What is Real Estate

Writen by John Carle

So you've decided to take advantage of the booming real estate market and put your house up for sale. As you know, buying a house is the most important purchase a consumer can make.

So it's understandable that when prospective buyers come through your house, your home will be scrutinized like it's never been before (well not since you bought it anyway!). Everyone knows you never get a second chance to make a first impression, so consider implementing the following cost-effective suggestions, before you welcome any potential buyers.

Consider the view that people see when they first drive up.

To ensure that you don't send any potential buyers running down the driveway before they even see the house, make sure the exterior of the home is spotless. Paint or wash as necessary and don't forget to mow the lawn and spruce up any outdoor greenery.

Upon entering your home, what will they see?

If you have a room that makes a statement when you walk in, perhaps the walls are painted a very bright colour or the style of furniture is eclectic, potential buyers may have a difficult time picturing their own stuff in the room. A fresh coat of paint in a neutral colour is an inexpensive but proven technique for increasing the appeal of any home. A clean, fresh smell makes a good impression. Try placing air fresheners in closets to eliminate musty smells. The smell of freshly baked bread also goes a long way. Don't go overboard though - not everyone likes the strong scents of potpourri or incense. Of course, it goes without saying that clean and bright equals a sale. Scrub, clean, wash windows, walls, floors and tiles and shampoo dirty carpets - leaving no stone unturned.

Clean under sinks, repair any leaks and clean up any damage.

Use special cleaning agents to rid toilets, tubs and sinks of stains. If you have lots of stuff, it's hard for potential buyers to see around it to see the room. Store any miscellaneous items, making sure to keep the garage, basement, attic and any closets tidy. This will make your house look more spacious and clean. Make repairs as necessary. If the baseboard around the cupboard is loose, for example, get out the hammer or glue and fasten it securely. Are the handles on the closet door wobbly? If so, get out the screwdriver and tighten them. Potential buyers don't want to have to look after a bunch of little things when they move in and they may subconsciously be noting all the little repairs.

In the end, they might reject the house because they think all the minor repairs will amount to a lot of work for them. By implementing these simple tips, you can ensure that your house will be off the market in no time!

About The Author

John Carle & Sharon Gregresh are Realtors with Royal LePage - ArTeam in St. Albert, AB. They pride themselves on providing more than just real estate sales and listings. Their clients benefit from a much larger spectrum or real estate services. Contact them any time at information@workingtogether.ca or through their website at www.workingtogether.ca. They can be reached by phone at (780) 458-5595

Writen by Wallace Conway

Waterfront living is among the most desirable of locations in our area (Florida). The views and vistas are fantastic, not to mention the ability to walk out one's door to drop a line to fish or untie a line to enjoy boating. However, all this joy is not without some special concerns.

The most common fear heard from waterfront homebuyers is their concern that the river may rise and roll into their home. While it is not an impossible scenario, it is truly rare. More often than not, the water that posses the greatest risk to the waterfront home is not from the river, but rather from the water flowing overland toward the river.

Always remember that the river is the place that all water flows to. How a particular home is oriented to or obstructs the flow of water moving toward the river determines how dry the house remains. And for many homes in is not just how dry it is in the home, but also under the home.

The majority of water that affects the home is the surface water flowing toward the river. The volume of water can be in the thousands of gallons per hour during a heavy shower. If the grade of the lot is not proper, this can mean thousands of gallons of water in or under the home.

So, when looking at waterfront property, enjoy the view over the water, but be sure to look inland to be sure that your experience with water front living won't be with water in the living room!

But what should you do after you've experienced a flooded home? There is hope! Your home and its contents may look damaged beyond repair, but many items can be restored. There is a high probability that by acting quickly, your flooded home can be cleaned up, dried out, rebuilt, and reoccupied sooner than you think.

After your home has been flooded, play it safe. Always seek professional help. And while in the midst of cleaning and repairing, consider your preparation for the future. The American Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) suggests the following steps if your home has been flooded:

• Take Care of Yourself First - Protect yourself and your family from stress, fatigue, and health hazards that follow a flood.
• Give Your Home First Aid - Once it is safe to go back in, protect your home and contents from further damage.
• Get Organized - Some things are not worth repairing and some things may be too complicated or expensive for you to do by yourself. A recovery plan can take these things into account and help you make the most of your time and money.
• Dry Out Your Home - Floodwaters damage materials, leave mud, silt and unknown contaminants, and promote the growth of mildew. You need to dry your home to reduce these hazards and the damage they cause.
• Restore the Utilities - The rest of your work will be much easier if you have heat, electricity, clean water, and sewage disposal.
• Clean Up - The walls, floors, closets, shelves, contents and any other flooded parts of your home should be thoroughly washed and disinfected.
• Check on Financial Assistance - Voluntary agencies, businesses, insurance, and government disaster programs can help you through recovery.
• Rebuild and Flood-proof - Take your time to rebuild correctly and make improvements that will protect your building from damage by the next flood.
• Prepare for the Next Flood - Protect yourself from the next flood with flood insurance, a flood response plan, and community flood protection programs. This step also includes sources to go to for additional assistance.

For more information on repairing your home after a flood, please visit www.redcross.org.

Many people highly prize waterfront living, and find it a deeply fulfilling experience. Knowing what to look for when choosing waterfront property will make your life on the water easier and more rewarding. Choose and plan wisely - it's about knowing!

Wally Conway is President of Florida HomePro Inspections, and has been featured regularly on HGTV's "House Detective". Wally has recently written a book entitled "Secrets of the Happy Home Inspector", available at GoHomePro.com or Amazon.com. As a speaker, writer, instructor, and host of The Happy Home Inspector radio show every Saturday at 3 PM on WOKV 690, Wally blends the right amount of up-to-date information with just the right amount of humor, insight, motivation, and real-world application. Visit WallyConway.com for more information!

Writen by Joanne Elizabeth

Also referred to as real property, real estate basically implies a piece of land including anything affixed to it like buildings, fences etc. For a long time now real estate has been topping the favourites chart as a great investment opportunity that has a potential of yielding big profits.

Now before you get all excited to take the plunge into the real estate market; lets first understand the brass tracts of the game called real estate investment.

There are two principal means by which you can earn by investing in a real estate business namely resale and rental.

Resale Investment:

This kind of investment works in quite the same way as an investment in stocks does. You purchase a property and then put it up for sale at a price higher than the one that you paid for purchasing it. Therefore, you pocket the money that is the difference between the two costs. Usually, investors of such a scheme use the money they earned on a particular purchase to buy another property, which they further sell out and the process repeats itself.

But just like everything else in life a resale investment also has its share of pros and cons. Pros: a resale investment spells great profits. You may purchase a property that doesn't require much repair work and then after making a few changes you can see the value of the property appreciate by a good margin. Cons: However, the flip side of a resale investment is that you may not find the appropriate buyer or the price for your property and you may end up blocking your money. Also, the housing market may crash, thus bringing down the cost of all the properties.

Another popular means of investing in the real estate business is by means of putting your money on a rental property.

Rental Investment:

In this kind of investment, the investor buys a property and then lets it out on rent. Although, through such an investment, an investor doesn't get a lump sum return; yet it can serve as a means of long-term investment, thus yielding returns over a period of time.

The advantage of investing in a rental property is that it becomes a constant source of income for a long period of time. Moreover, if the need arises the investor can sell off the rental property and earn some good money. However, the disadvantage of a rental investment is that you will have to deal with all sorts of problems like tenants who do not pay their rents, or you may have to invest your money into repair work or you may even have to go through periods where your property remains unoccupied.

Both the methods have their share of positives and negatives. A real estate investment can be quite a gamble. It may either yield great monetary results or it may completely reduce you from riches to rags. So, before you venture into the world of real estate you must first assess your own financial status and your immunity to risk.

Seek.uk
Nidhi
http://www.seek.uk.com

Writen by Dominic Whiting

Altinkum is a rapidly growing resort popular with British and Turkish tourists because of its sandy beach. It is close to Bodrum airport and offers some of the cheapest property on the entire Turkish coast, with apartments available from just £30,000.

Bodrum is one of the country's most popular resorts, with interesting sights, good shopping and excellent nightlife. Beyond the main town are a string of very different, smaller resorts. There is a wide selection of property from budget apartments to multi-million dollar villas. Popular areas include Gumusluk and Yalikavak, with its new marina.

Calis is Fethiye's nearest beach resort and it is attracting British buyers in droves thanks to some very affordable property and a long stretch of seashore.

Hisaronu & Ovacik: Set in lovely mountain scenery with the Ölüdeniz lagoon nearby, these two resorts near Fethiye are hugely popular with buyers – particularly from Britain. However prices have risen dramatically in recent years.

Kalkan is an attractive, friendly resort with plenty to do in the surrounding area. The town has grown explosively in recent years and offers lots of villas and apartments for sale and rent.

Within 45 minutes of Antalya airport and close to the golf courses of Belek, Side has sandy beaches and Roman ruins which make it a popular family resort for British, Irish and Scandinavian tourists. The area has mainly apartment complexes with relatively few villas due to the high price of land.

Alanya is a large seaside town with good beaches, entertainment and services. There is a wide choice of apartments and the town now has a large expatriate community. Development stretched for over 25 km along the coast, with prices dropping as you move away from the centre, to areas such as Mahmutlar.

Plans for a golf course and marina have caused intense interest in the area around Dalaman from developers and buyers. Prices have increased dramatically over the last 2 years, though they are still lower than neighbouring resorts.

There is alot of interest in property in Istanbul due to rapidly growing demand for housing in the city. Prices have risen dramatically in the last 18 months and look set to continue rising in the face of the city's rapid growth and the rising affluence of the population.

Dominic Whiting is a journalist and publisher of the Buying in Turkey and Buying in Bulgaria property guides. For more information, newsletters or to order visit: http://www.buyinginturkey.info

Writen by Tim Randle

First, let me state that I'm not an attorney and the rest of this article is just based on my experiences so I'd advise you to contact John Hyre at www.realestatetaxlaw.com to get some solid, specific advice on your particular situation.

Also, this article is not going to discuss land trusts, which some of you may have just stumbled upon. A land trust is not an entity. Although it is frequently used in conjunction with entities, it is merely a paper device used to shield property ownership from the public.

When I first got going, the recurring wisdom was that an investor should use a C corp for cash deals. By cash deals, I mean anything that throws off cash quickly. It might be a wholesale flip, retail assignment, rehab and retail, option, etc.

There were numerous reasons why this was and is recommended. First, the C corp offers great liability protection and allows the owner to take advantage of fringe benefits, thus draining the corp of excess profits through legitimate expenses.

What I've learned the hard way is that this entity is not necessarily better for cash deals than other entities unless you're doing serious cash numbers. By this I mean that the added benefits that a C corp offers are not available to you without a ton of cash coming in.

Stop and think about it for a moment. Are you going to generate enough cash to pay normal operating expenses like salary, marketing, funding, overhead, etc. and still have cash remaining to set up company programs for retirement, medical, insurance, education, etc.?

Typically, the answer's going to be "No", at least during the formative years. The primary downside to a C corp is that any losses, paper or otherwise, do not flow through to your personal tax return. You don't get to use them anytime soon.

When I started, the secondary recommendation for cash deals was an S corp because it did offer many of the same benefits as a C corp, yet allowed the owner to flow losses through to the personal tax return. Once the business was thriving then converting to a C corp was not difficult.

When I went through this research again about a year ago, the majority of responses I received was that I should use a Limited Partnership (LP) for cash deals with a Limited Liability Company (LLC) as the General Partner (GP). I've also heard others suggest using an S corp as the GP. Other recommendations included using an LLC by itself as the cash deal entity.

What about entities for the keepers? By that I mean any property that hangs around for a while and doesn't cash out soon. It could be a rental, lease option, or any property with owner financing, including subject to (Sub2). What I was told there was the same; that an LP with an LLC as the GP was currently best.

The point here is that if you do spend the necessary time to research this issue (and you should), you are likely to get each of these responses and possibly more.

My experience is that any of these suggested entities is better than starting with a C corp as I did. Factors that should play into your decision process include setup costs and any state-specific laws for each of the entities. For example, in my state, Texas, the LLC is much cheaper to set up than an LP. However, the LLC is also subject to franchise taxes on gross receipts over 150k and the LP is not.

Confused? I agree it's not easy to know what the right course of action is. Do you need an entity or multiple entities established before you do some deals? Absolutely not. Why go to the trouble of setting up companies for a business that you may decide to discontinue? How do you know if you'll even like real estate investing until after you've done some deals? Why do you need to set up serious asset protection until you have something worth protecting?

My recommendation would be to begin to research the various entities for your state as you continue to work your investing business. In my opinion there's no need to make things complicated in the initial stages. If there's no obvious negatives to an LLC in your state, then perhaps that would be a good start.

I would not rush out and set up a separate entity for cash deals and a separate entity for keepers as I did. I would not set up an LP as my first entity as it involves at least two partners, one limited partner and one general partner. Entities are not set in stone. With the proper guidance and counsel from good attorneys and CPA's, you can make changes to your business plans as the business grows.

Again, this is not something you have to figure out when just starting. Find someone very knowledgeable about real estate investing, like John Hyre mentioned above, and begin to ask the tough questions so you can make informed decisions. As your business grows, your asset protection can grow with it.

Thanks for reading. Until next time, good investing.

(c) Copyright 2003, All Rights Reserved.

About The Author

Tim Randle is a full time real estate investor in Round Rock, Texas and can be reached through his web site at www.TexasRealEstateClub.com; info@texasrealestateclub.com

Writen by Jeanette Joy Fisher

1. Planning:

Know Your Target Buyers

Think about your neighborhood and the buyers purchasing homes near your property. Are these home buyers purchasing their first home or moving up? This is important to your marketing and design plan, since the psychological needs of first-time home buyers differ from those of moving-up buyers, in that first-time home buyers are seeking to control their own environment by owning instead of renting. These buyers' psychological needs include:

- Safety and security
- Sense of place or connection
- Comfort
- Self-control

Moving-up buyers often enjoy these benefits, as well, but are looking for a larger home with more amenities for their comfort, self-esteem, and feelings of prestige. The needs of empty-nesters and retirees also vary, but they're generally looking for solutions for making their lives easier.

Once you determine who your potential buyers will be, you can make improvements to your home that will attract them.

Selling Season

Calculate approximately how much time will be needed to get your home ready for sale, and then add on a few extra days for unexpected delays. Estimate the length of your selling season -- the time of year you'll be marketing your home. This time period establishes the basis for your decorating choices and helps plan your color scheme.

Use cool colors -- blue, green, gray -- to sell during spring and summer. Use warm colors -- yellow, red, maroon -- to sell during fall and winter.

Think about your selling season and your local climate when choosing colors, patterns, fabrics, textures, and decorating details. The selling season and climatic conditions relate to your overall design plan. Try to envision your final product, whether it's a cooling desert oasis or a warm, inviting haven.

Consider your target market and your selling season and then make a list of changes to make.

2. Preparation:

The first step of preparation includes removal of non-essentials. Pack everything that clutters the potential buyer's vision so that they clearly see their future home. Consider selling or storing large pieces of furniture.

The next step is purchasing materials such as paint and plants. Make lists of items needed and specify features, remembering your target market and selling season. (To save money, check for returned items in home improvement stores, or find out if there's a Restore, Habitat for Humanity thrift store in your area, because they sell paint and fixtures. You can donate your own unwanted appliances, light fixtures, and doors to them, as well.)

The final step in preparation is the implementation of your changes. You can either do all the work yourself or hire professionals. Think about how much money you'll be making, and then evaluate whether it's better for you to pay to have the work done. If you decide to do the work yourself, home improvement centers offer free flyers with directions for completing most projects, as well as free classes.

3. Presentation:

Presentation, or staging, is the fun part of selling your house. Once you've packed all personal knickknacks, take a look at your house, as if through the eyes of a stranger. If the space feels too empty, add plants to bring nature indoors. Use delicate green ferns, spiky gray foliage, cut flowers, and tree branches from your garden to support the desired emotional atmosphere. Don't forget to support the buyer's sense of smell, too; natural essential oils, mixed with water and sprayed into the air, work better than chemicals because of potential allergy problems. (Buyers won't buy a home that makes them sneeze.)

4. Previewing:

Previewing, or showing your home to potential buyers or real estate agents is the most important phase. For safety, avoid potential problems by asking someone to help you. Send small children and annoying pets to a friend's house. When showing your home, always stand behind the buyers so they can see the home without having you block their vision.

5. Purchasing:

Purchasing, or selling is the final phase in selling your home. If you're not an experienced investor, hire a real estate agent or an attorney to handle the sales contract. Many investors write up simple contracts and then have their escrow agent draw up the sales and closing documents.

(c) Copyright 2004, Jeanette J. Fisher. All rights reserved.

Professor Jeanette Fisher, author of Doghouse to Dollhouse for Dollars, Joy to the Home, and other books teaches Real Estate Investing and Design Psychology. For more articles, tips, reports, newsletters, and sales flyer template, see http://www.doghousetodollhousefordollars.com/pages/5/index.htm