This book will truly teach you 30 years of combined experience from Megan and Zeke! if you want to BUY, SELL or SAVE your home this is the book for you! After going through a financial crisis in 2007-2009 Megan realized there was no one out there to help that does not have a biased opinion; so Megan decided to take all the nasty and good things she had learned and truly help people across the country! Megan has seen the worst financially, bounced checks, tax liens, Bankruptcy, pawning jewlery . . . everything as a financial planner she cringed at she now had experienced and overcome By the Grace of GOD. Megan and Zeke did overcome the worst financial crisis they could have imagined so Megan decided to help the rest of the world by teaching all the ways to get in and out of homes along with other fantastic financial secrets no one in the financial world wants you to know about! This book will not only help you buy, sell or save your home but after reading it you will have more knowledge than 90% of people out there on Real Estate! It will give you the basic tools to help yourself and be able to make the best decision for you! Megan and Zeke believe in Prosperity through charity therefore 50% of book profits go to help people in financial crisis.

Real Estate The American Dream? Or Nightmare?

Creative Solutions and Secrets for Buying, Selling and Saving your Home!By Megan Zucaro

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2012 Megan Zucaro
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4670-4176-8

Contents

CHAPTER 1: Foreword—the MegaZee story: Megan and Zeke.............................................................................................................................1CHAPTER 2: The American Dream overview—We Are supposed to Achieve our Dreams in America...........................................................................................5CHAPTER 3: The American Nightmare—Americans Are Losing their Homes every Month....................................................................................................8CHAPTER 4: Homeowners tax Credit—the Government Is Giving You Money...............................................................................................................13CHAPTER 5: Buying a Home—It Is not that Hard......................................................................................................................................14CHAPTER 6: Selling a Home—It Is not that Hard When You're Creative................................................................................................................35CHAPTER 7: Banks versus Brokers.........................................................................................................................................................50CHAPTER 8: Realtors—Do You need A Realtor?........................................................................................................................................54CHAPTER 9: FsBo—Yes! You Are Smart Enough to Sell Your Home.......................................................................................................................68CHAPTER 10: Short sales—Yes! It Will Affect Your Credit...........................................................................................................................84CHAPTER 11: Pre Foreclosure—save Your Home—Don't Give Up—Figure out what is best for you and your Family ... no one knows your situation but YOU!.....................106CHAPTER 12: Modification Plan—You Can Get Your Home Modified......................................................................................................................119CHAPTER 14: Mortgage Information—All the secrets they Don't Want You to Know......................................................................................................147CHAPTER 15: The Mortgage and the offer—the Wedge, Make offer and If you are not embarrassed by your initial offer it is too high!.................................................153CHAPTER 16: The Closing—the Final Day.............................................................................................................................................161CHAPTER 17: Finding the Home—It Is so simple......................................................................................................................................166CHAPTER 18: Creative Financing—Any one Can Buy a Home.............................................................................................................................170CHAPTER 19: Five Reasons to Invest in Real estate.......................................................................................................................................180CHAPTER 20: Your Future—the Real truth............................................................................................................................................182

Chapter One

Foreword—the MegaZee story: Megan and Zeke

Oh My Gosh! We got started in 1996, investing into real estate and we sure thought we were the King and Queen, we were acquiring homes left and right, and we knew we were the next TRUMP. It was all bliss and it was at the young age of 26, until we sold our Mortgage Company in 2007 to a Publicly traded Company and they decided to go Under—Banko. Yes, leaving us with no income, no business, and a huge mess. Most people would have lost their mind; instead, we fought back tooth and nail to protect our dignity and reputation. It was so painful having to save a successful business and lots of Real estate (30 Homes at the time), but I refused to give up and went on a mission to save and as many houses and get some type of financially normalcy back into our lives. After 12 years of building the business and being blessed beyond our imagination we never would have thought something like this could have happened to us and ALL WHILE BEING MRS. TEXAS it was a crazy 24 months. The catastrophe lead us to our Radio show, speaking nationally about Real estate and developing a new improved Real estate entrepreneurial business now with a 4, 5, and 6 year in tow.

Our Determination to help people save their homes and learn new ways to buy and sell homes has helped thousands of people across the nation. We have seen it all, nothing scares us any more we have had to pawn our wedding rings, we have had to use overdraft we have had to file BK we have had to get a title loan we have had our bank accounts levied, we have had to make payments to the IRS we have had to modify loans we have had to short sale a house we have had to borrow money we have been so broke we had to share McDonalds meals. The bottom line is you can get through the FINANCIAL MESS THAT THE WORLD AROUND US SOMETIMES CREATES do not give up, use this book as a source to help you through our pain and suffering and school of hard knocks! It is OK we are doing super and we are stronger and smarter.... That is why we made a commitment to help the world get out of sticky situations and uncomfortable situations as graceful as possible remember; everyone has their ups and downs YOU MUST GET UP Financial stress is one of the most stressful situations people deal with but it is not worth ruining your life over. Enjoy the stories and lessons and we hope we help you find your goals in Real estate as we helped thousands of others just like you; therefore last but not least.... I can help you with your personal situation you can call me or email me and I will always get back to you, I could never write a book to help everyone's situation but I can take your call and email and help you as I have helped thousands already and it is confidential so let me know what I can do call me at 254.534.1953 Megan or email me at m@megazee.com. I have learned that I have so much knowledge that helps other people that I want to HELP YOU as no one could do for me and Zeke no catch no twist just good old Minnesota nice, I believe what comes around goes around and I don't want ANY ONE TO GO THROUGH WHAT WE WENT THROUGH IN 2008 it is too stressful! I have saved hundreds of people's homes by word of mouth and helped a lot of people get into homes that were told they never could own a home and helped lots of people get houses with no money down after being foreclosed on their personal home. I can help you too. Remember to keep the FAITH it has what got me to this point today. You hear real life funny stories and see why we have made the decision we made and why this book took two years to finish because every day I learned something new living through the nightmare! However we are better humans and have had the chance to really change other human's lives.... THAT IS WHAT IT IS ABOUT ... RIGHT! Fifty percent of profits from this book will go into a fund to help families in financial crisis. We will take what we went through and make a nightmare into the American Dream!

WHO Are Megan and Zeke

MegaZee Inc. is a family business, but not in the way you might think. Though we were born to it, it wasn't given to us. Both of us are children of entrepreneurs and started very young ...

Zeke was raised in a shanty house behind his family restaurant in NY, while Megan spent her growing up years on a hobby farm in Minnesota. Her father commuted to Minneapolis to run his CPA firm. Though we both had our family businesses, we decided to choose our own path.

We both graduated with degrees in journalism from University of Minnesota and University of Central Florida respectively. Though we met during college, we lived separate lives for 6 years. Zeke became an officer and a helicopter pilot in the army, while Megan started working as a news Reporter/Anchor/Assignment editor for ABC television.

We were both successful in our chosen career paths, but when we came together, our synergy took us to another level altogether. We began our journey together as an army family that involved commanding troops and caring for families. We started our financial planning after the army and founded MegaZee Inc. Then investing in real estate, we branched out slowly. We wrote several books and spoke professionally at seminars at the national level. Eventually, with the international experience and exposure that we have had, we started our mortgage company. All this while we were helping out others and their families grow. Now our goal is a national TV show to help the nation out of this Real estate crisis. We are so excited and feel so blessed to be able to help the country do what we do.

We are the culmination of two lineages and lifetimes of entrepreneurship. Our expertise and knowledge has grown with every success and failure (Yes! We have had our share of failures) that has come our way. Our commitment to each other and our resolve for the family's success also grew proportionately.

We are veterans at starting new businesses and making them work. We are the king and queen of creative financing and problem solving. Our company may seem like a far-flung holding in the beginning, but it really is mutually supportive, multi—revenue, non—linear business model, made of love, sweat and tears. Finally, we have cracked the code of blending successful entrepreneurship and family life! Now a National TV Show is our next goal to help the nation! We are so excited and feel so blessed to be able to help the country do what we do.

Godspeed everyone!

Megan & Zeke Zucaro

MegaZee, Inc.

Chapter Two

The American Dream Overview—We Are Supposed To Achieve Our Dreams in America

Living the American Dream

The American dream is alive and well but you must show up, take action and work hard. You see 85% of life is showing up the other 15 is making a decision and taking action and the last 5% is just good old hard work! America is the land of opportunities, and achieving your dreams is possible here. This is the place where your dreams can come true if you really believe in them.

Having a home in America is a very important part of the American dream. In fact, having one's own home was so important that saving up for the down payment of your house was considered a commendable goal. The tax structure of the country also offered incentives to people who wanted to take a mortgage and buy a house. It was conventional wisdom that buying a house was better than renting one, because real estate prices could head only in one direction—upwards. Buying a home was considered a part of the settling down process; a resting place for retirement and a security against financial troubles.

In simple words, to own a home was American dream, and to rent was something lesser. Over the years, every generation came up with its own reasons, all of which claim that home ownership was part of national pride and the nation's saving grace. So much so, that buying a home almost became synonymous with a character building exercise.

Till the early 20th century, having a mortgage was considered a problem. It was a stigma as bad as gambling or drinking addiction. Young middle class Americans were told to buy only what they could afford, and thus, most of them lived in rented spaces. It was only during the Great Depression when the government stepped into the housing market, that tenancy declined and home ownership went up. The government programs made millions believe that the virtue of homeownership was a result of hard work and determination. In fact, in the 1950s the census bureau started collecting data on new housing-, which was considered an indicator of the economic vitality of the country. By the 1970s over 60% of the people had their own homes. In the 1990s, sub—prime lending and mortgages made average Americans believe, that it was possible to make their dreams come true.

Today, more than third Americans live in their own homes. Buying a home in America is the single greatest investment that most people make. They put their entire life's savings and sometimes those of their family and friends into a home, believing they are making the biggest investment of their lives.

However, this is one of the biggest half truths fed to Americans over the years. This advice, like many others, is true in certain situations and cases, but definitely not true for everyone out there.

Whoever thought of this piece of advice, obviously did not take into account the housing market meltdown of the 2000s. Unfortunately, many people who took this advice either have now lost their entire life's savings, or are on the brink of bankruptcy or in the process of foreclosing their homes and egos. Lives have been destroyed as the Great American Dream turned into nightmare on Main street.

However, not all is lost and there's still some hope. We are here to save the American Dream and help out the Main street of America. our aim is to save people and their homes and to revive the American dream of home ownership. It's time for Banks and Corporate Giants to watch out because people don't need to wait for economic stimulus to come. We are here to help people and to help the American Dream make a comeback!

Chapter Three

The American Nightmare—Americans Are Losing Their Homes Every Month

We saw in 2009, 140 Bank Failures the highest since 1992 during the savings and loan crisis. In 2008, we saw 25 banks failures and in 2007 we saw three bank failures. The number of banks on the FDIC's confidential Problem list is 702. Bank Failures in 2010 have been 16 so far and analysts expect 200 or more banks to fail this year. (Douglas A. McIntyre) the crash of real estate market in America is the cause of massive home foreclosures. This has led to a massive fall in the prices of housing estates all over north America. the housing bubble attained its zenith in the year 2005 and broke down in 2006. Today, it is on the verge of bursting, and a collapse in the housing market all over the nation has ensued with a sharp decent in its prices.

Banks and various other financial institutions used to invest in real estate, as it was one of the main profit arenas, which continued for decades. the safest method to protect people's money was to invest in a house. Keeping this in mind, people continued to invest in the housing market between the late 1990s and 2005, in spite of their high reaching prices. Now in 2010 and 2011 it is not getting better as per Realtytrac, Inc. Realtytrac Inc. is an Irvine, California based firm that provides research information on foreclosure information throughout the United states. Rick Sharga is a senior vice president for Realtytrac and he believes that according to their data, the country is on pace to experience more than one million bank repossessions this year. He said that "We're finally seeing the banks start to process the inventory that has been in foreclosure, but delayed in processing. We expect the pace to accelerate as the year goes on". the number of homes that were lost in foreclosure to banks in the first quarter of this year was up thirty five percent over the first quarter of last year. This is with no end in sight because the number of homeowners that were in a position to be facing foreclosure also increased by sixteen percent in the same period of time. Posted by Rancho Cucamonga Realtor on November 16th, 2010 President Obama's administration has spent seventy five billion on a program to prevent mortgage foreclosures but has only really been able to offer assistance to a very few troubled homeowners. The process of a obtaining a loan modification is extremely difficult even with the assistance of the government program. About 1.2 million borrowers began the program during the previous year but of them only 231,000 loan modifications have been completed with the assistance of the administration's flagship foreclosure prevention program. It seems that the problem for many is deeper than something that can be solved with the level of assistance that this kind of program can provide. In some situations loans that were issued with special short time interest rates have reached the point where the rates have reset and the payments have skyrocketed causing the homeowner insurmountable difficulty in continuing making their payments.

When these loans were originally issued, these homeowners felt that when the time came they could just re-finance their mortgages but now many no longer have sufficient equity in their homes to be able to do that.

Add to this problem the homeowners that have suffered a job loss in their household and you can see why the administration's program showed marginal success. Other factors that made it appear that mortgage foreclosures were on the decline were that foreclosure moratoriums were enacted by some states, with the hope of giving homeowners a chance to catch up with their past due payments. these moratoriums have ended and many are even further behind in their payments now than they were before.

The administration put pressure on banks last year to do more to modify home loans and as we previously discussed it has had limited success because it did not fix the underlying problem. And it also took some time for banks to be able to begin to cope with the rising pool of problem loans.

With the sinking of financial institutions and banks, the scenario of the real estate market has become more volatile. The American housing estate collapse was not an overnight matter. Following are some of the reasons that contributed to the crash:

REAL LIFE EXAMPLE: A FRIEND OF MINE WHO'S HUBAND IS AN ATTORNEY CALLED ME AND SAID I JUST LOST MY HOME! I SAID HOW IS THAT POSSILBE? SHE SAID, "WE WERE TRYING TO DO A MODIFICATION THEY TOLD US NOT TO MAKE PAYMENTS, WE GOT BEHIND AND THEY PUT A FORECLOSURE DATE UP, THEY SAID SINCE WE WERE IN THE MODIFICAITON PROCESS THAT WOULD DELAY THE FORECLOSURE...." SHE NEVER FOLLOWED UP AND THE MORTGAGE COMPANY FORGOT TO TELL THE ATTORNEY TO DELAY THE FORECLOSURE THEY LOST THEIR HOME, JUST LIKE THAT.... THESE ARE SMART INTELLIGENT PEOPLE.

PEOPLE ARE LOSING THEIR HOMES BECAUSE THEY DO NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO NOT BECAUSE THEY CAN NOT AFFORD THEM

FOLLOW UP IS KEY PEOPLE DO NOT DO WHAT THEY SAY THEY ARE GOING TO DO UNLESS YOU FOLLOW UP FAST AND OFTEN. All the government programs in the world cannot help the unemployed and or people that missed payments in the last 6 months. That is the problem people do not have income. If you can prove you can make the payment with your income the bank will give you a modification.

The financial institutions and banks were giving mortgages that are 5 to 10 times higher than the yearly incomes of the people. This was much above the safety rate of 3 to 4 times. These financial establishments, while providing mortgages to the people, did not scrutinize them properly. In addition, the powerhouses implemented aggressive conditions and terms. These resulted in an easy flow of cash in the market that fueled the real estate prices in the market. This was ok as long as your income never changed! We have learned the best in life can change unexpectedly and unemployment is causing the loans to fail. Lenders had good intentions who would ever have thought it would be such a massive amount of the population.

(Continues...)

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