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Selling Your Own Home In A Tough Real Estate Market - Five Tips
If you are in a tough real estate market and are looking to sell your home quickly, you might want to consider doing a For Sale By Owner. My wife and I recently bought a new house and after trying unsuccessfully to sell our existing house through a real estate agent for several months decided to try For Sale by Owner. We found a buyer within four days and closed on the house three weeks later. However, through our experience we discovered a few things. Here are a few tips if you are considering a FSBO in a less than ideal real estate market. 1. Consider paying to have your home placed in the MLS. There are several companies out there that will do this for a few hundred dollars. With sales down, real estate agents are desperate to earn a commission. By putting the house in the MLS you are agreeing that if an agent brings a buyer to you that you will pay the agent their part of the commission (you still save the listing agents commission). If you can sell the house on your own with no agent then you won’t have to pay an agent. However, in a tough market you want as many possible eyes on your property as possible. 2. Get the word out to as many places as possible about your house. One of the best places to do this is on the internet. There are dozens of free websites that will allow you to post your house for free. Consider starting with craigslist since it has so much traffic and then spread out to the other sites on the net. It will probably take you an entire evening to get the house posted on all the sites and you will want to keep a spreadsheet with your usernames and passwords so that you can go back later and remove the listing once the house sells. 3. Design a professional looking flyer and put out for sale by owner signs and a flyer box. If you aren’t the artistic type and don’t know that much about designing things like flyers consider a site like vflyer which will give you templates for designing a flyer. Take some good pictures of the house with your digital camera and put them on the flyer. If you use Vflyer or a program like it you can probably use the same template to post the house to craigslist and ebay (if you decide to pay for a listing). 4. Be creative. When we put our house on the market we ordered an eight foot full color printed banner to put on our fence. Our house backed to a major street and we were able to get some major exposure from the banner. I have heard of people offering free vacations, big screen tvs, cash bonus’ to the listing agent and even a free car. I have also heard of people giving away a cool prize at their open house. These things can help get your house noticed which is the first step to getting it sold. 5. Make sure that your price is competitive. Consider using the money that you are saving on real estate commissions to cut the price of your house so that it is more competitive. In tough markets it is going to be very important that your house isn’t priced too high or people will find another option. In our area there were a ton of houses on the market and most of the houses that were selling were 5% or more undervalued. If that is what it takes you might need to swallow hard and cut the price of your house. Of course all of these things are just suggestions. Still, when things get tough and you need to sell your house these could be an option for you. They worked for us.Jeff McRitchie is the director of marketing for MyBinding.com and lives in Hillsboro, Oregon. He writes extensively on topics related to Binding Machines, Binding Supplies, Report Covers, Binders, Index Tabs, Laminators, Laminating Pouches, Roll Film, Shredders, and Paper Handling Equipment.
Source: www.ArticlePros.com

Is buy-to-let still a sound investment?
With little movement of interest rates and continuing drops in house prices will buy-to-let now be an investment vehicle of the past? With buy-to-let lenders tightening up their lending criteria, house prices continuing to fall and the general lack of confidence caused by the Northern Rock crisis I believe that experienced investors will still continue to buy rental stock, banking on long term capital gains. However first time landlords or landlords with smaller portfolios are finding it harder to fund new rental stock. For the well placed landlord that has the correct gearing on their portfolio it is still a time to hunt for the next opportunity! There will always be risks involved in any business or investment. For example your investment can rise or fall in value and property is clearly no different. You therefore just need to ensure that you minimise potential risks. In the past I’ve used several methods to minimise risk to my own investment portfolio. These include: Ensure the mortgage is between 80% - 85% of the property’s value. Every time your mortgage is due for renewal try to release equity. This ensures that your rent covers your operating payments and expenses. Start building a fund by putting this money to one side. Therefore if you have sudden repair bills or a vacant property you have money to fall back on. Always keep your property well maintained. If the rental market in your area suddenly changes pace the up together properties will rent much quicker. Always ensure you have a tenancy agreement in place, as this will protect you any your property. Widen the range of tenants you agree to let your property to. You may find that council tenants are able to top up rent monies by their own means, giving you the rent you have always achieved. Areas which attracts students also attracts higher rents. Wear and tear may be slightly higher, but at least the monthly repayments are being met. When increasing your portfolio look for properties that can add to the overall yield of your whole portfolio, ensuring your investments stay balanced. For example try to buy property in disrepair. Once renovated your equity should have increased, which in turn would increase your property portfolio’s yield. More recently overseas property investment has become a trend with investors searching for the next property hotspot to invest in. Things to consider when looking for your next investment whether here or abroad include: How easy is it to get to the property? Can you keep an eye on the property if it remains empty for a period of time? Will the property be let for the whole year or is the property’s location Summer or Winter orientated? Can you easily maintain the property yourself saving you the cost of employing trades people or does the rental income provide enough cash to pay for unforeseen repairs? Will the property’s location ever fall out of fashion with your intended tenants? Remember holiday hotspots change very quickly! Always ensure your investment has a steady stream of visitors. Even if the U.K buy-to-let is not as buoyant as it has been over the past decade the vehicle for investment is still sound. Ensure you put time into researching your potential investment and prepare yourself for long term capital gains. The online-lettings portal will soon allow for holiday lettings to be uploaded ensuring where ever you or your property is located tenants can always be found.Benjamin Perry CEO of online-lettings.co.uk The Specialist lettings website where you can <a href="http://www.online-lettings.co.uk">rent flats</a> or buy a <a href="http://www.online-lettings.co.uk">Tenancy Agreement</a>
Source: www.ArticlePros.com

Low Letting Fees - Too good to be true
With the huge slow down in house sales the property market is seeing an increase in demand for rental property. Some letting agents are starting to cut their commission charges hoping to increase their property stock of which they can immediately offer to registered tenants. A high turnover of properties will result in much needed revenue flowing into your agency. Such a de-crease in charges will suit some landlords or investors amidst the credit crunch but long term this could not only damage your reputation as an agent but could put considerable strain on your agency. Landlords are well aware that a letting agent offering low fees will be cutting operational cost else where which could result in their property not being advertised properly or tenancy agreement not being executed correctly due to a junior member of staff with little experience dealing with the set up. Most agents will agree that there is a lot more to letting property than simply advertising it in the local paper. A lot of time is spent preparing brochures, conducting viewings, vetting prospective tenants, setting up agreements, conducting inventories and checking in tenants. All this of course costs money to do properly and takes a considerable amount of time & resources. Landlords will naturally want to keep their costs down and you will always find customers wanting a competitive rate. However, agents offering landlords exceptionally low fees face the risk of lower profit margins, which will make it hard if not impossible to survive the credit crunch.Generally fee cutting tends to prove unprofitable, unsustainable and even costly, which could cause your agency to fold. When landlords choose an agent they do not base their decision on price alone, but also consider experience, reputation, professionalism, qualifications, marketing budget, to ensure your agency attracts a large number of tenants through its doors and overall service. If you feel your agency needs a competitive edge try to focus on other areas of service rather than simply price. For example you could consider a sliding fee for landlords that place more than one property with your agency, or you could add value to your charges by offering a service or product that costs your agency little or nothing to set up or provide. You could even consider offering a bundle of useful information to new landlords explaining everything a landlord should know before letting their property. In the current climate with a number of non experienced home owners renting out single rooms to full houses there is no better time to create a helpful first impression of your agency; in the long run the home owner should return to you to let their property. To sum up, there is nothing wrong with healthy competition and being competitively priced, if your agency is able to offer a service towards the cheaper end of the market then do so. Bear in mind there are many companies that target high end consumers and make substantial profits. If you’re going to cut your prices then do so in moderation and avoid cutting your throat.Benjamin Perry CEO of online-lettings.co.uk The Specialist lettings website where you can find a local <a href="http://www.online-lettings.co.uk" >letting agent</a> and view <a href="http://www.online-lettings.co.uk" >flats to rent.</a>
Source: www.ArticlePros.com