government auction – Government Auctions – Should Your Next Home Be a Foreclosure?
Purchasing houses at a local government auction that have been foreclosed is one way to make a return on investment if you know what you are doing. This route isn't nearly as simple as buying from a real estate agent, and there is more risk involved to the buyer. The first thing any prospective real estate investor should do is educate themselves on the ins and outs of the business.
The reason houses are foreclosed upon is that the homeowner has been unable to make the payment for months at a time. These people may become angry, desperate - and property damage might be the result. This hurts only them, of course, but it does happen. So you should be prepared for repairs that may need to be made (usually minor and cosmetic in nature).
As a savvy investor this can work out to your favor. If the house has fallen under neglect the lending company might have a hard time selling it following foreclosure. This is when it becomes a liability to them. The average home buyer is searching for a place to live in and don't have any desire to fix up a broken down house. One of the problems you may run into as an investor is not estimating high enough when it comes to necessary renovations. You could end up paying way more than you planned and actually losing money if you are not familiar with what the house needs and how much repairs are going to cost.
There are various ways these homes are sold. The most common being at government auctions although some are also sold by the lending companies or real estate agents. If you are new to the business of real estate investing in foreclosed homes, using a Realtor is the least risky way to go. One reason is for the purpose of having the house formally inspected. The downside to this is that you usually won't get as low of a price as you would at auction. At auctions, you can win big if you make good decisions and lose big if you make bad ones.
Start attending government auctions, making connections with Realtors, lending companies and appraising companies in your area. These people can help you find foreclosed homes, find out their worth and even give you the financing necessary to invest in the home.
Nolan Speers has been investing in real estate for over 15 years and specializing in foreclosures for the last 5. To review the top government auction sites with over 250,000 foreclosure listings, check out buy foreclosed homes or to start at the home page go to government auctions.
Saturn marketing success a disappointment - Yahoo! Canada News
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Thu Oct 1, 4:03 PM
Historians reviewing what went wrong with Saturn shouldn't blame fickle consumers for turning their back on a brand trying to do things differently, says an automotive marketing expert.
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"Saturn will stand out as a spectacular marketing success," Ashwin Joshi, an associate professor of marketing at the Schulich School of Business in Toronto, told CBCNews.ca on Thursday.
Saturn was set to be sold this week to Penske Automotive Group Inc. But Penske backed out after it failed to find another automaker to manufacture Saturn models after GM stops making them after 2011, a development GM president Fritz Henderson called "disappointing."
The automaker succeeded in developing a loyal following, but failed to deliver in the technical department, said Joshi.
"There's supposedly a study that says that people's top three fears are fear of public speaking, fear of dying and fear of buying a car," said Joshi. "So fear of buying a car is right behind dying. And GM took that off the table with Saturn."
GM launched Saturn in 1990 as "a different kind of car company." People were attracted by its low-key showrooms and no-pressure, no-haggle pricing.
But GM went even further in trying to prove to consumers that it could practise what it preached. Dealerships were not franchised, but were owned outright by GM. A separate labour deal was negotiated with its unions. The car even had a money-back guarantee.
In fact, Saturn was everything that GM is now promising it will become, said used-car guru Phil Edmonston.
"Saturn speaks to the core of what GM did wrong," Edmonston, the author of the Lemon-Aid book series, said in Toronto.
Saturn was to be a different type of car from the first step in the manufacturing process to the day the car was sold.
"It was a solid example of an integrated marketing concept; externally marketed and internally absorbed. But its failure shows it still needed more than sales staff clapping for you as you drove your car off the lot," said Joshi.
GM's hope was that Saturn, with its dent-free plastic panels, would attract younger buyers with smaller, hipper cars. But despite a cult-like following that drew thousands to annual reunions in Spring Hill, Tenn., where they were made, the brand never earned money.
As GM focused more on high-profit pickup trucks and SUVs, Saturn began to languish in the late 1990s.
"They got the front end right. What they didn't get right was the technology," said Joshi. "They should have owned fuel efficiency, they should have owned green technology, they should have owned the minivan market."
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