1) Hardship letter

2) Borrower financial statement

3) Two years Federal Taxes

4) Last two months Pay stubs

5) Three months bank statements

6) Short Sale application form

7) Short Sale Listing Agreement

8 ) Purchase and Sale Agreement

9) Appraisal

10 Estimated Closing costs (Hud-1)

11) Verification of “Arms Length Transaction”

When we got right down to the wire, she didn’t have the emotional energy to search through boxes of old records to produce all the documentation the bank required. I am not too sure I blame her; however, it is essential to know what the differences are between a short sale and a foreclosure. She opted to let her house go to foreclosure and it is scheduled to be sold at auction next week.

How long do you have to wait to buy a home after a foreclosure?

A buyer with a foreclosure on his record will have to wait between two to seven years to purchase another home:

VA Loan: 3 years

FHA: 3 years

USDA: 3 years

Fannie Mae: 7 years

Freddie Mac 7 years

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae acquire almost half of all home loans and FHA acquired another 30%. The risk you are taking if you let your house go into foreclosure is the following:

1) Significant damage to your credit which may take years to clear up.

2) A longer waiting period before you can buy again.

3) Having to move when the sale is scheduled as opposed to controlling the timing if you do a short sale .

4) A deficiency judgment (see below).

How long do you have to wait to buy a home after a foreclosure?

VA Loan: 2 years

FHA: If you are current on your mortgage, FHA will allow you to purchase another home immediately, but the conditions are rather arbitrary, such as requiring you to move more than 600 miles away from your previous address. Otherwise the wait will be three years.

USDA: 3 years

Fannie Mae: If you have never been 30 days behind on your payment, and if the bank does not require you to repay the loan, Fannie Mae guidelines would allow you to purchase a new home immediately. The chances of finding a Mortgage Company who will fund that loan are very slim, however. Otherwise, the wait is two years.

Freddie Mac 3 years

What are the benefits of doing a short-sale over a foreclosure?

All in all, just based upon the time needed to buy again and the relative damage a foreclosure does to your credit compared to a short-sale, it is almost always better to do a short-sale. Here are additional benefits to a short sale over a foreclosure:

1. You control the transaction, not the bank. You can dictate the timing of the close (within a reasonable amount of time) and have more time in your existing home than if the bank forecloses.
2. You have control of who buys your home. The offers are submitted to your realtor, not through the bank, so you can try to get a nicer neighbor into your neighborhood to benefit your neighborhood.
3. You will save yourself from the social stigma of a foreclosure which is a public document and can be seen by virtually anyone.
4. You can handle the process just like any regular home sale, and the bank will pay the realtor’s fee. For more information, go to housingindustry.com

There is one important consideration that could be the deciding factor in the foreclosure/short-sale decision. In some states and under certain circumstances, the law allows a lender to recoup their losses from the borrower after the foreclosure sale. This is called a deficiency judgment. A deficiency judgment is the difference between what the bank sells the property for at a foreclosure auction along with costs compared to what the borrower owes on the home. For example, if you owe $100,000 and the bank sells the house at auction for $80,000 and it has incurred $10,000 in attorney’s fees then the deficiency judgment would be $110,000 – $80,000 of $30,000. It is always best to check with an attorney, but a deficiency judgment could compound the tragedy of losing your home by adding an additional large debt to your financial burdens. Overall, I advise my clients to do a short sale whenever possible.

Blogging is basically a campaign which is run to connect with the customers and establish trust with them. Blogs are short web pages that frequently update and arrange small posts written in an informal manner date wise. The post highlights tips, tools, strategies, expert advice and experience that help wholesale suppliers in successful operation of their business.

If wholesale suppliers or distributors or manufacturers have a proper website and they run a blog in addition to it, they can drive huge traffic from the blog on their main site though link building and can drastically increase their conversion rate. Moreover, hosting posts regularly in the blog would help them in earning a name as an industry expert. The readers normally read the posts and then leave their comments. If the wholesale suppliers reply to their comments, this increases their chances of building relationships with the prospects which can increase their sales incredibly.

Business blogging is also a low cost alternative to having a web presence for those wholesale suppliers who are not operating though online stores. There is no need to hire a web designer and learn difficult html language in running a blog, since blogging easily gets you recognition on the internet without it. Moreover, when you need to update your blog, you don’t need to call the designer, since it is easy and wholesale suppliers can do it themselves.

Business blogging is quite helpful in winning prospects and increases your business profits. All just you need is to assemble your thoughts in a post, link to your landing page, publish the post and connect with the customers. Above all, business blogging also requires frequency of writing. Decide the number of the posts you would publish in a week and stick to the plan seriously, since this is an essential factor to build a strong and valuable readership.

Those who say setting up a business in Dubai is a piece of cake, are really wrong! When you are going to step into a business industry of some new country, you need to stay on the top of the business news, industry trends, competition and even the laws and rules of the country. The entire process is quite time consuming and hectic. For those, who want to set up there business shops in Dubai, I am explaining some prerequisites that would definitely help!

Find a UAE sponsor! – Unless you would open your business in the free zones areas in Dubai, you are always required to have a UAE sponsor against an ongoing fee or the percentage of profit. Requirement of a sponsor is a condition of the law and it is an effective way to open up a business in less cost, since free zone areas are quite expensive. The best places to find sponsors are the Trade fairs, which take place all the time in Dubai.

Identify opportunities! – After that, you must identify an easy to exploit business opportunity that may bring in more money. Some of the businesses, which you can open in Dubai, are real estate business, travel packages, franchising business, childcare business, nightclubs and online auctioning business. You can also purchase Dubai shops in the renowned business areas of Dubai for smooth business operations.

Understand basic laws! – Once you have arranged a sponsor, it’s the time to understand the basic laws and regulations that would govern your business in Dubai. You must register your business and obtain trade license according to the nature of your business. Again business registration is not easy since you have to choose a sponsor with lots of contacts to help you in registration process.  

Learn Arabic Language! – Language barrier prevents many businessmen to set up their businesses in Dubai.  Arabic, the language common in the UAE, is a tough language and for every businessman in Dubai, learning it has become necessary. Even if you can’t speak Arabic, you must hire some Arabic speaking employee temporarily to settle all the important matters of the business with the government institutions.   

Some wholesale suppliers think that designing a business card is not a big deal. This is wrong, since designing a compelling and effective business card is quite crucial. I am discussing the three major things which wholesale suppliers must look out for while designing their business cards.

Hire a business card print professional – Since you are not a graphic designer, it is not recommended to print your cards yourself. It’s always wise to hire some wholesale business card professional, since poorly printed business cards never attract prospects. But before selecting a professional, research the printed cards of various printing companies, check out their quality, and designing to have an idea. You must also compare the rates of the various card printing companies and finalize the size and color of the business card. Then select the one which best suits your budget as well as quality requirements.

Select information to present on the card – Once you have selected the design of your business cards in consultation with your professional, it’s the time to decide the brief and accurate information about the company which you would present on your business card. Read the business cards of the various companies to get an idea of the type of the information you should present on the card. Extract all the information which you want to present to your prospects and summarize it in the best possible way.

Check the quality of card before payment – Once you have decided the complete layout of the card, ask the printing company to print limited number of cards with in the specified time. Make sure you order less number of cards in the initial order to avoid risk of wrong printing. Once the cards get print, look at their fonts, color and quality of the paper used in the printing. Once you are satisfied that cards have been exactly printed according to your specifications, release the payment. After this you can place your second order consisting of large number of cards.

I hope the effective business cards would help you to get massive customers for your wholesale products. Wish you a happy business card printing experience!

Trade shows are mostly held in the lobbies or shopping malls, which are easily approachable to the customers as well as vendors. Attending a trade show requires time starting from keeping an eye on the trade shows being held from time to time to the registration and preparation for attending a trade show. However, this time is worth the investment because of the advantages of attending a trade show. Besides numerous other advantages, the two reasons why wholesale suppliers must considering attending trade shows include the following.

To win new customers – Since winning new customers in today’s business environment is quite tough, trade shows provide best opportunity to display the wholesale products directly in front of their target audience for better exposure.

Several retailers attend trade shows in order to hunt better deals with respect to price and quality. If your product has the potential to meet their requirements, presenting it in a good way along with offering discount to the customers can give you a life long loyal customer base.

Even if you are not able to sell at the trade shows, you can distribute your business cards and some samples free to the people. If they would ever need your product in future, they would contact you directly.

To study competition – Never forget the saying, “Keep your friends close but your enemies closer.” Your competitor and other industry specialists also attend the trade shows and try to hunt as many customers as they can. Conducting a survey of their stalls helps you to learn their marketing style, marketing strategies, price, and even quality of the product. If you want to check their product in detail, you can also secretly purchase their product to know about the price, quality and other features of the products.

If you see your competitors are taking a lead in selling their products to the customers during the trade show, note down their style of marketing and evaluate how it is different and more effective than yours. Studying your competition directly on the trade show allows you to trim your selling and marketing strategies for getting a lead over your competitors in future.

Mostly B2B suppliers create their brands to reduce the impact of price on the purchasing decision and encourage more buyers to purchase from them. The branded items are high priced and the extra price customers pay for the items is the price of the brand name. Branded companies though have less sales, yet they always enjoy an edge over non-branded companies. This is because their less number of sales leaves them with enough profit due to the high price of the items.

Building your brand is an effective strategy to take a lead over your competitors and enhancing the reputation of your business. However, brand building takes time and dedication. Its not complex, all what wholesale suppliers need is the laying of smart foundation through a series of following steps.

1. Before thinking of creating your brand, always make sure you have a superior quality of products or the services to offer to the customers. This is because the high quality of the products is the prerequisite to create and maintain your brand.
2. Identify the single feature of your wholesale products or the services which must be unique and no body else in the market is offering it. Once you come to know about your real differentiator, consider it as your competitive advantage, and deal it in the same way.
3. After that, choose an appropriate brand name, which must not be generic and inauthentic. It should strictly be according to the nature of your business. As brand name defines the focus of the business, including the company name in the brand name is not compulsory.
4. Now you have a compelling differentiator and an impressive brand name, so you must create a catchy tagline and an unforgettable logo. Use a single or short word message, which can create lasting impression on the minds of the customers.
5. Creating a logo or the tagline is not enough, in order to protect it from copying, consider trademarking. Trademarking your logo or tagline strictly prevents other companies to use the same message to lure customers towards their offers.
6. Creating and maintaining your brand is of no use unless you market it, since brand recognition is the real key to success. You can market your brand through internal publications, packaging, merchandising, trade shows, events, promotional items, and sponsorships.
7. Besides marketing your brand, always pay due consideration in meeting your commitments with your customers. This is because even the brand alone does not work if you are offering poor customer service and the inferior quality of items against the customer’s hard-earned cash.

This is true businesses can never bring recession to the end through their individual efforts but they can fight against it through various tricks in order to survive in the tough business environment. The tricks, which wholesale suppliers can use to adapt to the recession and minimize its affects, are described below:

Reduce your debt

Wholesale suppliers must reduce their debt, since the more is the equity of others in the business; the more are the chances to suffer from recession. During recession, businesses have less sales and meeting the monthly loan instalments out of the limited revenue become hard. Moreover, if the creditors ask for the money, suppliers have no other option than to dispose off their assets to pay off their loans, which can end in complete liquidation of the company.

Change your strategies

Wholesale suppliers must shape their strategies to survive during recession, since the strategy adapted during good times normally do not work in the recession times. If supplier is dealing in more than one wholesale products’ lines, they should shift their focus towards their most profitable product line. This is because the resources are always used efficiently through shifting your focus on the most profitable products. Besides that, suppliers must cut short their expenses and only focus to win as many clients as they can.

Purchase insurance

Wholesale suppliers during recession times must try to reduce their risk. If they have no business insurance before, this is the right time to purchase it. If wholesale suppliers have already taken insurance policies, they should better increase the amount of their monthly instalments. This is because during bad times, a company is never in a position to afford even a minor lawsuit because it can eat up their billion of dollars. Taking insurance policies allows you to meet your monthly loan payments on time and provides complete coverage of lawsuits expenses. In this way, the long-term viability of the company is ensured.

Tips to get free traffic from “You Tube”

1. Since there are millions of videos on the “You Tube,” wholesale suppliers will have to go to the extra mile to bring their video in notice. Always make interesting and useful videos that may have the potential to go viral. If your videos have the potential to go viral, people will automatically promote it for you through video sharing.
2. You must build up an interesting business profile on the “You Tube” just as you build up your profile on Facebook and Twitter. This is because those viewers who like your videos are likely to visit your profile and if they find your profile attractive and appealing, they are likely to land at your business website.
3. Pay special consideration to video making because the only key to make a viral video is by providing value in it. Do not forget to include your company logo and URL and always try to include it in the start of the video since they are your real promotional tools, Video should not be blurred having crappy sounds, make it clear and visible.
4. You video should always be short, not more than 5 minutes long and should highlight all the main features of your wholesale products briefly. It is better if you post videos in a series or if not possible, post them after regular intervals of time because this enhances customer’s loyalty.
5. Posting comments on the related videos of your niche is a very wise idea to get free traffic on your business website. Make sure you search the videos related to your niche and respond to them as an expert. Never try to use your comments as self-promotion sayings to lure more customers towards your website.

“You Tube” is a great way to get huge traffic free of cost on your business website. This huge traffic increases your conversion rate and gives a tremendous boost to your revenue.

On the other hand, sellers want more sales since the high competition costs are biggest threat to their survival and to bear that cost, it is necessary to have more sales. Businessmen devise strategies that sometimes favour buyers in terms of availability of the product at less price and sometimes favour them in terms of more profit. However, low cost marketing strategy is the only strategy that favours both buyers and sellers at the same time.

Low cost marketing strategy!

It is a marketing strategy, in which wholesale suppliers set a very low profit margin on sale of one unit and offer it at rock bottom price to the customers. The customers in order to win huge bargains and discounts start shifting to them. When so many customers buy from them, the small profit margin they earn on the single unit accumulates to give them the equal profit they expect by selling at a high price to only few customers.

How it benefits suppliers?

First, wholesale suppliers do not need to spend lot of dollars on beating their competitors. Price conscious customers automatically shift to them and once they are satisfied from the value they provide to them, they can always expect repeated sales and referrals. Moreover, though suppliers sell at rock bottom prices yet their profit margin does not decline because selling at large leaves them with the equal or sometimes even more profit.

How it benefits buyers?

This strategy directly benefits buyers since they are in a position to buy wholesale products at less cost. This strategy makes even those buyers able to have products, which they could not think of having before. The availability of goods on large scale improves the living standards of the people and pulls the economy out of the vicious circles of the poverty. Several businesses implementing this strategy can run the economy on the path of economic development.

Valentine’s Day is a heart felt holiday on which customers spend lavishly to celebrate the love and affection for other people. They buy gifts for them and hang out to make them feel special and loved. For wholesale suppliers this event is a tremendous opportunity especially for the gift suppliers to increase their leads.

With such an intense competition in the market, gift wholesale suppliers face difficulty in engaging new customers towards their new valentine’s offers. To make most out of this event, you need to engage customers, this is because valentine’s sales are made only in mid-December and January and the customers who purchased gifts last time, forget from whom they purchased last year. Wholesalers need to remind and engage valentine’s customers from the scratch. Do not worry if you follow these ideas, you can win many valentine’s orders.

Offer special discounts

When other gift wholesale suppliers are busy in promoting their expensive gifts, win the customers by offering them massive discounts. Though the huge discounts will not boost your profit from a single sale yet you would win multiple orders and the small profit accumulating on every individual, orders will leave much larger profit for you. There is also a chance that you may get orders from the same cost conscious buyers next year.

Make special gift packs

People consider the value of the pack having multiple gifts in them more as compared to the sum of the their individual parts. Make special gift packs consisting of soft toys, chocolates, romantic perfumes, heart shaped balloons and other gifts and wrap them in beautiful baskets with ribbons because they attract customers more, especially who are variety conscious.

Organize special contests

If you can advertise a special greeting card or a contest, it would always be a better idea to win more orders. You can sponsor a love song; it also draws retailer’s attention towards your wholesale products. You can organize a contest featuring couples and the winner can be the one who will propose in the most creative way. Moreover, you can also send event related material to your target audience just like promotional gifts.

Just try these three techniques this time and I am sure this Valentine’s will bring surprise for you in the form of huge sales. Wish you good luck to make most out of the most romantic day of the year.