Tuesday, September 2, 2008

5 Tips on How to Buy Investment Property

5 tips on how to buy investment property and make a profit.

Let's get stuck straight into these tips.

1. Do your research. If you are buying a property in the hope of becoming a landlord then make sure you have checked the areas rental potential and make sure the types of properties that you are planning on buying are the ones in demand by tenants. If you are planning on flipping the property, make sure you buy a property that is wanted by homebuyers.

2. Treat what people say with a healthy scepticism and don't blindly trust anyone. This includes so called experts. Talk to a few different property professionals to try and get a balanced view on things such as:

- What type of property to invest in

- What location

- What type of tenant to aim for

Sometimes it is only after canvassing lots of different opinions that you can really formulate you own strategy with confidence and with solid reasons why you plan to do what you plan to do.

3. Get for comparables for everything. Rental comparables, sales comparables - everything you can. Make sure your comparables are as much like for like as possible. For example: if you want to rent out a two bedroom flat next to a railway station, then try to get the rental comparison of other two bedroom flats next to the same railway station.

If you choose to use a flat that has two bedrooms and is located 1/2 a mile away from the station, they the you stand a chance of your comparisons being way off. ½ a mile in a town can be a long distant if it takes you from a desirable part of town to a non-desirable part that nobody wants to live in.

4. Get your finances in place. This might be a good thing to consider even before you go down the route of seriously looking for properties to buy. If your finances are sorted out before you start looking at how to buy investment property, then you will be more likely to be looking with confidence and purpose because you know if you find that bargain property you have the finances already in place to do the deal.

But if you don't have your finances in order there might be doubts in your mind about whether you can finance a deal even if you find it, this in turn may cause you to self sabotage any deal you see even before you put an offer in.

5. Employ the right professionals, whether that means builders, solicitors, contractors, or someone else, skimping on employing qualified people to do a job correctly can cost you a lot more money than you expect. Just because someone is cheap, doesn't mean they can do a good job and just because someone seems expensive doesn't mean that they can do a better job than someone who is cheaper.

The only way to find out for sure is to check references and their qualifications to do the job. Try and speak to real people that they have worked with before. This should preferably be a face face conversation.

Hopefully by reading this article you now have a clearer understanding on how to buy investment property that will make you a long-term profit, as well as perhaps making you a quick buck now.

Tips and Suggestions on How to Sell Real Estate Online

Why is it important to pursue Real Estate Marketing Online efforts? One very important reason is that with the adoption of the Internet by many people for both work and leisure purposes, the online world has become a veritable gold mine of information about prospects.

Thus, Real Estate Marketing Online campaigns by real estate sales specialists have become vital to the survival of the real estate industry and its players. What makes the situation more crucial is that real estate sales specialists claim that the previous Real Estate Marketing Online efforts they undertook (such as putting up websites about their business) have failed to deliver the results they wished for. This leaves such real estate professionals desperate to find Real Estate Marketing Online techniques that will really work for them.

Real Estate Marketing Online will work properly if you know who your target market is – and this means having a niche that you can compete in and where you are at your best. For instance, if you feel you have a knack for selling homes to newly-hired employees, then that is your niche market and you have to organize your Real Estate Marketing Online campaign in that direction to get the results you want.

Real Estate Marketing Online efforts that are based on adequate to superlative knowledge of your niche market are best for getting results out of the prospects out of your niche market. Real Estate Marketing Online then becomes more effective and efficient because you know who will be reading the content on your website so you can select the right photos and text content to address the niche market’s needs.

There are various ways of categorizing Real Estate Marketing Online niche markets. You can define them based on the location of the homes to be sold; their income levels or income range; the types of homes that you can sell to them based on location, income levels, and their personal preferences; the demographics of your niche market (such as what schools they attended and what languages they speak); and other things that make that niche market distinctive.

One very important thing you have to remember when designing websites as part of your Real Estate Marketing Online campaign is that you have to be careful to identify what your target visitors would probably be seeking when they come to take a look around. And presentation counts a lot in a Real Estate Marketing Online campaign. In the same way that people tend to be attracted to beautiful people more than plain-looking or even ugly people, your website should aim to appeal to the aesthetics of your niche market. For instance, if they are Hispanics, then you may want to include aesthetic elements that will remind them of their Hispanic roots. You could also sell homes that have a Hispanic appeal to them, such as homes made of adobe or stucco. Earth tones go well with the skin tones of Hispanics so homes that have predominantly autumn-inspired color hues and tones might appeal to these people more than modernistic houses that are all glass and steel.

Another of the Real Estate Marketing Online tips you may have to take into account is that some website templates you can get from some sources may actually hamper the ability of your visitors to access your website. So for a proper Real Estate Marketing Online campaign to function, you have to make a website that is glitch-free yet still user-friendly enough not to confuse non-techies. Try not to incorporate too many bells and whistles (meaning, try not to make your website too high-tech to the point that people no longer know how to use it.

Your Real Estate Marketing Online campaign will also go much more smoothly if you use a website background that speaks of professionalism. Teddy bears and candy canes may look cute on a personal blogsite but that is not what you will want on your real estate website if you want people to take your site seriously.

To make a long story short, you want Real Estate Marketing Online techniques that tell people that you are a credible real estate professional who has what it takes to meet their needs. That is the whole point behind embarking on a Real Estate Marketing Online campaign anyway.