No Comments

Video tour

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced on Wednesday a proposal to delay the effective date of the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule until Oct. 1.

Read more

No Comments

Real Estate Roundup!

May new home sales gain 2.2% from April

Sales of new single-family houses in May 2015 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 546,000, which is up 2.2% from April, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. — From Housing Wire

3 ways to tame student loan debt and afford a mortgage

It’s no secret that student loans can make buying a home a challenge. But what exactly is the problem, and how can buyers overcome it? The problem is that student loans can be included in the buyer’s debt-to-income ratio, or DTI. — From Bankrate

Read more

No Comments

We’re ready for the TRID rules!

At 5 p.m. EST June 17, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a statement that the effective date for the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rules would be pushed back to Oct. 1, 2015.

CFPB Director Richard Cordray said in a prepared statement: “The CFPB will be issuing a proposed amendment to delay the effective date of the Know Before You Owe rule until Oct. 1, 2015. We made this decision to correct an administrative error that we just discovered in meeting the requirements under federal law, which would have delayed the effective date of the rule by two weeks. We further believe that the additional time included in the proposed effective date would better accommodate the interests of the many consumers and providers whose families will be busy with the transition to the new school year at that time.”

Rainier Title has been working towards the TRID implementation for over a year and felt prepared for August 1st. However, with the proposed delay we will be taking this opportunity to continue our education and training of TRID. While we believe that we have been proactive and ready for this change, there are still so many unknowns that will have to be addressed at the time of implementation. The industry should still prepare for 45-60 days for transaction to close due to the new timing parameters of the forms.

We’re working hard to be ready for all changes!

No Comments

Real Estate Roundup

Active Home-Building Industry Will Lead to More Demand for Warehouse Space

Strong consumer spending and the rise in housing construction activity are currently the prime factors for the incredible rebound of the U.S. industrial real estate sector, and experts say as home buying continues to increase, so will demand for warehouse space. — From NRE Online

To Buy or Not to Buy: That Is the Developer’s Question

Read more

No Comments

Key Marketing Techniques to Be a Successful Real Estate Investor

Real Estate Marketing

The most important part of becoming successful in real estate is knowing how to market yourself! There are many aspects to marketing and I will touch on a few.

  1.  Branding Yourself!
    1.  It is important to increase awareness in your community of your services. You want the world to know what you do. This means you need to network with as many people as you can. Go to events, join networking groups, and get in as much face to face interaction as possible with members of your community that can potentially be your clients or refer clients to you.  Use social networks such as facebook, instagram, twitter, linkenin, etc… to reach an audience you typically wouldn’t encounter in person.
  2. Appearance
    1. Know how to carry yourself. Dress for success! How you carry yourself and how you present yourself can make or break you. It is important that your appearance conveys that you are a real estate professional.  Most people will judge you the first second they lay eyes on you. It is important your potential client has not scratched you off the list of people to do business with before you even open your mouth.
  3. Word of Mouth
    1. One of the most important tools of Real Estate Marketing is word of mouth. You will find this tool to be your main money maker. People trust a referral more than any ad money can buy. In real estate most of your business will come from referrals. So it is very important you have people talking about you and your services positively. So make sure customer service is impeccable.
  4. Target Your Market
    1. Define your target market

i.      Residential, commercial or land. Age range, income, neighborhood, the list goes on.

ii.      Do you want to specialize in low end homes, mid range homes or high end homes? All of these questions are very important because the marketing for each of these price points are very different.

iii.      What is your purpose of marketing

  1. Are you marketing to get clients to buy from you? Are you marketing to get listings? Are you marketing to find people that need to sell? This list goes on.
  1. How to reach your potential clients

i.      Mail, specific  websites, cold calling (telemarketing), calling people you know that might need your service, social networks, search engines , publications, and other various methods.

  1. Follow up with Leads
    1. Typically you will not get the business on the first conversation. It is extremely important to follow up with everyone.  Follow up is KEY!

i.You must be persistent in this business, you may get turned town multiple times by the same person before they eventually give you a        change to work with them. Most people can respect persistence.

  1. But do not be pushy! Never push a client. If you push a client or potential clients to do something they are not ready to do this is the best way to lose business.
  1. Closing your clients
    1. Have all the specific paper work you need so you can make each deal official.
No Comments

How to become a Successful Real Estate Investor

In order to be a successful real estate investor you have to know where to start. There are 3 main areas of Real Estate Investing. These areas are Residential Real Estate, Commercial Real Estate and Land. You need to understand each one of these categories in depth to see which would be the best fit for you to start your real estate investing empire.

Residential Real estate is dealing with properties people actually live in. These are typically single family homes, town homes, lofts or condos. The majority of real estate professionals practice in the residential real estate realm because most real estate transactions consist of residential sales. That just means people are buying residential property more than anything else. If you are looking to get into real estate investing you will find it easier to sell residential property because people always have to have a place to stay. Additionally, it is easier to get a loan on residential real estate than any other category.

Commercial Real Estate is property used for business purposes. These properties are typically office building, hotels, apartment complexes, shopping centers, fast food structures, malls, etc. The commercial side of real estate can be very lucrative. However, commercial real estate does not move as fast as residential real estate on average. This is also due to the fact that commercial real estate is typical more expensive than residential real estate. The lending practices on commercial are way more strict and not as many consumers have the capital to purchase these deals due to the amounts of cash needed to close.

Lastly, we come to Land. Land is mainly real estate that does not have a structure on it, or it may have a structure but the main marketing point of the property is its location. People buy land for all types of reasons; such as to hold for long-term gain, development and more.

Look into yourself and see which aspect of real estate investing is the most exciting to you. Then specialize and market yourself to your potential clients. This leads into the next thing you need to master if you want to build a success real estate business; Marketing!