Archive for August 30th, 2008
by Jeff Kaller
Negotiating Short Sales is a great way to supplement your income, or even replace your full-time job with a more lucrative and less time-consuming alternative. But the unlimited potential income is just one of many reasons that you’re going to love doing short sales. Here are some other reasons that you may not yet have considered:
- The “Win-Win-Win” Situation. When you work with a bank to find an acceptable compromise on a price for a preforeclosure property, you not only are obtaining a great investment for yourself, you’re also helping a distressed homeowner move on with their life without the burden of a foreclosure on their credit and their mind and helping a bank recoup money that they otherwise might have never even recovered. Of course, the investment property for you is the driving motivation here, but the other aspects aren’t so bad either. The other two parties may not thank you every time (if ever), but you are helping them both make the best of a bad situation, and you should feel better about that the more deals you do.
- You’re Solving Other People’s Problems. And what’s more, you’re doing it quickly, efficiently and effectively! Obviously, if a person has just agreed to a short sale, their mortgage is not their only problem, but once that particular problem is resolved, their stress-load is ten’s of thousands of dollars lighter. And that relief can spur them into the next stage of their life. All without the taint of a foreclosure on their credit.
- Reliable, Predictable and Repetitious Results. Once you’ve mastered the art of short sale dealing, you have a permanent source of income in your repertoire. Short sale deals require you to take a certain number of specific steps, factor in certain and specific aspects of a property, then produce and acceptable offer and walk away with your new investment. Not all your offers will be accepted, and you’ll probably turn down some tempting deals because they’re just too risky, but once you know how to spot a good deal and negotiate successfully for it, your potential is limitless! Because there will always be foreclosures (it’s likely that the number will only increase as more and more people take out variable interest loans with rates they won’t always be able to afford) and lenders will always want to recover cold, hard cash.
- Feeling Good. We have already talked about how you are helping other people while making money for yourself, but the other thing that’s going to make you feel good is your personal satisfaction in a job completed well. When you close your first deal, you’re going to feel like you won a marathon, and when you close your twentieth, you’re going to feel even better! Investing in short sales may be a totally new area of endeavor for you, or it may just be a new niche of your real estate investing portfolio, but either way, mastering a new skill and making lots of money at it is incredibly rewarding. And the looks of admiration and even envy on your friends and family’s faces when you break the news that you just doubled your annual income with one or two short sales will be priceless.
In my own opinion that if you fail to truly learn and utilize short sale investment strategies in your real estate career, you will easily never realize 80% of your income potential. Ask me how I know this… I could name a hundred students in every state who focus exclusively on short sales and preforeclosures as their sole means of income. What’s the difference between them and you?
With more than 1.2 million foreclosure, preforeclosure, bankruptcy, FSBO and tax lien listings, it’s important for training in the analysis and search of large and complex databases of foreclosed homes and investment property information. Being able to identify opportunities while researching top lending institutions and government agencies Real Estate Owned; Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Veterans Affairs, Fannie Mae, and other government agency and financial institution properties is essential.
Buying during the foreclosure period is one of the best ways for anyone to get involved in real estate investing. With a some specialized knowledge an investor can buy a house at a substantial discount and resell it retail gain up to 15% - 20% profit in the process.
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by Darren Cason
When it comes to success and money, children are more likely to follow the path of their parents than they are to go a different course. Children of poor parents will likely remain poor, middle class will stay in a similar income bracket, and rich kids will often raise little rich kids of their own.
Though these trends generally hold true, it?s become more likely in recent years that children will often end up in a worse financial position than their parents were in. This is due not so much to lesser incomes, but simply as a result of increased appending, of which credit cards are certainly to blame.
Teaching children the importance of money at an early age and not to take it for granted can instill good traits in them that will carry on into their adult life. Not doing so may pass on the notion that money in unimportant, or that money matters are overly complicated and to be feared, which could leave them with those same feelings through the rest of their live. These are just some of the ways you can teach them the value of money.
Give Kids an Allowance
An allowance is the best way to give them a first-hand taste of money, and the responsibility and potential that goes along with it. There are different allowance types, and each one can have different effects.
These two main types are the gift and reward systems, and both are used at about equal rates in households that give allowances. Both systems work on a system of having regular and routine payments of the allowance, usually weekly or monthly. This lets the child develop methods to make the money stretch between the allowance periods, knowing that no more money will be forthcoming until the next scheduled date, much like the later paychecks they’ll be receiving.
The gift system is basically an allowance that is paid regardless of any other factors, like the reward system. The reward system on the other hand will often pay out for the child successful completing chores, doing their homework, getting good grades, eating their vegetables, maintaining good hygiene, etc. The reward system certainly has its advantages when it comes to giving children a sense of pride and appreciation for their money, but it may not be suitable for younger children. You may still wish to reward them for good deeds, but this can be done on top of the regular allowance, as opposed to it being a requirement for the entire allowance.
Beyond the allowance, you may want to give your child a more in-depth look at how your personal finances work, and slowly let them in on some of the deeper aspects of financing and the importance of investing and saving. You may wish to learn a little more about investing yourself before going too in-depth on the subject, to make sure your own knowledge is up to snuff. Sharing your own financial successes and failures makes the financial process tangible and relatable to your child, completely different from the black and white numbers they’ll go through in math class and the reality of the findings in credit check.
A good combination of a solid allowance system and some personal guidance and tales should set your child on a good path to financial responsibility. It won?t be an easy road, as there are many siren songs of temptation out there, but you?ll have done your part to shut their ears to such raucous melodies.
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by Isabel Allen
In the United States, millions of children are homeschooled. This number will reach over 12 million by 2015, according to the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). Each state governs education and has its own own laws concerning homeschooling because the United States Constitution does not have specific laws concerning education. You will only have to learn the laws for your individual state if you’ve considered homeschooling.
Homeschooling laws vary from state to state. Each state has a mandate to provide an education for its students; many states delegate that authority to the state’s Board of Education. The state Board of Education wants to ensure that every child receives an adequate education. Because of this mandate, one Federal law was passed, Equal Education Opportunities Act of 1974. This law requires that no state can deny any child an education based on their race, color, sex, or national origin. In other words, every child within every state is guaranteed an education.
It is ultimately up to the parent to choose where their child will attend school - whether it be a public school, private school, or homeschool, since states cannot deny a child an education. Public schools are regulated by the state, as well as some private schools. However, there are often few regulations for homeschools, since a large percentage of homeschool families do so for religious reasons.
The requirement for children to attend school in some fashion during set compulsory ages is one state law that appears to be universal. However, these ages, may be different in each state. It just depends on the state’s laws; some states require children to be in school from 5 to 17, others 7 to 16. You can search the internet, or contact HSLDA to determine what your state’s compulsory ages are.
Homeschool laws for each state can be found at the Home School Legal Defense Association, National Home Education Network, and other websites on the Internet. Learning your state’s laws would be advantageous if you choose to homeschool. After you have begun to homeschool, especially if you are a military family moving to another state, you can go back to these sites to find the laws for the new state.
Throughout the length of a soldier’s career, military families often move several times. To guarantee continuity in their children’s education, many are choosing to homeschool. Often internationally, a military family that homeschools can continue their child’s education without fear of negative impact rather than transferring a child from one school to another.
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by Allison Thompson
Forty percent of all marriages in America will end in the couple getting divorced. If you don’t want to become another one of these statistics then you may be interested that you might just be able to salvage your marriage. One should never simply divorce their spouse because they don’t know about “how to save your marriage”.
When it comes to attempting to save your marriage there are certain things which one should try first before deciding that you are better off apart. Often a person who changes their behavior or way they think can save their marriage from not being saved. Otherwise using the services of a marriage counselor may be advisable. Below we look at these options in more detail.
Think About Changing Your Behavior You need to first take a step back to really see whose behavior is causing the problems in your marriage, is it yours, your spouses or is it both your behaviors. Certainly changing the way that you act towards each other may well be the think that ends up taking the stress out of your relationship that has appeared.
If you find yourself often feeling impatient, critical or jealous of your partner then think about why you are having these thoughts. It is important that you get rid of these negative thoughts you are having about your partner and things about those ones that made you fall in love with them and choose to marry them. Often just by doing this can make a major difference to your relationship with them. Plus you need to take time out and show them just how much your care about them.
Why not take some time to do things together which you would have done when you first met and started dating. Also look at your partner as if you were just meeting for the first time. Even though you may not be able to change their behavior what you will find is that yours has.
You Need To Evaluate Your Communication Skills Do you find yourself frequently yelling, criticizing or nagging your partner? Are you and your partner finding it difficult to communicate your wishes to each other in a tone of voice that is considered reasonable? If you have answered yes to these questions then you need to evaluate what communication skills you currently have. You may find that you need to make changes and it is these which may help towards saving your marriage! If you are not sure where to begin when changing this area of your life there are plenty of good resources available. Books are useful so is attending marriage classes or undergoing counseling. These will all teach you the right communication skills that you need.
Counseling Many couples consider counseling often as a last resort, but if you are having marriage difficulties then you may want to add this tool to your arsenal now rather than later. A marriage counselor will help you to evaluate your relationship objectively, develop a plan in order to repair it, and work with you as you begin to develop strong communication and relationship skills. If you truly want to know how to save your marriage, consider counseling as it often makes a world of difference.
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by Gary Pearson
Are you one of those people who loves what they do? Do you wake up in the morning and look forward to going to work? Then you are one of the lucky ones. Most of us dread Monday mornings and upon receiving our paychecks wonder if it is even worth it. Of course, if we’d just gone to school for a few more years then perhaps we would be in our dead end jobs. These days there are many older people out there who are considering a return to work to upgrade their skills or get the education they need to get their dream career.
University degree programs vary widely, and some may question whether the benefits of a degree as far as job opportunity and salary outweigh the costs. The last thing we want to do is spend four valuable years attending lectures and cramming for midterms if it only means a modest salary increase. Studies have been done that confirm that a degree will increase employment chances by 90%.
If I was an employer I would definitely only hire the best applicants, ones who could demonstrate that they were willing to work hard and that they were dedicated to their careers. This seems to exemplify a University student. Think of all the long hours students put into their education just so they can get the right job, isn’t this the person you’d want for your business?
Not to say that University students are smarter, per say. There are of course many kids who keep going to school so they can have a good time instead of working. Though most of these students will not finish their degrees, having partied themselves into failure or expulsion. Being a full time student takes dedication, something that they reflect when they come to the working world.
Whether you are just leaving high school, or if you’ve already attended a reunion, it is never too early or too late to continue your education. There are probably University degree programs in your area. Start today and soon you will reap the rewards of a better education, more job options and higher salaries. This definitely seems worth the effort.
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by Shila Demazzier
There seems to be quite a few people that are still listening to the horrible sounds of a dial-up modem every time they go on the Internet. There are more people who do not even have a computer. If you happen to be one of these people, I will explain to you why you should start heading in the opposite direction.
Most likely you’re not reading this on a computer if you haven’t got an internet connection. Please, go out and get one. I’m not saying you need purchase a PC worth thousands of dollars; there are places you can get one for a few hundred dollars that will work very well. Then you’ll need to get a DSL or cable connection that’ll cost at most an additional $45 a month, and some run as low as $15 a month. (This’lldepend on your speed/location).
First, by using a broadband connection you can save hundreds of dollars. If you happen to have a dial-up connection, you are paying for your connection by the minute. Since broadband is much faster than dial-up every time you try to load up your pages you are wasting money.
Secondly, If you like to make purchases online, the more you purchase the more money you will save. You should start by comparing department and boutique stores against the Internet, you will see how much more inexpensive it is online. You can get these values online because the retailer has no overhead to pay. If you buy from out of state you do not even pay sales tax.
Even though sending email is less personal, it is convenient and much faster than taking the time to write a letter or talk on the phone. Why waste your money, when email is practically free?
You can also save banking online. Most banks charge lower fees, and offer incentives for using an account online. It’s like when you purchase products online, the banks spend less on offices and tellers, and some of these profits are shared with you.
Sites like Craigslist and Ebay, allow you to sell things that you think are junk but you know the saying a man’s junk is another man’s treasure.
Voice over IP companies like Vonage or Skype offer much better rates than traditional phone companies. These technologies use the Internet to transport your voice around the world for a fraction of the cost.
Stop paying for the newspaper to be delivered to your house. You can read hundreds of thousands of current articles online from around the world for free.
Of coarse you could do all this with the dial-up connection you have, but why would you want to continually deal with the painfully slow connection, when for as little as $10 a month, you can easily make the upgrade to a high speed broadband connection? You’ll easily earn back this money, and save quite a few dollars with the tips you’ve been given.
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