Posts Tagged ‘Popularity’

Financial hardships can make life miserable. To overcome these hardships it is essential to take the right steps at the right times. Wasting time is the major reason why most people are not able to get out of their troubles.

Although most people opt for loans to overcome their financial crisis, the option of selling properties is also gaining momentum. The reason behind the popularity of this particular option is the facility of getting a big amount of money to resolve all your financial issues.

As mentioned, selling property is a good option but you must keep in mind that it is not easy to sell it quick. That’s exactly the point where you can think about using some sell and rent back schemes. The best thing about these schemes is that sell and rent back industry is expanding with every passing day and it is far easier to sell your home as compared to traditional methods.

However, when it comes to sell and rent back schemes, you must spend some time in learning more about the entire process. It is crucial to get most out of your property sale. By delving more into the details, you will find that sell and rent back is a two part process.

First part is all about finding and selling your home to a property investor. Basically, these companies buy homes from you and offer you somewhere close to 80-85% of the total market value of your home. The reason they endeavor to get homes at discounted price is that they have sell it at a rate less than the market value of your home. But, you become able to sell your home without waiting for a lot of time.

Generally, home buying companies sell your property to another person but not in case you use sell and rent back schemes. The process of rent back is simple again. You will sell your home at a price lesser than market value but you will have to pay a rent according to the market rent for your property. Herein, you will have to sign an agreement called Shorthold Tenancy Agreement. But, do keep in mind that the validity of this agreement is not more than 12 months. You can however make arrangements with the buyer to renew this agreement on its expiry. Moreover, this agreement will also contain the information pertaining to an increase in the rent on yearly basis. Do pay attention to that as well.

The fact of the matter is that sell and rent back is an ideal solution for those people who just need to save their home from repossessions. But, there is a complete process that should be understood. On the face of it, the process looks simple but you need assistance of a professional to deal with the legalities involved in the entire process. So, move forward while paying attention to all finer details.

Croftpropertyholdings.co.uk is a name you can trust in case you need assistance to avoid repossessions. sell and rent back option is available for along with the facility of cash in not more than 24 hours.

Author: Richart Rick
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Admit it. Everyone would like to be a landowner. Who wouldn’t want to own a piece of the earth, all to themselves, to do with as they please? Better still, a house. Even if you couldn’t see it, just knowing you had it would make you feel good. You could imagine what life would be like there. You could plan to retire there someday, or take the family to visit it, or leave it to your children, or keep it as an investment. Maybe you can’t afford it; property values are obscene. Maybe you thought it would always be a dream.

Until recently. With the popularity of eBay and other online land auctioneers and straight sellers, buying real estate has become something the most ordinary and resource limited person can do. You can now buy a deed to a quarter acre of land in the sunshine for under a thousand dollars. Whole houses can be had for under five thousand. You could spend a few thousand and buy yourself a 20 acre ranch! To a city dweller accustomed to cramped spaces, these offers are very tempting.

Even when the picture clearly states “not the actual property”, people plunder savings, empty out paypal, max out credit cards, take on debt, wire money into the void, all for the privilege of being fined, taxed, stranded underwater, or flat-out suckered. So much for your dream.

How can one buy land safely? Rule number one is actually look at the land you are buying, in person. Pictures always hide the truth. Rule number two, due diligence. That means check things like taxes, deeds, insurance, liens, structural integrity, zoning, road access, etc. before you buy it.

If you don’t, here are the ten most likely scenarios for that little piece of property you dropped a couple of thou on over the internet.

1) The Antiquated Subdivision:

Many of these date from the 1960′s, although some may date from the 1920′s and earlier. In essence, these are subdivisions that were proposed, surveyed, and platted on maps, complete with proposed streets (sometimes with street names). Often these were speculative in nature, banking on future growth that never came. Sometimes, they were intended to deceive out-of-state buyers right from the start, and are making a comeback now that the internet has provided new buyers unaware of the old scams. The most frequent locations that turn up online are around Southern New Mexico, Central Florida, California City, CA, Southern Arizona, among others.

In many cases, new regulations have been put into place to prevent development of these sites, in order to protect the environment, manage growth, or to discourage the purchase of unbuildable land. These regulations are often based on the size of the land you own, with a 2 acre minimum being a common number in New Mexico. This means that a typical 1/4 acre parcel, commonly traded online, far from any utilities whatsoever, has no chance of being granted a building permit. So while 1/4 an acre in New Mexico near the Mexican border in drug-smuggling territory might sound like a good deal for a thousand bucks, all your thousand bucks is buying is a square of dirt surrounded by other squares of dirt that will forever remain a square of dirt. To get there, you’ll need to take some dirt roads, and then just dirt.

2) The 5 Acres of Scrub:

Popular locations are Western Texas and Southern Colorado. Typically the offer advertises “ranchland” in vast, unpopulated, poverty-line living counties where buying a carton of milk really does require a 60 mile drive. These parcels have been chopped from larger chunks of nowhere, and seldom do roads exist, dirt or otherwise, to reach them. 5 acres is nothing in these areas; typical property owners own hundreds. Under 20 acres usually means you wouldn’t be allowed to build on it, even if you could reach it, which you most assuredly can’t. 5 acres of this scrub-and-rattlesnake filled land of hills and gullies frequently trade hands in the $4,000-$8,000 range, some suckers have shelled out up to $20K. A few have attempted to see the land they own the deed to, only to learn that a helicopter would be the only way, and no permits would be forthcoming even if you brought that helicopter with you.

3) The Crackhouse:

“Needs TLC” claim the ads, showing homes in long-declining and shell-shocked cities including Flint, Detroit, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Youngstown, and Dayton. Very real property damage, from collapsed ceilings to burned out attics to rampant vandalism to filth is visible in many photos, when the seller actually includes them. Still, at only a few thousand, the idea of buying a house in a city, paying someone to fix it up, and renting it out for cash sounds very tempting. Buying one of these is perhaps the most dangerous investment of all. Not only are you buying a home that is well beyond salvage, many buildings are in fact condemned, and you’ll have to pay for demolition. Most are located in the most impoverished, dangerous, crime-filled areas of cities with rapidly declining populations; even if the house were brand-new, you’d never be able to rent it. If someone is injured by it while it’s vacant, you are liable. While it’s out of your sight, it is a tempting lure for vandals and squatters. A favorite with “property flippers”, they destabilize real property values in a neighborhood. Steer clear.

Another common peril is when the seller offers to hire a contractor to fix it up for you. He’ll put in new windows, slap up some sliding, and send you the pictures along with a substantial bill. Inside, it’s still a gutted wreck. Never buy a house you can’t drive to in a day; anything could be happening there, and you’ll never know about it.

4) Swamps and Cliffs:

The yuks comedians got in the 1960′s about someone buying swampland in Florida, with property underwater and teeming with alligators wasn’t just a goofy bit someone dreamed up; it was based on places lake the infamous River Ranch Estates near (and indistinguishable from) the Everglades, stuff you’d imagine the guys in Glengarry Glen Ross pitching to New Yorkers. Or, people were duped into buying subdivided lots in Shelter Cove, CA, a remote mountaintop perch far from the freeways and many basic services, where lots were plotted directly into cliffsides, far too steep to build on. Some plots no longer even exist, having crumbled into the Pacific Ocean from erosion. After laying dormant for four decades, those very same properties trade on eBay now, luring the same suckers who buy land sight unseen as they did in the 60′s. So many have been taken in that when they arrive in the swamps of River Ranch to check out their property, they are limited to a campground/trailer park “near” the property to stay. There is no access to the land they bought for $200-$2000 a quarter-acre; they’ll never see it.

5) The Inner City Lot

Similar to the crackhouse, on the surface it seems like a smart deal. A city lot, in a famous city, with city sewers, electricity, gas, and cable all at your future doorstep. Freeways nearby; public transportation. All for the ridiculously low-seeming price of $2000 or so for a lot. Here’s how it goes sour; these lots, picked up for next to zero by the sellers, are located in some of the most spectacularly depressed parts of the most spectacularly failing cities. Among them are the roughest parts of Detroit and Flint Michigan, the greater Gary Indiana area, and trusty old Buffalo, cities where entire blocks of abandoned houses and vacant lots go on for miles. There is no market for vacant property whatsoever; these cities have a staggering housing surplus, due to their dwindling populations. In such environments, vacant lots are magnets for illegal dumping, like refrigerators, sofas, stolen and junked cars, chemicals, bodies. The city, hurting for cash, will gladly charge you serious dough to remove it, or fine you for neglecting it. Not only is nobody, including you, going to want to set foot on the property, let alone build on it, you’ll have city taxes to pay and fines to dread.

6) Recreational Use

What would be nicer than to know you have a little plot in a place “near” Grouse Creek, Utah? Just a modest 1/4 acre; it costs only $800 or so. Even if it turns out to be junk, it’s cheap enough not to care, right? That would be one way of looking at it, although flushing $800 down the toilet would net you the same benefit. Zoned for recreational use only, which means you can’t build anything on it, you’re buying a hunk of dirt. Some might take solace from knowing they own a hunk of dirt somewhere (very far from any town, as usual), but you need to understand what recreational means; it means that dirt-bikers are tearing across that hunk of dirt at will, as they do in that part of Utah, and you can’t really stop them because you’re not allowed to build anything. It’d be cheaper just to do what everyone there does and ride that dirt for free. Carved from enormous acreage into useless 1/4 acre squares with no road access or way to find the place without GPS, no utilities (you won’t need them), nor any practical use, nor will there ever be any, you might as well have bought a deed to property on the moon. And framed it.

7) Quit Claim Deeds

So you went ahead and bought that land anyway, even when I said you shouldn’t buy land sight unseen. And you got a deed that says “Quit Claim” on it. Sounds good too, like the owner has quit his claim and now it’s yours. It’s not good; Quit Claim means the seller is quitting all responsibility regarding the land, thereby transferring them to you. This may be because there’s something wrong with the property, liens against it, ownership is contested, or the seller only owns a partial share of the property. In such a case, all his headaches are now yours. A Warranty Deed assures the buyer that the owner vouches that the property is lien-free, full ownership rights have been transferred. You can insure a Warranty Deed, you can’t a Quit Claim Deed. Niether assure you about the suitability of the land, its utility, accessibility, or buildability. But at least if you get a Warranty Deed, it’s all yours.

Owner Financing/Taxes/Mortgages

No credit check! That’s the first come on to owner financing, usually mentioned in the title or at the top of the description, and it’s a bad idea unless you’re rich enough not to care. Payments are high; $300-$500 a month for 3 years. Sure, they offer good terms sometimes, sometimes as low as 8%, some offer zero percent financing. But since they’ve picked their own price (even at auction; that’s what reserve prices are for); they can claim any amount is interest, the stat is meaningless. What good is zero percent interest when your payments total $14,000 for a square of nothing an appraiser would put at $1,000 or less? The bottom line is, you’re making what is essentially a car payment on something that is a great deal less usable than a car. Miss a few payments, and it’s gone; you don’t get to touch the deed until it’s paid off. Even if the land is usable in theory, it’s usually at an inflated price.

Another money trap is property tax. Those vacant lots in Detroit command around $150 a year in taxes; invest in a few of those and you could be paying thousands in property taxes on things like useless, dangerous, toxic land. That causes things like missed payments, forfeitures, and credit woes.

Never count on mortgaging undeveloped land; banks don’t fall for any of that bogus land stuff. They don’t like lending on property that has zero cashflow, they won’t lend on dilapidated boarded up houses and weedy vacant lots, they won’t finance your pair of ranchettes near Deming or your Appalachian woods or your dirt at the bottom of the Pacific. So if you do get in a tax pinch, or rack up fines, don’t expect the bank to bail you out. They probably wouldn’t take the land if you gave it to them.

9) Where’s a Sucker When You Need Him?

If you’ve already bought some of these properties, or are even more tempted now despite everything, you may be thinking in the back of your head, “I’ll just dump them off on another sucker; there’s one born every minute…” Hats off to you if you can make it happen, because the small time lot, parcel, and acreage buyer is at the losing end of what is essentially a Ponzi scheme. Jow Blow buys 200 acres; carves them into 20 acre parcels and sells them to people who carve them into 5 acre pacels, which eventually get chopped up into 1/4 acre lots. By the time you shell out $800 for that 1/4 acre, you’re paying the maximum that 1/4 acre is ever going to get. Even at the bulk economy rate, only the top of the pyramid makes any real money. Now that the market in Grouse Creek is saturated, some of those 1/4 acre lots have started selling at $200 apiece, a loss of 75% on your investment, and no, they’ll never be “hot” again, because they’ve been divided as far as the law permits. Many properties like these are sold by infomercial real estate guru types at seminars they charge hundreds of dollars a head to attend. Stay away from those guys, too.

10) The Usual Perils.

The internet is rife with rip-offs, scam artists, and fraudsters. eBay is notorious for its multitude. While the majority of eBay sellers will handle your transaction honestly and responsibly, there is that omnipresent risk of getting burned. As usual, the most vulnerable are the elderly, and those with poor credit scores. Even the honest ones will include the all encompassing disclaimer “sold as-is, where-is” and often admit that they’ve never seen the property either. And as always, remember: you can’t get something for nothing, you can only get nothing for something.

There’s something romantic about knowing you own a piece of land somewhere, even if you’ve never seen it with your own eyes. If it’s in a rugged place like Texas or Colorado, even more romantic. That’s what the sellers play on most, just like Al Pacino in Glengarry Glen Ross when he went in for the kill. You want to believe you have that retreat somewhere, that piece of the earth nobody can take from you, a place of spiritual freedom in your mind. You’ll buy a piece of paper that represents that dream, and the seller will pocket your cash.

If you’re not a romantic type, then maybe you’re a hustler with stars in your eyes, thinking about turning $500 into a Donald Trump-like empire of real estate, trading casinos like they were poker chips, online. Consider every dollar you sink into a surefire land deal on the internet gone; if you manage to recoup half of your investment at some point, you did pretty well. Unless you’re at the top of the pyramid.

This romantic smallfry was sorely tempted by the beautiful, cheap land I imagined these places to be. I looked them over for a very long time. And then I did my research.

Are there good, cheap property deals on the internet? Maybe, but I haven’t found one yet.

Good thing I did due diligence.

Author: Alex Yeager
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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The housing industry has grown exponentially in step with our country’s population growth, and these days there are plenty of options for the type of home you can build. You hear terms like mobile and manufactured, modular, panelized, and stick-built. What’s the difference in the way these houses are built and their costs?

We’ll start with an easy one, Stick-Built Homes. These are your traditional homes. They are built on site, piece by piece, stick by stick. They are highly customizable, versatile, and the most common type of home built. They also take the longest time to build, and are typically more expensive per square foot. As a result of being built on the site and the time it takes, the home is open to the elements and is subject to delays. Anyone who has passed a construction site in the middle of the winter, with a half built home on it, realizes the problems this may pose. Now, imagine that home was yours. Not too pretty, huh? When you build in the Carolinas, weather plays less of a role, as winter isn’t as severe and many building crews work late into the year. However, even in North and South Carolina you’ll have to worry about rain, especially near the coast. When building materials get wet, they start to warp and develop mold. Concerns about weather damage, innovations in factory-line production, better availability of materials, and a greater desire to control costs have led to the growing popularity of the building systems described below. All the remaining types of housing are constructed indoors, and shipped to your building site in one way or another. Most present some type of cost or time savings over traditional stick-built homes, but may have other drawbacks.

The term pre-fabricated came into use in London after World War Two, as a housing solution for displaced families. Pre-fabrication is a term used to refer to all the types of housing that follows, as all are pre-fabricated, in a factory, off-site and put together on-site. The most important thing to remember is these styles of homes are built inside, with climate control and levels of quality control in place. This style of home building is starting to be referred to as “systems built homes” by the National Association of Home Builders. Building systems are used to save time, achieve more consistent quality, and decrease the need for specialized labor. The company, Carolina System-Built Home, builds All American Homes (which has a plant in Rutherfordton, North Carolina), and is based out of Lexington, South Carolina. You can find them at carolinasystem dot com.

Mobile homes and Manufactured homes are married in history. When a person says mobile, typically negative connotations are thought of: hurricanes destroying large tracts of homes, value depreciation, and poorly built homes. The term mobile home actually refers to homes, built on a chassis with wheels for transportation, prior to 1976, when US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) regulations were put in place. After 1976, this type of home, one with a chassis, has been referred to as manufactured homes. So, you wonder, even with the fancier name and regulations, will these homes still blow away in a heavy storm? These days, with the regulations set upon them, manufactured homes are of much greater quality. There are still concerns regarding stability under high wind, and value depreciation. But overall, manufactured homes are of better quality, safer, and more accepted than they used to be. Nowadays there are double-wides and triple-wides, further enhancing the livability of manufactured housing. In addition, as manufactured homes are subject to Federal regulations, they are exempt from local building regulations. This may make getting the home on the ground easier and faster, but can enable people to sacrifice quality. Local building regulations are good because they make sure homes are built to withstand regional influences of weather and other variables. Manufactured homes are subject to local zoning regulations. Some properties are restricted from putting manufactured homes on them. If you are looking for a first home in North Carolina or South Carolina, buying a manufactured home is a great way to get your foot in the door. You can live in the area for a while, get to know it and then move to a different location you like, without the full investment a traditional home would entail. If you have the money to spare and the inclination, you might consider renting the manufactured home after you move.

Modular Homes, which are often confused with manufactured homes, are quite close to stick-built homes. These types of homes are now being widely accepted throughout North and South Carolina. The sections of the home, referred to as modules, are constructed in a factory, and assembled on site, with the help of a crane and construction crew. Because the home is transported via highway in set pieces, there are limits to the design configurations the home may take. Some people are adverse to the idea of their home being subjected to the bumps and bruises of hundreds of miles of highway travel. In the past, securing loans for modular homes was difficult, but that problem has been largely reduced, as banks are becoming more familiar with the process. Typically with modular homes, all of the finishes are included in the factory construction. Some home owners object to this practice, as there may be a high mark-up and a limit on the options available. Modular homes must adhere to the local building regulations where they will be sited. Overall, modular homes are of good quality, and very similar to stick-built homes. A North Carolina based modular home builder is Professional Building Systems, based out of Mount Gilead. You can visit their website at http://www.pbsnc.com.

Panelized homes are another higher quality option for factory built homes. Panelized homes differ from modular homes in that the walls, roofing, and flooring are all assembled in a factory and then put together on the site. Greater options exist for flexibility of design, and less stress is placed on the home during transit. Finishes and appliances are selected, purchased, and installed by the owner/buyer on site. Panelized homes take longer to finish on the site than modular homes. Some people like panelized homes because of the sweat equity they can put into them, and therefore save some construction costs. Panelized homes are also attractive to green minded people, as they eliminate a large amount of the typical waste associated with building a home. Typically, the panels contain high quality insulation comparative to stick-built or modular homes, although attention must be paid to the joining of the sections to limit leakage. Panelized homes must adhere to the local building regulations where they will be sited. Visit http://www.valubuild.com to learn more about panel built homes.

Costs:

General estimates regarding pre-fabricated homes figure a 20 to 40 percent savings over traditional stick-built homes. However, this figure can be highly misleading. With modular homes, increased size also means increased costs, as more trucks are required to transport the homes and more cranes and men are required to construct them. Panelized homes face the same challenges in regards to transport, and depending on your leg work in your local area, the cost of your finishes and labor can vary highly. Manufactured homes are by far the cheapest up-front, but decrease in value over time. This is changing, but be aware of it. Since they are built to HUD standards established in the 1970′s, manufactured homes are typically not as well insulated as modular, panel, and stick-built homes. Because they are built in all types of weather, stick-built homes often require more maintenance during construction than factory-built homes. The quality of stick-built homes also varies, even within the same builder, as weather conditions affect the home.

Overall, stick-built homes are the most time consuming and expensive, but they are also the most customizable and easiest to acquire financing for. Panel built homes are the second easiest to acquire financing for, as some of the actual building occurs on site. Panel built homes are often considered the best insulated, and have a bit of a savings advantage over modular homes. Modular homes are quicker than panel homes to move into, and provide the greatest ease of construction, while maintaining high quality in structural quality and insulation. Manufactured homes are by far lightest on the pocket on the outset, although future depreciation skews this figure. They are also the quickest to move into, once you’ve found a suitable site.

No matter which way you go, homes where some or all of the components are factory built have clear advantages. It’s a growing market, and you’ll do well to be familiar with it. Save yourself time, money, and wind up with a home that you love, quicker than you thought possible.

Visit www.PlacesOfValue.com for more articles on best places in North Carolina and South Carolina, relocation made easy, top retirement communities, cost of living, and designing and building your Dream Home.

I’ve spent over 30 years finding the best real estate locations for major corporations. These companies have made hundreds of millions of dollars based on the locations I’ve selected.

I’m a professional real estate site locator and location analyst. During the last 5 years, I’ve been researching the growth of towns in North and South Carolina, for the relocation of my family.

I’ve studied hundreds of towns to find those areas which are still affordable, have a high quality lifestyle, and the potential for future growth.

My purpose is to share what I’ve found with you and help you find your Dream Place in the Carolinas.

Author: Bob Bencivenga
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Now more than ever, real estate investing is gaining its popularity because of all the advertisements and promotions of magazines, newspapers and television shows. These are huge exposure for real estate investing.

If you are one of those who are fascinated with real estate investing and you have decided to try Sarasota real estate investing, you should know that there are factors and things that you should consider and know before you start with this kind of business.

Real estate investing is not as simple as buying a property, it requires lots of work, time, effort, skills and knowledge. But if you are really determined to go on into Sarasota real estate investing, you have to equip yourself with the necessary knowledge and information about real estate investing and the market.

If you are wondering on how you’ll gain knowledge and information about real estate investing, there are lots of ways to do so. You can use the internet in finding information; there are heaps of websites that offers tips and guidelines about real estate investing. You can use your yellow pages and contact some investors and ask about their experiences, you can learn from these investors’ experiences.

Read books about real estate investing, this can also give you the proper knowledge about real estate investing. Attending seminars and forums can also help you gain knowledge and information about real estate investing. These are few of the ways to learn.

Hiring a real estate agent can help you in your quest at Sarasota real estate. Actually, real estate investing requires lots of work, so you really need persons to assist you with your quest and real estate agent is one of them. But you need to make sure that you will be having a real estate agent that is very familiar with the Sarasota real estate market in order to assure that the agent can assist you in having the best deal.

Allocating time in searching for the right real estate agent is important. You have to contact several real estate agents and schedule each for an interview. Ask the necessary questions in order to find out who’s the best among the few real estate agents.

You have to learn about the market as well. In order for you to know what the right things to do when the market changes, since it is a fact that the market changes every now and then.

Allocating budget for your investments is very important factor as well. You must have save money in the bank before you enter real estate investing, since you need money for repairs, and so on.

If you really want to enter Sarasota real estate investing, these are few of the factors you need to know and consider. But do not rush things out. You can’t be successful overnight. Sarasota real estate investing is not a hobby; it is a business, so you need to treat it as one. You have to wait till 6 months to see if you are really into Sarasota real estate investing. If you like what you are doing, you have to know that it takes a year to be successful in this kind of business.

Eliza Maledevic Ayson

http://www.srqmls.com

Eliza Maledevic writes for http://Jump2Top.com – SEO Company

Author: Eliza Maledevic
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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