Most people are shocked these days when they open their utility bill. By auditing your home, you can turn a monstrous utility bill into a minor annoyance.

Home Energy Audit

It happens every month. You pick up the mail and see an envelope from the utility company. Oh, the agony! Should I open it now and ruin the day or just wait. An energy audit can make the pain of getting your utility bill go away or at least become a dull ache.

Unlike a tax audit, you can conduct an energy audit by yourself. Simply walking through your home and paying close attention to energy issues can really pay off. Let’s take a look at some obvious problems that can save you a bundle.

The number one energy waster is a leak. Much like a leak in the tire of a care, even one leak from the interior to exterior of the home can raise your utility bill by as much as 30 percent. The most common area you will find such leaks are windows and doors.

Windows and doors are undisputedly the area where most air leaks occurs. The first issues is whether air is actually leaking out through the framing of windows or the area around the bottom of the door. You can typically tell this by feeling for a notable temperature difference in these areas. If is significantly cooler, you have a leak.

As people in cold climates know, having sealed windows is simply not enough to control heating costs in the winter. Most windows on homes are designed for year around use, which makes them huge energy wasters in the winter. Going with energy-efficient windows can make a huge difference in keeping the heat in and the cold out.

If you’ve walked through your home and haven’t found any significant problems with your windows and doors, you may still have one. To really give your home an efficiency test, you can hire contractors to perform a pressurization test. The test essentially raises the pressure in your home and looks for leaks.

Fixing any leaks you find will depend entirely upon the nature of the problem. Some fixes only require additional caulking or insulation while others are unique. Regardless, making your home more energy efficient will significantly cut your utility bill this year and for years to come.

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Filed Under: Articles Tagged with Agony, Air Leaks, Cold Climates, door, Doors, Doors Windows, Dull Ache, Efficiency Test, energy, energy audit, Energy Efficient Windows, Energy Issues, Framing, Google, Heating, Home Energy Audit, Leaks, Mail, Minor Annoyance, People, pressurization test, Tax Audit, Temperature Difference, utility, Waster, Wasters, window, windows, Windows And Doors, Windows Doors

If you’re thinking of retiring, want a second home, or want to live in a country that offers you a better and more affordable lifestyle – then you should consider buying a home in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica is a slice of paradise that’s affordable – and buying a home in Costa Rica is easy. Let’s look at the lifestyle you could enjoy.

There are three groups of people who should consider buying a home in Costa Rica, they are:

. People who wish to retire

. People seeking a second home

. People wanting to work abroad

1. Retiring: You have worked hard all your life, and now you want a quality lifestyle – where your money goes further.

Property is up to 70% less expensive than in the southern states of the USA – and you’re just a few hours flight from the Southern states of the US.

When you live in Costa Rica, you benefit from the following:

. Property is cheaper, and so too are your living expenses – up to 70% cheaper – meaning your social security cheques go further.

. If you buy a Costa Rican home, you still get the entire infrastructure you’ve become used to in the USA – great communications, shopping, and entertainment.

. You get beautiful scenery – from rolling hills, to stunning beaches – even volcanoes!

. Buying is easy – and you get the same rights as Costa Rican residents.

. You get a more relaxed pace of life – and serious crime is rare.

. You get the comfort of world-class healthcare – at a fraction of the cost you’d have to pay in the US.

. Finally, you get some of the best weather in the world – live without the need for heating in the winter, or air conditioning in the summer.

2. A Costa Rica second home, or an investment property: A Costa Rica home gives you all the advantages of the above and many more – but buying a home in Costa Rica is not just for retired people. With more Americans than ever looking at vacation and investment property, you should consider the following:

Real Estate Values ready to Soar.

Costa Rica homes are cheap – and real estate values are growing at an average rate of 30% per year – and in many locations prices have doubled, or tripled in just a few years.

Therefore, you get an asset you can enjoy as a second home whenever you want – with prices up to 70% cheaper than in the southern US states such as Florida.

Many people are buying Costa Rica homes as an alternative buying property in the USA – it’s cheaper, and you get a fantastic lifestyle.

You get a cheaper property with better growth potential – and the added benefit of a booming vacation rental market. So when you’re not enjoying your second home yourself, you can rent it out and make a good income.

3. A Complete change: We’ve already seen the benefits of a Costa Rica home for retiring to, or as vacation home – but maybe you fancy moving, and setting up a business in Costa Rica? Well the opportunities are endless.

As more Americans and other foreigners relocate to Costa Rica than ever before, there are opportunities to set up businesses and take advantage of the new wealth being created.

Tax Advantages

The major advantage is that the Government will not charge you any tax for years – so you can get your business off to a flying start. Educational standards are high, and labour laws are flexible – so you have everything you need to make your business a success.

Consider Buying a Home in Costa Rica

It’s an affordable slice of paradise, and record numbers of Americans and other foreign nationals are actively buying, or considering buying a home in Costa Rica.

If you’ve not considered a Costa Rica home, then maybe this article will encourage to find out more – you won’t regret it!

Filed Under: Articles Tagged with Adsense, Air Conditioning, Beautiful Scenery, Buying A Home, Buying A Home In Costa Rica, Fraction, Google, Infrastructure, Investment Property, Living Expenses, Pace, People, Quality Lifestyle, Real Estat, Rolling Hills, Social Security, Southern States, States Of The Usa, Stunning Beaches, Weather In The World

Foreclosure Shadow Inventory

If you liked the video, a quick comment down below is greatly appreciated. Thanks for watching!

In this video I talk about Shadow Inventory. In Real Estate, Shadow Inventory are those properties that are likely to come into the market in the near future. An example of Shadow inventory can be homes taken by banks in the Foreclosure sale at the courthouse (also known as Bank Owned, Corporate Owned, or REO – Real Estate Owned) that haven’t been put in the market yet. Another example could be properties in Pre-Foreclosure (homes that are in the process of Foreclosure) that are not listed for sale yet, or even some people consider Shadow inventory the homes that are upside down (The Mortgage Balance is higher than the property’s value) and not yet in Foreclosure and are not listed for sale. I don’t necessarily agree that the last group of homes should be counted as Shadow Inventory, because a lot of them are still making payments, but the people that count them as Shadow Inventory bet on most of them stopping payment soon and letting the house go to Foreclosure.

Anyway, some people are estimating that Shadow Inventory could reach up to 8 million homes or more Nationwide in 2010 and they say we expect sales of about maybe 5 million homes only, which may cause another depression in home prices again for 2011, and it could take years before all the shadow inventory is sold.

Now, I am not going to get into details about whether this is good or bad news, it all depends on how you look at it. If you are in the Real Estate as an investor, and you know what you are doing, you could make a lot of money in the next few years.

In this video I show you how to use the power of information to be on top of your local market. People love to talk about nationwide numbers, and I understand it gives you an idea, but you need to know your local market, because most times your market is not going to be anything like the nations average. In the video I concentrate on the shadow inventory coming from Foreclosures that are not for sale as shadow inventory, and I show you how to get the number in your county by using Xima.

Since my time is limited on the video, I was only able to demonstrate the calculation for Miami Dade, but I present a table below with the numbers for all the counties we have available with Xima:

Shadow Inventory of Single Family Homes as of today July 28^th, 2010:

* Total Inventory: All Single Family Homes Listed for sale by Real Estate Agents as of 07/28/2010
** FSI (Foreclosure Shadow Inventory): All Foreclosure Single Family Homes not yet listed for sale by Real Estate Agents as of 07/28/2010

These are only the numbers for Single Family Homes, I didn’t include numbers for Condos/Townhomes/Villas. Also, I decided to include the Total inventory for every county so that you can make the comparison between the active listings and the number of foreclosures that are not even listed for sale yet. In some counties, when these properties come into the market, the active inventory could potentially double the present the inventory.

Another interesting number to add to this mix would be the total amount of sales year to date for 2010. For example: According to Xima, in Miami-Dade we’ve had 11,232 sales YTD, we have 8,806 active listings, and 7,431 Foreclosure Shadow Inventory properties, a total potential inventory of 16,237 properties. In 2009 there were a total of 20,224 sales in Miami-Dade.

I want to thank you for taking time to review this information. Please send me a quick comment below, I want to know your opinion about the article. Also, you can always subscribe to receive updates when articles like this are published.

MORE INFORMATION

Xima USA provides the best and most accurate foreclosure and pre-foreclosure information, data, and statistics available, making it a valuable resource to invest wisely Xima USA offers you everything you need to profit from foreclosure investing. It is your one stop destination to search for foreclosed homes, foreclosures Florida, properties with positive equity, short sale, pre-foreclosures or distressed homes. It creates comprehensive property comparison reports in a specific area, giving you a very powerful tool when making or negotiating an offer. XimaUSA is mainly geared towards real estate brokers and investors, and the main purpose is to identify the best investment properties. You are able to search for properties with 30%, 40%, or even 50% equity, and identify possible short sales. You can also identify distressed sellers and FSBOs, so you may easily get those hot listings.

All this information is collected from many different sources and presented to you in one place, in a very easy format. This will give you the ability to get MLS listings information, public records, mortgage, pre-foreclosure and foreclosure details, you can get comparables of active listings, closed sales and rentals. Best of all, you can customize and print reports, mailing lists and labels for easy mailings.

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Filed Under: Articles , Foreclosures , Real Estate Video Tips Tagged with 5 Million, Active inventory, Bad News, Banks, Bet, Depression, foreclosure homes, foreclosure inventory, foreclosure resale, foreclosure shadow inventory, Foreclosures, Google, House Foreclosure, Investor, Local Market, Lot, Money, Mortgage Balance, People, Pre Foreclosure, Real Estate, Real Estate inventory, shadow inventory, shadow inventory florida

As wonderful and constant as commercial real estate is, there are some major pitfalls that can completely ruin the interest, investment and return on a property. Besides inaccurate assessments and risks that are beyond your comfort zone, the only real reason these pitfalls occur is because of the lack of due diligence that you perform. By not investigating deeply enough, not overturning every rock, and rushing into what seems like an awesome deal, you can experience some horrible events that can literally cost you hundreds and thousands of dollars.

These are setbacks I hope you never experience by asking every question, verifying everything, and assuming nothing.

Below you will find some unfortunate and common mistakes that can occur if you are not completely on your game.

Some of the major pitfalls in commercial real estate are related to the zoning and use of a property. Brokers may offer information that is not accurate about the rezoning and use capabilities of a property. Although many of the people in this business are honest and have integrity, you can bet you will run across a few brokers or agents that will do and say almost anything to sell a property.

Some problems that arise may include not checking with the city planning and zoning decision makers to see if a property can and will be able to be rezoned to the zoning that is expected. Also, just because the zoning may include your use, you must check with the city to make sure there are no special contingencies regarding use.

The last thing you want is to have a property you believe can be re-zoned to a higher and more profitable use, and after you purchase it, realize you cannot do what you intended! This can mean a less of a return on investment, or a complete loss of an investment. Believe me, situations can get very bad regarding the rezoning and use of a property, and fighting with the city will take more money, energy and time than it is often worth.

Another pitfall that can arise is purchasing a building that is leased, and then losing tenants due to leases or rental agreements being up! It is important to see and verify the leases of a building to make sure you will have some income to cover the debt service while you change, renovate, or do whatever it is you are going to do with the property. Verify you will have tenants when you purchase the property; otherwise, you may not have enough income, and this can leave you in the red.

It must be acknowledged that every property and situation can differ greatly from another. Because of this, there can be many different ways that a property can go. For this reason, all “what ifs” must be addressed, as well as exit strategies created for every scenario. When you limit yourself on exit strategies, you increase your possibility for failure.

With every property you must ask yourself, “What is the worse that can happen?” Weigh the risks and the probability of the worst happening, and either plan an exit strategy for this possibility, or don’t move forward. You must look at everything from the worst to best case scenario, and have an exit strategy for each. Not only will you be prepared for anything that comes your way, but you will have less of a chance of really getting buried and losing money on an investment gone badly.

In commercial real estate, I often see a person trying to save a few thousand dollars that ends up costing him or her hundreds of thousands, just because they try to play hard ball with negotiations. It is always important to know what you are willing, and not willing to do when you go into negotiations regarding the purchase or selling of a property, as well as leasing and rental agreements.

For example, asking for $35.00 per square foot and being offered $30.00 per square foot, (reasonable in this situation), and assuming the interested party is very motivated about the space, and coming back with $33.00 a square foot and nothing less, my cause the loss of the three year leasing agreement, and the income for another two months from the property because it is not leased out is definitely not worth it!

Take the $30.00 per square foot; get the property leased up, and make an agreement that the rate will increase two or three dollars every year after. Don’t lose the tenant because you want to play hard ball in negotiations when, really, you can make it work!

As you become more educated and get closer to reaching your goal of being a real estate insider, you may want to branch out into new markets and expand your comfort zone. This is great. However, you must realize there are many differences between various types of properties. Doing a deal with a 120 unit apartment complex is different than a 55,000 square foot office building.

When moving into different markets, items can easily be overlooked, and major problems can arise, simply because you are not aware of them. It is often a good idea to partner with someone already in that new market so that you may have the benefit of experience and know-how on your side. Learn form this venture so you will be more familiar with the market, property, and how it should be addressed. It is easy to get in over your head with new markets that can lead to major and expensive problems.

As you continue on your adventure in commercial real estate, be sure to do all your homework regarding a property. You will be less likely to run into problems, or better yet, be prepared to fix the problems if financially worth it. Never assume everything is as it appears, because, more often than not, it isn’t! You must play smart in this game, or you can lose everything. Use you resources to get the best and most accurate information and you can avoid these pitfalls in commercial real estate.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged with Capabilities, City Planning, Comfort Zone, Commercial Real Estate, Contingencies, Decision Makers, Due Diligence, Game, Horrible Events, Hundreds And Thousands, Integrity, invesment, People, Pitfall, Pitfalls, Property Brokers, Real Estate, Real Reason, Return On Investment, Rezoning, Setbacks, Thousands Of Dollars

It’s easy to find a real estate agent. Just put a for sale sign in the yard and wait for the phone to ring. The question is, how do you find a GOOD real estate agent? You can start with newspaper.

Pick up the Saturday or Sunday paper – whichever day they have all the homes for sale in your area. You can also collect a few real estate guides to look through. Browse the listings to find properties similar to yours. If you are selling a cabin, you want to look for cabins for sale. If you are selling a lakefront mansion, look for those.

When you find similar properties, note the names and numbers of the agents that are selling them. The idea here is to find a real estate agent that has experience with your type of property. An agent that has all the million dollar homes may not be the best to sell your mobile home, for example. You want agents that have sold or are selling several properties like yours.

What To Ask A Real Estate Agent

1. When you call the agents – and it’s best to call several – you want to verify that they do have experience selling properties like yours. Ask for examples.

2. Ask what they do to market a property. Any agent can place an ad and put your home in the multiple listings. Do they have existing leads – people looking for properties like yours? Do they let other agents know about your property?

3. Do they show their listings very often? Many agents just list real estate for sale and let others sell it for them. It’s more profitable for them, but not for you. If they are a good salesperson, you want them to be going through the house with potential buyers.

4. Do they do their own closings? Again, it may be better for them to delegate this part of the process, but it isn’t better for you. You want the same person to be there through the whole process. You want one person to call. Things go wrong all the time in real estate, so don’t complicate it further by having more people involved.

Most real estate agents will probably argue these points. That’s okay, but be aware that there are other things they won’t tell you too. For example, did you know that open houses are primarily a prospecting tool for real estate agents? In fact, new agents (not the listing agent) are often given the job of hosting your open house, so they can find buyers to work with. It isn’t expected that they will sell your house in the process.

Also understand that when you see ads for homes for sale, and they don’t have prices, it is a prospecting technique. When that buyer looking for a $100,000 home calls on your $300,000 home, the agent isn’t going to make him able to afford your home. The whole point was to get him to call so he could sell him ANY home. Meanwhile, other potential buyers for your home skipped over the ad – there are enough homes WITH prices to look at (insist that ads for your property have the price listed).

Trust your intuition when choosing an agent. If you don’t feel comfortable with an agent, it’s possible potential buyers won’t either. And ask the right questions. You don’t just want to find a real estate agent you like. You want to find the right agent for your property.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged with Estate Sale, find a real estate agent, Good Real Estate, Good Salesperson, Homes For Sale, Million Dollar Homes, Mobile Home, Multiple Listings, People, Real Estate, Real Estate Agent, Real Estate Agents, Real Estate For Sale, Selling Properties, Sunday Paper