Archive for October, 2008

Dealing with Fraud in Real Estate Purchase in Alberta


The Real Estate Council of Alberta has resolved to take the issue of fraud very seriously. It is a fact that of late many Alberta residents have been victimized by mortgage fraud upon being lured by promises of big returns. There have also been cases where some person has quite unknowingly allowed a fraudulent act to become a part of their action which has given shape to the plan of some fraud mastermind.

Mortgage fraud and the victims of fraud in real estate purchase

Mortgage fraud is defined as the material misstatement, misrepresentation or omission that is relied upon by an underwriter or lender for funding, purchasing or insuring a mortgage loan. The misstatement, misrepresentation or omission refers to the lies as also the white lies. In case a lender makes an advancement of mortgage money while telling any small lie regarding the borrower’s income, property value, intended use of property etc. then a mortgage fraud is said to have occurred.

Common victims of fraud are those who have purchased real estate whose values have been over inflated by a series of fraudulent transactions. In this way several consumers have had incurred huge financial losses and their credit ratings have been damaged.

Dealing with real estate related fraud in Alberta

This is a crime and you need be informed and armed beforehand to effectively combat the damaging influence of mortgage fraud. You need to beware when approached for opting for any scheme set to help make quick and easy money in real estate. Caution needs to be observed when your name is being taken down for credit purposes or when you are being asked to create or alter certain documents in a real estate or mortgage transaction. If you are suspecting that you can get involved in a fraudulent transaction then you ought to immediately report such suspicions to the Real Estate Council of Alberta (RECA) for them to take suitable action.

In an effort to reduce mortgage fraud relating to the real estate market of Alberta, Canada the RECA has taken up several initiatives-

- Efforts have been made to bring about a change in the industry by introducing mandatory mortgage fraud awareness course, improved investigative resources and processes, stronger sanctions against licensees involved in mortgage fraud and development of ongoing education processes incorporating mortgage fraud identification knowledge.

- There have been collaboration endeavors with other stakeholders and enactment of legislative changes and information sharing efforts extended.

- There has been made efforts to increase public awareness.
These will hopefully work towards curbing mortgage frauds to a desirable extent and make the investment in real estate in Alberta less risky.
Jason Uvios writes about on Dealing with Fraud in Real Estate Purchase in Alberta to visit :- real estate in alberta, alberta nursing homes and low cost seniors housing 2b lethbridge alberta

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Real Estate Leads that Close


In today’s real estate market there’s a huge emphasis on generating leads. If you don’t have any, or too few, you really don’t have much of a chance to have a serious career. Still, generating lots of leads and being able to replenish them is a career long challenge.

Get it right and you can do very well! But if you never quite develop the skills to get them then good things usually don’t happen.

Collecting leads, which is the same as creating a list of prospective client, can prove to be a challenging task…but fortunately there are countless ways to do it.

Ways to Beat Other Agents to the Good Leads
When you have email addresses you can repeatedly deliver your marketing messages, thereby significantly increasing the likelihood of converting leads and prospects to paying customers. And if you use them with sequential autoresponders there’s no limit to what you can accomplish!

So, make a habit to collect as many email addresses as you can get, even your acquaintances, whenever you can. They are key to having effective online marketing campaigns.

Also, take advantage of trips to your beauty salon, or barber shop by steering conversations to real estate and letting patrons and shop owners know hat you’re in real estate. See if the shop owner will let you leave some business cards. Better yet, leave some without asking. What’s the worst thing that could happen if you do?

Finally, canvass neighborhoods by going door to door. Canvassing neighborhoods was not my style, but I did it because I knew that I had to do something to establish a presence in the real estate community in order to generate new business opprtunities.

Going door to door was time consuming, but worthwhile. It can be for you too, especially in your own neighborhood, where buyers and sellers are likely to do business with a “neighborhood” professional before they do with a stranger who lives across town.

What a Good Letter Can Do For You
A good letter offers wonderful business building opportunities. Since the national do not call list has put a serious damper on cold calling a compelling sales letter offers a next best alternative to reaching prospects and delivering your marketing messages.

A letter that generates effective results can easily be used as a foundation for other advertising materials. Rather than reinventing the wheel, you should consider using proven effective ones to develop more original ones.

Anyway you slice it letters are a valuable part of every business. And getting started is easy! To begin, set up a database with all your customer information. You’ll want to include name, address, phone number, email address and perhaps what they have listed, rented, or sold in the past.

There is no need to get overly sophisticated, you can use Word, Excel or a number of contact managers that will help you streamline the process and sort the information into specific fields.

Closing
Summarily, always assess yourself. Make a daily evaluation of your activities. This will help you in assessing which strategies were effective or not. If one strategy was not effective, then move on to others that might, but give each a fair amount of time to mature into the effective marketing strategy that it can be.
Visit Real Estate Marketing Talk for more Real Estate Lead Ideas.

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Short Sale Real Estate Investing


Short sale investing involves buying a piece of property from a lender for an amount less than the balance owed on the property. Basically, there are two types of short sale realty investments. The first type refers to when you purchase a property, foreclosed by a lender listed with a realtor. In this type, you simply offer the lender, who has now become the owner on record, less than what is owed on the property. In this case, you can offer less than the balance that was due on the foreclosure. Such a short sale, realty investment calls for a good relationship with the realtor. The other type involves negotiating directly with the lender of a motivated seller. It is essential to be determined in the negotiation process, mainly in reaching the right person at the lender Real Estate Owned (REO) department and then to get the price of your choice.

The key to be successful in the first kind of short sale, real estate investment lies in forging a relationship with a reliable local realtor. You can always search for one or two realty offices in your area that handle majority foreclosures and short sale, realty investments. In order to build your relationship with the realtors, you need to inform them about your ability to buy. Make sure you follow through, once you make the offer. It will help the agent know that you are the investor to turn to, whenever he has a deal regarding short sale, realty investment.

There are three fundamental steps that can be incorporated, in order to be successful with short sale, real estate investments. They are as follows:

. Search for the properties: The first step to success in a short sale real estate investment is to search for properties. This can be accomplished through regular realty advertisements and looking for distressed or overgrown property. It helps you get calls from sellers close to foreclosure.
. Get the seller on your side: The second best way to earn success in this type of investment is to get the seller on your side. In order to do so, you need to listen, communicate and empathize openly and honestly with the seller, regarding your plans. Besides, you will also be required to answer all questions and speak to the concerned parties frequently, so as to keep the channels of communication open. It helps to keep doubts out of the picture.
. Find the right person at the lender to speak with: Though it is not easy to find a reliable person, but this step is essential. More often than not, the first person you speak to will not necessarily be the right person and you may require cross certain hurdles to finally reach the person with some authority. You would certainly require patience in order to get the job done.

Short sale realty investment is considered to be lucrative for building wealth too. Owing to the increase in foreclosures across the country, the trend of learning and applying short sale realty investment skills is likely to continue.
Real Estate Investments are now easy with Realnet USA’s step by step Real Estate Investing process. We help you find your Real Estate Investment, to view live inventory please visit http://www.realnetusa.com.

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Get Into The Habit Of Planning


I am not used to doing planning for my personal life. Usually after a day of hard work, I want to sit down and relax. Since I perceive the task of relaxing is simple, I do not really plan what I want to do in my leisure time. I will simply do what I like to do at that point of time. As times past by, I have ended up with a habit of not planning for anything that I perceived as simple. But the moment that I perceived a task to be very complex and complicated, I will be forced to plan.

For example, if I want to conquer Mount Everest, I definitely need to have a plan. Why? This is because I feel that is a very difficult task to accomplish since I am just an average physically fit person. I will definitely need a lot of training and preparations. The plan must be very detailed and measurable in terms of progress. One part of the plan will focus on physical training to ensure that I physically fit before the actual trip to start scaling Mount Everest. Another part will be focus on the itineraries and equipments required for the trip. The next part will focus on gaining knowledge of the climate and the area of Mount Everest. The last part will be on the route to take for the trip.

In fact, each part of the plan can be broken further details. For example, the training part of the plan can be a training program that lasts 1 year. For the first month, I will need to run 10km and workout 1 hour in the gym everyday. For the second month, I will need to run 10km and workout 3 hours in the gym everyday. For the third month, I will need to run 10km and workout 5 hours in the gym everyday and so on. By end of 6 month, I must be fit and ready. I may start to conquer lower peaks first to gain experience. Based on the experience gained, I will revise my plan for conquering Mount Everest.

Conquering Mount Everest is like trying to be a millionaire when my financial health is just average. Thus, if I want to accumulate great wealth of one million, I will definitely need to have a financial plan as mentioned in the Rich Dad series. The plan will be complex and complicated since there are different areas that I need to train and prepare so that I can be successful in accumulating great wealth. What are the possible areas that I may need to look at?

Firstly, I must get myself financially educated on managing my own personal finance. If I cannot manage small money, then I am not ready to manage big money. This is like if I cannot complete running 5km in 30min hour, how can I possibly finish 10km in 1 hour?

Secondly, I must find a team of people to help or coach me so that I can achieve and accumulate great wealth. For examples, I will need a financial planner to help me with the financial plan. I will a successful mentor to coach me on how to be a successful person by changing my mindset and breaking my limiting beliefs. I will need a lawyer to advise me on legal matters so that I will not face the risk of losing money due to legal issues. I will need an accountant to advise me on accounting matters. I will need an insurance agent to advise me on insurance matters so that I will be protected financially.

Thirdly, I will need to gain experience by accumulate small wealth first. Using the experience gained, I will revise my plan and aim for higher goal. For example, I should aim to accumulate a wealth of one hundred thousands dollars as a stepping-stone to reach my goal of accumulating one million dollars.

Next, I will need to train up my mental health to face rejections and setbacks. Not everything works according to plan. There will be hiccups and setbacks. I must be strong enough to face such situation and continue to pursue my financial freedom.

As you can see, there are many possible areas to work and improve on. Planning is definitely required to achieve and accumulate great wealth. If I cannot plan and execute simple task well, I will not be able to plan and execute complicated and complex task well. Thus, I feel that it is important to get into the habit of planning as part of the preparation to achieve great wealth.

* DISCLAIMER *
The author, publisher and distributors particularly disclaim any liability, loss, or risk taken by individuals who directly or indirectly act on the information contained herein. All readers must accept full responsibility for their use of this material.
Max Ng shares about his struggle for financial freedom at http://www.richdadsecrets4me.com
Get a free sample of his book “Your Greatest Gift! Why Waste It?” at http://www.yourgreatestgift.com

Education Pages

Real Estate Leads that Close


In today’s real estate market there’s a huge emphasis on generating leads. If you don’t have any, or too few, you really don’t have much of a chance to have a serious career. Still, generating lots of leads and being able to replenish them is a career long challenge.

Get it right and you can do very well! But if you never quite develop the skills to get them then good things usually don’t happen.

Collecting leads, which is the same as creating a list of prospective client, can prove to be a challenging task…but fortunately there are countless ways to do it.

Ways to Beat Other Agents to the Good Leads
When you have email addresses you can repeatedly deliver your marketing messages, thereby significantly increasing the likelihood of converting leads and prospects to paying customers. And if you use them with sequential autoresponders there’s no limit to what you can accomplish!

So, make a habit to collect as many email addresses as you can get, even your acquaintances, whenever you can. They are key to having effective online marketing campaigns.

Also, take advantage of trips to your beauty salon, or barber shop by steering conversations to real estate and letting patrons and shop owners know hat you’re in real estate. See if the shop owner will let you leave some business cards. Better yet, leave some without asking. What’s the worst thing that could happen if you do?

Finally, canvass neighborhoods by going door to door. Canvassing neighborhoods was not my style, but I did it because I knew that I had to do something to establish a presence in the real estate community in order to generate new business opprtunities.

Going door to door was time consuming, but worthwhile. It can be for you too, especially in your own neighborhood, where buyers and sellers are likely to do business with a “neighborhood” professional before they do with a stranger who lives across town.

What a Good Letter Can Do For You
A good letter offers wonderful business building opportunities. Since the national do not call list has put a serious damper on cold calling a compelling sales letter offers a next best alternative to reaching prospects and delivering your marketing messages.

A letter that generates effective results can easily be used as a foundation for other advertising materials. Rather than reinventing the wheel, you should consider using proven effective ones to develop more original ones.

Anyway you slice it letters are a valuable part of every business. And getting started is easy! To begin, set up a database with all your customer information. You’ll want to include name, address, phone number, email address and perhaps what they have listed, rented, or sold in the past.

There is no need to get overly sophisticated, you can use Word, Excel or a number of contact managers that will help you streamline the process and sort the information into specific fields.

Closing
Summarily, always assess yourself. Make a daily evaluation of your activities. This will help you in assessing which strategies were effective or not. If one strategy was not effective, then move on to others that might, but give each a fair amount of time to mature into the effective marketing strategy that it can be.
Visit Real Estate Marketing Talk for more Real Estate Lead Ideas.

Education Pages

Knowledge Is Power A Research On Stock Market Investment


A stock, a.k.a. share or equity, represents one’s ownership of a company. For example, a person who has 100 shares of company A, out of its total of 1000 shares, means he owns 10% of the company. As part owner of a company, the shareholder earns, when the company makes profit. In the same way, if the company loses, so does the shareholder.

A stock market is a place (real or virtual) to trade (buy and sell) one’s stocks. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, http://www.nyse.com/home.html) and the NASDAQ (http://www.nasdaq.com/) are examples of real and virtual stock markets, respectively.

That’s a brief overview. For a more comprehensive understanding, go to http://www.investopedia.com. For the stock market investment newbie, try to play a virtual game at http://investsmart.coe.uga.edu/C001759/usmarket/usmarket.htm, without spending dime. Students can practice stock market investment at www.smgww.org. and www.stocksquest.com.

Then why invest in stocks? Because it earns 10% – 12%. This is higher than any other type of investment (savings account, bonds and the like). The way to earn is to sell your stock market investment at a higher price than when you bought it; the price difference is your profit. You can earn in 3 ways:

1. Buying stocks at IPO (Initial Public Offering). When companies decide to sell stocks, they will offer it at an initial price. After some time, with the company’s good performance, the initial price increases, thus the earning;

2. Dividend. As a reward for investing in their company, the company may choose to give a portion of its earnings to its investors through dividends per share. However, this not a requirement for stock market investment, but purely voluntary;

3. Trading stocks. If you intend to invest in Company A, but did not catch its IPO, you can still do so by buying at the stock market. A broker, in your behalf, will bid for the best-priced stock of Company A, according to the price you want. The same happens, when selling. Compare and find the best broker at http://www.fool.com/dbc/tables/compare.htm?ref=60broker.

The key to success stock market investment is to know everything there is to know, about the company and the factors affect its performance. Consult the following:

The official website of the company. This should show the company’s corporate set-up, financial health and organizational structure as well as historical data of their stock performance.

Investment websites such as Yahoo!Finance, MSN Central and DowJone’s MarketWatch;

The news. To be aware of all the factors that may affect your investment, be updated with the news. For all you know, the weather forecast is the ace up your sleeve.

Knowledge is power and so it is in stock market investment. Invest successfully, with the power of knowledge!
Find out more about stocks and shares at http://stocksandshares.us

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Cancellation of Private Mortgage Insurance Federal Law May Save You Hundreds of Dollars Each Year


If you put less than 20 percent down on a home mortgage, lenders often require you to have Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI). PMI protects the lender if you default on the loan. The Homeowners Protection Act of 1998 – which became effective in 1999 – establishes rules for automatic termination and borrower cancellation of PMI on home mortgages. These protections apply to certain home mortgages signed on or after July 29, 1999 for the purchase, initial construction, or refinance of a single-family home. These protections do not apply to government-insured FHA or VA loans or to loans with lender-paid PMI.

For home mortgages signed on or after July 29, 1999, your PMI must – with certain exceptions – be terminated automatically when you reach 22 percent equity in your home based on the original property value, if your mortgage payments are current. Your PMI also can be canceled, when you request – with certain exceptions – when you reach 20 percent equity in your home based on the original property value, if your mortgage payments are current.

One exception is if your loan is “high-risk.” Another is if you have not been current on your payments within the year prior to the time for termination or cancellation. A third is if you have other liens on your property. For these loans, your PMI may continue. Ask your lender or mortgage servicer (a company that collects your payments) for more information about these requirements.

If you signed your mortgage before July 29, 1999, you can ask to have the PMI canceled once you exceed 20 percent equity in your home. But federal law does not require your lender or mortgage servicer to cancel the insurance.

On a $100,000 loan with 10 percent down ($10,000), PMI might cost you $40 a month. If you can cancel the PMI, you can save $480 a year and many thousands of dollars over the loan. Check your annual escrow account statement or call your lender to find out exactly how much PMI is costing you each year.

Additional provisions in the law
New borrowers covered by the law must be told – at closing and once a year – about PMI termination and cancellation.
Mortgage servicers must provide a telephone number for all their mortgage borrowers to call for information about termination and cancellation of PMI.
Even though the law’s termination and cancellation rights do not cover loans that were signed before July 29, 1999, or loans with lender-paid PMI signed on any date, lenders or mortgage servicers must tell borrowers about the termination or cancellation rights they may otherwise have under those loans (such as rights established by the contract or state law).

Next Steps

Some states may have laws that apply to early termination or cancellation of PMI – even if you signed your mortgage before July 29, 1999. Call your state consumer protection agency for more information about your state’s rules. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which buy home mortgages from lenders, also may have guidelines affecting termination or cancellation of PMI on home mortgages signed before July 29, 1999. Check with your lender or mortgage servicer, or call Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, for more information.
Ameen Kamadia, known as “The Millionaire Loan Officer” offers dozens of free articles about mortgage marketing. Get dozens of great cheap lead generation ideas at his free Mortgage Marketing website.

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Credit, Repair It Yourself Free


The motto of those of us with poor credit has changed from something generated while seeking out a free credit repair office to “credit, repair it yourself free” because that turns out to be the best way to accomplish this task. Often with our backs against the wall, we find that repairing our own credit is the best way to go because a lot of the options in terms of actually repairing credit with a kit or with assistance tend to actually be scams and rip-off deals that are just interested in taking our money and not much else. This can be problematic because, after all, we tend to like money and tend to dislike being ripped off for no good reason.

Credit, repair it yourself free is probably the best option you have to accomplish your goal of living without bad credit. After all, the end of your credit troubles likely lies with you not making any more credit mistakes and not winding up in the bad situation that you have found yourself in the first place. It is tough to imagine life without credit card debt and large amounts of general debt, but as long as you are able to solve your credit problems with the “credit, repair it yourself free” motto and ideology, you should be able to correctly address and solve a problem that many people only dream of figuring out.

Free Credit Repair Options

As you may or may not know, part of “credit, repair it yourself free” is getting the documents that you need to complete the full credit repair. Repairing your credit is all about being prepared and knowing your limitations. In order to do this, you will need to find all of the relevant information and find a way to establish the principle of that information so that you can check it and double check it for errors and mistakes. Once you have completed this process, it is time to start asking for the errors on your credit reports and other documents to be repaired by those that made the error.

Credit, repair it yourself is basically an ideology that is based on finding mistakes or errors in the documents and fixing them with the help of your broker or credit card company. From that point, with a clean and accurate bill, you will need to come up with a savings plan that will help you find the right path to saving your money and paying off your debt properly. This requires a little bit of restraint and a lot of patience, as there are no real quick fixes in terms of credit card debt.
For more credit and credit repair information, visit http://www.clickcreditrepair.com. You can also visit the site by visiting this link – credit repair. At the site you can get a free ebook.

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