October « 2011 « Entre Realty

October, 2011

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31
Oct 11

How to Buy Foreclosed Homes

Buying a foreclosed home can be very profitable but you need to understand what is involved. A foreclosed home is when the homeowner can no longer make payments on his or hers monthly mortgage. After a certain amount of time the lender will take ownership of the house and force the occupants out of their home. Below I have outlined how you can locate foreclosed homes and how you can go about buying one.

Step1:

Foreclosed homes can be located by looking through public records in the area you are interested in buying a foreclosed house. It’s required by law that lenders file foreclosure paper work with the local town or city.

Step2:

Once you located a foreclosed home you need to find out if there are any liens or other claims on the property. You also need to find out if any back taxes are owned and who is responsible for paying them. This can greatly increase the price of a foreclosed home.

Step3:

Check the market value of similar homes in the area to find out how much you can sell the foreclosed home for. You also need to include the cost any repairs that may need to be done on the foreclosed house.

Step4:

If the title is clean and the homeowner is still able to sell the home, you can make an offer with the owner. Many homeowners in a position of loosing their home, through foreclosure, will be willing to accept a low offer out of fear of loosing everything.

Step5:

If the bank has ownership of the house but has not place the property on the market, you can make them a low offer and slowly raise the price. Before doing this make sure you have done your homework. You need to know the market value of the house, how much the loan is in default, taxes, etc.

Step6:

If you can not negotiate with the bank, then you will need to try and purchase the foreclosed house through an auction. Know what your biding limits are in the auction and never over bid. Always have all the details on the foreclosed houses before bidding. You don’t want any surprises if you win an auction and become responsible for additional payments.

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29
Oct 11

Foreclosure Help for people who have tried everything, there is still hope

Finding help in the Foreclosure Crisis

Just when you think you understand, more information is added to confuse you all over again. Because of the complicated maze of mortgage lingo. It is very difficult for the average person to understand and we depend on the expertise of our lenders to guide us through.

Many of us were hood-winked. We were told that we could get this adjustable loan and later on refinance to something that is fixed later. We were told that this was the only way we could qualify for our homes. We were told that these were the best choices available to us and we believed. Some of us purchased homes we could not afford with the nudging of the lender. Some of us refinanced and found ourselves up side down in our properties. What ever the case now the face of foreclosure is starring back.

What do we do when we find out that we were taken advantage of? We listen to the news closely hoping that there are programs that might send us a life line. We scour the web trying to decipher what is a scam and what might be legitimate, being ever so careful not to be taken advantage of again.

So many programs are out there so how do you choose? All you can do is pick up the phone, learn, and make yourself an expert. Listen out for the lingo they use and educate yourself on the terms. The terms they most commonly use is loan modification, forbearance, restructure, adjustable mortgage, fixed mortgage and the list goes on. Know the difference and take your destiny into your own hands. Got me once, shame on you. Got me twice, shame on me. This should be a wake up call for us all to help each other with information and education.

This time understand the terms. Some plans are only in place for 3-5 years and then you go back to your regular payments. Some plans lower your mortgage based on CMA, Current Market Value. You purchased your home at 250,000, now according to the current market might be sold at 175,000. Make sure you know what your house is worth now, not what you paid for it. This is key in negotiating your new terms.

Some of the programs that are placed in the arena for help are just mirror images of what you can actually accomplish yourself. Keep in mind with all the programs up until now you had to have and income and can pay the mortgage. There is a certain criteria you must meet before they can help you. One of these government life lines, the Hope now . Consumer Credit Counselors take your financials, calls the lender and wait to see if you meet the programs criteria. If you don’t you are encouraged to call them back when your financial situation changes for the better. You are left in the same situation you started in and you guessed it, you can complete the same process on your own with the lender, they do nothing any different. The only people this government source helps are the people who are afraid to call the mortgage companies themselves.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel called Operation Restoration. It is founded by a women named Anne Batte, who is in the Mortgage industry and she gives good honest advice and wisdom. She guides you and gives you step by step information on how to save your home. She will give you the tools you need to save your home and yes it is free. Please pass this on to anyone that you know of that is in trouble or going into foreclosure.
Operation rescue is a true lifeline.

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28
Oct 11

Downsize By Buying Two Homes.

Ex-Lawyer Jane Campion is one of this country’s baby-boomers. Having taken early retirement she is now looking to downsize from her four bedroom family home in Gerards Cross, Buckinghamshire. Her and her late husband bought the property thirty years ago for £72,000 and sold it last autumn for £845,000 leaving her with a hefty lump of cash that she was unsure what to do with.

She decided to downsize and buy two smaller houses with the intention of living in one herself and renting the other out, something which many other people are doing these days. She bought the two houses in Nightingale Woods in Wendover, Buckinghamshire from Barratt Homes. The one that she lives in is a four bedroom house which she bought for £455,000 and the other house cost £285,000 which she lets out to Barratt as a show house. Barratt pay her £2,000 per month for the privilege and she admits that she will never have to fly long haul economy again as a result.

She, like many others, did not want to put her lump sum in the bank due to the low interest rates. She does not have any children so her main priority was an income and not capital growth. Her last house was costing her a great deal in bills and repairs even though she loved it and that was her main reason for the downsize, she wanted a newer house but also a long term income.

It is a fact that the over 65’s in Britain hold 40% of the equity in our housing market and so it is them that will revive the buy-to-let sector of the housing market. Buy-to-let yields average at an annual yield of 5% but this figure varies around the country. Greater Manchester and Leicester have the best yields at around 6.8% but Bath and Bristol’s yield is around 4.3%. However Savills are forecasting that rents will rise by 7% this year, 6.5% in 2012 and 5.5% in 2013, all due to first time buyers being kept off the property ladder so the yields forecast may increase. Compare these figures to the dismal ones forecast for capital growth, Tyne and Wear and Merseyside will increase by a mere 1% but London may reach 29%.

Robert and Helen Brooks have followed the same path as Jane. Married with three daughters the couple lived in Wyverstone in the Suffolk countryside in a four bedroom family home. They felt that the house was too large and too remote for them and so they downsized to a smaller four bedroom house in Stowmarket which was nearer their daughters selling the property for £315,000. The new modern house has cost them £195,000 but they have also bought a terraced cottage for £124,000 from Crest Nicholson which they are living in at the moment until their new house sale goes through. When it does they will let the cottage out, they have been told that they could get £550 per month for the cottage and think that they have invested their money wisely.

Another couple in their early fifties have decided to sell their four bedroom home in Burgess Hill, West Sussex after their three children have grown up and left the family home. They have bought two new builds on a Barratt Homes development in Haywards Heath which is nearby. They have moved into one of the homes while they look for another permanent base whilst the other property is still being completed. By the end of 2011 they hope to have sold their old family home and be mortgage free in their new home but have two Barratt Homes which they will have rented out. They bought both of the new homes on buy-to-let mortgages with a 30% deposit funded by endowment policies which had matured. The smaller of the two Barratt Homes already has a prospective tenant willing to pay £1,000 per month and once they have taken into consideration all their costs they hope to make around £450 to £500 per week. They will have rental income coming in but also have the properties continually going up in value. Their mortgages are fixed at below 5% for one for 15 years whilst the other is for 25 years so they now what their costs are going to be every year.

So for these couples the draw to investing property is paying off at a better rate than is they had invested their money at the bank.

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26
Oct 11

Measuring Sales From Social Media Focusedleadgeneration.com

Vancouver Social Media Consultant discusses ‘How to measure sales resulting from Social Media Activity’:

If you’re wondering about how you’ll know if your Social Media marketing is effective, you’ll be glad to know that there are ways to monitor this quite effectively.

There are all kinds of tools, both paid and free to measure almost every aspect of your social media and online presence, including the traffic you generate and your overall online influence.

We’ll cover these tools and measurements in another article. In this article, we’re concerned with something more specific: how do you know if your social media efforts are having a tangible impact on your sales – and if they are, to what extent?

Obviously, as with any other form of marketing, there are definitely going to be times when you won’t be able to specifically tie a purchase to your social media activity.

But, by using analytics in your sites, lead capture pages and in any of your social media platforms where this can be incorporated, you’ll quickly see how much traffic your activity is generating with relation to specific information you’re putting out in your social media pages. By tracking both the traffic and the subject matter over a period of time, you will be able to see which offers, products or information are getting the most attention. This in turn will help you improve your sales offers.

But perhaps an even easier way to get a sense of how powerfully your social media efforts are affecting sales, is by creating specific time limited promotions within your social media presence. These can be special offers, contests, or promotions on specific products or services. The responses are then driven to unique sales pages dedicated to the specific promotion.

During the time period for which these promotions are valid, it’s easy to see when sales increase correspondingly. As your social media is directing people to specific sales pages there is absolutely no room for doubt as to what has triggered the sale.

Social media is a great marketing medium for both long term brand awareness as well as short term promotions and as you can see, it’s not terribly difficult to see how many direct sales can be created via social media promotions. But, the important thing to remember is that social media should not be used exclusively for direct sales. It’s primarily a relationship building tool and as such, is used to create connections for you within your market on more than a purely sales basis.

This is good news because the easiest way to sell is by creating a trust relationship. Using social media to provide prospects with useful information and by empowering them to understand how to both buy and use your product and service to their best advantage, will stand you in good stead when it comes time to ask them to buy something. People buy from people they know, like and trust.

Measuring sales that are as a result of these relationships forged via social media channels is not quite so clear cut. However if you can cross referencing new customers with social media connections, you will soon see if your social media connections are becoming customers. If they are, by inference, you will know that your social media efforts are paying off in a monetary and tangible form.

If you’d like to know more about implementing a Social Media or internet marketing plan for your business, visit the FocusedLeadGeneration web site where you’ll find more helpful information and you’ll be able to download a free white paper on the subject.

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25
Oct 11

What Makes a Good Sales Letter

Sales letters are form of advertisements resorted to by businesses which take a “personalized” approach to the target audience. Making a sales letter is no easy task, because the person composing it has to make sure that he captures the attention of the person reading it. If the first few lines are too dragging or boring, chances are this letter would quickly find its way to the waste basket, and that would be the end of it. So if you are trying to market a product, better think of a new marketing strategy because it obviously did not work.

What people want nowadays is a letter which goes direct to the point. Remember, you are already taking their time just by reading it, so make sure that every second counts and they feel that their time is not wasted! You should know who are these people you are talking to, do a little background check and see what stimulates their interests. The first few sentences are the crucial ones and these should contain those thoughts which would immediately capture their attention and make their eyes focused thereon. People detest verbose sales letters and would prefer short and concise ones, which basically should contain everything you want to tell them. Resorting to flattery is not all that bad, since some people still want to hear them being praised, but then again, your sales letter should not only be full of sweet talk because people are now wiser and would easily recognize that they are being taken for a ride.

You need not be an expert writer to make a good sales letter. What is important is that you know what you are talking about and you know what you are promoting. People like to hear from those who know their product very well because this means that even you believe in it, otherwise, you would not have taken the time to know about it. Just always remember, be straight to the point, concise and not lose focus on your main objective on why you are making this sales letter in the first place.

Sales letter software is software you can use to easily create award winning sales letter to sell your products or services. Sales letter software is great for creating sales letter to use to sell your products or services. For more info visit http://www.saleslettersoftwarepros.com/.

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23
Oct 11

Who Knew? Nicer Homes Sell Faster!

I just read an article that made me laugh and I had to share it.

Apparently a home that is fixed up will have a better chance of selling and sell faster than homes that are not remodeled. A study was conducted to find out this INCREDIBLE news. It gets better!

Rehabbed foreclosures sell faster as well. So all you homeowners facing foreclosure and all you banks with tons of REOs on the books, call the contractors it’s time to rehab those homes!

“A study conducted by Field Asset Services, a property preservation and maintenance specialist that focuses on foreclosed and repo properties, revealed that a foreclosures sale will have a higher chance at success if the property on offer has been remodeled. The company’s annual study of foreclosures and REO properties also revealed that the days on market (DOM) for rehabilitated properties are shorter than those that were sold ‘as is’.

According to the study, the DOM of bank, government, and VA foreclosures that have been rehabilitated before being put up for sale is reduced by around 68% compared to homes for sale that were not repaired or remodeled. Field Asset conducted a similar study last year which revealed that DOM is reduced by 54.6% for rehabilitated dwellings.”
“Foreclosures Sale More Successful for Remodeled Homes, Study Says,” Real Estate News, myrealtynews.com/real-estate/foreclosure/foreclosures-sale-more-successful-for-remodeled-homes-study-says/ January 20, 2011 (accessed January 20, 2011).

I’m amazed that money was spent on this study, but at least it was private industry and not government funds. So lesson learned: buyers like nice homes. I will use that!

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22
Oct 11

Taxes On Selling Homes ? Rental Property

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If you are a homeowner, you will be entitled to tax breaks when you sell your home. It is possible to profit up to 0,000 if you file your taxes singly. If you file jointly, you could get 0,000. To make things even nicer, you will owe nothing to the IRS. There are a few caveats that are involved. You must have been the owner of the property and must have used that same property as your primary residence for at least 2 of the 5 years preceding the sale of the home. While this seems fair, what happened if you sold your home after only owning it for two years? In 2002, the IRS released new regulations that changed the original rules.

If you are in the situation of owning and residing in the home for less than 2 years, you can avoid the tax by claiming a reduced gain exclusion. This is fairly easy to qualify for. If you do qualify, the amount will most likely be large enough to protect the entire gain, even though the sale was made prematurely. If you are eligible, the amount would equal the 0,000 or 0,000 times a fraction. The numerator of the fraction would be the period of time that you owned and used the home and the denominator would be the two years that is required. For example, if you and your spouse owned and resided in your home for 22 months, the reduced exclusion would be 0,000 multiplied by 22 months over 24 months, which would equal 8,333. The reduced exclusion applies when the premature sale is a result of a change in employment, health issues or unforeseen circumstances.

If the sale is premature due to a change of employment, you must state that this was the reason. This will make you eligible for the exclusion. To utilize this reason, you must have had to relocate more than 50 miles away from the home that was sold. There can be exceptions to this rule. It would depend on the circumstances. For example, if you got a new job working in an emergency room, and the job required you to live closer to the hospital; you may still qualify for the exclusion even though the move was less than 50 miles away.

Second Home for Rental Purposes

Some people may obtain a second home for investment purposes. One activity they engage in is Rental business. Tax benefits for rentals have different effects depending on the number of days it has been used for such purpose. To understand more about it, here are the effects:

• House is rented for less than 14 days in a year: In this case, any income obtained within that period will become tax-free. It will not matter how much money you earned within those days, it can still go right into your pocket without being taxed. In addition, the same deductibles apply like when you use it as plain second residence. However, no operating expense can be deducted.

Unforeseen circumstances can also be a reason for a premature sale. There are many things that could fall under this category, including the death of a qualified individual, the eligibility for unemployment compensation, divorce orlegal separation, multiple birth pregnancy, man-made disaster or if the residence is sold after it was seized by a government agency. For the cases of unforeseen circumstances, the qualified individual could be the owner, the co-owner or any other individual that used the property as a primary residence.

You may be exempted from tax payment or may even get an extension. Yes this is possible if you apply to your county treasure for relief. If you can prove beyond that you are really in pretty bad state financially and cannot afford to pay the taxes, you may get some relief. You need to hurry and take this step, so that you may meet the deadlines set by your county treasurer.

In some cases banks may also consider you for loans, in order to pay off the property taxes. It is more beneficial for the bank to give you loans rather than to let the county take control of your property. This measure though has its drawback as it means that you are deeper in debt now

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21
Oct 11

How to Write a Short Sale Hardship Letter

Step 1

First brainstorm about your hardship. Sit down, and write down every idea that pops in your head about why you can’t afford your house. Why are you having financial difficulties. Loss of job, medical bills, increased property taxes, child’s college education tuition, divorce, credit card debt, etc. Write every possible thought that has any affect on your financial situation or your wanting to get rid of the property. It doesn’t matter what you write down. Don’t think too much, just write whatever pops in your head. Sit and write until you have at least 5 ideas. If you don’t have 5, you’re thinking too much. Just write whatever pops in your head.

Step 2

Now look at your hardship letter brainstorm list and pick the most obvious ones that have the most affect on your financial situation and ability to make payments on the home. Look at the list as if you were Countrywide, or Washington Mutual, or your specific bank. Which hardships would you look at as the most crucial? Once you select 3 or 4 hardships, focus on them and explain exactly why they are affecting your ability to make payments on the loan. (For example: I was laid off on Sept. 27 and as a result, my monthly income has decreased by ,100.)

Step 3

Now you’re ready to begin writing and putting together your hardship letter. Rule # 1, make your hardship letter less than one page, paragraph form. Short sale department reps look through many letters. They don’t want to be reading a novel to find out why you can’t afford your mortgage payments.

Step 4

Line 1: At the top of the hardship letter type your bank’s name that you are requesting the short sale from. Line 2: put their address. Line 3: type their phone number and fax number. Skip a space. Line 4: type the date. Line 5: type “RE: Request for short sale – (Your Loan # and Property address).”
Skip a line and start your letter with: “Dear (Bank’s Name) Representative:”

Step 5

First paragraph: State a change. Mention what change took place why you can no longer afford your payments. Keep it brief and simply let them know that some change happened between the time you bought the home and now which has affected your ability to pay your mortgage loan. Ex: “There has been significant changes in in my financial situation since I purchased my home in October 2001.”

Step 6

2nd paragraph: State why your area is bad. Ex: “My property is located in ______ town. The taxes have increased, property values have declined, there are 5 foreclosures on my street, etc.” List any bad circumstances for your specific location.

Step 7

3rd and or 4th paragraph: List any of the following and explain using details and specific numbers as best as you can.
• wrong doing by mortgage loan broker, bad adjustable mortgage loan on the property.
• hardships (income I depended on is no longer available, increased bills, inability to work due to health or disability, etc. – from your brainstorm list).

Step 8

Final paragraph: Clearly state that you “cannot pay” and need to short sale the home. You don’t have any other options available. State your intent: do you want to keep your home or not? Leave your contact info or short sale agent’s contact info if they require further information.

Sign, date, and give to your short sale agent, attorney, or bank.
(See tips below) Tips: Some short sale companies and agents are available to help you negotiate a short sale with your bank. You can often find a company that charges no upfront fees for you. (They take their payment out of the real estate commission when the home sells)

Be wary of some negotiating companies that charge an upfront “application or processing fee.” Some of these companies charge 9 upfront to desperate homeowners with promises of negotiating a short sale, loan modification, or some other solution between you and your bank, with no actual results.
There are some very good free or low cost services available to upside-down homeowners to help you negotiate with your bank and avoid foreclosure.

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20
Oct 11

The Fast & Easy Way to Setup a Home Filing System

1. Set the Stage – Setup an area to sit and sort your papers. You will want a comfy chair to sit in, a “to be shredded” bag or box, a “to be recycled” bag or box, a “to be filed” bag or box, a “to be put in safe deposit box”, some sticky notes, a pen or marker, and a tall refreshing beverage of your choice.

2. Gather all your papers and put them in a pile next to your comfy chair where you will be sorting. Retrieve papers from the office, the car, your purse, the dining room table, kitchen counter tops, and every other place you have stashed your papers. You are creating one large pile of all the papers that need to be sorted and filed. Don’t let the size of the pile intimidate you. If you follow this plan, sorting will go faster than you may think.

3. Sit in your comfy chair. Put a stack of papers from your pile into your lap and sort them into “to be shredded”, “to be recycled”, “to be filed”, “to be put in safe deposit box”. Remember, all papers containing personal or banking information should be shredded. When in doubt, shred. If you are unclear on which papers you need to keep, refer to the Resource Box at the end of this article. It contains a link to a free report that you can download, which tells you exactly which papers to keep, how long to keep them for, and which papers to shred. The report also includes a complete list of which papers and items you should keep in your safe deposit box.

4. Shred or burn the “to be shredded” papers. Burning them in a fire pit in your yard or your fireplace can be a fun and easy way to destroy them. Recycle the “to be recycled”. Get a fire and waterproof safe deposit box for your home. It’s best to have one at your home so that you do not have to run to the bank every time you need something from it. Plus, it’s cheaper.

5. Separate your “to be filed” papers into two categories. #1 – Archive Papers. These are papers you want or need to keep, but they do not require any sort of action and you probably do not need to access them more than once a month. Examples of these are: Insurance and investment paperwork, leases, agreements, reference materials. #2 – Active Papers. These are current papers that you need to reference frequently or they require an action. Examples of these are: bills, receipts, forms to be completed, directions and details about an upcoming event, something you are waiting for a response on.

6. Set aside time to file your papers into an efficient category based home filing system. Your home filing system should have two parts — an “Active Paper System” and an “Archive Paper System”. Keep the “Active Paper System” in a convenient location. Your “Archive Paper System” can be located in a filing cabinet in your basement or closet. Category based home filing systems work best. With an effective category based system you can find any paper within seconds because there is usually only one place that particular paper or file could be. In other systems, like alphabetical home filing systems, there is usually several different places a particular paper or file could be so it requires you to remember what your thought process was when you setup your home filing system. In addition, a category-based system will grow with you so you never have to redo your home filing system. I recommend using the Fast-Filing Method, which is an effective category-based system.

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19
Oct 11

How to go through foreclosure

You have to decide what you want and what you may get, may not be the eact same thing. Look at your situation differently. Was your house a lot clean because it was so large? Did you lose many weekends keeping the yard up? Is there going to be some relief in moving to a different location? What is it you are looking for now? Have it planned out so you can present your deal to the investor. If the investor can work out a way to take over your home, work out the equity, give you some money to move and save your credit rating. Wouldn’t that be better then going into foreclosure? While you are searching for the investor that will be your perfect match, gets the place looking good. You still want it to show well. Yes, an investor is not as finicky about how your house looks as a regular buyer who wants to live there, but it helps to have a clutter free home so that it is easy for the investor to see the house.

When you go to promote your home for sale, use the phrases “Motivated to Sell” or “Flexible Terms” at the header of your AD in big, bold print. Don’t let the payments behind before you start promoting it for sale. Most investors want to “get in light” which means pay as little up front to buy the property as possible.

Lease options are a great way to get out from under a property. Some buyers are a little nervous right now about where the market is heading. A lease option allows them to negotiate the purchase price now. A lease option allows them to negotiate the purchase price now, give you an option deposit (moving money) and then they can decide to buy or not to buy when the option comes due at a future date. The time frame is between twelve to thirty six months. The worst scenario is you sell it or lease and someone will not keep up their bargain and the house goes back into foreclosure. So what? At least you had a chance to stay out of foreclosure. Even if they do go sideways you still have options: just get them out of the house and find someone else to gve you a down payment and “rinse and repeat”. At some point the market will turn around and you will get out with your head intact.

Tips & Warnings

Get creative, get busy, and let the games begin! Getting rid of a house is easy-just take the importance off of it and treat it like a game. Look at all the successful garage sales going on around you: just because you don’t want it doesn’t mean someone else doesn’t. Decide to make the best of a bad situation, promote like craze ad think outside of the box.
The most important thing to remember when you are faced with a bad situation on a property Is the fact that it is just a house: some bricks, wood, glass, paint, wires and carpet! There are so many more important things in life like your health, family, religion, etc and just LIFE itself! Yes, you want to be responsible and handle things with your personal integrity in full force. You will want to do the right thing and everything you can to make the situation go right. Tell everybody that you want out and willing to deal! But don’t let the rest of your life dissipate into a total mess because of a chunk of brick and mortar

Entre Realty