Austin’s Identity Crisis for Downtown Austin Real Estate

July 13, 2010 · Posted in Real Estate Investment analysis · Comments Off 

I don’t know if you’ve noticed— it’s certainly hard to miss— but the landscape around Austin is changing. As is the skyline. As is the… well, the feel of the city. The flavor.

Some Austinites are not excited about the changes going on. The corporations moving in, the family-owned and operated businesses go down while the thirty-six story condos go up. People who have lived here all their lives (or even just more than ten years) say that this is a different city than the one they remember. Back when they might not even have called Austin a “city.”

There was a time when Motorola was just a type of phone people had, not a place where they worked. When video games were a thing people played, not designed. Where Dell was a thing from a song about a farmer, not a computer company. In short, there was a time when Austin was a big, friendly village where everyone seemed to know everyone.

Now, it’s hard to see the sky without noticing the foreboding skeleton of an incoming condominium projects or a crane in your periphery. Developers are buying up land and displacing local businesses in order to get the best spot downtown for a high rise that will dwarf all the others, that will sell for more money, that will be nicer and closer to all the downtown Austin attractions.

But what are those attractions?

There will always be a Congress Bridge, and so there will always be bats. But will people want to walk from the Sheraton to see them, then get a drink at the Coyote Ugly Saloon franchise? Will they want to eat at the Baby Acapulco’s? What will make the town special when Las Manitas is gone, when all the little businesses that got us to this point are gone, and the only choices for restaurants are in the lobbies of the newest hotels?

What will make Austin Austin? It’s a good question.

It’s easy to see that the city has lost some its appeal. Its uniqueness, its originality. Big business has a way of doing that. But is it so bad? Is it really true that there will be nothing left?

Those small, local places brought people here, it’s true. And they certainly gave Austin its flavor. But millions more people are here now. The city has grown by leaps and bounds. People still need places to live. And the more people there are, the more money is being spent. There is much to be thankful for when we think about this new “bigger” Austin. The Austin real estate market values go up. Many businesses prosper. The city has more money to improve infrastructure and city services like parks. Its hard to allow it to change some of what we love, and some of the changes I’m not happy with. But overall I think it will be okay.

The key is that the people are still here. The same people that made Austin the coolest city in the… well, in my opinion in the entire country —are still here. They’re still waving at you from their yard, still smiling at you on the street. The buildings aren’t the personality in the city —the people in them are. So let’s make sure those people don’t go anywhere, and we’re all gonna be just fine. Yes, we may have to part with a couple businesses and landmarks dear to our hearts, but as long as Austinites keep true to what we love about this city, we will retain the part of our identity that is the most important.

Ki Gray works for Austin Real Estate a small company in Austin Texas. Their website provides a search of the Austin MLS along with information on Austin Condominium

A Guide to Going Bankrupt in Real Estate!!!

July 1, 2010 · Posted in Real Estate Investment analysis · Comments Off 

First off, watch some late night infomercials on TV. And possibly order some real estate tapes from Carlton Sheets. This will provide you with a positive upbeat attitude and a sense of false confidence that is essential in order to go bankrupt. Believe that after listening to some tapes, you can compete with people that have done this 7 days a week for years.

Second. For your first investment, buy in a city you know little to nothing about and avoid using a buyers agent who does know the city. Go directly to the sellers agent. The best way to make a truly horrible decision is to avoid any outside advice. The best part of this is that avoiding a buyers agent usually doesn’t save you any money since the selling agent simply makes more when you deal with them directly.

Look for a discount or a distressed property over a good long term investment. Late night infomercials and Carlton Sheets talk a lot about this. Getting equity at the point of sale. One thing about distressed properties with desperate sellers is that they frequently are in crappy areas with low appreciation rates. Buying a property at under market rate in an area with low appreciation potential versus a property in a good area is the kind of short sighted thinking that will really help you reach the goal of bankruptcy and foreclosure.

When you talk to people including your realtor, try to spend time talking about all the crap you learned from your book or light night infomercial. The more you listen to other people, the more you might get different perspectives and the higher chance you might learn new things. This could really hurt your chances of going bankrupt so avoid listening to anyone. Remember you know everything even if you only got interested in real estate last week.

Be positive to the point of stupidity. Alot of investors I know always think about how their situation would be affected by a 10 or 20 percent drop in the market before making a purchase. You should avoid this kind of thinking. You need to be blinded by greed. You should only fantasize about how you are going to double your money.

When calculating your monthly cashflow, assume that you will have 100% occupancy all the time and no maintenance cost. While you are at assume that its going to rain money tomorrow.

Also, be stubborn when renting your properties. Decide upon a number say $900 a month and refuse to budge. Come up with some bizarre logic about how the property deserves $900 a month. Lose months of rent having the property sit vacant instead of going down $50 on the rent. Instead of responding to the market make statements like “Well the markets wrong then”.

As you move closer to foreclosure, don’t alter your spending habits. Don’t move into a smaller house or cut spending. Act like nothing is wrong.

Overextend, overextend, overextend. Are you approved to buy one house. Why not buy 5, heck why not 20. Instead of building up a portfolio of properties over time, gaining experience along the way, just buy alot of properties next Tuesday.

Alot of people are getting into the foreclosure game. Their is no reason you should be left behind. Throwing caution to the wind and filling your eyes with greed and you should find yourself walking down the golden path to foreclosure.

This is not a definitive guide to foreclosure. Alot of people end up in foreclosure due to many things unforeseen events like unpreventable family illness, divorce or job loss. This is simply a guide to what I call elective foreclosure.

Escapesomewhere Austin Real Estate is a realty company operating in Austin Texas. Their website has a page on Austin Foreclosures along with a real estate cashflow calculator.

You’ll Never Sell Your Real Estate Business, So You Might As Well Automate It

June 23, 2010 · Posted in Become a Landlord · Comments Off 

Businesses, like real estate, can be planned, built, finished, and sold for a profit. But what if you own a business that buys and sells real estate? It’s not the same. The best you can do is sell the real estate that you’ve bought, and that’s the end of it. No one will buy your business and pay you several times your current yearly profits, as they would other businesses. Stinks, doesn’t it? I’ll go into the details of why this is, but also offer this self-coined truism as a consolation prize:

“You’ll never sell your real estate business, so you might as well automate it.”

I. Other Businesses’ Options and Exit Strategies

Other industries have it good, or at least some of them. If you were to start a company that, for example, sells chairs, you would make your initial investment and get to work. You’d test ways to find people who buy your chairs, and you’d develop relationships with retailers who buy from you in bulk and resell your chairs to the public. Once you make enough money to survive, you grow the business by reinvesting profits, borrowing, or raising capital.

Then you get bigger, sell more, make more, and before you know it, you have a track record of several years. You could now sell your business to someone else. But, of course, the more profitable your company is, the more someone will pay for it. Each industry has its own rules of thumb, but for the most part a buyer will offer you a multiple of your company’s yearly earnings (hopefully several times).

Other things besides earnings can increase your company’s sales price, such as systemizing it. If you can show a buyer how your company runs itself without you (the owner) having to do anything, you can imagine how much more attractive it will appear to them. Who wouldn’t want to own business that spits out money year after year without much work? It’s worth paying more for.

People and companies who buy businesses also want to buy something that is scalable. This means that they should be able to grow it without having to hire a ton of people. Law firms can’t do this, because each attorney can only bill so many hours, and in order for the firm to make more money, they will have to hire more attorneys. Compare this to a software business where people can download the products from a website-you could potentially sell hundreds or thousands more copies per year before you have to hire someone new.

So, selling it gives you a lump sum of money that you can use to start a new business, invest somewhere and retire on, or whatever. Most businesses don’t sell because they wouldn’t sell for a substantial amount, but it’s still many entrepreneurs’ dream to build a business, sell it for a huge amount, and get the heck out of Dodge. I know a few people who have done this, and I am insanely jealous.

II. Why Real Estate Investment Companies Are Different

The reason I’m jealous is because not all business types are able to do this. Some businesses rely so much on the owner and their specialized expertise, that it would be hard for a new owner without that same expertise to jump in and make it work. Like a law firm. Or a doctor. Or, regrettably, a real estate investment company that flips and/or holds property.

The best that we can hope for is to sell whatever assets we’ve accumulated. For doctors and law firms, those assets are customer lists, supplies, and maybe the building they are in. For us investors, it’s our properties and that’s it. Our companies are only (perceived to be) worth whatever we can sell our properties for.

I think that an investment company is scalable. I can picture a company that buys and sells 100 houses per year and only has a tiny office of staff. But when is the last time you’ve heard of a real estate investor selling their business? I haven’t. It just doesn’t happen. Instead, we’re just looked upon as individuals with real assets that we could sell off, and I doubt any investor would pay market value for them.

III. But at Least You Can Automate It

You can even write systems for your real estate company and get it to the point where it practically runs itself without you. But no one cares. So, if you can’t sell your company, you might as well make life as easy as possible and systemize it for your own benefit. Map out who does what, write the systems, and hire the right people to run them for you and give you reports.

And, if it’s creating cash and equity profits year after year anyway, this may not be such a bad thing. You just need to know what you’re getting into. So while individual houses have multiple exit strategies, your investment business as a whole has two:

1) Sell off all of your properties and liquidate the company.

2) Own the business forever-keeping your properties, maybe buying more, maybe selling some.

I opt for #2, but encourage you to make your business as easy as possible to manage for your own sake.

Author: Alan Brymer
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Programmable Multi-cooker

Real Estate Business Without Pleasure

May 12, 2010 · Posted in Become a Landlord · Comments Off 

Here’s a short list in which many investors are utilizing to close the deal on real estate investments day in and day out. Would you like to get your hands on it? Well below you’ll find the list in which many potential investors would kill for or you ready to do the same?

Winging It – virtually every real estate course made available online or in the offices of real estate investors advises potential investors to practice the “fake it, ’til you make it” strategy and to just go with the flow even without a plan. This is one of the many ways so many people are swindled out of hundreds and thousands, and sometimes millions of dollars. You never want to go into a business without a plan.

The Absence of a Professional Team – if you’re seriously considering breaking into the business of real estate; good luck. The important thing to remember is to not go at it alone. It’s important that you build a team of professional that have your best interest at heart. This may be difficult from the offset but with research and information it can be accomplished.

Breaking the Bank on a Deal – never enter into a business deal with the intent of purchasing a home without first knowing the worth of the property. There’s never a bad time to invest in real estate regardless of what the media is saying.

Building Business Entities without Your Name – to many people end up losing everything they own for this very reason, don’t become a victim of this. If you’re in the business of gambling, it would be best to go to Las Vegas. It’s important that you do extensive research in order to get a better understanding of how corporate entities work.

The Wild, Wild West Mentality – if you’re under the impression that you can do whatever you like when facing homeowners in dire need, it would be best to take a look in the mirror and rethink your assumptions. It’s all about following the rules if you want to be successful in this line of work.

Title Researching or Not – this can lead you into an abyss with no possible way of getting out. Title searching is important and should not be taken lightly, so it would be smart of anyone investing time, money and life into real estate to learn how to search titles wherever necessary.

Cash Reservations – in the real estate business it will always be about the money, no matter what. It’s not always about using your money to find deals, land deals or close deals; however, it will always take money to make money in real estate regardless of what anyone may say.

Your Education Should Not Go Ignored – education has always been the gateway to success and it doesn’t change in the business of real estate, and education should not be based upon some infomercial you saw last night. Educating yourself can come in various forms but don’t waste money on education that you could be using for handling deals. Too many people spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on real estate classes only to have nothing to show for it. Let your education speak for itself through the closing of MASSIVE DEALS.

Crunching the Numbers Correctly – this is one way many people learn the hard way about real estate investing because they end up misjudging either their purchase figures or their fixer up and/or holding cash. This is one mistake that could end your career before it even gets started.

Last but not least, it goes without saying, real estate is not a get rich scheme – GO FIGURE!

Author: Chris B. Jenkins
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
PCB Prototype & Manufacturing

Tips to Earn Big in a Real Estate Business

April 28, 2010 · Posted in Become a Landlord · Comments Off 

If you are interested in real estate investing, you must seriously look into the various options including buying and selling of houses. You may have done it before or you may be a beginner but following certain tips will only help you in making it big in the estate business. You may be very careful if you are a beginner real estate investing. You must put the tips into practice so that you can be successful in the real estate business.

The most important thing you have to do is to automate your work as far as possible. You may be one among those estate investors who shift between the basic occupation and the real estate business. The first thing to understand is that you cannot carry on doing both the work together. You must try to create such system that does not require your assistance to work. The easiest way to do this is to get the help of a virtual assistant. You can also make use of a voice mail in receiving the calls while you are busy. You must also try to invest in a website so that you can get easy access to the information of potential clients.

Before you get in to the market you must also learn estate investing. It is nothing, but just playing with other’s money. When you are new to the real estate business, you might also think of investing your money in buying the house. You must break this habit because if you do that you would not able to make any thing. You should also try reaching the credit limit and you can do this only by investing other’s money into it. Make a small group by joining the people who have invested through you. You must try doing everything that is required to win their trust. If you do that then they would invest more and more into your project.

See to that you pick the market in real estate scene and later focus on it. If you try spreading all the activities by yourself then it would be very troublesome because you would not have experience in this field. You may feel to limit the options but once you gain the experience you would be able to invest lot of money into it slowly.

You must handle the risk factor with so much care since you cannot afford losing even a pie. To make money through real estate, you must manage risk effectively. All the areas have ample amounts of risk attached to them. You must make use of those people who have walked before you through the same way. You can get the services of a real estate investing coach for the same. You must also make it a point that you are enjoying the real estate business. If you are not enjoying what you are doing, the best thing to do is to quit. The business opportunities will flow into you if you are enjoying the whole process.

Author: Jake Trump
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
PCB Prototype & Manufacturing

Starting a Real Estate Business

March 3, 2010 · Posted in Become a Landlord · Comments Off 

The real estate industry is very sensitive to economic changes like interest rates and the cost of materials in building houses. Interest rates in particular can easily swing the number of sales that are completed during any quarter of the year. Rising interest rates will slow down the sales and falling rates will aid the sales of real estate. This is an important fact in the real estate business as this can absolutely cause rapid changes in income from the sales that can be made.

With this in mind, the time to buy an agency that comes up for sale may be when the real estate business is in the doldrums. A hot real estate market will make an existing firm worth more, as their income will be higher during this period of time. Of course if you follow this course of action, you will have to wait out the slow down in the markets. Another factor in the purchase or start-up a real estate company is the state licensing requirements.

Most states have serious requirements for real estate agents and brokers. Brokers have a much stiffer requirement in most states than an agent. The requirements include passing exams and a fixed number of educational hours for both agents and brokers. There is also a requirement for continuing education. These state mandated steps to a career in the real estate business would have to be met before an agency could be purchased or started. Since this industry is regulated and has strong legal steps to comply with, this licensing plus experience would be an initial step to being an owner in this field. This is not a business that can be stepped into by just paying out some money.

An agent can have the goal of owning their own firm, but it will take planning and meeting the state rules to make this happen. Once a potential owner has these steps out of the way, finding an existing business to buy will be in order. A quick check of real estate business listings reveals that they are usually found in larger cities and the asking price is significant. There are also resales of franchise companies. Just typing into a search engine, “Real estate businesses for sale”, came up with this quick check. A buyer could also check with business brokers and real estate brokers in their city. Another source worth checking out would be a franchise connection. An in place real estate business is advantages as the name is already known and will get clients due to this. When you start a company from the ground up you do not have this advantage. An existing business with several locations will come with a higher price tag than what you could start your own business for.

Another way to gain ownership would be buying into an existing business. This could work if you have a solid relationship with the current owner. The problem is you will not have the final say in most decisions unless you are buying controlling interest.

Specialty real estate firms

Most people think about a firm that helps with the buying and selling a home. There are several other areas of specialization. A real estate firm could become expert in buying and selling commercial property, farmland and farms, farm product processing plants, rental properties and shopping centers. Actually a broker could cut out a niche market from many that are available in the real estate business. If you have an area of expertise, this could become something that could be marketable and cut out a lot of competition in certain situations. Some real estate firms have unique departments that handle certain types of real estate marketing. The decision you must make is what kind of a firm are you going to own. You may have to start your own in order to make it happen.

You could also get into real estate management and the buying and selling of these rental properties, which is a very unique part of the industry. Shopping center related firms could be in from the start of a project. They can help with the formation of the firm to build and own the property and then handle the rentals and day-to-day management of the center.

The point of all of this is there are areas of real estate specialization that lend themselves to a business that just works in this real estate category.

Finding the money to make your dream happen

You may not have the total purchase price for an existing business. The question is how do you come up with the balance to make the deal. Finding a source to lend you the money is one way to come up with the needed funds. There are businesses that offer loans to new owners of businesses. These can be found on the Internet by just doing a search. Family and friends could be another source of money. One way to get the needed money is to take in a partner for the business. If you have a friend in the business maybe they would be interested in owning part of the existing company. All of these possible money suppliers will have different requirements for paying the money back.

Make sure you can see your way clearly on how you will accomplish the pay back. This business can be adversely affected by interest rates so you would need a second way to make the payments. A person thinking about ownership in this field must remember that it can be feast or famine as far as sales and commissions go. This is not like being in the restaurant business or owning a printing company. Successful brokers can make considerable money in a good market. They can also have periods that are very tight as to sales. The brokers that succeed have a policy of putting away some of their earnings during good times to cover the less profitable times. Doing this just shows the broker has a realistic view of the business.

Conclusions

This business can be extremely profitable during low interest rate economies. The legal and state requirements make the ownership of a brokerage firm more difficult to own than is the case with other businesses. Buying and selling a real estate business is somewhat more difficult due to the restrictions that are placed on the owner of a real estate firm. You must have the appropriate licenses in place before you can begin operation. This is true whether you buy a company or start one up from scratch. Finding a firm you can afford will take some time and research on your part. Hiring a professional business broker may speed up the search.

Deciding early on if you want to be a specialist will set other decisions in place. Niche areas that you are an expert in will help cut the competition somewhat. A general real estate business will have the potential for more clients, but will need and ongoing advertising campaign to gain listings and clients looking to buy. The start-up is cheaper to open, but will have little cash flow like an existing firm. Money flow is the one huge advantage buying an existing business offers to the new owner.

Author: Bill Henthorn
Article Source: EzineArticles.com

What to Know Before You Refinance Your House

December 26, 2009 · Posted in Closing in your Investment Deal · Comments Off 

If you own your home and you are looking to save some money, a great way to accomplish this may be to refinance your house. Interest rates are always going to vary and these days they are on the lower side when you look at the rates historically. If you’ve been in your home for a while then it may be to your advantage to get a lower interest rate as this will lower your monthly mortgage payments. Sounds like a no brainer right? Not so fast.

When you refinance your house it is not as simple as it sounds. There are a few things you should know before you decide to go ahead and refinance you house:

?Do you have equity in your home: Having equity means that your house is worth more than you owe on it. Historically this is almost always the case, but with the recent housing debacle many home owners find themselves owing more on the home then it is worth. A sure way to know is to get your house appraised. This can be done online for free at websites such as Zillow.com but that will only give you a rough estimate. If you want to be absolutely sure, you will have to hire a pro which is going to cost you some money.

?Will you have a pre-pay penalty: Before you get too gung ho on refinancing your house, you need to know if your existing mortgage company is going to charge you a pre-payment penalty. Mortgage companies do this often to discourage people from going with another mortgage company that will then be getting your years and years of interest. Pre-pay penalties vary from company to company but it is not unusual for them to be several thousand dollars.

?Fees: As with your first mortgage you got on your house, a refinanced mortgage is going to include all sorts of fees like closing costs and so on. These fees can also add up to be in the thousands of dollars and need to be looked at.

?How long are planning on staying in your house: You need to consider how long you plan on living in your house. As you can plainly see, refinancing your house can cost you quite a bit of money. While the lower rate will save you on monthly mortgage payments, it may take two or three years before you realize that savings because of all the fees involved. If you are not planning on staying on your home long-term, then it may not be in your best interest to refinance it.

If and when it is time to refinance your house make sure you do so with a fixed rate loan. Going with an adjustable rate loan will save you out of the gates, but only have you trying to refinance when the rates skyrocket down the road.

As with anything else, shop your mortgage refinance around to get the absolute best rate you can. With the fees you will incur by refinancing your home, every little bit of savings counts.

Join the best For Sale By Owner site and sell your home with no commission. Create a free real estate listing at FREEhomeownerlistings.com.Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/real-estate-articles/what-to-know-before-you-refinance-your-house-1627720.html

Secrets To Renting Homes Faster For More Money: Advertising Part 2, (Third In A Series)

December 15, 2009 · Posted in Closing in your Investment Deal · Comments Off 

In a previous article in this series on how to rent houses fast for more money we talked about why simply advertising on the free websites is not enough. What you say and where you say it are both important.

There are a number of reasons for this, but if you are looking to fill a vacant rental house fast, the first thing you must do is get noticed. You have to get the attention of the prospect. Advertising people have described the entire process of advertising effectively and shortened the process to AIDA.

First you absolutely must get the prospects Attention. Then make them Interested and create Desire. Then they must Act. To get the prospect to rent your vacant house fast and for more money you must first get their attention.

This is not an easy job. You are competing with thousands of other advertisements in sites like Craigslist and your ad must stand out. It must attract attention, gain the interest of the viewer, surfer and create desire. Once you have done that you need the call to action, which is to CALL YOU.

The Headline and the copy must stress BENEFITS, not features, and must be written from the prospective renter’s point of view. You must care about what it is that they want, not what you have to sell.

In my search for the secrets to renting houses fast for more money, I pulled together information learned in advertising class from my days in journalism school and a variety of psychological, marketing and sales researach as to why people buy and how they make those decisions in discovering how to construct advertising that gets results.

Amazingly we found research data from other fields showing that often price is not the key element, allowing you to rent houses faster and for more money if you follow these guide lines.

You need to offer a product that will at least appear to be different and uniquely better than the competition. We solved this for ourselves by developing the Famous Rent to Own on Steroids Program?. While the name is trademarked, the process is easily ripped off.

Be sure to list your unique benefit in the headline of your ads and keep in mind that the large search engines like Google and Yahoo will go through the listings on Craigslist and Backpage, so you want to use the key words that will get you noticed by persons doing a search on Google or Yahoo.

Put yourself in the shoes of a person looking for a rental in the area where you have a house and think what words they are searching. You need to have as many searchable key words in your headline as possible even if readability suffers.

Jam the headline with words stressing benefits and location of your house for rent even if it does not read like normal English. “No Qualify, Rent to Own, Pretty Home, Huge Fenced Yard, Pets OK, Near Gulf Beaches” will attract more interest than “You’ll Love this 3 bedroom Pretty Home in New Port Richey,” even though the second headline reads like real English.

Stress content, searchable keywords and benefits.

You do not want to waste valuable headline space with words like three bedroom, two bath as these elements appear in other parts of the classified ads. Simply saying “Rent to Own” is a waste because it does not take full advantage of all of the space that is available in the headline.

Here are some of the things that will help. Use unique pictures that arouse curiosity and use video. Tell the prospective tenant why they will want to live in your house. Remember it is all about THEM.

Stress the benefits to them . . . and they will CALL

George Beardsley has written extensively about finance and business starting as a financial reporter for the Chicago Tribune and was an editor for the publishing firm Dow-Jones, Irwin and is now a landlord in Florida. He has just published a new eBook called “911 for Landlords” <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href=" available”>http://www.911forLandlords.com”>available at http://www.911forlandlords.com with the information he learned during the last two years which has reduced his vacancies rates from 20 per cent to often zero.Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/real-estate-articles/secrets-to-renting-homes-faster-for-more-money-advertising-part-2-third-in-a-series-1581423.html

Real Estate: A Good Investment

December 13, 2009 · Posted in Invest In Real Estate · Comments Off 

There are many kinds of investments in which we can put our money and eventually earn in the future. Most business-minded people would choose investments that can give them not only income but also security. They seek in particular for an investment that possesses the capacity to stay productive over a longer period of time. They don’t just want another investment that can give them a one-time income. There are many kinds of investment that you can choose from. There are investments in banks, stock market, business ventures, real estate and other financial companies. But most people will invest in real estate. Why is it that they are willing to invest in this kind of investment?

Real estate can cost investors a lot of money up front, but it can promise a higher return in the future. One basic characteristic a real estate investment has is that the payment can be amortized for a longer period of time on an installment basis. In this case, the investor will only prepare for a down payment and the remaining amount will be paid on a monthly basis. Aside from that advantage, this kind of investment has the capacity to increase its appraised value up to 10% every year depending on the location and the development of a given investment. Read more

Before Buying Miami Condos – Some Mortgage ABC’s

November 27, 2009 · Posted in Closing in your Investment Deal · Comments Off 

Before you look for Miami condos, you must first know the basics. You are about to travel a road most traveled but least completed. The real estate journey is a perilous one; full of challenges to test your patience and determination. And if you’re a first-time buyer, make sure you know one of the most and probably the single-most important part of owning a home, the mortgage.

Mortgage 

Mortgage is what you need to purchase Miami condos. If you can afford to pay full, you can do so; but that method is least advisable. Even if you can, doesn’t mean you have to. Remember that you can spend that money for a lot of other useful purposes and probably save you some sanity in case of future emergencies. 

Moving on; your mortgage is basically the loan you need to purchase Miami condos and real estate properties in general. The amount depends on several factors, including your credit history, score, DTI (Debt-to-Income Ratio), down payment, etc. The two basic parts of the mortgage is the principle and interest. The principle is the amount of the mortgage; while the interest is the money you pay the lender, well, because they lent you the money. 

Lender and Broker 

When buying properties, you can either go directly to the lender and transact or hire a mediator or a mortgage broker. The mortgage broker is a helpful addition to any real estate team. The broker will act as the liaison between you and the lender that will officially provide the mortgage. Your broker can also help you calculate the entire home-buying expenses, as well as guide you through the financial motions of real estate. 

Title or Deed 

Once you get the mortgage and owned the property, you have to hire a title company. This company will furnish your title or deed, which will serve as the proof of ownership. What you must know is that as long the mortgage exists, you don’t necessarily own the property because the lender has placed a lien against the title. In case you default, the lender can repossess the property and sell it in order to recover their losses. So basically, the title is just paper unless you pay off the loan. But that doesn’t mean you have to discard it – keep the title securely along your important files. 

Amortization 

Lastly, in Miami condos ownership, homeownership and other kinds of real estate ownership, there is amortization. This is simply the repayment of the loan – something you should be ready to be responsible for every month. 

Mark Michael Ferrer 
Miami Condos

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/real-estate-articles/before-buying-miami-condos-some-mortgage-abcs-1513919.html

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