So you’ve seen your umpteenth infomercial with the guy in his neatly pressed button-upped white T-Shirt grinning ear to ear waving his rock-solid no-money-down rags-to-riches real estate investment course for 3 easy payments of a gazillion dollars (but only if you call now) and now you are thinking, "wow this looks like a great deal, I better get it fast before the special offer expires." You notice how there’s always a special offer? Anyway, I am not saying this guy isn’t telling the truth, however regardless of which course or school of thought you buy into there are several key areas that one must avoid when engaging in any real estate related transaction.
Pitfall Number 1: Don’t Overpay!
The whole point in investing is to find properties that are undervalued. How does one find out what is undervalued versus overvalued? Without getting into technical details, the bottom line is you need experience. Yes much like shopping for anything else, real estate is essentially one of the highest ticket items in the shopping center of life. It’s advisable to stick with one market, perhaps the one closest to you in proximity as a starting off point. Through your experience and asking the right questions, you will eventually have a feel for the pulse of the market you are looking after, and of course identify what is considered a good buy.
Pitfall Number 2: Know the Market
Yes, you are actually going to have to do more work! This part is really common sense though, but executing it where the beauty and the payoff comes in. How do you make money in real estate? The most basic way is to buy low and sell high. So from the first step, you have identified general trends in the value of homes, and are pretty good at spotting undervalued homes. Assuming you acquire that home, you may want to profit from it by selling it off to someone else for a higher price. How can you do this? Well there are many ways. For one, most markets appreciate in value over time so if you want a longer term approach that will work. Making upgrades to the property will automatically raise the price of the home as well. Think in terms of what the market wants, not what you personally want. You aren’t the one buying it; you are trying to sell it to someone else for a higher price than you bought it.
Pitfall Number 3: Know Your Budget
It may be a fine philosophy to go through life on a whim, but real estate is serious business, and thus diligent financial planning and budgeting is critical to your success. Don’t worry you don’t need to be a finance geek, however you need to be disciplined and know your budget from the onset, or you may be finding you are learning that you need to make certain renovations or upgrades, and didn’t anticipate it going over to a certain cost. Think ahead as to what is needed before actually going forth with investing in real estate.
Posts tonen met het label property. Alle posts tonen
Posts tonen met het label property. Alle posts tonen
vrijdag 11 september 2009
dinsdag 11 augustus 2009
4 Things To Remember When Renewing Your Home Contents And Home Buildings Insurance
Each year when our renewal notices come through the post for our home contents insurance and/or home buildings insurance, most of us automatically sign the form and send it back to the insurance company – after all, we already know how much the premiums are going to be. Big financial mistake, and here are 4 reasons why:
Did You Buy Anything New In The Last Year?
If you bought anything new in the last year, say a new television or video recorder, then the value of this new purchase will not be included in the renewal notice you just sent off to the insurance company. Likewise, if you sold anything of value over the last year, and have not informed the insurance company, then you are paying home contents insurance for something you no longer own. Either way, your not paying the right amount of insurance premiums.
Did The Costs Stay Static?
If you have home contents insurance then you are insuring your personal property for the replacement cost of buying the same thing new. On the other hand, part of your home buildings insurance should cover the cost of labour and materials. Now ask yourself, would the cost of replacing the picture hanging in your living room be the same today as it was last year? If the answer is that it would cost you more, tough luck, you’ll only get paid out what you said the cost of replacing it would be! The same can be said of your friendly builder, would he charge you the same for an hour of his time and for his materials today as he would have done last year? If the answer here is no, then you should be expecting to pay him the difference.
Did The Value Of Your Home Stay The Same?
Similar to the above, with your home buildings insurance you need to be asking yourself whether or not the value of your home stayed the same this year as it was last year? You need to be asking yourself this question even if you didn’t do any work to the house – such as building an extension – that would naturally automatically add value to your home.
Is Your House Any Safer Today?
Here the question is, have you done anything to your house over the last year that would mean your home would be considered safer today than last year? For example, did you add any deadlocks to your doors or windows? If so, then there’s a very good chance your home contents insurance premium would be reduced, as the security in your house is a major consideration in assessing your premium (along with the crime rate in your neighbourhood, so you may also want to check and see if this has gone up or down also).
Keep in mind that time stands still for no man. As such, you need to read your home contents insurance and/or home buildings insurance renewal notices very carefully to make sure that they reflect, as accurately as possible, your life today and not your life of yester-year.
Did You Buy Anything New In The Last Year?
If you bought anything new in the last year, say a new television or video recorder, then the value of this new purchase will not be included in the renewal notice you just sent off to the insurance company. Likewise, if you sold anything of value over the last year, and have not informed the insurance company, then you are paying home contents insurance for something you no longer own. Either way, your not paying the right amount of insurance premiums.
Did The Costs Stay Static?
If you have home contents insurance then you are insuring your personal property for the replacement cost of buying the same thing new. On the other hand, part of your home buildings insurance should cover the cost of labour and materials. Now ask yourself, would the cost of replacing the picture hanging in your living room be the same today as it was last year? If the answer is that it would cost you more, tough luck, you’ll only get paid out what you said the cost of replacing it would be! The same can be said of your friendly builder, would he charge you the same for an hour of his time and for his materials today as he would have done last year? If the answer here is no, then you should be expecting to pay him the difference.
Did The Value Of Your Home Stay The Same?
Similar to the above, with your home buildings insurance you need to be asking yourself whether or not the value of your home stayed the same this year as it was last year? You need to be asking yourself this question even if you didn’t do any work to the house – such as building an extension – that would naturally automatically add value to your home.
Is Your House Any Safer Today?
Here the question is, have you done anything to your house over the last year that would mean your home would be considered safer today than last year? For example, did you add any deadlocks to your doors or windows? If so, then there’s a very good chance your home contents insurance premium would be reduced, as the security in your house is a major consideration in assessing your premium (along with the crime rate in your neighbourhood, so you may also want to check and see if this has gone up or down also).
Keep in mind that time stands still for no man. As such, you need to read your home contents insurance and/or home buildings insurance renewal notices very carefully to make sure that they reflect, as accurately as possible, your life today and not your life of yester-year.
dinsdag 21 juli 2009
Selling Your Property On The Internet
Should you sell your property on the internet? This is a common question with an equally common answer – YOU MUST!
Selling Your Property On The Internet
For those looking to sell a property themselves, many ask themselves whether or not they should sell on the internet. Well, the simple answer is, if you don’t list it on the internet then you are only hurting yourself. Just like magazines and newspapers, the internet provides a great source for homeowners to draw attention to the property that they have for sale. In fact, the internet is now the dominate media where homebuyers look for properties with over 70 percent reporting as much.
What is more is that the internet is an incredibly easy place to list a property. The typical process involves opening an account, uploading as much description as possible and uploading photographs. Much like a dating site, the more information and photographs you post, the quicker your property will attract interest from potential buyers. This is the digital equivalent of curb appeal.
There are a number of sites you can use to list your property for sale on the Internet. All basically offer the same listing characteristics, but pricing is radically different. Some sites, such as ours mentioned below, offer a free first month listing. Others try to get you to commit to a flat fee for a year with prices as high as $750. There are plenty of others as well that offer prices ranging between these two extremes.
In general, you do not want to commit to the flat fee for a year listing. Although the real estate market has cooled, it is still roaring hot from a historical perspective. Practically speaking, property may not sell in a week any more, but it does sell in the first 90 days if appropriately priced and so on. Given this fact, it makes little sense to commit to a year listing.
Regardless of the approach you take, the web has radically changed the game in real estate. Online sites offer greater access to the pool of buyers and, in many cases, make the need for real estate agents a superfluous one.
Selling Your Property On The Internet
For those looking to sell a property themselves, many ask themselves whether or not they should sell on the internet. Well, the simple answer is, if you don’t list it on the internet then you are only hurting yourself. Just like magazines and newspapers, the internet provides a great source for homeowners to draw attention to the property that they have for sale. In fact, the internet is now the dominate media where homebuyers look for properties with over 70 percent reporting as much.
What is more is that the internet is an incredibly easy place to list a property. The typical process involves opening an account, uploading as much description as possible and uploading photographs. Much like a dating site, the more information and photographs you post, the quicker your property will attract interest from potential buyers. This is the digital equivalent of curb appeal.
There are a number of sites you can use to list your property for sale on the Internet. All basically offer the same listing characteristics, but pricing is radically different. Some sites, such as ours mentioned below, offer a free first month listing. Others try to get you to commit to a flat fee for a year with prices as high as $750. There are plenty of others as well that offer prices ranging between these two extremes.
In general, you do not want to commit to the flat fee for a year listing. Although the real estate market has cooled, it is still roaring hot from a historical perspective. Practically speaking, property may not sell in a week any more, but it does sell in the first 90 days if appropriately priced and so on. Given this fact, it makes little sense to commit to a year listing.
Regardless of the approach you take, the web has radically changed the game in real estate. Online sites offer greater access to the pool of buyers and, in many cases, make the need for real estate agents a superfluous one.
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