Monthly Archives: August 2009

What better investment in your family than home ownership.

But as you earn your paycheck each month, you quickly realize that sometimes approximately 40% of your monthly hard earned paycheck goes towards paying off your mortgage and it feels worse as most of that is just for the mortgage interest payments.

There is nothing wrong with that except

A big chunk of your payments goes towards paying off interest rather than your mortgage principal, especially in the early years of your mortgage.

And before you even realize it you are set up to pay for your mortgage for a lifetime. It could take anywhere from 30 to 40 years to repay the mortgage debt.

And what happens when you are closing on towards those retirement years?

Your mortgage could last longer than your retirement and then your kids get to inherit your home. But wait they will inherit the mortgage on your home and will be burdened with this as well.

You may think you are donating the home but the sad reality is that you are donating over mortgage debt.

You have worked hard your entire life and been conservative and responsible with your money.

Is there anything else you could do to get rid of the mortgage burden before retirement or send your kids to college without changing your current lifestyle?

Well I am excited to show you a new approach to this below.

We will make an assumption that your largest monthly bill is

Your mortgage.

You dont have to pay all the interest that is due on the mortgage.

By applying and using a Mortgage Free For Life Accelerator system , you will be able to slash your mortgage 10-12 years faster, reducing your interest burden without changing your lifestyle.

By applying the methods of the mortgage accelerator, this is the easiest way pay off your mortgage.

By definition, mortgage acceleration is the practice off accelerating the pay down of your mortgage in record time and changing the time it takes to pay off your mortgage principal.

The fastest way to pay off your mortgage early and reverse the payment of interest is to apply extra payments each month to your mortgage.

Most of us dont have the ability to make extra payments and have little wiggle room in our budgets each month. So this is where the mortgage acceleration steps in. Without spending more you can eliminate your mortgage payment.

It reverses your monthly payment to your mortgage. Instead of your money being applied to interest, the banks automatically apply more towards your principal whilst keeping the payment the same.

And the biggest benefits of all, your mortgage could be paid off in less than 10 years. Imagine saving thousands.

This is how mortgage acceleration can be applied to your situation and change your financial life.

By living debt free in retirement you have the option to travel and set the way for your kids to follow your good financial habits. They never have to work just to pay off debt.

So How Does This Work And What Is The True Cost Of The Mortgage Accelerator?

Whats Required For Mortgage Free For Life Accelerator Program

- Your Property needs to be in your personal name

- Ability to qualify for a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC)

– Your total expenses for the months is less than or not more than your monthly income

Is The Mortgage Free For Life Accelerator Only For A Fixed Rate Mortgage?

A mortgage acceleration program can work for most types of mortgages for example ARM and an interest only mortgage.

We all know that a fixed rate mortgage adjusts after a period of time. So lets assume you have a seven year adjustment on your ARM. Now lets say you refinance to a 30 year mortgage. So it will take you 37 years to pay off your mortgage assuming you dont move or apply for a new ARM. With the mortgage acceleration program you could end up paying off that mortgage in 15 years instead of 37 years. Imagine the saving for yourself.

And the benefits are the same for an interest only mortgage. Imagine the ability to pay off an interest only loan in under 30 years.

And heres what could happen when your mortgage is fully paid off in retirement. You could borrow from your home equity in the case of retirement emergencies and the worst case, you end taking on a reverse mortgage. The reverse mortgage will give you the option tap into additional cash if ever you run out of retirement funds.

Once you fully understand the benefits of the mortgage acceleration program, one suggestion is to get started immediately. Interest accumulates over time and the faster you are able to accelerate the pay down of the mortgage, the earlier your mortgage could be paid off.

Ways To Eliminate Your Mortgage Early

1.Bi Weekly Payoff Plan

A Biweekly mortgage payoff plan has been around for over 13 years and is a widely accepted method of paying of making mortgage payments bi-weekly instead of monthly. In this way you end up with one extra mortgage payment each year.

Depending on your financial institution, your bank may not be able to accept bi-weekly payments. The best way to overcome this is to transfer bi-weekly payments to a savings account and pay the mortgage bill at the end of each month. At year end you will end up with one extra payment in your savings account which you should designate to mortgage principal.

2. Contribute More To Mortgage Principal Each Month

The fastest and easiest way to pay off your mortgage in rapid time is to pay extra each month towards mortgage principal. Any extra payments early in the life of the mortgage will significantly reduce the interest costs and will allow you mortgage to be paid off early. When making extra payment towards your mortgage principal, make sure you write on the face of the check that this payment must be applied towards principal only. At times, the banks will gladly accept the extra payment and apply a portion of this towards interest if not clearly specified that it must be applied to principal.

Types of Mortgage Acceleration Programs

The choices of Mortgage Free For Life Accelerator programs can sometimes be very confusing. The may be described in various names such as accelerator, acceleration, equity, equity genie, mma, and other similar names.

So what are the disadvantages of a Mortgage Free For Life Accelerator Program:

1.Your line of credit or HELOC may get frozen by the bank.

Due to the credit problem in the market banks may automatically value your home and freeze your HELOC limit. This is automatically done by the banks computer system. If your HELOC is automatically frozen you get an appraiser to revalue your home and ask for a second valuation. In this way you can get your HELOC unfrozen. As an alternative you could use a credit card to pay off your mortgage faster.

2.Your Mortgage Broker May Tell You, You Have To Refinance Your Mortgage…To Discover More click on the links below.

I had no idea what a 1031 exchange was when I first heard of it, but have since learned some more about it. This article is intended to help others who have no idea what a 1031 exchange is, but would like to know. I will do my best to write this in a clear, easy to understand manner.

It is important to understand the purpose behind a 1031 exchange in order to understand it. The point of using 1031 exchange is to defer the immediate taxes on the proceeds gained from the sale of property. This can be done legally if you plan to immediately reinvest those proceeds into another piece of property. The reason you would want to do this is so that you do not lose any portion of the equity you have built up in a property simply because you essentially exchanged one property for another.

Now that you understand the reason for a 1031 exchange let’s talk about the workings of a 1031 exchange. To get started, you will need to hire a professional QI (Qualified Intermediary). It is required by the law. These are companies that are an independent 3rd party whose job it is to make sure that you follow the rules. They also hold the gain from the sale of the original property until you reinvest it into the replacement property.

There are certain things that will qualify and what will not qualify for a 1031 exchange. 1031 exchanges involve the sell and purchase of property. Most typically, this refers to property like single family rental units, multi-family rental units, office buildings, storage facilities, raw land, retail shopping centers, and industrial facilities. There are specific exclusions from 1031 exchanges, such as stocks and bonds. You should ask your QI about other exclusions before making any decisions on a 1031 exchange.

One of the main factors is that the properties need to be of like kind. Like kind is referring to the nature or characters of properties, not the grade or quality. Another factor in 1031 exchanges is that the properties must be held for productive use in trade or business or for investment.

Keep in mind that this involves the IRS (1031 actually refers to the number of IRS code that this comes from) and as such, of course will have a lot of rules and regulations. You should seek professional consultation on the specifics pertaining to your circumstances. However, there general guidelines will help you to understand some of the basics.

1- The value of the new property must be of equal or greater value than the one you are selling. 2- The equity of the new property must also be of equal or greater value than the one you are selling. 3- The debt on the new property must be equal or greater to the debt on the property that you are selling. 4- ALL of the net profits from the property that you are selling must be used to acquire the new property.

There are also some timeline issues that you will want to be aware of. First, in order to successfully qualify for a 1031 exchange, you will need to identify a new property by the 45th calendar day from the time of the closing on the relinquished property. (There are guidelines about that too – see a professional) Second, you need to close on the new property by the 180th calendar day from the time of the closing on the relinquished property. Hopefully this helps. Please call a professional when you are getting ready to consider a 1031 exchange.

If you decide to hire a professional property management company to manage your property then the profitability of your property all depends on whether you hire a good or bad property management company.

The right property management company will make your rental home a profitable experience. The wrong property management company could cost you thousands of dollars a year in rental income and repairs from a bad tenant.

One of the biggest mistakes owners make is that they just pick a property management company out of the phone book without first doing research on the company.

Don’t hire one of those big nationwide corporations that sell property. They do property management because they want to be the first company you think of when you want to sell your property. They lose money on property management, but make money when you are ready to sell your home. It’s never a good idea to go with a property management company that is trying to get you to sell your home because that’s where they make the big money. You want a company that specializes only in property management and nothing else. You don’t want a big corporation either. You want a small, local expert that has lived in your city for at least 20 years. You want a property management company that specializes in your local market only.

Try and get three references from the property management company. Call those references and make sure they do not know anyone personally at the property management company. Ask them how they like the company. Find out if there has ever been problems with getting paid from the management company. Ask them what they dislike about the company.

Use the Internet to make sure the property management company and its employees have the necessary licenses and that they are in good standing. Most states require property managers to have a real estate license and/or a property manager’s license. For example, the state of California requires property managers to have a real estate license.

Ask about the company’s insurance. They need to be insured. The firm should have professional liability insurance and general liability insurance on its employees. Also, the firm should have a bond on the employee in case of employee theft, after all, you have a right to know this because it is the employees who will be handling your deposit and monthly rent money and if they commit fraud, you want full reimbursement.

Make sure you ask the prospective property management company the right questions.

Consider asking the following questions:

1 – Can you show me a list of what management services you provide?

2 – Do you sell homes?

3 – Can you tell me exactly when I should expect a monthly check or deposit into my bank account for the rent you collected?

4 – Where will you advertise my home? How much will it cost me to advertise there?

5 – How quickly do you, and what is your procedure for, handling maintenance requests from renters?

6 – What is the name of the person who will be managing my property? What are their qualifications? Are they legally licensed? How many properties does this person currently manage?

7 – Can you give me three references that I can call? I would like three people to contact that are clients of yours and that are managed by the same person will be managing my property.

8 – If maintenance is provided in-house or by an affiliated firm, do you only charge the actual cost of labor and materials without any surcharges, markups, administrative fees, or other such add-ons? Can I opt out of your in-house maintenance division and have repairs done by external companies only?

9 – Do you get volume discounts with your vendors and do you pass on that savings to clients without any markups?

10 – How do you handle late charges? Who gets to keep the late charges? If you keep the late charges, will you come down on my monthly management fee? If I get to keep the late charges, are you charging me a higher monthly management fee?

11 – Do you carry Errors and Omissions coverage of at least $500,000, plus general liability coverage of at least $2,000,000?

12 – Do you have at least a $500,000 bond and a forgery and alterations insurance policy of $25,000 or more for all your employees?

13 – Do you co-mingle different owners’ funds into one account? Did you know this is illegal in most states because of pyramid type schemes that property management companies have run in the past? Do you agree that keeping your owners money separate is important? If you deposit all owners’ money into a single bank account, do you keep owners’ money separate on paper so that Joe isn’t paying Sally’s expenses?

Have you been looking at buying new construction? A new house may be extremely desirable-you’re the first to live in the house and everything is new. That said, it’s up to you to make a lot of decisions about this new home. If you make the right decisions, you may have a beautiful home for you and your family that may have great resale value down the road.

1. Location, Location, Location. Location is one thing you have to get right the first time. Once you purchase it, you really can’t relocate the house. Be confident that you’re in a neighborhood where you want to live and which will give you resale opportunities down the road. While nobody’s resources are unlimited, you may want to consider a slightly nicer area over a larger home to place yourself in a better and more desirable community. This may not only help you today at 10 or 20 years from now when you look to resell.

2. Decide What You can Afford. Work with a qualified mortgage professional to help you assess your budget and spending capabilities. You may want to work with a mortgage broker yet; you may be able to work with your local bank to help determine your needs even before you’re ready to move forward. Ultimately, it’s not what you pay for the house-it’s what you can afford and monthly payments between the mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance and living expenses. Your credit score, income and down payment have a huge result on these numbers. For example, new construction in Commack New York will cost between $1 million and $1.1 million. The amount of monthly payments will change wildly depending on the down payment and credit worthiness of the borrower.

3. Look at the Experience of the Builder. Does the builder complete communities one house at a time? Does the builder have years of experience or is this one of his or her first projects? While a individual builder can be slightly cheaper, you get what you pay for. That builder can be out of business in six months or unable to finish the home in the time allowed. New houses should come with warranties, and if the builder is not a random two years from now, who do you turn to? An experienced builder who works on multiple homes will have bigger crews and should be able to work at a consistant pace. For the individual builder, construction can stop if he is waiting for a painter or electrician, whereas a larger builder will have additional crew members available.

4. What features you want in your house ? Look at what’s selling well in the market. If most houses use central air conditioning and a full basement and the homes you are considering buying do not, it can be a bargain today, but will be hard to resell in the future. We’re not suggesting that you need every bell and whistle that is of no interest to you, but as you choose a new construction, be sure it has the “essentials.”

5. Look at the property. Is it a large enough piece for you to live with? Just like the location, you can’t change the size and shape of your property. True, you may landscape and grade it, but that doesn’t fix the basic size and shape issues. One acre of property is great, but if 80% of the house is on a heavily wooded slope that is unusable, you are really left with 2/10 of an acre. The more available space you have, the greater benefit you can get from it and the simplier it should be to resell.

Keep these tips in mind as you start to look at new construction, and you should be able to narrow choices to one which will suit your needs for long-term and help you down the road when the time comes to sell.

Many buildings become worn down and dilapidated over time if they are not properly taken care of and then become unsafe to be inside and uneconomic to repair. Most of the time the ground that the old property sits on is worth more than the property itself, and so it is important to safely and efficiently take down the old buildings so that new construction projects can get underway.

Demolition is the taking down of such buildings and allows the materials taken from the old construct to be reused. These recycled materials are so highly sought after within the construction industry that whatever can be resold, is cleaned, packaged and put back in the construction marketplace. In some cases, tight planning regulations state that the new building must be made from exactly the same brick as the old one so as to waste as little material as possible.

An obvious factor that is taken very seriously on any demolition site is health and safety. The safety of the workers on site is obviously the number one priority and they must all wear industry approved hard hats, steel toe-cap boots, hi visibility / reflective jackets and where appropriate, ear and eye protection. Also, if asbestos is found on the site, then before any workers enter, it must be decontaminated under strict conditions.

Nearly all of the materials taken from the wreckage of a demolished building will be reused on a new building such as bricks, steel, slate and tiles etc that are still in good condition, however the materials that cant be used will be sold for scrap, and put to another use some time down the line, but very little, if anything at all is ever wasted.

How much it will cost to demolish a building greatly depends on the man-power required to sort the raw materials for recycling. If a big brick building needs to be taken down and the bricks need to be cleaned and stacked on pallets, then the cost will be considerably higher than that of a concrete building being pulled down by a crusher.

Finding a truly high quality demolition company can be a long process. The sort of company you should look for is one with a well established track record and a workforce with plenty of experience in order to have your demolition carried out with full confidence and competence.

The Champions Club is one of Florida’s finest gated golf communities. Featuring the 18-hole Championship course, more than half of the 368 home sites are located along the Fox Hollow Golf Club. The remaining lots have beautiful views of lakes and woodland preservations.

As the final design in his series, world famous designer Robert Trent Jones, Sr, created the Fox Hollow golf course for The Champions Club. The masterful layout of this par-71 course is a 7,138-yard long course has played host to qualifying rounds of the U.S. Amateur Publinx and the Senior PGA Tours GTE Suncoast Classic. With it’s ambitious fairways and cavernous white sand traps, the course horseshoes through a 15 acre lake which is incorporated into four holes that make for score killing water hazards.

If quality is what you are seeking, then The Champions Club features seven Mediterranean themed villages built by some of the most respected construction companies in the Tampa Bay area. The Champions Club is located near the $1.5 billion master-planned community of Trinity.

Featuring a 10,000 square foot, 4 million dollar clubhouse with Mediterranean inspired architecture that carries over into the seven villages. The inside of the clubhouse has Tuscan columns, wrought-iron chandeliers, arched windows, travertine marble floors, vaulted and coffered cypress wood ceilings.

Other features in the clubhouse include a fully equipped fitness center with spa, massage rooms and luxury mens and womens locker rooms. Outside you’ll find a 75-foot competition swimming pool and whirlpool spa lined with chaises and umbrella tables, a beautifully landscaped sun deck, and two tennis courts.

Located about 60 minutes away from the Tampa International Airport, traveling to The Champions’ Club could be easier even for those who live and work primarily on the West Coast or in the Northeast.

Closing Thoughts

Gated communities in Florida are plentiful. It makes finding a Florida gated community to purchase a home in very difficult. With amenities like the one’s at The Champions’ Club in Trinity couldn’t make the decision easier.

You should know the problem of slippage and how to avoid it if you want to successfully trade the news. Slippage occurs when the price you intend to enter or exit the market is different from your actual transacted price. Currency prices tend to move very fast during highly volatile market conditions. The risk of slippage is usually very high when trading the news.

Placing stop loss or market entry orders under fast moving market conditions do not guarantee anything. These orders do get filled but mostly at different prices than you had intended. Slippage is the biggest problem when the market moves fast. There is no way you can avoid it. Some of it is genuine. During times when too many orders are placed by the traders, most forex brokers cannot offset these orders in the interbank market due to the small amounts involved. They have to take the opposite positions themselves. This gives them the chance to take the excuse of slippage.

Most of the brokers had taken the opposite position themselves as the fast moving market did not allow them to offset these orders in the interbank market. As the broker has the opposite position, if you lose, the broker wins and makes profit. The broker is in fact trading against you now. Many forex brokers will wait till after the big market move is over. Then they will fill your entry order. Sometimes, these entry orders may even get filled past your stop loss or profit target. This means that you would be left with immediate net loss.

Slippage is a trick that many forex brokers use in order to make profit by filling your position with a negative spread. Before filling your entry order with wide slippage, many brokers will fill your stop loss or take profit order. The wider the slippage, the fatter the profits the broker is going to make. Imagine the number of orders placed with each forex broker and the amount of profits the broker makes from one such single event.

Lets take an example. Suppose you have placed your long entry stop for EUR/USD at 1.2564. Your profit limit is 1.2594. The forex broker may first fill your take profit at 1.2594 and then fill your long entry stop at 1.2604 with a 40 pips slippage.

You were confident that you would make a winning trade. If the orders had been filled at the prices you wanted, your trade would have resulted in a profit. But now you have a net realized loss. If the trade goes against you, the forex broker may fill your stop loss order first and then fill your entry order with slippage after that so as to widen their profits. With slippage you cannot predict anything what the broker will do with you.

Suppose, you had placed your long entry stop at 1.2564. You place your stop loss at 1.2544. The broker could first fill your stop loss at 1.2544. Then fill your long entry stop at 1.2594 with a slippage of 30 pips. You now have a net loss of 50 pips due to slippage instead of planned 20 pips loss.

You should know as an individual trader that your orders will be kept pending till you get stopped out or your profit limit is reached during the release of news when the market moves fast. The more you stand to lose and the more the forex broker stands to make a profit, the larger the slippage you experience. Some forex brokers add slippage to any of your orders to increase their profits during times of fast moving markets when the volatility is high.

Many forex traders readily accept the risk of slippage. Most news traders consider slippage as one of the realities of trading the news. However, you as a forex trader should know that slippage can eat up a huge chunk of your profits. In the end slippage can affect your overall profit and loss. Read more in the next article how you can overcome the problem of slippage through the use of stop-limit entry order.

Real estate social marketing has increased for real estate professionals who want to utilize the web for marketing their property listings and business due to the boom of the internet. Real estate marketing has become more popular with video marketing as it is a very eye catching medium of advertising. The real estate proprietors can display their property listings in the form of online virtual tours and in the form of video content that can attract potential real estate consumers. The aspect of video editing for effective video marketing is also important. Some high-quality and very superior video editing resources are Camtasia and Sony Vegas.

As a video editing resource Camtasia is very popular. It produces HD-quality video content for the internet and for mobile devices. It does not have any tweaks or interruptions. It generates sparkling clear videos with file sizes that are compact in nature. With one single click, Camtasia has the ability to record all the activities on your desktop. This improves the compilations and saving of all your files.

This resource is also an important video editing tool. Camtasia enables real estate professionals to convert their real estate videos into pages on the internet. This method is helpful since the traffic can be directly shifted there. As web surfers usually respond better to videos rates of such conversion is seen as usually high. This is really helpful because the surfers can find a strong connection and are interested too since they can see as well as hear all that you have to say and show to them.

With Camtasia for video editing, you can also produce multi media presentations that incorporate all senses since using all senses leads top an increase in sales. Many skeptical customers can also be easily impressed with this method. Your main aim should be to create a video that clearly demonstrates the utility of your product.

Another popular and effective software of video editing is Sony Vegas. It has the reputation of being a good program. It has more power and potential than other freebies. With updated features and benefits, many realtors have utilized this software to generate their best videos.

The collection of Vegas Pro 9, the latest offer of Sony Vegas incorporates two potential applications that function effortlessly together for providing an intuitive and efficient environment for broadcast and video professionals of various streams and fields. This method of video editing is speedily gaining priority over many others available in the market.

Sony Vegas in the form of a detailed suite provides the most progressive and vigorous platform for content formation and production. With superior effects processing, complementary editorial tools, wide format support, incomparable audio support, the Pro collection of Vegas can be the best way to improve and increase the smooth flow of your work. Tasks like acquisition to the delivery, and features like the basic camera to the Blu-Ray Disc, it’s all available in this collection. Thus Vegas Pro 9 provides one with all requirements that is expected of a good video editing software.

Therefore with the above-mentioned software for video editing, you can achieve outstanding results for your online real estate social marketing. With these software you can take your video marketing to greater heights in terms of success. Video editing is essential for good promotion of real estate listings. You can consider some other software as well if they match your requirements and budget.

REO properties are one of the hottest ways to invest in real estate right now. Banks do not need to, nor do they want to; hold onto these properties for any longer than they have to. This is why, REO properties can be had for nearly any reasonable offer. Of course, there are many things to consider about these properties.

You should complete a thorough inspection of the property which should include the major structures of the home. The roof, sub flooring, basement, plumbing and wiring will need to be inspected.

Make sure to do a detailed title search pertaining to the property. There are some property titles that have tax liens and this tax can be forwarded to the buyer of the property.

Primarily you will need to know what the property should be paid for and what its value is after repair.

Use REOGoldMiner.com to find your deals and InvestorCompsOnline.com to determine the current market value of the property you want to buy as well as those of similar homes in the area. You will save time if you carry out a little research prior to making bids on the properties in question.

So what should you look for to accurately analyze the data from InvestorCompsOnline.com? Compare properties using these top three items: year built, room count, and square footage. When looking at the prior sales provided, compare your property to sales with those similarities. This will give you the best view of what similar properties have been selling for as is and ARV.

Investing in real estate is not only about selling a property and making money from it. It often requires some research in order to evaluate its value and to best price the property. By using REOGoldMiner.com and InvestorCompsOnline.com, you will have access to the best REO deals and be able to learn how to set the price for it to buy or sell.

Buyer representation really started to gain acceptance in the real estate community in the early 1990′s. For those of you who might remember, we as real estate agents would put buyers in our cars, drive them around and show them homes, possibly take them to lunch then out the next day and show them more homes and so on.

During this whole time the agent was representing the seller. The agent had never met the sellers of the homes they were showing these buyers, but yet those were the laws. The buyers had no idea and assumed that the agent represented their best interests.

The real estate laws have changed but in the best interests of the buyer or seller, whomever the agent represents. Real Estate professionals now use a form called an “Agency Disclosure”. This form should be signed by the party to the transaction PRIOR to writing an offer on a home. This will assure the buyer the agent negotiates an offer in the buyer’s best interests.

Commission to a closed transaction is paid by the seller. Some so called savvy buyers think by dealing directly with the agent for the seller no other agent needs to be involved and therefore the buyer has a better opportunity in negotiations of a contract and commissions are more likely to be reduced by the listing agent. Since the listing agent represents the seller, then the listing agent has a fiduciary duty to the seller. What this means is the listing agent will try to get the best “deal” for the seller not the buyer. If the agent represents both sides to a transaction there cannot be any discussions on price, opinion of value or any recommendations to the buyer as to what price to offer on a home.

Being represented “exclusively” by your agent is crucial in a real estate transaction. Here’s a good example; you call the listing agent off a sign you see in a front yard and ask them to show you the property. You preview the home, love it and ask to make an offer. When you discuss offer price, you tell the listing agent you would be willing to go higher but you want to start at a lower price. When the listing agent presents the offer to the seller, they can tell their seller you are willing to go higher. So the seller immediately counters your offer with a higher price.

Probably the biggest misunderstanding or misconception of representation is with brand new model home communities. Ever seen the sign in a new home sales office that says “Buyer must be accompanied by their real estate agent on their first visit”? That sign is there for a reason. If you are not escorted by a real estate agent on your first visit then the builder will not allow you to be represented. The salesperson works for and represents the builder/seller and will try to get the builder/seller the highest price possible for their homes.

As a buyer, always consider hiring a real estate professional that will exclusively represent you and have the agent take you to the model homes on your first visit. Model home sales offices will not allow an agent to represent the buyer if the agent does not escort them on their first visit.

Buyer’s agents use a real estate form in their business called a “Buyer Broker Exclusive Employment Agreement”. Many buyers tend to shy away from signing this disclosure form upfront, but it really protects the buyer and buyer only. It’s not an agreement that forces the buyer to purchase a home but rather an agreement in writing that the agent agrees to “exclusively” represent (look out for their best interests and work for the buyer making sure they get the best possible price for the home) the buyer when they do decide to purchase.