Real Estate Investing Effective

5 Steps To Successful Real Estate Investing Add URL RLROUSE Directory & Informational Resources Site Map Home Add URL SEO Toolkit SEO Blog Webmaster / SEO Info Featured Stores Featured Text Listings Birdhouses Birdfeeders Great Recipes Articles -> Personal Finance -> Birding -> Crafts -> Lawn & garden -> Webmaster -> PC technology -> Steps to success -> Travel -> Your health -> The 50 US States -> Bluegrass Music -> Picture of the day -> Submit article Freebies Privacy policy Contact us Link to us Newsletter About us Recommend Advertise with us Site map 5 Steps To Successful Real Estate Investing Effective real estate investment strategies As the stock market continues having its ups and downs, more and more investors are looking for alternatives. Often they turn to real estate investing , the "safe" place to invest their money. But not so fast! Sadly, the majority of real estate investors have received little useful information and/or bad real estate investment advice. They jump right in and work extremely hard, only to lose most or all of their huge investment. "Real estate investing isn't a one-size-fits-all proposition, so it's wise to lay a good foundation before laying down your cash," explains Vena Jones-Cox, also known as the "Reliable Real Estate Expert". Over the years, she has compiled this series of steps that every real estate investor should follow: Join a Real Estate Investment Association There is no book you can read, no course you can take, and no experience you can acquire on your own that can even come close to the real estate education you'll get by spending time around people who are already buying, selling, and managing properties. The successes and failures of real-life real estate investors will teach you more (and motivate you more) than even the most complete classroom education you can find. Decide what you want in regards to your real estate investing No, that doesn't simply mean "I want to buy properties." Buying properties is simply a way to achieve your actual goals: quick cash, increased cash flow, retirement income, tax advantages, etc. Setting realistic goals for your real estate business at the outset allows you to concentrate on the properties, areas, sellers, and exit strategies that are most likely to meet those goals. Decide which real estate investment strategies will get you there most efficiently There are only five basic real estate exit strategies to choose from: retail, wholesale, lease/option, sell with owner financing, and rent. Once you have decided what you want to do (refer to step 2), your choice of exit strategies will suddenly be pretty limited. For instance, if your goal is wealth building or passive income, the retail and wholesale strategies won't work for you. If you need fast cash to pay off consumer debt or build capital for long-term investments, renting properties is the wrong way to achieve this goal. Your available real estate strategies will also be limited by your education, personality, and available assets. By the time you closely examine your goals, assets, and liabilities, you should be able to decide upon a single strategy for buying and making money from real estate properties. Determine and acquire the knowledge and skills you'll need to make your real estate investment strategies work Any basic book on a particular real estate investment strategy will show you the skill set you'll need in order to make money using that strategy. You don't need to know how tenant-landlord law works or how to manage properties if you plan to retail or wholesale, but if your strategy is to rent or lease/option, these are extremely important to know. On the other hand, some skills are vital no matter which real estate investment strategy you use. These skills include the ability to determine the value of properties, find motivated sellers, negotiate with sellers, and put your offer together. Make a list of the things you'll need to learn in order to make your strategy work, then figure out how you're going to get that information. There are endless books, workshops, home-study courses, and videotapes about virtually any real estate related topic you can imagine. Once you know what information you need, finding it will be no problem. Make lots of offers, even before you're really sure you know what you're doing Vena has taught a lot of classes to lots of new real estate investors, and she's discovered something interesting: those who haven't spent some time actually practicing looking at properties, evaluating them, and making real offers have very unrealistic ideas about what's going to happen when they do. Most beginners have preconceived ideas about the objections sellers will pose to their offers that bear no actual relationship to the objections they ultimately end up raising. They have fears about not being able to find or evaluate comparable properties. They think they'll miss the repairs the properties need when in fact they are usually fairly obvious. In a nutshell, until you've actually gotten your feet wet in the real estate market, you simply don't know what you don't know. You can't make money in real estate without making real offers, and you'll never acquire the knowledge you need to become a successful real estate investor until you get the real-life experience that only comes from making offers. The more quickly you take the steps above, even if you aren't sure you know what you're doing, the faster you'll move from a wannabe to a real-life real estate investor! About the author: Vena Jones-Cox, also known as the "Reliable Real Estate Expert," is a frequent lecturer at real estate investment groups throughout the country. She also hosts the popular weekly call-in public radio program "Real Life Real Estate Investing." Visit her at www.REGoddess.com . More Interesting Articles Elib Directory : devoted to Internet Commerce. 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Find Real Estate, Rentals, New Houses, Real Estate Agents and Mortgages on Yahoo! Real Estate Find Real Estate, Rentals, New Houses, Real Estate Agents and Mortgages Choose Location Home Homes for Sale Apartments for Rent Home Loans Moving & Insurance Tools My Real Estate Hurricane Katrina Resources Features Classifieds • Sell Your Home • Rent Your Apartment Home Loans • Mortgage Rates • Online Rate Quotes • Refinance Loans & Rates • Home Equity Loans & Rates • Free Credit Reports Resources • Find & Compare REALTORS • Find a Mover Insurance • Homeowner's Insurance • Renter's Insurance Tools • What's My Home Worth? • Research Neighborhoods • Free School Reports • Foreclosure Center • Home Service Center Commercial Real Estate • List Commercial Property National Mortgage Rates Thu Dec 29 Mtg Loan Rate APR 30-yr Fixed: 5.70% 5.88% 15-yr Fixed: 5.27% 5.57% 1-yr ARM: 4.53% 6.89% See Local Mortgage Rates Provided by Bankrate.com Neighborhood Profile Research neighborhoods nationwide! City, State, or Zip: Real Estate Listings Browse by City New! Home Loans Center - Find, Compare, & Graph Rates Find a Home Find a Rental City & State, or Zip: Price Range: $0 $30,000 $50,000 $80,000 $100,000 $125,000 $150,000 $175,000 $200,000 $225,000 $250,000 $275,000 $300,000 $350,000 $400,000 $450,000 $500,000 $550,000 $650,000 $750,000 $850,000 $1 million $1.25 million $1.5 million $1.75 million $2 million $2.25 million $2.75 million $3 million $3.5 million $4 million $4.5 million $5 million $6 million $8 million $10 million to No limit $30,000 $50,000 $80,000 $100,000 $125,000 $150,000 $175,000 $200,000 $225,000 $250,000 $275,000 $300,000 $350,000 $400,000 $450,000 $500,000 $550,000 $650,000 $750,000 $850,000 $1 million $1.25 million $1.5 million $1.75 million $2 million $2.25 million $2.75 million $3 million $3.5 million $4 million $4.5 million $5 million $6 million $8 million $10 million Beds: Any 1+ 2+ 3+ 4+ 5+ Baths: Any 1+ 1 1/2+ 2+ 3+ 4+ 5+ Search For: Existing Homes Yahoo! Classifieds New Homes Foreclosures Advanced Search Search Commercial Real Estate Mortgage Payments Calculate your biweekly & monthly payment for different loan amounts, interest rates and amortization terms. Loan Amount: $ Term (years): Interest Rate: % Show table?: Yes No See More Loan Calculators Sponsored Links New Homes and Home Builders - iNest iNest's guide to new homes and home builders in 19 states: AZ, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, MD, MI, MN, NC, NM, NV, OH, SC, TN, TX, VA, UT and WI. Save 1% on your new home with a cash back coupon. www.inest.com What's Your Home Worth? Thinking of selling your home? Wonder how much it might be worth? You can find out with a free home or property valuation at HouseValues.com. Click here to get started. www.housevalues.com Micro Mosaic Home Decoration Decorate your home with ancient mosaic reproductions, free color and size customization. Choose among 4000 designs. www.mosaicmarble.com (Become a Sponsor) Partner Spotlight Featured Sponsor Find a Local REALTOR by HomeGain • Find & Compare REALTORS • Get Home Prices Featured Videos Dream Home Videos by Inman Stories Real Estate News Financing your first real estate investment Dec 29, 2005, Inman News Top Mistakes of Home Buyers and Sellers in 2005 Dec 29, 2005, Realty Times Housing Affordability Hits 14-Year Low Dec 22, 2005, RealEstateJournal.com Home loan applications fall to over 3-1/2-yr low Dec 28, 2005, Yahoo! Finance Weekly Home Mortgage Rates (AP) Dec 28, 2005, Yahoo! News Despite Decline, Housing Still Strong Dec 28, 2005, Quicken Loans more real estate news Homes For Sale - Apartments For Rent - Current Mortgage Rates - Real Estate Agents - Local - Yellow Pages

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Find a Property - Properties for sale & rent from estate agents Find a Property - Home Property Search Estate Agents Property News Specialist Properties Browse All Areas Find your ideal house, flat or apartment for sale or rent Find a Property - Moving made easy Search 171,640 houses, flats and apartments for sale and rent through 3,617 estate agents. Area Guide Search for properties by area, with price guides, maps and local information Find a Property has 171,640 properties for sale and to rent throughout the UK and overseas. Review our estate agent list or start searching properties by location now... Property Prices How much is your house or flat worth? Review recent property price trends... Search all Editions 6,711 new properties for sale and to rent in the last 7 days Search for properties in... London (North of Thames) London (South of Thames) Surrey & Middlesex Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire & Essex Hampshire, Sussex & Kent Rest of UK Rest of Europe Rest of World Virtual Tours Get a 'real' feel for a property with a 'virtual' tour... Estate Agents Review a full list of letting and estate agents advertising on Find a Property Sector Inspector We talk to estate agents who focus on a particular corner of the property market... Specialist Properties Commercial property, new homes, investment properties and more... Dream Houses Forget the house price review the properties of your dreams... Premier Property The finest properties in some of England's prime residential locations New Homes for Sale New homes for sale and new build property developments Short Lets Properties available for short or holiday let and serviced apartments Commercial Commercial property from office and retail space to industrial sites Waterside Property River views, house boats, canal apartments... Investment Properties Buy to let, property development and investment opportunities Property Auctions A selection of properties for sale by auction Contemporary Properties Loft apartments, warehouse conversions and other contemporary property Property features Animal House (29 Dec 2006) Finding the perfect rented home can be difficult at the best of times; but for pet-owners especially, house-hunting can be an uphill struggle... more Oxford's Eco Home (16 Dec 2005) In 1997, George Marshall bought a rundown 1930s terraced house on an Oxford council estate. Then he did something rather unusual with it... more The Truth About ... Ex-Council Properties (15 Dec 2005) They're still within reach for hard-pressed first-time buyers and a tempting prospect for canny buy-to-let investors. But are ex-local authority properties really a safe bet? ... more Christmas: Far Away But At Home (09 Dec 2005) What could be more Christmassy than a holiday season in an exotic winter location - think hats and scarves and New York in the snow; or a barbecued turkey with all the trimmings, cooked on sizzling Bondi Beach... more Headlines Scotland's Year, Says Halifax 29 Dec 2005 It was a good year for Scottish house prices: nearly half of the top twenty increases were recorded by towns north of the border... more Huge Annual Increase In Mortgage Lending 23 Dec 2005 Gross mortgage lending in November was a whopping 30 per cent higher than the same month last year, says the CML... more NAEA: Christmas Cooldown In November 22 Dec 2005 The seasonal Christmas slowdown was evident in November, according to the latest survey from the National Association of Estate Agents... more Flat Year Ahead For House Prices 21 Dec 2005 A broadly flat market is what we can expect next year, according to a report from HBOS... more More news... Local Links A list of local guides, resources and directories Word on the Street This week's area info posted by local residents Top Top Find a Property - Home Property Search Estate Agents Property News Specialist Properties Browse All Areas Find a Property 2004 Advertise (estate agents only) Contact us (estate agents only) About us Privacy Policy Terms & Conditions

Real Estate Prices

DQNews - DataQuick Real Estate Headlines and Statistics -- December 29, 2005 DQNews Home | DataQuick | Forums | -- Release | Custom Reports Search -- i Updated: December 27, 2005 -- -- -- Real Estate News -- . -- DQNEWS HOME -- RECENT RELEASES Monthly for SoCal Monthly for Bay Area New! -- CA Monthly City Chart ZIP CODE CHARTS Updated Monthly: LA Times Zip Chart SD Union Tribune Chart OC Register Chart SF Chronicle Chart Sacramento Bee Chart Annual Charts: CA 2004 City Chart LA Times 2004 Chart OC Register 2004 Chart SD Tribune 2004 Chart SF Chronicle 2004 Chart Sac Bee 2004 Chart Updated Weekly: SJ Mercury News Chart California SoCal Area Bay Area -- REGIONAL CHARTS Phoenix 3Q05 Honolulu 3Q05 Las Vegas 3Q05 Portland 3Q05 Seattle 3Q05 Nashville 3Q05 Miami/Palm Bch 3Q05 Jacksonville, FL 3Q05 Denver 3Q05 Chicago 3Q05 CURRENT HEADLINES Home Sale Trends Mortgage Trends -- Foreclosures Million Dollar Homes Building Activity Other Feature Articles NATIONAL NEWS -- WEB SITE EXTRAS ARCHIVED ARTICLES -- Customized News Services -- -- Custom Reports Archived Zip Code Charts Archived Articles -- Enter your email address to receive DQNews Headlines by email: -- Who We Are -- -- -- Find Out More About DQNews -- -- California November Home Sales Report A total of 51,250 new and resale houses and condos were sold statewide last month. That's down 4.6 percent from 53,700 for October and down 3.8 percent from 53,250 for November 2004. A decline from October to November is normal for the season. full story Slower Bay Area home sales, steady price increase -- Bay Area home sales continued to slow on a year-over-year basis while prices continued to climb. . . full story -- -- Southland home sales strong, prices hit new peak -- Southern California home sales remained at near-record levels last month as prices continued their climb to new heights, the result of continued demand and the expectation that mortgage interest rates will continue to increase... full story California Foreclosures Edge Up Foreclosure activity in California showed a year-over-year increase during the last quarter for the first time in more than three years, the result of lower appreciation rates and riskier loans. . . full story Million-Dollar Home Sales Rise in Golden State -- More million-dollar homes were sold in California last year than in the two previous years combined . . . full story California's home buyers increasingly choose ARMs A rising portion of California's home buyers are financing with adjustable-rate mortgages as rising prices and rate increases earlier this year make it harder to buy. . . full story -- California Home Buyer Surnames for 2002 TOP TEN Most Common Last Names of California Home Buyers Name Rank Median Price Garcia 1 $197,000 Smith 2 $250,000 Nguyen 3 $300,000 Lopez 4 $195,000 Lee 5 $325,000 Hernandez 6 $189,000 Rodriguez 7 $189,000 Martinez 8 $197,000 Gonzalez 9 $192,000 Johnson 10 $242,000 **2002** Metropolitan Area Home Sale Charts Look up the median home price in your zip code Record sales to Hispanic home buyers Hispanic home buyers accounted for a record portion of California's home purchase activity during the third quarter, the result of socio-demographic gains and available mortgage financing. . . full story Homebuyers CA YTD2001 Rank Last Names 1 Garcia 2 Smith 3 Lee 4 Martinez 5 Hernandez -- DQNews Quick Data: $280 billion was added to the value of California's housing stock in annual appreciation last year. The median homeowner is 'making' $2,384 monthly just by owning a home. -- CALIFORNIA'S TOP HOMEBUYER LAST NAMES 2000 Rank Last Name Median price paid 2000 1990 Rank 1 Garcia $145,500 (4) 2 Smith $189,000 (2) 3 Lee $262,000 (1) 4 Johnson $182,000 (3) 5 Lopez $144,500 (7) 6 Martinez $146,000 (8) 7 Hernandez $141,750 (14) 8 Rodriguez $145,000 (6) 9 Nguyen $246,000 (13) 10 Gonzalez $140,750 (10) 11 Williams $175,000 (12) 12 Brown $183,000 (9) 13 Sanchez $145,000 (18) 14 Miller $205,750 (11) 15 Jones $179,750 (15) 16 Ramirez $138,000 (22) 17 Kim $265,000 (5) 18 Perez $148,500 (20) 19 Davis $178,000 (19) 20 Anderson $197,500 (17) 21 Martin $176,000 (23) 22 Flores $146,000 (30) 23 Gomez $147,000 (31) 24 Wilson $190,500 (25) 25 Tran $252,000 (43) CC Coming Up: Coming Up: Equity lending in Florida Washington state's $million home market Crunch for entry-level buyers - or not? Fannie, Freddie and the conforming limit (yawn...) Most boring neighborhoods: the list Texas home buyer names -- Foreclosure Sales: The number of home foreclosure sales in California was a low 709 in the third quarter of 2005. Last year there were 1,007 home foreclosure sales in the same time period. Top Lender Update: Wells Fargo Bank was California`s most active home mortgage lender in the third quarter of 2005, followed by Washington Mutual and Countrywide Home Loans - (ranked by residential loan $). Least Expensive Communities: In the 3rd quarter of 2005, the three CA cities with the lowest median price (and over 50 sales) were: Taft at $120,000, Twentynine Palms at $140,000 and Barstow at $142,000. Most Expensive Communities: In the 3rd quarter of 2005, the three CA cities with the highest median price (and over 50 sales) were: Rancho Santa Fe at $2,372,500, Newport Coast at $1,914,750, and Belevedere Tiburon at $1,765,000. Million Dollar Home Sales: 30 communities in CA had a median home price of over $1 million in the 3rd quarter of 2005 (with 50+ sales). There were eighteen cities in that category in 3Q04. Refi Trend: California residential refinancing activity in the third quarter of 2005 was up 9.8% from the third quarter of 2004 and up 8.0% from the second quarter of 2005. " -- . DATAQUICK IN THE NEWS -- Sacramento Bee Homes sales fall 21 percent Orange County Register O.C. housing prices back near peak The median sales price was $616,000 last month, $1,000 shy of August's record, and more gains will come next month, according to market tracker DataQuick. Los Angeles Times Southland Housing Sustains Solid Gains San Francisco Chronicle Bay Area boom easing Home sales slow a bit but price growth is still strong San Jose Mercury News Home price spiral eases MEDIAN PRICE IN SANTA CLARA COUNTY JUMPS ONLY $750 FROM MONTH AGO AS SALES DROP 5.8% San Diego Union Tribune Home sales have seen better days Prices up, but seasonal activity down for 17th straight month San Francisco Chronicle Foreclosures in Bay Area down 13% to a 14-year low Rapid increase in prices has helped reduce rate of default Los Angeles Times Loan Default Notices Rise for First Time in 3 Years New York Times Do Try This at Home: Assess Your Area's Real Estate Bubble Forbes Real Estate Strong Despite Higher Interest Money Magazine Cuckoo for Condos! USA Today Got $75M? Here's the house for you USA Today 'New urbanism' embraces Latinos Can't Find Sunday's Newspaper? Find your zip code here! LA Times 2001 Chart LA Times Zip Chart SD Tribune Chart OC Register Chart SF Chronicle 2001 Chart SF Chronicle Chart Sac Bee 2001 Chart Sacramento Bee Chart Updated Weekly: SJ Mercury News Chart -- DQNews Forums -- enter here -- -- View the DQNews News editorial policy. -- Contact us at info@DQNews.com | DQNews Home | DataQuick Homepage

Texas Land

Bush and the Texas Land Grab Bush and the Texas Land Grab July 16, 2002 By Nicholas D. Kristof Editorial Op-Ed To submit a Letter to the Editor: letters@nytimes.com Democrats and media hounds are baying under the wrong tree. The point in President Bush's business career where he took outrageous shortcuts was not at Harken Energy, but rather when he was grabbing land for a new baseball stadium in Arlington for his Texas Rangers baseball team. Mr. Bush broke no laws. Neither do the overwhelming majority of corporate executives. The cloud over the business world comes not so much from lawbreaking as from avaricious bruising of the public interest. The challenge is not catching criminals but injecting public scrutiny into a culture of cronyism in which executives, accountants, regulators and "independent" board members all ooze empathy for each other. When Asia had its economic crisis in 1997-98, Americans properly trashed its "crony capitalism." But we suffer from the same affliction ourselves, and President Bush will not address the issue seriously because cronyism has been his way of life -- the Bushes call it loyalty. I have a stack of court documents from Arlington that portray the "sordid and shocking tale" of the Rangers stadium, as one lawsuit puts it. Essentially, Mr. Bush and the owners' group he led bullied and misled the city into raising taxes to build a $200 million stadium that in effect would be handed over to the Rangers. As part of the deal, the city would even confiscate land from private owners so that the Rangers owners could engage in real estate speculation. "It was a $200 million transfer to Bush and Rangers owners," complains Jim Runzheimer, an anti-tax campaigner in Arlington. William Eastland, a leading Republican in Arlington, is also outraged, and puts it this way: "You're using public money for a private purpose." Mr. Eastland was a Bush delegate to the Republican National Convention in 2000 but still believes that the Bush group behaved shadily and against the public interest. Local voters overwhelmingly approved the deal, so maybe we shouldn't get so exercised by star-struck local officials giving $200 million to rich baseball owners. But the most unseemly part of the deal was that Mr. Bush and the Rangers' owners conspired with city officials to seize private property that would be handed over to the Bush group. "A group of wealthy and influential people threatened and traded their way into an unprecedented takeover of government power and private property in an awesome display of greed and avarice," charges a lawsuit by the landowners, in what strikes me as a fair recitation of events. Another suit charges that the deal "can only be described as astounding, unprecedented and blatantly illegal." A copy of the secret agreement among Mr. Bush and the other Rangers owners shows that they intended to make money not just by running a baseball club but also by land speculation. For example, one owner found a nice chunk of land and sent a memo suggesting that it "sounds like another condemnation candidate if you want to work the site into your master plan," according to the court documents. Another of the owners' internal memos casts a proprietary gaze on a property and declares: "We plan to condemn this land." For a group of financiers to go around town admiring properties and deciding which to seize through the government power of condemnation so that they can acquire free land and speculate on it is appalling. Even Kazakhstan would blush at such practices. Horace Kelton, for example, owned land that the Rangers wanted. The owners got Arlington to seize it, with the city paying less than $1.50 per square foot even though it had previously paid $10 a square foot for other land nearby. "It was an extremely low price, and that's why we had a court case that lasted seven years," Mr. Kelton recalled. Eventually, his family got $11 a square foot. In fairness, Mr. Bush was simply being a hard-nosed businessman. He did a great job leading the owners' group, and it's hard to take seriously the caricature of him as unintelligent when he led the Rangers so lucratively. Indeed, his $14 million profit on the Rangers financed his entry into politics. But it's also a sordid tale of cronyism, of misuse of power, of cozy backroom money-grubbing -- a more pressing threat to American business than outright criminality. LINK to source