Many homes remain unsold for a long time because they’re over-priced. Pricing your home right is essential if you want to sell your home in quick time. Expecting more for your home than the rates that prevail in the market will only delay the sale of your home, unless your home has something more to offer than other homes. When it comes to pricing your home for sale, you need to consider that your home is going to be competing with other similarly priced homes in your area and unless there’s a short supply of homes for sale, you’re going to have to set a competitive price.

All that said, some homes do sell for more as do some homes for less. It all comes down to how you set your asking price, how you go about negotiating and what are your costs involved in the selling process. Here, we’ll discuss how you can determine a fair asking price for your home in prevailing market conditions.

Real estate agents – Whether you intend on using the services of an agent to sell your home or not, they will call you to offer their services so you may as well get them to provide you with some information. Agents will usually offer to give you a free “Comparative Market Analysis (CMA)” of homes recently sold and presently on sale in your neighborhood. This data should be useful in helping you set a reasonable asking price, keeping the features of your home in mind and how it compares with the others.

Internet Listings – Browsing internet home listings will give you a fair idea of how much homes are priced in your neighborhood and how much you can sell it for. There are plenty of ‘by owner’ sites with many internet listings and there is also realtor.com which offers MLS listings.

Driving by the neighborhood – Surveying the area yourself and visiting homes presently on sale will give you a good idea of how much you can quote for your home.

Home Appraisal – Getting a real estate appraiser to put a value on your home, based on its condition and recent home sales in your neighborhood, should give you a fair price range in which you can sell your home. The appraisal can also be used to help justify your price when negotiating with buyers. (Get a free home appraisal done here.)

So set your price after investigating two or more sources, so that you can justify for the price you set. Your home will sell fast as long as there’s a reasonable amount of demand for homes in your neighborhood and you don’t overprice your home when compared to other homes in your area.

Maybe it has something to do with a childhood home we fondly remember. Many of us long for old homes built with solid construction, quality craftsmanship and beautiful details. We wax poetic and wistfully recall the hand carvings, plaster walls and eyebrow dormers of homes we’ve known. On the other hand, how do the old homes we admire compare with newly minted models-and what should we consider before deciding which to buy?

Location. Typically, old homes sit on generous plots of land in or near town. The neighborhoods are established and usually more central to schools and shopping. Mature trees and plantings provide shade and beautify the property and neighborhood streets. New homes are generally found in new developments outside of town and homeowners who buy into an early can expect to contend with dust and construction sights and sounds as the remaining phases are being built. Landscaping may be skimpy or nonexistent, but a buyer has the opportunity to design the dcor from scratch.

Layout. New homes tend to have a more spacious functional layout with higher ceilings, bigger windows, family kitchens, walk-in closets, and family rooms. Some even have media rooms and come pre-wired for cable and computers. On the other hand, older homes were designed for a more formal lifestyle, which is reflected in the formal dining and living areas and many cozy rooms, including small bedrooms, closets and bathrooms.

Energy efficiency. Those eight-over-eight single pane wood windows add character to an old home, but even with storm windows, they’re not nearly as energy efficient as modern dual-glazed or thermal windows. While most old homes lacked insulation in outside walls and attics, homes built today insulate against high heating and cooling costs. Although the bigger windows, higher ceilings and larger rooms, common in new homes, can also cause high utility bills.

Maintenance. With older homes, upkeep could be more expensive because of older appliances, plumbing and electrical systems-not to mention the roof-may need to be replaced. A turn of the century home may have outdated knob-and-tube wiring, and even a recently built home may have an inadequate fuse box-style panel that falls short of the energy demands of 21st century families. But new homes generally come with warranties that will cover the cost for most major problems.

Price. Older homes are usually less expensive per square foot. In addition the tax structure is more predictable because the neighborhood is already established with amenities that newer neighborhoods are still in the process of gaining, such as schools, police and fire services, and infrastructures (roads, sidewalks, etc.). However, with restoration costs a possibility for older homes, your dollars may very well be spent on the back-end rather than upfront.

If the charm and beauty of an old home wins your heart, hire an inspector to evaluate the home for lead paint, insect and water damage, lead and/or galvanized pipes, outdated wiring, foundation problems and energy efficiency, including windows as well as heating/cooling systems and insulation. After you get the all-clear, you have one last consideration: Does the home fit your lifestyle or would the conveniences of a newer model suit you better? Only you and your family have the answer.

A person that becomes a victim of identity theft is a victim for life. This is because no matter how often the law reassures you that they are trying to fix the problem, they are lying. I was a victim of identity theft. The second time this occurred, I reported the problem to the police. Their reaction was to ask a few questions and give me a report number – no further action was taken. So I reported both this and the crime to the Federal Trade Commission (this was in 2000), but I am still waiting for a response – and the perpetrator is still committing the crimes!

When I informed the credit bureaus of my dilemma, they made no attempt to remove the charges. They simply put a comment on my records to the effect that it was “resolved”. I am aware of other people who have faired far worse, some of whom have been summoned to court to answer for debts that they could not possibly have incurred. These people lived on the opposite side of the world to where the perpetrator was committing the offenses. How outrageous is it that the victims of crime have to suffer again and again because so few who could make a difference decide to act.

It is the case that with most instances of identity theft that is not involving a company, but rather an individual, they will receive little or no assistance at all. These individuals are denied credit because of the ramifications of the identity theft and are often placed in financial hardship. Some states place a “freeze” on credit reports. This should be the case in all states as it prevents anyone except the rightful owner of the credit to review the reports. The majority of states will place “fraud alerts” for up to three months on a credit report, but this achieves little – nothing is removed from the report. It can actually give the wrong impression.

It appears then, that it is our responsibility to protect ourselves from identity theft. Thieves are finding it increasingly easy, with the advancements in technology, to “steal” a person’s identity. Government data bases are protected by sophisticated “firewalls”, but still this is not enough to prevent thieves from hacking into accounts.

The newer credit cards available have microchips in them. These are supposed to prevent identity thieves from using them. This is not the case, as most identity thieves are already aware of the technology behind the chip and are able to bypass it.

The biggest and most “convenient” place for an identity thief to work is the world wide web. Even with firewalls and anti-hacker programs, anti-virus software and spy detectors, it is still not entirely safe to use the Internet. In 2004, an estimated eleven million people fell prey to identity theft, most of which were through the Internet.

It is the case that some cases of identity theft were perpetrated by friends, neighbors, family members or colleagues. One such case involved a couple, who moved from England to the States. When they arrived, they discovered that their identity had been “stolen” and they were left to answer a summons for debts they did not incur.

Some creditors and financial lenders will go so far as to accuse a victim of identity theft of fabricating the story of increase debts on your part or to avoid any poor credit rating, even when it has been proven that they were not responsible.

Wow, so many investors who started in Real Estate with the goal of buying and selling houses ended up being landlords, and they hated it. Now, I personally love rental houses and own quite a bunch of them, but listening to these sad stories all the time led me to focus on finding buyers.

This same experience happened to me where I ended up having to get a loan to buy a house I put under contract and was not able to sell.

Fortunately, I had a mentor who told me to forget everything I have learned about real estate and who taught me a new way of investing – finding out what investors wanted and not what I thought they should have.

Real Estate investing, if you do it full time, is not a hobby that you get in and do on the side like you see on TV where people flip houses and make a bunch of money. Yes you can do it but the TV shows are dramatized crap that does more harm than good in my opinion. They make people think they can go out and get a junker property, put a bunch of money in it, and sell it really fast and make a killing.

Well, lets get real. In the real world you will quickly find out that most of the time it does not work like that. You have to really know what is going to sell before you make a big decision to put time and money in the deal.

To find the buyers and ask them what they want is the only way to do it. If you know how to set up a system that does it automatically, it becomes a very easy process. Learn the secret that most of the gurus don’t tell you: how to find out what will sell before you buy.

There are five factors that determine your credit score. Here they are listed with the approximate value they carry in the credit bureau scoring model.

1. Payment History (45%)

This is the area in which negative listings on your credit report are counted. It will help your score if you can remove all the negative listings.

However on occasions you may be stuck with a negative listing on your report. There are rumors that after 4 years the impact of a negative listing is drastically reduced. It would be wise to build a positive payment history to help limit the impact of a negative listing.

2. Available Credit to Debt (30%)

This is your available credit versus the amount of debt you have. It will hurt your score if you are using all of your available credit.

The bureaus like to see available credit. This shows them that you are a responsible user of credit.

3. Length of Credit (5%)

This is how long have you used your credit to make purchases. If you are new to using your credit it is ok, you can still have a high score.

Do not worry about this aspect. Your use of credit will age naturally and this will not impact your score enough to make any concerted effort.

4. Credit Experience (5%)

What sort of accounts on your credit do you have. Do you only have an auto loan?

The bureaus like your credit file to be diverse. Do not worry about this because it is such a small part of your credit score.

With time your accounts will become diverse. You will have an auto loan, credit card, boat loan and etcetera.

5. Pursuit of New Credit (15%)

How often are you applying for new credit? Are you constantly seeking new lines of credit?

It will help your score if it does not appear that you are frequently applying for new credit. The bureaus do expect to see a number of credit inquires however excessive inquires will lower your score.

There are people that try and make purchases with their credit every month. For those their score is going to be lowered because of that.

These weight values are just estimates and not exact. Each bureau varies their scoring model and they choose to keep this information secret from the public. However by building positive payment history and removing negative accounts from your credit report you can increase your credit score dramatically.