Insurance Loan & Finance

If you are selling you own home, you need to consider the effect of pets. People who are working with a real estate broker are sure to get coached about the potential negative effect of pets. If you aren’t working with a broker, this article discusses the pet issue.

When You Show Your Home

If you are selling you own home, you must realize a lovable pet might cause the following problems:

1. The potential buyer may be so nervous about dogs that she doesn’t picture herself living in the home,

2. The potential buyer doesn’t like pets and thus doesn’t see her furniture in the home in her mind’s eye,

3. She doesn’t picture the route she’d drive to and from work, and doesn’t imagine where she’d stop for errands or fun along the way home.

In short, the presence of pets makes it difficult for the potential buyer to see the house as their own. Is a potential buyer in that frame of mind likely to buy that home? No.

Defense Against Pet Damage

If you have pets and you’re selling your home as a FSBO, take heed. Board your pet or pets while your property is on the market. You can visit it, and take it for walks and to the park, but don’t take it home. Have carpets shampooed. If they’re really holding odors, you might even replace all or some of the carpet. Get any damage the pet has done repaired. Store or get rid of furniture you do not want to repair. Reseed the lawn and repair any damage to plantings. You’ll find this is money and labor well spent.

Pets are an integral part of many people’s lives and rightly so. While you may love your pet, keep in mind potential buyers may not.

Raynor James is with http://www.fsboamerica.org – providing homes for sale by owner, “FSBO”, properties. Are you thinking, “Should I sell my home?” Visit http://www.fsboamerica.org/seller.cfm to sell your home sale for free for one month.

Why without asking your boss?

Two reasons, one, he or she will most likely say no; and second, he or she will probably have you committed for asking.

So what do you do. Give the raise to yourself.

Impossible you say. Chuck and Sue are crazy. Not at all. Here’s how.

You know we love the Creative Real Estate niche of Lease Purchasing and you know we believe it to be the perfect home-based business.

But, did you know you can use these same methods in your spare time to give yourself that big raise.

Ask yourself, “What would I be willing to do to earn an extra $20,000 in a year”.

The answer may surprise you. And no, you don’t have to become a hit man (or woman) to earn this.

You just have to be willing to take a look at Lease Purchasing.

Some background before you think we’ve completely lost it.

For every 100 calls Sue makes on For Sale By Owner property, she either speaks with or leaves messages for about 60%. That’s about 60 people she puts the concept of Lease Purchasing in front of.

Out of that 60, approximately 10 will develop into true prospects. From these 10, 2 or 3 will develop into property we are willing to take on. The others may become consultations or manual sales.

(Please keep in mind, these numbers will vary a bit depending upon your particular area and current market conditions).

Gee, you say, that sounds like a lot of work. Not really. Consider making those calls over a 3 month period. That’s the equivalent of a call per day. Why a 3 month period. Because you’re only looking to do one deal a quarter.

Next question. How does this translate into a $20,000/yr. raise? Simple.

On a typical single family house, we look for a $5000 assignment fee on average. Well, let’s do the math. 4 x $5,000 = $20,000.

Yup, a $20,000 raise on 4 deals per year.

Is this realistic? Absolutely.

In fact, we may be conservative on that raise for you. You may well decide to do five or six or more deals in a year.

All it takes is knowing how to structure your deals, having the proper contracts and a willingness to want to give yourself a raise. You can find all this information at our website at: www.homebusinesssolutions.com/products/products.htm

You’re right. Chuck and Sue are crazy. Crazy like a fox.

Copyright 2000, DeFiore Enterprises

Interested in having your own successful, home based creative real estate investing business? Chuck and Sue have been helping folks start successful home based businesses for over 19 years, and we can help you too! To see how, visit http://www.homebusinesssolutions.com for the latest FREE tips and tricks, educational products and coaching in creative real estate investing and home based businesses. No time to visit the site? Subscribe to our “how to” Home Business Solutions Digest, it’s like having your own personal coach: mailto:subscribeHBS@homebusinesssolutions.com

Understanding credit report scores is important when you see your credit report because you need to be able to make some sense of it.

Your credit score is used by anyone loaning you money such as credit card companies, home loan lenders, auto loan lenders and finance companies. They all use your credit score to determine your credit risk. The interest the lender charges you is based on your credit risk. So you can see how understanding credit report scores is information that can save or cost you money.

You need to find out what your credit score is before you talk to any lender in case there is something on your report that you may question. You don’t want the lender to find a mistake that you aren’t aware of. If you find a mistake, it takes at least 30-60 days before you see corrections in your credit reports and scores.

You have probably heard that checking your credit will bring down your score. But checking your own credit report and score is counted as a “soft inquiry” and doesn’t harm your credit score at all. Only “hard inquiries” from a lender or creditor, made when you apply for credit, will bring your credit score down a few points.

Your credit report should have the three main credit services Experian, Trans Union and Equifax and each service will give you a different credit score.

The credit scores will range between 300 and 870 with each credit service giving a different score. The higher your score is the better, because as your credit score increases, your credit risk decreases.

The average high approval score where the best interest rates are offered is 680 or above. The credit score the lender uses comes from the middle score or an average of all three scores is sometimes used.

Don’t be surprised if you find an error once you get your credit report. Statistics show that 70 percent of credit reports contain serious errors. Those errors are what you want to clear up because they will affect your credit score.

If you find a mistake, you have the right to dispute the information free of charge. Contact the credit bureau that provided the information and dispute the inaccurate information.

Below are the names, addresses, phone numbers and web sites of the three credit bureaus TransUnion, Experian and Equifax.

Equifax Credit
P.O. Box 740241
Atlanta, GA 30374
Equifax 800-685-1111
http://www.equifax.com

TransUnion
P.O. Box 1000
Chester, PA 19022
Trans Union 800-888-4213
http://www.transunion.com

Experian
P.O. Box 2002

Allen, TX 75013
Experian 800-682-7654
http://www.experian.com

You can also contact the creditor direct and ask that the corrected information be provided to the credit bureaus.

If you suspect any fraud, contact all three credit bureaus immediately and place a fraud alert on your report. Then, contact your credit card companies and bank to protect your accounts.

Understanding credit report scores and checking your credit report at least once a year will keep fraud in check and keep your credit score safer.

Copyright © 2005 Credit Repair Facts.com All Rights Reserved.

This article is supplied by http://www.credit-repair-facts.com where you will find credit information, debt elimination programs and informative facts that give you the knowledge to correct your own credit and credit report. For more credit related articles go to: http://www.credit-repair-facts.com/articles_1.html

In the rush to get tax returns prepared and filed by April
15th, many overpay their taxes. Following are a few tax
reduction tips that could help you save a bundle.

Tax Credit For Starting A Small Business Pension Plan

Establishing a pension plan can help you retain important
employees. What many business owners don’t realize is a tax
credit can be claimed if the business has 100 or fewer
employees. Meet this requirement and you can take a tax
credit of up to $500 in each of the first three years of the
plan. Tax credits are extremely valuable because they are
deducted directly from the taxes you owe, not gross
revenues.

The credit is 50% of certain start up costs you incur in
each of the first three years. The costs include the
expenses incurred in establishing and maintaining the plan.
They also include the cost of any educational retirement
planning programs you provide for employees.

For example, first assume that you spent $1,500 starting a
pension plan for your employees in 2004. Next assume that
you will spend $1,200 in both 2005 and 2006 for maintaining
the program and educating your employees. In this scenario,
you would be eligible to claim a tax credit of $500 in 2004,
2005 and 2006.

Personal Loans To Business

Many business owners lose track of loans they make to their
business. As a result, they incorrectly classify the
proceeds of the loan as part of their gross revenues. This
artificially raises the gross revenues of the business and
adds to the tax liability. Closely review your records for
2004 to make sure you are not making this mistake. Pay
particular attention to charges on personal credit cards.
You will be surprised how quickly the numbers add up.

SUV Deduction Wounded, But Still Alive

Much has been made about the “SUV Tax Deduction” that
allowed purchasers of SUVs over 6,000 pounds to immediately
deduct up to $100,000 of the cost. Many mistakenly believe
that the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 eliminated this
deduction. It did not. Instead, it reduced the deduction to
$25,000 with the remaining amount allocated to depreciation.
This is still a significant immediate deduction. If you
purchased a non-SUV truck that weighed over 6,000 pounds in
2004, you are not restricted to a “mere” $25,000 deduction.

Tsunami Relief Contributions Paid in 2005

Millions of Americans contributed to charitable
organizations providing relief to Tsunami victims.
Typically, charitable contributions are deducted in the year
they are made. New legislation, however, allows you to
deduct Tsunami contributions you made in January 2005 on
your 2004 tax returns. Alternatively, you can wait and
deduct the donation on 2005 returns. Unfortunately, you
cannot deduct the contribution on both!

Sales Tax Deduction

If you itemize deductions, you have a choice of deducting
your state and local income taxes OR your state and local
sales tax. This option is available for the 2004 and 2005
tax years. If you live in a state that does not collect
income tax, the optional sales tax deduction should be
claimed for significant tax savings. See IRS Publication 600
for more information.

Deduction for Discrimination Lawsuit Costs

If you were required to pay attorney’s fees and court costs
associated with a discrimination lawsuit, you may be able to
claim a tax deduction. The deduction is available only for
costs and fees incurred after October 22, 2004 in relation
to a judgment and settlement. The deduction is not limited
by the alternative minimum tax. Realistically, this
deduction will be more viable for the 2005 tax year, but a
few taxpayers may be eligible this year.

There are numerous deductions and credits available if you
take the time to look for them. Taxes can be confusing, but
the savings justify the time and effort of finding all
available deductions and credits.

Richard Chapo is CEO of http://www.businesstaxrecovery.com –
Obtaining tax refunds for small businesses by finding
overlooked tax deductions and credits through a free tax
return review.