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Successful Home Based Businesses

A home based business can be likened to the operation of a traditional business operation, to be a success, the owner or manager must exercise prudence, dedication, perseverance and discipline in overseeing its day-to-day operations. In addition, the home based business owner is literally hands-on, as the success or failure of the business lies on his hands.

If you want to have a successful home based business, you must keep in mind the following: First, follow a schedule for your day to day operations. Although the idea in establishing a home based business is to be free from the organizational structure of a traditional office, you may find the need to set an accomplishment task for the day. In doing so, you will have an idea how much time you spend doing the actual work and what you have managed to achieve during the day. There are many temptations if you decide to work at home and you should be able to set a limit for the time spent doing household chores. Time management is crucial for a successful home based business.

Second, develop a system that works for you. There may be times that you need to go out and meet a client. It is better if you have an organizer so that you can keep track of what needs to be done even outside your home. Though a computer at home is advisable so that it will serve as your main database, keeping a handy, high-tech gadget with you wherever you may be is better.

Third, keep track of your target market. Establishing a reliable network of clients is one thing, maintaining them in order that they may multiply is another. To be successful, a home based business owner must forever be on the lookout for potential clients as well as keeping those already in his portfolio. Marketing your product or service as well as yourself is essential to your business? success.

A successful home based business requires a mixture of the above-enumerated factors.

Real Estate Auctions – The New Land Rush

On a sunny afternoon in Florida, an energetic crowd gathers on the lawn of a high end luxury estate. A loud and eager banter between an auctioneer, a group of bidders and bidder assistants fills the air. For several minutes the auctioneer asks for the next highest bid and the bidders respond. Suddenly the bidders grow silent. The high bidder holds his breath in anticipation of winning the auction. The auctioneer calls for one more bid. In a loud clear voice which rolls over the audience he says, “Fair warning, last chance” the auctioneer pauses, “SOLD!” And in less than 10 minutes another multimillion dollar estate has changed owners.

Successful real estate auctions like the one above are happening all over North America and the Caribbean. Recently real estate auctions have been on the rise, the increase in popularity is partly driven by growing inventories and fading buyer confidence. Properties that were selling in weeks using traditional methods are now languishing on the market unable to attract buyers even as seller’s lower prices. Many say the real estate boom is over but savvy buyers and sellers are profiting from real estate auctions.

Real Estate Auctions Work in Up or Down Markets.

Regardless of trends or market cycles, real estate auctions provide an open and transparent process for buyers and sellers. Properly conducted real estate auctions attract ready and willing buyers and motivate them to act now.

The auction method removes the “wait and see” attitude which serves to further depress real estate values. Buyers are always concerned about overpaying. Buyers gain confidence with their purchases at real estate auctions because they can see what others are willing to pay.

When market demand is high and inventories low, real estate auctions can deliver selling prices well above what a willing seller would have accepted in a negotiated private treaty sale. In good selling climates many property owners using traditional real estate methods; negotiating with one buyer at a time, leave thousands of dollars of equity on the table. During up markets real estate auctions are the best way to establish top market price.

Evaluating Your Real Estate for Auction

Not every property or seller for that matter makes a good candidate for auction. First of all sellers must be ready to sell now and for the current market value. Also a real estate auction will not fix problems caused by a downturn in market value of your property, if you owe more than a willing buyer will pay, be prepared to come to closing with your check book.

Properties that do well in real estate auctions have a high uniqueness factor. Ask your self, “What makes my property different from most others?” Maybe you own a resort property or high end luxury home, commercial properties and land do very well at auction. Real estate auctions thrive on uniqueness. If your property is like everyone else’s, the best thing you can do is offer the most competitive price.

Most importantly sellers must be reasonable about setting a minimum bid. A seller must look at the lowest, most current comps and price below that to generate the interest and urgency necessary for a successful real estate auction. Once the auction begins and qualified bidders start competing against one another you can watch the selling price increase.

Locate a Qualified Real Estate Auctioneer

Start by checking with the National Auctioneers Association, the best real estate auctioneers belong to this organization. These real estate auctioneers are well trained and adhere to a standard of practice and a code of ethics. Many attend the annual International Auctioneers Conference where the latest techniques and innovations in the real estate auction industry are presented.

Find out if the company you are interviewing is a full time real estate auction firm. Many real estate agents are getting auction licenses yet have no experience with the auction method of marketing. Conducting a successful real estate auction is nothing like (private treaty) traditional real estate sales. Go with a real estate auction pro.

You’re probably better of with an auction house that specializes in real estate auctions. There are many qualified auctioneers who have generations of experience selling personal property; furniture, dishes, lawn equipment and the occasional rare painting. Selling real estate at auction is a complex matter that should only be attempted by full time experienced real estate auction professionals.

Commissions and fees may vary, sellers must pay all marketing expenses up front and buyers typically pay 10% of the sales price to the auctioneer of which a share goes to participating real estate agents.

Types of Real Estate Auctions

Auctions are effective because they create a seller’s market. Professionally conducted real estate auctions create urgency, a reason to buy today and competition for the property. Terms and conditions of sale are established ahead of the auction. Real estate auctions will follow one of these three approaches:

Absolute Auction

The property is sold to the highest bidder regardless of price- using this process often returns the highest sale price.

Minimum Bid Auction

Seller agrees to sell at or above a published minimum bid price – this method is useful for internet auctions.

Seller Confirmation or Reserve Auction

With a reserve auction, the seller “reserves” the right to accept or decline any bids usually within 48 hours of the auction. Reserve auctions are used when there is a lien on the property from a lender or a court ordered sale with a minimum selling price.

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Home Based Business But What Niche?

In today’s modern world what with the internet, there has never been so many opportunities for people to set up a home based business to make money and work from home. The internet is full of business opportunities some good and some not so good, so you need to do your research first before you begin journey into the world of the online home based business.So what niche do you choose for you home based business? Well there are literally thousands and thousands to choose from. For those of you who are not sure what a niche is, it is basically the business that interests you, lets say you are interested in blogging, well that’s a niche on it’s own or a business that you can make money from. Another niche within the blogging niche is coaching people to set up a blog, that’s a niche sometimes called a sub niche, basically a niche can be anything.When you look at the coaching niche that again has many sub niches built within. Let say you know how to set up a word-press blog, you also know how to install a opt-in box for the blog so people can collect there visitors name and email address, that’s a niche or a sub niche as some people call it. That could be the starting of your home based business.Article writing is another niche, say you are good at writing, then you could sell your services to write articles for other people. OK your good at building WordPress blogs and installing opt-in boxes, you could write articles about how this is all done even write articles about how you write articles, these are all niches or sub niches.Another good niche is video, you know how to use a video camera even edit the film you have videoed, you could offer your services to make videos for people who don’t know how to make a video, you could even upload the videos for you clients, this is a good home based business opportunity to get into.So you see there are literally thousands of niches to choose from. A good place to start with for your home based business is to sit back and think about your job that you do now whatever it may be, see if you can think of how you could sell your knowledge to people who want to know how it’s done. You will be surprised how many people will want to know about your knowledge, again this is another niche.Lets say your day job is a car mechanic you could set up a website offering your knowledge and experience on fault finding, people would rather pay you a small fee so they could try to fix the problem themselves instead of taking it to the garage that charge a very high price to fix it. That’s another niche and a home based business.Your home based business could be made up of many small or sub niches that could give you a very good income for the rest of your life. It’s not as hard as you may think it is to get set up, my advise would be to take your time and don’t rush, do some research on Google to find out if there is a need for your service. A good place to check out is Google trends.Whatever you do never ever give up on your dream to have your own home based business, like I said before there is a niche out there for everyone.