9 Ways to Save for a Down Payment

9 Ways to Save for a Down Payment

RECBL - Real Estate News

(TNS)-You’ve found the perfect house. Interest rates are still low. There’s just one thing standing between you and your dream home: a down payment.

Don’t abandon your homeownership dreams just yet. Here are nine ways to come up with the cash for your new home.

Pay Off Your Credit Cards
Paying bills will help in your hunt for down payment money. When you carry a credit card balance, the ever-accumulating interest charges mean more of your money goes to the card company each month.

Keep that cash for yourself by cutting your debt load. With the "avalanche" method, you prioritize your debts and pay the most on the one with the highest interest rate. Once that’s paid, shift your focus to the next highest rate and so on. You’ll get the most money-sucking credit card bills out of the way more quickly, freeing up more of your income to go toward building your savings.

Ladder CDs to Boost Savings
Once you have a few extra bucks, put it to work making more money for you. Certificates of deposit are low-risk and relatively accessible. But when interest rates are low, the return isn’t always what a saver hopes. You can maximize the earning power of CDs by opening different certificates at varying maturity dates.

For example, instead of buying one big CD, spread your money into three-month, six-month and one-year certificates. Known as laddering, this gives you flexibility to adjust your savings as rates change. Laddering allows you to lock in when rates are high and when rates are not so good. The process keeps you from being stuck for too long with low earnings.

Use Special Programs
There are many programs for homebuyers struggling to save for a down payment, especially for first-time homebuyers. Borrowers in a wide range of incomes, locales and professional groups may have access to aid from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored offices that buy mortgages and package them as investments. Various nonprofit and community groups also lend a hand to buyers struggling to put money down on a home. And don’t forget about assistance from state agencies.

Tap Your IRA
If you’re looking to buy your first home, let the IRS help. Tax laws allow you to use up to $10,000 in IRA funds as a down payment if you’ve never owned a house. If you’re married and you both are first-time buyers, you each can pull from your retirement accounts, meaning a potential $20,000 down payment.

Even better is the IRS definition of "first-time homebuyer." Technically, you don’t have to be purchasing your very first home. You qualify under the tax rules as long as you (or your spouse) did not own a principal residence at any time during the two years prior to the purchase of the new home. In these instances, Uncle Sam waives the penalty for early withdrawal, but you may owe tax on the money, depending on the type of IRA.

Get a Gift
Aunt Edna always liked you best. Take advantage of that favored family status and ask her to make a present of your down payment. Tax law allows gifts of several thousand dollars a year to be bestowed without tax consequences to either the giver or recipient. The gift-exclusion amount is $14,000 for 2017 and is adjusted annually for inflation. The gift exclusion isn’t limited to relatives. The monetary present can be from anyone, so track down a well-off friend now.

Ask for a Raise
No luck finding a benefactor? Then maybe it’s time to ask your boss for more money. Just make sure you do your homework beforehand and base your request for a salary increase on your accomplishments rather than your needs.

Get a Second Job
Boss turned down your request for a raise? Moonlighting could help you earn the extra money. This option makes the most sense for those who are young and not yet fully established in their professional lives.

Look for Lost Money
Do you have any money stashed somewhere? Around $23.5 billion worth of matured savings bonds remains unredeemed, according to the Treasury Department, ignored by owners and not earning a penny of interest. Make sure your bonds and other investments are still adding to your net worth.

You could also have money languishing in an old bank account somewhere. You can file a claim with the Treasury to claim lost, stolen or destroyed savings bonds, or check the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators to see if you have any missing money.

Sell Unwanted Items
You likely have some used furniture you no longer use or old clothes that are no longer in style. Sell it to make a few more bucks to use for your down payment.

You can sell your items on sites like Craigslist, eBay, Facebook and Amazon to turn your trash into someone else’s treasure.

(C)2017 Bankrate.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

CashBuyersLists.com                         Please like, comment and share.  Thank you.

HUD Awards $42 Million of Counseling to Those with Housing Needs

HUD Awards $42 Million of Counseling to Those with Housing Needs

Related articles at www.cashbuyerslists.com

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently awarded more than $42 million in housing counseling grants to hundreds of national, regional and local organizations to help families and individuals with their housing needs and to prevent future foreclosures. HUD's housing counseling grants and the additional funding they leverage will assist more than 1.4 million households find housing, make more informed housing choices, or keep their current homes.

June is National Home ownership Month, a time HUD recognizes how home ownership enhances lives and contributes to thriving communities. "Dare to Own the Dream" is the theme of this month-long recognition, reinforcing the long-held belief that owning a home remains one of the cornerstones of the American Dream. The grants awarded were announced at a White House gathering to mark National Home ownership Month.

HUD Secretary Julian Castro says, "Housing counselors provide potential homeowners with the tools they need to ensure they're ready and responsible. Their efforts give countless families a real shot at the American Dream of homeownership. The counseling organizations HUD supports are on the front lines in providing the full spectrum of services households need-from locating affordable rental housing, offering advice on how to become a homeowner, and preventing foreclosure."

More than $40 million will directly support the housing counseling services provided by 31 national and regional organizations, five multi-state organizations, 17 State Housing Finance Agencies (SHFAs) and 181 local housing counseling agencies. In addition, HUD is awarding $2 million to four national organizations to train housing counselors who will receive the instruction and certification necessary to effectively assist families with their housing needs.

National and regional agencies distribute much of HUD's housing counseling grant funding to community-based organizations that assist low- and moderate-income families to improve their housing conditions. In addition, these larger organizations help improve the quality of housing counseling services and enhance coordination among counseling providers.

Counseling improves housing outcomes for homebuyers, homeowners, and renters. Last month, HUD published research findings summarizing the impact of housing counseling has on families' housing options and choices. In addition, recent research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and the Urban Institute continues to find substantial benefits to housing counseling for families who purchase their first homes and those struggling to prevent foreclosure.

Grant recipients address the full range of families' housing counseling needs. This includes helping homebuyers evaluate their readiness for a home purchase, understand their financing and down payment options, and navigate what can be an extremely confusing and difficult home-buying process. The organization also help households find affordable rental housing and offer financial literacy training to individuals and families struggling to repair credit problems that restrict their housing options.

In addition to providing counseling to homeowners and renters, these organizations assist homeless persons in finding the transitional housing they need to move toward a permanent place to live. Finally, grantees also assist senior citizens seeking reverse mortgages. These agencies provide counseling for the rapidly growing number of elderly homeowners who seek to convert equity in their homes into income that can be used to pay for home improvements, medical costs, and other living expenses.

Housing counseling agencies support fair housing by assisting borrowers in reviewing their loan documentation, to avoid potential mortgage scams, unreasonably high interest rates, inflated appraisals, unaffordable repayment terms, and other conditions that can result in a loss of equity, increased debt, default, and even foreclosure. Likewise, foreclosure prevention counseling helps homeowners facing delinquency or default employ strategies, including expense reduction, negotiation with lenders and loan servicers, and loss mitigation, to avoid foreclosure.

For more information, visit www.hud.gov.

Related articles at www.cashbuyerslists.com

WHY IS IT SO HARD TO FIND CASH BUYERS FOR REAL ESTATE?

When first getting into real estate, finding cash buyers for real estate deals can be a challenge or more like a never ending job which tends to have you thinking twice about whether or not real estate is the direction for you; BEEN THERE, DONE THAT.

Locating cash buyers is one of the most important things you can do for your real estate business.  The reason is, real estate cash buyers are your customers. These are the people who are going to pay for real estate properties from you. How cool would that be?

Finding cash buyers for your real estate to help you make your first five figure paycheck will motivate you and have you on cloud nine.  You’re going to look at that check, you’re going to hold onto it, you may even smell it…but most importantly you are going to feel confident in your choice to move forward in real estate.

First, finding cash buyers in the past was a little more difficult than it is now, however you are in the right spot at the right time to find the cash buyers you need for your real estate. You’ll find a form below to help get you started, and best of all we’ll be upfront as to how much it costs so you know there are no hidden fees…AT ALL!  Each list you request is only $17.

YES…NO JOKE, $17 and each list can have up to 500 leads of real estate cash buyers…but we will come back to that.

There have been multiple ways to locate cash buyers for real estate; Google, Bandit signs, software, classified ads, Investor friendly agents, Auctions and REI groups are just a few.  Well, this will help eliminate all of that.

The best way to find cash buyers is to acquire a list of real estate cash buyers in your state, city, county or even zip code. If you want to locate cash buyers for real estate outside your area it’s just as simple. When you acquire your, list you will see everyone on your list has purchased properties either as an individual or as a legal real estate business entity, so you know these are the type of people you want to start a relationship with.

Now after you find these real estate cash buyers you want to send them a letter or a postcard or in some cases contact them via phone…however, contacting them via phone can, in some cases, work against you because there are so many different companies, collectors and solicitors trying to reach these people and sometimes a phone call can be the worse way to make contact.

If you send a letter or postcard you can write something like this;

“Hello, my name is (your name goes here), I am a (your role here: real estate investor, wholesaler, real estate professional) in (give your area) and I have access to properties 20% to 40% below market value. If you are interested in doing business and getting a hold of some of these properties, then give me a call at (your phone number here).”

It really is that simple.  Your phone should end up ringing off the hook with people reaching out to you instead of you reaching out to them and that is exactly what you are looking for. So here is how you get started and be prepared to purchase your list today for only $17.

Complete the form by Clicking Here.  Let us know which State, City, County even Zip code you would like your list of cash buyers pulled from.​ Once you complete the form you will be redirected to a cash buyers lists page where you will get to choose which state you prefer and you will see the number of leads for a particular area.

We look forward to helping you in your real estate ventures and hope this gets you started in the proper direction.  Now fill out the form and go get your list!

http://bit.ly/FindCashBuyersforRealEstate

3 WAYS TO BUY REAL ESTATE WITH A SMALL IRA

Cash Buyers Lists News

​With the popularity of Real Estate IRAs gaining ground, it's important that you, as a trusted real estate advisor, stay up to date on this topic. Clients in your database that have retirement wealth may look to you to provide more information about investing in real estate. I am always sharing important information on this topic with agents, including this particular key insight: your clients do not need to have the full cash amount in order to invest in real estate with retirement dollars. If a client has a small IRA, there are a few paths they can follow.

Here are the three most popular ways for a client with a small IRA to invest in real estate:

Partner the IRA
A self-directed IRA or Real Estate IRA can partner with other IRAs, investors' money, and even personal funds. Sometimes partnering with one account, one investor, or only yourself, will not provide enough funding for the investment you are interested in. In this case, you can partner with a group. The IRA would own a fraction of the investment and share the profits and expenses with other investors in that same proportion.

Leverage the IRA
Yes, your IRA can take a loan. The regulations require a non-recourse loan if a loan is to complete a real estate transaction in a self-directed IRA. A non-recourse loan is a loan in which you, as the IRA holder, are not personally liable for repaying the loan. The IRA holder cannot personally guarantee the loan the IRA is acquiring.  Once you locate a lender/bank, the lender will lend to your IRA, not to you as an individual. The lender will have no recourse against you or other assets in your IRA in the event of a default. The lender will only be able to recover the property and your equity in the property that has the loan.

Lend your IRA
You can passively invest in real estate by providing capital from your IRA for a real estate transaction. In many cases we see investors borrow from a third party's IRA to close on a transaction. The IRA owner determines the rate and terms of the loan.  The loan from the IRA is secured by the property.

Knowing about small IRA investment strategies can help you enhance your value to your clients as a trusted source for important real estate information. Help leverage the wealth that lives in your database today. More information and tools to grow your business can be found here.

CashBuyersLists.com