Urban Property Investor

If you’ve been following our blogposts, then you probably know by now that if you’re a first-time homebuyer, you are qualified for $8,000 in government tax credit, assuming that you meet all the prerequisites. However, recently there has been a debate in Congress about whether or not to increase that tax credit amount to $15,000. Because there’s a large amount of houses that are still on the market, the government wants to firstly provide an incentive for first-time homebuyers to purchase a home and secondly stimulate the economy by first helping banks get more loans out. If the bill is passed through Congress, then you can basically get a 100,000 dollar home for 15% off, which is more than just a great deal!

Ever thought about immigrating to Canada?  Well, Toronto is the place to be.  With a diverse population and job base, Toronto is Canada’s largest city and the equivalent to New York City of the United States.  In addition, the nation’s capital city, Ottawa, is also located in the same province, providing administrative benefits for being close to the capital.  If you want to experience France, there is Quebec only a few hours drive away, a truly different experience compared to the rest of Canada.  Drive south for an hour and you can get to Buffalo, New York and the beautiful Niagara Falls.  Detroit and the Great Lakes are also nearby.  So why wait, I strongly recommend checking out some Toronto Condos, since they prove to be solid investments and the favorite of investors especially those from Hong Kong and the rest of Asia.  Overall, the diversity of Toronto has drawn many foreign investors to the city and real estate there proves to be solid investments.

If you’re a New Yorker, then you probably know and hate the swarming overcrowds of cities such as NYC and Albany. In addition, you also know that in these cities, one is either rich or poor, and there is no difinitive middle class. However, if you just look approximately 350 miles in circumference from NYC, you will find that there is a city called Rochester. It isn’t quite as big as NYC or Albany, but it is viable and close to the bigger cities. Further, Rochester Apartments are much cheaper and more accessible. Rather than fighting the crams and crowds of Albany and New York City, why not give it a shot and head on out to Rochester? Rochester offers the nice comforts of a small city while being close to two of the biggest and most important cities in the world! Further,  if you are an avid New Yorker and like the atmosphere, you will love Rochester. At times, you can feel like you’re in NYC.

In today’s economy, buying a house is hard for most people. However, there are places where you can look to find cheap deals on homes, especially if you’re willing to look. If you want to buy a decent house for a good price, check out the pre-foreclosure homes that are listed in your local area. What is a pre-foreclosure home, you might ask? Well, it’s a home owned by someone who has already bought it but can no longer afford it. These people are desperate to sell their homes, rather than foreclosing them. Some people are willing to go as far as giving you a 40 percent discount. So, if you want to buy a home and are worried about the price, don’t bother contemplating another market crash and put your efforts into looking for preforeclosure homes.

So, you already know what to do – the plan is to buy old houses, renovate them, and market them for a profit. However, you’re asking yourself, how can I do this? It’s quite simple, actually. All it takes is a quick overview of your financial life. You must ask yourself, how fit am I to venture into new, risky territory. Am I almost done paying off my current mortgage? Do I have the necessary income to take out a second loan and hold on to the house in the event no one buys it? After asking yourself these questions, you must answer them for yourself. Once that’s done, you all you need to do is talk to a loans officer and discuss possible loans and mortgage rates with your bank. Next, all you need to do is look for the home, negotiate it for your desired price, and voila, it’s yours to fix up and sell off.

Have you ever wondered how real estate agents make so much money for doing absolutely nothing? Well, the answer is simple. They make commission. Real estate agents make a certain percentage of the cost of the house. However, you must know that these people are licensed. They have to go through a 1 year program in order to get it. Nonetheless, anyone can join the real estate business, regardless if they are certified or not, experienced or not. They just have to know what to do, how to do it, and the right time to do it. Here, we will discuss the ‘what to do’ part first. There are several things you can do, actually. We will talk about one of them. The most common thing to do is to buy an old house and renovate it, and market it. However, you havet to be careful when using this method, because sometimes, you might not land a buyer as soon as you may want and may end up having to pay the mortgage off yourself.

Stay connected for part II of our ongoing series of the Estate Game.

Have you always wanted to own property but could never afford any? Many people are in this situation. They want to buy something but they can’t afford it. In the United States and other well developed nations, investing in property may be too expensive for most people. However, if you have a sufficient amount, you should consider investing in developing nations, such as those in Asia, particularly Vietnam and other Southeast Asian nations. These nations have yet to industrialize themselves and therefore are good investment opportunities. If you want to own safe, secure property, first check with the government of the desired country, bilateral relations with the United States, and its international laws and standings. However, whichever country you decide to invest in, it is a good investment. There’s an old saying that says if you invest in gold, you’ll experience depreciation, if you invest in land, you’ll experience appreciation.

Recently, there has been a buzz about the financial collapse, or rather, the world recession ending. Rumors are that the US economy in particular would most likely pick up and drive the engines of the world once again by year 2010. And, according to most researach, that will likely happen. The United States economy will most likely pick up again in ‘10 and along with it the housing market. Right now, houses are about 10% lower than what they were at last year’s peak. This is the perfect time to invest into houses. I know we’ve blogged about this several times. But time is of the essence. Within several months, housing prices will probably skyrocket again, and most of us won’t have enough money to make a 10% downpayment (the recommended amount), and maybe not even enough to consider buying a home.

Investing is a tough choice. Sometimes, it’s a painful choice, other times, it can be a wonderful choice. Most people, however, do not know how to decipher between bad investing and good investing. People usually think that when investing in something, you should invest into the best, most successful business there is. This, however, is the wrong way to approach business and investment. The right choice is to invest into high-potential companies (check your intuition) that are young and fresh. For example, if you invest into a big corp like MicroSoft, you might not be able to get much for ten, twenty, or even thirty thousand dollars. But if you invest a thousand dollars into a stock that costs 50cents a piece and the stock climbs up to one dollar, you’ll double your thousand and have in your hands two thousand. After this, if you still think you want to invest into MicroSoft or Google or any other big corp, think again, there may be a brighter future in the smaller stocks!

If you live in the Seattle area, you must be familiar with the King Plaza/Martin Luther King Area. It’s a well known place with nice people and convenient transportation. Most people, however, do not know of the area nearby. Marked by a history of  gang violence, mass deaths and multiple crimes a day, the area did not par too well in the minds of investors. Many deemed the place hopeless and valueless. However, an entrepreneur named  Quoc Nam saw that there was hope for the area and that one day it would become a nice neighborhood with nice people. He thus invested money into the nearby area and now owns several buildings and lands there for only a few hundred thousands. Today the properties are worth over a couple million dollars. Quoc Nam is now a multimillionaire because of the decision he made. Investments are sometimes hard – actually, most of the time hard to make. The risk of losing everything is great. However, as the old adage goes, fortune does indeed favor the brave.