As a Real Estate Agent, I look to provide value at any given time in the relationship between me, the agent, and you, my client. Real Estate is a relationship based industry, utilizing not only the cooperative nature of the business between agents - but also that of vendors used during the process of buying or selling a home. After a sale has happened, I will tell you to contact me if you, or someone you know has a question about Real Estate. This is called a Referral. But here, I am asking, what value do I have for your referrals? Why should you call me after the transaction? 1) Relationships Are More Valuable Than The Transactions One can assign a certain value to a transaction, a single paycheck. But a good relationship with a client has so much more value than that. One of my favorite things to do is to see a client grow from a starter home to an investment home as they build wealth. Not only is it continued business, but growth of the client's life. 2) Balls In Your Cour...

Credit scores can be a scary or enlightening thing, and if yours is not in a good place you may think you don't need to improve it because you don't plan on buying anything large right? Life changes from day to day, and you would be surprised the things you end up doing or wanting to later in life that you did not before, and may find yourself unable to do so, because of things like credit. Here are some reasons to improve your credit: 1) Lower Interest Rate on Loans and Credit Cards Credit is a snapshot of risk, if you have lower credit then you are more of a risk. So to cover themselves in order to do business with you, businesses' will have to charge you a higher interest rate. It is always in your best interest and money saving efforts to have better credit when applying for things like Mortgage Loans. 2) Leverage to Negotiate Lower Credit Card Interest Rates In some cases, you should not ask for things if they are not offered. However, if you have good credit a...

Last week we spoke about how to improve your Credit Score. Once you are doing that, you will find you have to change a lot of your habits. While you are changing your habits, this is a great time to add some other positive habits regarding your credit: 1) Check Your Credit Report Some banks and sites will allow you to check your credit as often as you would like, but everyone is entitled to free copy of their credit report from annualcreditreport.com that is a compilation of all three credit scores. Review it, and store it on hand as many people who ask to run credit may be able to avoid doing so if they can read the report. If you see anything that should not be there, talk to the credit agency. 2) Set Up Automatic Payments If you are on top of paying your bills, make sure that there is either a system in place that never fails or set up automatic payments and make a note to check your bank account weekly or monthly and make sure the payments go through. 3) Don't Open T...

If you or someone you know is thinking about buying or selling real estate, one of the first questions to come up is: Is my credit good enough? Now, there are many options for loans even with bad credit or no credit, but if you are looking to improve your credit score as you look for the perfect property to purchase, here are some ways to do it: 1) Always Pay Your Bills On Time Everyone has bills, and paying them consistently will add positive points to your overall credit score and profile. 2) Keep Your Balances Low Every now and again, credit issuers will report your balances to credit agencies, this is how a credit reporting agency will know about your balances. In anticipation of this, it is suggested to keep balances at low if you are going to have a balance at all. 3) Maintain A Credit Utilization Ratio of Less Than 30% What this means is, if between all of your credit being borrowed, let's say total is $10,000, you should be borrowing less than 30% of your total....