Selling homes and properties may well be one of the most difficult jobs of all time. Discovering what people want and need, finding it for them, and putting the package together so they can afford it is both a challenge and an art. Real estate marketing is part of this pursuit.

This type of advertising is everywhere, and most of it seems pretty much the same. You throw out some photos and some text, stick it in the local print media, and hope that the telephone begins to ring. So far so good, but can this be ramped up a little bit?

Okay, face it, that is boring. The do all look the same, so how can your print ads do better? By leading the reader away from those ads and to your interactive and highly entertaining web site, that is how. Get online where you can pull out all the stops, including music, voiceover, and video tours of the places you are going to sell.

If you can get the user to take the virtual tour, you will be selling them before you even speak to them. While the other guys are waiting for their phones to ring, you have a potential sale sizing up kitchens and bedrooms. This is vital, getting the customer in your space before they see anybody else.

When they do decide to get out and start looking in person, phase two of this plan kicks in. Your bright and shiny smiling face will be there looking down at them. Use billboards and plenty of signs to keep their attention as they drive to your property site. This makes them feel like they know you, and they have a face in mind when they call to talk.

Two of the great ways to outdo the competition in real estate marketing is to go high tech and to go big. While the competition is still using those little tiny print ads, you are in their face and showing them your space. You can step it up for sure.

With the market for new and pre-owned homes definitely favoring the buyer, innovative and fresh real estate marketing ideas are important. Learn more tips and techniques by visiting http://RealEstateCrusher.com .

Banks all require that you provide them with a certain set of documents in a Short Sale package. The following are the documents that most banks all require before they entertain a Short Sale

1.) A hardship letter from the homeowner outlining what is causing missed payments and what the homeowner has done to try to change the situation.

The letter should start with a brief identification of the property, the loan number and a sincere apology for the situation.

Then the homeowner should tell in their own words exactly what caused the missed payments. Extensive medical bills? Job loss? Did the homeowner retire, cutting income substantially? Has an adjustable rate loan readjusted? Is the home underwater on its mortgage? Has the homeowner been transferred to another part of the country and the home is not selling? All of these are valid hardships that can be explained in a letter to the Lender’s Loss Mitigation Department.

Also include a description of any efforts the homeowner has made to resolve the problem. Has a new job been found? Have they eliminated all discretionary spending?

2.) Everyone who contributes to the household income should submit their two most recent pay stubs. This can be payment from an annuity, child support, alimony, and any commission income from the last few months.

3.) The bank will also want to see profit and loss statements and balance sheets from any business the homeowner might own.

4.) In order to get an idea of the homeowner’s spending habits, the bank will want to see your last two months’ bank statements. If the homeowner has a lot of credit card debt, they might be able to get a debt counselor to work with the Lenders to restructure the debt to have lower interest rates and monthly payments or forgive some of the debt altogether.

5.) Tax returns from the previous two years. The bank wants to see these so they can get an idea of the homeowner’s financial security as well as their ability to make good on their debts. This also comes in handy for the bank because they can see if the homeowner has any resources that the lender can tap into if they foreclose on the property and decide to pursue a deficiency judgment against the homeowner.

6.) The bank also wants to see a realistic budget for the homeowner. If the homeowner’s budget is $300 above or below balanced on average, they might be able to restructure their finances if they prefer to save the house.

7.) The bank will also want to see a listing agreement with an asking price. The listing should include the agents normal commission as well as standard closing costs. In almost every case, Lenders will pay closing costs and commissions to agents if they approve a Short Sale.

8.) Your offer. You should also provide the bank with your power of attorney that gives you the ability to negotiate with the bank and list the property with a real estate agent on the owner’s behalf. If you don’t have the documents, you won’t be able to do these types of deals.

9.) Power of Attorney. You must have an authorization form giving you or your negotiator permission to talk to the Lender. This is actually the first document that you should obtain from the homeowner so that you can obtain any special instructions from the Lender before the Short Sale package is submitted.

Just collect these documents and you are well on your way to getting a short sale done!

Learn more about short sale investing. Stop by Bob Massey’s site where you can find out all about how to do a short sale and what they can do for your lifestyle!

You can rule out 50 percentage of the property management software on the market if you focus first on what you ‘really’ are looking for. The two major mistakes lots of people make is (1) buying software that is overkill for their needs or (2) going for the cheapest alternative and getting software that has defects and doesn’t fit their need. Let’s look at the differences:

Overkill: Do you hardship software to cope your properties and your position too? Let your assets management software do what it does best – control estate. For your task accounting and payroll, there are ample of inexpensive yield that are entirely good for both large and small businesses.

However, if you use other accounting software for your office expenses, you may want your rental property software to export your bank deposits and checks to your office management software. Other features that add to the cost that you may not need, double-entry accounting, and tenant background checking. Some features, such as tenant background checking are really done by well-known Internet companies, but the software vendor just buys the service first, and marks up the cost to you.

The prices for property management software can range from $100 to $10,000 (or more), so don?t buy more than you need. However, if you do buy a version that supports a smaller number of rental units, make sure that you can easily upgrade to the larger version at a reasonable cost (hopefully the different in cost between that smaller and larger version) and won?t be required to re- enter any of your precious information again.

Under kill: Anybody with some web software can make an impressive looking web site. But underneath may be a piece of junk software. Look at the product, make sure you can run a full demo, and better yet a ?trial version? that allows you to ?try before you buy?. Make sure the software can do the basic things you need: (1) maintain a separate ledger for each tenant and each owner (2) write bank checks and deposits (3)maintain a vendor file (4) automatically post rent , management fees , and late fees (4) easily update your information.

Make sure the software will handle a mixture of single family homes, and commercial without having to buy further modules. Look for the ability to purchase add-ons, such as work order modules, online rent payment modules, or tax related modules — you may need them in the future as your business grows. Check the cost!

A few things may not be serious in your property management software, but are great to have. These are features, such as a reminder system to maintain track of appointments, log conversations and connections with your tenants, and to pop up a list of tenants and owners that owe you money. Look for the ability of the software to move your tenant detail to an inactive file, so that you can later look up your tenant info for credit references and to log back payments. Look for features such as the ability to automatically update rent amounts, automatically post amounts to every ledger, and to update your account names. Talking of account names, you might want to find software that uses ‘real’ names for your accounts like ‘Rent Received’, instead of an account number, such as ’300021 – Rent Received’.

Layla Vanderbilt is the webmaster for a leading property management solution review website which connects people with the leading property management tools.