Water or Fire Damage? The Restoration Process & Why it May Not be Worth Your Time

When you were sleeping, you may not have been aware of the electrical issues in your home. Suddenly you woke up to smoke and jumped into action to save your family members. You all escape and gather across the street, watching as your house goes up in flames. Unfortunately, this is a common occurrence. There

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3-Step Gameplan from Foreclosure to the American Dream

If you are going through foreclosure, know someone who has, or will be shortly, then the following article is a must read.

A notice of default is a tough thing to receive. The initial process is called lis pendens, and is in reference to the beginning attempts at collecting on past due mortgage debt. Whether you called it lis pendens, NOD, or pre foreclosure, the result is the same. The bank wants their money and you have been put officially on notice. You defaulted on your mortgage loan, and have a specific time to correct this before it damages your credit for years to come.

Losing your home can be hard, especially when it’s filled with memories with family and friends. It may be a home that you grew up in, but put as collateral for a home equity loan and had no intention of losing it to foreclosure. There is a time however, when you need to think about the long term. What you do now, will decide how you live for years into the future.

This is a multi-step gameplan for starting over after you have been hit with that devastating letter, and no way to afford correcting it.

Step #1) Give it up.

Remove your emotions from the process for now, and grieve later. If you grieve now, you will only make it harder on yourself to get your life in order later. Reach out to cash home buyers like National Cash Offer, and let them get this mortgage paid off. It will put an immediate stop to the credit injury you have received when your bank reported past due house debt to your credit report profile.

Before you can rebuild, you have to stop the bleeding. This is why you must sell your house fast. Make sure that things are not continuing to report negatively to your credit profile, and then begin to fix your credit score.

Step #2) Reduce & Rebuild.

Find a new place that you can afford. If you cannot afford anything due to job loss, then get help from friends or family. Someone will help you short term so that you have a chance to seek employment and get an apartment.

During this process, you will need to eliminate debts. This means that you should be paying off smaller credit cards, then go up the line to the larger debts. This is the “Dave Ramsey Snowball”, and is useful for debt-reduction.

If you decided to follow step #1 and sell your house fast to save your credit from foreclosure, then you stopped the bleeding. Unfortunately, there has likely been at least 1 reporting to your credit profile already. That negative item remains there for a certain time period which is well over a few years time, unless you fight to have it removed.

Begin a credit repair process after doing some heavy research. Learn about 609 letters, mailing procedures, and schedule. Most importantly, DO THE TASKS. It can take 6 months to a year in order to repair some damage to your credit score.

Step #3) Remove the Rat Race

There are games by Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad called Cashflow 101 & Cashflow 202. These are board games and computer games designed to help you understand the balance sheet, as well as the process for building a passive income. The winner is the first to escape the rate race with enough passive monthly income to achieve their dream.

In order for you to escape from the rat race, you will need a plan of action. You need to begin with an informal process of deciding what you want to do in life, so that you can build a passive income doing it. This may be the path of real estate investment, day-trading, starting an online business, or even starting a company where you must put in labor in order to build a larger business that you can have running itself down the road.

This is the 3rd and final step in a process where you are reborn as someone who has more footing on financial ground. It’s the process in which you become the boss, and your job is to collect your check from your mailbox.

In order for you to start over stronger than ever, Call National Cash Offer toll-free at (877)-990-7774, or fill out the form right here on this website. NO-OBLIGATION.

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Is it Time to Downsize and Regroup?

Everyone loves a strong economy with plenty of jobs, and wages that help people achieve the American dream. For years however, the economy has been going rather down-hill. More recently however, the economy is making some great strides for a comeback, but is it too late for you?

The struggling economy may have had a financial impact on your family that is much too hard to recover from under your current circumstances. A loss of employment, or a change in your mortgage that was originally accounted for but has you drowning in monthly payments you are unable to make. So what can you do about it?

Step 1: Sell your house fast

Your debt is the biggest problem that you have right now. It may be time to downsize and become a renter for the time being while you reset your life. There is nothing embarrassing at all about giving up on a mortgage that you cannot afford to pay. Such a move is actually pretty smart, and will allow you some leverage in your finances to rebuild.

By selling your home quickly to a cash home buyer, you can turn the tables on your finances and cash out fast. Not only will the debt go away, but your credit will be saved, and you would land some much needed cash in your pocket right away. In addition, cash home buyers will often let you have some leeway in the move-out date. This will allow you to find a place and get the move in order.

(Shameless plug) We buy houses for cash, and all it takes is a quick phone call to (877)-990-7774.

Step 2: Eliminate unneeded expenses

Many of us simply can’t go without television. Take it from us, we understand how important our shows are. But nothing is more important than your success, and the well-being of your family. Expenses that can go away are cable, Netflix, credit cards, spring water delivery, and yard service to name a few.

Your t.v. shows will be there when you are ready to watch. With on-demand services and shows going out to Blue-Ray, you can always catch up after you’ve rebuilt.

Your credit cards should be cut up immediately. Your debts should be paid off without incurring new ones, and this can be the smartest way to go about it. After-all, they can always send you a new card when you are ready again.

If you regularly use a lawn service, you won’t need it anymore. Depending on where you rent from here until the financial recovery, lawn care may already be included. If not, it may be wise to save in the long-run, and grab a cheap but reliable mower. If you have allergies, you can hire a neighborhood kid to handle it much more cheaply than a professional lawn service.

Are you someone that subscribes to those deliveries of refreshing cold spring water? Well let us calm your fears about canceling them. One of our team members is a real life germaphobe, and stands by the use of cheap bottled spring water at your local grocery store. The label will tell you if it is real spring water or not, as well as which actual springs the water came from.

All-in-all, take a good look at your expenses and determine which ones are unnecessary at this time.

Step 3: Relocate in the most genius of ways

Across America, there are towns where the cost of living is incredibly cheap. While a single family home in California can reach a few thousand dollars with ease, a mid-western town with a population of 30,000 may offer a single family rental for just $500. In Phoenix Arizona, the median average rental cost is approximately $1,300.

It may seem drastic to uproot and leave your state behind, but it doesn’t have to be forever. Do keep in mind that your new home will be a place where you build new memories, and you may not want to leave when it’s all said and done.

You can research places nationwide through Craigslist and other websites. You can find out not only what the cost of living is out there, but what the job market looks like as well. If you really want to get hands on, you can call up the local community organizations or churches in the area you are potentially moving to. They are always helpful with information and resources to aid in your research.

Having a hard time deciding where to move? Ask yourself this…where have you always wanted to visit? Did you see some beautiful country scenery in a friend’s Facebook photo? How about a museum that you imagined yourself visiting one day? There are some amazing places across the United States that would surely make you proud to call them home.

What’s next?

If you are ready to make the move, call us right away and let us buy your house fast for cash. It’s toll-free at (877)-990-7774, and there is no obligation to receive an offer. Don’t hesitate! Your financial comeback is waiting for you to make a decision now.

The post Is it Time to Downsize and Regroup? appeared first on National Cash Offer.

source https://nationalcashoffer.com/real-estate-blog/time-downsize-regroup/

Selling a Fire Damaged Home

Can you imagine coming home from vacation to find out that you no longer have a home like Otis? Fire damage can occur at many different levels, and this one was more extreme. The homeowner Otis reached out to us to help him sell his house after coming home from his vacation in Thailand and having his home completely destroyed due to a large fire.

National Cash Offer was eager to help and Otis was relieved of the destroyed property. Letting the fire damaged property sit could easily cost you more money in the long run (and the short term), with code violations and fines from the city. We plan to restore this home and list it back on the market for a future family to enjoy.

At National Cash Offer we are able to purchase fire damage homes such as this one quickly and get you the cash you need right away. Sell your fire damaged home to National Cash Offer now by calling (877)-990-7774 or filling out quick form right here on NationalCashOffer.com

The post Selling a Fire Damaged Home appeared first on National Cash Offer.

source https://nationalcashoffer.com/real-estate-blog/selling-fire-damaged-home/

Pros and Cons of Being a Landlord : 3 Steps to Embracing or Escaping

Are you a tired landlord? Tired from the constant need to pull teeth when attempting to collect the monthly rent? Well you are not alone.

More and more people are entering the real estate space today thanks to popular shows such as “flip this house”. Shows like this will often glamorize the real estate business, but they skip the hard work and never share the real cost of doing business.

While flipping has been the focus on such shows, “landlording” has yet to gain Reality TV popularity. Nevertheless, new investors are entering the industry – many of which have zero experience in such a venture.

If you found yourself in the shoes of a landlord, but didn’t anticipate the real cost of doing business (ongoing repairs, cost of bad tenants, screening, advertising, holding vacant property, etc…), don’t feel embarrassed. This is more common than you may think. Luckily, you can evaluate the situation and determine whether or not you want to continue. Let’s have a look at the pros and cons of being a landlord, so you can decide whether to embrace it, or escape it.

Are you able to afford the newly discovered costs?

You may have gone into this without understanding that things can break down (i.e the furnace or a/c unit). You won’t be able to put this issue on the back-burner, not that you’d want to. Tenants have rights, and one of those rights is to have working hardware for their utilities. Unexpected operating costs should be expected and accounted for as best they can be.

Are you financially capable of bearing this new expense?

Your answer to that question should tell you whether or not you can continue to be a landlord right now. A furnace may not sound like much, but there’s an old saying – “When it rains, it pours”. Things can easily snowball and get out of control. Ask yourself whether your current income can manage the emergencies that come up with not only your income property, but also in your personal life.

If you are able to bear this expense and stick it out, then good for you. You may very well be able to grow your business and gain new properties. Income property can be a great asset when you plan for it. The pros for this business are that you can replace your income using leverage, and escape the rat race. In order for you to do this though, it must be the right time.

Do you treat this as a business?

Being a landlord can be tough. If you are capable of empathy, then it can be really hard to stick to basic rules of the business of real estate when it comes to eviction. Some people have gone for years (literally years) allowing a tenant to stay in the home without paying a single cent. They simply could not kick out a person or family who had a sad story each and every month.

You need to understand that this is a business, and you must run it like one. You can allow a 3-5 day late rent period, and if that time passes, you need to send the proper notices. After another set time to catch up goes by and bears no fruit, an eviction must be filed. The situation of the tenant cannot determine your tasks.

Question yourself right now. If you fail to pay the mortgage, will the bank let it go? Never. Your home or income property will be foreclosed on, as well as any collateral you put up to get such funding. This is a business, and if you are simply unable to run it like one or you lose sleep doing so, then it is time to let go. Sell your income property right now, and spend your valuable life doing something you love instead.

If you find yourself with no issues in handling these issues, then congratulations – You may be landlord material! A real estate investment that is treated like a business can be a great wealth strategy. The hardest part would have been putting your feelings aside and focusing on the bigger picture. By pushing on with a set plan in place, this business can grow exponentially over time.

Is it worth the hassle of management?

If the profits are not adding up to an income that you can live with, then it may not be worth it to continuing management of the property. Aside from the unexpected costs, you need to be able to grow. If one vacancy can mean that you would be reset to break-even or in the negative, then things can go south quickly in an emergency. An emergency is just that – an unexpected event. If it were expected, then it wouldn’t be an emergency when you have the proper resources in place to fix the problem.

Many new landlords get in the business with single family homes. These SFR income properties are not capable of sustaining a vacancy. Even 2-unit properties or higher can be risky depending on the expense versus profit ratio.

In some cases, a person may not have planned to be a landlord. They may have landed in the probate process and inherited a house. Maybe they decided to try and earn an income from the home instead of selling the house for cash. Everyone in this situation quickly learns what it means to be a landlord, and decides if it’s something they wish to continue.

Property management must still be done even if you are on the other side of the country. Many out of state owners find themselves in a predicament of having issues getting accurate quotes for repairs, or having to evict someone if they do not have a local property manager in place.

If you find yourself past these issues, then you have reached a level of success with real estate investing and will likely grow. A growing REI company leverages the management tasks of others while focusing on securing additional properties. This is a major pro versus con. Good property managers can be hard to find, but worth having. They will file timely evictions, ensure checks are deposited into your account, and handle the contractors as issues arise.

How to sell an income property

Are you dreading holding onto a property, or dealing with a vacant house? Then sell it to National Cash Offer by calling (877)-990-7774. We will give you a fast cash offer for your rental property.

The post Pros and Cons of Being a Landlord : 3 Steps to Embracing or Escaping appeared first on National Cash Offer.

source https://nationalcashoffer.com/real-estate-blog/pros-cons-landlord-3-steps-embracing-escaping/

Listing a Home with an Agent versus using a Cash Home Buyer

Are you trying to sell your house fast? As a homeowner looking into a possible move, you are going to find out that there are two contrasting alternatives:

1. Real estate agent listing on the MLS.
2. Cash buyers whose advertising exclaims that, “we buy houses“.

While you were searching for your options, you stumbled across this article. So, let’s look at each of them separately.

Real Estate Broker and Multiple Listing Service

The real estate brokerage hires licensed agents to put homeowners under contract to list their property. Often-times, the property will be listed in the range of retail prices. The mission for selling the home is to show it to buyers looking to live in the property. If the home needs work, it may also be targeted to investors, but still at the highest possible price for that demographic, which is still not considered a “deal” for many of them.

Because of the nature of the MLS, a property can either sell fast or stay on the market for years, depending on how in-demand that market may be. Whether or not you list with an agent is determined by how fast you need to sell.

Cash Home Buyer

A cash home buyer is an investor looking for a property to either flip or rent out for income. There are different types of investors. Here are a few:

1. Fix and flip – This type of investor is the one you see on “Flip This House”, and other reality shows. In reality however, rehabs do not always work out as they do on television. They are looking for deals well under market value. If you have a lot of equity and just want to sell and make a good chunk of change, you want this cash buyer.
2. Fix and hold – They are experienced landlords that aren’t afraid of getting their hands dirty with some minor rehab. This type of investor is not going to be interested in houses that had lots of fire or water damage. They want to move a wall, install a furnace, paint, and get rented as soon as possible.
3. Turnkey flip – The turnkey flipper wants a property that they can throw some paint on and sell for a nice profit. They go after properties that need no rehab, to light rehab. They would either pass it onto a retail buyer via the flat fee MLS, use an agent, or sell to someone they networked with looking for a turnkey property at a retail price.
4. Creative financing – This investor loves a property that they can secure with a smaller down-payment, and make payments on a monthly basis. If you do not need your entire equity all at once, but you want a better total price, then this is the investor you are seeking. They are often experienced in seller financing, contract for deed (land contract), “subject-to” financing, or lease options. Depending on the scenario, you would either get a monthly income from this, or your mortgage payments will be taken over so you no longer have to pay for the vacant home.

The cash investor is going to be the one you are searching for if you are facing a time-crunch or need to cash out now.

Do you need a fast cash offer?

We are a cash home buyer, and want to make you a fast cash offer within 24 hours. In many cases, we can close in as little as a few days and put cash in your pocket. Fill out the simple form here or call us toll-free at (877)-990-7774.

Don’t worry about leaving your home on the market forever!

source https://nationalcashoffer.com/real-estate-blog/listing-a-home-with-an-agent-versus-using-a-cash-home-buyer/

5 Staging Areas That Sell a Home Fast

When you’ve got no time to waste, and just want a quick sale on your home, it’s time to start looking at the factors that allow for such a quick sale. One of the major factors is the perception of space. If a room is stuffed with items that were collected over the years, then you may have a problem. While it shows the unique growth of your family, it does not translate well to a buyer walking through the home. That’s where staging comes into play.

Issues preventing you from staging your home

Before you can consider staging, you may have a couple of obstacles preventing the undertaking. Let’s walk through them now.

• Storage space – Your rooms may be crowded because you simply have no other place to put things. Displacing the items to the garage is not an option, because it will just make the garage an eye-sore during the walk-through. A full garage gives the buyer an impression that their cars may not fit in there with their tools and other doodads. This simply problem can be relieved with a storage unit rental. In many areas across the nation, a small yet large-enough unit can cost less than $100 per month to rent. This is a small price to pay for value added to the home.
• Cost of furniture – When you think staging, you think beautiful furniture. Buying nice new furniture may not be a cost option for you, with a good sofa and love seat alone costing a few thousand dollars. Luckily, there are services to allow you a short term rental of furniture for many rooms. As with the storage issue, furniture rental can be less costly to your home value than a run-down setup. Remember, the key here is perception. The sale price should make up for the costs in the end, so your worries are unfounded.

The final issue to consider, is “where” to stage inside of your home. Which rooms matter. Experts will argue on some things, but ones we can agree on are as follows…

5 areas for staging

Some of these are industry-obvious. Others are based on the wow-factor that we have experienced during our tenure as real estate investors.

1. Living room – Sometimes this room is interchangeable with “front-room”, while other times a home has both. It may also have a different name depending on what part of the country you are in, similar to the usage of the words “soda” or “pop”.This is the room where the family gets together for Christmas present unwrapping, or movie nights. It is one of the most important rooms in the house, and should be treated as such when you stage the home.The living room should be nice and open, and avoid clutter. Some couches, recliners, an end-table, and an entertainment center are perfect features of this room.
2. Bedrooms – This is another obvious one. We all want bedrooms that appear large, because nobody wants to be cramped. When you purchased the home, the kids probably fought over the rooms because they all wanted the bigger space.The bedroom is tricky. Everyone wants a king size bed, but not all rooms support it. Such a large feature in a small bedroom will make it appear smaller than it actually is. For now, the kids will have to settle with a bed that allows movement, and won’t interfere with the space of a dresser or access to a closet.
3. Dining room – Many families these days prefer to scarf down a hot meal while watching a prime time show, or while binge watching on Netflix. However, there are plenty of families that demand that dinner time as one for gathering to discuss events of the day.Regardless which tradition your family follows, your dining room should be setup as if you were the latter. A table with chairs, and a nice clean cloth with plates and silverware give the room a sophisticated look.
4. Office – If you have an extra space designated as your office, it may be a selling feature. But that won’t be the case if it doesn’t have the room and organization to give a busy professional any piece of mind.A proper office should comfortably fit a desk, chair, and possibly a space for an industrial sized copier machine. The desk should be large enough to fit a computer, while also allowing for the filling out of documents.
5. Deck (or patio) – This is not always an obvious area for staging, but who doesn’t love a functional deck. This is an area that the family gets together for barbecues, or to sit with nature and listen to the birds sing.
   
   Staging a deck calls for a nice barbecue, and a patio set (table, chairs, umbrella).

Conclusion

Renting furniture (or buying it if you can) has many perks. For one, you can include the furniture in the sale price, allowing a family to move in and not having to worry about furnishing the space. If not, you have furniture ready to go with you to your next home in comfort and style.

One thing to keep in mind, is that using the furniture has its limits. A staging company may allow you to “use” the beds for a short period, but they probably won’t want you to spark up the barbecue. Read over their policies before you jump into staging so that you know what is expected of you ahead of time.

When it’s all said and done, proper staging can mean the difference between tens of thousands of dollars in the offers you will be getting. Without staging, some families struggle to gain a single offer over time.

source https://nationalcashoffer.com/real-estate-blog/5-staging-areas-that-sell-a-home-fast/