HOME MORTGAGE RATES AT AN ALL TIME LOW

You may qualify for a down payment and closing costs grant. Just went to a recent seminar regarding loan options and a new Welcome Home financial assistance for first-time home buyers. If you are considering buying a home call me and I will get you in touch with a great loan officer that can explain all of the home buyer programs that are currently available. If you are renting you may be shocked with these numbers. Why pay rent when you can get the advantages of homeownership? When you buy a home instead of renting, you get the benefits only homeowners can receive:
-Tax deductions
-An investment in your future
-Help you build equity
-Home payment can be about the same or less than rent in some cases

Rent Payment Loan Amount Principal Interest Payment
$600 $ 90,000 $526
$700 $100,000 $584
$800 $125,000 $730
$900 $150,000 $875
$1000 $160,000 $933
$1100 $175,000 $1021
$1200 $200,000 $1167

What a great time to buy a new home. Call me today to find out how.
Julie Shook 419.467.7653
julieshook@bex.net

2810 Densmore, Toledo, OH 43606 US Toledo Home for Sale – RE/MAX Masters Real Estate

2810 Densmore, Toledo, OH 43606 US Toledo Home for Sale – RE/MAX Masters Real Estate.

SURVEY SAYS…..

According to the AAA of Northwest Ohio Public Affairs Survey rank the following factors of importance to peoples choice of places to live. 

Most important cost of housing 2. Crime rate 3. Quality of school system 4. Proximity to job 5. Access to major roads and interstates 6. Desire to get “out of the city” 7. Ability to walk to necessary amenities 8. Access to public transportation 9. Availability of bike lanes 10. Desire to gravitate towards the city to be “where the action is” 

They asked the question do you favor or oppose leasing the Ohio Turnpike to a private company in order to generate funds for the State of Ohio? 28% in favor and 72% oppose

A big deal here in Toledo, Ohio is the photo enforcement to issue tickets to drives who speed and/or go through “red” lights. How many of you know that most of that money is sent to the State of Arizona and not kept here for our own tax payers? That’s right! Such systems photograph vehicles that exceed the speed limit and mail tickets to the owner of the vehicle, even if you were not the driver. The survey asked, “at what speed over the posted limit should these systems begin to issue tickets on varying kinds of roadways?” Then they stated different types, ie schools zones, residential streets, interstate, etc. I believe they should not be able to use the red/speed cams at all, they are unconstitutional at any cost and we are paying for them. 

 

BALANCING YOUR WORK AND PLAY

Ever feel like the weekend is not long enough, especially a holiday weekend. Then the kids are home for an extra week and what do you do? Maybe your job is stressing you out. Sixty percent of women name stress as their biggest problem at work. Stress can affect your productivity on the job, your quality of life at hoe, and even your health. That is why finding a balance between work and relaxation is so important. Here are a few things you can do to make sure you are working hard but also taking “YOU” time that you so deserve.

Limit Stress. Talk to your boss about difficulties at work. Leave your desk at lunch to get a change of venue. If you work out of the home, make your day a combination.

Know when to ask for help. Whether it is a pile of paperwork or kids who need homework help, there are never enough hours in the day. You need to know when to ask for help. Enlist someone to help you at home and talk to your boss about your job responsibilities.

Get some exercise. I can never stress this enough. Exercise is not only a great way to stay healthy, it can also be a huge stress reliever. Exercise does not have to be at a gym, it could be walking the dog, pushing a stroller or running the stairs. Exercise is a way I clear my mind, put focus back into my life and it is very healthy for my over all body, mind and soul. Contact me if you need help getting started I have many programs for you to try.

Have You Thought of Real Estate Investing for Your Future

5 Common Mistakes Of New Real Estate Investors

Investment for the taking

Published on: Friday, March 26, 2010
Written by: Bill Bronchick

For new real estate investors, learning what mistakes to avoid can reduce risk and prepare you for success. Often these mistakes can be easily corrected with the right education. See the following article from REIClub to learn more.

“Real estate investing fever” has hit like a plague. Zillions of “newbie” investors are jumping on the bandwagon trying to make a profit after losing big in the stock market. I meet them all the time, and many are making big mistakes!

Mistake #1: Stock Market Mentality

You’d think after losing $7 trillion in the stock market, people would have learned! Nope, they are making the same mistake, which is assuming that what happened yesterday will happen tomorrow. Nine of ten new investors I meet say they are interested in real estate because they saw someone else make money from the rapid appreciation of the market over the last few years.

But, buying real estate solely for short-term appreciation is often a big gamble! If you buy real estate to hold for fifteen years or more, the chances are that you will come out on top. If you buy a property and flip it in within a year, you’ll probably do fine, too. And, despite the risk, many people can intelligently time the “boom” of a local market (or subdivision within a market) and make a profit. But, if you buy a rental property for full-market price with break even or negative cash flow, you’d better have a backup plan if the market doesn’t keep going up. Investing is a lot like surfing; if you don’t know how to ride the wave, you will drown!

So, should you refrain from investing if you think the market has peaked? Absolutely not! You can find bargain-priced properties in every market, even the hottest. You can find low-interest rate financing that will increase your cash flow, so if values drop, you still are covered. You can plan short-term (six to twelve months) because markets rise and fall slowly. And, if you keep a cash reserve for your business, you won’t sweat when the market tanks. You know that in the long run, real estate markets virtually always come back.

Mistake #2: Investing Blind

You’d think after losing $7 trillion in the stock market people would have learned! Nope, they are making the same mistake–blindly buying real estate based on bogus advice or complete lack of education. Real estate is one of the few investments in which risk is directly proportional to knowledge. True, it has a higher learning curve than investing in the stock market, but there’s no proof that having knowledge of the stock market reduces risk (just ask your mutual fund manager).

I read a comment on a real estate discussion group on the Internet. In response to an inquiry as to whether a particular seminar or training program was worth the money, someone answered, “Why waste your money on that stuff? Just use your money as a down payment and learn as you go.” This is probably the worst advice you could ever give a beginner. Money for deals is easy to find if you can find good deals. But, you won’t know what a good deal is without having first invested in your education! The more knowledge of investing techniques, financing, acquisition, negotiating and, of course, your local marketplace, the less risky your investments will be. A bargain real estate purchase will generally always be a safe investment; a bargain stock purchase isn’t. After all, who says the company you bought into will be in business next year?

Mistake #3: No Cash Reserves

Ask anyone in real estate long term (or any other business, for that matter), and they will tell you the two most important words for survival are: cash flow. Heck, even K-Mart failed to learn that valuable lesson! In order to stay in real estate long term, you need cash reserves. Buying real estate nothing down is easy; handling negative cash flow, repairs, and other expenses in the meantime is the trick. In fact, if you can handle the bad times, you will always come out on top. Lack of cash reserves puts unnecessary pressure on you to do substandard repairs, accept less than qualified tenants, and give into tenants’ demands for fear of vacancy. When you have a sufficient cash reserve, you act rationally.
You hold out for a higher sales price.
You hold out for a qualified tenant.
You leave properties vacant rather than accepting unqualified tenants.
You call a tenant’s bluff when they threaten to leave.
You take care of necessary repairs and improvements on your properties.
It’s a whole different ball game than operating from a lack of cash. Like I said, buying properties with no money down isn’t hard; it’s handling the cash flow. In other words, you can buy real estate without money, you just can’t survive in business without cash reserves. Consider accumulating cash reserves before investing in rental properties.

Mistake #4: Being Greedy

Many investors get started flipping properties to other investors, which is a good idea to generate cash reserves. However, you must be realistic about how much profit is in a deal. If there is a potential for a $20,000 profit in a rehab project, you can’t expect to make $10,000 flipping that property to a rehabber. A rehabber has a huge risk embarking in such a project and wants a large enough profit to justify the risk.

For example, if a house needs $10,000 in repairs, and the rehabber investor wants to make at least a $20,000 profit. If you find a deal with $20,000 in profit potential, how could you expect to get $10,000 for flipping the property if the rehab investor is only going to make $10,000? You should be happy making $2,500 and moving on to the next deal. If you want to make more than $2,500 on such a deal, then you must find and negotiate a better bargain that has more profit potential.

Mistake #5: Treating Real Estate as Anything Other Than a Business

People are lured to real estate because of the quick buck it promises. Don’t hold your breath–you won’t get rich quick. An “overnight sensation” usually takes about five years. More than 90% of the people who take a real estate seminar quit after three months. Why the high fallout rate? Lack of action and unrealistic expectations. Investing should be treated with the seriousness of a career. It takes months, even years for a business to cultivate customers and have a life of its own. You need to treat real estate like any other business.

Give yourself at least six months to see if real estate works for you. It may even take a year before you buy your first property. Maybe in the second year you will buy three or four properties. If you work hard at it and keep your eyes and ears open, you may even find your first deal in 30 days. You will not make money by talking or thinking about it; you must go out and take action.

William Bronchick, CEO of Legalwiz Publications, is a Nationally-known attorney, author, entrepreneur and speaker. Mr. Bronchick has been practicing law and real estate since 1990, having been involved in over 600 transactions. He has appeared as a guest on numerous radio and television talk shows including CNBC Power Lunch. He has been featured in Who’s Who in American Business, Money Magazine, the Los Angeles Times and the Denver Business Journal. William Bronchick has served as President of the Colorado Association of Real Estate Investors since 1996.

This article has been republished from REIClub. You can also view this article at REIClub, a real estate investment education site.

Home Buyers Tax Credit

A first time buyer is defined as someone who has not owned a home in the last three years. If you are a first time home buyer, your tax credit will amount to 10 percent of the purchase price of your new home not to exceed $8,000.

A long time resident is defined as someone who has lived in the same primary home for 5 out of the past 8 years. If you are a long term resident, your tax credit will amount to 10 percent of the purchase price of your new home not to exceed $6,500.

The tax credit does not need to be paid back if you continue living in the home as your primary residence for three years without selling it.

the home must be purchased for less than $800,000 before May 1, 2010. If you sign a contract to purchase a home before May 1st, you would need to close on the transaction before July 1, 2010.

Single taxpayers with incomes up to $125,000 and married couples with incomes up to $225,000 qualify for the full tax credit.

You can not purchase the home from a related party like a spouse, direct ancestor, or direct lineal descendent: however you can still qualify for the credit if you purchase a property from a sibling, nephew or niece.

If you are married, both spouses must qualify for the credit.

Please contact me for more information regarding the tax credit or to go out and look for a new home.

One more month to get the home buyers tax credit!

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412 Pine, Pemberville

1720 Evansdale

GETTING THOSE KIDS BACK TO SCHOOL?

I know this time of year either brings peace or dismay to families.  For me the kids starting school is a double edged sword. I love spending the day time with them enjoying all of the outdoor activities but at the same time I like them to have a structured schedule to keep them on track.  Hopefully this article by Jason Womack, MEd, MA and Joe Bruzzese, MA will be helpful to ease the children back into the school year. For more information go to www.ThinkForwardTV.com

Leading the Way into the New School Year
Tips to Help Parents Save Time and Help Children Grow
By Jason W. Womack and Joe Bruzzese

The start of the school year is an especially busy time for families. Sometimes it can seem like children are taking on too much or you can worry about how they’re handling everything they have to do. And while you may be tempted to jump in and do everything for them, you can actually create learning opportunities for your children (and time-saving opportunities for yourself) by applying the following 3-step leadership concept.

Step 1:  Create Opportunities for Your Children

You may need to release your grip on having things done your way, and promote the growth of someone (your child) taking on new responsibilities. In the beginning, you may need to invest more time explaining the task than it would have taken you to do the job yourself. However, this exercise is more of an investment in the person, the process and your family. This eventually frees up more of your time to graduate to a higher level of activity, or perhaps result in a few moments of free time. You may need to ask yourself, “Am I the best person for this task?”  Doing so may create opportunities for your children to take on more responsible roles.

Step 2: Maintain Ongoing Communication

My good friend had a plaque made for her home that, which says, “Hope is not a strategy.”  She explained to me that she couldn’t “hope” friends returned her calls, or “hope” that her children followed up on the tasks she gave them last week, or “hope” that her family found time to spend together. She challenges her children with growing responsibility as they earn it. As a parent, she maintains ongoing communication on each idea or task as if it were her own.

The key to doing this successfully is having a full inventory of everything you expect your children to take responsibility for and then to hold ongoing conversations so there is still time to act if an unexpected situation arises. It’s important, however, to avoid advice-filled lectures, which often bring conversations to an abrupt end.

Try the following lead-in question with your child, “How much time will you need to finish up with your projects this week?” Asking your children to talk about what they need in order to solve a problem shifts responsibility away from you dictating what needs to happen, and keeps the conversation moving in a positive direction. At the end of the conversation, you will have a clear idea of your child’s goals and the plan for achieving them. In addition, your child leaves the conversation feeling acknowledged for the effort and responsibility he or she has taken.

Step 3: Hold Family Meetings

The final key to successful leadership as a parent is the family meeting. Scheduling a consistent time to meet with your family allows for an ongoing review of your family’s progress. Reviewing progress provides a valuable opportunity for you to talk with your children about how things could be done differently in the future—a learning strategy that results in real change. Each time your family meets, your children build on their past success and consider opportunities for change in the future.

Here are some ideas to make your family meetings successful.

• Begin the meeting with acknowledgements. Everyone has an opportunity to acknowledge the person seated to the right for something positive. You don’t need to return the acknowledgement but would continue the round by acknowledging the person seated to the right of you. Beginning the meeting with acknowledgements puts everyone in a positive frame of mind, lets everyone know that their efforts are valued, and sets the stage for a productive and collaborative discussion.
• Encourage your children to come to the meeting with ideas and questions of their own so that the meeting is truly a “Family” meeting rather than a “Mom and Dad Meet with the Children” meeting, a model that many families seem to slip into.
• Post a piece of paper or a white board where all family members have the opportunity to add questions or ideas for the upcoming meeting. A few rules need to surround the agenda though in order to keep it from becoming a laundry list of items that you skim through. Perhaps you can choose to allow everyone to add one question to the agenda. This ensures people bring the item that is their biggest concern.
• To handle any frustration that arises during the meeting, have a rule that any member of the family can call for a timeout and in doing so can freely state his or her frustration or confusion. However the person who called the timeout must add the following question after sharing his or her feelings: “How can we change what we are doing so that there will be less frustration or confusion?” This helps lead to even better communication in the future.

Make It a Great School Year 

Great parents understand both the big picture with respect to their child’s development, and how to shift responsibilities that empower their children to step up to new roles. Great parents know that when everyone has a vested interest in the family, and people are acknowledged for their contributions, real change happens. Goals are exceeded, and family members are excited and engaged in moving forward.

Implement these three ideas and you will be on your way to making this year a successful school year for the whole family!