#1 Real Estate Investing Mistake Of 2005
Over the past few years, real estate investors, hungry for break-even or positive cash flow rental properties, purchased income properties out of state. California investors bought houses in Florida, Texas, and Oklahoma. Florida investors purchased houses in Louisiana. Texas investors purchased in Las Vegas. Many of these investors made millions of dollars because of the appreciation in hot markets.
On the other hand, in 2005, some beginning investors lost their hard-earned investment capital...
5 Ways Poor Credit Scores Costs You Extra Money
Most of us want a good credit report to obtain automobile financing, credit cards, and to purchase a home. But, beyond these consumer loans, your credit report can cost you in everyday living expenses. What you don't know about your credit could be costing you money.
Having a credit card means that you can order tickets, rent a car, and reserve hotel rooms. Besides these conveniences, your credit report can mean that you must pay higher deposits and fees for everyday services.
Did you know...
Buying and Selling Distressed Houses for Maximum Profit
Buying and Selling Distressed Houses for Maximum Profit
by: Jeanette Joy Fisher
If you want to become a real estate investor, find a "fixer-upper" owned by an anxious seller. Finding distressed houses at bargain prices, fixing them up, and then selling them on a consistent basis can make you a millionaire.
Why Sellers Sell At a Discount
Homeowners' problems often prevent them from staying on top of their home's upkeep, and factors such as job loss, divorce, serious illness, various...
Christmas Gift Ideas: Interior Dιcor Presents
Choosing a gift for someone to display in their home can be frustrating. On the other hand, if you're shopping for a friend or family member, you can give a present that will be appreciated.
When to Not Give Home Dιcor Presents
If you've never been to your friend's home, I would definitely not give a household item unless it's for a recent bride with a gift registry. Even if you're gift shopping with your friend and she points out a darling framed picture or frilly pillow, that doesn't mean...
Convert A 1031 Tax-Free Exchange Property Into Your Primary Residence
There are currently some 15 million Americans who own real estate investment property, and more and more of them are discovering the advantages of using 1031 tax-free exchanges for deferring capital gains taxes when they sell. A 1031 exchange is a provision in the IRS code that permits investment property owners to sell properties and buy new ones without having to pay taxes on the sale of the old properties, assuming stipulations concerning the use of the proceeds and time limits have been...
Credit Card Debt
If you can't sleep at night because of credit card debt worries, you're not alone. Many people get in over their heads charging things they think they can't live without.
You don't need to cut up all of your credit cards. Save your major bank cards, but stop charging needless temptations on them. You need a couple of major bank credit cards to maintain or build strong credit scores.
The credit cards you should cut up, department store credit cards, cost you too much in interest. Plus, these...
Credit For Buying A Home Not The Same As Credit For Buying Cars
Forget what you've been told about credit. Qualifying for a real estate purchase requires different credit than automobile financing or retail credit.
You may be shocked at some of these tips because this information runs contrary to what other so-called credit experts tell you.
Common Credit Myths
1. You need to pay off your credit cards
2. You need to close credit accounts
3. You need perfect or good credit to buy a house
Credit Facts
1. Paying off your credit cards lowers your...
Credit Help for Buying Houses: 14 Common Credit Mistakes
Credit Help for Buying Houses: 14 Common Credit Mistakes by Jeanette Joy Fisher Get the credit you need to buy real estate. Qualifying for a real estate purchase requires different credit than automobile financing or retail credit.If you plan to finance real estate, either as a home buyer or as an investor, these credit tips will help you with your credit score and save you money on loan costs.1. Using expensive or undesirable types of credit costs too much and is negatively scored.2....
Credit Help For Mortgage Financing: Beware Of Predatory Lenders
Financing a new mortgage? Beware of "predatory lenders."
In November 2005, Montgomery County, Maryland's county council enacted legislation to expand the categories of discriminatory lending activities associated with discriminatory housing practices and increased the maximum fine for such activities from $5,000 to $500,000. The council sited practices such as charging inordinate amounts for prepayment penalties, points, and fees; steering borrowers toward more expensive mortgages; and...
Credit Repair Companies and Credit Counseling
Credit Repair Companies and Credit Counseling
by: Jeanette Joy Fisher
Let's be crystal clear, right up front. Paying someone to "fix" your credit is a waste of your time and money, since the negative issues that are temporarily removed from your file will only reappear again in a couple of months.
Be careful with credit repair scams.
Most "credit repair" companies really don't help. In fact, you can improve your credit more effectively on your own. By using credit repair companies, you...
Credit Scores: Don't Waste Your Money
Did you know that your credit score that you purchase online is not the same credit score your loan officer gets?
You probably know that when you apply for a mortgage, your loan officer gets all three credit reporting agencies reports with three different scores. From your three credit scores, most mortgage companies use your middle credit score to determine your credit worthiness.
Do you know that the credit score an auto dealer sees is not the same credit score your loan officer sees?...
Environmental Issue: Wood Burning Fireplaces
Environmental Psychology considers two issues with wood burning fireplaces. What's important to you? Your home environment for emotional support or saving the environment?
If you plan to move to a new home or to build a home, you may draw a line through a fireplace as a necessity. Although people love the warmth, comforting crackling sounds, aromas, and moving light a wood burning fire provides, fireplaces can emit polluted air into your home and into your neighborhood.
Most home shoppers...
Flipping Fixers: Using Transformation Psychology for Top Dollar
Flipping Fixers: Using Transformation Psychology for Top Dollar
by: Jeanette Joy Fisher
Satisfying and lucrative real estate investment depends upon your correct assessment of profit potential, of course, but your ultimate success depends on your ability to transform a fixer into a dollhouse. The renovation process involves physical work and choosing the best supplies, in order to create maximum positive emotional effect and profits.
By incorporating the psychology of residential design,...
Holiday Decorating Ideas And The Environment
Have you thought about how your holiday decorating affects the environment? What can you do about your holiday decorating to improve your happiness and at the same time be kind to the environment?
The good news, taking action to decorate your home and office for the holidays, while keeping respect for the environment, makes your workload easier.
Conquer holiday stress with simplicity. Keep your decorations to a minimum. Simple holiday decorating makes your life easier to manage.
Simple...
Holiday Decorating Tips: Christmas Candles
How to Light Up Your Home for Joy
Do you love the winter holiday season or does this time of year cause you stress? One way to lower your holiday stress, using fewer decorations, decreases your "just have to much to do" list.
However, you still want to display Christmas candles because these decorations bring smiles to you and your loved ones. As days grow shorter and cooler and the suns sets earlier, people naturally crave the warmth and comfort of light, especially natural sources such as...
Holiday Decorating Tips: Thanksgiving, A Time For Gratitude And Giving
Get new holiday decorating ideas for Thanksgiving and Autumn. Start a new family tradition. Your home will look fabulous and your guests will love you.
Turkey and Cranberries! Yeah!
Before you dig into that turkey, take a moment for each person to say one sentence beginning with...
"Today, I am grateful for..."
You will be surprised at what children say, so keep a notebook handy to write down the gratitudes, or, better yet, record the event.
Thanksgiving Decorating Tips...
Home Buyers: Closing Costs You Might Not Know About
If you're home shopping or in the process of buying property, you want to make sure you have all your costs covered.
Home buyer's who purchase a home without a real estate agent (or sometimes purchase through an inexperienced agent) can find out too late they don't have enough money to close and move.
10 most overlooked costs home buyers miss:
1.) Property Taxes and Assessments
Home buyers often need to set up an escrow account with the new mortgage lender. This means that they must pay...
Home Selling Help: Offer A Home Warranty To Entice Buyers
Now that the real estate market is cooling somewhat, you'll more likely to find your competitive home sellers offering a seller's warranty. But what exactly is a seller's warranty, and how can it help?
Seller's Warranty
In short, a seller's warranty provides added assurance that any repairs to major appliances, plumbing, and other home systems will be covered by the seller within a specified time period after the home is purchased, excluding a typical deductible of $50-60. Seller's...
Home Staging: Take Care Of The Essentials First
You want your home or investments houses to sell for the highest possible price, and in the shortest amount of time. Here are a few good tips for making sure that happens, before you employ home staging strategies.
First, make sure that your home's curb appeal is at least as good, and preferably better than the other homes that are for sale in your area. Buyers often drive around in the neighborhoods they're interested in, and if they see a home that looks great from the street, they'll...
How Much Should You Spend To Get Your Home Ready To Sell?
When you get ready to sell your home, it's important to make it sparkle, especially when compared to your neighbors' houses. Every real estate agent knows that well-polished houses not only sell faster, but they also sell for higher prices.
When planning the "spruce up" strategy for your home, you'll first want to consider how much you want to spend, and then how much of that money to allocate to the outside and the inside in order to help sell your home the most quickly and for the best...
How To Make Your Tract Home Stand Out In The Crowd: Home Staging
Home sellers who wish to market their property in development neighborhoods face tough challenges. All the houses look similar. All the houses sell for amounts in the same price range. The market -- whether its a hot sellers market or a cool buyers market -- largely determines the price, purchase terms, and length of time to sell.
How do you make your home stand out from the crowd? How can you turn your property into a "hot" sale, even if the markets lukewarm? Remember the "Three Ms" and...
Immediate Steps To Improving Poor Credit
Credit can be a wonderful thing, but it can also be a dangerous pitfall, with disastrous results, when it gets out of control, even it happened through no fault of your own. If you find yourself overextended, here are some ideas for improving your credit.
The first step is to acknowledge your dilemma. Denial is a natural reaction, but you absolutely must face up to the fact that you're in trouble, and begin to work your way out of it. Don't ignore your bills. That won't accomplish anything...
Mortgage Financing: Signs Of Predatory Lending
If you're shopping for a home loan, you can save thousands of dollars by being aware of predatory lending practices, in which you're charged too much for your loan or are forced to buy services you don't really need. You can protect yourself by learning to recognize the signs of predatory lending. The Center for Responsible Lending lists seven specific warning signs that consumers should be aware of when applying for a mortgage.
The first warning sign is excessive points and loan origination...
New Year Resolutions: Some Startling Statistics About American Consumers
Before you whip out your credit card, stop and think. America is often called a consumer society, and it's true. We're also a nation of credit card debt, which is evidenced by some of these startling facts.
We all know that acquiring overwhelming debt is stressful from a financial standpoint. However, it might surprise you to know that more than 70 percent of divorces in America are brought about due to financial problems.
One thing Americans are NOT is savers. We simply don't put away...
Prepare Your Home For Sale: Kitchen Makeover Ideas
Money spent updating your kitchen rewards you better than money spent on any other upgrades to your home. When it comes to kitchens, buyers continue to demand improvement in efficiency and style, and they love remodeled kitchens and new appliances.
Even if you home costs less than the newer homes in your area, buyers view the model homes and hold the ideal in mind while home shopping.
Newer homes place kitchens open to the family room and often have wide views of the outside. Newer homes...
Real Estate Bubble Aftermath
Last spring, I was invited to go to Philadelphia and participate in a "real estate bubble" discussion on Ch 8's "Money Matters Today." Television reporters, newspapers, and media hype love scaring you to grab your attention. On the TV show, I defended the real estate market.
What's behind all this bubble talk?
Before you give any substance to warnings about a "real estate bubble," look closely at the source. Many stock brokers jump on the bandwagon of real estate doom to get investors back...
Real Estate Investing: Infomercial, Tax Sales And Mentoring Scams
Flipping through late-night infomercials recently, I saw two real estate get-rich quick schemes, and I couldn't help but wonder why people still fall for those old scams? Has anyone really talked a seller out of his home for no money down with owner financing lately?
Real estate infomercials do great harm to beginning investors, who waste hundreds of dollars on old information. Worse yet, those beginners soon get discouraged and miss out on the true (and profitable) adventure of real estate...
Strange Cleaning Tips
Many household products can function well in areas quite different from their initial intended uses. Here are a few examples:
Icy Steps? If you live in an area that freezes during the winter, here's a tip for keeping your front steps from getting icy. Just take a bowl of hot water, add a few drops of Dawn dishwashing liquid to it. Once you've poured that mixture over the steps, they won't freeze again. (Of course, this trick may work with other dishwashing liquids, as well. You'll need to...
The Real Way To Make Money Flipping Real Estate
Would You Like to Make Money Flipping Real Estate?
Many beginning real estate investors get started by flipping real estate to make quick cash. If you would like to make more money by investing in real estate, you need to know a few essentials.
What is the definition of real estate flipping?
Simple definition: Buying property and reselling quickly, hopefully for a great profit. Usually, people think of flipping houses, or the buying and selling of a home fast, as the only way to make...
Who Sells Your Personal Credit Information?
It's not well known, but if you have recently applied for mortgage credit, the information you shared was probably sold within twenty-four hours of your mortgage application. Credit reporting agencies commonly sell what they term "trigger lists" of folks who have recently contacted mortgage lenders for rates or loan preapproval and have given loan officers permission to check into their credit.
These leads are being bought by data marketing companies who then resell the information to lenders...
Wind Energy: Umm Leads The Way For American Universities
In March 2005, the University of Minnesota-Morris became the first public American university to install a large-scale wind turbine to help meet the school's electrical needs. Since it was installed, the generator has supplied some 60 percent of the university's power. The rest of the school's power needs are purchased from Otter Tail Power Company's Tailwinds Program.
Those figures mean that whether the electricity is generated on site or purchased off the grid, 100 percent of UMM's...
Xeriscaping For An Extraordinary Garden
Is it time to think about how to turn your garden from ordinary to extraordinary?
One way to do that is to think in terms of xeriscaping. The term means to use waterwise plants, which is especially useful in dry climates. Xeric species make gardening easier because they're drought resistant, and friendlier to the environment, because they use less water to provide lushness in both flowers and foliage. Most xeric plants are also perennials, so they will continue to flourish for years without...
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