Here is a list of things that I did recently when purchasing my latest vehicle to get a good interest rate. You can apply most of these to either new or used car loans.

Always get your financing first before shopping for a car

When buying a new car, if you have financing already in place, it’s much easier to negotiate over the price of the car if necessary. If you are pre-approved, you know exactly how much you can spend and the monthly payment. Try to get approved for a little more than you think you will spend, just in case.

The 0% financing trick – 0% financing or cash back rebate?

Don’t be fooled by 0% financing, unless your credit is almost perfect, you won’t qualify. If you do, you probably be required to pay the loan off in 2-3 years, not 5 like most loans. Be sure you know the amount of interest you will be paying over the term of the loan with your pre-approved amount in advance, because you might pay less total interest than the dealerships financing and want the cash back rebate.

Have your paperwork and check ready before you go

If you get pre-approved online for say $20,000.00, some companies will mail you a blank check and a letter to show the car dealership. This could take a week or more to receive in the mail. If they don’t offer to send it overnight, it might be worth it for you to pay the $15-20 fee. The finance person at the dealership will call the loan company after you’ve made your purchase and advise the amount of the check. Bonus – you will have to sign less than half of the usual paperwork!

Shop Online for a car loan or auto refinance

Whether it’s for a first finance or refinance, the rates you can get these days by shopping online are great. There seems to be more competition and that’s good for you. Make sure you are on a secure page before typing in your social security number.

Consider having an automatic deduction from your checking acct.

I saved ½ a percent on my recent auto purchase by letting the loan company set up my auto loan as an automated monthly deduction. They let me pick the exact day I wanted it. On a side note, if you have a few bills paid this way as I do, you might want to pick the same day for all. It’s easier to remember to write it in your checkbook and make sure the funds will be there when the auto debits hit.

Try to spend within your means

I know this seems obvious to some, but you need to plan on the additional expenses. Call your car insurance company before purchasing the vehicle, and ask for a few quotes for your new insurance premium. You may be surprised that the new Honda you were looking at is classified as a sports car. Better to know in advance than after your purchase. Don’t forget, your registration will be more too.

Refinancing your vehicle can help your credit

If you are having trouble paying your bills and have at least 2-3 years left on your car loan, this can be an excellent way to reduce your monthly expenses. You’ll pay more in interest, but it may be worth it to keep your bills paid on time and your credit score up. Be sure to refinance before your payments are too late or you’ll have to pay higher interest. Also, I would refinance before I made payment arrangements with my creditors if that’s also needed, because you don’t want “payment arrangements″ showing up on your credit report when your trying to get approved for the refinance.

Bad credit auto financing

These days more and more companies are willing to finance a vehicle even if your credit is bad or you’ve had a bankruptcy. You’ll pay higher interest, but again shop around and online. It will be better to get at least an idea of what you’ll have to pay before going to the dealership. You may get approved for 12-16% online and 16-20% at the dealership. If you have time before purchasing a vehicle and it isn’t an emergency, run your credit report online and have it mailed to you. Verify all the data is correct. You may have time to repair an item and get a better interest rate before you buy. See my article on how to do this.

Have you recently started your own home business, but aren’t sure how to handle the finances?  Are you nervous when it comes to business debt, budgeting for the future and balancing your gross/net figures?  Below are some helpful tips to guide you through some of the most difficult tasks of business finance. You can accurately and consistently manage your business finances without a lot of stress if you’ll implement the simple principles below.

Finance Starting Point

In order to manage your home business finances, you need a definite starting point.  This will be a summary of your entire financial assessment for your business. Note of Warning:  Often, a home business finance plan mingles with personal finances.  Try to keep these as separate as possible for tax purposes and to avoid confusion.  Even if you buy something personal with business money, write it down so you’ll be sure not to include it as a business expense.

Your Starting Point Assessment Should Include the Following:

*Most Current Gross Profits/Loss of the Business

*Most Current Net Profits/Loss of the Business (your bottom line)

*Cash on Hand

*Checking Account Balance

*Debts/Loans for the Business (include payments due and balances)

*Assets

*Advertising Funds

*Miscellaneous Items having to do with your business finances

Once you have an assessment of where you stand financially with your home business, you can move forward.  The assessment is not your budget, but it allows you to create a budget based on realistic figures.  Budgeting on a dream is not wise with a business.  You might reach your goals, but what if you don’t?  Set your goals, but only budget for those amounts when you’ve actually reached them.

Creating a Home Business Budget

Most home businesses have a tremendous advantage over larger businesses because operating expenses are normally much lower.  There’s no building rent to pay, additional utilities, etc.  If you stay at  your desk most of the day, you will save on gas, car maintenance, etc. For this reason, it’s usually easier to budget for a home business. Based on what your business has profited over recent months, or your start-up cash if your business is brand new, write down all of your business expenses that need to be paid for each month or year to get a monthly estimate. What about your salary?  The salary must be determined only after your expenses are paid.  If there’s any left, you’ll still want to keep extra cash in your business account for emergencies or unexpected slow times.  You should determine your salary on the low end at first while building your business and stick with your salary amount to maintain a steady budget. For example, if you’re able to take a $350 per week salary in a brand new home business, that’s great!  Many home business owners work a full time job while building their business and take very little (if any) salary. If you have a business checking account or some form of online account for finances, you should deposit all funds into this account and pay your salary out of the account as well as your expenses.  Checking accounts make budgeting a simple process if you keep your checkbook well balanced at all times.

Create a Budget Based on the Following Categories (more if necessary):

Some of these items will be broken down into weekly figures, some monthly and some yearly.  However, you should calculate a monthly average in order to create a general monthly budget.

*Business Expenses (include supplies, equipment, phone, etc.)

*Insurance (business and personal health insurance can be included)

*Taxes (estimated figure from your accountant based on profits)

*Debt Repayment for any business loans

*Advertising (amount will vary, but you can set a minimum or maximum amount)

*Your Salary

Once you have a list of expenses for each month, write down due dates for each, and pay bills as they come due.  Pay on time, but not too early. Your money can sit in your bank account and draw interest in many cases while waiting on due dates.

Budget with Slow Times in Mind

Just because you have tremendous profits one month, this doesn′t indicate that you can raise your salary.  Leave money in your account for those slow times.  Also, budget in advance for payments which are due yearly.  It’s much easier to save a little each month than to be surprised with a large bill later. Following the simple budgeting guide above will enable you to keep an even pace while managing your business finances.  Handle your finances with care because this is the lifeline of your home business.

So you′re ready to go House Hunting…you have a Realtor, you have your down payment, and you′ve put on your favorite walking shoes…now what? Well first of all, congratulations! Today is a wonderful time to buy real estate. It’s truly a buyers’ market, so now more than at any time in the past decade, your dollar will really stretch nice and far. That’s the good news.

The challenging news is that because of a little sub-prime mortgage drama, obtaining a home loan now lies somewhere between “difficult” and “giving up your first child.” But rest at ease…lenders don’t really want your kids. And all of us at SANTAMONICA-REALESTATE.COM are here to help you. We have three great useful tips designed to not only help you get your loan, but also to make sure your offer looks as good as possible, so that you’ll soon be reading articles like this, in the home of your dreams!
 
TOP THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO DO

1. GET PRE-APPROVED

The first item of business is to get pre-approved! Pre-approval is basically finding out how much house you can afford, and how you′re gonna afford it. Time and again home buyers set their sites on a dream house only to find out they either can’t afford the home, or the home gets sold to another buyer who was pre-approved and could therefore move faster into escrow.

To get pre-approved, first pick a reputable mortgage lender. If you don’t have one, ask! At REALESTATE-SANTAMONICA.COM, we have a number of lenders we trust…we′re happy to point you in the right direction.
Now that you have a mortgage lender, you have the person who is gonna help make your home owning dream a reality. This person is almost as important as the Realtor. So give him or her all your financial information: how much money you earn, how much is in the bank, how much you owe, etc.

The mortgage lender will run your credit history, so all of this information will come up anyway, but it’s always nice to just be upfront with your lender during the initial conversation, so that he/she can begin helping you right from the start! You will soon know how much you can comfortably spend on a home…and you’re that much closer to going on your first House Hunt!

2. GO FULL-DOC

The next item of business is to ask your mortgage lender to pre-approve you with full financial documentation. In the real estate business, we call this “Full Doc.”

Before the sub-prime mortgage situation, many mortgages were given to home buyers based simply on their credit score (this is called your FICO score) along with their earnings statement (your W-2 tax form). These loan approvals are commonly known as “stated income” loans.
Many of the homes going into default now are owned by buyers who were “stated income” and banks are understandably wary about approving loans this way.

To make sure you get your loan, and your perfect house, we are recommending that you go “Full Doc.” This process takes a little longer than just simply getting you pre-approved with your income, credit history and debt. Going full-doc actually requires the mortgage lender to go through your tax history for the past two years to determine your true actual income.

Why go “Full Doc”? When you start writing offers on homes, the listing agent and the seller will want the home to go to the most qualified buyer. They will not want the home falling out of escrow because the buyer really couldn’t get financing based on his/her pay stubs.
Time and again I’ve seen listing agents and sellers go with offers that were for less money, but were from “Full Doc″ buyers. So go the extra mile…it may save you money when you buy your house!

3. PROOF OF FUNDS

We’ve saved the easiest tip for last…show “Proof of Funds.” In short, “proof of funds” is showing both the listing agent and the seller that you truly have the money on hand that is necessary for the down payment and the closing costs.

Because many loans now require more of a down payment than loans of the recent past, it’s becoming more and more important to show that the buyer has available cash.

This “proof of funds” can be anything from a bank statement to a retirement account. It’s just anywhere from which you can draw the liquid cash available to complete the transaction.

To many experienced home buyers reading this article, this tip can seem really like a “so what” type of thing. But the truth is, in today’s challenging real estate market, anything you (the buyer) can provide the seller to show that your offer is serious, and that you really have the money, will separate you and your offer from all the others.
And as I mentioned before, I have seen many offers that were for less money get accepted because the offer included full documentation, and proof of funds will only help strengthen your offer.

So remember, now more than ever offers are being accepted from buyers who may not necessarily have the highest offer, but from buyers who can close the deal!

Happy Hunting, and remember that REALESTATE-SANTAMONICA.COM is just a click a way!

Sometimes to set-up fresh and small ventures, handsome finance is required. You might also be planning the same. But the toughest hurdles are the insufficient funds with you. If you are thinking of borrowing a financial helping hand from any external source, then considering the small business finance is the right option. Small business finance gives you the flexibility of availing a loan i.e. with or without letting use of collateral. And because of this reason it is classified into secured and unsecured loans.

Based upon these two forms, all the provisions of Small Business Finance are unleashed. Individuals looking for a huge amount can approach for the secured loan; on the contrary, candidates reluctant to pledge collateral can consider unsecured loans. Reimbursement terms and loan amount is calculated on the use and equity of the collateral. Moreover, taking all issues and bad credit category of persons into notice interest rates are calculated at economical rates.

Despite all this, you can make the small business finance in your favor by following some steps. These tips are provided after taking into account all the pros and cons of small business finance. Applicants while approaching lenders for small business loans should rationally plan and furnish the propositions of the intended business. Applicants should cater their investments and returns in a well defined manner.

Furthermore, the simplest and quickest way of approving small business finance is the online application method. In less time span, you can hear positive results by filling the online candidature with accurate details pertaining to credit and personal profile. Small business finance release funds to meet demands in numbers. And under a single loan you can purchase heavy machineries, commercial sites, renovation of office, buy stationery items.

So, small business finance is the gate way of establishing and expanding the business activities towards an expected horizon.