All Forum Posts by: Deborah Beeksma

What a great group of people. Thanks!

Deborah

In addition to "what's in it for them," one of the things your investors will want to know is how the property will be managed and, of course, maintained.

The bottom line ... pretend that you are the financial backer. What would you want to know? If in doubt, talk to one of the most negative, persnickity relatives or friends that you have who you KNOW will think of just about any reason why it's a bad deal. Take the advice with a grain of salt...but some of the things that this person might ask may have some merit. Negative people can be resources, if handled correctly! :)

Best wishes!
Deborah

Would it be possible to get some land and then move the mobile to the land? Of course, you'll need the foundation etc. as discussed above so that the home will have some more value. Over time, as you keep up with payments, if the home is considered part of the real property, you might be able to get a refinancing package for both the land and home.

Just a thought...At least you'd have some equity in the property that your home is sitting on.

Deborah

Several Realtors that I know have cancelled their Realtor.com listings because for the price, they weren't getting anything out of it. I agree...it's so big that offerings tend to get lost in the electronic heap.

This is such an important point for new web developers!

I have a real estate web client who insisted, no matter how many hours I argued about it, on having a great big huge run-on domain name sort of like:

searchrealestateandrentalsinthisisasamplecountyusa.com

It's been a nightmare to try to remember what the domain name is when trying to set up email accounts, ftp, etc. for this person. Plus, it looks simply horrible on a business card.

Finally, I talked her into using a simple name that anyone could remember and anyone could spell. The simple domain name had to do with the location and then I put a redirct on that domain. Clean and simple works so much better.

I think your name could work great if your focus is telling people about your site via print media or in person. Build up the content and you should be able to do fine in the search engines, too. If you had a foreign or complicated name, however, I don't think this would be a good strategy.

Deborah

There's a new search engine in which they are giving away $50 in PPC. They're climbing on Alexa pretty fast, and I personally have been getting around 75-100 search result clicks coming in from them every two weeks. When I make some time and get serious about using this search engine, I'll probably see even more traffic.

You can get your own "search portal" totally free, plus the $50 PPC gift. You can also build your PPC dollars beyond $50 by conducting searches on your own search portal (pretty wild...I felt weird and somehow "cheating" when I did this, but it is totally acceptable through the service) and by giving away search portals.

The service is called Big Daddy. I was pretty skeptical at first until I started seeing the incoming traffic on my server logs. The key to using it is to keep building up your PPC balance by running searches and giving away sites. You can use your PPC balance to bid on keywords or, if you get it to a certain level (I can't remember the number off hand), you can "buy" a sponsorship of a certain keyword or key phrase. Basically, this is a free way to dominate a search engine market for the keyphrase that you want.

One thing that I've been finding is that some of the keyphrases that I am now sponsoring through Big Daddy are showing up as backlinks in the major engines (Yahoo, MSN and Google). So it's been a win-win without having to spend any money.

Since it's free, there's really nothing to lose.

Links:

http://www.bigdaddypays.com (non-affiliate)

According to an email I received from them today, they're ranking in the top 10,000 sites on Alexa right now. People are learning about this and grabbing keywords, so the sooner you can get the keywords, the better.

Anyway, it might help with your promotional efforts...My own experience has been favorable, but I can't predict for anyone else how good it will be.

Deborah

If you're going to remove the mobile home from the real estate, check out Nada:

http://www.nadaguides.com

If it's a home and land package, you're dealing with an entirely different ball of wax. Some things to consider:

[list]Is the home on a foundation?
What is the age of the home?
Is there a garage?
Are there addons, such as additional rooms or porches?
What is the neighborhood like?
You can check your county recorder's office for the value of recent land sales, and check out the appraiser's office for the appraised value.
[/list:u]

Of course, there are many other factors, but the above should give you a start.

Deborah

Terri,

Much of this has to do with the age of the home and its location. A brand new mobile home often has a secured loan or mortgage. There are home/land packages available that would have a mortgage. The land itself will probably retain more value than the mobile home.

Depending on your state, title to your mobile home will generally be a certificate issued by your department of motor vehicles. The land on which the mobile home sits is titled by a deed or other recorded instrument through the county recorder.

An older mobile home can also be mortgaged, but there are some factors to consider, such as whether the home is on a foundation, whether the home has a garage or porches added on to it, and the age of the home. Some of the older models are not up to code, so that may be a detriment in obtaining a loan.

In remote rural areas, some mobile homes are set up to run off of solar electricity or other alternatives, like wind. It is very difficult to get financing packages for these...unless you are getting a loan for the home itself and not the entire land/home package.

Sewage and water bills would have to do with the location of the home. In a rural area where there is a septic tank and well, sewer and water services would not be an issue. In developed areas, there would be utility hookup fees.

Hope that helped a bit,
Deborah

Hi,

This is something that comes up ALL the time with people I have worked with...they have no idea what their surveys or property descriptions mean (let alone title issues). I've just finished making a tutorial about how to read a survey and property description (both rectangular and metes and bounds). I'll give 30 away in exchange for feedback.

The tutorial takes about 1-2 minutes to load on high speed internet; dialup will take too long. The whole thing is about 32 minutes long and is geared for people who have no idea where to begin when trying to understand their surveys and legal descriptions.

Given the nature of surveys and legal descriptions, it's a bit technical. I've tried to make it as easy to understand as possible for people who are new to real estate. I've had some Realtors tell me that they found it quite helpful.

If interested, please PM me and I'll send you the URL. Giveaways of the tutorial are good for the next 24 hours.

Many heartfelt thanks in advance!
Deborah

I'd have to agree with everyone here...I'd have to look at the property, see the title documents and do some investigating before buying property on Ebay. I've bought other things there, but vehicles and RE are something that I'm not quite that brave about... :)

Deborah