If you are in the market to buy a foreclosed home or a short sale, take some time to confirm the building permit records on the property before you buy.

A building permit record search is a reliable way to determine whether or not your house complies with local building code or if any additional square footage has been legally constructed.

Issues with foreclosed properties from illegal additions to code violations become the responsibility of the new owner. Many properties, especially foreclosures, can have illegal additions, sub-standard work or code violations and the new owner can be made responsible for correcting the problem..

Homeowners seeking to buy can either ask the seller or the seller’s realtor to research the property and find out if there are building permits and certificates of occupancy issued on any new additions. Or if you are curious, you can contact your local Building Department and ask if they can make copies for you.

Be aware, many building departments are short staffed due to the recent economic downturn and they may ask you to come down and research the property yourself.

If you are the seller, in most states, you must disclose all work that was completed without a permit. Failure to do so could run the risk of ruining your sale. The seller may want to provide the buyer with copies of permits confirming that the square footage on the property matches all existing permits on the property.

For example, if the property built in 1999 has two bedrooms and a bath and the seller added a new bedroom and bathroom, the buyer should check to see that the original permits and certificate of occupancy show the original square footage and that the permits show the new, correct additional square footage.

The process differs from City to City but usually the process goes something like this. You would visit the counter of your local building department and ask to see the records on a property. They usually have you fill out a piece of paper listing the property address, turn it in and wait for them to call you.

Once they call you up to the counter, tell them what you are looking for a Certificate of Occupancy, a history of Building permits or that you are looking to confirm the existing square footage on a house. They’ll go and try to find it for you. When they come back with your results, make sure that they take the time to examine the documents and tell you what they are giving you before you go and pay for the copies. The whole process can take between 1-2 hours or more. Sometimes they have you come back the next day.

In most cities and counties, the Building Department will keep copies of all permits on file. Many of them are on old microfiche, but recently many building departments have been converting this microfiche to online permit images. Check your city or county website to see if they have copies of permit records online before you make a trip.

Mike Robinson is the President of Permit Place, a nationwide Planning and Permit Consulting firm located in Los Angeles. Permit Place helps businesses gets retail and restaurant locations open sooner so that they can cash flow faster by streamlining the permit process nationwide. Visit our website at http://www.permitplace.com to download a free case study on how we can save you time and money by getting your permits faster.

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While the rest of the economy is in shambles, and record numbers of foreclosures make headlines, real estate investors are earning thousands of dollars by buying and selling homes. How is it possible? It seems that real estate investors know a thing or two about systems, strategies, and styles of investing that the average homeowner does not. If you are a budding real estate investor and you’re looking to invest in homes but don’t know how, here are some of the basic strategies that investors are using.

WHOLESALING: This is where you buy a home inexpensively and then sell it to another real estate investor. You might not make as much as if you fixed up the home and sold it to a consumer but you can flip houses quickly this way.

REHABBING: This is the well-known (and well-televised) strategy of buying an inexpensive home and fixing it up to resell it to someone else. There is some time and money involved in the restoration process but you can dramatically increase the value of your investment. For more information go to: www.investingwiththestars.net/robertshemin.htm

LANDLORDING: A well-known strategy to buy property and then rent it out to someone else. Although there are headaches with this strategy, you get an ongoing stream of monthly income as well as the appreciated value of the property over the years. For more information go to www.investingwiththestars.net/mikebutler.htm

There are other types of real estate investing but these are among the most popular and lucrative and investors are making thousands on these methods right now. Be open to using these creative techniques especially with the situation we have with the banks today, these options give us all another way to “keep going” and investing while the market is now the ultimate time to buy at these low, low prices. For more information go to: www.investingwiththestars.net/season3. Nancy Geils is a Coach and Trainer in Real Estate Investing

If some thing is definite to increase its price in future, it is the real estate. On an average, the price of a house could increase itself by 10% to 15% in a year. This makes it more difficult for people who plan on buying houses in future. However, if you look around, you might be able to find a lot many ways and techniques, so that you can buy these properties at almost half the cost. Recently, the real estate owners have found a new way to make profits. They have been investing their money in bank owned houses. And internet has been one of the major factors that have given place to this process. The online listings have made it easier for everyone to find houses that are affordable for everyone to buy.

Foreclosure listings: Mostly people buy houses with the help of financial institutions, which help people to lend money. The lenders decide to take their money back in the way of monthly installments. And when people find it difficult to pay the lender the money that they agreed, the lender has all the rights to repossess the property that they helped the borrower to buy. The only way the borrower can stop the process is buy repaying the amount that they took from the lender. But when the borrower is unable to pay the amount the lender takes the property back and starts with a process to sell the same, so that he can recover the money that he had invested. He does not aim to make profits in this process. This is the main reason why these properties are sold at heavy discounts. These properties will suit the bargain shoppers as well as the real estate investors.

There are a lot of foreclosure listings that takes place with the help of various agencies. They will help you with detailed information about the property, which are for the sale. You can use them as the primary source of information for buying these properties. Foreclosure lists are of different kinds. This makes it more important for you, to make the best choice for selecting the list. The list that you should choose should not be outdated and should be from a reputed company. The company and the list that you choose should be updated; usually these lists are updated on monthly basis.

Online listing is better: There are a lot of companies that offer foreclosure listings. These lists have many different properties for sale. Even if you are a new investor or an individual who wants to buy a bargain home, the lists can be of very good help. The database of these companies will have a long list of the houses that are for sale by the financial institutions. These lists will offer the potential buyers with all the information they would need including the property description, agent contact information and the sale price of the property.

Online foreclosure lists are very useful than the printed lists, because the online lists will be updated in regular times but the printed ones cannot be updated. You have to subscribe to an online foreclosure listing from a registered company in order to get all the details about the foreclosure properties across the country. Through these lists you can get single family and multifamily houses or properties for very low price. Register your name in a foreclosure listing and make the most out of it now.

Foreclosure is one of the worst things that can happen to a homeowner. Knowing there are scammers waiting to prey on your fear and vulnerability makes the situation even more worrisome. Thousands have fallen victim to phony foreclosure counseling, phantom help, bait and switch, rent to buy, and bankruptcy foreclosure scams. Being able to recognize the telltale signs of a foreclosure rescue scam can save you the agony and suffering of becoming yet another victim.

What should you watch out for? Beware of any rescuer that guarantees or promises to save your home. You need to avoid any company that guarantees to stop your foreclosure, tells you not to contact your lender, a attorney or credit and housing counselors, requires an up front fee before providing services, will only accept certified funds or wire transfers as payment, or instructs you to make your mortgage payments to them instead of your mortgage holder.

Bait and switch scam artists outright steal your property by coning you into signing paperwork that transfer the property deed or title to their corp. Equity skimming scams steal the equity in your home while leaving you with your mortgage obligation. In the rent to buy scheme you are told to surrender the title of your home, but you will be able to remain in it as a renter. Although you have the option of buying it back, generally the terms are so outrageous it is impossible to do so. Avoid any company that instructs you to sign over the title or deed to your home.

Staying calm and not reacting under pressure is the best thing you can do. Con artists will often offer to fill out paperwork for you. While you think they are giving a rescue mortgage for you, in reality, they are taking the dollars youve given them, filing a bankruptcy in your name and taking your property. Do not sign anything that you are unsure of or dont understand, and never allow any company to fill out paperwork for you.

Knowing where to turn is your best defense. You should start by contacting your lender and trying to negotiate a payment schedule. Additionally, the FTC offers free information that helps consumers recognize and avoid fraudulent, deceptive and unfair business practices. If you feel you have been the victim or a foreclosure rescue scam you can file a complaint at the FTC website.

While the rest of the economy is in shambles, and record numbers of foreclosures make headlines, real estate investors are earning thousands of dollars by buying and selling homes. How is it possible? It seems that real estate investors know a thing or two about systems, strategies, and styles of investing that the average homeowner does not. If you are a budding real estate investor and you’re looking to invest in homes but don’t know how, here are some of the basic strategies that investors are using.

WHOLESALING: This is where you buy a home inexpensively and then sell it to another real estate investor. You might not make as much as if you fixed up the home and sold it to a consumer but you can flip houses quickly this way.

REHABBING: This is the well-known (and well-televised) strategy of buying an inexpensive home and fixing it up to resell it to someone else. There is some time and money involved in the restoration process but you can dramatically increase the value of your investment. For more information go to: www.investingwiththestars.net/robertshemin.htm

LANDLORDING: A well-known strategy to buy property and then rent it out to someone else. Although there are headaches with this strategy, you get an ongoing stream of monthly income as well as the appreciated value of the property over the years. For more information go to www.investingwiththestars.net/mikebutler.htm

There are other types of real estate investing but these are among the most popular and lucrative and investors are making thousands on these methods right now. Be open to using these creative techniques especially with the situation we have with the banks today, these options give us all another way to “keep going” and investing while the market is now the ultimate time to buy at these low, low prices. For more information go to: www.investingwiththestars.net/season3. Nancy Geils is a Coach and Trainer in Real Estate Investing

While the economy seems to be in shambles, and record numbers of foreclosures make headlines, real estate investors are earning thousands of dollars by buying and selling homes. How is it possible? It seems that real estate investors know a thing or two about systems, strategies, and styles of investing that the average homeowner does not. If you are a budding real estate investor and you’re looking to invest in homes but don’t know how, here are some of the basic strategies that investors are using.

SHORT SALE: Doing a short sale is when you purchase a home because the bank is willing to sell it for less than what is owed on it. This happens a lot because banks know that they cannot collect their entire lost amount if they have to bring a house all the way through the foreclosure process. So you can buy a home for less than what is owed, and re-sell it someone else for a profit. For more info on short sales go to: Www.investingwiththestars.net/ben/htm. Ben Pargman, Attorney has a great system to learn short sales! For more information on short sales go to: www.investingwiththestars.net/ben.htm

REO: REO stands for “real estate owned” and this is when the bank has taken ownership of the property. When you buy the property, you are not buying it from the homeowner but rather from the bank. The banks will often let homes go because it costs them thousands of dollars to re-list and sell homes and they don’t want the non-revenue-generating real estate on their books.

SUBJECT TO: Subject-to investing is as simpple as buying a home “subject to” the existing financing. You get the deed to the home but the original owner keeps the mortgage in their name. You take over payments of the mortgage and ultimately sell the deed to someone else. For more information on Subject-to investing go to: www.investingwiththestars.net/banks.htm. Mike Watson has a program to get you started in subject-to investing!

Nancy Geils

Teacher/Financial Coach

Deep in the wallet there is going to be debt. The idea of debt is installed in children from the earliest of ages. They see television commercials promising that new car for a cheap monthly payment making the need for debt elimination real from the early years. They grow up in a home that requires a mortgage to purchase. Nearly everything around is charged on a card to a bank in order to live the lifestyle we see as comfortable. The growth of debt leads to the ever growing necessity of debt elimination and a debt free life.

The difference in owing and owning is debt. Eliminating debt and becoming debt free is at the heart of the world today thanks to the huge influx of credit programs. When a person chooses debt elimination and decides to live a debt free lifestyle, they will often experience less overall life stress, a happier persona and be able to save more money than they ever thought possible. Five tips to debt elimination and becoming debt free include:

Cash Only ? Cash is the currency that seems to be moving to the wayside for the use of cards, loans and credit. At the heart of a debt free lifestyle is debt elimination be not creating new debt. This means keeping your life in a debt free place by not creating any debt by purchasing something you can not pay for 100% at the time of purchase. Debt free life and debt elimination is about buying what you can afford right now, not what you can afford monthly.

Cancel Those Cards ? Debt elimination can not start until those credit cards are out of sight, out of mind and out of the wallet. A debt free lifestyle and debt elimination means never charging anything again. Yes, you heard that right, NEVER! A credit card is the worst choice for someone who wants to live life debt free and eliminate all debt. Charging fresh amounts of money will just revert you back to being full of debt and stop debt elimination.

Minimum is Not Good ? In order to pay off the credit card debt you owe and become debt free, you need to eliminate debt from your bills. The debt created on credit cards is a revolving debt. Free to take up most of your budget for the next 30 years if you choose to pay the minimum payments. Paying off those cards will require higher payments on a more frequent schedule. Debt free and debt elimination is not an easy choice, but it will feel good.

Don’t Think Monthly ? Too many people think about life in monthly payments. Debt free means leaving those monthly payments behind, so think total cost and stay on the debt elimination path.

Do Not File Bankruptcy ? Businesses who are going under file bankruptcy, not the person who wants to be debt free. Eliminating debt for good requires learning how to live day to day in a cash only world. This can not happen if the debt free nature of out lives is given to us.

There was a time in life when debt free was the only way to live. Since then, the world has been taken over by the interest rate. Just as we learned to live outside of our means, we can learn to eliminate debt ad live debt free. A debt free lifestyle and debt elimination is there for the taking, we just have to want to be debt free.

Economic analysts are pointing their fingers to foreclosure as the main factor that caused financial crisis that made economies suffer all over the world. As the number of unpaid mortgages increased, the number of foreclosed properties also increased. This situation made a big impact on the financial burdens of banks all over the world creating a financial crisis. Most homeowners facing foreclosure today are choosing to sell their properties or estates in order to get some amount from the sale even if most of it goes to the unpaid mortgage.

It is common for everyone who wants to sell their property to get a real estate agent to help them look for a buyer. People who have reliable real estate agents get to sell their properties quickly with a reasonable price. However, reliable real estate agents are very rare. Most of the time, the agent fails to deliver and your property ends up in the expired listings records of a real estate agency. You have the option to sell your property through cash buys to an investment company where the sale is quicker and the price can be more than what a real estate agency offers you.

Foreclosure is just one of the situations where cash buys are very helpful. Other situations include relocation. This is where you need to move to another place due to such reason as job relocation. In this kind of situation, you will probably need to sell your property the soonest possible time because you will need money to buy yourself a new place. Real estate agencies might take the opportunity to give you a very low price thinking that you might just have to accept the offer since you are in a hurry. Cash buys is a better option for you because you can sell your property quickly and directly. You do not have to pay for an agent?s commission.

You may also have been on an official business abroad for months, on a vacation or away for a period of time to take care of a sick family member. Your property that has been left vacant could have been vandalized and burglarized. You are hoping that your property insurance will cover the cost for repairs but vacancies can be dodged by your insurance company by saying that properties that have been left empty for more than 30 days are no longer covered by the insurance.

What if your property has been vacant for a long period of time because you have been away for a job or a vacation? Vandals might ruin your property if they see that your house has been empty for a long time. Even if your property is insured, your insurance company might claim that the insurance does not cover properties that have experienced vacancies for more than 30 days. You can always turn to cash buys in order to sell your property that has been vandalized to such a degree that you think that it is not worth keeping it anymore.

Cash buys also apply to badly damaged properties. Real estate agencies will offer a very low price for properties that have sustained damages over the years. If your property has suffered fire damage and your insurance company is giving you a hard time on claiming your insurance coverage, then you might as well sell your property and buy a new one. With the money that you get from selling your property, you may be able to buy a nicer single family home in a more decent neighborhood.

The recession has brought people to a certain level of poverty. The unemployment rate continues to increase and pose a big problem to debtors. Bills are not paid on time, they cut on other expenses even necessary ones, and basically not live the way they used to. They risk their homes to foreclosure that they end up selling the property instead. People who live in big houses move to smaller houses to accommodate their current status and make do with their resources. And to avoid further obligations for the big house, they sell it in the soonest possible time. The problem is the high value the property has makes it difficult to be sold in just a month or two.

Well, in the real world, it is quite difficult to find a fast buyer. Posting ads in the Daily Times can take as much as months for it to be sold. And in the process, you shell out as much money too instead of just saving up for a new house or keeping it as rent. Also, subjecting your house to real estate agents can also cost certain amounts because they have to have their share for selling your estates and you need to adjust according to their standards. These include fixing up your house to make it presentable, repairing parts of the house, and probably redesigning to make it sellable. It makes you spend more.

The reason for such is to increase its market value. If you bought or built your house with an amount X and you want to sell it for the same price or even higher, you are really going to spend much. Another is that because of its price, you may find it to have a longer time to be sold or even taken for an installment purchase. But, if you do not have that much resources and you are willing to give your house with its current value and condition, then we have professional house purchasers or people who take houses for cash buys.

Here are some of the reasons why people look for these guys to sell their house. If you have expired listings, say you are tired of paying advertisement obligations and you are running out of supply to replenish your contract, these purchasers can take your house at any condition, considering that it qualifies their standards. Of course, these business people are wise as the realtors when it comes to the product they are selling so they have to make sure that it is still marketable. The value that they may give you may be significantly less than that of its original value. The reason for that is they will not require you to mend things that need attention nor let you replace those that need to be replaced; they take it as it is. Even if your house had just gone into flames like that of fire damage, they can help in your issue and still come up with an offer that is reasonable.

This is good when circumstances require you to move to a different county or state. Your relocation may be a job transfer or you just had trouble with the neighborhood, you can sell your house in the shortest time with these guys. They have the resources to buy your house just to make sure your agreement is a win situation.