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        <title>Equity Build</title>
        <description><![CDATA[The Socially Responsible, Fully Leveraged, No-Money-Down, Turnkey Path to Real Wealth]]></description>
        <link>http://www.equitybuild.com/blog</link>
        <lastBuildDate>Fri, 11 Mar 2011 08:20:26 -0500</lastBuildDate>
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            <url>http://www.equitybuild.com/images/tab4-start-building-equity-now.gif</url>
            <title>Equity Build</title>
            <link>http://www.equitybuild.com/blog</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Start Building Equity Now!]]></description>
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        <item>
            <title>Is Real Estate Finally A Good Investment- Dave Kansas</title>
            <link>http://www.equitybuild.com/blog?post=121</link>
            <description><![CDATA[The housing market still looks pretty bleak: There were a record one million foreclosures last year, home prices are still falling in many regions and the number of "underwater" properties is at a record high.

And things don't look much better in other areas of real estate. The number of construction jobs continues to decline, even as other parts of the economy have added jobs. And mortgage rates have moved higher as long-term Treasury yields have backed up during the past few months.
Basically, the real estate market remains a mess.
Real estate encompasses a wide range of markets � homes, apartments, hospitals, office buildings, strip malls, dormitories and other properties. But for our purposes, let's focus on residential real estate, or homes. Here are four reasons to think residential real estate might represent a bargain � with one big caveat.
Everyone hates homes.
Homes are probably the most hated asset class in the country. That's what happens when a bubble bursts. People avoid thinking about the value of their home. Sellers moan about no offers, buyers gripe about impossible lending requirements.
Hatred of an asset is often the precursor to contrarian interest, and being contrarian is at the heart of many investment strategies. To paraphrase Warren Buffett, be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful. Mr. Buffett backed that idea when he invested in the stock market in the teeth of the financial crisis in late 2008 and early 2009.
Of course, being contrarian for its own sake isn't wise investing. Gold was hated for years ("dead money") before it recently became an attractive asset class. Still, a lot of smart ideas begin with the question: What does everyone hate?
Smart people are buying real estate.
This cohort is led by John Paulson, the hedge-fund manager who made $20 billion betting against the housing bubble. Last fall he said in a speech: "If you don't own a home buy one. If you own one home, buy another one, and if you own two homes buy a third and lend your relatives the money to buy a home."
Why is Mr. Paulson so adamant? Because he believes long-term interest rates are not going to get much lower. They have, in fact, risen since he gave that speech, but they remain remarkably low by historic standards. Low rates and the expectation that home prices will rise is his argument. For his part, Mr. Buffett has predicted the housing market will bottom this year.
Real estate performs well during inflation.
There's no inflation these days, but when buying a home one should take a longer view. And the longer view shows that the economy has enjoyed a disinflationary period since the early 1980s. A number of folks think that cycle is slowly reversing itself.
If that's the case, then convention would argue for holding assets that do well in an inflationary environment. That includes Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, commodities and real estate. Remember that during the stagflation nightmare of the 1970s, real estate had a strong run.
Inflation isn't a significant issue in the U.S., but it's a growing problem elsewhere. China and India have taken steps to fight inflation, the euro zone is getting flickers of inflation and the U.K. has had oddly higher prices (above 3%) for an extended period of time. If the cycle is slowly turning, real estate makes more sense.
Demand may be coming back.
Supply isn't as out of whack as it used to be. At the end of November, home builders reported 197,000 new homes on the market, the lowest level since 1968, according to Yardeni Research. The National Association of Realtors reports that the inventory of existing homes for sale fell 4% to 3.71 million homes, which represents a 9.5-month supply at the current sales pace, down from a 10.5-month supply in October.
Those aren't pretty numbers, of course, but they are moving in the correct direction. And that may be a reason that many home builder stocks, such as KB Home ( KBH: 15.46, -0.25, -1.59% ) , Hovnanian ( HOV: 4.92, -0.04, -0.80% ) , Pulte ( PHA: 24.24, +0.19, +0.79% ) and Toll Brothers ( TOL: 20.96, +0.06, +0.28% ) , have come off their lows in the past several weeks.
It's all comes down to jobs. There are a zillion caveats to any positive home thesis, but the big one is unemployment. If the economy is not creating jobs, the chance of a rebound in housing is diminished. It's hard to buy a home without a job, and folks who aren't working don't want to take long-term risks.
The job market is still struggling and the debate is hot about when it will recover. Optimists see recovery this year. Pessimists see pain for several years ahead. How this X factor gets resolved will say a great deal about whether housing will rebound.
]]></description>
            <author>info@equitybuild.com (Jerry Cohen)</author>
            <pubDate>Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
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        <item>
            <title>Negative Equity-Olick</title>
            <link>http://www.equitybuild.com/blog?post=120</link>
            <description><![CDATA["Just because you owe more on your mortgage than your home is worth doesn't necessarily mean that you are no longer able to afford your mortgage. For many Americans who bought their homes during the housing boom, little has changed for them financially other than what the appraiser has determined on paper.  What has changed are attitudes, and attitudes can be dangerous.  22.5 percent of U.S. borrowers were in a negative equity position on their homes at the end of Q3, according to a new report from CoreLogic.  The authors of the study warn that deteriorating home prices now will likely push the percentage back up in Q4.  The definition of home ownership, at least according to the Census, includes homeowners in a negative equity position. 'However, homeowners in negative equity are not likely to behave similarly to homeowners with equity, because their financial interest (the equity) has disappeared and has only a small prospect of returning soon, given price trends,' note Cor
 eLogic authors.

Underwater borrowers are more likely to behave like renters, which means they're not going to invest much in home improvement. They are also more likely to walk away from their commitment, although not in the waves some had predicted.  The Obama Administration has been pushing lenders, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to write down principal on underwater mortgages in order to put borrowers back into a positive equity position." Interestingly, the latest push is for borrowers who are current on their mortgages. They lenders argue, why should they give money voluntarily if the loans are still performing? They don't even do that very often when the loans are in trouble!  The answer is: attitudes.  The Administration is clearly concerned that more borrowers will either walk away from their commitments or stop spending money on their homes, which are usually their single largest investment.  But is the Administration's answer�to give borrowers back a few percentage points of equity o
 n paper�really going to fix that and change owner attitudes? No, especially since so many Americans got used to taking money OUT of their homes to pay for all those lovely upgrades.  The change has to come in real home price appreciation.  That is the only thing that is going to give homeowners that much-needed faith in the market, that confidence to stay where they are and spend, not some measly equity handout that won't amount to much and may just prompt the borrowers to put their house on the already glutted market.

And how do you get home price appreciation?  Get rid of that glut of inventory�especially the foreclosures. I'm back on my investor high horse again. Stop offering handouts to underwater borrowers who don't need them to pay their mortgages and start focusing that same money on eating up empty houses and restoring real home price appreciation through a competitive marketplace. If you help well-vetted, responsible investors buy up the properties and rent them to all the families that lost their homes, you will do a lot more good."
]]></description>
            <author>info@equitybuild.com (Jerry Cohen)</author>
            <pubDate>Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
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        <item>
            <title>Consumers More Willing To Consider Buying Foreclosures-Olick</title>
            <link>http://www.equitybuild.com/blog?post=119</link>
            <description><![CDATA["The good news is that more Americans say they are willing to consider buying a foreclosed property; the bad news is that they're expecting a bigger discount on that property than ever before.  A new survey from online real estate sites RealtyTrac and Trulia finds 49% of those surveyed said they would be 'at least somewhat likely to consider purchasing' a foreclosure, up from 45% last May; however, 2/3 of those respondents are expecting at least a 30% discount to real market value, and 1/3 expect a 50% discount.  So much for house prices finding a bottom any time soon.  The reason behind the discount is clear: Risk."

"A growing number of Americans think that the process of buying a foreclosure is more risky than ever. There's your impact of the big bank robo-signing scandals. And those scandals, which helped to diminish faith in the mortgage market overall, also pushed back the housing recovery, at least according to the survey.  Suffice it to say that faith is not abundant among today's potential home buyers, but that doesn't exactly mean they're immovable. Credit Suisse reported the first 'uptick' in buyer traffic in November since last April: 'We heard varying reasons for the slight bounce in traffic, with some agents surprised and unsure of the real cause. One clear theme was the attractiveness of low mortgage rates and the fear of rising rates, which we think led some buyers to decide to act. In addition, many buyers emerged from their summer/fall sabbatical to see some of the bargains firsthand."
]]></description>
            <author>info@equitybuild.com (Jerry Cohen)</author>
            <pubDate>Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>Mortgage Rates All In Your Head-Olick</title>
            <link>http://www.equitybuild.com/blog?post=118</link>
            <description><![CDATA["It's like home buyers today are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.  The housing crash, foreclosure crisis and banking scandals have all combined to make buyers more sensitive than ever before.  That's why the slightest fluctuation in mortgage interest rates have huge emotional power today.  'I think some people get a little fearful of what the higher payment might mean to them but they don&rsquo;t' realize how minimal the difference might be,' notes Eric Gates, President of Apex Home Loans in Rockville, MD.  In fact, Gates did a little math for me on the change in your monthly payment at different interest rates, if you buy a $200,000 home (just above the national median) with 20% down.

-  4.25%: $787.10
-  4.5%: $810.70
-  4.75%: $834.64
-  5.0%: $858.91

'Keep in mind that difference is mainly interest which is tax deductible. So, someone paying an extra $24 a month in interest who is in a 25% tax bracket is really only paying an extra $18 a month after the tax write off of the extra interest,' Gates adds. Yes, cutting the mortgage interest deduction is currently being debated as a deficit-reducer, but the proposal is to reduce the cap from $1 million to $500,000, so it's not going to affect the buyers I'm using as an example here.  The fact is that we're talking less than $100 a month, for a full percentage point increase.  Obviously big cities or in-demand housing markets, where home prices are far higher than the national average, will see bigger jumps in their monthly payments, but if they're able to afford the higher priced home, the change in monthly payment would likely be comparable in its impact on their overall budget.

So why, then, do mortgage purchase applications fall every time rates go up slightly and the opposite when they go down?  The answer is that it is largely emotional. Home buyers seem to ignore what they can afford and focus instead on what they think they somehow deserve in today's badly beaten market.  'Instead of focusing on what's my payment going to be, they see that their friend got 4.25 and they want that same rate and 4.5 isn't 4.25 and they think 'that's not good enough',' says Gates, who has seen that happen more than once. Fear of unemployment also looms large, so buyers are much more careful with monthly payment calculations, even trying to make sure that if they are out of work temporarily they can still make the payments and not go into default."
]]></description>
            <author>info@equitybuild.com (Jerry Cohen)</author>
            <pubDate>Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>Success Secrets That Withstand The Test Of Time</title>
            <link>http://www.equitybuild.com/blog?post=117</link>
            <description><![CDATA[In 1956 a young radio broadcaster by the name of Earl Nightingale wrote and recorded a message which became known as "The Strangest Secret". It quickly went on to sell millions of copies without advertising and limited marketing. Today, more than 50 years later, Nightingales secret remains a top seller in the personal development market and has earned the distinction of becoming the largest selling non-entertainment recording in the industry.

Obviously Nightingale's secret was more than mere hype; it has withstood the test of time and become the foundation of an entire information empire due to a few simple to apply strategies that work in nearly any field or endeavor....including short sales and real estate investing.

The Problem

The basis of Nightingale's work came about through a simple observation: Most people fail despite an early belief in their own success. If you take 100 people who start out with a strong belief in their own success at the age of 25, then follow them until the age of 65, the majority will be broke. One will be rich, four will be financially independent, five will still be working and the remaining 54 will be dependent upon others for the basic necessities of life.

The Goal

Nightingale set out to learn the secret behind the success of that one in every twenty persons; what made them different than the rest? Not only did he discover this secret but he learned how to systematically apply it in his own life and help others reach their own goals. It's a lesson that is as easily implemented today as it was 50 years ago...perhaps even easier thanks to modern technology. Today we are going to outline the most essential steps.

The Lessons

1. The first lesson is to actually define what success means to you. According to Nightingale, success is the "progressive realization of a worthy ideal". Notice the detailed yet flexible nature of this definition; not only is it highly individualized but it is also systematic and well defined. Take a few moments to reflect upon each word in order to allow the full understanding to reach your mind and comprehension.

2. Stop blaming circumstances - start doing. Much has been written in psychology texts and self-help books since The Secret was originally published but the concept remains the same; whether you call it an internal/external loci of control, conformity or something else entirely the message is clear...start acting upon what you want to become.  To put it another way, people reap what they sow. It requires doing and the first stage in doing anything is to have clearly delineated goals. You must know and understand where you are going and why in order to make progress. Nightingale advocated writing down goals, making them as specific as possible. Review it repeatedly each and every day.

3. You become what you think about. According to Nightingale his secret wasn't much of a secret at all but rather an ancient idea that was clearly known and understood in ancient times. From biblical proverbs to roman emperors, the idea that a man's life is what is thoughts make of it is a well known concept. Unfortunately today's modern society makes it difficult to focus for ten minutes much less dedicate one's life to deliberate thought. Distractions, entertainment, family and even fun events all compete for our attention at nearly every waking moment of the day.

Still, research and history are both replete with examples of men and women that became a success or defied the odds simply by changing their way of thinking. Have you set aside time to consider the impact of your thought upon the productivity of your life...including goals for real estate investing? Do you do it daily? If not, it is time to take control and begin implementing a daily course of action that literally provides "food for thought".

This was such a critical cornerstone that Nightingale established a prescribed routine of studying for one hour per day whenever embarking on a new endeavor. Thanks to the advent of the Internet, that one hour can now be productive time in what was otherwise non-productive time such as during a daily commute. It is also possible to increase the productivity by constant contact with professionals and mentors in the desired area even if you live hundreds or even thousands of miles away. Are you spending one hour per day working toward your goal? If not now then when?
]]></description>
            <author>info@equitybuild.com (Jerry Cohen)</author>
            <pubDate>Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>Ban On Sales Of Fannie And Freddie Foreclosures Lifted</title>
            <link>http://www.equitybuild.com/blog?post=116</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have lifted the ban on the sale of foreclosed homes, frozen since the document handling fiasco that started nearly two months ago. Freddie Mac sent a memo to agents instructing them to �resume all normal sales activity� while Fannie Mae issued a memo telling agents to �proceed with scheduling and holding the closings� of foreclosed sales.  Fannie Mae also instructed agents to coordinate with appropriate personnel �if a title issue arises with respect to the potential defect of an affidavit used in the underlying foreclosure.�  Fannie and Freddie owned nearly 240,000 properties at the end of September, valued at nearly $24 billion. Analysts claim difficulty selling those homes could lead to higher carrying costs for the mortgage titans. Further delays also could prompt buyers that had been under contract to lower their asking prices or to walk away from deals altogether which could cause the mortgage giants to incur heavier losses.

In August, Fannie Mae told mortgage servicers that they would face fines if foreclosures became unreasonably prolonged in a bid to avoid costly delays.  The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) worked with Fannie Mae to make the decision after a thorough examination of foreclosed properties which the mortgage company has acquired.  �Our decision was motivated by several factors including the protection of buyers with title insurance, the negative impact lingering foreclosed properties has on neighborhoods and the cost burden that is placed on taxpayers when [bank-owned] sales are suspended,� a Fannie spokesperson said in a statement. Fannie Mae said it would resume sales for properties with loans that had been serviced by units of Ally Financial Inc., Bank of America Corp., PNC Financial Services Group Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., OneWest Bank, and Sovereign Bank.
]]></description>
            <author>info@equitybuild.com (Jerry Cohen)</author>
            <pubDate>Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>WHICH WILL HURT MORE, Cuts In Social Security or A Drop In Real Estate Values?</title>
            <link>http://www.equitybuild.com/blog?post=115</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Investors on a fixed income or those thinking about retiring within the next few years are facing some of the most difficult decisions in decades; keep working as long as possible in order to build a better nest egg or try to "make do" and hope against all odds that your money holds out. It's not a simple choice especially with the dual threats of low interest rates combined with Social Security cuts. In fact, what may initially seem like minor modifications in calculations can actually result in thousands of dollars less over a period of time. Today we are going to compare and contrast the decline in Social Security versus real estate to see the true cost of each over time.

Social Security - not very secure. The first and most important thing every American should realize is that Social Security is anything but secure. Contrary to popular opinion, there is not a bank account with your name where all that money you have paid in over the years is earning interest in anticipation of your retirement. It's not there and never was. Instead, current workers fund the financial needs of present day retirees. Unfortunately, what started out with 16 workers supporting every 1 retiree has transitioned to the point that in the near future only 3 workers will fund every 1 retiree. Needless to say, that will result in a very real strain on their earning potential...or your future benefit plan.

If that wasn't bad enough, Social Security has raised the retirement age from 65 to 67 and is considering yet another increase to age 69. Just imagine, construction workers on the job at nearly 70 years of age, teachers trying to keep control of a rowdy class and aging emergency workers attempting to hide their declining health at a time when most merely want to play a round of golf before lunch. It's not a pretty picture but even worse, it's also not enough. The savings will not be sufficient to stem the rising tide of benefits despite adding almost four years (or nearly 10%) to the total work-life of the average American.  Think about it for just a moment; someone that went to college and entered the professional world at age 25 expecting to retire after 40 years of work at aged 65 will now need to work an additional 4 years or 10% in order to start receiving Social Security. For the average worker this could represent a loss of SS earnings of well over $40,000 at today's b
 enefit levels. Combine this for a couple and you have a loss of over $80,000.

Except the benefits are also less. For instance, the COLA or Cost of Living Adjustment for 2010 was zero and is expected to remain stagnant for 2011. Sadly, for those retirees on a limited income, the COLA rarely reflects the true nature of their expenses such as healthcare, food and insurance but instead, reflects the price adjusted hedonistic rates compiled by the federal government. Still, every little bit counts and over the years, the average COLA is roughly 2.5% or around $20 to $25 per month for the typical Social Security recipient. It may not sound like a lot to lose but over a 20 year span, it could result in over $12,000 loss for just these two years alone...and as much as $20,000 after compounding. Combine this for a married couple and you have a loss of $25,000 to well over $40,000.

For the sake of comparison, let's examine the loss of SS earnings as compared to real estate. Housing prices are down by 25 or even 35 percent in some areas so let's use the higher rate. Assuming our modest income couple purchased a house for $225,000 and it is now worth only $150,000 they still have not been impacted as much as a four year increase in the SS age. Of course, the comparison doesn't end there; most of the money used to purchase the home was probably in the form of a mortgage whereas the monies paid into the SS fund are not borrowed/leveraged but actually earned through hard labor day in and day out.

Held long enough, real estate is likely to make a come-back thanks to inflation...social security is inclined to lose purchasing power over that same period of time. Real estate provides numerous tax benefits whereas SS has been hit with increasing levels of taxation with more expected. Finally, one of the most interesting aspect is simply to compare the average anticipated SS check with the average rental income...one well bought house could equal your entire SS check at retirement. Now ask yourself, which can you really count on to be there when you need it most?
]]></description>
            <author>info@equitybuild.com (Jerry Cohen)</author>
            <pubDate>Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>Mortgage Market Too Tight?-Olick</title>
            <link>http://www.equitybuild.com/blog?post=114</link>
            <description><![CDATA["The message from the National Association of Realtors, or at least from its chief economist as he released lackluster sales results for October, is that the mortgage market is now largely to blame for the lack of a real recovery in housing.  'What is important is the access to credit. We believe that many qualified home buyers that want to stay well within their budget are being denied credit because of the overly stringent underwriting standards of today's market,' said Lawrence Yun in our usual post-news release interview.  Yun is right that the leaders of Fannie, Freddie and the FHA are touting the quality of their most recent books of mortgage business. FHA Commissioner David Stevens even said it in an interview with me last week that 'the 2010 book is the best book in FHA history.' He is clearly quite proud of that; Yun claims that's the problem.  It's a bold assertion, I have to admit. Lax underwriting is almost entirely to blame for the biggest housing crash in U.S. h
 istory and for the ensuing crash in the greater economy and banking sector. Banks gave away mortgages like toasters with very few questions asked. Fannie, Freddie and FHA played in that to a degree as well, as they tried to keep up with private-sector competition. Everyone has already admitted it over and over.

Now, barely a few years later, and as reform of the mortgage market is still in the works, the realtors are saying the market has gone too far; the fact that the last two years of mortgages are performing better than ever means that lenders have become 'overly stringent.' Yun claims there are plenty of responsible potential borrowers out there, ready to eat up all that bloated inventory�but they can't get loans, so they're out.

He also points to a statistic in today's report that 29% of all buyers in October used all cash. That is historically very high. I would also point out that nearly 20% of buyers were investors, who are all working in cash today because if it's hard to get a mortgage on your first home, it's next to impossible to get loans for multiple investment properties.  So here I sit, trying to determine if what Yun is saying is totally outrageous in this day and age of licking our wounds, or if he has a point.  Are mortgage lenders throwing the baby out with the bathwater? Have they made underwriting suffocatingly stringent to the detriment of recovery? Or is this exactly what we need today to stabilize the housing market, minimize new loan delinquencies and bring investor confidence back to the mortgage market?"
]]></description>
            <author>info@equitybuild.com (Jerry Cohen)</author>
            <pubDate>Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>Mortgage Rates Spike-How High Will They Go? Olick</title>
            <link>http://www.equitybuild.com/blog?post=113</link>
            <description><![CDATA["Higher yields on 10-year treasury bonds are wreaking havoc on mortgage rates, but will they do the same to housing's recovery? A jump in rates was enough to prompt online home sale site Zillow.com to put out a 'Media Alert' that the 30-year fixed had reached 4.34%�the highest rate reported on the site in 16 weeks.  'While the Federal Reserve expected a second round of quantitative easing to push yields down, or at least keep them low, the opposite appears to be happening,' writes Zillow's Chief Economist Dr. Stan Humphries in the release. "This trend has only been exacerbated in the past week when fears increased that the bond-buying program might be facing political challenges which ran counter to market expectations that the government would be in the marketplace.'

So how high will rates go?  Not much higher, opines Bob Walters over at Quicken Loans. 'A sloppy Treasury auction last Tuesday began the sell off, and the beginning of the Fed's purchases for QE2 caused it to pick up steam Friday. Monday's strong retail sales number was all the excuse the bond bears needed to sell. A rally was attempted but was thwarted as selling escalated into the close,' recounts Walters.  So rates are moving around quickly and violently, and while some might argue that shouldn't affect home sales, which are usually a long-term, bigger picture purchase, they certainly did last week. Refinances fell off a cliff last week, down 16.5% and purchase applications were down 5%, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's weekly applications survey.

Real estate professionals have been touting fantastic affordability in today's housing market, with low interest rates and lower home prices combining to open doors for many more potential buyers. But I continue to believe that uncertainty trumps affordability at every turn. Just take a look at household formation, which continues to fall despite improved affordability.  With 7 million borrowers either facing or already in foreclosure, big banks facing whippings in Congress and many-fold investigations over foreclosure practices, and home prices taking a turn for the worse, rising mortgage rates will only put another barrier in front of would-be buyers. 4.34% is still an historically, ridiculously low interest rate, but a quarter-point jump in mortgage rates inside of a week is a bullet to buyer confidence."]]></description>
            <author>info@equitybuild.com (Jerry Cohen)</author>
            <pubDate>Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>Finance, Economists and Investors-McLaughlin</title>
            <link>http://www.equitybuild.com/blog?post=112</link>
            <description><![CDATA["Sooner or later nearly everyone will seek advice in some form or another. It might be a book, consultation with an expert or some other affiliation designed to help you make the most of your money. Unfortunately, depending upon the credentials of the person or organization, it is entirely possible to arrive at completely different conclusions about the best course of action. Today we are going to examine how finance, economists and investors view the world differently and what it means for your portfolio.

First, a few definitions. Many people mistakenly presume finance and accounting are one and the same but in fact, they are quite different. Accounting is simply the system of recording, reporting and assessment of business transactions whereas finance is the actual management of various assets and liabilities. So, how much is useful for the average investor? Software programs make light work of accounting but heavy-hitting number crunching is still something more real estate professionals gladly pay professionals to take care of each year. On the other hand, even the most knowledgeable accounting expert isn't always that good with managing money (if they were, would they be sitting at a desk all day crunching numbers?). Likewise, just because someone has experience in one area of finance does not make them an expert in other areas; it is a big field and there is a tremendous amount to learn just to keep up.

This brings us to the next definition; economists. Economics is a social science which studies the interaction of workers and employers...ie, producers and consumers or supply and demand. Like any social science, it is based upon a series of assumptions and correlations - not casual relationships. Due to this, there are not any hard and fast rules or "laws" like those that govern the physical sciences; instead, there are more or less a series of "best guesses" by the best and the brightest. These predictions and forecasts are the basis for public policy but provide little guidance to the individual investor other than an awareness of where policy-makers may head in the future.

Finally, the definition of an investor is simply someone that "commits capital in order to gain financial return". This is the basis for capitalism and the foundation of the economic order of the nation. As a real estate investor, you know and understand the need to invest capital in order to gain a financial return. Even if you put little to no money out of pocket, there is still the investment of time, effort and learning. There is a very real opportunity cost that requires you to divest yourself of other needs, wants and desires in order to attain a specific goal.

So far so good. But what happens when one or more of these areas are in conflict with one another? When accounting tricks take precedent over good financial management techniques? When consumers demand more than what producers are able to expend and still make a profit? When the risk involved in pursuing a financial return exceeds the gain due to heavy taxes? These are just a few of the current challenges facing the nation and the individual short sale investor. Learning how to navigate these uncertain waters will increasingly differentiate those that thrive versus those that barely survive in the coming years. if you haven't already done so, it's time to start tuning in to our free webinars in order to build a strong position able to weather the strife and conflict inherent to today's market.

While it is all good and well to seek information from economic guru's, studying the supply and demand metrics may not provide the best source of information for an investor to make the big bucks. Think of it this way...who do you trust to fly a plane on your next vacation? The person who has spent hundreds of hours sitting in front of a video game or someone that has actually taken off and landed an actual aircraft in different weather conditions? It's a no-brainer! The same applies to investing in real estate. Academics are great but do not always supply the real life experience that makes or breaks an investor." That is one reason people of all ages and from all walks of life enjoy investing in real estate; it doesn't require a lot of money, time or college degrees to get started. See for yourself how others just like you are making more than they ever thought possible. Call or email EquityBuild NOW.
]]></description>
            <author>info@equitybuild.com (Jerry Cohen)</author>
            <pubDate>Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
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