Wednesday, January 20, 2010

HUD Homes for 1/20/2010

My thoughts on HUD homes that hit the market can be viewed HERE

Monday, January 18, 2010

New Utah Home Search Website

If you are looking for a new home, or would like to know the value of your current home, www.utahhomesearch.org is a great resource. They specialize in assisting buyers and sellers all over the state of Utah. The website contains ALL listings from ALL Real Estate Agents in the state.

I find it to be even more efficient than utahrealestate.com. Two of the things I enjoy the most about the website are the map views, and the ability the website has to send you updates on price changes the day they happen. You do need to register to take advantage of the websites full capabilities, but you can simply provide fake information if you don't wish to be contacted. A valid email address is necessary to complete registration.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Free Credit Repair Guide Part II

3. Rank questionable/negative items

Step 2 covered how to identify items, both positive and negative on your credit report. Now you have this list, you should rank each item according to the amount of damage they are doing to your overall credit picture. Rank the most damaging information first, followed by the next most damaging information, followed by those items which are neutral. Do this for each credit report, as remember, they may not all have the same information on them. They may even have duplicate information. If this is the case, you will need to write to each credit agency individually for each duplicate item.

The items here are listed in order of descending importance with the first item being the "most damaging" to your credit.

  • Bankruptcy
  • Foreclosure
  • Repossession
  • Loan Default
  • Court Judgments
  • Collections
  • Past due payments
  • Late Payments
  • Credit Rejections
  • Credit Inquiries

Also, if your creditor has NOT notified you of negative information they have recently placed on your credit report, they are currently in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. You can use this to pressure the original creditor to remove the listing by reminding them they are in violation of the FCRA by not notifying you.

4. Requesting Corrections and Disputing Your Credit

What should you challenge?

Everything, and you should always shoot for a complete deletion. In your initial challenge, don't dispute the information within a collection listing, charge-off, court record, repossession, foreclosure, or settled account. Save disputing the information within the listing for the NEXT ROUND OF DISPUTES. Start off the reason for your dispute on a negative listing whenever possible as "not mine". For a list of the most common dispute reasons, go here.

What items are the toughest to get off your report?

You will have the toughest time getting bankruptcies, judgments, child support and foreclosures off of your credit report as these things are so easy for the credit bureaus to verify electronically through e-Oscar. In the case of a bankruptcy, you most likely will have a few trade lines saying "included in Bankruptcy". If you want to challenge your bankruptcy, you need to clear off all credit lines mentioning a BK FIRST.

Edouardo decided to challenge each and every one of his collections, as well as his credit card late payment. He wrote a letter to each of the credit reporting agencies that:

  • listed each of his negative listings by name, collection agency and amount of the delinquency
  • Under each of the list accounts, he said he was disputing the accuracy.
  • He also included his Name, SSN, Address, and a copy of his driver's license.
  • Edouardo sent his letters via Express Mail, which gives him a receipt for the mailing, and guarantees delivery. Total expense for Express Mail: $36.
  • Here is an example credit dispute letter.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Free 15 Step Credit Repair Guide

Basic Credit Repair Strategy

The basic strategy to repairing your credit is as follows:

  1. Get and review your credit report.
  2. Analyze your report.
  3. Make a list of all items you consider to be questionable or negative. Clearly identify each item in your report that you dispute, explain why you dispute the information,
  4. Write a dispute letter bureaus.
  5. Send the letter to the credit bureaus. Make sure you send it registered or certified mail.
  6. Document your efforts.Record when you sent your letters, and the results.
  7. Wait for the bureaus to investigate your claims.
  8. Analyze the results.
  9. Repeat.
  10. Specialized techniquesWas the item deleted or changed to your satisfaction? You may continue steps 1, 2 and 3 above until you feel the dispute is settled satisfactorily. Remember, there is no charge for a reinvestigation. If you don’t get the results you want, dispute the listing again.
  11. Free Sample Letters
  12. What if a removed negative item comes back on my credit report?
  13. What if I get stuck and need help?
  14. Eduardo's Results
  15. Feeling overwhelmed by this process and think you don't have the time? You do!

That's all there is to it. Seems easy enough but you must have patience, because the credit bureaus are not always very cooperative. They make their money by providing credit reports to lenders not by fixing bad information in their databases.

1. Get your credit report.

To obtain free copies of your report, please see Getting and reading your credit report.Please note: when you get a free report, you are not going to see your credit score, which is a crucial tool in getting your credit in shape. Here is a comparison chart of online credit score purchase options.

Eduardo ordered his credit report and scores from Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax for $34.95. Note: this service also came with a credit report monitoring service which he used during his credit repair efforts to monitor his progress.

2. Analyze your credit report.

You can analyze your credit as outlined in "Decoding Your Report".

Once paying for his credit reports & scores online, Eduardo download his report and saved it to his computer. Eduardo used the free credit report analyzer which came with his credit report order to figure out which items on his report were damaging. After reviewing his credit reports, printed out his report then highlighted everything he saw as a negative listing along with what the computer analysis pointed out. Most of them were medical collections, and were easy to spot. However, he does notice that one of the bureaus is reporting him as late on a payment to one of his credit cards, and he knows he paid it on time.

In addition, Edouardo has read that as part of the new FACTA legislation to protect consumers from identity theft, he was supposed to have been notified of the negative mark. He is sure he was never notified.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

New HUD Homes Hit The Market This Week

Click here for more detailed information on these homes, as well as a searchable list of these HUD homes.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Free List of HUDs, Foreclosures, Repos, & Bank Owned Properties

I've got a handful of real estate agents who send me updated lists. If you'd like to receive the same lists I get without the hastle of some annoying agent bugging you all the time. Fill out this quick form, and I'll forward some lists to you, and give you login information for MLS listings.


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Monday, June 22, 2009

Fantastic Deal Today

I went through this home with a client of mine the other day, and expected it to be gone by now. Comps on this property come in at $220k, and this is the only unit for sale in a very nice East Side condo project.
Since this property is on a daily bid deadline, I'd throw an offer in below the asking price, and hope I'm the only bidder. This house is a fantastic deal, and proves my point I made in this post.

If you're interested in putting an offer in, send me an email. I'll be sending this out to my clients tonight. First come first serve.