Mortgage Horror Story...

Hi Everyone,

Friday is upon us, and it's another sizzling one, depending on where you are geographically!

Today, I'd like to share a mortgage horror story with you. When I purchased an investment home with some partners a couple of years back, we were assured an interest rate on an interest-only/balloon mortgage. However, once we got to the closing table, the rate showed up in the documents as higher by 1/4 point. Needless to say, we were all quite furious, and the fact that the mortgage broker was not at the closing didn't help the situation(he was on vacation), so we called him on his mobile phone to voice our disapproval over this rate discrepancy. There was quite an exchange of words, however, it was kept on a professional level and just short of using expletives.

Ultimately, it was a mistake on his part, and he made good on the difference with a check to us for the difference calculated out over an agreed upon period of the loan. In order to avoid delaying the closing to have new papers drawn up, we moved forward, and accepted the above-mentioned check from his closing associate to cover a majority of our "losses". The moral of the story: Make sure everything is in writing, whether it be an E-mail from the mortgage company, or physical documents, you just cannot argue with hard copy. In this case, we had done previous closings with this broker, so we know it was an error and not malicious. Either way, "in writing" is the key. May this little story and this tip save you tons of aggravation !

Economic News related to the Real Estate Housing market is quiet next week, but as we all know, any and all economic news that is released will affect the housing market directly or indirectly. Always keep your eyes and ears open!

We have additional items/upgrades and more new features rolling out next week, so be sure to check in on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and any other days in between for breaking news and updates. What would even be easier for you? You can subscribe to this Blog feed or you can subscribe for Blog updates via E-mail. These options are both located on top of the column on the right-hand side of this page where it says, "Subscribe To Posts" and "Subscribe by E-mail". Also remember to check out our Podcasts for Free Download in our ITunes Store at http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=373351426


We hope you stay cool, and have a great weekend!
Happy Rent-to-Owning !

Caribbean Islands, Architects, Builders, Construction, Pending Homes Sales Up...

Hi Everyone,

Hope your week is going great so far. We have a few new and exciting features that we wanted to inform you of today.

For starters, we have been receiving a lot of comments and requests for a new section for Jamaica, the Bahamas, Trinidad, etc. The amount of requests alone would not warrant a section for each of these countries, however, we have created a broader category for the Caribbean Islands.

The new section for the Caribbean Island Homes Wanted is located at: http://www.lease2buy.com/homes_wanted_listing.php?state=Caribbean+Islands

The new section for the Caribbean Island Homes Available is located at: http://www.lease2buy.com/homes_available_listing.php?state=Caribbean+Islands

Please note that these are freshly created sections, and therefore, they are not populated yet, so you may now begin posting your Rent to Own Homes as well as your requests for Rent to Own Homes.

The next features that we have added are in the Home Services section, and the new services that we have added are "Architects" (See it Here)and "Builders & Construction" (See it Here), which covers the full process from the design of a home, all the way on up through building the home. Additionally, we have added an "Announcements" Section (See it Here), which is ideal for announcing Real Estate Investor Meetings ! If you need to add your services to any of these sections, you can do so via this link: http://www.lease2buy.com/homeservicesinfo.php


The final new feature we have included is a "Share This Property" button, which is included on the page of every "Homes Available" Ad. This button will let you share the link to your home with all of the popular Social Bookmarking Websites (for example, Digg, Delicious, etc.). The goal: Putting your property in front of as many eyeballs as you can !

For some other news, Pending Home Sales hit a 6-month high in April. This is good news as we are now headed into the summer months.


Being the bearer of all of this good news is fantastic! I wish I could bring news like this every day...maybe I can?


Have a Great Week, and Happy Rent-to-Owning !

Top 6 Housing Features that Define Comfort

Hi Everyone,

Hope you have had a great week, and the Memorial Day Weekend is upon us. Literally...it's hours away !

We recently took a poll amongst people advertising their Rent to Own homes on our website, and we asked them a very specific question: "What do you consider the most attractive features of your home and neighborhood?". We posed the same question to people looking for a Rent to Own Home on our website, but we changed it slightly to say, "What would you consider the most attractive features of a potential new home and new neighborhood?" The results were tallied, and we have summarized the top 6 of them, since they were the most popular by a landslide. Here is what we found out:

6 Housing Features that Define "Comfort":
1. Ability to make the rental or house payments
2. Proximity to Employment
3. Proximity to Family
4. How easy it is to get around locally - bus routes, trains, etc
5. Amount of traffic in (1-mile) perimeter around the home.
6. Proximity to Houses of Worship

If you are all thinking the same thing I am, it is amazing that the majority is primarily concerned with being able to make the payments. I wonder if we had done the same poll 3 years ago, if the results would be different? We can only wonder. Incidentally, take note of #3 ("Proximity to Family") - my Mother-in-Law lives overseas - so I am living outside that particular rule (wonderful lady - but space is good, universally).


OK, this week, we have been syndicating our Blog across may more Social Media sites, and, we are very proud to announce:
Our Podcasts are now available on ITunes for Free Download. The exact link to our ITunes Store is:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=373351426.

We will try to make at least 1 or more Podcasts per week, coupled with our 3 +/- Blog Posts per week.


A few reminders: We offer very generous referral fees (contact us here for more information). Also, the Pending Home Sales index will be released next Wednesday, June 2nd, and it will cover the month of April. Keep your eyes peeled for that one.


May you have a fantastic Holiday Weekend.
And as always, Happy Rent-to-Owning !

Silly Real Estate Sayings, Huge Traffic, Featured Ads...

Happy Monday to Everyone,

A taste of fall is in the air here on the East Coast, but as we all know...not for long!

We have a very exciting week ahead, as many of you who already have Ads on our website can imagine. We have had a humongous surge in traffic on the website over the past few days, and a lot of you have been deluged with responses to your Ads.

Please always respond to them as quickly as possible to show them you are serious, and that you want to rent to own your home or find a rent to own home fast ! With the end of the FHA Tax Credit, people are realizing the benefits of rent to own more and more each day.

Website tip of the week: With all of this huge additional traffic, this could be a great time to put your Ad on top of the State page where you have the Ad, so these visitors see you before anyone else! (We described this feature in detail in the following blog post: http://www.blogging.lease2buy.com/2010/04/lease2buycom-updates-featured-free.html

One of our customers suggested this to us over the weekend: "Get more Sellers selling lower priced properties.". The short answer is that we can't control the values of the properties that are posted on our site. Now, that being said, price is relative, and by that, I mean that a price that is high for one potential buyer might be just right for another. A quick glance through our site will show prices on the very low end numerically, on up to a few mega-mansions with high-end numbers. It's all a matter of taste and preference. A seller of a "low-priced property" may be in just as much of a need to sell their property as a seller with a "high-priced property". Again, "relative" sums it up.

Some food for thought on a very interesting article on Yahoo Finance, titled, "4 Biggest Lies in Real Estate". To summarize, they listed them as: Phony Photos and Videos, Valuations Lacking Value, Mortgage Rates You Can't Get, and Unreal Property Descriptions, plus, they also tossed in a "Euphemism Alert".

The interesting thing about the Euphemism alert is that all of you have probably read these types of Ad descriptions, for example, "Handyman's Special" (you have to gut the whole property first), and "Great View" (you'll break your neck twisting your head out the window to see the water). Some of these just go with the territory, and the old rule of "Caveat Emptor", or Buyer Beware, applies here.

Either way, this makes a great educational read for those of you on either side of the table, as a buyer or a seller.


We will check in with you during the week with more information.


Have a great day, and Happy Rent-to-Owning !

Free Quarterly Rent to Own Newsletter

Hi All,
Hope you had a great weekend !

We have a lot of ongoing projects this week, but we just finished our most recent one, which is a quarterly Rent to Own Newsletter.

Some more information below (This is our Press Release that just went out regarding the Newsletter):

********************
For Immediate Release:

HomeRun Homes
(631) 676-3609
(631) 574-2420
homebuyer@lease2buy.com
http://www.Lease2Buy.com

Free Quarterly Rent to Own Newsletter Offered by HomeRun Homes

Ronkonkoma, New York, May 3, 2010 - HomeRun Homes (www.Lease2Buy.com) is now offering a free Newsletter regarding Rent to Own Homes. This quarterly Ezine will cover the topics of Buying or Selling a Rent to Own Home, along with tips, hints, and other news and information from the Real Estate and Rental Home markets.


FHA Tax Credit Expiration and the Real Estate Market

With the expiration of the FHA Tax Credit on April 30th, Rent to Own will become an even more popular option for purchasing a home. Since the popularity of Rent to Own has increased dramatically over the past few years, HomeRun Homes has added new services to help those seeking these type of Creative Real Estate deals. This free Newsletter is one of a series of benefits that the company has offered, along with providing a place for Home Service providers and Commercial Real Estate owners to offer their services or their properties to the vast amount of visitors that the website attracts.


Accessing the Rent to Own Newsletter

HomeRun Homes suggests that both potential Buyers and Sellers should educate themselves on the Rent to Own/Lease Purchase/Lease Option market before pursuing it as an option to buy, and these interested parties can download their copy of the Rent to Own Newsletter at: http://www.lease2buy.com/rent_to_own_homes_mailer.php


For additional information on the topic, "Free Quarterly Rent to Own Newsletter Offered by HomeRun Homes", please visit www.Lease2Buy.com


ABOUT HOMERUN HOMES

HomeRun Homes is a Centralized Marketplace which helps people Find or Sell a Rent to Own Home, or offer Home Services nationwide and globally to the thriving Rent to Own market.

- END -
********************


OK, we have a lot of cool stuff coming up this week, so keep an eye here, and have a fantastic and productive week!

Happy Rent-to-Owning !

Lease2Buy.com Updates, Featured, Free Offer...

Hi Everyone,
Happy Mid-week to you.

Today, we are just giving you some updates on the website, along with another FREE OFFER - Free Offers are Cool!

First, just an update on the ability to Feature/Upgrade your Ads.
We have completely redesigned and updated the Top Spot/Featured Ad Pages for the following types of Ads:

Buyers/Homes Wanted at http://www.lease2buy.com/top_homeswanted.php, and

Sellers/Homes Available at https://www.lease2buy.com/top_homesavailable.php

Both upgrade options are available either upon placing an Ad, OR, via your Login/Control Panel (from the "Log In" button on the homepage, or directly via http://www.lease2buy.com/login.php). When you log in and "View" your Ads, there will be a "FEATURE/SHOWCASE THIS AD" option next to the Ad.

Remember: There is only ONE "TOP SPOT" Featured Ad per State (we can only allow one on the top of each State without it getting cluttered).


Website Tip of the Day:
How to get "ONE FREE MONTH" added on to the Ad you have already placed !

When you log into your account (from the "Log In" button on the homepage, or directly via http://www.lease2buy.com/login.php), there is a button that says, "Survey".

If you click that button and fill out a short survey with your very useful comments/questions, not only will this be very helpful to us, but we will also add one extra month to the Ad you have placed!!

How's that for a sweet deal?

When we receive your comments and questions (on anything - the site, the design, suggestions, the market - anything), if they require a response, we will reply.

If it is an incredible question or comment, we might even post it here on the blog and respond to it here, especially if it is something that can help everyone.

Check back later in the week for more interesting news......

Have a great day, and Happy Rent-to-Owning
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Existing Home Sales, and Secrets of Rent to Own Contest

Happy Friday Everyone,

Can anyone believe it is just about the end of April? Weren't we just shouting "Happy New Year!". WOW!

OK, a few things to cover here, along with a cool contest!

We had a very interesting interview with American Express (Open Forum - for a new publication that will be released in June). We discussed the "twenty-something" age demographic, and how a Rent to Own agreement (or lease purchase/lease option) can be beneficial to them as either a buyer or a seller. The interview will be published in June (we'll post a link to it when it's out), but I'm told the format will be similar to their current publication.

On the Housing Front; Next week, there are some very important figures coming out: "Existing Home Sales" (National Association or Realtors, or "NAR"), and also, "New Residential Sales". These are both very important figures for everyone, so let's keep a close eye on them.

Now - for the Contest !!
To the first 5 people who send us an E-mail (at homebuyer@lease2buy.com) with the Subject line, "SECRETS OF RENT TO OWN, we will E-mail you over a Free Copy of our E-Book, "Secrets of Rent to Own".
More details about the E-Book are available here: https://www.lease2buy.com/rent2ownbook.php


***REMEMBER: We can only do this with the first 5 people...The Contest ends by 7PM EST Today, or whenever we get the first 5 E-mails, whichever comes first - so Good Luck !!

Have a Great Day, a Great Weekend, and Happy Rent-to-Owning !

FHA, Rent to Own, Foreclosure...

Good Day Everyone,

Just wanted to say how amazed we are at all of the Scams taking place to beat people out of the $8,000 Tax Credit. We have seen and heard a lot of horror stories, so please, no matter how desperate you are to buy or sell, please be diligent in researching who you do business with.

Just a side note that we have launched a joint venture that offers help to people in foreclosure or who have gone through it, and cannot find a new home. It's a really bad position to be in, and there are way too many people there right now. They know that they have to stop foreclosure, but they also know that they need a new place. We felt that our Rent to Own website was not reaching more of these people in dire need, so we joint ventured to create www.StopForeclosureRenttoOwn.com (which is still being neatened up, appearance-wise), and have launched the site this week.

This is a two-fold benefit: It will help these people who are in trouble, and it will help you by bringing more traffic to your Ads.

Have a Great Day, and Happy Rent-to-Owning !

Helpful Tips when doing your Walk-through...and More..

Hi All,
We hope you had an absolutely fantastic weekend, and we welcome you back.

A few interesting items happening today and this week:

Since the Spring is here for most of us, our market tends to pick up (we hope!), and buyers start doing their walk-throughs of properties that they are closing on. This brings me to the "Tip of the Day":
When doing a walk-through of a property, make sure you bring a small electrical outlet tester, as well as a phone jack tester.
These are two very inexpensive items that can save you time and money !
I've been burned on that a few times and it is quite irritating, so please learn from my silly mistakes.

OK, now, for HomeRun Homes, we have been compacting our database of properties and buyers, since it was a very busy February & March. Basically, to spare you the technical jargon, we compressed the data so that the site works faster.
Additionally, we have edited our YouTube Video for Rent to Own Homes over the past few days. Please take a glance at it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlOZxvY2gg4

Please also note: You can Follow our Blog and be notified of new posts by clicking on the "Follow" Button on the Right-hand side of the page - we promise that we will not bore you or let you down !

Finally, New Residential Construction numbers are coming out this Friday, the 16th. These numbers, as you can imagine, are very important for the housing market and the Economy, since this takes into account Building Permits, Housing Starts, and Housing Completions. For more information and details on this upcoming Report, here is the link: http://www.census.gov/const/www/newresconstindex.html

Thank you.
Have a Great Week and Happy Rent-to-Owning !!

Happy Holidays

We would like to wish a Very Happy Easter & a Very Happy Passover, if you celebrate either of these two holidays.

We have some exciting things on the pipeline in the next few weeks, so please stay tuned. As a Teaser; more special targeted marketing to get even more traffic to your Ads!

Have a great weekend, and Happy Rent-to-Owning

Spring Newsletter Now Available....

Happy Tuesday, Everyone!
Our Spring 2010 Newsletter is now available when you visit this link.
Make Sure you download it and check it out.

Further: Monthly House Price Index & New Residential Sales are coming out this week...Keep an eye out for these important #'s.

Best Regards and Happy Rent-to-Owning !

An Eventful Week !

It's been quite an eventful week here at HomeRun Homes
We have been working with a sampling of some of our customers/visitors, and we began a massive re-design of our home page, code-named "Word-Slim" ! Why that name? Mainly, since every visitor commented how wordy the home page is, and we listen to our visitors, one and all. Your experience on our site should be Rent to Own Homes...not having to read through clutter to get what you need. Please see our changes Here, and feel free to comment.

The week ahead, we'll be working on a more robust contact system, some more Social Media penetration, and since we are on the topic of Social Media, please check out our Facebook Fan Page Here, and show us some "Facebook Love" by becoming a Fan of the page.
Similarly, you can follow us on Twitter Here

Side Note: Existing Home Sales are coming out on Tuesday 3/23 - the name says it all....keep your ears open for some progress.

Lot's of exciting things happening - which means more traffic to your Ads on our site, which means finding or selling a Rent to Own Home even faster...which is why we exist !!

Have a great day, and Happy Rent-to-Owning !

Major Housing Confidence Index drops...

Per the Long Island Business News:
"The National Association of Home Builders said Monday its housing market index, which tracks industry confidence, slipped this month by two points to 15, back to its January level"

This is the index that homebuilders use to show market confidence.

The good news is that traditionally, we are entering one of the busiest times for this industry, and the next 3-6 months will truly paint a better picture for us to see.

Happy Rent to Owning!

Great Customer Testimonial to Share...

We would love to share a fantastic testimonial we have received from a customer who has multiple different properties along the Eastern Seaboard states. We are very proud of the service that we provide and we take pride in the fact that our website is helping people find or sell Rent to Own Homes every day.

The Testimonial:

"I have been working with HomeRun Homes (www.lease2buy.com) for about three months now. My company places all of our homes on lease2buy.com and have been quite pleased with the responses that we have received from our ads. The staff has always gone out of their way to make sure everything is working just as it is supposed to, and I would highly recommend HomeRun Homes anyone looking for exposure of their lease2own property. Some of the best marketing dollars I have used to date.

R.H.
Owner/President
Equitable Home Solutions, LLC"


We strive to continue providing great service to the Rent to Own Real Estate market in the USA, Canada, and globally

Happy Rent-to-Owning.
HomeRun Homes
www.Lease2Buy.com

Important Economic News coming out Tuesday 3/16

Good Afternoon,
Just to give everyone a heads up, New Residential Construction numbers are being released on Tuesday 3/16. This specific index takes into account Building Permits, Housing Starts, and Housing Completions, so basically, it's a "Biggie".

What does this mean for everyone? This will show us the relative strength of the housing market. If you are looking to buy or sell a Rent to Own Home, it's still a good time, and is always a good time, since it will always be an attractive option when a creative real estate solution is needed.

We have been developing a lot of cool new features for the website, so please stay tuned for updates.

Have a great day, and Happy Rent-to-Owning

Monday Update

Hope everyone had a great weekend.
This week, we are revisiting some cosmetic items on the website, and re-examining how easy some of the resources are for you to use. We will also continue to monitor page loading speed as well.

On the marketing front, we have release some new press releases regarding the new Rent to Own Homes Blog, as well as regarding our Article in Financial Advisor Magazine. We have some new media coming out soon as well, so stay tuned.

Have a great week and Happy Rent-to-Owning

Friday, Indeed.....

Hi All,
We have made it through another week (for those of you who don't work an 8-day week!). So congrats to everyone.
This week, we have made some very solid strides in syndicating our content (pushing it out) to other Real Estate websites, and we have seen a strong spike in Ad responses, which is telling us that it is working. When visitors are responding to your Rent to Own Ads, it makes us very, very happy.
OK, now some people have said we are a little wordy on our home page, and we have listened to you. After a number of us reviewed the page, we just cannot truncate the top section any more than we already have. There are a number of initial points that needed to be made, and the page addresses each point as concisely as possible. However, we will take a periodic look at it and see if we can condense it any more going forward.

We hope everyone has a fantastic, safe and enjoyable weekend.

Happy Rent-to-Owning !

HomeRun Homes Appears in Financial Advisor Magazine Article...

Hi All,
We wanted to share some Great News with you!
Our website has received even further publicity on a much larger scale. Since you may or may not already have an Ad on our website, this could be some fantastic and exciting news for you!
We were recently included in an article on Home Rentals in the Nationally distributed "Financial Advisor" Magazine. In the article, we provided our insight into the market, along with a few details on our experiences. The article is well worth a read, and it is available by Clicking Here.

Thank you for your continued support, as we strive to make our website the place for your dreams to come true, whether your dreams are of home ownership, or your dreams are of releasing yourself from an existing property!

Regards,
Rob
HomeRun Homes

Syndication, Speed & Home Descriptions

Good Day to All,
As we finally have dug ourselves out of yet another storm here in the Northeast, we continue to make your experience with our website better every day.
Here is what we have done over the past few days:
Syndicating Content:
Twitterfeed is now updating Twitter & Facebook with the content of our website. We are also working on better ways to have the syndicated website feeds of our Ads in front of an even larger audience to bring you more Rent to Own traffic than you can handle, thus, more sellers and buyers responding to your Ads!
Speed of the Website:
We are working on some speed issues with the Home Page, and we have added some compression software. If all goes well, we will work on other major pages on the site.

Question of the Day:
"The homes description are hard to understand (exp ranch - hi ranch, etc..)".

Answer of the Day:
The reason that we do it this way is since we took a state by state survey of what people referred to for different images we sent them, and when a 75% majority called it a certain type of home, this is the title we use. However, you can always expand on your description in the "Description" section of your Ad.

Have a great week and Happy Rent-to-Owning !

Happy Sunday - Upcoming Items for this week...

Hi Everyone,
I hope you are having an enjoyable, yet, productive, weekend. A few items on the agenda for this week:

1. We will be announcing some new functionality on the site in terms of Feeds and having your Rent to Own Ads in front of a much larger audience, which will definitely make you happy (happier!)
2. We will continue to address questions that we have received re: How-to's, etc.
3. Important Economic News this week:
a. Monday: Construction #'s are coming out (See Here)
b. Tuesday: Pending Home Sales figures will be released (See Here)

Have a fantastic weekend everyone!