tom-beaty.com views on real estate

October 31, 2008

What’s Up With The “We Buy Houses” Signs?

Filed under: Selling — rlattin @ 12:00 am

There are many companies in Phoenix, AZ that offer the services of “We buy houses”. In fact, one would easily notice the large amounts of street signs that state We Buy Houses in Phoenix throughout major roads. These companies have become very popular these days due to the tough real estate market. With over 50,000 homes currently for sale on the MLS, selling your home fast is a very difficult task. Because of the long wait, many homeowners are starting to see the value of using a company the pledges We Buy Houses in Phoenix.

Businesses that state We Buy Houses in Phoenix have some definite advantages. We Buy Houses companies will typically pay with cash, close fast and many don’t charge any commissions or fees. Although these companies do not pay market value for your home, they will buy your home in as is condition. Many homeowners these days simply don’t have the money to repair or fix up their homes before selling.
The company that advertises We Buy Homes in Phoenix can actually save homeowners money. Frustrated homeowners often give up and abandon their homes. An abandoned home can be an invitation for neighborhood kids and transients to enter. Vandalism, graffiti, and theft can be present with an abandoned home. Furthermore, the stress on a homeowner who has a vacant home can be enormous.

Many people see the value in calling a We Buy Houses company in Phoenix. We Buy Homes in Phoenix companies can close on the home quickly. They usually don’t charge any fees and will buy the home in as is condition. Selling a damaged home in a tough market can be huge relief of stress for a homeowner.

There are many We Buy Houses companies in Phoenix, AZ. With that in mind, homeowners who are looking for a We Buy Homes company to buy their house must make sure the business is legitimate. One way to verify the track record of a We Buy Houses company in Phoenix is to call the Better Business Bureau. Make sure to check and see how long the company has been in business, and how many complaints the company has received. Many companies that advertise We Buy Homes in Phoenix are highly reputable and honest businesses. But with that in mind, always do your homework before signing any documents.

Reed Lattin is real estate investor in Phoenix, AZ
Reed works for AllHomesAZ.com which buys all homes
AllHomesAZ.com-member of the Better Business Bureau
Sell your home fast at www.allhomesaz.com
Contact Reed Lattin directly at 480-227-5214

Learning to Invest in Real Estate with a Real Estate Coach

Filed under: Buying — peterv @ 12:00 am

You don’t have to be a massive sports fan to notice the effect that the best coaching has on teams: the best coaches get the best results possible from their players. This often tends to result in wins and championship. If a team performs poorly, it will to replace the coach rather than replace the players.

Like anything that has the potential to be greatly rewarding, real estate investing is risky. You need to learn the ropes you so can minimize that risk. Real estate investing is a business where mistakes can be massively expensive. You can’t afford to make the same mistakes over and over; you have start out with good strategies, apply them well, and learn from any mistakes you do make.

Sound, sensible real estate investment practices must become your habits quickly if you are to succeed at investing in real estate. A good real estate coach can help with that process. For one thing, the instant, objective expert feedback you will get from a real estate coach brings accountability into your process. You will understand the consequences of your actions, and cannot rationalize away your mistakes and missteps, pass the buck or pass on the blame.

According to Vince Lombardi, one of the greatest football coaches of all time, winning is a habit, but so is losing. Which habit would you rather have, winning or losing? That’s not a question you had to think over very long, is it. A good real estate coach can do what even the best book or class cannot help you form winning habits.

A real estate coach can also help you put together a business plan, and give you specific ideas as to what you need to do in order for your venture to be a success. Like a sports team, you will only reap the benefits of a good game plan if you carry out the game plan successfully. A good coach will keep your nose to the grindstone and put your feet to the fire. A good real estate coach can keep you moving forward, and help you through rough times and answer questions. A good real estate coach can also provide support, motivation, knowledge, and help you keep your focus.

When you choose your real estate coach, you should choose someone who is actually active and successful as a real estate investor, and not someone merely trained in real estate who skipped the whole important middle step of being successful and went straightaway into training others. They should have many verifiable properties, and local properties are always better local properties are indicative that the real estate coach works locally, and will be available for training and answers. If you hire someone as a consultant, they should genuinely care about your future. Make them demonstrate this. If they don’t care about you before they take your money, they won’t suddenly start to care after they take your money.

Peter Vekselman has been successfully investing in real estate since 1996. He has completed over 1000 real estate deals, owned a construction company, been a private lender, and owned a property management
company. To learn more about Peter please visit
http://www.coachingbypeter.com.

How to Learn Real Estate Investment Strategies the Right Way

Filed under: Buying — peterv @ 12:00 am

Are you thinking about investing in real estate? It can be a great way to make money. Some of the world’s richest people-Donald Trump and Suleiman al-Fahim, for example-made their fortunes in real estate. Real estate is a great way to generate passive income. If you have enough passive income streams, you can quit your job and live off the residual income from your investment properties! It is worth bearing in mind, however, that like anything with huge potential payoffs, real estate investment is risky. There are no guarantees in the world of real estate investment, but if you learn good business principles and sound real estate investment strategies, you can dramatically increase your odds of succeeding in the difficult yet rewarding world of real estate investment.

Don’t have a lot of money? Credit score so-so? No savings to speak of? Don’t give up on learning real estate investment strategies; you can still get in on the game and in on the profits, and you just might improve your credit score in the process. There are ways to approach real estate investment that don’t require a lot of money for the initial investment. The one thing you cannot do without when you approach learning real estate investment is knowledge. It’s vey important to acquire a broad knowledge of real estate investment strategies, so that as you progress in your real estate career you can adapt to your circumstances and the fluctuations of the economy and the real estate market.

There are many different possible strategies to real estate investment. For example, you could choose to pursue foreclosure opportunities. Investing in foreclosures can be an incredibly lucrative experience. To master this real estate investment strategy, you have to know the various distressed property types, as well as the laws regarding them in each state, so that you can evaluate these potentially lucrative opportunities.

Foreclosure opportunities are far from the only possible type real estate investment opportunity, however. There are lease options, rent to own options, real estate flipping opportunities, real estate control strategies, government sponsored programs, For Sale By Owner (FSBO) options and a host of other real estate investing strategies for you to learn and master. As a beginner it’s important that you understand all of these options and then narrow it down to a real estate investing strategy that best suits your needs.

The best way to master these investment strategies is by receiving the best possible training from knowledgeable, successful real estate investors.

Reading is great, but it will not be enough. You need first hand feedback from real live experts. You may consider taking a class, this can be an option especially for beginners. However, the best way to learn these strategies is to have an expert, successful real estate investor as your coach or mentor. Once you learn strategies, you will have to implement them if you hope to make money, and you will be likely to ramp up faster if you have a coach who gives you feedback on the fly.

Peter Vekselman has been successfully investing in real estate since 1996. He has completed over 1000 real estate deals, owned a construction company, been a private lender, and owned a property management
company. To learn more about Peter please visit
http://www.coachingbypeter.com.

The Benefits of Hiring a Real Estate Consultant

Filed under: Buying — peterv @ 12:00 am

Do you invest in real estate? Is your business as successful as you feel it should be? You might consider hiring a real estate consultant. Real estate consultants can focus on a number of different aspects of your business. Real estate consultants can specialize in many different aspects of the real estate business, or they can provide comprehensive consulting services.

One approach to real estate consulting is through management consulting. This would entail the consultant taking a close look at your business practices and determining what you are doing right, what you are doing wrong, and what you are doing right but could be doing better. For example, have you set measurable, testable performance benchmarks? Do you have a sound, practical business plan? A good real estate consultant can help you structure your business practice in ways that will help ensure success. They can provide support, , motivation, knowledge, and help you know where to focus and learn to keep our focus there.

Another type of real estate consultant is the type of consultant that performs research. This research may consist of market research. Market research will help you determine which types of properties best suit which type of customer, as well as who is buying.

Market research can also highlight demographic trends that will impact your business. Wouldn’t it be great to buy up the next hot, trendy neighborhood well before everyone else gets there? There is some luck involved, but you don’t need to read the tea leaves or consult oracle bones. Most of what you will need to know is present in what’s happening on the ground right now. A consultant can mine the vast reams of data present in any market and help you spot these trends.

Real estate consultants often offer other types of research as well. For example, if you are thinking of taking your real estate investing into another market, and thereby diversifying geographically, real estate consultants can advise you on local real estate law and zoning practice. They can also advise you on tax planning for your real estate investments. Real estate consulting firms can also do boots-on-the-ground research, such as locating properties that you can potentially invest in. This would give you a leg up on competitors not employing such research as you may find properties well before everyone else is aware of the opportunity.

These are just some of the many potential benefits of partnering with a real estate consultant for your real estate investment business. The right real estate consultant can help you firm up your business practice in exactly the areas where you need help, whether it be managing your business, performing market research and anticipating investment trends, or advising legal, zoning and tax planning aspects of your business. Real estate consultants can give you a clearer picture of what you need to do for your real estate investment business to thrive, and help you plan the roadmap to get where you want to go, as well as set achievable benchmarks-and achieve them.

Peter Vekselman has been successfully investing in real estate since 1996. He has completed over 1000 real estate deals, owned a construction company, been a private lender, and owned a property management
company. To learn more about Peter please visit
http://www.coachingbypeter.com.

When is the Right Time to Hire a Real Estate Coach?

Filed under: Buying — peterv @ 12:00 am

When should you hire a real estate coach? If you’re committed to investing in real estate, there are a lot of reasons to hire a coach. The main reason is to produce better results in your real estate business and make more money than you currently are. You may feel that you should be operating your business entirely by yourself. After all, real estate naturally attracts the sort of people who like to work independently, and succeed based on their own mettle. Pride is fine, but you’re in this to make money, aren’t you? Wouldn’t it make sense to set your pride aside and do whatever makes sense for your career?

No doubt, you are enthusiastic about real estate investing. If you’re just starting out, though, you’ll no doubt admit you’ve got a lot to learn. Wouldn’t it make sense to find a mentor who knows the ropes, and can help you achieve greater success than you would on your own? If you’ve worked in the corporate world, you know how effective a good mentor can be in furthering your knowledge and improving your skill set. Coaching is different from teaching per se in that it is more focused on setting and pursuing goals. It’s not that different from sports coaching, except that it is focused on real estate investment. Even if you are goal-oriented already, a real estate coach can help you set better, more realistic, more achievable goals without sacrificing ambition.

Even if you are already successful at buying and selling real estate, you might benefit from the services of a real estate coach. A real estate coach can focus your business and your goals, and give you an informed second opinion on your real estate practice. In fact, coaching is a better option for experienced real estate professional than for absolute beginners. Once you know the basics, you can hire a real estate coach to help you close the gap between where you are now and where you really want to be.

You are probably, at this point, wondering how real estate coaching proceeds. Real estate coaching usually moves forward through a series of structured conversations revolving around your approach to your real estate investment business. These conversations are designed to help you set and pursue clearer, more achievable goals, think more clearly about your business, and gain better perspective. Real estate coaching is designed to provide the tools to enhance the process of building a successful business, and helps you approach becoming more accountable to yourself for achieving your goals.

Real estate coaching is often done by telephone. It doesn’t have to be; it can be done in person as well. A good real estate coach will tailor his or her approach to your needs. Before you hire a real estate coach, make they are able to adapt to your unique needs and your approach to the working relationship. If you choose the right real estate coach, you can expect them to give you objective feedback on your business and your approach to real estate investing, thus putting you in a better position to attain your real estate investment goals.

Peter Vekselman has been successfully investing in real estate since 1996. He has completed over 1000 real estate deals, owned a construction company, been a private lender, and owned a property management
company. To learn more about Peter please visit
http://www.coachingbypeter.com.

The Benefits of Working with a Real Estate Mentor Before Investing

Filed under: Buying — peterv @ 12:00 am

Working with a real estate mentor can benefit you in many ways. For starters, you will get a clear picture of where you are now in your real estate business, as well as where you want to go and why. You will also get a clear idea of what you need to do in order to make it happen.

A mentor can help you understand the basics of real estate investing strategy and develop the approach to real estate investing that suits you best and will generate the most profit for you. The key to real estate investing is to understand what areas to invest in. For example, if you want to make money on rental properties, you need to know what features to look for. Many beginning real estate investors fail because they don’t understand the basics. Mentoring can solve that.

One of the things a real estate mentor can do is help you figure out exactly what you need to understand, what skills you need to acquire, and how to apply what you learn from your real estate mentor. All of this will help you develop self-confidence and self-trust and thereby enable you to do whatever is necessary in order for you to succeed. After working with a mentor, you will have more control over the speed and direction of your growth, your business will be stronger, and you will be stronger. It is a great way to take your business to the next level.

A good real estate mentor not only gives you advice on what to do, they can give you advice on how to manage your time effectively in order to get it all done. If you manage your time properly, you can achieve more than you ever thought you could. Your mentor can also help you create a business plan, projecting anywhere from one to five or more years into the future, so that you can plan for success.

A mentor can guide your business practice in subtle and not so subtle ways. If you have a good mentor, they will give you realistic suggestions to help you, not suggestions that are unfeasible given your situation. The suggestions must be within your means to actually carry out. The suggestions they give must also have an impact on your bottom line within a reasonable amount of time. These suggestions must also be within the range of your technical expertise to actually carry out. If these criteria are not met, perhaps your real estate mentor gives basically the same advice to everyone without considering their unique situation.

Chances are, you could learn the ropes of real estate investment yourself, without a real estate mentor. However, a real estate mentor can help you avoid the kind of mistakes that will needlessly cost you both time and money on your way to success. It is far less painful to learn from other people’s mistakes, where possible, than to learn by making your own mistakes.

Peter Vekselman has been successfully investing in real estate since 1996. He has completed over 1000 real estate deals, owned a construction company, been a private lender, and owned a property management
company. To learn more about Peter please visit
http://www.coachingbypeter.com.

What Does a Real Estate Consultant Do?

Filed under: Buying — peterv @ 12:00 am

You may be wondering if the title of real estate consultant is a meaningful one, and if it indicates anything different from the same old licensed real estate brokers with a vested interest in the fate of a property. While it is true that anyone can call himself or herself a consultant, the term is not meaningless window dressing. For those who take their real estate consulting business seriously, it represents a different model, a different approach to real estate practice.

The first and most important difference is objectivity. Whereas a real estate broker typically is paid contingent on an outcome: in other words, they receive a commission; a real estate consultant is paid solely for their expertise. They have no stake in the outcome. Salespeople are paid only for getting a result sale. Real estate consultants are paid for their expert advice only, and by design have no stake in achieving a particular outcome to a particular transaction. This gives them the capacity to be more objective and inherently more trustworthy than a traditional real estate salesperson. Think about it-even the most honest salesperson will unconsciously try to steer you toward a sale. After all, that’s where their pay comes from-from selling! The consultant is paid the way other professional advisors or service professionals like CPAs are, with a retainer regardless of outcome.

Consulting can involve a variety of skills and areas of expertise. You can hire a consultant for legal advice, market research, or to locate possible properties to invest in, among other things. Since they are paid as much for their time if they advise you that there are no properties in an area worth investing in as if they advise you of dozens of viable properties, they have no stake in anything except giving you the best advice possible. After all, their future business depends on word-of-mouth endorsements from investors like you.

If you are looking for properties to invest in, a real estate consultant can tip you off to developer closeouts and bulk opportunities, equity partnerships, joint ventures, and possibly even some very unique and profitable turnkey investment opportunities. The consultant is selling information and expertise, and therefore can provide you with a layer of insulation between you and the people selling the properties.

They can work out a lot of the details and business prospects of a property before you have to talk to a salesperson. Once you face the salesperson, you can approach the negotiation fully armed with an array of appropriate information, and thus avoid being bamboozled and negotiate from a position of strength.

If, on the other hand, you are selling properties, especially if you have a lot of properties to sell, a real estate consultant can help you create a strategy to sell the units before you get involved with actual salespeople, which can have many advantages. For example, you can sell a lot of properties in a relatively short time without creating the appearance of a bulk sale by having a real estate consultant distribute the properties among several different sellers.

Peter Vekselman has been successfully investing in real estate since 1996. He has completed over 1000 real estate deals, owned a construction company, been a private lender, and owned a property management
company. To learn more about Peter please visit
http://www.coachingbypeter.com.

Government Aid Package To Help First-Time Home Buyers - More Stamp Duty Exemption

Filed under: Mortgage — johnmce @ 12:00 am

The newspapers might be full of doom and gloom but the credit crunch and general economic downturn has to be good news for someone. Despite the stories about first time buyers being forced out of the market by banks refusing them large mortgages, the housing recession poses a great opportunity for those wishing to get their first foot on the ladder.

The government has announced a package to help first time home buyers and those struggling to pay their mortgage. It has suspended stamp duty for houses sold for 175, 000 pounds and under. It also announced HomeBuy Direct scheme allowing those with low incomes to sell a share of their home and rent it back.

With the financial turmoil and rising food and petrol prices, many home owners are facing repossession or the possibility of approaching home purchases to buy their home and rent it back to them. The new government scheme allows those who might otherwise have their houses repossessed to keep up with payments without having to surrender their home.

Those struggling to keep up with mortgage repayments and facing repossession can sell their home to a registered social landlord (RSL) who will pay off the mortgage and then rent the property back to the occupants at a level which is affordable.

In some cases, the RSL could purchase a portion of the property, or provide an equity loan which could help to reduce the homeowners mortgage repayments. This is similar to many Buy and Rent Back schemes offered by many private companies.

The new HomeBuy Direct scheme allows first-time home buyers with a household income under 60, 000 pounds to buy newly-built properties with a free equity loan of up to 30% of the property’s value.

A spokeswoman said “We welcome the Government’s stamp duty initiative. This is a sensible measure and it will help the housing market” on behalf of Halifax. The Treasury has estimated that the one-year stamp duty freeze will cost the Government 600 million pounds.

Around half of the 90, 000 home purchases made each month are on houses worth 175 thousand pounds or less, but deals below 125 thousand are exempt from stamp duty anyway.

It seems that the government has finally stopped dithering and is committed to helping first time buyers and the market as a whole. House prices are falling, but their value at the beginning of the year was probably inflated, so they still probably have a way to fall.

A Quick Sale is the number one property buyer in the UK. We can help you with a quick property sale and find solutions to keep you in your home, through rent or buy-back options. We can help if you are facing repossession.

How Real Estate Training Works

Filed under: Buying — peterv @ 12:00 am

If you intend to invest in real estate, especially if you intend to make it your full-time business, you may benefit from real estate training. Even if you feel like you have a reasonable command of the real estate business, you may find that you would still benefit from real estate training. Expert training can help you hone successful, time-tested habits, ramp up your knowledge of the real estate world, and improve your understanding of the intangible aspects of real estate investing. Perhaps most important of all, some types of training involve objective, expert evaluation of your working process.

You can attain knowledge of real estate investing a number of different ways. For example, you can adopt the do-it-yourself approach and read books and websites, and progress in your real estate investing through trial and error. If you are determined, diligent, and learn from your mistakes, you’ll eventually get to where you want to be, but this isn’t the easiest way to get there for a number of reasons.

For one thing, you are on your own in terms of evaluating the quality of what you read. If you are inexperienced, you won’t be able to tell good advice from bad until you have gained enough experience to know the difference. Another disadvantageous aspect is that you won’t have any direct, expert feedback on what you’re doing. You may think you’re doing things the right way-and without the feedback of a neutral, expert observer, you may never know if you’re right.

Another approach to learning about real estate investing is taking classes. You could take a study-at-home course; there are many excellent study-at-home courses including some offered by accredited universities. This, however, has the some of the same disadvantages as learning on your own primarily, you get no direct feedback, no real mentoring, Your real estate investment practice will still be mostly trial and error, mostly learning from your own experience, albeit within a well-informed framework.

A somewhat more personal approach is to take a class in person. This has the advantage of giving you at least some objective, expert direct feedback. Classes can be very effective, especially for grounding you in the basics. Classes offer less return on investment the more advanced your knowledge is. As you progress as a real estate investor, classes become less useful because what you really need is more hands-on, one-on-one time. if you intend to take a class, you should find out how much hands-on, one-on-one contact you will have with your instructor, and find out the class size. Large classes, not surprisingly, lead to very little hands-on attention for you.

The most personal approach is to hire a coach or mentor to teach you the ropes on a one-on-one basis. A coach or mentor can be the best option if you are fairly advanced and have already achieved a degree of success in real estate investing, A good mentor will also give you direct feedback on your business practice and goals, in case you’re not actually doing what you think you’re doing.

Peter Vekselman has been successfully investing in real estate since 1996. He has completed over 1000 real estate deals, owned a construction company, been a private lender, and owned a property management
company. To learn more about Peter please visit
http://www.coachingbypeter.com.

The Importance of Location in a Santa Cruz Real Estate Purchase

Filed under: Real Estate — sebfrey @ 12:00 am

Location, location, location! If you have spent any time in the real estate field, you have heard this little phrase repeated over and over. But when you are shopping in Santa Cruz, this really does not matter, does it? After all, you are shopping for property in one of the most popular areas of the world! While this may be true, you do still need to consider your location, even when shopping in Santa Cruz. No matter where your real estate purchases take you, your location is a key aspect of the commercial or resale value of your property.

Research Your Purchase Like You Would Any Investment

Your purchase, whether you are buying a home or a commercial property, is an investment. You would not invest in stocks or mutual funds without proper research, and you need to purchase property in the same manner. Look into past real estate sales to find out which neighborhoods or commercial developments are hot, and which are unpopular. You want to choose a property in an area that has been increasing in value over several years.

Buying Personal Property? Consider Your Needs

Besides considering resale value of your investment, you also need to consider the needs that you may have when purchasing a personal home or condo. Do you love nature? Choose a home with a great view, as these are easy to find in Santa Cruz. If you plan to spend a lot of time on the beach, which may be the case if you are shopping for a vacation property, look for a home that is on or near the beach with convenient access. On the other hand, you may want to stay away from some of the areas that are more heavily visited by tourists in order to protect your privacy.

Buying Commercial Property? Maintain Visibility!

If you are shopping for commercial property, you need to choose a piece of Santa Cruz real estate that will be highly visible to your potential customers and clients. Choose property near a main street, along the beach, or in some other heavily trafficked area. If you are tucked away out of sight, you will have to work twice as hard to grow your business, because potential clients will not know that you are there to serve them.

Consider the Property Around Yours

One final tip to keep in mind when choosing a location for a Santa Cruz real estate purchase is to check out the properties around the one you are considering. Remember, if your home is the largest or nicest one in the neighborhood, you may get a good deal on it, but when you need to sell it later you will find that the smaller houses will bring down the price slightly.

Choosing the right location for a Santa Cruz property purchase can be tricky. A realtor can help you determine potential resale value and visibility of a property you are interested in, saving you from a potential mistake. Before you make a move on a property, make sure you have discussed it with a qualified Santa Cruz real estate agent.

Seb Frey is a Capitola, California Real Estate Broker specializing in Santa Cruz Real Estate. He is fluent in Spanish and enjoys helping people find their piece of the American Dream in Santa Cruz. You can find Seb’s blog at SantaCruzHomeBroker.com/blog.

Next Page »

Powered by WordPress