How To Use Craigslist And Negotiation Tactics To Save A Fortune And Land Your Dream Home

Towards the end of the Limitless movie, the main character buys a magnificent high-rise penthouse in Manhattan. Part of living without limits is residing in his dream home, and it can actually be significantly less expensive and a little easier than you think. Whether it’s a huge house, a classic residence with loads of character, or a luxury high-rise condo, this blog will detail the steps to save a fortune on the kind of home you’ve always wanted. Even if you live on a modest income, you have limited time to shop, mediocre personal credit, and no down payment.

In 2011 I moved into my dream condo in downtown Denver. A beautiful and luxurious skyscraper that I obtained using the techniques and methods described below.

Rent from a private owner.

One of the most important parts of getting a great value on your dream home is renting it through a private owner who will be your landlord. There are a couple of reasons why this is very advantageous:

If you’re buying a home or renting from a property management company (or apartment community), your up-front costs (in the form of a deposit or down payment), your chances of qualifying for the home, and your ongoing payment largely depend on your personal credit score. If your personal credit is less than excellent, your chances of getting your dream home are very low. However, when renting from a private owner, your personal credit often has very little to do with it. Many private landlords don’t even foreclose on their prospective tenants. Most of the time, private landlords rent houses they once lived in themselves and their decision to rent to you is often based more on the impression you make than your personal credit or rental history. Think of it like a job interview; Much success in job interviews is not due to the applicant’s qualifications or history, but rather how much the interviewer likes the candidate.

Many times you can rent a beautiful home for well below the monthly market rental value because the owner’s payment is well below the monthly rental value and the owner just wants to cover his mortgage payment. Compare this to dealing with property management companies, real estate developers, or real estate agents whose markups are paid by you every month!

Many times, since private landlords don’t handle your credit, they won’t ask you for an application fee.

· Many times private landlords will give you a break on the deposit to move out.

· In today’s real estate economy (at least here in the United States), you should be prepared to make a 5% to 10% down payment on your home. Let’s say your dream home costs $300K (which is probably a low number), it will have an initial out-of-pocket cost of $15,000 – $30,000.

· Not only is it going to cost a lot up front, but it’s going to be between weeks and months of negotiating, paperwork, and the stress of dealing with banks to secure a real estate closing. Most of the time, when it comes to private landlords, you can move right away.

If you’re really attached to the idea of ​​owning your dream home, you can negotiate a rent-to-own agreement with your landlord.

Find the house of your dreams.

To get the home of your dreams, you’ll need to act fast and use the power of the Internet. The fastest way to find a great rental deal on your dream home is to use the real estate section of Craigslist. Craigslist is the first place private landlords will advertise their rental property.

Using Craigslist to set up a real estate monitor.

1. Set up an iGoogle account

iGoogle is a customizable homepage navigation panel. You will need a Gmail account. Go to google.com/ig to set up your free dashboard.

2. Create tabs

On the left side of the screen, you will see the home tab. Click on it, then click on the little drop down arrow, click on Add a tab. Name this tab something like Real Estate Supervisor.

3. Get Craigslist Monitor

Now we want to add a gadget that will provide us with our Craigslist real estate listings. Click the Add a gadget button at the top right of the iGoogle control panel. I recommend Craigslist Monitor. Click add it now and you will now see it in your iGoogle Real Estate tab. I recommend adding 3-5 of these devices to the Real Estate tab.

4. Get a Craigslist Search URL

Now is the time to head over to the Craigslist Real Estate/Home For Rent section for your city. In the search field, enter some criteria of what you are looking for, such as; neighborhood, price, description, etc. You’ll notice that each result creates a unique URL. What’s really cool is that as new properties are added to Craigslist that match this search description, this URL page will update to show the new properties instantly. Find 3-5 search phrases that target your desired neighborhood, price range, and property description.

5. Add Real Estate Feeds to iGoogle

Now go back to your iGoogle real estate tab and click the little dropdown gear button in the top right corner of the Craigslist Monitor gadget, click Edit Settings. For Title, enter a short description from the feed (downtown condos), for URL, enter the full URL you got from your search in step 4 (be sure to include http://). Click save and you’re done! Now a real-time feed of the most recently added properties matching the search will be in your iGoogle dashboard.

While this may seem a bit complicated to set up, it’s actually quite easy to do and saves you a great deal of time searching Craigslist’s real estate section. It literally takes seconds to take a look at your iGoogle dashboard and see the new properties posted in the last few days or hours. This also works on the roommate search or commercial real estate sections of Craigslist. A few other things to keep in mind:

Respond immediately to posts that interest you. Craigslist’s real estate section gets a lot of traffic, so you can be sure that lots of other people will see the property you’re interested in. The quicker you can contact the private owner and arrange to view the property, the better your chances of getting it. If a listing contains a phone number, always call first before sending an email.

If a property listing on Craigslist looks professional with lots of good photos and a bulleted listing description, chances are it was posted by a property management company or real estate agent who you’ll have to deal with instead. from a private owner. I found that the best deals on Craigslist are unprofessional looking postings.

· Look for a property that is available for immediate or very soon move-in.

Dirty Trick: If you see a particularly good deal on your real estate monitor, you’ll want to minimize competition from other tenants. After replying to the Craigslist post, you may want to flag it (top right of Craigslist post) so Craigslist will remove your post. Flag it from your browser, then use the Pagewash.com website to block its IP address and flag it again, you can also flag it from your smartphone browser or a friend’s computer to ensure it is removed from Craigslist.

Get it furnished.

Purchasing high-end furniture to complement your dream home can be expensive and time consuming. I highly recommend trying to find a place that is furnished. Many of the types of privately owned luxury properties we are discussing come fully or partially furnished.

Negotiation conditions.

When dealing with a private landlord, there are a few important things to keep in mind when negotiating your lease.

· As I said above, private landlords will often make the decision to lease their property to you based on whether they ‘like it’. So be sure to reveal some of your personality and be friendly to your prospective landlord when you tour your property.

The one thing that is almost always an important aspect of a private landlord’s decision to lease to you is your immediate ability to put up money. All but the most experienced and savvy private landlords will rather rent to a less qualified tenant who can put money down now than to a more qualified tenant who is weeks away from writing a check.

If you are decently qualified, have a good relationship with the property owner, and are ready to write a check to move in, you may want to negotiate the deposit amount. The deposit is a more negotiable variable of the transaction because the deposit is essentially a risk insurance policy that the private landlord has against you hitting the property or not paying the rent. If you can convince your landlord that this is not a risk for you, they will often lower your deposit amount.

· I recommend making the purchase of your property in the middle of the month. If you find a place and are ready to write a check and move in right away, many times the private landlord will give you the length of the month for free. You can get up to two weeks of free rent your way.

If you have bad credit – For a professional property management company, bad credit is often a deal breaker, especially on a high-end property. When it comes to a private owner, this is not always the case. When it comes to bad credit, honesty is the best policy, in today’s economic environment, very few people have spotless credit. To counter your bad credit history, emphasize the stability of your income and current employment. A private landlord will always be concerned that his tenant will be able to pay the rent (especially if he does not have good credit). Get ahead of this concern and bring proof of your income (bank statements, pay stubs, etc.) to the tour to show them, many times they won’t even look at it, but the fact that you thought to bring it makes you sound very responsible . You may even want to get your credit online before your tour, print it out, and take it with you on the tour. This saves your prospective landlord the time and expense of running your credit and background report.