If you live in or around the Phoenix, Arizona, area and are interested in learning more about safely investing in foreclosures or about how to defend against foreclosure, consider stopping by the Phoenix Convention Center this Saturday where Lois Maljak and I will be presenting the following workshops:

TOPIC: Foreclosure Self-Defense: The Short Sale and Other Proven Strategies for Surviving a Homeownership Crisis
When: Saturday, February 23, 2008
What Time: 11:00 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.
Where: Phoenix Convention Center

When most people fall behind on their mortgage payments or receive a notice of default or foreclosure, they panic and waste precious time trying to hide the problem. They mistakenly believe they have only two options – pay up or face eviction. Lois Maljak and I, co-authors of Foreclosure Self-Defense For Dummies, know better. In this informative workshop, we reveal over a dozen strategies for keeping your home or selling it and cashing out the equity, including:

• Negotiate a short sale by convincing the lender to accept less than the balance due on your mortgage.
• Ask a third-party to negotiate the short sale on your behalf – if the bank refuses to work with you.
• File for bankruptcy…or at least let the bank know you are considering that option so you gain leverage in the negotiating process.
• Negotiate a mortgage modification, essentially rewriting the mortgage with a more affordable interest rate and terms.
• Sell your home, so you don’t lose your home and your equity.

In this workshop, you discover the truth about foreclosures that the banks don’t want you to know–they need to resolve the problem as much as you do, and sometimes more than you do. Everything is negotiable, including how much you owe them!

TOPIC: Safely Investing in Foreclosures
When: Saturday, February 23, 2008
What Time: 2:00 p.m. - 2:45 p.m.
Where: Phoenix Convention Center

Safe foreclosure investing is like safe flying–the only completely safe way to invest in real estate is to not do it. However, you can employ several strategies to make investing in foreclosures safe. In this intense 45-minute workshop, I reveal field-tested strategies for maximizing your profit potential and minimizing your risks, including the following:

• Adjusting your profit estimates for different markets
• Bidding on first mortgages or at least buying the first if you buy the second
• Underestimating profits while overestimating expenses
• Thoroughly researching a property to avoid surprises
• Starting with a single property and working your way up
• Setting a bid limit before you even think of bidding

In this workshop, I guide you safely around the most common and costly pitfalls, so you avoid the mistakes that often eliminate the less careful investors.

For more information, visit the 2008 Arizona Real Estate and Mortgage Expo website.

I was recently given the opportunity to talk with Alex Markels from U.S. News & World Report about some of the topics covered in Foreclosure Investing For Dummies. Alex asked some great questions, which I’m pleased to share here (for anyone who may not have a subscription to U.S. News & World Report).

By Alex Markels — U.S. News & World Report
February 13, 2008

Ralph Roberts is a Realtor who has written many books about the real estate market and flipping homes, such as Foreclosure Investing For Dummies. U.S. News talked with Roberts about some of the first things a potential investor should know before getting into the foreclosure market. Excerpts:

Investors are understandably skittish about getting into the real estate market. Why do you think now is the time?

If you can afford to buy a piece of real estate, there’s never been a better time in my 30 years of business than now. We have good prices, and unbelievably great interest rates. For a ma and pa investor, if you’re willing to buy a rental property, you can leverage it, and 10 years from now it will be worth double what you paid for it. All the people who have been displaced because they can’t afford to pay $2,500 a month, they surely can pay $1,500. If everybody had bought a 30-percent-cheaper house, we wouldn’t have had as many foreclosures as we have now. There are a lot of tenants out there who are displaced and were at one time living the American dream of owning a home, but they still need a nice home. People who are displaced become renters.

What about the concern that the market may only get worse before it gets better?

There’s always a boost in real estate after an election. I know all those people who are saying there’s going to be change. Well for sure there’s going to be change—George is not running. By January of 2009, you’re going to see the market turning the other direction and showing appreciation again. So between now and 2009 is a great window of opportunity to buy. The best plan is to buy it, fix it, hold it, and sell it 12 months and one day or further in the future, and you will get another benefit of getting a tax rate of long-term capital gains versus ordinary income. The long-term capital rate is only 15 percent.

How does foreclosure investing differ based on your locality?

Whatever city or county you’re going to invest, you’ve got to check what inspections they have. What do they require before you can put the house back on the market to rent it, or back on the market to sell it? You are responsible to follow those rules whether you know about them or you don’t. You must at least contact the city hall or the township hall before you make an investment.

What are some misconceptions about foreclosure investing?

Just because it’s a foreclosure does not mean it’s a good deal. Some people pay too much for a property if it’s a foreclosure because they think it’s automatically a home run. You should go to your broker and run the comps in the neighborhood. The most important thing is what’s selling right now. What’s your competition? That gives you a range. The next thing you want to do is check how many houses have sold in the past 90 days. You need to have your house priced the best for the condition that it’s in because you don’t want it to be the fourth house if only three are bought in your time frame.

Why is having a time frame so important?

Time is money. The average holding cost on a house is $100 per day. You’ve got to have a B plan. If it doesn’t sell in X amount of days, you’ve got to rent it until the market improves.

Most of the people doing foreclosure investing are not doing it as their primary source of income. How do you do it and balance the rest of your life?

First you make sure your spouse is completely on board. You want to have support from your family. You’re doing this to improve your lifestyle; you’re not doing this to take quality time away. Then you draw a circle on a map, and mark where you work at, where your wife works at, where your school is at, and put those items inside that circle. That’s your target area. If you drive 20 minutes to work one direction, and then you drive back home, and then 20 minutes the other direction to your investment property, you’re 40 minutes away from it versus if it was in your target area. Some people go too far out of their marketplace and that’s how they get into trouble.

How do you avoid taking advantage of people in this business?

Treat the people with dignity and do what’s best for them. Let’s say they tell you they have a rich uncle who could help them, but they’re just too embarrassed to tell him. Help them tell the rich uncle. By doing the right thing, it’s going to come back to you 10 times.

I am pleased to announce that I have been offered an opportunity to speak at the Association of Real Estate License Law Officials (ARELLO) Midyear Meeting, which is being held April 24-26, 2008, in Pasadena, California. If you’re unfamiliar with ARELLO and the important role this organization plays in the real estate industry, here’s some background:

ARELLO was founded in 1930 to facilitate the exchange of information and cooperation among regulators and policy makers in the area of real property. Today, the organization has grown in stature and in recognition by growing its membership, attaining financial stability, and formulating and adopting uniform policies and standards in the fields of education, administration and enforcement. The association’s membership is deeply committed to the effective administration and enforcement of the license laws and of the importance of regulation in a healthy marketplace.

As you can imagine, fraud is a topic of high interest to ARELLO members, and I have been asked to address the group on current trends in real estate and mortgage fraud, what to look for when attempting to determine if fraud is present in a transaction, and emerging trends in real estate and mortgage fraud forensics.

If you would like to learn more about ARELLO or the 2008 Midyear Meeting, visit the ARELLO website or the Midyear Meeting page today.