Looking for a bargain on waterfront real estate? The winter is a great time to get out in the market and find motivated sellers. In addition, you can save money on other expenses like appraisals and home inspections.

The winter time is tough for the real estate market due to all the distractions like holiday shopping, parties, and decorations. The cold weather also deters potential shoppers from getting out and looking at properties. If you get out there in the winter, you’ll likely be making offers with little competition.

When a seller has a waterfront home that did not sell during the summer market, they may become concerned that the waterfront home won’t sell. If the seller has not pulled their listing, there is a good chance they have become very motivated to sell.

Real estate agents need to keep their momentum going and can’t afford to take too much time off. When the agents aren’t as busy, you get better service. Plus, they’re more likely to take low offers seriously. Agents love investors ready to buy waterfront real estate during the winter.

So what about financing? Well, lenders and mortgage brokers are affected the same way real estate agents are. As the winter months roll-in, they tend to be more flexible with qualifications and will work harder to help you purchase your waterfront home.

Many buyers will make offers contingent on the appraisal and the home inspection. During the summer you may have to wait up to a week or longer to get the appraiser and home inspector out to the home. During the summer, it is not uncommon to be able to get your appraiser and home inspector out to the property within a day or two.

So throw on your coat and start looking at those listings that are left over from the summer frenzy. Make as many offers as you can. Don’t wait for the summer to come back in just to find yourself competing against all those other offers.

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If you are interested in property for sale cheap will want to pick up a few house flipping tips to keep their costs down and profits high. In the house flipping game it’s all about how you set your budget and the final selling price of the home. So, with the aims of keeping you, the real estate investor, within budget here are several house flipping tips towards success.

* Choose the Right House

It’s possible to be so eager to get into wholesaling property that you buy the first cheap house you can find. House flipping is about more than buying a cheap house. It’s about finding the right cheap house. You want a property that is structurally sound, but needs a lot of cosmetic repairs. This way it won’t cost you a lot of money to invest in that property, fix it up and you’ll still be able to sell it at close to current market value.

Another house flipping tip to keep in mind here is to make sure you get a home inspector to look over the property you’ll be signing papers on. A home inspection can ensure that the property is structurally sound before you buy.

* Search for Houses Needing Cosmetic Repairs

This was touched on by the first of the house flipping tips, but warrants further explanation. You’ll want to seek out wholesaling property that is in need of yard work and a good coat of paint. These are the kinds of repairs that a homeowner doesn’t want to do themselves, when moving out or moving in. Yet, they can greatly increase or decrease the value of a property.

Plus, new paint on the exterior, fresh paint on the interior and some yard work are all investments that can be done quickly and less expensively than major home remodeling or rehabbing.

* Avoid Mold!

Mold is a deal breaker. Recent news has made the average homeowner terrified of possible black mold in a home. Plus, it’s really hard to get out of a home once it shows up, meaning more time and expense.

When you see mold in a home you’re considering you may want to reconsider it. At the very least it’s bound to lower the price of the home.

* Cost List and Double it

Basic house flipping tips say that you should always double your estimate for fixing up a property. Keep that in mind when figuring how much you think you can offer to buy a property and still come away with a profit.

No matter how accurately your contractors estimate the cost of repairs, something inevitably happens to increase the final price. So, doubling your repair budget automatically creates a buffer zone for wholesaling property. If you come in under that amount at the end, then its just more profits for you.

* Beware Lazy Handymen

This isn’t so much a cutting costs tip as a warning. Most contractors have multiple jobs going on at once or backlogged. If you decide to just pick a contractor out of the yellow pages one day he or she may not be able to get to work on your house for a few days or weeks, maybe even months. So, keep this in mind if you have a property that will need major repairs or are running short on funds for carrying costs. It may be better once you get low on funds to just cut your losses on a property that still needs repairs by selling it as is.

* Make Realistic Improvements

A lot of investors wholesaling property make the mistake of going overboard in their improvements. They don’t take into account what homes in the surrounding area are actually selling for and so invest a more money than needed in a property. This can be in time, effort and especially money.

For instance, if no other homes in the surrounding neighborhood have miniature water features in the backyard, there is no need for you to add a miniature water feature to your homeowner’s backyard. It increases the price a lot, but also requires a lot of care on the part of the buyer and really only appeals to a certain select group of homeowners.

There are plenty of other house flipping ideas you can follow to keep those costs down when wholesaling property. In fact you’ll probably come across a few of your own private tips and ideas as you start flipping more houses. Hopefully, the above tips are a good start for your burgeoning real estate investor’s tool box.

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Even though loan modifications are starting to be highly used, it’s fundamental to remember that no all mortgage modifications are approved by the bank. In determining whether to approve a loan modification, the bank will generally study the key factor in the decision process: the debt-to-income ratio.

The debt-to-income ratio is the major element in determining how successful a loan modification will be because it is the best manner for the bank to figure out if the individual will pay the mortgage after the loan modification.

Prior to talking to a lender, it is a good idea for the individual to find out the debt-to-income ratio. This is so because of two major reasons.

First, the debt-to-income ratio will give the owner a very good idea of whether the mortgage loan application will be offered. The majority of banks want to look at a debt-to-ratio that isn’t above 50%. Some banks will go all the way up to 55%. In a few instances, and provided the right circumstances, a few banks will go even higher.

Second, by finding out the ratio prior to calling the lending institution, the individual could see ways in which it might change the debt-to-income if the ratio is too high even after the approval of the loan modification.

For instance, in some cases owners could pay off some credit cards to decrease the debt-to-income ratio. In other cases, the home owner can give a very good excuse why he will be able to make the payments even with the elevated ratio.

A lot of lenders request this ratio since banks prefer to make sure they are not wasting their resources with home owners who will stop paying the loan even after the mortgage loan modification. The ratio is a very accurate parameter of how well an individual will pay the mortgage.

As a summary, always remember that you are looking for a ratio after the loan modification that is below 50-55%. By doing the calculation before talking to a lender, the owner might be much better prepared to present the case and the chances of having the loan modification approved go up dramatically.

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