If you’re active in real estate investing, you may already realize one of the biggest issues real estate investors face: Finding Great Deals.

Foreclosures at a 52-year High

With foreclosures at a 52-year high, there are thousands of deals available on the market, if you know where to find them and how to secure them. The first challenge you’ll face once you locate the property is that most of these homeowners are mortgaged to the hilt. They have no equity, and big loan payments. In fact, many actually owe more than the property is worth!

Most investors will walk away from these deals because they see no obvious profit. That’s because they don’t know about the Short Sale.

WHAT IS A SHORT SALE?

The concept behind the short sale is simple: your goal as a real estate investor is to convince the bank to sell for less that is owed as payment in full. Of course, this concept is easy - buy the foreclosure from the bank at a big discount, sell the real estate, and make money! So how does it work?

Success with short sales can be accomplished in the following steps:

Step 1: Do your research.
Many new real estate investors make the mistake of waiting until some subscription service sends you the list. The disadvantage is that a ton of other investors are also getting the list. If your first contact is to send a letter, forget it. Your letter will be lost in the huge pile the homeowner is getting from all sorts of other investors, credit repair etc. 99% of the time these go directly into the trash or a big basket unread. If you go directly to their door you’ve got a chance.

So if you’re going to mail, be the first to act when the default notices are printed in the local newspaper. Or be the first at your courthouse, if that’s where they’re filed first. The key to finding investment-worthy properties is to act quickly. Be disciplined and mail out the letters the very same day-in fact take them to the post office. In this business, the early bird really does catch the worm.

Tip for Success: If you don’t have a company that publishes your notices of default, check with local title companies or bankruptcy attorneys to see if they offer these services; you need somebody familiar with the subject that visits the courthouse often.

Step 2: Develop your marketing strategy.
When you have located foreclosures, make sure your timing is swift. Mail your initial letters of approach to the homeowner the same day you discover the property. Placing ads in your local papers also helps to generate leads and find homeowners eager to avoid the credit penalties involved with foreclosing.

Tip for Success: A typical advertisement strategy taught in real estate training is to get listed in real estate or credit section of the classifieds. These ads typically have a bold, to the point headline, such as “Avoid Foreclosure” or “Stop Foreclosure, Today!” If you are targeting a specific property type, or reaching for higher market values, specify this in your ad. (Instead of simply “Avoid Foreclosure,” add your target market to the bottom of the ad. Example: “Avoid Foreclosure, call 1-800-555-1212. 500K and up.” You’ll make more money in real estate by reaching for high-value properties, and an ad like this shows your prospects that you specialize in helping those with higher value homes avoid foreclosure.

Step 3: Work with the homeowner.
You can’t get anywhere without the cooperation, and often gratitude, of the homeowner. The homeowner you are working with has obviously run out of options, but you’ll need their trust and confidence if you plan to short sale mortgages. Remember, in these situations, you are often looked at as the “rescuer”. Make sure you explain the homeowner’s part in the process thoroughly. Once they deiced to allow you to work with them, there is important paperwork you need them to fill out and sign:

1. an “Authorization to Release” form that gives you permission to contact the lenders and the foreclosing attorneys.
2. a sales contract - signed but leave the purchase price blank. You may need to change the numbers as you negotiate with the bank
3. a financial statement - to show they can’t afford to make the payments
4. a hardship letter - to explain in personal terms what happened.

Tip for Success: Remember that this is a stressful time for the homeowner. It’s easy to get caught in the excitement of a prospective short sale profit. You can get them to make a decision when you are able to convince them that this is the right option for them Emphasize the benefits of working with you, and then ask for them to take action. Make sure to let them know that once your contract is signed, and the bank accepts it; they’ll be free to move on with their life.

Step 4: Negotiate with the bank.
Although banks don’t enjoy taking a loss, it is a simple fact of the lending business that short sales are a necessary evil for lenders. Indeed owning the property (a non-performing asset) is even more expensive than selling it for a loss. Consider:

Banks use short sales to drop unwanted property quickly without having to deal with the REO office and go through the long process of putting the home back on the market. When you speak with the Loss Mitigation department, remember, this property is actually costing them money! Federal regulations require somewhere between $300,000 and $800,000 (or more!) to be held in reserve by lenders, which is many times over the actual price of the bad debt .

When you call the bank and ask for the Loss Mitigation Department (the department that handles properties that are in foreclosure) tell the person handling the account that you are trying to help Mr. X with his foreclosure and you are willing to buy the property from him, but due to the condition of the property/declining values/etc. you are only willing to pay X amount. This is where your negotiations begin.

Be firm and polite, but don’t ever make threats to not buy or be forceful in your approach. Loss mitigators are often busy and overworked, and they want to see you as somebody who is minimizing the damage - and hassle - of the bad debt.

Tip for Success: Larger banks are the easiest to deal with when working with short sales and foreclosures. This is because the larger banks have more resource, more experience, and more loans! While there are some larger banks that don’t work with short sales at all, other banks, such as Wells Fargo or Fairbanks Capital, tend to work with a much larger volume of short sales.
Once you have worked with enough short sales, you’ll find that you have inside contacts at some of the larger banks; be friendly, ask them about their day, Develop a rapport. Sometimes, they’ll open up about problems they’re facing or current trends, which of course, you’ll need to keep on top of!

You don’t have to be a real estate pro to see the potential for making money with short sales, and now you definitely have some great tools to get started. Great deals in real estate are out there, and with today’s market, your potential for profit is limitless. Just keep in mind: do your research, market your services, and treat the homeowners and lenders with respect. When you use this approach with short sales, you can make a win-win for everybody, especially the officers at your own bank when you cash in on your profit!

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Are you one of thousands with no
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Bad credit is a term used to describe a poor credit rating.
Common practices that can damage a credit rating include making
late payments, skipping payments, exceeding card limits or
declaring bankruptcy. Bad Credit can result in being denied
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Bad credit can result in a negative rating from the credit
reporting agencies. Many factors can contribute to someone
getting a “bad credit” rating, among these are non-payment of an
account or late payments over an extended length of time.
Whether non-payment of an account is willful or due to financial
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A credit score is defined as a statistical method of assessing
an applicant’s credit worthiness. An applicant’s credit card
history; amount of outstanding debt; the type of credit used;
negative information such as bankruptcies or late payments;
collection accounts and judgments; too little credit history,
and too many credit lines with the maximum amount borrowed are
all included in credit-scoring models to determine the credit
score.

Raising your credit score is possible. It’s a well known fact
that lenders will give people with higher credit scores lower
interest rates on mortgages, car loans and credit cards. If your
credit score falls under 620 just getting loans and credit cards
with reasonable terms is difficult.

Here are five things that you can use to raise credit score.

1. Correct obvious mistakes.

Your credit score is what shows up in your credit report. Review
your reports from all three credit bureaus for accuracy once a
year as well as several months before applying for a loan.
Changing a mistake on your report can take 30 days to three
months, or more. Get Your credit report from the three major
bureaus: Experian, Trans Union and Equifax.

2. Pay Your Bills On Time

Your payment history makes up 35% of your total credit score.
Your recent payment history will carry much more weight than
what happened five years ago.

Missing just one payment on anything can knock 50 to 100 points
off of your credit score.

Paying your bills on time is the best way to get started
rebuilding your credit rating and raising your credit score.

3. Reduce your credit card balances.

A heavily weighted factor in your FICO score is how much money
you owe on your credit cards relative to your total credit
limit. Generally, it’s good to keep your balances at or below 25
percent of your credit card limit, said Jeanne Kelly, founder of
The Kelly Group in Brookfield, Conn., which helps clients
improve their credit scores.

4. Don’t Close Old Accounts

In the past people were told to close old accounts they weren’t
using. But with today’s current scoring methods that could
actually hurt your credit score.

Closing old or paid off credit accounts lowers the total credit
available to you and makes any balances you have appear larger
in credit score calculations. Closing your oldest accounts can
actually shorten the length of your credit history and to a
lender it makes you less credit worthy.

If you are trying to minimize identity theft and it’s worth the
peace of mind for you to close your old or paid off accounts,
the good news is it will only lower you score a minimal amount.
But just by keeping those old accounts open you can raise credit
score for you.

5. Avoid Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is the single worst thing you can do to your credit
score. Bankruptcy will lower your credit score by 200 points or
more and is very difficult to come back from.

Once your credit score falls below 620, any loan you get will be
far more expensive. A bankruptcy on your credit record is
reported for up to 10 years.

The reality of a bankruptcy is it will limit you to
high-interest lenders that will squeeze out high interest rate
payments from you for years.

It is better to get credit counseling to help you with your
bills and avoid bankruptcy at all costs. By getting credit
counseling instead of declaring bankruptcy you can raise credit
score over a much shorter period of time.

Are you a self-confessed shopaholic who buys anything and everything that you get your shopping addicted hands on? Such thoughtless and impulsive buying will most likely result in the accumulation of a bunch of junk that will simply collect dust. Can you even remember that silk scarf you just had to have and since it was a virtual steal at 50% off you just had to buy it? Where is it now and how many times have you actually worn it? Is it still fashionable?

Of course, you’ll have to decide what route you want to take… bankruptcy versus debt settlement but shop around and realize that you do have options. The internet is full of companies offering their bankruptcy or debt settlement services, but be careful and don’t let them push you around and never work with anyone you don’t feel 100 percent comfortable with.

‘Bankruptcy’ the term that can raise the goose bumps of almost every individual who hears it and even a nervous breakdown to those who confront it. Bankruptcy stands for the situation when a person runs into huge debts and there is hardly any money left with him to repay those debts. The clouds of bankrupt situation can hover over anybody’s life be it a successful business man who has never ever fathomed it or any greenhorn entrepreneur who had thought of going a long way ahead.

However, in any case it is better to seek the advice of an advisor before seeking help to make up your crisis. This will not just educate you about all the related terms and conditions but also the possible legal and financial consequences. Just keep in mind that help always comes to those who are look for it with a true heart.

You’ve been working yourself silly for years and yet… you still have no savings and the pile of unpaid bills seems to grow each and every month. You have creditors breathing down your neck - calling and sending you letters so much that you’re afraid to answer the phone or pick up your mail… it’s a difficult and stressful pill to swallow.

When it comes down to it, if you are willing to make a few changes and pay attention to how you spend your money, in many instance it’s not a difficult as it may currently appear to overcome debt. But if you stray and go back to the same practices that got you into debt in the first place, you’ll find yourself sinking back into the black whole of debt. Regardless of the plan and ideas a good debt management company can show you, if you are not willing to make the necessary lifestyle changes, no plan or no amount of expertise from them will make one bit of difference.

If a customer owes your local business money, it’s hard not to feel angry, like you want to do anything possible to get your money back. But the days of going all out to collect on a debt over.

The fight to get paid is a fight no business should have to involve itself in. Unfortunately, debt collections are a part of business. Just make sure that for your local business debt collection law is followed to the letter, or legal proceedings may become part of your business, too.

Life throws people a number of challenges often on a daily basis and unfortunately, some of those are financial challenges. The loss of a job, an illness and many other situations can make paying off loans difficult to do. Sometimes people simply overextend themselves with their financial commitments and find that they can’t always make even the minimum payment on all of their loans. People from all over the world are finding that they are running into similar financial situations including Canada. Canadians as other nationals have the option of trying to qualify for Canadian debt consolidation.

Successfully using a Canadian debt consolidation service can make dealing with financial issues much easier on most individuals and can also help him or her to avoid filing for bankruptcy. The benefits of using a Canadian debt consolidation service are immeasurable and can even mean an bringing past due accounts to a current status and improving a credit score over time. If financial obligations are beginning to feel overwhelming or if bankruptcy is being considered, it would be a good idea to look into Canadian debt consolidation and see if it would feasible.

If you are up to your neck in debt, there may seem like there is no relief in sight. In fact this is not necessarily the truth. There are ways to take all of your stifling bills and roll them up into one neat package by using debt consolidation in two very popular forms Home Equity Loans, Refinancing Loans, and a Consolidation Credit Card. All of these instruments provide the debtor with one thing “relief” from the current debt by shrinking it down to a single manageable debt.

Using home equity to consolidate debts

One of the popular methods of debt consolidation today is the Home Equity Loan. What happens is that the debt is extinguished using the equity from a homeowner’s home. A loan is created outside of the mortgage in order to satisfy the debts. Should the homeowner default on the loan, their house is in jeopardy of being foreclosed upon if that loan is not satisfied with a specified amount of time.

Refinancing loans

People often consume the debt by rolling it into a new mortgage. This way the house costs more money to the borrower, but the debt is extinguished at close and the debt is neatly rolled away into the mortgage securely. Upon settlement of the loan, the debts are paid in full and satisfied. The clock on the mortgage is reset to day one.

Credit card consolidation

A low interest credit card is offered to the borrower to include any outstanding credit and loan balances. The interest rate is a low fixed rate for a period of up to one year, upon the year’s end it will resume at its normal rate. Upon acceptance and terms the account should be closed once paid in full and payments be made directly to the new credit card provider. Some people have been able to master paying off one credit card with another to keep the debt revolving and interest rates low. Some people fail to close out the previous creditors account and run them back up again as well.

Bring the smiles back to the faces of your family with debt relief and consulting. In the next while we will take a deeper look in to the subject of debt relief.