Things you ought NOT to do if you want to stop foreclosure on your home

Life is full of uncertainties and any event such as job loss, divorce, relocation, prolonged sickness, etc. could adversely affect us. The financial repercussions of such unfortunate events may force you into a situation where you are unable to make your monthly homeloan repayments. If you are a victim of such unfortunate circumstances, and have already missed three or more months of homeloan repayment, you could be faced with a foreclosure on your home. Before things go this far, let’s take a look at a few precautions to help you prevent a foreclosure.

Don’t take a second mortgage or equity line of credit: If you have equity on your home you may qualify for a second mortgage or equity line of credit in order to consolidate bills. No doubt, this will momentarily improve your financial situation in an emergency, but don’t forget that you are foolishly incurring greater indebtedness. Never add to your existing debt unless you have an effective plan for meeting these new obligations during your depleted financial phase.

Don’t create a record of unexplained chronic late payments: Lenders foreclose only as a last resort to limiting further losses on a defaulted loan, as foreclosures cost them more than it can compensate. No wonder, when homeowners fall behind on payments, lenders take the initiative to work with them to bring the loan current. However, your lender’s willingness to help you out with your current problems will depend considerably on your past payment records. If you have been consistently making timely payments without any serious defaults your lender will be more than willing to cooperate and help your tide over your present crisis. Therefore, it is crucial that you don’t create a record of unexplained late payments. Always stay in communication with your lender about your financial situation.

Don’t think of leaving your home: The prospect of foreclosure is such a trauma that many homeowners overreact by deciding to just pack up and leave. Vow and resolve to face up to this problem head on rather than thinking of running away. Such determination is crucial to stop mortgage foreclosure before it happens. You must realize that there exists several effective ways to stop mortgage foreclosure. Remember, once you fail to stop mortgage foreclosure, this will always be reflected in your credit record. On the other hand, if you succeed in stopping mortgage foreclosure, not only will you be able to keep your home but also have a positive credit rating for future.

Don’t hide your financial facts from your lender: If you find it difficult to make your regular mortgage payments, communicate this to your lender at the earliest. With their cooperation you may qualify for assistance. For instance, there may be another loan better suited to your needs. They may help you out with a special repayment plans, temporary suspension of mortgage payments, mortgage modification, etc. All this will depend upon how transparent you are with your lender about your financial status, which you can substantiate by furnishing complete proof of your income, expenses, and debt.

It is never too late to start taking precautions. Your home is precious to you, so don’t let any opportunity slip by to improve your finances, rather than face the ugly prospect of a foreclosure.

The real estate market is a challenge to survive and the survivors only reap profits! The jungle of buyers or sellers has just one motto - survival of the fittest. There is no room for succumbing to a slow market, or for that matter, opting out, after raking in the profits. The market lures new players regularly, while the old ones just won’t retire. Surviving a slow real estate market involves the adopting of time-tried and tested strategies. The real estate market allows agents and independent buyers and sellers to enjoy percent prices and growth that cushion any blow, armed with the right moves.

Regular forecasts and inflation affect the true value of real estate assets constantly. However, in a slow market, one where selling is more difficult than buying, you can survive the phase by focusing on the dos and don’ts identified and recommended by the experts. The strategies enable any agent or individual buyer or seller to deal with the meandering market trends. A slow market is volatile; prices sink one moment and rise the next.

Surviving in a slow market is all about keeping the right perspective. If you are a seller in a slow market, once you realize that the value of your property has depreciated, you need to network and plan. As a seller in a slow market, you should take the opportunity to upgrade the property. You could consider renovations and restructuring. A simple coat of paint makes all the difference to the exteriors or the home. The slow market phase can be capitalized on by enhancing the value of the property. As a seller, it is best to use this time to upgrade, rather than rush into a sale.

The phase could also be used to network extensively. This is a time where decisions need to be made with a long-term perspective. You need to increase the physical appeal of your home. Today, buyers look for stained carpets and chipped walls, and nothing skips their attention. Every buyer welcomes cosmetic makeovers. New carpets and replaced sinks and retiled bathrooms close deals.

In the case of buyers, a slow market works. With depreciated rates, the slow market is a buyer’s market. With a little care before shoveling the deal, you can save a lot of extra money and sue it in styling the home. The home improvement steps taken by a seller is a good investment for both, the buyer and the seller. However, while one has to wait a while, the other needs to close a quick deal. The agents on the other hand benefit during a slow market if they represent the buyer, but only after the market trend shifts if he or she represents the seller.

Surviving in a slow market calls for using the phase to your benefit. It hardly matters which side of the ship you are on. Port and starboard, both call for strategy and planning. One way or the other, deals do come through, slow market or not. The real estate market is very unpredictable and volatile. Investments need to be made wisely. You can survive any market trend by paying heed to the abundance of advice available online and offline, 24×7.

Once you set foot in the real estate market and enter into various deals, it is important to keep track of how much money you make out of those deals. Although, there might be certain factors that are clear and easy to calculate, there are also some hidden factors that need to be borne in mind in order to extract the maximum profit margins. Here are some points that make learning the skill of real estate investing analysis really simple.

During any single real estate deal, you may need to calculate the market value of the property according to your presumption. When you plan to purchase a property then it is essential that you calculate all the fixed costs that are involved in such property deals. These include the various taxes applicable on the purchase and sale of the property, your broker’s fees, if any, your attorney’s legal fees, etc. Before making an offer to the seller, you should also check the current rates of the neighboring properties. You will obviously need to factor your profit margin into the offer that you propose to put across to the seller. All these pointers will provide you with an indication as to how much you could quote to the seller.

If the property is in need of repairs then you first need to get an accurate estimate on the cost of repairs to it. Once you have the estimate, you need to subtract the cost of repairs from your proposed offer before you present it to the seller. Once you have procured the property then you ought to have a contingency plan handy, just in case you are unable to sell that property at your rate. You can either sell it after canceling your profit margin thereby selling at your cost value, or you could again decide to rent it out if you feel that it could generate a positive cash flow. All the above calculations are based on a single deal, but if you are executing multiple real estate deals, then your strategy may need to change.

In case you are in the market for long-term benefits, then you will need to calculate the average profit you have earned in all your deals instead of merely concentrating on your profits or losses from individual deals. This is where terms such as ‘Gross Operating Income’, ‘Net Operating Income’, ‘Capitalization Rate’, ‘Break Even Ratio’ and many other terms come into focus. You need not be alarmed by these terms since a little experience in the real estate market will enable you to not only understand, but also successfully calculate the answers, by using the various formulas that define these terms. You may also find ready-made programs online, to help with your real estate analysis. Be sure that your real estate broker and tax consultant are there to help you with any analysis. Once you get used to making an analysis to accurately price properties and factor in the related expenses, you could find yourself turning pro sooner than expected. What’s more, closing in on near perfect deals will become a habit.

Short sale real estate investing has gathered momentum over the past year due to the high number of homeowners defaulting on their mortgage payments. In such cases, you can pick up a property from the lender at a discounted rate if the homeowner is unable to meet the mortgage payments. These deals are quite different from your normal sale-purchase deals and hence you will need to build up the right contacts and sharpen your negotiation skills in order to succeed.

Lenders are motivated into selling their property before it can reach the auctioneer’s block since an auction would most probably result in the property being sold off at a very low rate. Thus, if you approach a homeowner who is in financial doldrums and wishes to exit the deal, which anyway he or she is unable to complete and impress upon him or her to sell the property, then you could pick up the property at a cheap rate. The real problem, however, is to convince the lender to part with the property at your rate.

You may have to approach the lender with your offer, which in all probability might not be initially accepted. Therefore, do not place your final offer on the table at the first instance itself. The lender could also call you again to renegotiate the rate. There could also be other potential buyers who might want the same property and chances are that they could be quoting higher rates in order to bag the deal. You will first need to calculate the market rate of the property by determining the ongoing rates in that neighborhood. You will then need to squeeze in your profit margin into the deal before placing your offer on the table.

One thing you ought to bear in mind is that most short sale homes may require some maintenance work since the homeowner may not have been in a position financially to maintain the property. This important factor should also be calculated in your purchase price or it could wipe out your profits. In some cases, the homeowner might have mortgages from two lenders and in such cases the lenders might be even more motivated since the second mortgage would anyway get wiped out if the property went to the foreclosure auction. The problem is that you will need to convince even more people to agree to your figures. This could make your deal even more challenging.

In order to lay your hands on such juicy deals, you will need an efficient network of people to inform you when homeowners have defaulted on more than 3 payments to their lender or are in the 2nd stage of the pre-foreclosure process. This is when the homeowner could be ready to sign over the deed that you will require to negotiate directly with the lender. This network could include reliable brokers, or lenders themselves. Make sure that you have a list of willing buyers to buy that property even before you buy it so that you do not end up in a quandary over a property that no one wants.

Short sale real estate investing could be the perfect boost to enter into this niche market where the profit margins are quite high. Polish up your negotiation skills and get a source to supply you with regular short sale properties to rotate your properties on a profitable basis.

Investments in preconstruction properties are the building blocks for a solid portfolio in the real estate business. So once you are in the real estate business, investments like these need to be pursued, as they can reap sizeable profits. The preconstruction investment business is lucrative, as the tricks of the trade are fairly simple and easy to learn. However, in order to strike good deals and maximize your profits, let’s take a look at the approach you ought to take.

Strategize your preconstruction investment. This is the key to obtaining maximum returns. Nothing beats a well-organized plan of action, so here are a few points to be considered while following a strategy that can provide you with the best opportunity to make money.

The primary factor to be considered for a preconstruction investment would be to set the criteria of your investment objectives. Simply making a quick buck is not the professional approach to make profits in the preconstruction investment business. You need to scrutinize the investment objectives, only then can you determine the best way to clinch the deal. Once the criteria are set, you can narrow down on deals that meet your specifications. Thus you save a considerable amount of time rather than pursue deals that turn out futile.

Once you have zeroed in on the properties you want to invest, it’s time to make an analysis. A thorough inspection of the preconstruction property must be made. Find out the likely returns by conducting a property market research for that area. Take the help of a broker to evaluate the pre-construction as well as post construction attributes of the property. Make sure that all the documentation is legal and basic amenities like electricity, water supply, sewage facilities etc. are available. These are the factors that will affect the resale value and consequently your profit margin.

It is imperative that you check the credentials of the builder, as investment into preconstruction property relies on the builders blue prints and drawings for the proposed construction. Examine the source of finance of the builder, if there is any doubt then the property may prove to be risky. Another factor that is important is timing. If possible try to clinch the deal before it is out for sale to the public. This way you can get the property at a discounted price and then sell it for handsome returns. After the initial preconstruction sale is over, the builder usually raises the price of the real estate, which will bring in good returns for you as a preconstruction investor.

Networking plays a crucial role in making profitable investments into preconstruction properties. Join other investors in the same business. This will help you gather valuable information on any market fluctuations. Based on this knowledge you can make informed decisions in the appropriate place at the right time. Once the construction is complete, it is most likely that prices could be high enough to tempt you to sell. You still have the option to hold on and rent out your property, which will add to your monthly income.

While you set out in the preconstruction investment market, formulate the best plan to get the most out of the deal. Do keep in mind that this segment of real estate investment assumes a rising market, so analyze the market well and rake in the cash profits at the right time.

Before taking up the garden vegetables individually, I shall outline the general practice of cultivation, which applies to all.

The purposes of cultivation are three to get rid of weeds, and to stimulate growth by (1) letting air into the soil and freeing unavailable plant food, and (2) by conserving moisture.

As to weeds, the gardener of any experience need not be told the importance of keeping his crops clean. He has learned from bitter and costly experience the price of letting them get anything resembling a start. He knows that one or two days’ growth, after they are well up, followed perhaps by a day or so of rain, may easily double or treble the work of cleaning a patch of onions or carrots, and that where weeds have attained any size they cannot be taken out of sowed crops without doing a great deal of injury. He also realizes, or should, that every day’s growth means just so much available plant food stolen from under the very roots of his legitimate crops.

Instead of letting the weeds get away with any plant food, he should be furnishing more, for clean and frequent cultivation will not only break the soil up mechanically, but let in air, moisture and heat all essential in effecting those chemical changes necessary to convert non- available into available plant food. Long before the science in the case was discovered, the soil cultivators had learned by observation the necessity of keeping the soil nicely loosened about their growing crops. Even the lanky and untutored aborigine saw to it that his squaw not only put a bad fish under the hill of maize but plied her shell hoe over it. Plants need to breathe. Their roots need air. You might as well expect to find the rosy glow of happiness on the wan cheeks of a cotton-mill child slave as to expect to see the luxuriant dark green of healthy plant life in a suffocated garden.

Important as the question of air is, that of water ranks beside it. You may not see at first what the matter of frequent cultivation has to do with water. But let us stop a moment and look into it. Take a strip of blotting paper, dip one end in water, and watch the moisture run up hill, soak up through the blotter. The scientists have labeled that “capillary attraction” the water crawls up little invisible tubes formed by the texture of the blotter. Now take a similar piece, cut it across, hold the two cut edges firmly together, and try it again. The moisture refuses to cross the line: the connection has been severed.

In the same way the water stored in the soil after a rain begins at once to escape again into the atmosphere. That on the surface evaporates first, and that which has soaked in begins to soak in through the soil to the surface. It is leaving your garden, through the millions of soil tubes, just as surely as if you had a two-inch pipe and a gasoline engine, pumping it into the gutter night and day! Save your garden by stopping the waste. It is the easiest thing in the world to do cut the pipe in two. By frequent cultivation of the surface soil not more than one or two inches deep for most small vegetables the soil tubes are kept broken, and a mulch of dust is maintained. Try to get over every part of your garden, especially where it is not shaded, once in every ten days or two weeks. Does that seem like too much work? You can push your wheel hoe through, and thus keep the dust mulch as a constant protection, as fast as you can walk. If you wait for the weeds, you will nearly have to crawl through, doing more or less harm by disturbing your growing plants, losing all the plant food (and they will take the cream) which they have consumed, and actually putting in more hours of infinitely more disagreeable work. If the beginner at gardening has not been convinced by the facts given, there is only one thing left to convince him experience.

Having given so much space to the reason for constant care in this matter, the question of methods naturally follows. Get a wheel hoe. The simplest sorts will not only save you an infinite amount of time and work, but do the work better, very much better than it can be done by hand. You can grow good vegetables, especially if your garden is a very small one, without one of these labor-savers, but I can assure you that you will never regret the small investment necessary to procure it.

With a wheel hoe, the work of preserving the soil mulch becomes very simple. If one has not a wheel hoe, for small areas very rapid work can be done with the scuffle hoe.

The matter of keeping weeds cleaned out of the rows and between the plants in the rows is not so quickly accomplished. Where hand-work is necessary, let it be done at once. Here are a few practical suggestions that will reduce this work to a minimum, (1) Get at this work while the ground is soft; as soon as the soil begins to dry out after a rain is the best time. Under such conditions the weeds will pull out by the roots, without breaking off. (2) Immediately before weeding, go over the rows with a wheel hoe, cutting shallow, but just as close as possible, leaving a narrow, plainly visible strip which must be hand- weeded. The best tool for this purpose is the double wheel hoe with disc attachment, or hoes for large plants. (3) See to it that not only the weeds are pulled but that every inch of soil surface is broken up. It is fully as important that the weeds just sprouting be destroyed, as that the larger ones be pulled up. One stroke of the weeder or the fingers will destroy a hundred weed seedlings in less time than one weed can be pulled out after it gets a good start. (4) Use one of the small hand-weeders until you become skilled with it. Not only may more work be done but the fingers will be saved unnecessary wear.

The skilful use of the wheel hoe can be acquired through practice only. The first thing to learn is that it is necessary to watch the wheels only: the blades, disc or rakes will take care of themselves.

The operation of “hilling” consists in drawing up the soil about the stems of growing plants, usually at the time of second or third hoeing. It used to be the practice to hill everything that could be hilled “up to the eyebrows,” but it has gradually been discarded for what is termed “level culture”; and you will readily see the reason, from what has been said about the escape of moisture from the surface of the soil; for of course the two upper sides of the hill, which may be represented by an equilateral triangle with one side horizontal, give more exposed surface than the level surface represented by the base. In wet soils or seasons hilling may be advisable, but very seldom otherwise. It has the additional disadvantage of making it difficult to maintain the soil mulch which is so desirable.

Rotation of crops. ——————

There is another thing to be considered in making each vegetable do its best, and that is crop rotation, or the following of any vegetable with a different sort at the next planting.

With some vegetables, such as cabbage, this is almost imperative, and practically all are helped by it. Even onions, which are popularly supposed to be the proving exception to the rule, are healthier, and do as well after some other crop, provided the soil is as finely pulverized and rich as a previous crop of onions would leave it.

Here are the fundamental rules of crop rotation:

(1) Crops of the same vegetable, or vegetables of the same family (such as turnips and cabbage) should not follow each other.

(2) Vegetables that feed near the surface, like corn, should follow deep-rooting crops.

(3) Vines or leaf crops should follow root crops.

(4) Quick-growing crops should follow those occupying the land all season.

These are the principles which should determine the rotations to be followed in individual cases. The proper way to attend to this matter is when making the planting plan. You will then have time to do it properly, and will need to give it no further thought for a year.

With the above suggestions in mind, and put to use , it will not be difficult to give the crops those special attentions which are needed to make them do their very best.

It is a mistake to suppose that any room, however small and unpleasantly situated, is “good enough” for a kitchen. This is the room where housekeepers pass a great portion of their time, and it should be one of the brightest and most convenient rooms in the house; for upon the results of no other department depend so greatly the health and comfort of the family as upon those involved in this ‘household workshop’.

Every kitchen should have windows on two sides of the room, and the sun should have free entrance through them; the windows should open from the top to allow a complete change of air, for light and fresh air are among the chief essentials to success in all departments of the household. Good drainage should also be provided, and the ventilation of the kitchen ought to be even more carefully attended to than that of a sleeping room. The ventilation of the kitchen should be so ample as to thoroughly remove all gases and odors, which, together with steam from boiling and other cooking processes, generally invade and render to some degree unhealthful every other portion of the house.

There should be ample space for tables, chairs, range, sink, and cupboards, yet the room should not be so large as to necessitate too many steps. Undoubtedly much of the distaste for, and neglect of, “housework,” so often deplored, arises from unpleasant surroundings. If the kitchen be light, airy, and tidy, and the utensils bright and clean, the work of compounding those articles of food which grace the table and satisfy the appetite will be a pleasant task.

It is desirable, from a sanitary standpoint, that the kitchen floor be made impervious to moisture; hence, concrete or tile floors are better than wooden floors. Cleanliness is the great desideratum, and this can be best attained by having all woodwork in and about the kitchen coated with polish; substances which cause stain and grease spots, do not penetrate the wood when polished, and can be easily removed with a damp cloth.

The elements of beauty should not be lacking in the kitchen. Pictures and fancy articles are inappropriate; but a few pots of easily cultivated flowers on the window ledge or arranged upon brackets about the window in winter, and a window box arranged as a jardiniere, with vines and blooming plants in summer, will greatly brighten the room, and thus serve to lighten the task of those whose daily labor confines them to the precincts of the kitchen.

The kitchen furniture. ———————-

The furniture for a kitchen should not be cumbersome, and should be so made and dressed as to be easily cleaned. There should be plenty of cupboards, and each for the sake of order, should be devoted to a special purpose. Cupboards with sliding doors are much superior to closets. They should be placed upon casters so as to be easily moved, as they, are thus not only more convenient, but admit of more thorough cleanliness.

Cupboards used for the storage of food should be well ventilated; otherwise, they furnish choice conditions for the development of mold and germs. Movable cupboards may be ventilated by means of openings in the top, and doors covered with very fine wire gauze which will admit the air but keep out flies and dust.

For ordinary kitchen uses, small tables of suitable height on easy-rolling casters, and with zinc tops, are the most convenient and most easily kept clean. It is quite as well that they be made without drawers, which are too apt to become receptacles for a heterogeneous mass of rubbish. If desirable to have some handy place for keeping articles which are frequently required for use, an arrangement similar to that represented in the accompanying cut may be made at very small expense. It may be also an advantage to arrange small shelves about and above the range, on which may be kept various articles necessary for cooking purposes.

One of the most indispensable articles of furnishing for a well-appointed kitchen, is a sink; however, a sink must be properly constructed and well cared for, or it is likely to become a source of great danger to the health of the inmates of the household. The sink should if possible stand out from the wall, so as to allow free access to all sides of it for the sake of cleanliness. The pipes and fixtures should be selected and placed by a competent plumber.

Great pains should be taken to keep the pipes clean and well disinfected. Refuse of all kinds should be kept out. Thoughtless housekeepers and careless domestics often allow greasy water and bits of table waste to find their way into the pipes. Drain pipes usually have a bend, or trap, through which water containing no sediment flows freely; but the melted grease which often passes into the pipes mixed with hot water, becomes cooled and solid as it descends, adhering to the pipes, and gradually accumulating until the drain is blocked, or the water passes through very slowly. A grease-lined pipe is a hotbed for disease germs.

Soil primarily had its beginning from rock together with animal and vegetable decay, if you can imagine long stretches or periods of time when great rock masses were crumbling and breaking up. Heat, water action, and friction were largely responsible for this. By friction here is meant the rubbing and grinding of rock mass against rock mass. Think of the huge rocks, a perfect chaos of them, bumping, scraping, settling against one another. What would be the result? Well, I am sure you all could work that out. This is what happened: bits of rock were worn off, a great deal of heat was produced, pieces of rock were pressed together to form new rock masses, some portions becoming dissolved in water. Why, I myself, almost feel the stress and strain of it all. Can you?

Then, too, there were great changes in temperature. First everything was heated to a high temperature, then gradually became cool. Just think of the cracking, the crumbling, the upheavals, that such changes must have caused! You know some of the effects in winter of sudden freezes and thaws. But the little examples of bursting water pipes and broken pitchers are as nothing to what was happening in the world during those days. The water and the gases in the atmosphere helped along this crumbling work.

From all this action of rubbing, which action we call mechanical, it is easy enough to understand how sand was formed. This represents one of the great divisions of soil sandy soil. The sea shores are great masses of pure sand. If soil were nothing but broken rock masses then indeed it would be very poor and unproductive. But the early forms of animal and vegetable life decaying became a part of the rock mass and a better soil resulted. So the soils we speak of as sandy soils have mixed with the sand other matter, sometimes clay, sometimes vegetable matter or humus, and often animal waste.

Clay brings us right to another class of soils clayey soils. It happens that certain portions of rock masses became dissolved when water trickled over them and heat was plenty and abundant. This dissolution took place largely because there is in the air a certain gas called carbon dioxide or carbonic acid gas. This gas attacks and changes certain substances in rocks. Sometimes you see great rocks with portions sticking up looking as if they had been eaten away. Carbonic acid did this. It changed this eaten part into something else which we call clay. A change like this is not mechanical but chemical. The difference in the two kinds of change is just this: in the one case of sand, where a mechanical change went on, you still have just what you started with, save that the size of the mass is smaller. You started with a big rock, and ended with little particles of sand. But you had no different kind of rock in the end. Mechanical action might be illustrated with a piece of lump sugar. Let the sugar represent a big mass of rock. Break up the sugar, and even the smallest bit is sugar. It is just so with the rock mass; but in the case of a chemical change you start with one thing and end with another. You started with a big mass of rock which had in it a portion that became changed by the acid acting on it. It ended in being an entirely different thing which we call clay. So in the case of chemical change a certain something is started with and in the end we have an entirely different thing. The clay soils are often called mud soils because of the amount of water used in their formation.

The third sort of soil which we farm people have to deal with is lime soil. Remember we are thinking of soils from the farm point of view. This soil of course ordinarily was formed from limestone. Just as soon as one thing is mentioned about which we know nothing, another comes up of which we are just as ignorant. And so a whole chain of questions follows. Now you are probably saying within yourselves, how was limestone first formed?

At one time ages ago the lower animal and plant forms picked from the water particles of lime. With the lime they formed skeletons or houses about themselves as protection from larger animals. Coral is representative of this class of skeleton-forming animal.

As the animal died the skeleton remained. Great masses of this living matter pressed all together, after ages, formed limestone. Some limestones are still in such shape that the shelly formation is still visible. Marble, another limestone, is somewhat crystalline in character. Another well-known limestone is chalk. Perhaps you’d like to know a way of always being able to tell limestone. Drop a little of this acid on some lime. See how it bubbles and fizzles. Then drop some on this chalk and on the marble, too. The same bubbling takes place. So lime must be in these three structures. One does not have to buy a special acid for this work, for even the household acids like vinegar will cause the same result.

Then these are the three types of soil with which the farmer has to deal, and which we wish to understand. For one may learn to know his garden soil by studying it, just as one learns a lesson by study.