If you are like many others who have come to my site to learn how to make more money by investing with little or no money down in lease options, I have an exciting opportunity for you. I am now offering a FREE online DVD to help you Learn How to put $5,000- $10,000 into your  pocket within 29 days using lease options .  I am sure you may have concerns and may be wondering if it is even possible in today’s Real Estate market when you do not have:

• 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!!

1. Price

Typically buyers won’t try to negotiate price.  They often accept your asking price (which includes a rent-to-own premium) because of the flexibility they receive by doing rent-to-own.  However, should a buyer try to negotiate on price (and they will if they read my book, Rent-to-Buy) there are a couple of ways to counter them.

1.         You want to emphasize the flexibility they are receiving by being able to rent the home before they buy it.  This type of flexibility justifiably commands a greater price than a comparable home being sold conventionally.

2.         You want to emphasize the rarity of what you are offering.  Simply put, a buyer who is buying a rent-to-own home has very few choices in homes.  There aren’t that many out there.  This rarity also makes the home more valuable.

2.         Option Fee

More than any other term buyers will likely try to negotiate a smaller option fee.  In some cases they’ll do this because they don’t have enough money saved, in other cases they’ll do it simply because they don’t want to part with the money.

Obviously the more option fee you receive the better because it means the buyer is less likely to walk away from their money.  When a tenant-buyer tries to negotiate a lower option fee you can counter it by:

1.         Pointing out that the option fee counts as a down payment when they are trying to qualify for a mortgage and the larger the option fee the better it will look to the lender.

2.         (If the tenant-buyer has poor credit) Explain that you are taking a risk by letting someone who can’t currently qualify for a mortgage move into your home and that the option fee is your security against that risk.  Tell them that the option fee conveys their seriousness about the home.

3.         Closing cost contributions

Typically at the beginning of the option period tenant-buyers won’t ask for or won’t know they need to ask for help with closing costs.  This usually comes up at the point when they are applying for a mortgage and discover that they need to pay them.

This is when either their real estate agent or their mortgage broker will tell them that they can ask the seller (you) to help pay closing costs.  The way this is usually handled is that the purchase price is increased to offset all of or part of the closing costs.  Assuming that the home will appraise for enough to cover this.

You may have done this when you bought the home yourself, it’s a very common practice.  By increasing the purchase price to cover closing costs, it’s mostly a wash for you as the seller.  It does end up costing you a little bit with increased taxes, commissions, title fees and so forth based on the slightly higher selling price (maybe a couple hundred dollars depending on the cost of your home).

I recommend granting this concession if you can because it gets your buyers to buy your home.  The cost to you is pretty small so it’s worth it to get your home sold.  If you suspect that your home won’t appraise for enough to cover the closing costs because property values are going down in your market, you may want to encourage the tenant-buyer early during the rental period to start saving some money to cover their closing costs when they get a mortgage, this way you are less likely to have to add them into the purchase price.

I’ve talked a fair amount about why you NEED to offer your home on a rent-to-own basis to get it sold in this market. But I haven’t talked at all about the benefits to you in doing so. After all, most of us hate doing things just because we HAVE to, we would much rather do things we WANT to do.

Here are some of the reasons rent-to-own can be beneficial for you:

1. Higher Purchase Price - Rent-to-own sales typically command a price premium over traditional sales. The buyer is paying extra for the flexibility he receives by not having to do an outright purchase immediately.

1. Higher Rent - You may be able to charge more for monthly rent in a rent-to-own than you would for just a straight rental. I will cover this in more detail later.

1. Cash Flow - If your monthly payments are less than the monthly rent, the difference goes into your pocket.

1. Option Fee - This upfront fee paid to you by your buyer is what secures the purchase price down the road. If the buyer closes on the home, it would be applied towards the purchase price. If the buyer elects to not purchase the home, the option fee is forfeited and still remains yours. Either way you win. If you were to just rent the home, the tenant would put down a security deposit. The option fee is different than a security deposit. A security deposit is owned by the tenant and can’t be used by the owner, except for repairing damages, unpaid rent and other provisions as mandated under state laws.
2. Eliminates the Burden of the Mortgage Payment – If you have already moved on to your next home and your old house is sitting empty while you try to sell it, then you are saddled with TWO mortgage payments. Hopefully you aren’t in this position, but if you are I feel your pain. Ouch! If the house has been taking a while to sell, you know how fast the money coming out of your pocket adds up. It gobbles up any equity you have at a frightening rate. Placing a rent-to-own buyer that pays that extra mortgage can take away your pain.

As you can see, selling your home as a rent-to-own offers a lot of benefits to you: Higher purchase price, cash flow, higher rent, option fee, selling faster and more! To learn more ways a rent-to-own can be beneficial for you check out my book Rent-to-Sell.

I have had the same UPS driver come to my office for the last six years! His name is Darwin, but for about the last six months I have not seen Darwin. I thought he may have hurt his back or had been assigned to a new route, in any case I have missed seeing his smiling face each day around 4:00 P.M..
Last week, Darwin walked into my office and asked to see me. I was delighted to see him again. He began to inform me of how after 25 years of service with UPS he had been laid off!
His SECURITY was GONE!
How disheartening, but yet so typical of Corporate America and of the effects of our beat-down economy. Darwin asked if he could use me as a reference. This told me that Darwin did not have a Plan B in place in case something like this ever happened. You are probably saying to yourself; “Why would he after 25 years of service? Who would have thought he even needed one?”
In a perfect world I would wholeheartedly agree, unfortunately we do not live in such a place or time.
Personally I believe we always need to expect the best but plan for the unexpected.
If you want to make sure that something like what happened to Darwin does not happen to you and your family, get started on your Plan B right now.
Join me on February 11, 2010 at 8:00 PM – EST7:00 PM – CST6:00 PM – MST5:00 PM – PST to check out a multiple stream of income (Plan B) that has worked out very well for me and my family over the last 7 years. This opportunity has provided for us when our other income sources had dried up.
Register today at https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/553774042
See you on the webinar

Wendy

When I first started doing lease options it was about two years before I realized that I needed to work with Realtors because of their control over the sellers. Realtors pre-screen everything for you and in general their sellers aren’t in financial trouble. The Realtors control the relationship with the sellers and the sellers tell the Realtors everything, including personal information. That’s one of the key reasons I like to work with Realtors – they control the knowledge base about the seller.
I look for Realtors who can understand lease options and can help their sellers also understand the benefits of lease option, but this understanding can take time. My job is to assist them and help them understand when to call me. Here is how I generate leads for lease options through realtors.
1. Making cold calls to generate leads
If you look in any real estate section of any newspaper, you can find the top listing agents you need regarding potential properties. Many times the agent is unavailable, but that’s not a problem. Just leave a descriptive message about the property that interests you and let the agent know how to contact you. You might want to make yourself a short script with the highlights of the things you need to discuss so that you don’t fumble for words when on the phone. Also don’t be afraid to ask for information from the assistants. They often know as much or more about the status of the home and the seller.

2. Structuring the Deals through Realtors
Tell the agent how you found out about them – butters them up a bit – and let them know that you are willing to give a presentation. Suggest that the Realtor fax you a potential listing. If you have already developed a relationship with the Realtor, you can always “dig” a little during the phone conversation to see if they have a property that is a good candidate for a lease option that they might have overlooked.
A. Proposal – used to put together a mock-up offer to a Realtor that they can then present to the home owner or seller. It will put down the overall terms in writing without the specifics. This saves a lot of paperwork because you only fill out the other paperwork when you have an agreement on the proposal.
B. Letter to get into the brokerage office – I tell the broker what I do and don’t be anxious on the proposals – make it low pressure. When you’re first starting out, you‘ll want more deals to go through because there’s a great excitement in the newness of the game. Don’t get too wrapped up in a deal happening, because a lot of them don’t happen. I probably get about 40% of the proposals I put out- which means that 60% come up empty.

3. Unwanted Buyers
A Realtor will get a pre-approval letter from a mortgage company before they show a home to a prospective buyer. Otherwise they’d be wasting valuable time and energy with a lot of people who are looky-loos and not serious buyers. The Realtors don’t want to waste their time with those buyers, but those are the buyers I want and I need the names from the Realtors. So I send the Realtors a “Garbage letter” which basically says, “Don’t throw those names and numbers in the garbage! I can help the buyers get into a home with lease options. I offer a $1000 finders fee for every name that ends up in a deal.” This is another incentive to Realtors to work with me. I’m not out to steal their business – I’m here to help them and to offer a unique service to buyers with financial history difficulties. I want to help them move their inventory, so I am interested in the buyers they can’t help in traditional methods.

Working with Realtors is key in any lease option deal.  For more information about Generating Leads through Realtors check out my book Investing in Real Estate with Lease Options and Subject-to Deals.

Learn what a Cooperative Lease Option is and when investors should use them.

Learn what a Sandwich Lease Option is and how to make a profit from the deal.

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.

Are you interested in discovering a secret way of making a fortune with foreclosures...
without having to buy or sell the houses?!

Then join me on this weeks training session on how to: Make $12,817 in 30 days or less
starting with only $1.
Generate thousands per month without using credit, partners, loans or cash and much,
much more!

Go to the link below and get all the juicy details...

When: Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Time:  8:00 PM EST/5:00PM PST/3:00 HST
Click here to register: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/970147779

Click below or copy and paste the link into your internet browser to register
and get the call in details.

Better Click the link NOW to Reserve Your Spot or else the FREE webinar will be full.

To your success,

Wendy Patton

P.S.  Share this with your friends and business associates-they will thank you for it later.

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/970147779

What can you do in today’s real estate recession?  How can you still make money as a real estate investor?  What works?

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

Check Here for Your Time Zone:
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
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