The Individual Guide

Property Investing Secrets:

What No One Ever Tells You-How Real Estate Agents Size Up Buyers

Here is the most important rule you must know about property investing: present yourself with confidence to the real estate agent. If you’re property investing and trying to buy your first property and you have never really dealt with a real estate agent, you’re probably not going to get a bargain. Most likely later, after you’ve made offers and gotten them accepted, will you then get better deals.

You see, the first time up you’re going to have to sound the agent out and see how much experience they have. If you’re dealing with the young pup in the office that has only been in the business 3 or 4 months, you don’t need to know a lot. You can probably even bluff them. But if you’re dealing with the principal, the owner of the business, who has been around for 20 years, they’re going to know that you’re not experienced property investing or more importantly that you’ve never bought in their area and then it becomes a real matter of brinkmanship with the real estate agent.

When property investing, you must convince the real estate agent that you’re serious. You can say, “Look I’m only in town for a couple of days.” (Even if you live locally, have flown in or driven from out of town.) “I’ve got to make a decision in a couple of days. I’m looking at a property in the $250,000-$290,000 price bracket.”

If you say, “I just want to buy a house, I don’t care where it is and I want a bargain.” The agent thinks this buyer has no idea. But the wise person who is property investing will say. “I want to buy in this price range, I want this rent and I want the property in this particular area.” The real estate agent will think, okay this buyer has done their homework. They know what they’re looking for. You can also say, “Look, I don’t pay full retail price, I expect a bit of a discount. What is the best property you’ve got that fits my criteria in that area?”

I’ve found when property investing, the more confident and specific you can be with a real estate agent by telling them what you’re looking for, the more the agent will give you credibility as having done your research and not wasting their time.

Rick Otton is the director of We Buy Houses Pty Ltd. He has been property investing full time for 14 years. Rick has completed over 351 property transactions in Australia and the United States.

Rick specialises in creating positive cash flow through a variety of strategies he perfected in the United States and adapted to Australian conditions. He sells home study courses on vendor finance, one year mentoring program as well as a yearly 3 day boot camp on the Gold Coast. Go to http://www.rickotton.com for more property investing information ring 1800 003 588 in Australia.

Many homeowners are lucky enough to find a house that represents exactly what they want in a home. They buy it, make the payments on it, and live more or less happily ever after. Others are not so fortunate. Some buyers who live in a pricey market may have to settle for less house than they need, hoping to find a solution to their lack of space later. A third group of buyers may find that their housing needs change over time, as their family size increases. What can be done in these situations?

A common solution to these problems is to add on to the house, often accomplished by converting a garage to a room, adding a room over the garage, or simply adding a room somewhere else on the property. For these projects, a home equity loan is a great source of financing. The home itself is used as collateral for the loan, and the addition actually increases the value of the house. As most of these projects involve a fixed cost, the payments can be structured at a fixed interest rate over a specific period of time. But what about the do-it-yourself project? What if the problem with the home isn’t a lack of space, but a lack of taste on the part of previous owners? Is there a better financing choice in these situations?

If your problem is gold appliances, lime green carpet, and smiley face wallpaper, you may be looking at a remodeling project of indeterminate duration. For such a project, a better financing choice would be a home equity line of credit, or HELOC. A line of credit offers greater flexibility, both in interest rates and repayment terms, than a traditional line of credit. The loan amount is based on the amount of equity in the home, but the funds aren’t dispersed all at once. Instead, the borrower is given a checkbook, a special credit card, or both and can use them to draw upon funds at his or her leisure. Payments only apply when money is actually borrowed, and the repayment plans can be arranged with both fixed and adjustable interest rates, depending on the lender. This is ideal financing for someone who has purchased a fixer-upper home that needs a variety of changes, repairs, or modifications. The credit card can easily be used to purchase paint, drapes, flooring, appliances or whatever the homeowner requires to make the home fit their needs.

If you just need to hire a contractor to add a gameroom to your home, a traditional home equity loan would work well. For ongoing projects with indefinite timeframes and budgets, a home equity line of credit may be the best choice.

©Copyright 2005 by Retro Marketing.

Charles Essmeier is the owner of Retro Marketing, a firm devoted to informational Websites, including End-Your-Debt.com, a Website devoted to debt consolidation and credit counseling information and HomeEquityHelp.net, a site devoted to information on mortgages and home equity loans.

Chances are unless you’re right in the throes of purchasing your
home, you’ve never even heard of private mortgage insurance.
But, if you intend to purchase a home and you don’t want put the
20% down that traditional lending institutions require, you’re
going to become very familiar with private mortgage insurance.
What is private mortgage insurance and who pays for private
mortgage insurance? This article will take the opportunity to
discuss private mortgage insurance and why you’re required to
purchase it; we’ll also examine the latest federal regulations
governing private mortgage insurance.

Let’s first define what private mortgage insurance actually is,
and why you might be required to purchase the insurance. Private
mortgage insurance is an insurance purchased to protect the
lender, not the borrower. The borrower however pays for the
mortgage insurance, and is provided to the lender instead of the
20% down payment normally required when purchasing real estate.
The insurance provides the difference between the fair market
value of the home and the actual price a lender may be able to
sell the property for, in case of a default on the loan.
Normally, the lender will require a 20% down payment and forgo
the private mortgage insurance option. However, under certain
circumstances if the buyer has an excellent credit rating, is
well known to the lender, and is deemed to be low risk, private
mortgage insurance may be an option offered by the lender.

The current mortgage market seems to be flooded with such varied
products as the interest only loan and the 125 loans that
private mortgage insurance seems to be a thing of the past. You
rarely encounter a situation when the buyer is required to
purchase the private mortgage insurance; those situations most
likely to continue to require the purchase of the private
mortgage insurance are those where the lender is a traditional
lending institution. Mortgage companies have long since ceased
requiring borrowers to purchase private mortgage insurance.

Mortgage investors, such as the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
programs, have recently come to the aid of the borrower by
introducing an option to the primary mortgage market that allows
borrowers to pay as little as 5% down and purchase only enough
mortgage insurance to cover 25% of the loan; this creates a
potential citing situation for the borrower. The borrower may
pay a slightly higher interest rate in order to lower the cost
of insurance that the advantage lays here: mortgage interest is
fully tax deductible, private mortgage insurance is not.

There’s another option, also regulated by the federal government
and passed into law in 1999, known as the homeowners protection
act of 1998 established rules for regulation of private mortgage
insurance requirements once a homeowner reaches a level of 20%
equity. What the law requires, in layman’s terms, is that a
lending institution must notify you once your equity levels
reach 20% of the appraised value of the home. Once you the kind
of 20% equity level, you must be given the option to drop
private mortgage insurance. If this proposal had passed into law
some 20 years ago, it would have been met with great resistance
among the lending community; today, the interest only loan and
loans that offer mortgages in excess of the appraised value of
the home overshadow the effect of the 1998 homeowner’s act.

Many homeowners seem to mistake the private mortgage insurance
purchased in order to secure the loan, with that of the
homeowner’s liability insurance. Lenders are responsible for
making clear the distinction between private mortgage insurance
purchased to protect the lender versus the homeowner’s liability
insurance purchased to protect the homeowner. Both forms of
insurance will need to be purchased, and the borrower will be
responsible for payment of both insurance premiums.

Quite often as we go through the mortgage process, we encounter
many unexpected expenses; private mortgage insurance is normally
one of those unexpected expenses. As a consumer if you’re
contemplating the purchase of a home, contact your local lending
institution, or a mortgage company in your area, and asked for
information concerning the purchase of a home for first-time
homeowners. The information you’re provided should contain all
the terms, conditions and terminology explanations that you will
need in order to make an educated decision when choosing lenders
and homes.

My name is Rob Scribner. I am not a real estate agent, nor am I
a mortgage broker. I am the owner of Northwest Custom Webs (
<http://www.nwcustomwebs.com> ) . I have built and
maintained over 180 web sites for real estate and mortgage
companies.

I have met the most productive agents in Northwest and I know
what makes them successful.

Let’s start with web sites.

The most productive sites out there are simple and sweet. A main
page telling the viewer about you, and contact page, and most of
all, your listings or services, Yes a resource page and a small
write up about your area is okay, but trust me. 9 out of 10
viewers just go straight to your listings.

If you do not have very many listing, then list some from other
agents and help sell their homes and land. You still make
money.

Too many agents load their site up with garbage. Most folks only
have a few minutes to view your site, so make your site easy to
read and navigate, and keep your contact information in front of
them at all times.

Most agents spend all their time with looks and web toys, that
they forget the most important thing about a website.
Marketing!!

You can have a poor site or a $10,000.00 site. Both are
worthless if know one sees it. Put your effort and money in web
marketing, not mortgage calculators and school listings.

The next thing I have noticed successful agents do is.

Work with Teams:

Even with technology and email, nothing beats customer service.
The most successful real estate agents and mortgage brokers
create a homebuyers team. I have watch some of my clients go
from a average sale person, to mufti million dollar agents. The
trick is a full service team to support customer viewing of
homes, mortgage and office support.

The last secret to real estate success is seminars.

I have a agent I support that has learned the secret to real
estate success and finally put in on CD’s and created a process
to run successful seminars for home buyers. Visit this product
at
www.realestate-success-seminar.com .

They have mastered the real estate market with good websites,
team concepts and homebuyers seminars.

So remember, simple website, good marketing. Team concept for
good customer service and full service, and homebuyers seminars.
Bring the buyers to you.

Rob Scribner

www.realestate-success-seminar.com

www.nwcustomwebs.com

www.submissionweb.com

www.houseonlinefind.com

www.mortgageonlinefind.c
om

Mortgage brokers are independent agents that are affiliated with some financial organization that provides mortgages. They help the organization to market their mortgages. Mortgage brokers are proactively involved in marketing mortgages to people, for which they secure their commissions.

Most mortgage brokers have their own offices. They advertise in the classifieds of newspapers and other media. Some of them may also subscribe to lead generation websites or call centers to obtain mortgage leads. Once mortgage brokers know of a person interested in acquiring a mortgage, they begin contacting the person and attempt to get the loan closed.

But there are also many people who approach mortgage brokers themselves. These are mostly people who do not know how to approach a bank directly, or do not want to do much footwork themselves. Professional mortgage brokers are known to expedite the processing of loans and save valuable time. Since mortgage brokers are well-acquainted with the staff of the financial institution they deal with, they are in a better position to negotiate for rates. More often than not, mortgage brokers can provide better rates and better repayment schemes to their customers. There may also be ‘problem’ mortgage applicants, such as people with bad credit. Mortgage brokers try their best to get mortgages passed even for seemingly impossible situations.

Here comes the important role of mortgage brokers in the world of mortgage financing. Since banks cannot approach or accept problem loans directly, they let mortgage brokers originate them. The mortgage brokers do the dirty work, while the bank gets the business. For this reason, all banks maintain cordial relations with the brokers affiliated to them, as they are their biggest channel of mortgage marketing.

The role of mortgage brokers in bringing business to the finance organization is undeniable. They undertake the task of originating and processing the loan before passing it to the actual lender. Most mortgage brokers are authorized to deal with all kinds of loans, such as governmental mortgages, as well as quasi-governmental mortgages such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans. Today, an estimated 50 percent of all loans are originated through mortgage brokers.

If you are a loan officer or mortgage broker and you invest in mortgage leads, or you are considering investing in mortgage leads, make sure you are making the most of them.

A lead provider, if they are a good one, can provide you with a good quality lead, the rest is up to you.

The lead provider has no control over what the potential customer might say.

Put yourself in the customer’s shoes. Purchasing a home or refinancing an existing one are very big financial decisions in the life of the consumer. They most likely will be a little apprehensive.

When you call a lead you receive from a lead provider, and the customer seems to be in a stand off mood, say something like this.

“Would you mind if I just went over some of the programs we have to offer, it will only take a minute of your time, and it will cost you absolutely nothing.”

This approach takes the pressure off of the customer, and nine times out of ten, they will move forward with you and listen to what it is you have to offer.

If a customer says they are no longer interested, it is only because they lost their nerve.

Say something like this.

” Oh, that is too bad, I have a lot of great programs that fit the description of the profile you filled out on line, it will only take a minute and it will cost you nothing.”

You will be surprised at the responses you receive.

Whatever you do, don’t give up after the first try. It is all about the approach. You do the talking, tell them what they need to hear about your products, it will make a huge difference in the amount of loans you close.

Jay Conners has more than fifteen years of experience in the banking and Mortgage Industry, He is the owner of www.jconners.com, a mortgage resource site, he is also the owner of www.callprospect.com, a mortgage lead company.