Home Buying Guides

Construction Loans – Understanding Pulls

Although building your own home or tackling a large remodeling project can be difficult the more you understand about the process and the better you plan ahead will give you that margin to deal with the unknowns.

You can think of it like planning a trip. You know where you are going to go and you know basically how much it will cost. You do some research on the …

Justifying Remodeling Projects With Resale In Mind

As homes are harder to sell and the cost of remodeling has increased the value of your next project needs to be weighed against the money you can expect to gain at time of resale. Even if you will be holding on to your home for 5 years or more calculating which project is an investment and which is a creature comfort that you should pass on is …

Understanding Flood Insurance

Some people believe that they are not at risk because their homes are located away from beaches and rivers but most locations can be effected by localized flash floods and when large disasters occure along large or even moderately sized waterways damage can extend for dozens of miles.

Flood insurance like earthquake coverage is a single peril insurance to protect your investment from dammage due to flood waters.

To be considered a flood the water …

Home Buying – First Right of Refusal

First Right of Refusal is part of most contracts that allow rights to both the seller and the buyer to continue the negotiation process if problems occur they can also be used to reserve the right for a known person to make an offer at any time a property is sold.

Lets look at some the instances that First Right of Refusal can be used and the benefits and drawbacks of these clauses.

The most common use of first right of refusal …

Determining the Sale Price of your Home

Whether you are buying or selling a home there are some simple
steps you can take to make sure the price is right.

Many people will say location is everything and to a certain degree this is true.
If you are moving into a heavily populated area there are definitely differences
that can boost or lower prices by distances that are under a mile.

If you are living in a rural area there are also distinct differences
like distance …

HowTo buy a HUD Home

So, you are looking into Hud Homes because you hear you can get them for a good price…. Lets look at what it takes to buy one and the process you need to follow.

First What is a Hud Home?
Hud The Department of Housing and Urban Development often gets homes that are up for foreclosure action on an FHA-insured mortgage and offers them for resale.  The homes are 1 to 4 unit residences that are offered for sale to recover the loan …

Pre Purchase Home Inspections

Pre-Purchase Home Inspections are important for any prospective property buyer for two big reasons. First it provides you information about the condition of the property so you can haggle price and second if the condition is such that improvement costs outweigh the resulting resale value or conditions are so bad that total demolition of the property is required you will know before you make any decisions.

If you are an …

Working with Contractors

As an investor your profit margin is much more important when you work with contractors then it may be for the average home buyer that feels a kitchen remodel will bring them money when they sell their home in 5 or 10 years.

The Contractor that you hire can make or break your profit in a number of ways.

Timelines- First is the contractor reliable enough to give you a specific time line for completion and then stick to that timeline.  The …

The MLS System

One of the resources that all property investors should make use of is their local and the national Multi Listing Service, MLS System.

The Realtors in your area and nationally depend on the MLS system to inform other Realtors about properties that are available by registered Realtors.

This does not mean that every property in a given location will be listed on the MLS system it just means that Realtors have come together to pool their power over the buying and selling …

Flipping Houses 101

Home ListingIn this special series of HowTos we will look at the in’s and out’s of home buying and selling for a profit.  There are many different levels of investors in the home improvement business and no matter where you start you should have an understanding of what you wish to accomplish and what it will take to get it done.

For some people it might just …