What if you could save as much as $400 a month for the next thirty years on your energy bill? All you would have to do is add another $5000.00 to your mortgage or down payment. That’s what people can save when they decide to make the extra investment of buying an energy efficient home.

On the other hand if you are a real estate investor making a home more energy efficient can make you more of an upfront profit when you decide to sell the home. Experts like Dean Graziosi are paying close attention to energy efficient homes and the new green mortgages. Legislators, brokers and lenders are doing to promote this type of home.  People that are in favor of greener homes, say that the new green home programs give the nation a lot of solutions.

In fact the new green mortgages are becoming popular among home buyers and real estate investors alike. These are mortgages where a lender will add as much as 15% to the sale price of a loan, when that amount is used to make the new home more energy efficient.

Green mortgages have been around since the 70s but are just now gaining popularity. For many years these types of mortgages lied dormant because of the easy availability of cheap oil, gas, and electricity. And that is without even touching the fact that cheap subprime loans were available for many years.

Lenders and mortgage brokers tried to avoid green loans because they took a long time to close and didn’t offer any extra profit for them. But now with the mortgage and financial market crisis, everything has changed! Lenders and even the government see green mortgages as a great new type of loan.

The Government is Promoting the Green Mortgage

Local government, major mortgage lenders and even the President are supporting green mortgages. Even the Economic Recovery Act of 2008 has a provision in regards to the green mortgage.

Another bill passed by the House Financial Services committee and now awaiting a house hearing, would give lenders other incentives if they offered lower interest rates on these Green mortgages.

The real estate market across the entire country is ´topsy turvy.¨ In some areas the housing market is stabilizing. This is because the decline in home prices has cause a spur in home sales in some areas. But other areas remain in uncertainty and the downward trend continues. This has caused many real estate marketers to get more creative. There are some important techniques that some real estate agents have started to use as a way of increasing business, and which you as a real estate investor can use too. One of the greatest tools real estate agents and marketers have started to use, and which you as a real estate investor can use to market your property is the Internet.

¨The internet has become a ¨huge¨ tool, one that we all need to take advantage of,¨says Dean Graziosi. But many of us are not doing so, and that is usually because we don’t have the technological knowledge, and don’t believe that it is worth investing in.

Dean Graziosi believes that the internet can be a powerful marketing tool for anyone, and some real estate agents are picking up on it too. There is no reason why you as a real estate investor cannot use it to help you sell your property.  What we are talking about is the use of the email marketing campaign.

An effective real estate marketing tactic is the use of personalized email campaigns. These email campaigns can help a real estate agent, or a real estate investor forge a strong bond with a potential buyer.

Here are just a few ways you can use email marketing techniques to your advantage:

1. When you send an email to a potential buyer always be polite and say hello. Too many people just jump right in to the business at hand and don’t even address the reader directly. Give your prospective buyer a personal greeting.
2. Address any real concerns a prospective buyer may have. Don’t make it a mass mailing.
3. Put together a list of prospects you have talked with before and send them a personal email once in a while
4. Start a monthly newsletter if you want. It makes prospective clients become familiar with you.
5. Run a sales campaign by notifying any prospective clients whose email you have of a sale.
6. Ask for client referrals and by the same token you can ask for investment referrals.

Email marketing is great both on a large or small level. It is more cost effective and personal than any other way of marketing. You create a spiral effect through email because, even if the people you reach are not interested, they may know of someone who is.

A great many real estate investors do so as a part time activity, keeping their regular job or business for their life income requirements.  You’ve built a nest egg that is sufficient to begin a real estate investment business.  And, don’t ever forget, it’s a business whether part or full time.  Not operating your investing as a business will likely result in failure and a much smaller nest egg.

However, what if you’re in a position that provides the luxury of a full time or part time real estate investing business?  Which is best for you?  First, let’s just say that only a tiny percentage of investors have the resources of a Donald Trump.  This isn’t meant to be a discouraging article, but gaining and keeping the resources necessary to invest in real estate AND pay your life expenses can be a challenging proposition.

Even if you have been doing it part time, and you’ve been quite successful, if one or more of your properties experienced damage or other reasons for an extended period without rental income, how would it impact the other financial areas of your life.  Would it simply be a negative return on those properties, or would it cause you to borrow money to pay household bills?  You should never put yourself into a position where it no longer is “investing.”  If it is paying living expenses, you’ve taken on extra stress that can be detrimental in many ways.

On the same negative cash flow topic, you never want to be in a position of making daily decisions under financial stress.  Few humans can say that their decisions made under duress are as good as those made without stress.  Most will simply aggravate their situation, accelerating their financial problems.  If they are making lifestyle and daily living decisions under the stress of poor investment performance, the outcome is rarely a positive one.

One other argument for starting part time or remaining a part time real estate investor is the ability to extricate yourself from investing if your life or plans change.  If your entire income is tied up in investments, it can be very difficult and costly to end the activity if you have health problems or you must make changes in where or how you live. 

Notable exceptions to these cautions are retirees who have their living expenses covered by their pensions or other retirement investments.  If you have liquid assets that can be tied up in real estate investment, you may be able to make this a full time activity.  Just make sure that you  keep it aside as a stand-alone business.  If it were to experience difficulties, you do not want it to threaten your retirement resources.

The study also shows that about 50% of current home buyers look for daily convenience, and proximity to their work place. They are also going to focus on areas that have low property taxes. What has really changed? Homebuyers are not as interested as they were a few years ago in cultural and recreational amenities, but they are more interested in environmental features like energy saving appliances, and even solar heating.

Energy concerns have become a key element with today’s home buyers, and this may be because of the rising costs of energy. Almost half of those surveyed stated, that features like low usage water heaters, solar panels, and energy saving appliances were important to them.

Of course features that have always been important like, number of bedrooms, bathrooms, storage areas are just as important today as they were 5 and 10 years ago. The important thing to realize as a home seller is to understand what buyers are really looking for, so that you can fulfill their needs.

What Dean Graziosi is saying, is that the news is not so bad as it is made out to be. There are still home buyers out there, and there are great real estate deals out there too.  But focus on what is important to today’s generation and the market is still fair.

Even in today’s real estate market and probably in spite of the low real estate market, on of the best money management decisions you can make is to invest in real estate, at least this is what Dean Graziosi, real estate investor believes.

Even now in the real estate slump we have today, there seems to be a positive outlook for the future. Real estate will always increase in value over the long haul and there is no better time to invest than now, when the market is in a slump and sellers are offering all types of incentives.

Yes there are real estate investors who buy to flip a house in one or two years, but there are also investors that buy homes to sell in 10, 20 or 30 years, and use the money for their retirement. Some people even buy property for other large investment needs they might have in their lifetime like that of funding children’s educations.

The downward turn in the real estate market can be beneficial to you. In this type of market you can get a good deal or help from a seller, incentives, help with closing costs, etc. And in twenty or thirty years the real estate market is sure to have turned upward, letting you have a great return on you initial investment.

According to Dean Graziosi, you should ask yourself a few questions before starting on your real estate investing path to success.

• Figure out whether can invest long term without having to make any kind of an income on that investment
• Do you need short term income from your investment
• Can you continue to put more money into your investment or do you want a one time real estate investment

Answer the above questions truthfully and ask yourself what kind of property would you be interested in. Choose a property that you would consider interesting to other potential buyers too.

The price of real estate is down by almost 20% and there are many more houses on the market today than in previous years. Foreclosures are happening on homes that were purchased with subprime debt and mortgage companies are strapped for cash.

Still there is much more pessimism and media hype than truth to all that is going on. Home sales seem to be increasing slightly, and at the current sales pace there is a bout a 10 month supply of homes on the market which is lower than that of April when there was a 12 month supply of homes still on the market.

This is great news for the investor, it means there are many homes to choose from, and all are set at the right price, with the possibility of the market increasing in the next few years. Numbers suggest that prices are close to bottoming and that demand seems to be stabilizing.

In conclusion, yes! the real estate market is at an all time low, but that could be a good thing, because it is  an investors market. And the good news is that it looks like the real estate market will start leveling out and prices will start increasing somewhat over the next couple of years. Now is the time to find those real estate investing deals!

A new trend that many real estate agents are trying is that of offering food, refreshments, or something interesting to get people to walk into an open house. Many real estate agents have never tried offering any type of refreshment before, but the need is out there to try to sell those homes and this makes them try just a little bit harder.

Other techniques being used include that of “the reverse auction” where the seller lowers the price after a certain period of time  and continues to lower it until the home has been sold on the real estate market.

Some sellers offer the furniture to go with the home, cars, and help with the financing or even offer cash bonuses. John F Buchanan was even noted for this sales technique when he offered private jet memberships worth $100,000 on homes he sold for full price, providing the homes were valued at over 1.2 million dollars.

Some sellers offer help with closing costs, special finishes, etc. These sellers are also trying harder to fix problems in homes.

But the added small touch of offering food at an opening, just creates a warmer atmosphere, and makes potential buyers want to stick around and talk a little longer.

If you are in the real estate business then these are some techniques you might want to look for. Its just adding a touch of hominess and making those potential buyers feel comfortable, and that is what sells! And when you are in the market for a great real estate investments, the use of these techniques will demonstrate the need of the seller to sell, which gives you the buyer a large advantage.

There are a number of areas throughout the United States where investors can find good foreclosure deals. Remember you don’t have to live in a particular city or state to find a good real estate investment.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida was ranked 10^th in foreclosures for 2007. With the increase in construction that predated the real estate market crash, there are bargains to be found especially in newly built condominiums. The perfect buy for future retirement plans.

Seattle, Washington – Though not ranked as high as other cities in foreclosures, there are still some great real estate bargains in the Seattle area.

North Carolina – This state has a very affordable median home price which dropped approximately three percent last year. The average home is listed at $178,000.

Riverside/San Bernardino, California and Tampa/Clearwater, Florida - two areas where housing prices are continuing to drop. Both areas are great for retirement and also have a stable job market.

Cleveland, Ohio – This Midwestern city has seen a lot of foreclosure listings and could be a good place to buy that first investment real estate property.

Though these are just a few locales where the housing market is prime for investors, it pays to continue to read and watch the news for other areas where the housing market has changed to find a good real estate investment for your portfolio.

1. Never invest for hope – It’s important that your investments aren’t riding on the hope of above average rates of growth over a long period of time. In most cases, growth is factored into the price of stocks.

2. When in doubt, don’t buy it – If when researching a possible investment, you’re unclear about a company, or unsure about their growth reports or something just doesn’t make sense, it’s usually best to put your money back in your pocket and look for another investment that makes sense to you.

3. Patience – If your investment drops a few dollars from time to time, that doesn’t mean you should press the panic button. Dean Graziosi always suggests that investors show patience with their investments and remember that you’re in it for the long haul. So short-term fluctuations are expected, but in most cases nothing to worry about.

4. Avoid dishonest people – Seems like a no-brainer but it’s important that no matter how appealing an investment might be, if you’re going to do business with someone you don’t feel comfortable with, it’s best to look for another investment and people that you can trust in managing your portfolio.

5. Stay up on current events – Of course the best person to watch for investment opportunities is you. Read financial and real estate publications watch the news and keep track of what is happening so you can make wise choices for your investments.

Dean Graziosi believes it’s important to pay attention to these trends as they sometimes can be a foreshadowing of how the real estate market is changing.

Even though so many experts have said that the housing market is a bust, it’s still a great time to find that bargain investment property.

With the average mortgage rate for a 30-year-fixed at 6.24 and for a 15-year-fixed at 5.78, a mortgage is still a wise and inexpensive investment.

Dean’s insights and tips have helped thousands of regular people make it big in the real estate market. Foreclosure properties are at an all-time high and the perfect way to start on your road to success and wealth. Lenders and banks are constantly slashing prices to get rid of their foreclosed homes.

Your real estate investment not only provides you with equity it also helps in income tax savings, gives you freedom and stability that other investments can’t match and is probably the best investment for your money.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with that first step. So what are you waiting for? Do your research and learn from Dean Graziosi and get ready to reap the rewards from purchasing real estate.