• Enough credit to purchase a property with a mortgage
• If you do not have enough cash to buy or put down
• You do not want to get stuck with a property you can not

Take a few moments from what you are currently doing and watch.

Here is what you will learn:

• Why Real Estate?
• What a Lease Option is.
• Why you need a Lease Options.
• 6 keys to success.

Check out the Box located on the right side of this blog and get it now!!

Wendy

Valentines Day is usually spent taking a romantic vacation with your significant other or spending tons of money creating the perfect day.  Like many you can end up spending hundreds of dollars for one day.  If you are like many couples currently experiencing the difficulties of the recession and trying to sell a home, you just can not afford to do both this year.  If this is your situation, I have the PERFECT solution: spend Valentines Day staging your home.  One of the great things about staging your home is that it can be done with little or no money. No matter what your budget is, even if it is zero, you can use staging techniques to increase the appeal of your home.

When it comes to selling your home you want it to really appeal to buyers in a positive way. You want buyers to love your home, to look around and go, “Ooh, look at that,” or “Wow, that’s beautiful.” Your home should have some pizzazz, some sizzle. In other words you want to trick your home out and give it some bling!

Here are my tips for home staging:

1. Get Rid of the Clutter

One of the most important things to do when it comes to making the inside of your home look desirable is to get rid of the clutter. After living in our home for a while we tend to accumulate stuff. I have heard professional home stagers recommend that the average home owner clear about 1/3 of their possessions out of the house before putting it on the market. Definitely remove any collections of dolls, spoons, Star Wars figures, or any other dust catchers.

2. Window Treatments

It’s a good idea to have window treatments on every window in the house, if they make sense. A combination of blinds with curtains is best. But here’s the catch, you also want to let lots of light into the house. So the blinds should be raised and the curtains fully open. This creates a nice framing effect on each window.

3. Lighting

In addition to letting in natural light you want to add plenty of artificial light. The trick that home stagers use is to layer the lighting. They use a blend of light from ceiling fixtures, lamps, wall lights and task lights. You want to make rooms bright, without being too bright and not have any single light source overly stand out.

4. Doorknobs, Switch Plates and Outlet Covers, Oh My!

If you are going to go to all of the trouble to make the walls and doors look great, you should finish the job by replacing all light switch plates and outlet covers with new ones. I also recommend replacing all of the doorknobs if they look at all worn, because it’s so inexpensive to do it. The reason this is a pet peeve of mine is that freshly painted walls with painted over switches and outlets looks like a cover up job to me. Replacing all of the switch plates and outlet covers in your home should cost you about $30.

5. Arranging the Furniture

If you’ve ever seen a professional home stager in action they seem to have this great ability to take the existing furnishings you have and rearrange them, sometimes into different rooms and make your home look completely different--and so much better. Because the furnishings you have and the layout of the rooms in your home will be completely different for each person there aren’t a lot of general tips I can give you for arranging your furniture. Look in home magazines. It doesn’t cost anything to go to the bookstore and look at them. They are full of photos that can give you great ideas. HGTV in particular has really come to realize that the housing market has gone soft and they have multiple shows now exclusively focusing on home staging. These stagers share tons of useful tips and tricks for making your home look great. What I don’t recommend doing is going out and buying whole new furniture sets for key rooms in your home just for staging.

There are a few commonsense tips I can offer that apply, no matter what furnishings you have and how the layout of a room is.

1. Don’t leave large dead spaces.
2. Clearing the clutter applies to too much furniture as well.
3. Don’t have everything pushed up against the walls.

6. Master Bedroom

The master bedroom is the ultimate refuge. It is the haven within the home. No matter how large or small your master bedroom is, you want it to appeal to the buyers as a place they WANT to spend their nights. If your master bedroom is cramped, it’s time to move some of the furniture out. Also, closets are a big selling point for houses. Clear out your closets out. If your master bedroom closet is jam–packed, buyers will look at it and decide there just isn’t enough room, even if your closets are huge.

7. Bathrooms

Your bathrooms should be so clean you can eat off the floor (but no need to test it this way!). There shouldn’t be any mildew, soap scum, toilet rings, body hair or anything else that makes the buyers think they are buying your dirt. Make sure the mirrors sparkle.

8. Kitchen

“Kitchens and baths sell homes.” Pretty much any real estate agent in the country will agree with this. Making your kitchen look the absolute best it can is well worth it when you are trying to sell your home. The beautiful thing about staging your kitchen is that you really don’t have to spend any money to do it.

These tips will help to save you money while trying to sell your home and allow you to still spend time with your loved one on Valentines Day. A Well-staged home that is competitively priced consistently outsells non-staged homes, even the fixer uppers. By the way don’t forget the flowers! If you would like more tips for do-it-yourself home staging techniques check out my book Rent-to-Sell by clicking HERE.

WENDY'S VALENTINES DAY SPECIAL OFFER: Purchase Rent-to-Sell before February 14, 2010 for ONLY $9.95.

Enter Coupon Code: VALENTINE to purchase Rent-to-Sell Today! Share this article and coupon code with  your friends and they will thank you later.

I know a lot of you are probably wondering about the answers to these questions.  The nature of real estate investing is very different than it was just a few short years ago.

If you want to find some answers and learn how to do profitable deals in this market you should check out this webinar this upcoming Tuesday night (January 19) at 8 PM EST.  I will be talking with Kris Kirschner about the current real estate market.

We’ll be looking at what techniques actually work RIGHT NOW and what you can do in this market.

There will be no sales on this webinar – it’s all about info.

This is a very special webinar and one you don’t want to miss.  Kris Kirschner is a genius in real estate who knows what is working right now in the market and how to invest even if you have no experience at all.

Space is limited for this webinar, so you’ll want to register now.  The webinar is free so if you are interested in real estate investing in today’s market you don’t want to miss this.

It’s this Tuesday, January 19 at 8 PM EST.  To register go to (click on the link)

http://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/452844410:
See you there! – Wendy

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REGISTER HERE

Two-Day Seminar on Lease Options and Subject Tos
with Wendy Patton and Kris Kirschner

Dear Fellow Real Estate Investor,

If you want to crush your competition…pull in the BIG Money…and can spare just one weekend – then I have some terrific news for you today…

Because on February 27th & 28th, I’m inviting you to learn – quite simply – the best techniques for Super-Charged real estate investing in this beaten down market.

Discover how to easily create winning deals every time with Lease Options and Subject Tos…

If you let me, I’ll show you how to score a $300,000 home for $10 bucks…or even nothing at all.

You see, motivated sellers are all over the place…pouring out of the wood work in this admittedly weak market. And how you move through this market could mean the difference between the Big Money and NO money.

I should know – I learned the hard way…

But that’s good news for you because I’m willing to share all of my Insider’s Secrets with you on February 27th and 28th.

And as an added BIG bonus, I’ve invited Kris Kirschner to join us…

Kris is one of the most in-demand, knowledgeable real estate investing speakers in the country today…he’s trained over 50,000 people – just like you – both here and abroad

REGISTER HERE

ONLY 57 SEATS LEFT!!!

Because if you register today you will get it all – everything I told you about and much, much more for the price of a cheap dinner…just $59 dollars. And I’ll go you one even better…

If you register in the next 7 minutes, I’ll let you bring a guest…absolutely FREE.

Now you can share with those on your favorite social networking site such like: Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. You can even e-mail your favorite entry to all of your friends! How cool is that?  Simply click the share/save button that appears at the bottom of every post and it will pull up the window you see to your right. Then click the site you wish to share the post on.

Also, as a thank you for reading my blog, I’d like to give you one of my 100% FREE DVDs on Lease Options. I have DVDs for both Real Estate Investors and Realtors. Simply choose which DVD you’d like! CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

Like the Rental Agreement, Option Agreements can be pro-seller, neutral or pro-buyer. Believe me, it does make a difference! Your best bet would be to use the contracts / agreements from my website. I have been using them and improving on them for more than twenty years. If you elect not to purchase them, I would recommend you retain the services of an attorney to help you get the most protection possible. Explore Pre-Paid Legal services at www.GotLegalPlans.com to get the best rates and advice.

Here are several of the clauses you will find in my Option Agreement that make it pro-buyer. Remember, you are the optionee and the seller is the optionor.

Exclusive Right

This clause protects you by giving you the exclusive right to buy during the option period. The seller cannot sell their home to anyone else as long as the option is valid.

Option Credits

This clause is critical and can be worth many thousands of dollars to you. It is another important reason to have pro-buyer contracts, as neutral and pro-seller contracts will almost certainly not have this clause. Option Credits are amounts that are credited against the purchase price when you buy the home. Typically, they are applied out of the monthly rent. Option credits, like the option fee, only apply against the purchase price of the home, so if you don’t buy the home, you won’t receive these credits.

No Liens

Additional liens against the home may impact your ability to purchase the home. For example, if the seller fails to pay their property taxes, it would create a lien against the property preventing the seller from selling the home until the taxes are paid.

Direct Payment

This clause is all about protecting you to ensure that you will be able to purchase the home, even if the seller stops making payments. It gives you the right to make the payment directly if the seller stops paying his mortgage.

Rent to Buy is your hands-on guide to buying your next home as a rent to own.  You can get your next home NOW without having to qualify for a mortgage until later.  To Learn more about Option Agreements purchase your copy of Rent-to-Buy today.

Most good Rental Agreements take the guesswork out of the picture for you, making your life significantly easier. They do this by having all of the regular terms and conditions pre-printed. One important thing to remember is that you should NEVER draft your own rental agreements (or any other contracts for that matter) from scratch. Always use pre-created contracts (preferably pro-buyer) and just fill in the relevant details. Creating your own contracts can cause you enormous headaches and potential legal problems.

There are three different types of contracts:  Pro-Seller, Neutral and Pro-Buyer. You, as the buyer, will want pro-buyer contracts for your transaction, whenever possible. You can order these on my website if you don’t already have them. They offer you the most protection and the most favorable terms.   The type of contract can make a HUGE difference.  If you use the pro-buyer contracts, the seller is responsible for all repairs, or you can choose to share the expenses. Using a pro-seller contract or a lease from a real estate agent could result you might end up being responsible for ALL repairs to the property during your rental period.

Here are a few clauses you will find in my rental agreements that make them pro-buyer.

Insurance

It’s very important that the owner continue insurance. He or she is responsible for insuring his home during the rental period, not you. You will want to obtain renter’s insurance to protect your possessions, but the home itself must be insured by the owner (seller).

Maintenance, Repairs or Alterations

The Landlord gives the tenant the right to make repairs or improvements to the property at the tenant’s expense. This is where you will want to put in who will pay for what repairs. I personally like the owner to pay for repairs during the option period when I am the buyer.

Rental Payments

It is very important when you are doing a lease option that you make SURE the seller is paying his mortgage payment.  If he doesn’t pay it, your dream will become a nightmare.  I recommend you have your monthly payment made to their mortgage company versus to the seller directly.

Check out Chapter 7 of Rent-to- Buy for more insight into Rental Agreements.  Rent-to-Buy is a great gift for the Holiday's.  Order  your copy  TODAY!!