Special Preview on Wealth in Property Venture


“HARGA APARTMENT HANYA RM17 RIBU? BIAR BETUL??? BETUL LA TUH....Baru je minggu lepas, salah seorang kenalan kami berjaya mendapat sebuah unit apartment dgn harga RM17,000.00 dan harga pasaran adalah dianggarkan dalam RM50,000.00-RM65,000.00. Begitu juga dengan seorang lagi kenalan kami yang bebrjaya mendapatkan seunit apartment dgn harga RM35,000.00 dan harga pasaran adalah sekurang-kurangnya RM85,000.00! Anda tidak teruja dgn berita ini? Kami tidak tipu. Jom ketahui cara pelaburan yang strategik! Ikuti preview talk kami padaJumaat 27 july di Bilik Agristat Aras 15,Seksyen Teknologi Maklumat.”

Preview, talk atau seminar tentang Wealth in Property Venture akan diadakan pada:

Tarikh              : 27 Julai 2012.(Jumaat)
Tempat             : Bilik Mesyuarat Agrista,Aras 15,Seksyen Teknologi Maklumat.
Masa                : 9.30-11.30Pagi

Preview on Wealth in Property Venture tiada bayaran khusus akan dikenakan untuk setiap peserta. Walaubagaimanapun peserta digalakan untuk memberikan sumbangan ikhlas untuk dana wipv yang mana bahagian sumbangan anda tadi akan digunakan disedekahkan sempena Ramadhan yang mulia

Kami akan membincangkan:

• Pengenalan kepada pelaburan hartanah
• Kenapa pelaburan hartanah?
• Apakah strategi dalam pelaburan hartanah?
• Bagaimana hendak mengetahui adanya permintaan?
• Contoh – contoh real life case study
• Memberi taklimat berkenaan projek Wealth in Property Venture
• Menerangkan prosedur – prosedur serta dokumen – dokumen yang diguna pakai serta mengikat peserta – peserta dalam projek ini
• Pembahagian peserta – peserta kepada kumpulan dan pemilihan mentor

Third Preview on Wealth in Property Venture

Preview, talk atau seminar tentang Wealth in Property Venture akan diadakan pada 15 Julai 2012. Bertempat di Bilik Seminar Property Investment, No 12-1, Jalan Putra Kajang 3, Taman Putra Kajang, 43000 Kajang, Selangor.

Preview on Wealth in Property Venture Bayaran sebanyak RM50 akan dikenakan untuk setiap peserta. Diskaun sebanyak 30% kepada peserta yang membuat bayaran online. Kami akan membincangkan:

• Pengenalan kepada pelaburan hartanah
• Kenapa pelaburan hartanah?
• Apakah strategi dalam pelaburan hartanah?
• Bagaimana hendak mengetahui adanya permintaan?
• Contoh – contoh real life case study
• Memberi taklimat berkenaan projek Wealth in Property Venture
• Menerangkan prosedur – prosedur serta dokumen – dokumen yang diguna pakai serta mengikat peserta – peserta dalam projek ini
• Pembahagian peserta – peserta kepada kumpulan dan pemilihan mentor

Selling your home yourself

Nowadays, a lot of people are doing business in the real estate area. One of the businesses is buying and selling house. The Real estate agent who will take charge of his or her services for about 2-6% home often takes this buying and selling home activity. People usually sell the home with the help of real estate agent because they want their home to be sold fast. Maybe you will think that you want to sell your home by yourself in order to save more money into your account because the money will not be cut down to the third party such as real estate agent.
Selling your home by yourself is not a difficult task to do if you know how to sell your house by yourself with a good strategy and know the steps to sell your house immediately. But, selling your home yourself demand lots of your time. Why is that? Because you have to do more survey on price and more work to “clean up” your house before the selling process.
Selling your home yourself is as easy as 1,2,3 and you will see that you can also sell your home yourself. Before you start to sell, you have to set your mind that you can sell your home by yourself.
If you already set your mind, the next steps can be lot more easily. First thing that you have to do is “clean up” your house and make your house looks spacious. Every buyer always searches for a clean, neat, tidy, and spacious home. You have to make your home look great and attractive. You can start by identify your home defects and make some extra work to do to your home such as cut the grass, remove all clutter, scoring your home from top to bottom, makes some little improvement even if that seem unimportant to you such as planting flowers, fixing broken tiles, trimming tree, and make sure that your home smells good, and other repairments and improvements here and there.
After you “prepare” your home, you should also set a reasonable price in selling your home. You do not want to set the price too little or over estimate that will reduce your potential buyers. You can find information about the price of the home, that similar to your home, in newspapers, advertisements, or you could ask some professionals advices to price your home.
The last step to do is to market your home. Selling your home by yourself can be an interesting work to do but can also make you frustrated if your home is not sold for the time that you have predicted. If your marketing strategy is good, you will have your home sold only by weeks. You can start by making a good advertisement on your house appearance and add your ads into a newspaper or magazine that has a particular field in buying or selling house.
You can also make an open house. Open house is an attractive ways to attract buyers. And do not forget to make flyers of your house so that the buyers can bring your home brochure with them.

Selling Home

When you think about selling home maybe you think about to settle all your furniture and anything else in your home. Well it’s quite right but selling home means also to remove all the clutters, to repair all the damages in the house, to decide what price of your home, and to make the advertisement in the newspaper or magazine.
Selling home needs long preparation and you should do it long time before you want to sell it. You should throw away your emotion with your home and think about it as a marketable commodity. When you selling home the others who want to buy it should think it as their potential new home not yours old home.
Next what you should do in selling home is throw away all the clutters in your home. Maybe you’re emotionally attached with some of these clutters and I remind you once more you should throw away your emotion. Think about all clutters in the closets, garage, attic, and basement. You don’t want the buyer come and see some of the clutters in those places.
And then you need to repair all the damages when you do selling home. But let me tell you, repair the damages for selling home doesn’t mean you do anything expensive such as remodeling your house. You need to save your money to buy your new home or to obtain new loan. Checking the light, water, closet and toilet is a good point to do for selling home. Do check the floor, wall, ceil, windows and doors when selling home.
Maybe the difficult thing to do in selling home is to decide the price of your home. Don’t set your selling price too high when selling home ‘cause you might get difficulty to get buyer. And if you drop your price later it might be too late. Selling home about six month is a long time and if there’s no one who buy your home in this period of time the other buyer may think that you will be desperate and they’ll make a lower offer. So selling home need a wise thinking and deep consideration to set the price of your home.
Next thing is to make advertisement about your selling home in the newspaper or magazine. You should make an attractive but not exaggerating ‘cause people might think it doesn’t not make sense if you make advertisement like that. And after you advertise your home and there’s someone who wants to buy your home you should show your home to them. Try not to be home when they come to see your home, take the kids to the nearest park and try to control your pets. Keep the house tidy and throw away the kitchen trash. And in the end your home may be sold with the price like you wanted.

Selling a new home

Selling a new home sounds easier than selling an old home that need repairs here and there. But even a new home that we are selling, it still needs preparation to sell it. We cannot just put a “For Sale: new home” sign in front of the house and expect the people will come to you and sign the deal. Selling a new home is still the same as selling your own home but the difference is that it does not need lot of preparation as usual.
Since you do not have to spend much time in repairing or improving the house, you can catch up by making a marketing plan to sell the new home. The marketing plan is made to sell a home in a rapid time at the best price. The plan can be advertising in the newspaper, posting your listing on the Internet, holding an open house and more.
Just to remind you that there is two important thins to remember in selling home including a new home, they are price and condition. Any home will sell right faster if the price is right and reasonable. Any repairs and improvements or cost to sell should be included in your asking price but it has to be reasonable.
It is also helpful to discuss other terms and conditions, such as timing and items that can be included with the sale of the home. Both of these can make your home more attractive to potential buyers. Any realtor will tell you that the spring and summer are the best times of the year to sell a home, because that is the time when buyers are having a great interest in buying home. Selling a house depends on supply, demand and other economic factors. But the time of year in which you choose to sell can make a difference both in the amount of time it takes to sell your home and in the ultimate selling price. According to the most recent data from the National Association of Realtors, or NAR, about 350,000 transactions were closed during January and February this year, compared with 650,000 to 700,000 a month in June, July and August.
You also should hold open house to sell a new home which is one of the ways to promote your house to the your neighbors. This can be one of free advertisement in selling the home just in case if there is our neighbors’ friends or family who accidentally want to buy a home. Create an information sheet (with a photo) about your home to give potential buyers a description about your home.
Selling a new home is not as difficult as you think. Yet, it also does not as easy as it seems. What you need to have in selling a new home is a spirit to sell and link to sell your home and also a hard work.

Selling a home privately

When you chose to sell your home privately (without the help of a real estate agent), most likely it’s because you wanted to save some money. A research shows that selling a home privately can save as much as $9000 during the home selling process. Don’t let this fact sway you, though. A qualified real estate agent costs a lot because they have experience in the market and is more likely to give you a more secure price of your home. An agent also wins in network; being able to reach people who’s looking for a house, or can help selling one.
Selling a home privately will also affect the marketing process. If you sell your home without the help of an agent, it’s not likely that you’ll have access to Multiple Listing Services – a database full of house listings given out to homebuyers. You might need to get the buyers in some other way, like holding an open house or putting an advertisement on local newspaper.
Furthermore, when a buyer sees that you are selling your home privately, they will offer a lower price, because they knew you’re already saving money from not hiring an agent.
On the other hand, it is understandable that some people can not trust other people to sell their home. Selling your home privately means being in total control of the transaction. You know that you will always be available for questions or home showings. Whenever you made a mistake, it’s yours and only yours to blame (trust me, a mistake that costs you nothing would still feel better than an expensive one).
When you’re sure that selling your home privately is the way to go, there are some extra preparations you need to do. Take extra measures in preparing your house. Remember that you’ll be competing with professional agents and their clients’ houses – make sure you have a chance to stand out! Find websites that provides a “selling by owner” kit. Get as maximum exposure as possible
You also need to get educated in legal requirements and contract making. This will take some time, so get help from an attorney and start researching way behind your selling date.
Selling a home privately is a tricky business. Some say that you’re able to sell your own house if you have three free hours every day of the week. With a little bit of work, you’ll manage to put that much-needed money to better use.

Selling a home on-line

As we can see now, lot of humans’ activities are supported with technology. We can feel those technologies by ourselves such as the personal computer that helps us to finish our task or assignment fast, cellular phone helps us to keep in touch with our family and friends regardless of our location, and the internet helps us to keep up with the global changes in the world.
At the moment, we can sell a home online through the internet. Internet provides you with lot of information about the buying and selling home. You can get the infos and you can also put an advertisement (ads) online on the internet to get the best and fastest solution in selling your home.
Nowadays, about seventy percent of homebuyer starts to search for houses online through the internet. This is absolutely one advantage for sellers to add an advertisement online because it usually has a fast reply from buyer since you add your ads online on the internet to sell your home.
You should know first how to make a good advertisement online. In your ads you have to put your home pictures and those should be a great one. Majority of buyer who search for home online they click on the ads that attached with the home’s pictures. Buyers get the first impression from the pictures of your home on the ads and as the people say that there is no second chance for first impression. Before you take pictures of your home, please make sure that there will be no clutters or flaws and there only be clean, tidy, spacious rooms inside an outside of your home.
You should also make your advertising copy should be thorough yet short, simple and to-the-point. Since the home buyers scan ads quickly so you have to make an attractive headline that will grab your buyers such as Show your Class!; Fit to your pocket; Lovely and elegant!; BIG HOME, Little Budget, etc. you also have to include phrases, give information about the location or anything that make your home more special compare to other houses in the body of your advertisements to describe features of your home that will attract buyers.
Make a flyer about your home and its features. Why? Because potential buyer never leaves without keeping a flyer that describe your home’s best points and your asking price, phone number, and the web address of your Internet ads if you have one.
If you have done all of them that means you are now prepared to sell a home online through the internet. It is so simple isn’t it?

Quick sell tips

Often wonder why some houses can have a number of showings after its first week on the market, and similar ones seems to be left with no attention? A quick sell of a house is common enough to be expected by home sellers, but rare enough to remain a phenomenon in the market. It’s really a question of readiness – the houses being sold quickly are more well prepared to accept a new resident. Surely price and location is the major reason a house can appeal to home buyers, but there’s also more than meets the buyer’s eye. Here are some quick sell tips to make sure your house reaches that contract as soon as possible.
(a) Get a top-quality, state-of-the-art real estate agent. Sounds obvious, but the better qualified your agent is, the more experienced they are and the more guarantee that your house can be a quick sell
(b) Play the role of a buyer. Observe your house in the eye of a potential customer. Is there anything you see that makes you think “This is good, but it looks like they’re still working on that...”? Ask your friends or neighbours to do the same if necessary.
(c) There’s one sure-fire tip to get your house quickly noticed, and that’s putting out the heaviest advertising campaign you can manage. So many houses are being sold daily, how do you make sure the buyers would even see your home? Quick selling houses are results of excellent marketing skills.
(d) Offer incentives. When it’s time to take any means necessary, start negotiating extra perks to your buyers to lure them even more. A closing-cost help, for example, would motivate the buyers to speed up the decision to buying your house.
(e) When all else fails, and you’re starting to get really desperate, you might want to try renting your house. Afraid of never getting it off your back? Discuss with the renters that your initial need is to sell the house. A rented house with an option to buy is also a good idea
Some would tell you that quick sells are by means of luck. Though this is inevitably true, waiting for luck will do nothing to speed up the process. Preparation, preparation, and preparation are the three things you most need to ensure a quick sell.
home selling contract
When it’s time to finally seal the deal on your home selling, it’s time to take out the contract. Since it’s the document that will supposedly ends the process, it’s very important for home owners to understand the components of a real estate contract (even more if you’re selling the house on your own). Remember that even the contents in a contract is negotiable, so getting to know home selling contracts would put you in a better position for further discussion. You would also have less risk of being scammed by random contracts offered.
Although not all home selling contracts follow the same standard, most of them should answer the following questions:
· What’s being sold? A description of the property on hand
· How much is it?
· How is the contingency of mortgage? An amount or a mortgage rate is needed.
· How much will the deposit be and whom will it be given to?
· When and where is the closing?
· What is the exact scope of the selling? A home selling contract, in its essence, should give a firm limit of what’s being sold and what’s not.
· Will the seller be able to do further home inspections?
· What kind of inspections (wellness, hygiene, termite inspection) will be done?
· Is there any insurance covering the house?
Once again, remember that familiarizing yourself with these points will prove useful for those suspicious clauses. Pay extra attention to the contingencies, as this is usually the most essential part of a home selling contract. The home buyers would want to make sure that if something occurs in the house before closing, they would have a way to back out without penalty. Make sure that you as the seller is equally unharmed by this.
The tough job is, even after you understand the main elements of a home selling contracts, you might experience difficulty in designing one for your transaction. Once again, it’s good to let your agent deal on these things, but if you’re selling your home on your own, do some research. Some websites could give you a format of a contract that you could use for self-selling that will not lead to detrimental effects. It’s very important to hire an attorney to help you get through the legal terms in contracts, especially when you chose not to hire a real estate agent.

Mobile home selling

A mobile home selling takes just as much work as any home selling. But you’ll be happy to know that the price of mobile home has increased in the last year. A mobile home with two bedrooms can be worth as much as $2.7 million! It’s an especially staggering number because even in that price, the home buyers don’t own the land of the home. Because of this, buyers still need to pay rent to the land owner, and faces little possibility in getting a mortgage. But fear not, mobile home owners – people chose to pay the price should have a picture of what they’re paying.
Mobile home selling is actually not that different from any other home selling. There are some legal requirements you have to finish, though. The seller must be sure that all property taxes have been paid. You must also transfer the title to the new owner, applying a document stating that all personal property taxes have been paid. Most importantly, don’t forget to report to authorizing offices that you have transferred the title, otherwise the office will still charge the tax to you. Some areas would also require anyone engaged in the business of selling mobile homes to obtain a mobile home retailer's license.
Marketing a mobile home is the one that’s relatively similar to others. You can get the help of a realtor to make it even easier. Talk to your agent and put out advertisements – it’s always an essential process in mobile home selling. Expect people to call and come over to observe your house. During home showings, you might want to explain the ownership status of your mobile home (do you own the land? Whom should you pay the rent to?). The age of a mobile house is more important than other houses, so expect a lot of questions about this.
When you’ve accepted an offer by a buyer, take time in considering the price offered. Selling a home usually means buying another shortly after – whether you’re willing to invest in another mobile home or move to other types of homes, think about the overall cost and how it will be covered.
Mobile home selling requires a little bit of extra work in legal needs. But with the high price, this should not stop the sellers. There will always be people with different needs, one of which is for a mobile home, and the mobile home market will never run out of potential buyers. Remember that you can always hire a mobile home selling agent to help you get through the process!

Is it a Good Idea to Sell Your Home Yourself?

Are you thinking about selling your home? Have you been thinking of selling it by yourself instead of hiring a real estate agent? There are several advantages of selling your home yourself, but there are disadvantages as well. To make it easier for you to make a decision find the most important pros and cons below.
The most important PRO for selling your home yourself is MONEY. Selling your home without the help of an agent means more Money in your pocket!
By selling it yourself you save the commissions and fees. - We are not talking about pennys, we are talking about THOUSANDS of dollars which you would have to pay an agent.
Another advantage is that you are able to decide the times for open houses and showings. It is also completely up to you where and when you want to advertise.
Unlike a real estate agent who is selling many houses, you can focus on YOUR house, because you are only selling your own house. It is obvious that you will have more interest in the sale than an agent..
But as mentioned above there are also disadvantages selling your house yourself. Real estate agents are paid a lot of money for a reason. Selling a home takes a lot of energy and time. Dealing with potential buyers, open houses, closing sales and of course dealing with legal issues. Real estate agents are familiar with all the above and their experience can impact the sale.
Be realistic when making a decision! Will you drop everything to make a showing? Do you think you are indeed a good negotatior and ask for an offer? Are you 100% sure you are able to close a deal? Selling a home is a big project! It is not everyone who can take on such a big project and can stay calm and professional when dealing with buyers.
Selling your home is not impossible, but it is a challenge. If this challenge excites you and if you are willing to learn then it is not impossible managing selling your home without the help of an agent. With some know-how and a lot of energy you can sell your house without the help of a real estate agent and save thousands.
So how to start? Sit down and start evaluating your house. Finding the right price is the first and most important step when selling your home yourself.

Home selling tips

Home selling tips are everywhere – some suggesting things you might never thought of, some are general ones you’re likely to find everywhere. But just because they’re common doesn’t mean we should stop making them. Here are some home selling tips of our own:
· When putting out your advertisement, never use the words "asking" or "negotiable" with your selling price. This will only make it seem like you’re not sure of the value of your home. Why bother setting the price in the first place if further negotiation is likely to change it anyways?
· When preparing your house, try to look at it from the buyer’s point of view. Would you want to buy a house like your own?
· Unless you’re sure you’re up to the challenge, hire a good agent and attorney to do the home selling for you. It may cost more, but it can save you a lot of pain.
· Make sure you have a full Multiple Listing Service coverage – this is a powerful tip to remember. Multiple Listing Service is the strongest selling tool for your home. Some people would not even advise you to check for any offers before you see you home on MLS!
· Home showings through an open house is a good idea, especially if you live in a small town.
· Getting your clutter out of the way will not only improve the home showings, but also makes it easier for you to pack your things
· Finish off whatever new constructions you’re applying with your house. No buyers would want to finish what the seller left off!
· When negotiating with the buyer, throw your bad mood away. It’s hard to discuss price when you’re still upset about the buyer’s plans to cut down the tree you love. Maintain an interactive discussion and build up trust. Even if the offer doesn’t work out, keep up a good impression.
· Don’t let buyers’ offers sway you – consult with your attorney about the price offered. Usually there’s a period of three days for you to accept or reject an offer. Also be prepared for home inspections, as usually this happens during this stage of the home selling process.
Like I said in the beginning of the article: home selling tips are endless, when you start looking for them. Choose only the tips that would best suit your needs and capacity. And if you still haven’t found one, chances are you’ll find it soon.

Home selling process

So many tips are being given on home selling. If only you knew where to begin with! Some homeowners get confused because they don’t have a big picture of what exactly will happen during the home selling process. While it may differ from various areas, some general steps sellers should expect are the same.
The first thing to do is some preliminary planning. Though you may not feel like it, this is the step that kick-start the whole home selling process. Your house needs to be fully prepared to accept a new owner. If you plan to sell your house and buy another one, always know for a fact that you’re qualified to buy a new one before selling your old home.
When you feel like you and your house is ready, it’s time to find yourself a realtor. Interview agents in your local neighborhood or ones that are proven with a good experience. Ask on how they would market your property, and what kinds of additional commissions do they offer. This is someone that’s going to be with you throughout the process, so make sure the chemistry works.
When you’ve made your decision about an agent, prepare the listing agreement. There are several types available, each ones giving you a different level of involvement between you and the broker. Choose one that’s similar to the amount of work you’re willing to contribute in the home selling process – and how much money you’re going to spend.
The money of your listing agreement should come from the revenue of your home price, so make sure you set the price ideally. A too high or too low price will not help sell your home, as this may creates a bad image to potential buyers. Check some cost analysis to get a rough value of your property, and work from there. Don’t forget the costs you have to spend throughout the home selling process.
If you set the price right, it’s highly possible that potential buyers would start calling for home showings. Prepare for this as well as you prepare your house for it. If you’re using an agent, leave the house whenever a client comes over. If you’re selling on your own, check the points you’re going to show the potential buyers and think about what you’re going to say.
Finally, if the home showings went well, the buyers will make an offer. Offers should be made in standard forms that would satisfy a lawyer. Make sure you know what the buyer wants to include in the sale and what should be excluded. You can choose to accept or reject the offer, or modify it and see if the buyer is willing to negotiate with your incentives.
Once you’ve reached an agreement, that pretty much brings you to the end of the your home selling process. Good luck!

Home Selling Prices

So you’ve decided to do some home selling. Congratulations, this is an exciting business you’re getting yourself into. Whether it’s selling your parents’ house, your aunts’, your close friend’s, or even your own home, there are some things to consider before you can start marketing the house. One of which is how to set the price.
It’s really important to take time before you finalize your home selling prices. If the price is too high, the home will stay in the market for too long, waiting for someone who can afford it. Even if you chose to reduce the price later, it would show the potential buyers that even the seller realize that the home selling price was too high (and probably still is). But if the price is too low, this would easily sell but eventually brings damages to the sellers’ net expectation!
If you’re selling your own home, the chances are you’re going to want to set the price as high as possible. This might seem like an obviously silly thing to do, but it happens to a lot of people who either cherish their house too much, or are simply not aware of the real value.
The first case is a lot easier to handle. Remember that apart from the location, your home selling price is a major consideration in purchasing. So no matter how much you love your house, try to set a realistic price. Some things that might decrease (or increase) your home selling price are as follows:
a. Location. Sorry, this one’s a definite. A home in a more desirable area will cost more than less desirable ones.
b. House condition. A good maintenance shows that this home is worth being looked after.
c. Surroundings. Check out schools around the house and their quality. See how the weather would take effect. Watch those pesky neighbors. These things, though seemingly miscellaneous, applies to buyers and can affect the overall home selling price.
d. Extra features. Does the house own something the market is demanding? Does your home have a pool or a beautiful patio? Don’t hesitate in taking them into account of setting the price. Be realistic, though – a dusty, never-used fireplace, no matter how classy, will do nothing to your home value.
The second case – where you’re not sure of your house’s value – is a bit more difficult. You might want to read some home selling advertisements to see the price of the houses similar to the one you’re selling.
To help you finish off with an ideal home selling price, some standardized methods of price setting have been established. A Comparable Market Analysis (CMA) is “a comparison of similar properties in the same general area that compares actual sold prices”, in other words, comparing your house to similar ones to get a rough value. Nowadays Real Estate Agents can do CMA for you, and you can even do it yourself by the help of some websites.

Home Selling Prices

So you’ve decided to do some home selling. Congratulations, this is an exciting business you’re getting yourself into. Whether it’s selling your parents’ house, your aunts’, your close friend’s, or even your own home, there are some things to consider before you can start marketing the house. One of which is how to set the price.
It’s really important to take time before you finalize your home selling prices. If the price is too high, the home will stay in the market for too long, waiting for someone who can afford it. Even if you chose to reduce the price later, it would show the potential buyers that even the seller realize that the home selling price was too high (and probably still is). But if the price is too low, this would easily sell but eventually brings damages to the sellers’ net expectation!
If you’re selling your own home, the chances are you’re going to want to set the price as high as possible. This might seem like an obviously silly thing to do, but it happens to a lot of people who either cherish their house too much, or are simply not aware of the real value.
The first case is a lot easier to handle. Remember that apart from the location, your home selling price is a major consideration in purchasing. So no matter how much you love your house, try to set a realistic price. Some things that might decrease (or increase) your home selling price are as follows:
a. Location. Sorry, this one’s a definite. A home in a more desirable area will cost more than less desirable ones.
b. House condition. A good maintenance shows that this home is worth being looked after.
c. Surroundings. Check out schools around the house and their quality. See how the weather would take effect. Watch those pesky neighbors. These things, though seemingly miscellaneous, applies to buyers and can affect the overall home selling price.
d. Extra features. Does the house own something the market is demanding? Does your home have a pool or a beautiful patio? Don’t hesitate in taking them into account of setting the price. Be realistic, though – a dusty, never-used fireplace, no matter how classy, will do nothing to your home value.
The second case – where you’re not sure of your house’s value – is a bit more difficult. You might want to read some home selling advertisements to see the price of the houses similar to the one you’re selling.
To help you finish off with an ideal home selling price, some standardized methods of price setting have been established. A Comparable Market Analysis (CMA) is “a comparison of similar properties in the same general area that compares actual sold prices”, in other words, comparing your house to similar ones to get a rough value. Nowadays Real Estate Agents can do CMA for you, and you can even do it yourself by the help of some websites.

Home Selling Guide

Selling home right now can be done by anyone. Support with much information that can be found through the Internet, one person can sell his or her home either by a real estate agents or selling the home by himself or herself. The high technology that you can find anywhere can be a tool for you to sell your home fast and at a reasonable price, etc.
But, whether you want to buy with agents or by yourself, you need some guides in selling home. There are steps in selling your home. Those guides really help you. Never under estimate them because they have lots of impact in your selling home performance.
These are some quick guidance to sell your home:
1. Preparation; show the very best condition of your home
Here is the first step to sell your home. Make a best first impression to your buyers so that they are attracted to buy your home. Get rid of dirt and rubbish, remove all clutter, repairs all flaws of your home, get rid of unused furniture to make it looks spacious
2. Pricing your home effectively
A home that is priced right and reasonable will sell in a short time. You can use a third party service to give suggestion about your home’s value and the furniture in it. Don’t price too low that it will cost you more money, yet never also set high price that the you will loose your potential buyers
3. When To Sell
You also have to know the right time to sell your home. You surely want to sell your home in a good economic condition and strong demand for houses, which tend to be stronger in June and July. If you sell your home at the right time and a good preparation, you will get the highest price of your home than your prediction
4. A Bit About The Costs Involved
You should also involved any costs that you have spent in selling your home, whether it is attorney costs, closing costs, advertisements costs, etc
5. Selling Privately
Selling home by yourself is not as easy as it seems but it is worthy to do because you can save about 2-6% of your selling price. Selling home privately is sure going to take much time and efforts for you to sell it.
6. Selling At Auction
Selling at an auction can also be an option. But it is not a suggested option because it will cost you more money and also it is a volatile way in selling your home
7. Get a real estate lawyer
You can make the flow of documents so easy and having a professional advice by getting a real estate lawyer in your selling process
8. Marketing your home
There are many ways to market your home:
· Writing your sell ad
· Home Photos: a picture can describe a thousand word
· Lawn signs
· Open houses
· Home Brochures/Information sheets
· The MLS (Multiple Listing Service) provided by the agents
· You are your home's best salesman

9. Negotiating an offer on your home
10. Home inspections
11. Closing

These guides will help you to sell your home. Never hesitate to ask for professional advices if you meet some problems while you are in the middle of selling process.
Good luck and have a nice day.

Home Selling Checklist

It’s not an easy job to selling a house. It’s a process. You just don’t publish your house, meet a buyer, negotiate and sell it, but there is a checklist to sell your house. The home selling checklists include some procedures you must do in the correlation of home selling.

This is the checklist you must pay more attentions to sell your house:
- Decide whether you pay an agent to sell your house or you just do it by yourself. Pay a realty agent gives you a little effort for you to sell your house. An agent will carry out all of business in correlation of your home selling checklist. You just hire an agent and pay him. But it will spend costs of course. So, it’s up to you to pay a little effort or bigger one.
- Be a communicative and informed seller. It is correlated with your promotion strategic. You can use media to promote your home, such as newspaper, pamphlet, DVD, or websites. Don’t forget to put the reasonable and proper price for your house.
- Get your house ready to sell by doing some preparations for your house exterior, interior, and appliances.
- Decide whether you pay a professional to do pre-listing house inspection or not.
- Doing some sales of your unnecessary furniture and appliances.
- Get familiar with financing terms, such as mortgage financing (fixed, adjustable, seller financing, assumable loans), pre-qualified, pre-approved, commitment
- Get familiar with negotiation and it stuffs, such as contract, offer, deal, etc. You should learn to do some offer approaching and all correlated with a legal transaction process.
- Know about what you can improve or not in your house, what you can improve such as interior, exterior and what you can not improve such as location, style, etc.
- Decide whether you will put a home warranty to your house or not.
- Find some tips to buy a new house while you have sold your old one.
- Decide for closing and settlement to a buyer.
- Making moving plans.

The home selling checklist above shows us that there are some involvements to sell a house. You should pay attention to home selling checklist and do the steps rightly. But if you decide to pay a realty agent to organize your home selling business, just let them carry out the points above. And your involvements in home selling will be decreased.

Home Selling Advice

What do buyers need when they plan to buy a home? In fact, there are so many aspects one needs to consider. In the seller's point of view, you should follow some home selling advice. Here are some advices for your success of selling home:

First, your should be an informative seller. You could put the "Home for Sale" in your front yard. Don't forget to put your phone number on it, so a buyer can get contact you..
Second, your should put a reasonable price, valued by the physical price of your home, environment and location. The better location where your home is placed, the better price you can put. And the better physical condition of your home, better price should be granted. Don't forget that a buyer needs an achievable price. So the process of the negotoation will determine it.

Third, correlated on physical condition of your home, your home curb appeal is the most important thing. You can do some works to improve appealing of your home exterior. Just to make it beautiful, tidy, and fresh. The color of your home is necceesary to be considered.

Fourth, get your buyer in the right mood by creating a cozy environment in your home. What do I mean by "cozy environment"? Very important is fresh air, clean environment, fresh odor, and the most important is a homelike sitation. Just make a buyer feel like in his own home sweet home.

Fifth, When you get down on the negotiation, your should learn how to make a great offer. The point is, you should be a great win-win negotiator. On the Internet there are many articles about how to be a great communicator and negotiator. Just follow the rules and tips.

Sixth, good presentation of your home selling can add great value to attract a buyer. Know your entire home and its contents, and present it to your buyer. Tell them how sweet your home is, how much you love it, your experience in your home, the great moments you have passed by etc. Just be a familiar and friendly seller that can give much impression to your buyer.

Help selling home

Someone you know is selling a home? Had successful experience in doing so before? For someone who’s never done it, home selling can be frustrating. If you think you can help selling a home, it usually means you've had enough satisfaction doing it before, and is willing to do it again. Good for you (and for the confused home-owners).
So how can you help sell a house? Most home owners will stumble even on the preparation phase – when they have to understand all the legal requirements. You might have known from your experience that getting the legal stuff straight is the first step of a home selling process, so an assistance on this would always be appreciated. You can help the owners understand difficult clauses in documents, or design the wordings in their contract forms.
Not keen on paperwork? Help advertising. See if you know anyone who’s looking for a house. If you have some potential buyers, think about who would fit better to the house. The good thing about having a “personal home salesman” is that it knows more than just facts about the house. Think about the neighbourhood, the size of the house, and the climate, and find someone who might be interested in the qualifications. Or if you work in a newspaper or magazine, you can help by posting up the advertisement.
Of course, the concept “helping to sell a home” also applies when you’re selling your own house with the help of an agent. If you want to improve the home selling process, there are some independent steps you can do. Spread out the news that you’re selling your home in the neighbourhood. Organize open houses to invite visitors. Provide your agent with complete information about your house. Put up extra advertisements where your agent may not cover; a blog or personal website is excellent for this. Some people are reluctant to help their agents selling their home on the reason of “that’s what they’re paid for!”. Remember that agents have a lot more clients to handle and may not always focus their attention on your house. The home owner is the only one who’s willing to voluntarily give out complete information to potential buyers at no cost! Also keep in mind that no matter how great an agent you have, if your house has been in the market for a long time, you are going to be the person most financially damaged.
Whether it’s helping sell someone’s house, or an agent selling your own home, an assistance in home selling is always needed. Homes are such large investments – one simply can not sell it alone.

Getting Your House Ready to Sell

How can a buyer get interest for purchasing your house? Impression is the keyword. You just need to get your house ready to sell by doing some preparation. Get inspected by a professional if you want to pay a little effort for maximum results, or if you don’t want to spend much money by paying professional you can do by yourself for getting your house ready to sell.

Now that become a question, how to get your house impressed a buyer? Those are the steps for getting your house ready to sell to a buyer.

Beautify your exterior
What you do is just beautifying. The goal is to make your exterior look pretty and fresh to impress your buyer. Just to inform you that the exterior becomes the first impression to overlook a house. There are two sensory organs of a buyer you must impress. Those are eyes and nose. By bringing the garden homelike condition to your house exterior, making it looked pretty and freshening it up. The steps you can do are:
- Get the grass, trees, flowers, and plants tidy and fresh by mowing and watering it
- Clean up the curb and entering path and put the potted flower in the sides.
- Freshen up the smells by put scented potpourri.
- Clean up all of windows and entering doors.
- Get rid of equipments out of sights.
- Paint the walls if necessary.

Make the Cosy Interior
After buyer got impression from your house exterior, do some simple works to get the cosiness of your house interior. It aims to make a buyer feel homelike buy entering your house. These are the steps:
- Clean up the tile floors; scrub it if there are some bad spots.
- Get rid of spider net from your ceilings.
- Wash the carpets with a fragrant soap.
- Get your furniture placed tidily and gets rid of unnecessary one.
- Brush the closets
- Clean the garage, basement, and attic
- Get the windows opened and clean, it will bring freshness to your house inside
- If you have pets, bath them.
- Put some fresh fragrance in air conditioner.

Repairing and Replacing
Some Repairing and replacement is necessary to do, if there are some broken furniture, equipment, or appliances. Just check out:
- broken or missing door
- cabinet handles
- ceilings
- ventilation filters
- broken tiles in bathroom and kitchen
- faucet
- wallpaper
- some furniture

Get your friends’ opinion
Assume some friends like a buyer, and get some advice and suggestion to make your house get more ready to sell. And the most important thing is your friends feel your home like their own home.

Marketing Your House to Homebuyers

When you want to sell your house, it’s essential that you pay special attention on marketing your house to homebuyers. After all, marketing is the way to get people noticing that you’re trying to sell a house!
But for agents, it’s an entirely different deal. On each call generated by a marketing of your house, there is an opportunity for the selling agent to take them as clients. The more calls your house generates, the bigger possibility of the buyer’s agent to get clients.
Although the reason is different, marketing your house to homebuyers will always be a big deal for all aspects of the sellers’ side. You might want to confirm that the agent handling your house advertisement runs ads in magazines and local newspapers for that matter. Prepare the advertisements with well consideration. Pick out a good picture of your house. List the features homebuyers would look for. Also check that your advertisements go to the local Multiple Listing Service, as this is considered the most powerful marketing tool you can find.
If you feel like the agents are not doing a good enough job, put some efforts in marketing your house yourself. Create fliers and postcards announcing your home selling and spread it in the neighborhood. Your neighbors may not want to buy your house, but there’s a chance they know of a homebuyer. And because they already know the environment, they’ll make perfect salesmen for your house! “Word of mouth”, as always, is the most effective step you can take at the cheapest price.
Following the announcements, you might want to set up an open house that doubles as home showings. The bad thing about this is that most visitors of an open house are rarely homebuyers – some of them just followed the “Open House” sign and went in for no reason. But it’s still a good extent for your “word of mouth” campaign. It might even create interests from local real estate agents to list your house. But try not to organize an open house as an alternative when your house has been in the market for some time. Most of your neighbors would already know that you’re marketing your house to homebuyers and the open house would attract even less visitors.
Whether it’s with an agent or by yourself, you would always want to be involved in marketing your house to homebuyers. In home selling you will be competing with thousands of other houses, and who’s better to flaunt the features to homebuyers than the one who’s been living in it?

Becoming A Real-Estate Agent

Career Change? Becoming A Real-Estate Agent

Thinking of being a real-estate agent, but do not know where to start? First, you would have to determine if this kind of career is the right one for you. Most people usually think that to be a successful real-estate agent, you just need to be good in convincing people to buy properties and houses. Good communication and persuasion skills are, of course, plus points,but that is not all. You also need to be familiar with the industry.

Real estate agents ensure that the buyers would be able to find their dream homes, while sellers get their property’s worth. It would take skill and mastery before you could become successful in this career, just like in any kind of occupation. You would need proper training and education. There are different institutions that offer courses for those who would like to enter the real-estate industry. Usually, states would require an aspiring real-estate agent or salesperson to spend about 30 to 90 hours classroom education.

The Professional Licensing Commission in your state would have lists of reputable educational institutions where you could take your courses. You could also ask the Real Estate Association for recommended institutions. A high school diploma is a requirement and at least be 18 to 21 years old.

Before becoming a true real-estate agent, states would require a license to operate. You would need to pass a licensure examination. Agents are required to renew their license every two years but it still depends on the state. You would also need to attend seminars even if you are already licensed. The real-estate industry is continually evolving or changing. A real-estate agent should always be aware of changes in laws and regulations in the state where they are located.

But taking up real-estate courses are not the only thing that would prepare you for the industry. It is recommended that you work with a mentor broker for about 2 to 5 years to get experience. It is like apprenticeship. After that period of time, you could start thinking about setting up an individual practice.

Technical requirements like coursework and license will equip you, but it is your attitude that will help you become successful in your field. As a real-estate salesperson, you need to be sociable or a people person. You would be working with different kinds of people, not only the buyers and the sellers. A real-estate agent will also work with lending officers, lawyers, mortgage brokers, insurance company representatives and even land-use officials.

A real-estate agent is on call for 24 hours. Clients would often call an agent during the time when they are available, asking for updates or advice. Flexibility is another attribute you would need to develop. Clientele could be a problem for beginning agents. You would need patience since it would take time before you have your own client list.

Another concern for real estate agents is the income. Most experts would recommend that those who are only starting to learn the industry should have an alternative source of income. But if you are selling multi-million worth of houses everyday, then you would not have any problem with income at all. But success would surely come if you would work hard and learn from every step you take in the industry.

The Best Selling Home Plan

At this very moment, home is not just a place to live or a shelter from a harsh weather. Home also reflects the personality of the people living there. Nevertheless, home is now become an investment that a person can have. Lots of people invest their money in the form of their own home. And they invest a huge amount of money in it.
Before we come to how to sell you home plan, let we talk about the home plan itself. Home plan is what people need to build their home. Home plan can seem as a complicated thing because you have to consider a lot of factors and try to sort them one-by-one and listing which things that need to be put into your home plan. You have a lot of things that you want them to be as a part of your home plan. However, you have to be very careful in selecting the right composition of your home plan to be a very lovely home.
You can also try to list the pluses or minuses of your old home and you can also ask some friends’ suggestion to make a perfect and beautiful home plan. Make a home plan that is attracted to the home-buyers. Put something different that you think has never been made into your home plan such as an energy-wise design. You also have to consider the size of the house, are it going to be a one story or two story home, how many rooms are there, how many bathrooms, etc. After that, you can start to calculate the estimate price of your home, but this can be done later.
Besides that, you also have to consider the home’s location that you plan to build your home. Create a home that "fits in" with its surrounding environment. Never make a home plan that does not suitable for the surroundings environment; it would make the home-buyers hesitate to buy your home plan.
Nowadays, it can be easier to make a home plan because there is lots of tools that making a home plan as an easy task. On the Internet, we can also find lots of interesting home plans and get some ideas from there and know which kind of house that most people want to have as their home plan. You can also put your home plans there. This is the easiest and the fastest way to sell your home plan.
As we see now, some people invest their money to their home. Another people will give away much money just to have the right home plan that suits him or her desire. Now it is your turn to be a home planners and make the very best purchase from your home plans.

Real estate management

Real estate management firms – making life easier
Real estate investment can happen for various reasons. You could invest in real estate because you need a house for yourself (that house of your dreams that you so badly want). You could use real estate as a means for supplementing your income either by buying at a lower price and selling at a higher price or by letting it out.  Sometimes you might buy a property for the purpose of resale but might want to wait for a few years before you actually sell it. In such a case, again it would make sense to rent out the property and earn some money till you actually decide to sell it off.
Whatever the reason, letting out real estate demands real estate management and real estate management is not an easy job for everyone. In fact, a lot of people find it so much of a hassle that they prefer keeping their property vacant instead of letting it. Real estate management demands time, which you will rarely have. Real estate management is not just about finding tenants and collecting rent from them. Real estate management is also about ensuring that you do all the duties that a landlord/landlady is required to do. Real estate management is about verifying the credentials of the tenants before you actually let out your property to them. Real estate management is about ensuring that all the paper work is complete and correct i.e. the tenancy agreement etc are properly done. Real estate management also requires you to do repairs as and when required. Real estate management activities also include maintenance, painting, polishing etc of the house when the tenants move out and before the new tenants get in. So, really, real estate management is not that easy a job for someone who is in a full time job. However, there is a solution to this and that is hiring a real estate management firm to do all these activities on your behalf. Yes, this will mean that what you receive as an income by letting your property will be reduced (due to the commission/ fee charged by the real estate management firm). But that is just a small price for the convenience that a real estate management firm brings to you. However, it’s important that you choose the real estate management firm carefully. There are all kinds of real estate management firms out there (good and bad). You must check the references of the real estate management firm before you actually hire them for the job. A good real estate management firm will not only keep your property occupied at all times but will also ensure that you always receive the rent in time and without any hassle.

Real estate school

Real estate schools of thought

Everyone seems to be after real estate investments as that is regarded as one of the safest high return investments. There are various schools of thought on real estate investments. Let’s explore two of the most common real estate schools of thought.

One real estate school of thought talks about doing a lot of analysis. This real estate school of thought advocates studying a lot of factors which are generally linked to economic indicators. This real estate school of thought evaluates the economic indicators in many different ways. It takes its cues from a number of financial indices and how they are expected to perform in the near future. This real estate school of thought evaluates various socio-economic indicators at all levels – Global, national and local. This real estate school of thought evaluates inflation and things like value of money today and value of money next year etc. It uses all these evaluations in order to come up with predictions on how real estate industry is expected to fare in the next few years. So, this real estate school of thought tries to determine the buying power of people in order to determine the course of real estate prices. When it comes to evaluating the real estate trend with regards to a particular place (i.e. locally), this real estate school of thought takes into account various local factors like the unemployment rate, the industrial development in the region, the change in tax policies and any events that might affect the real estate prices in the area. It also takes into consideration the surrounding areas and the real estate trend in those areas. So, this real estate school of thought is really followed by arch real estate consultants/investors who know a lot about finance and put all that knowledge to use in determining the trends for real estate industry. However, that is just one real estate school of thought.

The other real estate school of thought doesn’t consider those factors at all. According to this real estate school of thought, real estate is always lucrative at all times and at all places. This real estate school of thought advocates looking for great deals. It’s this real estate school of thought that asks you to go to public auctions, look for distress sales and foreclosures, find motivated seller, rehab and sell, etc. So, this real estate school of thought focuses on getting the information about the best deals in town and taking advantage of them to make good profits.

So, those are the two real estate schools of thought and following either or both calls for time and effort (if you are to make any profits out of real estate investments).

Real estate loan

Real estate loan: Understanding the concept

Real estate loan is what a lot of people use to buy their home. Real estate loans have been instrumental in bringing joy to people by making that unaffordable house affordable. Some real estate investors too make use of real estate loans for buying properties. However, real estate loan is not free money and anyone who buys real estate or plans to buy real estate using real estate loan must understand the concept of real estate loan very clearly.

Real estate loan (also known as mortgage) is the money that you borrow from someone (a financial institution i.e. a mortgage lender) for the purpose of buying a property. The real estate loan generally covers a part of your purchase price and the remaining portion has to be paid by you upfront i.e. as down payment. The amount (i.e. the percentage of total purchase price) that you have to pay as down payment is dependent on a number of factors and you can generally reduce it to even 5% by going for mortgage insurance. FHA and VA loans (i.e. mortgage insurances through FHA and VA) reduce the down payment requirement on real estate loan even further. Whatever you borrow from the mortgage lender as real estate loan needs to be paid back to the mortgage lender over a period of time (and, of course, you will also need to pay appropriate interest on that real estate loan). The tenure of your real estate loan and the prevailing market rate will determine the amount of interest you pay for your real estate loan. Generally, you are required to pay back the real estate loan in the form of monthly instalments which are composed of both interest and principal portions of your real estate loan. Also, there are various types of real estate loans e.g. fixed interest rate loans and adjustable interest rate loans. So depending on what type of real estate loan you have gone for, your monthly payments might either remain constant (fixed rate) for the full tenure of the loan or keep getting adjusted periodically (adjustable rate) on the basis of a financial index. Besides that, some other costs are also associated with real estate loans e.g. there are closing costs, inspection costs, attorney fee etc. Also, in case the property needs some repairs, there will be costs associated with that too. Again, there is stamp duty and other taxes that you need to pay. So, really, you need to understand the concept of real estate loans and the related costs clearly before you actually go for the real estate loan. And understanding these concepts is really not that tough.

Real estate listing

Real estate listings – Internet Vs newspaper

Whether you are looking to buy a home for living in or whether are looking to just invest in real estate, you will need to get hold of real estate listings as the first thing. Internet and newspapers are the most common ways of getting real estate listings.
With internet gaining popularity, internet real estate listings have become one of the easiest ways of checking out the real estate listings. Though the traditional method of looking for real estate listings (through newspapers) is still one of the most used methods, it is a very time consuming one. You have to read through various listings and sort out the ones that seem more suitable to you (and possibly write down the phone numbers and contact details on a piece of paper) and then call up the owners/brokers to fix an appointment for viewing the property (which may turn out to be totally disgusting in the end). Moreover, the newspaper listings generally happen on a weekly basis. So if a deal has materialised in the meanwhile, there is no way you can check it without actually calling up the owner/broker. On the contrary, the internet real estate listings (on a good real estate listings website) are updated everyday or maybe twice a week. Moreover, new real estate listings go up on the internet everyday (i.e. they don’t wait for the newspaper to get published). So, if you have been using only the newspaper as your source of real estate listing information, you might end up getting stale information. You might lose out on a deal that was out on internet, say 2 days before. As such, making the first offer can make a big difference when it comes to real estate. Further, you don’t need to go through all the real estate listings in order to determine the listings that look suitable to you. You can specify various search criteria/ filters in order to get only those real estate listings that you really want to look into. This is a big advantage when compared with newspapers where listings are generally classified just on the basis of location of the property. Thus you can save a lot of time here by browsing only through the real estate listings that are of interest to you. Moreover, there is no need to note phone numbers etc; you can just take printouts of the listings you want. Some websites also provide tools/ facilities to track those real estate listings. You could even contact the sellers by sending a message through the website (some websites provide such email type of facility). Another important benefit from real estate listings on internet is that some of them also contain images of the property. So you can have a look at the images and see if you like the property at all.

So, real estate listings on the internet do seem to offer a lot of convenience. However, internet or newspaper is really a matter of personal choice too.

Real estate license

Getting a real estate license

Real estate brokering is known as a very lucrative business and a lot of people are working as real estate agents throughout the nation. Not only are they making good money, they are also contributing to the society in a way i.e. by helping the sellers in selling their property and at the same time helping the buyers in buying a property. So, can anyone start real estate brokering? Well, not really.

Real estate license is a pre-requisite for becoming a real estate agent. However, obtaining a real estate license is not difficult. In most states, the qualifications for getting a real estate license are very minimal. So you should first check the eligibility criteria for obtaining a real estate license (rather pre-license) in your state. The real estate license eligibility criterion includes things like the minimum age limit (which is mostly 19 years) and educational qualifications (which is mostly high school). Once you know that you satisfy those real estate license (pre-license) eligibility criteria, you can go ahead and enrol for a pre-license training. There a number of real estate schools that offer real estate license training. Some real estate schools offer online training for real estate license. Choose a course that is spread over a sufficient duration of time e.g. 1 year so that you are able to grasp the concepts properly (after all you want to become a successful real estate agent and not just another real estate agent). You will be taught a number of topics as part of your real estate license training. All this will help you develop a basic understanding of real estate and various aspects related to real estate (e.g. real estate law, deeds, contracts, ownership transfer, etc) Once you have undergone this real estate license training, you will be required to undergo a state exam. After you pass this exam, you will generally need to undergo another training on state approved courses. And that’s it, you can now get a real estate license which is worth that effort (as you will find in a couple of years of starting real state brokering). Most states also require you to go for continuous education after you have received your real estate license. However, this is a just a few hours every few years.

So real estate license is what you need to start your career as real estate agent. But your success after that will be dependent on how seriously, ethically and smartly you carry out your job.

Real estate law

Real estate law: Not for you?

Real estate is indeed one of the safest investments and a lot of people use real estate as an investment avenue. Real estate law is not the forte of real estate attorneys and real estate agents only. Every real estate investor should understand at least the basics of real estate law. In fact, a short course or a concise book on real estate law can sometimes be of great help (and is generally sufficient for understanding the basics of real estate law).

What you need to understand is the real estate law with respect to the legal procedures that you need to follow for ensuring a smooth transfer of title to the property you acquire/sell and other related procedures. You need to understand the fee structure (e.g. stamp duty, etc) that you need to take care of as per real estate law. You can also understand the classification of properties and how the basic real estate law applies to them. How the commercial and residential properties are treated differently by the real estate law. The tax laws with respect to real estate are one of the things that would be of most interest to you. So, your study on real estate law should also cover all the aspects related to taxes. How mortgages are treated in the perspective of real estate law is another thing that you should know about. Then again, the real estate law with respect to tenancy should also be well understood by people who wish to rent out their property.

However, you should not overdo that i.e. you should not start becoming hysterical about learning real estate law (lest you end up wasting a lot of time in trying to learn everything about real estate law and be left with no time to evaluate your real estate investment). Leave the intricacies of real estate law with the real estate attorneys (and to some extent real estate brokers who too are taught real estate law as part of their course for obtaining broker license).

Understanding the various legal terms referred to in real estate laws can help you in not only enhancing your understanding of real estate but also help in making your conversations with real estate attorneys/agents really fruitful. You should also note that though some of the basics remain the same, the real estate laws vary across various states. Also, real estate laws (especially the tax related real estate laws) can undergo a change over a period of time, so you need to keep a tab on such changes. Any big changes will anyhow appear prominently in news and you will get to know of them anyhow.
So knowing a little bit of real estate law can really be helpful (and is, in fact, essential).

Real Estate Investment Trust

Real Estate Investment Trust: Enabling you to be a part of the party

Real estate is a big business and everyone seems to want to invest in real estate. You keep hearing a lot of stories about how people made a quick buck by investing in real estate. There are stories about people who made $50000 in a fortnight by making the right kind of investment in real estate. Every now and then, newspapers keep coming up with statistics about the appreciation in the real estate prices. There seems a mad rush for investing in real estate (and this gets even bigger when the mortgage interest rates are falling). However, not everyone has the time, money and expertise to be able to profitably invest in real estate. So what does one do? Is there any other option?

Yes, there is another way of investing in real estate and that is through Real Estate Investment Trust. Real Estate Investment Trust is an organisation that invests in real estate as a full fledged business. By investing in a Real Estate Investment Trust, you can become part of the real estate investment party and enjoy profits (of course, the assumption here is that the Real Estate Investment Trust is good and professionally managed).

Investing in Real Estate Investment Trust is very easy too. You can just buy Real Estate Investment Trust shares which trade on all major exchanges. There are certain laws governing the Real Estate Investment Trusts that help them avoiding the tax at corporate levels e.g. it is mandated that Real Estate Investment Trust’s portfolio has 75 percent of investment in real estate. Moreover, 75% of the income of Real Estate Investment Trust must be from rents or mortgage interest. There are various types of Real Estate Investment Trusts. Some Real Estate Investment Trusts own properties themselves and hence feed on the rental income from those properties. Some others indulge in providing only mortgage loans or go for mortgage backed securities. Then there are Real Estate Investment Trusts which do both i.e. rental focussed investments and mortgage based investments.

There are a number of Real Estate Investment Trusts operating in the market and a lot of these Real Estate Investment Trusts are doing good business. By investing in Real Estate Investment Trust you are basically investing in real estate without actually buying a property yourself. This is one easy way of investing in real estate (and much safer too). You must surely evaluate this option for your real estate investments.


Real estate investment

Real estate investment is about finding good deals

Real estate investments are often treated as one the best ways of investing money. However, what you are looking for is not just any real estate investment, but real estate investment that can give you good returns. By real estate investment we mean investing money into property i.e. buying property at a low price and selling it at a higher price so as to make a profit out of it. So the most important part of good real estate investment is to get hold of such properties which can give you good returns.
Now, how can you get these potential profit-making deals?
Your first avenue for finding good deals is the local newspaper (the property newspaper).  Just search for properties that are listed directly by the owners who want to avoid paying commission to the real estate brokers. Since the owner is saving on the commission that they would otherwise have to pay to the broker, they would probably be able to offer a lower price to you and be more open to negotiations. You could also place your own ‘wanted’ ad in the local newspapers.  On the same lines, you could use internet to search for the real estate investment avenues. In fact, you would be astonished by the number of real estate investment opportunities you are able to locate on the internet. Not only that, searching for real estate investment opportunities (i.e. property for sale) is much easier on internet than anywhere else.
Another good way to hunt for real estate investment opportunities is by using the services of real estate brokers. Some people use real estate agents as their first (and maybe the only) touch point for getting real estate investment opportunities. The real estate agents act as information hub for people looking to buy property. In fact, a lot of sellers find it much more convenient to sell their properties by listing it with real estate agents.
Multiple listings service is another good way to find real estate investment opportunities. Since the multiple listing book is provided only to the real estate agents and not to the general public (unless you are very lucky), all the cream (good real estate investment opportunities) would have already been taken before you get to see the book. The key here is to look for expired listings that didn’t get converted to a deal.
Another good way to get a property, that is a good real estate investment, is to look for foreclosures by banks/ VA/ FHA or to visit public auctions. You can generally get a good deal here. Divorce settlements are another good real estate investment opportunity.
So, real estate investment is really about finding good deals. And finding good deals does take some effort

Real estate investing: 5 tricks to make it big with real estate investing

Real estate investing is one of the most attractive ways of making good money (that is if you do it correct). Moreover, real estate investing is also a lot of fun. A lot of people practice real estate investing as their core profession and, in fact, make a lot of money that way.

Real estate investing is really an art and, like any art, it takes time to master the art of real estate investing. The key, of course, is to buy at a lower price and sell at higher price and make a profit even after paying all the costs involved in the two (buy/sell) transactions. Generally, people are of the opinion that real estate investing makes sense only when the rates are on the rise. However, real estate investing for profits is possible just about any time (and as I just said, real estate investing is an art). Here is a list of tricks that can make real estate investing profitable for you:

1) Look for public auctions, divorce settlements and foreclosures (bank/FHA/VA): Since quick settlement is the preference here (and not price), you might get a property at a price that is much lower than the prevailing market rate. You can then make arrangements to sell it at the market rate over a short period of time. However, make sure that the property is worth the price you are paying.
2) Looking for old listings: The old listings that are still unsold may provide you with good real estate investing opportunities. Just get hold of an old newspaper and call up the sellers. They might have given up hope of selling that property at all and with a bit of negotiation you can get the property for a real low price.
3) The hidden treasure: A really old (and dirty) looking house may scare off buyers. But this might be your chance for real estate investing that can yield good profits. So, explore such properties and check if spending a bit on them can make them shine. You can get these at very low prices and make a big profit in a short time.
4) Team up with attorneys: There are a number of attorneys who handle property sales on behalf of sellers or in special circumstances (like the death of the property owner). They might sometimes be looking to dispose off the property rather quickly and hence at a low price. Be the first one to grab such real estate investing opportunities and enjoy the profits.
5) Keep tab on the newspaper announcements: Property sell offs due to deaths, divorce settlements, immediate cash requirements and other reason are frequently announced in local papers. Keep track of such real estate investing avenues.


Real estate for sale: Uncovering the real estate for sale

Real estate investments are often termed as low risk investments that can potentially yield good returns. A lot of people think that real estate is an easy business where you don’t really need to do anything. However, the truth is that real estate business does need you to put in some effort (if you really want to make profits out of it). The most important thing is to be able to uncover the real estate for sale that will yield profits. So how do you go looking for real estate for sale?
Generally, a lot of people start looking for ‘real estate for sale’ through the internet. And why not, internet is after all the hub of all information. So, you could look for real estate for sale using the search engines on the internet. You could also specify your requirements in search criteria on the real estate sites in order to get very specific results on real estate for sale. You can even view images and video of some of the properties thus reducing the need for personal visits for viewing. So, this is surely a good option for finding real estate for sale.
However, not everyone is tech-savvy and there are a lot of people who still take the approach of putting up an ad in the local newspapers. So look for real estate for sale in the local newspapers. In fact, there are some newspapers that are dedicated to just that i.e. real estate for sale. You could even go ahead and put up a ‘wanted’ ad in these newspapers. Sometimes, looking up for real estate for sale in old newspapers (like 1-2 months old) can help you get a good deal (in case the property owner has not been able to sale the property and has become a bit more ‘motivated’ to sell it).
MLS i.e. multiple listing service is often termed as one the best ways to look for real estate for sale. These are published by the real estate boards. If you can lay your hands on a MLS book as soon as it is out, you can really expect to get good deals. The key is to act fast.
Open houses are another good way of getting the best out of time. You can get to see dozens of ‘real estate for sale’ properties in a very short period of time. And you never know when you might come across a property that is real gold.
Investor groups are yet another rich source of real estate for sale information.
Of course, how can we forget the real estate brokers? Real estate brokers are one the most popular (and sometimes most effective) information resource for real estate for sale. Not only do they provide information about ‘real estate for sale’ but also assist in getting the deal finalized and closed.
Besides that, you can also get very good deals through public auctions, bank foreclosures, FHA and VA foreclosures and distress sales.

Real estate broker

A good real estate broker

Real estate is a popular investment avenue. A lot of people go for real estate investing. Some people follow real estate as their prime job. So you have real estate brokers, real estate investors, real estate attorneys and others who thrive mainly on the real estate industry. However, there are others who don’t follow real estate investing as a profession but still want to invest in real estate (as it is an attractive avenue for investment). For such people, getting a good real estate broker can make a big difference between a good deal and not-so-good one.

So how does one choose a good real estate broker?

The first thing to look for is the reputation of the real estate broker. A real estate broker who has good reputation would have earned it over a period of time by helping buyers get the property of their choice (and as per their needs), at the same time getting a good price for the property seller. In fact, experience is the second important thing to look for in a real estate broker. Bad real estate brokers can’t exist for long (since the bad news about anyone travels much faster than the good news). So experience is a good measure because then you know that the real estate broker hasn’t done anything so bad as to throw them out of business. A good real estate broker will not act just as the salesperson for the seller (from whom the real estate broker is due to receive commission/fee when the deal materializes) but will also pay heed to the needs of the buyer. Also, a good real estate broker will normally have a lot of properties available for sale at any point of time. Good real estate brokers will generally have a small team of people working in an organized way to get the deal closed between a buyer and a seller (making both parties happy at the same time). Good real estate brokers will group the properties in a way that is easy to understand e.g. group them on the basis of location, grouping them on the basis of price, grouping them on the basis of house types etc. for the buyer. A good real estate broker will also offer advice to the seller on small repairs or things that can get help them in getting an even better price for their property. And a good real estate broker will patiently listen to the requirements of the buyers and point them to the properties that best fit their requirements (instead of just showing them the list and asking to choose one).
Checking with friends/family that have previously used the services of a good real estate broker can sometimes help you in getting a good real estate broker fairly quickly.