Legal Essentials for Creative Finance: Safeguard Your Financial Future

Brett McCollum (00:00.89)
Welcome back to the show everybody. I’m your host, Brett McCollum. And today I’m here with Bill Bronchick. And today we’re gonna talk about the legal side of creative finance. I’m really excited about that. But before we get after it guys, I wanna talk to you about Investor Fuel. At Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers, and real estate entrepreneurs to 5X their businesses and allow them to build the businesses they’ve always wanted, allow them to live the life they’ve always dreamed of. Without further ado, Bill, how are you, man?

Bill Bronchick (00:27.224)
I’m awesome, thanks for inviting me.

Brett McCollum (00:28.998)
Man, I’m definitely excited to have this conversation with you. Got to talk to a little bit, you know, pre-show just kind of some of the background of what you do and guys, you’re in for a treat on this one. But Bill, catch us up to speed, man. Tell us a little bit about who you are, some background, you know, who’s Bill Bronchick?

Bill Bronchick (00:48.206)
Yeah, originally born and raised in New York. I come from the factory of Jewish lawyers from New York. I moved to Colorado in 93. I practiced law for a little bit of time in New York, real estate mostly in business. And when I got out of law school, I thought, you know, I got a license to steal, know, 40 hours a week times back then it was 250 an hour. Now it’s five. But I thought that was a lot of money. But I realized after about a year of practicing, like this is work. I don’t care if you’re making 25 an hour.

Brett McCollum (01:15.535)
Mmm.

Bill Bronchick (01:17.326)
or you make it 500 an hour, you’re trading hours for dollars and you need a system where you got money coming in when you’re not able to, willing to, or want to work. So that’s why I got into real estate pretty quickly. My mom was also in real estate. She dragged me to a big conference in Salt Lake City, Utah with Mark Harrelson. I don’t know if you remember him. That’s a blast from the past. And that’s when I met my old friend.

there, um, Dr. Lowry and was just blown away about creative finance and the ideas that he had. Um, and we’ve come, you know, still remain good friends over the years and we’ve learned a lot from each other too. And I just got right into the real estate game, uh, in 1992, I moved to Denver in 1993. I live in Colorado Springs now. Uh, my office is still in the Denver area and I practice mainly real estate, uh,

Brett McCollum (01:53.094)
Hmm.

Bill Bronchick (02:15.278)
business entities and tax strategies and some estate planning. But I’m also, you know, a very active real estate investor, been so since since 92. I’ve done every type of deal, residential and commercial, you can imagine. But now I really focus a lot, especially in my practice as well in creative finance, because of the current environment of, you know, higher interest rates, harder to get a loan. If you can leverage the existing mortgages, 67 % of which out there.

are still under 4%.

Brett McCollum (02:45.67)
Wow. Man, there’s a lot to unpack with this. So, all right. So 92, 93, you’re kind of just really launching both your investor, your investment side, but also your practice side too. I know kind of, you also mentioned that pre-show that you had a RIA that you had operated or started at 1.2, when was that?

Bill Bronchick (03:08.701)
Yeah. Yeah. I tried, I didn’t practice law when I moved to Denver from 93 to about 97 and just did real estate full time. in 96 started the Colorado association, real estate investors, which at one time was the largest group in the country. had a 3,800 members. had up to 400 people at our monthly meetings, annual conferences of up to a thousand. was a big organization. And, and then I just.

Brett McCollum (03:17.477)
Wow, OK.

Brett McCollum (03:32.826)
Yeah, yeah.

Bill Bronchick (03:34.478)
You know, just got a little burnt out of that around 2012 handed it off some good people who are running it now under Colorado RIA. and so now I still do my law practice. I invest in real estate and I write books and do seminars and do great podcasts like this. And I also teach a couple of classes at a, a local college up here on real estate and business, law. And, and I also play in rock and roll band.

And in the worship band on Sundays, the church. I play guitar. I’ve been playing guitar since I was eight. All right, yeah.

Brett McCollum (04:01.126)
Hey, what you, what is going to see play?

Yeah, same here, man. We should, we’re gonna be best friends right before you know it, Very cool. man, all right, we’re gonna, let’s double back a little bit. So you mentioned creative finance back in the 90s, cause like, you know, and I thought this is gonna sound silly to somebody like you that’s been, you know, in the game for as long as you’ve been, but it’s almost funny. Like if you’ve been 10 years or so or more, you’re kind of a veteran in this space almost these days, right?

Bill Bronchick (04:36.514)
Yeah, yeah. Right. If you haven’t been through at least two cycles, you really don’t know real estate.

Brett McCollum (04:36.89)
which is wild to say that out loud.

Brett McCollum (04:43.182)
You don’t and I’ll be completely honest with you, Bill. Like this is my first real like, whoa, this is a weird one, you know? and I have never seen it or been through it. I don’t have the experience to walk through and that you kind of, mentioned cycles. That’s where I was kind of leading us to a little bit. So you’ve been through a few. Yeah. And

Bill Bronchick (04:49.964)
Yeah, this is a weird one.

Bill Bronchick (05:01.902)
three cycles and I’ve invested in 12 states.

Brett McCollum (05:06.15)
Wow. So the first big one that I can think of, there’s probably something that I’m missing, was 2001. Was there anything prior to that that you went through?

Bill Bronchick (05:15.412)
yeah, the late eighties, early nineties, the crash after they changed the tax laws, and then the savings and loan debacle and the crash of those. And then they formed what’s called the resolution trust company, the RTC, which was a government agency that took over the failed SNLs and liquidated all their properties. And I bought a bunch of properties from them in the early nineties.

Brett McCollum (05:35.942)
Wow, okay, there you go. And then, you know, go through 2001, 08, and now today, whatever this is, whatever they’re gonna call this in, you 10 years, you know? Yeah. Tell me a little bit, like, I understand, like, you were doing creative finance back when, before people talked about it. Like, today it’s kind of like the buzzword and, you know, know, sub to this, that, and the other, you know, creative finance, this, But back then, it wasn’t nearly as popular, was it?

Bill Bronchick (05:40.46)
Right. Right.

Yeah, who knows?

Bill Bronchick (05:56.246)
Right. Right.

Bill Bronchick (06:05.43)
Right. Well, actually back then you still had assumable loans available. Those ended around 89 with VA. VA and FHA loans were assumable. that means you didn’t have to qualify for them. You could just assume them in a corporate entity and you’re not liable. So I used to get a bunch of those, but those were 11, 12 % interest. So after that, I learned creative financing. Just, you know,

Brett McCollum (06:24.41)
Right.

Bill Bronchick (06:31.278)
I didn’t want to borrow from banks back then. The going rate for a conventional loan for the investor was, you know, between nine, seven, five and 10, five, um, with 30 % down. Um, and I didn’t want to do that. wanted to take over people’s existing mortgages and leverage their existing financing. And it really started actually back in the late seventies, early eighties when interest rates were, you know, 14, 15%. And if you had a neighbor with a 5 % mortgage, you wanted to, you know, take advantage of subject to or a rap.

Brett McCollum (06:38.491)
Wow.

Brett McCollum (06:52.422)
Mm-hmm. Uh-huh.

Bill Bronchick (06:59.962)
But banks were very aggressive back then about calling those loans due because, know, if the market rate is 14 and you’re taking your neighbor’s loan at four over, they’re going to say, wait a minute, pay that off so we can lend it to somebody else at 14. Now it’s not that big of a difference.

Brett McCollum (07:13.669)
Yeah.

Yeah. So going through, how did you leverage creative finance going through some of these market cycles?

Bill Bronchick (07:24.174)
Yeah. So, um, what I did was a lot of subject twos just taking over existing mortgages and especially like in 2008, nine, 10, when there was no equity and some of them even negative equity, if the mortgage was at 4%, I would take that because at the very least I could break even or make a little cashflow as a rental and then just wait for it to cycle around. And that’s what a lot of people did.

Brett McCollum (07:48.944)
Okay.

Bill Bronchick (07:52.174)
not enough people probably, but a lot of people bought up stuff with no or negative equity subject to, and then rented it out. Then by 2013, 14, 15, the rents started popping and the values popped and the equity came back.

Brett McCollum (07:58.448)
subject to.

Brett McCollum (08:07.686)
Okay, so let’s back up a little bit on just, let’s kind of high level subject two a little bit, just for a moment, because I think it’s worth exploring and diving a little deeper on subject two, give it a loose definition, if you will, and then it’s kind of got, I mean, obviously there’s a lot of, there’s a large following on sub two and things like that. From the legal side of it, okay, maybe give like a little context of where

Bill Bronchick (08:17.132)
Right.

Brett McCollum (08:36.676)
what you’re seeing from the everyday investor and then what the best practices probably ought to be.

Bill Bronchick (08:41.954)
Yeah. In layman’s terms, buying subject to means you’re taking ownership of the property. You’re taking a deed without assuming the existing loan, without asking permission and without paying it off. You’re just going to continue paying it on behalf of the borrower, the seller. What it means to take subject to means there’s a lien against the property, a mortgage or a deed of trust that is not being paid off. So you’re taking it subject to

the existing mortgage. You take subject to and indeed lots of things like subject to easements, subject to unpaid taxes, subject to maybe a right of way, subject to homeowners association rules. So you take subject to a lot of things, you’re just taking subject to the liens.

Brett McCollum (09:28.87)
So how… so I mean I see a lot… I I talk to a lot of people, you know, we have a, you know, different avenues that we work with as well. I see a lot of bad practice in sub 2 today. And I don’t know if it’s intentional, as much as it is probably ignorance. Yeah, mean probably that too. What would you say some…

Bill Bronchick (09:43.074)
Yeah.

Brett McCollum (09:54.97)
Like maybe a couple of best practices would be for like on the legal side of it, because it’s not as simple as just like here sign this thing and now I’ve got your house sub two, da da da da. Like walk me through some of those.

Bill Bronchick (10:04.418)
Right. Well, it can be. mean, I can literally say, hey, here’s five grand, sign this quit claim deed, and now I own your property subject too. It can be that simple, but that’s foolishness. You want to use a purchase agreement with extensive disclosures about the consequences and risks of the transaction and be truthful about it. So if someone says, how do I know you’re going to make my payment? You’d be honest and say, you really don’t.

Brett McCollum (10:15.162)
Yeah. Yeah.

Brett McCollum (10:24.368)
Mm-hmm.

Bill Bronchick (10:33.294)
So, do you have any other options at this point? If not, you you’re already two payments behind Mr. Seller, what do you have to lose? So being honest with people is very important. Also, don’t make promises you can’t keep. And this is one that really gets me. A lot of these contracts I’m seeing, what happens is the seller’s hesitant to give the deed because once you give the deed, you don’t get the property back if the buyer defaults. People do it in divorce all the time.

Brett McCollum (10:35.43)
These are facts.

Bill Bronchick (11:01.848)
People think it’s uncommon, but it’s very common. know, husband and wife getting a divorce, husband deeds it over to the wife, they’re both on the mortgage, and she promises to refi it in three years, and she defaults after one year, the husband’s out of luck. He gave up his ownership, he can’t get it back. And it’s the same thing with the sub too. So people are promising, well, I’ll put a deed from me back to you in escrow, and the escrow agent will give it back to you if I miss two payments. First of all, that’s incredibly dumb.

If you’re the buyer and you missed a payment, you know, inadvertently, or maybe they, the lender changed servicers and you really did make the payment and you’re trying to work it out, you’re going to give up your property. You don’t want that. And second of all, you’re putting the escrow agent in a very difficult position. if there’s a dispute, you know, you’re in default and yes, I am. No, I’m not. know, so, and then also it’s unenforceable for the, in, for the most part in almost every state in this, in this union.

Brett McCollum (11:43.578)
Right.

Bill Bronchick (11:59.79)
you have to foreclose or contractually sue a buyer to get the property back. You can’t just put a deed in escrow and waive all the buyer’s equity. That’s unenforceable. People have been trying to do that with loans forever. I loan you money, I put a lien against your house, and you give me a deed in escrow so if you default, I don’t have to foreclose you. Every court in every land would say that’s unenforceable. So it’s similar. mean, you could contractually agree that

If I don’t make more than two payments, I promise to deed it back and hopefully you’ll do the right thing. That’s fine. That’s fine. And I’ve done that. Yeah, it’s not, well, they could sue you for breach of contract in that case to force you to give it back, but they still have to go to court. There’s no automatic reversion back shortcut.

Brett McCollum (12:36.966)
that’s not necessarily enforceable in the courts.

Brett McCollum (12:49.85)
What about like a Dean and Lou? How does that work in these situations?

Bill Bronchick (12:53.934)
Yeah, I didn’t look, you could, again, you can voluntarily agree to anything you want after the default. So, uh, that’s legal, but you can’t have a deed in lieu upfront. That’s not enforceable. So,

Brett McCollum (13:00.901)
Okay.

Brett McCollum (13:06.214)
Interesting. Okay. Yeah. I’ve always on the investor side, like this is so interesting because I know what like the things that I think I know, right? You know, as an investor, I’ve been doing this a long time. I know what I’m doing. And then we tell our sellers, a lot of the investors on the sales side of it, because your, your seller were like, how can I know that I’m going to be okay? Like what happens if, and everybody like they should be asking those questions about what if, and the only safety I can

Bill Bronchick (13:28.515)
Right.

Right.

Brett McCollum (13:34.586)
tell the seller that I’ve thought in the past here is, well, Mr. Bill, I’m not sure, like, I can’t promise you anything. God forbid something happens. What we would like to do is record and have a Dean and Lou of foreclosure at the point of, you know, us closing. If we don’t miss it, then worst case scenario is you get the house back with anything we’ve created and da-da-da-da-da. Is there anything there that you can find? like, yeah.

Bill Bronchick (13:53.454)
But again, again, that’s

It’s not, it’s not enforceable, but the worst thing as you as the buyer, why would you want to put yourself in a situation where you may not be in default, where you’re just fighting with a servicer who’s not crediting your payment. And then all of a sudden, whoops, you lose your house. That’s not very bright.

Brett McCollum (14:06.534)
Mm-hmm.

Brett McCollum (14:14.202)
This, ladies and gentlemen, is why you get a great real estate attorney behind you so that you don’t do these things, right?

Bill Bronchick (14:20.322)
Yeah, I mean, is the buyer the right thing to do, which most people don’t, is if you can’t make the payment, give it back. You know, that’s the right thing to do. But most buyers just walk away when they can’t make payment or they collect rents. Right. Yeah, right. And along those lines, what a lot of people do, they get a contract with a seller subject to. The seller goes, I don’t think I want to close. And I’ve seen contracts that impose like a $25,000 penalty on the seller or a buyer who wants to f-

Brett McCollum (14:31.118)
Unfortunately, sometimes the right thing and the legal thing aren’t the same, you know, and that’s, that’s tricky.

Brett McCollum (14:48.346)
Mm-hmm.

Bill Bronchick (14:49.806)
you know, force them to go to closing. I what are you crazy? Just walk away. You can’t force someone to give you their house subject to ethically. If they’re not comfortable, say, hey, it’s no problem and walk away. If it’s a cash deal, that’s a different story. If it’s a cash transaction and the seller says, I got a better offer. No, no, you don’t. I’m going to hold them to it. But if it’s a sub to or a seller carry, I’m not going to force them to do that. I’ll say, hey, that’s great. And then I can use them as a reference later on that I’m a good guy.

Brett McCollum (15:14.64)
Got it.

Brett McCollum (15:20.11)
Right, there you go. I’m just thinking of things as we’re talking to some of the, maybe some like our audience of investors might be thinking, why elect to use sub two and not a rap?

Bill Bronchick (15:34.648)
That’s a good question. So a wrap is a sub two. The only difference is instead of just taking the deed, you’re giving the seller back a mortgage or deed of trust, a lien against the property that allows them to foreclose and get the property back. Now that would seem fair and the right thing to do, but here’s the problem. Number one, you record that deed of trust or mortgage publicly, which informs the bank of what you’ve done. So that’s giving it away.

Number two, my experience has been, especially in a mortgage state, it’s not a big of a deal, but in a deed of trust state, especially where I live in Colorado, if you lose the documents, you have to get a bond to secure it. So if I try to contact the seller in five years and say, hey, I need that deed of trust. And they go, what deed of trust? Where is it? Now I have to go get a lost instrument bond, which costs thousands. Or if I could even find the seller 10 years later.

Brett McCollum (16:18.822)
Brett McCollum (16:25.158)
Where is it? Yeah.

Bill Bronchick (16:34.542)
So, know, I, my experience has been that most of the sellers who are willing to deed me the property sub two, they don’t care. I mean, they’re already behind. They’re already thinking I’m going to walk and let the bank take it. Their objection is not how I know you’re going to make my payment. And I think a lot of people over explain that to sellers who don’t have that objection. And that’s foolish negotiating. Exactly. They’re creating objections that don’t exist.

Brett McCollum (16:58.886)
They’re creating objections that don’t exist yet.

Bill Bronchick (17:03.502)
And then they’re making promises they can’t keep. It’s like the deed and escrow thing, you know? So I just, you know, leave it as is. mean, there’s a third option, which is to buy on a contract for deed where the seller has title until you pay them off. And I’m aloof to do that as the buyer, because again, if the buyer, if the seller disappears, if he just decides he doesn’t want to deed it to me at the end, if he files bankruptcy, I’m a toast. I’ve done it, but the sellers were

Brett McCollum (17:06.171)
Mm-hmm.

Brett McCollum (17:25.862)
I don’t love that one either.

Bill Bronchick (17:32.684)
wealthy, sophisticated people who are not in financial trouble.

Brett McCollum (17:36.122)
Got it. All right, another question on the sub two thing. Yeah, because it is just what’s really popular right now. When doing sub two and what are the major, what are the, what do you see most, I guess, how should you, how do you recommend taking title when you do sub two? So are, you know, like, or how do you, into a trust, into a, you know, into an LLC, into like, how do you, what’s your process map for that look like?

Bill Bronchick (18:04.92)
Right. Well, I’ll give you the lawyer answer. It kind of depends. It depends on what you intend to do with the property. If you’re just going to keep it long-term, I’d put it in a land trust with my beneficiary of the land trust being probably an LLC. If I’m just going to flip it, it really doesn’t matter. Or if I’m going to buy it subject to selling on a lease option where I’ll probably be out in two years, it really doesn’t matter. Because the lender is not likely to catch it, call it due.

or do anything in that short time period, unless you’re talking about a local commercial branch bank or small credit union who might make a stink, but big banks don’t care. They just don’t.

Brett McCollum (18:44.42)
Yeah, and that’s what I’ve been hearing too, but I’ve also been hearing on the other side of it’s, you know, they’re being called, these notes are being called due more and more. What probably is happening that’s triggering the bank to even see that?

Bill Bronchick (18:58.51)
I’m not seeing that, honestly. I’m not seeing that. I’m hearing more wives tales about it, or they’re just, like I said, it’s a small commercial bank, or this is the one that a lot of people make mistake. If you have a state co-sponsored FHA down payment assistance program where the state agency lends the three and a half percent down and puts a second against the property,

Brett McCollum (19:01.369)
Okay.

Bill Bronchick (19:25.356)
They will also service that loan and they will catch it and they will call it. A lot of people are doing those. So FHA loans are okay as long as it doesn’t have that down payment assistance program because they want that money back. They want that money back for low income people. So they’re gonna be forced to.

Brett McCollum (19:35.31)
Right. So it’d be a good idea if you find out. Okay, so it’d be a good idea if somebody, so Bill, you’re my seller and you have an FHA loan and it would be a good idea if I saw your mortgage docs ahead of time to make sure, correct? Okay, and a good attorney ideally shouldn’t be able to help you with that if they understand creative finance. Okay. Yeah, I mean, that’s the, mean, honestly, one of my big takeaways from our conversation today, Bill, is like,

Bill Bronchick (19:49.016)
Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

Bill Bronchick (19:54.008)
Sure. Sure. Sure.

Brett McCollum (20:02.66)
I know you’re in Colorado, but if our audience, you’re not listening in your, if you’re listening outside of Colorado, that is like, if you’re in Colorado, just get with Bill. But if you’re outside of Colorado, find a real estate attorney that understands creative finance at a level that’s going to protect you. and you know, obviously you want everybody, all parties protected as best we can. Right. So Bill, you mentioned to kind of almost, you kind of highlighted a little bit and we pat, kind of glossed over it a little bit.

Bill Bronchick (20:13.442)
Yeah, we’re gonna turn.

Bill Bronchick (20:22.36)
Yeah. Yeah.

Brett McCollum (20:30.587)
You’re an author, you get books, you coach, you know, like, what are you working on today?

Bill Bronchick (20:36.43)
I’m actually working on, have a, for those of you who watching this, it’s pretty close. If you’re in Colorado, I have a workshop the weekend of the 22nd of March, 2025 at my website at legalwiz.com. Other than that, I have tons of articles and videos. I have a YouTube channel with hundreds and hundreds of videos. I think I just hit 70,000 followers on YouTube. It’s just slash branch check. I don’t do Instagram, I’m too old for that.

Uh, but, uh, you know, I d I do a podcast occasionally when I have the time and patience, uh, and discipline, like not like you do. Um, and that’s on Apple. Um, I’m, I’m also, know, investing wise, I’m doing the same thing. I’m, I’m, I’m actually buying a new principal residence, um, with creative financing. Um, this is an interesting story. The seller. Yeah. So this is interesting. the seller, a real nice neighborhood. It’s three year old house.

Brett McCollum (21:25.114)
Okay.

Brett McCollum (21:29.4)
I was gonna ask you break that down, that’s, yeah.

Bill Bronchick (21:35.402)
golf course community, real, you know, big house. And so they bought it three years ago, a veteran couple, the VA loan. Tragically, the guy commits suicide like the first three months. So the wife has the house three years, the VA has not foreclosed. Three years. And they’re usually like 90 days, like clockwork. I don’t know how she got them to, to, to, forbear, but they have. So, she’s about a hundred in arrears.

Brett McCollum (21:35.428)
Ahem.

Bill Bronchick (22:04.678)
And the loan is 3.6. So they’re offering it as a short sale. And I go, wait a minute. I go to the listing agent, I go, how much is owed? What is the balance? I said, tell you what, I’ll just make up the arrears. I’ll take it sub two and I’ll pay your fee. And the seller says, well, what about my VA entitlement? So I can get another VA loan. And I said, who’s going to give you another loan? You haven’t paid the mortgage in three years. you’re not, no offense. I didn’t say this to her, but her primary earner.

her husband is no longer there to pay the mortgage. And finally I said, all right, how about I promise to pay it off in five years, like a balloon? Yeah, so, cause she’s not gonna get a mortgage in the next three or four years with that payment history, right? And if she does a short sale, yeah. Yeah.

Brett McCollum (22:48.24)
Phil, this might be a silly question to ask. This might be a silly question to ask. I’m just thinking out loud here. Being as the, she was not the veteran, the husband was the veteran, correct?

Bill Bronchick (22:57.592)
Well, but she’s entitled to the, the wife is still entitled to the VA entitlement for the loan for her life. Yeah. Yeah. Now I can’t assume. Well, in theory, I could assume the loan, but it doesn’t give her her entitlement back. So there’s no advantage to that for her. So I said, I’ll pay it off in five years. And she just said, you know, she said I’d rather be foreclosed than lose my entitlement. So we went back to short sale, which is gonna, which is gonna hurt her credit pretty bad. But.

Brett McCollum (23:03.618)
Interesting. Okay. Okay.

Brett McCollum (23:21.956)
Lack of education out there.

Bill Bronchick (23:27.126)
I’m getting it a hundred thousand cheaper that way. It’s worth about a million too. And I mean, we have it under contract for 8.55 and we’ll see.

Brett McCollum (23:34.8)
Yeah. So that’s really cool. But let’s, let’s say that on the creative side that goes through, right? I know personally, I’ve run in some roadblocks with, creative finance as it pertains to VA loans. I don’t know the legal necessarily behind why that is. Do you have any ideas as why that could be like why VA’s present challenges?

Bill Bronchick (23:46.775)
Yeah.

Bill Bronchick (23:54.964)
No, actually VA loans subject to are not a problem. It’s brokers and title companies are under this delusion that since it’s a federally guaranteed loan, it’s a federal crime. That is false. Every time someone says that’s illegal, you and I asked them what law are you referring to? And they can’t cite me anything.

Brett McCollum (24:15.396)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, a lot of times the one I remember that I’m thinking of now, it just jogged my memory. It did say in the mortgage docs that it’s a non-affirm right.

Bill Bronchick (24:23.106)
You may not assume this. Yeah, it right on the note, you may not assume this load.

Brett McCollum (24:27.204)
And I think they took that as we can’t do the sub two.

Bill Bronchick (24:30.446)
Well, of course, I’m not gonna assume it. I’m gonna take a subject too. So I laugh when I see that. But interestingly, this is an interesting tidbit that a lot of people don’t know. If you buy a VA loan on a contract for deed and don’t transfer title, the VA will not call it.

Brett McCollum (24:33.2)
Yep.

Brett McCollum (24:46.768)
Say that again.

Bill Bronchick (24:48.558)
A contract for deed, where you don’t transfer a title upfront, is a transfer within the meaning of the due on sale. So any lender can call Bologna with a contract for deed. But the VA is the only lender who won’t. Yeah. I don’t know why. It’s in their loan servicing manual. And so if you buy it subject to using a contract for deed, and then you record the contract, of course, to protect yourself, the VA won’t call it. But then you’re opening yourself up to other

Brett McCollum (24:50.052)
Mm-hmm. Right, right.

Brett McCollum (24:57.691)
Yes.

How about that? Do you know why?

Bill Bronchick (25:17.294)
potential challenges of the deed not being in your name and the seller disappearing and dying or filing bankruptcy or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that’s just a tidbit. I still take a VA subject to all day long. Never had a problem with one. It’s just that a lot of real estate professionals think that FHA and VA loans that they’re illegal to take subject to because they’re federally insured and guaranteed loans. And that’s just false.

Brett McCollum (25:21.582)
Right, right. So best to make sure you vet the seller a lot ahead of time,

Brett McCollum (25:40.666)
Yeah. Man, very cool. But guys, Bill, tell us again a little bit, like you’ve got your workshop coming up. You’ve got, what are some other ways people can get ahold of you, look you up if they need to? Come back to that for us real quick.

Bill Bronchick (25:55.64)
Sure. So legalwiz.com is my information website with all kinds of stuff about real estate investing. Bronchick, my last name, law.com is my law firm website for those of you who are in Colorado. And I do consult with people in other States, but I just can’t represent you in a transaction. So if you want to walk through the logistics and consult with me for an hour or two by the hour, I could do that. But I can’t represent you from A to Z through the closing.

Brett McCollum (26:23.43)
That’s amazing. Guys, and seriously, like, if you don’t have legal contacts, like, take Bill up on that, because the last thing you want to do is watch something on YouTube University for five minutes, become an expert, and then think you know what you’re doing, right? Get some legal professional help to make sure you’re doing things the right way, because the last thing you do is get in some hot water. Bill, man, this has been great. I know we could probably talk for days on end and go back and forth, but, you know,

Bill Bronchick (26:35.234)
Hahaha.

just enough to be dangerous.

Brett McCollum (26:52.762)
We wanna keep it tight and pack a lot of value into this. So maybe we’ll just have to have you on for another follow-up or something. You know, do some more digging. But yeah, man, it’s been great. That’s what everybody wants to hear is jamming. That’s what we… Bill, you’re great, man. I appreciate it, guys. Seriously, look Bill up. And until then, we’ll see you guys on the next episode. Take care, everybody.

Bill Bronchick (27:01.806)
And your guitar will jab, you know?

Hahaha!

Thank you.

Bill Bronchick (27:15.246)
Thank you. Appreciate it.

Alright.