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With increase in interest rates and tightening credit from lenders, investors must start to look at how to make more money from their current investment properties. Optimizing the portfolio has never been more important than in the current economic climate.

Many investors will agree that cash flow is the secret to successful investing. Whether it is a property or business, the key to success is to have a strong grip on your cash flow situation. Interest rate increases, like the ones we have recently experienced, can significantly eat into the cash flow. Many people think that one needs to amass great sums of money to build wealth, but building a strong inflow of cash can also bring about financial freedom without having piles of cash.

The trick is not to focus on all the debt, but to build your strategies around cash flow. It is highly evident that many investors don’t know what to do in order to generate positive cash flow from an investment property. By asking yourself “How do I make money from an investment property I already own?” you will come to the conclusion that you need to generate more income or you need to reduce your expenses on that particular property.

How to Reduce Expenses on a Property

* Your biggest expense will be the monthly instalment that you have to pay the Bank. By extending the Bond over a longer period (like 30 years), you will reduce your monthly instalment. Don’t focus on the extra interest that you have to repay, it is the tenant that repay’s it for you.

* Negotiate a better interest rate with your bank. Normally when you extend the bond period to 30 years they are more than willing to drop the rate. In the process, negotiate a discount with the lawyer (up to 20% is normal, some investors get no less than 30%).

* Do your own management on your rental properties. It is a simple exercise of monitoring your bank account to see that the money has been deposited. Especially if you only starting out with a few properties. Once you have a strong, positive cash flow and enough properties, consider using an agent.

How to Increase Income on a Property

* The easiest is to have a rental escalation clause in your lease Contract. Normal escalations are 8 – 10% p.a.

* Consider converting a storeroom or double garage into a granny flat. Having more than one tenant on one property can generate substantial cash flow.

* Considering adding a granny flat if possible. It can be FAR cheaper than buying a new small flat.

* See if you can subdivide the land. Either to sell the divided part or to build a second unit on.

* Have you ever bothered to ask your tenant what he would like? A second carport or security gate can generate more income.

* Look at the security of the property. Can you add more security to increase the rent (e.g. burglar bars, alarms, etc)? If you don’t know, ask the tenant if such additions would add value.

* You can change the nature of the property? Rezone farming land for residential use or changing residential to business rights can be most rewarding.

* By adding additional businesses to you student housing like a Laundromat facility, games room with coin operated pool tables or put vending machines that sell sodas or sweets you can generate additional income. This will also make your property more appealing in comparison with the one next door.

* Convert a 4 bed 2 bath house into two 2 bed apartments. Not only will it generate more income but you reduce your risk as well.

By combining some of these ideas can easily make you property go positive. Also take note of what to look for when you buy your next property. The more space you have, the more options to consider. Each property has unique opportunities like extra space, additional buildings or it might be the ideal location. It is your job as an investor to identify the opportunities that others don’t see. Use your imagination to see with your mind and not only with your eye’s. In the mean time, with all the interest rate increases, exercise your imagination on your current property investments.

How do you hire a full-service realtor and only pay half a commission? It is always surprising when a homeowner is going to hire a realtor® to sell his property, especially when he next complains bitterly about paying 5% or 6% to someone who he believes does little or no work. Usually the seller marks up the property to cover the commission which over-prices the property and the result is it doesn’t sell.

Usually, the commission paid to a realtor® is split equally between himself and his “broker”, who is the licensed agent in charge of a particular firm. If the commission on a sale is $20,000, the realtor® and the broker each get $10,000. Newer methods of payouts to agents include paying “desk fees” to the broker in exchange for higher payouts. For example, if the agent pays $135/month as a “desk fee” he may be entitled to a 95% commission while an agent paying $60/month may only entitled to a 70% payout.

If the agent doesn’t sell the property he listed, but another agent does, the buying and selling brokers each get half of the commission and the 3% commissions are again split with the agent so he gets 1 1/2 % net. So for a $20,000 commission the split looks like – $5,000 each to the two brokers and $5,000 each to the two agents. This is a simplified summary of the process but illustrates the payout procedure. If the agents are on a higher payout because of their monthly desk fees, their portion of the commission is increased and their broker’s portion is reduced proportionally. Industry statistics show that 95%+ of the time the listing agent does not sell the property! So the real money for a realtor is in getting the listing and having another realtor® sell it. The largest commission producers in the industry sell listings and not properties.

The way to save at least half of the realtor’s commission is to list with a flat-fee broker who will list the property on the MLS® (Multiple Listing Service) and Realtor.com® but who does not show the property. The buyer for your property will come from a “buyer’s agent” who brings a client to see your home and make an offer. He is interested in receiving his usual 50% of the full commission or 3% of the sales price. If you offer a 3% commission to the buyer’s agent, you have saved 3% by not having to pay the seller’s agent (listing agent)! In the above example of a $20,000 commission, the agent who brings the buyer still gets $10,000 but you are saving $10,000.

What if you are unfamiliar with the sales and contracting process and you need help? For the $10,000 commission savings you can hire an attorney to review any contract and give you advice usually for less than $500 so you are still ahead $9,500. But better yet, the attorney can give legal advice that your realtor® can not, and you have recourse against your lawyer if something goes wrong.

So to save at least 50% of your commission, should you decide to have a realtor® sell your house, use a buyer’s agent only and offer him a 2.5% or 3% commission. Another unique benefit of only paying a buyer’s agent is that if desperation sets in and you need to sell quickly, you can increase your payout to the buyer’s agent and attract many more buyers than using a seller’s agent. The highest commission seen in the past year is a 12% commission to buyer’s agents for condo units. In the depressed condo market these days, it is not uncommon to see 10% commissions to buyer’s agents. So if you have decided to sell your home on the MLS using a realtor®, you can save substantial money and sell your home faster by focusing on paying only a buyer’s agent to sell your home.

Are you interested to invest in Sarasota real estate? Do you want to earn money from purchasing real estate properties?

A career as s real estate investor in Sarasota real estate is really profitable but it is risky as well. But the good news is that there are ways in order to be successful real estate investor in Sarasota real estate. There are number of tips that you can make use in order to be successful real estate investor in Sarasota real estate, this article will mention few of these tips.

Before buying any property in Sarasota real estate, you have to learn about the market first, you have to gain important information about the market. This is very important. The market changes every now and then, so it is wiser on your part to learn about it.

You also have to gain information not only about the market but about how investing really works. Investing doesn’t mean you will just purchase a home or a property and that’s it. You have to be well-informed and prepared as you enter Sarasota real estate investing. Investing requires lot of money and you certainly do not want to waste your money. Your main aim is to earn a lot, so you have to be armed as you enter real estate investing in Sarasota real estate.

Knowledge and information are important. Gaining these requires time and effort. There are heaps of ways to gain knowledge and information; this article will give you few of these ways, so read on.

You can definitely learn a lot to those successful investors. You may be wondering on how you can contact these investors. You can start by looking at your yellow pages, look for the advertisement that say they are buying or selling properties, then contact these investors, ask about their experiences. Do not hesitate; gaining knowledge requires determination, so you have to be determined to obtain information from them.

You can purchase books about real estate investing. Reading books about real estate investing can help you obtain knowledge about how real estate investing works.

Internet is also a good source for knowledge and information. Go online and search about real estate investing. Actually, you are now getting started to gain knowledge, reading this article means you are eager to gain information and knowledge about Sarasota real estate investing.

You can read about tips and guidelines about real estate investing. You can also look and read about the experiences of those successful real estate investors, you can absolutely learn from their experiences.

You also have to learn about the different types of investment. You have to know how each works. Weigh things out and decide which type you can do best and focus to that type of investing.

Truly, you can be a successful real estate investor in Sarasota real estate if you desire to be. You just have to bear in mind that you have to work with your head and research well. In the world of real estate investing, well researched and well informed decision is the best way to be rich.

Eliza Maledevichttp://www.siestakeyrealestate.com

Real estate investment software is one of the best tools real estate investors and professionals have at their disposal to analyze and evaluate rental property. Hands down.
Good real estate investment software provides user-friendly forms, makes every computation, and generates professional-style reports. With a good real estate software solution any user (novice or advanced) can create professional-quality rental income property reports for personal decision-making or as presentations to buyers, sellers, colleagues, partners, or to lenders within minutes.
Moreover, real estate investing is all about the numbers. Hence, successful real estate investors concentrate on (nay, make the investment decision based upon) the bottom line when considering real estate investment opportunities. Real estate investment software therefore becomes an essential tool for people who seriously work with investment real estate because it provides quick and concise cash flow and rate of return numbers.
There are, of course, options other than investing in third-party real estate investment software. You can, for instance, simply scratch out the numbers with a pad and pencil, perhaps make a hasty rule-of-thumb calculation off the top of your head, or maybe listen to someone’s advice. But it should be obvious that these approaches, although useful in limited cases, are fraught with weaknesses. They clearly do not provide a deep enough property analysis required for such an important investment decision, nor do they represent the data adequately enough to sway the opinion of any other person, entity, or institution.
Of course, you can develop your own real estate investment software solution on a spreadsheet program like Excel. The problem here is time. It takes loads and loads of time to embed the computations properly and to format the forms and reports. Given the affordability of some software solutions, successful real estate professionals do not waste time or effort reinventing the wheel and rely on real estate software, preferring rather to spend their time generating moneymaking deals.
But I digress. So let’s get back on topic and consider 10 things you should expect to find in good real estate investment software.
1. Easy to learn and use – You want simply to enter the values and have the software do the rest. You never want to look and wonder, “What do I do next?”
2. Unlimited units – You want the ability to analyze one unit or a thousand units, or even more units if necessary.
3. Loan amortization – You want lots of control over the financing assumptions for the property. Therefore you want the ability to enter multiple loans (e.g., a first, second, and third loan), the flexibility to enter the loan either as a loan assumption or as a new loan, and either at a fixed-rate or interest-only rate.
4. Crucial rates of return – You want the real estate investment software to calculate returns for cash flow such as cap rate, gross rent multiplier, cash on cash, operating expense ratio; and loan analysis ratios like debt coverage, loan-to-value, break-even, profitability index.
5. Concise, top-quality reports – You want a wide-range of printable reports to include comprehensive data with eye-catching appeal. Remember, you might be trying to influence the opinion of a buyer, seller, colleague, or lender regarding this property. At the very least, you would expect superior software to create an APOD, proforma income statement, rent roll, acquisition report, and sales proceeds report. If you’re pragmatic, you can also find software with sensitivity and scenario reports, a comparable sales report, a marketing package (executive summary), amortization tables, and charts.
6. Upgradeable versions – In the event that you purchase their less-than-platinum-grade-version without “time value of money” and “tax shelter” consideration, you want the ability to upgrade to it later if you choose. This is crucial. For you will discover over time that time value of money and taxes are extremely important to real estate investors and you will want the software to compute them.
7. Technical support – You want to have easy access to tech support in the event of a problem, e.g., your computer crashes and you need to re-download the real estate investment software. Email and telephone support (preferably with the developer) is recommended. Exercise caution if the company or developer appears overly allusive or lacking in experience.
8. Affordability – The good news is that there is very good real estate investment software available on the web for under $300. Be sure to examine the website carefully, however. Remember, the same software company that’s wanting you to purchase their software publishes the website. Unless it’s well organized and informative, or if its lack-luster and confusing, the software might not be worth the price regardless how affordable.
9. Customer satisfaction – Customers freely willing to write and submit a testimonial about the software should not be taken for granted or lightly regarded. Look for names, professions, and titles. If you can relate, then you’re on the right track.
10. Lots of special features – You should expect good real estate investment software to provide at least these benefits: Seamless printing, picture function, branding and name-rider integration, email capability, help file, and Vista compatibility. In some cases, there could be even more features that are special, so spend time on each website looking around to be sure you don’t miss something.

When you read and watch the news about the mortgage/real estate meltdown you hear about the mortgage lenders and real estate agents that have fallen on hard times but problems in the title insurance industry are largely ignored.

Reason being, at least in part, is due to the way title insurance was marketed and sold. Because title insurance has been a behind the scenes aspect of the real estate processes the public and the news does not really hear about it. Unless the principals in the transaction are savy investors, the average consumer has no involvement in the selection of the title insurer and basically kept in the dark when it comes to this component of the real estate transaction.

This is also a big part of the problem that title companies are facing now. They relied on referrals from other real estate professionals and when the mortgage lenders and real estate agents go out of business the referrals dry up.

Too many title companies are now being forced out of business because they can’t get the referrals any more. The title companies that are able to make their way out of this market are those who had diverse marketing plans focused on consumers as well as real estate professionals. They may not be able to make big profits but they will be able to survive until the market turns around.

Too many good people are losing their jobs and their businesses and if the remaining title companies don’t take heed and change their business plans to be more consumer friendly we will see many more people on the unemployment line.

2008 has begun with a mix of decidedly lousy economic news and some pessimistic projections, so at first glance it might be very tempting for those hoping to either buy or sell homes in Austin to stay on the sidelines and avoid the Austin real estate market completely.

That would be a mistake. Don’t be discouraged, because things are not exactly as they appear. You need to look past the negative-leaning news headlines in order to find the proverbial silver lining in a cloudy real estate picture.

Of course the mortgage industry is still reeling in the wake of the sub-prime mortgage crisis, with some experts anticipating yet another large wave of borrowers defaulting on their loans. National statistics show existing home sales in 2007 down at least 20 percent over the previous year. There’s talk of the housing bubble bursting in various regions of the country, news of the highest unemployment rates in two years, and now even some presidential candidates openly using the dreaded “R” word, recession.

But that’s the national scene. When it comes to Austin real estate, the news was far from bad in 2007. In fact, to insert the word “bad” into any discussion of either last year’s local housing market or any analysis of the year to come would frankly border on irresponsible. The truth is the Austin real estate market bucked national trends and appears poised to remain solid this year, despite mixed economic predictions.

Yes, sales of homes in Austin were also down in 2007, but only by 12 percent, better than the national average. And there is further reason to avoid applying what you hear in the national news to the Austin real estate market: according to the National Association of Realtors, in several regions around the country average sales prices have actually increased, and that includes Austin homes, which went up in value by nine percent.

More encouraging news is that Austin homes in 2007 didn’t take too long to sell, and didn’t linger: on average, they stayed on the market 47 days, compared to 49 days in 2006 — hardly a cause for panic.

According to some economists, the Austin real estate market will cool in 2008. A new report from Austin-based Angelou Economics says stricter lending restrictions in the wake of last year’s mortgage crisis may price some first-time or low-end homebuyers out of the market — and it thinks this may have already started happening: apartment vacancy rates, typically seen as a leading indicator for decreased home sales, are at a five-year low, meaning those folks won’t be seeking homes in Austin, but will keep renting.

But at the same time, Angelou acknowledges that continuing population and job growth will cushion the Austin real estate market from the worst effects of the sub-prime mortgage troubles. After all, Austin is still perceived as a great place to live, work and play. The simple fact is people are still moving here, and shopping centers, hospitals, schools and entertainment venues are popping up all over the landscape.

Angelou also says increases in the prices of Austin homes will slow from “rapid” to “average”. That’s not exactly a grim development for sellers.

Angelou expresses concern about new home construction, which saw a significant slowdown in 2007 — a nearly 40 percent drop in new home permits over 2006. And according to a study cited by The Austin Business Journal, new home construction dipped 20 percent. By year end continuing angst over the mortgage crisis caused home builders to run for cover and scale back their previously aggressive plans in central Texas. The most recent and striking example of this came just in December, when Centex Homes announced it was backing out of plans to purchase nearly 500 acres of land in northern Travis County — an acquisition that would have eventually led to 1400 brand new homes.

Yet even this doesn’t necessarily translate into bad news for potential buyers and sellers of Austin homes. Buyers could be the recipients of favorable deals, as those home builders now focus on getting rid of their existing unsold inventory. As always, they’ll compete with the existing resale homes in Austin by offering incentives to buyers, who could find themselves in a brand new home at a bargain price.

But that new home inventory won’t last forever — and with less of those brand-new subdivisions being built and aggressively advertised, that’s less competition for homeowners who might be inclined to put their homes on the market. And of course it’s in their interest to price their resale homes competitively, in order to compete with the builders and sell within a reasonable amount of time. All that competition only works to the advantage of people in the market for an Austin home.

So don’t let a little gloomy news get you down. The Austin real estate market finished 2007 strong, and will remain that way in 2008.

Everybody is coming to Calgary; not really – it just seems that way. Parts of western Canada have some of the best economic prospects in North America these days, and Calgary is right at the heart of that good news.
We have seen times when it was hard to find a place to live and thought that is no longer the case, really, any assistance a newcomer can get would be welcome. Find out about the Calgary Real Estate Board
So, as you might know, we have seen Calgary in Western Canada rise as a pretty hot commodity over the last few years. Housing prices did skyrocket for a short period, and the market is still healthy, though more balanced these days. It has grown steadily, reaching a million inhabitants in 2007.
For a while, it was quite difficult to find a suitable place to live in Calgary, but we have a few tools around to assist those in need. In Calgary, one will find lots of real estate agents and the Calgary Real Estate Board.
What is the Calgary Real Estate Board? As they say on their own website, “a cooperative association supporting Calgary and area’s 5700 Realtors.”
They help enable property purchases and leases by providing a network and operating the multiple listing services, MLS, for the city. Buyers and sellers need a computerized service where people can share ideas and data regarding property for sale. They use it to provide up-to-date and complete market data.
Naturally, they advocate using the services of a Realtor as opposed to various fsbo (for sale by owner) plans, or any other salespersons. They claim you get better market access, information, assistance in things like due diligence and the sales process and exposure.
Above all they want you to know you are more protected from potential problems than you would be on your own. What kind of problems? They cite things like errors and omissions insurance and other sources of financial losses. Good Idea.
On their website, the Calgary Real Estate Board, the CREB, also provides a group of links for educational opportunites. Do you know someone who wants to pursue a career in real estate? Check out the courses offered there.
The Calgary Real Estate Board has put out a free local magazine called Home to Home for those who like in-depth knowledge about the local market. They also publish the Calgary Real Estate News. What’s that? A newspaper-formatted publication with articles, how-to tips, market information including show homes, listings and more listings.
Naturally they have a few statements: Their Vision statement goes, “To be the core resource provider to our Membership’s continued success.”
The Mission Statement says, “To provide the Members with the highest level of information and services.”
And their Values Statement reads, “To conduct ourselves in the highest ethical, professional, and cooperative manner.”
Calgary has lots of real estate for sale. A prospective buyer just has to find the right help, whether that is in the form of websites or personal attention. The Calgary Real Estate Board is there to help these people.