Apartment Renting With Pets
If you?re a pet owner who is considering a move to an apartment there are certain things you must be keep in mind. First, whether or not your pet will be accepted by most landlords depends primarily on the type, size and personality of your pet. Dogs: If you own a large dog, apartment living is probably not for you. Not only will accepting landlords be hard to find, but your dog will not be happy in the confined space of an apartment. A large dog needs room to exercise and play, neither of which is usually available in an apartment setting. If you plan to move to an apartment, make sure your dog is one that will adapt easily to this change in environment. Usually smaller, lap dogs are the best choice. However, even smaller dogs can cause problems. If your dog barks or whines a lot you may well find yourself at odds with the landlord, as well as with other tenants. Many times your dog only causes a disturbance because it?s lonely or bored. If you?re gone during the day, you can sometimes alleviate these problems by hiring a pet walker to come in and give your dog attention and exercise. You must also keep in mind that most apartment complexes have leash laws so you will have to accompany your dog each time it goes outside. Since most complexes don?t have areas where it?s safe for your dog to run free, this is as much a matter of your dog?s safety as it the protection of other tenants. Cats: Cats are the pets of choice for apartments. Most are not as socially oriented as dogs and are quite happy left on their own. As long as your cat has a nice spot to curl up and take a nap, space isn?t an issue. More than likely your pet is a house cat so frequent trips outside aren?t required. But you must realize that some landlords do not accept cats any more willingly than they do dogs. Some have a strict ?no pets? rule. If that?s the case, don?t consider renting there. If your pet is discovered you may be evicted and/or fined. Other Pets: ?Pocket pets? such as fish, birds, and reptiles usually don?t pose a problem when it comes to renting. However, you should still check with your prospective landlord to make sure. General Tips: Landlords who do accept pets often require a pet deposit. This is intended to cover any damage your dog or cat does to the premises, as well as additional cleaning that may be necessary when you leave the apartment. If you?re searching for apartments that accept pets, there are many places to go for help. You?ll find lots of websites and message boards dedicated to this subject. You can also enlist the help of a local realtor or relocation specialist who usually have lists of ?pet-friendly? apartments. Just make sure you?re clear on the policy regarding pets before you sign any rental agreement. If you take into account your pet?s needs, as well as those of your landlord, you?ll be much more likely to find an apartment that meets your needs. Happy apartment hunting! Kyle Thomas Haley has been helping people relocate on the Internet since 1999 for STANZEEKAY Inc's Relocation Websites: <a href="http://www.apartment-rental.net">Apartment Finding</a> and <a href="http://www.relocation-guide.net">A National Relocating Guide</a> Copyright 1999 ? 2005 STANZEEKAY Inc. You have permission to publish this article free of charge, as long as the bylines are included and none of the links or content are changed.
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Business Personal Property Valuation
Business personal property (BPP) can be challenging to value because of the limited quantity of data available and primary reliance upon the sales comparison approach. Relatively speaking, a voluminous quantity of data is available when valuing real estate as opposed to valuing business personal property. Many real estate appraisals consider three approaches to value: cost approach, sales comparison approach and the income approach. By contrast, most business personal property appraisals depend primarily upon the sales comparison approach. While it is possible to develop a reasonable estimate of the market value for business personal property, the values tend to be more subjective than the value of real estate. The sales comparison approach depends upon principles of substitution and supply and demand. Purchasers of business personal property will seek alternatives and choose the alternative most beneficial for them considering cost, quantity and quality. For real estate, comparable sales data is available with in-depth descriptions of the real estate, including quantity and quality. For business personal property, is more difficult to obtain accurate information regarding the quantity and quality of property involved in a sale. For example, assume the XYZ Company recently closed its Chicago operation and sold the furniture, phone system, network servers, personal computers and related items for an office with 30,000 square feet of space and 120 employees. The sales data includes the quantity of desks, chairs, file cabinets, personal computers, network computers, etc. However, it does not contain precise information regarding the condition and age of each of these items. Real estate is more homogeneous and easier to describe versus the sale of a quantity of business personal property. Real estate appraisers often gain insight from preparing each of the three approaches to value for real estate assignments. However, personal property appraisers typically focused primarily upon the sales comparison approach. They do not have the benefit of contrasting the value conclusion via the sales comparison approach with values via the cost approach and income approach. It is important to define the asset being valued. Referring back to our example of the XYZ Company which closed its office, is the assignment to ascribe a value to each item as though it is going to be sold individually or is it to assign a value to the aggregate collection of furniture, computers and equipment? An alternate approach would be to define a value based upon selling subsets of the whole. For example, the furniture to one purchaser and the computers and phone system to a second purchaser. The definition of value also substantially affects the value conclusion. Market value would typically be defined as the value assuming both the buyer and seller are knowledgeable regarding the property, neither the buyer nor seller is under distress to buy or sell and an adequate amount of time is allowed to market the property. A liquidation value would also assume that both buyer and seller are knowledgeable regarding the assets. However, it would assume a very brief period of time to sell the property. Value in use describes the value of the assets to the current owner. It is not indicative of what a third party would likely pay to purchase the assets. In addition to performing an appraisal to estimate the market value of business personal property, other techniques sometimes considered for valuing business personal property are IRS depreciation schedules and appraisal district depreciation schedules. These may or may not result in a value conclusion that is similar to market value. However, it is the writer’s experience that they typically produce a value in excess of true market value. To obtain a quote or further information for a business personal property valuation, contact us at 713-686-9955 The appraisal division of O’Connor & Associates is a national provider of commercial property real estate appraisal services including cost segregation studies, highest and best use analysis, due diligence, gift tax valuation, commercial real estate appraisal, lease abstraction, insurance valuations, business personal property valuations, business purchase price allocations, single-family litigation support and business valuations.Patrick C. O'Connor has been president of O'Connor & Associates since 1983 and is a recipient of the prestigious MAI designation from the Appraisal Institute. He is also a registered senior property tax consultant in the state of Texas and has written numerous articles in state and national publications on reducing property taxes. He continues to set the standard in direction and quality of our appraisal products, adding services ranging from business valuations and business appraisals to cost segregation analysis for income tax reduction. Patrick C. O'Connor <a href = "http://www.poconnor.com">www.poconnor.com</a>
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Importance of getting your house valued when selling a house as is
While deciding to sell your house, there are certain aspects to consider for a good sale. Apart from maintaining the cleanliness quotient and ensuring all the electrical and plumbing phases are in working condition, the value of the house has to be estimated before you quote a price for it. The reasons why you want to sell your house, is the foremost consideration that is taken into account when determining the house value. The elements that need scrutiny before the valuation of the house can be made are: The location of your house, whether it is far from the city area or in the prime locations, would affect the assessment of the house. The age of the house and its current condition. The average per-square rate of the area in which your house is located. The facilities provided with the dwelling play a vital role in valuation. Whether the house is fully, partially or not at all furnished, whether it has a swimming pool, clubhouse or garden or no such facilities are available. Benefits The significance of getting your house valuated is that buyers tend to certain price ranges to fit their budgets and formulating a price close to the fair market value will better your chances of striking a good deal. All house sellers are advised that they avoid being caught up in the high price deals promised by their agents and brokers. This is because many times sellers get charmed by the high price quoted by agents thinking it is the best deal and often overlook the fact that the price quoted is way above the market value and hence will not be taken up by anyone. This in turn increases the time period of the sale, which might hamper the house’s market value even further and the sellers may find themselves selling their house for much lesser amounts than was possible earlier. Getting a professional with a good track record to value your house will not only ensure the correct price but will also save your house from being held due to a poor estimation. How to increase the value of your house You need to know the market and other house deals that have taken place in and around your area. This will help you self-analyze whether the rate estimated for your house is reasonable, even without the help of a broker. The next thing you need to decide on is a minimum price for your house. If the buyers cannot afford the stated price, they you can negotiate from that minimum price so that you still end up making a profit on the sale. You should enquire about the average selling time for a house in your area. If your home sale is taking much longer than the average time, then the problem could be the price, which would undoubtedly be higher than the market value. In order to increase the value of your house, compare it to other properties in the vicinity and alter the price if necessary. Sellers need to track market movements and make regular checks on the stock of unsold local inventory and price changes. The house tax, property tax, maintenance charges and other costs need to be considered during the evaluation.We will buy your house As Is Now in any condition including Ugly Homes. If you need to Sell Your Home Fast Orlando, Jacksonville, Atlanta, Charlotte, Cincinnati, For Lauderdale, Houston, Tampa and Fort Myers. Visit us at http://www.asisnow.com. Call 1-800-AS-IS-NOW (800-274-7669).
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Selling Your Own Home In A Tough Real Estate Market - Five Tips
If you are in a tough real estate market and are looking to sell your home quickly, you might want to consider doing a For Sale By Owner. My wife and I recently bought a new house and after trying unsuccessfully to sell our existing house through a real estate agent for several months decided to try For Sale by Owner. We found a buyer within four days and closed on the house three weeks later. However, through our experience we discovered a few things. Here are a few tips if you are considering a FSBO in a less than ideal real estate market. 1. Consider paying to have your home placed in the MLS. There are several companies out there that will do this for a few hundred dollars. With sales down, real estate agents are desperate to earn a commission. By putting the house in the MLS you are agreeing that if an agent brings a buyer to you that you will pay the agent their part of the commission (you still save the listing agents commission). If you can sell the house on your own with no agent then you won’t have to pay an agent. However, in a tough market you want as many possible eyes on your property as possible. 2. Get the word out to as many places as possible about your house. One of the best places to do this is on the internet. There are dozens of free websites that will allow you to post your house for free. Consider starting with craigslist since it has so much traffic and then spread out to the other sites on the net. It will probably take you an entire evening to get the house posted on all the sites and you will want to keep a spreadsheet with your usernames and passwords so that you can go back later and remove the listing once the house sells. 3. Design a professional looking flyer and put out for sale by owner signs and a flyer box. If you aren’t the artistic type and don’t know that much about designing things like flyers consider a site like vflyer which will give you templates for designing a flyer. Take some good pictures of the house with your digital camera and put them on the flyer. If you use Vflyer or a program like it you can probably use the same template to post the house to craigslist and ebay (if you decide to pay for a listing). 4. Be creative. When we put our house on the market we ordered an eight foot full color printed banner to put on our fence. Our house backed to a major street and we were able to get some major exposure from the banner. I have heard of people offering free vacations, big screen tvs, cash bonus’ to the listing agent and even a free car. I have also heard of people giving away a cool prize at their open house. These things can help get your house noticed which is the first step to getting it sold. 5. Make sure that your price is competitive. Consider using the money that you are saving on real estate commissions to cut the price of your house so that it is more competitive. In tough markets it is going to be very important that your house isn’t priced too high or people will find another option. In our area there were a ton of houses on the market and most of the houses that were selling were 5% or more undervalued. If that is what it takes you might need to swallow hard and cut the price of your house. Of course all of these things are just suggestions. Still, when things get tough and you need to sell your house these could be an option for you. They worked for us.Jeff McRitchie is the director of marketing for MyBinding.com and lives in Hillsboro, Oregon. He writes extensively on topics related to Binding Machines, Binding Supplies, Report Covers, Binders, Index Tabs, Laminators, Laminating Pouches, Roll Film, Shredders, and Paper Handling Equipment.
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Should I Sell My House Now - House Prices Expected To Decline
According to an analysis conducted by Moodys Economy much of the nations housing prices will see a decline over the next couple of years. The analysis showed a projected decline in national house price of 7.7 percent over the next two years. The projected decline is over 4 percent higher than the projection in October 2007. The 7.7 percent decline in housing prices is an average, so some areas of the country will see a much higher decline. Areas like Stockton California were close to the top of the list with an expected housing decline of 25 percent that is expected to last until the later part of 2008. The Sunbelt areas of the country are expected to see the larges declines, but the Midwest is not far behind. With the many job layoffs from auto makers and other production facilities the local economy in many of the Midwest towns is struggling. Detroit Michigan is not expected to recover from its projected 21.3 percent decline until the early part of 2009. Cities like Nampa, Caldwell, Star, Eagle, and Kuna are Idaho metro cities and are also expected to see declines. Boise, the capital city of Idaho is slated to see a decrease of 7.7 percent in the housing market. The Boise real estate market is not expected to rebound until the later part of 2008. The news is not bad for everyone. Some smaller cities in Texas are expected to see a mild increase of 4.6 percent where the median house price is $129,000. Other areas of the country where the median house price is below the national average should have good chances of dodging the storm. If you are considering selling your house today or holding out for price appreciation, do your homework. In most cases you may be better off selling your house now to avoid even larger declines in the future months. Most areas of the country will not see house prices start to recoup their losses until 2008. Even after home prices start to appreciate it is going to take some time before they are back to where they once were. So many areas around the nation are continuing to see declining housing prices. The declining housing prices cause financial hardship on people needing to sell their house. There are many reasons why people need to sell their house and sell it quickly; divorce, to stop foreclosure, sell investment property, moving out of state, bankruptcy, etc. If you need to sell your house fast your best option is to sell it to your local home buyer. Local home buyers purchase many houses each month in your local area. The process is simple and free. You complete a confidential short seller form on-line and you are then contacted by your local home buyer. The process is the best way to sell your house quick. <a href="http://www.experthomeoffers.com">Sell My House</a> to a local home buyer
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Importance of getting your house valued when selling a house as is
While deciding to sell your house, there are certain aspects to consider for a good sale. Apart from maintaining the cleanliness quotient and ensuring all the electrical and plumbing phases are in working condition, the value of the house has to be estimated before you quote a price for it. The reasons why you want to sell your house, is the foremost consideration that is taken into account when determining the house value. The elements that need scrutiny before the valuation of the house can be made are: The location of your house, whether it is far from the city area or in the prime locations, would affect the assessment of the house. The age of the house and its current condition. The average per-square rate of the area in which your house is located. The facilities provided with the dwelling play a vital role in valuation. Whether the house is fully, partially or not at all furnished, whether it has a swimming pool, clubhouse or garden or no such facilities are available. Benefits The significance of getting your house valuated is that buyers tend to certain price ranges to fit their budgets and formulating a price close to the fair market value will better your chances of striking a good deal. All house sellers are advised that they avoid being caught up in the high price deals promised by their agents and brokers. This is because many times sellers get charmed by the high price quoted by agents thinking it is the best deal and often overlook the fact that the price quoted is way above the market value and hence will not be taken up by anyone. This in turn increases the time period of the sale, which might hamper the house’s market value even further and the sellers may find themselves selling their house for much lesser amounts than was possible earlier. Getting a professional with a good track record to value your house will not only ensure the correct price but will also save your house from being held due to a poor estimation. How to increase the value of your house You need to know the market and other house deals that have taken place in and around your area. This will help you self-analyze whether the rate estimated for your house is reasonable, even without the help of a broker. The next thing you need to decide on is a minimum price for your house. If the buyers cannot afford the stated price, they you can negotiate from that minimum price so that you still end up making a profit on the sale. You should enquire about the average selling time for a house in your area. If your home sale is taking much longer than the average time, then the problem could be the price, which would undoubtedly be higher than the market value. In order to increase the value of your house, compare it to other properties in the vicinity and alter the price if necessary. Sellers need to track market movements and make regular checks on the stock of unsold local inventory and price changes. The house tax, property tax, maintenance charges and other costs need to be considered during the evaluation.We will buy your house As Is Now in any condition including Ugly Homes. If you need to Sell Your Home Fast Orlando, Jacksonville, Atlanta, Charlotte, Cincinnati, For Lauderdale, Houston, Tampa and Fort Myers. Visit us at http://www.asisnow.com. Call 1-800-AS-IS-NOW (800-274-7669).
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Real Estate Investing and Goal Setting
What is the primary reason for success most people have that seems to elude unsuccessful people? Goal setting is the primary reason for success. Lack of proper planning is the number one reason for failure. Proper goal setting involves setting a business plan in place for your life. Too many people this doesn t sound fun or sounds tedious. In practice though, goal setters have more time freedom, more money, and more success in all areas of their lives than those who don t. Well it s no different with real estate investing. Real Estate Investing must be treated as a business and it requires planning that anyone can do. Much like an airplane pilot who goes through a pre-flight checklist, the real estate investor must go through many steps for every real estate deal. You must market to find the deal, do your research on the property to establish a value, have your contracts ready, make your offer, schedule a closing, have title work done, prepare your financing, get property insurance, etc. The reason the doers make money is because so many people aren t ready to make money. Real estate investing seems like pie in the sky until you put your plan down on paper and it starts to crystallize. The planning process itself should give you renewed energy. Before I daily setup my plan I didn t want to get out of bed each day, but now I get up ready to work on knocking out my plan every day. Set your plan up into baby steps that you can review and knock out every single day. Your daily plan must include marketing to get motivated sellers to contact you. Regardless of the deals you have in the works, if your marketing stops, you will go through long dry spells. Even with consistent marketing you will have periods with few leads and periods where you are just swamped with sellers offering you great deals. Constant daily review of your goals is critical. This is why so many suggest taping your goals on your bathroom mirror so you see it when you wake up and again before you go to bed. You can even buy giant poster sized post it notes that you can write your goals on and stick them on your wall. Reviewing your goals before going to sleep at night causes your brain to dream about your goals and program them into memory. So put your goals down on paper and start putting your real estate investing plan into action.David Neese is a real estate investing author who offers a free course for real estate investors delivered by email, audio and Tele-seminar which you can get for free at:http://www.FreeRealEstateInvestingCourses.com You can find more information about David at http://www.DigitalSuccessCoach.com
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Shipping Container Houses:
Shipping Container Homes: The Economical Choice Shipping container homes make sense from so many standpoints. Most importantly, it’s a cost-saving solution. A container home in St. Paul, Minnesota at 1800 sq. ft. cost $133 per sq. ft. to build. A container home in Redondo Beach, California cost $180 per sq. ft. to build. A cost of $150 per sq. ft. for a container home is not uncommon. These prices are for homes that have many custom design features at tract home prices. One of the first shipping container homes in America was a house built in a blighted North Charleston, SC neighborhood in 2004 with the help of North Charleston and U.S. Housing and Urban Development funds. This project was seen as a prototype for renovating poorer neighborhoods. If container homes can be an economical way of building in the U.S., think of the potential for shipping container homes in developing countries. The non-profit, Global Peace Containers, is building schools and other structures out of shipping containers in Jamaica. The organization’s mission is: “1. To provide the organization and process to respond properly to situations where there are clearly established needs for low-cost, emergency, transitional or permanent housing and community buildings. 2. To instruct and empower the people to undertake the conversion of international shipping containers to meet those needs, and in so doing, develop their own capacities to help themselves in times of emergency and improve their economic condition.” (See GlobalPeaceContainers at Firmitas.org.) Global Peace Containers finds that these buildings can be put up in a matter of days with unskilled and semi-skilled labor, using equipment readily available in developing countries, and with recycled materials such as used shipping containers and scrap sheet metal. In Jamaica, like other developing countries, a building as large as a school made of containers costs around $12,000. Several architects have developed easily transportable emergency housing out of shipping containers. These temporary shipping container homes can be deployed quickly and in large numbers to house refugees and victims of natural disasters. See the information at Firmitas.org about FutureShack. Whether the rationale for building an economical home is to provide temporary housing to refugees and the homeless, to build affordable housing for people who could not otherwise afford a home, allow a homeowner to upgrade to designer quality at tract home costs, or to help middle class homeowners afford a home in an expensive area shipping container homes are an economical answer.Mike Sanders has written for Shipping-Container-Housing.com since 2004.
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How You Can Use Rehab, Refinance and Cash Out as Long-Term Wealth Building Real Estate Investing
Today we are discussing a somewhat advanced strategy for you to use after you have been in the creative real estate investing business for a while. I call this Rehab, Refinance, and Cash Out . This strategy can lead to true long term wealth and financial independence. This works very well in a buyers market like Memphis where prices have been quite flat for some time. You need to use this to augment your wholesaling for immediate income and retailing for bigger short term profits. Rehab, Refinance and Cash Out is a long term wealth building strategy and will be something you will be glad you did as it is a long term buy and hold strategy, and those are the strategies that lead to true wealth accumulation and financial independence. Let me explain how this works. You find a good middle to low end 3 bedroom home that you are able to buy from an out of state owner or other motivated seller that needs a little work and you buy at 60% of after repaired value. You buy the house using a hard money lender like http://www.pleaseclose.com/memphistrading and do your fix up and have a property management firm manage the property and put a renter in the house. The hard money lender will typically loan you up to 65% of the after repaired value to purchase the house which you use to buy the house and then repair it. Now that the home is repaired you obtain an investor friendly mortgage and cash out by refinancing at 80-90% of after repaired retail value and you should be doing this with properties where this strategy gives you back at least $10,000 at the refinance that you can use in your business any way you need. Do not use this money to live on, use it solely to grow your real estate business. Once you have done this strategy on 10 homes you should be able to keep finding better and better deals because you can close quickly as you have cash in hand to make things happen. More cash equals better deals and more opportunities. By the time you repeat this strategy 20 times you should have at least $200,000 cash plus about $200,000 equity and 20 homes giving you at least $2000 per month positive cash flow whether you decide to work this month or not since you have a property management company handling things for you. With average annual rent increases, within five years that $2,000 a month should grow to $4,000 a month. In 30 years you should have $2 to 3 million plus in paid off real estate. It s a good solid long term strategy to add to your immediate selling from wholesaling, retailing and lease options that the extra $200,000 in cash will help grow tremendously. The rent minus the management fees and all loan and other costs must leave you with positive cash flow or this strategy should be avoided. If you cannot cash out on the property I don t recommend holding it long term as you want to be able to use your best mortgages to cash out. You can purchase using http://www.pleaseclose.com/memphistrading if your Equifax credit score is above 550(which is bad credit) or you have a co-borrower who has an Equifax score over 550. A good investor friendly mortgage company will give you good rates if you are at 660 middle score or above and the very best rates if your middle score is 720 or above. Your first 10 investor mortgages in your name and 10 in your spouses name are the easiest to qualify and get the best deals. After those you really need a good investor mortgage company to work with. Take the time to find the real investor friendly mortgage companies that can help you get loans for 100 properties and not just the first ten and let them have the easy ones and the tougher ones. I do recommend having more than one good lender available though, but stick to the ones that specialize in investor loans. Find out from other investors who the most investor friendly mortgage companies are to use to refinance the repaired home. I do not advocate becoming a landlord as I do not believe this is a valuable usage of your time and energy. I highly recommend asking around and finding a good property management company that will charge you 10% or less to start out with and gradually lower that % as you add more and more properties. I feel this is an advanced strategy as you won t see any cash in your pocket from this strategy for 4-6 months after you find the deal which is a long time to work and not see any pay. If you are wholesaling and making consistent money each month then it shouldn t matter. This strategy will magnify the profits you make in your investing business in ways you might not have imagined. This strategy is a natural progression from wholesaling as you are already helping others find these kinds of deals, now you will be able to get the cash out typical of probably 2 wholesale deals, just paid slower, and at the same time building a nice future nest egg.David offers a free E-course on quick start strategies for getting started in real estate investing that is delivered free via email and tele-clinic at: http://www.FreeRealEstateInvestingCourses.com
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