4 Tips To Prepare Credit Score Boosts Far Ahead Of Time

Get your debt situation shaped up as soon as you can. Not only will this fiscal fitness program lift your qualifying ratios, it may also boost your credit scores.

Here are some tips:

1. Consolidate bills. One loan consolidation payment of $280 a month will hurt you less than four seperate bill payments of $125 each. However, don't close three accounts and run one up close to its credit limit. Credit scoring doesn't like "high" balances relative to credit limits.

2. Pay down debt. If your installment debt has only 11 or 12 months to go, prepay two or three payments. That pushes those debs off the table and out of sight--under the rules followed by most lenders.

3. Pay off debt. If you can swing it, get rid of as much debt as you can.

4. Avoid new debt. No matter how much you are tempted, do not take on new debt prior to applying for a mortgage. Even if you can easily afford it, wait until after you've closed your mortgage. To build wealth, permanently swear off destructive debt--debt you incur to pay for depreciating assets or wants rather than needs.

These tips especially apply if your ratios push against the lender's guideline total debt limits, if your credit score falls below, say, 680, if you're requesting a low-down-payment loan (a loan-to-value ratio of greater than 80 percent), or if you're trying to qualify for a non-owner-occupied investment property.

A pint-sized debt load will offset any warts in your borrower profile.


from "The Beginner's Guide To Real Estate Investing", 2nd Edition by Gary W. Eldred, PhD

How To Maximize Your Home As An Investment Asset

Is your home a valuable asset or a liability?



With the present economic crunch, many homeowners are left thinking if their house is a wise investment or merely place to stay. Is your home a valuable asset or a liability? Here are some of the major concerns of homeowners and tips on what they can do with the property given the present economic situation.

Is my home more of an investment or a liability?

Although your home can be considered your most valuable asset, it is unlikely to deliver greater gains in the long run as compared to investing in a diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds. This has been held true even before the drop of real estate values. Over the past two decades – including the period of the real estate investment growth—the average gains of home prices are just about 3.6% per annum as compared to stocks, despite their recent drops, were up 8.4% about the same period.

The Long-Term Advantages

There are, however, other important financial benefits of owning a home. A homeowner can benefit from tax breaks. These are deductions for property taxes and mortgage interests (plus, the first 500,000 that couples make after selling is tax-free). Owning a home could also be counted as an ideal savings tool— with every mortgage payment, you are forced to set aside money, thus keeping your savings intact in form of a tangible asset. This is also the key reason why most homeowners have a higher net worth than renters. Throughout history, real estate has been considered a good hedge against inflation.

Additional Tips

If you plan to resell your home in the future, don’t overspend in renovations, you might recoup when you sell. Instead, focus on fixing its problems and invest in projects that add functionality to the home.

Be realistic about your gains. In the long run, the value of your home can have an expected rise of about one to two percentage points over inflation.

Zillow Android App - Mobile Real Estate

Real Estate Data by Voice and at Your Fingertips!
As the leader in mobile real estate, Zillow now provides real estate data and info for all U.S. homes on the free Zillow Android App. See Zestimate home values, homes for sale, homes for rent, and more. Use Android's voice search feature, plus built-in GPS technology, to search for homes as you talk, walk or drive through neighborhoods.

To get the free Zillow Android App, visit the Android Market or scan this QR Code with your Android phone.



Zillow Android App Features:
- See Zestimate value of any home

- Search filters:
For sale, for rent, Make Me Move homes, and recently sold
Price, beds, baths, and more
Map view (high-resolution satellite and street view), list view

- Search location:
From where you are (via GPS locater)
Type in an address
Voice search (speak an address)

- Full-screen color photos (in portrait or landscape mode)
- E-mail homes to a friend
- View homes curbside with a Google Street View of homes
- Save favorite homes and searches
- Get driving directions to a home with Google Maps

A Real Estate Broker's Tips To The Summer Rental Market

Summer is high season in the New York City rental market, and this past weekend I was reminded of that. I had two guys and their mother in from California, and on Saturday afternoon we put in application for a two bedroom apartment. We even had a back up unit with the same management company. By Monday afternoon, however, we were told that someone else beat us to the punch in the application process for both units, and by only a few hours. After two more days of looking and a little low-grade stalking on my part, they ended up finding something else.

That said, as I enter yet another summer rental season, I thought I may offer some realistic advice for tenants out there. While other outlets may try to offer guidance, unless you work in the field there really is no way to understand exactly how this business it works.

Look for An Apartment In The Middle of The Week: This is the best piece of advice I could give anyone. Everyone looks for an apartment on a weekend, and in peak times like summer you're more likely to lose one you saw on a weekend than if you saw it in the middle of the week. Monday mornings are crazy in the real estate business, because everyone who looked over the weekend and put in an application, or considered putting in an offer to buy a place, is waiting for approvals and feedback. Also, inventory lists are more likely to be accurate in the middle of the week, once the ebb and flow on Monday morning has passed.

Brokers are also not as busy on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and will have time to devote to your cause. I can easily book two or three appointments on a Saturday, and if you're not one of the first in the queue you may actually get rescheduled.


You'll Probably Have To Use A Broker In Manhattan Every time I'm at a cocktail party there's always that sanctimonious twit in the corner who claims he's found every apartment he ever had on Craigslist or through word of mouth. That's great. When you need something specific, however, such as a good share apartment for a couple of new college grads or a one bedroom within walking distance to Grand Central, a broker will make good use of your time.

Just be careful who you choose. When you answer a random Craigslist Ad from a hole in the wall brokerage called something like #1BestNYCLivingSpace.com, don't be surprised if the guy you meet is a little sketchy, pushy or at the very least, smells bad. Ask around to people who have had good experiences. If you need a high end, Upper East Side Classic Six, a marquee name brokerage will most likely be able to get it for you.

You Don't Have to Work With 12 Different Brokers. Thanks to the guidelines set up by Real Estate Board of New York, every broker in Manhattan has access to every listing out there. Unless someone has something in their pocket that they're not sharing, chances are your one genius broker can find it. Remember, this is a business relationship. If you're running around town with different brokers, it won't inspire anyone to make an effort try to find something for you. It's a waste of their time. Fidelity will get you what you want.

What's The Deal With The Broker Fee, Anyhow? The broker fee, which is generally 15% of the annual rent, is how the broker gets paid. Some people think it goes to the landlord, but it's a service charge for the broker who found you the place. Most landlords in Manhattan don't deal with the general public, which is why a job like mine exists. We also have access to the whole gamut of available apartments, from your standard rentals buildings to private owners who just have one or two units to offer.

When you ask a broker to lower their fee, you're asking them to work for less, which never makes us happy. Even if we only showed you one apartment, and you took it, it doesn't mean we did any less of a job.

If you have a slow week at your desk job, doing little but surfing Facebook and shopping online, does your boss ask you to take a cut in your pay? Nope. There is more to being a broker than just opening a door. A good one spends their week previewing, managing their marketing and scoping out new listings. We also have to be ad-hoc therapists, tour guides and financial advisors. It's less passive of a job than you think.

from huffingtonpost.com

Maryland Town Covenant Bans “Negroes & Chinamen” From Owning Property

Cape St. Claire Improvement Association board members are working to remove racially discriminatory language from covenants that date back to the 1940s.

The paragraph in question reads: “At no time shall any lot or any part thereof be sold, leased, transferred to or permitted to be occupied by any Negro, Chinaman, Japanese, or person of Negro, Chinese, or Japanese descent. This restriction is not intended to include servants or employees of the owner or occupant of said lot.”

read full article here!

A Step-by-Step Guide To Non-Internet Real Estate Marketing

from biggerpockets.com

Last week I wrote a controversial post about why you should stop doing Internet marketing and instead use direct mail if you want to become a highly successful real estate investor.

And today I’m going to show you the exact direct mail steps I use in my own business which make me over six-figures a year. Anyone can follow these steps and there are only two reasons why these steps couldn’t make you six figures too.

The first reason is that you don’t follow what I say and you don’t send out letters. This is the reason 99% of people aren’t successful. The second reason is because you send out a terribly written letter that doesn’t get any response. Luckily, if you network properly you can find investors who will share their profitable letters with you.

Here we go…

First and most importantly you have to choose the area you invest in. I like bread and butter locations with a lower-than-average housing value. One of the areas I personally invest in is Stafford, VA zip code 22554.

Once you’ve picked your area you have to get a list. The people that I prefer to mail to are absentee landlords. I could write 20 pages on why I love going after landlords, but let’s just say they’re often motivated sellers. So now that you’re going after landlords you call a list broker and order 1,000 or 2,000 names in your zip code of choice. (I like to use Melissadata). They email you the names in an excel spreadsheet.

Now you have to create your letter.

But how? Well… first always personalize. Use a person’s first name. Mention their city and state where you want to invest and mention how you specialize in working with landlords who want to get rid of nightmare rental properties. (Pile on the benefits of working with you.)

Also, include a free offer in your letter. For example, I include a free special report called “The 5 little-known ways to eliminate tenant hassles forever.” Another thing I do is offer a free lunch. I tell the person that once I evaluate the deal over the phone and see that it meets my criteria I’d like to take them out to a free lunch to discuss things.

Be creative…

You can offer a number of things, but make sure they realize there is no-obligation for calling you and getting your free report or free consultation.

Once the letter is done you simply send it off to your letter shop along with the excel spreadsheet and they take care of the rest. Or, you can of course do it yourself. Just make sure that whoever does your mailing knows to use a white #10 envelope and to hand write all addresses in blue ink.

Once the letters go in the mail, you’ll get calls from motivated landlords in the zip code you specialize in. If you follow the steps I just outlined you can see this isn’t tough, and once again, this method will crush the nerds who love internet marketing any day of the week and make you a heck of a lot more money.

10 Real Estate Investing Secrets Every Investor Should Know

Business success is the result of what you know. In every industry there are key elements—secrets—that if known will help to insure success, but if not known will certainly lead to failure. Real Estate investing is no different. Success begins with knowledge. What are some of the critical lessons that every real estate investor should know? Here are ten of them for starters…

Secret #1 - Use Other People's Knowledge
The first secret is probably the most important of all the others—using other people’s knowledge. There are only two ways to gain knowledge. Either you gain it from other people's mistakes or make the mistakes yourself. If you refuse to learn from other people’s mistakes—you are destined to learn from your own mistakes. The secret is to learn from others and avoid the pain of learning the hard way. Here is the secret—you can jump start your investing success by getting a good mentor and constantly reading and listening to CDs by successful real estate investors.

Secret #2 - Consistency and Quantity of Quality Offers
The second secret is also very important—it is the power of consistently making a lot of quality offers. In order to become a successful real estate investor, it is absolutely necessary to place many offers that, if accepted, will result in great deals. Without offers there can be no good deals and good deals are the basis of success in real estate investing. If you do not ask you will not receive.


Secrets #3-7 - Skills to Develop
Secrets three through seven are the skills that will have to be developed in order to run a successful real estate investing business. These skills are:

•#3 - Finding Good Deals
•#4 - Obtaining the Money to purchase the good deals you find
•#5 - Fixing up the property so that it is marketable
•#6 - Effectively marketing the property
•#7 - Property management
Master each of these skills and real estate investing becomes much easier. However, fail to develop them and you are in for a rough ride.

Secret #8 - Prepare Quality Offers with a Chance of Being Accepted
Secret number eight is that you must prepare quality offers that have a chance of being accepted. These offers must be high enough so that some of them will be successful. But they must be low enough so that, when one is accepted, it will result in a substantial return on your investment of time and money. This can be easily accomplished by using some of the effective software on the market today such as TurboBidder2 or similar real estate analysis software.

Secret #9 - The Ability to Determine True Property Value
The ninth real estate investing secret is that you must be able to determine the true value of property. True value is the amount that the property can be sold for in a reasonable period of time. The quickest way of determining true value is by paying a professional appraiser to work their magic. But that is not necessarily the best way. It doesn’t make sense to be paying an appraiser to look at thirty properties when you only expect to purchase one of those deals. That means that you must find an inexpensive way to determine true value. There are professional realtors who work with investors. These realtors can provide accurate comparable sales (comps) of similar properties. These comps can give you a very good idea of what a property is worth.

#10 - Have a Burning Desire to Succeed
And finally Secret Number 10 is that you need to have a burning desire to become successful. Your attitude and drive can make up for lots of early mistakes and pitfalls that might sink a lesser person. As Calvin Coolidge once said, “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence”.

I hope this article will help you in your quest to build wealth through real estate investing. For more articles on real estate investor training, visit my website at www.dennisjhenson.com. Also on that site, you may sign up for free reports, articles, and e-books and find free forms, documents, MP3 downloads and much more. Also visit www.turbobidder2.com for a great real estate investing tool.

Thank you,
Dennis J. Henson

Learn other secrets of success like this: 10 Real Estate Investing Secrets.

7 Things To Do With a Real Estate License Besides Sell Houses

Sometimes after obtaining a real estate license the harsh reality sets in that life as a real estate agent is not quite as glamourous as it’s cracked up to be. Other times personal circumstances might change where a steady salary or work hours are necessary. If you find yourself thinking that being a real estate agent might not be quite the right career fit for you, there are many other things you can do with a real estate license besides selling homes.

1. Apartment leasing agents: Many landlords and agencies need someone who can show property to prospective tenants, write lease agreements, and take care of other details. Rather than hiring an outside broker to perform this work they will manage this process in-house and hire their own leasing agent as an employee.

2. Licensed Assistant: This can have its perks as you will probably have set hours, steady paychecks, and not get the complaint calls from clients. Become friends with the top producers in your area or watch for ads to see if any are needing extra help with their workload. You can also consider becoming a virtual assistant.

3. Writer: The internet is an open market for writers, especially those who can offer a viewpoint in a specialized field such as real estate. You can start your own website or publish articles on sites such as AssociatedContent.com. You can also search for paying writing jobs on sites such as sologig.com.

4. Real Estate Scout: Many companies often need someone to scout out properties for new locations or developments. There are also many investors who can benefit from having a full time employee on hand who can help find houses that have good future profitability.

5. Marketing Assistant: After having my daughter I just couldn’t see myself going back into real estate full time. I partnered with a few high profile agents and became their marketing assistant by helping them with mailing campaigns, brochure designs, newsletters, and other marketing related activities.

6. Home Stager: While you may need additional professional designations this can be a profitable business by meeting with potential sellers and helping them decide what changes are necessary to sell their home as quickly as possible and for the highest price. Bonus: You might even be able to earn some referral dollars by referring your clients to agents to sell their home.

7. Title and Closing: There are many title and closing companies that can offer jobs in gathering and coordinating the necessary documents and procedures for closings. As more and more banks depend on larger companies to do this for them, many job opportunities are available.

These are just a few of the many possibilities available in finding a new career where your real estate license won’t go to waste! If you have any other ideas, feel free to share them in the comments below.

from upstartagent.com

7 Timeless Skills For Any Real Estate Market

The real estate profession changes every day, but the qualities you find in top-performing practitioners do not. The details may shift as technology rolls forward, yet the underlying skills are always the same. If you can master these, you'll be successful in any market.



Skill 1: Meeting New People

The simple fact is that if you never meet anyone new, you will never have anyone new to sell to. Whether you encounter them for the first time in person, online, or over the phone doesn't matter. Get one-on-one with them in a conversation about their needs, and you've at least started down the path to success.



Skill 2: Making Personal Connections

You don't have to be the best at everything to succeed in this business. You just have to be competent and likeable.People buy from people they like. Develop the ability to connect with your clients and make them trust you, and 90 percent of your sales process is done. Want a quick way to engender trust? Tell the client something that it's not in your best interest to tell them. Show them that honestly is more important than anything to you.


Now, this doesn't mean to tell them that you got sued last week — that will make people nervous. But it could mean mentioning that the houses in another neighborhood have the same amount of space and are less expensive. They know that you get paid more if you sell them a higher-priced house. Showing them something in their best interests instead of yours makes you trustworthy.



Skill 3: Following Up on Every Lead

Follow-up is a big area where agents fail. If you aren't going to take every lead you get and work it to death, then you'll never be a top performer. Working every lead until it either closes or is clearly not a lead anymore is critical to building the solid pipeline that's required to keep your business continually producing. This means that you need a system to make sure that nothing gets dropped or forgotten. Throw away your Post-it notes; they should never be used as a place to write down a lead. All leads need to be kept in one place, and all of them need a minimum amount of information. That includes:

•The person's name
•Contact information
•What property they contacted you about (or where they came from if it wasn't from a property)
•What their timeframe is for moving
•If they're buying, selling, or both
•If they're buying, what they're looking for and in what area
•What their emotional hot buttons are (what they get excited or angry about)

If you don't have all of the information you need, don't be afraid to contact them again for more information. And once you have the information you need, continue to contact them on a regular basis to make sure they stay on track. Don't worry that you'll be bothering them—instead, worry that they would otherwise forget who you are or feel ignored by you.



Skill 4: Asking for What You Want

This is typically a big problem with real estate rookies, but you'd be surprised how many veterans forget this piece of the puzzle, too. It's not always easy, but you have to ask for things to get them. Ask for the sale. Ask for the appointment. Ask for the phone number of the person your client wants to refer.


Don't wait for people to call you, for the clients to say they're ready, or for the buyers to tell you that this is the house they want. Be direct. Ask them, "Is this the house you want to buy?" "I'll get your house on the market tomorrow if you'll sign right here." "Which is better for you: Monday at 6 p.m. or Wednesday at 3 p.m.?" "Why don't you give me your friend's number and then you don't have to think about it anymore?" All of these are great closing questions used by some of the top practitioners in the industry.



Skill 5: Setting Appropriate Expectations

Once you have the contracts signed and your clients are committed to the process, then it's all about meeting expectations. And make no mistake, there will be expectations—whether you set them or your clients do. This is why it's important to set those expectations yourself; you don't want to get blindsided by something the clients decided to expect without consulting you.


The best real estate professionals are masters at setting expectations. They know what reasonable timeframes are, and they don't make promises they can't keep. They let clients know immediately if things need to change and they set the new expectations quickly and decisively, leaving no room for the clients to wonder (and worry) what happens next.



Skill 6: Taking Care of Details

You must treat you business like a business. This means that having a system in place to make sure that deadlines get met, appraisals are ordered, home inspection responses come in on time, appointments aren't forgotten, and problems are solved. You should even have systems to make sure that your clients—and, if you're really smart, the other side's clients—have handled all of the details that they need to attend to. Hold on to every deal and work it until it closes, letting nothing go. In saving multiple deals from certain death each year, top performers improve their closing ratios and increase their per-hour earnings.



Skill 7: Paying Close Attention to Money

Lots of agents tell me that it's not about the money for them; it's about the people. And that's great. I love helping people, too. But if you don't focus on making money, you're not going to make any. Real estate is your business, your livelihood, and you deserve to be compensated for the skills and services you provide. If you stop paying attention to the money, you'll do things like:


•Negotiate away your commission.
•Not take a referral fee "to be nice."
•Work on listings that will never pay you anything close to reasonable compensation for the amount of work they are because you "feel bad for the person."
•Take overpriced listings so that the sellers will like you.
•Not make buyers sign contracts.
•Stay with a broker who pays you a below-market split.


All of these things result in you working too hard and not making what you deserve. It's not your job to right the wrongs of the world. It's your job to make a living for yourself, preferably a really good one. It's not about the number of deals you do; it's about how much money you get to keep when the deals are done.


You have to focus on the money if you hope to be successful. If you're not making a profit, you're running a charity, not a business, and you don't get grants like charities do to make ends meet.


You have to keep up with changes in technology, industry regulations, buyer and seller priorities, and economic conditions. But the skills that I've listed above will take you further than any new flashy marketing plan or social media technique. No matter what's going on in real estate, these skills will be the difference between a good agent and a great one.


from www.realtor.org by Kelle Sparta