Tip #3 - Cash Is King

You may have heard this term many times and in many different
contexts during your life, and there is no other place that it is
truer than in real estate in this current market.

Cash opens up opportunities and gives you negotiating power that
wouldn't be there without it.

While everyone is crying that "the sky is falling" in real estate,
there are those who are quietly buying up real estate at rock
bottom bargain prices.  How are they able to do this? They have
cash.  They don't need banks.  They don't need loans.  They have
cash.

These buyers have incredible buying power and sellers will bend
over backward to sell them their house because there are no
contingencies.  Simply... cash.

Now how does this apply to you if you don't have enough cash to
pay all cash to buy a house?

Well, even if you have some credit issues and are looking for
lease/option or owner finance opportunities to purchase your home,
cash is still king.  Cash in the form of a downpayment.

In today's market, even those who have credit scores above 700 are
still being required to bring 20% and sometimes even more to
qualify for a loan.

In a typical lease/option or owner finance opportunity, you will
find that the more of a down payment you have, the more options
and negotiating power you will have.

And with the demand for lease/option and owner finance homes
growing, often times a home will have multiple people trying to
purchase it at the same time.  It happens to our company all the
time.

Well, all things being equal, who do you think the home will get
sold to?  The one with the largest down payment!  Almost every
time!

If you are trying to get into a lease/option or owner finance a
house with little to no downpayment, you will quickly find that
there are not many options for you out there.  $800 down and $800
a month is difficult to get in an apartment, let alone a home
purchase.

The ideal number you should be shooting for is 5-10% as a
downpayment.

When you start getting closer to the 10% downpayment range, you
will find that more owner finance opportunities present themselves
to you where you can go straight into home ownership without going
through lease/option.

Hopefully after the last email tip, you have an idea of how much
home you can afford.  Your goal now should be to start saving for
your downpayment.

Should you stop once you get to 10%?  Absolutely not.  The more
you save up for your downpayment, the more negotiation power you
will have, the lower your payments will ultimately be, and the
better your chances of getting a refinance loan in the future to
get to a really low interest rate on your home.

I hope you found this information helpful.