Slideshow

Friday, August 28, 2009

Buying Your Dream Home

Even though it’s not easy for everyone to buy a home, it is in fact easier than ever to get a home these days with most lending agencies and banks being more liberal than ever with providing home loans and mortgages. Even if you don’t have a lot of capital or a lot of money to put down, you can still get the home of your dreams at a very affordable price.

A lot of us think that buying a home is a tough process, needing a large down payment, although this isn’t always the case. Buying a home largely depends on your budget. If you put a down payment on your home purchase, it will go towards your overall purchase. The more money you put down on a home when you purchase, the lower your monthly payments will be.

Those of us who don’t own a home live in rental houses and apartments. This can be a worthwhile solution, although your still paying money towards your housing that you could instead be putting towards a home of your own. Owning a home is a dream for many of us, especially when it comes to that dream home that we all hope to own one day. Apartments and homes are great to rent - although most these days will cost you just as much as a mortgage payment - which doesn’t make any sense at all.

Instead, you can easily convert your rental payments into monthly installments towards your own home. All across the United States, you can find of lot of banks and lenders that offer easy to get loans for purchasing your own home or real estate property at low interest rates. With a lot interest rate, you can get the home of your dreams and enjoy low monthly payments.

Keep in mind, you need to choose a loan plan that’s best for you. You can go through bank, through a lender, or use a service online. There are many different ways that you can go, although real estate agents seem to be the most common now days. Good real estate agents will be more than willing to help you get a great deal on the home, at prices that are right for you. Anytime you buy a house, you should always plan ahead, get yourself a real estate agent, and then pursue your dream home.

If you plan your budget and take things one step at a time, you’ll be closer than you think to the home of your dreams. If you choose to keep renting and pay money toward something you don’t own - the home of your dreams will continue to slip away. Take action now and stop renting - find the home of your dreams and put your money towards owning it instead.

Buying French Homes

The country known as France offers investors a great opportunity to benefit from the ever increasing property values. France is very fortunate to have a stable housing market, which will continue to stay that way for years and years to come. The low property prices are always an attraction to the area, with strong growth and prospects to keep the overseas home buyer coming back for more. For anyone interested in overseas real estate - France offers plenty of benefits.

The property in France is easy to access, with many ways to reach the shores. In most cases, you can get there easily for a very cheap price. As many know, France is famous for their transport system, which includes high speed trains that travel to most of the regions. There are also ferries that cover the area, including low cost flights as well. Once you buy a home in France, you’ll quickly become accustomed to the lifestyle there.

A lot of people who decide to buy a home in France, do so because of the surroundings. Buying a home in France is more than just the house, as you’ll get a chance to experience the finer things in life. France has several romantic attractions, which makes it perfect for married couples looking to spend their life together. Throw in some great drinks and relaxation, and France has all of your activities covered - along with a beautiful and spectacular house.

Unlike other regions throughout the world, France has one of the most established legal processes, one that has been proven time and time again over the years. Locals view the legal system as safe, as it helps for those who are interested in French property. As you can tell, French real estate is very different from that of the United States.

Although there are many locations overseas that you can invest in, France is actually preferred to be one of the best. France is known as a nation of renters, with plenty of real estate available for purchase. If you choose to rent out your property, buying in France will pretty much mean that you won’t have any problems renting. There are always people looking for vacation rentals and such in the area, making it perfect for investors or those looking for a second income.

Unlike other real estate locations, France offers you mountain snow complete with maritime living. France is a massive region, with plenty of houses to choose from. If you’ve been looking for overseas real estate, France is a location you can’t go wrong with. There is always something to do here, and plenty of things to see. As a second home or as a way of life - France represents an amazing and cultivating lifestyle that you simply must see to believe.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Cheap Homes

When it comes to real estate, it’s really hard to beat a cheap home. Cheap homes are very affordable, and ideal for those on a budget. For real estate agents, these types of homes represent a way to buy a home at a low price, build it up some more, then sale it for a large price. Making money with real estate is easy to do - no matter how you look at it.

Although you can find cheap homes throughout the United States, some will obviously be better than others. Some are in great neighborhoods, giving you plenty to see and plenty to do all around you. On the other hand, most towns that offer the cheapest homes normally have a bad situation when it comes to the job market. They can be great to retire to or settle down in if you own a business, although they aren’t great if you need a job. Internet marketers and writers are finding these areas, are flocking to them at a very fast pace.

You can also save quite a bit of money by buying a home that is less expensive, but still fits your needs. What this means, is buying a home in the inexpensive areas of your town, or buying a home that is cheap in price. You shouldn’t be focused on one type of home or neighborhood, but instead look at your available options and compare prices.

Keep in mind that buying cheap homes doesn’t necessarily mean buying a run down place or buying your home in a bad part of town. You can get a cheap home in a great neighborhood, if you weight your options accordingly. If you shop around and look at different areas, you might find yourself very surprised at just how many homes are available at cheap prices.

Before you purchase a home, you can save a lot of money if you know how to negotiate with the real estate agent. Although a home may have a higher price than you are willing to pay, you can shave quite a bit of the price off through negotiating. If you learn just a few of the simple techniques of negotiating, you can save a lot of money. Each and every day, hundreds of people get cheap homes by negotiating with real estate agents.

In some cases, you can end up paying the full price of a home and still end up spending less than someone else might spend. Although price has an impact, financing is also an area that can help to make a home more affordable. If you get a low interest rate, you’ll save a lot of money when you buy the home. There are several ways that you can save money through your finance options, which is why you should always research what’s available to you before you buy.

Before you decide to buy a home, you should always think things through and be sure to look around different areas and neighborhoods. Even though there are many cheap homes out there, you can get just as good of a deal through negotiating. Most cheap homes sell very quick, which is why you should always be on the lookout for one. When you find a cheap home that fits your needs, you should act on it. Contact the agent, take a tour of the home, then decide if the price and the features are indeed what you’ve been looking for. If it isn’t - simply forget about the house and start looking for another one.
fargo-moorhead home builders

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Monday, August 3, 2009

Twelve Tips From Strategic Thinking For Home Builders To Produce More Strategic Marketing Efforts

By Glenn Ebersole

All businesses need to engage strategic thinking and planning in all aspects of their business, especially the marketing plan for the business. In working with custom home builders as part of my business coaching practice, I discovered only a few of them ever recognized the value of being strategic in their thinking and planning and had limited themselves to lower levels of success. Fortunately, after they opened their minds to being more strategic, their outlook changed and they started putting some tips on strategic marketing to good use. One of the most vivid and remarkable examples was one custom home builder that went from one of their worst years in business to a record setting best year in business after committing to a strategic marketing approach.

Based upon previous experience and some research, your strategic thinking business coach offers the following twelve (12) tips to home builders for more effective strategic marketing of their business.

1. Engage in strategic thinking and planning when developing your strategic marketing plan for your home building business. You may consider hiring a professional, such as a business coach, to facilitate and guide you in the preparation of your strategic marketing plan.

2. Conduct a SWOT analysis to analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats associated with your home building business.

3. Identify your most desired clients and your ideal client profile to define who it is that you really want to market to for retaining existing clients and acquiring new clients.

4. Analyze your competition. Do some basic market research by visiting other home builder web sites, talking to competitor’s employees and review their booths at trade shows, talk with our competitor’s subcontractors and vendor representatives. And monitor their advertising to see what direction they are heading.

5. Develop clearly defined and measurable goals and monitor your progress.

6. Develop a strategic integrated marketing communications plan to make sure you have planned for effective messages to your target markets.

7. Develop a market position based upon identified opportunities. Clearly define the market position and focus on providing different benefits than your competition. Develop a positioning statement for your home building business. This can be used as a tag line that will help build brand loyalty and communicate benefits and features that your target market can relate to.

8. Incorporate and use the power of referrals as one of your key strategies in your strategic marketing plan.

9. Create and live by a strong code of ethics and company core values. Demonstrate in all that you do each day in your home building business that these core values and ethics are how you conduct your business.

10. Commit to a continuous improvement philosophy in your marketing efforts. And commit to finding the “lessons learned” in the mistakes and failures and then taking action in the future based upon the “lessons learned.”

11. Commit to a “continuous marketing” mentality. Your marketing efforts need to be continuous and not a “one shot deal” or a “sometime” activity. It is al “all the time” activity.

12. Develop an effective customer contact management system with a goal of achieving Top Of Mind Awareness (TOMA) with your clients, prospects and stakeholders.

Your strategic thinking business coach encourages you to use strategic thinking and planning in the development of your strategic marketing plan for your home building business. If you would like to learn more about strategic marketing plans, how to develop one for your business and how a strategic thinking business coach can facilitate and guide you in that endeavor, please contact Glenn Ebersole through his website at www.businesscoach4u.com or by email at jgecoach@aol.com

Glenn Ebersole, Jr. is a multi-faceted professional, who is recognized as a visionary, guide and facilitator in the fields of business coaching, marketing, public relations, management, strategic planning and engineering. Glenn is the Founder and Chief Executive of two Lancaster, PA based consulting practices: The Renaissance Group, a creative marketing, public relations, strategic planning and business development consulting firm and J. G. Ebersole Associates, an independent professional engineering, marketing, and management consulting firm. He is a Certified Facilitator and serves as a business coach and a strategic planning facilitator and consultant to a diverse list of clients. Glenn is also the author of a monthly newsletter, “Glenn’s Guiding Lines – Thoughts From Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach” and has published more than 250 articles on business.

To find out more about the benefits & rewards of effectively working with a strategic thinking business coach, please contact Glenn Ebersole through his web site at http://www.businesscoach4u.com or jgecoach@aol.com

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Buying a New Home or Renovating the Old One

As time goes by, changes in lifestyle and that caused by the growing family will inevitably pose issues that can either be resolved by renovating or buying a new home. One great thing about these options is that, either way, you can be able to get the best deal if you do your research right. With the New York housing crunch and the down economic condition, both the real estate market and contractors are feeling the pinch and the tougher competition will help you get bargains for better quality.

But don’t get too excited and rush the decision as there simply is too much at stake. There are considerations that you should carefully deliberate on to land with the option that would benefit the family and your bank account. This article lays out the pros and cons of renovating your old home versus buying a new one with information ideal whether you are in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island or Long Island.

Costs versus Profits

If you decide to buy a new house, you would have to sell the home you and the family is currently in. For most homeowners, the largest chunk from where they would have to get the money to buy a new house is from the resale of their homes. With the housing costs still down, chances that you’ll get a good return on the seller’s market is less likely. To get an idea if your profit would be enough to cover moving out and buying, have your home value assessed first. Your best bet to getting more is moving to a neighborhood with lower property area or value, but then you would have to make do with what the area offers.

However, if you stay and renovate, you will not only be improving the family’s quality of living but the home value as well bringing it up notches from when you bought it.

Inconveniences

Though you and the family would have to bear with inconveniences whether you choose to buy a new home or renovate your current one, the trouble that one goes through are at different levels. With renovation, you and the contractor can make arrangements so as not to disrupt the daily routine of the household too much. Buying on the other hand would mean having to start all over again and even being homeless for sometime. Settling into the house and making things appealing and comfortable can take weeks to months.

When to Move or Stay

Before owning the home that you and your family are currently living, you have gone through all the hassles of finding one that offers what you need and is in a viable location. Why throw everything away and go through all the difficulties again?


Eugene Makeev uses his skills and expertise to help home owners in Brooklyn, Long Island, Queens, Manhattan, and Staten Island avoid remodeling Manhattan pitfalls by matching their needs with prescreened renovation contractors NY.

Avail of our free remodeling calculators.

Source: http://www.articlesbase.com