Real Estate Network

Archive for the ‘International Real Estate’ Category

Cyprus is Surging Forward with Beautiful and Luxury Stylish Homes

Why not buy a home for use either as a holiday home or as a home to settle in abroad!

You can purchase a property in Cyprus off-plan, whilst at the same time you can watch your investment grow.

Deciding to purchase your dream home, or investment property off-plan, means that you are securing it at today’s price. Following recent trends, this means to you that your property may well have risen in value, on completion, giving you more value, in real terms than you originally paid for,

Buy Now Pay Later Schemes

An Independent Financial Advisor will advise on the best payment option that will suit you. Working closely with developers of Cyprus Real Estate, means for you that staged payments, and mortgages can easily be organized, securing you the highest asset value with the minimal of capital outlay.

Variety

The best thing about purchasing off-plan, is that you can very often be the first to select your plot of land, so you can decide which is right for you, and meets all your preferences. You can choose where you prefer to be within Cyprus. Choose from a large selection of apartments, maximize on views, size of apartment, and which level you prefer to be on.

Design And Input

Making the decision to purchase off-plan, gives you more choice regarding how your property will look on the inside, so you can tailor make the property to suit your individual needs. With villas you can also influence how the outside of the property will appear.

You also have the choice of high quality internal fittings such as tiles, bathroom suites, walk in showers, kitchen designs etc. You can also choose your kitchen appliances to suit your taste and budget.

Check out this website for more details:

http://paphosrentals.blogspot.com/

When purchasing real estate in a foreign country, you have already seen that there are many options and many hurdles to leap over. Due to the complex nature of the laws in some countries for foreign property owners, many have found that retaining the services of an attorney is advantageous.

Perhaps the developer you are using has his own attorney. Actually, if the developer does not have his own attorney, you may want to seriously consider your choice of developer. Be that as it may, is it a good choice to use the same attorney as your developer? Maybe yes, and maybe no.

You could decide, “Maybe yes” because it is more convenient. That would definitely be true. It would be more convenient. The attorney is probably there when you are working with the developer so the attorney could, logically, work on your part of the transaction too. But wait, hmmm, could that be a problem?

That’s why you may decide, “Maybe no” to using the developer’s attorney.

Whose side is the developer’s attorney really on? Is the attorney on your side with one transaction, or the developer’s side who has many transactions? The basic principle of “follow the money” is usually part of the basic training for any attorney.

Therefore you may be well advised to seek an independent attorney for the transaction of purchasing real estate in a foreign country. Don’t rush into such a decision. Do some research. Seek out the recommendation(s) of other expatriates or locals that you trust. There might be a local office that you could consult. Sometimes the U.S. Embassy or Consulate maintains a directory of attorneys in a variety of disciplines. Again, do your own research to make an informed decision on the choice of attorney to represent your interests in this real estate transaction.

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It’s interesting how rental real estate gets treated as an investment. Like Rodney Dangerfield, it gets no respect. While conventional investments like stocks and bonds get the Financial Post and the Wall Street Journal, do a search on “how to purchase real estate” and you’ll discover all kinds of no-money down schemes that seem designed to sell books and tapes instead of investment real estate. On TV there is Report on Business TV, but for real estate you’ll see flipping shows or infomercials. It strikes me as pitiful that such a solid investment vehicle gets such a bad reputation.

It is possible to buy with no money down, but it involves arranging a high ratio mortgage, and for rental property you only do that if you have equity in other properties. In other words, if you’ve got one property free and clear its relatively easy to arrange a line of credit at prime. A $ 100,000 property would cost about $ 400 per month, plus taxes and maintenance of about $ 200. In short, it would carry itself and give you income to pay the financing costs.

A more common method to buy income real estate is with a deposit. Usually is you can make investment property itself with less than 40% down its probably a good deal. These kinds of properties are easier to come across in stable markets.

There are lots of reasons to own investment real estate.

Reason #1 to own income real estate is because your renters buy it for you. Even if the other benefits didn’t accrue, that on it’s own justifies the investment. But the fact is, there are more benefits to buying rental property

Reason #2 is leverage. The most effective description of how leverage works comes from the book Buy, Rent, Sell, by Lionel Needleman (Needleman is not a fast talker; in fact, he’s an accomplished author and professor with many published books and articles on housing in Great Britain and Canada. His assumptions and math is a bit simplistic, and need to be tweaked for your local market, but the book is worth looking at).

He explains leverage in the following manner: John and Mary each buy a property $ 100,000. After a year both houses have increased 10% in value. Both buyers sell the properties and compare the profits.

John began with $ 100,000, and now has $ 110,000, which means he has earned a 10% return on his investment. Mary, on the other hand, put $ 10,000 down on her property, and mortgaged the balance for$ 90,000. When she sells she clears off the mortgage and totals everything. She also received a $ 10,000 profit, but since she only invested $ 10,000 in the income property, she’s made a 100% return on her down payment. As you may suspect, the real kicker is that while John invested in one house, kept it for a year and then sold it with a $ 10,000 profit, Mary acquired 10 houses, kept them one year, and then sold them for a $ 100,000 profit. Both started out with $ 100,000, but after a year John has only got $ 110,000 while Mary $ 90,000 more. The numbers are simplified in this example, but they decisively demonstrate the magic of leverage.

Reason #3 is taxes. In most tax zones costs incurred on investment real estate is comes off income. And, you can generally incur depreciation expense on the structure that in effect are paper losses that reduce the tax burden. Depreciation works like this: we know that the value of a durable item, like a structure, decreases with the years. Even if the property is maintained perfectly, an old house is not worth the same amount of money as a new house. This loss is depreciation, and you can use that depreciation loss to decrease the total tax payable.

Of course, when we invest in income property we expect that it will go up in price, and over the long run it often does. What occurs with the depreciation in that case? The tax collector was told the property fell in price through depreciation, but at the end of the process we sold at a profit. The taxman usually says that you’ve “re-captured” the depreciation and levy tax.

Re-capture is no fun. It’s like discovering that you’ve already spent the money that you intended on spending in the future.

There is a great solution. When you buy the investment you cut up the original investment between the building value and the property value. Without cheating you set the value of the land as low as possible and the structure as high as reasonable (do the math and you’ll see it pays to be reasonable on your splits). When the property goes up in price and you liquidate, you tell the taxman that you didn’t recapture any depreciation since the structure did depreciate, while the land increased in value. This profit is capital gain, and capital gain is usually taxed at lower rates than income like…rent. You depreciate the money you make when you earn it as rent, and pay tax on it when it comes from capital gain.

Owning income producing property also enables you to write off the costs of things that you might have bought anyway, from office supplies to a trip to see the property.

Reason #4 is capital gain. Capital gain doesn’t always happen, but it often does. As we’ve seen with leverage, the capital gain can be leveraged. Even better, the capital gain can, sometimes, be greater than what some folks earn in a year of work.

Reason #5 puts everything together by combining cash flow, leverage, and tax planning. Rental real estate generate cash flow. Initially the cash flow could be neutral or even negative, but after some time it will often becomes positive. When it does you need to pay income tax on the excess rent. The solution for that is to re-mortgage and incur additional interest cost, reducing your taxes. You also re-leverage your initial property. The next step is to take that money and buy another income property. You pay no income tax, incur more depreciation, and still earn a capital gain. Better yet, with two properties you spread the risk, and when the time comes to sell you can stretch out the timeline and sell the properties in different years to minimize tax.

It can’t be repeated enough that you need to buy income property wisely. You need to know the location and the potential tenant. Properties that are desirable and are in a desirable area stay rented. “Desirable” doesn’t have to be “mansion”, but warm, clean, dry and well priced are critical. Whether you buy a 1 bedroom apartment or a three bedroom house with a suite isn’t important.

Metrics are critical. The first is price-to-rent ratio. What that means is that you take the price, say $ 100,000, and divide the rent, say $ 1000/month, into that. In this case the result would be 100. Numbers between 75 and 175 are great, but never forget that projected capital gains and interest rates impact what numbers you go with. Low interest rates permit higher numbers, and solid capital gain projections will demand higher numbers. Over 200 is no good in almost every location unless all you need is dependable income, aren’t concerned about capital gain or don’t ever plan to sell.

Another excellent metric is the break even rate. This is the percentage of the price need for a down payment to allow the realistic rent to carry the property. The rent has to be a) market rent, not “hoped for” rent, and b) net rent, not gross rent. If the investment will carry at less than 45% down its worth looking at. Clearly, if interest rates are low the net rent will carry more, meaning the break even rate can be high. Remember that low rates don’t last forever, so unless you can lock in very long term you have to assume that the break even rate to be low in low interest rate environments, and can be higher in higher interest rate environments.

If you discover a piece of property that has a desirable price to rent ratio and a desirable break even rate (and is in a good area and isn’t a bad idea), its worth throwing the numbers onto a spreadsheet and determining the internal rate of return (a real estate investment metric that combines various income streams) and projected cash on sale. There are spreadsheets and programs that can calculate this for you, but the key is “GIGO” – garbage in, garbage out. Use correct taxes, the correct interest rates, your projections of income tax rate, and realistic estimates of capital gain and maintenance. Properties in bustling urban areas generally go up in value more than properties in rural or depressed locales. They also often have what seem to be inferior metrics – a downtown city condo could have a much worse price to rent and break even point than small house in a mill town. However, capital appreciation in a rural area is likely much riskier. Measuring mortgage pay down and tax benefits on a detailed spreadsheet let’s you fairly evaluate exactly how competing investments compare.

It would be foolish to ignore the issue of a property bubble, or crash. Buying on metrics both helps and hinders. It helps because if you are hard-nosed with break even rates and rent multipliers you wouldn’t purchase overpriced investment property (underpriced income property doesn’t really turn up in a bubble, and it doesn’t crash in value). It hinders because you can’t buy on metrics in a bubble, no matter how much you want to, because metric compliant properties don’t exist.

The other side of this is that when a market crashes there are lots of metric compliant properties, but often little mortgage financing and plenty of scared buyers and stressed sellers.

All in all, a balanced market is the optimum for purchasers, although buyers who acquire on metrics and exit the market near the peak often feel like they’ve hit the jackpot.

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Most of human beings keep on moving in a direction that they are normally used to, and they are afraid of little or bigger deviations. We are not subject to looking for things that are all NEW and may be very promising for us. If you keep on looking for opportunities then you can reach at some places where things are all easy and great working for you. For example you can take the example of Real Estate Investment as an opportunity for everyone but hardly few people know about this. Here are Hard Money Lenders who keep on providing financial assistance as well as coaching and consulting for all new entrants in this field.

Things are quite different in the domains of property sale and purchase and everyone has some sort of business opportunities in this domain. The concept of applying for mortgage to any bank or other conventional lenders has also been vanished due to quicker and easiest ways of loan approval by these Hard Money Lenders, and prosperity has knocked at so many doors owing credit to them. You have no reason to worry about your running out finances if you are dealing with these private or hard money lenders. They don’t look at the past and present details of your income earning sources, and they don’t even want down payments as a method of security for them. They look at what you are dealing and the property proposal for loan is most important in this way.

Hard Money Lendershave set a trend of asking only about the kind of property under your consideration. They want a confirmation as if you are able to earn PROFIT out of it. If the answer is YES then they would take no time in giving out loan funds. You may be surprised at their mechanism as how it is possible to know the future of a property. Well! They have usually hired independent and professional evaluator for that purpose. These guys are experienced persons with knowledge of market and what kinds of trends are followed by general buyers. They would evaluate the suburbs of the property as it plays a key factor in determining the future price of any property. They have a habit of checking all the external and internal realities of any property like houses in general.

Well! Most of Hard Money Lenders emphasize on their borrowers to get into residential property business as it is paying profit at an earlier time.  Most of evaluators give their feedback in one or two days and then the loan sanction process takes place even in 24 hours. There is logic behind dealing in residential properties as it fall in short sales property investment. It means that houses and especially single family dwelling sell out at much earlier time then the bigger houses and commercial properties.  So, it would always be a safer and wiser sort of investment, and especially in the earlier days of your real estate investor’s career.

AIFG has established a unique and innovative concept in the mortgage industry (Partnership Servicing) that is ideally suited to a challenging economy and real estate market. If you don’t know about our concept, then here’s an opportunity to learn more.

Atlantic International Partnership, a Florida Based, Multi State Licensed Mortgage Banker, has been providing partnership services to the mortgage and real estate industry since 2001. At AIFG we are all about partnership not product which is truly a unique approach to the mortgage industry. Here’s why.

Our mortgage professionals take a wholly different approach to doing business. We are unconventional, but in a good way. AIFG is committed to your success, we will stand behind you. We will promote you within our unique personalized partnership service package approach to doing business. Basically, our job is to make you look good; after all, you’re not a product but a partner. With our partnership service packages we‘ll make you a mortgage service professional and more. Think of yourself as an industry superstar…with the help of AIFG.

Atlantic International Partnership is prepared to partner with you within a service and marketing level that is both comfortable and ideally suited to your unique needs. Our flexible and scalable approach to servicing our industry partners is profoundly effective and results oriented.

One key difference with AIFG is that we are mortgage bankers Licensed in Multiple states, not brokers, with the ability to close and fund loans using our own warehouse line facility. Because of this capability, our resources and reach are significantly different, which means yours can be also, which sets us apart from many others in the industry today. And we are prepared to bring this exciting level of unique professionalism and support expertise directly to you and your client base.

As your mortgage service partner our Turnkey – Full Service Packages allows AIFG to do the work while you garner the sales and build strong image and branding for all of your client needs. We can truly make you a superstar.

Article by Steve Gillman

Looking beyond our borders at the international real estate market might make sense for a second home or an investment. My wife and I recently bought a small lot a hundred yards from the Pacific Ocean in Ecuador, with the idea of having a second home there. The price, $ 3,000, shows why people look to other countries for real estate. Where in the United States can you buy a lot near the ocean for even ten times that much?

On the other hand, there are some risks in investing in property abroad. There are some things to think about that you don’t normally have to consider when buying real estate in the U.S. And unfortunately, there are even some hard lessons to be learned from our own experience.

International Real Estate – Some Considerations

At the time we bought the property, in early 2007, Ecuador had been experiencing an economic boom for years. This was partly because the country adopted the U.S. dollar as it’s official currency in 2001. Inflation was no longer an issue, and businesses were starting everywhere. New subdivisions – like those in the 1950 here – are still popping up around most of the major cities. Easier financing has even put more cars than ever into all those new driveways.

Political leaders have seemed to come and go too fast over the years, but even when the process was chaotic it was mostly peaceful. Ecuador was a stable democracy that seemed to be heading in the right direction. Most of the changes that had happened since my wife grew up and went to university there were good changes. Then came Correa, the current president.

Apparently the system wasn’t as stable as we thought. Earlier this year, he prevented many opposition members of congress from entering the parliament. Then there were elections to create assembly for the rewriting of the constitution. The assembly (now elected) could dissolve the congress or even hand over dictatorial powers to Correa. The public, unfortunately, has mostly been on Correa’s side.

Unfortunately, I say, because Correa seems to be doing many bad things. He openly admires Hugo Chavez, the socialist leader of Venezuela, and Fidel Castro. He talks about a “new socialism.” Already he has told international oil companies which operate in Ecuador that they will not be getting all of the profits promised for their investments.

As you can imagine, many wealthy Ecuadorians and foreign companies are already taking their money out of the country. There are rumors that Correa plans to steal the real estate owned by foreigners (I won’t use the euphemisms – theft is theft). It is rumored that he may even steal and “redistribute” the second homes of Ecuadorian Citizens – especially those along the coast. This could include our property.

The obvious lesson? When buying international real estate, you need to more than research property prices. You need to take a close look at the political climate of the country. The law may be clear and allow for foreign ownership, but laws can be changed. Some other tips:

1. Hire an attorney to be sure everything is done correctly. Have a list of questions for him or her, so you know exactly what you are getting into.

2. Investigate what it takes to sell the property. You may not want to keep it forever. This is a legal and market matter. Are there any legal or tax issues you need to know about? How long does it normally take to sell a house?

3. Know before you buy what the other costs will be. How much are taxes? How much will you have to pay for basic services like water and electricity.

International real estate may be a great investment, depending on where you buy, how you buy, and what the market is doing. Looking overseas can also be a way to afford a second home in a beautiful place. But take some basic precautions and learn from our lesson.

Looking beyond our borders at the international real estate market might make sense for a second home or an investment. My wife and I recently bought a small lot a hundred yards from the Pacific Ocean in Ecuador, with the idea of having a second home there. The price, $ 3,000, shows why people look to other countries for real estate. Where in the United States can you buy a lot near the ocean for even ten times that much?

On the other hand, there are some risks in investing in property abroad. There are some things to think about that you don’t normally have to consider when buying real estate in the U.S. And unfortunately, there are even some hard lessons to be learned from our own experience.

International Real Estate – Some Considerations

At the time we bought the property, in early 2007, Ecuador had been experiencing an economic boom for years. This was partly because the country adopted the U.S. dollar as it’s official currency in 2001. Inflation was no longer an issue, and businesses were starting everywhere. New subdivisions – like those in the 1950 here – are still popping up around most of the major cities. Easier financing has even put more cars than ever into all those new driveways.

Political leaders have seemed to come and go too fast over the years, but even when the process was chaotic it was mostly peaceful. Ecuador was a stable democracy that seemed to be heading in the right direction. Most of the changes that had happened since my wife grew up and went to university there were good changes. Then came Correa, the current president.

Apparently the system wasn’t as stable as we thought. Earlier this year, he prevented many opposition members of congress from entering the parliament. Then there were elections to create assembly for the rewriting of the constitution. The assembly (now elected) could dissolve the congress or even hand over dictatorial powers to Correa. The public, unfortunately, has mostly been on Correa’s side.

Unfortunately, I say, because Correa seems to be doing many bad things. He openly admires Hugo Chavez, the socialist leader of Venezuela, and Fidel Castro. He talks about a “new socialism.” Already he has told international oil companies which operate in Ecuador that they will not be getting all of the profits promised for their investments.

As you can imagine, many wealthy Ecuadorians and foreign companies are already taking their money out of the country. There are rumors that Correa plans to steal the real estate owned by foreigners (I won’t use the euphemisms – theft is theft). It is rumored that he may even steal and “redistribute” the second homes of Ecuadorian Citizens – especially those along the coast. This could include our property.

The obvious lesson? When buying international real estate, you need to more than research property prices. You need to take a close look at the political climate of the country. The law may be clear and allow for foreign ownership, but laws can be changed. Some other tips:

1. Hire an attorney to be sure everything is done correctly. Have a list of questions for him or her, so you know exactly what you are getting into.

2. Investigate what it takes to sell the property. You may not want to keep it forever. This is a legal and market matter. Are there any legal or tax issues you need to know about? How long does it normally take to sell a house?

3. Know before you buy what the other costs will be. How much are taxes? How much will you have to pay for basic services like water and electricity.

International real estate may be a great investment, depending on where you buy, how you buy, and what the market is doing. Looking overseas can also be a way to afford a second home in a beautiful place. But take some basic precautions and learn from our lesson.

Article by Joseph Cena

Because of the beginning of website based aids developed for providing the international real estate listings of properties, the demand of global property selling is being decreased. Online portals are highly competitive as there are so many portals available with the unique purpose of making deals faster and easier. Also people find this way of making deals more affordable comparatively.

One of the biggest benefits of these types on online property listings is that they are easily visible to the international real estate buyers. Nowadays, the property sellers who have their property listings on the website create attention grabbing descriptions and attractive pictures of their properties and also keep a track of people who express interest in buying their property. This advances and eases the whole process of making deal.

Secondly, it is also very important to keep an update of global real estate selling and buying trends. This is necessary because rates of the properties listed often fluctuate immensely because of changing economic and political situations. This is the reason why many of the real estate specialists have distinct a professional position for themselves analysts. These are actually professionals who are dedicated to the cause of defining global property trends and keep informing their customers about these trends. To be updated about this includes being in contact constantly with all leading economists and financial analysts. Also, people who are involved in estate selling and buying should keep themselves updated with the international community through the internet where you can find numerous forums and online communities which discuss and updates with all the progress of all latest trends. The information obtained through these mediums is totally without any bias as people discuss on the forums with their honest opinions and real scenarios.

The international real estate agents and other professionals who are involved in the endorsement part of the international properties should be well aware and updated about the art of presenting properly the attractive and exclusive features of the properties listed portal. This is very important today as lots of visitor’s shortlist the properties they are interested in by reading the features listed and the pictures or videos uploaded of the property.

Other latest trends predicted by the experts for the year 2011 are:

• The single family compact homes will be mostly to sell which are affordable as well because of more of nuclear family trend nowadays.

• Large suburban houses may not be in much trend as people are interested more in investing small properties which are located in walk-able areas.

• Rental properties would be in more demand comparatively as most of the people are scared of investing more into properties seeing the shaky market conditions.

• The market conditions of real estate market is not going to much different in the year 2011 than that of year 2010.

So, the real estate market of buying and selling properties actually keeps on inflating with regular cycle of time.

There is a great demand for those who are interested in selling as well as obtaining international real estate. Some people are looking to move to another country but do not want to have to continually visit the country as this can be cost prohibitive. The best way to buy and sell international real estate is to go through property ads that are posted at an online international site. This can connect buyers and sellers of international real estate throughout the world so that they can get what they are looking for when it comes to the ideal real estate property for them.  

Property ads can be difficult to market when you are only thinking local. If you are trying to sell real estate, you are better off to have a wider market that encompasses people from other countries who may be contemplating investing in real estate in your country or even living there. You can find buyers for your property ads easier when you think global and offer it as international real estate. While you may have a difficult time selling your property at the local level you can generally get more for your property if you take a look at the international real estate market. This no longer limits you to your own area where there may be a lot of competition in selling your property, but can also procure you a buyer who is from another country.

The same concept applies when you are looking to buy international real estate. Whether you are looking for a summer home or holiday home, you can find bargains in many areas of the world. It is no longer harrowing to try to find property ads for international real estate as you can log onto your computer and find what you are looking for. The internet is the highway of information and much of that information includes getting a handle on the real estate market in other countries. Many people are investing in international real estate that they can get for a lot less than if they were shopping with a broker in the area.  

Most of the property ads that are posted for international real estate are posted by sellers. They may be looking to sell their property or just lease it.  The type of international real estate that you are looking for depends on how you wish to use it. Those who are looking for a holiday retreat can find properties that are for lease cheaper than if they just stay at hotels. Those who are looking for investment property can find property ads for international real estate that is a lot less than what they thought they would have to pay.  

If you have real estate for sale, do not just confined yourself to local buyers.  You can put out property ads at sites that will attract international buyers.  This broadens your scope when it comes to buyers for your property and can enable you to sell your property for a lot more than you would get if you just went local.