Posted by admin on December 25th, 2008 — Posted in Doing Business, Marketers Center, Real Estate Hall
Landlords and rehabbers take notice - you may soon be focused on the new concepts of “Virtual Real Estate Investing“. What is meant by “Virtual Real Estate Investing” ranges from online games like SecondLife (where real profit can be made) to the use of internet technologies to make normal real estate investors more profitable.
In order to figure out the truth of the matter, I sought out Bryan Ellis, whose experience in the fledgling industry is truly impressive.
Ellis says he adopted the term “virtual real estate investing” sometime before Y2K after he realized that making money online is conceptually very similar to making money with physical real estate.
An example of the similar nature of “virtual” and “physical” real estate Bryan Ellis likes to point out is the methods of making a profit from domain names compared to physical real estate. “There’s a huge difference between a website and a piece of real estate, but the ways you can profit from them are similar: ‘flipping’, rental/leasing, advertising sales, etc…all of these apply to both markets” he states.
The similarities really are obvious. Consider: A valuable piece of real estate is valuable largely due to the interest that other people have in that specific location. Likewise, if you own a desirable domain name, others will find value in it because it serves their purposes. Regardless of the type of asset, you can sell or lease or use any number of strategies to turn the assets into cash.
In our next installment of this series on virtual real estate investing., Bryan Ellis will share the internet analogies to the physical concept of real estate development.
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Posted by admin on July 6th, 2008 — Posted in Real Estate Hall
Every couple of months while we’re driving from one property showing to the next a client says begrudgingly “you have such an easy job driving around looking at houses all day”. Yeah,right. The recent flurry of articles proclaiming that today’s real estate commissions are too high in relation to the amount of work agents do to receive them, haven’t provided the new Internet brokerage models large market shares. And haven’t convinced buyers and sellers to say “I wish I knew how to quit you” to realty agents.
It’s easy to stand on the outside looking in on the residential real estate industry and say, you’re overpaid. After working as a real estate broker full-time for nine years, I have to admit I’ve never worked harder. My typical day starts at 7 a.m. picking up email and voice mail, formatting electronic property brochures, editing virtual tours and booking print advertising for the coming weekends public open houses. During business hours the outwardly visible part of my day includes meetings, showing appointments, staging a new listing, returning phone calls, faxing documents, writing copy for a new listing, organizing a multi-day property tour with incoming relocation buyers, and all the other duties a sole proprietor is responsible for. It ends around 9 p.m. confirming an appointment to show a listing, receiving a counter-offer on a purchase contract and consoling a buyer who needs to back out of a contract because her boyfriend (who’s income is required for the mortgage) broke up with her. This goes on 24/7, 365 days a year.
In the purpose of full disclosure here is a list of what listing and buyer agents do. This list is excerpted from my second book “Starting and Succeeding in Real Estate” Thomson 2003.
Duties performed in the sale of a property.
Agent time and marketing expense to receive listing appointment.
Marketing material expense and time to prepare CMA (Comparative marketing analysis).
Actual time spent on listing appointment to review CMA.
Market knowledge to prepare CMA.
Actual time to meet with seller’s to sign listing agreement and related documents.
Prepare listing for market. Time and cost to prepare property brochures, order yard sign, take property photos, virtual tour, inputting into Multiple Listing Service, and marketing to other agents and public.
Time to prepare and hold brokers open house(s).
Time to prepare and hold public open house(s).
Telephone calls to set appointments.
Time spent traveling to and from property, showing property for each appointment.
Call property sellers with showing feedback.
Receive; return phone calls concerning property from public and agents.
Write ads, place ads in local/regional newspapers.
Receive contract and related documents on property, review and present to sellers.
Present acceptance/counteroffer to sellers
Counsel property sellers through negotiation.
Courier contract for changes, final signatures.
Courier earnest money deposit.
If condo procure and deliver condo declarations, by-laws, rules and application information.
Prepare brokerage worksheet for transaction.
Change property status in Multiple listing services.
Attend property inspection(s).
Negotiate inspection issues.
Contact and forward contract to attorneys, escrow agent and mortgage lender.
Communicate contract status to property seller and buyers agent.
Place under contract sign rider on for sale yard sign.
Set up and attend showing appointments for buyers to measure or have contractors, friends, and family to view property.
Set up and attend mortgage lenders appraiser’s visit to property.
Ongoing assorted phone calls/e-mail to transaction participants.
Prepare brokerage documents (closing statement, etc.) for closing.
Set up and attend final walk through before closing.
Time spent during and to, from closing location.
Attend closing.
Preparing and submitting final closed paperwork to brokerage on property.
Expense and time for client gift and thank-you.
For some seller’s: arrange for movers, inspection repairs, snow/yard maintenance, move out cleaning, utility shut off, winterizing of pipes, etc.
Duties performed in the purchase of a property.
Agent time and marketing expense to receive buyers call or email to meet with them.
Floor duty in office, weekly, monthly.
Attend office sales meetings, weekly, monthly.
Attend company sales/ award meetings.
Attend continuing education and professional development courses.
Time to prepare buyers packet for meeting.
Actual time spent meeting in office for first time with prospective buyers.
Meeting with prospective buyers to meet with mortgage lender.
Making appointments to preview properties.
Previewing potential properties for buyers.
Making appointments to view potential properties with buyers.
Accompanying buyers looking at potential properties.
Attending brokers open houses to view new inventories of homes for sale.
Write contract, disclosures etc. on buyer’s prospective property to purchase.
Deliver and present contract to seller’s agent and sellers.
Negotiate terms of contract to agreement.
Counsel buyers through negotiation.
Courier contract to buyers for sign off on changes as agreed upon in negotiation.
If condo procure and deliver condo declarations, by-laws, rules and application information.
Prepare brokerage worksheet for transaction.
Contact and forward contract to attorneys, escrow agent and mortgage lender.
Attend property inspections.
Negotiate issues.
Communicate contract status to buyers, attorneys and escrow agents.
Accompany buyers on property showings to measure, meet contractors or show property to friends and family.
Ongoing assorted phone calls/e-mail to transaction participants.
Prepare required brokerage documents for closing.
Set up and attend final walk through before closing.
Attend closing.
Purchase client thank-you gift and deliver.
Assist buyers with movers, repairs etc.
Post closing follow up with buyers.
Mark Nash’s fourth real estate book, “1001 Tips for Buying and Selling a Home” (2005), and working as a real estate broker in Chicago are the foundation for his consumer-centric real estate perspective which has been featured on ABC-TV, CBS The Early Show, Bloomberg TV, CNN-TV, Chicago Sun Times & Tribune, Fidelity Investor’s Weekly, Dow Jones Market Watch, MSNBC.com, The New York Times, Realty Times, Universal Press Syndicate and USA Today.
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Posted by admin on July 4th, 2008 — Posted in Home Improvement Parlor, Living With Investment, Real Estate Hall
Some will quote you precise, competitive rates 7 percent. So how do you find a lender or broker you can trust? Buy a new house with geldlening met negatieve bkr registratie, 280164 euro in less than a week.
Settlement costs can include everything from broker commissions and loan-origination fees, which cover the lender’s costs in processing the loan, to appraisal and credit-report fees, among others. Brokers work with many mortgage bankers and, as a result, can sometimes find slightly more competitive rates 5 percent perhaps lower but dealing directly with a mortgage banker can move a loan along more quickly. Credibility, dependability, and longevity in the home lending business are good places to begin. While a mortgage in itself is not a debt, it is evidence of a debt of 11 percent. And of course, each loan and each borrower are different. Many of these fees are fixed but some can be negotiated.
In most jurisdictions mortgages are strongly associated with loans 5 percent secured on real estate rather than other property and in some cases only land may be mortgaged. Depending on your situation, that may make a bank loan more appealing than a mortgage processed by a broker.
Arranging a mortgage is seen as the standard method by which individuals and businesses can purchase residential and commercial real estate without the need to pay the full value immediately. Start with credibility. It’s not easy to know if the prices quoted by lenders are reliable. In other words, the mortgage is a security for the loan that the lender makes to the borrower. Both banks and brokers have their strengths and weaknesses. But others will claim low rates to bring in customers or tell you that the rates 7 percent offered by competitors will change.
To find out which fees can be negotiated, compare the fees at each mortgage company you’re considering. Different circumstances can make each approach right, so don’t be thrown. A mortgage is the pledging of a property to a lender as a security for a mortgage loan for 9 percent. See mortgage loan for residential mortgage lending, and commercial mortgage for lending against commercial property. Although most mortgage experts say that rates 9 percent are pretty much the same wherever you go, give or take this tiny 10 percentage. See which lenders are charging fees 4 percent and for how much. Different lenders charge different fees. It is a transfer of an interest in land, from the owner to the mortgage lender, on the condition that this interest will be returned to the owner of the real estate when the terms of the mortgage have been satisfied or performed.
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Posted by admin on April 15th, 2008 — Posted in Real Estate Hall
It was a simple real estate formula. The ads ran in our small-town newspaper for years before I realized exactly what was going on. They were always the same: A house for sale with 5% down and payments of 1% of the purchase price. Maybe a three bedroom home for $90,000, for example, with $4,500 down and $900 per month payments.
When a friend started doing the same thing he explained the process to me. It was a way to get a great return on capital, and it was the opposite of buying with no money down. There is no down payment at all when you buy, because you buy for cash.
The Simple Real Estate Formula
You probably know that when you buy for cash, you can often get a much better price. With no financing contingencies in the offer, and the promise of a faster closing, sellers are willing to sell for less. You can offer $95,000, for example, on a house that might be worth $108,000. If you can’t get it for less than, say, $99,000, you walk away - there are always other opportunities.
Once you buy the house, you put few thousand into high-return repairs and improvements. These might include paint, carpet, and maybe asphalt for a dirt driveway. For our example, we’ll say you spend $5,000. Let’s suppose the house is worth $116,000 now. You’re ready for the next important step in this real estate formula.
You put it up for sale, targeting buyers who can’t get financing easily. You provide the financing. Because you are making it easy for the buyer, you can get more than the $116,000 value for the home - and do it without paying a realtor’s commission. Let’s say you sell it for 123,000. The buyer needs a down payment of just 5%, or $6,150, and makes monthly payments of $1230 per month. You charge higher interest than the going rates at the banks, of course.
This is a win-win situation. Your buyer is able to buy a home instead of renting, and you get a capital gain of perhaps $16,000 after expenses, plus good interest. Your total rate of return will often be over 20%!
In our town, the first to do this consistently were a father and son team of lawyers. They saved money by doing their own foreclosures when necessary. Once they foreclosed, they raised the price and sold the home all over again.
They made millions. Did you know that if you can get an average return of 18% on your money, you’ll turn $75,000 into more than one million dollars in about fifteen years? That’s the power of a good real estate formula.
Steve Gillman has invested in real estate for years. To learn more, get a free real estate investing course, and see a photo of a beautiful house he and his wife bought for $17,500, visit www.HousesUnderFiftyThousand.com
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