Opening:
Zillow published a quiz recently that asked questions about the NFL, certain celebrities and real estate knowledge. The sad fact is, Americans know more about foorball than their own property. What can we do? We take a couple of steps in that direction today on the Flipping America show.
Bill Gross is a licensed real estate broker and probate expert from Los Angeles. He’s going to join us in a few minutes to talk about the Zillow quiz, the lack of financial and real estate literacy and the failure of the American media to challenge incorrect notions put forward by our elected officials.
Then we are going to answer William’s questions about the foreclosure auction and auction process.
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Starr Has Questions:
- William, Macon, GA “I keep hearing about the foreclosure auctions at the courthouse steps. I think I might want to do that, but why not just buy foreclosures my agent is showing me from the listings? Are the deals any better at the auctions? How do you go about buying at the courthouse?”
Quote of the Day
When we drink, we get drunk.
When we get drunk, we fall asleep.
When we fall asleep, we commit no sin.
When we commit no sin, we go to heaven.
So, let’s all get drunk, and go to heaven!
Expected Air Date: Mon 8/15/2022
Guest: Bill Gross bill@thelaprobateexpert.com
He’s going to join us in a few minutes and talk about the Zillow quiz the lack of financial and real estate literacy and the failure of the American media to challenge incorrect notions put forward by our elected officials,
And then we’re gonna take some time to answer William’s questions about the foreclosure auction in Auction Process. Remember that question from the other day?
Yeah there’s there’s a lot to that. If you wanna reach us, you can reach us well. Gotta do this fast. Add flipping America on Twitter and Instagram. Send your questions to questions at flipping America.
Add real estate is life Atlanta on Instagram and Facebook. Alright, we’re gonna jump over now and do the interview with Bill.
[1:31] Alright, we’ve got Bill with us today. Bill Gross is you know what? I should have asked you your official title but I know you work with probates out in LA. Give us your official title and company and everything.
Oh I’m a broker associate with EXP Realty in Los Angeles California.
[1:51] I remember we’ve we’ve had you on the show before at least with the rear group talking about your expertise with probate and Jason down probate leads,
It’s my timeline is the LA probate expert and I host the largest live stream on probably real estate in America which is probably weekly. Com.
Yes, that’s right and we did a joint live stream.
Neither one of us being audio or video engineers it was kinda fun getting the technology to work at work,
So, that’s good. Alright. Now,
I get a 1000 emails a day and I read some of them but i read bills because he is he always has something interesting to say.
I don’t know a few weeks ago you sent out this thing about Americans know more about the NFL and the Kardashians than they do about real estate and this quiz on Zillow so just tell us a little bit about what led to that blog.
[2:59] Well, I think that in general, I mean, if it will be serious about it, that there’s a real lack of financial education in America and the reason why I got,
The calling to share with people of the opportunities we have to increase our incoming build well,
And most people know way more. This is our consil. We knew way more about the Kardashians and they did about their own finances about the importance of property and tax advantages property and such.
And so I would just comment on that and I think how the news,
News on real estate.
My weekly call really my weekly email is really about calling out people as being misleading or dishonor so JP Power I think is lying to the Americans about whether or in a session I,
And I’m not saying politically we should do A or B but let’s just be honest and not treat people like they’re stupid and educate people so we can make good,
I think when it comes to real estate a lot of the reporters that are reporting on real estate they just don’t know what they’re talking about I don’t think they’re really.
[4:15] Deliberately deceiving. But I’ll tell you where I think the the deception is deliver it.
I call him the clickbait wannabe boys on youtube who get a lot of views by forecasting the housing bus and we’ll come back to that in a minute too.
Alright, so in the notes today or maybe along with the weekly wit newsletter, I’ll put the link to this Zillow quiz. It’s some questions about.
Start you want to tell us how you did on the zillo quiz
I guess are you gonna tell us how you did Roger on this?
I I did a three and also Bill I do wanna say,
I had no clue about any of those.
[5:12] Yeah I I didn’t do very well with the celebrities but I do know football.
Yes, you do. I do.
[5:26] I felt like I got them all right. That’s a 5 out of 5. Is it 5 out of 5? Yeah.
[5:34] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[5:44] I don’t know what we can do about it. I mean.
The people that listen to us might be a little bit better informed but what can we do to help mainstream media do a better job of teaching my real estate you got any ideas on that.
[5:56] Why I would say this give up on midi and let’s blow up your your podcast and similar podcast as for each other and share them information because,
To keep people,
In my career helping people comes back to help me even if not directly,
Number one number two four fine to tell the truth it is to lie to get a bunch of clicks on my website so I would say that a nice wide do I do that’s why I don’t read the news and why you know I’m I I know 10 years ago my friend,
Business seeking beyond,
They’re not helping customers and I wanna see people just gonna show me that’s why I’m here today is to help people build more income and build family wealth.
So I’ll just admit it to you here. I don’t know if you heard me. Say this but.
When I started in this business I I was not a trained real estate person and I still do not have a real estate license,
That’s been a conscious decision over the years not to pursue that.
Thinking that it it gives me some advantages in being able to pay referral fees and that sort of thing. I don’t know if those advantages outweigh the disadvantages but,
Too late now i’m old set my ways.
[7:23] Business and that was how to make the repairs in a property.
And I also kind of knew just because of playing monopoly or whatever you wanna buy something for less than you can sell it for. The end.
I had no idea how to run comps. I I didn’t know any of the jargon of real estate. I went to my first couple of closings and made really good money and I was,
Sitting there with the a partner who seemed to know what he was talking about but I looked at the settlement statement and at that time I bought and sold I think four houses over the years that I had lived in,
And freely confess like most Americans I went to that closing and had no idea what was in all those papers that I signed and I had no idea.
The settlement statement with all the numbers and what they meant and how they lined up and you know, just tell me how much of a check I gotta write. That’s all I was interested in.
And so I realized after four or five closings,
I need to know what’s on this settlement statement I need to know what,
And but I had the the settlement statement from the previous closing and I I whipped it out of my pocket and I had him explain to me and.
[8:42] It was eye opening.
[8:50] Who are not getting into the real estate investing game or becoming realtors I don’t know how many people really have the motivation to learn all this,
Yeah.
Right? This is, you know, I grew up in a Lily team. My father was a coach and,
Your first practice of the year is without the battery ball. You walk to each base and told us, you know, what you’re supposed to do and how much you lead off and those are fundamentals.
It was a foreign language. It was all English. And it’s all simple math. It wasn’t trigg. It was a calculus. It was all basic.
And each of those items that were mysterious to you they try to explain,
Or basic things and I I think it’s really just basic fundal education. It’s not going to reach in anybody to learn these things but like you said, you have the courage to take the time and the humility to me. You didn’t know,
And that’s what people leaders have the current ability to afford but it’s a great,
Yeah. Well,
If you’re not gonna be in the business what’s the motivation.
[10:09] I also don’t understand the motivation of any of the celebrity sites. I mean the celebrity. The magazines and you know so far I’ve made it through my entire life without ever watching one single self-gratification award show,
From Hollywood or or the recording.
[10:33] I don’t know why that’s interesting to people but.
It’s it’s about what people value. So,
Shirt or a music video or,
It’s just what you put your value on and I think that’s the one of the main differences on why most people won’t spend more time on something learning something about something that can actually change their whole lives because,
They don’t see the value in it. Okay,
But before we get too far field Bill, please tell everyone how they can follow you, find you, get on your mailing list, and that sort of thing,
Sure. So, I do a weekly live stream which is probably weekly. Com. If you’re interested in probate specifically and just go there and sign up and you’ll get invited and we’ll,
Social media Bill Gross eXp so I have a YouTube channel it’s well focused and it’s been the best place to find me progress I’ll add Bill Gross EXP.
Alright.
So I appreciate that and let let’s talk a little bit now about the housing bust that isn’t.
[11:53] Alright.
Hey,
Top 50 by choice in America.
There’s five of the top new grade this five the bottom do poorly and the group in the middle.
Pay attention to it.
People keep talking about a bus,
And here they are. There’s other houses. If you wanna live here, you gotta buy a house. If you wanna buy a house. So, so I think it’s it’s there’s not a inventory just like everything else in America. There’s not a lot of homes being built.
And so, I don’t see, I don’t see crash. Inventory is not inocuting a crash.
[13:08] You can’t have a crash until it’s too many people with houses to sell. For desperate to cut the price. As long as the inventories low.
So is today I’m just saying okay fine if I can’t sell it for,
There’s not gonna be desperate buyers in most of America. It’s gonna cost a crash. Everything could change tomorrow. You know, if Nancy Pelosi goes Taiwan, the Chinese invade.
Who knows what happens if Russian baits poland and France kudos what happens but today based the price we have today,
Silly is not a housing bus based on the deed that we have right now.
We’re talking about it here on the show.
It’s not having a an orderly straight line predictable impact on the mortgage rates but what do you think about what’s going on with interest rates in mortgage rates and how will that impact the housing.
[14:14] Actually had gone up.
And now have come back done correctly but kinda like gas prices I know but near here but we peaked a few months ago and let the go and now they come back down to still high levels.
[14:29] But it’s not running out of control. It’s like spinning. I think that your month ago we were worried,
Or scary about that. Well, that’s not happening today. Today, they actually are now at 505%. They could go down from over six to below five.
So a really good tomorrow I don’t know tomorrow I’ve learned to focus on the cards of delt not the ones there’s still to be played but,
I would say that based on current rates, there’s buyers who wanna buy and there’s sellers required to sell landing but they want their price and as long as it happens, how’s your prices will go up? Modestly.
Maybe less inflation of inflations 10% has a couple only six%.
The far behind a bit,
So I don’t have I wouldn’t want to correct the future but as of right now I would say the rates are higher but the less high they were a month ago,
And for sellers, if you wanna sell your house, I would jump on it now. You buy it too ready to go. Let’s get them locked up and sell it,
Macro scale across the United States that’s going to.
[15:47] Put us into a housing bus.
Answer this and I don’t wanna discuss the details of politics but I do think it would be unwise not to notice.
Football game is just gets more intense every 2 years and so I would be on guard I would be paying attention,
The next 2 months in particular,
And that could be bad for housing. I can mention some cereals. So, I was trying to pay attention to that.
Made them wrong and maybe everybody gets,
We’re gonna call that situation,
Absolutely some major change in a national construct.
Hey housing.
[16:55] So
They were strictly going up so they could come down as much because there was some built-in increase that did happen. So, I don’t think it’s as long so for that reason that there’s some breaks on the mortgage market that don’t exist another markets,
You cared to offer a prediction about what’s gonna happen with foreclosures?
[17:21] That’s a story that I think it’s just the nothing burger I I just don’t think the two reasons I don’t think there’ll be a lot economically because I don’t see economy collapsing like that.
The statistics we we talk about lies when you read the headlines about foreclosures doubling.
The double from the all-time low. Slightly more than the all-time low. But there’s just not that many of them and I also think that.
Don’t have the political will to allow it to happen. Here in LA, they organic,
And so I think the local governments and state governments feel they somehow need to prevent foreclosures for happening now in Long Reynold think that’s good or healthy,
Again not to get the politics of it but I just thought,
Become able to do everything tend to prevent for closures. I think inflation was AA solution out of foreclosures because,
All the houses were 25% value your a lot less upside down houses than otherwise yeah I’m taking today in a motor of California,
Even if people are getting a notice of default they they’ve got time right now to get out there and just sell the house and,
Foreclosure. So, just so you know, I’ve been predicting a bump.
[18:40] I just a bump. Not a spike but a little bump. We’re gonna see a little bump in foreclosures. They were gonna go back to the historic low rate where we were enjoying in February of 2020 before the pandemic hit.
Because we basically have AA good pool of strong loans with good borrowers out there right now,
Some of the.
Started in the late 1990’s that ultimately led to the crash of 2007 eight and they’re talking about restarting some of those you know out of a stated desire to help the unfortunate and the the.
Realize the dream of home ownership.
[19:41] Never own a house.
Right?
Be a landlord and with that creates an economy and so again I think I wanna get down to the importance of financial education that we need to do,
We need to get more people. Let’s we’re going to college again.
So they understand how these things work because the politicians are always going to the easiest answer and they usually take somebody else’s money and hand it out to their voters. That’s pretty much how they look at things.
[20:27] Alright, Bill. We’re out of time for today. We gotta do this a little bit more often, man. I need to hear from you. I need to to learn from you. I appreciate it though and thank you again and website one more time or social media. However, you want people to reach out to you.
Every Thursday 4 PM Pacific 7 PM Eastern probate weekly. Com and now on social medias at at Bill Gross EXP as my YouTube channel is,
Major focus.
[20:58] Music.
[21:05] Although my show is called Flipping America i don’t believe flipping houses is for everyone.
[21:12] But I do believe that everyone including you should consider real estate as a part of a balanced investment portfolio.
We’ve documented at least 86 career pads in real estate and real estate investment most of these have variations within different,
Esset classes and strategies I honestly believe there are more than a 1000 ways to make a one 1 million dollars in real estate one of them is probably right for you.
[21:37] Do you figure this out? I’ve watched hundreds of people over the years and seen people both flourish and.
[21:43] I’ve also seen some of the people who failed at one thing do really well at a different thing and I’ve started noticing patterns among people who do well so,
Couple of years ago, I started building profiles of successful people in different areas wholesalers flippers, builders, rental investors, and lenders.
What we have learned is that successful people in each area.
Tend to have certain characteristics and life situations. Those who lack those qualities struggle and usually don’t do well.
[22:13] Or what if there was a way every person could figure this out before they begin?
This thinking led me to the find your fit course available at Flipping America. Net forward slash.
[22:31] All one word. In just five easy lessons, you’ll take stock of your life and perhaps pursue the best fit for your real estate career.
You can take the course and flipping America. Net forward slash find your.
[22:45] Alright, we’re getting ready to talk to William a little bit to answer this question about foreclosures. It’s actually a multi-part question but if you’ve got questions about real estate or real estate investing, we promise you and answer,
And some of the questions we’ll use on the show. So, send them to questions at Flipping America. Net,
And we check that email all the time we’ll get you an answer within 24 48 hours even if we are not gonna use it on the show don’t worry if you think you’ve asked that question if we’ve been asked the question 100 times before we probably have,
But we know it’s your first time to ask it so we’ll answer it as if it’s our first time. Yep. We put her all into this,
Go with the questions okay William Megan Georgia,
I keep hearing about the foreclosure options at the courthouse steps i think i might want to do that but why not just buy foreclosures from my agent.
[23:42] Are the deals any better at the auction how do you go about buying at the courthouse
Okay, that’s several questions
The deals that you would buy from the that your agent calls for closures those are ones that have been picked over and passed on by the people at steps,
So, yeah, you’re gonna get a better deal at the steps. So, here’s the here’s how the process works.
And this is true pretty much everywhere but I’m I’m gonna describe it in more detail in Georgia because that’s where you are William and that’s also where I have most not all but most of my foreclosure auction experience okay.
[24:23] Wherever you are the first thing that happens when a person stops paying on their mortgages they get a notice of default and an opportunity to cure it now and some states,
The lender has to go to court and you know put all the evidence in front of a judge and get then the foreclosure
And those are called we call them judicial states. Georgia is a non-judicial foreclosure state.
And basically what happens there is if you don’t pay
You don’t stay,
To the borrowers which constitutes legal advice which is why you have to have attorneys conduct closings real estate closings in the state of Georgia alright
So, now, they haven’t paid. They’ve been delivered their default notice and typically in Georgia, you have 30 days to cure the default, to cure the default means to catch up on your loan payments,
Or renegotiate the loan somehow.
[25:25] The foreclosure process if the law requires that the property be advertised for four consecutive weeks prior to the sale and the sale in Georgia is held on the first Tuesday of every month between the hours of 10 AM and 4 PM.
[25:40] And happens every month now if it just so happens that the first Tuesday is New Year’s Day or July the fourth it’ll be on the next day on Wednesday otherwise it’s always on Tuesday no matter what the weather is and it’s required to be outside,
On the steps.
I know a couple of counties that conduct this inside and technically they’re breaking that law.
Hey, I’m not turning them in.
So then,
It’s not usually a professional auctioneer. Almost never is. They will it maybe turn it maybe a parallel. It may be a servicing company that’s hired to do this but they will read the ad that was,
Publishing the paper for the previous 4 weeks and they will start the bidding and the bidding begins with,
What is owed on the remaining principal balance of the loan plus the missed payments plus interest plus attorney’s fees and any penalties.
That they are legally allowed to apply to this based on what was in the loan documents.
Now,
Since this is it falls under what is called a forced sale,
The lender does not need to consider the fair market value of the house. They don’t need to ask for a fair market price. In fact, they are forbidden from.
[27:09] So they’ll put that out there that means that if the house has been paid off for 10 15.
And so you may have $200 thousand house in the opening bids 100 1000. Now, you tell me if you could find a better deal than that. Now, the thing about it is,
The secret is out.
People will be there to bid on this. And so what will happen is,
That house will get bit up and bit up and and you know people like me and my competitors will be there bidding against each other,
And you ever bids the highest amount wins and then you fork over your money. You have to have all your money.
You I think you can get better deals that need less work.
At the foreclosure auction typically but you know I’ve been going to the foreclosure auction for almost 20 years now and I haven’t bought one at the at the courthouse steps and probably the last 5 or 6 years because,
There are so many people that are pushed out there now by the hedge funds and all the investments,
Wanna be used that are in town. It’s hard to actually find a deal.
[28:11] No what happens to all the money that goes beyond what is owed to the lender the lender doesn’t get to get to,
Keep it the lender must then turn that money over to the person being foreclosed on.
So their credit is shot but they have a little cash,
If they’d been halfway smart and not living in it that river called the denial
The deals better the option how do you go about buying at the court so I just told you that.
What we do is we go and get certified checks,
And various different amounts made out to ourselves.
And then if we win the bid we’ll take some,
Combination of those checks that.
[28:53] Covers the amount that we bid if it’s more money they will send us a change check back in few days,
Usually we’ll have that back within a week.
So that’s real quickly how the process happens in Georgia it’s similar in other states but,
In other states you don’t have to have all the money. It doesn’t always happen on the first Tuesday of the month.
The law is very from state to state you owe it to yourself and since I’m out of time,
You’re definitely gonna have to go check it out for yourself. Let me give you the,
Blessing of the day and this is not necessarily a reflection of what I believe as theology.
I’m just reporting the blessing as it’s given than the Irish blessings.
So, here it is. When we drink, we get drunk, when we get drunk, we fall asleep, when we fall asleep, we commend no sin, when we commit no sin, we go to heaven, so let’s all get drunk and go to heaven,
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