Every real estate professional knows that the first impression a buy gets of a property is when they first drive up to the house. It is called “Curb Appeal” and if you don’t have it, you risk losing the buyers interest in the property before they even get out of their car. Most real estate professionals know the importance of curb appeal. Real estate investors will spend a lot of time and money creating a good curb appeal for the property before they ever put the for sale sign in the yard.

Buy what do you do in the winter to create the kind of curb appeal that will not turn buyers away before they even get out of their cars? This is a big challenge in the middle of the winter, but there are a few things to concentrate on and we will cover a few of them. I did however find one thing that a few people have done, even though they might not have their house up for sale, it gave me ideas on how to create that curb appeal that buyers like. Watch the following video and you can find many more examples just like this one from Youtube.com.

The most important item to concentrate on in the winter, if you have snow is to make sure that the driveways and sidewalks are clean and clear. The best thing is to use a snow blower rather than a plow or a shovel. Reason being if you are trying to attract a first time home buyer and they see a huge pile of snow from a plow, they will wonder if they will be able to move that much snow on their own without a plow. If they see the snow banks and the markings of a shovel, they will think about their backs. However, if they see a nice clean edge on the driveway without any banks or piles, they will think that this looks nice and clean.

At Christmas time, decorate with Christmas lights. You don’t need much, just enough to light up the house at night. Don’t put plastic on the windows. This is a big no no and buyers will know the reason you did it. Hang a Christmas wreath outside to give the sense of greenery. If possible, trim low hanging branches of trees in the front yard.

There is not a lot you can do with curb appeal in the winter, but a few small things can go a long way. Always be conscious of the way a property looks when you pull up to the house and look for little things that you can do to help the overall curb appeal.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Years and Happy Holidays to all,
Santa

As a real estate investor and a student of technology I have been preaching for a long time that every serious real estate investor should look into taking advantage of the incredible reach technology provides us. While looking through some archives I found an old radio interview where I had been the special guest and shared my ideas on thinking outside the box, using technology to boost business, and essentiality of having a website. The original interview can be heard in its entirety here at Realty Talk Radio:
http://www.realtytalkradio.com/index.php/component/content/58?task=view

Looking back at this interview we have come a long way since the interview (aired 2/21/2006) and I still hold the same views on the subject. The internet is one of the most incredible tools ever to come our way, a complete transformation in how information is sought and exchanged is something that cannot be ignored. Every business card you hand out, every bandit sign you stake in the ground, each promotional item you print up, and all other advertisement that does not have a website address with a website behind it can be considered a waste of money.

For years I have been working on creating websites for the real estate investor who doesn’t want to put in the time and money to develop the site and then have to add another significant monthly expense keeping someone around to do updates, fix bugs and monitor the web hosts stability so the site is always working. There is a lot that goes into creating a website where even a quick simple independent site will require numerous costs that can be confusing and you still don’t know if it’s going to work. Your hands on ability to update your site and control its content depends on your computer savvy, but typically most real estate investors aren’t knowledgeable in such things.

After years of work we have finally released our brand new real estate websites that fit perfectly into the real estate investors business. As a real estate investor myself, I’ve run into many of the same problems that anyone else would have and have taken all of those lesson and integrated them into our websites. Let me go over a few of these issues and how I have designed the websites to make the best of them.

Problem #1 – We aren’t accessible 24/7, some sellers maybe hesitant to call on the phone but would be more open to something a little more impersonal. More...

As prices drop, foreclosures go up and interest rates fall, there has never been a better time to buy. Whether you are an investor or a first time home buyer, now is the time to buy. So why are most people just sitting on the fence? According to the Minneapolis Association of Realtors the median sales price fell to $175,000, that’s down 19.2 percent from the same time last year and the lowest November showing since 2001.

With all the bail outs and market uncertainty, buyers are waiting to see how low prices will drop. Meanwhile those buyers still need housing which is making for a strong rental market.

Buyers are willing to Lease with the Option to Buy, but they are not willing to put down a lot of money for fear of property values dropping even further and losing their non refundable option consideration because they have opted to not exercise their option to buy.

These market conditions are creating an artificially low price. I believe that once the credit market settles down, real estate values will stabilize and maybe even increase slightly right away. The only question is, when will this happen? I can't answer that, but I do know that now is a great time to buy and hold. Properties at these prices are cash flowing very well today, so why wait to see where prices will stop falling and pass up one all that cash flow and depreciation to someone is going to get, so it might as well be you.

We know that the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 otherwise known as the $700 Billion dollar bailout bill was never intended to buy up the defaulted loans that the banks are holding onto, right?  And we also know that the bailout bill has increased to several trillion dollars, that’s Trillion with a “T”.  But what about the bad loans on the banks books, wasn’t that the purpose of the bailout bill in the first place?  Well yes, originally it was.  Do you remember the original 3 page bailout bill that President George Bush proposed, but was voted down?  The finally bailout bill that was passed one week later was 450 pages long and they must have excluded the 3 original pages which was supposed to direct the bailout to buy up all those bad notes that the banks were holding.

It boggles the mind to see what is happening with all that money that we the tax payer is going to have to pay for, for many generations to come.  There is a few extremely large banks getting the money, but they aren’t even using it to cover the bad debt that they have on the books, they are using it to buy other banks with very little bad debt.  Basically what we are doing with the money right now is giving it to the biggest financial institutions and telling them to use that money to buy smaller companies that weren’t reckless with their money so that you can become so big, that you will be able to do whatever you want and we won’t be able to let you ever fail again.  We will have to bail you out from now on.  And it seems that Americans are ok with this.  I for one am not, and I have been trying to get other people to see what is really going on, but no one wants to listen.

Banks and lending institutions are now sitting on billions of dollars of bad debt and non performing assets.  So who is going to buy them up, like President George Bush originally asked for?  Americans, that’s who.  Government has failed America yet again and it is up to Americans to bail ourselves out.  There are RIET’s and Hedge Funds and other venture capital groups looking at buying up these non-performing assets from smaller banks and financial institutions all across America.  One such company that I am working with HSA has RIET’s and Hedge Funds that are looking for these smaller companies in your area and they need your help getting the word out to the institutions that have this bad paper on their books.  Most of these smaller banks and financial institutions don’t know who to turn to, to buy up millions of dollars of bad debt, now that the government has turned their back on them.  If you are an HSA member, then you can even earn a nice commission for helping out your local banks and financial institutions.  So if you know of any banks or other companies that have non-performing assets let them know that you have an investor with millions of dollars to buy their bad paper.

This is my first ever blog post, but what better time to start one then right now.  We have had a very interesting year featuring a myriad of different twists and turns.  When we started out the year, we basically knew where we were headed and by the end of the year, no one knew which way to turn next.   Every day something new happens and I have had so many thoughts and concerns that I decided it was time to start writing and share them with you on a regular basis.  I want your comments and feed back as we take on the golden era of real estate investing.

I am actually very excited about the real estate market that we find ourselves in right now.  Many of us have been saying that this is one of the best times in our lifetimes to be an investor, and the closer we get to the end of the year, the more real that statement becomes.  The government keeps stepping in to bail out everyone except the ones who actually need the bail out.  While that may seem cynical, it has presented us with even more opportunities and the longer the government tries to figure out what to do, more confusion lingers in the market.  This only prolongs our window of opportunity as investors.

Prices have dropped and rents have increased to a point where we can, if we have the knowledge and resources, create a very good cash flowing portfolio for a long time to come.  It has become very difficult for the average homeowner to qualify for FHA and Conventional mortgages which has created a need for an industry that has been demonized by the media and politicians over the last few years.  But today, even though they are not apologizing to us, they are quietly asking for our help and creative initiative to step in and help fix this economy.  It is now our time to shine!