Good Reasons to Buy Now: The Current Housing Market Is A Rare Bargain

Good Reasons to Buy Now: The Current Housing Market Is A Rare Bargain

By: Jeff Hammerberg

Price pressures continue to strengthen the bargaining positions of buyers, while homeowners are feeling more desperate to sell, regardless of how many concessions they might have to make to close their deals. With more than half a million brand new homes languishing on the market unsold and a glut of existing homes that will take an estimated 8-9 months to sell, buyers have plenty of reasons to rejoice.

Some buyers are waiting for even lower prices, but they may lose out to tighter regulations in the mortgage lending market. If youÂ're thinking of buying a home, it may be easier to get the mortgage you want now than it is in the near future. Government officials at every level are pushing for more stringent regulation of lenders, and the banking and mortgage industries themselves are already taking proactive steps to tighten purse strings because of so many losses suffered due to defaults and foreclosures. Meanwhile the economy is sending mixed signals and the stock markets are jittery, which could signal bumpy roads ahead. If interest rates go higher or if the values of investment portfolios shrink, those who are waiting to buy a home may find themselves paying more for their loans or they may even be completely disqualified.

Another factor to consider if you are sitting on the fence about buying is that the real estate market in the USA is normally a seasonal and cyclical affair. The busy season is in the springtime, and that is when homes generally sell for the best prices. As summer wears on, sellers often lower their expectations of a sale, along with their asking prices. Especially in regions of the country where heating bills are significant – in colder climates the cost of fuel to heat a home over the winter can easily range in the thousands of dollars – sellers can save money by selling before the first frost. That means that those who are shopping for a home have added leverage if they buy at the end of the summer season. Just as buying a winter coat in the springtime can guarantee deep discounts, buying a home at the end of the best selling season can mean serious price breaks at the closing table.

When negotiating the sale, here are some places to ask for wiggle room from sellers:

The Price:

To be taken seriously, donÂ't lowball the seller but offer a price that is within five percent of the asking price. If youÂ're pre-approved for your mortgage or are buying with cash, this can also significantly improve your position.

Closing Costs:

If your seller assists with these it helps you qualify for better mortgage terms while saving you some serious out-of-pocket money.

Repairs:

If sellers are eager, you can ask them to do necessary repairs before you buy. Or have them give you a cash allowance based on contractor bids, and then do the work yourself.

Leave-Behinds:

Moving appliances and furniture is expensive for home sellers, and sometimes they will throw those items in for free, so why not ask?

There are also other ways to save money or get extras when you sit down to negotiate. In bearish real estate markets, homeowners became rather creative with off-the-wall miscellaneous perks. During the past year, buyers in the USA have gotten free trips to Europe, cases of vintage wine, automobiles, boats, and other incentives. If you can think of a commodity to help close the transaction, mention it to the seller and they might go for it. For example, if you are buying your home from a member of the city symphony orchestra or the local basketball team, you might get free season tickets. Need a riding lawn mower and see one in the garage? Maybe your seller is moving to a condo where they donÂ't need to cut the grass and they will be happy to toss it in to clinch the sale. Buying from a chef? Maybe he or she will give you free meals at your new favorite restaurant in order to put the icing on the cake of the sales contract.

Have your Realtor provide you with updated market info because prices, inventories, and values can change quickly. The median price of American homes edged up slightly this summer, for the first time in a year. The up-tick may have been caused by people pulling their unsold houses off the market, but that adds another incentive to buy now while the inventory is large and the prices are cheap.

DonÂ't expect to see writing on the wall when the tide turns. By the time it becomes obvious to everyone that the buyerÂ's market is over, it will be too late to find the outstanding bargains. If you want a home, donÂ't deny yourself the pleasure just to save a few bucks.

For expert help with your next real estate purchase, contact the largest online network of real estate professionals dedicated to serving the GLBT community at www.GayRealEstate.com and www.GayMortgageLoans.com. Or call toll free 1-888-420-MOVE (6683).

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/business_and_finance/article_8920.shtml

Public Auctions: Bargains and Bamboozles

Public Auctions: Bargains and Bamboozles

By: Dale Hartley

I used to dabble in antiques as a hobby and made a nice part-time income from buying and selling. To keep myself supplied with inventory, I attended live auctions regularly.

One thing led to another, and I decided to go to auctioneer school and get my auctioneer's license. Since I was already dealing in antiques, I thought it would be fun and profitable to auction antiques and estates.

Well, it was an adventure anyway, but I'm no longer a practicing auctioneer. Preparing for each auction, and closing the books afterwards, took far more time than I expected. And although I profited from each auction, the payoff wasn't that great in relation to the amount of work involved.

I'll spare you my auction school horror story, in which one student arrived with an extremely brutal strain of the flu and gave it to everyone else in the class.

And I'll spare you my impression of the fine instructors: "Now, this is illegal as hell, but here's what one guy does...."

And I'll spare you the typical estate auction client, whose Mama has just died and who wants to auction her 10 year old Montgomery Ward "antique" living room suite for not a penny less than she paid for it.

Yes, gentle reader, I'll spare you the gruesome details of the auction business and give you an insider's view of what you as an auction consumer should watch for.

Auctioneer Tricks

== PHANTOM BIDS ==

Suppose I'm auctioning an oil painting that's worth about $500.00. The customary (and legitimate) practice is as follows:

1) I start calling for bids at $500.00

2) When no one bids, I drop back to maybe $400.00

3) Then, when no one bids again, I drop back to

the "real steal" price of maybe $300.00

As soon as I call $300.00, several hands will go up. The correct procedure is for the auctioneer to acknowledge the first bidder he sees or, if he sees several at once, to just pick one and carry on from there. But here's the trick...

A slick and slippery auctioneer will see three hands go up at once (each intending to bid $300.00), and he'll point quickly to each, "$300.00, now $325.00, now $350.00" before they can drop their hands. Then he's off and running. It happens so fast that the bidders hardly realize what he did.

There are two things wrong with this:

First, none of those bidders offered a bid any higher than $300.00. They probably would have continued to bid up the price, but that's not the point. It's their decision whether to offer a higher bid. It's not the auctioneer's right to force a higher bid upon them.

Second -- and this is what's really nasty -- those two bids above $300.00 were "phantom bids" to the tune of $50.00. That's illegal. It's fraudulent. It's an offense reportable to the state licensing board. And it happens all the time.

So why would bidders allow an auctioneer to assign them higher phantom bids that they didn't make? A combination of factors: The auction is so fast-paced and adrenaline-charged that the auctioneer's sleight-of-hand may not immediately register. And they may think, "That's fine. I'm going to bid higher than that anyway." They also probably defer to the auctioneer's authority thinking, "Well, I had my hand in the air." And most people do not know this little secret:

By law, a bidder may retract his or her

bid at any time before the auctioneer says "SOLD!"

[ Uniform Commercial Code §2-328(3) ]

If you're an eBay user, you probably know that retractions are allowed only in rare and exceptional circumstances. Guess what? That's just an eBay company policy! By law, any bidder may retract any bid for any reason while the auction is still in progress. Of course, at a live auction this means interrupting the auctioneer and bringing the sale to a temporary halt, which is another reason bidders let auctioneers get away with such antics.

== SHILL BIDS ==

As most people know, shill bidding is a scam whereby the auctioneer has one or more cronies pose as bidders to run up the final auction price. This is common in online auctions, where fraud is easier to conceal (and where the seller can act as his or her own shill without the aid of others).

At live auctions, shill bidding is so transparent and risky as to be downright stupid. In all the auctions I attended, I only saw it once (and in that case it would have been obvious to the village idiot).

The online auction site uBid has an interesting policy that, in my opinion, encourages shill bidding whether intentionally or not. I am not accusing uBid or any of its sellers of shill bidding, because I have no evidence of such. I am only commenting on their policy, which is:

"If there are any bids within 10 minutes of the auction close time, the auction will be extended until there are no bids for 10 continuous minutes. There is no limit to the number of times an auction can be extended."

IF I were selling something on uBid, and IF I wasn't satisfied with the bids, I could simply cast a shill bid and keep the thing going indefinitely. IF I were to do such a thing, the entire transaction would be a sham and a scam.

At a live auction you can watch for phantom bids and shill bids by standing in the back of the the crowd and observing both the auctioneer and the bidders simultaneously.

== BACKING-OFF ==

Now, suppose that an auctioneer, while calling bids, gestures somewhere towards the back of a crowd and calls a phantom bid to help advance the price. And then suppose no one else bids. Uh-oh.

The crooked and greedy auctioneer is about to expose himself for the con artist he is, unless --

"Were you bidding, sir?" (Speaking to the phantom somewhere in the back of the crowd.) "Oh, I thought you put your hand up."

And then he backs-off to the next lowest bid and sells to that person. Whew, that was a close one!

This is why it's a good idea to sit or stand where you can observe both the auctioneer and the crowd, especially with an auctioneer you haven't patronized before.

Reserve or Absolute?

Suppose you see an advertisement for an "Estate Auction" listing the property to be sold, the date and location, and various other information about the sale, but no mention is made whether the auction is "absolute" (everything will sell to highest bidder regardless of price) or "reserve" (auctioneer may refuse to sell below a certain price). Every auction is either a reserve or absolute auction. But how can you tell when the auction ads don't specify? The auction company's very silence is your answer.

Per the Uniform Commercial Code [ §2-328(3) ], all auctions are deemed to be with reserve unless stated otherwise. If the advertising doesn't specify "absolute," then it's automatically a reserve auction. This doesn't necessarily mean that every item will have a minimum price. Most items probably will be sold absolute, even at a reserve price auction. It just means the auctioneer, acting on behalf of the seller, retains the right of refusal.

An auctioneer might have the seller's full authority to sell absolute -- this is common when liquidating estates -- but may still choose to leave the word "absolute" out of the advertising, just to retain some flexibility. If there's a light turn-out and very sparse bidding, for example, the auctioneer might want to pack it in rather than to let everything go for pennies on the dollar.

Buyer Beware

As soon as you win something at auction, the staff will immediately hand it over to you -- unless of course it's a piece of furniture or other large item. As the auction progresses, piles of merchandise will begin to accumulate around each buyer. Why, you may wonder, don't they just mark these items with your bidder number (like they do with large items) and hold them until you're ready to leave?

Be seated, Grasshopper. You have much to learn.

Under the arcana of auction law, the sale is consummated when the auctioneer says "SOLD!", not when you check out and pay. Therefore, the risk of theft or damage immediately passes to you...unless the auction company volunteers to safeguard your purchases. And this is why your auction winnings get dropped in your lap forthwith. Things do walk off or get damaged at auctions.. Better this should happen on your watch than the auctioneer's.

Auctions can be exciting and rewarding, but as someone who's "walked both sides of the street," I recommend approaching the entire experience as you would a carnival booth:

"Behold, I sent you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves."

-- Matthew 10:16

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/business_and_finance/article_8904.shtml

How To Use A Business Credit Card

How To Use A Business Credit Card

By: Peter Kenny

Do you need a business credit card? That is a very important question and one that business owners should consider seriously.

Many business owners, especially small business owners and sole proprietors, use their personal credit cards to make purchases for their business needs. There is nothing illegal about this and if one keeps meticulous records, it can be a way to conduct business purchase via credit card use. However, there are a couple of drawbacks to using personal credit cards for business.

One of the most important drawbacks is record keeping. Generally speaking, most business expenses are tax deductible and, depending on the amount one spends on these expenses, the deductions can be hefty.

By using a business credit card to make your purchases, you can easily keep those expenditures separate from personal expenditures. This can be a great help when tax time rolls around and the business owner has to identify what is personal and what is business. The amount of time that this can save is worth the use of a business card alone. As well, it can greatly reduce mistakes and omissions.

Another good reason to use a business credit card is that it allows the business to establish its own credit history. This can be especially useful for those businesses that are not incorporated. By establishing its own credit history, a business can often find it easier to approach lenders when additional credit is needed. Showing lenders that you have worked hard to get credit for the business and that you have been reliable in paying the credit debt off will go a long way in assuring lenders that your business is a good candidate for additional credit.

Business credit cards can also be useful because of the various perks and programs that they sometimes offer. Personal credit cards also carry several programs but these are most often designed for vacations or consumer type discounts. Business cards, on the other hand, will often promote discounts that are specifically designed to help business owners. These programs can often save the owner a lot of money during the course of a year.

Lastly, you can designate the people or departments that are allowed to use the card. This can save you from having to do this yourself. Again, the savings in time can be worth the effort it takes to get a new business card all by itself.

You can begin researching companies that offer business cards online. As with all types of credit cards, there will be variances between the companies and you will want to make sure that you deal with the company that offers what you need. You will also want to check the interest rates that are being offered and apply for the ones that are the lowest. One tip is companies that offer the most promotions often offer the higher interest rates as well. Be sure you check on that before applying. This can be especially important if you do not plan to use the various perks and promotions throughout the year. You don't want to pay for something that you won't use very much.

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/business_and_finance/article_8943.shtml

DonÂ’t Go For A Fixed-Rate Home Loan Now

DonÂÂ't Go For A Fixed-Rate Home Loan Now

By: Anne Lee

Fixed interest rates of home loans have swung from a low of 7 per cent in 2003 to 13.5 per cent now, and industry experts finally believe that they have peaked. Says Kapil Wadhawan, vice-chairman and MD of Dewan Housing Finance Corporation [Get Quote]: If rates go up any further, it will begin to hurt customers and the entire economy will be impacted. The corporate sector will be pressured. A further hike in interest rates is not advisable.

While there is an enduring involves about inflation and high liquidity, and the shyness turn of India [Get line] might be required to intervene and spread the CRR further, the tolls should stabilize in the next six to eight months. Some experts say that even if there is a spread in interest tolls, it would be very marginal - not more than 50 source advantages.

Why you should not go for fixed tolls. If interest tolls have peaked, as most indicators appear to advocate, then there is no advantage in opting for a fixed toll home advance. The irony is that most heaps and housing companies are now strenuous to press home advances at fixed toll. A fixed toll regime is a burly interest regime, says Wadhawan. Permanent toll should be favorite even if it appears high.

However, Harsh Roongta, CEO of Apnaadvance.com, roots for hovering tolls for home advances in the modern scenario. He says there is no want to pay the 2 per cent premium that the fixed toll advance would entail. Even if interest tolls go up marginally, the shock on hovering tolls would slow be minus than 2 per cent, he says.

Roongta is certain a new series of interest tolls will begin. Awareness tolls will go down and come up again. One cannot say when that will ensue, but it is certain to ensue, he says.

Monetary plotter Ankara Shah adds that whether hovering is favorable or not, you should have the means to change to the fixed toll when the place stress. This means that you should set departure money to pay the penalty for replacing over. Or moreover, make definite to go for a hovering toll with a lessen term, she says. Also, it is strenuous to predict outside four to five time in the interest toll soak, where home advances regularly have a horizon of 15 times.

Her counsel is also that you should ideally pause plow there is some clarity on the path interest tolls are possible to take. She says: In our country, fixed is never fixed and hovering is never hovering. And so, it may just ensue that your hovering toll of interest on the home advance does not go down after a whole accident in interest tolls.

Roongta concurs with Shah on the procedure in India about fixed and hovering toll home advances. Customers should be cautious about the contracts they billboard with heaps, he cautions. Do not inhabit for a half-hovering or a half-fixed toll advance. Most heaps in our country do not propose a clean hovering toll or a clean fixed toll. If the heap is denying you a clean fixed toll or a clean hovering toll advance, then take up the stem with the involved authorities.

Do you want to replace over? The near agreed deem nowadays is that interest tolls are impossible to go upper than their modern levels, even when they increase again in the next series. By this coupon 14 per cent is possible to be the peak that housing advances would loss. If that is the problem, then it is sure not wise to take a fixed toll home advance. If want be, you could even exchange a high fixed toll advance to a hovering toll one.

Shifting from fixed to hovering toll makes logic only if the fixed toll is upper than the modern hovering toll (see Should You translate from permanent to hanging?)

What you want to do. It would be best to pause for clarity to emerge on the possible outlook of interest tolls before winning an advance to buy a house. But if you want to buy right away, then opt for a lessen term of the home advance. And if you must take a advance with a high term, then keep money departure to pay the penalty for replacing back to fixed, in problem the want for burden that increases.

Should you translate from permanent to hanging?

DonÂ't change to hovering toll if you took a advance about four time back at a fixed toll that is below the modern hovering toll and, in problem it is not a cleanly fixed toll advance, the heap has not yet revised the toll. Choose after the toll changes to the modern levels, says Harsh Roentgen.

DonÂ't replace over if you took an advance about a year back at a fixed toll that is close to the modern hovering toll. Toll has not yet been revised to modern levels for advances that are not cleanly fixed.

Translate if you took a fixed toll advance just at 13.5%, which is above the modern hovering toll levels. The aggregate EMI for the hovering toll bonus the penalty for shifting (close to 1.75% of the outstanding quantity) should not exceed the aggregate EMI for the fixed toll advance. Weigh the tax profit for both scenarios too.

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/business_and_finance/article_8890.shtml

Corporate Trigger Mechanisms

Corporate Trigger Mechanisms

By: Murad C Ali

The effective functioning of a modern company requires proper IT services that can integrate the various complicated software programs and services into something that is useful for managers. Managers want the ability to run reports at the touch of a finger without having to spend large amounts of time attempting to extract information.

The IT department has responsibilities to provide the capabilities needed in an integrated and simple format (Feigenbaum, Herman, Hongsermeier, Neumann & Stephens, 2007). The integrated system allows the decision makers within the organization to synthesize the information into a useful format for making strategic decisions.

Therefore, the IT system and the software that is utilized on that system should be able to work with multiple users on multiple computer interface systems. In order for this to happen all of the software and systems should use a single programming language which makes it easier for IT professionals to work with (Vaas, 2007).

When IT professionals can manipulate the code of such software and are able to develop databases of information collected in through various software they are able to more easily handle the data load and manipulated for corporate use. The database should be easy to use and easily manipulated for customization.

The process is relatively simple. The information collected through the operating system and the software on the system is periodically updated into a large corporate database. This information can then be extracted and used in reports, financial monitoring and helping to make other financial decisions. The more data that can be collected and synthesized the more beneficial it is to the company.

Installing the proper data system will also require some strategic planning about who should have access and the systems that are used. For example, the human resource information systems may not be able to communicate well with the main database. In addition, such systems may have no function outside of their own departments.

Once the IT system is made and developed the organization must still determine who is going to have access to such systems (Scalisi, 2007). Each level of access should be based in part on the position of the user, their necessity in the information and organizations objectives. The level of information a person can get is important for the protection of the system, the privacy of the workers and the ability of managers to make appropriate decisions.

Setting up a corporate wide IT system with a central database that works is essential in any modern organization. It is useful because it is the powerhouse that keeps all of the information for the organization and without this information it is difficult to make appropriate strategic decisions. When it comes to IT, it is better to ensure accuracy than to force speed.

Trigger Mechanisms

Trigger mechanisms help companies determine when looming problems are going to become a reality and prompt these executives to take immediate evasive action (Lenckus, 2007). Under such circumstances many organizations will begin to meet and implement plans for steering away from future problems.

Trigger mechanisms are important because sometimes executive management may be slow or fearful to act and this allows problems to continue to fester. However at times these problems can grow to the point that action must be taken and without this prompting it can is doubtful that all managers will take evasive action.

Triggers can come in many different forms that include financial measure of cash flow, debt ratios, declining profits but also may come in the form of other operations necessities such as turn over rates or system shutdowns. These triggers can help the organization manage crisis.

It would make logical sense that the major catastrophes of the organizations are pre-planned and thought out so as to develop a procedure to handle such crisis (Burrage & Hoekstra, 2004). These procedures will depend on the organization and on the managers involved.

For example, an organization runs into a cash flow problem and therefore less monies should be temporarily allocated to debt, marketing should focus on more cash related items and managers must help ensure that their departments are funneling as much cash as possible to the central entity.

Without mechanisms problems can grow and become bigger then they need be. These problems can continue to grow and fester without awareness of what is happening under the surface. If left unhanded or ignored these problems could either seriously hamper the organization and force its collapse.

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/business_and_finance/article_8894.shtml

Bust Out of \"Stuck\" 3 Steps That Keep you On Track

By: Linda Feinholz

Is this you? You have customers to satisfy, professional goals to deliver on and your personal goals shoved to the back burner... and you and your friends, colleagues, clients and vendors are already talking about 'this' year. Decisions aren't getting made because too many of them feel like they're all the top priority... and you find yourself with a task list that is incomplete, messages unreturned, and lists growing longer.

"HELP ME STAY ON TRACK!"

I had a call from one of my clients this week. She was overwhelmed and anxious. And she was sitting at her desk getting nothing done. Her deadlines were looming and her team was clammering for her attention. As we spoke it became clear that her stress was triggered by her chewing on last year's results, her uncertainty of the results she's targeting, and her frustration over results that have slipped away. ALL at the same time! It probably sounds familiar?

The truth is, you will always be bombarded by more information, more ideas and more opportunity than you can follow through on - that's success!

I'll admit, I've had a few of those pauses that stretched to days with my foot jammed down on the break. I found myself sitting in overwhelm last month, as I was trying to get my newsletter launched, I got in the same old black magic state of overwhelm... and pulled out my 3-step process to bust out of being stalled.

If you cannot get a handle on the tug of war for your attention, your future is at risk!

I don't want you to spend even one more day sitting at that red light. So how do you get out of overwhelm and back on track? Here are 3 steps I use that are guaranteed to work for you personally, for your team, and for your organization:

1. List EVERYTHING That's Incomplete

Rather than trying to decide anything, sit down and make a list. That's all, just make a thorough, complete list. Scientists have shown that people cannot make decisions when their heart rate is over 90 beats per minute. So the first order of business is to get your heart rate down, and as you focus your attention on a task, your heart rate will drop. In this instance the task is making a list of every single thing that is incomplete. You can do this in writing or on your computer, in a program that will let you list each item on a separate line. The items may be on other lists, on Post-It notes, in your PDA, on scraps of paper on your desktop, on the bottom of meeting agendas, in your wallet. You might find them on phone messages you've "saved" in your voicemail, on receipts you put in your "in-basket" or pinned to your bulletin board. And don't forget to look on the white board!

2. Sort Them and Tag Them

Your next task is to sort out your list and identify the key reason each item is incomplete. The question you'll ask yourself is "What is the single most important reason this is incomplete?" Some quick and easy sorting criteria to use include: 1 - I don't have the information I need to make a decision 2 - I have the information but I don't like the form the decision will take 3 - I have the information and I like the form, but not the timing 4 - This conflicts with another item on the list Create YOUR list of criteria, and then tag each item on the list with ONE of those criteria. Once they are tagged regroup the list so that all the items that need further information are listed in a single group, and so on.

3. Prioritize Them and Act on the 1st One

Within each group, put a priority on the items in your list. This is another form of sorting, but this time it's within a group that already has a common characteristic. You'll want to use a new set of criteria for sorting this time. The criteria might be "easiest to get done" or "easiest to delegate" or "needs to be completed in order to do other things on this list." Set your criteria and sort away! Once you've sorted all the groups, select one group and the top item in that group and take action on just that one thing. Here's a hint - you might want to start with the "Delegate This" list if you created one. As you systematically turn those incomplete items over to others, they become a list of things you'll follow up on, rather than things you need to "Do!" and you'll have even more attention left for the things you've kept on your own list.

As you keep your attention focused, you'll retain control over your attention and find each item is dealt with much faster than you had anticipated. In turn, you'll find the sensation of overwhelm and being 'stuck' will be gone!

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/business_and_finance/article_8879.shtml