) would be the $10,000 down payment, plus $10,000 in closing costs, points, fees and insurance plus the $30,000 in repairs. The total cash out of pocket would be $50,000. This could be borrowed from a relative or friend or it could be a combination of credit cards, savings and Home Depot cards.   APPRAISAL Appraisal $200,000 Bank Loan: $150,000  Pay off Private Lender $70,000 (you are left with $80,000) Pay yourself back the $10,000 down payment Pay yourself back for the repairs $30,000 (or pay off the Home Depot Card) Pay yourself back for the fees, points, closing costs and insurance $10,000 Refinance Fees $5,000 Cash left over $25,000 EQUITY At this point you would have a house that is appraised at $200,000 with a mortgage of $150,000. Your equity would be $50,000. You also have the cash left over from the refinance which is $25,000. You would have increased your net worth by $75,000 by buying this property.  HOLD THE PROPERTY UNTIL THE MORTGAGE IS PAID OFF Assuming that the value of the house doubles in 15 years, and the rent doubles in 15 years then you would own a $400,000 house free and clear (with no mortgage) and you would have $4,000 per month in rent coming in (in 15 years). This is how you become wealthy. If your goal was to have $20,000 per month coming in, then all you would need to have is 5 of these houses. What makes this such a powerful strategy is that you are not limited and can buy as many houses as you want. As long as they fit the formula, you can buy unlimited real estate. So in the example above if you borrowed the $50k from a combination of your savings, a relative and credit cards then when you refinance you would have that money back and would be able to do it again and again and again. And if you get 15 year mortgages, then no matter what happens in those 15 years, your mortgage will get paid off and you will own the property free and clear. And if you pay a few hundred dollars extra each month you can have your mortgage paid off in as little as 10 years. CREATING WEALTH AND FINANCIAL FREEDOM The BRR Method is the easiest way to create wealth and financial freedom. This is the easy way to get wealthy but it does require patience. And it works, as so many of my students can tell you!  If you want to learn how to get started with the BRRR Method I encourage you to attend the Buying Rentals and Building Wealth Boot Camp where I teach the BRRR Method. You can find out more information about that boot camp at this link: https://www.lexlevinrad.com/buying-rentals-building-wealth-boot-camp/ If you want to increase your returns by 3 to 5 times and pay off your mortgage quicker, then you can rent the properties to short term tenants using the Airbnb platform instead of long term tenants. We teach this Airbnb method at our Airbnb and Short Term Rentals Boot Camp. If you want to learn more about my real estate training program, and more about our upcoming events, boot camps and my coaching program visit www.lexlevinrad.com or call my office and speak to one of our Student Support Managers at (561) 948-2127.

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• How To Buy Houses in 2025

  On today's podcast episode I talk about how to buy houses in 2025 and what to look out for as an investor when buying in today's market.  The past 3 years have been an interesting time for real estate investors - especially in Florida. We have seen interest rates move up from a low of 2.65% in 2022 to above 7% by October 2023. This rapid increase in interest rates which was orchestrated by the Fed to reduce inflation had a very sobering effect on the real estate market.  Prices peaked around July 2022 and have been on a gradual decline ever since. Over the past year, the market has shifted from a seller's market where it was easy to sell, to a buyer's market where buyers can be very selective. Sellers have been slashing prices on properties listed on the MLS and inventory has been rapidly increasing in many areas. In some areas like Southwest Florida, in some cities the number of listings on the MLS has quadrupled over the past few years. Some of the notable changes that have occured over the past few years are: Hedge Funds, Private Equity Funds and iBuyers stopped buying houses. These same hedge funds and private equity funds are now selling houses. Builders have had to slash prices and provide incentives to lure buyers in. Higher interest rates and prices means less buyers can qualify for a mortgage. Banks and mortgage lenders are becoming much more cautious on lending.  So how have these changes affected real estate investors who are wholesaling and flipping houses, fixing and flipping houses, and buying rentals and Airbnb's? The first major change is you have to be very weary of sold comps (comparable sales). A house that sold 3 months ago may have gone under contract 5 months ago, and prices may have been ten percent higher. If you are planning on fixing and flipping and it usually takes you four to six months from purchase to sale, it may now take you longer to sell, and you may have to decrease the asking price. During that longer holding period, you will have additional interest payments. You may also be looking at an additional ten percent decline in pricing by the time the house sells.  For investors that are fixing and flipping, they have a situation where prices are coming down and they may continue to come down. I recommend that you build in a profit margin of 10% from sold comps, and then add an additional 10% for potential price declines. This is a very conservative assumption, but it will help you stay profitable and out of trouble. It will also make you reject almost all deals that are presented to you. In this market you will need to buy at deep discounts. Keep an eye on home builders and the pricing of new homes because that is also putting downward pressure on comparable sales. If a brand new 1,800 square foot home that was built in 2025 is selling for $380,000 then why would someone pay $350,000 for your 1989 house that you fixed up which is only 1,200 square feet? Don't only look at sold comps because if you do you will over estimate the ARV and what the house could be sold for. Always pay attention to the home builders because their pricing puts a ceiling on comparable sales. If you are watching the builders, then you will know when they are slashing prices and you will be able to adjust your comparable sales and ARV accordingly. In today's market it is more important to look instead at current listings on the MLS than comparble sales. Pay attention to how long homes have been listed (days on market) and how much sellers are slashing their asking prices. Sold comps may tell you a house is worth $350,000, but if there are 3 houses listed for sale at $320,000 then ask yourself if you called the realtor and made an offer would the seller accept $310,000 or $300,000?. If the answer is yes, then the ARV today is $300,000 (not $350,000). And yes that is a shocking price decline. But it's also reality. If you are fixing and flipping, if today's ARV is $300,000 what will it be in six months?  I recommend that you consider reducing your ARV estimate by an additional 10% to account for potential additional price declines and you run your offer price off of those numbers. If you are fixing and flipping be very conservative and buy at deep discounts! This means you probably will need to reject most deals that are presented to you. You won't find a great deal from a wholesaler who is marking up their price by $50,000 or $100,000. Also watch out for ARV estimates from wholesalers (they are probably too high). If you are wholesaling, consider that your cash buyer investors are the fixers and flippers described above. If they are buying deep, you will need to get houses under contract at deeper discounts in order to be able to flip them to those buyers for a profit. If you are buying at 60 cents on the dollar, you will not have a problem flipping houses. The days of paying 80% of ARV and flipping a house for 90% of ARV are over. Wholesalers will have less cash buyers to flip houses to because their cash buyers are more conservative now. If you are wholesaling, learn how to buy at deeper discounts and get better at estimating rehab costs and ARV.  For investors that are landlords buying rental properties, the game is a little easier. Since your time horizon is long term, you don't have to worry about short term price declines over the next year or two. If your goal is to buy rental properties and get 15 year fixed rate mortgages then what happens over the next year or two is irrelevant. Think longer term and focus on properties that cash flow where you can employ the Buy, Repair, Rent, and Refinance method. Your goal should be to buy as many rentals as possible with no money down using the BRRR Method. Any price declines over the next year or two will be your opportunity to buy more houses at better prices and deeper discounts. Make sure you only buy properties that cash flow by at least $500 per month and you will do well in this market. At some point, prices will bottom and start going back up. When that day comes, the investor that purchased the most rental properties wins. The more rental properties that you can buy before the market bottoms and turns back up the better. Your net worth and your financial future depend on it. If you want to become a millionaire focus on buying ten rental properties and holding them long term.  If you want to learn how to build wealth with rental properties, I strongly recommend that you join my real estate training program and attend the Buying Rentals and Building Wealth Boot Camp. At this boot camp, I teach my students how to buy houses with no money down, using the Buy, Repair, Rent, Refinance Strategy. This strategy has made myself and many of my students millionaires. It can do the same for you. I also recommend that you learn how to to employ this BRRR method with Airbnb short term rentals as an exit strategy instead of only focusing on long term rentals. Instead of Buy, Repair, Rent, Refinance you can Buy, Repair, Airbnb and Refinance.  I teach my students how to do this at the Airbnb and Short Term Rentals Boot Camp and is part of my real estate training program . Many of my students have transitioned from being landlords with long term rentals to Airbnb. The cash flow is 3 to 5 times higher and I have students that are making $130,000 a year from just one Airbnb. One of my students made $ $100,000 last month on Airbnb. If you want financial freedom, learning how to buy rentals and how to build wealth long term with the buy, repair, rent refinance strategy is a game change. If you employ buy, repair rent, refinance together with Airbnb you will create your financial freedom much faster.  One last note. You may think that based on what you just read (and heard) that you should "hold off" on buying real estate and wait for prices to come down. That is not the case. Many of my students are finding great deals right now that cash flow like crazy. I purchased 4 houses last week. We are in buying mode and any price dips will result in us buying even more aggresively. Buy anything that makes sense and that cash flows. Just remember to buy at a deep discount!   

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• Bidding on Online Auction Sites

  On today’s podcast episode, I talk about bidding on online auction sites, and buying bank owned properties and foreclosures.  In order to understand buying foreclosures and bidding on bank owned properties on online auction sites, it’s important that you understand the foreclosure process and how it works. I will be covering this in detail at the Foreclosures and Bank Owned Properties Boot Camp next weekend. You can learn more about the Foreclosures and Bank Owned Properties Boot Camp at the link below:  https://www.lexlevinrad.com/foreclosures-bank-owned-properties-boot-camp/  There are 4 stages to foreclosure: Pre-Foreclosure Foreclosure Foreclosure Auction Bank Owned Property Pre-Foreclosure In the pre-foreclosure stage, the homeowner is late on their mortgage payments. They can be 30 days, 60 days, 90 days or 120 days late. According to the Dodd Frank Act, banks cannot pursue a foreclosure lawsuit until a homeowner is 120 days late so any homeowner who is late up to 120 days (or until the bank initiates a foreclosure lawsuit) is considered in pre-foreclosure. You can market to these homeowners by accessing  30 60 90 day late mortgage lists from data providers and marketing to these homeowners before they go into foreclosure.  Foreclosure After the bank has initiated a foreclosure lawsuit (known as “Lis Pendens” in Judicial States like Florida), the homeowner is now in foreclosure. Foreclosure is public record and you can get access to this data by using data providers like Propstream (you can get a free 7 day trial at https://www.lexlevinrad.com/propstream/) Many real estate investors download the foreclosure list and market to homeowners in foreclosure by mailing postcards and letters. Investors can purchase these properties before the foreclosure auction directly from the homeowner. On new foreclosure filings, a foreclosure auction date has not yet been scheduled, but after a few months, a foreclosure auction date may have already been set. It’s very important to understand this and to know if there is a foreclosure auction date and what that date is. Any investor can buy the property for cash directly from the homeowner up to theoretically the day of the foreclosure auction. In reality if you were using a title company and you were going to do a lien search, you would want to close at least a few days before the foreclosure auction which means you would need to sign a contract with the homeowner no later than 3 weeks before the foreclosure auction date.   Foreclosure Auction Investors can register to bid on the property at the foreclosure auction which is held online by the County Clerk in most counties. I do not recommend buying at the foreclosure auction since you are not guaranteed to receive free and clear title and the property may have liens and building violations attached to it.  At the foreclosure auction, the property is sold to the highest bidder. The bank will have a representative who is usually an attorney who will bid up to or very close to the amount of the original mortgage that was owed by the homeowner. This is done to protect the bank's interest for the amount of the money owed. In the event that the bank is the highest bidder (because other investors don’t want to bid that high), then the property will go back to the bank. At this point the mortgage is wiped out and the bank now owns the property and it becomes a bank owned property.  Bank Owned Property (REO) Once the property goes back to the bank it becomes a bank owned property or REO (which stands for real estate owned by the bank). The goal of the bank is to get rid of this property as fast as possible. They do this by only selling to cash investors. They do not allow mortgages because the bank wants a quick sale and does not want to wait to see if the house will appraise or if the buyer can get approved. The bank only accepts cash offers and requires all offers to have a proof of funds letter showing that the buyer has the funds available to purchase the property. We provide a proof of funds letter to all students that are in our real estate training program.  The ideal buyer for a bank is an investor that will pay cash and waive all contingencies including inspections. Why is this ideal for the bank? Because the buyer cannot back out. There are no appraisals, surveys, inspections or requirements to be approved for a mortgage, so for the bank this type of offer is the one that is most likely to close and sell fast for cash (which is what the bank wants).  Once the bank owns the property, they assign an asset manager in their loss mitigation department to oversee the sale of the property. This asset manager hires a few local real estate agents and requests a BPO which is a broker's price opinion on what the property should be listed for and what the current value of the property is.    The asset manager then chooses one of these agents to be the listing agent and list the property on the MLS. Investors can see these bank owned properties on the MLS and make an offer to purchase the property by contacting the listing agent.  Online Auction Sites In some cases, the bank chooses to use an online auction site like www.hubzu.com, www.auction.com or www.xome.com to sell the property. While the property is still listed on the MLS, all buyers are required to bid online using the online auction platform that the bank chooses (instead of contacting the listing agent). This information about what auction platforms is being used is readily available in the comments section of the MLS Listing and can even be visible on www.realtor.com  and www.zillow.com  Anyone can go to these online auction sites and register to bid. The key thing to understand is that the price on the MLS may be the starting bid price and not the price that the bank is willing to accept. On all online auctions there is a “reserve price” which is the minimum price that the bank is willing to sell the property for. If a property does not sell or does not meet the reserve price then it is listed again until it is sold. In order to bid on online auction sites you will be required to register. Part of the registration process is for them to verify your identity and for them to require you to provide a credit card for the bid deposit. If you bid on a property and you are the winning bidder, the auction site will deduct the amount of the auction deposit from your credit card. This amount will only be refunded to you if you close on the property.  If you do not sign the purchase contract or if you choose not to buy the property you will lose the bid deposit. Each site has different bid deposits and the bid deposits change often. Most of the properties listed on online auction sites have a bid deposit of around 3% to 5% of the purchase price. Each online auction specifically states the required bid deposit in the listing. Make sure you pay attention to that before you bid.  Proof of Funds Letter You will also be required to upload a proof of funds letter to show the bank that you have the funds available to purchase the property for cash. If you have a bank account statement with the funds readily available use that. If you don’t then you can use a proof of funds letter. We provide all of our students in our training program with a proof of funds letter for them to bid on online auctions and bank owned properties. Government Sponsored Entities (GSE’s) Another set of online auction sites are Government Entity Sites like HUD, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. You can see HUD Homes on www.hudhomestore.com. Fannie Mae Homes are listed on www.homepath.com, and Freddie Mac Homes are listed on www.homesteps.com although Freddie Mac currently has a partnership with www.auction.com  where the Freddie Mac properties are listed on their platform instead. Learn How To Buy Foreclosures and Bank Owned Properties Foreclosures are skyrocketing. 1 in every 247 homes in Florida had a foreclosure filing in 2024. There are millions of homeowners that are in pre-foreclosure and foreclosure. There will be many opportunities to buy properties at huge discounts from homeowners that are in some stage of the foreclosure process. Foreclosures that are sold at the foreclosure auction will become bank owned properties. Learning how to buy and bid on these bank owned properties on the MLS and on bank owned property websites will be critically important in 2025. If you are looking to buy your first rental or fix and flip or if you are looking to wholesale and flip your first house then you need to learn how to buy bank owned properties.  Understanding how to bid on government entity websites like HUD, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will open up your options to buy more properties at a discount. Some bank owned properties sell for as low as 50 cents on the dollar (or less). If you want to get started buying foreclosures and bank owned properties, make sure you register to attend the Foreclosures and Bank Owned Properties Boot Camp which is coming up next weekend. There are only a few seats left. If you want to attend, call my office at (561) 948-2127.

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