"Trump Strategies for Real Estate: Billionaire Lessons for the Small Investor" by Donald Trump's "Apprentice" sidekick George Ross has some great tips and common sense advice for real estate investors. Ross says that there are five personal qualities you need to succeed in real estate.
A home buyer purchased a home and agreed to let the seller's stay in the home for fourteen days. But now the home buyers cannot get the sellers to move. Having a good attorney to represent them at the closing could have helped this home buyer avoid this problem.
Learning how to manage your money and take care of your personal finances isn't easy. But if you live in the Chicago area, the free Money Matters classes are a great way to bone up on the basics of money management.
A reader is planning on buying their first home and would like to time it with the end of their rental lease. Ilyce takes them through each step of the buying process.
When you're investing in real estate, it helps to be knowledgeable about the taxes you'll pay when your buying and selling real estate. Reading these two real estate books, Every Landlord's Tax Deduction Guide and The House That Jill Built: A Woman's Guide to Home Building, can help you learn about taxes and building a dream home.
If a lender won't provide you with a good faith estimate, or any other important information you ask for, they might be trying to do some shady dealings. After discovering closing costs are too high and canceling the loan, a borrower asks about where to file a complaint against a lender. To find a better lender, always interview at least four or five different types of mortgage lenders at the same time, and try to compare the loan programs on an apples-to-apples basis.
In an installment sale, mortgage lenders may have the right to demand the loan be repaid immediately. It's a good idea to check with your lender to see whether the due-on-sale clause will be triggered before closing on an installment sale.
When deciding whether to do home improvement such as an extensive remodeling or to upgrade to a better home, you need to think about whether you can recapture the money you spend on the home improvements. The timing of the home improvement also plays a role - think about how close you are to retirement. If you decide that your home's value will increase over time and it's a worthwhile investment then you should think about how to finance the project. One way to finance home improvement is using a home equity loan.
A homeowner applies for a refinance and is denied because they are outside the lending territory of the lender, but the mortgage broker has not returned their application and commitment fees. Ilyce believes they have been victims of mortgage fraud, because the mortgage broker should have known the homeowner was outside the lending territory. Ilyce's advice: contact the Attorney General's office to report mortgage fraud.
