New Paltz, New York is a college town about 90 miles north of mid-town Manhattan. It is one of the rock climbing capitals of the country and is home to the historic Mohonk Mountain House. I, like many New Yorkers, came here many times as a kid to hike the magical trails, canoe, and climb the crevices of the Shawangunk Mountains, or “Gunks” as the locals call it. Finally, I bought a home here. I am now happily helping others to escape the city and live their dreams. So, what’s the down side? I had to get used to well water with all kinds of bacteria that creeps in from farms, bad water pressure, a septic system and not a city sewer, having to drive three miles in each direction for a container of milk, a occasional inch or two of water in my basement when the river behind my house swells, the nosy, gossip of small town America, many moths, flies, mosquitoes, bats, and other flying creatures in Summer, and the parade of Harleys that go by my house on Summer nights because I live on one of the most beautiful roads in the county.

It’s harder to make a living here than if I had a practice in Suburbia or the City, and property values aren’t as high and commissions are lower. We have to travel long distances to show homes, often putting 100 miles or more on our cars on a typical weekend day. But the upside is the lifestyle. Not having to lock my car, hearing no horns beeping, no road rage, and having folks smile at you and make eye contact when they pass you on the street is worth more than all the money I could ever make in the Big City. With the advent of telecommuting, there are many places in the country that baby boomers and Generation Xers are relocating to. You can do it if you want to. All you need to do is say “I’ve had enough, let’s move to the country”. Buy the house, and the rest will come.
About the Author

Sharon Klein is the Owner/Broker of Hudson Valley Homes and Land. For access to the amazing homes and properties in this beautiful area, contact Sharon today or visit us online at www.HVHomesAndLand.com

When selling a home its vitally important to showcase the home’s exterior features. While it is usually a home’s interior features that sell a person, it is definitely the exterior features that create the original interest and draw their attention. Typically, internet listings start with a picture of the home’s front. Additionally, the exterior is the first thing seen when driving by. Upon first sight of a home, and impression is formed by a prospective buyer. It is extremely important that this impression be a positive one; one that stirs interest and piques the buyer’s curiosity.

Take some time to consider what your home’s strongest exterior selling points are. Usually these will be things like distinct landscaping, a nice porch, well tended gardens and the general condition of the home. At the first glance, your home must leave a lasting visual impression that will set the property apart from the others that it is competing with. Now, set about showcasing them by making sure that they are in top-notch condition. If you wish, you can add some value and attraction by improving on these or by adding new aspects to enchant buyers.

Adding new features to the home’s exterior is time well spent as the image that your home presents to the viewer can never be too strong. Great features for yards include touches like new fencing. If they yard’s fences are old and decrepit, falling over, or in a general state of disarray it can impact negatively on a home’s image. New strong and most of all, fencing that improves privacy is a great asset for any home. Another great selling asset is creatively designed gardens. Bright flowers are a scenic touch that will always improve the appearance of a home. Make sure that gardens are weed free and clean to get the most bang for your gardening buck. Now, how is the home itself looking? In preparing your home for sale, one of the best ideas is a new coat of paint. This will bring new life to the exterior and make the home much cleaner looking as years of wear and environmental wear will be eliminated. Be mindful of the damage potential of environmental factors such as sun and snow, they can cause a lot of wear and tear to a home.

About the Author

Matt Barker is a real estate professional specializing in Saint Paul real estate. Matt’s dedication to excellence in the world of real estate is what makes Barker & Hedges the premier real estate team in Saint Paul. Contact Matt for more information today.

A real estate agent will usually give you tips to make your home more desirable to buyers. One last advantage of using a real estate agent when selling a home is, if you trust the real estate agent he or she can tell you about how much you can get for your home. One disadvantage of using a real estate agent when selling a home is if a real estate agent have a lot of homes to sell he or she may not give your home the time it deserves to get top price. It is not unlikely for a real estate agent to have to show more than one home in a small period of time. Another disadvantage of using a real estate agent when selling a home is the commission that has to be paid to them when the house sells. It can come out of your pocket or the pocket of the buyer but if you are using a real estate agent the commission must be paid.

One last disadvantage of using a real estate agent when selling a home is the real estate agent may not have your best interest in mind. Some real estate agents get the seller to lower the price of the home so they can sell it faster. When using a real estate agent it is recommended not to tell them what is the lowest you will sell a house for, they won’t hesitate to tell this to the buyer in order to get a fast sale. Using a real estate agent does have its advantages and its disadvantages when selling a home, but with this information you read here you will know what things to look out for.

About the Author

A good web site where you can see more information on topics like this is Real Estate Facts which is highly recommended. Thank you and enjoy.

Staging allows the home to be presented as a canvas and allow the buyer to paint a picture for them; visualizing what the space will look like if they moved in with their items. But that does not mean showing an empty home; rather staging accentuates spaces within the home by creating vignettes, which enhance positive space while downplaying negative areas within the house.

You could hire a professional stager for about $400 for a consultation and then shell out another $100 per hour for the stager to do the packing and the redecorating, OR you can do it yourself, keep the savings and put it into staging the home if you do-it-yourself.

In order to create the staging scene, understand that for the next 30-90 days, while the house is for sale, you will need to have removed personal items, collections and clutter, (and keep them ‘gone’ until you have a signed contract). Your home may lose its personal style and warmth, but that will be one of the small sacrifices you will need to make to maximize profit from the sale of your house.

Staging will require some planning as you will pack away items, which you may have kept handy just for the sake of a convenience (i.e., refrigerator door space used as a bulletin board for ‘to-do lists,’ coupons, family photos and calendars, etc.) or items which may have been left plugged (indefinitely) into electrical outlets for convenience, such a shavers and hair dryers in the bathroom; all of which add clutter to the home.

If you stage your home for sale on your own, here are 10 easy tips to remember:

1) Make a list of all the spaces, choose one room at a time and tackle each individually. You will be overwhelmed if you choose to do ‘the whole house’ in one afternoon. Start with the bathroom(s) and the kitchen and then move to the common rooms and finally the bedrooms. Basements, hallways and attics are last. Check off each room on your list as you go helping to make you feel as if you have made some accomplishment. Understand that packing up clutter is ‘work’ and it is time-consuming (that is why there is a $100 an hour price tag on the hiring a professional), but remember always that the savings outweighs the hard work. By all means, ask family members to pitch-in. Even children can pack away their toys and older children can clean a dirty shower. Plug in the Ipod or put on a CD to help the time pass a little more pleasantly.

2) Evaluate the colors of each room individually. Pastel colors do not sell well. Baby blue and princess pink are often gender-inspired colors, which are a huge turn-off for potential buyers. Even if the buyers have children and will use the baby blue room for their own baby, they may or may not like that particular shade or, in fact may wish to use yellow or green, often considered colors, which can traditionally be used for both boys and girls. Play it safe and simply paint over the pastels with a neutral color like beige or off-white. Any wallpaper should be removed or painted over if possible.

3) Go to your neighborhood grocery store and ask them for empty boxes from produce as these usually have side cut-outs for easy grabbing. Start storing empty boxes in a place for easy access a few weeks before you begin to stage. You will need the boxes and having them handy will keep the packing momentum moving along.

4) As you go from room to room, remove family pictures from the walls and replace them with used art from a thrift store or simply purchase framed prints from a local dollar store. Pack away all collections including children’s Hot Wheels, baseball cap collections and any other really personal collections you and your family may be fond of. You may leave out neutral items for decorating such as pricey crystal, Lladro, colorful depression glassware to fill in those spaces left behind when the spoon collections, baseball card collections and Formula 1 car collections come off the fireplace mantle and shelves. This may be ‘painful’ but consider that in 30-90 days you will be able to unpack these items in your new home and enjoy them again.

5) Consider at this point whether you will need to rent storage space or whether a neighbor or a friend will allow you to store these items in their home as filled boxes will accumulate quickly. A new storage idea has streamlined storage space in recent years, whereas you rent a container or a pod and store the items in this portable space for as long as you need to. If you should rent this container space, do not store the entire container on your own property. Ask a friend or a neighbor if you can store it there or ask the container company if you can store at their own facility. You do not want to make your home look like a warehouse. Also, do not consider storing any packed items in a spare bedroom or in the basement of your own home as you would simply be de-cluttering one room and cluttering another. All rooms should be clear of storage boxes, afterall you are selling a home and not a storage space.

6) Clean, clean, clean….particularly bathrooms and kitchens. No home will sell especially well with grit, mold, dirty tiles and floors. For as much as you will stage each room, the buyers’ eyes will focus on the dirt and not on the hard work you put into staging. People remember dirt and grime and it would only remind them how much more work they would have to do when they moved in themselves. If you need to re-grout a dirty tub, then you will need to make that effort.

7) Buyers make a determination of a home within 20 seconds of walking through the front door. Make that experience memorable within that short period of time. If you have an entryway, set up a table, with flowers, a small attractive bowl of expensive mints and add some potpourri somewhere in the area. Scented candles offer a nice smell when you first walk in, so I use them often. I often purchase scented candles at the dollar store or the day after a holiday when the retailers slash holiday item prices. An expensive red Christmas candle can be picked up for half price the day after the holiday season and no one would know it was a holiday candle. The same for Halloween…often orange, black, yellow and green scented candles go on sale after this event, so I stock up at that time and use those candles throughout the year.

If you have an entryway, open all the doors off the entry to make the space appear larger and brighter.

Go from room-to-room and pack- up clutter. Leave a small basket under the counter or in a closet with items you will need to use while you are still living there. The only items on a bathroom counter should be a small bouquet of flowers, a bar of clean decorative soap in a clean soap dish and a clean hand towel. Toothbrushes, toothpaste, shaving cream, medications and hair products should all be packed away under the counters or in places, which are not noticeable.

9) Go to the supermarket and purchase an inexpensive bouquet of either daisies or carnations. You get many more flowers to work with in these arrangements than you would if you opted to spend money on roses or more expensive flowers. Arrange the flowers in whiskey snifters, small vases, or, if you do not have either take a better drinking glass from your kitchen, tie a small ribbon around the base and fill that with water and a few daisies. Use these arrangements randomly around the home but be sure to place at least one in each room. Change flowers as needed but the daisies and carnations seem to last a long time even if you forget to add more water! Dying flowers MUST be thrown out immediately; they make bad impression to visitors to your home.

10) Move out the bulky furniture and create little seating venues in your home with small tables and chairs. For example, you normally have a large sectional in your TV room with a cocktail table and two side tables…however, you may also have a large window facing the backyard that is blocked by the sectional. Remove pieces of the sectional to make the space appear larger. Place the cocktail table and one end table near the sectional. Find two chairs, which do not always have to match and place the other end table in front of the window with the 2nd end table in between the chairs. Add your bouquet of flowers, a small lamp and you have another seating area in the room. Pull your curtains away from the window, tie back with decorative rope or ribbon and let the light shine in the room. Add a bowl of lemons (I also like to use colored peppers) to the cocktail table for added color. Find two pillows that DO match and place them on the chairs in front of the window to tie the room together. If you do not have matching pillows, take two unmatching pillows and wrap matching pillow cases around the pills and knot in the center with a piece of ribbon. This is an easy formula to pull together a room which works in every bedroom and common area in the home.

If you do not have a window to showcase, you may use a blank wall and situate the furniture as indicated above, adding two or three framed prints between the chairs and slightly overlapping the seating space to bring the eye toward the seating venue.

For more staging ideas, please click here for Part II of this series http://mtrust.realtownblogs.com/real-estate/staging-a-home-for- sale-10-more-ideas-you-can-use-part-ii

About the Author

Michael Trust http://www.michaeltrustrealty.com is a native Angeleno. Born, raised, and educated in Los Angeles, and a homeowner himself, Michael is familiar with the challenges of buying, selling and owning real estate in the Greater Los Angeles area.

I am living in living in the fourth house I have purchased during my 23 years of home ownership. To some that may seem like a lot of houses, to others it may seem like I’ve just started. The simple fact is we Americans move a lot… 11 or 12 times in a lifetime depending on whom you consult. Chances are you are going to purchase a house during quite a few of those moves and somewhere along the line you may have the opportunity to build a new home.

Should you?

Everyone has fantasized at some point about his or her dream house. You may want closets big enough to live in; a bathroom that doubles as a spa; a kitchen in which you could produce programs for the Food Network But, as in most fantasies, there is usually some epic journey required to achieve the goal. And building your dream house follows that plot line all too closely.

But isn’t it the dream that makes the quest worthwhile? Yes, if you can weather the storms and battles along the way. And the determination to keep moving forward is usually a function of a strong will and a big heart. But it helps to use your head before you set off on your personal version of “The Lord of the Rings.”

It is likely that you have options when you begin the process of buying a home. There may be existing homes in the area that are affordable and that meet your needs. But there are always things about any property or house that don’t exactly meet with your approval. The basement may not be finished or the yard may be too small or the interior décor may have to be entirely redone. It is virtually impossible to buy an existing home without making compromises.

Building new allows you to imagine, design and build the home that accommodates needs and amenities that are important to you… within a budget of course. And that is one thing that must be considered. A new home will be more expensive, on a cost per foot basis, than an existing one. That is due to the cost of land, the price of building materials and labor expense. You might also find that taxes are high as a new area is developed and the municipal authorities factor in the required infrastructure for a growing population and the need for services like education, law enforcement and recreation. You may find yourself subsidizing some of these costs as an area develops.

The ongoing costs associated with an existing house are more predictable. However, there will likely be more maintenance expense than for a new house and energy costs tend to be higher with older properties because newer homes are more energy efficient.

Commuting costs may be an issue. Developers must go further and further out to find enough land to accommodate a new subdivision. That may mean higher costs for commuting to work and to access other businesses and venues that may be closer to the nearest major population center. You should consider this from both a monetary perspective and to determine if you are comfortable with an additional investment of time.

If your new house is built in a subdivision there may be ongoing fees required. In addition, there may be covenants that are designed to protect property values that may apply serious restrictions on your ability to enhance your home and/or your property down the road.

A new home needs new landscaping. This may be included in the price of the home but there will likely be a limit to what is covered under the agreement. To landscape the property in a way that is truly satisfying may require an additional outlay.

Beware of construction delays! Building contractors are notorious for setting deadlines they miss and making promises they can’t keep. Make sure you do some thorough research about the builder and his track record before you commit. Weather is always unpredictable and may have an effect but that should be factored in from the start.

A new subdivision can be a hornet’s nest of building activity. If you move into your home early in the process be prepared for hammering, sawing, trucks, mud and general chaos for quite a while as the subdivision progresses. This is a lifestyle issue and is a temporary inconvenience. But some have found this level of activity disconcerting and disruptive especially when they are settling into their “dream home” and trying to savor the experience.

If you build new be prepared to stay for a while. With new construction all around you it would be difficult to compete with the rest of the properties available for others who want to build a house from the ground up. You would have to make it worth their while and that usually means a compromise in price.

All this being said (and trust me there is more that could be said) there is nothing quite as satisfying as showcasing the house to family and friends that you designed and built and that reflects your unique vision and personality. If you survive the journey, you will likely have turned your fantasy into reality.

About the Author
J. Terrence McDermott is administrator and webmaster for House Plans Central at http://www.house-plans-central.com, a site featuring recommendations and resources for those seeking information about house plans and home designs.

You can purchase property for cash, of course, and if you have it, this can be the best way to get a great price. What if you don’t have the cash? Here are some of you other options.

Partner To Purchase Property

Join the local real estate investing group in your town. Then start taking notes, names, and numbers. Our group here in Tucson meets once a month. The best part of the meeting is the “I have / I want” part, where anyone can stand up and tell the rest what they are looking for, or what they have to sell. I have a list of people now that are looking for everything from mobile home parks to fixer-upper homes.

How do you use this information to purchase property? Here is one of several ways: Make an offer on a property, and include in the offer the right to assign to someone else or bring in a partner. Call the people on your list until you find one that will put up the down payment or arrange financing as a partner.

I announced that I had some money at one meeting, and three days later got a call from a couple that had the financing and down payment on a project arranged, but needed a partner to bring in the money to rehab the property. If the deal is good, you can find the money. If you don’t have a real estate investors group nearby? Start one.

The Two-Note Technique

This creative way to purchase property sounds more complex than it is. You make an offer for, let’s say, $360,000 on a rental property, when the seller is asking only $350,000. Why, if the seller is asking $355,000 and probably only expects to get $340,000, do you offer more than the asking price? Because the seller will be financing the whole deal, and he needs cash, so you’ll be selling one of the loan notes. Let me explain.

You offer two mortgage notes, one for $300,000, and the other for $60,000. The payments on the first might be around $2,000, and $400 per month on the second. You’ll have total payments of $2,400 per month (Be sure you still have cash flow). As part of the offer, you arranged for the sale of the second note at closing for $45,000. That’s all a note investor is likely to pay for an “unseasoned note”. The seller gets $45,000 in cash, and payments of $2,000 every month for 30 years. The note investor gets your other payment of $400/month.

The numbers will be all different in every deal of this sort. Maybe you have some cash. Maybe the seller needs more cash, so the second note will have to be for a higher amount. Interest rates, balloons, and your credit rating all affect what a note buyer will pay for the note too. The point is that you can create cash out of seller financing, meaning you can purchase property with nothing down, or with less down.

No-Doc Loans

These loans used to be harder to find, and may still be in your area, but they’re everywhere around here right now. The idea is that you don’t need documentation of a job or even income, hence the name “no-doc.” The bank loans based on your credit score and the property. I can get 95% financing on a $300,000 house without any job or income right now.

The catch, apart from needing either great credit or a larger down payment, is that the interest rate will be higher. Now, suppose you find a $100,000 fixer-upper and can put the $5,000 down payment and the repairs on your credit cards. In this case, the few thousand in interest over the six months you own the house isn’t much if you intend to make a $25,000 profit.

On the other hand, the higher interest will really add up if you are going to live in the house for 30 years. At the moment, the banks around here seem to want about 2% more for these loans than for conventional mortgage loans, and that is a lot of extra interest over the years. Bottom line? No one way is right in all cases. That’s why you need to know many ways to purchase property.

About the Author
Steve Gillman has invested in real estate for years. To learn more, get a free real estate investing course, and see a photo of a beautiful house he and his wife bought for $17,500, visit http://www.HousesUnderFiftyThousand.com

Exchange is a program that allows the owner of a certain property that is used for investment to be exchanged with another property and defer paying the taxes. If the like-kind property is purchased, the rules and regulations of the Internal Revenue Code should be followed and observed. This will allow the investors to gain more assets, have a large control over real estates and expand into other properties. The like-kind property is only recognized if the exchange is for the purpose of productive use like in the business or trade industry and investment. The like-kind property can consider these for investment:

- Duplex - Commercial Property - Single Family Rental - Apartment - Raw Land

1. Understanding Exchange

There are some points to understand regarding exchange. Here are some tips to guide you with the exchange process. It is important to know the basics of the process. A lot of people are confused about the exchange procedures. If you are new to it, perhaps you won’t understand it that well too. You can ask a professional about the terms and conditions that are unclear. Exchange process is not taken for granted because it has proper guidelines to follow.

If you are not aware with the exchange process, you can read books or if you are that interested, you can attend seminars that focus on exchange. They should be able to show how to deal with an exchange. If you want to be an expert in exchange, you should know a lot of important information and instructions. Exchange procedures may get complicated but it is important to be familiarized with it. It is not that easy that even the well-experienced investors and professionals avoid the exchange process because of its complexity. Exchange is considered profitable because you if you are an investor, you can still recover the earnings you have lost.

2. Who performs the exchange process?

- Real estate agents - Accountants - Attorneys - Escrow companies

In the earlier years, real estate agents were the ones who specialize in the exchange process. They were the ones who handled exchange matters because they were able to master the important instructions and information of the process.

3. Faciliation Companies

If you want to perform exchange, it’s not really necessary to know all the dos and don’ts. All you need to do is to call an exchange facilitator to advise you throughout the process. Most exchanges are handled by facilitation companies. They are in charge of resolving problems that may soon take place. Complete with the contacts of competent facilitation companies, you are sure to triumph the pursuit to financial independence. This will no longer be a problem. The exchange process is considered an exchange between two parties. Most of the exchanges are the considered to be delayed exchanges. In less than 45 days, they must then be able to identify the possible replacement property after the closure of the property.

4. Who Can Exchange?

In order to qualify for an exchange, you are required to provide some important papers. The Exchanger should sign a written document that is mailed or sent to the person who is obliged and concerned in the exchange. This is very essential in order to successfully qualify for an exchange. All information of the replacement property should be ambiguously stated including the type of property in the personal property exchange.

You must be prepared for your first exchange. You should be able to locate a good exchange facilitation firm with a nice background. You should choose agents who can do the process accordingly and not act as if they know the whole process perfectly. When it comes to pricing, the fees will vary on the services. The rate is from $500 to $1,200. Once you notice that your facilitator can handle the exchange process well, you can take his advice. You can ask for copies of your documents that will be useful as reference by your attorney. It is important to find a good facilitator because time is important and investigation will take a long process but can be cut short if it is handled properly. Take note of these reminders in order to successfully apply or understand the fundamentals and applications of exchange.
About the Author

For more great real estate related articles and resources check out http://www.1031exchangehq.com

People try to sell a house on their own for one primary reason: To save the sales commission. Unfortunately for them, they usually underestimate the cost and complexity of going it alone. They’ll often get frustrated and tired of the process, and be ready to drop the price and be done with it. If you help them solve their problems, your reward can be a good price on a good investment. Just keep the following in mind:

1. A seller isn’t an agent. You have to be more careful in what you say and ask. Avoid negative comments about the house. Like it or not, the truth is that it’s difficult to get a good deal if the seller doesn’t like you.

2. Sellers think they’re being smart. If you encourage that belief, they’ll be more open to your offer. If they have a good idea, tell them so. It’s not unethical to make people feel good about themselves when negotiating.

3. FSBO real estate has often been on the market a long time. Seller’s are usually tired of the process, and want it to be done. This means you’ll get a better price if you are willing to close quickly and easily.

4. Seller’s usually don’t have a plan. They don’t know where to close, where to buy a title policy, where to keep a good faith deposit, etc. Have simple solutions ready for all these problems. If you walk the seller through the process while letting him feel in control, you’ll both be happier.

5. Skip over problems and return later. After a seller has invested more time with you in a negotiation, he’ll be more inclined to give you what you want.

6. Sellers have often spent more than anticipated. Classified advertising and other costs have already eaten into their imagined extra FSBO profit. You may want to be generous in negotiating the many closing costs - as long as you get your price and/or terms.

Real estate professionals will tell you that most houses “for sale by owner” net the seller less than those sold by an agent. By the time a seller realizes this, it’s often too late to recover his money and time spent. At this point, he usually just wants to get the thing sold as easily and quickly as possible. If you help sellers with that, you can get a good deal on FSBO real estate.

About the Author

Steve Gillman has invested in real estate for years. To learn more, get a free real estate investing course, and see a photo of a beautiful house he and his wife bought for $17,500, visit http://www.HousesUnderFiftyThousand.com

There is a lot of fear about the real estate industry. Media reports suggest that the real estate industry is a bubble that is about to burst. But how true is this? Below are two facts that suggest there is no real estate bubble.

Fact No. 1

The real estate economy is local, not global

Unlike the stock market, which is based on the national and world economy, the real estate market is very much a locally-based economy. What does this mean? This means that while the stock market is influenced by economic rise and fall of industry all over the nation, the real estate market is not. Real estate prices in California may not influence prices in New York, and that’s that. In real estate, a broad analysis of what is happening around the nation does not always reflect what is happening in your home town.

Fact No. 2

When there’s a demand, there’s a supply

As long as there’s a demand there’s a supply. Real estate is about real people who need homes, and people will always be buying homes, because people need to live somewhere. If you look to the future, you’ll see that there’s an ever increasing demand for real estate. Take, for example, the fact that millions of migrants are arriving in the United States each year. This movement translates into a need for real estate. Moreover, it’s also much easier to get a home loan these days, which means that people will be buying homes. People also get married much later, which means that they’ll probably be buying a home while still single.

Home buying is a concrete need, unlike the stock market, which is less concrete. In the stock market, buying and selling happens at the snap of a finger. In real estate, economic activity is less volatile. The industry is inherently more stable.

The real estate market will rise and fall, but in general real estate prices rise in the long term. So, if you are investing, simply hold onto your purchase for the long term, and you’ll see that this is no bursting bubble.
About the Author

Dylan Miles, journalist, and publisher, is the owner and co-editor of http://www.realestateboom.info on which you will find more a detailed version of this article.

If you’re new to real estate investing, you probably haven’t figured it out yet. But you will. It’s inevitable. Stick around long enough and you’ll discover that successful real estate investors have their own lingo. Yes. Their own language. And if you ever talk to these investors, most of them will quickly resort to certain “F” words to explain their success.

Let me share just a few of these “F” words.

Focus

The all-important concept that keeps you on a clear, purposeful, directed path is focus. We are all focusing on something at every moment. For example, right now you are focusing on this article. How often are we focusing on the wrong thing? The key is to be focusing on the right thing. If you carry a lighted flashlight that is focused up instead of down at your feet, what would be the odds that you would trip in the dark? The odds, I say, would be fairly good. The flashlight is pointing at something; it just might not be pointing at the right thing.

For example, successful real estate rehabbers focus on the process - the rehab process - not the product. The product is a natural outcome of doing the rehab process well. Real estate achievers focus on implementing a duplicatable process to keep their rehab business growing. Non-achievers lack focus and haphazardly rehab the home. If the rehabbed house turns out all right, they credit their lucky stars. If the house is a dud, well, their lucky stars were not aligned just right.

Focus is the act of actually doing those actions that lead to the desired outcomes that you have chosen for yourself. Focus on the right things and you will get the right results.

Fix and Flip

If you are just getting into real estate, fixing and flipping properties is one of the best ways to realize substantial profits without using your own money. You start by searching for motivated sellers with junkers. In other words, find people desperate to sell their house that is in bad condition. Once you acquire the house, you fix it and quickly add value through a systematic rehab process. Then you resell the house quickly for a profit.

Let’s suppose you stumble on a property suffering from neglect by its prior owners. You sense that there is a lot of money to be made because you can buy the property well below its market value, make the necessary repairs, and then sell the property.

To successfully implement a ‘fix and flip’ strategy, you don’t need perfect credit, but you must have access to some cash. Preparing a real estate business plan to present to prospective lenders will vastly improve your chances of getting all the money you need to purchase the property including the repairs.

You can use the real estate business plan to provide your potential money lenders with your approach to your rehabbing business. You need to assure them that they’ll have a first mortgage on the property that will be secured by the property itself. Most importantly, your lenders need to know that that you’ll only purchase deals that are 20 to 30 percent below their after repair value.

After you purchase the property, the average turnaround on a ‘fix and flip’ property is approximately 90 to 120 days from the date you purchase the property to the date you cash out on the property. This timeframe is based on 30 days to fix it up, 30 to 45 days to sell it on the market, and usually 30 to 45 days to close. This process can be done faster, of course, under the right circumstances. However, the process can also take longer if you don’t get the property up to market standards and in selling condition in this time frame.

How many houses do you want to do? How much money do you want to make? Even on a part-time basis, doing a ‘fix and flip’ several times a year can generate a nice second income. Yes. A second income that can quickly surpass your full time income. Financial Freedom

Real estate is one of the best and easiest ways to create wealth. More millionaires have made their fortunes in real estate than anything else! Here is what some of the wealthiest Americans have said: · “Real estate is the basis for all wealth.” - Theodore Roosevelt · “Buying real estate is the best, safest way to become wealthy.” - Marshall Fields · “90% of all millionaires made it through real estate.” - Andrew Carnegie

Generally, most individuals that are looking for ways to get ahead financially give some serious thought to real estate investing. And many take the plunge. But why do so many that take the real estate investing plunge fall short of their financial goals?

Well, there are plenty of reasons to go around, but the principal reason centers around unrealistic expectations.

Many new investors are unwilling to pay the price. All worthwhile endeavors require some sustained and focused effort. In other words, some real work.

But many of us are searching for the magic key that will open the “real estate treasure chest” to instant wealth. Is it possible this magic key exists? Honestly, I think I have a better chance of getting my face carved on Mount Rushmore than you have of truly finding that magic key just lying around somewhere.

By now you know that success comes before work only in the dictionary. Sure, it’s a cliché, but it’s also a profound truth.

There are other “F” words that permeate the vocabularies of successful real estate investors. But if you will make focus, fix and flip, and financial freedom a part of your vocabulary, you will be on your way to reaching your financial goals.

I should know. Seldom a day goes by that I don’t use one or all of these “F” words in my business.
About the Author

Lee Salinas is a full time real estate investor. After losing his mid management job in June 2002, Lee decided to become a real estate investor. In three years, he has purchased over 140 properties and authored a business plan for real estate investors. The real estate business plan is available at his website - http://www.realestatebizplan.com