The Cash Trio

Property agents should be pretty familiar with the concept of having an open-house. This marketing process has proven to be quite effective and thus has been utilised as an important tool to sell or lease out properties. However, sometimes an open-house can prove to be quite a daunting task as you wonder if there will be any clients coming along to view the property whilst you could be using your time to carry out viewing to more “high-potential” clients.

Preparing for an open-house

Inform the house owner that you will be having an open-house over the weekend and ask if the owner would like to be around or not – it could work both ways. Some house-proud owners can do an even better job of describing the house than property agents. However, when faced with criticisms by potential clients, they may also be the first ones to chase the clients out with a broom!

Allow at least 3 days to prepare for the marketing of the open-house.

3 days before – place signboards & drop flyers to surrounding properties to inform passers-by and neighbours of open-house date and time

2 days before – inform your company or network agents that there will be an open-house and they are welcome to bring their clients for viewing

1 day before – place your newspaper advertisements on the date and time of open-house. DO NOT reveal exact address as you want potential clients to call you to enquire and fix an appointment before they come along.

By informing the home owner well in advance, it is more likely that you will have a nice and clean property for open-house. Most home owners will make sure the house is spick and span if they know that there are visitors coming.

During the open-house

Before the day of open-house, you ought to get a feel of the “potential response” to your open-house from your company and network agents. Having a handful of them confirm appointments with you would already be quite a good start.

No clients? – Do not fret … you can take this time to find out more about the condition of the house, have a friendly chat with the owner (on topics NOT related to the house), or walk around the neighbourhood and learn more about the surroundings. NOTE – Make sure you have your identification tag for people to recognise you as a housing agent. Neighbours and passers-by should have noticed your signboards and flyers that you distributed 3 days ago and be more receptive to your presence. In fact, they might just query you about the property or even ask you to market their own!

Too many clients? – If there are too many parties at one time, you should be extra careful especially if there are personal belongings of the owners in the house. If you are handling this property single-handedly (owner not present), show the clients only to the spaces in the ground level and politely ask that the clients walk through the rest of house by themselves as you need to serve the other parties that’s been waiting in the entrance area. This way, you can keep track of the main passage in and out of the house.

End of open-house & follow-up

Always appreciate the efforts of those whom have made the open-house possible for you. At the end of the day of open-house, follow-up with the potential clients on how they felt about the house. Even if there were no concrete offers, you have taken the opportunity to inform the owner about the general sentiments towards the house and this information can be used subsequently to make informed decisions about pricing and other terms.

Real estate investment is one of best options for many investors to create wealth while enjoying numerous tax benefits. A real estate investment decision involves much more than choosing a right location to buy your dream properties. Besides where to buy, there’re questions of what and when to invest in real estate.

When

Like economy and stock market, real estate often runs in cycles of approximately 7-10 years. The value of real estate often goes up for a few years, tops out, keeps flat or goes down for 2-3 years. The availability of low interest rate mortgage and recovery of economy will eventually jump-start a new cycle of real estate growth. Novice investors tend to invest at the top of the market while wishing the market will go even higher to reap a quick profit. Smart money, however, buys real estate at, or near, the bottom of the market when most of investors are reluctantly and don’t have the financial power to buy.

Beside the life cycle of real estate market, individual property has its own life cycle. Properties can be purchased at pre construction, as new home inventory or as owned properties.

What

Single family home has traditionally been the preferred option of real estate investment for many individuals. Instead of selling their first residential home and moving to a bigger house, some home owners choose to keep their first home and rent it out by using a property management company. The new trend in real estate investment is to own hotel condos or vacation homes. There’re many advantages of owning hotel condos or vacation homes.

Where

Once your investment options are not limited to residential properties, the location of property isn’t limited to the place where you live. Hotel condos and vacation are, of course, often located at well-known resorts, from Vail Colorado to Miami, Florida.

Real estate investment is a complex decision making process. Most investors will seek help from real estate professionals. Nowadays, with the vast amount of information freely available on the Internet, search engines are where people start doing their own homework. For instance, typing “Miami Pre Construction” in Google, Yahoo or MSN search engine, you’ll see a list of pages where you can locate the information about buying Miami real estate at pre construction price at Miami, Florida.

Copyright @2005, 4th Media Corporation

You have permission to publish this article electronically free of charge, as long as the bylines and links in the body of the article and the bylines are included.

Checking out your Check Book: When a first home purchase isn’t quite within your grasp

Checking out that balance in the checking account again? Barely got enough to save after paying bills, buying groceries and putting gas in the car? Understandable. But, you ask, “How am I ever going to afford a house of my own?”

That is the ultimate question for many potential home owners. They live in a vicious cycle of trying to save money for a down payment while being vigilant in paying bills on time to keep a good credit rating, only to find their dream home is never quite within their reach.

Mortgage Revenue Bonds

Have you not heard about MRB – Mortgage Revenue Bonds? It’s the ONLY federal government program that is available low-income, first-time home buyers.

Oh, I can hear you now: “But I’m not really low income.” Well, surprisingly, you really don’t need to be dead broke to reap the benefits of this program.

I see your ears perking up. “Tell me more,” you say. To qualify for this aid, you can earn as much as 115% of the median family income for your area (that figure is based on the fact that your family includes you and two dependents). You can call your state Housing Finance Agency to discover the median family income for your area. The second criterion is that the house you purchase is your principal residence (a second vacation home obviously doesn’t qualify) and whose cost does not exceed 90% of the average cost of a home in your area.

Hey, wait before you run around checking this program, check out http://www.a-real-estate-guide.com where you’ll find an abundance of information for home buyers (home sellers and anyone interested in investing in real estate). This free, informative resource is dedicated to providing you the tools to educate yourself in both buying and selling your home.

http://www.a-real-estate-guide.com A Real Estate Guide.comreceives current news articles daily on a variety of topics of interest to home buyers. It also contains a variety of mortgage calculators, so you can decide if you can afford that house payment and the accompanying extra expenses of home ownership.

Before you make another move towards home ownership, you need to arm yourself with all the vital information available to you for free at http://www.a-real-estate-guide.com. Happy house hunting!

Jeff Little…

http://www.a-real-estate-guide.com

Sometimes, the best way in finding cheap rental apartments is the cheapest and fastest way – through the Internet. If jobs, cars, and second-hand stuff can be found on the Internet, it should be easy finding cheap rental apartments on the Internet as well. Instead of browsing through the papers, squinting at the small prints in the classifieds, what you can do is to log onto the Internet, go to your favorite search engine and try to locate websites that lists cheap rental apartments there.

For one thing, most of the website listings for rental apartments are free to use. You may have to sign up for an account with them but with most of these rental apartment listing websites, creating membership accounts with them is completely free of charge. For example, take a good look at www.rent.com, an eBay company. www.rent.com is a spin-off from their company site and has over millions upon millions of rental apartments listed there. Using www.rent.com is fabulous for those who want to keep their options open. With millions of rental apartments listed there, you can sort the search results by narrowing the search criteria by location, the price, and when you’re expecting to move to your new place.

As a value-added service, you can also use the tool in www.rent.com to find a roommate to share your apartment or room with you as a cost-cutting measure. This tool is wildly popular among college students and those who are looking to minimize living expenses. And if you need to get someone to help you move your stuff to your new rented apartment, www.rent.com provides a list of moving companies that you can select from too!

Other rental websites with a wide range of rental apartment listing are sites like www.rentalhouses.com and www.TuNu.com.

Look through the list of rental apartments available at the area of your choice, click on ‘request information’ right there on the website and the system will automatically send your contact information to the manager of the rental apartment. Some managers list their own personal information on the websites, and if this is the case, take down their information and give the managers a call.

If the location is far from where you’re currently residing, schedule your visit to the rental apartment (if there’s more than one) on the same day so that you can make one trip to the place and take a look at the rental apartments all in one day. Save yourself the multiple trips.

If the managers have a website, ask them if you can take a look at pictures of the place online. Some managers provide this service. In fact, some managers will actually go as far as to send images of the rental apartment to your mobile phone or email address!

The key to finding cheap rental apartments through the Internet is to verify, contact and view.

New Jersey is often miscast as a less than nice place to live, when the truth is the garden state motto is accurate. New Jersey real estate prices reflect Atlantic Ocean influences.

New Jersey

With the crooning of Bruce Springsteen, New Jersey has been depicted as a non-descript home of industry. Take a ride on the turnpike in the north and you’ll agree. Simply put, parts of the state are unattractive, but much of the rest is very nice. New Jersey is that odd location where you want to avoid the bigger cities and live in the smaller towns. They represent gems on the eastern seaboard with low prices relative to the region. Move to New Jersey and you’ll be close to areas such as the gambling at Atlantic City, beaches on the Atlantic and large cities such as New York City.

Princeton

Home to the famous and respected Princeton University, the town of Princeton is simply beautiful. You’ll find older historic homes, castle-like buildings and green, overgrown landscaping. While this is definitely a college town, the atmosphere fall more towards the study of intellectual discourse than toga parties. Home to such notable individuals as Albert Einstein, Princeton is a surprisingly quiet and a good place to raise a family.

Atlantic City

If gambling is your game, Atlantic City is the spot on the East Coast. Sitting on the coast, this is the home of over the top casinos with a heavy influence of Trump. To be honest, Atlantic City is a take it or leave it place. The city has gone through major economic swings and is heavily influenced by the seasons. The winters can be depressing, but spring and summer can be a hoot with a mass of tourist livening up the area. Atlantic City is often described as a poor man’s Las Vegas, but it is more akin to the Reno area without the skiing and mountains.

New Jersey Real Estate

New Jersey real estate prices are all over the map. Prices range from the mid $250,000s to as high as the $900,000s for homes. You’ll need to research the prices in your area of interest.

On a positive note, appreciation rates are strong in New Jersey. On average, real estate appreciated at a rate of over 16 percent in 2005.

There are many options for your mortgage loan. Deciding which mortgage is right for you will depend on your financial goals. Here are questions to help you decide which type of mortgage is right for you.

Question #1: How Long Do You Plan on Keeping Your Home?

The length of time you plan of living in your home will influence the type of mortgage loan you should consider.

If you plan on staying in your home for:

One to Three Years: Consider using an Adjustable Rate Mortgage with a term length of 1-3 years.

Four to Six Years: Consider using a seven year Balloon Mortgage or an Adjustable Rate Mortgage with a term length of five to seven years.

Seven to Ten Years: Consider an Adjustable Rate or Fixed Rate Mortgage with a term length of fifteen or thirty years.

Question #2: Do you need the lowest monthly payment possible or is your goal to build equity in your home as quickly as possible?

To build equity in your home quickly, choose a mortgage with a shorter term length such as fifteen or twenty years. If your budget requires the lowest payment possible choose a mortgage with the longest term length such as thirty or forty years with an adjustable interest rate.

Question #3: What is Your Tolerance for Financial Risk?

If you have a low tolerance for risk in your finances you should stick to traditional mortgages with fixed interest rates. If you have the stomach for moderate financial risk you could save yourself some money with Adjustable Rate Mortgages including interest only or option loans. To learn more about your mortgage options and how to avoid common homeowner mistakes, register for a free mortgage guidebook using the links below.

To get your free mortgage guidebook visit RefiAdvisor.com using the link below. Louie Latour specializes in showing homeowners how to avoid common mortgage mistakes and predatory lenders. For a free copy of “Mortgage Refinancing: What You Need to Know,” which teaches strategies to find the best mortgage and save thousands of dollars in the process, visit Refiadvisor.com. Claim your free guidebook today at: http://www.refiadvisor.com Baltimore Mortgage Refinance

With new destinations such as Bulgaria, Slovenia and Croatia offering two and three bedroom apartments for sale for £50,000, there was concern last year among some Malta estate agents that 2005 could see a drop in the number of UK and Irish buyers choosing to buy a holiday home on the island.

With good all year round temperatures enticing many buyers for the winter months as well as the summer, driving on the left and a warm welcome from the local population who nearly all speak English, Malta has been popular for some years among overseas property buyers.

“A home from home in the Med is often the comment we hear from overseas property buyers” comments Michael Johnson of Malta property specialists Tribune Properties.

“With countries such as Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia opening up their property markets to overseas buyers there is a chance that the Maltese property market could see a decline in sales this year.

But it hasn’t happened in the first quarter of 2005 at least. Malta has an appeal that never really attracted the bargain hunters in the past who tended to look more at rural France and Spain where the low cost airlines fly to, and it is these buyers who are now considering the new markets rather than the buyers we see in Malta.”

Risk Factor

Malta joined the EU last year, and this has helped maintain Malta’s popularity among overseas property buyers.

“Malta has economic, legal and political systems that are established, and might be viewed as less of a risk than countries where title deeds might be more questionable”, adds Johnson, “And we advise buyers wherever they ultimately decide upon to appoint an independent lawyer who can converse in the buyer’s own language to oversee any property transaction to help avoid any potentially expensive misunderstandings.”

For details of over seventy apartments and villas for sale in Malta visit http://www.maltaproperty.info where details are available by email.

Michael Johnson, Tribune Properties, Malta

Malta Estate Agent, domestic and overseas property buyers catered for.

Johns island sc homes for sale

You may have heard about Johns Island. Johns Island is a fabulous mix of the quaint, the traditional, and the modern. It’s a beautiful island located just off the coast of Charleston. In fact it’s actually part of Charleston. For many of those searching for the ideal place to live, Johns Island SC homes for sale is just what they’re looking for.

Johns Island SC homes for sale offer real value for those in the market for a new home. Some of Charleston’s best housing developments are on Johns Island. It’s rare to find a place where there is a mixed of the traditional and the new bike you can see on Johns Island. It’s just minutes away from downtown Charleston, but it’s also just minutes away from a little farm where you can pick up vegetables and fresh fruits and experience the way things were before the encroachment of urban life.

Because of the mix of the old and the new on Johns Island, many people enjoy living there as well as the lifestyle they’ve acquired. It’s near the beach and it’s near several excellent golf courses. There’s shopping on the island to fit every need and budget. There are also resorts and a relaxing way of life. The schools on Johns Island also get high marks. All of this means that Johns Island SC homes for sale continue to be popular in the current market.

If you find the idea of Johns Island life to be intriguing, then you should take the time to find out more about this most excellent Island. It’s not far and it’s waiting to be explored.

Shape a real estate prospecting program that consistently delivers good results.

Smart agents recognise that you want to remain in front of with your real estate farming neighborhoods to be a high achiever in Real estate marketing.Keeping in touch with potential listing customers or buyers requires several different action plans. Of course, word of mouth is usually the most practiced and genuinely good plan, but that requires time and a good deal of personal relationships.Most successful brokers just don’t have enough minutes in the week to bring in sufficient personal relationships for personal contact to bring them to the peak of the market.

A good path to set up you in front of a specially selected geographic area is to mail out real estate postcards on a consistent schedule.Whether your real estate postcard mailing system includes just listed postcards, just sold post cards, general real estate prospecting postcards, seasonal postcards, or just about any other type of realestate postcard, doing a steady postcard mailing is vital.

Why does this work?Regular mailing is the key.Similar to offering up any retail product, a huge part of the challenge is selecting a prospect who is inclined to buy at the moment they get your notice.The probability of a family being inclined to buy or sell a new house at the instant you mail them a single postcard is fairly low.But, we all know that humans move all times throughout the months, and it is a truth that about 7% of all prospects sell every year.

Steady real estate offer marketing is effective because the more you mail to the same region, the better the opportunity the potential customer will recall your name and face when they are ready to buy a new home or sell.And the more the probability that your postcard will come in a apropos mode.

Don’t imagine that mailing one postal card, annually, is going to do you a good deal of good.Or arranging one Just Sold Postcard for one home annually.You will want to apply a portion of your income to do consistent real estate postcard mailings on a set schedule.Some of the virtually all successful people mail Just listed cards each instance they list a house, and then just sold post cards each instance the sell a home.In addition, they send other real estate client gathering cards throughout the months.

Another reason these marketing postcards work is that they show your picture, your name and face, your phone number, and a call to action.We normally tell them to call you for either free info about the marketplace, a free market analysis, or to identify out the economic value of their house.People who get the cards will shortly to think of your name.

But periodically time and resources can halt you from planning what you recognise is the perfect method to mature your book of clients. Real Estate Post Cards Online can help spare you both time and money. We recognise all about helping people have extremely good real estate agent postcard marketing campaigns. We will be happy to help you to how to do a wonderful job with a small amount of time.

Producing a direct mail farming program for real estate agents requires more than being adept at real estate postcard printing. The first step is to figure out your chief localities and produce a custom direct mail list for those prospects you need to reach.RealEstate Postcards Online can support you to select the most powerful listings for your region.

We can then finesse your mailing list data to attain the maximum postal values for you.With our sophisticated software system, it is possible to see postal prices as low as 16 cents per postcard.

Once you have made your postcard mailing lists, we help with you to custom design a printed design that ensures that you achieve results.You can choose one of our FREE design templates, or you can let our designers lay out a look just for you.Not certain what you desire to say? No problem, we will happily help you with that as well.We recognise how to make marketing instruments for real estate agencies and we recognize how to help you stay ahead of your competition.We then print the post cards and drop them in the mail.It couldn’t be any easier for you.

Real Estate prospecting takes time and dedication.A consistent postcard marketing strategy is critical to your long-term success.The more frequently your possible prospects see your name, the more the likelihood they will recollect it when it is time to buy or sell a new house.many would like to work with marketing saavy Residents, and when they see your name and photo on the attractive real estate cards you send to them, it is a mark of a successful broker.No other marketing system is more effective than a regular prospecting campaign to every homeowner in your locality.

Get your real estate marketing postcard campaign started today!

Written by: Visiting Expert Jeff Charlton, www.realestatepostcardsonline.com

Hiring a property management company is a great idea if you have even a small apartment building. Having someone taking care of all the small details of a rental property means you’ll have more time to find the next good investment. Also, trying to do it all yourself is the surest way to make your real estate investment experience a bitter one. To find a good property manager, ask the following questions.

1. Other properties they manage? It’s best if they have rental properties that are similar to yours. You can also drive by their other properties to see how they are maintained.

2. The fee? They vary around the country from as low as 4% of gross rents for larger buildings, to as high as 12% for single family homes. Be sure the fee is clearly stated and understood. 3. Extra costs? Are showings extra? Do evictions cost extra (beyond the legal fees)? Any other extras?

4. Who actually handles your property? It’s best if one person handles your building all the time, and has some experience. Get their name.

5. How and when is the fee collected? Will you be billed, or will it be deducted from your account directly? Monthly? Quarterly?

6. Type of advertising? Exactly how will they advertise the units and what will it typically cost you?

7. Time and cost to prepare units? What’s the typical cleaning fee on a vacancy, and how long will it normally be before it’s rented out again?

8. Type of accounting? Which types of reports do they send, and how often? How are accounts set up?

9. Their hours of operation? What are their business hours, and who takes weekend calls?

10. What needs owner approval? What dollar amount needs your authorization, and is this negotiable?

You should ask other questions, based on your particular needs and the particular property. Be sure to ask everything up front, and you’ll have fewer misunderstandings, and a good manager. Real estate investing and being a landlord is a lot less stressful with a good property management company.