Real Estate Investors - Remember The Impound Cash

Mark Walters Those new to real estate investing often fail to take action
because they don't have much cash. The truth is that the
very best investors got their start when they had little or
no money.

When you start at the bottom you have to work harder and
smarter. You have to make every penny count... and in doing
so you learn how to put together the most profitable deals.

Right now one of the very best ways for newbies to get started
is to buy property buy taking over the payments of an existing
loan. It's called buying "subject to".

You generate income to make the mortgage payments by quickly
leasing the property. Lease payments pay make the mortgage
payments.

Here's something most investors overlook when buying
"sub to" and why they lose around $1,000 each time they do a deal.

We often buy properties "subject to" the underlying mortgage.
That simply means we give the motivated seller a little money
(if he is really motivated no cash is needed) and take over the
payments of the loan that's already in place.

We have title, but the seller's name stays on the mortgage
loan.

This a popular way of buying property from motivated
sellers. It allows the investor to buy many properties
with very little cash. It also places a severe responsibility
on the investor to stay current with the mortgage payments. You
must be a good landlord and some the rent payments rolling in.

Here's where most investors fail to pick up that one thousand
dollar that is just waiting to be claimed.

When the investor sells that property they often are not aware
that they can get a check from the original lender
for the cash that has accumulated in the loan's impound account.

That is the money collected monthly by the lender to pay the
taxes and insurance. It often adds up to around a grand or more
and it's easy to get if you know what you're doing.

When you buy a property "subject to" the underlying mortgage,
always get all the owners of the property to sign a Limited Power
of Attorney giving you control of anything having to do with
the house in the future. That way you don't need their cooperation
later, when they've left the area and can't found.

Finally, after you've held the property while it appreciated
in value, you are ready to sell and cash out.

When you have found a buyer and you are arranging the close, send
the lender a request that any balance in the impound account be
sent to you or your company. Always send along copies of the Powers
of Attorney so the lender knows you have the authority to make the request.

Sometimes they will honor your request and sometimes they won't.

More importantly, instruct the escrow officer or attorney
handling the closing of your sale to ask for the impounds.
They will give the pay off instructions to the lender and the
lender usually will follow those instructions without question.

On a recent deal we received a check from a lender for the
impounds in the amount of $1,357.00. Yeah!.. Happy dance!

Was there a catch? The check from the lender for the impound
funds was made payable to the two original sellers whose names
were on the loan. It looked like this...

Pay To The Order Of:
John J. Seller,
Paris W. Seller
c/o The Author's Investment Corp.

Was that trouble? No! Remember we had a separate Power of
Attorney for each of these individuals. We took the check and the
POAs to our bank. We explained the situation and here's what the
bank officer had us do...

On the back of the check, we signed the name of each seller.
After those signatures we wrote:

By_________________ (and signed our own name).

Then we signed our company name and again (By______) and then we
signed our own name and position in the company.

That was it! An easy way to pocket $1,357.00 that too many
investors leave on the table.

Now YOU will never walk away from that extra thousand or so dollars!

If you would like to learn more about buying "subject to" look here...

http://digbig.com/4cgpb

About the Author

About The Author: Mark Walters is an investor and author. You can find his
published material at http://www.CashFlowInstitute.com
http://cfiblog.blogspot.com/