Finding the best realtor to help you find your home or sell your home in beautiful Wilmington North Carolina is easy. The growing market has opened up for new real estate deals, and there are three simple steps to finding the best realtor for you.

Wilmington North Carolina has a great deal to offer in the real estate market and to prospective buyers. With its rather small population of 75,000 the hometown feeling coincides with the necessities of shopping centers, medical facilities and much more.

The amazing fresh and salt-water bodies of water bring a wide variety of outdoor activities. These would include boating, surfing, fishing, and shelling. There are many factors that fit into the increasing market in Wilmington North Carolina, and a good realtor will help you take advantage of all that Wilmington has to offer. Interest rates are a major benefit to the market and having the right realtor can make getting those rates easier.

When you are looking for the best realtor, you need to follow three tips to make this process easy and effective.

• The way to find the realtors that are exclusive with the homes in the are you want to live in, you can drive around that area and look at the signs on the homes for sale. You can also look on the Internet in the MLS website at http://www.mls.com/. With the listings of the homes in the area you want to look at, you will usually find the name of the listing real estate agent or realtor. You can also look in the newspaper that the homes are listed in. Often times the realtor is listed as the contact on the different properties.

• Now it is best to interview at least three realtors. Interviewing three realtors and asking them to show you some of their options, in addition to asking for references can be the most steps in getting the best realtor for you. You can get a feel for the realtor, to see if their loyalties will be with you, and also what experience they will be able to bring to the negotiation table for you.

• After you have gone through the interviews, you can make your decision. When you decide which realtor you want to work with, it is a good idea to have a talk with the realtor about what you can expect from them, and what your goals will be to get the right result.

Setting up the right expectations of what you want and need will help any relationship between you and a realtor. So be sure to explain what you need as far as area, amount of room, and any other amenities.

During the process that is involved with buying a home, you may be communicating with your realtor several times a week, or even a day at some point. That is why the relationship with the right realtor is so important.

When you are interviewing and working with the realtor you choose, keep you goal in mind and trust your realtor to do their job. They do this on a regular basis and it is easier to them than it would be to you. If you have questions about the process, documentation or anything else, you will want to be sure to ask. A good realtor would be happy to answer any questions you have. However remember that some things have limitations. You will want to show courtesy with their schedules also.

Now that you are ready to find the best realtor for you in Wilmington North Carolina, Wilmington will be ready to welcome you to their community. The right realtor will help you make the transition to your new home pleasant and enjoyable.

By investing in properties "pre-foreclosure," you get ahead of the crowd and possibly get a great price. The downside? You may have to walk a fine line between helping an owner and taking advantage of him.

Pre-foreclosure is simply that time between when the home owner gets the notice that he is in default on the mortgage loan, and when he finally loses the home. This may be where the most money is made on "foreclosures". By going straight to the owner before the home is lost, you are a step ahead of investors who wait for foreclosure sale or wait until the bank owns the property.

Are you taking advantage of an owner when you make a profit off of his financial troubles? Maybe. You might also be helping him make the best out of a bad situation. You really can do the latter and still make a good profit. Let's look at some examples of how.

Example of Pre-Foreclosure Deals

There are essentially two ways to help an owner who is in default on his mortgage loan. The first is to find a way to help him stay in his home. The second is to help him salvage his credit and get something out of the home he is losing.

Most owners who are seriously in default will simply lose the home. They will also wreck their credit, and lose most or all of their equity - unless an investor steps in to help. This is why you can feel good about making a profit from a home owner in distress.

Suppose you put an ad in the paper, something to the effect of "Losing your home? Let's talk." You get a call from a woman who is several months behind in her mortgage payments, and is about to lose her home. With back payments, her loan balance or payoff amount is about $95,000. The home is probably worth $130,000.

You ask her about her financial situation, to determine if she has the income to eventually get caught up and make the payments on time. You ask her if she mainly wants to stay in the home or if she just doesn't want a foreclosure on her credit report. She says that she is ready to move. She could try to sell the home to pay off the loan and have a bit of cash left over, but there isn't time. She doesn't want the bad credit, but she also doesn't want to lose all of her $35,000 in equity.

You agree with her assessment of the situation. You explain that if she did try to list the property with a broker, she would have a sales commission and other costs, which together could be $10,000. She also would likely have to sell it for $120,000 to get it sold fast. In this best case scenario, she might get to keep $15,000 of her equity. But it is risky, because if it doesn't sell and close in a few weeks she loses everything.

You tell her that you can buy the home for $107,000 and pay all the closing costs. This will leave her with $12,000 and no foreclosure on her credit report, so she may be able to borrow again for a home when she is ready. She says no. You explain that after the costs of buying and selling the home, you will make $10,000, and though you understand she is losing some equity, you just don't do deals for less than $10,000 profit. You wish her the best.

Soon she calls back and accepts your offer rather than lose her home and equity and credit rating. You have to have a line of credit ready or cash in the bank for deals like this, because time is of the essence. You also have to treat people well. In the example above, you might even offer another $500 cash if the house is left clean and ready to sell.

Look at the numbers, paying particular attention to the expenses you'll have in buying and selling a property. You can see that there has to be a fair amount of equity in a property to be able to help the owner and help yourself. Verify exactly what the payoff amount on the loan is before you sign any contract. Owners are often underestimating.

Other Pre-Foreclosure Examples

A friend of mine liked to help people stay in their homes when the were in default on their loan. He felt this was easier and more profitable. There are several ways to do this.
One obvious way, if there is a lot of equity in a property, is to put a second mortgage on it in exchange for making up the back payments. Sometimes a family has trouble that really is temporary, and once caught up on their mortgage payments, they will be able to pay them on time again, along with a payment to you.

Suppose the home is worth $185,000, and they owe $115,000 on it. They need $4,000 to catch up back payments and no longer be in default. A loan fee of $1,000 and interest at 5% higher than current mortgage rates might make for a decent return on your investment. A second mortgage on a property with so much equity makes it a safe investment.

Another way to help owners stay in their homes is to buy the home and rent it back to them. They get to avoid having a foreclosure on their credit report, maybe get a little cash, and they don't have to move. You should of course, have positive cash flow and a good profit if you should need to evict them and sell the home.

You could also make it a lease-option deal. In this way, if the previous owner gets into a better financial situation, he can buy his home back. Of course the purchase price will be high enough to give you a good profit.

If you have a lot of cash to invest, you can buy the home and sell it back to the owner on payments. Of course you will have to sell it for at least $10,000 more than you bought it for, and you will have to have charge high interest. If this is likely to cause some bad feelings for the person who will be living in your investment, you may want to consider another way.

You could provide the cash for him to refinance and so keep the home. Since you may have to foreclose on the loan, so you want to do this only when there is a lot of equity. Charge high interest and high loans fees (perhaps rolled into the loan), and make it a balloon loan, with the balance due in three or five years. Explain that you do this for the profit, but it at least gives the owner a chance to keep his home, and he can refinance at better rates when he is doing better financially.

A Little Pre-Foreclosure Trick

Here is a a little trick used by an investor I met in Arizona. A holder of second mortgage in default has the right to foreclose and take the property. But in Arizona at that time (and possibly in other states - but ask an attorney), the law also said that if the holder of a second mortgage foreclosed on a property, he had the right to assume the first mortgage loan - without qualifying, and regardless of whether it was normally an assumable loan.

This investor "helped" people facing foreclosure, using this little known law. For example, suppose there is house that would make a nice little rental property. The owners owe $60,000, and it might be worth $80,000, but they are about to lose it. The payments and interest rate on the loan are lower than what is currently available.

This investor would convince the owners that rather than them losing everything, he would give them the $2,500 necessary to make up the back payments, and also $10,000 cash to walk away. Actually he loaned them the total of $12,500, and put a second mortgage on the property. But they were instructed to never pay on the loan. He made the terms outrageous enough that they weren't inclined to anyhow.

In this way after they missed their first payment, he could start the foreclosure process. Once he had foreclosed, under the law he could assume that first mortgage with its excellent terms. Now he had a nice rental that would cash flow, and with some built-in equity from the start. The previous owners got their cash, and perhaps a big black mark on their credit report from the foreclosure.

Pre-foreclosure investing can get very creative. These few examples are just a sampling of ways it has been done.

There are so many ways that you can fund your rehabbing project. You will have to do your research with all of the many lenders out there. However, to get a loan for rehabbing is not as risky. Usually, the return on a rehabbing investment is two times the amount financed which always catches their eye. Lenders know that you will double your investment and most of the time pay the loan back in full very quickly or on time.

The most difficult part of funding your rehab is knowing where to begin. Usually, when first starting out, start out buying an inexpensive piece of rundown property with your credit card. I like buying and selling inexpensive homes because you don't have to put a lot of money into the home to fix it up. You can sell these types of homes to just about anybody because a lot of buyers out there today just want a roof over there head.

When using a credit card, however, make sure you still have enough to actually do the rehab and then sell it for a profit. Your profit may not have doubled the first few times but you should have a little something in the end. You can use this money to fund your next rehab and as you keep rehabbing, money will start sticking. You will soon have enough cash flow to fund your rehabs or enough money that you have paid on your mortgage that you have built up a lot of equity and you can start taking a second mortgage out on your home. Don't become homeless or anything but this will build your credit as long as you are making your payments on time and that you haven't applied for too many credit cards. The better your credit score is your chances of funding your rehab with a loan will increase.

Another easy way to fund your rehab would be to find a hard money lender. The key to your success is finding the right one. There are many hard money lenders that you can find on the internet. Just call around and ask for their requirements and let them know you are a take charge kind of person who has rehabbed for a long time. You have to take the first step and just ask. Another way is to network. Let other real estate investors know what you're looking for. There is somebody always willing to give referrals to lead you in the right direction.

I have fully explained how to fund a rehab in my educational system, Renovate Your Success TM. This system will teach you all of the information you need to start your journey to financial freedom with property rehabbing. I have also created products for the professional rehabber to take their business to the next level of success.

The real estate market goes up and down, just like all markets, so it is difficult to know how to invest in real estate when the market is slow if you have never done so before. Luckily, the following tips will help you with real estate investing even in a slow market. These tips will be especially helpful if you are trying to invest in Utah real estate, Provo real estate, and/or Alpine real estate.

A great way to invest in real estate in a slow market is to buy foreclosed homes or auctioned homes and then fix them up and resale them. If you do your homework first then you will be able to buy a home for significantly under the market value, fix it up, and then resale it for cheaper than the market value while still making a profit. That is an amazing way to work the slow market in your favor and still make a good profit.

Yet another way to earn money on real estate during a slow market is to invest in one of these auctioned off homes or foreclosed homes, fix it up, and then instead of selling it rent it out. When you rent out the property you retain the equity for yourself while the renter pays your mortgage. Eventually, when the mortgage is paid off you will not only have a piece of real estate with minimum investment but you will also be earning money free and clear. Rental properties are outstanding and they are worthwhile no matter whether the market is slow or not.

The best time to invest in these types of properties is actually when the market is slow. That is because there are lots of homes on the market and you will have more bargaining power because everyone wants to sell and there are not a lot of buyers. When the market is on fire there are a lot of bidding wars and prices go up. So, the best time to invest in rental property in order to make a profit is when the market is slow. Think about how cheap you can buy a property at auction during a slow market, then put some money into fixing it up, and either sell it when the market gets hot again or just rent it out. Both of these options will allow you to make money during a cold real estate market.

Residential real estate investors can be some of the worst marketers for getting new deals. I should know – I used to be one of them.

Most real estate investors spend much of their time learning the technical aspects of the business such as how to purchase, what forms to use, how to analyze deals, financing strategies, exit strategies, etc.

Yes, this education is critically important, and I don't recommend skipping it but don't forget that your "real" business is generated from your front-end lead generation work that results in getting new deals.

Without effective front-end marketing, many real estate investors can suffer from a shortage of incoming deals. This is especially true for part-time real estate investors, who have a limited amount of time to spend finding new deals.

But I've learned from direct interaction with many real estate investors that they often find prospecting to be frustrating and time consuming.

So how is your particular "lead generating" machine running? Is it consistently producing new deals for you? You can quickly find this out by asking yourself the following questions:

- Am I consistently getting the amount of new deals that I want?


- Is my return-on-investment for my time & effort high?


- Is this valuable time that I'd rather spend somewhere else?


- Do I really know how to get new deals?

I've noticed that using "We Buy Houses" signs, placing newspaper ads, and making lots of lowball offers is the standard advice that's out there for generating new deals. These strategies can work well, but in general they aren't targeted to any specific area AND unfortunately most of your peer investors are using these same strategies.

For example, take my investment areas in and around Philadelphia. I consulted with the List Service Company I use by asking them for the number of active real estate investors in my four county investing areas (within approximately 40 miles of Philadelphia).

They forwarded me the following numeric list "counts" of folks who indicated that their lifestyle included real estate investing:

-13,750 real estate investors in Philadelphia County


-11,568 real estate investors in Montgomery County


-9,739 real estate investors in Bucks County


-7,280 real estate investors in Delaware County





Total = 42,337

Yikes! Granted these folks aren't exactly lining up to steal my particular deals but there are a heck of a lot of investors near me. Quite a "Herd", isn't it?

My advice to you is to do the same as I have done - get out of your area's real estate investor Herd now. Here's why it's important to do it, and do it NOW:

Reason #1: Your peer investors (in my case 42,337) are all using the same general strategies to get the deals. Make yourself different from them and watch your business increase.

Reason #2: 2007 & 2008 will be great Investing years:

- The current "selling" market is slow


- The current property inventory is high


- Home sellers are getting more motivated to sell


- Mortgage defaults are increasing (pre-foreclosures)

Reason #3: This is your big chance to "stand out" from the rest of your peer investors. Compare "apples to oranges". Give folks value, as compared to the standard "low-balling" investor. Offer them a plasma TV, a leather couch, or ??

Personally, I'm a big fan of targeted Emotional Direct Response Marketing in order to make myself different than the Herd and to get those leads to contact me. Using Emotional Direct Response Marketing is an excellent way to address a home seller's "wants" and then giving them a solution that fits their particular "wants".

Get inside the heads of your target market to understand their "wants" no matter who they may be. Get this right and you'll be very successful in your business.

My favorite way to get my Emotional Direct Response Marketing message to my particular market is by using Direct Mail. As far as the actual mail pieces go, I've found that using "Lumpy Mail" is a great way to differentiate myself from all the rest of the investors who may be farming that very same prospect or area.

For example - which mail piece do you think would get the attention out of a pile of direct mail pieces sitting in some "pre-foreclosure" prospect's mail pile? Will it be the plain envelope containing the standard letter stating "sell me your house now before it gets sold on the Courthouse steps" or the neon green card sized envelope that's stamped "Do-Not-Bend: Gift Enclosed" on it's outside, and that contains an obvious "lump" in it's center from some unknown "thing" inside?

I don't know about you, but those Lumpy Mail pieces are really interesting to me and to most people. It's kind of like getting a present in the mail. Once you get the prospect to actually open that envelope, why not make that "lump" be a piece of chocolate, a folded up dollar bill, or some other neat present to make yourself really stand out?

Believe me, if you do this you'll be remembered and you'll stand out from your competition. Also, don't forget to give people things of value for free inside your Lumpy Mail pieces. This is very important as well.

Something of value could be a Free Report that you wrote, or an offer for a "Free Home Audit" (you decide what that will be), or you could just entice them to call you and tell you their story. Once again, you'll be remembered and that's 80% of your goal with Direct Mail.

Using Lumpy Mail is just one example of how you can differentiate yourself from the real estate investors around you. Lumpy Mail should also be a definite component of your marketing system.

That leads me to one final point – your marketing system. If you're a real estate investor and you don't have a marketing system that's helping to separate you from the real estate investor Herd around you, you're wasting precious time and money.

Integrating Lumpy Mail into your marketing system will result in a definite increase in people wanting your services, and that's crucial. As a result you'll be able to save time, beat out your competition, and get more great deals. Lumpy Mail works. Be creative and go for it!

If you want to make money in real estate like a professional investor then there is one secret that you really need to know. This is the secret that will be the difference between you earning a nice little bit of profit or equity from your investment strategy and you making a killing from your investment property assets.

This secret is little known outside of the professional property investor circle – this secret is hardly ever divulged, revealed or explained - and yet it is the absolute, number one essential factor that every single professional investor applies to every single real estate investment purchase decision that they ever make.

And the secret is – professional property investors secure their future profit when they purchase…

What?

That makes no sense, does it?

Actually, it makes a wealth of sense, let me explain…

Depending on the investment approach that you take, you can work a property's purchase price right down and in so doing you immediately create greater room for eventual profit.

For example, if you have a large lump sum to put down as a deposit for an investment property why not split the deposit in two, three or four and use the power of OPM (other people's money) in the form of multiple mortgages to acquire multiple properties?

This will allow you to negotiate the purchase price down if buying from a single vendor on a new development for example - it's called leveraging and here's how it works in basic terms: -

If you have USD 100,000 to invest, instead of buying a single home for USD 100,000 you can buy four for USD 100,000 by putting a USD 25,000 deposit down and mortgaging the other USD 75,000 on each one. Chances are if you're such a strong buyer you can hit the vendor hard with an aggressive purchase offer – say, 'I'm going to take four properties off your hands today and I want a 5% discount on each and I want all white goods, air conditioning, carpets and curtains thrown in.'

At the end of the process you will have paid out USD 100,000 for four properties that you have bought for USD 380,000 and which are actually worth over and above the original asking price of USD 400,000 because of the extras you got thrown in. At this point you can simply resell immediately and have turned the original USD 100,000 into at least USD 120,000 without doing much work for it at all!

Alternatively – you can buy a property at auction, you can buy a repossessed home or you can buy the worst house on a decent street all well below market value. You can then work the real estate into an attractive home and resell via a realtor at top market value and turn an undervalued property into a capital returning asset.

Another approach is to target a housing development coming to the end of the development phase. Any properties remaining for sale where the original sales have fallen through or any pieces or real estate remaining unsold as a result of being on an odd shaped plot of land or having less than perfect views can be snatched from a desperate developer keen to get onto their next project for well below market value if you're in a strong position to make them an offer and buy immediately.

Even if you are not in the position to act so aggressively and quickly, never ever offer what a vendor is asking, bargain hard, negotiate down, get extras included and try and increase the value of a property in relation to what you're paying for it before you buy…this will put you in the professional property investor league and ensure you make a killing from your real estate assets rather than an mediocre return.

Raleigh North Carolina and all the areas that are around it are voted among the most preferred places to live in the USA. With the North Carolina real estate market being quite stable, Raleigh real estate agents are confident about finding the right property for his or her client. The three main universities in the area draw top technology firms and educated employees. It is hardly surprising that Raleigh is the number one choice for people to live in as well as work in. Quality of life is high, crime rate is low, with affordable housing available, some of the best educational institutions are located here, and some of the best health care facilities in the world can be found here. The environment is great to grow in with a family.

Industry wise, Raleigh has the best. One of the biggest research parks in the United States is located here along with three highly rated research universities. Raleigh is home to some of the most well-known names in the pharmaceutical, computer software, telecom and biotech industries. Raleigh, N.C., topped the list of best places to live with its low unemployment, strong income, and job growth, while maintaining its low cost of living. Raleigh is part of the "research triangle," including Durham and Chapel Hill.

Raleigh North Carolina real estate agents quote the area's unique selling point as its abundance of opportunities. The area's natural beauty, proximity to the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Atlantic coast and great weather throughout the year. There are also many activities for the residents to be involved in, like theater, art and sports. It is this publicity that mostly attracts people to Raleigh. A rich and diverse culture, with a charm of its own, marks Raleigh as a great place to live in.

Since buying a property will be a one-time purchase in most peoples' lives, it's best to get all the relevant details before making the investment. A North Carolina real estate agent can help do this. The Raleigh real estate market has many choices for the discerning home buyer. Working with a knowledgeable real estate agent saves you a lot of hassle. Browsing through the websites of various Raleigh real estate agents will link you to much valuable information about living in the area with access to all their listings. They will show you homes in the prices you want matching the criteria you specify.