REIhomesales Investor Theme

A lot has been happening at REItrainer.com. A few weeks ago, we added a new section to REItrainer.com to focus on using WordPress for real estate investing. We also updated the site’s look and began offering our free WordPress themes designed just for real estate investors. In the short time since the update, we have gotten a lot of great feedback and made many improvements to our WordPress themes for real estate investors. We also added a few new resources unlike anything we have seen out there. The best part… as usual, everything is FREE.

The most exciting new item that I want to mention is the new WordPress Investor Theme. The new theme takes the core functionality of our original HomeBuyer theme and combines it with a bunch of new features to make the ultimate WordPress Theme for real estate investors. This new theme allows you to generate any type of real estate investor leads. It can be easily customized to focus on home buyer, home seller, wholesale buyer, private money lender, or any other type of real estate leads… or you can use it to generate them all on one site!

Easily add iconic links to your social network site profiles like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, LinkedIn, YouTube and more with our new social network integration features.

Add Google Adsense ads, or any other ads, quickly and easily with our easy to use theme admin controls. You can also add Google Analyitics, YouTube videos or playlists, as well as easy to set up forms from our new REIhomesales WordPress Form Pack presets. It also now has the ability to generate squeeze pages super easily to allow you to capture any type of real estate leads or sell any product that you want to sell.

At REIcreator, we have built many websites for real estate investors, and this theme seriously has everything a real estate investor could need on their website. All built in, and all for free. To learn more about this fantastic website solution for real estate investing, you can visit REItrainer.com and read all about it.

Once you see the theme, you might think we are crazy for giving it away for free, but just wait until you see what else we are now offering on REItrainer.com. We are now giving away easy to install page content presets for WordPress that contain all of the basic page structure and content needed for any type of real estate investor website. Combined with our awesome FREE WordPress themes, the REIhomesales WordPress Content Pack for Real Estate Investors creates a fully functional, easy to edit real estate investor website with all the pages and content you need to get your site online in lightning speed. Once you have a WordPress site and our Investor Theme installed, simply import the Content Pack Page Preset file, and it will automatically fill in all the pages and content for you.

You might think that we couldn’t give away anything cooler… but we have even more to give. On top of the theme, and the full content pack, we are now offering pre-written form presets to use with the theme and the cForms II plugin. This allows you to add any type of lead generation form that a real estate investor site could need. The presets have everything including the forms themselves, pre-written auto responder messages, the ability to store form data in your WordPress database and they email you automatically every time someone fills out a form on your site.

With the REIhomesales Investor WordPress Theme, the WordPress Content Pack and Form Pack, you can put together any type of real estate site you want. You can set it up in different configurations to generate specific types of leads, or you can leave all the features turned on to create a full featured real estate website for you business.

On top of all these new products, we also added a nice new section to tell you all how to use and set up all of our new WordPress products. We go through the set up process step by step, telling you all you need to know to get your site set up in no time. We also added a new help form to REItrainer.com for anyone to ask us anything about our themes, our content, our form presets, or anything else about using WordPress for real estate investor websites, or anything about real estate marketing. At REItrainer, we are serious about creating ground-breaking tools for real estate investors and we give almost everything away for free… for real.

If our new products and support don’t make it easy enough for you, don’t forget that we offer full WordPress setup and hosting solutions at very competitive prices. Ask us about how we can help you turn your site into a lead generating machine for next to nothing. Not only do we know how to make a truly effective website for any business, we specialize in creating websites for generating real estate leads. Don’t waste your time or money on generic web designers that don’t know the real estate business, or website systems built by real estate gurus that don’t know how to make websites… at REItrainer.com we have everything you need, and all of our products are FREE.

Thanks for using the REIhomesales Investor WordPress Theme for real estate investors!

Click here to read the setup instructions for this theme.

Have questions? Leave a comment on this post

Thanks for using the REIhomesales HomeBuyer WordPress Theme for real estate investors!

Click here to read the setup instructions for this theme.

Have questions? Leave a comment on this post

It isn’t hard to figure out that there are record numbers of foreclosures, short sales, REOs (real estate owned properties), wholesale properties, rehab properties, commercial properties and many other types of discounted properties out there for the taking right now but many investors would rather not go through all of the steps involved with the purchase and sale of foreclosures, short sales, REOs (real estate owned properties), wholesale properties, rehab properties, commercial properties and many other types of discounted properties… and understandably so.

Many investors don’t realize this, but the guys that everyone considers to be “real estate investors” are constantly in need of outside funding in order to secure the deed on all of these foreclosures, short sales, REOs (real estate owned properties), wholesale properties, rehab properties, commercial properties and many other types of discounted properties and are able to pay out very healthy returns to private investors that loan them “private money”.

Of course we don’t recommend just going out and giving a private loan to any Joe off the street that claims that he can “flip a house”, but there are many real estate investors and real estate investing companies out there that are very honest and can pay out up to 25% returns on these private loans. These types of investments can be very lucrative and now is a better time than ever to get into private money lending.

With the current state of the housing market, we are seeing all time low prices on all kinds of foreclosures , short sales, REOs (real estate owned properties), wholesale properties, rehab properties, commercial properties and many other types of discounted properties. By having private money lenders in place, it allows the real estate investor to have more buying power and allows them to purchase properties at very low prices and allows them the ability to pay very nice interest rates.

Most people automatically think, “how can I trust this guy with my private money?”. Of course that is the most important question. The answer to this question is what makes private lending so great. Normally when you loan a real estate investor private money, the deed from the property is actually put into the private money lender’s name until the property is resold at a hefty profit. The real estate investor then pays the private loan back along with the percentage of return that was agreed upon.

Of course, as with any investment, there are risks so we recommend that you thoroughly research whoever it is that you intend on giving a private loan to, but investing in private money loans for real estate is a fantastic alternative to the stock market as well as an easy way to take advantage of the great deals in real estate without all the headaches.

REIhomesales Homebuyer Theme

In my last article about WordPress sites and how to use them for real estate investing, I explained some of the basic features in WordPress and some of its advantages. In the weeks after writing this article, I looked for some other information that would be helpful to pass along that was a little more in depth, and more relevant to real estate investing.

I came up with some pretty good advanced usage techniques to discuss in the future, but I had a hard time with deciding on the “next article in the series”. At first I thought I would make some lists of helpful resources that would make it easy for you to get a WordPress installed on your server and places to get some WordPress Themes.

After kicking around a few watered down ideas for this article, and searching for free themes and plug-ins that might be good for real estate, I decided rather than tell you where to get stuff to make your WordPress into a lead generating site for real estate… I would create the perfect WordPress theme for generating real estate leads and give it away for free. It took a few weeks, but with the help of the REIcreator web development team, I was able to create a WordPress theme unlike any other theme out there… the 100% FREE REIhomesales WordPress Themes Collection… Merry Christmas.

So what is so special about the REIhomesales WordPress themes?

First and foremost, the best thing about our WordPress themes for real estate investing is that they are totally free. If you already have a WordPress, just download them and install them, set your settings in WordPress’s admin on our special theme settings page in the appearance section, and you are ready to start receiving leads directly in your email inbox.

Second, I wanted to make the setup as simple as possible. I wanted the theme into a lead generating site with as few steps and the least WordPress knowledge needed as possible. Our themes require no installation of any special plug-ins in order to activate the lead generating possibilities of the theme. Simply install the theme and fill out the simple settings in your WordPress admin and you will be up and running. Just enter the email address you want your leads to get sent to and any time someone fills out the form on your site, their information is emailed right to you. Easy as pie with no plug-ins required.

Third, we wanted to allow you to easily add Google Adsense and other banners to your site. On our theme settings page in your WordPress, you can easily add your Google Adsense codes to your site without editing any html. Simply paste in your Adsense codes (or any other banner codes) into our easy to use settings form and hit save.

Next, we decided that we wanted to allow you to easily add things like Google Analytics and other scripts to your site without the need to edit the html. All you have to do is paste your Google Analytics code into the box on our settings form and your Google Analytics will be automatically installed onto your site on every page.

Since video is always cool, and everyone has a video on YouTube.com, we decided to make an easy to edit spot on the right side bar of the theme that will hold a YouTube video, playlist, or channel. Simply paste the embed code from Youtube.com into the box in the admin settings and you are able to edit your video, playlist, or channel from YouTube.com easily. Again, no editing of html is needed for this.

After all that was built, we wanted to make the things look cooler than any prebuilt lead generating sites that we have seen. Our team of professional web site designers and developers were able to make a really great blend of great looking graphics, ease of use, and SEO optimized html. Not only do our themes look great, but they will out perform many of the WordPress themes that are out there as far as search engine results and they will crush any pre-built real estate investor website system out there in conversion.

Of course, if you want a custom theme created just for you, REIcreator.com can design and build any custom WordPress or Website that you can dream up. Since the core of our WordPress themes is so solid, we are able to make custom layouts and graphics in a very short time, enabling us to deliver spectacular looking, high performance sites for a very affordable price.

Basically, we wanted to eliminate the need for editing any html, and we wanted to not rely on any plug-ins. Of course you can install all the plug-ins you want, and I will be writing another article on all of my favorite plug-ins and how I use them… but our themes are ready to generate motivated home seller leads and other real estate leads right out of the box.

These first themes are just the beginning. We are already working on more graphics and layouts as well as enhancements and upgrades for future releases.

If you don’t have a web server or you have no idea how to get a server or get WordPress installed, we are also now officially offering WordPress installation and hosting on REItrainer.com. Check out our very affordable WordPress installation and hosting packages. We will get you setup in no time and get you online generating leads for next to nothing.

Check back soon for updates on the new REIhomesales WordPress Themes for Real Estate Investors by REIcreator.

Nowadays, everyone needs links back to their website if they want to compete for organic search engine traffic. Having more backlinks is always a great idea, but did you know that there are certain links that are more “potent” than others? The most potent backlinks are what are referred to as “in content backlinks”. In content backlinks are links that are actually inside a paragraph on a web page or blog post. The most potent “in content” links are links that are on sites that are about a similar topic to your web site’s topic. They are also the hardest type of links to acquire because since they need to appear inside a paragraph, it usually means that someone has to write about or recommend your site in their page or article. This can be very difficult to make happen when you are starting a new site or when trying to breathe life into a poorly performing site.

How Does Your Link Building Program Work?

Our link building program is very simple. For a small fee per article or per month, we allow you to write your own articles about whatever you want (that is related to real estate investing) and post them on our site. This allows you to talk all you want about your web site and its services and products and put links to whatever page you are promoting throughout your article. It allows you to link as much as you want, to whatever you want.

By posting links in your articles, you build highly potent “in content backlinks” to your site or sites and in turn you increase your rank on google and other sites. Not only do you increase your rank, but by having your article on REItrainer.com, you will also receive notoriety in our online community and you will get traffic from the readers of our site. Our team of SEO experts will also fine tune your links even more if needed.

How Much Does it Cost?

With our article writing program you can pay per submission if you only need to post a small amount of articles per month. The price per article is $40.

If you post more than 2 articles a month, you will want to pay per month. The cost per month for unlimited article submissions is $100.

In order to compete in online and on the search engines organically, you must have quality in content links to your site on other sites that are relevant to the topic of your site. If you have a real estate investing related website, or service that you are trying to promote online, email info@reicreator.com today and get started.

At REIcreator.com, we currently use WordPress on a few of our sites for a few different reasons. Although we develop websites ourselves, we found that WordPress came almost all of the functionality we needed for our blog. Rather than “reinvent the wheel” or use some other CMS like joomla or tridian, we decided on using WordPress to manage our real estate investing blog site, REItrainer.com.

By using WordPress, we had our site up and running in a matter of hours. I was able to design a custom theme and fill it up with our old articles in no time. After it was set up, I was able to give access directly to my writers and they are now able to easily post articles and pages without having a web designer or developer involved. They don’t really even really need to know anything about websites. All they need to do is write words. WordPress allows me to give them an “author” account, so they can write all they want and all I have to do is hit “approve” and it goes live on the website. You can set these approval setting however you want, I just like to have the final say on what goes online so I set it to give me that control.

Once the article is posted, WordPress allows people to post comments about your articles on your site. You can turn this off if you want but by having people comment on your articles, it looks good for your site and helps you gain rank on search engines. The reason for this gain in rank is due to the fact that search engines love new content. If people are commenting on your articles, your article is continuously getting updated as far as google is concerned. I have our comments set up so that I get to approve them before they actually go live on the site. This allows me to filter out the spam.

The comments settings are one of many simple settings in the WordPress control panel. In this easy to use admin, I am able to easily add and edit user accounts, add and edit articles, add and edit pages and much more. It is set up pretty nice right out of the box. A person with hardly any technical knowledge of the internet can be blogging and editing web pages in no time. If you have ever posted a blog or a comment on a website, you can manage a WordPress site.

To get a WordPress site set up, you will probably have to enlist the help of someone with some web site developing experience, but it will be the best money you ever spent. You can usually get someone to set it up for you for a few hundred dollars or less. If you pay for a web host, you are looking at around $10 a month or so, and around $8 per year for the actual purchase of your web site’s address. So, depending on how much your developers charge to install it, you could end up only having to spend a little over $100 a year to have a super easy to use and easy to update website. I forgot to mention that the actual WordPress application is totally free. All you have to ever pay for is setup, hosting , optional customizations (and sometimes help).

Of course, at REIcreator.com we can service all of your WordPress needs from simple WordPress installations to supercharged custom WordPress plugins and custom WordPress themes. Below are a few examples of WordPress sites that REIcreator.com has designed. These sites have a little more to them than just the basics, but they are still examples of very affordable websites that anyone can easily update.

http://CMYatesNews.com

This site is real estate investor and private money expert, Chris Yates’s video blog powered by WordPress. It utilizes a few addons and customizations such as the youtube video playlist, twitter feeds and others. The forms are made with infusion CRM and just needed some styling to plug them in nicely. The main appeal for using WordPress here is the fact that it is basically a blog. Chris is able to easily update and add pages, articles, blogs, events, videos, products for sale, tweets, and more… and he never has to wait for a developer to get around to updating his page.

http://CMYatesCapital.com

After seeing how easy it was to update his news page himself, Chris Yates had us rebuild his main private money lending website on the WordPress format. We were able to copy his existing site onto a WordPress and make it a lot prettier in a matter of a few hours. Now he automatically has a blog installed and he now has the ability to edit any page, add a page whenever he wants without the help of a developer. This saves so much of a few different people’s time and in turn saves him a ton of money.

http://REItrainer.com

This is our original WordPress site. We set this site up simply to allow anyone to write articles for us and allow them to post them on the site without taking up our valuable development time. It is pretty basic as far as the structure of the site. There are some great articles for getting started in real estate investing, Property Wholesaling, Private Money Lending, Buying and Selling Houses, Rent to Own and more. It also has a great real estate glossary on there.

There are so many ways to use a WordPress website to benefit your real estate investing business. This article is just the tip of the iceberg. I didn’t realize how huge the post would get in such a small amount of time, so I will probably need to make this into a series of posts. There is so much you can do to benefit your real estate business with a WordPress site. Once you get it set up, the sky is the limit. I will get more in depth on some more specific WordPress topics in my future posts. I will talk about using WordPress sites in different areas of your real estate investing business, such as marketing to home buyers and home sellers, generating private money, building wholesale buyers lists, using adsense and other banner programs, affiliate programs, selling ebooks and products and I am sure I will come up with even more topics.

You can easily do all of these things and more with a WordPress site and many people can figure out how to put all of these things into action after they get their site and tinker around with it a bit. Please feel free to post questions in the comments on this page and I will answer them so everyone can see.

Why Private Money?

Whether you have a long term or short term real estate investment strategy, private money lending is the single best way to fund the growth of your real estate portfolio. Private money lending works the same way as borrowing money from a bank, but the bank is a private individual with little or no stringent lending criteria who simply receives a Note and Deed of Trust or Mortgage (depending on the state you are investing in) in exchange for funding your deal.

Private money lenders can bring speed and efficiency to your transaction by asking fewer questions and moving money faster. Being able to offer a fast closing with private funds will motivate sellers to take your offer over your competition, and will entice them to take a much lower price from you than they would from a conventional buyer.

Low Costs, Flexible Terms:

Private Money Loans are very cost effective, with rates usually ranging from no points and 8% interest, to 3 points and 15%. Pricing and terms should vary depending on the overall risk associated with the deal. Private money lenders can provide various types of funding starting with “flash cash” (when you only need funds for a few days) to longer term notes as long as 5 years or more. Lenders may elect to receive interest payments monthly, quarterly, annually, or at the time of loan maturity.

Transaction fees on Private Money Loans are much lower than most as private money lenders do not have underwriters, processors, etc. on staff, and do not require nearly as much paperwork as conventional or government-backed loans.

Why you should protect them, and how:

As a professional real estate investor, you will want to protect the interests of your private money lenders as well as your own. We suggest providing them with the following documents to secure their investment capital:

• Promissory Note
• This is your lender’s collateral for their investment capital
• Deed of Trust, or Mortgage (varies based on state)
• This is the document that is recorded with the county clerk and recorder to publicly secure their investment against the real property that you areas as collateral
• Hazard Insurance Policy
• List the Private Moeny Lender as the “Mortgagee” to protect them in case of fire or natural disaster, etc.
• Appraisal (optional)
• Many private money lenders will simply research the value of a property online before making an investment decision. As many of your acquisitions will be properties that require significant renovation, an appraisal may not be necessary to establish value if your purchase price is obviously well below market. If a private money lender does require an appraisal, be sure to give the appraiser a copy of your renovation scope of work with total renovation cost and ask the appraiser for an ARV (after repaired value) figure on the appraisal.

100% financing still exists!

Private money lenders rarely require a down payment from you and may fund both your purchase and renovation of the property, or more! In many instances, we have purchased a property so far below market value that our lenders have actually funded our purchase of the property, all the renovation costs, AND allowed us to receive cash at the purchase closing to put towards our operating expenses and receive an initial profit up front.

This sounds great, but where do I find these private money lenders?

Private money lenders can be family members, friends, business partners, professional or personal acquaintances, attorneys, accountants, business owners, or strangers. Anyone that you come into contact with could be a potential private money lender for your real estate investment deals.

What’s in it for them?

Fixed returns on their capital providing better profits than almost all other investment vehicles, secured by real assets at below market value, insured against fire, theft, vandalism, and natural disasters, and the ability to do all of this completely tax-free within their retirement accounts if they desire.Need we say more?

Where do the funds come from?

The first seven strategies we will cover in this e-book highlight sources that private lenders can tap in order to take advantage of the incredible investment opportunities that you are about to open up for them.

To read the rest of ”21 Ways To Finance Your Real Estate Deals…Without Using Your Own Cash or Credit” By:Chris Yates, and learn about other private money lending and real estate investing strategies, visit CMYatesnews.com and purchase the ebook.You can also visit CMYatesCapital.com to learn even more about private money lending and how to begin earning great returns on your investment through private money lending to real estate investors.

Abstract of Title – A summary of all recorded proceedings and investments that affect a property’s title.

Accelerated Cost Recovery System – A tax calculation that provides greater depreciation in the early years of ownership of real estate or personal property.

Acceleration Clause - A clause in your mortgage which allows the lender to demand payment of the outstanding loan balance for various reasons. The most common reasons for accelerating a loan are if the borrower defaults on the loan or transfers title to another individual without informing the lender.

Acceptance – An offeree’s consent to enter into a contract and be bound by the terms of the offer.

Accrued Interest – Earned but unpaid interest.

Accumulated Depreciation – In accounting, the amount of depreciation expense that has accumulated to date.

Acknowledgment - A declaration by a document’s signer that he or she voluntarily signed the document, made before a duly authorized person.

Acquisition Cost - The price and all fees required to purchase a property.

Acquisition Loan - Money which is borrowed for the specific purpose of buying a property.

Acre - A two-dimensional measure of land that is equal to 43,560 square feet or 4,840 square yards.

Addendum – An additional article or provision which has been attached to an existing contract.

Additional Principal Payment – A payment by a borrower of more than the scheduled principal amount due in order to reduce the remaining balance on the loan.

Adjoining – Land which is attached, contiguous, or shares one or more borders.

Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM) – A mortgage in which the interest changes periodically, according to corresponding fluctuations in an index. All ARMs are tied to indexes.

Adjusted Basis – The original cost of a property plus the value of any capital expenditures for improvements to the property minus any depreciation taken.

Adjusted Cost Basis – See Adjusted Basis.

Adjusted Tax Basis – The original cost of the property, reduced by depreciation deductions and increased by capital expenditures.

Adjustment Date – The date on which the interest rate changes for an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM).

Adjustment Period – The period that elapses between the adjustment dates for an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM).

Administrator – A person appointed by a court to administer the estate of a deceased person who left no will.

Administrator’s Deed – A legal document used to transfer property by the administrator of an estate.

Adverse Possession – A method of acquiring a property when an occupant has been in legal occupancy of the property for a set period of time (variable by state).

Affidavit – a written statement, sworn to or affirmed before a legally authorized officer or agent.

Affordability Analysis – A detailed analysis of your ability to afford the purchase of a home. An affordability analysis takes into consideration your income, liabilities, and available funds, along with the type of mortgage you plan to use, the area where you want to purchase a home, and the closing costs that you might expect to pay.

Agency – the relationship between a principal and his agent as defined by a contract in which the principal asks the agent to perform certain deeds on behalf of the principal.

Agreement for Deed – see Contract for Deed.

Alienation – to transfer title and possession of property to another party.

All Inclusive Trust Deed – An all inclusive trust deed is identical to a wraparound mortgage. It is used in states that use trust deeds instead of mortgages.

Amenity – A feature of real property that enhances its attractiveness and increases the occupant’s or user’s satisfaction although the feature is not essential to the property’s use. Natural amenities include a pleasant or desirable location near water, scenic views of the surrounding area, etc. Human-made amenities include swimming pools, tennis courts, community buildings, and other recreational facilities.

Amortization – The gradual repayment of a mortgage loan by installments.

Amortized Loan – a loan that is repaid in several installments, each containing a portion used to reduce the principal amount of the loan and a portion that is applied to pay interest. Each payment designates a larger portion to principal reduction and a smaller portion to interest payment, until the outstanding balance is eventually paid off in full.

Amortization Term – The amount of time required to amortize the mortgage loan. The amortization term is expressed as a number of months. For example, for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, the amortization term is 360 months.

Amortization Schedule – A table which shows how much of each payment will be applied toward principal and how much toward interest over the life of the loan. It also shows the gradual decrease of the loan balance until it reaches zero.
Amortize – To repay a mortgage with regular payments that cover both principal and interest.

Annual Cap – the maximum amount by which the interest rate on an adjustable rate mortgage can increase or decrease during a one-year period.

Annual Mortgagor Statement – A report sent to the mortgagor each year. The report shows how much was paid in taxes and interest during the year, as well as the remaining mortgage loan balance at the end of the year.

Annual Percentage Rate (APR) -This is not the note rate on your loan. It is a value created according to a government formula intended to reflect the true annual cost of borrowing, expressed as a percentage. It works sort of like this, but not exactly, so only use this as a guideline: deduct the closing costs from your loan amount, then using your actual loan payment, calculate what the interest rate would be on this amount instead of your actual loan amount. You will come up with a number close to the APR. Because you are using the same payment on a smaller amount, the APR is always higher than the actual note rate on your loan.The Truth-in-Lending Law requires the disclosure of this rate.

Annuity – An amount paid yearly or at other regular intervals, often on a guaranteed dollar basis.

Anticipatory Breach – A preliminary notification that informs one party that the other party will not fulfill the obligations of their original contract.

Application – A form used to apply for a mortgage loan and to record pertinent information concerning a prospective mortgagor and the proposed security.

Appraisal - A written justification of the price paid for a property, primarily based on an analysis of comparable sales of similar homes nearby.
Appraised Value - An opinion of a property’s fair market value, based on an appraiser’s knowledge, experience, and analysis of the property. Since an appraisal is based primarily on comparable sales, and the most recent sale is the one on the property in question, the appraisal usually comes out at the purchase price.
Appraiser – An individual qualified by education, training, and experience to estimate the value of real property and personal property. Although some appraisers work directly for mortgage lenders, most are independent.
Appreciation – An increase in the value of a property due to changes in market conditions or other causes. The opposite of depreciation.
Arrears – Extra payments, such as prior months’ interest or overdue payments in default.
As-Is – A property offered with no guarantees related to its condition
Assessed Value -The valuation placed on property by a public tax assessor for purposes of taxation.
Assessment – The process of placing a value on property for the strict purpose of taxation. May also refer to a levy against property for a special purpose, such as a sewer assessment.

Assessment Rolls – The public record of taxable property.

Assessor – A public official who establishes the value of a property for taxation purposes.

Asset – Anything of monetary value that is owned by a person. Assets include real property, personal property, and enforceable claims against others (including bank accounts, stocks, mutual funds, and so on).

Assignee – The party to whom an Assignor sells or transfers an agreement or contract.

Assignment – When ownership of your mortgage is transferred from one company or individual to another, it is called an assignment.

Assignor – The party who assigns or transfers a contract or agreement to another party (the Assignee).

Assumable Mortgage – An existing mortgage in which the new purchaser of a property is made liable for the payments and any other obligations of the note and mortgage. Depending on the type of loan, the new purchaser’s assumption of these obligations may require a process of approval, and may or may not release the original borrower from future liability. A written release from the mortgagee (lender) is required for the original borrower to be relieved of responsibility for the payments.

Assumption -The transfer of the seller’s existing mortgage to the buyer. See assumable mortgage.

Assumption Clause – A provision in an assumable mortgage that allows a buyer to assume responsibility for the mortgage from the seller. The loan does not need to be paid in full by the original borrower upon sale or transfer of the property.

Assumption Fee – The fee paid to a lender (usually by the purchaser of real property) resulting from the assumption of an existing mortgage.

Attorney-In-Fact – One who holds a power of attorney from another to execute documents on behalf of the grantor of the power.

Attornment – The formal agreement of a tenant to be a tenant to a landlord.

Balance – See Principal Balance.

Balance Sheet – A financial statement that shows assets, liabilities, and net worth as of a specific date.

Balloon Loan – A mortgage loan that requires the remaining principal balance be paid at a specific point in time. For example, a loan may be amortized as if it would be paid over a thirty year period, but requires that at the end of the tenth year the entire remaining balance must be paid.

Balloon Payment -Â The final lump sum payment that is made at the maturity date of a balloon mortgage.

Bankrupt – A person, firm, or corporation that, through a court proceeding, is relieved from the payment of all debts after the surrender of all assets to a court-appointed trustee.

Bankruptcy – A proceeding in a federal court in which a debtor who owes more than his or her assets can relieve the debts by transferring his or her assets to a trustee.

Bankruptcy Discharge – After a bankruptcy proceeding is completed, the debtor is released from an obligation to repay his or her debts.

Basis Point – one hundredth of one percent.

Before-Tax Income – Income before taxes are deducted.

Beneficiary -Â The person designated to receive the income from a trust, estate, or a deed of trust.

Bequeath -Â To transfer personal property through a will.

Betterment – An improvement that increases property value as distinguished from repairs or replacements that simply maintain value.

Bilateral Contract – a contract under which both parties are obligated to conduct certain deeds or tasks.

Bill of Sale – A written document that transfers title to personal property. For example, when selling an automobile to acquire funds which will be used as a source of down payment or for closing costs, the lender will usually require the bill of sale (in addition to other items) to help document this source of funds.

Binder – A preliminary agreement, secured by the payment of an earnest money deposit, under which a buyer offers to purchase real estate.

Bird Dog – a person who identifies a beneficial real estate investment opportunity and passes information about the deal on to another investor for a fee.

Biweekly Mortgage – A mortgage in which you make payments every two weeks instead of once a month. The basic result is that instead of making twelve monthly payments during the year, you make thirteen. The extra payment reduces the principal, substantially reducing the time it takes to pay off a thirty year mortgage. Note: there are independent companies that encourage you to set up bi-weekly payment schedules with them on your thirty year mortgage. They charge a set-up fee and a transfer fee for every payment. Your funds are deposited into a trust account from which your monthly payment is then made, and the excess funds then remain in the trust account until enough has accrued to make the additional payment which will then be paid to reduce your principle. You could save money by doing the same thing yourself, plus you have to have faith that once you transfer money to them that they will actually transfer your funds to your lender.

Blanket Insurance Policy – A single policy that covers more than one piece of property (or more than one person).

Blanket Mortgage – a single mortgage that covers multiple properties.

Board Of Equalization – A committee of persons at the state level who ensure that local property taxes are assessed in a uniform manner.

Board of Realtors – A group of real estate professionals who hold membership in the state and national Associations of Realtors.

Bona Fide – In good faith, without fraud.

Bond – An interest-bearing certificate of debt with a maturity date. An obligation of a government or business corporation. A real estate bond is a written obligation usually secured by a mortgage or a deed of trust.

Bond Market - Usually refers to the daily buying and selling of thirty year treasury bonds. Lenders follow this market intensely because as the yields of bonds go up and down, fixed rate mortgages do approximately the same thing. The same factors that affect the Treasury Bond market also affect mortgage rates at the same time. That is why rates change daily, and in a volatile market can and do change during the day as well.

Breach of Contract – a violation of a legal agreement or contract. Also, a default on a loan or other payment.

Bridge Loan – Not used much anymore, bridge loans are obtained by those who have not yet sold their previous property, but must close on a purchase property . The bridge loan becomes the source of their funds for the down payment. One reason for their fall from favor is that there are more and more second mortgage lenders now that will lend at a high loan to value. In addition, sellers often prefer to accept offers from buyers who have already sold their property.

Broker – Broker has several meanings in different situations. Most Realtors are “agents” who work under a “broker.” Some agents are brokers as well, either working for themselves or under another broker. In the mortgage industry, broker usually refers to a company or individual that does not lend the money for the loans themselves, but broker loans to larger lenders or investors. As a normal definition, a broker is anyone who acts as an agent, bringing two parties together for any type of transaction and earns a fee for doing so.

Budget – A detailed plan of income and expenses expected over a certain period of time. A budget can provide guidelines for managing future investments and expenses.

Budget Category – A category of income or expense data that you can use in a budget. You can also define your own budget categories and add them to some or all of the budgets you create. “Rent” is an example of an expense category. “Salary” is a typical income category.

Building Code – Local regulations that control design, construction, and materials used in construction. Building codes are based on safety and health standards.

Building Permit – A statement of permission, in writing, from a local government or agency allowing the recipient to build a particular structure at a particular site.

Bundle of Rights – A group of implied rights in the ownership of any real estate property. These include the owner’s right of occupancy, use and enjoyment, the right to sell in whole or in part, the right to lease any or all of the rights, the right to the benefits derived by occupancy and use of the property, and so on.

Buy Down – Usually refers to a fixed rate mortgage where the interest rate is “bought down” for a temporary period, usually one to three years. After that time and for the remainder of the term, the borrower’s payment is calculated at the note rate. In order to buy down the initial rate for the temporary payment, a lump sum is paid and held in an account used to supplement the borrower’s monthly payment. These funds usually come from the seller (or some other source) as a financial incentive to induce someone to buy their property. A “lender funded buydown” is when the lender pays the initial lump sum. They can accomplish this because the note rate on the loan (after the buydown adjustments) will be higher than the current market rate. One reason for doing this is because the borrower may get to “qualify” at the start rate and can qualify for a higher loan amount. Another reason is that a borrower may expect his earnings to go up substantially in the near future, but wants a lower payment right now.

Buydown Account - An account in which funds are held so that they can be applied as part of the monthly mortgage payment as each payment comes due during the period that an interest rate buydown plan is in effect.

Buydown Mortgage – A temporary buydown is a mortgage on which an initial lump sum payment is made by any party to reduce a borrower’s monthly payments during the first few years of a mortgage. A permanent buydown reduces the interest rate over the entire life of a mortgage.