Archive for February, 2012

• Feb 29

  5 Ways to Stop Foreclosure Now

  Need to stop foreclosure on your home fast? Check out your 5 options now…

  1. Loan Modification
  If keeping your home is really what you want to do even if you are deep underwater and far behind on your mortgage payments apply for a loan modification. Be careful about who you choose to do business with and don’t fall prey to programs which try to get you to borrow more on already upside down home equity. Plus, you must recognize that no matter what your lender says, applying for a loan modification does not stop foreclosure. Many borrowers have lost their homes while waiting for an answer.

  2. Bankruptcy
  Attorneys have been cashing in big by recommending borrowers fie for bankruptcy to stop forecosure. Note that this doesn’t mean you will be able to keep your home and can have disastrous long term consequences, plus it costs money. It may be right for some but it can be far more devastating than most understand. Make sure you weigh all of your options first.

  3. Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure
  This basically means just handing over the keys to your lender and giving up. Things may seem hopeless but there are likely more attractive options on the table.

  4. Short Sales
  For those underwater on their home loans short sales can be a great way to stop foreclosure and get a fresh start. A real estate professional or investor can help you negotiate the best terms with your lender and you could even receive a healthy check for relocating to the tune of several thousand dollars.

  5. Quick Sale for Cash
  If you are running out of time to stop foreclosure on your home and are ready for a fresh start, free of debt and stress there are home buyers and investors out there with cash who can close on your home quickly. You should at least find out what they are willing to offer you before heading down any of the paths outlined above.

  One thing is for sure – foreclosures are speeding up and you may have a lot less time than you think. Having the sheriff show up to evict you and your family is far from a pleasant experience. Know your options and take action today.

  Tags: short sale, stop foreclosure
  Posted in Financing, Home Selling | No Comments »

• Feb 28

  4 Ways to Cash In on Flipping Real Estate

  There’s more than one way to cash in on the current market by flipping real estate. Regardless of your area, whether or not you have any cash or credit and how much time you have to devote to flipping real estate there is a strategy that will work perfectly for your situation. Let’s take a look at 4 of your options…

  1. Contract Flipping

  Contract flipping is perhaps the easiest form of flipping real estate. You’ll never have to take out a bank loan, use your own credit or worry about fixing up the place. This involves simply putting attractive deals with big discounts under contract and assigning those contracts to someone else who will do all the hard work.

  2. Wholesaling Real Estate

  The next level up is to find great deals lock them down and then move them quickly at big discounts to other investors who will rehab or rent them out. This is the buy low, sell low strategy for flipping real estate. It may give you a little more control and bigger profits than simply assigning contracts but it still offers a way to cash in without needing lots of cash or credit.

  3. Rehabbing

  Rehabbing has long been a favorite American past time and perhaps made most famous by the crew of Flip This House and reality TV. Buy them, clean and fix them up and resell to individuals looking for a new home, vacation home or other investors looking for rentals. If you don’t have stacks of cash for renovations yourself you will need a rehab loan or access to credit for the materials you need and must be careful to know exactly what you are getting into before you close.

  4. Repackaging for Investors

  There are many investors who want things the easy way and are willing to pay a premium for less work. This can mean buying and flipping real estate as turnkey rentals, fractional ownership opportunities or perhaps even condotels.

  Tags: Flipping houses, real estate investing
  Posted in Home Buying, Home Selling | No Comments »

• Feb 27

  Huge Money for Homeowners Doing Short Sales

  Banks are paying out masses of money for homeowners completing short sales. It sure beats losing everything and still owing on the mortgage for sellers and is making cutting incredible deals even easier for real estate investors but how long will it last?

  It began with $2,000 in relocation assistance for homeowners who qualified for government programs, then grew to banks like Wells Fargo and Bank of America offering as much as $20,000 to get homeowners out and stop the foreclosure process. Now borrowers with loans with Chase have been reporting receiving offers for as much as $35,000 to do short sales and wipe the slate clean.

  Clearly is doesn’t take $35,000 for most homeowners to relocate, which is on top of tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in mortgage debt forgiveness. For those opting for short sales this means a chance for a fresh start. Not just back at zero but with enough cash to move into somewhere else nice, perhaps even scoop up some new furniture and have a couple months for of living expenses saved up in the bank. The alternative and not taking an offer like this is just insanity. If nothing else think of the peace of mind and shedding of the stress that this can provide.

  For real estate investors short sales offer access to sweet deals with huge discounts. Coupled with the banks pitching in to help with relocation costs there shouldn’t be a single borrower who can say no to your offers.

  How long will it last? Banks have finally realized that it is much less expensive for them to compensate homeowners for doing short sales than to foreclose. However, they are also already working on a variety of new strategies for unloading properties and circumventing the traditional foreclosure process. Once this is in full swing they will clearly be far less eager to hand over big checks to those who already owe them tens of thousands. So seller, home buyer or real estate investor, now is the time to hop on and get short sales approved before they go away…

  Tags: foreclosure, selling your home, short sale
  Posted in Home Selling | No Comments »

• Feb 24

  How to Ensure a Smooth & Timely Real Estate Closing

  Real estate closings can be tricky. With so many people involved and so many variables it is no wonder they fall apart or get delayed. However, if you are the one with a big earnest money deposit on the line or you are facing foreclosure and simply can’t afford for your real estate closing not to happen on time you must take a proactive approach to managing the closing process.

  The biggest killer of real estate closings today is financing. If anything holds up a mortgage approval the closing isn’t going to happen. Buyers must be prudent and act to clear any underwriting conditions as soon as possible. Sometimes these documents and items are kicked back in reviews and must be adjusted or redone. It doesn’t matter if your closing is 3 months away, get everything into the lender immediately. Most importantly talk to the loan officer or mortgage broker and find out which other items an underwriter could come back and request at the last minute. Anticipate this and have them ready ahead of time. Sometimes loan officers are afraid of scaring their clients or upsetting them by giving them bad news about additional items they need to obtain. Make it clear that you need to know about any potential issues immediately and will help to resolve them. You can’t help if you don’t know about them.

  Inspections can also unearth other potential issues and should be ordered and arranged the day you go to contract. Appraisals need to go through reviews and quality control and home inspections could uncover repairs which need to be remedied before a real estate closing can happen.

  Note that the day and date of your real estate closing can also present issues or make it more likely that delays will arise. Ask your agent about the best days to schedule the closing before signing the sales contract. The last week of the month is incredibly busy for everyone involved in real estate, people like to cut out early on Fridays and holidays can see everything moving at a snail’s pace.

  Always have extra liquid funds available in plenty of time before your real estate closing. Things happen, transfers get dropped and costs always seem to come in higher than expected. Whatever you do, don’t forget you will need a valid government issued ID in order to close.

  While your real estate agent or mortgage broker ought to be on top of the real estate closing process make sure to be in contact with them regularly. Not so much that you actually prevent them from making progress on your transaction but enough to keep them moving and your deal as a top priority for them.

  Tags: buying a home, closing, financing
  Posted in Home Buying | No Comments »

• Feb 23

  Selling a Home: Should I Take a Quick Cash Offer?

  While the real estate market may still be struggling to find a firm foothold in some parts of the country there are investors out there who will pay cash for your home and be willing to close quickly. Should you take it?

  Of course someone offering to pay cash for your home now and who can really close in a matter of days if you wish may not be offering you 2005 peak of the bubble prices. Then again we are no longer in 2005 and 2012 holds a completely different set of challenges for those selling a home. Not only can it be incredibly difficult to find an interested buyer, betting on a buyer who is relying on getting a mortgage loan to buy your home if you really need to close on time is taking a big risk. Not only that but take a look at the math and it is easy to see selling a home by yourself or using a Realtor may not fetch you much more.

  While real estate agents definitely come in handy sometimes paying 6% or more in commissions and having to wait and hope, for possibly months to see if they can find you a worthy buyer may not net you more money in your pocket at the end of the day.

  What about selling a home yourself? It can certainly sound like an appealing idea in order to save commissions at first but once you start adding up the real cost are there actually any savings? For a start, you can no longer just stick a sign from Home Depot in your yard and expect calls from qualified buyers. You may get a few scam artists interested in you signing over your deed but if you plan on selling a home any time in the near future you are going to have to take a proactive approach and do some real marketing. Other homeowners are building websites to promote their homes, taking out newspaper ads week after week, using social media, running open houses on the weekends, printing fliers and a lot more. You are going to have to keep up with that or do better in order to stand out.

  Then total up the additional expenses of selling a home yourself like taking time off of work to show the property to people who may not even qualify, traveling to the home if you no longer live there. Plus what about the stress and sleepless nights which can have a big toll on your family and work? That’s even if you have time to try all this before being foreclosed on.

  What’s your best move? For sure cash in your hand today or spending a lot in hope of some money in a few months from now?

  Tags: closing, selling a home
  Posted in Home Selling | No Comments »

• Feb 22

  These Mortgage Programs Are Still Alive & Kicking

  Mortgage rates are great but the news headlines may have you believing that no one qualifies for a home loan these days. Don’t panic. Whether looking to scoop up a great deal on a new residence while there are still deals to be had or looking for a way to expand your real estate investments there are still mortgage programs out there and they may be a lot easier to qualify for than you think…

  1. FHA Rehab Loans

  FHA loans are a lot easier to qualify for than most people think. However, they don’t just stop at offering low down payments and low rates. The FHA 203k program also offers borrowers repair money for funding fixer uppers and handyman specials. If you don’t quite fit into this mold then the Fannie Mae HomeStyle mortgage often provides a great rehab loan option where FHA leaves off.

  2. VA Mortgages

  Veterans Association home loans should not be overlooked by those who have served in the military and their families. Low rates, easy qualifying and 100% financing make them a great option.

  3. USDA Loans

  Nope, not for financing your giant steak dinner. These mortgages can actually be used for up to 100% financing on residential homes in many areas of the country you would never have guessed. Last year the USDA was running a surplus of money they needed to loan out.

  4. Hard Money

  Hard money lenders may have become a little harder to borrow from since the crash and still charge hefty rates and points but if you have a sweet real estate deal you just can’t pass up on and need a short term mortgage then check them out.

  5. Transactional Funding

  For investors flipping houses, transactional funding is probably exactly what you have been searching for. Fast money, up to 100% financing, no credit checks, no income or asset verifications or hoops, not even an appraisal required. You just need to have a deal lined up and an end buyer to flip to who is ready and able.

  6. Business Loans

  Those who have had a business incorporated for at least 2 years a business loan or line of credit can be a great tool for investing in real estate. It will allow you to really keep your business and personal credit separate and offer flexible financing once you find deals you need to take down in a hurry.

  Tags: financing, mortgage
  Posted in Financing | No Comments »

• Feb 10

  Real Estate Investing: 4 Things You Didn’t Know About Renting Properties

  Forget about flipping houses this year. With more families opting to pay for a lease rather than a mortgage, the decision to rent out properties is now the most popular real estate investing decision you can make. But before you go and buy all those foreclosures in your neighborhood, there are a few things you need to know in order to be a successful landlord.

  1)    You’ll need to evict someone. If you’re not the type of person to step on anyone’s toes, then being a landlord definitely isn’t for you. At some point you’ll need to evict a tenant, and chances are that it’ll be someone you actually like. Be prepared to play the bad guy. If you can’t put on the black hat from time to time, well, there’s a price for that.

  2)    It’s not a regular job. Landlords don’t work on a 9-5 schedule. There will be days when you have nothing to do and days when you’ll be up until two in the morning fixing a leaky pipe. In order to be successful, you’ve got to be comfortable wearing different hats – repairman, realtor, etc. – while maintaining flexible hours. On the bright side, you’ll get to sleep in a lot more often than you do when you’ve got a morning commute.

  3)    You need a massive safety net. Owning rental properties means dealing with repair bills, and sometimes those bills can be quite expensive. Something is always falling apart or being broken by the tenants, so it’s important to keep enough money in your checking account to fix whatever damage comes your way. The more properties you have, the larger the financial safety net you need to maintain. If you can’t replace a broken appliance or a section of drywall within a week, you’ll have to deal with some very unhappy tenants, which can be bad news for you if they’re the “online review-writing” type.

  4)    It can be incredibly rewarding. Despite the way these tips might make it sound, being a landlord isn’t just for masochists. Renting out properties can be an incredibly profitable and comfortable career. Sure, it takes a lot of work up front if you want to be successful, but what good career doesn’t? Once you acquire enough foreclosures through real estate investing, you can hire a team of maintenance engineers and real estate agents to do all the hard work while you sit back and enjoy the steady stream of revenue.

  If you’re handy with a wrench and enjoy working around people, maybe flipping houses isn’t your ideal real estate investing pursuit. Instead, consider buying a property and turning it into a rental. It takes some time to learn to effectively juggle the requisite tasks, and you’ll have to wear several hats, but the money you’ll earn every month makes it all worthwhile.

  Tags: foreclosures, real estate investing, rent, renting properties
  Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

• Feb 9

  Buying a Home in Connecticut: Guilford

  Guilford is a rustic town on the Long Island Sound with a secret for anyone who’s thinking of buying a house in Connecticut: this is where all the historic homes are. From the seaside cottages to the expansive groves of maple, Guilford embodies the best of New England, and if you appreciate calm streets, active community life and gorgeous surroundings, you’re going to want to stay awhile.

  First settled in 1639, Guilford started out as a small fishing colony known for its scenic beauty, exceptional town green and beautiful stone houses. Though the town has grown into a thriving New Haven suburb, it has kept a tight grip on its roots. Today Guilford is home to a bevy of gorgeous historic buildings, including the Henry Whitfield House – the oldest stone house in America – and the largest town green in New England. Each summer, visitors from all across the country flock to the town to take in its magnificent landscape and sunny beaches, and every fall they come back to see the most stunning display of fall foliage on the Atlantic coast.

  Guilford is much more than a pretty picture, though. Thanks to the town’s proximity to Hartford and New Haven, Guilford’s 22,000 residents also enjoy one of the best school systems in the Constitution State, numerous retail franchises and a perpetually developing downtown. The town’s police department and fire department both received new headquarters recently, and while Guilford has preserved a stunning number of its original buildings, new upper-middle-class neighborhoods are being constructed all the time.

  A modest two-bedroom home in Guilford goes for around $275,000. That’s a little steep for Connecticut real estate, but the price levels off as you move up in size. For instance, a 4,000-square-foot, four-bedroom house sells for only $345,000. As a historic vacation community, Guilford also offers plenty of options for homeowners who enjoy a more luxurious lifestyle, and it’s not uncommon to find a home with a $1 million price tag in the local listings.

  If you’re buying a house in Connecticut and want to experience the best of New England, then it’s time to give Guilford a closer look. This coastal town is the perfect place to settle down and enjoy the seaside.

  Tags: buying a house, buying a house in Connecticut, Connecticut real estate
  Posted in Home Buying | No Comments »

• Feb 8

  Don’t Bother Buying a Foreclosure at Auction

  If you want to buy a foreclosure this year, don’t bother attending an auction. Huge auction websites like to talk about how easy it is to buy a foreclosure at one of their local events, but the reality is that winning a house in a bidding war and then securing a mortgage for it is a lot more complex than you might think. If you’re considering trying to buy your next real estate investment at an auction, here are a few reasons you might want to reconsider.

  • Foreclosures rarely go for less than market value at auction. A major reason for buying foreclosures is that vacant homes usually sell for 15% less than market price. This isn’t the case with foreclosures sold at auction. At an auction, investors salivate over desirable foreclosures, and it’s not unusual for the ensuing bidding war to push the sticker price above the projected market value of the house.
  • Someone will outbid you. Auction experts tell new buyers to avoid getting too attached to any one foreclosure that’s up for bidding. Why? Because there’s almost always someone willing to pay more than you for the house you really want. All those hours spent researching will be for naught, and unless you’ve got another home lined up, you’ll end up leaving empty-handed. This reminds us…
  • You need to do a LOT of homework. When they attend an auction, most real estate investors bring a shortlist containing info on three or four properties they’d like to buy. For every house on that list, they’ve spent hours doing market comparisons and checking valuation tables. Some people think that doing a day’s worth of research is a good use of their time if it helps them get through a few hours of frantic bidding. We, on the other hand, think it’s kind of a waste.

  Trawling through foreclosure listings to find a good real estate investment might be painful, but getting outbid on a house you counted on winning hurts even more. If you’re buying a house this year, keep the auctions on the back burner as a last resort. When all is said and done, you’ll be a lot happier with your purchase if you get it through a private seller.

  Tags: foreclosure, mortgage, real estate investment
  Posted in Home Buying | No Comments »

• Feb 7

  Buying a Home in San Diego: Lakeside

  For a community that’s located just 21 miles from the heart of San Diego, Lakeside sure doesn’t live up to its expectations. Though the town’s name might lead you to believe it’s a posh waterfront suburb, Lakeside is really more Wild West than anything else. This picturesque neighborhood is all open sky and adventure, and it’s a great place to get rural if you’re buying a house in San Diego.

  As one of the few remaining rural communities in San Diego County, Lakeside has become a major hit with commuters who want to escape the bustle of city life. It’s a town of horse corrals and mini-ranches, a place where farmers markets are the only markets and where the monthly rodeos draw more crowds than any concert or sporting event. Though a few upper-class housing tracts have been developed, the town’s 20,000 residents have steadfastly blocked any serious development within the town’s ten square miles.

  Strolling through Lakeside, it’s easy to see why the community has fought so hard to stay rural. The vistas over Lindo Lake are absolutely breathtaking, and the newly opened River Park is the only park in San Diego where you can ride your horse down the walking trails without anyone raising an eyebrow. The town is such a slice of Western Americana that Hollywood often films movies and television shows there. If you’ve ever seen an episode of “Renegade,” then you’ve gotten a sneak peek at life in Lakeside.

  As a rural community, Lakeside is home to some of the cheapest San Diego real estate on the market. A five-bedroom, 3,500-square-foot home can sell for $350,000 – a price that’s absolutely unheard of anywhere else in the county. A two-bedroom home can go for as low as $100,000.

  If you’re buying a house in San Diego and want to settle down in one of the last remnants of the American West, then fire up your pickup truck and head down to Lakeside. It’s an excellent place to kick off your boots, pour some lemonade and watch the sun set over the canyon.

  Tags: buying a home, buying a house in San Diego, San Diego real estate
  Posted in Home Buying | No Comments »