Dilemna, how do you learn the basics of contracts, transactions, etc .

How does a newbie go about learning the basics of real estate contracts and gaining knowledge on transactional dealings. For example,

  1. Some people are experts on No Money down techniques, given your credit score is 680+, and I heard that you can ammend this into the contract, how?
  2. How do you assume a mortgage? What paperwork do you need? How do you know if a mortgage is even assumable?

Where/how can I learn all these things that are common knowledge to the active investor?

I would suggest you read all the articles available on this site. Many of the articles by Bill Bronchich provide excellent advice on legality issues.

  1. I don’t really know what you are talking about. Putting this into a contract? What are you trying to accomplish there.

  2. VA and FHA loans before 87 and 88 are assumable loans. That means you can simply take over the loan without the fear of having the loan called due by the bank.

All mortgages today given by banks have non assumable clauses that says something along the lines of:

“If title is transfered without paying off the loan, the lender may at its option call the entire loan due”

Taking over title subject to the loan means you are doing it anyways without telling the bank.

You can use any purchase and sales agreement to do this, just add the lines “loans taking subject to $_________”

You will have to find a title company or a closing agent that is familiar with this practice. Many of them no longer do it, and many of them will not do it.

Quite a few conventional loans these days are assumable with the lender’s approval. The lender will only approve if the individual assuming the loan can qualify for a new loan under the lender’s underwriting guidelines.

Assumables are still in the marketplace. They are called qualifying assumables.

Gone are the loans that were assumable without qualification.

Tien, I believe you are confusing the due on sale clause with loan assumption. A loan assumption without the lender’s approval can trigger the due on sale clause, but that does not prohibit assumption with the lender’s approval.

I would suggest you take the realtors contracts class if your area offers one. From your questions however, sounds like you do not understand how investors buy with no money down. Most of us do not buy using banks.

Where would I go to find this? I would be interested in taking JUST this class. I have found a place in my area (Bloomington Indiana) that has realtor courses, but they are like 9 week deals.