Credit Suicide
Few things influence the home buying process more than your credit. I like how Clark Howard refers to the three credit repositories as, the three screw-ups. There is some validity to that, and hopefully recent legislation will help clean up many of the inaccuracies. Regardless, lenders need a ... more...

Expense List for Buying a Home
There are many expenses that come with buying a home. The following list is a good example of what to expect:Down payment - A minimum of 20% of the homes purchase price is usually required for the best loan terms and to avoid paying private mortgage insurance (see below), but its entirely possible ... more...

Fixed Rate or Adjustable?
Fixed rate or adjustable rate mortgages are two choices of mortgage loans that most lenders will offer you. Your financial situation, how long you plan to live in the home, the current interest rates, and what risks you are willing to take is the best way to decide which loan makes the most sense ... more...

Refinancing Your Home - Is the Time Right?
Refinancing your home is a major decision not to be taken lightly, even in this era of low interest rates and easy money. While every mortgage company in town is touting the strategy of getting a new loan before rates rise again, there are several things you'll want to be mindful of before you go ... more...

Probe Before You Sell
When selling a product to a customer, it is very important to find out as much as you can about your customer and their needs before you proceed with your sale.This is commonly referred to as needs based selling.The most effective way to find out about your customers needs, is to ask probing, ... more...

Paint a Picture With Your Words
Depending on what you sell, it is not always easy to get your point across, so it is very important to paint a picture with your words to give your customer a visual of your product, or a visual of themselves using your product.When you are meeting someone face to face, and you can show them your ... more...

Getting Pre-approved For a Loan
For a first time home buyer, you are taking on a monumental task, undoubtedly the largest task you will ever venture upon, financially speaking that is. Unfortunately, most of us dont have huge sums of money sitting around in our bank accounts to go out and pay for a house in cash. We must find a ... more...

Credit Problems: What You Can Do
Having a blemish on your credit report can lead people to believe that it will be impossible for them to obtain a mortgage or refinance their current one.Although having less than perfect credit can be a challenge, all hope is not lost.There are lenders out there, and many of them, who specialize ... more...

What Not to Display on Display Signs
If you are promoting a product and you are doing some advertising with displays, dont allow for your customer to know everything. Otherwise, they wont have a reason to call you, or come visit you.For instance, when I was working in the banking industry, we displayed our rates on a fancy looking ... more...

Bad Credit Home Purchase Loans Should You Purchase A Home?
Today, those with damaged credit have more opportunities to borrow to buy a house than they have had in the past. There are many lenders that specialize in what is often referred to as a bad credit home purchase loan. However, as with many things in life, just because you can, doesnt mean you ... more...

Two Ways to Market Yourself Without Spending a Dime
Unfortunately not all of us have a budget to fit what we believe to be our marketing needs. No need to get down, here are a few very simple things you can do that have stood the test of time, and are proven to attract more business.For starters, smile often if not always. Im sure you are familiar ... more...

Just What is a Broker?
In most circumstances a broker is a third party to an agreement to purchase a commodity, the item being bought and sold is neither owned nor controlled by the broker who simply acts as an intermediary and is normally paid on completion of an agreement. Brokers who also act as sellers or as buyers ... more...

Why Most Advertisements Stink!
Question:What do you think the most important part of any ad is? Your company name? Your telephone number? Your offer? Look at your own advertising. What stands out? What is in the largest print? If its your company name or logo hold out your wrist so I can whack it with a stick. Whats the answer? ... more...

Ask for the Business
Many times in the process of making a sales presentation to a potential client, we will break down our product piece by piece, explaining all of the features and benefits it has to offer, then we expect our customer to have immediate buy in, and purchase our product based on the presentation they ... more...