Loans

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – A civil rights commission’s report that criticizes the Justice Department’s handling of a voter intimidation case was delayed Friday when one of the commissioners walked out of a meeting in protest.

He called the commission’s planned vote on whether to approve the report a “kangaroo court” against the Obama administration.

The Justice Department is accused in the report of allowing the New Black Panther Party to intimidate white witnesses during a 2008 election in Philadelphia.

The Justice Department dropped its suit against the group, a fact some political analysts say could hurt the Obama administration’s public image and jeopardize Democrats’ chances during the Nov. 2 election next week.

The heavily conservative U.S. Commission on Civil Rights was scheduled to vote on whether to approve a draft copy of the report on the Philadelphia incident. A vote of approval would mean it could be used as evidence for any follow-up investigations or hearings by Congress.

However, Commissioner Michael Yaki, a Democratic appointee, walked out of the meeting, leaving the commission without a quorum.

A quorum of five commissioners is required under U.S. Commission on Civil Rights rules to approve reports or take any other official action.

“It’s not my responsibility to make a quorum for this kangaroo court,” Yaki told reporters after he walked out of the meeting. “They want to score political points against the Obama Justice Department.”

Yaki is a former senior adviser to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The report accuses the Justice Department of failing to protect white voters from intimidation and being “at war with its core mission of guaranteeing equal protection (under) the laws for all Americans.”

The report was written by the majority members of the commission.

They denied political motivations for accusations in the report. They also accused the Justice Department of refusing to turn over evidence and telling witnesses not to cooperate with the investigation.

The civil rights commission is scheduled to meet again next week and try again for a quorum vote on the 131-page report.

The year-long investigation leading to the report resulted from an incident in which two New Black Panther Party members wearing paramilitary uniforms were videotaped in Philadelphia in 2008.

One of the men carried a nightstick as they stood outside the polling place on Election Day.

No voters filed complaints but conservatives were outraged when the videotape ran on a local television station’s news broadcast the next day.

The Bush administration’s Justice Department sued the two men in uniforms, the New Black Panther Party and its chairman.

The lawsuit still was pending when President Obama took office.

Shortly afterward, the Justice Department dismissed the claims against three of the defendants and obtained a narrowly-defined injunction against a fourth.

The civil rights commission’s draft report said the Justice Department engaged in “repeated attempts to obscure” the role of political appointees in the lawsuit dismissal.

It also said the lawsuit dismissal raises “questions about what the [Justice] Department is trying to hide.”

The report was compiled from media reports and testimony from two Justice Department attorneys.

A Justice Department spokeswoman denied the agency makes decisions on who to prosecute based on race. She also said the Justice Department turned over about 4,000 pages of documents to assist the civil rights commission in its investigation.

View full post on Politics Stories

New York, NY, United States (AHN) – U.S. markets finished higher Friday amidst mixed economic data. The move came a day after stocks closed out the strongest September dating back to the 1930′s.

The Dow Jones Industrial average rose 41 points or 0.4 percent, trading in positive territory the majority of the session as 22 of 30 Dow issues finished Friday’s session higher. The move puts the blue-chip index in the green to start the month following the 8 percent rise in September.

The S&P 500 added 5 points or 0.4 percent as nine of 10 major economic sectors finished higher Friday. Energy names led the way, adding 1.3 percent, while tech was the lone laggard, down 0.1 percent.

The Nasdaq Composite added 2 points or 0.1 percent as semiconductors weighed on its advance. The Philadelphia Semiconductor index shed 0.3 percent on Friday.

On the economic front, the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment survey posted a reading of 68.2 for September, above estimates for 67. Shortly after, the Commerce Department said construction spending in August rose 0.4 percent, which was better than the 0.5 percent decline expected.

However, the Institute for Supply Management said its index for September dipped to 54.4 from 56.3 in the prior month.

Earlier in the week, the Commerce Department released its final estimate on third quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP), reporting 1.7 percent growth in the economy, topping estimates for 1.6 percent.

Crude oil finished the week strong, adding 2.2 percent to $81.58 a barrel. The commodity rallied 7.5 percent on the week, its best performance since mid-February.

Next week’s market will see a slew of headline economic data beginning with August pending home sales on Monday and concluding with the September unemployment rate on Friday.

View full post on Economy, Business And Finance Stories

photo credit: Graffiti By Numbers

I recently wrote an article about the the best ways to raise private money for real estate Investors where I laid out the top 4 ways to raise private money to grow and develop your real estate investing business. One of the top 4 ways we use and teach to our students is to use group presentations.

A private lending group presentation involves getting 5 to 20 people into a room and doing a presentation where you lay out the details and benefits of your private lending program. This may not be for everyone depending on your comfort level of talking in front of groups, but the advantages of group meetings are very powerful. When people start to ask questions and tell positive stories, a certain level of group think starts to take effect and can be very powerful on the attendees.

We teach our students to focus on the preplanning and marketing, presentation materials and post-meeting follow up as the key to conducting a successful meeting and getting people to invest in your business.

Preplanning and Marketing – We put preplanning and marketing together because they must be done together. (more…)

photo credit: badjonni

One of my newsletter members recently asked if using a list broker was a good source of marketing leads to attract private lenders and, if so, how is it done. The answer is yes but with several precautions.

Precautions

It is important to understand that I strongly recommend that marketing for private lenders is done on a local and low key way. I do not recommend any sort of website advertising or newspaper advertising because it can be viewed as a solicitation to an unsophisticated investor and attract calls from your state’s SEC. You do not want one of these calls!

The SEC and state authorities monitor Craig’s List and other similar bulletin boards for people doing unauthorized advertising for private lenders. (more…)

photo credit: ericskiff

First – Determine how much money you need to acquire a certain property and be sure to include the purchase price, closing cost and complete renovation costs. If you do not know the renovation cost be sure to make your best estimate so you do not leave these out.

Second – Start to market for private lenders. Make a point to tell everyone you know and meet “that you investing in discounted real estate investments and are looking for investors.” Show your potential private lenders how to start investing passively in investment real estate. You can also use other marketing strategies such as sending out post cards to wealthy people or putting up flyers in 55+ communities.

Third – You will need to create a presentation kit to educate your potential private lenders to the power and security of investing in discounted real estate. Essentially, position them as “the Bank.” (more…)

photo credit: TheTruthAbout…

When considering financing through a private mortgage lender, you must first locate a private lender with an interest in your particular real estate venture. Private lenders are ordinary people who are willing and financially able to fund your real estate venture by means of their own assets. You can locate private lenders through networking with others in the business, asking for referrals, or making a public presentation to a group of potential private money lenders.

Assuming you have located the private mortgage lender, you will need to set up a meeting to negotiate the terms of the private mortgage loan. Keep in mind that the private lender you choose can secure funds for you through a commercial institution or through personal assets such as bonds, stocks, or cash. You will want to negotiate terms that will present a win-win situation for both you and the lender. (more…)

photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

If you have tried to get a traditional mortgage, or even a hard money loan, to finance your real estate investments you know how hard it is to get loans in today’s post-credit bubble market. It is even harder to get “no money down” loans for your real estate investing business. If you are using traditional mortgage or hard money loans they can take two or three months to close. The problem you will quickly discover is that sellers are not willing to wait that long and get angry at having to continuously extend their contracts or wait for your loan approval.

Banks and mortgage lenders view mortgage loans to real estate investors as a higher risk than loans to home owners. They believe if the home owner is not living in the property and if trouble hits an investor will opt to pay their own home mortgage first and only pay for the investment loan if they can afford to make the payments. This puts the bank in a very poor position. As a result, most banks are looking for real estate investors to put up 30% to 50% down payment to protect their interest in time of trouble. VERY few investors have this kind of cash so it is very difficult or impossible to do deals with traditional mortgage or hard money loans. (more…)

photo credit: epicharmus

f you are a real estate investor and need funds to finance your real estate deals, or are looking for money to cash out of deals, there is really only ONE option in today’s market conditions. That option is a private lending program where you allow private individuals who have extra money to invest in your real estate investing business.

But with the current popularity of private lending, we are seeing our coaching students and subscribers making a number of mistakes and thought we would highlight the top 4 mistakes and what to do to avoid them when borrowing money from private lenders. (more…)

photo credit: Medmoiselle T

A private mortgage lender is essential to the success of your real estate venture and your business relationship with the lender during the life of the real estate loan. For many real estate investors, working with the right lender means the difference between a sweet deal and a deal gone bad.

Many real estate investors opt to work with private mortgage lenders to escape the bureaucracy involved with the conventional lending process. The global real estate market is competitive and often the speed of the transaction is crucial to the success and outcome of a real estate deal. (more…)

photo credit: lumaxart

Recently I wrote an article about the 4 Ways to Raise Private Money for Real Estate Investors where I laid out the top 4 ways to raise Private Money to grow and develop your real estate investing business. One of the 4 ways we use and teach to our students is one-on-one breakfast meetings.

If you are not comfortable with group meetings – one-on-one breakfast meetings are a great alternative. I generally recommend a breakfast meeting in a quiet restaurant where you can have 30 to 45 minutes of time with your prospect. At these meetings you need to lay out your private lending program and benefits of investing with your company. (more…)