I am making my Kindle format eBook: Land Contract Homes for Investors available for free download on Amazon for one more day. Today (March 10, 2013) you can click on the image of this book, and go to Amazon to download your free copy of this book today. This book covers the subject of Land Contract Homes from an investor perspective, and gives insight into how to make such an investment successful.
It is the companion book to the first book entitled: Understanding Land Contract Homes: In Pursuit of the American Dream which was released just before this one in December 2012. This first book covers the subject for both the buyer and seller, and make the subject understandable and offers a basic outline of a Land Contracts use and application.
If you choose to download your free copy of Land Contract Homes for Investors, I would ask that you also click on the ‘Like’ button near the book down load area to share this with others. Additionally, when you are done reading it if you will come back to this link and write an positive review that will help share this valuable information with others, I would greatly appreciate it.
Land Contracts have long been in use in our country as a form of seller financing, however, the potential to the investor has not been fully realized. This book seeks to open some doors of understanding on the potential of utilizing land contracts as a means to further ones investment portfolio, and at the same time help others enjoy the opportunities of home ownership. It is a book that not only discusses the investment potential in an easy to read format, it also discusses the details of the components of the contracts themselves, as well as how to screen a potential buyer, market and sell the homes.
In December of 2012, I published two books on the subject of Land Contract homes. They are both available in the Kindle eBook format on Amazon. The first book is entitled: Understanding Land Contract Homes: In Pursuit of the American Dream. It covers the basic subject for both buyers and sellers, and help one understand the fundamentals of how they work, how to structure them and where best to find them. The second book is entitled: Land Contract Homes for Investors. This book covers the subject from an investor point of view, and how to provide Land Contract Homes as a form of seller financing, and make it a great investment opportunity while doing so. Both books are regularly available for just $2.99 each.
As a special promotion, I am making my book: Land Contract Homes for Investors available for free today on Amazon. You can click on the link on the book title here, or on the image of the book to download you copy free today (March 9th, 2013) and avail yourself of this information to get you started as an investor. I ask in return that when you go to the link, you take a moment and click on the ‘Like’ button to encourage others to also look into my books in the future. Additionally, if you could author a positive review of your own for my book, I would greatly appreciate it. You can do this on this link as well.
Land Contract homes have long been in use, and understanding their benefit to investors is a information that I always wanted to share. There is tremendous potential in this form of seller financing, and this book: Land Contract Homes for Investors explores this potential. It covers the different scenarios, and even addresses capital gains, finding properties, screening buyers, and structuring the land contract so everyone wins.
In December of 2012, I published two eBooks on the subject of Land Contracts in a Kindle format on Amazon. The first title was: Understanding Land Contract Homes: In Pursuit of the American Dream. This covered the basics of the subject, bot both buyers and sellers to understand not only the mechanics of how they work, but also how to structure them, where to find them, etc. The second book I released is entitled: Land Contract Homes for Investors and this book specifically serves as an information guide to investors who might consider selling a home on Land Contract.
Both of these books are available on Amazon, and have been selling very well since their release. Today only (February 14th, 2013) I am making available the book: Land Contract Homes for Investors for free on Amazon. One can just click on the link of the book cover image and be take to where you can download it for free. I am making this available to help new investors who want to get a start. I would ask that when you visit the link that you take a moment to ‘Like’ it while there by clicking the ‘Like’ button. Also, when you are done reading the book, if you could return and post a positive review for others to read as well.
Land Contract Homes are an area of interest to many who are struggling with difficult financial times. These books help to provide understanding on how Land Contracts can be used to achieve the goal of home ownership for those who need a period of time to recover their finances. I hope that if you are reading this, you will spread the word to others about my books on the subject, and take advantage of the free copy available today. I wish you the all the best.
This new edition has updated links, and a new cover design as well!
The following article was provided by the National Association of Realtors®:
WASHINGTON (January 7, 2013) – Real estate-related searches on Google.com have grown 253 percent over the past four years, according to a joint study from the National Association of Realtors® and Google.
“These results parallel the trends shown in NAR’s economic research reports,” said NAR President Gary Thomas, broker-owner of Evergreen Realty in Villa Park, Calif. “As home sales and prices continue to trend up, more people are regaining confidence to invest in their future through homeownership.”
NAR and Google that examines the connection between consumer Internet use and online home search and shopping patterns. The study leverages NAR’s custom research and Google’s proprietary and third-party research. Google collaborated with Compete in 2011 and 2012 to survey and analyze the behaviors of people in the market for new and existing homes. That research focused on people who had completed an online “conversion”– taking the next step of contacting an agent or requesting additional information from a real estate brand’s website.
According to the analysis, buyers used specific online tools at different points during their home search process. Buyers tend to rely on search engines and general websites when they begin their search, use maps more in the middle of the process, and engage mobile applications most toward the end of their search.
Using the internet to shop for homes is common.
In their online search queries, first-time buyers frequently searched terms like “FHA loan,” “FHA,” “home grants,” “home loan,” and “home buyer assistance.” Last year, more than four out of 10 first-time buyers purchased their homes with a Federal Housing Administration-insured mortgage.
“The fact that first-time buyers are looking for information about FHA loan programs and home buyer assistance underscores some of the challenges today’s home buyers face in today’s tight credit environment,” said Thomas. “Realtors® are excellent sources of information and can help buyers navigate the mortgage financing process.”
Both first-time and repeat buyers rely on Realtors® in their home search. According to the 2012 NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, multiple listing service websites and Realtor.com were the top two websites used in recent home searches. Realtor.com, NAR’s official property listing website, attracts an average of more than 20 million unique visitors per month. Mirroring the Google/NAR study, search activity on Realtor.com has picked up significantly in recent months – a 31 percent increase nationwide between March and October of this year.
According to Google internal data, the five states with the highest number of online queries
Selling Your Home in Battle Creek, Michigan requires traditional and modern methods of online marketing.
from people who can be presumed to be first-time buyers were Delaware, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Dakota and Wyoming. Queries related to retirement homes were highest in Nebraska, North Carolina, Oregon, Virginia and Washington. For vacation home searches, the top five states were Florida, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina and South Dakota.
According to data from Realtor.com, today’s buyers search most frequently on numbers of bedrooms and bathrooms; square footage; garages; heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems; and swimming pools. These home features represent 70 percent of all searched features on the site.
Mobile devices are significantly changing the way people search for homes, as well. According to results from Google’s aforementioned home shopper research with Compete, 48 percent of people who used a mobile device in their home search used the device to get directions to homes for sale, and 45 percent used the device to request more information about specific home features or real estate services.
“Increasingly, online technologies are driving offline behaviors, and home buying is no exception,” said Google Head of Real Estate Patrick Grandinetti. “With 90 percent of home buyers searching online during their home buying process, the real estate industry is smart to target these people where they look for and consume information – for example through paid search, relevant websites, video environments, and mobile applications.”
“Technology has transformed the way Realtors® do business, but in real estate, high tech doesn’t come at the expense of high touch,” said Steven Berkowitz, CEO of Move, Inc., which operates Realtor.com. “Rather than displacing real estate agents, the Internet is actually helping connect them with home buyers. And Realtors® are responding by leveraging resources like Realtor.com, Facebook and YouTube to engage buyers and sellers in ever-evolving ways.”
The National Association of Realtors®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing 1 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.
Information about NAR is available at www.realtor.org. This and other news releases are posted in the “News, Blogs and Video” tab on the website.
I have been an active blogger for over 4 years now, and I have been a writer all my life. I have started many projects, and have many incomplete books in drawers on various topics covering both my experiences and knowledge I have acquired, and wanted to share with others. Until 2012, I never really had broken through and published any of my works, other than share information I learned on my blogs.
My first published work available now as an eBook in Kindle format on Amazon.
In December of 2012, I finally published my first two books. They were a combined project that took me six months to compile into a book format, and I was determined to self publish them. I finally released both of these book just before Christmas.
Both of these books are in the field of real estate, and there will likely be many other topics that I write about in this subject field. However, I have many other books in the planning stages which I intend to release this year in 2013, that are on sales, marketing and even a memoir of 15 years as professional stained glass artist. The book I am working on right now is about sharing my experiences as a sales manager, and the lessons I learned. I hope to have this available for sale in January or February of 2013.
Writing has always been my ambition from the time I was a young man. I wrote short books with my younger brother when I was 9 or 10 years old, and even glued and bound them to share with my parents. They were on crazy humorous topics that we as kids were interested in, but they were representations of my first ambitions as a writer.
Currently my plans include only making books available in eBook format, but I may offer some selected titles in traditional paper form later this year. I look forward to an exciting 2013, and wish everyone who reads this a Happy and Prosperous New Year!
I recently published a new book entitled ‘Land Contract Homes for Investors‘ which addresses the subject of Land Contracts from an investors perspective. Buyers in Michigan where I am a licensed Realtor have often approached me inquiring about the existence of homes for sale on Land Contracts. Many want to become homeowners, and there are often few homes available on the market. Often this is because they are sold quickly when they are, and the other reason is not enough investors are educated on the benefits of seller financing.
Land Contract Homes for Investors was written to help fill the gap of missing knowledge out there for investors seeking new ways to survive in real estate during the current times of high foreclosures, and challenging financing terms offered by conventional lending. Seller financing by means of a Land Contract or ‘Contract for Deed‘ as it is sometimes called offers a great return on investment that at present is even superior to most people’s 401K stocks, bonds and mutual funds.
My first book entitled: Understanding Land Contract Homes: In Pursuit of the American Dream was written to educate both buyers and sellers in the process. This second book however, is to educate the investor into the advantages and how to survive successfully in using seller financing to build their investment portfolio. It also addresses issues that were not relevant in the first book, such as capital gains, means to defer capital gains and what exactly are the best ways to market a Land Contract home to find the right buyer.
So Land Contract Homes for Investors is a new viewpoint on the subject, and it is entirely that of the investors viewpoint. It is about not only profit, but also purpose. You will find insight in the book about how to succeed, as well as what to avoid in this type of investment activity.
My first published book went live on Amazon on the 23rd of December, 2012. It is entitled: Understanding Land Contract Homes: In Pursuit of the American Dream. It is an eBook available on Amazon in the Kindle format. I intend to release perhaps in the second quarter of 2013 in the Nook format, but for now it is available only on the Kindle format.
Land Contracts have been a continuous topic of interest for new home buyers since I have been in real estate. I encounter so many new prospective buyers who begin with their first question to a Realtor “Do you have any homes on Land Contract?” which is usually a signal to me that they have little understanding of the subject other than they heard it was a good deal easier than going through a conventional loan process. Also they have taken a bite of the Urban Legends surrounding Land Contracts that they are just like renting, and you move in and start making payments with little or no money down. Although I will admit that some people to offer these terms, they usually do not last very long as homeowners if they accept a home with a shoe strong budget, and no additional resources available to them for repairs and upgrades to a home.
In any case, this book seeks to educate prospective buyers and sellers alike in to the function and use of Land Contracts as a form of seller financing. It also discusses some of the issues that both buyer and seller need to be cautious of when engaging in such an agreement. However, the book is about inspiring people to pursue the American Dream as well, so it is more than just a common ‘how-to’ book. I hope you will take the time to purchase my book on Amazon, and read it and let me know what you think.
When you are in the process of buying a foreclosure, there are some things that might happen at closing in Michigan that it is good information to be prepared for. This may also apply to other states, but I know this information to be a fact in Michigan, as I have experienced this as a Realtor helping people buy many foreclosures.
Knowing a few things about what might happen at closing can help you be prepared.
When you go to a closing, if you are paying cash, your closing should be relatively fast, usually taking about a half hour to sign the required papers. If you are financing, you need to prepare for at least a half hour to as much as an hour, depending on what type of loan you are taking out to buy the home. The government type loans, such as VA Guaranteed, FHA and USDA Rural Development for example usually take more time as there are more required documents to sign than conventional loans.
One of the things that might happen at a closing in Michigan is that you will have completed all of the signing, and pay any required payments, and then be informed that you will not be able to receive your keys until the seller signs. You then learn that the seller is not present, and the package needs to be overnighted to another location for their signatures.
Essentially what is happening in that circumstance is that you are attending what is called a ‘Witness Only’ closing. What this means is that the seller, which is usually a bank or mortgage company, is using a centralized title company in the state you live in, and then hiring a local title company close to you that is having your sign documents as a witness. In Michigan the centralized title companies typically used by the banks and mortgage companies are based mostly out of the Detroit area, or sometimes in Lansing.
Where the orders to ‘withhold keys’ comes from is usually the asset manager’s instruction
Foreclosures can offer some subtle differences when it comes to closings.
to the listing agent on how to disperse keys. Some are more strict on this issue than others, and more recent you do not see this happening as much, however it does happen. As a Realtor who represents a lot of buyers, I usually try to work through this issue to get the keys for my buyers at closing and am usually successful.
In either case, the worse case scenerio is that you have to wait a couple of days to receive your keys. With that in mind, I usually recommend to buyers that they do not plan anything to be done or delivered to the house immediately following closing until we know more about when the closing is going to occur, and what the disposition of the seller is in regards to possession of the property and the subject of keys.
Buying a foreclosure in Michigan usually means things are coordinated through a central title company in Detroit or Lansing.
Other things you can expect at closing is that you will be required to present to the title company a copy of a picture ID, which is usually a drivers license with most people. In case you do not have a drivers license, you will need to bring a picture ID of some form.
Additionally, any funds you are required to bring to closing, be it a loan or cash sale, will need to be certified funds. This means you will need a certified check from your bank or credit union. The funds are usually payable to the title company handling the closing, so coordinate with your Realtor on who this is.
If you are looking to buy a home in Southwest Michigan, and are interested in foreclosure properties, give me a call at: 269-441-8182 or contact me through my website at: www.michaeldelaware.com.
When one is looking to take some investment dollars away from Wall Street, and placing it on Main Street in residential investment property, where does the average investor begin? There are countless ‘do it yourself’ investor groups out there on the internet, and many have some good information, but others I have found will lead a new investor into the ditch.
There are many great deals around Southwest Michigan these days.
It is important to have a basic foundation of understanding on the subject, to avoid costly mistakes. One key piece of advice I can offer as a Realtor is to do some homework. What kind of homework? Well for one, study the city you intend to invest in with residential rentals. Ask some other landlords in the area. A good way to reach them is through a landlord association.
Find out what areas of the City do they have a demand for rental homes. Are there any areas that they never seem to have trouble getting tenants? What are the rents? Ask these questions of several different landlords, and plot some of this information on a map. This will help you get a feel for where the demand is.
You will also want to check with the local police department, and find out where the
Investment homes are a growing trend.
troubled areas of the city are, and places they suggest you avoid. I once had an experienced investor describe the perfect neighborhood as one that “You can send your Grandmother to collect rents at on a Saturday night, and have no worries.” As humorous as it sounds, you may have to go collect once in awhile, and this will make sense to you when faced with that situation.
I created a short video on some of this information for the new investor, and have included it here in this blog. If you would like some more information on investment property in Southwest Michigan, give me a call at: (269) 441-8182 or contact me through my website at: www.michaeldelaware.com.
Buying a home on land contract in Michigan is often a route those with a troubled credit history will explore. To have the desire to buy a home, and then have the disappointment of having a poor credit history which results in a denial from a lender is not often easy to experience.
Buying a home on land contract may be a good choice if you have poor credit, but good income and can offer the seller a sizeable down payment.
Buying a home on land contract in Michigan
is often sought as an alternative to taking to the time to repair ones credit in order to receive lender financing. What a buyer must realize in buying a home on land contract in Michigan is that one can work with a seller in most cases with the poor credit history, but one must be able to demonstrate strengths in other areas in order to have the seller serious consider you as a candidate.
For one, you must be able to demonstrate income. This income is usually in the form of money earned from work, but can be other sources such as a pension, structured settlement or in some cases government assistance.
However, with government assistance you most likely will be required to show evidence of this payment program, and length of time you will be receiving it, as a land contract is generally a long term commitment and short term government assistance alone is not enough to substantiate a stable and reliable income source.
Therefore, as with any income, one should also expect to not only demonstrate income, but length of employment, and stability of the income line. Buying a home on land contract in Michigan also requires one put a down payment. This can vary, but most sellers I work with as a Realtor I encourage to try to get at least 10% of the purchase price, and in some cases more, depending on the sales price.
The reason for this is it makes the buyer come forth with a commitment to the long term purchase of the home, and a buyer who puts down a large down payment is less likely to default on the contract down the road. So essentially anyone interested in buying a home on land contract in Michigan should realize that the lower a down payment, the more risk the seller is taking on, and the higher the down payment, the less risk there is for the seller. So, one way to overcome a poor credit history is to offer the seller a sizeable down payment along with demonstrating ones income sources.
make the subject understandable and offers a basic outline of a Land Contracts use and application.
