What is a FICO Score? Most credit bureau scores in the U.S. are calculated from software developed by Fair Isaac and Company. They are commonly referred to as FICO scores and include a rating based on information found in credit reports.
If you're planning to finance the purchase of any investment properties now or in the future, then knowing what make up your credit score and how to improve it are critical.
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Earlier this year Norada Real Estate added a One-Year Rent Guarantee as part of every investment property purchased through their network. The response by investors has been very positive and overwhelming.
A few people made the comment that it sounded, “too good to be true”. In response to those comments, I present the following excerpt from an interview conducted with Robert T. – a landlord with several properties. Rob's properties are protected by the same policy we provide all our investors. Shortly after his policy was placed, he experienced a vacancy and filed a claim. The following is an excerpt of an interview conducted with Rob in February, 2013.
Demand for U.S. real estate by foreign investors has exploded over the last year. The first reason has been the weakness of the U.S. dollar. That has allowed foreign buyers to invest in U.S. real estate that produces favorably high yields, as well as profiting from the currency trade. These two factors compound to give foreign investors greater returns.
Since 2006 property values in America had declined in many markets by as much as 70%. Now with the ongoing manipulation tactics of the Federal Reserve Bank, Ben Bernanke’s QE to infinity, and suppressed real estate inventory by the major banks, real estate prices have been rebounding in most U.S. real estate markets. That explains some of the reasons foreign investors are taking their capital and placing it in U.S. investment properties.
People were on the move in 2012 and apparently the most popular place for them to move to was Pittsburgh, PA., according to the 2012 Top US Growth Cities Report recently released by U-Haul International. The Steel City topped the list of 30 metro areas selected with a 9.04% population growth, based on data collected by U-Haul from over 1.6 million one-way truck rentals during a recent 12 month period.
The cities chosen for the list had more than 5,000 families moving in or out of the area during that time. “Growth cities were then determined by calculating the percentage of inbound moves vs. outbound moves for each area,” said John Taylor, president of U-Haul International, Inc. Other cities in the U-Haul top 10 included:
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In Shelby County, there were 1,030 total foreclosures in the first quarter this year, according to real estate information company Chandler Reports. That’s down from 1,252 foreclosures during the same period in 2012 – a drop of 17%. Pull back one year before that, though, and the number of foreclosures had spiked to 1,235 in the first quarter of 2012 compared to 964 in the first quarter of 2011. At this time last year, in other words, the area was in the midst of a 30% gain in foreclosures. Pointing to the recent drop, some local brokers and Realtors say a combination of forces is at work. There’s been a small improvement in the economy, which helps. Banks also are increasingly pursuing workouts, loan modifications and short sales.
