Alternatives to Filing Bankruptcy

Written by Sam Argon


Continued from page 1

Ignoringrepparttar Creditor’s

Ignoringrepparttar 135338 creditors is an option, but not a smart one as it will only make it worse for you later. Many people fall to ignoringrepparttar 135339 debts and then they start to pile higher and higher getting more out of control and further from you being able to pay them. If you continually ignorerepparttar 135340 creditor’s attempts for payments, you could very well end up with a lien on your home. No matter how large or smallrepparttar 135341 debt isrepparttar 135342 creditor will continue to hound you for payment.

Whatever you choose asrepparttar 135343 best option for you, ignoringrepparttar 135344 problem will only makerepparttar 135345 situation worse. Taking control ofrepparttar 135346 problem fromrepparttar 135347 start is your best bet.

Credit Counseling

Credit counseling agencies will contact your creditors and make new payment arrangements for you. Most will also be able to get your interest rate lowered and/or have your interest payments stopped.

Some families have found credit counseling to be a good solution for avoiding bankruptcy. It will also getrepparttar 135348 creditors to stop calling you and allow you some breathing room! Experts say to try and avoid for profit credit counseling agencies and instead try to go with non profit credit counseling agencies. As always, be sure and do your research before making a decision.

Filing Bankruptcy

If you have exhausted all other resources and still feel bankruptcy is your only viable option you can learn more about filing bankruptcy or buy do it yourself bankruptcy forms.

Sam Argon is a retired banker who loves to contribute to financial message boards in his spare time. In addition, Sam has written information about filing bankruptcy for www.filingforbankruptcyonline.com - a website offering information for people who are thinking about declaring bankruptcy.


Reinventing Real Estate

Written by Charles Warnock


Continued from page 1

The MLS goes public

“In real estate, MLS data sits atrepparttar apex ofrepparttar 135337 change, specificallyrepparttar 135338 MLS information that is pushed torepparttar 135339 Internet every minute ofrepparttar 135340 day.” – Bradley Inman, Publisher of Inman News

Once an exclusive tool for real estate professionals,repparttar 135341 multiple listing service (MLS) has in recent years become a very public platform for real estate listings. The MLS isrepparttar 135342 nation’s most comprehensive database of properties for sale – four out of five homes sold inrepparttar 135343 United States are listed onrepparttar 135344 MLS. MLS properties are available to agents and brokers worldwide, and are now accessible via consumer Web sites such as Realtor.com, WSJ.com, Excite, Netscape, AOL and MSN. MLS listings also appear on local, regional and national brokerage Websites through Internet Data Exchange (IDX) agreements that allow participating Realtors to share listings and display them to consumers. Even though only licensed realtors can list property onrepparttar 135345 MLS,repparttar 135346 system has begun to figure prominently forrepparttar 135347 $110 billion independent seller (for-sale-by-owner or FSBO) market. About 13 percent of real estate sales are now FSBO, conducted without a broker’s assistance.

Type “flat fee MLS” into any major search engine, and you’ll see dozens of real estate professionals willing to list your property inrepparttar 135348 MLS for a fee. If you are willing to pay a commission of 2-3 percent, you can attractrepparttar 135349 attention of thousands of agents who will show your property to prospective buyers. You can then reducerepparttar 135350 cost ofrepparttar 135351 sale to about half a traditional 5-6 percent sales commission, plusrepparttar 135352 cost ofrepparttar 135353 MLS listing. If you find an independent buyer working without an agent, you could make a sale with no commission at all and pay only an MLS listing flat fee. Displacement

Currently, about 2.4 million real estate licensees operate nationally, according torepparttar 135354 Association of Real Estate License Law officials. The NAR has more than one million members, up from about 760,000 members five years ago. Many real estate professionals and industry observers expect a significant decline in this number because some tasks traditionally performed by agents and brokers can now be done more quickly and easily by Web-enabled consumers.

“Historicallyrepparttar 135355 fundamental driver ofrepparttar 135356 real estate industry wasrepparttar 135357 control of information. The real estate agent andrepparttar 135358 real estate office wererepparttar 135359 only sources of comprehensive information on which properties were for sale and those who might be interested in buying them. With this control revenues were practically guaranteed.

Moreover, because this exclusive control was akin to a monopoly by virtue ofrepparttar 135360 multiple listing service (MLS) any firm of any size could serverepparttar 135361 customer equally well. As a result,repparttar 135362 number of real estate companies grew without regard to market efficiencies.

Simply put,repparttar 135363 traditional model is too inflexible. Consumers are seriously questioningrepparttar 135364 value of a real estate agent. They frequently feel that many ofrepparttar 135365 traditional tasks undertaken byrepparttar 135366 agents are now either no longer required or can be done byrepparttar 135367 consumer themselves.”

– Swanepoel & Tuccillo, Real Estate Confronts Profitability

The quotes above, from a popular report on emerging real estate business models and dwindling profit margins, highlight a number of issues traditional real estate professionals are now facing. And ifrepparttar 135368 real estate industry has grown historically without regard to market efficiencies,repparttar 135369 issue has only been compounded since 2001, as new agents signed on in droves, lured by low interest rates and skyrocketing home prices in many areas. It’s likely thatrepparttar 135370 number of traditional real estate agents will decline, while new types of real estate jobs will be created to deliver value to Web-savvy customers.

End part 1

Charles Warnock is Marketing Communications Manager at South-Florida based Homekeys. He writes often on the topics of real estate, finance, interactive marketing and business development. He can be reached cwarnock@homekeys.net


    <Back to Page 1
 
ImproveHomeLife.com © 2005
Terms of Use