Expats Without a US Credit History Can Now Buy A Car

Posted by on January 18, 2012 No comments

Buying a car as a foreign expatriate moving to the United States can be quite challenging. International AutoSource offers a unique program that makes the car buying experience easy, and most importantly, no U.S. credit history is required. Uniquely trained professionals guide expats through the entire process to ensure all their transportation needs are met.

International AutoSource has been assisting expats without a U.S. credit history with leasing or financing for decades. Through unique manufacturer relationships, expats have access to low rate finance and lease programs.

To read more, please visit intlauto.com.

Eight Tips for Negotiating an Office Lease Renewal

Posted by on January 13, 2012 No comments

So I’m meeting with our landlord tomorrow to discuss a lease extension, and I’m in the process of pulling together my thoughts on the renewal.

Our office building is owned by a small group of investors, so we have a personal relationship with the owners/landlord. I consulted with several colleagues of mine, and here are our top considerations for effectively negotiating a lease or extension:

1. Be a good tenant

It’s so basic to sound business practices, but it bears repeating, particularly when you’re dealing with individuals and other small business owners. Resolve issues along the way as amicably as possible -it all comes back to you in the end.

2. Start early and understand your options

Particularly in a very tight commercial real estate market, you’ve got to allow at least 9-12 months for the process to play out. It can take several months to research your alternatives, open up negotiations with prospective landlords (especially concerning tenant improvements), and then come back to your current landlord. And you’ll want to allow 2-4 months if you have to plan a move (assuming you’re an SMBE like us).

3. Understand your market, and particularly concessions that new tenants can extract.

While market rental rates are important to understand, there are a number of other considerations new tenants may enjoy, including tenant improvements, rent holidays, and other benefits.

Understanding these will not only give you a sense for what you might expect if you go elsewhere, but it can also help you negotiate your current renewal. Why shouldn’t you enjoy at least part of those benefits on the renewal?

4. Consult with (if not retain) a broker.

I’m a big believer in at least talking to experts in a field, and I generally recommend using them to represent you in a lease negotiation. Depending on the size of your business, this can represent anywhere from a $350k to a multi-million obligation over a 3-5 year period.

Brokers can give you a sense for the market, current conditions, and offer other valuable input. Face it -while you may know your business better than anyone, you’re probably not an expert in commercial real estate.

If you are going to use a commercial real estate broker, I suggest using a tenant only representative, as they are less likely to be conflicted than brokers who may represent either side.

That being said, they are a lot like realtors in that they only get paid when a deal gets done. The good news is they are frequently paid for by the lessor, but that may affect the terms of the deal.

5. Depending on how much leverage you have, work to ‘share the savings’.

Just as you may want to avoid the headaches and costs associated with moving, your landlord may have the same interest. If you’ve been a good tenant and are paying near market rents, the last thing your landlord wants to deal with is several months of vacancy, showing the space, negotiating and paying tenant improvements, and then having to deal with an unknown. So work to value how much benefit each side is getting out of the renewal and see if you can’t find some common ground.

6. Think outside the box and understand your landlord’s situation.

Your landlord is interested in three things – the underlying value of the property, current income/cash flow from the property, and avoiding headaches. Understanding the relative importance of each can be very helpful in your negotiations.

For example, commercial property is essentially valued at a multiple of cash flow (it’s a cap rate if you want to be specific) over a period of time, with an emphasis on future cash flows. If the landlord is thinking about re-financing or selling the property in 2-3 years, she will want to boost the cash flow in that later period. This can provide you with a path to reducing your near term rental outlays in return for increasing the rent at a time when it particularly matters to the landlord.

7. Put together a spreadsheet balancing overall costs for your various rental options

Feel free to let your landlord know you’re doing this, and make sure that you’re getting all the information you need to make a balanced and informed decision.

8. Get your hands on a bunch of actual lease agreements and extensions.

This can help give you ideas for different terms that you might want to incorporate into the lease that you may not have thought of. Of course, if you have representation, you should encourage them to do this -you’d be surprised how often this is overlooked.

There are lots of resources out there for looking at sample and (even more helpful) actual, negotiated lease agreements

John Siegler is a co-founder and CFO of Practice Technologies, Inc., creator of RealDealDocs.com. RealDealDocs.com gives you insider access to legal documents drafted by top Lawyers in the US. Search over 10 million documents and clauses for Free at http://www.RealDealDocs.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/837688

Car Lease Early Termination – 5 Ways to Get Out of Your Car Lease

Posted by on January 13, 2012 No comments

Some lessees often decide that they would like to get out of their car lease or end their car lease early for multiple different reasons. Whether you want to end your car lease due to financial problems, unemployment, high payments, or simply because you no longer wish to drive the car you were leasing, it is quite possible to terminate your car lease prior to its maturity date.

Most car leasing contracts have multiple paragraphs of legal jargon dedicated to explaining your options should you wish to perform what is called an “early termination.” As per a written contract, some leasing companies or finance companies even allow you to terminate your car lease at any time throughout the term of your lease.

You should understand, however, that early termination isn’t something that your lessor or finance company is too fond of. You see, they would rather lease a car out to someone who can continually make the payments until the end of the lease.

In this article, we look at 5 different options you have to get out of your car lease early. These options are to payoff your car, sell your car, trade in your car, voluntarily return your car, or have someone else take over your car lease.

Payoff Your Car

Paying off your car allows you to end your lease early and become the owner or title holder of your vehicle. Most finance companies list your payoff amount on your monthly bill and give you the option of sending them a check for the payoff amount instead of sending them your monthly lease payment. This option can be pricey since your payoff amount will in most cases be higher than the actual value of your car.

Sell Your Car

Selling your leased car requires that you first own the car. Here, you would first payoff the car and then subsequently find an interested buyer to sell your car to. This option is pretty unwise for the simple reason that you may have to sell the car for less than the payoff amount in order to find an interested buyer. You may lose several thousand dollars doing so.

Trade in Your Car

You can also trade in your car and then lease or finance the purchase of a new car. This option only makes sense if your car has “positive equity.” This means that the value of your car is higher than the payoff amount. If this happens to be the case, you can trade in your old car and obtain a lease deal with reduced monthly payments.

Voluntary Return

With a voluntary return you return your car to the dealership. Because you are not keeping the car, you are not responsible for paying off the vehicle. However, you are responsible for paying the price difference between what the leasing company can sell the vehicle for and what the payoff amount was at the time of your turn in.

Lease Assumption

With a lease assumption, another interested party takes over your auto lease and becomes responsible for making your payments until the lease maturity date. This is the simplest and cheapest option. You should use companies like SwapaLease or LeaseTrader to help assist in the lease transfer.

TheCarLeaseGuide.com is a personalized Car Lease Guide that will provide you with free tips and tricks for obtaining the best deal possible.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Behnood_M

Equipment Lease Tips For Startup Businesses

Posted by on January 13, 2012 No comments

For a new business, trying to get a bank loan can be a challenge especially without business credit history to back up your loan application. If you need equipment financing is an issue, perhaps you may consider business equipment leasing?

Who Can Lease

Both new and established businesses are eligible to apply for equipment lease financing. In fact, this financing technique has been employed by many small businesses and large corporations for a long time.

Why Lease Equipment

Rather than apply for a bank loan to buy the needed equipment, a new business owner can apply for a “lease” to avoid unnecessary delays with the business operations. Instead of waiting for months to get their business loan approved, leasing equipment involves a quicker and uncomplicated procedure.

Add to this, equipment lease financing is generally cheaper since it does not require a down payment. Many leasing companies offer flexible repayment terms (monthly, quarterly, bi-annual, annually) to complement the business’s needs.

Indeed, equipment lease financing is recommended for smaller businesses. By leasing equipment, the business owner can use its working capital on other expenditures such as purchasing supplies, hiring workers, advertising your products and services, instead of spending the money on devices or special machines.

Preparing Paperwork

What kind of paperwork do you need to prepare? The specific requirements may vary from one leasing firm to the next. Still, most lessors generally require a written equipment lease proposal, the business’s recent financial statements, and tax returns.

Your lease proposal must clearly present the type of business you run, your reason for getting a lease, the specific machines or devices you need, and other important information about your company that will help convince your lessor to approve your application.

Check Your Credit

Some business equipment lease providers have strict standards and may call for good to excellent credit history. Nonetheless, you can find lessors that offer leasing services even for customers with no credit history or with bad credit history.

In fact, even business owners who have a record of bankruptcy can get approved as long as the bankruptcy has been discharged. If you have bad credit, it is a good idea to include a letter explaining the details about your bankruptcy or poor credit.

Tips For Sure Approval

For new business owners, do not test the waters by submitting multiple lease applications to different companies. If a potential lessor sees too many inquiries in your report, it may raise doubt as to why other lessors are not willing to grant you a lease.

Keep in mind that not all leasing companies offer lease for new businesses. Some lessors may require applicants to be at least 2 years in operations. However, there are lease companies that do offer special lease arrangements for new businesses.

Find a leasing company that provides service to businesses in the market you belong. For example, some lessors specialize in transportation while others may specialize in medical equipment, printing equipment, baking equipment, etc. Check the prerequisites of a particular equipment lease provider so you can avoid unnecessary rejection.

Lai Castillo is an equipment leasing broker that specializes in getting startup business equipment lease.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3925790

Business Equipment Leasing Overview (2)

Posted by on January 13, 2012 No comments

Types of Equipment Lease Financing

Although lessors may have different names for them, you’ll find that there are basically two types of equipment lease financing: finance and true.

What is a finance lease? Finance leases are also known as capital leases, conditional sales, or dollar buy out leases. These leases are mainly for businesses that wish to keep the leased equipment at the end of the lease. The advantage to the lessor in this case is it gives them the option to purchase the equipment for a small fee, usually $1.00. This works for the lessor because payment terms on finance leases tend to last close to the expected useful life of the equipment and the payments themselves then to be higher.

What is a true lease? True leases, also called tax leases, operating leases, or FMV (fair market value) leases, do not usually span the full expected life of the equipment. At the end of the lease, you can choose to walk away from the equipment or purchase it at fair market value. Payments on true leases are generally lower than payments on finance leases and this is because lessors have the opportunity to resell the equipment when the lease ends. This option works best for lessees that may want to upgrade their equipment by the end of the lease.

Business equipment leasing has become an increasingly popular financing option for Canadian companies that need new equipment.

Tax implications

One of the main benefits of true leases is that you may be able to fully claim all lease payments as tax deductible expenditures. Although finance leases let you spread your payments over time, they are not tax advantaged in the way true leases are. Talk to your tax professional for specific advice on the tax benefits of leasing.

Payment options

While fixed monthly payments are the norm, they are not your only option. Depending on your company’s financial situation, your equipment lease financing can include one of several payment plans that may be more appealing.

If your company’s cash flow comes and goes with the seasons or weather, you might want to consider what is called a “skip lease”. A lease with this repayment structure allows you to skip payments during slow months without being penalized. They are ideal for recreational and agricultural businesses that rely heavily on certain times of the year for significant portions of their revenue.

Step-up leases provide a solution for companies with limited cash that are depending upon the acquisition of specific equipment to increase revenue. This type of lease recognizes that the company will be able to handle increased lease payments over time, and keeps payments low at first then ramps them up according to a pre-determined schedule.

An alternative to a step-up lease is a 60- or 90- day deferred lease. Just as its name implies, this lease allows you to defer your first payment for 2 or 3 months. Usually you will not have to present a down payment with this option.

Ending your lease

Lease terms range anywhere from 6 to 120 months, although the majority fall between 12 and 60 months.

The lease term that you decide upon will depend heavily on what you decide to do with the equipment at the end of your lease. Usually, you have four choices. You can:

  • return the equipment to the lessor with no future obligation.
  • renew the lease.
  • purchase the equipment for a nominal fee or fixed price agreed upon at the lease inception.
  • purchase the equipment at fair market value

Before agreeing to any particular end of lease clause, carefully consider what state the equipment will be in at the end of the lease, and whether you’ll want to obtain a newer model at that time. Also consider the chances that you’ll want to get out of the lease early – if you think it’s likely, be sure that your lease doesn’t contain substantial penalty clauses for early withdrawal.

Equipment Finance Providers

There are three main types of leasing providers: brokers, captive leasing companies, or independent lessors.

Broker – an equipment leasing broker is a lot like an insurance broker, they act as the go-between. The broker will take your lease requests to the banks and financial service companies most likely to agree to finance your asset. They will negotiate for the best interest rate and payment schedule on your behalf. The main advantage of using a broker is the fact that you get to utilize the leasing expertise of the broker and it is the bank or the financial institution that pays the broker’s fee – their fee does not come out of the pocket of the you, the lessee.

Captive leasing company – As a subsidiary leasing arm of a manufacturer or dealer, a captive leasing company’s main purpose is to provide leasing to its parent company and/or dealer networks. Typically you’ll only encounter them when you’re obtaining a lease directly from a dealer.

Independent lessor – Independent lessors are funding sources that lease directly to businesses. These can include banks, equipment lease specialists, and more diversified financial companies.

Choosing the right leasing provider

It’s important that you evaluate prospective lessors just as carefully as they’re evaluating you. One way to approach the decision is too look for a lessor who will act like a partner. Instead of treating you like a faceless account, they should take the time to answer your questions and help you through rough spots, instead of repossessing your equipment or bumping up your rates the first time you’re late with a payment.

You should also look for a leasing provider with the right experience. Some lessors specialize in specific industries or types of loan: doing a little research can quickly tell you if your potential lease providers have the expertise you require.

At Connect Lease Corporation, we specialize in many different kinds of leasing. We are here to help. We specialize in finding the right lender matched to the right equipment to suit your situation and needs. We strive to offer our clients simple, hassle-free and cost-effective financing. At Connect Lease, we measure our success by connecting you with the right lender so you can grow your business.

Need more information? Visit our website: http://www.connectlease.com or call Larry Gray, leasing specialist toll free: 1-(877) 860-4140.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3647406

Business Equipment Leasing Overview (1)

Posted by on January 13, 2012 No comments

What size of business should consider business equipment leasing?

Any business at any stage of development should consider business equipment leasing as it is a very cost effective alternative to out-right purchasing. For start-up businesses with little to no revenues, smaller leases, those of $100,000 or less, are easily obtained and are feasible on the personal credit of the owner(s).

Who supplies leasing companies with capital?

Of the billions and billions of dollars that investors pour into the capital markets each month, a good portion finds its way to leasing companies. These leasing companies then use these funds to purchase equipment (business and commercial) on behalf of businesses. As the economy improves and more and more money is flowing into the markets, leasing companies are flush with capital. As a result, they are eager to do business and respond to competition with lower monthly rates.

What is a lease? A lease lets you pass the buck – at least for a while. A lessor (third party funding source) will purchase the equipment that you want and as the lessee, you can use the equipment in exchange for regular payments made over a contracted period of time. The contract can be tailored to your specific needs. But, just like a regular loan, you do need to have a good credit score and be able to prove that you can pay the lender the negotiated payments.

Why Lease Business Equipment? One of the biggest reasons to lease business equipment is that it offers fairly minimal upfront costs and allows you to have flexible payment options and flexible end of lease options. Unlike regular bank loans that may require a substantial down payment, leasing allows you to keep your working capital to focus on other business requirements.

In addition, some companies lease business equipment as a way to protect against obsolescence. When setting up the lease, take some time to evaluate the useful life of the equipment. Choose a term length that will let you upgrade to newer equipment before the old pieces are out-of-date. With end of term lease options, you can opt to buy the equipment at fair market value or lease new equipment.

Leasing can reduce your taxes. Depending on how your lease is structured, you may be able to fully deduct lease payments as a business expense, as opposed to depreciating the value of the equipment as if it were a capital expenditure. Talk to a tax professional to understand the impact this can have on your business.

What can you lease? There are few limits to the type of equipment that can be leased. From everyday business essentials (furniture and phone systems) to industrial equipment (forklifts and conveyor belts) to office technology (copiers and LCD projectors), there is no limit to the equipment that can be leased.

It is also possible to lease the soft costs of purchases. Examples of soft or intangible assets include software, warranties, service, training, installation, and shipping costs. Talk to your lease professional to figure out what’s right for your business. You’ll want to make sure to inquire early on about your lessor’s policies if soft asset financing is important to you.

Need more information? Visit our website: http://www.connectlease.comor call Larry Gray, leasing specialist toll free: 1-(877) 860-4140.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3647406