Real Estate Update

Posts Tagged ‘Investment’

Over the last several years, real estate has been as hot as any other investment. It wasn’t until recently that real estate cooled a bit. During this time, we’ve all heard the stories of the easy money made investing in real estate. When money was easy, and there was no end in sight to the real estate boom, people were flipping houses like crazy. For many of these individuals, the 1031 exchange money could not be any easier. However, the times have changed. The downturn has taught even the most bullish real estate speculators that real estate can also go down in value. More than ever, investing in real estate, takes professional know-how, time, and resources to successfully invest in real estate. So, how does the average person invest in real estate, this day and age?

Well, there is a way, and it’s been around for quite some time. It’s called a Real Estate Investment Trust, or REIT. A Real Estate Investment Trust is a way for the small investor to invest in big real estate. A Real Estate Investment Trust is an organization that is set up to manage and invest in real estate professionally. You can purchase a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) via the stock exchange in the form of a stock, or privately. Private Real Estate Investment Trusts typically require that certain suitability criteria be met. Also, private REITs are typically longer-term investments, with liquidity considerations. Public Real Estate Investment Trusts can be bought and sold on the stock exchange and are considerably more liquid than their private counterparts.

Investing in a Real Estate Investment Trust can come in many forms. You can purchase a Real Estate Investment Trust that focuses on large-scale commercial real estate, for example. This would allow you to take part in major real estate deals involving 100 plus story buildings, that would otherwise be available to the ultra rich. Some Real Estate Investment Trusts may have their focus in apartment buildings or even new housing construction. The point here is that you can choose your Real Estate Investment Trust sector through one of these REITs. If you want a more professionally managed approach there are a large number of REITs actively managed through the purchase of mutual funds. This can provide for diversification, and individual real estate sectors.

Properly set up Real Estate Investment Trusts are tax-advantaged. This means that they are not taxed at the corporate level. However, they must be set up properly. It is required that REITs invest 75% of their funds in real estate. These requirements are met by income derived from mortgage or rent interest. Essentially, you’re relying on other parties for their expertise in the real estate arena. Going at it alone is tougher than ever these days. You have the typical headaches, like qualifying for a 1031 exchange, property taxes, escrow, title insurance, and so on. But, that’s really the easy part. When the real estate market only went up, the biggest worry for speculators was how to take advantage of a 1031 exchange and save on capital gains. Now, there’s much more to worry about, as real estate not only goes up, but it can certainly come down.

It’s important to keep in mind that Real Estate Investment Trusts also come with inherent risks. If real estate values plummet, and you have a large percentage of your assets exposed to Real Estate Investment Trusts you may experience declines, as well. This is where diversification is very important. The standard Real Estate Investment Trust me diversify you within different types of real estate, but you should always practice further diversification. Investing in different asset classes, sectors, and the life will provide you with further diversification. Make sure to work with a qualified investment advisor or do your due diligence when investing in any type of Real Estate Investment Trust.

The recent boom in the Mississauga Condo market can be attributed to exceptional city planning, and an excellent local infrastructure.This in turn has attracted some of the top Canadian builders to construct attractive, and affordable high-density projects. Much of the parcels of land were purchase over a decade ago, and with the current annual growth, it has been a great time to launch their much anticipated projects.Top builders such as Tridel, Conservatory Group, the Daniels Corporation, Davies Smith, Fernbrook, and Amacon have embraced the city of Mississauga as the next phase of major urban development in the Greater Toronto Area.The Mississauga Condo market has experienced tremendous growth in the past four years since the boom in new condo development began in 2001. Mississauga Condo prices have appreciated *(11.93%) since April 2006 in only three years.In other words mississauga condos have appreciated approximately 3.9% each year for the past four years, which is equivalent to earning 70.33 every year on your condos market value. This represents incredible value to the average condo purchaser in Mississauga, and proves to the buying public that buying a new Mississauga condo is in fact a great investment.See below for the average price of a Square One Condo year over year for the past four years.

Square One Condos •April 2006 = 7,856
•April 2007 = 7,305
•April 2008 = 5,880
•April 2009 = 0,267

The most incredible statistic is when you take a closer look at the appreciation that the Mississauga Condos have experienced over the past decade.Ten years ago, the average price of a Mississauga Condo was 8,823. This represents a 63.22% appreciation in value in just ten years. It is equivalent to receiving a cheque valued at 44.40 every year for the past ten years. The great news for investors and Mississauga Condominium purchasers is that because Mississauga condos are still very affordable, there is still an incredible amount of room for growth and possibility to experience appreciation year over year.

Mississauga Condominiums
Tridel has built such prestigious projects as ‘Skymark West’ phase 1 and 2, Ovation 1 and 2, Grand Ovation, and their most recent development ‘Ultra Ovation’ has been well received by the condo buying public. Recognized 3 years in a row by J.D. Power and Associates for customer satisfaction, the new Tridel condominiums have been a welcome addition to the Mississauga Condominium market. Conservatory Group has recently completed the ‘Universal Condo Mississauga’ tower on the Rathburn and Confederation intersection.With high-end finishes and an attractive price per square foot of approximately 8/square foot, this condominium provides exceptional value for investors that are looking to command an exceptional lease rate. Widesuites is the latest development by Conservatory Group, and this project introduces a new concept in Mississauga Condo design.The builder has inverted the floor plans so that the suites become wider, which in turn offers purchasers more window surface, and more natural light.The floor plans are open concept and very functional.Construction has begun, and Conservatory Group is still offering pre-construction prices. The WS Sky lounge will boast some of the best views in the city, coupled with exceptional amenities. The Daniels Corporation has certainly left the imprint in the Mississauga skyline with their master planed community at Mississauga City Centre.This five phase development includes the ‘Capital Condos Mississauga’, the ‘Garden Suites’, award wining ‘One Park Tower Mississauga’ and the newest addition to the master planed community ‘Chicago Condo Mississauga.’ With standard high-end finishes such as granite, engineered hardwood, and stainless steel appliances, Daniels condominium projects have retained exceptional resale value in the Mississauga condos market. Developer Davies Smith has been very active in the Mississauga luxury condo market in creating their 4 phase development directly across Square One shopping centre. Introducing the first series of modern loft units in the Square One condo market, the development has been attracting young professionals, and first time buyers into the growing Mississauga condo market.’Citygate Condos Mississauga’ set the precedent for modern, trendy development in the community, and the award winning ‘Solstice’ condo has since defined the modern condo lifestyle young urbanites have been seeking. Their latest addition ‘ONYX’ will take the loft lifestyle to the next level by devoting the entire North side of the building to 2-story lofts. The loft alternative will pose an exceptional opportunity for investors because of the shortage of available lofts, and the increasing demand amongst the Mississauga condo market.’Absolute Condos Mississauga’ has been dubbed the Landmark condominiums in Mississauga, and has created quite a buzz in the investor market, attracting many foreign investors from the Middle East, Europe, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States.Back in 2005 an International Design competition was launched to design a revolutionary landmark condominium in downtown Mississauga. Hundreds of architects from over 70 countries entered the design competition, and the public decided the vote on the 6 finalists for the design competition.With Tower 1, 2, and 3 complete, tower 4 and 5 are set for construction and will take Mississauga’s condo skyline to the next level. The most prestigious development out of all the Mississauga condos is ‘Parkside Village’ by West Coast developer Amacon. With approximately 6000 new units and 17 point towers slated for future development, a city within a city will emerge.Comprised of residential units and ground floor commercial retail units, Parkside Village will be a reminiscent of Montreal development where residents will be able to walk to entertainment, shopping, parks, and work in this new vibrant community.3 acres of parkland will wrap around the village, and the entire development will span 11 blocks.The suites will have all the luxurious appointments that Amacon usually provides the buying public, and with flexible deposit schedules, condo purchasers and investors have an exceptional opportunity to be a part of something special in downtown Mississauga.

For Mississauga condo listings, condo descriptions, pricing information, interactive videos of condos in Mississauga, mortgage calculator, and valuable articles about the Toronto Real Estate market.Whether you are looking to buy a condo in Mississauga, or looking for mississauga condos for rent, visit Mississauga-Condos.ca your Mississauga Condos Source!

Cheap property for sale is a great way to make long term capital gains but most investors make common mistakes and have know idea on how to turn the above into 30 – 100% profits or more.

Read the simple guidelines below for buying cheap property for sale and you could be on the way to huge gains.

1. Look for fair value property

Don’t ever buy the cheapest property you can find, it’s cheap for a reason no one wants it.

Instead look for property that is fairly priced and has solid reasons to rise in value.

For example

1. Infrastructure changes, like new roads, marina’s, railways, airports etc are being are due to be built and will increase the attractiveness of the area.

2. The area is adjacent to a booming area and you expect overspill.

NEVER BUY

If there are not solid reasons for the property to rise.

You will get it cheaper, but you probably won’t make money.

Pay a bit more and you will get better growth and lower risk

3. Buy a Bull market

At present in many countries with interest rates starting to bite ( like the USA) Its getting harder to make money.

So do what many foreign investors are doing, buy cheap property for sale overseas in countries that are close and stable.

Getting the big gains

For example making 30 – 100% gains in a market like the US on your investment capital is hard if not impossible in the current economic climate, however overseas not only can you buy property cheaper, you can get bigger gains.

In effect you get more bang for your buck.

Costa Rica has been providing this for years and an example will illustrate this:

A property bought near the popular resort of Jaco Just 15 years ago for ,000, is worth as much as 750,000 today and prices still continue to rise.

There are however still some great cheap properties for sale on the Central Pacific coast that will show great gains.

Why will gains continue?

Quite simply beach front property is 70% less than in the southern USA and Americans are traveling just 3 hours south by direct flight to own their own slice of paradise at affordable cost.

Demand continues to rise and gains continue to be made.

Add in tax advantages, low property tax, the same rights as residents and one of the most stable countries in the world and you have a great way to make money in cheap property for sale.

Finally it’s beautiful!

So if you want more for your money and bigger gains head south to Costa Rica and you will discover what increasing numbers of foreign investors have – Costa Rica cheap property for sale investment offers great gains and low risk.

A good booming location

Perhaps one of the best areas is the Central Pacific Coast which continues to expand buying near these expanding locations and infrastructure can be very lucrative.

Check them out for yourself and see.

What data can you get from a good real estate investing book? There are a numeral of online sites, which can bring out you knowledge and points on how to begin arrive at your real estate investments properly. You are able to also get a number of books, which are essentially on the content of real estate investing. You could search sites related to articles on the internet for information on real estate investing books.

Whenever you go for an in-depth analysis of these real estate investing books, you’ll find that there are a number of chapters covering topics like how to market your real estate investing business, the secrets of real estate investing, tips & tricks on real estate investing, how to follow business success of tycoon of other fields and how to grow in the real estate business. All these and more are covered as the component of a good real estate investing book.

A number of hidden pitfalls are there that you should avoid for staying in the business sector. You can get an elaborated overview about the risks, drawbacks and potential ways out. You can also know whether you are ready to step into the business of real estate investing or not. The real estate investing book could give you advice on how to use the books properly so that you get the utmost data out of it.

Although on your journey of becoming a successful real estate businessman, you would need a guide on who could help you in the right guidance. The real estate investing book can be a very good friend in achieving understanding your goals and achieving them. The book would also tell you about the real estate seminars from where you are able to get hidden benefits.

The real estate investing book also tells you how to assemble your own multi billion-dollar empire based on real estate. Some online sites offer you a numeral of courses, both online as well as normal. You can start your own real estate business with your own home mortgage. If you pay attention to the formulas offered by the real estate investing books you would be able to retrieve it within seven years.

Creative real estate investment figures the real estate investment behavior of individuals. Real estate, also known as immovable property, consists of land or anything permanently connected to the land, like buildings. Real Estate is often viewed and used in contrast to personal property. With the development of private property ownership real estate investment has arise as an emerging area of business.

Creative real estate investment is normally known as creative realty investment. It comprises of the purchase, sale of residential land and building and non residential buildings. The main conduits involved in this are landlords, tenants, buyers, developers, builders, real estate agents etc. The development in hospitality, entertainment and IT sectors are extremely influencing for the creative real estate investment business.

Constructive real estate investment as viewed normally is not only the business of the rich strata of the society as even if the investment is low it can reap huge benefits. Certain points are to be kept in mind before you go for creative real estate investing in this business like where to invest and how to invest.

The people involved in this business enterprise should have a complete and comprehensive knowledge abut the areas, which are risks prone. Success in property is the main cause behind its upsurge in countries like USA, Canada, Australia, Europe and New Zealand. The best way to get stated with creative real estate investment is to advertise.

Creative real estate investment is an art for successful real estate investment. One should start from the initial stage of gathering information and resources. Apart from that acquiring information from the net, the local newspaper is of utmost help. Information from the bulletin board also helps a lot. The legal section of the newspaper also helps in getting the right kind of information.

In almost every real estate investing seminar I’ve ever attended, a lot of time has been invested in teaching real estate investors and potential real estate investor on how to find good deals. Because deal-finding is so crucial to one‚Äôs investing success and longevity in the real estate investing business, I recently decided to chat with a real estate investment friend and look back and see which methods have generated the most deals and the best deals for him.. In reviewing the 200 properties he has bought or flipped over the last 5 years, I was surprised to find that many of the “traditional” sources of great deals haven’t worked for him, while some less obvious methods have been great lead generators. I’d like to share with you the results of my study.

The Multiple Listing Service. The MLS is essentially a catalog of all the properties listed for sale by brokers. Needless to say, some of them are good deals for investors, and some aren’t.  Sometimes there is a great foreclosure in there, sometimes not. The trick is to ferret out which properties have motivated sellers without making offers on all of them. I’ve honed this skill through years of translating agent lingo like, “Handyman’s special” (looks bad, smells bad, has at least one major system that doesn’t function), “needs TLC” (ugly, but not smelly, and everything works).  What you’re going to find is a lot of cost, markup and competition has set the price.  As an investor, you really want to find ways around the ‘traditional real estate sales’ databases if at all possible.

Properties listed in the MLS are for sale.  To anyone, including the real estate investor. This may seem pretty profound, but some of the other methods touted as great ways to find deals involve locating owners, then finding out if they want to sell. Properties in the MLS also have the advantage that all of the information about the property is pretty much laid out for you – a major time saver. For the average real estate investor, time really is money.  And, with the sophisticated, computerized access available to your agent, it’s a matter of a few keystrokes to view all of the properties that are handyman’s specials, or bank-owned, or in estate, or priced under a certain dollar figure – whatever you‚Äôd like to concentrate on.  The disadvantage is that if you’re after foreclosures, you may not find the deals here.

Another reason that the MLS has worked so well  is that  generally the market for really ugly properties is where real estate investors may want to be, otherwise the deals for good real estate investing values just won’t be there. Coincidentally, these are the same properties that most agents prefer not to spend a lot of time with. In many cases, they’re downright cooperative – particularly when I’m offering all cash and a quick closing.

Direct mail to real estate agents?  At one point, we did a mail out to 1,200 agent names from the Board of Realtors and generated a 3-part mailing to send to every agent in town. For the real estate investor, this might seem like a respectable idea, however there are drawbacks.

The theme of this campaign was this: if you, Mr. Agent, have a property listed that fits a specific real estate investment criteria, I’ll make an offer and you get to keep the entire commission. Out rolled a brilliant campaign -all posted first class, incidentally – and in numbered the telephone calls. All 9 of them. That‚Äôs correct. The workweek after the 1st letters got out, we got 9 calls. We had already produced offers on 3 of the houses; 2 were out of our price range; and two were overpriced listings soon to expire.  Not a beneficial take for the average real estate investor seeking to realise a living with real estate investment .

The succeeding mailing gave even more answers – about 16 replys – all basically in the same classes. The final mail out, a postal card, encountered no notice at all. Basically, we consumed close to 00 on a campaign that gave nothing for our real estate investing concern.

I still guess that this idea has some merit, but if  performed again, we would make some substatial shifts. Initially, we’ll target only the 350 or so brokers who name the kinds of real estate investment properties we would purchase. Then, we would do a better job of composing the marketing collateral, underlining how the broker and his seller could gain from doing work with our real estate investment business. Finally, we would make the campaign a continuous one throughout the next twelve months, trying out dissimilar letters for reception and sending the best to the same real estate agents over and over. And lastly, to personalise the campaign by following up with a telephone call to the 30 or so preferred candidates. Target marketing our real esatate investing marketing attempts.

Ads in the Yellow Pages. For half dozen years, we have featured an ad in the “real estate” section of the Yellow Pages. Each calendar year, the ad has possessed some variation of the phrasing, “We purchase homes – all cash‚Äù. This advertising only yields 3-4 calls a calendar month, but for some grounds the caliber of the telephone calls is better than those that are produced by whatever other means we have ever practiced. The sellers incline to be incited, cooperative, and bear unlisted houses.  All of these items are precisely what the real estate investor is wanting in investment properties.

What is great is that you get to look at with these ads once a calendar year, then leave ‚Äòem. While they usually are pricy – 1000s per 12 month time period – the telephone company will regularly charge you every month for the price. In addition, as one of the very few ads in the telephone directory that promises to buy investment properties, You have not got alot of competition.  This works out, but getting connected with  people that own the houses in hand: banks, any mortgage company that possesses (and does not want) foreclosures, key real estate agents, any one that recognises the market and recognises you embody the real esate investor that understands the marketplace.  Both cases, you succeed.  Yellow pages, you pay for the leads, the word of mouth, time is payment for the great real estate investing leads.

Advertised FSBOs? Properties For Sale By Owner,
a.k.a. FSBOs, are a preferent means for a number of real estate investors. For us, on the other hand, have never bought a holding from an owner who promoted his property for sale rather than ringing me.  Sounds like a deal for the budding Real Esatate Investor who purchases homes for a living right?

We have found various issues with straining to purchase FSBOs. The 1st is that many are not actually for sale. Some FSBOs are just “trying out the market to ascertain what variety of offers he’ll acquire. Other FSBO sellers are very moved to sell, but do not list because they need to keep all of the money from the sale. They do not wish to pay a commission – but they do not desire to receive a lower price, either. And sometimes a seller opts to try to sell their holding by themselves because they owe too much to bear a 5%-7% commission, even if he sells it at full price.  For the real estate investor, obviously there is no economic value here.

If you are purchasing expensive properties creatively, these sellers are ripe for the variety of answer you propose. A majority of real estate investors schemes is to buy ugly real estate cheaply and for immediate payment, and you just do not witness this type of deal in advertized FSBOs.

fFiers to Targeted Neighborhoods: Last calendar year, we delivered 14,000 double-sided “We buy real estate” circulars published. We employed an individual to set this flyer in the threshold of every single, two, or multi family residence they saw in the prospective region.  Every three calendar weeks or so, 5,000 approximately of these flyers were delivered, and the reply from qualified sellers was first-class. For a price of less than 0, we gained 3 deals that clearred over ,000.  For a new region for the experienced real estate investor or just examining a dissimilar way to ‘farm’ the real estate investment outlooks in a given area, this is very good and popular way to find out if there are any sound real estate investment deals to capture.

Billboards in the same neighborhood? Here is a object lesson in messing up a beneficial thing: hot on the heels of our massively successful circular campaign, I settled to spring for 4 large billboards in the same vicinity. The trouble was that my marketing budget is only so large, and purchasing the billboards signified stopping the fliers. Still, I envisioned that the billboards would get more attention anyway, so I handed over the ,800 and acquired…

No response.. Nothing……

The Point? Keep with What does work.  This is the number one rule of obtaining good real estate investment properties.
.
Employing only one lead source at a time. In my experience, it is best to use at least a few dissimilar techniques of lining up deals at the same time: preferably 2 you’ve practiced before with some results, plus 1 that you are screening. Which takes us to:

Not understanding which of your deal-finding techniques are producing, and which are not. If you are going to expend money on fliers or ads or phone pole signs or whatever, it is very significant that you give attention to which methods are getting good leads, and which are not.. For any real estate investing occupation, and business in general, one needs to monitor and try out the outcomes of a marketing campaign. If you are not tracking your lead sources to expose which are producing leads and which you should give up, you’re wasting away time and money that could be set to use giving you deals.