Alisha Pearson, REALTOR House 2 Home Team's Blog

5 Things to do Before Putting Your Home on the Market

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 21:08:21 -0800

5 Things to do Before Putting Your Home on the Market

1. Have a pre-sale home inspection. Be proactive by arranging for a pre-sale home inspection. An inspector will be able to give you a good indication of the trouble areas that will stand out to potential buyers, and you'll be able to make repairs before open houses begin.

2. Organize and clean. Pare down clutter and pack up your least-used items, such as large blenders and other kitchen tools, out-of-season clothes, toys, and exercise equipment. Store items off-site or in boxes neatly arranged in the garage or basement. Clean the windows, carpets, walls, lighting fixtures, and baseboards to make the house shine.

3. Get replacement estimates. Do you have big-ticket items that are worn our or will need to be replaced soon, such your roof or carpeting? Get estimates on how much it would cost to replace them, even if you don't plan to do it yourself. The figures will help buyers determine if they can afford the home, and will be handy when negotiations begin.

4. Find your warranties. Gather up the warranties, guarantees, and user manuals for the furnace, washer and dryer, dishwasher, and any other items that will remain with the house.

5. Spruce up the curb appeal. Pretend you're a buyer and stand outside of your home. As you approach the front door, what is your impression of the property? Do the lawn and bushes look neatly manicured? Is the address clearly visible? Are pretty flowers or plants framing the entrance? Is the walkway free from cracks and impediments?

Alisha Pearson, REALTOR®

318-481-1756

www.homesforsaleincenla.com

10 Ways to Prepare for Homeownership

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 19:34:45 -0800

10 Ways to Prepare for Homeownership

1. Decide what you can afford. Generally, you can afford a home equal in value to between two and three times your gross income.

2. Develop your home wish list. Then, prioritize the features on your list.

3. Select where you want to live. Compile a list of three or four neighborhoods you'd like to live in, taking into account items such as schools, recreational facilities, area expansion plans, and safety.

4. Start saving. Do you have enough money saved to qualify for a mortgage and cover your down payment? Ideally, you should have 20 percent of the purchase price saved as a down payment. Also, don't forget to factor in closing costs. Closing costs - including taxes, attorney's fee, and transfer fees - average between 2 and 7 percent of the home price.

5. Get your credit in order. Obtain a copy of your credit report to make sure it is accurate and to correct any errors immediately. A credit report provides a history of your credit, bad debts, and any late payments.

6. Determine your mortgage qualifications. How large of mortgage do you qualify for? Also, explore different loan options - such as 30-year or 15-year fixed mortgages or ARMs - and decide what's best for you.

7. Get preapproved. Organize all the documentation a lender will need to preapprove you for a loan. You might need W-2 forms, copies of at least one pay stub, account numbers, and copies of two to four months of bank or credit union statements.

8. Weigh other sources of help with a down payment. Do you qualify for any special mortgage or down payment assistance programs? Check with your state and local government on down payment assistance programs for first-time buyers. Or, if you have an IRA account, you can use the money you've saved to buy your fist home without paying a penalty for early withdrawal.

9. Calculate the costs of homeownership. This should include property taxes, insurance, maintenance and utilities, and association fees, if applicable.

10. Contact a REALTOR®. Call ME!!!

Alisha Pearson, REALTOR®

318-481-1756

www.homesforsaleincenla.com

What Exactly Is a Credit Score, Anyway?

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 12:01:51 -0800

What Exactly Is a Credit Score?

If you ask your neighbor, your friends or your banker what a credit score is, you're likely to get all kinds of answers.

-Your credit score is basically a number method used by banks/lenders to assess your ability and likelihood to pay back your debt. Most refer to this as creditworthiness.

-Credit scores are based on multiple pieces of criteria, including your payment history (how often are you late on payments), amount of outstanding debt (how many items you have financed and make monthly pymts), length of credit history (how long you have had those items financed), use of new credit and types of credit used.

-Credit scores are based on credit report information, which is supplied to the companies by the Credit Bureau.

-Credit scores come from one or all of the three largest credit bureaus in the U.S. (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion).

-Credit scores range between 300 and 990, depending on the scoring system and algorithms used (i.e., FICO, NextGen, CE Score and VantageScore). 300 being VERY low and 990 being VERY high!

Before there were credit scores, a man's word was the primary factor used to evaluate a borrower's credit worthiness and/or risk. This was very subjective and created a lot of variability in the results. Many lending institutions spent an enormous amount of resources training employees on how to observe consumer credit behavior as the basis for judging risk when lending money (Basically if you looked like you could repay the debt, you got the loan). Not only was this a slow process, but due to human error, it was also inconsistent and unreliable.

It was not until the 1980s that scores were standardized using a point system that scored the primary variables found on an individual's credit record. This newer system helped to eliminate much of the subjectivity and variability that had existed with other attempts at standardization.

However, this process was still connected to the spontaneous measurements of the consumer's credit report and did not consider the actual payment behaviors of a consumer.

Credit scoring took a major step forward when statistical models began using combinations of credit data. These next generation computer "predictability" models were designed to include payment information from thousands of consumers and were calculated based on a complex mathematical algorithm that generates a credit score the moment a report is ordered. There are literally trillions of score combinations used in the calculations. When combined with computer applications, scoring models have made the process of granting credit extremely efficient and much more objective. Although far from perfect, these models help facilitate commerce by expediting consumers' ability to get the credit they need in a far more efficient and effective manner than the systems previously used.

Alisha Pearson, REALTOR®

318-481-1756

www.homesforsaleincenla.com

Investment Properties in Pineville Louisiana

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 22:59:16 -0800

At any given time there can be a substantial amount of Investment Properties in Pineville Louisiana available for purchase. Investors can find a multitude of options regarding price and location. As THE local real estate expert for Pineville, LA, I stay current on the CenLa investor market. Currently there are more than 20 Investment Properties ready for a home makeover.

One of the top reasons investors choose Investment Properties In Pineville Louisiana is because once the makeover is complete, buyers can purchase the home with no money down using the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) Rural Development Loan Guarantee Program. There is a large percentage of local buyers that choose a 100% Loan as their best option for financing. This equates to a property that is easy to sell for the investor because in essence the buyer will need no out of pocket funds to purchase.

Have you been thinking of purchasing an Investment Property In Pineville Louisiana? Wait no more! The time to buy is NOW!!

Need a local real estate expert to help guide your real estate goals with your best interest in mind? Let me make the buying and selling process simple for you by putting my experience and expert technical knowledge to work for you. Don't waste time and money on costly or critical mistakes. Contact me today at 318-481-1756 for ALL your real estate needs!

Alisha Pearson, REALTOR®

318-481-1756

www.homesforsaleincenla.com

Take Control Over Your Costs!

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 13:02:51 -0800

Take full control over your costs in the new year by making sure you never pay too much for all of those tech gadgets or products you need to run your business.........EVER AGAIN!

Check the cost: Before you buy, use the search engines to find the lowest cost. PriceGrabber.com, Google.com/products, and Nextag.com. Or if you're at a store, use your smartphone to check whether it's a deal. Bar-code-scanner apps, such as RedLaser and ShopSavvy, allow you to instantly compare prices of the store with those online.

Change the font: Stop using 12-point Times New Roman to print all of your documents and try Arial. ShopSmart found that using 12-point TImes New Roman font resulted in 27 percent more pages per ink cartridge than using the more ink-friendly option of Arial. Calibri was another ink-saving font, whereas Tahoma and Verdana were found to be ink wasters.

Phone coupons: Get coupons delivered right to your phone. Coupon Sherpa, MobiQPon, and major retailers are now jumping on the bandwagon of offering coupons for discounts delivered right to your phone.

Become a friend and get insider deals: Add some companies to your social networking connections to find more deals. For example, "like" a company on Facebook or sign up for e-mail alerts on their Web site to be notified about special sales and freebies.

Alisha Pearson, REALTOR®

318-481-1756

www.homesforsaleincenla.com

Marketing Smarter in 2011 Means Making More Money

Sat, 01 Jan 2011 21:02:40 -0800

Marketing Smarter in 2011 Means Making More Money

The smartest way to make more money in real estate in 2011 is to MARKET SMARTER. Here are some tips for spending marketing time more effectively.

· Don't wait for the phone to ring. Get away from the desk and devote your time and energy to less passive activities like holding first-time buyer seminars, knocking on doors, calling sellers who have let contracts expire and wooing FSBOs. (Step out of your comfort zone)

· Be a specialist. Pick a niche or two and work it!!! Common niches include geographical farms, new homes, estates, and relocation, etc

· Work your farm. If you haven't closed at least four transactions in the last two years from the area you have been farming, replace it with something more profitable.

· Stop being a secret agent. Networking should produce leads. If yours isn't, then you are not doing it right!

· Tidy up your database. If you have people in your database who haven't produced in the last 24 months, DELETE them!!!

Alisha Pearson, REALTOR®

318-481-1756

www.homesforsaleincenla.com

Happy New Year!

Sat, 01 Jan 2011 12:50:30 -0800

Wishing you and yours a very Happy New Year!

Alisha Pearson, REALTOR®

318-481-1756

www.homesforsaleincenla.com

Getting Your Finances "Right" in 2011

Thu, 30 Dec 2010 12:04:44 -0800

On January 1, when you are still excited about your New Year's resolution, coordinate a family meeting. All family members must stay involved, yes, even children. Children can help save the family money by simply turning off lights when they are not in use and monitoring cell phone usage and charges.

January 1st-14th: Brainstorm on both your short-term and long-term goals. Short-term goals could occur within the next three to six months, and long term could be within the next few years. Make sure goals, both long and short, stay realistic!

Specific - Try to be as specific as possible. For instance, if your goal is to "save money," try to make it specific by saying "I want to save money in order to buy a new car."
Measurable - Another tip is to make the goal measurable. One way to do this is to identify an amount that you would like to get to.
Attainable - If goals are not attainable, you will easily be discouraged and will maybe give up.
Realistic - You will want to make sure that you are being realistic. For instance, if I had a goal of "Never eat lunch out while at work," this might not be realistic or possible. But if I changed it to "Eat out lunch once per week while at work," I am far more likely to stick with it.
Timely - Think of a time frame and a deadline for the goal to be accomplished. This will help you to stay focused and motivated.

The month of January: January 1st come up with a projected budget of your monthly expenses, breaking them into different categories: Groceries, clothing, entertainment, dining out, utilities, household bills, debts, etc.

Then, for the entire month of January, hold onto EVERY receipt. Each week, go through the receipts together, and place them in to the different categories that you have identified. Each month, tally up the totals, and compare what you have spent to what you had projected. People tend to spend ten to twenty percent over what they anticipated and projected spending. This will help you to identify areas you may need to make adjustments or cut out altogether.

The month of February: Start making some cutbacks. Make sure to stay realistic with this and do not cut out everything. Gradually make these changes to keep yourself motivated and excited.

Keep tracking your expenses. Use a notebook and compare at the end of the month. Any money that was saved possibly put in a family bank account. Make sure to share the savings with each family member so they will see this is working. Each month, have another family meeting and celebrate your successes by doing something fun together as a family. This celebration does not have to be expensive. It could be renting a video and having "Movie Night."

Get through the first 60 days of attaining your goals and tracking your progress, and the next 300 days will find you saving, budgeting and tracking your way to financial success in 2011.

Alisha Pearson, REALTOR®

www.homesforsaleincenla.com

Alisha Pearson, REALTOR®

318-481-1756

www.homesforsaleincenla.com

Viewers Have Choices: Tips for Keeping Video Simple

Thu, 30 Dec 2010 11:45:34 -0800

Did you know that in the early years of television, TVs didn't have remote controls? You actually had to get up to change channels. There wasn't even a mute button. And speaking of channels, there were only three-ABC, NBC and CBS.

Today, it's a different world. Viewers have hundreds of options at their instant command. If something is boring, viewers move quickly on to something else in a split second. The same holds true of online video-with one exception. Viewers have literally millions of options. Unless you capture and hold someone's attention, they're gone in flash.

So what's the bottom line? If you're currently using video, or even thinking about using video to market yourself online, there are a few lessons to be learned.

First, quality content is one of the best forms of advertising. Why? Because people don't have to watch it, they want to watch it. It gets their attention because you're giving them something of value in return for their time. But you may be thinking, "easier said than done."

While creative programming can be a challenge, we have a suggestion-think local. Take a look in your own backyard for items of interest. Local market updates are a perfect way to keep in touch with your database, featuring information about local interest rates, inventory levels, average time on the market, property values and more.

In other words: information that may be difficult to find elsewhere. Plus, it can be updated every few weeks-giving viewers a reason to keep coming back.

Second, keep it short and simple. A common mistake when producing video is to assume your viewer has the time, or will take the time, to watch your entire presentation. It just isn't true. Their finger is poised on the cursor, so you'd better keep it both brief and relevant. Anything beyond a couple of minutes and you're getting on thin ice.

And finally, don't forget that all important call for action. Invite the viewer to contact you for more information.

Alisha Pearson, REALTOR®

318-481-1756

www.homesforsaleincenla.com

Housing Starts Predicted to Hit a 3-year High

Wed, 29 Dec 2010 17:20:08 -0800

http://www.realtor.org/RMODaily.nsf/pages/News2010122901?OpenDocument

Alisha Pearson, REALTOR®

318-481-1756