Finding Success in Business

By Sean Anderson

A lot of people give advice about how to run a successful business. I tend to think of business from an accounting perspective. You need to have controls and know something about the financial picture of the company. Then again, there are a lot of morons out there that just seem to be lucky. They don't have any controls in place and(or) know anything about accounting.

A lot of people say that if you love what you are doing you will be a successful business owner. This is where we start to get on track a little. If you explore this further you'll find that there are a lot of people who are successful business owner that absolutely hate what they are doing.

The key is balanced obsession. Sometimes people aren't even obsessed about the business they are running. We've all heard of the crazy CEO who likes to base jump among other things. In the end of the day they run a successful business because that is what supports their obsession.

Obsession can bring out many traits key to business. For instance, organization. Organization is the foundation of some accounting and legal firms. Businesses seek out these entities due to their ability to keep track of every detail. At the same time that is their business. If manufacturing companies were to do this inefficiency occurs, and the business would eventually succumb to costs.

This is why balance becomes important. Balance is created by the management of obsession. Obsessing about lowering costs or anything else for that matter becomes a problem when it interferes with other parts of the business. Having balanced obsession is essential. You yourself should be obsessing about the essential elements to the business as they become relevant. If you lack the skills or drive needed assign someone else to the problem.



For instance, the morons I spoke of earlier typically have a well equipped accountants. They are obsessive about their clients and accounting. As long as you, an employee or an agency is obsessing about issues vital to your business you will be successful 50% of the time. Hey, if I could give some advice that ensured success I would be charging for this information.

Getting to the Interview

By Sean Anderson

I am an accountant. What can we gather from this statement. Well I am not uniquely creative, expressive or artistic. Even my writing style you can tell that I am bland. My job is to put numbers on a page to convey a meaning. I don't spend time formatting reports beyond standards set forth by accounting.  Other accountants understand this but you first have to get your resume in front of managers and executives. The first step to getting an interview is your resume and the means getting past the human resources hacks.

I loathe the HR department they're just a pack of freaking hippies. In many companies the resume hits their desk first and then they relay it to the accounting managers if they believe it has potential. They naturally don't analyze the resume the same way my pals in accounting would so your resume has to appeal to different types of people.  When deciding how to prepare your resume analyze yourself.  Should you be the one writing, is someone else better able to sell you?  These are question you should be asking.

I figured this out, and had friends from school help me with my resume out of college. In later job searches I turned to professional resume writers. I've done this because my sole goal is to minimize the remaining amount of time at my current job. I have had jobs were I have just wanted out, and if find yourself without a job you really need to take advantage of opportunities.

There are some people who have skills to write great resumes, others don't have those skills. When getting an interview focus on your strengths and outsource your weaknesses. This is the best way to maximize your potential. You are your own business and you are the goods being sold.

My personal strength is managing where I've applied and contacting companies. I put excel spreadsheets together that tell me where I've applied and when I should follow up. When to send thank you letters and takeaways from interviews I have had.


Everything works together when searching for a job but the core of your job search is your resume. If writing and designing a resume isn't your strength outsource the process. There are plenty of places, and it isn't inexpensive in relation to the amount of time spent sending out a poor resume that doesn't attract responses.

Subprime Lending Placing the Blame

By Sean Anderson

A lot of CEO's, CFO's and whole companies have been blamed for being a part of the sub prime lending problem. People have had their homes foreclosed upon by banks and the market has suffered as whole. The real culprit of the sub prime problem has skated by un-blamed and has not suffered any consequences. Who should be sharing in the suffering? Well it should be the two bond rating companies Moody and Fitch. They pass judgement on the quality of bonds and they gave the bundled sub prime mortgages a much higher rating than they deserved.

This in turn caused pressure to be placed on investing groups to seek the higher returns being offered by bonds that were perceived to have a lower level of risk due to Moody's and Fitch. The criteria for making decisions was flawed and so became the market. Mortgage lenders kept writing sub prime loans, because they were seen as good investments by funds and financial investors like CitiGroup.

The good ratings given by Moody's and Fitch sent a signal to sub prime lenders that the fraudulent activity of writing and packaging mortgages to undeserving lenders was acceptable. Moody's and Fitch provided the environment to make this possible. This does not mean that banks did not consciously ignore sound lending practices in making decisions. It does not take a lot of skill to see whether someone will be able to barely make the mortgage payment. If they are working overtime and decide to stop it is easy to tell they won't be able to make they payment. It is easy to tell that given the conditions of the loan are based as an ARM when the interest goes up and the payment becomes three-hundred or more per month that the borrower is not going to be able to make the payment.

At the end of the day everyone could have used better judgement. Moody and Fitch put into place ratings that disguised this practice. They covered up the problem and the ratings caused investor to gravitate toward a problem. They set the trap and now we're caught.

Debits Credits and The Accouting Equation

Why is accounting so powerful? It is because it is all based off of one simple accounting equation:

Assets-Liabilities-Stockholder's Equity = 0

Assets = Liabilities + Stockholder's Equity

Stockholder's Equity = Assets - Liabilities

Liabilities = Asset - Stockholder's Equity

Yes, all of these are one simple equation. Just a bunch of different variations, to say the same thing. Always in balance, always able to provide information. The accounting equation is able to provide tons of information. By breaking this equation out further accountants, financial analysts and banks come up with more complex ways to evaluate a company. For instance assets can be broken into current assets and long term assets. By breaking up key information the ability to to evaluate key financial measures like liquidity is extended. Liquidity ratios answer a simple question, "Does X Company have enough money to pay the bills?" A simple but vital question financial statements answer.

Now that you understand the power of the equation let's discuss debits and credits. To understand debits and credits focus on the equation when it is stated:

Assets - Liabilities - Stockholder's Equity = 0

Debit and credits ensure that the equation is always in balance. Most people think of a debit and credit as a positive or a negative a left or right. Before you know it your lefts and rights are all mixed up and you find yourself in a tangled mess. They are just two opposites that offset each other when on the same side of the equation. Debit and credit must always equal each other. This creates the balance, it is that simple. They allow the parts of the equation to change but the ultimate outcome is always zero.

Zero serves the function of a check figure. A credit always offset a debit creating no net affect. That is it. The numbers change but the balance remains. This dichotomy is how we keep track of the changes occurring in our business's financial picture. This whole process is referred to as dual entry accounting.

People generally get confused over a little accounting trick. Basically, it is how we develop an income statement. All accounting information is used to effect the balance sheet. The income statement is created by separating a portion of the entries into income and expense accounts. Since, the offsetting side to these accounts usually have an effect on an asset or liability. The culmination of these income sources and expenses are collected in retained earning at the end of the accounting period. The whole time being offset by assets and liabilities. The balance sheet account that collects the income and expense are often called current year retained earning which is equal to your net income and comprise the P&L.  So to summarize expense and income accounts are just a breakout of current year retained earnings.

This allows for balance and difference to co-exist. Obviously, you want to be able to tell what you've earned so take expenses from income and that positive number (hopefully) leftover is your profit. If your not running the business efficiently that negative number is the loss.  At the end of the day the credit to income eventually turns into a credit to retained earnings increasing what the owner's percentage of the balance sheet.

Bring accounting down to the level of simple concepts. Accounting is the documentation of a transaction that is it, don't over complicate the process.

Accounting as Simple as it Gets

Many people look at accounting and say, "Accounting doesn't make a lot of sense." Well I hate to be bold but there is no better way to say, "Hey I'm a moron, I shouldn't be running a business." Accounting is the story of your business and you should know not only how to read that story but how to tell the story. There are a lot of complex accounting issues, that can be a nightmare. The chances are that you will never deal with them. Don't worry about the complex stuff, focus on the basic principles of accounting. You should be able to understand ninety-nine percent of all accounting issues with just a basic understanding of the principles and constraints.

Accounting is an ongoing story, the financial statements are a snapshot in time of the continuous action taking place.  The fundamentals of accounting are based on Relevancy, Reliability, Comparability, and Consistency. To test the relevancy principle just make sure that the information can be used by outside users to analyze your business. Reliable information is unbiased and not a crock of b.s. you cooked up. If you can't fight temptation get a third party accountant/auditor who is unbiased to your business to actually make or confirm entries to the accounting system. If you report in a comparable manner you report in a way that is typical of other businesses in your industry. This is to ensure nobody is comparing your apple company to someone else's orange company. I always get confused when I compare apples to oranges. Consistency involves simply staying in line with the current accounting practices and using the same principles from year to year. You can't just simply switch accounting methods mid-stream (without fixing historical information) to make numbers look better. Your financial statements should follow the same logic/method over time.

When developing accounting information there are two important constraints to keep in mind conservatism and materiality. Conservatism is simply saying hey I can represent a loss here buy reporting this way or a gain if I report another way; I am gong to choose to take a loss. This can change with tax reporting. When it comes to taxes the conservative approach would be to report a gain. The government likes that money and they don't get to tax you on losses. That is what AMT (Alternative Minimum Tax) is all about.

By now you may be asking yourself what this accrual garbage about. Well if you just bought inventory, prepaid rent or you owe your employees a bonus at the end of the year how do you want to represent that. You want a way of keeping track of your inventory, how long you have the rights to a building and what those costs are over time, and you should want to know what you are going to owe your employees so you can anticipate what you'll need to pay. Well this is where accruals come in handy.  More importantly they tie expenses to revenue by accruing those expenses when the revenue occurs from incurring those expenses.

With cash accounting you recognize inventory expenses upon the purchase of goods. With accrual accounting you say I've got a benefit/asset here I want to represent this benefit to outside users. You do this by reporting it as an asset and expense the cost of inventory when the product is sold (Cost of Goods Sold). This helps you tell the story of a business by telling all the parts not just bits and pieces at a time when cash transactions are made. The same thing goes on with prepaid rent and other assets paid in advance of when delivery is made.

Now, for accruing liabilities. Well you tell your employees that you are going to pay them a bonus based on performance at the end of the year. Hopefully, you plan on paying this bonus, because you don't want to face the dreaded everybody quits on you all at once type of turnover.  STRIKE!!!! Well if you are keeping track of your companies performance you can keep track of what you owe them each month and record the liability and expense.  Basically, you promised employees 1% of net income at the end of the year. Simply, multiply 1% times your profit(loss) and make the appropriate entry. Tie your expense and liability to the month in which the profit was realized. Doing this will give you a better idea of the cash outlay you'll need to make at the end of year. Accounting is full of good ideas and methods to keep track of what is occurring in your business.  Now if there comes a point when you realize you will not owe employees a bonus you would have to true the account to zero because you employees won't be paying you for the losses of the business.

At the end of the day tell the full story of what is going on in your company, through accrual accounting. Don't embellish the story, keep a conservative outlook. Don't change your logic without letting everybody know through restatement of prior year financials. Put out information that doesn't waste the time of internal or external users. Last but not least don't be an accounting moron by excepting that you just don't understand accounting.

Can Oranges Get You Play

I lead a vegetarian lifestyle with the exception of the holidays. Just so nobody can call me a liar I do have fish twice a week, I need to get that cholesterol somehow my HDL was below 40, and that is not good. Other, than that I stick to salad, fruit, soy and what not. I a going to use these facts to qualify myself as an expert orange consumer, I eat them all the time. I eat oranges like the world eats rice, it's crazy.  It is a bit disgusting but when I fart there is no need to roll down the windows. Unless, you mind a citrus odor.

I eat fruit every morning for breakfast not including about four or five fruit snacks before lunch. I'll typically start with melon and about forty minutes later I move on to other fruits. I typically eat one type of fruit at a time and I have noticed a strange phenomenon when I bring out the oranges. Woman literally flock by my corner office and I usually get comments on how good they smell.

Don't try to take too much from this article, I only have a hypothesis related to oranges and sexual attraction, "When a man eats oranges women want to get randy with the orange eating stud." From my experience women tend to gravitate toward me when I am in the act of eating oranges. Even when I have not eaten an orange women are still drawn to me and will often mention that they sense a citrus smell.  All this is based off of my personal experience and while I admit I have no scientific support the orange issue comes up way too much to be coincidence.

I will say it may not be the ingestion of oranges that give the appeal. I really think that it is the act of pealing an orange that causes the attraction to occur. When pealing an orange you get the scent on your fingers and then a mist comes up from the peal. Once you are covered by the mist it stays with you, kind of like nature's little bottle of perfume. Orange peels are actually used to make many perfumes and even house held cleaners due to their pleasant smell. Orange peals are also used to absorb odor and at the same time the citrus odor permeates the area. At the end of the day why can't oranges be used as a sort of aphrodisiac.  What do you think, can oranges get you play?

Business the Communication Breakdown

By Sean Anderson


My girlfriend's work recently hosted a Christmas party. During the festivities everyone was asked to stand up and introduce themselves and explain what they do for the company. It turned out that most people could not adequately describe what they do or even give a job title. I was struck by the fact that the only people who had a clear idea of what to do everyday were the warehouse men.

The only other two people that could give an adequate description were the accounts payable and accounts receivable clerks and even they said, " I take care of Accounts Payable and some other stuff." I was amazed, then I realized that the same type of communication breakdown occurred at my job only within each department. Communication can be a considerable problem in any company despite the size.

There are tons of tools to address communication barriers. You can implement instant messaging, e-mail and voice note systems, holding daily weekly & monthly meetings, develop a mail room, and so on. The key question is how do you know which tool best suits a communication problem? To answer this managers first need to recognize the communication problem, and then address the issues the problem is causing.

The recognition of a communication problem isn't rocket science. Typically, almost every employee knows about the communication problem. The difficulty is admitting that a problem exists and then taking committed action to get the problem fixed. The best way to discover a problem is to simply discuss job functions. Then put a questionnaire together with question like, is this person overstretched, are managers effectively communicating tasks to subordinates, do employees have a defined purpose and goal when they come to work. Review the questionnaires and have a meeting to discuss the results and possible solutions. Then make a commitment to corrective actions, and implement the solutions immediately. Managers must then follow up on the changes and take ownership to open constructive lines of communication.

Address the issue that communication gaps are causing. I will cover four major inefficiencies caused by communication breakdowns. They are gaps between responsibilities, redundancy of tasks, loss of information and infighting.

Gaps between responsibilities often originate from turnover. Unfortunately, turnover results for more responsibilities for current workers, which can in turn result in more turnover. This can become a vicious cycle. If turnover is resulting rapidly take steps to reward employees and more importantly assure them of their importance. Do not lose sight of your team and fail to communicate with them. To eliminate the problem of communication gaps cross train employees. That way at least one other employee knows the job of another, and the value of information they can receive from their peers. Also, implement a training trainer system. Where an employee becomes trained and then trains another employee even if it is a supervisor. This solidifies job duties and creates awareness across positions.

Another problem created by poor communication is redundancy of tasks. This is basically when two employees are creating the same output but are often distributing it to different parties. The suggestions for closing gaps apply here as well, but a better control is to sustain an information flow chart. Then analyze the flowchart using bins to see where information is flowing, where it is going, and classify information based on use using specific criteria. The main idea is to keep everything organized. This is kind of similar to a computer defragmenting the hard drive. Condensing a moving information flow in a way that best optimizes the system.

Loss of information is another problem. This is through loose controls and the solution amounts almost solely to organization. This simply amounts to a lecture about being organized, so we can move on. The other reason is turnover, which we have already discussed.

I saved the humor for last. For some reason people really grow attached to their information. Today the inf oration people create is their job. They have often developed the process and method for communicating the information, and they don't want anybody to drop their data I mean baby. I often see trainers over emphasize a process in order to ensure this integrity. This often bogs down the information and delays the communication process. The best way to handle this is to develop checkpoints to verify communication is accurate and expedient. Focus should be placed on verifying checkpoints, and that way unnecessary precautions will be avoided. It will also keep everybody on good terms. No arguments will be created by the transfer of communication.

Well communication is a vital part of every company. Monitoring it can result in lower costs, better cooperation and greater efficiency. Communication is the information flow that is the life-line of business.

An E-Commerce Opportunity

By Sean Anderson

Very seldom do you find great opportunities to make money on the web. Someone is always asking for your credit card number at a minimum. At the Nascent Commerce Website you can find this opporunity. No credit card required, just a simple e-mail and you have immediate access to your on-line store.

The great thing about Nascent Commerce is that you have access to more than just an online shopping cart. This is a full on-line store. You have the ability to provide your merchant account infromation, you'll have features that easily support dropshippers, and the ability to make changes to your store look immediately. You put in a product refresh you page and bam your done. The product as well as any other change you've made to improve your store are there without any interference to current shoppers. You can follow this path to see the complete list of Nascent Commerce features.

I have taken advantage of the Nascent Commerce's free one month trial offer. It took me about that time to get my store to where I wanted it to be and by using the features offered by Nascent Commerce in conjunction with I managed to make a few sales. I would be lying if I said I didn't work diligently for a month, but then again I am somewhat of a perfectionist. If you would like take a look at my PoochLove to view my store supported by Nascent Commerce. I am looking currently building a second store to support some drop shipping products, my suppliers for PoochLove are proving to be unreliable.

There are several strategies to employ when buidling your store to take full advantage of the one month trial offer. First find decide on a business formation. I setup a C corporation, but you may have different ideas for you future. Next find a merchant account provider and then sign up for a drop shipper. A lot of dropshippers offer free trials as well. Make the most out of this by setting up and cancelling your first account before recurring charges begin. Scower the site for products and a niche you would like to promote, and then setup a new account shortly after you have started your store with Nascent Commerce. Then simply work quickly. You should also have your AdWords campaign ready to implement in conjunction with the full launch of your store.


I have been able to make the most out of this great opporunity. Send me an e-mail at sean@trulyfreeebooks.com and sign up for my newletter at my Truly Free E-Books site. I had to get some plugs in somehow I am not a member of any affiliate program Nascent Commerce has in place. It is just a great product that has really helped me. There really isn't anyway to realize it's power until you are fully involved. When your one month trial offer ends be sure to mention this article when you subscribe.

Protect Your Income From Globalization

By Sean Anderson

Economic globalization is occurring rapidly. Countries in Eastern Europe, South America, Asia, and Africa are undergoing rapid economic development. Growth in these geographic regions is expected. Why wouldn't companies seek out the lowest cost centers? Low cost centers exist just hours away from countries like Germany in places like The Czech Republic and Estonia. Why pay fifteen Euros an hour in Germany when employees accept two Euros per hour right down the road? These companies are even growing with the charitable help of the "West". If you want you can get online and make an interest free loan to somebody who may replace you in the next five years.

Globalization can be seen everywhere. Even in traditionally well protected service sector jobs like IT and Accounting. A lot of IT jobs have already slipped into the clutches of countries like India and the Philippines.

What does this mean?

The service sector jobs are going to become increasingly less skilled, and the skilled service sector jobs will become outsourced. College diploma's will start looking bleaker all the time. They will hang on the wall they as a reminder of your Note Payable from student loans, not the promise of a prosperous job. The reason is that technology and globalization are breaking down educational, cultural, social, political and economic barriers. The problem is not that the barriers are being torn down, this was inevitable. The problem is the rate with which it is happening. The people in prosperous countries will not have time to make adjustments.

Fifteen years ago people didn't have Indian IT personnel, fresh coffee beans from South America, and handcrafted masks from Africa. Now people even have entire rooms dedicated to an Asian or European theme. It is great to have this type of diversity in the home, but this diversity has saturated our culture in a short fifteen years. Imagine the effect when this shift of goods becomes a shift of wealth. The top tier in the world will suddenly be asked to live a more conservative lifestyle. The result will be instability in economic markets, and shifts of power.

In a rapidly evolving and globalizing world it is important for nations to have a population that is rapidly adapting. The super power nation of today will fall by the wayside if their people cannot adapt to these changes. It sounds dramatic, but it is not naive to expect nations in similar standing as the United States to see an overthrow of government. Failure and prosperity are both on the horizon for every country despite it's current economic standing.

Currently the U.S. stands to lose the most. This can be seen in the weakening dollar (Canada's dollar is now more valuable than the U.S. dollar), the export of white collar jobs, the growth of low paying service sector jobs and in many other aspects of American life.

The future survivors will have either moved to other countries to exploit the difference in the standard of living and maintain a job or will use the internet to protect themselves from the sliding prosperity currently held. The internet is the one median transcending borders and culture. Prosperity here can be achieved everywhere. Those who master the internet master the global economy won't have to worry about. They will use a global tool not a global location to determine success. Don't view globalization as an enemy close, embrace technology and get ahead of the shift.

Business to Business - Acquisitions the Four Deadly Traps

Acquisitions are meant to bring out the strengths of companies in similar fields or to build value in the supply chain. So, why do they so often fail to achieve this goal? Often time these failures occur due to business culture, overly conflicting attitudes, solution management and failure to take advantage of core competencies. All of these are intertwined in some way or another but they are the principle failures and death traps for companies that have acquired their competitor, supplier or distributor.

The core attitude of almost every acquiring company is "We have been doing specific tasks or following specific business strategies forever.  We acquired your company and you are going to have to make the changes we want". The logic here is rarely beneficial for the newly joined companies. What occurs here is that the acquiring company's business culture overpowers the acquired company's culture and key resources are lost. The attitudes that lead to cooperation are not being developed.

Business must evolve when acquisitions are made. The appropriate adaptations must be made by both companies in order for the new relationship to work. Often times employees hear speeches about these very topics but no one takes ownership to make sure the proper adaptations are made. Have the CEO make the speech and immediately follow the speech with ten noticeable changes.  The first changes should provide some relief to employees.  Look for things that employees dislike about the current conditions.  If these are tasks ask if they even need to be performed and provide direction to new more fulfilling and value added activities.  Software systems are a great place to to challenge next, they probably needed updated and can further improve efficiency. Then managers need to drive the transformation to the team. By constantly encouraging new ideas and cooperation. This brings out the best in both companies. Especially, considering that a lot of employees are worried about their job security and often rightfully so. This successfully prevents the bully effect and takes peoples minds of the uncertainty of the new environment.

The next demotivator occurring during acquisitions are conflicting attitudes. This is most noticeable when one company acquires a former competitor. For some reason people try to switch to an antiquated method of performing their job duties and resist change with every fiber in their body. For instance, one lady I worked with during an acquisition started stuffing payroll and A/P checks into envelops by hand.  The other automated the process with a machine that printed out laser checks and stuffed it directly into an envelop. The hand stuffing took a day and a half. The automated process took about thirty minutes.  I am not sure about the thought process but people take to change in odd unpredictable ways.  Depending on the employees level of skill they decide whether or not the position can be eliminated. In the case of the checks it is obvious the attitude can be eliminated by terminating the obstinate employee but it is better to prevent this type of behavior through team building.

What if the problem is with employees who are preparing the reporting package? These employees have high level skill sets.  For instance, an acquisition company had a reporting package that clearly could not handle the inter-company consolidations but still forced the use of an inadequate reporting package.  The holding company was looking to up its game by buying a large company but they relied on a reporting package meant for the smaller businesses typical of their portfolio. The manual processes of the reporting package were unmanageable and this caused high turnover. It is sad that the reporting package could have been automated with existing system the acquired company used. Due to the turnover process key employees had been lost and fires began sprouting up everywhere.  This in turn made it hard to keep new talent being brought in.  When upper-management of the acquiring company tried to force a solution they created problems with the largest company in their portfolio. They took the attitude that their needs were more important than addressing the stress of their biggest reporting company.  It took a while for them to realize the scope of their request was unmanageable given their current reporting package.  Note that this also caused accounting systems to fail and for the reported information to be less and less reliable.  All of these issues could have been avoided by addressing and listening to the concerns of the highly skilled knowledgeable employees.

The key to recognizing areas where conflict is not necessary is to simply step back and ask are both sides presenting a view that makes sense. Too often, managers get caught up with resolving menial tasks and the don't pay attention to the substance behind issues causing conflict.

The third problem is solution management. Prioritizing problems is a must. Sometimes quick solutions must be implemented, but this tactic should be the exception not the rule. If companies don't address the core problems first the problem will arise repeatedly.   Problems should be addressed at the source. All to often some managers notice a mistake corrects the mistake and moves on without questioning what caused the mistake.  Worse managers may implement a process to catch mistakes.   Focus on fixing the front end and then smoothing out the errors on the back-end. Far too often newly merged companies create a muddled mess by addressing the error and not the process.  Even if something has to fall by the wayside address the process not the issue. To put it simply don't sweep the floor before cleaning off the counters.  You will just have to sweep the floor again.

Finally, analyze the core competencies of each business and take a look at how the core competencies of one business can be integrated with the other. Focus on bright spots that can be spread throughout the business model. If the core competencies of each company are successfully integrated a strong unified front appears in the market. If in-fighting occurs the weakness will spread like a virus and a cure will be hard sought.

For acquisitions to be successful implement an attitude receptive of change, resolve counterproductive conflict, address problems from the core and take full advantage of core competencies. Avoid the four death traps that doom acquisitions and the business relationship will thrive.

Refinancing Through Foreclosure

By Sean C Anderson

Times have been tough. A lot of people are losing their homes to foreclosure. You can be eaten by the wolves or join the pack. Creative people often find opportunity in despair. Right now you probably have a job, decent credit score, and some equity built up in your home. My suggestion would be to sell your home and take a loss if necessary and to turn that loss into a gain by buying a foreclosed home.

Anyone can see that they can take a 20% hit if they can buy a home of similar value at 50% of market value. It takes a lot of research but if your home is foreclosed on you'll find yourself in the same bind with less room to maneuver. Besides with planning you don't have to take a loss. This all depends upon the immediacy with

Eliminate some of the risk by doing research. Often you can find foreclosed homes on the internet. If you have a couple weeks vacation spend it house hunting, and following up on leads. You can often find a house in the area you live that will still afford you the same standard of living and allow your children to go to the same schools. Get an idea of the places you can go to find foreclosed homes and familiarize yourself with the process of purchasing these homes. While your doing this put your house up on the market and set a high price. Right now you don't have to be in a hurry to sell and you can ask for a better price. If someone buys your house and you can earn some money great. Take the family to your parents for a little bit, find a short-term apartment or stay in a hotel if needed. It shouldn't take you long to find a new house if you have been aggresively seeking deal, as a matter of fact you should try to have a few home targeted for purchase.

If you have familiarized yourself with foreclosure properties you should be able to find a home fast. More often than not you will be able to find a better deal, have lower mortgage payments and increase your equity in the new property all by simply staying ahead of the game. Be careful though, remember it is always possible to lose money. Get the home inspected, follow through with escrow and get insurance. There is nothing worse than losing money through repairs, a faulty title or causes you could have taken precautions against.

Even if you are not a real estate investor you should be able to devote the time to better secure your families future and your financial standing. Inaction leaves you in a risky situation, taking action allows you to control the risk. By dedicating yourself to the process of change, becoming educated and taking action you can build wealth even in desperate times. Always buy foreclosed the best refinancing is a great home purchase.

Find foreclosures by following the provided link Refinancing Foreclosure