Bad Credit Real Estate Investing: Stop Dodging The Bullet & Clean The Gun

If I had a dollar for every email I was sent, message board post I have read, or telephone call I have received asking how to invest with bad credit, I would have retired 10 years ago. If most of these individuals would learn some age old truths, it would make their investing lives so much more productive.

The truth of the matter is, there are ways for a wannabe investor to begin investing with bad credit. There is wholesaling, flipping, subject to investing and a host of other guru related theories and techniques. The ultimate thing that will happen though, at one point or another, is that they will run into a wall where credit will be needed. If they really want to take their investing to the next level, they need to be the ones financing the properties and realizing the nice gains. Are there mortgage companies that will lend to poor credit clients? Sure, as an owner occupant. Try getting a 90-100% ltv loan for an investor property with a poor credit score...It just ain't gonna happen kids! Ah yes, but some wise person will point out that they indeed do have a program that will do this. Great! So, what is the interest rate and how many points are rolled into this and can I hear what the closing costs will be? Exactly my point. These loans, if they do exist, would be so expensive, that most all deals would not work using them.

Why not take a proactive approach and get yourself cleaned up “creditwise” before you attempt to do any investing? Yep, it can be done and yep, it will take some time, but it will make a huge difference in your financial future. By cleaning up your credit first, you will have the time necessary to gain the knowledge and direction that you want to head once you are ready to begin. It will open up a world of opportunities that are now closed off to you due to your credit. Once you make the intelligent decision to restore your credit first, you must then take a closer look at how you should accomplish this.

Let's step back and take a look at the big picture for a minute. Forget all the hype that you hear, both positive and negative, and let's face the facts. There are ways to clean your credit. 90% or more of all credit files have errors and these errors are NOT in your favor. There are also old debts that should drop off due to statue of limitations as far as how long something can be on a report. There are people that had filed a bankruptcy and all of the negative items were not included, there are things listed twice, collection companies that are no longer in business and will not verify the debt. The list goes on and on. The bottom line here is that you need to either learn how to get things removed off of your credit files yourself, or have a competent company that follows the law to the letter, do it for you. Do note that if you are going to do it for yourself, it is much more than sending in letters and waiting for items to magically drop off. You will want to arm yourself with knowledge of the laws: The Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act of 2003, Fair Credit Reporting Act, removal via section 609, the HIPAA and the Fair Debt Collections Practice Act. You will also want to be knowledgeable of what it means to validate a debt, as this is much more than a creditor verifying that they have a debt on record. Validation makes them prove the fact that a debt is owed (used properly, this technique can remove a great deal of items not known to be your debts).

For those individuals that opt to have their credit cleaned by an outside agency, there are a few things that you should consider. Contact the companies and actually interview them. Before you actually begin the questions, see if they are hiding behind the net. Ask them: Will they review your credit reports for free, BEFORE you sign up with them or pay them any money? If they say yes, go on with the following questions:

Do they only send dispute letters to the three credit reporting agencies, or will they dispute directly with creditor, collections agencies and courthouses if necessary? If so, is this at no extra charge?

If they charge a continuous monthly fee, what is their incentive to repair your credit quickly?

How many accounts will they work on at one time?

If you are going to hire a Law Firm, will they be representing you or sending the letters on your behalf?

Do you have to fill out your own disputes on-line?

Do they offer a TRUE 100% money back guarantee?

Do you have 24 hour, 7 day a week access to your account?

Remember...Do not EVER let a credit repair company pull your credit reports for "free"! They do not have a permissible purpose and it will count as an inquiry against you. It will actually LOWER your credit score.

You will be amazed at the amount of so-called professional companies and firms that will fail these questions miserably. Do not give up though. Once you find a company that answers these questions correctly, then guage your comfort level when speaking with them. You will be conversing with them for the next few months, so make sure it's a good fit. You will also want to feel that the company you choose truly has their clients needs as the #1 priority.

Finally, you should remember one main point. There is NO MAGIC BULLET that will clean your credit report overnight. Ask yourself this question: How long have you had bad credit? I would imagine that it has been a year or so if it has been a day. Wouldn't it be crazy to think that it can be erased overnight? It will take some time (3-6 months generally), but it is worth it when done correctly.

Make the right decision, learn a little patience, and get your credit restored before you attempt to enter the real estate game. Take the time to learn what it is you want to gain out of this amazing field, and do it the proper way.

Power Up Your Performance! 6 Sure-fire Strategies

"Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit." Conrad Hilton

1. Get rid of clutter. Too much "stuff" in your office and inside your home clutters your mind, creates confusion and exacerbates stress. Start by cleaning only one area at a time. What items do you have that either need to be donated, sold, or put back where they belong? As you're cleaning and putting things away, say to yourself, "Everything has a place." This is a phrase I often heard by my dad while we cleaned house and it still rings in my ears every time I clean.

What clothes do you have that you haven't worn in a year? Where by some miracle you're hoping to fit into them again? Donate these items to a local charity. What piles of paperwork are lying around that need to be filed? Studies show that 85% of everything that gets filed away never gets looked at again. If this is the case, consider starting an archives file. You'll feel more energized, less stressed and more self-confident when you eliminate clutter.

2. What's going on outside you is a result of what's going on inside you. What self-limiting beliefs do you have about your skills, aptitudes and abilities? Be honest with yourself and write them down. You don't have to share them with anybody. The average person has 50,000 to 60,000 thoughts a day. When we talk to ourselves about ourselves, much of that self-talk is negative. As the saying goes, "How many times in a day do we ‘should' all over ourselves with everything that we should be doing?!" Get rid of the "shoulds." Become more aware of your thoughts, change them into positives, and you'll start achieving more success.

3. Enroll in a sunrise semester. Spend 30 to 60 minutes a day first thing in the morning reading motivational, inspirational or other pertinent information related to your chosen field. Your subconscious mind is most amenable to suggestion FIRST hour upon arising, and that LAST hour before bedtime. As John Wooden once said, "If I am through learning I am through." Stay current and constantly upgrade your skills.

Learn more to earn more and to improve performance. Much of this is stuff we already know. Yet, often we need to hear it again because we don't "do" with what we know. Invest at least 3% of your income in personal and professional books, CD's, e-books and teleseminars. If you're pressed for time listen to CD's in your car on your way to work, picking up the kids, or driving to and from the supermarket. Attend seminars and conferences no matter what the distance. It is worth the investment in keeping you motivated.

4. Become more self-disciplined. The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that successful people make themselves do things unsuccessful people don't want to do. It's that simple. Once you start an important task, discipline yourself to keep going. Focus on it single-mindedly until it's complete.

Be more aware of your every day habits and what distracts you. Make a list of the activities you engage in that are a waste of time. Resolve to eliminate them altogether or delegate them to someone else. Start by determining which activities only you can do. These are the ones you must do. Outsource everything else. The ability to determine where you should spend the majority of your time and then complete those tasks can have more impact on achieving your goals than anything else.

5. To improve performance and productivity work faster. Compete with yourself. Make it a game. Resolve to work more effectively and efficiently throughout your work day. Try arriving to work earlier and leaving a little later. Many business people in my speaking engagements tell me they get so much work accomplished when they arrive to work at the crack of dawn. No one else is in the office and there aren't distractions. Try this at lunch as well. Everyone leaves from noon to one in the afternoon. Cut back on frivolous time wasters such as talking with co-workers around the water cooler and other idle chit chat. This will free up your time for the things you really enjoy, like spending time with your true friends, family and loved ones.

6. Review your values and priorities and make sure your goals are consistent with what's important to you. Otherwise, no matter how much you think you want something, you won't work hard to achieve it if it's not in line with your core values. Write down each individual goal you think you want. Is it consistent with giving you greater peace of mind and happiness?

For example, values that are important to me in terms of work are helping others, freedom, creativity and flexible hours. A corporate job where I'd sit in an office all day would make me unhappy no matter how much it paid. So start by clarifying your values.

Success means many things to different people. In powering up your performance for greater success, first determine what you really want…and why. For example, do you really want a new car out of necessity, or is it to compete with the neighbors next door? No matter how much effort you put into achieving your goals, if they don't fit in with what's really important to you, you'll find ways to procrastinate or sabotage. It's easier to be self-disciplined when you're passionate about something and it fits in with your core values.

The Secret to Negotiating with Creditors like A Pro

So many businesses these days are saddled by overburden some debt, and when debts go unpaid negotiation with creditors becomes a necessary tool for a debt-laden business to survive. Whether you do it on your own or hire a professional, skilled debt negotiators save businesses real money. However, some business debt negotiation succeeds and some fails. Why?

The secret to succeeding in business debt negotiation is in understanding how to best position a debt-troubled company to negotiate a fair-minded settlement with creditors. The use of proper positioning will impress creditors and promote reasonable settlements. Failure to position a company properly will put it at a significant disadvantage with creditors, dooming it to a negotiating “rut”.

In positioning a debt-troubled company, the primary types of variables that are relevant for effective debt negotiation with creditors are economic, credibility, legal, and collection history. Understanding how to use these variables correctly allows a company in serious debt to create a strategy to win the debtor/creditor “negotiation game”. Sound interesting? Read about the variables below.

Economic Variables. Economic variables consist of effective communication and documentation with creditors regarding current cash flow, future earnings potential, assets, guarantees, outstanding business debt loans, security on any debts, liens, judgments, etc. A good negotiator needs to consider that some creditors are in deep need of their money, while others have deeper financial reserves. Proper use of the economic variables results in an informed and interested creditor who is most receptive to communications and offers. Negotiators also need to be prompt and honest. Negotiators who are not knowledgeable about the details of the business they are negotiating for are lost!

Credibility Variables. Having clear goals and adequate resources to settle debts are instrumental. But the best laid plan will be useless without creditor cooperation. This takes a credible negotiator. Open communication with creditors has to be correctly managed by negotiators. High quality information, current information, and frequent communications need to be exchanged and maintained in order to reach equitable debt settlements. Broken promises in the past, lack of clear goals or a clear reorganization plan, unanswered inquiries, etc. damage credibility and slow the process. Negotiators need to maintain creditor respect, and reestablish the credibility that has been lost by the debtor.

Legal Variables. Every creditor and collector has a wide range of legal options in trying to collect their money--everything from doing nothing to winning a judgment and seizing assets. A good negotiator knows each creditor’s exact position in the collection process. Negotiators know that creditors will be considering, among other things, whether or not the debt is in suit, if the debt is disputed, if the debt is secured, if bankruptcy has been filed or contemplated, if they are the original owner of the debt, the collectability of the debt, etc. Negotiators should always factor in the costs of legal action in their analysis.

Collection History Variables. The history of a debt account is important to the creditor's collection stance. Variables such as prior collection efforts, the number of prior collectors, the age of the debt, prior offers and demands, etc. help creditors decide how to proceed. Some collectors have set rules provided by creditors for collection, while others have more internal flexibility to fashion settlements and solutions. As a negotiator, try to gather information about the creditor’s limits, payout terms, willingness to settle, etc., while maximizing the use of the collection history data to turn the creditor towards a reasonable solution.

The above list of variables is not meant to be complete, and there are secondary variables (the discussion of which is beyond the scope of this article) that can come into play during negotiations.

The negotiator’s strategy is to use the above variables as a “system” to provide creditors with lots of accurate information about the business’ problems, so that the creditor will be most informed of how dire the cash flow is, how burdensome the debt load is, how repayment cannot be made, how operating expenses are not being met, etc. Typically, there will be two outcomes. Creditors will either agree to settle debts for less than is owed, or they will agree to extend the time in which they are paid. Either way, an efficient debt negotiator will allow a business to allocate more resources towards increasing revenue, as opposed to wasting resources on debt load it cannot pay.

Which option a creditor decides to take is dependent on each particular debt and each particular creditor. There is no steadfast rule as to what a creditor will do. Some debts are just recently delinquent, while others have been through litigation and have judgments entered. Some debts are unsecured, while others have an asset pledged against them in case of default. Some creditors are in deep need of the money, while others have deeper financial reserves. Good debt negotiators will balance creditor “wants” with debtor “needs”.

Mastering the debt negotiation process begins with understanding the "ins and outs" of these factors. Using the strategy mentioned above will certainly influence a creditor’s decision-making process, potentially saving a lot of money for debt-strapped businesses.

Team Building Lessons from the Modern Cave Man - Part 1

In the beginning…

The caveman needed to survive. Man found safety in groups. It was not a matter of preference, it was a matter of necessity. If you were not a part of a group, your chances for survival were slim. Conformity to the majority became necessary to stay in a group and physical strength was the dominant factor for group leadership. Those who were strong and successful in the art of survival had the majority influence toward that conformity and only the strong challenged these leaders. If you challenged the leadership, you needed to be prepared to fight. And, if you lost, you were forced to leave the safety of the group and fend for yourself. The risk was great so there were few challengers and it became an ingrained survival response to gain acceptance from the group, so people just kept quiet.

It was a time of compliance!

…Then came the significance revolution

The caveman's brains got bigger and more developed. Individuals became torn between finding there own path and gaining there own recognition, verses conforming to the group. Physical strength was no longer the dominant factor for influence. Now, people could think! Survival was no longer the acquisition of food and shelter; it had become a fight of ability. The more intelligent you were (and able to apply it), the more valuable you had become. The more influence you could exert over others, the more powerful you became. We began to compete for significance trying to show others how important and able we are, and if they believed us, or in some cases feared us, we became even more important.

We created a civilization that needed to be right!

Then came the industrial revolution…

…and groups evolved into teams but the fundamentals of our survival instinct, our emotional evolution and the emotions that drive us were still there, and a major part of our psychology. Our ability to work at our peak in teams depended on the way these emotional drivers and understanding the dynamics they promote.

Today, the caveman has evolved and the awareness of our psychology has expanded.

We now seek better ways to improve our selves and our performance, but our caveman nature sometimes gets in the way. While our modern brain is influenced by numerous factors of emotional drive, the three that came from our caveman days are still central to our performance in teams:

The drive to belong The drive for security The drive to be significant

As with our caveman ancestors, our fear of loss is more important that our potential for gain. Loosing (or the potential of loosing) our sense of belonging or our sense of security or significance are materialize in caveman like reactions. These reactions are sometimes subtle.

Our caveman reaction for conformity is driven by our need belong and feel secure in the group, so we keep quiet and comply. And if we do challenge, we are probably depriving others of their significance or security, causing them to react to "protect" themselves. This can either escalate to greater conflict, or it may revert back to compliance and conformity to prevent conflict. Either way, these are still caveman reactions and are NOT useful to high performance teams.

The greatest obstacle to high performance is the caveman's reactions to loosing significance, in order for the caveman to be right, he must make someone else wrong, and that means, more caveman reactions from the other team members! And the worst part is that reality is not what matters, the caveman reacts on emotion without fact, and so "perception" influences reaction. When someone feels wrong, they feel less able; they may feel like they have less control and therefore are less secure, they react with aggression or submission out of dissatisfaction, and a lesser desire to cooperate affects their performance and the entire team.

So how do we get the caveman out of our teams so we can stop reacting and act like the evolved humans we have become, able to perform at the peak of our abilities?

There are 4 stages to our evolution into "awakened" team members

Each stage is a stage of awareness. It awakens our greater perception. But for it to be effective, the entire team has to take this journey. But there are consequences, once team members have awakened, they will never view teams again in the same way. They can never go back to the way it was and can never be satisfied with mediocrity. Each stage opens our eyes to the caveman within ourselves and others, and it lets us use the intelligent part of our brain to send this caveman back when he tries to invade our minds and body. Different team members may be at different stages in their evolution, where are you? These 4 stages are as follows:

Stage 1: Acknowledge the primitive caveman in you

Look at the behavior you have had in the past. How many times have you gone against your better judgment to "go with the flow"? Discover your need to belong to the group, to be accepted by your pears. How has this need manifested itself in your interaction with others? What has it prevented from achieving? Would your relationships Really be damaged if you expressed your views and opinions or confronted someone else's potentially bad decision, or is it possible you would gain more respect. As a leader, is it more important for you to be liked than to get the expected results?

By reflecting on the behaviors you have displayed in the past, and realizing the damage you are doing to your personal effectiveness and the effectiveness of those around you, you can see the primitive caveman for what he is. This is the first step in your evolution.

For the Second and Third stages, Please read Part 2

Team Building Lessons from the Modern Cave Man - Part 2

Stage 2: Soothing the significant caveman

Now the caveman in you has become more expressive. You tell people what you want and how it should be. The problem is they react to you. There are two types of reactions you receive:

1. If you speak out with little confidence and conviction, you have only evolved in actions and not in mindset. Others react to you with insignificance; they make you wrong or unimportant. They do not pay much attention to you and you will accomplish little. Your actions are the beginning but you must be consistent and find your conviction. Imagine the alternative if you do not… Extinction!

2. You have the conviction and the confidence and now need to show how great you are and how much better than everyone else your ideas and abilities are. Others react by rebelling, some rebel externally and create open conflict. Others rebel internally and while they quietly go along with what you say, they feel that you treat them with insignificance, that you make you wrong or unimportant. Here your ability to overcome fear of not being accepted has brought you to this stage, but now you must learn to apply it effectively.

You are at stage two because your significance is central to your being, you tend to react to others that "appear" to take it away from you. This creates confrontation and brings out the caveman in your other team members. Then they react back and just make a big mess! So before you can transcend to stage three, you must awaken to the reactions that YOU create. Knowing you weaknesses is the foundation to your evolution. FIRST though, you need to admit you are the cause of much of this reaction. IT'S NOT OTHER PEOPLES FAULT! Don't make others wrong so you can be important! You need to take full responsibility before anything can change. You can find other more productive ways to fill your need for significance.

Significance is about feeling important, so what if you had the power to make others feel important, the ability to bring out the best in them, their passion, and their motivation? Would you gain gratification from this power? Would you get significance from the better overall results that could be achieved?

Stage 3: Keeping the caveman away from your team

The caveman shows up when your modern (intelligent) brain shuts off. The more you can keep it on, the less time the caveman spends with your team.

Remember, when the caveman shows up, he brings out the caveman in the rest of your team members. And before you know it, you've got a group of cavemen either beating each other or hiding in the background. So STOP IT! The key to using the Intelligent part of your brain, is to map the areas that might cause reaction and tagging them with a "caveman alarm".

Write a list of issues that make you frustrated, angry, submissive, fearful, etc. Put this list in a place where you will often see it. There is a part of your brain that retains this knowledge in your subconscious, so when one of these issue comes up and you begin to react (using the primitive part of your brain), you remember the list and you remember that you may be letting the caveman out. At this time the intelligent part of your brain kicks in and allows you to work through the issue in an evolved manner.

Stage 4: Evolving into the awakened team member

By this stage you can stop the caveman from coming out in you. You have gone beyond your primitive emotional reactions to "fear of not being accepted" and "fear of not being important". You don't always need to be right, and you don't make others wrong. You don't avoid conflict because you're afraid others won't like you or your need to belong.

You have awaked to an evolved individual that can think and act without fear, an individual that gives value to the team instead exploiting them for your personal emotional gratification. You take action in place of reaction. You have cultivated the courage of an evolved individual.

But many of your team members often still react. At this stage, you understand them more, so you don't react to their reactions. You can use the intelligent part of your brain instead of the primitive reactive part. So how can you affect those around you that do react?

Look at the way you express yourself. Knowing that that caveman can appear in others instantaneously, how would you communicate when others react, what would you do or say to make the caveman in these team members go away?

Well first, you must identify what stage in evolution they're at. Knowing this gives you the understanding of what they fear. Do they fear losing their security and acceptance the team provides, or do they fear being unimportant, insignificant? This knowledge provides the platform for you to help them fill these emotional needs and put aside their fears.

Second, give them this article for disclosure of your intentions and awareness of what's happening. If you all have the same understanding, it becomes easier to achieve results as a team. And, as this Team centered article is based on the Directive Communication™ psychology, attending Directive Communication™ based workshops would accelerate the process.

Finally, use questions to fill there emotional needs of belonging and significance. Ask questions, DO NOT teach or lecture. Discover how your team members fill these needs and how the team can support each member in achieving them without the caveman.

The journey to the evolution of highly effective teams is scattered with the angry beatings and quiet disillusionment of cavemen everywhere. Effectiveness is against our nature. Only in the face of our inadequacies can we evolve, can we increase our ability to be intelligent in our actions, and can we assist others in there evolution.

The advantages of this growth is a happier, less stressful, and more productive life.

The consequences of not evolving, are a life full of reaction, stress and un-fulfillment.

The caveman will always be in you, the question is do you really want him around in your teams, friends, and families?

Today, evolution is a choice.

Why So Many People Fail In Affiliate Marketing

More and more people are lured into affiliate marketing and you might be one of them. Indeed, affiliate marketing is one of the most effective means of generating a full-time income through the Internet. It’s a fair deal between the merchandiser and his affiliates as both benefit from each sale materialized. Like in other kinds of business, a great deal of the profits in affiliate marketing depends on the affiliate’s advertising, promoting and selling strategies. Everyday, as affiliate marketing industry expands, competition heightens as well so an affiliate marketer must be creative enough to employ unique and effective ways to convince potential buyers to purchase or avail of the products and services offered.

Compared to traditional advertising practices, affiliate programs are more effective, risk-free and cost-efficient. But why do many people still fail in affiliate marketing? There are a lot of reasons and a lot of areas in the program to look into. The most critical aspect in the affiliate program is advertising. Many affiliate marketers fail in this aspect because they lack hard work, which is the most important thing in affiliate marketing and in all other kinds of business as well. Although it pays to be lucky, you cannot merely rely on it. Affiliate marketing isn’t as simple as directing customers to the business site. If you want to earn big, of course, you have to invest time and great amount of hard work in promoting the products. As earlier mentioned, the competition is very high and customers nowadays are very wise, too. After all, who doesn’t want to get the best purchase—that is, to pay less and get more in terms of quantity and quality.

Lack of preparation is also a reason why one fails in affiliate marketing, whether he is a merchandiser or an affiliate. Part of the preparation is researching. On the part of the merchant, he has to be highly selective in choosing the right affiliate websites for his affiliate program. In order to be sure he has the best choices, he must have exhausted his means in looking for highly interested affiliates whose sites are sure fit to his products and services. The affiliate site’s visitors must match his targeted customers. On the other hand, the affiliate marketer must likewise research on the good-paying merchandisers before he signs up for an affiliate program. He must ensure that the merchants’ products and services match his interests so he can give his full attention and dedication to the program. He can get valuable information by joining affiliate forums, comparing different affiliate programs and reading articles on affiliate marketing where he can get tips from experienced affiliate marketers on how to choose the best merchants and products with high conversion rate.

The website is a very important tool in the whole affiliate program. As an affiliate marketer, you should plan how your site is going to be, from domain name to the design, the lay-out, the content, and ads. Some users are particular about what they see at first glance and thus when they find your site ugly, they won’t read through the content even if your site has many things to say and offer. On the other hand, there those who want information more than anything else. Affiliate marketers with “rich-content” web sites are usually the ones who prosper in this business because the content improves traffic to the site. Websites with high quality contents—with relevant keywords and more importantly, right information about the product and not empty hyped-up advertisements—allow you to earn big in affiliate marketing even when you’re asleep. If you won’t be able to sustain the interest of your site visitor, you won’t be able to lead him to the merchants’ site. No click-through means no sale and thus, no income on your part.

Selecting a top-level domain name is also crucial to the success of the affiliate program. Lots of affiliate sites don’t appear in the search engine results because they are deemed by affiliate managers as personal sites. Major search engines and directories would think of your site as transient ones and thus, they won’t list it in the directory. Before you decide on the domain name, know first what you are going to promote. Many fail because their sites are not appropriately named, so even when they feature the exact products the customer is looking for, the customer might think the site is not relevant and thus, won’t enter the site.

Above all, an affiliate marketer must be willing to learn more. Certainly, there are still a lot of things to learn and so an affiliate marketer must continue to educate himself so he can improve his marketing strategies. Many fail because they don’t grow in the business and they are merely concerned about earning big quickly. If you want long-term and highly satisfactory results, take time to learn the ins and outs of the business. Continue to improve your knowledge especially with the basics in affiliate marketing ranging from advertising to programming, web page development, and search engine optimization techniques. Likewise, study the needs and wants of your site users and how different merchandisers compete with each other.

Keep on trying

What Is A Hedge Fund?

You’ll often see the title ‘hedge fund manager’ in the bios of some of Wall Street’s famous investment gurus. But what exactly is a hedge fund? How is different than any other fund? And how do you get in on the action?

Hedge funds are private investment partnerships that are usually offered to limited number of investors and require a significant initial minimum investment. Hedge funds are normally open to institutional or otherwise accredited investors. Those investors are also required to keep their money in the fund for a minimum period, usually one year.

Basically, hedge funds are mutual funds for the super-rich. They resemble mutual funds in the way investments are pooled and professionally managed, but they are significantly different in the way fund can cooperate.

Hedge funds are lightly regulated private funds that are usually characterized by unconventional investment strategies. These funds are generally more aggressively managed and use advanced investment strategies such as leverage, long, short and derivative positions in both domestic and international markets with the goal of generating high returns. Regular investment funds are usually limited to ‘going long” and buying bonds, equities or money market instruments. Hedge funds also have the ability to "short" those instruments they believe will fall in price. Hedge funds are thus able to create more complex investment structures which can profit in times of market volatility, or even in a falling market.

In general, hedge funds are lightly regulated because it is believed they cater to sophisticated investors who need less protection. In the US, the majority of investors in the fund must be accredited. An accredited investor must earn a set minimum income annually and have a net worth of more than $1 million. Investment companies registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are subject to strict limitations on the short-selling and use of leverage that are essential to many hedge fund strategies. Although hedge funds fall within the definition of an “investment company,” hedge funds often elect to operate with exemptions from the registration requirements by selling only to “qualified purchasers” or “accredited investors.” Hedge funds are also only sold via private placement and cannot be offered or advertised to the general public. So the funds trade a smaller pool of investors for fewer government restrictions.

While hedging is the practice of attempting to reduce risk, the goal of most hedge funds is to maximize return on investment. The first hedge funds that appeared in the 1950s tried to hedge against the downside risk of a bear market with their ability to short the market. Today, hedge funds use dozens of different strategies, including speculative investments. In fact, in many cases these funds can carry more risk than the overall market.

The hedge fund manager is the general partner or manager and the investors are the limited partners or members respectively. The manager generally makes all the investment decisions based on the strategy it outlined in the offering documents.

In return for managing the investors' funds, the manager will receive a management fee and a performance or incentive fee. Usually this management fee is computed as a percentage of assets under management, and the incentive fee is computed as a percentage of the fund's profits. In some cases the manager does not receive incentive fees unless the value of the fund exceeds a “high water mark.”

Other funds charge no fees until the funds pass specific performance goals. Typical fees for hedge funds are 20 percent of profits plus two percent of assets under management. Famous and successful managers often demand higher fees.

Today, some $1.2 trillion are tied up in some 9,000 hedge funds This is up 19 percent from 2005 and up 300 percent from 2001. At the end of 2004, 55 percent of the number of hedge funds, managing nearly two-thirds of total hedge fund assets, were registered offshore. The most popular offshore location was the Cayman Islands followed by British Virgin Islands and Bermuda. In the US, most funds are located in New York City, Stamford, Connecticut and Greenwich, Connecticut. London is Europe’s leading centre for the management of hedge funds.

Investment companies registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are subject to strict limitations on the short-selling and use of leverage that are essential to many hedge fund strategies. Although hedge funds fall within the statutory definition of an “investment company,” hedge funds often elect to operate with exemptions from the registration requirements by selling only to "qualified purchasers” or “accredited investors” Hedge funds are also only sold via private placement and cannot be offered or advertised to the general public.

Unlike mutual funds, hedge funds do not have to disclose their activities to third parties. Investors in hedge funds however are entitled to a higher level of disclosure on risks assumed and positions taken, and the investor often has direct access to the fund manager. A byproduct of this privacy is that there are no official hedge fund statistics.

Institutional Investor and Trader Monthly magazine annually ranks top-earning hedge fund managers.

Hedge funds are often targets of criticism. Their secrecy and lack of regulation have led to all kinds of allegations of dodgy dealings. The size of the assets held in these funds has also led to allegations that these funds have adversely affected bond markets on different occasions. US regulators have tried to impose restrictions on these funds but there attempts have been thwarted by the courts and the complexities of the funds and their offshore locations have created a regulatory nightmare for the SEC.

Some writers have concluded that hedge funds have evolved into little more than exclusive, high-fee mutual funds. Warren Buffett has little time for them either pointing out that mangers are rewarded for high variability, rather than high long-term returns.

Making this Bad Credit Loan the Last You’ll Ever Need

If you are suffering from bad credit in any form, you probably want to do everything you can to clean things up so you can enjoy the world of good credit again. After all, in the media and from talks with the majority of mortgage brokers and big lenders, chances are you’ve been told that bad credit won’t get you anywhere – ever. The great news is that’s rubbish! Working in the bad credit mortgage industry, I personally know that people with bad credit are securing mortgages – good ones with reasonable interest rates – every day. You can too, and when you do, it’s important to decide immediately that this bad credit loan will be your last – ever!

This Bad Credit Loan will be the Last!

It might sound depressing saying that something will be the very last ever, however when it comes to bad credit loans, I’m pretty sure you’ll agree with me that it’s a good thing to decide that it will be your last. That’s because once you secure your bad credit loan, you will be well on your way to cleaning up your financial house to make sure you achieve good credit and a financially secure situation again – or perhaps for the very first time! After saying this, perhaps you are saying, “Yeah Julian, all very well and good for a money expert like you to say, ‘make this bad credit loan your last’, but I have a history of bad credit and poor money decisions”? My response to that is, “So what!” Even with the strongest history of poor money management, bad credit mortgage experts worth their salt can work with you to change your bad money habits and turn them into good ones that will result in lasting financial security. Hold me to that, because now I’m going to show you how!

How to make this Bad Credit Loan Your Last one Ever!

Sure, I’ve made a pretty amazing statement in the previous section, and now I’m going to show you how you can ensure this bad credit loan is the very last one you’ll ever have because it’s going to be the last one you’ll ever need!

It’s quite easy and straightforward to achieve this, so here goes:

• Find a bad credit mortgage expert who knows what they are doing: It is critical that you choose to work with a reputable bad credit mortgage expert! Good specialists in bad credit mortgages will secure competitive mortgages for people with all sorts of financial problems. Sounds drastic right? It gets better! These experts don’t just secure their clients a good home loan though. They also make sure their clients are prepared to succeed both now and into the future.

• Good money management: If you are dealing with a credible bad credit mortgage expert, and you aren’t mortgage ready when you walk through their doors for the first time, they work with you to get you ready. It’s all about good money management, and no, it’s not rocket science. It is discipline though. You make the decision to turn from your bad credit ways and you stick to that decision. Then you go to a bad credit mortgage specialist for your credit redemption! Sounds pretty dramatic, however it’s true. Bad credit isn’t the end, because every day bad credit clients prepare for a better financial future and secure home loans – even people with personal bankruptcy! The reality is that for every financial problem, there is always a solution. That solution is good money management. Reputable bad credit mortgage experts teach every client they work with, how to regain control of their finances, and for some it may be the very first time they have that control. These specialists teach their clients how to keep control as well, which prepares the client for a successful financial future. Once a bad credit mortgage specialist secures a home loan for their client, they will also walk away with a plan to follow that will ensure they will find a life of good credit at the end of the rainbow.

• Get a bookkeeper: A bookkeeper will really help you to keep on top of your financial situation, so find a good one and hire them! At least this way you will be up-to-date with everything and know what money is coming in and what money is going out.

• Stick to your cash flow plan: You are paying a certain amount off your mortgage each month according to your budget. You must stick to your budget. One way to ensure you never go beyond your budget is to donate what you deem to be a significant amount of money, to a cause you do not support. For instance, if you have a fear of birds, donate money to a bird society. Do this even if you go over budget by just a few dollars. It will keep you disciplined.

• Stay Motivated: Think about what you want to do once you are financially stable and secure. Pin photographs of your dream home, car or holiday destination on your corkboard, so you can see it as you work. Set goals and remind yourself of them. Try reading rags to riches stories as well, because they will definitely inspire you. All of these things will help you stay on track.

How to Get Your Last Bad Credit Loan Ever!

Forget the banks, because they won’t touch anybody with bad credit! Find an experienced bad credit mortgage broker who will work with you so you’ll get a great home loan to suit your needs, and the guidance you need to ensure your financial future is bright. Say goodbye to bad credit once and for all!

Seven Lessons to Learn from Great Salespeople

Chances are this article’s title gives you a strong opinion about whether or not to continue reading. You are either in sales and want to understand your work better and therefore very interested, or you are being kind and giving me until the end of this paragraph to convince you to continue, because you aren’t in sales, you don’t want to be in sales, and you don’t see a connection between your work and sales.

If you are in the second group, please give me just one more paragraph before you decide, ok?

If you think of the stereotypical high pressure used car salesperson when you think about sales, rest assured that isn’t what I’m referring to. Think about this. Do you ever need to persuade others to see your position or take a particular action? Do you ever need people to follow your recommendations? Do you ever benefit in a tangible way when you are able to be more successful in persuading others? If your answer is yes to any of these questions (and I’m sure it is for everyone), then you are in sales – regardless of your job title or how you feel about “salespeople.”

So regardless of your experience in or feelings about sales, there are likely things you can learn from the best in the sales field – because we are all in sales.

The Model in your Mind

With all due respect to the many truly outstanding used car salespeople, the “high-pressure, used-car-salesperson” stereotype is one held by many people. And while we may have experience with this type of salesperson, most of us also have experience with someone who was extremely helpful. Someone who helped us select the best possible product or service for our situation and really cared about the results we would receive from the products we were buying. In other words, when we stop to think about it we all have some very positive experiences with salespeople.

It is those positive experiences that I want you to reflect on as you read the seven lessons below. Chances are some – or all – will be consistent with your experiences, and by reflecting on your experiences as you read you will make these lessons even more valuable for you.

The Seven Lessons

Listen more talk less. How can a salesperson know what you need unless they listen? If they don’t listen they are making assumptions as to your needs, wants and desires. The same is true for us. We will get much further much faster when trying to persuade or influence others when we talk less and listen more.

Ask more and better questions. One of the ways to talk less is by asking more questions. Great salespeople are masters at asking questions. They collect and use questions intelligently to learn more about our needs. They use questions to understand us better and to strengthen their relationship with us. Questions are one of our greatest learning tools and one of the best ways to further relationships. Whatever your work, being more skilled at asking questions will make you more successful.

Focus on the longer-term, big picture. The best salespeople aren’t trying to sell one car today. They are trying to sell you your next 5 (or 10) cars. They know Rome wasn’t built in a day and that they won’t reach their goals – or best serve you – by pressuring you to buy now. So it is for you in your interactions. When we think about the longer term we will make better decisions and behave more appropriately.

Build relationships. Business success is about relationships, and great salespeople know that. One of the fastest ways to become more successful is by building more and stronger relationships. One of the fastest ways to lose your job is by neglecting relationships. Take it from the best salespeople – business is based on relationships.

Follow-up and follow through. One of the ways to build relationships is to follow-up and follow through. Ever had a service provider call you and check on your satisfaction? How did you feel about that provider and his/her organization after that? How do you feel about people who send you handwritten thank you notes? How do feel when people go above and beyond to stay in touch with you and make sure you are satisfied? You feel good about them and their services, right? Apply those approaches to your work. Send a note. Remember a birthday. Mention the article you read that they would be interested in. Do what you said you were going to do. Follow-up and follow through.

Lose the techniques – focus on the other person. There are many helpful techniques that we can learn from training, from watching others and reading. We look for a magical formula or approach. While it is important to learn the techniques, they will only help us if we integrate them into who we are and what we stand for. For example, there is a difference between practicing active listening techniques and actively listening. When the focus is on the result, we relax and use the techniques in support of the end goal. Great salespeople learn the skills, but focus on their Customer. In an almost paradoxical way, by focusing on the Customer (remember your colleagues and your boss are your Customers too) and being sincere and genuine, you will gain the advantage of the techniques you were trying to use to begin with.

Help them buy. People don’t want to be sold, but they do want to buy. Just like a master salesperson, help people be persuaded to your position. Help them see the value. Help them own the decision. Help them remove the roadblocks – real or perceived.

Some Final Thoughts

There are likely many areas of your life where you can apply the lessons above. Consider your work, but also your role as a neighbor, in a community group and as a parent as places where you can benefit from these lessons.

You may have never sold magazine subscriptions door to door for a school project. You may have never had a job selling furniture or other products. You may never want to be in “sales.” Even if this is true, I urge you to think about what you can learn from the true masters of sales – because they are lessons that can make you better at whatever you do. Because it is really true – we are all in sales.

Make Big Money In Real Estate

Real Estate is one of the oldest forms of investing known to man.

Real Estate investing is easy and fortunes are made in a simple manner. For example, and investor decides that a desert area will eventually become an industrial development. He purchases a number of acres at a very low price. If his guess turns out to be correct, ten years later he sells the land hundred times more than what he paid for it.This can happen in any part of the country and is not an exceptional case.

As the population keeps growing in the U.S., land prices continue to raise and it means that Real Estate will continue to offer one of the best investment opportunities in the country.

Compared to most forms of investment, Real Estate offers greater profit potential. Of course, not every piece of land will turn out to be a winner, and despite the great potential rewards in some cases risks are involved, so the necessity of careful study before invest.

One of the problem of Real Estate is his lack of liquidity.

Liquid assists are those easily converted into cash like stocks or bons. Most Real Estate investments take years before you can make some money, so it is not wise to tie up all your assets in this type of investment. Your financial situation will determine how much you can wisely invest in properties.

There is a difference between a land speculator and an investor.

A speculator buys land with the intention to make a quick sale and fast profits and will not hold land for a long period of time. An investor, on the other hand, looks for a long time gain, and usually buys only what he can afford to keep for an indefinite period of time.

If you are new at this field, it is wise to refrain from any a speculation until you become more informed, and you will have to devote considerable time to study and research. It is wise also to consult specialists before you act.

Without realizing it, you already made a very successful investment in Real Estate if you bought your own home.

Before you look for areas to invest, consider the condition of your own house. If you have any plan for selling it, good landscaping has been known to considerably increase the value of a home.

Large profits can be attained by purchasing run-down homes and restoring them for eventual selling, but some factors have to be considered:

* You must know something about architecture and remodeling and get and idea of how much it will cost to get the house back into shape. Consider what you will be able to do yourself and what it will cost you if you have to have it done.

* The location of the house is the most important factor to consider. Study the neighborhood, shopping, and transportation facilities.

It can also be profitable to lease land for commercial use. Land which borders highway is extremely valuable for purpose such as warehouse, gas station, etc.

Land development companies frequently run advertisements offering country retreats. Be wary of these offers as they themselves make a large profit at the time they sell you the land, so it is much more profitable for you to buy your own.

When you buy property, buy at a price that involves a minimum financial risk. Invest only a modest amount of your own capital, when you sell, determine if a cash or installment sale is the best, based on your over-all income tax status. Learn by looking back on the mistakes made in the past and by reviewing the opportunities you have missed.

Prepare a list of all properties available in your area and think up the best future use of the properties. Learn to purchase land before there is a demand. To buy land well in advance is the only economical way at today's prices. Then hold the property until you can resale for large profits. Don't sell all your desirable properties and keep just lemons.

If you are willing to leave the cities, you should not have any trouble finding inexpensive land for sale. If you discover a tract of land appealing to you but not listed for sale, contact the Country Register's Office and he will tell you who is the owner. Get in touch with him and he could be willing to sell.

As a rule purchasing tracts of land within thirty miles from a growing city is often a sound investment. Deal only with qualified realtors. Be careful of individuals who offer quick profits.

Before taking any action, study what has been written about the subject. Know why you should and should not buy. Stay conventional and don't buy white elephants. Look for hidden defects and make the property attractive before offering it for resale. Study local conditions and be sure it is practical.

Constantly look for bargains and quality properties with exceptional features that will make the sale easier. Follow up on For Sale signs, make inquiries.

When discouraging elements occur, minimize your losses by whatever means available. Don't throw away money on repairs for poorly located property or in an area of surplus rental units.

Before you attempt to sell, find out how the prospect can use the property profitably. Ask yourself if you would purchase it if you were in the prospect's shoes. Ask yourself if the future use will fit any of the many types of specific businesses. Can a hospital, a bank, an apartment complex, condominium or professional building be located on the property.

Learn to analyze the pros and cons of a real estate problem.

Break it down into its various elements. Know if the answers you come up with are satisfactory and practical. Try different approaches to the problem.

You are necessary looking for the "top" or "bottom" of the market, or the current economic situation. You are looking for a variety of properties which have a higher value dependent on the use that can be established for them.

There are always opportunities in Real Estate during good times and bad, but it is up to you to pick and choose only those very best deals, especially during times when it appears that Real Estate values and demand have reached their peak or in times when it is practically impossible for most anyone to get bank loans due to the tight money market or impossible interest rates.

You can make big money in realestate.

The Importance Of Making A Will

Please note: this article applies to residents of England, Wales and Northern Ireland and is provided for general information only. It does not constitute financial advice.

It’s not something that anyone likes to think about, but deciding what happens to your estate when you die is crucially important for ensuring that your loved ones are looked after when you’re gone and that your assets are distributed as you would have wished.

Many people think that wills are only necessary for people with a great deal of wealth, but this isn’t the case. There are certain laws governing how a person’s estate is divided if they die ‘intestate’ (i.e. without a will), which might not be what you would expect or intend. For example, if you’re not married or in a civil partnership, even if you co-habit with your partner, they will not be entitled to inherit anything from you unless you specifically mention them in your will. Even if you are married, without children, your spouse will not inherit your entire estate – other living relatives such as your parents and siblings will be entitled to a share. Also, if your circumstances change, for example if you get married, divorced or remarried or have children, this could make your estate more complicated to settle. Another important point to bear in mind is that if you don’t have a will, you won’t have a named executor to carry out the administration of your estate and the responsibility will fall upon your beneficiaries, whom you may deem unsuitable to handle your affairs.

Making a will has other advantages too – planning your estate and who will inherit may help you to minimize the impact of the inheritance tax laws.

To make a will, you must be 18 years of age or older. You must be considered to be of sound mind and it should be written without pressure from any other party. A will must be recorded in writing, and it needs to be signed by yourself in the presence of two witnesses, who must also sign. Beneficiaries of the will and married partners of beneficiaries cannot act as witnesses. If they do, the will won’t be invalidated, but their inheritance will be. The completed and signed will can be kept anywhere you want – at home, at your bank, at your solicitor’s office, at a Probate Sub-registry, a District Registry or the Family Division Registry of the High Court.

The big question for many people is whether it’s necessary to employ a solicitor to set up a will. The answer is no, but it is certainly recommended, particularly if your estate and personal circumstances are rather complex. It’s also easy to make seemingly simple mistakes which could end up having significant consequences. Common errors are not understanding what has to be done to make a will legally valid, changing the will without having it signed by witnesses, failing to make alterations in the event of a change in personal circumstances, forgetting about parts of your estate, or not taking into account that the beneficiary might die before inheriting.

Solicitor charges for setting up a will can vary between solicitors and will also depend on how complex your estate is. If you’re a member of a trade union, your membership may entitle you to a free will-writing service or free legal advice. You can bring down costs by considering in advance what your assets are and to whom you would like to leave them – whether family, friends or charity. This will include property, possessions, bank accounts, insurance policies, pensions and shares.

Also think about who you want to appoint as executor of your estate and who you want to look after your children should you die before they reach the age of 18.

You should certainly consider using a solicitor if you have complicated personal circumstances, for example if you live with someone who isn’t your spouse or civil partner, if you have a dependant who is unable to look after themselves, if you have a business or own property abroad, if you don’t live in the UK or aren’t a UK citizen, or if you have lots of family members who may make claims on your estate, such as ex-spouses or children from previous marriages.

If you don’t want to use a solicitor, it’s possible to purchase ‘DIY’ will kits from many high street stationers and bookshops or online providers, which will provide basic guidance.

Remember to make amendments your will any time you have a change in circumstances such as marriage, remarriage, divorce, civil partnership or the birth or adoption of children. You’ll need to be careful in how you amend your will to ensure that it remains valid. It’s not possible to write alterations onto an existing will. Instead you must either write what’s known as a ‘codicil’ or draw up a new will entirely. A codicil is like an addendum to your will. It doesn’t replace the original will, but makes alterations to one or more of the sections.

Only the person who created the original will can make a codicil, and it must be signed and witnessed in the same way as the original will (although not necessarily by the same witnesses). It’s only suitable for making small and uncomplicated changes such as increasing or decreasing the amount of money left to a beneficiary, adding a new beneficiary or changing the executor. You can add as many codicils as you want to your will, but if you have lots of amendments or complex changes it’s best to start afresh with a new will altogether. When you draw up your new will, you should insert a clause at the beginning to explain that this new will revokes all previous wills and codicils. Your old will is no longer valid after you do this (and have your new will signed and witnessed), and you should therefore destroy it. You must destroy it yourself too, or have it destroyed in your presence – otherwise it may still be considered valid.

Your will may be challenged if a person feels that it hasn’t left them with adequate provision or they don’t believe it to be valid – for example, if it hasn’t been drawn up in line with the legal requirements outline above.

3 Keys to Grow Your Business

Are you on pace to accomplish your important sales and financial goals this year?

The truth is, a good majority of US Organizations have been unable to grow their businesses this year. They are not reaching their sales and financial goals and many have all but given up.

Is this you? Are you now looking to next year to be the year you shatter previous productivity, sales and revenue records?

Regardless of whether you are on pace to meet your goals or not this year, it's a great idea to start preparing for your best year ever; but you will need to prepare.

You've surly realized, it takes much more than just setting a goal to accomplish it. The mere act of putting the goal on paper, sharing it with your managers and giving the extra effort to accomplish the goal is really secondary to the preparation required.

Before you begin to work toward an objective, you must insure all of the past barriers that stood in the way of prior goal accomplishment are eliminated. If they aren't, the unfortunate fact is, you'll fail to meet the objective once again… for the same reasons as before.

The following are the three keys market leading organizations have used to grow their businesses. I suggest you consider them to take your organization to the next level of success also.

1. Operational Systems

There are two types of systems in your organization. The first is your operational systems, including:

1. Vision & Mission 2. Financial & Budgeting 3. Production, Manufacturing & Distribution 4. Sales & Marketing

All four of these systems are in place for one reason: to efficiently grow your business. They are the standards to how your organization operates from day to day. More importantly, they are the standards to how your workforce operates from day to day.

To improve productivity this quarter and prepare for your best year ever, it is vital to analyze your operational systems. In the next month, recognize what current productivity barriers must be eliminated, what operating expenses must be reduced, what unique cultural standards must be maintained and what marketing promises must be upheld.

2. Managerial Systems

In answering the previous questions, most organizations realize an important fact. Changes to operational systems are almost always made to improve the productivity of their workforce. But the truth is, these changes alone rarely help.

Organizations failing to accomplish their goals tend to make irrational decisions. They feel if they rewrite a vision, increase spending on technology, reorganize production procedures or alter their marketing messages, workforce performance and profits will magically improve.

However, the opposite is usually the case. The changes usually end up harming efficiency, production and morale. The usual outcome is, those employees who naturally performed the job they were hired to do before the changes, still naturally do. Those who failed to produce before the expensive operational modifications, still underachieve.

The second type of system in your organization is your managerial systems. The five most important processes of your managerial systems are: recruiting, hiring, training, developing and retaining (productive employees). When you create a successful managerial system, your hiring success rate, employee motivation and the effectiveness of your leaders will naturally improve.

To prepare for your best year ever, there is only one question to ask yourself: Why haven't we been able to hire, develop and retain TOP Performing employees in every position.

3. Focus on People

Market leading organizations realize "people" are the key to growing a business and meeting goals. The more productive their individuals are, the more productive their teams have become.

A recent study of over 2,200 managers by Watson Wyatt Worldwide in Human Resource Executive Magazine found: Of the hundreds of management functions, "Selecting Staff" and "Retention" are the second and third most important management functions in business today. Recruiting was rank fifth.

Since almost three of four new hires fail to meet our expectations within the first year and managers are forced to constantly replace underachievers, recruiting is the number one management expense in business today. Although selecting staff and retention are rated very important, they rank 36th and 44th in management effort and spending respectively.

Although executives understand the importance of Top Performers in every position, their time, energy and financial priorities have become operational. With the amount of organizations failing to meet their goals or grow their businesses, it should be apparent that this strategy just doesn't work.

Hiring Top Performers for every position in your company, the first time, is the only way to insure your productivity and profits will improve. Traditionally, Top Performers are five to eight times more productive then their counterparts.

You've probably learned the hard way, no modification to an operational system will ever increase your organization's performance five to eight times. If you are like the most effective executives, you'll understand this and will double or triple the productivity and profits of your organization by giving your managers the tools to hire, develop and retain your greatest value; your people.

Great customer service, work ethic, motivation, productivity and sales success comes from employees that fit your culture, their team and the job they were hired to do. Whether it takes developing your underachievers or replacing them with someone who will naturally produce, it is now time to focus on your people to prepare for your best year ever.

Sell Your Home Faster with Seller Financing

Seller financing opens your home up to an entirely new segment of prospective buyers, and the more buyers view your home, the quicker you will find that one qualified buyer. Specifically you will attract more buyers who don't want to or would have a problem getting a bank loan, or those who want a quicker closing or more flexible payment plans than banks offer. Such buyers include the self employed who may be great candidates but are not viewed as favorable by banks as are W-2 employees. Also those with credit blemishes, who may be going down the long road of credit repair. Real estate investors are another large group, since they may own many properties with mortgages, which makes it difficult to get another mortgage from a bank.

Banks typically take 30 days to close a loan, but with seller financing, YOU make the decision and this can be done much quicker, thereby removing a buyers contingencies faster and in effect leading to a much faster home sale. Regardless of whether you are selling FSBO (For Sale By Owner), or with a real estate agent, make sure you use "Seller Financing" in your marketing and advertising, be it in newspaper ads, flyers, or in the MLS description.

Other Ideas to Sell Your Home Faster

Number 1: PRICE IT RIGHT ! Not too high, not too low, check comparables and local agents to get the right number, if you are not getting any action after a week or two, you probably have it priced too high.

If you will be selling FSBO, use a flat rate MLS open listing. For under $500 you can get listed in MLS with no frills, check the newspaper or call agents to find one who offers this. It will give you much broader exposure and is advertising well spent. Also strongly consider offering a buyers agent commission of 2-4% depending on how quick you want to sell and how hot your local market is.

Put up lots of signs around the neighborhood, especially on weekends, hold regular open houses, prepare your house for sale, keep it neat & tidy and remove the clutter.

Sell Your Home for Full Price

1. Normally a seller will accept a lower price (below market) for an all cash no contingency fast closing.

2. It will sell for market price if the buyer needs 30-60days to close escrow and will need to qualify for a loan at a bank and do a home inspection.

3. You as a seller should charge even more (above market) if you will be giving seller financing terms, maybe 5-10% higher than Case 2, or more depending on the terms.

A Good Investment

Taking back a note can be a very good investment since you will be making interest on your money which is usually better than CD's, money market rates. In fact you can select the interest rate you want! This is especially appealing if you have no need for the money right now.

In fact it is such a good investment, that many investors buy seller carry-back notes. If you have no interest in holding a note, it is common for a home seller to carry-back a note and sell it at the same time as the home closing occurs. This is called a simultaneous closing.

We Buy Real Estate Notes and can facilitate simultaneous closings, call for more info on this. We can also help in setting the terms of the note so you get the best price.

Tax Benefits

When selling a home, under current tax law, if you lived in your home for 2 of the last 5 years, your capital gains will be exempt up to $250,000 (twice that if married). Otherwise, your capital gains will be taxed in the year that you collect the capital gains. If you will have significant taxable capital gains on your home sale, it may be very good for your tax situation to take back a seller carry-back note and spread your sale proceeds over several years, or postpone it for several years. Talk to your tax adviser.

Steps for Successful Seller Financing

1. Pull the prospective buyers credit report. You will need their permission, but always review a credit report on each borrower, it is a small expense.

2. Can they afford the home, job, income. If they cant afford it, or have a shaky job or income situation, a foreclosure will be much more likely.

3. Use a professional to draft the paperwork. Each state has many laws regarding real estate sales, contracts, and mortgages. Use an experienced attorney to draft the promissory note and mortgage or deed of trust.

4. Down payment - Sellers usually ask for 10-30% down payment to protect themselves in case the buyer stops making payments and the seller has to foreclose on the loan, and take the property back. The larger the down payment the more equity protection you as the seller have. The buyer will also consider how much money he has put down if he is in foreclosure and cant make the payments and wants to walk away from the house. Zero down is very little encouragement for a buyer, should he hit a rough patch.

5. 1st position or 2nd position - A first position note is much safer for the seller than a second position note.

6. Set the interest rate above current bank rates, to encourage the buyers to refinance down the road.

Also Read this Article: "Tips for Creating a Seller Carry-back Real Estate Note" at http://www.jmacfunding.com/articles.htm

Other Alternatives to Seller Financing

1. Land Contract / Contract to buy

2. Lease Option

This information can be useful to:

Home Sellers, Home Buyers, Note Buyers, Attorneys, Accountants, Financial Advisors, Real Estate Agents, Business Brokers.

How Health Savings Accounts Reduce Medical Expenses And Help You Avoid Metabolic Syndrome

The most common set of diseases facing Americans moving into their 40's and beyond has been termed "metabolic syndrome". Metabolic syndrome is a collection of disease symptoms that tend to occur together. These are excess body fat around your waist, high blood pressure, high LDL cholesterol, low HDL cholesterol, elevated triglyceride levels, and high fasting blood sugar.

As more Americans are carrying high-deductible health plans along with health savings accounts, many say they are beginning to pay more attention to their health. Health savings accounts (HSAs) allow you to put aside pre-tax money to be used for future medical expenses. Because deposits grow tax-deferred and are not taxed for medical withdrawals, if you fund your account and stay healthy, you could have hundreds of thousands of dollars in your HSA by the time you retire.

The fundamental metabolic disturbance that seems to be common in almost all people who have metabolic syndrome is insulin resistance. Insulin is a hormone that your body uses to move the carbohydrate that you eat into your cells. If you are insulin resistant, your cells don't respond well to insulin, and your pancreas has to produce higher amounts in order to keep your blood sugar from going too high. (Once your pancreas is no longer able to keep up with this increased demand, you become diabetic.) If you are insulin sensitive, your body is responding well to smaller amounts of insulin.

Fortunately, metabolic syndrome is almost entirely preventable. Avoid it, and you'll greatly increase your chances of also avoiding cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, stroke, and many other serious conditions. Though all the mechanisms behind the metabolic syndrome have not been worked out, the evidence is strong that combinations of several lifestyle strategies are very effective in preventing this condition.

Exercise

Exercising does more than just burn calories or build muscle. One of the most profound benefits of exercise is its effect on insulin sensitivity. When insulin is released in response to carbohydrate ingestion, glucose transporters come to the surface of the cell in order to carry the glucose into the cell. In muscles and fat cells this transporter is called Glut-4. Exercise itself helps Glut-4 to move through the cell membrane to the surface of your muscle cell, causing these cells to be much more insulin sensitive. Even a single bout of exercise will cause your muscles to respond more effectively to insulin.

Eat Low-Glycemic Foods

The glycemic index is a measure of how quickly a food raises our blood sugar. The high-glycemic carbohydrates in the American diet are primarily the "white foods" (bread, pasta, rice, white potatoes, and sugar). These foods cause many of the changes associated with metabolic syndrome, including lower HDL levels, and higher triglycerides. When a person eats these foods year after year, insulin levels remain chronically high. The result is that eventually the cells become less responsive to the insulin, in turn leading to increased risk of obesity, hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, and premature death. Low-glycemic carbohydrates include most fruits and vegetables. Eating a diet that limits or avoids high-glycemic grains, potatoes, and sugars, and includes more low-glycemic fruits and vegetables, fish, and lean meat can dramatically improve your insulin sensitivity.

Eat the Right Fat

We've talked in previous issues about the seemingly miraculous health benefits of fish oil. Fish oil improves insulin sensitivity. Eskimos, who consume high quantities of fish oil, rarely experience diabetes, even though they are often overweight. Though the mechanism by which fish oil works isn't yet understood, many researchers believe that fish oil makes the cell membrane more "fluid", enabling the Glut-4 transporters to more easily move to the surface of the cell in response to insulin. Everyone who does not eat fish on a regular basis should consider taking a high-quality fish oil.

Saturated fats and trans-fats, in contrast, make the cell membrane more stiff and inflexible, and also reduce insulin sensitivity. Saturated fats are found primarily in beef, pork, and dairy products and trans-fats are found in processed foods. Saturated fats should be minimized, and trans-fats should ideally be completely eliminated from your diet.

Eat Enough Protein

If you're avoiding starches, you'll need to replace those calories with something else - that should be lean protein. Protein satisfies your appetite more than any other macronutrient, it increases metabolism, and it will contribute to weight loss. The best proteins are lean meats like turkey breast and chicken breast, lean beef, fish, and eggs. And if you are overweight, nothing will improve your insulin sensitivity faster than losing some weight. In fact, weight loss significantly improves all aspects of metabolic syndrome. Eat the right foods, and your body will tend to normalize at the right weight without you having to count calories or starve yourself.

Take Action

Remember, just reading an article has never made anyone healthier. Though there are drugs available to treat some of the symptoms, doctors have no pharmaceutical cure for metabolic syndrome, and almost all individuals become more insulin resistant as they age. It is the lifestyle choices and the actions that you take today to improve your insulin sensitivity that will have a powerful impact on the length and quality of your life.

The characteristic that many people like about HSAs is that they reward those who take responsibility for themselves. By putting aside money to pay for future medical expenses, you are being a responsible citizen, and deserve the tax benefits that an HSA offers. Make the same investment in your health, and you'll not only have the good health to enjoy your retirement, but you'll also have plenty of money in the bank as well.

Are Leaders Born Or Made?

For centuries people have debated whether leaders are born or made. Several decades ago researchers started trying to answer the question. The debate goes on, even though we know the answer.

It turns out to be a little of both. Leaders are sort of born and they're always made. Knowing the details will help you develop effective leaders for your company.

Leaders are Sort of Born

It seems like there's only one thing that a person needs to actually be born with in order to be a leader later in life. That's intelligence. A leader needs to be smart enough.

Effective leaders aren't necessarily the smartest people in the room or the company or even on the team. But they have to be smart enough to do the job they're assigned.

What's more important is what kind of person the potential leader is when he or she becomes an adult. The person who emerges from adolescence into young adulthood has the psychological and character traits they'll demonstrate for the rest of their life. Some of those matter for leadership.

By the time a person becomes an adult we can tell if they can help other people achieve results. That, after all, is what we expect leaders to do. We expect them to achieve success through a group. We expect them to help their subordinates grow and develop.

By the time a person becomes an adult, we can tell if they want to achieve objectives or if they just want to go along and take it easy. We expect leaders to be responsible for achieving results. You can have a marvelous life without a results focus, but if you're going to lead successfully you have to have the drive and willingness to be measured by the results of your leadership.

By the time a person becomes an adult, we can tell if they are willing to make decisions or not. Lots of people wake up every day and let the world happen to them. But leaders must be able and willing to make decisions that affect themselves and others.

By the time a person becomes an adult we can tell if they have the basic qualities that we expect leaders to have. We can determine if they're smart enough to do the job. We can tell if they are willing to help others to achieve results as a group. And we can tell if they will make decisions.

Those things are essential. People who have them can learn the multiple skills it takes for them to become effective leaders.

No matter how they measure up on the key essentials, no one emerges from the womb or from adolescence with all the skills in place to be an effective leader. Everybody has to learn the job. That's why leaders are always made.

Leaders are Always Made

Leadership can be learned by anyone with the basics. But an awful lot of leadership cannot be taught.

That's because leadership is an apprentice trade. Leaders learn about 80 percent of their craft on the job.

They learn from watching other leaders and emulating their behavior. They choose role models and seek out mentors. They ask other leaders about how to handle situations.

Leaders improve by getting feedback and using it. The best leaders seek feedback from their boss, their peers and their subordinates. Then they modify their behavior so that they get better results.

Leaders learn by trying things out and then critiquing their performance. The only failure they recognize is the failure to learn from experience.

In their book, Geeks and Geezers, Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas identify the special power of what they call "crucibles." These are trials which teach hard lessons that leaders use as the basis of their strength in later crises. Many of these events can be called "failures," but leaders turn the bad situation to good by learning from it.

Effective leaders take control of their own development. They seek out training opportunities that will make a difference that will make a difference in their performance.

Effective leaders look for training programs that will help them develop specific skills that they can use on the job. Then, they when they return to work, they devote specific, deliberate effort to mastering in real life what they learned in the classroom.

Marshall Goldsmith and Howard Morgan studied the progress of 88,000 managers who had been to leadership development training. The people who returned from the training, talked about it, and did deliberate work to apply their learning were judged as becoming more effective leaders. The ones who didn't showed no improvement.

If you're responsible for leadership development for your company, you should structure your support for your leaders to recognize that most leadership learning happens on the job. Help people develop leadership development plans. Help them select specific skills training and then work on transferring skills from the training to the job. Help them find role models, mentors and peers to discuss leadership issues.

Help your leaders get feedback from their boss, peers and subordinates. Work to create the culture of candor that will make that feedback helpful and effective.

Don't stop there. Make sure that you evaluate your leaders on their leadership work. Reward them and hold them accountable for accomplishing the mission through the group. And hold them accountable for caring for their people and helping them grow and develop.

A Leader's Growth is Never Done

Leadership learning is a lifetime activity. You're never done because there's always more to learn. There are always skills you need to improve.

Effective leaders seek out development opportunities that will help them learn new skills. Those might be project assignments or job changes. What they have in common is that the leader develops knowledge and skills that can be used elsewhere.

Effective leaders also seek out opportunities that will increase their visibility. The fact is that great performance alone will not propel you to the top in your career. You also have to be visible to people who make decisions about promotions and assignments.

If you're responsible for developing leaders in your company, set up programs to give your leaders both kinds of development opportunities over the course of their careers.

There's no magic formula for developing quality leaders in your company. But if you select potential leaders with the essential traits, then support them with training, feedback, on-the-job learning and development experiences and hold them accountable for results, you'll have the leaders you need to shape your company's future.

The Case For Complementary Currencies

Over the past few years we've seen that many local currencies have come into existence.

Let's first take a look at what a local currency is, and then follow the story why they mushroom now.

A local currency or a complementary currency is used as a medium of exchange among participating of a local group. The members of the group share the same economic interest: they wish to broaden the economic basis of the region they live in, and they wish to broaden the basis of the businesses they run. Local currencies may come in the shape of coins and notes just like the ones issued by the Central Bank, or they may be completely virtual, like credit and debit entries of a barter exchange. Also, they may be digital, like for instance digital currencies, backed by precious metals.

The common feature of all the local interest groups is to find ways and means to overcome the flaws of the monetary system in existence.

In the current monetary system there are two flaws.

First of all, the current monetary system allows private individuals or private companies to charge interest on loans to others.

Today there are huge inconsistencies in the value of global production, debt and assets.

In an environment of tougher competition prices drop. With falling prices risks are on the rise that borrowers will default on loan repayment.

Another feature of the current monetary system is the fact that it is not cash flow safe. The bearer of an amount of cash may prefer to hoard his cash. There is even a premium on this strategy: any local bank will pay interest on deposits of money. However, there is no guarantee that the bank will grant loans to the local community.

Local (regional) currencies are not in use as a substitute for legal tender. Hence the name complementary currency. Complementary currencies are used anywhere where a group (local, regional, or special economic interest) finds that adverse economic trends need to be responded to.

The focus of groups that adopt a business strategy to use a form of complementary currency is to broaden its economic basis. The local economy will grow because it is active, open, and diversified. Sustainable economic growth is not expected to come from a rapid sale of assets, like local resources.

Benefits

The introduction of a complementary currency is successful if participants of the system have at least one product or service to offer to the community using that currency.

From the point of view of each individual participant in the currency system, the system provides a marketing tool at virtually no cost.

Ever since the end of the experiment in the Austrian township of Woergl in 1934, chances are slim to none that the monetary system in existence (a National Bank that is responsible for the issue of money; private individuals and companies are allowed to charge interest on loans to others) will ever be replaced by a system that handles these issues in a different way.

For this reason, complementary currencies that perform a function of deferred payment in one way or another have the best chances in the marketplace.

Best choice

Entrepreneurs have a wide variety of complementary currencies at their disposal.

Your best options are with the ones that provide easy access. So many people are expected to join; this feature makes a complementary currency a real marketing tool.

Your choice should also be for the ones that are closely linked to the existing monetary system. People who go with the tide succeed in the marketplace. People who go against the tide don't.

Deferred payment poses a risk to the party that accepts this form of payment.

Parties who take risks obviously deserve to be rewarded. Complementary currencies in the shape of credit and debit entries in the books of a barter exchange have a role to play here.

In a barter exchange participants may be eligible to a line of non-cash "credit" against collateral. The credit is granted in form of purchasing power with other participants to buy goods and services. Accounts are settled with the line of credit. The participant has the option to repay the line of credit by selling products and/or services for complementary currency within the group of participants, or to settle the account with cash within the time frame agreed upon. This option makes the system sustainable, and it protects the participants against the risk of default of one of their peers.

The combination of the features: easy access and numerous participants, and linkage to the current monetary system as a form of deferred payment make for a solid, sustainable system.

One of the opportunities today (November 2006) is http://threepointeightmillioncash.blogspot.com.

Especially if you are a small business owner, you should plan ahead and develop a strategy to stand out from other small business owners. The use of one or more complementary currencies and the organizations that stand behind them provides a low cost and time efficient means to put your product on the market, before somebody else does.

To take things a step further, you will stand out in a positive way by packaging seemingly unrelated business transactions, making use of offers of surplus production of various goods, standard currencies, and complementary currencies. The latter may be freely replaced by: the services of a barter exchange.

You will stand a better chance starting your small business following this strategy than focusing on selling your product for cash, which is always in short supply.

Along with this strategy, as Frits Visscher points out in his brochure "How to be a successful corporate consultant", there are tons of opportunities for small start up businesses and for consultants, business promoters, middlemen, intermediaries, finders, business developers and commercial agents. In your home town there are people who plan to start a business, who have started a business, who are buying an existing business, who are selling a business. All are looking out for cash that is in short supply. You can earn substantial fees if you make use of one or more complementary currencies. Incidentally, Frits Visscher's brochure is for sale by referral only.

Learn About Equity Index Annuities

‘Save for a rainy day’ is a wise old saying and there are many ways you can prepare for the sunset of your life. Investing in an annuity is one way. An annuity is a long-term, interest-paying contract offered through an insurance company or financial institution. An equity indexed annuity is an annuity that earns interest that is linked to a stock or other equity index. Depending on how those stocks fare will determine what you gain. The equity index annuities, as in any kind of investments, have to be kept untouched for a long period. The typical time is a minimum of 7 years. This will ensure that you get the full benefit of having invested in an equity index annuity.

The equity index annuities are basically an option of investment that is offered by insurance companies. They actually provide you with the benefit of investing in the stock market without the associated risks of losing your money. So, in an equity index annuity, your principal is never lost and even in a worst case you may take some interest back home. The flip side of this however is that even if the stocks that the equity index annuity is invested in gives high returns, you will not receive the full returns but just a percentage. So you do not get the maximum returns for your equity index annuity but just a part.

This is however the compensation that the insurance companies who offer you the equity index annuities receive, for providing you with a safety net throughout the term of the annuity. The percentage of returns (i.e. the gain of the index) that your equity index annuity brings you is determined by the participation rate. This rate is pre-decided and varies and to know this you have to read the fine print prior to signing on the documents. The general participation rate offered for most equity index annuities is between 70 to 90 percent.

The equity index annuities are therefore seen as a conservative and prudent investment.

They became quite popular during the previous bullish run in the market and insurance companies saw them as an excellent means of combining the security of a guaranteed return with the boom of the stock market. All equity index annuities offer a minimum interest rate and its value also does not fall below the guaranteed minimum percentage of the premium paid i.e. 90 percent at least.

However to achieve maximum benefits, your equity index annuities should not be withdrawn before the term. If you do even a partial withdrawal it will definitely affect the interest you receive. Like all investments, this is best kept for a long term. This will also help your equity index annuities even out and recover if the index plunges. As we know the stock market is volatile and this needs to be kept in mind when investing. Also there are definite withdrawal penalties that you would have to pay as well.

How then do the insurance agencies benefit from offering equity index annuities? The insurance companies reinvest the premium amounts that you pay and this is usually invested into bonds. Since the participation rate is fixed, they have to pay only those set rates of interest to the investors of the equity index annuities and the insurance companies profit the balance.

Equity index annuities are generally affiliated to a particular stock market index such as the S&P 500 or the Dow Jones Industrial Average. However as the equity index annuities combine features of a typical insurance product with the traditional security they do completely fall into each of those specific categories.

As a typical insurance product you are guaranteed minimum return and in terms of securities your investment is linked to the equity market. However it all depends on the features that your equity index annuity provides and it may or may not be a security. The typical equity-indexed annuity is not registered with the SEC.

So then how does one know which equity index annuity is best for oneself? The only way is to find out as much as you can about the equity index annuity before you decide.

Ask a lot of questions like which stock market index does the equity index annuity use? What participation rate is being offered to you? Are there any hidden charges in terms of any fees or deductions payable? You have to run through a number of equity index annuity offerings before making your decision.

So save for a rainy day and do it the equity index annuity way!