Enjoy this guest article about zero interest credit by business funding expert Ari Page…

The old adage is that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Browsing through your mail, you’ve likely come across no interest credit solicitations from various institutions and wondered how they can do that. In the case of zero interest credit, the adage actually doesn’t apply.

To understand how they can do it, you must consider how banks operate. Modern banks operate through the use of short term financing and interbank loans, which are used for lending and, in turn, profitmaking. In other words, if a bank isn’t lending money, it isn’t making money. Since the great recession hit, interest rates have remained at historic lows and banks have been able to borrow at near zero percent from the Federal Reserve. Banks will then lend funds out through a variety of products, with a variety of terms. Again, with rates at historic lows, banks are able offer better rates to their customers. Continue reading →

On Thursday night, February 2, I’ll be giving a presentation about tax lien investing for the Northwest REIA in Portland Oregon. To find out more about the Northwest REIA and how you can attend this meeting contact Dave Metsker at primefinancial@frontier.com.

While I’m in Portland, I’ll be giving some in- person live consultations. If you live in the Portland OR area this is your chance to get some one-on-one coaching with me. Here are just a few of the things I can help you with:

* Find the best place for you to invest
* Find the best strategy for you
* Help you filter a tax sale list
* Help you do due diligence on tax sale properties
* Find the tax sale information
* determine how much bid on properties

The possibilities are endless!

I have availability on Friday. To book a consultation with me go to http://taxlienlady.com/coaching/live-consult.

I am not a real estate, or financial professional. So I’m not going to make any predictions about the stock market, or the economy. However, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that since the stock market has been unpredictable and volatile, real estate and tax lien investing have become more popular with the masses. More institutional buyers have jumped out of the stock market and into the real estate and tax lien investing market in a big way. This has made investing in tax liens, and investing in real estate very competitive. The other factor that has contributed to this phenomenon is that interest rates were kept extremely low for a very long time.

The prime rate is the rate that banks charge each other for borrowing money. This is also the rate that banks base their loans on. Although it is not set by the government, it tends to follow the rate that is set by the Federal Reserve. This rate has been kept close to zero for the last 7 years. Last month the Federal Reserve increased it’s benchmark for Federal Funds Rate by a quarter percent to a range between 0.50 and 0.75. This in turn effected loan rates. The Fed has also indicated that there could be 3 more rate hikes this year.

What do the rate hikes mean for the tax lien investing market?

In my opinion, this will help the tax lien investing market for the individual investor. The banks and hedge funds have jumped into the market because they can make more interest with a certain degree of safety with tax liens than they can in most other investments. What they did not count on is the work involved. On top of that they bid down rates extremely low, because it still beat what they could get over lending their money out. But when rates increase they will be able to make more money on other investments and loans.

Hopefully for all of us tax lien investors this will mean less institutional buyers in the near future. But it could take a couple of years. The Fed is likely to raise the rates in very small increaments, so it could be a couple of years before we see a rate increase of more than 1%, and we’ll probably need to see even more than that before it has an effect on the tax lien
market.

And what about the real estate market?

Will this rise in interest rates hurt the real estate market? In my opinion, it will actually stimulate the market in some areas and could hurt it in others. In markets where houses are overpriced, and in markets that haven’t hit bottom yet, it will hurt. In markets that are
starting to recover, it will actually stimulate the buying of houses. People will want to hurry up and buy their next home before the next rate increase. I see that happening right now in my local market.

What do you see happening in your local market?

I’ll be keeping my fingers on the pulse of my local markets and let you know what I find. If you have any feedback in your market, you can always register on this blog and post your comment here. Let us know what’s happening in your local real estate, tax lien investing, or tax deed investing market.

Here’s my tax lien investing review for 2016 and what’s ahead for me and my students in 2017. What’s your plan for 2017?

Here is my assessment of what’s been happening with tax lien investing this past year, what’s ahead for the future of the industry, and what I’m currently doing to insure profitability with my investments. Continue reading →