Home Finding Book

I signed up to ReviewMe more than a month ago but didn’t get any response to say whether this blog was accepted or not. Today I randomly logged in and tried to accept review on the clearinghouse and to my surprise the ‘Accept’ button was available to me. Well, thanks for telling me guys!

Anyway, the reviews in the clearinghouse are pretty cheap, ranging from $5 - $7 but what the heck, I need to get some runs on the board! For my first paid review, I’ve chosen a site that is much related to a couple of my previous posts

• Smart Guide to Buying a Home and
• What to Look For in an Apartment.

The HomeFindingBook has published an end-to-end Real Estate Guide for wishful new entrants in the market. The site itself doesn’t give me the same professional look as that of the MoneyManager but then again, I don’t think this guy has the same budget. A quick look at the site’s whois tells me that it’s just been registered in Dec last year and he’s doesn’t want to use his real name or business name. My suspicion is that he’s probably a website-holic churning out turn-key websites by the dozen.

Registrant:
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: HOMEFINDINGBOOK.COM
Created on: 05-Dec-06
Expires on: 05-Dec-08
Last Updated on:

Domain servers in listed order:
PARK19.SECURESERVER.NET
PARK20.SECURESERVER.NET

All the external links in the guide would undoubtably be affliate links - eg. his link to foreclosure.com, “Find Foreclosed Homes at 50% Off”. Nonetheless though, it’s a great way to make money online. Put up a quality site with good content (in this case, a thorough guide to buying real estate) and push sales for related products / services. It’s natural for internet users to trust a recommendation more if it is attached to a good honest review / article / guide.

As for the Home Finding Basics article that this review was ordered for, I did pick up on a few good points.

Choose an area with good schools.

This is so true. Within the number one, golden “location, location, location” rule of real estate there’s also “school, school, school”. I’ve only just come to realise this now that I’m a parent. The kids and education industry is massive. As a parent, I would spend what ever it takes to give Oliver the best I can provide him. One of these things is education. It is not unusual to have already enrolled a new born to 10 or so different private schools, each at about $100 registration fee - and that’s just to be on the waiting list with no guarantee of being accepted! This is the main reason why places like Camberwell, Balwyn, and Glenn Waverly are still going balistics with 20 - 50% annual house price increases! These are the bluechip suburbs that people want to choose first and only when the price becomes out of reach will they start looking further elsewhere. So when the price rises, these are the epicentres of the quake.

Make a bid at 8 to 10% lower than the asking price

If you’re buying from a private sale, know that the seller has put up an asking price with room for negotiation. Normally, he will be quite happy with an offer 5% below his asking price. If he is desperate, he will sell for 10% less - that’s how I snapped up my apartment at a discount. (Don’t forget my tip of buying in Christmas! :p)

The guide also has a couple of interesting points I didn’t know before:

To calculate a comparison, if you pay less than 35% in rent than your monthly mortgage payments (including property taxes and homeowner’s fees) then you would be better off continuing to rent.

I’m not sure where the magic 35% comes from but there definitely must be a price point where renting makes more sense than owning. However, this is just speculation really. Speculation that the house market won’t go balistics and rise by 300% in one year! I say if you’ve got enough for a deposit, you’ve got to have your name on a title of a house. If you’re not ready to live it in, at least buy a house for an investment. I know several people who are still renting but they’ve also bought a house just so that they’re in the market.

You are also allowed to receive a gift of cash of up to $12,000 (this amount can change each year) from parent without being subject to gift tax.

what the?? Isn’t that double taxing? Lucky that’s just a U.S. thing. This would never fly in China. Gifts from Parents are the norm. What happens when you buy a house for you son? I don’t even see how you can police these kind of transactions.

Well that’s it for my first paid review. In my offline world, I would have invoiced them for a much larger sum. In this online second life though, I’m happy with whatever cents come my way… for the time being..!

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