Archive for November 2011
Real Estate Investing
November 11, 2011 | Author admin
This quote by Seneca, a Roman philosopher from the mid-1st century AD, has been one of my favorites for years. It’s a great saying because it reminds us that we create our own ‘luck’ based on the things we do, or do not do. But never did this phrase resonate so strongly with me than it did in my early days as a full-time real estate investor. That’s when I first seized the meaning of this saying and put it to quick and successful work. It happened in January 2004, when I was still a “rookie” investor.
It had been only 8 months since I had left the corporate world, after 18 years of “working for the man”. I had been fortunate to gain a wide variety of experience, with 5 years in public accounting for a huge CPA firm; 6 years as the Corporate Controller and Director/VP of Finance for a $100 million consumer products company; 3 years gaining Sales/Marketing/Operations experience with a Fortune 500 technology company; and then 4 years as COO/VP for an international software company. My jobs took me to many places, here in America as well as overseas, including Europe, Asia, and Africa. I made a good living, averaging 6-figures compensation plus expense accounts, medical benefits, 401k contributions, and the like.
But I was still “working for the man”. No matter how well I performed, the company would receive the vast majority of the dividends for years to come. I made a decent living, but didn’t have the luxury of significantly improving my lifestyle or controlling my own schedule. So when the opportunity presented itself, I began earnestly building my new future, and that started with a real estate shopping spree in mid-2003. At the time, I had been a full-time investor for less than a year, and a part-time investor since 1992, and while I had already done 25+ deals, they were all traditional buy-and-hold transactions.
I would buy the houses below market, get them into rent-able condition, and then find lease or lease-option clients to cover my mortgage (and provide some cash flow) while I built up equity. I had yet to step outside of that comfort zone, even though I had read about the many other ways one can make money in real estate. It’s one thing to read about it, but quite different to take the plunge and dive in. What if I missed something in my analysis? What if I don’t have the correct documents to protect me properly? What if….??? Maybe that was my collegiate and corporate brainwashing coming out– get education, then analyze. Make a list of all the downsides, and then analyze some more. Paralysis by analysis can be the result.|
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Real Estate
November 11, 2011 | Author admin
In response to this greater affluence, the general trend of people is to increase their spending. Conversely, when housing values diminish people cut back spending in a similar way. The general consensus is that a $100 drop in wealth, over time, reduces spending by about $5.00 per year. This suggests, therefore, that weakening housing prices have a mild effect on consumer spending, to the tune of an approximate annualized rate of spending reduction of five percent.
This makes sense, in that economic theory tends to support the fact that rational consumers ought to adjust their long-term spending in response to changes in their wealth, not the ease in which they can tap it. But there is another element equally important to be factored into the determination of the level of prosperity: how well debtors manage their debt. For instance, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports that seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinance and purchase loans, increased 3.6 percent to 575.6 for the week ended December 29, 2006. The index stood at 555.8 the previous week, which was its lowest level since early August. Demand for home refinancing loans also strengthened as the MBA’s seasonally adjusted index of refinancing applications increased 2.2 percent to 1,640.4. In 2005 the index stood at 1,363.2.
This evidence would suggest that consumers are using more of their home equity to pay off other borrowings such as credit card debts, in light also of the fact that mortgage debt in both the United States and Canada carries considerable tax advantages. This is another indication that, contrary to the forecast of some analysts, consumers manage their debts prudently, not recklessly.
The equilibrium in the issue as to whether consumers ought to treat their housing wealth as a nest egg or as a credit card – that is whether they should save rather than spend – is to be found in the ratio of spending to personal income. Surveys have shown that this ratio has peaked at more than fifty percent in 2005, meaning that people spent more than fifty percent of their disposable income using mortgage-equity withdrawal. This in turn would indicate that a slowing of mortgage-equity withdrawal could drag down spending faster than anticipated. The stakes here are high, because the behaviour of consumers will largely determine whether North-American economies will tumble into a recession or will merely slow down. This is so because in North America housing wealth has a bigger influence on consumption than other financial assets such as stocks and bonds.march|pump trucks|Winter boots whether you’re shopping in Oxford St in London, Champs Elysées in
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Home Secure While
November 11, 2011 | Author admin
If your home is going to be unoccupied while it is on the market, having an alarm system is generally more trouble than it’s worth. For one thing, you would have to give your security code not only to your real estate agent, but to all of the other agents who decide to show your home to prospective buyers. If the alarm were to accidentally go off while someone else is there, you would then have the added worry of trusting others to supply the alarm company with your pass code or other personal information. The bottom line is that alarm systems simply don’t offer much security if other people know your security code, so think about this option carefully before you go to the expense of having one installed.
Hide Personal Information
Just because prospective buyers are temporary guests in your home doesn’t mean that they aren’t going to look at everything they can find. Anything that reveals some personal information about you or your family members should be tucked away out of sight.
When your house is on the market, remember to put your mail away where no one can see it. People can actually learn quite a bit just by looking at the outside of many types of business envelopes such as credit card statements, past due bills, and professional affiliations. Don’t risk sharing some of your information inadvertently with strangers.
If you normally leave extra credit cards stuck in a drawer in your kitchen or one of the bedrooms, you should remove them before your house goes on the market. Find a more secure location (where prying eyes can’t snoop and find them) such as a safe or safety deposit box. You should do the same with copies of birth certificates, bank statements, and other personal papers.
Hide Your Valuables
Though it may seem an obvious thing to say, it is worth mentioning that it is very important to hide your valuables. Not only should you carefully secure your jewelry, you should also take care to hide other items that are valuable. Collectibles, expensive electronics, DVD and cd collections should all be stored away out of sight. Though it may seem a bit extreme to pack half of your house away, the effort might very well prove to be worth it in the long run. Hire Tools
Home Ownership – Tips For Single
November 11, 2011 | Author admin
Buy Houses that have Attached Garages – Some homes have detached garages, which can be a bit scary, particularly when it gets dark and you have to walk toward your house. You should prefer a house with an attached garage; it would be better to have an electronic garage door opener.
2. Think about Gated Neighborhoods – Inquire about how many times the gate code is modified; a lot of homeowner associations regularly alter these codes to keep unauthorized persons from entering. It’s wise to make sure if the gate closes before another vehicle can enter.
3. Take Notice of Lighting – Most people normally want to live in a place where we can feel free and safe to take a walk at night. Check the place if there are lots of motion-sensor lights and street lighting as they give much more security than areas that are dimly lit.
4. Purchase a House with a Security System – Check if the system is owned or leased and know the costs that must be paid monthly. Ask about the wiring and if all the windows and doors are closely monitored. Find out who responds to break-ins, whether it is the security alarm staff or the police.
5. Examine Door Jambs and Door Locks – Check if the door jamb has been repaired or cracked and if the lock is new; ask the reason if you do notice. You can have more protection if there’s a screen door with a locking system so it also serves as a security door. Furthermore, ensure that each exterior door has sturdy deadbolts that are locked and unlocked from the inside without needing any key, due to fire safety reasons.
6. See where Bedrooms are Located – Bedrooms located on the second-floor may seem safer, but its gap from the ground floor make them soundproof so there’s a big possibility of not hearing the sounds of break-ins. It’s also harder to escape from here if there’s a fire.
7. Check the Windows – Choose houses that have dual pane windows, since these are harder to break than single-pane windows. If there’s an exterior door with a large window of glass, check if the knob is placed far enough that it wouldn’t be reached from the outside if the window is smashed accommodation in qatar