Real Estate Articles

Shifting to a New House and need a place to store your belongings? Remodeling your home and want to move your stuff out of the way? Or maybe you want to sell your house and want it empty for prospective buyers?

PODS or Portable on Demand Storage is the solution to all your problems. PODS were founded in January 1998 in Clearwater, Florida. It is the brainchild of Peter War Hurst, Roy Courtney, David Revelia and Bill Ash.

The concept of a Portable Storage Container was pioneered by PODS. The PODS containers are brought to your home and you load it yourself, taking as much time as you need. The PODS containers are kept at floor level which makes packing easier. Once the PODS containers are packed, you call their staffs who load the boxes on to their moving vehicles nicknamed “Podzilla”.

The PODS containers are locked with your own padlocks giving you complete control of your possessions. The containers are kept in the Local Warehouse for storage until the customer needs it again. A PODS provides moving options for Long Distance Movers as well as Local Movers Distance moves.

Recently, the PODS service also extended to include a Portable Shelter. The portable shelter includes a Generator, Bathroom and Kitchen and can house up to 5 people for one month. These special shelters serve as Emergency Shelters or Workstations in emergencies. Or, they can be utilized by those who have moved to a new place but have not yet found a place to stay.

The PODS containers have a steel frame with the interiors made of marine grade wood. The container floor is kept 4 inches above the ground and the roof is made of translucent plastic to enable light to enter from above. There is a roll up door at one end. The containers are certified sturdy and weather resistant. They can withstand a wind velocity of up to 110 miles per hour while they are partially full.

PODS are basically a combination of a Truck Rentals and Self Storage Unit. It is more convenient since you don’t have to drive a huge truck all over the city. The boxes are kept at ground level for easy packing and there are no time constraints

PODS containers are easy to book. They can be delivered to you within 24 hours. The PODS are loaded onto the trucks using a hydraulic lift which keeps the containers from being tilted. So, there is no chance of your things falling over one another or getting damaged.

PODS storage is convenient for business people too. You can store your extra inventories, seasonal items, special event materials and even documents in PODS without fear of damaging them.

For more Information on PODS, you can visit http://www.PODS.com.

Ah, the joys of renting your first apartment. You’ve finally moved out of your parents’ house, and you’re feeling pretty great because you’re finally on your own for the first time. No more having to tell your parents where you’re going, where you’ve been, etc. You can come and go as you please! However, when do you reach a point where you decide that you no longer want to live in an apartment?

There are a ton of perks associated with renting an apartment. For starters, renting may be seen as better than owning a property because when you rent a property, you don’t have to worry about paying property taxes, etc. Additionally, renting allows you to be more nomadic. For instance, if you just landed a new job but suddenly decide that you want to move into a bigger apartment or even to a different area entirely, it is much more seamless to do so while renting. Also, if for whatever reason, you can no longer afford to live at your apartment complex, or something happens where you suddenly have to pack up and move back home or elsewhere, it is significantly easier to walk away from a rental versus a house.

Both owning and renting indicate some level of responsibility. However, owning a property places most-if not all of the responsibility on you. When your name is tied to a piece of property such as a house, you cannot simply “walk away” whenever you feel like it. Rather, you need to realize that you made a commitment to accept responsibility for that property. If you want to give up or pass your responsibility onto another home owner, then you must then focus your efforts on selling your house. However, selling your house is not always as cut and dry as you may think it should be. Selling your home involves getting the bank involved as well as lawyers, realtors and other homeowners. The bottom line is that it takes time to sell a house. Seldom will you ever hear of someone putting their house up for sale and then selling it within one day. Negotiations have to be made and monies have to exchange hands.

Given the current housing market, many people are opting to rent versus own. However, for those lucky enough to have a comfortable amount of money saved up, buying a house is always a great option-especially now when prices on homes are extremely low. Many experts speculate that while we are in a slow time for the housing market, this is as bad as it will get and prices will only go up from here with more people buying houses. No one knows for sure what direction the market will take or how long it will take the housing market to get back into full swing. But the fact remains that if you can afford to purchase a house, then it’s generally a good investment.

Buying a house is usually the second major purchase that a person will make in his or her life. The first is buying a car. When considering buying a house, some things that you will definitely want to think about include your credit score and how much money you have saved up.

The non-traditional methods used to buy and sell property are often termed as creative real estate investing. When the normal traditional methods are not an option, getting creative can sometimes be the only way to seal a deal.

There are a number of different practices applied when it comes to creative real estate investing. I’ll review four of them here to help you get started.

Seller Financing

In certain situations where a buyer is not able to qualify for a bank loan, the seller may offer financing to the buyer. The way this usually works is the owner will typically lend a portion of the equity to the buyer and the owner then receives monthly payments on the property. The terms may vary depending on the circumstances; it could be principle-only payments with a fixed interest rate or it could be a variable rate. These terms are agreed upon by the owner and the buyer.

In some cases, the buyer may assume the seller’s loan and write it as an all-inclusive deed. This is known as a non-assumable loan.

Lease Options

With lease options, a person signs a lease as well as an option to purchase within a certain time frame. Normally this is over a short period of time like one year, but with the decline in home sales recently, some homeowners have become more flexible with lease option terms, sometimes stretching it out to two years. At the time of the agreement, the buyer agrees to pay an additional amount called an “option fee.” This fee is typically forfeited should the sale not go through within the pre-determined time.

There are some lease purchase options that make it mandatory for a buyer to buy the property within the term of the option. The price of the property is determined at the time of the agreement and this is the amount the buyer must pay regardless of the value at the same of the sale.

Short-Sale or Pre-Foreclosure

There are other creative real estate investing techniques, such doing a short sale when the mortgage has been defaulted. When a property owner fails to make their mortgage payment and they go into default, there are a number of steps the lender must take in order to foreclose on the property. Since this typically can take months, the property owner may try to sell the home with the condition that the bank accepts less than what is owed on the mortgage.

Tax Liens

Taking advantage of property with tax liens is another method whereby investors buy the tax liens from the government and if the homeowner defaults on the loan, the investor can foreclose on the house.

As you can see, there are many opportunities available when it comes to real estate investing. You don’t have to always use traditional methods of acquiring property. With the proper planning and creative real estate investing strategies, you can be quite prosperous in the real estate marketplace today.

Many “talking heads” in the real estate and financial media have been predicting a “soft-landing”

for the housing market for months now.

Frankly, I think that the vast majority of these “experts” haven’t got a clue as to what is really driving

the present real estate market conditions. Many of the well meaning folks who report on real estate and housing aren’t even old enough to have lived through a full market cycle as an adult.

Therefore they have little more than text book theory to go on when they are called upon to discuss the current state of the housing market. Other groups, who have a vested interest in making the housing market news as positive as possible, are simply spouting the usual propaganda about a short term downturn, with prices beginning to rise by the end of 2007.

I personally think we will not see the bottom of the present market for perhaps another year or two.

The fact is there are much bigger factors at work here. Factors that will contribute to what I predict will be the largest single real estate market slump in U.S. history. A slump that I believe has only just begun to be realized.

The following information will help you understand why I think that the next two years will see real estate values in many areas continue to lose ground, producing some of the best investing opportunities in residential housing ever…

In doing my research I’ve been reading some very interesting statistical data regarding housing and in particular some of the historical trends in housing markets.

Most interesting among these is a chart put together by Yale economist Robert J. Schiller, which is an index of American housing prices going back to the year 1890. It is based on sale prices of standard existing houses and excludes new construction so that it might more accurately track the value of housing as an investment over time.

The housing prices are adjusted for inflation, in what economists call “constant dollars”, meaning that while prices are always rising, it is possible to adjust them to reflect a constant dollar value over time.

This gives a more accurate picture of true dollar value over a period of years.

One of the interesting things that I noticed was that a house in 1890 was more expensive than the same property in 1920. As new manufacturing techniques were developed in the early part of the 20th century the increasing inventory outstripped demand, leading to a major drop in housing prices.

Housing prices as adjusted for inflation were at their lowest point in the entire cycle in 1921. In fact, even during the worst of the Great Depression in 1932, housing prices did not fall below the 1921 levels.

So it’s interesting to note that even the Great Depression did not cause the lowest housing values of the 20th-century. The apparent cause of the 1921 low point was increasing supply outstripping demand.

A situation similar to what we have today.

And even World War II did not cause housing values to erode. After a 1939 peak saw the highest prices in 20 years, World War II and Pearl Harbor only resulted in about a 10 to 12% drop in the value of existing homes. And that lasted only until 1943. From 1944 to the early 1950’s prices rose about 40% and then began to level out, staying roughly consistent until the late 1970’s when prices finally reached levels not seen since 1890.

In the early 1980’s we saw a 15% drop from the peak prices of the late 1970’s. In 1984 the housing market began a significant boom cycle once again and by 1989 prices had risen to just above the 1970’s peak. Since 1979 we’ve had two 10 year long cycles where prices have risen significantly, then lost approximately 15 to 20%. This tendency to increase then fall back has kept the housing market more or less constant over the past 100 years, in terms of real value.

However, since 1997 prices for real property have been on a steady increase. This means that we have sustained the longest single cycle of price appreciation in American history over the last 10 years.

And true to the historical data it would appear that yet another 10 year cycle is coming to an end.

Indeed it is already apparent that prices have dropped approximately 10 to 15% in general since the beginning of 2006.

What makes our current 10 year cycle unique is that it is the only 10 year cycle that has sustained consistent price increases for the entire 10 years. In other words this is the first time in our history that prices for housing have increased steadily for 10 straight years without any kind of decline in the middle of the cycle.

I believe that when you look at this information and combine it with other essential data such as the increase in the foreclosure rates, growing consumer debt, the popularity of exotic mortgages, and most particularly interest only payments and the recent phenomenon of negative amortization, common sense would tend to dictate that this is a recipe for a serious and long term market adjustment.

Many factors seem to be combining at present, and may eventually bring about one of the largest market corrections ever seen in the real estate industry in the United States. We’ve already seen a 10 - 20% correction, but that is only 20% percent relative to 2005 values. If we look at the historical corrections that have already occurred at different points in time over the last 110 years, we might make some reasonable “guesstimates” as to what could happen in the near future.

Let’s put a couple of things in perspective. The real estate boom of the last 10 years exceeds any previous peak by 70 percent. The historical peaks of the past saw approximately 15 to 20% price growth followed by a decline of about 15 to 20% which kept the market somewhat consistent from the period 1948 to 1995. But the 1997 through 2005 boom has exceeded historical averages by approximately 300%.

Translated into plain English this basically means that we should see a major correction in housing prices over the next year, two or three, depending on interest rates, and overall supply versus demand.

Indeed we’ve already seen an average 15% decline even with interest rates still at historically low levels.

If interest rates begin to climb significantly in the near future this could certainly trigger an adjustment

of historical proportions.

So what would this mean for the average investor like you and me?

The number one thing it means is that just over the horizon are some of the best buying opportunities

we’ve seen in years. While a 50% drop in housing prices may sound like the end of the world on the surface, the fact is that this would be a tremendous boon for Real Estate investors who have patiently waited for better prices to come along.

If you are positioned correctly you stand to profit greatly. On the other hand if you find yourself tied up with interest only payments and negative amortization, you could be looking at serious financial problems.

Now is the time to consider strategy adjustments to take advantage of the coming changes. Getting out of any adjustable rate mortgages in favor of fixed rates is a smart decision right now.

I believe that one of the primary factors that has pushed the present market to its all-time highs is investor speculation on a level never before seen in the U.S. housing market. I believe that speculation among new investors has been one of the primary driving forces in this current cycle. It has pushed supply above demand, and is forcing price erosion in an otherwise strong economy.

Based on all of the data that I’ve seen recently I would be willing to bet that as much as 30% of all housing for sale today is related to investor speculation. I believe this is also the reason for the huge cancellation rates builders are now seeing in new construction projects around the country. In some areas new construction contracts have seen cancellation rates as high as 36%. This is typical in areas where the so-called hot markets were located - New Jersey, south Florida and California, which are rampant with investor speculation.

If I’m correct about the amount of investor speculation diluting the overall housing market future price erosion could be more severe than anyone realizes at this point.

But all of this bad news is good news for smart real estate investors. I’ve been on the sidelines for quite a

while now waiting for these over inflated prices to drop to more reasonable levels. Once they do, smart investors who know how to avoid overpaying for properties will be out there to take advantage of the multitude of buying opportunities that will develop. There are obvious indicators that this has already begun.

There’s still time to plan for the tremendous opportunities ahead. Keep an eye on your market, pay attention to the sales and foreclosure activity in your local area, get your funding sources together and get ready to profit. Things are about to get very interesting.

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Loan modifications are currently the most viable option to avoid foreclosure for most middle-income families. While they are not a traditional answer to avoiding foreclosure like refinancing, they are much more available and are effective in most situations.

When most people think of loan modifications, they think of a free break. But financial institution has for modifications are nowhere near as easy to get as many would hope. There are strict requirements each financial institution has for loan modifications, and although the Obama Administration has made great strides to make modifications much less difficult to obtain, they are still not a walk in the park.

Getting a loan modification requires the right paperwork, negotiations, and perseverance.

To start off, you need to determine whether or not you are really under financial hardship or not. Under the Home Affordable Modification Program, a homeowner must be going through financial hardship in order to qualify for loan modifications with any lender. Financial hardship is indicated by having a high debt to income ratio, so much so to the point where making payments are almost impossible. Luckily, or unluckily, a large portion of homeowners in the United States are currently going through financial hardship and they at least have that requirement filled.

Besides financial hardship, your lender is going to need proof of your income and expenses, and will also take a look at your credit, and take a look at the initial and current values of your home.

If you’re confident you’re in financial hardship or think you might be, it’s time to fill out the loan modifications application. Several financial institutions have the applications on their website to give you an easier and streamlined process, but sometimes it can be better to fax, mail in, or even take the application in to a local office. Sending it in online can be easier, but giving it a more personalized touch can help you in negotiations, especially if you are working with a smaller lender.

Along with your application, you’re going to need to submit a letter of hardship. The hardship letter is the sole medium a lender will listen to pertaining to your take and circumstances. Any particular circumstances that have led to your current financial hardship are to be described in the letter. The letter may seem like a step you can skip, but in reality the hardship letter can prove to be the most important and tide turning part of your application.

After the application and letter comes the negotiations. It’s possible to successfully negotiate on your own, but you have a better chance with a loan modifications attorney or a representative from the FHA backing your argument. And even after the negotiations, it can take eight weeks for loan modifications applications to be approved, so while the modification can help you, it is not a temporary or quick fix.

Real estate market has always been attractive for investors because of an amazing profit margin. Although it is a fact that lots of people have always been going for stocks and forex trading but it is no longer a good option because of the drastic ups and downs. The real estate market, on the other hand, is still a good place to earn money and that’s the reason why lots of companies invest in it.

When it comes to the real estate market, you can find several companies using the option of sell and rent back. This particular option allows investors to buy a home just to give it back to owners on rent. What it means is that though companies own a home but they don’t sell it to another party because they prefer getting rent from owners.

Sell and rent back is an option which is good for sellers as well as buyers. For sellers, it is good for the obvious reason of getting a good chunk of money against their property. But, it is good for sellers because it allows them to save a lot of money.

Actually, the basic motive of buyers is to sell your property to someone else to recover their money along with getting some profit. But it is not possible unless and until they advertise and spend extra money so people know about the availability of that property. Also, when they opt for another tenant, they have to search for a new one after one year with the expiry of Shorthold Tenancy Agreement. Not to mention that they have to bear the losses for periods when property remains unoccupied.

It is due to all these factors that buyers love to let owners stay in the home for extended period of time. What it means is that it is because of the benefits received by both parties that the option of sell and rent back works.

Now, there is absolutely no denying the fact that sell and rent back schemes are good for both parties but you being a seller should take several things into consideration. It is important to arm yourself with as much information as possible. By getting detailed information you will become able to get to a right conclusion about opting for a company.

Actually, lots of people are not familiar with the sell and rent back schemes and their variations. That’s the reason why they don’t know what to ask to their buyers at the time of selling their home. With lack of information, you may end up selling your home at lower price which will hurt you in a big way, especially when each dollar matters a lot for you. So, always keep in mind that buyers like to buy your home because they know they can get it at lower rates but you must not accept a rate which may not fulfill your needs as you must think about your interests.

As an increasing number of baby boomers reach the time in their lives to retire, they start searching for different ways to maintain their pre-retirement lifestyle. For many retirees, pension plan and social security payments are just not enough. Some of these seniors have turned to reverse mortgages to solve this problem.

The process of applying for a reverse home loan is a simple one. Once you know what the requirements are, the paperwork is fairly easy. In addition, an experienced reverse mortgage broker can guide you through the whole process.

There are four main steps in the mortgage application process:

1. Get familiar with how reverse mortgages work. These mortgages are different than traditional ones. Read about how they work AND when they are a good choice for you.

2. Find a reverse mortgage lender who will guide you through the lending process. We recommend to lender who is FHA certified. Make sure the lender has a lot of experience in reverse mortgages.

3. Attend the required counseling. Federal regulations mandate that you get free counseling through an approved association such as AARP. In this counseling session, you can have all of your questions answered. If you don’t know how to set up this session, ask your broker.

4. Get all the paperwork you’ll need together. In the case of a reverse mortgage, you don’t need as much paperwork because you don’t usually need to prove income and your credit score is of very little concern.

Although getting a reverse home mortgage is an important step, remember that hundreds of seniors are already applying for one on a daily basis. Just make sure you educate yourself and choose a good reverse mortgage broker who’ll be able to guide you throughout the whole process.

The vast majority of homes are purchased with mortgage loans. When you borrow money on a home, you are committing yourself to two financial documents. The note is a personal obligation to repay the loan on a timely basis. The mortgage pledges the home as security in case you fail to live up to your obligation. You, as the borrower, give a mortgage to the lender to secure the loan. Therefore, you are referred to as the mortgagor, and the lender is the mortgagee - the receiver of the mortgage. This document sets out the obligations you are expected to meet and defines your rights and those of the lender.

All mortgage loans have an interest rate and a term. The interest rate is applied to the amount of money you borrowed and have not yet paid back the principal. Therefore, the principal balance is reduced with each payment. This means that the interest payment is also reduced, as time passes.

Definitions of a few key terms are provided below to help you better understand mortgage financing.

Fixed rate loans have the same interest rate applied over the entire term. The combined monthly payment for principal and interest is unchanged.

Adjustable rate mortgages provide for adjustments to the interest rate at specified intervals. When the rate is adjusted, the principal and interest payment may change.

Refinancing is the process of replacing the current financing with a new loan or set of loans.

An escrow account is required by most lenders. The account provides funds to pay for hazard insurance and property taxes. The borrower makes a deposit in the account with each monthly payment. Since insurance premiums and taxes may vary, the monthly payment may change over time even for fixed rated loans.

A loan commitment indicates the lender’s intention to provide a loan with specified terms.

WHERE YOU GO TO GET A MORTGAGE LOAN

Today being able to gather information on a number of lenders and loan products and choose from among them is well established in the market place. The internet allows individuals to compare the terms of a broad array of loans. For those who need more guidance, there are real and virtual mortgage brokers and bankers to help explain the options.

The modern mortgage market appears to develop new products wherever there is sufficient demand. When many homeowners refinanced their mortgages as interest rates were falling, lenders began offering loans with no discount points. These loans were very popular because they reduced the cost of refinancing. Now, no-point mortgages dominate the market for purchases as well as refinancing. For self-employed borrowers and others who have trouble providing the kind of information required for loan approval, or for those who need to obtain approved financing quickly, there are loans that require little or no documentation. There are also loans for borrowers who make low down payments, but who want to avoid the requisite mortgage insurance.

Just because it is easy to get a particular loan that does not mean that you should accept the offer. The variety of loans available includes some that are clearly not appropriate for your situation. Only by knowing how mortgage loans work and the way they can be tailored to different situations can you be sure to choose the financing that works best for you.

Are you trying to decide whether a Portland Refinance is what you want and need right now? You’re not alone.

It can be confusing to think about whether a lower monthly payment is really beneficial as compared to what it will cost you to refinance your mortgage. In the last few years, mortgage lenders have introduced all kinds of incentive programs to get people to buy homes and/or refinance their mortgages. There are some programs that lower or completely eliminate the homeowner’s out-of-pocket expenses of refinancing. When looking for a Portland Refinance, be sure to ask lenders how much they can save you on your “points” or what it will cost you to refinance.

The fees associated with refinancing your home can add up quickly, and can be confusing for the average homeowner. Fee reductions from lenders can save a homeowner a lot of money, but may result in a slightly higher interest rate on the refinancing loan. Also, if a homeowner expects to live in his home for at least three to five years, many mortgage lenders will allow the homeowner to pay “points” and closing costs upfront. It may be worth it to the homeowner to pay what may amount to a couple of thousand dollars on points, but at the same time receive a lower interest rate that will result in a lower monthly mortgage payment. With this scenario, the homeowner will recoup their cost of points within a year or so and will begin saving actual cash from that point on. When talking to a lender about your Portland Refinance, you will need to decide which interest rate works best for you. There is usually a range of interest rates that is dependent on different amounts of points. A point is equal to one percent of the loan. Have the lender help you analyze what will save you money.

The costs of refinancing are similar to those when you got an original home loan and can include legal fees, application fees, settlement costs, and other related fees. When refinancing, additional fees will arise and they can include a fee charged if you paid off your original mortgage early, the points associated with the refinance, and the home loan interest rate. Typically the cost runs between three and six percent of the total amount of the loan.

Mortgage brokers know about the laws governing taxes related to mortgages. Many homeowners find the tax issues related to the home loan refinance process confusing, but your mortgage broker will guide you through the process. To make a long story short, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has ruled that interest paid for refinancing must be deducted over the life of the loan. However, if the home loan is being used to make improvements to your house, the borrowers may be permitted to deduct a portion of the interest right away. The exact tax laws concerning refinancing are complex and the details should be discussed with your mortgage broker. The IRS website, http://www.irs.gov may also be helpful when gathering general information on the subject of taxes and refinancing.

If your credit has turned sour due to a sudden job loss or other circumstance beyond your control, there is no need to put your plans of homeownership on the back burner. Now is the time to become a proactive borrower in order to improve your credit and your borrowing potential.

You Can Own A Home

Many people have been affected by the global financial crisis, and for many who have lost their jobs, finding a new one might mean that you now make less money than you used to. You can still build up your borrowing reputation with a smaller income, with the eventuality of becoming a homeowner not too far off in the future.

Rebuilding Your Credit, One Step At A Time

Begin your journey towards good credit ratings by obtaining a true copy of your credit report from all three major credit reporting bureaus. You are entitled by law to one free copy of your credit report from each bureau each year. You may pay an additional fee for obtaining the score. Make special notation of any erroneous information that might be contained on your credit report, and ask the credit bureau that holds the information to delete it as soon as its discovered. Once you know where you stand with your credit, you will be able to proceed towards adding points to your credit score.

Taking Control Of Past Due Accounts

Now is the time to take control of your past due accounts, even those that have been turned over to collection agencies. A collection agency is typically very interested in working with borrowers who wish to make some type of payment arrangement, and they can even remove derogatory remarks from your credit file if you show some good faith towards remedying your past due account.

You can rapidly add points to your credit score by opening up a couple of secured credit card accounts. A secured credit card works just like any other credit card, and bears either the Visa or Mastercard logo. Secured credit cards report either monthly or quarterly to the credit reporting bureaus, so having a couple of them (or more) can add points to your score fast. Your secured credit card is backed up by a deposit that you make that is equal to the amount of credit you wish to have extended to you. Most times, your deposit draws interest and is available for withdrawal once you have proven yourself to the secured credit card issuer who then converts the card to a regular credit card.

The most important thing to remember when rebuilding your credit is to pay every lender that you owe on time every time. If you are going to be late with a payment, make a prearranged agreement with your lender to avoid the late payment notation on your credit report.

You can find the secured credit cards that you need to rebuild your credit by going with an online lender. Online lenders offer the lowest interest rates in the industry on these types of cards, and also allow you to apply for and manage your secure credit card account over the Internet, for your convenience. With proper management of your credit, you can move toward homeownership in no time.