Steve Guttridge: aka Stay At Home Bum Marketer

by: Steve Teta

Through no fault of your own, you may be facing one of the greatest challenges of your life; how to prevent your property from being foreclosed upon.

Why let the bank take your most valued asset and leave you with nothing? Fortunately, alternatives exist. In fact, there are seven ways you can avoid foreclosure. They are:

1. Refinance
2. Bring your mortgage current
3. Create a “workout” with the bank
4. Declare bankruptcy
5. Create “shared equity”
6. Transfer title
7. Sell the property quickly

Let’s discuss each option—what it is, and the pros and cons of using each one:

1. Refinance

In today’s marketplace, there are many different types of financial institutions that lend money. Although you may not be able to refinance with your local bank due to your current situation, there are many mortgage companies and lenders who specialize in creative financing solutions. That’s how they can compete with the big banks. They are often able to review your situation and find a solution to your needs. It is true that the loan you get will probably have a higher interest rate than a regular loan. But if you have a good amount of equity in your property, the ability to refinance will most likely be a good option that’s available to you.

2. Bring your mortgage current

I know what you are thinking: “If I could bring my mortgage current, I wouldn’t be in this situation!” That may be true, but have you investigated every possible way that you may be able to get the funds? Can you borrow it from a friend, family member or co-worker? Can you sell something? Does your employer have any hardship loan programs? Brainstorm with family members or close friends. The more you think about it, the more likely it is that someone will remember or come across a solution.

3. Create a workout with the lender

The lender does not want to foreclose. That’s because lenders are in the business of having their money at work in loans, and not sitting in a property they have taken back through foreclosure. Not only is that a black mark on the lending institution, but it hurts their financial picture as well. Therefore, in many instances lenders are willing to do “workouts” (also known as a forbearance agreement). What this means is that they are willing to work out the back payments that are owed, until you become current again.

A typical workout would be the lender taking the full amount of your back payments and dividing that number by 12 or 24. They would then add that amount to your current payments, until you are paid off. When considering a workout, you’ve got to be able to make that extra payment each month or you will be right back where you started—in the foreclosure process for the second time. At that point, the bank will not look very favorably upon your situation. It’s best to work with a workout specialist…someone who has done workouts before and knows the “ins and outs” of the lending business.

4. Declare bankruptcy

Declaring bankruptcy is a viable option to being foreclosed upon, but it should be used only as a last resort. Also, use it only if you know that you will be able to keep up with the future loan payments. Otherwise you’re just postponing the inevitable, and the longer you wait, the less money you will walk away with from your property. A bankruptcy will be reported on your credit report for seven years. The bankruptcy will also be reported in the financial section of the newspaper—it’s a requirement from the bankruptcy court.

Declaring bankruptcy is also costly. When declaring bankruptcy you will have the option to declare either Chapter 7, 11 or 13 bankruptcy. These refer to different parts of the bankruptcy law, and relate to whether you are somewhat in debt and need to renegotiate with lenders, or whether you truly are going to walk away from your debts. However, be warned that because you can only declare bankruptcy periodically, certain future debts might not be eligible for even bankruptcy protection. The point is that bankruptcy should be your route of last resort. If you truly have no other alternative, call us and we will give you the names of two or three reputable bankruptcy attorneys.

5. Create shared equity

To create shared equity, you borrow the money from an investor, in order to make up your back payments. In return for bringing your loan current, you give the investor a certain portion of the equity in your property. You are giving up part ownership, in return for keeping part ownership: That beats giving the whole thing over to your lender.

Of the seven methods to avoid foreclosure, this is the most difficult to accomplish, because there are not many investors who are willing to risk money (the back payments) on an individual who has a history of not paying.

6. Transfer title

This is a form of property sale. It’s called a “subject to” transaction. An investor offers to make up your back payments and take over your property, subject to the existing mortgage. The title of the property goes into the buyer’s name, though the mortgage stays in your name until the loan is paid off. This could take as little as thirty days, or as long as three years. You may ask, “How do I know the investor will make the payments?” The answer is quite simple: He has just made up all of your back payments; he now has a financial stake in the property. It only makes sense that he makes your payments to protect his investment.

This type of sale is becoming quite common. The benefits to you:

· You don’t have a foreclosure on your record;
· You may get some cash immediately to start fresh;
· You immediately solve your looming foreclosure; and
· Your credit gets built back up through no effort of your own
because the investor makes up your back payments and begins
making your monthly mortgage payments on time every month.

Before long, your credit score is once again in good standing.

7. Sell your property quickly

Sometimes people just want to walk away from a bad situation, and leave everything that reminds them of that situation behind. In this case, you sell your property outright, collect any equity that you have in the property and start over again. One great thing about time is its ability to heal wounds. Yes, things may be bad now, but as Johnny Cash always said, “This too shall pass”. It may be time to face what is happening and act in your best interest right now for a better tomorrow. You can sell your property through a real estate agent or directly to an investor. Selling directly to an investor will save you the commission that you would pay to a real estate agent and more importantly will save you time. A real estate agent sometimes takes three to six months to find you a buyer. If for some reason that buyer cannot get financing or close on the property, you might be left in a real bind.

The three to six months (or eight to twelve months in this market) that a real estate agent may take to find a buyer could be longer than you can afford. That’s because once your lender has set a date for the foreclosure, it will foreclose on that date, regardless of whether your buyer needs more time. In many situations, investors like can pay cash and can close quickly.

About The Author

Steve Teta is the owner and Founder of STS Real Estate Solutions, LLC and is an active real estate investor and wholesaler. To receive more information and your FREE report entitled How To Buy A Wholesale Deal Without Taking A Bath go to: http://www.stswholesaledeals.com/

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by: Walt Slaughter

As the economy grows more uncertain, you must choose: (1) ramp up your selling efforts and take market share; or (2) hunker down and ride it out.

The smart money is on those who ramp up. You will all but have the market to yourself.

Consider that in an economic downturn:

● Buyers don’t stop buying. They buy less or less frequently;

● Most of your competitors will circle their wagons (i.e. they will hunker down);

● There are opportunities for sellers who ramp up.

It helps to understand that amid an economic contraction:

Smaller firms fare better on average than larger companies.

Smaller firms are bolder in their behaviors and quicker to act than their larger competitors in a slowing economy. Do not overlook the small guys. Their buying potentials and frequencies can impress.

Larger accounts likely will take more time to decide.

Expect buying cycles in large companies to increase by as much as 40%. Be patient with them; they figure they have less margin for error. Being prepared with a good, better, best product or service solution can help speed decisions, but present more than three options to a buyer and you risk inviting more delay.

Buyers focus upon needs, not wants.

If a buyer does not view your product or service as necessary to his doing business, he will be a tough sell no matter how much he may want what you offer. Now more than ever, it is important to help the buyer see your offering as an investment, not an expense.

So how do you thrive, not just survive in today’s economy?

Focus upon your best selling opportunities.

It is quality of leads that counts now. Resist chasing low-probability prospects. Research says you have a one in 14 chance of selling something to a new prospect. The odds of your selling more to a current customer are one in two, and your second best odds of booking business – one in four – are to former customers!

Take the time to qualify prospects.

Seventy percent or more of all sales calls are wasted, because sellers are talking to unqualified buyers . They are buyers who lack authority, need, urgency or ability to pay. In tough times, no sale is complete until the check has cleared the bank.

Emphasize “can’t miss” product, process and service solutions.

Buyers grow more risk-averse in slower times and tight markets. They want to purchase a “sure thing”. Help buyers see you, your firm and your offering as the no-risk options. Buyers make decisions that they see as safe.

Leave the sales pitch at home.

In successful sales calls more questions are asked than in less successful and unsuccessful calls. Questioning is at the heart of consultative selling, and buyers today want to feel that suppliers understand them. In tough times, listen people into buying; don’t talk your way out of the sale.

Stay true to your pricing.

It is a lie that in tough times decision-makers buy on price. What they buy is best overall value. In fact, buyers in the last U.S. recession paid 12% more for products than they paid for the same products in robust economic times! Economic contractions are short-lived (averaging about 11 months), and tough times always are followed by a period of economic expansion lasting on average three to five years. Do not set a precedent as a discounter. Cut your price; cut your throat!

Be flexible.

Buyers today place a high value on suppliers being flexible with them: offering lease vs. purchase options; adapting delivery schedules; extending payment terms and the like. Buyers don’t so much want a cheaper price as they do lower operating costs. Cost containment and cash flow top buyers’ list of concerns.

Amp up your prospecting.

Expect most salespeople to slash by 30% or more their calls on customers and prospects. It is a mistake, driven by attitude and outlook. Boost your calls by 35%, and you will be in front of buyers at nearly twice the rate of your competitors.

Communicate more often.

Three out of four firms curtail their marketing in tough times. Increase your overall communication – advertising, promotions, correspondence – and you will be heard louder and clearer than ever. Add more frequent face-to-face calls, and you cannot help but reap a handsome return on your investment.

Can you excel not just survive in a soft economy? You bet you can, but you will have to turn a deaf ear to a lot of the stuff you’ll be hearing. A slowing economy has as much to do with mentality as money. So prepare to be counterintuitive in your behaviors.

Here, too, is your opportunity to gain competitive advantage: investing in R&D, training your people, and relooking your operating and business-building practices. Here – right now — is your chance to get ahead and stay ahead when the economy turns.

About The Author

Walt Slaughter is a sales strategist, trainer and speaker who can be contacted at 615-781-2226 or via email at wslaughter@sellmorenow.net. Visit his website — www.sellmorenow.net — to download Walt’s popular 33 Selling Mistakes.

Article source

http://www.articlecity.com/articles/marketing/article_4657.shtml

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by: Ray Ricardo
It’s a dog eat dog world out there on the Internet. There is the capacity for an unlimited number of storefronts on the web that you’d never be able to find on main street. The fact is that there is even more competition for business online than there is in the brick-and-mortar world. This is only going to get more intense. It wasn’t so long ago that many people were afraid to use credit cards online. Shopping online was a curiosity. Now, it’s a given.

The battle of relevancy online is the battle of one site being more useful than another. In the growing virtual marketplace, it isn’t nearly enough to just have a number of products and hope for the best. Look at Amazon.com reviews—they are core to what has made that site grow. A glowing Amazon review can do a lot for a product’s sales. Web surfers use Amazon reviews as much as they use a review in the local paper, if not more. Reviews have made Amazon a relevant and trusted resource for a department store’s worth of products.

Not every site can hope to have the same review structure as Amazon. A number of affiliate sites use Amazon reviews as their own content. Web surfers are getting savvy to this: they can smell an affiliate site. Why not just go to Amazon directly? The battle for relevancy, then, is to become something as trusted and vital as the major sites online. You can’t necessarily wait around for people to write reviews, and the process may not even apply to your site, so a site owner needs to provide content of your own.

Another word for relevancy is usefulness. It has been shown that the longer a person sticks around on a site, the more likely he or she will make a purchase. Even if that person doesn’t make a purchase the first time to the site, the site will have left an impression. People are looking for information on a product or service as much as they are looking to make an immediate purchase. Web surfers like to be informed shoppers and the web gives them an unlimited amount of places to get this information.

This is where your site comes in. Don’t make a web surfer click off your site to find information on a product—give them the information right on site. This means you should have articles available about any and all issues affecting a particular type of product or service. There can be hundreds of potential topics on one type of product, and a site may have dozens upon dozens of products available.

Not only will this type of information keep your site relevant to web surfers, it will be relevant to search engines as well. With content, these make up your target audience: search engine spiders and real people. If you provide relevant content that speaks to both, your site can compete with the giants.

Dr. Ray Ricardo is a retired physician who has successfully transitioned to a lucrative MLM and internet marketing career. After years of failure, Dr. Ricardo decided to study, master and implement the tried, proven and highly effective power techniques taught and used by moneymaking internet masters. He is now the CEO of Neutraceutica, a highly successful web marketer of health supplements with thousands in monthly sales. Dr. Ricardo gives away mastermind million dollar tips and freeware to online and MLM “newbies” to help them build a list of thousands and a five figure income for free at http://www.freetools4mlmnetworkers.com

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by: Steve Guttridge

Below are 3 quick tips to give you a foundation on improving your search engine ranking.

1.Writing enriched content that is relative to the subject of your website or blog, above all, is the first thing to take into consideration when focusing on improving your ranking in the search engines.

Making sure your keywords are relevant to the content is another must do.
An important aspect is to make sure you use those keywords in the content itself.

You don’t want to have a nice looking header or an attractive title then go and ruin it by having lousy content.

Be assure that your content is of good value, search engines love it!.

2. Make sure that every link that is directed to your website or to your blog is contextual, as the links need to include some of the content from your site.

In other words, if I were promoting a Discount Sports Shop, you want to make sure the links that are coming back to your site has the words “Discount” and “Sports Shop” in it.

This in an indication to search engines that the site coming up is relevant to the term Discount Sports Shop.

3. Are you using proper Title tags?

Your title tag should hold keywords that are relevant to the subject of your page.   Note that this “title” refers to the one in the <head> section of your document, not the one displayed in your browser window.

Title tags are important because when someone does a search in a search engine, what they are attracted to is your title tag.

Make sure not only is your title tag attractive but also relevant to your content.

To sum it up, Have rich content, Use contextual links, and optimize your title tags.      Implementing these Top 3 ways to improve your search engine ranking will have a major impact on getting your site ranked.

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