Attract Ready Buyers for Your Real Estate Property

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When you’re ready to put your property on the market, you want to get the most qualified buyers to take notice. This is especially the case if you have already purchased another property or need to relocate within a short time span. Rather than spending days bickering over a fair selling price or financing terms, you may want to draw those who are ready to do business, so you can finalize the deal as soon as possible. If that’s the case, here are some tips that can help to attract those who are ready to sign on the dotted line.

1. Avoid contingency offers. These buyers have a property of their own to sell, and may not even have any firm purchase offers they are negotiating. If you sign a contract with this type of buyer, the sale of your property might not be final until their property sells. In effect, you are taking responsibility for the sale of two properties, not just one. In some cases, a buyer may not be required to sell his or her property first, but then may back out from buying your property if they begin to worry about meeting two monthly mortgage payments. A contingency offer may work well in some cases, but is usually not the best way to go if you are in a hurry.

2. Be careful with first-time homebuyers. Although many first time homebuyers often are ready to put together a purchase deal for your property, some are ill equipped to carry out a speedy purchase. They may have overlooked some of the usual purchase terms simply because they are new to the process. Depending on the real estate agent who represents them, or their advance preparation to buy a property, they may have everything lined up and ready to go, including a review of their credit history and a careful budget assessment to see what type of mortgage payment they can afford.

3. Screen potential buyers. When your agent hosts an open house, see if he or she can find out those who have been pre-approved. Interested buyers can be encouraged to get pre-approved if they are not already. Sorting ready from tentative buyers will let you focus on those who are in a position to buy rather than merely being ready to start the pre-approval process. Ideally, the buyers should know how much house they can afford, what type of monthly payment will fit with their budget, and whether their credit history will support the purchase of real estate at this point.

Taking steps like these can prepare your property for a ready sale and reduce the risk of unexpected delays.

About the Author

This article was written by Dion Smith of The Westside Group, offering top-notch real estate services in California. The Westside Group also provides a wealth of free resources for any home buyer or seller. Contact us today to receive your FREE HomeBuyer or HomeSeller Handbooks. Reproductions of this article are encouraged but must include a link back to http://www.westsidegroup.com/

Ten Real Estate Investing Tips

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Real estate investing tips tend to be a bit vague, like “invest in the right location,” or “make sure the numbers work.” Actually, tips like these are important principles to remember. However, since they have been well represented in other articles, I want to share a few more specific tips with you.

1. Listen to the market. The cabinet guy looked to me for a decision. I realized that I knew nothing at all about which cabinets people like, so I asked him which ones others were choosing, and he pointed to one that three quarters of his last forty customers had chosen. That’s the one I want, I told him. Why argue with the market you are trying to sell to?

2. Do your own research. The real estate agent might show you only the comparable sales that make the property look more valuable. Do your own research. Some counties have made it easy now, with sales prices online. You can also search any number of sites with MLS listings, just to get an idea about the asking prices of other nearby properties.

3. Partner carefully. When you do a deal with partners, be the money or the management, but not both. Group decisions tend not to work well in real estate, and will cause you much stress. Once you decide on and agree to a plan, step back if you are investing the capital, and let your partner do his thing. Of course, step up and take control if you are managing the project.

4. Negotiate openly. Just ask a seller outright, “What do you want to get out of this?” It is rare that someone is offended by this simple question, and it saves you from wasting valuable time talking about things that don’t interest him or her. Once you get a clear answer, you can decide if you can give them what they want, and still get what you need.

5. Invest safely. Investing isn’t gambling. There is always risk, but the difference is that the odds are in your favor. If not, you are gambling. This why you shouldn’t invest based on continued price increases. There is no guarantee that prices will continue up at any particular rate. Do deals that work even if prices go nowhere, and if values go up, you’re that much better off.

6. Run the numbers. It is about the numbers, and if it is income property, it’s about one number in particular: cash flow. Whatever the local formulas are, whether gross rent multipliers or capitalization rates or whatever, just be sure that after every last expense you’ll have cash flow from the very first month.

Rules, formulas and real estate tips are really just guidelines. Even the rule above about cash flow can be broken if you know that rents can be raised soon, for example. You have to use common sense and learn from experience, and you can’t replace good analysis with rules, formulas and real estate tips.

About the Author

Steve Gillman has invested in real estate for years. To learn more, get a free real estate investing course, and see a photo of a beautiful house he and his wife bought for $17,500, visit http://www.HousesUnderFiftyThousand.com

Bakersfield California Real Estate

Bakersfield, California, is located in Kern County, 100 miles NW of Los Angeles, California. Bakersfield has a population of 247,057. It has become a popular place for visitors en route to and from Las Vegas and Los Angeles, who stop for outdoor adventures such as whitewater rafting on the Kern River or hot air ballooning over the San Joaquin Valley.

Agriculture is king in Bakersfield. The region grows over 250 types of crops, with about 30 types of fruits and nuts, 40 types of vegetables, and over 20 field crops. Lumber, livestock, poultry and dairy products are also big industries here. The area is also home to the California State University, and Bakersfield College, and numerous museums and galleries.

Bakersfield Homes

Bakersfield properties pool is 83,428 residential properties including Bakersfield new homes. The median age of real estate in Bakersfield is 1979. The average household size is 3.41 people. 3% are one bedroom homes, 14% are 2 bedroom homes, 56% are 3 bedroom homes, 22% are 4 bedroom homes, and 2% are 5+ bedroom homes.

Bakersfield Mortgage Statistics

Homes With No Mortgage 18%
Homes With Mortgage 82%
First Mortgage Only 63%
First & Second Mortgage or HELOC 19%

Bakersfield Area Real Estate Tax

Bakersfield Real estate Tax: Median Real Estate Taxes (2000) were $1,422 comparing to 1999 Median Family income $ 45,556. Compare to USA median yearly Real Estate Tax $1,300 and USA median Family Income $42,000 (1999).

Bakersfield School District: Children make up 32.7% of Bakersfield population. Bakersfield has 80,683 under 18 years old residents, or 0.81 kids per one worker, or 0.97 kids per one household.

Bakersfield Real Estate & Bakersfield Homeownership

There are 18354.16 or 22% one person households, 23359.84 or 28% two person households, and 14182.76 or 17% three person households in Bakersfield, California. Median residents age is 30.1, Senior citizens (65+) make up 21,681 or 8.8%% of Bakersfield population.

There are 99,769 workers (over 16 years of age) in Bakersfield. Of these, 92.68% drive to work. Approximately 1.73% of workers in Bakersfield take public transportation. An estimated 1.32% walk to work.

Median Bakersfield homeowner’s housing expenses are 22%

Crime in Bakersfield (2003), crimes per 10,000 residents per year

Violent Crimes 61.28
Robberies 17.77
Aggravated Assaults 40.88
Property Crimes 570.8
Burglaries 109
Larceny-Thefts 381.09
Motor Vehicle Thefts 80.71

Invest in Bakersfield Properties

When making a decision about buying real estate in Bakersfield California area, you should consider the following statistical data:

Near Medium City
Near Large City Los Angeles, California
Bakersfield Zip Codes 93301, 93304, 93305, 93306, 93307, 93308, 93309, 93311, 93312, 93313, 93314
Bakersfield Area Codes 661
White population 61.87%
African-American population 9.16%
Asian 4.33%
American Indian & Alaskan
Hispanic (of any race) 32.45%
Median Family Income (1999) $ 45,556%
Population Below Poverty Level 17.72%

About the Author:

Jennifer Hershey has more than twenty years of experience in the Mortgage Industry as a loan officer. She is the owner of http://www.explainingmortgages.com/, a real estate and mortgage resource site devoted to making mortgage terms and products easy to understand.