Commercial Property

Buying your first home is exciting. No more rental payments to a landlord making money for someone else. Instead, you are purchasing your own home and investing in yourself. Money paid to your home mortgage is really investing in your future. It is no wonder that first time home buyers are so excited, sometimes so excited that they make mistakes. There are a few common mistakes of first time home buyers, which with some knowledge and direction can be avoided.

First of all, it is always good to research the housing market and see what is out there. Yes, the very first house you look at may look like its perfect, but there are others out there for sale too. Be sure to at least look at a few before deciding on the one you want to buy.

Watch the cost of the home, do not be swayed into thinking that you can not barter down the cost of the house, you probably can.

Insist on a home inspection by a qualified inspector. There are plenty of people who will provide you with a home warranty when you buy their house and try to sway you from having the house inspected.

Having a home warranty is important and many first time home buyers just don’t know that they should or could get one when they are buying an older home. Home warranties are not a new product; they’ve been around for many years, but many people think that they are for new homes only, not realizing that they can be purchased for older homes as well.

A home warranty makes great sense when you are purchasing an older home – you just don’t know the house very well until you’ve lived in it. A home warranty protects first time home buyers from major expenses for repairs and replacements that could come up.

A first time home buyer can make a major mistake if he or she does not understand that if something goes wrong, they are fully responsible to fix it. There is no landlord to call and the costs are all theirs to bear. This is one of the major reasons it is so important to invest in a home warranty when you purchase an older home. If any major repairs need to happen, most often the home warranty will cover the costs, making owning a home much more feasible.

When looking for a home warranty, it’s important to have a basic understanding of what you are looking for. When you talk to an agent, there are many questions that you need to ask to be sure you know what level of warranty you are getting. Questions to ask include:

What is covered with the home warranty? Most often the electrical system, plumbing system, heating system, cooling system/air conditioning, and major appliances that are covered under the warranty.

What is excluded from coverage with the home warranty? Most often this includes outdoor water, including the sprinkler system, faucet repairs, hot tubs, pools, spas and costs of hauling away debris and old appliances.

What are the rates/premiums? How much will you have to pay for the home warranty?

What is the deductible on the home warranty? The deductible is how much you will have to pay when you make a claim. Most often the deductible is $50, this amount will be deducted from the overall cost of the reparations paid by the warranty company.

How long is the warranty active for? Most often home warranties are offered in one year terms.

Is the warranty renewable at the end of the term? If you’ve purchased it yourself as the buyer, it is likely renewable. However, if the seller purchased the home warranty, it will not be renewable.

What are the terms of the warranty? When will the warranty be void? Most often if you’ve misused the item, or if it is not up to code or not installed properly, your warranty will be void and will not cover any reparations.

How are claims handled?

How do I make a claim?

With the above information, first time home buyers can avoid some of the serious mistakes that are usually made, and then go through with their home purchase knowledgeable and safe from the fall out of a potentially serious mistake. Mistakes such as the ones listed above can land a first time home owner in serious debt paying for repairs they were not prepared for financially. Owning a home of your own is very exciting, especially a first home, but make sure you go into it with your eyes open, your finances secure and a plan for the future should a problem rise with one of the major components of the home.

We couldn’t always trade online

There are many reasons to start trading online today and I’d like to address three of them.  Trading online has been around for a number of years now.  Prior to online trading, people would have to phone their broker for each individual trade.  This, for the active trader was a time consuming process and probably kept most people out of active trading.  With the creation of the web, access to trading grew exponentially.

The reasons you want to start trading online today

Lower Cost – Online trading is less costly than speaking with a broker.  Less people involved in any transaction is going to bring down the cost.  Typically if you trade by speaking with a broker you are going to pay on average between $20 and up to $50 for the trade.  The range of price depends on the broker, number of shares, and type of order.  Online trades can be as low as zero (usually with a minimum balance or minimum paid trades) to about $10 for larger orders.

Faster Executions – Speaking to a broker is fine and from my experience they will get your order in fast but not as fast as you can do it yourself.  Think of it like this.  When you’re speaking to a broker what do you think they are doing?  That’s right, they are looking at a screen that is probably a lot like yours and inputting the same order you would have input yourself.

Access to After Hours Trading – What happens to the broker at the end of the day?  Many of them go home and while there may be a night shift why take the risk.  Having online access means you can get in and out of positions round the clock.  So if news comes out you will be able to shift your positions around right then.  One caution here though is be sure the online broker offers after trading and don’t just assume it’s there. 

Brokers Like Online Traders

Another reason that commissions are lower for trading online is there is less risk to the broker.  You see if you all a broker and input an order verbally there is that chance that he is going to make a mistake.  If that happens and the market moves they have to pay for any losses you may suffer but cannot keep any gains.  This is the biggest thing brokers fear because one mistake can wipe out an entire years worth of commissions. Online trading reduces this risk substantially.

It’s a no brainer

So as you can see moving to start trading online today make a lot of sense.  It’s a win for you as the trader with lower costs, quicker executions, and after hour’s access.  So get out those web browsers and start looking into how you can start trading online today.

There are always new things to learn about real estate. Hopefully one or more of the following real estate investing tips will teach you something new and useful.

1. Time Your Sale For Tax Savings

We once had a December closing on a property that we had owned for a few months. By pushing the closing up to the first week of January, we were able to put off paying tax on the gain for a year. If you have a property to sell that will result in a taxable gain, you might also want to hold off the sale if it is near the end of the year. Consider also in which year you are likely to be in a higher tax bracket. If the tax will be substantially more in the following year it is better to close now and pay less.

2. Use Home Equity For Investing

Whatever people say about zero-down investing (and yes it is possible), it is easier and often more profitable to invest in real estate when you have some cash to work with. Short on cash for investing? You can borrow against your home if you have a good chunk of equity. An even safer way – if you are serious about investing – is to downsize to a smaller home to free up that equity. That way you get money to invest without having larger payments on your own home.

3. Check For Code Violations

Check for any code violations or problems before you buy (or put a contingency in the purchase agreement). Once, while looking at a property, we learned that in order to keep using a property as a triplex, we would have to provide two parking spaces for each unit. That just happened to be the rule in that particular community, and there were only three spots total at the time. Problems like this don’t have to be deal-breakers, but you need to know what the costs of bringing a property into compliance will be before you make an offer, or adjust your offer before you close the deal.

4. Crucial Clauses Your Offer Needs

If you are buying through a real estate agent they will most likely provide a purchase agreement for you to make your offer with. These normally cover the important points, but be sure you have the few truly important clauses in the contract. These include a financing contingency (unless you are paying cash) specifying that the offer is only valid if you can obtain a loan (and specify the terms you need on the loan). There should be a clause that gives you the right to an inspection and to renegotiate or cancel the contract if the results are not satisfactory. There should also be a “liquidated damages” clause (common in many pre-prepared contracts now), which says that if the deal falls through because of some fault of yours, the seller only gets to keep the good faith deposit. If there are other obvious issues, like junk that needs to be removed, be sure to address these in the offer as well.

5. Learn A Few Negotiation Techniques

This is one of the more important of these real estate investing tips, because your profit is often determined by how you buy a property. You might use the “limited authority” ploy, for example, to get a lower price when negotiating directly with a seller. This involves hesitating and saying something like, “Well, I would have to check with my wife to go any higher than this.” Hopefully the seller then imagines the wife saying no to the whole deal, and so agrees to what you are offering. There are dozens of great techniques used by master negotiators, but even learning and using just a few can boost your profits.