With the economic still looking sluggish, even business owners are in a frenzy trying to reduce overhead costs so as to boost their company’s cash flow.  One way of doing so is to negotiate with their landlord on a rent reduction. Here are nine ideas that you should take note of when discussing with him about a possibility to slash rents.

Firstly, hire a commercial real estate broker, who is skilful and knowledgeable. Work on a fee with him based on the actual rent reduction that you are looking for. Do a market research. Have your broker carry this out for you. Check several properties which are currently in the market for rental. Compare the various rents they are charge and even check out the premises to find out if the property is worth the asking rent. You may also ask your broker to do a market survey of a number of completed lease transactions. This will give you an idea of what the latest rate is.

With all this information, you will be able to come up with a cross comparison of the current property and the ones available in the market. See how the current property fits in with regard to this. Now begin the discussion. Provide the landlord with a proposal that outlines the terms and conditions of the desired rent reduction. This proposal should spell out to the current owner that properties available for rent in the market usually remain vacant for 3 to 6 months before securing a tenant. It should also show that many landlords are letting tenants rent the property for free for a couple of months before charging.

In trying to get a rent reduction you may need to be willing to extend your lease should you the reduction. This will give the landlord an incentive to agree to lower the rent. Also, be aware of rent adjustments that may be tied to the consumer price index with no ceiling. If this is the case, you may have to adjust your rents according to the inflation rates. With a shortage in the demand for tenants, the rental rates might increase in the years to come. Be willing to share financial information with the landlord so he knows you are genuine in your need to reduce the rent. Discuss this deal with a positive attitude but do not come across as being demanding or tough. Go prepared and impress the landlord who would be left with little choice but to agree to your offer.

As we all know, the real estate market is dull and slowly trying to weave its way out towards recovery. While prices have dropped and mortgage rates low, this might be the right time for people to buy properties. So, at this point in time, if you are financially able, you may be able to secure quality home at very attractive prices. So, if you have selected a home and have decided to go ahead with it, there are several issues to be considered. Ensure that you go through these with your real estate agent before making the offer.

When you have decided on a home, the first thing you would do is to indicate your interest by calling an offer to purchase. This offer is different for each person as they may consider terms and agreements mutually amicable to both parties. To help you out, here are some pointers to consider before making the offer.

First of all and most obviously, set the right price. Ask you real estate agent to create an offer which is within your budget and also taking care that is not one that would put off the seller. The real estate agent is in the best position to decide on the best offer for you. In doing so, it is important to engage a skilful and reliable one. Such an agent will give you confidence that your deal is the right one and that you have a knowledgeable person to back you up thorough the deal.

Also be sure to check on what happens if you decide not to go ahead with the purchase after a deposit has been made. There may be unforeseeable circumstances like a bank loan rejection which could lead you to being unable to buy the property as agreed. It is important to list what would happen to your down payment in such an instance so as to avoid any legal complications.

Inspect the interiors of the house before making an offer. A house that requires much repair or renovation should demand a lesser price. So account for any repair that you may have to do upon buying the house.

Do a thorough check about the property. Start by finding out how long properties in the market have been up for sale. A home that has been advertised for some time is likely to indicate a keen seller. This may then put you in a better position to negotiate on your desired price. You may also wish to do a check on the liens on the property just so you know the amount owed to the owner.

So, go ahead and make the offer.

It is common knowledge now that with people having lost jobs and reduced income that more and more home mortgages are reaching the foreclosure stage. With this situation at hand, you as a consumer might be wondering if it is wise for you to buy or even sell a home. So, what is foreclosure all about and how do you deal with it?

Having a home reach the stage of foreclosure does not mean that you can never be an owner of a home again. Of course, foreclosures will cause a dip in your credit score as well as cause you to be denied the rights to buy another home. However, this negative outcome is not permanent as the number of years varies. However, this does mean that you will have to rent a home for many years before actually owning your own.

When reaching a foreclosure, you may want to get in touch with major banks, the department of housing and the urban development directly. This is so that you cut the hassle of having to go through a middle man and help yourself save some money. However, more than often than not, this is unlikely to happen. With all of them handling tons of foreclosure cases on a daily basis, it is unlikely they will sit down to listen to you.

It is also not true that the lender regains ownership of your home when it goes for foreclosure. Once they get hold of it, they can do what they feel with the property. This means they can rent it out or even sell and make money from it. This would help them ensure your property does not lie idle and make them lose money as a result.

Also, different lenders have different working procedures and policies. So they may each differ in the way they run the show. Some lenders may choose to negotiate directly with the owners while others delegate the work to representatives who do the job for them. Either way, the home is legally the lenders’ after the foreclosure.

When a foreclosure happens, the lenders may have to make the property suitable for auction by wiping out title fees and junior liens. However, some lenders may skip this process. If there are superior liens, like the ones from IRS or issues related to tax, then they will sell the property without cleaning u such as those issued by the IRS, or tax issues, then the lender may opt to sell the property without cleaning up these issues. Ask these details before you commit to buying a properly to avoid unnecessary complications.

With this, you will be able to have a better idea of foreclosures. Hopefully, the economic situation recovers soon enough for people to legally own their own homes.

Should the Americans take a lesson from the Brits? When the financial crisis hit more than a year and a half ago, the United Kingdom was affected, yes, but not that much. Especially complicating the real estate crash was the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac brouhaha which until now is siphoning off taxpayers money like an endless pit.

The British are looking at this crisis from a whole new different angle. They are approaching the mortgage of homes the eco-friendly way. How so?

They have proposed that new homeowners can have a lower and longer time paying for their mortgages by upgrading their homes into being more energy proficient. Through the installation of practical loft and cavity insulations, solid wall insulations or renewable energy generating technologies by 2015, a lowering of carbon emission by 29% by the year 2020, and the rest will have the chance to access to advice, information and finance.  These will not be expected to be acted upon by homeowners immediately. All these will be available through a pay-as-you-save strategy.

Is the British government just plain dreaming a dream, or do they actually have a viable and workable long term plan that will solve two problems with one stone? Already, the tongues of critics are wagging. And the British government does not care. They say that it is more important to have energy-proficient homes than it is to make money. It is a slow process, yes, but the long-term effects are the future.

Dubbed Homes, Greener Homes: A Strategy for Household Energy Management, this has actually been in motion since 2002 and has already helped more than 7.5 million homes become more efficient. And there is no denying how man has ruined the environment. Critics are saying that now is not the time to do this. The British government is saying, no more politics. The right time is now.

Martin Ellis, chief economist at the Halifax, one of the UK’s biggest lenders states, “Annually, homeowners should be better off: I think energy efficiency will become something that people take into consideration alongside location. It won’t make a huge difference to prices, but it should be a positive one.”

So should we take lessons from the British and follow the lead? Actually no, they are not taking the lead. The American government has taken the lead. The problem is that the British government is implementing what they have proposed to do, they are acting on it. They are not making politics set the rules.

The U.S. government created the Building Technologies Program to help improve the energy-proficiency of American homes and buildings constructed almost forty years ago. The U.S. Department of Energy is adamant in its pursuit toward Zero Energy Buildings mainly for commercial buildings and is funding research for innovative technology. But as usual, politics do get in the way and the American homeowners do not have the incentive to improve their homes as it has become too expensive.

So can the Americans listen and learn from the British? This is the question that remains unanswered.

Predictions, in this day and age, can sometimes be scary, sometimes anticipated. Who do we listen to when we speak of predictions? Shamans? Prophets? Or do we listen to someone who only takes action once a year, and be considered one of the most successful investors in the world?

Warren Buffet, billionaire investor, may just have something up his sleeve. He has predicted a rise in the real estate market that has local investors and businessmen panting in anticipation. In a yearly letter to the stockholders of Berkshire Hathaway, he has foreseen a positive recovery of the beleaguered market when the demands for homes will catch up with the excess supply of foreclosed homes created by the financial crisis more than a year and a half ago.

Is there light at the end of the tunnel at last? Maybe.

In his letter, Buffet wrote that “within a year or so, residential housing problems should largely be behind us. Prices will remain far below ‘bubble’ levels of course, but for every seller or lender hurt by this there will be a buyer who benefits. Indeed, many families that couldn’t afford to buy an appropriate home a few years ago now find it well within their means.”

The prediction may come as a welcome relief to the company’s shareholders. But the historic real estate crisis has drastically affected some of Berkshire Hathaway business units. Home Services of America, Inc., of Minneapolis, the nation’s second-largest independent residential real estate broker, is controlled by the Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway through a subsidiary. Nine percent of its profits fell to $187 million before taxes. A maker of prefabricated houses, Clayton Homes, and the carpet maker Shaw Industries, saw a harrowing thirty percent drop in earnings.

Which will have a harder and much longer time to recover? These will be the high-value houses and those in certain localities where overbuilding was particularly rabid. One of the primary causes of the housing market crash sited by Buffet was overbuilding. It was just a simple case of violating the basic Law of supply and demand.  Before the crisis, the demands for houses were paced at two million units per year. Just before the crash, the demand had dropped to only 1.2 million, way behind the supply at hand.

The ‘housing bubble’ has resulted in a favourable end to the gold rush psyche of construction companies to build more houses than the actual demand for them. Warren Buffet jokingly wrote that that was the best possible solution to the other two which are: if the country decides “to blow up a lot of houses…in a tactic similar to the destruction of autos that occurred with the ‘cash for clunkers’ program” or “speed up householder formation by, say, encouraging teenagers to cohabitate, a program no likely to suffer from a lack of volunteers.”

Are these predictions really what they appear to be? Or are they just simple deductions to a basic principle of ‘what is down has nowhere else to go but up’? Simple deductions these may just well be. But if it comes from someone who is as successful as Warren Buffet, everyone will just have to stop and listen.

Industry watchers were surprised by the fact that there was an unexpected fall of sales of existing homes in the month of January. For those who thought the housing market was back in business, this news has come as a setback.

An increase in sales was expected

Looking at the support infused by the federal government into the market and the banks doing all they could to prop up sales, an increase in homes sales was expected. The fact that the salaries were also up, contributed to this belief. But, all positive estimation fell by the wayside as the sales rate in January was one of the lowest since the time recovery started taking place in the housing market.

Reasons for the drop

There can be many reasons for the drop, but experts believe that the primary reason for a drop in the home sales is the time taken between shopping for a home and closing the deal. There was quite a big delay between the two processes. Such home buyers wanted to take the advantage of the popular tax credit. This homebuyer tax credit was extended in the month of November, and this is when people got into the market. This has meant that contracts are just being offered and the sales will close after a few months.

Activity might be picking up

Owing to the aforementioned facts, there is a good chance that home sales activity will be picking up in the near future. Buyers are slowly but surely taking advantage of the tax credit, but the process takes time. Industry watchers estimate that there will be a shift in figures for the better. The deadline for tax credit is looming, so people who want to take advantage of tax credit will do so now.

Across the board sufferings

It isn’t that there were some types of real estate that suffered, while the sales for some properties went up. Housing market went down, Period. There was an across the board drop in the sales of single family homes and even condominiums. The drop in sales was also across regions, where the Northeast suffered heavily while the West fared marginally better.

When it comes to real estate prices, a further decrease is still on the cards, even though the market might be just about lurching forward. Experts believe that the situation will continue in this fashion for the next few years.

As 2010 reaches the end of its first quarter, some predictions can be made about the real estate sector for the year. Most markets across the nation may have bottomed up for home prices to change very much in 2010. The first prediction is the slight increase in home prices in some US cities where the demand remains strong.  In the cities where foreclosures are high, home prices may drop in 2010 though the worst case scenario is definitely over.

Till date, the Federal Reserve has been maintaining funds rate at 0 to 0.25%. In no time, this figure is bound to increase. The interest rates will increase when the Federal government ceases purchase of mortgage-backed securities. Those homeowners with equities will see an attractive interest rate. It is also unlikely that current homeowners will seek mortgage refinancing in 2010, causing this figure to drop.

In 2010, home owners who require a loan should have a FICO score that is above 720. These borrowers will be assured favorable terms and conditions for their loans and attractive interest rates. Borrowers whose FICO falls below 620 will not be granted any form of loan. Unlike previous years, underwriters will make stringent checks on loan applications. Borrowers’ assets will be analyzed and marital status checked when granting approval for loans. Underwriters will have the authority to reject loan application even at the eleventh hour if the application does not fulfill the conditions laid out. There will be more loan review appraisals as well.

The current state of unemployment will cause more short sales. Unemployment will cause more homeowners to opt for short sale so as to cope with day to day living. With layoffs, inability to find new jobs and reduced working hours, homeowners may not be able to make mortgage payments. Short sales will allow them to live a modest if not comfortable lifestyle.

Banks may decide to sell bank-owned homes more easily by fixing up the homes and making them more attractive for sale. This will enable the banks to maximize returns on investment. The sixth prediction is that banks would be made to be accountable for short sales that take place. This may cause the banks to disclose how much they will accept before the homeowner is allowed to list his home as a short sale.

The last prediction is that home owners may choose not sell their existing homes and this may in turn lead to a soft move-up market. Homeowners who have equities may wait for prices to increase before deciding to sell. Also, interest rates may increase causing potential move-up buyers to feel hesitant to invest. The marketplace will then have to target first time home buyers.