Wednesday, September 6, 2023

Your 4-Month Marathon - Keep Up the Pace!

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TIME TO SET YOUR PACE

In any marathon race, setting your pace is all important. If you watch professional marathon runners, they are running at the same pace nearly the entire race: at the beginning, in the middle, and at the finish line. They quickly get up to the speed they know they can maintain, and they just keep at it, mile after mile, and hour after hour. They know the race will be over after a few hours, and they are content that until that time, they will just keep on keeping on.

This is what you must do as well. Set your pace of low-carb eating, a narrow (six-hour) window of eating, and the end of all between-meal snacking, and then just do it, day after day and week after week. Christmas will be here before you know it, and you can look forward to vastly improved blood sugar scores and your A1c score. Until that time, you will just keep putting one foot in front of the other, running the race that is set before you!

BE CAREFUL!

In my previous email I warned you about the danger of hypos (dangerously low blood sugar) when you switch from a high-carb diet to a low-carb diet. This is especially true for those taking powerful diabetic meds or insulin. So keep watching your glucose levels by testing with your blood sugar meter.

Do not allow your glucose to drop below 80. If it does, immediately eat some carbs to bring it back into range. And by all means keep your doctor in the loop, and let him/her know exactly what you are doing, and what your blood sugar levels are reading. If you are taking meds or insulin you will probably have to have your dosage lowered. TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR!

The Wednesday Videos Are JUST FOR YOU!

On Wednesdays, for the rest of this year, the Lord willing, I plan to target my videos especially for the 2023 Challenge Participants. You cannot afford to miss a single one of them. So please subscribe to Beat Diabetes, and make sure and watch every single Wednesday video that is posted! Click on the thumbnail below to see the latest Wednesday video.

You've Been Lied to: You CAN Beat Diabetes (Dennis)
The Dawn Phenomeon (Dr Dazer)

Here are Links to Videos Featuring Keto tortillas/chapatis/flatbreads

Keto Roti/Chapati (in an Indian Language)
Keto Roti (English Language)
Keto Rotis, Flatbread
Keto Mexican Tortillas
90 Second Keto Tortillas

Get An Approximate A1c

To figure your A1c at home, test your glucose 5 times in one day:

Fasting glucose in the morning
One hour after lunch
Three hours after lunch
One hour after dinner
Before you go to bed
Average these five numbers (divide by 5)

Plug that number into the calculator ON THIS PAGE

This will be a pretty close approximation of your A1c at this time.

To Support "Beat Diabetes" click on the button below

Are Home Flippers Get Burned by US Housing Market's Sudden Slump?

After an abrupt end to the US housing boom, home flippers who were winning big just months ago are now racing to stem losses.

Since January, the doubling of mortgage rates has crushed buyer demand and depressed values in investors' most favored locations, from Phoenix and Las Vegas to Jacksonville, Florida. It's a swift turnabout for flippers such as those stuck with homes to sell and loans to pay.

Investors say, "It's a high-risk, high-reward business — and now we're facing the high risk, and I'm just praying for break even."

Flippers with loans must repay them, and rising interest rates make carrying costs even more significant. Their troubles can reverberate across the market: Just as investors bid prices higher on the way up, they can accelerate the move downward.

For most fix and flippers, the focus will be on selling, and the faster, the better. A small number will keep buying even though finding truly undervalued homes is near impossible and a guessing game of how far the market will drop.

Home-flipping activity reached a record at the start of the year, making up one in 10 transactions, surpassing the levels in the last bubble, according to Attom, an Irvine, California-based data provider, which tracked sales of properties that previously sold within the last 12 months. While the share remains elevated, it fell to 8.2% in the second quarter of 2023.

Conditions have deteriorated more since then, with mortgage rates near the highest level in 20 years. Demand has cooled particularly fast in Sun Belt markets such as Phoenix, Jacksonville, and Atlanta, pandemic boom areas where affordability has been strained. Fix and Flippers made up about 14% of transactions in those regions in the second quarter, but those shares sank in July and August, according to more recent monthly data provided by Attom.

Phoenix property investors have had to slash prices after the slowdown caught investors. A lot of investors are getting hammered.

Losses will grow, but even thin margins are a big problem when you're a full-time flipper.

We have hard-money loans with 10% to 14% interest rates. It's a constant dance — do I wait it out, or does the price drop? Both cost money.

For the most part, investors are paying back their loans, said Matt Prosory RI/Broker at Level 4 Funding, a hard-money lender in Phoenix, Colorado, and Texas. The default rate was 1.25%, which has climbed to 2.5% in the past two months. But it remains below pre-pandemic norms.

Matt said fix and flippers with nicely renovated turn-key properties will stand out in this market. But it will be painful for those who overpaid, counting on rapid appreciation to make them money, he said.

"Lots of them, in hindsight, were making bad buys. Anybody fix and flipping right now must look closely at the property pricing: Price it to sell. Today is not the time to get greedy.

Phoenix flippers are trying to put things in perspective. Flippers have purchased much more over the last two years than they will likely lose. Fix and Flippers are giving back the money they made.

I ask my flippers if flipping is dead or at least dying. Here in the Phoenix, Arizona, metro area, I have watched the margin on deals become slimmer and slimmer. During the past few years, television shows and seminars have flooded the flipping market with people who believe flipping homes is an easy way to riches. Trustee auction prices are near MLS prices (retail), and I cannot believe what people are paying.

I recommend that flippers take an extended vacation and return later to see how the market is going.

Matt Prosory RI/MLO/Broker

NCO Enterprises LLC
Dba Setabay Private Hard Money
26731 N 90th Drive
Peoria AZ 85383
Telephone: 623-582-4444
NMLS 2062278 NMLS 1118493

Equal Housing Opportunity. This is not a Good Faith Estimate nor a Guarantee to lend and should not be considered as such. Costs, rates, estimates, and terms can only be determined after completing an application. Actual payments will vary based on your situation and current rates. APR for loans ranges from 7.99 - 29.5% and is based on Credit Score, Down Payment, LTV, and Income. Mortgage rates could change daily. For more accurate and personalized results, please call 623 582 4444 to talk to a licensed mortgage expert. Terms and conditions of all loan programs are subject to change without notice. NCO Enterprises LLC Dba Setabay Private Hard Money 26731 N 90th Drive Peoria AZ 85383 Telephone: 623-582-4444 NMLS 2062278 NMLS 1118493 This email is for the exclusive use of the intended recipients and may contain privileged and confidential information. If you are not an intended recipient, please notify the sender, delete the email from your computer, and do not copy or disclose it to anyone else. Your receipt of this message is not intended to waive any applicable privilege. Neither this email nor any attachments establish a client relationship, constitute an electronic signature, or provide consent to contract electronically unless expressed by Matt Prosory RI/CEO, in this email or an attachment. To the extent, this message includes any tax or legal advice. This message is not intended or written by the sender to be used, and cannot be used, for legal or tax purposes or advice. This email is an advertisement.

Monday, September 4, 2023

Are you making moola flipping homes? ✅💯🔆

SouthCreek Flips Shows Us How to Fix-and-Flip Like a Boss

As you may know, Level 4 Funding is a hard money lender, and we help many people realize their dreams, especially those who focus on fixes and flips or rehabs. Occasionally, we come across someone whose story and work are just too inspirational not to share. Pam Bauer and Marsha Burton of SouthCreek Fix and Flips are two such people. Marsha was kind enough to talk briefly about their recent flips and what keeps them in the business.

Pam's Been a General Contractor for 25 Years

A background in the industry makes the transition to flipping houses much more accessible. Pam's 25 years of work as a general contractor gave her an excellent background for fix-and-flips. With nine years of direct fix-and-flip experience and Marsha as a partner, SouthCreek Flips has completed 18 properties in 3 years.

The Pair Follows the Motto, "The Uglier, the Better"

While those just getting into the fix-and-flip business will likely want to select modest projects, the expertise these ladies bring to the table means they can tackle homes that others might shy away from. "Hoarder houses," as Marsha calls them, are a favorite. The pair explicitly targets homes that might appear beyond help to others due to trash and debris, filth, or shoddy upkeep, and often networks with realtors and other real estate investors to help ensure the suitable projects land with the right rehabbers.

Carving Out a Family Paradise is its Reward

Even though fix-and-flips can be lucrative if you know what you're doing, Marsha says they're driven by more altruistic means. The pair works primarily in low-income areas, restoring 2-3-bedroom homes for people who want a nice place to stay near family but can't find quality housing. Her favorite project to date involved rehabbing a hoarder house with mold problems. The house sold before it even listed for more than the asking price because the buyer was so excited to have the opportunity to purchase a lovely home near his mother. Check out the stunning photos of it below!

After All These Years, Some Homes Still Come with Surprises

Those who do fix-and-flips for a living have expert eyes and know how to size up a property well, but even the pros find ugly surprises from time to time. We asked Marsha what their biggest surprise was thus far. "We noticed some plumbing was a little corroded when replacing a fixture," she explained. "You can rig a house to death and put it on the market and Pam, and just I can't do that." So, they did what they always do: address the corroded plumbing. Unfortunately, this led to an unsavory discovery: a former owner created his sewer system with cinder blocks. The pair were forced to drill it all out, remove it, and replace it to code.

Watch for More to Come from SouthCreek Flips

The dynamic duo has been focused purely on their projects thus far and doesn't have a digital footprint yet, so be on the lookout for a website in the future. You may also catch their current project on Garfield, which will be hitting the listings any day now.

If you liked hearing Pam and Marsha's story, come back here as we continue to highlight more of the great things Level 4 Funding clients are doing with their hard money loans or contact us directly if you think you've got what it takes to become a home rehabber and need funding for your project.