Real Estate – Buying in a Buyer’s Market

Author: Raynor James
Source: ezinearticles.com

Real estate markets across the world have taken a beating like we haven’t seen in a very long time if ever. When Dubai is asking to delay its debt payments, you know things are tough all over. Well, it is tough if you are a homeowner or seller. For buyers, this is the market of all markets!

Why is this such a good market for sellers? Well, there are a host of reasons. The first is there is a glut of homes on the market. Better known as inventory, the surplus of homes drives down prices. Buying cheap is the way to turn a big profit, and there are simply a ton of quality homes on the market that are selling at cut rate prices. The second reason is sellers are highly motivated to move their properties. They may be facing financial problems or just need to chase a job to some other location. Regardless, a buyer holds all the leverage in negotiation.

This doesn’t mean that you should ignore the tried and true rules of real estate. They still apply. The first among them is location, location, location. Make sure you buy in a good area, but carry the concept one step further. Always try to buy the cheapest home on the block if it can be improved to the level of quality found in other homes. This will allow you to apply your style to the home during improvements and reap the reward of added equity.

Another key aspect of the buying process is your loan. Banks are a mess these days. Making an offer on a home without financing locked in is just crazy. Banks are risk adverse these days. It can be difficult to find a loan even if you make a bundle and your credit is stellar. Make sure you get pre-approved in writing for a loan. Avoid pre-qualification, because it is not binding on a bank.

The real estate market is often touted as one of the worst in the history of the country. The truth is it is one of the best for buyers!

Raynor James writes for FSBOAmerica.org – view or list FSBO real estate across the country and internationally.

Why Invest in Real Estate? Top 3 Reasons

Author: Beverly Manago
Source: ezinearticles.com

Real estate is a good market to get into. If you know how to play your cards well and dance with the market trends, you could profit a good sum out of it. Market watchers are especially taking note of the current market flow. That’s because they think that it is one department where losses are quite many in recent years. If you are a patient investor, however, you must not be shaken of down markets.

Real estate makes for an attractive investment due to the following factors:

* A good rental yield. Realty investors have a promising future renting out their property to tenants and gaining from that kind of income steadily. Naturally, you will have to deal with the costs of maintenance, taxes, and mortgages as the landlord. Your tenant, meanwhile, will pay you a specific amount of rent for a specific period of time. In most cases, the rental fee is enough to cover the costs along with some profit. Then again, it would not be wise for a landlord to charge way too high because it will be a lose-lose situation for him in the end. The best way to earn from renting out a property is to be patient and charge an appropriate amount of rent.

* Properties appreciate in value more often than not. One of the attractions of the real estate market is the opportunity to have your property’s market value increase over time. Again, with enough patience and a good hand in maintenance, you could earn an amazing amount out of an acquired home or property. Some real estate investors intentionally purchase a bare property. After a few improvements and constructions, they would sell out the property for a good price.

* It is easy to start on this kind of investment. Doing business out of your own home is a good startup for real estate investors. Of course, it would be difficult to play up the market if you are putting your own comfort on the line. It is advisable, therefore, that real estate investors first own a home. After acquiring another property, you are set and ready to go for doing business in the real estate market.

* There’s no need to constantly watch how the market moves. In realty, there is no down or up moment. If you have enough patience, you have got good chances of earning profits from it. At one point, you may hear market watchers saying the real estate market is down. But then again, you will never know. What you need to equip yourself is a stock of common sense. Do not be too sure that you are getting a good deal when you buy a property for $300,000 and it used to worth about $450,000 years ago. You need to watch how the deal is made, what kind of deal you are making, and how you can earn from that kind of deal.

Beverly Manago is a freelance writer focused on the real estate industry. She is also a consultant for My Single Property Website, a web 2.0 marketing tool that lets real estate agents create stunning virtual tours and single property sites easily, with a free version available for listing presentations. She also contributes to the Single Property Websites News there.

Earn Quick Real Estate Profits by Wholesaling Houses

Author: Heather Dunlop
Source: ezinearticles.com

So you want to get started investing in real estate and don’t know where to start. You’re tired of the daily grind at work, or maybe you are out of work. You’ve heard that real estate is a good way to make money and work for yourself. One way to get started quickly is by wholesaling houses.

Wholesaling houses means you are the middle man. You find a seller, get the house under contract, and assign the contract to a buyer, whose closes on the purchase of the house. You make your money as an assignment fee.

When you wholesale houses, you are looking for motivated sellers. You are there to solve the seller’s problem. These sellers may be behind on their mortgage payments, facing foreclosure, had to move out of state for work, have an illness that is forcing them to sell, divorce, and many more reasons. It is your job to find these sellers, meet with them, and put the house under contract to solve their problem.

The next thing you need to do is find an all cash buyer for the house. These are investors who are looking for a good deal on a house. You can save them the time of meeting with multiple sellers, which is why they will pay you an assignment fee.

The buyers you are looking for are investors. You can find these buyers by contacting the people who advertise “We Buy Houses”. You can also buy a list of people who bought a home in the area in the last 6 months who are “absentee” owners (this means this in not their primary residence). Contact landlords in the area. Go to a local real estate investment meeting. There are many ways to find cash buyers. Once you have a good deal, you will be able to find them.

Here are the simple steps to wholesale houses:

1. Find a motivated seller
2. Agree on a purchase price that allows you to sell the house quickly and make a profit
3. Get the house under contract with you as the buyer
4. Have a clause in the contract that allows you to assign the contract
5. Find an all cash buyer
6. Make sure the buyer closes on the house
7. Collect your check

The one thing you must make sure you do is get the house under contract for a purchase price that allows you to make some money, and also leaves plenty of room for your investor buyer to make a profit. The most successful wholesalers leave the majority of the profit for their investor/buyer. If your investor buyer does not see a profit, you will not be able to wholesale the property, which means you will either have to buy it or lose your earnest money deposit.

By now you should see that wholesaling houses is a way for you to get started in the real estate investing field. Good deals are easy to sell, as long as you know how to recognize a good deal.

Get your Free CD “53 Mistakes: How to Fail as a Real Estate Wholesaler. 7 Steps to Succeed” at http://www.MyWholesaleProfits.com

Luxury Real Estate Marketing – Syndicate You! Part 2

Author: Ron Seigel
Source: ezinearticles.com

In Part 1 of this blog series we covered the wonderful opportunity to not only syndicate your listings as a means of generating leads for your luxury real estate marketing practice, but also syndicating YOU by leveraging the power of the new media tools.

By creating a name for yourself on the internet, a one-woman or a one-man brand, focusing on publishing content that you are passionate about, you can significantly expand your sphere of influence. What is truly exciting about this opportunity is the relatively low cost of entry into the field and the potential for tremendous return on your investment.

Recently, a movie that was produced for $15,000 generated $7.1 within the first two weeks of its release. The film’s buzz on Twitter and Facebook propelled it to #5 at the box office. Word-of-mouth advertising via social media also helped to make the movie, Julie & Julia (Julia Child) a hit. Barnes & Noble reported that they temporarily ran out of Julia Child’s, Mastering the Art of French Cooking because of the renewed interest that the movie triggered. And, the book is once again a best seller.

An important key to becoming a one-woman or one-man brand, through new media syndication (blogging, video, podcasting, article distribution, etc) is finding an uncontested niche. If you carve out a newsworthy market space and generate compelling stories, others will help you spread the word because they are excited to “join” your brand.

Here is an example of a potential uncontested niche that you could cover as a syndicated columnist and also, contribute extraordinary value if you are passionate about the subject: Local sports. This does not include major league baseball, basketball, football, soccer, etc. It does include the little league, the high school sports scene, beach volleyball, the ultimate Frisbee league and more.

The entire purpose of this exercise is to engage more and more local community members to interact with you and each other, and also become well known and well thought of in the process. You will be surprised at how much real estate business can flow from syndicating YOU, without ever mentioning a thing about real estate. Just feature your real estate credentials along with some calls to action (to contact you for specific real estate needs, e.g., a CMA).

Ron and Alexandra Seigel are the managing partners of Napa Consultants, International the leading luxury real estate marketing firm, specializing in web design, personal branding, and company branding. Gain the competitive edge in your luxury real estate marketplace. Visit our highly acclaimed blog, the Language of Luxury. “Get Fluent. Get Affluent!” Learn more about gaining and sustaining market leadership at http://www.NapaConsultants.com.

Real Estate on the Big Island

Author: J. Michael Key
Source: ezinearticles.com

Tourists traveling to the Hawaiian Islands most often flock to popular destinations like Pearl Harbor or Waikiki (on the Island of Oahu) or Kihei or LaHaina (on the Island of Maui). Often, the “Big Island” of Hawaii seems overlooked. In reality, however, Hawaii is the island with the most overall land and the most diversity.

The town of Kailua-Kona area is well known because the Ironman Triathlon begins at the Kailua harbor beach. There is also a town named Kailua on Oahu, so this one is hyphenated. This area is famous for producing coffee.

This infamous Kona coffee is grown on the island and even grows well on the sides of the Hualalai volcano at over 1,000 feet above sea level. The volcanic soil is rich and the warm tropical air of the region rises and then condenses into rain. In addition, the higher elevations cool off at night. Together, this provides ideal growing conditions for the coffee beans.

The Island of Hawaii is bigger than the combination of all the other islands together in terms of land mass. There are five active volcanoes on the Island, with Kilauea currently the most active. You may hear about it on the news since it is active nearly continuously and it produces a near steady flow of lava pouring out into the Pacific Ocean. Many tourists visit the volcano, but it is not near the more populated areas of the island.

The next two most talked-about volcanoes on the island are Mauna Loa, which stands at 13,680 feet above sea level, and Mauna Kea, which stands at 13,796 feet above sea level. Toward the top of the Mauna Kea volcano there is the famed Keck telescope. Both of these volcanoes extend more than 30,000 feet from the base of the ocean and sometimes have snow on the top of them.

Since most people would not think any part of Hawaii would have snow, they would be surprised by that and probably some of the other terrain in Hawaii, as well. While one area may be tropical forest, other areas are very nearly a desert. Still others are high plains, treeless mountain terrain, and forested mountains. In addition, there are farmland and tropical orchards where macadamia nuts, plumeria, and coffee are grown.

Hawaii is much larger than the other islands. In fact, Hawaii is so large that you could drive for the entire day and never retrace your route. As a result, residents of this island don’t suffer “island fever” the way many people on the smaller islands do. In addition, life for residents on this island is more community based and doesn’t seem like as much of a tourist attraction. Residents go to work, church, and soccer practice just like residents in suburbs all over the nation. There is even a huge park with lit playing fields located to the north of the Kailua harbor in the area that used to be the airport.

Housing is affordable on the Island of Hawaii with lots of middle-class residences available for purchase. However, the islands are also home to many very impressive estates. In fact, Hawaii is a very diverse area rich in community with many real estate options to choose from.

Michael Key has written extensively for 30 years on a wide variety of topics. For more information on Big Island real estate visit the O’oma Plantation website at http://www.oomaplantation.com/.

Your Real Estate Website – First Consider Your Home Page

Author: Marte Cliff
Source: ezinearticles.com

Have you looked at many realtor websites? If you have, you’ll notice that most of them look alike. It’s almost like they were stamped from a cookie-cutter, with the only difference being the name of the firm. (Actually, I think many of them were.)

The only obvious purpose of most real estate websites seems to be that of offering a MLS search, or perhaps some Chamber of Commerce type information about the City.

And while that’s very generous of you, I don’t think that should be the purpose of your personal real estate website.

I think the purpose of your website should be to bring you leads. Don’t you agree?

With that in mind, you need to break out of the cookie-cutter mold and create a site that doesn’t look and feel like all the rest. Instead you need to create a site that demonstrates

Your area knowledge
Your marketing abilities
Your negotiation skills
Your care and concern for clients and customers
Your ability and willingness to offer guidance
Your problem-solving abilities
Your work ethic

That means your landing page needs to offer something more – even if you feel tied to showing a home search box on the first page, it needs to be accompanied by something that will lead your visitors to learn more about you and your services.

Even a paragraph or two that leads into your “about me” page and into your buyer and seller pages is better than saying nothing and assuming that your visitors will eventually find those pages. They might – but then again they might not.

Why make people search for the information you want them to have?

“Make it easy for the customers” is one of the mantras of business today – so make it easy for yours to realize that you are the agent who will guide them and help them realize their goals.

Marte Cliff is a Freelance Copywriter and former real estate broker who specializes in writing for real estate and related industries.

She’ll help you with one letter, or an entire marketing plan. For Real estate agents and brokers who are ready to get full value from their websites, she offers web copywriting and lead generation packages. She also offers a course called the Real Estate Career Builder, which covers best practices along with marketing methods. You’ll find it at http://www.promotemyrealestatecareer.com

Marte’s weekly ezine for real estate professionals offers tips and hints for building a successful business. To subscribe, and to see the other resources available for real estate sales professionals, visit her at http://www.marte-cliff.com/RealEstate.html

Delving Into Commercial Real Estate Investing

Author: Chris B. Jenkins
Source: ezinearticles.com

You might already be familiar with the ins and outs of residential real estate investing, having concluded more than a few lucrative deals. But it’s not enough, and you turn your eyes toward the more challenging and rewarding affair of commercial real estate investing. Before crossing over, check on these few pointers that might make the transition smoother.

A commercial real estate is essentially property that is meant to support business and produce income. Residential real estate, of course, is for providing homes. With this basic difference, what are the things you need to keep in mind? For starters, commercial real estate makes more money. Consider first its value. Unlike residential space, commercial space is priced according to the available useable square footage. Some residential property may also follow this formula, but that is more exception than rule. In addition to the value of space, commercial property generates more income per square footage as well. In comparison to a residential property leased to just one family, your commercial property of the same square footage that is leased to five tenants will give you more for your square foot.

Given then that your commercial property costs more and earns more, it only follows that banks will treat it differently, differently meaning more expenses. A loan for commercial property will require a down payment that is around 30 percent more than what will be asked for residential property. And this will only apply if your bank actually finances enterprises on commercial property. Some banks do not entertain the venture. An important thing to keep in mind regarding banks and commercial property is that, contrary to widely held belief, commercial property is also subject to foreclosure, albeit reluctantly in the part of banks.

Other than the difference in value and gains, commercial real estate investing also offers a measure of risk diversification that you won’t see in its residential counterpart. To illustrate: you lease out shopping space, you have twenty occupied slots, five of your tenants decide to leave, and you lose 20 percent of your potential profit. That’s only 20 percent, not the all-or-nothing that you get with residential property. You also have a more stable source of income, considering that leases on commercial space are usually longer than on residential ones.

Before you commit yourself to an investment on a particular commercial property, make sure to collect some relevant background information. Start with the sellers; go through their cash flow statement, you’ll likely be seeing the same thing once you’ve acquired the property, at least in the first few months. Pay special attention to vacancy rates. Next, check up on the current tenants. Find out if their business is doing well. Had any problems with the rent? Also, ask about what they liked about the previous management and how things were handled. Lastly, gauge the economic health of your location. Investigate the population’s financial standing, their average income and income stability. Find out if new residential properties are being planned in the area. And, of course, check on businesses in the area. Are they coming or going? Would there be more demand for storefronts in the foreseeable future?

Finally, did you know there are 7 secrets that most successful Real Estate Investors don’t want you to know? In my free report SHOCK & AWE Crisis Investing, I”ll reveal these and many more techniques that can improve your bottom line.

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Making Money in Real Estate With Or Without Cash

Author: Leslie Collins
Source: ezinearticles.com

There are two basic ways to make money as a real estate investor. The first way is to actually buy and sell the property and the second is to find and assign the property.

Buy and Sell Property

Typical buy and sell real estate investor buy properties at a huge discount, rehabs it, and ultimately sells the property and makes a nice profit.

This is a great way to make money but it does require cash, credit and risk on your part. After all you will be incurring costs to repair, market and hold the property for potentially many months.

While those with deep pockets can afford the risk and time horizon to sell the property, those with less means are not excluded from making huge profits in real-estate.

This leads to the second method to make money in real estate, or the “find and assign” method.

Find and Assign the Property

The find and assign method involves virtually ZERO risk, you wont need cash or credit.

Basically you will be seeking out motivated sellers who may abandoned house owners, out of town owners, distressed owners in pre foreclosure, etc..

The beauty of finding and assigning is that you never actually take title to any property, you simply negotiate a sales agreement with the owner and transfer that “right to purchase” to a real rehabber who buys the physical property.

Of course the rehabber potentially stands to make a nice profit when he actually sells the property; 30, 40, 50K is not uncommon

However for zero risk, you can easily make a nice $3000 – $6000 per assignment, which you will receive when the property closes with the original owner. You never have to wait until the property is sold by the investor who bought your contract.

With foreclosures on the rise taking advantage of this opportunity will mean many will be making lots of money in the near future. If you’re interested in learning a great step by step method of exactly how to find and assign real-estate, see the link below.

Learn Real Estate investing by learning contract assignments the RIGHT WAY – Visit: Contract assignment

Investing in Real Estate For Quick Profits

Author: Mark G. Jason
Source: ezinearticles.com

Real Estate Investing (REI) has always been a viewed as a long-term business. People know that real estate properties take years to appreciate. That is why there are only few investors venturing into real estate. You can’t blame other investors if they go after quick-profit businesses. Financial stability today, amid harsher times, is everybody’s concern. Smarter ones, however, know that they can actually earn quick money by investing in real estate.

There are methods of REI that can give you profits in just days, and others in just months. You won’t have to wait for years just to get money from real estate. Among the most popular forms of short-term real estate investing is wholesaling houses. This is basically placing a property under contract and then finding buyer for that property. You will then assign that contract to another wholesaler or a home owner for a fee. The assignment fee can vary depending on the location of the property and other factors.

Here’s a sample transaction. You found a distressed property for $55,000. You pay a few hundred dollars to the owner of the house to place his property under contract. You will then search for a buyer for that house. It will help if you have a buyer’s list, or a list of buyers who are ready to buy properties. Send details of the property to qualified buyers and wait for a response. Don’t forget to change the price of the property before sending the details. If you want to earn $10,000 for assigning the contract, then advertise the property at $65,000. Upon finding a buyer, let your title company take care of matters for you while you can worry about cashing and spending your check.

Another investment method you can use is rehabbing houses. Also know as fix and flip, you will repair properties in this business. It starts by buying a cheap property. (By the way, you can contact a wholesaler in your area of you need properties to rehab.) Rehabbers will then make repairs and improvements on the property before quickly selling it to home owners.

REI through rehabbing requires more capital but the returns are bigger. Most rehabbers seek financing from banks and other lenders because of the huge capital needed. There are a lot of sources of financing today so you won’t have to worry about funding your projects.

Whichever mode of investing in real estate you choose, what is important is that you educate yourself first. Go online and read articles at REIwired.com, which also contains informative videos. So go ahead of earn quick cash from real estate today.

Presenting Offers and Negotiating Techniques For the Real Estate Investor

Author: Carl Schiovone
Source: ezinearticles.com

Introduction

For the Real Estate Investor that has purchased or sold an outstanding investment opportunity, nothing can bring on more excitement than to know you did a great job with negotiating the price and terms of the deal. Although there may be instances when you will be “handed” or “give-away” a fantastic opportunity based upon extreme motivational factors like a divorce, foreclosures, illness, etc. The majority of deals will require some level of give and take effort from both sides. Although all negotiations should have an objective of a win/win strategy and outcome, it is usually the side that has prepared the most effectively that may come away from the table with a bigger piece of the pie.

This guideline has been written to provide an overview of basic negotiation techniques that you may want to apply. The following text is broken down into sections starting with some background information and leading into the three stages of the negotiation cycle.

Section I Background Information

Practicing Negotiations by Role Playing

All successful negotiators have established their own style of approaching a negotiation. During your training as a negotiator, it will be critical for you to work on your approach and modify it as you see how things work out. One popular training method that will help you to establishing more confidence in your negotiations is to do role playing. Role playing will allow you to experiment with your approach and to develop more confidence without the fear of losing a deal. If possible, conduct the role playing session with someone who has experience in negotiating so they could provide constructive feedback on the session.

One technique that will provide you with great input as you conduct your role playing sessions is to record them or even better, do a video recording. Having the ability to review these sessions will be extremely beneficial in your development of your negotiation skills. By having recordings, you can “see” the progress you are making over time.

Reasons for Rejection

There are many reasons why your offers may not be considered or you can’t even get them to agree to meet with you. During your real estate investing career you will come across many people who are in difficult, sometimes life changing situations. The successful negotiator will try to embrace the possible reasons for rejection and adjust their approach based upon the particular situation with that person. The following section will highlight the most common reasons for rejection and will provide recommendations on how you may alter your approach to counter their pushback.

Illustrate Why This Deal Is Good For the Other Side

As part of your negotiating strategy, you should include a discussion on how the offer you are making will benefit them. In many situations, the other side may be very familiar and knowledgeable with their potential benefits. However, you will come across opportunities when that will not be the case. As an example, let’s say you are trying to convince a property owner to hold a mortgage and they are inexperienced in this area. If you provide an overview of the anticipated principal and interest payment verses them taking a lump sum at closing, you may be able to convince them that this option may be better than counting on typical investment instruments like CD’s, mutual funds, etc.

Educate “The Other Side”

As part of your negotiation strategy, you may need to provide some education to the people on the other side of the table. Throwing out an improperly staged offer that in the eyes of the other parties is a ridiculous offer will only make them push back even further or perhaps discount the deal and maybe you completely. However, if you know that the other side’s position is perhaps based on inaccurate data, than you should take advantage of the opportunity and offer any data that may be helpful to them seeing things accurately. Of course in their eyes you may have a direct benefit and they feel they must ignore your data. However, it can certainly be worth your while to give it a try. An example of this could be let’s say they are providing a Pro forma that is indicating a proposed vacancy rate and you know it is understated, perhaps if you were to compile data from the local property management company’s stating the actual vacancy rates of similar buildings, you could be in a position to further negotiate. One way to establish credibility on this type of situation is for you to disclose the source of your data and suggest that they confirm the information you have provided to them using a third party.

Find a Connection with the Other Side

It can really be beneficial to break the ice on a new relationship or negotiation by discussing non-business and non-confrontational topics. Using this technique, you can gently ease into the discussions of conducting business. In addition, these social discussions can provide some clues to you on who you are dealing with and if you potentially need to modify your approach.

An example of this technique occurred during one of my meetings with a homeowner to discuss purchasing their home. Based on the horrible conditions of the property that existed for many years, I did not know what to expect during our meeting. My first goal was to spend some time with them so we can get to know each other. As I’m approaching their door on the day of my appointment I’m thinking what on earth will I discuss to break the ice with these people who are being portrayed as the slobs of the neighborhood. As I entered the home and introduced myself, I quickly observed that the entire living room was filled with fishing poles. I thought to myself Bingo! I struck gold because I was an avid fisherman. After spending the next half hour discussing the local fishing scene, we got down to discussing business.

Other examples of creating ice breakers based on your initial observations could include the following:

Carl Schiovone has been actively involved in real estate investing for nearly 30 years, he is the co-founder of Cypress Investment Properties, which specializes in the acquisition, rehabilitation, and property management of residential properties. Carl is also the Founder and President of Carl Schiovone and Associates Real Estate Coaching, Inc. this organization provides both group and one-on-one educational programs for all levels of investing experience. Please visit our website http://www.CarlSchiovone.com