Buying a foreclosure is a great way to get started with real estate investment. For many people, the idea of buying a foreclosure can seem overwhelming, however. Many people don’t understand how the foreclosure process works, or even how to locate foreclosure properties. Even once you understand the basics, you have to remember to look at a foreclosure from an investor’s point of view, not the way you would if you were purchasing the house to live in. Many foreclosure homes are sold at cut-rate prices because they need some type of work. While you may be paying well below market value when buying a foreclosure, don’t forget to include money in your budget for repairs and improvements.

Many foreclosure houses are sold as-is. To avoid getting stuck with a lemon, you must carefully inspect the property before making an offer. The great deal you got buying a foreclosure home can quickly turn into a nightmare if you find a leaky roof or a crumbling foundation. If you are not experienced with home inspections, hire an expert to perform this task for you before you take part in an auction or make an offer on the home.

There are many resources available to help you find foreclosure listings. The most common method is to visit real estate agents who specialize in foreclosure houses. By viewing a variety of these properties at once, you can get a good feel for pricing, selection, and the quality of foreclosure houses on the market. If you’d rather not deal with an agent, you can review foreclosure listings on Foreclosure.com. This website is one of the best resources available for those looking to find foreclosed homes for sale. The site includes pictures, prices, and the latest information on foreclosed homes across the country. They offer a seven day free trial so you can decide if this service will work for you.

Once you’ve completed your research, you should have a good grasp on the value of foreclosed homes in your area. Before you get started with buying a foreclosure, however, you must learn a bit more about the real estate market. Investigate the average buying and selling prices of homes in your region. Explore the growth potential and desirability of various neighborhoods. This will help you decide how much you should spend on buying a foreclosure, including the cost of repairs and renovations.

By educating yourself on foreclosure procedures and your local market, you can ensure that buying a foreclosure will be a smart investment. Once you’ve successfully flipped one house, you’ll find yourself addicted to investing in foreclosure homes, as well as the big rewards that it can bring.

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So what is the largest word in the English language? No, I’m not talking about the words with the most letters or even the word that’s the hardest to pronounce. I’m talking about the word that’s about to become one of your favorites. And that’s the word “because” Yes! Because this word can seemingly work magic at convincing the recipients of your postcards that using your service is the most beneficial step they could possibly take.

Perhaps this is the most persuasive word in the English language. Don’t take my word for it because the persuasive strength of this seven-letter word has already been tested through an ingenious experiment. And it passed the test with flying colors.

A psychologist, curious as to what exactly motivated individuals to certain actions, placed an individual at the back of a line of people waiting to reproduce documents at a common copier.

Now, imagine standing in a line – a fairly lengthy line at that – all with the same mission: to make copies of whatever they have in hand. The individual planted in line by this psychologist first asked the person in front of him if he could get ahead of him in line – without giving a reason.

As you can envisage, the reply was no. And the man asked this mode several times to several grouping in various varied lines. Overpoweringly, the result was no. But then the examiner provided the man in front of him with an explanation for the demand. And he utilized the ultimate (yet influential) word “because.” The optimistic salutation developed spectacularly.

And it prefabricated no number rattling the faculty he gave erstwhile he used the word “because.” The process fact was simply that he gave a ground. He still proved this by just saying, “Because I bang to tidy copies.”

So what does this mean to you and specifically to your postcard mailing? Plenty! Think about it for just a moment.

So why not increase your success rate in your real estate postcard marketing, by using ‘because’?

Boost your prospects response rate by giving them reasons/benefits to positively act on your offer and by using the word ‘because’ to introduce these reasons/benefits.

Use the expression because for your own benefit in your next mailing even if the reasons you rank after it seem totally palpable to you. Why? Because it proves!

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There is no doubt that there are bad tenants out there. It is in every landlord’s best interest to stay away from them. They do not like tenants who do not pay their rent, engage in illegal acitivity such as drugs, stay away from these people with a background check. It was not all that long ago that doing a background check meant going down to your local courthouse and looking up the information down there. It does not have to be that painful now, you can do it online and find out everything you need to know.

With the help of a background check, landlords can stay away from the problems tha have plagued landlords for years. Problems such as tenants not paying rent to them engaging in activity that is illegal. No landlord wants this type of problem. With the help of a background check, they do not have to put up with these problems and fill their vacancies with law abiding citizens that pay their bills.

You will most likely be disappointed in thinking that people always tell the truth on their applications for a rental property. Think they always tell the truth, think again. It is the landlord’s responsibility to confirm the information that was put on the application, it can save them a lot of headaches down the road.

So a decision has been made to look these potential tenants up, investing the time and money to do so will pay dividiends later on. It is not fun to go through life having to worry about everyone else’s problems or worry about them paying their rent on time, or even paying their rent at all. Go online and look up background checks, you will find a host of companies that can help you get the information you need.

There are companies that offer different types of background searches, some are not free. You will not get as good information of course with a free background check. The information they have will not be as comprehensie as with a paid search. You could also go to your local courthouse and perform the search yourself if nothing else.

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Its been a long-held belief that it is more financially wise to purchase a home rather than to rent, if you can afford it. However, the past two years have proven that those assumptions have all but vanished and people are finding themselves in unusual territory in the housing market.

While unusually low interest rates and plunging home prices imply that buying a home is the best option, increasing numbers of people are choosing to rent or rent-to-buy instead. However, making the right choice can be difficult.

So, generally speaking, when does it make sense to rent, and when to buy? I find that there are five basic factors to help you decide:

1. Credit Score. For those many individuals with some dings on their credit report, it will be very difficult to get a mortgage loan in today’s environment. However, you may be able to build equity in a home while improving your credit score through a rent-to-own situation. However, if you are fortunate to have a high credit score, now might be the ideal time to obtain a loan at interest rates that are lower than they have been in fifty years.

2. Cash Flow Needs. It is critical nowadays to make sure you have enough cash flow to meet all of your monthly obligations, and many people are finding that it is hard to set aside extra to build the down payment needed for most mortgage loans. These folks are finding that monthly rent are typically lower than a monthly mortgage payment, which allows them to preserve their good credit and meet other monthly expenses more easily.

3. Employment Concerns. I recently read an article by Forbes.com Real Estate columnist Matt Woolsey, in which he said “Given the state of the job market right now, the anchor of full ownership is a heavy one.” I find this to be so true with many of my clients, who are worried they might lose their job. If this is a concern for you, not having to worry about having trouble making your mortgage payments and potential credit damage and foreclosure is a big pro for the rent or rent-to-buy scenario.

4. The Flee Factor. Its not always a good move to purchase immediately when relocating to a new city or state. By renting, you are able to explore all of the area options before selecting the neighborhood you want to set down roots in, rather than a quick purchase and possibility of needing to sell before prices have increased enough to avoid a loss on the transaction.

5. Market Unpredictability. Even in markets like Denver, which was recently named the No. 1 city on the verge of recovery from the real estate slump by Barbara Corcoran on NBCs Today show, data is mixed on when the housing market will actually recover. As such, renting is appealing as a wait-and-see approach until the forecast clears.

Each option has their pros and cons, and the important thing to do is to learn all you can so that you can make the choice that is right for you. A knowledgeable real estate professional is key to making your decision. They may point out some new and unusual options that are available and that may be exactly right for your situation.

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Many people asked for more of these online stock trading comparisons so here’s one on TradeKing and Scottrade.  Personally, I feel all these stock brokers are becoming more and more alike so it’s becoming harder and harder to compete without price.  Here are some of the difference I found with the two brokers.

Trading Commissions Comparison

Equity Trades

• TradeKing – $4.95 a trade, broker assisted trade is also $4.95.
• Scottrade – $7 a trade, $17 for touch tone phone system and $27 for broker assisted trades.

Options Trades

• TradeKing – $4.95 + $0.65 per contract
• Scottrade – $7 + $1.25 per contract

Clearly, TradeKing is lower priced for trading.

Mutual Funds

• TradeKing vs Scottrade – $14.95 vs $17

Margin Fees Schedule

Scottrade and TradeKing margin interest respectively

• $0 – $9,999 – 7.75% vs 6.50%
• $10,000 – $24,999 – 6.50% vs 7.50%
• $25,000 – $49,999 – 6.50% vs 7.25%
• $50,000 – $99,999 – 5.50% vs 6.75%

The list goes on but across the board, TradeKing is much cheaper to trade with.

So Is TradeKing Just Better in Every Way?

On the surface, TradeKing is cheaper and offers pretty much the same product as Scottrade.  However, the latter offers what it calls the Scottrader and the Scottrade Elite programs.  These programs are for high volume traders who are used to the proprietary trading platforms of the old days before the web.  As far as I can tell, the great part about using those platforms are:

• that you can save the environment you are on so all the screens are at the same place every time you log in.
• information is pushed to you.  In other words, the prices, news are updated automatically since of you needing to push the refresh button on your browser.

For those that will only trade with those platforms, then by all means but for the rest of us, the online versions are good enough.  In that regard, I would go with TradeKing.

Update: A reader alerted me that TradeKing is offering to reimbursed you for up to $150 in termination fees for anyone that switches over to them.

Click Here to Sign Up for an TradeKing Account

Update: Another reader is quick to point out that Scottrade also offers something similar as well, only that it’s up to $100.

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Related Articles at Investing School:

• Best Stock Brokers
• Etrade vs Tradeking vs Zecco – Trading Commissions Comparison
• Zecco vs TradeKing Discount Brokerage Comparison Review
• Weekend Investment Reading – Wow
• OptionsXpress Review

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