Here’s a great article about buying foreclosed home that you should read before you consider buying a Fort Mill SC foreclosed home:

Many people jump at the opportunity to buy foreclosures, but this is definitely a buyer beware market. There are, however, a lot of good reasons to buy a foreclosed home, you just must be prepared to put time and effort into fixing it. If you’re looking for a great deal on a home, or you are a first time home buyer, this is a great way to get your foot in the door and get into the house you’ve always wanted.

It is honestly amazing the deals that you can get by buying a foreclosure. There are so many foreclosed homes that may need little to no work, and simply were abandoned, and there are other foreclosures that will need so much work. You’ll be amazed at the deals you can get in purchasing a foreclosure.

If you are willing to put in the time and effort, you may be able to get a screaming deal. Once you find a foreclosure, have a home inspector go through it. When the inspector goes through it, they will be able to help figure out if there is anything major wrong with the house, or if you just need some renovations.

When purchasing a foreclosed home, unless you are ready for a project, you want to stay away with anything that has water damage, mold, or foundation damage. These projects are probably best left for a contractor, and may be better off left alone. It depends what the price of the house is, but you want to be sure that you don’t get yourself into a project that can cost you more than the house will ever be worth. Better to look at a foreclosed home that doesn’t need quite as much work. It’s easy to update kitchens, tear out carpet or paint and patch walls. That doesn’t cost too much, and is something that can be done relatively easy no matter if you do it yourself or you’re hiring a contractor. These projects can also be completed once you’ve moved into the home and don’t require you living someplace else while you fix up where you want to be living.

You also can make a lot of money by fixing up a foreclosed home, if you’re looking to flip houses, this is a great way to do it. You can get these homes for cheap, and even with labor and supplies you can still sell them to make a profit. This is a whole industry now, and something that even hobby carpenters can get into it and make a few extra bucks.

If you’re ready to buy a home, you may want to look at what a foreclosure has to offer. You can get great deals through these homes, and with a little hard labor, work, and dedication you can have a great home for a very low price. Of course, these are always a buyer beware purchase, but with the right research, the right people, and the right price, you can get yourself a deal.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Louise_Scoggins

You can learn a lot about real estate investing. Knowing the basics of real estate investing education is a good way to get the most out of every lesson. Whether you are interested in short sales, bulk reo sales, virtual real estate or just improving your abilities as a real estate investor, you need to know some real estate investing basics in order to succeed. Here are three main real estate investing concepts that many experts do not even know:

1. You will always end up with a positive yield when you invest in real estate investing education. You can create thousands of dollars in potential wealth with each real estate deal. Understanding how to get that wealth will be the key to your success. Learning as much as possible about real estate will increase your odds of success whenever you do a real estate deal. Small investments in education yield big results upon implementation.

2. You have the ability to succeed in real estate investing in any economy. Many people think that you can only succeed in real estate when the economy is booming. In fact a bad economy is not a bad economy for real estate investors. You frequently can get properties at deep discounts. In addition, you can find deals that simply would not exist in a booming economy. In fact, real estate investing can turn the tide for a poor economy. Short sales, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate all thrive when the economy is less than thriving. You will be able to save yourself and others from serious financial difficulties if you know how to do these deals.

3. You do not need to have a great deal of money if you want to be a successful real estate investor. You can make a success of real estate investing no matter how much or little money you have. There are lots of deals that you can use other people’s money to do. Private lenders will lend you their money if they think you are a good investment. The best way to be a good investment is to know as much as possible about real estate investing. This will help you represent yourself as a good investment to private lenders who do not know how to make money in real estate investing.

Real estate investing is a good way to generate a great deal of wealth. You will have the ability to create income in any economy. Using a knowledge base of real estate investing, short sales, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate you will be able to make success for yourself. Knowing real estate investing basics will help you succeed as a real estate investor.

In a nutshell, even though the real estate waters remain quite turbulent and troublesome overall, we’re sitting pretty here in the Carolinas. With the influx of people moving to our area thanks to numerous corporate relocations, this trend doesn’t appear to be reversing itself anytime soon.

To get the full report, check out Zillow’s Home Value Report:

Detailed Home Value Report for Rock Hill, SC

Here’s are some great tips about how to check the plumbing of any home before you buy it:

* Find where the water meter is and determine if the shut off valve is working. If the water comes from a well the shut off valve should be inside the house.

* Check the size of the water pipes in and around the house. In order to have adequate water pressure when there are a few water lines open in the house there should be a three quarter of an inch to 1-inch line directly from the main water source. Inside the house the diameter of the pipes is generally a half-inch in diameter.

* Determine if the plumbing has any lead pipes. Typically homes that were constructed before 1986 tend to have plumbing that is lead or galvanized. This is not always the case though as newer homes can have a lead pipe leading to the water meter.

* Be sure the plumbing has protection for freezing weather. The protection can be things such as wrapped pipes and vents, which will close off in the winter when the weather gets extremely cold. If the home uses well water the well should be protected from freezing weather as well.

* Inspect the hot water heater. You should check the water heater’s capacity, location, and how old it is. Some areas in the home can have high levels of mineral deposits that are in the water that can settle at the bottom of the water heater. When these deposits build up in the water heater tank there will be less room for hot water. If you check the water heater and there is a large build up of deposits you may want to ask for a new water heater.

* Find out what type of sewer system the house uses. If the house uses a septic tank find out where it is located, the capacity of the tank, and where the lateral lines are located.

* Check all the faucets around the house and make sure they do not drip. This
can seem like a minor thing but a dripping faucet can end up costing you a lot of money on the long run.

* Go to all the bathrooms and flush all the toilets. Make sure they empty and fill correctly.

Source: www.handyhouseholdhints.com

So, take the time to  check all these things BEFORE you buy and you’ll thank yourself  after you’re enjoying your new home!

When you’re selling your home, you need to take your own emotional attachments out of the picture and view things from the perspective of your prospective buyers.

Love that deep red color on the walls of your bedroom? Great, but the potential buyers walking through your house might despise the color red because they went to UNC and can’t stand NC State.

You think your collection of Pez dispensers makes a wonderful display in your living room. Unfortunately, most people viewing your house will think it makes the room look smaller than what it probably is and as a result, will walk away with a negative impression of your home.

Ultimately, if you want your home to sell fast and for top dollar, you MUST do everything possible to help your prospective buyers picture themselves in your house, not you.

Here’s a fantastic article that offers several great pieces of advice on how to prep your home for maximum impact when showing it to potential buyers:

Dress to impress: Local staging company helps home sellers put their best foot forward

Freightliner coming to York County

340 jobs moving to York County, newspaper says

CHRISTOPHER D. KIRKPATRICK

ckirkpatrick@charlotteobserver.com

Freightliner LLC, the nation’s largest truck manufacturer, plans to move about 340 sales and marketing jobs to York County and develop a 300-acre campus that some have speculated could become the new headquarters, the Oregonian newspaper in Portland reported today.

The Portland, Ore., company has several manufacturing operations in North Carolina and earlier confirmed it was considering transferring some white collar jobs to be closer to those facilities.

A specific site has not been named.

The York County Council discussed a package of transportation-related tax incentives in a closed session today for an unnamed corporation, the Rock Hill Herald reported. It plans a vote in open session on Monday.

The Oregonian reported that elected officials in Portland had been told by Freightliner’s chief executive that the company was developing the campus. The company said it was not moving its headquarters, the paper reported.

So, what this means for us is a potential influx of people looking to buy real estate in the Fort Mill SC, Rock Hill SC, and Tega Cay SC areas.  Granted, it’s not going to be a HUGE influx, but will certainly help keep real estate in this area alive and well!

Here’s a bit of the Veros’ report:

 Veros Forecasts Nation’s 10 Strongest and Weakest Markets

—Proven Forecasting Technology Indicates Some Markets Still Have Strong Home Price Appreciation—

94th Annual Mortgage Bankers Association Convention and Expo

BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Santa Ana, Calif.-based Veros Real Estate Solutions, the industry leader in predictive technology, announced from the 94^th Annual Mortgage Bankers Association Convention and Expo the release of its latest quarterly forecast results for Q3 2007 through Q2 2008, revealing the strongest and weakest markets for the next 12 months. Since its initial release in October of 2003, VeroFORECAST continues to be the most accurate forecasting model in the residential real estate market. Based on the company’s proprietary forecasting modeling the results clearly indicate that, although there are areas of significant concern, not all markets are experiencing drastic reductions in real estate values.

According to Veros, the markets that will experience the strongest growth and, in contrast, the most rapid depreciation in home values for Q3 2007 through Q2 2008 are:

Top 5 Strongest Markets
Raleigh-Cary, NC (7%)
Austin-Round Rock, TX (6%)
Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord, NC-SC (6%)
Salt Lake City, UT (6%)
Albuquerque, NM (5%)