Go Beyond MLS » Real Estate Articles

Improving Your Curb Appeal

Vlad Zablotskyy — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 17:11:48 +0000

When potential buyers drive up to your house, the first thing they see is the front of your house. And, buyers know that usually the exterior of the house is a good indicator of the inside of the house. The old saying that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover does not apply to real estate! So, the front of your home can make a very important first impression on potential buyers. As a seller, you want to make the best first impression possible. You want your home to have curb appeal and make buyers want to see the rest of the house. We’ve included seven ways to improve your curb appeal:

1) Mow the lawn regularly while your home is on the market. If you have patches in your yard where grass doesn’t grow, you can either sow some grass seeds or sod the areas. If the bare area is at the base of a tree, you could turn the spot into a flower bed.

2) While we’re on the subject of flower beds, be sure to keep these areas weeded when trying to sell your home. Adding pine straw or mulch can freshen up your yard and make your yard look well cared for.

3) Add some color to your yard by planting flowers. You can use them in beds, hanging baskets, or flower pots. Planting flowers can help to liven up a house, especially if the home is older or more traditional. And, be sure to pick vibrant colors over pastels or white in order to give the full effect.

4) Clean your windows. People always look out of the windows when they’re viewing a home. So, cleaning the windows will help the view from the interior and the exterior!

5) Use a pressure washer to clean sidewalks and driveways. Pressure washing cement, especially, can make it look as though it was freshly poured.

6) Make your front door inviting. Since most potential buyers enter your home through the front door, you want to pay attention to this part of your home. If there are any shoe marks at the base (or hand marks near the handle), be sure to clean those. Depending on the type of door you have, you can also give it a fresh coat of paint.

7) Examine your home’s exterior. If your home has siding, check to see how clean it is. If you see collected dirt or pollen, you can clean these surfaces fairly easily with a pressure washer. If your home is painted, check to make sure the paint is not chipping away. If your home was painted recently, you may just want to hose off (or gently pressure wash) any visible dirt. If your home is in need of new paint, be sure to choose neutral colors.

Improving your curb appeal can help in two ways. First, if the home looks inviting in the pictures from the MLS report or from advertisements, potential buyers will want to go see it. So, your home will be shown more often. The second way that curb appeal helps is almost more important than the first. Since you can’t make a first impression twice, the exterior of your home (along with the yard) will tell the buyers immediately whether the home has been taken care of. The buyers will also be able to tell how they feel about the home in general when they drive up to it. If you think that your home may be lacking curb appeal, be sure to follow our seven tips to improve your home’s appeal!

Lee Keadle is a full-time real estate agent in Charleston, SC. He works with a team of three agents to give buyers and sellers the best services possible. You can search for homes and vacant land on our website at http://www.SearchForCharlestonRealEstate.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lee_Keadle
http://EzineArticles.com/?Improving-Your-Curb-Appeal&id=691977Similar Posts:

Most Misleading Words in Real Estate

Vlad Zablotskyy — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 22:04:30 +0000

From MSNBC:

1. Cozy (too small)

2. Charming (too old)

3. Original Condition (appliances are 50 years old)

4. Needs TLC (it’s a dump)

5. Conveniently located (noisy)

6. Desirable neighborhood (this little house has been way over-priced because the neighborhood has some snob appeal)

7. Efficient kitchen (too small to fit two adults)

8. One car garage (you can drive your Chevy in but can’t get out)

9. Peek at the park/river/mountains (if you angle your mirror just so…)

10. Useable land (no trees)

11. Beachfront steal (no hurricane insurance available at any price)

12. Country Living (too far from anywhere to drive to work)

13. Must see inside (outside is ugly)

14. Unique (hard to sell)

15. Just available (previous owner just died on the premises, hope you don’t mind.

Similar Posts:

How Do You Choose Location For Your Business?

Vlad Zablotskyy — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 23:57:04 +0000

Choosing the location for your business may be crucial for your business success and growth. CNNMoney has great suggestions for business owners on choosing the right location:

1. Stay on the beaten path. The old cliché about “location, location, location” is one that you can’t afford to ignore. Rather than assume that you know your customers’ preferences, ask them where they would like to do business with you. When Jacqueline Williams noticed sales slowing at Sterling Realtors, her firm in Middletown, Conn., she surveyed her clients to find out how she could serve them better. It turned out that many considered her office inconvenient. She had set up shop near the Wesleyan University campus, where she had started out finding homes for professors. In her research off-campus clients said it would be easier to drop by her office if it was in the downtown business district. She ended up moving to a building in that area.

The result: Revenue picked up, not only because many potential clients noticed her shingle while driving by, but also thanks to an increase in client referrals. Recently, Williams renovated the space after buying out her partner’s share of both the 17-year-old company and the building. She re-opened her offices with a ribbon cutting ceremony hosted by the mayor.

2. Consider rush hour. If you do business in a densely populated area, choosing a location right off a major highway or near public transportation may have a big effect on your team’s productivity, says Matthew Adler, executive vice president of the Adler Group, a Miami-based commercial real estate firm. It is tough to schedule morning meetings if key employees are continually getting stuck in traffic. “You need to be in a place that your workforce can get to easily,” says Adler.

How best to figure out whether the location you’re considering fits the bill? Jason Weissman, principal in Boston Realty Advisors in Boston, suggests you pinpoint your office location on a map, then draw a circle around the spot to see just what communities in the area would be no more than an hour’s commute. Or, try MapQuest (mapquest.com), to see how long the estimated commute time is for a few likely nearby towns.

3. Follow the talent. Will your company need to hire employees with specialized skills or a high level of education? If so, setting up shop near an existing talent pool will make your job easier, says Weissman. For instance, if you anticipate that you will need to hire IT workers, picking an office near a university with a strong tech program will put you at an advantage in winning top employees. To locate metropolitan areas with large concentrations of whatever skills you need, try the Bureau of Labor Statistics site (www.bls.gov).

4. Keep your competitors close. Doing business down the street – or hallway – from your rivals may seem like a roadmap to bankruptcy, but it can be a smart choice. In New York City’s fashion industry, for instance, many accessories makers run showrooms in the same building, because it is more convenient for buyers from other cities to visit. “When customers come in from out of town, this makes it easy for them,” says David Levy, principal of Adams & Co. Real Estate in New York City. “They just spend the day going from office to office.” If you have a slightly different niche from other firms in your area, you will probably be able to pick up clients from each other. “Companies need to be close to their competitors,” says Chad Bemingham, a vice president with CBIZ-Gibraltar Real Estate Services in Chicago. Commercial realtors can tell you if there are such buildings in your area. Or, try trade publications for your industry or local business journals; they sometimes include real estate listings.

5. Know when to spring for pricey digs. Not every company needs to invest in Class A space. In some fields, starting up in the garage is a badge of honor. But if you work with big-name corporate clients who will visit you frequently – or you are selling your expertise in creating the right image – you can’t afford to scrimp on your office for long.

Just ask Peter Madden, president of AgileCat, who just moved his seven-year old Philadelphia branding and corporate identity-consulting firm to high-rent Center City. He left behind a smaller place in a less-desirable neighborhood. Although he is now paying six times more to do business from his new headquarters, he expects to be able to attract enough high-profile clients to make his investment pay off. “In this region, if you’re not in this part of town, you’re not looked at as a major player,” he says.

The key of course, is making sure you generate enough sales to pay the tab. Rule of thumb: Manufacturing companies should generally pay no more than 20 percent of gross sales for rent, according to Levy. Service businesses, which have lower overhead, can go up to 30 percent.

6. Push for flexibility. If the real estate market in your area is soft, your landlord may be willing to negotiate. Ask for both the right to cancel your lease with a specified amount of notice and the freedom to sub-lease the space. Similar Posts:

Know Your Ratio – Loan to Value and Debt to Income

Vlad Zablotskyy — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 04:38:53 +0000

By Andrea Carangelo

If you are thinking about refinancing a loan or requesting your private mortgage insurance (PMI) be removed, you should know your loan to value ratio.

It is easy to figure out using these steps:

If you will be applying for a loan:

1) Start with the purchase price of the property as the value for the property. (example: $150,000)

2) Subtract the amount of your down payment ($20,000).

3) Take the loan amount which will be the purchase price minus the down payment ($130,000)

4) Divide loan amount ($130,000) by the purchase price ($150,000=value). It would look like this: $130,000 divided by $150,000, which equals 0.87, or 87 percent=your ratio.

5) Use this number with your lender when referring to your loan.

Most loans with an LTV over 80 percent require PMI.

If You Already Have a Loan:

1) You should get an appraisal of your property. This is the only way to get an accurate assessment of its value. If you are just doing this so you are aware of your loan to value ratio, you can save the appraisal fee and estimate the value by comparing your property to similar homes in your neighborhood that have sold. This will be the value number for the equation

2) Look on your most recent loan statement to find out how much you owe (your balance). This will be the loan number for the equation.

3) Divide the loan figure by the value figure. This is your ratio.

If you are requesting the removal of PMI, you will have to get an appraisal. In removing PMI, you may request in writing to your current lender that the PMI be removed if the ratio is 80 percent or less. If you request an appraisal and the value is not high enough, you will still pay for the appraisal.

When you apply for a loan, mortgage loan or any other type of credit, Lenders use your debt to income ratio (how much you owe on credit cards and loans compared to how much you earn) to help evaluate your credit.

How You Can Figure Your Debt To Income Ratio:

1) Add up your total net monthly income. This includes your monthly wages and any overtime, commissions or bonuses that are guaranteed; plus alimony payments received, if applicable. If your income varies, figure the monthly average for the past two years. Include any money earned from any other additional income.

2) Add up your monthly debt. This includes all of your credit card bills, loan and mortgage payments. If you rent, be sure to include your rent payments.

3) Divide your total monthly debt by your total monthly income. This is your total debt to income ratio.

4) If your ratio is higher than 0.36, which professionals would call a score of 36. The lower the better. If the score is higher than 36 it might cause an increase in the interest rate or the down payment on a loan you apply for.

Remember:

When you total your monthly debts, use the minimum payment on your statements.
When calculating your income, a lender usually only considers money from a job that you have been at for at least two years.
Unreported earned income cannot be used in the calculation.

AC Associates helping individuals across the United States reach their financial goals. We offer a program to Home Owners on how to successfully sell their home by offering Owner Financing. Purchaser of Owner Financed Mortgage Notes, Deeds of Trust, Lawsuit Settlements, Life Insurance, Lottery/Contest Winnings and Seller Financed Business Notes.
http://www.acassociatesusa.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andrea_Carangelo
http://EzineArticles.com/?Know-Your-Ratio—Loan-to-Value-and-Debt-to-Income&id=609658

Similar Posts:

Seller’s Agent, Buyer’s Agent, Dual Agent – What you Need to Know about Them?

Vlad Zablotskyy — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 02:51:42 +0000

By Andrew Webber

Are you thinking it might be the right time to buy a house? If so, you need to give some serious consideration to the type of agent you will use to help you in your search for your dream home. While many first-time home buyers may not realize it, the agent they choose may not always be able to act in their best interests. This is because there are basically three different types of real estate agents.

Seller’s Agent

The most traditional type of real estate agent is known as a seller’s agent. This agent automatically owes a responsibility to the seller to get them the best price and terms possible for the property. As a result this means that they cannot tell you whether the seller would accept a lower price or better terms.

Dual Agent

Some agent’s are what is known as dual agents. A dual agent has a duty to be honest and truthful with both the seller and the buyer as well as to make full disclosure to both parties. As a buyer you should fully understand; however, that a dual agent is not required to disclose information such as the lowest price or terms the seller will accept. Along the same lines, a dual agent does not have a responsibility to disclose information to the seller such as the best terms and highest price you are willing to offer.

Buyer’s Agent

The third type of agent is a buyer’s agent. A buyer’s agent has a responsibility to look out for your best interests in the transaction. This type of agent can also assist in helping you to determine the advantages and disadvantages of each property that you consider while shopping for a home.

Due to the inherent conflict of interest, an agent must provide full disclosure to you regarding who they represent in the transaction. When there is only one agent in a transaction the agent is usually a dual agent. This can be dangerous territory for both sellers and buyers because it can be difficult for even highly professional agents to walk such a fine line.

Ideally, it is best to work with a buyer’s agent when looking for your next home. Keep in mind that any real estate sales agent or a broker can act as an exclusive buyer’s agent in your transaction; however, the agent won’t be able to represent you exclusively if you become interested in a home that the agent listed for sale. In that case, the relationship would revert to a dual agency relationship.

Depending on your agreement with your buyer’s agent it should be further understand that you may be responsible for paying a portion of the agent’s commission. Generally the sales commission is paid by the seller when the transaction is completed. Generally the sales commission is split 50/50 between the buyer’s agent and the seller’s agent and may be paid by the seller. That commission typically comprises approximately 6% of the sales price of the home; meaning that 3% of the final sales price would go to the buyer’s agent.

Under certain circumstances; however, you could become responsible for a portion of that fee. For example, if you are working with a buyer’s agent and the home that you wish to buy is â€˜For Sale by Owner’ you may find yourself responsible for the buyer’s agent’s portion of the sales commission if the seller refuses to pay the agent’s fee.

While it is possible that you may be responsible for paying at least some of the buyer’s agent’s sales commission it is still advantageous to consider working with an exclusive buyer’s agent. The assistance a buyer’s agent can provide to you in not only finding the best house for your needs but also in getting the best terms and price can more than make up for the commission.

When looking for a buyer’s agent it is important to make sure you spend some time looking for an agent that you feel comfortable working with. After all, this is the person who will be assisting you in finding the home that hopefully you will live in for a long time. Take the time to ask around with friends, family members and business associates for referrals. Don’t overlook asking for references and be sure to follow up by speaking to former clients. Avoid signing any buyer’s agency contract that exceeds 30 days just in case you realize you need to make a change in agents.

A home purchase is a major investment that most consumers will spend a number of years paying toward. As such, you deserve to get the best price and terms possible for your dream home.

Andrew owns a website that provides assist in various aspect of home buying process. You can visit his website at: http://www.buy-and-sell-house-fast.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andrew_Webber
http://EzineArticles.com/?Sellers-Agent,-Buyers-Agent,-Dual-Agent—What-you-Need-to-Know-about-Them?&id=583950

Similar Posts:

Farming For Real Estate – How To Effectively Use A Blog To Market To Your Farm In Real Estate

Vlad Zablotskyy — Mon, 28 May 2007 17:19:29 +0000

Farming For Real Estate – How To Effectively Use A Blog To Market To Your Farm In Real Estate
By Connie Ragen Green

If you have been farming an area with traditional methods you have probably been trying to service an area of two to three hundred homes. You probably send direct mail pieces several times a year, offering a free home evaluation or other marketing offer. Maybe you even go door to door a few times of year. Most of the people are either not at home or do not answer the door and you leave your card or notepad on their front steps.

Welcome to the new millennium. Farming can now be done using technology that will enable you to reach thousands of homes more easily and efficiently than you could reach just a few hundred previously. One of the very best ways to do this is by starting a farming blog.

A blog is a website that lets you write, or post, as often as you wish, and deliver your message to anyone who has either subscribed to the blogâ€™s feed or who visits the website. With the click of your mouse your message can be in front of the homeowners in your farm at a time that is convenient for them to read what you have written in your post.

It is relatively simple to start a blog. They are available for free from some places or for a fee of less than five dollars each month from others. The blogs that have a monthly or annual fee will generally offer more choices and features than the free blog services. It is up to you and you should experiment with the ones you are considering.

You will want to give your blog a name that has meaning to the people who live in your farm area. Do not use your name unless everyone in the area knows you. It is better to use a name that is relevant to the neighborhood. My farming blog is called Plum Canyon Neighbors. When people receive an email message with this subject line they know that it is important information from me about happenings in their area.

Give blogging a chance as a way to market to your farm. You will find that it is so easy and effective you will be glad that you started one.

Connie Ragen Green is a Real Estate Broker and State Certified Residential Appraiser in California and has bought and sold over 100 properties since 1983. Visit her at http://www.BuyRealEstateforProfit.com for more information about buying and selling real estate. To find new ways to market your business go to http://www.SmallBusinessUnMarketing.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Connie_Ragen_Green
http://EzineArticles.com/?Farming-For-Real-Estate—How-To-Effectively-Use-A-Blog-To-Market-To-Your-Farm-In-Real-Estate&id=581170

Similar Posts:

Selling or Buying a Used Mobile Home

Vlad Zablotskyy — Sat, 26 May 2007 19:54:01 +0000

Selling or Buying a Used Mobile Home
By Bill Parker

Selling or Buying a Used Mobile Home

With the ever increasing use of the internet today, selling or buying a used mobile home has never been easier. There are hundreds of sites on the internet where you can list mobile homes for sale that are seen by thousands of people every day.

In today’s world where mobile home parks will only let you put a For Sale Sign in your window, you can see how limited you are at selling your home. Brokers and Real Estate Agents are fine to use if you are willing to pay their fees, but look at your savings by selling the home yourself and maybe using the brokersor agents to handle the paper work for you.

Another great thing about advertising your home on the internet is the cost.

Advertising in the newspapers can cost a fortune for three or four lines and just listed for the weekend. Most internet sites will give you a full-page ad with several photos for less than what you pay the newspapers plus your ad will run until the home is sold.

Sites like mine, and others, have made it very easy and affordable to list your home. For people looking to buy a mobile home, how great is it for you?

You can go to one site look at the many homes listed and choose the home You want. Plus you deal directly with the seller. No broker or agent fees will make the home more appealing to you price-wise and will get you quicker results.

Writer of Mobile Home related articles

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bill_Parker
http://EzineArticles.com/?Selling-or-Buying-a-Used-Mobile-Home&id=577038

Similar Posts:

New Virtual Tour Platform Launched

Vlad Zablotskyy — Thu, 17 May 2007 18:04:48 +0000

First Home Tour announced the launch of e new virtual tour platform. According to the press release announcing the launch of this new platform, the site will offer RealtorsÂ® a simplified and cost effective way to create, upload, and showcase available properties. One of the highlights of the website is that each virtual tool can be instantly uploaded to your local MLS, Realtor.com, Google.com, Trulia.com and many other sites at no additional cost.

Following are some of the advantages of First Home Tour compared to other virtual home tour companies:

Unlimited amount of tours
Add up to 40 pictures
Instant creation of an image gallery from your virtual tour so users have multiple ways of viewing your listing’s images!
Choose your own background music
Choose how long each image is displayed
Create Introductions and Conclusions that can be reused for any tour
Add Titles and Descriptions to your tour
Copyright your own images with a watermark so other’s cannot reuse your pictures
Brand your virtual tour into your own website so clients see your contact information!
24 Hour technical Support via Email

About First Home Tour:

First Home Tour is a subsidiary of Blue Stream Server, who has been providing valuable solutions in the Real Estate market for many years. Comprised of a team of Realtors and Programmers, First Home Tour dove into this project head first with the leadership from their President, James Goodale. The First Home Tour technical team will work directly with you to ensure the highest quality web experience possible.

Similar Posts:

Newsday.com Offers An Easy Way To Find Real Estate Properties in Long Island

Vlad Zablotskyy — Sun, 13 May 2007 21:04:17 +0000

The Long Island Newspaper Newsday.com now offers a comprehensive and detailed directory of the communities on Long Island. Visitors can fin information about Real Estate, school information, recent housing sales and much more.

If you would like to give the directory a try go ahead and look for the great properties in Long Island Real Estate market. One of the outstanding features of the website is integrative maps- these show you the location of properties. After performing the search for a particular property , the website gives you a comprehensive rundown of â€œmedian pricesâ€ in the surrounding neighborhoods.

Website offers you to search for properties all over Long Island but we believe that the visitors of our website can benefit greatly from having an opportunity to search Hampton Real Estate as well as North Fork Real Estate.

Disclosure: The above is a sponsored review. While we accept sponsored reviews, we always put relevance of what we write about on our website above everything else. If you liked this review and have a Real Estate related website, please consider to have a review on our website. For more details click here.

Similar Posts:

Why Become A Real Estate Agent?

Vlad Zablotskyy — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 02:07:36 +0000

By Steven Gillman

It may seem that if you become a real estate agent you can make a lot of money with little risk, just by selling other people’s property for them. This is almost true. You also can get the inside scoop on possibly profitable investments. The part that isn’t entirely true, is the low-risk part. It can be a tough business to start out in, especially if you don’t know many people. It takes money and time (and time is money as well, right?).

I hated being a real estate agent. I was young (17 years ago). It wasn’t that I didn’t sell anything. In the few months I was actually trying I sold seven or eight properties. But I also realized that I would never learn to enjoy the process.

It was simply that it doesn’t fit my personality. I didn’t like being in the middle of transactions. I remember people crying at closings and yelling on the phone. I remember struggling to advise sellers on what was best for them, even though if I were in their shoes I would have found it easy to say what was best for me. I operate best as buyer or seller – not as the person bringing them together.

On the other hand, I met a lot of great people who love the stress and busyness and action of being a real estate agent. They are mostly people who love to help people. Some of them just enjoy the business, while others enjoy it and make a lot of money.

Then there was poor Henry. He was there when I first started, at the desk in front of mine. He was there months later when I was quitting, and he was finally making his first and last sale (he quit shortly afterwards). He was one of the nicest guys I have ever worked with, but he didn’t know how to sell real estate.

I think Henry hated the business more than I. Keeping the money in mind, I could at least make myself get on that phone and start calling hundreds of people who didn’t want to hear from me, just to find the one or two that did want to. I got listings this way while Henry sat there waiting for the phone to ring. But I found it harder and harder to do.
Bottom line? It will help greatly if you actually enjoy this business – that way you can motivate yourself to do the things you need to do.

How To Become a Real Estate Agent

In most states it is relatively inexpensive to get licensed. It will be somewhat different in each, but when I was licensed in Michigan, it was necessary to be sponsored by a broker. There are always brokers looking for new agents, so this shouldn’t present a problem. Then you may take a class that teaches you everything you need to know for the test. This too isn’t too expensive.

After you pass the state exam, you go to work, but you are not an employee. You are provided a desk by your brokerage, but you are an independent contractor. Despite not being in business for yourself, you cannot go off and sell on your own. Usually the law requires that you work for a time (three years is common) as an agent for a broker before you can become a broker yourself and own your own real estate company.

You will have to pay for your own business cards, signs, supplies, and dues. You might even need some new clothes. The dues to join and remain a member of the MLS, or “Multiple Listing Service,” as well as any other memberships required or “suggested” by your employing broker, is where it starts to get more expensive.

You have to be financially prepared for the transition. If you have no other job at the time, you may have no income for at least several months. Unless you have a lot of contacts or are coming into the business from a related one, it may take a month or more to get your first listing. If that property sells in just two months (3 or 4 month is common in many areas), and closes a month after selling, that means that at the start you are four months away from your first paycheck.

Obviously, apart from the couple thousand dollars needed for direct expenses, you need to plan for this lag time before you start collecting commissions. If you are the sole provider for your household, I recommend that you have at least six months income set aside before you quit your job and start selling real estate.

How much can you make? This depends on where you work and what you sell. At the time I was selling real estate in Northern Michigan, all the real estate companies were charging 7% commission on residential properties. My broker split the commission with agents, so if I sold the house, I got half the commission. If an agent from another broker sold the house, that broker took 50%, and my broker split the other 50% with me. In other words, I got 1.75%. This was common then.

Lower commissions are more common now. In some areas, they are as low as 3% for full service brokers. This is because of increased competition, and because home prices have gone up faster than wages or inflation in recent years. 3% of a $500,000 sale (In California, for example) is still a hefty commission: $15,000, to be precise.

Brokers each have their own commission structures. There are brokers that let you keep 100% of the commission, and then charge you for the use of the office, including perhaps a secretary for the common use of a dozen agents. You might pay $15,000 per year under this arrangement, so obviously it would be best to wait until you are selling enough real estate before considering working under this kind of broker.

How do you sell a lot of real estate? That is a book-sized subject, but here are a few basics:
1. List a lot of property for sale. You can spend weeks showing a young couple homes just to have them go to another agent or not buy anything. Get a listing of a home, however, and no matter who buys it or sells it, you will be paid. Concentrate on working with sellers more than buyers (although you will always do both).

2. Get high-priced fast-selling properties. You can spend as much time and effort selling a $100,000 property as you will selling a $400,000 home. But you will make four times as much money with the latter. Too unusual and expensive can mean a long time to sell, however, so balance it out. Sell the most expensive properties that are selling relatively quickly.
3. Specialize. Work an area or type of property until you are the expert. Then the sellers will start to come to you.

4. Learn how to sell. It doesn’t matter if you just want to list those properties and let others sell them. You still need the sales skills to get the seller to list with you. Read, take advice from top sellers, and go to seminars. You can always learn more.

Investing As A Real Estate Agent

About the only disadvantage to having a real estate license as an investor is that in most states you have to identify yourself as an agent when you advertise your properties for sale. This may make some people feel that you – as the expert – can take advantage of them.

The big advantages, however, are two. First, you get the inside scoop on properties coming to market. You may have an offer in on that new rental property even before there is an ad in the paper or a listing in the MLS.

The other advantage is that you effectively get a discount on any MLS listing. Suppose you see a nice little house for $100,000 for sale. If it is listed with another office and the commission is 6%, your broker may get half of that, and give you 60% of that as the selling agent (you are selling it to yourself). That is $1,800 that you make as a commission when you buy – perhaps enough to cover closing costs.

Copyright Steve Gillman. For a Free Real Estate Investing Course, and to see a photo of the home we bought for $17,500, visit: http://www.HousesUnderFiftyThousand.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steven_Gillman
http://EzineArticles.com/?Why-Become-A-Real-Estate-Agent?&id=510436Similar Posts:

Online Property Estimates Not Quiet Accurate

Vlad Zablotskyy — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 03:42:29 +0000

If you are planing to use online estimating tools like the one available at Zillow, you should take these estimates with the grain of salt. Here what one correspondent at Boston Globe writes:

For all their sophisticated presentation, the new websites are still struggling with a common problem: how to get accurate property information, beyond what’s publicly available from common sources. For example, Zillow said Russell’s condo had two bedrooms and one bathroom, when in fact it has three bedrooms and two baths, and also omitted valuable off-street deeded parking. Those discrepancies accounted for much of the difference between Zillow’s most recent $504,398 estimated value of Russell’s Cambridge condominium and his Make Me Move price of $800,000, Russell said.

Similar Posts: