Still a great time to buy a home (NY)…no matter what!

For those of you looking into real estate investment as a proven method of high returns, it should be noted that there are remarkable real estate deals available right now in New York State. There has, literally, never been a better time to buy a home (NY), with prices down in some areas by as much as 40 percent.

Folks, I have been doing this for a long time. As the owner of a network of organizations worth more than $1 billion (net, annualized), who has been involved in nearly 12,000 real estate transactions, I can say without a hint of doubt that the opportunity exists right now to get in while prices are super-low, buy a home (NY), and see incredible returns moving forward into the future.

I get a lot of folks who simply don’t get this. They say, “Billy, come on. Why do I want to buy a home New York when the market is as bad as it is right now?”

First of all, the real estate market is cyclical. There are sharp dips in value, there are substantial rises in value. The highs and lows are easier to read than the stock market – everyone who gets in now will have time to make the right moves that provide high yields. I understand that there is concern, for some. But the smart players know that home prices have nowhere to go but up – especially for those looking to buy a home (NY).

When it comes to real estate prices, it is widely accepted that surrounding employment opportunity is one of the (if not the most) important factors that determine home values. A low rate of unemployment, combined with high household incomes and several other factors (such as proximity to good universities and creative industries like music, design, TV, publishing, advertising, film) translate into an area that quite simply, is going to feature real estate that holds its value. Nowhere do these specifics exist more than in New York State –which is why I am always telling investors and private lenders that the time is now to buy a home (NY).

We are caught in something of a perfect housing storm right now, to be sure. But, as someone who has had great success as a real estate investor, I think it is important to share some wisdom with folks who may be new to the game.

One thing I am always telling folks is this: if you’re bold enough to go cliff-diving, you have to know that the time to jump is not when the waves are covering the rocks beneath you. Even though it seems safe, the truth is that you’d be putting yourself in great peril. The time to jump is (the opposite of what you’d think!) when the rocks are exposed. That way, when you land, you will have timed your jump so that the water is under you when you land.

In other words, timing is everything!

The market seems bad right now, but the truth is that smart investors realize that now is the time to jump (specifically because the rocks are exposed)! When you land, you will see that you have invested in New York real estate that will hold substantial value over time. So buy a home (NY) while the deals are there. Buy a house in Long Island; buy a house in Suffolk County; buy a house in Nassau County…and if you need any advice whatsoever, well, you know where to find me. Happy hunting!

Don’t worry about credit, buy a home (NY) on land contract

You know who’s got good credit, right now; in 2011 – four years into the worst housing crisis and one of the worst recessions in the history of the United States?
I’ll tell you who.
The Pope and Payton Manning (and Manning’s might even go down a bit in the next couple of weeks)…and that’s about it.
I tell everyone who is on the fence about buying a home (NY) – and all sorts of folks come to me with questions, considering that my job has been to sell Long island homes for upwards of 16 years – I tell each and every one of them: if you’re even just thinking to buy a home (NY), then by all means…buy a home (NY)!
Almost 12,000. That’s the number of real estate transactions I’ve been involved in with The Billy Alvaro Group. Not trying to toot my own horn, but each and every one of those transactions, as you can imagine, has taught me something new about what it takes to buy a home (NY). One thing I hear a lot from folks who are on the fence (and incredibly, there are a lot of folks on the fence – despite deals that are just plain ‘ridiculous,’ literally!), I tell them that you don’t have to worry about your credit.
“What?” They always say, confused, as if they couldn’t really understand what I said…like I wasn’t speaking English.
DON’T WORRY ABOUT YOUR CREDIT!
The fact is that even if you don’t have Larry King’s credit score (err, maybe that’s a bad example), you can still get in on the fast track to buy a home (NY). One in five folks that you see on the street have what is termed a “deep subprime score.” And the numbers of folks with “superprime” scores are becoming just about as scarce as water in San Antone. Due to all of this, lenders have responded by lifting their credit watermark, and the upshot of all of this is that the definition of “good credit” has effectively been altered, forever.
One of the tricks you need to know to buy a home (NY) is that if you buy property on a land contract, which is also sometimes called a ‘wraparound mortgage,’ the bank is not involved in the process. And if the bank is not involved then, well, you don’t have to meet the banks’ standards, do you? As a land contract is simply a private contract between two parties who agree to express terms, which involve monthly payments and accrued interest over time, the seller on a land contract essentially serves as his own mortgage banker.
A seller might do this for many reasons; maybe he or she faces the daunting task of trying to sell an ugly house, or a house that might not pass the inspections required by a more conventional lender. Maybe the seller just plain needs to sell – there’s a lot of that going on right now (and even though it seems like a sad situation for some, the truth is that it helps folks in trouble out a lot when they remove the burden of being underwater on a mortgage).
Of course, there is a little bit more to it than just saying, ‘don’t worry about your credit.’ You can’t just snap your fingers. You need to make sure the land contract gives you some protections. For instance, make sure to structure the land contract so that the payments are divided so that you can remain in control of your destiny, so to speak. There is more you need to know, and all you have to do is give me a buzz anytime.
To quote an old science teacher of mine, “It’s not magic, but it is real!”
If you want to buy a home (NY) – even if you’re the type whose computer starts to cough up smoke and flash the word “overload!” over and over when it’s compiling one of those online credit scores – then you can buy a home (NY)! Look for a land contract…and don’t forget to call me if you need some help.

A wakeup call, via Mother Nature

Gee whiz…for all of you fellow East coasters out there, and for all Americans in general, you know what a harrowing week it has been. Thank god, most of us were fortunate enough to escape the real wrath of Hurricane Irene. Sure, there is lots of flooding to deal with and lots of us have been and will be without power, but – considering what some of the forecasts were – maybe the lack of power and some water in the basement is not the worst thing in the world.
So, ladies and gents, with the worst of it all in our rearview mirror, I think it’s time to take an inventory and reorganize.
One thing we all learned from the experience (sometimes it’s not bad to be shaken at the core) is that our very existence, in fact, is sometimes put in drastic perspective. When we were worried about the prospect of a giant tidal wave of water washing away NYC and large parts of the Eastern seaboard, the fact that we might be a home owner struggling with a mortgage seemed almost irrelevant, didn’t it? We certainly were not, during that period of days, thinking about how to sell a Long Island house, or about how to buy a home (NY).
We were, instead, pretty much keyed in what was a stressful, worrisome and difficult situation. And as much as it was a hard situation to endure, and scary, to boot, we need to try to hold onto this newfound perspective.
I know you are all thinking: “Billy, whad’ya talking about?!”
What I am saying is that now more than ever is the time to assess our situation. We learned the fleeting nature of life (and Mother Nature’s total and blatant disregard for our ‘comfort’) from the hurricane. We learned that some things are more important than having a tip-top lawn and the coolest rec room in the neighborhood.
Let’s hold on to this charge we’ve been infused with – sparked by the fear of knowing that we slid safely past the prospect of a natural disaster. Let’s remember this, and realize that life is too short to spend it all worrying and stressing about trivialities such as not being able to make a couple payments; or struggling and stressing over financial troubles that are not even your fault.
What I am saying is, we’ve had a wakeup call.
Use it to your advantage. Let it motivate you to get out of your rut and to buy a home (NY).
If you are, for instance, a home owner who is really struggling to make your mortgage payments, well, heck…get out from underneath it. Life is too short for that kind of bad noise. Contact a qualified short sale expert, such as myself, and get cash-in-hand. That way, you can jump back into the market; find a better deal and buy a home (NY) that you can manage (Lord knows, there are lots of deals out there right now) and start the rest of your life over, with a fresh perspective.

No certificate, no problem. Go for the buy

Certificates of occupancy are documents that show you that the house is livable, has had recent renovations, and is ready to be purchased or sold. Sometimes, sellers do not have these documents or they don’t have them on hand. Should you buy a home, anyway?

Yes, go for it.

Just because they do not have the document, does not necessarily mean you should not buy a home ny. This is also advantageous if you are a seller. Sell your house fast if you feel the burden of debt on your shoulders.

Soft market. Soft criteria.

In today’s soft market, people will strive much more to sell a house. Some local governments require you to obtain a certificate of occupancy before they sell or buy a home ny. Some people do not meet the requirements to obtain a certificate of occupancy in order to sell a house, especially to sell a house fast. Most attorneys will tell you to make sure the seller has a certificate; however, if you play your cards right, you can buy a home ny without being nervous about whether you fell into a money pit house. Sometimes, all a certificate of occupancy shows is that the house has been checked by the local government, which sometimes has very strict policies. If the house does have significant problems, make a counter-offer to get the lowest possible price—preferably with cash even if you don’t have a lot of it on hand.

No certificate, no problem. Go for the buy

Certificates of occupancy are documents that show you that the house is livable, has had recent renovations, and is ready to be purchased or sold. Sometimes, sellers do not have these documents or they don’t have them on hand. Should you buy a home, anyway?

Yes, go for it.

Just because they do not have the document, does not necessarily mean you should not buy a home ny. This is also advantageous if you are a seller. Sell your house fast if you feel the burden of debt on your shoulders.

Soft market. Soft criteria.

In today’s soft market, people will strive much more to sell a house. Some local governments require you to obtain a certificate of occupancy before they sell or buy a home ny. Some people do not meet the requirements to obtain a certificate of occupancy in order to sell a house, especially to sell a house fast. Most attorneys will tell you to make sure the seller has a certificate; however, if you play your cards right, you can buy a home ny without being nervous about whether you fell into a money pit house. Sometimes, all a certificate of occupancy shows is that the house has been checked by the local government, which sometimes has very strict policies. If the house does have significant problems, make a counter-offer to get the lowest possible price—preferably with cash even if you don’t have a lot of it on hand.

Real Estate Owned (REO) Properties and Instant Equity

Buying a home to live in is probably the biggest investment of a person. Everybody wants to get a bargain when buying a home. In the current real estate market when the value of real estate properties is declining, people find it difficult to Buy a House at discounted price. There are home buyers who ask me questions like if it is possible in the current real estate market to get a property with some equity in it. So, in this article, I would like to answer this question in detail and give you another useful Home buying tip.

There are few different ways if you want to Buy a Home with instant equity. The best way of course is to go for foreclosed properties and more appropriately REO or Real Estate Owned ones. REO properties are properties that are owned by a lender after they have gone through an unsuccessful sale at some foreclosure auction. The lender is usually a bank. These properties are held by banks and their prime importance is to sell them as soon as possible. So, there are always chances for the home buyers to get a discounted property when they go for these REO properties. They can buy these homes to live in or as real estate investment properties below market value. This is the tip for home buyers.

One of the other ways to get instant equity is to go for properties with short sale. Let me explain that with an example. If you have a client that is selling a house and he owes $200,000 whereas the house is worth $150,000, then there is a chance that bank lets you buy this house in $130,000 - $ 135000. In this way you will get an instant equity of $15000- $ 20,000. In most cases these short sales won’t need as much work as the REO’s, however the time it takes to close on a short sale is considerably longer than that of an REO.

The other thing to get an instant equity is to look for some Real Estate Owned properties as I have explained above. However, with the REO market you have to know that you are going to be putting a little sweat equity in. You might have to paint the place up. You might have to put some new floors in and update the kitchen.  But in those cases with REOs, you can almost guarantee that you are going to be getting yourself a good deal if you negotiate properly. 

However, before you bid on the deal you need to know whether the property you want to buy has any violations pending against it.

If you want to get free access to REO’s here in New York head over to http://www.maxreturnsrei.com/buy-sell-homes/ or gives us a Call at 1-800-793-5015 x 702 and one of our knowledgeable buying coaches will help answer your questions.

In my next article, I will come up with some more Home Buying Tips to guide you How to Buy a House.