The Anarcho Geek Info Center

When it comes to finding that next house how do you know where to look? For finding Rochester New York real estate it is important to do your homework and work with a real estate agent that you feel comfortable with. Get to know the market in the area. Get some background on the schools and local community. Whether you have kids or not the schools in the area can and do effect your property values. You may not have kids but the person who buys your house may. Know how much your dollar can buy in the Rochester area.

With all of the talk of bubbles bursting and the mortgage crisis it is nice to know that the Rochester NY real estate market is slow and steady. This part of the country has so many great features that people are drawn here. The only difference is they are not coming by the thousands but more at a pace that the area can handle. Bubbles burst and markets crash when to many people come to quickly and that causes property values to rise to fast. Then prices go up and nobody can afford to buy anymore. Not to mention you will then get less for your money.

When you buy a home, you need to be aware of the various things that can limit your control over the property. This is as true for finished lots and single family homes as it is for townhouses, condos, and apartments. It’s a good idea to understand these limitations before you buy, so that you can decide whether you’re willing to live with them or not. After you buy, it’s too late; you’re stuck.

Zoning

In most jurisdictions, zoning limits how a piece of property can be used. There are many variations of residential zoning. In some, no business activity is permitted. Some allow business activity but no signs. In some, no commercial vehicles can be parked regularly.

Some residential zones permit only a single dwelling per quarter acre, per acre or per ten acres. Most limit the owner’s ability to subdivide land. Some allow only single family dwellings while others allow high rise apartments. Still others allow apartments, but limit the height of apartment buildings. Many do not allow mobile homes.

Some jurisdictions have “overlay districts” in addition to zoning. These are common in areas with many older buildings and a community desire to preserve them. Additions to homes of this type are obviously restricted, but restrictions regarding the location, style, height, and even whether they’re allowed at all or not, also applies to fences, sheds, walks, gates, and similar ancillary structures.

Fredericksburg, Virginia has a forty block “historic district.” Residents of this area must follow normal zoning rules. However, they must also submit an application to the Architectural Review Board for any changes to the visible exterior of their homes. This can be a surprise for some new homeowners in the area.

You can find detailed information about zoning, overlay districts and the like fairly easily. Simply visit the courthouse for the county in which the property is located or ask your real estate professionals for assistance.

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We all have seen some book called “How I Turned my last dollar into $1 Million by buying real estate in my spare time”. Some of us even bought such books on an impulse with high expectations.

They all start about the same: “I had been young, unemployed and I used borrowed money to buy a foreclosed apartment, which no one wanted to touch with a ten foot pole. Actually the bank was ready to give a full price loan to anyone, who would be foolish enough to take this disaster out of their hands.”

Guess what? The lucky buyer painted the apartment bright green and it immediately sold to the next fool for $50,000 more. You don’t believe him? Me neither. But check the Internet and you will find plenty of sites teaching you how to flip houses for an instant profit by painting their doors in “happy” colors.

Before you ran out searching for foreclosed apartments badly in need of painting, have patience and finish this article. Most of such books are variations of the popular book series of the 19th century - “How you can become a Happy Millionaire”.

They all use primitive hypnotic techniques to fool their readers. They start with: “Your mind will change and grow, slowly and steadily with every page you read. With every thought and insight you gain, your desire and courage will grow as well.”

The wild success of such techniques was attributed to the low levels of education of the reading public 150 years ago. Well, we should think again. Look at the amount of books Robert Kiyosaki is selling. His Rich Dad Poor Dad series are great in persuading you about the need to make money, but fall short on particulars about how exactly you can achieve that.

Despite an attempt to put an entertaining face to the age-old scam, most of those books’ techniques are surprisingly similar. They all have this line in common: “Since every millionaire started with a desire to become rich, you must develop a burning desire for money as well. And write this down, have a plan. Once you wrote down a plan, you are half-way there.”

That course of action remains me of a poor Jewish matchmaker in some remote village in Russia in the 19th century. There was a nice old maid in this village. She had a heart of gold, but was not a great beauty, so no one wanted her. The matchmaker decided that she needs his help. Whom should she marry? The King of England was widowed recently, so he was obviously in search of a spouse. A perfect combination.

The matchmaker spoke with the elders of the village, and they all agreed that it might be a good idea. Than he spoke with the maiden herself, and she also reluctantly agreed. Well, said the happy matchmaker rubbing his hands, half the work is done.

When you hear how easy it is to make money by flipping houses, you should realize that even if some of those stories are true, they are highly selective. They are not representative of the real-life situations. Those books are always telling that you can make a fortune by finding stupid sellers, whom you can swindle out of their money.

There is always a seller in those books, who so badly wants to get out of his house that he is ready to accept half the price. In real life, if the sellers are willing to sell for half price, that means the area around the house is in bad economic situation. There are no jobs in this area or there is a rising crime wave, so most residents want to move out and very few want to move in.

If this seller had a chance to sell for more, do you think he would accept your offer for a half price? Most probably he thinks that a next offer might be even lower. If you will try to sell his house for more, do you think you can fix all its problems by just painting it?

Whoever is trying to sell you such simplistic view of the Real Estate investing, doesn’t have your best interests in mind. He is tricking you into buying his books, and he is using the psychological trickster techniques. Most such techniques work on the subliminal level. That means that they can trick you only as long as you are not aware of them.

Now, if you want some self-help book to make you feel better, there is nothing wrong with buying Robert Kiyosaki Rich Dad Poor Dad books series. It might even alleviate your boredom for an evening or two.

But if you want to preserve the value of your investments, or make some money for your retirement, realize that those books are poor substitute for a real learning. In order to make heavy financial decisions, you will need much more than a pep-up talk.

We all need some reassurance here and there. If hypnotic self-help books can provide it to us, so much for the better. As long as you don’t start to gamble your life’s savings using the advices found in those books.

You can ask, aren’t there some good books on Real Estate investing with sound financial advise? Yes, there is plenty of good information available and you can also find smart books on the subject. But that will be the story in my next article.

To learn more about financial and investment advise and retirement planning visit new Money Management Forum at Wise-Investment.info

You are selling your own home because you think you’re up to the task, that it can’t be that difficult? You’re right of course; however you want to make sure you abide by some basic common sense guidelines to help ensure your success. It’s not all about putting a sign on the lawn and an advert in the paper.

Your first step should be calling a lawyer. If you don’t have one you will need to find one. A good bet is to get a referral from friends or family. A lawyer at this stage of your sale will give you all the legal information you need to enter into the sale with a confidence that would be lacking otherwise. Your lawyer can do a title search on your home to make sure it’s free of encumbrances that may only turn up on closing i.e. an encroachment. Do you have an up to date survey? These can be deal killers at the last minute you want to avoid. You’ll need a search done anyway to close your sale.

Lawyers can also advise you on any new by-laws or regulations you should be aware of for your home and area. Every jurisdiction seems to have rules that need to be followed when preparing an offer to purchase form. A lawyer can make sure these special clauses are written into your offer to purchase form. Have your lawyer provide you with copies of the offer to purchase in hard copy format and also on disk so you can print them off your home PC when needed. Ask your lawyer how he would prefer to see your offer set up.

Ask your lawyer to give you any information you will need to make the closing of your sale timely and without any surprises. If there is anything that will hold up or quash your deal you want advance notice so you can take care of the problem now. Count on being charged for your lawyers’ services but it’s the old adage pay me now or pay me later.

Ask your lawyer to give you some insight into your mortgage situation. He can give you details and options based on your current loan that perhaps will help your sale. At the very least the lawyer can give you questions to ask at your lending institution i.e. is your mortgage assumable? If the interest rate and terms are attractive the purchaser may want to assume your current mortgage. All good stuff to know in advance of your sale. Likewise your mortgage may need to be removed so the purchaser can arrange their own financing. What are the ramifications with this, will it be expensive to remove?

When you recruit a real estate agent to help you sell your home, the good ones know all this information in advance. Any information they don’t have that can create problems generally surfaces at closing thanks to the lawyers. Your agent acts in your best interests along with your lawyer to sort out these problems at closing and many issues are usually dealt with to either parties’ satisfaction one way or another.

Not having an agent working for you means your chances of having a problem sometime during the process of trading your real estate is a real probability. The best way to mitigate your chances of potential headaches is to spend the money up front for a legal professional to sort through the landmines before you step on one and your deal disintegrates at the worst possible time. You’ll be investing a great deal of time selling your home. Make sure you are prepared. It is fairly simple to sell your own home. Closing that sale cleanly is another matter entirely.

Richard Embro-Pantalony has been in the real estate industry for over 26 years. He is the President of http://www.realestatemate.com and http://www.homeheap.com both websites feature For Sale By Owner listings.
He is the author of “How To Sell Your Home Like A Pro”

Many home sellers list and sell their homes in haste. Sometimes they get lucky and pick a great listing agent to help them. Knowledgeable agents guide the home seller through the process to a successful sale. On the other hand, some home sellers get talked into listing their home by a high-pressure agent or the home seller lists with well-meaning family member or friend who plays at real estate.

To get the most from your home sale–in profits, protection, and yes–enjoyment, avoid these mistakes that can lose you money.

Mistake #1 - Listing your home without making a marketing plan. Your home is most likely your most valuable asset. Think of your property like a business investment. “Market” your home like a business. Write out a business plan for your home sale.

Mistake #2 - Listing your home before you get it ready to show. Too many home sellers make a snap decision to sell and immediately list their home before they prepare the property for selling. Besides deep cleaning and decluttering, you must make your home stand out so home shoppers choose your home over competing homes for sale.

Mistake #3 - Accepting a listing agent’s market evaluation without checking your competition. Don’t accept the first agent’s market evaluation without doing your homework. Sometimes the best selling agent gets that distinction because they list houses low. If you hear “My listings always sell right away,” that could be a warning sign that the agent under values the selling price. Of course, under-priced houses sell right away!

Mistake #4 - Signing a six month listing. Most houses go up in value. If your home sits on the market, it might need more sizzle or aggressive advertising to generate offers. A long listing gives agents too much time and takes the pressure off.

Mistake #5 - Letting the agent talk you into lowering your sales price or accepting an offer for a lot less than asking price. Just because your home didn’t sell right away doesn’t automatically mean that the price is too high. Remember, it only takes ONE buyer to fall in love with your home.

Mistake #6 - Letting agent’s show your home without staging the setting. If you can’t be home to turn on the lights, air the home out, and make sure everything is perfect, make sure you choose an agent willing to follow your list of things to do prior to showing and that the agent will open the home for showing. Just letting other agents use a lock box can cost you lost dollars.

Mistake #7 - Selling the home without proper legal protection. You or your listing agent must understand all the disclose statements, contracts, and contingencies. Some savvy real estate agents even hire another listing agent just to protect themselves with all the complex documents. You don’t want to be a party to a lawsuit and lose money after your home is sold.

Copyright © 2006 Jeanette J. Fisher

Go beyond the basic home staging methods with Design Psychology methods for a top-dollar sale. Learn how to profile your prospective buyer and make your home “simply irresistible” with interior design secrets. Jeanette Fisher offers free home staging tips http://homestaging.us and how to sell your home fast information. http://sellfast.info

Much of the grief all of us experience, at one time or another, as real estate investors is self-inflicted. Especially these days, when markets are cooling off. This is by no means a personality trait exclusive to those operating in real estate, as I know of quite a few people who are equally frustrated with the performance of stock markets as well.

The problem is that we are, well … human. Just human. Being human simply means that we all have feelings, attitudes, desires, beliefs and biases and that, furthermore, we are even too capable of judging and second-guessing. The cleverest of us can even third-guess! Furthermore, we all come to the investment arena from different walks of life, even within the same country, and are accustomed to model our decisions on past experiences, for good or bad.

It can be safely stated, as a matter of fact, that real estate is made more of emotions than logic, more of fiction than reality. How else would anyone otherwise explain the urgent, uncontrollable desire of a Buyer to pay for the interest in a real property several thousand dollars more than what the Seller paid just a few years ago? Emotions certainly play a major role in investing. So important is this role, in fact, that if we want to be successful investors we must understand what motivates us, as well as how the emotions of others move the real estate markets. I am not making this one up: learning emotions and understanding motivation is taught in pretty much all real estate schools, as well as by all those who spend their time couching Realtors.

We know, for example, that while at present real estate markets are on their way down, in the longer run there is a rhythm to them. Over time they move up and down, partially in recognition of the fundamental value that moves each and every capitalistic market - the equilibrium between supply and demand. But partly, also, according to how you, I and all of us feel about the future, that is whether we are optimistic that prices will reach new heights or feel, instead, that they will sink all the way down to the bottom of the ocean. Obviously, when the feeling is good we continue to invest and prices continue to rise. When the love affair ends, the sell-off begins and prices naturally decline, sometimes precipitously. The question of the year then becomes: what causes the sentiment to change?

Well, quite frankly, it is normally not the real value of the investments themselves that changes. This is so, because it is difficult to believe that what was once a good investment suddenly has gone bad, for whatever mystical reason. How sure am I of this? Very simple. If the real estate market drops ten, fifteen or even twenty percent in a very short time, does this means that the property we bought has depreciated that much over the same short lapse of time? That we have been so careless, negligent would be a better word, to use, abuse and misuse our own very dear real capital asset to the extent that rather than ordinary wear and tear, we have inflicted on it extraordinary wear and tear, to the point of shaving thousands of dollars off its resale value? Of course not.

The price of a real estate capital asset fluctuates quite a bit over time, but the core, underlying economic value of the asset itself seldom shifts so dramatically. What really changes is our perception of whether prices are too high or too low, combined with the degree of motivation to buy.

In Economics, the ratio of the perceived value of a capital asset vis-a-vis its intrinsic risk of acquisition is termed ‘worth’. Clearly the lower the risk, the higher the worth. It follows, therefore, that the perceived value - or simply ‘value’ - of a real capital asset is the total monetary worth obtained by reducing exposure to risk and liability. Put in elementary terms, ‘value’ is the total net benefit an investor expects to receive from a purchase, measured in currency. The measure of the ‘value in exchange’ of the real estate transaction is the sales price.

In a free market such as real estate, defined as a market where there are large numbers of rational, profit-maximizers, actively-competing participants, with each trying to predict future market values of individual investments and where important current information is almost freely available to all participants, competition leads to a situation where, at any point in time, actual sales prices will be a good estimate of value. It follows, therefore, that sales prices of transactions past are the best measure of value of transactions to come. And of course, if prior sales prices are on their way down, future sales prices will follow the same pattern.

Naturally, when the general sentiment shifts, the market changes direction. Knowing that this is what is going on in real estate at any given time allows us to construct long-term strategies unique to ourselves, to our goals and objectives, that give us the confidence necessary to ride out the plunges during market deflation, and temper our euphoria in times of market expansion.

The secret to make it in real estate, just as in any other market, is ‘to resist the call of the crowd’. Objective analysis and knowledge, coupled by experience, will get anyone a lot farther than the chatter and hearsay so very common in real estate these days. There are as many opinions out there of what is going to happen as there are so-called experts. Some of those opinions border with nothing short of witchcraft … yes, witchcraft. Like the opinion I have read a few days ago authored by a New York stockbroker (no wonder), who predicts a real estate market crash beginning in 2011, which will last all the way through 2023! I am not a high-flying, hot-shot Wall Street analyst - just an average guy who has spent the last nineteen years selling real estate, and buying it. Throughout all these many years I have witnessed personally that real property values have always gone up in the long-run, notwithstanding the numerous ups and downs the industry has been going through. And that is good enough for me.

John Marks Templeton (1912), the American billionaire, was absolutely correct when he pointed out as the secret of his success that “understanding other people’s emotions is critical to investment success“. And Mark Twain (1835-1910), the American humorist, perhaps put it even better when he said: “Let us be thankful for the fools. Without them, the rest of us could not succeed“.

But nobody surpasses the teachings of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), the famous Florentine poet, who some seven hundred years ago described in the Divine Comedy his metaphorical tour of duty of the Inferno (Hell), guided by Virgil. At one point the two pass through the place where the lost souls of the sorcerers, liars, false prophets and yes … politicians are held. The spirits of the damned are immersed into a boiling lake of sewage and excrement, and are poked continually and endlessly by devils armed with tridents. Notwithstanding their eternal punishment, these souls still try to capture Dante’s attention and attempt to thwart him from the path of justice, truth and righteousness. Seeing how shaken, weak and feeble Dante becomes for what the damned tell him, Virgil thunders: “Do not care about them - just look and walk!“

Luigi Frascati

Luigi Frascati is a Real Estate Agent based in Vancouver, British Columbia. He holds a Bachelor Degree in Economics and maintains a weblog entitled the Real Estate Chronicle at http://wwwrealestatechronicle.blogspot.com where you can find the full collection of his articles. Luigi is associated with the Sutton Group, the largest real estate organization in Canada, and is based with Sutton-Centre Realty in Burnaby, BC. Luigi is very proud to be an EzineArticles Platinum Expert Author. Your rating at the footer of this Article is very much appreciated. Thank you.

The power of home equity and interest-only payments, provided from most home equity loans is amazing. You can get a home equity loan, with no closing costs and pay as little as $30.00 to $40.00 per month for up to $10,000 in equity cash. These loans are surprisingly easy to get for both residential and investment real estate.

The terms on these amazing loans vary, but are quite nice. You can get them for up to 30 years, but they are usually completed in terms of 10 to 15 years. You can always pay just the interest on the loan - a very low payment, or you can pay on the principal loan, if you desire. You have all the power.
Another fantastic part of home equity loans is that in many cases you can take out 100 percent of the equity. So, if you owe $130,000 and your house is valued at $140,000, you can get $10,000. Now you’ll need good credit to do this. Not to worry, though, if your credit has some flaws. You can still get at your equity.

You’ll just get a little less, and you’ll probably pay a little more. And if you are told you don’t qualify, don’t despair; there is another way — a cash out refinance loan. A cash out refinance home loan gets at the equity you desire, but it puts a new first mortgage on your house for the entire amount, and you get the money that is left over. It may sound convoluted, but it really is not. Get the wealth building system Winning the Mortgage Game to learn exactly how it’s done.

Mark Barnes is an investment real estate and real estate finance expert. Get his free mortgage finance course at http://www.winningthemortgagegame.com and also learn how to gain financial independence through proper real estate investment strategies. Mark is also the author of the new novel, The League, a shocking, sports-related conspiracy. Learn more about his suspense thriller at http://www.sportsnovels.com

Real estate investors, both those who buy and hold or buy and flip, make money when they buy. One of the best methods of getting good deals is through vacant homes. You may have little or no competition.

If you have a systematic method of driving neighborhoods, finding vacant houses is easy. What is not so easy sometimes is finding the owner.

What I like to do is record into my Palm Pilot every vacant address I come across and once or twice a week do my detective work.

Where to start? In Florida, the place to start is the local property appraisers web site:
http://www.myflorida.com/dor/property/appraisers.html

In almost all cases, you just put in the address and the site will give you the owners name and address. You should then do two things. First, you should write them a letter telling them that you are interested in buying their home. Second, you should try and call them.

Some web sites to get phone numbers are as follows:

www.switchboard.com

www.whitepages.com

www.yahoo.com people search function

One thing I always do is just put in the last name. Husbands may have died and the wife does not want to be listed. Also, they could have gone to live with a relative of the same last name but the phone is not listed in their name. If the last name is the same as that listed on the property appraisers site just call and ask.

An invaluable tool is an old phone book to look up numbers the old fashioned way. Your goal should be to try and have one phone book for each five-year increment for the last 25 years. Stop at estate and garage sales and ask if they have any old phone books you can have.

These are the easy ones. What if this does not work?

First, I check to see if the tax bill is being sent to a different address than recorded on the property appraisers web site. Many times it is. You start over.

Second, you call the local utility company and find out where the bill was last sent.

Third, you put the persons name in the Clerk of the Courts look up page to find out if there have been any recent legal actions. Is there a recent probate or foreclosure action? If so, there will be addresses and names of other people for you to contact.

This is where most people stop. And this is where if you continue to see the same vacant place you can find gold.

The easiest place to start is to knock on all the neighbors’ doors and take one of two approaches. One, just say “what is the story with that house?” and point to the house. You can usually find a neighbor who will give you clues or answers. If you get a nice person who you think was friendly with the owner just ask for the number. If the house happens to be vacant because the owner is in foreclosure, you might want to say “I have some money for Joe Owner, do you know how I can get in contact with them?” You want to use this approach if you think they are protecting friends from bill collectors.

You can also use a couple more web sites in your search. Use www.people-finders.ws to get a history of where people have lived and birthdays. You can use find.intelius.com to get spouse and children names.

In Florida, you can also get a Social Security Number off of the older mortgages recorded in public records. It was printed right on the mortgages. If you have this you can almost always find a person using a paid service like findtheseller.com.

If all else fails do something very crazy. Put a FOR SALE sign in the yard. If the owner or any relative lives anywhere near they will call. You just say you are sorry, your sign person must have put it up in the wrong yard. You then say, ” I buy homes, are you interested in selling?”

Todd Hutcheson is a full time real estate investor and teacher. He is the founder of www.ibuyhomes.com and teaches “Finding Deals Now” through Central Florida Realty Investors, a non-profit association of real estate investors in Orlando, FL. Todd can be reached at todd@ibuyhomes.com.

Some days I feel like a home refinancing expert. I’ve refinanced my home twice in the last three years to take advantage of attractive interest rates. Although interest rates have been rising lately, refinancing may still be an attractive option if you’re paying a high interest rate on a mortgage. When my husband and I built a new home in 2000, we felt interest rates were a little high so we opted for a three year mortgage with an 8 percent mortgage rate instead of locking into a 15 or 30 year mortgage with a slightly higher rate.

We were counting on interest rates going down before our mortgage was up for renewal and they did. When the rates went down to 5.5 percent two years later we refinanced. To find the best rate I could, I called my local banks, credit unions, and savings and loan companies. I also checked interest rates on the Internet.

One year later, while checking on the Internet I found a rate of 4.375 percent. (I looked up interest rates because someone told me they had just gotten their mortgage refinanced at 4.5 percent). I ended up refinancing again but not before calculating how much I was going to save in interest versus how much the additional closing costs were going to be. My calculations showed it would take approximately 18 months of payments at the lower rate to recoup the money it cost to refinance. Although my husband and I now have a very attractive mortgage rate, our payment is slightly higher than it was when we were paying 8 percent interest. But instead of having a 30 year mortgage we have a 15 year mortgage. The low interest rate is allowing us to pay our house off in half the time we thought it would! http://www.easymortgagerefinancingloans.com/refinancemortgagequote/

Although interest rates have been rising lately they are still reasonable, especially compared to the interest rates on many credit cards. In addition to looking for a lower interest rate, people may be considering refinancing to take some of the equity out of their home for things like: paying off high rate credit cards; to fund a home remodeling project; or pay for a child’s college education.

Below is a list of some of some things I learned during the two times I refinanced in the past few years.

1) The lowest interest rate is not always the best deal. Some companies may offer a very low interest rate but may charge several “points.” A point is 1 percent of the amount you are borrowing. As an example, if you want to borrow $200,000 and three points are being charged it will cost you $6,000 to borrow the money in addition to other closing costs.

2) Closing costs vary with lender. The U.S. government requires lenders to provide what is called a “Good Faith Estimate” of what your closing costs will be. Closing costs typically include things such as: credit report fees, title company service fees; title search fees; loan origination fees; appraisal fees; and documentation fees. Your lender will give you an honest estimate of what your closing costs will be. Your actual cost may vary slightly because the lender does not always know what the exact cost of a certain fee will be such as the appraisal fee because they probably work with several appraisal companies who likely all charge different rates. One additional thing to keep in mind about closing costs: you may see advertisements that proclaim their company does not have any closing costs. That may be true. The lender may pay the closing costs for you but the tradeoff for you will likely be paying a higher interest rate.

3) There may be other fees involved when you refinance. For example, the first company we refinanced with required that 12 months worth of property tax money be kept in escrow with them. The credit union we took out our original loan with didn’t require any property tax money in escrow. We had to come up with a big chunk of money that we hadn’t planned on for that tax escrow account. The second time we refinanced I was smarter and asked how much money needed to be kept in tax escrow. It was only 6 months of property tax money so we ended up getting part of our tax escrow money back.

4) Ask if your homeowners insurance will be paid by you or if the lender will require you to pay money into an escrow account each month so they can pay it for you. Many lenders require you to pay into an escrow account to ensure the homeowner’s insurance will be paid.

5) Ask if the loan you plan on taking out can be sold to other lending institutions. The possibility of your loan being sold may or may not be an issue for you. It’s not uncommon for loans to be sold. It’s even likely your local bank sells some of its mortgages. I don’t happen to mind if my mortgage is sold to another lending company. It’s happened to me once and it was an almost seamless process on my end. I only had to do one thing and that was set up a new automatic payment from my checking account because I prefer to have my mortgage payment taken out of my checking account automatically each month. That way I don’t have to worry about forgetting to pay it on time and possibly incurring late fees.

6) An online bank might be a good place to do business with. A good way to find out if the bank is a real financial institution, check to see if it is insured with the FDIC. You can do an online search with the phrase “banks insured with FDIC” or a similar phrase to find the current link to check. When I found the 4.375 percent interest rate it was with an online bank whose workforce was located in the Eastern part of the United States. I live in the Midwest. Thanks to the technology of the Internet I was able to easily do business with the bank. Any documentation I needed to fill out was either e-mailed, faxed, or posted on a secure Internet site that I accessed with my own personal id and password. The secure Internet site was associated with a nationally known lending company. For the final signing the lender contracted with a lending company in my area and that’s where my husband and I went to sign the final papers and close the loan.

7) Get everything in writing and pay attention to deadlines. For example, if you are quoted a specific interest rate, get it in writing. Be aware though that the interest rate you are given will only be guaranteed or locked in for a specific amount of time, usually 30 days. If interest rates go up during that 30 day period you will still get the lower rate you were guaranteed in writing. If rates go down, some lenders will automatically give you the lower rate. It is possible that the rate guarantee period may be extended. When we were in the process of our second refinancing, a lot of other people around the U.S. were refinancing because rates were really attractive. As a result our lender had a difficult time getting an appraisal scheduled. Even though we didn’t close until nearly 2 weeks after our 30 day deadline our lender honored the rate they had guaranteed us even though rates had gone up.

The above items are things I learned during the two times I refinanced. I’ve done my best to include everything I learned but your experience with refinancing may be a little different and you may find out things I didn’t. The best advice I can offer if you are thinking of refinancing is to take time to do research, compare lenders, find out what your total costs will be, and ask questions about anything you don’t understand or are not sure of. This will help make the process easier for you and help eliminate any unpleasant surprises that cost you more money than you were planning on spending for refinancing.

D Ruplinger is a writer for EasyMortgageRefinancingLoans.com. To learn about refinancing online and to find the best refinancing rates, visit us

Selling your own home can be a time-consuming and frustrating process. Sometimes, though, in the right market, it makes sense to save thousands of dollars in commission and do it yourself. If you’ve decided to give it a try, use the tips here to do it right, and to avoid common FSBO (for sale by owner) mistakes.

1. Understand value. It isn’t what you think your house is worth, and it doesn’t even matter how much you put into it. It is only what it’s worth to potential buyers. Find out what they have paid for other similar homes before you decide on a price.

2. Be objective. This is a difficult one. You may want to get your most honest and outspoken friend to walk through the house with you. He’ll see problems you didn’t know were problems.

3. Have a plan. What will the kids or wife say to those who call? Where will you be closing? Will you have documents prepared by an attorney? A plan will help it all go smoother.

4. Make a list. What needs to be fixed, cleaned, changed, or removed? Do the most obvious things first.

5. Be a prepared salesman. List every question a buyer might have, and be ready with an answer. Have comparison sheets showing other home sales, so buyers can see the value. Have a map showing where nearby stores and libraries, etc. are.

6. Sell benefits. Don’t say “near stores.” Say “You can walk to the store in five minutes.” Don’t say “garage.” Say “No chipping ice off the windshield in the morning.”

7. Have all important information in ads. Square feet, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, address, telephone number, and price. Leaving out the price means some buyers just won’t call, and you’ll waste time with others who shouldn’t be calling.

8. Listen to buyers. The biggest mistake sellers make talking to buyers is to get defensive about their home. Listen to criticisms, and resolve them or ask how important the issue is to the buyer. In other words, learn a little about selling.

9. Be careful with the sales agreement. Be sure that it is understood by both sides. What happens, and when? What if the buyer doesn’t get their financing? What’s included in the sale? When will the buyer take possesion? Who pays the closing fee?

10. Make closing easy. Have the documents all ready to sign. Be prepared with answers to likely questions. This is likely the largest financial transaction in your buyer’s life. Make him comfortable.

There is a lot more to selling your own home than can be covered in ten tips, of course. Use these however, and you’ll be doing better than the average FSBO seller.

Steve Gillman has invested real estate for years. To learn more, and to see a photo of a beautiful house he and his wife bought for $17,500, visit http://www.HousesUnderFiftyThousand.com