Are Cash Buying House Companies For Real?

Are Cash Buying House Companies For Real? is courtesy of http://www.powerliftingca.com

You may have seen in a previous post that we are now heavily into real estate. A big question across the web is what is all the hoopla with these cash buying house companies, and are they for real. First, let’s just look at why someone would consider selling their home to one of these companies.

Cost Of Selling Your House With An Agent

There are a few reasons why people would want to use a cash buying company. The cost of selling with a real estate agent is usually the biggest reason:

With any service provider their is a cost of doing business. The average expense for a realtor is 6-7% of the sales price of your home. For example if you sell your home for $200,000 it will cost you anywhere from $12,000-$14,000 at closing. If you decide to use a real estate professional to sell your property then you will more than likely be dealing with financed buyers which means you might possible have to pay seller commissions ranging anywhere from $3,000 – $5,000. Selling to a financed buyer also means once you sign a contract to purchase you will usually have to wait anywhere from 30-60 days to close.

Continue reading  “Realtors vs The We Buy Houses Cash Companies“

As you can see, that’s a lot of money. It can all add up fast and take a rather large chunk of money from your available funds to purchase your next property.

Another reason people choose these companies is the speed of which they can buy your house. Many of these companies advertise that they can close on your house in 7 days or less.

There is one major drawback of selling your home to one of these companies –

 

We buy houses in Brooklyn companies – are they credible?

If you’ve been driving around in Brooklyn, chances are you’ve seen some billboards advertising companies that buy houses.

Often times… https://t.co/DdgDxg6NKA

— PRIMERESIDENTIALSLLC (@PRIMERESIDENTS) April 28, 2018

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Downside Of Using A Company That Buys Houses

The biggest problem is that you more than likely will not get as much money as if you had sold your home outright to another individual –

When you hire a real estate agent, he or she is working to make you as much money as possible from your sale. The Realtor takes a percentage of the sale price as financial compensation, so he or she is motivated to fetch the best price. If a real estate agent believes that he or she can sell your home, there is a good chance that you can make more than you would if you sell to a house flipping company. In fact, I will go out on a limb as say you are GUARANTEED to get far more money when you list your home with a real estate agent. Selling to a real estate investor will almost always end up netting you less money!

Continue reading “Pros and Cons of We Buy Houses Flipping Companies“

So a realtor will most likely work much harder at getting you the absolute best price for your house, at least usually they will. Sometimes a realtor may be more interested in just getting a deal done than having your best interest in mind. It all depends on the quality of your realtor.

This video also has some great insight on realtor vs companies:

So the quick answer about these companies being for real – yes they are. However, if you don’t need to hurry and sell, then using a real estate agent will most likely bring you more money for the sale of your home.

Looking To Learn More? Check out these blogs:

Home Selling
Sell Your Home Now
Porchlight

How To Sell Your House Yourself

The post How To Sell Your House Yourself is republished from http://PowerLiftingCA.com

My husband and I recently found ourselves in a position where we needed to find a bigger home. We have a growing family and we needed more space, along with bedrooms. The problem was that money has been tight and we really needed to sell our house first to have a down payment for the next. We looked at listing with an agent and realized that we were looking at 6% of our selling price going to realtors. With what was left on the mortgage that didn’t leave us with a lot for a down payment for our next house because we have only lived in our current residence for only about 6 years. It turns out that all of those payments were only paying on the interest and hadn’t really touched the principal.

So long story short, I talked to one of my girlfriends and she had recently sold her house – without using an agent! She said it really wasn’t that difficult and I was smart enough to sell my own property as well. So I thought I’d write about my experience as well as give you some helpful info just incase you want to sell your home yourself as well. 🙂

Selling Your House By Owner

What really makes it possible to sell your house yourself is the internet. Without making use of it, you maybe stuck with your house for awhile. There were really 2 big things that we had to take into consideration – pricing the house right and the closing documents.

Pricing –

Pricing your house right is extremely important. Price it to high and you won’t have any interested buyers. Price it too low and you are leaving money on the table. Again, because of the internet this is a lot easier to do. I found some good info from  Zillow about how to price your house:

1. Look at your Zestimate — Depending on whether you feel your home’s Zestimate is as accurate and up-to-date as possible, use this figure as your starting point.

2. Update your Zestimate — Confirm your home facts on Zillow and make any edits as needed. If you have made improvements to your home, make sure those are included in your home facts. Updates to your home facts will be factored into your home’s Zestimate immediately if the change is significant enough to impact your Zestimate.

3. Use your comps — With every Zestimate, Zillow offers a set of comparables. Look these over and if you have created a good set of comps, get the average sold price from them. Your asking price should be within 10 percent of the average sold price in your neighborhood.

4. Find a “magic” price — Once you have a target in mind, think about prices that motivate people more than others. For example, if you have a target figure of $305,000 in mind, think about setting it at $299,995. This way, you will capture people who do range searching (e.g., $250,000 to $300,000) Also, there’s a proven psychology that items priced just under a “century” number are more attractive to the buyer. Think about shopping in a department store. How many times do you see prices for $9.95, $19.95, and so on? These prices have a psychological “come hither” affect — they don’t trip those thresholds of $10 or $20.

5. Find the “soft spot” — Also called “price banding,” this is the practice of looking over the inventory in your neighborhood and finding the “soft spot.” For example, look at the sale prices of homes in your neighborhood. Prices tend to get bunched up as inventory moves along. Find an empty spot so your home is separated from the pack. For example, four homes are priced in the $274,000-$276,000 range and the next set of homes start around $290,000 and up. You should take advantage of the $280,000 price band.

Read all of the article “Pricing Your House for Sale”

When pricing your home be sure and look at houses that are identical to yours, or close to it. This will ensure you are pricing your house right. Also look at homes that have recently sold – like from  6 months to a year.

Legal Documents

We decided to use an attorney to help us get our house sold. We live in a state where you have to use an attorney, and I was more than happy to do so and turn it over to her. When I started researching it online, it was enough to make my head spin. And I don’t understand all of that legal jargon either.

Much to my surprise, some states don’t require you to use an attorney. I really wonder how many of those real estate deals go bad without one. Anyhow here is some good info about using an attorney when you sell –

Purchase Agreements

The purchase agreement is the single most important document in the transaction. Although standard printed forms are useful, a lawyer is helpful in explaining the form and making changes and additions to reflect the buyer’s and the seller’s desires. There are many issues that may need to be addressed in the purchase agreement; below are some common examples:

• If the property has been altered or there has been an addition to the property, was it done lawfully?
• If the buyer has plans to change the property, may what is planned for the property be done lawfully?
• What happens if a buyer has an engineer or architect inspect the property and termites, asbestos, radon, or lead-based paint is found?
• What if the property is found to contain hazardous waste?
• What are the legal consequences if the closing does not take place, and what happens to the down payment? This question raises related questions: Will the down payment be held in escrow by a lawyer in accordance with appropriately worded escrow instructions? How is payment to be made? Is the closing appropriately conditioned upon the buyer obtaining financing?

Most buyers finance a substantial portion of the purchase price for a home with a mortgage loan from a lending institution. The purchase agreement should contain a carefully worded provision that it is subject to the buyer’s obtaining a commitment for financing.

Read all of the article “Why You Need a Lawyer When You Buy or Sell a House”

There can be a lot going on when selling your house. I personally think that using an attorney can help save you a lot of headaches and maybe even possible lawsuits in the future.

So there you have it. Probably the most 2 important things when selling your house yourself. Thanks to the internet, you can do it yourself. It does make me wonder if high priced realtors are going to go the way of the dinosaur. Maybe not for the rich – but for the little guy – maybe.

There is a lot more, like getting the house ready itself, open houses, marketing and more, and maybe I’ll cover that in another post.  In the meantime check out some of these other articles and sites to help you sell your house yourself –

How to Sell Your House by Owner – Without a Realtor

10 Tips to Sell Your Home Fast

How To Sell Your House Fast

 

Hard Money For Real Estate

Hard Money For Real Estate See more on: www.PowerLiftingCA.com

I know I promised I was going to post more, BUT… We actually started doing something that we have wanted to try for quite some time – real estate investing. I have a few friends that were into it and they were always telling me I needed to give it a try. Well after spending a ton of money learning what it takes to get a real estate deal done and not losing your ass, we finally did a few deals – and we love it!

Since we have been doing it and telling our friends about it they often ask how we are able to purchase properties. They knew we didn’t have thousands of dollars laying around to buy properties, much less do the repairs and get them ready to go to market. So how do we do it? The answer – Hard Money.

Here is a good article that explains exactly what a hard money loan is and when and when not to use them for real estate investing:

If you are new to real estate investing you may or may not have heard of a hard money loan. You may want to start flipping houses, but don’t have all of the cash necessary to complete the transaction. This is where a hard money loan might come in handy for you. In this short article we will cover what a hard money loan is and when to use them in your real estate investing business.

What Is A Hard Money Loan?

Joshua Dorkin wrote a post on Bigger Pockets that explains what a hard money loan is:

Hard money lenders (HMLs) are typically private individuals or small groups that lend money (Hard money) based on the property you are buying, and not on your credit score. Usually these loans cost (percentage-wise) much more then an average mortgage, often times up to twice what a regular mortgage does, plus high origination fees….

Hard money loans are easily accessed and cut through the red tape. If you can develop a relationship with a LOCAL hard money lender, you can get funds within a couple days, and sometimes with no appraisal or other costs (except for origination fees of course).

Read the full article here on this blog about wholesale deals

If it wasn’t for hard money we would never have been able to get started with our first fix and flip. As to date my boy friend and I have done 6 houses and have made some really nice profits. We highly suggest that if you are thinking of getting into real estate investing you go ahead and make the leap of faith and do it.

So what if you have no idea where to start. The good news is that there are plenty of websites out there to help you get started. And if you live in or close to a large city, there are always real estate gurus coming through towns that teach the basics.

Here is a video that maybe of a big help to you:

Cool, huh. So now you know what we have been up to. If you want to learn more check out some of these great blogs:

Real Estate Investing

Real Estate Investing For Beginners

Wholesale Real Estate

Wholesale Investment Properties For Sale

 

Marketing With Video

Marketing With Video was originally published on http://www.PowerLiftingCA.com/

With my new job I have been thrown into another area of marketing that I knew existed, but had no idea how powerful it was. My new job, or part of it, video marketing for our company.

To be quite truthful, I was skeptical about how well it would work, much less where to start. I was scared that if I failed, I may lose my job. What if nobody watched?

Well I’m glad to tell you that it has been a huge success! As with a lot of things, you can learn a lot about a topic if you just search the web, and that is exactly what I did.

It turns out my boss was right, we needed to expand our online presence, and video did just that and increased our sales.

So as usual, I wanted to share my experience with you and give you some tips if you are thinking about using video for your business.

A great place to start is a making a game plan. I found this article that gave me some great advice for getting it done:

Five Habits of Successful Video Marketers

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Video marketing requires a certain amount of discipline, attention to detail, and rigorous focus on analytics to get right. Yet, it remains as much an art as it is a science. In this post, we look at five habits that separate the few from the crowds when it comes to delivering on exceptional video marketing campaigns.

1. Plan Ahead

Try to avoid common roadblocks and pitfalls that will otherwise prevent you from capturing video and creating new content to share with your audience. This means thinking ahead, creating a content schedule, and incorporating trends and local events into your planning.

Consider when and where you’ll be able to shoot video, and factor in extra time to do so. You might even want to scout out locations before getting there so you’ll already know the shots you want to get (or avoid) when you’re on site.

Other key steps to take would be to ensure you have all the necessary equipment, and that it’s all in working order. Meaning, your batteries are charged, your cables are organized, and everything is packed securely and ready to go whenever you are. It could also mean that your video recording studio (using the term lightly – it’s ok if this is just a tripod) is always setup so that when inspiration strikes, you don’t have to spend half an hour on setup while your ideas run away from you.

2. Stick to a Schedule

Committing to a regular cadence for sharing new videos helps build and maintain momentum with your audience. Hitting it out of the park with a viral video is relatively unlikely to happen, meaning you’re much better off creating more videos that drive engagement and reach on a regular basis.

Producing lots of video is easy said than done, right? Actually, it doesn’t have to be. Keep your clips short and sweet, get to know some animation tools like Animoto, GoAnimate or Powtoon, and invest in some simple products that will make your life easier, like an iPhone tripod and a decent microphone. Seek free or reasonably priced stock footage, images, and music sources to mix things up. Commit to an easy schedule at first, such as once or twice a month, and go from there.

If you still think it might be too much to produce videos on a regular basis, try thinking creatively about how you create and reformulate other types of content. Throwing an event? Film it. Got a cool client in the office? Ask them a few questions about recent trends relevant to your business. Read a cool article recently? Record a short video with your personal take on the matter, or offer an interesting and related fact pertaining to the key points that were made. Finish reading…

Great advice, and I have actually learned a lot from Sprout Video for making and getting my videos found on the net.

In my testing I did find some interesting results. My videos that were shorter in length tended to do better. Videos that were 10 minutes almost never were watched all the way through.

I wish I had found this article before, and it would have helped me out a bunch, so I’m including a little of it here:

5 Important Lessons on Video Ad Length for Demographic Targeting

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Today’s essential read comes from the Interactive Advertising Bureau, Tremor Video, and Millward Brown Digital. The three collaborated on a free report called Multiscreen Video Best Practices that offers timely data on video ad effectiveness.

NideoScreensTo create the report, researchers tested three different video ads in two lengths each (10 seconds and 30 seconds) on desktops, phones, and tablets. The ads represented three verticals: automotive, CPG, and quick casual restaurants. They were shown to 1,800 18- to 54-year-olds in the U.S
1. Size Doesn’t Bother Millennials

The screen showing the ad matters, the report finds, but not equally for every demographic. Millennials (age 18 to 34) were impacted by both smartphone and tablet ads at roughly the same extent: Their scores for brand appeal and persuasion were close for both types of devices.

2. Go Bigger for Older Viewers

For older adults (age 35 to 54), however, tablet ads had far more impact than phone ass. That group showed markedly higher brand appeal and persuasion scores after seeing an ad on a larger screen. Older viewers were also more likely to rate tablet ads as interesting, unique, or involving.
3. Go Short for Millennials

So how can video marketers best reach millennials? With shorter ads. The report finds that young adults scored 10-second ads higher than 30-second ads for brand appeal and persuasion whether they watched those ads on a smartphone or tablet. Read Entire Article…

Great stuff. It is very important that you keep in mind your audience’s age when planning your videos.

There is so much information on the web that you can find about video, video marketing and video seo.

If you are interested in learning more, for FREE, check out some of my favorite blogs on Video Marketing –

Video Brewery

Reel SEO

MD Internet Marketing Solutions

Enjoy – and I hope this really helps you –  catch ya on the flip side!

Abolish Bail Bonds?

The post Abolish Bail Bonds? is republished from http://PowerLiftingCA.com

I recently had a not so fun experience. My little brother came to visit here in Georgia and was out on New Years Eve and got into trouble. I got a call around 5 a.m. with him informing me that he had been arrested and need me to get him out. I had no idea what to do, so I went to the internet to find out.

I found a lot of information and a great bail bonds service – Get Outta Jail GA, to help me post bond. His bond was 10k, and I had to pay the bondsman 1k that was non refundable to get him out. I was fine with that because my only other choice was to go ahead and give the court the full 10k and have to wait until his trial was finished, at which time I could get back the money. For me I would rather just pay out 1k and not get it back than tie up a full 10k and not know how many months it would be before I got it back. I also know that my brother could pay me back the 1k and not be able to do the 10k.

But in my searching on line I came across something that I thought was kind of ridiculous. There is a push to abolish bail bonds, and I think it is not a really good idea, since I just had to use the system and it helped me. The gripe of the law suit is that the bail bonds service industry is for the rich and penalizes the poor. I really don’t think this is a fair assessment. Their thought is that the poor have to come up with the money to post bail while the rich that have savings can post bail and keep moving on with their lives.

I understand there are some bad apples out there in the bail bonds industry, and one bad one can give the entire industry a bad name. But to me it’s also like used cars. There are a lot of shady used car dealers out there, but should we abolish all used car dealerships.

The heart of this law suit is about a woman who was arrested, had to post bail and then within a day the DA decided not to press charges, while the bail bonds company still insists that she needs to pay the 10% of the bail the they put up to get her released. This is kind of a sticky situation here, I understand the young woman’s point of view as well as the bondsman’s point of view. Here is a short snippet from the article –

SAN FRANCISCO —

Crystal Patterson didn’t have the cash or assets to post $150,000 bail and get out of jail after her arrest for assault in October.

So Patterson, 39, promised to pay a bail bonds company $15,000 plus interest to put up the $150,000 bail for her, allowing to go home and care for her invalid grandmother.

The day after her release, the district attorney decided not to pursue charges. But Patterson still owes the bail bonds company. Criminal justice reformers and lawyers at a nonprofit Washington, D.C., legal clinic say that is unconstitutionally unfair.

The lawyers have filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of Patterson, Rianna Buffin and other jail inmates who argue that San Francisco and California’s bail system unconstitutionally treats poor and wealthy suspects differently.

Wealthy suspects can put up their houses or other valuable assets — or simply write a check — to post bail and stay out of jail until their cases are resolved. Poorer suspects aren’t so lucky. Many remain behind bars or pay nonrefundable fees to bail bonds companies.

Click Here To Read The Full Story

So my take on it is that the system should not be abolished. It does help. What it really comes down to is that once again the “rich” are being made a scapegoat. Just because someone works their ass off and makes a living it makes the whole thing unfair. I’m calling BS! What will happen if they abolish the system? Will they just let people go on their own promise to show up for court? I don’t think so. And who is going to make sure they show up? I think the bondsman are doing the courts AND TAXPAYERS a great service by doing this and making sure they show up for court. They should be paid for their services. If the bondsman didn’t do it then the government would have to use government employees to get the job done, which in turn would probably raise taxes. Really I think in the story above that Patterson’s beef should be with the DA and the officers that arrested her in the first place. The bondsman did their job and should be paid.

With me,  Get Outta Jail GA Bondsman for Cobb did right by me and I can’t thank them enough. They were extremely friendly and helpful. I would hate to see great people like this that do such a great service for the community to be put out of a job. Lawyers should stop and think about what they are doing before they start throwing law suits around. I guarantee that if they were to be arrested and need a bondsman they would change their tune. The system probably wouldn’t be unfair then!

 

Does Your Stomach Actually Grow or Shrink Based on How Much You Eat?

Changing your eating habits is difficult. Change, period, tends to suck. But we’ve got good news: If you can make it five weeks eating smaller, healthier meals, things will get easier.

That’s because given time to adjust, your stomach stretches less, meaning you reach that “I’m full, I’m happy” feeling after eating less food, says Atif Iqbal, M.D., medical director of the Digestive Care Center at Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center.

Think of your stomach like a muscle. When it’s filled with large meals three times a day, the distensibility (the scientific term for the amount your stomach walls can stretch) increases—just like your biceps would get bigger if you were working them out three times a day, Iqbal says.

For the rest of the story: http://greatist.com/grow/stomach-size-eating-habits

And Health News from Boston: https://tinkerready.wordpress.com