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Contract for Deed

[2019 UPDATES] Contract For Deed: The Ultimate Guide

 1000 500 Sam Radbil
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Contract for Deed Home Financing in 2019

Contract for deed home financing is a great option for those individuals struggling to get a traditional loan from the bank. Now, let’s get into the details.

Conventional financing, in 2019, as we all know, is the preferred home loan vehicle. This refers to a standard mortgage loan from a licensed lending institution, and typically can be a15 or 30 year loan with a down-payment that ranges from 3 percent to 20 percent. The higher your credit score, the better deal you will get.

Even before you find your dream home, you should obtain mortgage pre-approval from your lending institution. While pre-approval does not guarantee that everything will go smoothly, it does provide you with significant negotiating power when dealing with sellers.

Applying For Conventional Financing

Your parents probably had to spend an afternoon at a banker’s office when they applied for their first home loan. Now, you can do this by phone or online, although you will eventually have to sign closing documents in person. Some important things to do and factors to be aware of are:

  • Know your credit score.
  • You can easily see this number at Credit Karma, and the service is free.
  • Determine what factors make you less attractive.
  • High student loan balances, maxed out credit cards, judgments, liens, unpaid taxes and underreported income can hurt you.
  • Analyze your actual credit report and correct errors. The FTC reports that one of every five credit reports contains inaccuracies.
  • Optimize your credit status by paying down card balances to below 30 percent; do not make any large credit purchases while attempting to secure home financing.

Understanding What You Can Afford

Banks have certain debt to income ratios that they do strictly enforce. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) explains:

“Your debt-to-income ratio is all your monthly debt payments divided by your gross monthly income.  This number is one way lenders measure your ability to manage the payments you make every month to repay the money you have borrowed.”

To calculate your debt-to-income ratio, you add up all your monthly debt payments and divide them by your gross monthly income. Your gross monthly income is generally the amount of money you have earned before your taxes and other deductions are taken out.  For example, if you pay $1500 a month for your mortgage and another $100 a month for an auto loan and $400 a month for the rest of your debts, your monthly debt payments are $2000. ($1500 + $100 + $400 = $2,000.) If your gross monthly income is $6000, then your debt-to-income ratio is 33 percent. ($2000 is 33% of $6000.)

Evidence from studies of mortgage loans suggest that borrowers with a higher debt-to-income ratio are more likely to run into trouble making monthly payments. The 43 percent debt-to-income ratio is important because, in most cases, that is the highest ratio a borrower can have and still get a qualified mortgage.

Housing Affordability

Finding Your Home

You can spend all day trolling Trulia and Redfin, but many times you can be missing out on homes for sale that only Realtors can easily access. Remember, sellers pay real estate commissions—you don’t—so avail yourself of this free service and find a good Realtor.

Finding Your Home With Contract For Deed

Working With A Contract for Deed Realtor

The Realtor/client relationship is a two-way street. If you are a type A personality and want all of your texts answered within two minutes, make sure your Realtor is as hyper as you are. Conversely, don’t expect your Realtor to work miracles with incomplete or false information. For example, don’t inflate your income and/or minimize your debts at your first meeting. In the credit world, there are no secrets, so be upfront with you Realtor.

Turned Down For Traditional Financing?

Mortgage Rejection

Those that give up after being rejected for a home loan end up renting apartments while those savvy enough to understand that there are alternatives to conventional financing will look at the rejection as a bump in the road and move forward. Rent to own is one way to become a homeowner, but a preferred method is MN contract for deed. In a rent to own situation, you pay rent to a property owner that may put aside a portion of your monthly rent as a down payment for a future purchase.

If everything works out, either the seller provides financing or you obtain it at some later date. In a contract for deed sale, you sign a contract that states that you will be given the deed to the property you are occupying after you make all of your required payments. Contract for deed is seller financing, and while interest rates can be a bit higher than conventional financing, credit requirements are typically significantly more lenient.

Finding Contract For Deed Opportunities

There are a limited number of MLS contract for deed listings.  If you’re lucky, you might find the right opportunity in a nice location. At C4D, however, we give you an advantage that others that wish to utilize contract for deed just don’t have. Just bring the home you wish to purchase to us. If we can do the deal, we will purchase the home and sell it to you on a contract for deed basis. We have paved the home ownership road for many that were rejected for conventional financing. Application is easy—just go to our website. C4D has the financial power behind them to make these deals happen.

Contract For Deed Documentation

While C4D offers less stringent credit requirements, we still will need pay stubs and bank statements. We look, however, at your situation today, and we care a lot more about what you can do now than what bad things have happened to you in the past. At C4D even high student loan balances and recent bankruptcies are not necessarily the hindrances they would be at a large bank.

Contract For Deed: How It Works

Although the nightmare of waiting 60 days or more to close on even great credit deals is generally behind us, banks take longer than we do at C4D. We usually can close deals in as fast as two to three weeks.

MN Contract For Deed Costs

We’re upfront about all of this. We do require an origination fee and we do add a small initial property markup. And, the interest rate you pay will be higher than the prevailing conventional mortgage interest rate.

Contract for Deed: What Problems?

We have many satisfied former renters that are now homeowners. We are transparent and forthright. If we can help you, we do everything possible to get your deal done. We are MN contract for deed experts, and happy customers are our paramount concern.

If you deal with an individual that is offering a contract for deed, you have to do serious vetting to ensure that there will be no problems with your deal in the future. With C4D, this is not necessary.

Contract for Deed: True Disclosure

When we purchase your home, we get a loan from our bank. With the blessing and full knowledge of our bank, we then sell the property to you with a MN contract for deed. You make your monthly payments to us and we, in turn, make our payment to the bank. But check this out:

We’ve never missed a payment and don’t ever plan on it.  In addition, we’ve worked with our bank partner to have an assignment of contract included in your documents that basically says if we stop paying our lender, you can pay them directly and your contract remains intact.

You won’t find this protection with most individual contract for deed sales. In fact, many times the seller’s bank isn’t even made aware of the transaction, and this can throw the original mortgage into default because of the due on sale clause that is embedded in almost every mortgage note. Our agreements with our bank do not have due on sale clauses.

Everything is upfront and at closing the contract is recorded at the appropriate County.

Helping You Refinance

Our goal is to get you into a home and ultimately help you refinance with a traditional lender.  We have relationships and systems in place to help make this happen. Typically, we can help people refinance within three years of purchase.

For the Realtor: Turned Down? There Is Still Hope!

So you spent weeks trying to get your buyer and seller agree upon a price. Both were difficult at times, and when you finally got all sides to listen to reason, an old unpaid judgment appeared and derailed the financing. After you’re done binge watching House of Cards to ease your pain, give us a call. We have been able to resurrect many deals that have been turned down by others.

Realtor Contract for Deed

We are a reputable, experienced and recognized company that does MN contract for deed. You bring us the buyer and the property, we buy the property and sell it to your client on a contract for deed. Even if you have an iffy buyer with shaky credit and you have not yet found the perfect property, bring them to us; we will get many of them pre-approved and send them back to you.

Is My Commission Protected?

Realtor Commission

You betcha! 80% of our referrals come from realtors, and they wouldn’t keep coming back if we didn’t guarantee that their commissions would be protected.

The Deed

Contract for deed means exactly that.

  • We buy the property.
  • We hold the deed.
  • We sell the property to the buyer.
  • They occupy the home.
  • They make their monthly payments.
  • At the end of the contract period, we turn over the deed and they are homeowners!
  • They can also refinance early with a traditional lender, and this is something that we will facilitate.
  • In addition, the buyer actually has equitable title, and can sell the property at any time if they wish to move on.

What About Financing?

Yes, we use a bank.

  • Our bank gives us a mortgage.
  • Our bank knows what we are doing.
  • The buyer pays us and we pay the bank.
  • We are never late.
  • We never miss payments.
  • Our mortgage with our bank does NOT include a due on sale clause.
  • In fact, we have an assignment of contract put in place that basically says if we stop paying our lender, the buyer can pay them directly and the contract remains intact!

The Final Paperwork

We will hold your client’s hand from application to closing. We will assist with all documentation and paperwork.

When The Offer Is Accepted

At this point, Taylor and the C4D Crew take over.  We work directly with the lender and title company to schedule closing and work out all the paperwork.  The C4D Crew will also work directly with the C4D buyer on all the paperwork and logistics for the day of closing This will be one of the easier transactions you do this year!

Down-Payment

Contract For Deed MN Down Payment

A down-payment is of course necessary, but the down payment be gifted to the buyer in a C4D transaction. Just make sure your clients speak with their accountant for possible tax implications.

C4D Crew Reputation

We can provide you with client references. Just by looking at our website you can see that we provide tons of valuable and free information about MN contract for deed. Of course, we are in business to make money—so are you—but we are also dedicated to helping those with compromised credit become homeowners.

How Long Does It Take?

From the time you and your client find a home they’d like to buy, and an offer is accepted, we can close as quickly as two to three weeks.

Credit Score Minimum?

We don’t have one. We look at every deal individually. Prior BKs, student loans, judgments divorces and tax liens are all issues we can work around.

Credit Score

Can You Approve Any Deal?

In short, no. We are not going to lie and tell you that we can do anything, but you would be amazed at what we can accomplish.

Call Us About Contract For Deed

MN Contract For Deed

Again, just because the loan officer rejected your client’s loan, your deal is not necessarily dead. Contact us and we’ll quickly get started on a contract for deed program that can make your client’s home ownership dream a reality.

20 Tax Deductions Every Realtor Needs to Know

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Your clients continuously ask you about the tax benefits of buying a home, but are you aware of all of the realtor tax deductions available for your own business?

Realtor Tax Deductions

You need to be aware of the Realtor tax deductions available to you; if not, you are wasting your hard-earned commissions by giving a present to the government. Remember, when we speak of listing Realtor tax deductions, we are talking about money that you can deduct from your income, and if you have substantial 1099 income, you know how important these amounts are.

Mileage

You can deduct the miles you drive in the course of doing business. Be sure to keep a log of these just in case. For 2018, you can deduct 58 cents per mile, so if you drove 10,000 miles for business last year, you could deduct $580.

New Car

Car lease payments are another great Realtor tax deduction. You will need to reimburse your business for any personal use of the business vehicle, however.

Home Office

You can charge your business rent for a home office, utilities, Internet and cable, as long as you can show that your business used the percentage you are deducting.

Real Estate Software

Contact management, open house, and lots of other software applications work great for Realtor tax deductions.

Cell Phones

On your phone all day? Let your business pay for it.

Office Stuff

Papers, pens, ink and even paper clips are all valid Realtor tax deductions.

Phone Answering Service

If you outsource your phones when you are not in, an answering service is deductible along with any other virtual services you use like virtual bookkeepers and assistants.

Office Rent

If you rent an office away from your home, the rent is 100 percent deductible.

Office Equipment

Desks, printers/scanners/fax machines, computers and servers are all legitimate business expenses.

Internet/Phone

Of course Internet service is deductible and so are landline and mobile phone services.

Advertising

Your monthly newsletter and email marketing are business expenses and therefore deductible. Marketing tools like business cards and signs are deductible, and so are the fees you pay to an outsourced social media marketing company.

Entertainment and Travel

A portion of these costs can be deducted, but be sure to check with your CPA about the correct deductible percentages.

Conferences and Conventions

Realtor tax deductions can include registration fees for conferences and conventions.

Ride-sharing

Take an UBER or a Taxi? Be sure to save your receipts.

Client Meals and Entertainment

50 percent of what you spend on these can be deducted from your 1099 income. Saving receipts is very important here.

Gifts for Clients

Spend what you want, but only $25 per gift per client is deductible for 2018.

IRA Contributions

These will work as Realtor tax deductions up top certain amounts, so connect with a professional to find out what the limits are.

Shared Workspace

Just like office rent, this is a deductible expense.

Continuing Education

Have to take a class to learn about current market trends? Be sure to deduct the tuition cost.

Dues and Memberships

Your Realtor association fees and other business group memberships are great Realtor tax deductions.

Organization is the key to getting the most tax value from your business activities, so make sure you keep track of expenses and document everything. Be sure to consult with your tax professional if you have any questions.

How to find a good minnesota realtor

How To Find A Great Minnesota Realtor

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How to find a good realtor? If you’ve tried, well, you’ve probably realized it’s not as easy as it sounds, right?

How to find a good realtorFirst, there is a difference between a Realtor and a real estate agent. You can be a real estate agent without becoming a Realtor. If you are licensed in your state, you can help people buy or sell commercial or residential property. The State of Minnesota publishes a detailed booklet that explains the real estate licensing process, and you can find it here:

http://mn.gov/commerce-stat/pdfs/re-license-guide.pdf

But don’t confuse licensed real estate agents with Realtors, because there is a difference. According to inman.com, “A Realtor is a trademarked term that refers to a real estate agent who is an active member of the National Association of Realtors (NAR), the largest trade association in the United States.” NAR has certain requirements and members must first agree to abide by its ethics code.

Finding a Great Realtor in MN

It doesn’t matter where you’re coming from; you might be moving from a small Cincinnati apartment to a Minneapolis single family home, but whether you contract with a real estate agent or a Realtor, it’s important that you know how to vet and find the person that best fits your needs. And bankrate.com says that these seven items are paramount.

Talk with agents’ recent clients.

At the first meeting, ask for a list of clients. If these are all relatives, beware, because your prospective agent may not be very experienced. Look for a track record of satisfied clients that are happy to provide referrals. While you may want to help a new agent break into the business, that may not be in your best interest.

Check for license and disciplinary actions.

Licensed real estate professionals are regulated, and if they have been disciplined, there will be a public record of this. Some ways agents get in trouble are:

  • Forgetting who they represent.
  • Co-mingling client funds.
  • Seeking kickbacks from lenders.
  • Showing incompetence.
  • Forgetting that the interests of the client should come first.

Ask about professional awards.

OK, so million-dollar club status is not that hard to obtain, but awards do show that agents or Realtors have sold some properties.

Here’s a rundown from another experienced professional:

Select an agent with the right credentials.

If agent Paul Johnson sold your wife’s office building, that doesn’t guarantee that he knows anything about residential real estate. Similarly, an upscale Realtor that specializes in the Milwaukee suburbs may have a tough time understanding how to sell an inner-city property.

Realtor Credentials

Find out how experienced an agent is.

How many clients? How many closings? How many accepted offers? How many failures? How many rejected deals? Ask these questions.

Look at the agent’s current listings.

If your prospective agent’s listings are all rural farmland, and you have a downtown condo to sell, you may have the wrong person.

Gauge the agent’s knowledge of the area.

Does your agent know the schools? The shopping areas? The crime rates? What the last 10 sales have been? A negative answer means you should look elsewhere.

Getting It Done

Most of all, you need to find someone that can get the job done. We at C4D are like that, because we specialize in MN contract for deed financing. We love traditional mortgages, but if you can’t get one, tell your Realtor to contact us ASAP. We can help where others have failed!

MPLS real estate

Minneapolis Real Estate Market: Where We Stand

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We’d like to get technical this week about the Minneapolis real estate market and summarize the comprehensive and extensive report from the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors.

While of course what’s happening in the Minneapolis real estate market doesn’t exactly mirror the entire State of Minnesota, it does give us a clear picture of what is going on in our region.

Interest Rates

Minneapolis Real Estate Interest Rates

The Federal Reserve moved again, and raised interest rates for the seventh time since 2015. This second 2018 rate hike raised rates by another 0.25 percent. While this didn’t immediately increase the 30-year mortgage rate, rates will inevitably rise.

New Twin Cities Listings

  • New listings decreased 2.7 percent to around 2000.
  • Pending listings also decreased 4.1 percent to around 1400.
  • Inventory decreased significantly by over 18 percent.

New Listings Minneapolis

What Happened in May?

May was a strong sales month for the Minneapolis real estate market, however, as the median home sales price increased 8.4 percent to $271,000, while days on market decreased 9.6 percent to only 47. The all-important supply figure—in other words how much inventory is available—fell a whopping 12 percent to 2.2 months.

Minneapolis Real Estate Market Trends

Minneapolis Real Estate Trends

So what do these trends mean for the MN Realtor? First, interest rates are on their way up. Mortgage guru Rachel Witkowski recently said:

“Here are several predictions from the largest housing and mortgage groups for the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage:

  • The Mortgage Bankers Association predicts it will rise to 4.6 percent in 2018.
  • The National Association of Realtors expects it be around 4.5 percent at the end of 2018.
  • Realtor.com says the rate will average 4.6 percent and reach 5 percent by year-end.”

When rates near the five percent mark, two things can happen. Buyers can become nervous and there can be increased activity as they worry that their buying power may soon be diminished, but after a sales flurry, home prices can begin to decrease because that ethereal buying power actually will dwindle, and this will result in less demand.

Ride the Minneapolis Real Estate Market Wave

As a savvy Minneapolis Realtor, you can use these trends to your advantage as you can nudge buyers into making offers now before higher rates injure them, while at the same time you can counsel sellers to take offers quickly as their homes could be less valuable in the near future.

When It Does Happen

If you’ve been in business for a while, you know that tough real estate market conditions will reoccur. Whether this happens late this year or early next year, higher interest rates = lower stock prices = a weaker economy, and that all can pressure home prices. If a recession does occur, monetary policy will undoubtedly tighten, foreclosures will increase, and financing in general will become more difficult.

And you also know that your clients are going to start looking at charts like the one below from howmuch.net. They’ll want to know what they can actually afford. So, be prepared to guide them into making smart decisions.

Remember Us

This is when you need to realize that we at C4D can make deals happen when others cannot. As your MN contract for deed experts, we strive to find ways to take your marginal deals and get them approved. We have taken many hard working but credit score challenged individuals from renters to owners. Please contact us and see what we can do after the bank has said no. You may be pleasantly surprised!

2018 Realtor Tips: Handle Rising Interest Rates

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Rising interest rates in real estate — sounds awful for both homebuyers and realtors, right? Well, you’re in the right place find out. Below, the C4D Crew will outline what factors influence interest rates and what rising interest rates mean for the real estate industry.

The 2008 housing crash was hard enough to deal with. Besides the record foreclosure numbers, Realtors had to deal with very tight lending conditions along with a new and stringent set of government banking regulations. Gone are the days of wild west type appraisals and easily obtained no income documentation loans. While this period has been replaced with a mortgage market some would call the “new normal,” there is an evolving twist MN Realtors now must deal with.

Rates Are Going Up

Mortgage rate predictions for 2018 and 2019

Agency

2018 Prediction

2019 Prediction
Mortgage Bankers Association 4.9% 5.4%
Freddie Mac 4.6% 5.1%
Fannie Mae 4.5% 4.5%
Realtor.com 5.0% No forecast
National Association of Realtors 4.5% 4.8%
Kiplinger 4.7% No forecast
National Association of Home Builders 4.5% 5.0%

Early in the recovery, nicely qualified buyers could actually get 30-year traditional mortgages at rates around 3.25 percent. Now, rates are nudging up to the psychological five percent barrier. Simple math shows us that a $200,000 mortgage at 3.25 percent costs $870.41 per month. At five percent, however, the payment jumps by $203.23 to $1073.64.

To get that payment close to $870.00 with a five percent interest rate, the mortgage amount needs to drop to $165,000. This is a significant 18 percent drop in purchasing power. In other words, a buyer that could have qualified for a $200,000 mortgage at 3.25 percent, now may only be able to finance $165,000.

What Do Rising Interest Rates Mean?

CNBC reported in February:

Sales of newly built homes are falling, and the culprit is clear. Homebuyers increasingly can’t afford what they want. Higher mortgage rates, combined with the loss of homeowner tax breaks in some of the nation’s most expensive markets, are taking away buying power.

Home Sales

Image source: Redfin

Sales fell in December, when the new tax law was signed, and then again in January, when mortgage rates moved higher. Sales are now at their lowest level since August of last year.

“It seems that the jump in mortgage rates in January had an immediate impact on contract signings,” wrote Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group. “You can’t get more interest rate sensitive when it comes to homes and cars with the associated cost to finance.”

What Realtors Can Do

Savvy Realtors need to understand that while upward interest rate trends can be an issue, there are some ways this situation can be managed. Sellers can make things easier by offering to pay closing costs buyers certain remodeling credits, or of course lowering sale prices.

Rising Interest Rates Loan Rejection

Buyers may need to rethink their plans for an ultimate dream home and take an intermediary step instead of a final one. Maybe that $350,000 home will have to wait and a $240,000 will have to work for now.

Make It Happen Now

The upward interest rate trend is no secret, however, and Realtors should push both sides to get deals done before rates rise even more. Lock in today’s rates as soon as possible as each Federal Reserve interest rate hike will do more damage to the housing market.

Consumers Getting Priced Out?

Family Buying A Home

In a rising interest rate environment, more consumers are going to be priced out of traditional mortgage financing, and this is where we at C4D can help. Using MN contract for deed, we make deals happen that banks have refused. We understand bad credit issues, and we want to help ensure that good people that may have had some financial issues are able to become homeowners. Don’t give up on your rejected traditional mortgage deal; instead, bring it to C4D and we will see if we can help.

Buying A House Without A Realtor Is A Bad Idea

Buying A House Without A Realtor: Terrible Idea?

 1000 500 Sam Radbil
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Buying a house without a realtor. For some reason, this just doesn’t sound like one of your best ideas yet.

You may be the kind of person that wants to handle everything without assistance from brokers or agents. When you make a major purchase you always want to talk to the supervisor or store owner, and you may not like dealing with middlemen. When you are looking to buy a MN home, however, you really need to consider the use of a qualified Realtor, and here are some reasons why:

You May Have a Harder Time Finding Properties

Realtors have MLS access but you can’t just login online to view it. While Trulia, Redfin, and similar sites will eventually pick up MLS listings, there is nothing like going to the source and being able to view up-to-the-minute listed properties that are for sale. Your local real estate agent may also have a network where he or she is made quickly aware of any “coming soon” properties, and your Realtor can find out sooner if a house under contract may again become available because of failed financing or other issues. In addition, other Realtors may be more apt to divulge information to another Realtor than to you.

Buying A House and Knowing The Price

Area Knowledge

Especially if you are new to a city, you need a Realtor’s intrinsic neighborhood knowledge. Many of us know someone that recently moved to a city and chose a certain neighborhood only to realize a year later that they would have liked to have located in a different part of town.  A good Realtor can help guide you to the neighborhoods that match your lifestyle.

The Offer (When Buying A House Without A Realtor)

Do you offer 97 percent of the purchase price? 95 percent? Are you in a bidding war? Should you offer more than the asking price? Should you ask for paid closing costs? What does the inspection period mean? Do you realize, that in some states, you can lose your earnest money deposit even if your financing is not approved? Realtors are experts, and will guide you through the offer process. Take a look a standard offer to purchase form, and ask yourself if you really know how to fill in all of the blanks properly. A Realtor will have had lots of experience with contingencies, and will help you understand all fees involved in a purchase contract.

Buying A House Without A Realtor

Be Realistic About the Deal

While you may think it’s a good idea to haggle about the final $1000 of a $350,000 deal, your Realtor may tell you otherwise. Realtors have a good sense of what will be accepted and more, importantly, what may aggravate a seller. When you deal with sellers without a Realtor, you may be working blind.

Financing Issues When Buying Without A Realtor

If you have MN bad credit, or are having trouble buying a home because of massive student loan debt, a good Realtor can steer you to non-traditional financing sources. We at C4D are experts in MN contract for deed sales, and many Realtors come to us with deals that have been difficult to finance elsewhere. While we all know that traditional mortgage financing is preferable, many times we can help get you into your dream home when others have not been successful.

Tips to Become the Top Realtor in Your Area in 2018

 1000 500 Sam Radbil
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How to be successful in real estate? This is an extremely common question in the industry. Many real estate pros watch glamorous TV shows like Million Dollar Listing New York, House Hunters, Designed to Sell and many more. These same people would love to achieve the amount of success as many of the real estate superstars on TV. So what does it take? Is it luck? Right place and right time?

Well, there’s lots of competition in the Minnesota and Minneapolis real estate space but by following some proven business practices, you can rise to the top. From client/customer service to quality networking, let’s look at the things that can make you a top MN realtor.

How To Become Successful In Real Estate

The “t” word—transparency—has almost become a cliché, but beginning with the first Minnesota Realtor client meeting you need to be honest and forthright about expectations and costs. If the stats show that it may take 47 days to move a client’s property, don’t give then the impression that you can sell it in a week, unless, of course, you really can.

New sellers may not fully understand the commission process, and you should take some time to explain it. There may be confusion about how you share your commission and who you share it with. With median housing prices rising, the standard six percent commission can easily reach $20,000 or more, and if you have to split your commission with another broker and/or you company, your clients should understand that you don’t pocket the entire amount.

Look Like a Professional

While business casual may be sufficient in your area, showing up at a client meeting in cutoffs and a t-shirt is probably not the way to go. Then again, some will advise to dress how your clients dress. Either way, you know if you have a huge prospecting meeting that you should probably throw on your business suit and dress as professionally as possible. Projecting a professional image is critically important for real estate professionals.

Return Calls and Emails Promptly

As you undoubtedly understand, great Realtors are always working, and their clients want immediate answers. When there is a pending offer, clients on either side can get extremely hyper, and they probably won’t adhere to “normal business hours.” Have a thorough voicemail message that explains exactly when your clients can expect a return call:

“Hi – it’s Maryann. You have reached my voicemail because I’m speaking with another client or in a meeting. If you are calling before 7:00 p.m., I will return your call today. Otherwise, expect a call from me tomorrow. Please do not hesitate to text as I may be able to respond quicker that way. Also, feel free to email me at maryann@gmail.com. Regardless, I guarantee a response within 18 hours.”

This may seem basic and academic but it’s very important to do correctly.

Real Estate & Digital Media

You need a website, but a bad site with a terrible user experience and functionality may be worse than having none at all. As commonplaces.com says,

“Your website is no longer a URL at which you park the existence of your online business. It’s often the first and most powerful presentation of your business – who you are as a company, what you offer, and why your products and services are better than all the rest.”

Make sure that you find a quality developer, especially one that has experience with Realtor websites. And if you need more advice on the big picture of real estate digital media, below is a video from Million Dollar Listing star Ryan Serhant and social media influencer Gary Vaynerchuk on the state of real estate in 2018.

Social Media Presence & Brand Building

Gone are the days when a home buyer just opens up a newspaper, looks for properties, calls an agent from a phonebook and makes an offer. Buyers today are looking online more than ever. From review websites like Yelp to social media profiles like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube it is imperative that Realtors use social media to communicate with potential buyers. For example, if you worked at PlateJoy, you’d want positive platejoy reviews, right? The same goes for Realtors.

Digital Media For Real Estate

Some tips include:

  • Posting photos on Instagram to generate leads
  • Creating a content presence on Facebook
  • Tweeting to promote listings to your audience
  • Guest posting to collaborate with other local real estate pros
  • Sharing your content on LinkedIn with your industry connections
  • Reply to everyone and create a sense of community

Monthly Newsletter

It’s critically important for clients and potential clients to know how to find you. Start compiling an email list from day one, and send out a carefully crafted and informational newsletter. Again, you may think that this is Realtor 101, but you might be surprised at the number of your colleagues that fail to do this, start and then stop, or send out junk. A great monthly blog sent out in your newsletter will keep your name fresh.

Monthly Real Estate Newsletter

How To Be Successful In Real Estate: Financing

Of course, you know the deal isn’t done until funds have been wired. Savvy Realtors immediately begin building their financing network, and they know who will work hard to get marginal MN bad credit loans approved. You need to assemble your financing team, and have a go-to lender available for each particular situation, and here’s where we can help. We at C4D are MN contract for deed specialists, and every day we work with clients to make the home ownership dreams a reality. If you have difficult or even rejected financing deals, let us take a look and see if we can help. Please contact us for further information.

The American Dream: Immigrant Homeownership

 1000 500 Sam Radbil
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The housing market needs immigrants, and the gap between native-born and immigrant homeowners has been shrinking for several years. But housing for immigrants is a tough subject to navigate. And the biggest question is … is it possible for more immigrants to become homeowners in 2018?

There are many ways to enter the U.S. legally. For example, student visas are relatively easy to get if you are enrolled in a US educational institution. Since foreign tuition rates may be higher, many universities recruit foreign students and will actually help them receive visas.

If you are a non- US citizen starting a business and you plan to invest money in it and therefore create American jobs, there are visas available. You can get a visitor’s visa–for vacation purposes–or you can apply for an immigrant visa. You may be able to get a green card that allows you to work in the US. If you do remain in this country after your visa has expired, however, you become undocumented, and that can lead to difficulties.

I’m Staying Here Anyway

Whether you have a green card, a student visa, a business or professional visa, or whether you may be here illegally, you may decide that you want to buy a house. Maybe you’re tired of renting, are pretty sure that you are not going to have legal trouble if you stay, and like most Americans, you want to build future equity. You may have read that even financially secure US citizens may have trouble getting mortgages. If that’s the case, should you as a non-US citizen even consider buying a house, and furthermore, can you even do it?

Yes! It Can Be Done

President Trump’s failed university offered this advice to its students in a 2010 blog brought to us by The Weekly Standard.

“First of all, you do not have to have a social security number to buy or sell a home in the U.S. Some mortgage lenders require one; however, there is not a law requiring one. You do need to have some form of government issued identification, even if it is from another country (such as a passport or driver’s license).

Those without a social security number will need an ITIN (individual taxpayer identification number) number which is issued by the IRS to foreign nationals for paying taxes on money they earn in the U.S. (The author) noted that while it is difficult for illegal immigrants to get mortgage loans, several banks have programs designed for those immigrants. ‘Lastly, it is not illegal to own real estate in the U.S. even if one is in the country illegally,’ she wrote. ‘If getting a mortgage is not an option, one can always pay cash.’”

Housing for Immigrants

Problems That Can Arise If You Don’t Have the Cash

While a cash purchase may be completely legal, obtaining a mortgage–if you don’t have the cash–can be difficult for the following reasons:

  • Hard to prove foreign income.
  • Banks may not believe your foreign accountant.
  • Lenders may fear that you will be deported.
  • Thin credit or no credit history.
  • Bad credit MN.
  • No ITIN or SSN.
  • Low credit score.
  • Other legal issues.
  • Massive student loan debt.

Immigrant Housing No Cash

Housing for Immigrants: What Now?

So, you’re here, you’ve found a great home, you have a job, you can afford a modest mortgage payment but you just can’t convince a lender to take that risk and allow you to become a homeowner. Now is the time to think non-traditional financing. With a contract for deed, you can pay for your home on installments, and after you have completed all of your payments, you will own the property. These transactions can be accomplished by two willing parties without concern of bank denial. There are even reputable Minnesota lenders like C4D that can help you do this.

Rent-To-Own

Contract for deed’s cousin, rent-to-own might also be a viable option. NOLO says, “A rent-to-own agreement is made up of two agreements: a standard lease agreement, and an option to purchase; these may be incorporated in one document or two separate documents.” In this scenario, a portion of your rent goes toward a down-payment that you can use to obtain future financing.

Rent To Own for Immigrants

Exotic and Risky?

Don’t let a conservative banker derail your plans for home ownership. Of course, alternative home financing plans can be costlier and have some inherent risks. Didn’t you take a risk, however, when you came to the US in the first place?

Just Do It

As we have shown, they are ways to purchase a home even if you’re not a US citizen. Make sure you understand all of the options available to you and start with a bank or mortgage broker, and if that doesn’t work, consider MN contract for deed or rent to own, even if you have bad credit or immigration issues.

For more immigrant housing resources, view the links below:

Should I Buy A House?

Are You (Actually) Ready To Buy A House?

 1000 500 Sam Radbil
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Should I buy a house? This is the question that almost every 20- or 30-year-old must answer at some point in time. But are you getting terrible advice from parents and friends? Or do they actually know what they’re talking about? But is buying what’s best for you individually? There are so many questions to answer.

And to add to the endless questions, your parents did it, your friends and co-workers are doing it, everyone says it’s the American dream, but buying a home is a major obligation, and while there are great reasons for joining the club, there are equally important reasons for waiting.

Let’s first look at the top five reasons you should NOT buy your first home just yet:

Should I Buy A House?

Why You Should NOT Buy

  1. Everyone is telling you to do it

Just because you just got married, graduated from college, got a great job or turned 30 doesn’t mean that you automatically need to buy a home. Individual circumstances are always different, and don’t take the home ownership path just because someone else tells you it’s time to do it.

  1. You got a new job and must move

It can be stressful to suddenly find out that you have to move because of employment changes. Still, that’s not a good reason to think you have to immediately re-create your present living circumstances by buying a house. Those that quickly buy houses in an unfamiliar city sometimes find out that if they would have waited, they would have chosen a different neighborhood. Furthermore, if you think you may be transferred again within the next five years, renting may be a better option.

  1. You got pre-qualified for a mortgage

Don’t borrow money just because you can. If you qualify for a mortgage today and are financially prudent, you will probably qualify in the future without much difficulty. While mortgage qualification is paramount, it should never be the only reason to purchase a home.

  1. You are loaded with debt

 Millennial Debt

*Check out how many Millennials are NOT buying homes because of debt!

If you are just getting by and carry large credit card balances, high-payment car loans and a lot of student loan debt, you may want to make sure that you can afford a mortgage payment + taxes + insurance + maintenance + furnishings. If you can’t, then wait until you can.

  1. You found a fixer-upper!

Too much HGTV may be bad for your financial health. While it’s fun to watch the Property Brothers fight through yet another renovation, reality TV sometimes skips a lot of steps and if find out you need a supporting beam and don’t have $10,000 to pay for the work, you might have been better off renting.

OK, so that takes care of the reasons not to but a home; now look at these reasons to jump into home ownership:

Why You Should Buy

Buying A Home

  1. You are finally ready

If you have saved a downpayment, your overall debt situation is good, you don’t like giving the landlord money every month with no return for you, and you really like cutting the grass, you might be ready to buy a home.

  1. You want to build equity

Go to bankrate.com and calculate an amortization schedule. Even though your equity may be slow to build, a portion of every mortgage payment will go toward your principal balance. A 30 year mortgage means just that—after 30 years you will own your home and your mortgage will be gone.

  1. You’re in control at work

You know when you have job security and also when things may be tenuous. If the future looks great, you have one less thing to worry about, and it may be the right time to become a homeowner.

  1. Mortgage interest deduction

Even though the latest tax bill dinged the mortgage interest deduction for the rich and famous, you can still benefit if you itemize deductions. Remember however, that the standard deduction has been significantly increased, so talk to your accountant about this one. Ask about property tax deductions also.

  1. We fear change

Home ownership takes a big “what if” out of the picture. As long as you make your payments, you can stay in your home. If you rent, you could be facing a different situation at lease-end, or if, for example, your apartment building is sold. Homeownership brings needed stability as it’s great knowing that you are in control.

But Wait — You Have Options!

Remember, bank mortgages aren’t the only way to finance homes. There are rent-to-own plans and better yet, MN contract for deed situations available. Alternative and non-traditional financing are two great paths to homeownership, so if you do have bad credit, large student loan balances, judgments, levies or just general bad credit, find a company like C4D that can help you.

Real Estate Blogs

19 Amazing Real Estate Blogs To Follow In 2018

 1000 500 Sam Radbil
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The real estate industry has changed a lot over the last decade. New technologies have impacted the industry in a huge way. It’s hugely important to keep up with new technology, consumer psychology and other innovations that change the way real estate agents do the job. A great way to stay in tune with the industry is to consistently read the top real estate blogs of 2018.

Whether your customer base is primarily young professionals, millennials, baby boomers or even retirees, it’s critically important for you to be aware of what’s happening in your ever-changing market. These sites can help you stay informed and communicate more efficiently with your clients:

National Blogs

Inman

Inman is a techy blog that also has some great stories about Realtors’ experiences in the field. In addition, it has a great pop-up that links to valuable 2018 market predictions.

Bigger Pockets

This site is more entrepreneurial and features articles about real estate investment like, “10 Lethal Mistakes to Avoid on Your First Real Estate Investment.” If you have clients that are considering flipping properties, Bigger Pockets a nice place to send them.

Redfin

Redfin is a traditional web real estate portal like Trulia, but unlike others, Redfin also makes money as a real estate brokerage. Even though you might consider them a competitor, it’s certainly valuable to see what they are doing. This site is like the CNN of standard big real estate sites, and is full of varied information.

Realtor.com

While Redfin’s site may look like CNN, the one is similar to MSN, with generic and wide-ranging articles like “Pending-Home Sales Tumble to a 3-Year Low as Housing ‘Crisis’ Worsens.” This site is more newsy than bloggy.

REwired

Rewired describes itself as “open commentary on everything impacting the U.S. housing economy.”

Here you will find articles ranging from the history of property valuation to the extent that high student loan debt is affecting mortgage qualification rates. Lots of more in-depth blogs here.

Bankrate News

Bankrate was one of the first, and is still the go-to site for many that are looking for a wide variety of loan rate calculators. It also boasts a good section that covers straight real estate financing news in a no-frills manner.

Geek Estate

This site claims that they “analyze Real Estate Technology and trends, and provide advice for tech savvy agents, brokers, technology vendors, consultants, and entrepreneurs.” We would definitely agree, and if you lean to the tech side, or just want to know how to begin to upgrade your business systems, Geek Estate provides great info.

REtipster

Investor Seth Williams says that his site will show you how to make money in real estate with less risk and more personal free time. If that isn’t the best of all worlds, what is? Worth a look, though.

RISmedia

Rismedia’s real estate site features news, blogs, advice, and some good general information. Not our favorite for cutting edge info, but still a good place for general guidance with an abundance of varied articles.

Rentec Direct

While this site focuses on landlords and their tenant issues, it also addresses tenant concerns like “What to do if you are facing eviction.” If any of your clients are landlords or want to ascertain the real costs of renting a property, this is a good place to start.

Agent Image

Agent Image is a real estate web development site. As you know, it’s critical to have an easily readable, modern and up-to-date site, and Agent Image will get you there. There are also blogging and SEO guidelines here.

Property Shark

Property Shark deals with high end properties in luxury destinations. Sample articles outline the 10 most pricey US zip codes, and if you have any interest in the upscale market anywhere in the US, this site is for you.

Realty Times

Realty Times is a nice general real estate newsletter with lots of agent tips and advice. It includes a useful local market outlook section and is easy to navigate.

Local Blogs

Minnesota Real Estate Journal

If you are familiar with your city’s local business journal, you’ll like what you find here: Local news, features, trends and advice all presented in a business-friendly manner. You’ll find all of the latest Minnesota property development news here.

MPLS Realtor

This is the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors’ site, and is loaded with membership news, education opportunities, and market research. This is an excellent place to visit at least once a week as you keep abreast of major trend changes.

Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal

Local business journals are usually real estate intense, and this one is no different. You can find a few breaking real estate news articles every week, along with information about the top agents and where they are currently working. Their Top 25 lists are invaluable marketing tools.

Homes MSP

Homes MSP is a ReMax site. That said, there is some good information there—especially if you want some new recipes (!) Anyway, if you have some extra time, take a look.

REjournals

They say they are “the midwest’s leading source for real estate news.” No too many informational blogs, but there is a nicely updated Midwest real estate market section.

MN Property Group

This is another Remax site with listings interspersed with some worthwhile posts. You do need to check the pulse of the local market, and looking at sites like this will give you insight into what’s happening.

That’s a lot of reading, and we know you’re undoubtedly busy, but be sure to spend some quality self-education time adding to your cumulative local and national market knowledge.

For additional blog posts (new posts every Monday) from the C4D Crew, check out this page.

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