Often the number one question new investors have is, “How do I get started in real estate investing?” This is the fundamental question to unlocking the potential of a potentially lucrative business of buying, selling and holding real estate. It does take a lot of research and hard work to get to the level of seasoned investors. But even they had to start from the beginning, and having an experienced real estate agent who will listen to what your plans are and who is willing to work hard for you. for the long term is a must.

Knowing your financial position is the first matter to consider before becoming an investor. Your credit rating should be in good shape to get the best financing deals. If your credit rating is less than optimal, a loan is still possible but the terms may not be as desirable. You may also have to find other more creative, ways to obtain property.

Once you know how much you can afford and you have determined your financing options, it is then time to research the market. Your aim is to find the best deal for your particular financial situation and your lifestyle. Do you want to purchase so that you can rent the property or do you want to purchase so that you can upgrade the property for re-sale? Do you want a fixer upper, or do you want to purchase and then just collect the rent? What type of landlord do you want to be? High rent district? Or buildings in less derisible locations that cost less to purchase but rent for less money also?  

You need to know about the city or town you plan to invest in.  This includes the neighborhood, especially if the property in mind is requiring upgrades.  You also will want to know about the local ordinances, building codes and local government, schools and public services.

You will have more leverage to get a good deal if you have money to put upfront. Motivated sellers prefer buyers who are ready to close on a deal. This can often lower the actual sales price.

The key to becoming a good investor is learning how you are going to turn a profit. You must learn your particular buying and selling markets and be prepared to research all properties and options. You must also know the different types of properties that are available and what you would like to buy. The options are many. There are multiple unit dwellings, distressed property, fixer uppers, and repossessions, direct sales by owners or condominium sales. Some beginners will find their best deals in repossessed or distressed property but often these properties will need many repairs and upgrades. Who is going to do the work?

Bank owned properties or REO’s are another viable option. Banks do not want to keep REO’s on their books. They are very motivated to sell these properties, but they need to sell at or close to market value. Many will even provide great financing terms to unload the homes. Understand the financing and lending terms first. Try to go for conditions that don't have points or require any extra fees.

Your agent using MLS or multiple listings can locate just about every type of listing in one place. There are bargain deals out there but you as a buyer need to know how to recognize a good deal. When a property has been listed for an extra long time, the seller may become more motivated to get sell the property and move on. These are great situations to buy low and sell high. If you and your Realtor can set up a quick transaction with the owner then the better the deal will be. Home sellers appreciate a quick, fair transaction that may end up being the deal of a lifetime for a first time investor.

It takes experience to finesse the right deals but with a trusted agent’s research and practice beginners will quickly learn the ropes. There are a lot of ways to make money in the housing market and a lot of people want in on the deal. Flipping properties grow in popularity, due to the down turn in the economy as well as all the reality shows featuring this technique. As you grow as an investor, you may decide to get into rapid turnover of properties. This involves buying houses that need some repairs, correcting those repairs then selling at a profit. Buying a distressed or under valued property in a good neighborhood can help make this work.

There are many ways you can go when answering the question how do I get started in real estate investing. Find out what works best for you and make it happen.

Here are some tips and general etiquette notes that will help you be a more savvy shopper when it comes to visiting open houses.

Always sign in.  If you are working with an agent, protocol is to have your agent call the listing agent ahead of your visit to advise that they have a customer who will be visiting and they will relay your name so that the person hosting the open house will anticipate that you are already working with another sales agent.  When you arrive at the open house, please indicate your agent's name on the guest list.

There are two main reasons why an agent will host an open house, the first and most obvious is to give the best service to their client, the homeowner, by actively showing the house and making it easily available for viewing.  The second reason is to grow and cultivate a list of prospective home buyers, so if you are "just browsing", please let the host agent know it up front to avoid confusion at a later point.

If you are a potential buyer, you might want to know that a good buyer's agent will accompany you to open houses rather than send you out on your own, so don't hesitate to ask them to go along with you for that extra set of eyes and ears.  

If you attend an open house on your own, and you are not currently working with another agent, and you like the house, it is not necessary for you to get another agent in order to make an offer and negotiate the purchase.  The agent you meet at the open house will be more than happy to facilitate the transaction for you.

While you are walking through the house, generally you will be free to roam on your own, but if you prefer to have a tour, just ask.  The attending agent wants you to feel comfortable while you are looking.  In fact, they want you to feel at home.

Ask all the questions you want of the agent, but bear in mind there are some things that you are best to learn on your own.  If you want to know about the quality of the school system, that information is generally public, or if crime rates are a concern to you, contact the local law enforcement agency.

Remember that painting is an easy job, so if you don't like the color of the walls, it is easy to repaint before you move in.  Do not let the color of the walls detract you from an otherwise suitable home.  This same principle holds true for carpeting and light fixtures.  Replacing a carpet or a light fixture is easily done and can be a relatively low-cost improvement to make in your new home, and it will help you on your way to making it your home.

Enjoy your browsing, get a sense of how you feel when you are looking through a house, ask questions, and you will find most agents more than happy to have you come back for a second look if the house feels right to you.

It sounds trite, but house plants really do add life to a home.  With a little attention, a house plant will live for years and years, and when it comes time to show your home for sale, a healthy house plant will help indicate where the good sunlight is, and will even help clean the air. 

Most house plants can be bought inexpensively, and there is a wide variety of affordable decorative plant pots available, so finding a plant pot suitable for the plants and to suit the colors and patterns in the room where the plant will live is a fairly easy task.

When you have seen the house you want to buy, it can be a good idea to go back another time to see it under different weather and/or light conditions.  

On a bright sunny day every house can shine, but seeing how it reacts to rain, snow, wind, and even after sunset can give you a clearer perspective of how it will look and feel when you are living in it.

This is not to discourage you from buying any given house, and the experience if "knowing" that "this is the one" is quite real and would well be honored.  Consider it further fact-finding which will help you plan for any changes you may have in mind once you move in.   

This suggestion would hold with new construction as well as with established houses.

Why Work with an Accredited Buyer’s Representative (ABR)?

Saturday, January 30, 2010

By Terry Twombly

Getting into the home of your dreams can be a very big challenge. Whether this is your first home purchase, a true fixer-upper or your fifth, an escape to the beach, to ensure a smooth home-buying process work with an Accredited Buyer’s Representative (ABR).  An ABR agent has specialized knowledge, training and experience to make sure your home buying process is straightforward and successful.

The ABR designation is awarded by the Real Estate Buyer’s Agent Council (REBAC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Association of REALTORS (NAR).  To learn more about the council, please visit www.REBAC.net. 

It is very important for you to know that the ABR designation is only awarded to licensed real estate professionals, after they have completed specialized training and demonstrated experience working with buyers.  The training helps the agent to better understand the buyer’s perspective, along with how to effectively represent the buyer-client.   

Working with an agent that has studied and earned ABR credentials means your agent has chosen to go above and beyond the normal state license requirements and that you will be well represented in your purchase. 

All agents who work with a buyer should do the following:

• Ask questions to help understand your specific needs and wants from a home.
• Help you determine how much you can afford, and assist you in getting pre-approved for a mortgage.
• Preview properties for you, and accompany you to viewings/showings, even open houses.
• Provide a list of qualified service providers, including home inspectors, attorneys, mortgage lenders, radon test operators, etc.
• Concentrate on the details of the process and keep accurate records so you can focus on and enjoy your new home.

 An ABR will do even more however, including the following:

• Help you establish the market value of the home you are interested in purchasing, by doing a comprehensive market analysis for you.
• Help you to estimate the costs of improvements, changes, or needed repairs and/or updates.
• Advise you in creating/making an offer on a home, along with mapping out a negotiation strategy.
• Put your interests first throughout the process.
• Give you advice, counsel and their professional opinion.

If you are looking to purchase a home, please make sure you seek an agent with the ABR designation to help make your home-buying process easy and successful.  If you have any other questions about how an ABR designated agent can help you get in to your dream home, Call or email me today! 508-212-6511 ttwombly@jackconway.com  

Real Estate Information

Attleboro MA Real Estate Market Trends - Jan 2010

Tuesday, January 28, 2010

by Terry Twombly, Realtor

Agent for Jack Conway and Company Inc.

The Attleboro MA 02703 market statistics for January 2010:

The North Attleboro MA 02760 market statistics for January 2010:

The Norton market statistics for  January 2010:

Data source:  MLSPIN

If you would like more information about the market in your specific town or city?  Please give me a call or email me at ttwombly@jackconway.com

Have a GREAT week!

Terry Twombly, Realtor
140 East Main Street Norton 02766                                                                                                                                                     

www.terrytwombly.com     ttwombly@jackconway.com        508-212-6511

One of the joys of owning your own home with a yard is having the opportunity to have a garden.  Many fresh vegetables are easy to grow, and even a very small garden area can be a family project and will provide entertainment as well as nourishment, and if your children are involved, it will help them understand where their food comes from.

My wife and I have had a small home garden since our first year of marriage, and it has been a wonderful thing to work on together and share over the years.  In fact, when our daughter first went off to college 700 miles from home, she told us during Parents' Weekend that one of the things she missed the most was the homegrown vegetables, and she plans to have a garden in her yard, when the time comes to buy her first house. It was heart warming to hear it, and even as we are no longer in our 20's, and sometimes the spring work of turning the beds and planting the seeds takes a bit longer than it used to, we will always look forward to having a garden in one form or another.

If you should decide to purchase a condominium or a house with a very small yard, container gardening is a quick, inexpensive, and easy way to grow tomatoes and cucumbers on a trellis in large pots.  No garden is too small to enjoy.

Written by Andrea Twombly.

It was September, 1981.  My future husband and I had a November 15th wedding date looming and we needed a place to live.  Because he was a builder, we had to have a house, not an apartment, and preferably the property would have a garage for storage of building supplies and staging while not in use.  It was imperative that it be income property, because he was self-employed and we needed the income to offset the mortgage payment.  I had full time employment, but we wanted to have a financial cushion.  We also wanted a yard because we were both gardeners and could not imagine not having a garden.  A pretty big order for a couple of newlyweds on a shoestring.

The real estate agent showed us some ark-like 3-family houses, one of which was in very good condition, but it had no garage and no yard to speak of.  The other two were beyond us just by sheer size and age of the building.  Then the agent drove us past an over-sized Cape Cod style house with a two car garage and a decent yard for a small garden.  He told us that this was the house for us, but it was under agreement, so sorry, too bad, blah, blah, blah.  

So why show that house to us?  What the agent knew and we didn't was that the pending deal was likely to fall through and it might soon be available but we would have to act fast if we wanted it.  Interest rates at the time were running around 18 percent, and this house had an assumable VA mortgage at 9 1/2 percent.  

Sounded too good to be true. We went home that day house-less still and not finding anything we wanted to buy.  The following Friday afternoon, I received an urgent call from the agent telling me that the deal on that house had fallen through and it was available if we wanted to see it, but I had to go right then.  I left work with my dad and we went to look at the house.  My future husband was 60 miles away on a construction project, and of course there were no cell phones in 1981, so I had no way to reach him.  Dad and I looked at the house and yard, and we thought that with a little elbow grease it would be quite suitable and it was move-in ready for a tenant to live upstairs.  While leaving the property, the agent told us that he already had an offer on the house, and that he would be submitting all offers at 6:30 that evening, giving me one hour to make a decision.  I decided to make an offer on the house, and by the time my future husband got home, the offer had been accepted.

When he arrived home from work later that evening, I greeted him with "I bought that house today!"  We closed the deal 11 days later, and my future husband got to see the interior of our house for the first time.  

Two things to note.  1.  When your real estate agent tells you about a house that "is a good one for you" but it's under agreement, don't brush it off as silly. He or she may know something about the transaction that they cannot tell you. and     2.  Don't be afraid to make a decision quickly.  When the right house presents itself, go for it.  

The Experts are starting to Buy Homes

Have home prices hit bottom? They have in some parts of the country and some towns around Boston. Even if they have Sellers can't expect much of a bounce in price for a very long time.

At the Center for Economic Policy Research, in Washington D.C., analysts are predicting that the pricing arrow is starting to point up in some areas, but not very far nor very fast. There are still way too many foreclosed homes on the market and too few Buyers that have confidence with their incomes and jobs.

So, what did the center's co-director do? He bought a house for himself and his family. He doesn't expect its value to raise much in the foreseeable future. But the home had features he loved. The price was affordable, and the loan's interest rate was below 5 percent which is historically low.

This set of circumstances encouraged him to take the big plunge and acquire a perfect property that he and his family could call home for many years to come.

Today's reasonable home prices can make a good case for purchasing rather than renting, say advisors quoted in USA Today. While many first-timers are leery of making a long-term commitment to purchase, here is a way you could determine if the move is a wise one.

 Divide the price of the home you are considering by the annual rent for a comparable place. If the number falls below 15, buying starts to look like a good idea.

 Consider whether you will stay in the home long enough to make the purchase worthwhile. Closing costs can be quite high. If you intend to sell the house and buy another in three or four years, you could take a loss on it unless we are at the very bottom of the market and prices go up a lot faster than most of us believe they will.  Analysts say it's reasonable to buy a home only if you plan to stay in it for five to seven years. When showing homes in this market I tell everyone I work with that like it or not this a 10 year commitment.

I'm often asked if this is a good time to buy a home. Some clients are concerned that home prices may fall further than they have already. They are assuming that the best course of action is to wait for the bottom in the market and then buy. The problem with this approach is that you don't know where the bottom is until you see it in the rear view mirror, meaning until you've missed it!

Home prices are one factor in determining your cost of ownership, but so are interest rates and financing availability. Even though interest rates have gone up in the last six months, they are still near historic lows. Since your monthly mortgage payment is a combination of paying down your principal and paying the interest owed, if home prices come down a little further but interest rates up, it could cost you even more to service a mortgage on an identical home!

While a home is a major investment, it is also the center of your personal life. It's important to live in a home that reflects your taste and values, yet is within your financial "comfort zone." To that end, it may be more important to lock in today's relatively low interest rates and low home prices, rather than to hope for a further break in prices in the future.

Please give me a call if I can be of any assistance in determining how much home you can afford in today's market.