Free Online Home Appraisal Estimates Don t Use Them Unless You Want to Save Money
Free online home appraisal estimates can save you time, money and a lot of headaches when buying or selling your home Every home buyer should check the value of the home they are interested in before making an offer and every seller should do the same before listing their home for sale This article explains why using free online home appraisal estimators will save you money . .Home Buyers - If you plan on buying a home you will need to pay for a professional appraisal before the lender will give you a loan Unfortunately this is too late in the process You should always know the true value of the property before making an offer Many sellers just pick a number to list their home at and buyers then offer slightly under If the price was too high in the first place, you may think you are getting a good deal, but could be paying too much for the house Check will an experienced agent who knows the neighborhood or check online at some of the free home appraisal estimate sites, like Home Gain All you do is put in the address and a little extra information and in a few seconds you have an estimate . .Home Sellers - Before listing your home you should check the free online house websites to see the approximate value of your home The reason is that the number one reason homes don’t sell fast is that the price is too high If you want traffic then get an experienced realtor to help you decide on an appropriate price but also check the free sites to see if her recommendation lines up with what has recently sold in your neighborhood .
Source: www.rsstnx.com

Avoid Foreclosure With a Short Sale
So you’re caught up in the wave of foreclosures like a lot of other people? It’s now becoming the new Negative Status Symbol Know that you are not alone, it is a tough place to be and unfortunately it may get worse before it gets better There is a stigma that goes along with losing something, especially when it’s your home Also, the financial mess it creates can stick with you for years to come Unfortunately there are not a lot of solutions; regardless of what you hear in the media and from your lender So it’s a bitter pill to swallow, and in order to succeed you have to get quality information & move forward quickly with your decision . .You may be considering a Short Sale to relieve you of your problem? Short Sales are a good solution, but you need to know what to expect . .1 Short Sales usually take a long time . .This is a double edge sword, because on the one hand you get many weeks, or more likely many months of free rent while waiting, but the roller coaster ride can be agonizing And you won’t know for certain if it will succeed or just be a lot closer to foreclosure, until you near the end of the process . .2 Avoiding foreclosure is really the only benefit you should expect . .Don’t expect to receive proceeds from the sale Most lenders (with the exception of FHA insured) don’t want the owner to receive any benefit at all In fact lenders stipulate that the seller/owner must not receive any proceeds from the sale of the property, as one of the agreements to doing a short sale . .3 Hopefully the person working on your short sale really knows what they are doing . .Realtors are still getting up to speed on how to do a Short Sale Some know how to do them, but most do not (not effectively anyway) Realtors are not usually ecstatic about doing them either It takes roughly 6 times the amount of work compared to selling a regular property Whoever does the negotiating needs to keep consistent pressure on the lender to work on the file and get it done In my experience this is where negotiators fall down on the job They are not proactive in their pursuit of pushing the file along to get a payoff approval . .4 What is the basic anatomy of doing a short sale? . .The property should first be listed for sale to find a buyer Once a buyer is found and an offer is made, all the necessary paperwork from the owner; which pretty much includes all the information that was provided to get the loan in the first place, must then be submitted in the right order, and in the right way to the lender Submitting it the right way can mean the difference of it ending up on top of the stack, or the bottom Once an offer is submitted the bank will call for a BPO Once the BPO is done, you then find out if the buyers offer was within their guidelines and will be accepted Assuming it is, the bank will then issue the payoff approval good for 30 to 45 days They will usually give extensions if it is needed to close, but never rely on that . .5 What is a BPO and why should you care? . .A BPO is a “Brokers Price Opinion ” Usually done by a local real estate agent The bank orders the BPO which is basically a comparison of the value to other properties, in order to gauge whether the offer made by the buyer will be accepted, rejected, or countered Whoever you have doing your short sale, they must understand how to effectively set up a fair and accurate BPO It is a must for the banks BPO agent to be met at the property with your realtors BPO report and knowledge of the property (yes your real estate agent can do their own BPO too) The whole objective is to influence the value of the property down, in order to insure that the bank will take the least price possible Because values are always subjective anyway, do not leave this important key of the whole short sale process to chance If you get nothing else out of this article, know that the BPO IS the Key difference between selling your property or not . .6 There are three main financial issues that are worth knowing about . .* Property taxes usually become delinquent, because when you don’t have enough money to pay your mortgage, then the property taxes are most likely not getting paid either In order for escrow to close, the property taxes must be paid These will most likely be paid by the bank or indirectly by the buyer, and be included as part of the short sale payoff . .* Income taxes are based on what’s called the phantom income from the sale of a property For instance if you originally bought your property for $300,000 and this was the amount of the loan (100% financing for this example), say the loan was paid down to 290,000 then if the home lost value and was sold via short sale for $150,000, you could be taxed on the $140,000 cancelled debt ($290,000 - $150,000) Even though you lost the house too This is a very simple example because you have to take into account your personal situation in regards to other income and expenses in other areas of your life Special note: there are many ways to lower or completely extinguish the tax burden if you do a short sale, or end up getting foreclosed on The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act (H R 4638) of 2007 provides relief from debt forgiveness taxation for certain owner occupants now until December 31, 2012 This is specifically for Owner Occupied properties (limit of 2 million dollars) If it is an investment property there are other alternatives available, one being insolvency (if your debts are more than your assets), there may be other options too Get a good tax professional or CPA, they are worth their weight in Gold Do not let someone talk you out of a short sale simply because it will be better off to let the property go to foreclosure, this is not the case Note: We are NOT giving you tax advice, because we are NOT tax advisors . .* Deficiency judgments’ can be requested by the lender for accepting a short payoff (or when a foreclosure takes place too) More and more lenders are insisting on an agreement or promissory note by the owner to pay a portion of what was originally owed, usually over a number of years, and usually at no interest This requested deficiency is usually calculated from the 2nd mortgage, at about 10% to 40% of that value If it would be a hardship to pay back, and you are planning on doing bankruptcy anyway, then you could simply agree to the installment which would subsequently be wiped out by the bankruptcy Or if your plans do not include bankruptcy then maybe the short sale along with this payment, would still be better than the alternative .
Source: www.rsstnx.com

Looking For Real Estate Sales Training That Puts Your Business on Steroids
Real Estate sales training is just like it used to be I will never forget when I decided to go into real estate sales A friend of mine was a successful broker and she was ecstatic when I told her I was interested She hovered over me like a mother hen while I finished the required study of state law then took my state test to be licensed The next phase of real estate sales training was about mindset . .She focused on the wealthy mindset She stressed to me that I had the potential to earn a very large income and with that, comes problems Not only the obvious problems, i e , taxes, distribution of income, etc But, quite possibly, the loss of friends from changing my financial status and that I may experience jealousy from family members Hmmmm, I certainly had not considered that but, I obediently took the course she recommended Next, came the real work of real estate sales training, or so I thought . .I learned how to: . . * Present my self and use sales skills, tactics & strategies . * how to farm a neighborhood . * I joined networking groups & the Chamber of Commerce . * I created a newsletter & found post cards . * I learned how to put a sales package together . .Except for the newsletter and postcards, none of the above brought the starving crowd to me from my target niche and I was busy all the time building my business through attending this meeting and that meeting Sound familiar? . .Before I wrote this article, I researched real estate sales training online and I found out that nothing has changed It’s still being done the same way and you are still left essentially on your own to find the business - the people, the customers, the referrals, the coveted real estate listings . . Real estate sales training is still the same old song and dance . .Wow, I was surprised I’ve enjoyed and profited from the world of internet marketing for the past nine years and I couldn’t fathom that real estate sales trainers aren’t on the internet marketing playing field! . .Let me take you by the hand and hover for a moment just like my broker did a few years ago I will introduce you to a five year old Internet Marketing School that will show you how to: . . * Target your market niche . * Develop new market niches’ . * Get new referrals that contact you . * Get listings that contact you . * Target specific demographic and geographic locations . * Build a relationship business online that will have your target niche eating out of your hands . * Build a real estate business on steroids . .All of this is possible using your brain and the technology known as computer and internet, from the comfort of your home, office, wherever you do business for less than a cup of coffee per day The good news is, you can put a lot of your business on automatic and just let your phone ring off the hook! Wouldn’t you rather spend time selling to prospects than chasing them? I know I sure appreciate business done just like that! . .And remember read on below for some quick, easy (and FREE) online marketing strategies you WON’T find anywhere else :-).
Source: www.rsstnx.com