Owner Finance Guru

In baseball, the term is “balk.” It’s when you seem to be throwing home, but you throw it somewhere else.

A couple of weeks ago, I started the OwnerFinanceGuru.com web site. My intention was to build a business around what I know about owner financing of real estate transactions. I soon found out there were a couple of problems. First of all, I didn’t know as much as I thought, and there was a lot more to learn. Further, if I am honest about it, I really don’t have much interest in learning it.

The turning point came last week when I was talking to a friend who was coaching me through some business startup issues. She finally just said to me, “You don’t love this do you?”

Actually, no.

I have been studying several marketing and company startup gurus and every one says, “Do what you love.” It all came home to me when my friend asked that question.

Her next question was, “What do you WANT to do?”

I want to teach leadership and life lessons through horsemanship.

I had started with the owner financing because I could see a quicker path to making money with it. But I really don’t like it. I worked in that field as a computer nerd for 25 years, and I am ready to move on to work in what I love.

I know I don’t know everything about horses, but I am itching to learn more. Learning about owner financing? Not so much.

So, even if you got to know me through real estate links, please stay with me. I will be able to teach you some life lessons using examples I have learned in my horsemanship. Stick around.

Visit me at TheBestHorseSense.com

Have fun…

jay

In order to help stabilize hard-hit nieghborhoods, Fannie Mae has a program to get potential buyers into foreclosed homes. Fannie Mae works with non-profit organizations, such as Self-Help (self-help.org) to purchase foreclosed homes. Then the non-profits enter in to a rent-to-own agreement with borrowers who have the income, but not the credit history to qualify for a loan. The rent-to-own agreement give the tenant/borrower up to five years to qualify for a mortgage. These tenants will receive extensive credit counseling during this time.

Fannie Mae has allocated $200 million for this program. More details can be found at

http://www.fanniemae.com/homebuyers/pdf/keys_to_recovery.pdf

I have been reading lots of real estate blog entries lately and I ran across a set of posts that surprised me. Some investors who sell properties on lease options were discussing the rate at which the option is exercised. I was surprised to find out that for some investors only one out of every ten people who sign up for a lease option actually exercises the option and buys the property. Another investor said she has a 40% conversion rate, and the other investors on the blog seemed impressed.
Continue reading Lease Option: The Seller Expects the Buyer to Fail

Many investors who carry their own paper on real estate contracts like to receive the payments themselves. It’s OK to do this if you know all the rules and laws about servicing contracts. But, there are things to watch out for, and it may be better to have a professional servicing company handle the payments.

In some states, receiving payments from the buyers, calculating principal and interest, and then sending the money on to the seller is called “account servicing.” In others it’s called “escrow” or even “contract collections.” Whatever the name here are seven important reasons why you should use a servicing company to handle your notes.
Continue reading Owner Financing: Seven Reasons to Use a Servicing Company for Your Contracts

For those of you who missed it, here is a recording of my mini-seminar on February 4, 2009:

I have been spending a lot of time reading blogs about owner financing of real estate transactions, and there seems to be myth out there that you can not do owner financing if the property is not free and clear. I

1. Not getting a big enough down payment

When structuring a deal, you need to be thinking of not only what will go right, but what might go wrong. You may think you are helping out the buyer when you finance 100% of the purchase price, but you are putting yourself at risk. If the buyer doesn

At last week’s Education Steering Committee meeting, I declined to present a new course. As I tried to prepare for the presentation, I realized that I am not quite ready to give the type of presentation they wanted.

Maybe next month…

Here’s my question to you:

What would you want to hear about in a two hour class about owner financing?

I called the New Mexico Real Estate Commission last week to find out about how to get a course certified for Continuing Education Credits for real estate agents and brokers. I had looked up all the forms I need to fill out, and I knew that I have to make a presentation before the board. What surprised me was when I asked when the next board meeting is.

“Thursday, January 15 at 1:00″

Whoa. I had hoped to have a few weeks to get my curriculum together, but now I have a real short time period. Nothing like a deadline to increase your focus!

Continue reading Board Certification for Continuing Education Credits

Welcome to the Owner Finance Guru web site.

I was in the business of servicing Owner Financed Real Estate Notes for 25 years. My title was