Real Estate

Rent-to-own homes are a great way to get into the home buying process. Rent-to-own homes are an option for first time home buyers who don’t have enough money to get approved for a mortgage loan or for those that would rather not take out a mortgage.

What are Rent-to-Own Homes

If you’ve ever rented an apartment or house, you know that you pay rent every month. The difference with a rent-to-own agreement is that instead of paying rent, you will be making monthly payments on the house until it’s yours.

Under a typical rent-to-own agreement, you will make monthly payments on your home over a period of time (usually 3 to 7 years). At the end of this period, if all goes well and there are no major issues with your home, you will own it outright.

Are Rent-to-Own Homes For You

Rent-to-own homes are not for everyone but they can be a good option if:

You want to buy but don’t have enough money saved up for down payment and closing costs

You need more time to save up for down payment and closing costs

You plan on staying in an area for at least 3 years (or longer)

How Do You Find Rent-to-Own Homes In Fayetteville NC and Other Areas?

Rent-to-own homes are not as common as traditional rentals or sales, but there are plenty of them out there. You can find them online by searching for “rent-to-own properties near me” or “Fayetteville NC rent to own homes“. You should also check with local real estate agents who specialize in buying and selling houses.

Rent-to-own homes are also listed on Craigslist and other websites like Zillow and Trulia. In fact, rent-to-own homes are becoming more common as a way for sellers to get more money out of their properties.

Rent-to-own homes are often listed as “lease-option” or “contract for deed” properties. These terms have a specific meaning in the real estate world, so be sure you know what they mean before you get involved.

If you decide to rent-to-own a home, make sure the contract spells out exactly what the terms of your agreement are. You should find out how much you’ll be paying each month, what happens when the lease expires (typically after three years), and whether or not there are any fees associated with selling at that time.

If the seller has agreed to sell you the home at a later date, make sure you have an option period. This is typically a time frame within which both parties (you and the seller) must agree on terms.

Conclusion

Renting-to-own a home can be a great way to get into your own property without having to pay the full price upfront. However, make sure you read up on what rent-to-own means and make sure it’s something you really want before signing any contracts.

Did you know that there are cash buyers out there that are ready to buy your home within days? These cash buyers are in business to offer you money to purchase your house as-is so that you never have to worry about fixing minor repairs or staging your properties for the endless viewing appointments. If you choose a reputable company who buys homes for cash on a regular basis, you will have peace of mind in knowing that you will receive an offer as soon as the property is seen. If you accept the offer, the entire deal can be done in just days instead of months. Choosing this route will cut out the process of going back and forth with offers and counter offers just to find that you cannot come to an agreement with the buyer.

Who Can Benefit From Doing Business with Cash Buying Companies?

You might wonder if this process is the right option for you. After all, there are a number of other homeowners who are waiting for the market to take a turn for the better so that they can sell their home for a fair price. Not everyone needs to sell their home quickly. Here are some of the many reasons why doing business with a cash buyer might be a great solution for you when you need to sell house fast.

Relocation – If you are going to move out of the country or you are being relocated for work, time is not on your side. You may have listed your property hoping that buyers would bite early on. Unfortunately, when the time steadily approaches, you are going to need to consider other options.

Financial Hardship – If you cannot afford pay your mortgage, selling your home quickly can benefit you. In some situations, selling your home fast can prevent the bank from foreclosing on the process and save your credit.

Divorce – If your divorce decree requires you to sell your home, selling the home to a cash buyer might be easier on all parties involved.

Fire Damage – If you’re selling a home that has been damaged by fire, you may be asking yourself what kind of cleaning and repair work will be needed before it can go on the market. Is your insurance company paying for the repairs, or do you need to do them yourself? Will potential buyers want to see the damage for themselves? Will they expect you to disclose the damage in your listing? And how long will this whole process take? You can find the answers on this article on Chiangraitimes.

You do not always have to deal with a buyer’s agent and a seller’s agent when you want to sell your home. If the conventional method is not working, consider doing business with a cash buyer who will take your home off of your hands.

There are many reasons for selling your home in Macon. You may need to relocate for work. Your family may have outgrown your current home or the kids may be gone and you need to downsize. If you are selling your home chances are you will be looking to purchase another one. So how much you want to make on your home may depend on the amount owed, what you are planning to buy and why you are selling.

Maybe you are in a situation and in need of cash fast. If that is the case, then your best bet would be to look for home buying companies in Macon, GA. These companies will buy your house as is. That means that they will do the heavy lifting, such as repairs or paying for closing the deal. The best way to find such companies is using the internet. You can type “fast sell of house in Macon GA” for example and you will see several home buying websites you can compare.

Improving Your Chances For Making a Profit

There are certain things you can do to enhance your chances of making a profit on the sale of your home. Make sure everything is in good working order. Have your home pre-inspected for problems.

Looks count for a great deal. A fresh coat of paint, replacing worn carpet and scrubbing the woodwork will help. Upgrades to the property such as landscaping or recent upgrades to things like a furnace can make a big difference, too.

Leaky faucets, toilets that continually run and stairs that squeak are all signs to the buyer that the house has a great deal of wear and tear. Fix these minor things to increase your chance of sales.

Cosmetics

The more spacious your home looks the better. Put some of your own things in storage if you have to while the house is on the market. Unclutter counters, cabinets and storage areas. Take advantage of good lighting and light colored paint to make rooms look larger.

Make sure the outside of your home is as nice as you can make it. Flowerbeds added for color will help. Trim hedges and bushes and keep the grass cut. Avoid toys and playthings scattered everywhere.

Buying Low Selling High

Another way to make a profit off of your home is to buy a fixer upper at a low cost and then fix it up. If you have the financial resources to do this and do not mind moving every so often this can be lucrative. Many houses can be bought and sold for a profit with simple some cosmetic changes. Make sure you have a firm financial base before attempting this type of investment.

I want to discuss some of your options for choosing a platform to run your blog on. Some will debate which is better to use or it does not really matter which one is better, it is the content that makes the blog a success. I do agree it is all about the content that the blog contains, however in real estate you want to take it a step further and see which one will be best to use for your overall business. Real estate professionals rely on several online tools to help boost their business, so choosing a blogging platform should be taken seriously from the start.

Most Common Blogging Platforms

• Blogger.com
• Typepad
• WordPress.com
• Standalone WordPress
• Point2Agent

The first three on this list are free platforms that require no money upfront and you can begin blogging right away. Many real estate agents and brokers have gone this route for the simple fact it requires no setup or coding on your part. You simply go to the site, sign up for an account, choose your theme options and you are ready for your first post. Here is a MAJOR draw back to the free blogging platforms, your URL.

yourname.typepad.com
yourname.blogger.com
yourname.wordpress.com

People either link straight to the free blog or have it iframed (embedded in their website) so the viewer never leads the current site or knows the blog is hosted else where. The problem with linking straight to the blog from your current domain is anytime someone links to your blog, that link will not count towards your current real estate domain.

Anytime another site were to link to your blog, your free blog account will receive the credit and not your real estate website. But I thought backlinks were a good thing for my website? They are, but you want those back links going to your main domain name and not your blogger (typepad, free wordpress) account. It will be those accounts that will be receiving the credit and not your main site.

WordPress Standalone Platform

This the choice I recommend and prefer over any other platform available online today. The platform is also free, you can download it from wordpress.org. Standalone wordpress does require you to setup your database and upload the files to your web host. Once setup though, you can hire someone to configure a custom look tailored to your current site or do it yourself. There are some really newbie friendly WordPress real estate themes such as Agent Elite template which is very easy to use and to make beautiful real estate sites as you can see from this detailed review of Agent Elite websites.

Benefits Of Using WordPress Standalone

• Search engines seem to love it (really they do)
• Highly configurable
• Plugins make adding new features very easy (just upload and activate the plugin)
• Backend system makes adding/changing content a breeze
• Themes can be downloaded
• Large user support

In The End

You can choose whichever platform you like, I just wanted to go over some of the negative things regarding the several platforms that are out there. I suggest using the stand alone wordpress theme for your real estate blog, the ease of use and true power built into it makes it a winner in the eyes of many.

Most people who are buying a house will pick a realtor to help them. There are a lot to choose form and you want to make sure that you find one you can trust. It can be a difficult task to contemplate if you have not done it before or have no one you can go to for help. However, it is possible to find a trustworthy realtor you just need to know how.

It is a good idea to interview them first. Many people will just go to the yellow pages and ring a few up, but you need to have a list of questions prepared and if possible visit them in their office. If there are a lot to choose from, you will probably find talking to them on the phone will be better. You should find that by the answers you get, you can judge whether they are trustworthy or not. You could always go to see them after you have interviewed on the phone, if you want more reassurance.

It is a good idea to ask them for references. They should be able to give you details of past customers, who you can contact and ask questions. Happy customers will be willing to talk to you about the service they got and why they were pleased with it. It can be one of the best ways to judge someone.

Talking to the broker might help you. They may not want to say bad things about the realtor though but if they are happy to be open with you, and then they might be able to give you some indications as to what the realtor is like.

You want to gauge what the communications skills of the realtor are like. You want them to be able to listen to what you want and then act on that. If you give them the maximum price you can pay and they show you houses that are more expensive then this can be very frustrating. If this happens frequently then you need to change, because they just want you to spend more money so they can get more commission and are not thinking of you.

They should remember all the details of what you are looking for and show you properties that are most relevant. If you have to keep reminding them of your needs, then it can be frustrating and is a sign that they are not very good.

However, you did need to explain clearly to them, what you want. They need to be able to be inside your head knowing your requirements and if you cannot tell them, then they will not be able to help you. If you want a nice area or good schools, for example ask them which areas that might be. They should be able to anticipate your requirements a little bit too.

There are a lot of great reasons to buy a home of your own. Not only does owning your own home mean that you have total privacy (no landlord making inspections) and total control (if you’ve ever had to move because your landlord sold the house you’re renting, you know what I mean), but owning your own home also means that you’re investing in your financial future.

Think about it this way: right now, you’re probably renting. Every month, you work hard to earn the money for your rent. Every month, you give that money to your landlord, who uses it to make the mortgage payment on the house you’re living in. After 30 years, you’ve bought your landlord a free-and-clear property!

On the other hand, if you BOUGHT the same home and made payments on it for 30 years, YOU would be the one who owned the free and clear property.

And how much would your home be worth in 30 years? Well, on the average, home prices in the United States double about every 10 years. So, instead of a worthless pile of rent receipts, you’d have a paid-off home worth as much as FOUR TIMES what you paid for it!

Think of what you could do with all that value–you could sell the home to pay for your retirement or your children’s college education; you could keep living in the house through your old age, then leave it to your kids or grandkids as an inheritance; or you could sell it or refinance it to pay for a dream trip around the world or a retirement home somewhere nice and warm!

So, why don’t you put down this report and go out and buy a home right now? It’s probably because you can’t–at least not by the “traditional” method of going to the bank and qualifying for a mortgage. About 4 out of 10 Americans don’t have the credit or down payment to get a regular mortgage. And that’s where a lease option also called rent to own homes comes in.

When you Lease a home with the Option to Buy, you get the advantage of living in your home now and setting the price now but have several months or years to straighten out your credit or save a down payment to go to the bank.

Also, when you make improvements to the property (like adding a deck, upgrading the bathroom, or landscaping the outside), the VALUE of the property goes up, but THE AMOUNT YOU OWE DOESN’T GO UP. This is called “sweat equity,” and it’s a way to develop a “down payment” on a home through your own labor.

Since times are tough a lot of people find themselves needing to sell a home. If you find yourself in this situation, do you know what to do? You don’t have to be an expert to sell a home, and you certainly don’t have to be a real estate agent to sell a home either. You simply have to know that there is a particular job to be done and make a firm decision that you are going to do what it takes to get that job done.

So, first of all you need a plan. You need to grab a pen and some paper and write down every single reason that you need to sell a home. Maybe you inherited your parents’ home and you don’t need it. Maybe you simply want to sell your own home and move to another city. Look carefully at the reasons you write down, and then do this, even though it may seem strange – read them out loud to yourself while you are looking into a mirror, just like you’d watch a school teacher. Really pay attention to yourself and the serious information like you’re giving yourself because there will be a test! You have to be serious to sell a home in the present tough Calgary marketplace, and the first person you have to convince is yourself.

Next, you need to make another more important list. You need to write down everything you personally are willing to do in order to sell a home yourself. Can you run an ad online? Can you clean up the place and show the house yourself? Can you go around the neighborhood and talk to your neighbors as well as new people you meet at the grocery store and ask them if they know anybody who is looking for a house in your neighborhood? Can I even sell my house in Calgary, Alberta myself(learn more here: https://bridgedalehomebuyers.ca/) ? Of course you can! These things are not difficult to do, but most people simply want to avoid doing the work themselves, and they just decide to pay somebody else to do all the work of selling a home. It takes confidence and courage to talk to your neighbors and to talk to strangers when you need to sell. Have you got what it takes? If so, then get on with doing the work for yourself. If not, then engage in “Plan B”, which is what I call it when you hire a real estate broker to help you.

Plan B means you choose to delegate part of the responsibility of selling your house. First, you will need to interview at least three real estate brokers. You are hiring a person to do parts of your job so you want the right broker. You need to find a broker who is willing to make a commitment to do the job of selling your house, and who will actually do what he or she commits to do for you. Since willingness and commitment are not the same thing, make each broker you interview sign a list of activities that will be accomplished for you on a weekly and a monthly basis. That means finding a broker who is makes promises and keeps them!

With more and more people jumping on the real estate train with each passing day, there is no doubt that the market is getting very saturated with realtors. Precisely for this reason, people who want to be successful in this business has to offer a higher quality of services to their clients, and one of the best ways one can do it is by providing professional images of their property listings. Not only will it help sell houses more quickly, but will also make the service look more professional. This is because better pictures online usually mean more footfalls at the listing.

If you are a real estate agent and want to sell properties quickly, hiring an expert in Brisbane real estate photography is undoubtedly the best option. But considering there isn’t any shortage or photographers around, how do you ascertain if the one you’ve hired is the best one out there? Well, here are some aspects which photographers should consider:

Being professional

Needless to say, real estate is a very professional business and for as a realtor, your image is the product you sell. A professional photographer’s image is to be an extension of their image by looking neat, being on time and offering outstanding end results. When the photographer goes to meet the realtors, they should not only be presentable but also dressed in a proper manner. Punctuality is a virtue which every professional should have, and photographers are no different. If the photographer is going to be late for the shoot, they should be able to inform you about it well beforehand.

Doing their research

Before starting the shoot, the photographers should look at the listings in your local area and ascertain what kind of pictures other realtors are using. This will give them a fair idea of which images are the most important and where to start in the house. Also, they should be able to implement a style of photography that suits your preferences.

Staging the room before the shoot

Contrary to perception, photography for real estate is much more than taking a point-and-shoot camera to take pictures. They need to invest considerable time in going through the house and rearranging things so that the house looks spacious and well put-together. Needless to say, prospective home buyers will be easily put off if the property isn’t visually appealing. Precisely for this reason, the photographers should focus on clicking some amazing snaps of the front of the house, living room, master bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, basement and every other corner of the house in a visually aesthetic manner.

Giving you a lot of options to choose from

One of the biggest mistakes professional photographers can make is providing a very limited amount of pictures to their clients. The real estate photographer you hire should be able to give you a large of pictures so that you can ascertain which ones to use for the listing.

Any professional involved in commercial photography should be able to consider these aspects if they want to be successful in this highly competitive market.