ProAPOD® Investor 4.0–our real estate investing software solution for new real estate investors–has been updated. The modifications to this real estate investor software solution include the following:

1. Loan-to-Interest Table -This table allows users to quickly determine the monthly mortgage payment on a range of loans and interest rates.
2. Retail, Office, Warehouse labels - This will allow users to identify the rental income from these types of unit configurations in addition to the other configurations originally included in the previous real estate investing software solution.
3. Assumptions Report - Reformatted with better descriptions
4. 3-Year Monthly Cash Flow - Reformatted
5. Sensitivity Form - The form has been relocated from LoanInfo to its own form

How to Obtain

1. From our website at http://www.proapod.com click Customer Login
2. Login with your email and password
3. From your Customer Account page click the download link under Updates

Requirements

1. ProAPOD® Investor 4.0 must currently reside on the computer
2. Your membership must be active. If your membership has expired simply click Renew Membership and follow the online instructions. The renewal cost is just $39.95 and entitles you to receive one more year of free updates and tech support.

In desperate times, REO lenders often turn to mass marketing and highly advertised public auctions to unload their REOs, though no lender likes to publicize the fact that it’s throwing down-on-their-luck families out of their homes.

Given the times we’re now in, you might be considering the purchase of an REO (Real Estate Owned) property and are not sure how to find them. You can find REOs in two ways:

1. Follow up after foreclosure sales
2. Locate a Realtor who typically gets REO listings

Follow Up on Foreclosure Sales

If you attend foreclosure auctions, make note of the lenders who cast a top bid for a property in which you’re interested. Afterward, contact the lender and express your interest in purchasing the REO property. Even if that particular property doesn’t work out, you at least open the door of communication with the lender and might be able to work out a deal on another REO.

Locate Specialty Realtors

Many mortgage lenders often do not sell directly to REO investors because, as mentioned, they don’t like the unfavorable publicity, and they want to promote good relations with real estate professionals.

As one part of your efforts to find REOs, cultivate relationships with a Realtor who specialize in this market. In most cities, you can easily find REO specialists by looking through newspaper classified real estate ads. Once you identify several advertised foreclosure specialists, give each one a call and learn their backgrounds. For example, discover whether he or she only dabbles in the field of REOs and foreclosures, or do make this field their full-time business. The more skilled and experienced the real estate agent is with REO properties and foreclosures in general, the better.

Real estate investors must remain proactive in this real estate market. There are good deals to be made, and interest rates are favorable. Be cautious; just don’t be lazy. Get out and beat the bushes so you can make a couple of good real estate investments while you can.

During the crazy 1980s, when interest rates skyrocketed into the high teens and it was almost impossible to motivate any real estate investor to buy real estate, creative financing became quite popular. An All Inclusive Trust Deed (AITD), or wraparound loan, for instance found its way into many investment real estate transactions.

Given the post-sub prime debacle we’re experiencing today, banks are making it tough for real estate investors to qualify for loans. The investors’ FICA ratings seemingly must meet higher minimum levels, and lenders generally have become more stringent about loan-to-value ratios and property quality. In other words, wraparound mortgages might make a come back in some real estate investing cases for real estate investment property to exchange hands.

Okay, what is a wraparound mortgage? In reality, the wrap¬around is a second mortgage granted by a seller to a buyer, but the buyer makes only one loan payment.

When the buyer of a prop¬erty wants to gain the benefits of an existing low interest rate mortgage, for example, he or she “wraps” the existing loan with a new wraparound loan at a higher interest rate. The seller continues to make payments on the existing low-interest loan while the buyer makes payments to the seller on the new wraparound loan. The seller profits on the spread in interest rates while the buyer bypasses rigorous and rigid lender requirements.

If you “wrap” a non-assumable mortgage, the seller’s underlying mortgage lenders may choose to exercise its “due-¬on-sale” clause and the sellers would have to payoff the seller’s mortgage and work out some other type of financing. So use caution if you’re considering the sale of investment real estate with a wraparound mortgage, and don’t agree to do anything until you are certain that a wraparound mortgage is feasible.