The Real Estate market fluctuates, always. It moves in tandem to the economy. So when the economy is moving along, jobs are plentiful and people are spending money, the cost of housing goes up. There are fewer homes for sale, and the seller has a definite advantage over the buyer as far as price and negotiations are concerned. Mortgage companies offer great incentives and life is good all around.
But as it often does, a downswing follows, those great incentives from the mortgage companies turn out to be really great for the mortgage company but not so great for a struggling family. The home that was bought when all was right with the world is suddenly a lodestone so heavy that it drags the owner toward foreclosure, and bankruptcy. Selling that same home becomes a nightmare, because often the price paid for it isn't anywhere near the price it will sell for now. Bank owned properties and foreclosures rates rise. Homes for sale sit on a market that is sluggish to non-existent. The job market falters, mortgage companies tighten the requirements for loans, and some close altogether. Food and gas prices rise. This sounds familiar, doesn't it?
Estimates are that the current downswing in the real estate market will last into the first quarter of 2010, as America trims the fat off our economy. But that has a lot of people wondering if it is a good time to buy property, or do they sit and wait it out. That greatly depends on your financial well-being; many of the high rollers are taking a wait and see attitude about the current market. And some risk takers are wagering everything in the hopes that they can wait out the economy and come out on top. Where does that leave the average person?
If you need to sell your property, by all means put it up for sale, my suggestions are talk to a few agents, get a realist vision of the current market in your area and price your home to sell in that market. Listen to your Agent, they are after all the authority in this instance. Keep your home clutter free, and be open to showings at a moments notice. Don,t price yourself out of the market, thinking that you'll take a lower offer, because the offers probably won't come and the house will set for months on end.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
The changing real estate face
There's more to an open house than setting up a few directional signs, opening the house up, the smell of home-baked cookies and having a simple flyer to hand out. In this day and age, open houses have taken on a whole new angle. If you've been sticking to the old ways of throwing an open house, you're missing out on opportunities to really catch more interest from prospects.
Online/Virtual Open House - Harness the power of the internet to reach more people! Many people have little time to "shop around" and stop in physically at open houses. And some just can't get there. Perhaps the homes they want are in a different state. Perhaps they can't get off work. But with the internet, you can make both time and distance immediately irrelevant!
Many buyers use the internet to search for their next home, a vacation condo or investment property. An open house where prospects can look at photos and videos of the home is great. But you can make it even more intriguing by having the open house streaming live on the internet. With an audio podcast or a webinar where you are presenting the home and fielding questions from prospects live, you allow for real-time interaction. You can even walk through the home with the video camera and provide a live walk-thru of the property as prospects watch.
No worries about being busy with one set of buyers while another set walks through the door. All of your prospects are on the other end of a computer, watching and listening to the whole experience. They become your captive audience and you can point out the smallest of details on your listing.
The "School's in Session" Educational Open House - Buyers like to be up on the latest in terms of what is going on with the market, any changes to the transaction process and more. Turn your open house into a seminar on financing or some other real estate related topic. Team up with a loan officer or other professional and hand out flyers and provide a short presentation on a computer or some poster board. Provide informational handouts to your prospects. Use the home as your prime example when you explain the financing process or what to expect with working with a title agency.
Everyone Likes a Party Open House - Just like it sounds, make your open house fun and create a theme. Use the upcoming holidays to help with a theme. For example, have a "Fall in Love All Over Again" open house on Valentine's Day. Use that holiday theme to create handouts that tie the theme in with the features of the home. Provide chocolates and champagne (or sparkling cider). Or use the weather to determine your theme. In the dead of winter perhaps a beach theme would really catch a lot of prospects' interests.
The Commuter or Twilight Open House - Ditch the weekend open house schedule. Most prospects drive by your listing on their way home from work. Take advantage of that traffic and encourage them to stop and enjoy themselves at your open house. Set up some drinks and appetizers (you don't want hunger to be an excuse to leave early) and show those prospects why this house should be their home...the cut in commute time being the first of many reasons!
Online/Virtual Open House - Harness the power of the internet to reach more people! Many people have little time to "shop around" and stop in physically at open houses. And some just can't get there. Perhaps the homes they want are in a different state. Perhaps they can't get off work. But with the internet, you can make both time and distance immediately irrelevant!
Many buyers use the internet to search for their next home, a vacation condo or investment property. An open house where prospects can look at photos and videos of the home is great. But you can make it even more intriguing by having the open house streaming live on the internet. With an audio podcast or a webinar where you are presenting the home and fielding questions from prospects live, you allow for real-time interaction. You can even walk through the home with the video camera and provide a live walk-thru of the property as prospects watch.
No worries about being busy with one set of buyers while another set walks through the door. All of your prospects are on the other end of a computer, watching and listening to the whole experience. They become your captive audience and you can point out the smallest of details on your listing.
The "School's in Session" Educational Open House - Buyers like to be up on the latest in terms of what is going on with the market, any changes to the transaction process and more. Turn your open house into a seminar on financing or some other real estate related topic. Team up with a loan officer or other professional and hand out flyers and provide a short presentation on a computer or some poster board. Provide informational handouts to your prospects. Use the home as your prime example when you explain the financing process or what to expect with working with a title agency.
Everyone Likes a Party Open House - Just like it sounds, make your open house fun and create a theme. Use the upcoming holidays to help with a theme. For example, have a "Fall in Love All Over Again" open house on Valentine's Day. Use that holiday theme to create handouts that tie the theme in with the features of the home. Provide chocolates and champagne (or sparkling cider). Or use the weather to determine your theme. In the dead of winter perhaps a beach theme would really catch a lot of prospects' interests.
The Commuter or Twilight Open House - Ditch the weekend open house schedule. Most prospects drive by your listing on their way home from work. Take advantage of that traffic and encourage them to stop and enjoy themselves at your open house. Set up some drinks and appetizers (you don't want hunger to be an excuse to leave early) and show those prospects why this house should be their home...the cut in commute time being the first of many reasons!
Real estate investment for you
When getting started in real estate investing so many things come at you at once that it can be an intimidating process. It may look a little like this:
What techniques will I use? Should I wholesale? Retail? Wholetail? Hold? Pre-rehab? Rehab? Take properties subject to? How about lease option? Or sandwich lease option?
How do I acquire? I could buy with cash, credit, hard money or even try to raise private money. Should I buy personally? Maybe an LLC? Or maybe even a land trust? Partnership maybe or how about S-Corporation, nah maybe a C!
What type of deals should I buy? Singles? Multi's? Mobiles? Commercial buildings? Land?
And that's just a portion of what entered my mind after my first 2 day seminar back in 1999!
In order to answer that question you need to do a self analysis and financial analysis. Not all real estate investing will work for everybody. For instance, if you are someone who has very little cash reserves you probably don't want to build a buy and hold rental portfolio right away. Why? Because who's going to pay for the roof when it leaks? How about the mortgage when your tenant doesn't pay you?
Let's take a look at the questions you need to ask yourself BEFORE you even think about getting involved in real estate, even with Homes For Investors.
What techniques will I use? Should I wholesale? Retail? Wholetail? Hold? Pre-rehab? Rehab? Take properties subject to? How about lease option? Or sandwich lease option?
How do I acquire? I could buy with cash, credit, hard money or even try to raise private money. Should I buy personally? Maybe an LLC? Or maybe even a land trust? Partnership maybe or how about S-Corporation, nah maybe a C!
What type of deals should I buy? Singles? Multi's? Mobiles? Commercial buildings? Land?
And that's just a portion of what entered my mind after my first 2 day seminar back in 1999!
In order to answer that question you need to do a self analysis and financial analysis. Not all real estate investing will work for everybody. For instance, if you are someone who has very little cash reserves you probably don't want to build a buy and hold rental portfolio right away. Why? Because who's going to pay for the roof when it leaks? How about the mortgage when your tenant doesn't pay you?
Let's take a look at the questions you need to ask yourself BEFORE you even think about getting involved in real estate, even with Homes For Investors.
Various types of loan options
Some of these popular loans are home loans, auto loans, small business loans, personal loans, home loans, second mortgages, payday loans, government loans, student loans, bad credit loans, and loans to consolidate other loans. Apart from these, there are many other variants for just about any occasion. Most of these come in the form of secured or unsecured loans.
Home loans can be categorized into secured and unsecured. In the secured option, home is kept as collateral. Furthermore, it gives the various advantages such as flexibility in interest rate and repayment duration. On other hand, in the unsecured option, borrowers are free collateral possession. Borrowers with the good credit history enjoy this option more than bad credit borrowers.
Two forms of auto loans, secured and unsecured, give chance to all borrowers to finance a vehicle, including car. These loans help you to finance 90% of the vehicle you are going to buy. Based on the lending amount, the repayment period is decided. But, in general the repayment period varies from two to seven years. All kinds of borrowers, irrespective of their credit scores, can opt for these loans.
Student loans are becoming popular because of the price of a college education continually going up. Many students find themselves turning to student loans to help assist them in paying their fees. There are also education student loan consolidation which is used to bundle all your student loans into a single loan with one lender and one repayment plan. This loan consolidation is similar to refinancing a home mortgage or second mortgage, where you take a second loan on your home to bring all your other loans under one lender to make repayment more convenient, and possibly cheaper.
Home loans can be categorized into secured and unsecured. In the secured option, home is kept as collateral. Furthermore, it gives the various advantages such as flexibility in interest rate and repayment duration. On other hand, in the unsecured option, borrowers are free collateral possession. Borrowers with the good credit history enjoy this option more than bad credit borrowers.
Two forms of auto loans, secured and unsecured, give chance to all borrowers to finance a vehicle, including car. These loans help you to finance 90% of the vehicle you are going to buy. Based on the lending amount, the repayment period is decided. But, in general the repayment period varies from two to seven years. All kinds of borrowers, irrespective of their credit scores, can opt for these loans.
Student loans are becoming popular because of the price of a college education continually going up. Many students find themselves turning to student loans to help assist them in paying their fees. There are also education student loan consolidation which is used to bundle all your student loans into a single loan with one lender and one repayment plan. This loan consolidation is similar to refinancing a home mortgage or second mortgage, where you take a second loan on your home to bring all your other loans under one lender to make repayment more convenient, and possibly cheaper.
Better Home Loan Options
Most borrowers prefer the fixed rate because they will always know what they will be paying, even though the floating loan started at a lower rate of interest. However, home loans do not have to be just fixed or floating. The two can be combined with the amount you borrow divided into two parts; one with a fixed rate of interest; and the remainder flexible. The fixed rate segment helps you overcome interest rate increase. And if interest rates fall, the flexible rate decreases too enabling you to save money. Besides, you also get the advantage of getting lower flexible rate from the beginning.
But keep in mind that even with a fixed rate, the lender can impose a higher rate after a certain period in the event of unpredictably high inflation. Hence, it is important to read all the fine prints and ask questions before you put your signature on the dotted line. Also, look for penalty clauses. If there are provisions for penalties, discuss with the lender to reduce or even remove some of them. If you find the interest rates are uncomfortably higher try taking a loan against your deposits. This is same as borrowing from your own non-liquid assets. Your fixed deposits may be earning around 7% or so. You can profitably use this fund to get a loan and save on interest by paying may be just 2% more interest.
The fees for switching a flexible rate to a fixed one are higher than doing the other way. You can also consider repaying in advance wholly or partially in one lump-sum amount or in installments. This will enable you to not only to lower your principal loan period and considerably reduce the total interest amount you will pay. Most lenders are agreeable to this idea, and are ready to waive any penalty if you talk to them.
But keep in mind that even with a fixed rate, the lender can impose a higher rate after a certain period in the event of unpredictably high inflation. Hence, it is important to read all the fine prints and ask questions before you put your signature on the dotted line. Also, look for penalty clauses. If there are provisions for penalties, discuss with the lender to reduce or even remove some of them. If you find the interest rates are uncomfortably higher try taking a loan against your deposits. This is same as borrowing from your own non-liquid assets. Your fixed deposits may be earning around 7% or so. You can profitably use this fund to get a loan and save on interest by paying may be just 2% more interest.
The fees for switching a flexible rate to a fixed one are higher than doing the other way. You can also consider repaying in advance wholly or partially in one lump-sum amount or in installments. This will enable you to not only to lower your principal loan period and considerably reduce the total interest amount you will pay. Most lenders are agreeable to this idea, and are ready to waive any penalty if you talk to them.
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