Archive for the ‘Real Estate’ category

Shopping for a New Home

March 28th, 2012

Shopping for a New Home photoCongratulations on your decision to get a new home, now is the time to consider some aspects to help you find your dream home.

First and most importantly, find a professional Real Estate agent to help you get through the process.  Before you decide how many bathrooms you need, or what area is the best, it’s important to know how your credit is and if your actual financial situation is in good condition, and finally, how much you are going to be able to qualify for on a mortgage.

All these aspects are important to consider before you get in your car and drive around looking for you next home.  So the beginning to buying a property starts with researching for a good real estate agent, somebody that you like and trust.  You can find these qualified people on the internet or through the newspaper or possibly by referrals.  The second step is to interview the agent and see what service he or she is able to offer to you and if you have to make a commitment to work with one person at a time.

After you select the agent that you feel most comfortable with, it’s time to bring all the questions that you think are important to you in order to know if you are going to be able to aford the house.

The financial part is the most important one – that means your credit score, your monthly income, proof of employment, downpayment, etc.  You will need to know how much money you are going to need for closing the transaction.  Generally closing costs are 10 percent, byt sometimes it’s up to an additional 3%.  Finally, earnest deposit money is the first thing you will need to make the offer.

A proffesional real este agent is trained to help you through this financial part, but in addition to that, after you establish your criteria, is able to search easily for your criteria in a computer system, looking around all tha neighborhoods that you are interested in and show you all the properties available in the real estate market, before you get in the car.  This means you get pictures and sometimes virtual tours, etc. so that you can disqualify the properties that you do not like, saving you time and inconvenience.

When you find your dream home, it’s important to ask questions about the area, school, amenites like grocery stores, doctors offices, recreation areas, libraries etc. Sometimes driving around the neighborhood to identify these factors helps you to make the best decision.

Remember that working with a good agent, saving you time, money and inconvenience, is the best way to find what you want. Somebody that does the job for you, review all the contracts, negotiate the best deal, make sure the house passes all the inspections and is ready for you to move in immediately.  Good luck on your new home.

Real Estate Investing and Goal Setting

March 26th, 2012

Real Estate Investing and Goal Setting photoWhat is the primary reason for success most people have that seems to elude unsuccessful people? Goal setting is the primary reason for success. Lack of proper planning is the number one reason for failure. Proper goal setting involves setting a business plan in place for your life. Too many people this doesn’t sound fun or sounds tedious. In practice though, goal setters have more time freedom, more money, and more success in all areas of their lives than those who don’t. Well it’s no different with real estate investing.

Real Estate Investing must be treated as a business and it requires planning that anyone can do. Much like an airplane pilot who goes through a pre-flight checklist, the real estate investor must go through many steps for every real estate deal. You must market to find the deal, do your research on the property to establish a value, have your contracts ready, make your offer, schedule a closing, have title work done, prepare your financing, get property insurance, etc. The reason the doers make money is because so many people aren’t ready to make money. Real estate investing seems like pie in the sky until you put your plan down on paper and it starts to crystallize. The planning process itself should give you renewed energy.

Before I daily setup my plan I didn’t want to get out of bed each day, but now I get up ready to work on knocking out my plan every day. Set your plan up into baby steps that you can review and knock out every single day. Your daily plan must include marketing to get motivated sellers to contact you. Regardless of the deals you have in the works, if your marketing stops, you will go through long dry spells. Even with consistent marketing you will have periods with few leads and periods where you are just swamped with sellers offering you great deals.

Constant daily review of your goals is critical. This is why so many suggest taping your goals on your bathroom mirror so you see it when you wake up and again before you go to bed. You can even buy giant poster sized post it notes that you can write your goals on and stick them on your wall. Reviewing your goals before going to sleep at night causes your brain to dream about your goals and program them into memory. So put your goals down on paper and start putting your real estate investing plan into action.

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