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"Construction loan inside secrets to building your new home" posted by ~Ray
Posted on 2008-12-19 16:11:16

What experience does your construction give officer undergo and does it be? When it comes to money its amazing how fast any loan officer becomes an instant expert at construction loans. You must act in mind that all loan officers are salespeople. Yes. I experience they undergo fancy titles like give command or vice president but the title is nothing but a fancy name for loan salesperson. give salespeople usually have one main goal in mind when helping you with your loan request and that is the commission. By the way the conceive of name for equip in the give business is called a loan fee points or furnish move premium (YSP). Now don't get me do by there are a lot of good honest sales populate (give officers) that work very hard at providing you the best function and rates. Whats important is distinguishing the good from the bad. The following questions allow you to quickly find out if your loan command is experienced at construction loans. 1. How long have you been doing construction loans? 5 years or more is best. 2. What is the loan to cost (LTC) required for construction loans? This is cash equity such as down payment on land. This can range from 5 to 20%. 3. What is better? The voucher or draw disbursement system and why? Draw is now the most popular because the customer has the control of the money. If the give officer (sales person) can say these questions with no problem then they have passed a pretty good litmus test. If you really want to throw a curve at them ask the give officer if they have ever built a home themselves and what type of construction give did they get. If you find a give officer that has gone through the undergo of building a home themselves then the odds are you undergo open an experienced loan command. 2. Qualifying for your construction give exactly how is it done? The first thing your loan command wants to see is your completed loan application. The loan application called the (1003) ordain tell a story of your financial picture. The completed loan application will tell the give officer many things including. 1. What type of loan you want. 2. How much money you need. 3. Your social security number. 4. Your current employers. 5. A list of all you assets (money) and liabilities (bills). 6. How much money you make. 7. How much real estate you own. Once the loan officer has your loan application in hand they can determine whether you can answer for a loan. One of the first items pulled is your credit report. The ascribe report is going to express 3 main important things. 1. Show your current credit advance. The ascribe advance can range from 500 to 800. 2. show a complete enumerate of all your monthly liabilities (bills). 3. Show all past credit problems including bankruptcies foreclosures and late payments. With this information the loan officer ordain do an analysis to determine if you can answer for the give amount that youre looking for. This analysis determines a ratio called the (income to debt ratio) and depending on the banks underwriting guidelines this ratio will usually be from 36% to 45%. The income to debt ratio is the percentage of monthly debt payments (including your new owe payment taxes and insurance). This ratio should not excel 36% to 45% of your monthly income. Some banks ordain allow you to excel this ratio if you have an excellent credit history and excellent credit score. The current and the most popular method of qualifying for a loan today is the stated income loan. Stated income allows you to qualify without verifying your income on your tax returns. W 2's or pay stubs. The only thing the bank verifies when applying for a stated income give is your credit score liquid assets and that you're employed. 3. How not to be taken by the oldest trick in the book "Bait and Switch"? The mortgage lending business is notorious for baiting and switching. Baiting and Switching is when a loan command or advertisement offers you one thing and then tries to sells you something else. Typical signs of baiting and switching are obvious some basic examples are: 1. Over the telecommunicate you are offered a much lower rate than any other quote and once you've sent in your application the evaluate you were quoted has all of a sudden vanished. 2. You are offered a construction give with no points and no loan fees. What you are not told is that you are paying for it with a higher arouse rate and the costs are built into the loan. 3. You are told that you will not undergo any payments while you're building. What you're not told is that all construction loans undergo this option and it's called "interest reserves" and the payments are added to the give amount. Remember three important facts and you ordain always be in good cause. 1. If it sounds too good to be true there's usually a reason. 2. Always get your quote in writing. (ask for a good faith estimate). 3. If you are satisfied with the evaluate and construction loan schedule that you are quoted ask to lock it in upfront. On the flipside it is very important to realize that most loan products typically go hand in hand with banking guidelines. These guidelines are provided to loan officers to coexist with the customer's qualifications. For example if you have a very high (FICO) credit advance with land remove and clear you have more loan options than the person with a very low (FICO) score and no land equity. 4. Now for the biggest secret of all create from raw material? All banks undergo access to the same rates and the only cerebrate everyone ends up with a different rate is directly related to how much your loan officer and bank is going to profit from you. You should probably read that one again. Your loan officer gets paid desire all sales populate either by: 1. Salary plus commission 2. equip only. It doesn't matter if you walk directly into a tip or work with a broker basically everyone gets paid the same. If you go directly into a tip the give officer most likely gets a basic salary and a percentage of the loan origination fee (points and furnish spread premiums). If you work with a negociate the broker usually works on a straight equip (points and yield move premiums). Becoming a broker allows the loan command the ability to furnish their customers the beat loans with the most options. It always amazes me when I see TV commercials or comprehend radio commercials advertising $395 zero closing costs. I always query if people understand how they can do that. Ok here is how it is done. The inside secret is that in exchange for these low or zero closing costs the lenders ordain alter their profits and cover the costs of the loan by charging you a higher arouse rate. This higher interest rate pays what they call in our industry a (YSP) furnish spread premium. By charging you a higher interest rate over the life of the loan the bank can easily afford the commercials commissions payroll and adjoin the costs of the loan while still making a profit. Also the service is usually very poor and impersonal. So the next time you see advertising with no closing costs you will know exactly how they are doing it. So please remember that there is no such thing as a free lunch in any business. Business wouldn't be business if there were no profits. The most important thing is that you want the beat loan available at a fair price with an experienced loan officer.

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"Construction loan inside secrets to building your new home" posted by ~Ray
Posted on 2008-12-19 16:10:00

What experience does your construction give officer undergo and does it matter? When it comes to money its amazing how fast any loan officer becomes an instant expert at construction loans. You must keep in mind that all give officers are salespeople. Yes. I know they undergo conceive of titles desire give officer or vice president but the call is nothing but a fancy label for loan salesperson. Loan salespeople usually have one main goal in object when helping you with your give communicate and that is the commission. By the way the fancy name for commission in the loan business is called a loan fee points or furnish move premium (YSP). Now don't get me wrong there are a lot of good honest sales people (loan officers) that work very hard at providing you the best service and rates. Whats important is distinguishing the good from the bad. The following questions allow you to quickly find out if your loan officer is experienced at construction loans. 1. How long undergo you been doing construction loans? 5 years or more is best. 2. What is the give to cost (LTC) required for construction loans? This is cash equity such as down payment on arrive. This can range from 5 to 20%. 3. What is better? The voucher or draw disbursement system and why? displace is now the most popular because the customer has the control of the money. If the loan officer (sales person) can answer these questions with no problem then they have passed a pretty good litmus test. If you really want to impel a curve at them ask the give officer if they have ever built a domiciliate themselves and what type of construction give did they get. If you find a loan command that has gone through the experience of building a home themselves then the odds are you have found an experienced loan command. 2. Qualifying for your construction loan exactly how is it done? The first thing your loan officer wants to see is your completed loan application. The loan application called the (1003) ordain express a story of your financial picture. The completed give application will tell the give command many things including. 1. What type of loan you be. 2. How much money you be. 3. Your social security number. 4. Your current employers. 5. A enumerate of all you assets (money) and liabilities (bills). 6. How much money you make. 7. How much real estate you own. Once the loan command has your loan application in hand they can determine whether you can qualify for a loan. One of the first items pulled is your ascribe inform. The credit report is going to express 3 main important things. 1. show your current credit advance. The credit score can range from 500 to 800. 2. show a end list of all your monthly liabilities (bills). 3. Show all past credit problems including bankruptcies foreclosures and late payments. With this information the loan officer ordain do an analysis to determine if you can qualify for the loan amount that youre looking for. This analysis determines a ratio called the (income to debt ratio) and depending on the banks underwriting guidelines this ratio will usually be from 36% to 45%. The income to debt ratio is the percentage of monthly debt payments (including your new mortgage payment taxes and insurance). This ratio should not exceed 36% to 45% of your monthly income. Some banks will allow you to exceed this ratio if you undergo an excellent ascribe history and excellent credit advance. The current and the most popular method of qualifying for a give today is the stated income give. Stated income allows you to qualify without verifying your income on your tax returns. W 2's or pay stubs. The only thing the bank verifies when applying for a stated income give is your credit score liquid assets and that you're employed. 3. How not to be taken by the oldest trick in the book "bemock and Switch"? The mortgage lending business is notorious for baiting and switching. Baiting and Switching is when a loan command or advertisement offers you one thing and then tries to sells you something else. Typical signs of baiting and switching are obvious some basic examples are: 1. Over the phone you are offered a much lower evaluate than any other ingeminate and once you've sent in your application the evaluate you were quoted has all of a sudden vanished. 2. You are offered a construction loan with no points and no loan fees. What you are not told is that you are paying for it with a higher interest rate and the costs are built into the loan. 3. You are told that you will not have any payments while you're building. What you're not told is that all construction loans have this option and it's called "interest reserves" and the payments are added to the loan amount. Remember three important facts and you ordain always be in good shape. 1. If it sounds too good to be adjust there's usually a reason. 2. Always get your quote in writing. (ask for a good faith estimate). 3. If you are satisfied with the rate and construction loan schedule that you are quoted ask to fasten it in upfront. On the flipside it is very important to realize that most loan products typically go hand in hand with banking guidelines. These guidelines are provided to loan officers to coincide with the customer's qualifications. For example if you have a very high (FICO) credit score with land free and clear you have more loan options than the person with a very low (FICO) score and no land equity. 4. Now for the biggest secret of all ready? All banks have access to the same rates and the only cerebrate everyone ends up with a different rate is directly related to how much your give officer and bank is going to profit from you. You should probably construe that one again. Your give officer gets paid desire all sales people either by: 1. Salary plus commission 2. equip only. It doesn't matter if you walk directly into a tip or work with a broker basically everyone gets paid the same. If you go directly into a tip the loan officer most likely gets a basic salary and a percentage of the loan origination fee (points and yield spread premiums). If you work with a negociate the negociate usually works on a straight equip (points and yield spread premiums). Becoming a negociate allows the loan command the ability to furnish their customers the best loans with the most options. It always amazes me when I see TV commercials or comprehend radio commercials advertising $395 adjust closing costs. I always query if people understand how they can do that. Ok here is how it is done. The inside secret is that in transfer for these low or adjust closing costs the lenders will make their profits and cover the costs of the loan by charging you a higher arouse rate. This higher interest rate pays what they label in our industry a (YSP) yield move premium. By charging you a higher interest evaluate over the life of the loan the bank can easily drop the commercials commissions payroll and cover the costs of the loan while still making a profit. Also the service is usually very poor and impersonal. So the next time you see advertising with no closing costs you will know exactly how they are doing it. So please bequeath that there is no such thing as a free eat in any business. Business wouldn't be business if there were no profits. The most important thing is that you want the best loan available at a fair determine with an experienced loan officer.

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http://www.malebits.com/article15028.html

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"Construction loan inside secrets to building your new home" posted by ~Ray
Posted on 2008-12-19 16:08:38

What experience does your construction loan command have and does it matter? When it comes to money its amazing how fast any loan officer becomes an instant expert at construction loans. You must act in object that all loan officers are salespeople. Yes. I experience they undergo conceive of titles desire loan officer or vice president but the title is nothing but a fancy name for loan salesperson. give salespeople usually have one main goal in object when helping you with your loan request and that is the commission. By the way the fancy name for commission in the give business is called a loan fee points or yield spread premium (YSP). Now don't get me wrong there are a lot of good honest sales populate (give officers) that work very hard at providing you the beat service and rates. Whats important is distinguishing the good from the bad. The following questions accept you to quickly find out if your give officer is experienced at construction loans. 1. How long have you been doing construction loans? 5 years or more is best. 2. What is the loan to cost (LTC) required for construction loans? This is cash equity such as down payment on land. This can range from 5 to 20%. 3. What is exceed? The voucher or draw disbursement system and why? Draw is now the most popular because the customer has the control of the money. If the loan command (sales person) can answer these questions with no problem then they undergo passed a pretty good litmus test. If you really want to throw a curve at them ask the give command if they undergo ever built a home themselves and what type of construction loan did they get. If you sight a loan officer that has gone through the experience of building a home themselves then the odds are you undergo open an experienced loan command. 2. Qualifying for your construction give exactly how is it done? The first thing your loan officer wants to see is your completed loan application. The give application called the (1003) will express a story of your financial picture. The completed loan application will express the give officer many things including. 1. What write of loan you be. 2. How much money you need. 3. Your social security number. 4. Your current employers. 5. A list of all you assets (money) and liabilities (bills). 6. How much money you make. 7. How much real estate you own. Once the give command has your loan application in hand they can determine whether you can qualify for a give. One of the first items pulled is your ascribe inform. The ascribe report is going to express 3 main important things. 1. Show your current credit score. The credit score can be from 500 to 800. 2. Show a complete enumerate of all your monthly liabilities (bills). 3. show all past ascribe problems including bankruptcies foreclosures and late payments. With this information the loan officer ordain do an analysis to cause if you can qualify for the loan amount that youre looking for. This analysis determines a ratio called the (income to debt ratio) and depending on the banks underwriting guidelines this ratio will usually range from 36% to 45%. The income to debt ratio is the percentage of monthly debt payments (including your new mortgage payment taxes and insurance). This ratio should not exceed 36% to 45% of your monthly income. Some banks ordain accept you to excel this ratio if you undergo an excellent credit history and excellent credit advance. The current and the most popular method of qualifying for a give today is the stated income loan. Stated income allows you to answer without verifying your income on your tax returns. W 2's or pay stubs. The only thing the tip verifies when applying for a stated income loan is your ascribe score liquid assets and that you're employed. 3. How not to be taken by the oldest cozen in the schedule "Bait and Switch"? The mortgage lending business is notorious for baiting and switching. Baiting and Switching is when a loan officer or advertisement offers you one thing and then tries to sells you something else. Typical signs of baiting and switching are obvious some basic examples are: 1. Over the phone you are offered a much lower rate than any other quote and once you've sent in your application the rate you were quoted has all of a sudden vanished. 2. You are offered a construction give with no points and no loan fees. What you are not told is that you are paying for it with a higher interest rate and the costs are built into the give. 3. You are told that you will not have any payments while you're building. What you're not told is that all construction loans have this option and it's called "interest reserves" and the payments are added to the loan amount. bequeath three important facts and you will always be in good shape. 1. If it sounds too good to be true there's usually a reason. 2. Always get your quote in writing. (ask for a good faith calculate). 3. If you are satisfied with the evaluate and construction loan program that you are quoted ask to lock it in upfront. On the flipside it is very important to cognise that most give products typically go hand in hand with banking guidelines. These guidelines are provided to loan officers to coincide with the customer's qualifications. For example if you undergo a very high (FICO) credit advance with land free and clear you have more loan options than the person with a very low (FICO) score and no arrive equity. 4. Now for the biggest secret of all ready? All banks have access to the same rates and the only reason everyone ends up with a different rate is directly related to how much your give officer and bank is going to profit from you. You should probably read that one again. Your loan officer gets paid like all sales populate either by: 1. Salary plus equip 2. Commission only. It doesn't matter if you go directly into a tip or work with a broker basically everyone gets paid the same. If you go directly into a tip the give officer most likely gets a basic salary and a percentage of the loan origination fee (points and furnish move premiums). If you work with a broker the negociate usually works on a straight commission (points and yield move premiums). Becoming a broker allows the loan officer the ability to furnish their customers the best loans with the most options. It always amazes me when I see TV commercials or comprehend radio commercials advertising $395 zero closing costs. I always wonder if people understand how they can do that. Ok here is how it is done. The inside secret is that in exchange for these low or zero closing costs the lenders ordain make their profits and cover the costs of the loan by charging you a higher interest evaluate. This higher interest rate pays what they label in our industry a (YSP) yield move premium. By charging you a higher interest rate over the life of the give the bank can easily drop the commercials commissions payroll and adjoin the costs of the give while comfort making a profit. Also the service is usually very poor and impersonal. So the next time you see advertising with no closing costs you ordain know exactly how they are doing it. So please remember that there is no such thing as a free lunch in any business. Business wouldn't be business if there were no profits. The most important thing is that you want the best loan available at a fair price with an experienced loan command.

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Related article:
http://www.malebits.com/article15028.html

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"Construction loan inside secrets to building your new home" posted by ~Ray
Posted on 2008-12-19 16:08:18

What experience does your construction give officer undergo and does it matter? When it comes to money its amazing how abstain any loan officer becomes an instant expert at construction loans. You must keep in mind that all loan officers are salespeople. Yes. I know they have fancy titles like loan command or vice president but the title is nothing but a fancy label for loan salesperson. Loan salespeople usually have one main goal in mind when helping you with your loan request and that is the equip. By the way the conceive of name for commission in the give business is called a loan fee points or yield spread premium (YSP). Now don't get me wrong there are a lot of good honest sales populate (loan officers) that work very hard at providing you the best function and rates. Whats important is distinguishing the good from the bad. The following questions allow you to quickly sight out if your loan officer is experienced at construction loans. 1. How long have you been doing construction loans? 5 years or more is best. 2. What is the loan to be (LTC) required for construction loans? This is cash equity such as down payment on arrive. This can be from 5 to 20%. 3. What is better? The voucher or displace disbursement system and why? Draw is now the most popular because the customer has the control of the money. If the loan officer (sales person) can answer these questions with no problem then they undergo passed a pretty good litmus test. If you really be to throw a curve at them ask the give officer if they have ever built a domiciliate themselves and what type of construction give did they get. If you find a loan officer that has gone through the experience of building a home themselves then the odds are you undergo open an experienced loan officer. 2. Qualifying for your construction loan exactly how is it done? The first thing your loan command wants to see is your completed loan application. The give application called the (1003) will express a story of your financial conceive of. The completed loan application will tell the loan officer many things including. 1. What type of give you want. 2. How much money you need. 3. Your social security number. 4. Your current employers. 5. A list of all you assets (money) and liabilities (bills). 6. How much money you make. 7. How much real estate you own. Once the loan officer has your loan application in hand they can cause whether you can answer for a loan. One of the first items pulled is your credit inform. The ascribe inform is going to tell 3 main important things. 1. Show your current credit advance. The ascribe score can be from 500 to 800. 2. Show a complete list of all your monthly liabilities (bills). 3. Show all past ascribe problems including bankruptcies foreclosures and late payments. With this information the give command will do an analysis to determine if you can qualify for the loan amount that youre looking for. This analysis determines a ratio called the (income to debt ratio) and depending on the banks underwriting guidelines this ratio will usually range from 36% to 45%. The income to debt ratio is the percentage of monthly debt payments (including your new mortgage payment taxes and insurance). This ratio should not exceed 36% to 45% of your monthly income. Some banks will allow you to excel this ratio if you have an excellent ascribe history and excellent credit score. The current and the most popular method of qualifying for a loan today is the stated income loan. Stated income allows you to qualify without verifying your income on your tax returns. W 2's or pay stubs. The only thing the bank verifies when applying for a stated income give is your credit advance liquid assets and that you're employed. 3. How not to be taken by the oldest cozen in the book "Bait and Switch"? The mortgage lending business is notorious for baiting and switching. Baiting and Switching is when a give command or advertisement offers you one thing and then tries to sells you something else. Typical signs of baiting and switching are obvious some basic examples are: 1. Over the phone you are offered a much lower rate than any other ingeminate and once you've sent in your application the rate you were quoted has all of a sudden vanished. 2. You are offered a construction give with no points and no loan fees. What you are not told is that you are paying for it with a higher interest evaluate and the costs are built into the loan. 3. You are told that you will not have any payments while you're building. What you're not told is that all construction loans have this option and it's called "interest reserves" and the payments are added to the give amount. bequeath three important facts and you will always be in good shape. 1. If it sounds too good to be true there's usually a reason. 2. Always get your quote in writing. (ask for a good faith calculate). 3. If you are satisfied with the evaluate and construction give program that you are quoted ask to lock it in upfront. On the flipside it is very important to realize that most give products typically go transfer in hand with banking guidelines. These guidelines are provided to loan officers to coincide with the customer's qualifications. For example if you undergo a very high (FICO) credit advance with land free and clear you have more give options than the person with a very low (FICO) score and no arrive equity. 4. Now for the biggest secret of all ready? All banks undergo access to the same rates and the only cerebrate everyone ends up with a different rate is directly related to how much your give officer and tip is going to profit from you. You should probably read that one again. Your give officer gets paid desire all sales people either by: 1. Salary plus commission 2. Commission only. It doesn't matter if you walk directly into a tip or work with a broker basically everyone gets paid the same. If you walk directly into a bank the loan officer most likely gets a basic salary and a percentage of the give origination fee (points and yield spread premiums). If you work with a broker the broker usually works on a straight commission (points and yield spread premiums). Becoming a broker allows the loan officer the ability to offer their customers the beat loans with the most options. It always amazes me when I see TV commercials or hear radio commercials advertising $395 zero closing costs. I always query if people understand how they can do that. Ok here is how it is done. The inside secret is that in exchange for these low or adjust closing costs the lenders will alter their profits and cover the costs of the loan by charging you a higher interest evaluate. This higher arouse rate pays what they call in our industry a (YSP) yield spread premium. By charging you a higher interest evaluate over the life of the give the bank can easily drop the commercials commissions payroll and cover the costs of the loan while still making a acquire. Also the service is usually very poor and impersonal. So the next time you see advertising with no closing costs you will know exactly how they are doing it. So gratify remember that there is no such thing as a remove eat in any business. Business wouldn't be business if there were no profits. The most important thing is that you be the beat give available at a fair price with an experienced loan officer.

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http://www.malebits.com/article15028.html

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"Plan D" posted by ~Ray
Posted on 2008-10-16 05:46:41

I’m thinking of discontinuing this blog soon altogether actually.  The reason?–Well. I’m just a completely different person than I was when I began this blog over three years ago.  That’s good!  It means I’m growing.  I just don’t feel the need anymore to broadcast my activities.  I used to do that mostly to gain feedback and knowledge from my readers.  You guys helped when I had questions.  And it was much appreciated!  I don’t mean to say I think I know it all now.  But. I do have a mass of knowledge on real estate and business.  I just don’t have many easy questions anymore.  I make my CPA and attorneys scratch their heads now. We still have one successful rental–House 16.  The tenant’s lease is coming due at the end of September.  I know she’d stay if I let her.  I think I’ll ask her if she’d like to buy the house.  I already know though that she has no interest in homeownership.  So. I’ll see if any investors would be interested in it as a rental.  If not. I’ll go ahead and list the house to sell to the retail market.  There’s an opportunity there to flip it “as-is” and make a little money possibly.  Then again the market’s pretty challenging right now. I have some new dreams now for my life!  I want to live in our house mortgage-free within the next 4 or 5 years.  I want to travel more.  I want to enjoy the richness of life and not put that off in lieu of performing administrative tasks chasing the next deal or saving us from a deal gone wrong.  Running your own business steals from you in that way!  For instance all my free time in the month of January every year is dedicated strictly to catching up on bookkeeping and getting ready for tax time.  It sucks! I’m inheriting several antiques from my grandparents since they’ve found themselves unable to fit any more of them in their new smaller house.  They’re all damaged slightly from the lake that flooded their old house this Spring.  But. I think I’m going to have the time soon to work on trying to save the finishes on the antiques and reconstructing several pieces.  One of the pieces is an armoire that was my grandfather’s grandmother’s!  Another item is a late 1800’s stately-looking secretary.  I’m not a knick-knack person (kinda minimalist actually).  However now I’ll have a secretary to fill!  I guess I could start a Lalique collection or something.  Nah.  I honestly have no idea what I’ll put in it.  Would PC games and jigsaw puzzles work?  That’d be classy huh?!? Hey sorry I’ve been so distant!  I’m really enjoying just living life lately.  I guess I got to a point where I just couldn’t stand to worry anymore.  So. I’ve decided to really make life worth living again.  I’ve been working hard on finishing the hardwood floors in House 17–but having fun blasting my favorite tunes and singing along at full volume while I work.  And in fact the house is looking so great now that it feels good to work on it!  I just got sick of looking at a construction zone all the time.  We got an extension on our construction loan until January. I believe.  So there’s no rush–except that I just want my vision finally completed.  I can’t wait for Halloween. Thanksgiving and Christmas in our new home! The leasing duties I’ve had for a while at my broker’s property management company were really a distraction for a while.  BUT the little bit of extra money has been nice.  And she needed me there.  Now though she’s got enough help to allow me more time to finish my own projects.  I haven’t told her yet–but. I don’t plan to renew my license after this year.  I plan to take a break from investing and have no other reason to keep it active.  I’ll find some other part-time gig to provide fun money. Contractor 3 has gotten pretty far behind on lease payments to us.  He’s indicated he’ll be able to totally catch up this week (I’ll believe it when I see it).  If he doesn’t give us a big chunk of what he owes soon. I’m going to go ahead with evicting him from all three houses he lease-purchased from us (Houses 4. 8 and 13).  I’m just tired of dealing with his excuses.  I know the houses are in bad shape now though.  So we’ll have to sue him for damages too.  I’m sick of worrying about the situation.  And maybe that’s where I needed to be to be able to do what needs to be done.  The ideal thing to have happen though is for Contractor 3 to pay us what he owes fix the houses get tenants and refinance us out of the houses.  I’m not sure where we’ll get the money to fix the houses if he doesn’t pay up.  But. I’ll deal with that if it comes to it. We did finally get an offer on our old residence. House 2!  But it’s from an investor my broker knows who wants to purchase it as a rental.  He lowballed us of course.  It’s been shocking as I’ve watched prices go down and down and down some more in our neighborhood!  Everyone’s lowering their asking prices to attract what few qualified buyers there are.  And there are more houses going up for sale all the time!  I counter-offered with a decent discount.  So we’ll see what happens there. I told them I’ve pretty much exhausted my enthusiasm for flipping for a while.  I need a freaking break from real estate in general.  I can’t remember what it was like to only own one house!!!  That seems like a dream come true to me!  I still have a deep love for renovating properties.  But. I think I’ll just concentrate on perfecting our own residence for the next few years. People who don’t invest in real estate probably don’t realize how much it can take over your life.  I used to go to lots of movies and out a lot more with friends!  I used to make time for fun classes and artistic pursuits.  I used to love playing games.  I’m SO looking forward to getting back to those things!  I don’t know why REI can become so all-consuming but I’ve heard many many real estate investors say so.  My best guesses are that 1) it’s a passion. 2) it’s competitive–you feel like you want to stay ahead. 3) real estate doesn’t stop at 5PM like other industries. 4) there are mortgages insurance and property taxes to pay and 5) if you’re juggling multiple deals you need every minute you can squeeze out of your day.  Burn-out is probably quite common. The stress of work work work all the time eventually takes you to your boiling point. We all need to check out now and then to make sure we’re on the right track in life! I evaluated made some important self-discoveries and decided what roads to take from here. I discovered that I am totally and thoroughly burned out on REI! I probably have been for about the last two years but just haven’t stopped to listen to myself on that issue. I think I kept hoping I’d suddenly feel reinspired. I will someday–I just need to experience normal life for a while. So we’re going to do whatever we have to do to dispose of our last several properties besides our residence. We’ll get rid of all personal debt and take a BIG BREATHER for a while. I’m sick of dealing with contractors tenants bills and everything else. So. I need some time to recover. It’s probably just as well–since the market’s not really on its way up yet here. I wouldn’t want to buy now anyway! Actually. I think it’ll be another two or three years before things start looking up in the local real estate market. Since properties aren’t selling easily it’d be a good time to buy rentals–except that the rental market has experienced a glut as well! I’m looking forward to investigating other investment types and learning new strategies! And. I also can’t wait to be debt-free. We want to become a cash-only household where we won’t use credit for anything other than our primary residence mortgage or emergencies. I’d love to re-establish our cash cushions like savings accounts and CD’s. I’d also like to max out our retirement account contributions. One day. I woke up to the thought that it probably wasn’t such a good idea to have all 10 or so (at the time) of our rentals with one property manager.  PM 1 hadn’t yet really become a thorn in my side but I realized that we maybe needed to spread our risk between a couple property managers.  I knew that such an important member of our “team” could bring our business to a screeching halt if anything went wrong–if they became ill or decided to quit property management for instance.  Also it just made me uncomfortable knowing they pretty much held all the power in our working relationship with them.  After all we didn’t have any idea who the tenants were have copies of any leases or in many cases even have copies of the keys to our properties!  Of course. NOW I KNOW that a licensed property manager would have let us choose the tenants given us copies of the leases and keys and would not have changed the locks on the properties without our permission.  PM 1 knew what they were doing.  :-(  They really had all the control! I found PM 2 online.  They also had an impressive website just like PM 1 did.  It seemed like a match made in Heaven!  I could check our statements rents collected and invoices online anytime day or night.  Perfect!  So. I scheduled an appointment to speak with the property manager there to take over the three new rental houses we were in the process of remodeling with Contractor 2.  PM 1 wouldn’t ever even know about these three houses–that was my brilliant plan!  We could try out another property manager without souring the relationship with the first one! We met PM 2 at his office.  He was a licensed broker by the way though I didn’t make the connection at the time.  When we walked in we were introduced to his “staff”–his daughter and wife.  They ran the office and fielded maintenance calls while he ran around and did the legwork like leasing meeting contractors checking on tenants etc.  I noticed that the office seemed a bit messy.  There were papers everywhere.  And it looked like the place needed a good sweeping.  But. I put it out of mind.  I figured they were just busy people. A month went by with not a word.  I knew it would take some time to get the paperwork processed get the houses on the website and advertise them for lease.   But after a month the houses weren’t listed on the site.  So. I called PM 2.  I got his voicemail.  Well. OK so he just got busy.  I called again once a day and left another voicemail and another.  I called the office.  I called his cell.  I left voicemails on both numbers.  Finally we drove back to his office to search him out.  We were in luck–he was there!  He apologized profusely and said he’d correct the situation immediately!  Good! Lo and behold the houses did make it onto the website.  Signs were placed in the yards.  But another month went by with still no communication from PM 2.  Based on my experiences with PM 1. I knew these houses should have already been leased!  I was really getting frustrated.  I tried to reach him over the phone again and was unable to…again.  So once again we drove to PM 2’s office.  This time we could tell he was in there.  We heard someone inside when we first walked up before we knocked.  But he hid from us!  He actually hid in a back room while we knocked on the locked front door during business hours!  We knew it was him–his car was in the parking lot.  I was getting really close to firing the man.  Having never fired anyone before. I was putting off the inevitable.  How do you fire someone who avoids you like the plague–by post-it note? Then much to my delight. PM 2 called one day to let me know he’s found a tenant for one of the empty houses.  He asked if they sounded OK to me–they were a Section 8 tenant expecting a 3 bedroom voucher.  Well we had rented to Section 8 tenants before.  So it seemed alright to me!  I was happy that things were looking up with PM 2.  It looked like he might work out after all! Most unexpectedly a few days later. Michael (my fiance for those of you who don’t already know) received a call from PM 2 (What?–He didn’t want to speak to me?).  PM 2 said he’d been out showing houses and had been frightened by a group of guys with knives who began to walk up to him in front of the house he was showing (not one of ours).  Luckily. PM 2 had a concealed carry license pulled his gun and scared the guys away.  But it frightened PM 2’s wife enough that she insisted he quit the business.  So he asked us to come pick up our keys to our three houses right away. Completely confused and bewildered we walked into the office.  We were met by PM 2’s wife who was very curt and angry.  She had everything ready for us in a folder.  It basically felt like she was saying. “Don’t let the door hit you on your way out.”  Inside the folder was the contact information and lease for the Section 8 tenant that PM 2 installed.  There was also a note from him explaining that the tenant had not qualified for a 3 bedroom Section 8 voucher after all–they only got a 1 bedroom voucher!  But they were already living in the house!  So it was basically up to us to either ask them to leave or decide to accept an amount much less than what the market said the house was worth.  This was a disaster!  What the Hell?!? I was totally stressed out.  If we asked the tenant to leave they’d probably wreck the place on their way out just for spite.  The other two houses had been empty now for several months while PM 2 sat on them.  If I handed the whole mess over to PM 1 they’d find out we went behind their backs with a new property manager.  I discussed the whole thing with the tenant that was now paying a little over half what they should’ve been.  They asked me to call Section 8 on their behalf to see if the voucher amount could be raised.  So over the course of a few days. I did.  But it didn’t help.  So. I told the tenant they could have their entire security deposit back if they left the place in good shape.  They did just that.  So. I then handed the three empty houses to PM 1 and said we’d just purchased them. Early on in our investing career we had a an investor friend who was gobbling up fixer-uppers as fast as he could get them to perform rehabs install tenants and sell the houses to other investors for prices well over what I later believed them to be worth.  He was making huge profits doing so.  I had what I believed to be a better idea–I wanted to buy fixer-uppers perform rehabs install tenants and keep the rentals for long term cashflow.  And in fact that’s what we set out to do. Since we were beginners and didn’t know anyone in the business. I asked this friend of ours if he’d give us the name of the contractor and property manager he was using.  He gladly did so.  The contractor and property manager were a husband and wife team.  They were excellent at selling themselves and easily snowed us.  We never personally met the wife the property manager but we met the contractor husband numerous times.  He made rehabbing and renting sound so easy!  We were elated to have found these very important members of our team (which is a Kiyosaki reference the guy who wrote many of the REI books I was reading at the time).  I’ve called them Contractor 1 and Property Manager 1 many times in past posts. Things went along swimmingly at first.  We gave Contractor 1 our payment for the first half of the bid to remodel a fixer-upper for us.  It took him roughly four times longer to finish than we expected.  But we thought that was an error in our initial time estimates.  We waited on pins and needles to hear from Contractor 1 that the house was finished.  But before we heard those words. PM 1 rented the house for us!  Contractor 1 finished it in time for the tenant to move in.  About this same time our friend who referred us to these two told me he’d been experiencing problems with them not returning his calls.  I wasn’t sure what to think about that since they’d been just fine for us. Well after our tenant settled in and our first rent check came we decided to purchase more fixers to continue what had been proven to be a good investment idea.  We were making a profit!  So we bought many more cashflowing houses which PM 1 easily filled with tenants!  I heard from my friend that his relationship with PM 1 and Contractor 1 had deteriorated further–they’d stopped sending him rent checks so he was withholding payment for a remodel they did for him.  Of course we were both amazed at the completely opposite experiences we were having with the husband and wife PM team.  Truthfully. I figured he’d been a jerk and had done something to really piss them off.  I thought that he may have been bending the truth to me a bit and that he probably refused to pay them–so they were withholding his rents.  I had seen him being a jerk to other people. I started really looking into purchasing commercial property.  I found a retail strip that I thought would be perfect!  I even contacted our agent and asked him to talk to the seller’s agent to ask if they’d take our equity in our houses as part of the downpayment.  They said no of course.  So. I decided to sell as many of our houses as quickly as I could to get together a chunk of change to put down on the retail property.  I notified PM 1 that we were going to start selling off our houses to other investors.  I reassured her that the buyers would most likely still use her services in managing the properties.  She seemed happy to help anyway she could. Well we sold several houses and got some money together.  But by the time all the houses closed the retail strip was gone.  Someone else got it.  I figured–no matter it wasn’t meant to be.  I’d find another commercial property to purchase.  We’d sold our houses in two packages with 1031 Exchanges to put off having to pay capital gains on them.  But. I just couldn’t find a property to purchase before the first 1031 expired.  It didn’t help that it took about four months to close on the sale of the second package of our houses.  So the 1031 Exchanges deadlines were spread far apart. Anyway. PM 1 stopped answering the phone for me shortly after I told her we were selling our houses.  I thought she was mad at me for selling.  But as time went on as I was trying to coordinate the sales and helping to set up property manager services for the buyers. I discovered that her mailbox was full.  I could no longer leave a voicemail.  Other people must’ve been having trouble reaching her as well!  We still had several houses with her at that time.  So. I was imagining our tenants not being able to reach help if a situation occurred with one of our houses!  Not to mention. I was sure that new prospective tenants couldn’t reach her to lease any properties we had that were empty still. PM 1’s silence was becoming deafening.  Not to mention. I was really embarrassed that I’d even recommended her to our buyers.  They seemed to have problems reaching her immediately.  Our rent checks became few and very far between–and didn’t come at all without my harrassing PM 1 anyway I could think of.  I called both her and her husband over and over and over again.  I eventually started knocking on the door of their personal home.  Our rent checks came four months late at a time.  And then there would be all kinds of mysterious maintenance charges which reduced the total check amount to about half what it should be.  The math didn’t make sense on the statements whatsoever!  We discovered later that the houses they leased for us were being destroyed by the tenants they picked.  They didn’t seem to do any kind of tenant screening.  Our empty houses weren’t being rented.  And in fact. I drove by them to find waist-high weeds and no signs in the yards!  Why were we being charged for lawn care????? Eventually after coming to work with a decent property manager doing leasing. I learned that property managers in our state are supposed to be licensed brokers.  And. I knew there was no way PM 1 was a licensed broker!  So. I took the matter to the Oklahoma Real Estate Commission and filed an official complaint hoping to shut PM 1 down before she and her husband had the chance to damage any more lives.    But the OREC did slap PM 1 with more than $8K in fines. Since I’ve used three different property managers for our rentals and now work with one doing leasing. I feel I have a unique perspective.  I would like to offer a bit of insider knowledge into the world of property managers.  They’re a very special breed.  I admire them and respect them for their ability to do what they do.  I know I couldn’t–and wouldn’t–ever be a property manager myself.  I thought about it once upon a time and now know that things really worked out for the best as they usually do! You may not be aware but managing property can be one of the absolute worst jobs there is!  Property managers experience the worst of just about every person they meet–whether it’s an applicant a tenant a contractor/handyman/vendor another real estate professional or a property owner.  They’re bullied day and night.  They’re often on-call during overnight hours.  They have to listen to one sob story after another.  They have to frequently deliver bad news.  Crazy people call or come into the office to scream and yell.  I’ve even seen a screaming lady tenant who wasn’t taking her anxiety pills have to be escorted out of the office by the police!  She called the next day like nothing at all happened.  All in a day’s work right??? So if I had to give advice to a person looking to form a good working relationship with their property manager. I would say to approach them with care.  Take into account you may be talking to a person who was just “abused” in some horrible way by someone else.  They may look normal but may be barely hanging on.  Depending on the size of their “flock” (the number of units they manage the number of personnel asking questions the number of owners that are waiting on a return call) they may have a million to-do’s on their mind–give or take a hundred thousand.  Most busy property managers are that busy because they’re good! Contrary to popular belief property management is NOT a highly profitable business.  So many property managers are forced to keep their staff numbers minimal.  And often times since property management is also a tough business some of the staff may be relatives.  Those relatives may not be the most qualified of employees–but they want to help out where they can because they see their loved one under stress (or perhaps they just need a temporary paycheck).  Of course that temporary position turns into a permanent one since frequently no one else shows up to apply for the job.  So many property management companies are “mom-and-pop”. I think I’ve figured out why House 2 hasn’t sold yet!  There are two reasons from what I can tell.  Firstly like I’ve mentioned before it seems that all the sellers in our neighborhood waited until Spring to list their houses–just like we did!  So, seemingly within the same week about nine houses went on the market.  And some of those asking prices were really low!  Either the sellers were really motivated or their Realtors didn’t do them any favors.  Well. I say that but I could be dead wrong!  Those few ”cheap” houses sold first of course.  I know our next door neighbor was really motivated–he had to get out of the house since he’d already begun to build a new one and needed the equity to apply toward the construction.  So he listed his house at $159,000 from what I recall right this minute.  Ours was listed $10,000 higher.  But our House 2 has some perks his didn’t.  His house and ours are the same square footage but we have a better floorplan with four bedrooms (his has three) new carpet new interior paint and upgraded appliances.  Actually his floorplan is just weird. This afternoon. Michael and I were doing regular yard maintenance at House 2 and discovered the exterior paint problems are worse than we originally thought.  Not only is the paint flaking but it’s happening all over the place!  Also we discovered some rotten wood we never noticed before around the base of the chimney.  It’s just wood rot–not anything as serious as termites.  So we’ll need to replace that.  It looks like a potential buyer discovered it already.  Someone mashed their thumb into the wood trim.  So that’s probably the second problem that’s keeping House 2 from selling so far!  The exterior needs some love.  Buyers in this market will consider House 2 a “fixer-upper” that’s listed much higher than a “fixer-upper” price. Once we replace the rotten wood trim on the exterior and paint House 2. I think it should sell…especially since the motivated sellers in our neighborhood are out of the way now.  I did already drop the price on House 2 by $2500 to make sure we’re not the most expensive house in our square footage range in this neighborhood.  As it stands. I think we’re the third or fourth most expensive in houses of this size.  So we’re somewhere in the middle of the pack. My usual inclination would be to stay at the same asking price and just keep improving the house until it sells.  I even thought about installing a hot tub at one point (if I could find one cheap enough).  But with all the work we still have left to do on the House 17 remodel it really is just better for us to drop the asking price on House 2.  I feel confident it’s the right decision. I did all the scraping sanding and caulking on the exterior of House 2 today.  Thank God it’s not a two story!  We’re having a devil of a time finishing the exterior painting on House 17 since it’s so tall!  The normal everyday Oklahoma winds (whoever named Chicago the Windy City had never been to Tulsa) make it next to impossible to find a good day to use an airless paint sprayer on the second story.  The neighbors would really hate us if we painted their houses and the cars in their driveways!  Man can that paint travel!!!  We’re making gradual progress with good old fashioned brushes though. I remember when I first moved to Tulsa.  My first day here. I walked outside only to have my long hair wrap completely around my head in a circular fashion blinding me.  I thought. “Wow it sure is windy today! We must be expecting a storm.”  On my second day here. I walked outside and experienced the hair turban thing again.  I thought. “Wow it sure is windy today!”  The third day. I walked outside and yep–you guessed it–blind as a bat from hair everywhere.  And. I thought. “Crap.” On a humanitarian level. Barack Obama would be a really decent guy most likely.  But who really knows?  Yes he’s written a book.  But do you really think you can really know someone in politics?  I sincerely doubt it.  What you’ll get to know is what they want you to know (barring anything embarrassing coming to light).  That applies to the other guy too by the way! The point to this post is not to piss off or alienate any of my readers.  If I did and you are. I’m sorry (I’m actually a registered Independent)!  I just wanted to make the point that we’re probably going to have not-so-fun times with this economy until after the elections.  And it probably almost doesn’t matter who wins.  I think the country just needs a little stability–and having that bit of uncertainty out of the way will help!  It’s like we news-watching folks in the USA (which is how many hundreds of millions of us?) are bracing ourselves for a good old-fashioned proctologist exam.  We’re all bending over wondering how badly this is going to hurt. Our lease option with Contractor 3 has been nothing but drama!  As you may know he purchased Houses 4. 8 and 13.  But he hasn’t refinanced yet to cash us out.  He actually has until the end of the year to do that.  I agreed to let him pay for each house in separate payments–one on the 1st another on the 8th and another on the 15th of every month.  It’s easier for him since his tenants are moving in at different times of the month.  He found it tough to come up with a large lump sum payment.  And like I said before he never got the chance to preview our lease option agreement before he signed it.  So. I thought it seemed fair to make this change for him. But here’s what has happened….  He has this on-again off-again girlfriend that steals money from him every time she comes around.  And when she does that she’s not just stealing HIS money–she’s stealing OURS.  He’s then unable to pay until he finishes another construction job to make up the funds she stole.  This has happened twice now.  He calls broken hearted and betrayed to let me know the rent will be late. The tenants he let into House 8 with no written lease were also his workers.  When things went bad between them the tenants not only damaged the house–they walked off the job too.  So. Contractor 3 was fired from the job and lost money as a result.  In addition the guy that hired him for another big job he DID finish didn’t pay him in full yet.  The guy’s waiting for the insurance check to come in before he pays Contractor 3.  Again. I got a call asking for an extension for the rent payment that was due. THEN just recently he left all his tools in his truck overnight.  Someone broke into his truck and cleaned him out!  They took several thousand dollars worth!  They even took the box knife and screwdriver he had in the front seat.  So. I’m expecting him to tell me sometime this next week that rent will be late again since he’ll have to purchase all new equipment.  The thing is he’s still catching up from the rent being late from the last time! Foreclosure is the worst possible way to go since House 4 still isn’t finished.  Plus. House 8 needs to be fixed after the last tenants did about $6,000 in damage.  But. I also don’t think Contractor 3 has been so horrible that he deserves foreclosure.  After all late rent is still rent–just with more hassle.  He’s always been very communicative with me.  And that’s rare with anyone these days! Instead if I just work with Contractor 3 and also make this situation easier on myself somehow this deal still has plenty of potential to work out just fine.  He already has three tenants lined up for House 13 (he’s going to rent it by the room and make 50% more).  He’s just working to get them in during this week.  He’s moved into House 8 and is beginning to work on repairing the damages.  Once House 8 is finished and rented he can get back to work on House 4.  I believe he actually can’t afford to finish House 4 until the other two houses are bringing in income.  I just get the feeling he’s that broke.  He has to only take jobs right now that pay in an immediate sense–and. I’ve already refused to pay him another dime on House 4 until it’s done. So what can I do to make this situation easier on myself?  One idea I came up with already is to open a business checking account specifically for the rent from Contractor 3.  So far he’s been paying strictly in cash.  (On a side note, it seems that most contractors pay for everything in cash–they simply cash checks instead of depositing them probably to claim less income on their taxes.  But. I don’t think that’s what’s going on here.)   Because he pays in cash we have to make arrangements to meet so he can pay me.  Most of the time. I have him drive to Michael’s workplace downtown since it’s closer and have him give Michael the funds.  But involving Michael introduces a whole new level of complication.  I’m going to open this new business checking account at a bank that has a convenient branch location to Contractor 3 (I don’t have to worry about convenience if they offer online banking.) so he can deposit rent and not require a meeting each time.  I’ll simply give him a stack of deposit slips.  The deposit receipt will be his proof of rent paid. Yes the $50,000 debts are all related to our latest project. House 17. Yes it will be paid off in full once House 2 sells and House 17 is refinanced. But. I can’t help sometimes that I feel like a failure. I should not have gotten us into this uncomfortable position. I could possibly have found another way to purchase and remodel House 17—well maybe not in the two hours I was given. I would have liked to have completed the House 17 remodel far sooner as well. Michael was very very late for our third date. When I say late. I mean the kind of late that really pisses off your date—we’re talking an hour and a half. My hair was flattening more by the minute; my make-up was aging on my face so I wasn’t looking quite as fresh; my clothes were becoming irritatingly uncomfortable; and my stomach was growling. But he did call me to let me know he’d be late. He apologized profusely and said he’d fill me in once he got there. I just had no clue what to expect. Apparently he was about to get in the shower to get ready for our date when he realized a small piece of his cell phone had fallen off. He still had the little plastic piece. So he figured he’d better glue it back on the phone before he lost it. Stark naked he stood in the kitchen of his apartment with an old tube of Super Glue trying to glue that little plastic piece back onto his phone. What he didn’t realize is that Super Glue dries up after a while in the nozzle and prevents any from coming out. Most people know that if you just poke a straight pin down the nozzle it frees up the glue so you can continue normal use. But. Michael isn’t like most people. He just squeezed and squeezed that tired old Super Glue tube expecting a few drops would come eventually. He talks with his hands—I’m sure we all know someone who does. When it occurred to him that his left hand was severely glued to his cell phone he slapped his chest with his right hand while spouting several expletives. When it occurred to him that not only was his left hand glued to the phone but that he’d also just glued his right hand to his chest he panicked and tried to get to the sink to wash the glue off. That’s when he realized his left foot was glued solidly to the floor. But luckily the index finger of his right hand was still free. He could bring the phone that was stuck to his left hand to the index finger of the right hand the rest of which was stuck to his chest. And that’s how he called me to let me know he’d be late! He didn’t call 911…. He didn’t ask me to call for help…. He just told me he was still coming and would be late. He didn’t care to give me an explanation at the time probably because he had no idea how it was about to end. He had yet to figure out an escape for himself! Oh and you’re wondering how the heck he got free…. I’m sure you’re picturing a hospital trip like you’d see in the movie “American Pie 2”. But he wasn’t quite that unfortunate. Since Michael was stuck in his kitchen he was able to use the cell phone-glued hand to open a drawer where he somehow accessed a knife. He cut himself free slowly–very slowly—starting with the hand on his chest then the cell phone hand then his foot. Because those jerks walked off the job and Contractor 3 couldn’t find immediate replacements the property owner cut Contractor 3 loose.  So. Contractor 3 lost money on that deal.  In addition. Contractor 3 was himself working a different job simultaneously completed it but then was told by the property owner that he would not be paid in full until the insurance check arrived.  So he only basically was paid enough to cover the materials he’d purchased on credit. If Contractor 3 had in any way been trying avoid me or do anything that seemed dishonest. I would not be willing to work with him.  But he’s really been sincere, stating that he may have bitten off more than he could chew with these three houses.  I think he’ll be fine.  But he’ll need some instruction on how to be a landlord from me.  I didn’t realize just how green he was when he got started.  But so were we at one time!  I can help. I pow-wowed with him.  He is going to move out of House 13 and fill it with tenants.  He’s been living there and paying rent himself up to this point.  But now he’s going to move into House 8 the house that was wrecked by the deadbeat tenants I mentioned earlier.  He’ll fix it up again while living there and receive rents from House 13.  House 4 is still not finished.  :-/  He needs to make money in an immediate sense and knows that I won’t pay him another dime on that project until it’s finished.  So he’s going to work on it on weekends when he’s not working on some other job.  But the first priority is getting House 8 finished since he stands to make $1100 to $2000 per month depending on if he rents the whole house or by the room.  He’s going to be renting House 13 by the room and will make about $900 a month as opposed to the $600 he’d get by renting the whole house. In addition he’s lined up for work over the next two weeks and will be able to pay me the rent we’re due (only overdue for one of the houses right now) in a matter of days.  Early on in his lease option he asked me if we could split the payments for each house.  So one house payment is due on the 1st the next on the 8th and the next on the 15th.  He never got to read the lease option contract before I had him sign it (we were in a hurry).  So. I thought it was fair to make that change. Remember when I said my life improves measurably every time I pick up Joel Osteen’s “Your Best Life Now?” I wasn’t kidding. I think it has something to do with correcting my thought patterns and getting right with God the Universe or whatever you call the Great Spirit that connects us all. Not only am I feeling better but I’ve been taking time to reconnect with my loved ones and friends. I’ve reprioritized Fun and Joy in my life. Paying bills and working all the time is just not supposed to be that important. And when I do have to do those things there’s no need to let them get me down. But as great as those revelations are they’re not what’s measurably different…. Checks have been arriving in the mailbox regularly. Opportunities have also come knocking. It’s like my efforts toward personal growth are causing a domino effect if that’s possible. The insurance check for the hail damage to House 17 roof was more than I expected. I’ve had one roofer tell me that a new roof will cost around $5K. I’m waiting for a more reliable bid. But the check was for $7280. Then we received something like $3600 for the House 2 roof–which I think may not need to be replaced at all. I won’t say we’re in the clear on that until after inspections are completed when House 2 eventually sells. Then unexpectedly. I received a check from the U. S. Treasury. The IRS sent me a tax refund of $3628! I called our CPA to let him know since by his calculations. I actually owed a minimal amount this year. He advised me to hold the check and wait for a letter to follow it with an explanation. I agreed–I would hate it if the IRS came looking for an erroneous tax refund plus interest. I’m hoping that our CPA was actually in error on this one. In addition. I’ve been consistently beating out the other leasing agents in my broker’s property management firm for the biggest commissions. I haven’t really even been trying. I’ve just been fortunate in that respect. But it’s come at a slight cost–I think I may be a little unpopular with the other leasing agents. Their day will come. I’m sure. This is probably just one of those cyclical things. Very little progress has happened of late toward the House 17 remodel. My mortgage broker told me that we’ll need to have House 2 sold before the House 17 refinance will close. Since we’re waiting on House 2 to sell we really have a little time left before we need to have House 17 finished. Was that about as clear as mud? Suffice it to say we’ve been given a little more time for relaxation lately. Thank God! I have been trying to coach myself through this for some time with Michael’s help. But. I’m tired of baby steps. We’d love to create a jazzy lounge act for fun…imagine me in a Jessica Rabbit outfit with a stand-up bassist and Michael playing the piano (or at least that’s how I picture it). He’s an experienced musician with years of playing in successful bands behind him. He was even signed with one of them. This fear existed in childhood but got much worse in high school sometime around the audition for first chair soprano in the choir. The choir instructor called each of us to the piano at the front of the room in front of our peers one by one. Before my turn. I felt just a little nervous–nothing too serious. But when I stood to walk to the front of the room my knees felt like mush my pulse soared and my mouth went dry. When I began to sing my throat closed up allowing nothing but a fraction of my normal volume to escape. I had no control over my voice at all it seemed. I couldn’t do it! Oh it was so humiliating. The instructor said something like. “That’s OK. Just rest a second and try it again.” So. I did. But it really didn’t get any better from there. I knew a guy in college who was absolutely terrified of swimming. He COULD NOT contain himself if he even thought about it. But one semester he enrolled himself in Swimming 101. He wanted desperately to get past his fear just like me. We had that in common. I admired his bravery but assumed he’d back out at the last minute. Well he didn’t! The first day of class did not go smoothly he later told me. While the rest of the class jumped in and started learning strokes he slowly entered the pool panicked publicly then held on to the side of the pool for dear life over the rest of the hour. BUT. HE STAYED IN THE WATER ANYWAY. And he went back for more! WOW. That was inspiring! The second class he was able to work his way away from the wall toward the center of the pool. But during the third class he was dog paddling! It was a few weeks before he could go underwater. But he did it! By the end of the sixteen week semester he was swimming from one end of the pool to the other with the rest of the class. We did get to take a mini-vacation to Branson. MO these last few days. But. I wouldn’t say that it necessarily rejeuvenated me like I hoped it would. I had a CRAZY working weekend doing leasing prior to the trip when I was so busy I literally did not have the time to even drive myself to my own leasing appointments! Michael did the driving–I handled the phone notes appointments showings and leasing applications. As a result we made some much-needed good money but we didn’t get any further on the House 17 remodel. As any busy person knows you pay for a vacation not just with money. You also pay with your days leading up to the vacation and the days following. You pay by working extra hours and cramming in more clients to try to compensate for the days you’re going to miss. Given that this is “high season” for landlords and leasing agents alike every call had to be returned and every possible showing done. I’m expecting about four commissions and another five applications from the latter part of this past week through the weekend. But. I probably handled about 40 calls a day for Saturday and Sunday. Each one of those went like this: “What’s the range you’d like to spend on rent every month? What areas do you like? How many bedrooms do you need? OK why don’t you drive by this address and that address and see if you like them? If you do please give me a call back so that we can schedule a showing.” I had that script going through my head all last night! The prospective tenants that called back were usually grilled further before the actual showing was scheduled. “Have you ever been evicted? Do you have steady employment? How about pets?” Some houses don’t warrant that line of questioning–if they don’t hesitate when you say $1850/month they’re going to check out fine. At least that’s been my experience. As much as it seems like I’ve found myself a job it’s not really quite like that. I’m enjoying myself for the time being! I’m the hunting type–I like hunting for good deals when I invest just as I enjoy hunting for good tenants for the dwindling list of available houses my broker asked me to lease for her. There are two or three other leasing agents at any given time. We split the days accordingly. But. I’ve noticed that the other agents have one tenant application in process amongst them! I’ve closed four just recently with five or more in the works. Finally. I’m regaining confidence and a better professional self-image! I’m feeling capable and gratified. Another side effect of this leasing gig is that my phone never stops ringing. Luckily my CIO (Michael my fiance) installed an application on my phone that silences the ring between certain non-business hours except for those people who are “whitelisted” like my immediate family. Otherwise. I’d be awakened at all hours. Tenants are weird that way. I think they call at strange hours hoping to just leave a message. Or maybe they just call whenever the LSD wears off…. We went to our favorite Mexican restaurant for Cinco de Mayo which we love for its authentic flavor. I’m not a fan of Tex-Mex (can you say GREASY!?!). I like Southwestern but will drive many miles for mole (pronounced “Mo-lay”) sauces made from cacao dried chilis other spices and ground nuts; ceviche which is raw seafood like white fish shrimp scallops and baby octopus “cooked” in citrus juices using no heat; and margaritas (also spelled margheritas?) from top-shelf tequilas. The ambiance at this particular favorite restaurant of ours can’t be beaten either. Located right on the fire and fountain show on Taneycomo Lake at The Branson Landing it has a flare that makes every visit memorable. We leave with a heady exhilarated feeling every time! (This paragraph was written specifically for.) On the way home. I decided to read some exerpts from a book I go back to now and then. I’m not kidding or exaggerating when I tell you that this book changes my life every time I read it. When I adopt the attitudes and positive thinking that is contained within. I see MEASURABLE differences in my life. I’m terrible about obsessing about our finances and investments. But when I do. I only seem to make myself miserable. Nothing ever seems to go as planned which causes another downward spiral of obsession. And so on and so on. I get to points where colors no longer seem as bright. I can’t see beauty or feel joy. I have trouble enjoying the simple things of life. Michael our dog and I will be sitting at a coffee shop somewhere when he’ll say something to the effect that this is a very special moment he’ll remember forever. And. I’ll think. “Really? I can’t see why! I’m miserable!” I’ll realize I’d been sitting there quietly wasting a perfectly wonderful time nit-picking our finances or deals and worrying over every little detail. I am a control freak. And that simply comes from a fear of failure or a fear of lack. Logically those problems don’t just go away. I’m not going to wake up one morning and poof! be free of those fears and bad habits. I have to make a choice day by day sometimes minute by minute. After all it takes only as much effort to choose positive habits as it does negative ones–so why not choose to be positive in life? If you have similar problems you’ll benefit from reading “Your Best Life Now” by Joel Osteen. I don’t feel that he hits me over the head with preaching or Christian jargon. In fact. I think he appeals to my logic when addressing my emotions. Seriously every time I pick up this book again it changes my life. I’m going to re-read it and re-read it and re-read it until these lessons are part of me this time! Here’s the kicker–there’s no written lease! I had no idea Contractor 3 was that trusting! Not to mention. I thought he knew better. But yeah he thought he could depend solely on the word of the tenant that they’d be great tenants take good care of the property stay forever pay regularly and promote world peace. If you’re a landlord you’ve heard this before…. Contractor 3 begged me to call the tenants and explain landlord & tenant law to them. So. I did… very reluntantly. I spent 30 minutes on the phone trying to get a word in edgewise. The tenants are so sure they’re right there really wasn’t much I could say. Finally. I said. “Look it sounds like the house is just not going to work out for you. Do you really want to stay in a place like that anyway? Any judge is going to look at your situation and say that since you have no written lease and are not paying rent you’re squatters. I don’t think you’re going to win this. So when can you be out?” She said. “Well one of us isn’t even in town right now. He won’t even be back until the 7th to look for a new place.” I said. “OK well how long does he need once he gets back to find somewhere to move?” She said maybe a week. So. I said. “Well if I go to the landlord and ask him to give you until the 14th to move out will you be willing to sign a statement that you’ll be out by then leaving the house in good condition?” She said yes. I told her my whole goal was to see if I could mediate this and find a way to work it out without the whole issue going to court. Contractor 3 really screwed himself by not having a written lease. The tenant was willing to go along with the 14th. Of course this is without them paying rent. But. I was going to advise Contractor 3 to pursue them financially once they were out of the house. Contractor 3 didn’t like this plan however. I think he feels that the whole situation is a personal affront. And. I can’t say that he’s wrong. But having a hot temper is not helping the situation. He gave them a 3-day notice (even though I warned him that they’re legally entitled to a 5-day notice) to get out. Then he showed up today (the 3rd day) with his police buddies only to discover that the tenants had nothing packed. Duh. So he called me to figure out how to go about doing a formal eviction. I told him to head down to the courthouse and file the papers there. What did they tell him at the courthouse? He was supposed to do a 5-day notice. So now he’s got to post the 5-day notice on the door and start all over. But on the 5th day he’s going back to the courthouse to set a court date for the eviction. It should take about 7-10 days to get a court date. Then boom–after the eviction is won the Sheriff will escort them out within 48 hours. I told him I would give him copies of the standard lease agreement and addendums plus go over anything he needs to know about landlording. In addition. I volunteered to “forgive” this month’s payment for House 8 (since we’re still holding title to the three properties we sold him by lease option) to defray the additional costs he’s going to incur fixing the House 8 leaking problem once and for all. He was delighted! I know it’s most likely going to cost him a pretty penny to pore a fresh layer of concrete in the problem areas. Michael thinks we might not have seen the rent anyway given that Contractor 3’s tenants didn’t pay him. I’ve taken different avenues to get there. The seed money. $125 was from my first Google Adsense check. From there. I used $50 to start a Prosper account and fund a loan. I received a $25 bonus for doing so. I took a gamble and thought others might sign up with me which would have given me more bonus money. But sadly. I was apparently the last person on Earth who wasn’t already a member! The loan I funded is performing so far. But. I won’t see the original $50 investment for quite some time. In no way am I willing to put off my vacation that long. So that took me down to $100 from $125. In addition. I signed up for Sharebuilder com with multiple individual accounts with promotional codes to receive sign-up bonuses. Each time. I’d invest $50 in a stock. I’m cashing out some of them after my promotional code is qualified (they send you an email to let you know). Other investments that are performing well will be left there until the end of this challenge. Since Sharebuilder charges $4 each time you invest with the Basic account and $9.95 for each real-time trade when you sell. I’m trying to make back some of those fees with appreciating stocks. The reason behind doing this with Sharebuilder is the $50 promotional bonuses that will come 4 weeks after my first trade on each account. Actually one bonus was only $25. But the rest have been $50. I also signed up for two new Chase checking accounts (one for each of us) to take advantage of the $125 bonus they’re offering now. The only catch is your account has to receive direct deposit with regular deposits once a month or more. I’m doing what a reader suggested and directly depositing $1 now and then from Paypal. Let’s hope that’s enough. I won’t know for sure until the bonus is paid (or isn’t) in 4-6 weeks. I’m also going to be opening more individual accounts at Sharebuilder for more promotional bonuses. Some people have been able to open 16 individual accounts. But. I’ve been warned to spread them out–not open them all at once or else my promotional codes may be rejected. The codes I’ve used so far with good results are as follows:FANDF25 …………for $2550CITIZENS ……. for $5050SBTV …………. for $50SHARE50 …………for $50 This past Saturday we had our first ever garage sale! I think we’re hooked! Just for the junk that was left at our old residence (House 2)–the things we didn’t want to move with us–we received $380! Plus we had a really fun day! The weather was perfect albeit a little chilly at 8 o’clock in the morning. Once it warmed up though we were able to just relax and work on our tans. We invited some friends to bring their junk to sell in our driveway too. We made cheezy hot dogs and just had a blast To answer his question. I never thought to get flood insurance on House 8. It isn’t in a flood zone or anything. But now. I am more determined than ever to review and make changes to every policy we carry! I think every house we have should have flood insurance even though none of them are in official flood zones. Living in Oklahoma you just never know what’s going to happen with the weather. Sometimes we get flash floods in parts of the city. In fact living in our subdivision there have been three times I can think of during the four years we’ve lived here that there has only been one way home–the other streets were all washed out! And you may all remember we had. I’ve filed claims for House 2. House 17 and our company vehicle for significant hail damage. In fact. I just met the insurance adjuster for both houses today. He thinks they both need completely new roofs. But. I haven’t heard his dollar amount yet. By the way we have a $1500 deductible on House 2 a $1000 deductible on House 17 and a $1000 deductible on the company vehicle. But back to Contractor 3 and House 8…. He says he’s going to have to bring in concrete and backfill portions of the house 3″ to reinforce the slab and fix the issues. I feel terrible. I had no idea the problems with House 8 flooding still existed. I am however relieved that he’s the one that worked on it the first time. I told him if we had the funds we’d help him with the material cost–but we just don’t. I’m still helping out with leasing for my broker. Actually. I like it now! I really didn’t realize how much I missed being around people and missed the validation from a job well done. My broker is really appreciative that I’ve stepped up to help her. Her business depends on having good leasing agents. And gosh it’s SO EASY. Like taking candy from a baby! I come and go as I like naming my own days. I enjoy meeting the prospective tenants–I CAN enjoy it because they’re not MY prospective tenants! We even have a leasing coordinator to do the background and credit checks–it’s not my job. So. I get to meet all kinds of interesting people and just joke around while looking at houses. What could be better? Oh yeah and. I’m paid well for it. I’m not leasing every day–just a couple of afternoons a week as I can afford the time. Today though. I had several showings. Mostly. I’m concentrating on perfecting House 2 a little more every day while it sits on the market. Then. I’m also working to finish House 17 as according to. But. I’m worried that my little jaunt to Branson. MO to my favorite Mexican restaurant for Cinco de Mayo may be in jeopardy! I think every dime and minute we can muster will be used to finish House 17 and prepare it for appraisal for the refi. I spoke with our mortgage broker today–he said it’s an absolute MUST to have every project completed before the appraisal. Appraisers have gotten skiddish. Well. I can tell you right now–the granite countertops will not be here in time. So. I’m thinking of just re-installing the old formica countertops just for the appraisal. We still haven’t ordered the hardwood stair treads–not that we’ve had time to start that project yet. Gross Lease: The tenant pays a set amount every month for the term of the lease. The landlord is responsible for paying all expenses associated with property ownership–taxes insurance and maintenance for instance. This type of lease is most commonly used with residential income property (single family or multi-family rentals). But it could also be used for office tenants. With this type of office lease sometimes the lease stipulates that any surplus or shortage at the end of the year is passed along to the tenant. Landlords for residential rentals can do this as well when utilities are included in the rent. The lease can specify a cap for the amount of utilities the landlord is willing to cover on a monthly basis. If the tenant exceeds that amount they can be held accountable for the difference. For instance if the lease states that the landlord is willing to pay up to $75/month in utilities but the utility bills add up to $100 that month the landlord can bill the tenant for the $25 difference. Net Lease: Net leases are commonly used in small or medium-sized retail buildings and some office buildings. The landlord is responsible for repairs. The tenant pays rent and an additional portion of the operating expenses for the building (insurance taxes security lighting advertising landscaping etc) commonly called CAM (Common Area Maintenance). A real world retail example is $16.25 per square foot annually for rent and $1.50 per square foot of rental space annually for CAM expenses. Paying CAM by the square foot ensures that the building expenses are fairly divided proportionately among the tenants. Net leases fall out of favor though when empty retail space is plentiful and tenants are hard to come by. Then tenants can negotiate more favorable lease terms that don’t include CAM expenses. Triple Net (or Net-Net-Net) Lease: Typically found with freestanding retail (gas stations box stores bank branches bars restaurants etc) triple net leases require the tenant to pay ALL expenses involved with the building. The tenant will pay rent plus handle the taxes insurance and maintenance. If the A/C breaks they’ll call the repairman rather than the landlord. From an investor’s perspective. Triple Net buildings are usually considered desirable. They sell for higher prices (lower cap rates) than other investments because of the “hands-off” nature of this type of investment. Shopping Mall or Percentage Lease: Shopping malls and large retail landlords typically charge the tenants a base rental rate per square foot plus a percentage of the tenants’ gross sales in addition to CAM. But they offer tenants a large amount of customer traffic. The landlord also has a few more liberties than with other leases generally speaking. They may include a clause that states they can relocate the tenant to another space in the building with 30 or 60 or 90 days notice which they may decide to do if they feel they’ve found a better performing tenant. Don’t forget–the landlord wants to put the most profitable tenants in the best spots since they receive a percentage of the gross sales! Also the landlord will typically set the hours of operation placements of signs uses of common areas and deliveries. Land lease: The tenant builds on land that is leased to them for lease terms of 30 to 99 years typically. Any improvements to the property reverts back to the landlord at the end of the lease. But with a land lease there will generally be renewal options for the tenant to continue business in that same location. The lease will probably have stringent guidelines for the tenant to follow or lose the building(s) and improvements to the landlord. In this area of Oklahoma lots of old land leases for oil and gas drilling have expired in the last few years. The land with its improvements reverted back to the owners–many of whom have sold these large tracts to developers to create new subdivisions. I’ll be going over to House 2 every other day or so in the evenings to fix little things like caulking around some windows that need it touching up paint on the siding and watering the flowers when they need it. Besides. I find it’s always a good idea to keep watch on your property when other agents are showing it. They sometimes have a propensity for locking the key INSIDE the house instead of returning it to the keybox–or. NOT LOCKING the house at all once they leave. Others will leave every light on as they go or turn the thermostat to arctic temperatures and forget it. Ya know it occurs to me about once a day that lots of people called in sick on the day God was passing out common sense! As much as I don’t relish the thought of paying someone else 3% to sell our property. I am absolutely grateful for the help! If it saves me considerable work which I know it will. I welcome another Realtor bringing a buyer. I

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"California Construction Loan - Home construction Loans - Rem" posted by ~Ray
Posted on 2008-04-08 02:32:56

California Construction Loan Specialists. fasten into today’s low interest rates before you go away building your new domiciliate. Specializing in the “one measure change state” construction remodeling and land loans. Download a remove write of Construction Loan “Inside Secrets” (e-book). <a href="" title=""> <abbr call=""> <acronym call=""> <b> <blockquote have in mind=""> <code> <em> <i> <touch> <strong>

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"Construction loans" posted by ~Ray
Posted on 2007-12-01 22:38:18

Licensed in 32 states. Envision LendingGroups 800+ professionals act experience inproviding a distinctive personal touch. Whether youre buying your first home,create from raw material to refinance or want to build thatdream domiciliate our loan professionals areready to back up with over 300 lenders and give programs available. We only collect the information necessary to evaluate your financial situation and quote you personalized loan rates. We do not request any personal information such as go out of birth social security number or drivers authorise be. The information you give will not be disclosed to anyone other than us and will be kept strictly confidential and not shared with any person or entity without your prior authorization. Construction loans are very different than standard mortgage loans. There is much more than just approving the borrowers credit assets and liabilities. The communicate itself must be approved as come up. Construction loans generally can be done with a one time close before construction commences on the proposed property or with a two step closing done. Rates are usually locked for approximately 6-12 months on a construction give. The longer the evaluate fasten however the more the evaluate fasten ordain cost though for a consruction loan. Construction loans are sometimes variable-rate loans priced at a move to the prime rate or some other short-term interest evaluate. You the contractor and the lender open a displace plan based on stages of construction and interest is charged on the amount of money disbursed to date. Some homeowners use construction-to-permanent financing programs where the construction give is converted to a mortgage loan after the certificate of occupancy is issued. The favor is that you only have to undergo one application and one closing. Construction loans are usually short term interim loans for covering the be of construction. The lender pays funds to the builders at predetermined times based on the progression of the project. Construction loans have higher upfront costs than a standard conforming mortgage. The lender views these loans as higher risks with shorter terms and in return rush more money up front to close. Most construction owe lenders stipulate that the contractor or builder be experienced in building the affect property. Many lender banks require a enumerate of similar write of homes the builder constructed as part of underwriting documents. With a construction loan the builder ordain receive pre-established draws at certain stages of the construction. You will normally begin making interest only payments on those draws as construction continues. You will only pay on the money that has been give to the builder not the total amount. By the lender providing predetermined draws to your builder this helps defend you the buyer that your builder doesn't just run off with all of the funds and stop building your home. Usually inspections will be to be done at the predetermined stages to make the sure the bring home the bacon that is supposed to be done is completed also before providing the builder with the next draw. With some construction to perm financing or known as the one measure change state you ordain have a variable evaluate during the consturction arrange. It then converts to a fixed rate longer term loan like a 20 or 30 year fixed evaluate. And there is usually a cap or stop point on the adjustable time period of the construction phase. This cap is set according to how desire the building phase ordain last. For instance if you only be 6 months you might undergo a cap of.5% which means your rate for your permenant financing ordain not go any higher than 1/2% of your go away rate. Many lenders require a 5% drink payment with a construction loan. This may come from the equity that you undergo in the land or money that you undergo on transfer.

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"Market Conditions and Zero Down Payment Home Purchases in ..." posted by ~Ray
Posted on 2007-11-05 23:02:59

Hello. Buyers: There are 1,004 homes for sales in North Fulton (Alpharetta. Roswell. Johns Creek and Milton) between $225,000 and $500,000. If I were personally looking to buy. I’d be in the market. It’s a buyers market yet populate tell me every day that they don’t evaluate they can buy a accommodate. Some buyers are scared by the recent mortgage industry trouble and don’t evaluate they can get approved. Other buyers think that they should act longer because prices will continue to go. Let’s investigate that thinking. The troubles in the mortgage industry have given some populate the unwarranted impression that they can’t get a mortgage particularly as a first time domiciliate buyer. The facts are that the bulk of the sub-prime mortgage crisis was caused by “low doc”. “no doc” or “stated income” loans failing. Basically there were loans available where all the borrower had to do was verbally express the bank what their income was. The interest rate wasn’t as good as “beat doc” loans but heck it was a give and it was often used by investors to purchase investment property. The problem was that it was abused; populate misrepresented their income and ultimately defaulted particularly as arouse rates inched up as many of these loans were variable evaluate. Most if not all study lenders are not offering the “no doc” loans like there were. However there are comfort many zero down payment loans available. Wells Fargo for dilate has six different adjust drink loans to chose from depending on your specific situation with purchase determine of up to $417,000. In North Fulton there are 811 homes to chose from between $225,000 and $417,000. Do you evaluate we could sight one that would work for you? If you have an income (documenting it would be nice) you can get a loan regardless if you have any money to put down. The market is definitely slower than a year ago but mostly just in terms of the number of homes sold. The add up sales price is holding pretty stabilise and in North Fulton the Sales Price to enumerate determine ratio is only drink one percentage point to 96%. The slowness in this market is notable in fewer homes being sold and the average time on the merchandise going up. The table below shows sales data from August 2006 versus August 2007. The data is only for homes listed with a realtor so it doesn’t consider private sales. It is also for resale homes only and does NOT consider new construction. Compared to 2006. $45M less real estate was sold in North Fulton in 2007 and 125 fewer properties were sold. Interestingly though the add up sales price is UP over $30,000. My opinion is that the “good houses” are selling and they are still selling for a decent price. Houses that are not in top condition or “challenged” in some other way are either not selling or dropping off the market. If you are a seller you be to be aware that you have more competition – 1,004 homes on the merchandise between $225k and $500k this year versus 832 the same time last year. This is where the determine pressure that sellers are feeling is coming from. The numbers above are aggregate for North Fulton. When you be at just the east side the average sales determine has actually dropped about 2% from $431k to $422k in the past year but the days on merchandise hasn’t gone up as much as on the west align. The add up sales price on the west side has gone up from $403k to $478k. I attribute this difference mostly to the affect that new construction on the west align is having on resale values: you can barely find new construction under $700k and the resales are taking advantage of this by bumping their determine and daring buyers to find something cheaper – change surface in this merchandise! If you are considering buying. I evaluate that now is a good time. Prices aren’t going to go that much lower - and on the west align they are actually still going up significantly. Interest rates are at or below 6% in many cases and there are loan programs to help you with down payment. If you do the math a $300k loan at 6% for 30 years is roughly $1,800 per month. impel in a little for taxes an insurance and you are at $2000/month. analyse that to your contract and then furnish me a label! I desire your use of data however. I thing the real barometer of this merchandise will be shown when September’s data comes out. Most transactions for July and August were already under contract when this whole owe eat started to unravel. I was one of those buyers who went into contract in July and closed in August. Had I waited process September I truly believe I could undergo saved anywhere form 5 to 10% based on what I’m seeing today for comparable houses. Take it from a former GE Six Sigma data driven executive…In God we trust all others show me the data. Transplated: I’ll run the numbers again next month and report approve. I think it may be optimistic to think that prices cut 5-10%.

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"Real Estate Slow Down Hits Local Builders!" posted by ~Ray
Posted on 2007-10-30 15:18:06

The real estate market started to slowdown in the pass of 2006 and then even more so in the move of 2007 when the sub-prime lenders crumbled. The media is reporting all of the national news and our local merchandise in move has people sitting on the close in waiting for prices to fall and fall. Meanwhile local builder’s list is stacking up. The recent rate cut of one half of a percent by the FED is much needed relief but ordain it be enough? The Puget Sound region along with New York City are the 2 markets nationally that continue to go in value. Our region is still up 8.6% this year. The lender meltdown has weeded out the non-qualifying buyers and prices have corrected and are more in lie with the 8.6% turn. Buyers who purchased homes on adjustable rates or interest only loans are scrambling to qualify for a fixed rate refinance to save their homes from foreclosure. Local builders are comfort sitting on list with construction loans at generally fix plus 1% so their average evaluate on a give is around 9%. The domiciliate builder doesn’t undergo the luxury of deciding to pull their homes off the market until it recovers as do most home owners. Some builders are refinancing a few homes and keeping them as rentals but still undergo the overhead of their company to contend with. New projects that are currently being built are allowing new displace money to flow and help act the standing list from going back to the bank. We have seen outrageous buyer bonuses and selling office commissions to provoke people into these homes. The bottom lie is the determine may have to drop just a little more to move those homes. The big challenge is why is this happening here when our market is supposed to be in an upswing? I accept the media covering the national home merchandise news is the main culprit here. Our region has some of the beat job growth in the country alter now. Boeing. Microsoft. Starbucks and many other big players in the job market are comfort looking for workers. If someone doesn’t have a job right now they either don’t want one or are unable to work; unemployment is at one of the lowest levels ever in our region. I evaluate the bottom is near! Stop listening to the media; things are great here in the Pacific Northwest. Go out and see your lender and get pre-qualified for a home give and go out and shop for a house. We have it a lot better here in our region than most of the country and we need to remember that.

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"Cheap European Holiday Insurance" posted by ~Ray
Posted on 2007-10-20 00:24:15

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