Strong Housing Market in the Coming Months?

Traditionally, spring is the season when the housing market picks up.

An increase in the number of buyers, helping boost the number of sales agree, points to a much stronger market in the coming months.



City bonuses have ignited the housing market in London.

Big houses are selling fast, often going to sealed bids.

In one case a property was reported to have attracted 33 bids.



Furthermore, the growth that started in the prime areas of London is showing signs of spreading out across the rest of the capital.



London continues to be the engine for national house price growth with values in the capital moving 1.2% higher over the month and by over 3% over the last quarter.

In contrast, growth in the regions away from the south of England has totaled less than 0.5% over the last three months.



The strong performance by London is down to an on-going mismatch between the number of homes coming to the market for sale and the growth in demand.

The Hometrack index shows the supply of homes for sale has grown by 14% over the last quarter, whilst demand has grown in excess of 50%.



Incomes are rising, interest rates are low, employment remains high, the demand for homes is growing with immigration and the creation of new households, and new house building still struggles to keep up with demand.



On the supply side, estate agents are reporting some increased levels of supply on their books as new sellers come to market perhaps encouraged by the recent upturn in prices.



But supply is still at a relatively low level and in spite of strong buyer interest, this, coupled with higher house prices choking off some demand, suggests that activity will fall towards its longer term average over the coming months.



Capital Economics\' Ed Stansfield commented: \There is clearly still some appetite for buying at these high prices and banks and building societies seem to be keener than ever to lend the money.

As long as interest rates remain low nothing too bad can happen.\

Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com

For a great choice of properties to buy in London please visit MOVETO, who also offers fantastic flats to rent in London.

No Money Down Real Estate Investing Fund All Your Deals With Private Lending!!

If you invest in real estate, you need cash to buy houses. Even if you have a full bank account and great credit, you'll eventually run short on funds - or short on time to obtain a loan - for the next deal. Private lending is the answer. It is a bottomless pool of readily accessible funds: whether you have great credit or poor; whether you have cash reserves or not.

Private Lending refers to the process of borrowing real estate investment funds from private individuals at rates higher than these lenders can normally achieve in the marketplace. The attraction of private lending is the speed and ease of funding a deal.

Here's how it worksfirst you find or do marketing to find individuals interested in earning 10-12% interest (or whatever you deem affordable for you and attractive to others) on investments secured with real estate. You'll find these prospects everywhere. They belong to your local investors association, your church, your civic club, they're your friends and family, your neighbor next door. You'll be surprised how easily you'll locate them, and soon, they'll be searching you out. Just let everyone know that you pay high interest for their loans on your real estate projects.

As prospects express interest explain that the investments are secured by real estate and do not exceed 75% loan-to-value (LTV) of the after repaired value of the home. Each investment is based on a specific property, and they can decline any property with which they are not comfortable. All you require is that they approve quickly (within 48 hours), and can fund within 7-10 days or less.

Once they have approved the investment, the funds are wired to the closing attorney to be held in escrow. After the closing, the lender will receive a Promissory Note from you (either personally, from your business entity, or both), a Deed To Secure Debt (mortgage) on the property, lenders' title insurance, and listed as a mortgagee on the hazard insurance policy.

If no single investor can fund the entire investment, then piece several loans together by providing the largest investor with a first position mortgage, and each smaller investor a progressively subordinate (2nd, 3rd, etc.) mortgage. Typically, we pay an additional percentage on the interest rate to entice investors who accept subordinate positions.

The advantages of private lending are that there is a minimal approval process, and so availability of funds is quick. You pay interest only, instead of also incurring a loan origination fee commonly known as points. You are never constrained by arbitrary rules as to how many mortgages you can have in your name. In fact, none of these mortgages ever show up on your credit report. In turn, the private lendor receives a higher interest rate with a very secure investment. Everyone wins!

Now you may be wondering how many people you know really have $75k -$100k -$150,000 just lying around ready to invest. More than you think - and most of them don't even realize it! That's because the money is tied up in their IRA's which they believe can't be accessed until retirement. That's only half true. They can't personally withdraw the money without suffering penalties; but they can invest their funds (and receive your interest tax-fr ee! if it's a ROTH IRA) if they rollover into a self-directing IRA.

A self-directed IRA is administered by a third party institution (we recommend Equity Trust Company in Ohio www.trustetc.com ) and allows the IRA owner to make decisions relative to the investment of the funds. In other words, the IRA owner can decide to use his IRA funds to make a real estate investment in your property. Most people do not even realize this as a possibility. They believe their money must stay tied up in an IRA until retirement earning nominal interest. Imagine how thrilled they are when you provide this alternative! Imagine how much money is currently sitting in traditional IRA's that you could tap into. There are more funds available than you can use. Isn't that a nice problem to have?

Since Equity Trust Company has all of the forms on their website, I ensure that making a loan is as simple as possible for my private lenders. I prepare all of the required documents so all they have to do is sign and fax to Equity Trust. From that point on, the private lender has nothing else to do. Simple. Easy. Their next task is approving the payoff when the loan is re-paid. Because the loan process is so simple, and the interest rate so favorable, investors are always begging to re-invest. This truly is a bottomless pool of investment cash.

Don't forget that if you have cash in an IRA, you can also increase the interest you're earning by becoming a private lender. You can not invest in any property or company in which you or your family have a vested interest, but you can invest in the projects of other investors which you know and trust. It's a great way to leap frog your IRA.

Have a rich week,

Lou

Now, Easily find all the real estate funding you'll ever need! This complete system will show you how to acquire unlimited real estate funding, even without using banks, hard money or your own credit! Learn more in this FREE Report!!

Real Estate Financing

Nuance: Can you hear me?

Nuance's quarter sounded better, but can they repeat the
performance? Organic growth was up 36% year over year; when you
add the purchased companies it was up 47%. Integration of Nuance
and ScanSoft appear to be working out better than expected. In
my mind this was much better than expected. The growth and
profoma profit showed a robust surprise. Before the merger,
Nuance and ScanSoft were major factors in the speech recognition
market. Since they merged it appears that the industry has
become less competitive. With less competition there is less
need to discount to win the deal.

The company stated that this current quarter would still have
some digestion issues. This was the first quarter that
speech-recognition revenues have exceeded the slower growing
scanning business. Usually during the first quarter of a merger,
a company has real integration problems. Seldom does a company
report that growth is well above the market and organic growth
is inline with the industry. Voice business services will be
one of the fastest growing value chain segments through 2008,
with a CAGR of 35%. Source: Research and Markets November 21,
2005. The Nuance Speech Recognition Market Network Call Centers
Embedded Mobil Devices Automotive Hands Free Devices Nuance
Company forecasted flat gross margins and believes it will be
able to reduce costs by taking out redundancies caused by the
mergers. For 2006, it forecasts $315-325 million in sales. They
also forecast 29-31c per share in profit. With a forward PE of
22 and 3.65 times sales, this appears to be a company with a low
valuation, especially with a leading position in a 35% growth
industry.



Conclusion More and more states are requiring hands free
calling when driving a car. The networked based voice
recognition call center is often rated higher than operators or
press 1 for x and press 2 for y maze solutions. When you
consider that it often saves companies money significantly over
time, it's understandable why the industry receives such a high
growth forecast.

It appears that voice recognition is starting to receive growth
from the upturn in the high-end cell phone market along with
others. Keeping in mind that some integration issues still need
be worked through, if Nuance can achieve organic growth at
industry levels, in my opinion, this company could be valued
significantly higher.

We offer complimentary email @ research services
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Discolsure I own Nuance in discretionary clients portfolios and
in my own account. Past performance is not a guarantee for
future returns especially since we were rated #2 U.S. Equity,
Large Capitalization Blend, Ranked by 1 year annual return 4th
Quarter 2004, By Money Manager Review