Real Estate Investing – Karen's Perspective

Spring has Sprung!

Are you ready for Spring? Do you have your list prepared for home “spring cleaning”?

Check out my post with 24 Home Remedies. Did you know you can clean tile grout with Listerine?

Now’s the time to get ready for yardsales – to get rid of things, not to buy more! It’s time to give your home a facelift inside and out.

Moving? Click on this link to help you get prepared for your open house.

Have you read my article Landscaping Adds Value? Landscaping adds so much: curb appeal, personal enjoyment, help for the environment and, did you know, it can actually add value to your home. According to Money Magazine, landscaping adds 7%-14% to your home’s value!

So, get out, enjoy the great weather and do something wonderful for your home, your neighborhood, your environment and your investment!

Welcome to Spring!

04 / 02 / 2012
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Steel Buildings

One of the most valuable assets many people want, and even need, is space, yet very few have the land or buildings to accommodate their storing needs. Years of weather can leave unexposed RV’s, boats, trailers, and other toys with a lot of damage. Other needs require a large storage shed or garage including workshops, horse arenas, aircraft hangers, possibly even remote churches or businesses.

Steel garage buildings are the highest rated storage unit sold on the market today. When you invest in a storage facility, don’t settle. You might be tempted to put up a temporary dwelling, but will soon find yourself unhappy with the lack of quality. The highest rated storage dwellings are made of something that lasts through all the elements and does not degrade with time. There is not a higher building material than steel.

Steel buildings are incredibly diverse, can fit any need, and can be built to any dimension.

03 / 26 / 2012
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Real Estate Investing

Pricing Your House to Sell – Additional Factors to Consider

This is the fourth and, for now, final post in a series on Pricing Your House to Sell. Let’s continue.

There are other factors to consider that can affect the value of your home, but generally these are less important than location, size, and number of bedrooms and bathrooms. Some of these will be more difficult to calculate unless you use a specialist. When looking through local comps, there are a number of additional things to compare:

Distance - The best comps are located within a quarter-mile radius of your property. If you are in an area with little market activity or in a rural area, using comparable properties from farther away may be necessary. In neighborhoods where comps include a lot of short sales or foreclosures, appraisers should be able to expand the geographic area or extend the time frame for eligible sales, thereby getting a more representative cross-section of home prices.

Date of Sale of Comp – Appraisers prefer recent home sales (ones that have taken place within the last six months). If the market is slow, they may need to go back twelve months.

03 / 21 / 2012
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Pricing Your House to Sell – Comparable Sales Method

Comparable sales are the most commonly used method to determine property value. By comparing similar characteristics between homes of comparable size, value, age, and location, you are better able to determine the true property value of your property.

Four Key Factors When Comping Properties

Many factors come into play when comping properties, but four key factors are location, size (square footage), number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and condition. Many more details are considered by professional appraisers to get a “true” value, but these four factors are easy to use, easy to find, and will give you a good idea of the value of your property.

03 / 20 / 2012
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Pricing Your House to Sell – Determining the Correct Amount

Pricing Your House to Sell - Determining the Correct Amount

As a follow-up to the last article, Pricing Your House to Sell, we’ll now dive into the pricing process.

To begin, check out what you can about your property online. There are many free sites (free is good) and some are, of course, better than others. Try different ones until you find the ones you prefer.

Zillow.com is a popular site and quick resource for property information. This is good for comping an entire area because, once you put in an address, surrounding homes pop up with price estimates on every roof.
Real Estate ABC.com gives a fantastic chart of recent area sales.
Realestate.com works to look up properties listed by real estate agents.
Trulia.com is another popular site for property information, stats and trends.

Start with houses whose value you know: comp your house, your parents’ home, even your neighbors’. This will give you a good idea of the accuracy of the different online sites. Values can vary tremendously depending upon things like whether they include foreclosures or short sales in their comps.

03 / 19 / 2012
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Warren Buffett – Buy Single Family Homes

On Monday, Warren Buffett said that single family homes are an attractive investment right now. He recommends that Americans buy them and rent them out. Buffett said he’d snatch up “millions” of single family homes if it were practical.

“Today there are more households being created than houses.”

His comments on real estate start about 5 minutes into this video. Enjoy!

02 / 29 / 2012
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Moving? How do You Ship Your Car?

Tom Henderson approached me about writing a guest post on how to ship a car when you move. Fascinating! I was intrigued because I would have no idea how to direct someone if asked this question. Thanks, Tom, for your article.

When people move long distances, it is sometimes smart to invest in a vehicle transport. This can save a lot on gas money and mileage. There are, in fact, times when one cannot drive their vehicle to a destination (i.e. moving abroad). The right car moving group will protect the vehicle and quickly get it from one place to the next. A car is a large and heavy item. Thus, it is smart to work with professionals who understand how to maneuver and safely ship a car long distances.

Following are some of the many things to consider when looking for a group to move your car.

02 / 28 / 2012
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Real Estate Investing

Late Rental Payments

I’m not sure why anyone would let tenants get behind in their payments, but I regularly get calls from students asking what they should do because it’s the 21st of the month and they still haven’t received the payment that was due on the first. “Why haven’t you done anything sooner?” I ask. “Well, they said they were going to pay.”

What other creditor does that line work with? The mortgage company? The gas company? Cable? Where do people learn this tactic? Apparently, with landlords who let them slide rather than responding as soon as the payment is late.

We have a set policy and we stick to it. Payments are due on the first and late after the fifth. In my world, payments are late after the first but the government, in their wisdom, decided that tenants should have five additional days to come up with their payment, so I have to wait until the sixth to respond to non-pays.

That doesn’t help anyone, as far as I can tell. Because of this, tenants don’t think their rent is due until the fifth and wonder why I’m upset when they want to pay after that. “I’m not even late, yet,” is their rationale. You were due on the first so, in my mind, I can assure you that you are very late on the fifth.

But, I digress.

On the sixth, we can and do file for possession in our clerk of court office. Why? Because I don’t want to get to the 20th when they still haven’t paid before I start my actions. By that time, they may decide to hang out and see how long it will take me to evict. Eventually, they could figure it’s cheaper to move than to pay me the, by then, two month’s rent that is due. I don’t want to give tenants that much time to build up debt or to plan alternatives.

02 / 24 / 2012
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Bulk REO Packages

As you might have heard, the government is planning to release some “packages” of real estate owned (REO) properties currently held by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the FHA. The release of these properties is expected to be only two to three weeks away.

This first phase of property release is targeted to smaller groups or local individual investors rather than to mega Wall Street hedge funds as in the past.

Interested in getting your hands on some of these properties? You must “pre-qualify” to establish your eligibility to bid.