There is an unique and interesting loan program that helps sellers sell a home and buyers to purchase a home with little down payment.

This is the Nehemiah Program and works for the majority of current buyers. It is available to first-time buyers and repeat buyers for both new and resale homes. As hard as it is to believe, there are practically no limitations and any home in any area can qualify.

The buyer is gifted six percent (6%) of the purchase price through the Nehemiah Program and the seller pays that amount and a small service fee back to the program at the close of escrow. The seller needs to take the amount he will giving back to the program into consideration in the purchase price.

It looks like a Win Win propostition for both the buyer and the seller. The buyer can purchase a home with little or no down payment and the seller can use the offer to help make his home desireable to more buyers

Good House Buying and Selling!.

Real estate investing is far from easy, many people would say.

Buying a property and hoping to re-sell it quickly at a gain isn’t a workable scenario in the current business climate.

If you’re looking for long-term appreciation, you can buy a property. You need to purchase it at a reasonable price to allow room to pay for management fees. Or you can manage it yourself. The tenants are the wild card, aren’t they?

In commercial real estate, you run the risk of not having any tenants, if the local market is glutted. And that is the case in many local markets. In residential real estate, you may find yourself doing a fair amount of maintenance. You may worry about finding the right tenant. How do you create a lease? How do you screen tenants so as to find the ones who will stay a long time and keep up your property for you?

A real-estate investment trust (REIT) is the real hands-free alternative. You simply purchase shares in a publicly traded fund that owns property, often commercial property, and possibly mortgages. When the stock market goes up, these funds tend to go down, and vice versa. This helps balance your holdings.

But the fund fees can siphon off your profits. What if you want a simple, low-risk long-term investment ? One where you can file the deed in your safe deposit box?

You could consider a pre-packaged system where you choose a new or nearly new single-family house from a variety of relative low-cost local markets. With the system comes a pre-selected reliable property manager at negotiated rates. The loan situation is negotiated, too, at five to 10 percent down.

An arrangement like this provides you with a balance sheet with predictable income and expenses. Your tenant will simply pay off the mortgage. In 15 years, you can sell the house and walk off with the equity.

REO is a term that stands for “Real Estate Owned.” It refers to properties which have been foreclosed upon by banks or other lenders.

“Asset managers” are the personnel you’ll deal with in REO departments. Their job is to inspect the properties, see that needed repairs are done, and manage the properties until they’re sold.

As an independent investor, you can find great opportunities in this area. However, you have to be willing to learn the written and unwritten rules and be prepared to deal with tough-minded REO departments. This article provides you the guidelines for doing just that.

Guideline #1: Understand the Lenders’ Viewpoint on REO Properties Banks and lenders hate having REO properties on their books. Instead of assets, they have liabilities. Naturally, they want to get rid of these properties; however, they’re not willing to do it at a loss if they can possible prevent that from happening.

So, as an investor, you not only have to handle this attitude, but you also have to deal another fact: banks and lenders often don’t like to publicize the fact that they have REOs on their books. They have three reasons for this.

Reason One is that they don’t want federal regulators breathing over their shoulders, questioning their business practices or solvency.

Second, they don’t want their depositors knowing about REOs. Depositors want security above all and if-rightly or wrongly-they see REOs as evidence of questionable practices, they may pull their money out. Banks want to protect their image.

Third, if lenders have a large inventory of REOs, they don’t want the market at large to know about it. If the information leaks out, prices could drop dramatically.

So, how do you find out about REOs? That’s our next topic.

Present Yourself As a Professional to the REO Department A lender’s REO asset managers don’t want to deal with amateur investors, so you need to approach them as a knowledgeable professional.

First, call the lender and ask for the REO department. Once in contact, explain that you’re an independent, professional investor and are interested in buying REO properties and would like an appointment with a decision-maker.

Then, use that appointment to present your case and convince the decision-maker that you have the assets and experience of a committed professional. If you do your sales job right, then you can ask for a list of REO properties.

Note: Sometimes, REO departments handle the properties themselves; sometimes, they use a broker. So, be prepared to deal with both.

Guideline 3: Inspect the REO Properties It’s a fact that many of these foreclosed properties aren’t in great condition. The former owners aren’t happy campers so they may not take care of the property or even damage it to vent their anger. So, you’ll definitely need to do due diligence and inspect any properties under consideration.

In some cases, lenders will do cosmetic repairs to a property since they know a more attractive home will bring a higher price. To counter this possibility, I recommend that you try to show up as soon as the property is acquired and offer to take it “as-is” to get a lower price.

Buying REO Properties-the Mechanics There’s no great secret to buying these properties. You buy them just as you would any property. First, you make an offer. Then, the lender either accepts it, rejects it, or makes a counter-offer. In the case of a counter-offer, you negotiate.

In terms of payment, most lenders prefer cash because they want to be rid of these properties cleanly and quickly. If this is the case, you’ll need to go to a different lender to get your financing. Just don’t expect a great deal; that lender may want 10% or more down plus closing costs. However, some REO departments realize that they’ll get less from a cash offer so they may offer you financing. The advantage of this is that you may be able to pay a lower down payment, get easier terms, and also obtain some money for improvements. The disadvantage is that you’ll pay more in interest and fees than you would on a strictly-cash basis.

Typical Problems As I stated above, many of these properties are in pretty bad condition and may not be worth the money, so inspect them carefully before you commit to a purchase.

Also, as I said earlier, REO properties are sold “as-is.” This means there is no warranty of any kind. Therefore, if you buy a property that later requires very expensive repairs, you’re stuck with that expense. The lesson-perform due diligence very carefully!

In the case of federally-chartered lenders, you may not get a disclosure statement (most states require these now). This means there’s the possibility you could end up stuck with a property that has severe and expensive problems (e.g., lead paint, etc.).

Finally, if after a home inspection, you find repairs that need to be done, don’t expect the lender to pay for them. Their attitude is, “It’s your problem to solve.”

Key Point: When approaching an REO department, be a fully-prepared professional.