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Guide to Buying Real Estate

This is intended as a practical short guide, not as a course or comprehensive article about buying real estate. For the latter I highly recommend the Rich Dad Poor Dad series of books & courses which are inexpensive and full of insight. This article is also more geared towards the purchase or residential real estate by potential homeowners or residential investors. These concepts are totally applicable and remain the same in Commercial real estate purchasing and investing, only the nomenclature and procedures differ somewhat since more work is needed to obtain the information. Value in Real Estate: We look for...

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Are You Facing Foreclosure?

To "Foreclose" in the original sense means "bar someone from redeeming a mortgage". It means to stop, prevent, rule out or prevent a course of action, in this case, prevent the mortgagee (home owner) from redeeming (making good) his mortgage and take possession of the mortgaged property. The word comes from Latin "for" meaning in this case "out" plus "clore" to close. This is a right that is stripped from the homeowner in favor of the lender, then and only then can the lender take possession of the homeowner's property. In other words, the homeowner has the right to make...

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How You Can Sell Your Property Faster

  Theoretically we all have access to properties being sold thanks to the Internet. In addition there are real estate companies who for a small fee, offer to do all the paperwork and you therefore "save" on the commission that otherwise would go to a real estate agent. There is also a very famous real estate website which offers to rebate 40% or more of the commission back to you via a discount. It seems as if it is just a matter of finding the property you like then buying it. It seems as if technology has made human assistance unnecessary....

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Price, Value & Affordability –What You Need to Know

These words do not mean the same, they are related but they refer to very different aspects of the real estate transaction, or any transaction for that matter. Price is simply the amount in dollars that a piece of real estate is being sold for. Price by itself usually does not mean much, example: I am selling you this pen for $50 dollars. Value, on the other hand, is the relative worth to you or others of a particular good, service or piece of real estate. Value & price are not proportional, meaning the increase of one does not necessarily...

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Timing The Market

Another concern that many buyers have is “timing the market” this means when to buy. What happens if homes go down some more? What happens if after I buy homes drop in price? Note: What is discussed in this article will not apply in the same manner to what are called "High Cost Areas" in the USA. These are, in the main, densely populated areas such as: Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, etc... where even at the time of this writing, real estate prices are still so high that renting makes more sense than owning. However,...

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How to Get the Best Deal on a Property

As you noted from the title, I did not say the best “price”, I said the best deal! Big difference. Is it a good deal to buy a cheap house located in a bad neighborhood which requires thousands of dollars to rehab? What about a really good priced home which consumes all your savings, because you had to give a hefty down payment, which then needs extensive repairs to be habitable? When I talk about a good deal, I mean a very well priced home, in a decent neighborhood which needs minimum repairs, where you can negotiate the price &...

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What You Need to Know to Get your Offer Accepted by the Bank

Most Buyers believe that if the property is distressed or in a short sale, they then would have the most chances of their offer being accepted, since the bank is “distressed” or wants to sell fast. However, it works totally in reverse, on a short sale or distress situation, the Buyer has the least flexibility and the least leverage when presenting an offer. In many occasions they don’t even have a second chance! Meaning they are not even countered by the bank. The property is distressed NOT the bank! Remember the legal definition of distressed property, “the legal seizure of...

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Why a Short Sale is a Better Deal Than a Foreclosure?

Short sales are a great deal when they are approved. A short sale means that the bank has given permission to the owner to sell his/her property for less than what is owed. To see a thorough explanation of how short sales work and how to do one follow this link. The problem is it takes several months for the bank to grant this permission, in the meantime you have to wait and there are no guarantees that the bank will approve the sale. Buyers think logically, it benefits the bank to sell on a short sale since they get...

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The Hidden Side of Distressed or Foreclosed Homes

A distressed property is what is known as a "foreclosed" property. In this case the term "distressed" does not carry its regular meaning of "great pain or sorrow", "misfortune", "difficult situation". When we talk about a "distressed" property, the bank is using a specific legal definition. According to The World Book Dictionary, the word “distress” on its legal definition means “the legal seizure of the goods of another as payment for debt”. A distressed property, also known as a foreclosed property, is a home that has been or is about to be seized by a bank because the homeowner defaulted...

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Have Monthly Payments Coming to You – Be The Bank Using Real Estate.

If you have ever invested or are an investor, it is likely you have encountered the problems of too little returns, uncertainty as to what the rate of interest will be –because of fluctuations on the economy, putting too much money at risk, the need for cash flow to pay for bills & expenses or tying capital for a long period of time at low returns therefore getting a net loss due to the cost of living a.k.a. inflation. Security is usually the trade-off. In other words the price for security we pay is enormous! For example, if you have...

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