Sunday, September 19, 2010

The Big Sub2 Stick...

It has occurred to me that too many creative investors really aren't that "creative" at all, in the usual sense.

Once, creative investors defined themselves by looking beyond the obvious (thus creative) to find profitable ways to make money in real estate that traditional (non-creative) investors might look passed.

Subsequently, the creative investor found ways to make even more money during the holding time, that the average investor wouldn't consider.
Let's look at "seller financing" as an exit strategy. "Ugh!, says the traditional investor, whose only exit strategy is buy/hold/sell for cash.

Yes, seller financing is considered the red-headed step-child of exit strategies for traditional investors. Nobody wants to look at it, or claim it as their own, because to the traditional wholesaler, flipper, or merchandiser, this represents a failure to perform...

That is, the objective of the traditional investor/flipper is to buy for cash and immediately sell higher for cash. So having to finance a sale, is like saying, “Mommy, I did a boo-boo, please spank me...” Okay, maybe that’s just me... :)


The old way of flipping works fine until there's a hiccup in financing, appraisals, or inspections that make the property unsellable for the "right price". Then "Plan B" goes into play...or, "Plan C'... or, "Plan D'..., or Oh, crap, not the "Last Resort Plan?" Yes, seller financing. This exit strategy just represents a "muck up" if you will of the original plan to “get out fast for cash.”


For the Sub2 investor whom isn't bound to traditional liquidation methods, "seller financing" is "Plan A", not the “Oh, crap!” plan." Before I go further, one of the biggest sticking points about the “Oh, crap!” plan of seller financing is the risk of default by a buyer.

The average investor fears the "liar loan squat." That is, the buyer stops paying and won't move, and forces the investor to cover the payments on his own investment situation.
This is what the amateurs sweat, twitch over, and dread and dread, as if it were a diagnosis of terminal cancer, or permanent head injury (just to make it vivid).

Yawn...this only happens to amateurs who don’t know how to limit risk with the “Big Stick.”


For the professional Sub2 flipper, “liar loan squatters” are some faint anecdotal thing that happens to others. At the same time, those who inform themselves on how to limit the risk using the “Big Stick” make consistent, huge money in less time than the average investor does.


Meantime, the profits on a Sub2 deal, that appear at face-value to hover between "average and 'don't do it'," are substantial. And of course, the profits can be unbelievable on Sub2 deals that hover between "dreamy and heavenly".


However, limiting risk, is only the beginning of the profits. The juicy profits are in these five words: “Down Payments. Rinse And Repeat.” That just means knowing how to find buyers with down payments, and when/if a default occurs, elegantly moving in another buyer who can "hopefully pay", but nonetheless has ANOTHER down payment. Yay, for repeat seller financing and multiple down payments...!


Frankly, I'm only talking about seller financing of marketable homes that "everybody" would like to own...not the 45-year old, stucco boxes with one-car garages, gravel roofs, and wall heaters (I've owned many of those).
Who wants to buy one of those and put up a bunch of money...? Nobody. That's why the government invented low-income, no down, HUD loans, so buyers with no taste (j/k) can buy these unmarketable, ugly, obsolete hovels that nobody wants (after making sellers do all sorts of retrogrades to make them "habitable" and financeable).

So, what is the “Big Stick?” you might ask...? Hmmm?

You can find the "Big Stick" in my Sub2 investing course I call...
( Click Here )

No comments: