Real Estate References

The several thousand or even millions of foreclosed properties allover the US are prime pickings for investors or first-time home buyers, if they know what they’re doing. Foreclosed properties are some of the best buys and worst around. Most lenders simply have so much to dispose of they may not have maintained them properly. The may look fresh and sparkling on the outside but what about the guts of the property or home? These can easily be checked for defects by licensed home inspectors who can point out major problems should they exist out of sight of us normal people.

Most real estate development projects are aiming for green technologies to capitalize on the many perks being offered by the government for such projects. From tax discounts to other incentives, companies and developers who adopt green technologies even before they are made mandatory by law in the coming years. The government is scheduled to pour out billions in the development of such technologies that are starting to filter down the construction industry down into the home.

Now here’s a twist in the construction business, wood is making a comeback for use in framing that is allowed for structures that are up to five stories high. As it turns out, newer more modern materials such as steel and concrete products have risen in prices so much that wood has again become an option. With the many tree farms now in their maturity stages, producers are only too glad to provide more timber for such use.

Having a good real estate agent is also one of the most important aspects of the realty business. For one, your real estate agent should be knowledgeable about real estate law, and can answer your questions about mortgage payments and home insurance premiums accurately. You should also get a Realtor who’s straight to the point and doesn’t try to win you over with smooth talk and too much technical terms. A good Realtor will be upfront with all the prices and terms and is willing to negotiate up to a certain point. He should also not be afraid to give you advice regarding properties you’re looking at. You should also have a Realtor with dedication, because combined with his knowledge and confidence, he or she will be able to give you the best deal that benefits the both of you.

The real estates business has never been in such trouble for as January figures come in, it shows that already devalued homes are selling for still lower figures. This counters the seemingly positive effect news of the bailout having passed the government hearings and is already on the move to help homeowners. People continue to loose homes due to unpaid mortgages, left with nothing but grief and disbelief that it came too fast for even them to take action. The sub-prime lending market collapse last year has been one of the most damaging events in the history of the housing market and today, even commercial giants are finding it difficult to unloads their huge inventories of homes they have accumulated through the years.

Years of unheeded warnings and bulletins from scientists and environmental experts have been thrown into the spotlight when environmental changes began to influence our lives. Today, it is more necessity than a luxury to build green for it is only time before we run out of time to mend our ways. Buildings and older homes are some of the most polluting structures in modern cities as well as the utilities that support them.
The greening of the urban jungle is going to take long and is going to cost us. Unregulated and haphazard use of polluting agents are poisoning our water table, soil and very bodies causing illness and death. Green buildings are now being developed to counter the effects of global warming and is to continue as the next step in our evolution, if we want to have a future for our children to live in.

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Investing in real estate properties will make you rich in no time at all. Buying property and then selling it for far more than you paid for - otherwise known as “flipping” - is the best way to increase your wealth.There are some people who are successful in adding to their wealth this way. But this is actually risky and advisable only if the market is in a good condition. No-downpayment schemes are saying that the property is fully financed - that is, a big share of the cashflow is allotted for paying the monthly amortizations. This kind of scheme actually gives you higher interest rates because of the bigger risk to the lending company and no money is allotted for improvement or repairs should the need arise. This is saying that you are depending on the property itself to bring you more money instead of improving the management of the property to increase its cashflow. An investment expert said, don’t sell if you want your money out, have your property refinanced and pull out any equity you can.

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Closing includes all the pertinent final steps involved in buying a property. The terms frequently used in such a process are:

• Offer to purchase. Once you like what you see, you need to move swiftly. Make an offer that is 8%-10% lower than the list price to provide elbow room for you to haggle. But never go beyond the price within your reach.
• Deposit is the goodwill money as a sign of the buyer’s covenant with the seller. It is normally 1% of the purchase price and is included in the offer to purchase.
• Contingencies are certain obligations detailed in a contract before the buyer is required to close the deal, the most common of these are: the buyer’s securing of financing and a walk through of the property. Home Inspection is done by a professional to determine the structural and mechanical condition of a property.
• Contract is a legal and binding obligation of a buyer to purchase the property. It details the transaction including the selling price, description of the property, date of closing and possession date.

Environmentalism and real estate may be strange bedfellows, but current advances in technology are now starting to promote green building. Green building is the practice of creating structures and using practices that are environmentally friendly and resource efficient. There are a number of green building standards that builders and developers can use to certify whether a particular structure is a green building. These standards include the Leadership in Energy Efficiency and Design (LEED) rating system, which is a nationally accepted standard developed and administered by the U.S. Green Building Council. Many of these standards use a system that assigns points for a variety of practices and certify a building at various levels of “green“ depending on the number of points acquired. Energy conservation, water conservation, sustainable site selection, building material conservation, and enhanced occupant health is an integral part of green building. Green building practices tend to increase up-front construction costs but often provide long-term benefits that may offset these increases.

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Here’s a simple method of getting to know your real estate investing market, which is VITALLY IMPORTANT before you can know if a property/price is worthy of calling a ‘deal’ or not…

This ‘LAZY’ method of market research reveals some amazing facts about the real estate investing market in your area and it works for any area there is….

Take a local newspaper (you can get many of them online, for free, nowadays) and simply count the number of ‘For Sale’ and ‘For Rent’ ads, keeping track of them for later reference.

Usually, Sunday and Wednesday papers are the ‘biggest real estate investing days’, so, for now, just watch these.

Keep track of the number of ads for a few weeks and watch what is happening to your market (hold on, now, we’re coming to the part about you turning all this research into a really great real estate investment).

Keeping more detailed records (what price for a 3/2/2 in the SW part of town is being offered for sale and rent wise, etc.) will yield tremendous knowledge, but, for now, just to get started in your real estate investing, stick with the basic ‘total ads’ research.

After a few weeks, you’ll start to see ‘trends’ in the real estate investing potential of your area - maybe the number of For Sale is going way up and the number of For Rent is going way down…