Tip to improve your credit score

It's important to find out what happens to the personal information you provide to companies, marketers, and government agencies. These organizations may use your information simply to process your order; they may use it to tell you about products, services, or promotions; or they may share your information with others. More organizations are offering people choices about how their personal information is used. For example, many let you "opt-out" of having your information shared with others or used for promotional purposes The national credit bureaus offer a toll-free number that enables consumers to opt-out of all pre-approved credit offers with just one phone call. Call 1-888-5-OPTOUT (1-888-567-8688) for more information. Right About Real Estate

Tips for Rookie Realtors

The following marketing tips/strategies can help increase new agents’ sales–when applied consistently and with committed follow-up. • Pick your farm and work it well–walk the neighborhood, send mailers, let everyone know this is your neighborhood. • Never miss a chance to introduce yourself and your business. • Strike up conversations about what you do in the line at the bank, the store, the doctor’s office–anywhere people congregate. • Offer to hold open houses for agents in your office. • Offer to cover floor time for agents in your office. • Attend MLS meetings to network and pitch listings. • Develop a mailing campaign and follow up on the campaign. • Call expired listings and FSBOs every day. • Participate in your office’s and MLS caravans each week. • Create a Web site or invest in one and post listings and an e-mail marketing newsletter (an excellent way to capture the relocation market). • Use flyer services to distribute flyers to agents at other offices. • Use marketing tools that boost exposure, such as car magnets, REALTOR® clothing and apparel, real estate jewelry, brief cases, pens/pins, etc. • Carry business cards with you everywhere. • Create listing presentations that sparkle (replete with your photo and logo).Since referrals and repeat business are the most important aspect of marketing, make sure you treat your prospects and principals like the gold that they are.

Four of 10 Existing Homes in 2005 Were Second Homes

Right About Real Estate Four of 10 Existing Homes in 2005 Were Second Homes The National Association of Realtors (NAR) released a report stating that roughly 40% of existing homes bought last year were purchased as second homes. As rates continued at historic lows throughout 2005, almost 28% of homes were bought as an investment, while another 12% were vacation homes. The NAR reported the typical second home investor was a 49-year-old making $81,000 that paid a median price of $183,000 - up 24% from the previous year. While analysts expect investment purchases to taper off, vacation homes for baby boomers are expected to remain strong for years. Americans snapping up second homes — as investments or vacation properties — accounted for four out of every 10 sales of existing homes last year, a record that helped drive the real estate market to new highs, according to a report being released today by the National Association of Realtors. Nearly 28% of homes bought last year were for investment purposes, and an additional 12% were vacation homes, the figures show. Most of the buyers were baby boomers in their top earning years, looking toward retirement and hoping to build wealth or find a more desirable place to live. "Baby boomers are such a powerful economic force," said Dave Jenks, co-author of The Millionaire Real Estate Investor. "They're using their wealth to go buy second homes." The typical investment buyer last year was 49 years old with annual income of $81,400. He or she paid $183,500 for the median-priced investment home, up 24% from 2004. "Real estate, over the past five years, has outperformed virtually every other investment vehicle," said Ron Peltier, president and chief executive of HomeServices of America, the country's second-largest residential brokerage firm. "A lot of people have just speculated in real estate." The trend really started after 1997, when Congress changed the tax code, allowing most homeowners to duck capital gains taxes when they sold their homes. The exemption is $500,000 for married couples, $250,000 for singles, if it was their primary residence for two of the past five years. Under the old system, the only way to avoid the tax was to "roll" the gains into another home of equal or greater value. Americans bought bigger and costlier homes. But now, they can downsize and use the equity built up in their homes to buy second homes. "That's what spurred all this on in the beginning," says David Lereah, the NAR's chief economist. "It's like all the stars are aligned. The tax situations helped, but at the same time, baby boomers were entering their peak earning years. That's why we just boomed in second homes." He thinks the trend crested in 2005. With rising interest rates, tighter lending standards and slower price appreciation, Lereah expects second-home sales to drop this year to 30% of all existing-home sales, and maybe into the 20% range. "What's going to be leaving the market right now are the speculative investors who came into the market and were trying to flip homes," he said. "They were buying one, two, three or four properties at a time, and that was distorting the numbers." Sales of vacation homes, though, are expected to stay strong for years, because the youngest baby boomers are only 42 this year. The typical vacation home buyer last year was 52 years old, earning $82,800 a year, and purchased a property that was about 200 miles from the primary residence. The median price was $204,100, up 7.4%. More than three-fourths of the buyers had no interest in renting their property. About 20% said it would one day be their retirement home. Joe Klein and his wife bought their first vacation home last year on Lake Wabedo in Minnesota, three hours from their primary residence. He says he might like to retire there but might have to persuade his wife. "It's something that we could hand down to the kids," says Klein, 42, a program manager for a medical company. "But secondly, I see it as an investment. If we had to, we could sell it to help pay for their college."