Many of our clients have been able to build their businesses successfully as a direct result of outsourcing. One of the most common jobs that they outsource is appointment setting. If your company does any type of outside sales (and most do) having an outsourced telemarketing department is ideal. Think about it, if you tried to hire telemarketers in house, you have to set up office space, get office furniture, get special phone lines installed, get computers, etc. You even have to either manage them yourself or hire someone else to make sure that they’re showing up on time, working their agreed upon shift, calling properly, reading the scripts properly and performing the way that you want them to. 

Yet when you outsource your appointment setting, all you do is have your sales force (or yourself) show up to prescheduled appointments and write up deals. That’s it! No trouble no hassle no headaches. All of this for an employee that costs around $5 per hour.

As a small business owner, you can also use virtual assistants to contact your existing clients and cross sell them on additional products and services (a very successful and profitable strategy). In addition, they can serve as an answering service when you’re out of the office, handle your billing / payments & collections, perform accounting and bookkeeping and more. Some mortgage companies use outsourced workers to call homeowners and sell them mortgages over the phone.

Realtors use virtual assistants to help them run their offices. Their reps help them prepare documents, upload listings, answer phones, do internet marketing, send out client newsletters and more. Other businesses have outsourced reps handling some of their marketing functions. These include internet marketing. There are over 50,000 free classified ad sites on the internet other than Craigslist. Some business owners have their outsourced marketing reps posting ads on these sites each month. They also design their print and internet ads, launch their direct mail campaigns, fulfill information request orders, perform E-blasts, perform “Live Chat” for their website, perform search engine optimization, blogging, writing and posting articles online, updating their website monthly, and much more. Some accounting companies even have outsourced reps doing their clients bookkeeping (unbeknownst to their clients). Other companies have outsourced reps doing actual sales entirely over the phone and internet.

So as you can see, there are a tremendous amount of ways that you as a small business owner can benefit from outsourcing. The ways we mention above are just a few examples yet the possibilities are endless.

 

 

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How To Owner Finance Your Home

You\’ve seen the real estate ads in the classifieds section of the newspaper: \”Owner Financing Available\” or \”Owner Will Carry\”. An owner financed real estate transaction enables the buyer of the property to make payments directly to the seller.

This allows the buyer to purchase the real estate without having to apply for a mortgage from a bank or financial institution. The seller also has the option of selling the loan to an investor for cash.

Of course, there are lots of variables that work into a price offer including type of property, location, age of house, equity, is the buyer making the monthly payments, etc. These are just some of the things an investor likes to see. Investors buy all sorts of real estate notes and deeds of trust. Every house is different, every loan is different and every deal is different. Use the above list to make the loan more attractive to an investor.

ADVANTAGES OF OWNER FINANCING THE SALE

Sell Your Property For Your Desired Asking Price
A buyer may be perfectly happy to pay market value (and maybe more) for a house that requires a smaller down payment and that a bank won\’t help them finance.

Charge a Higher Interest Rate Than a Bank Would Give
By charging a higher interest rate than a bank (say 7.5 – 8.5%) you are, in effect, increasing the overall sales price of the property, and making the note more attractive for an investor.

Faster Sell
You can sell a home with owner financing a lot quicker than with bank financing and there can be tax advantages in spreading the buyer\’s payments out over time (talk with an accountant about that).

Great Monthly Cash Flow Investment
Many owners simply like the idea that they can receive a monthly income and a high interest rate from a property even after they have sold it – and no longer have to worry about repairing leaky roofs or replacing dead water heaters.

Sell The Note To An Investor
A seller who owner financed the deal also has the option of selling that note to an investor for cash either right after closing or after waiting a number of months or years (give me a call or email and I can get you more information about selling your note).

DISADVANTAGES OF OWNER FINANCING THE SALE

Cash At Sale = Small Down Payment
Seller receives only a small or even no down payment.

Buyer Won\’t Pay
The seller takes the risk that the buyer will not make payments and will have to be foreclosed on.

Due-On-Sale Clause
If I owner finance my house won\’t I activate the Due-On-Sale Clause in my mortgage and if I\’m only getting a small down payment and monthly installments how will I pay the bank loan back?

The Due-on-Sale Clause is a provision in a mortgage or deed of trust that allows the lender to demand immediate payment of the balance of the mortgage if the mortgage holder sells the home. It is probably the most talked about, feared and misunderstood topic in real estate.

The link below is to a great article by real estate lawyer William Bronchick and will dispel any misunderstandings you may have about the due-on-sale and suggest some simple, yet effective strategies to get around it.

There Is No Due-On-Sale Jail

You can also do a simultaneous closing, where a few days after the close of the house with the buyer you receive a check for the note from an investor.

If you\’re going to owner finance your home and you know you want to sell the note this is a great way of doing it because the investor is there for the whole process and you don\’t have to start over again 6 months later with another appraisal, inspection, credit check, etc.

REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONALS – Providing owner financing could mean the difference in having your client sell their house quickly or having it sit on the market for months, years or not selling it at all.

Asking a seller to offer owner financing to buy their home can be a tricky proposition. Sellers often reject the suggestion of owner financing because nobody has explained the benefits or proposed owner financing as a way to sell the home. Most sellers\’ knowledge is limited to traditional bank mortgages.

If you would like to share the option of owner financing with your client, download my free ebook, \”How To Owner Finance Your Home\”, which explains the owner finance process in detail. Download it and you\’re more than welcome to put your own name and business logo on it and hand it out. It\’s a great way to introduce the concept of owner financing to your client.

BIG TIP OF THE DAY:If you\’re going to draw up a contract to owner finance the sale of your house have an experienced real estate attorney look it over. It might cost you $400 or $500 (maybe more, maybe less depending on what state you are in) but it might save you a lot of heart ache in the end if the buyer stops making payments, they make unauthorized modifications to the house, which might still be in your name, or there is some other unforeseen event (you know there will be).

An experienced real estate attorney has drawn up hundreds of these kinds of contracts and will be able to give you great advice. Well worth the money.

 

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Also known as seller financing, owner financing is growing in popularity in today’s economy. With the credit markets slowing down and people finding it harder and harder to borrow, owner financing is looking better and better as an alternative to traditional financing. Owner financing is when the seller of the property basically agrees to take payments rather than a lump sum. Here are a few things that need to happen in order for the owner to be able to finance your deal:

The owner needs to have considerable equity in the property. The owner will usually have their own mortgage they will need to pay back in full when they sell the property to you. If they don’t have a whole lot of equity, they usually can’t offer to finance a whole lot of the deal. The best scenario is an older owner that is close to retirement. Odds are that they have a good amount of equity or even own the property free and clear. They are looking to retire and just want a steady cash flow rather than a lump sum when they sell the place. The owner should have a desire to accept owner financing. If the seller wants to roll the funds over into another property or needs the lump sum of cash for one reason or another, they probably won’t want to take on very much seller financing. The terms need to be right for both parties. The interest rate, duration and repayment structure need to be acceptable for both parties. This usually requires a good deal of negotiation.

If you have all your ducks in a row and seller financing seems like it might be a possibility, here are some of the benefits to consider if you are thinking about locking in owner financing:

You might not have to get traditional financing. This depends on how much the owner is willing to finance. If they are willing to finance just a little bit, this might help you lower your down payment or help you qualify for traditional financing, but won’t completely eliminate traditional financing unless you pay the remaining amount due as a down payment. You could get more flexible terms than you would on a standard mortgage. You have the power of negotiating so that both the buyer and the seller walk away with a fair deal. You typically can’t do this with a traditional bank. The seller is still somewhat on the hook for the property. You know that you aren’t getting totally ripped off, because the seller still hasn’t received all their money. There is a possibility that you could pay a little bit of a premium for the deal. If they end up totally screwing you, and the property completely falls apart in a few years and you let it fall into foreclosure, the seller only stands to get the property back. The seller isn’t going to want to lend to you using a bum property as collateral.

If owner financing seems like it would work for you, there is no reason to start looking for properties for sale with owner financing. Even if a property isn’t advertised as offering owner financing, you may be able to talk with any seller and see if they are willing to negotiate on terms.

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