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Your home can serve as your primary residence and you can purchase additional property as an investment. Most people do not pay cash for home investments but require an investment home loan. An investment property may provide you with the following benefits:

Cash Flow – If you rent out your home investment – and your income from the rental exceeds the cost of your home loan – then your investment property will be said to have a positive cash flow. This is the goal of every investment home.

Renting or Flipping properties create cash flow. Rental properties offer a reliable stream of cash flow. Make sure your property is in a good location and well maintained. As a landlord you will have to consider the needs/expectations of your renter. If renting is not for you, then you can purchase, repair, and resell the property for a profit. This is called Flipping. Do your homework here to make sure your repairs to not force you to price your home above the market value of other homes in your area.

Return on taxes – You can deduct your mortgage interest on multiple mortgages, up to $1 million total. The only requirement is that the loan was used for buying, building or improving a home. Your lender will provide you with a Form 1098 which details how much mortgage interest you paid. To get your deduction, fill out a Schedule A under “itemized deductions” on your tax forms.

Home mortgage interest deductions can also include late payment charges and pre-payment penalties. The only requirement is that they were not for a specific service received in connection with your home loan.

Figure out the total amount of real estate taxes you paid and deduct this as well. Your interest statement should list this number for you.

Appreciation – As you home increases in value, so will your net worth.

If the cash flow, return on taxes and appreciation benefits sound attractive to you, and you are ready to secure an investment home loan, talk to a bank to determine if you quality. You will have the following investment home loan options available:

• Fixed-Rate Mortgages

• Jumbo Loans

• Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM)

• Interest-Only Mortgage Loans

• 100% Financing

• Conforming Loans

• Conventional Loans

• Second Mortgages

• Subprime Mortgages

• Hybrid Mortgages

• Government Loans

Fixed-Rate Investment Home Loans – The mortgage payment will remain the same over the lifetime of the loan. This protects you against rising interest rates and mortgage rates.

Jumbo Investment Home Loans – A Jumbo loan is any loan over $417,000. Jumbo rates are usually a quarter of a percentage higher than a conventional loan.

Investors looking to purchase a second home are scrutinized more closely by the banks when applying for a second home loan. If you already have a first home loan then you can expect to pay up to one-quarter to one-half point higher for your second home loan than on your first loan.

The good news is that investors who desire a second home loan are profiled as having a better portfolio that a single home buyer, which means that most banks are happy for the business.

What Options do you have for a second Home Loan?

At this time, with interest rates so low, many banks will ask you to take out a home-equity line of credit (also known as a HELOC) on your primary residence, to fund some or all of your second home purchase. This might be a good idea, but you should compare rates. If you have to repay your HELOC loan at a higher rate than you would getting a new loan for the entire amount, then it’s not a good decision.

If you do decide to move ahead with a HELOC, be aware that you will not be able to get a mortgage interest deduction on your second home loan. Rather, you will get a home-equity interest deduction, but this is capped at $100,000. A mortgage interest deduction is up to $1 million of debt on a first and second home combined.

And, if you think you can decide later to change your HELOC to a mortgage later, you will be surprised to find out that the IRS states that you have just 90 days from your purchase date to lock in a mortgage against a principal or vacation residence. If you don’t get a mortgage rate within 90 days then you will not be able to deduct your mortgage interest, if you should get this loan after 90 days. So clearly, you need to consider at the very beginning whether a HELOC is a wise decision.

What if you are buying this second home to rent it out? The lender will want to see proof that you are going to generate some cash flow. If this property has been a rental in the past, then they will want to see a cash flow statement showing its rental history. If this will be a first time rental, then an appraiser can help to determine the expected rental rates of similar homes.

Of this expected cash flow, the bank will only take into consideration about 75% – 80%. Banks want to be very conservative here, because they want to make sure that you are going to be able to pay back the loan and that you will want to pay back the loan.

When you have found the home that you want and are ready to secure a home loan, make sure that before sign the final docs, you compare home loans. Your loan is negotiable and with good preparation you can get the terms and rates you want.

To begin, you should first shop for loans with different lenders. These could be commercial banks, thrift institutions, credit unions or mortgage companies. Each bank, credit union or thrift will give you their rate. A mortgage broker represents many lenders so they can provide you with several quotes to compare. Be aware that a mortgage broker is not obligated to find you the best rate, so you still have to shop around and compare for yourself. You should consider contacting more than one broker. When you work with a mortgage broker, they are going to get paid a fee for their service, which may be separate from the lender, so be sure to ask your broker how they will be compensated.

In order to compare home loan quotes, you’ll need to get the following information from each lender.

Rates –Find out if the rates quoted are the lowest for that day or week. Find out if the rate is fixed or adjustable. Fixed means you pay the same amount each month for the lifetime of the loan. An adjustable loan means that your monthly payment will change, up or down with interest rates. Also find out about the APR (annual percentage rate.) This will include broker fees, points and certain other charges that may be required to pay, expressed as a yearly rate.

If you own a home and want the cheapest home loan possible, the Obama Administration has recently unveiled a new program for current home owners called Making Home Affordable.This is a program where you can modify or refinance your existing home loan to reduce your monthly loan payment to a cheaper amount. You can get immediate help at the Homeowner’s HOPE hotline at: 888-995-HOPE (4673).

There are 4 programs to get you the cheapest home loan available.

The Home Affordable Refinancing – If your loan is held by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac and you want to refinance into a more affordable mortgage – this program is for you. In order to qualify for this program you should be making your mortgage payments on time.

Home Affordable Modification – If you are having a hard time making your monthly mortgage payment, possibly due to a job loss or increased interest rates, and need a cheaper loan this program may be right for you. In order to qualify, you will have to show proof that you will be able to make the lower payments. One question to see if you qualify is “Is your payment on your first mortgage (including principal, interest, taxes, insurance and homeowner’s association dues, if applicable) more than 31% of your current gross income?”

Social media SEO – generating traffic from Facebook.com, Linkedin.com and others is a critical part of building your personal as brand while growing your business. The following tips will help you maximize your business presence on Facebook!

First of all, consider the simple fact that search engines rate and rank every based on its content; this applies to social media pages like Facebook as well.

Here are some pointers to help you apply best SEO practices to your business Facebook page, in order to generate interest and grow your e commerce enterprise:

Use your main keywords! You should begin by identifying your most powerful and effective keywords, and then integrate them into your content on Facebook. Don’t overdo it, or you might get blacklisted. But do make a point of optimizing your Facebook content with a few great, relevant keywords.

Take advantage of multiple media. For instance, if your e commerce website sells kitesurfing equipment, how about adding a funny or informative video about kitesurfing, or something similar? Almost everyone now has DSL or broadband, so not having a video because you fear many users won’t be able to view it is not really a major concern. Tag the video with your keywords and you’re using SEO wisely!

Don’t forget that one of the benefits of having a business presence on Facebook is the reciprocity. Because Facebook actually hosts your page instead of your own website, you can literally double the coverage by linking the two. Link your Facebook page to your website’s Home page, and vice versa. This will go a long way toward increasing traffic to your e commerce business!

By making the most of your social media marketing efforts on Facebook and employing good SEO practices, you will be helping to build your brand, establish your reputation, generate traffic to your small business website or other Orange County e-commerce business, as well as keeping an ear to the ground for what is being said about you!