Archive for May, 2010
Home Equity Loan
Posted by Chas W. Leeper, SRA in Uncategorized on May 28th, 2010
A home equity loan is based upon how much equity you have in your home. Equity is determined by the amount of money your home is worth less the amount you currently owe. Many lenders give home equity loans to people so they can make home improvements, consolidate debt, finance an education or make a large purchase. Home equity loan rates are lower than they have been in years and now is a good time to use your equity to your best advantage.
Because home equity loans are secured by your home, they are relatively easy to get. Prior to getting a home equity loan, you will have to get a basic home valuation to determine how much your home is worth. In many areas, the price of homes has risen substantially in the past several years; you may be pleasantly surprised to find out that your home is worth much more than when you purchased the property.
After determining what your home is worth, your lender will then tell you how much money they are willing to lend you. While some lenders will only loan a certain percentage of your equity, such as eighty percent, others will offer to loan you all of the equity. As a home equity loan is secured by your home, the risk to lenders is generally low.
People get home equity loans for many different reasons. The most common reason is to perform home improvements. Home improvements can add value to your home if done properly. They are usually quite expensive and this is one reason why many people choose to obtain a home equity loan. If you add value to your property, the money is well worth spending.
Another reason to get a home equity loan is to consolidate debt. If you have several bank card debts, you are probably paying quite a bit more in interest than you would pay with a home equity loan. With a home equity loan, you can use the money to pay off bank card debt. Your new monthly payments will be lower than you would have to pay if you paid each loan separately. In addition, home equity loans add certain tax advantages not offered by bank card loans.
Home equity loans can also be used to finance an education. If you have a child who is planning on going to university, you can use the money derived from the equity in your home to make it easy for them to attend. An education is never a waste and financing an education, particularly for your child, is one of the best investments anyone can make.
Other people get a home equity loan to make a large purchase, such as an auto. Auto loan rates are generally higher than rates for home equity loans. Using your home to pay for an auto can save you money in the long run.
Leave Your City and Come to San Diego!
Posted by Chas W. Leeper, SRA in Uncategorized on May 20th, 2010
The fascination and luxury of San Diego extends far beyond the 80 miles of pristine crystal clear beaches! A n America Online poll just named San Diego “ America’s favorite summer city” and “second top travel destination”!.Quite an Impressive feat. When you live and work here, you can have all this and so much more except , all year round!
San Diego , California’s second largest city and the United States’ eighth largest. San Diego has a citywide population of nearly 1 million residents and more than 3 million entires residents countywide. Within its 4,200 sq. miles, San Diego County includes 18 different cities and a number of other charming and delightful neighborhoods and communities, including the historic Gaslamp Quarter, Little Italy, Coronado, La Jolla, Del Mar, Carlsbad, Escondido, La Mesa, Hillcrest, Barrio Logan, and also Chula Vista.
San Diego is world famous for its amazing idyllic climate, unlimited miles of perfected beaches and an eccentric collection of vast world-class entertainment attractions. When Living in San Diego many of its Citizens enjoy visiting include the world-famous San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park, Sea World San Diego and LEGOLAND California. San Diego also offers its citizens an expansive variety of things to see and experience.
San Diego’s East County varies from light tender foothills to dazzling mile-high mountains historic mining towns, down to the 600,000-acre Anza Borrego Desert State Park. This offers San Diego citizens who are nature-conscious, an endless advantage to hike, camp, fish, bike, jog ,observe wildlife and much much more. In North County, the agricultural community produces a variety of different flowers. Wine growers also grow and harvest quality grapes that become excellent wines, in this area. Most of the wine is served at some of the most elegant restaurants and resorts.
70 miles of Pacific Ocean coastline supports the westside, year-round outdoor recreation, such as surfing, boating, sailing and swimming, is important but also a ton scientific research at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography is done. To the south, it’s a whole different country, Mexico, featuring its own cultural offerings in various towns .
San Diego’s arts and culture is one of the worlds finest. The hottest, new culinary arts prepare award-winning meals throughout the regions. In San Diego there is over 6,400 restaurants. San Diego is also home to the world famous Balboa Park. Balboa park is the largest urban cultural park in the U.S and houses 15 museums, numerous art galleries, gardens, the Tony Award-winning The Globe Theatres and the San Diego Zoo. Do You Like Golf? San Diego County also features 92 golf courses! It also contains some of the most beautiful beachfront resorts and luxury spas.
The most difficult decision to make regarding moving to San Diego is determining which region to move too. Everyone’s preferences are different. A website that really helped me explore my options of renting in San Diego was called Prop2GO.com. The people at Prop2GO.com found me the best apartment in San Diego and now I am living in a paradise.There is thousands of apartments in San Diego so it can be a bit tricky to narrow down your choice. Once you do though I will see you in San Diego Paradise!
Get your for sale by owner home ready for winter selling
Posted by Chas W. Leeper, SRA in Uncategorized on May 19th, 2010
If you are looking to sell your home, many real estate agents may push for spring or summertime to help with marketing. If you have chosen to sell your home yourself, better known as for sale by owner, then you are in control of when you put the house up on the market. Many people think that selling during the winter is a bad idea. Although the weather may not be the most inviting, you can successfully sell your for sale by owner home. Here are a few tips to get the most of the cold season.
During the winter months, the lawn may be dead as well as the flowers. Even so, it is important to keep the lawn well kept. Make sure to keep the sidewalks and driveways free of snow. If you don’t have the time to keep them shoveled and salted, it may be a good idea to hire someone to do this. It will help keep the lawn looking neat in appearance, but also prevent any sidewalk slip and falls!
When people think about winter, they think cozy fireplaces and sweet smells . A lot of for sale by owner sellers have a fear of the extra heating costs during the winter months, especially with people coming in and out to view the home. If you happen to have a fireplace, there is an advantage right there. You could use it for heating and appearance! It would be wise to start the fireplace shortly before anyone is due to arrive. This would give an instant tone of warm and cozy as soon as they come in.
Another great thing is to use warm colors . You want warm and inviting, steering clear of drabby or depressing. Having sweet smells fill the room is another great idea. You don’t want over-powering smells, but something like a fresh baked apple pie scent lingering in the backdrop would be good. All of these things go hand in hand while trying to create a scene. Potential buyers would feel right at home with a fireplace giving off cozy heat and the sweet smell of a baked apple pie!
Credit Repair After a Bankruptcy
Posted by Chas W. Leeper, SRA in Uncategorized on May 18th, 2010
Credit Repair after a bankruptcy can be very effective. Most of the time a person’s credit report will be pretty messed up after a bankruptcy because a lot of the creditors will continue to report balances on items that were discharged in the bankruptcy. When you dispute these items, the creditors will have to update the balances to zero. Often, the creditors will not even bother to respond to these disputes since they know they cannot get any money out of you even if they do respond.
Too often I have heard stories from people who have had a bk where their lawyer told them that everything would be cleared off the credit report after the bankruptcy. This may be true in some cases. I have not seen that happen very often. There are a few cases of lucky people who have actually had fairly accurate credit reports after their bankruptcy. The majority of the time though, this is not the case.
You need to get a copy of your credit report and get the dispute letters sent out. That is the first thing to do and you will find all the information needed to do that when you become a member of CreditBlossom.com.
The next thing you need to do is establish new credit. This may sound backwards, but this step is imperative to restoring your credit profile. The simplest thing to do is to get a secured credit card. You can look on CreditBlossom.com for this kind of credit card under Credit Building Tools after you are a member of our site. Membership is completely free and the benefits are huge for you as you will have access to our Credit Repair Letter Wiz™ which will allow you to write your dispute letters in a matter of minutes. Our site takes all the confusion out of ‘do it yourself’ credit repair. You’ll be glad you did this or we’ll give you your money back!! Since it is free, neither of us has anything to risk!
Long-term Growth with Private Money Lending
Posted by Chas W. Leeper, SRA in Uncategorized on May 14th, 2010
Why Private Money Lending?
Regardless of if you have a long term or short term investment strategy, private money lending is the fastest way to fund the profitability of your real estate portfolio. Private money lending works in the same manner as borrowing money from a bank, but the bank is a private individual with little or no stringent lending criteria who simply receives a Note and Deed of Trust or Mortgage (depending on the state you are investing in) in exchange for backing your deal.
Private money lenders can bring quickness and easy resolution to your deal by asking fewer questions and movingfunds faster. Being able to offer a quick closing with private funds will motivate sellers to take your offer over your competition, and will entice them to take a much lower price from you than they would from a traditional buyer.
Low Costs, Flexible Terms:
Private money lenders are extremely cost efficient , with ratesvarying from no points and 8% interest, to 3 points and 15%. Pricing and terms should differ depending on the overall risk associated with the deal. Private lenders can provide various types of funding including “flash cash” (when you only need funds for a short term ) to longer term notes as long as 5 years or more. Lenders may prefer to receive interest payments monthly, quarterly, annually, or at the time of loan maturity.
Transaction fees on Private Money Loans are smaller than most as private lenders do not have underwriters, processors, etc. on staff , and do not require the volume of paperwork as traditional or government-backed loans.
Why you should protect them, and how:
As a professional investor, you will want to protect the interests of your private lenders and yourself . We suggest providing them with the following documents to secure their investment capital:
o Promissory Note: This is your lender’s collateral for their investment funds
o Deed of Trust, or Mortgage (varies based on state ): This is the document that is recorded with the county clerk and recorder to publicly secure their money against the real property that you are providing as collateral
o Hazard Insurance Policy: List the Private Lender as the “Mortgagee” to protect them in case of loss due to natural disaster .
o Appraisal (optional): Many private lenders will easily research the value of a property online prior to making an investment decision. As many of your acquisitions will be properties that require significant renovation, an appraisal may be unnecessary to establish value if your purchase price is obviously well below market. If a lender does require an appraisal, be sure to give the appraiser a copy of your renovation scope of work with total renovation cost and ask the appraiser for an ARV (after repaired value) figure on the appraisal.
Private Hard Money Lenders Basics
Posted by Chas W. Leeper, SRA in Uncategorized on May 12th, 2010
There’s no closed book to getting a loan from a private hard money lender. Ever wonder why successful real estate investors are able to do 1 or 2 deals month after month?
They copy success.
Edit this texThere are four basic stepst
Step 1-
Don’t just sit on the sidelines.
Investors who are getting it done are submitting loan packages to private hard money lenders. They might submit the same property to several lenders to get it closed. They might submit several deals each and every month. They make a couple of good offers aweek, each and every week.
Step 2-
Try not to become obsessedt with the property. rather, fall in love with getting regular deals done.
disbursement month after month trying to find a lender who will fund that one property that you think is so great. Trying to hit a home run for $100,000 instead of going base for hits like $10,000, $20,000 or more. Working against the grain. none of these approaches work. Instead, determine lender conditions and what kinds of properties they are lending on, including for rehab hard money, and go get those properties that match up.
Step 3-
Do your homework.
Poorly prepared with incomplete documents usually don’t get approved, and if they do get funding approval, sometimes it just takes too long and you’ve already lost the contract. Lenders can usually help you get your loan closed in just a few days once they get a complete package. Some can do it in as little 1 to 2 days.
Step 4-
Try to focus on great geographic areas so you can create a database or card file, of qualified, buyers already to go with their conventional loans.
Once you have a lot of buyers who you know who are looking for property now, you can flip your property faster and get on to your next deal. The private hard money lenders will love you! And all the time you’ll be building a bigger and more profitable buyers listt. And you’ll be building solid relationships with private hard money lenders to fund your deals.
You cannot allow”analysis paralysis” get your investing business concern bogged down. Don’t “out-think” yourself. Not every offer you make is going to get accepted and not every loan package you submit is going to get approved but if you copy success you’ll get many, many offers approved and many, many loans approved, and many, many properties sold.
And that is just successful investors do. And they make a lot of money doing it. The Hard Money Loan Blueprint shows you how to put together a Loan Package to submit for a private hard money loan. Once you understand the process and what the lender needs, you will have much more success, because you’ll be doing it the right way, without guessing.
Two Short Sale Questions Homeowners Want Answered
Posted by Chas W. Leeper, SRA in Uncategorized on May 7th, 2010
When you approach someone about doing a Short Sale first and foremost on their mind is how a Short Sale will affect them. If you don’t answer this question quickly or the conversation isn’t likely to last long. Primarily two areas need to be addressed: Credit Score and Future Home Buying.
How a Short Sale Affects Credit Score
Sometimes people mistakenly think they are preventing damage to their credit if they agree to a short sale instead of a foreclosure but that simply isn’t true. In many cases their credit is already damaged if they haven’t been able to pay their mortgage. The truth is their credit score WILL be affected and could drop two or three hundred points. The FICO score drops the same for a foreclosure as it would a short sale. The only thing you can do as a Short Sale representative is to ask the lender to not send a negative report to credit agencies but don’t count on it. It is very rare for them to agree to such a request but just the fact that you’ll try may appease the homeowner even if denied.
How a Short Sale Affects Future Home Buying
Even though this home may be lost many homeowners will want to own again. They will likely ask if that will be possible if they do a Short Sale and is there any advantage by doing so. Typically homeowners who have a home foreclosed must wait a minimum of two to five years before they try to buy again. According to Fannie Mae guidelines homeowners can consider buying another home only two years after a short sale. Considering the default that’s a relatively short period of time. With this bit of information you can answer this question on a positive note. Encourage them to begin rebuilding their credit and save toward a down payment for their next new home.
After the issue of Credit Score and Future Home Buying is addressed then you can begin to explain the Short Sale process to them.