The problem is that there is a lot of conflicting information out there about how to repair your credit score, and some of this information is just flat out wrong. Then you have the thousands of guys who want your money before offering any information at all, and outright scammers on top of that. The good news is that while there is no guarantee that every person in the world can upgrade their credit score ‘X’ number of points in ‘X’ amount of days, for most consumers with bad credit in the low to mid 500s or even worse, there are definite ways you can repair your damaged credit score quickly, and 120 points or more isn’t out of the question.

Step #1: Stabilize!

Some of you might already have done this step, but for those who haven’t this is critical. Don’t overpay all your credit card bills $20 a month when you have an old $150 bill sitting in collections. That doesn’t make any sense. The first part of quickly turning around your credit score 120 points or more is to stabilize your current situation.

This means every single bill needs to be paid on time every month. If you have bills that are 120 days or more overdue, pay them or work out a payment plan to avoid those from going to collections. If your bills are 90 days overdue, keep them from going 120. Same process with bills that are 30 and 60 days overdue, and especially for bills that are late, but haven’t hit that 30 day mark where most get reported.

Some credit bureaus have your history of on time (or not) payments account for up to a third of your entire credit score. Even if you’ve been bad about this, paying all your bills on time for even a few months after a long history of not can show immediate dividends for your credit score. On the other side, getting hit with one 30 day overdue mark can drop you 50 points or more in one hit.

Many other credit scores have the 30 day mark account for up to one third of your credit score, so do not let late bills hit this bench mark. Once you are stabilized so you are at least paying all of your bills on time, add an extra penny to credit card bills, car loans, mortgage loans, bank loans, or student loans.

This is my favorite trick for helping out the credit scores of really cash strapped consumers. Your credit score records if you pay on time and if you pay the minimum or pay more. You get more positive points on your credit score for paying more than the minimum, but most credit scores don’t differentiate between whether you pay $100 a month extra, or one penny a month extra. Those extra pennies can add a nice little boost to your credit score.

Step #2: Check Your Credit Reports and Clean Them Up!

Every consumer is entitled to one free credit report from each of the three major credit reporting bureaus per year. Order all three and take a close look at them. A conservative estimate says that over 30% of all credit reports will have errors of some type on them. You will want to remove all the incorrect information immediately, especially if you have a common name. It is not uncommon for someone else’s information to appear on your account

Have all incorrect information removed. For some people, this action alone could result in a 120 point jump if someone else’s negative information is on your account. Getting your credit reports to reflect on you specifically is the first step to fixing your credit score. There is a second part to this step, one that involves advice given by many credit repair “experts” who give the wrong advice (we’ll correct the myth here).

Many will give advice to challenge every negative item on your account. Unless you only have one or two black marks, do NOT do this! First of all, it will set off a red flag. If your requests get marked as frivolous, then not only will legitimate problem accounts not be removed, but they can prevent you from challenging in the future. This means if you have a negative account that hits the 7 year mark and should therefore be removed, but isn’t, you have no way to get that black mark removed even though by law that’s your right.

If there are one or two accounts you do question, do ask for evidence of these late charges. That’s the key. Don’t categorically deny that this is your debt, but ask for evidence. If the company doesn’t respond in a timely manner, the challenged mark is removed. But never challenge more than one or two accounts at one time unless there is an actual concern of identity theft.

Step #3: The Magic of 50%

One of the biggest factors of anybody’s credit score, and perhaps maybe the most underreported, is the “magic” of the 50% mark. A huge part of your credit score at any given time is amount of credit you’re actually using as opposed to your total credit available. So if you have $10,000 in total credit card limits, and are using $9,000 of that, then you’re using 90% of your credit, which is really bad.

That percentage is a huge factor in your credit score. Everything above 50% is considered poor (and gets worse the closer to your limit you get) while everything below 50% is considered good and improves your credit score. This is figured on BOTH an account by account basis, as well as total over all debt. So even if your overall debt is too high to quickly pay under 50%, you can still improve your credit score by paying enough off several small credit cards to knock them all below that seemingly magical 50% line.

Credit score wise, it’s better to pay $400 to three small credit cards and get them all below 50% than to pay $400 to a large credit card (say an $8,000 used out of 10k available). You then will get extra points on your credit score for those three small credit cards that are under the 50% line. Eventually you want to get all your debt under this line, and once you do the effect is immediately noticeable on your credit score.

Another way of accomplishing this if you don’t have a lot of money to ask for a higher credit limit from companies you have a good payment history with. If you’ve missed payments, they won’t agree, but if you have a good payment history, many will. You might owe $300 on a $500 credit card, but if your credit limit is bumped up to $800 then you’re already under 50%. Not only does this help your score on that card, but it adds to your total credit, meaning you’re filling up less of your total credit, as well.

Step #4: Not Falling for Myths and Using Common Sense

In the end, there is no trick for improving your credit score if you are going to keep charging and spending more and more. The other advice to keep in mind is to avoid these common credit score myths:

1. Closing an old credit card account helps you credit score. This is a myth. After paying off a credit card you want that account to stay open, especially for older cards since length of credit history is critical to your credit score. Pay off the card, but do not close the account.

2. A debt consolidation loan will help my credit score. Actually, in the beginning this will hurt your score not only because of the addition of a large new loan, but also because it indicates trouble with debt. In addition, many people will then use their credit cards, digging themselves into a hole yet again. Consolidation might help with paying off debt, but it does NOT improve your credit score the majority of the time.

3. Common sense: stop using credit cards. You can’t improve your credit score while constantly adding to your balance. It’s just not possible, and anyone saying otherwise is trying to scam you.

Follow these four steps, and you will be able to see a huge bounce in your credit score in a very short time, even up 120 points or more.

Thomas Boston, Principal of 825credit.com is a personal finance expert and consumer credit advocate who specializes in responsible credit management and creation. He helps clients for free to reverse damage done by identity thieves plus late payments, chargeoffs and collection accounts. He can be reached online with comments, ]]> http://www.excelfinanceblog.com/repairing-damaged-credit-scores-how-to-raise-your-score-120-points/feed/ http://www.excelfinanceblog.com/tic-lenders-for-joint-real-estate-ventures/ http://www.excelfinanceblog.com/tic-lenders-for-joint-real-estate-ventures/#comments Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000 funkitty Due to the sudden influx in real estate demands, many who are into the business noticed a sudden rise in prices among different real estate properties around the world. The clamor over these real estate properties are going on a record breaking high despite its normal price range.

To cope with this scenario, many real estate investors and individuals are looking for partners in real estate acquisition. This joint venture is best described as Tenancy in Common or TIC. This kind of venture allows individuals to pool their resources together to purchase one or more properties to further expand their business, or to maximize profit quite impossible to achieve as a single individual.

This kind of venture is quite popular with its ability to reduce the financial risk of the parties involved. Other advantage includes minimizing the business expenses of each co-owner by sharing it with the rest of the group, depending on the percentage shares of each individual. This further reduced the risk of over-financing the business over unnecessary expense.

Fractional loans

TIC lenders have formed a consortium regarding the idea of fractional loans which allows co-owners to individually initiate mortgage from lending firms; which can be paid individually depending on the allocation of shares in joint ventures. TIC lending firm offer different rates, like interests, depending on the scale of the business of these TIC ventures.

A co-owner can engage in a separate loan with TIC lenders which involves a signed note covering the individual’s share in the property, along with a deed of trust of covering the co-owners share. In case of a defaulted loan, TIC lenders can immediately foreclose the co-owner’s share without affecting others in the process, unlike those in group financing by other lenders. Many TIC groups are now aiming for TIC lenders who offers fractional loans to minimize the risk of tarnishing the company’s image through bad credit, or worse, terminating the business..

Since its advent roughly around 20 years ago, many private lending firms pushed the idea of TIC lenders to various individuals in the joint venture. These lending firms now offer individual notes and finances for fractional vacation home developments, which is on the rise since the steady influx of tourism.

Many TIC lenders such as banks and other private firm’s look into the possible profit to be had in fractional loans, as opposed to normal loans engage in home development and business refinancing. Considering the low-risks involved in such a venture, many TIC lenders recognized the possible growth to be had in profit and capital gains through this individual specific loans for tenancy-in-common organizations.

Kathryn R. Landry is a business writer for TIC Advisors, Inc. A company that can give you the most complete information on a 1031 exchange or TIC property ownership.

For instance, let’s say you were looking for a fixed annuity. If you work with an agent who has a bias towards variable annuities or gets paid more for selling variable annuities, you may end up with something that doesn’t fit your needs. Also, if you end up with a banker or financial advisor who does not do a good job at addressing your financial needs and concerns, you may end up with the investment of the day instead of the investment that’s right for you. And by the time you realize it, it may be too late.

So how do you get help with your annuity? First and foremost you must help yourself. What is really good is to take inventory of where you are currently and where you want to be. Look at your current investments and your goals. Take a snapshot of your financial situation. This may sound elementary but most people don’t do it. But the key is to do it before you seek help from an outside source.

Look, the reason is simple. The more you know going in, the better the chance that you will get what you want. Doing your financial homework is a critical piece of getting the right help. A good financial advisor will ask you to help him understand you so you can help him to help you. This is crucial to your financial future. Getting help with your annuity or your investments means helping yourself first.

The most important aspect of this comes at the time you need to make a financial decision about your annuities or your investments. If you know what you want, you will be able to figure out what you don’t want. For example, if you want safety of principal and the advisor offers you a variable annuity, you can easily say no because you know that won’t fit your goals. Also, the opposite is true. If you don’t know what you want, you may know what you don’t want and that may be a good place to start.

The bottom line is annuity and investment help begins with yourself. Understand your financial situation, your time frames, your needs for liquidity, and your goals. The specific investments and annuities you will use to accomplish your goals will come second. The more you help yourself, the more likely it is you will end up with the right annuity. Good luck and remember…

Ignorance is not bliss…

Now that you know more about how to get good annuity help, learn more about that shocking secrets about your annuities that your agent doesn’t want you to know by visiting AnnuityMD.com

Tony Bahu is author of the controversial book, ‘Annuities: The Shocking Truths Revealed.’ More information can be found at AnnuityMD.com

Adverse credit loans almost always mean that something must be held as collateral for the bank or lending institution. In other words, when you are thinking of applying for adverse credit loans, there must be something that you own which is worth money and can be promised to the bank in lieu of your payment. This, then, is put up against the adverse credit loans as proof that you will be able to pay your adverse credit loans.

If you do not make all payments for adverse credit loans according to the specified payment schedule, then the bank takes whatever collateral you set up. In most cases, with adverse credit loans, the collateral is a home. Homeowners have a big advantage over those who lease or rent apartments, because the equity in their homes allows them to apply for adverse credit loans when absolutely necessary. However, homeowners also take an obvious risk when applying for adverse credit loans, because it is very possible they could lose possession of their homes if they are not meticulous with their repayments.

Adverse credit loans will normally have a higher rate of interest than other types of loans. This is simply because adverse credit loans are much more risky to the bank. Even though one should expect adverse credit loans to have a higher rate of interest, it is worthwhile to look around at different rates offered to you by other lenders. If you look on the internet, you can usually even see many places that offer adverse credit loans, and it is very easy to compare adverse credit loans and their rates from the computer.

Applying for adverse credit loans may also be done by phone. Both of these methods have considerably shortened the amount of time that it takes to apply and be accepted for adverse credit loans.

When arranging the terms of adverse credit loans, it is important that the borrower make sure the monthly payments are in instalments that he or she can easily manage. Adverse credit loans are risky in that they are usually last resorts, and if credit problems are not cleared up, adverse credit loans could actually turn disastrous. No one wants to lose his or her home or anything else that is put up for collateral with adverse credit loans. Before applying for adverse credit loans, it is advisable that the borrower plan a financial budget and make sure the state of his or her own finances is in order.

James Copper is a writer for http://www.any-loans.co.uk/no-credit-check-loans.shtml where you can find out about loans with no credit check

Donating a timeshare is more beneficial than trying to sell without success so as much as possible when you put a vacation home for sale, do it for your count. If your timeshares for sale has been in the market for too long without selling, think of giving it to charity to save you maintenance expenses. You are sure to spend more on your vacation home if you leave it for a long time in the marketplace. A intelligent move would be to consider offering it to charity.

A timeshare resort must be given with a copy of the signed notarized record of the ownership change or transfer. It is your responsibility as a buyer of timeshare to furnish a copy of the ownership change document to the resort. Do not make them demand for it before you give it to them. A resort must never be left in the dark when there is change in timeshares ownership.

You do not always have to expect to sell your timeshare at the price you bought it. You are likely to sell your timeshare at a less cost that what you had used to buy it due to the value at the moment. The time changes and value of timeshare changes along with the time. So, in some cases, you may be able to sell for more or less than the cost you bought your timeshare. To make the best deal out of it, try to access relevant information and try to sell your vacation home during peak seasons.

If you find ‘timeshares for sale’ is not beneficial for you, why not go for renting business? Renting timeshare property is what most people are making good cash from. Because many people do not like hiring hotels for their vacation at present, they are always in need of timeshare property on hire.

Doing your research is the best advice when trying to sell your timeshare property. Do not walk blindly into the real estate market to offer your timeshare for sale or else you will lose out. Having enough and substantial information at your fingertips before getting started will make you handle scenarios better when looking to sell your timeshare.

For more information, visit http://www.timeshareclassroom.com/

When a client places cash into his or hers account, the bank will invest it for themselves. They will credit your account with the sum you deposited with them, but the actual cash will have gone to earn more interest than you will get. The chances are you will leave the cash in the bank without taking it out, or taking out only a part of it. But if you did want to take it out, there is cash from other depositors which can be used to deal with it. Providing there is no situation where everybody wants their money out at once, the banks have nothing to worry about on that score. They make money with your money, and they pay you a bit as well, so you are happy.

This all works very well unless there is a time when people fail to meet their obligations, and do not keep up the payments on their loans. Banks expect the odd case here and there, when someone cannot pay because of a bad investment or sudden personal difficulties. When there is a situation due to certain economic problems which can cause trouble to thousands of people to meet regular promised repayments, the matter is serious because cash must keep coming for the banks to keep the show on the road. Without that expected cash, the machine can stop. Liquidity is the vital.

To understand it better, imagine that you need money and you get cash advances from a credit card which we will call A. When you reach the credit limit you will have to make a minimum payment which you have not available, so you decide to get cash from another credit card B, and when that is due to be repaid, you use credit card C and so on. There comes a time of course, when you run out of credit cards and you have to make repayments from somewhere. Unless you sell the car or an item of some value or obtain a loan from some good fairy, you are going to go under.

The banks have an easier task, inasmuch that they can turn to the central bank to borrow money to get them over their liquidity problem. Nobody wants to allow a run on a bank, since it can trigger off other stampedes. It is a bad idea to cause people to lose faith in the banking system as a whole. In other words, it is not prudent to allow banks to go to the wall, and help will invariably be found, unless there is absolutely no other way.

We are now reaching the point when shortage of money available to the banks spells out shortage of money available for them to lend out.

As a consequence for instance, the housing market gets slowed down. When the house prices suffer, it is largely because the borrowers cannot get the money to make a purchase and not because they do not wish to buy. And even if the prices go down further, they will still not buy, simply because they will still find it hard to get a mortgage in the present climate.

As usual, at the end of the day, people who have cash money will be able to snap up some real bargains and wait until conditions change and make their profit. The bargains will be available in America as well as here and in other parts of the world.

While banks make money from your money, they earn a little for you as well. They also provide a number of services without which, life would be hard. However, you must not belittle your role in all this, meaning that although you need them, they certainly need you!

Things were going right for a large number of people for quite a time when money was cheap and easy to find. Until such times reappear, it is the turn for the smaller number of people with ready cash at their disposal to step in soon.

These lucky people, will find terrific deals waiting in the offices of friendly and good realtors in USA, in the UK, on the Continent, as well as in other parts of the world. Based on realistic prices, a lot of the properties will be sold in the main to cash buyers able to get their foreign currency from the foreign currency exchange companies at very good rates, especially if they phone around for the best deal. Yes, cash is King.

Paul Dubsky is director of Foreign Currency Exchange & Transfers Ltd. The company is focused on being able to offer really friendly currency exchange rates and international money transfers. We believe we are the only Foreign Currency Exchange company which offers special rates to Senior Citizens.

Plan ahead
The overwhelming number of vacation possibilities available in the United States alone can make planning a vacation stressful in and of itself. One way to narrow down your options is to first decide on an overall tone or goal for your trip. Looking for relaxation? Consider renting a cottage by the lake or near the shore. Feeling adventurous? Try a camping and white-water rafting trip. Interested in fun and education? Check out the battlefields of Colonial Williamsburg or head to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

Another way to narrow your search is to decide how far you’re willing to travel, and work back from there. If you hate flying, plan a trip that’s within driving distance. Remember, with careful planning, the route you take to get where you’re going might just be half the fun.

Simplify, simplify
Traveling a great distance is no guarantee of a successful vacation. When planning your trip, remember that vacations are about relaxing and enjoying the company of your travel companions after all, you’re more likely to create memorable moments if you plan your trip around the people involved, not particular places or activities.

Two words: off season
If your vacation budget is tight, keep in mind that many top vacation spots offer discounted rates outside of peak travel dates. Typically, the off season runs from September through March once the temperature starts to rise, so do the rates. But you don’t have to completely rearrange your travel schedule to get a better rate even making minor adjustments, like traveling mid-week as opposed to on the weekend, can help reduce travel costs.

Go local
When traveling, particularly somewhere you’ve never been, there’s no better resource for must-see attractions and great food than the locals. Sure, striking up a conversation with a complete stranger isn’t the easiest thing to go, but hey, you’re on vacation. Part of the fun of visiting a new place is experiencing its unique culture.

Be prepared
Nothing can ruin a trip faster than some unexpected problem, so it’s best to be prepared for anything (that is, anything you can reasonably expect may happen). If you’re heading out into the woods on a camping trip, do a little research into the area to make sure you’re well aware of the potential dangers, and plan accordingly. This may simply entail packing a snake bite kit, poison ivy cream, or extra water filters. If you’re taking a road trip, make sure you have a backup plan in case of a break down or flat tire.

Regardless of where you’re headed, it’s a good idea to make photocopies of your drivers license, credit cards, proof of insurance, etc. anything that could end your trip prematurely if lost or stolen. Planning ahead will help reduce the risk of facing an unexpected delay, expense or other problem along the way.

Pack light
Vacations are about relaxing and letting go of the day-to-day stresses. Why burden yourself with unnecessary luggage? Airlines are now charging baggage surcharge fees, and extra luggage in the trunk of your vehicle will affect your gas mileage by roughly 2% for each additional 100 lbs. That extra weight will increase the wear and tear on your brakes, too. Plus, carrying around unnecessary weight will likely to drag you down emotionally as well, so take a load off (literally,) and pack light.

Flexibility is key
Regardless of how thoroughly you prepare for your trip, you never know what might happen while you’re on vacation. Both good things and bad can take you by surprise it’s important to take both in stride. Just because things may not go exactly as planned doesn’t mean your trip is ruined. Stay positive, and remember that a vacation is not defined by location, itinerary or even budget. Ultimately, it comes down to attitude. If you plan ahead and remember to relax, you’re certain to have a successful vacation, regardless of where you end up.

Ki is a realtor in central Texas. His website has information on the different Austin MLS areas along with a graphical Austin MLS Search and updated information on mortgage interest rates.

These days more and more credit cardholders are using their credit card to make payment for routine things like food, grocery, clothing, utility billing and automatic services. This, in the long run allows individual to rack up an enormous amount of credit card debt. In short then the credit card has become a wonderful vehicle for living beyond your means. That is of course until you run out of credit and things begin to crumble around you.

Credit card debt is one of the worst forms of credit to own as it usually after a low rate introductory period bears high interest rate and a comparatively low minimum repayment. This means you can rack up a lot of debt and then spend the rest of your life repaying it. If you maintain minimum payments on an 15k credit card you will take from 16 to 22 years to repay, depending on minimum allowed and the interest rate you are paying.

If you have decided to repay credit card debt more quickly, you are really making best financial decision of your life. You will find many debt consolidation and debt management companies who will help you to wipe out this debt easily.

When using credit card debt consolidation it is useful to let your advisor know that interested in a credit card full and settlement option to wipe out your credit card debt. This will involve your advisor negotiating with the credit card companies to get a lower settlement figure in return for a one of payment clearing the full balance. Your advisor will charge for this service but may well be able to secure savings of 20% - 40% on your true balances.

Here are some of the advantages to being able to wipe out credit card debt with a full and final debt settlement programme.

First of all you should be very cautious while choosing a debt counselling company. Check their reputation by looking at some of the internet forums dealing with debt. A bad debt management or debt counselling company cannot hide from the forums and you will see plenty of entries if they are not reputable Don’t forget to ask as many questions of the advisor as you can bring to your mind before agreeing to anything Remember you are taking very serious decision in an attempt to wipe out all of your credit card debt.

Wipe out credit card debt with debt settlement and get following advantages:

1. You can save 1,000s in comparison to other credit card debt elimination methods.

2. Your credit card debt can be wiped out in under 2 months.

3. You have far more control over the process than with many other methods, where you are dependent on an advisor or insolvency practitioner for long periods.

4. You maintain your solvency and have no scars or black marks on your credit record.

5. Full and final debt settlement represents an honest and ethical alternative to an extreme solution.
6. You are left with one monthly repayment at a lower interest rate on a reduced balance.

If once you have decided to choose full and final debt settlement as a tool to wipe out your credit card debt, you can go alone or seek professional help. Both options are open for you, but despite the costs you will 99 times out of 100 be better off with professional help

Good luck on your road to debt freedom!

Geoff Hibbert provides tailored debt management solutions and credit repair services through his websites http://www.thedebtmanagementcompany.co.uk
and http://www.creditrepairuk.co.uk

In fact, you need to have a plan if you need to build your wealth. You will need to do it step by step. It may take you more than 20 years to do so. However, at the end of the day it is worth spending the time and putting the effort. You can retire without worrying much about money. Otherwise you may need to work even in your 70s.

First of all, you will need to set some goals. Let us talk about what a goal is. For example, “I would like to become rich as soon as possible” is certainly not a realistic goal. You need to make your goal concrete and realistic. Saving $10000 in five years is certainly a very concrete goal.

You will know what you should do after you have set your goal. Taking the idea of saving $10000 in five years for example, you will need to save something like $167 a month if you would like to have $10000 after five year. Of course you will be ending up with more money if you can really save $167 a month since you will get some interest from your saving. From this you will know the importance of setting a concrete and realistic goal.

Another thing is that you need to find ways to make more money and pay off your debt. One of the ways to make more money is to get a part time job. This will probably be the easiest way for you to make more money. However, you may also consider some investment in order to make more money. For example, you may consider investing in the stock market in order to make more money.

In order to pay off your debt, you will also need to have a concrete plan to do it. If you know that you will be able to pay off your debt in three years when you repay $300 a month, you should do so. Determination is the most important if you want to pay off the debts. Otherwise there is no way for you to pay off all your debts.

It is not difficult to plan for your future. What is actually difficult is to put it into an action plan. Yet you have to fact it and do it if you would like to be financially free in the future.

The author has great interest in finance. You can check his blog on Financial Planning and Personal Finance. Be sure to check Credit Card Relief Tips and Finance Your Education.

Owner builders are individuals who wish to save a lot of money by eliminating the costs of hiring a general contractor. Therefore, owner builders manage the construction of their own homes. They don’t necessarily have to do any of the labor themselves to be official owner builders. But, owner builders must oversee the planning and construction.

Because owner builders are often inexperienced in many aspects of residential construction, let alone project management, it is easy to take some invaluable lessons from owner builder construction and apply them to business project management.

Owner builders make many basic mistakes. Learn from them to refresh yourself on some project management basics.

1. Owner builders often underestimate the amount of time required for their construction project. What’s the lesson here? Always add an extra 15% to your project timeline to create a safety buffer.

Most owner builder construction loans provide a minimum of twelve months for owner builders to get their home built. Yet, most owner builders think they are going to be completed with construction within six to nine months.

Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for owner builders to blow their timeline and often use more than the typical twelve months allotted in the owner builder construction loan.

Of course, the timeline error is due to other management errors that occur during the construction project, but the lesson remains valid. Just like owner builders should overestimate the amount of time needed for a project, so should anyone professionally involved in the project management industry.

2. Owner builders constantly fail to underestimate the importance of the planning phase of a project. Similarly, anyone involved in project management should regularly remind themselves that the project planning is more often than not just as important as the actual execution of the project.

Owner builders typically fall into the trap of wanting to rush through their planning and budgeting in order to get to the physical construction of the home. Unfortunately for the owner builder, this means that they have no accurate budget numbers and no sub-contractors lined up to build their house.

It sounds basic and simple. It is basic and simple. For the owner builder who makes this mistake, he will lose precious time and money during the actual project as he scrambles to find any sub-contractor who will do the required work.

If the owner builder had taken the time during the planning phase, he would already have the sub-contractor lined up and under contract. There would be no scrambling. There would be no desperate hiring of under-qualified, over-priced sub-contractors at the last minute.

Think about how this owner builder example applies to any project. It doesn’t matter if it’s residential construction or any other project management field. The planning phase is as important as the execution phase. Your time is well spent during the planning. If you enter the execution phase properly prepared, you will save yourself time and money.

It’s true for owner builders. It’s true for you.

3. Owner builders often make the mistake of failing to thoroughly inspect the work of sub-contractors. In the project management industry, you live and die by your follow-up and inspection of the work that is being done.

One of the ways in which owner builders fail to properly inspect their sub-contractors’ work is that they don’t do a secondary follow up after some time has elapsed after the initial completion of labor.

For example, an owner builder may think he’s doing a good job of managing his construction project by inspecting the work of his plumber once the rough plumbing has been completed. If the plumbing checks out okay, the owner builder will often make the mistake of paying the plumber in full.

However, what happens once the HVAC mechanic goes to complete his portion of the work? What happens when he finds plumbing errors that the owner builder didn’t find? If the plumber is already paid in full, it is almost impossible for the owner builder to get the plumber back out on the job site.

Therefore, all owner builders would save themselves a lot of heartache if they did a secondary inspection after their initial inspection. Think of it as a double follow-up. By waiting an appropriate amount of time to perform the secondary inspection, you give yourself (and other people on the job) a chance to find any flaws that may have been initially missed.

Thus, before you mark a specific phase or evolution as complete, wait an appropriate amount of time. Perhaps you shouldn’t call a particular phase complete until the subsequent phase is satisfactorily in progress, showing no ill effects from the first phase.

Overall, the mistakes that owner builders make are very simple. Thus, the project management lessons are pretty basic. Yet, they’re vital. Owner builder construction is a great way to refresh yourself on the core basics of successful project management.

Chris Esposito helps owner builders manage the construction of their homes and save money by cutting out the costs of a general contractor. Through the Owner Builder 101 program, he provides the nation’s premier owner builder construction loans. Learn more at www.OwnerBuilder101.com.