eNJBusiness.com reaches milestone

eNJBusiness.com has reached a milestone by reaching 4million visitors www.eNJBusiness.com (a division of eFinance Portal of New Jersey, www.efpnj.com) provides a unique platform for submitting personal business & social content, local, state and national news, events, services and products that affect the citizens of New Jersey, while providing a platform for financial literacy. It is viewed through a free consumer, patent-pending, interactive, multi-cultural Financial, Business & Educational News Portal and Search Engine, according to Alan Chokov, Founder & CEO. Membership is complimentary, and it provides the unique ability to create multiple profiles, management of your own account to submit business & social content (and to over 50,000 defined categories with supporting internal search compatible results; 150 interactive features; 17 industries and related venues of interest), directly to the Portal, within seconds of your confirmed submission, in your written languages of preference… 24/7. It supports 99% of the world’s spoken languages. Members control viewable duration, sponsorship and online placement throughout the site. All content submissions are archived, editable with feedback features. This is channeled through all of the Portal’s categories, features, industries and components. Users can choose their Industry news by clicking on the Industry Icon located on the Home Page. This equal opportunity Portal, “Where News Has More Than One Perspective”, was designed to offer dynamic content in multiple cross-industry venues, submitted by our Members and other related disciplines. This is then matched to corresponding keywords/categories by the Portal’s six internal search engines to provide additional learning experiences for the consumer. Consumers can also search Members through the same process. Developed exclusively for New Jersey, a state that is home to over 140 ethnic groups, ranking 3rd. in the country for diversification. Plans include representation in all 50 states individually, since each is unique in their Member participation and content. The Portal has received over 4million visitors…and counting. For further information contact Alan Chokov, Founder/CEO at 877.424.6568 or by email: alanchokov@efinanceportal.com Alan Chokov, Publisher - For more Marketing/Social Media News, go to the Home Page of www.eNJBusiness.com and click on link.

Tax Lien Investing?

Posted by Alan Chokov, eFinance Portal of New Jersey, www.efpnj.com Here are some frequently asked questions raised by readers about tax lien investing. Q1: How can I buy tax liens or tax deeds without going to the auction? A: In most states you have to attend the auction in order to bid, or have a representative there to bid on your behalf. But there are 2 ways that you can purchase a tax lien or deed without physically going to the sale. A few states do have online auctions, but not all counties in these states conduct their auctions online. Usually just the larger counties do. Many counties in Florida, California, and Arizona have online tax sales. And I know that some counties in Colorado and Illinois have online tax sales as well. Another way that investors have bought tax lien and tax deeds without going to the sale is to bid on left-over liens, this can usually be done through the mail. The only problem is that as tax lien and tax deed investing become more popular, there are less and less good properties left-over after the tax sale. Q2: I don’t live in the US; can I still invest in Tax Liens or Tax Deeds? A: Yes, in most states you can invest in tax liens and tax deeds even if you are not a US citizen and do not live in the US. There are a couple of states that you have to be a resident of the state to invest, but these are not the most popular tax lien states and they don’t have online sales. All you have to do in order to purchase a tax lien is to fill out a tax form called a W-8BEN form. In order to complete this form you will also need to apply for an Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN) if you are bidding in your own name. If you are bidding using a business name, you must apply for an Employer Identification Number (EIN). This is only for tax liens. You do not have to do this to participate in a tax deed sale. Q3: So how much money do you need to get started with tax lien investing? A: The beauty of tax lien investing as opposed to tax deed investing and other types of real estate investing, you can start with a very small investment. The first very profitable tax lien that I purchased started with an initial investment of only a couple of hundred dollars, on a small sewer lien. Then I was able to pay the subsequent sewer taxes the next couple of years and instead of trying to foreclose I just kept paying the subsequent taxes. After a couple of years, the homeowner moved out of state and stopped paying the taxes on the property, so then I got to pay even bigger payments $5000 over the next couple of years. The lien finally redeemed and I collected 18% per annum on most of my investment plus penalties. Q4: How often do you acquire the property with tax liens? A: In the state of New Jersey where I invest, very, very seldom do you get to foreclose on the property. If you are interested in owning property than tax deed investing or redeemable tax deed investing is the way to go. Only about 1% of tax liens will not redeem and of those properties, once you start the foreclosure process about 80% will redeem sometime during the foreclosure process. I’ve been investing for about 6 or seven years and I haven’t foreclosed on a property yet. I do have a couple of liens that I could start foreclosure on right now, but I know that when I do, they will redeem, so I just let them go. I know some investors who have foreclosed on a couple of properties, but either it is not recent – we’re talking a few years ago when property values were not what they are today and it was much harder to get a loan, or they have a really huge portfolio with thousands of liens. Q6: Are there risks involved in this type of investing? What are they? A: Yes, there are risks involved and that’s what the gurus leave out, they make it sound so easy. They like to use the term “Government Guaranteed” to make people think that they can’t go wrong with tax lien investing, that the government guarantees that they’ll get paid on a tax lien. That’s really not true, what they mean by “government Guaranteed” is that there are laws that protect the investor but you not guaranteed to get paid. The guarantee is the property. Tax Liens are guaranteed by the property that you have a lien on, so if you buy a tax lien on a worthless piece of property, then you made a poor investment and it is possible that you could lose your money. Yes, there is risk involved, but that risk is minimized by doing your due diligence on the property before you purchase the lien, just like you would do due diligence on property before giving someone a loan against it. If you do your due diligence properly than tax lien investing is a very safe investment because it’s secured by something tangible, not just a piece of paper. Q7: Can you invest in tax liens and tax deeds in your IRA? A: We all want to keep more of those profits for ourselves and not give half of it away to Uncle Sam. The good news is that you can use money in your IRA or Roth IRA to invest in tax lien certificates or tax deeds, but only if it’s a true self-directed IRA. With a self-directed IRA, your profits can grow tax-differed, and with a Roth IRA, your profits can be totally tax-free. Alan Chokov, Publisher - For more Real Estate News, go to the Home Page of www.eNJBusiness.com and click on the link.

“Using The News To Teach Financial Literacy”

Much has been discussed about financial literacy, or the lack of it, among Americans, according to Alan Chokov, Founder/CEO of eFinance Portal.com, a patent-pending, free consumer, interactive, multicultural, Financial, Business & Educational Portal & Search Engine.

With numerous seminars, educational forums, printed literature and countless preaching of financial literacy being marketed, typically it’s about a particular industry or product, leaving subjective interpretations.

Too much of what passes for financial literacy may consist of how to secure credit cards, open a savings account or how to balance your checkbook. "Many people are making decisions not understanding their full consequences", according to Chokov. That inspired him to create eFinancePortal.com.

The cornerstone of our efforts is the talent and expertise of our Members (Registration is complimentary) in the area of financial literacy. It allows all of its Members to submit personal business, social and educational content (and to any of it’s 50,000 categories and 17 industries with point of interest venues) from their personal computers, directly to the Portal, in their written languages of preference, within seconds of their confirmed submission…. 24/7. The Portal supports 99% of the world’s most spoken languages.

Consumers are provided dynamic news content in multiple cross-industry venues, matched to our corresponding categories and industries. This enables them to consider interpretive content from various sources, rather than just a generic definition.

Members have the unique ability to manage their own account, submit and control viewable duration, sponsor identifying keywords that describe their profession and services, and online placement throughout the site. All content submissions are archived and editable with feedback features. Choice of industry news can be selected by clicking on the Industry Icon located on the Home Page. User’s can select the categories and industries of interest and be notified the moment any relative content is posted on the site by our free email alert service.

Featuring six internal search engines, Consumers can access “Members” by its proprietary 13-point criteria-ranking search, or by name, category, profile, company or by content submissions. Our core discipline is based on a “personal relationship philosophy”, established through a single destination platform.

eFinancePortal.com creates a forum for an interactive, intuitive venue that provides financial, business & educational information and support based on easily accessible, unbiased, uniformly presented timely data.

· Enables you to establish and expand upon your personal financial profile. Gain a broad view of your financial picture. Identify your financial obligations and goals, personal interests, aversion/affinity for risk, degree of diversity desired, existing investments and more!

· Enables you to learn about the varied financial and business investment industries in the marketplace that may be able to meet your current personal financial investment needs.

· Become knowledgeable in a specific investment industry or investment product through our hyper-linked directories, online seminars on new and existing financial, business & educational topics, current articles written by acknowledged experts in the field, corporate and vendor profiles, Member moderated Forums, questions and answers service.

· Interact in an easy, fun and intuitive venue to become educated to financial investment opportunities, which is based on easily accessible, unbiased, broad-based, uniformly presented, timely data.

· On-line seminars - like a chat room, but extended to include graphical information in the form of pictures and charts, text page by page, and interactive questions and answers are provided. Members have the ability to create and deliver these live and pre-taped seminars.

· You can engage in dialog with several financial investors in an anonymous fashion (e.g., via Q&A and Forum services) until you decide to forge an open relationship with a Professional Service Provider with whom you trust. Provides you the opportunity to discuss with vendors how particular financial products meet your specific growth, risk factors and portfolio characteristics.

· Feel empowered by competitive knowledge and strengthened by your ability to forge new relationships with professional service providers on your terms by reviewing vendor profiles, which include annual investment statistics, number of clients, corporate affiliation, industry affiliation, commission rate, professional licensing and degrees in education.

· Utilize eFinancePortal.com in your choice of language - this includes our efinanceportal.com dictionary, Member profiles, and a listing of Members that speak your language.eFinancePortal.com supports 99% of the world’s spoken languages.

· Tools – participating Professional Service Providers will present the financial, business & educational tools to allow you to perform analyses of your investments, speculate on investments, and plan for your future. This site encourages advertisers to provide you with tools to assess your strategy and track your financial and business investments. You can choose from any of these tools and place them in your toolbox.

· Keyword Definitions – provided by the leading Professional Service Providers in the field and hyper-linked to allow the user to get a thorough understanding of a financial, business & educational keyword/category.

· Forums to provide venue for airing concerns and issues, asking questions of other investors or Professional Service Providers.

· Dated information - All information contained on the site will be archived for future reference.

· Mail Subscription Services selected by Registers Users to decide on what content they would like to receive (at no obligation) from our site’s offerings.

· Q&A – you can submit questions and check our archives for previous submissions. If a similar question has been asked, you will see the similar questions and view the Professional Service Provider’s answers. If your question is new, you can submit it via email to a list of “Members” who specialized in the particular area pertinent to your question. Communications can be anonymous. You can choose to expose any or all parts of your personal financial profile using your per service default profile exposure or modify your default settings for this particular communication. Emails that are waiting for you are kept in a common area for ease of retrieval.

This free consumer service was developed exclusively for New Jersey, a state that represents 140 ethnic groups, ranking 3^rd. in the nation for diversity. It is a fusion of New Jersey and National real-time news, personal & education presentation and Financial Literacy resources. Chokov intends to offer this platform to all 50 states individually, since each state is unique in their membership contributing providers and content.

Contact Info:

Alan Chokov
Founder/CEO/eFinancePortal.com

Phone: 877.424.6568

Fax: 732.428.7152

eMail: alanchokov@efinanceportal.com

Chokov: How to Reduce Your Tax Bill With 1031 Exchanges

Posted by Alan Chokov, eFinance Portal of New Jersey, www.efpnj.com Real estate owners can easily reduce their tax bill by using 1031 exchanges. The 1031 exchanges also referred to as tax-free exchanges helps investors to trade in the real estate market with respect to purchasing property without paying taxes. However, there are certain rules and regulations that need to be followed in order to qualify for 1031 benefits. The main reason is to find out the need to go for tax-free exchange. There is a need to balance the benefits received at present to what might be receivable in the future for finding out whether the purchase or sale of property using tax-free exchanges is a good idea. Such an exchange only makes sense to an investor if they hold on to a certain real estate for a longer duration of time. With increase in value of the property, it might be necessary to sell the same for making profits. Through suitable depreciation in value due to these exchanges, it will be possible to save tax with an increase in the cash flow for the investor. It is possible to purchase the property at a lower rate after getting rid of the depreciation amount. 1031 exchanges can help you look at the possibility of getting hold of larger properties. Since larger properties are sold depending on the kind of cash flow they generate it might be a good idea to look at the possibility of tax savings while purchasing them. However, while attempting to secure a deal using 1031 exchanges it is important to complete the necessary paperwork in a proper manner. This is important since any sort of missing documents can lead to rejection of the deal under 1031 exchanges. Alan Chokov, Publisher - For more Real Estate News, go to the Home Page of www.eNJBusiness.com and click on the link. If you would like to contribute articles to our website, please Register. Receive News & Updates, and Free Email Alerts Relevant to New Jersey In Your Industry of Choice, please Register Here.

Understanding the Auction Process of Foreclosed Homes

Posed by Alan Chokov, Alan Chokov Realtors There is a great many infomercials punting the idea of investing in tax foreclosed homes in order to make big profits. While these infomercials are true, many of them are a little misleading because basically they really want to sell you a product. It is possible to educate yourself regarding the processes involved in investing in tax foreclosed homes, just by reading the right kinds of books and collecting information from the internet. It is certainly best to arm yourself with some education and research on this subject matter before entering the real estate investment market. And the purchase tax foreclosed homes does allow for some good profits to be made. It is a sad fact of life that in today’s credit crunch, many homeowners are feeling the pinch. The Internal Revenue Service has the right to foreclose on a persons property if they have unpaid income taxes. This in not a quick process, but if the home owner is also in default with his mortgage the process speeds up somewhat. However it is important to know that a Tax lien is superior to any other lien over a mortgage. So even in the lender forecloses on the mortgage owner first the tax lien will still have to be paid. Lenders who purchase foreclosure homes on auction always pay the tax liens, as if they did not the property would become the property of the IRS. If you are an educated investor, it is also possible for you to buy tax foreclosed homes on auction. There are greater rewards in this method of purchase, but also greater risks, particularly if you have not done your homework, according to Chokov. The attraction of investing in tax foreclosed homes is that you are allowed to inspect the property prior to bidding. This is not the case with bank foreclosures as generally the homeowner is still resident. There are a number of reasons for properties being sold at foreclosure auctions these include: Failure to meet the demands of mortgage repayments Failure to make real estate property tax payments Failure to make Income tax payments Personal bankruptcy Illegal activity by the owner Tax foreclosed homes are either sold at a public auction or at a court auction, sometimes also referred to as a Sheriffs sale. In court auctions investors are not able to request discounts for early payment, pay in installments, modify the terms of the contract or transfer the title. This does make thing a little more sticky, but that is the way it goes. Some auction allow verbal bidding while others only accept bids as sealed written offers, so make sure you know what is required of you. In “non judicial” states, such as New Jersey, the foreclosure process proceeds much faster, generally around three months. In judicial states this process can take as long as eighteen to twenty-four months. For example, judicial states include: Indiana, Connecticut, Louisiana, Florida, Maine, New York, New Jersey, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Ohio and South Carolina. Alan Chokov, Publisher - For more Real Estate News, go to the Home Page of www.eNJBusiness.com and click on the link. If you would like to contribute articles to our website, please Register. Receive News & Updates, and Free Email Alerts Relevant to New Jersey In Your Industry of Choice, please Register Here.

Want to Get Your Blog Into Google News and Yahoo News?

Posted by Alan Chokov Google News and Yahoo News are the biggest automated news aggregators online. Millions of news junkies across the world read these news sources on a daily basis. If you want major exposure and publicity for your blogs, Google and Yahoo are where you want to be. You will be able to drive HUGE traffic to your blog plus you gain instant popularity from readers across the world! This is another great way to showcase your expertise and credibility to mass audiences. Before you can submit your blog URLs, make sure to sign up for both a Google and Yahoo account (sign-ups are free!) How Google News Works Google “crawls” news sites and gathers articles. Headlines are crawled based on algorithms/certain factors: how often and the particular site where the story appears. Google taps into more than 4,500 English-language news sources worldwide. There are NO human editors associated with selecting articles. They solely rely on online news outlets and online publishers to determine which stories have the most prominence/relevance. Google News consists of top stories and eight sections: World, Nation, Business, Sci/Tech, Sports, Entertainment, Health and Most Popular. • Currently, Google News does NOT accept single articles or RSS/Atom feeds. • Submit blog URL - You have to answer a few questions first before you submit your URL. Google reviews your blog to determine if it’s suitable for inclusion. They will notify you if your blog is accepted or if they need additional information. They cannot guarantee that your site will be added to Google News • Google News Help Topics provides further information and tips for publishers. How Yahoo News Works Yahoo also gets millions of visitors to Yahoo News each day. Yahoo News works similar to Google News. There aren’t human editors picking out top stories. Main stories (that you find on Yahoo News front page) are generated by content partners. Internal search stories are found via the Yahoo News indexing. • Fill out the Yahoo News source form. Yahoo asks you to fill out some preliminary questions. You also need to be able to “pitch” your blog. Yahoo asks you why you recommend your blog so make it sound good! • Yahoo News will determine if your blog is suitable for inclusion - they will contact you if your blog is accepted. How to Get Your Blog Accepted The competition is stiff when applying to Google News and Yahoo News, and many blogs are rejected. However, there are some publishing tips to keep in mind when creating/writing your blogs. • Original content - Unique content wins every time! Remember to make your content SEO-friendly and add relevant keywords. Don’t duplicate content on your blogs! • More than one blogger/author - Content from one writer alone won’t do the trick - include guest bloggers/writers or ask another blogger to join you! • Response time - Server response time (Bots look for pages they can index quickly and that load quickly for readers) If Google News accepts your blog, Google suggests adding sitemaps to your blog. Sign up for Google Webmaster Tools and add sitemaps via the tools section. This is the easiest way to promote web traffic and for spiders to efficiently crawl your blog. Alan Chokov, Publisher - For more Technology & Internet News go to the Home Page of www.efpnj.com and click on the link. La If you would like to contribute articles to our website, please Register. Receive News & Updates, and Free Email Alerts Relevant to New Jersey In Your Industry of Choice, please Register Here.

Chokov: Use Capital Gains to Reinvest in Real Estate

Posted by Alan Chokov When it comes to selling property capital gains reinvestment can be an important strategy for homeowners and commercial and business owners. The Internal Revenue Service requires capital gains tax to be paid on the sale of all capital assets, including properties. Once the sale occurs the tax expense can be enormous, but with a little ingenuity capital gains tax can be avoided and the tax burden relieved. The sale of a home or an investment property can facilitate incredible steps forward for anyone in the real estate market. Planning, education and consulting the experts are the keys to increased buying power! Uncover the Secret to Real Homeowner Potential The Internal Revenue Service allows gain generated by the sale of a home to be excluded from federal tax returns. The homeowner must meet the IRS requirements for exclusion. Eligibility for exclusion is based on the five-year period prior to the sale. If a homeowner has owned the property for at least five years and lived in it as a primary residence for at least two years, as much as $250,000 of the gain does not have to be reported on the yearly tax return. For couples filing jointly, up to $500,000 can be excluded based on the eligibility of each spouse. An unknown fact in the real estate world is that exclusion can apply to the sale of vacation and rental homes if they have been used as a primary residence for two out of the last five years. This amount of unreported gain leads to huge savings and greater investment potential. The Hidden Advantage of Tax Exchange In the past property exchanges were regarded as highly complex. The current real estate market now agrees that property exchanges are trouble-free, secure and profit producing. Even if a commercial or business property owner sells and then immediately reinvests, capital gains tax must be paid. The Internal Revenue Code Section 1031 allows a taxpayer to exchange property used productively in a trade, business or investment for property of a like-kind. In the exchange the IRS does not recognize any loss or gain and the capital gains tax is deferred. This deferral allows property owners to utilize money originally budgeted to pay the government for investment. Following the Rules Leads to Success IRC Section 1031 has strict guidelines for property owners to follow while engaging in property and tax exchange. Consultation with real estate professionals, qualified intermediaries, lawyers and accountants is essential. Like-kind commercial and investment properties must be the same in nature and have comparable characteristics. The properties can differ in quality and improved property may be exchanged for unimproved property. The relinquished property must be exchanged for a property of equal or greater value, equity or debt. If the replacement property is of lesser value, equity or debt tax is then computed for the amount of the gain or the difference in value. The property owner must pay whichever cost is lowest. Also, properties are only considered to be like-kind when they are located within the same country. Properties within the United Sates cannot be exchanged for properties located outside of the country. Time Is Money Property exchange does not require the taxpayer to sell and buy simultaneously. The Tax Reform of 1984 imposed precise limits on the amount of time an exchange transaction can be in process. Property owners have 45 days from the sale of the relinquished property to identify a replacement property. The exchange must be completed within 180 days of closing or on the tax return due date for the current year. Do not miss identification or exchange deadlines! If these deadlines are not met the exchange is no longer qualified and the capital gains tax must be paid. Armed with knowledge and creativity any property owner can increase their buying power and take their real estate success to even greater heights. Remember to find real estate and financial professionals to assist with adherence to the federal laws. Once you have learned to the most lucrative way to manage your ventures and capital gains real estate victory will be at hand! Alan Chokov, Publisher - For more Real Estate News, go to the Home Page of www.eNJBusiness.com and click on the link. If you would like to contribute articles to our website, please Register. Receive News & Updates, and Free Email Alerts Relevant to New Jersey In Your Industry of Choice, please Register Here.