Can the HOA Put a Lien on My House Because of This?
I am furious right now! Last night there was a home owners association meeting and one of the main discussions was about my home. Many of you know that we have been trying to remodel the inside to make it our own. Since Mike's parents left us the house, we've bought a 15 ft long dumpster to clean out the junk (which is completely full of trash) his parents grandparents kept for AGES, the weekend before last we rented a Uhaul to load some of the various boxes of books, linen, and cloth up to Llano, TX.
Right now we are living in the above garage apartment to effectively accomplish this task. So the HOA, while we were loading the Uhaul, apparently got word of the inside condition of the house and wants to put a lien on it! They said that if we don't get it cleaned out soon they're putting a lien on it. I want to scream right now!
I am so frustrated beyond belief. What am I going to do without my home? I mean, that's what that means, right? They are going to kick my family out? If there were any way in hell I could possibly clean it out in "their allotted time frame" don't they think it would have been done by now??!!! Do they think I'm just wasting money on Uhauls, dumpsters and storage buildings because I LIKE spending money? They can clearly see the dumpster sitting in my driveway FULL of garbage. If I could afford to buy another $350 dumpster it would be done, what is wrong with these people? At least I'm trying!
I can't break this headache right now....... How the hell can someone tell me what I can and cannot have in my house to begin with? God knows if it were up to me I'd throw every gosh darn thing in that dreadful house away! Geese, I don't know. God help me.
I'm done venting. Sorry, but I just don't know what to do.
What’s a Better Investment? Residential or Commercial Real Estate?
I have $350,000 and like the idea of leverage. In the stock market I can use my $350K to buy $350K worth of stock. In real estate I can use the $350K as a 10% down payment on $3.5 million worth of property. What's a better play? Multiple duplexes, single family homes spread out over high appreciating or cash flow residential markets across the U.S. or commercial buildings like apartments or strip malls? My wife and I are 38 years old with a combined annual income of $115,000 and own 7 houses.
Home Staging Strategies for Selling Your Home
Who are you preparing your home to sell to?
You, as a home seller, have two initial choices.
1. Sell your home as a bargain to investors or bargain shoppers with limited income, or
2. Sell your home for top dollar to your target market.
To prepare your home to sell to investors and bargain shoppers, all you need to do is look for a real estate agent
who advertises bargain houses. This agent will list your home under market value. Then sit back, watch TV, and sell
your home for a rock-bottom price. Don't be surprised when you get many offers for lower than your asking price right away.
If you want to work a little, or perhaps a lot, you can sell your home for top dollar. Explore ways to create a buyers'
dream home. Because buyers let their emotions rule their decisions, stage your home for your specific buyer profile.
To sell your home for market value quickly, remove all your personality from the home. Besides getting rid of clutter,
pack your family photos, children's artwork, trophies, and personal effects. Buyers want to envision their belongings
in their new home.
Design Psychology home staging strategies include setting up spaces with suggested activities that buyers perceive as a
lifestyle change. You want home shoppers to think that if they choose your home, they will enjoy a new life.
Get busy removing clutter, packing memorabilia, home staging, and prepare your home for a top-dollar sale.
Don't be surprised when you get many offers for more than your asking price right away.
Jeanette Fisher teaches real estate investing and interior design college courses. She is the author of "Sell Your Home
for Top Dollar--FAST! Design Psychology for Redesign and Home Staging" and other books. For a free report, "Design
Psychology for Selling Houses," visit http://sellfast.info
How Distressed Home Sales Impact Your Home’s Value
We know the gut wrenching feeling when a home sells down the street from you for well below Fair Market Value (FMV). You may only find out when a perspective buyer says your home is too high priced because of that distressed home sale! Distressed home sales happen in any and every neighborhood from ghettos to multi-million dollar estate neighborhoods.
What is considered a distressed home? We usually think of distressed property as one with plywood over the windows and doors, perhaps inhabited by vagrants or drug dealers. In fact, most distressed sales are generally in no worse shape than the other homes in the neighborhood. So, a distressed home sale should be considered any property that sells enough below Fair Market Value (FMV) that it impacts the value of the surrounding houses.
From our experience, we believe that any property that trades at 20% or more below the; Median Home
Value; will affect appraisal values throughout the neighborhood. This is especially true if there has been a
second distressed sale within six months. What begins to happen is these distressed sales become new comparable sales and start impacting local homes on the market. These distressed sales force homeowners to reduce their prices and a domino effect of declining prices can begin to take place. Many other aspects of a home sell it besides price alone, but many sellers don't realize this.
One of the most common causes of a distressed sale is neglect of the property, especially where residents may be
physically or financially unable to care for their property. The only chance for change for these homeowners may be to wait until they move, or sell your house before theirs comes on the market where it will be sold as a distressed
property. This distressed sale again causes a decline in your home's value and neighborhood values in general.
Other common causes of distressed sales are foreclosure and divorce. In foreclosure, the property may be sold well below fair market value because the homeowner no longer cares what happens to the property and the lender gets it back through the foreclosure system. To avoid losing his home and having the foreclosure on his credit report, he may sell his home for what is owed, which can be 80% or less of last year's market value. In divorce situations, common sense can go out the window when one or both spouses wants out of the relationship, without caring about selling their home for the best possible price.
Not as common are special inter-family sales that take place below fair market value for of personal reasons. Probate or estate sales often take place below FMV because the beneficiaries only want to get out of the property and into
cash as quickly as possible. We detail these problems and other reasons for distressed home sales with specific
solutions in our Home Study Course for home sellers.
There is some consolation is the fact that the distressed sale is only looked at by appraisers for about six months
after it becomes public record. This time period was previously as much as one year but has recently been
shortened by lenders because of the declining real estate market.
If you are selling your home, you want your appraiser to do a full appraisal which includes coming inside your property and giving you credit for the condition of your home and any improvements you made. Otherwise, if he
simply does what is called a drive-by appraisal he must use only the information that is in the public record. With a full appraisal you will more importantly have the opportunity to talk with him about the reason for the distressed sale in your neighborhood so he can discount it entirely. A distressed home sale in your neighborhood can decrease the FMV of your property by as much as 10% to 15%.
In summary, your best option to overcome distressed home sales in your neighborhood is to be alert to their
potentially happening and see if you can get involved with your neighbors to help the homeowners before the sale. If
this is not an option, and you sell your home and get an appraisal below what you feel is FMV, look at the appraisal
specifically for the home or homes that brought down your property value, and challenge the appraisal. If you see a
comparable sale or two that are way out of line with others in your neighborhood, talk to neighbors about what happened and relate this information to the appraiser so he can redo his report. Being proactive like this could save you tens of thousands of dollars by not having to reduce your selling price or having to give unnecessary seller concessions.
Dave Dinkel has over 30 years experience in real estate investing which has given him a unique perspective into the
workings of the real estate market. He has developed a CD entitled "How to Sell Your Home in as Little as 72 Hours",
available at no cost for a limited time by going to www.fsboTLC.com and he shares even more techniques and
secrets in his homeowner's home study course at www.FSBOautopilot.com
Where Should I Invest In Real Estate
Investing in real estate is one of the few ways for the average person to gain wealth. Can you become rich overnight? Not very likely. Real estate investing should be considered a long term strategy that can gain you tremendous amount of wealth over time but you must do your homework first. The majority of people that are getting into the real estate investing market are simply purchasing a home in an area that they are familiar with and then wonder why they are not rich after a couple of years.
Do a search on the internet for real estate investing and you will find hundreds of ways to get rich quick through real estate investing. And it's true, if you are selling books, DVDs or real estate seminars you can become wealthy in a short period of time. If you are investing in real estate it is just not going to happen without the proper up front research.
There are three main points you must consider before purchasing your first property and they are location, location, location. This is a rather simplistic view of real estate investing but it has never been more true than today. Thousands of people are getting into the real estate market, and yet many of the foreclosures in the market today are from non owner occupied homes. This means that people that have purchased a vacation home or purchased a second home for investment purposes have gotten into financial trouble. This Usually happens because they did not purchase that asset in the correct location at the correct time. So the question is, how do you find the correct location to invest?
Any locations can be the correct location to invest in real estate as long as the timing is right. There are four cycles of real estate investing and the cycles can run from 7 to 40 years depending the the intelligence of the local government. These cycles are Buyers Stage 1,
Buyers Stage 2, Sellers Stage 1 and Sellers Stage 2.
Buyers Stage 1 - strategy buy and hold.
1. Oversupply of properties on the market.
2. Prices and rents are falling.
3. You will see a spike in the properties time on the market.
4. Unemployment is at its highest.
5. New construction is overpriced and sales are stagnant.
6. Construction jobs are at an all time low.
7. Foreclosures are at its highest rate.
8. Investment properties are not being purchased or being purchased at a slow rate.
Buyers stage 1 is a declining market and you will need to shop around for a good investment because you do not know how low the market will go. If the local government is not taking action at this point then the market turnaround will be delayed and more care will be needed taken. Always purchase a new property with a lot of equity and a good cash flow to help minimize your risk.
Buyers Stage 2 - strategy buy and hold - also known as the Millionaire Maker.
1. No new construction.
2. Demand for housing is increasing sharply.
3. Properties time on market is decreasing.
4. Rents and Prices for property are at its lowest.
5. Foreclosures are starting to decrease.
6. Job growth is increasing.
7. Rehabbers are purchasing an increasing number of properties.
8. Fewer properties are getting on the market.
9. Demand for properties is increasing because buyers are able to qualify at the low prices.
Buyers stage 2 only happens after the local government is starting to attract new business into the area. For every one new job brought into the area three new jobs are created. These newly created jobs are the butchers, bakers and candlestick makers. In other words the support jobs that are needed to service the new people in the area. I believe that the most important thing to watch for in this market is the job growth rate. New people coming into the area will require housing which will drive up the price. Your local economic adviser counsel is a good place to look.
Sellers Stage 1 - strategy buy and sell quickly.
1. Demand for property is increasing.
2. The time on market for properties in decreasing.
3. Property taxes are on the rise.
4. Unemployment in decreasing.
Sellers stage 1 is a very risky time to be investing in property because you do not know how long before the sellers stage 2 will occur. Be sure you know the signs of the next phase so you can get out of the market at the best time.
Sellers Stage 2 - strategy sell, sell, sell.
1. Supply of properties has sharply increased.
2. Time on market is increasing.
3. Construction of new homes is increasing.
4. New job growth is slowing.
5. New real estate investors are jumping in.
6. First time home buyers are increasing.
One of the ways to watch for new construction of new homes is to check with the local building permits department. You will be able to pick up some good deal from the new first time real estate investors that jump in during the sellers stage 2 market. Always do your home work prior to investing in real estate.
David Cowley has created numerous articles on real estate investing. He has also created a Web Site dedicated to real estate investing. Visit Real Estate Investing
Real Estate Investing Institute Is A Key To Cash Flow Success – Part 2
Do you want to shine in a real estate investing business? If the answer is yes, then you must opt for a real estate investing institute. Enrolling in such an institute will help you to know more about this field and will pave your way to success.
The good thing about real estate investing institute is that it saves you a lot of your precious time. It is not absolutely mandatory of course that you join an institute but it will provide you some very important help you could use.
If you join a real estate investing institute, then you will be able to go through a thorough training of real estate investing. This training will provide you a lot of important information. This information will help you while doing the business. The institute will also offer you some business plans, which have a good practical use. You will be immensely benefited by these plans.
These institutes will give you an exposure and will open the opportunity to meet a lot of people, people who are already established in this business. You can talk to them and can have a good idea about business strategies.
Real estate investing institutes offers a long list of effective courses. Courses related to, tax deeds, Pre foreclosure and foreclosure, discount mortgage, lease, creative financing, probate, tax lien, etc which will help you investing in real estate.
There are two very important programs that real estate investing institute consists of. These two programs are ‘investing power tactics’ and ‘real estate investing techniques’. Topics like, single-family homes, Roth IRA investment, foreclosures are offered in these techniques.
Always remember one thing. Real estate investing institute cannot make you successful. It can only pave and show you the way. Success always depends on your zeal and effort. You have to work hard. Your hard work and the lessons learned in a real estate investing institute will take you on the road of success.
Brad Wozny is a real estate investing expert. Let Brad show you how to connect with eager real estate investor buyers & sellers of investment properties. Access private money & creative lending resources. Claim your FREE Strategic Investment Manifesto and Download your 2 FREE real estate investing mp3 case studies.
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