You can be successful at selling your home without a real estate agent if you do your research and put in a little work, you’ll be selling your home in no time, without pricey real estate agent fees.

Prepare your Home For Sale

Any potential buyer will be hiring a home inspector to find problems with the house before closing. Prevent buyers from unexpected delays, backing out the sale, or negotiating for a lower price by hiring your own inspector at the beginning of the process. Knowing what to expect going in will give you a chance to fix problems now, offer full disclosure to buyers, and strengthen your negotiating position.

Pricing Research

Pricing your home too high will make it difficult to sell, while pricing too low means less money in your pocket. Compare your home to others already on the market and with recent sales in your neighborhood. Take into account special features your home has. You may want to consider getting your home professionally appraised ahead of time to remove uncertainty and give you a stronger negotiating position.

Don’t Leave A Mess

Keep your home clean and organized when preparing to show it to buyers. If you’ve accumulated a lot of clutter over the years, now’s the time to clear it out. Having less furniture and clutter will make your home look larger, which is a big plus to potential buyers.

Market Your Home On The Internet

The National Association of Realtors reports that 93% of buyers begin the house hunting process on the internet. There are many different real estate listing sites available online. Doing a simple search of “for sale by owner” is a good way to find the websites online where you can list the details of your home. Popular online classified sites such as Craigslist are updated minute by minute with new listings. Getting on all these sites will get your house ‘found’ by buyers looking on the internet. Take a good amount of high quality photos that show off your home’s best features and list as many details as possible. Buyers are much more likely to consider a home with precise descriptions and plentiful pictures.

Hire a Real Estate Attorney

Real estate contract law is complex and should be handled by a professional to ensure everything is legal and binding. You want to make sure all the paperwork is in order and that your closing goes smoothly.

Don’t Get Impatient or Give Up

I can hear you now. “But I want to sell my house fast.” The fact is, selling a home by owner can take a little longer, but the good news is, you’ll be able to save some money. You may however, need to lower your asking price, make changes to your marketing strategy or make some repairs. If your home has significant damage or needs to be sold quickly, try a we buy houses company. This may mean that you don’t get as much as you had hoped for your home, but will get your house sold faster.

Owner financing is a common way to do a Real Estate Deal. A potential buyer finances the house through the person selling the house. This occurs when the buyer is unable to obtain funding through a bank. The seller will agree to seller financing if he or she is having difficulty selling the property. This happens when the buyer doesn’t qualify for a loan. The seller decides to become the bank and carries back the financing of the house. The buyer must provide a down payment to make a successful seller financing deal. Once the seller provides the down payment, the buyer receives monthly payments for a term of usually 30 years.

Owner Financing factors
This my sound like a good deal, but the buyer must consider some key factors before doing a seller financing transaction.

The buyer must decide if seller financing is the right option.

The seller can go through a series of life events. The seller can stop paying monthly payments because of a layoff, a medical emergency, a family emergency, the seller is an irresponsible person, and pay bills.

The buyer must consider what can happen in the future. The buyer must become the bank and ask for payments. He must put those payments into a savings account. The buyer must be willing to put off his financial dreams like going on a dream vacation, buying a second home, sending their kids to college and having a retirement fund. Thirty years of saving monthly payments can be a hassle if not handled correctly. It takes a high level of commitment and responsibility to save thirty years of monthly payments.

There are many factors to consider to do owner financing. The buyer must decide if this commitment is right for him.

Now, owner financing can be a great decision for the buyer. He can make a huge return on investment by accepting a big interest rate. The buyer can choose to accept a thirty percent down payment to get the seller committed to the owner financing terms. Also, the buyer will enjoy monthly payments and the stability it provides.

Owner financing can be a great financial instrument, but you must be dedicated to managing the monthly payments. Make sure that you might an educated decision before doing owner financing.

Now, if you have a Real Estate Note or any type of Note secured by property, receiving monthly payments, sell your real estate note and get cash for your Real Estate Note, you have the option to sell the real estate note. I can help you get the best price for you real estate note.

There has been a lot written about the role of the Product Owner (PO) in Scrum over the years and it seems to me that in the last month or so the question has received a lot of attention in blogs, twitter and other social media. I don’t think there is a “best practice” answer. Let’s look at what we do know and then see if we can find an answer. The goal of the PO must be to deliver the right business value. To do this they, engage the team(s) to create solutions that deliver the business value.

They are listening to and evaluating the needs of the stakeholder community. They must have a great business sense and understand their market and customers. They must understand what is technically possible. From all this input they deliver a stream of input to the team about what the priorities are. They are constantly updating this information and evaluating the output of the team to check it for completeness and correctness. While the team has the same goal of delivering business value, their problem space is much different. In all but trivial domains and projects this requires a team approach. Team building is not about money. Ask Yankees owner George Steinbrenner!

Team building is not about technology or computers. Team building is about people. However the problems faced by the team in delivering the solutions is about technology. The team takes direction (course) from the PO, but the he or she cannot work in the engine room of the Scrum ship! It is not that they are not qualified (they may not be) , it is just that their primary role is so important and time consuming they would be neglecting that duty if they did. The team must take the direction (course) from the PO. Their work demands their complete attention. We know all this. The real question is how do we best create the communication and feedback that the Product needs so that the business can be successful and thrive? Scrum provides a great starting point. Lean helps us understand the product view and the flow of business value. The process of planning a product release must include input from the team. Sprint planning is a cooperative process between the Team and the Product Owner.

The daily stand-up is a Team meeting that is core to team building. Scrum tells us that the product management team can listen to this meeting, but it is the Team’s meeting. If I were a Product Owner, I would be at the daily stand-up if at all possible. The Sprint review and demo are about the Team getting feedback from the Product Owner and anyone interested. If I were on a team I would NEVER go into a Sprint review without knowing what the Product Owner thought of the Sprint output. The Sprint retrospective is a Team meeting. This meeting is primarily focused on team building and process refinement. This needs to be a private Team meeting.

Can the Product Owner be a benefit to the Team in the daily process of developing the solution? That depends. How much time do they have? How well do they understand the technology? How well do they work within the Team? No one can know the answers to these questions without observing the Product Owner and the Team. Will the Product Owner be a helpful, accepted and valuable member of the Team? That depends. Can the Product Owner deliver the stream of information and decisions to the team with a high level of accuracy? That depends. With all these unknowns, I don’t believe that anyone can say how any particular Product Owner and Team will be able to work together best without some first-hand knowledge.

With the recent despair in the housing market, house values are dropping substantially throughout the US. Homeowners are researching ways to recoup some of their losses by selling their homes on their own.

Hiring a real estate agent to sell your home has always perplexed me. I have sold numerous homes over the years and the listing agent never actually sold my home. In one case I even sold my own home when someone knocked on my door after seeing my sign. I negotiated a price then and there and shook hands on it without the real estate agent. The sad part of the matter was that he made 6% on my home sale ($16,000) without doing anything. I remember asking him if he could give me a break in the commission price since I sold the home. In a rude manner he said that it was his sign in front of my house that sold the home, not me.

According to 2006 National Association of Realtor statistics, 13% of all homes were sold without a real estate agent. 90% of FSBO (For Sale By Owner) sellers end up going to realtors in the end. Be that as it may, I decided to check in to some of these websites and the options they offer.

I started my research by searching on Google. I found a list of National For Sale By Owner websites. Here is a quick overview of my search results.

1. HomesByOwner.com: You can list your home for free. You can upload 1 photo in the free section. If you would like to add more photos, it will cost you.

2. BuyOwner.com: They do not have a price listed on their website, they recommend that you call them. They offer great Virtual Tours. BuyOwner sends people out to your home to take these Virtual Images. I am not sure on the price, but I had a friend who used their service and spent $2,300. Contact BuyOwner.com for more details.

3. Owners.com: They provide a free listing service. They also offer a $377 MLS listing fee to add your property in to the Multiple Listing Service. If an agent shows up and sells your home, you would only pay the 3% to them as opposed to paying the full 6% if you hired a agent as I have in the past.

4. ForSaleOwnerHomes.com: They also offer a free listing service. These free websites like ForSaleOwnerhomes.com make their money through things like Google ads, that is why they can keep their listing services for free.

5. ForSaleByOwner.com: Fee for a listing is $89.95 a month or a flat fee of $199 to be listed until your property is sold.

There are more websites, but you get the general idea of what is out there. If you are planning on selling your home, I recommend you go through the same research I did and list on as many free websites as possible. If you hit it and sell your home, you will only have more money in your pocket in the end.

The Keys to Franchise Business Owner Success

The value of the brand, the location, the support provided by the franchisor, the quality of the product or service, local competition, and the economic climate…they all influence business success. We would expect the potential small franchise business owner to investigate these factors thoroughly as part of the due diligence process.

But the greatest variable of all is the small franchise business owner himself or herself, and his or her skills in managing the business. If you have never run a business before, how do you know that you have what it takes to be successful? It behooves the potential small franchise business buyer to extend the due diligence process to include an objective self assessment, something not usually done in any formal way by the franchise buyer.

Evaluating your Entrepreneurial Aptitude is a great way to measure probable success as a Small Franchise Business Owner.

Entrepreneurial aptitude may not be what you think. The things that make you successful in corporate America are not the necessarily the same as the skills you need to succeed as a small franchise business owner. Graduating with honors, being a great team player in a Fortune 100 firm for a number of years, or having been the captain of your college football team or cheerleading squad has little to do with your entrepreneurial aptitude.

The dictionary defines “aptitude” as the “potential to acquire skill.” When applied to an entrepreneurial environment, it is the potential to acquire the skills to manage the business. Who would want to buy a franchise without knowing that they have good potential to acquire the skills to manage the business?

But can Entrepreneurial Aptitude be measured in any meaningful way?

In fact, entrepreneurial aptitude can be measured. Studies of highly successful entrepreneurs define a profile of fairly common family background, childhood experiences, core values, personalities, and many more characteristics. Testing yourself against that profile of highly successful entrepreneurs is an excellent way to gauge your personal entrepreneurial aptitude. We encourage every potential franchise business buyer to “take the test before you invest.”

The Proof Is In the Results

The most successful entrepreneur that I have ever known matched the ideal test profile almost exactly. Although he would have had limited success working for someone else, his results as a business owner were phenomenal.

He started his software business while in his early twenties. He was an unimpressive looking guy with unimpressive credentials. He did not have a Harvard MBA; in fact, he never finished college. His experience was limited to a few years as a software developer. He had never managed anyone before starting his business. He was neither a charismatic personality nor a dynamic communicator. Clearly he was not the typical corporate executive profile.

I worked with him for eleven years. I was constantly in awe of his invaluable instincts and skills indicative of a natural-born entrepreneur. He had a clear vision of where he was taking his business, and a passionate contagious uncompromising commitment to get there. He was brilliantly creative. He had a strong bias to action rather than debate even if he did not have the consensus of his senior staff.

He had started the business with no outside investors and retained full ownership. When he decided to exit the business, he sold it for an undisclosed amount in excess of $500,000,000 (yes, I do mean half a billion dollars with a “b”). And it was all his!

He had the perfect entrepreneurial aptitude.

Take the test before you invest

Scoring highly on an entrepreneurial aptitude test like the one that we provide to our clients is no guarantee of success in running your franchise business, nor is a low score a guarantee that you will fail. But it is a clear indication of how easy it will be for you to develop the skills necessary to run a small franchise business and whether you have the fortitude to do so. It is a very important step in the franchise business purchase due diligence process that should never be overlooked.

In order for an owner to sell his or her house, it is necessary to do the requisite homework if they want to save on the money that otherwise has to be paid to their real estate broker and also if they want to sell the property soon. While traveling by road, people come across boards saying ‘For Sale by Owner (FSBO)’ before many houses. These boards mean the concerned house has been put up for sale by its owner without the engagement of any broker in the middle. The two prime advantages of deciding to sell a house without the help of any real agent is money that otherwise had to be paid as commission is saved and the house can also be quickly sold with the owner’s efforts. However, there are several reasons behind owners being unable to sell homes at proper prices and in less time. The article deals with how to effectively do the job.

Preparing the House

Before selling a house, the first thing the owner needs to do is ensure that the house is ready for the market. It is wise to take professional help in accurately assessing the condition of the house and deciding on steps for adjustments, renovations or repairs to remedy the situation. The essential home improvements and adjustments must also be carried out. To increase the home’s worth; it should be made to look beautiful.

Determining the Accurate Market Value

The asking price for the house on sale is to be decided upon. In order to get a house sold at the highest possible price, the current value of the house and real estate trends in the neighborhood need to be determined. The price should be kept within reasonable limits in order to appeal to customers.

Advertising

After fixing the selling price of the house, the real task of marketing has to be undertaken. An FSBO (For Sale By Owner) must immediately put up before the property concerned for this is the ultimate marketing strategy which will get the house to be noticed by passers by. essential information like the owner’s phone number, area inside the house, number of bed rooms, etc must be mentioned on the board. Advertising in newspapers and on the internet is also effective in generating results.

Inspection of the House by Potential Buyers

Potential buyers must make an appointment with the owner before coming to see the house. A pre-scheduled appointment gives the seller substantial time to make preparations.

Formalities and Paperwork

For an owner, selling the house by himself or herself also means getting all the paper work done. Once a deal has been made with the customer regarding the price, the paperwork and legal formalities roll in. to get them all done properly an experienced lawyer’s help must be enlisted.

These were some information for owner’s about how to sell their property by themselves. Following these advices will certainly increase their chances of selling their house at a good price and also save a lot on the fees for the agents.

The term ‘Entrepreneur’ is a category that most business owners would put themselves into, but is there a difference?

An entrepreneur is a person who loves a challenge. A person who can think of an idea and profit from them almost instantly. Sometimes there is an element of risk involved, but this only inspires an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurs try to make an income not only during business hours, but while they sleep too. They like to be involved in business ventures which would be considered high risk, high reward. They try to develop a business structure which would allow them to create a passive income and live by the motto ‘work smarter, not harder’. Convincing other people to invest capital into their business idea is another technique sometimes used by entrepreneurs.

An entrepreneur doesn’t necessarily need to be knowledgeable in one particular area. They usually know how to find the information when it is needed. They are always looking for and will only ever invest in good business opportunities in the current business for sale market, while also taking into account the current economy trends.

Business owners usually start a business which is low risk, low reward and try to build it into a successful business. Business owners usually develop a totally different business plan right from the get go. They like to play it safer than an entrepreneur would, much safer.

A business owner will use statistics to base their business model from, and learn from past experiences. If you look at the hours required and overall work that you have put into some businesses, you would be better of getting a job, but as a business owner this comfort of regular income and being your own boss is enough to keep them going forward. An entrepreneur on the other hand needs to see big results fast, or they will sell this business, while at the same time looking to buy another business.

Whether you consider yourself to be an entrepreneur or a business owner, you should always be on the look out for other business opportunities, or consider selling your existing business at the right time for maximum rewards. There are many business for sale websites who specialize in this.

It is very well-known that Owner Financing sells properties fast, especially in cases where properties or prospective Buyers do not conform to traditional lending/mortgage requirements. The Seller offers to hold the mortgage note (owner-financed mortgage) and receive the monthly payments from the Buyer as a bank would.

The problem with this approach has been that Sellers sometimes don’t want to collect small monthly payments, but instead want to cash out shortly after closing to buy another property, or for many other reasons. The benefits of owner financing are many, but sometimes these are not enough to help close a deal.

Basically, this is how an owner-Financed real estate mortgage note works:

1. The Seller sets the sale price to exactly the appraised value and advertises “Owner Will Finance… No Bank Qualifying!”

Interested Buyers go through a pre-qualification process to determine the best prospect.

2. The Seller and Buyer agree on the structure and terms of the note to be created (note buyer may provide some suggestions) and sign a Real Estate Purchase Contract.

3. At closing the Seller creates a 1st mortgage and soon after sells/assigns the mortgage note to the note buyer.

4. The Seller receives the Buyer’s down payment plus the proceeds from the sale of the note. In a Seller-Financed note purchase the note buyer normally covers all closing costs and the cost for his own property evaluation.

Example:

Let’s say the Seller owns a property that has been appraised at $100,000, but because it’s not a conforming lot, he is having problems getting qualified buyers. Buyers don’t seem to commit to the purchase and the ones that do, don’t get their mortgage approved by the Bank.

The Seller has the house advertised at $90,000, expecting to get $80,000-$85,000 after incentives and costs have been paid out. But not even this price is attracting real buyers.

This is where a note buyer can step in. The Seller would be advised to create a $90,000 note, the rest ($10,000) would be the down payment. The interest may be 8%, term 360 months, paying $660.39 monthly (Principal + Interest).

The note buyer would buy this note for approximately $80,000 cash shortly after the real estate closing. To this add the down payment, and the seller gets $91,000 total (minus closing costs for the real estate transaction).

Shortly after the real estate closing and after the new note is recorded, the note buyer makes the purchase of the note and the Seller gets his money. A perfect example of how an Owner-Financed mortgage makes a real estate sale possible. And there are no hidden fees or costs other than the regular real estate closing costs that have to be paid anyway. The Note buyer generally covers all closing costs for the note purchase.

This approach attracts a good number of buyers and in a few days, the Seller can have his cash in hand.

Home sales represent a vital phase for every home owner, regardless of whether you’re utilizing the dwelling to raise your family in or looking for the profit options found with real estate investment. Of the paths you could follow in order to achieve this goal, one of the most sought-after possibility relates to for sale by owner strategies.

This pursuit has drawn the attention of many real estate owners since it creates the chance to save thousands when you compare the outcome to the use of a real estate professional. Needless to say, before you make any effort to pursue this sales opportunity, it is vital to recognize the strengths and weaknesses which are related with this sell my house path.

While the financial savings offered with the for sale by owner strategy is undoubtedly the strength of this pursuit, several decide to pass on the savings as a result of the cons of this process. Real estate agents do represent a large cost when it relates to home sales but you get several benefits with their services. You tap into an individual who is devoted to the sale of your home.

Furthermore, they represent access to one of a kind resources which greatly increase your opportunity to make sales. The resources include on-line sites that promote sales, a network of agents seeking opportunities for their investors and access to a trained individual with years of real estate sales experience. In the end anybody can perform several of the tasks which are offered by a real estate agent to sell my house and you are just paying thousands to access the resources they can utilize.

When you understand the value that is associated with these resources, it convinces several to abandon the sale by owner opportunity in order to increase the chance of making a sale. Rather than being forced to pursue this avenue of sales, cut out the middle man of the real estate agent and search for an opportunity which can provide you with all those important resources at a part of a cost.

When you combine those resources with your drive to sell my house, you would greatly increase your odds of selling when compared to attempting this task on your own. This will supply you with the best elements of each sales opportunity and save you money as you make a sale on your real estate investment.

As having a residence is a fundamental requirement in modern society, the demand in the real estate market would forever be strong. How you tap into this market will decide not only your opportunity to sell but even the chances you have of getting the asking price on your home.

Small business owners have lots of intangible assets: photographs, website copy, sales brochures, and so on. These are all considered “intellectual property” — you own the copyright to anything your business creates for itself.

But what about when you hire someone from outside the company to create something for you, like sales copy or web design? Who owns that? And what if you find that your intellectual property has been stolen?

There are two forms every business owner should know: the Work For Hire Agreement, and the Cease and Desist Letter.

Work For Hire Agreement

Anything that your company’s employees create for the company within the scope of their employment is the intellectual property of the company. But when your business hires someone from outside the company — such as a freelancer, or independent contractor — the rules change.

Independent contractors (who work on their own time, with their own materials) are the legal owners of the work they create, regardless of whether or not someone hired them to do so — unless a Work For Hire Agreement was signed that names the business as the copyright owner.

A Work For Hire agreement is not a complex document; it just needs to include the necessary information about each parties, the commissioned project, and details about the agreement. Both parties will sign the document.

Cease and Desist Letter

Now that you’ve established ownership over your website, images, or literature, what if someone else uses it without your permission? How can you stop them?

It’s easy, provided you register a copyright for your material; copyright law says that you need an official registration before bringing a lawsuit. But there’s a much cheaper, quite effective option that you might consider before thoughts of a lawsuit enter your mind: sending a Cease and Desist Letter.

This letter is a simple one as well: it is sent from you, the copyright owner, to the party using your intellectual property without permission (or that party’s lawyer, if you that have one and you know who it is), and it demand that they… well, that they cease and desist what they’re doing.

The Cease and Desist Letter should include the names of both parties, the title or description of your material being used improperly, and where you found it (the URL). It’s helpful if you can include copyright registration information (the date and number), emphasizing how seriously you take this matter.

With the Work For Hire Agreement and Cease and Desist Letter at your side, you’ll be able to manage your business’s intellectual property.