If your college student is getting ready to live off campus, buying a rental property or condo may be an option worth considering.  Of course, with high rental costs and the opportunity to create a tax shelter for your hard earned money, this is a strategy many parents have found to be beneficial.

An investment property is an excellent opportunity to put your money to work for you, and may even help offset some of the income invested into your child’s education.  However, there are various factors you should consider before making any final decisions.

1. Long term goals – Although appreciation rates may be favorable, it is important to discern how long you intend to keep the property.  Within a few years your son or daughter will be finished with their education, and you will still be left with a property to care for.

Some individuals would rather keep the home as an investment and continue to rent the property out to new students.  Additionally, this may be a place that you will plan to use for future visits or football games long after your child is done with school.

The problem with solely relying on strong appreciation rates is that you may not be able to command the price you desire a few years from now.  So unless you are prepared to hold onto the property for a longer time period to make the investment worthwhile, this may be something worth reconsidering.

1. Maintenance & management – Next, purchasing a rental property is a big investment, so you want to ensure that your property is kept in good condition.  Although your son or daughter may be extremely reliable, you may need to consider other friends or roommates that will have to share in on the rent.

Are you comfortable with trusting in 2 or more college students to watch after your property?  Also, it may be required to pay a property manager (especially once your child graduates) to help manage the home if you live at a distance.

Finally, it will be important that you can find reliable contractors to take care of any maintenance hassles and ensure that the property remains in tip top shape.

1. Cash flow & taxes – After carefully reviewing the first 2 points, you may still feel that a rental property for your student is well worth the investment.  If this is the case, then there are a few things you must know about finances.

First of all, be sure that you are buying smart.  Work with a qualified agent who knows the area and can help direct you to the best deals.  They will be able to help you figure out projected rental income and appreciation rates as well.

After factoring in taxes, insurance, maintenance, associate fees, your mortgage, etc. you will want to make sure that you have some cash flow for extra profit and to cover unexpected problems that may arise down the road.

This will also make your investment pay off more in the long run and can free you up to invest in future properties as well.  For those who are married, you must be aware that there is a limit to how many itemized deductions you can write off if your gross income exceeds approximately $240K.

Therefore, though it is possible that you can include the taxes and mortgage interest as deductions on your second property, this is something you will still need to review with a tax professional.

Finally, be aware that the property can also be susceptible to capital gains tax once you are ready to sell.  Either way, you will still be eligible for some depreciation on your home and to write off a portion of your maintenance and utilities, so there are always good reasons to buy.

All in all, buying a rental property for your college student can be a wise investment for you and your family.  We strongly advise that you take time to sit down with your financial advisor and/or tax pro to discuss the options available to you.  For further guidance on locating a property, please contact us using the information listed above.

Due to the mortgage crisis that our country faced over the last several years, there are continually more and more foreclosure properties that are being put up for sale everywhere you turn. Of course, this can be very tempting for homebuyers as people can sometimes get properties for 30% or even less on the dollar.
However, if you are considering a foreclosure property for your next purchase, then there are some common pitfalls that you will need to avoid along the way to protect yourself and your future asset. Let’s review some areas to be aware of before making any serious offers.
1. Avoid Making Emotional Offers: When you are planning on putting a bid down on a property, you need to be extremely confident with the home’s current condition, its true market value, and what will be needed to fully restore the property.
Too many buyers will think that they found a slamming deal and fear that they will lose the home to another bidder. So instead of taking the time to truly do their homework and complete the proper inspections and analysis, they can end up locking up a property for more than it’s actually worth.
2. Estimate Neighborhood Values: Consider what other comparable properties are selling for and talk to a real estate agent who has a working knowledge of the area. In fact, it’s a wise decision to thoroughly review these questions and any other recommendations your Realtor may make:

• Is this neighborhood a desirable location and how are crime rates?
• What schools would be available for my kids or future buyers?
• Were there any other foreclosures or investor sales that could negatively affect the future value of my home?
• How long do I plan on living there and how could that affect things?
• What type of appreciation should I expect?

3. Get Preapproved: Before you even start looking at homes, you must get preapproved on a mortgage in order to know exactly what you can afford. Sadly, many buyers can miss out on some phenomenal deals or spend hours of wasted time because they avoid this step. Show banks that you are a serious buyer and have your financing in place!

4. Get Professional Help: Not only should you seek the expertise and of an experienced Realtor, but you may also need guidance from a real estate attorney or financial consultant as well. Each professional can ensure that you are making the right choices throughout the process and can protect you from any issues you may come across along the way.

Remember that there is a lot more than meets the eye when you are trying to buy a foreclosure property. Negotiating with the banks, filling out paperwork properly, and undergoing all the necessary inspections can be a very detailed and tedious procedure.
Therefore, we encourage you to give us a call today to get started. Our agents have years of experience assisting other clients with buying foreclosures for their next home or investment property. Discover how we can help you to make a smart and profitable investment as well!

What can your real estate agent offer you? That is the question you ought to be asking yourself these days. With the huge shift in traditional marketing methods to the internet, and now social media/networking platforms online, it pays to do your homework before signing any contracts.
Although nearly 90% of buyers and sellers are turning to the internet for their real estate related needs, a depressingly lower amount of Realtors are actually taking the time to learn about online marketing strategies. This can be detrimental to your exposure and/or finding the best deals possible.
Unfortunately, many agents and brokers are still stuck in the stone age of marketing, and refuse to accept change within their own industry. Although traditional methods still hold some weight when advertising a home, you could be missing an enormous piece of the pie if you do not work with an agent that is also innovative and tech savvy.

Here is a List of Questions You Should Be Asking During an Interview:

1. “What types of social marketing do you employ?” Let’s face it. If your agent is not investing the time into building a Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn (or the host of other media available today), then there are literally hundreds of buyers and other professional contacts that are slipping right into the hands of their local competitors.

We are in the day and age of networking, and word travels at the speed of light. Therefore, your agent should be promoting your home on all of the following platforms by building specific pages and listings for your property where buyers can instantly find you. This will give you maximum exposure.

2. “How do you capture leads?” On the other hand, not only is it important for your agent to network and promote your property online, but they also need to collect the necessary contact information from website visitors in order to do business with each prospect.
Therefore, your Realtor should have their own website with an active blog, in order to keep in constant contact with their audience. By marketing on Craigslist, Google, Youtube, article directories, and any other medium available, your agent should be able to drive traffic back to their own sites.
Next, each person should be directed to some form of lead capture where they can enter their contact information for further updates on your listing. This could also include using mobile marketing, which will allow people to offer their cell phone number in exchange for property details. QR and/or text codes can be included on websites or even signage and postcards.

3. ”How do you follow up with your leads?” Finally, can you be certain that your agent will go to work for you? Regardless of how many leads they may generate, if they do not have an effective follow up plan in place to build relationships and get buyers taking action, then your efforts could be wasted.
It is important that your agent spends the time to build effective email campaigns, submit updated blog posts and social media updates, and make direct phone calls to incubate each lead and ensure that action is taken while leads are still hot.
Also, can they provide strong evidence of quantifiable results with their real estate marketing campaigns, and are you confident in their ability to sell? Do you see the potential of getting a head above the rest and truly taking advantage of all the resources that are available at your fingertips?

By carefully reviewing all of the above criteria before choosing an agent, you will be able to ensure that you are receiving the best attention and service possible. If you are interested in setting up a time to review our in depth presentation on how we will put our comprehensive marketing strategies to work for you, please contact us today. We guarantee you will not be disappointed!

Visit our ONLINE interview and see how we make the difference for our clients! www.CincyHomeHelp.com

Did you know that according to Realtor.com, only about .8% of Realtors are actually using video marketing for their business? Plus, when considering that almost 90% of people are now using the internet for real estate based searches, wouldn’t it only make sense that your listing agent should include this as a part of their real estate marketing strategy?

However, embracing change is not always easy to do, and many real estate professionals are still relying on traditional marketing methods even though the future of real estate is online. Therefore, by listing with us you can rest assured that we will make video marketing a priority to ensure you gain top exposure and receive the fastest and best offers possible on your home.

Step 1: Creating Video Content

The first step in preparing video content for your listing will be to create a virtual tour of your entire property. We will be sure to highlight all the perks and benefits of your home and the surrounding neighborhood as well.

Additionally, we can include information about your school district(s), local businesses, as well as other recreational activities. Feel free to share any other ideas you may like to include as a part of the marketing strategy, and we will be happy to accommodate where we can.

Step 2: Optimizing Your Content

As experts of video syndication and online marketing tactics, we have access to various tools and strategies that will ensure you are receiving maximum exposure for your listing. Some of these techniques include:

• Uploading to Youtube and other video marketing directories
• Including videos within written article content and submitting to various platforms
• Creating a property specific landing page and/or mobile website with your virtual home tour
• Feeding listing data to social media pages, the MLS and other property marketing sites

We have found that videos tend to really engage prospects more and really help them to get a better feel for the home and neighborhood before even scheduling a showing. Plus, you are more likely to attract qualified buyers following this plan as well.

Step 3: Call to Action

Finally, we also ensure that there is always a unique call to action within every one of our videos, in order to capture important contact information for future follow up. This is an area that many agents can neglect, which can drastically impact your chances for success.

Therefore, we make it a point to always direct each prospect to some form of lead capture, so that we are able to build a relationship and ensure that we never miss a possible opportunity. In other words, people are much more likely to share their information than take the time to call.

Can you now see the power behind using video marketing for your property listing? Since creating video is so simple and can greatly enhance your chances for selling, we encourage you to contact us when ready to list your home in order to learn more about our comprehensive online marketing strategies.

Before purchasing a home, it is vital that you have a better understanding of title insurance policies that are available for both lender and homeowner protection.  If obtaining a mortgage, title insurance will be a requirement to shelter the lender for the full amount of the loan until it is completely paid off.

However, owner title insurance will be something you need to consider if you want to protect your own interests as well, since the aforementioned would not cover your own equitable interests in the property.  Typically the purchase of an owner policy can either be covered by the seller, or is something that you can include along with the lender policy for a small investment.

When purchasing a home, buyers are actually obtaining a right to occupy the land and property space which comes in the form of a title.  Therefore, insurance is necessary to identify any issues that may be attached to the title of the home before closing on the property.

Several Issues That This Search Could Uncover Include:

Easements that may allow for roads, sidewalks, cables, etc. to be built on your land

Judgments or liens that are a result of unpaid taxes or money that is owed

Errors or forged signatures contained within deeds, trusts or wills

Undisclosed heirs or rightful owners to the property

Additional legal issues or pending suits such as divorce that could affect the purchase

Owner title insurance will protect both homeowners and their heirs from any claims that arise as a result of problems that were initiated prior to obtaining the coverage.  In the event that you were to inherit your own liens or judgments against the home, a new policy would then protect the next buyer if these bills were overlooked and remained unpaid upon closing.

Did you know that approximately 1/3 of all title searches will uncover some type of issue on a property?  Although these tend to be extremely thorough and accurate, there are still those rare instances where certain matters will remain undetected.  Title insurance is therefore the solution for any such cases that may arise.

In the event that you purchase a policy and claims do arise, the policy will reimburse you for any losses that are incurred under the coverage.  Therefore, the stress, fees and wasted time that you can avoid when faced with such unfortunate circumstances are well worth the small investment.

To obtain information on reputable title companies that we highly recommend before your next purchase, contact us using the information included on our “About Us” tab above.