It can be hard to buy real estate when the market is tough, even if you have a lot of money to spare. The thing is, there is a lot of risk when it comes to real estate, whether you are purchasing your first home or you are investing in a rental property.The first step is to make sure that you are selecting the right town. With a house, you can remodel it and add additions to it. You can change it any way you would like, for the most part, but you cannot change the town. Therefore, the location of the property is key. Never purchase something in an area that you absolutely do not love.Once you have found the perfect location, you can then start looking for the perfect property. The thing is though, you should really have a genuine idea as to what you can afford. Do not let someone else such as a real estate broker or a lender tell you that you can afford more than you are comfortable with. You know your finances better than anyone.Go over all of your bills. Figure out what you can afford for your monthly payments to be. You want to make sure that you are getting real estate that fits within your monthly budget. If you get something that you honestly cannot afford, you will eventually find yourself in a lot of financial trouble, possibly even foreclosure. Foreclosure may not be on your mind at the moment, but it is something you should think about when deciding how much to spend.Many times, lenders will tell someone that they are approved for a loan that is double the amount that they should really have. They say that this after taking into consideration the applicants debt to income ratio, but this is not a realistic view of what your debt is. They only look at the basic bills and what appears on your credit report.Things such as sports for the kids and your habit of going out to eat twice a week are not taken into consideration. If you want to keep up with the life style that you are used to, you will have to be the person that decides just how much of a house or piece of land you can afford. After all, you are the one in the end who has to deal with the monthly payments and the stress that can come along with that.As you can see, there is much more to buying real estate than just calling a Realtor and picking out a house in your town. You really have to be careful with it and you need to make sure that you are carefully thinking through each and every step that you take. If you can do this, you are sure to end up with a real estate deal that cannot be beat.The next time you find yourself looking at real estate, the steps will come much easier to you. With practice, you will find yourself to be a real estate genius in no time at all.

Perhaps you’re considering a free listing for your FSBO real estate. You feel you’re ready to sell your property yourself. Whether it’s the first time you’ve done this or it’s part of your real estate investment strategy, you want to save the money you’d have to pay to a real estate broker. In fact, you’ve sharpened your pencil and cut out as many unnecessary costs in selling your property as you can.Now is the time to examine all the ways you can market your property effectively. A free listing of your real estate is definitely worth considering. The question is: will buyers in your particular real estate market for FSBO properties respond to a free listing? Many areas are experiencing a glut of properties for sale. Some free listings really don’t get the exposure you really need for your property. Worst of all, your property listing may be just another “face in the crowd” of eager sellers who want the same thing as you.What’s a seller to do? One of the newest ways to get laser-targeted traffic to your offer to sell is through the Internet. Having your own locally specific listing appear in the big search engines can create a flood of interested buyers calling and scheduling appointments to view your FSBO real estate. Even better, you can compete directly with MLS and real estate brokers on a level playing field.Perhaps you’re not “tech savvy”, or are hesitant to explore the idea of your own Web page for your FSBO real estate.Discover how easy, effortless and effective having your own Web page can be. Remember that a free listing does not always pay off if you don’t get serious buyers in return.Creating an attractive, compelling Web page for selling your FSBO real estate may seem like an expensive, daunting task. It doesn’t have to be. Yes, if you have to assume all the separate chores of creating your Web page, you’ll need to:Buy a domain namePay for hostingPay a Web designer to create your pagePay a graphics expert to create all the images you’ll needPay a Web master to maintain your pageWorry about whether your page is getting enough traffic to justify all this expense – which can be upwards of $3,000 if you buy each part individually!It doesn’t have to be that way. Instead, you can take advantage of a new way of making your mark on the Internet. There is now at least one service that can get you up and running at no risk to you. All the chores, worry and guesswork have been eliminated for you. Even better, this same service allows you to set up your Web page with no up-front cost to you. If you don’t like it, you pay nothing!You’ve found your way here. Take a careful look at all the benefits of having your own, personal, affordable Web page for listing your FSBO real estate. Then think about how long it might take for a free listing to bring you the same amount of traffic. A free listing may not cost you anything, but your monthly mortgage payments will. Every day your property stays on the market is costing you money. Get started now with the best way to show and sell!

Have you ever wondered why some real estate purchasers seem to know what is value and seek out the perfect property, while others go round and round in circles, constantly missing out on that perfect property? Well there is no one simple answer, but here are a few hot tips and secrets to help you with your next real estate purchase.
 
Finding that next perfect piece of real estate is not a sport for the couch potato. Knowing your real estate market is the key and the only way to know your real estate market is to be out and about in it. Go to open houses, attend auctions and take every opportunity to get to know the market you are going to buy into. In short finding that perfect piece of real estate is actually a part time job.
 
Use the internet. A lot of the initial leg work can be done in the newspapers and on the internet. You can straight away identify which agents have properties of interests and you can get an initial feel for pricing over a broad range of properties. Create a list or map of properties from your internet research and hit the pavement.
 
Drive by each property, get out and listen for noises, walk around the block talking with someone to listen for annoying or savage dogs. If you happen to spot a neighbor outside ask a few open ended questions about what they most like a bout living here and what they would change.  Drive around each neighborhood looking for factories, treatment plants, vents, heavy traffic or any other things that might create noise or air pollution to local residents. 
 
Once you know what suburb you want to purchase your new real estate its time to create a map of streets and areas you like and dislike. Each time you do an open house inspection, drive by or walk the streets and you particularly like or dislike a street its time to color code it on the map. Use red stickers or pen for areas you dislike and green for nicer areas.
 
Attend open houses on at least your first 3 weekends. Open houses often reveal a lot more then a drive by or photo can, so really treasure the opportunity to attend open houses for comparable real estate to the properties you are looking for. It is easy to 10 or more open hoses on any given Saturday. Take the opportunity to talk to the agent as they will often refer you to similar listings or even upcoming listings.This is not an exhaustive list by any means but these tips alone will help you stay ahead of the crowd when it comes to your next real estate purchase.