Quick Cash In Foreclosures by Bill Carey, Chantal Howell-Carey (2004, Paperback)

This book is good if you want learn basic information. This is a very basic book and I do not recommend for the beginning investor as there is really only basic information. Fortunately for me, I don’t need a lot of details to see the big picture. My husband on the other hand does need the details so I will not pass this book along to him. :)

I bought this book because my husband and I wanted to start working the foreclosure market. We deal with a lot of homeowners that are either behind in payments or face becoming behind on payments. A lot of times these homeowners are upside down in their houses (meaning they owe more than the house is currently worth). We wanted to learn more about short sales and how to help them in that regard. Usually we offer to take the house subject to the existing mortgage but we cannot limit the risks when the house is upside down or if the mortgage has an ARM so we wanted to learn more about short sales. This book, however, does not discuss the short sale process at length.

One good thing I pulled from this book was the foreclosure presentation. I wish the book would have gone a little deeper in detail regarding this presentation but will use my own knowledge to put one together for myself to use with homeowners I meet with. I think it is a great idea to have a presentation notebook to tangibly show the homeowners what you are talking about. The author says to spell out the 8 things you can do when facing foreclosure. My husband and I both agree that this is a good idea and I am working on putting a notebook together for us. So many times we meet with homeowners and talk, this will be a great way to put something in front of the homeowner so they understand. A lot of times people (I being one of them) will say they understand something when they really don’t. If we can spell it out in front of them on paper, the homeowner is going to better understand what we are trying to tell them.

Also if you have the cash, this book does spell out what to do and what to avoid at an auction sale at the courthouse. It does have some good ideas about how to prepare and avoid “auction fever”. It also spells out some things your competition might do and suggests going on some dry runs to observe the process.

This book does go through the foreclosure process for you and talks a little bit about the different types of mortgages and how the bank thinks. This information was interesting, however I was not able to pull any new information out of it for me. However if you are new to the investing circuit you may find this to be an eye opener for you.

One thing I didn’t like was it would talk about contracts to use but would refer you to another one of their books, yes I know that promotes extra sales but if your going to talk about the contracts needed then include them in the book.

I hope you enjoyed this review and it has helped you to either read it yourself or pass on reading it. I am happy that I bought and read this book even if I only start implementing the foreclosure presentation idea. You may read this book and pick up on other things that you liked that may have not been mentioned here. If you happen to read this book or have read it I would like to hear from you! Please feel free to message me.