Is it really all important to have a high FICO score? If you end up with a FICO score that falls into the toilet, how can you recover it and have good credit again? Ever? In your lifetime?

Before I answer this, let me ask you a question about how important it is to save your FICO score in these situations.

• What if you owe a zillion dollars and are paying 1/3 of your income to the bank in interest costs?
• What if you are completely upside down and you owe $100,000 more than your house is worth?
• What if you can't afford to maintain your health insurance?
• What if you're unemployed?
• What if you're advising your client on a short sale?

What should you tell them about what can and should be done to save a FICO score?

Happily, the answer is simple.

Don't be a slave to your FICO score. Don't let your clients worry about it either.

For many situations such as credit card debt settlement, you need to "go dark" and stop paying each month. Why should the bank reduce what you owe if you are paying them on time?

For short sales, you can make EVERY payment on time and STILL get out from under. There is usually no reason to ever make a late mortgage payment.

If you are on the ropes and can't afford the payments, you might end up living rent free while you don't pay ANY mortgage payment. Then you hopefully save enough money to get some really nice new place.

You can even buy "subject to" an existing loan and become a homeowner again, even if you've just come from living rent free at the expense of your old mortgage company.

With a loan mod, many of the "trial periods" require you to make reduced payments for awhile. And to get the lender's attention, NO payments is like hitting the mule with a two-by-four, and without that you won't get their (or your lender's) attention.

So many debt relief and "loss mitigation" situations require you to trash your FICO score.

Can you get it back?

There are two strategies for doing so.

The first is to settle with your creditors (or clients' creditors) with FIXING credit as a condition of settlement. There are sneaky ways of doing this, very sneaky. But legal and ethical.

The second is to do a "credit repair" thing after you're done with the debts. This works also and only costs maybe a grand. Well worth it. And it only takes 30 minutes or so to learn all you need to know about fixing anyone's FICO score. Once you know how this works, you are no longer a slave to your FICO score and you can begin to do the right thing for your family without stupidly worrying about some illusion like a "FICO score."

This video spells out some neat tricks. Enjoy and please leave a comment!

Don't buy this $28,000 home 10 minutes from Washington DC

Washington DC and Northern Virginia real estate is amonst the most expensive in the US and has declined quite modestly. A half million or even $750,000 doesn't buy a whole lot.

And yet, here are homes going for $30,000 or thereabouts, and I wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole and neither should you.

Let me explain.

One of my direct mail pieces that I sent got this interesting response.

Guy owes $100,000 on a first and maybe $35,000 on a second.

He has a one bedroom CONDO (uh oh) and he wants OUT.

It is very sad to hear these stories from real people with really bad problems but there is no hope for this one. Here's why, and here's how YOU can benefit.

Condos have severe problems so be VERY careful. This one has $400 per month in condo association fees. Think about that. $400 per MONTH. Throw in property taxes of say $100 per month and you've got $500 per month before paying for maintenance and all the things INSIDE the unit that need to be done for ANY home, condo or single family.

Now the rents here may be $1000 per month for a one bedroom, or $1500 even. So an investor will have potentially a GREAT cash flow. But really?

What about maintenance problems. The association may have fallen apart. There may be 50% or more of the dwellings in the association that are NOT paying fees. And there may be terrible plumbing, sewage, roof problems…who is going to fix those if the homeowners are all in foreclosure?

With a foreclosure HOUSE you can fix your own problems. But with a condo that has a non functional association, you can't do much about it.

That's why condos are spiraling downwards and I am very cautious today.

In fact, I'm not the only one. The condo complex is loaded with one and two bedroom condos that haven't sold for $45,000 or even $35,000. And the people who bought short sales a year or so ago in that complex have really lost equity and no doubt regret their decision to live in a falling-apart ghost complex.

Bottom line is there is a HUGE amount of opportunity in real estate but remember one lesson: you make your money when you BUY. Selling or flipping is done with something you have bought RIGHT.

And condos can be a huge mistake so be extra careful not to BUY them unless you've checked out the association and any maintenance issues that could be required in the common areas.

If you are short selling or trying to get rid of your condo, try to use these factors to your advantage when negotiating with the lender. They REALLY don't want condos back as REOs.

Can you short sale a house and buy ANOTHER short sale?

So let's say you are DOING a short sale on your house, and you want to buy another (silly you).

Can you do this?

There are several ways. First, my understanding is that Fannie and Freddie have relaxed their rules (but I am still trying to verify) so that if you put in 20% down and have done a short sale on your previous property, they will finance the new property. Again, this requires 20% down. And I haven't verified it.

What I would do is this. I would plan on a short sale, and I would buy the other property. That would require me to qualify for both loans of course. So it's problematic. But it would work.

Third option: I would finish the short sale on my first house, and then buy the second. If I do a short sale on the first house, it will show up on my credit as Paid Settled, which isn't terrible. It can be explained. The one condition is that I could NOT have any lates on my house. The house I was selling, that is. It is perfectly reasonable to do a short sale on a house while making all the payments on time. And then you won't have bad credit and you can buy another house.

I've been playing in the short sale sandbox again. There are just too many juicy opportunities not to.

One thing I'm doing is working with a real estate broker who can represent me and we can share in the deals together. This may not be strictly kosher but I am very happy with the results so far. I used to be a licensee but am no longer one and probably am better off not being one.

Also, I continue working with folks who are submitting deals and we partner together. So I am having a blast with it.

When I started teaching students I first warned my students to get rid of problem real estate. I myself was out of all real estate at the peak of the market, in July of 2005. I told everyone who would listen "sell sell sell".

Now that that's ancient history, there are many things you can do to continue profiting from the residential real estate crash, and to improve your situation if you are in trouble yourself.

I have these two videos that will help and I am doing a web training next week with the latest short sale techniques that I've come up with or seen work. And I am releasing my latest revised version of Mortgage Relief Formula and will offer only 250 copies. I expect they will be gone by the end of the week. They are not available now but will be starting on the webinar.

I'll also talk a bit about some neat credit card relief tricks, and loan mod stuff, plus 9 Day House Sale examples, so there will be a lot here for you.

Early movers who are on the webinar will get something special in addition to the unheard of offer.

Meanwhile here are some videos with info that might help you.

Please leave a comment on the blog below and I will give a special gift to one of the folks who comments.

I got an email from Ashley (not her name and I changed some of the numbers around just to respect her privacy).

Hi Richard, we have some serious issues going on right now with our
credit.

We have always had high credit score but had to borrow
from our credit cards to start our business, all has been well and
good the last 5 years borrowing from one card and paying down another
untill the economy crisis hit and all the banks lowered our limits and
raised interest so we were forced to stop paying cause we didn't want
to loose the business.

We figured we would file bancruptcy but didn't
want all our inventory to be sold and figured there's got to be
another way, then found you!

We have about 13 credit cards between my
husband and I and a total of about $220,000 in debt a 55,000 line of
credit we owe and another $20,000 to ups and another bill racking up
with a new company we bought our condo in 2006 for $400,000
w/ a interest only no money down and now it's worth $250,000 and now
our business is being hit hard by economy.

So my question is, how do we negotiate with 12 different credit card
companies all at the same time cause what if you agree with one to
start paying them back but then another won't agree or sues you wasn't
it a waste to pay the other?

And also I think we have multiple
different cards with one banks… do they add all our debt up as one total or
treat each amount seperatly?

Should we let our condo forclose or try
to renagotiate? We have not paid for 6 months now. Please help in any
way. With taking your course are we equiped enough to handle this all
on our own? Or should we use a Lawyer?

Thanks for your time
Ashley

 

I have been agonizing over Ashley's email. I know tons of people are emailing me on a daily basis with issues like this one.

So what I am doing is this. Anyone who gets my Credit Card Relief Formula can call me between 10AM and 2PM on Friday, July 23, 2010, that's EASTERN TIME. Call and we'll chat for 15 minutes about your situation. This is one-on-one. I can't guarantee I'll get to everyone but I'll do nothing but chat on the phone with my students who get Credit Card Relief Formula.

Use this link:

Click to Order Credit Card Relief Formula for Instant Use and the chance to chat on Friday

So you get the best course on getting out of debt, and hopefully you and I can speak about your situation.

And, if you have a question in the meantime, would you please leave a comment?

And I want to also provide you with some of the free material I've put together in case this isn't an affordable option or just to get you a jump start. And Ashley, this will help you answer your questions I think.

Thanks and talk soon

P.S. Please leave a comment as to whether you would be interested in this ecourse and a question you may have. Thank you!

Click to Order Credit Card Relief Formula for Instant Use and the chance to chat on Friday

Bankruptcy or debt settlement? Which is better?

This video gives you some really important perspective as to which is better, filing bankruptcy or going for debt settlement. Your views will not be the same after you watch!

So you want to settle — now, do you HAVE to quit paying on your credit cards to settle them?

This video talks about how you can settle credit card debts, the first step you must take…and how the process works.

Credit Cards - Can They Seize Bank Accounts If you Stop Paying?

This is in answer to many questions I get. If you stop paying, in order to move a settlement process along, can they seize your bank accounts or garnish your wages?

If you are sued by credit card companies — here's a FANTASTIC credit card debt law suit story

This video is a MUST SEE. It tells you what happens if the WORST happens and how it can have a surprising, even SHOCKING conclusion (you won't believe it, it's outrageous and it's the best news for people doing their own debt settlement.)

Settling Your Credit Card Debts

Finally, third major effort, she made it. Congratulations
to you, "Nikki". You are amazing. And you are one of
the very few out of hundreds of thousands who are
in these forever type "trial periods" to actually get
anywhere.

Meanwhile, if you are an investment banker with
Goldman Sachs, you are not in the recession anymore.

All over.

Another woman I spoke with yesterday was interesting.

She and her husband have amassed $130,000 in
cards she owes on. And a big second on the house.

For business purposes. She got caught in the real estate
crash. No fault of her own, really.

She said, what should we do?

I explained to her what I would do. I would settle those
obligations. And I would try for dime on the dollar type
settlements and work on getting good FICO scores
and be out of this mess in six months.

Rather than enslaving my family for year after year.

She said, but what about ethics? What about what we
teach our children about keeping our word and doing
what we say we are going to do?

I say, reality is what is real. Drop your concepts. Drop
your beliefs that are stopping you from seeing what
is real.

You are paying several THOUSAND per month forever
to the banks.

Those banks got a huge bailout from the US gubmint.

At your expense.

And the money they extended to you was PRINTED
anyway.

It is completely all set against the average person this
way.

Don't take it personally. It isn't personal. It's business.

Allowance for bad debts. Reserves set aside for expected
losses.

See what is real, settle, and move on. What a gift that
is to your family, I told this woman. To be out of
any obligations and free. And even with a decent
FICO.

Yes, The recession is over if you happen to be an investment
banker with Goldman Sachs.

If you are like the rest of us, it may not be quite over.

What many folks don't get is that this is the Depression
not a recession.

Credit was extended like crazy. The US government and
the banks and the whole world's financial system is
built on a lie. A lie that it's all about consumption and
the US consumer getting even further into it by buying
more Chinese made junk at Walmart.

Well, we don't need that. We know there are options,
don't we?

Write down what you would do in this situation, as a comment. Thanks!

 warmly,

P.S. Please leave a comment here about what you think I should
 tell these folks who I write about above.

Copyright (c) 2009 Calworth Glenford LLC. All rights reserved. Duplication of this email without written permission is prohibited.

Imagine there has been a devastating hurricane or earthquake in your community. Pick your poison.

The local government has arranged for you to spend days or weeks camping out next to hundreds of other families on the sweaty floor of the high school gymnasium.

Needless to say, the locker room showers aren't a picnic. And speaking of picnics, the food is as bad as you can get.

Now, imagine there is a family or two in your neighborhood, perhaps the folks across the street, who you can't find. Where is the Rodriguez family?

It turns out, they are staying in a local hotel, or staying at their house which did NOT get damaged.

They have plenty of food, plenty of water, plenty of space. Sanitation. Even a nice shower now and then.

What makes the Rodriguez family different is that they realized what could happen, and they prepared in advance.

You too can prepare in advance for the coming economic meltdown that 2010 will bring. And I believe you and I can work together and make the problems I will outline into huge opportunities.

Over the last 18 months, the US government has effectively taken over the entire business of financing house purchases.

Fannie and Freddie are owned by the US government and our government just announced they would subsidize Fannie and Freddie to an unlimited extent.

Meanwhile, the FHA has become the "new" subprime lender. But something like 30% of its recent loans are delinquent and the FHA is out of money.

The net result is that lending standards are tighter than they were, and won't be looser any time soon.

Plus, the US government's bailouts and guarantees mean it has to borrow something like $5000 for every man, woman and child in the United States this year alone.

That kind of borrowing RAISES interest rates.

Interest rates going UP means that house prices will head DOWN. People can't afford higher mortgage payments and the payments are already rock bottom and will only go UP, hurting prices.

Finally, there is a vast amount of shadow inventory which is sitting on the market, weighing it down.

Shadow inventory is in the form of:

1. The bank refuses to foreclose even though a borrower is months and months behind.

or

2. The bank owns the property that it has previously foreclosed on. But it won't sell the property. It just holds onto it.

or

3. The homeowner is in a "trial period" for a loan mod. Under existing rules the loan mod is hopeless but the bank continues taking some income in from the homeowner and eventually the payments will stop and the homeowner who is under water will walk away.

There are so many millions of units of shadow inventory that these will weigh on the housing market and depress prices on a continual basis.

Even if the US government were to take over these 5 or 6 million houses, and rent them out, this would depress prices.

If the US government were to demolish these houses with the wrecking ball and bulldozers, that would also have a terrible effect as wealth is destroyed. But I wouldn't be surprised if something like this is tried, quite frankly.

Yes, these are freaky times. The US government has taken over the housing market and crowded out market forces completely. You simply must account for what the government is doing when you decide what YOU should be doing.

So that's what's happening to financing. It's all government now. And the government is strapped because it must raise ever more and more money from our friends in China and the Middle East.

These lenders are getting impatient. They don't want to keep lending the US government more money.

At some point, these lenders such as China and the Middle East will start plowing their money more and more into buying companies, mines, and commodities.

They will also buy houses and anything they can get. But the trouble at that point is that the US dollar will be plummeting, with high inflation causing prices at the supermarket and the gas station to be much worse than they are now.

So in the end, unless we Americans in the know take proper precautions, we will end up like everyone else.

These issues are so profound that they will cause the housing market to fall further in 2010.

We haven't seen the bottom yet. And the major "elephant in the room" is that people in the US can't afford the houses they already own, and jobs are becoming more and more scarce.

Yes, we've had a partial recovery but this is ONLY because of the government's "stimulus".

The "first time home buyer's credit" had an effect over the 2009 Summer but now people no longer care about it. Those who could buy have bought.

So what is the solution to all this? Here is my take on it.

1. It's best to reduce your debts. Slash credit card debt, put the money you are using to give to the banks into your own savings instead.

2. Save money in various ways so you start to build a surplus you can use when things get even tighter, or to take advantage of upcoming investment opportunities.

3. For goodness sakes, don't buy and hold onto real estate. Renting is great if you are the renter but not if you are the landlord.

4. Start focusing on making MONEY from today's upcoming further decline in real estate prices. You can do flipping, including virtual flipping without ever leaving your house. You can help people who own commercial property to get new money, refinance, or work out their problems. There are numerous opportunities to make CLAMS by helping make today's mess BETTER.

I will be introducing a new program that will help you achieve all of the above in 2010 and do so for an amazingly affordable price.

Remember, we do NOT want to end up camping out on that cold, hard smelly high school gym floor for weeks months or years. We want to be PREPARED and to be PROFITING from the grief we can see coming up clearly in 2010.

2010 can be our best year ever simply by realizing what is going on, and preparing to take advantage of it rather than just being a passive victim as this "hurricane" or "earthquake" predictably passes through our neighborhood.

warmly

P.S. Please leave a comment here about what you would like to see in the upcoming training. Thanks!

Copyright (c) 2009 Calworth Glenford LLC. All rights reserved. Duplication of this email without written permission is prohibited.

Dime on the Dollar(tm), Mortgage Relief Formula(tm) and the 9 Day House Sale are trademarks of Calworth Glenford LLC. Nothing here should be taken as legal or financial advice. See a professional who is familiar with your situation! We can't make claims that you will achieve any given level of earnings because most people don't achieve much in this regard and we can't tell who WILL and who WON'T work a program to the max!

How to get principal reductions — free webinar coming up

Lender won't deal with you. They just stall you out. Or they don't respond to your calls. Or they say "your income is too high. Or too low."

Here's an answer.

It's a forensic audit. The Big Legal Gun that can get you from dealing with glorified "customer service" people (in loss mitigation) to the legal department.

Three stories of regular people who got very large principal reductions and what they did

Why mortgage lenders often PREFER foreclosure, and a huge secret that can make them change their mind real quick

How you can tell a REAL audit from a fake one…you won't fool your lender, and a REAL audit will make them quake in their boots, but a so-called "audit" from these sources (all over the web) can make them laugh at you instead

How to modify investor-owned properties so they say "YES" instead of "I"m sorry but there's nothing we can do."

This powerful trick puts you in the driver's seat maybe 70% of the time.

We'll be holding a FREE webinar very soon on loan modifications in today's climate, principal reductions, forensic audits, going through foreclosure and even bankruptcy while keeping good credit, and much more.

Monday

Imagine you can talk to flat out experts who are doing hundreds of loan mods successfully. And imagine you can get hard data from highly placed sources who work directly for lenders and servicers. And further, imagine that you are on the inside directly speaking to judges and lawyers who are dealing with thousands of cases, winning for the homeowner.

What would you ask?

What would you want to know?

I am already making calls to highly placed sources, including some of my subscribers. Thanks to you, I have the strength of numbers and can get access to people who may not speak to a homeowner or someone who is in the mod business.

I want to put the trust and power you have given me to good use.

I am thinking we can put together the killingest loan mod information anywhere.

I'm thinking right now something along the lines of:

• How to determine if it's worth doing a forensic audit, and what that means and what it should cost and who should do it. What result can you expect?
• How can you stop paying and not get foreclosed on?
• How can you get lenders to move who have simply been stalling you?
• What can you do for your clients when nothing seems to be working?
• What's the real story about dealing directly with the investor as opposed to the servicer?

Please read this caution

There is a lot of hot air in every industry especially one like this, that is so "hot" right now because so many financial lives are at stake. I want to remind you to take everything you hear with a huge grain of salt. I am publishing comments and suggestions from people but I have not checked them out.

In the past I found a lot of people make assertions that sound real, but in the end, when you check into them, they turn out to be largely fiction. I'm not sure of anything that I hear or read without checking it out with real experts who have credentials I can verify to my satisfaction.

I am a gatekeeper of information and I can't take a chance on a flyer with someone who says this or says that, without some proof.

That said, I still..

Could use your help. What else do you need to know??

Tell me what you would want to ask and what you would want to know, if you had the most killer experts at your beck and call.

I'm working on it now and will keep you updated right here. Tell me what you are interested in, your situation. And I will let you know when I have put something together that is ready for you.

warmly

–Richard Geller

Saturday

Here's what concerns me about loan mods today.

Many folks are finding that their loan mod is being stalled out.

Most of the lenders are giving these three months forebearance agreements or temporary workouts. The idea is that you get a lower payment for the three months, and then you may or may not get your loan mod at that time.

The result is a lot of people, maybe a hundred thousand, a million or more, in limbo right now.

I am thinking of doing a webinar series on loan mods. I'd have a few experts on who are doing loan mods right now. Would you want to take part? Please make a comment with your thoughts and situation. Would you be interested in this course?

Thanks!

–Richard Geller

P.S. if you are a real expert, I'd like to hear from you. I've already got a few peeps who have a lot to contribute that have made contact through this. If you are an expert on forensics, TILA, loan mods, produce the note, let me know by leaving a comment. It's up to our community here to get inside information to folks who are just in this terrible limbo right now. Thank you!

This video shows you how you can get short sale flipping house deal flow. It makes it really easy because you can get flipping house opportunities brought to you on a silver platter!

Click here to register for next week's flipping workshop. Limit 250 people

Click here to register for next week's flipping workshop. Limit 250 people

Because the servicer doesn't know what you know.

And you don't know how to present things to the servicer so they practically beg you to get rid of the property, practically at any price.

This secret in this video can be used to make short sales quick and to turn them into no cash flipping opportunities.

If you can get the servicer (lender) to accept a low enough valuation, you will practically always find flipping opportunities.

Click here to register for next week's workshop. Limit 250 people

How flipping opportunities are everywhere

What if you could get the servicer to accept quite a below market valuation on the property? You could easily find someone to buy the property from you at a bit of a higher price. They would still get an extraordinary deal. And you would pocket a bunch of profit.

What if you could repeat this again and again, day in and day out?

What if you could have other agents and brokers bring you deals and what if you had to do virtually no work? Because someone else was doing ALL the work.

And someone else was putting up ALL the money.

We will be presenting a unique workshop next week, stuff nobody is using except a very select few. I got someone who has done hundreds this way to reveal what he is doing and this is dynamite, absolute dynamite, even if you aren't flipping anything and even if you never thought about doing short sales at all.

Click here to register for next week's workshop. Limit 250 people